Side hustles during a #Pandemic

[VIDEO] Only recently during the course of the history of this blog had I ever tried to monetize this place. I never would've imagined that Google Ads would be placed here and probably would've come in handy during those rare times when this blog received some traffic from a variety of sources. I always considered this place a hobby something to be enjoyed for free, but then again it's something that if one chooses is worth making some money off of.

I've been following Timothy J. Ward for a while especially with another one of his YouTube channels the Frugal Travel Guru. Going somewhere shouldn't cost you a lot of money and just think when I started following that channel he went from talking about tips as far as riding the Greyhound Bus to taking little trips overseas. There are some valuable lessons with that.

Due to unforeseen circumstances of the past two months I'm taking a look at one of his vids from last year declaring this year 2020 as the year of the side hustle. Of course what I have to admit in a time of a great economic downturn perhaps it's hard for many to think of a side hustle. However, as so many have lost their jobs due to this pandemic I wonder how many have turned to another way of earning income.

And no I don't mean OnlyFans, I do mean that many of us have a talent that we haven't utilized that's worth making a small income at least until the economic world stabilized. I'm lucky to still be working right now in this downturn, however, now is the time to figure out for myself other ways to make money. Perhaps that means doing what I've always done since my undergrad years which is creating content people enjoy online.

Besides, perhaps you won't be able to earn a fortune however a lot of eyeballs are on the internet right now with so many people stuck at home with all these shelter in place orders.

If you're reading this blog let me know what your sidehustle is...

Remember Biff from "Back to the Future"?

[VIDEO] Remember Biff Tannen from the Back to the Future franchise? The bully of Marty McFly's father who as it turns out with the help of time travel became less of a bully towards his father?

The man who played Biff - Tom Wilson - has his own YouTube channel where he does "vlogs" about various aspects of his life and career. He starts off by making light of this pandemic noting his master plan. I have to get over the fact that he's aged since the mid to late 1980s. And starts off noting that he had dyed his hair gray so that he can play parts in commercials geared for the elderly.

Pretty funny stuff but he goes from that parody to going on set and later explaining that he hoped to have these videos for his descendents. Though I hope you were entertained by this episode.

WrestleMania 36 #FireflyFunHouse secret explained

[VIDEO] WrestleMania 36 will be interesting considering the time during which it was produced. It feature two cinematic wrestling contests, many title changes, and it was too big for one night. See WrestleMania 36 would've taken place in a football stadium in Tampa Bay, Florida with roughly 70,000 in attendance. The problem was a worldwide pandemic artfully referred to by Stephanie McMahon as "current circumstances"

The video above by Wrestlelamia explains the imagery you see in one of the cinematic contests of WrestleMania weekend which is the Firefly Fun House match between John Cena and Bray Wyatt or The Fiend. From the comments I've seen online it was often panned but what I appreciate from the video above is the many explanations for what happened during that match. You might even see Titus O'Neil''s confused expression at the conclusion of that contest as he wasn't sure what he saw.

There seemingly was a lot in there and what should be conveyed in that "match" is that we're looking at Cena battling his past. Whether or not he was a wrestling fan who was watching the old Saturday's Night Main event and by extension the comparison with Hulk Hogan in the portion where they mimic the NWO and Hogan's heel turn in WCW. Then we look at key moments of Cena's career from his debut slapping the legendary Kurt Angle before a match and his eventual character development as the Doctor of Thuganomics. We see how Cena's career had developed.

I this video you see that Cena had heat with superstars. He held other performers back to certainly protect his position as a main event guy in WWE. And I suppose during this whole "match" we saw a point where Cena could've built a new star in Bray Wyatt and chose not to.

We also find out that Cena had a failed "rap career" and that in the beginning he was almost fired from WWE. If he had never became the Doctor of Thuganomics he would've never gotten close to the dance.

Regardless in this "match" The Fiend claimed yet another WWE legend. However, I have to add that one could say Cena was his own opponent. I don't know if you can call this a match, it seemed more like a dream sequence. It probably took place in the mind of Bray Wyatt and somehow Cena was caught up in it.

When Cena came out to his entrance music and then the scene transitioned to Bray's Firefly Fun House. I couldn't tell if any commentators were at the desk in the empty arena at the WWE Performance Center. So I find myself wonder if this "match" was nothing more than a dream sequence.

With this said, the Firefly Fun House match was a memorable moment from this past weekend's WrestleMania. It held my attention as much as the Boneyard Match between AJ Styles and the Undertaker. Both told very unusual stories and I have a hard time believing either match would be seen as it were in a live venue with so many fans. I think we'd get a typical WrestleMania match if this pandemic hadn't hit.

Also bear in mind finally that this WrestleMania was taped in advance, it wasn't live as it usually would be. I'm glad WWE went ahead and produced this PPV with the line from Ms. McMahon that the world needs entertainment more than ever. So many of us who have been sheltering in place may have found something on both nights that entertained them.

"The Batman" first look

The Batman - Camera Test from Matt Reeves on Vimeo.

[VIDEO] As a geek I wish I could do a far better job of following the news on genre films especially comic book movies. There is to be a new Batman movie next year featuring Twilight's Robert Pattinson as the titular character. It''s expected to be the reboot of the DCEU Batman franchise as Pattison is taking over the role from Ben Affleck.

I saw a lot of comments pouring over the music you will hear in the video above released two months ago. basically your going to hear the same notes repeat as this short clip comes to it's conclusion. The Batsuit looks like a suit of armor although the cinematic Batman for the most part always wears armour to protect himself from typical hazards such as bullets or knives. And to see Pattison in his costume is cool as it previews the movie ahead.

I have to admit I really liked Affleck's batsuit as in the comic cinematic world it's not often we see Batman in a cloth suit as opposed to heavily armored. It was a great change of pace although he portrayed a much older Batman who was worn down by his war on crime in Gotham. Pattison is expected to portray a young Batman at the start of his war on crime.

As stated earlier this is something of a reboot as the DCEU isn't as critically acclaimed or profitable as the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been. Or I should say the DCEU hasn't made as much money over time as the MCU. The movies unfortunately haven't been that great since Man of Steel the first movie of that franchise was released in 2013.

I even saw the movie Birds of Prey: And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn
that came out earlier this year before the pandemic. It's set in the Batman universe and somewhat connects with the DCEU, and indeed the Harley Quinn of the title was first seen in the other DCEU installment Suicide Squad. Both were fun movies, however, the story was a bit of a mess and I left the movie ultimately unsatisfied. I didn't even wait to the end to see the last scene of the movie after the credits. Like a few of them with very few exceptions many of the DCEU movies could've been better.

Hopefully The Batman for next year will reinvigorate the DCEU. I hear it's production is delayed due to the pandemic, however, when theaters reopen later this year hopefully the public will get to see the 2017 Wonder Woman sequel Wonder Woman 1984.

BTW, having seen Joker last year I find myself wishing that universe (its actually not part of the DCEU franchise) could be expanded upon. It would be cool to see a Bruce Wayne/Batman develop in that universe with Joaquin Phoenix's portrayal of the title character as an antagonist. In an interesting way they setup Batman's origin story. If you're sheltering in place, I suggest you check it out on your favorite streaming service.

Colin Furze: Coronavirus isolation box

[VIDEO] The idea of this is impractical but the construction and demonstration of this isolation is entertaining to watch. Would you want to ride out the pandemic in this thing?