Nearing the end of the year...

I'm not really one for the New Year's Resolution. I think they're silly for the most part. Either you're going to change something about yourself or your not. The end of the year is just an excuse to make a half assed attempt at changing something about yourself.

2012 was kind of a weird year for me. A similar theme seemed to continue to pop up throughout the year. And that was not neglecting what I have or taking my life for granted. Live for the day was the lesson I learned after Kelly's uncle dropped dead in March. Then when we went on vacation in North Carolina, the same lesson popped up again. This time more in a "I shouldn't take what's around me for granted, I need to slow down and appreciate the moment more." Those lessons have stuck with me more than I thought they would at the time. I'm not necessarily doing amazing with those ideals but I believe I've made a little progress with them. If I was to give myself a letter grade, I would say I've achieved about a straight C on the adjustments I've made. I could do a lot better but I have shifted my life to a degree.

The other lesson of 2012 was that I have too much junk and I need to start purging. I've taken steps here and sent some stuff out the door and have plans to get rid of even more stuff throughout the winter months. My goal is to get rid of about 75% of my DVD collection and about 75% of my video games. If I haven't touched it since we moved into this house in May of 2010 then it needs to go.

On the weight loss front. I ended up dropping about 30 lbs. total in 2012. I fell off the exercise after I got sick in the summer but I successfully kept the weight off. I've been working out again the last month and I'm starting to see the weight come off again. So here's hoping maybe I can drop another 20-30 lbs. in this next round of heavy exercise.

On a more nerdy/fun note, I do have some goals for 2013 in my head currently. Here's a brief list:

Read the entire 300 issue run of Cerebus in the calendar year of 2013.
Level my dwarf hunter in WOW to level 60 during the winter months.
Read the 6 volumes of Essential Defenders.
Beat Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3.
Write more consistent blog entries.

2013 will also be a big year for Kelly and I. We've decided to try to have a baby and hopefully that will be successfully in 2013.

Until next time!

Games I Love: Pokemon Red

I said I was going to make this post about Mike Tyson's Punch-Out but I changed my mind. I bought Pokemon Black 2 about 2 weeks ago and I've been playing through slowly but surely.

September 30, 1998 was D-Day for this game. My friend Dan and I had an agreement in place. He was going to buy the Blue version of the game and I was going to buy the Red version of the game. If you haven't played a Pokemon game, you need both versions to capture all the potential Pokemon to be had. Several are exclusive to a particular version of the game.

Dan, I think, put about 120 hours into the game and I put somewhere around 105 hours into the game over the course of a few years. We also had numerous battles over a few year period. I think that was pretty evenly divided between us.

The game itself is a really deep RPG. Pokemon are varied by type and are strong/weak against other types. There were 150 Pokemon in that version of the game. So you had a lot of choices for your team. It's very addictive if you get into the grind of leveling your Pokemon and evolving them to stronger creatures.

I've continued on with the series, I don't think Dan did. Things have gotten more complicated as time has gone on. I think Gold/Silver and the White/Black games have been the class of the sequels. I still have my Red game with all of my original Pokemon.

This was easily my game of choice through the last two years of high school.

All-New X-Men #1

This won't be a standard blow by blow review of the book. Mostly just my reaction to it. Anyways, this book is part of the new Marvel Now initiative. Over the next 6 months, most of the titles will be getting new #1 issues and getting new creative teams. Unlike DC, they're not throwing everything out and starting over again new. So far this is the 4th book from Marvel Now that I've read. I liked the first 3 books a lot.

I play the same game over and over with the X-Titles. I said I wasn't going to get Wolverine and the X-Men, I caved. I said I wasn't interested in this book and then I kind of started peaking out of the corner of my eye at it coyly for the few weeks leading up to it's release. My wife wanted a copy of Gambit #5 so that seemed like a good enough excuse to wander into my local comic shop (LCS if you want to get into comic book nerd internet lingo) and pick up a copy.

All I can say after issue 1 is bravo Mr. Bendis... bravo... You just added this book to my buy list for the immediate future. The long and short of the story is that Cyclops is free after the events of AvX and has gone full blown rogue with Emma Frost and Magneto. He's freeing mutants by any means necessary and is calling himself a mutant revolutionary. The X-Men's hands are tied for fear of a civil war. Beast decides to go back in time and grab the younger versions of Cyclops, Beast, Iceman, Angel and Jean Grey to try and talk some sense into the present day Cyclops. Beast manages to use some Back to the Future lines to great effect here.

A lot of the X-Titles in recent years have been about the darker turn in the methods of Cyclops and that trickling down to the X-Men teams as surviving became more and more important. There have been ramifications among the various characters as time has gone on. It appears that all of that is exploding here and I'm really enjoying it. I also handed it over to Kelly and she seemed to enjoy it a lot as well.

This book probably shot to the top of my read pile for the near future. I'm really excited for issue 2 to get here.

Geek NBA Preview Part 6: Pacific Division

Golden State Warriors:

Holy crap... I kind of like this team. Klay Thompson is the real deal and will be a great NBA player. Stephen Curry is a solid NBA point guard even if he shoots first and asks questions later. I like Andrew Bogut when healthy. If he stays healthy all year this team will be tough in the front court. That's a huge if though as he's managed that once in his NBA career. I actually think there's some solid depth in the front court with Harrison Barnes, Richard Jefferson, David Lee and Carl Landry up front. This team has some tools to work with this year.

LA Clippers:

I'll go with the positives first. I like Blake Griffith, I like Chris Paul and I like Grant Hill. Past that, I don't like a lot of the moves they made this offseason. I don't like the additions of Lamar Odom, Willie Green or Jamal Crawford. The SG position is terrible when Chauncey Billups isn't on the floor. I dislike the center position for this team as Jordan/Turiaf/Hollins are a really poor combo at the position. I think this team will be playoff bound again but I think they didn't improve their team like they could've.

LA Lakers:

The nightmare scenario kind of happened immediately with this team. They're currently 0-3 and Nash has suffered an injury. I don't think it's time to panic yet. There's 79 games left in the season. I think the panic button time is if they're still under water after 30ish games. I think this team will win in the mid 50s of games and be a contender in the Western playoffs. The Thunder dealing Harden was a blessing for this team as their biggest opponent took a serious step back.

Phoenix Suns:

I'm going to start off and say, this team isn't making the playoffs. With that said, I like how the Suns rebuilt themselves in the wake of Steve Nash leaving the team. I like their starting 5 quite a bit. The do lack depth though and Jermaine O'Neal is a terrible NBA player by this point in his career. I will be interested to see some of the moves this team makes in the future.

Sacramento Kings:

An all around bad team. Bill Simmons ripped them pretty hard on his podcast a few weeks ago. It really sums up this team greatly so here's the video...

Geek NBA Preview Part 5: Northwest Division

I know, I know... the NBA season has started and I didn't get this finished. It happens, life has been busy the last couple of weeks. But I'll go on with the show and try to get this done by the end of next week.

Denver Nuggets:

I like this team quite a bit. There's no superstar on the team but this team has good chemistry and plays hard. Igoudala comes to town and he brings good defense and is a solid contributor for any team. I can see this team winning 50 games this year and having a solid seed in the playoffs.

Minnesota Timberwolves:

This team made some big strides last season and were threatening to finish with a record above .500 until Rubio and Love got hurt. This years team brought in Brandon Roy and Andrei Kirilenko. Roy, if healthy, would provide a great scoring option for the team and could be a huge difference maker down the road. The downside is Love and Rubio are still hurt and this team can't really go anywhere without them. I think this season is already a wash for them.

Oklahoma City Thunder:

James Harden leaves and this team takes a serious step back. I thought going into this season that OKC had a legit shot at getting back to the Finals and winning it this time around. Unfortunately, they couldn't come to terms with James Harden and shipped him off to the Houston Rockets. Harden was a great defender and he really anchored the team when Durant and Westbrook were off the court. The team still has Durant and Westbrook who are top 20 players but their road to a championship just got much harder. I still see this as a team that wins more than 50 games but now I don't see them having the punch to beat San Antonio or the Lakers in the playoffs.

Portland Trailblazers:

I like their front court quite a bit. Aldridge is a good player while Hickson and Batum are solid front court players. I think this is a 30ish win team though. Outside of those guys, who's going to hurt you on this team?

Utah Jazz:

I'm not sure what I think of the Utah Jazz. There's some talent on this team. Al Jefferson, Paul Millsap, Marvin Williams, Mo Williams, Randy Foye and Jamaal Tinsley all have their moments and can all contribute to a winning team. This team could surprise some people and win just enough to get the 8 seed or they could suck completely. I'm having a really hard time deciding what I think. I will say though, that this team did a remarkable job of rebuilding after Boozer and Williams left town.

Geek NBA Preview Part 4: Eastern Conference Wrap Up

I think the big takeaway from this year is that the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics are the class of this conference. No one is even remotely in the league of those two teams. I think Miami is clearly better than Boston but I also think Boston has a burning hatred for Miami this year. It will be an interesting class if they meet in the playoffs. Miami is more talented but Boston could compete based on emotion.

Looking over the playoff map, this is how I see it unfolding for the playoff seeding:

1. Miami Heat
2. Boston Celtics
3. Chicago Bulls
4. Indiana Pacers
5. Atlanta Hawks
6. Philadelphia 76ers
7. New York Knicks
8. Brooklyn Nets

I'm going really safe with those picks. The problem with this year is the Eastern Conference is very mediocre outside of the Celtics and Heat. I could see anyone of the bottom 4 teams missing the playoffs and a team like Milwaukee sneaking in as the 8 seed.

As for the bottom of the league. Charlotte is the obvious answer there. I think they'll be the last place team by 6 or 7 games easily. Orlando will probably be the second worst team in the conference.

Stay tuned as the Western Conference preview will start up later today or tomorrow.

Geek NBA Preview Part 3: Southeast Division

Atlanta Hawks:

Joe Johnson heads out the door for this season. He was a seriously bad contract for the Hawks as they were paying him superstar money when he wasn't really a superstar. Josh Smith is in a contract year and that usually means big numbers. Al Horford is also a good center when healthy and I like the addition of Kyle Korver. I think this team will still be playoff bound. Johnson hurt this team as much as he tended to help. I also feel they made some good moves to fill the Johnson void. I can see them winning mid 40s gamewise and really surprise some people.

Charlotte Bobcats:

A historically bad team last year. They had a pretty good draft with Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Other than that, this is still a pretty bad franchise. Ben Gordon comes to town after a pretty horrible Pistons stay. Ramon Sessions comes to town after looking pretty bad on the Lakers last year. Really, this team reeks of being built from castoffs from other teams. I wouldn't be happy if Sessions, Haywood or Gordon were starting for my team and you've got all three here. This is an under 20 win team. I think 14-17 wins would be reasonable for this squad.

Miami Heat:

The defending champs bring back a pretty similar team. Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis come to town. Both of them have issues as players but they should be mere role players for the Heat. I hate the Heat but I think they'll roll through the East with no problems whatsoever. I think nothing stands between them and the 1 seed for the playoffs. I think the Celtics might be able to knock them out of the playoffs but that's a big if. I think the Heat are the clear favorite to represent the Eastern Conference in the Finals.

Orlando Magic:

The Magic traded Dwight Howard in the offseason. They passed up a pretty good package from the Nets early in the summer and then ultimately had to settle for a far inferior deal in the Lakers deal. A lot of pieces moved around in that deal and the Magic really got the leftovers. Aaron Afflalo comes to town. He's a good pick up but there's no one around him. Past that, this team is a mess. Turkoglu and Nelson are shoot first and ask questions later players. The rest of the team is made up of whatever they could cobble together for this team. I think you're looking at a low 20 win kind of season here.

Washington Wizards:

I don't really understand bringing in Emeka Okafor as he's not a NBA quality starting center. This team has a solid rotation of guys with competent skills. They can play some defense in the front court. I think this team could push into the high 20s on wins.

If I can get political for just a moment...

This isn't about the Presidential race that's coming to a close on November 6th. I don't want to preach my ideology at anyone. I don't want to be that guy that beats people over the head with my views of the world. I'm going to vote for who I am going to vote for and you are going to vote who you are going to vote for. I'm not going to change your mind, you're not going to change mine. If you want to argue it for the fun of it with no hurt feelings, fair enough. But that's not that point.

This is about a local issue here in Ohio known as Issue 2. Essentially what this does is change who can redistrict or gerrymander if you will. It takes that out of the hands of the legislature and puts it into the hands of judges who would elect a committee to elect a committee to decide districts. It's a very messy and convoluted process if you read how it's presented. It's literally a whole page on my absentee ballot and it makes no sense.

We've all been taught how gerrymandering works and I won't go into it here. We've all seen how ridiculous some of the various districts across the United States looks. No one really likes it and in general I think it's a bad thing for the United States as a whole.

So that brings this convoluted Issue 2 and it's proponents. I don't want to call them stupid... just naive and shortsighted. I believe there are two types of people that support this:

1. People that have fallen into the trap that it changes something they dislike and therefore it's good.

2. People that see the flaws in this new system and want to be able to corrupt the system for their own personal gain.

The second group of people don't really need explaining. You'll see them latch on to almost any issue they can. The first group of people are a more troubling group. They see something in our government that isn't right and they want to change it. We can all agree that's a noble pursuit and I even agree that gerrymandering is a bad thing. Past that, it starts to fall apart. They've fallen into a trap where they're latching on to any solution that rears it's head and I don't think they've taken the time to consider the ramifications of what they're proposing. There really is wisdom that needs to be considered here. 'Sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don't.'

I am not one for excitement over issues but this one scares me a bit. It's a very complicated process that doesn't feel well thought out and it looks easily used and abused. The main issues I have with it are as follows:

Lack of accountability: It seems hopeless at times but you can still vote against the legislative branch if they act in a way you disapprove of. It is historically difficult to vote out incumbents but it does happen. That's being accountable. At the end of the day, they need you to vote for them and that will keep a degree of checks in place.

Under this system, there is no accountability. This is an un-elected committee of people making a gigantic impact on the political future of the state. There is nowhere in this process where the electorate has a say. That's bad, governments tend to do bad things when they aren't being held accountable by the population.

It's unconstitutional: Pretty simple here. The legislative branch is supposed to determine elections. The rules, ties and even who votes for who. This takes that power away and puts it in the hand of people not in the legislature. It violates the separation of powers.

Inappropriate use of judges: Judges are supposed to be impartial in their actions as judges. This would create a situation that makes them political figures. It would undermine the integrity of their positions.

Really my point to this whole article is this. This amendment to the state constitution is very poorly thought out. It could create a worse system than what is currently in place. Wanting change is only human but we should make sure that we're actually fixing the issue at hand, not trading a set of problems for a potentially much worse set of problems. That's all I have to say on this. I'll post about geeky fun stuff later.

Games I Love Part 3: Super Mario 3

This game was a cultural phenomenon when it came out in the United States in 1990. No, literally... if you were a video game player this was a giant event. Nintendo Power released a guide for it, there was a cartoon and McDonald's even had toys for it!



This game probably features my favorite Mario power of all time. The Hammer Bros outfit. There was just something cool about tossing hammers at your enemies and the suit itself didn't appear a lot in the game.

I got this for Christmas so it had been out for awhile before I got to really play it. I remember Blockbuster had tons of copies and they were constantly out. I believe the local mom and pop rental place had the wait list at several months.

This isn't my favorite Mario game. It's probably somewhere in the middle of the pack but this game was an important cultural moment for anyone that played video games that was around my age. This game was just huge and I believe it's still the best selling video game of all time.

Next time, I think I'm going to take a look at Mike Tyson's Punch-Out.

Geek NBA Preview Part 2: Central Division

Chicago Bulls:

The Bulls had an unfortunate end to their season in the playoffs as Rose went down with an injury. Rose suffered a pretty bad knee injury and his season is really in doubt here. It's not an easy injury for a basketball player to return from. Even if Rose is going to be on the court, it's not going to be a 100% Rose for a very long time. I would say the Bulls are going to have a decent regular season, probably win the Central but not get anywhere in the playoffs.

Cleveland Cavaliers:

Kyrie Irving was the real deal last year and secured the Rookie of the Year award. I think you'll see an even better Irving take the court this year. This team needs Tristan Thompson to step up his game if they hope to contend for a playoff spot. I think you'll see the Cavs take a step forever this year and win 30ish games. They won't be anywhere near the playoffs but I think this will be a good step forward season for them.

Detroit Pistons:

I like the drafting of Drummond and... wow this team is pretty bad. I think you'll see them win in the 25-30 game range. They just have a ton of issues that weren't addressed in the offseason. This team is going to struggle until they get out of that horrible Charlie Villanueva contract and can actually bid on some free agents again.

Indiana Pacers:

I think this is a good season for the Pacers to win the Central and go into the playoffs at a higher seed. I don't necessarily think they'll accomplish that. I think they'll end up being the 4 or the 5 seed in the playoffs. I think they'll trail the Bulls in the Central for most of the season. I think the big problem with the Pacers will be who's going to shoot at the end of games. They seem to lack that guy that can get them those hard points at the end of the game. I think that's going to haunt them as the season progresses.

Milwaukee Bucks:

I like the Jennings/Ellis back court quite a bit. Actually, I like their starting 5 quite a bit. I think their starters give them enough talent to make the playoffs as a lower seed. The bench is going to hurt them all season long but I could see them winning 38-44 games and being the sacrificial lamb for the Heat or one of the high seeds. That's not a bad thing though, I think making the playoffs would be a huge success for this squad.

The Geek NBA Preview Part 1

With hockey probably dead for the season I guess it's focus on the NBA or have a long winter and spring with no sports to focus on. I decided to do a little preview in 6 parts. Each part will consist of one division of the NBA. I will be giving my general thoughts on the team, the moves they made and how I think they'll perform this year. Part one will be the Atlantic Division. Let's get this show on the road.

Boston Celtics:

This is a team undergoing an identity shift. The big three are finally broken apart as Ray Allen headed off into the sunset in the offseason. The Celtics bring in Courtney Lee, Jared Sullinger, Fab Melo and Jason Terry. I like the addition of Jason Terry. He's a streaky shooter that can add some offense when needed. I think Brandon Bass and Jared Sullinger will be an interested combo at power forward. Unfortunately, I think this team needs Sullinger to really perform to make a deep run in the playoffs. Anyways, I think you'll probably see a marginal season from the Celtics and then they'll make some noise come playoff time. I don't think they have the tools to beat the Miami Heat in the playoffs though.

Brooklyn Nets:

New city for the maligned Nets franchise. I'll be honest here, I really hate their roster despite the love that analysts are giving it. I think Joe Johnson is a bad locker room guy who isn't worth his contract. I hate their entire front court, the Wallace deal especially was terrible. I also don't think Deron Williams is a No. 1 kind of guy. I think you want Williams as the sidekick to your superstar. Now, this is the Eastern Conference which means the bar to entry to the playoffs is pretty low. The Nets could probably go 38-44 or 40-42 and grab the 8th seed and lose to Miami in 5. I think a 7 or 8 seed is probably a good bet for the Nets. Johnson/Williams will probably be enough for that.

New York Knicks:

The offseason was a complete fiasco for the Knicks. They let Jeremy Lin walk because their owner decided to pout instead of do the right thing for his team. Lin was the first feel good story to happen for the Knicks fans since the 1999 season. I think you can question Lin's long term performance ability but I also think sometimes you have to sign a bad contract if it makes the fans happy. The Knicks went in the opposite direction of what they seemed to be going for last year. The team brought in Jason Kidd, Rasheed Wallace, Marcus Camby and Raymond Felton. Kidd celebrated his new contract by going out and getting a DUI and Felton had an awful year last season. This team might easily be one of the most unlikable teams in the league. You also have the typical problems of Amare being a max contract and not playing well and Anthony being... well... Anthony. I think this team has disaster written all over it. I think they might make the playoffs but I also think they'll get bounced easily. Just a horrible offseason.

Philadelphia 76ers:

The big move for the 6ers was trading for Andrew Bynum in the offseason. Bynum is a great talent when healthy. The problem is... Bynum seems to be a mistake already. The season really revolves around him. If he's healthy, there isn't a center in the Eastern Conference that is on his level of play. He is easily the 2nd best center in the league behind Dwight Howard. If he's not healthy... well good luck with that. I think you're probably looking at a 5 or a 6 seed with this team. They play solid defense and added a pretty good scorer with Richardson. I think they'll be an interesting squad to track.

Toronto Raptors:

People seem to like Kyle Lowry well enough. The front court is interesting as Jonas Valanciunas and Andrea Bargnani are going to be playing center and power forward. That's going to be some real size in the low post for the Raptors. Past that little caveat, boy does this team stink. I mean, who in their right mind would want to watch this team play ball? Cellar dweller here.

Games I Love Part 2: Tecmo Super Bowl

Before Madden was the football juggernaut it is today, there was Tecmo Bowl for the NES. Several years later, it's sequel Tecmo Super Bowl came along and rocked the sports video game world forever. This game had it all. The full 1991 NFL season, all the teams and players and it tracked tons of stats as you progressed through your NFL season. In fact, the game is still played today as it gets hacked with updated roms in the Emulation world.

21 years after the fact and this is probably my favorite football game of all time. The games don't take 40 minutes like Madden, it's realistic enough and the most important thing... it's fun!

I would say I pick this one up and play again every couple of years. The last time I played with a hacked rom and took the 1999 Buffalo Bills to the Super Bowl. That's not the easiest of feats in the game. The AI gets tougher as you win games and gets smarter about playing defense against you. Going undefeated is a challenge with the top teams and with a mediocre team you'll be struggling to go 10-6 or 11-5.

For me, this game is about how playable it is. It's about playing the games. I can get through about 4 games in an hour and sneak in a season over the course of a week or two. It's not like Madden where the time commitment is obscene if you want to play a season.

I have fond memories of this game. I always hated seeing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on my schedule. There was just something about the Buccs that was a struggle for me. The Lions were a favorite team of mine to play and it was always a struggle to not have 2 losses to the Buccs throughout the year. Reggie Cobb tended to run all over me. The really sad part is the Buccs were a terrible team in the early 90s and my friends often teased me about my inability to beat the Buccs.

Before I end this post. Here's some gameplay of Tecmo Super Bowl:

Games I Love Part 1: Introduction

This is going to be a new weekly article that I've decided to write. I've been playing games since the Atari 2600 so I think I can make numerous posts on the subject.

The point of these posts will be to explore games throughout the 80s and 90s mostly. These will be games that I loved, shaped my interests and were otherwise memorable to me. I've made the cutoff to be any games I played before the age of 20. Basically, anything post PSX era I'm going to count out of the discussion. I won't be going in chronological order or anything. I will be choosing games as I think of them and when I want to write about them. I will probably pick a day and stick to that day as much as I possibly can. The heavy focus of these posts are going to be NES and SNES games so keep that in mind.

Stay tuned for Part 2 which will feature Tecmo Super Bowl for the NES.

My week thus far...

My dad had his hip replaced on Monday. I won't bore you with the details of the science involved in that. The short of it is, he now has ceramic instead of bone in his right hip. Today he was released from the hospital, he's doing really well. I have been stunned at how easily and effortlessly he's managed to transition to walking and getting about with a walker. He did fall down once during the day but he and I managed to get him standing again without too much effort.

I was struck this week by the fact that the biggest impact of this whole thing was seeing my dad in a hospital bed like a human being. I was surprised to find that at 31 years old, my dad was still invincible to me. You would think that you would outgrow that as you become an adult but I guess you don't lose some of the more childish aspects of how you view your parents.

Books and Such

I was listening to a series of podcasts earlier this year about the Pulp Heroes from the 1930s. I found the idea of the pulp novel to interesting and so I set out to grab some and read them.

I started with the first John Carter of Mars book entitled Princess of Mars. This was by Edgar Rice Burroughs who is most known for Tarzan. John Carter also stared in a Disney movie that flopped earlier this year due to the horrible marketing campaign attached to it. Check out the movie, it was a really good watch. Anyways, I really enjoyed the book. It was an easy read and it was easy to see the impact it had on sci-fi as a whole. I felt like I had missed out on not reading John Carter when I was younger.

I moved on to Doc Savage after I finished John Carter. These were less refined than the John Carter books. There were roughly 180 Doc Savage pulps from the early 1930s to the late 1940s. The books are what they are. Mass produced serialized fiction. Sometimes poorly written, sometimes poorly thought out and sometimes rushed to fit the story into the 120 page limit that these pulps required. You're not getting classics of literature with these novels. But, they are incredibly fun books. There's good action and a great sense of adventure that comes with the Doc Savage novels. You can really see the seeds that he planted in other characters like Superman, Dirk Pitt and Indiana Jones. You can probably polish off a Doc Savage novel in a couple of sittings and you might remember the story if you're lucky. I've started reading these between books to kind of reset for the next big read. They work well in that capacity.

Then I tried the Destroyer novels. There's about 150 of these and they've been coming out since the early 1970s. He is not considered to be a pulp hero but he shares a lot of similarities to them. The main character is named Remo Williams and it's about his adventures as a government agent. These books are a little more developed than the pulps of the 30s. There's attempts at characterization. You come to know Remo and are expected to see the human side, not necessarily just the adventurer/hero. The books also pack a decent sense of humor. Again, these aren't classics of literature. They're just fun romps to kill a few reading sessions with. These also run $2.99 for the Kindle.

I also acquired some of the Shadow's pulp novels. I am a huge fan of the radio show from the 30s and 40s but I have yet to dig into these very much. The Spider is also on my radar but I just have too much to read to give him serious consideration at this time.

If you want something fun and simple, give Doc Savage, Remo Williams or John Carter a look.

Boo Berry

It's getting to be fall and you know what that means. No, it's not about leaves changing color or Halloween. We're talking about Boo Berry!

Boo Berry has become a seasonal cereal that pops up for the Halloween season, along with Frankenberry. Boo Berry is a unique choice in the cereal world for it's blueberry flavor. My wife and I both excitedly purchase a couple of boxes the first time it appears on the shelves. Where we live, you have to buy it on first sight because it tends to go quick.

It's kind of become my life goal to convert as many people as possible to Boo Berry. I successfully got my wife to love the cereal and I few friends here and there. My best friend Justin and I usually exchange excited texts the first time Boo Berry appears.

If you haven't tried it, go out and get some now. You owe it to yourself to try this rare and unique cereal.

That time of year again...

It's fall and that means football. Usually, I would be super excited about that but I have to be honest that my love of football has died a lot in the last several months. Junior Seau's suicide has effected my love of football in a similar way to how the Benoit murders effected my love of pro wrestling.

Last year, Chris Nowinski appeared on an episode of Bill Simmon's podcast. The subject of the day was concussions and the impact that multiple concussions had on a person. For those that don't know, Nowinski was briefly a wrestler and had to retire from multiple concussions. He then devoted his life to researching concussions. He described the impact of a condition called chronic traumatic encephalopathy aka being punch drunk. The fallout of this condition can be depression, dementia and overall increase in aggressive behavior.

It was a real eye opening interview as he discussed how kids playing at even the Pop Warner level can do irreversible damage to their brain. Needless to say, after that interview I become very convinced that if I had a child I wouldn't let them play football or soccer. I decided the risks to their long term health were not worth allowing them to play a game for a few years.

Fastforward to this year and Junior Seau's suicide. It wasn't confirmed or anything but it seemed to fit the pattern of the guys that were suffering from depression due to the repeated brain trauma. I was just kind of just done with football at that point. I still watch some games here and there this season but I completely lack the passion that I once did for the game.

There's something about watching guys and in the back of your mind knowing that you're watching these guys damage themselves in such a way. I feel like there's a disconnect going on in a lot of ways. People mourn these guys when they pass but they don't attribute the lifestyle to the end result. I saw the same kind of reactions in the post Benoit wrestling community. There were people that gave up and there were people trying to make this weird case that Benoit the performer was not Benoit the murderer. It's a really weird case that was being made at the time.

Either way, that's my take on football currently. I still watch, I'm just lacking the diehard passion that I used to have.

The New 52 - One Year Later

If you run in comic book circles, this was the big news of the last year and a half or so. I'll spare the gory details but essentially DC started every book over at issue number 1 and rebooted their universe. It was a big deal at the time and it sold really well. I checked out a number of the 1st issues at the time. Some were good, some were bad, a lot were mediocre.

It's a year later, the dust has settled to a degree, so what's my ultimate take on DC's New 52 a year into it? Well, frankly, it's mostly a mess. I would say that overall, that I'm less interested in the current DC than I was the pre-52 books. Here's the list of what I'm reading on a monthly basis:

Batman
Batman and Robin
Nightwing
Green Lantern
Flash
Earth Two
Justice League Dark
Justice League
Frankenstein
Swamp Thing
Animal Man

11 titles for me. Now here's where it gets interesting. Of these 11 books, 4 of them could have existed in the pre-52 universe. The Bat-books and Green Lantern weren't really rebooted, they kind of just picked up where the pre-52 books left off. Past those 4, Flash and Justice League are always a read for me. The Flash has been okay and Justice League has been bad. The horror/magic books have been a real revelation though. Swamp Thing, Animal Man, Frankenstein and Justice League Dark all fall into that category. I really enjoy those titles on a monthly basis. Side note to that, Swamp Thing and Animal Man build on their Vertigo titles so are more of a soft reboot.

11 titles seems like a good deal. But before the reboot I was also reading Teen Titans, Red Robin, Batgirl, Detective Comics, JSA, Green Lantern Corps and a few other titles. Overall, I've slimmed the list down a few books and it's going to get even slimmer when Frankenstein gets cancelled in a few months.

So, what are my issues with the New 52 after a year?

Muddy Continuity Waters:

There are previous events that still happened in this Universe. Barbara Gordon still got shot by the Joker but got better for example. So you're always a little confused on what counts and what doesn't. Certain events carried over and others didn't and they don't really bother to tell you what they're working with. Which leads me to the next point...

There's a lot of baggage for a new universe:

It wasn't a hard reset and that caused issues. The universe feels a little lighter overall but there's still a lot of baggage hanging around. Characters like Hawkman don't make sense again. The Bat-Family has a ton of baggage as there's all this unstated history that you aren't 100% sure about.

Inconsistent between books:

This is where I rip on Justice League a lot. If you read Justice League, Green Lantern and Aquaman in particular are nothing like the characters in their solo titles. This is even more confusing when you realize that Geoff Johns writes all three titles. Green Lantern in particular is glaring. He's this immature, pig headed, idiot in Justice League and this mature, seasoned veteran in his own title. I know it's hard to keep a character spot on between books... but it's the same writer!!!

Lack of new creative voices:

Welcome to the New 52 same as the old DCU. This was actually a complaint before the first book even landed. You screwed up your old universe to the point that you felt the only way out was to throw it all out the window. Okay, fair enough. Wait, what? Those guys that ruined the old universe are writing the new universe? But, but, but... nevermind... it hurts my brain too much to think about. Anyways, a few new talents came aboard but the writing roster stayed virtually the same. This New 52 is being written by the people that screwed up the old universe. Seems like a bad idea to me.

Those are the bigger problems that I see with the New 52. Generally, I have liked it a little less with each passing month. Here's hoping things get a little better with some more time.

Beginners Guide to Geocaching From a Beginner

I've posted about it a few times in the past. This is my newest hobby that I finally took the plunge on this summer. I missed about 2 months for various reasons but on Labor Day I was in a park and found one and it set me back on the Geocaching trail. Yesterday, I found my 31st cache. Not a huge number compared to others but I feel I'm started to get the hang of things.

Let's get things started off here. If you want to get started go to Geocaching.com for the listings. From there, pick a few and head out. Keep these ideas in your head though. I'm going to leave out the more common sense ideas.

What You'll Need:

You should always keep a pen on you. The smaller caches won't have room for a pen. If you can't sign the logbook, you have no way of verifying that you were there. I would also recommend a flashlight, tweezers, something to probe unseen areas and swag if you want to leave something behind.

Don't be discouraged by early failure:

Easy, medium, hard... they all get a little easier with every cache you'll find. I was telling Kelly the other day that getting from 21-30 was easier than 11-20 which was easier than 0-10. Every find will teach you a little bit more about where to look. When I first started out, I had no idea where to look and I depended on my GPS heavily. Now, I can sometimes pick out the hiding spot without even looking at my GPS.

You'll slowly learn and your mind will start to work like a geocacher. Suddenly you'll arrive at Groundzero and start looking for holes in trees or fallen logs to find your cache. Where in the beginning, you'll probably have to luck into a couple of caches.

Sometimes, just put down the GPS:

I can be guilty of this. You wander around back and forth because your GPS can't zero in on a consistent location. You look away for 2 seconds and see the cache immediately. I would say, I've done that 5 or 6 times already. I'm getting better about stopping and looking instead of staring at the little numbers on my phone.

Research, research, research:

I usually go out early Saturday or Sunday morning and try to polish off a number of caches before the muggle (cacher word for non-players) starts to really get dense. This is nice for picking off a number of high traffic area caches with little interference.

Before that, I plot out my path for that trip. I know in what order I'm going, I read the description completely, read the log entries and look at the placement of the cache on the map. Why do I do this? Because my success rate of finding caches that I go in cold for is much lower. The more I research and prepare, the better my odds are when I go out looking. There's nothing worse than walking a mile to a cache and then having to walk a mile back empty handed. Research will increase your odds of success.

Dress appropriately:

This was my first big lesson as a cacher. Wear pants!!!

No, seriously... wear pants. If you're going off the beaten trail at all, which most caches in the woods will require, you're going to want pants. You're going to be walking through some thick underbrush at times in the summer and it will save you a lot of bug bites and possible poison ivy to do this.

I always wear pants when I plan to geocache in the woods.

Sometimes, the cache just isn't there.

This has happened to me, I think twice so far. Went up to a cache, didn't find it and was confused because that was the only possible location it could be in. Left, came back at a later date and the cache is suddenly there. I have no idea why this happens when there's nothing in the logbook about it being gone. It just happens.

Read the last several log entries:

This will save you a massive headache. If the last several cachers have logged Did Not Finds on this cache, there's a good chance it's gone. If no one has logged anything on the cache in several years, it might be gone too. If the last post is asking for owner maintenance then you might want to hold off for a few days until the owner fixes it. The logs exist for a reason.

There are some helpful hints that might not be super apparent at first. I hope this helps anyone that is thinking about going after their first cache soon or who has just started finding a couple.

My day...

The company I work for has a program called 'Invest A Day'. Essentially as an employee you get 1 day a year where you can take off work and do some charitable work. Some people go to a pet shelter, others go to a soup kitchen, etc. There's all sorts of things that one can invest their day in.

I decided to do it this year and my boss pointed me to a food kitchen working out of a nearby church. It sounded good so I filled out my paperwork and contacted the man that coordinates and I was ready to go.

I arrived at 10 this morning. We unloaded his van and started to strategize our day. The menu was open faced roast beef sandwiches with gravy, mashed potato casserole and fruit salad for desert. The meal started at 6 so we had a little time here and there to chill out and talk a bit.

The man's name was Michael and we had a lot in common. We both leaned about the same on the political scale, we were both into guns and we were both trying to lose weight. So on top of cooking, I got to know Michael and we came to know each other quite a bit. Later, some other people from my company showed up and I got to know them a little bit too.

The work wasn't too bad as I've worked in similar kitchens in my younger days. I pulled apart the roast beef, pulled the stems off some grapes and helped make the mashed potato casserole. It was nice to see that the people coming in that night would get a good quality meal.

It was a really good experience overall. It was nice to give back to the community a little bit. It was a nice change of pace to take a few hours out of my life and do something selfless instead of self involved. I talked to Michael at the end of the day and this is an ongoing thing. I plan to go out and help with serving and preparing meals after work maybe once a month or so. That was my day...

Another one of those "adulthood" posts.

September hit and that brings on the usual stresses as an adult:

"I better start buying Trick or Treat candy."
"Crap, I haven't saved a dime for Christmas this year."
"It's going to be getting dark really early soon."

and so on and so fourth.

It kind of amazes me how condensed the rest of the year becomes once Labor Day passes. You start gearing up for leaves and Halloween and then Christmas and New Year's are here before you know it. It's a very different pace than when you were in school and college.

September and October were back to school season. You had to readjust to a lifestyle with responsibility so those months could just drag on for a really long time. September always felt like a month that lasted forever and October was pretty long too. The same with December really, you were always eager for Christmas to get here so it took forever. Now, Thanksgiving ends and Christmas gets here so fast you almost wish you had another week to prepare.

I think for me, it's mostly about routine. I get up, go to work 5 days a week and then try to enjoy my weekends as much as possible. You fall into that lifestyle and suddenly the weeks, months and even years fly past you. You kind of just get lost in the day to day flow of things and suddenly, you're some distant point in the future and don't know how you arrive there.

I'm not sure why I was thinking about it this weekend. I brought it up to Kelly a few days ago as some side conversation on our commute home. Anyways, I really do need to start buying Trick or Treat candy. Better add that to the list...

I'm back... and stuff...

I've been quite for a good long while.

My wife and I went on vacation to North Carolina 2 weeks ago and I kind of checked out of life in the lead up. I hadn't been on a real vacation in probably 9 years and I was way overdue for it. Needless to say, my brain totally checked out of life in the lead up so a lot of things went to the wayside, including this blog.

It was a good vacation. We hit the beach several days and romped in the ocean. We hit Myrtle Beach for an evening. And we generally relaxed and let the stresses of our lives leave us for the brief time we spent there.

We also survived our first week back at work and this week it's time to get back into routine. Time to start exercising again, time to get the house back under control and time to generally be an adult again.

Transformers #81 Regeneration One

In my 20+ years of comic book buying and reading there have been 5 constants throughout. The X-Men, Avengers, Iron Man, Justice League and Transformers. Those books, I've almost always stuck with. The original Transformers series had just ended right before I really started getting into comics. Generation 2 came out and I grabbed that series and remember enjoying it. I have a lot of fond memories of diving into the back issue bins at the local shops and piecing together a pretty complete run of the 80 issue Transformers series.

IDW has had the license for about 7 years I think. The series have all been pretty good. The Marvel series was kind of a mixed bag. It was tied in heavily with the toylines at the time. So you constantly had characters dying and coming back as the new toy and characters just appearing and disappearing to tie in with the toys. I have a lot of nostalgia for that series but I don't know how it would hold up to a modern viewing.

With that said. This book takes up 21 years after that series left off. The War of Cybertron is over and the Autobots have settled into being the dominate power on the planet. IDW works the Wreckers in which were never used in the Marvel books. Kup and the Wreckers become displeased with how Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus are running the planet and head off for adventure. I don't want to spoil the events of the book so I'm not really going to go to indepth on the plot.

The book was okay and I think I will give it a couple of issues and see where it goes. I'm a little annoyed at the series as I don't feel that the original series really needed to be revisited. Plus, there's a disconnect here. It feels like an IDW continuity book with the Wreckers. I didn't really feel a lot of connection to the Marvel series.

And as I stated before, the Marvel series was just a mess towards the end. I don't see why they thought this would sell or be in demand. I guess they suckered me in for a couple of issues. Check it out if you have fond memories of the old Marvel Transformers.

Wait... this is Ohio right? Not Florida?

If you live outside of Ohio, you probably haven't heard much of the storms that tore through the state a week ago. The media likes to pretend that New York, DC and L.A. are the only cities in the United States. The storm also hit DC so that's been the exclusive focus of the coverage.

My wife and I went to dinner at W.G. Grinders that night and my wife had mentioned that there was a severe weather advisory in effect until 5:30. The sky looked pretty clear and we went about our business as usual. We left a pet store around 5:15 and the sky had become black as night.

We decided to head home and the storm hit. The winds were 80 MPH and the rain was literally coming off the ground in waves. I was speeding down the back country road we often take because I feared the power lines might blow over. It was a battle to just control the car. We safely made it to our neighborhood but trees were falling in the road and we had to keep detouring because of blocks. The visibility had become so bad that my wife had to help me look for things in the road.

We made it to our house and rushed in. The power was out and would be for about 5 days. We were drenched to the bone from the going to the car to the house. Something like 600,000 people lost power in these storms. It was crazy and was probably the worst natural event that I've ever lived through. It was for all purposes a hurricane in wind levels and such.

Thankfully, our house made it out of this with no damage. We stayed with my parents for the days we were without power so we didn't have to suffer through the 100 degree days with no AC. Our biggest loss was all the food in the fridge and freezer. Below is what survived:

Driving through the area is still surreal in a lot of ways. There are giant trees that have just been blown over or split at the top. On a part of a major road 15 high tension towers came down during the storm. It was an interesting experience to say the least.

That was the last week of my life... may I never live through it again.

Geocaching II

I've continued to adventure and look for more caches in the general area of my house. Kelly even joined me tonight as we headed off to a local park and bike trail. I'm sitting at a total of 8 official finds with a 9th one that I have to answer some questions for.

Sunday Night:

Find #3: Sunday night I realized there was another cache in the park where I made my first find earlier that day. So I rushed back and quickly found it in the roots of a tree. There were no goodies in this one as it was quite small. Signed my name and was happy with to notch another one in my belt.

Find #4: This was one that I had tried earlier in the day but needed pants and shoes to go for. I returned and found this one in a matter of seconds. The cache was awesome as it was carved into an actual log and left there. Signed and fled this park as quickly as possible. Supposedly the back of this park is a hook up for local perverts and I wanted out of there as quickly as possible.

Monday Night:

Find #5: This one was hidden in a tree on a soccer field. I had tried this one Sunday but there were police hanging around the area and I didn't want to appear suspicious so I moved on. Came back and grabbed it on Monday. This one was quick and easy. Honestly, prying the paper out of the tube was harder than finding the thing.

Unofficial Find: This is an Earth one. You go to the spot and answer various questions. This one is going to require some creek stomping to get an answer so I just need to get motivated.

Monday was a little tough as I missed 3 others after this. One I just looked in the wrong spot and two others had people buzzing about so I gave a fairly shallow search.

Tonight:

Kelly wanted to see one of the nature trails and there were nearby caches so I had a partner in crime for this adventure.

Find #6: This one was a short way off of a bike trail. Kelly spotted the hollowed out tree trunk. This one was a huge jar with all sorts of goodies inside. Kelly's favorite was a little eraser animal.

Find #7: This is one that I had missed the previous night. It was in a hollowed out tree. I looked and looked and couldn't find it. I suddenly looked up and there it was. I felt kind of silly for having missed it the previous day.

Find #8: This was on a different part of the trail and Kelly and I decided to make the trek as this one would be fairly easy to get. The terrain was a little rough to navigate once we got there but I spotted it in a tree. Grabbed it and signed and we headed home for the night.

Great night tonight. 3 for 3 which had me feeling better considering Monday wasn't as productive. The weather is unfortunately going to get much hotter so I will probably lay low until the weekend rolls around again. I may snipe one or two gimmes through the week but I probably won't attempt multiple finds for a few days.

The verdict so far on geocaching is that I'm loving every minute of it. I can't wait to get home and go out looking for a new cache. I've also gotten in a ton of exercise the last three days which is awesome. I would recommend this activity to anyone that's interested.

Get out there and find some buried treasure!

Geocaching and Me!

This is an activity that's been on my radar for probably about 11 years. I first came across the idea in an issue of Knights of the Dinner Table. The writer wrote an editorial on it in one issue and the characters became obsessed with it around the same time. It sounded like a cool idea. Alas, it was 2001 and I was a college student and a GPS was a pricey item. So I forgot about the idea for a long time until I heard it mentioned on some random podcast. I remembered what it was and I was excited and wanted to go home and look it up. I forgot about it for another 4 months as life just kind of happened.

Until this week.

I guess before I go into things. I should mention what Geocaching is. If you don't want to read that much. It's essentially a GPS powered treasure hunt. People hide containers in various places and post them to a site. You then use your GPS and a series of clues to find the container. You then sign a log book and you can leave some little item for the next person to find it.

I set out this morning and spent a few hours trying this out. For starters, it was great exercise, I came stomping back to the house a sweaty mess and my Nike Fuel Band had almost 1500 pts. built up on it. And my wife said she hasn't seen me this excited and happy about something in a very long time.

Cache #1: I made the strategic error of wearing shorts for this one. I found where it was hidden but there was overgrown plant life and I didn't want to risk poison ivy so I passed and decided to come back at a later date.

Cache #2: I wandered a little bit back and forth looking for this one and then I saw it. A giant hole in a tree. I got a little closer and there it was. A little black container. I pulled it out and shook the dirt off. There was a little flashlight, a piggy toy, a mint and some other various things in here. I signed off on their logbook and headed off. I made my first Geocache find!

Cache #3: This one was on a little trail near a pond. Unfortunately it had been found and destroyed. The destroyers ruined a perfectly good David Bowie cassette too! Jerks. Oh well, I kind of sort of found this one. So 2 successes on the day.

Cache #4: I realized there was a second cache in this park so I walked towards it. My GPS was flipping out on this one a lot so there was a lot of back and forth. I found a tree with a big hole in it but it was going to be a blind reach and grab so I backed off from it. I checked when I got home and that's where the item was. I may go back for this one more in the fall. The overgrowth was pretty bad and I want to make sure there aren't any animals lurking in said tree.

I spent about two and a half hours of my day doing this and I absolutely loved it. I was outdoors, I saw some places I would never have seen before. I had to use my brain to find the various hidden caches and I got a load of exercise out of it. Earning almost 1500 Fuel Points like that is no easy feat.

I realize I need some gear for this. I should probably make a little kit with a knife, pen and some goodies to leave in the caches I find. Being prepared for the situations is always good. After #4, I will probably make sure to research any cache before I go for it. It's not that I didn't enjoy the chase, I might have just waited on that one considering where it was hidden.

I went 2 for 4 on my journeys. I know where the other 2 are and it will just be a matter of getting back to them. There's numerous around where I live so I think I will have a lot to keep me occupied until I decide to branch out a little more. I plan for this to be something to do early on my Saturday and Sunday mornings. I plan to tackle 1 or 2 a week depending on what's going on.

Stay tuned, I will keep posting updates as I continue to explore this new hobby.

Being sick

2012 hasn't been the greatest of years for me healthwise. I started off the year with a good old fashioned ulcer. Then a couple of weeks ago a spider bit me and gave me cellulitis. I was also randomly losing hair on my body and head during this time so I got that checked out. Turns out I have borderline low iron and low thyroid hormone production... yippee!

The main lesson I've learned from the various tests performed on me is that...

NURSES SUCK WITH NEEDLES!!!

I had to have blood taken today and she left an ugly bruise on my arm. And this is after a nurse left a hand sized bruise on my arm after a failed IV attempt earlier this year. Seriously, I've learned to really appreciate the nurses that get in there, do a minimal amount of damage and send you on your merry way.

So if you're a nurse and reading this. Either you suck and I hate you or you're awesome, please come and do my IV because you won't maim me in the process.

Rant over for today. Tune in later for your regularly scheduled program.

Eating Healthy

Food. I would say food is probably my biggest vice in life. I love food that is bad for me. I love pizza, potatoes, hamburgers and various other things of badness.

Food is the real battle when it comes to weight loss for me. Exercise? That's easy. If I get in the habit of exercising, I do it no problem. Plus, I like exercise. I like going outside and walking or otherwise doing physical activities. I'm a better person when I'm exercising and being in shape makes even simple everyday things easier.

Food is tough though. I'm not a big vegetable guy. I don't like greens so salads are right out the window for me. I like fruits but I'm very picky. I'm picky with apples and bananas to the point that I just avoid them. There's nothing worse than going to the effort to pick out some fruits at the store only to get them home to realize they weren't that good.

It's really a battle for me to find healthy choices for food and to not want to murder myself after a few days. This time around I'm doing okayish on the food front. I'm eating these Emerald breakfast nut blends. Those usually run 180-190 calories and have a variety of nuts, dried fruits and yogurt covered raisins. I'm trying to do soups for lunch a and mixing in a sandwich here and there. On a good day, I get through my first two meals only using about 600 calories.

I could still do better. I still drink Coke Zero which is bad for me. I should drop it but I've made so many other food sacrifices this year and that turns into an excuse to not stop. I eat too much Fast Food. I make better decisions when I go for Fast Food but Wendys is my go to "I had a crappy day, I want to stuff my face" eatery. I eat too much red meat. I'm always going to eat too much red meat though, red meat is delicious.

Eating healthy for me is a daily fight. I have to get up when that alarm goes off in the morning and tell myself that I have to watch what I eat that day. Otherwise, I'll just do whatever I want.

I've really liked being 20+ lbs. lighter and the stress is on to keep it off now. It's a daily grind, a hard daily grind but for me, if I want to keep the weight off I have to do it. That's my life. I want something, I have to do the work for it.

Back at it...

Got back to the exercise this weekend. I walked 1.84 miles on Saturday and did 2.02 miles today. It felt good to get back out there after the cellulitis outbreak I had at the end of May.

I've also started writing again. I was listening to a lot of Gunsmoke on my Ipod and it kind of spawned a western setting story in my head. I've been writing a little bit here and there for it. I don't have much, yet but it seems to be going from my head to computer pretty easily. I haven't determined how long the story will be. I was thinking of doing it as a series of short stories and see if there's a novel there at the end. I'll just have to see how it develops over time.

Next week, Kelly and I are going to go watch cartoons at a local theater. I've been wanting to do this for years but we always forget. It'll be old Warner Brother cartoons on the big screen. I'm really looking forward to it.

Chikara High Noon Review

I mentioned Chikara briefly in another post but I thought I would review the show I watched this weekend and go into it a little more.

Chikara is an American independent wrestling promotion that operates primarily out of PA. It has branched out over the years to more and more Mid-West states. The style is primarily based on lucha libre. That means that a lot of the roster wear masks and wrestle a more high flying style. The promotion is also largely comedy based and a lot of the characters are ridiculous and the angles are comic bookish or just silly. Chikara has existed for about 10 years now. I've followed it pretty heavily for about 5 of those years. The DVDs used to be $20 a piece so following wasn't easy. Thankfully, the DVD price has gone down to $15 and has made getting a few shows here and there a lot easier on my wallet.

Anyways, High Noon was the first Chikara iPPV (internet Pay-Per-View) ever and it was a highly successful show. This show was also the first time that Chikara had crowned a singles champion for their promotion. I unfortunately missed the iPPV live but I had been dying to get the DVD. Well, I finally bought it and got to watch it. So here we go...

Jigsaw d. El Generico

This was a high flying affair. It was a pretty short match and it was action packed. This was a good pre-show match as it got the crowd pretty worked up for the show.

Fire Ant and Soldier Ant d. Young Bucks

Both teams came into this match with 2 pts. (you need 3 pts. to earn a title shot, this means you have to win three matches in a row). The early goings where mostly comedy based as the Bucks were frustrated by the antics of the Ants. Things turned into a really fun hard hitting match. The end was really great as the Bucks went for their finisher More Bang For Your Buck and Soldier Ant managed to evade the move and got the win after rolling up his opponent. This match reminded me why I love the Colony so much in Chikara.

Sara Del Ray d. Jakob Hammermeier

This wasn't really much of a match really. It was enjoyable enough I guess.

Green Ant d. Tursas

This was to settle a long term grudge and I loved this match. It was just a brutal hate filled match as both men seemed like they were out to cause harm to the other. At one point Green Ant couldn't turn Tursas for a Texas Cloverleaf and just started kicking him in the back until he finally turned. It was a really cool visual and really showed the complete disdain these two had for each other.

Colt Cabana d. Archibald Peck

This match was pretty much pure comedy. Peck tried attacking Colt before the match and at one point came off the top rope and crashed to the mat when Colt bent over to pick up his towel. This match was hilarious from start to finish as Peck was constantly thwarted by the antics of Colt.

Icarus d. Gregory Iron

This match was okay but kind of forgettable.

Spectral Envoy d. Ares and Tim Donst

This was one of those garbage brawls that you used to see in ECW or the WWF around 1999 and 2000. These guys brawled through the building. The stipulations to the match gave the ending away but this was a fun brawl. Ultramantis Black really shined in this one.

Eddie Kingston d. Mike Quackenbush to win the Grand Championship of Chikara

Great main event here. Both men gave off the impression that they wanted the belt bad. Kingston was playing up that he injured his knee and Mike worked a little heel to get the fans solidly behind Kingston. Kingston got the win after just unloading on Mike at the end to become the first ever Grand Champion of Chikara.

I'll be honest here. I've never found a Chikara show that I didn't enjoy on some level. But I loved this show. This show got me excited for the product and my first reaction was to want to watch more Chikara. This show had it all. Hard hitting main event style, garbage brawls, grudge matches, lucha libre, comedy and spotfests. It kept you on your toes from start to finish.

What Influenced Me as a Writer

I think this article might be a little counter-intuitive to some people. The biggest influences on my writing have all come from television more than other writers. Sure, Terry Pratchett and Discworld has probably had some influence on me but Discworld came into my life much later and after my writing had started to take shape.

I tend to see myself as a comedy writer more than anything else. I like trying to be funny, I'm good at being funny and I've developed my writing sense of humor a lot over the years. So with that said, there are a few shows that have had gigantic influences on how I write, the kind of jokes I go for and how I structure myself.

Looney Toons:

I loved them as a kid and found a new love for them as an adult. Honestly, this is where I learned the rules of comedy. It taught me how to effectively use pop culture satire and it taught me how to be subtle in my approach to things. Especially as an adult, you really see the deeper comedy in Looney Toons. Foghorn Leghorn is suddenly this obnoxious sexist loudmouth instead of just being a loudmouth. If you haven't watch them as an adult, you should give it a try, there's really a new layer to the cartoons.

The Simpsons:

The Simpsons was arguably the biggest life influence I've ever had from a television show. I was 9 years old when the show's first season began and I watched faithfully until my early 20s. The biggest thing I've learned from the Simpsons has been character interaction. The Simpsons was a great example of how deep and well developed characters create the comedy and can almost write themselves in a lot of situations. I think I've developed a more natural style to my writing thanks to the Simpsons.

Mystery Science Theater 3000:

If you've never seen this show. It's a guy and two puppets watching really bad movies from the 40s, 50s and 60s and making fun of them while they watch. I can't point to specific things this show has influenced but I was watching this show on an almost daily basis for a long time.

Monty Python:

Why? Because you can't be funny without having seen something they've done. If you disagree, well then you're a dirty hippy. Get off my lawn... no really... get off my lawn... damn kids...

Falling in love with my wife...

July 2nd marks our 4th dating anniversary, February 27th is our wedding anniversary. Naturally, this time of year is when I reflect back on our early days as friends, a couple and why I fell in love with and decided to marry Kelly. Where to start then... well I was 27 and Kelly was 26 when we met. She was settling into her career and I was a nobody working a warehouse job at the time. She replied to my ad on Craigslist, we met, hit it off pretty well and then some months later we decided to become a couple.

Our first date was at a Bob Evans. I remember she hugged me and her hair smelled really good. The waiter was being kind of a pest as she couldn't decide on what she wanted. At one point he was even standing about 10 feet behind her waiting for her to pick. She realized this and asked if he was hovering and I said yes. So we order and then we both started making fun of the waiter. I believe we ended up theorizing that he was a furry and was ultimately a pervert. That broke the ice really well and it allowed me to open up and be funny. I thought she was really cute so that helped too.

The thing you have to understand about me is that I have a really dark sense of humor. If you know me in real life, you most likely haven't seen this side of me come out often. I'm not ashamed of my sense of humor but I do try not to offend those around me and I could literally offend almost anyone out there. Kelly, loved my sense of humor and could hold her own. I didn't have to worry about offending her and it really made her an endearing personality to me.

There were a lot of other qualities that made her someone I wanted to spend my life with but I'm not going to get into those very much at this point. I just wanted to throw a little story about my life in there and why I love Kelly.

Honestly, we started dating on July 2nd and I think at the time I was adamant about taking it slow and not getting in too deep to the love pool. But looking back, I think I had fallen in love with her before then. I loved being with her and she had become my companion in a lot of ways already. Today, it's hard to remember my life without her.

A little friendly advice

When you want to make a point to a corporation, think about what you're doing first. Think about who you're really going to effect with your temper tantrum. Why you ask? Because you're never going to affect the people at the top of the food chain. Your mail bomb, nasty letter, etc is going to affect some person that's just trying to make a buck in a mail room somewhere.

I work in a mail room at an insurance company currently. It's not a bad job, you get to rustle through people's mail and every day is an adventure in what you're going to find. So I thought I would give some helpful advice to people out there. I'm going to reveal the inner workings of corporate America so you understand how it works and can better communicate with said companies.

So let's get into the nitty gritty of my job. I help open all the incoming mail on an given day. This can be as high as 2000 pieces of mail on a big day. We then discern where the letter goes and route it accordingly. My job is a lot more complicated than that but that is one of the basic features of my job.

So here's some advice for you.

1. That letter you sent to the CEO calling him a "dirty inbred pig fucker" will never actually make it to the CEO. That usually goes to a Communication department at most companies. At my company that happens to be a really nice lady in her late 60s that's retiring this year. So she's the one actually reading your opinions on the mating habits of said CEO.

2. This actually happened to me this week. When you get mad at your claim adjuster and decide to be a douchebag and send in 2000 receipts to make a point, that affects me, not the claim adjuster. I have to organize and prep that into something usable for the adjuster's files. They get a nice clean document after my group is done with it. You just wasted a bunch of people's time that has nothing to do with the person you have a beef with.

3. I'm an asshole and my job is boring at times. Yes, I will make fun of your bad grammar and handwriting. Likewise, if you work at a company that has a picture directory. Mail people have to look you up constantly and will make fun of you, remember you if you have an overly horrific picture.

So there you have it, some helpful advice to better serve your needs with your friendly neighborhood corporation.

My Weekend

It was a little up and down for me over the weekend. The steroids ended up really hitting side effect wise on Saturday. I would get hungry really suddenly and get very angry on top of it. Today has been better but I can still get hungry at the drop of a hat and everything is downhill from there. I honestly don't see how guys can be on steroids on a constant basis. I was pretty up and down the rest of the day. Today was a lot better but I'm dreading tomorrow. I'm just going to need to have snacks at the ready and survive. Hopefully, I'll be feeling normal soon.

I thought about ordering the Chikara iPPV last night but my wife and I got busy. They were busy over night because this afternoon, the DVD came out already. So I ordered it and another Chikara show that I had been wanting. Hopefully those will show up during the week.

If you haven't seen Chikara, you're missing out. It's a more comedy based promotion that has a lucha libre style. The characters are colorful, there's lots of masks and the shows will have you laughing out loud. It really is a joy to follow them from show to show. I can't afford to buy every show or even half of the shows but I am always happy to support them with my hard earned money.

Today my wife and I went to the Columbus Arts Festival. It was nice to be on the river and out in the nice air. The festival itself seemed to be lacking this year. For starters, it felt like half of the event was food and outside interests and then it felt like half of the art stalls were peddling purses and jewelry. Last year we stopped and looked at several stalls, this year we kind of just gave everything a once over, enjoyed the scenery of the day and got lemon shakeups before leaving. It was worthwhile even if the festival itself was lacking.

I also have the den mostly up and running. The tv is working and I can watch DVDs on it. I also bought a DVD set at Wal-Mart that has 100 old B horror movies. I'm eagerly awaiting to dive into that. Tons of old movies that showed up on MST3K and many that unfortunately did not.

Life decided to strike...

and I woke up with a swollen up face. It appears a spider decided to bite me on the ear while I was working in the den on Tuesday and my face responded by freaking out. The swelling started at my ear, went across my face, down my neck and into my shoulder and chest area.

With all of these things, you're presented with a choice... do you go to urgent care or the ER. Because if you choose incorrectly you just wasted a crap ton of money. We decided to go to the ER because it sounded like cellulitis which can get bad in a hurry. Several hours of answering the same questions 6,000,000,000 times and wanting to kick several nurses in the ass, I left full of steroids and a prescription for antibiotics.

That was my day, how is your's going?

Farewell to the Thunderbolts

One of my favorite comics is undergoing a transformation in a month or two. The Thunderbolts will be changing it's name to Dark Avengers with issue #175. Sales have been falling off as of late and this is an attempt by the Marvel brass to spark sales by slapping the Avengers name on there. Nothing is forever though, I imagine the Thunderbolts name will come back at some point or they'll start with a new number 1 after this series gets cancelled.

The Thunderbolts first appeared in 1997. Most of the Marvel heroes were dead following the Onslaught event and the Thunderbolts appeared to fill the void. They got a lot of hype in Wizard if I remember correctly but honestly, they seemed like your fairly run of the mill 90s looking team. I really paid them no mind at first as I didn't find them to be a very interesting concept. But then this happened at the end of issue 1:

That's right! The Thunderbolts were really the Masters of Evil posing as good guys. I don't recall what Baron Zemo's endgame was anymore but the twist took everyone by surprise. The book took everyone by surprise and those first couple of issues were really hard to find because the print run was fairly low. It took me maybe 3-4 months to track down those first 5 or 6 issues. But I did it and I loved this book. As the series progressed the Masters slowly took to being heroes and eventually had a falling out with Baron Zemo. Hawkeye finds his way onto the team and the Thunderbolts are off to redeem themselves.

Redemption is the key to the Thunderbolts. Super villains join the team and try to make amends for their past crimes. Even when Norman Osborn was head of the program, there were still characters seeking their redemption on the team.

The book has had it's ups and downs over the years. Probably about a 50/50 split on good times vs. bad times. But you have to give this book a ton of credit. The Thunderbolts carried a series for 174 issues in an era where new character ideas really struggle to sell comics.

As I said earlier. I don't see this as goodbye. Things tend to be circular in comics. The Thunderbolts name will probably make a return in the next 3-5 years. I just thought I'd take a brief walk down memory lane.

An Ode to Old Time Radio

Several years ago my then fiance Kelly told me about a podcast called the Horror. The Horror was a show that replayed old radio horror programming. The programming varied as you could get anything from the 1930s into the 1980s. The programs varied in quality but it was a fascinating look into a long past time. And of course, you develop your favorites of the various shows and I expanded out into other genres. I've surprisingly wandered into the Western genre which has never been a favorite of mine.

Anyways. I figured I would use this post to cover some of my favorite old time radio programs.

CBS Mystery Radio Theater: This is perhaps my favorite of all of the old time radio shows. It came about in the 70s when radio dramas were making a bit of a comeback. This ran from 1974-1982. I like this show because it has the mentality of shows from the 40s and 50s but it has more modern technology so the show is executed a little better. I've actually decided to try and listen to all 1399 episodes of this series. I'm currently at episode 142. Long way to go.

The Shadow: Orson Welles stars as the Shadow in the series for the first year or so of the show. Let's just say, he was awesome in the role. He created this sinister vibe and you truly understood why he was this fearsome figure. This show predates Superman by about a year. The Shadow is considered to be a pulp hero not a super hero. Most episodes involve his sinister laugh and the bad guy dying in some horrible way while the Shadow doesn't do much of anything. The format does change here and there but the bad guy dies about 8/10 times on this show. His replacement wasn't as good honestly. I would just listen to the Orson Welles episodes.

Inner Sanctum Mystery: This is your typical horror/mystery show. You have a host, Raymond Edward Johnson, who introduces the stories and pops in around commercials for some ghoulish banter. There's also a woman that represents Lipton Iced Tea, the sponsor, and she often joins in the banter with Raymond. Honestly, the stories can be a little boring and predictable but the hosts always provide for an entertaining time.

Gunsmoke: I had started listening to the Lone Ranger due to the upcoming movie and Gunsmoke was always something that I had been curious about. I instantly loved this series. It was like graduating from the Lone Ranger to Gunsmoke. With the Lone Ranger no one is ever really hurt and you know everything will be okay by the end of the episode. With Gunsmoke, people die, it's tense, it's gritty and you feel the struggle of the characters. This is just a well acted series. William Conrad stars as Matt Dillion and he does a great job. If you try one Western, listen to this.

Price of Fear: This is a BBC Radio series that stars horror icon Vincent Price as himself. Each episode is a horror story that involves Price and the people around him. Price is mostly just a narrator and witness to horrible events that happen to people around him. The show is always well acted of course and the stories can be pretty fun. I might try to track down the entire series at some point and give it the CBS Radio Mystery Theater treatment.

There you have it, some of my favorite old time radio series. Most of these sites have archive sites or can be found on iTunes via various podcasts. Check them out, you won't regret it.

Inspiration

The basement has been that project that I've just never got around too. The plan has always been for that to become a secondary entertainment room. A place where I can go and watch wrestling, anime, etc. and not subject Kelly to something she might not be as interested in. And, sometimes you need to head off and do your own thing when you're married.

So there has been a few phases to this. I was doing a nautical theme for awhile but I hadn't really added a ton to it past some pictures. Then today I had a sudden inspiration and the basement has started to take off.

My dad bought my a tin Batman sign and I decided to hang it up in the basement this afternoon. I put it up and it suddenly brought the room to life for me. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with the room. Kelly and I went to Half Price books and I added a Captain America and Incredible Hulk sign to the mix. No Iron Man, which I'm disappointed in. We checked some other places but I didn't find the Iron Man one I wanted. I did come across one for Spider-Man and one for the Silver Surfer. I plan to add those eventually but they can wait.

The tin signs are really cool. They are retro and feature the character as they appeared in the late 60s/early 70s. The signs even look a little beat up and aged to add to the effect. They're pretty cool to look out and I'll be able to eventually have Cap, Iron Man, Thor and the Hulk to represent the Avengers. I'll add other heroes as I can find them but that was my inspiration at the moment.

I moved the furniture around a bit to prepare for when I have a tv down there. We're getting an old one tomorrow and hopefully it will be a good start. I'm looking forward to getting back into watching Smoky Mountain Wrestling when we get a tv and dvd player set up down there.

I'll post pictures when I get more completed on my room.

Q&A Time

If you had the chance to redo high school, knowing what you know now, how would you redo it?

This was a question that my friend Dan answered on his Xanga page a couple of weeks ago and it's kind of been churning around in my brain off and on since. I figured, why not make a blog post out of it.

To me, that's a hard question to answer truthfully. I don't really dwell on my high school years very much these days as I'm too busy just living. But my memories tend to be mostly fond. I was fairly popular as high school progressed and I got decent grades. I don't feel like those years were extremely wasted in hindsight. I mean, we all honestly waste our youth, it's just part of the ignorance of being young. You'll always shoulda woulda coulda yourself about your younger years.

I guess if I had to go back and pull out regrets. I regret getting burned out on drawing in Art class. I feel I had some skills that could have been shaped into something and I really let that slip away. I get the itch from time to time and I just don't have the same proficiency with a pencil like I did when I was a teenager. I wish I could go back and convince myself to continue.

Past that, the bad things that happened all made me who I am today. Girls not liking me or giving me a chance made my wife that much more special to me. I didn't do anything super stupid that I had to live with forever. And I cemented friendships with people like Justin, Adam, Natalie, Dan, Dave, Graydon, Abby and Woody that still preserve today.

New site look...

I updated the look of the site and

Mighty Marvel Reading Project

Adventures in Columbus Dining

I wanted to get away from generic looking sites like everything else on Blogger. I think all three look a lot slicker and hope it helps the growth of my blogs. I haven't mentioned Columbus Dining before. That's a blog where Kelly and I review local Columbus, OH restaurants. So check them out and follow if you would like.

The Nike Fuel Band and Me...

As a reward for losing 20+ lbs. thus far this year, I splurged a bit and bought a Nike Fuel Band as a reward for all of my hardwork. The Fuel Band is a relatively new gadget. What it is is a fancy pedometer. It counts your steps and your calories but the important thing is... it converts all of this into Nike Fuel Points.

You set your goal daily for how many Fuel Points you want to earn. 2000 for a fairly regular day and 3000 for a day where you'll be exercising. You can go nutty and have higher goals but I doubt I'll be doing that. The idea behind this is to hit your goal as many days as possible. So it's an hour before bed and you're 500 points short, you better do some exercise and get those last few points you need.

I got this Thursday night and couldn't hit my goal of 3000 because I just didn't have the time. Friday, I went to work and pretty easily hit 3000 and beyond. For the weekend, I decided to drop my goal to 2000 because I would be less active. Family came in on Saturday and I was pretty inactive so 4 pm rolled in and I only had 650 pts. So I got up and walked for about 35 minutes and bumped that total up to about 1600 points. I met my goal for the day. Today, we did our normal thing and I was sitting at 1550 at close to 7 pm. I walked for about 20 minutes and got to my 2000 point goal.

It connects via USB to your PC and uploads your stats to a website so you can see an hour by hour breakdown of your activity and how far you've walked, etc. It will even compare your activity by day over a longer period of time.

I'm pleased with it so far. It got me to workout a total of 55 minutes that I wouldn't have on a different weekend. It's giving my a tangible goal to hit on a daily basis and I think that's good for me. I'll be bumping it back up to 3000 for the work week. We'll see how it goes as time progresses.

I might post a video review of this later on. I haven't decided one way or the other though.

5/15 is on the way...

Which means Diablo III awesomeness is only essentially a day away. I downloaded the client last week so all I have to do is hit install when the game goes live on Tuesday and the long awaited Diablo III will be mine. Cue evil laugh there.

In the meantime, Kelly and I bought Kingdoms of Amalur. I've enjoyed it a lot in the 5 hours I'ved played so far. It's kind of what I wanted Fable III to be when it came out. It controls like Fable and has the greatest complexities of Dragon Age tacked on. So far the world seems well developed and there are a lot of side quests to pick up. The class system is a lot different. You have skill trees in might, sorcery and finesse. You add points to these as you level, you can mix and match however you want. Based on how many points you invest in those skills will effect which classes you can be as the game progresses. I'm a little worried about sub-optimal builds but other people have said they haven't had issues. So we'll see how it goes.

I want my MTV...

Okay, not really.

I was thinking about the old Columbus Public Access channel a couple of days ago for whatever reason. I wasn't sure why it went off the air and Googled it. The city council cut the funding for whatever reason in the mid 2000s. This made me a little sad. There was nothing like being at someone's house at 11 on a Saturday night and catching the late night hijinks of the various guys.

For those of you from places without public access, this is how it works. You want to put the time and effort in, you can have your own show. This means that during the day it's a lot of religious programming and after about 11 it turns into the wild west of television. And by wild west I mean, anything short of penetration is fair game on a public access channel.

I got my start watching public access because they had wrestling on. I was in my mid teens and devoured anything wrestling related that came on television at the time. I watched lucha libre on the Spanish channel on Saturdays after WCW Saturday Night was over. And this was perfect, the IWA aired on Tuesday afternoons. Now granted, the IWA was probably the most rinky-dink promotion to ever exist. I mean, they worked from a venue where the ceiling was so low that the guys couldn't climb to the top rope. But it was wrestling so I watched it.

Eventually through the grapevine I heard about the late night programming. I think it was my friend Dan had become a fan of some of the later night guys. Fan might not be the right word. It was more trainwreck television than anything else.

I looked stuff up on Youtube and the various guys haven't aged well. Some of the stuff was oddly self important and shocking for the sake of shocking. I still have my fond memories but I think it's one of those you can't go home again moments.