May 2026

Hello and welcome to my annual review series where I talk about everything that's happened in my life in the past 12 months. As you can probably tell, this is not a blogpost, it's a video. I've been saying for years that I want to make some more video-centric content but I've never really pushed myself to do it outside of streaming which isn't really what I wanted... so I'm forcing myself to make a video for this year's annual review. Unfortunately, my camera is kind of out of commission right now so I'm just going to talk over some of the many many hours of video footage I have from streams and just from playing games in my own time. I mean, it's close enough to an in-person video and once I get my camera working I'll start making some actual videos.

Anyways, let's talk about this year. This year was an emotional roller-coaster for me if I'm being completely honest, but I think it's starting to turn around for the better so let's jump into it.

Career

First, I want to talk about my career.

If you read my blogpost last year I talked about how I was really frustrated with the industry I work in and I kind of touched on how venture capital is quite literally destroying the internet. This year, unfortunately, the situation has gotten much worse. The reason for that... I'll give you a hint: it starts with an "A" and ends with an "I". If you guessed AI, you're correct.

Programming with AI really blew up this year. It's not that programming with AI is a new concept. I think people have been using AI to try to program since the chatbots first came out (like ChatGPT and that whole thing). What changed this year is that the industry created this new type of AI called "agentic AI" or "AI agents" which are essentially the same as AI chatbots but they have a bigger context window, they can read really detailed plans and execute those plans, and they can also execute some pretty basic tasks on your computer like running terminal commands. In other words, they can essentially mimic a junior developer with pretty good accuracy. What that means for non-programmers out there is that instead of coding an app by hand, you can instead write down this detailed plan in a markdown file, give it to Claude, tell Claude to read that plan and then generate a bunch of small tasks, and then Claude can execute those tasks and essentially code an app for you instead of you coding it. On paper it sounds really inefficient but it's actually very efficient and it can sometimes be faster than doing it yourself... but heavy emphasis on the "sometimes".

You're probably wondering why this makes things worse for the industry, and that's kind of the frustrating part for me. To be fully transparent, I've never been a staunch believer in AI tooling or AI chatbots, but I respect the technology even if I don't personally vibe with it and I'm satisfied knowing that some people are learning to use this new wave of AI to improve their workflows and be more productive. The technology itself is not really the issue here. The issue is how stakeholders perceive AI. In the mind of a VC or a C-suite exec, agentic AI is a way to completely replace engineers. To them, we're just suddenly a waste of company dollars so we better start producing 2 times our normal output or we might as well be fired. They seem to think that everything and anything should be AI-generated because "AI is better and faster than human engineers" and the faster we move to an AI-only future, the more engineers they can lay off and the more money they'll make. It's why every tech company has signed a deal with Anthropic or OpenAI: all they see is the potential stacks of dollar bills they could be counting by their olympic swimming pool.

Now, if it wasn't obvious, these claims are absurd propaganda. If you've used AI tools yourself, you'll quickly learn AI is not going to completely replace engineers. They're fantastic tools, don't get me wrong, but they're not at a point yet that they can replace your entire tech department like some execs seem to think.

As a result, because every single exec seems to have bought into this idea that AI is the future and AI will replace everything, every company project I've worked since April last year has had increased scope, half as many engineers, half as much planning, double the urgency, and so on. I feel like my coworkers and I are being forced to work on so many projects so fast that we don't even have time to sit down and talk about what we're working on. It's just so frustrating because in the past we used to work on projects for the purpose of "improving the product", or making features that "benefit our users", but nowadays we tend to work on projects just because someone way above our pay grades told us to - even if everyone involved in the project thinks it's a stupid idea. The amount of insane corporate greed is so frustrating because I'm just watching as all of the tech companies in the world right now are launching these extremely buggy terrible AI features that screw over the users and it's just frustrating to know that the engineers who work on these products probably don't even want to work on them but they were probably forced to because some VC told them to and because obviously you don't want to lose your job. But you know what, it's all to increase that shareholder value am I right?

It's also just wild to me that every single tech company has somehow bought into this AI lie. To prove my point, I have a fun challenge for you: try looking for a VC-backed tech company that doesn't have the phrase "AI" on their homepage right now. Seriously. I literally cannot find one that hasn't fallen for it.

That's all to say that it was a very stressful year for me last year learning to adapt to my company's demands and learning to set healthier boundaries for myself for my own mental well-being. I'm learning to truly hate my company which is just a shame. At the end of the day, it's just a job that gives me money to do things that I enjoy, but for some reason I thought I could enjoy a job for once. I guess that's how I should view every workplace from now on: it's just something that gives me money to do the things I want to do.

Okay, that's enough about AI. My rant is over. We can talk about something else more lighthearted.

If there's anything that's made me genuinely excited about technology, it's Zig. Zig is a fairly new systems programming language that markets itself as a smarter, more transparent C. What's interesting about it is that instead of trying to solve memory leaks by abstracting away the memory and hiding it like in Rust, instead it puts it front and center and just gives you really good tooling to manage that memory. Outside of that, the language semantics are just so good that it's become one of my favorite programming languages of all time. It really feels like they've learned from all the other programming languages in the world to make this truly wonderful language, just taking all these great ideas and putting them all together into one place, and the language is really easy to read and it's really easy to write. It's simple enough for a frontend engineer like me to pick up and write some side projects using Zig. That being said, it's still a pretty small language so I'm pretty interested to see how it fares over time against its competition. I've already written a few pieces about Zig on my website and you can be absolutely sure I'm going to write a few more.

Physical Health

Alright, let's talk about my physical health. I'm doing a lot better than I was last year. I've been doing a ton of physical therapy to heal my wrists and it's actually helped so much. I can now lift a milk jug normally without feeling any burning pain in my wrists. I also feel like my joints have gotten stronger from physical therapy and I just feel healthier and it just feels really good.

In general, I'm trying to work out more frequently to improve my strength and I've gotten a bit more swol. I'm not trying to break any benching records or anything and I'm not a gym bro. I'm still a twink, just a slightly more toned twink. I don't have any particular goals for my physical health this year, but I think I'd like to continue building my strength and my stamina so I might run a bit more but we'll see.

House

Alright, now for some exciting house updates. I realize no one is going to care at all about these updates but you know, I'm in my home reno era and no one's gonna stop me, ok?

Last year I mentioned that I was going to make a cat closet for Millie. I did actually dedicate that closet for cat things but I didn't end up finishing the walls or build any cat shelves like I said I was going to, and the reason for that is that the block foundation behind it is just too porous. I think it's partially that way due to its age and partially due to the nature of being a block foundation as opposed to a solid foundation. I didn't really feel comfortable finishing over the closet walls because they literally produce moisture 24/7. I know that there's sealing paints and materials available but I honestly don't think it would make a difference unless I tore down my entire finished basement and re-finished it with some insulation and epoxy and sealing paint which is just not realistic at all. I just don't want to build a cat closet just to tear it down next year because the inside is completely molded again. At the very least, I'm still using the space to keep Millie's litterbox and her toys tucked away from the rest of the house. She loves playing in the closet too for some reason so it's a win-win for everyone and I don't see any logical reason to change that. I think I'll eventually finish the closet if I ever sell the house, but as it stands today, I think it's probably best to just leave it exposed.

I also mentioned last year that I was going to replace my fence. I did in fact replace my fence but I hired a contractor to do it for me. I realized there was no way that I was going to have the time to do such a massive project by myself. The fence itself wasn't really the issue, it was pouring the concrete posts that I was worried about. If I had done it myself (and I definitely could have done it myself) it probably would've taken me every single weekend of that entire summer just to complete and the posts might not even be set right. I'm really glad that I hired contractors because they redid the entire fence in two days. I did do the math for the materials myself so I knew the labor was a bit pricey but I honestly didn't mind paying more for the convenience and the time. It's a huge upgrade to the previous fence and I'm happy with it.

Outside of those two projects, I did a lot of work in my attic this year to repair some damages caused by... let's just say, two very large unexpected guests last October. Two raccoons somehow managed to climb my radon emission pipe and somehow clawed their way through a metal gable vent and lived in my attic for about a month before I even noticed. I was able to catch them and safely handle them and release them next to a river a few miles away.

I've also been composting the past few years and I'm hoping that I can finally use my soil either this year or next year to grow some vegetables. Stay tuned for that.

Content Consumption

Alright, let's talk about some of the content I consumed this year. For the longest time I've had this massive list of recommendations from friends for shows I should watch, books I should read, movies I should watch, games I should play, and so on and so forth and it's literally just been sitting there accumulating more and more recommendations every single year. It got to a point where I was actually afraid to touch it. Last year I made a goal for myself to actually sit down and go through that list until I finish it.

So... I didn't even come close to finishing the list, but I did take a huge chunk out of it this year. Right now I think I have a little less than 100 recommendations left so my goal for next year is to get even closer to finishing it or to actually finish it.

That being said, I'm still happy with the things I did consume this year and I want to share a bit about some of my favorite things I was able to experience this year.

First on our list, we have Severance. This is a must-watch show. It's this weird mix of dystopian scifi thriller that's also horrific and ridiculous in the best way possible. You'll see what I mean when you watch it. It's just a quirky show with all these iconic lines and all these incredibly weird scenes and it makes the show very memeable. Outside of that, the characters are all really well written, the story is mysterious, it's engaging, it also takes a huge dump on corporate America which I absolutely love. It's also really impressively crafted: a lot of the shots are practical, not CGI which seems pretty uncommon these days. If you take away anything from my recommendations this year, definitely watch Severance. It'll keep you on the edge of your seat.

Next up on our list is Silksong. If it wasn't obvious at this point... just looking at my streams... I really enjoyed Silksong. I already wrote a review about it on my website so I won't elaborate too much on this but to summarize, it's a really fun souls-like metroid-vania by Team Cherry. It's extremely difficult - probably the hardest game I've ever played - but it's also extremely worth it (if you can get past the 50 million gauntlets). And it's only $20 in USD so you got that going for you.

Next up I have Naruto and Naruto Shippuden. Naruto's target audience is kids, but it's still really good watching as an adult too. It's kind of like Avatar: the Last Airbender: it's a show made for kids, but they still have really good fight scenes and really deep themes throughout the show. The character dynamics are solid and the characters themselves are really likeable. The power leveling aspect is also done incredibly well. There's a lot of shows where power-scaling is completely thrown out the window, but Naruto is not one of them. You can feel Naruto's power progress at a very realistic pace and it feels super rewarding when he takes down a really strong villain with his new abilities. The abilities themselves are also pretty balanced - there's not really any ability that feels extremely overpowered - except for Itachi's illusion genjutsu. If you do choose this show, definitely look up a filler guide and avoid the filler episodes. The filler is pretty boring... and also I would just skip the last 50 episodes of Shippuden and just watch a Youtube summary. I promise you're not missing much.

Next on our list we have Blasphemous. This is a game I didn't really expect to like that much going into it and it's now one of my favorite games. I think the pixel-art is really cool and it gives these dark souls grungy medieval fantasy vibes and the mechanics just feel really good. If you like platformers and metroid-vanias and you like Dark Souls games, this is definitely the game for you.

Another show I watched this year that I can't recommend enough is Deep Space Nine. This show is basically like Star Trek: The Next Generation but with war crimes and space Nazis. They really took everything that they learned from TNG and they improved on it in DS9. Of course they have incredible writing. The main cast of characters are all really well-rounded and fun to adventure with and all the guest stars are phenomenal, like Jeffery Combs, Jonathan Frakes, Wallace Shawn, and also James Darren for some reason. I will say the themes of DS9 are a lot darker than TNG, so you're probably not going to be having a jolly good time with Picard like you did in TNG. There's a lot of torture and murder and emotional manipulation in this show. At the same time, I think DS9 also has a lot of comedic relief sprinkled into episodes to reduce that tension and I really appreciate that. I mean, if it says anything, Quark is my favorite character. Deep Space Nine a really old show at this point but it still holds up really well. If you're a Star Trek fan, it's literally the best show they've ever done. If you're not a Star Trek fan, you can just put it on in the background. I promise you won't regret it.

Content Creation

Now let's talk about content creation and some of the things I made this year. Let's go over streaming first.

Streaming

I've been streaming on and off for the past few years now but this year was the first year that I decided to follow a consistent streaming schedule and I forced myself to stick with it. I'm so glad I did that because there were so many games I was able to play that I would have never gotten a chance to play otherwise. There were also so many fun viewers and regulars that I was able to meet in the chat and I'm really grateful for their support. Here's some of my favorite stream moments just from the past year.

You can be absolutely sure that this year I'm gonna keep streaming by my schedule. If you're curious about my schedule you can find it on my website. I also have so many games and activities planned for future streams so definitely be sure to tune in and say hi!

Gunpla

Next up on my list is gunpla. I haven't written about this on my website (yet) but I build a lot of gunpla in my spare time. I didn't really dedicate a lot of time to building sets this year but if I did have to choose one as my favorite, it would probably be the High Grade Calibarn. It's aesthetic, the articulation is top notch, and the pieces are exceptionally detailed for a High Grade. On paper it's a High Grade but it builds like a Real Grade. The only downside is the stickers which are always a pain to apply so I don't really put it against this set. I also didn't panel line or top coat this one but I'm still impressed with the innate quality it comes with out of the box. This year I think for my goal I want to work on a few GQuuuuuuX models because I heard they're even better than the Witch From Mercury line which is already a really high bar. In fact, I'm actually working on one right now.

Video Essays

Next topic is video essays. I already mentioned this at the start of the video but one of my goals for next year is to make video essays. I keep saying I'll do this and I never do it so now I'm forcing myself to do it. If I don't make at least one video by next year, I promise to record myself doing the Orange Justice Fortnite dance in a maid outfit while singing Bad Guy by Billie Eilish.

Woodworking

Last but not least for my goals is woodworking. I really like building things already with my hands and I feel like woodworking is a great outlet for that. I've already done a few small things through my home renovations but I would like to actually do some real woodworking projects and build some nice tables and chairs but I think I should start off pretty simple and work my way up. My goal for next year is to build a table. It doesn't have to be super fancy and it could even be like a bedside table but I want to build at least one table by next year.

Conclusion

Alright, we're finally at the end of my updates. I'm almost done talking, I promise. Last year was really hard for me both physically and mentally but it was also a year of growing and learning and I'm happy with my progress overall. If you're still here and you watched to the end, thank you. I really appreciate you. Alright, that's it. I will see you next year!

Credits

The background music is an edited version of Sea Dragon by Covet.