Greetings and salutations to all! It is the Monkey Monday after Thanksgiving! I hope you were all able to spend time with family, but even if not, I hope your weekend was able to provide some rest and rejuvenation! Things here at Monkey Monday headquarters have been pretty quiet. Right now I’m cozied up in my room, working on assignments, drinking some Mama D’s coffee at 4:30 p.m.

Anyways, of course, we’ve got another issue of MM for y’all! We hope to provide a little somethin-somethin for y’all to tackle the new week!

Monkey Monday 2 #12, shrimping in…

Thankful? Well I sure ain’t thankempty!

Last year around this time, I made a Thanksgiving Food tier list, which was probably one of my favorite things I’ve ever done for Monkey Monday. Any opportunity I get to hate on stuffing is a great opportunity. This year, I’m going to do something a little different for Thanksgiving, and list a bunch of random things that I’m thankful for this year. This will NOT be a ranked, or all-encompassing list. Rather, I just want to shout-out some miscellaneous things that have made this year great.

Here we go…

1. Bingo

This year Lucia and I started watching Bluey for the first time together. It’s one of the best shows ever, and you’re a fool if you think it’s only for kids. This is peak wholesome content that anyone can watch. Bingo is the greatest animated character since Perry the Platypus, and I’ll stand on BUSINESS for that. Shoutout Bingo I love you Bingo.

2. Adrianne Lenker

This year has been a great year of music for me. At the very end of last year, I discovered the Lenkster, and she has been on a rampage in my heart throughout 2025, rising to become my favorite artist of all time. Everything she touches is gold, and I genuinely believe 30 years from now we will look back at her as the greatest songwriter of her generation. songs and Dragon New Warm Mountain, I Believe In You are possibly my 2 favorite albums ever, and have shifted how I listen to and appreciate music. Shoutout Adrianne man, love her.

3. The Shattuckians

The music department at Carroll has some of the coolest people of all time, both faculty and students. I’m so blessed that everyday I get to walk into Shattuck and do life with this wonderful community of people.

I’m bummed that this stage of life will only last for a couple more years, but it’s been so awesome to spend the past few years with these folk.

4. My Mysterious Roommate

Shoutout Juan man, truly the roommate of all time. There’s nothing like getting meowed at by a grown man every single time he walks past my room. Been so grateful this is the fella I’ve been able to share my living space with. He’s clean, reasonable, considerate, and one of the funniest dudes I’ve ever met. Don’t know who else I’d rather share a bathroom with, and I have no idea what I’m going to do next year once he graduates.

5. JiuJitsu

This year I picked Brazilian Jiujitsu back up again after my short trial many years ago; and man it’s been the best thing ever. It’s incredible for me physically, mentally, and a great outlet to use my body and mind. Such a humbling, yet gratifying sport to take part in that I can’t recommend enough. I don’t doubt that I will continue this for the rest of my life, and I’m so stoked that I got into it now while I’m still young.

6. Reeny + Ker

This year, I got to spend time with two of my bestest friends, who both live across the country. So great to be able to enjoy these guys’ company, and strengthen my friendships with each of them.

7. Mi Familia

Of course, what kind of Thanksgiving list would this be if I didn’t mention my family??? While I don’t live with them anymore, they are still the most supportive people in my life, and always make sure I feel loved and cared for, even long-distance. Love y’all so much, and can’t wait to meet my first niece/nephew in a couple weeks!

8. My Lady

WHERE WOULD I BE WITHOUT MY BEAUTIFUL AMAZING SUPPORTIVE GIRLFRIEND LUCIA???!!! Don’t know what to say, besides I’m so grateful to do life with my best friend in the whole wide world. Thank you for always letting me beat you in every game we play ❤️

9. My Church

This year I joined a new church, and I’m very grateful for them. Such an amazing body of believers, and thankful I can call them my family. Shoutout our CG group, a bunch of amazing buffoons who get together every week to talk about God’s word and do life with one another.

10. Jesus’ work on the cross!

Last but certainly not least, the biggest, most important thing I could possibly be thankful for, is the atoning work of Jesus on the Christ. I would continue to be absolutely lost and condemned in my sin if it weren’t for the greatest act of grace in history. I cannot express how important and life-defining this is, and has completely transformed who I am, and the purpose of my life!

Thank you for reading my little list, I hope it can inspire some of y’all to reflect on some of the many things, big or small, that you might be thankful for!

-Nate

Pick of the Week

Alright, here it is y’all. Not only is this my monthly playlist for December, but this is the ultimate compilation of what I listened to in 2025, a greatest hits of my favorite artists, if you will. There’s over 200 songs in there, across like 30 different artists, so there’s some variety.

If you’re looking for new music, and want recommendations from a trusted source, check this out. Give it a save if you want; my monkey brain lights up when I see the little “saves” number increase, and you’ll have easy access to the playlist!

-Nate

Is It Ripe?

Since I moved a TV into my room, I’ve been watching some movies, especially over Thanksgiving break. After over half a year of waiting, I was finally able to watch the legendary Ne Zha II.

For the uninitiated, Ne Zha is a Chinese animated film that came out in 2019. It retells the Chinese folk tale of Ne Zha, a young demon-child outcast trying to win the approval of his village. The film takes a tone very reminiscent of the Kung Fu Panda series: full of action, and humor that elementary schoolers would appreciate. Despite the tone being often childish, the story is pretty solid, and the action and visuals are sensational.

That brings us to the sequel, 2025’s Ne-Zha II, which continues the story set up by its predecessor. This movie caused some noise on the internet when it shattered Disney Pixar records and became the highest grossing animated film of ALL TIME. This is where I, and many others first heard of these films. Those who had seen it said it was legitimately one of the greatest animated films they had ever seen, that tells an epic tale, full of incredible animation and action, on a massive scale.

I was intrigued, and immediately watched the first one with my friend Jo. Unfortunately, the sequel had just finished it’s run in theaters, which meant that we had to wait for it to come out on streaming services, which would be a while since it was an overseas film.

Last month, it finally was available on Amazon Prime! I wanted to wait till both Jo and I could watch it together, which finally occurred last week.

Let’s find out if this long awaited movie was worth the hype.

To start, the movie is quite long, clocking in at 2 ½ hours, yet it still felt like the story was rushed, since there was a LOT of plot to get through. The movie sort of divides itself into two acts. While the first act is really slow and boring (Ben fell asleep a couple times), it does have a saving grace: The first attack on Chentangguan, which is seriously epic and got Jo and I super hyped. Unfortunately, the movie drops off pretty hard after this point, until the second act.

After the halfway point, we hit a turning point in the film. After an INSANE battle between our protagonists and this lightning fella, we start to transition into act 2. There’s some insane stuff that happens to our boy; then the scene for the great battle is set. Once things kick off, its NON-STOP action for like an hour and a half straight. Dude it’s so epic and awesome. We get some legendary beat-downs and crashouts.

But yeah, we thoroughly enjoyed this movie. While it wasn’t flawless, and I may have got my hopes up a touch too high, this movie is pretty awesome. It is really slow, and just not great at points, but the highs in this movie are SUPER high. There were parts we were yelling and jumping at (well, mostly me), the action and visuals were just an absolute SPECTACLE, and most of all, we had fun!

If you’re a fan of Kung Fu Panda, watch Ne Zha and Ne Zha II. They are really great and have some incredible moments to them that rivals the best that Po and Co. have to offer.

-Nate

Ripeness: 9/10

Interview Time!

Ashley’s Animal

Parin’s Proverb

Quan Quotes

Verse Of The Week