We end this year on an unusual note. I am not dragging myself to the end, gasping for breath and desperate for a rest. This has actually been a ... good year?! Gosh. I also feel like I've achieved quite a bit, although much of that comes under "learning how to make candles". My list of "things" is long enough I'm going to break down it down into some categories, and we'll see that this year has been much more than Ghost of Tsushima and Space Marine 2.
Creative
- 12 posts on this blog (13 including this one) - eleventh consecutive year of a post per month, third year of posting them on LinkedIn
- Honed my candle making skills by making a thousand candles, and set up an Instagram account (plus put the pictures on Flickr)
- Made a wax train for a dinner party
- Made a notebook
- Made a puzzle box
- Made more Lego - Artemis Space Launch System, DaVinci's Flying Machine and a Super Star Destroyer
- Made more bread - much better this time
- Made a few different photo decorated items - notecards and postcards
- Fixed the roof gutter - certainly an experience...
- Wrote a supplement for Humblewood and some other D&D - still haven't run anything...
- Another year of the Year in Pictures - eleventh year and we're up to 47 photographers
- More email setup (sigh)
- Set up video streaming in the house
- 384 Github contributions - up again from last year
- Yet more Instagramming
- More photos on my Flickr stream
- And used AI to create a distressing number of pictures of anthropomorphised sausages
Fitness
- Lost over 2st in weight, and 4" around the waist
- A year of getting back into Tai Chi - training around the Roman Baths
- Another year of exercise with a fabulous personal trainer and deep tissue therapist
- Another year of Saturday Pain and we made a workout shirt
- Lots more cooking, centred around health and protein
Social
- Lots (and lots) of keeping touch with people
- MBS trip to Power Up in London
- Maths reunion - twice!
- Hosted quarterly dinner parties - a fancy name for games and food
- Escaped another couple of escape rooms with the Bath crew
Work adjacent
- Became a Fellow of the British Computer Society
- Became a STEM Ambassador
- Another year on the Data for London Advisory Board
- Began the process of joining the WCIT
- Brought back Show & Tell
- Two sessions mock-interviewing University of Bath postdocs
- Lots of mentoring and coaching
- Spent a lot of time learning about AI
ADHD and Autism
- Diagnosed with ADHD and Autism
- Helped set up ADHD Pathfinding group
Resolution count - 5/10. Same as last year.
Ok, so this year it seems I've worked out how to get lots done - even if those things weren't really the things on my list. How did I manage to finally master work / life balance? Unfortunately, I had to not have a job for about a year - and during that time I still managed to do work (unpaid). It took having a gap year for me to work a roughly sensible amount. So ... success? Eugh. At least it was a good year.
Well, mostly a good year. I've lost friends this year and others have been quite seriously ill. I suppose I'm reaching that point in my life, but it is still very sad.
I have few reflections about the year. I am genuinely pleased to see how much I've done this year. Ok, I haven't been working for most of it but even so I've made a load of different things using a wide range of skills, and really learned a lot about candles. I started writing this annual review about ten years ago because I felt all I did was work and passively consume media. I made myself list the things I created that year, and it was a pleasingly long list back then. Since that post, I've been deliberately doing more and it has been nice to see my list develop over the years. Am I creative? No. But I am learning a load of different skills and thinking across problems in different ways.
While I haven't been employed for most of the year, I have still grown professionally. I started the year decidedly burnt out, and seriously considering leaving Tech altogether. I have recovered from that, come up with half an idea of the kind of professional I want to be and taken some significant steps in the right direction. I'm particularly pleased with the work I did as a STEM Ambassador, and becoming a Fellow nudged me back to Tech at exactly the right time. Since then I have also become a consultant, and I'm exploring a new facet of my industry and learning some new uses for my skills and experience.
I've also hit my fitness goals for the first time ... ever? That has made me very happy, and as well as feeling much better in myself I can head into 2026 feeling like the next set of goals are actually achievable, rather than another pipe dream. Maybe this year I'll be able to start buying new clothes?
And while we're on health, I have also been diagnosed with ADHD and Autism which has been very important both to this year and setting me up for managing my mental health going forward. I feel this is a very important foundation for solving the eternal "I've got no energy" problem I've written about every year for who knows how long.
So, let's look forward. I approach 2026 feeling much better about the year than I have in a while. I have reset my work / life in quite a dramatic way - in 2026 I need to keep building, ensure I keep working towards the professional identity I want, and (very important) ensure I maintain my peace as I do.
Over the last few years, I've written about rediscovering my wonder for life in the coming year but this year I feel I might actually be in a good place to do it.
To 2026, then. Let's see what happens.
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