Happy Birthday Stan!

Today is Stan Lee's 90th birthday.  That is epic in my book.

New Favorite Quote

"Maybe I could move the Earth out of the way?"          -Superman
"If we had a week, I couldn't list all the reasons that wouldn't work."          -Batman

Just finished watching the animate film Justice League: Doom. Best lines in my opinion.

Random Thought - Time Travel

So, yesterday on Hulu Plus I was watching the most recent cycle of America's Next Top Model.  No, I'm not really into fashion I just enjoy viewing the creative and artistic shots they get of the girls.  But the episode I saw was of the girls posing as zombies.  Not gonna lie, the nerd in me was a little jealous, but not as jealous as when I saw them posing for their steam punk theme.  Moving on.

So, the zombie episode reminded me of clip I watched recently of Nathan Fillion talking about how he'll be prepared for the zombie apocalypse by being a welder.  Amusing story, if you haven't seen it I advise you do.  So as often as my brain wanders, which is often, this got me to think about how many people prepare for a zombie apocalypse but I realize no one really prepares for time travel.

Now, bare in mind you've got two different ideas.  One a "realistic" plague breaks out that zombifies and spreads a viral disease to the human population.  The other not so "realistic" idea of an individual figuring out how to manipulate time.  So, yeah I'm going with the one that will almost never happen but, hypothetically speaking.

You know, in TV, movies, books they always talk about avoiding your past self due to "XYZ" reason of time rule disaster.  Assuming that the issue of you running into yourself won't cause anything to collapse on itself.  If you did run into your past self, how would you be able to quickly and abruptly tell yourself that you're time traveling.  This led to me thinking up a silly movement (ex. triple clap, tapping your nose, holding your breath) to relaying to my past self that I am merely time traveling and not a doppelganger, shape shifter, or clone.  Hopefully, this would bypass the, "I've gone crazy!" moment from my past self.  The only downside I've noticed to this is that it would never work on my past self before I came up with this specific movement for time travel.

Pilot Episode Review - Arrow

Just finished watching the pilot for Arrow.  Yes, I'm aware it aired a couple of nights ago, but I have no cable and therefore watch my TV via the internet.  Nice, because I avoid an abundance of commercials.  Sucks, because my coworkers forget and therefore spoil the results of my reality shows.  Moving on.

So, I watched the episode with little knowledge Green Arrow and the only preview I saw was of a built man workout and playing target practice with tennis balls.  Had to check in with my husband a couple of times to clarify a few characters.  Yes, I know the villains and heroes names (i.e. Merlyn and Black Canary) but I don't always remember their secret identities.  I'm sure there were plenty of errors in the show but for someone, like myself, who doesn't really know a lot of GA facts, I actually enjoyed it.

One good thing they kept, he is Oliver Queen of Queen Industries.  Dude's a millionaire.  Resulting in a small list of individuals being able to out class him.  Granted a couple of those individuals are Bruce Wayne of Wayne Enterprises and Lex Luthor of LexCorp.  This is the DC universe we're talking about lot of people with money.  He uses a bow and arrow.  This is a good note, they could have twisted this in a terrible direction.  He's in a green costume.  Again, a good note, even though they just "creatively" called the show Arrow, they did leave in the fact that his outfit is green.  I was a little peeved that he wasn't wearing a mask but I guess a green stripe of paint over your eyes can classify as a domino mask...maybe...?  But I was really upset about the lack of facial hair, it's like his iconic charm, GA needs the facial hair.  Dinah Lance is present, not gonna lie makes me giddy that they placed her in the show.  They are actually one of my favorite couples in the DCU.  I enjoyed reading all the issues related to their wedding, before the reboot, I mean.  At first I was a little perturbed by her hair color then my nerd of a husband kindly reminded me that she wears a wig when she's fighting crime.  Looking forward to actually seeing her kick butt in the future, I hope she kicks butt.  Merlyn, yeah I got no comments really on him, need more time to determine.  The Queen family, yeah not much there, although the "Speedy" nickname to the baby sister puts a little fear in me.  The bodyguard, I liked him.  Not sure about the baby sister Lance thing, but I can roll with it.

Aside, form that I really don't know the errors that appeared but I enjoyed it.  I'm sure some people will grunt but that's the beauty of the multiverse of DC we're not necessarily viewing the mainline story universe; hence why a few things can be off.

The whole "hit list" he has in the show, my favorite part of this whole thing.  Looking forward to future plot synopsis with that.

In conclusion, this show has peaked my interest and I hope it gets a good run.  As far as I'm concerned it doesn't need to meet the level of Smallville, it has to beat the level of Birds of Prey (mind you I was a fan of this show), and luckily it already has surpassed the level of both the pilots for the latest Wonder Woman and Aquaman.

Relic Knights Kickstarter

First of all, yes I'm still here.  Yes, I saw The Amazing Spider-Man and  The Dark Knight Rises, I approve of both.  Personally, I think The Avengers is the lead one in the comics based films released this summer.

Moving on!

So my husband and I have found the website Kickstarter and have pledged to a few different projects over the past several months.  The current one we're interested in is called Relic Knights.  This kickstarter (1) has already reached its initial goal and (2) has just over two weeks left in its time frame.  It's basically a card based miniature table top game with an anime theme.  Due to the amount of money they have already raised they are offering plastic tokens, casino quality cards, plastic miniatures, rulebook (hardback, I believe), and lots of interesting extras.
There are essentially six factions (armies) to pick from, the Noh (demons), the Black Diamond (mercenaries), the Shattered Swords Paladins, the Doctrine (magicians), the Cerci Speed Circuit (race car drivers), and the Star Nebula Corsairs (space pirates).  When you think about it all of which are in some form present in anime fighting scenes.  The concept art they give of the figures and the look of the actuall figures are almost identical.  In my opinion the model artist did the best they could to recreate the art concept as best as physics permitted.  These are miniatures that you assemble and paint yourself.  So a little patience is needed.  The cards tells you everything about the miniatures stats and then there are the esper (mana) cards that help you do your actions.
You can go check out the kickstarter yourself and see all the different pledge offers they have and see what you can get from them.  The only downside is they are basically restarting this from scratch, so you will be getting brand new things, but you won't get any of it until next May.  Again, a lot of patience is needed.

Additional note, if you don't know what or how Kickstarter works check out its website, I'm sure somewhere on the website it explains everything.

Movie Reviews - Sort Of

Yeah, I've been terrible at keeping up to date with all the films I've watched.  I have seen Mirror Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsman, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, and Brave.  
While Mirror Mirror was more of a comedic aspect,Snow White and the Huntsman was a serious spin.  They were pretty good films, not exceptionally great.  Both entertaining, but not wow.  Snow White and the Huntsman not kid friendly.  Mirror Mirror not completely kid friendly.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter now that, that was a spectacular film. The film surpassed my expectations by far.  Great scenes, loved the "change" the vampires had.  It was a good film.  I have not read the book so I can't compare and contrast but it has peaked my interest to read it now.
Brave was so adorable.  If nothing else it had one of the best soundtracks I've heard in a while.  Story flowed well and was a great film to take the kids to.
Then there's G.I. Joe: Retaliation being pushed back to 2013.  Not cool about that.  I was all psyched for the film and then they postponed it.  I am not amused.

Happy Moment

So, I was surfing the internet, like any good nerd does, and I came across The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess website.  Midna pops up and starts telling you to find these light sources that are hidden around the "world" (aka website) to restore light.  Every time you collect one it charges the...well it looks to me like a glass grape vine.  The cool thing is once you collect all of them and "restore the light to the world" Midna rewards you with the downloads menu.  I was so giddy when I received that.  There were wallpapers and music!  Now it wasn't that many but I guess I was more pleased with getting something for touring the website.  I liked it and I wanted to share.  That's all.

Totally Made My Day

I just learned that the fim Solomon Kane will FINALLY be released in the U.S sometime this year.  I have been waiting for this film since it's original release back in 2009.  Not sure if it'll get a theater release or straight to DVD/Blu-Ray, either way I'll buy.  It stars James Purefoy, I mostly remember him as the prince from the film A Knight's Tale, starring Heath Ledger.

As a side note, I haven't posted in a while because I've been sadly busy and tired a lot lately.  I will make my review on The Amazing Spider-Man as soon as I have more brain power.  I've been working on a little side project to rant (not post) about but I'm having a hard time finishing the third book in this trilogy.  It's really not nerdom related at all, hence why I may not post about it.  That's the most I'm giving away.

Quote of the Moment

"As we used to say in CorSec, if one guy calls you a Hutt, ignore him.  If a second calls you a Hutt, begin to wonder.  If a third calls you a Hutt, buy a drool bucket and start stockpilling spice."

-Corran Horn, I, Jedi by Michael A. Stackpole

Movie Review - The Avengers

I apologize that this is so late.  To be honest I watched the midnight showing of Avengers on Thursday night.  It was absolutely phenomenal and sadly cruel.  There is no way I can make a review of this film without giving out SPOILERS.  So take the jump to see my breakdown of it.

Moment of Shame

I shouldn't let others know of this but I realized it does fall in the nerdom realm.  So yesterday we, hubby and I, had a friend over and while I was surfing the web the two of them decided to play a G.I. Joe episode.  The episode ended and then one of those educational clips played at the end of the episode.  I was familiar with it, in fact I wish modern cartoons would do this now.  Then I heard the kids say, "and now we know," followed by the Joe's line, "and knowing is half the battle."  The filter from my brain to my mouth was off and I said, "That's where that line comes from?"  Before I realized what I said both men in the room said in unison, "You didn't know that?!"  I tried to defend myself by informing them that I have never watched G.I. Joe but it was too late.  There was no way I was living that down, especially now that I've posted it online.

Gamer Symphony Orchestra

So, as I mentioned in my previous post we went to Washington, D.C. for "The Art of Video Games" exhibit.  We also, went to see the Gamer Symphony Orchestra perform in the Kogod Courtyard in the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  After our, disappointing, visit to the exhibit we made our way down to the courtyard to enjoy a concert composed of video game music.
Truth, we didn't stick around for the entire performance.  In fact we were only there for three songs.  Now let me say this we didn't leave because the orchestra was bad.  In fact, they were amazing.  I have eight school band years under my belt I know when something doesn't sound good.  They were great.  Had a great array of musicians and very elegant pieces that they selected to perform.  We stuck around long enough to hear the Sonic piece they played.  They brought out their vocal performers just to do the "Sega" note the games use to play.  Rather funny actually.
We didn't leave because of them we left because of the set up.  This courtyard is massive and yet they didn't even fill it with chairs.  The group is actually pretty local and there's this small group of people known as family of the performers that attend the shows.  Needless to say nearly all the chairs were filled with the orchestra's family, people who have seen them perform.  And since there wasn't enough chairs I found myself seated on a overgrown planter.  Not comfortable.  The room was packed every chair was filled and people were both standing and sitting on the floor.  It really aggravates me some days when people underestimate the power of geek.  The fact that I couldn't see the orchestra didn't bother me.  It's music.  I need to hear them, not see them.  The only reason I like to see is to watch the composer make his/her funny expressions and over exaggerated motions.  The issue was we were in a giant covered courtyard.  The acoustics did not compliment the group at all.  This was not their fault.  We both were however impressed that we are planning to make a trip up to one of their future performances and hear them in a better environment.

Cream, sugar, brains?

Since I didn't really stick around for the whole thing I can't make an accurate opinion but the fact that I want to go watch them is a plus side.  Now, onto a funny note.  On our walk from the Metro station to the museum I ran into this lovely sign (left).
That's right, zombie coffee.  I tried to google and find more info on it and I found this page on the Fro-Zen-Yo website.  I drink coffee and almost never buy a cup at coffee places because they never do it right.  For some reason the barristas I come across don't understand the words "fill the cup half with coffee and half with milk."  Some places put cream.  Others spin/stir the milk in, creating an obnoxious foam layer on top.  Then I meet some that warm the milk up then pour it into the coffee.  If I wanted to drink a beverage that resembles the feeling of lava on my tongue, I would.  I ask for milk to drop the temperature of the HOT coffee so I can chug it in less than ten minutes.  Not sip it like a child for an hour.  Okay, I'll get off my high horse.  If I lived in the area I would probably make an effort to get coffee here just because the thought of walking around with a cup labeled "Zombie Coffee" sounds awesome.

The Art of Video Games

So this past Sunday hubby and I went to Washington, D.C. to check out "The Art of Video Games" exhibit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  I'm going to be dead honest, I was underwhelmed.  I was expecting to attend a museum floor of portrait, images, sketches, concept designs, alternative costumes, full landscapes, detailed maps, evolution of characters through the games and so on.  Instead, what I got was a few rooms of video game history.  A few rooms, this didn't even make up a third of the floor.
The thing started out great actually.  Right as you get there you're welcomed by this wall.

 Cool note, I saw on the wall the words "Photography Permitted."  It's rare for me to ever see such a thing in a museum.  It made it something for me to look forward to.  Then...we ended up in a room with a wall filled with television screens playing what I could only fathom as a rejected 80's music video.  I quickly passed to the next room.  Here, I found twenty small pieces of video game art.  For some reason the only video game I can remember is Epic Mickey.  There was about ten things in display cases.  Saw a sketch of that hot alien chick from Starcraft.  (Remember, I don't really play video games.  Moving on.)
Next room, four to five giant projector screens of games from different years and the devices to play them.  Of course, the first one you come across was Pac Man.  The other game I remember was something called Flower, never heard of it before but it actually looked like a game I might like.  (And I have terrible eye-thumb coordination.)
The last room was the most disappointing.  Here were displays about twice my height with a gaming console and controller (boxed in) with four categories (Action, Adventure, Tactic, Target) and one big/ideal/memorable/popular game of that category for that console.  I saw in the cases an Atari, Dreamcast, SNES, NES, Wii, Xbox, Xbox 360, Play Station, PS2, PS3, Sega Genesis, Game Cube, N64, and about five others that I've never seen before nor recall the names of.  At each system there was a phone receiver with four buttons to let you hear "something" for each game selected for the four categories.  It was crowded I didn't get near a phone.  Plus, I am mildly germophobic.
That was it.  That was all it was.  Let me borrow my husband's line, "it wasn't the art of video games it was video games as an art form."  I really wanted to just walked through a bunch of rooms and see amazing details of popular characters, original concept designs, and super detail work of the environments of the games.  What I got instead was a history of videos game consoles and a mini arcade room.  Like I said, I was totally underwhelmed.
Upside, bought The Art of Video Games: From Pac-Man to Mass Effect by Chris Melissinos and Patrick O'Rourke at the gift store.  This, this had what I was expecting but, in a book format.  At least we got something cool out of the experience.

Additional upside.  Since the exhibit was smaller than we anticipated we wandered into one of the other exhibits in the museum and I got to see this massive portrait of Christopher Reeves.  It was rather epic.

Movie Review - Lockout

So, I had a dinner and a movie night out with my dad last Friday and we ended up seeing Lockout.  Under no circumstance did I anticipate to be as nearly entertained with this film as I was.  From beginning to end we two were laughing at numerous times.  You know that part in the trailer where the main character says his spiel about getting to go to the space station and saving the president's daughter in his nonchalant sarcastic tone.  Yeah...he has that attitude the entire film which leads to a lot of great comments.  It was awesome.  Well executed by the characters.  I enjoyed it so much that I'm convincing my husband to go with me to watch it before it leaves theaters.  The beginning had a slight futuristic car chase that didn't seem to really fit and was odd but once the story switched to the space station it went smoothly.  Basically, I liked it.

Update

Just finished reading Astonishing X-Men Volumes 1 & 2 written by Joss Whedon.

Well Played GW

So, this morning my husband calls me at work and asks, "You remember that free audio drama I got from Black Library yesterday?"  I did.  He then explained to me how he listened to it this morning only to hear the narrator announce the title, writer, narrator and then nine minutes of "dead air" (as he put it).  The audio drama is called Sister of Silence.

I was giggling hysterically at my desk.

My Ostracized Movie List

Now let me clarify something about the title of this post. In no way shape or form does this list mean that I hate any movie on this list. In fact, this is my list of movies I wanted to watch, watched, and for different reasons have decided to never watch again. Luckily this list is small for the most part. I'm sure as time goes on I will add to this list.

Movie Review - John Carter

Not gonna lie I loved it.  Flat out loved it.  John Carter was a great film!  If Disney continues to make great films like Pirates of the Caribbean: The Black Pearl, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Alice in Wonderland, and John Carter then my movie collection will have a section specifically titled Disney films.
Anyway, back to John Carter.  Like I said it was great.  Story flowed well, acting was great, beautiful costumes, well designed CG effects, creative engineering designs (i.e. buildings, structures, vehicles), and well selected funny moments.  I kind of watched the film and at one point I felt as though I was watching a steampunk space story.  Some of the tech they were using resembled futuristic looking steampunk tech to me.  That's what I think at least.  My favorite thing in the film was the dog.  You'll know it when you see it.  I sadly can't remember what he was or what he was called.  But I thought he was so cute.   The interaction between CG characters and live actors was beautifully managed.  I actually forgot the aliens weren't really there.  Story was good as the character John Carter learned things so did the audience.  There were a few scenes the audience did see but not much was explained about them.  Fight scenes were good.  The blood was...how should I put it...entertaining.  The whole film was a great adventure.  The ending did leave a "to be continued" feel.  Kind of how the end of Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End was.  However, I did find out that they did make this film planning for it to be the first of a trilogy and I have no problem with this.  In fact, I'm looking forward to the next one.

Still Alive

Hey, I'm still here and I haven't forgotten about the blog.  Just this little thing called life arose and kept me busy for the last few weeks.  It's been great though.  Attended one of the nerdiest weddings ever (groom's vows were spectacular), recovered from my annual anime convention, and sadly missed movies I was planning to watch.
Completely missed my chance to watch Safe House that film was mostly for my own enjoyment.  Guess I have to wait for it to come to DVD then.  I completely forgot Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance came out, go figure.  I sadly missed The Secret World of Arrietty.  This is a major bummer to me I really wanted to watch this.  The film was actually only playing at my local cheaper/smaller theater and my schedule didn't let me have time to see it.  Oh well, my husband and I both already agreed we're going to preorder it from amazon.com later.  Now the film I didn't miss was John Carter.  Which is what my next post will be about.

Movie Review - Chronicle

Okay!  So, I made it a goal to watch and review as many nerdy or nerdy acceptable films that I can this year, regardless of whether or not I want to.  Underworld: Awakening was a gimme but I was going to see that film regardless.  I haven't decided if I'm going to do a rating system yet (ex: 4.5 outta 10 stars), but I'll let you guys know.  Anyways, moving on to this post.  I just got home from watching Chronicle and here's my review of it.

For starters, I would like to inform everyone that I have never seen a shaky camera film before.  So I've never seen films like The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, and Quarantine.  However, I was aware of shaky camera films and how some can cause an individual to become nauseated, so I went to see this film with the intention of keeping my stomach under control.  I succeeded by the way.  Moving on.  This films was first mentioned to me by my hubby, de12.  He described it as, "three guys get superpowers and proceed to be a bunch of jerks."  I said no.  Then last weekend when we saw Underworld: Awakening, I saw the trailer for Chronicle and I when I noticed that one of the guys becomes dangerous I decided it might be worth it.

So, fair warning to all, I would advise not to watch this movie in a theater if you are prone to motion sickness, sensitive to high pitch sounds, and/or don't appreciate being blinded by bright flashing lights.  Other than that, you should be fine.  Truth, it wasn't as shaky as I was expecting it to be.  In fact, it had plenty of still/ steady moments.  Although, at one point it went in circles and I almost lost it.

Okay, so my viewing of this film was preceded by too many trailers; and I like watching trailers.  The film was slow to start, very slow.  It took way to long to get to where it needed to go.  I understand the build up of the characters and everything but still I was really getting angry with the beginning.  Once the superpowers started my attention was brought back.  Not entirely predictable.  One turning point to the movie was amazingly unexpected in my opinion.  The pinnacle moment at the end was totally predictable, but movie magic helps you see that.  The last scene was great.

Would I call this a great movie?  No.
Would I call this a terrible movie?  No.
Would I say this is a must see film?  No.
Would I call this a "Superhero" movie?  Hell no.

If you have an interest in this film, go watch it.  If you don't, then don't.  Enough said.

Novel to Film Comparison - Blood and Chocolate

Okay, random first post. I've been wanting to rant about this publicly for years.

As you can see the title of this post is Blood and Chocolate. For those of you that don't know, it's a young adult novel written by Annette Curtis Klause release in 1997 and a decade later released on film. When it comes to novels made into movies 95% of the time I watch the movie first and then read the book. This, this is one of the 5%.

Movie Review - Underworld: Awakening

Okay, just watched Underworld: Awakening over the weekend and I wanted to get down my personal opinion/review of it before I lose my recollection.
First of all, if you've never seen the other three films or haven't seen all three, not to worry, they were kind enough to give a recap of the story so far.  Well, the story mostly dealing with Underworld and Evolution.  They didn't touch too much, if any, on the third film, Rise of the Lycans, but since it's the prequel it's understandable.  However, I suggest you watch the other three first, so you'll be more informed about the story and the characters.
Awakening has less talking and more action compared to the other three.  Although, all four are packed with action, fighting, and supernatural awesomeness.  The previous three have a good number of talking scenes used to explain what's happening in the film.  Awakening lacks heavy verbal explanation and uses images and straight to the point statements instead.  The whole film was a get out alive story.
Continuity.  Much applause to continuity.  The fact that they didn't forget what they hashed out in Underworld and Evolution by keeping certain effects going was well executed.  Same theme with the changing eyes, sharp fangs, popping bone structures, and lots of dark blood.  They kept the sexy outfit.  Picture this, beautiful woman plus skin tight outfit equals bad-ass moments.  That was what I was witnessing.
Fast paced.  It was definitely fast paced.  As I mentioned before, less talk more action, which led to the movie going from one scene to the next, practically seamlessly.
The fight scenes were good.  Oh, were they good.  Gore, cracking bones, guts, and lots of flying bullets.
All in all, if you liked the rest of the Underworld Collection then you'll like Underworld: Awakening.  I did.

Type of Geek

I figured it would be a good idea to explain to you the type of geek I am.  For starters, yes I'm female and no I'm not single.  In fact, I'm married; to a walking Nerd Encyclopedia.  At least, that's what I wrote on his Man Card.

I've honestly have only proclaimed myself to be a geek for about the last seven years.  Correction, I was a band geek in high school.  Good times, good times.  Anyways, some of my interests, in some form of partaking via viewing, reading, or playing,  in the nerddom include (the following collection of words and phrases, in no particular order):

Dungeons & Dragons 3.5, Pathfinder, Vampire: The Requiem, Warhammer 40,000, Anime, Manga, Sci-Fi/Fantasy Movies/Books/TV Series, Comic Books, Video Games, Star Wars, Star Trek, Pen and Paper Role-Playing Games, Board Games, Card Games, Webcomics, Anime Conventions

The list is vague and I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things but this is a general overview of what I like.  However, I will state this right now.  I am not a completely perfect and well informed fan/follower/participator of any one of these subjects.  I have an interest in them and this blog is about me discussing my opinions on such interests and other stuff.

Opening Post

Okay, if you're reading this the truth is I have no idea where I'm going with this blog.

...

Still with me?  Okay, I'm impressed.

I have been debating about starting a blog for some time but haven't been sure what to talk about.  A friend recently implanted in my head the idea of making a nerd/geek girl blog and talk about all the nerddom things I like.  And then some.

Thought about.  Decided: Why not?

So here I am starting this up.  And wondering if any of you will stick around for the ride.