I'm the Juggernaut, *#*(@&@$!

Go see X-Men: The Last Stand.

I was rather ambivalent about it given the lacklustre previews prior to its release, but I heard some good things and read a couple of good reviews and decided to check it out yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised.

You can tell it's a different director, but it's not a shift like what happened with the Batman movies. While they say that this is the last X-Men movie, they do leave enough of an opening for another one if they decide to do it.

That said, I was rather surprised at who dies and who didn't. Add to that the permanent mutant cure that gets used rather liberally on many of our favourite muties and you have a landscape that is rather altered from the previous two movies. It's rather jarring, but I'm personally glad that they decided to do what they did as it kept the series from falling into a rut. That said, I hate Halle Berry. She's a great actress and looks like Storm should look, but she can't pull off the character at all. Yarg.

I was also rather upset at the lack of Sentinels. There is one, technically, in the movie, but it's barely seen and is also technically not there.

So, go see X-Men: The Last Stand. It's a fun movie that definately does some neat things with the franchise and has a lot of great little moments (and big fights)that are a hoot to watch.

And it has Juggernaut. The scene in Alcatraz with him and Kitty Pryde is worth the price of admission. Moreso if you've seen this. (Warning: That link may contain some salty language, but man, is it funny).

Oh, and stay until the end of the credits. It's worth it, if only for the sounds of a thousand foreheads being slapped in incredulity.

Non-Hydrantated Oil

 
We fired up a couple of sprinklers today for the boys to run through. Our little crazy squid one would have been perfect had we had an extra acre of land for it to spray into. We set up this little fire hydrant one and the boys really enjoyed it, plus our lawn got watered all at the same time.

For our regular readers, see if you can spot the structural flaw in this photo. Winner gets a free chance to look after Garrett for an evening :) 

One for the Time Capsule

 
Here's a photo we unearthed from earlier this afternoon. Digital film really doesn't age well...

If you look up, you can see the infamous branch prior to it's unfortunate encounter with a pair of hedge clippers, gravity and Garrett's head. 

This picture makes me yawn

 
After a trying day of dodging trees and sprinklers, Garrett decides to pass out in OUR bed, not either of his... grr... 

The Sky Is Falling!

Dave, Kate & Connor came over this afternoon for a nice visit. Garrett & Connor had a blast playing with each other and I put Dave to work setting up the playset in the backyard. Everyone was having a grand old time until the attack of the tree.

Our stupid neighbours (as opposed to the not-stupid ones on the other side) decided that today would be a grand old time to start hacking off limbs on the tree that mostly overhangs our backyard and provides most of our shade. And they decided to do it while we had company over and two toddlers running around in the backyard, something readily apparent to anyone possessing sensory apparati operating above those of Helen Keller. Not that this seemed to matter with the doorknobs residing next to us.

Let me paint you the scene:

Dave was out in the backyard with Garrett. Dave's cooking the burgers and Garrett's on the playset. I am in the kitchen cutting cheese for the burgers and Kate, Julie and Connor are puttering about in the living room and kitchen.

I hear Dave yell, "What the heck!?", Kate gasps and Garrett gave out a yelp. I look to see a tree branch... on the top of the playset. A very LARGE branch, full of wood and everything. I saunter over to the doorway and see that Garrett is climbing down from the playset looking surprised and sort of amused but not hurt. The branch that the idiots next door were cutting fell and landed right on top of the playset, but thankfully it either missed Garrett or else the leaves and what not weren't enough to do any damage to him.

So Dave went over and tried to help push it back over the fence. He said, "Here, I'll push it over for you." They said, "Sure, if you're strong enough."

Dave didn't kill them... that's to his credit.

So the tree branch got tossed back over the fence, Garrett escaped major bodily harm and Dave and Kate got to see just how stupid and rude our neighbours are. They didn't even say, "Sorry for almost killing your kid," or anything of the sort. They just went back to whatever they were doing in their yard while we looked on incredulously and my other neighbour just shook his head knowingly.

Idiots.

Granted, these are the same people who stand around in their backyard cursing like sailors with Tourette's syndrome at each other for all the world to hear. And their house smells like a tobacco stand on fire and makes it rather annoying to have the windows open during the summer. Sigh. At least the neighbours on the other side of us are nice and geeky :)

Get in the Tunk

FYI:

Tomorrow is the first day of the Acton Trunk Sale. Woo!

Do you like garage sales but don't like driveways? The Trunk Sale allows you to experiencing the thrill of buying other people's junk without the lingering fear that they'll let their dog out of the backyard.

It's over at the Olde Hide House parking lot on Saturday morning from 8:30 to 12:30. I hope they have some neat stuff. If nothing else, we get a good walk over there from our place and a yummy Chow Down breakfast.

Lost Trinkets

Did you watch Lost the other night?

Watch this interview with the director of the Hanso Foundation and read this article. Very fun stuff. I'd also recommend The Lost Experience as it saves you from having to dig around in all of the ARG (Alternate Reality Game) stuff that is going on with the Hanso website and such. Lots of neat revelations and more mysteries await therein.

They Finally Let Me Out Of That Crib

 
Garrett & I set up his crib last Friday. He really likes it although he never seems to be able to stay in it for very long during the day. He has fallen asleep on it the last couple evenings and tonight will be the first time we'll leave him in it overnight. We're not quite ready to pack up the crib yet though. 

All Dressed Up For Mother's Day

 
Here's Garrett and Julie on Mother's Day. Aren't they the snazzy pair? 

Liquid Smash Bros.

Go check out the Super Smash Bros. Brawl trailer. Watch it at least 4 times and call me in the morning.

10 Things I Hate About The Commandments

Someone has done up a trailer for The Ten Commandments but they've done it in the style of your average teen movie trailer. It's quite well done and funny.

I couldn't let it slide by without sharing :)

For Nerds Eyes Only

This is too funny.

A guy interviews someone whom he thinks is dressed up as Joss Whedon (creator of Firefly, Buffy & Angel) at a convention... only it IS Joss Whedon.

Further proof of how much Joss rocks.

Wii3

This past week has been the annual descent into madness that is the Electronic Entertainment Expo, aka E3.

This is where all of the companies pull out the stops and show the gaming world what is coming in the next year or so.

The big news this year was the unveiling of both the new PS3 and the Nintendo Wii (aka the Revolution).

Bad news first: The PS3 is ludicrously expensive. I'm talking about a console that will be retailing for $650 Canadian. Yarg. I'm sure that it'll be a nice console, hardware-wise, but there was nothing that really seemed interesting with regards to any of the games. Not only that, but I haven't seen any hands-on impressions of PS3 games so you can't gauge how their DualShake controller will work.

Speaking of the DualShake, it's essentially the current Dualshock controller that everyone knows from the PS1 and PS2. Sony has taken that and removed the vibration and added tilt sensors. This means that Sony has taken the behaviours of your friend or little brother who likes to swing the controller around like it's an actual steering wheel and turned it into a game mechanic. This has been decried as Sony's blatant theft of the Wiimote style of motion sensing.. Ah well.

As for the good, nay, GREAT news, just watch anything that Nintendo did. Talk about the phoenix rising from the ashes. Just last week people were still saying that Nintendo was dead, yet they were the hit of E3 this year. Take a look at Shadow of the Mario, er, Mario Galaxy, for instance. It looks phenomenal. Plus you have a Wii enabled Zelda: Twilight Princess and Metroid Prime 3 at launch with Super Smash Bros. and Mario Galaxy coming out within 6 months of launch. AND there's the virtual console which lets you play games from the NES, SNES, TURBOGRAPHIX 16!!! and N64... and it's backwards compatible with the Gamecube games.

And watch the Nintendo press conference from just prior to the beginning of the expo. It is sheer joy, especially compared to the train wreck that was the Sony press conference.

Microsoft did some stuff, but it was mostly about the 360 and really didn't have anything that blew my socks off. It was all about Nintendo this year.

I was busy this week doing some stuff for Toybane and contributing to the Evil Avatar News Radio E3 Roundtable discussions for the past three nights. At least it's over and I don't have to stay up that late (doing non-gaming stuff). Check them out if you want to hear 4-5 guys (including myself) go full tilt geek.

Howdy, Pardners!

Ug!

I apologize profusely for those of you who missed my incoherent ramblings over the past week or so. It has been crazy around here.

I just got home from work today and finally have a few days off. I've been working since last Wednesday... both of my days off were sabotaged by not having them. Silly work and my having to do it on my days off...

Add to that the fact that this past week has been E3 week and I've been quite busy with stuff over at Toybane and doing the Evil Avatar E3 podcasts the last 3 nights and you've got a recipe for me not blogging much.

Plus Garrett has been in a fight, got soaked in the rain and started his weightlifting career, all things that add up to my blog-free existence over the past week.

Oh, and the last two weeks have had all sorts of awesome episodes of the shows I watch regularly, so that's eaten up what little free time I've had. Heck, I've barely touched a game aside from my usual Animal Crossing and Brain Age stuff on the DS.

Anyway, nothing incredibly exciting has happened around here. As I said, Garrett got in a fight with a kid while he was at the babysitter's this week and has all sorts of scrapes on him, but I think he got the toy they were fighting over in the end, so it's all good.

I'll put my E3 thoughts up in a sec. That way nobody has to suffer through them unless they really want to!
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What I'm Reading: Ghosts In The Snow
What I'm Playing: Dreamfall, Brain Age, Animal Crossing, Super Mario World and Mario & Luigi: PiT
What I'm Watching: Lost, 24, Prison Break, My Name Is Earl, Battlestar Galactica

Look Out Ahnold

 
Garrett has decided to show his manly muscles by lugging jugs of washer fluid around the house. He actually had one in each hand and was lifting them rather high yesterday, but we weren't able to get a picture until he was into his pre-bedtime workout. 

Attack of the Podcast People

Once again, I'm showing how far behind the curve I am by the fact that I am just now becoming addicted to podcasts. What has finally hooked me on this elusive method of media delivery?

CBC now has official podcasts of most of the banner shows, along with daily stories and such. The fact that I can now listen to at least one show of Ideas a week (as opposed to the complete lack of Ideas that I can listen to at the moment) is what got me really excited. I just hope they come out with a comedy podcast so I can make sure I don't miss the Dead Dog Comedy Hour or Madly Off In All Directions anymore.

I also listen to the Evil Avatar News Radio show, if only to hear the mellifluous sound of my own voice during the times I either call in or send in my Brock Talk segments.

I own a beer company, apparently.

This is wierd.

I googled myself this morning for not particular reason when lo and behold, it appears that I, Brock Wager, own a beer company.

Now, during the article they use Wager and Wagner for the fella's surname, but if it actually is Wager, that's just freaky. Brock isn't a terribly common name. Wager isn't a terribly common name. Combine the two and you have a VERY rare combination... a frothy, sudsy, rare combination.

*editor's note* Bah. Looks like it's Wagner, not Wager. I knew it was too good to be true. Oh well. */editor's note*