The MidThoughts 2024 Roundup
A reflection and a look ahead...
2024 was a mixed-bag year. While I accomplished a few of the major goals that I set out for, others… namely my commitment to this newsletter, died of sudden, heartless abandonment.
But hey, I'm back, and after resurrecting MidThoughts and dragging it through a minor recalibration and relaunch, I'd like to end 2024 with a reflection and a glimpse of where I want to take things in the new year.
First off, in the coming weeks, I'm launching my semi-regular column, The Spread Shot, which will be a means of corralling all of those errant thoughts and recent interests and recommendations into a neatly packaged, digestible form. I know a lot of other newsletters have these weekly roundup-type posts. I can't promise that I'll be deviating too much from the established formulas, but my promise is that The Spread Shot will be my own take on said formulas.
I also want to begin incorporating more of my original photos into my posts. Besides writing, photography has become a second passion of mine. A few years ago, I dropped a pretty hefty bag of cash on upgrading my camera setup and snapping photos with the intention of including them in these posts not only justifies buying all those expensive toys, but it also gives me a swift kick in the ol' impetus to get out there and hone my skills a bit.
Finally, I want to incorporate audio into some of my work. For now, that will amount to audio readings (recorded in my own imperfect voice, not some uber-polished, auto-generated AI slop) included in selected posts. From there, who knows? Since watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 at the tender age of 11, I've always held lofty childhood fantasies of hosting my own radio show, so maybe podcasting is in my future? But let's take it slow... baby steps.
So yeah, we're rounding a corner on a new year, and the prevailing drive is to get back on here and start creating again. I'm excited.
2024 Reflections
Three big takeaways from this year:
I am far more prone to distraction and procrastination than I ever imagined. (YouTube is literal Kryptonite to me these days.)
Humans have a greater capacity for good when taken individually, whereas when taken collectively, they inevitably seem to slide in the direction of evil.
Love makes any pain infinitely more endurable.
Three pieces of advice to myself for 2025:
Do not seek out news. It's become far too tainted by money at this point. The important stuff will find a way to filter down to you.
Nature's effect on clearing and purifying the mind can never be understated. Get out there, climb some mountains, walk among the trees, and breathe clean air in times of uncertainty.
Don't sideline your creative outlets when life's regular demands become overwhelming. At that point, you'll need to call on those creative passions more than ever.
Lesson of the year: Drake and the volatility of ego
As a longtime hip-hop head, the Kendrick v. Drake beef commanded my attention more than any other story of 2024. It took on a fable-like significance to me and, distilled down to a base-level arc of events, was ripe with important lessons about the dangers of the ego, the art of war, and the universal thirst for authenticity in a world more and more devoid of it with each passing day.
Sometimes, we must gauge our abilities, take a hit or two, and then retreat when we know we're out of our league. This is basic self-preservation. You see it in nature all the time. As soon as Drake punched back from Kendrick’s Like That verse, I instantly knew he was signing off on his own elimination. His belly had been full of his own Kool-Aid for years, whether it came from his album sales figures, yes men, or accumulated wealth. As he continued to goad Kendrick to drop, drop, drop, It was akin to a gazelle poking the lion. We all knew what was gonna happen when the lion eventually poked back.
This is hip-hop. Talking shit and declaring yourself the GOAT just comes with the territory. Playing in this game, he should have known that. Perhaps if the Drizzster was willing to take the slap from the more skilled, more authentic artist and continue down the road of bottled pop hits that made him who he is, things would have looked a lot different for him at this point. Instead, ego prodded him out of his bag, gassed him up beyond rational thought, and the rest goes down as one of the most savage beatings in the history of rap music.
Travel Impressions 2024:
Thailand: Amazing food, massive shopping malls, beautiful culture, shitty traffic. Thailand is up there with Japan for the most tourist-friendly country in Asia I've ever traveled to. Despite a crash course in survival Thai a few weeks before departure, I quickly realized that getting by without a basic understanding of the language is not a problem at all.
Those first couple of days in any new country are always a little stressful as you figure out the lay of the land and gauge how to communicate and get around. Not the case with Thailand. All it took was a quick download of the Grab app for transportation and a little research on Google Maps, and I was zipping all over the place. Thailand takes care of you, and I will be returning soon.
Fun fact: Thailand was so amazing that when six people died of a murder-suicide a few floors below me while I was staying in the Grand Hyatt in Bangkok it hardly had any effect on my enjoyment of the trip. No cap.
Taiwan: I stopped in Taiwan for a few days on my way home from Thailand. Because of my language-learning journey in Mandarin Chinese, Taiwan has become pretty much my second home at this point. Friends picked me up from the airport at the tail end of a typhoon and immediately took me to an all-you-can-eat hotpot place, where I quickly forgot about my delayed flights in a sea of great conversation, delicious meats, and spicy numbing broth smeared all over my face like some fat, rosy-cheeked king feasting on roasted pheasant in 15th century Europe. To have these warm human connections waiting for you on the other side of the planet is an indescribable blessing that I do not take for granted.
Mexico: At the end of October, my girl and I ventured out to Quintana Roo, staying in Playa del Carmen for a couple of weeks. It was my first time in the Yucatan Peninsula. We were able to celebrate Dia de los Muertos in Mexico, which was a longstanding, high-tier bucket list item.
Sure, we were rented a highly abused Ford that looked like it made it through at least a couple of runs to Thunderdome. It came with the check engine light on ("All of my cars have that," the guy at the rental agency told us). Still, it got us up and down the Riviera Maya in determined pursuit of delicious pastor, beautiful cenotes, and all the wonderful treasures that exist only in Mexican Walmarts.
I love Mexico. As a native Angelino, I've always considered growing up under the influence of Mexican culture a true gift, and through years of environmental osmosis, it's become an indelible part of this gringo's identity. I keep telling myself that I'm going to start learning Spanish at some point, but the perfectionist inside of me won't allow myself to start until I attain a comfortable level of fluency in Mandarin first.
The stuff that kept me sane in 2024:
Tacos: Not even considering my time in Mexico, I probably ended up eating more tacos per capita in 2024 than I did in the past five years combined. My tastes also migrated from carnitas to al pastor and birria in the process. The pure joy and excitement that stirs my sweet little heart every time I round a corner and see a taco truck gets me all giddy and makes me feel like a kid again. I'll leave it at that, because I have plans to draft up a post about tacos in the near future (Seriously).
Hiking: I promised myself that after my half-marathon training ended (in October) I'd dial back on the running a bit and return to hiking, which has always been a deep well of mental sustenance and clarity for me. It doesn't take much, just an early jaunt around the hills at Griffith Park on a Saturday morning contains enough good energy to wipe out the stress from a grueling week at the day job and get my head where it needs to be.
Love: I'll end it here by cranking up the cheese factor a bit, but finding love in 2024 really imbued my spirit with a sense of purpose, duty, and courage that simply wasn't there in previous years. If you're lucky enough to have found genuine love, cherish and cultivate deep gratitude for it. It's a superpower.
See you in 2025.
Godspeed.
Happy new year, Dan :-)