This gave me the feels and made me laugh at the same time.

Very short post. FREEDOM not really making itself felt yet.

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Okay, freedom didn't exactly turn out the way I intended.

After my "FREEDOM" post, I thought I'd be able to bang out my Avengers: Age of Ultron review (which, right now, is still barely written), and I have another post about how my mind got blown last weekend (which only has its post title, but not its content).

'Freedom' meant spending two weeks writing justifications for my own performance assessment, and also one other (thankfully, just one other!), but mostly, time was spent on my own and not on other people's.

Phew.

That over (today!), I now have to wait three more weeks for another bombshell to drop (or not drop). Details when it happens (or does not happen).

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FREEDOM!!!

[Three days late.]

So I just finished my work peak last Friday. Woot woot.

And over the weekend, I totally binge-ate and slept and played computer games. I even took leave today JUST SO I COULD DO IT ALL AGAIN.

Like, a two-day weekend in one day. But not so much.

Anyway, Imma go outside and eat chips. Avengers: Age of Ulton review is two weeks' late!

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Today, the biggest movie of 2015 opens...

And I'm not going to see it on opening weekend. I'll only be watching it with the rest of the United States (and probably some other parts of world that is not China, probably).

Which makes me super jumpy and disgruntled.

Because this is a movie that I really, really, really want to see; have been waiting to see since three years ago (even more so, since last year).

And I don't even have frackin' tickets to a show just yet.

EDIT: While I was at work today, my awesome mom managed to get frackin' tickets to a show on Labour Day!! May 1, baby!! I'M GONNA BE WATCHING THE AVENGERS THIS FRIDAY!!

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What a week.

Work aside (am bottling that up so it'll eat me from the inside out), this week(end) has been fantastic for movie buffs.

First, I found out that the Batman vs. Superman trailer is out. There's not much to show for it, but since I'm completely unfamiliar with the storyline, I got kinda excited. It didn't occur to me that Batman would be bringing Superman to justice for what he did (in probably Man of Steel).

[So THAT's what Dawn of Justice! Duh!]

Then, we have the new Ant-Man trailer, a superhero I have no clue about except that he (Hank Pym) was the most aggressive of the Marvel Zombies, but the trailer revealed more and it looked cool. I didn't know he'd have superhuman strength when he's tiny!

And last (but not least), the icing on the cake: Star friggin' Wars!!!

But my connection was sooo shitty, that 1080HD quality couldn't load completely, and I had to downgrade to 480, which ALSO took forever to load.

The wait was absolutely worth it. I got goosebumps hearing Mark Hamill's voice (Internet says it's from Return of the Jedi, but why would they reuse audio when they could just get Mark Hamill to friggin' re-say those words for the trailer), then fights and battles and X-Wings, then seeing the Millenium Falcon being chased, and finally, Han SoloHarrison Ford!!!!

AND CHEWBACCA!!!

I can't wait for Christmas.

#ChewieWereHome

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R.I.P. Terry Pratchett (1948 - 2015)

This morning, I saw a little pictorial on the cover of the Sunday lifestyle pull-out, saying "Remembering Terry Pratchett - Star2 tomorrow".

Shocked, I immediately whipped out my cellphone, Googled, and I found out he died three days ago. And there wasn't even a blurb in the papers saying he'd passed on.

[As I'm writing this, I've a sense of deja vu. I didn't see Robert Jordan's death coming, either.]

I haven't been a Pratchett fan for long. My first book was Interesting Times, probably back in 2008/09, and I've never laughed so hard nor did I ever think I'd find a book written by a Westerner that was so spot-on in satirising East Asian culture. Mort, The Last Continent, Thud! (which put Sam Vimes right up there with Rincewind as characters I look for), Going Postal, and many more soon followed.

[Interesting Times wasn't my first introduction to Rincewind and the Discworld, though. It was a little computer game named Discworld, released sometime in the '90s. I didn't get around to playing it until I was in college. And after that I found out that it was actually Samuel Vimes who was the protagonist in the book the game was based on.]

One of the main reasons why I loved Pratchett's books is because of his turn of phrase and narrative style: it's very conversational, and I love that he plays on the sentences he writes for added humour. A sentence of his (can't recall it exactly, but it's from Unseen Academicals) which is my personal favourite is about a very well-loved teddy bear who had a third button sewn onto its head, and is thus more enlightened than the average teddy bear.

Another thing about Pratchett's books is that he can write very poignant scenes (the last paragraphs of Mort come to mind), and he writes characters that you start to care about in only a matter of pages, and then you hope that he doesn't kill them off.

I remember reading Monstrous Regiment, and though no one died, the last few chapters made me cry; reading the part in Thud! where Sam Vimes is possessed by the Summoning Darkness and, in fighting said Darkness, he bellows out Where's My Cow? and miles away, young Sam hears him and is placated; and when Ronald Saveloy died in Interesting Times and got into Viking Heaven, I teared up.

[Every time.]

Finding out (some years ago) that Pratchett had Alzheimer's shocked me; the irony of it being that he's still writing, his books are still as witty as ever, and here he had this illness that preys on the mind; an illness of which most people think you'd only get if you don't keep your brain active.

As I was catching up on Pratchett's death via phone, I clicked one with the title, "Terry Pratchett posts final conversations with Death on Twitter" (no link because there are many with the same title and I can't remember which one it was I'd clicked).

And as I read through it and his tweets, I cried. At the car workshop, because I was getting my tyres checked. I totally almost-bawled, and had to hide my eyes with my sunglasses.

In ending this post and with a very heavy heart, I embed the below bittersweet and meta tweets, right from Pratchett's Twitter account (the first one is from Death, who TALKS LIKE THIS).

AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER.
— Terry Pratchett (@terryandrob) March 12, 2015

Terry took Death’s arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night.
— Terry Pratchett (@terryandrob) March 12, 2015

The End.
— Terry Pratchett (@terryandrob) March 12, 2015

Rest in peace, Sir Terry Pratchett. Au revoir.


P.S. There's a online petition to Death asking him to bring Terry Pratchett back. I've signed it.

P.P.S. I've found this, which made me emotional again. If you've got a server or something, do go to here.

To quote perscitia from Reddit: I thought I had run out of tears but I guess I was wrong.

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New Avengers 2 trailer!

And new scenes!!

And tickets have been available since Chinese New Year!!! The earliest I've seen advance ticketing happen was for Transformers 4: three weeks prior.

Two whole months (and then some!) is a new record! To me, at least.

Time to queue up for the Labour Day crowd.


My next post will be about dresses and colors. Wasn't late to the party, just late to tell everyone else about it.

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