Take 5, D.

Weekly Update 2026-01-04: New Year Edition

What happened during the week of December 29th, 2025 - January 4th, 2026:

🗓️ For the first time in this blog's history, I can mark the changing of the years. Welcome to my first entry of 2026! A new year is a new start, so I freshened up some parts of this site. You will now see a new homepage (HONK 🪿), updates to the "Where are you?" and "What else?" pages, and some minor changes in the Weekly Updates to remove emoji inconsistencies.

⁉️ Back in the LiveJournal era, it was an annual tradition for some users to write a 40-question, end-of-year reflection post. This questionnaire has made the rounds around various blogs, courtesy of a nearly 10-year-old blog post that used the exact same questions as I remembered from LJ. Seeing these questions for the first time in years inspired me to answer them for myself, and you can read my responses here.

🏥 The holiday lull continued at work through Friday 01-02. My on-call shift started at noon on New Year's Day, and like my regular work, it was uneventful. The complacency ended around 9 PM on Friday 01-02, as I dealt with one user's problem for nearly 3 hours, then continued working with him early on Saturday 01-03. I gave up after another 3 hours of work, as I don’t have a solution for his issue. As of right now, mid-afternoon on Sunday 01-04, there's been no on-call activity, and I hope it stays that way for the rest of the day.

👵🏻 Also as of right now, there's been no change with my grandmother's status. She made it to 2026!

👔 Here's a related note that I admit is a bit morbid: if attending a funeral were to be in my future, I should be properly attired for it. I dug my suit out of storage on Thursday 01-01 and tried it on for the first time since my brother R.'s wedding in September 2023. In the intervening time, I've dropped nearly 40 pounds and 4 inches off my waist, leading to rather comical results when I wore my suit. Its pants are far too big for me to wear comfortably, whereas the suit jacket is baggy but somewhat passable. I brought my suit back to the store from which I bought it, as they have on-site tailors who could quickly assess whether my suit could be salvaged or if I should buy a replacement. Much to my surprise, my suit can be altered to fit me. I was fully expecting to spend yet more money on a better-fitting replacement, but the cheaper option won out instead. My altered suit should be ready on or before Saturday 01-17.

📸 Last week, I mentioned my article for 35mmc was approved for publishing, and yes, a Christmas miracle happened as it went live on Monday 12-29! You can read it here. It's now in the running for the site's favorite Photo Of The Year, though I highly doubt I'll get picked as the winner. I made it as a finalist, so that counts for something!

🚬 My car's Check Engine light is still on, as additional repairs will need to be made. One issue was the seals around the gas cap were broken, so a new cap was installed. The replacement cap provided enough pressure for the EVAP smoke test to discover another faulty part, which was a charcoal canister near the gas tank. Kia sent the repair shop the wrong canister size, so I'll now have to wait until Monday 01-05 at the earliest to get it installed and tested. On that day, or afterward, I'll work from the repair shop as the installation should only take a couple hours.

A Couple Two Tree Items To Note From Last Week:

External Actions

Internal Labor

Media

Obligations:

More Info About The Media Selections From This Week:

Similar to last week, I had some difficulties in finding media that wasn't engaged in end-of-year reflections or best-of selections. This time my struggle was with podcasts, so I partially succumbed to the overriding theme, as can be seen with the ASIP and low light mixes shows. It's not that I'm entirely against looking back at the year that passed, but I wanted some variety thrown in the mix. Fortunately, BASIC came through with his New Year's collection of older 70s and 80s Soviet-era VIA music, which was a term new to me. The music had some influences of Western rock and pop from the various eras, but was presented in a ways I can only describe as "sideways." You're better off watching and listening to the L'atelier de Musique episode, and not just because BASIC is wearing an incredible velvet blazer!

Both the Japan Times and Disconnect articles tackle the role of technology in their respective worlds. The Disconnect piece has the more critical view, as the author questions how much digital conveniences are necessary in their lives:

"Maybe not everything has to be digital or digitized, maybe the internet shouldn’t be inserted into absolutely everything, maybe we shouldn’t be constantly connected in the way we’re now expected to be, and generative AI certainly does not need to be forced into every facet of society."

However, Paris' critical view of technology is somewhat inverted in the Japan Times article, as it has a more hopeful view of technology assisting people who choose to live in parts of Japan that are rapidly shrinking. Not everyone wants to move out of their rural prefecture to live in a big city, but in a country with a dwindling population overall, how can the folks who stay put live in a way that isn't isolating? There are no simple answers, but instead there may be several unrelated answers, with each region trying out the ones that are appropriate for their needs.

Being young and living in a big Japanese city isn't necessarily a cure-all, either. Sakura's video blog popped up on my YouTube feed recently, and at first, her vlogs don't appear to be uplifting at all. The episode I watched showed her working on Christmas Day in Hiroshima, as that's just another work day in Japan. She spent a lot of time by herself, eating the somewhat traditional KFC meal, and being "thankful for small comforts." Perhaps what I'm still trying to figure out is the difference between loneliness and solitude, as Sakura would likely say her videos reflect the latter in spite of how they may be interpreted by different audiences as the former. Solitude is what spending nearly $1600 for the premium room at a ryokan will get you, as seen by the It's Time To Travel couple. Their room came with not only a separate dining room, but a teppanyaki room at that--you don't go out to eat at a restaurant, the restaurant effectively checks into your room and the chefs prepare your meal right in front of you!

My college often viewed itself in a class that was somewhat close to the school L. attended. In turn, L.'s college viewed itself as being in the same class as Oberlin, both in terms of academic prowess and partying skills. Both of our football teams have had periods of ineptitude, though nowhere near as close as to what Oberlin's team has shown this decade: to wit, the team has only won three games total in the post-COVID era. Two of these wins were against Hiram College, once in the 2021 season and once in the 2024 season, which I guess was so embarrassing for Hiram that they left Oberlin's athletic conference after the 2024 season ended (the third win was against Concordia University Chicago in 2023). The Athletic article mentions the lone fun trivia fact about Oberlin's football team--they're the last in-state school to defeat Ohio State in football--but most of it dwells upon the unique struggles of athletics in a small Division III school. You're not really competing against the shadow of a Big Ten school at places like Oberlin (or either of the schools L. and I attended), but rather you're competing against Calculus II and Greek life and the school's radio station.

Finally, obtaining a gin barrel is a struggle for many brewers, as there aren't many distilleries using oak barrels for aging gin in the first place. This is a shame, as gin barrel-aged beers can be especially delicious when used with beer styles more accustomed to barrel-aging, particularly with saisons. The guys at ABV Chicago clearly had fun assembling this episode, despite the introduction of GinBot 3000, so that's how I'll end my first entry of 2026. Now I'll just need to hunt down that Werk Force or is/was beer for myself...

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