Things I Was Grateful For in 2025

Every year seems to go faster and faster. It’s hard to believe 2025 has come to a close and we’re now in 2026. Even crazier is that this is the sixth year in a row I’ve written this post!

It was a year with extensive travel. I spent over 90 nights on the road, a personal record. I visited some fun places (Japan, London) and some less-fun (Dallas). It was a bit too much travel and I am hoping to spend a bit more time at home this year.

I got to watch my soccer team make it to four different finals. One at home in Vancouver, then in San Diego, in Mexico City, and in Miami. We may have only won one of them, but traveling to all of those games was an incredible experience. Hoping we’ll be making it to a few more finals in 2026!

I’ve been fighting constant sinus issues for the last few years and finally had a septoplasty at the end of August to help with it. The recovery was much rougher than I expected, I was definitely exhausted for the last few months of the year. Sadly it hasn’t had a huge impact on my quality of life, other than helping improve my sleep.

Finishing off the year we went to Puerto Vallarta for 10 days in the sun which was a very needed break. After returning, I’ve been feeling refreshed and excited for 2026!

Movie - Marty Supreme

This one is a bit of a cheat since I watched it at the start of 2026, but it was my favorite 2025 film release! It’s just a wild ride from start to finish that you can’t tear your eyes away from.

I loved Uncut Gems and finally watched Good Time this year, but Josh Safdie really is mastering his craft with Marty Supreme. Josh has really honed his ability to have a constant pacing but making it a bit less intense.

It feels like the film will do pretty well in the award season and it deserves it! Timothée Chalamet and the rest of the cast delivered incredible performances. As a Canadian it was wild seeing Kevin O’Leary act – although rich asshole is who he is in real life.

TV - Long Story Short

One of my favorite shows of the last decade was BoJack Horseman and its creator is back with Long Story Short.

It’s a very different vibe from BoJack but with a familiar art style. Covering the stories of a family over decades in time it seamlessly switches between characters and periods of life. Just like BoJack it will hit you in the feelings again and again.

I can’t wait for season two! This feels like a show that could go on for a long time covering so many different characters in the extended family across different time periods.

Book - Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V. E. Schwab

I’ve been reading V. E. Schwab for over a decade now, starting with her Vicious novel in 2013. It’s been impressive to watch her hone her craft and grow as a writer. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue in 2020 was a very impressive leap in her writing and Bury our Bones is yet another.

Covering multiple different characters over hundreds of years, it’s an ambitious story that balances its complex elements perfectly. I find that sometimes a book of this scale can be hard to keep track of or to get invested in the characters, but Schwab handles it with perfection.

I also had the pleasure of seeing V.E. Schwab do a talk about the book before I had read it. She’s a fantastic speaker and I highly recommend any fans of her work seeing her talk if you have the opportunity!

Video Game - Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor

I’ve never even played the original Deep Rock Galactic game but I’ve thoroughly enjoyed with Survivor this winter. It’s a perfect mindless game to play on the couch while watching some TV. I had been playing it on my Steam Deck but while writing this I noticed it’s also available on mobile which is a dangerous addition.

Bullet Hell (or Bullet Heaven) has been one of my favorite genres of games for a while, starting with discovering the 1942 arcade game. I’ve been trying lots of different modern ones this year and this was by far my favorite.

Podcast - Articles of Interest: Gear

Anyone who knows me is going to be very surprised that my top podcast of the year is about fashion. I can’t say fashion has ever been something that particularly interests me, but how Avery Trufelman talks about fashion is something special.

Starting with the history of outdoor wear to modern GORE-TEX it paints a very compelling story, finishing with our current world where we’re wearing Arcteryx jackets all the time.

Activity - Pickleball

I am officially entering my old man era. I’ve played a bit of Pickleball the last few years but this summer got into a routine of playing it almost every weekend. It’s been fun playing with friends and improving.

Going into this winter I am trying to play more consistently at some indoor facilities that have opened up in the area. It’s great having high quality courts and reserved time to use them, very different from playing outdoors in the summer.

My weekly rotation of activities now includes Beach Volleyball, Bouldering, and Pickleball! It’s a well-rounded mix, and I’ve stopped injuring myself like I did playing Ultimate Frisbee.

App - Google Gemini & Antigravity

If you had asked me a year ago if Google would be making some of the best AI products by the end of 2025 I would have laughed. I should have known better than to ever doubt the ability of Google to pursue something they really want.

I’ve stopped using ChatGPT entirely and Gemini is my daily driver now for most activities, with some Claude in the mix as well. Their “Thinking” mode combined with Google Search data is unrivalled.

Near the end of the year they released Google Antigravity which has now replaced Cursor as my daily driver IDE. It giving out a reasonable amount of Opus 4.5 tokens doesn’t help it either.

Honourable mention to Anthropic’s Opus 4.5 which has been a huge step forward for vibe coding. It’s getting a lot of hype right now - which it deserves.

Tech - Pixelsnap

I’ve been jealous of iPhone’s having MagSafe for years and I am so glad that the new Pixel 10 series finally added a completely compatible system! This seemingly small addition greatly improves daily use. No more of putting your phone on a wireless charging and being surprised when its no longer charging in the morning!

My favorite addition to my life thanks to Pixelsnap is a wallet that clips on the back of my phone. I try to carry as little as possible every day and this is a perfect way to reduce what I carry.

Project - Mt. Unpleasant

What a fun adventure this project has been. Something completely different than anything I’ve ever worked on before. For the last 6 or so months i’ve been working with my good friend Jamie on a YouTube series of in-person Blood on the Clocktower.

It’s been an resounding success that the Clocktower community has embraced. It’s been exciting having real fans of the videos and building up a consistent audience. It’s such a different thing to work on then anything else I’ve ever done which has been engaging to learn.