December 29, 2025
Don't zoom in, you'll see the artifacts :D
This post is a bit of a divergence from my usual fare. I want to muse about my life a couple days before I set myself another collection of goals, and reflect on another year lived. When other people write these kinds of blog posts, they always come off to me (and this is a good thing) as "young dad who still has the energy to maintain a blog". I'll set the record and state that I'm pretty young, but not a dad, or even close to one.
In all honesty, a lot happened this year, but very little happened at the same time. I've become extremely close to one of my friends, watched a handful of others disappear off the face of the earth, and observed yet another as he loses what little self-esteem he has. Be sure to support the people in your life you care about, because they might not do it themselves. I also joined some cool groups where I like to think my talents are appreciated, and I realized that starting a Genshiken in 2025 is probably the worst idea out there.
I watched so much anime this year, and almost all of it was worth it. My close friend (the one mentioned above) got me into weeb stuff in fall of 2024, which is great, except that everyone else on planet Earth also decided to get into anime at the same time. I am proud of being niche (and if you're niche, you should be too!). I don't watch One Piece, I don't watch shounen slop, I watch anime that I like and am interested in, and once every blue moon somebody asks me for recommendations and I get to expand their world a little bit more.
I finished reading Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, which I also started in fall of 2024. It was extremely good, with the caveat that I think I have some trouble appreciating a 3000-page historical fiction epic in any circumstances, let alone ones where I take over a year to read the whole thing. I think that I connect less with Neal Stephenson's visions than I do with William Gibson's or Cory Doctorow's.
At work, I entered a new field, did a small project in it, and took a graduate-level course on a subject I have very little knowledge in, and did pretty well. Next year I'll be working on a larger project in anticipation of presenting at a conference in early 2027. I'm looking forward to this, but I'm also a little worried about the completion timeframe, given that most of my work and lab time is saved for the summer. Time will tell.
I played Xenoblade X, Atelier Ryza 1 (non-DX, because the DX wasn't out yet), Katana Zero, and a little bit of Akiba's Trip, before I gave up. That's also approximately the order I'd rank them. The only one I have vested interest in is Xenoblade X, and lingering in the back of my mind is the eternal concern that I will have to buy a Switch 2---presumably at 2027 prices---if I want to play the next Xenoblade when it releases. I'm not sure I can justify a purchase like that for one game, or even two or three.
The most in-the-moment exciting event this year was when I crashed my car. For several years I drove a first-generation Ford Escape, which was very distinctly good enough. It drove, it wasn't broken (as long as I maintained it, which I did), and that was it. By the end of the year, it started throwing check engine lights for a fuel sensor, and I ended up crashing it before I had a chance to try fixing the sensor. The crash was not that big of a deal, and was (in my opinion) the fault of somebody pulling out into the left lane of the interstate while said left lane was full of cars trying to pass a massive truck. On top of that, the truck pulling out was only there because his buddy had tried to cross the median illegally, and it's a whole ordeal. In like a year the insurance lawsuit (from the other drivers, who I rear-ended) will settle and we'll find out how much I owe.
The bright side of all that is that I get a new car! I bought a used 2024 Hyundai Elantra and it rocks. I thought I wanted a small car, and I was right, and that's a very satisfying feeling. If this car holds up, I would happily recommend it to anyone. If it doesn't...well, nice try Hyundai. In particular, I really like radar cruise control, automatic lane keep steering, heated seats, access to music that isn't just MP3 CDs, built-in navigation, keyless access, and everything else you expect from a car that's almost 20 years newer than my old one.
This year, I also reached a previously-unforseen level of self-awareness. I don't know how it happened, but it did, and I'm happy. I feel mature, I feel like I understand myself, I feel like I understand my position in the world. That is a very powerful sensation and I'm a little worried that I'm now too self-confident. Maybe some metaphorical tornado will blow through my life and destroy the self-reflective foundation I've built for myself. That would be exciting.
I set myself some goals at the start of the year. A few of these were, uh, stupid, but there were three that I stuck to: earn $20k, improve my Japanese, and finish a project.
I did not earn $20,000. Not only did I realize in late November that I was looking at the wrong column on my paycheck the entire year, I also got caught up with buying a replacement car, and then got the flu, and lost the chance to make the number hit the value I wanted. That's okay, because I'll try again for approximately the same goal next year.
My Japanese improved massively this year. My original goal was to reach some level in that European language skill chart, but it turns out they don't use that for Japanese, so I changed the goal to just improving. I specifically remember learning at the start of the year that だ is the informal copula, and I closed out the year scanlating like my 9th chapter of manga. I also read 3 volumes of Nichijou, 2 volumes of flying witch, and I can actually look at Japanese text (or even hear audio) and sometimes decode it. It's very satisfying and I would recommend learning Japanese to anyone.
The project I finished this year was Sharpie. I'm not completely done with it, but I completed two PCB designs, multiple extremely complex PIO signal generators, and learned how to extract information directly from a cryptic datasheet and apply it to real devices. Sharpie was great all around. I need to come up with another project for 2026 that I can transfer my motivation for Sharpie. (I also need to get Sharpie to a state where it can sit permanently, without inaccurate comments and missing information).
We're entering the second half of the decade already. 2020 feels like it was yesterday calendar-wise but a century ago in terms of events. I will set some more goals for 2026 (in a separate blog post), but ultimately I'm still happy living life somewhat in the moment. I hope to continue growing next year, and I hope just as much that I'll have tangible evidence of that growth. I feel more mature than at any other point in my life, but I'm pretty young, so it seems natural that I still have a lot farther to go.