Check out the first full-length episode my of new podcast, The Monster Island Film Vault, featuring Nick Hayden and Tim Deal from the Derailed Trains of Thought podcast and my friends Joe and Joy Metter. Enjoy!
Hello, kaiju lovers!
Our “Kong Quest” begins! 😛 Nathan is joined by his core group of Monster Island Tourists—Nick Hayden & Timothy Deal of the Derailed Trains of Thought podcast and Joe & Joy Metter—to discuss one of the greatest movies ever made: 1933’s King Kong. What’s interesting is none of these Tourists had seen this classic film before coming to the Island, so you’ll hear their fresh reactions, opinions, and analyses to the Eighth Wonder’s first and greatest outing. Listen as each of them compete for best (or worst?) joke of the podcast (“No monkeying around!” says Nick). Along the way Jimmy From NASA gets sassy with the Tourists and has to corral a dog dubbed “Teddy Kong,” who keeps trying to make a cameo during the Toku Talk. The Toku Topic for this episode is the Great Depression since the film was made and released at the height of that period and indirectly mentions it several times.
Be sure to check out the latest episode of Nick and Tim’s podcast, Derailed Trains of Thought, where they visited Monster Island to discuss destruction as a story element with Nathan as a guest host. Their podcast is marvelous, and Nathan has appeared on multiple episodes.
Timestamps Intro: 0:00-4:42 Entertaining Info Dump: 4:42-12:06 Toku Talk: 12:06-1:21:27 Toku Topic: 1:21:27-1:54:52 Outro: 1:54:52-end
After a year of prep and a summer of hype, my new podcast, The Monster Island Film Vault, premiered today. You can listen to it on several podcatchers, but it’s also on YouTube. The video version is below. Click here for the audio version.
Enjoy!
Hello, kaiju lovers!
Listen as Nathan Marchand, co-creator and season one co-host of the Kaijuvision Radio, regales you with the origin story of his new podcast. It includes a vacation to a resort on the fabled Monster Island (formerly Monsterland), where he met his intrepid producer, Jimmy From NASA (who miraculously survived the infamous War in Space), and got a new job as the curator of the Island’s film vault. Between bantering sessions with his detail-obsessed, fact-checking interrupter of a producer, Nathan explains the podcast’s philosophy of film appreciation and lays the groundwork for the upcoming episodes.
And what will Nathan, Jimmy, and their many guests be discussing first? The filmography of Monster Island’s other most famous resident: KING KONG!
Hold onto your butts!
The Monster Island Film Vault: A podcast seeking entertainment and enlightenment through tokusatsu.
Honda on the set of 1962’s King Kong vs. Godzilla.
One unique and unusual
aspect of my current semester of grad school is I’m doing my first ever
independent study. Specifically, a study on several films directed by Ishiro
Honda, the lauded director of many Godzilla films. It took a little work to
convince my university’s resident film professor (and most reclusive man in the
English department) to do this with me, but he agreed. Not only that, but he
actually liked the first film I wrote about in this study, 1955’s Half Human, and said the cinematography
reminded him of Akira Kurosawa! I’m excited to be introducing him to films he
isn’t familiar with.
One fun thing about this
is I got to write my own syllabus for it. Here’s an excerpt:
Objective: The goal of this study is examine six films directed by Ishiro Honda and connect their stories to contemporaneous cultural and historical events in Japan. Films are never made in a vacuum, and knowing and understanding their original contexts is vital to appreciating them.
There will be a special focus on discriminated people groups in this study since half of the films being covered will involve such groups.
While Honda is best known for his Godzilla films, I will be focusing on several of his non-Godzilla genre pictures spanning a ten-year period that included what’s considered the “golden age” of Toho tokusatsu (special effects) filmmaking. Honda also directed dramas, war epics, and light comedies, but these films are sadly unavailable in the U.S. currently.
The films and related
topics I’ll be examining are Half Human/The Ainu; The Mysterians/Japan and the U.N.; Varan the Unbelievable/The Burakumin; Atragon/Japanese WWII holdovers and the
resurgence of Japanese nationalism; Matango/Japan’s
newfound opulence;and Frankenstein
Conquers the World/The
Hibakusha.
This came about because I
wanted to fill a few credit hours and make the research I’m doing for my new
podcast, The Monster Island Film Vault,
count as school credit. Because why not?
There are reasons why
grad school might be the best thing in my life right now. J
I will be tabling at a small
convention, and I have applied to table at another local author event. Both
will be in downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana.
The first will be Fantasticon Fort Wayne, which is being held September 21-22, 2019. Eric Anderson, founder of Nerd Chapel and my co-author on the 42 books, will also be there, but we’re not tabling together. The con announced that they would be selling five heavily-discounted tables last week, so I jumped at the opportunity. I wasn’t sure I’d snag a table, but I got lucky (or was “blessed,” if you’re the religious type). I’ll be selling and signing my books (although Eric will be selling the 42, so get them from him) and promoting my upcoming podcast The Monster Island Film Vault, which is launching September 25.
According to the
convention’s website,
Fantasticon is a mid-size show created for true comic book and pop culture collectors and fans. The fans that come to our shows are true collectors that are looking for those rare items for their personal collections. Most leave very satisfied as we pride ourselves on having great dealers and artists at our shows. If you collect it, you will find it at a Fantasticon Show.
Fantasticon is proud to have a presence in multiple cities throughout the mid-west. Currently we are in five different cities, in three different states including Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana.
We also, are very proud of the fact that our admission price is the lowest of any other comparable shows. And the cost for being an exhibitor or artist at the Fantasticon is far less than any comparable comic cons out there.
While I haven’t received a
confirmation yet, I have applied to table to table at the annual Local Author
Book Fair, which will be held November
30, 2019, from 10am-4pm at the main branch of the Allen County Public Library. Find
out more info here
on ACPL’s blog.
Last week saw the start
of my second year of grad school. It was also the start of my third semester as
a graduate teaching assistant (a very different GTA). I’m taking two
classes and an independent study (well, one of the classes was turned into an independent
study). These are Writing for Multimedia, Survey of Children’s Literature, and
an independent study on director Ishiro Honda (hey,
it lets me get school credit for the research I’m doing for my new podcast). This makes my
schedule a bit odd, but I’m getting used to it.
This was the best first
week of teaching I’ve had. Admittedly, I’ve only been doing this a year, but it
was still the best. I’m more confident as a GTA and trying some new methods
that should encourage my students to be more engaged with the material. That’s
hard to do when it’s a gen ed freshman composition class. My students are the
liveliest I’ve had yet, which is exciting, but it does present its own set of
challenges. Now instead of trying to make them talk, I have to keep them quiet.
It’s almost like me a substitute teacher again.
I might be having too
much fun. But you can never have too much fun, right?
Right?!
Have you gone to grad school or
worked as a teacher? What are some fun experiences you had?
Today’s blog will be a
little personal and a lot
theological. This isn’t new for me, but if you’re not interested in such
things, I won’t mind if you skip it. However, it’ll tackle a cautionary tale of
a writer’s influence. In this case, Joshua Harris.
For those who don’t know, Harris wrote and published an infamous book at age 21 in 1997 called I Kissed Dating Goodbye. It was an instant sensation, selling over a million copies. Unfortunately, as the trailer for Harris’ recent documentary on the book’s influence says, “The best-seller became the Bible for Christian romance.” He wrote a follow-up a few years later titled Boy Meets Girl since by that point he’d gotten married.
The cover to his infamous book, which was published in 1997.
Fast forward two decades. In 2016, Harris announced that he regretted writing the book because of the influx of letters he’d received from people who were hurt by his advice. He realized, among other things,
In trying to warn people of the potential pitfalls of dating, it instilled fear for some—fear of making mistakes or having their heart broken. The book also gave some the impression that a certain methodology of relationships would deliver a happy ever-after ending—a great marriage, a great sex life—even though this is not promised by scripture.
The poster for Harris’ new documentary.
This is prompted him to make the aforementioned documentary, I Survived I Kissed Dating Goodbye, and take this book and the sequel out of print.
Things got worse last month. He announced on his Instgram that he was divorcing his wife. A few days later in another post, he confessed,
I have undergone a massive shift in regard to my faith in Jesus. The popular phrase for this is “deconstruction,” the biblical phrase is “falling away.” By all the measurements that I have for defining a Christian, I am not a Christian. Many people tell me that there is a different way to practice faith and I want to remain open to this, but I’m not there now.
There’s been a lot of talk in Christian culture about this, and understandably so. Harris’ influence was pervasive. I myself didn’t read his first book (I thought the idea was dumb), but I did read his second because I thought it had more legitimacy. I’m sure he gave most of the same advice. While I always balked at the idea of “not dating” and letting God providentially give you a spouse, these ideas became so common in the church, I think I absorbed some of them by osmosis. I was young and impressionable and hadn’t yet learned critical thinking skills (well, at least when it came to things espoused by other Christians). Do I count myself as one of the people hurt by Harris’ teachings? Yes, but I was hurt by his “splash damage” (to use a gaming term) and not directly wounded. I’ve been working hard to shed my old thinking for a long time.
Harris has admitted he’s a recovering legalist. He took the strict rules of the crazy, stereotype-creating spheres of homeschooling (#NotAllHomeschoolers) and made them mainstream. Legalism is always destructive. The problem is rules are easier to preach, teach, and enforce than comparatively nebulous principles. Jesus said to “love your neighbor.” That begs questions like, “Who is my neighbor?” and “How do I love them?” Rules regulate behavior. Principles guide motivations. That’s why Jesus spoke against legalism and “religiousness” more than anything else. Just read the Sermon on the Mount. He makes it clear that adultery is an action that stems from lust, which occurs in the heart. It wasn’t enough to stop the actions; the internal sin has to be quelled first.
Legalism frequently drives people away from Christianity. Such an emphasis is placed on rules that it robs churchgoers or young Christians of any joy. I’ve heard countless stories of this. I’m sure the seemingly extreme methods Harris advocated drove people away. It created not only tremendous pressure on young people, but an atmosphere of parental and liturgical tyranny and hypocrisy. Teens weren’t allowed to do the usually innocent things their parents did growing up. “Do as I say and not as I did.” Maybe those parents made mistakes and had good intentions, but as the old saying goes, “The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”
Knowing all of this, it’s no surprise Harris’ life has turned out the way it has. His personal brand of legalism wrecked many people, possibly led to his divorce, and eventually drove him to abandon Christianity. It took twenty years for it to happen, but those consequences caught up with him. Now more than ever the rotten fruit of Harris’ teachings and those of the so-called “Purity Culture” are being reaped. Personally, I think recent events have invalidated all of books (or at least his books on dating and courtship). Regardless, I do hope and pray he finds his way back to the faith.
This should give writers pause for concern. Your words have power. The power to influence. That’s something that shouldn’t be taken lightly. James 3:1 says, “Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.” What we pen will guide and direct the hearts and minds of our readers. This is why parents often attack rappers, filmmakers, and video games after a school shooting: they think their products made kids go on murder sprees. (Perhaps that’s a bad example). My point is the knowledge and advice we share as writers, which in a way makes us teachers, creates culture and thoughts. Yes, we can’t control how people will respond to what we write and say, but we still yield tremendous power on our readers.
And as the late great Stan Lee wrote, “With power there must also come great responsibility.”
What do you think of the Josh Harris
news? Are you surprised? Why or why not? Did you read his books? How did they
influence you?
Another Gen Con has come
and gone. As usual, it’s a working vacation for me, but it’s also the biggest
show I do every year. I haven’t heard attendance numbers yet, but I’m sure it’s
comparable to the years with 60,000 attendees.
Calling it a “working
vacation” was more accurate than ever this year. Due to some last-minute
financial setbacks, I didn’t have much spending money, so I couldn’t make it to
many events or buy new games. Couple that with the fact that I wouldn’t leave
my table for more than an hour at a time from 10am-6pm most days, and I spent
most of my time in the dealer hall. My friend and co-author Eric Anderson,
founder of Nerd
Chapel, would slip away and play some games throughout the day. In
other words, I did all the work, and he had all the fun. (Just kidding, Eric!)
I wasn’t able to get to
Indianapolis (or “Indy,” as we Hoosiers call it) until late Wednesday night,
which did throw a monkey wrench into the weekend, but that’s what happens when
you have other commitments right up to the convention. I stayed at the Sheraton
with Eric and his friend Matt Gort (and yes, he has cosplayed the
robot from The Day the Earth Stood
Still), which was a 10-15 minute walk from the Indiana Convention Center. I
went to the ICC to get my event tickets, but even at 11:30pm, the line went on
forever. So, I decided to wait until the next day.
I scrambled to get into
the dealer hall to set up in Authors Avenue before 9am when I thought the VIGs
(Very Important Gamers) would come in before everyone else like in years past,
but that didn’t happen. There was no early access; everyone came in at 10am. I
realized I could’ve gotten my tickets then. That would’ve been nice to know. I’m
pretty sure I was told this was still happening this year. Oh well.
The game Horrified.
Who needs a “booth babe” when you have bearded Waldo? 😛
I spent the whole day in
the dealer hall since I was unable to get my event tickets. I joke every year
that I need a “booth babe,” but Eric cosplaying as a bearded Waldo might been
even better. While financial setbacks left me with little spending money for
the show, I did wander into the play test hall and tried Horrified, a
new cooperative board game themed around the Universal Horror Monsters. My
fellow players and I managed to defeat Dracula and the Creature from the Black
Lagoon. The day ended with what became my nightly routine with Eric: playing
the amazing game Unmatched,
which saw an early release at Gen Con. It’s the glorious lovechild of Heroscape
and Star Wars: Epic Duels, two of our favorite games.
Eric and I with a fellow Starfleet officer.
Friday was much the same as Thursday, although I was able to slip away for one writing seminar at the Writers Symposium. Eric and I both did Star Trek cosplays, with me as Capt. Kirk and him as Cmd. Riker. That evening Eric and I had dinner with a guy (whose name escapes me now, sorry!) who was curious about Nerd Chapel and our work. I (and eventually Eric) then spent the evening at the Love Thy Nerd meet-up, where I played Dice Throne Adventures. I was a barbarian, so I made sure to crush my enemies and see them driven before me. 😛
Speaking of Star Trek, I met Chris Spurgin from Five Year Mission, who gave me a free copy of their latest album for recognizing him. Score!
The upcoming game Deliverance.
Saturday was all work. I
wanted to go to one writing seminar, but I was too busy in the hall. I expected
as much. It’s usually the busiest day. Afterward, me and Eric’s friend Darrin
joined us at the InnRoads
Ministry meet-up. There was food (including homemade pretzel bites that
were my crack for the evening), fellowship, prizes, and of course, games. I
learned about a spiritual warfare-themed dungeon crawl fantasy game called Deliverance, where players
take on the roles of angels fighting demons in a church. However, we spent our
time playing Unmatched and showing it to InnRoads’ leader, Michael. The evening
was capped with Darrin, Eric, and I returning to the Sheraton for one more game
of Unmatched. (By the way, I won every Unmatched game I played and Eric lost
all of his. I felt bad).
The banner that welcomed attendees to the worship service.
Sunday began with the Christian Gamers Guild’s
worship service, which is always a highlight of the weekend. It’s not often I’m
in a room full of fellow Christian nerds worshipping God. I was then in the
dealer hall from 10am-4pm. Eric and Gort left early, so I alone was left to
tear down and return everything to my car (which was in the cheapest parking
garage I could find). The shelving I brought was too cumbersome, so a pair of
Good Samaritans from Texas named Jim and Kathy helped me get everything there.
I never would’ve made it myself. I gave them free books as a thank you,
although Kathy had to insist that they take them.
Trogdor the Board Game!!
Wanting a little downtime
before the two-hour drive back to Fort Wayne, I met up with Darrin, his wife
Michelle, and one of their friends. We tried to find a meet-up but were unable
to find them, so we set up in the lobby and played “Trogdor the Board Game!!”
As a fan of the Homestar Runner website,
I loved it. I’m happy to say we won—everything was burninated!
With that, I drove home.
It wasn’t the best year
of the con (my fellow authors and I have some things we want to discuss with
the managers of Authors Avenue), but it was still a good time.
The third and final panel I participated in was the annual Art of Kaiju Writing, a Q&A with fellow writers Neil Riebe, John LeMay, and Skip Peel. We spent an hour answering all manner of writing questions, and not just ones related to kaiju. In other words, even if you’re not into monsters, there’s plenty you can learn from this video.
Poor Neil, though. He joked that the camera would break at seeing his face, and at first I thought it didn’t record. I discovered later that it had. 😛
I’m delighted to say that G-Fest XXVI was the best one I’ve attended yet. While I’m still a bit of a noob to this convention (this was my third year), I was once again impressed with the con-goers’ friendliness and family-like atmosphere. The best part was the sheer amount of support and recognition I received. A few people recognized me from my time on Kaijuvision Radio (which, contrary to some reports, I am the co-creator of that show). I seem to have made an impression on this fan community. I never expected that to happen. I like a lot of things besides Godzilla and kaiju, but it’s here that I’ve made some of my biggest strides of late.
But you didn’t come here to hear me gush. You want to know what happened that weekend.
My brother Jarod and I left early Thursday morning and drove three hours from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Rosemont, Illinois. We listened to the audiobook of Jurassic Park (a long overdue read for both of us, and an appropriate one for this con) on YouTube as we went. Sadly, we were at a slight disadvantage because we had to stay in the Comfort Inn and not the Crowne Plaza (where the con was held), but there was a shuttle service to G-Fest, and we got a free breakfast every morning. Can’t go wrong there.
Our first order of business after unpacking my 2003 Subaru Legacy (which I named Tatsumaki) was the film screenings at the Pickwick Theatre. It was there we met up with my friend/fellow writer/co-panelist Danny DiManna, author/creator of the Godzilla Novelization Project, and his entourage of family and friends and went to the first of two double features at 1pm: Godzilla’s Revenge and Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster. We were a bit late to the first one, but our RiffTrax-style commentary entertained everyone around us. Ghidrah was fantastic on the big screen. Every time I see an older film—even those from as recent as the 1980s—I see how much better their old-fashioned special effects look because this was how they were meant to be seen. It was the dubbed version, but the print was gorgeous.
After that, Jarod and I partook of my G-Fest tradition: Thursday dinner at Giodano’s, a chain of pizzerias that serves true Chicago-style pizza. We split a small deep-dish, which I finished first because Jarod was still learning how to attack such thick pizza.
This was followed by the second double-feature: The X from Outer Space and Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack. I’d never seen the former, so I was unprepared for how (unintentionally?) hilarious it was. For one thing, it had the worst dub I’ve ever heard. Me and another guy riffed it the entire time. He had one joke that made me double over in my chair. In one of the worst hull breach in space scenes I’ve ever seen, a character gets sucked butt-first into the hole and gets stuck. In defiance of physics, his comrades pull him out and patch the hole. My fellow riffer said, “‘You saved the ship!’ ‘You bet your @$$!’” GMK was, thankfully, subtitled, but the subtitles weren’t entirely accurate.
Friday started bright and early. Jarod and I rode the shuttle there and collected our badges and programs. I met with Danny, and we wandered down to the Kennedy Room to prep for our panel, Sekizawa and Kimura: A Tale of Two Screenwriters, at noon. I took Jarod to the orientation at 11am and went back down at 11:30am. People kept pouring in, especially after the orientation. I don’t know if it was because of it being one of the first panels of the con, the subject matter, or the pre-con hype leading up to it (it was mentioned by at least two podcasts beforehand), but the room was packed. Danny’s girlfriend, Tori, had to be our usher to find seats for people. I’ve never seen that room get that full in all my time at G-Fest. It was thrilling. We weren’t able to go through all of our material, and I wasn’t able to play my podcast trailer for everyone, but it was a resounding success. We want to host another one next year.
If you missed our panel or want to watch it again, here’s the video:
I spent the rest of the day attending a few more panels, including G-pardy tryouts (didn’t make it again), a paleontologist panel on Godzilla, and Kevin Derendorf presenting on kaiju fans in media. That evening we attended the opening ceremony, where the guests gave emotional, heartfelt speeches to the fans (especially Sonoe Nakajima, the daughter of Haruo Nakajima); Akira Takarada picked a kid from the audience to get an expensive Gigan toy; and the kids’ costume parade was held. I then made a brief appearance at what I expect will be the final listener party for Kaijucast, the premiere Godzilla/kaiju podcast, where I collected my prize from their #MemeoftheMonsters contest and educated one fella on the politics of Shin Godzilla.
At 10:30pm, Jarod and I returned to the Pickwick to see Godzilla: King of the Monsters with a theatre full of fans. It was my third time seeing it and his first. G-Fest crowds are famously rowdy, but I’ve never heard them like this. It was glorious! I even squeezed in a joke that got a groan. When a bunch of dead fish floated up after the detonation of the Oxygen Destroyer, I yelled, “That’s a lot of fish!” (My apologies to everyone who was present). The best part was when we all sang along with the new cover of Blue Oyster Cult’s “Godzilla” during the credits. A video of that was shared on Twitter, and both director Michael Dougherty and composer Bear McCreary teared up, it seemed.
Saturday was a whirlwind. As usual, G-Fest is remarkably busy for a con of its size. I never feel like I partake in everything. Panels tend to eat up most of my time. A few highlights: the Akira Takarada interview, where he talked about growing up in China and being wounded by Soviet soldiers as a child; the Shusuke Kaneko interview; the Dawn of the Monsters video game panel (wherein I suggested they add Indianapolis as a location); the Heisei Gamera panel; and the panel on the unmade film Nessie.
I participated in two more panels that day. The first was the Godzilla: King of the Monsters panel with the guys from the YouTube channel DangerVille, among others. Here’s the video of that:
After that was The Art of Kaiju Writing, which I’ve been on every year I’ve gone to G-Fest. (What’s crazy is I got on it in 2017 five minutes before it started—but that’s a story for another day). It was four writers doing a Q&A on the craft of writing and the publishing process. I recorded that panel, too, but it hasn’t been edited or posted yet. Stay tuned! It has a tremendous amount of info for beginning writers.
The traditional evening events followed: awards and the adult costume parade. A guy in an inflatable Godzilla costume, which are a dime a dozen usually, surprised everyone when he turned on some red lights inside the suit, making him Burning Godzilla from KOTM. Well-played, sir!
The Kaiju Crescendo concert was held that night. I wanted very much to go, but I ended up not attending because I wanted to save money (my budget has been tight this summer). I kinda regret it, honestly. But Jarod didn’t want to go and wanted to see Monster Zero at the Pickwick, and since I didn’t want to abandon him, so we went there. A good time was had by all. I heard, though, that attendance was split so much, it was somewhat low for all events that night.
I went to a few panels the next day, but I tried to hit up the places I didn’t get to the rest of the con, like the Mecha-G Arcade, artist room, and dealer hall. I also got autographs from both Akira Takarada and Shusuke Kaneko. Much to my surprise, Takarada-san gave me two signatures! I gave him the booklet to my Criterion copy of Godzilla (1954), which he signed, and then he grabbed the box and signed that, too! What a wonderful man!
The day ended with Kaiju Confessions, a hilarious sing-along to kaiju film songs.
An illustration of FOMO. (Image taken from here). .
I’m a self-admitted
“story junkie” who has a lot of hobbies. Those include reading books, playing
video games, and watching TV and movies, among others. Do you notice what all
of these have in common? Yep, stories. (I gotta get my fix, man!)
Unfortunately, because of
this and the other things that keep me busy (job, school, writing, etc.), it’s
difficult to keep up with these “story hobbies.” I tend to go through phases
where I do one hobby more than the others. Lately, I’ve been reading a lot of
books and not playing many video games. The thing is, I can’t keep up with
everything. While many of my fellow gamers are playing all the latest titles,
I’m playing games that are at least two or three years old. Meanwhile, I’ve
fallen behind by at least a month on the current TV shows I’m watching. While I
often go to the cinema once a week (especially during the summer and holiday seasons),
I don’t always see a movie its opening weekend. Then I feel like I’m falling
behind and won’t get all the in-jokes people make or be able to talk with them.
But like I said, this is a lot of things all competing for my time and
attention. I don’t have enough years left in my life to read every book or
watch every movie that everyone is supposed to consume.
The anxiety I’m speaking
of—which can also apply to attending events and social activities—is called the
“fear of missing out” (or FOMO). In large part it involves knowing and having
all the latest things. People start worrying about being left out or left
behind. Why do you think film studios push as hard as they do for people to go see
a movie opening weekend? They play on this idea, which in turn makes them the
biggest chunk of their money. Gone are the days when a film would make consistent
money for weeks at a time (remember Titanic’s
months of dominance?). Now everyone is all but required to see a film as soon
as possible to avoid spoilers, but more importantly, to feel included.
The truth is, one can’t
keep up with everything. Choices must be made and priorities kept. This means
one might have to wait until a movie hits home media before seeing it. It might
mean watching a (rare) rerun of a TV show seeing it online later (even if it
means waiting months for an entire season to drop on Netflix). And that’s
assuming that what one is afraid of missing is some form of media. It might
also mean missing a social gathering when he has to focus on something else,
like writing a book. In other words, it’s okay to be a little behind, to a miss
a few things so one can prioritize what’s important to him. It’s a lesson I’ve
had to learn the hard way, and honestly, I’m okay with it. I don’t have to be
on the forefront of everything I’m interested in. I can go through phases where
I’m more up on some things than others. I’d rather have the joy of going at my
own pace with everything than the stress of trying to keep up with everything
and everyone, even if I’m mocked for it (people who do that are jerks, anyway).
Buck the trends, I say!
What about you? Do you struggle with
FOMO? How do you deal with it? Discuss it in the comments!
A Man from Another Time Exploring Another Universe
