Matt Jaku

A New Hope

Where do I begin? Another year has come and gone. It doesn’t feel like 2023 is in a few hours. But here we are. Another year, another chance to be someone new.

2022 started of so well. I was in Colorado for a week, and it was one of the best trips I’ve taken. I had so much fun skiing and just not being home. In April, I went to Galena, Illinois. In July, I went to Michigan. In September, I made my return to Hilton Head, South Carolina. It was the first time I had been down there in about 20 years and it was amazing.

Overall, I did a lot of fun stuff in 2022. I’m truly grateful for it. But 2022 wasn’t all fun. There were things that really just sucked. As the year went on, it just seemed to suck more and more. And of all my resolutions from last year, I only kept two of them. They can all be found here for future reading.

So, what didn’t I do in 2022? I didn’t post two blog posts a month, I didn’t read one book a month, and I didn’t film any of my short films. Does this make the year a failure by itself? No. I just kind of wish I did more. I know I could have done more. I just didn’t feel like it.

I did improve my video editing skills. I edited countless hours of video in 2022. I also finished writing my movie. I didn’t specify what the movie was, but I’m pretty sure I know which one it is. That also means that I took that movie and turned it into a TV show instead. The idea works better as a TV show since there’s so much to explore.

I do want to do a few things in 2023. I want to read one book a month. I have so many books, and I just got five more for Christmas. I’ll keep editing videos. I also want to put a serious effort into submitting film scripts to contests. It’ll be expensive, but it’s something I need to do to get where I want to go.

I also want to learn to say “no.” I often agree to things because I don’t want to make people mad. Well, that ends with 2022. I’m going to do things for me in 2023. That also means I need to let the past go. I often look to things in the past or people, and it never works out for me. To go forward, I have to stop going backward. The past is set in stone, but the future is undiscovered. It’s new. It’s exciting. That’s where I should be looking.

2023 is a chance to start new. It’s a chance for me to be someone different. And I fully intend on doing that. I look around and see where I am. I see where I can be. I see who I can be. It’s time I changed who I am so I can be who I’m meant to be.

Taking a Long Weekend

The other day I was thinking. Usually nothing good happens when I think. But sometimes, some good comes from me thinking. I just contradicted myself, I know. This time, though, I came up with a pretty good thought.

I am writing this on my tablet from O’Hare Airport. I’m going on a little long weekend trip to Hilton Head in South Carolina. Nothing major. Just a chance to get away for a few days. The funny thing is, I burned up my vacation time by the end of July. But I also feel burned up, myself. The great thing is that, even though I’m full-time at work, I can rearrange my days off in most cases to go and do things. It’s basically flexible full-time.

I got to the airport at about 11:00 am. My flight was at 1:05 pm. Unfortunately, I didn’t make the flight because I’m flying standby and the plane was full. The next flight is about 5 hours later, at 6:10 pm.

But back to the original point, I was doing some thinking and I decided that I need to travel more. Like a lot more. And the best way to do that is to just go on my days off. I usually get 3 days off in a row. What do I do during those 3 days? Play Apex Legends and a whole lot of nothing. I think it’s time to stop playing games and do some exploring.

I’m not getting any younger and I want to explore places while I’m still somewhat young. I can always play games whenever. But there will come a time when I won’t want to get on a plane.

I would like to go to all 50 states. I’ve only been to a handful so far. Which ones? Let’s list them. I’m from Illinois. Then there’s Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Virginia, Kansas, Florida, South Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, Colorado, California, and Hawaii. I’ve been to 15 states, 16 if you want to include the hour I was in Texas for a connecting flight. To be in 15 states at the age of 30 is pretty good. I just feel like I could do better.

I know for a fact that when I go back to Hawaii I’m going to be there for a week. And when I go to Alaska I’ll be there for a week as well. But the United States isn’t the only place I want to travel. I want to travel all over Europe as well as Canada and Asia. I also have to go to Australia at some point.

I know it seems like I’m rambling, and I probably am, but there’s just a lot I want to do. For a long time, I felt confined because of work. I felt like I couldn’t go anywhere because I was worried about making sure I was always there for work. But recently, that’s not the case. I’ll probably work until I can’t anymore, but I only have a limited time to travel while I’m young.

We were put on this planet to enjoy life. We aren’t here for long, and we shouldn’t spend it all working. We should spend it enjoying life, enjoying people, enjoying the things around us. I heard this line in the song called Enlightment? by While She Sleeps the other day. It was “Our mortality is the key to our freedom.” It’s 100% true. We’re all going to die one day, so why can’t we live freely? Why can’t we do the things we want to? What holds us back? Fear? Anxiety? Stress? Maybe all of the above?

I guess the point I’m trying to make is that we should go do the things we want to, because one day, it’ll all be over. I’m going to South Carolina because I want to. I’m also going because I need a break from Illinois. I’ve been here too long. A change in scenery and pace will be nice. My only issue is that when it’s time to come home, I know I won’t want to.

What the F!@# Am I Doing?!: The Beginning

For those that don’t know, somewhere around two or three years ago, I wrote a comedy sketch called What the !@#$ Am I Doing?! It was based off of Arrested Development. It was funny, it had the narrator, and it was just my own version of it. While I like what I did with it, (it can be watched here), I’ve decided that I want to do it again, but better. Over the last three years, I’ve learned a lot about writing and film-making in general and I want to remake it with that knowledge.

I’ve turned that one video into an entire series that will be uploaded to YouTube. As it stands, it will run for three seasons and then be over. Why three seasons? Three seasons seems like a reasonable length for a mini series. So far, I have all of season one written and I plan on filming it this summer. That means I’ll release it some time this fall or winter.

Each episode will probably be five minutes or less. After all, this is a very low budget series. I’ve also written it in a way that allows for it to be low budget. I don’t know if that’s being smart or not, but it’ll work for what I’m doing. One day, I’d love to work on a big time production. I just can’t at this point in time, especially since there’s no guarantee that I’ll even make any money off of this series. But even if I don’t, it doesn’t matter. I’m doing it because I want to.

In terms of how it’s being planned out, season one focuses mostly on comedy. There’s dumb jokes and awkward moments that’ll probably make you cringe. But that’s what it’s supposed to do. I wrote it that way on purpose.

Season two is much different. I started writing it, but it isn’t anywhere near being done. Season two will be much more drama driven with a few jokes here and there. Unless I change my mind while writing it. I wouldn’t be surprised if I did. I let the story go where it wants to.

As for season three? Well, I’m not sure yet. I know how I want the series to end, the trick is getting there and making it feel natural and not forced. And if I have to change the end, then I’ll change the end. I’m not against that at all.

I’ve been working on this series for the last few months and I think it’s a solid idea and I’m really excited about it. I’m sure I’ll run into issues as they arise, but I just want to have some fun and create something that I can watch and share with others. I don’t care if it makes money or not. I just want to see my creations come to life.

I will also post occasional updates on the series as it moves along. I think it’s important to document the process not just for myself, but for others to see how I work. I think doing that would be both fun and helpful later on down the road.

Living in a Post-Covid World

While Covid isn’t technically over with yet, it has slowed down enough for the world to return to somewhat normal. We don’t need masks anymore. We don’t have restrictions on where we can go or what we can do. Life is back to how it was…or is it? With cases on the rise again, we might wind up doing this whole thing all over again.

Looking back on the last two years, all I can think about is how weird it really was. We all essentially lost two years of our lives. It’s like two years just didn’t exist. We couldn’t go anywhere. We couldn’t do anything. Nothing was open. We were confined to our homes.

While Covid did mess a lot up, (like my trip to Germany that’s been put on hold for over two years) it also showed us that there is still good in the worst of times. Because I was required to sit at home when Covid started back in 2020, I met some really awesome people through Twitch and Discord and through playing games like Fortnite and Apex.

But this blog post isn’t about a time during Covid. This is about after it. Basically, my life is back to normal. I’m working full-time. I can go and do whatever I want when I want. I can try to regain some of what was lost over the last two years. I’ve even gone to a few concerts recently.

But going back to normal also comes with a price. I don’t have as much time to play video games. I don’t have as much time to just hang around on Twitch or Discord. And sadly, I don’t really talk to most of those friends I’ve made during the pandemic. Life just got too busy it seems. I do hear from a few every now and then, but we don’t talk like we used to.

The two years we weren’t able to do anything were truly some of the weirdest moments of my life. The world came to a halt and it’s something I never thought I’d see happen. It’ll be interesting to think about Covid times again years from now. How we reacted. What we did. What it was like. It was just such a strange time, and one I won’t forget.

Writing Comedy

There are always TV shows and movies that we find funny and even sometimes hilarious. I always enjoyed comedy and I still do. I’ve always wanted to write comedy too. The only problem is, I could never figure out how to write comedy. How do you write jokes down and then make sure others find them funny? Well, I think I finally figured it out.

I’ve always loved shows like Arrested Development and The Office. Movies like Deadpool or Game Night. I feel like the comedic writing in those examples is fantastic. Then you have people like Ryan Reynolds who are seemingly funny without even trying to be. That’s a talent in itself.

The thing is, I think I’m funny. I tell stupid jokes. I act goofy. I generally don’t care what people think of me. But still, I struggled with trying to write that on paper. I finally realized that it’s a combination of things. I need to write the jokes, and then, when I go to film it, make sure that it’s delivered in a way that’s funny. Comedy is just as much performance as it is writing.

So that leads me to the point of this post. For the past few weeks, I’ve been working on my own comedy series that I will film and then post to YouTube. It’s an idea I had a long time ago that I sort of forgot about. I had filmed one episode for it before the pandemic and it can be found here. I have rewritten that episode and I’ve written another episode to follow it. My goal is to film at least three episodes over the summer that I can release over the rest of 2022.

I just want to write and film something that’ll make people laugh. Comedy can be used as a healer. I’ve always liked making people laugh and I always will, even when they didn’t really want to. I think it’s a gift being able to make people laugh and I’d hate to waste it.