2025 Book Review (Mostly)

 A couple years ago a fellow blogger named Jon told me I should read more.  It wasn't a demand or anything, but I mean I had a lot of books, so why not read them.  If not might as well get rid of them.  So since then I've started reading books.  This year I also purged a lot of books.  A few I should have waited to purge, you'll see why in a moment.  It all started because my mom had a ton of books and was tired of keeping them.  In total we had a combined over 1000 books, and maybe 10% was mine, but I felt it was right to get rid of ones I wasn't reading.  Most of them we took to the local recycling center.  I think a lot were taken by people, but there's a chance some might have just been tossed into the recycle bin.  At first that bugged me, but I realized that they at least weren't thrown away, and they aren't mine anymore anyways.  I have an account on Library Thing, and I kept track of all the books were purged this year.  Well about a week ago I decided to delete those books off my account because why did I need to keep them?  Well, it turns out I forgot 5-6 of the books I read this year I purged.  So I forgot what those books are.  My goal this year was to read a book a month, because I figure I could do that.  In the end I read either 18 or 19 books.  I still have 13 that I remember I read.  The most recent I finished last week and had doubts I would, it was by far the longest book at over 400 pages, and I'll discuss it in a moment.  Overall most of the books I read I was happy with, a few were just short ones I wanted to knock out, but overall, I'm more than happy to exceed my goal.  I don't know what my goal is for next year, but I just hope to knock a few more out.  My bookshelf is a lot smaller now, and its actually split in two parts- books to keep, and books to read and purge.

So what books did I read?  Well let's take a look.  I will say most were biographies or true life stories, as I'm not a big fan of fiction. I think its because I want to learn when I read and fiction I can just watch a movie its a lot shorter.  But first we'll look at books that were fiction.

As I start that I just remembered a book that I lost track of, so 14 books I remember now. We'll get to that one but first we'll do another one.

Technically this wasn't fiction either, it was idiots who did dumb stuff.  I found this book for a quarter and I did read the first one, so I figured a second one might be just as good.  I was a bit disappointed with this volume, but I think its because I hear dumb news stories quite often now, so these either seem not as bad or not anything fascinating.  For those unaware the Darwin Awards started as a website where they would post stories of people who did dumb stuff and most of the time they died.  They would range from like shooting a gun at a propane tank or something to jumping out of a plane without a parachute.  Those weren't ones in the book, but that's examples.  There's a chance I would read a volume three if I found it, but I'm okay if I don't.  I'm not going to rate the books on a scale, and I really don't plan on re-reading any, but I decided I didn't need to keep this one.

This was a book of pure fiction... and I loved it.  I was a fan of the show Entourage, and was intrigued when I saw this book at Dollar Tree a few years ago (when it was still a dollar).  It shows how long books sit on my shelf, and I have others from childhood I never read, so I have catching up to do.  Anyways, I tried reading this a couple years ago but fiction isn't my thing.  This time I gave it more of a try and figured if I didn't like it still I could still dump it.  I got to the end of the first chapter and it read as a biography/self help book written as if it was by Ari Gold, which was played by Jeremy Piven on the show.  His character is brash, and... an a-hole to put it mildly (yes thats mild), and the book is no different.  Its not a book for kids.  Once I understood the concept it was quite fun to read and one of my favorites of the year.  At least top 5.  While I liked the book a lot, I decided not to keep it but I don't want to keep a lot of books that I have no plans of re-reading.  The ones I do are like all-time favorites or ones that hold sentimental value.  This doesn't qualify.  If I had more space I would have kept it.

A short book of quotes, my mom had this book and was going to purge it.  It feels like cheating counting it but it took a few days and I read it too.  While I may be all things Missouri, there wasn't much substance to it to actually keep it so it got purged as well.  If it was a biography, maybe I would have kept it, but then again, I don't know I would have read it.

Next is the only author that I read two books from.

I've always liked Tom Brokaw, and I found these books for a quarter each a year or two ago, so I figured this is the year to read it.  The first one was about him growing up in North Dakota, and his early years.  I really enjoyed it, and I haven't actually purged it yet, but not sure I will keep it.  I thought about reading more of his books and start a collection, but I really don't think I will.  The second book was more of a plan for America which was released pre-Trump era (however you view that, whatever, not a political post).  I think he had some good ideas, but it was also a bit tedious to read, and so I didn't enjoy it as much.  I think I will purge both of them, but the first one I am on the fence about.

Last year when I read books, I read a lot of sports ones.  I tried not to this year, but this one I've had for a while and I was curious about it.  I was never the biggest Michael Waltrip fan, but he had a long career and his biggest day of his racing career was also the worst day of his life.  He won Daytona 500, which was also his first Winston Cup victory, his teammate finished second and his car owner, best friend, and legendary driver would have finished third... would have but Dale Earnhardt crashed protecting the lead for Mikey and Dale Jr. and he died that day.  This was a really good book, and I learned a lot more than I thought I would.  It seems NASCAR biographies are some of the best ones because every one I've read I've learned a lot.  It was published around 2012 or so and from the writing it doesn't seem like him and Darryl Waltrip were all that close.  Michael wanted to be just like his older brother, but Darryl never really gave him much guidance.  Another brother helped him out though and it opened doors which lead to Michael getting a Cup ride.  It was a good read, and for now I'm keeping it, but if I do another purge it may not make the cut.

I've had this book for a few years (I think when books were like 25 for a quarter days at my local second hand store).  I didn't get it because I wanted to read it, but wanted to reach the 25 goal.  Either way I finally read it this year.  I didn't know anything about The Bull, and I learned some stuff, but it didn't make me want to learn more about him.  I will say that it was nice to see he went to a rough and tough guy with anger issues to finding Jesus and turning his life around.  He also had a close relationship with Elvis growing up as they were a couple years apart in age and talked about after Elvis got famous he'd still return home wanting to get the gang together to play football.  I decided not to keep the book, but I was glad I did read it.

Some of the books I purged I don't regret getting initially because it was usually a similar 4 for a buck or 25 for a quarter.  My bookshelf has been overfilled for years and even after getting rid of quite a few, its still overfilled but its getting better.  I don't plan on a larger bookshelf, so it just motivates me to read more to get rid of the ones I don't need to keep.

A couple books from HGTV stars.  I wasn't expecting much from either book to be honest, but I enjoyed them both.  Drew and Jonathan not only talked about their upbringing in Canada, but also their other dreams and how they initially got into home remodelling and selling.  Oddly it was just something they did to stay afloat and realized they were good at it.  I'm glad I read the book, but its another I purged.  No need to keep it with an overflowing bookshelf.

The Magnolia Story was really good too.  In fact I'm on the fence about keeping it.  While Joanna does most of the writing/talking in the book, Chip also has some good insights too.  It talks about their upbringings, how they met, and how they built their empire.  This book is a few years old, so it doesn't capture them getting their own network, but it does talk about them buying the silo in Waco, but not much since it was pretty new at that point.  On TV they sometimes seem a bit fake, but this made them look much more genuine.  I am thinking of keeping it for now, but if I need the space it may not make the next cut.

This book I do plan on keeping.  I got this book from Disney Rewards points, and I actually waited a year or two to read it, but I'm glad I did.  It wasn't like a must read, but initially I was just going to look at the colorized pictured throughout, as its more of a coffee table book, but it actually had good information in it, especially if you are a Disney fan.  I know it takes a lot to plan and build a theme park, but I didn't realize how meticulous Walt was in the design.  He also lived there.  It was a fun book and I'm keeping it because it feels like a gift so it means a bit more than the other books I've bought second hand.

I'm not sure if this was my book or my mom's but it was in her collection and was going to purge it.  I held on to it to read, and I'm not sure if I kept it.  I'm not big on reading books turned into movies, but this was the second one this year I read (the other will be mentioned in a moment).  The last time I did I hated the book (Shoeless Joe was nowhere as good as what Field of Dreams turned into).  At least these are biographies, so they shouldn't veer too far from the movie.  I enjoyed the book because Bethany gave a little more background of who she was and how she grew up.  Talked about how her parents met and how she learned about surfing.  It gave more insight than a movie could.  I liked the movie, and I'm glad I read the book.

Very few books do I get excited to read.  Even if I do, it takes a while for me to actually get around to reading them.  This was an exception.  Having said that when the year began, it wasn't even on my radar, much less my bookshelf.  In March I did something I wasn't doing much- I was browsing on Listia.  The site that kept me afloat for many years of this blog, I just didn't care about much anymore.  By 2025 I wasn't collecting cards, and there wasn't much else they had with the few points I did have.  So I would look maybe once a month or so just to see what was for sale.  Books never go cheap, but I still look, you never know if something eeks through.  Well, I found someone listed Moneyball.  HOLY COW!  I watched the auction and it was a low starting bid.  I figured I'd be priced out soon enough but with a couple days to go it was still low.  I think I had like 4000 points at the time maybe a lot less, so I put in a bid figuring it wouldn't hold.  I look the next day and I won.  With 501 points.  To put in perspective right now I have 9,000 points, that is about $1.  I can spend 10 bucks and get 80,000 points.  So 501 points is...  let me get a calculator.... carry the two... is like 6 cents?  Sometimes math isn't my friend.  At any rate is was under a dollar and free shipping.  Ever the worrier, I wasn't excited until I got the book in hand.  I think it was 2 weeks later when I finally read it.

I will be keeping it, and what I liked about it was unlike the movie who made a big deal out of the numbers and stats, the books dived more into the actual analytics.  It wasn't telling the story of a season, but the story of a movement.  It didn't make the movie or the book different from one another, just different perspectives.  The 20 game winning streak was more of an afterthought in the book unlike the movie.  They complimented each other.  Think of it as like the DVD commentary to the movie.  If there was ever a book I would consider re-reading, this might be the one.  It was my top two books of the year.

The book I didn't think I would finish, I finished last week.  My mom was going to purge this book, and I wasn't aware she owned it.  She got it from the local second hand store and never read it.  When I started to read it I'll admit I didn't have high hopes, Jann had a bit of a controversy a couple years ago, so he wasn't in the greatest of lights, but still I wanted to know about how the magazine started and more of the business aspects of it.  I know most people don't like that stuff, but I do.  That was his life's work afterall.  I was pleased with the information he gave out about the magazine (in addition to learning he also started a Men's health magazine and either bought or started US Weekly), so I learned a lot.  However it was 400-500 pages and it read more like a Forrest Gump tale of all the celebrities he knew and was friends with.  I don't fault him for talking about them, but I after hearing about how close he was to John Lennon, then Mick Jagger, then Bruce Springsteen, then Bono, then... it got a bit boring.  It was almost like just name dropping.  Of course the focal point, Rolling Stone magazine did bind the book together and he discussed the different eras of the magazine, up until he sold it.  I think people how are more avid readers will enjoy it more than I did, and the stories of Hunter S. Thompson, or Tom Wolfe might interest people more than it did me.  I'm not saying I didn't like it, I just wish with a book of this size, it had more details about the magazine, especially in the 80s and 90s then stories of his political friendships.  The begging of the book was pretty good talking about his growing up and San Francisco in the 60s and how the magazine started.  The book by the mid-80s though moves more away from the magazine into his own life which I understand, its about his life not just the magazine, but as I said you could change the names of the singers and they'd be almost the same stories.  I also didn't need to know every holiday excursion he took each year.  After the Hunter stories, it gets a bit boring, but picks up again towards the end as he starts talking about his mortality and his sons growing up and taking up parts of his company either through photography, writing, or running the business.  So I'm glad I read it, but if my sister isn't interested in it, it will likely be purged.

So there is 4 or 5 books I can't remember that I read too, and I really am drawing a blank.  I think 1-2 might have been smaller sized books, and if I remember them I'll give an update.  Having said that, its time for my favorite book of the year.

I have been a fan of Geena Davis for a long time, I'm not even sure what the first movie I saw her in that made me a fan.  I think it might have been Thelma & Louise, but A League Of Their Own is what cemented my fandom.  I never watched Beetlejuice or some of her earlier work, but a few years after it was released, I watched her in Hero, with Dustin Hoffman, and it made me like her so much more.

This was another book not on my radar when the year began.  I found it at the local second hand store, and I have actually been wanting to read it but figured I never would.  The same goes for the Matthew Perry and Matthew McConagahy (I can never spell his name right) books.  Though finding this one in the wild was so cool so I hope I can do the same for those.  Anyways I finished the book I was reading at the time then dove right in.  This book mixed biography with humor, and she didn't sugarcoat anything.  Nothing was off limits and I really liked it.  She talked about pretty much every movie she was in to some extent, her TV shows, and even her marriages.  She talked about her philanthropy and raising her kids, what's she's been doing the last decade.  It was a complete biography and I loved everything about it.  Its not currently on my bookshelf because my mom wanted to read it.  Once she's done with it though it will go back on my shelf and won't be going anywhere.

I was quite surprised I read so many books this year, and again my goal for next year isn't so much as reading more but just to thin out my collection more.  I have some books I might read, but right now I'm not in the reading mood so I'm taking a bit of a break.  The books to read if I decide not to, I still have more I've never read that I need to read.  A lot of wrestling ones, but want to space those out. As for the ones to read now, those are a lot more sports biographies, mostly baseball.  The problem though is I haven't been into sports as much lately.  I still watch, but win or lose, I don't care how my team does.  Last night I listened to the Chiefs game, they lost.  I didn't care much (much because they had a chance to win if Chris Jones didn't do his weekly "I don't know where the line of scrimmage is so I'm offsides" bit).  Its not because my teams aren't doing well, I'm just starting to get over sports I think.  The same is could be said about wrestling.  Since Raw moved to Netflix, I never watch, and Smackdown on USA I hardly go out of my way to watch.  The only show I will watch is NXT but Booker T's commentary causes me to watch less and less.  So in a few years I can see myself phasing out sports and wrestling, something kid me would think was crazy.

Speaking of the Chiefs, I guess I discuss the Chiefs moving across state lines to kansas (yes its not capitalized, suck it beakers!).  I don't know where to start, I guess disappointment is my first reaction.  The Royals seemed hell-bent to leave their old stadium behind and made no qualms about it.  The Chiefs seemed open to renovate Arrowhead if they got a package good enough to build up around them an entertainment district.  I didn't really like the design plan, but did like the idea.  So what disappoints me is its the Chiefs that made the first move.  Clark Hunt kept saying how much he loved Arrowhead then bolted rather quickly in my opinion.  I don't fault the state west of me, as it sounds like a good deal.  I think its funny our used car salesmen could pitch a better deal, though I am also glad the state isn't giving a billionaire more money to build a stadium that the billionaire will profit off of.  Two things stick out to me, first our leading a-hole of the state (used car salesmen governor) pointed out the Royals were "in the drivers seat".  A statement that is true, but how much leverage do they have.  It seems kansas wanted the Chiefs not the Royals, so they gave what they could to them, and probably don't have much for the Royals.  Missouri made offers to both teams, but always seemed to play catchup instead of leading the charge.  That said, if kansas isn't fighting for them, what offer does Missouri need to make now?  Royals may be in the drivers seat, but I'm not sure how much leverage they have unless they tease a move out of KC alltogether.  Maybe Nashville or Charlotte will make an offer, but unless they do,the Royals may not get what they want which seems to be a downtown stadium.

The second thing is that I will admit that kansas did a good job snagging them away and if it works out will be making a killing.  I'm not a fan of the headquarters and the training facility being off site, but whatever.  That said, I'm disappointed in all the revenue the state of Missouri will lose.  Sure if this new stadium hosts a Super Bowl, the KC Metro will make a lot of money, but how much more would the state make if they stayed here?  2031 is a few years away but by then many of the Chiefs top stars will be gone and Mahomes probably won't be what he once was, so by then the dynasty if it isn't already (this year could be a fluke) will likely be over.  So will I root for them, who knows.  I don't feel they turned their backs but it does leave a bit of a sour taste in my mouth.  Maybe this will motivate a KCMO businessman to try harder to bring an NHL or NBA team to Sprint Center.  Both leagues seem like they would be all for it, but expansion doesn't seem to be on the horizon for either.  I thought St. Louis or Kansas City would get a WNBA team but it seems like thats not going to happen for a while.  So in a nutshell, I'm more disappointed in the lost revenue for the state then I am of the Chiefs moving 45 minutes or less away.  Its still in the metro just on the other side of the line.  It is also disheartening that so much stuff is also moving across the state line, like the Kansas City soccer team, and the American Royal which is how the Royals got their name.  So something needs to be done in KCMO to keep all theses businesses and teams from defecting to the other side of the line.

So that will wrap it up for today, thanks for reading, and I had plans for another blog before the end of the year, but I don't think I will.  Maybe next year I'll be a bit more consistent but who knows.  Thanks everyone for reading and another year in the blogoverse, I hope everyone had a great holiday season, and a have a Happy New Year.  Here's to a bright 2026!

EDIT: I just remembered another book I read, here is the link-  The Teammates: A Portrait Of A Friendship. I did enjoy the book and baseball fans should read it.  I just purged it because of space.

I Should Never Make Plans On My Blog

 In August I laid out plans for my blog.... then I stopped posting.  Lesson learned.  In that time since my last post I haven't done a lot worth writing about, and to be honest only doing this now to let you know I'm still around.  This will be a shorter post but did remember I should write something.

So with nothing to write about this will be a bit of a flashback blog.  Some pics I may have posted, some I never have.

This post is made possible by.... wait this sounds like an ad.... it isn't.  I bought this hard drive last year and I put I think all of my files on it, and still have 2 TBs to fill it.  I'm happy with that.  Because all the files are in one spot I can start sorting and cleaning up files, and that's what I've been doing recently.  I am currently cleaning up my photo collection, which is quite large but I have it unsorted and many duplicates.  In fact this photo has 3 duplicates, I don't know why.  So now I've been working on purging the dupes.  Since I'm working on photos I figures I'd show a few others.

A rare one from my youth.  I think I was in second grade at this time, and I searched for years for that shirt.  Two seconds after showing my friend, he found one on ebay but was a blue version.  Literally YEARS I spent looking and this shirt popped up on Ebay in August.  Maybe one day I'll buy it, but not now.  He also noted that in the 30 years since this photo was taken, that classroom looks the same albeit probably with different papers and posters scattered around.

A month or two ago I spotted a rainbow (maybe my friend told me about it).  I don't rush out to take photos of nature like this but I had to get the mail, so eh why not.  If the power line and pole wasn't in the way it would look much better.

In the early 80s the next town over got approval to build a new bridge to replace this narrow looking deathtrap (it was a scary bridge).  This photo was taken in 1998 when the bridge to the right was finally built and this was replaced.  Only took 15 years but at least it was replaced.  I wish I had more pictures of this bridge.

A few cars.  The top one was 1993 or 1994 and is Darrel Waltrip's and Al Hoffmann's Western Auto cars.  I like that photo a lot and have another one like it.  It was fun seeing those cars when I was around 10.

The bottom photo was 2018ish.  It was outside of Kansas City at a hotel my mom, sister and I stayed at.  The driver(s) were Blues Brothers lookalikes who went around and played the part well, and even had the car.  The car even had a half a pack of cigarettes on the dash, and sunglasses.  I wish I could have met the guys, but seen pics online of them, they were legit.

Lastly since Christmas is a month away and you never know when I'll post I have a couple more pics.

Maybe I'll listen to the few Christmas vinyl albums I have this year.  Though I'm not in the Christmas spirit just yet.  Give me another week or two. Also might have to break out my favorite Christmas puzzle.  My mom and I have done it probably 4-5 times and I still love doing it.  I've taken a break most the year on puzzles but might be starting to get back into it.

So for now I'm going to go, just wanted to say hey and maybe next time I'll have more substance.  Who knows when that will be, but as always, thanks for reading and have a great week.

She Ain't What She Use To Be

 For unknown reasons, the other day I was messing around with Twitter or X or as I call it- Elon's Money Pit.  I'm not sure what I was doing, but I don't have fun on there anymore.  I've been on there for 16 years and throughout the years I've changed course a few times on my account.  When I started it was strictly to follow news accounts, mostly local news.  I figured it was good to get news fast that way.  Soon after though I started connecting with a few people on there and I expanded my uses for it.  Then I got into card collecting and started following card collectors and giveaway pages.  I also for a while admittedly was clout chasing.  Not really to become famous but to gain some followers enough so at least a few of my tweets would be reposted or quoted.  I then started to move away from the card collecting stuff and then covid happened and then people I use to talk to on there moved on.  Now I still have some people I talk to back and forth, but its not the same.  I hardly post more then links to a new blog post, retweets of something that pops up on my timeline, or just a rant about something.  What use to be multiple tweets a day has become 3-5 a month.  I don't miss posting, but I do miss finding substance on there.  Instead I get reports of politics which I long ago abhorred, reports on K-pop, which I never was interested in, and lately bitcoin and stock market news, which while I'm not against seeing stock prices, I own neither stocks or bitcoin, and no plans to.  Additionally I have no desire to find out about either on the Money Pit.  So these days I'll see wrestling news, which as a fan I'm not against, but also tried not to become strictly a wrestling twitter account.  I will also see sports news, but most is stuff I don't care about (which is easy since my sports consumption has dwindled a lot the last few years).  So at times I wonder why I stick around.  The answer is... I guess its still a source of finding information, and a chance to quickly riff or rant about something if I want to.  So much like Facebook, I'll keep it just to still have it in case as opposed to use it daily.

While looking around though, I found a link where I can download my archive.  What I wanted was an archive of my tweets maybe.  So I decided to do it.  A day or two later I got the link to download it and it was less than a GB of data, but it wasn't what I expected.  Instead of texts of tweets, it was images of videos and images I either posted or retweeted throughout the years and javascript files or other files of tweets.  Maybe I can snuff out the tweets, but I might just get bored one day to look at them on the site instead of going through those files.  However not all was lost because I was looking at the images and it gave me an idea of a post- My Twitter history through history.  Not the most exciting, but its something.  So that's what I'll do today.

Before I begin I inquired with Grok to define what my twitter account is all about.  I've done it a few times before, and each time it was fairly accurate though suffers from recency bias, but usually somewhat funny.  So here is what I just asked for and here was Grok's response:

The first part is accurate, I'm from Mid-Missouri, and blog.  Local History is mainly from my town's 150th anniversary a couple years ago, but I'm not against the connection.  I do collect trading cards, though not as much recently.  Next I take a bit of umbrage with Grok because while my most recent tweet was critiquing repetitive song lyrics, I wasn't trying to be humorous.  I was upset hearing songs on the radio that repeats the same line over and over.  I hear the song Unstoppable from Sia, where she say "I'm Unstoppable" like 30 times in a row.  Pink's song "Try" she say "gotta get up and try, try, try" for about 45 seconds in a row.  I've noticed this a lot in the last year, and it irks me.  It's not a recent thing because even Michael Jackson did it on Wanna Be Starting Something.

This clocks in over a minute of the song.  It drives me nuts.  I guess I like song-writers, especially ones who are also story tellers.  If you repeat a line 2-3 times at the end, I can deal with that.  If you repeat the chorus 4 times throughout the song-fine.  But repeating the same lines multiple times in a row usually at the end of the song or even in the chorus is just bad songwriting.  I can allow it somewhat in dance songs because the whole point is to make you dance and not care much about the lyrics.  "I Like To Move It Move It" isn't a song written to be a masterpiece.  Fatboy Slim's "The Rockafeller Skank" is another.  Its electronic and not supposed to elicit complex feelings from the lyrics.  Maybe Michael's song could fit in that category, but a minute of the same lines?  At least make a radio edit cutting it down to maybe 15 secods or so.  Anyways, I was not being humorous that day and the song in question was The Police's song "I Can't Stand Losing You".  I actually use to like the song.  Maybe because its doesn't seem to get repeated airplay so hearing it once a week isn't too bad unlike Roxanne which might come on 2-3 times a day.  Anyway's here are the lyrics to "I Can't Stand Losing You".

That's not the chorus, or part of the song.  That's the lyrics to the entire song.  There are 19 lines in that song, one of which is repeated 25 times.  I can't explain it, but hearing it on the radio I start to lose it...and I can't, I can't, I can't stand losing...... BLAST YOU STING!

As for the rest of Grok's description, as you can see my blog has a heavy influence on my tweets because it references my Wayback Files posts.  I also mentions my tweets about the Chiefs which will ramp up soon likely as football season starts.  The Napoleon Dynamite reference is because I was somewhat live-tweeting Napoleon Dynamite on the 4th of July.  Sometimes I'll do that when I've seen a movie a lot and want to have a little fun with it.  That was an actual tweet I posted so Grok does actually look at the tweets.

Anyways.... I think I derailed this post because of song lyrics, but I'll try to move on.  So after I sifted though all the videos and pictures I posted or retweeted on Twitter, I figured I'd show some off.  Some are humorous, others might be sad, some just a relic in the time it happened.  But I'll explain some of them and others probably won't need explanation.

The first one is the first image it says I posted.  That may be true but I must not have posted pictures and videos much the first few years.  Sometimes I would think of something and quickly try to make it and post it.  This one I thought was funny and made with MS Paint.  BTW, I'm not expanding these much but if you click on them you might get a bigger picture.  I'm sure I made the Playoffs one, only because I didn't upload videos, and just used the image and meme'd it.  I had an app that could make meme's easily and would often do that.  I also created the What Is A Ute on which I always say when Utah football games are on.  I also created the That escalated quickly one which was during the 2014 Royals playoff run.  I think 2013-2014 was when my picture and videos started picking up.  Before that they were few and far between.  I have made similar ones to the glue sniffing one but may not have done that one.

I just happened to retweet the Family Circus and Word of the Day ones because I thought they were funny (and I still do, though one may not be too pc).

For a time I would listen to a good comedian named Spanky Brown.  He had a radio show which was basically a live podcast that was done on the internet and for a while actually was on a radio station or two.  He got with a couple other comedians and friends and would chat mostly sports stuff and other celeb news, but it seemed different than other shows that did the same.  Anyways using the meme maker, I would create meme's for their show and so here are a few.

I would mainly use clips of TV shows and movies and put some variation of The Spanky Brown Show on it.  Some may seem a bit over the line (like OJ), and without knowing the show White Folk Music Wednesday would too.  However that was a day they'd play music that as they described "Black folk ain't listening to this stuff", and they'd take requests.  It was actually quite funny and occasionally they'd argue over if a song really qualifies or not "I know plenty of black folk blasting this song".  What I always liked was that he would always thank me whenever he would use the images I created.  I don't think they probably gained him more listeners, but I had time and it was fun to do.

I didn't create the top one.  That was his show's logo for most if not all of his run.  I did create the next two, the Starbucks one was around the time of the cup controversy and he really seemed to like that one.  The second was I think something they started on the show and it kind of got into a collaboration.  They were talking about how they have the ribbons for all kinds of causes and they thought it would be funny to make up some of their own.  This was one of them they did and I created the meme for them.  I think I did 1-2 others but this was the only one I could find.

In 2014 after hearing and communicating with him for 5 years I finally got to meet Spanky Brown, when he performed at a local comedy club.  It was during the Royals World Series run, and might have even been during one of the games.  He joked a bit about that with me.  He was a big sports fan and a fan of the Dallas Cowboys and Memphis sports.  With us is another comedian (his opener for the night) and a good friend of his Greg Henderson.  Greg is also real funny and would be on the show if not all the time quite a bit.  I still get Facebook posts from Greg as he still goes on the road doing standup.

The last picture is one that was quite sad.  It was posted on a few twitter accounts and was one of the worst tweets I saw.  Greg Henderson later told a bit too.  On May 11th, 2018 Spanky Brown passed away.  He was on the road set for a weekend set of shows and he died I think of a heart attack.  Greg recounted on his Facebook that they would talk to each other every day, and on that day he had called him before he went on stage and Spanky didn't answer.  He figured it might have been a time zone difference and he was already on stage or something and didn't think much of it.  He found out the next day he had passed.  Comedy clubs and radio stations from all over sent out condolences, even the Bob & Tom show which Spanky frequented a few times.  7 years later and at times when something goes on in the sports world or news in general, how Spanky would make a joke about it.  A few years prior another comedian named Tim Wilson passed away and I think the same about him.  Spanky once talked about Tim Wilson, and it seemed like they were somewhat similar in terms of comedians although they didn't look or sound like they would.  I miss Byron Yeldell very much and when he passed it almost seemed like that might have been when Twitter started to become less fun.

Another loss I took quite personal was Terez Paylor.  Terez spent many years covering the Kansas City Chiefs, and was a good sportswriter.  His sudden passing in 2021 just really shocked me.  Terez would also tweet about wrestling from time to time, and he is one of a few I would sometimes tweet out that had a level of notoriety (besides Spanky).  He was very nice and usually replies when I'd tweet him, and from all accounts one of the nicest people anybody ever met had the chance to know.  Somedays just randomly I think about people like Spanky or Terez and just get sad they are no longer around.

Not everything is sad on Twitter, and sometimes I even show my face on there.  I mean I'm not like Marshmello and hide my face, but I don't like posting it online too much.  My profile pic doesn't even show me.  Here were a few times though I showed myself.  The top one is Christian recording artist Rachael Lampa.  I met her at a show in a nearby town, and I told her to make a funny face.  She was very nice and I've always liked her music, so it was fun to not only see her but meet her.  My friend took the next photo, back when we would go to a lot of Mizzou games.  Since I wear glasses I don't wear sunglasses much if at all but those were a giveaway item we got entering the stadium or nearby and it was a fun photo.  I still have those cheap plastic sunglasses too.  The next one was must be 2014.  My friend went to San Diego and went across the border into Mexico and he got me a wrestling mask.  I have a fat head, so I can't wear it much, but time to time I put it on.  This occasion was during the 2014 or 2015 Royals playoff run.

The next one is an old one pre-Twitter days back in 2005.  I met Harley Race, Mick Foley, and Terry Funk on the same day, yet the only one I have a photo with is Terry Funk.  He's another guy I randomly wish was still around.  It's been just past 2 years since he's passed and I still think of him.

I forgot the year on the cereal picture but it was the first time I tried Mahome's Magic Crunch cereal.  It wasn't a bad cereal, though it was a bit more sugary than I was use to.  I wouldn't buy it again (though actually I did) but it was good to try once.  The last picture is maybe 2016 or so, and its with Chiefs superfan X Factor.  In recent years its come to light he's not the nicest person and some people have issues with him (I forgot what specifically, not criminal I don't think but more of being a jerk), but at the time I was happy to get a picture with him.  I don't regret it now, but its nice to have a photo.

Sometimes I just retweet funny stuff or at least stuff I think is funny.  I didn't create any of those except the last one.  I liked using the Sweet Brown meme a lot for stuff, but this one might be my favorite.  The donut one above it is a T-shirt I have from the Woot shirt site.  I have a few shirts from them, but this might be my favorite.  The rest of them I don't really remember but looking back I still chuckled so I decided to keep them.

I had like 600 images and videos and I kept just shy of 150 so most didn't make the cut.  I'm not sure what I'll even do with some of these, but figured I'd keep them for now.

Sometimes I even showed off cards.  Some were real, others were customs I created.  Aside from the Paulo Orlando and Chuckie Jones custom cards I have all the other cards.  I still don't have much info on the softball one aside that it was a set honoring stamps or something.  I won a couple Twitter giveaways one of which was that Cal Ripken rookie.  It was fun but at the same time, I still never got into the card twitter aspect like others did.  That's not to say I didn't and still don't enjoy card bloggers on there.  In fact I still follow quite a few on there.  I like seeing tweets from Billy at Cardboard History because he has a lot of stuff related to racing.

Another giveaway I won on Twitter was this Funko signed by Gabriel Iglesias aka Fluffy. He does a lot of giveaways and after a couple years I finally won one.  What I liked most was not only did I win, but it was also basically a normal one.  He has a lot of different variations from hot sauce ones, mexican wrestling ones to more but this is the one I like most.  It is the first and still only Funko I own, and I'm not upset with that.  I don't like most Funko designs but a rare few I do.  I have my eye out for a few and still have 5 or so protectors for them if I ever get them.

A few more things I found on Twitter I may not have seen elsewhere and ones I decided to keep.

Here's a few more before I wrap things up.

A few more creations.  I liked to make Trump themed songs.  For better or worse, I guess.  Now when I get bored with songs on the radio sometimes I imagine Trump singing them.  I end up ruining the songs, but at least they are songs always on and were pretty much ruined anyways.

The papercut one is recent and it did happen to me while at Walmart a few months back.  The Too Short one I just thought was funny.  He had a song called "Can't Stop Rapping" and I listened to it and thought I would google search it knowing the answer.

I even have a few videos or GIFs to show.  Not sure how this will work because I hardly do videos but the top one is the first pitch at a Royals game a few years ago, as Ryan Lefebvre says, I'm not sure if that's the best or the worst first pitch ever.

The second on is from Liar Liar and I think I used it in reference to Rashee Rice of the Chiefs.

This is one of my favorite SNL commercials they ever did.  I actually just saw it on the ROAR channel the other day.  It was for Uncle Jemima's Pure Mash Liquor.  "You might know my wife, the pancake lady".  Tracy Morgan was so funny in the sketch and so was Tim Meadows.  "Uncle Jemima's Pure Mash Liquor has a 95% alcohol content, and that's per volume"  Which Tim Meadows rightfully asks "What the hell does that mean?"  I just laugh everytime.  To see the full video here it is on reddit.

Uncle Jemima

At this point I guess I'll wrap things up.  Maybe I'll do a part two but there's not much else to show.  Maybe one day I'll do a followup.  I'm seriously thinking of either scrubbing my account or starting a new one but I'm not sure.  I'm not worried about losing the followers or anything but at the same time I do have some celebs that follow me.  Johnny Damon, Paul Abdul, Fluffy, Sgt. Slaughter, and Susan Bennett (the original voice of Siri) among others.  Some just randomly followed me, others I might have begged.  Maybe I'll keep it and just start a new account from scratch just to see if I want to keep it.  I just want the algorithm to not skew too much into a direction I either don't care about or to a point it oversaturates my viewing.

I hope you enjoyed this post, it was a bit fun to go through my archive.  I don't think I can do the same for facebook because I don't post randomness as much and I also scrubbed a lot of that a couple years ago.  Thank you all for reading and hope you have a great week.  I'm not sure what my plans are yet but I still have some projects to do and the weather is tolerable so I can do outdoor stuff if I choose to.  Thanks for reading.