Superhero Madness!

Hey all.

I posted a few weeks ago saying I would be back regularly. Is a few weeks in between considered regularly? Probably not. Sorry. Truth is, life's been BUSY! Don't get me wrong, I want to be here, and I love to write. Time just hasn't been on my side. I'm getting married next year and that involves a ton of wedding planning. When I'm not at work, wedding business takes a lot of my free time away. However, I'm always thinking about things to include in this here blog. I've got plans and there in the works! So while the wheels in my noggin continue to turn I will just give you guys a quick update on what I've been up to.

Besides planning for the wedding, I've been very much into Marvel and DC related....everything. I've always been into superheroes and comics and the like, but lately I've been digging in even deeper. I think I'm trying to play catch up with a lot of what I missed in the last few years. I've been buying digital downloads of single issue comics on my ipad. Batman, Magneto (an awesome new regular series based on my favorite Marvel anti-hero), and few others. What I've enjoyed most though is buying trade paperbacks. I'm currently reading Deadpool: The Complete Collection Vol. 1. AMAZING STUFF.

I've also been watching a lot of comic based movies over again. I've seen all of them (except for Elektra...but does that really count, because it shouldn't). I bought Captain America: The Winter Soldier last week. Man, what I great film. I saw it in theaters and watched it twice in the last few days. It's just so good, and perfectly paced. Never gets dull. This made me think, I've got to do a list based on my favorite superhero movies. Maybe rank all of the ones I've seen and can remember. I just haven't decided if it will be just Marvel..or both Marvel and DC...and any other comic based movies not made by the big 2. I may have to watch some of them over again so it might not be posted for awhile. I've gotten some good feedback in the past for lists I've created so why stop now. I enjoy it and that's honestly what I really care about, haha.

One last thing on the superhero front; I've been playing this DC Deck Building card game with my fiancé. It's freakin' amazing! So much fun. There's the perfect amount of strategy involved, and the gameplay changes every time you play based on the cards you draw. There are other deck building games such as Marvel (my next purchase), Lord of the Rings, and even an Alien based one. They're plenty fun and I suggest if you are into board games or card games and you like any of those above mentioned themes you should give them a try.

As I said before, I've been busy planning my wedding. For those of you who know me personally you may find this interesting. So far this last weekend we've checked out three venues. Next weekend we will be checking out two more, and then three the weekend after that. It's actually been a lot of fun. It's definitely exciting to imagine where you might be standing when you say those sacred vows to the one you love. I honestly can't wait. We've waited long enough to get to this point! One of my groomsmen said something to me yesterday that really made me feel good. He complimented me on the initiative I've taken so far with the wedding planning. He stated that in most cases he's been aware of, the guys generally don't get too involved with the wedding planning and leave it all up to the ladies. I thought about that and soon realized that's been the experience I've had too with past weddings I was involved in. I felt pretty good after my future groomsmen said this to me. I mean, this is supposed to be a special day for both the man and woman (or man w/man or woman w/woman, whatever you're into...I don't care), so why wouldn't you want to be involved?! Even if you are fine with having a courthouse wedding and your spouse wants the whole big deal. Point is, if you truly love this person, you'll do whatever it takes to make them happy. If planning a beautiful wedding makes my fiancé happy, then I'm happy too. It's going to be an amazing day with amazing people. Why wouldn't I want to stay involved and make the most of it. Sure, it's maybe 5 hours of our lives (and trust me, I truly believe it's everything that happens after those 5 hours and for the rest of our lives that's important), but damn those 5 hours are going to be unforgettable if I can help it. And help it I will. From that point on we are in everything together, might as well get off to a good start. Until next time!

Arrow: Season 1 Review

I'm pretty late to this party, but I just finished season one of Arrow. Arrow is a television show based off of the Green Arrow, a superhero from DC comics. I found it refreshing to watch a show based off of a lesser known superhero. Lets face it, some of you probably haven't heard of him. He's definitely not on par with Batman and Superman. But that's okay. That's why this show was interesting to me! In fact, I believe it sparked my interest further on the history of this character.

Green Arrow is played by Stephen Amell. As far as I can tell, I've never seen Mr. Amell in anything before, but I thought he did a great job as Oliver Queen, the spoiled billionaire son who becomes a hero. How the series shows the transformation of Oliver Queen was one thing I really enjoyed. Throughout the whole season there are plenty of flashbacks showing the struggles Oliver Queen went through to become who he now is.

The supporting cast is also a strong point in the series. Every actor feels like they belong in the role. Maybe except for Deadshot. I don't know. To me, Deadshot is a scruffy mercenary sort and in this show he looks more like a lanky pretty boy type. The actor did a decent job, he just doesn't have the look I imagine. Other than that, I really enjoyed the look and sound of all other characters in the show. My favorite characters in this show so far have been Tommy, Oliver's best friend since childhood, and police sergeant Quentin Lance. I was afraid that this show might lack in character development, but I was happily mistaken. The above mentioned characters definitely go through their trials, face demons, overcome some of them, and struggle with others. There were some tough and emotional moments which was a nice surprise in a show I believed would have been fairly shallow.

The only other complaint I had with this show is the production value in some areas. Sometimes it felt a bit cheesy. It's probably because of the fact that it was the first season. The shows still finding it's footing and I could tell it was getting better at this as the series went on. It's definitely good enough for me, a comic book fan, but I also believe that people who aren't even fans of the genre can find something to enjoy. Not only is there the action scenes you would expect, but there's plenty of sexual tension, romantic love triangles, struggles with moral values, and humor. The show explores all emotions and has plenty of surprises that kept me clicking on the next episode. The arrow hit the bullseye on this one.

My Review:
4 out of 5 Stars - GREAT!

How My Reviews Work

I tend to enjoy putting my own reviews on different books, movies, tv, games and music that I've experienced. I've reviewed things in different ways in the past but I think I've developed a way to review that works pretty well. I actually came up with the idea through the Goodreads app (great app for you readers out there by the way). Goodreads uses a 5 star review system. You read a book, and you give it a star rating. 5 stars being the best, 1 star being worst. I'm going to use that system here. My own twist however is what exactly each star represents.
0 stars - Horrible
1 star - Bad
2 stars - Okay
3 stars - Good
4 stars - Great
5 stars - Amazing

So as you can see, 2 stars doesn't mean that whatever is being reviewed is horrible. It was just, meh. If I give something two stars it means I thought it was okay and you feel free to check it out for yourself. The only time I wouldn't recommend something was if I gave it 0 or 1 stars. Pretty simple system. None of this, "oh, 9.75 out of 10" crap. Was this post pointless? Maybe. Just feel like typing away and prepping you on the things to come. Until next time!

New Beginnings 2.0

Well hello there everybody. I'm back again. For how long? I can't tell you. As long as I'm in the mood I guess. A ton has happened since I last updated this blog. Interests have changed a little. Not too much, but I guess you'll see things talked about on here that you never did in the past. I'm just excited to be writing again. Basically I will be covering all of my interests as best I can, when I can. Here's a list of my interest and what you can expect to read about:

- The outdoors. Fishing, hiking, shooting, mountain biking, camping; all good stuff.
- Reading. This includes comic books and novels. As far as comics go, I try to read everything. Batman is my main man but I enjoy other books too. I'm currently reading The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen by Alan Moore and Kevin O'neill. So far so good. When it comes to novels, I tend to go with thrillers/mysteries. Any fictional horror is good. I'm currently reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman (Mr. Gaiman also writes comics). Definitely enjoying this book too.
- Movies. Just saw Guardians of the Galaxy. AMAZING!
- Television. I'm watching Arrow as I type, actually. Not a bad show. Hannibal is another good one. Violent as hell, but good.
- Video games are pretty important to me, which you may already know if you read this blog in the past. So you'll see a lot of posts about games. Right now I'm playing Lego Marvel. Hey, don't judge man. The Lego games are actually a ton of fun! Get off my case and check them out for yourself. You're starting to see a trend though right? Comics, Arrow, Lego Marvel...yea, I am a pretty big super hero/comic fan. Do I think it's nerdy? Hell no. Anyone making fun or calling comics and super heroes nerdy or childish should be ashamed. And I know you all went and saw the Dark Knight Trilogy. Guess what? Based off of comics! Don't be a bunch of hypocrites. Also, comics are very far from being children stories. Give them a read sometime. You'll see.
- I LOVE movie scores. Particularly I enjoy music composed by Hans Zimmer (The Dark Night) and Howard Shore (The Lord of the Rings).
  - Sports. I'm a huge Los Angeles Kings fan and Liverpool FC fan. I'm also trying to get more into American football. I guess the St. Louis Rams are my team, based off of one of my close friends liking for them. As far as college football goes I am cheering for the Oregon State Beavers (my best friend graduated from there) and USC (where my aunt graduated from).

Okay, that's a pretty good list for now. You'll see writings on my interests that are listed above mainly. I may dabble in a few other topics every once and awhile. Or I may just start ranting about life issues on here occasionally too. Feel free to skip over that crap if it's too much for you. Never have a claimed to be a great, or even a good writer. So please bear with me here. Punctuation and grammar are not my strongest areas. I write regardless though because I enjoy it. You'll see my reviews for different comics, movies, books and tv on here. Remember, my reviews are MY opinions. Take them lightly. I will also be bringing back the Kings Corner. That's where I talk LA Kings news. I may venture into talking about Liverpool FC as I become more acquainted with the new season. The season just started a couple of weeks ago but have been way too busy to watch so far. Anyways, I'm back. And I hope you can enjoy. If not, it's a good thing you have the power to not read this. Take care, and I will be in touch!