A year in the rearview

Because reasons, I tend to count my years from April to April.
For a while, they revolved around when we moved to the USA.
I don't feel compelled to think of them starting and finishing when we moved to Idaho (Jun 15th), so here we are, boring old January 1st.

So what did I do the past year?

January.
I was riding my longboard in a T-Shirt with no idea what was about to come crashing down upon me.

I was still refining my computer monitor setup.

We did a quick trip to Utah and back to get the details for a hall our church would use for a week-long convention later in the year.

February
My Discovery Dish finally arrived, and I did a quick review of it and then did a comparo of the different L-Band antennas I've used. It got picked up by the people who made the dish, unexpected, but cool.
I've been using it every day since then till now to pick up the ACARS data from the Americas Inmarsat satellite.

Got a shirt that I plan to wear when I start my YouTube channel. The joke is that my ACARS website is a dumpster fire (because it is), and I am the scrappy alley cat that lives in the alley (Have you seen the inside of my mind?). Hence, my very first post on this blog. (Aaaaahhhh, so THAT'S what the dumpster fire and cat in an alley was all about).

Our son moved home, and I got sick of not being able to move in my garage (See, it's been a full year of me living with a cluttered shop. So, no. It's not just a 6 month thing and I should get over it).

My ACARS site picked up the Chinese warship firing at a buoy between Aust and NZ, and the media had no idea about ACARS (again, still), and so the real story was missed.

March
I did 13.4 miles and 186 flights of stairs, carrying boxes and furniture to help Terry and Elizabeth move in. Worth the black toenails.

We drove to Idaho to meet this little bloke.

The house over the road from the little bloke came up for sale.

We had a yard sale (garage sale)

April
I took down a bunch of stuff that was on the house. Solar panels, antennas, etc.

Terry and I went for our second-to-last lunch E-ride together.

May
I was deep into our usual yearly automation build. This yearly build period was one of the most stressful recurring events of our lives. Terry and I are the only two people on the planet who really understand what it was like.
This year was no different, but very different. Usually, I am there for the whole thing. This year, I knew I would just barely get it built and have to leave it to Terry to do the software on his own, and I was hoping like crazy that he could finish the last hardware bits I could not do without the software.
I pushed very very hard and got it done with just a few hours remaining on the clock. Talk about pressure....
But Terry killed it. It was - by a single account - a huge success. I won't be able to see it myself till the video is released around March next year. It was always a team-up between the two of us; it was bittersweet to leave it to my son and have him successfully carry it solo over the finish line.
That said, we kept in touch the whole time, and even with only one of us on the ground, it still was a team effort. Quite a few phone calls of troubleshooting and brainstorming right through the whole event. No one person can pull off builds like this.
We have done this every year for the past 4 years. It could have been much, much less stressful, but it just was not an option because reason.

Built 2 or 3 rigs that perform the same. 4 years in a row.
Again, it could have been so. very. different.

First of two U-Haul truck loads goes north.

We both drove up and flew home.

First and only time the shop will be empty with us as owners.

June
Taught my last class at Opto HQ.
Took my last class photo.

Got the two rigs pretty much buttoned up.

Drove north (in a U-Haul) for the last time.

Put some antennas on the shop roof.

July
Hung out with this little bloke.

Put in two basement windows.

Hung out with this little bloke.

August
Put in a wonky path.

Hung out with this little bloke.

Saw a rainbow over my shop.

Spread some rocks.

Hung out with this little bloke and his mum.

Cracked a rib while doing plumbing. (That's a grimius, not a smile)

September
14-hour day (long hot day) getting a future project that is the main reason for trying to clean up the shop.

Hung out with this little bloke

Climbed a ladder in the stairwell.

October
Did the church tech thing.

Hung out with this little bloke.

Went for my first (and only for the year) e-board ride in Idaho.

Started a month-long slavecation with my mate from Canada-Australia.

November
Did some actual income work.

Did some more income work at another location.

Drilled some holes in a tree stump, filled them with diesel, lit it on fire, and totally failed to burn it out of the ground.

Put some more antennas on the shop roof.

Saw a funny sticker that hit a bit too close to home....
"My name's Ben, and I'm normal"

Was a human tripod for a light for a guy doing some woodworking under our patio.

Did some more income work... Did you know that 4 pm to 1 am Sunday in Idaho is the exact right time to teach a class in Malaysia on Monday.

Dropped this guy off at the airport.

Picked up these two from the airport the next day.

Hung out with this little bloke on Thanksgiving.

Took myself to the airport and did some wardriving in the rental car - enjoyed the 78F weather! Booking many flights, hotels and rentals is really a sub-par experience that just soaks up a TON of time.

(Phew, November was a BIG month).

December
Did some more income work.

Another flight, another rental car (this time in the SNOW!), and some more income work.

Set fire to the tree stump for a second time (against my best advice and wishes - I'm hiring a stump grinder - so very done with this thing).

Hung out with this little bloke.

Set fire to some stuff with my mate.

Set fire to some stuff with my other mates.

So that was 2025. Did not expect the outcome from the start of the year.

Always loath to play prophet and say what's coming, so just going to muse for a bit and see where it takes us....

This blog. Going to finish out posting 52 trance tracks. (And not just to bug Gary, but because I have really enjoyed picking through the tracks and typing a little about why I like them... Ok, mostly to bug Gary).
Might have to double and even triple up some trace posts. Why? I'm about done with the stuff I can blog about to pad between the trance tracks. Got a ton I want to say, but won't. Also, I think we are all sick of the blogs about the house and shop.
There will be a few blogable projects, I'm sure, but nothing with a regular heartbeat.

I want to get back to the ACARS website, 'coding', hardware and blogging, and it does not belong here.
I really don't want to, but for some reason (I know the exact reason, but won't share it here), starting the YouTube channel on all things ACARS is still nagging at me. Even if I just do the initial idea of a video for every page on the site, and a few others on the subject of building and running a station for each of the main modes.... That will end up about 40 videos, and that is enough Ben for everyone, including Ben.

That said, I did not expect to be in Idaho when I started this blog, I just knew I wanted to write some stuff and re-find my voice. March will be one year of the blog and I sort of feel that I am getting close to that ground.

I'm still struggling with AI. Every time I try it for code, it comes up lacking.
I've used it a bit for the income work side of things - mostly to give me ideas to follow up on. I can't trust it for factual work help.
Two things I need to tease out more regarding AI.
1. It's not curious. It never asks questions. It never follows a rabbit hole. It never gets interested in anything.
2. It can only can speak to what it's been trained on. Look up 'dead internet' if you want to see where that is going to lead us.

So much of my stuff of interest seems to be fringe enough that AI just does not have 'any' training data on, so it fails to engage or help me. I have zero confidence in what the techbros tell me "Yeah, we know, we have run out of training data for AI, but its Ok, we are going to have AI create new training data for the next version".
All that said, I am going to have another go at running an LLM at the house and feed it some specific data and see if it can help search, 'index' and interact with the data.

I've a strong hankering to get a motorbike. I sold the Goldwing due to California traffic.
It's a LOT calmer up here, and the fire trails are calling me back into the forest.

Dan left his guitar here, so I want to pick it up (again) and stick with it this time.

Still practicing my touch typing every day - want to bump the amount of time doing that out a bit more. Currently, I'm only seeing a 0.4 wpm speed bump per hour of practice, and I want to get more out of my input.

I'd like to get the same data feeds / satellite etc systems setup here that I had in CA. ie get the rest of the antennas installed and connected.

Get the solar panels installed on the roof of the shop and rebuild the house patio with solar installed on it.
Along with this is running a substantial power feed from the shop solar / grid UPS to the house to run the fridge and central fan for heat in winter (don't care about AC in summer) during any major power outages. That 12.5-hour blackout overnight worried me; if it had been properly cold, it would/could have been serious.

Get my computer workstation built in the basement.

Get the laser light shows and video projector working in the shop. I'd like to get an upgraded laser light show system working. I'd also love to try my hand at 3D projector mapping.

I need and want to skill up on video editing, for both my YouTube and church stuff. It's something I'm interested in and enjoy, just need to spend more time on the tool to get more fluid with it.

Freddy and I are both talking about when and how to make a trip home. Going to be tough both time and money-wise (we bled sooooo much money into this house and not taking unemployment benefits - but no real regrets on either front).

Want to get an Internet video telescope going on the roof of the shop. The skies are darker here than CA. I miss doing some astronomy stuff. That has been a goal now for about 5 to 20 years, so no rush if I don't get it done in the next year.

Not happy with the seismic vault that the Raspberry Pi seismograph is in, so would love to get that sorted next year.

Thinking about what it will take to relocate the fibre internet drop from the dining room to the basement.

Lastly, I really want to get back to running and working out. The move has caused me to stop even trying, as there was just zero time, and I was exhausted most days.
I need to get back into it. Winter and ice are the current issues, so looking for options vs waiting for spring.

I've made some changes to my diet. Am enjoying the new sensations of mind and body from those changes.

Well, that was a fun short blog.
2.193 words.