- I am super tired. It's 8:30pm and I'm wiped out. It's probably because I got up at 8 to work out at 9:30 and then took a five hour practice test around one (to stimulate testing conditions).

- Speaking of working out, the WOD today was a hero WOD. The Murph. It was pretty killer. It starts with a mile run. Then you split up, however you want, 100 pull-ups, 200 push-ups, and 300 squats. Then you finish with a one mile run. I used a green band for my pull-ups because I can't even do a regular pull up unassisted. It's sad. I used a blue band for the first 20 and then I was like, "fuck this shit." Ahaha. I kind of cheated because I started kipping. It's not really cheating. It's just that when you kip into a pull-up, you don't use your muscles as much. But I was kind of tired and I just wanted to finish the damn work-out. I hate cheating myself because it means I'm not pushing my body as far as I could have been.

- I definitely see a big improvement from the last time I did something similar though. I did the Grindy a month ago and that was 75 pull-ups, 150 push-ups, 225 squats, and 30 deadlifts flanked by 400m runs. I remember feeling like I was going to die after that and for 2 weeks after my arms were burning.

- I'm thinking of buying a pull-up bar so that I can practice my pull-ups. My push-ups have gotten a lot better but my pull-ups are sad. Seriously. Chin-ups are challenging. I want to be able to NOT use a band to help with them.

- I am so sore. It's not the normal soreness, like where it hurts to go up stairs. It's like this weird subtle aching in my muscles. I'm not sure what's worse.

- I also got some protein shakes to try out. I'm told it'll help with the soreness if I consume protein right after working out. So far I think it's working. I was concerned about the protein shakes because I don't want to bulk up. It's not that I don't love strong muscular bodies or having one myself. It's that I don't want to look like a body builder. Renee O'Connor and Lucy Lawless with their nice layer of adipose tissue looks nice. I'm not sure how I feel about having no neck.... BUT I was reading up on it and basically women only really bulk up if they have an excess of testosterone (for some reason or other) to begin with. If your body isn't meant to be bulky it won't. So you know. I'm pretty sure I'm more a Renee O'Connor and less a Serena Williams. Although the ass on that woman...

- Speaking of bodies, further research as assured me that I won't become a flat chested little boy from my increased activity rate. So yay! My boobs have definitely gotten smaller since working out but no more than it usually does after coming out of hibernation. I just didn't want them to shrink MORE.

- Bad news on the body front, my period is late! By maybe 2 weeks. Possibly more? I know I'm not pregnant because I haven't had sex in months but it was so regular I was starting to like it. I hate not being able to predict when it comes and it always worries me because I get paranoid that my uterus might be uninhabitable for fetuses. I'm pretty sure it's mostly due to me exercising more but it shouldn't stop coming.....right? I'm not exercising THAT much. Maybe it'll get back to normal once my body gets used to the extra activity. I was reading around and part of why some female athletes lose their periods is not only due to overexercising but also from a poor diet. They're not getting enough calories to offset the extra activity. So I guess I should eat more. Except I already eat a lot. Maybe I'll just eat things that are really high in calories or something.

- Studying is going kind of shitty. I feel like I'm going backwards in my improvement. I want to think it's the time constraints but part of it might also be that I'm burning out. Which is bad. Also, some passages I just really have no idea what I'm doing. I can't lose hope! I need to just stay focused. If I get in a dark spot and start feeling discouraged all is lost.

- But yeah. My scores on the practice tests are down at least 3 points from previously and it's killing me. I have 2 more AAMC practice tests left to take so I'm going to save them. One I'll take on Monday and the other next Tuesday. In between then I'm going to study some more and brush up on stuff I'm rusty on. I'll also take more practice passages from my other resources.

- The good news though is that my essay writing is better. I'm finishing on time and with more complete and sophisticated ideas than previously. I just have to keep reminding myself not to get too cheeky.

- There was no Korra this week and that made me really sad. Hopefully there'll be new episodes next week.

- I'm starting to panic a little that I wont be ready by next Thursday but I need to just get over it because there's no way I'm putting myself through more weeks of this shit. Plus all the test times are filled and I can't delay these applications any longer. I want to be ahead of schedule this year. I keep making plans about all the stuff I'm going to do once I'm done but I know I'll just be sitting at home vegging out. That and reading Blackout.

- Jesus fucking Christ I want to read Blackout.

- I also need to do laundry. There's probably a society of microbes living in my dirty gym clothes alone.

In the two science sections of my MCAT practice exams each and every single solution explanation begins with the sentence, "The question asks the examinee..."

Every single one.

What follows is almost verbatim what was said in the question.

After about 52 iterations of this I want to bang my head on a wall.

There is literally no point to this portion of the solution explanation. I don't need to re-read the question. The question is approximately 1 centimeter up from the screen. I just need you to explain the answer.

It's seriously driving me nuts.

Some thoughts so far as my MCAT looms ever closer. Like an asteroid about to hit the earth. In this situation I am hoping to be Liv Tyler safely on Earth and not Bruce Willis being blown up. Also, if you haven't seen the movie... SURPRISE! Anyway, the point of this exercise is to condense into one entry the things I need to work on for next Thursday.

- So reading comprehension is coming along. I only got 3 wrong out of 40 questions this time which still only amounted to a 13/15 score. I bet getting only one wrong would still be a 14. You probably have to get a perfect score to get a 15. If this were a regular test that would make sense but generally on a standardized test one question wrong in the entire section warrants a full score. You'd think. Anyway, I'm sort of relying on my reading comprehension to pad my overall score because the other two sections do rely on skills other than, "I can read words."

- There is a method to the reading comp section but at this point I'm either getting them wrong or not. Normally after I take a practice test I go over all the questions and assess what I got wrong and why I got things right. For reading it's sort of one of those, "Well. Yeah. Because that's the answer" type things. If I get something wrong its either because I read wrong or remembered the passage wrong. Unfortunately with time constraints its impossible to linger too long on any one question or else you run the risk of running out of time at the end. So basically I just need to read better. Which is kind of "duh."

- Some passages are definitely more difficult than others, especially the ones written in purposely obtuse and convoluted language. It's like the MCAT goes out of its way to select the most confusing syntactically complicated essays in existence.

- The physical sciences section is my problem area. My level of accuracy is quite high when I have as much time as I need to do the questions but now that I'm practicing with the timer I'm getting decimated. I go into a bit of a panic mode near the latter half when I feel like I'm running out of time which results in careless mistakes and sloppy reading. I am also still taking too long on difficult questions. I need to remind myself to just move on and come back to it later.

- Another issue with the Physical Science section which I do not have with the Biological Science section is the math. Writing down numbers and calculating them takes time. Biology is almost like the reading comp section in that I just need to read the passage and then answer the questions. I think once I get used to the timer my math agility should go up. It's mostly training my brain to do things faster after it got used to lolly gagging.

- Writing is coming along as well. The first time I went a round with the timer I didn't finish one of the essays in time. Right now I'm running the risk of either sounding too verbose or too simplistic. A medium needs to be struck. The best essays are the ones that have deep overarching themes except that's hard to come by when you only have 30 minutes with a prompt. I also find that I'll have great ideas but not enough facts to back them up. I spend too long trying to remember those facts and then I run out of time to write. My prep book recommends having some stock examples and responses ready. I'll probably do that this weekend because doing it too early and I'll forget.

- I have the timing for my biological sciences down now but it's come at the expense of accuracy. But now that I have the "finish on time" part down I can focus on getting my attention and focus back up. A lot of the stuff I'm getting wrong is stuff I blanked on because I was panicking about time. Also some of those more jargony passages get super confusing when you've been taking one test for 3.5 hours.

- Which is another issue. By the time I get to the Biological Sciences section I'm fatigued and ready to finish. But taking full length tests in one sitting should remedy that.

The test is next Thursday and right now the plan is to take 4 more practice tests in the mean time. One is from Princeton Review and the other three are from the AAMC website. I've been trying to figure out how I can squeeze working out in there while still being able to take the tests in one sitting but I might just have to sacrifice fitness these two weeks and make up for it after. I don't want to be tired before I even start the test.

Exercising with me is sort of 50/50. I either get a huge energy boast from it or I just want to veg out and not think forever. Saturday they're doing a "hero WOD" at the gym. It's a "Workout of the Day" Designed to commemorate fallen veterans. The one we're doing is Murph and it sounds monstrous. I want to do it but it would probably take me an hour (at least) to complete. Add to that the time it takes to get to and from the gym, showering, and eating, and half the day is gone. So yeah. I should probably just not.

I might just do some shorter workouts to keep my heart rate up. Once this is over I can start on my training schedule to prepare for the Spartan Race. Mostly it involves working out at least once a day, 7 days a week. Because you know. There's no point in doing anything unless you go hard.

Uh so finally got around to watching Downton Abbey.

( Stray thoughts under cut. )

So a few things on my mind today....

- I watched the season finale of Bones a couple nights ago and it just occurred to me how much it reminds me of the season finale of Sherlock. I wonder if that was done on purpose, as in the plot was inspired by what Moriarty did to Sherlock, or if they'd planned it like that all along. The villain in this week's episode did appear earlier in the season. The former may very well be true though. Much like many of the ultra smart detectives on television (see also Dr. House), Sherlock Holmes is the template. Before CBS picked up Elementary in which Watson is a woman, Bones was already doing the gender bending by making Holmes a woman. Brennan is cold and logical while Booth is warm and emotive. Because their genders are opposed (and because TV isn't ready for a gay couple outside of comedy), we can take the sexual tension between Holmes and Watson and make it literal. Hey. They can even have a baby! ::eye roll:: Though actually I'm really happy about the fact that Bones and Booth finally got together. I'm not one of those people who thinks the show is over when the main characters hook up. If you're a good writer and story teller and if you know your characters well enough you can make things work. What's WORSE is when you drag it out for no good reason other than "it'll ruin the show if they act like real people!" Plus the baby is used sparingly and Bones's changed attitude overall is consistent with someone who's grown and learned to empathize over the course of 8 years.

- I was reading some sort of headline today in which Chris Brown and Drake criticized Rihanna for being a slut. this article on Jezebel pretty much sums up my feelings about that. First off, stop talking Chris Brown. No one takes what you say seriously because you are a moron. Second, you can comment on Rihanna's character if that's your preference but girlfriend is rich, beautiful, single, and successful. Why the hell SHOULDN'T she be sleeping with whatever hot piece of ass is out there? Men and women? I also don't want to hear shit about how she's dabbling in gay culture by going out with a girl. People should be allowed to experiment with their sexuality. In an ideal world everyone should try out opposite genders and see where life takes them if they so choose. Sex is just another awesome way to get to know someone. Instead of shaking hands we shake genitals. Look, I do have some issues with Rihanna. Mostly in that she threw a hissy fit when people told her she shouldn't be seeing Chris Brown anymore. Even in collaborations. Please see someone about this. The man bit you and slammed your face repeatedly into a car door. You don't need him to give your career a boast. You are already on every single song on the radio. For having sex though? Pssh. Please. You should see how much sex I'd be having if I was in Rihanna's position. Let me give you a hint. It would make Wilt Chamberlain blush.

- So I've really gotten into that new show Don't Trust the B-- in Apartment 23. I'm trying to understand why this show appeals to me so much more than Girls did. I should watch more episode of Girls. Maybe I'll like it now or something. I know I don't HAVE to like every show with a major lady cast in it but I feel like I should at least give them a chance more than others. I want to support my ladies. Ya know? Anyway, Apt 23 has a STUPID title but it's really good! I mean, ok it's funny like 75-90% of the time but I really dig Chloe, the sociopathic nympho. Perhaps because I relate to her a lot. Although some of the stuff she does even I wouldn't do. Also the relationship between Chloe and June is so awesome. June comes from a conservative small town background and in the first episode they come into conflict because Chloe cons her out of her money. But instead of playing June off as stupid, airheaded, or incompetent she's more naive and earnest. June doesn't slut shame Chloe for being promiscuous and while judgmental we aren't made to feel June's over empathizing is something to frown on or hold up as the ideal. Instead they're just two extremes, nothing more and nothing less. June gives Chloe advice on how to be a nicer person and Chloe helps June discover her sexuality. I especially like that the show doesn't feel the need to compensate for Chloe's sluttiness in some way or other. She isn't miserable because she sleeps with a lot of men. She's not an empty depressed person who only sleeps around to fill the hole in her soul. She doesn't teach June to loosen up and have sexual flings only to realize what she's really missing in life is monogamy. No. Instead the show acknowledges that some people can be happy with a carefree commitment free lifestyle and other people just can't help getting roped into feeling things. Neither are wrong. They can both exist. Women can be whatever they want! Plus I love that though naturally caring and unable to say no, June isn't some sort of pushover manic tightwad. She adapts to the whole sexual fling thing quite well and her issue with the one-night stand guy in this week's episode wasn't so much that she developed feelings for him but that she just felt terrible for leaving him crying over his lost bird alone. Once he found the bird she felt it was finally an ok time to break things off. You can be a nice person and not immediately fall in love with a random guy you sleep with. We're women. Not RomCom tropes.

- Another thing I love about Apt 23? The dynamic between Chloe and James Van Der Beek. Yes. He plays himself in the show and he's pretty funny. I was worried we'd end up with some weird sexual tension thing between Chloe and Beek but instead they're actually just friends! Sure they dated at one time but now they're just best buds and they hang out and go out and act as each others' wing men. It's great. Shows are always trying to make the whole "we're exes and we tried to be friends but YOU CAN NEVER BE FRIENDS WITH EXES" thing happen. It's so annoying. It's like apparently adults aren't capable of being adults. Apt 23 tells us that's not true. Chloe and James are so over each other like that and this week's episode goes into what would happen IF they attempted to have sex again. The answer? It just won't happen. Good job show for addressing that and then doing something different with it. I just love this show's attitude toward sex overall. Like June masturbating in the opening scene? Fantastic. Women masturbate! And they talk about it!

- Oh. And bonus awesome? There was a scene where Chloe gifted June a Casual Sex emergency kit to commemorate her newly found liberation. Part of the kit? Cab fare. It's subtle but meaningful. Look man. I'm only using you for sex. As such, I can pay for my own damn cab. Gender equality doesn't always have to be some stupid "very special episode" about equal pay in the work place or female presidents. It can be just as simple as having a character on television advise her friend to pay for her own ride home. Men do all the time. If we're going to truly break free from these societal norms and gender inequalities the first thing we do is make everything equal. Yes that means more women in high powered jobs and equal pay. But that also means breaking free from dating norms which in themselves are steeped in patriarchy.

So I'm finally getting around to my MCAT essay review. Honestly I'm not especially worried about it. The structure is pretty simple. You have a phrase such as "True leaders lead by example" and then you 1) explain what that means 2) give an example 3) give a counter example and 4) synthesize the two and decide when the two things are necessary.

Not too hard. And you have 30 minutes to write it. That's like writing a blog entry about the Avengers. Except not as fun. I wonder if I could get away with writing all my essays using superhero movies as my examples. I should probably not.

Still, the MCAT review books always have helpful tidbits that get you through the process faster and they know what the graders will be looking for. Some things they're looking for?

- Proper grammar. Who'd've thunk? Like commas? Well geez if I'd known I was going to have to know how to use commas... But seriously. I don't know how to use commas. It's an affliction much like leprosy or turrets.

- Apparently we're not supposed to use fancy language. The MCAT book says no "jargon or colloquialisms" but from the list of examples it seems like what they mean is, "don't sound like you are a human thesaurus." I mean I get that sneaking in pulchritudinous or micturate would be silly but words like viable? Originate? DOWNSIDE?! What's the point in showing off how well read I am if I can't use words greater than 3 syllables?

- Some of the advice is pretty "dur" but you'd be surprised how often people, myself included, make these mistakes. A huge one and a pet peeve of mine? Subject-verb agreements. It's the worst. Even when you're as careful as I am mistakes can happen.

- Punctuation. I'm not sure if you know this about me but my grasp of punctuation, commas being a prime example, is not the best. I'm sure there was a class on it sometime during my many years of education but I missed it. I missed all the classes.

- With that said, nearly all the advice my MCAT book has on punctuation involves reading things aloud to gauge (is that a technical jargony term?) the length of a pause. Is it longer than a comma but shorter than a period? Use a semicolon. No really. That is an actual sentence verbatim from my book. I rarely use semicolons because I almost never know whether or not it's appropriate.

- There is a list of commonly misused words. Fantastic. I am maybe 50/50 on the use of affect and effect. It's embarrassing. Although, I did finally learn how to spell embarrassing. I think it finally clicked for me back in 2008. No. I'm not kidding.

- Ok so now you're thinking to yourself, "tell me why she's not worried about the writing section again?" My response is that I have severe delusions of grandeur. And a sociopathically large ego. I like to think of myself as that one South African guy who did not have legs but made it to the Olympic trials for track and field anyway. In this story I am the wooden legs attached to the legless man. Despite having been born a tree, I was able to participate in a human sporting event.

So since seeing Avengers I've been slowly developing a bit of a fan obsession. I mean. Look. I love me my heroines and Scarlett Johansson was really quite fantastic as Black Widow but I am a heterosexual female and I do have a deep disturbing weakness for big, buff, blustering alpha male types. Or cocky funny male types. Or male types. Or whatever. And I know superhero movies are, generally speaking, pandering to the comic book set with an emphasis on the male set (because sadly most fans of comics are boys) but have you SEEN this movie? If there isn't obvious almost comical pandering to women I don't know what is. There's an entire 30 seconds where Whedon shoots Chris Evans from the back while he beats up a punching bag and those pants he's wearing! His ass looks like it's carved from granite!

Whedon once said of the invisible transport creature they use in the movie: “Without Scarlett Johansson the helicarrier would feel like a gay cruise.”

Except with the addition of Scarlett Johansson it just looks like a gay cruise with the world's luckiest fag hag. Oh to be Black Widow. Forever. And not just so that I can be a deadly assassin who can lie through my teeth.

I think this obsession is compounded by the wealth of sources out there highlighting the real life bromance existing in all possible permutations among the cast of the Avengers. I wonder if Scarlett Johansson ever felt awkward in this boy's club. I'm sure they made her feel included but come on.

I want more lady heroes in movies and TV. I really do. But deep in my ovaries I know that filling a movie with hot dudes and then letting them punch things will always get me in my sweet spot. It was almost secondary what Black Widow was doing when there was potential to watch Thor and Iron Man beat the snot out of each other for maybe 3 hours.

Damn Hollywood for knowing me so well.

As a side note, if this movie is blatant pandering to dudes as well, then our society is more homoerotic than it lets on. Isn't it? I mean think about it. Most women go to watch "chick flicks" and other things for the hot guys. Being sensitive. With a surrogate for them (in the shape of a perky blond woman with mild personality quirks). Meanwhile most movies pandering toward guys are big explosion machines featuring an almost ALL male cast being sweaty and beating each other up. Guys like watching other guys. Women like watching other guys. And yet there is this strong pervasive compulsion for men in our society to deny homosexual tendencies at all turns or say it in jest so as to offset suspicion. What is the deal with that? You'd think the obvious way to pander to the male set in our society would be to cast a bunch of hot ladies in a movie where they beat people up, blow shit up, and possibly make out with a token dude. And their dialogue would consist entirely of car talk, ways to polish their guns, and silent sparring matches where they touch each other. Alot. Apparently that's too many ladies for our guy films. There needs to be, like, 1,000x more penis. Instead it's dudes doing that stuff. That's great for me. But why is that preferable for a heterosexual male?

I suppose it's the idea that in our society an aggressive physically strong female emasculates men. They only want the damsel in distress narrative. A woman who could destroy 20 guys with her fists would be seen as unattractive and so even if she's polishing a gun or grappling with another woman it would not be seen as erotic. On the other hand, watching Bruce Willis kill a helicopter with a police car satisfies some sort of internal fantasy in which they can pretend they're Bruce Willis. Saving the world. Affirming their masculinity. Testosterone by proxy.

Though in that sense, it would imply guys have really low self esteem right? We can't let women into our playground of action heroes, at least not as easily as those comic book dudes do, because any potential woman who could threaten the dominance of our muscly men is a potential threat to our own masculinity. But wait Lian. What about those Resident Evil movies? Or the Underworld films? Those all center around a lady hero! To which I respond, compare the amount of money those films make with the ones featuring male action heroes. Average. Per film.

I rest my case.

Now THAT is how you make a fucking summer blockbuster.

No shit.

You know maybe 5% of me was nervous the Avengers movie wasn't going to be good but it was overwhelmingly outgunned and overpowered by the rest of my. The parts of me that have unwavering trust in Joss Whedon's creativity and vision. He's brilliant. He knows how to be funny, dramatic, and compelling and best of all, he knows how to balance it. People have accused him of being too much of a nerd's nerd or that he can get bogged down with pop culture references or that his ideas are too out there for a general audience to endure. Cowboys in space? A whorehouse for the 20th century? It'll never work.

Well The Avengers is the beaming giant neon sign example of how they're wrong. Joss Whedon KNOWS how to do commercial and do it right. He just always figured we were ready for something more.

I'm hoping that the massive crushing success of this film (it's already broken $200 million in at the box office) will give Whedon license to do the stuff he wants to do and with the freedom he was always meant to do it. Nolan had the same sort of freedom after the huge success of the Dark Knight and he put that hard won credit to good use. I think we all remember a little film called Inception.

It's not that I don't love super hero movies, but I see this not only as a feather in Whedon's cap. I see it as a stepping stone toward the weird, intelligent, yet incredibly entertaining stuff he's always been making but never had the backing to do it right or give his work a general audience. If Nolan is this generation's blockbuster Victor Hugo (seriously though...sometimes he's SOOOO serious) then Whedon is its Alexander Dumas.

Anyway. So the movie. The movie was fantastic. I mean look. A lot is being said for how funny the movie is but the movie is funny! It's classic Whedon fun with snappy dialogue, awkward exchanges, and a deft understanding of who these characters are. Whedon understands that humor comes from taking personalities and throwing them together. Whether the exchange becomes hostile, buddy buddy, or romantic doesn't matter. There is humor and drama to be had by all. The Avengers is definitely Whedon toned down. The dialogue is not as aggressively referential as some of his other work but it is still so very lively. Other reviewers have pointed this out but I want to say it too. A huge part of what makes this movie work so well is how deeply Whedon understands this huge cast of characters. For other screenwriters and directors (Whedon was both), such a huge cast filled with just enormous iconic characters would have been crushing. For Whedon it was like throwing a guy into a toy store. Having all these characters just meant more possibilities for fun combinations and revealing scenes of exposition.

Like, of course Bruce Banner and Tony Stark would form an immediate bromance. And there's no way Captain America WOULDN'T come into conflict with Stark over principles.

One of the concerns I had was that the villains in the trailer looked a lot like the stuff in Michael Bay's third Transformers movie. And while they're kind of similar the film is completely different. Bay's directing style has become so shaky, chaotic, and confusing that watching that third movie felt like 2 hours of audio-visual torture. It was just an endless litany if loud metallic sounds, shaking cameras, disorganized cuts, and dark colors. Whedon's style is much more controlled. He gives you a good look at the action so that you can be impressed and dazzled by it and pulls back enough on the flair and affectations that it doesn't make you confused and disoriented. He uses the action to highlight the abilities of the Avengers superheroes and reveal a little bit of their character and he knows when to shake up the camera for verisimilitude and when to keep it still and pan out to make as statement about scale.

Loki was great too. From the trailers it almost seemed like his dialogue was going to run cheesy and annoying. Tom Hiddleson does a great job of bringing weight and pathos to what Loki is doing though. Even if you haven't seen the Thor movie, you get that there's more to this than just wanting to take over the world, that there's more than mere megalomania. He and Thor have a beef to settle and for the most part it's his problem. The guy's got issues.

Another pleasant surprise is how much more fleshed out Black Widow is in this movie. We saw her first in Iron Man 2 and she was pretty much just wallpaper with tits. Sure she kicked ass but what else? In this movie she has personality, she has mad ass kicking skills, and she is most definitely not secondary to the boy's club that is the rest of the Avengers. It would have been nice to have more lady heroes in this but considering what we've been given (that being a dearth of lady superhero movies), Whedon does a good job of bringing Black Widow up to everyone else's level. You get why she's fighting with a Norse god and a dude who can turn into a giant green rage monster.

The movie is pretty long, I think something like 2.5 hours. I remember wishing Transformers was over by the first hour. For Avengers I wished it would never end. It's like going on a marathon bender of your favorite TV show. You don't really care what these people are doing after a while. You just want them to hang out and for you to be a fly on the wall of their interactions. Community comes to mind as an example. I started to enjoy seeing the Avengers interact so much that it didn't matter what they were doing. Whether it was fighting aliens or arguing over who was cooler I didn't care. That is a huge mark of success right there as a story teller. It doesn't matter how many explosions or fight sequences or special affects you have in your movie if it isn't grounded in characters and story. Whedon gets that.

The Avengers isn't the Dark Knight. It doesn't grit up the story and give it a spin. It doesn't reinvent the genre of superhero movies. But that doesn't always have to be the goal. It takes just as much skill to make a genuinely good pop film that not only has a cohesive plot but one that's entertaining and fun to follow. The landscape is riddled with absolute shit, stuff that only makes money because it's summer and things explode. The Avengers is a good movie that everyone can enjoy and it's unpretentious, rich, and infectious fun. That's all you really need at the end of the day.

Today's episode of Korra was fantastic. FANTASTIC.

Not because of the action.

Not because of the animation (it's always awesome).

But because of the love triangle! Yeah! I know! I hate them too! The first 15 minutes of this episode had me reeling because I was thinking, "NO! Not Korra. Don't do this to Korra. She deserves better than a forced stupid idiotic love triangle."

And then by the end of the episode I was so fantastically impressed with the way it was handled I was convinced this was necessary. Why was this necessary? Because I don't think I have ever seen a love triangle handled so expertly and with the woman in control the entire time. Ever. It's inspiring to give kids an example of when three people can like each other in an incredibly inconvenient combination and still be friends after.

For the non-viewers out there (no spoilers cut in this entry because the love triangle isn't really a huge plot issue), here is the scoop. Korra likes Mako, the older brooding brother. Bolin, the fun younger brother (I'm still unsure why Korra wouldn't go for Bolin), likes Korra. Mako likes Korra but he ALSO likes Asami, a more traditionally attractive and stereotypically feminine rich girl whose father just recently began sponsoring their Gladiator type team. Shit hits the fan when Korra, upon the advice of her Airbending Master's wife, decides to tell Mako how she feels. I love that Korra did this. We always expect the guy to do it because if a girl does it she looks clingy or something. But no. Korra knows what she wants and she's not afraid to express herself. Sadly, Mako tells her he doesn't share her feelings which dampens her self-esteem momentarily. Then Bolin asks her out.

Best line of the show?

‎"...you’re the smartest, funniest, buffest, toughest, talentedest, incrediblest girl in the world!"

Have you ever heard a boy say that to a girl? Like as a way to tell her how awesome she is? There's not a single mention of her physical beauty aside from how buff she is. It's not that the show says she's ugly. Bolin said she was pretty earlier in the show. It's that her being pretty is the least awesome thing about her. What's more awesome? Her talents and qualities as a person. Those things impress Bolin about her more than her face. They don't detract from Asami's more traditional attractiveness but instead the show creates a world where both girls can be attractive to the opposite sex without their two particular brands of attractiveness coming into conflict or becoming mutually exclusive. It's so fantastic!

So anyway, Korra goes on this date with Bolin and they have a great time! They have a burping contest, they eat noodles unattractively, and they people watch. Korra doesn't have to be prim and proper if that's not who she is and she can still be completely the bee's knees to Bolin. After their date, Mako confronts Korra. He's worried she's leading his brother on since she JUST told him that she liked him earlier. Korra immediately calls him out. He likes her and he's too afraid to admit it. In fact he probably thinks about her when he's with Asami.

This girl has some major ovaries. Ya know?

Mako refuses to take the bait and their fight remains unresolved. Later on they try and work things out and Mako finally admits his feelings for Korra. But the thing is, he likes Asami too! Jeez. This guy needs to make up his mind. Seriously. Why isn't Bolin like the hottest thing ever? Why would you date a guy who can't even decide what girl he wants to date? Anyway, Korra decides she's not going to wait for Mako to make up his stupid mind like he's Bella Swan or some shit. She kisses him. Also kissing someone who is already dating someone else is not ok, Korra. I love you but you need to not.

Bolin sees them. He starts to cry. No. Seriously. He is a really ugly crier.

It's adorable.

WHY DOESN'T KORRA WANT TO DATE BOLIN!L@KJ!???!!!

Anyway, this throws off their entire group dynamic and they SUCK at the tournament. It's the semi-finals and they just give up. Mako feels terrible, Bolin is pissed, and Korra is all, "Dammit guys we need to win this match! Stop having feelings!"

This entire time I'm screaming at my computer with rage and writhing on the bed and proclaiming to my sister that love ruins everything. Because it does. At least in the media. Apparently people are incapable of having emotions and dealing with them and also being crazy awesome. First Mako is knocked out. Then Bolin. It's just Korra. Oh noooos!

And then you know what? Something fantastic happened.

You know what would normally happen? Either Bolin or Mako would be the last one standing and they'd be forced to pull through despite the agony of their emotions of the lady in the middle. Then they'd all nobly concede their love or some shit or the episode would end with them fuming at each other. But not in Korra. No. In Legend of Korra the hero is fucking Korra so it's her job to move past whatever teenage shit is going on and win this fucking match, three against one. And she does. She fucking kicks ass! It's the GIRL not the GUY who is able to keep a level head and win the battle despite all the weird emotional shit going on. Mako and Bolin aren't invalidated for letting this whole love triangle thing knock them off their game and it's nice to see guys admit they feel like shit and talk through their issues. It's also totally awesome to see an example of the female hero take initiative and pulling her team up their their bootstraps when it's clear whatever they're all going through is keeping them from performing 100%.

Meanwhile, the two brothers aren't mad at each other anymore! Because they're brothers and it's just a girl and they'll work it out. You have fights and it's complicated and stuff but they'll still be there for each other.

Also, when Korra won that fight? And the two brothers were all, "hubba hubba" and holy shit. It was so cool. It's like. Yeah. Two attractive teenage boys who are athletic and strong and masters at their kungfu moves can be seriously attracted to a teenage girl who is stronger, faster, and better at fighting than them. Her ability to fucking own them is actually what makes them come into conflict with each other. OVER HER.

Because she's the buffest, smartest, coolest girl in the world!

This is a welcome departure from that cliched "Girl can't win guy. Girl gets a make-over. Guy sees her in a dress and is suddenly aware of what a catch she is." It happens all the time and it completely undermines what is being said about the character. For example, in Mulan the love interest only really asks her out after she shows up in a dress. And he's all, "I'm flustered and you're pretty!" Like yeah you're good with a sword and can shimmy up a pole but best get in that dress or else he wont know what to do with himself. Even though we spent the entire movie raging against conformity. In Korra that's not necessary. The moment when Mako fell for Korra was pretty much at the start of the show when he saw her come through on the waterbending. He fell over himself complimenting her on her excellent moves and was done for. Korra is a pants sporting, UGG wearing, tough SOB and the show doesn't need to change her or give her a lady makeover so that it can justify both male leads pining away for her. Her being herself is more than enough.

And then do you know what else happened? Korra and Mako agree that they should just be friends until they figure out what they really want. And Bolin forgives Korra for kissing Mako and kinda sorta leading him on. And they all agree Korra really came through for them and that they shouldn't let this stupid mess get in the way of teamwork! Love triangles don't have to mean the end of the world and we can all work through whatever is going on together! No rivalries and no unnecessary angsting. Sure this can be a way to behave but it doesn't have to be the ONLY way.

Also, Asami shows up to congratulate Mako on a great game and instead of making Korra see Asami as a rival we have Korra thank her graciously for helping them so much and acknowledging what a nice person she is. Asami isn't the interloper, she's not a bitch, and she's not a slut. The show doesn't do that to people just because we want one female character to date a male lead over another one. Sure there can be jealousy but Asami's a nice person and Korra is more than capable of valuing that over her feelings for Mako.

It was just so great.

Also, riding a dragon into battle and burning down an entire country for love is totally hot.

So I feel like if I write it down somewhere I have to do it. And the more public the better, even if no one really reads this anyway. So in that spirit I give you my...

AGENDA FOR THE WEEKEND

Tonight I will complete the reading comprehension portion of my practice test and then go to bed early.

Tomorrow I go into work for an hour, then go to DC with family, then come back and do the Biological Science portion of said practice test.

Sunday I will get up early and do the run I didn't get to do on Thursday. I hate skipping days and then making it up because it throws off my schedule and breaks my motivation but what can you do. Then I'll take a break and catch a movie with LZ and Julie before hitting the books and patching up the holes in my knowledge.

Also, buttermilk themed dinner night! Because there's a jug of it in the fridge left over from the red velvet pancakes my sister and I made and it needs to be consumed.

Next week I take official practice tests from the AAMC website and will continue to do so on loop until exam day comes up. In between that time I will do nothing but exercise, eat, and sleep. Oh. And also go to work. The Spartan Run seems far away now but I need to get my endurance up if I'm going to survive it and also get through it at a reasonable pace.

I also started on a new story creature a week or so ago. It came to me when I was watching something. I can't remember now. Anyway, I'm hoping to maybe do it in Novella length and not Novel length. It's been nice writing again because I've been in a gross creative rut lately. I haven't really been reading like I said I would and while I love television it just doesn't get my juices going the way books do.

I wonder if there's going to be another NaNoWriMo summer camp this year. I have a great concept for a NaNoWriMo project and I don't know if I want to wait until November to do it. C, are you with me on this?

As a side note, my knees are all bruised and shit from doing walking lunges. Every time we do them at the gym I either don't get down low enough or get down too low and hit my knees against the ground. It looks like I spend way too much time on my knees doing stuff. Like. You know. Praying. And such.