Life in Progress: January, 2026

I’ve updated my now page, reflecting the recent changes.

2025 Retrospective

I’ll start with some of those ambitions I mentioned for the 2025 version:

I have played video games! I finished the main story of Oblivion, and a few of its smaller DLCs, but still haven’t finished the two primary DLCs. I decided to wait for Skyblivion, but it’s been delayed, and so I have also delayed. Instead, I played through Fallout 4!

I made more video games! In May I joined in the Morrowind May Mod Maddness event, and released The House of Tides (source code). It’s incomplete, but I fully plan to continue development. Later, I released my second Morrowind mod, Riddle Twinlander and the Quest for Fruit (source code). It’s a relatively simple quest mod, inspired by the Twitch streamer Dridlicious and his play-through of Two Worlds. Then at the end of the year I released my first project using the DragonRuby engine, L4-N-DER: Evacuation (source code). I had a lot of fun developing it, and working with DragonRuby! So much so that I’ve started a much larger project, inspired by Musou-games like Dynasty Warriors. That project I look forward to developing throughout the year, as well as finishing up Evacuation as part of the 20-Million Second Game Jam.

I was active, but did not make much progress on my weight-loss goals. I went golfing almost (or maybe over) 30 times this year, and got my bike out of my garage for the first time in several years. What an incredible feeling of mobility! Despite owning a car, with my bike I feel like everything reasonably nearby is now much more accessible.

I didn’t follow-through on the music goals at all. I still occasionally pick up my mandolin, or play my piano, but I haven’t established any good practice habits, nor do I feel have I learned anything.

My personal business is moving sluggishly forward, with a few more clients but still not enough to be self-sufficient. To that end, I’ve picked-up a part-time position at a nearby grocer. I appreciate the variety in the work, moving and stocking produce, and it keeps me active. Since it’s part-time, I rarely work longer than 4 hours per shift, giving me plenty of time to still work on my personal business.

And, as you can see from my post history, I have not done really any writing on this blog. I have done quite a bit of writing for the games I’ve made, and I have gotten into a habit of journaling, but I haven’t followed-through in publishing more on the site.

2026 Prospective

That’s bring me to now. I was already in the process of forming some goals for 2026 at the end of 2025, and as a result of that, I have 2 concrete goals this year:

1. Lose Weight

2. Generate Wealth

Lose Weight

My specific goal is to lose 50 pounds by August. A friend of mine is getting married, and I want to look and feel better than ever for it. Losing 50 pounds will put me roughly at 200 pounds, which will be the least I’ve weighed in over 20 years.

Much of weight loss depends on diet, and to that end I have began tracking my food again. I want to eat more whole foods, leafy greens and lean proteins. The remainder is activity, and I’ve started going to the gym again. My focus will be on building muscle, and improving my endurance.

Losing weight is a perpetual challenge for me. I find myself feeling defeated easily in this arena, and so a significant part of this goal will be a constant reminder of progress and possibility. Every little victory counts!

Generate Wealth

While I have some work still to identify the exact value, what I can say for certain is that I’m not looking to become wealthy, but rather to generate enough wealth for me to live as I want to. My ambitions are relatively tame by comparison: I don’t have many, if any, travel goals; I’m very satisfied with where I live, the clothes I wear, the car I drive, and the foods I eat; I generally don’t like having “things” around, and prefer a more minimalistic vibe; and I don’t spend money frivolously. A rough estimate is a net income of $40-50k.

The first parts of this goal will be better understanding my finances. To that end, I’m exploring a few approaches that appeal to me, notably what Siddhant writes about in his recent article on personal finances.

Another big part of this goal will be more seriously pursuing my personal business. The part-time position I have is a nice buffer, but my personal business will push me over the finish line.

Unknown Third Goal and Others

For a while I’ve felt that there’s a third, yet undiscovered goal in the wings. I’m not sure what it is, though I do have many miscellaneous smaller tasks I seek to pursue. I want to continue developing games. I want to establish reliable project planning and management. I want to read more books. I want to write more, both posts on this blog, and also other projects like tabletop campaigns or game development concepts. I also want to continue my development in other software areas, specifically Ruby and Rails. I have several applications that I would benefit from which can be built in Ruby or Rails. And, hopefully soon, I will be transition this site from the existing domain to my new permanent domain, nibz.dev. There are several changes I look forward to, and I will be documenting every step of the way.