Under the Bed (6)

Under the Bed (5)

4 Star Wars VII Predictions that will happen

Ok, so JJ Abrams isn't the best choice for Star Wars but who is, right? The man who can't write an ending (but can direct) even was quoted last month as saying he's "not interested in Star Wars" and that it would be a "horror" to direct.

Well....money talks don't it?

I don't care he's directing really, but if you think Star Wars fans are upset now, wait till they hear these next predictions come true:

1) John Williams WILL NOT compose the music for the new Star Wars films.

I hate it but it's true. Even at 81 Williams could compose a beautiful score that we could cherish through the ages if hired. Admit it, even if you didn't like the prequels you can't deny the soundtrack was INCREDIBLE.

But with any director, they come with a "posse" too. Giacchino is JJ's man and he will be the one scoring the new movies. I'm calling it now.

Giacchino does nice stuff but he's no Legend like Williams. The Star Wars movies will take a hit in that catagory at least.

2) Mark Pellegrino (Jacob from Lost) will have a role in the new Star Wars movies.

Why? Once again, he's part of JJ's "posse" and has received roles in just about everything JJ's done over the years so expect him to make a small appearance (at least) in the films.

I don't mind the actor I'm just calling it as I see.

3) It WILL be Sith vs Jedi.

There's no denying Hollywood's thirst for action. Look at the new Star Trek movies. Pacing is way different in the movie. Everything is faster. Expect the same faster paced movie as those. Hopefully we'll be able to tell the difference between it and Star Trek when it comes out.

Sith are "cool" and so are "Jedi". They both sell merchandise and like the wise saying from Yogurt in Spaceballs: "It's all about merchandising!"

George Lucas had this as the 3rd story arc so I'm not upset by the idea either. Let's just hope it's not tween Jedi vs sparkling Sith.

4) "Time" will play a role in the new movie.

Don't deny it. JJ Abram's loves stories revolving around "time". Flash forwards, past and current times mixed up, parallel dimensions, time-travel, something's going to happen in that effect.

I'm still crossing my fingers for something like Star Trek Generations. Where we see Luke, Leia and Han for 15 minutes on screen then something happens (maybe one of them die) and that event sets things in motion 150 years later in the future.

PERFECT way to do a "reboot" and I'd be totally behind that.

Anyway just a few straying thoughts I had to share.

Under the Bed (4)

Batman Animated Series Review!

So last week I finished watching the entire run of the show and wanted to give my thoughts. 

Still awesome as ever. 

Unlike so many other cartoons I've re-watched from my past, this may be the only one that still holds up to being good! Excellent story telling, compelling episodes and overall, immensely enjoyable. The only thing I would change about the show was more Riddler episodes. Sadly he doesn't get seen enough in the series as the others main villains (Catwoman, Joker and Penguin)

But all in all an excellent show to re-watch if ever you feel the fancy to do so.

App of the week!

Been a while since I've recommended an app, but I haven't really gotten any since my last post on this.

Free Books is an app that all readers would love. All the classics are stored here for your downloading pleasure to read, discard and download something else, all for free!

So far I've gotten Dracula, Pilgrims Progress and Wind and the Willows to read for later. (if I ever finished Wheel of Time)

Great app, appealing look. Kindle's nice too. But this format I seem to enjoy a lot more.

The adventure begins!

Just started reading Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series of few weeks ago and GEEZ TO FRAG is it a book! With most books, I can read them in under a week. They rarely make it above 450 pages and I average a page a minute.

With Jordan however it's different.

This man was churning out over 700 page a book... and that's in SMALL PRINT!! It takes me 2 1/2 minutes to read a chapter and it's incredible to me that I STILL haven't finished this novel!

Don't get me wrong. I love it so far. Incredible vision this man had. I can't wait till the day (if I live that long) that I get to the final volume in the series. (which happens to be over 900 pages long in case you're wondering, you get your moneys worth)

I'm not kidding. This makes every other novel look like a Little Golden Book! What a massive read! After this I think I'll read a short story title "War and Peace" GEEZ!!

Ok, back to work on this book, gotta run. 

The Deadly Briefcase

Looks like I'm back in Dinner Theater. Just got the call the other night letting me know I'm going to play Detective Chan. Don't know anything more about the character other than the name. But I'm excited to be back with Murder is Served and it should be another great show.

Ok folks, that's about all that's new with me. Have a good weekend!

And so it begins...

Well, after months of telling the public that he will NOT be the new Director of Star Wars, out comes JJ Abrams as it's new director.

You already know how I feel about JJ (I can't write an ending) Abrams so I won't go into that.

The point is. I'm fine with whatever shlock Disney cares to throw up on the silver screen. If they abandon my beloved Expanded Universe (which is a 90% chance they will) then I'm happy ending my Star Wars fandom there.

I'll watch the movies when they come out on video but that'll be about it for me I think. There's still that 10% chance it'll be good but I'm not holding out hope. Dark Horse will lose the rights by 2015 and Del Rey's already halting book publications after this year so that's a good enough place for me to stop collecting as well.

I really don't mind. I'll have time to read other things and occupy my time in other ways. Let Mr Star Trek do his worse with the series (and I'm sure he'll try) I'm content with what I have in that galaxy, far, far away.

Under the Bed (3)

Under the Bed (2)

Under the Bed (1)

Upcoming movies

I don't go to the movies that much and am wondering if Hollywood has anything left up it's sleeve. Let's look at a few movies coming out soon...

February: A Good Day to Die Hard

 

 Oh yes. I will be in theaters for this one. After watching all 4 again recently this series is just too good to pass up! So far everything I've seen about this movie looks good!

March: Oz the Great and Powerful

This one I'm unsure of. I plan on reading the Oz books after I'm done with the Wheel of Time series. I don't know much about the movie and really don't care at this moment whether I see it or not so the verdict's still out on this one.

April: Evil Dead

Another movie that has me thinking is the Evil Dead remake. I really hate remakes these days and planned to avoid this one from my beloved series but after seeing the trailer I'm holding my judgement until I know more.

Still don't know if I'll see it or not but at least now it's on my radar.

Any movies in the next 3 months I need to see?

Gun Control stupidity

Very rarely do I speak on public topics but this one I can't help avoid.

Guns don't kill, people do. If you arm citizens, crooks and madmen would think twice before a mugging or a public shooting. Think about it, if one person was armed in those events the situation wouldn't have been so bad.

Obama says it's "for the children", well for someone that supports abortion it's hard for me to believe he's "for the children"

I don't own a gun, neither do I believe it's wrong to have them. I just don't like stupidity which seems to be abundant in the White House these days for both Republican and Democrat.

K, hopping off the soap box for now. Back to fun post tomorrow!

Star Wars: Scoundrels (review)

So I finished Timothy Zahn's new book that came out last week and would like to throw my 2 cents in about it.

As some of you know Timothy Zahn re-kindled the Star Wars "fanfare" in a time when it was fading from pop culture. His "Heir to the Empire" trilogy is regarded by most to be the best Star Wars books ever made.

In the years following he's come out with many other Star Wars novels and where this one ranks compared to them I hate to say this but... it's the worst one of them all.

For some unknown reason Zahn put this in the Star Wars time line post-Episode 4, giving us ANOTHER story crammed into a timeline that's been reading "No Vacancy" since Episode 1 premiered.

Yes it's conceivable that it could have taken place during "Splinter in the Minds Eye" in which the main characters were Luke and Leia, with Han not being in the story, but putting "Scoundrels" after the events of Episode 4 makes no sense at all.

Why would Han chase after "get rich schemes" if he's evolved with the Rebels now? What's the point? Zahn's explanation is that he's doing it to pay off Jabba, but that doesn't fit into all the other established stories presented in other material. Han put the rebellion over paying Jabba's debt. (hence his dilemma at the beginning of Empire)

Also in the book is Lando another incongruity poorly explained. In a previously novels he's mad at Han for a deal gone wrong and never wants to see him again. Which explains his behavior in Empire. But Zahn wants to use the character so he explains the reason he's working with Han again is because he needs the money. I'm not joking. THAT was it.

At the end of the book (Spoiler) Han "betrays" him again so as to reset the story of their relationship in Empire. It was so bad it reminded me of Stackpole's slap in the face to Kevin J Anderson called "I, Jedi" where he crams his character in a story that he didn't belong. It's sad to see Zahn do the same thing here.  If this story were set previously to the event of Episode 4 I wouldn't see a problem with any of it.It's mind boggling why Zahn wrote it this way.

There's several more idiot things in the book that don't make sense regarding previously established novels but I don't want to reveal any more spoilers than I have to.

 Sorry for the rant, I'm just a picky nerd who has a passion for Star Wars fiction continuity and  a wife whose eyes glaze over whenever she hears me talk about it.

(sigh) I need more nerdy friends...

The problem with ebooks

So this week I downloaded a free Public Domain books off of Amazon for free. And though it excites me to have the complete works of Sherlock Holmes at my disposal, I don't think I'll be getting many more ebooks in the future.

The reason ebooks will not be replacing books anytime soon is simple. The price.

It's not even work buying the Kindle version if you can get the actual books for the same price (or $2 more) The price of ebooks are phoney! You can't tell me that the price of producing the material to make it, plus shipping only accounts for $2-$3 dollars of the price?!?

Unbelievable and not worth the money. I'd rather get the hard copy for a few bucks more or if I wait a LOT cheaper used. It's a scam.

I rarely read stuff on my tablet and I see the reasons to buy ebooks, but I won't start unless they're at least HALF the cost of the actual book. When they start giving fair prices on their books, I'll start considering my options but until then, sorry. I'm going "buy the book"

That last sentenced made me laugh out loud.

Have a good weekend folks!

Talking Football

Wild Football news we have going around. Let's yak about some of it.  

The Disaster that was USC

A team that was pre-ranked #1 when the season began, ended up being nothing but a hilarious dud. Not only was their 7-6 season laughable but it included such incidents as Kiffin "cheating" during games to try and win to their final embarrassing loss to a team with a losing record AND the a brawl in the locker room after the game contributing to an entire meltdown!

Lane Kiffin and his Trojans were pathetic this season. Every team that beat them should send flowers and condolences for being a train wreck.

Te'o "girlfriend"

It's ok Te'o. I had pretend girlfriends in college too. The only difference was I knew they didn't exist. Now THIS story is truly bizarre. HOW do you have a girlfriend and not know she isn't real?! I'm truly perplexed by this.

K, so he met her at Stanford? Sure, someone could've made up a name but an entire history?! Supposedly it was a long distant relationship but when a girlfriend dies, wouldn't you at least go visit her grave?!

None of this makes sense. How can someone be that dumb?! "Oh I have this girlfriend and now she's dead. Dang. I'll miss her." What about getting in touch with her parents after her death and sending your condolences? Oh wait... she didn't exist. Another question should be asked "WHY, would anyone go to such extreme's as this and to what end?!"

One of two things are true here. Either Te'o has been lying the whole time and was a part of this horrible ploy to gain attention and a "Heisman" or Alabama's offense isn't the only thing that can make him look gullible.

Bye-Bye Chip Kelly

Looks like  Butterball's leaving Oregon to work in the NFL. Good luck to him and congratulations for getting out of the PAC 12. You're the envy of every other coach trapped in that conference.

On another note, did anyone seriously believe Saban was going anywhere? That guy tried and failed in the NFL. NO WAY is he leaving the cush confines of his Alabama office. Though I don't think Alabama will be next years SEC/BCS champion. That will fall to another SEC team.

WAR EAGLE

What's this? Good news at Auburn?!

Gus snagged us a quarterback? Nick Marshall is eerily looking like the next Cam Newton. Though I'm not convinced it seems the media already is. Listen to this:

ESPN analyst are predicting Auburn wins 8 games next season, Sports Illustrated called Gus' hiring one of the biggest influences on a team in college football and CBS Sports is calling Nick Marshall the next prodigy child.

Not really sure what to think of all the hoopla I just hope we're not being set up to become next years USC!

Oh and speaking of Cam, he's back at Auburn right now getting his degree in the off season.

War Eagle.  

Batman: The Animated Series

So one of the presents my wife bought me for Xmas was the complete run of Batman the Animated Series on DVD. I'm so stoked about watching these again.

To be honest I don't even think I saw Season 4 but back in the day this was the best cartoon I'd ever seen! I think it'll still hold up well today and am looking forward to watching the entire run soon.  I even got the 3 movies too!

I'll let you know my thoughts once I finish.

Star Wars TV Show?

So ABC is looking into the Star Wars TV series Lucas supposedly has 50 episodes written for already.

Why?

They need a hit. ABC dying to get back into competition with the other networks and putting this show together would be a boon for them. Lucas said to do each episode would cost 50 million a piece.

Ha comma ha.

I'm pretty sure it can be done for well under that budget and ABC will find a way to make it work. Problem is now what the story will be about. And MAN are the rumors flying!

Some say it's a Boba Fett series, some say it's a "Mobsters" story set in the underground world of Coruscant I say, whatever.

I'm sure it won't have anything to do with the main characters and may actually turn into a good series if they know how to portray it. But this won't be starting up anytime soon. 2 years at best. They may even release it the same year as the movie to get more momentum going for it.

K, that's all I have to say for now! 

NHL Season is here!!

Seriously, what is wrong with this league? The third lockout in 10 years and each time it gets worse than before!

I really hate how far Hockey has fallen from the public eye in the past few years but they only have themselves to blame. I don't know why they let it get to a point where it hurts the fan base the most?!

Look at the NFL, they hardly missed a beat during their lockout. It didn't last long and the fans didn't get hurt.

In 1994 MLB went on strike and it KILLED the sport. They couldn't come to an agreement, so baseball stopped mid-season and never came back, missing the World Series completely! Before that time every city had 3 or 4 baseball card shops operating. Now you'd be hard pressed to find even one! Baseball's popularity took a hit that year it'd never recover from. EVERYONE I knew followed baseball but these days all they want to talk about is the NFL.

It happened in the NBA last year too but no one cares about them anyway so it didn't make a difference.

BUT I am happy to see my Red Wings return to the ice and have another mediocre season like always.

GAME ON!

The "me" update

Ok so I don't have Facebook and a lot of you ask what I've been up too lately if you haven't spoken to me in a while so let me give you a little update.

Work is going great though this month I'm working on the night shift till Feb 1st. (yippy)

I honestly don't mind this shift, it's nice and I'm in class so time goes by fast. Other than work, I haven't had time to do much else. Read all of my "odds and ends" Star Wars fiction I bought (thanks to my Star Wars Readers companion) and got a new fence for my backyard after a storm blew a complete section of it down.

So:
1) Life is good
2) I'm a child of the night and
3) Fences be expensive!

Have a good one folks!

FINALLY!

Well, well, well, look what finally decided to come out? I guess now after waiting YEARS to read this series I finally can with the release of this final book in the series.

15 years ago on the referrals of a few good friends I decided to buy these books from Robert Jordan. But before I began to read them I found out his story wasn't complete. Not wanting to start a series unfinished I decided to wait for the last book to come out.

As the years went by I was doubtful that day would ever come, then we got the new of Robert Jordan's impending death and I was worried the series would NEVER come to an end. But Jordan promised he'd work as fast as he could to try to release the last novel before his death.

It didn't happen.

But with a majority of the book written he passed it on to Brandon Sanderson who say dollar signs and instead of releasing it as one big novel, expanded and divided it up into 3 more books over the course of 6 years.

Marvelous.

My copy should be coming in the mail any day now and once it does I'll begin my journey through this so-called magical realm of amazing story telling.

....watch it turn out to suck.  

The Benefits of Goal Setting

Howdy folks!

Allison Morris reached out to me this week passing along this graphic she made about setting goals. I got around to reading it and think it has some important points to keep in mind when we make these New Years Resolutions.

I've provided the link below and would like to thank Allison for passing it along.

http://www.onlineeducation.net/2013/01/07/setting-goals

Now get to setting them goals folks!

Hall of Lame

So the Hall of Fame voted on who they wanted to nominate this year into the legendary halls of Cooperstown but for the first time since 1996 NO ONE was elected and I'm calling "foul"

Mike Piazza's first year to be nominated came up and the best hitting catcher in baseball history DIDN'T get in!? You've got to be kidding me.

Sure his defense was awful those last few years but overall his performance was stellar. I thought he was a shoe-in the first year year but looks like it'll take another year or two till it happens.

As for Bonds, McGuire, Clemens. Sosa and everyone else from the "steroid" age I have mixed feelings. Sure they came into the game as the best but they didn't leave that way.

I feel they cheated to stay alive and "fixed" their numbers. If we're sticking to our guns over Pete Rose (who bet on baseball) then I hope they stick here and never let them in,

Let's make room for more honest players like Piazza, Jack Morris, Tim Raines and sadly Dale Murphy who missed his last chance to be elected this year. These men played with dignity and honor that this game deserves.

I saw we pay them back with a trip to Cooperstown!

Ok, I'm off my soapbox now. Have a good weekend.

Re-enlisting (3)

Re-enlisting (2)

Woeful Irish

 

So today I've been reading all the articles about the BCS game and ouch, are they rough on the once beloved Fighting Irish of Notre Dame.

For years the media had a crush on this team but now it seems to have disappeared over night. Everyone loves a frontrunner right?

But listen to some of these harsh quotes from critics:

"Notre Dame proved to everyone that the gap between SEC and NCAA football is getting wider every year."

"Worst mis-match for the BCS Championship, ever."

"This is what happens when you play a cupcake schedule the whole year, then run up against an SEC team."

"The wasn't a game, it was total annihilation"

"There were 4 other teams in the SEC Notre Dame could have played against and lost."

"Te'o's stock just plummeted"

The last one's a little sad because I do feel bad for the guy. His girlfriend and grandmother passed away this season and he's still gone on the field and played football. Unfortunantley it was against an SEC team where he came to found what he real value was.

Consider to be the #2 (possibly #1) pick in the NFL draft this year, now analyst are even pondering whether he'll go in the first round at all. The man got embarrassed on national television, missing more tackles in one game than he has all season.

It's not his fautl, look at Notre Dame's schedule. Who did they play?  The 7-5 Trojan's who were trounced by a terrible Georgia Tech team? Glorious 8-5 Michigan who got killed by South Carolina? Maybe 10-2 Oklahoma... who'd they lose to again?

My point is, when the caliber of teams isn't available on the schedule the chance to improve isn't there. Te'o shouldn't be embarrassed because he'd never played a team on such a level. Being independent, is hard for Notre Dame to schedule the quality match-ups their team truly needs.

I think Te'o in the SEC would've become a fine player but if you play in little league your whole life how to you expect to compete in the majors?

All said, I think the critics are being a little too rough here. It sounds to me as though they lost money on the game and are taking it out on the Irish in return.

And while I'm thinking about it, where were these critics when Oregon lost 2 years ago?!?

Phoneys!

Re-enlisting (1)

All hail the SEC

It's no secret I'm not an Alabama fan, but man did they deliver a beating tonight or what?

I think this pretty much resolves the issue about which conference IS college football. For the past 7 years the SEC has dominated this sport and will continue to do so in the years to come. I'm now reading everywhere (even ESPN) about the dominate force the SEC is.

"It's like a min-NFL" says one analyst, "The SEC showed the nation how the rest of College Football is inferior to their level of play"

I'm really blown away by all these compliments. I've never seen this much love from the media before.

I don't care who beat who, but I do care about the respect given to the SEC and wish it had been there 8 years ago when Auburn was undefeated too.

This should have been our 9th year in a row to win, but that was back in the days when the SEC was given no respect at all.

Looking back at Auburn they were clearly the most dominate team of them all. With Jason Campbell, Ronnie Brown and Cadillac Williams we ruled the field. However, the media wasn't ready to give up their love for USC and Oklahoma and gave them both the chance to play leaving an undefeated Auburn out in the cold.

Oklahoma would go on to play pathetic and lose the game miserably while Auburn stomped Va Tech in the Sugar Bowl.

In the NFL Draft, Auburn players would go #1, #3 and #7 showing great respect from the NFL and no love from the NCAA.

I wish things were like they are now. There's no question (given the circumstances) that Auburn would have gone to a BCS Title fight in this day and time. (and they'd have stomped USC too) But we'll never know.

I'm happy for the SEC and even if it was our hated rival who won at least they gave us something we Tigers can enjoy.... SEC respect! 

Sanriogirl Returns!

A few weeks ago Sanriogirl (aka: The Mrs) was given her very own mini-series! It was called "Annual" and was a play on 2 things. 

First, since her regular series went 100 issues but didn't get "Annual" issues I decided to let these be the substitute. (Yes I know there's too many)

Second, "Annual" chronicles what we did over the 2012 year. 

Here are 3 of my favorite covers, I'll explain. 

This is when we went to Dragon Con, get it?! Wocka! Wocka!

This was when Megan got to meet Robert England in Dallas. (from cover of Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors)

And finally, here's when she got to meet Jason David Frank (aka: The Green Power Ranger)

All in all the series lasted 10 issues and was a success. (at least according to Megan) As always I added other story lines from my previous comics that moved my "overall" story line along too.

K, that's all for today. More comic strips tomorrow!

Blast from the past

Check THIS loser out! All the way from 2005, here I was in all my glory!

If only Megan could've seen me then! (I probably would've been single to this day)

The hair almost doesn't look like mine even!

Just thought you'd need a good laugh.

C-ya!

Star Wars Readers Companion Review

A Christmas present I received this book has been MIND BLOWING to read.

I don't know where to begin....

If you would've asked me a month ago who had 2 thumbs and knew the most about the Expanded Universe, I'd have held both thumbs up and told you "THIS GUY!"

Pablo Hidalgo just took me to school.

I can't write all I want to because that would take up several pages and last over 4 months worth of posts. So let me tell you (in short) what I've learned:

1) The Clone Wars story line is a disaster, thanks in part to the "longer than expected" running Clone Wars series. The biggest descrepencies deal with time issues. Meaning the first few seasons of the show took place in a 4 month period. This is what I expected but it was eye opening to see it all laid out for the first time ever. Quite a feat!

2) Marvel Comic story lines were a big part of the Expanded Universe. I knew the authors grabbed one or two things from them but I never knew it was so much more than that! Since the Marvel Comics were one of the earliest conceptions of the further adventures of Luke and the gang, Dark Horse, Bantam Books and Del Rey gathered much information from them to pad stories of their own. I could list all the occurrances, but that  could take weeks.

3) I thought I had every short story ever printed....I don't. This book showed me 5 short stories I never knew existed. Most of them can thankfully be garnered from Amazon at a fair price though one looks like it'll cost me dearly. Star Wars: Imprint was a short story that was ONLY published in the 2009 Star Wars Fan Club Membership Kit. Looking on Ebay the 2010 complete kit goes for $55 and it didn't even have a short story so it's safe to say the odds of me getting my hands on that one are nil.

But I won't despair! With my new found Star Wars knowledge I feel even more powerful in the Forced than before!

So should a Star Wars fan buy this book?

YES.

For beginners it'll give you a good idea on where you should start depending on which era you'd like to read about. The book divides the Star Wars novels into eras in a time line which is easy to follow and understand.

Intermediate readers will enjoy it if they want to read new books but aren't sure which ones they'd like to start with. Though they do not give reviews for awful or awesome books they do provide a short synopsis of the novel for you to look over and consider. I love this because it provides a great refresher for advanced readers such as myself.

Also for Advanced readers it provides some "behind the scenes" and "did you know" knowledge of books you've read. Plus short stories you never knew where available!

The book covers every magazine short story as well as place it in the time line. AMAZING.

While reshuffling my Star Wars books in order I can now include the magazines in order as well!!! (Making Megan even more ashamed to walk around with me in public) I also discovered I'd missed an entire children's book that had come out way later than expected. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?!

Anyway, all is good now and the books I needed should be arriving any day now.

Ok, that's all the geeking out I'll do for today. Maybe more post on this incredible book in the future. Who knows....

Fabulous Furby (6)

Fabulous Furby (5)

Fabulous Furby (4)

2013 is here!

Let's make this ons the best year yet!!