Table of Contents

• January’s Watches: The Wide, Wacky World of Speedr …

• January’s Plays: Pro Skating & WAY Too Much Gambli …

• January’s Listens: Bob Dylan, Ween & Nujabes

Amid all the brain-rot and short attention span, I have a lot of things I want to talk about; perhaps too many things. The scant few items that find their way upstream manage to become fleshed out written pieces. The remaining ideas remain to swim around the fish tank that is my noggin, where I sometimes tap on the glass and consider writing something with them. And after writing about a single topic for a few years, I wanna talk about other things I’ve been into all the while. Hence the creation of this journal/column/open-yap-session put to words. Hope you find something of substance out of this smattering of words.

January’s Watches: The Wide, Wacky World of Speedruns

Most people like to rave about what movies they’ve gone to see in the theater or what series they’ve been watching on whatever overpriced streaming service is hot right now. Personally, I just can’t seem to set down to dedicate myself to those mediums (mainly due to the price tag attached). More often than not, I find myself scrolling through online content creators of varying genres to get my fill of viewership. One of the many genres I enjoy watching is Gaming, and this month was a fun event that brought together gamers from all corners of the community.

Awesome Games Done Quick. For those who are unaware, or are simply not a geek like myself, Awesome Games Done Quick (shortened to AGDQ) is a yearly fundraising event, with the funds raised going towards Cancer research. Much like the name implies, the marathon is all about players starting video games, and finishing them as quickly as possible. It’s one thing to finish a game very fast, but the way these gamers actually beat these games at ludicrous speeds is another thing. Some of the most beloved games get absolutely decimated within minutes due to exploits and glitches that are discovered by players long after release. Even a much beloved sinkhole of time like Skyrim is beatable in under 45 minutes, and it’s astounding to watch.

And the fun doesn’t stop at just watching people play games very, very fast. Some of these runs have a gimmick tacked on and are often attached to a donation goal. Sometimes you watch a someone defeat bosses in a difficult game like Elden Ring using only an Electric Saxophone. Other times, you see another player using modified motion controls to beat New Super Mario Bros. Wii with their body while playing the game’s soundtrack live on a Piano. And sometimes there’s just a live band playing the Crazy Taxi soundtrack alongside the run of the game to skirt around Twitch’s Terms of Service guidelines regarding copyrighted music.

By the end of the week, Awesome Games Done Quick 2025 finished out by raising over 2.5 million dollars for cancer research. And to me, that is even more incredible than any run I’ve described. If you’re remotely interested in video games, I recommend checking out any of the runs up on their YouTube channel from the event. Following this marathon was a fun way to spend my downtime over the week, and I hope to be able to attend the event in person someday soon.

January’s Plays: Pro Skating & WAY Too Much Gambling

On New Year’s Day, while most people were nursing hangovers or laid crashed out in bed, I decided to blow through Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2. I’m not quite sure what exactly made me decide I needed to play through both Classic Modes in one afternoon after a night out with friends, but I’m proud to say that my skills are still intact after all these years. I really appreciate the developers having the foresight to not only age up the graphics of the game to modern specs, but also having the foresight to add tech to the gameplay that wouldn’t come for several games. In particular, being able to Revert down halfpipes and Transfer between ramps to extend combos is a welcome addition. Without the inclusion of these later gameplay additions, some of these High Score goals, especially in the late game, would’ve been much more frustrating to reach.

Many of these levels have aged quite well, and are still a lot of fun to play after all these years. Though I will admit that I found the levels of Pro Skater 2 to have aged the best between the two games. I do tip my hat to Pro Skater 1 for having levels like Warehouse, School, Mall, and Skate Park that are still fun to skate in. However, Pro Skater 2 naturally feels much more realized and fleshed out. Philadelphia, while a fun Street course, has the real life FDR Skatepark hidden to add to the level. Opening up the subway and traversing the rails in New York uncovers a whole new patch of level to skate on, even if the base level was already solid. And Venice, while feeling like a labyrinth at times when trying to complete Classic Mode goals, still is a lot of fun to skate.

With the taste of the Pro Skater games fresh on my tongue, I wanted to play more of this beloved series from my childhood. Jumping into Pro Skater 3, this game was quite the adjustment to return to. After having the luxury of all the updated mechanics in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2, playing Pro Skater 3 felt so bare bones. A lot of mechanics were stripped away from me and I’d find myself still attempting them at times being so used to the later titles. You’d think such this would make for a frustrating game to come back to. However, the levels within still flow so well that the missing mechanics don’t really matter. And I found myself acclimated to the older system in no time. Levels like Canada and Los Angeles have such a fantastic flow all these years later that makes gameplay fun. I had the most fun with Airport in particular, with the level being of the few good Downhill levels in the series. I had a blast chaining my combos all the way to the bottom of the map, and using the light fixtures above to catch big air for big points.

Lucky me, by holding up the release of this first edition, I’ve fallen right into the hype of the recent teaser of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4. Now I’m only going to take this as a teaser (despite a skater accidentally letting the project slip) because we’re talking about Activision-Blizzard. A company who hyped up a mobile game for one of their big franchises at their own convention and were rightfully booed for it. For all I know, this is all one big fake out and Tony is being added into Call of Duty Warzone as some shitty premium skin. Hopefully, 03/04 comes along and we get two more classics brought onto modern hardware so that gamers old and new can enjoy some more classic games.

Concurrently throughout the month, I would pick up an old habit on a new device in the form of Balatro’s iPhone release. I finally caved on picking up the iOS version just for the convenience of not having to boot up my PC each time I wanted to play. And from here, my faux degenerate gambling tendencies reared their ugly head. I’ve spent full lunch hours at work trying to beat Extra Large Blinds. Hell, I’ve spent time standing by the stove waiting for my food to cook sneaking in an extra game or two. To say I’ve spent a significant portion of the month hunched over my phone like a goblin trying to hit high hands would be painting it too lightly.

I decided to take on the added challenge of beating every Stake since I wasn’t spending enough of my downtime playing this game. To say that this endeavor was an absolute pain in my ass would be completely underselling the experience. While the earlier Stakes can be manageable depending on the deck you choose, by the later Stakes, I would have to kill runs after just a couple Rounds because I lacked the Jokers to push forward, or because the levels of my played hands were just too low to meet the Blind scores. It was on the Gold Stake specifically that I found myself stonewalled by the challenge of having to meet rapidly increasing scores with limited Discards, All the while my Joker selection was incredibly selective as Jokers were either infinite, limited use, or pay to use. With all of this being said, I still finished the challenge, and even maxed out a second deck by reaching another Gold Stake. Through taking on the challenge and playing through enforced limitations, I feel that I’ve improved as a player. And I look forward to the several hours I further put into this game throughout the rest of this year.

January’s Listens: Bob Dylan, Ween & Nujabes

Coming fresh off of seeing A Complete Unknown in theaters, and being caught up in the hype of his music, I decided that I wanted to listen through Bob Dylan’s body of work. While his music is considered important by most, I found myself faced with one big problem: Bob Dylan has released 41 different albums over the span of his six-decade music career. With the size of this commitment in mind, knowing this would take up several days of dedicated listening, I decided to split Dylan’s discography by the decade, naturally starting off with his first albums through the 1960s.

It’s undeniable how many classic, and important songs Bob Dylan released in this decade alone. Of his early albums, The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan has quickly shot up the list of my favorite albums of all time. The warmth of the music and Bob Dylan’s lyricism feel especially nice against the backdrop of this especially brutal Winter. With that being said, it felt as though my interest in his sound would wane by the album as I listened to the acoustic albums that followed. Despite hits like The Times They Are A-Changin’ & It Ain’t Me Babe, I couldn’t deny the fact that listening through these albums had brought on the same experience of trying to stay awake during church in my Catholic School years. My interest would take a much needed shot in the arm, reigniting with Bringing It All Back Home, my second favorite album of this deep dive. As a listener, I could feel through the music that Bob was having a great time playing with his new electric sound, which made the album a much more engaging experience. Admittedly, I felt varying levels of “take it or leave it” regarding the rest of his 1960s output. And perhaps this was due in part to Bob Dylan fatigue. Though I will say that I’m still glad to have taken on this deep dive despite it all.

Following days in a row of screeching harmonica notes, I took a much needed break from Bob Dylan. I had decided to turn to a band that I found myself truly enjoying last year: Ween. Their 1997 masterpiece The Mollusk has been in constant rotation since I listened to it late one night last Spring. Over time, this album has come to mean a lot to me, due in a large part to the period of time that I had come onto it. After several full listens, the album has come to sit firmly on my list of all time favorite albums. The listening experience of the rest of their discography is one I could best describe as a mixed bag of great and weird music. While regarded by most as Alternative Rock, Gene & Dean Ween were not afraid to attempt different styles of music. A song like It’s Gonna Be a Long Night takes a lot of tone from the band Motörhead. The Blarney Stone is a full on Sea Shanty that makes me want to swig a pint of beer, swing my arm and sing along. Hell, their whole fifth studio album is just Country Music and it sounds just as great as it sounds campy! Even through the weirdest parts of the band’s discography, I’ve found fun and enjoyment. Gene & Dean fully embody the idea of making the kind of art you want and not giving a fuck if it fits a certain mold. And to me, that kind of attitude is overwhelmingly inspiring.

For my last deep dive of the month, I decided to take a different turn. After listening to a solo artist and a band, I wanted to listen to the work of a producer whose name I’ve heard several times through various music discussion venues. After listening to his short body of work, Jun Seba, better known as Nujabes is someone who I can honestly say was truly ahead of his time. Finding out that Nujabes was doing in the early 2000s what these 24/7 “lofi beats to relax/study to” YouTube channels was a cool discovery. For years I’d find playlists and streams of this genre and not once had I seen Nujabes pop up despite his forefather status. And honestly, a lot more people should know about him. Whether instrumental, or paired with one of his many Rap collaborators, I find myself relaxing and having moment of peace when I listen to Nujabes. To really drive home how much his music has grown on me, Nujabes is the first artist I’ve come across where I’ve gone out of my way to import his music physically since finding his albums in the states is hard and expensive. I’m just that attached to the music.