What is something in the past year that makes you happy or proud? Maybe you learned something new, finally got that thing you wanted for ages, managed to make a hard decision with a good outcome. etc etc.
No pressure to share if you don’t want to. Hope you all have a good new years eve :)
Did my first successful hard drive recovery including chip swapover while soldering on a microscope. Also started saving for retirement the first time in my life. I’m 38.
Finally moving into my own apartment (away from my dad)
I stepped up my nerd game to start trying to land an IT job of some kind. I learned computer networking to set up my own website on recycled hardware and began writing about it. I started developing on a game engine making modules and making art assets to maybe one day make a commercial product. I released like a dozen open source projects under open source licenses.
It all kind of culminated with Christmas. The kids in my life have been begging for multiplayer Minecraft server but Microsoft destroyed the he so hard with money grabbing we refused to pay for realms or make a bunch of Microsoft accounts or whatever.
So, I rolled up my sleeves and got to work on creating a mineclonia server built on luanti/minetest engine, patching in all the Minecraft assets like textures, sounds, music that I legally own with python tools I built myself and released,
I really wanted an in game fullscreen map and nobody had ever figured out how to make one on luanti engine so I so spent a few weeks developing one from the ground up. I released the map mod two days ago and people quickly noticed saying I had changed the game forever, congratulating me on my technological achievement or whatever.
Its just a little frustrating because it feels like I’m somewhat competent at the nerd professions but I have no idea how to advertise my talents or if what I’m doing even translates to real Dev work. How Does creating universal map colorizer + generator for proceeduraly generated voxel worlds or designing a full model animation interpolation system for an engine from scratch or hosting public services on my own network built from scratch powered by solar turn into resume stuffs? That’d what I guess new years focus needs to be
I got invited to a furry convention, but still had to pay my own way and only had a month to make up the money so I took all the extra hours I could just to be able to go and barely have food the whole 5 days.
But it was worth it. BLFC was awesome. 😃
I wrote a one man play! I am not a professional writer, even though i have tried, and not at all an actor, and the play touches some things in me, i get both angry and sad for real while playing – 13.1 is the date, and i’m both super stoked and super anxious. but proud! a real achievement in my world.
Hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.
Went back to school for electrical engineering. Took a hard class with a hard professor and got a B+ while working almost full-time. Now I know how computer memory works.
I got my highest semester GPA ever and started reading significantly more books
Literal zero usage of Windows or any Microsoft software or hardware. Also 99% no Google.
Went vegan.
Started my masters.
Didn’t kill myself that week when I was fired a day after getting into a lot of credit card debt to treat the newly found cancer in my cat.
Said cat is alive and well, which is already a few months more than what the first vet said he would have.
Having a photo I took accepted into a public gallery exhibit for the first time.
I’m usually a bit excessively modest, but if I’m reflecting on it… I left my precious job in the US & pulled off a successful cross-continental move with little to no outside help (even though there was a lot of stuff involved). Had a ton of fun traveling during the past year too as a result of that. I guess that would be the thing I’m most proud of
Passed my board
It took two years but I finally achieved a 1000lb powerlifting total. It’s not a huge number but I do feel proud of myself, and physically I have never felt better. Outgrew my wardrobe twice, and can’t find jeans that fit but otherwise 10/10 would recommend lifting to anyone
I was going to post about having lifted consistently for four months going from a 20lbs dumbbell press to 45lbs and seeing results. Then I see your 1,000lbs and it blows my mind that you don’t think that’s impressive!
Great work! My one rep max on a deadlift is 200 and right now I am over the moon that I have lost my beer gut. Let’s keep the momentum!
1000lb powerlifting total
not a huge number
Seems huge to me man. Congrats
You know I think that’s the social media influence showing. Fitness influencers post these incredible lifts and physiques that are seriously impressive, it’s important to keep in mind that these are genetically gifted people posting their highlight reels, in their prime, and on gear
holy crap
I got my A+ and Network+ certs. So far they’ve been wastes of money lmao
I felt the same way when I got my A+ a decade ago (it really is worthless in practice if you already know a good bit about computers), but it at least unlocked the door to my career, so I can’t complain looking back
Yeah im trying to switch careers into IT and even with the certs I can’t seem to land an interview. I’ve had the A+ for several months and just got the Network+, so perhaps in just haven’t reapplied to enough places. Studying for Sec+ now, hoping its not in vain.
Sec+ is super easy if you got network+. Its literally common sense with some tech terms sprinkled in. Go for it.
Sec+ will probably help, security is in high demand these days. I chose systems because I could see how much heartburn that would give me and didn’t want to deal with it. If nothing else, having a lot of skills under your belt can help you better sell yourself.
Also, look into learning a scripting/programming language, that’s another skill that can take you far. Since I’m a win admin, I went with powershell, and I use it every day (and it’s one of the reasons my employer hired me, because I love programming and hate doing repetitive/menial bullshit). I’ve gotten tons of kudos from my team (and saved hundreds of man hours) for the various processes I’ve automated.
2025 was awful so… I would say I am happy and proud to still be alive.
You’re not the only one! Congrats on remaining vertical and warm.
Sorry to hear that. Here is to you making it another rotation around the sun. Hopefully the next year will be better! 🥂
