Marcel's 2024 Wrapped
Strap in. You're about to learn A LOT about me.
Spotify started the trend.
Then other music streaming companies followed their lead.
Now every application seems to provide one this time of year.
What is it?
It’s the annual wrap up of your activities and whatever else could be gleaned from the data you’ve shared.
Privacy is important, I agree. But I also love the stories that our data tells.
Since this will be my last post to this publication for 2024, I thought it would be fun to share my year in music, gaming, and books.
And the beat goes on
Confession time - I don’t actually listen to Spotify. I know. Blasphemous.
I am deeply ingrained in the Apple ecosystem. I blame my family. Apple just makes everything so dumb easy that it really cuts down on my tech support time if my wife and kids use iPhones.
Anyway… Apple Music has its Replay ’24. Here’s what I’ve been listening to.
Total artists listened to: 1,814
Top Artist: Hillsong Worship
Total songs listened to: 3,379
Top Song: How Great Is Our God by Chris Tomlin / Espresso by Sabrina Carpenter (Tied)
Top Album: Mighty to Save (Live) by Hillsong Worship
Top Genres: Christian, Pop, Alternative, Hip-Hop, Rock (in that order)
Gamers gonna game
It wouldn’t be a Min-Max Life post if I didn’t mention gaming.
Steam does a fantastic job of analyzing game data. Unfortunately I severely cut back on PC gaming in 2024 so the analytics aren’t indicative of my actual gameplay.
I bought a PlayStation 5 late last year and absolutely fell in love with it. Being able to play games on the big screen TV while laying back on the couch can’t be beat. It’s how I spent the majority of my gaming in 2024. Sony doesn’t do an annual wrap up so I’ll just share some of my statistics.
Games started: 56
Games where I’ve reached an ending: 9
Top 5 most played games: Dying Light 2 - 77 hours, Horizon Forbidden West - 75 hours, Lost Judgment - 65 hours, God of War Ragnarok - 54 hours, Ghost of Tsushima - 48 hours
And if you’re wondering how to pull your own stats, I used PSNTools.com. Just set your profile to public and supply your PSN ID. Presto.
Take a look. It’s in a book.
I use Goodreads to track books I’m reading as well as what I’d like to read in the future. Goodreads calls its wrap up My Year in Books.
Pages read: 3,456
Books read: 16
Shortest book read: Guillermo Del Toro’s The Hunted: The Boy in the Iron Box, 20 pages
Longest book read: Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash, 563 pages
Highest rate book on Goodreads that I’ve read: Tim Ferriss’ The Almanack of Naval Ravikant
Actually that last one was an audiobook so I’m not sure it really counts but we’re going to go with it.
I’ve got stats from other apps I use like Calm (a meditation app) and Endel (AI generated soundscapes), but I’ve already shared enough.
2024: A Year of New Beginnings
Let’s move on from numbers to a few personal milestones.
An ongoing and important thread for me throughout 2024 was my health. I track a bunch of metrics including heart rate, sleep, and cardio fitness but the most interesting one for most people is weight.
While I don’t take much stock in the number, I am happy to share that I’m down 27 pounds since the start of the year. BMI is also a flawed measurement but with that said, I’m down 4 points and I’m no longer in the obese category.
(A bit of inside baseball, but I’m writing this post the day before Christmas so who knows where those numbers will be when this post goes live? There are a lot of calories between now and then.)
My clothes fit better today and in fact, I’ve had to refresh my wardrobe due to some pieces not fitting well at all anymore.
I’m not all the way to where I want to be just yet, but I’m feeling more and more confident in my body everyday.
In the professional arena, I’ve started a new role in the company I’ve been with since 2020. It aligns well with my skillset and I’m leading exciting, high impact initiatives.
That’s not all, folks!
Life has a way of surprising you and 2024 was no different.
I’d be remiss not to mention one of my most satisfying milestones and that is starting this very publication, the Min-Max Life.
As much as I love the act and art of writing online, it wouldn’t mean much without you.
Whether you read or listen to my weekly musings, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for taking the time to be a part of my community. It means the world to me.
I’ll be taking some time off and spending a few days away with wifey building new memories. You’ll still get a brand spankin’ new post from me every Sunday so subscribe today so you don’t miss out.
Here’s to you living your Min-Max Life!
And as usual, here’s my 𝕏 post of the week.
