I managed to stay up to watch the ball drop on ABC New Year’s Eve show. As I was doing so I realized that if I had not gotten my OTA antennae functional within the last month it would have been much more of a hassle to watch network content like this. It also has allowed me to watch several Eagles games that I otherwise would have been locked out of.

My New Years Day was extremely slow paced. The major accomplishment of the day was getting all of my indoor and outdoor Christmas decorations put away with a major assist from my girlfriend. The house feels rather empty now.

I also finished my accelerated consumption of 5 seasons of Stranger Things, including the season 5 finale. I guess there has been a lot of debate about how Season 5 went, including the finale. There were complaints of excessive wokeness in the show as one of the main characters decided to come out of the closet right before the climactic end conflict which was a bit odd. Overall though I did enjoy the show that I ironically had not seen a single second of the 10 year run until 5 weeks ago. I thought the final episode was good overall with a few questionable plot decisions.

Last night I saw activity on my front door Ring camera, I figured it was an Amazon delivery so I didn’t rush to go check. When I did check I was confused. By my front door was a Publix bag with a box of Ramen noodles and two canisters of Japanese coffee. My only explanation was this was some sort of Door Dash delivery that was fumbled. It was an odd conclusion to my 2026 New Years Day.

I received an email from the guy that won the V8S on the live stream last week. He told me the wheel safely arrived and sent me this cool picture of the wheel in a park presumably in the Bronx somewhere since that was his address. The cup of Dunkin Donuts on the wheel was a nice touch. I’m glad he is going to get a lot of use out of a wheel that was simply collecting dust in my garage.

Yesterday I received a part to address an issue on my A1 printer. Through installation of the new part I realized that the old part was probably just fine. I had a coupler reversed in direction which was making the original part not lock in place correctly. I only discovered my stupidity after watching a two minute video which illustrated my mistake. After installing the new part and the corresponding coupler correctly my test print was fine. The A1 had been unused for a couple months because I couldn’t fix this “problem”. Doh….

I woke up to some of the coolest temperatures of the season. The Tesla showed 41 degrees this morning. I still did not opt for a coat but did enlist wearing a long sleeve shirt this morning.

I mentioned how Elsa was having issues jumping up on the couch or bed last weekend. I had been assisting her get up by carefully lifting her into place. Well a couple days ago I was about to lift her onto the bed when she suddenly just jumped up there herself. I guess she is feeling better, which is a relief.

I am not going out for New Years Eve. Instead I plan to stay warm and content under my own roof. My New Years Day will likely be focused on taking down Christmas decorations and getting the house back into normal condition, yay. Happy New Years.

In general my posting in 2025 has been less verbose and less frequent than prior years so I expect this recap to follow the same game plan. Let’s review 2024 goals which were summarized as one thing Do the things and make decisions that lead me towards peace, happiness, satisfaction, and contentment.

That has always been a year to year goal for me. In 2025 I actually walked the talk which I can dig into later.

At the end of 2024 I had started dealing with a long bout of IT band pain which continued on for a good portion of 2025 as well which has been very frustrating. I took prolonged periods off from pickleball and resigned myself to not playing volleyball any more as a result. I have been doing stretching and strengthening consistently to try to break the cycle which I have somewhat in recent months. My right side is feeling better but still not 100% I hope 2026 has less chronic lower body pain for me.

I reignited my 3D printing hobby in 2025. Once I saw the amazing things I could do with my Bambu Lab A1 I bought four more Bambu printers during the year, a used X1C and a new P1S, P2S, and H2S. In this process I wound up later selling the X1C and P1S so I currently have three Bambu printers active as well as a Snapmaker U1 that will show up sometime early in 2026.

I also sold/gave away all of my Prusa printers for pennies on the dollar. I love my Bambu printers like I once loved my Prusa fleet. I have made hundreds of cool prints throughout the year on my multi-color printers and expect that to only accelerate in 2026. This 3D revival has also revived my 3D focused YouTube channel, Duf3D, which had been collecting dust for several years.

2025 was a year where a number of things that you wouldn’t expect happened. Although it started during 2024 I switched back my diet from pescatarian only to include other animal protein sources. Even though my compassion for animals is the same my belief that what I eat makes any significant difference in their consumption is not. Eating seafood only has the potential for heavy metal concentrations in your blood that is not great and I feel my overall wellness has been better since switching back to a more “normal” diet. I would be lying if I said I feel no guilt about it however.

Another surprising change this year was I fired a real gun for the first time in my life. Not only did I fire one but I now own four of them, two hand guns, a SBR and a shotgun. I even have my concealed weapon permit. However despite some people’s concerns, I have not become a full fledged “gun nut”. During the year I have only shot at the range a total of 3 or 4 times.

Why the change? Well I always dismissed guns as unnecessary despite never owning/shooting one. In general I have been trying to remain more open to trying new things so I have done so. Also to be honest this world we live in is teetering based on what we see going on at high levels in the government. Who the hell knows how long it is until total chaos ensues. If so I have small insurance policy, just in case.

Unlike 2024, I did not do a lot of travel in 2025. I was on a road trip to Texas with my girlfriend to attend my niece’s high school graduation ceremony. That was a fun little adventure. I also flew up to PA for my buddy Troy’s wedding which also included a brief visit with my family.

I hit a milestone on my YouTube channel this year, hitting 15,000 subscribers. The growth has continued to be strong as I just crossed 17,000 subscribers recently. In addition I have been posting content regularly to Instagram and TikTok. I have tripled my followers in TikTok this year, not that it does me any real good since I am not monetized on that platform.

I have had a shuffling of my electric unicycle collection this year. I added a KingSong F22 Pro but then quickly realized it was not a good wheel for me. I then traded that wheel for a Nosfet Aero via a dealer in St. Petersburg. I also added an Inmotion V12S and V9 which was given to me for review. I then trimmed the Mten 3 and the Inmotion V8S from my collection. I still have something like 6 or 7 wheels in my garage but my time riding EUCs was probably the least I have ever done this year since getting into the hobby. Part of that was physical issues, part of it was just my attention and energy being focused elsewhere.

I did not have major home improvement projects this year. The most involved thing I did was more repairs on the fence where I added additional supports to attach the fence boards to. It was not difficult but tedious to be sure. I also have replaced a few of the fence boards and will likely need to do more in 2026.

I played in my first ever pickleball tournament this year. The tournament was on the small side but my partner and I still managed to win in the 3.5 division. It wasn’t a huge accomplishment but was the first tournament play of any type that I have played in 12-15 years so I was proud of the result regardless. I plan to play more tournaments next year. I slowed down on the torrid pace of buying paddles this year, thank goodness.

I had an unexpected and very disappointing conflict with a neighbor this year. I have had several big neighbor conflicts in my lifetime but this was the first time I had one where the neighbors were this dishonest, entitled and dumb. I was proud that I showed the amount of restraint I did based on the insults that were thrown my way. My position on the HOA board sort of requires more decorum. I am no longer on speaking terms with these people and that is just fine with me.

I had two more spots of skin cancer cut out this year. The spot on my forehead was a mess. It did not close properly and took much longer to heal than any previous surgery I had. I have no doubt there will be more surgeries to come.

Elsa turned 10 this year which seems hard to believe. I want to make sure to do whatever I can to keep her as happy and healthy as possible for as long as I can.

So the biggest positive for me this year was the addition of my girlfriend. Ever since I split with Cindy I have had several years of turmoil as far a relationships go. I went through some very hard time periods that taught very important lessons in regard to what does and does not matter when it comes to relationships.

For many years I have professed how I wanted to find someone that promotes peace in my life instead of chaos. That is exactly what she does. We enjoy each other’s company no matter what scenario we find ourselves in. I only wish I could have figured this out sooner. Her addition to my life has changed a lot of things, all of which are positive.

That’s enough blabbing about this year, you actually got more than I expected.

My goals for 2026 which I will make more conventional this time…

I need to keep doing things to maintain my health. The chronic injuries and even the recent two weeks of illness makes me appreciate the value of being healthy. Not being able to do what you want to do because your body says no is a feeling I really dislike. I expect to continue my fitness regimen as I always have.

As far as home improvements go I have had a back of the mind desire to replace the very worn bedroom carpets in the house ever since I moved in. Maybe 2026 is the year I get to it. I don’t have any other glaring issues in the house that bother me. As I mentioned there will likely be more work on the fence to try to extend it’s lifespan.

I don’t have any travel plans currently on the horizon for next year but I am sure I will find myself crossing state lines at one point or another.

It would be nice to see if I could pump a little life back into my online 3D store in 2026. I sold a few things this year but with my new array of printers I can do much more. It will never be a big moneymaker but it’s nice to earn a little money from a side hustle.

I’m hoping my relationship with my girlfriend continues to strengthen and grow in 2026. I have a feeling it will.

Well that wraps it up. I hope anyone reading this has a great New Year celebration, whatever that means to you. See you in 2026.

I have emerged from roughly two weeks of time away from the office combined with illness with Christmas thrown in the middle of it. It is far too long of a time period for me to give any sort of detailed recap, not that you would want one anyway. The worst part of the flu for me was done by Christmas, by that time random coughing fits were the main remaining symptom. That symptom remains today, just to a lesser degree.

Overall my time off was pretty low key. Luckily I did not have a lot of Xmas prep that needed to be done last minute. My Christmas was enjoyable as I hoped. My Christmas present buying efforts seemed to be much appreciated and I got some cool things as well such as the Hedra RGB lights you can see in this picture, adding even more color to my very colorful office.

I did a couple live streams during my time off, one public, one for channel members only. During the public stream I gave away a number of things including my Inmotion V8S. The person that won was very excited. It felt good to spread some holiday cheer and good energy.

I got back on the pickleball courts finally, playing a total of three times during my time off. I did not play too badly despite the lack of court time. The biggest thing I noticed was my energy reserve was low, after only a few games I was tired. One of my gifts was a book called The Tao of Pickleball. It is a good book that focuses more on the mental aspects of the game as well as tying some of it to the ideas behind martial arts. I am finding a lot of things in the book I would like to work more into my play.

Elsa hurt her back leg playing with my girlfriend’s dog over the break. She isn’t able to jump right now which prevents her from doing things like getting into my bed which is one of her favorite hang out spots. When it first happened I tried scooping her up but the way it put pressure one her back legs made her cry in pain so I I just let her stay in her dog beds on the floor. I have been giving her a few days to see if she improves. It seems better but she is still not normal. I have since adopted a different technique to lift her that doesn’t hurt so she is able to hang out on the bed. She can get down by herself without issue. I am far too familiar with dog joint issues as they get older so I am hoping Elsa can heal up on her own with enough rest. I actually have a pet ramp that was used to load heavy EUCs. I set it up but Elsa just did not get the concept.

The Eagles have had two wins during my break, beating the Commanders who were wrecked with injuries. Even so the game was very close in the first half. Last night the Eagles beat the Bills on the back of incredible luck, 13-12. The Eagles had a good first half but once again the offense disappeared in the second half. They set some sort of record by scoring zero points while throwing for zero yards in the half as well.

Last year was different, once the Eagles got a lead they could lean on Barkley to grind out yards and clock to close out games. Instead the Eagles gained 16 yards in the entire second half, yes, 16. All year they have demonstrated an inability to counter if a team changes things up on them. Without Barkley producing consistently Hurts just can’t carry the load with his arm. It feels odd to be complaining about a win, on the road against a team that was 11-5. The wildly inconsistent performances of the team just make myself and many other Eagles fans frustrated. Despite their record, I will be amazed if they go anywhere in the playoffs.

So I entered the 10 day break feeling like garbage and wishing for the time I could emerge into a more normal existence. That time has finally arrived. I am feeling a bit of the post-Christmas blues that I have always dealt with but a little self reflection makes me realize I don’t really have anything to be blah about.

What I thought originally was just a cold has definitely been reclassified as some variety of flu based on this going on for a week now. Last night the misery continued with coughing, non-stop nose blowing and watering eyes. I went to bed before 9PM which never happens. When I awoke during the night I did so with one eye or the other pasted shut from all off the fluid that was coming from them I suppose. I can’t remember the last time that happened.

So despite all of this I tried to focus on whatever positives I can. It seemed like when I got up this morning the coughing fits were less severe than recent days so hopefully that means I might be turning a corner. You would not think any corners were cleared if you looked at me. Both my eyes are extremely bloodshot and look like I was crying non-stop for hours, I look like shit.

Episodes of illness like this make me appreciate the luxury of good health. I hope to be able return to normalcy as soon as possible because existing like this is pretty miserable.

So I spent my entire 5 days off sick. I’m not quite sure what flavor of sickness this is but it has involved coughing fits where it feels like am coughing up a lung, lethargy, filling trash cans with tissues and a mild fever at times. It seems like once a year I get knocked on my ass with some sort of illness. There is definitely something going around. Maybe it’s this years version of covid, who knows. What I do know is it seems there are as many people sick as healthy right now. I HATE being sick. It makes me feel weak and sort of worthless. I have lost several pounds as well during this time period despite eating regularly, even though I don’t really have an appetite to do so.

I did very little besides lay around and binge watch Punisher episodes although I did have a couple wins. I managed to figure out what piece of coax runs to my master bedroom and used a splitter to get my OTA antenna feed to both my kitchen and bedroom. This means the next time the Eagles are on national TV I can watch it in my bedroom instead of the kitchen, which was less than comfortable.

Since I moved into my place in March of 23 I have had an annoyance in my master closet. It felt like there was a small hard object in the middle of the carpet. For reasons unknown to me I just let the situation remain unresolved for the last couple years although every time I would step on the hard spot it would annoy me, significantly. I finally decided to pull up the damn carpet and see what the irritating hard object was.

It wasn’t one thing, it was three. Three small shelf brackets that are used with the closet organizer set up. How they would have wound up under the carpet is a mystery but after removing them and being able to step anywhere in the closet without feeling like I had a rock in my shoe I felt much better. Sometimes those small wins feel disproportionately big.

The Eagles had a BIG win, destroying the Raiders 31-0. To me it felt like the game was much more about the Raiders being awful than the Eagles being great. Regardless I hope it gives the team a boost of confidence that gives them some forward momentum as they move through the end of the season.

The illness made me cancel the big live stream I had planned where I was going to give away a wheel. I postponed it for a week, hopefully I am in the clear by then.

Yesterday was my 58th birthday. Despite my illness sort of detouring some of our plans I had a really enjoyable day with my girlfriend. That’s the great thing about her. No matter the situation she makes me feel better.

Being 58 doesn’t feel different than 57 although if I allow myself to dwell on the idea that I am actually that old my mind goes into dark places. I still realize that in reality I am going pretty well as far as most 58 year old people go so I can’t complain, despite doing so regularly.

Last night I reskinned my Secret Labs gaming chair. I have had this chair for a very long time. If I were to guess I would say 7-8 years. It’s my favorite chair ever but the surface of it is deteriorating. The chair itself feels just as supportive as ever though so I decided to cover it with a skin from Secret Labs.

The skin I got I believe was for a newer model than my chair but it fits good enough and will extend the life of the chair another few years so it was a good investment of $90. When I do get another chair eventually I guarantee it will be another one from Secret Labs.

Last night I passed out while watching TV at 8:30. I awoke at 11:30 disoriented, thinking it was the next morning. The shock to my system woke me up to the point where I watched another couple hours of TV until I fell back asleep.

Part of the reason I passed out early is I think I am getting somewhat sick. I have had a dry cough for a couple days and this morning I woke up with a sore throat. I am hoping my body repels whatever is going on before things get too bad. The last thing I want is to be sick for the holidays.

The next time you hear from me my 58th birthday will have come and gone. It’s such a big number, so big that it feels impossible for that to be my actual age. I’ll keep fighting the good fight and try to keep a youthful attitude, energy and curiosity for as long as I possibly can. There is no other option in my book.

This Sunday night I am planning on doing a holiday live stream. In this stream I plan to give away my barely used Inmotion V8S. I bought the wheel in April of 2024 during a nice sale they had on Amazon. My thought at that time was it would be a good wheel to potentially teach people on. Well the reality is the wheel has sat basically unused since I filmed my initial videos on it. When I checked last night it has less than 37 miles on it.

I have given away a lot of stuff on my streams over the years but never anything remotely close to a wheel. These cost $600 new. Could I sell it instead? Of course I could but for whatever reason the idea of giving it away to someone in the continental United States is more appealing to me. I am expecting the lure of a free wheel to pull in a lot of eyeballs Sunday night.

You will recall that I went through a very long process of converting every wi-fi device in my home over to the new fiber network. I had to redo dozens of things. I thought I had them all handled but when I saw my last water/sewer bill it reminded me of one I neglected to change, my smart irrigation controller. When the device has no internet access where it uses it to do things like skip watering cycles when rain is predicted, it becomes very dumb. The high utility bill brought my oversight into view. As far as difficulty in changing wifi goes the controller was actually very easy to change. Hopefully it will help trim those water bills just a bit.

Ever since Trump became president back in 2016 I had struggles accepting that people in my circle of family, friends and co-workers had signed on to supporting a man that relies on telling people what they want to hear while obfuscating reality with continuous and steadfast lying. These are good, intelligent, educated people that supported him. For some they excused his childish, ego maniacal and ignorant actions because they felt that bottom line, his policies would be better for themselves, personally.

When 2024 rolled around and he got reelected it was primarily on the back of people that tired of the high prices of nearly everything, a trend that skyrocketed during and after covid. Trump promised amazing prosperity for all when he would wave his gold encrusted wand. Of course reality has proven to be much, much different. This is the new norm though apparently. As long as you say things are great reality no longer matters, numbers no longer matter, facts no longer matter. It’s a dangerous place to exist when there is a segment of the population that follow Trump’s every word as ordained, believing he can truly do know wrong. That speech he gave in the Poconos was a cringe factory. To have that be the face of the country is so disappointing.

I read a quote about the reality of people that have this blind allegiance to all things Trump. It hit’s home.

We understand that they have dug in their heels so deeply, they will not be moved by anything: not facts or data or truth or their own eyes. We understand that there is no political scandal massive enough, no social media rant reckless enough, no act illegal enough, no legislation predatory enough to alter their allegiance.

In my nearly 6 decades on the planet I do not recall this type of devout following of a presidential figure. I hope to never witness it again.

Keep in mind that to me this isn’t a republican/democrat thing. I never have voted strictly along party lines. This is a “what values actually matter to you in society” sort of thing. If you are a “greed is good” or “trample the weak, hurdle the dead” kind of person you are content right now. I accept that I have no power to change the minds of steadfast Trump supporters and will never ostracize someone solely for that reason as long as they don’t try to push that agenda onto my table. I just look forward to the day where intelligent conversation can once again be a focal point of resolution of issues instead of name calling, personal insults, and doing one thing while saying another.

I saw an article where ChatGPT was asked to list the top 5 most corrupt presidents in history along with reasons for their ranking. Of course Big Don was number one just like he craves in most situations. He just keeps on “winning”.

Last night I finished up my Christmas card work for 2025. In total I mailed out a little less than 30 cards. The funny thing is out of those 30 I send out I doubt I will get even half of that in return. I don’t really care about the inequity as the season is all about giving, not receiving. It felt good to complete the task. It feels equally good to have the vast majority of my Christmas related responsibilities wrapped up two weeks prior to the big day.

As I mentioned on Monday the deep aching pain in my right leg has not dissipated. It’s a weird injury though as I was able to do a full lower body weighted workout yesterday without major issue. My knee is not swollen, I still have normal range of motion. The pain drifts around from my right hip, down my quad and currently into the left side of my knee. Ironically the worst pain is when I am lying down. When sleeping the only position that works is on my back with a pillow under my legs. If I try to roll onto either side the aching in my knee intensifies to the point where it will wake me up. I am hoping that like many ailments/injuries of mine, this will simply go away. It has already taken me off my regularly scheduled pickleball session for today which I am not happy about, at all.

Last night I stayed up to watch the Eagles disappointing loss to the Chargers in LA. It was a game that was frustrating to watch as the Eagles had a mix of big plays balanced out by a bunch of big mistakes. The defense was good overall but still got run on pretty badly, especially towards the end by Herbert when it really mattered. Jalen Hurts had a total of 5 turnovers with four interceptions and a fumble. To be fair two of the interceptions were batted balls but still, it was a pretty lousy outing where he completed only half of his passes and amassed a QB rating of 31.2, which is awful.

Saquon had a good night statistically amassing over 100 yards for only the second time this year but again, it was deceiving. Most of those yards came on two long runs. The rest of the time he was running into the backs of offensive lineman and falling down mostly. Unless the Eagles can establish consistently that they can run the ball, they are screwed. Teams want to make Jalen Hurts beat them with his arm for a reason. He is slow to make reads and holds onto the ball longer than any starting QB in the league statistically. He NEEDS a running game to help set him up.

The game went to OT, ending on yet another turnover as Hurts was picked off inside the Chargers 20 yard line. The Birds have the soft part of their schedule coming up but even so, I don’t see any easy wins based on what they have been showing on the field. The game did not end until close to midnight. I am quite tired today. I had to watch the game in the kitchen since that is the only spot I have access to my OTA antenna. I need to get that connected to my bedroom as well. The kitchen is not the most comfortable spot to spend 3 hours watching football.

I had a dentist appointment first thing this morning. There has been a bit of an upheaval at my dentist office. Both my normal hygienist and dentist are out on leave so I had two people I never saw before. I apparently have two teeth that are going to need work done which did not make me happy either. I put that work off until after the holidays.

I wanted to talk briefly about all of the talk about how the US is targeting and blowing up suspected drug runner boats. Pete Hegseth has been beating his chest about this operation until it was revealed that there was at least one instance of the military going back to kill survivors that were hanging onto a boat which could be classified as a war crime. Trump has been making ridiculous quotes along the lines of each boat that is blown up saves 25,000 American lives. JFC come on, how stupid does he believe the American public is?

But my problem actually sits above these actions of targeting of ships that may or may not be involved in drug trafficking. My issue is with the inconsistency of logic. Whenever there is a mass gun shooting a popular stance by the NRA is guns don’t kill people, the people firing them do which is a true statement. They argue that despite the ability of guns to kill/maim, ultimately it is the responsibility of the people that use them. Remember, I am now a multiple gun owner and a big proponent of self accountability/responsibility.

So why is it that when it comes to drugs, people are absolved of this same responsibility? Are American citizens being forced to take illegal drugs? Are they held down against their will while they are forced to swallow a pill or inject something into their body? Of course not, they make the choice. So how does labeling drug providers as terrorists and targeting them for execution suddenly make drug consumers more apt to not take drugs? The simple answer is, it doesn’t. This is just one of the countless inconsistencies and hypocrisies that exist within our government and society in general. Don’t get me started on selective adherence to teachings in the bible, cripes. The world is circling the bowl.