How I've Changed This Year

You guys probably didn't know this (actually, my only followers are from school, so you probably did know this), but I've been writing this blog for a grade in my English class. Yeah, I know, that's so dorky and nerdy, but hey, isn't that the point of this blog? This may be my last post, depending on whether or not I get motivation to write this summer or if I somehow spontaneously get readers who would die if I never published again, but that's not gonna happen, so you're gonna have to depend on me getting motivation. Whatever.

I haven't had a prompt for any of my other posts, but for this one I'm supposed to write about how I've changed this year. At first this was pretty hard for me to figure out, and it still kind of is because I know how I’ve changed recently but I cant quite remember how much of that was actually this year. I do know, however, that this year I’ve tried to become more motivated to make myself change for the better and to help the world change for the better. This is more difficult than it sounds, since I’m smart but also incredibly lazy. I want to get things done but lots of times I simply can’t bring myself to do them. I still haven’t quite found a thing that motivates me completely, but I’m looking for something, and in the meantime I’m forcing myself to do the things I want to do. 

My teeth are straighter than at the beginning of this year! I’ve now had braces on for almost two years and I’ll hopefully be getting them off this summer. 

me with two ensemble girls from the Once tour
this is the most recent picture I could find where I showed my teeth, it was about a month ago

This is weird, but I somehow feel like I’ve become more confident in some ways and less confident in other ways. I’m better at talking to people I don’t know, I’m better at public speaking, and I can now order food on my own at a restaurant without having a panic attack (It hasn’t happened for at least 6 months now!). But I think I’m less confident in that I’m more self-conscious about the way I look and worried about what other people think of me. Last year, I was able to wear clothes that reflected my personality more, but now when I put on more bold and daring outfits that feel like me, I suddenly get scared that other people will judge me. That’s definitely something that I’m going to work on overcoming this summer. 

Something that’s been a gradual process for me over the past year and a half or so has been reclaiming my femininity and trying to stop judging other girls for what they like. I used to think it was shameful to do “feminine” things like liking makeup and taking selfies with filters and liking romance movies. I used to judge other girls for these things, and I still sometimes catch myself doing that. I also used to believe in the trope of the “fake geek girl” who pretended to like “geeky” things just so she could get boys to like her. I’ve now realized that girls can like whatever they want to like and they shouldn’t be questioned about it. 

If anyone’s out there, thank you so much for joining me on this journey. It’s been really great, and I’m still trying to better myself, but that’s what life is. Maybe I’ll talk to you soon and maybe I’ll continue this blog even after my class is over! Even if I don’t continue, and you find this page sometime in the future after I’ve been inactive for years, you’ll probably always be able to find me on my tumblr: moritz-is-bae. See ya!

My Opinion on Avengers: Age of Ultron

I'd give it a 6/10. Maaaaybe a 6.5. It wasn’t as good as I’ve been hoping for since the summer of 2012, but it was okay. Here’s why that 6.5 isn’t a 10:

Age of Ultron was written by Joss Whedon, whom I used to really like (most notably for Dr. Horrible, Firefly, and The Avengers), but I recently found out that he was being a whiny man-baby and left Marvel studios after getting bitter about pieces in the MCU that other people wrote and criticisms that people have given him (please correct me if I’m wrong; I may not know the whole story). Anyway, I’d read up a few things on Tumblr about it before I went to see it today, so I was expecting to be a little disappointed. What I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t read anything on Tumblr was that the characters of the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are supposed to be Romani Jews but were whitewashed by Joss Whedon and written to be affiliated with HYDRA, which is a Nazi organization. Now that doesn’t make very much sense to me. Minus 2 points right there.

wanda and pietro in the comic books
image courtesy newsarama

i don't see a resemblance
image courtesy kdramastars

   

Now I watched the movie, and I was thoroughly entertained by it. There was action (of course) and some really great character development for Hawkeye. This made me really happy because I often feel like he’s an under-appreciated avenger and that he didn’t get enough screen time in the last movie. I was also really happy with the addition of Wanda, Sam, and Rhodey into the Avengers team at the end of the movie. It made me super excited for the next movie to come out. These are the components that made me give it those 6-6.5 points. 

The main thing that caused me to take away those 1.5-2 points is the way that Joss Whedon handled the characters of Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff. Steve wasn’t written very well in the first Avengers movie, so I wasn’t really surprised, but Joss Whedon’s writing really diminished since then if you’re looking at the way he wrote Nat. Neither of these characters got nearly enough screen time in AOU, and in both of the movies, it seems like Steve has only been used as joke material. Many of the jokes that he made in The Avengers were out of character, and in Age of Ultron, it seems that he was only used as the running “language!” joke throughout the film.

Natasha Romanoff is one of my favorite characters ever, and I’m really sad about how she was portrayed in this film. She didn’t have much screen time, either, and the time that she did get was either engaging in a really stupid and forced relationship between her and Bruce, or fighting in a way that was probably just there so the straight males in the audience could see how sexy her body is. The small bit of character development we did get regarding Natasha was in her backstory in the Red Room, and I guess that was pretty cool, but I feel like most of that was shown just so she could connect more with Bruce, and it still seemed pretty forced. 

Overall, I’d say that Age of Ultron was entertaining but disappointing. And frankly, I’m kind of glad that Joss Whedon left Marvel. 

So I Saw Newsies This Weekend....

And it was pretty much the best weekend of my life. Holy crap. I live near Salt Lake City, and I saw it in Dallas. Why, you may ask? Well, when Newsies first announced the tour, none of the cities that it had listed were anywhere near where I live, and I HAD to make sure that I was going to get the chance to go, right? The second phase of the tour, which it's coming to Salt Lake City on, wasn't announced until a few weeks ago, when the 2016 Broadway season was announced. Also, my step-niece (?) was at my house in January and we started talking about how much we both love Newsies, and we decided that we needed to go together. She lives in New Jersey, and it was in Dallas near her birthday, so we met in the middle to see an awesome show together.

Now that I've bored you with my ramblings, it's time to get into the meat of what went down on that trip. After going to that museum by where JFK was shot (which was pretty cool too), we headed over to the AT&T Performing Arts Center and it might have been the most beautiful theater I've ever been to, even considering the theaters I've been to on Broadway. It had like 5 floors and our seats were so close I could even see the newsies' faces.

I cannot even begin to describe the feeling in my stomach when the curtain came up and I saw Dan DeLuca and Zachary Sayle on that stage. Newsies has always had a special place in my heart because of all the symbolism of hope involved in it, and finally seeing these characters on a stage in front of me I suddenly felt like something in my world was right. It sounds totally stupid that my main source of inspiration is cheesy musicals about newsboys, but the way that the characters stand up for what they believe in and never give up makes me really hopeful that everything will always be okay (especially since Melissa Steadman Hart played a girlsie in the closing number !!! Thanks for giving me hope, Melissa).

Of course, the music was wonderful, the boys were cute, but what really amazed me was how phenomenal the dancing was. Ben Tyler Cook, who played Race, is only 16 and was, in my opinion, the best dancer up there. He’s already in the touring cast of a major musical and that totally makes me feel bad about what I’ve done so far with my life (I’m just kidding, I love you Ben Tyler Cook <3). Another great dancer was Julian DeGuzman, but that makes more sense since he’s like 25 and has a BFA in dance. 

After the show, we went to the stage door, obviously. I had to meet my baes. They all signed my playbill and I was able to get pictures with some of them: 

Josh Burrage <3

Ben Tyler Cook <33 

Jordan Samuels <3

Jeff Heimbrock <33

Vincent Crocilla (he was wearing an Adventure Time shirt !!)

DeMarius R Copes <33

Zachary Sayle <33

  

I’ve since returned from Dallas, but last night I saw Garett Hawe, who was in the original cast of Newsies, perform in a local production of The Music Man! I still don’t know what he’s doing here, but I got a picture with him, too: 

he was soooo sweet, I can't believe I had the chance to meet him!!