10/06/2026

This week I headed into Chicago for a Bright Eyes concert. We took the train into the city, walked around for a bit, and grabbed Portillo's.

After our quick dinner, we took a Lyft to the venue, which ended up being standing only. Not terrible, but everyone around us was much taller lol. The crowd wasn't too bad at first, and the opening band, Lullaby for the Working Class, put on a good show.

During intermission, the place suddenly got very packed. People pushing through, spilling drinks, making it hard to stay put. We stepped out for some air and a bathroom break, which turned out to be a big mistake. By the time we tried to head back in, the venue was completely full and we got stuck watching from the hallway with several other people. I think the venue was overbooked.

Honestly, a high school gym would've been a better venue. At least you can see. After the show, we grabbed another Lyft back to the train and headed home. I don't mean to be so negative. Even with the crowd issues and hallway view, it was still a fun night. K got a bunch of cool merch, which was also fun.

		Crowded everywhere.
My view of Bright Eyes for the remainder of the concert.

09/28/2026

I have not updated in awhile. The last entry was back in July, and things have been stressful since then. I am still house hunting and the market has not gotten any easier. Every place either needs too much work, costs too much, or gets taken before I can even think about it. It is wearing me down and I am trying to stay optimistic, but I will admit, it is hard.

Work has been rough too. I got some bad news and now I am waiting to see what happens. It is contract time again. Every four years the company and the union start circling each other and the whole place gets tense. The last time did not work out so well for me, but like I said, I am trying to stay optimistic.

I did make a few changes to the site. I got a new shiny URL and updated a few pages. There is still a lot of work to do. I am thinking about adding an expanded journal page. However, I am not the best at typing and even these small entries take a lot of rewriting and spell checking. I want to keep the site growing a little at a time, but I am struggling to figure out what to add.

That is about it for now. Just wanted to write something down so it doesn't go too long without an update. I know this update is probably a little personal and maybe a bit of an over share, but this site is for me and I doubt anyone reads this anyways.

Eh, what are you gonna do? Now back to polishing glasses.

07/17/2026

I haven't updated in a bit. Been busy and dealing with a lot lately. Work's been throwing extra overtime at me, so that's been eating up most of my time. On top of that, I've been house shopping, and the market right now is pretty rough. Not a lot of good options, and the whole thing has been stressing me out more than I expected. Honestly haven't really felt like myself because of it.

Still tried to get out and do stuff. We had fireworks at my parent's place for the 4th, even though I had to work that week. The county fair was going on, so we spent three days there. Last week we hit up a local concert, which was a nice break.

Today we are taking the train to go see The Offspring. Hoping the weather holds out since its an outdoor show and they're calling for possible thunderstorms. ugh.

Thats about it. I hope everyone who celebrated had a good holiday!

Here are some photos from this month:

 

04/19/2026

It has been a few months since my last update. Life has been the usual mix of work and daily routines, nothing new or exciting. The last real update was on Valentines Day, and since then I have mostly just been living life and not doing anything worth blogging about, that's still true now. I had Easter at my Moms, and it was fun.

I did make a few changes to the site over the last few days. I moved the older blog posts into separate pages by year. Right now I have 2024 and 2025 bundled together, and this year has its own page. I plan to keep doing this every year so the front page stays a little cleaner.

I also changed the name of the Projects and Hobbies page to Directory and Links, since that is a more accurate description of what that page actually is.

The biggest change is a new Videos page. It's a copy/tribute of one of my favorite childhood sites. There is not much on it yet, but I did upload three (cringy) videos from my high school days. It's pretty bad as of now.

I am not sure what else I will add to that page. I digitized a bunch of my family home videos, but they are mostly boring unless you are part of the family. I also digitized some home videos I found at Goodwill. I bought the tapes to reuse, but it felt wrong not to back them up first. I do not plan to share them since they are not mine to share, but now I have videos of strangers and no idea what to do with them. If you have any suggestions, let me know! Speaking of which, I added a Chatbox! Its on the left panel menu. I implemented it as a popup, so you may have to allow it.

That is about it for now. I wish everyone the best!

Here are some pictures from my camera roll this month.

Porch Goose ready for easter	Gas prices. At least e85 is somewhat cheap still.	K and Tyson <3
Met up with my dad at the Casino.	Easter at my mother's. They had a fire, which included some of her old Halloween crafts that she said were bad. I don't know, it seems kind of sad.
Cherokee at a park before work.

 

 

Happy Valentines Day!

We took the South Shore train into the city for Valentine's Day.
Once we got downtown, we just walked. No big plan. We wandered through the cold, cut through Millennium Park, and stopped by the Bean because that's what you do in Chicago. It's the same giant metal blob it's always been, but it's still fun to stand there and look at yourself stretched into some kind of alien.
Dinner was at The Dearborn. K ordered fried chicken that looked incredible. I went with fish and chips and made the mistake of upgrading to truffle oil. It sounded fancy in my head. In reality, it was like being hit in the face with a truffle-scented brick. I powered through it, but I won't be doing that again.
Dessert was cheesecake and cookies, which was the right call. After that we walked around Macys for a bit, mostly just killing time and staying warm before the train. Then we headed home.
Nothing dramatic. Just a simple day in the city with the beautiful K. You know I like my bloated photo galleries on this site, so here's another one:

 

 

Happy New Year!!!!

I can't believe it is going to be 2026. I still remember staying up late as a 6th grader in 1999 just to see the year 2000 roll in. I was playing Pokemon Yellow on my Game Boy, thinking the future was going to look like something out of a science fiction movie. And now here we are, actually living in it, and it still fits like 2005, albeit a more expensive 2005. It is strange how the years do not seem to change much anymore. Might just be me.
Honestly, I would trade 2025 for 2000 any day, but this year was not bad. Aside from the rough inflation and all the political chaos, it was a pretty solid year. I am happy, K is happy, my family is happy, and the cats are, well, indifferent. We are doing alright.

If you are reading this, I hope the new year treats you well and brings you some good surprises.
Here is to another year!