A year ago I posted my resolutions for 2024. I did it with no intention of making it an annual tradition, it was more to get it off my chest. However some friends recently made me reflect on the resolutions I have kept and those I haven't (that social pressure I was looking for in my posting), so I'm going to take the opportunity to put those reflections in writing.

Before I move on to the 2024 review and 2025 resolutions I must admit that posting my list of resolutions helped me keep them in mind all year. Even though many I didn't keep, I kept them in mind and was aware of when I left one out.

Resolutions I kept in 2024

• Focus on my children: success. Not much to add, if there is one resolution I was clear about this was it.
• Friendships: success. I feel I have regained or strengthened friendships that were in jeopardy, and I don't worry so much about the ones that seem lost (although it's never too late!).
• Experimenting with AI: partial success.a I set up a new computer with a powerful graphics card, and have been able to "play" with different models for different tasks: textual queries, image generation and recognition, code generation and analysis. I have not experimented with some topics that interest me, such as embeddings, ControlNet, video generation or recognition and speech generation systems. I have also missed integrating them into my workflow.
• Reduce ideological efforts: success. Worrying less has been good for my mental health, although I can't help but feel sad that I can't discuss and talk about certain topics with people. I have always been intellectually curious and active and keeping my ideas to myself doesn't feel good.
• Social networking and messaging: partial success. I have reduced my use of social networks. The ones I do check I do from the computer, I don't have any on my phone. Some days pass without me opening any. However I haven't fulfilled my promise of avoiding messaging during the day nor disabling notifications.

Resolutions I didn't keep in 2024

• Consulting: failure. Bureaucratic hurdles made me make the decision to close the company. Maybe it was a post-hoc rationalization, but I also thought that maybe I didn't have to keep doing the same old thing just because I'm good at it. I need to find the right crossover between my skills and my motivations.
• Cryptocurrencies: failure. I have not collaborated with any project, in fact I have distanced myself a bit from the space to focus on other goals. However I have collaborated with different free software projects although not related to cryptocurrencies, especially some that I personally use on a daily basis.
• More blog: smashing failure. Not a single article in 2024 after publishing the one about the resolutions. And it hasn't been for lack of ideas, because I have many, I write them down and develop them in my personal notes. But then I don't sit down to write articles, even though I have them almost finished in my head. I think my main barrier is the fear of being judged, especially if I publish personal or ideological topics instead of just technical ones.

My resolutions for 2025

Family and friends

Having considered 2024 a success in this regard, I intend to keep going at it this year and beyond.

Among many other things, I want to teach computers and programming to my children. Computers have been a cornerstone in my life and I want them to at least have the opportunity to get to know them, we'll see if they get hooked on them like I did.

I also want to start traveling more with them now that my youngest is no longer a baby. The world is both a very big and very small place, I would like for them to be world citizens.

I would like to have the opportunity at least once a year to spend a few days geekin' out with friends.

Losing weight

Those who know me know that I gain weight easily. I do weight lifting and some cardio, and that keeps me if not thin, at least not too fat. But all it takes is 2 weeks of Christmas to gain 10 pounds.

My plan is to make a conscious effort to regulate my diet and lose weight in a healthy and progressive way during the year. I have done it in the past, but this time I want to get below my previous historical minimum weight.

I will consider this resolution a success if I lose a pant size, or if the slightest hint of a six-pack is visible. Mind you, to have an impressive six-pack is a tremendous effort that I'm not willing to make, let's not go crazy.

Blog

As I explained before, the blog has been abandoned for 2024, even if I had many ideas for articles.

My purpose is to overcome my limitations and actually write on the blog, both on technical and ideological topics.

To set a tangible success metric, let's aim for a minimum of one article per month, ideally two.

New house

Last year we bought our first house, and it needs a lot of renovation. That's not a problem in and of itself, it's something we knew and were looking for, so we could renovate it to our liking.

I want to be available and focused to control the process and make it as good as possible.

Home-labbing and home automation

Related to the new house: I plan to take the opportunity to set up a new server to replace my current one, which is aging out.

I also plan to install a variety of sensors around the house, and manage the automations with Home Assistant.

Who knows, maybe some business will come out of these passions. Or at least I hope it makes for some good blog posts! wink

Artificial Intelligence

I continue to be fascinated by advances in AI, I believe that with today's technology it is already something with huge potential, what is missing are end-user oriented products, and those will eventually come.

In 2024 I was able to experiment with what my limited time allowed, but in 2025 I want to go further and find integrations and workflows that are useful to me.

While not an initial priority, I would like to have hardware on the new server geared towards local inference. Then I could offer AI services to the family, with completely private data.