looking back / looking ahead
happy new year 🎇🤸🏻♀️🥂
2025 review
my word of the year was voice.
i started my bearblog, republished my notes, reached out to some bloggers and academics i follow, started speaking up more, started saying “no” more, and found what it means to me to be a writer.
media
we watched about 60 movies this year. my favorite, by far, was the barkley marathons, a 2016 documentary about a 60-hour, 130-mile ultramarathon with elevation changes equivalent to hiking up and down everest twice. this film dislodged something in my brain about doing hard things. highly recommend.
i also watched at least one episode of 104 shows. especially loved common side effects, the rehearsal, peacemaker, the chair company, and pluribus.
real housewives of salt lake city, couples therapy, and sister wives were my favorite reality TV watches; polyfamily gets a dishonorable mention.
my favorite podcasts this year were one take wonder, panic world, and search engine.
my top artists were kendrick lamar, khruangbin, and tool.
i didn’t read as much this year, but my favorite was surprisingly ken follet’s mammoth pillars of the earth. shark heart, one’s company, and i who have never known men were all weird, good novels.
i finished yanis varoufakis’s technofuedalism in january, which finally gave me some language for why the internet feels so “extractive” these days.
this 2023 ribbonfarm post made me think the most.
and this was my favorite meme.
some stats
- traveled over 4,000 miles outside of town, driving six different cars and sleeping in six different locations throughout the year.
- attended approximately 108 meetings and sent 2,500 teams messages.
- taught 55 dance classes.
- published to bearblog 48 times.
- attended 2 pool parties, tying with my record from, like, 2007.
the good
- finally corrected an error on my birth certificate after trying to get the necessary records for seven or eight years.
- started dabbling in witchcraft. i call it “placebo magic” to skeptics, but i secretly think it’s been working.
- we moved!!! 🤸🏻♀️ and the new house is great.
the bad
- money was already tight before our move, and now we are… just doing our best.
- lost steam extremely early in the year and never really caught up.
- my poor, old car is barely hanging on. plus no a/c and the windows won’t work :(
the ugly
between my friends and family, there were a dozen hospitalizations, surgeries, and deaths. it was one of the worst years for nearly every single person i know.
looking ahead to 2026
this year’s word is embodiment.
the past couple of years have been about tending to my inner world – knowing and loving myself, getting a grip on my own story and how i orient myself in time. i want to direct that care and attention to my material reality –
to feel more at home in my body, to exist in the world the way i want, to express myself so that other people have something to connect with.
i am secure and grounded within myself; what does that look like outside of myself?
core goal
embracing process
this is something i’ve somehow un-learned as i’ve gotten older; i used to appreciate the mess and chaos of figuring things out as i go, but lately i’ve been so invested in having the full picture before acting that i never do.
it makes me struggle to do good work because i’m too preoccupied with defining the outcome and too precious with my ideas. it’s also a factor in things like my consumption habits and the way i style myself – i’ve forgotten that my home / closet / portfolio are all lifelong projects.
side goals
- buy a new car
- get my passport
- learn three new dance tricks (shoulder stand, splits, aerial invert)
skills to develop
- cooking basics
- mending and tailoring my clothes
- ai agent development and automation (necessary for my job, sorry)
- vegetable gardening
- public speaking
how i’m working this year
i will still be living most of my life out of obsidian; here’s my homepage for 2026:
as part of my vault, i use three main indexes and unique ID formats that let me organize information the same way across platforms – even on paper.
for project and task management, each project has a folder and folder note in obsidian; the project note has a property for the next action. my plan is to work from that list, and have a weekly to-do list. weekly and monthly routines have been added to my periodic note templates and time has been blocked on my calendar for things like planning and reviews.
loving xmind for planning and brainstorming lately, and i’ll continue using proton's ecosystem this year.
what i’m looking forward to
- teaching a journaling workshop in february
- potential trip to las vegas in the spring
- work conference in the summer
- youngest sibling finally turns 18
- more personal travel once i replace my car 🚗