A new year comes with fresh starts, and after seeing other yearly review posts, I figured I would write one as well. This post is a short retrospective of the year that passed — what I worked on, what I learned, and what I want to take with me into the next year.
It’s difficult to (re)start blogging with a retrospective post, finding the sweet spot between first-time readers and friends who already know me. Inspired by Tim’s Do something about it post, I decided to stop overthinking it and just jump in.
Highlights from the passing year
The year started with the establishment of two gaming groups, where I run The One Ring and Daggerheart. Two wildly different systems, yet each session teaches me more about how they work and what makes them unique. Both systems also provide a more open style of play, something I want to explore further going into the new year. I will keep playing with both groups and hopefully conclude at least one of the campaigns by the end of the year. Next up will be an open sandbox game — something I’m excited to try.
I also started taking control of my digital life in 2025. I said goodbye to services I no longer want to support. I left Spotify, Adobe, Amazon, and Google, and replaced or migrated everything to self-hosted alternatives. This is still a work in progress, and next year I plan to upgrade my homelab to better fit my new needs.
As someone without social media, I find blogs to be a great way to stay updated on my interests. No algorithms, ads, or monetization — just real people writing real words. I love reading about people and their opinions and thoughts, seeing their setups, or following their guides. Going forward, I want to contribute more with my own writing and continue expanding the site with new sections and posts.
My biggest development project outside of work is an online climbing guide for the area I live in. Our climbing season runs from April to November, and this was our first full season with the site live throughout the entire period. It was great to see how traffic spiked during good weather, which crags were most popular, and so on. It’s always exciting to build things for real users, especially when you can see how and when they actually use what you’ve built.
Lastly, Finding time to read has been hard for me over the last year, and the number of books I’ve read has been at an all-time low since I started reading as a hobby. I partly blame my phone for being too easy to pick up, and I want to be more intentional about actually sitting down to read.
Looking ahead
Going into 2026, I’ve set myself a goal of reading 15 books. Over the past five years, I’ve read 4, 13, 20, 12, and 9 books respectively. So this year I want to get back into reading.
Summarized, this is my short list of goals for the coming year:
- Scroll less and read more
- Run a sandbox / West Marches–style TTRPG campaign
- Write at least one blog post each month, even if it’s a retrospective
- Set up a proper homelab environment and use it.
No promises, though.