So it’s 2026. Again I neglected this site other than a few minor updates during 2025. I’m still at the same job, which I still believe is valuable and I still enjoy working with my colleagues. This has been a weird year for programmers. I’ve been struggling with what, if any, part of my work I want the current era of generative AI should be part of my toolkit. So far, it has not found a place. I’ll leave it at that for now.
I have lived in northern Virginia either just outside or just inside the beltway effectively my entire life. Yeah, I went away to college and I wasn’t born here. But this has long been my home. The past year has been remarkably hard for me, and for many people I’ve known for decades. I don’t have a great answer other than: it’s not over and I think the expansive, liberal, tolerant, and accepting vision of what America can be will prevail. It may not be soon. Far too many people will be hurt by it. But that’s what I believe.
I have seen far fewer movies than I wanted to this year. But that’s how it goes. We, as a family, happened into KPop Demon hunters a bit on the early side thanks to a friend. For as much as it is a huge hit, it also feels like someone wanted to make as art, which I think is why it is so successful since people can feel it. When we saw the first song-along release, the trailers for upcoming animated movies all felt empty, mean spirited and kind of pointless in comparison. Not that it’s perfect and it’s getting overly commercialized now, but it was the real deal.
We did some traveling. Was sick part of the year. Lost some loved family members in the older generation.
So any resolutions? Continue to try to be a bit more active in communities I care about. Both in real life and online.