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.