happy new year to all! i spent the eve determined to get sloppy drunk but ended up only finishing two glasses of prosecco. nice effort for a guy who's a year older and none the wiser - i'll try again next year.

i'm close to the 2nd year anniversary of this website, and i'm very proud of how far it's come! this month two years ago, i stumbled across someone's neocities site and was inspired to code for myself again, something i hadn't done since early college.

i spent my university years studying computer science in preparation for landing a job, and then i spent my past 4 postgrad years working as a SWE at a big tech company. i was so focused on trying to cultivate a stable career and lost the reason i chose to study CS in the first place - all those childhood years customizing tumblr themes, writing roblox scripts, making bad love2D games... i forgot how fun this all was... it's been so much fun, and it makes me happy in a way that my day job never could, so a huge thank you to everyone in the indie web community for helping me rediscover this passion :-)

my new year resolution in 2025 was to take the JLPT (japanese language proficiency test). it was actually my resolution in 2024 too but i missed the test sign up by an hour and all the spots were filled. i was really bummed about it since the test is only offered once a year in the US but time marched on and 2025 rolled around faster than i expected.

anxiously waiting to start the test

i spent the latter half of last year pushing myself to study for the test which honestly surprised me. i've always considered myself a slacker, to cut corners in school whenever i could, and i certainly never took initiative to study. but i realized i couldn't half-ass learning a language (looking at you, duolingo) if i wanted to make any noticable progress.

i studied the old fashioned way with textbooks, flash cards, and practice tests. i went to the public library on saturdays to work through test guides. as much as i hated doing this stuff when i was in school, it now feels enjoyable in a nostalgic way. plus there's no life or death stress anymore behind it except spending $100 to potentially fail a test...

i find out results later this month. i'm hoping for a good score but we'll see... i think i did well in the vocabulary and reading sections, but i definitely screwed up a few times during the listening portion. this year, i'm going to continue to study like before, but incorporate more casual and enjoyable ways to practice, like reading manga and singing karaoke (which was effective in forcing me to read faster lol)

and as always, i want to draw a lot!