The first part of December turned out to be even more challenging than November, and I counted the days until my Christmas break. Most of the month was working or hibernation, apart from a trip to Chichester where I led a seminar on comic books. I finished work with relief on the 19th and settled down to enjoy the end of the year. Both work laptops were stashed in a rucksack and hidden in a rarely-used cupboard. It took some time before I started to feel relaxed. Christmas Day was cosy, and we stretched out opening presents to about seven hours.
Exercise continued to be neglected, and I added a couple of pounds to my current weight. The lack of movement has left me feeling sluggish, achy and heavy. Something to deal with in 2026.
It was another slow month with writing. I’ve struggled to find energy and was not clear-headed enough at times. Mostly, I’ve been removing obstacles and obligations, ready for the new year. I finished a draft of the Mycelium Parish News and need to see what happens next with that. The writing highlight was an excellent workshop at Inaland gallery, which gave me lots of ideas. People were also reading the advent calendar, which was fun – although we perhaps went harder than people would have liked with the final image.
The pause in work allowed me to get back into reading. I read a brace of Jarett Kobek books – Atta was superb, but the Zodiac true crime duology felt less compelling. I read a dreadful 19290s pulp novel for the dystopian book club. I caught up with David Lapham’s comic book crime saga Stray Bullets. The best book I read was When We Were Real, set in a world seven years after everyone learned it was a simulation. A lighter read was a fesshole compilation, which made me laugh so much that I couldn’t read it on the train.
Despite an excellent programme at the Picturehouse, I made no trips to the cinema until Christmas Eve. The films I watched at home were mostly Christmas ones, and mostly disappointing. Kanye West documentary In Whose Name? was more interesting for its content rather than its form but was compulsive viewing. I disliked It was Just an Accident, which made me feel bad considering what the director went through. My favourite watch of the month was My Cousin Vinny – I loved the relationship between the main characters.
After not liking the first episode, I enjoyed the rest of the season of Pluribus. Taylor Swift puff-piece End of an Eras turned out to be compelling competence porn. Spartacus: House of Ashur is shameless pulp, but it has the same delight in language that Deadwood had. The Chair Company didn’t take on a first attempt, but I want to try it again.
I’ve talked about the stress of work, but it’s also gone well. I enjoyed the office party, which is a good sign. I was given an award for my contributions during the year, which was a wonderful surprise. The break gave me a little time to play with technology – I worked on an MCP demo which I’ll hopefully show at our Java group, and accidentally vibe coded an Obsidian plugin when I should have been doing something else.
The main reason I’m enjoying work is much is probably post-pandemic working. Not having to travel to an office five days a week is much less tiring. I only have one mandatory office day a week, with my client, but I usually visit my home office most weeks. This feels like a good balance.
I took the opportunity offered by the Christmas break to clear some things out. I closed my mastodon account as that was proving to be more of a distraction than a joy. I’ve still not shut down the substack newsletter, but I’m now a paid-up user of Buttondown. I’m also getting closer to deleting my WhatsApp account.
