Writers Block

Writers Block strikes again. I'll have something to say at a future date.
Things are just a little crazy right now in my life.

Pepsi: Throwback vs Natural!

A follow up to my post about wanting to find more Pepsi Throwback. Well I found some, I was driving home along I-5 a couple of weeks ago and when stopping for gas and food (it was fast food along I-5 not sure it was food but it was fast). The little store connected to the gas station had a lot of Pepsi Throwback. I bought five bottles and should have bought more but the lady who rang me up gave me a funny look with five. I managed to not drink all that caffeinated soda in one go but I was very tempted to do so. Then a few days later I found something new in the store, I found Pepsi Natural. Pepsi Natural comes only four glass bottles to a pack, the glass bottles are fancy, the packaging is slick it looks nice. The soda packaging claims that this is all natural stuff. No high fructose corn syrup, not even Co2 in the bottling - they use something "natural" to carbonate the liquid.

The Pepsi: Natural looks different in color, has a different smell and is not very bubbly. While it is not bad Pepsi: Natural no longer tastes like a soda I remember from when I was a kid. So while Pepsi: Throwback might not be "all natural" it has real sugar, has the right color and has the proper bubbles. I have to say I much prefer the formula used for Pepsi Throwback over Pepsi Natural. Which in the end simply means I will stop buying Pepsi anything once my last two bottles of Throwback are gone. If I need my caffeine fix I'll dig out the coca-cola products made in Mexico and I will enjoy my soda drinking my way. With my way being the memories from when I was a little kid drinking a coke from the bottle or over ice in a glass.

With luck Pepsi will bring back the Throwback formula at some point so I can have some more.

Enjoy!

Comic Book Madness!

Alright I have been procrastinating and never did post the review of these comics as planned. So instead I will write two short reviews on the issues below.

Thor! I bought the trade paperback of Thor issue 7-12 and issue 600. Still not sure how they got from issue 12 directly to issue 600, but oh well. I just have to say that these issues of Thor were very disappointing. The new Thor series started out so well. Thor was back, he was a god and he was kicking ass as needed. Then flash to issue seven and suddenly he is all whiny and angsty. If I wanted whiny teenage angst I would just read X-men or spiderman (or something else). The writing and plotting was suddenly horrible and after the first six issues I expected a lot more of the same from writer J. Michael Straczynski (JMS) because when normally when he is on a roll all his stuff is good. But unfortunately the comic went from action and discovery to boring with a hint of Loki. I don't know if I will pick up the rest of the issues the JMS wrote. I know he left Thor at some point and maybe this is a good thing.

The Bad:

• The visit to Captain Americas grave - ugh come on everyone knew Capt would be back.
• Issue 600! I mean what the heck with that fight? And why even bother with the Avengers 2.0?
• Spoilers: Doctor Doom (and I never thought I would put that down as a bad thing).

The good?

• A goddess getting hit by a bouquet of flowers. errr....
• Thor got to say goodbye to his dad.

Alright now onto the Trade Paper back of the comic Abe Sapien: The Drowning.

I really liked this comic. The writing was sparse yet told a story. The story moved along at a nice pace. The book was very entertaining! I liked it!

In short this comic covers Abe Sapien's first mission without Hellboy and being the B.P.R.D it is a dozy. There is an ancient evil from before time, water demons and a cursed island. All in a all a nice creepy story. My only complaint about this comic was the art. It might have been a decision on the editors/writers part but the artwork was just not that crisp and clear.

In short one hit and one big horrible miss!

Until next time have a great day!

The B.P.R.D Plague of Frogs

I borrowed the first three copies of the B.P.R.D. comic book from a friend. This stands for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense the government organization that backed HellBoy. Well these are the stories told after Hellboy left the BPRD. I will have to go back and read those comics later in the series because I did not know he had left. The stories in the first two volumes were good and everything, they just did not stand up to the inflated expectations I was having from reading previous HellBoy comics. Then came issue #3 and the Plague of Frogs, now this was the good stuff I was expecting from the HellBoy writing team. The story was interesting, the story progress and weird stuff happened to the main and minor characters. I really enjoyed the telling of this very Cathulu Lovecraftian story. It has everything, creepy evil town and an ancient recurring evil. It is nice to see there is fallout in this comic book universe to things that happened in the past.

Oh and before I completely forget volume # 2 did have a really good story. The Soul of Venice was suitable creepy and gross with the evil that consumes the waterways of Venice.

I will have to find the rest of these trade paperbacks and read the rest of the story it was good stuff.

Thor is Back!

Thor is Back! or so says the back cover of the Trade Paperback edition of issues 1-6 written bye J. Michael Straczynsky. I actually bought this six issue compilation after hearing good things about the new Thor online. I did not even know Thor had died / ended at some point in the past. I had collected a bunch of Thor comic books when I was a kid and for the most part enjoyed the issues very much (I still have them here somewhere).

Without spoiling anything this was an enjoyable read and you should read it if you get the chance. Other wise I am just going to comment on the comic below and so it is time to insert a spoiler warning.

Warning! Spoilers below - this comic is old enough if you care about such things go read the comic before continuing! Spoilers below!

I have to say that I was very happy with these six issues reprinted in this collection. The writing was sharp and I expect a lot from JMS after watching Babylon 5 (B5). While JMS can sometimes write some really bad stuff when he does not listen to others (see B5). The pacing of the issues was good I was always entertained. The art was good I would even say a little better than your normal comic book. Lots of big nicely done splash pages that would befit the return of a god.

The story starts out with the rebirth of Thor (of course). There is some interesting dialog between Thor and Doctor Donald Blake. Thor returns to earth and builds Asgard in of all places Oklahoma - which makes me happy since I was born in that great state. Lots of interesting dialog with the locals which makes me think this is a comic book where is the fighting? Well we get a bit of that when while looking for the lost souls of other Asgardians Thor meets and then kicks Iron Man's ass. This was great because well Iron Man is so full of himself and Thor is a god of Thunder. This fight should never be anything but one sided and even Thor says he had always held back in the past. As a side note this is where those of us who did not read Marvel comics during the Marvel "Civil War" period found out what happened to Thor. It seems that yes indeed Tony Stark is an ass.

There are then many pages devoted to Thor's new quest to find and recover the other Asgardians. They have become trapped in human bodies and might die if not freed. The recovery of other people of Asgard leads to the predictable funny interactions with the locals of the small town that is now the neighbor of Asgard. Of course Thor's search reveals evil that must be dealt with once it is discovered. This evil appears to include Dr Doom for some reason.

The last comic ends with a nice climatic piece of art and I hope to find the next Trade Paperback compilation sometime soon.

World of Warcraft Patch 3.2

So far and to my surprise I am really enjoying the latest World of Warcraft (WoW) patch. Even though the patch did not address any of the issues I am concerned about, like returning the talent Titans Grip to a decent damage percentage. The patch added the Crusaders Colosseum instance (Trial of the Crusader dungeon) which is not only a fun fight, but one my toon can play in without getting killed over and over again. The Ulduar Instance is way way to hard for a person who does not spend their entire life playing World of Warcraft. I have only seen the first few rooms before giving up in disgust. While a lot of the time the changes to WoW seem to be made only for changes sake or to make those who do not play WoW 24/7 lives miserable. This patch seems to have been a good patch.

But the one and true reason I like this patch is the loot drops in my favor! The first time we ran the Trial of the Crusader quest I was the only person who could use the equipment (3 DPS plate drops). One reason I could never compete in the "big" raids is I just never got the equipment drops (either it never dropped or I lost the roll). On the second night I got one of the two plate drops (also got a neat item in another dungeon). So I'm really biased on the quality of this patch. ;-)

The good points:

• More daily (and fun) quests
• Oracle and Frenzyheart orphan quests
• The TOC instance (more fun)
• Graphic upgrades again!
• Loot drops in my favor!

The BAD!

The failure to return Warrior melee DPS characters to a competitive level with other classes. One day WoW will stop hating on warriors. I don't want to be better than the other classes I just want to have a level playing ground where my skill will help. I'm tired of losing to people with no skill beyond picking the "Uber" class in WoW.

I want my Pepsi Throwback!!!

I really consider myself a fan of Coke (coca-cola) I go so far as to buy the bottle coke shipped in from Mexico. I really don't like the taste of the High-Fructose Corn Syrup in the Class Coke sold in the USA. I never liked the taste of Pepsi it was just to sweet. Though I am one of those people who does not care if a restaurant has Coke or Pepsi. But then along came the limited edition Pepsi Throwback which after a lot of advertising (Including a NASCAR push). It took forever for Throwback to show up in my area of California. Finally I got a taste and it tasted good. Now I know why Pepsi was always a favorite of my friends when I was a kid, the sugar version of Pepsi tasted good. It was no longer the uber sweet HFCS crap I do not like.

And now I can no longer find Pepsi Throwback in stores. I even went to the Pepsi home page to see if it was still available, but there was no mention of when the eight week limited offer started or was to end. Searching on the Pepsi homepage product locator showed where I could buy Throwback and it was not every store that sold soda. Unfortunately none of those store have any Pepsi Throwback. I'm not going to buy "normal" Pepsi. So my hope is that either Coke or Pepsi will make a real sugar version of their soda available normally.

Sigh, I am almost out of the few bottles of Pepsi Throwback left in my fridge. If anyone knows where I can still buy some Pepsi Throwback let me know.

PS2 is Outselling the PS3!!

It was bound to happen, I was reading this article on Yahoo. The article reminded me that the PS3 is a good gaming system and give you a Blue-ray player to boot. But the thing is $400 or more and the games are not always that great or have much content (note my personal research is outdated here). While the PS2 is cheap or still working - in my case I have a PS2 from the second shipment to the US thanks to a friend. There are lots and lots of games available for the PS2 both new and old to chose from.

Even when the PS3 drops in price I still may never buy one since my PS2 games will not work on a PS3. Or then again there are a few games that get good reviews that might get me to buy the PS3 once I have the cash saved up.

All in all I just had to comment after reading the article - I was surprised that in the end the Wii has won the next gen video game wars. Though a couple of games on the Xbox360 are really good.

I am sometimes clever!

I was watching the extended DVD version of the Watchmen with friends last night. It was just as enjoyable a movie as when I saw it in the theaters. But the reason I am posting is I said something clever there at the end. At the part of the movie where it shows New York rebuilding after the disasters I say, "Doctor Manhattan returns the happy couple and in a Doc Brown voice says: 'you have to come with me to the future! everything is fine now but YOUR KIDS!!!'" My friends were amused and then the movie ended. My friends reaction must be related to being tired after watching the longer version of this movie.

I thought it was funny at the time.

Ultimate Wolverine VS. Hulk

I have been waiting a long time to see this mini-series finally get published. I had to listen to my friend rant and rave about the comic all this time. The first two issues were good, interesting even. Then came the long wait for the rest of the series to get published. Not forgetting the fact that the fall out from this epic fight is given away because both characters show up in other comics before this one finishes - kind of kills the suspense. I was really hoping that since everyone knew the final outcome the writers would use this as a chance to have a really cool story.

Warning! Possible Spoilers below!

Like I said above the first two issues were interesting, the setup with Wolverine is interesting. Showing what happened to the Hulk / Banner is kind of cool. The chance to see the Hulk in a giant room filled with "naked" / bikini clad women really made me wounder what did the Panchen Lama say to Banner? What happens is that nothing is detailed. The fight just starts and we hardly even get to see the women diving for safety as the Hulk and Wolverine fight. While I would be perfectly happy to then see a long fight between the two titans, what we get is pages of closeups (mind you the artwork is excellent). The addition of the She Hulk while interesting kind of came out of left field story wise, the She Hulk herself is a cool character. The ending of the series was seriously disappointing, we were promised a fight and we got a Casablanca ending (literally).

Considering the cost and current limited number of pages in modern comic books I really can not recommend someone actually paying for this series issue by issue. It might be worth picking up in a trade paper back, especially if you can get it at a discount.

So let me finish up here with things I liked about the comic.

• It is the freaking HULK VS WOLVERINE! Nuf said.
• We get to see the disadvantage of being the ultimate regeneration character. I loved seeing Wolverine recover from nukes, missing limbs and even losing his head. Having Nick Furry describe what they did to Logan was fun.
• The twist of not having Banners cousin become the She Hulk was cool. At first I was disappointed but really it worked in this comic.
• "HULK NO ANGRY!" Says it all.
• Hulk & She Hulk sex causing a 8.9 earthquake.
• The Hulk shown where he really is out of control.

Enjoy!

In God We Trust On Money

I wrote this rant up after reading some idiot post on facebook. But in the end did not post it there. I am going to post it here since no one reads my blog yet.

"I think the debate over removing 'In God We Trust' is a good debate we should always be having. It has to do with the very important concept of the separation of church and state. When the churches start dictating how the government acts and passes legislation we are no better than certain countries in the Middle East.

Considering how badly this country has been run for the previous 8 years it might be better if the government spent more time on issues like this and less time giving tax cuts to Rich people and giant companies.

Yes yes, I know the government keeps passing tax cuts for "everyone". But after every "Tax Cut" my take home pay goes down and my end of rebate gets smaller."

Does this rant qualify me as a cranky old man yet? :)

An Idea!

I have an idea for a post that I am working on. Don't know if it will be any good when done. But time will tell.

Writers block sucks. I had all these ideas and stories just waiting for a place to be posted. Now I finally made the blog, nothing.

Hello World!

This is my first post to my blog.