It is the last day of the year as I write this, and in open contradiction to my recent notice of a hiatus, which I stated would last until the new year, I feel compelled to write something about the imminent end of this decidedly unusual year. As I write, 2025 has about 9-1/2 hours remaining in my time zone, and I am definitely glad to see it go.
Gains
I got a new job in April. Covenant Health, the largest healthcare organization in East Tennessee, hired me in March 2025 to be its newest Revenue Integrity Auditor. I earn a living by detecting questionable billing practices and compliance issues before the OIG gets a chance to do so for itself (because I’m far nicer than the OIG). While I miss my former employer, the right opportunity came about at the right time.
I managed to earn the equivalent of 86 semester hours of college credit this year via Sophia Learning, Study.com, and my HFMA membership. I have big plans for next year in terms of credits to earn and degrees to make progress toward earning.
I returned to using a Mac full-time, swapping my Ryzen gaming PC for an M4 Pro Mac mini and my ThinkPad X13s for an M4 MacBook Air. I’m back for good this time until I grow tired of macOS and switch to Linux permanently. I only use Windows at work, which is exactly how it should be.
Lastly, I got in touch with my humanistic side, getting into reading philosophy and literature for the first time since my teens. I read 18 books within the year, including Plato’s Republic and Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles, and I am looking forward to even more reading in the coming year.
Losses
I’d be remiss if I didn’t lead off this section by giving a little context behind the hiatus earlier this month. On December 17, 2025, my uncle, David, passed away after a bout with esophageal cancer. He was 54 years old at the time of his passing. My chief memories of my uncle are of a man who strode confidently to the beat of his own drum, of a man who believed in making anything and everything he needed, and of a man who was never too proud to roll up his sleeves and get to work, whether he was elbow-deep in an engine bay or working underneath a house. Indeed, early in David’s (diagnosed) illness, he was at the hospital and as he lay in the emergency room bed, still in his white t-shirt and denim shorts, his foremost thought was on the deck he was supposed to have been building at the time. I like to think that my own industrial spirit – which is, I must admit, more readily exercised in computer programs1 than with tools and physical materials – is how I will do my part, as his nephew, to keep David’s spirit alive.
That’s it; that’s the whole section. That one loss trumps any other potential losses that may have occurred throughout the year. You were a mountain man born 180 years too late, dear uncle. May you rest in peace.
Coda
2026 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for me personally. I look forward to elaborating further in future posts. In the interim, thanks for hanging around with me this year and watching my (slow-motion) return to the blogosphere. I’m excited to see where this blog goes in the coming months.
As always, esteemed readers, feed your mind, mind your feeds, and be the algorithm you wish to see in the world. Always look both ways before trusting an opinion and never, under any circumstances, refuse an opportunity to think for yourself.
Cheers, mates.
- If you can’t solve it with Python, is it really a problem? ↩︎