Today, I got rid of an old reclining sofa that my wife and I purchased 24 years ago. At the time, it was an elegant black-blue leather sofa that reclined in a special way that it could be placed safely next to the wall. I say the color of the sofa is black-blue because I always assumed the color of the furniture was black, while my wife insists that it is blue. This debate on color was never settled, but I can assure you that family history rules will dictate that I was wrong and my wife is correct.

Within the past year, there has been a huge decline in articles written by me. Much of this is due to an intentional transition I've made away from writing articles focused on business, information technology, and information systems. I have written on those topics for more than two decades now, and it's simply time for me to move onto something different. The problem is that as I'm making my way through different, I've lost a bit of my writing voice. While I have plenty of new ideas and interests to write about, I'm finding that I'm hesitating to move forward for fear of tripping on my own two feet.

It's been awhile since I reviewed anything Hi-Fi but this summer I brought into my house what what I call budget premium audio equipment. Audio equipment designed and built better than the price suggests offering the latest in streaming, room correction, and amplification. Lately, my focus has been on WiiM, a brand brand owned by Linkplay Technology. Linkplay is a company that has been backed by teams from such companies as Google, Broadcom, InterVideo, and Harman.

My grandpa greeted me often by calling me Zeke instead of Bryan. I once asked him, why? My grandpa replied that he had a friend named Bryan/Brian that everyone called him Zeke. He then paused and eventually admitted he didn't know why they called him Zeke either.

I just finished listening to Ray Charles' 1984 album, Friendship. As you can tell by the picture, I purchased this album at a garage sale a few years back for $5. This album has Ray Charlies returning to country music accompanied by a number of country stars including Hank Williams, Jr, the Oak Ridge Boys, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, and Willie Nelson. To this day, my favorite song on the album is the the last song on the album, "Seven Spanish Angles" with Ray Charles and Willie Nelson just singing away.

The vinyl record for Friendship contains 10 tracks, each with a featured guest (listed below). According to Wikipedia, the 2005 CD version of the album contains two additional tracks featuring Tony Bennett on one song and Billy Joel included on other song.

My exploration for new and alternative social media platforms is coming to an end. Over the past couple years I joined dozens of social media platforms in search for the better ones for me. In my last post on this subject, I did a lot of editorializing but with this post I'll be brief and present the with the list of social media platforms and websites where I have a presence. This list may continue to shrink in 2025.

I will never miss an opportunity to ride at the end of December with temperatures peaking at around 50 F. I rode about 50 miles yesterday! It’s pretty warm for this time of year here in South Dakota. The ice is looking rather thin for safely ice fishing on most area lakes…I hope those I saw ice fishing this weekend stay smart and be safe.

It wouldn't be Christmas without Doctor Who. The best part is it was my wife that bought me the tree ornament. She so gets me!