Happy new year! 2025 is here, and it’s a fresh start. I don’t really make resolutions, so I won’t list any here. But if that’s your thing, do you! I hope everyone reading this has a safe, happy, and prosperous year.

Everywhere I look I see software devs coding wrapped apps. This is thanks to Spotify and their Wrapped feature. So I figured, since I’m a self-host junkie, I’d do one for the software I enjoyed most this year. I’ll start with Home-Assistant. I used to host this years ago, when you had to write your own config files to make anything work. I strayed away from it when I thought it was baixally a waste of time. But this week I re-installed it with Docker and I rediscovered how fucking awesome it is. I feel ashamed for hating on the Self-Hosted guys for fellating the dev. ...

So, here’s one I didn’t know I would ever have to write about: My old band For a significant portion of my adult life I’ve been in a band. I’ve been a scream/rapper, a drummer, and for the longest part, I’ve been a bass player. The most accomplished band I was a member of, was fall of Empire, in which I played bass. We broke up over the drug habits of the lead guitarist, and when he cleaned up I tried to play with him again. But after a few months my work schedule got in the way. ...

I’m a self-hosted enthusiast. I try to self-host everything. I really don’t like the idea of Mega-Corps owning, farming and selling my data. Fuck that. When I began this journey more than 15 years ago, I started with RSS. The first app I ever self-hosted was TinyTinyRss. Since then, I’ve hosted more than 100 apps either to use or to test. As of today I host over 30 apps that I use on a daily basis, all to prevent some big-ass tech company from harvesting my data. ...

I just watched UFC 309. Jon Jones vs Stipe Miocic. Of course Trump was paraded in like a celebrity. And any one with a brain knows Dana White would suck Trump’s dick if it were on the menu. Jones won. Sure, that was expected. What I didn’t expect was for Jones to personally thank Trump for being in attendance. Are you fucking kidding me? I stopped liking Jones once we was convicted of drug use and cheating, so I guess it shouldn’t surprise me he’s a fan of the Orange Criminal. But I mean, c’mon; a black man that supports Trump is as rare as Irish man who loves England. ...

It’s my birthday again. Fuck. 48 this time. Also I threw up, ending a 23 year streak. Can’t wait until next year.

I hit another deer last Sunday. Fuck. Coming home from Susie’s parents’ house. 6 point buck. Killed him real good. Had to drag him off the highway. Got the estimate earlier this week. $12,000

Big Woodys! Softball Champs! We did it! We went 6-4 on the regular season and won our first playoff game, and that led to 3 straight games this week, all of which we won. When we joined the team I figured we would be a rag-tag group since they were recruiting so close to the start of the season, but here we are, Big Woodys, Big Winners! I did well in the playoffs, but struggled a bit the first 2 games back from vacation. Overall I went 8 for 16 with 3 RBI and scored 2 runs. ...

So there’s a very distinct feeling, one I only get once per year. And today was that day. After spending the day at the beach there’s no feeling quite like having a beer buzz and that crispy, sun-burnt skin. That’s pure vacation mode for me. No greater feeling. It’s one of the best things in the world.

It’s been almost a month since I joined Big Woody’s and I wanted to put down some thoughts. First, my expectations were mostly met in the game aspect. However, I thought I would play 1st base and that happened for exactly 2 innings. After which I transitioned to pitcher and to my surprise I’ve done fairly well, having never pitched anything other than T-Ball and Little League Minors. Turns out, I’m not so shabby. Who knew? ...