By Any Meme Necessary, 2025 edition

[wombat_socho]

By Any Meme Necessary, 2025 Edition

 

1. Was 2025 a good year for you?

On balance, yes. It was definitely better than 2024 in a lot of ways. 

 

2. What was your favorite moment(s) of the year?

a) Son of Silvercon III with Maxwell Drake as our GoH

b) Hanging out with friends (not enough of them and not for long enough) on the annual Not-For-Balticon Excursion

c) The See Minesota & Die Tour in October. 

c) Avoiding serious illness and hospitalization. 

 

3. What was your least favorite moment(s) of the year?

a) Finding out I wouldn't be going back to Reno for second peak because the regional manager threw a fit over my expenses.

b) Having to cancel my trip to Minnesota in October thanks to food poisoning. 

 

4. What did you do in 2025 that you’d never done before?

Drove to Minnesota to hang out with #1 Son and saw parts of Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota (including Wall Drug), Southwest Minnesota, Nebraska, & Colorado I'd never seen before. 

 

5. Did you keep your new years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I don't do New Year's resolutions because I suck at following through on them.

Having said that, I made serious attempts to:

a) stay rested and on track dietarily - Mostly I managed this, which is probably why I was generally healthier this year. 

b) especially during tax season - Since I was home for all of tax season, this wasn't the problem it usually is. 

c) keep better track of my money and put more of it away - I kept better track of it, but a lot of it went towards Son of Silvercon and the annual hajj unto Northern Virginia/Western Maryland. 

 

6. Where were you when 2025 began?

At home in Tonopah

 

7. Who were you with?

Nobody

 

8. Where were you when 2025 ended?

At home in Tonopah

 

9. Who will you be with when 2025 ends?

Nobody

 

10. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Not that I'm aware of. 

 

11. Did you lose anybody close to you in 2025?

Thank God, no 

 

12. Who did you miss?

Various friends and family members, most notably Holly & Oscar Bambolo and their kids, 

who couldn't make it to Son of Silvercon again this year. Also my friend RH, who was too sick to meet up with in May.

Also also my blog boss Stacy McCain, who was off celebrating his daughter Reagan's college graduation. 

 

13. Who was the best new person you met in 2025?

Maxwell Drake and his lovely wife. 

 

14. What was your favorite month of 2025?

July, because Son of Silvercon.

 

15. Did you travel outside of the US in 2025?

No. What for?

 

16. How many different states did you travel to in 2025?

Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Virginia, and Maryland

 

17. What would you like to have in 2025 that you lacked in 2022?

A new pancreas. A sugar mama. The usual.

 

18. What date from 2025 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

October 9th, my 66th birthday. 

 

19. What were your biggest achievements of the year?

a) Not dying, and not even getting seriously ill. 

b) Son of Silvercon

 

20. What was your biggest failure?

Amazingly, nothing went seriously wrong this year. 

 

21. Did you suffer illness or injury?

This year I have been mercifully spared from either.

 

22. What was the best thing you bought?

I now have a really nice leather trench coat but have no idea when or where I'll actually wear it.

I also have a T-shirt commemorating Goetz von Berlichingen that I bought for Anime Fusion, but nobody got the jokes.

Finally, I came across a Colorado bakery that makes lebkuchen the way I remember them from Germany. I almost cried, they were that good. 

 

23. Whose behavior merited celebration?

Maxwell Drake, who filled in for Tim Powers when Tim had to cancel on us. 

 

24. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

My ex-wife. She can find somebody else's shoulder to cry on and help her with her taxes. 

 

25. Where did most of your money go?

Son of Silvercon and the See Minnesota and Die tour. 

 

26. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Son of Silvercon. I was also excited about seeing my son for the first time in almost ten years. 

 

27. Did you drink a lot of alcohol in 2025?

No.

 

28. Did you do a lot of drugs in 2025?

More than in 2024. I had a lot more slack time this year.

 

29. Did you treat somebody badly in 2025?

I didn't think so...

 

30. Did somebody treat you badly in 2025?

The ex went off on me about a bunch of things in a phone call and an e-mail, most of which I'm pretty sure didn't happen.

I blocked her phone number and e-mail and washed my hands of her problems.  

 

31. Compared to this time last year, are you:

i. happier or sadder? - I'm a bit happier. Things went moderately well for me. 

ii. thinner or fatter? - A little heavier than last year. 

iii. richer or poorer? -  A bit richer. I acquired a new AmEx card from USAA (which I abused unmercifully for the Minnesota trip)

and some store credit from Amazon. 

 

32. What do you wish you’d done more of in 2025?

Gone outside and touched grass, or the local equivalent of same. 

 

33. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Video games are terribly addictive. So is Twitter. 

I could stand to spend a lot less time on both of them.

I probably won't. (And I didn't.)

 

34. Did you fall in love in 2025?

No, but I lusted in my heart after a fair number of women, mostly of the 2d variety.

 

35. What was your favorite TV program(s)?

Kept meaning to watch the rest of Fallout before the new season started but never got around to it. 

 

36. What song will always remind you of 2025?

There's no particular song that sums up the year, or even reminds me of a particular time this year. 

 

37. How many concerts did you see in 2025?

None. Concerts are insanely expensive these days - like everything else, only worse.

 

38. Did you have a favorite concert in 2025?

See previous question.

 

39. What was your greatest musical discovery?

LoFi Girl on YouTube

 

40. What was the best book you read?

Didn't buy quite as many books as last year, but I came close. Best fiction was Ralts Bloodthorne's Bright White Light and Those Left Behind, the most recent books in His Behold! Humanity! saga. 

Honorable mentions: John C. Wright's Starquest novels and Tom Kratman's 1919 - The Romanov Rising. Best non-fiction was The Last Winning Season, about the 1969 Senators. 

 

41. What was your favorite film of this year?

Didn't actually see any movies, though I bought a copy of Rollerball. 

 

42. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

The Pittman Room was closed for some reason, so I had my borthday steak at the Stage Stop. 

 

43. What did you want and get?

I picked up a used Surface Pro tablet and a cover/keyboard, which were much lighter than Homeko, my HP laptop. It came in very handy on my two excursions to Washington and Minnesota. 

Also got a Carhartt jacket which was heavier than I thought it would be and did not have a removable liner. Lastly, I got a really nice leather trenc coat from Secret Goth. 

 

44. What did you want and not get?

A number of non-tangible things. 

 

45. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

[REDACTED]

 

46. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2025?

"The Festive Color Of My Tribe Is Black". This really hasn't changed; if anything, even more of my clothes are black than formerly.  

 

47. What kept you sane?

I was honestly too busy to get anywhere near crazy this year.

 

48. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Most of the celebrities and public figures that came to my attention this year 

were fairly appalling people, although Elon Musk continues to be an awesome person. 

 

49. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2025.

Nothing that's generally applicable, sorry. 

 

50. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

Nope, no joy here either.