Well, 2026 has started with a bang!
For those who didn't recognise it in my last post, this is sarcasm. I expect 2026 to be as bad, if not worse than 2025 - and it wasn't great. But hey, here we are, another year behind, another in front - life grinds on, like a Sisyphean nightmare.
At least there were hotdogs.
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We did end up dropping by the neighbour's place for a couple hours, drinking some wine with them, Smallsteps with the other kids in the wood-fired hot tub, and our dog left at home with the music on. One of the great things about Finnish homes is that they are well-insulated spaces to keep the heat in, but this also makes them quiet. So even though there were fireworks literally fifty meters from our house, they are barely heard inside - especially with some music on.
It is a different case outside.
While my wife went home to the dog, Smallsteps and I stayed a little longer so that she could dry off, as it was about -15°C (5°F) and with wet hair, even a short trip is unpleasant. But as we walked, someone had just sent off some fireworks and the smoke was still hanging in the cold air. A lot of people don't realise that when it is very cold, air quality can be quite poor, because the air doesn't move, nor does it rise. Smoke just hangs.
Since we were home by 1130, we sat around talking a little and then at midnight, looked out the window to see the fireworks going off around the neighbourhood. There were quite a lot around the place and while they slowed and the others went to bed, I was up until about 330am and could still hear them pretty regularly.
Well, not a full review, but I am stealing some numbers from 
(someone who runs naked publicly)
I ran the query in the tool before I posted yesterday, so it didn't include the last day.
So that is one way to review the year behind, but there re many ways to look at the experience also. For me, writing has become an important part of my daily life where I am able to reflect and process experience. It helps me get my thoughts out and validate my feelings, even if I don't write directly about it. I have no idea what it would be, but I would assume that if I write 1000 words, my head likely runs through tens of thousands, or maybe even hundreds of thousands of words during that process. This means that what you see is only a fraction of what my head does, which is not surprising, but something to note, because it indicates how valuable the writing process can be for thought extraction, evaluation, and idea development. Rather than dwelling on the shit of the world, we have a brain that can process it, overcome it, and move on to a solution for something better.
And along the same train of thought, it would be interesting to consider that out of each article there are about 30 comments from users and myself, that processes thoughts also. Plus all the (few) people reading who have thoughts too, but don't comment. Collectively, there must be millions of words thought, and thousands of ideas had based on each article, and even if this is all invisible to the numbers on chain, it would have some impact on the world at large - even if minor.
So writing for me is a personal endeavour, but once I post it to the Hive chain, it becomes a community initiative and while I have no delusions of grandeur in regard to the impact it has on the world, I do hope it makes some people's lives a little better in some way, even if it is just to say to themselves;
"I'm glad I am not that loser".
So with 2025 behind and 2026 ahead, let's see if anything changes in terms of my approach to Hive, my content, or my life in general. It would be great if it really was going to be an awesome year full of fulfilled dreams, but I am not waiting with bated breath for it.
The grind of life just continues on, unabated.
Taraz
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