Ah, 2025. This year marks my 25th year of blogging. On May 13, 2000, I published my first blog post. This May 13th, I shall celebrate this milestone by revealing my darkest, deepest secret.
Or maybe I’ll celebrate with cake.
I’ve assumed the form of Link again and been shot into the sky. 2025 goal number one: beat The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
2024 wasn’t as successful as I’d have liked it to be. I planted my first garden and enjoyed radishes, kale, and spinach. Unfortunately, when the sugar snap peas were ready, I’d been forced on a liquid diet. The house’s other tenants have moved out, so there is potential for an expansion of last year’s garden. I should also have my crowns by April, ready to crunch on all the veggies I’ll be growing this year!
I’ve resumed my Thursday Wet Hour of Power at the pool. It was busier than usual, thanks to all these New Year’s resolution makers. Although it was my first time in the water since late October, I didn’t wait until the new year to resume my fitness routine by re-activating my Zwift membership on December 20.
Based on how much I struggled to keep up with the ‘B’ group when I tried resuming cycling just five weeks after my accident, that three months off the bike would surely tank my fitness. My return to cycling in the virtual world of Watopia hasn’t been as dismal. I was probably malnourished from the liquid diet I was on back in July.
Still, I have my work cut out for me. Here are my Jan 12, 2024, numbers from the Red Unicorn workout:
I did the same workout on December 26, 2024:
I just realized that I didn’t even complete the fourth block of the workout in January. So, while I’m weaker, at least I’m a completionist?
On the topic of completing stuff:
Midge and her beehive of 2,000 french knots have been completed and now hang on the wall! My current embroidery project is about 80% done. It’ll be the best one yet.
For Christmas, Jordi got me a bedside table and two books. One of the books is a cross stitch book titled “Cute Kawaii Cross Stitch.” It contains over 400 “super adorable” patterns. The trick to making any pattern cute is to add a smiley face with blushing cheeks.
Examples of cross stitch-able subjects in this book:
- Jolly green jalapeño
- Upbeat beet
- Smirking flan
- Adorable cannoli
- Gleeful bottle of olive oil
- Blushing snowboard
- Gravy boat. frying pan, raincoat?! WINTER SHOVEL? CUTE? WHAT IS THIS BOOK, JORDI?
I look forward to it.
Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us is the other book Jordi got me. It’s been an interesting read thus far despite being peppered with New Age woowoo. I had to bookmark page 37:
“There is a scientific theory being studied now about how sound frequency increases our body’s natural production of nitric oxide, and it offers some insight into the biological mechanisms for how sound alleviates stress.”
Yes, I thought, being deaf is often stressful. But that’s not all!
“In 1998, the Nobel Prize in Physiology was awarded to three researchers who determined that nitric oxide is a key signalling molecule in our cardiovascular system. This molecule is made in our cells, and when it’s released, vessels dilate, allowing for better blood flow.”
Wait a minute, my deafness… also hinders my circulation?!
One of the writers carries a tuning fork in her purse as an instrument to de-stress. How’s that for New Age woowoo?
Last year, I set out to read 12 books. Unless you count the 11 volumes of Saga, I read just six books. The final book I read in 2024 was also my favourite: Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Journey.
I breezed through it in a week. I wouldn’t have lasted a week on Endurance, not even on its maiden voyage from Plymouth, England to Buenos Aires, Argentina. The 28-man crew survived months of being confined to the ship while it was stuck in ice for months. When they finally abandoned the ship, which was being crushed by the ice, they spent another 6 months on the ice, soaked to their bones, before Shackleton and five other men sailed on a 23-foot whaler searching for help. It would be another three months before Shackleton could send a ship to rescue these marooned men.
Guess how many men survived?
Seriously though, make reading this book one of your goals for 2025. As for me, I’ll re-attempt to finish 12 books this year. I’m already well ahead of schedule!
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