Year In Review: 2025

I’m doing this early, for once.

Personal Deets

It’s been a strange year. There’s so much going on politically that I’ll just name check—Trump, the trade war, Mark Carney’s meh PM-ship, David Eby’s meh premiership, city hall’s slash-and-burn budget. There’s a crisis in leadership and a lack of willingness to address fundamental problems in our society.

Yet, personally speaking, it was a pretty good year. Sure, I barely travelled, and I need to invest more in personal growth; but it was a year of doing stuff. I protested, I spent time with friends, and I went to a tonne of shows.

Travel

Comox
I went there twice: in November to see my aunt and uncle, and in August to see my sister and her family.

That’s it! I probably should’ve gone to Worldcon, which was in Seattle this summer … but travelling to the US has lost its appeal.

Events

The Critical Hit Show
The shows are a little shorter now, and they’re every other month. Still, it’s a great time. I’ve gotten a few more friends going this year.

Extra Credits, CBC and Me, and The Big Question
Eric Fell and Ian Boothby have been putting together other comedy shows at Little Mountain Gallery. They’ve been great.

Concerts
This year I saw Devours, Taj Mahal, Aqua, and The Beths. Whoa, I wrote posts for all of them? Go me!

Elections
There were two big ones this year: a Vancouver City Council by-election, and a federal election. As for the former, I tweeted:

Whoa. My two picks, Sean Orr of COPE and Lucy Maloney of OneCity Vancouver, are dominating the vote so far. This is the opposite of the last municipal election, where nearly every single person I voted for (with the exception of Peter Fry and Christine Boyle) lost.

It was a repudiation of Mayor Ken Sim and his party ABC Vancouver. Sadly, this is probably why he forced through a budget with no tax increases, which will probably lead to much turmoil in 2026.

As for the federal election, Mark Carney and the federal Liberals won, and NDP lost nearly all its seats. As far as I’m concerned, we got a Conservative government. It’s only been a year, and maybe Carney will turn things around, but I’m disappointed.

Protests
I went to two Toque Off protests after Trump became US president again. I don’t think Americans realize how offensive the whole “51st state” thing was to Canadians (YouTube version).

Then there was the #SaveTheBus protest. We averted Translink’s financial cliff … for now …

And finally, the two No Tyrants protests in Vancouver. Like any protest, it does the heart good to be with other people with the same concerns. Emily Lowan from the BC Greens gave a speech at the second one—she’s amazing.

Book readings
I went to two: one for Life After Cars, and another for Travis Baldree’s Breadknives & Brigands.

Plays
I went to three plays this year: Christmas at Pemberly, Jack and the Beanstalk, and West Van Story.

Winter
We had a terrifying fifteen days of snow this year. (Tweets.)

JP’s funeral
Yep, more death. He was diagnosed with stage four cancer late last year and succumbed this year, leaving behind his wife and two children. Fuck cancer.

Sun Run
I didn’t participate, but I went out and cheered everyone on. This is a great civic event.

Eurovision
For the second year in a row, I watched a chunk of it, and didn’t get back to the rest. At least I didn’t hurt myself this time. (Tweets.)

Vancouver Canadians
We went to another baseball game. It was delayed a bit due to rain, which gave us a chance to peruse the neighbouring farmer’s market. Lots of fun!

Beaches
I had a tweet thread for my beach days this summer. I pretty sure we went back to Kye Bay, but otherwise I think that’s all of ‘em.

Switch 2
This is less of an event, but I turned buying a Switch 2 into a quest. Instead of ordering online and waiting, I spent about a month randomly popping into shops and stalking Best Buy’s website.¹ (Tweets.)

The Celebration of Light
Our yearly fireworks competition. I take these for granted—I only went to one show, I think. But the city has withdrawn its funding, and the show is cancelled for 2026. Thanks, Mayor Sim. 😛 (Tweets.)

WNBA
This year’s summer social event for work. It failed at being social, but it was a good time. (Post.)

Book Club
We’ve been meeting up every few months to talk about a book. In August I hosted it—I actually had people come over and hang out. It’s been ages since I’ve hosted any sort of gathering.

Pleasant Fest
I didn’t go to Car Free Vancouver this year, but I went to Pleasant Fest, which is essentially the same thing. A good chunk of Main Street was closed to cars, with tonnes of vendors, performers, political groups manning tables, and so on.

Bike the Night
I raised some dosh for HUB! Oh, and rode around, of course. The bike lanes are getting better. I’ve slagged Vancouver City Council a bit in this post, but props for the improving infrastructure.

Media

Hey. Movies and TV shows. Yeah.

Slayed thread for 2025.

TV

Frieren
This is an anime in a D&D-style world, except it starts after the party has heroically defeated the big bad. Frieren, an elf mage, wanders off on her own journey after the celebration, and comes back decades later to discover that the rest of the adventuring party has gotten old. I tweeted:

I liked it. When they got in deep about magic and how it worked, I wasn’t particularly interested. When it was about grief and Frieren learning to connect with the world again, I was all in.

Pride and Prejudice
The BBC mini-series. I livetweeted it, starting at episode four.

Movies

Did I go to the movies this year?? I don’t think so.

John Wick 2
I’m years late, I know. The sequel doubles down on the mysterious world of assassins, and I kinda hated it. (Tweets.)

K-Pop Demon Hunters
Yes, I watched it. The characters were a bit meh, and the story was lacking, but it’s also fantastically done and a work of love. (Tweets.)

Asteroid City
I didn’t get it, but I really enjoyed it. (Tweets.)

Wake Up Dead Man
I blogged about this one already.

Video Games

Baldur’s Gate 3
Again. I started a solo-playthrough late last year, and finished it in the winter. Phenomenal game.

Dragon Quest 3: HD-2D
I bought this for the Switch and got to the Pyramid before the frame rate and load times got to me. There’s a Switch 2 update that makes it all smooth—I should get back to it. (And buy DQ1:HD-2D! And the upcoming DQ7 remake! Yeah!)

Blue Prince
I started writing a post about it last spring. Here’s the first paragraph:

A buzzy new roguelike exploration game? With glowing reviews comparing it to Outer Wilds? Recommended by one of the hosts of the Axe of the Blood God podcast? Yes. A thousand times yes.

I loved this game, but the further I pushed, the less rewarding and more obtuse it became. It wasn’t enough to outweigh the joy I had, but I should’ve stopped playing much earlier.

Hades 2
I started writing a post about it this fall. It’s a follow-up to Hades, which was fantastic. I think the changes to the game are great, but the new characters aren’t as interesting, and I dislike the story. Mixed feelings for a very-good game.

Luma Island
I kinda want to slag this game for blending together Stardew Valley and Fantasy Life into cozy-game slurry, but it’s much better than it has any right to be. The NPCs are too chatty, and it can be grindy, but it’s good.

Split Fiction
It’s a two player co-op game that jumps between sci-fi and fantasy scenarios. Fun fun fun. The game’s also critical about AI and massive game studios, which is kinda funny for a game published by EA.

NGU Idle
Sigh. I think I’m approaching an end.

Roleplaying

Redbrook
We finished it! (Post.)

Stonetop
Our current campaign. I play Rua, whose parents died under mysterious circumstances. He’s torn between distrusting the elders of Stonetop, wanting to prove himself, and reacting to every event with the certainty of a teenager. I enjoy being able to go with whatever enters my brain first, regardless of how foolish it is. He’s so much fun to play.

Eat the Reich
On-line one shot. You play vampires rampaging through occupied Paris to take down Hitler. Lots o’ fun. (Post.)

Summation

The world’s crazy. Our political leaders are failing us.

That said, good year!

Also: I made an effort this year to write more about what’s been going on, whether that be here, or on Mastodon. I think it’s been a success. 😀