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Ring this bell three times well, Its toll to clearly say … My treatments are done, Its course is run; And I am on my way.

I thought this day would never come.

Today (as you’re reading this) is the last day of cancer treatment for Abby. This afternoon, she’ll ring the bell with the quoted phrase above at our treatment center; signifying the end to this round of treatment and the beginning of her recovery (and eventual return to full-time work we hope). The last couple of weeks have been a true test for us; and I had to step up and take more of the responsibilities on my shoulders so that she can focus on getting better.

Onto the other topic.

The last couple of years, every January I come up with a yearly theme that I try to stick to for the entirety of that year. Last year was “The Year Of Making”, and usually I have a theme in place by now. The concept is not really new, and is very common in productivity circles; but I haven’t decided on a theme just yet because of not only the treatments, but also waiting on a decision regarding my application for the watchmaking program I applied for last year. That should be a separate posting here, once I know more.

With the end of 2025 in sight, I figured I would reflect on everything that has happened, both good and bad.

Good Things:

Celebrated 2 years here at the apartment in early June
Abby reached a career milestone at her job
Quakecon (always a fun time here, even if we were only able to come up for the day)
Applying for the job of a lifetime

Bad Things:

Becoming a caregiver (this isn’t really a bad thing, but the stress adds up)
Burnout (I burned out for about 3 weeks a while ago, I do not recommend this)


Music:

Started Out – listening to death and black metal
Year End – listening to KPop all the time (well, most of the time anyway)

This would be the point where I would have picked a video of me and my dog Mac, but there’s another site quirk and I absolutely cannot be arsed to do anything about it right now ….

About 2 and 1/2 weeks ago, I ended up very overwhelmed. Not only from my own things, but from stress related to Abby’s cancer treatments. This doesn’t happen very often, but when it does my body and mind shift into what I call “Survival Mode”.

This doesn’t happen all the time, but when it does happen; I get very short-tempered with people; even more so than normal. The last time this happened was during the pandemic in 2020, and well; we all know how that turned out. Being neurodivergent, it is incredibly easy for me to get overwhelmed and burn out. I have tried in recent years to change the patterns that eventually lead to these conditions, and for the most part they work … until they don’t.

I don’t wish being a caregiver to a cancer patient on anyone. It is incredibly demanding, and will change you forever. Finding my own way in order to recover from the sheer sense of things has been very difficult, but not without it’s own reward.

I ended up pulling a blog post down from a couple weeks ago, right before everything started. In that post, I was stating that I was closing the blog for three reasons; and was letting the site go after January 6th. I am pleased to report that this will no longer be the case.

Somewhere in the world, there is someone going through the exact same situation I’m currently going through. I hope that person finds my site.

Ah, yes … it’s “Black Friday/Cyber Monday” shopping time. Readers of the blog should generally know the history of it, but rather go into the nitty gritty details of what I plan to buy (there are a few things I want to get, mostly for others); I want to talk about the other side of the coin.

The employees of the big box stores, shipping companies, and warehouse workers rarely receive any recognition for their efforts, but it’s directly because of them we’re able to receive our holiday gifts with some form of expediency. Earlier this year, I had a job working as a package handler for FedEx. I eventually walked out one day and quit because of stress, but the couple of months spent there gave me a unique perspective on logistics.

So, if you get a package in the next month or so; thank your delivery driver. If you’re able to, give them a gift card (most delivery companies will allow the driver to keep it)). If you’re not well off to the point you can do that; a simple thank you will suffice.

Happy Holidays!

Reader Ben, who’s a member of a tech community I’m part of; posed a question recently, specifically about why there was no preview text when a link to a post was posted in said community’s promotions channel. Rather than do what I usually do, I accept this as constructive criticism. What’s the point of having a site that anyone online can read, if I’m not willing to adapt my writing and my site to better reflect the audience I’m trying to capture?

I’m not trying to push some bullshit excuse here, but I’m still new(ish) to using WordPress, despite having used it at multiple stages over the course of it’s continued development. I honestly thought that the excerpts were automatically generated (and I can generate them with AI if I so choose); but no, I won’t use AI to generate a excerpt; and yes; I carry the knowledge moving forward that I need to manually write these.

Will I go back and write excerpts for all the posts? Most likely not, unless I have a lot of time to kill one day. But moving forward, this should be a included thing.

A couple of days ago, I participated in a fighting game tournament for a game based on the popular Granblue Fantasy franchise. Specifically, a beginner bracket.

Fighting games aren’t exactly for everyone, and there are multiple genres within the overall genre, but every so often I like to enter and see how well I stack up against the competition. The last time I entered something similar, I ended up winning a single 2 game set before losing two consecutive sets and being eliminated from the tournament.

Where do you go to improve, when you only have a finite amount of time to play; and aren’t able to sit for hours on end and play like your contemporaries? Also, how would it work if you don’t have friends to sit down in the same room with and play?

To that end, I ended up adapting a schedule used by Qudans; a Tekken player who returned to competitive play in 2017; after spending a large part of his formative years conscripted into military service; then working as a social worker in his native South Korea. I’m gonna try my hardest to keep this schedule!

Another day, more time on the road …

Today, I’ll share my travel gaming setup (it’s incredibly simple, yet decidedly complex at the same time), and what types of games I play (you might be shocked!)

I use a Nintendo Switch 2 for gaming when we travel for appointments! The form factor (and the ability to sleep my progress in any game I have installed on the system) fits my use case quite well. Given my past & perhaps current preference towards PC gaming, I did briefly consider the Steam Deck earlier this year, but ended up with a Switch 2 due to cost concerns … let’s just say I don’t play FPS games on it, but I will play every other genre just about on there … it just so happens that at the moment, my favorite genre to play is JRPGs!

So, how do I take it around with me? And what accessories do I take with me when it goes? To quote a former Nintendo employee, I use this carrying case:(I’ll also put a link below at the very end of the post), but it is the City Slicker carrying case from Waterfield. Is it overkill? Yes! For everything I needed (the carrying strap, the bag itself, and the carabiners that attach to either side), it ended up being nearly $160.

Do I recommend this for you, the person reading? Absolutely not! You could probably make due with one of the less expensive options, and be happy. It just happened to be circumstance that I had money at the time, and had always wanted one of their bags.

I do use the Switch 2 in handheld mode a lot of the time, but those days that I have a couple hours wait for a procedure to end, or time to kill during a chemotherapy treatment; I just so happen to have a controller in the bag. The City Slicker bag is unique, in that it cannot store your full-size Switch 2 Pro Controller, or any other controller with similar dimensions. But the SN30 Pro is not full-size, and it’s form factor allows for it to easily go into one of the storage pockets.

For charging and audio … I use a UGreen portable battery, and a Nothing Ear (a) for Bluetooth.

Links for stuff to buy:
CitySlicker Bag

Since the cancer diagnosis, I haven’t really been able to have any real time to myself. So when the school my granddaughter Kaylee goes to asks for chaperones for a school event, you gotta answer the call right?

Fall football in Texas is a religion unto itself, with generations of residents cheering for their local school teams. The town we live in is no exception, with crowds consistently traveling to games at home, as well as away from our beloved Eagle Stadium.

Another religion unto itself is that of the high school marching band, and it would be remiss to not mention the Pride of Lindale High School Band, and their 51st consecutive trip to the Texas State Military Marching Band competition, which recently completed at Waco’s Baylor University.

Kaylee is in her first year of band in high school; and to have that type of experience and work ethic in 9th grade, shows that she’s growing not only as a student; but as a person.