2025 - A retrospective

    Preamble

    Happy new 2026! 2025 has certainly been a very troublesome and very busy year! Between my exams, things going south with my would-be boyfriend, finishing high school, getting into university, health issues in my family, falling out with several friends and now cramming for finals, I feel like I haven't gotten a moment's break since the clock struck midnight on January 1st last year. Hoping for a less hectic 2026, both academically and personally!

    Personal achievements

    Some really noteworthy stuff this year!

    • Finished high school and passed all four of my exams with 90+ points!
    • Placed in the top three in a national competition!
    • My town's observatory named me as their student of the year!
    • Got into university and into my top choice of bachelors' program first try!
    • Started learning new software, like LaTeX!
    • Built this website!

    Reading

    I've had remarkably little time to read this year, but there were still a few things here and there

    • NEW! I've been trying to make my way through Lovecraft's bibliography - read a few of his short stories, no time for the novellas
    • NEW! Started reading Agatha Christie's Poirot series. I managed to finish "The Mysterious affair at Styles" and it was a fun read, then I started "Murder on the links" which is still a read-in-progress
    • NEW! Jumped around Bobby Derie's first book a bit, couldn't get really into it due to time constraints, as usual
    • NEW! The really notable one: "Desmond" by Ulysses Grant Dietz. I read through this book in two evenings. Stayed up late to finish it, even. It was captivating in such an interesting and fresh take on the vampire genre. I'm so excited to get my hands on the sequel!
    • Kept to my yearly tradition of rereading the Hitch-hiker's guide trillogy (yes, trillogy) at the start of the year, man I adore those books
    • Failed very very miserably at keeping up with the Letters from Bunny and Letters from Watson projects, both run by dear friends of mine. Will get back to both soon!
    • Sporadically kept trying to get through the Avakum Zakhov series by Andrey Gulyashki, no luck past the Bond crossover yet
    • Still insane about Lovecraft's Re-animator. Yup. "Back in the building again", as the kids say. This story is so trashy, but it compells me, for some unknowable reason

    Gaming

    Again, not much time for gaming in 2025, or at least not as much as I'd like! There were some gems however...

    • NEW! The most major one was, naturally, Disco Elysium. Everything you've heard about this game is true - it's incredible, it's one-of-a-kind, it's profound, it's everything. And the optimal way to experience it really is to play it when you're in the throes of despair yourself, I give you my personal guarantee
    • NEW! At the start of the year, the PC port for Elnea was released and I quickly amassed over a hundred hours in it. This is one of the few games I'd consider my "childhood games" that's still around and I was super excited to play it again. Unfortunately, the gameplay loop is still as grindy and time-consuming as I remember, so I stopped playing before my exams and haven't wanted (and/or had the time) to pick it back up again
    • NEW! Spent a few days over the summer absolutely obsessing over DREDGE, the game is right up my alley and I definitely want to play again. The environments are just stunning and the gameplay is satisfying
    • NEW! The odd item on this list: My Singing Monsters. Got super super into this in July with the hopes that I wouldn't get crazy about it, but unfortunately got crazy about it. I've made some stunning progress in almost half a year!
    • NEW! This one is more out there: Sudokuvania! This is an insane sudoku experience. I definitely recommend it if you're a sudoku afficionado
    • NEW! Started playing Nightmare Kart. I've been crazy excited about this game for so long and Lilith surpassed all my expectations. Wish I had more time to play, I still haven't beaten the extended main campaign
    • NEW! BitCraft officially released and I had made plans with my guild to play more, but with exams and then uni I couldn't juggle the game's demanding grind time so I just dropped it
    • Still playing Sky: Children of the Light even though friends haven't had time to play with me and I with them. I feel like 2025's seasons were weaker than the previous year's, but perhaps nothing will ever top the Moomin season
    • You guessed it, I'm still playing Genshin Impact it hasn't been super interesting lately, probably cause I haven't had the time to play any story quests
    • Replayed the Portal games on my birthday, as is tradition
    • Beat Chants of Sennaar again, gorgeous game, would play several more times
    • Was really really looking forward to Paralives this year, but as they had to (understandably!) delay it, I'm back to waiting patiently. May 25th can't come soon enough!

    I've claimed so many different games on Epic over their various freebie sales and I hope I'll have time to play some eventually!

    Watching

    This is perhaps the scantest section, as I genuinely am not a "movie person" and combined with the lack of free time, there's just not many movies to put here

    • NEW! The super notable thing about this year is that I found my new favorite movie - Electric Dreams (1984). This is just a cute 80s flick about romance, talking computers, music, love, all that good jazz. I'm obsessed with both the soundtrack and the cinematography, and the actors are so cute. This movie is unfairly maligned as "having no plot", but "sapient computer who's just a little guy" is a pretty good plot, if you ask me
    • NEW! Watched Bride of Re-animator. Meh. A little better than the first movie, but still not enough to be an enjoyable experience
    • NEW! Finally got around to watching Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. It was a fun romp, but doesn't hold a candle to the original and I personally think it hasn't done Lydia justice
    • NEW! Watched Addams Family Values for the first time. It's an Addams Family movie, you know it's good and fun, I need not say more
    • Rewatched The Addams Family around Halloween. Yup, still good, nothing to mention here
    • Rewatched Re-animator around Halloween also. Still don't like it, but at least Jeffrey Combs is in it.

    Music

    Art and making

    • NEW! Drew some stuff for friends' birthdays, but nothing beyond that
    • NEW! Crocheted my best friend's birthday presents - amigurumi dolls of Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji from "The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation" [MDZS]. Spent a ton of time making them and even developed my own pattern since I couldn't find any I liked, maybe I'll post that eventually. I'm actually really satisfied with how they turned out
    • NEW! Made all the pixel art for the site!
    • Had plans to draw some custom hoodies but couldn't find the time to, and in some cases couldn't even source an appropriate hoodie. Those projects are coming, eventually!
    • My plans to embroider a few zip-up hoodies was hindered both my lack of time (again), and by lack of suitable zip-ups. Will definitely be coming back to this one, but not right now
    • 2025's new year's resolution was to get better at knitting and maybe make a sweater went totally unfulfilled. Mainly because of, say it with me now, lack of free time, and because I've come to terms with the fact that... I just don't like knitting all that much
    • This year's resolution is to *crochet* a sweater, which I would personally call much more achieveable. Another resolution is to draw *something* at least once a week.

    Going forward

    With such a busy year behind us, I'm hoping to carve out a little more free time to focus on rest and relaxation! I want to start reading the Discworld series, I want to knock some random books off my TBR, I'd like to get back into horror-fiction podcasts. There's soo many bands I want to get into, and so many music genres I haven't given a proper shot yet! When it comes to video games I'm of course most excited about getting my hands on Paralives, but I also want to play more puzzle games. I have so much art to make yet and I can't wait to get into it, I'm also hoping to develop my fundamental skills in visual art more. Let's see what we get done in 2026!

    That's all for now! See you next time! ☆