Take 5, D.

Weekly Update 2026-04-05: Chocolate Bunny Guillotine Edition

What happened during the week of March 30th - April 5th, 2026:

🫓 Just like this pita bread emoji, I felt like this week flattened me. Many other plans of mine were overtaken by events, and by week's end, I felt unwilling to fight for what I originally wanted to do. Better to cut my losses, then try again another time.

👨🏻‍💼 I had two days in a row that contributed to me feeling like flatbread. On Wednesday 04-01, I had my yearly review and...it wasn't great. The write-up was shockingly short, the tone came off as peeved, and it felt like my manager took an entire 5 minutes to complete it. His main issue was with my communication efforts with other people, be it himself, my teammates, or other staff members. In his opinion, I was often a day late and a dollar short when I reached out to people, though the example he used in the review to illustrate this centered around a project from this year. In my response, I countered by saying he shortchanged my accomplishments in 2025 when he focused on a project that was happening in 2026, and to his credit, he understood where I was coming from and will amend the review to reflect more accurately upon my 2025 efforts. His main point still stands, however, so I will have to make a better show of how I reach out to others at my job.

👩🏾‍⚕️ The next day, Thursday 04-02, was my first meeting with L.'s EAP counselor. It was an intense session that stayed with me long after it ended. Within minutes of the session's start, it became a deep examination of my mother's life, how I was feeling with her being gone for over a year, my guilty feelings about the San Diego vacation while my mother's ashes sit in a cardboard box in our living room, and how even if I were to get her burial affairs settled, that won't fully settle my own feelings. Understandably, the counselor had no real answers for what I was bringing up, nor did I expect her to have them anyway. We will talk again on Wednesday 04-08.

☦️ L. has also experienced a rough week at work, largely due to staffing concerns. Even when difficult employees are out for an extended period of time, their absence still makes work life harder for everyone else. While this weekend is (Western) Easter, Orthodox Easter (aka Pascha) is next week on Sunday 04-12. L. is trying to ensure that she can attend as many Holy Week liturgies as possible, starting with Palm Sunday on Sunday 04-05. She's also feeling the pinch of these work absences, which has frustrated her a great deal. Hopefully, she can make up time with other people on her staff so she can go to church.

🌶️ Oh yeah, I can't forget the one legitimately great thing which happened this week: airline tickets and car reservations have been made for the New Mexico trip in May! Much to my surprise, the airfares were not affected by any projected increases in aviation fuel, so I hope this stays in effect for the trip. The prices were pretty decent, given that there never will be a nonstop flight between St. Louis and Albuquerque; our flights switch in Dallas for both legs of the round trip. Let's hope for smooth flights to the Land of Enchantment, unlike last year's mess.

🐰 Finally, happy Bunny Day for those who celebrate. The post title references one of the most deviously clever inventions on MST3K, though the Cartuner also lives rent-free in my head. And yes, this was the Invention Exchange before the life-changing and infamous episode of Manos, The Hands Of Fate.

Items Of Note From Last Week:

Outbound Actions

Internal Obligations

Media

More Info About The Media Selections From This Week:

I almost felt like skipping this section this week, but I was able to find one appealing bit of media per section to discuss.

I have talked about wanting to visit Japan and Taiwan for some time, which is one of the many reasons I have taken up watching Japanese tourism videos on YouTube. I briefly considered the idea of taking a ferry from southern Japan to Okinawa, but if the Solo Travel Japan video is any indication, I'd be better saving my money for a flight to the islands. It's a 25-hour ferry ride from Kagoshima on Kyushu to Naha on Okinawa with a couple intervening island stops, so the travel time isn't too bad considering the distance involved. However, the amenities on the ferry seem pretty sparse for the cost of the cabin, and given the age of the ferry, any cheaper rooms than the nearly $200 Deluxe Single featured here would be akin to bunk beds or capsule hotel rooms. The video does capture wonderful moments of docking at islands along the way to Okinawa, including the rather famous Yoronjima and its namesake shade of blue. Perhaps I'll just have to visit these islands via video, and I can live with that.

Honda has been one of my favorite car companies for quite some time now. They have moved from strength to strength, offering up vehicles that are well-built, last for a long time, and provide features that work really well for their owners. The sheer number of Civics and Accords and Odysseys on the road would seemingly indicate Honda is in a strong financial position, but like many other car companies, Honda took a gamble on electrification and lost big time. Honda had a brief tie-up with GM to produce the Prologue EV, a heavily-disguised Chevrolet Blazer EV that would serve as a bridge, or "prologue," to its own electric vehicles developed wholly in-house or through a puzzling tie-in with Sony. Poor sales and the American pivot away from EVs led to Honda not only pulling the plug on its own designs, but also led to GM ending production of the Prologue after only two years! All these billions of dollars and yen were spent on fleeting results, and while I like the idea of Honda pivoting to hybrids, that will still require more money to be spent for this new transition. The Japan Times article recaps Honda's shifting fortunes with EVs, and surmises upon the company's future. I don't think Honda will disappear, but I don't think it will last as an independent company by 2036. Perhaps their future will see them merge with another Japanese automaker, or maybe tie up with a Chinese firm?

Finally, door.link is a podcast I've featured before in my media write-ups. There's a distinct Japanese vaporwave influence with the selected music, despite the show originating from Argentina. I mainly picked the podcast this week to keep the Japanese theme going, as I wasn't really interested in reviewing any of my news or beer podcasts this week. Like all of the door.link podcasts, you have the option of listening to them in your browser if you'd rather avoid downloading files.

Picture time!

Let's try a new feature to reward folks who've made it this far in the blog entry.

Planning the New Mexico vacation in May led me to reflect upon our last trip in July 2022. I was not too keen on my Sony camera at that time, so while I used it during the vacation, better photos were taken with my iPhone. As an example, this somewhat abstract picture was at the San Francisco de Assís Church along New Mexico Route 14 (aka the Turquoise Trail), which is a far more scenic drive connecting Santa Fe to Albuquerque than Interstate 25.

Most photos are from the front of the church, but I prefer this side view. San Francisco de Assis Church, Golden, NM.

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