Since mid-December 2024 I've kept a log rating each day on a 5-point scale. I'm pleasantly surprised to see good days outnumbered neutral ones.
And I only had three really terrible days. Those were the lowest points of the spring, which was a low season for me in general. I was struggling with feeling that I'd been irresponsible with my time and money in the preceding months, and anxious about the stock market and the tech job market. (This was when "AI-might-eliminate-my-profession-soon" fear peaked for me.)
Since starting a new job in June I've felt much more calm.
Caring for my adorable, occasionally terrifying companion isn't free. He's worth every dollar and more, though I can't tell whether some of the tests/treatments he's gotten in the past couple years were beneficial or just tilting at windmills. I'm currently in wait-and-see mode about whether to start him on a steroid to stop/reverse weight loss. I'm nervous about it because past experience suggests I literally cannot make him take oral meds.
Last year I lightly scolded myself for how much I spent at coffee shops and on books and video games. I did better this year:
This is partly because I panicked for a couple months and tried to cut out all nonessential spending. Later I had a salary again and the stock market had shot back up, and my commitment to frugality waned. But part of the savings came from using the library more and just being more careful not to buy games I'm barely going to play, which should be easy habits to keep. Working in-office 3 days per week also naturally reduces the time and money I spend at coffee shops.
My string of minor illnesses from 2024 persisted into January, and my attempt to participate for a second time in the MIT Mystery Hunt devolved into me hiding in the hotel and consuming vast quantities of kleenex. But I do go stir-crazy quickly, so I did a little touristing when I couldn't sit still. That mostly meant wandering around aimlessly, along with a visit to the Museum of Fine Arts.
piano songs
one I wrote
one I improvised
one I learned
Initially I was hoping to write more songs this year, but it just didn't end up being a priority. I'm glad I completed this one, though. (And I didn't resort to "improvis[ing] an ending" like I did last year.)
I spent less time playing piano in general this year, and in that time I prioritized practicing a repertoire of memorized songs (I can usually do about 8 now, which is up from last year). But I occasionally did some improvising.
It ended up taking me 2-3 years to fully learn the 3rd movement of Moonlight Sonata. I can't claim I learned to play it well, but I was ready to move on. The most fun part is page 11, which I made a better recording of in isolation.
Initially I was hoping to write more songs this year, but it just didn't end up being a priority. I'm glad I completed this one, though. (And I didn't resort to "improvis[ing] an ending" like I did last year.)
I spent less time playing piano in general this year, and in that time I prioritized practicing a repertoire of memorized songs (I can usually do about 8 now, which is up from last year). But I occasionally did some improvising.
It ended up taking me 2-3 years to fully learn the 3rd movement of Moonlight Sonata. I can't claim I learned to play it well, but I was ready to move on. The most fun part is page 11, which I made a better recording of in isolation.
This was only my second time visiting, and I stuck to Manhattan again, though I enjoyed taking the Staten Island Ferry over and back as well as walking across the Brooklyn Bridge and back. We saw the musical Beau, which was fun, and Robert Icke's Oedipus, which I loved. ... I went to the Frick; my favorite painting was Boucher's The Four Seasons: Winter.
✅went back to workand the job hunt was demoralizing but I really like where I landed; my coworkers are great and I'm using tech I love
✅gave 15% to charityof my salary for the 7 months I worked; next year's goal is 16%.
this year it all went to GiveDirectly
⚠️got through that probability bookthat I started last year, but I was really rushing toward the end and there's a lot I didn't internalize
⚠️focused a bit more on philosophy—still much less than I'd like, but I have been getting better at rationing my reading time according to my priorities
❌didn't get through other math booksbut I did a small bit of linear algebra and decision theory; I've reverted to the slow-but-steady-progress approach
❌traveled less, not more—not sure I even left the Seattle area from February to October, which is not ideal but also doesn't particularly bother me
Good friends and family make the good times good and the bad times bearable. 💚 Thanks to all of you who made space for me in your lives this year—in long afternoon chats, or over fancy drinks, or on the phone as I wandered around the city, or over video calls plagued by scheduling problems, or through perpetual texting; at book clubs, at bad movie nights, at birthday parties, at a cathartically destructive going-away party, at two puzzle hunts, in an escape room, on a drunken urban hike ending in pizza, at holiday dinners where I did none of the hard work, at cinema pop-ups, at concerts, at theatre, in your guest room, etc etc.
...that's about it. There are years where you make Big Changes and there are years where you just keep pluggin' away at stuff; I currently intend 2026 to be one of the latter.
