About That Photo

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The story behind my About Me photo, and the hidden Kentucky family cemetery where I found an unexpected sense of peace, belonging, and home.

The place I’m standing in has a deeper meaning than I ever could’ve imagined.

From the Archive

If you’ve ever visited my About Me page on the site, you’ve undoubtedly noticed that header pic of me staring into the camera lens, flanked by a creamy bokeh conveniently smearing away the background. This isn’t just a random pic taken on a late winter day in my backyard. I didn’t just say, one day “Here, snap a shot. I need to update my website.” The image is the culmination of a very personal journey, and the place I’m standing in has a deeper meaning than I ever could’ve imagined.

This place, a cemetery named after my family and housing many of said ancestors, is hidden away. It rests on private property and can’t be reached without first getting permission, then hiking well off the beaten path. This day, as I traversed the land in the middle of the beautiful countryside on my way to it, I couldn’t help but slow my pace and savor each step as I gazed around and appreciated the sweet sounds of peace all around me. Chirping birds sat undisturbed, high atop the trees, while a light breeze gently complemented the therapeutic tingling of the freshwater stream, trickling along the creek. This is the world as it is meant to be seen. Nary a trace of mankind along this path and brook aside from a lone, dilapidated barn that sits quietly in the meadow. Did my forefathers build this? I could imagine them over 200 years ago…. moving around, working the land, tending crops, horses, and cattle and growing our family. I could almost hear them, and couldn’t shake this near-euphoric feeling of serenity. I feel like I belong here. This is my home. This is where I’m meant to be.

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Halloween: The Game – Prologue Challenge 6 Made Easy | All 12 Killed in 8:33

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Need to kill all 12 orderlies in Halloween: The Game’s Prologue Challenge 6? This fast, no-escape walkthrough shows the complete route, including the quirks, timing, and key tactical notes. Easy money! Full 8:33 run.

 

This walkthrough shows the fastest, cleanest route I worked out for completing the Prologue’s “Kill All Orderlies” challenge. I’ll guide you through the order that keeps the route moving, the one necessary backtrack, and explain all the finicky, orderly behavioral quirks I’ve encountered while working on this one.

► Need Challenge 5 as well? Watch my no-alert guide with the exact first-orderly freeze timing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAAeRCmSOak

 

Enjoy my content and want to help support what I do? You can always buy me a coffee. Completely optional, always appreciated. ☕🖤

 

Halloween: The Game – Prologue Challenge 5 Made Easy | Exact Freeze Timing

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This quick, cutscene-free walkthrough shows the complete route and the precise visual cue for freezing the first orderly at exactly the right moment.

 

Struggling to complete Prologue Challenge 5 in Halloween: The Game without alerting any orderlies? This quick, cutscene-free walkthrough shows the complete route and the precise visual cue for freezing the first orderly at exactly the right moment.

► Need Challenge 6 as well? This fast, no-escape walkthrough shows the complete route, including the quirks, timing, and key tactical notes. Easy money: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77Qc1b9KhX0

 

Enjoy my content and want to help support what I do? You can always buy me a coffee. Completely optional, always appreciated. ☕🖤

 

One Obscure Day in 1994

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A story my brother told me about an ordinary afternoon at Evergreen Cemetery in 1994 left me with an image I never witnessed. More than three decades later, I’m still trying to understand why it never left me.

I remember almost nothing about that afternoon in 1994… only the image that followed me out of it.

From the Archive

Who can say why we hold on to certain obscurities? Sometimes the most trivial details can quietly take root and grow into some of our most enduring memories. Stranger still are those formed around moments we never actually witnessed firsthand. One such image entered my life on an otherwise ordinary day in the spring of 1994. But to fully grasp how that moment found its way onto the biological hard drive that my long-term memory is so often compared to, I have to return to the summer of ’93, when my brother got his first car and, shortly thereafter, the two of us discovered the cemetery where it would eventually take shape.

Archive Interlude
Two brothers sharing a conversation on cemetery steps
1980 Mercury Zephyr

My older brother was entering his senior year of high school and was on the cusp of turning 18. Our parents knew someone in our extended family who was selling an old 1980 four-door Mercury Zephyr. I remember the four of us riding out to the country one day in August ’93 to look at the car and take it for a test drive. This was my brother’s first shot at owning a vehicle, and I don’t recall it taking much convincing for him to pull the trigger. If memory serves, he paid $400 cash for it and drove away a happy first-time car owner.

This was also the beginning of a special time in our relationship. I was turning 13 and about to experience my first major growth spurt. Psychologically, I was beginning to move beyond the preteen kid stuff that had so often made me the annoying little tag-along brother my older sibling looked to avoid rather than try to bond with, especially in social settings. For the first time, we were beginning to connect through shared interests, philosophies, and the common struggles of being two unusually odd Virgos who were routinely misunderstood. With his own car and the freedom to go wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted, my brother had reached that familiar milestone when a young adult realizes he is finally about to experience life on his own terms. Getting to share that freedom with him brought us closer and shifted my place in his life from little brother to something closer to a buddy.

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The Archive Awakens

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The Midnight Archive awakens… A newly reimagined home for personal stories, creative reflection and the written word, preserved somewhere outside the ordinary.

Welcome to The Midnight Archive.

Writing has always been one of my favorite pastimes. It’s therapeutic in both alleviating tension and providing a creative outlet for inspirational energies that sometimes have no place else to go. It’s so simplistic in its comfortably secluded appeal. I don’t need anyone to hold a camera. I don’t have to rely on people keeping their promises and showing up to shoots. No waiting on products to arrive (and no stressing about their shipping conditions). My phone is face-down on DND, and no one can bother me. It’s just me, my keyboard, my delicious cup of coffee, my comfy VHS-themed Texas Chain Saw Massacre blanket over my legs and nothing else but peace and quiet. This is a creative platform I don’t need a team for me to be able to indulge in and enjoy. That aspect alone makes it vastly more inviting than the sometimes tediously annoying and mentally draining process of video production.

That said, I’ve been noticeably withdrawn from my Journal section on the site here. Outside of the annual Countdown to the Autumn Equinox posts, there’s been a regretful void here for the last few years. I didn’t quite understand why at first, but now I see the problem clearly; here didn’t really exist. These writings. These sessions of personal expression and creativity were just bland WordPress posts that looked like everything else on the site. They were categorized with a menu linking to the list of entries, but that wasn’t enough to keep them from becoming background fodder to the usual list of posts that share the videos I make.

The words are here regardless.

From the Archive

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I Waited ONE YEAR to Open This… | Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater

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You know me… What started as a simple unboxing quickly turns into a trip down memory lane as I revisit my history with Metal Gear Solid 3, the original PS2 release, the long road to Metal Gear Solid Δ, and why Snake Eater remains such a special game more than 20 years later.

 

I bought the Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater Terrarium nearly ONE YEAR ago… and somehow never opened it. So, with Metal Gear Solid Δ celebrating its first anniversary, I figured it might as well be today.

Kept you waiting, huh? 🐍

Join me as I finally unbox, assemble and review this incredibly detailed Metal Gear Solid Δ terrarium featuring Naked Snake in one of the most memorable moments from both the original Metal Gear Solid 3 and the newer Delta remake.

You know me… What started as a simple unboxing quickly turns into a trip down memory lane as I revisit my history with Metal Gear Solid 3, the original PS2 release, the long road to Metal Gear Solid Δ, and why Snake Eater remains such a special game more than 20 years later.

Was the terrarium worth keeping sealed away for almost an entire year? Let’s find out!

Thanks for watching!

 

Enjoy my content and want to help support what I do? You can always buy me a coffee. Completely optional, always appreciated. ☕🖤

 

I Bought Jack Nicholson’s Joker Instead of Paying My $673 Phone Bill…

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Should I give this money away to corporate greed, or treat myself to buying one of the most sought-after Hot Toys figures of all-time?

 

Decisions, decisions… Well, not really. I was recently faced with the choice of paying off Verizon and all their stupid service fees when I switched to T-Mobile. I sold my old Samsung S24 Ultra for $700 and asked myself a simple question; give this money away to corporate greed, or treat myself to buying one of the most sought-after Hot Toys figures of all-time? Yeah…… no conflict there.

Enter: Jack Nicholson’s Joker from 1989 Batman by Hot Toys! The best likeness we’ve seen yet (14 years running now)!

This video was such a delight to put together. My genuine enthusiasm as I open the figure and look over the accessories was scintillating to experience. Finally holding this figure in my hand after all these years is something special. I also had a great time practicing with my Nikon D850 in getting some cool photos of not only Jack, but another special guest…..

I hope you enjoy the video. Thanks for watching!

 

Enjoy my content and want to help support what I do? You can always buy me a coffee. Completely optional, always appreciated. ☕🖤

 

Countdown to Autumn Equinox 2026

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As if the annual summer inferno in the Ohio Valley couldn’t be more annoying. Normally on these countdowns I do my usual ranting and raving about how much summer sucks, and all of us who share the opinion about these dreary, torturous months (regardless of where you live) look ahead to Autumn with endearing anticipation.

AUTUMN EQUINOX 2026
Tues, Sep 22, 2026, 8:05 PM (EST)


Countdown is a bit late this year. My apologies! ‘Been recovering from surgery.

Speaking of which…..

As if the annual summer inferno in the Ohio Valley couldn’t be more annoying. Normally on these countdowns I do my usual ranting and raving about how much summer sucks, and all of us who share the opinion about these dreary, torturous months (regardless of where you live) look ahead to Autumn with endearing anticipation. I throw in tidings of subtle satire with hints of sarcasm whilst conveying the very real emotions we experience when enduring this dreaded season.

This year, however, there is no sarcasm. If you follow me on IG, you’re likely aware by now I had septal reconstruction/turbinate reduction surgery in June, and the first week of recovery was a whole dimension of misery due to the splints the surgeon stitched into my septum to ensure it healed correctly. These splints are bulky and ride up the septum all the way to the top of the nasal cavity and seriously obstruct airflow. Imagine being outside in the summertime when the heat index is pushing 110° and only being able to breathe through your mouth. Might not sound like a huge deal, but when you’re already dealing with the anxiety caused by the discomfort of feeling like something is constantly pressing against your nose and stopping you from breathing….. The excessive heat and humidity can quickly jolt the anxiety to panic levels.

And this isn’t intended to be a woe is me post, as the splints are out now and I’m breathing better than ever. ‘Just wanted to paint a small picture of how summer can make a bad situation 100x worse by simply being there. Another case in point; that video I did on IG where I’m in the car before and after the splints came out had to be timed between A/C blasts to keep the vehicle from becoming it’s own little hell box, as the heat index that day was well into triple digits. I shut the car off to reduce background noise when recording, and it only took less than a minute for the sweltering summer sauce to saturate the air in there. Gasp.

So yeah…. Here we are again. Counting down to the best time of the year in our own individual ways. Only 77 days remaining as of post time. Definite silver lining of being a little late with it this year is seeing the counter well below 100 days already. I’ll take it.

Stay cool, everyone. We’ll make it there together.

 

Enjoy my content and want to help support what I do? You can always buy me a coffee. Completely optional, always appreciated. ☕🖤

 

From GTA III to $100 Million in GTA Online

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Whether you’ve been playing since Liberty City on the PS2 or you’re still building your first million in GTA Online, I hope you’ll enjoy taking this trip down memory lane with me, as well as pick up some Perico strategy tips that’ll help you with your own journey.

 

After weeks of grinding businesses, running Cayo Perico Heists and building a criminal empire in Los Santos… I finally reached $100,000,000 in GTA Online.

But this video ended up becoming about much more than money.

While preparing for and completing the final Cayo Perico Heist that pushed me over the $100 million mark, I found myself reflecting on the entire Grand Theft Auto series and the memories that came with it. From the day GTA V launched in September 2013, to waiting in line for midnight releases, all the way back to GTA III on the PlayStation 2, the game that finally convinced me to buy a PlayStation console in the first place.

In this video, I share:
• My complete Cayo Perico prep and finale strategy
• The final heist that pushed my account past $100 million
• Photos and memories from GTA V’s original launch day
• Reflections on GTA III, GTA V, and over two decades of Grand Theft Auto
• The businesses and money-making methods that helped build my empire

Whether you’ve been playing since Liberty City on the PS2 or you’re still building your first million in GTA Online, I hope you’ll enjoy taking this trip down memory lane with me, as well as pick up some Perico strategy tips that’ll help you with your own journey.

Thanks for watching!

 


If you’d like to support my work, Buy Me A Coffee is a fantastic way to tip your favorite content creators, as they only keep 5% of what you give, with the rest going to us. It is a much better option to show us some love than YouTube’s “Super Thanks”, which takes nearly half. Your support, regardless of how you express it, is always appreciated! Thank you! ☕🖤

 

Batman Returns Hot Toys 1:6 Scale Figure Deluxe Exclusive Unboxing

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This is the deluxe exclusive with the ripped-cowl, Michael Keaton head piece and diorama base. Hot Toys delivers another knockout, but is it worth the price tag?

 

Unboxing and review of the new 1:6 scale Batman Returns figure by Hot Toys. This is the deluxe exclusive with the ripped-cowl, Michael Keaton head piece and diorama base. Hot Toys delivers another knockout, but is it worth the price tag?

 


If you’d like to support my work, Buy Me A Coffee is a fantastic way to tip your favorite content creators, as they only keep 5% of what you give, with the rest going to us. It is a much better option to show us some love than YouTube’s “Super Thanks”, which takes nearly half. Your support, regardless of how you express it, is always appreciated! Thank you! ☕🖤