The Weekly Short Stack for December 26, 2025
Each week, I pull together a short stack of the things that stood out – something I made, something I read or watched, an experience that left a small but noticeable impression in the week. Not a grand unifying theme, not a comprehensive recap. Just the bits that felt worth pocketing before the week slips away.
The Short Stack
1. # RoadTo4000
“At the beginning of the year, the Goons of Tough Guy Book Club decided we were going to save 4,000 lives through donating blood, and we're pleased to say that we just hit that goal. If you were one of the many who joined the TGBC Lifeblood Team, well done. There's nothing tougher than helping those who need a hand.” - Tough Guy Book Club
This year, thanks to better health, I was able to participate in donating blood for the first time. While my donation doesn’t officially count towards the 4,000 total – they’re only tracking the donations in Australia for now – I did my part.
I definitely need to hydrate more ahead of time, since my right arm couldn’t get enough blood pumping, and the flow from my left arm was slow. But I did it! And I intend to donate again in about 8-10 weeks when I’m eligible again.
2. You’ve Got Mail!
You’ve heard about my fountain pen hobby. If you know my wife, April, you’ve probably heard about her hobby -- crafting greeting cards. You wouldn’t believe the care that she puts in to assembling these cards -- die-cutting the stencils, picking out just the right pieces and patterns, gluing the tiniest specks of glitter and paper just so. She puts Hallmark to shame.
This is just the batch of Hanukkah cards that we sent out, thanks to April. There were also batches of Christmas cards, and still-to-be-sent “winter merriment”, since she can only get so many cards made in time for the actual holidays.
To add to that, I took on a little greeting card project this year, trying to use my pens and inks. Within the Pen Addict Slack community, we have a list of “snail mail” addresses for anyone who wants to receive correspondence. Using that list, I sent out 150 holiday cards, in addition to the ones that April sent to our family and friends.
If you want to get on April’s holiday mailing list for next year, reach out to me privately (jnassi at gmail dot com), and I can give you the Google Form link she uses to collect addresses.
3. Stay On Target
Every year, I set myself a target of how many books I’m going to read. I used to use the Goodreads Reading Challenge feature to track my goal, but they changed up the functionality this year, which doesn’t suit my tastes*.
*Which is my nice way of saying that the enshittification of every app that Amazon acquires has turned the Eye of Sauron toward the Goodreads Reading Challenge feature this year. But I digress...
I set my target for 2025 to be 36 books, a goal that I knew was realistic and achievable for me. Below are the years that I tracked in Goodreads:
- 2024: 53 books
- 2023: 53 books
- 2022: 37 books
- 2021: 37 books
- 2020: 29 books (missed my target of 33)
- 2019: 26 books
- 2018: 26 books
- 2017: 21 books (26 was my target)
- 2016: 26 books (30 was my target)
- 2015: 20 books (40 was my target)
- 2014: 44 books
- 2013: 40 books (52 was my target)
- 2012: 51 books
- 2011: 42 books
I hit my 36th book for the year this week. I have all of my books read in 2025 listed on my site, and plan to continue that practice for 2026. I expect to finish at least one more book before the calendar turns over to January 2026 next week.
4. How Do You Like Them Apples?
Since we don’t have children, we don’t make too big of a fuss for most holidays. We do make sure to celebrate both Hanukkah (for me) and Christmas (for April), though. Every year we light the menorah for the eight nights of Hanukkah, and exchange gifts on Christmas morning.
April will usually also arrange for us to have something to eat for the holidays. We don’t do any extravagant cooking throughout the rest of the year, so when it’s time for the big holidays, we’ll bring in a kit of something that’s pre-made or easy to assemble.
This year, we had a Hanukkah meal from Bi-Rite Market in San Francisco -- brisket and potato latkes. April also bought a bunch of apples, so we made homemade applesauce. Honestly, you can keep the brisket and latkes, which were certainly good... but give me this applesauce every day, and I’ll die a happy man. Probably of diabetes, but what a way to go.
5. New Pen Day
Just a sneak peek at what I got from April for Christmas, with more to come on my YouTube channel about it in the coming days...
That’s the Short Stack for the week. If something from your week stood out, I’d love to hear about it!