Politics: Just When I Get Out... You Pull Me Back In!

Politics were kind of a forbidden topic for me when I started this blog. I had been making a more deliberate effort to pull away from politics as 2010 progressed into 2011. I paid attention as the Presidential campaign progressed last year and tried to swear things off after the sequester stuff in December.

Frankly, I found the 2012 Presidential Election to be repugnant on both sides of the aisle. Nothing was too low for anyone to try and throw at the other party. The media also joined the fray and pretty much flushed any of their remaining credibility down the toilet in an attempt to get Obama re-elected President. Facebook wasn't any better as people really shed the clothes of civility as November neared. Needless to say, I found it all to be a highly distasteful experience. So I was done with it and I was wondering why I even bothered to vote when January came around.

Then the IRS scandal happened, I read and paid attention to that. Then the intentional misreporting of the George Zimmerman trial caught my eye and the next thing I knew, I was plugged into the political realm again. I decided I was going to remove the limitation I placed on my blog and talk about politics. I'm still going to talk about sports, movies, comics and video games. I'm just going to open the floor for some of my political thoughts as well.

So what does that mean for you? Well, I'm neither Democrat or Republican. If I did come to identify with a political party, it would be the Libertarian party. With that said, I don't support their views in a lot of areas such as drugs, capital punishment and their childish views of foreign relations. I'm a strict Constitution and small government person. In my general opinion the government's job is to build and maintain roads, build and maintain an army for our protection and to insure our rights as citizens of this country. All that other crap that's going on? Sorry, not in the Constitution so it's not within your authority.

That's a really brief and dumbed down summary of my beliefs. So be warned, politics may come up in the future at some point.

The Wolverine and You

Friday was my wife's birthday and we went and saw the Wolverine in theaters. If I haven't mentioned it before, Wolverine is my wife's absolute favorite comic book character. She collected his series as a teenager. Needless to say she was extremely supportive of my comic habit when we first started dating.

I hated the first movie. I can't state specifics because I only saw the movie once and a long time ago. I thought this one was a lot better. It picks up the pieces from X-Men Last Stand. The movie takes place mostly in Japan and is loosely based on the original limited series from the 1980s.

Wolverine and Japan are a good mix. It was long overdue for the movies to take him there. The action was good in this movie. I little different for a superhero flick but Wolverine is a good character to go in a different direction with. It felt more like a 90s action flick when the fights started up. More grounded in reality and a little more gritty. Not as flashy as you would think a superhero usually has. I thought the plot was good overall. It was a pretty focused plot. There were just the right amount of characters and it felt like everyone served a purpose.

The pacing was a bit of an issue though. It felt like it took 30-40 minutes to do all the setup necessary for the plot. Wolverine starts out in Alaska and that part of it felt unnecessary. His "one with nature" act was really cliche and eye rolling. The movie suffered from being really predictable as well. There were a couple of twists in there and no one was surprised by them.

Overall, I would give this a high C+ or a really low B- depending on my mood at any given moment. I was dreading this movie but I was pleasantly surprised. I doubt I would ever purchase this on blu-ray but if I ran into it on TNT several years from now, I might stop and watch.

2013 Columbus Blue Jackets Preview

This is the first season of the post-Rick Nash era. The team finally hit rock bottom and they decided to trade away their "star" player and start over again. Now, I like Rick Nash a lot. It was nice having a high calibur player on the team but ultimately, I think Rick Nash was bad for the team.

Why you ask? He's not the kind of guy you want as the best player on your team. Rick Nash is a very talented no. 2 for a team. He's about the equal to what Malkin is to the Pittsburgh Penguins. He does a good job, you love him but you want him paired up with Sidney Crosby, not being the anchor to your franchise. That's what Rick Nash was to the Columbus Blue Jackets. He had the appearance of being a franchise player but he really just convinced the team that they had this chance of competing for the last 5 years when they really didn't. They were asking Nash to be a guy to carry the team on his shoulders and make the playoffs every year when he's the guy that should be backing up the guy that is carrying the team on his shoulders.

So Nash is gone and the roster is in bad shape but I find myself happier as a fan of the team. The pressure is off, this team isn't competing, it's rebuilding. This team knows what it is now an they seem to be acting accordingly. The fans seem to be breathing a sigh of relief and I'm hoping it produces a better on ice product as a result.

Centers:

Derick Brassard is back as the top center on the team. Brassard is what he is. He's slightly above average as a defender. He doesn't get a lot of points but he plays pretty hard. Artem Anisimov came over in the Nash trade with the Rangers. He's another solid center. The bottom of the order is Ryan Johansen and Mark Letstu.

You won't see a lot of points coming from the centers this year. Brassard is the only one that managed more than 40 last season. I think goal production is going to be tough all over the team but I think this is a very talent poor position for the team. No one is really a stand out player at all.

Right Wing:

I expect R.J. Umberger to get the captain slot this year. He's the local boy that came home to the team several years ago. He's also the most productive offensive player goal wise left on the team. If the Blue Jackets are going to garner any kind of success, Umberger is probably going to have to lead the way and score on a level he's never really shown a capacity for. I expect he'll be a rock solid player as always and be a good captain for the team.

Jared Boll, Cam Atkinson and Derek Dorsett round out this position. These guys might manage 10 goals between them all year. And that's a big might. Atkinson did managed 14 pts. in 27 games which isn't an awful pace to keep. He has some breakout potential if he stays healthy. But the season hasn't start and he's battling injuries already.

Left Wing:

This is actually probably the deepest position on the team as Vinny Propsal and Nick Foligno are good contributors and probably two of the stronger offensive players the team has. This position is rounded out by Brandon Dubinsky and Ryan Russell. Dubinsky came over in the Nash trade and I think he has the potential to be a solid addition to the team.

Like I said, I think this is the deepest position on the team. I think a good amount of the offense is going to have to come from this side of the ice.

Defense:

Jack Johnson, James Wisniewski and Fredor Tyutin are all good defenders if you ask me. Wisniewski brings a toughness to the team that is greatly needed. Nikita Nikitin, John Moore and Adrian Aucoin round out the staff. The sad thing is the defense on average have more points than the offense. That should worry a lot of people about the kind of firepower this team is packing on any given night.

I actually think they have an underrated defensive unit. Players like Johnson and Wisniewski would be welcome additions to almost any team. It feels like this is one of the few positions where it doesn't feel like they have castoffs filling out the roster.

Goalie:

Sergie Bobrovsky comes to town from the Flyers to replace the much maligned Steve Mason. This is a move I actually really liked for the team. Bobrovsky is a legit NHL calibur goalie who won't give up some of the ridiculous goals that Mason does. Bobrovsky did have a bit of a rough season last year but he is still young. My hope is that his struggles last year were more of an aberration than anything else. I'm being cautiously optimistic with this signing.

The fact of the matter is, Steve Mason was a big part of the problem with the team over the last 3 seasons. On a fluke, he had a really great season between the pipes and the team waited about 2 seasons too many to see if he could capture the magic.

All Bobrovsky needs to do here is be mediocre. As long as he's not giving up trash goals like Mason was, I think he'll be a nice upgrade. He might not be a long term solution but I think he can be serviceable for the next few years at least.

Overall Thoughts:

My guess is this team goes 8-34-6 this year for a meager 22 pts. in the Western Conference. I think that earns them the worst record in the NHL and a top draft pick. This team just lacks the firepower on offense and the schedule itself is going to present a huge problem for them. They're playing only Western Conference teams so they'll constantly be traveling huge distances. This team is further east than just about anyone else and I think the travel is going to wear them out especially with 3 or 4 games a week.

This team just doesn't have the depth and the fortitude to battle this kind of challenging schedule. I think this team is going to labor to get the puck in the back of the net 2 times a game. This team would need to score 96 goals to average 2 goals a game. I'm not sure I see 96 goals of offense here.

If this team somehow won 15 games I think it would be an absolute miracle. But I think the W/L record isn't that important this year. I think if the team plays hard and stays entertaining that the fans will be patient with them this year.

Archer Season 3 Review

Archer was a show that had been sitting in my Netflix Streaming favorites for probably 2 years before I decided to actually watch it. So my wife's friend came to stay one weekend and I decided to start watching it while they were at the mall. I fell in love with it instantly. My wife also fell in love with the show almost instantly and it's been our not so secret obsession for about six months now.

We don't have cable so we're a season behind on the show. To our joy, season 3 was released on blu-ray this week. So I ran to Bestbuy after work and bought a copy and it took us exactly 3 days to blow through the 13 episodes.

Spoilers ahead!

Episodes 1-3: Heart of Archness: This really started to drag as a three parter. I have to add, the novelty of David Cross guest starring on this type of show has really worn thin with me. I would've probably found his contributions funny about a decade ago but now it just kind of felt like he's just being David Cross. Several of the events here, such as Ray ended up in a wheelchair, make an impact on the rest of the season. Overall though, these 3 episodes are probably some of the weakest Archer episodes out there.

Episode 4: The Man From Jupiter: This episode guest stars Burt Reynolds who starts dating Mallory. My wife leaned over during the first 10 minutes of this show and commented that this season wasn't as good as the others and the show seemed to respond. The second half of this episode got pretty funny as Archer and Reynolds save Lana and co. from a Cuban hit squad. Overall, this episode had it's moments but was a little slow to start.

Episode 5: El Contador: Cyril becomes a field agent in this episode. I'm not really a fan of Cyril in this series. He was introduced as Lana's pussy whipped boyfriend and an object of scorn for Archer and Mallory. Once you took the Lana relationship away he really didn't serve a purpose on the show. This episode felt like them trying to make him relevant again. I'm not a fan of Cyril as a field agent because how many jokes can you make about him being incompetent? Anyways, this was a solid episode. You could see the series start building some steam here. My hope was restored that we were going to get a good Archer season.

Episode 6: The Limited: Isis is transporting a terrorist back to Canada. Baboo the ocelot makes a return as it turns out this train line is owned by Cheryl. This was another good but not great episode. Again, this episode was better than the last so the series continues to build on itself as the season progresses.

Episode 7: Drift Problem: Archer gets a special super car for his birthday and it's promptly stolen. This leads to Lana and Archer infiltrating the Yakuza with Pam to try and find his car. This is another one of those "Pam is awesome at some seedy activity" episode. And this was quite funny. A very good character episode as you yet again see how Malory screwed up Archer through her bad parenting. This is the first episode of the season that I would give some consideration for a top 10 list. I'm not sure if it would make the cut but I would give this one a critical eye.

Episode 8: Lo Scandalo An Italian diplomat ends up dead in Mallory's apartment and hijinks follow. There's a scene where they have a fake dinner party to fool the police and it was absolutely hilarious. I called this a pantheon episode at the time and Ii stand by it after a single viewing. By pantheon episode, I mean this would make a top 10 no questions asked and it would be in contention for my top 5. Just a really funny episode and the kind of format that made the show great in season 1 and 2. I would say this was the best episode of season 3.

Episode 9: Bloody Ferlin: We find out that Ray hasn't been paralyzed all this time. Ray heads home to help his brother out who happens to be a "drug farmer" and also a shameless wife swapper. Again, this one I would give top 10 consideration to. I like the Ray character a lot and the focus on him was a welcome change of pace.

Episode 10: Crossing Over: Archer has sex with Pam and it's absolutely amazing. They set it up so well in the beginning of the episode. It slowly dawned on you that they did it and the reveal for Archer was brilliant. And he kept going back for more depraved farm girl action! This was a really good episode. Archer and Pam hooking up was done better than shows that have teased potential romance for years. It was funny, they made it interesting and afterwards you were glad they threw that wrinkle into the show.

Episode 11: Skin Game: Krieger brings Katya back as a cyborg. She ends up leaving Archer for Barry at the end of the episode. I wouldn't call this episode bad or anything like that. I really wasn't interesting in having more time devoted to Katya. This was better than the middle Pirate episode but it was probably the second weakest episode of the season. I think that stems a lot from my apathy towards Katya though. My wife might have liked this one better.

Episode 12-13: Space Race: There was a scene where the bad guys were trying to open an airlock and said "This is like a combination of adamantium and mythril" and that's probably become the most quoted line around the house since then. The followed that up by saying Dwarven technology several times which was also amusing. I think Kelly and I differed greatly on this one. I really enjoyed these episode, Kelly seemed to like them less. I thought it was a good finale for the season. It left me excited for season 4.

Extras: There's a cooking segment with Alton Brown and Archer that ends up being pretty funny and a good trailer for Gator 2 in the extras section. It's funny to me that they got a guest star for a DVD extra.

Overall: Archer season 2 was a masterpiece for me. Every episode was great, the show really hit it's stride and was fulfilling it's potential on a weekly basis. Season 3 felt more like season 1 to me. Really fun and enjoyable but some clunkers mixed in with brilliance. I found myself using the word good instead of awesome or great with season 3. I will note though, I feel Archer becomes a stronger show with repeat viewings. Once you know the twists and turns of an episode, you can then begin to peel away the layers of the show and start to find the little tiny character moments which make this show such an absolute joy to watch. I imagine that when this hits Netflix instant that we'll give it a second run through and I might amend this review at that time. Right now I would give season 3 a B+ for an enjoyable season.

This Blog in 2013

One of my goals for this year is to update my blog more consistently. No more 10 updates in a week and then no updates for a month. I'm going to be using the schedule feature a lot more. So I might write several weeks worth of posts in a day or two and then schedule them out.

As another note. I will be reading the entire 300 issue run of Cerebus this year and blogging about it! Check that out Here.

Les Misérables

I'm not one to post movie reviews on here. No real reason, I just never think to do it and with the price of a movie these days, my wife and I tend to wait for things to get released on DVD/Blu-Ray more often than not. 2012 was actually probably one of our more active years as we saw the Hunger Games, Avengers twice, Brave, Expendables 2, the last Twilight movie and of course Les Misérables.

I'm not one for musicals, they just don't speak to me at all. Les Misérables is kind of the exception to that rule. I took my wife to see the play at the Ohio Theater about 2 years ago as an anniversary present.

The movie was a pretty fun time overall. It captured the feel of the theater production pretty well. You can nitpick something as much as you want but ultimately, some things are going to change and you have to deal with it. Hugh Jackman was really good in it and Anne Hathaway was a real surprise in her performance.

The real downer of the whole event was Russell Crowe. I can honestly say he had no business being in this movie. I had low expectations for him and I don't think he even lived up to thinking he was going to suck. He was mostly expressionless throughout the whole thing and sang in a dull monotone when he wasn't rushing through the lyrics so quick you couldn't understand him. A more minor complaint was Sacha Baron Cohen as Thénardier. He wasn't outright terrible in the role but he just didn't do much with it.

Overall though, it was a fun film despite it's flaws. It's definitely worth seeing if you're a fan or like musicals in general.

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!