2025 New Things List

Last year I wrote a post about a few first-time experiences and new things that I tried in 2024. This year I thought I'll do the same, but whether this will become an annual tradition remains to be seen. Some of the categories are repeats from last year (food, sports, videography) while others are new.

Black chicken

I had seen black chicken on sale in wet markets, but I hadn't tried it until my friend made this stew for me. Silkie chickens, as they are called, have white feathers, but their flesh and even their bones are black. They taste like regular chicken, just a bit gamier because they are usually free-range.

60 kg (132 lbs)

One time at a house party, my friend, who was a few drinks down, was describing the ideal body type that she aspires to. Legs like X, boobs like Y, and so forth (all celebrities, though I don't remember their names). After running through the list, she paused and added one more: "And Sroyon's metabolism."

All my life, I've been lucky enough to be able eat whatever I wanted and still be a healthy weight. I was underweight in college, but for the last ten years, I've been in the 57–59 kg range. But I always told myself that if I ever hit 60 kg, I'll do something about it.

In the last two months of 2025, I was socialising and therefore eating out a lot, and not playing sports as regularly as I did before. And sure enough, in December, I clocked in at 60.4 kg.

It's not concerning by any means – I did a body composition analysis recently, which said my recommended weight is around 63 kg – but if I do gain weight, it should ideally be muscle and not fat. So now I stopped taking sugar with coffee, eating fruit for breakfast, and exercising more. Nothing drastic, but this is the first time in my life that I am actively trying to lose weight. My metabolism is still fast, but alas, not what it used to be.

Badminton coaching

As kids, many of us went to classes for music, painting, etc., but it's less common for adults – at least the adults I grew up around. But the cool thing about being a grown-up, if you are fortunate enough to have some disposable income, is that if you want to learn a skill, you can just pay someone to teach you.

I generally like to learn stuff on my own – I'm doggedly sticking to self-study for Spanish, though I know I'd make faster progress if I had a teacher – but with badminton, which I play recreationally, I realised last year that I had hit a plateau.

My friend recommended a badminton coach, and after a few sessions with Anthony, my game has improved a lot. I have more to say about it, but maybe that's a topic for another day, and a standalone post.

I like the different flavours of shuttlecock motion blur that you can see in the sequence below: an instant of stillness at the apex, slightly blurry as it drops, and a streak as it leaves my racquet.

MRT station video advert

I've had photos displayed in public spaces, but not video. Until last year, when my friend Emiri spotted – and reacted quickly enough to record – this advert at an MRT (subway) station. It features a clip from a video which I made for Sigma Contemporary Dance. Blink and you'll miss it!

Malaysia

I went to Malaysia for the first time last year, to play pickleball in the border town of Johor Bahru. In the older parts of town I saw some interesting signage and typography. Maybe I'll compile them in another post, but meanwhile I wanted to share this one which I particularly liked – a random metal plaque outside a Commissioner for Oaths office. The Chinese text, apparently, says the same thing.

A Random List of Things I Replaced in 2025

My old phone was a Google Pixel 2 which I bought in 2020, secondhand but in excellent condition. Five years is a decent lifespan for any phone, let alone a secondhand one, but last year a purple patch appeared in a corner of the LED and slowly started bleeding across the whole screen (similar to the issue described here). Apparently a screen replacement is the only solution, so in the summer of 2025, I opted to get a whole new phone.

The latest model at the time was the Google Pixel 9, and the Pixel 10 would launch a couple of months later. My phone needs are modest, so I'm happy buying models which are a few generations older. I found a great deal on a Pixel 6a – a demo unit which had never been opened. I didn't really need a faster processor or more RAM, but I like my new phone's 0.6x wide-angle camera (example photo here), which my old phone didn't have.

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This next one is not a wholesale replacement but a partial one. The ear-pads on my Anker headphones were in a raggedy state (see below right) but I was pleased to find that you can just buy the pads separately. Unfortunately the headband padding is not replaceable, but c'est la vie. (Edit: Tomoe informs me that the headband padding is also available.)

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My first ebook reader was a Kindle 4 (2011). It's really basic – no touchscreen, backlight or wireless connectivity – but I like it, and I used it a lot. Unfortunately, ebooks from National Library Singapore are currently not Kindle-compatible, so I got a Kobo Clara BW instead.

The Kobo is also pretty basic by 2025 standards (e.g. black-and-white screen), but it has some nifty features. You can drag a finger down the left of the screen to adjust the backlight brightness, and pinch to adjust the font size. I also like that it allows for a degree of customisation, like selecting fonts, adjusting the backlight colour temperature, and choosing what certain gestures do.

The Kindle still works though! So I gave it to a friend, and I hope she gets a few more years out of it.

And that concludes this short and rather random list. I wish you, a bit belatedly, a very happy new year. Did you replace anything in 2025?

Nirvana

This viral tweet – "Saw a girl in a Franz Ferdinand t-shirt. She couldn't even name 3 other main causes of the outbreak of World War I" – reminded me of the time my Chinese friend Wu Chi (previously mentioned in this post) was wearing a Nirvana t-shirt:

I asked if she has any favourite songs, and she said "Huh? I thought it's Nirvana as in enlightenment..."

Long Take

Last year I watched Victoria (2015), a German crime thriller film which was shot in a single continuous take.

Cinephiles love to nerd out over long takes. There's a famous one at the start of Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (1958). We see someone set a time-bomb to just over three minutes and place it in a car. The camera then loosely tracks the car in real time until, just over three minutes later, the bomb goes off. The scene was referenced in another long take shot from In Bruges (2008).

Two of my favourite long takes:

1. At the start of the short film, Les Bicyclette de Belsize (1968) – also because I love bicycles, and the film makes me feel nostalgic about London.

2. At 25:40 of The Cranes Are Flying, a 1957 Soviet war drama. I'm not even sure if it counts as a long take, because it's not that long (less than a minute) and I've seen some comments saying there's an invisible cut at 26:00 as Veronika is running through the crowd, when the camera is presumably transferred to a crane. But I love the camerawork and choreography of the scene.

While we are on the subject of single-take, I have to mention One Cut of the Dead, a hilarious and heartwarming Japanese indie film from 2017 (Wikipedia; Film Crit Hulk review: both have spoilers). I believe it's on Shudder, and depending where you live, you may be able to watch it with a free 7-day trial. Highly recommended!

The Lambs Multiply on Balestier

Grassy patch in front of a restaurant in my neighbourhood (Chuan Yang Ji, specialising in lamb).

It appears that the lambs, previously featured on Dangerous Sheep and The Lamb Lies Down on Balestier, have multiplied. Three sheep and three lambs, where previously there were two and one respectively.

Wide-Angle Cinema

The movie which inspired this post is Left-Handed Girl (Shih-Ching Tsou, 2025), which I recently watched on Netflix. It was shot on iPhone (at 0.5x?), and has some gorgeous wide-angle shots:

To make the footage look less iPhone-like and more cinematic (at least, that's my guess), they used diffusion filters – see the glow around the light sources in the still below – and also bumped the saturation in some of the scenes.

In fact, some shots look over-saturated to my eyes, but I can forgive that because I thoroughly enjoyed the movie.

At the opposite extreme is Roma (Alfonso Cuarón, 2018), which is monochromatic – no saturation at all. It's also at the opposite extreme when it comes to format: a 65mm camera whose sensor is over 27 times the area of an iPhone 15 sensor. But like Left-Handed Girl, Roma too has some wonderful wide-angle shots. According to Jon Fauer in Roma and the Look of Large Format, the suite of lenses included a 24mm prime (the full-frame equivalent would be as wide as 14mm).

Some movies have gone even wider, such as Fallen Angels (Wong Kar-wai, 1995). According to this excellent video essay, Wong Kar-wai and his cinematographer Christopher Doyle probably used a Century Tégéa 9.8mm lens with a wide angle attachment that gave it an effective focal length of 6.8mm on 35mm film.

If you know of any other movies with good wide-angle cinematography, please let me know in the comments.

Singapore, 6:55 am

A Malayan water monitor in Macritchie Reservoir, just before sunrise:

BTS phone pic by my friend:

Later in the walk (7:25 am, to be precise):

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I've written before about songs which have what I call a subtle upping of the emotional stakes.

And then there are songs whose climax is not-so-subtle, or some might say, on-the-nose. One such song which I've been enjoying recently (sorry if this is too cheesy) is What It Sounds Like from the KPop Demon Hunters OST: My voice without the lies / This is what it sounds like.

AI Criticism

I gave ChatGPT my blog URL and asked for criticisms of the author's prose and writing style. Here's what it said:

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Here are some stylistic criticisms that could reasonably be made about the writing itself, independent of the author’s personality. These are not "flaws" so much as areas where certain readers might feel the prose could be improved or sharpened, based on the tone and patterns common across the blog.

1. Occasional over-elaboration

Many posts unfold in long, reflective paragraphs with nested thoughts, asides, and clarifications. While this creates richness, it can also make the prose feel a bit meandering or slow to arrive at its point.

2. Intellectual density that may alienate some readers

The writing frequently incorporates references to philosophy, linguistics, niche hobbies, and technical details. Readers not already invested in these areas might find the prose overly cerebral or high-context.

3. Understated emotional tone

Even personal stories are often delivered with restraint. This controlled register may feel emotionally distant; some readers may wish for more immediacy or vulnerability in the expression.

4. A tendency toward self-qualifying and hedging

The prose often uses softeners ("perhaps," "I suppose," "in some sense") that add nuance but can dilute the clarity and confidence of a sentence.

5. Structural looseness

Posts sometimes move organically between observations, memories, and reflections without strong signposting. This can feel poetic, but it can also produce a slightly scattered structure, where the thematic arc is implied rather than shaped.

6. Precision that borders on fussiness

Descriptions—especially of tools, processes, or small experiences—sometimes linger on fine details. While charming for detail-oriented readers, others may find it overly meticulous or slow.

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I do agree with the analysis, although I also think that some of these "flaws" are what makes the writing distinctively mine. But I have, independently, been trying to cut down on asides and clarifications (point 1) and hedging (point 4). There is always room for improvement – I suppose.