River: Done With 2025

[mdlbear]

I'd be a lot happier to see the ass-end of 2025 if I wasn't pretty sure that 2026 is going to be worse -- for the US, anyway. Maybe not so much for me; I fled that country a year ago. But my kids are still stuck there.

The details -- goals from last New Year's Day

1. I'll start with a bit of unfinished business from last year: writing a "what has the bear been doing lately" infodump to be distributed mostly by email to people who aren't keeping up with Dreamwidth. Next this?? year, I guess. (Please ignore the fact that I'm picking an easy goal that I can check off early.)
    *  40% maybe. Despite being "easy", and despite it being something I enjoy doing in person and even over text, I have no evidence that I ever did it, up until freaking Boxing Day, when I posted this half-assed summary.
2. That is of course related to another goal from last year and the one before: to get back in touch with more people -- including relatives and old friends. At least tell them where I am these days, and what I've been up to. See above.
    *  10% at most. I don't think I've completely lost touch with anyone else...
3. Writing more in general is still on the list, including introspective and autobiographical journaling. Also see above.
    *  25%? That's being generous. I actually wrote somewhat less than last year, but not drastically so.
4. Our taxes are going to be an effing nightmare. So the main goal is finding someone to do them for us.
    *  90%? I got my 2024 US taxes done using H+R Block, as usual. But that's because the business had no income at all in 2024. So all the complexity of filing for an intercontinental business got kicked down the road to (ulp!) 2026. However, we have hired a bookkeeping firm for the Dutch side of things, and N is getting tax help on the US side. That will help.
5. I'm going to put setting up our DAFT business next. It has several moving parts, which will get goals of their own, so this one is just getting the legal paperwork and the bank account set up. Also see above.
    *  100%! We did it!
6. The business will have two main divisions: Colleen's Closet -- fabric arts and related projects -- will be N's half. HyperSpace Express is my multimedia arts and record label. So I need to modernize HSX's website, and make one for C-C.
    *  I'm going to say 150% for this -- N decided to take up writing instead of sewing, so I had to make her an author's website along with the other two. It may well get extensively revised, but it works for now.
7. I also need to go through all of my websites, and their infrastructure, and make sure they are up to date, functional, and well-documented. A lot of the bits have flaked off over the last decade or so. I noticed last night that some of the build tools are missing.
    *  I'm going to say 75% for this one -- not all of my websites have been updated, but the important ones have been.
8. I need to record at least one album, so that my half of the business will have something to sell. But in general, do more music. The New Year's Eve zoom circle was, like last year, a good start.
    *  15%? 30%? We did a lot of planning, and recorded scratch tracks for almost everything, and did some work with a local recording studio -- only to find that our skills, and especially my guitar skills, are nowhere near the level we'd need for a professionally recorded and produced album. We are looking at fallbacks.
9. Along with starting the business, N and I need to (belatedly) do our EOL planning and paperwork, including our wills. We're business partners, we co-own the house in Den Haag, and we have kids. It damned well has to get done this year.
    *  Zero. And the book I ordered was useless.
10. Self care is on the list, as usual. Starting with physical -- that includes getting my health care set up, including finding an oncologist. That also includes more exercise and more walking.
     *  60% maybe? I have health insurance, and pretty decent health care, and I've been walking occasionally. But I've done nothing for dental care, and that will be a serious problem in the years to come.
11. Mental health care is "last but not least", but like last year it will be hard to quantify.
     *  I may have to settle for dark humor and something resembling hope again this year. I have found some mental health professionals; they can help some. And I still haven't had anything like a breakdown. I don't think -- I haven't had any formal diagnoses. So I'll give myself the benefit of the doubt and 100%.

I make that 680/11 = 61%. Last year was 68%, so only a little worse. Considering how bad it could have been, I'll take it.