Image by Eugene on Pixabay
We’re about done with 2025. It’s been an eventful year for me. I enjoyed my work and continuing personal interests, though I could stand to have not had my partner’s livelihood threatened by scientific funding cuts. Can’t have everything, I suppose.
Coding
Last year, I wrote:
I continued working at Bitovi, because I like the company so much. Bitovians are smart, funny, engaged and friendly. The internal company culture is everything you could ask for. Everybody is laser-focused providing clients the absolute best possible software development and coaching.
Consultancies get a bad rap sometimes, but Bitovi is an exception. Everyone here really, truly cares about helping clients as much as possible. I would not have stayed for almost four years if it were otherwise.
This year, I feel exactly the same way. The tech hirirng market is brutal these days, and I am tremendously grateful to be happy in my current job with no desire to brave that storm.
My major personal accomplishment this year was completing a multi-year transition to full-stack software development. I spent the early part of my career focused on frontend development, but quickly realized that being full-stack was the best way to serve clients. In the last year, I’ve built new features in .NET and Go. Both required learning new languages, new frameworks and new ways of thinking. I am extremely happy with the results, and so are our clients.
Media
Video games
I really went on a gaming spree this year. I played a lot more new releases than usual - blame the MinnMax Show.
- Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
- Mouthwashing
- Lies of P
- Balatro
- Slay the Princess
- 1000xRESIST
- Doom (2016)
- Blue Prince
- Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
- Alan Wake
- Control
- Resident Evil 2 (remake)
- Peak
- Donkey Kong: Bananza
- Cave Story+
- Chrono Trigger
- Hollow Knight: Silksong
- Hades II
- In Stars and Time
- Elden Ring: Nightreign
- Hollow Knight
- Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
My top games of the year were Clair Obscur and Silksong. Clair, I loved because it took one of my favorite genres, the turn-based RPG, and reinvigorated it with a great battle system and the best writing in any game this year. Hands down, a phenomenal story.
Silksong I have to shout out for sheer audaciousness. It sure was a choice to make everyone wait seven years, announce the game two weeks before release and then crash every storefront because you didn’t do preloads. Oh, and the game is insanely hard. Unfortunately, Silksong is so god damn good that none of that mattered. You owe it to yourself to experience one of the coolest worlds in gaming.
Movies
I’m still working on my top 10 films of the year. Been a slow year, to be honest. Check out my Letterboxd to see what I’m leaning toward.
Books
This year, I read:
- Emma by Jane Austen: Felt inspired to read the original after watching Clueless. Once I got used to Austen’s baroque sentences, I enjoyed an amusing and charming story of a young woman coming into her own.
- Apple in China by Patrick McGee: A fascinating, thoroughly reported account of how Apple came to move its supply chain to China. I found McGee’s account of the effects of overwork on Apple engineers particularly striking.
- Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel: A unique post-apocalyptic story about life, relationships, art, death and everything in between. Although it was published in 2014, its portrayal of a spreading influenza pandemic was accurate enough to make my heart race in the opening chapters. Too real.
- The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould: A deep, brilliantly analyzed history of scientific racism. The author has permanently changed my perception of what “intelligence” means.
- Swamp Thing by Alan Moore: Horror literature has rarely been better than Alan Moore’s titanic run on Swamp Thing in the ’80s. He turns a Z-list DC character into a truly tragic figure.
- The Nvidia Way by Tae Kim: A good history of one of the most important tech companies in the world. Their company culture is distinctive and well worth learning about for anyone interested in management (though I am not).
Personal interests
This year, I started skiing again. We made the trip to Snowbasin and Beaver a couple times. Utah skiing is unbelievable.
I also began cross country (or Nordic) skiing. It’s a lot harder, but doesn’t require a resort. You just strap on some tiny skis that leave your heel to move free, and start shuffling across the ground. Cross country skiing is an amazing way to spend time outdoors in the winter.
I also ran my first marathon! My brothers and I decided to meet up in Columbus, Ohio, our hometown, and run the Columbus Marathon. It took a ton of training over the summer, but all of us finished. I had a blast… even though the race itself was raining and freezing cold.
The marathon took a lot out of me, but I’ve bounced back and am already looking ahead to next year. Utah’s world-famous St. George Marathon looks pretty appealing.
For next year
More skiing! I don’t know how long we’ll stay in Utah, but I plan to ski as much as possible before we go.