If there’s anything 2025 has made clear for me, it’s how extremely fortunate I am to have the friends that I do. And seven years running! Do you know how insane that is? Doom (2016) was two years old in 2018. Now it’s a nine year old game! Did you realize in April, it will have been 10 years since Roblox removed Tix? Ten years? That’s not..that’s not right.
(Doom (2016) is an oddly specific example for a game, but like, think of how modern that is. Post-editing, I think the fact the Switch (2017) is nearly 9 years old, when it had just hit 1 when I met mariteaux, is enough to sneeze a bit.)
Most friend groups, let alone of our type, do not last this long, nor do they have this much of a presence. My traffic on Letters is like, a weird thing to get used to. I was not expecting either the MyGameBuilder post or the MP3.com Rescue Barge Barge to attain nearly the amount of attention they did. The fact they conjured up as many memories for people, and even solved a few mysteries, humbles me greatly. Even in lieu of like, public reception for stuff I’ve done though, though, I’ve been often overwhelmed by the support of everyone, especially the Somnolians, but also people in and around Aftersleep, and people from college. I’ve even heard a couple times that I’m an inspiration, and that’s like, nuts??
But we’ve been around a minute! We’re also getting older and finding our way in the world, and this year’s by far felt the fastest for me. I finished my degree, passed my driver’s test, took some certifications and got my first job. And in between we’ve all been chatty cats, busy bees if you will, both in the group and at some of our satellite locales. (And if my friends aren’t the most talented people I know, even in between work and school. Please follow their happenings heading into the next year, because they aren’t slowing down. Sites, streams, art challenges, marfGH with all the Flareons and ridiculously polished charts, Desertbound and Stormbound, Superkitties and entire records?) I’ll say the main focus of next year for me is absolutely going to be working, and getting a lil career going, hopefully working on some more to-date tech projects. I don’t know if next December I’ll have settled in a spot of my own, but it’s something I’d like to work towards. It’d make me very happy to do calls and streams again.
In between, I wanna be cozy, though that doesn’t mean I’ll be completely idle. Since I’m now out of school, I’ve been feeling pretty good about my existing projects. AutoSite 1.1 will be a ‘relatively soon’ release, after I work out some weird bugs (CTRL+S selecting stuff instead of saving, the WebBrowser control getting old, and some particular compatibility issues for the new Live Preview feature). I’m also a lot more satisfied with my website setup from summer this year, since my different external places are better tied together. While I feel it could be utilized a bit more in the future, it feels more complete in itself, and there’s still room to grow if I carve out the time for it. And even art, for those who follow me on the dcbdoodles ‘blr, I’ve gotten more loose with it, and comfortable with what I want with it. It’s been much fun, and I’m glad people have enjoyed it since I started posting on there around this time last year. (In general, Tumblr has been much fun, so if you want to see my sillyposting, there that is.) This year hasn’t always been rosy in the world, or even in general, but it’s been a year I’ll have grown a lot throughout, and while I don’t have a list of objectives for the oncoming year, that’ll keep happening well into 2026. Life is good, and there’s lots to look forward to.
I have to go to work tomorrow, but hopefully we’ll have lots of good news to share come this time next year! And with any luck, you’ll see me on Letters a few more times throughout as well. Thank you everyone for making it a great 1998+7, and I hope to see you just as much heading into January.
