Since the end of Saturday 14th April I have been able to call myself a retired cinema customer services assistant/supervisor/cashier clerk! Thus, was the end of my on/off part-time job contract chilling. Although I do not really miss the place too much, I do find myself dispensing film information to random people in the street, hehe. Here is the standard letter of resignation I prepared the week before, from which I made my comedy John Wayne departure. There’s a little bonus story to go with that… I was in the cinema kiosk and in possession of a menacing bunch of keys that the manageress requested. She was about 10 metres away and since there was a counter directly at elbow’s height in front of me, she adopted a “give me your best shot, for I can catch anything” posture with her hands of steel. I was a little reluctant to throw the set of keys to her as there were no less than 6 keys on a single keyring, with the keyring slightly bend out of its once perfect circular shape, presumably due to weight excession levels. She beckoned for the keys, maintaining a baseball glove imitation position with her hands, so I threw the keys high in the air, slowly to her. The keys floated up and fell down and she positioned herself beneath them. The falling mass of stainless steel came down and landed in her hands, she fumbled, and then they fell to the floor. One of the keys had fallen from the air in a most vertical position and punctured a small hole into her finger! Although I did not plan for this to happen, it did, so now I can claim to have drawn managerial blood on my last shift. How many of you can say that, huh?

This here is the ultimate cartoon list, listing every single cartoon series made. I remember back in my junior school days, one of the kids in my class claimed to have a dad who worked in the animation/cartoon industry and during discussions about the great 80’s cartoons like Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, Mysterious Cities of Gold and Transformers, he’d diss all the current cartoons on TV and then some. He’d say that he’d watch MASanje too, but it’s not better than Fireforce Sky Rangers, Powerforce and other cartoons. I could have sworn back then that he was making them up, but now I know the truth. The little liar.

I’ve seen the cartoons on TV at the moment and it’s quite sad to see because the quality has gone so downhill since cartoon’s heyday in the 80’s. Sure, the picture quality has improved over the last couple of decades, but the stories and watchability have somewhat diminished. Take for example one of my favourites, Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors. This series was amazing, had a riveting storyline and a great theme tune to boot. Speak about ahead of it’s time, it told of a biologist/geneticist who accidentally creates a race of mutant plant creatures (vehicle-resembling creatures that are lead by a head honcho bi-ped plant that can morph into some sort of organic automobile). He tries to correct his accident by creating a good plant that will destroy these evil monster plant creatures. However, the magical root from which the good plant will grow comes in two halves. He is unable to graft them together and by unforseen circumstances gets separated. The old scientist’s squire, resembling a robotic pint sized knight, delivers one half of the root to his son, Jayce. Jayce is the protagonist of the series who realises his mission in life, and consequently gets the series named after him. This series was set ahead of its time and thus was not completely appreciated in its time. It’s sad when this happens.

Well, just about 3 weeks to go until the finals. I figured I would give them my all this time since I’ve been relatively lazy for too long now. I resolved that I should just go for it and be driven on with a great summer break and summer holiday abroad waiting on the other side. Things turn out the way they do whether you make it hard on yourself, or not… so I am going to try to enjoy myself studying in preparation for these exams, because it’ll turn out just fine in the end. Time to aim high with the bow and achieve greatness, taking a bow at the end. “This is our time, we can’t rewind.”