January 2nd, 2026

Update: Merry Christmas!

And a happy new year.

It’s Christmas!

As per normal, this means all normal everyday projects take quite a bit longer. The Pixel 6 review and a post about a motherboard are in the works, but in the meantime, they’ve taken a back seat. So have the benchmarks, though that project needs some more time for me to sift through the data and stuff like that.

It also means weird weather. This year, it was quite warm, with some days reaching into 70F. And a couple days ago, it only got to around 40F. Weird weather, as always, isn’t super fun. I do prefer warmth, but I dislike it being hot. I also realized I missed an opportunity for an experiment I’ve always wanted to do, that being seeing how my computers handle being outside in the cold. I have a Pentium 4 I’d love to try that with.

And, of course, new projects. I’ve recently acquired a “for parts” laptop along with a side bonus that came with it to attempt to repair my old Sony laptop. That laptop needs a new keyboard and a couple other parts. There’s also a planned new NAS build at some point, as I’ve recently acquired what I hope will be the piece to put it all together again.

Godwilling all of these projects will get their post, and they won’t get too behind a schedule to finish them in a reasonable time. I’m particularly excited about replacing the NAS. It’s served me well, but the Athlon II X2 250 is a bit slow for Immich’s processing.

Chickens

The chickens are doing quite well. Dominica is starting to finish off her moult. The others are just fine. Thanks to the cold weather, they were stuck in their coop for some time, but they did seem to enjoy getting a bit of out-time.

Felicitas and Agathae drinking.

Gaby taking a dust bath.

Dominica. She's getting her feathers back. Photo courtesy of my sister.

Obligatory Christmas tree photo from downtown. It was hard to take this photo, as there were LOTS of people in front of the thing.