Dear Evan Hansen Review – Tarqaron

Being a Night Owl

Blog

Please excuse me being behind on all my shit. Not only am I behind on editing, I’m behind on filming, plus I have a lot of catching up to do in terms of television and other things I would like to talk about. It has all just sort of piled up. Which of course can happen from time to time, especially with so much on my plate, but I have full confidence that I’ll be back on the proper horse in no time. But we never miss the weekly blog post, you understand me, we never miss those, so that’s why I’m doing this before everything else I’m behind on.

In recent times I’ve had this habit of going for walks at all hours of the night. While there’s definitely a lot more you can do during the day, and I love me some good daylight, there’s something about the night time that makes me want to go outside. A lot of the time it’s not so much a desire to go out as it is a desire to go out, you know what I’m saying? Probably not, but that’s okay. Mostly it comes down to me feeling too cooped up when I’m inside in a small room by myself. So the only real alternative is to go. That can come in the form of a late night drive, just sitting outside, or a full-on walk around the town. In addition to feeling cooped up, these late-night activities are often inspired by a desire to be alone with my thoughts as well. Don’t get me wrong though, I am also the kind of person who would probably be down for almost anything if someone were to call me late at night. I love the idea of spontaneously doing things at night, even if it’s something as simple as a quick drive or a long talk. Especially if I know I have the following day off from work, you can literally catch me out in these streets walkin’, bro. I’m a whole night owl, a creature of the night, whatever you wanna call it.

There’s just something so alluring about night time in general. Not only are things you only see at night like neon lights so aesthetically pleasing and cool, but a lot of great experiences come out of the nighttime vibe. I feel like a lot of the most important/thought-provoking/interesting conversations I’ve ever had were at night. There’s something about the night that tends to get you a little more vulnerable and introspective/reflective, from my experience at least. And those are the times I remember and appreciate the most. But hey, that could just be my perspective. Regardless, that undeniably all feeds into why I appreciate the night time so much.

Since I’m a night owl, naturally I’m not much of an early bird. In an ideal world I could always stay up late and never have to wake up early. Though I fully concede that regularly waking up early is probably the healthier option long-term, especially in the typical work week structure, it’s just not in my nature. Whenever I have to wake up absurdly early it throws off my whole mojo and I inevitably end up crashing in the middle of the day after I’ve finished whatever I needed to be up early for. So for now I am a true night owl. The one thing I’m missing is a way to realistically play basketball at night. Then I’d be set for life. I’ll just have to wait until I get my own personal indoor basketball court.

Videos I Posted This Week:

Things I Enjoyed This Week:

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl (Game)
The Circle (Netflix series)
Little Mix – Salute (Album)

Survivor: Palau Ep. 2 Reaction (Wow) – Tarqaron

Survivor, Survivor: Palau, Tarqaron

Discussion:

Reaction Highlights:

Survivor 41 Ep. 2 Reaction – Tarqaron

Survivor, Survivor 41, Tarqaron

Discussion:

Reaction Highlights:

Cold Update

Blog

As I sit here I am freezing cold. The fact that just a couple of days ago it was hot and now it’s cold, that’s pretty wild. We went from sweaty weather to sweater weather real quick, and my clothing choices have not quite caught up to the changes yet either. I’m in a damn tank top over here. I’m up writing this in the early morn, colder than I’ve been in a long while, because I literally didn’t possess the energy to go on after editing a video late into the night last night (and I won’t have any time to write this for the rest of the day today). So I’m here, colder and more exhausted than I’ve been for some time, just writing whatever comes to mind since I had nothing specifically planned to write about. But hey, that’s the beauty of life or some shit.

Can we talk about how cold it is right now, though, for real? It’s legitimately 48 degrees outside right now, which for some reason translates to it being even colder indoors for me. I am not nearly equipped enough to fight this fight; I should be cozied up with multiple layers and hunkered down, but ain’t nobody got time for that because I’ve got to write this blog, finish uploading my video, and then get ready to fly over to work in just a couple of hours. I really feel so spent right now, it’s hard to be motivated during these times.

Naturally this is going to be a shorter blog, so I guess I’ll take this time to give another update on where my head is at exactly. The past few weeks I’ve really just had this overarching feeling of “I need to get out of here.” Not just in the sense that I’m unhappy with where I’m at in life, which I’ve established before on these blogs, but more-so in the sense that I just have this feeling of not wanting to be cooped up for too long. Not so much in the freezing cold like this, but in the nice weather we’ve had for the past few weeks I’ve definitely taken the opportunity just to go outside at random points, whether it be at night or in the day. A lot of the time it tends to be at night that I get this urge to go outside and at least get some fresh air because me being cooped up in a small room for too long tends to not be a fun combo lately.

I haven’t been all that shy about the fact that I am a bit of an emotional wreck these days. I mean, this past week in particular hasn’t been particularly bad comparatively, but it’s something I continue to deal with. Mostly what I mean by “emotional wreck” is that in general I tend to get emotional over things far more easily than I used to. I could be in a fine mood one minute but then something often largely insignificant could happen that just wrecks my mood for a period of time. And on top of that, I just feel sad in general way more than I’d like to (or should). This is all stuff I’ll have to continue to work on, but I would like to at least note that I am incredibly grateful for my support base of friends and family during these times as well. Not only do I have a good group of friends that are consistently there for me in general, but this past week especially, since I have frustratingly been without a car, they have all been giving me rides at crucial times when I otherwise would have been screwed. I feel bad because this past week I have been like a bum trying to hitch a ride every day, and I’m so out of the way for most people so it’s a real inconvenience, but they have been there for me nonetheless so I am definitely grateful for that.

That being said, it’s frustrating being without a car. It feels like just another setback for me which I really can’t afford right now. The thing is, I have no need or interest in a nice car, I just need one that functions. As long as I can get from one place to another with some amount of safety, that’s all I care about. And yet, my 2003 Toyota Solara isn’t doing too hot for me now and I’m not sure where to go from here. I hate depending on people and being an inconvenience, but that’s just where I’m at until I can figure something out unfortunately. But of course that’s just a minor distraction in the grand scheme of things. I have so much about my life that I still want/need to change in order to better myself and get myself in a happier place, and I need to get started on that pronto.

Videos I Posted This Week:

Survivor: Palau Ep. 1 Reaction (Sassy Splash) – Tarqaron

Things I Enjoyed This Week:

Dua Lipa: Complete Edition – Dua Lipa (Album)

Survivor 41 is here!

Television (Zach), Videos

Welcome to Tarqaron (2021)

Tarqaron

SUPERtheticals: 50 New Questions for Strange Conversations (#5) – Tarqaron

Discussions, Hypertheticals, Tarqaron

Survivor: Palau Ep. 1 Reaction (Sassy Splash) – Tarqaron

Survivor, Survivor: Palau, Tarqaron

Discussion:

Reaction Highlights:

Survivor 41

Blog

If you don’t want to hear any details about the newest season of Survivor, now would be the time to avert your gaze. Honestly, Survivor has been top of mind for me ever since I watched the premiere of season 41, so I felt like it only made sense for me to write about it here. I need to do a serious brainstorming session and figure out what I should write about for the weeks to come, though, for sure.

If you want to see my actual reaction to the premiere and immediate thoughts afterword, be sure to check out the video I just posted today on the Tarqaron YouTube channel. Or, if you want to take a step back, check out the video I did with my friend Rusty where we talked about everything we knew before the season began, including a full cast assessment and draft! I’ve got a lot on my plate so I’m sure it will be overwhelming at times, but my plan is to do a video for every episode of 41, in addition to going through Survivor: Palau with my friend Alec concurrently (starting in a few days)! So for all you Survivor fans, there will be no shortage of Survivor love on all of the things I’m creating.

The reason that 41 is such a monumental season is because of the show having the longest break between seasons that its ever had, courtesy of COVID-19. If you followed any of the pre-season articles/interviews, you would know that they went into Survivor 41 with the full intention of doing something significantly different and marking a new era in the show. Whereas traditionally fans had always been the ones to retroactively define the different eras of Survivor in their own terms, this would be the first time where the showrunners themselves would declare a new era before it even began. In all the pre-season talk, Jeff Probst emphasized how they were ramping up the “danger” in the show by making changes like decreasing the amount of days from 39 to 26 to make for a grueling pace and only offering meager supplies and very minimal rewards. Players would have to fight for everything they got; nothing would come easy.

While I was concerned by talk of things like potential “controversial twists,” I was here for the ramped-up pace and miniscule supplies, and was optimistic about what a “new era” could do for the show’s health and longevity. I am happy to say that the premiere really sold me on this new direction for Survivor. Everything from the lively cast to the awesome changes in cinematography really breathed a whole new life into Survivor. It felt like I was watching a different show entirely at times. But at the same time, it retained so much of what I love about Survivor and it was honestly just really refreshing to not only see Survivor again but to see so many people (including Jeff) thrilled to be there and interacting with each other. A combination of COVID and a break from Survivor made every interaction that much sweeter throughout the whole premiere. Though I am definitely someone who loves to think and talk about the strategy of Survivor, the human/social element has become more and more important to me over the past couple of years especially, and on that level it was great to see a bunch of smiling faces on my screen.

And in terms of the strategy aspect, I felt like the premiere also delivered in that regard, and I suspect there will be no shortage of exciting gameplay throughout the rest of the season. Even the new twists/advantages that have been shown and teased don’t seem too unreasonable so far, and this idea of everyone’s votes constantly being vulnerable could make for some interesting shenanigans down the line potentially. The Survivor 41 cast seems so solid, not only in that they are entertaining to watch, but also in that they are all so excited to be there and as a result are there to play. All of them are fans if not super fans, and if you combine that with this new break-neck pace, then I think we are in for quite a fun ride. No one will go quietly.

I just wanted to express overall how excited I am for the season and new direction as a whole, as well as how impressed I was with this first episode specifically. Maybe I’m just a sucker for some new Survivor love at this point, but almost everything really landed for me in this premiere, from peeling back the curtain and showing more of the behind-the-scenes crew to the epic slow-mo shots. I’m here for it all!

Now, that doesn’t mean they couldn’t blow it with some controversial twists toward the endgame, but for now I am just excited for what is to come. If you want to hear my thoughts on the specific happenings of each episode throughout Survivor 41, make sure to check out the Tarqaron YouTube channel and continue to stay tuned!