Ask Lemmy

I got a lot better at guitar and even recorded a song.

It's been a goal of mine for a while to keep up with practicing and get good at fingerpicking. Just for myself, more of a therapy than anything. I did pretty good with it this year.

I started going to therapy which has done insane wonders for my anxiety and ability to make progress in life.

Almost ten years ago I got into a fight with a cop and some ER nurses after a suicide attempt and spent the next 48 hours twitching on the floor of a state hospital psych ward and thought I could probably do a better job of that. This year I'm considered enough of an expert in the management of violent patients that they've got me teaching verbal deescalation and physical disengagement skills, teaching people how to use restraints correctly, and precepting new nurses.

I moved out from my dysfunctional family, which has helped me heal or come to terms with a lot of childhood trauma. I definitely feel I've grown a lot more, and become much more social and confident in myself.

I asked someone out for the first time, and while I was turned down, that was still a huge step for me.

Didn't give in to my demons. So far so good...

Did my first successful hard drive recovery including chip swapover while soldering on a microscope. Also started saving for retirement the first time in my life. I'm 38.

I stepped up my nerd game to start trying to land an IT job of some kind. I learned computer networking to set up my own website on recycled hardware and began writing about it. I started developing on a game engine making modules and making art assets to maybe one day make a commercial product. I released like a dozen open source projects under open source licenses.

It all kind of culminated with Christmas. The kids in my life have been begging for multiplayer Minecraft server but Microsoft destroyed the he so hard with money grabbing we refused to pay for realms or make a bunch of Microsoft accounts or whatever.

So, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work on creating a mineclonia server built on luanti/minetest engine, patching in all the Minecraft assets like textures, sounds, music that I legally own with python tools I built myself and released,

I really wanted an in game fullscreen map and nobody had ever figured out how to make one on luanti engine so I so spent a few weeks developing one from the ground up. I released the map mod two days ago and people quickly noticed saying I had changed the game forever, congratulating me on my technological achievement or whatever.

Its just a little frustrating because it feels like I'm somewhat competent at the nerd professions but I have no idea how to advertise my talents or if what I'm doing even translates to real Dev work. How Does creating universal map colorizer + generator for proceeduraly generated voxel worlds or designing a full model animation interpolation system for an engine from scratch or hosting public services on my own network built from scratch powered by solar turn into resume stuffs? That'd what I guess new years focus needs to be

Finally moving into my own apartment (away from my dad)

I wrote a one man play! I am not a professional writer, even though i have tried, and not at all an actor, and the play touches some things in me, i get both angry and sad for real while playing -- 13.1 is the date, and i'm both super stoked and super anxious. but proud! a real achievement in my world.

Hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.

I got invited to a furry convention, but still had to pay my own way and only had a month to make up the money so I took all the extra hours I could just to be able to go and barely have food the whole 5 days.

But it was worth it. BLFC was awesome. 😃

Literal zero usage of Windows or any Microsoft software or hardware. Also 99% no Google.

Went vegan.

Started my masters.

Didn't kill myself that week when I was fired a day after getting into a lot of credit card debt to treat the newly found cancer in my cat.

Said cat is alive and well, which is already a few months more than what the first vet said he would have.

Went back to school for electrical engineering. Took a hard class with a hard professor and got a B+ while working almost full-time. Now I know how computer memory works.

Having a photo I took accepted into a public gallery exhibit for the first time.

I got my highest semester GPA ever and started reading significantly more books

2025 was awful so... I would say I am happy and proud to still be alive.

I'm usually a bit excessively modest, but if I'm reflecting on it... I left my precious job in the US & pulled off a successful cross-continental move with little to no outside help (even though there was a lot of stuff involved). Had a ton of fun traveling during the past year too as a result of that. I guess that would be the thing I'm most proud of

It took two years but I finally achieved a 1000lb powerlifting total. It's not a huge number but I do feel proud of myself, and physically I have never felt better. Outgrew my wardrobe twice, and can't find jeans that fit but otherwise 10/10 would recommend lifting to anyone

Stopped being an unemployed bum and got a solid union job that pays more than I ever really expected to make

I’ve created some absolutely amazing photography in ‘25 and will continue to make even more!

I got my A+ and Network+ certs. So far they've been wastes of money lmao

Professionally, I achieved the highest level of licensure in my field and made more money this year than any year prior. Personally, I got back into therapy and started tightening down on my mental health. I also did some repair/maintenance projects on my car/house that I really didnt think id be able to handle.

Finally got off my butt and started volunteering at my local wildlife rehab clinic. It's been a tough year for me mentally, so having something regular where I'm surrounded by kind people doing something positive itself was great, and then getting to work with a ton of unique wildlife was the icing on the cake.

I even got to release a few squirrel patients at my house, and a beautiful young Screech Owl on my wife's birthday.

I've learned a bunch about all kinds of animals and found out about some animals I didn't even know we had in our state. I also attended a conference and got to meet people from other clinics across the country and see some of the special projects they're working on.

I owe it to the community here for pushing me to get more hands on with this, and I hope to continue to give back with some great stories, facts, and photos. It's been a truly amazing experience that I wish to continue.

Passed my board

I started my handyman business 2 years ago. This past year i've been at full employment with zero advertising. I think that's pretty good for a new business with no existing customer base.

Ironically, at the end of last year as things were slowing down a bit I ordered like 3000 new flyers and I only managed to distribute around 500 of them untill the phone started ringing again and that still continues.

Finished the year with $3 in my bank account.

Thanks, Trump.

One of the projects I worked on won several major awards from a major professional organization. Part of the reason it won those awards was because of my work.

After 5ish years of semi-regular practice, I don't completely suck at chess anymore. This year saw my most dramatic improvement since I started learning how to play in earnest.

Yesterday I hit a new personal best rating at chess puzzles: 2013 Elo. Pretty proud of that

I made more money in one month than I did in any one of the first three years I started in my field.

It finally feels like the work and dedication paid off.

I finally quit my shitty job and will do a fresh start in '26 🥳 The job was really draining all my energy so this is a big win for my mental health

I got an A in legal writing this semester.