Only having twenty spaces to document December is near impossible.
A month of family, friends, and trying to wind down the year. A month of traditions. The holiday parties, the annual PJs, movie, and way too much Chinese food night, and all the rest. It was a wonderful month full of joy. I’ll miss the warm holiday decoration glow.
Onward to 2026.
December 2025
This took a bit of time to measure and install but it was totally worth it. I think my office is pretty much “done” for now. The skateboard addition really makes it all feel complete for me.
The Stats: 102 artists, 118 albums, 276 tracks (295 scrobbles)
One more week of listening before the end of the year. Get those final stats in.
“Muppets Christmas Carol” = legit.
I found this letter from my family’s history — from 1944. The words feel as poignant today as they must have then.
The Stats: 93 artists, 105 albums, 232 tracks (238 scrobbles)
Lots of holiday music, lots of “ok where does this go on my EOTY list” listening this week.
I swear that I'm finally taking
Moving Mountains - "Eastern Leaves"
My words that are bruised and broken
To places I've never spoken
Way down, way down
Listen: https://chorus.fm/share/son...
Matt Birchler, with my favorite line of the week so far:
If a tool makes my job meaningfully better, AI or not, I’m gonna use it, you don’t have to convince me. Maybe some people are resistant to learn anything new, but my impression is that the gains bosses have promised have been too grand and the use cases too broad, so employees get a bad taste in their mouth.
Again, I’ll shout it from the rooftops, if a piece of software is revolutionary and will make workers’ jobs easier, they will use it. If you find you have to keep making the hard sell to your employees, maybe it’s not bringing as much value to them as you think.
Amen.
Ryan Holiday with some great advice on reading:
These 31 rules by no means make a complete list, but if you implement even a couple of them, I’m comfortable guaranteeing you’ll not only be a better reader for it, but a better person too.
–It is not enough that you read. You have to read well. You have to read the right books. You have to figure out how to process and retain and of course apply what you read. As Epictetus said, “I cannot call somebody ‘hard-working’ knowing only that they read.” He said he needed to know what and how they read. He needed to know that their “efforts aim at improving the mind.” Because then and only then would he call you “hard-working.” Then and only then would he give you the title “reader.”
I didn’t read as many books as I wanted to this year. Other priorities ended up taking up my time. I read more from my RSS feeds than I think ever before but I need to make sure I bring book reading back into my daily routine.
