Christmastime is Here (Weeknotes No. 25-49)

Here’s what happened during the two weeks ending December 7, 2025.

That’s right, it’s another fortnightly update because I missed last week. Thanksgiving came and went. I had another tattoo appointment. And the Christmas party season has officially begun.

Goings On

🦃 Thanksgiving Day was a pretty low key affair here this year. No big extended family gatherings, no venturing out in the cold, no hoopla. Just the four of us, some smoked turkey breast, lots of carbs, and a couple of movies. Perfection.

🏃‍♂️ Before all that, though, three of the four of us (including me) had signed up to run the local 5-mile “Turkey Trot” race. I bailed because at 29°F it was just to damn cold for me.¹ The spousal unit and elder daughter both went out though, while I did my five miles inside on the treadmill.

⚜️ I went for the third session of inking my latest sleeve tattoo. We’re starting to see some color now. So far, it’s just shades of red, but there will be cool colors too. I’m really happy with the progress so far and looking forward to seeing it all come together. Each session has been about three hours of needles and ink so far and I’ve got two more sessions on the calendar—one in December and another in January.

🎳 I attended two different office Christmas parties. The first was a bowling party. I managed to break 100 each of the three games, so I felt pretty good about that. The second party was at megabrewer BrewDog, which operates several locations throughout central Ohio. I guess they rose to prominence on the recent craze IPA craze, which they lean into heavily. I myself am not a pale ale fan, but the food and company were outstanding. All told, two very successful outings.

❄️ On the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, we awoke to the beauty and majesty of a shit ton of snow. I spent two hours freezing my fingers off shoveling the driveway. Afterward, I enjoyed watching the neighborhood kids sled down the hill across the street. That idyllic moment was shattered when I realized that I had left my work laptop at the office and I’d have to drive in after all. Bah!

🎄 I made a crude online version of the ever-popular Die Hard–themed Advent calendar, which I call Countdown to Christmas with Hans Gruber.

📱 I traded in my iPhone 13Pro for a new iPhone 17Pro in silver. Quite happy with the upgrade so far, although I haven’t had a chance to really exercise the cameras yet.

🤔 This week I learned that baps are little round bread rolls. They’re also boobs, apparently. (And let the baps jokes commence.) Thanks to @shelly@beige.party for bringing this to my attention.

AWS re:Invent

I chose not to attend re:Invent this year, but I still like to follow the announcements and watch the keynotes. I have’t watch them all yet, but I did sit down for Swami Sivasubramanian’s Agentic AI keynote and that just about put me to sleep.

On the other hand, Amazon CTO Werner Vogels gave the keynote that every person in IT needs to see. He posed the question, “Will AI make me obsolete?” But some of us in IT know that the question has been asked in more or less the same form again and again and again for decades, each time replacing AI for some other zeitgeist technology of the moment. The answer too has always been the same: only if you fail to evolve. Dr Vogels captures the spirit of this idea quite nicely by describing The Renaissance Developer, who (1) is curious, (2) thinks in systems, (3) communicates, (4) is an owner, and (5) is a polymath.²

Finally, a big shout out to the spousal unit, who did attend re:Invent this year. She scored one of the coveted re:Invent hoodies for me and I am eternally grateful.

Poll of the Week

🐮 Have you ever sat on a cow? I myself have not, and I’m not sure one should.

Media Roundup

🔭 Fuck Starlink

“Satellites keep photobombing the Hubble telescope, and it’s getting worse” by Justine Calma (The Verge)

We’ve managed to solve the wireless telecommunications problem all over the world without polluting the skies with space junk.

🌽 Blame Ag, not AI

“The Precedent is Flint: How Oregon’s Data Center Boom Is Supercharging a Water Crisis” by Sean Patrick Cooper (Rolling Stone)

This very long winded article correctly blames big agriculture interests and local government for a decades-long scheme to enrich themselves while poisoning the local water supply, but the editors at Rolling Stone just could’t help themselves. They jumped right on the anti-AI bandwagon, slapping a clickbait headline that blames Amazon. I would have expected more from the magazine that helped define modern journalism and political commentary. Shame on you guys.

☠️ Health Insurance is a Scam

“America's HELL Corporations” by Qasim Rashid

Mr Rashid is right on the money here. They’re not health insurance companies, they’re health exploitation limited liability corporations, or HELL corporations for short. Nailed it.

Movies

I’ve logged a bunch of movies in the last two weeks. You can read my very brief reviews here:

Well, I guess that’s all from this end. See you next week!

For me anything below 60°F is unsuitable for outdoor activity of any kind, but I absolutely draw the line at the freezing point of water. ↩
He really should have called it The Renaissance IT Professional, although this doesn’t quite roll off the tongue. ↩