2025 Recap
I wanted to share and catalog what I did in 2025 (ex: books read and shows attended), but didn’t want to go crazy writing a full-blown post like my 2023 review picks (notice I didn’t do it in 2024 XD). So, I’m dumping a bunch of lists into a post. Enjoy!
Home & Family
We’ve done quite a bit of traveling, and continued to transform and set up gardens outside our house. Some highlights:
- Several snow events in Durham, NC
- First year turning side yard into pollinator garden
- Added several garden beds
- Did a massive chip drop in the late spring
- Dog (Maggie) had double knee surgery
- Family vacations to Virginia Beach VA, Outer Banks NC
- Travel to see friends & family in Seattle/Everett WA, Columbia SC, PA
- First ‘Friends’ Birthday Party for son’s 3rd birthday
- Continued swim lessons and first time doing Soccer Shots with son
- Brother’s Wedding (Co-Best Man)
- Got my wife to finally play Stardew Valley
Career
Big changes this year for my career. That about sums it up XD.
- Left job @ Red Hat
- Built and released my first-ever app (Perspective Pixels)
Website Changes/Improvements
I forgot I was still using hugo for my website at the start of the year. I’ve done so much since that switch!
- Hugo -> Eleventy
- Nginx -> Caddy
- Added
/usesarchive - Added Now/Then Pages
- Added pages under
/explore - Added
/mumbles,/POSSE,/colophon,/projects - Added
/blogroll,/readingpage generators - Added
/chipotle,/defaults,/guy, and/save - A smattering of /now updates and blog posts
- Theme tweaks
Notable Tech Hardware Changes
While I feel like I did a bunch of hardware swapping as per usual, by the end of the year the net changes essentially boiled down to a few things:
- 16" M3 Pro MBP + 13" M3 MBA -> 14" M4 Pro (14-Core) MBP
- Minisforum HX99g -> GPD Pocket 4
- iPhone 15 -> iPhone 17
- Added MeLE Mini PC Quieter 4C as a home server
Notable Tech Software Changes
I’ve continued to jump around with software quite a bit. Here are the most notable ones I can think of.
- Obsidian -> Emacs
- TickTick -> Todoist -> Reminders/GoodTasks -> TickTick
- Readwise Reader -> newsboat -> newsraft -> Elfeed (emacs) for rss
- Fastmail webUI -> neomutt -> mu4e (emacs) for email
- Apple Music -> Mostly local music and online radio
- Daily driving NixOS in addition to macOS
Concerts/Shows
A year or two ago, my wife and I made it a priority to attend concerts and shows when possible. This year we were fortunate enough to see:
2025-02-01| Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Orchestra – DPAC2025-02-15| Symphony - Beethoven’s Piano Concerto #4 – NC Symphony2025-03-22| Alice in Wonderland Ballet – NC Ballet2025-05-31| Carnival of the Animals – NC Symphony2025-07-19| Les Misérables – DPAC2025-09-03| Blink-182 w/ Alkaline Trio & Beauty School Dropout - Coastal Credit Union Music Park at Walnut Creek (Raleigh, NC)2025-09-11| Beauty & The Beast – DPAC2025-10-17| Stardew Valley: Symphony of Seasons – DPAC2025-10-28| Lenny Pearce – The Ritz (Raleigh, NC)2025-10-30| Six - The Musical – DPAC2025-11-13| Neil deGrasse Tyson: An Astrophysicist Goes to the Movies (III) – DPAC2025-11-23| Nutcracker Ballet – DPAC2025-12-12| The Front Bottoms – The Ritz (Raleigh, NC)2025-12-19| The Nutcracker Ballet & Symphony – NC Ballet/Symphony
(I think that’s at least all the big shows)
Books Read/Listened to
While it wanes at times, I think overall I’ve been able to maintain a good reading habit throughout most of the year.
Still in Progress
- Elements of Clojure by Zachery Tellman
- The Joy of Clojure (2nd edition) by Michael Fogus and Chris Houser
- Shadow Dark (TTRPG)
Completed
- Wicked by Gregory Maguire (book)
- Code Name: Pale Horse by Scott Payne (audiobook)
- Shadow Dark Quickstart Guide (TTRPG)
- iOS and iPadOS 26 Review by Federico Viticci (ebook)
- macos 26 Tahoe by John Voorhees (ebook)
- Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar - Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes (book)
- Beardy Moving away from Apple (Blog Collection)
- The 8 Minute Organizer by Regina Leeds (book)
- Fahrenheit-182 by Mark Hoppus (audiobook)
- Company of One - Paul Jarvis (ebook)
- Grow Wild - Katy Bowman (book)
- Life-changing Homes by Nicolás Boullosa, Kirsten Dirksen (eBook)
- Leonardo Da Vinci by Walter Isaacson (audiobook)
- The Almanack of Naval Ravikant - Eric Jorgenson, Jack Butcher, and Tim Ferriss (book)
- Only Say Good Things - Crystal Hefner (audiobook)
- Slow Productivity - Cal Newport (book)
- Everything I Know - Paul Jarvis (book)
- A System for Writing - Bob Doto (book)
- The Pathless Path - Paul Millerd (book)
Podcasts
[2026-01-01] Update: I didn’t include my podcast stats when I first published this post because they were still accumulating. But now, I have my completed Overcast stats for 2025! Here’s the podcasts I logged at least an hour listening to this year (in Overcast).
| # | Podcast | Listening Time |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Accidental Tech Podcast: Unedited Live Stream | 113:22:33 |
| 2 | The WAN Show | 91:03:13 |
| 3 | Connected Pro (Private) | 60:01:12 |
| 4 | The Rest Is History | 54:22:46 |
| 5 | Upgrade | 49:59:14 |
| 6 | Mac Power Users | 27:55:01 |
| 7 | LINUX Unplugged | 25:27:18 |
| 8 | Hemispheric Views | 18:59:46 |
| 9 | Analog(ue) | 12:49:37 |
| 10 | Moretex (Private) | 12:18:55 |
| 11 | The Rest Is Politics: US | 11:02:27 |
| 12 | Under the Radar | 8:36:48 |
| 13 | Ruminate | 8:06:05 |
| 14 | AppStories | 6:30:06 |
| 15 | The Glass Cannon Podcast | 5:26:22 |
| 16 | Focused | 3:23:49 |
| 17 | Crossover (Private) | 3:20:12 |
| 18 | Comfort Zone | 3:07:05 |
| 19 | The Rest Is Classified | 3:06:42 |
| 20 | MacStories Unwind | 3:05:32 |
| 21 | Reconcilable Differences | 2:33:18 |
| 22 | The Rest Is Politics | 2:27:36 |
| 23 | Move Your DNA with Katy Bowman | 2:07:06 |
| 24 | Conduit | 1:38:58 |
| 25 | Syntax – Tasty Web Development Treats | 1:10:30 |
| 26 | defn | 1:04:09 |
Conclusion
I’m sure I’ve missed a ton of stuff I should have probably listed. It’s been a busy year. However, at least I recorded something. All in all, it’s been a great year, and I’m excited to keep things flowing into the next.