IT’S HERE!!!!!

Finally,my new computer is finally in and I just love it.  I will miss my old machine, it served me well for many years. *cries*

Anyway, I will examine my computer as much as I can, and I will make a post on it soon.  Oh and there will be photos.

One of lifes important questions: PC or Mac?

Well, my laptop issues have been finally sorted out.  I was given a pay raise at work and also, the owner decided to give everyone a $200 bonus because the store did much better that expectations during our recent one day meat sale.  Seriously, we made almost 2 million dollars in a single day!  Also, I decided to dip into my savings account just a little bit, don’t worry, I have enough for my school fees.

Now that I have the money, one question remains, do I get a Mac or a PC.  Quite honestly, I have not been this undecided in a long time.  I went to Best Buy the other day to browse the latest laptops.  I inteded to just browse the PC’s, which I throughly did.  However, at the suggestion of the employee who was assiting me that day.  I decided to check out the Mac’s 

To be honest, I have never had any experience using a Mac before, all I knew was what I heard from word of mouth.  Most of my friends who have Mac’s like them.  I had never really sat down a played with one, you know, saw their functionality first hand.  I was very impressed.  I was also surprised that they are still very similar to PC’s, much of the same functionality is still there, all that is really different is OS, which, with a little practice, I’m sure that I could get used to it fairly quickly.  I just have to kick some of my windows habits.

If I do get a Mac laptop, it will either be the normal Macbook, or the Macbook Pro.  Honestly, the Mac book Air is way to thin.  Plus, I like a built in CD drive.

Leave of absence

To all my readers and friends.  I’m sorry to say I will have to temporarily take a leave of absence.  Sadly last night, my laptop, which faithfully served me for that last 6 years, died.  I can’t figure it out, but it won’t run on A/C power anymore.  With that, future blog posts will be few and far between since I will have to use the family computer for my internet acesss.  I’m terribly sorry to everyone.  I have started a new goal, to save enough money for a new one, with luck, I should have a new one in a couple of months (A want a pretty decent one).  I will still post, but they will be rare.

May the Force be with you all.

My Dog! ^w^

Kawaii!! Sooooooo Cute!!

I know this is kind of random, but I took some pictures of my dog the other day, so I thought I would post one!  Why?  It’s my dog, and my blog, so I can post anything I want! And yes, he is full grown!  Yes, I am a guy and have a small dog.  He’s a very good dog.  His name is Beau!

X-men Origins: Wolverine: It’s got claws, but could use a little sharpening.

I’ve seen it.  I liked it.  I have some things to say about it.

What you looking at, bub?

I saw the new film. X-men Origins: Wolverine.  I was quite pleased with the film.  It was an adreniline fueled film worthy of its title character, yet the movies does have some flaws that have to be discussed.  Oh one note before I start. I’m sorry for any spoilers, but there will be some so that discuss events in the movie.

The film story starts off strong, showing the “orgins” of Wolverine.  We see the sickly, young James Howlet, living in his parents home in Canada during the 19th century.  Yes, everyone, Wolverine is over 100 hundred years old, his healing factor slows down his aging.  Looks good for his age doesn’t he? XD  Anyway, we see the events that lead to his powers awakening.  The Howlet’s grounds keeper, Thomas Logan, (hmm, Logan? guess that’s were the name “Logan” comes from) aruging with James’ mother, Elizabeth Howlet.  James’ father, John Howlet, walks in on this, and Logan shoots and kills  John Howlet.  James hears the gunshot and rushes to see his father lying dead.  Young James goes into a rage and his powers awaken.  Bone claws sprout from his hands and he charges at Thomas Logan, impaling with his claws and killing him.  James’ mother is horrified and James and Logan’s son, Victor (Victor Creed, Sabertooth) are forced to flee.  The opening credits following showing James and Victor fighting in various wars, such as World War I and II, and Vietnam.

I love this opening!  This scene is shot almost exactly as it appeared in Wolverine: Origins.  It also serves a veichle to establish the relationship of Wolverine and Sabertooth.  While in the comics, they are not brothers (although in the comics, they are veiled hints that they might indeed be related), I do not fault the filmakers for this.  It’s an easy way to set up the relationship between Wolverine and Sabertooth.  Also, making them brothers makes it more painful, when they have their falling out.

After the fantastic opening, the movie continues with Wolverine and Sabertooth joining Team X.  We see our first group of cameos here.  We see Blob, Kestrel, Bolt, Agent Zero, and Deadpool.  Most of these characters have minor appearances in the comics, save for Blob and Deadpool.  Speaking of Deadpool, he is nicely played by Ryan Reynolds.  He is thoroughly enjoyable in role of the “Merc with the Mouth.” (Becasue, as we all know, Deadpool is a complete idiot and never shuts up)  The guy can switch from action and comedy really easily.  I would very much like to see a Deadpool spin off. ^w^

So eventually, Wolverine leaves Team X.  He retreats to the Candaian wilderness.  Here we see him dating Kalya Silverfox (yay!)  He just wants to live his life with her in peace.  Unfortunately, as all readers of comics know, sadly, Silverfox is killed by Sabertooth.  The filmakers use this as Wolverine’s motivation to track down and kill Sabertooth.  Of course, Col. Stryker is there and gives Wolverine a choice, which he takes.  A next we see the defining moment for Wolverine, when he gets the adamantium bonded to his skeleton.  We all know what happens next.  I think now would be good time to talk about the portrayl of Sabertooth, who is wonderfully played by Liev Schreiber (I hope I spelled his name right).  He gives Sabertooth an absolutely threatining presence, without going over the top.  He vicious. Schreiber captures Sabertooth’s essence, a character who loves to kill.

While the movie has been good up to this point, now we start to see some problems arise. Now Wolverine must take his revenge on Stryker for experimenting on him, and threatning to kill him, while at the same time going after Sabertooth.  We see Wolverine kill Agent Zero.  From Zero, Wolverine goes and seeks out Kestrel and Blob, the other team members, who let him know what Stryker’s plan.  Stryker is taking mutants and experimenting on them to see if he can  combine their powers.  When I heard this, I though to myself, Oh know, time for a string of cameos! And that is exactly what we get.  First we see Sabertooth capture a young Scott Summers (Cyclops).  Then we see a cameo by Stryker’s son Jason, the movie version of Mastermind.  Yes, there are many more cameos to follow.

Thankfully, Gambit’s role is not just a breif cameo.  He does have a significant role in the plot, as he knows the location of Stryker’s secret base. (All villians have a secret base)  I was very pleased with Gambit’s depiction, reliefed the filmmakers did not give cheesy lines and a cliche Cajun accent.  Being from south Louisiana, Gambit is one of my favorite characters, so I was very, very nervous of his role, but my fears were proved wrong.

The story which had been strong at the beginning, now get’s bogged down by the cameos that follow.  Here are just a few.  Cyclops (which I mentioned), Emma Frost (who for some reason is not telepathic *screams*), Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Charles Xavier, and Weapon XI.  All of these cameos slow down the movie.  This is what happened with X-men: The Last Stand. Also, we have a very large continuity problem come up.  Wolverine rescues all of the mutants that Stryker had captured, including Cyclops.  This contradicts the first X-men movie.  If they had met previously, even very briefly, Cyclops should have remembered Wolverine, so why is that Cyclops has no memory of their previous encounter (that’s probably Xavier’s doing).  And what happened to Emma, she was in none of the previous three films, where did she disappeared to?

While the story has it’s strong points, it does have one large problem.  I enjoyed the story, but it just felt uneeded.  I mean, did we really have to deal with Wolverine’s past again.  That was already dealt with in X2, at least the most important part was.  Plus, I knew from the start what was the eventual ending.  He loses his memory.  There was no surprise.  Plus there is another contradiction with the first X-men film.   If Wolverine and Sabertooth have this history, then why doesn’t Sabertooth show any signs of familiarity with him when they encounter each other in the first film?  I know I sound like a purist, but these are glaring continutiy errors.  They take away from the overall film.

BTW, the pic was found here:  http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/File:X-men-origins-wolverine-5333-poster-large.jpeg

The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia/ A Complete Review

Ever wanted to know all that there is know about a Glaxay, Far, Far, Away?

Knowledge awaits

Well here is your source. The Complete Star Wars Encyclopedia, a handsome three volume set on all things Star Wars.  It includes information from the six films, the various tv serieses, the video games, comics etc. From Jedi to Sith, from blasters to droids, it’s all in here. What follows is a complete review.

In the above photo, you seethe front of the sleeve that the volumes come in.  It is done in solid hardcover with a handsome red and black design.  I particularly like the choice of image.  The top image is one of the Rebel X-wings as they fly towards the 1st Death Star, as depicted in Episode IV.  The bottom image is a still from the battle between Anakin Skywalker and Obi-wan Kenobi, as depicted in episode III.  The title of the collection lies in the center forming a bridge between the two, in essence connecting the prequel trilogy with the original trilogy.

Volume I: A-G

cover of Volume II: H-O

Volume III: P-Z

Here we see the covers of the of each of the three volumes.  They are done in the same hardcover with the red and black motif as the storage sleeve.  In the red bar in the center of the cover, we see various images.  We see characters, planets and vehicles. In particular, we see Queen Amidala, Jabba the Hutt, and of course, DarthVader front and center.  The back cover is mostly the same, minus the title, and has more images within the red bar.

A brief history of Star Wars.

Here we have an excerpt of the time line that is featured at the beginning of Volume I.   Believe or not, the entirety of the film series and Expanded Universe (note: I may go into the Expanded Universe [also known as the E.U.]  in a later post) covers around 25,000 years of history!  Whoa!  Bet you did not know that there was so much extra material in the universe, and it is all considered canon by Lucas Licensing.  The image above shows the section of the time line that focus on the film series.  Sorry it’s hard to read but I wanted to show both pages.

Rogue's Gallery

Here is an excerpt form Volume I, the entry for “Darth.”  As you can see the books contain full color images (all images withing the encyclopedia are color) giving each volume a bright attention grabbing feel.  I chose the “Darth” entry because it gives us a list (with photos) of all major Sith lords throughout Star Wars canon. (sorry, Vader’s pic is obsucred by glare)  A similar list is also showed for the entry for “lightsaber,” showing the designs of the lightsaber hilts of many characters.

A hero's tale.

And here’s a final picture from Volume III, letter S, entry for “Skywalker, Luke.”  Here we see Luke’s entry, once again asserting my earlier statement.

Some final notes on the collection.  I find these volumes are extremely well made, and well designed.  The red and black coloration of each book’s covers give it a distinctive look.  It will certainly standout in any collection.  That being said, for any Star Wars fan (or fanatic ^-^), this is a must have.    The price…a mere $125.00 US.   However this did not dissuade me in purchasing it.

Yahoo! My first blog post

*cue dramatic music* …Huh, no dramatic music.  Oh whatever then…

Sorry for the mess. Move Along! Move Along!

Well then, let me start by saying…yahoo!  This is my first ever blog post on my very first blog!  I so excited!

Well, what shall I talk about.   My name is Michael (Mike, Mikey, call me whatever).  I’m a 24 year old boy from New Orleans .  And let met me get this out right away…  I AM A HUGE GEEK!!!!

There I said it.  I’m a huge geek.  And there’s not anything wrong with that. What do I geek out about? I guess…everything!  Star Wars, movies, video games, anime, manga, etc. etc., and etc.  You name, I love it.  I do not discriminate with my fandom.  If it’s good and entertaining, I like it!

That being said, that’s what I will talk about here.  If there is a new video game, I’ll review it.  Some new in Star Wars, I’ll talk about it.  Something happens to me in my life, I’ll talk about that.  Current events, yep, I’ll talk about those too.

So now…You know, I don’t know what to do know.  So I’ll just end it here then.   And I hope everyone who reads this blog shall find informative, and most importantly, funny and entertaining.