Hey hey hey, been a minute. And for good reason (No, this is not a retirement post!).

Come mid-January, I will have been writing reviews and hosting this site for nine years. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it too, and it is kind of funny when you no longer feel the need to try and write about every major or even mid-level release, your writing becomes tighter and better. No one is a finished product in anything, but I feel like I’ve hit a higher and more consistent level of quality from 2018 and on compared to my earlier days in “wanting to get something out.”

While it produced a bit of anxiety at first, I’ve liked how this site’s written content has sort of moved away from just mid/big movies dominant releases to sometimes more smaller fare. Not that I don’t enjoy the big flicks—I still watch them, but there are numerous other places where one could get reviews. In many ways, even as I’ve never done this to try and obtain a huge following, featuring smaller movies can do just as much for a site as far as eyeballs go versus only putting attention on bright and shiny releases.

Anyway, the purpose of this post. For the first time in my life, I’m a father. Not of a human (that will happen one day, but no rush), but a little fur baby. Name is Jupiter, Labradoodle, 10 weeks and 13 pounds. It’s been a wild first week. I didn’t have many intentions of caretaking a pet, yet life scenarios and what you’re able to provide can—at the right time—make you drawn to bringing in an animal in need a safe, stable home.

I used to silently chuckle when people would equate raising a puppy to a child, because there was just no way. Now? I totally get it. If you’re doing it right, your schedule is automatically going to change, at least in the early days and months. That run you wanted to go on? Needs to fit around your pup; better yet, get a spinning bike. Can’t let them out of your sight for long. The movie you could previously go to before that would put you out of the house for 2.5 hours? Yeah, no go, can’t leave a pup this young crated too long or alone to roam free. Hell, even the movie you wanted to watch at home is almost certainly broken up now from an immersion perspective with the energetic ball of fur needing to eat, go outside, relieve itself, get trained, and play. All of that is before writing thoughts.

And that’s OK. Change isn’t only good, often it’s necessary for personal growth. Again, this is not a retirement, and maybe here and there the time will allow me to get to a few movies and write thoughts about them. But it is a programming note to explain why I’m likely going to be more sporadic than even before. I am on Letterboxd (will get better at logging things) if you’d like to follow there.

Nevertheless, wishing each of every one of you a great Holiday season and a safe rest of the year.

Feel free to follow me @MrJackMarkSon