6FPS V8#1: My Year Without Chocolate
My Year Without Chocolate
6FPS V8#1: January 12, 2026
E-mail: chuqvr@gmail.com • Site: https://chuq.me
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Welcome to the new issue of 6FPS.
The weather has gone from cool and damp to cold and damp, with lows right around freezing and the occasional sleet or snow warning coming out of the weather app. Last week we had our first snow, enough to stick on the ground but which was gone in about an hour. It’s definitely winter.
There was one massive, nasty storm that blew through and caused major flooding and damage in many areas of Washington — but not here, because the brunt of it went both north and south of us, and we had a nice but not crazy amount of rain. So far in November and December we’ve had more rain days than last year, but less total rain by a few inches, because last year we did get hit by some big storms, and so far, they’ve missed us.
The weight loss slowed down in December, because, well, cookies from neighbors and friends and pie — but unlike the last five years, this year I did lose weight in December instead of gain it, so it’s a nice victory. I’m getting back to the normal “no pie” diet again, and we’ll get back on taking more weight off.
Getting Going
Last month I said: there are things I need to improve on. I’ve fallen into a habit of starting projects but not actually finishing them
To try to make changes to move past that, I’ve started identifying and prioritizing the things that have been on my “one of these days” list. One of the first things I did was do some visual updates to both this newsletter and to my web site.
I had basically been using the same look for the newsletter for three+ years, and while the structure wasn’t changed, I did some tweaking and removed the header images, which I think makes it a bit cleaner and easier to read.
The big change to the newsletter is how I archive it. In the past, I’d been storing it on the web site as its own page, and then posting a blog entry linking to it with a table of contents. I’ve decided that just adds more clicks between a reader and the content, so starting with this issue, the newsletter will be posted as the blog posting and then linked into the archive from there. This feels like a nice, small reduction in friction between someone who might read the content and the content itself.
On the web site, I’ve been toying with the idea of a redesign, and ultimately decided I like the existing look but found some areas I felt could be updated and cleaned up. The only substantive update to the site was inclusion of a new collection of Bald Eagle images. Other than that, it was mostly small changes to landing pages, mostly trying to improve the flow and arrange things so that it better encourages a viewer to scroll down and run into things further down the page.
It’s unlikely you’ll notice any of the changes, but after about three days of tinkering, I feel the site has been improved in a bunch of nice but subtle ways.
Doctor Who Project
About 18 months ago I decided to try to collect as many of the Doctor Who episodes as I could and load them on my Plex Server so we can watch them whenever we want. I’ve been doing this mostly by watching for when the Blu Rays go on sale, and then running them through tools to convert them to MP4s to store in plex.
As of right now, I have basically taken the project as far as I can, although I’m still looking around for specific episodes and keeping an eye out for new collections. There is a YouTube channel putting out classic Doctor Who episodes that has filled in a few gaps, but almost all of this work was done off purchased Blu Rays.
As of now, my collection is complete for 20 of the 26 classic seasons, and I have some episodes from each of the rest, which are, to surprisingly, the earliest seasons: I’m missing some episodes from seasons 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and one episode from season 16 due to a defective Blu-Ray.
My collection of modern (2005 era) Doctor Who is complete. Of the Ncuti Gatwa two seasons, I have one, and while the second season was published in the UK, as far as I can tell there’s been no hint of it coming to states. I wait patiently for it to appear.
I’ve also been pulling together the specials and have the two classic specials (Shada and Doctor Who: the Movie), and by the time you read this, I’ll have completed the modern era species (I’m short 2 and those discs are in transit). The second Gatwa special, Joy to the World, will likely appear whenever the U.S. edition of season two arrives.
Why do this? Well, why not? Especially since in the states access to classic series has been in flux, and with the future of Doctor Who kind of in flux as well, I felt like bringing it under my control and not whoever feels like streaming it made sense. And it was a fun low priority project to play with.
Doctor Who
Which leads me to comment a bit on the Gatwa era of Doctor Who, which sadly only lasted two seasons. I had high hopes for it, and to be honest I came away from it somewhat disappointed. Gatwa himself was amazing but the stories in some cases let him down. There were some incredibly good stories like Boom, Rogue, and The Story and the Engine, but they were surrounded by too many weak, or simply confusing, and overall, I just was never sure what they were trying to accomplish.
I’m hopeful of a reboot and further refinement, but right now, I’m not unhappy there’s a break in production while they sort it all out and hopefully come back with stronger and more coherent story lines. I’m just sorry it won’t be with Gatwa in the lead,
Raccoons Update
We are heading into phase 2 of this “the pantry is closed” project. One reader of 6FPS recommended hot pepper seed — it’s either mixed in with ground cayenne, or infused with a cayenne oil. We switched our suet over to a hot pepper mix and the squirrels immediately gave it up.
About a week ago I picked up a bag of pepper seed (from Cool Birds, since they have a “no waste” blend. Cole’s is another brand easily findable) and for a first test, I put out a cup of the normal seed blend on the deck, and then added a cup of the pepper blend. The raccoons came out of the trees they were hiding in, and proceeded to very carefully eat the normal seed, leaving the pepper seed behind. Evidently they can smell the pepper and know to avoid it.
Two weeks later, most of the raccoons have given up and stopped visiting, but mom and her two kids are still showing up, but much less frequently and definitely not first thing every morning for breakfast. We’re seeing a raccoon here or there check in and once in a while beg, but they aren’t sticking around long. So, a victory of sorts, but it’s still to some degree a work in progress. That said, I’m really happy how quickly we were able to change their behavior and get most of the seed feeding the birds again
I’ll be continuing with the pepper seed in the ground feeder for a month or so to fully reinforce that the pantry is closed. After that, I may keep it up permanently or I may shift back to the normal (and somewhat less expensive) seed. We’ll seel
Amusingly enough, while it’s also caused then squirrels to give up for the most part, there are two I’m seeing that have evidently decided that they are going to eat the seed anyway, although it’s clear it’s not the most fun they’ve ever had.
The birds, by the way, are not sensitive to Capsaicin, so they are eating the suet and seed as normal. Mammals, like raccoons and squirrels, can’t. We’ll see if this makes a difference.
Oh, pro tip: make sure you wash your hands after handing a pepper suet block or the pepper seed. Definitely don’t rub an itching eye before washing your hands. Not that I’d ever do something that stupid, you know.
Christmas
As you can see below, I didn’t quite finish my big Lego build (see below) before Christmas. I’m one solid building session from completion, and I’ll do that and then keep it around for a while to enjoy, and then figure out how to store it for future years so it minimized disassembly when boxed up.
Laurie also got me a really nice Orrery (also see below) for my desk, something I’ve wanted for years. I’ve looked at them on and off, but I didn’t want something cheap and ugly. This one is gorgeous and very well built, and at a decent price for the quality. Consider it my quiet statement that I believe in and trust science in my life decisions.
Also, for your amusement, is a picture of this year’s Christmas tree, as well as one of next year’s tree, currently living in the garage. Why? Well, in putting up this year’s tree, which was a typical $100 Home Depot tree, we decided it was starting to look a little worn out, and we agreed to shift to a new tree next year. In looking around online at trees, I saw that Balsam Hill was having an end of season sale, and so I decided to go ahead and get it right away.
It ended up arriving around the 18th, and with the tree already set up, we weren’t going to use it, but I didn’t want to store it for a year and then unbox it to find it had a manufacturing problem, so it got set up in the garage.
It’s gorgeous, and it weighs about twice what the old tree weighed, at the same height, which gives you an indication how much better the build quality is. It also came pre-lit, which makes me happy. Balsam Hill trees aren’t cheap (I paid about $700, 40% off list) but I think if you want a real quality tree, it’s a nice value when it’s on sale. And with some planning, those sales do happen.
See you next issue!
What’s New From Chuq
My Year Without Chocolate
It’s been a year. Mostly a good year. Definitely the best year I’ve had for a while. That’s because about this time last year, I figured out that a couple of foods I was eating were triggering my migraines. See How I Manage my Migraines for more details on how I’ve been dealing with them.
A bit of context on the migraines: in 2018 I had a virus invade my left inner ear, leaving me with about 80% hearing loss in that ear (think “Charlie brown’s teacher” level of hearing). After that, I started getting periods of discomfort, which ultimately led to some car sickness, which led to a diagnosis of positional vertigo. My doctors gave me some basic advice on what to do with it (some of it I found out years later was wrong), and wished me luck.
And over time, the vertigo slowly got worse. By the time I retired in 2023, it was getting very hard to keep control and to feel comfortable driving without worrying I might have an episode, so I was doing less and less outside the house.
When I retired, I went to my doctor and asked to dig into this deeper, which got me a referral to an ear/nose/throat specialist. It took us nine months, much of which was delays in being able to get meetings or tests scheduled, before we finally were able to definitively prove that the vertigo was not being caused by my inner ears. That meant it was time for the neurologist. That only took six week to sort outs in the spring of 2024 I officially got a diagnosis of vestibular migraines (aka “ocular” migraines, aka “migraines with aura” or painless migraines), and, as it turns out, there’s solid evidence I’ve had them since at least college without ever recognizing them (not uncommon with this style of migraine, it turns out).
And something in 2018 changed something in the ear that enabled the vertigo to start up, which got tied up to the migraines, which triggered and amplified the vertigo. It turns out that about 4% of vertigo sufferers have this migraine interaction, so as I said to my doctor once this all settled down, once again I’m the weird one.
So the good news was that by cutting those foods out of my diet, I could do a much better job of reducing how often the migraines poked at my vertigo, and that massively improved my quality of life.
The bad news was that, of course, one of the worst offenders in triggering the migraines was Chocolate (the other two were, not surprisingly, Caffeine and Aspartame). So I spent 2025 learning how to live without Chocolate and Caffeine.
Honestly, I’m not someone who ate a lot of chocolate, but it was always that treat I gave myself when I wanted a treat — often as a cafe mocha, but often as part of something else. For instance, for Valentines I went to a favorite bakery, and was about to but the normal chocolate eclairs, and well, oh, yeah. (I ended up getting some really nice muffins instead, but that was one time that really brought home what “no chocolate” meant).
I switched from Mochas to Lattes (decaf), and tried a few flavors before settling on Vanilla, which are nice, but honestly a bit boring. Caramel lattes were simply too sweet, and a bunch more calories. I should experiment with flavors some more, but one aspect of this was I drank many fewer of them this last year I have in previous years. I will note I tried Starbucks Carmel Brûlée Latter this holiday and thought it was incredibly good, but it also more than doubled the calories of the vanilla one, so one was enough for the season.
So other than the occasional “no eclair, so now what?” and not being able to indulge in a couple of Peppermint Mochas for the holiday, giving up chocolate was overall not a big deal.
Giving up Caffeine was a bigger deal, because I’m an occasional and casual coffee drinker, but I drink a lot of tea and take it fairly seriously, especially in summer when I drink a lot of unsweetened iced tea. And to put it bluntly, every decaf black tea I tried, and I tried many, including some costing $30/pound, sucked.
So ultimately I pivoted and tried to find a herbal tea I could live with. I ended up deciding that Peppermint tea (currently using Stash because the bags are convenient, but Davidson’s is also quite good in bulk (perhaps I should try their bags), and ices well, so that’s my day to day tea now. I miss the tannins of black tea, but all things considered, it’s a minor thing.
With the migraines finally under really good control, 2025 turned into a pretty good year: it took a few months to get comfortable with believing things weren’t going to go sideways randomly, but it allowed me to do more of the things I wanted to do, like go out and bird.
And bird I did — and ended up seeing 168 different species in 2025. That’s a smallish number for many serious birders, but for me, it’s the best result since 2021 (when we moved north and I had both California Birds and Washington Birds to count). That included me seeing a whopping eight species for the first time (lifers), seeing 122 species within home Kitsap county (compared to 97 last year), 14 of those being county lifers, and a whopping 168 species inside Washington (compared to 131 last year), 25 of which I saw for the first time in the state.
Those are, for me, really good numbers, and they reflect back on a good year where I did a lot of exploring and had a lot of fun. Because finally, I got the gremlins locked back in the basement where they can only rarely interrupt life, and so 2025 was the year I remembered how to be happy.
And that makes me looking forward even more to 2026. And what’s in store for 2026?
Well, I bought a couple of new lenses, and then a Sony a6700, the first changes to my camera setup in a few years. And I did that in part to reward myself for figuring all this crap out and getting life back to normal, but also because I hope to keep up all the good birding stuff, but layer back in the camera again. We’ll see how that plays out, but I have a few things I want to play with and see what happens (see, for instance the shot below, one of the first image I’ve taken with the A6700 and the Sigma).
And I have a project planned for the workshop. I have to admit, there were times I basically gave up on the shop, because if you are always worried about having a vertigo attack while standing at a table saw with it’s big, sharp blade spinning at a few thousand RPM, well, you might reconsider your life options, too. I have two smallish infrastructure things to finish in there, and then my first “not about the shop” project waiting — by the time you read this, I’ll have bought the wood and gotten started prepping it.
And after that we’ll see. If I have a good year doing things in the shop, I may just reward myself with that lathe, finally.
Hope you get to anticipate 2026 and not dread it. Happy new year!.
Recent Photography
As I create new images and re-process older ones, I post them on my site in the Recent Work area.
A couple of quick outings this month: I took the new A6700 and
Sigma lens out for a couple of short shoots this month. My favorite of the month is this, which I’ve titled “Survivor”, and was shot in my orchard in between rain showers.
For Your Consideration
Birds and Birding
Migratory Birds and Rice Farmers Are Helping Each Other Soar
Fixing the cormorant disaster on the Columbia: ‘How could this have come out any worse?’
Photography
Science and Technology
Unexpectedly high concentrations of forever chemicals found in dead sea otters
Even climate fixes might not save coffee, chocolate, and wine, scientists warn
Analysis Shows Trump Administration Proposals May Push Seven Species Into Extinction
Interesting Stuff
Apple introduces Digital ID, a new way to create and present an ID in Apple Wallet
Fort Blunder: The Fort That America Mistakenly Built in Canada
These B.C. wolves figured out how to pull up crab traps to get food
Report Finds That Wildlife Conservation Generates Big Economic Benefits
Iran president says capital move now a necessity as water crisis deepens
Free Wallpapers just for Subscribers
New Wallpapers (August, 2025). A new set of 12 wallpapers are now available.
You can download this new set from the 6FPS Secret Wallpaper. The previous set of wallpapers are now with the full public set at Public Wallpaper page.
These are available only to you, my favorite people who happen to be subscribers to 6FPS. The previous set of images I released here are now available to the general public.
Download an E-book
I have eight e-books available. All are free for you to download and read with no obligation. You can download them from my e-book page on the web site.
These are the books that are available:
Birding 101: Hints and Tips for the New Birder
Merced National Wildlife Refuge
And the Geese Exploded: A Life With Birds
Birds of Santa Clara County
2021.1: A Year of Transitions
2020.1: Images from the year when Covid changed everything
2019 (1)
2019 (2)
About 6FPS
6FPS (Six Frames Per Second) is a newsletter of interesting things and commentary from Chuq Von Rospach (chuqvr@gmail.com). 6FPS is Copyright © 2025 by Chuq Von Rospach. All Rights Reserved.
Coming out monthly on the 2nd Monday of the month, I will place in your inbox a few things I hope will inform and delight you. There is too much mediocre, forgettable stuff attacking your eyeballs every day you're online; this is my little way to help you cut through the noise to some interesting things you might otherwise not find.
And with that, I'll see you in the next issue. I'd love feedback on this, what you like, what you want more of, what you want less of. And if you have something interesting you think I might want to talk about, please pass it along. Until then, take care, and have fun.
Where to Find Chuq
Email chuqvr@gmail.com
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Copyright
All content is Copyright © 2026 by Chuq Von Rospach. These images are not public domain. Please contact me if you are interested in licensing an image for use. Commercial use is prohibited without explicit permission.
All of my images are copyrighted and are not public domain. They may not be used without permission. Commercial use of this content is prohibited without explicit permission from Chuq Von Rospach.
