"Back, you daemon!" Here's what I wrote

November 12, 2025

Last night I confirmed that there was a daemon growing out of my left shoulder. A nebulous shade that unfurled slowly but surely. I have no doubt that this thing arrived with the longer darkness; the sun setting at 4pm must've given it more time to grow unobserved.

Wouldn't have noticed it at all if the shade hadn't formed a mouth, whispering strange-yet-familiar sounds, loud and clear: You've barely started. Look at all these drafts, half-formed, abandoned! What about that one from June? The year's almost done and still nothing! in paternal hissing.

One of my unspoken vows was to write more this year, and it had a point. I had barely written much. Hmm, you're right, maybe I haven't done en—shoom!

In an instant, a flash of light and the daemon's disembodied hissing as it dissipated into my shadow.

I quickly turned my head over to the other side, where the flash had come from. I glimpsed the silhouette of what looked like another daemon, quite similar to this one, though distinctly more purple, warmer, somehow. It had vanished just as quickly as the first, but leaving with a simple utterance: Bullshit!

Then I was back in my dark living room, face lit by the black, white and blue hues of a Google doc on my screen, blinking caret impatiently waiting. All those unfinished drafts, just sitting there. Neutral. Not accusatory, not disappointing. Just...there.

I sat with that for a moment. Instead of wallowing at those not yet written, why not sit and feast on your life?

Here are the things I wrote in 2025: grouped by how I felt looking through them in my review this morning: the ones I felt really proud of (yeah!), the ones that were comme ci, comme ça (meh!), and the ones that made me cringe a little but I included regardless, with an understanding that everything belongs (ugh!)

show my comments

Yeah!

Nov 12 - "Back, you daemon!" Here's what I wrote

You know why ;)

Nov 08 - The Meridian: Halving Burnaby with Jo

A sauntervan post about the longest walk I've done yet, with my friend Jo. Mischievous and ordinary but somehow captures the excitement of exploring and situating ourselves in the city.

For this one, I felt bad about having an empty doc, struggling to put something down. Decided to lower my standards and write at least one or two paragraphs with an image gallery. The blog post just flowed out one afternoon, where I actually started to relive the day. Glad it came out and I'm feeling more solid about writing more of these posts!

Oct 25 - Analysing 11 million Ghanaian names to maximise a hit song's reach

THIS is what I sound like. Currently my favourite of the year, really oozes my personality while blending various fields: pop cultural analysis, onomastics, and data science. It reads as a funny story but also a technical post, a research paper but also cultural commentary, not quite sure what to categorise it as because it's multi-genre.

Reminds me of that Howard Thurman quote about "doing what makes you come alive". I definitely felt that while writing this.

McGill Library in North Burnaby with people running around the race track — Wrote most of this at McGill Library in North Burnaby, watching people run around the race track

Oct 14 - winter sabbatical is beginning

Wrote a poem about a gardener-mechanic dwarf breaking out of a tower and tucked it behind a small bush on my personal website's home page. There are enough 'burnt out big tech worker takes a break' articles, so instead I distilled the vibes into five lines.

Aug 12 - "you don't have to swing so hard"

An introspective post I wrote during my burnout period. It marks the transition nicely, when I finally decided that it was time to take a long break from work. M.L Wang is a great writer and her words were part of what got me there.

Jun 16 - mystical readings

I did not plan to write this, just got the urge—which is how I know it came from within. Probably the most vulnerable public writing where I expand on an old journal entry, reminiscing.

Feb 19 - keep shining, Grandpa [tribute]

Buried my grandfather this year and had a few words to share about him.

Jan 09 - Building Gogomi: 2024 in Review

A retrospective on building Gogomi. Any creator knows how messy the process gets. Channelling that into an easy-to-follow form is tedious. I really struggled with how to structure this (I think I made three iterations on how to section it). Glad with how it came out. Captures enough threads over the year.

Meh!

Aug 21 - Botanical stamp collecting with Celine

This post was the first in a while. I think it's satisfactory.

Jul 15 - Pleasant mischief with Kai

This was the first post that dusted the cobwebs of the sauntervan blog. Figured it'd be a great time to write and publish since it was close to his birthday.

May 04 - Creating Compass Card Wrapped

One of my friends commented that I'm always building or writing something, which sounds like a very accurate read. I do love tinkering on my side projects, even better getting to write about them. Getting to explain the technical parts while telling the story felt right.

Mar 31 - care

This was also an expansion of an old journal entry about a drunk man I once saw on the skytrain. Feels more overwritten in retrospect. Still holds as a piece. This is actually what led to my Compass Card Wrapped project.

Feb 01 - Ep 41: Desmond completes Mount Pleasant! [Interview]

When I noticed one of the early Gogomites (people who use Gogomi) had completed a neighbourhood, I just knew I had to speak to them. I recorded the interview and transcribed it into this post, which is...just okay. I think this would've been better as a video podcast or something. It's fine.

Jan 03 - Sauntering Vancouver: 2024 in Review

A round-up post like the Building Gogomi one. I don't have much feeling for this because I think it was very utilitarian. I wanted something to round-up everything I'd done, and left feeling like there was still much it hadn't captured. Still, I published saying "it'll have to do" and sometimes that's just fine, having done something rather than nothing.

Photo from Sauntering Vancouver: 2024 in Review

Ugh!

Feb 11 - 21 - the boy from ayawaso bikes freely again! series (not completed)

Photo related to The Boy from Ayawaso series

Sigh, I have mixed feelings about this one but more cringe than any other. Last year I ended up doing various forms of cycling: spin, MTB and road (called them the cycling training arcs)

This series worked better on my instagram stories where people already had context, so it resonated. But, I don't know, writing it felt different, more self-indulgent, like what you'd read on the more honest parts of linkedin. Better than slop but lacking…something.

I figure it's probably because it's autobiographical and might be better off written by someone else and either during my last days on earth or after I die. I do have ch. 3 in very rough draft form and have no inclination to return to it. That's all the sign I needed.