Sending best wishes to all DP-ers for a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous 2026! 2025 was a year that I am happy is over and I am excited and hopeful that 2026 will be a great one!
The same to you and if 2026 will be anything like 2025, then I will need to purchase a wheelbarrow to carry all the $$$ I am making to the bank. *looking forward to seeing your new lineup of tinfoil hats for 2026
Sounds like the Deluxe Tycoon Tinfoil Hat is working well for you! Power ear flaps and chinstrap will be available for it in Q1.
Both Christmas and New Year went well. Nothing major to report. Every year we promise to buy fewer presents and yet this year we bought more than ever, I think. Ridiculous. For me, the bummer was turning 58. Turning 57 didn't hit me as hard. But when I think that in two years I'll be 60... that makes me sad. I know, jrbiz, you claim to be old as dirt, but I'm shocked at my age too. Do you have a hat that makes people, at least, think they're young? When I look in the mirror, I see this old, ugly guy. It seems like I was 28 just yesterday.
Our R&D team is working on an advanced project that we have code-named "Dorian Gray". Will keep you posted as to progress. I wish I was only 58, however.
We had a massive family xmas with people flying to NZ from Australia and London as well as travelling from across the country. We aim to do this every 5 years and I was looking around the room at the kids and thinking in 5 years they'll be doing this and that, but then looking at the oldies and wondering just what state we'll be in and if any of us will be missing. Some will, almost certainly. My big sister died this time last year, in 5 years I'll be older than she was, I'm already older than my father was. It's all a bit depressing being on the countdown to 60.
My father passed away at 62 from lung cancer. He was a lifelong smoker. I used to smoke, but quit when I was 19. I often tell my wife that if I make it past 70 I'll consider myself truly blessed and ready to go. My ideal age to leave this world is 85. I have no desire to become one of those very old people who linger on without purpose or joy. To me, there's little difference between dying at 85 or 100 - the extra years rarely add meaningful depth to a life, in my opinion.
Yes, it is. I used to tell people I had no idea what depression felt like. Now I do. It's quietly debilitating. Coming to terms with the possibility that the best years of your life might already be behind you is the kind of realization that should feel crushing and it does. My family and I will be all right (I still have a teenager to raise), but for now I'm taking it one day at a time. Here's hoping 2026 is kinder to all of us.
I made the collossal mistake of purchasing your Paris Hilton Model tinfoil hat because I wanted to be young and beautiful. But as soon as I put it on I became dumber than a sack of hammers! I could barely read or write and chatted on and on like a complete idiot, and would say things "huh?" and "This is the worst day ever!"