Intro

Every year I have a set of consequential yearly goals to hit (usually career-related or related to my main ongoing comic or game project), but also a set of smaller wishes that would be fun to accomplish.

The issue is I never end up prioritizing those smaller goals- I have brainrot that means I have to always feel "productive", and "productive" means if I have energy then it should be put towards my main projects only.

This year on Jan 1, my friend and I came up with new year resolutions bingo to fill out throughout 2025. I filled mine with those small goals in an attempt to give myself motivation to work on them. This ended up working perfectly: it wasn't a big deal if I didn't accomplish a specific goal, but I had to accomplish at least a few to win. Therefore, I was justified in putting time in pursuing these fun goals without feeling like I was taking time away from other obligations.

The Bingo

Here is my 2025 bingo:

Transcribed below, left to right, top to bottom:

• Go to a new museum (done)
• Say yes to something you've never done before x2 (done)
• Write a diary entry in Chinese (done)
• Update website with a new blog post or feature (done)
• Listen to the news 1/day for 30 days
• Say yes to something you've never done before x4
• Finish reading 1 traditionally published prose novel (done)
• Say yes to something you've never done before x1 (done)
• Finish reading second traditionally published prose novel (done)
• Make or reconnect with 1 new friend (done)
• Read a book in Chinese
• Add 1 new meal to repertoire (done)
• Pass HSK 2 (done)
• Go to a Meow Wolf exhibit
• Say yes to something you've never done before x3 (done)
• Seond cards to friends for a holiday (done)
• Try food from a cuisine you've never tried before (done)
• Read a book in Chinese x2
• Q2: Save 15% of income (done, but not marked on image)
• Learn how to do honeycomb smocking
• Q1: Save 15%+ of income (done)
• Do a 24h diary comic day (done)
• Finish play 1 narrative game on to-play list (done)
• Go to NYC with partner (done)

18/25 done with 2 bingos, pretty good!

Some Highlights

Learning Chinese

The past couple years, I tried a lot of "fun" ways to relearn Mandarin: apps, reading comics, watching TV, listening to podcasts etc. The method that finally worked was to return to how I originally learned the language as a kid: recreating the Chinese school experience a lot of Chinese-Americans are familiar with and spending 2 hours every Sunday just working through a textbook. The structured learning was a lot more effective for me than trying to trick myself into absorbing Mandarin passively through media.

During the first half of this year, I worked through an HSK 2 textbook and passed an online HSK 2 test! My Mandarin is still very low-level, but I feel much less rusty speaking and reading. Unfortunately, I fell off in the second half of this year pretty hard, and didn't end up accomplishing my other goals of reading Chinese books (not as ambitious as it sounds- I have some children's chapter books and comics).

Although I'm proud of the amount I learned this year, I haven't decided yet if I want to go for HSK 3 in 2026. Between work, social events, and art, even a couple hours each week is precious :')

Travel and trying new things

I did a lot of these!

I visited NYC with my partner this spring, which also checked off "Go to a new museum" (The Cloisters, which my partner persuaded me should count as separate from the Met) and "Try food from a new cuisine" (Georgian food!! I ate Khachapuri, it was very good!)

I forget what all the "Say yes to something you've never done before" but I think they were all networking events and stuff.

Reading Prose

My reading goal was the most resounding success of 2025 because I finally got back into reading prose! I read 18 books this year, which far exceeded my 2-book goal (and 2-book yearly average from the last decade).

Anyway here's a screenshot of my Notion book tracker with my 4 and 5 stars (and some 3 stars that got caught in the screenshots):

The habits and attention span I built while reading books also transferred to VNs! I finally read Soul of Sovereignty this year (extremely recommended!!) and some short VNs from the Toxic Yuri VN Jam. I really hope to keep this momentum going: reading is time- and energy-consuming but very rewarding, and I now have a big TBR to go through!

Big goals check-in

My current main art project is my dressup game (No Steam page yet- only posted Bsky teasers so far), and Beastfall is officially on the backburner. Making games has been extremely rewarding, and I'm hoping I can release something playable next year!