Garth Brooks Concert

 So  few weeks ago Megan made me go with her to a Garth Brooks concert. 

 Though I know only one of his songs and hate country music I went with her. Because years ago she went with me to a Breaking Benjamins concert.

 The stage was pretty good. That ball you see is where the drummer was located.

 I have to admit, although Garth was well into his mid-fifties he sure knew how to put on a concert.

 Here he is doing a song with his wife Trisha Yearwood.

 He brought a lot of energy even though he was doing shows BACK to BACK that night!

 This performance last from 11:15 to 1:45am. His stamina was Unbelievable!!

 And the crowd was into it the whole time. In fact, in all my concert days I've NEVER heard a crowd get as loud as they did that night!

 Though I don't care for the music, I will admit the show was good.

Megan keeps talking about it to this day! She wants to see him again someday...maybe she can take her "friends in low places" with her next time. : ) 

Further down the board game rabbit hole

Hi, I'm Matt and I'm a Board Game nerd.

As a lot of you know, since the Star Wars EU has dried up I've been dipping more and more in to my other hobby...board games.

It started off a few years ago with Zombies!!! by Twilight Creations.

What they call a "gateway" game, because it brought me back into the wonderful world of board games.

I used to play them all the time but never knew how much they'd changed in the years since I played Battleship and Monopoly. Never in my imagination could I have thought there were be so many great games out there!

It all started a few years back when someone broke my X-Box 360.

I was SO mad because that's all I did was play video games.

Now I only use my new one as an expensive DVD player.

Board games have opened my eyes to all the wonderful games that are out there and since the destruction of the EU, it's only grown as a hobby for me now.

I've bought a lot of games this year. But now I think I've reached the mountain of ultimate nerd-dom and claimed the granddaddy board game of them all...Twilight Creations.

This game is the board game to END all board games. Everyone talks about it and hardcore gamers can't stop raving about it being their favorite game of all time. And now I own it.

...and its expansions.

I played it at GenCon and found it AMAZING. I've been sitting on the thought of buying it for months since then and well...now was the time.

So how big is this game you ask?

Well, that's what the base game looks like on a table...and I have 2 other expansions that will take up another table the same size.

Yup, this game is hardly small enough to fit into one room.

It's massive. It has a millions pieces to it. It's the most brilliant game ever invented!

To unpack all 3 boxes took me 4 HOURS!!!!!

Not kidding, Megan was with me the whole time and about 3 hours in she said "I don't think I want to play this game."

Guess I haven't turned her "full nerd" on to board games....yet.

Oh and the average game for this runs 8 hours or more, so if you have a day to spare sometime let me know....so I can start working on the set-up for it the night before.

Thanks!

October Movie Preview!

Alright, let's do this!!

 Goosebumps

I missed this generation. Never read the books. Won't see the movie. Side Note: Good to see Jack Black back in business. 

 Jem and the Holograms

This has got to be the worst idea for a movie EVER! Why are they taking a little known 80's cartoon and turning it into a modern day story?! What's the point of that?!?

That THIS got made by Universal and NOT another Firefly movie is ludicrous.

 The Martian

This looks fairly interesting. I doubt I'll see it in theaters but definitely when it comes out to rent.

 Pan

Ack! Gag! Vomit! NO.

Rock the Kasbah

This story makes no sense to me. But because of Bill Murray and it's cast, how can I say no?

What about you? Any movies worth talking about that aren't mentioned here? Do tell...

Mets Baseball update

Check!

Sports update

The announcement by Gus that Jeremy Johnson was out and Sean White was in, is a good thing for the Tigers. Sure Sean's a red shirt freshman who may not perform well under a tough SEC opponent, but he can't be any worse than Johnson has this season.

Who knows? Maybe the kid will show us something we haven't seen all year...some offense.

On the happy side of the news, my Mets are slowly closing in on clinching the series. Should be by early next week. Can't wait to celebrate a Mets post season appearance, though I'm not sure how long it'll last. The Cards are real good this year and unless Terry Collins knows of a way to beat them, I don't have my hopes up to high for a World Series so far.

Thanks for the memories Jackie...

A few weeks ago I rented Jackie Chan's newest installment to the Police Story franchise. If you're not familiar with it, let me give you the release titles in America;

Supercop and First Strike

2 of the Best movies Jackie ever did in his life. And if you go back and watch the first two in the series (that didn't get an American release) then you'd be equally impressed.

Fast forward to today and Jackie just don't got it anymore. Sure he's over 60 now, but I was still hoping for some of that old karate action and instead walked back to RedBox, upset over losing $1.50 for renting it.

I've kept up diligently over the past years watching every Jackie Chan movie out there. Sure there have been some painful ones, but I toughed through it. Lately, ALL his movies have been bad, but I kept telling myself "Hold on Matt, he has one more left in him."

Then I saw this title and thought "This is the moment" The moment watching all those bad Jackie Chan movies over the past few years, I KNEW an installment into the Police Story franchise wouldn't let me down.

It did.

Though I love me some Jackie Chan, I'll be sticking to his past movies from now on. Thanks for the memories Mr. Chan, you can stop your film career whenever you like. 

Survivor Second Chance

 So watching the premier last night I just HAD to make a post about it. WOW, am I excited for this season! I already feel, I may be looking at previous players in a whole other light.

Where I once loved Vytus I have to admit, he was a little "swarmy" this season and I was hate he was voted out so early. (actually I was shocked) but that's Survivor for you. Just when you think you know the game, they hit you with a curve ball.

So as tradition goes, before the 1st tribal, I always make my pick on who the sole Survivor will be and this season I'm embarrassed to say...

Kass, will win it all.

Yeah, I hate her but she's the only one who seems to be coming in to this season without "something to prove" or "pre-game jitters" and someone like that will go far.

But believe me, I WANT to be wrong on this pick. I can't stand her but that doesn't mean I can't ignore the game face she had on in the first episode. While everyone's playing around, she's formulating a strategy. And just like Sandra in Heroes vs Villains, if they don't get rid of her early in the game, she'll go all the way.

Other thoughts:

- Jeff Varner will be out before the merge if not quit the game by episode 4.
- Kelly Wentworth is an idiot
- Kelly Wigglesworth may not turn out to be the same brat she was 15 years ago, I'll be interested in how her gameplay goes this season.
- There's no denying it, Joe IS the man and that's what'll get him voted out shortly after the merge.
- Shirin still lives in a fantasy land, but if someone's smart enough to take her to the end, they'd surely win the game
- Jeremy's still playing the game he was last time and will be voted off just like last time as well.
- Not much camera time for Spencer, that's good news. He may end up going far in the game.
- Stephen Fishback is playing this game as a rookie. It's more pathetic knowing he has his own podcast where he does NOTHING but talk about Survivor all the time!! He doesn't have a CLUE of what to do. JR isn't around to carry him all the way to the end either and I doubt this season anyone will be willing to do the same.

(sigh) Oh Survivor, how I missed you!

At peace with Star Wars

It's been a while since I posted a Star Wars update, so I thought I'd do it today.

Many months have passed and after extensive searching, I have yet to find any new EU stories I do not already posses. I'm beginning to feel I've done it. I've collected every bit of the old canon that was out there.

After speaking with several of my Star Wars editor friends and some authors, they know of nothing else as well. (outside of anything unpublished)

Momentum for Episode 7 keeps building every day and I haven't kept up with any of the rumors or cared about any news that's come out. I think I'm truly done with Star Wars.

Since the Expanded Universe was what kept me a massive fan, with it now removed I'm free to explore other hobbies such as my board game one which has been growing a lot in the past year. I'm no longer stuck reading one genre but now am exploring great new ones. It's a very freeing and pleasant feeling I can tell you that.

Don't get me wrong, I want the EU (Now titled "Legends") to continue. And if it does, I'll be the first one in line getting the new book. I'll also continue my quest to have them do so. But until that day comes...I think I'll have plenty of other things to keep me busy. 

Home Depot Sucks

So last month I bought a dryer from these bozos because it was a good deal and came with free delivery PLUS for $15 more bucks (which I paid) they'd take your old appliance away for you. So I got it.

Biggest mistake of my life.

I waited all day for the delivery guy who ended up being an hour and a half LATE from his deadline time. He made ME move my washer out to them on the street. Then while doing the installation he lied to me about it fitting into the cubby when the dryer was obviously too big.

I had a buddy of mine come over to inspect it (because I didn't trust the guy) but he convinced my buddy he was telling the truth about me getting some kind of "magical" fix which parts that we later discovered didn't exist.

Here's the kicker... when we started looking at how to resolve it ourselves I noticed that during the installation he had rammed the dryer up against the wall so hard that it slammed the pipe straight through my exhaust port and punched a freaking HOLE THRU MY HOUSE!!!

I man, I was pissed.

We fixed it that night (because leaving it open for all the critters to walk in wasn't an option) and I called Home Depot the next day for a full refund.

Home Depot refused to give me one. They told me to call my local store (though I'd bought it online) so I did. The store told me to call the online number. No one wanted to help me. But after fighting with them for over 45 minutes (30 of those minutes were waiting on hold) they finally told me they'd do it on 2 conditions.

I had to bring the dryer to them and there would be a 15% handling fee for the service... of giving me my refund.

I kept arguing and they kept putting me on hold, refusing to do anything else.

I wrote a letter to the website and got a response that stated:

Thanks for contacting The Home Depot. We value your opinions and feedback and appreciate the fact that you are taking the time to send us this information. In reading your message, we were unable to determine your exact need. If it was sent in error please ignore this message.

I kid you not. I just copied and pasted it to this post. That's what they said word for word when I explained my horrible experience with the company!!

I will never do business with Home Depot ever again due to this. They're a horrible company who cares nothing about customer service.

That's the end of my rant. : )

Book cover released!!

Here's a look at the cover to the book I wrote for, coming out next year. Looks good! The link to the release statement is here if you want to check it out. So excited!!!

Gulf Shores Trip

 After a hectic road schedule I was so happy to go on vacation!

 Gulf Shores is a wonderful family vacation.

 I enjoy it more every year that goes bye.

Megan doesn't let me go out in public for this reason.

Have a good one folks!

Welcome to Phoenix

 The next stop on the road was Phoenix.

 What can I say? Chase is everywhere!

 They were literally next door to the movie theater. Wild.

 And an iron bunny monument was in between....no idea what for.

 The place was nicer than I remember the last time I was there.

 Weather was hot but not worse than anything in Monroe.

 Heck, the weather made it feel more like home than anything else.

 Lots of pubs and it's right around ASU.

 Coincidence? I think not.

K, that was all the pics from that trip. One more set to show you tomorrow and I'm done!

Roadtrip pics

 On the long lonely road back from GenCon I stopped at the "World's largest selection of hot sauces"

 Here's what I found.

 There were two long grocery style shelves filled with every hot sauce you could imagine.

 But only one could be a winner.

Walla! It's a good one too! I'm glad I got it.

But with a Donkey like that on the cover.... who WOULDN'T buy this hot sauce!?