January 24, 2026

Oh, hi. I’m alive. Somehow.

Here’s a fun fact for you all: 2025 sucked. It sucked for me, as I suspect it sucked for many others. If you visited my site before now, you probably sensed my not-so-subtle depression, emanating from between the lines.

But as the New Year rolled in, I turned my attention to the whole "resolution" thing. Yes, I’ve lived through enough of these to understand how arbitrary that is. However, I decided that since I spent the entirety of 2025 under a black cloud of negativity, maybe I ought to start looking through it. It won’t change the reality of what’s happening around me, but if I could learn to appreciate the little things again…

Then I spent the first few weeks of 2026 dealing with health issues. Every time I tried returning to my review drafts—to post an update earlier than this—some new calamity found me. Once the worst of the storm passed, I stumbled back to my computer and finished my work.

Now, even at my ripening age, I’m still trying not to believe in superstitions. Harbingers of things to come and whatnot. I have to remind myself misfortune happens to everybody, and it’s not the result of some curse or personalized, divine bullying tactic. I’m also one of eight billion people on this ailing rock of ours, and not necessarily one of the most important. Still, it’s difficult to have any optimism when your new year opens with such crap.

The best way to deal with it, as has always been the case, is with escapism. Even with a new job that requires longer commute time, I found room to distract myself from the world’s continued, inevitable destruction. I started a marathon of sorts, doing replays and first serious plays alike of the Resident Evil games. This is building up to the release of Resident Evil: Re9uiem, scheduled to come out on February 27. While I already know I won’t buy RE9 until it’s at a decent Steam Sale price, it’s nice to acknowledge that something (hopefully) good is (allegedly) on the way. I’m also grateful we’re (allegedly) getting RE9 five years after VIIIage, when it could be so much worse. Like, haha, over a decade worse. Union busting and boiler room explosions worse.

Now onto the new content. This month, I’ve got reviews up of Akira, Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku II, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, and Resident Evil (2002 remake). More RE reviews are on the way as I continue my marathon. Fingers crossed that February is better, though.