Looking back: Dec '25, Week 4

It's the last stretch of 2025! Looking back, it's been such an eventful year with lots of changes. Although it's still 2025 today, I'll consider 2025 over so that I can give 2026 an early start! 💖

But first, a recap of my last week of December 2025!

✨ Projects -- Finally released my cover of blindfolded by Against The Current!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuOw0u7qkvs

I love this song and illustration of Mimi so much! I'm happy that it's finally out for the world to see!

This cover took so long to cook! But I'm glad to have released this within this year. 🥹 Huge thanks to Yuraia for the vocal direction, mix, and guitar playing! 💜❤️

When I first heard this song, I was in a very different head space: I was in a stressful job that I wasn't very passionate about, but surrounded by people I appreciated very much. I loved the company and product I worked for, and received lots of admiration whenever I shared what I did, but deep down I felt like I was running in the wrong direction. Every day was full of melancholy, and I found myself recalling painful memories often.

Diamonds dripping down my throat Why's it gotta be so addictive? Now I'm chasing after antidotes For anything that tastes like a quick fix Days like this, no, nothing feels right Nothing sticks, I can't get out my mind Tell myself to let it go I wish that I could let it go

The irony of it all is that I don't even think my pain is a big deal. Subconsciously I am convinced that it could have been worse, like what some around me have experienced. Yet I keep reliving my experiences in my mind as if I'm trying to validate my own feelings. I got to move on, but I keep going back:

The feelings of hope, admiration, curiosity, elation...

The feelings of being invisible, uncertain, inadequate, violated, used, objectified, torn...

The intensity of my mania when I lean into the desire to destroy everything, everyone, and myself so that there's nothing left of my wrong and sorry existence and the cruel environment that forged it.

Every day the past 2 decades, I hope it stays in the recesses of my mind. I've gotten good at sprinting away from these thoughts and feelings whenever they surface at inconvenient times. But as life goes on, all the good that life has to offer eventually reminds me of all the dreams that turned into nightmares. The more I appreciate and love, the more I want to run away.

But shouldn't I be running free, not away?

...

That said, I've had better control of my environment the past year, so by the time this cover was ready to be published, the lyrics didn't hit has hard as it did when I was singing it. That's a good thing, right? 🥺

No crash outs! I will keep looking forward! 🥹💖

✨ Gaming -- SONIC RACING, FFXIV Extreme Trial, and MonHunWilds Gogmazios!

First, I shall pay the cat tax!

Whee many cats!

I got to customize a car in Sonic Racing this week, and made sure to ask my partner for screenshots!

I might have found my favorite character from the Sonic universe. 🥹💜

I love hot pink accents. That's probably the most gyaru thing about me. 🥹🥹🥹 Anyway I like my car so much that I use it almost all the time now. Plus, this car makes me feel like winning isn't important anymore, so I'm always happy even if I lose. 🤣🤣🤣

My partner likes using Blaze the Cat though, so I usually cycle between using Miku, Cream & Cheese/ Joker, and Tails/ Nine.

We took turns to participate in the NiGHTS Festival that took place over the weekend! I wasn't really interested in the rewards, but my partner wanted the final reward title, so I helped out since I seemed to have unlimited enthusiasm and energy to play even if we were on a losing streak. 🤔🤣

You get a fancy crown if you won the last race!

But I had other gaming commitments with friends this week, so a significant amount of time went into FFXIV to farm content in preparation for the upcoming raid tier (starts 6 Jan 2026) and challenging the Gogmazios hunt in MHWilds.

Merry Christmas! 💜 No screenshots from the FFXIV Extreme Trial because the boss is ugly. 💔

I didn't realize how much I missed Tanking with my static's main tank! He cares about doing the fight right, but has just the right amount of chill to keep me from losing my mind when the two of us start dying. 🤣 I'm still anxious about the upcoming raid, but I feel like I'm in really good company this time round! We had a change in line up, and now the static is full of capable people who I've raided with before. 🥹💜

For now, I still need to practice my rotation because I've not been diligent with keeping it in check, and I need to cap my tomes for the week to be able to exchange for better gear before the 6th. 🤔

For MHWilds, I got to practice not flying in the sky. 🤔

Friend>>> had KFC in Japan and gave <<<friend the code for that cute KFC Palico weapon pendant! 💜

I usually prefer to use Hunting Horn for more difficult fights because I don't want to risk not contributing enough and dying due to not knowing how to dodge in time mid-air if I use Insect Glaive. But my armor set for Hunting Horn is still not fully upgraded because I don't grind the game enough to have sufficient armor spheres to fully upgrade 2 armor sets. So I went into the fight wanting to check if this Elder Dragon can be mounted. 🤔

With the help of my partner, we cleared the fight on the 3rd try! 🥹💜 I find it amusing that my friends are always surprised at the number of times I can mount a monster. They initially thought that this one couldn't be mounted, but on my first attempt I mounted it 3 times. 🤣🤣🤣 So a friend (<<<friend in the screenshot) suggested that I save my mounts for the final phase of the fight as there is a DPS check in that phase. I took their suggestion and resisted the urge to launch myself into the air until the final phase of the fight when the monster was airborne. To everyone's surprise we managed to improve our clear time significantly! Not to take credit for it, but I was proud that... I managed to change my play style with Insect Glaive and not feel like a liability to the team. 🥺

I suppose it was a good week of gaming! 💖

Lumenhymn celebrations at the Grand Hub!

✨ Touching grass -- Went around town to shop for Christmas presents, went to visit my grandmother in hospital, attended a Christmas dinner and lunch, celebrated my mother's birthday, and hosted friends at my place!

I saw so many people this week it's crazy. Probably still not as many people as when I was at Comic Fiesta though. 🤣🤣🤣

It would take too long to go through each event, so I'll just share the highlights!

1. I got to meet my mother twice this week! 👑💜 We met up on Wednesday to visit my grandmother, and Saturday for her birthday celebration. After spending time with my grandmother, my mother brought me to a nearby mall where she treated me to tasty Fish & Chips from a family restaurant we used to frequent when I was in college. When we met again for her birthday and Christmas lunch with my brother's family, I gave her a bear that I bought from LaLaport in Malaysia. She likes teddy bears! 🧸

2. I got to meet Ari and Mogu again when they were done boothing at EOY Day 1! 🖤🤍💜❤️ Yuraia and I had invited several friends for a Christmas gathering, so we were glad that Ari and Mogu agreed to join since they were in town! 🥹💖 Anyway, I forced everyone to play Sonic Racing with me. >:) Except Silmeia who refused to play! How dare he!!! 🤣🤣🤣 I also secretly scooped out some ice cream for Ari when no one was looking. 😙🍨

✨ Snack corner -- Final week of advent calendar snacks!

22: 2 packs of Calbee Vegetable Fries

23: 2 tins of Christmas edition Redondo chocolate wafer sticks

24: 4 Landour chocolates

25: Root beer float! 💜

I still haven't finished the snacks from the previous week, but according to Chinese tradition it's good to enter the new year with abundance, so I'm not concerned! Also, I'll need to shed some of the weight I've gained from all the Christmas feasts before devouring these goodies. :3

Thank you for the yummy advent calendar, best bud! 💜

~💜~

Hopes for this week

♪ Practice and record vocals for a collab!

☆ Reset the house before the new year! (Goodbye Christmas decor!)

☆ Play FFXIV!

☆ Play Sonic Racing? I'm not sure when my partner will burn out so maybe we'll skip this week...

☆ Play MonHunWilds? If any other friends are going to, that is.

☆ Play Judgment? Before the FFXIV Raid tier begins?

Thank you for reading! 🌙🐰