January Journal-ish Day 7

[unikorento]

I didn't have a prompt for today, and today's Snowflake challenge didn't tickle my fancy, so I'll just write a regular old little entry. The point is to try and write every day, right? So I'm keeping with the spirit of January journal.

Today was the first day of teaching after Christmas holidays, and all in all it went a lot better than I expected it would. The holiday had clearly been good, since the kids were focused rather than wrung out and restless. I, on the other hand, really could have done with a nap. I must have been nervous about getting back to work on some level because I started the day with only a couple of hours of sleep under my belt. ASMR, Potterless, boring newscast, guided meditation: nothing helped. I'm not at all the insomniac type, so it was a weird night.

The day's highlights include:
- A class of 38 16-year-olds having no idea who Ewan McGregor is. I'd like to try and cobble together some kind of exercise using clips from Moulin Rouge and Trainspotting. It could be fun. Not sure about the educational value, though.
- My Gmail filling with notifications about all the new DW connections I've made in just a few days.
- My corner shop still selling riisipuuro, despite the holidays being technically over.
- Not having to leave the apartment at all today now that I'm home. I miss my dog, but when the weather is like this, I'm really happy he's still at my sister's for another week.

The day's lows:
- I got three extra credit essays handed in, all of which were terrible. I genuinely can't tell if this one kid is really this terrible, or if he didn't read the story and is trying to cover it up. I also have no idea how to ask him which it is without possibly killing his motivation to try and do better in the future. I mean, he voluntarily wrote an extra credit essay. Why would someone try to cheat on something like that? Right?
- The schedule for this week. Thank heaven it really is just this week.
- My Great Marvel Re-watch getting off to a bad start. I can't find Iron Man on Netflix, Viaplay or HBO. Boo.




Chronologically, this is where the re-watch starts. I made a lot of notes while I watched (that was surprisingly fun and a lot easier than I thought it would be), but I'm not sure how to translate them into a journal entry of any value. Maybe just some highlights?

1. Every interaction between Bucky & Steve is gold, and I love it.

2. The "I could do this all day" line is somehow the least effective in this film. It's been amazing every time he's said in the other films. How is that possible?

3. While I love Peggy Carter as a character, I intensely dislike most scenes with her and Steve. She gets the shittiest lines. "You have no idea how to talk to a woman, do you?". Just. Fuck whoever wrote that. Fuck him and the horse he rode in on. No woman in the history of women has ever said that. You know why, shitty script man? You know why? Because women don't consider themselves to be a different fucking species with whom you need to use special vocabulary to communicate. No. Just no. Peggy deserved better lines. That being said, their final conversation is heartbreaking and beautiful.

4. The movie had a montage. I'm a sucker for a good montage.

5. This movie has an inherent problem with how it presents masculinity. I don't blame the movie itself, though. That problem is inherent in the original comics. I love superheroes, but let's not pretend that the ultimate message in all of them isn't that violence is the way to solve problems and that men who choose not to do violence are somehow lesser. I'm pretty sure I'll be repeating this particular point during every single movie.

6. I would have wanted to have more scenes where Steve & Howard Stark develop a friendship. It would've added more spice to Steve's & Tony's issues later on.

7. Bucky saying "No! Not without you!". Yup.

8. How had I not realized that Bucky picks up Cap's shield just before he dies? Obvious foreshadowing? I love it!

9. The last 30 minutes of the movie is boring nonsense, but the very last scene of Cap waking up in New York is wonderful.

In conclusion:
My original impression of the movie stands. It's the least charismatic Marvel movie. Not much of a plot, and yet not enough character interaction to make up for the distinct lack of it, and not even that many funny lines. The casting is spot-on for everyone, though. Sebastian Stan is hot but has a dumb hat.

Comments

[corvidology]

I had to look up 'riisipuuro.'

I love the idea of rice pudding as a holiday food. Is it prepared in a particular way to be richer for the holidays?

It's always possible the 'extra credit essay' was his parents idea.

[unikorento]

Not really - the recipe is the same all year round, but we only eat it during the holidays. :D It's not hard to make, but I'm too lazy to start boiling milk and such, so I'm happy it's still in stores for a little while longer.

I suppose that's possible about the parents, providing he told them about the extra credit opportunity. I mean, I'm not miffed he did it. Poor kid really does need the practice. :/

[corvidology]

It's interesting to hear it's only made at the holidays.

I'm English but I live in the US. Here, pancakes are eaten all year round. In England, traditionally they were only eaten on Pancake Day (Shrove Tuesday), were the size of a dinner plate and only had sugar and lemon on them.

[unikorento]

Americans really do love their pancakes! But to be fair, they have good reason to. That stuff is delicious. :D The thing about Shrove Tuesday is interesting! I didn't know Brits do that. In my corner of the world, eating pancakes on Shrove Tuesday is an Orthodox business. The rest of us eat laskiaispulla then. (It's a sweet roll cut in half with whipped cream and jam.)

[corvidology]

The sweet roll sounds better to me, rather like the way we eat scones. :D

[imarcy]

Teaching 38 teens? Yeah, I probably wouldn't sleep a whole week before the first day back :P I have always wanted to teach, but I couldn't ever do a class that large... I'm not good in front of large groups (and that's huge compared to when I went to HS. We probably had 20 in each class).

YAY on all the new connections! Exciting (:

We did a rewatch of all the Marvel films over our break. It was great because there was SO much I had forgotten about earlier films, and it is truly amazing, when you watch it all back-to-back like this now... and see exactly where they were going with it. How all the movies tied in so well to this 'final' film, even the offshoots like Thor, etc. They really did a great job (even if some of the films weren't that great when compared to others).

[unikorento]

Oh, yeah. 38 is a monstrous amount, and not very common. (It's a "fun" side-effect of the recession, is my guess.) I teach 16 to 18-year-olds, though, so it's not impossible to keep them in check. In schools where the students are 13-15, class size doesn't typically exceed 22 kids.

I'm not good in front of large groups

Neither am I. I'm also a shitty public speaker and have terrible stage fright. Still, I kind of love this job. It's weird how a person's brain works. The actual handling of a class, I find, is almost always a dynamics issue. Some classes you work well with, and some are difficult even if the number of students is smaller. It all boils down to interaction.

even if some of the films weren't that great when compared to others

Yeah. Next on my list is The Hulk (2008). I remember that being something of a garbage fire. I'm excited! :D

[stardreamed]

*waves* Hello, new friend! :)

I love your He-man icon! LOL Nice.

I have trouble sleeping sometimes, no idea why. Haven't found any great solutions, except reading fanfic into the wee hours. O.o lol.

How do 16-year-olds not know who Ewan McGregor is?? Wow. He's just epic in everything he's in. (Well, that and he's a hottie.) None of them saw the Star Wars prequels? Moulin Rouge... I love that movie.

Captain America is great. Most of the Marvel movies are pretty solid. Still need to see Black Panther and that latest Avengers movie.

[unikorento]

Hello! And thanks. Always nice to hear that someone else also appreciates the glory that is Masters of the Universe :D

Oh, it's amazing all the stuff 16-year-olds don't know. This particular instance was funny because I'm teaching the same course for three different groups, and the two other groups were on the ball. "He's the guy in Star Wars! Why do you keep saying you-an and not eh-van." But in this one group it was just ... crickets. Of course, no one in any group had any idea what Trainspotting was, so I went off on a tangent. My classes are about 20% tangent at any given time.

Oh, and also - Have you tried asmr? I typically don't have trouble sleeping, so I don't know how effective it is for insomnia. It works for some folks. Puts me right to sleep too, if my mind is restless in the evening. I used to watch videos on Youtube, and then I realized that there are Spotify playlists too, which makes more sense for me.

[airou]

Whaaat, they stop selling rice pudding after the holidays over there?? /shock

And those 38 students haven't seen Star Wars ep 1-3?! I suddenly feel very old...
I bet there's some educational value to be found, my teachers did the same with their favorite movies&books, and I always learned something from that. (if not, it at least introduced us to media we would not have tried out ourselves)

I can only agree with you on Captain America. It felt like they were still finding their style back then, so I wonder how different it would have been if it had been made today.
Those Bucky x Steve scenes are great though, like you said. <3

[unikorento]

Oh, yeah. Feeling old is part of the job, for me. This is the generation who, for those that have seen Star Wars, technically grew up with the prequels and have *nostalgic* feelings about them. It's bizarre.

I ended up having them translate an extract from Trainspotting from Scots to standard English. It went pretty well, even! No ideas for Moulin Rouge yet. Maybe it'll come to me.

so I wonder how different it would have been if it had been made today.

Now that you said that, I suddenly realize that yeah, it probably would have been different. And, actually? Maybe it's better that they made it back in the "early days." I mean, I love Marvel movies, but they're definitely slanting towards the comical right now, and Captain America is supposed to be sincere. Maybe that movie needed to be a little dry? It sets up who Steve is really well, after all.

[thewayne]

I once was working with a group of computer supposed professionals, and no one except me knew what a slide rule was. While I was the oldest one in the group, I didn't think it was quite that ancient of knowledge!

[thewayne]

And my wife would be aghast at people not knowing who Ewan was! She definitely OTP's Obi Wan and Quigon in Phantom Menace, she's got quite a thing for guys with ponytails.