For whatever reason, I decided to watch the ending to Lord of the Rings: Return of the King today. I got to thinking about the scene where the hobbits come home, and they realize that too much had changed for them, and they were different people now. It’s kind of a shame that the films didn’t include all the things in the books. Like how Merry and Pippin would leave the Shire again for new adventures, ultimately to be laid to rest by Aragorn after they die. But I got nostalgic, and decided that I would go and watch that.
I’m 35 years old, going on 36 in November, and I’m gonna be real with you – I’m exhausted. Utterly, completely exhausted. All thinking about the future does is give me blood pressure problems. Every day, I’m tired. I wake up tired, and go to sleep even more tired. There are days where I wake up and think to myself – “fuck! It happened again.” I have too many people who depend on me to be suicidal, so don’t you all go worrying about that.
No, instead I’m just going to do this awful adulthood bullshit until I have one foot in the grave. I’m never going to get to retire. Social Security will go bankrupt LONG before I am old enough to get it. Or maybe not. I heard from one chick that it won’t be that I don’t get any Social Security, but that I will get around 60% of what I paid into it. So either I get nothing, or I get ripped off. Yeah, that sounds like America to me.
Anyway, I was watching the ending to Return of the King, and I started bawling. Not because the ending is sad, though it is, but because I couldn’t even get the ending that Sam got. He got to go to a home that is his own. It ain’t much, but it’s his. I’ll never get to do that. I can’t even break even now. I’m not living paycheck to paycheck. I’m losing money each month. “Work two jobs, then.” I want to live goddammit! You work to live, not live to work! Is this what it is?! Just slaving away to survive until I’m dead?! Is that what my life is?!
“Get a better job.” Wow! Why didn’t I think of that?! Why didn’t I think of that while I was applying to other jobs. Fucking morons. I am so fucking over people. I really am. Was scrolling through videos on Facebook. Saw this video of a Japanese dude who is pretty boss with a naginata, chopping up bamboo mat rolls. His form was pretty dope. What was the comments? A bunch of people shitting on him. WHY?! This guy is showing off a weapon that he clearly studied to get good at. What the fuck is your problem?! Then there was this chick who was a master diver, diverting a tiger shark from giving her a nibble to see if she was food, and the comments was all people saying that she was going to die and how stupid she is for swimming with a shark.
The world is such a hateful place anymore. It’s tiring. No wonder everything is going to shit for everyone. The world has become so cold and ugly that people just want everything to get ruined for everyone else because they can’t have nice things. Humanity is its own worst enemy.
I love PBS stuff. Got a playlist for it on my YouTube channel (linked here). I don’t everything that I see from old PBS shows on there. Just my absolute favorites. Being able to watch my favorite cooking shows from when I was growing up, along with my favorite episodes of Bob Ross, it is such a heart-warming experience. Makes me feel like I am back when I was a kid, in front of the old TV, watching it and being excited for each new episode.
Over the years, I’ve shit on nostalgia culture, but for me, I guess nostalgia is just a bit different. I love to indulge with it by revisiting it, rather than having something remade so that I can try and recapture that feeling once again. I don’t need for Julia Child’s shows to be remade. No one could ever replace her. Instead, I can just see the older stuff. There are even shows that I didn’t know where a thing on there! It’s kinda cool, like finding out that someone you like has done impressive things without seeing it. And new episodes come to an official Julia Child YouTube channel, so it’s something new to look forward to again! Happy feelings all over again.
I’m not sorry for my obsession with Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth. I know I talk about it a lot on here, but I’m actually kind of glad for my obsession. It means that there are still things out there that make me happy. That fill me with that childlike feeling of excitement for what comes next. For me, that’s something wonderful. Something I wouldn’t change for anything. To have something in your life that you can’t wait for, it’s nice. Reminds me that there is some joy that I can experience, even if only a little. Gotta savor those little things that bring you happiness. Because you don’t know what could happen tomorrow that could take it all away.
When I was feeling super sad this morning, I was thinking to myself that I didn’t appreciate the time in my youth as much as I should have. The times when things were so much easier. I grew up with a loving family. Sally, my mother, was such an outgoing and kind person. It has been so hard without her. I had this dream last night, where I was at a home that I intend to build in Paralives, the dream home I have talked about here, and she was there. I was sad, and she said she’d love to see the inside of it. So I showed it to her. She was impressed and said she would have loved to have come over for the holidays a few times. For us to eat turkey or whatever I came up with for Christmas. Like to change it up each year.
Totally stoked for next Christmas in March. Got big ideas. Wanna expand my repertoire. Normally do two cookies. Next year, I’m doing three! And the third is going to be a call-back to something I have already done. The red velvet shortbread cookies with cream cheese frosting (the only kind you have on red velvet anything. If you do buttercream frosting on red velvet anything, we can’t be friends) have been an absolute hit, so that’s what I’m doing more of next year. Will probably have that be a permanent thing. The crowd has spoken, and I am a receptive patron. Can’t wait for the few people who receive Christmas in March cookies who read this site to wonder which one I am bringing back for the third one. Will potentially make them a permanent fixture to, but will oscillate on one of the central ingredients per year, to keep things interesting. I love to keep people guessing.
I am so completely over the various arguments about nerd culture. Like, Ubisoft dropped the trailer for their Ghost of Tsushima knock-off, Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, and boy howdy are people angry about it. Naturally, one of the big reasons why is – there’s a black man! Never mind that it is a man who is a real historical figure. He’s black, so they hate it. The racism of the gaming community never ceases to amaze me. Then there is the fact that the female character isn’t hot enough. I swear, if they make a game and the female character doesn’t have massive tits and a thicc ass, they will cry the blues. Just go back to Stellar Blade, dudes! Enjoy the ass jiggle physics in that game. It was clearly made for you, so go enjoy that. But there is also the anti-consumer practices where Ubisoft is locking content behind insanely overpriced editions of the game. We’re talking story content. There are whole missions being locked behind pre-order editions of the game.
The Ubisoft formula is so ubiquitous throughout their games that I have ZERO desire to play this game. I’m waiting for Sony to show where the Ghost of Tsushima sequel is going. I’m hearing rumors that something big is coming this summer. Sony is having a very slow year, with Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth being pretty much their only major project. They need to get people invested in something again. The rumors seem to hint that the sequel to Ghost of Tsushima is gonna have something revealed. Hopefully it isn’t a CG trailer and has actual gameplay.
Can I just say – I am absolute OVER trailers that are just a cutscene. For real, I wanna see gameplay. If there’s no gameplay, I don’t care. Doesn’t matter how good the trailer looks, it’s all just something digitally made to show off. I want to see what this game will play like. Sony is good about showing off those kinds of trailers. I remember the first time we saw gameplay for the original Ghost of Tsushima. I was hooked! For real, that trailer was so good that I wanted to see more. A trailer that is just a cutscene does nothing for me. I want to see how the game will play. Another reason why the Ubisoft Ghost of Tsushima knock-off doesn’t interest me.
Part of me wishes that I was a more important person. That I had a blog that got me attention from gaming companies. I read that Square Enix is all pissy about their games being exclusive to PS5 until they go to PC, and they are moving away from that. Sony bought a stake in them, so I wonder how that went. Did they buy their stake in them out? So the next Final Fantasy games will be coming to lots of platforms. Whatever. So long as the sequel to FFVII: Rebirth is amazing and lives up to the promise of the end of a trilogy, I don’t care. Exclusivity is cool, but it doesn’t mean much to me outside of that. Would be cool if I mattered enough to get the questions I asked in a post about things for the sequel answered. Sent it to them, fun fact. Never got a response, because I’m nobody. C’est la vie.
Well, that’s all the random thoughts that I have for today. I hope you all are well.
Until next time, a quote,
“Save it. I’ve had a pretty shit day.”
“What a coincidence. So have I.” – Vincent Valentine, Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth
Peace out,
Maverick