At work, one more migration completed, one to go. That will complete our ExLibris migration. Then the boss wants to completely change the design of our entire website to side navigation from tabs. By fiat, with no discussion with the website team. Which irks me more than a little.

On the fun side, getting more things up in the digital archive. Our new hire is very interested in scanning scrapbooks for it. Will have to see if our scanner is big enough. The photo CDs should also get processed this summer. Tye next big Institutional Repository project has another meeting soon, too. All moving forward.

Out of work, I have started running our Tuesday game at a ridiculous carnival. Everyone enjoyed getting to meet all the new characters last week. First day railroad and jitters are hopefully done, and folks can just explore tonight. Some issues with my platform are hopefully resolved, as well, to make things go smoother on my end. 

I also just got myself a subscription to Broadway in Columbus for the next season, thanks to a promised bonus amd raise next month. Technically, there’s a play this week, but it’s last year’s season, so my first will be this October. I’ve gone to a few with friends, but these will be on my own, unless we do some ticket juggling closer to a particular performance. Excited to finally get to start seeing live theater again this autumn.

All that aside, keep fighting, keep standing up, keep voting. There is a lot going on that is not okay, not normal. Take care of each other however you are able.

Life otherwise has been the usual. Work is very busy with the end of semester, the last two projects in our migration, and performance reviews. Boss is being micromanage-y, but I do my best not to be annoyed. We have some new hires that I hope will help me do a big push for the Archives this summer. Still trying to get a dedicated Digitization space.

In regular life, my Tuesday DnD game is wrapping up the current campaign, so in June, I will be running a campaign firvthe second time. Very excited, very nervous, and so much still to prep. But I have my main handouts ready, and my carnival created, and fun magic items for everyone to start with.

Remember to vote in your primaries this spring and summer, and the general election this fall. Take care of each other, we can get through this.

Work has been very busy with new hires, a ton of events this month, and another migration project. I’ve been adding bits and pieces to the archives, including a cookbook that I’m working on the OCR corrections for. Also leading a project for our new UI on the public discovery layer.

Outside work, my brain is full of D&D as I prepare to run my Tuesday group’s next campaign using the Heckna kickstarter,  Wild Beyond the Witchlight, and the Book of Many Things. All squished together and then translated into 2nd edition. We are an unknown small number of weeks out from ending our current campaign,  so I am getting the last few things in place, including menus and maps, to be ready to take my group to a carnival.

Visited Mom recently with my brother to bring home a bunch of Mom’s China, antique glassware, canning supplies, and other odds and ends. She’s in the final stretch before her move south, packing, selling, and donating everything left in the house.

Take care of each other and remember to vote in your primaries and special (and regular) elections.

Oh, also bonus Kush art, Nero – the card I bought at the art gallery.

Fremont Street

Down the strip

The Bellagio Fountains

Seen from our hotel room

Ceasars

The Bellagio Chihuly art installation

Kush art

Chocolate Fountain

Dita Von Tease

Stratosphere

NIN Concert

Not a lot of photos,  just some cool light effects

Vanderpump Brunch

More indoor malls

Hershey Store

Excaliber

Rollercoaster

Not great pictures, but it comes out of a building and is really fun.

Kà

These photos are all the structures around the audience, I didn’t pick up my camera during the show to get the stage. You can see a pre-show performer up high in the third.

Eiffel Tower

So much to see, taste, and experience, and with zero gambling. (Other than the pretty sure bet of surviving jumping from floor 108 of the Strat, photos of me getting ready to jump will be posted next time.)

Olympics started this weekend. Caught Opening Ceremonies and a few events so far. Some great men’s short ice skating programs. Hope to catch more.

Work goes along. Dealing with the current political climate even there. Need to start experimenting with Primo NDE, but so many fixes to come in May. I want to improve the landing page, too.

Pretty quiet otherwise. Keeping up with this as much as mentally able. Fighting and supporting as possible.  Take care of each other. Don’t look away, don’t stay quiet. This is not okay.

My therapist asked me the morning after my Dad passed, if I would want to stand up in front of people to talk about him. He wished no funeral service, but what if there was one. I told her no, I would never be able to speak. 

Mom sent out the obituary the next day, to family and friends, topped with the logo of the funeral home helping with arrangements. A list of his accomplishments: degrees, churches, family, and hobbies. To tell everyone who he had been and what he done. To remember him and those he left behind.

To me, Dad was a story-teller, as was his father before him. When he preached, he had note cards, with a few reference points, and he would speak from the heart, and tell stories to illustrate his points, in the real world.  One of his favorites was of three blind men describing an elephant from three different points on the animal. The strong curling trunk, the massive side, and the long thin tail. Everyone has a different points of view, and many times, you don’t have the full picture, until you talk to those around you.

When we would go on car rides, picking up cans off the side of the road for the 10c refund, he would tell me stories of his childhood. Launching snowballs with his best friend so far they accidentally broke a window in townhall. Warning hunters off the farmland with his brother so they would stop shooting the black angus cattle. Then dismantling one such trespasser’s vehicle piece by piece when he kept coming back. Field testing some of the first high school football helmets by running full tilt at the goal posts. Stories of working security for nuns in the summer, some who liked to go pray in the cemetery in the middle of the night.

Stories of young love, of receiving the call to serve, of trying to find a college that would accept him so he could go to seminary. Then, of bothering every professor in seminary until he understood well enough to pass their classes. Stories about his first church with the outhouse instead of a bathroom.

Of meeting Mom, and after only a short time, deciding to spend the rest of their lives together. Of them deciding to have two children, named after the characters in Mom’s favorite German story of Heidi. How he decided to spell mine Hydy,  because it was simpler than the German, just two letters up and two letters down. A story which entertains people I meet to this day.

I miss Dad very much, but I will always remember his stories. 

As always, take care of each other, and protect the vulnerable. We are in this together.

Isn’t that what we always think, at the beginning? Better health, better eating, better policies and politics. Write more, read more, experience more.

I am no different. I have plans to go places I have never been. See things and meet people I’ve never seen or met. I am finishing up series so I can cancel streaming services and focus on other things. I hope to journal every day, tracking things I am doing to improve my life.

But I will also experience things I don’t want to, that I hoped I never would. The news this morning was just one of those things. My father’s failing health, while medically inevitable, is not the way any of us expected it to go. There is so much going on in this country that is unconscionable, and we all will have to stand up for what is right. Even when we are exhausted and overwhelmed.

I wanted to be optimistic in my new year post. I want to be looking forward with hope. But that is not the world we live in right now. 2025 was hard, and 2026 will be, too.

It is not all doom and gloom, though. We have to remember what we fight for. I have a stable job. I have my own house, and money for things I both need and want. I have a wonderful community of friends, chosen family,  and actual family who love and support me. I have things to look forward to amidst the stress and work that must be done.

So, as always, take care of each other, and stand up for those most vulnerable.

Very adult presents from Mom this year- clothes and a crockpot. The wolf Tshirt is gorgeous.

Gamer Christmas was, of course, full of magic cards, but also books. My big bro sent me silly knitted hats and more magic cards.

So enjoy the holidays, take care of each other. I’ll see you next year.