2025 Year End Wrap Up

Another year has gone by; the older I get, the more quickly they pass. My health has been good; I've gone over two years without a recurrence of Covid, in fact over two years without any illnesses whatsoever (knock on wood.)

I started off 2025 at FITK forswearing any new posts about Iceland and its culture; a resolution which only lasted until I began to plan my tenth trip to ‘the rock,’ a trip which turned out to be a most rejuvenating experience.

I continued the Wednesday re-postings of twenty-year-old FITK entries. Looking back on them, I am surprised at how well they are holding up (just in time for AI scraper bots!) This means that posting of new material here is down to twice a week (and the sustainability of that pace is in doubt!) The tank isn’t quite empty and recently visits to FITK have expanded by an order of magnitude, mostly by an influx of hits from China. I don’t exactly know what that means—Blogspot had been banned by Chinese authorities in 2006—but I welcome them back!

AI, of course, was THE TOPIC of the year. My primary interaction with it consisted of using the SUNO app to create musical arrangements of FITK poetry and posts and turning them into ‘videos.’ I also used image AI to create obviously artificial visuals as an illustrative tool, not to imitate reality. AI music implementation is a developing situation—appears the big music publishing firms will co-opt it in the future. For now at least, it appears that we ‘small fry’ are safe from being gobbled up by the corporate leviathans, a situation which could change overnight. The eye of Sauron is fickle. 

My love/hate relationship with internet content continues.

Love: my usual diet of creators hasn’t changed much this year (see sidebar) although Bill Nighy’s droll podcasts have been a welcome addition. Just the right length for session on my ancient ski simulator. Rick Beato’s interviews with musicians continue to set the standard for long-form (1 hour+) interviews, making for a real workout. I have also been become more involved with a photograhic forum, many of the images first posted here wind up there. I’m also part of a “photo-collective” which meets IRL (that has its own set of rewards.)

Hate: ChatGPT‘s insidious invasion of the internet, with unasked for ‘pop-up’ info panels that state the obvious at the price of the essence of what it is that you are seeking. This has escalated in the last couple of months, another trend I don’t see diminishing. I’ve been able to minimize its effects through settings on my browser (Firefox’s about: config settings are a blessing) but I fear that the situation won’t be getting any better unless I can harness AI to ferret out and destroy AI interruptions.

Diligent readers may remember my travel posts this year: Santa Fe in February; Minneapolis in April; Ely, Minnesota in August; and, of course, Iceland in October and November. Any travel plans for 2026 remain unsettled, although Seattle in the early spring looks promising and a lake stay with the grand kids in the summer may occur. My musical horizons seem to be shrinking, the local bands I have liked in the past are becoming fewer and those that do remain perform less. The Minnesota State Fair usually has a good slate of acts although they too have had retrenchments. I’ll continue reviewing mystery novels from time to time as there are almost infinite possibilities in that genre. Special note must be made of my rediscovery of Reshma Sanyal’s poetry (published here twenty years ago) turned into lyrics augmented by AI-generated music backing. I’ve put these songs on the playlist for my car; they seem to become more interesting every time I listen to them:
sunrise.
just. call me.
Twinned
Where Will My Eden Be?
Lines of water, water lines

A full list of all my videos (musical, visual, AI-assisted and otherwise), is here.

Besides Reshma, I've had interactions with my old blog-pals Maria, DJ Cousin Mary and Karen Heathwood. I’m always glad to hear from them. Bob the Scientist from Ireland stops in from time to time as does Minnesotastan. I find it curious that these are/were all Blogspot bloggers, which says something about the longevity of that platform. The life of this blog (21+ years) has gone far beyond my wildest dreams. 

Thanks again for stopping by, my hope is that Flippism is the Key will continue to entertain, enlighten and surprise in the future.