Nostalendar
Many years ago, I decided to watch the film The Great Escape each christmas-time as a personal tradition, and in May 2024 or so, I decided I wanted to start-afresh-and-beat The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom each year in May sometime (its launch month). Since then, I have been mulling the idea of having 4-5 things to do each month of the year: perhaps listen to one album fully thru, watch a film or film series, play a video game to completion, etc. This list will likely be descriptive at first, to merely list what I did each month as an idea of what to do next year, with a review process to reinforce whether it has enough staying power to affirm, “yes, this is something I'd like to do yearly.”
Below is a template for different items potential to appear:
| Type | Description |
| Cinema | What film or film series shall we watch this month? |
| Album | Which album or artist selection collection shall we hear this month? |
| Hear Ye Hear Ye | Which isolated song deserves a listen-to this month? |
| Video Game | Which video game shall we either start from scratch, or resume old saves from? |
| TV Show | Which full TV show series, or TV show season, or collection of episodes shall we watch? |
| VideoPic | Which location shall we film ourselves standing in front of, like a Harry Potter photo? |
| People Game | Which board game, card game, word/etc shall we attempt to play with people? |
| Notable Day | Days of the month of relevant personal history or otherwise significance? |
| Eat This | What food shall we consume that is nostalgic to this month? |
| Tubin' | YouTube or other streaming-service videos to stream for the joys |
| x | x |
Days to research:
January
| Category | Description |
| Notable Days | Mom's birthday is Jan 7 |
Hear Ye
Hear Ye | Listen to Elvis singing Something Live in Hawaii, 1973 if possible, (if not possible, then any Elvis album) in remembrance of mom. If able to play the specific recording, make sure the low brass is clear to the ear; as it's one of the best parts |
| Video Game | Begin a new save of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and defeat Ganon. |
February
| Category | Description |
| Cinema | Watch O Brother, Where Art Thou in remembrance of dad. |
| Notable Days | Feb 20 is dad's birthday, “the 220 line” |
March
| Category | Description |
| Eat This | Have a bag of fun-size *3 Musketeers* candy bars this month, for the 3 of the 3rd Month |
Hear Ye,
Hear Ye | Listen to one of The Cranberries' albums, since they debuted in March 1993, and in remembrance of the departed Dolores. The album No Need To Argue is the first one I owned, and listened to during a solo long drive to Throckmorton Texas, played on the cassette deck in the '82 El Camino |
Hear Ye
Hear Ye | Listen to the full various-artist soundtrack of the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live action film, being one of the earliest albums I bought with my own money as a kid, wanting to hear the T-U-R-T-L-E Power song during the credits. |
April
| Category | Description |
| Cinema | Watch the first Highlander film, as the spring begins to bloom (skipping past the Kurgan's joyride is allowed) |
May
| Category | Description |
| Notable Days | May 5th is mom's mom's birthday. |
| Video Game | Begin a new save of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and finish a minimum the main quest, to celebrate its release month. Done every year since its launch. Bonus quest: Get at least 90% of the underworld lit up. |
| Hear Ye Hear Ye | Listen to Africa by Toto, and Smooth Operator by Sade (and muzak version if possible), to remember the muzak soundtrack we had to listen to at Hobby Lobby. I was a stockman, and this was before the store piped in Christian worship instrumentals. Remember David Wegman, “Erdine”, snickering about a department called Notions, managing the Hobbies section inventory, the two managers named Chris, Tom Rodgers, Pam Stewart, the “priest” manager who lived on Darwin St, “it WILL fit,” the hot fabrics girl I could see from my department on the other side of the store, other random employees like Sandy (wife of dad's cow-orker), Shirley, the dark haired raspy one and the wide-faced portly one in flowers, Danielle in the decor, Fred with the frog stuffy in his car, the two super squishy snowmen stuffy brothers I saved so they could be together, “band queer,” being told I had an “old soul” and would make someone quite happy one day, the bottles section that would never sell, changing long fluorescents on a 12 foot ladder, christmas tree fetching season, lady with the long nails, 1v1 about not wanting to cashier, personal check policy standoffs, predicting when we'd get out, memorizing the alphabet backwards while sweeping, the messiest restroom.. |
June
| Category | Description |
Hear Ye
Hear Ye | Listen to the song I Saw The Sign by Ace of Base, remembering all the elaborate signs and cardboard monstrocities I used to build for Target, including a memorable needlessly complex hanging sun shape with crepuscular rays for a summer-time reset in the old layout of Seasonal. |
July
| Category | Description |
| Notable Date | Beverly Addams' birthday is this month. |
| Notable Date | The members of SNSD were announced one by one, from July 6-14, with Taeyeon on July 12 |
Hear Ye,
Hear Ye | Listen to the full album of Tears For Fears' Saturnine Martial & Lunatic album, which contains especially the Tears Roll Down track. |
| Cinema | Watch The Fifth Element this month, like we did for the anniversary and the 4-5 times we saw it in the theatre when it was new. |
August
| Category | Description |
| Video Game | Start a new save and complete at least the main quest, the mage's guild, and the empire side of the war, in Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim. Creation club cheats are allowed, OR
Start a new save and complete at least the main quest, get to level 75, and Go NG+ at least 3 times in Starfield. Creation club cheats allowed. |
| Hear Ye Hear Ye | Listen to Bullet With Butterfly Wings by Smashing Pumpkins, to remember the days working at Chuck E. Cheese's. There were lots of songs played by the then 92.9 KNIN that we were essentially forced to listen to ad infinitum each night we worked, but this one stood out as a favorite to one of the few male cow-orkers I had, though his name eludes me. I started and ending my employment there on the same calendar date: August 10, 1995-1997. Whenever I hear this song I am transported back to the kitchen, while Bonny had the back door open smoking, while the guy was an afternoon batch. |
| Notable Date | Matt's birthday is August 18. |
| TV Show | Watch any single full season of Star Trek: Enterprise. |
September
| Category | Description |
| Tubin' | Watch our favorite Fool Us performance, by Eric Mead, on YT if possible. Chosen for September since it was uploaded then in 2017. |
Hear Ye
Hear Ye | Listen to the collab playlist we made with Bryan to celebrate the Feast of Trumpets. |
October
November
| Category | Description |
| Notable Days | Nov 1st is my birthday. |
| Video Game | Start a new character in Fallout 4 and play at least up until you can assassinate the leader of the Brotherhood of Steel. It came out November 10, 2015. We bought our first XB1, moving on from the x360, around launch day of this. |
December
| Category | Description |
| Cinema | Watch The Great Escape at least up until the massive tone shift after Ives cracks. |
