Normally, it takes until about the middle of February for me to get sick of Winter. Usually, in mid-December we still see some 40 degree days. Almost never are we under 20 degrees. This year, we’ve seen -8 Degrees (these are all in Fahrenheit). More than once. It has been effin’ cold. And we have a ton of snow on the ground. In some places near me, we’ve already had 50 inches of snow, which is damn near unheard of here in the lower peninsula. The UP, sure. Those backwoods mofos are used to this kind of shit. Down here, we’re basically Florida.

Happy Thanksgiving!

It is important to say thanks. So, I’m just going to say thank you. Thank you to my family for putting up with me. Thank you to my buddies who have been with me through it all. Thanks to all of those people who have supported me throughout the years. And finally, thank you for reading this.

This is my 200th post in 2025. There’s still over a month to go in this year, so I’ll have more. When I started this blog, it was going to be nothing but books. I wanted a place where I could talk about books I’ve read, what I was going to read, and other book related things.

If you go all the way back, which you can do by going to my Archives Page, you’ll see the first few posts are all about the books. And for sure, I’ve written a lot about reading this year. But I’ve escaped that niche and this has turned into a blog about whatever I want to talk about. It has been freeing in a way I didn’t really think was possible when I set out. And as time goes on, I discover more and more things I really love about blogging.

All I have to say is that, unless you’re mom is a horrible person (there are cases like that, we all know it), you should listen to your mom.

As you get older, you will find over and over again, that most of the time your mom was right about things big and small.

I’m not saying my mom has always been right, but those mom sayings we all hear and roll our eyes at, she’s right about those. And, like any kid, I mostly ignored them.

I like Discord. I also kinda hate Discord. The problem I have with it is that there are a lot of people there. The thing I like about it is that there are a lot of people there. It’s a mixed bag.

You will find a lot of great things on Discord, but I have also had my worst experiences on social media on Discord (which makes Twitter jealous). Something about the real time nature of the chat seems to remove the filter from some people’s mouth.

When the whole fidget spinner was was going around a few years ago, I laughed at it just like everyone else did. After all, this thing was a toy, and usually an expensive one. Those going on about the benefits were probably easily distracted. Like cats.

But I got to tell you, I have a thing for fidget spinners.

I have a serious case of ADD. I always have had. Often times my attention is in six different places at once. For example, right now, I’m writing this post, forcing Claude to automate adding the idle inhibitor to 31 different waybar themes, watching a YouTube video, and reading the third Dresden Files book. Just on a side note, if someone could tell the Claude guys, that their ability to write scripts to automate tasks is going to suffer due to their inability to realize that they know nothing about absolute paths in Linux, that would be great. Also, I need to write a blog post about how much the Dresden Files is pissing me off. Who writes a book about wizards and then takes the wizard’s power away from them? It’s just dumb.

I’m staring at my blog right now. You ever do that? Look at something you created and just stare at it in wonder? I often times will look at my blog or my YouTube page and think: “I made that!” It’s a good feeling, but not one you really remember until you’ve created something. It floats out of your consciousness, replaced by the lazy monkey in your brain that I talked about before.

It’s not like I don’t care about what goes on in the world. I do. But I don’t care about your opinion. It’s not personal, it goes for both sides of the political aisle. I think both sides are full of zealots who would watch the world burn if only they could be proven right. And the thing is, if you’re one of those on the far right or the far left, and you can bring yourself to be honest about it, you know I’m right.

I waste a lot of time on YouTube. I’m not proud of it, but I figure as long as I get my stuff done, I’m okay. I watch some very odd things on the ‘Tube, but lately, I’ve gotten into watching people farm. I’ve never worked on a farm before, nor I have I really ever wanted to, but I’m utterly fascinated watching other people do it on YouTube. First off, I had no clue there was so much tech involved. Oh, I knew about tractors, but some of these things have more monitors than I have. The water pivots have cellular technology! My dumbass thought farming was a quaint thing that existed in the same way it did 100 years ago. Now that I think about it, I know better, but I’ve never considered all that goes into it before, not had I thought that farming too had been taken over by the tech industry.

The title really says it all. I can’t imagine a world where I don’t have a dog in my life. There’s just something about dogs that only bring joy and happiness. Not many things in the world are like that. Even the most annoying of mutts will bring a smile to my face, and that joy is priceless.

I know there are cat people out there, and I love cats too, but dogs are different. They offer companionship when you’d otherwise have none. They offer love and compassion when you need it most. When you’re sad or when you’re happy, your dog is there for you.