Why I’m Excited About Apple’s Vision Pro (But Won’t Buy One Just Yet)

Henry Ford did not invent the car, but he did create a model that made the car affordable, useful, and accessible to the masses. He was also despicable racist and bigot, but that’s neither here nor there.

Nintendo didn’t create the first gaming console, but they did create a model that made gaming fun, endearing, and accessible to the masses. Now, they’re so successful that they can make a billion dollar movie as a side-project.

I make this point because technology and the products created from it don’t always become successful by their creators. Sometimes, an advancement is just not adequately refined, poorly marketed, or just too ahead of its time. We can never truly know if some new technology is ready for the mainstream until we have the benefit of hindsight.

With all this in mind, I’m still comfortable saying with confidence that Apple’s recently announced Apple Vision Pro will be a game-changer on so many levels. And a decade from now, when I might be writing something like this while using one, we may see this announcement as important as the original iPhone.

I know that sounds like me buying into mindless tech hype, which is something I’ve been guilty of before. I freely admit that I am not qualified to judge what technology is overhyped and what will truly change the world. So, do not take me as an expert in that regard.

However, I’ve seen enough major technological changes and overhyped failures in my lifetime to see certain patterns. And with the Apple Vision Pro, I genuinely believe this will change how we see computers, virtual reality, augmented reality, and reality in general.

For one, this is not Elon Musk claiming that we would have a full self-driving car by 2017. This is a real, tangible product created by Apple, a company with a proven track record of disrupting major areas of the tech industry for decades.

Apple didn’t invent the personal computer, but they were among the first to create a user-friendly model for the masses in the 1980s.

Apple didn’t invent the smartphone or the MP3 player, but they created products that were so superior to the competition that they fundamentally changed the industry around them. If you need proof, just try finding a Tower Records in your area.

This is not a company that regularly to create strange, ambitious products that the public has never seen before. This is a company that sees what’s going on within an emerging industry, poaches the talented individuals working in that industry, and creates a product that goes onto dominate that industry in its own unique way.

You can certainly make the case that Apple’s tactics in this endeavor aren’t always ethical. They’re a multi-billion-dollar tech company. You don’t have to look hard to uncover some of their less savory practices.

But when it comes to producing a product that works better than anything that came before it, Apple is second to none. And I’ve been hoping for years that someone would find a way to perfect the many flaws in the virtual reality and augmented reality fields.

I may be dating myself here, but I remember years ago when Nintendo tried to create a VR gaming console called the Virtual Boy. I even tried it at a toy store a few times. I thought it was amazing, even though it was uncomfortable at times and gave me a headache. I genuinely hoped it was the start of a new trend.

But it didn’t happen.

Over the years, other companies tried to make better VR and AR hardware. I’ve used products like the Oculus Rift and the Playstation VR headset. They’re both good, but limited. They don’t do much other than run a few niche programs and games.

But Apple’s Vision Pro promises to do so much more. It won’t just run a few distinct programs. It won’t just be a novelty meant for a few specific tasks. In the demonstration Apple released, this product promises to integrate multiple features from multiple fields, from the stuff you’d usually do on a desktop to immersive gaming to watching 4K video content.

Even if you’re very skeptical about VR and AR technology, you can’t deny that’s a very different approach compared to others in the field. And you also can’t deny that Apple has a proven track record of making clunky technology work.

Watching this demonstration, I couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like to watch a football game with this thing. I also imagined what it would be like to play a game like Skyrim, interact with friends and family, or just relax in my bed while enjoying beautiful scenery and music.

I want to try this thing.

I want it to succeed on the same level as the iPad and iPhone, two products that have been a huge influence over my everyday life.

However, I’ll also go on record as saying that I probably won’t buy this first model and not just because the price tag is $3,500. But my reason for that has little to do with my faith in the technology or Apple. This is just how I usually approach embracing new tech gadgets, in general.

I was not among those to buy an iPod or iPhone when it first came out. That’s because I prefer to wait until the early kinks and bugs are worked out. And even for Apple’s most successful product line, there was a refinement period. Just go back and look at the features of the original iPhone. It was pretty limited in many ways. It also had its share of growing pains.

But over time, with further investment and refinement, it became more polished. By the time the third generation came along, it was so polished and so well-developed that that the value was immense, despite the inflated price. When I finally bought my first iPhone, it worked so well that it felt like a massive upgrade by default.

That’s what I hope will occur with the Apple Vision Pro. It may take several years. But eventually, it’ll get to a point where the software, the hardware, and the experience are such that it’ll exceed any alternative, present or future. When that time comes, I will gladly buy in.

Yes, I realize I may still end up paying a hefty price for the experience.

But if that experience means watching the Super Bowl in an immersive, 4K experience or reading comics on a screen that feels like IMAX, then I say that’s a price worth paying.

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The Dragon Prince: Claudia’s Evolving Villainous Side (And The Implications)

This is a video from my YouTube channel, Jack’s World. This video explores the villain’s journey of Claudia in “The Dragon Prince.”

It was an unexpected journey at first. In the early seasons, Claudia came off as outgoing, bubbly, and creative. She also demonstrated a strong love and loyalty to her father, as well as her kingdom.

But after the events of Season 4, it’s clear now that Claudia has fallen down a very dark path. And Season 5 promises to be even darker as she willingly plays into Aaravos’ plans. Just how villainous will Claudia become in that process? Only time will tell.

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Sexy Short Story: Nameless Hookup

The following is a sexy short story inspired by a few stories I heard on Reddit from people about some of their random hookups. Enjoy!


Marianne Mason had been a good, upstanding woman for her entire youth. Being the oldest of five children in a prominent family, she set a high bar for her family and her community. That was what had been expected of her. In her small tight-knit community, her family held significant status.

Her father was a prominent businessman who was heavily involved in the local church.

Her mother was a teacher who also taught Sunday school.

Her aunt and uncle were very active in state politics, having managed multiple campaigns for some prominent conservative candidates.

This was Marianne’s world. And she was a byproduct of that world. She genuinely that that world was good, genuine, and honest. When her father said they lived by the morals she preached, she believed them.

Then, she learned the ugly truth. That was why she found herself in a crowded bar in a city 200 miles from her hometown at two in the morning.

“A true den of sin,” Marianne said upon entering. “It looks so…inviting.”

Her words would’ve horrified her just a few months ago. That was when she was still living in that world of lies, playing the part she’d been expected to play.

She had just graduated high school at the top of her class. She had just had a fairy tale wedding with Malcolm Grant, the son of a prominent church leader and aspiring conservative politician. Her parents basically set them up to be married in middle school. And she went along with it.

She didn’t know at the time that this was largely a power move by her father, hoping to establish a strong connection between her family and the Grants.

She didn’t know that her mother manipulated her principal at school to ensure they had classes together.

She also didn’t know that Malcolm Grant just happened to be a sex-crazed pervert who wanted to bed every woman he found marginally attractive.

“How could I have been that stupid?” Marianne asked herself.

That question had been echoing in her mind almost every day since she found out. Fittingly enough, it had been an accident. She had been planning her and Malcolm’s honeymoon with her mother. She had been using her own computer for the whole process. It just happened to look exactly like her mother’s, which she worked on constantly.

But one fateful morning, while sitting in the kitchen of her parents’ home, she accidentally opened her mother’s computer instead of hers. Whether by accident or negligence, her mother hadn’t locked it, nor had she minimized her browser.

That was when Marianne uncovered along string of email chains going back years. They included detailed conversations about what had been going on behind the scenes since she was in middle school and possibly before that. They all documented a level of deviance, hypocrisy, and lies that made her sick.

For one, her mother had been having multiple affairs – and with both men and women, no less. She was bisexual, despite being a prominent member of an anti-LGBTQ+ parents group.

Her father was just as unfaithful. He had no fewer than three memberships to prominent dating sites. And he had been sleeping with multiple women, including a few other married women within the community. There were even graphic photos of him and some of the women, revealing that her mother clearly knew. And she clearly didn’t care.

It quickly became clear that her parents marriage was not built on love, faith, and devotion. It was just a business arrangement. That alone was heartbreaking. It was what she learned about the rest of her community that made her sick.

“Preach high morals by day…live immoral lives every night,” Marianne said as she navigated the crowded bar. “Hypocrisy at its finest!”

The vitriol in her words did not do justice to her disgust. It was hard for any words to match her revulsion to the rest of what she discovered.

It included detailed records of how they’d covered up her finace’s decadence, which included sleeping with underaged girls and multiple charges of date rape that they somehow got thrown out. Suddenly, all those past moments when Malcolm attempted to kiss her and feel up her skirt made a lot more sense.

It convinced her that her promise to remain a virgin until her wedding night had been a stupid promise from the beginning. It also convinced her to file for divorce that same day. But if that weren’t bad enough, another series of emails and pictures showed how the rest of her community lived the values they preached.

By the time Marianne went through the whole thing, she realized just how many lies she had bought into. Hell, she had a hard time finding just one family in their community that didn’t have some sort of secret sex scandal, drug problem, or dark secret. She felt like a true fool for buying into the lies. That led her to make what felt like the first honest decisions she’d ever made.

She packed her bags and left Malcolm with little notice. She quit her summer job at the church and withdrew her application from the prominent private school she’d planned to attend in the fall. She also left a scathing note for her parents, along with a warning about password protecting their computer. Then, after making copies of certain files, she left town for the nearest city.

She still planned to file for divorce. She also planned to expose her family and her community for the hypocrites they were. But first, she was going to do something that would forever sever ties with the lies she’d bought into.

“Tonight, I’m going to get laid,” Marianne said to herself in the mirror less than an hour ago. “Tonight, I’m going to hookup with a guy. We’re going to have lewd, immoral sex. And I’m going to enjoy it!”

She sounded like a completely different woman when those words left her mouth. She looked like a different woman too, having dressed in the skimpiest, sluttiest attire she could find on sale at a local store. This was the kind of immodest attire she used to protest against in high school. She would flat out scold women who even thought about wearing such clothes.

Now, here she was, strutting through a crowded bar, showing off her legs, cleavage, and mid-drift like a common harlot. Nobody ever would’ve suspected that she was once the soft-spoken, upstanding daughter of a prominent family who had only ever had sex with her husband after their wedding.

But nobody needed to know those details. Marianne wanted every man in this bar to think she was just another skank looking to spread her legs for any guy interested in a hook-up. Naturally, it didn’t take long for some young guy with long greasy hair, a dirty shirt from a local college, and over-worn jeans to hit on her.

“Hey there, sexy!” he’d greeted her. “Why haven’t I seen you here before? And when can I see you somewhere else more private?”

It was not the smoothest pick-up line a man could’ve used. The man clearly showed his age. He couldn’t have been more than a few years out of high school. No man over the age of 27 was that immature when greeting a woman.

Most woman might have rolled their eyes and told him off. Instead, Marianne locked in on him and decided that this was the man she would hook up with tonight.

“How about this?” she replied. “You buy me one drink. Then, we go to my motel room across the street. That private enough for you?”

The guy’s face lit up like he’d just won the lottery. Chances are he’d tried lines like that before and hadn’t had much success. Being young and horny, he hadn’t refined his approach. But that didn’t matter to Marianne. Being young and horny was enough.

He agreed to buy her a drink. But before they started chatting, she made one thing clear.

“Don’t tell me your name. I don’t want to know your name. And I don’t want you to know mine. Follow that rule and your dick will thank you.”

Again, the man’s face lit up. He truly was at a loss. But thankfully, he didn’t second-guess it. He just grinned like a goofy guy bent on listening to his dick and went along. Before she knew it, their drinks were done and they were off to her motel room.

“I’m really doing this,” Marianne said under her breath. “I’m about sleep with a man I just met…whose name I don’t know…and I don’t even want to know.”

It was so wrong, immoral, seedy, and crude. But that was exactly what made it so exciting. Marianne had been told all her life to avoid this kind of behavior. She’d even shamed and shunned others who did it. Now, she was entering a motel room with an unnamed man, flirtatiously clinging to his arm and pawing at his chest. And he was blatantly feeling up her skirt to crudely fondle her butt. She used to scold Malcolm for it. This time, she gladly let him do it.

Months ago, this sort of thing would’ve disgusted her. Now, it was actually turning her on. That was unexpected. She even felt it between her thighs, a strong heat building up within her loins. She didn’t remember being this horny on her wedding night. Then again, that had been a formality. She just did what she thought a bride was supposed to do – not what she wanted to do.

That convinced her that this was going to be different.

“Don’t talk. Don’t overthink. Just fuck me!” she said to the man. “Fuck me like the horny slut I am!”

Again, Marianne couldn’t believe she’d said such crude words. And yet, they felt so right. Hearing it in her own voice even turned her on a bit more. And the man certainly didn’t complain.

“Well, if that’s what you want…” the man said before trailing off.

The man kept grinning like a horny idiot as they shed their clothes. They were not gentle, romantic, or affectionate. One minute, they were just pawing each other’s bodies like hungry animals in heat. The next, they were completely naked – his hands all over her breasts, butt, and thighs – and lying on the motel bed. It was a far cry from the nice, clean bed at the bed and breakfast when she lost her virginity on her wedding night. But that only encouragd Marianne to make this better.

“Do me! Do me, you horny bastard!” she said intently.

Like a reflex, the nameless man obliged. Without a hint of affection, faked or real, he got on top of her, pushed her legs apart, and aligned his pelvis with hers. And with a simple, crude thrust of his hips, he entered her – his erect, rigid penis slithering into her vagina in an act of blind lust.

In that moment, Marianne’s eyes widened with a mix of discomfort and excitement. She hadn’t had sex too many times after she got married. She hadn’t even pleasured herself, having bought into her pastor’s lessons about the sins of masturbation. But that same pastor got arrested three years ago for receiving oral sex from an underaged boy. That told her all she needed to know about such lessons.

By casting them aside, the act already felt different. Whereas her nervousness caused discomfort during her wedding night, the initial sensations of penetration quickly gave way to a new pleasure.

“That…feels good. It feels…really good,” she said under her breath.

The feeling evolved quickly as their naked bodies started moving. Her nameless hook-up didn’t bother with finesse or technique. He just started humping and thrusting, using her for blind lust as much as she was using him.

“Damn!” the man grunted on. “You’re so hot and tight!”

If only he knew that this was her first time being so reckless with sex, freely and openly embracing her lust.

If only he knew he was only the second man she’d ever slept with, the first being a liar and a fraud who only went through the motions when it came to pleasing his wife.

That was still Marianne’s secret to keep. And as the sex unfolded, the true breadth of this new feeling took hold. Once she let go of any notion of propriety and traditional morals, it didn’t just feel good. It felt exhilerating.

“Yes! Ohhh yes! That’s it! That’s what I want” Marianne proclaimed with such glee.

What unfolded next was an overdue venting of lust, desire, and pent-up frustration. She wrapped her legs around his waist, raked her nails down his back, and licked around his ear as they humped, grinded, and undulated to every bit of exertion. The man winced a few times, but did not complain. He even seemed to like having his earlobe nibbled. That proved quite effective at motivating him.

As their sex played out, their movements got more chaotic. Unlike her wedding night, Marianne didn’t restrict herself to the missionary position – the only position deemed proper for sex by her community. They rolled around on the bed, ruffling the sheets and going at it in a variety of ways. She quickly discovered she liked being on all fours while being fucked from behind. The feeling of her breasts swaying while his balls slapped against her pelvis – that just did something to her that made her squeal in delight.

She also enjoyed being on top. She enjoyed riding a man’s cock, making her breasts bounce while he looked up at her in awe. It was goofy, immature awe. But Marianne still appreciated it, offering a flirty smile that got him thrusting a bit harder along the way.

Along the way, the sensations and feeling escalated. Small shivers of pleasure built up inside her, like ripples reinforcing one another with each sensual motion. She had felt this too on her wedding night, but only to a point. By the time she was on top, she had long since passed that point behind.

The end result was a powerful, hot, and incredibly satisfying orgasm. And that pleasure – that rush of heat that washed over her, causing her to close her eyes and cry out in delight – was a revelation.

“This is it…a real orgasm. This is how sex…good, satisfying sex…is supposed to feel. This…is what they tried to deny me.”

That profound feeling gave more weight to this random hookup than Marianne ever could’ve imagined. She wished she could’ve seen the look on her face – her O-Face, as it was called. She probably looked ridiculous, as though she had just discovered the joy of orgasms by accident. Perhaps that was fitting. It seemed oddly poetic, given what led her to this point.

Her climax left her in such a daze that she went on a sexual autopilot while the rest of the decadent act played out. Somehow, the final position ended with her on her back again, her legs hitched over the man’s shoulders while he thrust into her with extra fervor to get himself to the brink.

“Getting…real…close!” he grunted, his face tensing in anticipation.

When he reached his peak, it was somewhat chaotic. Just before he climaxed, he withdrew his cock from her vagina and aimed his throbbing member at her chest. Then, with a deep, satisfied grunt, he released his seminal fluid all over her breasts.

Marianne was a bit surprised at first and not just because pulling out was another one of those acts her pastor deemed immoral. The man shot out an impressive volume of fluid – thin ropes of cum splattering over her breasts, some of which reached her face. It was neither romantic nor intimate, but the sheer joy on the man’ face made it satisfying. She must have been possessed by some new spirit of debauchery because she ended up licking some of the fluid up with her tongue.

“Mmm…salty,” she found herself saying.

A strange sense of calm and contentment came over them afterward. The man whose name she refused to know let out a satisfied sigh and collapsed on the bed next to her. He didn’t even attempt to cuddle or embrace her. He saw her as just a meaningless fling and so did she. And as Marianne lay next to him – naked, disheveled, and reeking of sex – a new perspective came over her.

“No more lies. No more hypocrisy. No more fake morals, unnecessary restraint, and false piety. I had a meaningless hook-up and liked it. I had sex and enjoyed it. Moving forward, I build my own life. And I’ll make damn sure it’s satisfying!”

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Jack’s CreepyPastas: The Forgotten Founding Father

This is a video from my YouTube channel, Jack’s World. And this video is a CreepyPasta that I wrote and narrated myself. Enjoy!

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Filed under CreepyPasta, Jack's World, YouTube

Happy 4th Of July! (With A Special Message To America)

My fellow Americans, today is the 4th of July.

It’s an important day for this country. We celebrate it for a reason and that reason goes beyond fireworks, barbecue, burgers, and beer. To us, America is more than a country. It’s more than a nationality or identity. It embodies certain ideals and principles for what a nation and its people can be. What began as thirteen British colonies has grown into fifty states that vary in many ways. But they are all still American.

These ideals are certainly worth celebrating.

These principles are definitely worth cherishing, embracing, and espousing to the utmost.

They were all bold ideas put forth by equally bold men on July 4, 1776. And in the many years since that date, the United States of America has grown and evolved in many ways. But it couldn’t have gotten far with these that special identity that ultimately became the heart of this country.

Now, I remind my fellow Americans of this to offer more than a patriotic sentiment for this very special national holiday. More than anything else, I offer it as a reminder. Because, like any nation or people, America is not perfect. Acknowledging that doesn’t make you less patriotic. It’s necessary to put America and all it stands for into a proper context.

You can ignore history all you want, but there’s no getting around it.

America has had its growing pains.

There have been dark times in our history, some of which we’re still recovering from.

We, as a nation and a people, have not always lived up to the ideals this Country embodies. We have not always extended the promise of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to others. Whether it’s out of bigotry, racism, sexism, xenophobia, or the many ugly prejudices that come with partisan politics, we make many excuses to divide ourselves.

But at the end of the day, we still share this nation. We’re still Americans. To deny such courtesy to others who love this country every bit as much is simply un-American, by default. We are a nation of many diverse people and voices. But we live together in this remarkable country. We all want it to thrive and be the best it can be. Even if we don’t agree on the method, we can still share in the goals.

There are still many challenges before us. Some come from those who have a vision of America that’s utterly antithetical to the principles of freedom and liberty. Some come from those within our own government who care less about their country and more about how it can enrich or empower them. Some come from problems that were present at the founding, which have left lasting scars that we’re still recovering from.

There’s a large gap between the Country we are now and what we strive to be. But those goals and the ideals behind them are still worth pursuing. They’re still worth striving for, whether it’s by working, voting, or serving your community in some meaningful way. We can debate and argue over the path we’re taking. But for today, let’s just take a step back and celebrate how far we’ve come while also not forgetting how much farther we have to go.

So, to my fellow Americans, Happy 4th of July!

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Celebrating Thomas Paine: My Favorite Founding Father

In the spirit of celebrating America, the country of my birth and the county I love, I made this video to celebrate one of America’s founding fathers, Thomas Paine. He might not get as much recognition as other founding fathers, but his ideas were very much ahead of their time and helped shape the course of American history. Enjoy!

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The Big Bang Theory | Penny & Leonard | A Relationship Of Unequals

This video is from my YouTube channel, Jack’s World. This video essay is an exploration of the relationship between Penny and Leonard Hoffsteader in The Big Bang Theory. This show remains one of my favorites and it had a number of romantic sub-plots over the course of many seasons. But Penny and Leonard was always the primary romance and one of the biggest sources of drama.

However, their romance is also one that is decidedly unbalanced and even a bit unhealthy, at times.

I still rooted for them, but I found that process very frustrating. I try to explain why in this video while also breaking down some common flaws in sitcom romance. Enjoy!

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Filed under Jack's World, romance, television, YouTube

Here’s What Happened When I Asked An AI To Write A Love Poem

There has been a lot said about the emerging state of artificial intelligence. I’ve certainly contributed my share. I imagine a lot more is going to be said in the coming months and years.

Ever since ChatGPT demonstrated the power and potential of this technology, it has garnered a great deal of interest among the public. It’s also generated plenty of concerns. Some are minor, like whether this technology would eliminate too many jobs. Some are major, like whether this will lead to the development of a powerful artificial intelligence that we can’t control.

There are legitimate concerns. Some are much more pressing than others. I’m certainly not qualified to explain all the nuances, let alone make recommendations or decisions on this issue. I’ll leave that to people much smarter and more capable than me.

But for now, these tools are here. We can use them in any number of ways. Some are already using them for objectively dangerous purposes. That’s always going to be an issue with every new technology, including AI. But the less dangerous, less dire uses will always be more common. And they’ll rarely make the news.

In that spirit, I’d like to share what happened when I played around a bit with Bing’s new AI program. I didn’t do anything too elaborate or ambitious. I understand this is new technology. It’s going to be limited for a good long while in the early stages. But it’s still quite capable of doing wonderful things.

To that end, I asked Bing to write a love poem. My exact prompt was actually “Write me a beautiful love poem.” This is what the AI created.

Here’s the first poem:

You are the light of my life
The reason for my smile
The warmth in my heart
The spark in my soul

You are the melody of my song
The rhythm of my dance
The harmony in my voice
The tune in my ear

You are the color of my world
The beauty in my eyes
The splendor in my sight
The rainbow in my sky

You are the love of my life
The partner of my dreams
The companion of my journey
The mate of my soul

Here’s another.

When I see your face
I feel a surge of grace
When I hear your voice
I have no other choice

But to love you with all my might
To hold you close and tight
To cherish you day and night
To make you happy and bright

You are my everything
My reason for living
My source of joy and peace
My treasure and my bliss

You are my one and only
My forever and my always
My soulmate and my lover
My friend and my partner

Here’s one more.

You are the star of my night
The moon of my tide
The sun of my day
The sky of my way

You are the fire of my passion
The flame of my desire
The heat of my emotion
The light of my devotion

You are the breath of my life
The beat of my heart
The pulse of my blood
The soul of my love

Are these poems the greatest love poems ever written? Probably not.

Do these poems still qualify as love poems? I would argue they do.

If you didn’t know I had asked a chatbot to write these, would you think a real person wrote them?

Given the current state of this technology, I’m impressed. There’s certainly room for improvement. But let’s remind ourselves that this wasn’t akin to asking a calculator to factor a couple of large numbers. I asked this chatbot to do something creative. And it did so in just few seconds.

This is what AI is capable of now.

Just imagine what it’ll be capable of in the coming years.

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Filed under Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, romance

How The Terminator Franchise Has Declined And How To Revive It

This video is a breakdown of the sad, but not surprising decline of the Terminator franchise. After the underperformance of Terminator: Dark Fate, the state of this franchise has never been lower.

However, I do not believe that the Terminator is done completely. I believe there is still a way to revive it for a new audience and a new generation. I make that case, as well. I even offer a potential scenario. Enjoy!

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Filed under Jack's World, movies, YouTube

Why I Love Being An Uncle

Not to long ago, I honestly wondered if me and my siblings would ever get around to having kids. Even after we all moved out of our parents’ house and built our own lives, I wasn’t sure if that was ever a consideration.

For me, personally, I was way behind the curve. Every one of my siblings is objectively better than me when it comes to social skills. They’ve always had an easier time making friends and finding romantic partners. I’m pretty sure if you asked them, my parents, or my friends, they would agree that I would probably be the last one to have kids.

It still hasn’t happened for me. Maybe that’ll change in the future. But for my siblings, the change came sooner rather than later. In the mid-2010s, one of my sisters was the first announce that she was pregnant. It was a hell of a moment. I’m pretty sure that, of everyone present when she made that announcement, I made the goofiest face.

I don’t know if my sister or her husband reads my website, but I suspect she would agree. I may never look that goofy again.

And when that fateful day came and her first child was born, it was an incredibly joyous moment for the whole family. It also made it official. I was an uncle now! And I quickly came to embrace that role.

I knew the day when I first held my sister’s baby boy that I would strive to be the best uncle I could be. I wouldn’t just be the cool uncle or the fun uncle. I would be the kind of uncle that they would be excited to see at every visit. That’s what I started working towards that fateful day.

It’s been challenging.

It’s been a never-ending process, at times.

But I can say without reservation that it’s totally worth it.

Since then, my sister has had another child. My younger brother and his wife also welcomed a couple kids of their own. They’re all still very young, rowdy, and energetic. But they’re old enough to recognize when Uncle Jack comes to visit. They know me by name. They know me by my voice, my facial hair, and the various shirts I wear depicting comic book characters and sports teams. And I never hesitate to give them a big hug.

I also don’t hesitate to spoil them. That’s something my siblings knew I was going to do. They would’ve been shocked if I hadn’t.

I do it every Christmas. I will usually be the one who gets my nieces and nephews the most elaborate gifts. One year, I got my nephew a miniature ball pit. I cannot overstate how much value that gift has had over the years. Another, I got him and my niece a miniature trampoline. Given how energetic they are, I don’t doubt that has gotten quite a bit of use.

There are times when it’s painfully clear I don’t know much about parenting. Like I said, I’m behind the curve in that regard. And I don’t know if or when I’ll catch up. But I like to think I’ve learned how to be an awesome uncle in my own right.

If there was one moment, in particular, that solidified my love of being an uncle, it happened during this warm summer day in my parents’ backyard. We were having a family get-together, which happens often with a family like mine. We don’t need much incentive to get together and have fun. My nephew was around two at the time. He was walking and running around, albeit with the coordination you would expect of a two-year-old. But that didn’t stop us from having fun.

So, while his parents were getting some food, I took this soccer ball they’d brought and started bouncing it off my head. I don’t know what prompted me to do that. I just know that when my nephew saw it, he thought it was the greatest thing. He laughed and smiled while running around to get the ball. And I kept trying to bounce it off my head towards him. He tried to catch it, but had limited success. That didn’t matter though. We had fun and I like to think I made a good impression that day.

Since then, I’ve built on that impression. I love reading comics to my niece and nephew. I love watching sports with them, teaching them how to cheer for our favorite team. I love chasing them around, pretending I’m a T-Rex. And I love hearing them laugh every step of the way.

I know being an uncle has its limits. I honestly don’t know if I could match the energy my siblings have to keep up with their kids, especially at their current age. But that just makes me respect and love them even more. It also motivates me to be the best uncle I can be for them.

When those kids get older, they’re going to grow into a strange, uncertain world that’s constantly changing. But one thing that won’t change is the fact that they have an awesome uncle.

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