January 12, 2026
Last year was definitely a thing that happened.
Blogging. For the first time since 2006 I had at least one post in every calendar month. At 40 posts it was the chattiest I'd been on here since 2008. I don't really feel like my writing has gotten any better, but at least I'm getting my thoughts down again. When I have them, anyway.
Health. After getting diagnosed with Type II diabetes in the spring of 2024, I had my first full year of maintaining my blood-sugar levels. That went really well; in October the doctor took me off the Metformin (it can screw up your ability to absorb vitamin B12, which was happening) and I'm just using Trulicity now to browbeat my body into not destroying itself. So far, so good.
On the downside I did something to my arm over the summer -- I have no idea what, I just woke up one morning and it was being pissy -- that hasn't gone away. I kinda feel like the only answer is going to involve an MRI, and possibly some kind of surgery. Which, y'know, I'd kinda rather just not.
Financially. Hoo boy, the universe really decided I go just fuck all the way off on this one. In September I replaced the upstairs windows only to learn my house was built by monkeys, in November the car decided I hadn't spent enough money yet and then just before Christmas the thermostat on the water heater went. And since water heaters only tend to last 10-15 years and mine was 11, it was new water heater time!
And I just learned that I'm going to need to replace the circuit-breaker panel at some point. I'm holding off on that one for now because I've already thrown way too much money around, but it'll have to be done eventually. I think I need to make that one its own post, though.
Work. I'm still with the company down in Jacksonville, and since they bought out Lock Media back in 2016 I've (a) been with them for almost ten years now -- March 1st will be my anniversary with them -- and (b) I've effectively had the same job since 2005, so a couple weeks after my Floridaversarry my employment here in Virginia will be old enough to drink.
I'm in kind of a weird place there. The legacy system is on its way out; by the end of the year there should only be one carrier left on it, and they're not even in the US. Most everything else is in Java and good lord am I bad at Java. The project structure seems convoluted and confusing to me, and every time I try to work on something I end up going in circles for days. Feels bad, man.
They had me architect out a couple small projects and I enjoyed that. But for some reason going from "let's have Jason arch out this project" to "Jason starts arching out the project" takes weeks, and both times they tried to get that to happen I got legacy work in that took priority. And now I haven't gotten a new project in months.
Which would be worse if one of our DBAs hadn't gone on medical leave in the fall. I've been filling in there, and other than the fact that I hate it things are going well. So we'll see where things end up in a couple months when the actual DBA is back and the legacy system is back in maintenance mode.
Adulting. I'm still bad at it. Cooking a big batch of stuff on Monday and eating it the rest of the week still works, but I'm running into a problem of not knowing many recipes. My sister decided to take pity on me and bought a cookbook specifically made for people like me. I'm trying a Thai lentil soup tomorrow (today as of this post going live); wish me luck.
Everything else. I've got a couple more things milling around in my head, I'm not sure I want to put them out there or not. Kind of personal in a different way; I'm still deciding. And then there's all the Everything going on out there, the fewer thoughts about what I want to happen that I put in writing on the internet the better.
So yeah, that was a look back at 2025. Coulda been worse, also coulda been a lot better.
