bear blog 2025 wrapped challenge
Ahoy there!
Everything has a wrapped now, spotify, wikipedia, fridges, pregnancy tests probably, why not do one for ourselves? I decided to start a little "wrapped" challenge for the end of the year, sharing personal little data points/milestones/important dates with y'all1. Feel free to join in and share your own "wrapped"
Word of Focus: Music
Books
In my journal I logged what books I've read, here's what I have.
# of Books Read: 13
Books Read
- Letters from a Stoic by Seneca
- Halo: Contact Harvest by Joseph Staten
- Three Little Words by Ashley Rhodes-Courter
- The House of my Mother by Shari Franke
- I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
- The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus
- Greatest Hits by Harlan Ellison
- A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck
- Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry
- Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
- Algospeak by Adam Aleksic
- No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai
- Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams
Estimated Pages Read: 3,800
Movies and TV
Movies seen for the first time this year
- Fight Club
- A Clockwork Orange
- Hot Fuzz
- A Minecraft Movie
- The Ballerina
- Bring It On
- Office Space
- Mean Girls
- Full Metal Jacket
- Superman (2025)
New Shows Watched:
- The Amazing Digital Circus
- Breaking Bad (unfinished)
- Reacher (Season 3)
Gaming
New Games Acquired
- Super Mario 64
- Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
- Super Mario World (SNES)
- Super Mario All-Stars (NES)
- Nintendogs: Lab and Friends
- Super Mario Party Jamboree
- DOOM: The Dark Ages
- Oblivion: Remastered
Consoles Acquired
- PS1
- SNES
- N64
- 128mb RAM Upgraded Hard-Modded XBOX (won in a giveaway)
Games Beaten
- Maize
- Halo 2 (probably 10th time I've beaten this game)
- Gears of War 2
- DOOM: The Dark Ages
Music
New Music Acquired this Year
- American Idiot 20th Anniversary Box Set (Vinyl)
- Dookie 30th Anniversary Box Set (Vinyl) (Gifted)
- Hybrid Theory Deluxe Box Set (Vinyl)
- nimrod. 25th Anniversary Box Set (Vinyl)
- Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam (Vinyl)
- Mezmerize - System of a Down (Vinyl)
- Nevermind - Nirvana (Vinyl)
- DOS! (w/ Japanese OBI) - Green Day (CD)
- A Thousand Suns - Linkin Park (CD)
- The Hunting Party - Linkin Park (CD)
- Papercuts - Linkin Park (CD)
- MM.. FOOD - MF DOOM (Cassette)
- Minecraft: Volume Beta - C418 (Vinyl)
- Warning 25th Anniversary Box Set (Gifted)
- Halo 2 Soundtrack Volume 2 (CD) (Gifted)
- Madvillainy - MF DOOM (Vinyl)
- Operation Doomsday - MF DOOM (Vinyl)
- Discovery - Daft Punk (Vinyl)
- Minecraft: Volume Alpha - C418 (Vinyl)
- Infinity on High - Fall Out Boy (Vinyl)
- Saviors Edition de Luxe - Green Day (Vinyl)
- From Zero Deluxe - Linkin Park (Vinyl) (CD)
- Fats Domino Greatest Hits (Vinyl)
- American Idiot: One Step Pressing - Green Day (Vinyl) (Gifted)
- Kerplunk! - Green Day (Vinyl)
- Insomniac 25th Anniversary - Green Day (Vinyl)
- Godzilla: 1950s Soundtrack (Vinyl)
Albums Listened to In-Full for the First Time
- Return of Saturn - No Doubt
- Abbey Road - The Beatles
- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - The Beatles
- Revolver - The Beatles
- Rubber Soul - The Beatles
- Take Me to Your Leader - MF DOOM
- Vaudeville Villain - MF DOOM
- A Thousand Suns - Linkin Park
- The Hunting Party - Linkin Park
- Nevermind - Nirvana
- In Utero - Nirvana
- Bleach - Nirvana
- Tragic Kingdom - No Doubt
- Discovery - Daft Punk
- Random Access Memories - Daft Punk
- Operation Doomsday - MF DOOM
- Anyone for a Doomsday? - Powerman 5000
- Tonight the Stars Revolt - Powerman 5000
- Korea Tour EP - Powerman 5000
- Infinity on High - Fall Out Boy
- Reanimation - Linkin Park
- To Pimp a Butterfly - Kendrick Lamar
Important Dates
Feb. XX My birthday, turned 26. Had a little birthday celebration with my wife, in-laws, and my parents. I got SO lucky because I found a copy of "Halo 2 Soundtrack: Volume 2" in good condition and reasonably priced at my local record store. Also got a new office chair which was nice.
April XX: My daughter's first birthday. What a great week. My wife had surprised me by having my best friend fly in. She told me that she and I were going on a date to kinda give a reason for going out together. Seeing him standing there at the airport sent a wave of happiness I hadn't felt for a while.
June 9: This was when I "rebranded" to Absurd Pirate and decided to restart my blog and fully commit to blogging. It's been a fun ride since then, and I don't plan on getting off anytime soon.
June 14: This is a day that is more of one that'll live in infamy for me. Escaping a shooting while protesting against the current administration. It's bittersweet really, it was beautiful seeing so many people there fighting for a single cause, and then it quickly devolved because some nutcase wanted to do some damage. He wasn't even affiliated with any counter-protest, just some random loser wanting to cause trouble and kill someone. He did, I still see the memorial to the sole victim around the city. May that piece of shit who took his life never know a day of peace for the rest of his miserable life.
Last week of July Went to California for an annual family gathering on my FIL's side of the family. Had an amazing time hanging out at the beach.
Aug. 21: The day I joined the discord group that contains my friends on Bear which then became the Grizzly Gazette's home. I fucked up my DNS registry on Proton, the only reason I got Cris' invite to the server was because he used Proton. Now, I don't believe in "fate", but damn if that wasn't a good case for it. It started out as just 10 people, but I've now watched that number double, and have made more online friend's because of it.
Sep. 6: The day we launched the Grizzly Gazette. It's funny, I had first posed the idea a few days prior to the launch about starting a collaborative blog. I was inspired by Machinima from back in the day, and thought it would be really cool. Fast-forward a bit, Kami (being the technological backbone of the Gazette) created the cool solution to send posts via email. The blog has since grown a lot and I'm grateful for my friends there.
Sep. 6: Linkin Park: From Zero concert. An absolute blast and got to spend several days in Arizona with my best friend.
Nov. XX: Spent the weekend in a nice hotel with my wife for her birthday.
Recap
It's been a great year. Ups and downs like any year, but I'm glad that it was 90% ups. My little girl is getting older, and her personality is booming. I'm a proud dad and husband. I'm grateful for my marriage and I'm grateful for my friends.
I think next years word of focus will be "Fitness". I wanna try and get into my best shape. I'm already relatively strong, but I wanna get stronger and have better endurance to keep up with my daughter who seems to be powered by a fuckin' car battery.
If you wanna do a "wrapped" for yourself, feel free to use this post as a template, add whatever other data points you want to share. I've had to bust out my "Age 25" journal to find some stuff from early in the year and remember dates and such.
Pirate is wearing American Idiot Saviors Tour tee and black shorts
Pirate is feeling happy
Pirate is listening to Flying Beagle
Pirate is playing XBLA Arcade Games w/ friends
Reply via email: me@absurdpirate.com
Suliman, don't you dare send that screenshot XD↩