My first prediction, I’ll make New Year’s resolutions. Though I don’t always blog about it I talk about making some every year.

A quick, non-exhaustive list.

• Same as it ever was (a recap of 2017’s in 2019).
• Resolutionary (early 2017 recap).
• End (2016).
• Wrapping (2015).

World and domestic political events are a difficult thing for me to talk about publicly. I’ve no influence and so often keep my views private. You’ll find examples on this blog where internalising just takes too long. Hoping my views are on the right side of history. Searching my blog with a term I carefully pre-selected might be useful to at least startto determine my character.

Anyway, 2025?

• The Ukraine war will end.
• The Israel vs Gaza/Lebanon/Iran/Syria/common decency/etc. conflicts will end.
• Lawmakers in the USA will start the process of changing the amendments to their Constitution to make it easy for unlimited terms for incumbents they like.
• Still-active emergency powers in the USA will be used against anyone the people in power do not like.
• The United Kingdom’s politicians will lurch towards the right, populism will become the de-facto way of engaging with the public.
• The NFL’s Cleveland Browns will win more games than this abysmally unrelenting 2024 season.
• I’ll get a new car to replace my 15 year-old people carrier/minivan. Not looking forward to the upcoming repair bills before that happens.
• I’ll execrice. exorcise. exa. Er… do exercise. Having a puppy now nearly 6 months old helps a lot with basic fitness. Heck, I even ran a couple of times with her the last couple of days. Not prolonged, incorporated into more of a fartlek-style walk

You’ve my oldest daughter to blame for this, I was only going to say I’d eat more healthily in the new year.

Some of her predictions are:

• King Charles passes away.
• Trisha Paytas has a new baby. [Who she?]
• Cancelled influencers gain redemption by becoming less self-centred.
• US terrorist attack on a major city, either Chicago or San Francisco.
• Twitter shuts down, either eschewing a physical headquarters or eliminating links within ‘X’ entirely.
• My Chemical Romance’s 5th album.
• More CEO deaths, not restricted to the health insurance industry.
• Jimmy Fallon gets cancelled or loses influence in an altogether more final way.
• Chappell Roan becomes a full country.
• The UK retirement ages rise. Again.
• The UK Heath Secretary is fired, not for an affair but for corruption.

There were more but I’ve determined that it’s now teatime!

I just opened Ulysses writing app on my iPhone for maybe the third time since the company moved to a subscription model. I’m not saying I don’t value the app enough, it’s just that I already finished writing the book that common lore says we all have within us.

But I’ve just found Ulysses can now post directly to Micro.blog and… will my pre-subscription app allow a connection?

If you’re reading this, what do you think?

…

Some time later…

…

No. Medium, WordPress.com and Custom WordPress are the 3 options.

Ah well, I cannot justify the cost of a subscription, even via SetApp. Maybe I’ll try one of the many other apps I’ve used over the years and copy and paste instead. Like a caveman.

Not DEVONthink though, that’d be silly.

Drafts then.

A thought-provoking link post by @ianbetteridge on Mastodon:

“This article really hits the nail on the head about so-called “ultra processed foods”, a meaningless category so broad as to group together tofu and twinkies as if they had the same health impact.”

From the article:

“If you’re confused, don’t feel bad — some of the world’s top nutrition experts are, too.”

Maybe I should have read this before my lamb sausages, fried onions and microwaved tomatoes, tomato ketchup (Tesco, none of that Heinz crap) on tortilla wraps for breakfast? Delicious as they were.

And here’s a link to the article: 
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/391795/ultra-processed-foods-science-vegan-meat-rfk-maha

And here is a photo of the sausages in the pack:

My wife became unresponsive earlier, experiencing a diabetic hypo (low blood sugar) episode. We’ve been lucky, she’s managed her condition well, and for the last 15 years I’ve not had to ask for assistance.

But this evening I had to call the paramedics out. We don’t have a glucose pen or gel these days so I tried feeding her bits of chocolate to attempt to raise her blood sugar level while at the same time not introducing a choking hazard.

2.9 is pretty low, but specially over the couple of hours it was at that level. she’s set her monitor to alarm at 4.0. Incidentally, that monitor reading of 2.9 is a little high compared to the paramedics’ 2.6.

Anyway, to anyone who’s not experienced this before it’s a little disconcerting. The sweating, the moans and occasional wails, the slightly combative stance, none of it remembered by her when she’s out of harm’s way. And the lack of responsiveness to outside stimuli. Not nice for an observer.

But the paramedics gave her the gel, the injection, and pretty soon she started to come round. It took a little while but she’s in the mend.

The injection stimulates the body to use whatever reserves of glucose is left, but leaves the recipient needing to eat to bring things back into balance. Feeling sick, my wife decided she wasn’t going to eat.

Nope, not happening, She was going to have the leftover stew whether she liked it or not. Ok, she had half a bowl, better than none I suppose.

She has a strong will which, when she’s ill, becomes stronger. Let’s face it, if she’s effectively not conscious of what’s happening whilst it’s happening, she cannot understand the impact.

So I’ve downloaded her blood sugar monitor app to my phone and will make no secret of checking readings throughout the night.

Not feeling particularly merry yet, this Christmas. But the sight of the mince pie, carrot and glass of milk left out by my youngest daughter for Father Christmas has at least restored some seasonal cheer.