According to my Goodreads, I read 42 books in 2025. According to my notebook, I read 51. I've never been good at using Goodreads and it's kinda a garbage site anyway. So, I read paper books, kindle books, audio books from the library on Libby, and probably a shampoo bottle or two while in the shower. Here's the ones the love in my life said I would not shut up about.
According to my Letterboxd, I saw 210 movies in 2025. Of those movies, I rated a bunch pretty high, but when I started looking over the list I really only had a dozen or so I want to say something about (or as the love in my life says I would not shut up about). Add in some honorable mentions and here's that list
When I sit in a movie theater, my mind calms down. I may be excited or bored or any number of emotions, but something about the world feels more organized in a crowd of seats with a giant screen in front of me. The seats can be full or empty, but according to the heart monitor on my watch I'm so relaxed I might as well be asleep. Going to the movies is my favorite thing to do.
The majority of my childhood was consuming media. Reading books while the television was on kinda kid. Because of this and an aunt who got us free HBO, I had a steady stream of low budget movies going in one ear on a consistent basis. Not complete "unknown" movies, but those that either did not get a full release or have been lost under the dunes of memory sand ready to be uncovered.
Let's be honest, you're gonna go see this or already have if you are so inclined. Same if you are not. And that's fine. The crew behind Five Nights at Freddy's 2, the sequel to the 2023 film, made this film not to show you a deeper part of the human condition. It's a fun "baby's first horror" video game adaptation created for young kids on sleepovers to watch after the parents go to bed. Any critical eye on this movie misses that point and the enjoyment of seeing a silly, plotless mess done by people who seem to care.
At two o'clock in the afternoon on a normal Friday, masked men entered the library. Armed and spread out in a search pattern, they stalked over to the magazine area, into the fiction and nonfiction stacks, and around the children's section. Story time had just gotten started and moms bouncing toddlers to the tune of "Wheels on the Bus" tried to smile to not scare the children.
You had me at "Edgar Wright is adapting Running Man." A kinetic and smart director paired with a wild little story that had already been an Arnold Schwarzenegger classic can't be bad, right? Right? It's not bad and you should see it if you have any interest, but I have thoughts.
I wanted to see the remake of The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, but decided to rewatch the original 1992 instead to get some context. What have they updated, how are the performances different, all that shit. Oh hell, no, I'm sticking with the original for now. I do not need this beautiful madness tarnished in my brain.
Media matters. It shapes our perspective on places and people. Gives us information on topics that might have been forgotten. Stories and music and culture bleed through the spurting noise that humans make everyday to try and communicate with the past, present, and future. People want to be noticed, so they create.
Helping people is difficult. Rewarding at times but often strange as you peer into the face of another human being and wonder what the hell is happening behind that stressed expression. My general rule of thumb after years in reference is to ask "What the hell are you going to do with this information?"
For years I've been told to check out the Jason Aaron run of Marvel's Thor comic. "A sweeping epic that's metal as shit" a friend said. I would look at the volumes in comic stores, 3-inch thick tomes covering eight years of comics and think "I cannot afford this in time or money." But now that I have Marvel Now, I burned through all those issues and I can confirm it is epic and glorious and at times metal as shit.
Lotta bullshit going around about AI. Are kids learning to express themselves through writing? Is it helping adult performance at the workplace? Is it worth drinking up the Great Lakes and murdering polar bears to make sure people online can create images of Brad Pitt naked riding a unicorn with Ginger Spice's arms wrapped around his midsection or better they are a conjoined twin centaur bound for eternity in the Forest of Joy after making a beautiful wish at the Butterfly Fountain?
One of my favorite authors is Terry Pratchett. That being said, I have not read all his books. I set about to rectify that a few years ago by reading the whole of the Discworld in publication order. As you can see, it's been slow going. Here we are, though, with the thirteenth book in the series, and I vow to finish them all before they finish me. My gods did I enjoy reading this story about religion and a solid case against its organization while allowing for individual faith.
I never watched Downton Abbey. Didn't know about the dead Turkish guy, didn't know about the other dead guys, didn't know about the hundreds of weddings and romances and other things going on upstairs or downstairs. I did watch a Youtube recap that was done with the actors, however, but I was not prepared for a season of television to be squashed into a two hour movie.
Y'all ever rewatch a movie and suddenly have an insight into what it means? Last night I'm watching Iron Man (2008) for maybe the twelfth time. Never watched it that closely. My surface level take is simple: a funny drunk rich dude realized war ain't good, so he makes a suit of armor to become a hero. I was wrong. Tony Stark is a sad rich dude who felt weak once so he takes it out on the world only becoming a hero when he dies.
My dad asked me one time, I was maybe ten or so, why I never ran away? Odd question that time and now I guess. I had no real answer for him. I was young and had nowhere to go.
I stood atop my house and wondered what other lands there were to conquer. My house was five levels, three above ground and two below. The top level was all glass made for observing the blocky terrain twenty plus blocks below. The next level was a bedroom and hangout pad. The bottom level was full of chests that held materials for crafting. The next two levels underground held my crafting bench, more chests, and weapons. Below that was a MINE and that was why I CRAFTED.
The old guard returns for some reason in this action flick that asks the question: who gives a shit. At the end of this film I made my girlfriend laugh by filling the room with "boos" that can only be brought forth from the saddest of sequel teases. This one made me angry.
The first family trip I remember, we all stuffed ourselves into a 1970s panel van and headed to DisneyWorld. My dad drove the van and coordinated with my uncle over CB radio cause my uncle got lost a lot while at the same time loved pretending to be a trucker.
In 1995 when I was about fourteen years old, April Showers was found dead in the primary school playground.She had been stripped naked and shot execution style in the back of the head. Dennis Mitchell, a second grade student, went to sharpen his pencil and looked out the window and saw the nude dead woman. He's fine.