New Year, new account. The kids and I all started brand new Pokemon GO accounts yesterday. We're going Valor. And as a surprise, Tracy decided to start up an account as well. And we're already all friends. One day at work and I'm already at level 16. That is fast. Already hitting bag storage limits, so going to start leaving Pokemon at gyms, early this time, to hopefully more space quicker than previous account. And being all on the same team means we can all leave them together. And eventually, should make it easy to take over gyms. And eventually, make it easy to do raids. Oh, I forgot, I should set up all our new accounts to be friends with my old account so when we're all best friends with it, we can trade for all the good ones.

No, not a New Year’s resolution, but in Pokémon GO, a poke stop accessible from my desk became one of 2 gyms at Willis Tower. Which means I can raid from my desk. And battle in a gym from my desk. And try and get coins from my desk. A little surprised because they took away the old gym. Only a little because the actual sculpture is now gone, but still, there’s an Ex-Eligible gym at a defunct Sprint store up the street which is still around. Should hit Level 20 tomorrow.

Took down the Christmas tree today, and all the lighting, and think I've never explained my lighting style. First off I like Warm Whites for my LEDs. The warmer the better. And that puts me at odds with Tracy's preference. It's possible we might take turns for Christmas Tree decorating styles each year because they're different (she likes the cool white and blues for ornaments, while I prefer warm whites and reds I guess for colors). Anyway, I start at the bottom and wind a strand of lights close to the trunk going up, then once I get to the top, I go around further out on the way down. For the 8 ft. tree we had this year I think I used 6 boxes of lights. However, just reading online now for tips, and we've been skimping out on lights. I see howtos on pulling lights in and out on each and every branch. 1) that's a lot of lights, 2) that's a lot of work, 3) not to mention taking it all down. Not sure if I want to try that. One year I'd like to try a cluster, 3 increasing height trees, simply decorated, which I think would look really nice.

Played as Tracy's Pokemon GO account yesterday. Got her up to a respectable level (17). Jackson's up to 20, Lucy's at 18, and I'm at 23. Thinking I should hold off and wait for everyone else to catch up. Would be nice to keep everyone at the same level. Just need to be careful when I play as them so not appear in multiple places at the same time (don't want to get banned at all). Having a gym reachable from my desk isn't really that cool, because it's changing teams maybe every hour? And I don't think you can lure a gym, so that's 1 negative from have a stop turned into a gym. Otherwise, just grinding away. Making sure everyone's got completed research tasks. Not even really thinking about the community day coming up.

So the kids have been watching a lot of Kids Baking Challenge. And I'm getting affected by it too. There was an eclair challenge one episode, so I had to hunt down some eclairs to eat (didn't want to try baking them yet), and didn't find them at Magnolia Bakery, Vanille Patisserie, or Maison Parisienne, but eventually found them at Southern France Patisserie. They were good, but I still want to try my hand at it. Then we saw an episode on tie dyed cakes, and one of the commercials or info spots was how to make tie dyed cookies, so we made those last night. And then today Lucy wanted to make cupcakes, so we made some of those as well. And there was another episode with making lava cakes, so they want to do that, so I've started looking for someplace to buy dry ice. Maybe for next weekend. But right now have cookies and cupcakes on the kitchen island. And Tracy reminded me of the chocolate souffles with best sauce I used to make. So we'll have to try that with the kids too. Oh, and with all the baking watching, they watched Ratatouille last weekend and were enthralled. So that's pretty cool.

New Year, nuke and pave time. Already did my work desktop, mostly because SQL Server Management Studio started crashing randomly after I forced a cumulative update. And my my NUC at home is exhibiting the same issues, so time for that one as well. I did my iPhone at the end of the year, I think with the last iOS release, and I don't have any Mac that runs the newest OS, well, besides the hackintosh, and the last time I tried to update that it didn't go so well. But nuke and paving a Windows 10 box is pretty easier, easier still that we've moved to G-Suite for work.

Finished up reading The Hunger Games trilogy again. This one deals with PTSD compared to Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. And I wonder why I'm reading a lot of books about children fulfilling prophecies and/or world changing events. I guess because they make for good stories. But I'm wondering if there's any books I like to read that aren't this. But not sure what time around this is for me with The Hunger Games, but I feel like I picked up more this time around, about just how screwed up the kids are. Not sure what's next on the book list, but think I need to find a pallet cleanser.

So I've been sleeping with my Apple Watch to track my sleep (which is pretty bad, at 17 nights tracked averaging 6.7 hours, using Sleep++, which means I have to find a time to charge it, which is usually after dinner and before bedtime, and today I was carrying my phone in my pocket and it was vibrating all the time. And I realized I normally just get all these notifications on the watch, and the phone wouldn't. Also I'd normally just have the phone on the charger and not be carrying it around. But today I had it on me. And if I did that more often, I'd be turning off a lot more notifications. But I guess I just don't notice it as much on my wrist.

Finally feels like winter. Snow, cold, good times. Actually went sledding the other day, at Horner Park. Stayed away from the steep side with the tree obstacles, and stayed on the gentle slope with the kids. Jackson didn't stay long. Left Lucy with Chris, who also had Eliot and Alex. But used the old Slide the City tubes, which worked well until they popped. But surprisingly slick. Seemed to work better than a lot of other slides we saw. But made some snow piles in the backyard (Lucy's making a slide, Jackson's making a hotel). Also, not a fan of rock salt for the sidewalks. Next time, will try and get magnesium chloride instead.

So Tracy watched a couple episodes of Tidying Up With Marie Kondo on Netflix, and I've had the book in my queue for a while, but haven't read it. But just from glancing at the show while cooking, and from what I've heard in reviews or comments, here's my uninformed take. To me, it seems, the basic concept is you are in a relationship with your things. The clothes you wear, the stuff around you, the things you carry, hold on to, throw away. These things are in your life. They keep you warm, cool you down, help feed you, keep you entertained, make you feel things. And you need to respect them. You need to respect the things, places, objects in your life, just as much as the people. The scene where they take a moment to thank the house. The action of thanking an article of clothing before tossing it. This is showing respect for things. This is recognizing the importance of everything in your life. That it actually is all important. And you don't hang out with people that are bad for you, you don't stay with people that don't respect you, or that you don't respect. That's why I like seeing/reading about high quality items, about clothing that lasts, that's comfortable. Why you want to pay for quality, because these things, if you like them, you want them to be in your life for a long time. You have a relationship. You have a relationship with the world around you. Respect your food. Respect the environment (don't litter). Respect the things you want in your life.