Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Our House

I feel like such a grown up. We signed the contract on this house Sunday. It's going to be beautiful! I can't wait to get in there, set up my gameroom (complete with posters of Pamela Anderson), and finally be a homeowner.

I feel like I should thank Obama or something.


Monday, April 26, 2010

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Monday, April 19, 2010

Kick-Ass!

Alana, Kenneth and I went to see Kick-Ass yesterday. I really wanted to see it in the theater because I really wanted to see Hit-Girl in action on the big screen. I wasn't disappointed at all. Kick-Ass was brutal, bloody, and funny.

I'll be honest, I haven't read the comic books. It's been a while since I kept up with any ongoing series or even been into a comic shop. Most of my comic book consumption comes in the form of movies and games now days. A lot of times this can have a detrimental effect on the movies. If you know the history of a character or franchise, it really sucks to see Hollywood take it and package it for the masses. X-Men and Spider-Man started really strong, but ultimately nose-dived into shit territory with the third installment of each. At least we're about to get another awesome Iron Man movie, not to mention Captain America and then the Avengers.

Anyway, Kick-Ass really felt like a love letter to comic books. Anybody who's ever read a comic could identify with Kick-Ass. He was like-able and it really hurt when he got hurt. The real star was Hit-Girl. She's the one with the tragic back story and reason for revenge. You even get a little misty at a couple parts because she's so young and so alone.

I hear the story was changed from the comic book, and normally that would bug me, but since I never read the funny book, I don't have that connection with it. I kind of wish I could remove myself from other characters and just enjoy them for what they are up on the screen, but it's so hard to watch Deadpool extrude swords from his arms, shoot optic blasts, and teleport. It may look cool, but when does it stop being an homage to the character and just become name lifting?

I'm worried that Whiplash is going to suffer from this syndrome in Iron Man 2. Cherry picking the parts they want to use from different villains to make a story work. And you may argue that sticking too close to canon leaves us with movies like Daredevil or Ghost Rider. And I'll tell you, those movies are much more enjoyable than X-Men 3.

And I'll tell you one thing right now. Seeing Elektra killed on screen almost exactly like the comic book is still a memory that stands out for me.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Farewell Halo 2

I, along with a ton of other people, played Halo 2 over Xbox Live last night as a last hurrah for the multiplayer. It brought back a lot of memories of playing those maps, most of which are far superior to what's in Halo 3. Terminal comes to mind. Sucks that I didn't get into any games on Coagulation or Turf.

Halo 2 was the only game that I ever went to a midnight launch for. Stood in line at a Gamestop for over 2 hours just to get my reserved copy. They were running a Halo tournament in the store at the same time, so it caused all the rest of us to have to wait forever.

And I probably wouldn't know a lot of the great guys I know today without Halo 2 and Podtacular. It's pretty much what got me into the community and podcasting.

Thursday, April 08, 2010

Rock Band Photography

We took Rhys to get some pictures taken at Target last night. Of course, they turned out great. He doesn't know how to take a bad picture.

I'm amazed at the expense and disparity of portrait pricing. We sat down to look at all the poses and choose our favorites, and to choose what package we wanted. I had a coupon for 40% off, among some others that I had printed. The cheapest package is $175! Uh, 40% off of that is still damn expensive, Target.

One of the other coupons we had was for a one pose package for $7.99, plus a free 8x10. So, I can either "save" 40% off of a package and spend over $100, or spend eight bucks. Decisions are hard!

What sucks is, you sit there looking at all the poses and she prices out the package, then you have to go through the fun of telling her you can't afford to spend that much. The portrait lady kind of makes you feel like a bad parent because you don't want to buy all the pictures of your kid. And it's not like they work off commission, so what's with the sales pressure?

Anyway, I think they all turned out really good. We bought that Rock Band shirt before he was even born, and we've been waiting for him to grow into it. Handsome hunk!

Thursday, April 01, 2010