This newsletter is costing me money.

Malin

— 2 min read
A Dublin city street with a big sign across it that says "Winter in Dublin."
I asked John to take this photo for me. He did a better job than I would have. Honestly not that nice-looking a street. I liked the sign.

My last entry for this newsletter was in January, and my life is different now, as I bet yours is too. I don't live in the U.S., I don't have that job, and I don't think there is a fire season where I live. I was going to say I was no longer worried about bird flu – one of the subjects of that January post – but last week I started seeing posts about it again, so maybe I actually am.

I moved to Ireland this year, and you're welcome for not immediately pivoting to content about how different places are different. I keep saying this to people, and they keep saying back: "?? we would like to hear about where you live? stop being weird?" So here it is: all sodas taste really bad here, but I'm still drinking them. The electrical plugs are pretty different. I'm adjusting to Celsius (temperature scale, not the drink). I think the U.S. does a better job with street signs. And apparently you can be technically just as far from family by plane but somehow ten times farther.

I'm really happy to have made the move, but this has also been one of the hardest years of my life. I'll elaborate another time because I just want to say that what would be even harder is walking around my new home and seeing armed losers patrolling my neighborhood, snatching up people who look like me. What would be more stressful is setting up a new life, with all its bureaucracies, in a language I didn't grow up speaking. What would be more traumatizing is showing up to a routine appointment and not knowing whether I'll be granted permission to live and work or be kidnapped. You get it.

As always, I plan to post more often. I do pay 11 USD per month for the privilege. I'm keeping this short so that I'll have more to say soon.

Here is something to enjoy this holiday season (instead of the AI slop holiday music YouTube channels):

You can put it on in the background while you make eggnog, if you also moved to a country that doesn't really do eggnog. I used this recipe to make it this weekend, and it turned out great. This place really is different, huh!

A super bright, probably full moon reflecting brightly across the Irish Sea. Grass and rocks are in the foreground.
You have to trust me that this was the moon on a recent evening walk, and it looked amazing in real life. I saw two cars pull over to take a photo. I hope theirs turned out at least as great as this.

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