My Life 2025 Wrapped

So it’s been a long time, but I have been inspired to post again by my friends who started a blogging circle. If you’ve been here before you’ll notice the design looks completely different. This is because when I opened up my previous site in my editor, I realized I would have to install Ruby on my new laptop since I forked it from a Jekyll theme. So instead of spending a couple minutes to set up a Jekyll toolchain, why not spend several weeks rewriting the whole thing in the shiny new hipster JavaScript framework du jour?

I eventually narrowed it down to Eleventy and Astro and went with Astro because their docs looked prettier. Overall it was a great developer experience and I took this opportunity to do an Evangelion-themed redesign. Before you get the wrong idea, mandatory disclaimer that I don’t watch anime, except for when my friend forced me to watch Attack on Titan. That was good. I just am really fascinated by futuristic user interfaces.

I think it’s really cool to look at, but I will admit that orange on black might not the best color scheme to actually read for long periods of time. That’s why I wrote a light theme which you can try by pressing the toggle at the bottom of the page. Or you can use reader mode I guess.

Every since Spotify Wrapped came out every company has been launching their own version. It seems like this year has seen an unusual amount of copies with ChatGPT, Discord, and even LinkedIn inviting me to view their “recaps”/“checkpoints”/whatever. I thought it would make for a nice topic to do the same but for my whole life in different areas, to reflect and look back on the new things I have experienced, and to set some resolutions for the new year.

Tech

To be honest, I didn’t learn many new technologies this year besides rewriting this website in Astro. I would highly recommend it for any personal site. It is simple and lightweight with zero JavaScript bloat out of the box, while having all the niceties of a proper modern web framework if you opt into them: client-side routing, view transitions, image optimization, prefetching, etc.

On the hardware side, I got a Pioneer DJ DDJ-FLX4 controller to play around with. I find it pretty fun to shape and blend my music on the fly with physical controls, engaging with it in a more interactive way compared to normal listening, but I haven’t put as much time into practicing as I could have. If you’re reading this and ever want a DJ for your event, feel free to hit me up. It won’t be good, but it’ll be free!

Sports

I finally did something I wanted to do for a long time this year, which was to participate in a powerlifting meet. I won’t write much else here because I want to write a dedicated post about it, so more on this later!

Games

I haven’t been able to seriously go for a new hardest in Geometry Dash since my Windows emulator Whisky stopped working, and the Mac version is capped at 60 FPS. However, I managed to get it working again with Sikarugir, and even some mods that didn’t work under Whisky before work now, so I might be able to finish off Bloodbath if I can find the time.

Besides that, the only other new game I played a lot was Silksong. It was good but I don’t think anything can hold up to the sense of wonder I got when I stepped out of the elevator into the sound of gentle rain and melancholic music while the City of Tears title card appeared in the original Hollow Knight.

My friends only forced me to buy two new friendslops this year (ShellShock Live and Peak) which I would consider a success.

Here are the IRL games I tried:

• Skyjo: everyone gets some cards face down and tries to minimize their score by either strategically swapping one of their cards with one from the draw pile, revealing one of their own cards, or taking a risk to temporarily increase their score in the hopes of eliminating a combo of cards. It was an interesting mix of strategy and luck but felt a little too luck based.
• The Mind: everyone gets numbered cards and the goal is for the group to put all their cards down in strictly ascending order without communicating. A pretty unique concept but I don’t know how you’re supposed to play this. It felt like 100% RNG but maybe it works better with the right group.
• Anomia: you get cards with a word on them and you race others to say an example of the word on the card. Chaotic and would have been more fun if I didn’t have a massive skill issue on this one.
• Wingspan: beautiful artwork I will say, and I can appreciate the thought and scientific accuracy that went into this game that was clearly a labor of love. Personally I found it a bit complicated and limited opportunities to troll other players which is my favorite part about games, but I would probably enjoy it more if I played it more than only one time.
• Decrypto: definitely my favorite game of 2025. It’s like Codenames, where you are trying to get your team to select multiple cards with words on them by giving only a single-word clue, but where each team can “intercept” each other’s guesses. This adds a layer of strategy where the codemaster has to give clues clear enough to be understood by their own team but confusing enough to throw off the other team, and no team is sitting around doing nothing when it’s not their turn.
• Catan: was pretty excited to try this out given its fame. Unfortunately only got to play half a game due to having to catch a flight, but still managed to win first try despite being constantly targeted by everyone.

Books

I really slacked off on reading this year. The only book I finished in whole was the Quran.

“But Daniel, wait a minute. That’s the wrong holy book!”

Yeah, I’m not Muslim, but I think it would still be good to understand Muslims better so I can have more fruitful conversations with them. I might go for the Vedas next year.

I started reading The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy last minute but am currently only halfway through. If you’re looking for hard science fiction, this is not the book for that, though some very imaginative ideas of its own. But the jokes are absurd and witty while managing to have deeper commentary on the human condition.

Music

My music tastes haven’t radically changed from last year, but I did get to see a lot of awesome shows, listed below in chronological order:

• Phil Wickham, Brandon Lake, and Josiah Queen at the Moody Center: I went to see Phil Wickham but heard some new Josiah Queen songs that I liked. That’s one of the things that I like about concerts, besides of course hearing music I love: it forces me to discover new music too. Still, for non-classical shows, I prefer standing-only venues.
• Dabin at the Concourse Project: there were actually multiple artists I wanted to see at the Concourse Project but somehow every time I was out of town, so it was great to finally get to go. I have been wanting to hear some of my favorite songs live for a long time, and the production did not disappoint.
• TwoSetViolin at the Eisemann Center: an entertaining combination of classical and non-classical music and comedy.

This remix of “Free” from KPop Demon Hunters was cool. The quality is potato since I forgot to change my camera back from 720p…I try to minimize using my phone at concerts to a few quick shots so I don’t have a better photo.

Travel

Here is a picture for every place I visited in chronological order:

Rocky Mountains National Park: I went here for a senior trip. I actually went in October the year before so I was surprised that it was colder in May than it was then! On one of the hikes we walked into a minor snowstorm which is the most severe weather I’ve ever hiked in. If you look closely you can see trees that are not too distant but barely visible due to the wind and snow, so we were lucky because if it had gotten worse things might have gotten risky. But as a snow lover the view was stunningly beautiful and serene.

Visiting California during Texas weather made me understand how good they have it weather-wise, which I theorize is also why it’s so expensive. The difference between the average summer high and winter low across an entire year in a coastal city can be less than the high and low of a single day in Texas! Also as people say the Chinese food is some of the best I’ve ever had. We visited San Francisco and a variety of coastal cities. I will have to visit Los Angeles and SoCal at some point, maybe in 2026.

This is my first time in Europe for two years. We mostly stayed in Dublin but took some tours out to the countryside. I have a special place in my heart for the Shire-like landscapes of rural Britain and Ireland, possibly started out of nostalgia for middle school field trips to Outward Bound Ullswater in the English Lake District. Besides the landscape, the memories I most loved were visiting an Irish sheep farmer and getting to hold one of the cute sheep, and seeing Riverdance at the Gaiety Theatre. I wasn’t expecting that much out of what is just described as traditional Irish dance, but it was really visually and physically impressive.

This was the third time I have been to Colorado in the span of a year. This time, the goal was to see fall colors. Unfortunately many leaves had already fallen but there were still some beautiful spots for hiking and mountain biking. Not coincidentally, all of these trips so far have been in summer. This one was in October but Texas doesn’t get habitable weather until close to Thanksgiving, so escaping the heat is always a relief.

I finished off the year skiing and hiking in Arizona. I was a little worried the first day that I forgot all of my skills, but after watching some videos I was comfortably doing blues the next day again. Skiing is one of those things that looks really fun once you get good at it. I think I will need an instructor to level up to blacks.

My Goals for 2026

I have a lot of things, dare I even say resolutions, that I want to do, in descending order of importance:

• At the beginning of this year, I made a promise to myself that I would try to practice piano every day, and if I failed, I would get a piano teacher next year to keep me accountable. QED, I’m getting a piano teacher in 2026.
• Lifting goals: squat 405, bench 265, deadlift 500
• Have one-on-one or group fellowship with two new people a month
• Finish one book every month
• Improve my Chinese to be able to read simple (real, not graded reader) articles
• Cook one new dish every month that’s not chicken and broccoli
• Beat Bloodbath in Geometry Dash

These are quite ambitious, but even if I only get some of them, I will be very happy. If you would like an accountability partner for your own resolution, let me know and we can support each other. May we all have a blessed and fruitful 2026. Here is to a fresh start and a better year ahead!