January 2026: So It Begins
Image by Gemini AI. Original photo by Nick M.W.
The sanest days are mad. Why don’t you find out for yourself?
I was born on January fourth at four forty-four in the afternoon. This year, I turned forty-four. That’s 44 at 4:44pm on the 4. Six fours in that line. Six times four is twenty-four, a Kobe number. Two plus four is six, and this month was the sixth anniversary of his tragic death. Two times four is eight, the other Kobe number.
The first month of the year is now a memory. A year ago, Los Angeles was on fire to welcome Trump into the White House. A year later, ICE agents are killing Americans in Minneapolis. Has it really only been a year? Has it already been a month into 2026?
Birthdays
My birthday kicks off the year of birthdays in my family. A niece, two of my brothers, and my wife also have January birthdays. That’s a lot of joy and celebrating some great folks. Happy birthday to all of them.
As a kid, I hated having a birthday so close to Christmas. It’s a little over a week between that holiday and my birthday, but that wasn’t enough time for the adults in my life to recover from their holiday vinegar strokes. I get it now that I’m waist deep into middle age; the joy of the holidays can suck the soul right out of your body.
Anime Impulse
My daughter likes this video game called Cookie Run Kingdom. Perhaps you’ve heard of it. Not my cup of tea, but my daughter wanted to attend a local anime convention because the developers and voice actors were going to be celebrating the game’s fifth anniversary. Say less. We’re going. I could care less about any of it, but there’s nothing like making my girl’s weekend. We got to hang out together for several hours on Saturday the seventeenth and Sunday the eighteenth. It was a well-organized blast.
Father and daughter at Anime Impulse 2026. Photo by Nick M.W.
Downsizing
Back in February of 2021, my cousin and I launched FarFromProfessional.com, a digital magazine hobby. We recruited a small group of other writers, none more consistent than my friend Rachel, to contribute articles about movies, music, sports, television, and video games. We published hundreds of articles across that website and its companion publication on Medium, and it was a lot of fun for me to get to interact with our writers, my friends.
This month, I made the decision to let FFP die off in the void of the internet, so I can focus more attention on this website, Saturday Night Special, the Any Given Sunday fantasy football podcast, and publishing some books. I wanted to do it all, but I can’t. Thank you for the memories.
Saturday Night Special
I dropped episodes 77 through 81 this month. I think I’m finding some sort of rhythm with these things. I have so much content from the last twenty years of digital photographs and videos that I can use every week, in addition to the new content I’m creating. Paying to boost views means that I got started in this game a bit late, but I appreciate all the love I get.
