# Update It's been a while since the last update. I visited a few places, the first being South Dakota for a memorial race I run every year. Every year in September I pick a different state to run a half marathon in--I think I'm up to 7 or 8 now. This year was the most difficult despite it being a road race technically. I've never had a race with this much elevation change, and on top of a recovering ankle injury, it was a challenge. It was beautiful though. There were numerous sites of Mt Rushmore and the surrounding Black Hills. I went on a little diet between that trip and the next one. The next one was a cruise traveling down the east coast from Quebec City to Miami. This was one my partner had planned for a while--she's the cruiser of the two of us--on a cruise line she hadn't been on before. It's been a much needed break from the rut I was falling in. I got a fair bit of writing done but not much else on the productivity front. A couple months after that, we returned to Salt Lake City for Dragonsteel Nexus, very much a book-focused convention. I read (and reread in some cases) the majority of Sanderson's Cosmere novels in 2025, so Dragonsteel was a great capstone to that adventure. It also introduced me to many cool people and some other authors to explore once my TBR list slims down. I wrote a script to help capture all the stats and lists I had for the year to add more depth to my annual reviews. I even convinced my partner to rank our favorite media of the year, which I think helps us appreciate the highlights of the year. As I get older, everything starts to blend together, so the "highlight reels", in a sense, help me delineate and remember more.