What I've Been Up to In May 2025
Permission to... Pause.
We have had a very calm-weathered Mayday this year - a few warmer days reminded us that summer was imminent, while the rest were very comfortable to a bit chilly.
While my day-to-day job kept me busy and fulfilled, I realized that I needed to give myself permission to take some time to pause, idle, to think, or even to not think and just to feel. I guess this is one way to excuse myself for sending out this monthly update a bit late this time. 😂
Kids are wrapping up the school term, but during a long weekend we took the time to hike around Wavecrest Beach. And really just pause and absorb what nature had to offer. It was great (but could use a bit more sun)
Here are the things that kept me busy this past month, aside from the day-to-day ‘job’ related stuff…
Creating and hacking stuffs
Drawing
Weekly comics - the adventure of ‘Ant, Bot, and Cat’ is coming closer, and closer to its end… As usual, all previous strips are posted on all major social feeds, but of course, the best place to access this would be my (paid) Patreon page
Study drawings (#inktober52 ) - can you guess what the prompt word is?
#FanArt - only one this month, but it’s special to me… from a cartoon / toy I enjoyed when I was very little…
Writing
“100 Drawings of Tang Dynasty Poems” (唐詩一百畫) - book 1: available as a hardcover on Amazon. Book 2 of this 3-part series is on-going! 😊
The pre-released drafts of this book are all available on my Patreon
Not much happened on my ‘short stories’ substack “Echo of the Worlds”.
Game Dev
Completely paused this month on development…
Still, feel free to play my game#1 Qin!
The Web
No updates (is a good update 😉)
Hacking
spent some time with ZorinOS (easy and elegant), Tails (handy like a Swiss army knife) and EndeavourOS (well rounded yet give you the control) and the amazing tiling windows manager - i3wm!
Consuming Stuffs
Reading - to fill the void left after finishing reading all 5 books of “A Song of Ice and Fire” I found this video series super enjoyable, specially with the map visualization. I also started reading “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking" by Susan Cain.
Gaming - Continued on God of War, Bioshock 2, Portal: Evolution, also Crusader: No Regret (it’s the sequel of my ‘safe default game’ through my college years)
TV/Movies - finished Andor S2 (the last 3 episodes are especially powerful! Going back to watch Rogue One now); The Last of Us S2 (I know they re-arranged the storytelling quite departed from the game, but it’s still feeling like a great storytelling for somebody who hasn’t played the game, but… now I want more)
Learning: continuing French learning journey on Duolingo - I am now on a 60+ days streak… I just need to practice it during the daily life more :D
That’s it for this issue of my newsletter! If you really finished reading the above, I thank you, and wish that my sharing would either entertain you, or inspire you (if you’ve been thinking about your own creative projects).