Plans for 2026
It’s said that how you spend the first day of the year will be how you spend the rest of your year. I think this is nonsense because a) each year actually starts at the beginning of the school year in August/September, not in December, and b) I have never juggled flaming chainsaws on January 1st and spent even a single minute in the remainder of the year juggling more chainsaws, on fire or not.
But just in case there is any truth to this nonsense, I spent yesterday:
Exercising
Reading comics and reading books
Spending meaningful personal time with each kid
Spending time with theSwede
Working on some educational plans
Working on some creative material
Eating, breathing, showering, and sleeping
Imagine if you truly believe this nonsense but forget that last bullet point? Your year wouldn’t last long.
Where this maybe matters the most for you, those of you subscribed to this newsletter, is the educational and creative points! Hence this update.
I realized in late 2025 that I desperately need to get back to a regular creative outlet. About 18 years ago when I started Surviving the World, it was in the middle of a stressful event and some uncertainty about future work directions. Creating a comic was a major help at the time and for many years afterwards. Times are a little different now - back then stress manifested in me losing 10-15 pounds I didn’t have available to lose, now it manifests in my hair both falling out and going rapidly grey - but that regular creative outlet seems to be the right answer for a number of things I need to do and want to do.
So plans that I’ve been working at, off and on, over the last year, is something I’m finally going to commit myself to. I’m going to try creative, approachable ways to teaching engineering for a general audience. It’s going to involve a lot of STW-like humor and Venn diagrams and charts, and will give me a way to take part of what I’m most passionate about - my teaching - and the area that I need to keep developing - my research - into a combined creative solution that will be useful and interesting. I’m excited and hopeful - I think there’s a chance I’ll be able to produce it in more than one language as well - and I’m going to push myself to get it started in February.
I’m going to move it forward not through Substack, though. To be honest, even though I had plenty I could have written on STW-related this past year (the calendar lined up on the dates for once!), Substack’s funding model being openly supported by and supportive of Nazi-related writers, enthusiasts, and supporters, have made this a platform that I cannot reasonably take part in. I couldn’t bring myself to post here, and not having a real purpose for this newsletter made it easier to just not do anything until there came a time and/or reason to start doing content elsewhere.
So if you are interested in what I’ll be doing moving forward, I’m planning on migrating any subscribers over to another newsletter means - it shouldn’t require effort on your end, if I do it right. If you’re not interested, hey, that’s all good too. But I wanted to reach out so you all had some sense of what is coming next.
Anyway… that’s the update. I wish you all happiness and joy in 2026, unless you’re a jerk, in which case I hope we drag you into the future kicking and screaming and forced to fix your heart. And I hope you’ll be interested in joining me for what is tentatively titled ‘Venngineering’.
Thanks!