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one-third January update
Jan. 11th, 2026 08:07 amThe choir concert is coming up end of next week. That whole week will be busy, band rehearsal on Monday, tech at the auditorium on Wednesday, dress on Thursday, then concerts Fri/Sat. Also there has been riser transport this past week, and will be again on the last rehearsal space rehearsal, then again to return them to storage (probably week after concert). At least then there's a week off before Capricon.
My calendar popped up to "think about the August solar eclipse" - I did for about 15 seconds and dismissed it. It's a late evening eclipse, only 10 or 15 degrees off the horizon, and only visible from the tip of Spain and southern Iceland. Not a great prospect. 2027 is a LITTLE better - good timing but southern tip of Spain, then through Morocco across northern Africa into Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Also, very unlikely for me. I think probably mainland Europe/UK, maybe Asia, certainly Australia, or South America are candidates for me.
Speaking of travel, at the NYE party, Sam brought up the Isle Royale trip I'd sort of mentioned earlier in the year - can't remember when, either at Windycon or at the summer event. I had half forgotten about it, but he's game and now it seems like >50% likely to happen and discussions and recruitment has started. Which means I need to start training - building up to 30 pound backpacks for 10 miles. I don't think it'll be a problem but we'll see.
Speaking of exercise, the workout app I paid a subscription for continues to work for me. It's keeping me motivated, the goal is 4 days a week. I also put in one or two 10K runs. Probably should be two. When I was doing a 10K every day they got pretty easy. At one a week, not so much.
I'm getting deeper into stuff working for Lyndon Township as IT support. The day to day stuff I have down, now I'm digging in to the task of extracting things from the last guy's accounts. There are many places that send him important things like invoices and notices. I'm slowly unpicking those and getting them documented and moved over. I understand this kind of thing - it took me a year to unpick my OWN stuff when I was approaching retirement, I know how over the years you just set stuff up and don't really write it down or remember it, just deal with it when it happens. My goal is to make this a transparent position that can be transferred easily.
I've been pacing out my platelet donations a bit better. Rather than every week, I'm shooting for every two. Working around holidays and vacations. 2025 was my 3rd year getting on the plaque - 18 or more platelet donations in one year. I think I was at 23 for 2025.
The weather has been one of those weird Januarys - 15 degrees, 60 degrees, 20 degrees, snow, rain etc. I've been able to ride the motorcycle enough to stay sane so it's all good. The warm/cold is actually worse for making ice though.
A couple of weeks ago I had a ride home from rehearsal at 1*F low - the visor at those temps becomes unmanageable and it's a fight with time - eventually it WILL ice up no matter how I crack it or whatever. And even normally there's a battle with fog - especially when it's raining. I heard a podcast talking about a heated visor - but the one they were selling was > $200. I found one on AliExpress for about $45. That came in, I installed it and it works very well. Also it connects to my normal heated gear as an accessory so it's minimal extra dorking about, just one plug in. Very happy with that.
In late December, I finally bought a Sony RX100 - I'd been wanting one of those cameras for about 3 or 4 years. They are expensive and I've been disappointed by popular tech in the past, so I went with the RX100 Mk1 - it's about 14 years old at this point and resale value is steady, so I could just resell it.
I used it over new year's and within half a day of using it, I knew I wanted to upgrade.
Looking at all 8 of the models that have been released, I decided the Mk6 is the one. The only one newer is the 7 and it's several hundred more and all it really adds is an external microphone jack, which I'm ambivalent about.
They're expensive ($900) so I not only sold the Mk1 (went in an hour for what I paid for it) but started putting other stuff I have not used in years up, and some of that went quickly as well. I'm positioned to buy one now but I'm going to wait for a credit card cycle so I'm not skimming too close to zero in my checking account.
I got rid of all my SLR equipment because even though I like photography, 90% of the time it's just snapshots for memories. I really never have the ambition to lug around an SLR. The RX100 is QUITE compact but they wedge in as close to a pro camera as they can. For travel I think it's about perfect.
My calendar popped up to "think about the August solar eclipse" - I did for about 15 seconds and dismissed it. It's a late evening eclipse, only 10 or 15 degrees off the horizon, and only visible from the tip of Spain and southern Iceland. Not a great prospect. 2027 is a LITTLE better - good timing but southern tip of Spain, then through Morocco across northern Africa into Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Also, very unlikely for me. I think probably mainland Europe/UK, maybe Asia, certainly Australia, or South America are candidates for me.
Speaking of travel, at the NYE party, Sam brought up the Isle Royale trip I'd sort of mentioned earlier in the year - can't remember when, either at Windycon or at the summer event. I had half forgotten about it, but he's game and now it seems like >50% likely to happen and discussions and recruitment has started. Which means I need to start training - building up to 30 pound backpacks for 10 miles. I don't think it'll be a problem but we'll see.
Speaking of exercise, the workout app I paid a subscription for continues to work for me. It's keeping me motivated, the goal is 4 days a week. I also put in one or two 10K runs. Probably should be two. When I was doing a 10K every day they got pretty easy. At one a week, not so much.
I'm getting deeper into stuff working for Lyndon Township as IT support. The day to day stuff I have down, now I'm digging in to the task of extracting things from the last guy's accounts. There are many places that send him important things like invoices and notices. I'm slowly unpicking those and getting them documented and moved over. I understand this kind of thing - it took me a year to unpick my OWN stuff when I was approaching retirement, I know how over the years you just set stuff up and don't really write it down or remember it, just deal with it when it happens. My goal is to make this a transparent position that can be transferred easily.
I've been pacing out my platelet donations a bit better. Rather than every week, I'm shooting for every two. Working around holidays and vacations. 2025 was my 3rd year getting on the plaque - 18 or more platelet donations in one year. I think I was at 23 for 2025.
The weather has been one of those weird Januarys - 15 degrees, 60 degrees, 20 degrees, snow, rain etc. I've been able to ride the motorcycle enough to stay sane so it's all good. The warm/cold is actually worse for making ice though.
A couple of weeks ago I had a ride home from rehearsal at 1*F low - the visor at those temps becomes unmanageable and it's a fight with time - eventually it WILL ice up no matter how I crack it or whatever. And even normally there's a battle with fog - especially when it's raining. I heard a podcast talking about a heated visor - but the one they were selling was > $200. I found one on AliExpress for about $45. That came in, I installed it and it works very well. Also it connects to my normal heated gear as an accessory so it's minimal extra dorking about, just one plug in. Very happy with that.
In late December, I finally bought a Sony RX100 - I'd been wanting one of those cameras for about 3 or 4 years. They are expensive and I've been disappointed by popular tech in the past, so I went with the RX100 Mk1 - it's about 14 years old at this point and resale value is steady, so I could just resell it.
I used it over new year's and within half a day of using it, I knew I wanted to upgrade.
Looking at all 8 of the models that have been released, I decided the Mk6 is the one. The only one newer is the 7 and it's several hundred more and all it really adds is an external microphone jack, which I'm ambivalent about.
They're expensive ($900) so I not only sold the Mk1 (went in an hour for what I paid for it) but started putting other stuff I have not used in years up, and some of that went quickly as well. I'm positioned to buy one now but I'm going to wait for a credit card cycle so I'm not skimming too close to zero in my checking account.
I got rid of all my SLR equipment because even though I like photography, 90% of the time it's just snapshots for memories. I really never have the ambition to lug around an SLR. The RX100 is QUITE compact but they wedge in as close to a pro camera as they can. For travel I think it's about perfect.
