Another year has come and gone. Around this time last year, I wrote “learn an instrument” in Notepad. This morning, I quietly crossed it off 😓
I had started writing this recap, but then my laziness kicked in. Then I dreamed of a pretty girl on New Year’s Day, so I decided to finish it.
The biggest thing this year: I dyed my hair myself at the end of the year (see the 2021 Year-End Review).
Work & Study
My job involves a lot of math and physics, so every day feels like a learning experience. I’m planning to revisit the relevant university courses in the coming year.
I bought an Alibaba Cloud server (3-year plan) on Double Eleven, but I still haven’t figured out what to do with it.
Also picked up a Brilliant lifetime membership last month. Doing the daily check-ins feels like a cognitive workout — kind of like watching the green tiles fill up on GitHub.
Travel
Thanks to COVID, I mostly stayed home this year. The highlights were meeting up with a few internet friends.
Had authentic beef hot pot in Chaoshan with an old friend.
Then met up with Nanfeng and Dorime in Shenzhen — spent half an hour at Starbucks debating where to eat.
In October, visited two old classmates in Harbin and ate to my heart’s content.
In November, the department went on a trip to Zhuhai Chimelong.
In December, reunited with some university anime club friends in Shenzhen and played board games together.
At year’s end, went to Guangzhou’s BiliBili World to recharge my weeb energy.
Planning to visit friends in Shanghai and Hangzhou next year.
Reading
I’m a working adult now, so reading 100+ novels a year like in school is off the table. On holidays, I mostly read light manga.
Actually read quite a few math and CS books this year, though I didn’t finish most of them.
Speed Math — I picked it up hoping for an interesting popular science read with some useful tricks. It turned out to be even more useless than I expected.
An Invitation to the World of Geometry — bought alongside Introduction to Calculus years ago. Read it cover to cover and felt like I got a little smarter! (The nine-point circle theorem at the end was pretty complex, though.)
Head First C — after reading this, I finally wrote C code well enough to pass my company’s certification exam 😁
At the end of the year, the mainland reprinted The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl, and Run, Melos! came out around the same time. I rewatched the film one weekend and then read the Morimi version of Melos — it’s textbook-quality writing.
Full of Empty Things — I’d followed the author on Twitter for years and expected something like their melancholy single-page comics. Turned out to be a short story collection: hollow, but with a faint warmth.
The illustrated edition of Ten Nights of Dreams caught my eye with its gorgeous art. I assumed it was for kids, but it’s actually an extraordinary literary work that makes you fall in love with dreaming — quintessentially Soseki at his most unique.
As a lifelong Otsuichi fan since high school, this short story collection still hit the spot. My favorite was “The Capricorn’s Friend,” though it did leave my stomach turning a bit…
As for The Girl at the End of the Line — I’m hesitant to evaluate it. I found the story fairly average, but after reading the comments, I began wondering if I was the problem. Do I just not understand girls? Maybe this book is better suited for female readers.
Hold My Disintegrating Brain — the thing I remember most is how satisfying the cover feels to touch; I could stroke it all afternoon 😀. Not heavy on mystery, but still worth reading.
Dark Girls — a book I’d had in my cart for ages, held up by the lack of a digital edition. The psychological games among women made for a surprisingly engaging read.
On a plane, I read two books from Hayasaka Rin’s “Enjo-Kōsai Detective” series. The rainbow toothbrush wasn’t my first time, but Uekiritsu Risako is the best!
In November, I bought Magical Girl Reasoning Incident 2 and reread volume 1 as well. Thigh deduction — all thighs, no deductions — but thighs are enough 🤩
Read a fair amount of manga and light novels, mostly mindless and heartwarming. The dream world has everything.
Read the first volume of Chitose-kun, the hot release of the year — felt pretty lackluster, but people online say volumes 2 and 3 are better.
Miyamoto Sakura, recommended by a friend, had nothing going for it besides cute illustrations.
100 Questions for My Senior, on the other hand, is grade-A sweetness. I highly recommend it — even sweeter than The Angel Next Door Spoils Me Rotten.
Hidan no Aria is a series I’ve been reading since high school. I’ve read about 20 volumes over the years, so I can’t drop it now. Somehow it’s up to volume XXX — the author must be struggling to wrap it up. Please just end it already and set me free 😅
Gyaru × Earnest Guy
Flat-chested Succubus × Earnest Guy
Busty Succubus × Earnest Guy
Three Sisters × Earnest Guy
I won’t deny it — reading 10–15 minutes of this kind of manga before my afternoon nap noticeably improved my sleep quality 🍧
Miko of the Yamata no Orochi is a lightweight slice-of-life story — pretty charming.
Finally, congratulations to Sky Violation on getting animated. Binge-reading the manga in one go was genuinely satisfying.
Next year I’m planning to finally work through the pile of books on my office desk.
Anime
This year I watched the most from the January and October seasons: Iruma-kun, ID: Invaded, Kabukicho Sherlock, In/Spectre, Darwin’s Game, Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid (Dropkick on My Devil!), Kaguya-sama, My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU Fin., Tonikaku Kawaii, Wandering Witch, Akudama Drive, Moriarty the Patriot, Is the Order a Rabbit? BLOOM.
Because of COVID, I was home for two weeks during the Lunar New Year and caught up on Squid Girl and the Index/Railgun franchises.
In February when work restarted, I got hooked on American animation and watched four seasons of RWBY.
March felt a bit stressful, so I rewatched the Seitokai no Ichizon series and then revisited The Tatami Galaxy at the end of the month. I seem to rewatch both of these every year.
Around mid-year I started trying to watch Monogatari, but still haven’t finished it. I did finish xxxHOLiC though.
Near the end of the year I discovered Lupin III: The Woman Called Fujiko Mine on my hard drive. After watching it, I decided to revisit the original series and watched Lupin III Part I.
Films
Getting a projector as a homebody was absolutely the right call.
This year I mainly watched sci-fi films: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Event Horizon, Inception, Interstellar, Arrival, The Prestige, Color Out of Space, Tenet.
Games
A friend gifted me A Plague Tale: Innocence for New Year. I played it until I never wanted to see another mouse again.
Azur Lane — as someone who’d never played a mobile game, I’ll just say this single-player experience was genuinely boring.
Watched someone play through Marvel’s Avengers. Great visuals and fun to play as different heroes, but the combat was really tedious.
Close to the Sun, grabbed for free on Epic, was too scary — I only played the opening and then watched a playthrough online.
While waiting for Bishoujo Mangekyou, I worked through the entire 9-nine- series.
Early in the year I played Roundabout & Galaxy Dragon — a next-gen AVG. I’m planning to play through it again next year.
Finished the final installment of the Mangekyou series, and played the earlier entries to catch up. Youth is over.jpg
Iwaihime — I played the first chapter on PS4 but dropped it due to no Chinese. The Steam version has official Chinese, so I happily played through it. The story is decently long; great news for minotaur fans.
While waiting for Cyberpunk 2077, Nekopara Vol. 4 came out. Not particularly excited about it, but it killed time.
Oh, almost forgot — this year my OW rank reached the gold-and-silver border frame 😎