It’s December and for me that means it is “blog every day month” an effort for which I have long since concocted a list of blog-able reflective topics called my December-ish posts each of which should do little more than offer a leaping off point for some rambling writing to fill up my daily blogging quota.
Today that topic is…
What object will
forever remind you of 2025?
One object? No. How about ten objects from the past year. Memories are not so simple these days. In no particular order…
The Kobo eReader I bought mid-year to replace my aging Kindle marked a defiantly buy-Canadian shift away from giving all my money to American billionaires, though I still give some of it (unavoidably) that direction, I made a conscious decision to shift to a different platform for my books because… uh… terrible politics.
I spent a lot of time at my Basement Desk this year, a place I had routinely avoided since quitting my work-from-home job in mid-2023. But in 2025 it was my coding station when I worked on my video game, the spot from where I took a bunch of online University courses, and now it’s become where I’ve set myself up a cozy writing nook.
I got over my “I’m a biologist” anti-Fake Plants-hate and bought about ten of them to give my dark basement office a bit of colour and texture. I love plants and love botanical things, but when the option was no plants, dead plants or fake plants … well, I finally caved and chose fake plants. Uh. Thanks Ikea?
The Aeropress Coffee Maker the Wife got me for Christmas last year became my go-to coffee device for most of 2025. It makes good coffee, pretty much equivalent to my pour over standby (in my mediocre amateur opinion) but it is plenty faster and easier to clean up. How much it features in 2026 depends on how much I stick with the coffee routine in the new year.
Then on vacation I bought a very nice little Rice Bowl in Tokyo from an actual restaurant supply story in the cooking district. It is not a touristy gimmick souvenir, tho, but rather something kinda sorta maybe more real, and it is one of my favourite souvenirs (neck and neck in a tight race) from our recent trip.
That Macbook Pro I splurged on late in the year because I started doing contract work in 2025 and needed a dedicated and capable machine to do said work upon. I’ve owned a dozen computers over the years, but this is the first “my” computer that I’ve had in a while (no more family sharing) even though it is pretty much meant for doing, uh, professional work.
Speaking of tech, I hadn’t done much with my Steamdeck for a while, leaning into playing games when I had the chance on the bigger screen and PS5, but this handheld toy makes the list because along the way of my game coding adventures this year I managed to code enough of a piece of software to boot up and be reasonably playable on my Steamdeck. That’s worthy of a mention.
Having been that guy in orchestra who was using digital music for a few years I finally splurged and bought a Foot Pedal this year to change pages (you know, with my foot instead of my finger) and it has been game changing for orchestra and music practice. I’m no longer the only guy with his music on an iPad either.
Oh. Right. Those Steel Toed Shoes which were my exclusive footwear working at the grocery store until about April finally got shoved in the closet for storage and hopefully I only ever need to wear them again to keep my toes safe for personal projects. Good shoes. Frustrating work.
And finally that Mortar Board that the Kid decorated so uniquely for her high school graduation gets a special mention… and it was in the running for the solo mention had I not caved and put ten items on this list. It’s still sitting on our mantle for the moment, but it was definitely part of a memory-full day.