{"id":4972,"date":"2025-12-31T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/?p=4972"},"modified":"2026-01-01T16:21:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T00:21:05","slug":"life-continues-farewell-2025-and-onward-to-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digitalmanticore.com\/?p=4972","title":{"rendered":"Life Continues: Farewell 2025 and Onward to 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hello, friends and enemies, another year has gone by! 2025 was, uh, quite a year. I think a defining issue of my year was dealing with my knee (and other health issues). I know, another rotten year of figuring out a health problem, just when I thought there was nothing left. My right knee, previously believed to be the “good” knee, started giving me trouble during the summer and it was downhill from there. Learning that I have to confine myself to low-impact activity forever is a huge drag\u2014this can’t be overstated\u2014but it is leading me to some interesting places as I try to get creative within these limitations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the first year in a little while that my end-of-year post doesn’t conclude with “keep doing what I’m doing.” I mean, I’m doing a lot of good stuff and will keep doing many things, but I’ve got some other ideas too. I feel more able to think about how I structure my time since I’m having to make changes for health reasons. I really have to rethink how I approach moving my body, both in that I have to do a lot of regular exercise to keep my knee from getting worse and that I can’t do anything too strenuous that would aggravate it (maybe I should be taking up tightrope walking with these competing demands [joking!]). I have to keep up with doing my PT exercises regularly and do what I’ve been calling my “boring” exercise, stuff like walking or riding a bike. I’ve realized boring exercise is not going to work for me. I just started unicycling again (as discussed in my last post<\/a>) and I’m hoping I can do that instead of walking or biking. The other thing I am working on right now is regaining the ability to hang from a bar. If I can hang from the bar I can start doing interesting bar exercises but first, one must hang. I’m also going to try an aqua aerobics class, since apparently Elk Grove has a whole bunch<\/a>. The only thing I am wary of is ear infections, but surely I could go “aqua jogging” without too much trouble?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I bought a ton of stickers (from a brand called Stickii<\/a>) and am currently rewarding myself with a sticker when I do my boring exercise, bar hang practice, and PT exercise according to my schedule (I’m not doing everything every day). I do find this strangely motivational. I’m just sticking them in my day planner to enjoy. Did you know you can just give yourself a sticker<\/em> for any reason? Try it out!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"a<\/a>
just a whole bunch of stickers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Daily<\/a>
sticker motivation<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I’ve been thinking about other ways I use my time too. In 2025, I started learning some German thinking we would go to Eurovision in 2026 (alas, we have canceled the plans<\/a>). Since I’ve been working on both Spanish and Icelandic for a while now, I kind of assumed I did not have room in my life for actively studying another language, but considering I found time to learn German, that was an incorrect assumption. With that in mind, I am going to spend some time this year digging back into Arabic. I have a whole-ass bachelor’s degree in the language, but barely remember anything. It sucks! I want to use the language I studied for years because I think it’s cool. I will discuss the Arabic studies more in a future post, but for now I am simply announcing my intentions to all. Don’t worry, I’m not giving up on Spanish or Icelandic. I’m just adding one more language into the mix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are some other things on my mind heading into 2026:<\/p>\n\n\n\n