I enjoy coffee. I like the taste, but brewing it at home is also one of my rituals. I've usually done it to file a thermos before going to work, but I do it on the weekends as well.
Yesterday I switched to tea for work, and it was pretty good. In fact, I'm going to try to do it more often, although I'm not going to give up coffee completely. I drank it today and it tasted good.
I'm not sure if I have a caffeine addiction – I do drink a lot of coffee, but I don't feel bad if I go without. I'd say it's more of a habit, a ritual. I've known people who consider themselves addicts, and I don't think I consume as much coffee as they do.
The tea I had was mint, caffeine-free. It still wakes me up, as does water. One of the things I'm going to try to do in the new year is drink more tea, and a variety of it too.
Back in my own home now. It's cool, since I've had the heat turned down, but everything is more or less where I left it. I had a good Christmas/New Years, and now I'm ready to get back to normal life.
I'll probably leave my lights up for a while, though. At least, the Xmas ones. At some point I'll switch to warm white LEDs.
There's probably others I'm not thinking of now. These are sort of ongoing resolutions, carry-overs from other years, but it's worth taking the time to think about them again.
Some other thoughts. I'd like to take another look at my web presence. I have a minimal landing type page for unixcat.net, but I'm not sure if I should try to add more to that subdomain as kind of a static site, or focus more on adding stuff to my Wordpress blog or my wiki. Or, perhaps, just use this site for blogging. I guess the blog format makes the most sense, at least to have that available, and I should play with the wiki a little more before I pass judgement.
I also wonder about how much of myself I want to expose on the internet. I mean, I stop short of using my real name, but even posting about projects or opinions on things puts you on display. Sometimes it's what you want. I'm not sure if that's where I'm at.
It won't be long before the days start getting longer. When I was younger this time of year would get me down, due to the lack of light. Especially being in school, going in in the morning in darkness, and then leaving in darkness (after swim practice). Of course the holidays helped, with the lights and festivities.
Interestingly, I look at it differently now. I like the snow (when it's not a disastrous amount that causes all sorts of havoc), and I like the change of seasons. Moving to the workforce, where your life isn't defined by the school year does that.
Still, I'll appreciate it when the days start getting longer. But sometimes darkness is nice too.
I've lived with cats for most of my life, although right now I only have one of my own. I like dogs too, but cats are mysterious in their own way. Our's have always been affectionate and dedicated to us, though they have their own ways of showing it. The bond isn't quite the same as with a dog, but it's just as strong.
Cats still retain many wild tendencies, even though they're perfectly content to curl up nearby while you work or read or sleep. They're happy to have food and shelter provided to them, but can still hunt and pounce when needed. And despite not needed constant attention, they're there for you when you're sick, having a bad day, or just need to hug something.
Obviously, this isn't true for all cats. There are cat breeds, but the house cat in general is quite varied. Such a wide range of personalities, but they're all cats.
I have put up a lot of lights so far, and there's a little more I want to do. I have a back porch I'll put some red and green LED lights along the perimeter of, replacing the (failing) multicolor strings now. I also ordered some of the little solar LED strings for places in my yard. These actually work pretty well.
I have the front of my house well lit. The LED strings don't have the same light quality as the incandescents, but they have a nice look and don't use too much energy. I still have some incandescent strings I use where they won't be on as much.
It's neat, I think, to light stuff up this time of year as it gets darker here in the northern hemisphere. Regardless of if you're celebrating a holiday or not.
I actually kind of like messing with my network. Soon, I will set up a new router. I'll keep the general structure of my home network, but change some things on the router. It's a little mini-PC I put OpenBSD on.
This should be more powerful, and slightly more energy-efficient than the machine I was using before. Hopefully, that should give an edge should I ever end up with fiber internet. Also, the lower power should be helpful in terms of backup power – less draw from a UPS.
Artemis 1 has just launched as I type this. Orion is now in orbit around Earth. It was delayed a little, but now it's going. Hopefully the rest of the mission is smooth.
Congratulations to all who worked on this. I was never alive when people were walking on the moon, and now I expect to see it in my lifetime. Maybe they'll stick around for a while too.
We have a lot to worry about here on Earth. But it helps to take a step back, perhaps even to a nearby celestial body. The challenge teaches us a lot, of course, but it's also a good reminder of just how small we are in the grand scheme of things.
My region is supposed to get a lot of snow soon. We got a little today, but not much accumulation.
I can just imagine shoveling my driveway now. It's usually good for a few nice workouts a year, and my driveway is short enough that I can't really justify a snowblower. Luckily, it usually works out that I do it and then it's clear for a while. Having a nice coat of snow is worth that to me.
I was thinking about commenting here on the exodus from Twitter, and how the Fediverse is growing now that people are discovering it as an option. I've commented on my main Mastodon instance a little about this, and will just say that while the Fediverse isn't perfect, I think it's a great alternative to conventional social media. There's still work to be done, but that work is closer to an actual possibility since it's not a single platform owned by one person or a small group of people. In other words, on the Fediverse, your complaints and praises seem like they can actually reach the appropriate ears, at least in my experience.
Aside from that, it's beautiful here. The weather is warm, in the mid 70s F, and the leaves have mostly fallen around me. I spent most of today rounding them up, getting some of them to the curb, an preparing to do another haul soon. I did take a bunch and spread them over my little garden area, which will hopefully become good fertilizer in spring. But, most are going to the curb.
Halloween was pleasant, and frankly this could make a good Halloween night. I'm leaving some of my decorations up a little longer, perhaps until next weekend. Mostly they're orange lights, which I think are generally fall-appropriate. Next step will be colored and clear lights, in anticipation of the more wintry weather.
This weather is probably indicative of climate change. I remember getting all sort of weather around Halloween growing up, both warm like this and snowing. But, usually it was cooler. Maybe mid-50s F. It seems the weather has been trending warmer, just by my recollection.