'25 year in review
i know it’s been a while (again), but anyway — happy new year, bear! let’s all have a wonderful 2026 :o) here’s my attempt at a low effort, low stakes post to revive my blog and get literally anything posted. have some bits and pieces of my 2025 that i found fun and/or meaningful off the top of my head, alongside some of my goals for the new year <3 everything listed in no particular order.
personal life
promotions and raises earned: 1
cats adopted: 2
favorite trips taken: kenya (safaris!), egypt (ancient history!), taiwan (friend trip!)
favorite purchases: xiaomi air purifier, havaianas platform sandals, the clothes i thrifted at hin bus market
favorite meals: homemade bedouin-style grilled mullet & onion fried rice, char kway teow in penang, assorted dim sum from fu er dai, beef noodle soup from liu shandong, the buns from raohe night market, grilled eggplants from underbelly, caramelized carrots from the pig & palm, sisig & pako salad from aling mila’s tokwa’t baboy
favorite desserts: homemade bedouin aseeda, scones with butter and strawberry jam from scratch, misha’s mango white chocolate chip cookies, cosmic crisp apples
favorite drinks: smoky muscovado matcha latte from bombvinos, mango miracle from once a week bar, strawberry bagel beer & strawberry mead from bookbar1920s, pure & best whole milk
favorite moments: when the friend trip made it out of the group chat, seeing the great migration, finding passion in my hobbies again <3
interests
movies
favorite watches: some like it hot, dog day afternoon, le samourai, the young girls of rochefort, it happened one night, lawrence of arabia, the sting, ball of fire, bringing up baby, all the president’s men, butch cassidy & the sundance kid, rebecca, magnolia, brick, asako i & ii, and then we danced, mikey & nicky, 3:10 to yuma
favorite 2025 releases: here on my letterboxd
favorite actors: ROBERT REDFORD!!! BARBARA STANWYCK!!! cary grant, james stewart, joseph gordon-levitt, catherine deneuve
favorite genres: screwball comedy, film noir, western
blu-rays purchased: 4 (3 being criterion, ouch!)
blu-ray players yet to be purchased: 1
books
favorite reads: fool’s errand, the story of a new name, words of radiance, crime and punishment, circe
favorite characters: fitzfool of rote (must be purchased together. do not separate1), razumikhin of crime & punishment, kaladin stormblessed of stormlight archive, adam parrish of trc, cygnus of company of liars (like 99% men. i'm sorry women)
favorite genres: fantasy
music
favorite songs: afterlife by alex g, au pays du cocaine by geese, las copas by candelabro, casino stars by jay som, fame is a gun by addison rae, to meagan or max or mark or mia by talkshow boy, can we talk about isaac by rachel chinouriri, whim by hayley williams, you're bleeding everywhere by jean dawson
favorite first listens: the new sound by geordie greep, heavy metal by cameron winter, music for money by talkshow boy, voodoo by d'angelo
favorite 2025 albums: ego death at a bachelorette party, getting killed, choke enough, deseo, carne y voluntad, i love my computer, from the pyre, bleeds, berghain, eusexua
video games
favorite single player: kingdom come deliverance i
favorite co-op: peak, content warning
wildlife
favorite lifers: SURF SCOTER!!! bufflehead, hooded merganser, negros bleeding heart <3, satin bowerbird, isabela oriole, somali ostrich, secretarybird, jerdon’s baza
favorite animals seen: grevy's zebra, reticulated giraffe, tree hyrax
2026 ins & outs
| ins | outs |
|---|---|
| good quality underwear | holding myself to an impossibly high standard |
| historical settings | forgetting to reply |
| long movies (≥3 hours) | self-imposed misery |
| everything showers | impulse purchases |
| personal projects | excessiveness |
| going solo | small bags, or bags with no inner pockets |
| investing in necessities | poorly fitted clothes |
| physical media | annoying discourse |
| being a little weird | various room piles |
| mulled wine | being dehydrated |
| loving with reckless abandon | fearing failure |
some 2026 goals
- read 24 books (sub goal: read classics & nonfiction)
- watch 200 movies
- take a class
- try a new recipe every month
- make some new friends
- make this year better than the last <3
SPOILERS AHEAD !!!!! technically counts, right? :)↩