First Journal of 2026

 Ok, so we’re back.

I won’t lie; things have been kinda rough lately. The reason I’ve been sorta MIA since September (Jesus Christ it’s been longer than I thought) is mainly due to health issues recently. It’s nothing too serious (hopefully), just a lot of dental trouble lately. First wisdom teeth surgery and then just a lot of pain in another tooth I had some work done on. I previously updated you guys, saying it was an abscess infection. Well, since then, I've gone back to my regular dentist. He's told me it's nothing serious, so I'll take his word for it at the moment. There's a reason I'm not a dental expert because, rather than abscess, I was told it's being caused by my crown, not my root canal. Which can cause similar symptoms from what I looked up. Also, what I was initially thought was another infection on the other side of my face turned out to just be a cavity, so that's a sigh of relief for me at least. I can bare through it all right now until my next appointment thanks to various medications (antibiotics did most of the work thankfully).

Just to confess something, I was really scared these past few weeks because I had read from multiple sources that abscess can be fatal if not treated soon enough. I genuinely was fearing for my own life because I didn't want an infection spreading to my brain or my chest and killing me in my sleep. Now that I know what's actually causing me all this pain, I don't know if this is as bad as that since, again, I'm obviously not a dental expert. And since I had wisdom teeth surgery earlier this month, I don't know what pains are caused by what when they're anywhere in the upper part of my body, so as you can imagine, that's incredibly stress inducing. I have learned that looking at what randoms strangers from the internet with different opinions and experiences are saying is extremely dubious in terms of results, but bottom line: I'm a little less worried now. I really hope it's not that serious because, to be perfectly, there's a lot of stuff I want to do this year. For Gods sake, I was planning to learn how to drive in the spring!

But I know fear is the mind killer. I'm not throwing in the towel like this. I'm getting the help I need. I want to make plans, and more to the point, I want to continue talking about nerd shit on the internet because that's what I'm good at!

I know I've put off a lot of stuff that I previously promised. Movies of the year lists, holiday themed countdowns, Top 20s, series review, my Disney Marathon reviews, multi-part countdowns that I never finished, but hopefully, 2026 is the year I turn things around. Staring with the return of my "March of Heroes" marathon. Where all throughout March, I will be talking about nothing but superhero related stuff. I want to take thing easy on myself tho, so this month, I am limiting myself to a series of Top 20s for Marvel's Yostverse and DC's DCAU. The shows that I consider to be the pinnacle--the gold standards--of superhero tv animation. We've got 7 shows to cover, so it's gonna be a doozy!

2024 and 2025 were pretty all over the place in my opinion, and I'm not expecting 2026 to be that much better. But in the (hopefully not false) hopes that my dental troubles don't kill me (because lord knows that would be a lame ass way to go out), I want to make improvements. To myself, my life, and hobbies and passions. I've recently been making a lot of progress on my other original series pitch. And this one is actually older than Guardians of Freedomia. That was more fantasy with a mix of sci-fi elements, this next project is sci-fi in its purest form. As for GOF stories that I publish, I don't know if I'll continue that. Part of me wants to, but I would much prefer--and it would probably get more attention--if it were a comic, but I'm not talented enough for that yet. If I were good friends with any artists, I would happily turn it into a web comic, but I also don't have the money to pay someone to do that. Maybe someday.

To end things on a positive note, there are a lot of movies I'm excited for this year. Hoppers looks like a lot of fun, Coyote vs. Acme is finally coming out, Masters of the Universe (apart from one bad piece of casting) looks really good, Send Help looks like another win for Sam Raimi, Street Fighter looks cool despite me not being a diehard fan, it'll be interesting to see the first DCU project not directed by James Gunn with Supergirl, and Spider-Man: Brand New Day is probably my most anticipated film of the year because it's looking really good so far, and Destin Daniel Cretton is quickly proving to be Marvel's best director since the Russos and Gunn. And speaking of which, then there's Avengers: Doomsday, which I am "excited" for, not because I think it'll be good (altho the X-Men trailer admittedly did hype me up), but more so just out of sheer curiosity because, so far, almost every announcement related to this movie just has me asking, "what the fuck are we even doing at this point?"

But here's to 2026 hopefully not totally sucking. And side note, if you want to keep up to date me outside of DA, then by all means, follow me on YouTube, Twitter, or BlueSky, I'm active on all three of those now. But until next time, have a great night, be safe, and as always, take extra special care.