NSFW: Graphic Violence!

I got around to watching the most violent and action packed animated movie of all time, FIST OF THE NORTH STAR.  I won't bore you with a recap or explanation of the plot as it's pretty basic.  I'll just skip straight to the screen caps.

I really saved the best for last.  I actually pulled that screen capture from the film's trailer, not the film itself.  It's obvious the film is violent and certain scenes altered using discolouration and blurring techniques to mask the gore.  While in the trailer the above scene is untouched, in the movie it is altered.

The movie also has some reinserted scenes that were cut from the original theatrical version.  The original theatrical movie had a restoration and is surprisingly clean and clear, but the altered scenes and cut scenes really stand out because they look so poor compared to the main movie.  It's very obvious and very distracting.  I get that scenes that were altered to help mask the gore, but the scenes that were put back in look like they were sourced from a third generation VHS bootleg.

Overall, I liked the movie despite the story wasn't that deep.  It's all macho hyper violence, and I can dig that.  It's a classic anime that belongs in my collection.

Vote early, vote often.

I was watching the CTV news station here in Calgary and they had a story about how the Calgary Zoo is running a Canada 150 years contest to see who is Canada's Greatest Animal.  They decided the beaver wasn't Canadian enough, so they offered up some more patriotic choices.

On the voting page there are eight choices including the beaver.  But there is also an "Other" category that lets you vote for other animals.  I was hoping for a write in section or something, but sadly there was none.

It was hoping to vote for the chipmunk, squirrel or possible the blue jay.  There are more choices as "other", but again it's a set list of choices.  As it stands the grey wolf is in the lead, the beaver is second and "other" is in third place.  With no chipmunk choice I'm definitely voting for the beaver.  I bet Mike votes for the rainbow trout.

VOTE HERE.

Next time look in the last place first

Here is one of my classic posts where I start out writing about something and then veer off to ramble about something else and then wrap it all up in the end.

Last week I was playing Deadpool on my XBone and was browsing the weekly sales and saw the season pass for Rise of the Tomb Raider was on sale and it was decently priced so I bought it.  It was just add ons of extra areas to explore, extra skins and zombies.  Zombies!!  I still needed my main game disc to play it though and unfortunately I didn't know where it was.

I haven't played the game since I moved, so obviously it's still packed in a box in the basement.  I had dug out a few other games from a box a while ago, so Tomb Raider had to be down there in another box.  I tore through all my boxes and made sure to go through every box containing DVDs or Blu-rays in case it got mixed in there.

I was down in the basement for an hour and didn't find the damn game.  I did however dig out a few blu-rays for repeat viewing.  I also decided to part ways with my PSP and my Nintendo 64 and their associated games.  Anybody interested??

While I was searching I found an old back pack I never used, but it was heavy and had something inside it, so I checked just in case.  Turns out the back pack had to two other bags inside it, either of which I also never use.

For the record I used to use brown messenger bag quite a bit, but don't anymore.  It's still in pretty decent shape if anybody wants it.  It's perfect for holding a PSP or N64.

I'm not sure what this style of bag is called, a sling bag?  I just made that up.  I got it free from at the pharmacy at work.  They were giving them away as a diabetes promo bag filled with information and goodies.

A bunch of pamphlets and stuff I already know.

One of the freebies were these pills that are supposed to help with blood sugar and weight "management".  I need these cuz I'm fat, but better check the expiry date.

So the pills expire November 2011.  I've had that pack for at least six years and I just looked inside it now!  I suppose since they are extremely past the due date they are less diet pills and more suicide pills now.  Also, included in the pack were some BD syringe needle tips for my insulin pen.  I'm gonna pass on using them though based on the PGX expiry date.

Last of all there was a package of cookies in there!  I don't care about the expired pills and needles, but it's a bummer when chocolate chip cookies go to waste.  I know they are no sugar added,  so I'm just telling myself they probably tasted expired even where they were fresh.

Well, as I was writing this post I suddenly got an idea of where to look for the Tomb Raider game.  It's a place so obvious it is where most people would look first, but I didn't because I'm me...inside the X Box One console box.  Yep, it was right in there with Saints Row and Just Cause 3.  D'uh.

30% off

I went to the HMV going of out business sale at the Market Mall location a few weeks ago and I've been putting off checking out another one ever since.  I'm a total procrastinator so every time I get a chance to go, it will snow or I'll find something else to do and I'll say, "I'll go another day."  I finally made myself to go today to check out the South Centre Mall HMV.

When I went to the Market Mall location I found the CD selection to be extremely picked over which was a bit of shock as the sale hadn't really kicked in yet.  The movie selection was still not bad though.  A few weeks since then I figured any HMV I visited now would be bare bones and looking pretty sad.  I was shocked to see that the South Centre location still had a decent amount of stock, both movies and music.  They are a larger store, so they have more space and more stock.

I browsed all the movies and some of the CDs, but I find it hard to browse CDs at that location because they just have them on a shelf with the spines out as opposed to with the cover facing out with dividers for each band.  When there are shelves of CDs with the spines out and you have to lean in and look and read each spine, it gets pretty tedious.  You pretty much have to know what you are looking for.  Luckily, I did have a few titles in mind to look for and actually found them!

The Shadowy Men remastered trilogy!  I had actually tried looking for these when they were first released last fall, but couldn't find them and HMV online said no stores had them in stock.  I'm just lucky I found them and got them on sale too.  Also, the metal music section seemed to be the most well stocked of all the music sections.  I guess hardcore metal fans don't shop at HMV or even go the mall for that matter.

I also got this old school anime based solely on the awesome tag lines on the cover.  I've seen the New Fist of the North Star OVA from 2003, I've played the video game and I've seen the live action movie starring Gary Daniels, but I haven't seen the original movie.  When I say old school, I mean 1984 old school.  Going by the whatis boasted about on the cover my hopes are pretty high for this movie.  Will they be met or dashed?

I did other movies I liked, but I still did really want to buy them even at 30% off.  I know if I have some patience I'll find them used one day and they'll only be like $1 or $2.

Even though it's March 9th and HMV is still around until the end of April the savings are only still at 30% off for media.  I was hoping for more of a discount, but I'll take what I can get.  On the bright side you can t-shirts, toys and onesie pajamas for 60% off.

Star Bars

I posted a picture of some snacks goods on Instagram a while ago and I'm getting around to writing about on here.  I'm sure you've seen them at the grocery as they've been out for a while now.  I first saw them when I was back in Cranbrook in January when Willie and I saw them at Wal-Mart.  

I got them when I got back to Calgary and had to get both flavours.

There is the Kids Edition Vanilla Cake Flavour with Chewie on the box and the Special Edition Chocolate Cake Flavour with Darth Vader.  So the Chewie box is for kids and the Vader box is for adults??  Luckily I got away buying the Chewie vanilla bar despite having no kids and when the cashier asked if I did, I just lied and said yes.

I hate to disappoint everyone out there, but these granola bars do not like vanilla cake or chocolate cake.  If you take a bite you are going to say "Oh, this tastes like it might be vanilla." or "This tastes chocolate-like".  Once my granola bars are done I won't be in hurry to get some more.

So they don't taste that great and the art on the box is the same picture of Chewie from Cinnamon Toast Crunch box and the picture of Vader is the same picture used on the Campbell's chicken soup can and the box of Cheerios.  With vast library of Star Wars images in the Lucasfilm archives, they only gave out one single picture of each of these characters to licensees?

Even though the granola bars weren't that great and I won't be buying more I'll still buy whatever cookie, cereal or drink they slap a Star Wars character on the front of next.