Happy 2026, everyone! It's likely to be a big year ahead for Pokémon, what with the franchise's 30th anniversary in February; I'm looking forward to whatever we're getting.

2025 has been a pretty big year for me, from Pokémon Sleep legitimately improving my sleep schedule to publishing my first non-Pokémon fanfic to visiting Japan to having an actual child. Updates on the site were a bit on the sparse side in all that, but the Mew trick essay that I published in March is one of my favorite things I've ever done for the site, and in the second half of the year I managed to pick up the update frequency and get a fair amount of good, necessary or just useful housekeeping work done on it that I'm very glad to have completed, so all in all, I'm reasonably satisfied with how things have gone for the site this year in spite of everything.

As usual, even if I didn't get the New Year's update done until the second of January, I'd like to extend some thanks to some of the people who helped brighten my 2025:

• All of the lovely internet friends that I've chatted with over the year; I couldn't possibly name all of you here and don't dare try lest I manage to forget somebody and make them feel bad for no reason in the process, but you know who you are and I appreciate you all
• Dannichu, Jackie and Chibi, for coming to visit in person and being lovely company as always
• elyvorg and seatherny, for VCs, cats, birds, crochet, and In Stars and Time
• Negrek, for greatly increasing the number of movies I've watched and the amount of time I've spent on actual writing during the year
• Psychic and Teagan, for Japan tips and VCs and of course the regular Pokémon baking that makes me smile
• Altissimo, for continuing to send me corrections and creating such an ambitious resource for Pokémon data
• The Johto Times staff, whom I feel privileged to work with on a great newsletter
• The Thousand Roads and Cat Café Discord servers, where I love to hang out
• My husband Shadey, for being a lovely husband and a great dad
• My daughter Caterpie, for being a relatively well-behaved baby
• My cat Birta, for tolerating this new creature who keeps occupying my lap
• My parents, whom I love and appreciate
• As ever, those who support me on Patreon
• TheScythe and Jolt135, for their invaluable contributions to Pokémon fandom through popularizing the Mew trick in 2003 and for now in 2025 finding, reading and leaving comments on my Mew trick essay, which truly meant a lot
• Game Freak, for making a series I continue to love in spite of its flaws
• Everyone who visited the site or is in general visiting and creating old-school fansites in 2025

Hope 2025 was good to you, regardless of everything going on in the world, and that your 2026 will be better!

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