The first week of 2026 has been interesting. Not just personally, but for the whole world.
I didn't make any resolutions. I quietly decided to make a few changes to my lifestyle that will steer my Type-2 diabetes towards remission, and help me to improve my health generally. A happy side effect of these changes is that I will lose weight and gain strength. All good. I have mentally prepared myself for the challenges that will arise, but these are easy to deal with. It really is a matter of reframing things in your mind.
Now, since the first day of the year, the USA has removed the President of Venezuela, seen ICE agents gun down an unarmed woman in a Minneapolis suburb and threatened to invade Greenland, an ally! The war in Ukraine shows no sign of slowing down, and now it seems that the Trump administration is turning its eyes towards Iran.
From today, I'm going to remove all news apps from my phone and make a point of not watching the news. It's fucking depressing. My focus will be on family and friends, writing blog posts, making music, and attending car-related events and the occasional gig. I will work hard to make sure my family has everything they need. I work to live, nothing more.
I am going through my archive of old blog posts and republishing them here. They are the most important pieces I have written; they are relevant, and they matter to me. I don't care if they seem a little out of touch now; they are meant to reflect who I was and how I have changed over the years. I won't be sharing these posts on social media; in fact, I am limiting all social media activity to a little bit of Instagram, BlueSky, and Daft Social. The rest of it seems too toxic these days. I can make a choice not to engage with the venomous rhetoric that permeates those platforms, plus the Russian bot farms and disinformation groups are in full effect, skewing the narrative and making fools out of a great many weak-minded people.
A lot is going on around the world, and I don't need to know about it. Until bombs begin falling on my quiet corner of Britain, I'm going to assume that everything is awesome!