Brandon's Journal

New Game Impressions

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Recently, I picked up a few games on sale that have been on my wishlist for a while: Destroy All Humans, Star Wars Rogue Squadron, and Tony Stewart’s Sprint Car and All-American Racing. Here are a few thoughts:

Destroy All Humans – I really wanted to play this game when it was originally released in 2005. It looked fun, absurd, and over-the-top, but it also looked like it might lack depth. The game never seemed to drop low enough in price for me to snatch it up, so I just kept passing on it until the entire franchise had run its course and it slowly faded from the public’s eye.

A few months back, the game was remastered and re-released which intrigued me. I knew for the right price I’d pick it up and $15 at Target was the right price.

I’ve been surprised by how much I’ve played this game and how much I’ve enjoyed it. My inital thoughts were right back in 2005, it lacks depth, but I think that is part of the charm in 2020. It’s simple. I pick it up, destroy some humans and buildings, and move onto the next mission. There is no open world or anything overly complicated, its just a simple, fun game.

The only complaint I have with it is the dialogue gets repetitive and I’m not the biggest fan of some of the stealth missions. Nonetheless, for $15 this was a great buy although I doubt I would have paid more for it.

Star Wars Squadrons – I originally went to Target to buy this game for $25, when I ran across Destroy All Humans. I assumed I would spend most of my time playing Star Wars, but Destroy All Humans has dominated my free time. That’s not to say Squadrons is a bad game.

Squadrons is a first person flight based Star Wars game not too unlike all the X-Wing games of the 90’s. It’s fast paced, beautiful, and plays quite well. I’m fascinated by how well they utilized the limited controls on the PS4 controller to navigate the ship, control your power, and the like. It’s got a slight learning curve, but its not as bad as I expected.

I won’t be playing it online because I’ve never been all that good at flying games, but I’m enjoying the very short single player campaign for the time being. I’m a few missions in and I’m enjoying it. So far, it’s worth the $25 I spent on it.

Tony Stewart’s Spring Car Racing and All-American Racing – These are two games that were released digitally this year by Monster Games, the previous developer of the NASCAR video game series. Growing up, my favorite driver was Tony Stewart, and I love dirt track racing so these games interested me. We haven’t had a real spring car game since the PS2, so this was a long time coming.

Walmart is selling a disc with both games on it for $33. Each game was retailing for $29.99 so this seemed like an excellent deal. I was a bit disappointed when I popped in the disc and it started downloading digital copies of the games. I guess, the CD just worked as a sort of key which I’ve never experienced before.

I started with Sprint Car racing and I ended up putting in way more time than I expected. The game plays incredibly well, has a decent selection of tracks, and the perfect amount of options. I don’t like getting into games where I have to customize and set up everything. I like to have some control and some basic management of wear and tear, but I don’t want to spend twenty minutes before every race messing with settings, parts, sponsors, and the like. This game offers the perfect balance of those options for me that allows me to focus on racing and not on management.

I love how fair and balanced the AI seems to be. I work hard racing solid groves and trying to find the fastest way around each track. I’m just in awe at how much I enjoy this game and how well it plays considering it’s a budget niche title.

I only raced one race in All-American, I decided to take it one game at a time, but from what I heard, the developers only improved with the second title.

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Retro Sitcoms – The Thanksgiving Edition

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I wrote this several years back on another blog and decided I’d re-upload it here for this holiday season.

It should come as no surprise that I’m a huge fan of sitcoms from the 80’s and 90’s. These were the shows that I grew up with, and despite their absurdity at times, sitting down and watching an outlandish take on life is a relaxing and comforting way for me to spend time. I tend to watch TV shows like Roseanne, Home Improvement, Seinfeld, and The Golden Girls all year round, but I pay special attention during the holidays. That feeling of nostalgia that these type of shows produce really take me back to the simpler days when holidays were exciting.

I have a go-to list of Christmas and Halloween specials that I like to watch, but I don’t have a set of Thanksgiving episodes… yet. Thanksgiving is the bastard child of holiday specials in that most shows didn’t/don’t bother with them. The shows that did have Thanksgiving episodes rarely focused on Thanksgiving, but were just set at Thanksgiving-time. I decided to seek out a handful of Thanksgiving episodes that I could find streaming and rate them for their Thanksgiving theme and re-watchability. I tend to avoid spoilers in most reviews that I write, but not this time around. If you don’t want the plot spoiled just scroll down to the bold sections to see the recommendation.

Full House “The Miracle of Thanksgiving”
Season One, Episode Nine
Full House is one of those shows that to many people did not age well, and to others is timeless. I stand in the middle. I watched a ton of Full House growing up and I recognize how cheesy it can be. It’s so chock full of wholesomeness that shows went out of their way (Seinfeld, comes to mind) to be the anti-Full House. That’s fine and all, but I do think that one of the most important segments in entertainment that is missing is television that both young children and adults can watch together. Full House, and it’s successor Fuller House, filled that gap nicely.

The first season of Full House was a little different from the rest. The show featured a few storylines where the family had to process the loss of Pam, Danny’s wife and the girl’s mom. The Thanksgiving episode is one of these shows.

The show begins with Danny finding out that his mother is snowed in and would not be making it to San Francisco to make Thanksgiving dinner. Danny wakes up Jesse and Joey so that they can tackle the Thanksgiving feast, but quickly realize they are out of their element. The next logical step is to find a reservation for a Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant, but the girls, DJ specifically, does not react well to that idea. Thanksgiving was a big deal for her mom and she felt like not having a home cooked Thanksgiving would be a disgrace to her memory. She offers to make her mother’s Picture Perfect Pumpkin Pie, along with the turkey. I’m sure you can see where this is going, letting a ten year old cook a turkey is never a good idea, especially when you do a dance montage to The Temptations.

Needless to say, the turkey is still frozen and the guys have to stall in order to spare DJ the embarrassment of her failed turkey dinner. Just in the nick of time, two strangers who are lost show up with a cooked turkey that Danny attempts to buy off them. Joey’s inability to pull a bottle off his tongue ruins that plan and finally the guys have to come clean to DJ.

This is Full House, so everything works out in the end, but it’s worth noting that this episode always stood out at actually channeling some real emotions. You get to see DJ and Stephanie both try and deal with their mother’s death along with Danny, which was not too uncommon during the first season. The big shocker is Jesse, who is forced to confront his sadness by Danny. The show walks that fine line and comes across quite genuine and it’s hard not to feel a little knot come up in your throat. Then they go and ruin it by “eating” the blackened turkey and pumpkin pie they dropped on the floor.

Thanksgiving Thoughts:
This episode is centered completely around Thanksgiving dinner and family, which is what I’m looking for when trying to assemble my Thanksgiving Watch List. However, the overarching sadness in this episode is a major bummer. This show does a great job of presenting Thanksgiving, but it’s not something I’d want to watch every year.

Thanksgiving Theme: A
Re-Watchability: D

Seinfeld, “The Mom and Pop Store”
Season Six, Episode Eight
Seinfeld is credited with one Thanksgiving episode and in typical Seinfeld fashion, the show isn’t really about the holiday. The show has three plotlines that converge towards the end that takes place at a Thanksgiving Party hosted by none other than Mr. Bryan Cranston.

The show starts off with George needing to buy a new car. He heads out to buy a Volvo, but the used car salesman presents him with a LeBaron that was owned by actor Jon Voight. George, being George, buys the LeBaron, but spends the remainder of the episode trying to determine its authenticity.

Kramer has taken up a crusade to save a local mom and pop shoe repair business, and involves Jerry by giving them all of his tennis shoes so that they can clean them and stay in business.

Jerry is caught between dealing with both George and Kramer’s insanity, along with the hurt he is feeling by not being invited to a dentist friend’s Thanksgiving party.

Of course, all sorts of insanity breaks out. George kicks Jerry out of his car for inferring that it is not actor Jon Voigt’s car, and Jerry is forced to run way from muggers in cowboy boots since all of his shoes are missing (The mom and pop who owned the shoe business took off after Kramer inadvertently pointed out a major electrical issue) and cracks a tooth. George finds a chewed on pencil inside the car that could match the bite marks on Kramer’s arm that he received after hounding Jon Voight earlier in the day. Needless to say, everyone needs to see a dentist so they all end up at the dentist party where a Woody The Wood Pecker balloon in the Macy Thanksgiving Day Parade is popped by Jerry when he accidently bumps an Empire State Building statue out the window.

Wow… it’s difficult to sum up a Seinfeld episode and I even left out quite a bit.

Thanksgiving Thoughts:
The show featured a Thanksgiving party and a small plotline around a Macy’s balloon, but there really wasn’t much Thanksgiving going on. Of course, Seinfeld is not the type of show to do any heartfelt tribute to the holiday, family, or friendship, so that’s to be expected.

This is actually a very good episode of Seinfeld, but a disappointing Thanksgiving special episode. I could watch this episode every year, but it just doesn’t have that Thanksgiving vibe that I’m looking for.

Thanksgiving Theme: D
Re-Watchability: A

Just Shoot Me, “The First Thanksgiving”
Season Five, Episode Seven
Just Shoot Me was one of those shows that seemed to be on all the time between 2000-2005. It was re-run a lot in syndication, and they even made a reference to that in Six Feet Under of all things. Sadly, Just Shoot Me is mostly forgotten about now. A few years ago, the complete series was finally released on DVD, but it’s not streaming anywhere (2020 Update: It’s streaming on Hulu) nor is it being broadcast on any channel that I know of. It’s one of those shows that everyone forgot about, which is sad because it’s actually quite good.

A couple of years ago, I set out to watch all of Just Shoot Me and I’ll never forget reaching this episode. I remembering watching it and thinking, “Now, this is a damn good Thanksgiving episode.” After my revisit, I still feel the same. I’m going to be less vague on the plot of this episode because unraveling the chaos will take away all the fun.

Jack has a house in The Hamptons and has put Maya in charge of organizing a Thanksgiving dinner for Nina, Finch, Elliott, and Elliott’s mom. Prior to the dinner, Nina is convinced that Jack is going to replace her with a younger, hipper fashion consultant that Finch is trying to get into the pants of. Finch unexpectedly shows up with the model in tow, and Nina brings some random guy she met at a rave in an attempt to convince Jack that she is still hip.

With all these destructive personalities under one roof things are obviously going to get out of control. That catalyst isn’t the emotionally distraught Nina nor the sexually frustrated Finch, but Jack who ends up sleeping with Rhoda, Elliott’s mom. The rest of the episode is brilliantly written as Jack and Rhode attempt to keep the affair quiet.

Thanksgiving Thoughts:
The First Thanksgiving doesn’t feature a heartwarming dinner scene, but it does perfectly capture the chaos that comes when a family gets together for a holiday, much in the same way that National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation does. This is one of my favorite episodes of Just Shoot Me and it holds up well. It’s got some laugh out loud moments in and it can definitely be watched yearly.

Thanksgiving Theme: B
Re-Watchability: A

Sabrina The Teenage Witch, “Love Means Having to Say You’re Sorry”
Season Four, Episode Nine
I’ll never forget the first night Sabrina debuted. I was excited out of my mind. I loved Clarissa Explains It All and could not wait for Melissa Joan Hart to make her primetime network debut. Then the show aired and I determined that it was not for me. I was a thirteen year old boy, and my crush on Melissa Joan Hart could only take me so far. I wasn’t into the whimsical magic nor the poorly animated cat puppet. That was the last time I watched Sabrina until two years ago.

Two years ago, I was sitting on the couch and feeling a little down. I was mindlessly flipping through things to watch on Amazon Prime when I saw Sabrina’s smiling face. I decided I was in the mood for a good laugh, so I’d watch the first episode of Sabrina again, for the first time in almost twenty years. Three hours later, I’d watched the first eight episodes and was feeling much better.

Sabrina is not a great show, but it’s lighthearted and relaxing. Melissa Joan Hart, Caroline Rhea, Beth Broderick, and Nick Bakay do a wonderful job brining these over-the-top characters to life. The rest of the casting, props, and sets are very hit and miss, but the core group are good and that’s enough to keep me watching. I’ve slowly worked my way through the first three seasons over the past two years, and I’d say about every three or four months I turn on a couple hours of Sabrina to help me unwind or to use as background noise. (2020 Update: I’m almost through season six now!)

In season four, a Thanksgiving episode occurs (if it can really be called that.) Harvey and Sabrina have broken up after Harvey witnesses Sabrina kissing another guy. Sabrina feels really bad for hurting Harvey and spends all of her time thinking about him and hoping for forgiveness. When Harvey rebukes her, Sabrina resorts to spells to try and make Harvey love her again. Sabrina learns the same lesson she learns in many of the episodes that magic is not always the answer to your problems. She just needed to take a moment and apologize for hurting Harvey.

So, you may be asking, where does Thanksgiving come into play? Well, Sabrina spends most Thanksgivings at Harvey’s since her aunts don’t celebrate Thanksgiving. The Pilgrims weren’t accepting of witches, so they refuse to participate in a holiday honoring them. With Sabrina and Harvey being on the outs, Hilda and Zelda decide to put away their bias and make Thanksgiving dinner for Sabrina. When things don’t work out, they summon two pilgrims to create an authentic Thanksgiving dinner for them.

Thanksgiving Thoughts:
The show was dominated by Sabrina’s futile attempts to win Harvey back and Thanksgiving wasn’t much more than a prop. I enjoyed the interactions between the pilgrims and Hilda/Zelda, but it didn’t really channel Thanksgiving all that well. I would argue that it’s not a particularly strong episode of Sabrina and will not be making my Thanksgiving watch list.

Thanksgiving Theme: C
Re-Watchability: C

Home Improvement, “A Frozen Moment”
Season Three, Episode Ten
I love Home Improvement. It’s a show that never gets old to me and as soon as the weather turns a little bit cold, I immediately want to watch it. Home Improvement plays a prominent role in my Halloween/Christmas sitcom watch lists, but I haven’t approached the series from the Thanksgiving angle until now. I picked the first Thanksgiving episode and gave it a watch. I was floored to realize that one of the best, and one of my favorite Home Improvement episodes was in fact a Thanksgiving episode.

In A Frozen Moment, Tim constructs a massive North Pole set in the backyard so the family can take an epic Christmas card photo. Jill wants Tim to not go overboard, but of course, he does. Everything comes to a boil when Jill is put into a skimpy Mrs. Claus outfit, the boys are stuck in uncomfortable elves outfits, and Tim insists on having real snow while dressed as a Mountie. The snow machine ends up busting through the glass door, and while Jill cleans up the glass, her pies burn.

Tim, of course, needs Wilson’s advice to help make things right and realize that he went out a little overboard. He was so obsessed with presenting this perfect family holiday image, he forgot all about enjoying time with his family. The show ends with a touching moment where everyone at the table shares something they are grateful for.

Home Improvement is praised often for its excellent holiday episodes, and this is no exception. It hit all the points I wanted in a Thanksgiving episode and then some. I didn’t even mention that this is the episode that featured the awesome Man’s Bathroom. The Man’s Bathroom was a bathroom created on the set of Tool Time to fill all the needs of a man. It was complete with television, phone, bright lights for nose hair picking, massive multi-spray shower, and a refrigerator.

Thanksgiving Thoughts:
This episode of Home Improvement feels like both a Thanksgiving story and a Christmas story, and Christmas seems to taken precedent. However, the final minutes are all Thanksgiving and out of all the shows I watched, it was the only one that featured an edible Thanksgiving dinner that was actually eaten. I know we’ve seen people go around the time table and say what they are grateful for in dozens of shows/movies, but that really is what Thanksgiving is all about. It doesn’t matter how cheesy or cliché that it comes across.

This is a great episode of Home Improvement that has a Thanksgiving theme. It’ll definitely make my Thanksgiving watch list for next year.

Thanksgiving Theme: B
Re-Watchability: A

Final Results
 After watching this series of shows, I’ve only added two episodes to my Thanksgiving Watch List:

-Just Shoot Me “The First Thanksgiving”
-Home Improvement “A Frozen Moment”

These two shows will join Planes, Trains, and Automobiles as part of my Thanksgiving Watch List. Next year, I’ll give another set of shows a shot and will hopefully build up my list more and more as the years go on.

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A Slowdown in Posts

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I’ve posted a lot the last few weeks while finishing up my book club posts and posting my Chicago Wizard World recap. I have a few more posts scheduled for this month but I think I’m going yo be a little lite on content till the new year.

My blogging always slows down around the holidays. Life just gets so busy sometimes. But I think the main factor that is going to slow down my publishing is that my work put on some new filters thanks to some cyberthreats and I can’t easily work on my blogging anymore during my down time. Most of my writing came from those slow moments throughout the day and now I can’t utilize that time the same way.

I’ve been experimenting with blogging via the app, but its far from perfect. Not only do my hands get tired but the app doesn’t perform great. I usually have to log back in once I get home and fix formatting issues or add media.

Its not a bad thing. I’m going to catch up on some reading and try and enjoy life a little. Just letting y’all know that if the posts slow down it isn’t because I’m not still active, I just lost some of my free time to write.

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Book Club: Things I Can’t Explain (Chapters 37-38) and Final Thoughts

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We get a bit of a time jump and things are going well. Clarissa is the queen of DIY and is writing a lot. She turned down a spot on Norm’s MTV show. Her parents are working things out and her dad is rediscovering his self-esteem. Ferguson is still running around with Russians and the SEC but even that seems to be going well. Dartmoor has come around and stopped being such a jerk.

Clarissa’s thoughts were still on Nick and that’s when a letter from Sam arrived. Clarissa couldn’t open it and that’s when she realized that Sam was living his life by the sea. She always assumed he’d follow her around, but he had a life and a job that he loved. She stood by the river where Nick and her first date was and as she turned to leave she heard a voice. It was Nick. Turns out Nick moved back to NYC and was trying to find Clarissa.

The book ends up with the following quote:

“… I understand that sometimes the only explanations that really matter are the ones that don’t require a single word.”

I thought that was quite fitting for a book that originated from a series called Clarissa Explains It All.

Final Thoughts:
I enjoyed this book more than I expected to. It certainly had some flaws (annoying accents, annoying characters) but overall it was a fun story. I’m not sure how well this is going to age since it shoved every social media name into it (The Second Life reference already hasn’t aged well) but I think this is the type of book that is for a very niche audience. It wasn’t written to bring in new fans and it wasn’t written completely as fan service. Instead, it was something in the middle. It was weird, quirky, and different, a lot like the original TV show and for that I am appreciative.

Thank you to Michael for suggesting this fun little book club. It’s been one heck of a journey and I’ve enjoyed reading all your thoughts.

Be sure to check out Michael’s thoughts about this book over at Random Thoughts and Ponderings

 

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Book Club: Things I Can’t Explain (Chapters 35-36)

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Roxie tells Clarissa that she and Nick aren’t together and they haven’t been for a while. The reason she interrupted the wedding was to check out the BRB (Blonde Reporter Babe). Apparently Nick fell for Clarissa the first time he saw her. Roxie tells Clarissa she’s stupid for not fighting for Nick and it turns out Nick has left probably for LA where his brother lives.

Norm shows up at Clarissa’s and refuses to leave. Turns out her article is a hit and MT wants to talk to her. Norm’s cleaned his act up thanks to MT and even has an MTV show all thanks to Clarissa.

Well, Clarissa’s life is starting to straighten up almost as quickly as it fell apart. The momentum is here and I’m ready for the ending. Will it be Sam or will it be Nick?

Be sure to check out Michael’s thoughts about this book over at Random Thoughts and Ponderings

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Book Club: Things I Can’t Explain (Chapters 33-34)

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The Darlings brought in their family therapist from Austria to help Clarissa. They’re convinced she’s fabricated a fantasty world in her head about Nick, her job, etc. Things go from awkward to high drama in seconds as Clarissa explodes and the truth begins to fly. She tells her parents how she tried to come clean but they were too self-obessed. She admitted to struggling in her twenties and that her entire family was crazy. Then Clarissa spots Roxie and takes off after her. She tracks her back to Nick’s studio which is now empty and Nick is gone.

It was nice to hear Clarissa finally come clean to her parents, although she didn’t really break down all the details. Marshall took the first real step in repairing his marriage and Clarissa went hunting for peace with Roxie.

Be sure to check out Michael’s thoughts about this book over at Random Thoughts and Ponderings

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Wizard World Chicago 2012 – The Trip Home

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I had a plane to catch, so I couldn’t allow my emotions to slow me down. I power walked to the L train, rode the two stops by to O’Hare for the final time, and went to fetch my luggage. The bellhop actually mislabeled Alex and my luggage, so he had to let me into their storage room so I could actually find my suitcase. It was a bit of a mess, but didn’t take too long and I was on my way. I stopped by a gift shop and pictured up a drink and a handful of Cinnamon Certs, since I had been searching for Certs, a mint that stores seemed to stop selling.

The TSA was much less strict at O’Hare than RDU, but I did have a bit of an encounter with one agent. They had one guy standing at the front of the line yelling out “Have your boarding pass in your hand and ready to scan before you walk up.” This was a continuously moving line, so I stepped out of it for a second to fetch my boarding pass. The moment I stopped the TSA agent with a dog came running up screaming, “DO NOT STOP! KEEP WALKING!” I just looked at her and said, “But he said to have your boarding pass ready so I was getting it out.” She just screamed at me again and I realized there was no winning this argument. I finished getting my pass and got back in line and muttered a handful of dirty words under my breath.

Other than that slight encounter, I made it through security quickly and found my gate was already full. The gate seemed to not have enough seats, so I squeezed in where I could and put in my ear buds.

I decided to take United up on their offer to check my bag for free, since my bag is what led to my problem with the flight attendant on the flight in. I boarded the plane rather quickly, but then was seated in a row with a husband and wife, who both had children on their laps. This turned into an issue that the flight attendants were forced to deal with multiple times and I was asked to move seats, which I gladly did just to get the plane in the air. I went from an aisle seat to a window seat, but at least I was heading home, something I really wanted at the time.

The flight seemed to by rather quickly, or maybe watching The Thing sped things up. I took some photos with my Kindle Fire that were about on par with the potato quality of my LG Stylo and as we approached Raleigh it finally set in that this weekend was over. It went by so fast, and was so exhausting, but I was having the time of my life and didn’t even realize it. I felt a knot build up in my throat and I kicked myself for getting emotional over something so stupid, but I wasn’t done with those feelings.

I landed, found the baggage claim, snagged my bag, and headed for the shuttle back over to the long term parking lot. Everything went smooth and I don’t know why I expected it to not to. Millions of people fly everyday using these same shuttles and parking lots, I guess I just always assumed there would be some issues with them. Twenty-one dollars later I was exiting the parking lot, back on I-40 and heading home. That’s when it really hit me.

I remember an email Alex once sent me regarding a con he had went to with someone. He compared it to war (which seemed ridiculous) because you come away this brotherhood almost. It’s like you spent this amazing weekend that can never be re-created with a select few others that are the only ones that can appreciate it. On that drive home, I knew exactly what he meant. I realized I couldn’t walk into the house and explain how magical and fantastic my experience was. There weren’t words that I could say (or type for that matter) to truly describe the experience. It was something only Alex, Adoniram, and I could truly understand I felt closer to these guys than I had felt to anyone in a very long time. I shed some tears, I won’t lie, I didn’t want the weekend to end. It was such a wonderful experience, returning to normal life hurt.

The next morning I wrote Alex and email and thanked him for the amazing invite and explained how much the weekend meant to me. I knew he would understand and he did. His acknowledgement that it wasn’t just my delusional ramblings of a fantastic weekend helped verify what I had experienced was real. He sent me some photos he took after I left. He and Adoniram went to Navy Pier. I really wish I could have seen it.

I wrote 5,000 words the Tuesday following the con about my experience there. It wasn’t very good. Like I said before, it’s so difficult to put into words. I spent the next six months thinking about the con almost daily and how I wanted to really write everything out before I forget any of it and share my experience with anyone who might be interested in reading about it. But I knew the challenges I faced. How do I describe convention going with it sounding like three guys walking around in circles, looking at geeky items? To be honest, that is a lot of what we did.

My only solution was to stop worrying about it being entertaining and just write it for me. Write about the minute details so that I can remember them. Maybe the fact that I had to alternate my arch support doesn’t interest anybody, but it was part of the memory and the best way to retain memories is to write them down before you start forgetting the little things.

On a weekend in August 2016, I spent time at my first big convention with an old friend and a new friend and had the time of my life. It sometimes saddens me because I don’t know if I’ll ever have that much fun again. But I am so thankful for the experience and so glad that I was able to experience it. I will cherish that weekend for the rest of my life.

Oh, and I did hit my goal of taking a photo with five different Harley Quinns.

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Book Club: Things I Can’t Explain (Chapters 31-32)

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Elvis is missing and Clarissa is mega depressed. She’s stuck in her apartment avoiding Nick’s phone calls and watching her life continue to go down the drain. She’s stressed about meeting her deadline but to embarssed to go into the office since Dartmoor witnesssed the wedding first hand. She misses her deadline, but does a quick edit and e-mails it to MT. That email bounced, so she decides to go back to sleep.

Clarissa decides she needs to turn in the writing, even though its late and she’s expected to be fired. She heads out to the office late in the day in order to avoid as many people as possible and she finds Norm and MT going at it. She runs into the secretary on the way out and she discovers that MT wanted to talk to her, but Clarissa refuses and goes about her way.

After being stalked by a weird guy for a block or so, Clarissa decides to attack him and it turns out its Fergface in disguise. It turns out Ferguson has a deal with the SEC that let him out to atone for his mistakes. He’s not supposed to make contact with his family, but he gives Clarissa a piece of paper before leaving in a dark SUV.

These chapters opened up a bunch of questions and were a nice rebound from the disaster that was the wedding. What role will Ferguson play in the end of this book? Will it lead to Dartmoor?

Be sure to check out Michael’s thoughts about this book over at Random Thoughts and Ponderings

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Wizard World Chicago 2016 – Sunday

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We woke up early, but had a few things we needed to do before heading to the Con. Alex and Adoniram has purchased these beautiful metal comic art prints on Friday, but neither one had given much consideration to how TSA would like them. They decided that mailing them home, along with a few other goodies purchased during the con, would probably be the wisest choice. Luckily, right outside of our hotel was a UPS Store, so we got there as they opened and got their stuff packed up and shipped home. The guy working was obviously bored, and spent a lot of time talking and worked an extremely slow pace, which normally wouldn’t be a big deal, but we still had things to do and a con to get to. It took thirty minutes, but we were finally out of the UPS Store and on our way to check out of the hotel.

We made it to the front desk, checked out, and then needed to see if they would store our luggage while we finished up at the con. They were very accommodating and I spent the time discussing The Ultimate Warrior with a bellhop who didn’t realize he had passed on. It took about ten minutes, and then we were ready to make our way to the train.

Luckily it wasn’t raining, and we could tell walking in that Sunday would not be near as busy as Saturday. We wanted to avoid the intense hunger that we suffered from the day before with a quick stop at a Dunkin Donuts outside of the L Train. This tiny Dunkin Donuts had a line out the door and after five minutes of it not moving, we decided to take a chance with the vendors at the convention center.

We walked in right as the doors were opening at 10 AM, and there was no need to line up like yesterday. We walked in and headed straight to the concession vendor in Hall A, but they didn’t have food ready until 11 AM, which sucked. We wandered a bit before returning to the concession stand where we grabbed some very mediocre and very overpriced food and then watched as Alex struggled with the vendor because he’s allergic to pickles and the hamburgers did not mention anywhere that they came fully loaded with a ton of pickles. I took almost twenty minutes for them to cook him a new burger, because they refused to refund his money or swap it out for anything else, but he ended up with a fresh hamburger that wouldn’t cause him to suffer from a medical condition so that was a win in our book.

My flight left Chicago at 3:30 PM but Alex’s and Adoniram’s flight didn’t leave until much later that evening. They had completed most of their con goals, with exception of getting a couple of add on photo ops and autographs. I still needed to do my  Lea Thompson photo op, so I made that my priority for the day.

I headed up stairs to get my photo with Lea Thompson and was third in line. Of course, she didn’t remember me from our short chat yesterday, but she shook my hand and introduced herself and we took our photo. It was a much better photo than the day before (thanks to my shirt not slipping around like crazy).

I had two more things I really wanted to do at the con. The first was to take a picture in the Impala like the one the Winchesters drive in Supernatural. I love that car and I’d been waiting all weekend for the lines to go down so I could take my turn. I finally had an opening but then I realized that the guy who owned it was doing his own photo ops with the car. There was no “take your own pictures” nor were the photo ops cheap. I think it cost $25 to get one photo sitting inside the car. It was like $15 just to stand behind it. That was not happening, so I passed and decided to go to something I’d been waiting for since Friday.

The week before the con, I was doing some Evil Dead research and wanted to see if there were any directions online to the Evil Dead 2 cabin here in North Carolina. I’ve looked it up a few times before, but I know the landowner didn’t want visitors, so I’ve never attempted to see it. I thought maybe I’d email the landowner and visit the cabin, but that’s when I discovered that it had collapsed and the land was sold to a lumber company. A mega Evil Dead fan had convinced the landowner to allow him to remove the work shed and all props/evidence of the filming before the land was completely destroyed. This guy had a plan to tour conventions with the work shed so Evil Dead fans could experience it for themselves.

Friday night, while walking around Hall F I noticed a lady putting out a banner for the Evil Dead work shed. Now, I was on his website like the day before, and there was no mention of him being in Chicago, so I went up to make sure this was the same guy. Apparently, it had been a last minute decision and he was driving all night to get the cabin set up. I couldn’t believe my luck and was thrilled to check it all out.

On Sunday, I walked over and talked to the guy and told him I was from North Carolina and had just read up on him taking the work shed. He told me how much was still left that he needed to get, and was super cool talking Evil Dead. He gave me one his custom built chainsaws to stick on my arm and told me to take as many photos as I want. Alex, was the photographer and I posed and just enjoyed having a few moments with this precious piece of pop culture.

Alex had more autographs to get, so Adoniram and I spent my final hour browsing vendors where I  purchased a Supernatural art print that I really liked and got the artist to sign it for me.

I was nice having a final walkthrough all the halls because it wasn’t nearly as busy as it was the day before and it gave Adoniram and me time to talk and really enjoy everything that was going on at the con. He really wanted to checking Chicago some more and I figured once Alex finished up they’d probably check out Navy Pier and take in some of the sights. My time started to run out and that nervous anticipation set in, so I went and found Alex in an autograph line, gave him a hug and promised not to allow another ten years to past between visits.

Adoniram walked me to the door and I thanked him for the great weekend and told him how much fun I had. We shook hands and out the door I went. I didn’t get more than two feet before a wave of sadness came crashing over me.

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October Movie Reviews

Posted on by Brandon

Here are some micro-reviews of the movies that I watched in October of 2020. I didn’t get around to watching as much horror as I had hoped (the nine hours I spent on The Haunting of Bly Manor really ate into my time) but I still watched some enjoyable flicks.

Oculus – This is my second viewing of Oculus and I enjoyed it just as much. The film is intense but the ending is a little lackluster.

War of the Planet of the Apes – I started watching this trilogy a couple of years ago and finally finished it up. This movie was quite impressive with some real heart and amazing effects.

Johnny Mnemonic – I rented this film years ago and never watched it. I finally sat down with it as a distraction during lunch at work and found myself engaged. It’s cheesy, very 90’s, but a lot of fun. I think it gets more hate than it deserves.

Strange Days – This movie blew me away. I knew of it, but honestly didn’t know much of what it was about. I was surprised to find out James Cameron wrote the script. It’s dark and the entire cast put on brilliant performances. This film has stuck with me more than any movie in quite some time and I can’t believe I just got around to watching it now.

Halloween H20 – One of my favorite Halloween films re-watched for the holiday.

Halloween Resurrection – Decided to follow up H20 with the sequel as part of a double feature.

American Pie: Girls Rule – I’m a huge American Pie fan and have found varying degrees of enjoyment from the direct-to-video films as well. This one would rank towards the bottom. It just doesn’t quite have the heart of the other films and they played it way too safe with the female characters.

Action Point – It’s taken me three attempts to watch this film but I finally finished it. It’s a very basic story told with real Jackass stunts. I probably would have watched it all the way through on the right day.

Good Old Fashioned Orgy – This kept popping up on my Hulu and I decided to give it a shot. It was better than expected although it drags towards the end.

Big Daddy – An Adam Sandler classic I haven’t seen in years! Its surprisingly very funny and held up well.

The Social Dilemma – A good documentary on social media and it’s effects. I wish I could get my friends and family to watch this.

The Ghost in the Shell (1995) – Finally got around to watching this and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I’m not a huge Anime fan, but I can see why it’s so beloved. I’m not sure if I want to dig into the rest of the universe outside of the live action film, but it was a good one time watch.

The Ghost in the Shell (2017) – I watched this back-to-back with the anime and it’s clear the anime is a much better story although the live action film isn’t bad. The set design, especially the city is very cool and it’s worth watching for just that.

Ip Man 4 – One of my favorite franchises, I finally got around to watching the final chapter. The series ended well and I think the film was a step up from Ip Man 3. It was nice seeing Scott Adkins in as the villain and Donnie Yen was amazing as always.

The Matrix – The Matrix was one of my first DVDs and movie I watched a ton around the turn of the century. Since then, I’ve watched it twice, once maybe three or four years ago, and then this year. The film holds up incredibly well. The CGI is fantastic for the most part and the story itself is quite incredible. As long as you forget about the sequels, this movie is almost flawless. I think the only thing that has changed for me is noticing the actor who played Walt Longmire as one of the Agents. It throws me off every time I see his very distinguishable face.

Hubie Halloween – This Adam Sandler Halloween flick was a decent watch on Halloween. It’s enjoyable, but nothing too memorable.

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