Chp 916. Steam vs Me

Sometimes a year goes by so quickly, especially when we are caught up in routines that blur one day into the next.

But not last year.

In 2025, I decided to do one thing every day. Every. Single. Day.

Every day for the entire year, the first thing I did after waking up was log into Steam and play a game. Sometimes just for a few minutes. Sometimes for hours. That tiny daily ritual somehow made the year feel longer, more marked, more measurable.

Don’t get me wrong, I love gaming, and I already play almost daily. But last year, it wasn’t just for enjoyment. Logging into Steam became a commitment. A self-imposed rule.

You see, there’s this feature called Steam Replay, kinda like Spotify Wrapped or YouTube Recap, where you get a breakdown of your annual gaming activity at the end of every year, like how many games you played, total hours spent, achievements unlocked, reviews written, and so on. One of the stats it shows is your "Longest Gaming Streak".

And I wanted that 365-day streak.

A full, uninterrupted year of gaming. A badge of honour reserved only for a very tiny percentage of people who either have too much time on their hands… or questionable priorities.

I mean, I've been on Steam for more than 10 years now, I just wanted to get that coveted "365-day streak" just once, you know.

And so there I was, making sure I logged into Steam and launched a game every single day for the entire year, no matter what.

When we had cyclones and thunderstorms, I still went online for a few minutes, nervously praying I wouldn’t be struck by lightning mid-session.

When power cuts lasted for days, I saved my inverter battery just to squeeze in a short play session.

When my broadband line got severed by landslides during the monsoon, I connected my PC to my pathetic, slow mobile hotspot and played anyway.

When I travelled to Pune and Goa, I carried my laptop and logged in from hotel rooms just to keep the streak alive. I did the same when I had to visit Kolasib and other towns in Mizoram.

That’s how committed I was.

Not to gaming, but to the streak.

And so, as December came to an end last year, I was honestly proud of myself.

Three hundred and sixty-five days of continuous Steam activity. No breaks. No excuses. No missed logins. I had earned that freaking streak!

When Steam Replay finally dropped in late December, I opened it with the confidence of a man about to receive his long-overdue medal. The page slowly loaded.

Total hours? Solid.

Total games? Respectable.

Achievements? Plenty.

Everything looked good.

And then I scrolled down to the part that mattered the most.

"Longest Gaming Streak"

drumroll please...

.
.
.
.

51 days.

I stared at the screen.

Fifty-one?

FIFTY-ONE?!

Fifty Freaking One!!???

AAAArrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

That is not even two months.

I genuinely thought Steam was joking. I refreshed the page. I logged out and logged back in. I checked if maybe there was a hidden “pro version” of my streak somewhere.

Nothing.

Apparently, my streak was only from January 1st to February 21st.

Which is impossible.

I know it’s impossible because I remember the daily rigour of it all. The storms. The power cuts. The mobile hotspot sessions. The hotel logins. The sheer stubbornness.

Even if, IF, I had somehow broken the streak on February 21st (let’s just say, maybe Steam servers glitched or something on that day), the counter would have restarted the next day. I would still have easily crossed 51 days again.

And yet, according to Steam, my grand dedication to a full-year streak lasted only 51 days.

I know Steam doesn’t count a streak just for logging in. You actually have to launch and play a proper game. It also doesn’t count pre-release titles or certain edge cases. So I made sure I was playing solid, mainstream games like Cities: Skylines, Age of Empires, Anno 1800, etc. Real sessions, real playtime.

And all that… for nothing.

That was the moment I realised something important.

Maybe I wasn’t chasing a streak.

Maybe the streak was chasing me.

And it won.

This year, I decided, screw it. I'mma gonna play whenever I feel like. 

No forced logins. No compulsion. 

Just pure, guilt-free gaming. 

Screw you, Steam Recap. :P

Chp 915. Worst New Year everrrr

[I actually wrote this post on Jan 1st, but got tied up with a lot of other stuff and didn’t get to finish it. So, I’m publishing this post with the date set as January 1st, though its 15th Feb today]

Happy New Year, everyone! Welcome to 2026.

Hope you all had a blast with your family and loved ones. I, on the other hand, had the absolute worst New Year’s experience of my entire life.

I currently live at our farm by myself, with my beloved doggos. They are the light of my life and keep me entertained in my otherwise secluded existence.

I know my dogs well, and they are terrified of loud noises from crackers and rockets. And who can blame them? They have ridiculously sensitive super-hearing ears. They can recognise footsteps long before anyone even appears on my farm gate’s CCTV.

That’s an insane level of hearing power.

The downside is that loud explosions and even distant thunder terrify them. The crackle of crackers, or the boom of rockets bursting in the sky on New Year’s night.

Now, even though bursting crackers at midnight is prohibited in Mizoram, it is perhaps one of the most anticipated crimes in our community. Everyone knows people will break that law. After all, it’s just a once-a-year, 5 to10 minutes thrill that we never otherwise get to experience.

The noise here at Sihphir Neihbawi isn’t as intense as in the heart of Aizawl, but it’s still loud enough to send our furry babies scurrying in panic. That’s why I decided to stay at the farm on the 31st night to be with them.

The evening actually started off beautifully. As every year, my farm neighbours and nearby Neihbawi peeps came up to my hilltop to bid the year’s final sunset goodbye.

My niece and her friends came too.

Sanga also came with his entourage.

We laughed, chatted, and watched the last sunset of the year slowly melt into the distant horizon. Just like that, another year had passed… and yet I am still single and unmarried. Damn.

My niece and her friends soon left, while Sanga and his crew stayed back. We lit a bonfire and reminisced about the year that had gone by.

Heavenly view indeed!

Later, we went down to my farmhouse as it started getting really cold. I served special virgin Bloody Marys, and everybody loved them.

We karaoked the heck out for a few more hours, after which they left around 10PM to be home with their families for the New Year moment.

And just like that, I was alone at my farm with my six kids. Which was fine because that was the plan anyway.

I played a few rounds of Anno 1800 while waiting for midnight.

At around 11:50PM, I locked my dogs inside the farmhouse so they wouldn’t panic and bolt outside when the rockets started. I grabbed a torchlight and walked to the edge of my farm to watch the fireworks.

It was beautiful.

Boom boom boom.

Flower-like sparkles burst across the dark sky, their echoes bouncing between the hills of Sihphir. Smoke hung low in the cold air. From the distant horizon, I could see Aizawl lighting up like a Diwali party, tiny flashes flickering across the hills.

I stood there for a few minutes, taking it all in.

Around 12:10AM, I walked back to the farmhouse, knowing my dogs would be panicking from the noise.

And boy… did I underestimate their fear!

As I opened the door and stepped inside, I froze.

My entire PC system, along with all my external hard drives, was strewn across the bloody floor! For context, I am talking about this.

In their panic, they had knocked everything down.

My heart stopped.

I rushed over and started picking up the PC and the drives. I had recently spent a small fortune upgrading my setup, and the thought of it being destroyed was horrifying.

With extreme trepidation, I switched on the PC.

It powered up.

Thank God.

I connected my first 18TB external drive. It was detected.

Phew!

Then I connected my second 18TB drive.

Nothing.

Not detected.

Just... Krrrr krrrr krrr sound!

Aaaargh!!!!

That drive held my entire collection of movies and TV shows, all neatly catalogued season by season, which I had been collecting for... I dunno... 20 years? It also had many other important and treasured files that I honestly don’t even want to think about right now.

I stayed up until 2 or 3AM researching data recovery services. If I was lucky, and that’s a big IF, the repair alone could cost around 50K. Then I’d need another 50K for a new 18TB drive to store the recovered data.

And that’s assuming recovery was even possible.

I couldn’t sleep after that. The entire first day of 2026, I was just… down.

I looked at my kids and couldn’t even blame them. I should have stayed inside the farmhouse with them when the rockets started. I kept replaying the moment in my head, asking myself why I didn’t bloody disconnect the hard disks and keep them safely inside my suitcase.

Yes, I was going through the five stages of grief on the very first day of the year.

I feel better now. I try not to think about it too much.

Hard drives can be replaced. Dogs cannot.

Still… 2026 could have started with a little less drama. :(

Hope your New Year’s was a lot calmer than mine.