The Cliff538 2025 Yearly Review

Books

You can see my 2025 reading list here and here. I always strive to keep my reading diverse, to avoid locking into one genre. I think I’m doing pretty well here. I’m trying to read a classic, some history, adventure, fantasy, sci-fi, and keep things well-rounded. There are so many incredible books out there to explore. One of the many reasons why a person wishes they could live longer.

My far-and-away favorite this year was Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton. I will reread this book. Cabin by Patrick Hutchison was hilarious, and I could identify with so many things. A Marriage at Sea was an incredible survival story. Nothing needs to be said about Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green, just read it. Nuclear War was fascinating. Sorkin’s 1929 was a great story about the 1929 Stock Market crash, so many things appear to be happening again, just saying. How To Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia and The Immortalists were both excellent.

I had two DNF (Did Not Finish) books this year, both titled Dominion, nothing bad about them, maybe just the timing and not being in the mood for the subjects.

Because of my weekly travel, I predominantly read digital books, which keeps my bags small and lets me read several at once. The added benefit of syncing all my notes and highlights to ReadWise is worth mentioning. I’m a big believer in going back and reading highlights and notes from past reads. I do this every morning with an automatic email from ReadWise. It keeps your past books and the knowledge gained from them fresh.

Technology

Highlights

My first time upgrading Hard Drives in my Synology NAS. A slightly nerve-wrenching process that, so far (doing my 3rd drive now), is going very well. Each drive takes about 2 days to repair. I’m switching from my current 6TB drives to 16 TB drives.
I did a Mac Mini Server Project that was a lot of fun putting together. I learned a lot about TailScale, VPNs, Subnets, LANs, WANs, and SMB connections. The learning will continue as I keep adding things to this setup.
I did a huge email reset this year. You can read about it here. It’s a hell of a process changing your emails over. I’m many weeks into it, and I’m still changing emails. It’s going to take six months as things trickle in. It’s amazing how many accounts one has. On the bright side, this should be the last time. Frustrating to run across services that will not allow you to change your email unless you make a new account, losing all your data from the old account.
My big battle right now is blog writing and what works best for me. I’m using Drafts and Craft right now, and there are pros and cons to each one. I have also experimented with just using Obsidian, which I already use, and Ulysses is not a slouch either. Almost too many choices! I keep telling myself: keep things simple. You don’t always have to chase the new hip software.
My learning Hugo blogging engine and working locally will be a big ongoing project for 2026.

Software & Apps

Chirp A.I. for your Apple Watch. I didn’t know I needed this, but it fills a niche that works very well for me. It has a very generous free plan that I’ve never exceeded.
FutureMe - I love this service, and I think you should consider using it. Write yourself a letter that shows up to your future self. I’ve sent one to myself on the day that I retire and on future birthdays.
Triton - an app by Otavio for using Omg.lol services. Great resource if you use Omg.
Micro.blog - I’m very pleased with my choice of blog hosting and all the many other services it provides.
Tinylytics - Use this service for my blog data, and it has been rock solid.
Omg.lol - is where I host my about page, and I’m slowly adding pictures to their some.pics service. Many great resources here, including blogging and lots more.

No changes to my daily drivers of Obsidian, DEVONthink, and DayOne. I did do a month-long test of Apple’s Journal App and came right back to DayOne, it’s the GOAT. I’ve started using VS Code for programming because of its integration with Claude Code, which has been a fantastic resource for learning more advanced CSS, Git, and GitHub features. You can read some more about that here.

Subscriptions

Always a hot topic. On my short list is to compile a list of all my subscriptions, and I’m sure’ll be aghast at what I’m spending per month. If anything makes you simplify your online and app usage, it will be that monthly number. You can read some good subscription reset blog posts here and here.

Should make for an interesting blog post.

365Pixels

I’m going to keep this going for another year. 2025 was an experiment, and I wasn’t sure I’d keep going, but I’ve enjoyed the process of learning and pushing myself to take daily photos and post them. Photography is a hobby, but it’s also a passion and something I want to improve at continually. The discipline of Daily photos is a great way to push that craft.

I wrote this on my January 1st Photo:

2025 was my first year doing a 365 blog. It took a while to get into the swing; I missed 63 days. It has been a lot of fun, and I’m energized to start 2026 with new photography habits and flows to have a better year and reduce that missed-day count.

One thing about looking back at old photos is seeing how your style has changed. I cringe at some of my old HDR photos, CRISPY! We evolve our skills, our style, our processing techniques. It’s an entertaining and challenging journey.

Flying

It was another busy year; business is good, and I’m very thankful for that. People flying places pay my bills.

I use the App Flighty to track my flying. I try to keep it updated, and it’s pretty close. I do miss putting some flights in, but it’s an interesting recap of my yearly flying.

236 Flights
203,835 Miles Flown, that’s 8.2 times around the world.
22 Days and 23 Hours in the air.
55 Airports
3 Different Airlines

If you travel a lot, I highly recommend you use Flighty. It’s a fantastic resource for all things aviation travel-related.

As I get closer to retirement, I’m eight years away, it’s always a mental battle about working more or less, taking on new roles, and giving up some of what I already do. The older I get, the harder it is to be away from home.

Media

Movies & TV

Common Side Effects - an animated show on HBO Max, I just loved this series. Highly recommend.
Stranger Things - Big fan of all five seasons. Looking forward to the spin-offs. Netflix.
Splinter Cell - I played this video game as a kid, and watching the Netflix animated show has been nostalgic.
The New Yorker at 100 - Watching behind the scenes as The New Yorker makes an issue. Loved it. You can watch it on Netflix.

Blogs

I won’t list out the top blogs that I follow because they’re constantly changing. I love keeping up with people’s blogs and their writings, but man, oh man, have I hit peak overload. I’m maxed out. I don’t have time in the day to keep up with everything that I want to. I’ve tried RSS readers, email, and keeping tabs open. It’s a time issue, so you try your best.

The ones I really value, I have sent to my email, and that seems to work best, followed by using the Reader App for RSS feeds.

I’m keeping it pretty simple here, and I don’t have any fundamental changes for 2026 except for figuring out BlueSky. I’m just using Microblog and Mastodon. I cross-post to BlueSky, but I just never use it.

My photography is on my two blogs, Flickr, PixelFed, and on Omg.lol’s somepics. I’ve resisted the change to other services. If anything, I need to reduce. Glass always tempts me; it’s a beautiful service.

Wrap Up

In closing, it was a good year in the Cliff538 microcosm. Health is becoming a bigger issue every year I get older. Numbers that should be steady are slowly creeping up, and it’s a continual battle to eat better, be more active, and get them back down. I have several very good friends, a fantastic wife, and an outstanding job that I still love going to. My life is only enriched by my connections on Mastodon and my blogs. Thank you for reading, and I wish you an excellent 2026. If you’ve written your 2025 recap, please send it to me. I’d love to read it.

Cheers.