Barbarian (re-watch)

 My brother and his boys wanted to see this because they'd heard so much about it. 

I've seen it 3 times already but was welcoming a 4th viewing. I love this film. Very well done for a horror movie. Very different from what you would usually see in a horror movie too. 

Anyway, my nephews didn't last 20 minutes into the film until they had to go upstairs. They didn't even last as long as my sister-in-law did when I first watched it. 

Still a good flick. If you enjoy horror, I can easily suggest you check this one out. 

Perfect 10. 

K-Pop Demon Hunters (review)

 My nephews insisted we watch this for movie night a few weeks ago. It's about a singing group that also kills demons but their popularity is challenged by a group of demons, posing as a boy band, creating music that's trending more than theirs. 

No, I'm not making this up. 

My girls loved it. 

It's one of the worst movies I've seen this year. It's just as bad as the story arc sounds. I'm assuming this was made for little girls. But that it's trending on Netflix has me worried about our future generation. 

Now I just have to hold my breath and hope my girls forget about this movie over the next couple of days so I don't have to see it on my TV ever again. 

Stupid. Just stupid. 

Get Away (review)

 

A british comedy about a family that vacations on an island inhabited by locals who aren't friendly and have an eerie "festival" usually reserved for locals only. A little bit of suspense with laughter thrown in (and a twist that turns the whole movie on it's head) it's not that bad of a film. 

To be honest though, I'm not sure if I can suggest it. While I felt it was worth the watch, the comedy and twist in the 3rd act, turned it into a little too much into the realm of the silly. (though I did laugh a lot during it) 

Watch the trailer and decide for yourself I suppose. 

Have a good weekend folks!

Heart and Souls (review)

 When 4 people die in a wreck in 1959, their souls get attached to the nearest baby that was born. Only the child can see them. 

But as time goes on and the family begins to worry if there child is sane or not (they see him talking to thin air) the ghosts decide to disappear, but still follow him around. Flash forward to 1989 and a young Robert Downey Jr, sees them again for the first time in decades as they try to get him to help their spirits find peace before they leave the earth. 

This was a movie I watched last month while on vacation. My mom picked it out. I have to say, I wasn't bored. Elisabeth Shue is in it and that's always a plus for me. But the movie has a little bit of that 80s charm I loved in movies from back in the day. 

If you're a sucker for the older movies like these, you might want to check it out. Nothing amazing, but still worth the watch for me.  

Pet Peeves: Nobody watching TV when it's on

 This is just about every day at my house. We have the TV but NO ONE is watching. When Megan is out, I never have the TV on at night. (unless I'm watching a Mets game) I usually play with the kids until it's time for bed. 

But the Mrs prefers, letting the TV do the babysitting. So it's on all the time. But the kids aren't watching. Most times they're looking at something on their tablets (another thing I put away when it's just me at night) or playing upstairs. 

When I come in the room and see no one's watching, I switch it off.  But it bothers me more than the average person I guess. 

Pet Peeves: Choosing a movie to watch

 Last month at the beach just about every night we watched a movie. the most aggravating thing about it was the 40 minutes (or more) everyone spent deciding what to watch. 

All but 2 nights, I was the one the one that finally made the decision. Dang, I hate that!

I didn't mind it when we used to do it at Blockbuster. That was an experience and a fun thing to do. Walking up the isles, reading the back of the cases. But this is just googling "Best _____ Movies" into the search and scrolling for what comes up. 

So annoying. 

Welcome to Jurassic Flop!

 Wow.

Rebirth....is worse than Jurassic World 3. 

I didn't even know that was possible. To be worse than the previous 3 films that came before it, but it was. 

Incredible. How can you have 7 movies come out with each one being a step below the previous one. 

By the way, if you haven't watched Jurassic Park 3....it's a masterpiece now, thanks to these movies. 

Horrible film. 

Twilight Imperium Tech Card review (Part 5)

 All of these are great to have, but which are the "best"? I'll try and take a stab at it today.

War Sun: The most powerful ship in the game. Many people work hard the whole time just to get one at the end, but for me, it isn't worth it. While playing the 4th edition these past few years, I've only made one....and never used it. So to me, this one's overrated, but to others it's the grail tech card to get. 

Carrier II: This one is my favorite, because your carrier moves faster and in this game, speed is always good!

Dreadnaught II: A few people get this one from time to time only because it's shields are better. but for me the only reason to get one is because it can carry a trooper and help you obtain planets faster. I get this one every once in a while when I make the time to upgrade. 

Overall: It's always a good idea to upgrade your ships, especially if you're going to war, but it also is good if you want people to back off too. 

Twilight Imperium is such a great game, I could talk about it all month. But it's time to move on to other topics next week. 

Have a good weekend folks!

Twilight Imperium Tech Card review (Part 4)

 

And now it's time to talk about my favorite tech the Blue, which is Propulsion.

What's Good?

Antimass Deflectors: Move through asteroids. Very popular. Everyone loves this one, including myself. 

Gravity Drive: Assign 1 ship a +1 in movement. Another popular one which about half the players get in our games. 

Fleet Logistics: Take 2 actions per turn. Everyone (but me) gets this in every game GUARANTEED. 

Dark Energy Tap: Explore frontier tokens. Half the player in our game will always get this. 

Overall: Needless to say this is everyone's favorite tech. Moving faster is better than anything. My entire games, every single player has at least 3 of these each time guaranteed. I'll be honest, I've been moving away from getting them recently, but it has also led to a few loses and close games for me, so maybe this truly is the best of all tech. 

See you tomorrow for ship upgrades!

Twilight Imperium Tech Card review (Part 3)

 Today I'll review Yellow tech which is Cybernetic.

What's good?

Scanlink Drone Network: Exhaust to activate a planet you control. Very good tech but I never see anyone use it. 

Transit Diodes: Remove 4 army from a planet and distribute them out to any planet(s) you control. Another good one but just like the others, I've never seen anyone use them.

Integrated Economy: When you gain a planet, produce any number of units equal to it's resource value. The best card in the lot....but again, never seen anyone use it. 

Overall: Sadly, this is the most ignored tech out of the entire game in my opinion. People only get yellow tech to upgrade ships (which I'll address later this week) and building a War Sun. It's my 3rd favorite, yet I haven't explored everything I should when it comes to this tech. Something I plan to rectify in future gameplays. 

Twilight Imperium Tech Card review (Part 2)

 Welcome back! Today I'm tackling the most popular tech from Red which is about Warfare.

What's good?

Duranium Armor: After one of your ships sustains damage, repair them after the first round of combat. Very effective card, every so often I've seen people obtain it. 

A.I. Development Algorithm: Ignore one prerequisite for tech. This is the most popular card of the whole set. People get it all the time. 

Assault Canon: In battle an opponent most assign a hit to a non-fighter ship. The most powerful of the bunch. Yet I've never seen anyone get it in any of my games. 

Overall: This is my least favorite tech only because I never want to fight. Yet some day, I imagine I'll start exploring them out of curiosity  if nothing else. 

Twilight Imperium Tech Card review (Part 1)

 This week I'll be reviewing my favorite board game from the perspective of the different tech trees you can acquire upgrades from. 

The first one we'll start with is Green, which is Biotic. 

What's good?

X-89 Baterial Weapon - It's hard to get and I've only had it once (as of this post) and I have to say, it's the best. Eradicating the entire ground forces on a planet after just one bombardment hit is pretty powerful. If you're patient enough to build up to this tech....you're a force to be reckoned with. 

Hyper Metabolism - Take back 3 command tokens instead of 2. Excellent, see people get this one from time to time. Nice to have an extra token each round. 

Psychoarcheology - The ability to use special tech on planets you control without exhausting the planet. Very cool, but I've never gotten it before. 

Neural Motivators - Draw 2 action cards per round instead of 1. Popular one. I see folks get this one all the time. 

Overall: I rank this my #2 favorite tech. There's still plenty in this deck I need to try out but from the ones I've seen, there isn't that many. As I continue to play this game, it's been more about exploring other options rather than winning. This way, I'll get to try new things and see what works and what doesn't.

Finding new strategies in this game is always fun!

Trainwreck: Balloon Boy

Just watched the latest in the "Trainwreck" series last week and it's about a story everyone remembers from back in the day, when a family "faked" a story that their son was in a homemade hot air balloon that sent authorities (and the nation) on full alert to save the child. 

But in the end...there was no kid in the balloon. In an interview, he let it slip that he was told to hide in the attic the entire time. 

Turns out the family was trying to get on a reality show after the parents appeared on "Wife Swap" earlier. 

This documentary does a very good job of getting the perspective from the family, who is still claiming the whole thing wasn't faked. And you almost believe them, until the police detective shows footage of the wife admitting it was all a hoax. (something the wife would walk back years later, stating she didn't know English enough....which was also an obvious lie)

Though not my favorite in the series, it is still good enough to have me waiting for more when they come out later this year. 

Have a good weekend folks!
 

Deep Cover (review)

 Finally got around to watching this movie after a few people told me it was the funniest movie they've seen in years. 

Needless to say, I was skeptical. And after watching it....they were right! This movie is a blast!

The story centers around 3 improv actors who a hired by a policeman to impersonate drug dealers. But when their acting gets out of hand, they find themselves getting deeper into the underground criminal ring without a clue as to what they should do next. 

Some really funny moments here and I can easily recommend it if you haven't already seen it. I feel at this point, I'm behind the curve here on watching it. 

Either way, it's worth your time if you're in the mood for a comedy. 

Spider Webs

 For the record, this isn't a picture of my house. It's just that I noticed the other day that I had spider webs in some of the corners of my ceiling and it was embarrassing because I've never thought to look up there when cleaning. 

I also had a few lights with webs too. How have I never noticed those before???

I'll never have the clean house I had as a bachelor, and I won't until my children leave, but that was just embarrassing for me to see. 

So as a tip. Next time you're cleaning around the house, you may want to look up. If you haven't before, you may be a little surprised at what you see. 

28 Years Later (review)

 I loved the first movie, thought the second one was alright and the third one was.....a movie?

The zombie era in hollywood has come and gone now, but hats off to the director for deciding to bring back his franchise after the fact. 

This movie isn't bad by any means, but doesn't really amount to anything happening that interesting in the end. The only "lore" I guess it adds is the creation of "Alpha" zombies, which are smarter and harder to kill....yet they kill both of the ones they encounter in the movie just fine. 

There's also an odd side story about a zombie giving birth to a baby who isn't infected but I'm not sure where they are planning to go with that. 

A cure? I don't think so. Maybe just a plot line to follow up with a sequel in case this movie made loads of money. Either way, I don't care is they make anymore after this one because it won't be enough to drag me to the theaters to see it anyhow. 

AU vs World Survivor Finale

 Ugh.... Parv wins again. WHY no one sees her as a threat is BEYOND me. But she was able to summon "girl power" and sway 2 votes her way to win it all. She had the game in the bag halfway in and no one could see it. 

Janine cracked me up to think she had a shot at getting a vote. She was completely ineffective the entire game and was later revealed as the one who had Team Aussie betray each other.

Cirie "the best player never to win" still couldn't win in a fire making challenge, though she's been doing this game for 20 years. You'd think it she was "the best player" she'd master that by now. Also, so was carried the entire team by Parv and had zero chance of winning even if she went in the end. 

Fun season but terrible outcome. 

Now with the removal of their co=host Jonathan, who knows what the fate of this show will be going forward. I hope it continues. It's still the best version of Survivor out there, hands down.  

Way of the Gun

 Recently watched this again with my nephew and it was BETTER than I remembered. (and I already loved it) Not only does it have one of the best opening scenes in movie history, but the characters, the story and a twist so smart you have to pay attention the entire time to catch it....brilliant. 

In some scenes the main characters don't even speak but only give looks at one another and you understand what they're saying. Unbelievable performances.

There's a scene where one of them explains the rules of the card game "Hearts" and every line he gives on how the game is played, is getting his point across to the other 2 people in the room. I was blown away that I hadn't noticed that before. 

The red herring is also smart because when certain characters find out a secret that the audience knows, they come to the wrong conclusion, leading you to believe it as well. Only to realize you were bamboozled by a ridiculous concept because you took the bait on the "revelation" that in hindsight made no sense. 

Absolutely astounding. 

If you haven't seen it before....watch it today. Superb film! 

Wedding #24?

 

For all intents and purposes I truly believe I'm done being in weddings at this point. 

At the moment, I have 2 friends who are engaged and 2 other friends circling the drain on getting engaged but I don't believe they'll ask me to be in their weddings. I'm fine with that. 

I've been very blessed to be a part of so many special moments, that I can't complain when I stop being asked. There's an excitement and joy that comes with being part of the wedding party and I LOVED every moment on the ones I was a part of. 

I'm thankful for them, and (if asked) would gladly don the suit on once again, but if it stops at #23 I'm at peace. 

Have a good weekend folks!

Wedding #23

For months I've been begging my friend for pictures from his wedding last year (almost a year ago today) and he STILL hasn't sent me a single one!

The ironic thing is, we took several (6 hour photo shoot) and I still haven't seen them. 

So the only picture I can show you is from the day before the wedding, when I took this photo at a place we went out to eat for breakfast. It ended up being the only thing we'd do together all weekend long. 

I have to say, my invitation to be a part of the wedding party came as a shock. I had no idea he was going to ask. I planned on attending but ended up being a part of the wedding party instead. 

This was in northern California, which is beautiful. I loved the area but we didn't get to do anything together that weekend but after we got back from breakfast, we were informed that we (the 5 groomsmen) would be setting up the entire wedding for 300 people that day. 

All day we worked in time for the rehearsal party. Then came a 6 hour photo shoot the day of the wedding. We almost didn't get back in time for the actual wedding to take place. 

Oh and how long was the ceremony? Under 2 minutes.....not joking. 

But when the best man refused to give a speech at the reception (he is an introvert and incredibly shy) the groom asked me on the spot to give a speech. 

I felt like I was on the show "Who's Line is it Anyway?" and preceded to make something up on the fly.

I'll be honest...it was one of the best speeches I ever gave. Had both parents shake my hand afterwards telling me what a great job I did. Got to party with a bunch of welders, who I still keep in touch with today. 

It was a blast. 

Plus there was a mountain in background and the whole thing was beautiful. I remember sitting right there on the front steps thinking how luck I was to have been a part of the wedding party and if this was the end, I was at peace with that. 

But when the party went on till about mid-night (those people in Cali don't STOP!) I realized there was no point taking a 2 hour nap, just to wake up and drive all the way back to the airport. So I took off right afterwards and ended staying up all night, until finally getting home and going to bed 38 hours after I'd woken up the day before. 

Never. Again. 

My body can't handle that. 

Anyway, the groomsmen and I still laugh about all the things we didn't get to do on that trip as well as my favorite story of when I walked into the store and asked if that had any razor blades the guy behind the counter said "To cut stuff?" 

To which I responded "How about to shave?"

......I have no words..... 

 

Wedding #22

 

After wedding #21, I thought I'd blown my last wedding party experience....then along came #22!

My best friend (and board game buddy) at the time was getting married. There's a 20-something year age gap between us, so I really didn't think I'd be in his wedding. I was just happy to get an invite to attend. 

But he surprised me with the offer and I gladly accepted. 

Redemption!!!

This was a great wedding. I got to have fun and do all the things I didn't get to do at the last one. This time, I savored every moment of it. Because I knew (or thought at the time) this would be my last rodeo. 

Sadly, we don't speak much anymore. He got busy with his job and we've only seen each other once this year and rarely talk anymore. 

But I'm grateful for the times we did have together and hope he has a wonderful life moving forward. 

There's a lot of grooms I don't speak to anymore. Not for any bad blood or what not, but rather losing touch over time. I wish I could've done a better job at keeping in touch with each one of them over the years.  

AU vs World Survivor Episode 9

 Shonne played a very dull game this season. She didn't connect with any of the players and without an alliance, so was twisting in the wind. But its her own fault too because she was so wishy-washy. Willing to flip on anyone who wanted to team with her which made her extremely untrustworthy. 

So now she's gone and the endgame is in sight. Luke sealed his fate not turning on Parv. The only winner and most dangerous player left in the season. Amazing. How she loses this I'll never know!

AU vs World Survivor Episode 8

 Wow. They finally went with the easy vote. Lisa, who destroyed her game in the last episode. Another winner down, leaving Parv the sole remaining winner. But no one cares I guess. 

Luke got Parv to tear apart her advantage which was crazy. But I don't think it's going to damage her game. She WILL go to the end, that much is obvious. She would win it all as well. I don't know why everyone loves her when she's such a huge threat??

It's like watching Rob's season from South Africa all over again. EVERYONE wants to go with Parv to the end but PARV WILL WIN in each scenario. 

So sad, no one cares about waking up and taking her out. 

And to think....if Lisa wasn't a dumbass, it would've happened too. 

Wedding #21

 A few years back I counted down all 20 weddings (including mine) that I've been a part of over the years. 

This week, I'd like to talk about the other 3 weddings I've been a part of since. 

To catch you up, I wrote back in 2019 on the blog that I was done doing weddings. I'd "aged" out of them so to speak and was now delegated to sitting in the audience from here on out. But starting in 2022 that all changed when one of my friends finally found someone and settled down, putting me in my first wedding in years. 

I remember at the rehearsal dinner saying that I'd felt like a baseball player who'd come out of retirement for one more season. I was grateful for the opportunity and happy to be in my 21st wedding. 

But I ate something that disagreed with my stomach and had diarrhea the entire day of the wedding. It was so bad I was afraid to get up there at the ceremony because every 10 minutes I was back on the toilet. 

They gave me the nastiest tasting ginger candy to help settle my stomach but nothing worked. I was miserable. 

I somehow managed to keep it together for the ceremony but afterwards told the groom I wouldn't stay for the reception. When he promised they planned to make an early departure (an hour tops he promised) I decided to stay.

3 hours later, they left. 

I was completely spent. 

I was also bummed. This was (I thought at the time) the last wedding I'd ever be in and I didn't get a chance to dance or celebrate at it. Instead it was constant trips to the toilet, and sitting at tables wishing for the night to be over. 

I'd felt like I'd blown my last chance to have fun at wedding. 

Thankfully, I was wrong. 

Happy Labor Day

 Traditionally, this is a day I play board games all day...I pray it remains that way forever. Because this is one of my favorite holidays of the year because of that.

Have a good one folks!

AU vs World Episode 7

 Wow.

Parv was about to meet her fate in the game. But Lisa (the earliest Survivor winner in this group) is WAY out of her league and made a huge mistake that took out both her allies in one night and Parv sitting on the throne with more power than she's ever had. 

Unbelievable. 

In looking at the preview, Luke has set himself up to be the next one out the door but confiding in Parv. Why after so many seasons she's played does NO ONE know how powerful she is????? It's like all common sense flies out the door when people look at her. 

This season started off getting rid of big game players but STOPPED when it came to Parv. 

Incredible. 

At this point, I don't know who will be able to stop her.