davetheanalyzer

So classes have been over for a few weeks. I originally planned to just take one class for the fall but it fell .5 credits over the minimal needed for financial aid, so I took another Writing Portfolio class. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things but I was looking forward to doing less work. I even said goodbye to the professor of it. Ah well. I’ll have to email him that I’m taking the Writing Portfolio class again at some point.

Still struggling with not getting distracted while I write, whether fanfiction or original fiction. I keep going to twitter or putting around on other sites and then I get sucked into things there. I try to put my laptop into a position where I would remain focused on writing but it doesn’t always work and my current headphones are very sensitive – I have to loop them around the wing of the chair to keep the sound from going in and out. I wonder if the place for my headphone jack might be flawed. When I use it for my phone, the sound comes out fine. Either that, or the headphone wire is shorting out from days of bending and curling. Anyway, I’m going to try finding a way to keep focusing on my daily writing again. I’m only getting one or two pages done a day now, and I should fix that. At least the fanfic chapter I’m working on it relatively short, around forty pages, so it won’t be delayed too much hopefully but it sucks I can’t get through it quicker.

I’m thinking I should socialize a bit more. I’m introverted, so I’m comfortable observing quite a bit, but it means that I rarely interact with people and I can be very cautious when I do so. This can mean I don’t speak up when I should. This leaves me feeling “bleh” some of the time when I’m scrolling around the Internet. Mind you, that might be because I’m often not writing as much during some of the days. I’m taking a break on some of the usual writing and reading time most of the week and the fun and the satisfaction of doing those things isn’t there. Maybe I should find more time to do those things. But aside that, maybe I should talk a bit more with some of the people I follow, not every day but every few days. I’m starting to get more politically active, calling my congresspeople and submitting emails/comments to people and agencies to do or not do certain things. That has led to some satisfaction but still, socializing a bit more in other matters might be needed.

I finally saw Avengers Endgame way earlier in the month. I tried to stay away from spoilers but I couldn’t resist. There were some mixed opinions on certain story decisions but I enjoyed the movie. The three hour length didn’t drag in the slightest and my bladder managed to survive. I kind of expected the heroes would find a way to reverse the snappening while not erasing the event itself but I didn’t expect the five-year time skip. There are various interesting reactions. Tony decides to retreat with Pepper to live a quiet life with their daughter. Steve tries to help others cope with the loss. Natasha helps coordinate the safety of Earth and parts of the universe and is still reeling from the loss. I do have issue with Thor’s increased weight becoming a signal of his trauma and used for some fat jokes. Fortunately, with such an ensemble movie, they don’t appear too often but I don’t like their presence in the first place. At least the fat didn’t disappear to signify his character development, though I worry about fat jokes in his next appearances.

Clint taking vengeance for his family’s snappening with those “bad people” who got spared is understandable, but as noted by someone on Twitter, it’s odd he doesn’t go after the KKK first. I mean, he might have but it should have been noted in the movie, even if it might’ve made (the right) real life people very mad. It was a bit disappointing that Rocket and Nebula’s loss of their family and friends wasn’t explored too deeply but I like that it also showed that the pair could in some ways move on and create new bonds. Rocket and Nebula’s friendship isn’t something I considered but now I think about it, they click together quite well. I hope Guardians 3 expands on their bond. I also like hints of Nebula and Rhodey’s friendship in the movie, bonding over having to use leg braces to walk or being part cyborg for the rest of their lives.

The revelation with Scott they could time travel does lead to the fix. I did like Tony decided to go with the plan after coming across Peter Parker’s photo. I was a bit confused with Pepper suddenly being okay with Tony coming into danger again but it had been five years and the current state of the world might have changed her perspective. The time travel merely going to or creating alternate universes is interesting. I like that Bruce’s discussion with the Ancient One (Not happy she’s played by a white person) lead to him assuring that the items taken from the different alternate timelines would be returned – it’s a contrast to the sometimes frequent scenario where AU counterparts die and their fates get dismissed. Aside from the salad comment, I loved Thor’s reunion with his mother and how he sought her for advice. As a mama’s boy, that appeals to me. It’s also neat they got Jane Foster’s actress back, even if in some capacity, and that they could reconcile with her after the Thor The Dark World director issue. It was nice Tony could in some way reconcile with his father, especially with what was to come.

Natasha sacrificing herself for Clint to get the stone is a contentious issue. It is killing off one of the major female characters in the MCU while the man with a family gets to live. Not saying because Clint has killed a lot of people, he had to die but him doing it to get his family back could have been interesting. But I could see both of them trying to sacrifice each other, Clint to pay the ultimate kindness to Natasha so she could live a normal life and Natasha finally paying off the red in her ledge and his kindness by sacrificing herself. The general issue seems to be that the Avengers angst about her afterwards but with how busy the film gets later on, there isn’t much time to focus on her. It is interesting that there would have been no final battle in the movie if Nebula hadn’t inadvertently connected with her AU self. I did like the contrast in character growth this shows between Nebula and AU past Nebula. I like that Nebula is able to make AU Gamora defect with the information they become friends and sisters.

I do like the debate about who should use the glove and who is strongest. At least they managed to get it done early. The moment with the birds and Clint’s ringing phone was good. I do like Steve is shown to be worthy of the hammer after all. I loved Sam telling him “On your left” as a callback. T’Challa, Okoye, and Shuri coming out of the portals first is so iconic despite Black Panther only coming out a year ago and T’Challa himself only premiering a few years ago. It seems to signify the diverse, different future the MCU has if Marvel takes advantage of it. Unlike what others said, I found it difficult to keep track of all the action and details in the final battle, including the blink-and-you-miss-it moments. I did enjoy it. The female fighters coming together is fun but as others said, they should have interacted more and been more prominent in the story. I did like Tony realizing the sacrifice he has to make before he does the snaps to dust alt!Thanos and company, and that his wife Pepper, his best friend Rhodey, and his son-like mentee were there for him as he died. The funeral scene was good, though I wish Carol and Fury interacted. After how they changed, what would their reunion be like? I also wish there was a bit more on how Rhodey and Pepper cope with the loss.

I have mixed feelings about Steve staying behind to be with Peggy. It’s nice he takes that chance but he seems to have been moving on and making new friends in the present time. It showed people in his position can recover in some way. Here, there is a reset button for that. Either he’s in an alternate timeline, in which case it’s not the original Peggy he knew or he has to keep quiet as terrible events like Bucky assassinating everyone happen in the eighty or so years up to the present. At least from what the staff said, he told Bucky beforehand about his decision and he had his moment with Sam to become Captain America himself. Thor giving leadership over to Valkyrie makes sense to me. I’m aware some say it goes against his apparent arc in Ragnorak but it seems Valkyrie was helping run things in New Asgard for the timeskip and that seems earned. Besides, I’m never much of a fan of monarchies. Him being in the next Guardians movie is interesting. I wonder how they’ll deal with AU!Gamora, since she’s still technically not the same person as theirs, and if the 3^rd film will involve that struggle or if they could somehow get theirs back. Nice Nebula seems to be fitting in with them with her snark. Overall, a contentious but fun movie for me.

Yesterday, I saw The Sun is Also a Star. Reviews seem split down the middle with it but I liked it. It took place over two days and involved a love story about two people who meet by chance and I found it believable. Natasha Kingsly is determined, doing all she could to stop her family’s deportation back to Jamaica. She’s an aspiring scientist, so she thinks the chances are small, but she isn’t going to surrender her New York home without a fight. Daniel Bae is a dreamer, someone who believes in destiny and isn’t afraid to take those chances while under pressure to become a doctor by his family. I was a bit unsure about his persistence with Natasha, whether that’s normal or borders on stalkery but he’s shown helping another victim of a reckless driver before saving Natasha. She is skeptical but a bit open to his optimistic thoughts about love. I do like their increasing chemistry, and that they both push each other in going for their true passions, Natasha with astronomy and Daniel with poetry. They also have to contend with Daniel’s brother and father’s casual racism. I like the education spots about the connection between black hair care and South Korea and the expectations of Korean families for their children by connecting it to how surnames are first for the culture. The imagine spot where Natasha imagines marrying and having a child with Daniel was sweet.

The issue with her family’s deportation order the next day does come up. Even without the danger of death that comes with that situation, this movie shows well how ICE’s actions can be still devastating when you’re ripped from the place you come to call home. This of course causes turmoil between the lovers but at least they made up. The only coincidence I didn’t believe was the advisor and lawyer Natasha and Daniel went to being the same person. I could roll with the others and maybe it goes with the movie’s themes but that stretched credibility for me. At least they got to say goodbye that day, even if Natasha’s family was worried sick and disapproving. They had their one last stare at the airport, and they spent the next five years pursuing their own dreams, Daniel working in the kitchens while he did poetry while Natasha did her astronomy studies and getting her student visa back to the states for graduate school. The final moment has the thing where Natasha almost leaves the place she is looking for Daniel but his poetry reading comes in just in time. I don’t know if their relationship will last if they get together, with the long term challenges of making a relationship long term, but at least they will have a start and are better off from those two days together. It was a pleasant movie and I’m glad I saw it.

That’s all for now. At some point I took a walk while editing this and posted this at the last minute. Until the end of June, see you!