Real Life FIFA

The easy joke to make here is that Real Life FIFA is still worse than Winning Eleven. Do they still make Winning Eleven? I haven't bought a soccer game since FIFA 2010 and I took that back to gamestop after like a month. Anyhoo, this video is pretty cool. I mean it's not as cool as the shot I took last night that hit some 5 foot Asian girl point blank square in the chest but it's still cool.

The Guardians of the Galaxy Lego Trailer

You know the deal, here's a recreation of one of the TV spots for Guardians of the Galaxy done entirely in Lego. It's pretty cool, but I kind of feel like it's a bit of a cop out considering the Official Guardians of the Galaxy Leg sets are already in stores. It's not like they custom made a Groot or Rocket they just opened the box and put it together. I mean it's still impressive....

Hopefully I get out to see GOTG next week. I've heard nothing but rave reviews and I don't want to wait so long that the commercials start spoiling the best parts. Wish me luck!

San Diego Comic Con 2014 Cosplay

My son's day care is closed this week and I'm getting geared up to take an actual week off work so I simply don't have the time to put together a big San Diego Comic Con cosplay post. Instead I've found this cool cosplay music video that probably has all the best cosplayers in it anyway.

I've been doing this too long, Instead of being like "wow what a great gambit" I was like "wow it's Chad and Angie from the Screen Team". I recognized at least a half dozen of these cosplayers. Also that was CM Punk in the 48 second mark, right?

The Lazy Parent's Lament

Here's that Deadpool movie you'll never get to see

So years and years ago director Tim Miller put together a 2 minute scene to show studio execs what a Ryan Reynolds Deadpool movie would look like. I believe some people saw it at comic-con and lost their shit. Rob Liefeld (comic book artist and creator of Deadpool) has talked about it several times over the years. Finally and the Rock means Finally, someone leaked it this weekend. It keeps getting taken down from youtube so I'm going to try Vimeo.

I'm not going to lie to you, this looks pretty good. I didn't expect it to be all CGI like this but I think it gets the point across. Too bad Fox is afraid of a rated R "super hero" movie. I mean what they did with Deadpool in Wolverine: Origins was WAY better than this anyway. Right? Right? Right? Bueller?

Evil Links

Horror Classic 'The Evil Dead' Coming to TV With Star Bruce Campbell. I'm not like an obsessive superfan of the Evil Dead series but I'm what you might call a pretty big fan so I'm really excited about this announcement. I have so many questions. Will it be a serialized format? Are we talking multiple seasons or is this a mini series? Is Ash the star or just a minor role? Is Bruce Campbell even playing Ash?

I fall into the camp of actually liking the remake/reboot from 2013. I thought the mythos of the Necronomicon and the time old horror trope of a cabin out in the woods is strong enough to carry a well written movie on it's own. Sure, I'd like to see a Evil Dead 4 just as much as the next nerd but I'm guessing that due to the combo of Campbell's age and Rami's success it's just not in the cards anymore. Assuming it's well done, a TV series is just fine by me.

Megan Rapinoe says playing a World Cup on turf is 'bullshit'. I think I commented on it briefly on twitter but there was a sort of underground social media movement to get the announcers for the World Cup to quit saying that Landon Donovan was the top goal scorer for the US in the World Cup and start adding a bit of a verbal astrisk by saying he was the top men's goal scorer for the US in the world cup. The point being that the women's game matters and should be recognized. The default position of Sports should be both female and male, not Sports and Women's Sports.

With that in mind FIFA is going to hold the Women's World Cup in a bunch of stadiums that use field turf. If it wasn't clear before, it is now just how much they value the women's game.

Man Who Helped Kill Women's Pro Soccer Dies While Playing Soccer. Speaking of Women's soccer, there's something in the above article on Megan Rapinoe that really bothered me. She said that FIFA just maked billions on the World Cup in Brasil, implying that surely they could spend some of that money on the Women's World Cup and find a few stadiums that have real grass. That's pretty much where I draw the line in the field turf. If women's sports are going to succeed they need to do it on their own. Click through all the links deadspin has on this article about the former owner of the Florida magicJack. Women's soccer has always had the athletes, they have the fans they just can't figure out a way to put together a sustainable league.

Ignored Comic-Con This Weekend? Here Are The 10 Most Important Things You Missed. I'll be honest, I wasn't that jazzed for Comic-Con before the weekend started and nothing I saw on the web really changed my default jazz status. Still a couple cool trailers premiered and Wonder Woman got a new outfit that sort of looks like Xena's. I guess that's something, right?

The Biggest Winners And Losers Of Comic-Con 2014! Speaking of Comic-Con. Sounds like actual comic books took an even further back seat to Hollywood this year. Like if Comic-Con was a station wagon they moved from that weird rear facing seat every wagon in the late '70s had to a trailer towed behind the wagon.

My High School Reunion: The Review

On the surface the idea of a high school reunion feels antiquated, akin to George Lucas releasing Episode I: The Phantom Menace exclusively on VHS. In the year 2000 everyone could tell that DVD players were the future so why does someone so obsessed with technological advancement insist on sticking with an antiquated format? That's the long way of saying that there's a perception that Facebook (and the internet as a whole) is killing the high school reunion. Want to see who in your class lost the most hair? Look them up on Facebook (or if you're really old linkedin). Want to wax nostalgic about Pearl Jam's VS? Don't worry Buzzfeed has a quiz where you can find out which track you are (I got Dissident!).

You may have noticed that in that opening paragraph I used the terms "on the surface" and "there's a perception". I didn't feel like what I experienced at my 10 year reunion... 20 year you say? Ok, 20 year reunion, was lessened by the impact of social media. Just the opposite, I thought it was enhanced. For those that don't know, I went to a pretty small high school. Our graduating class was around 85 kids and I would say I'm Facebook friends with around 40 of them. That level of casual familiarity ended up helping someone like me who isn't the most comfortable in social situations like this.

The anxiety medication stayed in my pocket all night

It was more common for conversations to start out with "You just got a new job didn't you" or "I saw you guys moved to Texas.." than the typical "Are you married, do you have kids, etc". I won't try and hide my pleasure that some people I hadn't seen in years told me how funny I was on Facebook and that my children were adorbz (their words not mine). People can change a great deal in 20 years but the reunion felt more like catching up with friends you hadn't seen in a while than interviewing 40 strangers for a job. I also appreciated that I didn't spend the majority of the night waxing nostalgic over slurpee runs during lunch or gym class with Mr Burns. I've had plenty of time to obsess over high school. I'm far more interested in hearing about someone that flies planes for a living or stays home with their three kids than I am thinking about all the times I felt alone and detached as a teenager.

I had one short conversation with someone that brought up a lot of feels from high school. I know they were trying to convey something very nice but for half a heartbeat it reminded me how insecure I felt 20 plus years ago. Of course it was no matter, soon I was reminded that I had to catch the light rail back home before the babysitter turned into a pumpkin and the train was nothing but hoodlums and no-goodniks.

On a scale of 1-10 The class of 1994 King's High School Reunion scored an A-. It would have been nice to have had an extra hour or a bartender that knew how to make a mojito.

The Death of Superman Lives

Two things you should know about me. I'm freakishly good at Cranium and I love a good bad movie. Not a boringly bad movie like Ghost Rider or Hostel II but a bad movie that knows it's bad and has decided "eff it we're all in" like Sharknado or Hard Ticket to Hawaii. With that being said I would take a Tim Burton directed Superman, written by Kevin Smith, staring an off his rocker Nic Cage wearing a rainbow technicolor suit fighting a giant robot spider over the Richard Donner wank fest that Superman Returns turned into. In a second. In a heartbeat. In any measurable small amount of time.

So, this movie The Death of Superman Lives chronicling the demise of said Tim Burton/Nic Cage superman is right up my alley. I hope they make their fundraising goal because I really really want to see this doc.

Literally Everything Else From Your Childhood: The Movie

Another day another fake movie trailer. This one for Literally Everything Else From Your Childhood: The Movie is from the Wil Wheaton project. Anyone watching that show? It's actually pretty funny but it has a weird time slot and I keep missing it. With Dish Network most of the big cable channels are the east coast feed so all the 8pm shows come on at 5pm. It's great for watching wrestling and pretty much terrible for everything else. I'm old so I'm always watching the news at 5pm. I'm always missing South Park and that other show I like on Commedy Central.... Key and Peele? Sure lets say Key and Peele.

The Comic Con Experience

via Kevin Bolk

Ghost Links

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Star Wars: Rebels

Star Wars: Rebels has had a few teaser trailers but this is the first full length trailer (don't let the label fool you, the first one didn't show a whole lot). It looks fantastic. I like that they've sort of split the difference between the realism of the movies and the very stylized look of The Clone Wars. I'll be interested in where they go with the plot and how it ties itself to the new films. Unlike the Clone Wars which took place between Episodes II and III, Rebels takes place during the large gap between Episode III and A New Hope. When you think about it 19 years is a long ass time, There's plenty of room for the writers to really flex their creative muscles.

Of course what sucks here is that this is on Disney XD and I don't get Disney XD. Hopefully this will go to Netflix or Amazon prime. I don't mind having to wait a year to see it and most other Disney XD stuff has made the transfer. If not torrents here I come!

Remember When

JJ Abrams standing in front of a spaceship

Technically it looks to be a Z-95 Headhunter, but the official Star Wars twitter account said it's an Episode VII X-wing, then they deleted it. Now the word on the net is that this is a Prototype X-Wing. Which would make a bit more sense seeing how it looks like it might split the difference between the X-95 and the traditional X-wing. Of course why would the movie use a Prototype X-Wing when it's supposed to be set 20 years after the end of ROTJ? Looks like the ship is kind of beat up, so maybe its a salvage job? The much beloved Millennium Falcon was an old ship when it was introduced to us in ANH, maybe this is the same kind of deal. I don't know, I don't care. It looks a thousand times better than any ship from Episodes I-III.

Oh yeah, and there's some sort of contest going on. Enter it, don't enter it. Whatever.

Kre-O Devastator: The Toy Review

Sometimes my wonderful son can be a big pain in the ass so I've found it's good to have a few cheep toys stashed away in case I need to bribe him into doing something. With that in mind I bought the Kre-O Microchanger Devastator for around $5 on closeout at Target. Long story short this thing blows. As far as I can tell it's main feature is to blow apart on any kind of contact. The pieces aren't as hard as legos are so there's a lot of inherent springiness to every piece (especially the small unique shapes). You can't touch the thing in Devastator form without the chest piece popping off. The mini robots look like garbage and the vehicle shapes are even worse.

This hurts because on top of the Transformers license Kre-O has Star Trek and the GI Joe licenses. I really wanted to give them their fair shake but man they are terrible. I guess it was worth the 5 dollars to get my kid to sit still for his haircut but as far as actual playable toys go, stay away.

On a scale of Wheelie to Optimus Prime the Kre-O Microchanger Devastator doesn't even rate. It's like a Gobot, but not even the cool first series Gobots like the terrible modeled after the tv show Gobot.

Future Batmen

I don't have a lot of time to blog about comic books and toys today so here's a video from FOXADHD on future batman movie castings. I saved it a couple weeks ago so I don't really remember anything about it other than it was funny enough that I bookmarked it. I guess that's something.

Hey Hey, here's the new Captain America

As comic book artist and writer Cameron Stewart said yesterday on twitter "This is a very sad time indeed to be a racist, misogynist comic book fan. Sorry fellas".

Last night Marvel head honcho (official title) Joe Quesada went on the Colbert Report to announce that Steve Rogers was stepping down from the mantle of Captain America. He would be replaced by Sam Wilson, Steve's best friend and previously the superhero known as Falcon. Now this has hardly been the first time that Steve Rogers has stepped away from being Captain America. Off the top of my head I think he's done it 4 times now in the last 30 years. Sam Wilson wouldn't be the first black Captain America either as that honor goes to Isiah Bradley the first super soldier who was retconned into Marvel history about 10 years ago.

I guess what I'm getting at is we're not exactly going over new ground here. Still an African American Captain America is a big thing and it's cool that Marvel is making some national news over their creative decisions. I probably won't be picking up the book, I find the writer to be really hit or miss and I didn't really like his first few issues of Cap. Still if this gets a few more people into the comic book shop that's a good thing. Sam Wilson being Captain America doesn't ruin the character, it doesn't do anything to damage his 70 year history. It's just a new chapter in the constantly growing mythology and it's an exciting one at that. Before RDJ made Iron Man a household name the 3 most recognizable Marvel characters were Spider-Man, Hulk and Captain America BY A MILE. One of those three characters is now a minority, that's not pandering that's just cool. It just so happens that it's also probably going to be very good for business.

Lost Links

85 Things You Probably Don’t Know About "Lost". Damn it buzzfeed, why can't I quit you? This is a pretty decent list of behind the scenes facts. I mean there's 85 of them. Odds are even if you did know all of these at one time, you've probably forgotten a couple. I might wait another couple years but Lost is totes one of those shows I'd like to watch again start to finish. I know, I know everyone's sour on the ending but I didn't mind it and I didn't think it negated all the fantastic episodes that lead up to it.

Here’s Your Collection Of Fans Who Kept Cameramen Busy At The 2014 World Cup. I don't think this world cup had any notable fans like Larissa Riquelme or blonde girl holding Brazilian flag (google it yourself pervert), unless you count that girl who got the modeling contract and then was dumped after they found out she liked to hunt big game. Still, that doesn't mean there weren't plenty of pretty ladies in the crowd.

5 Reasons Conspiracy Theories Are Destroying the World. Destroying the world might be a bit harsh but I would definitely go with making honest political discourse harder. I really liked the point about how for some people it's easier to latch onto one dissenting view, no matter how crazy it might be, than piles of empirical data. I listed to way too much talk radio and you get these kind of nut jobs calling in all the time.

Over the course of a weekend, DashCon 2014 descended into chaos. If you read just one link I put up this week, make it this one. It's the well detailed story of how a poorly run tumblr convention bilked a bunch of fun loving nerds out of thousands and thousands of dollars. But hey, everyone gets an extra hour in the ball pit!

Weird Al Yankovic: FOIL

So Weird Al has a new CD out (CDs are those still a thing?) and all this week he's releasing videos on various comedy sites. This one for FOIL is pretty good, better than the one for Tacky that came out yesterday. Ugh, that Happy song it parodies is the worst.

True Story Time: Yesterday I was driving my wife to work (thanks for nothing 2003 VW Passat) when the talking head on the radio came on to explain that Weird Al had a new album out and he has an AMAZING parody of Happy called Tacky and you should check out the video on their website. Then the MF'er plays Happy. Not Tacky the song he just talked up but Happy the song that they play on the radio EVERY 5 DAMN MINUTES! Go right now, turn on your radio and hit scan I'll bet you a dollar some station is playing Happy right now. Was there ever a time when Weird Al got a lot of radio play? Amish Paradise maybe? I don't know. All I know is that Moving 92.5 can get bent.

Don't call her Lady Thor

This morning Marvel announced on the View. Wait, a minute. That can't be right. (check source) Sigh... this morning on the View Marvel announced that this fall they're replacing Thor with his female non-union equivalent. Take it away Marvel Comics PR tumblr:

Meet Marvel comics’ new Thor - she’s not what you’d expect!

Marvel is excited to announce an all-new era for the God of Thunder in brand new series, THOR, written by Jason Aaron (Thor: God of Thunder, Original Sin) complimented with art from Russell Dauterman (Cyclops).

This October, Marvel Comics evolves once again in one of the most shocking and exciting changes ever to shake one of Marvel’s “big three” – Captain American, Iron Man and Thor – Marvel Comics will be introducing an all-new THOR, GOD OF THUNDER. No longer is the classic male hero able to hold the mighty hammer, Mjölnir, a brand new female hero will emerge will who will be worthy of the name THOR. Who is she? Where did she come from and what is her connection to Asgard and the Marvel Universe?

“The inscription on Thor’s hammer reads ‘Whosoever holds this hammer, if HE be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor.’ Well it’s time to update that inscription,” says Marvel editor Wil Moss. “The new Thor continues Marvel’s proud tradition of strong female characters like Captain Marvel, Storm, Black Widow and more. And this new Thor isn’t a temporary female substitute - she’s now the one and only Thor, and she is worthy!”

Jason Aaron in his short time on Thor: God of Thunder has become one of my favorite Thor writers ever so I'm looking forward to this event. Sure there will be a lot of handwringing from neck beards afraid that Marvel is pandering to the female audience but who cares, screw those guys. If it was up to them Spider-Man would still be in high-school pining after Betty Brandt and the X-Men would have a strict no Canadiens policy. Change happens, embrace it. Besides, I'm sure old man Thor will be back in time for Thor 3: Electric Boogaloo to hit theaters summer of 2016.

TJ Miller introduces us to the dribble take

Stand up comic and Silicon Valley star TJ Miller was on some local morning news show out in middle america and hilarity ensued.

I caught the first episode of Silicon Valley on some HBO free preview weekend and it was pretty good. A hell of a lot better than Burn and Catch Fire. If I ever catch up on my DVR I might hit the torrents and check out a few more episodes. The WWE network is really killing me as far as regular TV watching. Why catch up on Defiance or Falling Skies when I can watch the '97 King of the Ring PPV a dozen times?

New Doctor Who Trailer

Here's the trailer for the new season of Doctor Who. I don't get BBC America anymore so as far as Doctor Who goes I'm bound by the laws of Netflix, meaning I'm like 2 seasons behind. How did Matt Smith finally die? I'm assuming the Cybermen poisoned his fez. Poisoned Fez's are NOT cool.

Booty Links

Bridesmaids Booties. Well this is the weirdest bridal trend I've seen in a while. Apparently it's a cool new thing to take a picture with your bridesmaids showing off their butts. I'm eagerly anticipating TLC's new hit show "Say Yes to The T-Back".

New Batgirl to become best possible DC Comic? Outside of the random issue of Teen Titans Go or Scooby Doo Team-Up I buy for my son I'm collecting zero DC comics right now. I've never been a huge DC guy but I can't remember another time when I wasn't collecting anything from them. All their books are just so dark and void of fun, edgy and adult just for the sake of being edgy and adult. Maybe.. just maybe this new Batgirl title will be their answer to marvel's trio of accessible and beloved titles: Hawkguy, Captain Marvel and Ms Marvel.

8 Insane Things From the Never-Made Oliver Stone/Arnold Schwarzenegger Planet of the Apes Way back in 1994 before Tim Burton tried to bury the franchise with Ape-raham Lincoln, some coked up studio exec thought it was a good idea to get Oliver Stone and Arnold Schwarzenegger to make a Planet of the Apes movie. Oliver Stone clearly had no real interest in doing it and what he pitched was the most drugged out nonsense I've ever heard.

The American FootGolf League. Soccer Golf. That's right. Soccer Golf. I'm so distraught there's no course here in Washington State. On the other hand I'm pretty sure if I had to take what I imagine are the equivalent of 18 goal kicks in one afternoon my foot would fall off.

Lets get Verruckt'ed up

Anybody want to go to Kansas City with me? Is a question I'm sure no one has asked before but that's because the Verruckt didn't exist before. Just in case your German is rusty that translates to Insanity. It's a hella giant waterslide at renowned splash park Schlitterbahn and by "hella giant" I mean 168 feet tall.

Now I'm a bit upset that this is a bit of a cheat. You have to strap yourself onto some yellow sled thing that's supposed to keep you from going airborne as you bottom out and immediately hit a 20 foot hump, because WHY THE HELL NOT!

Seriously. Lets go to Kansas City.

Toy Wars

This video of a couple bro-dads battling it out with their kid's toys follows up my squirt gun review quite nicely. I wish I'd found it before I posted all that other nonsense yesterday. Pretend yesterday never happened. I'm 37 FOREVERS!

Talk Nerdy To Me by The Screen Team

This parody of Talk Dirty To Me is more than a little silly but I don't care. I have about 40 minutes left on my birthday and I'm all out of rainbow sherbert.

Another Guardians of the Galaxy Trailer

I think this is the 43rd new trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy. If you just watch the trailers back to back to back, the whole movie clocks in at a brisk hour and twenty three minutes. The trailers also double as the classic rock station in your town.

Cherry Bomb!

Sneak Peak at Star Wars Episode VII filming

Ok, maybe not. Still cool though, right?

Squirt Guns: The Review

Good morning kiddos, over the 4th of July I bought a bunch of Nerf Super Soaker branded squirt guns and had a couple water fights (artists rendition above). I picked these up all on Amazon, the guns ranged in price from $5.99 to $9.99.

Out of the 3 guns I bought the Alpha Fire is the most like an old school squirt gun. The power and distance is completely dependent on how hard you pull the trigger. Other than the heavy plastic case the thing that makes it stand out from a 99 cent gun is that is sprays 3 streams in a sort of triangle pattern. It's impossible to fire with any sort of accurately but at the same time it's near impossible to miss your target. At max distance, which was just about 20 feet, the "splash radius" was about 3.5 feet across. This was the gun that was easiest for the kiddos to use.

The Flash Blast reminded me a lot of a compact version of an Entertech "shotgun" squirt gun that a friend of mine had growing up. You have to cock the slide on top of the gun before every shot. It has a good deal of power for a small gun but was hard for the kids to operate. Also it runs out of water very quickly. 20 shots tops. It had a slightly better range than the Alpha Fire did.

The Scatter Blast is easily the most formidable of the three guns I bought. A quick web search makes it seem that this gun is very popular to modify. Nerf sells a version that has a tactical rail on it that allows you to add ridiculous stuff like a laser scope or a shoulder stock to the gun. The gun works with a pump to fire mechanism so there is no trigger. The faster you can move the slide below the gun the faster and further it will shoot. I was getting a good 25 to 30 feet easy. The gun also has a large reservoir, I didn't count how many shots you get but it seemed like this gun was the one that needed to be reloaded the least.

To summarize, these guns are very different from what Super Soakers looked like when I was a kid. Nerf essentially bought the name and stuck it on a bunch of different guns. However, that doesn't mean the guns are any less potent. None of the three I bought could fire a continuous stream but they were also much easier to reload and look a lot cooler. I think a good argument could be made that the Scatter Blast in particular would probably out duel an original Super Soaker. At the very least there's a lot more variety in the line now.

Batman the TV series Trailer (yes, that Batman)

While it's lived on in reruns for the last 40 years, the Batman TV show from the 1960s hasn't been available on DVD... ever. I guess it was caught up in the same sort of distribution rights nightmare that keeps Macross/Robotech from DVD/Blu-Ray. I could see picking this up if the price was right. I watched the '68 movie with my son a while ago and he really dug it. $29.99 doesn't seem like to much to pay to keep from having to watch more Paw Patrol.

The Captain America Statistics Song

Hey remember all that patriotism you were feeling before the World Cup? We'll check that at the door amigo. Here's a song about how America kind of sucks. Happy 4th of July everyone!

A Trios of Reviews

WWE Network
For my birthday my wife got me a six month subscription to the WWE network. Now when the WWE network first launched a lot of people lauded it as the future of "television". I use quotes there because the WWE Network like any modern app works on Kindles, iPads, computers, etc. I still don't think that's the case. The WWE is unique in that it completely owns all of its content and is in a situation where it's old product is still highly desirable. Wrestling fans will gladly pay 9.99 a month to watch Bret Hart vs Stone Cold Steve Austin from 1997 but how many NFL fans are willing to pay a monthly subscription to watch the Bills choke away a Superbowl to (insert team name here). Anyway not the point.

The WWE Network is a lot of fun, for a long time wrestling fan like myself it's easy to just spend hours watching it. You get current Pay Per View events live as the happen, every old WWE, ECW and WCW PPV on demand, some original shows that vary wildly in quality and some random WCCW and Clash of Champions shows from the 70s, 80s and 90s.

It's not a flawless app. It froze on me a couple times during last weekend's big Money in the Bank PPV and the search feature is TERRRRIBLE. For example, I searched for Raven (one of my favorite wrestlers from the 90s) and it returned about 5 results, about 100 too few.

TL/DR, for a wrestling fan the WWE Network is well worth $9.99. There are bugs they need to iron out but as a whole the network delivers on it's promises. Solid B+

My wife is awesome, she gets an A.

Heroes of Cosplay: Season 2
Last year I reviewed Heroes of Cosplay, looking back on the review I was probably a bit too kind. I felt like the shows repetitive format mixed with some really fake drama took away from what the show was supposed to be about. Fast Forward to Season 2, which had its season finale last night, and a few of my complaints with the show have been addressed, while others have been exacerbated.

Most of the stupid fake interpersonal drama has been ditched, which is great. The problem is without the drama every episode follows the exact same format. What to wear? I'm running out of time! Oh man I didn't win the contest.. or WOOHOO I won the contest!

That's literally every episode. I mean I still watched and for the most part I enjoyed the costumes but it would be nice if the producers could figure out a way to avoid every episode ending with a contest. From what I've learned of the Cosplay community having a picture go viral or hit the front page of reddit is every bit as important as winning a costume contest. Heroes of Cosplay gets a metacritic score of 72/100

The 2014 USMNT World Cup Performance
So the World Cup is over now right?

The US Men's National Soccer team showed once again that they can compete on the highest level but they also showed just how far they have left to go before we can even dream of actually winning the cup. All we need to improve is our defense our midfield and our forwards. We're pretty set at goalie.

It's hard to complain about the results, getting out of the group of death was really amazing but if you look at the Nat's record over the last two World Cups we've only won 2 out of 8 games. That's not very good. The inability to posses the ball with purpose really kills the team at this level. Turns out Michael Bradley isn't the world class midfielder a lot of us thought he was. The striker pool is as thin as we were afraid it was. It's telling that when Jozy went down with injury we started Dempsey out of position for the next 3 games as opposed to replacing him with one of the other 3 forwards on the squad. The defense is still full of potential but young guys like Besler, Cameron and Gonzalez are still trying to find out a way to actually play together and form anything that resembles a competent back line.

But hey, the games were entertaining and a lot of people watched. That's the most important thing for US Soccer going forward. More people interested in the sport equals more money which will in time provide us better players (knock on wood). I rate the USMNT 2014 World Cup Performance as plucky.

Flip the Script

Well we're about 2 hours from the US/Belgium kick off, are you pumped yet? If not here's a video that might do the trick. Still not pumped? Try this:

Nothing? Way to let the terrorist win.

Hula Hooping videos? Yes, Hula Hooping Videos.

I saw this hula hoop routine pop up in my facebook feed this morning, it's kind of amazing to think that I will probably never be as good at anything as this girl is at hula hooping. Did I say amazing, I think I meant depressing.

Anyhoo, cool Iron Man tights.