Revisiting and Updating My Bucket List

In July 2024, I made a bucket list of things I want to do before I reach 55. Basically, a nine-year list of goals I want to accomplish or at least try just once. At the end of 2024, I recapped my progress.

Eh, it could have gone better, but I did make progress.

As for 2025, I think I did a lot, and it's time for another progress report. I know I have a long way to go. Some things are going to take a bit longer due to technical and life limitations, but they're still going to remain because, well, things change.

  1. Find love again. Still the hardest thing for me to do. Losing my angel in January 2022 still hurts. She was my first real love. I've been moving on, but it's not easy. Especially after being with someone for over a decade. It sucks not having her in my life. It sucks I can't talk to her, tell her about my days, ask her about hers, and just tell her that I love her. I don't want to go on this journey of life alone. I'll find another girl one day, but it's going to be a while.
  2. Marry that love or at least do my damnedest to make her happy.
  3. Write a novel. You know that one I had completely done in 2024? Well, I revised it. There were some parts I felt needed fleshing out, and once I reedited that, it was completely finished. Plus, I had more backstory to work with in the other books in the series.  I completed and edited TWO other novels in the past year. Those were fun too. 
  4. Write at least two non-fiction history books. Editing one right now and writing another.
  5. Write a mystery novel series. Still working on that. Book 3 is done. Others are in various stages of completion, so that's something I'm focusing on in 2026.
  6. Write a serialized dramatic story. Plotted out a few. Haven't fully committed to doing one yet.
  7. Create an animated series.
  8. Create a TV series. In 2024, I plotted a series based on my mystery series down to the last episode. In 2025, I created a brand-new series not based on anything I've written before that was essentially a medical drama in a world of superpowered heroes. I was inspired by a comment a longtime friend of mine made for the series' title and just created a world around them. I set up a backstory, plotted an entire season, and wrote an actual shootable pilot script for it. This was a fun project to tackle, and I hope I could fully flesh it out in the new year and maybe write more episodes in full.
  9. Write a story bible for a TV series. I made one in 2024, and I started one for the new project I created in 2025. I think I found my wheelhouse.
  10. Create comic books. Still creating my worlds, writing scripts and plots, and sketching out character designs and layouts. I'm creating comic books. 
  11. Create web comics. See 10. Creating a few webcomics too based on a totally different idea. While the comic books are more superhero-based, the webcomics are more sci-fi in tone. 
  12. Create a video series.
  13. Create a streaming/FAST channel. I haven't made a streaming channel, but I've seen an experimental feed from a couple of buds of mine. They made one of the best TV schedules I've ever seen as well as incredible continuity and idents. There is this one spot for this one show that they made that I WISH the network/streamer that airs it could do, but they never would. Cowards. I don't think I have the time to do something as impressive as they've made, but I'm definitely inspired.
  14. Learn 3D modeling and printing. Had to combine these two into one list item.
  15. Create and print an action figure from scratch.
  16. Create a Muppet-like puppet from scratch.
  17. Learn how to animate using Toon Boom and create a short.
  18. Learn cel-shading and comic-shading techniques on Krita
  19. Relaunch The X Bridge as something better than it was. I don't know if it'll be better than what I did in the past, but hopefully the fall 2026 relaunch of TXB will be worth reading.
  20. Write a Superman project for DC.
  21. Write a Spider-Man project for Marvel.
  22. Bake French desserts from scratch at home.
  23. Paint large murals and large-scale paintings. I'm not making large murals anytime soon, but I am back painting larger pictures again. Art supplies are high, so any help with getting those would mean a lot.
  24. Build a computer from scratch. Considering computer parts are expensive as hell (thanks, broligarchs), not going to do that anytime soon.
  25. Write a weekly column in a major print or web magazine.
  26. Sell a series idea to a major network or streamer.
  27. Write a screenplay. See 8. I wrote a teleplay for a pilot. That's a hell of a start. 
  28. Write a stage play.
  29. Take better care of myself physically, mentally, and emotionally. Really learning how to do that. It's not easy. It really hasn't been easy after the election. That nearly broke me. 
  30. Take more creative, personal, and professional risks.
  31. Try voice acting.
  32. Write an audio drama series.
  33. Make a four-course meal. I did this in 2025, all from scratch (or at least using basic ingredients). I made shrimp fritters as an appetizer, a garden salad, fried chicken thighs with mashed potatoes topped with chicken gravy, and peach cobbler with a small scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. Fancy? Sure, probably a little "extra" too, but it was simple, and my mom liked it. Cooked it for her for Mother's Day. 
  34. Be more assertive and happier with life.
  35. Reach 50. By the time this article posts, it'd be about 20 days until my 48th birthday. I'm thank to see that rotation around the Sun near its completion. A lot of folks I knew can't say that, so I'm very thankful so far.
  36. Don't get discouraged about not completing everything on this list (but keep going). I'm not crossing this off.
I'm going to add more to the list in time when inspiration hits me or I accomplish more of these goals to make room for new ones, whichever comes first. 

I know it's foolhardy to do something like this at my age, but I'm not getting any younger, and considering I've mostly taken care of others since I got out of college more than 20 years ago, I need to do things for myself just once in my life. I know I have a lot of limitations (lack of funds and the fact that I just can't go anywhere because this country and the world tend to look down on folks with my complexion), but it is nice to be somewhat realistic and yet, learn to dream bigger. 

I may not be able to accomplish everything on this bucket list, and I know that's going to be okay. I'm glad I have some things checked off already so far.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Make This Make Sense

Image
There is a very, very stupid rumor out there right now about how Discovery, the second most poorly run entertainment company on the planet (Paramount Global is far, far, far worse, but you'd never know that if you only paid attention to the animation side of social media or only read entertainment rags), is thinking of selling off the entire Looney Tunes brand. I still believe it's a stupid rumor created by someone looking for (and getting) a lot of clicks from an already paranoid fanbase who has seen Discovery take the 300+ Looney Tunes shorts (not even the entire 1000 golden age theatrical shorts was on the site) off of the service that has no problem clogging the once-premium streaming platform with 249 seasons of House Hunters with over 1900 half-hour episodes  (seriously, check that link, there are 249 seasons of that show and counting),  26 seasons and nearly 350 episodes of Curb Appeal , 51 seasons and nearly 550 episodes of Diners , Drive-Ins, and Dives , or every se...
Read more

Building A Better Media Conglomerate

Image
Want to play a little game?  Back in the day when I was working full-time on TXB, I created a series of articles called "Imagine If." Essentially, reimagined scenarios of media companies doing things they likely could have done in the past but decided against it.  Saban buying Funimation. Warner Communications keeping Nickelodeon. Ted Turner actually buying CBS. The USA Cartoon Express lasting beyond 1998.  Things like that.  This is no different.  I was given a challenge by reader and fellow AU scenario writer Chandler Ritter-Roberts over at Bluesky . The challenge?   Building a media company that could become a massive modern media conglomerate.  #BuildYourAltConglomerate, as his hashtag goes.  I could create a company as big as I want to counter what two of the biggest media companies, Warner Bros Discovery and The Walt Disney Company, could do and create a realistic media empire.  The one caveat in this game? While every media compan...
Read more

MeTV TOONS: A Few Pre-Launch Thoughts

Image
  On June 25, 2024, Weigel Broadcasting and Warner Bros Discovery are launching MeTV TOONS, an over-the-air broadcast network devoted to classic animation featuring the best of the best.  You'll have the usual suspects from the Warrner Bros library including Looney Tunes, Tom and Jerry, Scooby-Doo, The Flintstones, Yogi Bear, Top Cat, The Jetsons, The Smurfs, Jonny Quest, and Wacky Races .  You'll also find some shows that rarely get the airplay or shine from the studio like Silverhawks, Police Academy, Challenge of the Go-Bots, The Mask, and Beetlejuice and surprising shows like Freakazoid. In addition, you'll have some popular shows from other studios like Woody Woodpecker, Betty Boop, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Underdog, Speed Racer, Thunderbirds, and The Real Ghostbusters. With a lot of support from historians like Jerry Beck and talent like Bob Bergen, MeTV TOONS is a dream come true for older classic animation fans who felt abandoned by kid-...
Read more