The Long-Awaited Post-Jurassic Park Update Post
It’s a strange feeling leaving the Jurassic Park behind for good and all. After all, it’s been a significant part of my life as a blogger, albeit for not exactly benign reasons. Still, it feels somewhat bittersweet finally laying this thing to a long overdue rest, probably because while I was working on it, Sam Neil, the much-beloved actor who so excellently brought Dr. Alan Grant to life 33 years ago, successfully beat his blood cancer diagnosis only to succumb to pneumonia at the age of 78. It doesn’t seem fair, does it?
I am not in any way frightened of dying. That has never worried me. But I would be annoyed, because there are still things I want to do. Very irritating, dying, but I’m not afraid of it”- Interview with Gamespot’s Eddie Makuch on October 17, 2023
Of course, that means I now have much more time to dedicate to the other long-running projects on this blog. Allow me to share what I’m planning for this blog in the near future, based on the order in which I intend to release them:
Cryptids of North America #15: North Carolina
Yeah, obviously I want to dive into the cryptid well again after such a labor-intensive project. You can expect my summaries of the Tar Heel State’s cryptids sometime later this month.
My Favorite Animated Movies/TV Shows of 2025
I’m still hard at work on those lists (I’m about halfway through my TV candidates for the month of April). The movies list will likely be my biggest priority once the next CoNA article is finished. Either that or…
New Top 20 Favorite Songs from X Artist Lists
A while back, I did a special episode of “P.J.’s Ultimate Playlist” where I ranked my top 20 favorite songs by Led Zeppelin, one of my favorite artists from any music genre. I have since complied two other lists ranking my favorite songs from two other classic rock giants (don’t ask which ones; it’s a surprise). Depending on how long it takes me to get my thoughts in order on which animated film from 2025 is the best, either that list or one of the “favorite songs” lists will be the one to come out after the North Carolina article. This type of article might also make for a good birthday special idea for when next May comes around (I’m not sure that I’ll wait that long to cover the other band, though).
More Debunking Lists
This is referring to the few other politically charged debunking lists I’ve done in the past, including two on anthropogenic climate change, another about 9/11 Truther conspiracies, and two about conservative myths around the queer community, one of them being specifically about transgender people. I’ve been considering doing other debunking lists of myths around the 2020 election, the January 6th insurrection, immigration, COVID, etc. It might be a while before any of those come out, though, because I haven’t fully decided if I want to commit to them yet. Still, my parents believe in most of these conspiracies, so that’s a big incentive for me to start doing these again.
Articles about prehistoric life
One side effect of my lengthy look at the Jurassic Park franchise is that it caused my long-term love affair with dinosaurs to flare up into a fever pitch again, so much so that I may need to start writing about them on this blog to get it out of my system. I’m not entirely sure how, yet. Perhaps I could try to figure out which dinosaur was the biggest, which dinosaur was the smallest, which dinosaur was the cutest, the smartest, the fastest, the most dangerous, the last, etc. I also want to give the creatures of the Paleozoic and Cenozoic their due as well. Maybe I could speculate on which Cambrian Explosion animal was the weirdest, or which was the first animal after the dinosaurs went extinct. First, though, I think I might go through every U.S. state and explain every state fossil and/or dinosaur. That might be a fun compliment to “Cryptids of North America.”
Miscellaneous ideas
I’d also like to get out another “1001 Animations Before You Die” entry before the holiday season, but that might depend on how much work I have to do on the 2025 lists.
I’m sure some other weird ideas may come to me every now and again, but for now, that’s my most solid plans for what the future of this blog will look like.
Of course, that may depend on how busy my life will get now that my care management program and driver’s license pursuit are finally getting somewhere. You can read my July 4th article to get the full details, but the TL; DR is that I’ve been enrolled in a care management program via the online therapy service I’ve been using that has pointed me to several resources to help me get a job, a new place to work, a way to restart my social life, etc. I haven’t made all the phone calls yet. I was originally going to wait until after my family’s annual camping trip, which was going to be at Buck Pond Campground in the Adirondacks the second week of August. Unfortunately, though, pretty much everyone had to back out due to various complications (work, campers getting trashed by nesting mice, garden coming into bloom) and the trip was cancelled. My mother in particular was reluctant to go not only because our dog has a neuro-degenerative condition that makes him unfit to travel, but also because my sister is having a baby near the end of this month and she was worried about staying for a week in an area with poor cellphone reception in case an emergency sprang up. So, yeah. It sucks, but it does leave me with more time to spend on the blog and my real-life pursuits, so it’s not all bad.
So far, the care management has been going pretty great. I had my first call with my peer specialist the Tuesday after the 4th, who introduced himself as an older man in his 40s from Elmira, and was rather pleasantly surprised when he also expressed an interest in cryptozoology. I think him and I are going to get along just fine.
Rest assured, though, beautiful watchers, that no matter how busy my real life gets, I still intend to make time for this blog, because I still haven’t run out of things to say. So stay tuned for that, especially the article on North Carolina cryptids, which, again, will be coming out later this month.
Until then, stay safe, remember to pour one out for Sam the Dinosaur Man, and last but not least, play us out, Weird Al!
Jurassic Park is frightening in the dark, and all the dinosaurs are running wild! What a crummy weekend this has been! Well, this sure ain’t no e-ticket! Think I’ll tell them where to stick it, ‘cause I’m never coming back this way again! Oh nooooo! WOAH, NOOOOOOOOOOOO!
