Since late April to early May, I have been practicing hard with my job coach Elizabeth Graviano at ServiceSource for my job interview with the Office of Elections internship that I have been applying to for the summer. On May 22nd, mom took me to the Fairfax County Government Center where I would begin my first job interview with Jill Clark, Gary Scott and Mary Lee. But then as it turns out, they didn't ask me some questions that I have been desperately preparing myself for. They were acting so nice by simply informing me of what I might do now that I am accepted to the internship. The questions that I was able to ask them was what are the next steps in the process as well as what kind of duties that I may be given when working there. When the conversation ended, I thanked them for such a pleasant meeting and letting me know that my background will be of great help to their goals in managing the local elections for the government and applying my graphic design skills to assist in transcribing and transferring data and graphics. While working at an internship to gain some professional job experience might be new for me since working as a volunteer at Fairfax Education Association, I believe that I will have a good time serving the internship for the summer.
Speaking of summer, time to talk about what movies that I have seen so far as summer begins and my time at George Mason for the Spring ends! I have just seen Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 twice, first time was with my mom and the second time was with my sister who has just arrived back from Notre Dame to spend some quality time with the Mayuga family for the summer! Now for Guardians, I thought in my opinion that I enjoyed it more than the first one since I appreciated it for retaining the same colorful visuals and laugh-out-loud humor done by director James Gunn, as well as the fact that the soundtrack is much more enjoyable thanks to the "Awesome Mix Vol. 2" songs Peter Quill would enjoy listening to, particularly during the opening scene with Baby Groot! But I also like that the sequel fleshes out the characters we've barely known from the predecessor, especially Yondu and Nebula! What's also shocking, when it comes to sequels being more compelling than the first one since Empire Strikes Back, was that we learn that Peter Quill's father Ego is SPOILER..... actually the main villain and the reason why Quill's mother died from cancer at the start of the first film! Because of that unexpected twist, it makes the Yondu character and his death more meaningful and that he is truly the father Quill deserved even if he's a no-good greedy blue-skinned mercenary. I would definitely be expecting things to get better in the still-going-strong Marvel Cinematic Universe before the impending Infinity War next year!
As I await for my first time working at an internship until June 12th, I would deal with some incoming changes when spending time in the Mayuga's house. My sister has just gotten her first job and started attending to George Mason University, which is where I was at since 2014! During the Memorial Day weekend, we would head to Orlando, Florida where we would stay at a hotel on a nice and warm yet hot weather. The reason for such a relaxing visit was to enter the place that will surely change everything: Pandora. As many people would recall, Pandora is the name of the indigenous but dangerous alien planet filled with unique creatures (Banshees, Great Leonopteryx, Thanator, Direhorses, Sturmbeests, you name it!) including the blue cat-like natives called the Na'vi. Now, Pandora is a planet seen in James Cameron's $2 billion blockbuster phenomenon Avatar, which my mom thinks is overrated which is true but not without its visually-stunning moments and some spectacular action scenes. It is an attraction located in the Disney Animal Kingdom theme park. Except that for the first timers, there would be some very LONG lines that takes about 2-3 hours entering in the rides to see what our experience in Pandora would be like compared to what we've seen in the movie. What makes the Pandora attraction more intriguing was that at night, everything would glow in the dark, or as I would call it according to the part in the movie where Jake Sully first met Neytiri: bioluminescence. I was glad that I got to see it for myself on the first opening day after spending my fun time with my sister at Universal Studios Orlando! Perhaps the sequels (the first of the four will be released in December 2020) that James Cameron has working hard on for such a long time might be worth waiting and may not suffer the same way that the 6-year gap did to Alice Through the Looking Glass compared to its 2010 Tim Burton predecessor that earned $1 billion.
While the state of the world is pretty much in shambles due to reports that the terrorist attacks have occurred in London which made opinions on President Donald Trump and the government worsened, I tried to look at the brighter side waiting for what does the Office of Elections internship has in stores for me. As June begins, I would prepare myself for what is to come. When I watched Wonder Woman with my sister, it would appear that my initial doubts were wrong all along. The first live-action female DC superhero movie is a much better DCEU experience than Man of Steel, Batman v Superman (no matter which version) and Suicide Squad combined! I never expected Wonder Woman to finally end up a great DC movie after it was thought to be a "discombobulated mess"! I hope that this astounding success will bring some encouragement to a lot of fans to expect the same for Justice League, which I can only hope will truly redeem the DC characters despite suffering the loss of a great one (specifically Superman). But there's only one word that comes to mind now that summer is finally here: Transformers. It seems that the promotional marketing and the toys for Transformers: The Last Knight is somehow improving, and may be attempting to prove to the fandom that it was going to be a major improvement over Age of Extinction, the sequel that I now know is what turned moviegoers and fans away from the action-packed robot-fighting franchise that made me a huge fan of Transformers since 2007. While I am relieved that the return of familiar faces such as Megatron and the mention of references from any of the five films will mean that it might somehow bring back what I know is the reason why the first live-action Transformers film is my favorite movie of all time, I am unsure if it'll be enough to regain some fans to restore the studio's desire to start their own cinematic universe despite AOE suffering a major dip in domestic grosses (even with $1 billion thanks to China) and critical ratings. If Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (which I thought was entertaining and so much better than On Stranger Tides) from what was considered to be the "worst Memorial Day weekend" indicates something, and when it comes to being the fifth installment of the franchise that people believed should have retired no matter what exciting moments it may have, I fear that what if The Last Knight might not achieve the same amount of success as any of the four predecessors, with or without some much-needed support from the international countries that the studio appears to be making it lean on to more than the Americans. What I truly want is that it would be more like the first film where everything was so simple and more fun, and that the characters were more likable instead of always treating each other like dirt (especially the Autobots that deserve the same love as the Avengers and the Justice League)! Even if I may have to see the day AFTER it was released since I have work and that my family and I are getting ready to head for Philadelphia to visit our old friends from Vancouver. I hope that Summer 2017 will be better than last year, despite the bad stuff happening in the world we now live in!
