Matt Jaku

2020: The End and The Beginning

2020 was some kind of year. It had its ups and downs. It seemed like for every positive thing there were about 10 negative things. Not to mention that March to about August seemed to last about 20 years while August to December went by in the blink of an eye. But was 2020 all that bad? From my own personal experience, it really wasn’t. Sure some things got thrown off track because of Covid, but overall I did have a decent year.

My year started off amazing. I was in Colorado for our annual skiing trip. We went to Winter Park and spent a week skiing before returning home. It’s a trip I look forward to every year. Sadly we won’t be going this time around. Covid is to blame. But life will go on. We will return when it is safe to do so. In the meantime, we will jusy have to go skiing closer to home.

April took a dive downward. I wound up with Covid with the rest of my family. We all recovered from it, but it was definitely an experience I won’t forget. It was not fun. For me, it lasted for about 10 days. While I was fine enough to go outside and walk around the house, I didn’t leave the property. I was not going to put others at risk and it was a long time after I had it that I decided it was safe for me to even go to the store again.

2020 has opened the door to many new friendships as well. I’ve met a lot of awesome people through Discord and Twitch and many of them live a world away. If it wasn’t for Covid, there’s a good chance I never would of met any of these people. I was only able to meet them because I was stuck at home for 2 months and spent a good chunk of my time online.

August brought another sad moment. I had plans to go to Sweden in August but we cancelled that trip because of Covid. It was going to be my first international trip. It was going to be such an awesome experience and I was so excited. But safety comes first. And while we didn’t go, we plan to make up for it with a trip to Germany in September of 2021.

As the year came to a close I couldn’t help but smile at all the things I was still able to accomplish even with the world in a state of uncertainty. I continued to take classes and I spent 2020 learning German. I’m not completely fluent in it but Ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch.

2020 was also the year where I was able to bring myself out of the massive debt hole I was in. I’m not 100% debt free, but I’m in a much better spot than I was 12 months ago and that alone calls for celebration. I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do it but I did. And I’m so happy I did. It feels like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders and I can’t wait to start 2021 in a much better place financially.

Along with all the chaos I also wrote a new LEGO animated film as well as created a new comic series. I’ve spent a decent amount of time doing creative things like that as well as video editing. I needed to keep busy and I definitely did with those projects.

I’m excited for 2021. The world might not be back to normal, but there’s plenty of things I want to accomplish. I want to film the short film I wrote and my new LEGO animation. I want to read at least one book a month. I want to do more video editing. There’s plenty I can do this year. All I have to do it set my mind to it.

A World of Battle Royale

The first battle Royale I ever played was Fortnite. Fortnite was a new kind of game for me. It was something I had never played before. Playing a shooter was nothing new. I’ve been playing shooters since Wolfenstein 3D. But Fortnite added a new element to the game: building.

Fortnite exploded. And I firmly believe it was because it was the first full cross-platform game. PC players could play with Xbox and Playstation players. And later they added Switch and mobile to the list. It was truly a game you can play with all your friends. And while it was fun at first, Fortnite had become stale and filled with try hards. Playing casually doesn’t exist anymore. Maybe I’m just bad at the game, but always being out-built makes me want to rage quit.

I spent some time on Warzone but it felt like there was too much going on. I’d always get killed super fast. I couldn’t kill anyone and my team always carried me. I don’t think I’ve ever won a game of Warzone either. But that’s ok. Warzone is the past.

Aside from Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, the only other game to really have my attention is Apex Legends. Apex is a game I dabbled in earlier on. I’d play a game here or there and then quit. It was fun, but I wanted to play other stuff. Recently that changed.

I’ve been all about Apex lately. I love the gameplay. I love the pace of the games. I love the choice of weapons and the legends to play as. Apex takes some getting used to, but once you figure out the mechanics. it’s super fun to play. It’s been the one game I’ve played the most in the last week or 2. I just can’t stop playing it.

I don’t win often, but when I do win, it feels like a major accomplishment. It feels like I earned a win. Fortnite wins don’t always feel earned. They are sometimes really easy to get. Apex is hard, but not impossible. And while I’m still learning about all the little aspects of the game, I’m sure I’ll be playing Apex for a long time to come.

Being a Content Creator

Being a content creator isn’t as easy as it seems. It takes a lot of time and effort. I create several forms of content. All of which are different. And all of which take hours upon hours to complete.

I have recently created a schedule for myself in order to manage my time better. While it seemed like I would follow it, after the first week, I forgot about it and stopped. It wasn’t my intention. I’m just not accustomed to following a schedule like that.

So I think it’s time I went and revisited it. I put things in there like edit video, write these blog posts, work on my movie, read books, the list goes on. There’s plenty of times I have editing marked down and no video to edit. So while I do specify times, it isn’t always set in stone. That’s just how it is.

It always seems like there’s a lot I want to do and I never seem to have time to do it. Even after managing my time. This is mainly because I find ways to distract myself. For example, this post was supposed to be out last Sunday, November 1. It’s a week late.

When I started creating content, I never intended to make money off it. I just did it because I discovered a long time ago that I have a creative brain. I need to do things that allow me to be creative. So I learned how to edit video on my own. It was ok, but then I took an actual video editing class. After that, my video editing excelled. I had a better understanding of it and what to look for.

Since then, I’ve edited videos for a few Twitch streamers. I’m not a perfect editor, but I do take pride in my work. Besides that, there’s no such thing as a perfect video editor. There’s always a mistake somewhere.

Currently, most of the video I edit is my own. It’s either for my gaming channel on YouTube or one of my other two channels. The other two channels I use to post video edits as well as projects I wrote and/or produced. I do a lot of it for the experience. The gaming videos I try to get more experimental with. Try new things. Everything else, I just do whatever flows.

Aside from video editing I also write and draw comics. I’m not the best artist, but I do what I can. I make up for it in storytelling…or at least I try to. I am proud of my comics even though they aren’t finished yet. One of them I may never finish simply because there’s so much story left to tell.

My biggest creative project is the movie I’m writing. While I can’t go into detail, I can say that it is something that I am very happy with so far. I love the story and I love how it’s playing out. It’s always a good sign when the story writes itself and flows naturally.

Having a creative mind is both a curse and a blessing. It’s a blessing because I can write things that I can share with other people. I can tell endless stories. I can share how I feel. But most importantly for me, it gives me a chance to be me. It gives me a chance to be anyone I want. As someone that never finished college, that means a lot.

There’s so many things I want to do. So many people I want to be. There just isn’t enough time in the world for it all. But to be able to create worlds and characters that can live out these other lives makes me feel happy. For example, I know I’ll never be a lawyer, but that doesn’t mean I can’t write a story about one. And in doing so, I would get to feel what it’s like to be a lawyer for a brief moment in time.

Being a content creator is hard. It’s far from easy. But you get out of it what you put into it. And after I write a story, I always feel happy. I feel accomplished. And that’s one of the best feelings in the world.

Time Travel

I’ve always been fascinated by the idea of time travel. Going forward in time. Going backward in time. Meeting our heroes. Visiting with loved ones we miss. But the question arises. Even if we could, should we? Should we put ourselves into a situation where we could vastly alter our past or even our future?

While it isn’t certain whether or not we can travel through time, we have several reasons not to. We have countless movies that show us what could go wrong. Back to the Future shows us what could go wrong if those from the future return to visit themselves in the past. Timeless is a good example of how changing the past can affect the future. It still stands as one of my favorite TV shows, but when you mess with time, time messes back.

The music video for “Another World” by Gojira gives us a chilling look into what the future could hold. This is, of course, assuming we don’t change our current ways. And while we may not be thinking hundreds of years ahead, we need to. Because without today, tomorrow doesn’t exist.

However, there is a very basic way we can travel through time. It comes in the form of music. There are songs that takes us back to a certain time and place when we hear them. They remind us of people, places, events, vacations, the list goes on. And while we can’t exactly travel back to that time, for a few minutes, we do return to that time and we get a chance to relive it. Maybe even a little different than before.

My brain has a tendency to wander. I’m constantly thinking about new projects without finishing old ones. I have so many stories I want to write. So many comics I need to finish. Short films to write and film. The list goes on and on. But one of the things I haven’t gotten to yet is a story about time travel. I’ve always wanted to do one and I plan on doing it one day.

I did try writing a story in which the main character was following the clues left behind from Bonnie and Clyde in order to find a treasure. I never finished the story. And the middle got stale and boring. I’m not even sure I still have it. But in the original idea, the main character was going to travel back in time. When I couldn’t figure out how to make that happen, I scrapped the time travel aspect. But that’s a story for another post.

While time travel would be cool, I think it’s wise to not travel through time. Even if we could, I’d never go to the future. To see how things turn out would destroy our idea of the present. But to go back in time, that’s something I’ve often thought about. Seeing historical figures of the past. Hanging out with all these famous people before they were famous. As a history geek that idea excites me. As a rational human, I’d be concerned about getting stuck in the past. And while we can’t exactly travel through time yet, the idea excites me and scares me at the same time.

A New Beginning

October 2020. 8 months after the beginning of the pandemic. Life is not what it once was. We live in a world of uncertainty. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring. We don’t know if this pandemic will ever end. And yet, we keep moving on. We keep fighting. We have hope that one day, life will return to normal. Is that even possible at this point? Can we go back to normal? Who knows.

This pandemic has exposed many of the flaws in our society. From health care issues to how the ultra rich can be comfortable while the rest of us struggle. It has showed us how divided we are. How entitled some of us are. How we believe wearing a mask is losing our rights when it’s really there to keep everyone safe and healthy.

The unknown scares us. We could have this pandemic another 2 months or another 2 years. But one thing is for sure, the pandemic has caused us to confront issues we didn’t before and as a result, things are slowly changing.

I have made some changes in my life as well. Partially because of the pandemic, partially because it was time. I’ve spent a majority of my life playing it safe. Not taking a risk for fear of failure or rejection. 2020 was the first year where I said, “Screw it! Let’s see what happens!”

It started when I changed my job in February. I left my current job of 4 years after they didn’t want to negotiate a pay raise. I had just worked 14 days in a row and felt I wasn’t being compensated fairly after a co-worker quit. They didn’t want to entertain the idea of a negotiation. So I left. I went somewhere closer to home that was going to pay me more and work me less than 14 days in a row. As it turns out, that was one of the smartest things I did.

Come March the pandemic hit and everything was shut down. I was at home from March-May and I got paid by my new job for the hours I would have worked. This came as a shock to me. I was only a part time employee and I had only been there a month. I’m grateful that they did pay me during lockdown. And it just shows that sometimes when you take a leap of faith it all works out for the better.

I went back to work in June and it’s been a bit of a struggle. Not for me personally, but for work. There are additional rules and regulations in place. Masks are required at all times. We have to constantly clean things. It isn’t anything overly complicated, but it is extra work. While I don’t expect to be compensated for it, I wouldn’t take this opportunity for granted. It has proven to be a wise decision to come here. And in time, I know things will work out in my favor. We are in a unique time. An era none of us have experienced. And I’m sure once this is over, the reward for sticking it out will be waiting. I just have to take that leap of faith once more.