The Last Ronin: Review

 I've heard a lot about this comic and have wanted to read it for some time. I was finally able to borrow a copy and it's....ok.

The story takes place 15 years after Splinter and all but one of the turtles have been killed. The remaining brother (who I won't spoil for anyone who hasn't read this) is revealed at the end of issue #1 and isn't who you'd think it would be. 

Anyway, he teams up with an older April and her daughter to take down the grandson of Shredder and end the long standing feud between their clans once and for all. 

It's in essence, "The Dark Knight" for turtles fans. 

Now I didn't find this comic bad at all, I did find in uninspired. Way overrated considering all the praise I've heard heaped upon it. Turtles fans will probably love it, but my favorite "ending" to the turtles was when Eric Larson got the rights and finished off the regular series. 

But that's just me. If you're curious, go on and check it out. Like I said, it's not bad. 

Batman '66 animated films review

 I decided to watch the 2 animated movies they made from the original '66 series starring Adam West and Burt Ward. 

The first one is fun but not as good as I remember. 

However the second one is much better. William Shatner playing Two-Face was a good choice. 

The only thing that sucks is you can tell their voices have aged. Julie Newmar's voice is hardly recognizable in both movies. 

Though I love they brought back surviving actors to reprise their voices. 

With Adam West gone it's good they ended them here. 

Make way for baby #5

 Yep, we're having another one. 

Incredibly this time it is NOT twins. We don't know the gender yet but I'm pushing late 40s and find it wild I'll be closing in on 70 when this one graduates collage. 

Not a fun feeling. But It's the reason I'm getting in shape! So maybe I'll kick around a little longer to get to know them better. That and it being April 1st are the two biggest announcements for the day. 

By the way, this is one of my favorite times of the year, if you can't already tell that from previous posts. 

Have a good one folks!

Pinnacle Inside

Totally forgot about these late 90s cans that contained baseball cards inside. We used to sell them at the store back in the day and you needed a can opener to get them out. 

Wild. But in the 90s they were trying everything back then. The hobby isn't what it was back in the day but it's crazy to see everything they came up with to make the hobby look fresh. 

I want lie...I've been eyeing a set of 2024 Topps Baseball cards on Amazon for quite some time now. Haven't pulled the trigger on it because I'm considering getting a Mets neon sign. 

I miss collecting baseball cards but the hobby's too expensive these days and with 4 kids, I can't afford it. 

But maybe one day sets like this will enter my collection. 

Time will tell.
 

Return to the Batcave

 I haven't seen this TV film since it premiered on TV in 2003. Back in the day Frank Gorshen was still alive and even a 60 year old Julie Newmar looked unbelievably beautiful. 

The movie gives you a little "behind the scenes" about what it was like to work on the film. While giving some of that campy humor from the original show. 

Overall, not the best but the "Bat Rap" is one of the best songs I've ever heard. 

Easy to find online if you want to give it a try. 

Have a good weekend folks!

Long Shot (review)

 My other favorite player, so of course I had to read his autobiography as well. 

Excellent novel. 

It talks about his unbelievable journey from being drafted in the last round as a family favor to making it into the Hall of Fame as one of the best catchers ever to play the game. 

Lots of fun stories and in the book and great insights from different times in his life. For instance, I never knew he hated the Dodgers so much!

Overall, worth your time if you love baseball (much less the Mets) 

Worth my time to read. 

I'm Keith Hernandez (review)

 Read the autobiography of my favorite baseball player and #1 person deserving of the Hall of Fame that never got in. 

I have mixed feelings on this book since he decides not to talk about his time with the Mets but what his career was before he left to New York. 

His excuse was that he's told all those stories 1000 times and wanted to give fans a different perspective of his life. 

I get it....but I really wanted to hear about the crazy stories with the Mets. He offers a few "fun" stories of him in the minors and Cardinals, but it isn't the same. 

Overall, I'd say fans avoid this one and go with the novel "The Day the Bad Guys Won" Great book. 

Batman '66 (review)

 Just finished watching the entire series with my boy. Excellent stuff. He loves it for the action and fights. Just as I did when I was a kid. 

I love it for its humor. Which surprisingly is incredibly better than I remembered. 

The show embraces it's campyness. It knows what it is and it is constantly winking at the adults. Making fun of impossible scenarios to the down right ridiculousness. The show truly has something to offer for everyone.

HIGHLY recommended. Enjoyable the whole way through. My girls even got invested when Batgirl joined the final season. Which I admit, was a refreshing take on the show. 

Adam West. Best Batman ever. 

The King Tide (review)

 On our Sunday Movie nights with my nephews, we were running low on options for what to see until I heard about this on RedLetterMedia. 

It's about a small town located offshore of the mainland, which discovers a baby who has the power to heal people when near them. Fast forward 10 years later and the town has transformed into its own community fully isolated by anyone on the main land. 

But when disaster strikes, the towns people go through tribulations they've never encountered before. How will they survive? 

Many thanks to Iila. 

This movie is great. Not scary, good story, strong characters and really puts you into a "what would you do" scenario in your head after watching. There's also an ending you won't see coming.  

Loved it. Great movie. Worth your time.

No mail

 So my neighbors and I have discovered something weird....our mail is only delivered to us on Saturdays now. 

Packages still arrive on the week days (some to the wrong address) but we usually bring them to the correct houses. But for mail, flyers, etc? It appears the M-F mailman decides to skip our street and only deliver on Saturdays. 

It's been this way for 6 weeks now and it's weird. The flyers of specials that were going on at the grocery store (starting on Wednesdays) used to be mailed to us by Tuesday...but now we get them all on Saturdays when the deals are about to come to an end. 

Really weird. I don't know why that is. We aren't the last street on the block, or even a dead end. We're straight in the middle. I don't know what gives. 

I always have the worst luck with the mail. This year EVERY SINGLE FedEx package has been 3 days (or more) delayed from it's original promised date. 

And UPS is always delayed a day too. I have no idea why mail has an issue getting to us but it does. 

Back when they came daily however, the mailman didn't arrive until 6pm at the earliest sometimes appeared around 7pm. Again, I have no idea why it's so late. 

Guess I'm just cursed with having the worst mailmen on my route. 

Have a good weekend folks!

Ghost Original Flavor review

 Ok, so I went to the store last night and picked it up because it was still there. 

It's showing "out of stock" online, so maybe the one I saw at Walmart was put there by mistake? Either way, I'm happy I got to try it....and I'll never try it again. 

It should be called "plain" because that's all it was to me. Really generic with the rest of the energy drinks you see out in the market. No wonder you don't see much of these around anymore. Really not even worth tracking down a can if you were interested. 

I'm just glad this wasn't the first one I ever tasted or I might have passed on the entire line!

Oh well, at least I can check this one off the list. 

Ghost: Sour Black Cherry

 I DO love my sour drinks! I was excited to try this new flavor.....but it's really "sour cherry limeade" to me. 

It's not bad and I'd probably get it again some day but kinda bummed that all they really did was add a sour taste to an existing flavor. (with a bit more cherry, I give it)

I still want to try "Sour Stripes" but that is NOWHERE to be found around here! I did see a case of "Original" the other day at Walmart. I didn't get it but now am thinking I may as well try it since it's one of the few flavors I've yet to check out. 

Ghost: Merica Pop

  After losing the "Faze" brand, they decided to rebrand this as a new drink and changed the formula so I tried it. 

Not bad. More carbonated than the last one. Can't say which is better because I have good memories drinking "Faze Pop" but I don't mind this one because it's practically the same. If you like Faze Pop, you'll be fine with this. 

Happy St Patty's Day

 I truly wish I could have fun on this holiday like I used to back in the day. But as of now, it holds nothing for me. 

Maybe one day when the kids are older, I'll try to throw parties. This is one holiday, I wouldn't mind resurrecting on the "fun" calendar. 

By the way... I never wear green on this day anymore. It's not like people can pinch you at work without getting their asses sued off right? 

I miss the good ole days...

The Gorge (review)

 It ain't the best movie I've seen but it was entertaining enough to watch once and I can recommend it, if you're having one of those nights where you don't know what to watch. 

It's about two snipers hired by their countries to watch over separate sides of a gorge, with one mission...keep out the "hollow men"

Who are these people? Well that's part of the mystery you have to uncover. The pacing and characters are pretty good. It's like a good episode of X-Files, but in this case Mulder and Scully are bad asses. 

Fun stuff. 

Have a good weekend folks!

Time Machine 2002 (Review)

 Another pretty good film. Not sure which version I prefer. This shies away from telling a complete story arc. The same beats are there from the original film but I felt it just....ended. Something was off with the script and the movie felt like it was missing an overall narrative. 

Still, I enjoyed it. 

I've never read the novella these movies are based upon. Maybe someday I will....when I don't have 8 more books on my "read" list. 

Kung Fu Panda The Dragon Knight Season 3 (review)

 Finally finished this one and...ugh. What a slog!

It was almost twice as long as the previous seasons and it dragged so much! At the halfway point, I'd lost all interest in it completely and had it on as background noise as the girls sat and watched it....which even they got bored of and moved on to the playroom. 

Utter dud. What a shame. I think this IP is done. 

I miss the Furious Five. Why can't they just replace their voices (like they have Jack Black) and keep with the characters we all know and love? 

So many missed opportunities here to name. Not worth anyone's time. 

Diet Update

 Slow and steady wins the race I suppose. 

Haven't seen the results I'm used to seeing on my past (stricter) diets but I keep hearing from everyone that I'm on the right track. I don't feel I've lost that much but I can now fit into a lower size so that's progress for me. 

I haven't tired of the menu since it's so vast but will be taking "break days" every so often when I feel the time is right. 

I'm determined to stay on it for as long as it takes though!

Time Machine 1960 (review)

 I remember watching this years ago as a kid with Mom. I loved it back in the day and thought the morlocks were SO scary!

So how does it hold up today?

It's excellent. Probably better than I remember. The morlocks glowing eyes are still a great special effect and the the story is classic! Well worth watching it if you find it streaming. Good stuff!

I'll be watching the 2002 version next!

Moana 2 (review)

 While the first one was fine the sequel was....boring. 

I mean...really boring. I didn't feel this was worthy of a theatric release at all. It felt more like those awful direct to DVD sequels from the late 90's early 00's. It was terrible!

Did anyone really enjoy this?

What junk!

Have a good weekend folks! 

Coke Orange Cream (tricked again!)

 I'm a sucked for a new flavor and when I saw this, I picked up a bottle....thinking it just said "orange" I was crushed when I got home and read the "creme" part. 

I tasted awful. This must be a popular flavor though, I heard so many people talk about "orange creme" this and that, so it shouldn't surprise me that Coke tried it out themselves. 

I also think they've made this in the past. But I don't know since I'm sure I didn't try it last time....back when I could read. 

Anyway, that's all for today!

Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight (season 2)

 After forgetting I was even watching this over 3 years ago, I started my journey in completing the show. 

The had a "previously on" which helped me catch up and remind me what had happened. The show isn't as funny as the other Dreamworks shows but every so often it has a sentimental moment and is filled with action. 

The writers have a plan I'm assuming. This show appears to have wrapped up around the same time the 4th movie arrived in theaters. Though none of these adventures are referenced, at least they were considerate enough not to have 2 stories going on at the same time. 

They did provide an origin story for Ping (Panda's Dad) which I'm sure will come to fruition in the final season. 

Overall the show is so-so, but my kids are really enjoying it and it only goes one more season, so I guess I'll finish it and give my final thoughts then. 

Dr Pepper Blackberry

 Finally had a chance to try this out. Not bad. Worth getting once but still not the best they've had. Darkberry (blueberry) had been my favorite variant from Dr Pepper so far. But I don't hear calls from fans to bring it back so I guess we have to wait for next year when it's....Peach?

Who knows? 

Earl Weaver Baseball for Amiga by Electronic Arts

A game I played for countless hours as a kid. 

Good times!

Bye Bye theexpandeduniverse.com

 Early this month, my long time website finally closed down. 

It was too costly and took too much time to keep up with. With articles posting 5 days a week, traffic had picked up massively on it. According to my IT guy, the reason for the price increase was to keep up with the increased traffic over the years. 

I didn't realize how much it had grown, but daily articles kept people coming back more frequently. My highest interactions were with the articles. Followed by my timeline, then the quote bank. I was surprised because about 96% came for the articles. 3% for my timeline and 1% the quotes. 

Our highest months were typically March-May and our lowest were usually the three that followed. June-August. But the real of the year was pretty solid and overall we broke records for each following year. 

So why shut it down? Not many people were interested in posting articles anymore. I was surprised to hear from a few people who down played the articles completely and said it wasn't what the site was originally supposed to be for. 

But I always imagined it to be like theforce.net from back in the good ole days. When daily articles kept you coming back for me and where any EU fan could write something about what they love about the EU, but I guess that was just me. 

I will say there was one faithful writer who offered to split the cost with me to keep it going. He's a good guy and for a moment I thought about taking him up on his offer but ultimately decided it was time for the site to fade. 

Just another chapter in the EU fandom. May it be remembered well by most. 

Have a good weekend folks!   

Sleeping on your Back

 Last month I started sleeping on my back. I used to be a side sleeper with a pillow between my knees but for some reason, that's become very uncomfortable to me. So now I'm sleeping on my back. Something that (to my knowledge) has never happened before. 

I'm not sure why that is. But whatever the reason, I'm a back sleeper now. 

I know, weird but I had nothing better to talk about today so I thought I'd go ahead and mention it. 

What about you? Do you sleep on your back, side or stomach? Sometimes I could fall asleep on my stomach but in the middle of the night would turn back on my side. 

Anyway, that's all for today. Sleep well, no matter which way it is!

DCAU Shorts

 Anyone who knows me. knows I LOVE the DC Animated Universe. So when I thought I'd watched everything from it a few years back, imagine my shock to discover there were STILL 2 shorts I had never seen until this month. Here's my thoughts:

Justice League: First Mission

This was a DVD extra from season 1 which shows the "promo reel" that was given to executives to greenlight the show. Mainly, no talking just random shots of the Justice League taking out a threat. 4 minute films wasn't really worth it but when I'd read what it was about, I knew it wouldn't be. 

Batman Beyond even came out with a short to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Batman. This extremely short cartoon, shows Terry and Bruce fighting off a batman robot, then discovering many more have entered the Batcave. Each one bearing a different look once held by the caped crusader. Sure it only serves as a salute but I wish it would've been a little more. Overall it was just ho-hum.

But now at least I can safely say that I've seen everything the DCAU had to give. 

Puss in Boots: The Three Diablos and Shorts

 My absolute favorite character from Shrek. In fact, I think both Puss in Boots movies are better than anything that Shrek came out with. The last movie in particular was outstanding. 

I even watched the Netflix show which I enjoyed as well. But I was surprised to realize I'd never seen this short film before. 

Basically, Puss takes three kittens under his wing and teaches them how to survive. The battle a hilarious criminal called the "Whisperer" which Puss can hardly understand what he's saying and (spoilers) when he falls to his death, you can't hear his scream because it's so quiet. 

But the funniest scene came at the beginning when Puss visits the kittens in jail. It's one of the best Puss in Boots scenes I've ever seen. And since the film only lasts 13 minutes, one brilliant joke in that amount of time was just what they needed to make it worth my while to watch. 

The other one they had was just a bunch of short featurettes you could view online, where Puss talks to you for a minute or two about something. There's laughs here and there. 45 shorts in total you can watch them all on YouTube. Enough laughs to keep you interested the whole way through. My youngest girl loved it the most. She sat with me the whole time and watched. 

Puss is STILL the best! 

Madagascar: A Little Wild

 Never even knew this existed until I started doing this deep dive in dreamworks spin offs. 

It serves as a prequel series to the movie. It went 3 seasons, with 30 minutes episodes....and it's awful. Not funny at all and even break continuity with the movies in that the leave the zoo just about EVERY episode. 

The first movie established that they'd never left the outskirts of the zoo. Did they all have a memory lapse of what their youth was like? Plus, it's make for little kids so my younger twins ate this show up. Me? I sat around on my phone looking up at the screen every show often to make note of what the just of the show was, before moving on to the next. 

Madagascar's first stinker in my opinion.  

All Hail King Julien New Year's Eve Countdown

" All Hail King Julien" is one of the best things to ever come out of the Madagascar franchise. I LOVE this cartoon. Really well done, lots of good humor and blows everything else away in comparison (even the movies) 

But this New Years Special? Garbage. All it is, is a montage of old scenes cut together in a music video with a few cheap "dance scenes" thrown in as Netflix released it New Year's Eve to ring in the new year of 2015. 

Total bummer because I was really hoping to see some gold out of this but got crap in return. 

Have a good weekend folks!

Kung Fu Panda (extras)

 I love the world of Kung Fu Panda. Yes, the 4th movie was a but of a disappointment but overall the universe has had more hits than misses. 

Here's a few of the misses:

Legend of the Legendary Warrior were some quick cartoon shorts narrated by Jack Black (I'm assuming) to promote Kung Fu Panda 3. Each one is about a minute and half long and is just him recounting "famous" tales of his adventures since the last movie. 

Boring and pointless and you know that after the first episode. Not worth your time. 

 The second was "Pandina", 4 one minute shorts starring the female Panda from 3 which are anything but funny. Thankfully they're so short and few or it would've been more painful. HARD PASS on this one, even if you are a fan. 

The Office: The Accountants

 One of the shows I watched for the first time last year was The Office. I'd never seen it before and finally decided to give it a shot. It was excellent. 

This is the 10 episode mini-series that played online, starring the 3 accountants with guest stars from others in the show. 

Just as good as the regular show. I loved it. When money goes missing, these 3 embark on a journey to discover who the guilty party was. Each episode is only a couple of minutes long and its packed with humor in each episode. 

Worth your time!

Happy Presidents Day

 As half the nation melts down because their side didn't win, the fact remains it's President's Day all the same. 

So what do you do on this holiday?

I'm off. So are my kids. So all it means is I'll be stuck at the house watching all my kids and not able to do ANYTHING. 

What kind of a holiday is that?

So for those of you off, have a Happy....free day off with nothing special to do. 

Dang.....I can't even get the pleasure of sleeping in!

Happy Pointless Holiday Day

 Yeah. Valentine's Day. A day you only care about if you're young and freshly in love. Because no one realizes, loving someone isn't important on one day but every day of the year. 

I know. A very poor view of the holiday but it's my 2nd least favorite holiday, behind Halloween. 

Call me what you will, I think this "holiday" sucks. 

Bah humbag and have a good weekend everyone!

Battlestar Galactica: The Resistance

 Like everyone, I liked the series when it came out and hated it by the time is ended. Such wasted opportunities to tell a great story. 

Anyway, this prequel mini-series happens prior to the first season (I believe) and follows a group of humans under the thumb of the Cylons and their attempts at a coup. 

It's style is similar to the TV show and there is a death in the middle of the mini-episodes that was a little surprising, but just like a lot of these webisodes, it's not worth watching overall. 

Yet oddly, I still love this more than the last season, so take that with a grain of salt. 

SGU- Kino (review)

 I've been on a kick lately, looking at all the webisode/shorts to some of my favorite TV shows. It was quite common 10-15 years ago, to add this minisodes to a succesful TV show. 

Typically, they are low budget and tend to be a waste of time, but I decided to give them a try. 

Stargate is one of my favorite shows. It's something I know I'll watch time and time again because it's that good. SGU was the weakest spin-off, true but there were some things I did enjoy from the series. 

KINO is mainly centered around Eli and his drones (the kino) which follow him around recording everything. Other stars make guest appearances here and there but mostly it's small vignettes that are either comedic moments or small tie ins to episodes, recently shown. 

Overall it's not very good, though the episode dealing with one of my favorite episodes in the series was pretty good. It's when the group discovers footage of them all dying in the future and are trying to find a way to avoid that from happening....yet at the end of the episode, they all end up dying again. 

It was never mentioned how they resolved it, but they eventually did because the next episode shows them on another adventure. So the KINO episode jokes about this by letting viewers know it took several tries before they were able to change their fates and move on. 

I enjoyed that episode. 

Other than that, this is skippable, even for the more dedicated Stargate fans. 

Rooster Booster

 A few weeks ago while going over to my friend's house to watch the Royal Rumble, I picked up this interesting energy drink. 

I was going to go for one of my trusted brands but when you see the name "Rooster Booster" I know it's something I must try. 

So what's it taste like? 

Cock. 

Seriously....wasn't that good. Should've known from the cover, right from the start right? 

Either way, I won't be picking up one again anytime soon. 

Spartacus Primus Mat

 Oh baby! I've been looking at adding this to my collection for years and just last week I finally got one!!

As you can see from the feet at the edge of the picture, this mat is HUGE and was designed for a 6 player game of Spartacus. 

It's so beautiful. I love it. And though I'll rarely have a 6 player game, I don't care. This has been a "grail" mcguffin for a long time. 

Too sweet!!

C4 Hawaiian Punch

 Not much of a C4 fan. It's ok, but not my favorite. I did try this flavor and it does taste as advertised. It's fine, though I don't know if I'd get it again. 

They also had two Jolly Rancher flavors but since I despise the candy I left those on the shelf. 

Have a good weekend folks! 

Bang: Sour Ropes

 I was shocked when I heard Bang was coming out with a new flavor. I thought that since Coke bought them out, that they weren't going to be making anything new...but they did.

And the moment I found out about it, I just had to try it!

The verdict? Meh. It DOES taste like the sour rope candy....from Dollar Tree. Not really that sour and that rubbery taste you get when you chew on a sour rope. Who thought this flavor was a good idea? Overall...it's not terrible. But would probably fall to so-so in my book. 

Would I buy one again? No. Would I drink what again? Sure. I guess. 

Nosveratu (review)

 Ugh, this one had such great potential but overall fell flat. 

I enjoyed the acting, the characters and the overall look of the film. 

But for a movie barely over 2 hours....it felt like four. 

I don't know why, but this movie really dragged at times. I saw everyone looking at their phones at my house at one point and by the end of it, one of my nephews fell asleep. Not the best sign for a movie when it can't hold someone's interest. 

Someone else even asked how long it was and couldn't believe it hadn't been 2 hours since we started it. 

So yeah, I'm going to have to say "pass" on this one. Again, there's a lot to enjoy about the film, but overall....ugh! What a drudge!

Etch-a-sketch overlays

 We all remember etch-a-sketch but what about the overlays that you could buy for added fun?

Mine was this one from DC. It required you to move through mazes or draw something out. So much fun! 

I think there was another DC one but I couldn't find it online so I must have been thinking about something else. I also had a smurf one as well. 

Anyone else remember these?

Old Football game

 Does anyone remember electronic football? 

My dad had a copy back in the day that we played non-stop as kids. I remember when it eventually broke, I saved up my money in '88 to buy a brand new one for myself. I clearly remember walking into the department store with mom, handing her my cash and when she rung it up, I saw I didn't think about the tax. 

I was short.

Thankfully, mom stepped in and paid for the rest. ENDLESS fun playing this game as a kid. 

Another one we had for a short time was Super Toe. You smashed down on the kicker's Helmut to have him kick the ball through a field goal. We played it outside because mom knew we'd destroy something if we played it inside the house. 

It eventually broke and was thrown away. 

I wouldn't be interested in owning either of these games anymore, but electronic football was so special for me as a kid, with the Super Bowl approaching, I thought it was a good time to recall these games. 

Ye Olde Toys (2)

 Time to look at a few more toys that time forgot!

I can't believe I found a picture of this toy. I couldn't remember the name of it but I remember the DAY we got them. They were either battery powered or wind ups that you could release, let the wings flap and have it sail across your yard before dropping to the ground. 

The only problem was, these things broke easy. It was cheap plastic (I guess for weight purposes) and the wings easily broke. We didn't have these long. 

Did you have a "crib play" growing up? We had this EXACT one back in the day! It would strap on to the crib and the baby could play with it while they lay down. I remember my siblings playing with it in their cribs but am not sure if I had it growing up too. Probably. 

Let's move on to bath toys. We all had the Fisher Price men in boat I'll bet but I know for a fact we also had that turtle too. I mean, a guy riding a turtle in the bath tub....what??? But we played with it so I guess it worked. 

Any finally, who can forget the wind up fish that could swim across the water for a short time. My grandmother had this exact one at her house and it was something I remember playing with during many a bath at her house. 

Have a good weekend folks!