Justice League movie part 4- The Man of Steel, and the Superman/Batman Movie.

So it's been a while since I have revisited this, but with Comicon, over the world's largest focus group is over, and the announcement of a Superman/Batman movie is out of the bag, and the Man of Steel is in theatres, I gotta say not just that DC dropped the ball with Man of Steel, but that I am liking the prospect of a Superman/Batman movie less.

So from here on a quick warning the following article includes spoilers, rants and a possible incent to riot. if you want to read on please do but be warned...

League of Extraordinary Bloggers: Feels like the first time.

So first off sorry I haven't been around for a while, I have had a lot of family and other obligations that have kept me away hopefully this won't happen again-

Feels Like the first time-  I guess for me it would be my first car. I was not paricularly quick to start driving for several reasons, but once I got my licsense I pretty well made up my mind that I wanted a car to get me around.  My brother inherrited a family car, but not I oh no. I had to buy my own a friend of mine had offered to sell me his car and I jumped at the chance, I payed less for that car than I did for my Genesis $125 American, and it was worth every penny. The car was a Dodge Aspen / Plynmouth Volare, parted together. This was the epitome of the Piece of Shit car. All steel, white puke green and rust in color, zzthe car had a hole in the driver side underbelly that would allow for an emergency Fred Flintstone braking maneuver.

But it was MINE!!! my first real sense of freedom! I could leave town, Drive to work, school, or just cruise around. and it was a ticket to freedom. Well I got into a wreck in the first week, and while the car survived without incident, My folks went nuclear and after a cooling off period I could again drive around.  To give a sense of time to the story, My good friend Jeremy, a bit later went on to recant my foolish accident, "what an idiot" to his girlfriend just long enough distracted at laughing at my freshman driving skills, that he got into a crash himself. When I was hanging out with Kim (our mutual friend) we were going to go meet Jeremy at a local Chinese Resteraunt. I had to give him all 666 levels of hell for this one, AWWWWWW Yeah, so I sauntered into the Great Wall, and said "So, Jeremy heard you had a little fender bender, (this had apparently just happened) Jeremy Jumped up grabbed me by my shirt and shrieked, Jamie, You don't understand THE MAN HAD A PHONE,,,, IN HIS CAR!!!" Working as a cell tech today, I have access to the high end cell phones, I currently carry an android smartphone with a dual core 1.2 GHZ processor, 32GB Storage, and high speed internet access. and It's far from our top of the line (I am due for a new one in about 4 months). But at this time only the ultra rich had cell phones, Heck I was the guy who bragged about my Sega Genesis and later Sega CD. Jeremy was wigged out by the sight of this guy's car phone because neither of us could even afford the monthly payments.

out of high school I had a job working at KJMH Burlington's only TV station, and a public joke. I worked the weekend midnight to 8AM shift. I had left the lights on in my car, and the cops found it downtown, presumably abandoned, at 2AM, they called my mom, woke her up, and as they explained that the car was left windows open, lights on they were concerned someone had stolen it, my mom laughed, "seriously?!  why would anyone steal THAT car!" and called me to run down and turn off the lights.

My parents worried about the safety of this car, and finally when My stepdad got a new one, I got a decent car, my stepdads 1984 plymouth reliant, which he had gotten at auction and was originally used as a company car. the only caveat was I had to sell the junker. Fair enough, I traded it to a fellow gamer I hung out with for 3 Star Wars RPG supplements from West End Games, (rebel alliance sourcebook, Imperial Sourcebook, and Star Wars Sourcebook). All in all it was a fair trade.

So Let's see what the rest of the league is up to!

Random Nerdness
Goodwill Hunting for Geeks
G.I. Jigsaw
Erik Johnson
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Life with Fandom
Pop Rewind

The top 5 things I dislike about the new Doctor Who

Since an unearthly child first graced televisions during tea time in 1963, Doctor Who has become a touchtone for both British and sci fi geek culture. We all have our favorite doctor, remember some of our favorite moments, and most terrifying foes of the funny man in his magic blue box. The show is not only the longest running sci fi in history, but one of the most loved the world over (trekkies, you can't argue with this kind of logic, and Jedis search your feelings you know it to be true!) and with the big 50  here and the news of a new Doctor, and with 7 years of new episodes since Christopher Eccleston took over as the timelord, I think now is as good a time as any for a retrospective on the past 7 seasons. The start of the next chapter in the doctor's life, and while for the most part I like it ( Hey it's still Doctor Who damn it!) there are some elements that quite frankly annoy me to no end. and without further adeu,  here are my top 5 issues I take with the Davies/Moffat Years.

5 The Weeping Angels- Don't get me wrong, the first episode with the weeping angels was decent enough, but after a while I couldn't help feeling a bit too much "how much fear can we milk from statues? This is way cheaper than making up moving baddies!" vibe. It only got worse as they kept showing up like as if the producers thought 1 clever episode means we have found our new "daleks". The Judoon, and the Slitheen were also hardly replacements for the Daleks or Cybermen, but they feel like they can be interesting in subsiquent episodes more easily than these foes. I am sorry but each time I see the angels I am less scared or enthralled, kind of like with the Borg, the more we knew the less we cared, but on a much grander scale of apathy. at this point "DON'T BLINK!" is more internet meme than reason to fear.

4 Torchwood Could someone explain to me the point of an organization operating in the UK, with above the law clearance, dealing with alien threats when they already have U.N.I.T. for that? I liked Jack Harkness just fine, and have no issue with a spin off (Frankly I loved Sara Jane adventures!) but the whole point of this seems to be putting a more adult spin on the Doctor Who mythos, or at least more sex and swearing. As a show Torchwood didn't feel like Doctor Who to me, and as an organization it is simply redundant.

3 SUPERCOMPANIONS!! Speaking of Sarah Jane she is about the template of a good companion, a nice normal person to as an everyman type rudder for the doctor, who is far more out there in his endeavors. Sure there have been some pretty interesting and more fantastic companions (Romana for example) but they were more rare and far between. So far the new who has given us, Rose the Bad Wolf who had absorbed the whole memory of the Tardis and sruvived, Donna who is the also became part time lord and intertwined with the doctor, Amy Pond the mother of the most Mary Sue of the Lot River F@*#ing Song, and Lets not leave out the immortal Captain Jack or Rory the Auton bodied lovelorn legend of eternal love. Seriously other than Martha Jones most of his companions have either become or were destined for godlike connections to the doctor. Clara for example just quantum leaped herself into the doctor's entirety of reality, effectively deciding which TARDIS William Hartnel should steal, nudging Tom Baker in the right direction and so forth. enough of this what is wrong with a normal person huh?

2 Deus Ex Doctor And in someways this can be said of the doctor, sure he has always been a bit too powerful but now the tardis has a machine that can make any machine ever? He regenerates until he decides not to? whispering his name as legend makes him stronger? This is why so many people hate superman, too powerful is less interesting. and while he still isn't bullet proof of have heat vision the oncoming storm seems to be getting bigger every episode.

1 It's gone mainstream. Now this may just sound like the rantings of a geek who likes things only because they are not popular, but it reminds me of all those music fans who complain when a band has "sold out" a class mate of mine for example rued the release of Metalica's black album as he now saw freshman girls humming to enter sandman. but this in and of itself is more of a problem than I first thought. Why? you may ask, Who fans today are not thought of as as much of a stigma as they were in the 1980s, and now the show is more popular means it's fandom is more accepted. Perhaps, but it also means that the show now looks toward the new fanbase it created and will continue to push to cater to them, The Doctor can no longer afford to be a stodgy old grandfather, or a mass of curly hair and teeth, but now must look as much like a cast member of the WB type teen drama as possible. And the companions had better be popular or hot to get cast. Any chance of someone like Bill Nightly, Nick Frost, Stephen Fry, Rowan Atkinson, or even Helen Mirren becoming the next doctor, are slim and none, instead let's keep it fresh for the kids! And same with the stories, let's make sure they are safer and less controversial no need to rock the boat when at this point We have a product to sell.

That's not to say it's all bad but there are some cracks in the armor that need to be filled.  It's just not the doctor that I used to know, despite having better effects and more attractive actors.

Happy Independance day, (NO!! Not the crappy movie!)

So it's that time of year again, to light some fireworks, and grill out and celebrate the grand experiment in democracy our founding fathers set forth. I know we as our country have our flaws (most of which can be typified in jackasses like Pat Robertson, Ted Nuggent Sara Palin and more) but there is still plenty to be proud of....

First off, We are a melting pot, and don't let anyone tell you differently! Currently a lot of our clashes about "real America" and some assholes have been harboring some racism about who is a "real American" or not. Mostly blissfully unaware of any racism that their ancestors may have faced. But it is those different cultures that made us great!

We are the country that created Superheroes, and comic books! William Gaines creator of Mad Magazine has always held the family legend that his dad took collections of sunday funnies and stapled them into books and sold them.

Then there are the pages of Action #1, june 1938 and the birth of the first true superhero, Superman!

Not to mention some of the most awesome superheroes in the world!

In fact it's that whole melting pot thing that makes not just America great, but one of America's greatest sci-fi series Star Trek! an African communications, a Scottish chief of engineer, and a Vulcan as first officer, all working together for the betterment of humanity. It is a microcosm for the American dream, at least the way it should be.

and speaking of Star Trek, we here in the US can be proud of finally recognizing same sex marriage. While I am a happily married straight man, I supported same sex marriage because it is the right thing to do. A family is a made up of love not compatible sexual organs.

In short, Look I know we in the USA may seem like a ton of assholes at times. Every country has that sometimes those assholes are in charge! But on this day I want to look at what makes this country great.  and hopefully spend the other 364 days doing my bit to get rid of the things that make us so disliked by other countries. To paraphrase Al Franken I love this country like an adult loves his/her wife/husband. We know them, we know their flaws and foibles, and recognize that they are far from perfect, and we try to make them recognize this and even improve but it does not change the fact that we love them.

This is the kind of thing that makes me a lot more wary of Ebay

I had a similar case where E-bay screwed me over in a similar way getting a roku that was less than in working order, and E-bay also decided to close the case never to be opened again. But this is how their business works, take a cut of other people's sales, and if there is a crisis shift blame, shift blame, shift blame. This video made me even less trustworthy of Ebay.

and the rest of the story.