Year In Review - 2025

So much of my adult life, every year could be neatly summarized by "did my job, cooked dinner, raised babies". I don't think there was much value in summarizing that life. But this year, in all of the freedom of not working a 9-5 job I feel detached from time. When reading Rek's year in review I found myself wondering "Gosh, what did happen this year?".

Things I Made

• Lens board pattern cutting jig
• Black and White film Developer (PC-512 Borax)
• Walnut Picture Frames
• 17x21 Contact Printing Frame
• UV Exposure Unit
• 3d Printed Medium Format Camera Body
• Modded Polaroid 900 to shoot 4x5 with a custom front standard
• Modded Kodak No 3a Autographic to shoot 120 film
• Color inkjet prints
• Cyanotypes, Cuprotypes and Argyrotypes

Things I Learned

• Took a charcoal drawing class
• How to use QuadToneRip to make contrast adjustment curves
• How to make argyrotypes
• How to make cuprotypes
• How to use joints in fusion360

Places I Went

• Iceland

• Lind WA

• Blakely Island

• Austin Texas

Things I Read

• Black Leopard Red Wolf - Marlon James
• Moon Witch Spider King - Marlon James
• Our Game - John Le Carre
• Chief Seattle and the Town That Took His Name - David M Buege
• A Long Way To A Small Angry Planet - Becky Chambers
• Blindness - Jose Saramango
• Dr. Jeckyll and Mr Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson

Things I watched

• Portrait of a Lady on Fire
• Sorcerer
• Weapons
• Ikiru

Things I Played

• Caves of Qud
• Monster Hunter Rise (again!)
• Dark Souls
• Dark Souls II
• Bloodborne
• Sekiro

Other fun stuff

• Hosted a Merveilles art exchange
• Threw a neighborhood block party
• Repaired so many things:
  • Jet 8" Jointer
  • Ilex No 5 shutter
  • Ilex Optimo Shutter
  • Mamiya Press 65mm
  • Mamiya Press Universal Body
  • Wollensak Alphax No 4 Shutter
  • Minolta Autocord
  • Voigtlander Vito B
  • Voigtlander Perkeo
  • Random Russian Shutter