Too Much

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I wanted to do what I did last year. The year is coming to a close tomorrow night. So, let's recap. Let's think on all the achievements and fuck-ups from over this year. Based on what I tried keeping track of, this year sucked both ass and balls.

I much enjoyed watching a performance of "The Phantom of the Opera" at the Princess of Wales Theatre. I'd been dying to see it even though I've read the original book by Gaston Leroux. I had a good seat, to see up close. The first amazing thing is the moment of the auction at the beginning, and I could see the cobweb texture. Another highlight is the performance of the lady playing Christine. It amazed me how she managed to hold a note in the duet between Christine and The Phantom. I was really surprised at the moment of the chandelier seeming to fall along with the stage. To make it more unique was the stage transition, having a wall on a turntable, with doors that open and close. Also, crew members managed to pose as characters, to avoid revealing mistakes.
Unfortunately, my joy was short-lived. Just two days later, I read that cancer killed Alan Rickman. A death that I took personally. To make it worse, my laptop broke. As it turned out, I was ignoring that damage of its chassis. Its joints and screen connection broke. I had to wait four weeks to get a new one. I also updated it to have Windows 10, which sucks balls.

To really go on in the world, though, I learned that Pakistan has honour killings, one of which was really a man killing her own daughter for marrying the man she loved. That mistake in the law hasn't been perfectly corrected, but at least killers won't go free for that anymore. Also, in Afghanistan, a woman was hit by acid thrown in her face for doing the right thing and leaving her abusive husband. That was also changed by passing the bill prohibiting the violent use of acid. A terrorist organization called ISIS has been posing as a major threat, as well. Terrorism is the main reason I wish it was the '90s again.
Germany has been taking in Syrian refugees, wanting to get away from the Syrian Civil War. Add that "je suis Charlie" has been a tag after a sarcastic journalist was assassinated; the streets of Nice, France saw several people run over by a truck carrying explosives; the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida was both a hate crime and terrorist act. How long before everyone boycotts flights to other countries out of fear of never coming home alive?
Over this year, people have been protesting about the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. According to one Jo Ellen Darcy: "crossing the Missouri River less than a mile away from the Standing Rock Conservation", which would poison the river and kill too many animals if it was to leak. Too many of those protesting about the government doing the right thing were assaulted and gassed. I really hope it was worth all that. Just weeks ago, the permission for the actual construction has been denied, but there's still no doubt that the pipeline will still happen.
The poor treatment toward the kangaroos at the Tim Height and Tiger Paw Exotic hasn't changed. However, that wasn't the last thing to infuriate me. There were protests over the handling of one Brock Turner having raped a young woman on the campus of Stanford University. He was sentenced to only three months even though the prosecutor said Turner's actions called for a longer sentence. So, the protest was on taking the judge off the case.
Add two police scandals: first one being on a mother not having the truth for a year about her son Anthony being shot dead in a hotel room in Calgary; the second being explained over the summer of Constable James Forcillo having shot dead one 18-year-old Sammy Yatim on a streetcar, Forcillo sentenced to six years, but spent only one night in prison and next hearing possibly unlikely.
Learning of how pets are treated at Pet Habitat in Burnaby, British Columbia wasn't the last news of animal cruelty this year. Some idiots planned to build--and I quote an e-mail--"planet-frying coal plant, right next door to the mega forest that's home to some of the last Bengal Tigers". There was disaster at the opening ceremony of the Brazil Olympics. An Amazonian Jaguar was used as a mascot and paraded about for the lighting of the torch. She got scared and started running. A guard shot her dead without hesitation.
One achievement, there, though, is that SeaWorld has stopped keeping Orcas captive for money and shows.
Other achievements are that, thanks to Avaaz, SumofUs, and change.org, the TTP is dead and net neutrality has been agreed upon, El Salvador's water has been made safe for drinking after building pressure toward OceanaGold to drop a lawsuit.

There was one other fuck-up that I forgot to mention in my last recap and in my vain journal. In Nov. 2015, I tried reporting on someone having posted the work of DarkIceWolf as their own. I tried very hard to send a message to the staff on this, but all I got was frustration and I cried about it.
Last, but most of these fuck-ups, let me say first: I'm a hater. I'm a hater of the Spyro in the "Skylanders" series; I'm a hater of Dante in "DmC: Devil May Cry", as well as its story; I'm a hater of Core Membership. And I'm a hater of the new president. There were heated arguments over here, and no doubt on facebook and twitter. I wish I didn't give a shit about politics...

Now let's think about entertainment. I anticipated many movies released over this year. Even though it was released a week before last Christmas, the new "Star Wars" movie kicked off this year nicely. To further please me, the "Deadpool" movie, which was made under a budget of only fifty-eight million dollars and grossed over three hundred million dollars, came out fast-paced, hilarious, and without almost any dull moment. I also got interested in Disney's "Zootopia", which is awesome as well. The animation is superb and the story is very profound. However, after that, there came a movie that was hated by fans. Bats v. Supes came out an overhyped disappointment, just as I feared. I tried avoiding the news and rumours on it; I really did try. It was basically sub-plots, mangled like vines. They were too focused on special effects. I know the origin of the character Doomsday, to say they bastardized him. I pan the movie for the miscast of Jesse Eisenberg as Luthor. Captain America: Civil War came out a lot better than that. While action-packed, that movie has its dramatic moments. I think X-Men: Apocalypse has its ups and downs. The highlight is the performance of Sophie Turner as Jean Grey. I can remember that she really expressed. I appreciated a few small things, too. What bothers me from the movie is some bad bluescreen effects. They may have been too focused on fan service. Plus, fans hated the portrayal of Apocalypse. As much as I appreciated "Finding Dory", I'm afraid it might be overrated as a sequel. I shared the skepticism of Dan Murrell of Screen Junkies, as he pointed out the reuse of two concepts that I spotted in the commercial. Of course, the animation is commendable. I had no interest at all in "Suicide Squad", and I'm glad I never watched it. Fans were furious by the Joker portrayal. I myself really hated the first leaked still of Leto as the Joker. IMDb stupidly named that movie #1 on their list of movies of 2016. The new Ghostbusters movie got a lot of hate as well. Screen Junkies had to disable the comments of their Honest Trailer to avoid the flame wars on the video. Its actual trailer on YouTube now has over a million dislikes. If I remember correctly, it quickly earned a few hundred thousand dislikes. Though I didn't really plan on it as much as Civil War, I watched Doctor Strange in theatres. What I commend there is the special effects with the colours and environmental manipulations, along with the performance of Benedict Cumberbatch. One last disappointment: two years ago, the teaser for the Sly Cooper movie was made and available for viewing. They said it'd be released this year. Unfortunately, the critical reception of the Ratchet & Clank movie affected someone's confidence in this. So, I'm afraid we might have been... deceived.
Music? I got Tarja: Shadow Self and Epica: The Holographic Principle from ordering on Amazon. They, too have their ups and downs, but they still manage to keep it up. I say that because I can't remember how all songs on those two CDs go, but I know that there a few I want to sink in.
I wasn't much with video games this year. I finally played "Mortal Kombat X", which I've been relying on to vent anger. The Deadpool game, I got a kick out of, for all the humour in it. It was re-released for the Next-Gen consoles last year. I also bought LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Like the other LEGO games, it has the humour and is accurate to the story while taking a few liberties. Personally, I think it was a nice break from the gory stuff. Foolish as it may have been, I also bought Darksiders II "Deathinitive" Edition. I quickly noticed a difference in it. The images are sharper and the colours are easier on the eyes. This year did come out with terrible things. The trailer and demo of No Man's Sky were apparently big fat lies; Mighty No. 9 is tedious; The Last Guardian was criticized for glitches and hard controls; StarFox Zero was called a disappointment for needing to switch between looking from the pad to the TV to the pad; ReCore was called terribly repetitive and has long loading screens. Acclaimed games were Dishonoured 2 (which I got my brother this Christmas), Dark Souls III, Uncharted 4, and Overwatch (which people call overrated). I know Overwatch to be a multiplayer unconventional shooter, and to have killed its competition Battleborn.
I still watch the TV shows that I've been regularly watching. Someone thinks someone should be fired for reusing a concept for the twist in the second season of "The Flash". The start of its new season is based on "Flashpoint", the comic book volume. This may be the last season for the comedy that I've been obsessed with: The Big Bang Theory.

Now, personally: I can't believe what I've been up to. I held out my personal promise to not use the cheap stuff. I stopped using the Crayola stuff. I said in a reply to a comment on "I Look to the Sky", I wanted to be more mature with my tools. My first picture of the year was really a crappy drawing of Trish from "Devil May Cry". Then, I made a painting built simply on the title "Unicorn Slayer", which came out very dark. I don't know who among my watchers knew, but it was "Felidae" that inspired my painting "Lost in the Darkness". I also watched the old movie "Watership Down". I asked a contact of mine for thoughts on "A Rabbit Like No Other" and she said it reminded her of that, when I really got the idea from "Pandora Hearts", which I watched over the summer.
Both those movies have a bad reputation for being violent, bloody, and scary, making them underrated. I also learned from a video by Looper that audiences walked out of "The Lion King", parents getting their crying kids out after the moment of Mufasa's death. The show "black-ish" referenced that as the family's watched it several times, but glossed over that moment to spare Jack pain, prompting him to ask the others what other lies he's been told. So, it makes me wonder if death is one of many things that parents try to sugar coat. I didn't have that.
I've also been reading, out of curiosity, the works of someone on FA, the same person who gave me an idea. I could go on and on, but I'd rather save that for comments below. If you'd like to know what I think of any of the following-- "Legacy", "Cruelty", Unconditional", and "Heretic"-- just ask.
Furthermore, with my writing, I closed the first part of the trilogy that I hope to publish and started the second, which was the highlight of Halloween. Not really coincidental. I reached the end of the first story that I typed up on my laptop on the night of Halloween '11. I hope that I continue to grow as a writer. I hope to further expand upon the universe of my mind.
A major part of my life is that I've been in preparation to move back to the house where I grew up as my mom moved. My house was put on the market. The showings really pissed me off. An afternoon of reading and having a good lunch sounded like too much to ask. At that same time, I was alternating between two stories, writing every day. My house is sold now, but I'm not officially moving out for weeks. It's still insufferable.

And that should be everything. I tired myself out. So, tell me what you think.
© 2016 - 2024 Agent36496
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MegBeth's avatar
Well, it's been a hell of a year... you've certainly kept tabs on just about everything :thanks:
I know moving is always... really, really hard... especially because of your situation and the emotion of it all...
:cling: