My Pittsburgh Vacation and Meeting an Online Friend

About a month ago I did something I thought I possibly wouldn’t do and that was literally go meet a friend I met through the internet. I know in modern times meeting someone you met online isn’t such a big deal; we use the internet for various reasons and sometimes people are scheduled to meet bosses online or meet a date via dating apps. This was a little different though because I’ve been friends with this individual for five years.

How did I meet this strange man, YouTube, I discovered his videos back in 2012 and was just starting acrylic painting, and somehow I ended up in a live art hangout and chatting with him and other artists. This led to him giving a few tips on how to improve my abilities as an artist and…a friend request on Facebook. 

From my side of the friendship, I did my best to stay as professional as possible when it began. I didn’t even look up his personal Facebook out of respect for his privacy. And post friend request we stayed fairly professional (sorta). It was neat discovering he was also catholic, a little fun making him guess my sexual orientation, and so worth it upgrading from liquitex basic and Apple Barrel brand paints to Golden acrylic paints and Liquitex Professionals. 

About three years into our friendship and numerous video calls the topic of meeting in real life popped up; because I was working on a degree I felt it would be best to postpone the meeting until I had a degree and stable income.Then came life issues, and then I landed a job at a call center. Working at the call center was not a happy experience, but I motivated myself through it all by reminding myself that I was saving money to meet this strange man on the internet.

Who is This Mystery Man?

So first thing is first, my friend Ben is not gay, he’s straight. Despite what some family members thought this was not one expensive hookup, this literally was me visiting and meeting a friend. He runs the YouTube channel Cinder Block Studios where he gives painting tutorials on techniques with acrylic paint.

He’s a great painter and I have learned a lot from him over the years (even if it looks like I’m just screwing around). He’s pretty cool, younger than he looks, younger than me by a few months, is older than me mentally (like 98% of the time), taller than me, makes amazing cocktails, and cooks some of the best food I’ve ever tasted (I damaged a temporary filling on his porkchop. It was worth it). 

How was Your Vacay?

It was great, I actually found myself relaxing so much more than I have in a long time. I had time to sit down and fully have thoughts to myself and not have to focus on other needs in life. It was a little strange being the minority, but I got over it pretty fast.

I also went to confession and had a lifelong paranoia of “do I even look Mexican American?” put to rest when the priest at his church spoke to me in Spanish. I also got to a Blicks art store, it was interesting to go to an art store that specified solely on art and not branch into other ventures like crafts. I also got to drag Ben to two bookstores and give him an idea of what it’s like when I go shopping for books and what kind of books I like. 

Pittsburgh is a beautiful city with nature and art, way too many hills though. But seeing so many trees and at times being tempted to explore the small forests close to Ben’s house just to seclude myself from the world a little more than I normally do. 

One of my favorite places to see was The Cathedral of Learning where each room is dedicated to a different culture. It may have been a coincidence that the day I went was the grand opening of the room for The Philippines, but I think it’s a nice way of being reminded that even if I traveled to a different state and different time zone that a little piece of home would find a way to be near me. 

I also met Ben’s family who are all very kind and hospitable people. Also yes Ben is straight, I know reading this sort of sounds like a shitty romcom, but it’s not!

Science Friction, Doctor Who Meets Stargate SG1

So one idea I had thrown out before all of this was set in stone was both of us showing each other one of our favorite movies that the other hadn’t seen. Somehow this turned into showing each other episodes of Doctor Who (Listen, Demons of the Punjab, The New Earth, The Day of the Doctor, Vincent and the Doctor) and Stargate SG1; (1969, Window of Opportunity, Revisions, 200, Upgrades) We also showed each other movies (He showed me Midnight in Paris and Coming to America, I showed him Crazy Rich Asians and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them).

It was very nice to see how we would react to our favorite shows; he thought Peter Capaldi was an amazing Doctor and really liked Fantastic Beasts, he wasn’t so into Crazy Rich Asians. I very much enjoyed Stargate SG1 and started watching the series on Hulu. I do have thoughts on Coming to America and may write an essay comparing that film to Crazy Rich Asians along with some realizations as to why I love CRA.

Painting

So this was one of the cool things about my trip was painting. Both of us did get time to sit down and paint with each other; I didn’t have anything planned or feel a type of inspiration so I did some simple abstract art that was shockingly impressive. I also created alot of eyes because it’s my go to doodle whenever trying a new medium. 

Like I said earlier having some private time to think, read, and paint helped me at the very least experiment with colors and shapes. Also I popped up in two of his youtube videos.

Tell me about your adventures, have you ever met a stranger on the internet just for fun (the PG kind)?

What to do When Your Favorite Celebrity did Something Bad

(note this was written around December 2017, but still fairly relevant)

The first main thing to do is to remember that despite your favorite celebrity being a great Actor/Singer/NewsAnchor/YouTuber/Author/Artist/Comedian/WhateverElseMakesYouFamous is a human being and is flawed just like you and me. They too have their own personal lives and today I will instruct you what to do if someone you enjoy who is famous did something bad and there is controversy involved. No I won’t be throwing out any names or mentioning anything recent, if any of the following examples make it seem like I’m talking a specific celebrity, I might be, I might not be.

First of all no it’s not bad for you to still support your favorite celebrity because we all make bad decisions in life and live with consequences. In these times of crap one would like some support (so long as the lesson is learned and said celebrity is willing to seek help to solve whatever conflict got them in trouble in the first place.) If you are a religious person then it’s fine to pray for your favorite celebrity when they’re in deep shit because you’d do the same for a normal person when they’re in deep shit and you’d like for someone to do the same for you in that situation. If you are not religious, it’s not bad to have the above support for said celebrity that has done fucked up.

You don’t even have a degree in psychology, why are you telling me how to deal with my celebrity being an asshat?

Fair enough, but as someone who watched a lot of VH1 from thirteen to sixteen and noticing a pattern of celebrities having ups and downs more or less has given me an idea of how to react when they did something. Yes there will be a period of time where fans will be hostile towards said celebrity, but it will pass and they can either enjoy a life of obscurity away from the limelight, or they can find a way to redeem themselves to the public if possible.

“Celebrity X” turned out to be a total jackass!

As I mentioned above, these are people, not angels or gods. If someone you like turned out to be a total jackass when you ran into them or at comicon, then maybe they are a jackass, or maybe they’re just tired.

Everyone wants a private life, sure some celebs are active on social media via twitter or instagram, but no one wants to have fans running up to them when they’re trying to enjoy a ice cream cone or some beach time. Yes there are some celebs that will play it cool and take a selfie with you, but please do understand that they are human and sometimes they don’t want the attention and just don’t feel like taking a selfie.

As for the comicon thing; yeah it happens sometimes, conventions can be exhausting for some celebrities though. Place yourself in their shoes; your at a place with hundreds of people who want to meet you, yes it is kind of cool, but then you realize that the word “hundreds” is in your mind. People that have either been fans of yours since they were kids and grew up watching you on tv, or you got famous over night because you lucked out and got cast as a regular on Doctor Who.

Not only are you meeting these fans, but you’re also autographing their stuff, you have to have a quick conversation with them (some fans may even try to stretch the conversation out more than you want them to). Then you MAY even have to do your own panel; you could be doing a panel alone, or you could be doing it with a group of costars in whatever you’re participating in. You gotta keep that positive attitude going!

Now some people might be able to pull this off, most celebs I’ve met on the convention circuit have been pretty chill and very nice about meeting fans. There have been instances though that friends of mine and facebook pages have said some celebrities weren’t so cool at said convention. Well as I said earlier conventions are exhausting; you can’t be “happy happy joy joy” constantly, sometimes you want to go to sleep, but can’t for whatever reason.

There is also the possibility said celebrity is indeed an asshole; a good example would be a basketball player I’ve been in breathing space with a few times at a local comicon. I don’t keep up with basketball, I don’t care for the sport, I only knew of this individual because of his strange antics in the nineties. When it was announced that he would be at a comicon I thought “well that’s weird that a basketball player is at one of these, but whatever” and I noticed while waiting in line to meet Amy Jo Johnson (she is as sweet as honey btw) that his booth had little to no visitors.

I figured “well this isn’t really an environment for fans of basketball, most of the people here want to meet Amy Jo Johnson and the guy who played Darth Maul”, it was later I found out that he wanted to charge fans money just to get in line and meet him in addition to charging money for an autograph and a selfie. After hearing that and remembering that he wasn’t so friendly at the previous year’s comicon, I guessed that this former basketball player is just not a great guy.

“Celebrity X” broke the law!

While it is upsetting to see someone you like break the law, do remember, the law is the law and just because Celebrity X has money or is famous does not mean they are above the law. Yes I am aware there are instances where Celebrity X gets away with breaking either fully or through some sort of loophole abuse (like house arrest or the rich person prison).

Sometimes not getting away with breaking the law is a nice much needed slice of humble pie for Celebrity X and they will better themselves not just for their sake, but their fans. And it can bite them in the ass by making them too expensive to insure leading them to getting less movie roles and having to resort to a “live my life” type of deal where it’s pretty much them charging you to view what most other people would place on instagram for free (there are two has been Celebrity X that do this now.)

Also remember your high standards can be good for Celebrity X; Celebrity X is as much entitled to their opinion as you are, but sometimes your high moral code keeps Celebrity X from misbehaving too much and may even result in them bettering themselves to please their fans.

Celebrity X does not agree with my religious or political views

Get over it. Along with being human, Celebrity X is not tied down to religion; Celebrity X can be christian and heavily religious thus not agreeing with the primarily liberal life of other Celebrity X. Celebrity X can be an atheist and be against your religious beliefs and practices, Celebrity X can be a scientologist and either want to shove it down your throat or just be casual about it.

Same goes for political party, it seems though that most celebrities do lean towards the left side of politics, including some of the religious ones.

Celebrity X is gay, nooooooo! I wanted to marry him!

HAHAHA! He’s MINE NOW, there’s NOTHING you can do to have him now!

Celebrity X had their phone hacked and all their naked pictures are on the internet!

Be respectful and don’t look them up.

Celebrity X is pregnant at a young age!

It happens, if you can, be happy for them and support any decision they make.

Celebrity X did something pretty damn bad

This is where things get complicated, especially with the current sexual harassment and assault situation. Where you’re not sure what to do because Celebrity X did something particularly bad; by particularly bad this can range from beating their wife or husband, doing any form of physical or verbal abuse, sexually assaulting anyone, etc.

You are shocked and hurt and obviously you feel betrayed by Celebrity X, but you can’t bring yourself to hate them. You don’t like what they did and nothing you can say or do will justify their actions and why you’re still a fan of theirs.

In some cases Celebrity X has come out, apologized, and heavily regrets past actions. To some, this is enough, to others it’s not enough. I don’t have any sarcastic wisdom to provide to make this feeling to go away because I’m still trying to get over my own Celebrity X doing something bad. I don’t want to hate Celebrity X, but I’m not happy with them, but I don’t want to make a YouTube video of me burning all my possessions in relation to them (because let’s be honest that’s just petty and a waste of time).

If you can find it in your heart to forgive your own Celebrity X despite them doing something very bad, good for you for being a forgiving person. If you cannot and no longer wish to support Celebrity X, that is also fine because your reasons are just as justifiable.

However in some instances where Celebrity X did something bad, doesn’t care and you are in full support of this, you’re probably an idiot and probably won’t be reading this little blog anyways. But there have been instances where Celebrity X has been getting away with this kind of behavior for years and is now jobless because of it. You are very shocked that they did these awful things for so long and got away with it, it is fine to end your admiration of them on the spot if they did something particularly bad.

Remember that your Celebrity X is a human like you or me and has their own flaws because no one except for Anne Hathaway, David Tennant and Reese WItherspoon are perfect (don’t correct me on that list internet!) Also remember most crimes are forgivable. Except pedophilia, if your Celebrity X is into that shit you gotta end that admiration on the spot.

Pokemon I Choose You Review

Pokemon has been here for a very, very long time, so in celebration of the twenty fifth anniversary of the franchise a new Pokemon movie was released to celebrate the yearly tradition of releasing a pokemon movie. Unlike previous Pokemon films which are made primarily to advertise the newest pokemon, give sneak peeks to pokemon coming up in the next batch of games, and show one of the new legendary Pokemon, Pokemon I Choose You is a retelling of the first season of the franchise.

Initially many fans (myself included) thought that this was the movie version of the first three episodes or so. We were slightly wrong.

Spoilers from this point on, I can’t Mewtwo these spoilers outside of your head

There was some controversy surrounding the movie over discrepancies between what happens in the film, and what happened in the first season of the anime. The main controversy being that Misty and Brock are nowhere to be seen during the film and Team Rocket having little to no influence on the plot of the film. Another controversy is the inclusion of many pokemon not seen in the first generation of the game series.

However is this actually a good film despite what many other fanboys on forums and reviewers on YouTube say? Well it’s not the worst movie I’ve ever seen, but it is better than Destiny Deoxys (gosh that movie is so dull).

As mentioned above the film is an alternate telling of the first season of pokemon, but it borrows some plots from the first season and despite being a ninety three minute film, a decent amount of what occurred the first half of the season made it into the film without it being a horrible mess. The plots borrowed from the first season include Ash catching a caterpie that would eventually evolve into a butterfree and be forced to part ways with, and Ash’s relationship with a abandoned charmander Ash rescues. Elements from the second generation of games are also brought into the film concerning the plot of the legendary pokemon Ho-oh.

Although I was a little annoyed with the approach taken for this film, I do like the alternative storyline. I feel it handled some of the aesops presented in the first season a little better with Ash learning that sometimes you can’t win them all in the film despite being a good person and the opponent you’re fighting being a bad person.

The antagonist in the film was a shocking revelation that the main antagonist was the pokemon trainer who abandoned charmander to die in a rainstorm and only desired to become a stronger trainer only catching strong pokemon. Instead of being just a jackass trainer featured in the initial episode featuring charmander in the pokemon anime, Cross (the villain for the movie) is a talented trainer, but only views his pokemon as tools to achieve his goal of catching Ho-oh rather than establishing a friendship with his pokemon.

Of course it wouldn’t be a pokemon movie without advertising one of the new legendary pokemon in the series and this time around it’s Marshadow who acts as an observer for Ho-oh to make sure Ash is indeed a worthy pure hearted trainer (I guess he functions as a PR advisor for Ho-oh or something). Unlike previous films, the plot is not focused on Marshadow and the pokemon is only featured the last ten or so minutes once again challenging the human characters and their pokemon to see if they are indeed worthy of battling Ho-oh.

I do like that the film breaks tradition and only focuses on Ash’s relationship with pikachu and his other pokemon captured in the film. I like that Ash’s relationship with his caterpie is deep, even if some parts of it were a montage, I like that caterpie was useful in each stage of his evolution. I like that charmander didn’t become a jerk as soon as he evolved into charmeleon and so on into charizard. There is even development from both pokemon as they evolve with caterpie evolving into butterfree, but wanting to stay loyal and stay with Ash despite also wanting to go and mate (contrary to a mistranslation, butterfree do not die when mating). We also see just how loyal charmander is to Ash in each stage of evolution and how this trust benefits Ash’s team in the long run of the movie.

New characters to replace Misty and Brock are also featured in the film, they are Sorrel, a young pokemon trainer who wants to become a professor of pokemon (don’t they have college in this universe? Or do all researchers and professors go through the Jane Goodwill approach?) and Verity, a young girl from the Sinoh region exploring the Kanto region for unknown reasons. They’re not too shabby.

As with many of the pokemon movies, the art and animation is beautiful with a beautiful mixture of 2d and 3d animation. The end of the film also has a piano rendition of the pokemon theme song at a slower temple that may or may not touch the hearts of long time fans of the pokemon anime.

While the film isn’t amazing, I feel it’s a pretty decent movie and there are things to like about the film despite not sticking exactly to the source material of the anime. I give Pokemon I Choose You three Pokeballs out of Five.

Justice League Review

Normally I don’t review superhero movies because I forget to review them. I had forgotten to review Batman vs Superman Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, Captain America Civil War, Spiderman Homecoming, and a few other superhero films just because of sheer forgetfulness. This doesn’t mean I disliked any of these movies, outside of Batman vs Superman I enjoyed all of these films (I am a little annoyed Suicide Squad got the oscar for makeup instead of Star Trek Beyond still).

One of the reasons I don’t review superhero films too often either is that I normally don’t see them within the period of time of relevance. With the exception of Batman vs Superman I saw most of these movies a good three to four weeks after the hype died down. I do also actively watch the DC Arrowverse on the CW, I have been working on a Supergirl essay for a while.

I honestly did like the movie though, it is nice to see how far the movie came from last year’s Batman vs Superman (I’m not going to continue on with Batman vs Superman, a lot of other people on the internet have done that for me already).

No I won’t be talking about fan theories and potential foreshadowing either, I’ve tried that before with Star Wars Rebels, not too many people care to read those reviews.

Possible spoilers from this point on, and some comparison to the Marvel Cinematic Universe from a storytelling standpoint.

As stated above this movie was a huge step up from Batman vs Superman, not as good as Wonder Woman was earlier this year, but better than Suicide Squad. My main issue with the movie is some nitpicking on Wonder Woman’s character and how her actions (and the ending to her movie) more or less contradict the events of Batman vs Superman and how the writers tried their best to merge the Wonder Woman who had given up hope on humanity in Batman v Superman and the Wonder Woman who had a sense of duty to defend any and all in need at the end of Wonder Woman with her optimistic views and compassion.

One of my complaints about Batman vs Superman is that someone DC and WB knew that they were behind Marvel in their big awesome cinematic universe that had been going since 2008 with at least two to three movies released per year (I’m guessing all that money from Disney helps build a cinematic universe a little faster). So to make up for this Batman vs Superman decided to introduce the whole Justice League via cameos for everyone except for Wonder Woman. This went as smoothly as anyone would expect.

In continued comparison I do actually like the DC approach to what is happening in their universe compared to the Marvel Cinematic Universe ; where the Marvel Cinematic Universe became a very well crafted and detailed universe with massive amounts of foreshadowing, tie ins and references to their other pieces of work, and the occasional break from the main plot of The Avengers to do something like Guardians of the Galaxy or Doctor Strange it was nice to see something like Justice League.

Because there is no foreshadowing or any sign of something big going down soon nearly all DC Cinematic Universe (DCCU?) all the movies can more or less be seen as stand alone and you don’t have to see each movie (except maybe Batman vs Superman) to know what’s going on. You can watch Suicide Squad one night and Wonder Woman the next and not have to care about continuation or making sure all the dots are connected.

A final comparison I will make before I continue on with the review is the tone of our heroes; while all of the Avengers are heroic or feel the call to heroism, only about 2.5 of the Justice League feel the call to heroism with Superman being dead for a portion of the film and Wonder Woman and Batman actively fighting against crime and the Flash being around to stop local crime via ‘pushing a badguy out of the way’. Aquaman does very small time heroics around low populated areas on earth and Cyborg is laying low out of fear of what he is now. A big step away from Iron Man flashing his cash around, Captain America being a legend, and Thor having some news about himself while Black Widow, Hawkeye, and the future members are still very small time in comparison.

I do like the characterization of our heroes in this film too; we see a very new side of Bruce Wayne that hasn’t been seen since the Batman Beyond animated series; Bruce has been doing the Batman stick for about twenty years in this universe and it’s getting pretty obvious that his body can’t keep up with his vigilante activities as it once did. This may also tie into how (allegedly) in real life Ben Affleck has cited playing Batman is very physically demanding with Affleck not being as young and physically capable as he once was when he filmed Daredevil. For those who want to but in and say Robert Downey Jr. is over fifty and still playing Iron Man with no complaints, do remember that most of Iron Man’s fight scenes are cgi with Down’s voice recorded and inserted in or his head just filmed. I am hoping that with this age and realization that he can’t continue on being Batman that the DC Universe will introduce Terry McGinnis the main protagonist of the animated series Batman Beyond.

Wonder Woman is still the badass of the bunch, saving and defending the innocent with grace, compassion, and kicking ass in all her finery. As I mentioned above they do try to merge the two attitudes of Wonder Woman from the previous two films and it is sloppy at worst which isn’t a bad thing. She too has been at being a hero for a while and while she still has a sense of heroism at the end of Wonder Woman, we still don’t know what happened between the end of that film and the start of Batman vs Superman that could have disillusioned her a little, there is even a hint of disappointment she has for herself because she acts in defense as a reaction to evil happening rather than proactive offense. We probably won’t find out since Gal Gadot and some of the writers admitted that was a bad direction to start Wonder Woman off with.

But Wondsey does show more of her compassionate side with Cyborg and is the reason he joins up with the team. She is also still the best fighter of the bunch (she is a godslayer after all), and puts up the best fight against our villains and brief Pet Cemetery minded Superman.

Aquaman is a loner, he’s kind of like a toned down Lobo, except instead of being a total jackass, he’s more interested in solitude. He listens to classic rock, helps an isolated community by bringing them fish, and doesn’t care to much to becoming king of Atlantis. He has a bit of arrogance, but it is welcomed in a team primarily composed of brooders.

Cyborg is a far stone’s throw away from his most popular portrayal from the animated Teen Titans and Teen Titans Go tv series for children. He primarily broods, not from the fact that he is no longer fully human, but out of fear that he could easily turn against mankind and be their downfall. He does liven up a little around Flash and slowly begins to be a happier person.

I’m not going to talk about Superman because that would take this review into a new strange direction, but it is so nice to see Henry Cavill shirtless for fifteen minutes. Other than that I don’t really like what is done with him in the film in terms of being ‘overpowered’.

I LOVE THE FLASH! At first I was concerned because Ezra Miller was announced as the Flash after the tv series The Flash premiered (kind of like a middlefinger to the tv series in terms of how much hope the WB has for it). Ezra Miller got the role down very well, and the Flash is our comic relief and the closest thing to a normal person in this whole fiasco. While Bruce Wayne is the only non super powered member of the group, he has seen all kinds of weird stuff, the Flash is more or less just a kid doing what he thinks is right and got pulled into a world of crazy. He doesn’t know how to fight, doesn’t have a team supporting or training him, he just pushes a bad guy out of the way and discovers that he too can do a plethora of heroics in his own way that doesn’t involve getting directly involved with the combat.

He is a nice compliment to our Flash on the CW, where he’s just making things up as he goes along and does good for the sake of being good. I will say I’m not too fond of his costume since at times it looks more armor based, but it grew on me. I may try to cosplay as him later.

Our villain is…dull. He’s big, intimidating, can take on the whole Justice League, and the first time he was defeated it took the entire combined efforts of Atlanteans, Amazons, and every man tribe on earth (and even some outside help from the Green Lantern corp). The macguffin of the Mother Boxes is confusing at worst, despite one of the benefits of the DC universe being that there are no ties between films beyond characters, some of the bigger things like the Mother Boxes will be lost on regular people who don’t read the comics that these movies are based on.

With the film itself, the pacing was significantly better, the fight scenes were great, I will admit some of the cgi usage got a little annoying to the point where it looked they were using footage from one of the more recent Batman video games with scenes involving Ben Affleck. I did like the film overall and look forward to future films in the DC universe to see what else they will bring to the table now that it looks like things are on track.

I give Justice League four cool costumes out of five.

Why Rosario’s Death Hurt A Little More

First, WILL AND GRACE HAS BEEN BACK FOR OVER A MONTH! All my gay needs are being met happily. I swear ever since the series returned last September each episode has not disappointing in terms of comedy. Karen is still insanely drunk, Grace is still Grace, Jack is adjusting to the fact he isn’t a twink anymore (and is now a grandpa), and Will is still being Will.

However I like many fans was saddened to discover Shelley Morrison would not be returning to the series as Karen’s maid Rosario. At first I brushed this off and understood that the actress had retired and that she wouldn’t have the same amount of energy she once had to do the show and that she and the writers would keep things open for cameo in the future. Unfortunately last Thursday the characters fate was cemented. Rosario Inez Consuelo Salazar passed away.

Many fans were hurt and saddened at the decision to kill off the character, this hurt a little more. Yes the episode was still loaded with hilarious one liners, amazing innuendos, Karen going nuts, and some physical humor, the tone and knowledge that Rosario was dead couldn’t be escaped.

The reason why it hurt was because my godmother loved Will and Grace. About six months before she passed away in 2015 my godmother and I were talking about Will and Grace; we both loved the show and it had been my introductory to the idea that I didn’t have to be the gay stereotype constantly seen in the media at the time with the fact that Will was constantly mistaken for a straight man who was single despite Grace being in his life. She had mentioned how she would love for the series to come back.

You can imagine my tears of laughter and joy in the fall of 2016 with the short Vote Honey was released and led to the return of Will and Grace! I chose to watch again because Will and Grace was the early stages of the gay agenda your church pastor has warned you about (don’t be surprised if he goes missing), and because I miss my godmother.

I watched the return of the show with her photo close to me, I did consider buying a few episodes and watching them next to her grave, but that’s all kinds of crazy I’m not willing to go to just yet.

Rosario’s death (on the last day of the Mexican holiday Dia de los muertos and the catholic holiday All Souls Day) was sad, it reminded me that someone I love and couldn’t physically be with me to watch the show anymore. But there was still laughter and strange things happening despite the sad nature of the reality like in real life (except hopefully no women are having threesomes with their ex husband and his daughter).

Prelude to Write a Novel in November

It is less than a week away before I begin my journey to writing a novel in November, I have spent my time looking for jobs, finishing up books, starting up books, and various forms of self loathing over lack of employment. Also hating a sudden weight gain I have that my family claims isn’t showing (I know they’re lying!)

Are You Some Sort of Narcissist?

Nah, I hate myself too much to be a narcissist, but thanks for thinking I have a self esteem that strong. I decided to do one last blog before I try this little experiment of writing something so long within such a short amount of time. It will literally be the longest form of writing I have ever written if I am successful.

What is Write a Novel In November? How did you Discover it? Why are you Participating?

Click here to learn more about write a novel in november! Don’t want to click that lovely link I provided that will conveniently open in a new window because I’m that nice of a person? Yeah I don’t blame you I normally left click and open links in a new tab too. Anyways the actual name for this is National Novel Writing Month, I don’t know why it’s associated with November directly, but why not?

I discovered this little thing writers do via the FAQ page for Marissa Meyer’s website when I decided to look her up after reading the first three books in The Lunar Chronicles (you should totally read The Lunar Chronicles). I thought it was an interesting thing to do for some people.

I decided to participate because why not? My friend Sam and I were going to try it last year, but we didn’t really accomplish much.

What was Last Year’s Book About? What’s This Year’s Book? 

A mermaid committing homicide because her entire school was killed in a boating incident with stupid rich kids. This year’s book is still a mermaid story, but there is no homicide, I don’t think I can write constant homicide scenes and keep them interesting. I suppose this year’s book can be labeled as a “scientifically accurate Little Mermaid.”

Dude Mermaids Suck! Write about badass girls in lovetriangles fighting a totalitarian government in a distopian world! 

I can’t help but feel that story has been done already, but this story is different from what I normally write. As mentioned above it has to atleast be 50,000 words which is alot longer than my little collection of short stories.

I’ve also been advised to write a story that is the opposite of what I normally go for in entertainment (in my case alot of science fiction with some fantasy. Also I haven’t seen too many YA books about mermaids (once again single track mind with my fiction).

Okay so how’d you come up with the idea?

My degree; to be more precise I came up with the idea while taking a hydrology class. Mainly from reading Water the Fate of our Most Precious Resource by Marq De Villiers. I’m actually devoting most of tomorrow to skimming through the book and looking over my notes from an Oceanography class I took in college too.

I guess in a sense I’m applying “write what you know” to this story in the sense that I’ve written short answers to questions in both hydrology and oceanography. I also know the feeling of grief and loss a little too well so there’s that too.

Themes?

Environmentalism for sure, some religion (mainly Christian, Jewish, and Hindu faiths because those are the only ones I know fairly well). I don’t plan on writing it in a dystopian way though.

That’s all I’m gonna say for now, wish me luck!

 

 

Turtles all the Way Down Review

       

Turtles all the Way Down the long awaited novel by John Green after his heavy success with The Fault in Our Stars. If you follow his vlogs like I do you will know that until a few months ago he had stayed very quiet about his work post The Fault in Our Stars. Many fans of his (some known as Nerdfighters) were very excited to see the release of Turtles all the Way Down, and since I have read most of John Green’s books I figured I’d read Turtles all the Way Down too.

        Also fun fact, I had intended to grab the book at Target because Target dictates to me what is worth reading and what isn’t and to my surprise I got myself a signed copy of Turtles all the Way Down. It seems like something silly to gush over, but there’s just something nice about knowing a book you bought was in the same area as their ‘parent’.

Spoilers from this point Onward, can’t jedi mind trick this out of you. Hehe Star Wars reference in a book that has NOTHING to do with Star Wars. And maybe some discussion about John Green’s vlogs over the past few years.

        Turtles all the Way Down follows a girl named Aza Holmsey, a girl who suffers from a form of OCD that involves the fear of Clostridium Difficile (C.diff) and other bacterias to the point where she’s always applying hand sanitizer to one of her fingers that has a perpetual cut due to always pushing her thumbnail into her middlefinger. Aza has only her mother due to her father dying when she was a child.

        Aza also has her best friend Daisy who is a big Star Wars fan having knowledge of the current expanded universe, the Legends universe, and even writing her own Star Wars fanfiction. The story kicks off with Daisy taking interest in the disappearance Russell Pickett wanted by the police for a white collar crime due to a large reward being offered for the knowledge of the whereabouts of Russell Pickett. Because of this Aza runs into Davis a childhood friend of hers and son of Russell Pickett.  

        In all honesty I was a little worried reading the first quarter of the book; worried that this was another flavor of Looking for Alaska in the same way that Paper Towns was due to the mystery of the disappearance of Russell Pickett that our protagonists want to solve. After some bribe is involved the mystery is dropped down to mainly background noise in the novel with the bulk of the story involving Aza’s OCD and how it affects not only her, but her relationships and prevents her from experiencing life in the same way a normal person would.

        I don’t have OCD, I’ve made jokes at the expense of individuals of OCD (mainly out of my lack of education on the disorder and inability to organize my living space), but TatWD gave what has been described by fans on the Facebook Nerdfighters page as a very accurate internal description of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. It probably helps that John Green as admitted to having OCD and knowing the experience for it.

        The way it affects Aza outside of the fear of C.diff is a constant fear of not being clean enough and losing the ability to do things that some people would enjoy doing and have no problem doing (such as French kissing) where the thoughts of another person’s bacteria inside of her make her unable to enjoy the sensation and her thoughts focusing primarily on the fact that something that isn’t hers is inside of her.

        Aza also struggles with her relationship with Davis, who she does have feelings for, but the above side effects of her OCD prevent her from enjoying the more physical parts of their relationship. While both of them do have a unique form of communication via text message. Even though Davis does return the feelings towards Aza he does have physical desires (not sexual, but atleast some form of physical intimacy.

Aza does feel guilt for her choice t date Davis despite his dad missing because it distracts Davis from taking care of his little brother Noah who isn’t taking the disappearance of their father in the same way that Davis is.

There is some strong emphasis on parents in this novel, even stronger than Green’s previous work where parents are far from a obstacle in their stories as seen in some other YA books. Aza has only her mother who worries about Aza frequently because of her mental health and just because she’s a good mother. Davis’ father on the other hand abandoned both his sons, was never too close to them, had arguments with his wife before she passed away, had the staff of his house raise his sons, and left all his money to a tuatara named Tua in hopes that the research to discover the secrets to the long life of tuataras can be found and he’d get the credit for funding it. Daisy’s parents are mentioned, but never seen due to Aza never asking about them or ever going over to Daisy’s house.

        My favorite character in the novel is Daisy, as I mentioned before she’s a huge Star Wars fan, but she was fun. There were moments of her being shallow and using Aza a bit (she did kick off the whole plot by making Aza not only trespass on Russell Pickett’s property but start a relationship with Davis Pickett for the sake of information on the whereabouts of Russell Pickett. Daisy also makes some points that Aza’s life isn’t as bad as she feels it is due to Daisy only having a smartphone as her only form of online entertainment which becomes very shocking and impressive when people remember that she has written lengthy Star Wars fanfiction on her smartphone. I felt myself siding with Daisy in one argument when Aza is concerned about her spending habits after they receive their hush money through buying not only a new car, but a new laptop. Daisy argues that Aza has a laptop and a car and lives in a house with her own room despite having only one working parent while she only has her smartphone, shares her room with her eight year old sister, and lives in an apartment complex even though she has both her parents and both of them being employed. Minor fun fact, but the paper BB-8 seen in the photo above was used as a bookmarker because I couldn’t find a bookmark that wasn’t currently being used, you can imagine how delightfully surprised I was discovering that Star Wars was mentioned frequently in this book and how appropriate it is.

        As I mentioned before I don’t have OCD, but anxiety issues; there were parts of the book where I could relate to Aza’s mental health and constant moments of being a prisoner in her own mind and having internal conversations with herself. Some parts of the book were very eye opening at how OCD isn’t “a need to have everything perfectly tidy” as I’ve joked around about in the past, but something more that really does control how a person functions and can prevent them from having a normal life and in some cases making horrible decisions based on the mental argument they have with themselves.

        I really enjoyed Turtles all the Way Down; it was a nice alternative to the usual John Green protagonist of teenage boys feeling the need to prove something about themselves, or being fixated on ‘the girl’. Aza and her friends were really fun and even the main conflict of Aza’s OCD causing problems in her life her friends and family still love and care for her.

        I give Turtles all the Way Down by John Green four Star Wars fanfics out of five.

Star Wars Phasma Review

        Once in the year 2015 there was Star Wars The Force Awakens; many didn’t know what would happen in the seventh unexpected installment of the Star Wars saga outside of large amounts of merchandising, but based on this merchandising we were introduced to new characters. One of these characters is Captain Phasma; she was known as the first female stormtrooper, people knew she meant big business with her chrome armor and phabulous cape. She was described as “this trilogy’s equivalent of Boba Fett” meaning she was meant to be intimidating and evil.

Ironically she technically was like Boba Fett in that she got taken out with little to no fanfare. The best term to describe Captain Phasma in The Force Awakens would literally be ‘epic fail’. She disappointed many fans since her actress Gwendoline Christie was one of the few new cast members of the new trilogy to already have a name for herself due to her role in the HBO series Game of Thrones. To be fair though when a wookie knocks the shit out of you and demands you lower the planet wide shield, you best do what the wookie says.

However as promotion for the upcoming Star Wars The Last Jedi a new wave of merchandising and novels was released, one of these novels being Star Wars: Phasma by Delilah S. Dawson. The book actually isn’t from Captain Phasma’s point of view, but rather her story is being told by Resistance spy Vi Moradi as she tells Phasma’s origins to First Order member Captain Cardinal.

Also I listened to this audio book via my local library and the app Axis 360, if you want to listen to audiobooks or just check out books and save money go to your local library (I have a strong feeling someone at my library is a big Star Wars fan).

Spoilers from this point on. Phasma will hunt you down and kill you for any knowledge you may have of her past.

Phasma is evil, possibly one of the most evil non force sensitive being in the new Star Wars canon. Her life was far from an easy one being from the planet Parnassos, a planet all but forgotten and unobserved by the Galactic Republic and the first order under the impression that “there’s no real life there.”

As mentioned above the story actually centers around Resistance spy Vi Moradi who is captured by the First Order and is being interrogated by Captain Cardinal because he wants dirt on Phasma to get her kicked out of the First Order. Vi agrees to tell Cardinal the story of Phasma in exchange for her escape and in hopes that Vi can help Cardinal realize the First Order is not the right side to be on.

Phasma is from a warrior tribe known as the Scyers that is actually very humble, spiritual, and respectful towards life and not allowing anything to go to waste. The Scyers celebrate the birth of children because they are such a rarity and if a child makes it past five years of age it is something worth celebrating. Phasma is a skilled warrior and respected leader of this tribe with many of the few younger members of this tribe looking up to her and trusting in her wisdom. Things change one day when a First Order ship carrying Brendal Hux (father to Amitage Hux) crashes on Parnassos. Phasma and members of her tribe investigate the happenings.

The character who tells of Phasma’s origins on Parnassos is Siv, she has known Phasma her whole life and respects her. However Siv begins to see that Phasma is changing (or rather showing her true colors) as soon as both of them along with other members of the Scyers begin their travels with Hux to his ship. Phasma slowly begins dawning stormtrooper armor feeling that they suit her. It is shown that Phasma is very fond of bloodshed, killing her parents, her brother, many minor characters, and even the youngest child of the Scyers Frey. She eventually kills Armitage Hux and is implied to kill Cardinal after poisoning him and is off to kill both Vi, Cardinal, and eventually Siv to make sure no one knows of her past for good.

Along with the origins of Phasma it is shown that Phasma cares only for herself explaining why she so willingly lowers the shields for Starkiller base during the events of The Force Awakens movie. It’s also shown that her armor is very unique among Stormtrooper armor in that it was forged using the parts of Emperor Palpatine’s yacht.

I felt at times the book spent too much time on Parnassos, but also understand why so much time was spent on there. I also enjoyed the introduction of Vi and Cardinal; it was interesting seeing the perspective of Cardinal, someone who is grateful to The First Order due to him being on the planet Jakku and loathing the fact that the Galactic Republic often ignored outer rim/poor planets like Jakku and supports the First Order so that no other planets will ever be overlooked again. We also get exposition on how this new generation of stormtroopers came about; they’re all more or less kidnapped children and orphans gathered from planets overlooked by the Galactic Republic.

I also felt that the book was very similar to A Song of Ice and Fire; no where near the violence, gore, and sexual activity as A Song of Ice and Fire (I don’t think we’re ever getting a sex scene in Star Wars outside of fanfiction and porn parodies), but the violence and betrayal constantly seen in the book make it seem like Phasma would fit right in at Westeros.

I very much enjoyed listening to this audiobook, I give Star Wars Phasma by Delilah S. Dawson four phabulous chrome stormtrooper helmets out of five.  

 

#RealityHigh Review

        I saw #RealityHigh pop up while scrolling through Netflix last night and decided to view it out of curiosity. The story follows high school senior Dani Barnes, a modest girl who cares about one thing and that’s the health and well being of dogs. Dani is low on the social radar until she’s pulled into the world of social media by showing interest in the ex boyfriend of her local social media star classmate Alexa.

        Spoilers from this point on, really like most highschool stories, this is kind of predictable.

        Yes that brief bold sentence is right; if you’ve seen any movies about kids in highschool (particularly Mean Girls), then you know what will happen. “Girl is ‘ugly’, has one best friend, gets noticed by cute guy, becomes popular and irresponsible, makes big mistake, has fight with best friend, fixes everything, jackass rival gets comeuppance, HAPPY ENDINGS FOR EVERYONE!”

        There are select variations in the plot of this movie, but nothing that hasn’t been seen in a teen movie. The main premise of this movie is that Dani’s school rival isn’t just any old mean girl, she is a social media celebrity known as Alexa Medina. Alexa is known for her vlogs, fashion tips, life tips, and being a saint online by promoting positive body images and other social justice issues. In real life Alexa is manipulative and selfish and spends her time using her star status to get what she wants. She’s kind of like an evil Michelle Phan (yes I’m aware there is someone who runs a tumblr dedicated to finding each and every flaw with Michelle phan, we are not opening that can of worms.)

        The interesting approach this movie has is how social media and Alexa’s status as a online celebrity plays affects Dani’s life as someone who wasn’t on social media.

        Dani had nearly no online presence and was one of the few teenagers using a flip phone instead of a smartphone. Things change as soon as Dani falls for Alexa’s ex boyfriend, just like in Mean Girls. Dani hangs out with the popular kids, begins to upgrade her fashion and briefly puts her responsibilities secondary in life. Things go predictably south for Dani after Alexa gets her drunk and secretly records a conversation between the two later editing the video recording to make Dani look like she had been stalking Alexa.  

        This knocks Dani down and has her realize that Alexa had been manipulating her own life to throw her off tracks. A key difference between this film and other teen films is that as soon as mutual friends between Alexa and Dani see the youtube video, they are pissed at the way Alexa used Dani and proceed to unfriend Alexa on on social media and in real life.

        Dani proceeds to do a livestream explaining she doesn’t care what people think of her, and only asks for people bothering to watch her live stream help with a animal clinic charity. Said stream is successful, partially because of some networking between some other (fictional) YouTube celebrities who also love animals.

        Everyone more or less gets a happy ending, Alexa is outed as a fake with some help from Dani’s sister, and is also exposed to somehow faking her youtube views. Everyone but Alexa is happy by the end of the film.

        I wasn’t expecting much from this movie, and I still ended up disappointed. I feel like there was more potential for the movie concerning the villain being a social media celebrity who constantly used her celebrity status to get perks in her life and look like the victim whenever things didn’t go her way.

        As I pointed out this is a movie with a highschool setting, but nearly everything in the plot feels borrowed from other highschool movies. As I also mentioned before the plot is very similar to the plot of Mean Girls; there are even times when I’m not even sure if portions of the plot are shout outs to other (better) movies, parodies, or the possibility of creating a drinking game for people watching the movie.

        I give Netflix’s #RealityHigh two  blackberries out of five.

Leia Princess of Alderaan Review

        No I am not talking about The Princess Diarist (that will be read and reviewed before the end of the year, don’t worry). I am talking about Leia Princess of Alderaan by Claudia Gray. I had picked up the book because it was interesting to get a princess Leia story set before the events of A New Hope and because I enjoyed listening to Bloodline also by Claudia Gray.

        The book follows Leia as she goes through trials to earn her status as royalty to the Alderaan royal family and her early adventures as she enters the world of the rebellion against the empire.

Spoilers from this point onward, I’m not a jedi so I can’t mind trick them out of you. Also there will be fanboy tendencies and observations and other nonsense.

        Leia is destined to become ruler of Alderaan, a planet of peace and charity. To earn the title of royalty Leia must master the challenges of mind, body, and heart. At the same time Leia is participating in the Junior Senate prepping to take over the political world of Alderaan when the time comes. Through the story Leia begins to discover her parents involvement with the rebellion against the empire feeling conflicting feelings of joy that people are going to stand against Emperor Palpatine and anger that her parents kept such a secret from her and would betray the way of her people who had been pacifists for centuries.

        Leia’s discovery of the rebellion is actually the end result of her performing an act of charity through the challenge of heart. While “hiring” refugees on Wobani in order to grant them a happier life, she unintentionally screws up negotiations her father Bail Organa had been working on for years to allow citizens from Wobani to immigrate to Alderaan.

        Through her challenge of the Mind Leia notices interesting activity in some sectors and decides to look into it thus discovering a wider rebellion. Her parents aren’t entirely thrilled at the discovery that Leia knows about the rebellion due to her innocence and lack of knowledge about the rebellion being the only thing to protect Leia should the Empire catch onto what the Organa family is up to. An interesting event happens with Leia’s challenge of the body also occurs where in a life and death situation Leia uses the force without realizing it!

        Despite the efforts of her parents Leia becomes more active in the rebellion both intentionally and by sheer accident gaining the attention of Wilhuff Tarkin who slowly becomes Leia’s arch enemy in not only the book, but in the future as well (until Luke blows him up anyways).

        Fans of Star Wars will also see more of Leia’s personal life with Bail Organa and her mother Breha Organa and how they balance their life. Bail is the senator of Alderaan representing the planet in the galactic senate while Breha is the queen and ruler of the planet taking care of things on the planet. It was very interesting to see Bail function out of the public eye as father to Leia with him actually losing his temper at times when Leia got too close to participating in the rebellion. Breha for the first time is very active in Star Wars content with very little of her ever seen even in Legends material. There is actually a very funny scene involving Tarkin and Mon Mothma where an argument is staged to throw off Tarkin to what is really happening in the rebellion.

        There are many shout outs and foreshadowing in the book, one particular event happening on the planet of Naboo that I’m not going to spoil in this review and I encourage readers to look for. There are cameos of C3PO and R2D2 (I kind of feel like it’s mandatory to have them around these days), foreshadowing for Bloodline (guess who that lock of hair belongs to). Other things include the introduction of the character Amylin Holdo who will be featured in Star Wars the Last Jedi this December. In the story Holdo is more or less the Luna Lovegood of the Star Wars universe choosing to constantly wear exciting and detailed clothing compared to the humble simplistic clothing of her people of Gatalenta. Her character arc (besides becoming a close trusted ally of Leia) is finding a balance to be independent of her people without resorting to some stranger fashion choices.

        My only complaint about the book was some possible timeline issues with the television show Star Wars Rebels in relation to what age Leia is when she meets Ezra and the crew of the Ghost.

        I give Leia Princess of Alderaan four Porgs out of five (yes I can rate a book with porgs even if there aren’t any porgs in it!)