Remember that?

So, we are now in the 93rd year of 2025 (and simultaneously wondering how on earth it is the middle of August, because that's just how time works now). And I saw some headline the other day about Luigi Mangione and I thought, "Wait a minute! Was that this year???". It wasn't, it was last December. And when it happened, it was all the news all day every day. Until it wasn't. So then I was trying to remember what has happened this year, and wow, I forgot a lot about it. Because time is a mess. Remember these goodies?

January

There were those fires in LA

There was an earthquake in Tibet

There was that whole South Korea president impeachment thing

There was the helicopter crash in DC, and all those other aviation things

There was the inauguration

There was a ceasefire in Gaza

February

They found Thutmose II's tomb, which was probably the highlight of the month and under-covered in the news

There was the first meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump at the White House

I think this was the month of "Let's make Greenland, Canada, and Panama states"

The Baltimore Bridge collapse incident

March

There was the whole "let's bring back the woolly mammoth" thing, starting with a woolly mouse

Trudeau resigned

There was that massive power outage at Heathrow

There was an earthquake in Myanmar

April

There were the tariffs. Then there weren't. And were. And weren't, for a few months.

Pope Francis died 

There was that big old power outage on the Iberian peninsula. I interviewed someone for an internship who was in Spain. Totally forgot about that

There was that mineral agreement with Ukraine

That space ship full of rich ladies sort of went into space, depending on how you define it?

May

We got Pope Leo and my colleague in Peru admitted there was one thing Peru was NOT the best in the world at

June

That flight from India crashed

World War III almost started in Iran

July

That massive flood in Texas

That earthquake in Russia that set off Tsunami warnings in California

And in that time dozens of national elections across the globe, battles in ongoing wars, shootings, other weird weather alerts, etc.

And that doesn't include:

That time when Elon Musk had a black eye. And was going to start his own political party

Jimmy Carter died

Facebook got rid of fact checking

The whole Tik Tok ban that was then wasn't. Then was? I don't know, I lose track

Crazy snowstorms in Louisiana

At least one whale swallowed a guy, who apparently didn't taste very good, because he came back up

The whole DOGE thing, which I guess is still a thing, but maybe we got bored with it? 

The whole Signal-gate thing

Weirdly a couple stories about colossal squids or other underwater life. I think I missed that in the first go around

The whole measles outbreak thing

We said goodbye to Skype forever. Forever, people!

Seriously, what a year. Or 93. And that's not even half of what's gone on this year. Most of that stuff was such a big deal and then there was another big deal and another and before you know it, you're waking up and saying, "Was that really this year? How can that be?"

Which I think basically means, we all need a vacation. 

Can someone explain this?

I know I just complained about tech stuff, so I'm starting to sound like a crank*. But can someone explain to me why Amazon Prime will give me the option to continue watching shows that I haven't touched for months, and even then only watched five minutes of the first episode half the time by accident, but won't give me the option to continue the show I've been binge-watching for the last week? Anyone? Any explanation at all?

And this friends, is the great and beautiful grandeur of the 21st century.

*I think I am definitely entering a "Get off my lawn" stage when it comes to tech and software, etc. I own it and don't apologize.

Beta

My institution is developing a new tool for doing cataloging work. Which, it is what it is, but we are literally reinventing the wheel (there are reasons for this, I know, but still. Super annoying). And after years, we have finally reached the user acceptance testing, or beta testing, stage. And I've discovered a fatal flaw in the whole process: By the time there is something to user test and give feedback on, it's almost too late to fix things. (We launch in 3 weeks). 

I'm not sure how to fix this problem. There must be a way, because we had one piece of the tool that we got to use and test and we've had a year and a half to make it better. But with this piece, we sat in meetings and they talked about what it would do but until about a month ago, there was nothing to actually see. And maybe some archivists would have been able to visualize, but not me. I can't give feedback on a theoretical tool that I can't actually test out yet. And now that I can test the tool, I can find LOADS of things that need fixed or improved, but again, there's only 3 weeks before launch (and yes, it's not like we can't keep updating it afterwards, but that all relies on an attention span and budget that keep that possible. Neither of which are guaranteed).

I don't mind the testing part, and finding things that would make it better. And I do think I am doing pretty good at pinpointing when something is annoying because it is different from what I'm used to or when it's just bad or wrong. The part I don't like is that there's no guarantee that any of this will make a difference and for some things, it really matters that they get changed.

And this, friends, is why I will never be an early adopter. I want in on something after the bugs are worked out. 

I'm definitely not a bug person.