My top 10 Pop Culture Moments of 2018!

Hey all, welcome to my top whatever pop culture moments of 2018! This article will obviously have spoilers for the films, tv shows, and games that will be discussed! So, I guess you're warned?

SPOILERS WILL FOLLOW:

1. Killmonger's death speech; Black Panther:

This scene was so well acted, and really made you feel for Erik Killmonger. It does help that Killmonger wasn't a stereotypical villain in any sense, and that he made a lot of very valid points about Wakanda. Even if you haven't seen the film, this death scene is worth watching, which you can do here.

2. The Snap; Infinity War:

Of course, Infinity War was going to be on the list, this might not be its only appearance (it's a great film with great moments)! Just when the heroes were starting to make some actual progress, Thanos takes out Vision and gets the final stone. All seems lost, then bam! Thor appears, his new axe, Stormbreaker, passes easily through Thanos's attack and strikes him solidly in the chest. All seems safe and secure! Then Thanos, through the pain, says: "You should have gone for the head." *snap*
You can watch that scene here.

3. Deimos is who?? Assassin's Creed Odyssey:

Assassin's Creed Odyssey is probably the best Assassin's Creed game I have played (sorry Origins), and surprisingly, one of the better RPGs. For the first time, Ubisoft allowed players to chose their protagonist, either Kassandra, or Alexios. Since the release, Ubisoft has came out and said that Kassandra is the canon protagonist of the game, which I really liked because she's awesome. The game starts with you learning about a cult that has taken control of large parts of Greece, and has a violent interest in your family. You learn that they have a Champion known as Deimos. You then meet Deimos and learn that he's your long lost brother that you saw get killed ages ago.

4. Sabrina slits a witch's throat; The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina:

The Netflix adaptation of the Archie Comics Horror series, has been spectacular so far. Sabrina has been toeing the line between going full witch and keeping her human life. Then this happens. Long story short: her boyfriend's brother gets killed and she needs a sacrifice to bring him back, so she slits the throat of one of her school rivals. Not to worry, she had a plan to bring Agatha, the now dead witch, back to life. This moment showed how far Sabrina was willing to go, and did a ton for character development.

5. Clone Wars coming back!

In a surprise announcement at Comic Con, fans rejoiced to learn that Star Wars: The Clone Wars would be coming back for the originally planned final season. Not only was it announced to be happening, there was trailer dropped at the same time. You can watch that trailer here.

6. Speaking of Star Warss, The Mandalorian was announced:

Just thinking about the directors lined up for this show has me excited, never mind the amazing cast. Not much is known plotwise, but the story will focus on a Mandalorian that we have not seen before (sorry Boba), and will star Pedro Pascal as the titular character.

9. Patrick Stewart is returning to Star Trek as the beloved Captain Picard:

Literally nothing is known about this show right now, other than it will star Stewart as his legendary character. A writing room has been assembled, and is at work on the scripts as we speak!

10. The fight scenes in Daredevil season 3:

I can't just pick one of the amazing fights in the third (and sadly, final) season. First there was the magnificent prison escape fight, this season's one shot. Matt was alone, and just in a normal suit with enemies on all sides. Then there was the amazing fight between Daredevil and Bullseye in the Newspaper office. And finally, the three way fight between Daredevil, Bullseye, and Wilson Fisk. You can watch the Daredevil vs Bullseye fight here.

A Holiday Letter: 2018 edition

Dear Readers,

I suppose this is a like a Holiday letter of sorts, although I'm not actually sure how those work... Not really a thing my family has ever done. It has been an inappropriately long time since I last posted anything here (January 3rd, 2018). It has not been for a lack of trying, however it has been for a lack of... myself.

This past year has been a trying one, and an exalting one. January saw me at the lowest I've been in an extremely long time, while months later had me at one of my highest highs. Writing this is hard, not because of the subject matter, merely because I have not exercised these muscles in some time, and forming the sentences is literally a struggle. I hate this, but it's my own fault.

I said this was a Holiday letter! I'm pretty sure people usually write these by dividing the letter into monthly sections? Sure.

January:
January was bad. Like I said earlier, January saw me at one of my lowest points. I have been open in the past about my mental health issues, and the struggles that come with. I am bad at being open with my depression, and even worse at dealing with it. Well, January saw me check myself into the local hospital on a suicide watch. It was an exhausting time, to put it mildly. Much of the following weeks and months were a dull blur due to the new medications that I was on. A convenient excuse for not writing!--if I were looking for one. There was a bright spot at the end of January, my roommate Bethany invited one of her co-workers over for some Dungeons and Dragons. Her name was Ashton, and she was (and is) radiant.

February:
My birth month has been historically a bad one for my mental health, but luckily for me there was no way it was going to be worse than January. Bethany surprised me by inviting several friends over, and getting a nice big ice cream cake for my birthday. Ashton, and her brother (who was also now playing dnd with us) were there as well. By this time, Ashton and I were messaging each other constantly, and we were both hoping to become more than friends. I had planned to ask her out to Black Panther as our first date, but because of the medication I was still getting used to, I wasn't comfortable driving, so it ended up being more of a group thing, than a romantic date. We still had a great time though. The pub we went to for supper after the movie was hosting Disney Trivia that night. We do consider this to be our first date, but it wasn't officially anything?

March:
This was the month we officially started dating according to our friends and families. I don't remember too much else about March. I know that this was the month I stopped going to counselling, which was stupid of me. We went to my parents at the end of the month for Easter. Ashton and my parents hit it off quickly, with my mom showing her all the embarrassing childhood pictures.

April:
April started with archery, a skill I used to teach at summer camps. We all went out to our friend Andrew's farm and shot arrows for a few hours. There was still snow on the ground, but the air was starting to warm up, and it felt really good to get outside and do something like that. April also included Ashton and I going to pretty much my favourite restaurant in the province: DeJa Vu Cafe, a chicken joint in Moose Jaw. April also included the release of Infinity War, which ended up being a very emotional date for the both of us.

May:
May marked our first out of province trip as a couple: unfortunately it was to Edmonton to visit her uncle in the hospital (he recovered, and is fine now). While the circumstances around the trip were not exactly the greatest, the trip was still nice, and did provide a nice escape from our every day. And, randomly, my adopted sister Katrina was in Edmonton at the same time, so we had a nice meal out with her. May was always when we began talking about moving in together.

June:
June was the month we moved in together, officially, although if I'm being honest, we had basically been living together for a while at that point. June also marked the beginning of Summer! My favourite season in Canada. I love the outdoors and swimming. I began to drag Ashton out to the local lake as often as I could. We took some amazing photos over the summer at that lake.

July:
July marked the first time we spent significant, well, time apart from each other. I did not like it. That's all I'm going to say about the time apart. Picking her up at the airport felt amazing though, it was hard not to cry when I saw her walk through the gate.

August:
I don't know exactly when I knew that I was going to propose to Ashton, I do know that it was ridiculously early in our relationship (especially since in August our relationship was only 6 months in). On August 4th, I asked Ashton to marry me; she said yes. And as she is currently sitting beside me working on her art, I'm pretty sure she meant it. August, and July before it, had a lot of time spent with friends and at the lake, soaking in as much of the summer heat as possible. August also saw the introduction of Jack-O, an orange tabby that was an engagement present from her parents.

September:
In September, Doug Jones (Star Trek: Discovery, Hellboy, The Shape of Water) touched my beard and it was amazing. I'm fairly certain some other stuff happened in September as well, but that's all I can remember right now.

October:
Our first Halloween. A big one. Turned out, Halloween was super important to both of us. I went as one of my DnD characters, and Ashton went as Hawkgirl. We ended up spending the day in the city with Andrew and his girlfriend, Marin. It was really nice; Ashton and Marin got to go trick or treating (only one house told them that they were too old), and we all got to spend some stress-free bonding time together. Plus we saw a car decked out like Ecto-1, the Ghostbusters' car.

November:
Oddly enough, November is the month I'm having the hardest time recalling. Like, I know stuff happened? Maybe? I don't actually know. Ashton's 28th birthday happened, which I tried my hardest to make as special as possible. Her favourite food is spaghetti, so I made a sauce from scratch, and baked her a french vanilla cake with a maple frosting. We had a bunch of our friends over, hung out and played dnd. It was a good night, one which I hope to top next year.

December:
Well, December is now, so I can't say too much about it yet.

That's it, a whole year distilled into a short letter. A year that began terribly, but ended up being one of the best.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Much love,