These are closed-back over-ear headphones, and they are extremely comfortable. The sound profile is perfect for music, and probably everything else. A subtle emphasis on the bass frequencies, yet detailed and accurate highs and mids. Not harsh, but also not particularly warm. Definitely not muddy.

I’ve had the standard wired headphones for more than 12 years. The ear pads and the headband are both made with some kind of faux leather, which eventually peels. I have replaced the ear pads once, and the second pair hasn’t started to peel. I hadn’t found a replacement for the headband, but when I went to the manufacturer’s web site to steal a photo, there’s a replacement right there (I’ll update after it comes in). The cable is easily removable, and I’ve never had any problems with it.

The BT2 model has the same sound profile. Plenty of battery life. They have a built-in microphone for taking phone/zoom calls, but I haven’t really tested it. If I have one complaint, it’s that the maximum volume isn’t as loud as it ought to be. It does come with a detachable cable, so it can be used wired.

I use the STS-USB model at work for zoom calls. The microphone is very good, supposedly the same capsule used in the AT2020 series medium-diaphragm microphones. Disappointingly, they put a mid-pass filter on it, which I suppose makes spoken speech more clear, but it’s a less accurate representation of the speaker’s voice. Still, it’s the best sounding boom mic I have found.

The ATH-M50x does not have Active Noise Cancellation (ANC).

ANC is a technology whereby earbuds and headphones attempt to subtract outside sounds from entering the listener’s ears, creating a quiet soundscape in an noisy environment. This creates some peaceful auditory isolation and solitude. It also lowers the noise floor so that music can be enjoyed more clearly, potentially at lower volumes. It’s great when it works.

ANC uses external microphones on the device, producing an electrical signal of the outside noises. Then that signal is subtracted (quite literally) from the signal powering the drivers inside the device aimed at the listener’s ears.

Microphones, no matter how good, have a weakness: wind noise. Air currents passing over an object create eddies and turbulent swirls of air pressure. The faster the air flow, the stronger and more turbulent the eddies are. The purpose of a microphone is to detect tiny changes in air pressure and convert them to an electrical signal. Therefore, microphones are very sensitive to even the tiniest air turbulence, especially when it is right on the microphone. The result is a noise, captured electrically, known simply as wind noise. Actual air turbulence isn’t very loud, especially when your ears are stopped up with earbuds or covered by headphones. However, the microphone captures it as a loud signal.

When earbuds or headphones with ANC capture wind noise, they attempt to subtract that noise through the device’s driver. However, since no such noise exists inside the listener’s ear, ANC ends up creating a negative or inverse version of the wind noise and playing it into the listener’s ear. To the listener’s ear, a negative wind noise signal sounds just the same as a positive signal, and it is heard as noise. Noise that is loud and competes with the music or audio that the listener is trying to hear.

It takes very little wind to create this problem. 3 or 4 mph? Simply standing in place on a lightly breezy day will cause ANC earbuds to make wind noise. Running or even a brisk walk through still air will have this problem. You can forget about using ANC earbuds while cycling.

The same problem occurs even worse with “transparency” or “hear-through” modes, since the outside sounds are reproduced by the device’s driver at an even louder volume.

Incidentally, wind noise is also a problem when trying to have a phone conversation. The wind noise will be sent to the person on the other end of the phone conversation, often overpowering the earbud user’s voice.

People using ANC earbuds or headphones for outdoor activities will want to turn off both ANC and transparency. When buying earbuds specifically for running or outdoor sports, it is better to look for products that do not have ANC. At the very least, it must be possible to turn off ANC and transparency. Not all earbuds have this capability.

Manufacturers don’t seem to care about this problem. That’s because buyers of earbuds are mostly not aware of the problem, and manufacturers know it is difficult to compete in this space without having ANC.

I had already read four of the six finalists for Best Novel. (That’s how it worked out last year, too.) The two novels I needed to read were The Raven Scholar and The Everlasting. I have read them now, so I could enter my votes at any time.

However, I’m sitting with my thoughts and mulling on the ranking between The Everlasting and Death of the Author. Both are very good, in different ways and for different reasons.

Meanwhile, I have two and a half months to read in other categories. I have my eye on short stories first, but if I can find time, I could also read the novelettes and novellas. They are, apparently, all in the Voter Packet in at least one format.

I am tempted by the novellas. Out of those six finalists, I have read two. One I liked, and one I very much did not like. I kind of want to vote in that category to do my part to prevent the one I didn’t like from winning. However, my sense of fairness would require me to read the other four before casting a vote.

The whole premise is unbelievable: losing your job apparently means forfeiting your life. A specialized class of contractor whose job it is to fire people, which is so dangerous and prone to violence that a specific martial art is required. The leading martial art is proficiency with a “long knife”, a 45 cm short sword of some sort. This same contractor is also somehow responsible for driving the strategic career of their clients. Powerful people live a second life inside a robot body, but they lose their charisma, and we’re supposed to believe they remain powerful without it.

I’m also just not identifying with any of the characters. The apparent protagonist is a woman in her fifties, and we’re supposed to believe she is the best fighter. She’s also a mom on the side. Everyone else we’ve met so far is lacking in three-dimensionality. Particularly the protagonist’s 19-year-old daughter, who seems like a clueless airhead (though this impression may be unfairly driven by the way the character is voiced).

And there is just a whole lot of exposition, about a world that I don’t care about, doesn’t really make a lot of sense, and just seems over-the-top dramatic for no reason except to be dramatic.

When my mom cooked steaks, bacon, and probably a lot of other things, she used a two-tined fork about ten or twelve inches long. As I learned to cook, I did the same thing. I’ve always had two or three in the kitchen. I use them when I cook steaks on the grill. I have a nylon one that is safe for non-stick coatings.

The other day, my nicest one fell apart in the dishwasher. I tossed it in the trash, resolving to buy a replacement.

I didn’t realize how difficult that would be. No one sells them anymore.

No longer in the kitchen gadget aisle of the grocery store. Not at Target or Walmart. Looking online, William-Sonoma and Crate & Barrel don’t have any.

It turns out they are archaic, and no one uses them anymore. There are a few still made, but many manufacturers are calling them “granny forks.”

There are grill forks. These tend to be massive things made for cave men to turn whole animal carcasses at a safe distance from a bonfire. There are carving forks. These have long, slender, straight tines for piercing roast meats while slicing with a carving knife. (I should probably get one of those.)

OXO makes one, but no one stocks it locally. I’ll have to order it from Amazon.

A friend was over once, and as I made breakfast, she offered to help with the bacon. She didn’t want to use the fork I had. She wanted tongs, instead. It had never occurred to me how much more sensible they are for bacon. Since then, I’ve only used tongs to cook bacon. I now have a pair with nylon jaws that are safe for non-stick coatings.

I suppose I could learn to use tongs to cook steaks on the grill. I should probably look for tongs that are shaped appropriately for the task.

Katabasis by R. F. Kuang is eligible for the Hugo this year. I wanted to like it. For some reason, I sympathize with the author for being unfairly disqualified from the 2023 Hugos (see below). However, I can see it’s going to be a long series of depictions of Hell, and I’m just not there for it. (I didn’t finish Dante’s Inferno, either.) It also means I’m reading two novels simultaneously by this author that are alternate history versions of snobby English universities (Cambridge, in this case). There’s also the magic academy trope, though at least these don’t involve tweens. Importantly, I don’t particularly care for the protagonist or the close supporting character, nor do I buy into their motivation. Oh, and it’s quite long.

Babel, also by R. F. Kuang was widely popular and eligible for the Hugo in 2023, but that year the Worldcon was held in Chengdu, China, which scandalously disqualified a bunch of authors preemptively to avoid offending the Chinese government. I told myself I would read it out of solidarity. However, I’m not really loving it. Like Katabasis, it is an alternate history version of a snobby English university (Oxford, in this case) by the same author, and also includes a magic academy trope. I don’t exactly dislike the protagonist, but I don’t identify much with him. It’s also starting to look like it may turn into a homoerotic love story of some sort. This one is also quite long.

I’ve read two other novels by this author. I didn’t really care for The Poppy War, which seemed very juvenile. I enjoyed Yellowface very much. Maybe I’ll return to these later, especially if Katabasis becomes a finalist this year.

If I drop both of those, then that leaves me to consider the third book I’m in the middle of: A Day of Fallen Night, by Samantha Shannon. This is a prequel to The Priory of the Orange Tree, which I quite liked. However, I’m not really enjoying this prequel so much as the original. And it is also quite long.

So, I think I’m going to drop all three of these from my current reading list. That means I’m done cramming novels that are eligible for the Hugo. I can read something else for a change.

So far, I have read 17 eligible novels, and I’m hoping to fit in two more before the nomination deadline. (The deadline hasn’t been announced yet, but it seems to be typically mid-March.) That has been a significant commitment. I only read 29 novels in 2025. I’m not a fast reader, and lately I have had less time for reading.

I have to say, it has been a strange year. Nothing I’ve read this year has really knocked it out of the park. So far, the top contender is Death of the Author, by Nnedi Okorafor, which I read early in the year. It was a strange novel, and while I was reading it I didn’t think it would be one of my favorites, but ultimately it moved me and spoke to me more deeply than anything else I have read this year.

This year, I have put down a few eligible novels that were popular, but weren’t doing it for me. It is possible, and even likely, that one or more of those will be nominated as finalists, and I’ll have to pick them up again and finish them. However, I’m not going to do so unless they do actually make it as finalists. I realized late in the year that I had been trying to anticipate the finalists and read everything that seemed popular. That’s the wrong way to do it. I should read what I would normally read, only making an effort to read SF/F published in the eligible year, and then nominate from those. This offers the broadest diversity to the award process. It also means I don’t need to force myself to read a lot of things I wouldn’t normally choose for myself.

I’ve also decided this year to dip my toe into some of the other categories of fiction. I’m not reading short stories in advance, but I expect to read the finalists and vote on them. This will largely depend on their availability in “Voter Packet”. If I get through those quickly, I may move on to the novelette and maybe even the novella categories.

Sometime last year, I was in the store to buy body wash, and I noticed two limited editions of the Irish Spring body wash I normally use. One was Yosemite, and the other was Grand Canyon. I have never been to Yosemite†, but the idea of a Grand Canyon scent intrigued me. I took a whiff of the bottle, and it did indeed remind me of the scent of that area, but definitely more pleasant. I bought a bottle.

I have been using it sparingly. I have only been using it to fill the travel-size container in my toiletry kit. It has been an added bonus on the last few travel excursions on which I have been. Unlike the original Irish Spring body wash, this scent stays with me throughout the day, and I am often reminded of it.

I kind of wish I could keep buying this stuff indefinitely, but it’s finite availability also makes it a little more special.

(* I need to go back. When I went, I was out of shape, and there was a heat advisory, and as a result, I aborted my intention to descend down into the canyon. I’m in better shape now. I want to train for a hike in the canyon. I’m thinking about backpacking the Rim-to-Rim trail.)

(† I should definitely plan a trip to Yosemite. I love traveling out west.)

The server had been equipped with a hard drive toaster, an external docking station that let me plug in bare, internal SATA hard drives. I was using this for my storage archive. I had amassed more than 50 TB of media files on more than 20 hard drives. The problem is that I was using FreeBSD’s native UFS filesystem, which is not mountable on Windows or Linux. I could only access the files if I had a working FreeBSD system.

I screwed around with a NUC for a bit, installing Rocky Linux on it. After I realized my storage problem, I installed FreeBSD on it. I was able to access the files on the disks, but where should I put them to make them more accessible? I am currently moving the archive to external 2.5-inch USB hard drives. They come formatted for NTFS, so they can be attached and mounted directly on a wide range of systems.

That’s fine for my archive, but what about files I need to access readily? I finally invested in something I have been wanting for years: a NAS appliance. I had been looking at Synology, but they had recently pulled a fast one, locking their customers out of commodity hard drives and forcing them to use Synology’s own private-label drives. They have mostly walked that back, but only after they showed their true colors. So I bought a UGreen NASync DXP6800 Pro, a 6-bay NAS appliance. I filled it with 20 TB Western Digital “Red” NAS drives. In a RAID 5 configuration, this yields 100 TB of redundant storage.

The NAS has a few bonus features, and one of them is that it can host VMs. I didn’t take it seriously at first, but I’ve started to appreciate it. Among other things, it means I have an easy place to experiment with alternate operating systems. I expanded the RAM in the NAS for this purpose. I have a Rocky Linux VM running on it, and I have built VMs I can start up on-demand running FreeBSD and Mint. I intend to build some Ubuntu and Debian VMs, so I can explore and learn about the differences.

Losing my server has made me nervous about data backups. One thing the UGreen NAS doesn’t do well is backups. Yes, it comes with a backup function, but it doesn’t work very well. It is glommed onto their general-purpose app, it has a few show-stoppers, and it lacks the functionality of a good backup agent. I couldn’t even back up my whole Windows workstation. After a little research and a couple of trials, I bought a license of Acronis True Image. My Windows workstation and my laptop are now being backed up to my NAS, quietly and reliably.

Getting the backups to work led me to discover bad spots on the hard drive in my workstation. It has been equipped with an SSD for the C: drive and a spinning disk for my workspace where dump and edit photos, video, and audio files. Unbeknownst to me, the spinning disk had been developing bad spots. So I invested in a high performance 4 TB M.2 NVMe SSD. The thing is fast: 50 times as fast, if my little performance test is correct. And of course it is silent.

All of this has renewed attention to my cloud servers, most of which are getting quite old. My “new” web server is seven years old. WordPress has started complaining that the version of PHP it’s running is no longer supported. Building new servers is easy, but migrating applications from one server to another, especially countless web sites, is time consuming. Case in point, in seven years I haven’t actually migrated all of the sites from my “old” web server to my “new” one.

So, I have finally invested time to accomplish the challenging task of automating web site migrations. Using a set of Python and bash scripts on my web servers, primary DNS server, and SQL server, I now have a solution to quickly and easily move web sites from one web server to another. At this point, I am proceeding cautiously, for fear of bugs. One of the problems I am facing has to do with certificates.

Most of my web sites are secured with TLS, which requires certificates for each site. I am using Certbot to automate the acquisition and renewal of certificates issued by Let’s Encrypt. Let’s Encrypt does a number of things to ensure authority for the site bring protected, and Certbot keeps some data files on my web server related to the certificates and the account that was created for my server. Migrating the certificates themselves is easy, but without the data files, will Let’s Encrypt renew them? No. And if the certificates were issued to a different account (for a different server), will Let’s Encrypt renew them? It turns out, also no. So my choices are to delete and recreate certificates as I migrate sites, or reconfigure the new server to have the same account as the old server. I’m going to try the latter.

On top of all this, my employer is pushing migrations to Microsoft Azure and a movement toward DevOps. I am actively learning new technologies and methodologies. I think I may develop a couple of cloud applications on Azure. I will use the opportunity to gain first-hand experience with CI/CD methodologies. And now is a good time to learn Python properly.

Why Rocky Linux? For two decades before my current job, my preferred Unix was FreeBSD. When I started with my current job, I was required to use Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) and Oracle Linux (also based on RHEL). It became the Linux flavor I was comfortable with, and I had never gotten deep into Ubuntu or Debian based Linuxes. For my personal needs, I started using cloud VMs running CentOS. Then a few years ago, after Red Hat had bought CentOS, they folded it into their development cycle and it became non-viable as a production operating system. I went looking for an alternative, and it was Rocky Linux. I haven’t been disappointed yet. It is a clean, no-nonsense Fedora build, releasing just a couple weeks after Red Hat.

Look, lots of people like vampire novels, so when you’re writing the blurb for yours, you should probably use the word “vampire” at least once, and maybe not the word “genre-defying”. There’s no reason to trick the rest of us.

One of the early chapters, the one introducing Alice and Lotte, was spectacularly written.