I made Twelfth Grade in eleventh grade

 

One of the characters from this announcement photo was literally turned into a dog.

It's just past midnight on January 5th, 2026. On January 5th, 2016, I premiered the first episode of the web series I wrote and directed, Twelfth Grade (or Whatever). I was 16, almost 17. Now I'm 26, almost 27. Retroactively, episode 1 was re-shot because one of the main actors had to drop out shortly after the episode was released, so even though the video listed as episode 1 was not posted on January 5th, that's still technically the premiere date. It was a mess.

The show is also, still, pretty damn good. People tell me that, anyways. In moments of self-loathing, I like to say that it was entirely because the actors I found were talented enough to save the whole thing. When I'm feeling more charitable, I'll give myself maybe 33% of the credit.

A lot of what's good about 12GW is good in spite of myself. Was I a decent enough writer at 16/17 to write a pretty strong script? Sure. I also felt, in my soul, that if I was to seek out support and assistance from other people, I would not only lose control of the project, but make myself a horrible burden on anyone I asked for help. You know how in early episodes you can see Sarah (Viola) obviously looking down at the script on the ground? Yeah, that's entirely my fault. She offered to do more takes, and I said no, it's fine, because I didn't want to "waste anyone's time." Who let the insecure teenager be the only person behind the camera? Oh yeah, me. In fact, I insisted on it. Great call.

I literally had this girl say "maybe it's okay that I can't control everything" while I was trying to control everything.

 I wish I could say I got better at this. I guess I did, a bit. Technical aspects of my filmmaking certainly improved. Scripts on the ground became far less obvious. I think I'm a better writer than I was. (Or I would be, if I didn't have chronic writer's block, which is a different post.) But I never got much better at asking people for things.

So if you are someone who has ever done something for me - an actor, a co-creator, a YouTube commenter or a Tumblr poster - because you felt my work was worth it, I can't say thank you enough times to be sufficient. Not gonna lie, the past ten years have been rough for me. I've gained one unemployable college degree and lost two spinal discs, and I still lie awake at night regretting every mistake I've ever made. Maybe I can try to make 2026 a good year for myself. At the very least, I'd like to gain the courage to ask people to help me try, when I need it.

wrestling that was good last year

I may make another post about the overall media I liked in 2025, but what’s most important is my beautiful huperfixation: wrasslin’. I watched a lot of wrestling last year, mostly AEW, and here are some highlights of things I liked.

DPW Beast Coast and the Surprise MOTY

Miracle Generation with their tag titles, GYV look on angy. (I took this picture)

This is the big one. I went to DPW’s Beast Coast show live in New Jersey and it was god damn incredible. I got so see so many of my favorite indie folks. I got to see Mad Dog Connelly and Dominic Garrini beat the shit out of each other. I got to see Jake Something be the coolest dude ever and Adam Priest and Trevor Lee on levels of toxic yaoi never before seen. I got to see EMI SAKURA VS MEI SERUGA. Literally what more could you want.

But honestly, the biggest surprise for me was Miracle Generation defending their tag titles against Grizzled Young Veterans. And it’s not like I’m not a fan of either of those teams! But compared to tag teams I’ve seen in DPW like Violence is Forever and Speedball x Something, they just never particularly stood out to me. Well now I feel like shit about that because watching this match in person was a god damn electrifying experience. I have never seen hotter tags. Just the pure, distilled essence of what makes wrestling awesome.

I really need to get more into local indies this year. Definitely want to go to some JCW shows.

Cashing In My Harley Cameron Stocks

Harley Cameron and Willow Nightingale making me the most valid person ever.

My favorite thing in wrestling is when I see someone and think “y’know this person has potential everyone should keep an eye on them” long before everyone else does. I was big into the Gunn Club long before everyone realized how fun they could be, and now I am on top of the world because I saw Harley Cameron on god damn QTV and thought “Hey, does she wrestle? I think she could be a great personality.”

AND GUESS WHO WAS RIGHT. Seeing Harley get more and more over, to the point of winning the women’s tag titles with Willow Nightingale (who I also adore) by the end of the year, was such a fun experience. I got a Babes of Wrath t-shirt for Christmas. I love you Harley. Thank you for validating me.

speebo

 

nobody's doin it like this guy (gender neutral).

Similar but not exactly the same experience, of course everyone who follows the indies already knew Speedball Mike Bailey was an all-timer, but seeing how easily and quickly they got over with the AEW crowd made me feel so good and happy. I don't know, I can start to feel jaded about "representation" sometimes but seeing someone nonbinary be this good and get this much screen time warms my little heart. Pairing them with Kevin Knight was also a genius choice, it was a great year for tag teams that were kinda just thrown together, Brodido being another one. Speedball my best friend Speedball. Would love commentary to throw in a they/them when talking about him sometimes but I guess you can't have everything.

I'm thinking of some other stuff, but I'd probably need to sit down and really think a long time to get my thoughts in order, and if I'm gonna be making a post a day I can't really do that, so that'd it for now. Wrestling good. 

 

WHAT’S UP EVERYBODY! WELCOME TO MY BLOG!

 

It’s funny that the only other post on this blog was a rundown of LIW representation that I posted in 2018. Kind of want to do a follow up with the smaller amount that came out from like 2018-2020.

Anyways, I will try to do a blog in 2026. Next post will probably be talking about some Media I Like from last year. In case you couldn’t tell the SnapCube/RTVS Kingdom Hearts fandub was one of them. Very excited for HL2VRAI. Happy 2026 I guess. The world sucks but maybe I can do some good things this year.