Two-Zero, Two-Zero, Twenty-Twenty, 2020…whatever you want to call this year, to kinda paraphrase the rookie Leon S. Kennedy in last year's release of the Resident Evil 2 Remake, it's not how I thought it was going to go.

Who'd have thought that during the conclusion of 2019, clinging small shots of alcohol together with a friend at the top of the hour as December 31st, 2019 became January 1st, 2020, would be the result of an eventual crisis waiting to dawn upon us all.

And I won't bullshit you, either. We all know what I'm talking about.

Coronavirus, COVID-19, whatever. We're all stuck…and to think that things were starting to get going this year as well and I was looking forward to new beginnings, new experiences, and tying up loose ends.

They ranged from small things like film releases that I was lucky enough to view on the big screen before everything closed down, to video games that I'd been looking forward to for quite some time.

'Weathering With You', '1917', 'Resident Evil 3 Remake', 'Final Fantasy VII Remake', 'Animal Crossing: New Horizons', 'Pokémon Mystery Dungeon Rescue Team DX' & hell, even Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 Remastered, all come to mind.

Yes, yes, I know that Resident Evil 3, Final Fantasy VII, Mystery Dungeon, & Modern Warfare 2 aren't all 100% new creations, & I WISH Modern Warfare 2's Remaster had Multiplayer, but either way I found some enjoyment with these old titles being given new life again with today's ingenuity that the developers were able to pour into those projects. I won't lie for a second, the moment the music started to kick in at the end of the MW2R Campaign, as Price & Nikolai said the lines: "Nikolai, we've gotta get Soap outta here.", "Da. I know a place." I found myself clapping at the Developed by Infinity Ward & Remastered by Beenox text pop ups, with the credits of the game slowly rising up shortly afterwards.

As for Resident Evil 3, it felt like an expensive piece of DLC that should've been cheaper, while still being included with last year's Resident Evil 2 Remake, it was still an experience I look back on and appreciate despite all of the missing content that could have been in the game, had Capcom & M-Two put more time into it. It was, and still is, kinda funny that a Resident Evil game released while a real pandemic was going on. I can almost hear "Ada Wong" in Resident Evil 6 saying "Deja vu, boys. Raccoon revisited." to Chris Redfield and Piers Nivans, but in Resident Evil 3's case, it was great to once again play as S.T.A.R.S. member, Jill Valentine, cooperating with some members of the Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service, or U.B.C.S. for short, in order to survive the abominations that have overtaken Raccoon City. I mean, come on, why live in a cold, cruel, Carlos-less world, am I right? But as for Raccoon City...well, to quote Jill, "So long, RC."

Now, I didn't bring it up before since it hasn't come out yet, but The Last of Us Part II is still something I'm looking forward to despite some…stuff about the game getting put out there before launch. I'm just a curious gamer and fan of The Last of Us series, and who knows, perhaps I'll enjoy it since it doesn't hurt to try, and I still believe in judging a product fairly after experiencing it fully.

And as for Animal Crossing & Mystery Dungeon, I wasn't able to get a Nintendo Switch for a fair price until very recently due to…well, ya know, people jacking up the price so high.

Now for the film releases, what you're probably asking at this point in time is, "Why '1917' & 'Weathering With You' and why not other films?"

I suppose the first reason would have to be the limited amount of time I had to myself since I was always on the grind no thanks to university courses.

The second reason was, I really enjoyed my time with those two films when I went to the theater to see them. And if there was a third reason, I'd say money since there's not always an infinite supply to go around.

Anyway, I suppose talking about the films for a second, '1917' was a breathtaking World War I film that felt really well done, especially that cinematography consistently nailing that feeling that the entire movie was filmed in one shot, kinda like 2014's 'Birdman', while 'Weathering With You' was breathtaking in its own right, and really felt like it had a ton of love and care put into it, just like 'Your Name.'

Hell, it was somewhat comical yet comforting for Makoto Shinkai to call us all an otaku for recognizing Taki & Mitsuha from his previous project. When the audience and I saw that part of the interview come up, we all laughed in unison.

That was such a good night…

Now for the bigger things: New opportunities while tying up loose ends.

Looking back on it…it was quite gratifying to get offered a job at a company that focused on data and advertisements, while finding out that I was the one selected for the job out of four hundred other candidates. To me…four hundred?! It just wasn't possible to fathom since I'd never done anything like this before. The last job I got hired for was just out of desperation on the manager's part to find somebody quickly. It's not a job I enjoy anymore, and I honestly don't want to go back when corona is done screwing us over, but in hindsight, it did give me three years of work experience.

Before I unfortunately got temporarily suspended from my new job due to the pandemic, I thought I was going to say goodbye to the fast food part time job I had. I'm still not going back to fast food when they give the green light, but I am grateful, however, for having a manager that was very supportive in me pursuing my next endeavours. It was about time I closed the book on my old job and move on, or that's what I thought at the time...

Now, besides getting a new job that I hope to return to soon, I was able to attend PAX East for the first time at PAX East 2020, and that was the first time I ever went to Boston, Massachusetts.

I got to meet, hang out & room with long time internet friends, one of them being a YouTuber I became friends with after a while: jerimiahisaiah. While meeting Jeri, he put a shock to my system for sure, and I got to meet some of his friends as well…don't worry, Acid, I haven't forgotten about you, or your Mojo Jojo cosplay.

It was all one big epic meeting.

Besides meeting my friends, I got to try out some game demos, see all of the cosplays, meet some of the FFVII Remake cast, and even meet some other YouTubers as well such as Canadian Guy Eh, GlitchxCity, Vee, & the big one for me…GCPM11.

Shoutout to Ivan…man, he really made that meeting with Giancarlo happen. I was mesmerized to see him in person since I'd religiously watch his Pokémon content as a kid. He's no longer really a YouTuber anymore, but he is definitely living his life the best he can now.

Experiencing PAX East was worth the price I payed and looking back, I feel like I dodged a giant bullet leaving America to go back to Canada since shortly after I left Boston, the Canada-U.S border had closed. It's just a shame that due to the state of the world right now, everything just grinded to a halt, quite violently too, might I add.

Being stuck in this pandemic currently, the same as some of you potentially reading this at the moment, what am I doing with my time? I'm not going to bore you to death as I might've talking about everything else above, but to make it a 'TLDR version': trying to make YouTube videos, rebranding from PSYLOD III to PSYLOD V, playing video games, binge-watching (The Clone Wars Season 7 was…something else), ya know…the typical stuff.

I've wanted to write fanfiction again, but sadly, I just haven't had the energy for it until recently. And thank goodness that I'm still with my parents otherwise I'd have been screwed by now and I wouldn't have the privilege to even have all of this leisurely time to myself, nor would I have come up with the idea to talk to you with these accounts I've written down before beginning the real story you came here for.

This transitions perfectly into discussing more Pokémon related topics since that has been one of the things I'd been watching while on lockdown.

I've mainly been focusing on watching older anime content I grew up with as a child, which also happens to be my favorite era to this very day; the Hoenn/Generation 3 era, the same era when Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire & Emerald were the newest entries of Pokémon games added onto the franchise. I'll never forget being awe struck by the little things like Professor Birch being chased by a Poochyena in the beginning, to the big things like the Battle Frontier, & that cutscene involving Rayquaza intervening with an awakened pair of legendary Pokémon, Kyogre & Groudon, fighting within the borders of Sootopolis City. And, of course, it'd be impossible to mention those three games without mentioning the music. They don't call Hoenn "land of the trumpets" for nothing.

Hell, even the remakes released in 2014, Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire, were truly memorable experiences that had many great moments. The Primal Evolutions of Groudon & Kyogre were truly remarkable, the Delta Episode after the end of the game was just jaw dropping, & Wally really surprised me before I headed off to Ever Grande City at the end of Victory Road with one epic rock and roll theme song that seemed to root for him as opposed to myself, a player.

This is something I've been feeling since I met Giancarlo, but I feel like my younger self and the memories I had at that age have been coming out again and it made me remember a simpler time…a time when I was really invested into the world of Pokémon, in addition to Ash Ketchum's endeavours to "be the very best like no one ever was."

Sure, I had other childhood titles I still look back on fondly like Spyro the Dragon, Pokémon Fire Red, Jak & Daxter, and even Resident Evil 3: Nemesis funny enough, but Pokémon and the Hoenn era really stood out to me the most back then. Writing all of this down has helped me break the seal on those memories I'd forgotten for so long. To be honest, when I was younger, I remember wanting to be in that world, with Ash and co, though I had friends back in the day, who I unfortunately don't see anymore since they've moved away long ago, to share that Pokémon passion with.

So far I'm doing alright at the age of 21, though sometimes I want to relive those old times since there's so many things I've left behind as I continued to grow older. But as I've learned over the short amount time I've lived on this earth, they always say "Be careful what you wish for." For a reason.

What reason is that? Well, I guess we're gonna find out.