It’s that time where everybody has their two cents to offer on what their year has been about and this post is pretty much the same. Some years I’ve been really good about this and others not so much, but we’re here now and I’ve been writing this on and off for the past month so let’s go for it.

Health

2025 brought on the rude realisation that I am getting older and as a consequence injuries have become quite apparent to me. Back in mid-December of last year, I fell and twisted my ankle while de-boarding a train in London. Basically the heels I was wearing while en route to my office there gave way when I miscalculated the drop between the train and the platform.

Mind the gap I know, but it was 7:30 AM and I was half-awake at best. I had gotten off at this station numerous times in the past so it was just pure inattentiveness.

When I twisted my ankle, I felt something odd in my knee as well but paid no mind since the pain was acute in my ankle. However, as time went on, I noticed my knee giving out as I would walk around and then eventually it became aware that it was a problem when I attempted to play a single game of softball and had a slip up during a play, and thus a hospital visit and then an MRI a week later led to an outcome that required intervention.

The incident in London and the fall during the softball game had accelerated an injury I was bound to have happen. It of course had to happen to my right knee down from my right hip that I injured in roller derby six years ago.

I fortunately was able to avoid surgery and had temporary relief through a procedure that required ultrasound to guide an injection. I was able to get back into some level of physical exercise once more with significantly less pain.

A few months after, trying to return to running and also through playing curling for the first time, I noticed that the pain has returned albeit a lot less worse than the past.

I’m giving myself some time to adjust, but I am considering speaking to the surgeon again to see what my options are since I still from time to time have knee pain that is uncomfortable.

The whole ordeal reframed some views I had about my life. For now, I am hesitating to write more about this part, but I am happy with the decisions I made even if they were difficult.

Travel

I did not fly on an airplane in 2025. Figure that one out.

There are travel plans for 2026, but this year due to the above health challenges and other factors, I opted to not travel much further than Vancouver Island or the Sunshine Coast.

Please enjoy these two photos from my travels:

This is a view from the inside of the provincial parliament building in Victoria, British Columbia. I had an opportunity to be at the legislature during a sitting so I watched some members of the BC Conservative party actually act inappropriately. Shocking I know, but par for the course with these folks.

My partner and I took a trip to Sechelt as a getaway for my birthday. We were graced with this lovely sunset just as we were about to go out for a nice dinner.

In any event, in 2026, I am likely to return to Ireland to see some family and then maybe a visit elsewhere. I have been toying with going to Australia at some point, but I feel like that may be a 2027 idea instead.

Photography

This year, I returned to photography, but I have sort of shunned anything digital.

Back in 2024, I purchased a Fed 3, which is a rangefinder made in Ukraine when it was still part of the Soviet Union. I wrote about

Above you can see the following cameras in order from left to right:

Sony DSC-HX99
Fed 3
Nikon D50
Nikon F60

The D50 is quite old, but I keep it around because it attaches to my 15 cm telescope. I don’t need much in the way for that since the telescope itself does not have a tracking mount so the exposures are never going to be long.

The Sony camera is a leftover from when I streamed and I wanted a camera I could use to get a better shot of my face back when streamer-specific cameras were hard to come by.

I’ve written about my use of the Fed and the F60 in a previous entry, but of the two, the F60 has been the most fun since it’s ready to go and it also doesn’t have a damaged lens.

I’m going to make a commitment to document all the film I ever used. I am presently on the hunt for a specific variety of expired film stock of which I will eventually post about once I have what I need.

Media consumption

Let’s talk about some media I enjoyed this past year.

Films

I watch about one to two films per week and if you’re ever curious, I do my best to track them on Letterboxd, which has indicated to me I had ticked over the thousandth film mark at some point in the past year or so.

For films I watched at the cinema, it’s a tie between Mickey 17 and the Phoenician Scheme in terms of favourites.

Robert Pattinson playing a weird little guy (or series of guys I guess) alongside a very psychotic character portrayed by Mark Ruffalo in a science fiction setting did draw me in. However, I am a sucker for almost anything by Wes Anderson and so I am not going to choose here–Asteroid City was a much more enjoyable film for anything recent that said.

However, for films that were no longer on the big screen, I did finally watch Conclave. As someone who was raised Catholic I did notice a huge infraction which might be noticeable if you’re familiar with the sacrament of confession. That said, I enjoyed the movie and have recommended that others give it a watch.

I always have a favourite dumb movie of the year and that goes to War of the Worlds, starring Ice Cube. It was ridiculous, but it was ridiculous and dumb in a way that while I will never be interested in watching again, I can recommend it if you ever need a ride that almost goes nowhere and I mean that literally.

Oh yeah. I also finally watched United Passions. What a godawful movie. It’s a good thing that FIFA and the World Cup is not rife with corruption any more am I right?

Television

I started to watch What We Do in the Shadows and I can say that enjoyed it.

Television has been something I’ve watched a lot less of lately, but that and getting through more of Foundation and also The Expanse have both been a pleasure.

Dropout has continued to be a favourite subscription service and I imagine that it will remain the case into 2026. Game Changer was extremely intense this past season and I can only imagine that Sam Reich will drop the gloves in 2026. I have mixed feelings on Crowd Control and feel that it is at best a two season series.

Books

Sticking with The Expanse, I read through the first three books this year and it has been a very pleasurable experience.

As for other books, I finally read Artemis and have gotten through most of Project Hail Mary, both of which are by Andy Weir.

I’m going to buck the trend here based on some comments I’ve read elsewhere in that I really enjoyed Artemis and think that it could have been made into a series, but Project Hail Mary really just isn’t clicking with me and I feel like it is not at all a better story.

I ended up putting the book down for now, but I am fearing that my annoyance with the style of writing in it might stall me from completing it much the same had happened with God Emperor of Dune by Frank Herbert. It at least didn’t irritate me as Hyperion by Dan Simmons–I’ve been told that the rest of the series is worth a read but one scene in this book turned me off and I’ve been hesitating to come back to it.

Runner up for books I enjoyed goes to Three Body Problem by Cixin Lin. The book really throws a curveball at you until you get to the very end. However, the gender politics really grinds my gears, but looking past that I find that the premise is really good and I might give it a go at the follow up book sometime next year.

I also have read three of the four books from the Wayfarer series by Becky Chambers. Sometime in the new year I’ll read the final book of the series and perhaps write an entry here about my thoughts about her world building. It’s a good series and I suggest giving it a go.

I’m finally going to start reading some Pratchet books in 2026 as well.

Video games

Believe it or not, I don’t think I played anything new released this year.

I have a huge backlog of games and it is ever-increasing. In fact, I opted to pair down my physical collection of games earlier in the year and I feel like that was the right decision.

Stardew Valley was a fun little highlight of the year and a game I keep coming back to for cozy playthroughs.

My hope for 2026 is that Capcom announces a new Ace Attorney game of some sort. If the above is indication enough for my love of the series, I can tell you that I was annoyed to hear that a new Mega Man game was announced and yet a much better series is languishing.

If I were to cast a magic wand, I’d want a follow up to The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles.

I’ve started to play through Final Fantasy XIII this past month. My hope is to finish it before the new year and then move on to XIII-2 and then Lightning Returns. Slowly but surely I am completing every mainline Final Fantasy game.

Music

I attended no concerts this year!

As for new music releases, Chappell Roan’s The Giver was a bop and seeing everybody use it for things such as hockey reels or government messaging really throws me for a loop considering its lyrics are explicitly queer.

Either some people have a sense of humour or it is straight people being oblivious.

Advocacy

I become both a volunteer and a donor to a local transit advocacy group, MovementYVR.

For us to tackle matters such as climate change and also to help ease and maybe assist the housing crisis, I really feel that we need to devote resources towards expanding public transit in our cities. It annoys me to no end that intercity bus service in this province is fragmented at best and non-existent at worst and this idea that we must get everyone to use a car instead is both short-sighted and insane.

During the campaign to bring bus rapid transit to North Burnaby, the misinformation from the Burnaby Heights Association and its members and supporters really grinded my gears. It is hard to read it as being either ignorance or intention (or both I guess), but they were the most disappointing group of people to contend with since joining.

It really taught me a lot about how ingrained some folks are with the silos they place themselves within.

Transit improves mobility for everyone including those who prefer to drive automobiles. I’d rather go somewhere by transit than take my car. I own an electric vehicle and I still don’t see it as the future nor a mode I want to choose as my second or third option.

My dream for 2026 is to see the an announcement for the Millennium Line extension to the University of British Columbia and some sort of intercity transit service–be it rail or bus.

As a result of my involvement with this group, some other projects are forthcoming and I am excited that sometime in January I’ll be announcing a project I am working on with folks I met through this organisation.

My book

Okay. I am just going to say this here: I am writing a science fiction novel. This has been an ongoing project since 2022 and after many rewrites I have gotten down the premise I am happy with.

The challenge I’ve found with writing a book is unlike short stories I have written in my past, I need to ensure continuity and thus as you go further along it’s easy to accidentally contradict what has happened previously or straight up develop a plot hole.

I won’t elaborate much about the story just yet, but I’m looking forward to sharing teasers from it once I am comfortable enough.

Finding space to write the book has been my largest challenge. I find that writing at home is distracting so often I go to the pub or a cafe to work on it. However, while there, I feel time-limited and I often end up downing too much to drink in the process.

I switched from an Alphasmart to a Remarkable 2 this year though. A friend offered his to me and after purchasing a keyboard attachment for it, it has really proven to be an invaluable device for distraction-free writing.

The book is being written without the aide of any large language models. Even if it is a terrible story, it at least came from my own terrible brain.

Sports

I watched a lot of soccer this year. I am considering to get season tickets for Vancouver Rise FC since I am glad to see a professional women’s club in this city.

I also watched live cricket for the first time this year. The sport makes perfect sense to me now and I kind of wish we were more serious about it in this country but alas.

Next year, the World Cup will have seven games here in Vancouver. I am on the fence about going as while I would love to see some matches, the cost is prohibitive and supporting FIFA is always a moral conundrum.

I started to play curling just in the past month and intend to continue playing in the new year. My injury is making me hesitate to play softball when the season begins, but I think I have a strategy will permit me to return albeit with a reduced capacity.

I’m fucking stubborn and so I won’t let this stop me.

Podcasting

Yes. Shawinigan Moments is coming back.

Tam and I have been busy with our lives. In my case, the injury took a lot of wind out of my sails and that is why the railway series was never completed.

And that series won’t be. The research part of the podcast is quite difficult when you have a day-job and also desire to maintain a social life. I want this show to remain fun for the two of us so we have to approach it all differently.

We’re coming back, but with content we’ve already been doing in the past but was limited to behind the Patreon paywall. We’re also still looking for someone to be our third, which I think would make our show work so much better, but that is a task suited for sometime later in 2026.

Staying on podcasting, I am going to be a producer and editor for another podcast due to be announced next month. This was a meeting of two minds and it’s shaping up be something potentially strong due to the two hosts involved. I will write more about it once there is more to be said so stay tuned.

Closing off with predictions

I want to see how badly I predict 2026 so here we go outlandish or not:

Prime Minister Mark Carney will get a majority government through someone crossing the floor either from the NDP or the Tories–he only needs one more seat (realistic)
Pierre Poillievre finally resigns as leader of the Tories (probable)
One of the large language model companies will die off but more capital will be burnt in order to keep the whole shitshow afloat (probable)
The Steam Machine is given an MSRP of C$1,600 but would have been cheaper if memory prices didn’t suddenly cost a fortune (probable)
Some sort of modern ternary computer will be demonstrated but unfortunately it will be for LLM nonsense purposes in mind (unlikely)
Metal Gear Solid 4 will get a modern port to the PlayStation 5 and PC platforms (possible)
Dune: Part Three will incorporate a lot more from Children of Dune than Messiah (likely)
Corus Entertainment will stop being a zombie corporation with being purchased by TELUS (realm of possibility)
Square-Enix announces a remake of Chrono Trigger using the same engine used by Octopath Traveller or Live A Live (realistic)
Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and American pop star, Katy Perry who have been dating since the springtime will announce that they’re getting married (possible)

When I do my 2026 post, I’ll see how poorly I predicted the year.