Hobbit party in Manhattan?

I like storms

I'm still working on a comic strip of the weekend (it's not looking too promising), but for now, here's this--some video of a huge effing storm that we drove through on the way here.

Day 2

According to the Awesome Counter, yesterday was only an 8. Today's already up to 6 thanks to a 6-pack of Harvey Weinhard root beer.

A different kind of blogging

A couple of thoughts about this: 1) Netty, you should try Sketchcasting some dreams, since Audioblogger is dead; 2) This has some cool potential for teaching; and 3) This weekend is the 1-year anniversary of my comic book depiction of our adventures in Colorado. Maybe this year I'll do a sketchcast version. (Although I'm hoping we can avoid those kinds of "adventures" this time around.)

Ok, for a matinee

I had a few reasons for wanting to see this movie, even though it was undoubtedly going to be somewhat stupid. First, it was one of those "Well, I saw the first two, so I guess we'll do this one, too" kinds of movies. I may complain along with everyone else about Hollywood's current sequel-itis, but I buy into certain franchises just like all the other suckers. Despite my having only played one RE game (RE4 for the Wii--great game), I keep finding myself interested in these movies.

Second, judging from the trailer, it seemed to have a kind of Mad Max vibe going for it--armored convoys traveling through the desert, and what have you. Until Fallout 3 comes out next year, I'll get my post-apocalyptic-desert-wasteland fix whatever way I can.

And my third reason? Zombies!! (Though, it should be noted, this movie follows the "28 * Later" model and never uses the Z-word...not sure why.) Shallow and disturbing as it may be, I like watching undead getting shot and run over and decapitated.

So, did the movie meet expectations? As the third movie in a series...not really. They decided to take an increasingly-common risk here in not really setting anything up. As Netty pointed out, if you didn't see the first two, you really don't care about these characters. And as someone who did see the first two...I still didn't care all that much. Plus, despite what might be considered foreshadowing in the title ("Extinction" => either humans or undead become extinct), this movie doesn't resolve anything. It only advances the plot of the overall series in one significant way which, for the sake of spoiler-free-ness, I won't mention here. So, as a sequel, it more or less fails.

Luckily, the Road Warrior vibe did actually work for me, though I can see others criticizing it as derivative. Heck, it is derivative, but the idea of a bunch of dirty, tired, scared people banding together for survival, and welding together a convoy of armor-plated vehicles is always cool to me. It's too bad they didn't play it up more, but I guess the whole T-Virus plot (you know, the thing this series is supposed to be about) got in the way of that...

Maybe I should just go rent The Road Warrior.

Bottom line: a decent zombie movie that feels cooler than it actually is.

My rating: 6/10
IMDb rating: 6.5/10

(BTW, I'm hoping to catch 3:10 to Yuma either tonight or tomorrow. I expect it to be quite a bit better than this movie was.)

Holy Food, Holy Quest

Question: what's the one flavor that makes (or would make, if you were daring enough to try those wilder ideas) any food better? Obviously, I refer to that holiest of holies: bacon. When salted, cured, and smoked to the peak of artery-clogging deliciousness, bacon has the potential to transform even the most mundane food into so much more. In short, bacon can turn a lesser food into a culinary experience.

Do I exaggerate? Certainly not. Name me a sandwich, a burger, a cheese fry that is not improved by bacon. Name me a grilled meat, be it chicken, pork, or shrimp, that is not brought closer to the Divine by wrapping it and/or stuffing it with bacon. You cannot name such a food, and indeed, to even try would be to blaspheme, for Most Revered Bacon sits at the head of the Holy Trinity of Food, with noble Bread at its left and mighty Cheese at its right.

My message today concerns the crusade of two brave young men who wish to spread the gospel of Most Revered Bacon with the flick of a wrist and the shake of a bottle. Brother Justin and Brother Dave are on a holy quest to "make everything taste like bacon." The miraculous product they've created to achieve this goal? Bacon Salt. I don't know what arcane rituals they had to perform in order to capture the essence of bacon in a bottle, but they seem to have done it. Visit their website. Read the testimony of other Bacon Disciples. And support this noble crusade by purchasing each of Bacon Salt's three flavors: Original, Hickory, and Peppered. I'm going to try it; won't you? Bacon can one day rule the world, if we all do our part.

[Update: I just ordered the 3-pack! Bacon!]

It's over!

That was fun. And i am tired.

This weekend doth rock.

We're off to the K.C. Renfest! (Netty's still getting ready to bring the pain, so to speak.) I'll be posting pics on my sidebar all day, I'm sure.

34-14. Booyah.

First home game.

My new little kingdom

Lookin' at m'programs.

*Last time, on Bliggety Blog...*

Me: "We're on a weekend trip for our anniversary!"
You: "Cool."

*One Week Later....*

Me: "Now we're at Newgen's for a Warhammer Weekend! We already played one whole turn, out of six. My hovering mummy frog smashed a wall of the castle with an awesome spell. He was all BIFF! ZOK!, and it came crashing down! I rather enjoyed it."
You: "Cool."

*Tune in next time for more excitement! Same Bat-time, same Bat-URL!*

I got mail!

Anniversary! Pics in sidebar (<---)!

For our fifth anniversary, Netty are in Kansas City for the weekend. The hotel we're staying at is about two blocks from Country Club Plaza, which is a really cool shopping area that's modeled after a Spanish town. We took the hotel shuttle down there yesterday (not knowing how incredibly close the Plaza actually is), and asked the driver to recommend an Italian place. I can't even tell you how very not Italian that place was. I mean, they had some pasta, but it was mostly just normal food, and a bit expensive at that. Luckily, we'd asked for a table outside, so we made an easy getaway after we were disappointed with the menu. After some wandering/map checking, we found Figlio's, which had very good spinach manicotti and their breadsticks changed my life.

Next, we came back to the hotel for the car and drove about 30 minutes to the IMAX theater to see Harry Potter again. It was a great movie the first time around, and we were curious to see what the big wizard's duel at the end would look like in 3D. Overall, it was pretty cool. Some of the closeups were blurry, which was distracting, but the wide shots looked amazing. When it worked well, it really got at that "immersive" feel they're going for. I'm really looking forward to Beowulf now.

Today we're going to go explore the Plaza properly. There are quite a few cool stores down there. There are plenty of pics of yesterday in my sidebar (to the left now, in case you somehow missed the change), and I'll continue posting pics today, too.

And we're off!

Who/what are they?

If you've been keeping up with the Internets and/or movie news, you've no doubt been wondering who, exactly, the Fredericks are. Well, the mystery deepens. There's finally a trailer up, but it doesn't really tell us very much. Judging from the front page, and from the very end of the trailer, I'd guess that Fredericks are some kind of fruit, but the rest of the trailer kinda throws that into question. Maybe the fruit's just a metaphor for something. All I know is that this thing has me pretty excited, which is saying something, considering how little is actually known about this project/film/whatever-it-is. I'll be keeping an eye on it.

Game Nut

I don't have much to say here, but I just wanted to plug Game Nut for anyone in or around Lawrence, KS who's a gamer--especially a PC gamer. I thought the days of buying used PC games were more or less over. Game Guy stopped selling them long ago, and they're becoming more and more rare in the EB/Game Stop realm, as well. But Game Nut...oh, Game Nut. There are stacks and stacks of PC games there, along with a very respectable selection of console games, and some DVDs to boot.

It's a great store and I highly recommend it. Oh, and they're thinking of opening a store here in Manhattan. Maybe I should get on that...