<\/p>\n
During my weekend alone, I think I made it kind of clear that I wasn\u2019t feeling too great, emotionally.\u00a0 Catching up on writing about things kind of helped, but along the way, in between posts written, I found myself getting distracted.\u00a0 I would check Facebook or play a League of Legends<\/em> match, and then I\u2019d chastise myself for squandering the opportunity of time that I had, and that I shouldn\u2019t be wasting time doing what I could do at other times.<\/span><\/p>\n This was Saturday afternoon.\u00a0 Since then, I haven\u2019t played any League, and I closed Facebook everywhere; my browser, the tabs on both my iPhone and iPad, and on my other laptop.\u00a0 More than anything, I think not looking at social media has been something cathartic and the forced separation something of a good thing. \u00a0What started as an evening became a day, and then it\u2019s become several days, and at the time I\u2019m writing this, I still haven\u2019t checked Facebook.<\/span><\/p>\n The funny thing is how many times I\u2019ve had to stop myself from almost doing so, especially over my phone, while I\u2019m at work, in between assignments, or those fleeting moments where I want to not be doing work, catch my breath and see what\u2019s going on elsewhere in the world.\u00a0 I\u2019ve frantically forced quit the app numerous times since then.\u00a0 Eventually, I\u2019ll check again, once routine settles back down.<\/span><\/p>\n But the time not spent playing League or looking at social media and thinking about either, I\u2019ve actually, not surprisingly, been somewhat productive, in a manner of speaking; by catching up with stories.\u00a0 And not \u201cstories\u201d as in hicks talking about television shows per say, although I am talking about some television shows; but if it weren\u2019t for the fact that I finished reading one book, then I\u2019d basically have entitled this whole thing \u201ccatching up on movies and shows.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I really enjoyed Ernest Cline\u2019s Ready, Player One<\/em>, which I\u2019m under the impression that it\u2019s going to be made into a movie that\u2019ll come out somewhat soon-ish, based on the chatter I\u2019ve heard about it the last time I did check social media.\u00a0 But over the weekend, I finished reading his second book, Armada<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n Whereas Ready, Player One was an enjoyable story, I\u2019d have to say that Armada fell very short in being Cline\u2019s literary encore.\u00a0 It was a fast read that wasn\u2019t the worst thing I\u2019ve ever written, but it was predictable, clich\u00e9d, and had an ending that was more abrupt than when I\u2019m brogging and I suddenly decide I don\u2019t feel like writing anymore, and have a really, really harsh finish.\u00a0 That was Armada.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Not to mention after two books, I think Cline has a tendency to write some serious Mary Sues, because the love interests in both books are some textbook Mary Sues.<\/span><\/p>\n Anyway, with the sole book out of the way now, what I did catch up on a lot of was, the Marvel Cinematic Universe<\/em>.\u00a0 It\u2019s not that I\u2019d never been a fan of Marvel Comics, quite the contrary, but I\u2019d just never taken the time to go watch all the movies as they\u2019ve been rapidly coming out.\u00a0 I\u2019ve always been a fan of Iron Man, but I\u2019d never really cared much for Hulk<\/em>, Thor<\/em>, and I don\u2019t really care much for the upcoming Doctor Strange<\/em> or Black Panther<\/em> for the matter.\u00a0 The only reason I showed any remote interest in Ant Man<\/em>, was solely based on the fact that he was played by Paul Rudd, who I think is awesome.\u00a0 And honestly?\u00a0 I\u2019d never really been that big of a Captain America fan either, but he\u2019s still one of the cornerstones of Marvel, so I\u2019d have to watch them too.<\/span><\/p>\n But one character I\u2019d never heard of before prior, was Jessica Jones<\/em>.\u00a0 I watched the entire series anyway, because I was on a Hell\u2019s Kitchen kick after Daredevil<\/em>.\u00a0 JJ wasn\u2019t bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it was definitely a step down from Daredevil, and frankly didn\u2019t have to be 13 episodes.\u00a0 The main storyline probably could\u2019ve been wrapped up in six, but 13 seems to be a standard number for episodes produced, even if some of them end up being kind of fluffy or repetitive.\u00a0 Luke Cage was an intriguing introduction into the series, and based on the references they made, it\u2019s clear this takes place in the cinematic universe as well.<\/span><\/p>\n Frankly, one of the guilty pleasures I had throughout the series was the anticipation of whenever David Tennant, playing the antagonistic Kilgrave, got his ass kicked, because I\u2019m not very much a big Doctor Who<\/em> fan, and I associate Tennant with him more than any of the other Doctors, so it\u2019s fun to see him get punched out.<\/span><\/p>\n After Jessica Jones, I decided to delve into the films that I\u2019d never seen, because I don\u2019t like watch movies by myself, and I didn\u2019t have a mythical girlfriend at the time when most of these flicks came out.\u00a0 I realized that I was quite behind on the eventual storyline, but I had a little bit of time to start chipping away.<\/span><\/p>\n Guardians of the Galaxy<\/em> was a fun movie, but I will say that thanks to social media, it was hyped to proportions that couldn\u2019t be met.\u00a0 Thankfully in this case, I\u2019m jaded and aware of this, so I didn\u2019t have high expectations of it in the first place.\u00a0 Chris Pratt as Star Lord was entertaining, and I wasn\u2019t aware that Batista was playing the role of Drax the Destroyer.\u00a0 Either way, I was surprised to see ol\u2019 Dave jobbing as hard in this film as he did in his later WWE runs.\u00a0 Zoe Saldana was completely unconvincing in performance, and to no surprise, if anyone managed to shine in spite of an uphill CGI climb, Bradley Cooper was intriguing as Rocket.\u00a0 And let us not forget basically the sequel to The Iron Giant, <\/em>and probably the easiest pay day in history, as Vin Diesel groaned his way through 129 minutes as Groot.<\/span><\/p>\n Fun movie, nowhere close to the overblown hype that people heaped on it, but still enjoyable.<\/span><\/p>\n As I said earlier, if Paul Rudd weren\u2019t cast as Ant Man<\/em>, there\u2019s probably a very high chance that I wouldn\u2019t have bothered to watch this, even though it was freely available via Starz.\u00a0 But because I\u2019m a Paul Rudd fan, I gave Ant Man a whirl, and it was a good thing, too.\u00a0 Ant Man ended up being pretty enjoyable in its own right, despite the fact that it was basic as hell, in terms of plot and general storytelling.\u00a0 In a way, that\u2019s not a good thing, because it gives off the impression that Disney\/Marvel studios are kind of cranking out these introductory movies left and right, so that the characters can be established and built up, for when they eventually start doing comprehensive storylines, like the Infinity Crusade.\u00a0 But for what Ant Man was worth, Rudd was decent, and I didn\u2019t hate the film at all.<\/span><\/p>\n I watched the first Captain America<\/em> film several years after it was in theaters, and just like that one, it was several years later until I finally watched Winter Soldier.\u00a0 <\/em>I still think it\u2019s funny that Chris Evans was also Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four<\/em> (the one that sucked\u2026 okay, they all sucked) and how he basically got a second chance at landing a Marvel franchise by being Captain America as well.\u00a0 I\u2019m still waiting for them to sneak in a line where he takes a jab at Johnny Storm in another film.<\/span><\/p>\n But as suspected, it\u2019s pretty clear the titles of these films are becoming less and less important, because the storylines are overlapping, and they\u2019re all building towards a similar goal.\u00a0 Despite the fact that the film was entitled \u201cCaptain America,\u201d it was pretty much Cap, Black Widow, and the introduction of Falcon, and their hijinx as they took on SHIELD and Hydra, and so they could integrate Bucky Buchanan into the storyline.<\/span><\/p>\n Either way, it was a watchable film, that I wouldn\u2019t watch again, but I\u2019m glad to have seen it once, so I can at least be aware of the groundwork it\u2019s laid down, for future storylines.\u00a0 Especially since one of the impetuses for this Marvel spree is that I\u2019m probably going to end up watching Captain America: Civil War<\/em>, hopefully not too long after writing this post.<\/span><\/p>\n Ironically, the two films that have eluded me, are the two films that are supposed<\/em> to be comprehensive films: The Avengers<\/em>, and Avengers: Ultron.\u00a0 And the reason is simple: I can\u2019t find The Avengers available to stream; not without paying money first.\u00a0 Ultron however, is available on Starz, but I don\u2019t see a point in watching the sequel before its predecessor, despite the fact that I did that with Thor, but Thor sucks anyway.<\/span><\/p>\n Regardless, I\u2019ll pay the $2.99 to rent it from Amazon Prime, although it seems silly, because despite the fact that I\u2019ve seen numerous films and shows that take place after it, it still feels like I should probably watch The Avengers for myself in its entirety before I start trying to play more catch-up.<\/span><\/p>\n The point of all of this was that I made a decision to close two of the biggest time sucks in my life, League of Legends and social media, and I was free from distraction to pursue other endeavors.\u00a0 And sure, some might not interpret \u201cwatching a shitload of tv\u201d as one of the better productive endeavors out there, but I\u2019m certainly not regretful for capitalizing on the opportunity to catch up on a lot of popular shows and films.\u00a0 It certainly beat getting aggravated with video games and the voices of other people.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" During my weekend alone, I think I made it kind of clear that I wasn\u2019t feeling too great, emotionally.\u00a0 Catching up on writing about things kind of helped, but along the way, in between posts written, I found myself getting distracted.\u00a0 I would check Facebook or play a League of Legends match, and then I\u2019d … Continue reading Catching up with stories<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[74,140,154,41,91,156],"class_list":["post-42351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-books","tag-comics","tag-league-of-legends","tag-movies","tag-pf","tag-social-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42351"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42352,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42351\/revisions\/42352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}