I think they may be onto something...

One of my highlights of the year right here! Best pod now going. 👌✨

And Gary made the grand finale too! Was not expecting to see that clip here. Though it definitely was a highlight.

Best part for last... and that's a wrap.

Onward.

Eric Dane looks a bit like Philip Seymour Hoffman doesn't he?

Sidney Sweeney wasn't the most convincing first actress, but the trailer gets better and better... I think I'm looking forward to this!

I had planned to write this up yesterday, as mentioned, but technically that post was posted yesterday so... I'm not not following through with my brand new New Year convictions thus far!

I'm waiting on an order of 92 packs of diet noodles to get started on my #1 resolution too, but until they arrive I'm doing pretty well this this weight-loss regimen anyway now after two days worth of vast and copious amounts of snow. 🌨️

And a new form of spam. It was just a matter of time wasn't it...

The snow's great though. It's an unexpected but very welcome way to kick things off health-wise, though I'm not sure how much shoveling I can manage without it also having a bad effect on my back. We'll see eh? I had sore muscles after the first day. I have sorer muscles today. And apparently it'll be snowing non-stop here for another five days straight...

But I shan't complain! This really is great exercise. And the view refreshing.

Harry Mack didn't post anything like this this year, but at least we got Kristina Rybalchenko on the drums to kick (kick, get it?!) things off proper for 2026! The Who? YES!

But let's backtrack a bit, to what all went down and how alive we really were in 2025, outside of all this Internet and popularity shit (good shit albeit)... and if you want to check back on the last you can do so fast.

So, 2025....

I sped up in the blogging department again, apparently!

There are four more pages in the archives compared to the previous year. I still don't feel like I've written more than usual. Quite the contrary. But the numbers do say differently!

It really is fascinating how this works. More and more somehow feels like less and less, year after year no less... though I do wish I had more time with peers; less stress...

A large part of the posts are definitely thanks to Inktober and reviews this last year too. Yet I haven't watched a movie in at least a week currently, which makes me a little concerned about how I'll manage in the review department this year... then again all it takes is a few low-due days and you can really work your way through a lot of movies in rapid succession... enjoying each one less if you do, alas, but if you must and stuff...

The word count on the blog's currently almost up at 2,250,000 - just a few more posts like this one... and we did hit 11,000 posts just recently!

That's big.

And two and a quarter million words is... well it's more than 28.5 full books at least - if that's where I was at with the two million words last year. I wonder what average I used for that calculation...

The comment count rises steadily too. :) Shout-out again my ongoing companion in comments @S3C, and increasingly so also @soulard! :) If only @Doomroar happened to venture in here too we'd be unstoppable!

In the real world the wars still rage, and I'm not sure the worldly situation is any better than it was last.

If anything conflicts seem to be escalating all over, with Trump at the forefront of both potential peace treaties and further dissent and turmoil...

I don't like the way things are going in the US lately; nor in a large part of Europe... I don't like how we ourselves are mobilizing either, as if we've forgotten the horrors of the 1940's entirely, and now see armed conflict as a better means of peace than just actually talking to one another, and trying to find the roots of our issues.

And why are we so hellbent on warring as we are?

Is it the banks again? Are they the root of this conflict too? Is it more so the military industrial complex this time? Are the old families at it again; trying to further expand their fortunes via petty squabble as such?

What's the ruse now, really?

Humankind as a whole seems to be going through a mid-life crisis of sorts. It's like we're testing our current model of civilization. Like we've reached a fork in the road, and realize we need to change something. Like we... well, IDK. I wrote a somewhat related blurb in another blog recently (initially left as a comment on another blog recently). There's a fork for this post.

Whatever the root cause of our troubles though I hope we find enough commonality to find a cure; to make our future on this planet something we're actually all collectively rooting for.

Otherwise? In online life and all?

I've frequently succumbed to the great distraction that is YT this year too. Les Yes Theory though. More random gems from Tom Scott's weekly newsletter, and recently a lot of Kurzgesagt, BeardMeetsFood, and BTTB as they practice for their grand upcoming concert premiere... which I'll be attending! I'm excited! That's my first big trip for 2026.

Though speaking of Yes Theory, it's almost like the YT algorithm remembers what I've watched at this particular time last year, since they suddenly suggested this banger of a glimpse into Japan's Illegal Drifting Underworld the other day. Very cool. I learned a bit about the Fast & Furious Tokyo Drift movie too: The drift king himself was in it!!!

It's been a long time since I watched a reaction video though come to think of it! That's good. That's just major distraction.

Otherwise? I've been rappin'! I've been posting crap and trying to do things yet ultimately... it seems overall just waiting for things to happen. But where is the time. How can I take the reigns in life when the horses just keep rushing by? Or when they don't feel like mine...

As with last year I've been in surprisingly good shape the past year though. I think I started it with a common cold, but all through summer and onward I've had nothing! Which is nothing short of miraculous considering how much up and about I've been - and how sick people seem to be in the places I frequent. But maybe that too is the secret, that you need to be up and about for your immune system to truly thrive and strengthen.

And my back has been better! And I've been sleeping better. The only thing I hate is that I keep gaining weight. Every winter. It's just too easy. But I am taking strides; doing something about that now...

Didn't watch any life-altering-and-new-favorite movies at the cinema right before the New Year this year (least year it was Interstellar), but I did go on a cruise! The day before New Year's Eve. That felt refreshing.

There were some interesting people on the boat too.

Spoke a bit with an older Uzbekistani man dressed in a green and silver robe, with a dark red Che Guevara t-shirt beneath it. He'd apparently been part of the resistance there! Fighting the regime. He spoke four languages fluently but Swedish was not one of them, so it wasn't so easy to understand everything he said, but he seemed to have a fascinating story, and strolled around slowly, like royalty on the boat...

And we rested up, had a great breakfast buffet and good time overall, and came back home in time for the yearly recap posts, cheers and the traditional firework observations from windows with a proper vantage point on the second floor...

I've done some traveling this year too, and a bundle of cruises, but there's even more in store next year. :) Maybe not cruises specifically - but planes and trains and ...! Bosnia was a real adventure this year though, as was Albania, and yes I was in Åre again! For the third and possibly final (for quite some time at least) time.

There's been a bundle of cruises too. And flights back North when due...

Finances are looking up a little, currently, but tickets have been cheaper too. As have our destinations. You definitely get a lot more bang for your buck in Albania than you do in Dublin, for example. Not to mention Barcelona! That was probably my priciest weekend trip to date.

I started my resolution post in time this time, but I'm a bit later with this post... it feels like I'm finally starting to settle into this New Year here.

Though there is still so much to do. I need to get back to Nick. I need to record some verses now much overdue - real quick. And I need to take some trips! And I need to pack some gifts... and I need to see things through! There's a calendar on the wall, on which I note my dues. And I'll be working through this queue, till the work is done in June...

And then? We'll have fun! With friends when we resume, our time up in the summer palace, where we hover through the gardens as if dancing ballet, sipping on the chalice of life real suave! Biding our time - the next day always primed in our mind - with maybe a leafy green salad, or some crayfish tails in a jar of brine... spice me up! Until life is nice and dandy...

I can't wait for next summer y'all. But for now? The snow demands me...

Hopefully this whole year is a band-aid. On the hurt that holds our planet.

And us! But let's just keep striving to get better. And make more stuff.

Happy New Year y'all! Again!

Here's a little blurb I left in comment form elsewhere earlier. It seemed worth posting here too. :) Rephrased slightly for the blog. On life...

...

Life expectancy still keeps increasing, but I wonder if our overall happiness and quality of life does...

We had good things. Good things were simpler.

We seem to end up complicating things incrementally until they're no longer as good, then get back to basics again, and things are good again for a while.

There's just this endless cycle of incremental improvement past the point of movement up to a point of collapse...

Like we have this tower that we're trying to build higher and higher, and the higher it gets the cooler it looks, but the longer it takes to climb, and competing towers aren't worth a dime, and collapse starts looking imminent if you just read the signs, yet they keep building that tower higher, until the final hour, when the weather breaks it with its power... and we realize the tower was standing in front of the sun and blocking all its shine! And so we bathe in rays of light again, and suddenly all feels fine.

TLDR: Advice...? Maybe we need to break that tower of life.

Like the Mayans did - every century. Reset society. Restart.

Learn from our mistakes, and this time...

...make things right.

I started last year with an even more iconic drum session, but why not kick things off with something similar this year too?

I've been stumbling across Kristina's drum covers on the tube for a while, so it was pretty cool to see her suddenly pop up on Drumeo as well. I don't think I've ever heard Baba O'Riley before either! She makes it groove.

The track I'd really planned on starting this year with though... that's this.