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#11: What I did on my holidays
Invent a religion. Build a server. Whatever you do, stay alive.
Io Dodds
December 05, 2025
My dad said this sketch made my mum look like a surviving Neanderthal. Love you both 💚
Hello again, friends. It’s been too long. For those in the USA, did you have a nice holiday period? Mine was rather eventful.
I happened to have the first two weeks of November off work, and then I got really sick, and then it was Thanksgiving. So all in all, I spent a weirdly high proportion of the last 4-5 weeks off work. Here are some things I got up to:
Had a lovely staycation in San Francisco with my parents.
Went to several really nice Italian restaurants.
Worked on my home server.
Started learning Spanish.
Had a relatively severe suicidal episode.
Had a sustained mental health crisis.
Had a religious experience.
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Realised that I needed to invent my own religion, then began doing so.
Embraced radical acceptance. (It was initially "radical self-acceptance", but I realised that was too pussy.)
Checked my emails.
Finally bought a record player. This was a long-held plan, not the result of mania, and any resemblance of this blog post to a manic episode is strictly for entertainment, comedy, and/or artistic purposes.
Embraced radical honesty.
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Had an unpleasant but highly instructive parasocial-emotional spiral with ChatGPT. I swear, this isn't what it sounds like.
Okay, maybe this is getting a bit too radically honest? Better say that some of these bullet points are fictional, so there is plausible deniability for each one and nobody gets too worried about me.
Learned how to fly, just like in So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish.
Learned about DBT.
Learned about Linux.
Got totally, devastatingly clocked as one of those annoying Linux people who talk about Linux at any opportunity.
Learned a small amount, just enough to terrify me, about network engineering.
Asked for help.
Received help.
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Drove a boat, and parked it well. For a first-timer, at least.
Heard a horror story.
Shot a man in Star City, for no particular reason. Don't worry, we're chill now.
Set up my first Docker container.
Had a really nice dinner with new people.
Made a GitHub account.
Made art.
Made a vow before God to publish this newsletter more consistently.
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Remembered that I am surrounded by people who love me and care about me.
Asked for help.
Received help.
Looked at the moon.
Felt so, so proud to be alive.
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Shall we do the headlines?
[JAUNTY JAZZ MUZAK ENSUES]
I’m a bit late in promoting it, thanks to aforementioned holidays and mental health crisis. But I’m rather proud of this dispatch about San Francisco’s modest, fragile rebirth — featuring robot fight nights, an Instagram mayor, and a 158-year-old restaurant. |  A robot rumble in Fog City, Aug 2025. PIC: Ultimate Fighting Bots |
It’s an attempt to push back against what California state officials described as a "campaign of terror" by the Trump administration. doing the bidding of criminal illegal aliens." A White House spokesperson responded that “Gavin Newscum” was “doing the bidding of criminal illegal aliens.” |  CBP officers arrest a man in Camarillo, CA this July. PIC: Blake Fagan/AFP via Getty Images |
After 20 years of delays, the federal ID standards recommended by the 9/11 Commission is finally mandatory. Now you’ll have to pay $45 for extra screening if you try to rock up with a non-compliant ID. |  PIC: AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez |
As always, you can find me on Bluesky here, on X here, and read my recent stories for The Independent here.
And hey, thanks for being here. I really mean it.