Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2025 is already coming to an end. It's hard to believe that another year has already gone by. So many things happened this year, so many changes.

I started this year completely burnt out from the end of 2024. The end of the year is a huge deadline for the line of business I support. In addition to the normal year end stress of making sure my systems stay functional, there was a massive infrastructure project going on that impacted my customers. It required a lot of extra time, troubleshooting, and support. I learned some lessons about burn out and how to cope.

At work we received the largest technological investment from the business ever. Almost all of the systems I have built or supported are being replaced with a new solution. It's been hard to see my hard work slowly being shut down. There's other significant changes that have come along as well. At times I feel like I'm learning a new job while also trying to make sure the people I support continue to get the support they need. Once again there's a lot going on at the end of 2025.

Along the way, I have hopped on the AI train. From a seasoned developer's perspective, I have found them a useful tool to increase my capabilities. Something I can delegate smaller busy work tasks to while I work on the harder problems. One of my favorite uses for AI is to review code. I have created a few code review agents that other devs can run locally before raising their Pull Requests. This has cut down on the number of Pull Requests with issues.

In 2025 my boys turned 10 and 13! Time absolutely flies. To celebrate, we took an amazing family trip to Orlando, FL this year. Hitting up all the parks and having fun. It was fun to see and watch the boys experience everything and go with the flow. I have a lot of memories that I will cherish forever.

A lot of family Minecraft and Mario Kart was played this year. I wish there would be an official Minecraft Bedrock client for Linux so I could play on my Steam Deck. We have a server set up for our own creative world.

Lately, Mario Tennis for the Nintendo 64 has been the coop game of choice. The Analogue 3D is an awesome investment for anyone who grew up with a N64!

A lot of baseball was played this summer with my oldest playing in an All-Stars game for his level. He has started to develop into a pitcher throwing a lot of off speed pitches. Being his backyard catcher is getting more and more "dangerous" as he improves. I enjoy watching them play and I help out wherever I can.

We took a trip out to Nebraska to officially lay my grandparents to rest. In January, I lost my last grandparent after a battle with Alzheimer's. It was good to see family. We made some stops along the way. The Omaha Zoo is an amazing zoo and worth a visit. For those who love engineering, the Strategic Air Command is amazing.

This year, I've started to pull things out of the cloud and other 3rd parties. There's a ridiculous amount of data "breaches" where personal information is leaked. A big piece of software I have been using is Actual Budget. This is a great open source financial management tool whose data lives only where you want it.

This year I was introduced to Kagi Search. In my opinion, the privacy and quality of the results are well worth the cost and another thing I use daily.

I've also been trying to stop using VS Code and finally learned vim and use it daily for development work, writing notes, etc. I'm still not an expert but I am slowly improving.

In some ways, I'm glad that this year is over. There are things I wish to never deal with again. Burn out is real. It's not fun. Alzheimer's is a terrible disease. Those who have or have had a loved one destroyed by it have my heartfelt sympathy. There are things from this year I will cherish and wish I could hold on to forever. Ages 10 and 13 only happen once. One of the best outcomes of burnout is realigning life's focus on family and not work.

I look forward to 2026's adventures. I hope this year to maintain a healthy work-life balance, enjoy some more baseball, and add more cherished memories. I hope that you can do the same!

- Ben