Mooveez

This is an easy to do up a post about nothing, just tell you guys about some stuff I got, which as it turns out is 99% of my blog posts.  Here we go!  Below is a stack of movies I either got for Christmas as gifts or movies I bought myself for Christmas.

Well, the first two aren't movies, but XBox One games.  Cody got me Dead Rising 3 and my mom got me Rise of the Tomb Raider.   I'm looking forward to Tomb Raider.

Monster Hunt, I already mentioned this one as 3D Chinese film my mom got me in Hong Kong.  I hear the CGI is pretty good and hopefully it's not too kiddie.

Rurouni Kenshin: The Legends End, a Japanese movie that again my mom got me in Hong Kong.  Originally a manga, then an anime and now a live action movie trilogy.  It's got swords and weird guys with crazy weapons.  I'm in!  This is the final film and since I own the legit version of the first movie, I'll probably end up upgrading my bootleg DVD of the second film to legit Blu-ray because my OCD demands I do it.

Next in the pile is the Japanese TV superhero series Ultraman Ginga Volume 2 on Blu-ray.  It's Japanese, but the disc is from Hong Kong.  No, my mom didn't get it for me I actually ordered it for myself, but only because it was just released after she was already there.  I'm know you are thinking, "What about Volume 1?"  I had actually already downloaded and watched the first half of the 12 episode series a while ago.  These types of shows don't very often come out with English subtitles, so I thought I'd try this disc and see how it was.  The subtitles aren't perfect, but better than I thought.  There is the occasional spelling mistake and for some reason they translate "Ultra Live!" to "UltLive!" which makes no sense especially when they say "Ultra Live!" in English!  All in all we can all agree that the Kamen Rider series is better.

Full Strike, I already mentioned this one as a movie my mom got me in Hong Kong.  It's an action badminton gangster comedy.  I was hooked at badminton.

If your French isn't that good Monde Jurassique 3D means Jurassic World 3D.  I bought this for myself at Best Buy upon my return to Calgary this week.  Some recent 3D Blu-ray releases having been coming out a prices that are way too high for me.  I was hoping Jurassic World would come down in price for Boxing Day and it did, but not nearly enough.  I still caved in and got it.

Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F, my mom hard at work in Hong Kong again.  As I said before, this movie is available here in Canada, but for some reason the Hong Kong version comes in 3D which is not available in North America.  I'm curious about the 3D on a mostly 2D animated movie.  

For Christmas Cody got me the Ant-Man 3D steelbook.  I like how they released this in December, just in time for the holidays and to save me from buying it for myself.  Thanks Cody.

Then there is Automan, the complete TV series.  An early 80's TV show from Glen Larson about a crime fighting hologram...ahh the 80's!  I dig the Tron looking visuals in the promotional material and the overall plot sounds so ridiculous/cheesy/cool.  It only lasted 13 episodes, 

Finally, there is Hard Rain which I actually bought for myself at the Salvation Army when I was back in Cranbrook.  I've never actually seen it and I've actually been on the look out for it for a while now.  I hope the wait was worth it. 

Well I'm almost done, but below is another pick up from the Salvation Army.

PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE!  I bought this VHS not because I'm going to watch it, but just so I can display the cool looking over size case.  The case itself is a little crushed, but I can easily get a new one at the thrift store.  Hell of a deal for fifty cents, that cover is like art.

But wait there's more!  A couple weeks before Christmas I was the thrift store and bought myself a copy of the Critters Quadrilogy on DVD.  I'll admit to never actually seeing Critters before, but I've always been well aware of them.  I just watched Critters 3 tonight which also is the film debut of Leonardo DiCaprio.  I liked the first two movie more with Critters 2 being like the Empire Strikes Back of the Critters franchise.  Okay, that's it finally.

Recap

It's been quite a while since my last post on Christmas Day and it's not because I've been busy, I've been doing a whole lot of nothing.  I really didn't do anything in Cranbrook because it's Cranbrook and there isn't much to do.  Willie and I went out shopping on Boxing Day, but it was pretty disappointing.  Usually we can always find something to get in the cheap movie bins, but this year even those were fewer and the selection was pretty weak.  Willie spent $5 on blu-ray at Wal-Mart and bought two calendars at Coles.  I bought some Star Wars cards at Wal-Mart and some chip at Dollar Tree.  The chips sadly were not on sale.

Other than Boxing Day shopping I didn't even do a whole lot or go anywhere in Cranbrook.  We to some dollar stores on Sunday and Avery stocked up on weaponry.  We also went to the hockey game and the Ice lost.  They ain't doing so good this season.  On Monday I went to Pages and the Salvation Army and that's about it.

Tuesday I drove back to Calgary and while the roads weren't perfect, they weren't too bad either.  The worst was Cranbrook to Fernie, after that they improved.  Then Wednesday, that's today, I met Cam and WE WATCHED STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS!  Okay, yeah it was pretty good and I'm sure I'll end up watching it again.  I won't say in anything more in case somebody comes to my blog by mistake and reads something when then haven't seen it yet.

Yep, that's it.  Tomorrow I show you a pile of movies I got to add to my even bigger pile of movies that I still need to watch.

New! Blue Plaid

I hope everyone got lots of cool stuff for Christmas and filled up on turkey.  I made out pretty well this year with nine pairs of socks!  One pack had seven pairs in it, another pair has pretzels on them and my mom got me a pair of Beavis & Butthead socks.

I got some more movies and the new Tomb Raider game for good measure.  The bottom two movies are a couple more movies my mom got me in Hong Kong.  The one on the bottom left is the last movie in a trilogy.  She actually got me the first part when she went to Hong Kong the first time.  While I do have the second movie, it's a bootleg DVD I got in Chinatown, so now I feel obligated to track down a legitimate version.  

The anime is obviously Dragon Ball Z and while I can buy it at Wal-Mart if I wanted, the Hong Kong version has a 3D disc that isn't available in North America.  Not sure how the 3D will work on a 2D cartoon, but I guess I'll find out.  I know it has some CGI effects and stuff, so maybe those will pop.

Lastly in the upper right hand corner is Automan, a short lived 80's TV series created by Glen Larson.  It's released by Shout Factory who also just released Manimal.  While I've never watched Manimal I always remember Cam and Mike would hype up that show like crazy.

I also got a Snuggie and it's amazing.  It's a 100% legit Snuggie too, so now I can throw out my bootleg Snuggie I got a Bianca Amor's out my car window as I drive down Deerfoot.  You can't replicate the quality of the original.

It sucks because I can't really enjoy or play with any of my gifts until I get back to Calgary.  It's just easier to keep them packaged up.  I can't wait to watch a new movie with that Snuggie!

Tis Christmas Eve...

I hope Wookie Santa brings you lots of goodies.

Pre-Christmas loot

Hey everybody, I'm back!  Back in Cranbrook that is.  I worked this morning and once I was done work I went home loaded up the car and headed back to BC.  Roads were okay, not quite as busy as I was expecting.  Once I got home I found I had gifts waiting for me and it's not even Christmas yet!

At the end of October and beginning of November my mom went back Taiwan to see my Uncle Cam and Murray.  On the way back she spent a few days in  Hong Kong again, so you know I had to ask her to look for stuff for me.

She got me some blu-rays!  The one of the left is called Full Strike and it's a badminton movie which might not sound very exciting, but it's also a gangster movie.  The movie on the right is called Monster Hunt and it's some big budget mainland Chinese movie.  It's the 3D version, so I'll have to wait until I back to Calgary before I can watch it.

Murray sent me back some stuff including these Pac-Man coasters.  There are four coasters, one Pac-Man and four ghosts.  Pretty nifty, maybe I'll start drinking from cups?  Naah....

He also sent me these cool zombie erasers called Gore on Error.  He said they also had army men erasers called War on Error which is pretty clever.  They are made by a company called Mustard.  It's an English company, but they're made in China.  I bet it's next door to the Star Wart factory.

Ahoy matey

I was at Mac's the other day and while buy some junk I also picked up a $1 scratch ticket in hopes of getting rich quick.  I pulled off an impossible feat once I got around to actually scratching it, I won three times on the same ticket!  Okay, I only won $6 total on the ticket, but it's better than nothing.   Ten grand would've been nice though...

I got three $2 symbols for $2, then I got a treasure chest "X" so I won the prize amount in the treasure chest, then I won $1 on the bonus scratch area.  Looks like I'll be cashing that $6 back into more scratch tickets, it's a vicious cycle.

Shrink N' Play

Okay, the mysterious fourth item I got at Michael's Star Wars buy one, get one 50% off sale is...Shrink N' Play!

There is a Makit & Bakit joke here somewhere.

The whole set is kind of cheap for what you pay.  There is only one background, three shrink 'ems and two sticker sheets.  There should have been at least two backgrounds.  Also, all the kits were all exactly the same.  It would've been nice to have a little variety.

DON'T GO ANYWHERE!

Before going into the oven.

After coming out of the oven.  Yep, they shrunk alright!  They shrunk in size, but they definitely got thicker.  Like the instructions said they only took 1 - 3 minutes, so you have to be watching the entire time.  Now I'm a little curious what happens to them if you leave them in a little too long.

There are some double sided sticky foam pieces that you are supposed to use to stick your shrink 'ems onto the background. 

It seemed like a waste to me to stick them on the background sheet.  I'll figure out something else out to do with them.  The background scene and stickers didn't go to waste as I reconstructed one of the Bespin scenes (to the best of my memory) with them.  

No, that isn't a screen shot from The Empire Strikes Back, it's my sticker scene I made!  It turned out okay, but I had to make some alterations to the C-3PO sticker to reflect how he appeared in the movie.

My apologies for the crappier than usual pictures in this post.  I did it late in the day and lighting was not on my side.  

NEWS FLASH

This afternoon I was browsing Yahoo and came across a headline that caught my attention.  It was something about a cheetah on the loose in south-eastern BC.  I had to check it out to see exactly where in south-eastern BC this was and it was in Crawford Bay!  It wasn't just a story about a hippie who took a bad trip, it was legit with picture and everything.  Pretty cool, yet pretty weird even for Kootenay Lake.  Check it out here, http://globalnews.ca/news/2408928/cheetah-on-the-loose-in-the-kootenays/.

The RCMP are trying to find out in anyone owns a cheetah which you think would be pretty easy.  Shouldn't someone have to have paper work to own an exotic animal like a cheetah?  It's not any one can walk out of a pet store with one.  If you did own one and ended up losing it, I'm sure you would be doing something to try and get it back in one piece, like tell the cops or a conservation officer.  I bet the cheetah belongs to some hippie who uses it to protect his grow op in the summer.

Sock hop

The other day I was Michael's looking for a wreath because my sister asked me look for one for her.  The Christmas section there was wrecked because it was all 60% off, so it was slim pickings.  Good news is that Star Wars stuff was buy one, get one 50% off, so at least I didn't leave empty handed.

Even though Christmas is right around the corner and I'm probably getting socks, they probably aren't Star Wars socks!  I bought these photo picture socks which are pretty cool, but unfortunately only one pair per package.

Still more socks!

I bought a different style of sock, but at least these ones are two pairs per pack.  I got another pair of socks with Chewie on them because you can't have too many pairs of Chewbacca socks.  The second pair keeps the same colour scheme with Rebel Alliance logos.  I hope these socks don't suck.  The material is a little thin and the sizing on them says, "One Size Fits Most."  Hopefully, that includes me.  I have feeling that after I wear them a couple times they will have holes in them.

Now I know you are thinking, "Hey, he said it was buy one, get one 50% off and he only showed three items?"  Damn, you know I bought four things to take advantage of 50% off my fourth item, but you'll have to wait until Saturday night to find out what I got.  The suspense!

Alphanumeric!

I finally tracked down that box of Alpha-Bits I was looking for, which means all I did was walk down the cereal aisle at work and grab a box.  In my defence they were hidden behind some other non-cool, non-Star Wars boxes of Alpha-Bits.

The back has got some cool artwork.  

The top flap even has a C-3PO on it.

Still disappointed that there still isn't a toy in it!  Hopefully when the next Star Wars movie comes out Post will do it up right.  Give me a call because I got lots of ideas!

Virtuosity

A couple of weeks ago the official Star Wars app on my phone got an update with something called Jakku Spy, which the app said was a Google Cardboard experience.  I had to look up what the hell Google Cardboard was and it turns out it is a virtual reality viewer on your phone.  The cardboard part comes from the fact that you put your phone into a viewer that is made of...wait for it...cardboard!

You know soon as I read Star Wars VR I had to get it.  I bought a cardboard viewer on eBay and I got it in the mail the other day.  I still could've watched Jakku Spy on my phone without the viewer, but I wanted to check it out the way it was meant to be "experienced".

Instructions are for losers!  Hey, let me see those...

I got it together and it's all ready to go.  It came with an elastic band and I don't know what it's for.

The warning screen when you load up Jakku Spy.  It actually did make me feel a little woozy, but it might have been because the picture quality was so bad.

Screen shot.

You look real cool when using it.

It was pretty disappointed with Jakku Spy.  It's broken up into several short videos, I just watched the first two.  Yes, you have 360 degree view and up and down, but the video resolution on it is pretty crappy.  The screen shot actually looks way better than it lets on.  I think because that is just a still image, once it's all in motion it's very grainy and blurry.  I thought maybe there was a problem with the lenses in my viewer, so I watched the clips again without the viewer and unfortunately the problem was the same.

There is an official Google Cardboard app that has lots of other VR videos, so I will check those out soon.  Hopefully, they'll be cooler.

There are also lots of viewers available out there.  Jakku Spy is presented by Verizon, so in the US Verizon has free Star Wars themed viewers.  Some companies went beyond cardboard and made really fancy plastic ones with foam padding around your face and a head strap so you can go hands free, even View-Master has made one.  I don't think I want to invest in anything beyond a cardboard version until it gets a little smoother.

All Star Wars, all the time

With Star Wars: The Force Awakens only a week and a half away I've gotta go Star Wars non-stop until then!  First up today I got an e-mail from Post Foods with the subject "Star Wars collectibles now in store - go get'em!" I was excited because I thought they were finally giving us the toys/collectibles we've been waiting for. When I opened up the e-mail I saw these.

Wow, thanks for sending me an e-mail just now telling me about the stuff that's been out for a month now.  Although, while I got my boxes at Superstore, I haven't seen it anywhere else.  Hopefully this means other places are going to get it, so I can finally get a box of Alpha-Bits.

The email also includes some Star Wars themed cookie recipes to make with Post cereals.  The Ewok/Shreddies ones looks way too complicated for me, and while the Chewie/Sugar-Crisp cookies are no-bake, it still sounds like a lot of work and dirty dishes.

What I really want to know is why there still aren't any toys in my Star Wars cereal?  Post + Star Wars = Fail.

Black and blue

Cody made the R2-D2 holiday cookies today.

Star Wars round up

Here are a few of the Star Wars promotions out there that I've wasted my money on.  Or Cody has wasted his money on.

Cody bought these Star Wars R2-D2 Holiday cookies last week, but hasn't made them yet.  There are same as all the other sugar cookies Pillsbury releases around every holiday, but with R2-D2 on them.  I'm still not sure how they classify as a "holiday" cookie.  I guess they didn't specify which holiday, so technically they aren't Christmas cookies.  Wookie Life Day cookies?

I saw a commercial on TV promoting Star Wars cups at Subway, so I went by there the very next day.  I wanted a BB-8 or Stormtrooper cup, but I got a Chewie cup which is still pretty cool.  I was going to rant about how we should be getting Star Wars glasses, not cups and how the plastic cups are too thin and flimsy but then I remembered they were free.

Also, I haven't been to Subway in a while because they have some fancy pants touch screen drink dispenser.  When I went to fill up my cup I was looking around for the fountain drink machine, but it was gone.  The new machine you touch the screen to start it up, select your type of drink then press on the screen to fill your cup.  Technology!

Just like the Post cereal, Betty Crocker just slapped some Star Wars characters on their boxes to get some suckers to buy them.  It worked.

Even the packages are normal, they didn't even try to dress those up with Star Wars characters.

At least, there is something to do as the inside of the box has activities to do.   Colouring on coloured paper is just weird, the colours aren't going to look the same.

What did you score?  I scored a 10, so I'm in perfect balance with the Force.  Can't say that about my bank account!  Hi-yo!!

Smashing

On Monday, Cody and I went to Smash Burger because it's been a while since we've eaten there.  I took a picture of my "meal" and posted it on Instagram because I needed something to put on there.  It tends to get neglected, but not as neglected as Mike's insta.  Then something miraculous happened.

See it????  Okay, I'll show you what I'm talking about.

The picture only got one like, but it's from the official Smash Burger instagram.  Smash Burger pity liked my picture!  Would've been nice if they reblogged it or something.   Maybe they didn't like my caption?

32 days

As I write this it is 2:20 am on December 1st, 2015 and that means I can officially break open my advent calendar.

Since the Lego Star Wars advent calendar is too expensive I just went for a boring old chocolate filled advent calendar.  It cost less than three dollars, so this one I can afford.

I'm not off to a good start as the chocolate didn't even want to come out of the mold.  I was pressing it from behind trying to pop it out, but it just cracked.  Eventually a chunk broke loose and then I pried the remaining piece out.  

I guess this is what it's supposed to look like if it actually comes out of the mold in one piece.  We'll see what happens tomorrow.  I really don't want to go through that for 32 days, it's not really worth the effort.

The back of the calendar has a few activities.  I think I will probably actually cut out that bookmark.