This is my annual end-of-year post. Posting at the end of the year is a habit I picked up from my time at LiveJournal and have continued for the last 20 years. I’m posting a little earlier than usual this year, but I’m sure you’ll forgive me.
It’s been an interesting year. I put myself on a schedule to publish every two weeks. And with the exception of May, for medical reasons, and this single post for December, I’ve been faithful to that schedule. I have every intention of trying to keep the two week posting schedule in the coming year. But, like everything else in my life, we’ll see.
Historically, I’ve closed out most years with a musical tribute of some sort and this year will be no different. This year I will use Peter Gabriel’s Solsbury Hill. The version below is a montage of Gabriel’s live performances of Solsbury Hill from the years 1978, 1987, 1993, 2003, 2011 and 2013.
Solsbury Hill is a song Gabriel wrote about his departure from the band, Genesis, to forge his own path. It’s about being willing to give up what you have for something new and potentially greater. It’s about risking everything to make a better version of yourself. That’s a worthy goal for 2026 and it’s my goal.
Meanwhile, here are some of the things I didn’t write about in 2025.
K-Pop Demon Hunters
This American animated movie about Korean culture and mythology seems to hit all the right beats and is on my short list for the Academy Awards. I’m surprised at how much I loved this Netflix film which combines anime and 3d CGI into great storytelling. It is serious, it is funny and it works. It is Netflix most streamed movie of all time. I repeat – all time!!!
K-Pop Demon Hunters plays like a gothic fairytale as its protagonist is haunted by the cost of living two lives. Our heroine, Rumi, is both an music idol 
and an outcast. She’s a figure of worship who secretly stalks the night, bearing the weight of a destiny she never asked for.
Rumi is a member of the K-Pop Girl Group, Huntr/x, along with her band mates Zoey and Mira. During the day, the girls perform, give interviews and live the rock star life, but at night the trio hunt the demons that prey upon humanity. But Rumi also has a secret that she has kept from her band mates and her fans. Her secret is no heroic disguise; it’s a burden literally carved into her soul.
The journey that Rumi is on can be seen as a metaphor for so many things in real life. In the end, Rumi comes to terms with who she really is and what she has to do. And so do we. For her, the journey is both terrifying and liberating as she realizes the ultimate cost of her survival is being true to herself. There will be no hiding. She will be who she was born to be. As she puts it, she has found the beauty in the broken glass and her voice without lies.
Honestly, you can not talk about the K-Pop genre without talking about the music itself. And the music of K-Pop Demon Hunters moves the story along like the musical films of the 1950s. The film’s soundtrack was so successful, it reached number one and multiple top-ten positions on multiple music and streaming charts. It became the first film soundtrack on the Billboard Hot 100 to have five of its songs in the top ten. It was the first soundtrack album to go Platinum and to have five singles from the album also go Platinum as well. The signature song, “Golden” and the entire soundtrack have been nominated for five Grammy Awards.
In short, the music is stellar and makes the film work. This video clip of their hit song “Golden” is chilling and an earworm that will stay with you long after the movie is over. And I will add that the finale song “What It Sounds Like” rocks (Consider this is your spoiler alert.).
In short, you will not be wasting your time watching this film. Here’s the trailer for this movie.
The Collapse of the 2025 Atlanta Braves
If you search this blog, you’ll find that I’ve written quite a bit about my love of baseball. Almost from the first year of this blog until 2012, I wrote about the San Diego Padres and their inability to put consecutive winning seasons together. Back then, when you watch the Padres play, you had no expectation of them winning, you just wanted them to play well. And most of the time, they did – just not well enough to win.
That brings me to the 2025 Atlanta Braves, who I started following in 2015. From 2018-2024, the Braves won 604 games and lost 427. They won 6 Division titles, made 7 playoff appearances and won the 2021 World Series. And just as quickly as it was great, it was bad.
They lost the first seven games of the season and never recovered. In 2025, four of their 5 opening day pitchers were out for the season by mid-June. Their 3rd baseman went out for the year in late July. The right fielder was suspended for 80 games at the start of the season. Their starting catcher was out for the year in late August. No one could hit with runners on base and the bullpen couldn’t hold a lead. The fact is the Atlanta Braves were painful to watch as they crawled toward the end of the season. It was a season that couldn’t end fast enough for most fans.
Sadly, this was not the Braves’ year, but the great thing about baseball is that ‘there’s always next year.’
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – Destruction of Our Health Care System
I wrote one political oriented post this year (in April). I could have written more (many, many more). However, doing so would have taken this blog to places I don’t want to take this site – dark, angry places. Not yet, anyway. So, let’s talk about the man on the left.
Americans like to believe that we have the greatest Health Care System on the planet. We don’t, but it is adequate for most of us provided you are male and do not have a catastrophic illness. If you are not male or do have a serious illness, our health care system can easily lead to bankruptcy and death through benign neglect.
Our Health Care System is currently being led by a man who is intent on destroying it (my opinion). He doesn’t believe in vaccines as preventive Health Care. In February 2025, he fired most of the staff at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and National Institutes of Health (NIH). In April 2025, Kennedy fired most of the staff of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, shuttering nearly all its departments. He has gone as far as promoting Cod Liver Oil and vitamin A as a treatment for measles.
In September, his hand-picked vaccine advisory committee panel recommended new restrictions on the combination vaccine (MMRV) that protects against chickenpox as well as measles, mumps and rubella (MMR). This 20 year old approved vaccine is given to infants during the first 18 months of life. Now the child must be 4 years old to get this particular shot. This is an additional 30 months in which the child can catch and die from these preventable diseases.
Because of the new recommended schedule, Medicaid and the federally funded Vaccines for Children (VFC) program won’t pay for early immunizations leaving frantic parents paying out of pocket for this vital protection. To be clear, Medicaid and VFC will pay for the MMR vaccine and the Chicken Pox vaccine separately. Two shots vice one. That is, two taxpayer payments vice one.
Frankly, Kennedy has made us ill-prepared to battle another pandemic thanks to his policies. He has succeeded in removing the infrastructure that allowed President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed to be relatively successful in combating Covid-19 in 2020. The damage this man has done to our Health Care infrastructure will take decades to repair. He can not resign or be fired fast enough for me. His views are a danger to our communal health.
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Finally, here is Peter Gabriel’s Solsbury Hill. As I close out 2025 with this last post, I must say that I love this video and its abundant energy. This montage of his live performances of this one song took 38 years to make and it was worth it.
Gabriel left Genesis in 1975. He took a chance on a solo career, having enjoyed success as a band member. Solsbury Hill is about taking a risk when success is not guaranteed. Doctor Spencer Johnson in his book, Who Moved My Cheese? asks us to ask ourselves one of life’s most basic, yet most important question:
What would you do if you were not afraid?
This will be my mantra going forward in 2026. Forward without fear. I wish all a happy, healthy, safe and successful New Year. See you in January.
