I'll be reading all the comments of course although I have limited time in my life so succinct comments are preferred. I'll also throw some votes around for the interesting ones.
Sorry. I answered all the questions...
2025 is probably the best, most happiest time of my life so far, and I am more than happy to talk about all of these things, because so often, I write with a super pragmatic point of view, that borders on pessimism and doubt:
I have spent a mix of time in 2025. I have wasted time while waiting for my retrenchment package from work, and I feel like I could've used that time more productively - writing, researching, and making a plan of what the rest of the year would have looked like. I could (at best) be a few weeks ahead of where I am, relative to my current goals.
I am definitely mindful of the passing time. I've been spending more of it in the gym, to build as much strength and endurance as I possibly can, because I know, that one day, that habit will help me continue to survive - and stave off the inevitability of death. Death has been on my mind for over thirty years, since I experienced the first one in the family (my grandmother).
As a result of all of the above, especially the events of this past year, have definitely strengthened my relationships with my friends and closest family. I have a friend who I now consider actual family, and their family cherish my presence at their social gatherings, and me, theirs, at mine - if they choose to come. The sort of friend who has a key to your house, and you, have a key to theirs.
I also had a road trip to Melbourne with a good mate of mine to go see a band we had both been listening to since we were young. It was a bonding experience of a friendship that for many years, I didn't know meant so much to them, until I was invited to their "bucks night" and I looked around the table as one of five others. I was in a select group, and I can now recognise and cherish that.
I have started using a piece of software called Obsidian to catalogue and record and help me plan out my writing for both hive and my personal projects (but let me be honest - all of it ends up on hive eventually) - and while I haven't gotten it quite right yet - it is allowing me to organise my thoughts and make links between ideas, and discover new ideas along the way.
I chose to ignore the complexity of other people's lives. If they reach out to me for help, and it is something that I can assist with, and I truly cherish or love that person - I'll do it - but if they keep whinging and don't actively try to make an improvement using the available resources, or my offer, of help - I'll re-affirm the available resources, offer my help again, and let them make the choice for themselves.
What a great writing prompt to offer - and a good way for me to reflect upon the year that has so far been. Thanks mate.
I'd have been surprised if you felt like you'd wasted your time this year, you have always seemed rather plugged in to productivity and making life resemble as close to your ideal as possible.
Ignoring other people's fuckassery is a move.
As for death...I see it as a great motivator to live well.
Good response.
The only motivator we need to worry about. As far as we know, we only get one life. Then our constituent molecules that make up whatever our consciousness is get freed to be, I dunno, calcium in a future pharmaceutical, or carbon at the bottom of some sea, to feed some horrific sea creature.
I don't know what happens after death, but I'm planning on sticking around as a ghost and haunting some fuckers. Could be fun.
Troll some people while you'll still alive though, won't you? :) None of this casper shit :D
Nah, more fun when I'm a ghost, going to drive some fuckers bonkers and maybe a few to, and well beyond, the brink of insanity.