Christmas Wish List: Happy Holidays

Every day in December (work schedule permitting) I plan on posting one thing from my official DevilDinosaur Christmas Wish List (patent pending). Why? Because I can.

Happy Holidays to everyone! I probably won't be posting a lot between now and new years. I have the week off so I'll be at home hanging out with the kids building Lego and playing with DC Superhero girls. I might post one or two things if I have the time and they're easy. We'll see.

Silent Night by Chewbacca

Not sure if anything really needs to be said about this. It's Chewbacca singing Silent Night in his native tongue, Shyriiwook. There's something you should keep mind bottled for the next time you play Star Wars Trivial Pursuit. Shyriiwook.

Darth Santa Strikes Back!

You know, my son has a really fantastic Kyle Ren costume he got for Halloween. All I need is a Darth Vader costume and a bit of free time. What could possible go wrong?

Christmas Wish List: Raspberry Pi Arcade Cabinet

Every day in December (work schedule permitting) I plan on posting one thing from my official DevilDinosaur Christmas Wish List (patent pending). Why? Because I can.

Every few weeks on Reddit I see people post pictures of these amazing custom Raspberry Pi cabinets and I want in on that. Last year I put together my own RetroPi, so I'm confident enough in getting the software to work, it's putting together the cabinet and getting the control stick and buttons all working and programmed that I'm pretty iffy on. If I put one of these things together I want it to WORK not "work". Like if I have to break out a keyboard and open up the cabinet every time I fire it up then what's the point of putting it in a slick cabinet?

I think I'm really going to try this. I'm going to have 5 weeks of vacation next year, it doesn't seem that irresponsible to take a 3 or 4 days off to put one of these together. My dad is pretty much a master woodworker at this point in his retirement. I'll bet if I sent him the specs on the cabinet pieces he could whip them up for me in no time and all I'd have to do is assemble the thing.

Now I just have to decide where the put it and how to keep my son off it all day...

Rogue One: A Review!

Would you believe that I really enjoyed Rogue One: A Star Wars Story? I know, I'm as surprised as you are. No spoilers here, just a few quick words on the movie:

The reviews for Rogue One have been pretty positive and I think they're pretty well deserved. If I try and remove myself from the fandom for a minute I think there's plenty in Rogue One for any non-Star Wars geek to enjoy. Of course removed from that fandom there's not a ton about the movie that would make it incredibly memorable. The best parts of the movie really are in the details.

Sure the actors do a fine job but outside of Alan Tyduk's smart ass robot there's not really a break out character. It's like the San Antonio Spurs of casts. Everyone is really good and they win a ton of games but outside of San Antonio no one is buying a lot of their jerseys. The action is fine and nicely paced, there's a couple really dramatic scenes and there's the expected razzmatazz with the special and practical effects. If this is the kind of overall quality we can expect from all the Star Wars spin-offs Disney has planned I think most fans will be pretty happy.

Where the movie really shines though is how it fits into the main story of the Star Wars universe. It took 15 years but finally we have a prequel that feels at home with the original trilogy. A lot of care and detail went into making sure this movie lined up perfectly with Episode IV. Of course they didn't stop there, there are so called Easter eggs for the two new Cartoons, Star Wars Rebels and Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures. If you're really into Star Wars cannon there's a lot in this movie for you.

Much like when The Force Awakens came out last year, some fans are probably a little too eager to call Rogue One the best or the second best Star Wars movie ever. It's definitely a good movie, better than any of the prequels maybe not as enjoyable as The Force Awakens though. I don't know, ranking the Star Wars movies basically comes down to how much you can stand Death Stars and Ewoks. Personally I'll take more Ewoks over Death Stars any day of the week.

Welcome To Hell

Christmas Wish List: Toys For Tots

Every day in December (work schedule permitting) I plan on posting one thing from my official DevilDinosaur Christmas Wish List (patent pending). Why? Because I can.

It's become a bit of a tradition that every year my son and I make a special trip to go shopping for a donation to Toys For Tots (or a similar program). I'm not sitting here trying to tell you how fantastic of a parent I am or anything, most of the year I'm incredibly lazy and ineffectual as far as that goes. I just want my son (and probably my daughter next year) to learn a bit about being charitable this time of year. Also there are tons of kids out there that might not get a Christmas present if it wasn't for donations and anytime I think about it too much it breaks my heart.

So, even though we're just 6 days away from Christmas, it's not too late. There's still time to donate a gift or a small amount of cash. Just think of it as an Overwatch Loot Box for your heart.

Also a tax write off!

Megan Fox as Poison Ivy, Sure Why Not?

Everyone and their grandma is reporting that Megan Fox really wants to be Poison Ivy in a recently announced Gotham City Sirens movie. Gotham City Sirens is a comic from a few years ago that featured the unlikely(?) team of Poison Ivy, Catwoman and Harley Quinn. It's DC/WB's answer to the fact that Suicide Squad was kinda terrible but everyone really liked Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. The movie still made like $500 million so you have to have some sort of sequel. Why not highlight what everyone liked and ditch everything else?

The bad news of course is that David Ayer is set to direct the movie because DC/WB only knows of two directors. I mean if there was ever a movie for them to step out of the box and hire someone better known for comedy or straight drama, this is their chance. I guess WB/DC just figures if they keep making the same style of movie over and over eventually we'll like them.

Oh yeah, no chance of Megan Fox being Poison Ivy. When is the last time a well known star lobbied for a role they actually got? Ask Donald Glover how that worked out. Of course I think they could do a lot worse than Ms. fox. She's not unattractive AND she's actually kinda good. I know all the critics panned Jennifer's Body but she was kinda the bomb in that and she was a lot more enjoyable in The New Girl than I think anyone expected. Make it happen DC.

Spider-Man: Homecoming, the Trailer

I'm kinda meh on the whole Spider-Man: Homecoming thing but this Lego remake of the trailer is super cool. Sometimes these Lego remakes don't turn out so good but this one is legit. It's almost like the guys that put the trailer together were in cahoots with the Lego guys. I bet this goes right to the top, I wouldn't put anything past BIG LEGO.

3 different Spider-Men in the last 10 years has really nerfed my enthusiasm for Spider-Man movies. Homecoming looks fine, I'm sure it won't be bad or anything but watching the trailer I could help but wish it was really for a Ms Marvel movie. Like it hits on almost all the major plot points of the Ms Marvel comic, even down to a bird based bad guy. Also as long as I'm complaining about things that logo is stupid looking. And titling the movie Homecoming? Get over yourself Marvel, yeah people care that this is the first Marvel Studios Spider-Man movie but they don't care that much.

Handmade Christmas Cards, Now Made by Lego Robots

Oh man do I need this. I am terrible at writing any sort of card. Birthday cards, Christmas cards, thank you cards from my wedding 10 years ago that I still have but never mailed out. Sorry Brian, I really do like that radio you gave us. I listen to it almost every day. I'm a terrible friend.

Anyway this Lego Mindstorm creation is amazing. I can't imagine how much it would cost or how long it would take to program.

Christmas Wish List: Overwatch Loot Boxes

Every day in December (work schedule permitting) I plan on posting one thing from my official DevilDinosaur Christmas Wish List (patent pending). Why? Because I can.

So yesterday was the launch of the big Overwatch: Winter Wonderland event that runs through 1/2/17. These seasonal events just keep getting better, sure I could probably have used a Kwanzaa or Chanukah skin thrown in there but holy cow, that Santa Torbjorn. I must have him.

When Blizzard did their big Halloween thing in October I actually bought a few loot boxes (they're about a dollar each) because it was taking so long to grind for them. But for the Winter Wonderland event I'm close to hitting level 100, which is when your levels reset, you earn a star and the next 1-25 levels all come a lot faster. I'm hoping to hit 100 by this weekend and by next weekend I should be back up to level 25. That's a lot of loot boxes. I swear if I don't get that Santa Torbjorn...

Gaslighting Links

Donald Trump Is Gaslighting America. I saw a lot of talk on twitter about how Teen Vogue of all people was killing it with their political coverage and I'll be damned if they weren't right. This article about Trump's gaslighting of America is incredibly effective, it's brief without sacrificing substance. The writer backs up her claim incredibly well, it's not one of those articles where the writer has an obvious axe to grind or hot take to make and basically warps every comment and fact to fit their narrative. Good on you Teen vogue.

Microsoft now has the tools to make the Surface Pro the ultimate mobile computer. I'm not 100% sure the key to the Surface Pro is actually using a ARM processor but what do I know, I'm just a schlub who hasn't bought a new laptop in 7 years. I like the idea of better battery life AND cellular integration but isn't the whole point of the Surface that it's not just an iPad, that it's a fully functioning computer? Seems to me like sacrificing processing power is a step backward in the fight against Apple.

Donald Trump Names WWE's Linda McMahon To Head Small Business Administration. I like how Trump is just appointing people to cabinet positions who pretty much hate that department. Rick Perry his pick for secretary of Energy famously said he would shut down the Department of Energy if elected president. Well, he tried to say it. He famously forgot the name of the department in a debate but trust me it was the Department of Energy. The McMahon's are no friend to small business and their labor practices border on illegal like 99% of the time. Also Linda McMahon took the worst Stone Cold Stunner of all time. I hope congress blocks her nomination just for that.

Comic Desks. This is a cool tumblr blog that just shows you the work spaces of comic book creators (both writers and artists). Nice to see some of these guys and gals are as messy as I am.

The F8 of the Furious: Official Trailer #1

Holy cow you guys, not only did the Sounders with their first ever MLS Cup this weekend but the first trailer for F8 hit the web. It was such a big weekend I'm thinking of getting the date tatooed on my ribs the same way people do with their kid's birth dates.

As far as the actual trailer goes, I'm super excited for evil Dom. I'm going to go out on a limb and predict there's either some sort of Winter Soldier like mind control going on here or he's going super deep undercover. So deep that he has to push all his friends away, they've already sort of done the mind control thing with Letty so I'm leaning towards the undercover thing right now. Also there's a submarine. Man this movie is going to be the best.

Some People Stand In That Darkness

Welp, here's your first look at the Baywatch Movie, so that's definitely still a thing. Clear your calendar for May 26, 2017. You're going to want to see all that bouncing and jiggling opening night.

Christmas Wish List: Bartending Skills

Every day in December (work schedule permitting) I plan on posting one thing from my official DevilDinosaur Christmas Wish List (patent pending). Why? Because I can.

I wish I knew how to make a drink. I know how to make a rum and coke and that's about it. If pressed I can make a mojito if you give me a bottle of mix with instructions on the side. I'd like to be able to make my own old fashioneds, or manhattans or maybe try one of these moscow mules all the hip kids are drinking these days.

I bought a bottle of moonshine from work the other day just because it had a recipe on the side for a boozy cider that seemed totally doable. Make your spiced cider then add the moonshine. Sprinkled cinnamon on top was an option, one I'll probably never use because I don't even know how to sprinkle cinnamon.

Someone gave me a cocktail book for Christmas this year, maybe that's the kick in the butt I need to learn how to make fancy drinks. I'm in my 40s now, if Gilmore Girls has taught me anything you're always supposed to have at least one cocktail before dinner.

Also it taught me that Rory is kind of an awful person.

The Best Part of Waking Up

Holy shit you guys, this is hilarious.

Winter Links

What Pizzagate has in common with every conspiracy theory. Have you read anything about Pizzagate? Man these guys are absolute nut bags and generally speaking I'm pretty forgiving when it comes to conspiracies. I don't rule out Bigfoot and I wouldn't be surprised in the least if the government had proof of Aliens. I'll even give you some cabal of super wealthy that run everything. Those conspiracy theories at least have a small amount of logic behind them. The idea that the Clintons are using a Pizza place as some sort of cover for a child sex ring is so ridiculously out there that I can't even...

Top Six Winter Driving Tips! Here's tip number 7, these tips are fake. They're funny but remember that they are fake. If you see a Yeti you should DEFINITELY try and mate with it. Passing up on some sweet Yeti action like that is 6 years bad luck.

Time Loop movies that don't suck. This is a pretty good list, frankly I can't believe someone else saw the movie Triangle. There's a couple clunkers in here (Donnie Darko is garbage, sorry cool kids) but you could spend a lot worse time than checking all of these out.

The 25 Best Comics of 2016. I didn't read most of the comics on this list (I think total I read 7) but what I did read was very very good so I'm going to go ahead and say that this is a solid list. It's also a stark reminder that I need to keep cutting back on titles from DC and Marvel so I have more flex money to spend on smaller publishers. Only thing that didn't make the list that feels like a real snub to me is Descender. I couldn't give you a specific title but there was more than one issue this year that really blew me away. Absolutely the best Sci-Fi book going today.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Teaser Trailer

I can't believe when this new Guardians of the Galaxy trailer hit YouTube I didn't run to post it on my blog. I was probably sleepy or something.

The trailer is every bit as good as you would hope. Rocket wants to blow something up, Groot is acting silly and cute, StarLord is made out to be a bafoon, Gamora is... well I mean she's there. Hopefully she has a bigger role in the movie than StarLord's love interest. Why not give her a big button that blows stuff up too?

Moana- You're Welcome

I haven't had the chance to see Moana yet but holy carp, this song "You're Welcome" by Dwayne THE ROCK Johnson is fantastic. I pretty much love everything about it. Maui's moving tattoos are really cool, whatever animator thought of that deserves a huge raise, or at least a peak at the frozen body of Walt Disney everyone knows they're hiding underneath Disney Land.

Christmas Wish List: Pokeballs

Every day in December (work schedule permitting) I plan on posting one thing from my official DevilDinosaur Christmas Wish List (patent pending). Why? Because I can.

I need more Pokeballs and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay for the stupid things. My son isn't the most patient Pokemon Go player in the world, if he sees a Pokemon he has to trap it, doesn't matter if it's a trash Pokemon or not, if it's there he's flinging Pokeballs at it. We ran out on Saturday so on Sunday we went to a bunch of Pokestops on the way to the mall, we collected about 20 Pokeballs and by the time we actually got to the mall we were out again. It was crazy. On the plus side we did pick up a pretty sweet Tauros AND got to play on the zip line at the park in Federal Way.

Yes, I'm well aware this all sounds like gibberish. But it's fun gibberish.

Christmas Wish List: Large Format Scanning

Every day in December (work schedule permitting) I plan on posting one thing from my official DevilDinosaur Christmas Wish List (patent pending). Why? Because I can.

Oh Large Format scanner, how I have longed for you these many years. Every time I have to scan an 11x17 picture I hear your sirens call. You see, for most of my drawings I use industry standard 11x17 comic art board which is WAY too big for my scanner. My inelegant solution to the issue is scanning the top, middle and bottom part of the picture separately and splicing it all together in photoshop. It's time consuming and sometimes if one of the scans is the slightest bit askew it can be really frustrating.

Of course a decent large format scanner costs about $500, while the one I'm using now was free because my dad gave it to me. Maybe I should start playing scratchers. How else am I supposed to get that kind of cash, save my money?

Trevor Noah Just Had His Moment

If you've been on any kind of social media over the last 24 hours you've probably seen mention of this interview of Tomi Lahren by Trevor Noah on last Wednesday's Daily Show. I caught it "live" while playing Overwatch late into the wee hours. It was probably the first time since he took over for Jon Stewart that I was like "ahhhh, that's why they chose him". Noah really knocked it out of the park with this one. He was very calm and unaggressive, giving Tomi just enough rope to hang herself while still pressing the point that many of her opinions were equal parts terrible, hyperbolic and hypocritical.

Of course none of this matters because none of her fans are going to be watching this, if anything the fact that it created so much social media attention probably helps her brand. Politics everyone!

Here's the interesting thing I haven't really seen anyone comment on yet. Comedy Central runs the The Daily Show twice a night, first at 11pm and then again at like 2 in the morning or something. With Dish network I get the east coast feed of Comedy Central so the first airing of the Daily Show is at like 8pm my time, I almost always catch the replay at 10:30pm. Apparently when this episode first aired the interview with Tomi was cut to about 5 minutes, she went on twitter and claimed it was heavily edited to make her look bad. Then Comedy Central in their infinite wisdom aired the entire 15 min interview on the rerun. I have no idea if that was planned or not but it was brilliant. The longer the interview goes the more her arguments fall apart and the more awkward the whole thing is.

This might not be equal to Jon Steward going on Crossfire but I'm hoping this is a block in the foundation of the new Daily Show. I felt their election coverage was really sub par. I'm not one of those people that thinks we "need" the Daily Show but it wouldn't hurt to have something to laugh at every night while Trump "drains the swamp" but appoints the 5th Goldman Sachs executive to Treasury Secretary.

Death Stranding Trailer

Hey kids, you may know Hideo Kojima as the guy that made all those Metal Gear games I've never played, well after a less than amicable parting with Konami he has a new game coming out called Death Stranding. There was a trailer premiere last night during The Games Awards show, which is a thing I knew nothing about but yay Overwatch won a bunch of awards.

The trailer looks absolutely bonkers, its just a bunch of CGI mo-cap work, for all we know this is just a cutscene to a puzzle game. Maybe it's a dancing game. I don't know people were going nuts over this thing on twitter but I don't get it. Kinda like the new J-Cole video I saw. I mean yeah it was OK but just by judging twitters reaction to it you'd think he just impeached Donald Trump.

Christmas Wish List: New Boots

Every day in December (work schedule permitting) I plan on posting one thing from my official DevilDinosaur Christmas Wish List (patent pending). Why? Because I can.

I'm a simple man, a man with like 5 pairs of shoes. A pair of skate shoes, basketball shoes, two dress shoes (black and brown) and a pair of comfy walking addidas I wear almost every day. I have nothing for when the weather calls for something a bit more rugged. These Duclair Duck Boots from GH Bass are probably a bit fancier than I need but it would be nice to have something for when I want to go tromping around outdoors. I mean those Pokemon aren't going to catch themselves. There's a big old muddy park just a couple blocks from my house, I'll bet it has TONS of cool Pokemon in it.

Fun fact, the Green River Killer buried several bodies in that park!

Lego Worlds Trailer

So if Minecraft is like Lego but for video games, what happens when you make a Lego version of Minecraft? Is it like crossing the streams?

Lego Worlds is a game that's been in development for a while, an early access version has been available on Steam for quite some time now. I always wanted to check it out but $9.99 to play a beta version of a game seems kinda silly. Anyway, it looks like the Real Deal with Bill McNeil is just about ready to ship and will be in stores in February of 2017. It looks pretty cool to me, the licensed Lego games my son love have gotten a bit stale and repetitive so I'm ready for something new.

Threatening Links

Netflix’s new offline mode lets you download shows, watch them offline. Yay, Netflix is doing something Amazon Prime has offered for like the last 3 years. It sounds like it's only going to be available on their own shows and movies for right now but I guess it's a start. Now you can go camping and still binge watch the new season of Gilmore Girls. USA! USA! USA!

A Canadian town is threatening drunk drivers with Nickelback torture. The most hilarious part about this story is that the Facebook post from the sheriff's department showed a Nickelback tape, not a CD but a freakin cassette tape. There's something incredibly Canadian about that.

We Asked 8,500 Internet Commenters Why They Do What They Do. This looks about right, I mean it's incredibly unscientific to just poll your own commenters but it's a lot more than anyone else is doing so I'll let it stand. On occasion I'll comment on an article, usually its when I think I have something to add to the conversation, which of course is completely delusional. No one cares what anybody else thinks, no one.

Jubilee Will Lead a New Team of Teen Mutants in the New Generation X Comic. About a year ago there were a ton of doom and gloom rumors that Marvel was tanking all their X-Men comics because Fox owns the movie rights and Disney is crazy about stuff like that. Fast forward 12 months and it looks like Marvel is making a big push to re-establish all the X-Men franchise, which is nice. I'm really interested in this new Gen-X book, I love me some Jubilee and she's been handled pretty poorly the last 5-10 years or so. It would be nice to see her become a more prominent member of the group.

Adios Windows Phone

A hundred dollars off the new Huawei Honor 8 on Black Friday saw the official end of my 4 year relationship with Windows Phone. Sorry Windows Phone it wasn't you it was me.

Wait a minute, yeah it was you. It definitely wasn't me. You have any idea how hard it is to have this super kick ass phone that looks great, runs great, takes fantastic pictures but has zero third party support? Its like the Sega Dreamcast all over again.

My decision to jump to android was made about a week ago when I was standing in a Safeway looking at the price of cereal bars. You could save $2 if you added them to you Just For U coupon list, which I couldn't do from the store because the Safeway App is only available for Android and iPhone. Usually I figure out all my coupons at home from my desktop before I go to the store but that day I had forgotten. Living in the 3% Windows Phone market share cost me 2 dollars and really I don't know if I'll ever forgive Microsoft for it.

Funny story: When Steve Ballmer bought the Los Angeles Clippers the official Clippers App wasn't available for Windows Phone. Two and a half years later it still isn't. Sure Ballmer isn't COO anymore but he still owns about 4% of Microsoft, you would think he'd have some interest in getting that app on WP but he doesn't. He doesn't care about WP and from what I can gather, outside of like 4 people, no one else at Microsoft does either.

tl/dr: I got a new phone yesterday.

I don't really know anything about Huawei, I know they made one of the Nexus phones before Google ditched that line in favor of their new brand of Pixel phones. The Honor 8 ticked all my boxes as far as android phones went. It even has a dual-camera set up on the back like the new iPhone which was a bonus. Speaking of the new iPhone, this thing looks A LOT like the new iPhone. You could tell the guy at the AT&T store who hooked me up with a new sim card thought I bought it at the port authority from a guy selling phones out of a briefcase. He had never seen one before and had quite a few questions about it, most of which I couldn't really answer other than "it has 4.5 stars on Amazon".

It should be equal parts fun and frustrating learning a new phone OS. I spent at least an hour last night trying to import my important contacts as opposed to the 2,100 people it tried to import from my corporate e-mail account. I figured it out eventually and was able to sooth my sorrows by loading up a bunch of apps that were never available for WP.

It was nice knowing you windows phone. I'll miss your live tiles and your seamless Outlook integration. You took lots of good pictures of my kids over the years but in the end I really needed to play Pokemon go. I hope everything works out for you.

Hello Rita Repulsa

Yesterday whatever studio it was that got coked up enough to green light a big budget Power Rangers reboot released this picture of Elizabeth Banks as Rita Repulsa. I think it's a bold move for the studio to go with a Rita Repulsa you want to bang. I mean Repulsa is right there in the name.

Also there's zero way she's not the Green Ranger turned evil, right? Anyway here's more pictures of her from the set. I'm totes excited to catch this movie next year on a HBO free preview weekend, or maybe Starz..

Lets Dig a Holiday Hole

The fine folks over at Cards Against Humanity have sort of become famous for having silly black Friday deals. Last year they mailed out actual bull shit, in their bullshit expansion pack deal. This year for every five dollars you sent they would dig a hole and oh what a hole they dug.

They ended up raising just about $100,000 and the hole they dug was the size of around 4 Olympic sized swimming pools. Good for them, it's nice to see someone putting good honest Americans back to work. Maybe next year they blow something up, maybe a giant hole.

True Story Behind WKRP in Cincinnati's Turkey's Away Thanksgiving Episode

I was going to post that clip from WKRP from Turkeys Away where the station dropped live turkeys from a helicopter for Thanksgiving but then it popped up in my Facebook timeline like a thousand times. Instead I'm posting this True Story behind the episode thing. It's interesting enough, but fair warning you might want to turn your sound down. I don't know who mixed the audio for this but woof. It sounds like bags of wet cement hitting the sidewalk.

Steel Panther: She's Tight

You guys ever heard of Steel Panther? They're like Spinal Tap, except it's not a movie and they tour and sell records and stuff. This video for She's Tight, is just as ridiculous as it sounds. Also, somewhere in there is an appearance by Paris Jackson, Michael Jackson's daughter. I'm pretty sure she's not the one that takes off her top, but not 100% sure.

I don't know anymore man, hair metal from the 80s was kind of awesome. I know grunge came along and crushed it into oblivion in the early 90s but go back and listen to some Crue, I dare you. That stuff holds up surprisingly well. I'm not quite at the point where I'm ready to dismiss all modern music but I am definitely getting more nostalgic in my playlists. Even when I'm listening to hip-hop these days I'm mostly listening to stuff from 2002-2005.

I guess the moral of my pointless story is don't get old, but if you do you should have have Kickstart My Heart on your playlist.

The Entire Bee Movie But Every Time They Say Bee It Gets Faster

I don't think I ever saw Bee Movie. Technically I guess I have now. Seems like the kind of kids film I might enjoy or at the very least enjoy putting on for my kids while I dick around on twitter and reddit for a couple hours while occasionally trying to keep the girl from stealing the boy's popcorn. Good times.

STEEP, Gameplay Trailer

Here's the gameplay trailer for that game B was talking about yesterday. What you weren't at my house for my Summer Slam party? Well shame on you then.

I think this game looks really cool but I'm afraid the focus might be on the paragliding and wingsuit jumping. Some of the snowboarding/skiing gameplay doesn't look incredibly smooth. The official release date for this is 12/2 and it's available across all platforms. If the reviews are solid I'll definitely check it out. My snowboarding itch hasn't been scratched since SSX tricky. I'm not 100% sure this will be the game to dethrone Overwatch in my one game rotation but I could see myself sitting down and playing it for at least a few minutes.

The Rubber Duck Method

Sorry kids, not a lot of #content this week. I took a day off work to chaperone my son's field trip to the Pacific Science Center and it kind of threw off my whole week. Its not looking too good next week either with Thanksgiving coming up. On the plus side lots of time with the family this year should equal lots of Pokemon battles. I got my son a couple starter packs for his birthday this year and so far I'm 0-4 against him. He won't let me play with the Mew-Too pack so I'm always stuck with the Pikachu set. I might just go buy myself some booster packs without him knowing so I can turn the tide.

Ugh, I want to stuff myself in a locker right now.

Kong: Skull Island

Did you know they're building to some sort of King Kong vs Godzilla franchise? I had no idea, I didn't even realize that this was the second trailer for Kong: Skull Island but it is. I knew there was a new King Kong movie in the works but I didn't realize we were officially in the hype zone.

I think the trailer looks pretty cool. Sure it's ridiculous that they made Kong about 400 feet tall but when you're talking giant gorillas living in the Jungle what's the difference between 70 and 400 feet? I also like that the whole island is full of huge mutant freak animals. Sure it's at all in line with the morality/hubris tale of the first King Kong but that movie is like 100 years old and Hollywood beat that horse dead a long time ago. I just want to see John C Riley and his awesome bear running from huge gorillas and spiders. I'm a simple man.

Like My Costume?

GHOST IN THE SHELL - Official Trailer #1

Ghost in the Shell is a pretty popular Anime movie from the 90s that I own but can't remember anything about. The main character is a girl who is a machine and a cop and she can turn invisible. I believe she also hacks into computers, that's about all I remember. Oh wait, I do remember everything takes place in Tokyo and everyone was Japanese.

With that in mind, here's you new Hollywood live action remake staring Scarlett Johansson and a lot of other white people. I guess in the Future all the white people leave the US and go to Tokyo. Thanks Obama. I have two hot takes regarding this trainer:

First off I don't think this doesn't look visually stunning enough to separate it from every other sci-fi action flick. When she strips down and she's just all robot it doesn't look cool or sexy it just looks weird. Serious uncanny valley thing going on there. Unless this movie gets some really great buzz or a second way cooler trailer this thing is DOA.

Secondly, good. These racists jerks deserve what's coming to them. It would be one thing if they had decided to set the film in New York and completely appropriate the plot of the film into a western setting but just sticking a bunch of white people in Japan and having them all be the leads while it looks like the bad guys are still Japanese is hot garbage and the studio should be ashamed. They won't be because you know, you have to have a big star attached and I'm sure they only cast people right for the part, race has NOTHING TO DO WITH IT.

This is the reason people wanted Iron Fist to be Asian.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

This new trailer for Valerian and the City of a Thousand Plants is absolutely bonkers, in the best sort of way. It's directed by Luc Besson so I guess we should expect bonkers. It's funny I looked up his credits really quickly on IMDB and while he's written an produced roughly a thousand movies in the last 10 years he's only directed a couple. Lucy and the Family being the big two, his resume is mostly filled with shorts and animated movies that I don't believe ever saw a release in the states. I guess he's a big enough name (especially in Europe) that he's able to pick his own projects. I mean you'd think after the Fifth Element there would have been a dozen studios just pulling up to his house with dump trucks full of money to remake some old sci-fi property.

Is it just me or would Cara Delevingne be the perfect Gadget Hackwrench in a live action Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers movie? Luc Besson should really get to work on that.

Seth Meyers on Donald Trump's Presidency

Sorry to brigade the blog with so much politics this week but hey, what else is going on, right? Seth Meyers had some pretty good thoughts on our someone's man D. Trump winning the presidency. I thought it was pretty good. Did you even know Seth Meyers has the David Letterman/Conan time slot on NBC? I usually catch it on Friday nights and it's actually a pretty good show, he's certainly done well with the material this election cycle has given him.

The one thing that really gets me with his monologue here is how everything he's predicted about Trump has been wrong. I feel like I'm in that exact same boat. I never thought he'd really run, never thought he's win the nomination and even tuesday night when the results started trickling in I didn't think he could actually win. I just sat there waiting for all those traditionally Democratic states to go blue, when it never happened I was just shocked. I remember around 8pm on Twitter seeing that the NYTimes was giving Trump an 80% chance of winning and you could have knocked me down with a feather.

And speaking of Twitter I read someone on there openly criticize the likes of John Oliver and Stephen Colbert, while they were laughing at Trump, republicans were busy voting. There's certainly a time and place for satire but at a certain point I think the entertainment division of the left got so far up their own ass they didn't notice that it was about to get kicked.

Anyway, this made me laugh. Maybe it'll make you laugh too.

How To Draw a Deer

I voted for Kodos

Well that certainly was something last night, wasn't it? I guess I should consider myself blessed to have lived through 2 historical elections. The election of the first ever black president and the first ever umpa lumpa president. Just kidding, it's the first time we've ever elected a president that's never served in the military or public office. I have a couple random thoughts on the whole thing so I thought I'd just let them fly.

I don't believe everyone that voted for Trump is a racist or a sexist or a bigot or even an idiot. I think a large portion of middle america decided that their opposition to the status quo trumped their opposition to racist and sexist behavior. Essentially they're so desperate for an agent of political change they were willing to overlook Trump's many flaws. If you're straight and you're white it's not like Trump is targeting you, right? I don't think that makes those people "bad" people, I just think they've made a mistake based off their privilege.

WOW did the Democratic party blow this. They spent 4 years clearing the path for Hillary a candidate they knew was unlikable and flawed but they did it and they did it eagerly because that's just how politics work. Hillary had amassed so much power within the DNC that there was no real choice (as wikileaks pointed out so clearly). Just a couple weeks ago everyone was predicting this was the death knell of the Republican party and what we really saw was the implosion of the Democratic establishment. Everyone connected to Hillary is going to have a huge stink of failure attached to them, it's going to be 100% turnover.

Trump has surrounded himself with some wildly incompetent boobs like Giuliani and Chris Christie. Wonder how many of them will be rewarded for their good service with cabinet positions? One of the worst things Bush Jr did after becoming president was fill important positions with people that helped get him there as opposed to actual qualified individuals. Since almost the entire Republican party abandoned Trump who is he going to appoint? Chachie?

I've always felt like the President didn't have as much control over policy and the economy as people gave him credit for. I guess we're really going to see that theory put to the test over the next 4 years.

I've never lived through an impeachment (I mean technically did with Clinton but I was too young to really pay attention or remember anything about it). That should be exciting!

Deserved Links

A Sexist Seahawks Fan Got What He Deserved After Heckling The Bills’ Female Coach. Some guy at the Seahawks game last night got caught on camera calling the Bills Female Assistant Coach a waitress and asked her to get him a Pepsi. This just supports my theory, all Pepsi drinkers are awful people.

Brazil’s getting a new Sega Genesis that looks just like the old one. This is pretty cool, who knew the love for the Genesis was so strong in Brazil. Hopefully a couple of these will make their way to the states. Those Genesis retro systems you can find at Walmart or Target now are just half assed emulators shoved in a retro looking plastic case. This new/old unit with it's ability to load old carts and roms seems pretty incredible. Maybe not $120 incredible but like $50 or $60 incredible.

Toblerone Swiss chocolate maker shrinks bars, changes shape to keep prices down. I had no idea Toblerone's were still a thing. I don't think I've ever seen them at a store that wasn't in an airport. Maybe a mall kiosk.

Mass Effect: Andromeda

Hey there Mass Effect Andromeda trailer, how you doing? Sorry I never played Mass Effect 2 or 3. By the time I had played the first one the third one had just come out and hoo-boy the internet was not happy about it. I just went ahead and played something else instead. Also while I enjoyed the story and the gameplay I found the RPG aspects of the game to be a bit limiting. Sure character creation was fantastic but I don't know, I think I needed more loot or more battle options. It wasn't you it was me.

Overwatch: The League

I don't know just how plugged into video games you are but this last weekend was Blizzcon, the yearly event where Blizzard gets you hyped about World of Warcraft expansions and I don't know... something for Diablo? Anyway this year Blizzard has a fresh new property to promote in Overwatch and did they ever. First off they had a big "Overwatch World Cup" tournament (spoilers, the South Koreans won), then they announced a new character and some new modes of play.

Their biggest news however was pretty gosh darn big. They announced that they were starting a professional Overwatch League. The league will be comprised of city based teams any joe-roadhog can qualify for, with players earning actual money for their play. We've been living in a world of professional video gamers for a while but this isn't really like anything I've seen before. It's not really comparable to the NFL but it's like the MLS or some other communist based sports league where the league owns all the teams. By no means do I have any delusion into thinking that I could qualify for a professional video game team (my player ranking puts me in the 19th percentile at Overwatch) but I'll sure as heck watch me some professional Overwatch games. Especially if they can dial in the format a bit. As it is most broadcasts I've seen jump from player to player so quickly it's hard to tell what's going on.

What a crazy world we're living in, right? Maybe I should make my kid play more video games? Did you hear that Logan? Put down those books and start working on your twitch reflexes. The only math I want you to practice are dps calculations.

Jet City Comic Show is Definitely a Thing I Went To

This last weekend my son and I went to Tacoma's biggest comic book convention, making it something like the 156th biggest in the nation, the Jet City Comic Show. This was my first small comic book convention. I couldn't find an exact number on-line but I'd be surprised if they cracked the 10,000 mark. I went on Sunday afternoon just for a few hours and I'll bet there were probably 1,500 attendees in the building. There were about 200 tables with just a couple celebrity guests, who all fell into that "person who was on a show you've heard of but wasn't the main star of that show". There were plenty of local artists and independent publishers, a couple comic pros that have had work published by the big two and a few authors, local and national, that I hadn't hear of.

It seems like this was a good show to actually pick up comic books. There were about a dozen large vendors and then a few more that had assorted tables of geeky stuff, many of which included at least a couple boxes of comics. I took my son which wasn't ideal for spending an afternoon digging through long boxes but I still walked away with about a dozen old X-Men comics to fill gaps in my collection. We also picked up a TMNT Lego Set that was retired a couple years ago, they were asking retail price so that was a nice find. They had a couple older Star Wars sets that were calling my name but I had already set my son's budget at $20, which was already WAY too high considering it was just his birthday.

Anyway, it was a nice little show. There wasn't a ton of stuff there and it wasn't an experience to itself in the way that ECCC is but it was well worth the $10. Also the Tacoma Convention center is really nice in fact the entire downtown Tacoma corridor is cool. Free parking, free right on the light rail, it didn't smell, what more could you ask for? Next year I might leave the boy at home so I have more time to dig around, maybe I'll try and get there on Saturday to see if there's more hustle and bustle. I'm definitely headed back to Tacoma next summer when they have the Pinball and Arcade Expo. There were a couple guys at Jet City with a couple cabinets hyping the event and it sounds awesome. Hundreds of pinball and old Arcade machines set of free play? Yeah, that sounds like a show I could get into.

Lego Batman, Trailer #4

It doesn't seem like there have been 3 previous trailers for the Lego Batman movie but that's what YouTube says and when has YouTube ever been wrong? I'm a bit torn on this movie, like I'm sure it's going to be hilarious and all but there already is a series of direct to video Lego Batman movies that are pretty good. The animation style is way different but the voice acting is really top notch. I wish they had used some of those voice actors, they might not be big name real actors like Michael Cera or Zach Galifianakis but being a good regular actor doesn't always translate into being a good voice actor.

Shut up Kevin you big nerd, this movie is still going to be great. Hopefully there's a good video game to go with it. I thought the Lego Movie videogame was one of the better ones in the series. Also if we don't get a cool Lego set with Robin in the short shorts and goggles what's the point of all of this? Someone get me that mini-fig!

7 shows Netflix should bring back/reboot

I just got done reading a Cracked list of 5 Ridiculous TV Remakes We Wish Netflix Would Tackle Next and it was fine I guess. I mean it was mostly just an excuse to tell jokes about how bad How I Met Your Mother was, which is fine, that show really was awful near the end. It however had me asking, what shows would I like Netflix to bring back? So here we go...

It should be noted that I've put zero thought into this and I'm just winging it, I might not ever get to 7!

Better Off Ted.
This show was hilarious and it was only canceled a few years ago and I can't think of anything big any of the actors from it are doing, so logistically it should be pretty feasible. Also it's a sitcom that takes place in an office, it probably costs 20 bucks to make. It would also make a nice companion piece to The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.

Battlestar Galactica
CBS is bringing back Star Trek for their stupid CBS subscription service, why not bring back Battlestar Galactica to Netflix? You could do one of two things: Retcon away the ending no one really liked where they're stranded on earth a hundred thousand years ago or make another prequel but this time make it closer to the SyFy series than Caprica was.

Sliders
Hey kids remember Sliders? Yeah, I don't either but from everything I've read it was a cool concept for a show. Just keep Jerry O'Connell and his weird twin like brother away from it.

Law & Order
Bum Bum!

Tour Of Duty
Man I loved this show as a kid, which is weird because looking back on it I was way to young to be watching a show about Vietnam. Scary thought, we're as far from Desert Storm now as we were from the Vietnam War when Tour of Duty first aired. Maybe they could make a new show and set it during Desert Storm. Considering the mess going on the region now you'd have timely allegories for days!

The Avengers
Ok, you might need to change the name with this one cause I'm not talking about Thor and Iron Man, I'm talking about British Spies John Steed and Emma Peel. Forget that the movie reboot ever existed, set the whole thing in the 60s during the cold war, find a foxy gal to wear Emma Peel's catsuit and you're golden.

Night Court
Dude, Night Court was so rad. I've been catching reruns on one of those TV channels between 20 and 100 that does nothing but play shows from the 70s and 80s and I am telling that ish was a thousand years ahead of its time. Bring back Night Court.

New Wonder Woman Trailer

Hey kids, check out this new Wonder Woman trailer. I don't know it has the same impact as the first teaser they released but it still looks pretty cool. I think that first teaser benefited from how godawful Batman v Superman was, by comparison it looked like Citizen Kane. Also there's still pesky rumors that this movie was sort of a disaster to film and no one at DC/WB is happy with the end result. Of course given how happy they seemed to be with BvS maybe that's a good thing.

I'm going to keep being cautiously optimistic, maybe dial down my expectations to really really low. Worked for Suicide Squad!

Whatcha Thinking About?

Doctor Strange, chase scene clip thingy

I like how this two and a half minute scene from Doctor Strange has a thing at the beginning telling you it's "exclusive". Exclusive to anyone with an internet connection... It's really the most exclusive club.

Anyhoo, Doctor Strange comes out soon (this weekend maybe? I don't know who has the time to keep track of these things?) and all I've heard are positive reviews. Of course those positive reviews have all come from people that work for Marvel Comics so maybe they're not the most neutral reviewers. I don't really have plans to go see it, my wife isn't that impressed with Doctor Strange in the comics so she's kind of meh about it. This might be one that I catch on DVD, sort of like Ant-Man or Thor 2. Jet City Comic Con is this weekend so who has time to go see a movie? Also my son just got a couple Pokemon decks for his birthday, I've heard we have to catch them all.

Fuller House Season 2 is a thing

Now lets get one thing straight. I loved me some ABC TGIF when I was 12 or whatever. Full House, Family Matters, Perfect Strangers, that show where there were like 10 kids and two of the older girls were really cute. I couldn't get enough of that crap when I was a kid. However, I was a kid so all I liked was crap. Liking crap is one of the things that defines being a kid. Have you watched an episode of Full House recently? or worse, have you watched an episode of Fuller House? Holly cow. Terrible doesn't even come close to defining it. How the Olsen twins turned that show into a money printing factory I'll never know, they were legitimately terrible on that show. Just horrible. The fact that they turned that thing into like a billion dollar empire is AMAZING. When we're all dead and gone Aliens will view it as one of the great mysteries of Earth.

So here's a trailer for Season 2 of Fuller House. I guess if this helps Netflix pay for actual good shows like Jessica Jones and Stranger things its fine.. everything's fine.

Ask Me About My Broken Fandom

A few days ago while I was at home burning through some of my remaining vacation days there was a giant ass shit storm on comics twitter over Mockingbird #8, Chelsea Cain and comics fandom. If you want the full professional blogging experience just google it, since you're here though I assume you're not looking for any of that. Long story short Chelsea Cain noted novelist wrote a short comic book series about Mockingbird (as seen on Agents of Shield). When the last issue came out (it was canceled a little bit ago) she quit twitter and said something to the effect of comic books fans can be really awful. She specifically called out comic book fans saying she has been a bestselling author and never had to block anyone on twitter before writing Mockingbird.

Once she deleted her account that's when the real fun started. Any website with any sort of nerd leaning coverage picked up on the story. A hashtag on twitter was created in her support and it was one of the top trending tags for at least a day. Very quickly some in the comic book community started to push back. They wanted to see screen shots of the harassment or it didn't happen. They also wanted to remind you that Mockingbird was terrible and if you liked it you should feel ashamed. Also the last issue deals a bit with Mockingbird's history of sexual assault in (what I found to be) an awkward manner so if you did like the issue guess what? YOU ARE THE SEXIST NOW.

This story dominated comics twitter for about 48 hours. Most comic book professionals were very supportive of Chelsea Cain but a few wanted to make sure everyone knows the reason Mockingbird was canceled was because of low sales and you can't complain about a book being canceled if you're not buying it. One noted professional who is not new to controversy like this chose his words pretty poorly (again this is my opinion) by saying something to the effect of "hey, at least the trolls buy comics". It was sort of an admission no one wanted to hear while this was going on. Like when Tom Brady is in court because he may or may not be tampering with the footballs you don't need Bill Simmons telling you "say what you will about him cheating, but all Tom Brady does is win Superbowls!"

Yes, comic books are a business but no one wants to hear that Marvel is in anyway catering to the worst of their fan base.

Twitter and comment sections were filled with guys like my man Ry here who thinks that comics aren't for everyone. If memory serves me correctly he follows this up with some tweets about how comics were made for the male gaze and should be filled with hot ladies, not ladies who are hot to rage against the patriarchy.


I mean if I had a nickel for every time I've read SJW this last week I'd have like 20 Nickels, because after about 20 times I bailed on reading more about this and just focused on Overwatch. I don't know what to do about people being shitheels to each other, I'm just some schlub on the internet that thinks there should be all kinds of comic books for all kinds or people. When I read a comic I don't like I don't @ the author. I might say on-line why I didn't like it but I'm not here to try and make people feel bad for their work. What do people gain from that? And why are people so insane when it comes to characters and comics they don't own? You don't own Thor. You don't write Thor. You don't get to decided if Thor is a man or a woman. If you don't like it don't buy it, if someone else is liking it and you're not it doesn't mean one of you is wrong. Two different people can like two different things without it meaning anything.

Maybe we should invent a time machine and go back and warn Al Gore not to invent the internet. Or maybe we can hurry up the deal that will sell the internet to the Chinese my dad was telling me about. I cringe thinking about how my kids are going to handle stuff like this. The first time some slobbery gatekeeper tells my daughter that comics are for boys I hope she punches him right in the neck. BOOM NECK PUNCH! Don't worry honey, I'll bail you out of jail if I have to.