Today I’m One Year Older Than He Ever Was

Good gracious me, I didn’t even notice it, but we have entered into the fourteenth year of existence of The WAMBAG. I’m pretty sure I say this literally every single time, starting from Year One (never mind Year Fourteen) but man…that is a long time! That’s like eons in internet years. For some context, 2002 was THREE YEARS before YouTube existed.

No clever jokes or insight. I say every year that I wish this page would die, and I think we’re closer than we ever have been before. Normally I like to think I wouldn’t be so happy about the prospect of a fourteen year-old dying slowly (perhaps of a debilitating bone disease or something horrible like that) but I am absolutely thrilled here. Though just to be clear, we’re talking about a stupid website that as long lived past its usefulness for me and not like…a human being. I know we do blur the line here sometimes, I cannot say with absolute certainly that I have never called for the slow agonizing death of a teenager somewhere within the archives of this site. Please don’t go back and check.

Is it a responsible adult thing to do, to keep paying real life money to host a domain and web space every year for no purpose? It really isn’t. And it’s not even like I’m running a revenue generating porn site on the other half of this web space either, so I get nothing out of this at all. But it’s also not really a responsible adult thing to do in ordering a Triple Bacon Sampler breakfast dish at Denny’s for lunch during the week, and yet that didn’t stop me. So really I think we are both to blame for this situation.

AL and I watched Star Trek Beyond the other day, and he remarked on how much of an auteur Justin Lin had become now – every movie he touches, not only can you depend on the job to get done and the standard for the franchise to be respected, but you can also depend on the same familiar themes and motifs to appear. Two male leads drinking together over a quiet conversation about their fathers. Explosions of unclear nature and cause. FAMILIA. Two characters unnecessarily jumping out of motorized vehicles and grasping hands while parallel to the ground. Even if it’s a space movie. Just really great stuff.

I also thought it was interesting to consider Justin Lin’s solo directorial debut, Better Luck Tomorrow, that also co-starred John Cho. It also came out in 2002. And now, only fourteen short years later, both of them are part of the Star Trek movie franchise, in a movie that had a production budget of $185 million, topped the box office in its opening weekend, and has grossed over $211 million worldwide in four weeks.

What a wild and wonderful journey it’s been.

I mean for them.

Obviously not for us here, I wish daily for all this to end.

It isn’t uncommon, you know? It’s easy to get lost. In the vastness of space, there’s only yourself, your ship, your crew.