Author: dannystewart99

How did we arrive to 2025?

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while – you could miss it.”

Happy New Year to all!

And yes, I still fall within the “Happy New Year” Statute of Limitations when writing this, so it’s not annoying yet.

It feels that every January, I just have to write the obligatory January-type blog talking about how insanely fast time is flying by.

Last year, I talked about how the year 2024 actually felt like the future had arrived. Now one year later, I feel as if time is moving too fast and the future is quickly becoming the present before then becoming the past.

I mean, how the hell did we arrive to 2025? It came out of nowhere.

My Twitter account turned 14 years old this morning. Literally half of my life has been on the bird app:

2024 felt like a lightspeed blink despite so much happening within it. But now, here we are in 2025 and the past grows ever older while the future quickly becomes the past.

I’m starting out the new year curious as to where the time has gone…

To begin the year, I’ll be attending the Chicago Bulls v. New York Knicks game to celebrate the career of my favorite basketball player: Derrick Rose.

The Bulls are celebrating Derrick Rose’s career for what’s hopefully a jersey retirement ceremony on 1/4 at the United Center. Rose is from Chicago and remains the youngest MVP in NBA history that brought hope to Bulls fans for the first time since the Michael Jordan-led dynasty in the ’90s.

Rose last played a game for the Bulls in 2016, which is NINE calendar years ago. Which also makes this alley-oop against the Pistons (my favorite play of Rose’s MVP year) almost 13 years ago to the day:

Derrick Rose will always be a hero to me. His retirement is a celebration of a wonderful career that sparked life, hope, and excitement in the greatest city in the world.

Since then, the Bulls have been mediocre at best and I haven’t been as excited about the organization as much as I used to. I mean, how can I?

The Last Dance documentary about the rise and fall of the the ’90s Bulls championship dynasty as well as Rose’s own documentary, proved that the Bulls organization HATES its fans but loves their money, treats legends of the game like filth, and perpetually makes the wrong front office choices.

The Bulls continuously celebrate the past because it’s all they have. As a fan of theirs, I’m forced to do the same.

So yes, to begin 2025, the Bulls are my first vehicle to look back wondering “where did the time go?”

Something else that caught my eye as the calendar turned to 2025 was that it has been 1000 DAYS since we’ve last heard anything about Kingdom Hearts IV.

That’s right. One-fucking-thousand.

Which means, it’s been 1000 days since this:

Not that my YouTube page has been consistently updated in the last 1000 days anyway, but still. I thought this moment would’ve been something that helped me create video content for Kingdom Hearts more consistently.

But now, we’re here 1000 days later and we know nothing else about the game or when it will come out. My YouTube channel hasn’t been visited by me as frequently as this blog has.

In my blog about KHIII turning 5, I mentioned how the Kingdom Hearts series taught me patience; I still feel the same. I can go days, weeks, or even months not wondering about what comes next in the series. But knowing that Kingdom Hearts IV will eventually be on the end of whatever trials life throws at me between now and then gets me through some of those trials.

However, that doesn’t mean the dry season hasn’t been DRY.

The dryness forced me to get the Platinum Trophy for Kingdom Hearts III this year, finally conquering Black Code Mode and defeating Data Xion with limitations:

See? I played the shit out of KHIII this year just to do that.

Again, I still have patience for what’s next, but that doesn’t mean looking back 1000 days ago and realizing nothing has changed in a Kingdom Hearts sense won’t make me wonder “where the hell has the time gone?”

I can’t help but think about how the COVID lockdown was five years ago now, too.

So much about the world we know has changed since then. So much about life has changed in that time. The way people treat each other. The way we work. The way we live. All of it is different.

I turn 28 this year. I’ve been forced to grow through plenty since the COVID lockdowns. Some part of that growth is realizing that at some point, my head was down pushing forward (probably too much) until I rarely came up for air (probably WAY too little).

Seriously folks, enjoy the moment while it’s here: the White Sox literally had one of its most successful seasons in its 125-year history and the worst season in the history of baseball all within this time frame.

But writing this now, I feel like Ferris Bueller’s advice at the end of the movie has finally hit home:

“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while – you could miss it.”

To me, this quote now means something different. It no longer means “do everything you can with the time you’ve got because life’s too short.” Because, I do, A LOT. Concerts, ballgames, friend get-togethers, late bar nights, dates, karaoke performances, travelling, weddings, etc. I’ve done more in the last 5 years than some might do in a lifetime! So, I don’t feel like I’m ignoring Ferris’s advice in that aspect.

I just think the quote now means to me that the stopping and looking around might be a little bit shocking and that “missing it” will be missing all that you’ve done rather than all that you didn’t do.

Yes, I know that’s not what the intention of the character nor the filmmaker meant by the quote. But, that’s just how I see it now.

Five years can come and go in the blink of an eye. Shit, 20 years can come and go in the blink of an eye. But no matter what, you’ll find something about the past that you’ll miss and you won’t realize it until it’s gone.

Please do stop and look around every once in a while. Reflect. Appreciate. But then move forward into that great unknown. There will always be more to look back upon, but only if you give yourself something to look back upon.

I have no idea what 2025 has in store for me. It’s just another day in another year. But a lot more can change than just a number on a calendar.

I wonder what I’ll be looking back upon after this year passes.

Who knows? But I still can’t believe where the damn time has gone…

I guess, to turn the title of the blog into a different question for myself to ponder as I plunder on in life: “where will the time go?”

I’ll let you know the answer by next year or beyond.

~DS

The shocking nature of winter

Oh yeah? You and what lightning hands?

Winter has arrived for us all once again.

Winter brings with it many things: the ends of things and the beginnings of others. It’s hard to not have points of reflection as the end of the year draws to a close and the beginning of a new one is preparing to emerge.

For me, it’s a time to remind myself that the cold winter is a shocking reminder to all of us that a peaceful life unappreciated can be taken away rather quickly.

By this, I of course mean that winter is static shock season and with that season, comes a vengeance to disturb that peace.

I don’t know if it’s because I’m Irish, or slightly overweight, or a combination of the two, or if I’m the closest thing in this world to being a Sith lord, but I have an unnatural susceptibility to being shocked in the winter.

However, I can’t harness the power itself. I just know when it’s going to happen and I hesitate to touch doorknobs or hype myself up to grab the TV remote. If I could harness it, it would look something like this:

I know that the logical and scientific explanation of this phenomenon is the colder, drier air and the shock is generated because of the lack of moisture in the air. There is also an added conduction in our skin from our layers of warm clothes combined with the drier air.

However, I seem to get shocked more than the average bear.

Every hand shake or hand hold I offer. Shock. Every door handle I touch. Shock. Every TV and TV remote. Shock. Almost anything after being underneath a blanket. Shock.

Do you know how many conductible things surround you until you’re constantly being shocked by them? It’s a lot.

Of the examples I listed above, the one that troubles me the most is the blanket one. It’s the winter. There are far fewer things more enjoyable in the winter than hiding beneath a blanket and watching movies.

I also have this blue velvet plush blanket that could win competitions for being the most comfortable blanket in the world. The down side to that? It causes for a much more charged up blanket than other blankets.

Removing that blanket and touching a doorknob or TV remote in the winter basically has the same effect as Marv touching the electrified sink handles in Home Alone 2.

“Suck brick, kid!”

Sometimes, the shock is so severe you can even see the sparks fly from my finger to whatever object is shocking me.

Friends and loved ones have noticed my susceptibility to this shock and like many other things in my life, they either question why this happens to me so often or make fun of me.

Both of these responses I’m used to, however, it doesn’t hurt more than the millisecond of a shock during the winter. When added altogether, my total shock pain throughout the winter is a lot more than a millisecond because it’s a constant form of shock therapy.

My winter blog from last year was a lot more intuitive than this one. I thought to myself “Could I write a more inner-thinking, retrospective blog that gives myself more purpose this winter?”

And yes, sure I could. My video game playing, reading, and television watching has remained since last winter. I have a lot to process and think about in my personal life that has me wanting to write a lot. The season still has its moments of comfort despite all the shocking.

I’m replaying the Uncharted series on PlayStation during the console’s 30th Anniversary celebration while also figuring out how I want to revive my YouTube channel to talk about the crumbs of Kingdom Hearts news we’ve gotten. I’m nearing the end of my reread through the Lord of the Rings series following a larger pause for the Percy Jackson series that occupied a majority of my reading this year. I’m also nearing the end of my very first watch of How I Met Your Mother knowing that I’ll watch it again someday because I find Ted Mosby to be extremely relatable.

However, sometimes you just have to write about how often you get shocked by doorknobs. It’s a phenomenon that deserves mentioning.

I hope you all find some comfort this winter despite all the shocks. By the sound of it, this might be a very long and cold winter. I hope I don’t shock you through a handshake or a hug, but no promises.

~DS