Author: Stephanie Bri

I see this question all the time. Someone will say they want to be a writer. Then they will ask, “How do you become a writer?” The typical responses are usually all over the place. Some will say go to college. Others will say take a creative writing class at your local college. Others will say get a job at a newspaper while others will just blurt out “if you write, then you are a writer.”

Of course all, and none, of those are equally true and equally misleading. Yes it is true, if you write then technically you are a writer. While I never had any legit interest in journalism as a profession, I knew that several famous writers got their starts writing for their local newspaper. So that is what I did. I took a job at a local, small towm community paper. While that worked for me because I had gone to college, that’s not really what these people are asking. They aren’t asking for platitudes, or even encouragement. What they are actually asking for are instructions. You see neurotypical people have an understanding of the world that is foreign to nerudivergents. So what these people are actually asking for is a guide with specicific instructions they can follow.

Here I present a few tips on ways you can hone your craft while also making tangible progress as a writer.

Start small

The first step to learning any new skill is always the same, start small. Here I suggest to the aspiring writer to pick up a notebook, a notepad, and a journal. In the journal start by just recapping something that happened that day that stands out. It can be as simple as, “today I had pizza and I love pizza.” Then as you gradually make it a habit to write in your journal every day, eventually you will find yourself writing more details retellings of the most significant events, maybe even jotting down a fun story or anecdote along the way. The goal is to get used to writing every day so you train your brain. The notebook is used to jot down ideas, write word clusters, make lists of things that interest you, etc. The notepad is for writing down new words you discover. Again, the goal is to write something, anything, every day.

The second step to become a commited writer who completes projects, which is what I believe people are actually looking for, is not so obvious to everyone. Long before you can ever consider becoming a writer you must first do something even more critical to the process: read everytthing. Read books on any and every subject that interests you. Find magazines, websites and blogs that pique your interest and read those. And for the love of GOD, no matter what you think about the news, read your damn local newspaper. When I say read your newspaper I mean read every page. Read the hard news, the obituaries, the sports section, the ad copy, every single word on the page. Read comic books, cook books, coffe table books, encylopedias, etc. Read. Read. Read everything you can get your hands on. Seriously, you will never truly learn how to write effectively unless you study how others have already done so. Trust me. Reading and writing go hand in hand. You can’t have one without the other. Read your damn newspaper!

After you spend some time getting used to writing in your journal, notebooks and notepad every day, after you have consumed every word others have written you can find, then you are ready for the next step. You have to make this decision for yourself. What do you want to write? Do you want to write fun and interesting articles about a topic you love for a publication such as a website, blog or magazine? I can offer you some tips there. Do you want to become a novelist? I have tips for that too. Are you seeking a career as an investigative journalist? I can help with that too. What if you would prefer to write for film and television, music or even plays? Yes I have advice for that too.

Let’s start with the basics. Before you can pursue any of these above mentioned paths you must first start with something else. The next step is to get yourself a blog. It doesn’t have to be one you pay for, there are plenty of great free options. What your goal is here is to hone your craft. The purpose of a blog is to have a place where you can try out your writing style while looking for your own narrative voice. This is also a good way to get something, anything, you have written published in a manner that others can consume. While you could start simple with just bringing your journal to cyberspace, I recommend keeping the two separate. However I suggest you just go nuts. Before you do anyting rash though, never EVER hit publish until after you have proof read what you wrote. Trust me on this. I fail to do so far too often and it always shows.

The goalwith a blog is to get practice writing in your own unique voice. The more you do this, the easier it becomes. No matter if your ultimate goal is to write plays, comic boo,snovels or films, make sure you have a blog where you can just jot down your ideas. I don’t recommend giving away the farm. Use a blog as a space to get extra practice writing where others can see what you wrote. Be prepared for criticism. Now let’s break it down by a few specific paths which I will further elaborate in a future series. For now here are just a few entry points to help get you started.

Suppose you want to write comic books. Great. But what do you do about the art work? Well if you lack that skill, which most writers do, then you will eventually need to partner up with a skilled artist. That comes later. First I recommend two solid approaches. First get a notebook that is JUST for writing your comic book ideas. Divide it into sections. I suggest using a 5 subject, college ruled notebook for this. Section one needs to be words. Just write down a two, to three paragraph elevator pitch for any comic book ideas you might have. Try to challenge yourself to make a mixture of existing characters you can write fan fiction stories along side as many of your own original creations as you can.

The second section should be just lists of every character archetype, genre and subgenre, as well as any settings you think you might enjoy. For example list things like demigod type, superhero, antihero, snow, dessert, Mars, etc. Just fill this section with words. This will help inspire you to come up with ideas. The last three sections sould be short stories you would love to develop into comics. Write them as you would any other fictional story. Get a second notebook and repeat this process. The goal here is to organize your thoughts and, practice, practice and practice some more. I can’t offer advice into how to get a job with Marvel or DC, for that you will have to seek guiadance elsewhere. I  am merely helping you hone your craft with tips, not rules, that you could implement if you so choose. The idea is to challenge yourself to write often. You can replace any notebook or notepad I discuss with computer word documents, if you prefer.

How do you write a novel? This I can assure you I have full confidence in my advice as I am a published auther of three books. Long before you set out to write a novel start small. Again get a series of notebooks, or create  a series of Word documents, whatever you are most comfortable with. I suggest starting with short stories first because it is easier to write a complete story which will be far more satisfying than writing six chapters of your novel only to fall off becaue you didn’t understand how involved of a proces it really is.

Once you have challenged yourself to write a few, five to seven should suffice, short stories, then you are reasy to move on to your first novel. There are a few approaches you can take. You can write an outline of what you want the book to be about. You can try word clusters if you hit a brick wall coming up with ideas. You can also do the wing it and just see where the words take you method. Regardless of which method you attempt, make sure you have at least a list of your characters with their names and a two-sentence description. Trust me you don’t want to spend 15,000 words telling the tales of Dave the onboxious only to write the next 10,00 words calling him Buster because you forgot his name was Dave and whoops. This happened to me with the first novel I wrote. It is embarrasing but it can happen.

This is where I will tell you, again, to start small. Set realistic goals such as writing 500 words a day, or 4 full pages a day or just write as much as you can for a set timeframe such as 10 minutes a day. Be sure to set realistic goals. Then do everything you can, life permitting, to stick to the plan. The goal is to write every day but to do it in small chuncks. Trust me if you set a goal of, say, fifteen minutes a day, I promise there will come that day where the lightbulb goes off and you get so inspired you find yourself writing for the hours solid. If you have the time and the patience to dedicate to this tas, oyou will be okay, Remember do not rush it. You don’t have to write a 75,000 word novel in a weeks time. just stick with it.

Stay tuned for the next article in this series soon.

Before I dive into what will surely become an emotional tribute to a filmmaker who’s life was tragically taken from us, I have to take a look back at my own journey to becoming a professional writer.

Every writer has that moment where the lightbulb went off and they just knew putting words to keyboard was going to be their entire life. I have a few different moments in my childhood where I thought, if they can do it, so can I. One of the first instances of an ordinary person getting a typerwiter and launching their writying career that I remember from my early TV watching days was John Boy on the Walton’s. Yeah, I know, simple farm kid gets a typewriter and becomes a writer is cliche today, but it still had an impact on me as a kid. However, that was just a spark. There was something else that really set me on the path of become a wordsmith by trade; watching  the Rob Reiner directed adaptation of the Stephen King novel, Stand By me. That film changed my life.

As far back as I can remember I was always writing something. My bedroom was littered with toys, NES carts and dozens upon dozens of notebooks filled with as many words as I could cram into them. When I was 12 years old I wrote my first article that got published in the school paper. Unlike most kids my age who cried at the inclusion of an essay portion on a test, I was the rare kid who became elated at the opportunity to use my words to prove I had learned the materials. I was born to be a writer.

Going back to age 12, that was the first time I watched the movie, Stand By Me. Yes, I was very enamored by the beatuful representation of the age-old, coming-of-age story as depicted in that film. To this day it is a reguler re-watch of mine. I even loosely modeled my own narrative style off the tone the writer in that film used. I always wanted my own writings to be as personal as that film. It was shortly after I begged my parents to buy me my own typewriter. Considering I had previously been harassing them, to no avail, for a computer that was absolutely could not afford, they saw this as a sign of relief for them. I could finally put my thoughts to paper without having to resort to the sloppy chicken scratch that was my hand writting in those countless college ruled notebooks. I wrote my first novel entirely by hand in a notebook that I have lost to time ages ago. Getting a typewriter was like getting a gift from the Heavens.

Of course I said I was going to talk about Rob Reiner. Unbeknownst to me his impact on my life would go far beyond that film he so beatufully directed that changed my life for certain. Yeah, I also knew him as Meathead from All in the Family due to reruns that aired on the, then, newly launched cable TV network TV Land, previously spun off from Nick at Nite. So yeah there was obviously that. Then there was the long list of absolutely stunning, cinematic masterpieces he brought us. I should mention that while I was studying film in college, his works were very much a major part of the curriculum. There is hardly a creative working today that hasn’t been impacted by his works in some form or another. He truly was a legend in his time, and his memory will live on in the legendary works he gave us.

I didn’t wanna focus too much on All in the Family, however, as a transwoman in a technically same-sex relationship, I should mention I am absolutely in awe over how hard he fought for civil rights, including gay rights. He was an ally for us to be sure. That alone commands respect. He was a massively vocal critic of the Trump regime while also creating works that would delve into revealing the things Trump and his goons were involved in. He stood up for us, so I shall remember him fondly for that.

If I could say one word to describe Rob Reiner I can’t, but I can sum him up in a single sentence. He was literally a gift from the Gods and we all took him for granted. Rest in Peace, Rob Reiner. You should know you will be remembered as a good man, beloved by more people than you will ever know.

I’ve been wondering about the state of the gaming industry as a whole lately and there’s been one major news development that has been getting a lot of discussion lately that I really wanted to process in my own way.

It’s not a big secret that Xbox has been porting several of their heavy franchises to competing systems. Considering Xbox was born out of putting a dedicated compact gaming PC in the living room, getting high profile xbox games on PC has always been the norm. While console makers have all dabbled in putting some of their franchises or IP on competing consoles, especially console makers putting games on competing companies handhelds has been a common practice, I am never that surprised when a big game from Microsoft or Sony gets a PC port. Nintendo is the last hold out who generally refuses to put their games on PC, even if they have been putting more games on mobile than you would expect from them. Still, I have vivid memories of the system chock I experienced the first time I played a Sonic game on a Nintendo console. So when I hear Halo, the flagship Xbox exclusive that made the brand viable in the first place is now coming to Playstation forever I was a bit taken aback.

The first issue I want to tackle is the dangerous amount of consolidation that has been taking place in the gaming industry, not to mention entertainment as a whole. We all know that the biggest cancer in capitalism is the religious practice of putting profits first. However we’re gonna accept that as reality for now and focus on why less competition is always bad for everyone. The obvious first negative is less competition means higher prices for everyone. In technology driven fields like gaming, it’s even worse because it also means less innovations and less effort put into making everything the best it can be. Instead the industry as a whole has settled into the lowest common denominator as the norm. Back in the early days of gaming you had tremendous competition.

Back in the 80s and early 90s if you were a gamer you had far more choices for gaming devices that we could fathom today. Sure we have PC, Mac, Android and iOS on the PC side and we have Nintendo, Xbox and Playstation on the console side. However we used to have dozens of competing home computer platforms, dozens of competing dedicated gaming consoles and countless competing arcade machines. If you wanted to play every game you either had to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars on buying multiple gaming computers, consoles and either owning arcade machines or dropping countless quarters into arcade machines at the local 7-11, etc. And this was a better world because there was so much innovation. Even though the Turbografx-16/PC Engine was not a tremendous success worldwide out the gate, NEC took a huge risk developing a CD Rom attachment for it to enhance the gameplay possibilities. While this didn’t pay off for them, it absolutely was beneficial for gamers because it forced developers to make the best games they could. If you weren’t satisfied with the simplistic 8 bit pixal art of the NES, then you could choose to invest in a Turbo CD unit and get enhanced multimedia focused story driven games with enhanced, at the time, cinematics. Even if not everyone bought it everyone beneffited from developers going out of their way to make the most out of it. Not just because those games would eventually get ported to more successful CD based systems like Sega CD and eventually Playstation, the fact they were developed at a time when the industry standard was Mega Man and Super Mario Bros is a huge deal.

Today you have the hindsight of which consoles and PC’s reached mainstream success and which ones were left in the dust. Looking back on the 80s you wouldn’t be blamed if all you think of is Atari 2600, NES and Commodore. Those were by far the most successful platforms. Except you still can’t discount the other systems just because they didn’t achieve the same sales figures. The fact the Colecovision and Intellivision existed at all still forced Atari to make better games to squeeze the absolute most out of the 2600 even if it outsold more powerful hardware. Some of those truly impressive Atari games never would have been as impressive if Atari didn’t have to innovate to be competitive. Same thing for Nintendo. Sure in North America and Europe the Famicom Disk System is just an oddity that we vaguely knew about but had no first hand experience with it never would have existed in Japan at all if NEC hadn’t already been bringing larger disk storage to consoles with their CD Rom upgrade. Nintendo wasn’t ready to invest into CD Rom quite yet but they were willing to roll the dice on the industry standard and much cheaper to develop floppy disk technology. While they did develop a proprietary floppy disk  for the FDS, it was still based on and depended on pre-existing floppy diskette technology for its development in the first place. Technology that itself only existed in its inexpensive and mass market penetration form in the first place because there was so much competition in the PC market. Again everyone remembers the standard 1.44mb floppy and the 502kb larger floppy that preceeded it from their Apple 2 days, there were dozens of other storage technologies being developed at the time that allowed those two form factors to find their footing as a result of direct competition. Today in the PC space, we don’t have that. We’ve settle on flash storage as the sole technology. It’s used in Flash cards, flash drives and SSD’s. There are no competing tech companies trying to push the envelop by developing a new tech that could theoretically be superior to flash, we’ve just been focused exclusively on increasing read speeds, durability and storage sizes of flash devices. No innovation, just incremental forward progress. While in the PC world there is a need for some industry standard universal tech that doesn’t need to innovate, like USB that is a tech that we can be grateful took off so we don’t have to worry about PINS and cable types. The old serial/parallel/PS/2 days for peripherals was a nightmare, but the days of zip, cd rom and compact flash trying to dethrone the floppy as the go to for portable storage were all huge innovations that while they didn’t all find mass market success, they absolutely did force the development that did eventually lead to flash becoming the standard. That never would have happened if there wasn’t competition.

Today we do have some competition in PCs in the fact we have different companies ma,king components and prebuilt computers but they’re all running Windows, all using flash storage, all use WIFI for networking and all rely on USB for peripherals and devices. There’s nobody trying to find a better storage tech than flash because there’s no incentive to. The entire industry has just settled on flash and nobody is going to go against that. This is bad for everyone but we’ve just accepted it.

This is even worse in the video game space. In the 80s, yes they didn’t all achieve mass market status, they still existed and impacted the gaming industry and somebody still bought them, we had atari 2600, 5200 anf 7800; we had Intellivision, Colecovision, Odyssee 2, SMS, NES, C64 GS, XEGS, Astrocade, FDS, TG16/PCEngine, Genesis, PC CD Rom/Turbo CD. ALL of these had their place in the industry. Each one sold to someone, had someone making games for it trying to be competitive. Someone was seeing what they were doing and trying to make their own products better. Even though the vast majority of those systems failed to reach mass market doesn’t mean they weren’t viable in their time even if it was only briefly. Also we absolutely know the companies that were successful were so because they were forced to innovate and experiment trying to make their own games the BEST, their own controllers the BEST, their own add ons the BEST. This is so much better than today where we have 3 competing companies. We see this most obviously in the Playstation and Xbox dynamic as those two machines, since their inception, have been so close together in terms of tech and specs that their basically the same prtoduct, so yeah it makes sense to put Xbox games on Playstation because there’s no distringuishing factor that gives XBox the edge over Playstation other than it’s exclusives. From a company stand point, Microsoft can’t keep losing money on Xbox forever and GamePass is a great product, it’s not paying the bills either. So from a Microsoft perspective it makes sense to sacrifice the potential future Xbox hardware sales to maximize software sales by getting them on as many platforms as possible.

Here is the problem. We know that Sony and NIntendo cannot follow this practice. Sure Sony can absolutely afford to put some of their games on PC to get more sales but they knows thats because PC gamers aren’t interested in consoles so there’s no risk of lost hardware sales for them as those gamers aren’t even potential console gamers anyways. But everyone who buys and Xbox is one less person buying a Playstation and with all the consolidations everyone else in the tech and entertainment world, Sony cannot afford to lose hardware sales because Playstation in the cornerstone of their entire business. If it fails, they fail. If xbox fails Microsoft writes it off on their taxes and moves on, no hard done for them. It’s even more prominent regarding Nintendo because their just a gaming company if their hardware fails, they’re truly done for and that’s it we’re left with JUST Playstation and that is the nightmare scenario NOBODY should want.

Whenever someone talks about the desire to have all games on a single platform the example they bring up is movies. They argue that there was a time when everything was just VHS and there was nothing else. This is very not true. Again while they didn’t have the highest sales as VHS, BetaMax, LaserDisc, CED, CD Video, Video CD, CD DV, Movie CD, Video8 and a few I am sure I forgot, did exist, did achieve their own sales and absolutely forced innovation in VCR hardware makers forcing them to constantly improve the VHS technology. Same thing with DVD. It didn’t just arrive and replace everying in a vaccuum. It was still competing against, briefly, DIVX, Movie CD, Super Video CD, and Digital VHS before HD-DVD and Blu Ray even came on the scene. Yeah today we have countless streaming services but even that isn’t new. Again competitions is GOOD for everyone. Yes we ALL just want to pay for Netflix and they have everything because it means we get everything in one place. But if everyone else goes out of business then we have fewer movies and TV shows to watch as then we’re stuck with just whatever Netflix produces and they’re not going to make the best TV and movies they can if they don’t have anyone to compete against. I’m not going to get into the problems with dozens of streaming services because I’ve beaten that dead worse into dust by now. But it’s still better in the long run because YOU get to CHOOSE which service you invest in, ideally the one that has the content you desire the most. Plus, because they ALL have monthly plans you just cycle one to another each month and you get access to everything for roughly one monthly fee anyways, ya know if you’re smart and stop bitching about a non problem you’ve just made up in your mind just to have something to bitch about.

Is it GOOD for gamers that Xbox puts their games on Playstation, yes and no. It’s good for the gamer that doesn’t want to buy 2 machines to get all the games. I’ts bad for gamers that want innovation that competition facilitates and we’re already facing near monopolies in the industry as is with so much consolidation. So no a ONE machine that plays everything has NEVER existed EVER in any media in any decade. We’re getting dangerously close to that but Sony isn’t going to innovate based on what Nintendo is doing, their two different markets the have no reason to because the gamers buying the Nintendo system are not the same as those buying Playstation/Xbox anyways. But they absolutey do pay attention to what Xbox is doing and if they no longer have to even bother worrying about Xbox that means they can just stagnate even further than they already have and then the PS6 is going to be the most useless “upgrade” of all time. The PS5 is already a disappointment compared to PS4 because of the lack of competition. If they don’t have to even care what Xbox does then there’s no incentive for them to invest in pushing technology, they’re just going to cheap out and go the easiesr route which is BAD for gamers in the long run. So yeah getting Halo on Playstation looks good, today, but it’s a domino falling over that’s going to lead to a worse world in the near future, and THAT is why we should be worried about it, not celebrating it.

I don’t normally write about trains. I suppose there are a few reason for this. Partlly the fact I don’t have that much knowledge of them, mostly because my interest isn’t what you might expect. Then there is the stigma.

There is this stereotype that trains, especially or including model trains, are a common special interest of neurodivergent individuals and so part of me wants to distance myself from that. Not because I don’t want people to know I am neurodivergent, that’s fine if they know. Rather it’s what specifically interests me about the hobby of model trains that I wanted to discuss. You see it has very little to do with the trains themselves.

As long as I can remember I have had an obsession not with trains, but towns. Specifically the makeup and layout of towns. This partially fueled my desire to enthusiastically volunteer for the city beat when it became available at my last newspaper job. I wasn’t interested in the prestige of covering City Hall nor was I that interested in having discussions with politicians, police chiefs or city leaders.

What I was most excited for was attending P&Z meetings, Economic Development Board meetings, and yes even School District meetings. I was especially excited to cover school districts that were planning to build new facilities. This is what sparked my interest in the HO scale Model Train hobby.

I was in first grade the first time I saw the film Beetlejuice by Tim Burton. While I was absolutely fascinated by the macabre story, the gothic lead character and the supernatural misadventures of the mischievous title character himself, the one aspect of the movie that really got my attention was the model of the town.

You see I didn’t initially go into “model trails” with any interest in trains whatsoever. Even today I have no more than a passing interest in them as a piece of Americana, not so much machines of industry. No, I started my journey on the path of model trails simply so I, too, could build my own model town as seen in that movie.

For the first half of my childhood I thought it was a pipedream. I cobbled together simple houses out of cardboard and dressed them with paper mache as seen in A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: The Dream Warriors. I lived in a very rural part of Kansas with no access to hobby or toy stores. The entire existence of Model Trains and the accompanying model kits was beyond my kid brains comprehension.

At first I got my town building fix by way of the PC video game Sim City which I played obsessively after school in our then state-of-the-art computer lab. It was the early 90s and computers weren’t quite commonplace in every school yet.

So I would spend hours in that lab designing my own cities using the primitive game software that was available to me at the time. I always stayed until the staff were kicking me out to lock the doors for the night. To call it an obsession would be an understatement.

Two years later I was able to take my city building dreams to a new level. I was finally able to buy myself a Super Nintendo game console, along with a copy of the SNES game cartridge version of the Sim City game. Now I could build my cities well into the wee hours of the night. While it was a fine distraction for the time, it was still not going to satisfy my true desire to build my own model town.

Over the years I began another unrelated but comparable obsession. The infamous board game Monopoly. While I wasn’t that attracted to the fighting that playing the game with my sisters always led to nor the core game play of trading property and paying rent. No, what really appealed to me was simple buying a Monopoly just so I could build houses and hotels.

My goal was never to win the game. My sisters figured this out as I would often mortgage properties or make the dumbest trades just to get a monopoly to build on. Usually I would end up losing the game just a few short rounds later. I never cared about playing the game on its own merits. It was simply a primitive method to get my building houses fix.

Then my world changed. It was my 13th birthday. My parents took me to a department store I had never been to before. It was a 2 story building that had the standard clothes and houseware on the ground floor. Down the stairs to the basement level suddenly you entered a massive toy and hobby area. Bikes, Super Soakers, action figures, dolls and every other item that would interest a kid was there. In the very back of the store was the hobby section.

While at first glance it was just the standard bottle rockets, yarn, Ertle Models and the like, in the furthest corner was a section that caught my eye. Sitting on the shelf among model train cars, trees, tracks and other terrain products was a whole host of building. Everything from farm houses, churches, police stations, and more. My eyes glossed over as I finally found what I had spent my whole childhood dreaming about. I could finally start building my model town.

It didn’t take long to discover this new found hobby was known colloquially as model railroading.  My first clue was the clerk dressed like  train conductor. I could have probably over looked that if not for the Model Railroad magazines and product catalogs lining the end caps of those aisles. I knew I wasn’t interested in the trains side of things, just the layout side.

Yeah I would pick up a few trains and tracks along the way but for no other reason than to add flare to my town, not because the trains were important to me. In fact over the years I made it a point to keep the trains at the edge of town, never allowing them to become the focus. I wasn’t even that interested in the locomotives. I just wanted to finally have that scaled down miniature town in my life, loosely inspired by Beetlejuice.

Today I write this as a way to remember that while I do, in fact, partake in a hobby that resembles Model Railroading to outsiders, the truth is as with so many things in my life, I walked along my own path just adjacent to the more popular path. Once again I found myself interested in something close to what others were interested in but just slightly different for my own reasons.

My obsession with city building lives on. I play other games beyond just Sim City. various Roblox Tycoon games, The Sims family and I even have a Minecraft Creative Mode world save dedicated just to building my own city. I never gave a crap about trains. I just explored the model railroad hobby only as much as I needed to satisfy my true desire.

I’ve been through quite an evolution as a person over the years. I started life out growing up in the very conservative rural state of Kansas. Don’t get me wrong politics aside I love the simple life the people in the Great Plains strive for. I miss it sometimes but not enough to go back. 

Needless to say I grew up in America with a pretty limited world view. I never travelled outside of the Us once. I didn’t even start interacting with people from other places until high school when we had some foreign exchange students. But even that was nothing like getting online and meeting people from all over the world. This brings me to the newest chapter in my life. 

I was in college at the age of 31 before I started to recognize despite living in poverty I still benefitted from White Privilege. Sure I forfeited some of that when I came out gay and trans but I still have it easier than my non white friends. 

The first person who really opened my eyes is my multiracial girlfriend. I don’t go the “I’m color blind” route, I asked my girlfriend to enlighten me on her experiences and what people of color go through. I knew some growing up in  a Hispanic majority town where I was the only white kid in my class but even that was limited. 

Then I met my friend Rey. I wanna talk about how amazing of a person Rey is. I don’t wanna go into their personal struggles because that’s not my place. The first thing I learned about them was they live in the Philippines. Our earliest interactions were just tweeting at each other about PC gaming and things. Eventually we started talking daily via discord and even started playing video games online together.

I try to accommodate my friend by playing the games they wanna play but sometimes the time zone difference along with life’s complications get in the way. That doesn’t stop me from going out of my way to try to check in with my friend often. 

Rey and I started getting into political discussions once the Palestinian genocide became the focal point of internet discussions. I must admit I was coming at it from the perspective of someone who absolutely benefitted from American Colonization. That was the first thing Rey helped me see. At first I’ll admit I unfairly pushed back because I was defensive. I didn’t wanna expand my world view because I knew there wasn’t a lot I could do so I preferred to just avoid it.

I can’t do that anymore. I deeply care about Rey. They’ve become one of the people I look forward to hearing from every day. Most days we just chat about music, video games or nerd things. But sometimes we get into heated political discussions. I want to take a moment to thank Rey for challenging me to re-evaluate everything I knew about colonization and how it affects those communities who have been on the boot end of it. It breaks my heart hearing my friend’s country is affected by my nation being a bully. They also really got me to think long and hard about the genocide in Gaza. I still have more to learn but I really want Rey, and everyone else, to know I am going to do some more thinking, learning and try to find a path forward towards being a better person. I don’t know where it will lead me nor do I know what I even can do about it but I am gonna try to do more. 

But let’s also take a minute to give Rey mad props for not only being an unrelenting outspoken advocate for people who are suffering in ways beyond our limited scope, but also I wanna say Rey is a dope ass gamer. They know their PC gaming better than anyone I’ve ever met. I don’t get to play games with Rey often but when I do those are some of the best experiences for me. Rey if you read this I think you are a great person and I am eternally grateful I met you. I know I have hurt you before and we’ve reconciled but I still wanna learn more. I’m not perfect and I don’t strive to be but I do desire to try to make the world a better place in any way I can. Thank you Rey for everything you do. 

I have pretty much always been into horror movies almost more than any other genre. I would say I am actually more into science fiction but then I realize a large percentage of the sci fi flicks I find myself drawn to double as sci fi horror flicks so let’s dig into the main horror franchises and see how I feel about each one.

A Nightmare on Elm Street

It goes without saying the classic horror/fantasy slasher series is top notch for me. It is the linchpin of everything that draws me to horror in the first place. I have said repeatedly the original A Nightmare on Elm Street is my favorite movie of all time. While this remains true I do have to take a step back and look at the franchise as a whole.

I am not going to dig into the individual entries instead take a 50 thousand mile view if that makes sense. Of the 9 films in the franchise as a whole I enjoy more of them than I dislike. In fact there are only 2 I actively despise. That’s a pretty strong franchise percentage all things considered. Even the two I dislike I can still stand to rewatch them more often than I can the lesser entries is other horror franchises so as a series I would rank this as my top horror series.

Franchise grade A+

Friday the 13th

This one is harder to talk about than the Elm Street movies. Partly because I didn’t really have much experience with it growing up. As a kid the only movies I had seen were part 7 edited for TV, parts of part 2 and 3 and Jason Goes to Hell once,  and just references to the rest in pop culture. The first proper Jason film I ever saw start to finish in it’s unedited R rated entirety was Freddy vs. Jason I saw opening day in theaters.

It wasn’t until I was 28 years old before I sat down to watch the entire series start to finish. The first time I watched the first 8 films my reaction was basically I felt like I just watched the same damn movie 8 times. I was cynical partly cuz I had this attitude that Jason just sucked and his movies were never going to live up to the greatness of the Elm Street series. After I finished slogging through the films and got through Jason X I started to re-evaluate the first 8 Paramount Jason flicks. As I began finding a new obsession with the slasher sub genre of the 80s I started to reconsider these as personal favorites. I started re-watching the Crystal Lake Friday’s annually each June. As time has gone on my appreciation and enjoyment of the franchise has grown to the point I now consider myself a Jason fan.

That being said there are a few more entries by the numbers than there are in the Freddy series. Proportionally there are even more Jason films I can’t stomach than there are Freddy so this series is just a small notch below Elm Street.

Franchise grade: A-

Halloween

I really hate talking about this franchise. Gun to my head I would reluctantly admit I am more a fan of the series as a whole than I often let on. Truth be told I find myself enjoying the films enough my issue is not the movies suck, it’s a two fold point of contention for me. Point one is the fact too many people talk about this series as if it’s the pinnacle of slasher horror films, and frankly it’s mid tier at best. While of the 13 movies I will admit I actually enjoy about 6 of them to varying degrees. My beef is the ones I hate the most are the ones the internet seems to hold in high esteem while the ones I enjoy get crapped on the most. This doesn’t always bother me but when you couple it with the fact this franchise seems to keep getting new entries whereas far superior horror franchises keep getting the shaft irks me. If we were getting regularly Freddy and Jason sequels at the same frequency we get new Michael Myers flicks I’d be more open to say okay cool keep it coming. But when the 3rd rate slasher get’s new movies every few years and a A listers get ignored time and time again it just starts to irritate me more and more. I get why people latch on to Halloween, cuz damn it it’s all we got. But it’s just not as good as the other two slasher giants. Are there good entries in the series, yeah and a couple on the same level as the Jason and Freddy counterparts, but as a whole there are far more stinkers than quality flicks and the masses of sheeple seem to prefer the rubbish entries more than I can stand.

Franchise ranking B+

Hellraiser

Here is another 80s horror series beloved among 80s horror fans that I somehow missed out on in the old days. How? This movie was previewed on nearly every single VHS horror tape I rented as a kid so I had anticipation for the film. I just never really took the time to bother seeking it out. Until a few years ago. I was instantly in love with the first film so much I jumped into the franchise with both feet. And it didn’t take long before I regretted doing that. In fact out of the countless sequels I will admit I stop after part 4. That’s as far as I can stomach this series. Mathematically that doesn’t bode well for the series as a whole. And that’s okay because as truly awful as every single film past part 5 is the first 4 are so much better they kinda balance it out.

franchise ranking B-

Child’s Play/Chucky

This one has more in common with Elm Street in my world in more ways than one. First, the similarities to wise cracking Chucky and wise cracking Freddy are undeniable. Then there is the fact I actually watched these as they came out as a kid, just like I did with my beloved Elm Streets. It also has a similarity to the long running never ending Myers series in that Chucky never dies. Unlike the Halloween films Chucky has never had a dud. As a whole the entire franchise has had nothing but enjoyable films. Sure some of the lesser entries aren’t as strong as the better entries but the worst Chucky is still better than most of the Halloweens or Hellraisers so there is that. Whereas I am over Michael Myers and just want that franchise to go the heck away, I am good getting new Chucky content for the foreseeable future.

Franchise ranking A-

Leprechaun

I don’t have as much to say about this one cuz frankly they’re just not good films. While I enjoyed the first two for what they were, that’s where this series ends. Nothing after is even worth mentioning.

franchise ranking D-

Phantasm

I have talked about this one before and the truth is I still can’t decide what to make of them. I really like the imagery and the music, the tone, the pacing, the characters, the monster, the setting pretty much all the parts of each movie. I just can’t get behind the choppy jigsaw puzzle manner in which these films are cobbled together. There is something of a narrative, however it’s beyond convoluted and messy. It’s surreal but also disjointed. All I can say is each film is a sight to behold but if you’re looking for a compelling narrative look elsewhere or else you will find yourself sorely disappointed.

Franchise ranking C+

Scream

I hesitate to talk about this series. Partly because my affinity for the late Wes Craven. Partly because of the recent controversies and partly because I despise meta horror. However I can brush all of that aside and dig into these films for what they are as in the revival of the slasher genre. Beyond that I have nothing else to say. These are quality slashers, and that’s all I need them to be. I don’t grade them based on their social commentary as I tend to disagree with the films criticisms of the genre, so I give it a pass but also just sorta side step it and enjoy the blood bath.

Franchise ranking A-

Texas Chain Saw Massacre

This is a formidable horror franchise worthy of every horror fans devotion. From the pychological thriller of the classic original to the over the top B movie of the sequels to the intense hard core body horror of the remakes and reboots this series as a whole is nothing short of brilliant. Even the so called bad entries are still damn entertaining films. There is not a single dud in the entire series. While I have massive doses of nostalgia and fangirl love for Elm Street, I dare say as a whole this series is slightly stronger as a cohesive franchise despite the constant reimagining of the original story. Each retelling is still a worthy horror film in it’s own right whether you attach them to what came before or let them each stand alone on their own 2 blood soaked feet, this is probably one of the few, dare I saw, perfect horror franchises.

Franchise ranking A+

Living Dead/Return of the Living Dead

I am lumping them all together because both franchises branch off on their own paths using Night of the Living Dead as their starting point. Whereas of the Dead series takes a darker more grounded in reality approach Return takes the absurdity of it to the max. Both franchise branches are equally entertaining in their own respects.

Franchise ranking A-

These are the big names in horror. Sure there are more modern franchises but I would argue none of them have had the lasting impact on pop culture and horror fandom like these classic long running franchises have. Maybe ten years from now I’ll reevaluate the Conjuring, Saw or even Purge series’ but for the time being they’re just too new all things considered to give them a proper analysis at this point in time.

There are a few retail stores that come and go and nobody bats an eye. I will never miss walking into an over priced Sam Goody or a ratty old Blockbuster video. While I understand business is tough and new stores come, and go, all the time there are a few that have fallen into the memories of those from yesteryear that could really use a come back. Here is a list of the five retailers I miss the most.

1.  Kmart

Yeah I know a lot of people like to crap on Kmart but most of those people are short sighted and only remember what the store devolved into in its final years. However before the downfall Kmart was the it place, especially for those on a tighter budget. Not just because they had a surprising good variety back in their heyday but they also had damn good deals. If it wasn’t the Blue Light Special or the Price Matching their competition it was their lay a way program that really make it worth it. For a small weekly payment you could set aside a full shopping cart of dope stuff and just pay it off little by little. When Target and Walmart got rid of Layaway I dug my heels and and basically became a die hard Kmart loyalist until the very end. 

2. Radio Shack

Again I won’t cry any tears for losing what it became near the end but I have nothing but warm fuzzies when I remember how awesome it was back in the day. Back in the 90s, before the rise of Best Buy Radio Shack was the place to get electronics. I don’t just mean VCRs and computers but I mean components, wires, cables even transistors and things of the like. No matter what you wanted to do with home audio, home theater or video games you could find the tools you needed at Radio Shack. Once upon a time they actually hired knowledgeable reps who actually knew their stuff. If you had a question about electronics they had an answer. 

3. Hastings

I have ranted about this before and I will bring it up again and again but there has never been a store like Hastings was, again, before the downfall. Back in the 90s it was THE best video rental store, but it was also THE best used CD store, comic book shop, music instrument store, action figure and collectible store and so much more. Then the higher ups decided to close down the mega stores and move them into malls then they transformed them into crowded Hot Topic clones. Of course that was the end of them as a company but man in the old days they were the place to be. 

4. Kings

This one is older and more obscure. They had their heyday before I was born but there were a few stragglers limping along well into the late 2010s. They were like an inbetween a Dollar General and a Kmart. Not as big or varied as a full Kmart but bigger and better quality stuff than a dollar store. What was their strong point was how they bought their products from over crowded warehouses which often gave them access to products that other stores had clearanced and moved on. You could walk into a Kings in the early 2000s and find action figures and video games that were sitting on selves since the late 80s! I could regularly buy vintage, sealed, Star Wars, He-man or even Transformers toys that had long been out of stock and relegated to ebay. It was a magical time capsule that I will miss for many more years. 

5. K B Toys

I know most hipsters online will cry and scream about Toys R Us but the truth is those giant box stores only existed in big cities whereas KB was everywhere else. If you lived in a smaller city with a decent sized shopping mall chances are you had a KB instead of a Toys R Us. KB was smaller and higher priced then the department stores but they made up for it in variety. While Kmart, Walmart and the like would have the popular figures in a toy line or the mainstream best selling video games, KB had the lesser known stuff. While you could get Bumble Bee or Duke at any box store that sold toys, if you wanted a lesser known Transformer like Skullgrin or a Ninja Turtle like Panda Kahn that the big stores got in limited quantities, KB would have a whole shelf of them. Same for video games. Yeah if you wanted Sonic, Mario or Mortal Kombat you went to Walmart. But if you wanted to find something lesser known like Musha or Demon’s Crest you turned to KB toys. They had everything. I was more than willing to pay a few extra bucks to save myself the trouble of driving 3 hours to the Giraffe store. 

I’ve written a lot of articles on my changing tastes and interests over the years. I’ve even done getting to know me guides that are intensely outdated today. I think losing interest in things we loved and discovering new things is a natural part of being human.

This is my latest attempt to summarize who I am and what makes me tick. This is going to be kind of a list of things that currently interest me with notes on things that I have either lost interest in or would like to rediscover as time goes on. This is mostly going to be focused on hobbies and interests rather than personal experiences but I might also try to define my LGBT identity since it is Pride Month after all.

Comic books

This has always been a major interest of mine. However I have a confession. I don’t actually read as many comics as I would like. No, I don’t necessarily just collect for the sake of collecting either, however I often find myself lacking in motivation to actually sit down and flip through a book. Even when I do I prefer to stick to issues published in the mid 80’s through the late 90s mostly to reminisce over the things being advertised in the pages between the action.

Even as a kid when my interest in comics was at its peak truthfully I still didn’t read that many actual comics. Most of my comics lore knowledge can from sources outside reading the comics themselves. For starters I was a huge trading card collector so most of what I know about the Marvel and DC characters I am fond of I learned reading the backs of trading cards. I also watched a handful of Saturday morning an weekday after school super hero animated programs from the 90s which helped prepare me for the soon to be comic invasion of Hollywood. Every time a new comic book movie came out my friends were quick to ask me if it was anything like the comics. Often I just said mostly but they did change things and left it vague cuz frankly I didn’t know. To this day I am more interested in comic book characters as action figures or as video game characters than I am actually sitting down to read a comic book itself.

Video games and retro games

This is an area where my interest has never waned but my practical experience has diminished over the years. I love talking about retro games. I love watching YouTubers play and talk about retro games. I just don’t often find the time or motivation to sit down and play them myself. I also lost interest in collecting a long ass time ago.

As for current gen games I hardly know what is going on or who is even involved in the industry these days. It isn’t that I don’t care so much as I just don’t have the money to keep up so I avoid trying to stay current altogether. This helps me avoid the cognitive dissonance associated with not being able to afford all the games I would like to play but can’t.

Taking a step back into retro games for a second I have lost all interest in actually collecting or owning physical retro consoles and cartridges or discs. I used to have a very strong desire to own as many games as I could along with as many game consoles as I could. These days I am far more selective in where I spend my money. Sure I am perfectly fine and willing to use emulation to revisit some of the games from my youth that I still find pleasure in playing from time to time but my desire to hunt and purchase physical copies is long gone. At best I find myself picking up a PS4 game or a random Nintendo DS cart every once in a while but even those are rare occurrences these days. I would rather spend my time discussing and analyzing retro games than actually playing them most days.

Science fiction movies and TV shows

There was a time I would have told you I was a huge sci fi nut Then as time went on I slowly realize I didn’t have the proof to back this claim up. Yeah I always remained fascinated and interested in the main stream comic book flicks Marvel and DC were producing, especially since the rise of the MCU and DCEU respectively. Beyond that the most sci fi I consumed was within the realm of Star Wars or things like the Terminator or Aliens franchise with an occasional side quest into Robocop land. Then I decided to take stock in the over 1000 movies I own on DVD and realize I actually do have way more movies that fall under the sci fi camp than I realize, not to mention it turns out I actually have quite a few more sci fi films than I do horror films despite my undying love of the horror genre. This was kind of a shocker to me despite my previous assertions I was a fan of the sci fi genre I felt like I didn’t earn that title because of my lack of interest in things like Star Trek, Babylon Five, Doctor Who or even Battlestar Galactica. I realized it’s okay to like some sci fi but not necessary to like it all to be considered a fan of the genre.

Board games and Dungeons and Dragons.

I often used to tell people how much I love to collect and play quirky board games. In addition I frequently bitch and moan how I never get to properly play D&D despite my intense love of the game. Then this past year I discovered something I wasn’t fully seeing about myself until recently. I don’t actually enjoy playing boardgames or D&D with other people even at all. I started to realize my passion for board games was superficial and passive at best. I discovered I had more of a deep appreciation and interest in D&D lore, history and game mechanics than I actually did sitting down to actually play the game. I still buy, collect and read D&D books from all across the board from previous editions to modern rule sets including 3rd party offerings. I have a strong interest in D&D as a mythos and a product line I just don’t truly have any honest desire to actually play the game itself with others.

JRPGs and computer role playing games

This is another one I have flip flopped on as time went on. There was a time when I really wanted to like JRPGs and computer RPGs like Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger and the Elder Scrolls. So strong was my belief that I was interested in these two things I spent way more time, effort and money than I dare to admit buying rare RPG video games only to discover as time went on I was never having fun and could never get into the games despite my constant efforts to try and force myself to do so. I mistakenly believed I was a fan of RPG video games partly because of my very strong affection for D&D as a game but also my interest in RPG adjacent games like the Legend of Zelda series or the Castlevania games. I incorrectly assumed because I had enjoyed Super Mario RPG and Final Fantasy 7 that I must certainly enjoy other RPG video games, right? After trying multiple times to get into Elder Scrolls Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim and after multiple failed attempts to get into various Final Fantasy, Tales of… and other mainstream and obscure role playing video games I slowly discovered that I actually wasn’t as into the genre as I thought. Today I know I actually do have a strong desire to play story driven, fantasy video games but not necessarily those that fall under the RPG umbrella. I discovered I was more into games like Zelda, Maximo Dynasty Warriors and even Diablo than I was traditional RPGs.

Sega, Playstation and Nintendo

At different points in my life if pressed I would have told you Sega was the only gaming company for me. At other points it would have been Nintendo all day, every day. At still other times I would have told you I was loyal only to Sony and all others were inferior. As time has passed I have learned that I really am not as loyal to any single platform or brand as I previously thought. Sega has products that I will swear by to the day I day, they also have products I will assert are pure wastes of time and money. The same is true for Sony and Nintendo. I have a strong affection for PS1 and PS4 but have little to no interest in PS2 or PS3 as gaming platforms. I see PS2 as the rival to my beloved GameCube and the PS3 as nothing more than the most robust HD multi media player. I am all over the place with Nintendo having pure nostalgia and love for the NES and SNES, indifference towards the N64, undying love and affection for the GameCube, a fierce and fiery hatred of the Nintendo Wii, a modest interest in the Wii U, a vague feeling of sadness regarding the Switch and little to no interest in the Game Boy or 3DS despite a passion for the DS and GBA. What I learned is no gaming company or hardware unit is ever going to satisfy all my gaming needs and thus I realized I am not truly loyal to any brand as much as I am loyal to just having fun.

There are probably other interest I could dive deep into but as I sit here watching the clock tick away I realize this is enough for now. Perhaps some day I do a follow up where I take a look at other interest I have lost or discovered over the years but for now this should give you some insight into who I am as a person today.

As I get further away from my childhood I find myself ever more drawn to revisiting films and TV shows from my past. Once upon a time I tried to put the 90s behind me and focus entirely on new movies and shows but lately with all the splintered streaming services and movies priced out of my reach I found myself reverting back to rediscovering things from the past I once left behind. 

I started with taking a deep dive into discovering 80s horror movies I missed out on previously. Every once in a while I come cross a hidden gem I missed out on in my youth but more often than not I find myself wondering how much coke you have to be on to make sense of some of those flicks. This has been a long running gag among horror fans and film aficionados in general that the 80s were the coke fueled era in Hollywood. I am not sure how true that is but it is the stereotype that has become the norm in our modern culture. 

This cannot necessarily be said for the films from the 90s. As I rewatch childhood favorites I wonder if the reason the 90s were so tame compared to the 80s truly  is because Hollywood collectively coming off the coke high of the previous decade or if it was a renewed sense of cynicism that took over pop culture in the 90s. Oddly enough I have heard Millennials describe the 90s as a time of optimism as the Cold War ended but 9/11 hadn’t happened yet. I am not entirely sure I agree with this assessment. The music, especially grunge and rap music of the 90s is decidedly NOT optimistic. In fact if you listen to most music of the decade you get a sense of pending dread with songs like “Its the End of the World As We Know it” and similar bleak song like Beck’s “Loser” or Cake’s Never There or even Liz Phair’s depressing ditty “Polyester Bride” to the pessimistic “Stupid Girl” by Garbage or “No Shelter” by Rage Against the Machine. Music in general was just depressing back then. 

As I revisit movies from that period I notice the same thing. Where as the 80s had movies like Back to the Future, The Breakfast Club and Indiana Jones lighting up the sales charts, the 90s were considerably more grounded in reality for the most part. Sure we had Jurassic Park and Tremors but even those had a more somber and realistic tone than the monster movies of the 80s. Gone were the chaotic evil Gremlins replaced by the boring  dinosaurs. Even teen movies like Encino Man, She’s All That, 10 Things I hate About You or Can’t Hardly Wait have depressing undertones with the main characters offering a world view of the future that has them regretting facing their future rather than excitedly anxious to get started on their careers.  Take Pretty In Pink and you have a fairy tale about an underprivileged girl getting her fairy tale Prom. Now contrast that with Can’t Hardly Wait’s main character seeing his last night of high school as the end of the road before he settles into a bleak future sans the love of his imaginary life. 

Even horror movies were less fun in the 90s than they were in the 80s. Gone were the cheesy B movies with silly characters and over the top acting such as Sorority Babes in the Slime Ball Bowl O Rama or Night of the Creeps. Instead we had darker less cheesy movies like Species, Silence of the Lambs or even the endless downer that was Se7en. The fun Friday the 13th flicks with Jason hacking and slashing promiscuous teenagers was replaced by body hopping demons in Jason Goes to Hell. The half comedian, half serial killer MTV icon Freddy Krueger was no longer cracking one liners and entrapping his victims in elaborate Alice in Wonderland inspired dreamscapes. Instead we got Wes Craven’s New Nightmare which replaced the comedian Freddy with a dark and malevolent force hell bent on spreading pure evil.

What about videos games? Same story. In the 80s you had primitive but cartoony Super Mario Bros, Mega Man, Castlevania and Contra whisking you into fantastical worlds with pure optimism to spark your imagination. The 90s saw a darker turn there too. Mario 64 removed the whimsy of the NES era with a more sinister Bowser. Mega Man took a dark twist with the Mega Man X series which undid all the progress the Blue Bomber made during those first 6 8-bit adventures. Castlevania went from a linear side scrolling adventure hunting vampires to a dark and brooding Symphony of the Night with depictions of abuse, rage, and adult themes I won’t spoil for those who never played it. Even the imagery was darker and bloodier than what we had in the 80s. The light hearted beat em ups of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Double Dragon were replaced by the more realistic and gorier Mortal Kombat where the fate of the world was at threat by a demon and his half human dragon underling. That franchise went to darker places than any video game in the 80s dared dream of going. 

Even the happy go lucky mascot games were darker and edgier. Sonic had attitude and was facing a vile foe enslaving his friends. Donkey Kong Country was certainly edgier than the DK games of the past. Even the Legend of Zelda took the fairy tale world of Hyrule and replaced the threat of an evil wizard hell bent on world domination with an angry moon hell bent on total annihilation. This is just the kid friendly games! I haven’t even touched on the lawless world of Grand Theft Auto, the post apocalyptic nightmare that is the Resident Evil franchise or the literal trip to hell with Doom or Nazi German in Wolfenstein 3D.

Video games, music, movies and TV was taking a more cynical turn if not full on darker and edgier than what had dominated the 80s. In the 80s you had an alien puppet named Alf spreading hijinks or the optimistic and up beat Punky Brewster with it’s quirky child lead getting into trouble scamming her surrogate parent. Instead we had to sit through the sarcastic Daria with her negative outlook on life to Full House which thrust us head first episode one into the throes of a single dad struggling to overcome his own grief to find a way to be a rock in his daughter’s lives. Everything in the 90s screamed the future is going to suck and boy howdy was it not wrong.

In the 80s sitcoms were all about fairy tales. The Huxtables, The Keatons and Sam Malone and company were all living decent Middle to Upper Class lives finding the joys in life. Instead the 90s gave us the lower class Conners on Roseanne, the single mother construction worker on Grace Under Fire or the literal show about nothing, Seinfeld with it’s constant barrage of who cares week after week. Even the biggest hit of the decade, Friends, centered on an out of work actor, an under paid waitress, a single dad, a man facing trauma while navigating a dead end job and a woman with obsessive compulsive disorder struggling to pay rent. The optimism of the 80s were firmly gone replaced with an attitude of “life sucks get over it” 

Even cartoons were darker and edgier. In the 80s cartoons were the heroes triumphing over evil. GI Joe defeated Cobra, the Autobots destroying the evil Decepticons, the Care Bears defeating depression with love. In the 90s we got Exosquad, an adult themed cartoon tackling slavery and human rights. We got X-Men a cartoon centered on a government using advanced weapons and hostile legislation to target a minority group struggling for civil rights. Instead of the laugh out loud Monday’s suck but hey we got Lasagna with Garfield and Friends we now got Hey Arnold facing bullies week after week. Cartoons set in fantastical worlds like He Man’s Eternia or Thundera’s Thundercats. Now cartoons were firmly planted in our reality with the same grounded rules we faced in our day to day lives. Recess, Dough, Beavis and Butt head, Daria, and Hey Arnold had kids facing every day situations rather than having super heroes fighting imaginary evils. 

Every where you turn in the 90s rather than finding hope, optimism or pure escapism you are bombarded with constant reminders that life sucks and it ain’t getting any better. I think the 90s are probably the worst decade in pop culture and I say this despite having nothing but pure nostalgia for the decade.