2026 - new year, new naps
First off: wee woohoo we did it! Another year down, and hopefully many more to come.
2025 was a year of... well, a lot of ups and downs, to be sure. Lot of good music came out last year, which was dope. And I got to see my family a fair deal, that was also pretty dope. Lot of natural disasters last year too, which wasn't very dope. Plus the whole, y'know, political landscape in numerous countries going to shit (like they weren't already terrible). I generally don't talk about that kind of stuff, but seriously, things are in the gutter right now. Empathy is becoming a rarity, it seems. I digress.
Gonna talk about new things now!
Site Updates
I've had quite a few different things in the works for this site, but they're not done yet. In the last update, I introduced the tabbed profile block, and that was pretty neat. I still like it sorta-kinda, but I noticed on mobile it's a bit wonky when you switch tabs. Not sure how to fix it so it doesn't scroll all the way to the bottom of the page, but yeah. I'm thinking about replacing the tabbed style with vertical accordion elements that you can collapse to save room.
I've also been working on a new display style for my favorites lists. Right now they're just slapped on there in some <details> elements, which is fine but it ain't very fun to look at. So, I'm working on a grid/list box for each thing that'll display cover art for 'em, or you can switch it to a vertical list instead. The music section will even feature snippets so you can get a preview of what they sound like (this is taking forever to do, I have a lot of favorites...).
Another thing on the "maybe" pile is better contrast for the dark mode theme of the site. Right now, if you're viewing the dark mode theme in a lighted area, it can be hard to make out the various elements and text on-screen. In fact, I pretty much spend most of my time on-site using the light theme now, even though I set the dark one as the default. So, I've been thinking about changing some of the colors to mirror the two themes; the light mode uses some of the dark mode's colors, but not vice versa, so we fix that as such:
The off-white/gray text and border colors contrast much better, which makes readability and navigation so much easier. However, it doesn't feel nearly as cohesive as the purple mix. I've tried to blend the colors a bit better, but it just doesn't feel right. It's strange to me because I really love the light mode's subtle splashes of purple, but the off-white/gray just feels... strange. Maybe it's because I'm too used to the old dark mode theme. If you're reading this and you feel like you've got some feedback, you can drop a message on my guestbook or email me (see /about). Please let me know!
Lastly, I'm working (still) on getting RSS set up for my blog posts (not that I post very much but, y'know).
New Games n' Music
2025 had a ton of good stuff come out. As far as music goes, my top albums of 2025 were Keep's Almost Static and STM's Ultraviolet. Both were incredible releases, and have me psyched to see what they come up with next!
As for games, I've been putting more hours into X4: Foundations and, recently, Arc Raiders, which a friend got me into. I'm not usually one for the whole extraction shooter genre, but I really enjoy the feeling of Arc's PvPvE setup, and I've honestly had more positive interactions with other players over negative ones. And X4, of course, demands that I spend every waking moment optimizing my fleets of ships and maximizing profits. I've been having more fun coming up with weird scenarios to toss myself into, like starting the game with every faction hating me and wanting me dead. That's been a rough challenge, to be sure (mainly because I can't access any ship wharf to upgrade or buy deployables).
Personal Life Updates
I don't really talk about things in my personal life, not out of privacy concerns or anything, just a feeling that I'm pretty boring IRL. Things around the winter holidays are always stressful for me; a lot of larger bill items come out around this time, which always hurts the wallet, plus family visiting obligations (which means I'm travelling). Thankfully, around February/March, things will start to settle back into normalcy, and I can go back to being a lazy bum again. Nothing beats sleeping in on days off, waking up and making a cup of coffee, and vibing around the house with the cat. I did mention I have a cat, right? He's cute but he doesn't pay rent, no matter how many times I've asked.
Anyways, that's all I've got for now. Bye!~
