I came across 40 questions by Steph Ango, CEO of Obsidian via Doug Belshaw. It’s archived now, but you can see more of his work at Dr Doug Belshaw. The idea is to answer them every year, which I’d intended to do back in December when I book marked it. Early 2026 got away from me, but seeing as there’s been a bit of a lul here at the blogwall I figured this might be a nice way to catch up.

1. What did you do this year that you’d never done before? I am sure there are quite a few things I could say, from any activities I do, to places I’ve been. But one thing that stands out for me at the moment is that I finally took the step to join the National Health Practitioners of Canada, and to take my shiatsu training and practice to a new level.
2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions? I’ve never been a NYR person.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? As it turns out, now is about the time that many millennials are having children.
4. Did anyone close to you die? Yes.
5. What cities/countries did you visit? Every year I travel to Regina for the Saskatchewan Open Judo Tournament, trekked through parts of Alberta and BC (small towns and mountains mostly), Vancouver Island, The Netherlands, Austria, and Finland. Probably some more that I’m forgetting.

lake louise big beehive

sauna

6. What would you like to have next year that you lacked this year? I’d like to have regular karate practice. (more on this later)
7. What date(s) from this year will remain etched upon your memory, and why? Christmas for a couple of reasons. Spent the day in Bad Gastein, it was finally sunny after days of fog in Vienna and Salzburg, and got engaged to my amazing partner.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Workwise, I would say completing the pilot offering of a premiere leadership program. It was a big lift, but I could see that it was a meaningful experience for our participants. Personally, I was going to say making it through the Judo season (see below), but then I remembered I successfully graded for my second degree black belt in Judo right at the end of the year, so let’s go with that.

9. What was your biggest failure? Not giving myself enough grace would be up there. (see below)
10. What other hardships did you face? Mostly below.
11. Did you suffer illness or injury? I’d been training regularly through the year, and for some reason during one of my matches at the provincial championships this year I felt like a hydraulic that sprung a leak in the middle of a match. I’d tapped out but the ref missed it, and reset us. My opponent was shocked and confused, but we started again. As soon as we gripped up I tapped again, he was a good sport about the whole thing. I thought that was going to be that, but a week later my back went out and I’ve been slowly trying to build back strength again. I can mostly do activities, but there is a looming fear that it’s going to strike at any moment again.
12. What was the best thing you bought? Probably plane tickets.
13. Whose behaviour merited celebration? My partner started grad school this year, MDes program. She has been talking about wanting to do grad school as long as I can remember, and it’s so awesome to see her thrive and engage with the program.
14. Whose behaviour made you appalled? Oh the same bad actors we always seem to have around.
15. Where did most of your money go? Like many: housing, food, utilities, etc.
16. What did you get really, really, really excited about? I wouldn’t say that I get really really really excited about things. In general I don’t show excitement much the same way I see in others. I was excited to see mountains and spend time with friends, to get to visit friends abroad, to travel with my partner, to meet Canada’s first Judo Olympic Gold Medalist. Lots of cool things, but I don’t jump up and down for these.
    Edit: Actually, we booked the Ultimate Self-Defense Championship Retreat for 2026, and were pretty stoked about that.
17. What song will always remind you of this year? Maybe Dopamine by Wing. I haven’t listened to beatboxing since I used to breakdance, but I came across a Youtuber that reacts to all kinds of beatboxers and ran into this song. It absolutely blew my mind.
18. Compared to this time last year, are you: happier or sadder? Richer or poorer? Healthier or unhealthier? Steady, better off, and unfortunately (no metrics) feeling unhealthier.
19. What do you wish you’d done more of? Doug’s reply that “Regret is a wasted emotion” has caused me pause here.
20. What do you wish you’d done less of? See above.
21. How are you spending the holidays? Thinking back to December when I should have completed this, visiting friends in Austria and Finland.
22. Did you fall in love this year? Everytime I see these critters.

susu-bw

jiji-bw

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? I don’t think so. I can’t say I spend much time thinking about hating people. Frustrated with, annoyed by, dismissive of, sure, but hate?
24. What was your favourite show? It’s hard to pick a favourite. I’ll say that I’ve dumped all my streaming services except for Apple and Crunchy Roll. So there are anime that I’ve really enjoyed, but that it’d be hard to pick one. I also absolutely loved Ted Lasso but I think I watched that in 2024.
25. What was the best book you read? The one I probably talk about the most and think about the most that I read in 2025 is Here Comes the Sun by Bill McKibbon.
26. What was your greatest musical discovery of the year? I don’t know if I learned about them in 2025 or 2026 but Angine de Poitrine has taken me back to when I worked at the guitar shop and listened to all kinds of really interesting music.
27. What was your favourite film? iMax Theatres have been playing Hayao Miyazaki films adapted to the big screen lately. They’re all amazing, but by and far Princess Mononoke is still my favourite. I’m so glad I got to see it in theatres finally.
28. What was your favourite meal? This would either be dinner at Hearth in Saskatoon with my partner, dinner at 1888 Chop House in Banff, or my birthday dinner at our friend’s home in Helsinki. When I think about favourite meals, largely it ends up being more about the people I’m with than the food necessarily.
29. What did you want and get? Sauna time.
30. What did you want and not get? My fill of cake. See below.
31. What did you do on your birthday? Coffee in Helsinki, followed by booking a private harbour-side sauna, followed by salmon soup lunch (still trying to learn how to make it at home, can’t quite get it right), kakkugalleria (cake buffet), dinner at our friend’s home, and then sauna in the hotel room. I say not enough cake, because over xmas I caught norovirus and had a very bad few days. By the time my birthday rolled around I wasn’t quite right yet. The cake was still everything I’d hoped for though.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? No back injury.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion this year? Plain.
34. What kept you sane? My partner. My cats. My judo. My friends.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you admire the most? This one took a hot second, but I’m going to say Tamawashi. So, my partner and I have been watching every Grand Sumo Highlights since maybe 2023 (on NHK, via Youtube). There is one rikishi in that top division that is about my age and still fighting. I admire his fighting spirit and find it really inspiring.
36. What political issue stirred you the most? There’s a lot going on in the world, but after reading Bill McKibbon’s book I think about the wasted time money and energy not building out solar a lot more than I thought I would.
37. Who did you miss? My brother.
38. Who was the best new person you met? How does one even answer this question? I’m far enough away from 2025 I couldn’t even tell you who I met that year.
39. What valuable life lesson did you learn this year? I think this year I reflected on kaizen more than usual. Given my training struggles I think it’s more important to reflect upon more now than previously for me.
40. What is a quote that sums up your year? I did say Soylent Green is people, a lot.

Maybe I’ll try this again at the end of 2026, and see where we get to.