kismetism

… Was really kind of insane, seeing all those people, whose lives Lloyd has so strongly affected. Kind of surreal.

I’m proud that I managed to avoid crying, though, even when forced to speak!

Funnily enough, I wasn’t really at a loss for words so much as I knew that whatever I had to say, Lloyd already knows of my everlasting gratitude… maybe even more than I do. I guess I had to represent, though. Silly TIC children. (And poor Alina. :x )

Teacher told me to write a five paragraph response after finishing the series, so here I am. :O

Lessee. Hmm. I guess Dev actually made me watch the entire series… though we watched the first season quite a while ago and then finished second and third in the last month or so between prepping for courses.

Overall impression? Sure, it was pretty great. Dev kept saying that the first season was horrible compared to the second and third seasons… which I was skeptical of, but I guess I’m convinced now. (Not because I loved the first season, but because these things usually get worse as time goes on, not better. >_> )

I would guess that Avatar’s best attribute was in the simple fact that it was so polished and well-rounded. The world building was thorough, the characters were fleshed out. (I love Appa and Toph. And Iroh.) The story writers took story points to their logical ends and didn’t let heroes or villains always be the ones with the upper hand. And the series didn’t take itself too seriously, which allowed for episodes like the dream one… which was so wonderfully illogical and ridiculous.

And that is, of course, exactly why the movie sucks… or would suck, if I went to see it, not that I’m going to with the reviews it’s been getting. Because all the fun that is Avatar is completely absent from the trailers… not a single laugh-y moment. So lame.

The third season ending was … not bad, but I’d have to concede that there was something kind of sudden and abrupt to the whole ‘energybending’ thing. Not that I could see it ending in any other way, but… meh. But Azula’s rapid deterioration into insanity was pretty amazing… and creepy… and realistic.

I think the only thing I disliked about the entire series might be the rapid shifts in time between episodes. Sometimes it seems as though certain character relationships progressed WAY faster than conceivably possible, since episodes tended to cut … well, who even knows how much time. And then we didn’t really get to see how certain things ended up as they were (like I was totally taken aback by Zuko and Mei when they were first presented. lykwut??) … But I guess it’s a minor nitpick, since they can’t really afford to detail all the boring stuff that happens in between. ::lol::

Okay, it didn’t really have anything to do with Airbending, but I couldn’t very well call it “Avatar”. >_> Silly James Cameron!

I wish I had the presence of mind to log these days, but it’s like there’s just too much to say, so I get tired just thinking about writing it, let alone actually doing. Lately it just seems like the world is pulling apart at the seams.

One thing that’s fanning the gaming flames is the Real IDs + forums stunt that Blizzard is pulling… which, as someone who has Studied Facebook Games And Compared Them To Hardcore MMOs, is a fascinating move that my mind is reeling at. I have a ton of thoughts on the subject, but not much coherency, so I don’t feel good about writing about it.

TIC and ATDP are much the same, while also being totally different. While doing something totally new has been reinvigorating to some degree, I haven’t made so many mistakes since my first year teaching with Trev. I’m overall still having fun, but there’s some stress involved with keeping things running smoothly and I end up worrying about the future too much.

Of course, the really big news was the Mehserle verdict that came out earlier today. I don’t know much about the case except what I picked up off of Wikipedia and I’ll admit that the whole thing only came to my attention because ATDP has been on alert for the sake of students who take BART. While I understood the basics of the case, what I didn’t really follow or recognize was the reality of the expectation of violence in the event of a perceived too lenient sentence.

I guess I continue to be too naive in the face of racial tension, because Oakland got completely torn up today.

Here’s hoping reason and sanity return sooner rather than later.

Oh, and happy birthday, Spark. :x

Dream! Not sure what triggered this, but it must have something to do with having met Spark’s grandmother a couple weeks ago. >_>

I don’t remember much, but I know at least Kim and Manda were there, and there was at least one other but I’m not sure who… get the feeling it was another SC. And they were all sitting at a table in the room I was in and I was sleeping.

And I woke up really slowly and hazily and heard them talking quietly. And I felt like, as I was waking, that my mind was strangely clearer than usual. And near my bedside there was a sheaf of papers, which I thumbed through. They were pages of the manga … nonexistent pages, mind you, that haven’t been drawn yet (in real life or the dream) … and I scanned them with interest.

Then I got up and shuffled over to the girls at the table and … hm, well, I broke down crying in Kim’s arms, saying something about how I missed them and wished my mind was not messed up so that I could be “present” with them all the time, rather than … only really there in body. And I had been on the verge of asking what I was like when I wasn’t having a moment of clarity when I woke up.

I suppose, somewhere, this is what I have decided dementia must be like… where most of the time your mind is in a fuzzy, dreamy haze and you don’t live in the moment anymore. I said a while back, while Spark was talking to Lloyd about his grandmother, that I wouldn’t want to live like that. >_>

Anyway! Happy fourth. XP