Game of Thrones - end notes

Yet another show meets its ending. And wow the strong reactions everywhere. To the extent of threats the director-duo.

I had 2 friends and 3 cousins who were mad about GOT and egged me all the time to catch up with the old episodes before I see the finale season. 66+ episodes of 1+ hours each - Omg I could get some college credits for that kind of time investment. No way I was going to see it all. 

But its not like I was completely ignorant of the GOT Universe. I had spent enough time on Wikia through the past seasons. I just didn't have stomach to watch the gore I heard/read about. So I knew the characters, their developments, relationships and major events.

I still wonder why such strong reactions. It ended perfectly for a TV show. That's how finale-seasons are supposed to be. Considering I started watching from S7 last episode, it provided great closure to all the remaining folks. For the real ending, fans have to wait for the book. 

Starks rule the world - 6 kingdoms, North, Night watch, West of Westeros. 
Tyrion is the real controller. He eggs Jon & then he gets to pick the king, be the hand & rule the place. 
Like any heist movie, no one gets the money.

Loads of impressive things about the show. Massive scale of fictional world. Loads of talking points & thinking points for so many people - what they call inspirational. 

What I hate & love about the show - is the parallel to or borrowing from other mythology and historical events across cultures. Iconic shots have some connections to real life tragic event or painting. Stories are picked from the various mythology or history from different cultures. I don't like this level of unoriginal thought. There is no credit of recreation; just unending borrowing to create your own nest. Plus I have an axe to gring against alternate-history which is written or told in realistic manner. Its misleading; someone someday is going to think this was true. Even in fantasy genre, this would be attributed to the author not the original source.

Best part about the show is the meme it generated to truly reflect our lives in Minnesota :)

Maple Grove Half Marathon - 2019 - Race recap

This is my first time running Maple Grove Half Marathon today on Mon 11-May-2019. Start of the race was from Maple Grove Senior High School. Coffee, hot chocolates & muffins was available at the start thanks to Daily Dose. They were other sponsor tents like massage.

Perfect weather morning for the race. Pleasant 53F, Sunny with constant breeze. Very April Springy weather in May.

Half race started at 7:40am, with a loop around the track. Then the route went in & out of Rice Lake Trails. Those portion were by the water. Out of trails were in residential areas. The roads were not closed out, as there was hardly anyone driving this early Sat morning.

Route directions were exceptional. Considering how circuitous route this is, with 2-3 turns every mile, there were arrows with volunteers at each of these. A lot of those were high school students. Without these arrows, no way could we make it through this route. For people of my pace group, it got lonely in the trails after first few miles. Felt very Run club kind-of run. Water-stops were frequent & they had Gatorade after the first stop. Very helpful & cheerful volunteers here.

My race time was a satisfactory 3:03:08 hours.

Race swag was cool, perfect fit shirt & medal.

Avenger Endgame emotions

Franchises (in its true sense) are truly powerful thing the creative world came up with. I have always been a fan & will continue to be so. Why end something, when the story is not over ? We want to know more.

When Infinity War launched and I read some spoiler, which said Spiderman dies in it, that was enough for me. I did not watch it. Plus I did not know about the whole plot of Avengers movies & Marvel universe on the whole ending soon. I stayed away, but my kids watched it. And internet made sure I saw the pics where the characters fade away in dots. Ew.

Anyway when the time for Endgame came, and internet informed me, that this was a last movie tie-ing up the 22 movies (I did not know!) of Marvel Universe, I wasted no time in buying tickets and seeing the earliest show possible.

Looking at it, so many things are ending this year - Marvel Universe - Iron Man atleast, GOT, Big Bang Theory ...... Its bringing out a collective emotional response across media.

Three-fourth of the movie was build-up with multiple time-travelling. It was interesting for someone  who like references to other individual movies (aka me). But the most enchanting part was the last part of final war. It was reminiscent of epic level Gods & Rakshas wars. I got goosebumps (like the makers intended) when Captain America whispers "Assemble".

Girl Power moment was a visual treat even if lasted a few seconds. When you have so many of powerful characters, it makes sense to assemble them in a single frame and carry on a task of single purpose. I looked around, & did not find a pic. This blurry thing is the only one I could capture.

Girl Power moment in Avengers Endgame

The most striking thing about Avengers End-game was the parallel with Hindu stories. During a low point, when Caption Marvel comes to the rescue and changes the equation, it was totally entrance of Durga during the big war between the Gods & Rakshasas.

Marvel, DC & Star Wars are American mythology in progress, and we are witness to its creation.