It’s that time of the year again!

Well, this one is a little bit different than the rest, it’s the end of the year AND the end of the decade!

So instead of just going back to January, we’re gonna go all the way back to 2009, feels weird when I think about it now, I was still in high school.

In the last 10 years, I started the website that would lead me to my closest friends in the world.

I started college.

And 9 years later, I finished! Haha.

I lost my mom, and I had to grow up really, really quickly. The world was a little more dark for awhile.

But out of that, I decided that nothing would stand in my way, no matter what I decided to do, no matter who was in front of me. That’s how my mom would have done it, that’s how she would have told me to do it.

I created a Youtube channel that led to me working in the anime industry. I’m now on an anime blu-ray release.

I got closer with my family. When you lose someone so important to you, you realize how important family is, and how much life is really worth living.

I moved into my own place for the first time with someone. Even though the relationship didn’t last, I learned that you should always be honest with yourself, even when it hurts.

Thanks to my channel I got to meet this pretty cool voice actor and friend, who, after going to a con and eating dinner, asked me to be in his movie.

Said movie is pretty sweet, and told me, “Now is the time to grasp the future.”

I told myself I would do two things this year: I was either gonna go to Japan, or I was gonna move to California.

Here I am in sunny Los Angeles.

Which, due to an amazing friend of mine having an amazing wedding this year, had me traveling a collective 10 thousand miles this year across the US. Nuts to think about.

I started a job at a company that has made my two favorite video games of all time, surreal.

I loved, I lost, and lost and found.

It’s been a pretty busy decade, now that I look back.

But most importantly of all, I don’t hate Pepsi anymore, it’s pretty decent.

Resolutions? I have a few, but none I wanna share here, haha. That’s all folks!

Here’s to 2020, a new decade, and some hope for the future.

Happy New Year everybody!

The post 2010 – 2019: Looking Back. first appeared on The Perge.

Last night, my cat passed away at the age of 14. I was able to play with her a little last night before she died. This is some video I took a few years ago playing with her, she was a cool cat.

[New note: I miss Rainbow every day. When I see old pictures of her, I’m always reminded of how cute she was. Sometimes I wonder if it wasn’t because I left and moved to Columbus for two years that she stopped eating and got very sick. We took her to the doctor in the time between but the vet never found anything. Still to this day my brother and I playfully argue about who actually named her. I remember doing it, he remembers doing it when we found her.

We went to this animal farm, I’m not even sure what the right word for it was, but it was a mutual friend of my mom’s who lived out in the country. I remember it being wet and rainy and just really an abysmal atmosphere, and all of these animals were running around in this dirty pen that you’d expect to see livestock in. Back in the corner, huddled up and shivering was Rainbow. I knew she was the right one. I remember staying with her for days when we got her back because she would just cry and cry if someone didn’t stay by her, so I tried to stay by her as much as I could.]

The post Rainbow first appeared on The Perge.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

Two years ago today I saw The Force Awakens in theaters and was blown away. I figured I couldn’t pass up such a serendipitous moment and went and saw The Last Jedi. Annnnnnd…..9/10, phenomenal movie, on par with TFA.

I had heard how divisive it was, and quite honestly, I have to agree with what my good buddy Jon Gillett said earlier “2015: TFA is too much like the originals, its not good”

“2017: It does too much original stuff and therefor it’s bad”

Some people just can’t be pleased.

In fact that’s what I loved so much about this movie, it played with your expectations and swerved you when you least expected it to, and then swerved you again because HAHA you pseudo-intellectual critics and theory-making youtube nerds, shut up and let the movie tell its story before you call it bad, because your own projection of what you “thought” it was going to do, didn’t actually happen, and that yes, the movie CAN do that because apparently everyone forgot that space magic is a thing, the end.

Anyway, I recommend if you haven’t seen the movie by all means please do. If not for the fact that it’s a great movie, but also for the fact it was Carrie Fisher’s last.

Rest in Peace princess.

[New note: Yup, still the best, especially after Disney tried to course-correct afterwards with the following movie. Shame.]

The post [Review-ish] Star Wars: The Last Jedi theater experience. first appeared on The Perge.

While most saw “Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens” on its premiere, I waited due to both work and well…”work” related faculties and man.

What else is there to say but simply, thank you Disney, thank you for giving me “a new hope”.

I won’t spoil anything for those who have seen it, but what isn’t there to gush about on this movie? I could gush about the use of the practical effects, or the amazing pacing, the characters, and on and on and on.

The one thing though, that this movie did, that Jurassic World got pretty close at doing, but this movie actually accomplished, was make me “feel” like a kid again, in a world mired by so many bad examples of corporate-fueled nostalgia or outright abuse of its fanbase, Star Wars felt sincere, literally, as so many have put it as “Star Wars: The Apology” well if that’s the case.

Then apology-goddamn-accepted Star Wars, I’m sorry there was ever anything between us.

Episode 7 gave me hope (nope not making the pun again) that not every venture is already “made”, that everything still has a “chance” to be redeemed, it just needs the right people, the right place, the right time, and the right care, thank you Star Wars, for chipping away at the abrasive cynicism that is all too easily gathered from years of disappointment in other fandoms and media.

With that said, if you haven’t seen Star Wars yet, go see it, because it was phenomenal and very much worth your time and money, and I will ABSOLUTELY, be at the premiere of 8.

The post [Review-ish] Star Wars: The Force Awakens theater experience. first appeared on The Perge.

So I went and saw Jurassic World today with Dad and Julian, and I can officially say that I’ve seen every Jurassic Park movie since the original when it came out (yes, even the first).

This post is gonna be semi-long and semi-spoilery so for everybody who wants the nitty gritty, this movie is the second best of the Jurassic Park series without a doubt, and at times touched the seat of Zeus where the first movie sits, needless to say, I was more than impressed. Considering Goldblum being in the second, and the fact that no one is happy in 2015 (according to the internet), that’s a hell of a feat for me, and don’t take my word for it, the cynical internet also rated it the second best on IMDB, to coin a phrase from the film “It’s pretty legit”.

I’m not really one to go super in depth, and certainly not on facebook, but I will say that every time I thought the movie had shown me its full hand, it either sideswiped me (in a good way) or it one-upped itself into being a better movie each time.But lets not get this mixed up people, this movie has a pedigree to uphold, and I think it did it more “honestly” than a reunion of the original would have ever even come close to doing, and that’s coming from somebody who would love to hear the Goldblum snarl-laugh again.It was retro, while also being contemporary, nostalgic while also giving you that new toy feeling at christmas, and still somehow found a way to carve a niche for itself in the franchise that would otherwise be impossible. If you’re still here, I didn’t just think it was a great movie, I “enjoyed” the experience, and for, if ever so brief moments, was transported back into the feeling I had in the 90’s as a boy, but in a much better way than nostalgia.

Doctor Henry Wu (the sole returning cast member from the original) makes a very important point when saying (and I’m paraphrasing of course) that they were always creating monsters, since the beginning, and my god the writers and director nailed that factor harder than well, something, something Alderan.

It kept the dinosaurs in the limelight, but always with a mystique, and the predatory Indominus Rex a true horror, the trailer spot with the shark does this movie’s CG no justice, CG is CG, but I was able to forget that most of the time. Belief suspended, well fucking done movie.Is this a somewhat bias review? Sure, but I’m sick to death of everything being over-analyzed and torn apart and criticized when no one is willing to look at just how important and well done the good parts are. No numbers here, but here’s to the inevitable trilogy of Jurassic World movies and if 2015 is any indicator of the “90’s Nostalgia” era of film to come, we have absolutely nothing to worry about.

Now go watch the movie.

Hahahrawrrahaha

[New Note: I broke the streak, I did not go see Fallen Kingdom because I had heard it was hot garbage. I am excited to go see the newest entry, however, which will feature Sam Neil, Laura Dern, and Jeff Goldblum. We’ll see if it holds up!]

The post [Review-ish] Jurassic World theater experience. first appeared on The Perge.