My Overview and Reason for Lack of Blog Activity

Whoo! Finally! This is my first blog post since the Academy Awards from this February! I have not even touched Blogger because of my concerns for lack of physical activity at home (such as painting as suggested by my mom and the peers and clients who praises my painting skills) and my full commitment to another blog site called Writing for Designers for my Writing for Artists class with my kind and most understanding teacher Prof. Lynn Constantine. And believe me, I have had a good but difficult and challenging time at George Mason for spring semester this year. I was lucky to get an A in both Writing for Artists (Lynn Constantine) and Co Brand and Design (Jessica Rodriguez) classes, an A+ in Visual Voices Colloquium, and an A- in Paula Crawford's Painting III class. Although I got a B in 3D animation class with Prof. Jesse Cowan, which I thought was the most difficult class of the semester even when I was getting quite good with the tools in the Maya Animation program. But what matters most, is that I did great with that semester, as always, for all of my hard work and effort even when there are times when I kind of prefer to do things I love to do besides painting or working on computer stuff. Like watching movies, that is.

But as I prepare myself for hopefully an exciting summer, I've experienced some surprises and twists and turns that sometimes spawn in a consequential or controversial outcome. For example, Fox's Deadpool was an astounding hit for an R-rated comic book superhero movie, but Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice which is what I thought I was most excited for besides Marvel's Captain America: Civil War, sadly opened to very upsetting results which is not quite what the studio or fans had expected. To begin that subject, the Zack Snyder-directed blockbuster follow-up to Man of Steel is unfortunately filled with extremely out-of-character moments, particularly for the once proud "symbol of hope" Superman, and convoluted subplots that add nothing to what the "Batman v Superman" title really suggests. Why couldn't the trailers and TV spots be true to their word of what the final product will be like when deep down, it's as though they have NO CLUE of how to honor what made Batman, Superman, and all the DC heroes so popular in a comic book studio that must really think that being Batman is all they care about. I wanted to like the new takes on the most popular superheroes of DC Comics, mostly because of the praise on Ben Affleck's take on Batman, but because BvS has instead repeated the same bothersome mistakes found in Man of Steel, like making Superman too scornful and joyless because "dark and gritty works best", I'm not even sure if that means we should treat the Henry Cavill version of Superman as canon and act like the more heroic Superman (mainly Christopher Reeve and the DC Animated Universe counterpart) doesn't exist. They even made Lex Luthor (in name only even if he's "the son of the REAL (but dead... DEAD!?) Lex Luthor)!) a total loony thanks to Jesse Eisenberg! I would think that Captain America is the real Superman we deserve who is at least handled correctly and acted like a true American superhero and is actually willing to help people without any stupid morals. But that doesn't mean that every DC hero like The Flash or Aquaman should "be like Batman" as though DC thinks that darkness is always "fun"! I feel like the animated shows (mostly the '90s) are always gonna be better than the awful live-action movies (Green Lantern, Jonah Hex, Catwoman, even the DC Extended Universe films like Batman v Superman)! Although there's a 3-hr R-rated Ultimate Edition coming in DVD/Blu-ray that will change our we feel towards the critically-panned theatrical cut, is that going to justify how upset we are with the stuff that we feel didn't need (Justice League teasers, death of Jimmy Olsen, Lois Lane's bullet investigation, nightmares including the Flash, reason that Batman and Superman fight each other is because of "Martha", the Kevin Costner cameo, last minute inclusion of Doomsday and Death of Superman storyline, etc.)? And with Suicide Squad coming this August and the announcement of Geoff Johns and Jon Berg being made as the "Kevin Feiges" of the DC movies, does that mean that there is "hope" for the DC Extended Universe, particularly correcting the way that Superman was terribly handled prior to next year's long-awaited live-action Justice League movie?

Hey, everyone!

On the bright side though, is that after I finally completed my spring semester at GMU, I got the chance to be reunited with my sister Christine Mayuga and see Captain America: Civil War at Tysons Corner! It's a superhero movie that I believe that Batman v Superman should have ended up as instead when pitting two of our favorite heroes for all of the right reasons with no abrupt resolution. But the biggest highlight of all was being impressed with Tom Holland's long-awaited FAITHFUL portrayal of Spider-Man after having to suffer with the awful-to-mediocre, franchise-killing Spider-Man 3 and Amazing Spider-Man 1 & 2! For once, Sony made the right decision to allow Marvel handle everyone's favorite wall-crawler with care and bringing him back from obscurity! I have viewed the first two critically-acclaimed but overrated Sam Raimi films to prepare myself for Spidey's first debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since last year. I was glad that my wait for that was worth it. But for now, let's focus with the Captain America vs. Iron Man squabble. While it retains the awesome direction from Phase 2 game-changer Captain America: The Winter Soldier and proved to be a great start for Phase 3, I would think that it felt kinda too long for 145 minutes with all the fun humor and serious action which is sorta hard to balance each other without annoying Marvel and/or non-Marvel fans. Nevertheless, based on the box office research, it is already earning over $1.14 billion worldwide which is amazing! I knew that Civil War would mark a great start for summer 2016!

Now as far as I can tell, I also had a nice trip, albeit with some stressful struggles when it comes to being so far away from my beloved home Virginia while visiting places like Japan and the Philippines. I was excited to have arrived in Japan with my mom is because that Japan is, as I would call it, the birthplace of all of the famous properties that I was mostly familiar with! Godzilla, Power Rangers, Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Hello Kitty, Transformers, Sony, you name it! Tokyo, Japan was such a big city! I never thought that I dreamt of coming there! The biggest gripe for coming to Japan though was all of the foods that I'm uncomfortable to eat with, since I am well picky. I still ate some pizza, chicken and burgers, which is a relief. But oh the places and beautiful sights you can find in Japan! And I almost bought many awesome Japanese toys due to how expensive they were! It is kind of fun to wander around, especially when I visit a place like the Tokyo Tower and the Tokyo Disney Resort! My mom and I even got to see Christine again who was already finishing her classes in this country! Onward to the Philippines!
The Philippines, as I know, is a birthplace of my mom and dad since the 1960s. It must be a very long time for them since they moved away to live in the United States to raise me in 1991. But when we got to Manila, I never expected the conditions to be so tightly full of traffic and full of dirty but poor and helpless people loitering in the streets. My family and I had a fun time, however. We moved to an apartment called Victoria Towers where we'll settle there for 2-3 weeks. We also would usually visit each of our closest relative to the Mayuga family, and we would always to special malls like SM Megamall, Robinsons Mall and Green Belt. I also got to see movies with my dad like Angry Birds and X-Men: Apocalypse, which were already out prior to their American dates! The moment that I never expect would happen was coming to the Philippine General Hospital, which is the building that I have seen before in the paintings that I made for my parents and their friends! It was like seeing a painting brought to life, with almost all of the EXACT details that I painted in every specific area of the canvas! My favorite relative that my parents, my sister and I have visited was Uncle Cito, who is of course the BROTHER of my Facebook friend Auntie Melody, and he was a huge fan of superheroes and Transformers! I was so surprised to see what kind of a fan he was! During the times in Manila, Philippines, life can be very stressful since I felt like I miss Virginia so much. Mostly because of all the foods that I had trouble coping with in every restaurant my parents wanted to go to honor their friends. Many times, they would find some helpful alternatives for me to have an effective lunch or dinner. I knew that coming to the Philippines wasn't always a bad place to come, even if there are some places that challenges my taste and views.

By the end of May and the beginning of June, we traveled to the beaches, where we would have a relaxing time splashing ourselves with seawater and explore other exotic islands and life in the Philippine waters. We visited the El Nido resort and stayed there from Thursday to Sunday where would take some special trips to somewhere where we'll snorkel ourselves beneath the salty waters. My sister was like the only one out of our family to have an amazingly fun time! Me? I just go along with how they're enjoying themselves. I even got to kayak with Christine and finally ride the tides on a surfboard along the beach water! Sure feels like summer!


So overall, that's what I was doing and why I haven't touched this blog since the start of GMU spring semester. But that's all I have to recap everything that I've done so far! I wonder what I can expect to see or hear before arriving back in George Mason this fall following my LOOOOONNG break this summer!