It's a brand new day, friends. Well
technically it's always a new day but I'm trying to be poetic here.
We are taking our first steps into a new decade. Maybe we'll get a
new musical genre, perhaps curry will become the go-to food item,
maybe folks will stop dressing like fucking morons! A guy can hope
right? Before marching boldly into this new era, which admittedly my
first few days have been pretty spiffy, I thought it best to take
care of loose ends. Let's look back at dangling threads and
unfinished topics along with a little of the best bits of last year
and what I'm hopeful for in this one.
One should always pause around this
time to think back on what they've been doing. Obviously the key
accomplishment of late, one that continues into the new year, is my
education. Currently it looks like I'll be ringing in next Christmas
with a better degree and a moderate amount of debt but I think it's
gonna be worth it despite all the endless papers and assignments
needed to get there. It's important to note this shouldn't change my
online presence all that much, it might even increase it as I'll be
glued to word processors that much more often. Now seems like a good
time to invest in eye drops.
Outside of that I got massive amount
of excellent slacking done throughout 2019. I actually keep lists of
every book read, game played, etc and you'd best believe some of the
numbers for the past twelve months are staggering. The usual range
for new to me movies viewed in one year is anywhere from 120-170.
2019 ended up with over 220, there's more than twenty video games
from different eras, plenty of television, only reading went to the
curb since homework largely took the fun out of it. I don't imagine
repeating these numbers with a full 12 months of courses to go. I'll
admit it sounds kinda nice to maybe have a break from being this lazy
as it was starting to get a little stale. On the plus side those deep
dives into pulp culture have only provided more potential topics for
this year.
Not everything was quite so upbeat
however. This household lost two dogs in less than two months. Both
were excellent furry friends whom I still find myself missing despite
some of their less desirable habits. My finances have been...
strained to say the least. Had to spend a month contending with a
cats ear-infection. And then there's the matter of my irritated
eyeball, which from seems to stem from sinus inflammation causing
extra pressure. As challenging as each of these issues were there was
still enough strokes of good luck along with some quality experiences
to help keep life bright and interesting. No doubt it was a tough
year on several fronts but I'm primed to keep moving and make this
new decade really count.
Much like reminiscence, it's usually
customary to go over the annual haul of Christmas presents though not
in the spirit of showing off. No it's far more preferable to share in
whatever weirdness or surprises came to light during the traditional
gift-giving routine. What stuck out as bizarre this time is that the
family was supposed to be on a fairly tight price-restriction which
everyone flat-out ignored. Add to that a very festive secret Santa
along with some store credit usage during an after xmas sale, and
damn did I ever get spoiled. Unsure if I've got a photo featuring the
entire stash but trust me there's enough to make me feel guilty.
As for the most surprising gifts, and
those that may provide some entertainment for you all down the line,
well there are three tapes from secret Santa to begin with. Santa
knew my love for VHS oddities and managed to send a few along, one of
which is totally unmarked, Ringu style. Expect something on
those in the coming month or so. My brother surprised me with a Funko
Pop of The Creeper from Jeepers Creepers. Not only did I not
know about this lil guy but I initially thought it must be a great
custom job since I couldn't imagine the company taking on such a
controversial subject (and turns out some folks threw a fit over it).
Haven't had anywhere near the time to fiddle with even half of the
haul which means I'm set with survival gear for the long dark of
January.
As always happens during the holidays
I've fallen way behind with the Super Sentai reviews with the
catch-up being next on the blog charter. Beyond that I'd hoped to
start coverage of past shows in the form of best episode countdowns,
or individual articles for stellar episodes from otherwise lousy
series, which is the only way to talk about shows like Ohranger.
There's an idea forming for how the review format can improve though
that won't make itself known until the next show begins. Speaking of
which the next Sentai is looking pretty wild and has some interesting
talent behind it. Best of all after enduring a total sausage fest
with Ryusoulger the franchise is bringing back a proper
two-lady approach. As this will be the first true season of the Reiwa
era let's hope for something big.
Oh the star wars book club, you were a
fun if infrequent feature on the site. Let's face it though from both
a financial and time standpoint I simply couldn't keep up with all
the SW novels floating around. Even with that failure to keep up I
still intended to bring in one more more installments before calling
it mostly quits. Which is where Rebel Rising comes in. I read
it, I planed to review it, but nothing ever came of it. That's
partially my fault for finishing it right in the midst of Halloween
coverage but we can also blame the overall lacking quality of the
book itself. Many folks have accused the current SW novels of playing
it safe and doing very little, a complaint that is both somewhat true
and a bit misleading. While not a symptom of all the new novels,
inactivity is the hallmark of bad SW books which is sadly where this
one belongs. What makes it difficult is that all the technical merits
of a decent novel are here, the prose is solid, pacing isn't all that
bad, only nothing of actual importance happens. It's simply the early
years of Jyn Erso. She's brought up by Saw, ends up separated from
him, finds love, loses love, you can guess most of it as you go along
all the way to the end. Sure it provides a little more insight into
her character. Just not enough to warrant reading a full novel.
 |
| The garage can be scary this time of year. |
While books fell by the wayside I
still largely enjoyed the other Star Wars content this year.
The Mandalorian was good fun that was surprisingly secretive
even after the season wrap. I found The Rise of Skywalker
mostly successful from a thematic viewpoint even though the
storytelling was more than a little sloppy. Most of all I'm just
excited to see where the franchise can go from here now that the
mysteries of this trilogy are largely dealt with allowing creators to
go wherever they want from here on.
Conclusions and evolution were the
defining factors of a lot of entertainment in 2019. Whether it was
Endgame clearing a path for whatever comes in the next phases
of Marvel films, countless shows closing up shop, even Supernatural
is in it's final run. Hell, the year kicked off with Glass,
a trilogy wrap-up nobody saw coming even a few years ago. One of
these conclusions provided hours of twisted pleasure as I
watched folks get pissed at Game of Thrones. Yes for as much
as I like to aim towards positive fun on here, even I have a major
weakness for schadenfreude. I'd disliked the series early-on which
made for too much fun when family members were shouting at the
television on a weekly basis. Plus I had the joy of correctly
guessing who'd be on the throne by simply pointing at the person who
was already sitting down, though my theory of how they'd get there
didn't pan out.
Video Games look primed to take over
much more time in 2020 started with a tidal wave of Yakuza games in
both the remastered collection featuring 3-5 and the release of 7.
Then there are new releases for all my favorite RPG series with Final
Fantasy VII Remake, Tales of Arise, and Ys IX: Monstrum
Nox. Then there's all the stuff
I still want to catch-up with like Kingdom Hearts III,
Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise,
Ace Combat 7,
Bloodstained, you get
the picture. Basically it's a race to see what gives out first, the
controller or my thumbs. Movie & TV wise I'm looking forward to
many of the usual suspects such as all the new Marvel offerings, Star
Wars, then there are a
smattering of items like the third Conjuring,
that new Underwater flick
hails from one of my favorite sub-genres, and I'm very interested in
seeing both Halloween Kills and
the assured strangeness of Chris Rock's Saw reboot.
Mostly I just want to ride this year at a nice casual pace and see
what new items might sneak into the pop-cultural landscape.
So I've been at this CosmicSparky gig
for over six years now and honestly I wouldn't change a thing. It may
not be a huge success but there's comfort in knowing there are folks
out there soaking up musings about breakfast cereal, old VHS tapes,
and international superheroes. There's also the pride of maintaining
one more spot on the internet that exists for fun, rather than
ramming negativity, true fan pieces, and editorials that fail to
understand their own topics down the collective throat of humanity.
Next year I really want to broaden that reach a bit and bring this
sort of content to a wider audience. Heck I haven't written for
another platform since a certain horror site started tinkering with
my opinion pieces last spring. So once again I thank every reader, be
they silent or talkative, for making this little speck of the net one
of their points of interest. I'll do my best to keep you entertained
for years to come.
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