And if I can resist the flames, then maybe I could be a shelter for others until the inferno dies down or is flooded out.

That would be nice.

To give up on myself when the world is on fire means surrendering to become ash.

I spent a long time going with the flow, but after a while, so much of myself had been turned to gas that there was little left.

So this year, I am trying to build myself up to resist the fire. Harden. Like stone.

I write in my journal fairly regularly, most often when I am at my emotional highest or lowest. This year has already been dreadful, and feeling as if nothing I do will matter. And it might not...

... but that does not mean I will stop trying to be better myself. I have to keep going.

I will accept no other canon but this one.

This is *precisely* why I did not say anything like that! 🙃

Good riddins to 2025.

For those who did not despite giving their all, may your spirit find the peace that life denied you.

For those who died making the world this awful, you deserve whatever suffering you endured and either the hell that awaited your spirit afterward, or the nothingness that you dreaded becoming.

I acknowledge how privileged I am in that regard, because 2025 was a HORRIBLE YEAR for anyone who was neither a billionaire, bootlicker, and/or boomer of a certain brightness setting.

So for everyone who managed to survive the previous 365 days with their moral center intact, I see you...

- fought for a promotion and raise for first time in my career... and won!

- Twitch affiliate~

- new printing and distribution center for my publishing company

So even as 2025 tried to break me down, I did everything I could to build myself back up.

2025 was also the year I proved my mettle with help from the friends I made along the way:

- found a better place to live

- bounced back from heartbreak faster than expected

- chose self respect over neglect

- second successful Kickstarter

- lost my home of 11+ years

- crush tried to break my heart in the most publicly dramatic way possible

- cut ties with one of my best friends of 15 years

- nearly lost my job

- was months behind on bills (again)

- nearly lost my second home in a year

- lost my favorite uncle

And much more...

What it feels like to give MCU another chance...

youtube.com/watch?v=dWs6...

Oh man, this brings me back! Gonna keep an eye out for this...

I hate that they used the word "architect" (my profession) to describe them.

More like The Robber Barons of AI...