Let's Sum it Up: What Did 2024 Bring Me?

The year 2024 has come to an end and it is time to sum up. This year has been full of events, new knowledge and discoveries in different areas of my life.

This year I started to actively use artificial intelligence in my work. ChatGPT, GigaChat and Codeium have become my indispensable assistants, greatly simplifying the process of development, writing tests, articles and documentation. I also completed two courses on Nuxt with Dmitry Lavrik (basic course plus a course on site optimization), which broadened my horizons in web development and gave me the opportunity to create more complex applications.

I also mastered End-to-End testing and wrote tests for five e-commerce sites on Nightwatch.js and one informational site on Playwright. It was a challenge, but it really helped me with my work and saved me tons of time in the end! Next year, I plan to dive deeper into Node.js to improve my server-side development skills.

I took some serious strides in photography — I finished a large 9 month course School of Creativity from Anna Maslova, and after a year of passion for photography, I switched to full frame. I purchased a Canon R8 camera and two light fast prime lenses for the RF mount.

I also got into pictorialism and shooting with art lenses. I now have 2 monocle lenses, 1 achromat lens, and a set of art filters in my collection. I recently wrote a review of one such monocle lens.

This year I also started participating in photo contests and it paid off: four photos were accepted in Vogue and seven street photos made it to the finals of various contests.

I'm not so happy with music — guitar is a bit neglected due to lack of time. Despite this, early in the year managed to release 2 guitar covers of Adrenaline Mob and Dream Theater. I also have acquired four craftsman jaw harps, among which my favorite is the Titanium Druid in D2. It has a very soft, pleasant sound, though not as loud as the stainless steel jaw harps. I hope to be able to devote more time to music next year and get back into guitar lessons.

As for other hobbies, I abandoned Chinese — it proved too difficult for me this year. However, I continued to study English pronunciation through ELSA Speak, although the program started to feel a bit monotonous. I read and listened to about 70 books, mostly audiobooks on my walks. It became a great way to combine vacation with self-education.

I have also upgraded all my Linux machines to KDE 6 and continue to use Manjaro Linux. This system fully meets my needs and allows me to work efficiently on all my projects.

The year 2024 has been a time of growth and change for me. I am happy with what has been accomplished and look forward to more successes in the future! Plans for next year include learning more about Node.js, spending more time on music, and further growth in photography.