’25 resolutions + review: the Year of Recursion

The solution to the problem of living is found in solving the problems of everyday living.

me, making stuff up

Some events in 2025 that make for good stories

  • Graduated!
  • Stopped posting on Instagram. The decision is boring… the LORE is not.
    • I did so for a bunch of uninspiring reasons. One may be mildly interesting: I realised I possessed a decent (if in desperate need of preservation) degree of sexual appeal that could be better directed elsewhere.
    • Doing so set me up for a huge dopamine hit. Later in the year, a close friend shared — hold on tight to the following — that her friend had asked about me, telling her what they heard about me from someone else… who had heard about me from someone else (II).
      • …I mean, what a thrill. Almost as satisfying as getting 500 views on a single story!
      • Cooley articulated it best: a person’s self-image depends on how they imagine others view them(self). So what happens when you deny onlookers an open window into your life? You become a figment of their imagination.
    • My withholding information is still an attempt to curate an image (performance is inescapable). But it’s an image that leaves the audience free to create their own story about me. And within these spaces of doubt, I am free.
    • In short: everyone can say anything about me. You just won’t hear about me from me…
      • …but you can always come here for the tea.
  • Sailed on a private yacht. Just once. Not mine.
  • Got served papers. To no avail, unfortunately… for them.
  • Received a Belated “apology” text. There’s only one thing I can’t believe about this saga and that is how accurate I was. I am a PSYCHIC bro. The feeling is INDESCRIBABLE.
  • Made a few friends, lost more. Decided it was okay. Kept some close.
events got me feelin like this ngl

Onto the goal review…


Originally published 11/4/25

These are not very SMART goals but I downloaded a habit tracker on Notion so I think it will be OK

Body gonna body babyyyy

Partial complete

  • Finish 47 pilates classes (very specific) [review comment: completed 35]

Did not do

  • Bulk and cut (4 and 4 weeks?)
    • Get to BFT 2x a week
  • New piercing? Huhu… where indeed…
  • More hee hee ha ha tattoos that I should really plan ahead for
    • the struggle [I actually got as far as paying a deposit. But the artist only sent me the design literally FOUR (4) hours before the tattoo session (despite my earlier prompting). And it was ugly — like throw the baby out, man, ‘cuz this is iredeemable. I asked for a Sisyphus tattoo, not to be punished like him]
    • luigi (cf above: the duality of woman)

Exercises I didn’t aim for but completed

  • 20 runs tracked
  • Got a Minotaur tattoo instead

Category comment: This is NOT a good category (judging my past self already). It is all over the place. But I give myself a score of 60% for maintaining my activity level from last year through trying new forms of exercise, as above, so below

Hobbies to convince others I have a personality

  • Complete a basic structured dance class [make that two]
  • Get noob diving cert
  • Get a tarot card reading [so accurate, like… i think it told me i am a loser]

Did not do

  • Relearn swimming for diving
  • 200k on blog!!!!!!!! [ehh. I wrote a lot of emo stuff instead that I didn’t publicise. Did you catch them? Because they’re GONE now! Hahahahahaha]
    • Reflections on grad school??????
    • Analyses on my ultimate life tracker??????
    • Purge blog, retag all posts, standardise categories/tags
  • Streaming
    • I want to play Lethal Company but everyone around me is a coward
  • Hit balls

Category comment: It is less important to convince others I am fun than it is to have fun on my own terms. Most importantly, however, is having enough money to afford the fun. Speaking of which,

Alternatives to being a kept woman

  • Secure employment
    • Apply for 50 (FIFTY) jobs
  • Long-term planning for finances (expenditure, investment %s…)

Category comment: Honestly, I’m better off being a kept woman

Love & Belongingness is a stage in the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

  • Graduation + family photoshoot
  • Monumental
  • Masquerade as prey [hang awn… what if I am…]

Partial complete

  • Attend 10 random social gatherings [clocked 6]
  • Volunteer >25x this year [~15 times]

Maximising neuroplasticity

  • Pass JLPT N4 [the results won’t be announced until Jan 2026, but I know I confirm pass]
    • Duolingo 800 days [abandoned]

Partial complete

  • Crash course in stock market [got annihilated by perps, which is not even stocks, and have NO edge]
  • Read 15 books [made it to 5. Post-graduation de-intellectualisation is real]

Not done

  • Take a writing class!!!
  • Learn to braid hair, one, then two

Final comment: In 2025, I believe I stepped forward in the nebulous thing called life. I should have — and by all rights I did. All that to find myself where I began. I think I achieved some big things. But I feel I didn’t do many things at all, if anything. I’m not where I want to be and it makes me terribly unhappy. And yet I look around where I am and I’m happy. I’m desperate to be somewhere else and also desperate to hold onto the here and now.

I find myself hoping that the solution to life is found in the acts of everyday living, because it would imply that happiness can be found in these goals, or at least in the process of striving towards them… but even if that were true I doubt it would be a liberating knowledge.

The time will pass anyway.

’24 resolutions + review

2024 is over (I mourn the unhinged girl I left behind)… so it is time for an accountability report.

I’m embarrassed that the “incompletes” list is longer than the “completed” one, but maybe life is supposed to be like that — one’s gotta want more to do more. Besides, I completed the most important thing I set out to do: my thesis. (Were you expecting “finding a man”, huh??? Were you???)

Learning point: many of the incompletes are moving targets that cannot be satisfactorily completed once and for all (e.g. cleaning my room, which I DID, okay) — subsequent iterations should be worded with more concrete outcomes. I have no excuses for the concrete ones I didn’t do, though.

So… I’m leaving the incompletes up in hopes of embarrassing myself so much that I’ll do them in 2025. Though not everything, I’ll carry some over to my 2025 resolutions list. The new year’s always a good time to rethink our priorities regarding the kind of lives we want to live. I can be sure that my true self is reflected in the things I did, but not necessarily in the things I didn’t.

2024 was awesome, especially in the middle. It was exhilarating to just exist. I’ll miss those days.

I hope 2025 will be just as magical.


Originally published 24/2/24

COMPLETED
*bolded: stuff i really enjoyed

Struck out = done [completed date, comment]

Setting myself up for Success

  • Finish and submit thesis
  • Financial reconsolidation [Nov]
    • Clear debts
    • Emergency fund
    • Try side hustles: tutoring
  • Duolingo [streak: 468/500 goal, I accept my persistence]

“Hobbies”

  • 100k on blog [Jun] | 120k on blog [Nov]
  • Finish 12 books [my read of the year is Antifragile]
  • Commit to pilates [53 classes in 2024 – not bad if I say so myself!]
  • Post 12 iconic reels (once a month) [exceeded and wiped, except for crowning glory]
    • Purge social media pages following (what you follow shapes what you are)
  • Hyperoptimised partner-search project on dating apps [Jul: bonus comment — in time, you only remember the good ones]

Unhinged, Silly things

  • Tongue piercing [Feb: I love the way it hurts a little]
  • MORE tattoos [self-expression is an expensive hobby]
    • Devils dancing [May]
    • Gladiator gal [Jun]
  • Engage with the woo-woo by visiting a numerologist [he said I wouldn’t find someone this year, but then again I’ve never listened to a man]
  • Attend 5 concerts/musicals [total: 8]
    • Li Ronghao’s Free Soul (rating: 5/5☆)
    • Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton (4☆)
    • Hacken Lee’s 《弦续李克勤》 (5☆)
    • Dua Lipa’s Radical Optimism (4☆)
    • Jazz
      • Alina Ramirez Trio (3.5☆)
      • MAD LABS 3.0 (3.5☆)
      • Jazz @ The InterContinental (4☆)
      • Seeds and Flowers (3☆)
  • Travel [total: 6]
    • Bali
    • Batam
    • JB
    • Genting
    • Tasmania
    • New Zealand [SKYDIVED!!!]

Cleansing and organising

  • Purge problematic men [Jun: so true babe]
  • Elimination load exercise [Dec]
    • Eliminate non-value adding activities
    • Consolidate all ongoing commitments
  • Deactivate Motion and transfer data to Notion

INCOMPLETES

Cleaning and organising, but the boring kind

  • Spring cleaning
    • Work area [?]
    • Bookshelf and misc items area
    • Purge wardrobe and replace with babygirl vibes
      • Wear every single piece of clothing I own (shirt, shorts, socks, sleepwear)
      • Compile clothes and donate
  • Get chair professionally cleaned
  • Clean mahjong tiles + buy new excellent quality playing cards for good shuffle
  • Clean up electronic devices/files
    • Clean up phone
      • Apps
      • Chats
    • MacBook and Google Drive files
      • Clean up photos
      • Organise Notion completely
        • Transfer all notes from phone to Notion
  • Clear candy
  • Purge blog, retag all posts, standardise categories/tags

Projects

  • Sleep by 4am every night, wake up by 11am every morning (+/-1h) – 80% of the year [I don’t have to crunch any numbers to know that 80% definitely was not attained]
  • Make Monumental happen (by Dec 2024) [70%]
    • Data transcription
    • Data analysis
    • Build programme
    • Run programme
    • Execute events
  • Write blog posts [oof… what happened to My Passion…]
    • Reflections on grad school
    • Tips from a TA
    • Analyses on my Ultimate Life Tracker
  • Volunteer weekly [8 sessions total… shame]
  • Balance bonds and stocks portfolio
  • Apply for 50 overseas jobs/education
  • Side hustles
    • Write for an online platform?
  • Learn R coding / other data presentation software

Hobbies

  • Dance classes [I went for 1 class, at least – we’ll get there]
  • Improve Japanese to N3 level
    • Register for intensive group classes after graduation
  • Get better at pool [# practice sessions logged: 5?]
    • Master cuing action (hit balls accurately top, middle, bottom)
    • Pot balls faster and more accurately
  • Piercings cont
    • Navel piercing?
    • Industrial piercing??
  • Tattoos cont
    • One to commemorate thesis/graduation (“the struggle”, feminised)
    • Dopamine/serotonin pair
  • Stream on Twitch 4 fun
    • Yakuza 0
    • JSRF, 100% (xemu)
    • Chained Together, with friends
  • Visit a psychic
  • Go to Lisdoonvarna, Ireland for matchmaking festival [note: maybe someday…]
  • Go to 10 social gatherings to meet new people [count: <5??? loser]
  • Open Water diving cert […someday I’ll see a shark]