Hey there everyone! Enjoy your Thanksgiving? Hopefully you ate plenty and are still rolling around from the amount of food, I know I am. Today's blog is going to be an actual short blog this time, but what I'm shoving into this blog is far from short. I'm bringing you guys a brand new video of that trip my sister and I took to Bossier Arts Council to view my sister's first painting that she has ever entered into a gallery as well as actually getting accepted on her first try. Yeah Annie is pretty incredible and if you saw last week's blog you will already have seen the amazing painting.
There's a lot more to see at the Bossier Arts Council from a load of other artists as well so grab some popcorn, your paints and paintbrush and check out this cool new video!
Star Wars parody besides the point I think this video turned out pretty good, it could of been a lot better if my camera lens wasn't dirty, which I was not aware of as of recording this trip. I also sounded pretty quite too as it didn't feel right speaking loud in a gallery, seemed kind of disrespectful but maybe I was wrong.
Besides my sister's amazing painting it was great to see so many different artists with many different art styles and techniques. I have to admit I've never been into a gallery before so as a beginning artist myself this served as some great inspiration, to the point I've actually been picking up on my own art again, mostly pencil sketching but I've also come to love pencil sketching as an art form.
Annie's painting is dubbed "The Wanderlust Forest". The paint strokes, the vibrant colors, everything about this painting is amazing and for some reason I really like those added small dash strokes that Annie always adds into her painting, it adds a stylish and aesthetic look to all of her art work.
This painting is actually up for sale for $150 but sadly due to myself not being able to make it out to the Gallery until recently and the fact that the Council hadn't actually advertised the paintings properly until last Saturday you won't really have the chance to see this painting in real life unless you go out to see it within the next four days and even then you would have to be in the area. If you are in the area however the address is 630 Barksdale Blvd, Bossier City, LA and if you're interested in buying I believe they may have shipping options available so give them a call at (318)741-8310.
So that's all for today sadly, really sorry about the short blog but I was poised for time this week so this video as all I could muster. There wasn't really any news so it's not so bad. With Christmas right around the corner expect some Christmassy topics coming your way as well as some discussions about what I've been watching lately... Which is mostly RWBY and The Flash. Oh yeah speaking of the Flash the Crisis on Earth-X Crossover event begins tonight on Supergirl at 8 eastern/ 7 Central so be sure to check it out! This will be the one time I actually tune into Supergirl believe it or not.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This week is the week of
Thanksgiving here in America, the day for giving thanks to those you’re
grateful for having in your life and also for stuffing your face with stuffing.
It’s also the day of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Purina Dog Show
which are always fun watches. Of course after that day is over it's going to be
the largest shopping day of the year, Black Friday. So yeah be safe over the
next few weeks and while you should have fun don't overdo it!
However for today I have a few movie trailers to discuss but
before that my sister and I went on a little adventure last week. We went on a
trip to Bossier Art’s
Council in Bossier City finally to see my sister’s
amazing canvas painting in the Humans Being Humans Gallery that is currently
running at the council. Yes my sister actually got an art piece into a gallery
and rightfully so she’s
done an amazing job on this piece. Funny enough this was her first time
entering a gallery and she was up against many artists in the area. We recorded
a vlog of the trip but I was not able to get it finished for this specific blog
so you’ll see that
video soon.
For now you can check out my sister’s
painting on her newest blog: http://ladyannavintage.blogspot.com/2017/11/the-artwork-gallery-show.html. As well as in the virtual gallery by going to
the Humans Beings and Being Humans virtual gallery link: http://bossierarts.org/wordpress1/gallery-exhibitions-2/east-bank-gallery/hbbh-2/. This is one of my sister’s best art pieces AND it’s up
for sale so if you’re
in the area (Actually it might be possible to purchase it and have it shipped
to you, not setting that as fact though) come check this awesome painting out
as well as the other artist’s
paintings at 630 Barksdale Blvd Bossier City, LA 71111 as well as their phone
number 318 741 8310. There is a problem with this however; it appears the
Gallery will actually be closed for the next week so you’ll only have the 27th
through to the 30th to visit the gallery before all these paintings are taken
down. I guess I should of gotten this out there sooner but with Annie holding
back on advertising and lack of advertising from the Council itself my hands
were tied, I had only just gotten the chance to visit the gallery myself.
I’ll
be writing/editing a separate blog /vlog of our trip to BAC for later on in the
week so be sure to check it out! It’ll
be a Thanksgiving gift in a way.
Taking a Rocky Red River Adventure with Sibling in Tow.
That however was not the end to our trip out! On our way home and
after a couple of U-turns Annie and I discovered a small park outside the Red
River. Yeah amazing what we find randomly on our ways back home. We actually
drove past right past the almost invisible entrance and had to make a U-turn
just to get into this place dubbed the “Teague
Trails Recreational Area”.
Luckily I had my camera with me and decided to take some photos of this park.
Annie will have some incredible photos coming up on her blog later on this week
from this trip but I like these photos I took so let’s roll a few of them out for
you.
As you can see this part of the river is molded with rocks instead
of beaches which while not fun for your feet makes this place look absolutely
stunning, I’m surprised I’ve only just found this place.
Took this photo which at this angle makes it look like these
rocks are giant boulders in perhaps the Grand Canyon area, it almost looks like
you could walk through these rocks. Makes you feel kind of small in this big
world of ours.
I have to admit that we really did not have the right shoes on
for this occasion. With Annie in high heels and me in dress shoes we really
weren’t in the right
attire. We need to remember to take a pair of tennis shoes with us.
Here’s
the photographer herself, why not take a photo of a photographer taking a
photo, eh?
This place actually makes for a great picnic location especially
on a day like this where no one else is here, you wouldn’t have anyone else bothering
you and your family. I really want to see if I can get on the other side of the river,
which would be pretty cool.
Overall we really need to come back here, of course with better
shoes and perhaps a picnic basket in hand. There are tons of other places to
visit in this area so you never know what we’ll
come across in the upcoming weeks, especially with Christmas on its way. Do I
smell a Christmas Extravaganza 2017 happening soon? Perhaps so, you’ll have to wait and see. (It’s actually happening I’m just teasing you.) Don't forget to check out Annie on her Art/Photography blog ladyannavintage.blogspot.com
Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon have finally and you’re probably
playing that instead of reading this but if you want to put the DS down for a
few seconds I have a brand new teaser trailer for a movie I think people have
been clawing for years now, The Incredibles 2!
The Incredibles 2 Returns in this Crazy New Teaser!
Yeah this movie has been teased for a long time now and I
discussed some stuff about it during the year such as during Disney’s D23
conference. The Incredibles was Pixar’s first real film where the main
characters actually consisted of humans instead of toys, monsters, fish and
bugs. Of course these humans were super powered living in a world of villains and
non powered humans. The story of the first movie focused on Mr. Incredible and
his Wife Elastigirl as they struggle to survive in a world where super humans
are suddenly discredited as menaces leaving the superheroes with no choice but
to go into hiding, living as normal humans. Mr. Incredible and his family try
to live normal lives while hiding their crazy abilities but it doesn’t last all too long and soon
enough their dragged into a plot that’ll
reshape how the world sees “Supers”.
This Pixar animation is by far one of my favorite animations and
it’s awesome to
see a sequel especially when it’s
going to take place immediately after the first movie left off, meaning we’re going to get to see the
Incredibles fight the Undertaker (Who was and I’m
assuming will still be voiced by John Ratzenberger) after all. Another
character that will play a large role is seemingly Jack-Jack Parr, the Family’s youngest member who seemed to
be a normal baby until the end of the first movie where he was revealed to have
shape shifting abilities. This new teaser shows Jack-Jack receiving an even
more variety of powers so let’s
take a look see.
Yeah it wasn’t
a huge teaser but we got to see the powers that Jack-Jack seemingly posseses,
which is a LOT so it’ll
be awesome to see how he develops in the next film. As announced earlier on the
movie will actually shift focus a few times within the film as Elastigirl will
be out fighting crime while her husband will be home babysitting Jack, which as
we can see from the teaser will ensure some hilarity, and perhaps a house
insurance claim.
This movie will be releasing June 15th of next year so
I bet we’ll see a full
trailer closer to the release date, maybe during the Superbowl? If I just predicted
that I’ll die of
laughter I swear.
AND HIS NAME IS... FERDINAND!
I actually have one more movie trailer to discuss today. It’s another animation and it
stars an international wrestling superstar
AND HIS NAME IS JOHN CENA
Okay old dead memes aside (I can’t
believe I actually used that word on this blog, never again) John Cena is
voicing Ferdinand in a movie named after said character. This bull, unlike most
bulls is actually a over sensitive love-a-BULL creature who’s size tends to make others timid
of him to his own disliking. Without further ado let’s check out this new trailer
from Blue Sky who are actually the creators of Ice Age, Robots and RIO. (Does
anyone remember Robots? Loved that movie.)
Ferdinand is actually based on a 1936 children’s book believe it or not named “The Story of Ferdinand”, written by Munro Leaf and Illustrated
by Robert Lawson. The story tells the tale of a bull named Ferdinand who is
more interested in flowers then bullfights. As that book wasn’t super long by any means the
movie is of course fleshing the characters out a little more. It actually looks
like a really good family animation, something I’ve
come to expect from Blue Sky over the years, I mean I can’t name a Blue Sky animation I
don’t like. This
movie is a classic tale of don’t
judge a book by its cover. Ferdinand in this movie is a Spanish Fighting Bull
who absolutely detests bullfighting, rather spending his time smelling flowers
and hanging out with small cuddly animals. Sadly his size seems to get the
better of him making him a tad bit of a klutz. You’ll be able to watch this movie
in theatres this December the 15th so mark your calendars.
So that’s
pretty much it for movie news, nothing major is happening but a much
anticipated movie of mine is just about to come out as well this thanksgiving.
The Man Who Invented Christmas which I discussed a few blogs ago is a satire
bio pic of sorts telling the story of Charles Dickens and his creative process
for coming up with A Christmas Carol, as a writer and avid Charles Dickens fan
this is really one of my highly anticipated movies of the year. Sadly it’s only just coming out in
theatres so we’ll
have to wait until next Christmas to watch this movie via DVD, well I mean we
can always watch it in February when it’ll
probably come out on DVD, I know I probably will just because of my love for
Charles Dickens work.
DMC Releases some Beautiful Free Embroidery and Cross Stitch Patterns!
Before I leave you guys for the day I have a big announcement for
you embroidery lovers out there! My Mum, who’s
an avid needle artist herself, has discovered that DMC, a popular thread company
is releasing a huge selection of their patterns to the public for FREE! Yes all
patterns that used to cost $3-$5 dollars are now free to download! Some of
these patterns are embroidery and some are cross stitch but if you’re looking for just embroidery
you can filter the search results by looking on the left side of the website.
All you’ll
need is your email address and the ability to download PDFs and you’ll be good to go, you can
always unsubscribe from these emails later but if you’re into needle works you might
be interested in keeping those emails coming in for any good deals and news
regarding embroidery and cross stitch. Of course you can still purchase the
kits for these patterns, which come with the exact thread colors DMC recommends
for the pattern as well as optional accessories for prices that range around
$3.
With those patterns in hand I’ll
be leaving you guys now for the week. Enjoy your Thanksgiving everyone and try
not to get hurt during the crazy Black Friday rush especially with sweet online
deals happening these next couple of weeks, check back next week I may have
some crazy Cyber Monday deals to enlighten you guys with.
Hello fellow wizards! Last week was quite busy but I’m
finally working on my novel again. Anyone else here writing a novel? I actually
regret the weeks I went without writing anything due to how busy I was, well
I’m not even sure if that’s much of an excuse, I guess I just had a writer’s block.
A vlog almost came out along side this blog actually believe it or not, my
sister and I went on a little trip Friday. Sadly my sister and I were told we
couldn’t film in the location we were at so you guys will have to wait even
longer for another travel vlog. I’ll try and find someplace nearby where I can
actually vlog without getting in trouble. Anyway today’s blog contains once
again a wide spectrum of topics once again. No major Pokemon news was dropped
so you guys can feel relieved until the release of Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon
this Friday. (Yes I’m aware of the leaks, I don’t discuss leaks.) I do have
something Pokemon related later in the blog but it may be more on the TCG side
of things… Anyway for now let’s roll into the first topic!
Niantic is Taking the Wizarding World to Augmented Reality!
Pokemon GO was a international phenomenon hands down and was
played by millions and millions of Pokemon Trainers all over the world. Being
able to capture Pokemon in real life on your smart phone? It was crazy but it
worked. Of course it isn’t as popular as it was anymore despite the new updates
rolling out recently but it’s still holding up. It seems a few other companies
have taken notice of this phenomenon and one of them has contracted Niantic to
produce a similar game for a completely different IP… Harry Potter. Yes believe
it or not Harry Potter is receiving a Pokemon GO like game in the form of Harry
Potter Wizards Unite.
Announced on Niantic’s official blog they discussed how
Harry Potter: Wizards Unite will play, which is of course similar to Pokemon GO
but how exactly is it going to play out? They described the game as allowing
players “that have been dreaming of becoming real life Wizards” finally being
able to experience the the Wizarding World everyone fell in love with. Quoted
from this blog also Niantic wrote “Players will learn spells, explore their
real world neighborhoods and cities to discover & fight legendary beasts
and team up with others to take down powerful enemies.” While it sounds like an
incredible magical experience I’m not sure if I’m grasping how they will
actually implement that into a AR game similar to Pokemon GO and Ingress so I
can’t wait to see some gameplay of this new Niantic mobile title.
This new Harry Potter game is actually the first to be
announced under a new sub brand from Warner Brothers for more Harry Potter
games that are soon to arrive. This sub brand is named “Portkey Games” and will
feature games for mobile AND console, which means they could be bringing some
expansive Harry Potter games to the consoles, hopefully the Nintendo Switch as
well as Xbox One and PS4. This announcement is quite exciting as Harry Potter
if done right should transition to Video Games quite well. I’ve never played
the original Harry Potter games for the Gamecube/Wii so I’m not sure what those
were like but I can’t wait to see what this new sub brand has in store for us
Wizards and hey you muggles can join in too, just let me know what the function
of a rubber duck is and we’re good. You can read more here on Niantic's Blog: https://nianticlabs.com/blog/wizardsunite/ and Pottermore: https://www.pottermore.com/news/new-augmented-reality-mobile-game-harry-potter-wizards-unite-announced .
Moving on I got a new movie trailer for you guys and this
time it’s for an animation, one that is instantly going on my must watch list.
Bronze Age kicks down the Stone Age's door in Aardman's Early Man Movie Trailer!
Everyone knows Aardman Studios, right? These guys have
created some hilarious and awesome claymation/stop motion animation such as the
hit Wallace and Gromet series and one of my personal favorite animated movies,
Chicken Run in which probably deserves a retrospect review at some point in the
new future. Well it’s been in production since 2016 (Announced back in 2007
believe it or not) and now finally Early Man is here with a new trailer. The
animation is so nostalgic for reasons possibly pertaining to Chicken Run so
check out the trailer below! (Or by clicking this link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRiPQ8YNrVs)
This animation takes place in an age of ancient humanity,
the Stone Age. Well more like the end of the Stone Age. Seems the story is
centered on a caveman by the name of Dug (Eddie Redmayne) and his tribe, you
know, doing cave man stuff. Everything seems normal until suddenly their Stone
Age door is kicked in by the Bronze Age led by Lord Nooth (Played by Tom
Hiddleston). Dug gets dragged into a medieval world filled with bronze
machinery and humans much more advance then him and his tribe.
This movie looks like absolute fun and is glowing with the
Aardman spirit. Will this usurp Chicken Run as my favorite claymation/stop
motion animated movie? Is Aardman about to drop another classic? Am I a huge
nerd for stop motion animation in general? Most likely. This movie is going to
be releasing on January 26th, 2018 in America but I’m not sure when Summit
Entertainment plans on releasing it over here in the states.
Early Man is directed by Nick Park who you should all know
as the creator of Wallace and Gromet and Chicken Run as well so the magic from
those movies and Nick Park’s genius is running strong in this movie. I can’t
wait to watch this movie so it’s only a matter of waiting.
When was the last time I even mentioned knitting? I know I
know I’m a really poor excuse for a knitter lately, with a million unfinished
projects and ideas that I haven’t even started yet I’ve really been slacking on
the knitting. While I’m really sorry about that I haven’t lost interest in
knitting and the great people at skacel collection, inc. and addi Needles has
just announced a new kind of knitting needles which have really caught my eye.
Introducing the Innovative Abbi FlexiFlips Double Pointed Knitting Needles.
I’ve only used Double Pointed Needles a few times in my
knitting career but always found them to be awkward, cumbersome and just hard
to use. Any other knitters feel that way? The way you have to have four needles
clunking together and poking you in the hand just doesn’t work for me, thus I
resort to using the magic loop method of knitting. Out of all the knitting
needles I’ve used over the past year I have to say Addi and Addi Turbo are by
far my favorite, Addi Turbos were the needles I used on my very first pair of
socks and they made the process so much easier. Actually if you remember that
far back I actually switched to Addi Turbo needles on those socks after
struggling for the first 15 rows using DPNs. Well these newest Addi needles
dubbed the Addi FlexiFlips look to be a silver lining for those stumped by
DPNs, this newest video from skacel below will explain a lot. (Click here if
the link doesn’t work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcNK0xCFXNc )
Pretty incredible huh? They’re kind of like the love child
of magic loop and DPNs. Instead of dealing with four needles it’s actually two
needles with a third needle for working the stitches. You can see they still
operate like four double pointed needles but each needle has a plastic cord
conjoining the two needles, forming one needle. You’ll use two flexiflips to
hold your stitches on and one flexiflip to work your stitches, the second
needle of the flexiflip will allow your stitches not to fall off as easily,
which is a godsend to me. So basically you’re only going to need three
Flexiflips which I believe is what each set comes with. Now there’s one more
part of these needles that I need to point out are the actual needle tips. One
Flexflips needle actually has two different needle tips. One end has the Addi
Turbo needle tip and the other has one they call the “Rocket” tip. I’m actually
not aware of what the benefits of the Rocket tip is but they offer two
different tips for different scenarios in your knitting journey. I am concerned
that I’ll get the two tips mixed up when knitting and use the wrong tip, in
which might change my knitting gauge but I’m not sure if the tips will change
the gauge or not.
Really want to get a hold of a set of these to review for
you guys but for now I have a place that you can buy these from. Ewe Count is a
knitting store based in Cheyenne, Wyoming and is one of the first stores to get
a hold of these awesome needles. (Which seem to come in US 0 up to US 8) First
of all if you’re in the area please go check this awesome store out! I really
wish I could get up there myself but she currently has these needles available
to purchase in store as well as shipped to you for those not in the area! You
can visit this store by visiting 819 Randall Avenue Cheyenne, WY 82001 and
contact her via phone at 307-638-1148. (Long distance charges may apply on
landline phone calls.) You can also
check Ewe Count out at ewecount.com for more information and follow her on
Facebook here. (@ewecount) A set of these will cost you 24.00 USD which is not
bad for a 3 needle set; it’ll be all you need to get started on a project.
These needles are probably a go to DPN alternative for someone
like me so I can’t wait to get a hold of a set of these. Imagine how easier
these will make casting on, knitting socks or even for finishing off beanies. For now I’m
going to try to get back knitting because with winter coming up I need a new
pair of fingerless gloves so who knows you may be seeing a new project in the
near future, as well as hopefully some finished projects. Check out more information at http://www.skacelknitting.com/addi-Flexiflips/
Well that’s pretty much it for the blog today, or is it? I’ve
been teasing it for two weeks but it’s time for another Pokemon TCG unboxing! I’m
actually ahead of myself on the packs to be honest. This week’s unpacking is of
a pack I bought two weeks ago and the one I bought this week is actually out of
the new Crimson Invasion series so you’ll have to wait to see what the new card
pack has in store. (This way it won’t be spoiling the surprise for you guys too
early, go grab yourself some Crimson Invasion booster packs!)
This week’s unpacking is going to be pretty nostalgic as I’ve
picked myself up a XY Evolutions booster pack. Yeah believe it or not you can
still buy XY TCG series packs and actually I’ve seen some packs as old as
Diamond and Pearl still floating around so who knows I may go hunting for one
of them.
This isn’t my first time unpacking a Pokemon XY Evolutions
TCG booster pack as I actually unpacked three I believe last Christmas on a video.
Now while that video isn’t a great quality (Lightbulb in the room I was filming
went out and it was night time, go figure my impatience would get the better of
me.) you can go watch that video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFo5Sr_ecmw . This XY Evolutions series brought back
cards from the ORIGINAL TCG Base Set from 1997 so this series is by far one of
my favorites as I never got to get any base TCG cards as a kid. For this pack I’m
hoped to get a different lot of cards then I did on that video and boy did I
ever
First up is 47/108 Gastly and yeah this is a duplicate of
one I got before, oh well. Not the greatest kick off but hey this is still a
cool card and sometimes duplicates can come in handy if you wish to trade cards
with another. (Hit me up via email guys I’ll take anything I don’t have in my
collection) This is actually one of two duplicates I sadly got this pack, the
next one is this card.
This is 48/108 Haunter and yeah this is another duplicate
but hey it matches up with Gastly. Was hoping to get a Gengar card but beggars
can’t be choosers.
Now we’re getting into new cards for my collection this card
is 3/108 Caterpie and I swear I’ve seen the original version of this card somewhere
before in my lifetime. I think a kid on a school bus trip had one or something
I do remember this card from somewhere but I can’t put my finger on it. Love
this original Ken Sugimori illustration of Caterpie despite it being a common
card.
This next card is 33/108 Magikarp. This is a cool
illustration, I don’t get Magikarp often, actually I’m sure I’ve only ever
gotten one before.This is a common card
but the nostalgic illustration makes it a welcome addition to my collection.
(Which I should probably show off at some point when I figure out how without
bogging everyone down.)
You know who’s cool? Seel. What’s even colder is this 28/108
card of Seal. Sporting Mr. Sugimori’s illustration of Seel this common card is
pretty cool. I would love to actually get Dewgon in this set as well.
Alright with those cards out of the way I’m now coming up to
the two greatest pulls I may have ever done in my lifetime of pulling Pokemon
TCG Cards. I’ve probably said this before but Pikachu is by far one of my
favorite Pokemon, I have a million different toys, plushies and even a million
ingame Pikachus in my 7 generation spanning collection of Pokemon games. I also
really love getting Pikachu TCG cards and out of this pack I got the one card I
always wanted as a kid but like I said never got the base set cards, this is
35/108 Pikachu.
You should have seen the look on my face when I got this
card, I don’t care if it’s common I have ALWAYS wanted this card and here we
are. Even more incredible is the fact it’s a HOLO FOIL version of the card! I
don’t mean to make you cringe or anything but I sure felt like a giddy little
kid when pulling this card.
Now XY Evolutions also included some new cards as well as
reprints of older Base TCG cards, mostly super rare EX and full body artwork
cards. Why am I bringing this up? Because the next card I pulled was this
incredible card right here, this is 103/108 Mewtwo EX!
I have to admit I was absolutely speechless when pulling
this card. I don’t know why but my luck with cards seems to be getting better
as of lately and this card is proof of that. This full body artwork card of
Mewtwo has a different texture then ordinary cards (Although I would never
actually touch the card, for mint condition reasons) and Mewtwo is sporting a
snazzy gold outline in this illustration. Funny enough it looks like he’s
coming out of an Ultra Wormhole despite this being XY. Maybe the recent
announcement for Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon has brought this to mind but it
really does look like that. This is a super rare card and I’m happy I got this
card, now if I could just get some full body artwork cards of the Kanto Gym
Leaders.
The last three cards are the following.
A Thunder Energy Card which I seem to get one energy card
per pack lately, maybe that’s intentional.
82/108 Pokedex which as the name implies is a Pokedex card
of the original Dexter himself. Always loved this version of the Pokedex and
its cool how this card can help you pull the right card from your deck on the exact
turn you want it to.
Finally here’s 77/108 Energy Retrieval which is always a
useful card for those shorthanded of energy cards.
This is by far a favorite unpacking of mine and it’s added
so many cool cards to my collection. I do want to get more XY Evolution packs
but with 4 different packs of these in my collection I’ll be risking more
duplicates, we’ll see how that plays out.
Next time I’ll be doing Crimson Invasions so I’ll be seeing
you guys in two weeks!
Don’t forget while you’re buying some packs to stop by
Gamestop and pick up your Shiny Silvally code card! I’m pretty sure today is
the last day so make sure to not miss this. Not sure what the next event will
be it seems we’ll be on break from the events for a while.
Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon come out THIS FRIDAY! The
next Pokemon Journey awaits and I can’t wait to kick some Team Rocket booty
once again while traversing the new and improved Alola region.
Until then however I’m going to leave you guys for the week.
Be sure to enjoy it! As for what to expect next week, well you never know but I’ve
been avidly watching RWBY Volume 5 so perhaps it’s time I discuss that.
Welcome back to the blog! Did you remember to roll your
clocks back an hour? I almost forgot which would have been disastrous. (It’s
bad enough my internal clock is messed up again.) Today we have a massive
Pokemon announcement which follows up last week’s blog and finally a discussion
about a movie I watched recently, haven’t done one of them in a while. Got some
other cool things in this blog too so if you’re not interested in Pokemon
scroll down till you find a headline you like the sound off. I really want to
make ZAK Entertainment like a magazine of sorts.
Before I head into the blog I have a little PSA. So I’m not
sure if any of you have heard of this specific recall but I’m putting it on
this blog because of how important this is. As of November 2nd over
37 Million Kidde Plastic Handle Fire Extinguishers are now under recall due to
malfunctions. Apparently deaths and injuries have occurred over the years
because of these plastic handles malfunctioning as well as becoming clogged. Of
course they’re only just now recalling these models and what’s worse is these
models being recalled span back to 1973! These Kidde models were sold at places
like Menards, Montgomery Ward, Sears, The Home Depot, Walmart and other various
department, home and hardware stores. (I don’t know about Lowes don’t quote me
on that.)
Pokemon has been going strong for beyond 21 years now with
now 28 main core series titles filled with adventures, trials and many Pokemon
to capture, train and battle. Within these games are some rough and tough
criminals looking to ruin your journey. We were introduced to the first of
these criminal syndicates in the original games, Pokemon Red Version, Green
Version (Japan) Blue Version and Pokemon Yellow Version. Team Rocket was a
bunch of paper boy cap wearing goons who stole Pokemon and commited crimes for
their boss Giovanni all in the name of profit and control over the Pokemon
world. Team Rocket also dabbled in some cloning resulting in the main legendary
of Red, Blue and Yellow Mewtwo. Team Rocket also played a major role in the
anime in the form of Jessie, James and Meowth, three Team Rocket members who
sought to steal Ash’s Pikachu for their boss because for some reason Giovanni
wanted his own Pikachu… Actually I’m pretty sure Giovanni didn’t even want
Pikachu and that Jessie and James are just a little dense.
Giovanni the original leader of Team Rocket, game wise
anyway, disbanded Team Rocket at the end of Red and Blue (Firered and
Leafgreen) after being defeated by the protagonist. Team Rocket wasn’t the most
threatening Team in the world but they sure left an impression on younger me…
Mostly for how easy they were. (Giovanni and the Admins weren’t that easy
though) Anyway Team Rocket was hands down my favorite villain team in the
Pokemon franchise, until Team Skull came around anyway. With Ultra Sun and
Ultra Moon coming out in just a week these games are looking to be massive new
adventures while incorporating some story elements from Sun and Moon.
I discussed it last week but Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon will
be bringing back an old organization after years of them being disbanded… Team
Rocket is back! I’ve for the longest time wanted Team Rocket to make a comeback
and while Heart Gold and Soul Silver were satisfying it was only a remake of
their original revival. Now they’re back for real and we have a new trailer to
showcase them.
…
Wow.
Yeah isn’t that pretty unprofessional of me? I am actually
speechless after this announcement. The trailer opens up with a remix of Team
Rocket’s battle theme from Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal and an opening sequence
to the supposed battle against none other than Giovanni. Yes this time Team
Rocket is led by none other than the original leader himself Giovanni. Seems
he’s come out of training (Or has he? I’ll get to that theory in a second) and
has revived Team Rocket himself under the new name of Team Rainbow Rocket which
seems like a silly name but the logo is made up of Red, Blue, Green and Yellow
which is a pretty sweet nod to the colors of the original games if you ask me.
Following him are new grunts in outfits that are pretty much
the same as the originals besides the cool new colors to the R logo.
What’s really insane about this new Team Rainbow Rocket is
the people joining Giovanni under this banner…Not one, not two, but EVERY Villain leader to grace the core Pokemon
series is returning as… Partners of Giovanni? I have absolutely no idea what is
going on here, we got Archie, Maxie, Cyrus, Ghetsis (Dennis, this is an inside
joke forgive me), and Lysandre making an appearance, but why?
Really this announcement while incredibly awesome does open
up some new questions. Archie and Maxie turned good in ORAS but as you can
clearly see this are the original Archie and Maxie from Ruby and Sapphire
(Possibly their Emerald counterparts).
Cyrus, the leader of Team Galactic depending on which
version you played either disappeared into thin air or was trapped in the
distortion world.
Ghetsis, leader of Team Plasma was presumably arrested so I
guess he could have broken out but he’s wearing his Black and White outfit
instead of the outfit he wore in the sequels.
Lysandre, leader of Team Flare… Well you know what happened
to him.
Giovanni himself well at the end of Red and Blue he went to
train and in the secret Heart Gold and Soul Silver event we find him behind a
waterfall preparing to join Archer in the revival of Team Rocket before getting
thwarted again by a kid who shouldn’t really be dealing with criminals but hey
we’re Pokemon trainers we can handle it.
This is where the multiverse theory comes into play. Now
we’ve had this multiverse pretty much confirmed since Omega Ruby and Alpha
Sapphire thanks to Zinnia. Alternative universe were empowered even further
with the Ultra Beasts and the Ultra Wormhole which allow travel between
universes seemingly with the Ultra Beasts being the ones that dwell in between.
Apparently there is a leak floating around that actually predicted Team Rainbow
Rocket spot on which does make it for the most part legit but the leak also
stated that the villains making an appearance all succeeded in their goals in
their respective timelines, with Giovanni bringing them all together to take
over the USUM world. With this in mind I don’t believe this Giovanni is from
another dimension. If he had traveled from another world where he succeeded in his
plans, why would he want to leave that world? This makes me believe this is the
Giovanni we thwarted in the previous games, now making a return after years of
training and planning. Somehow Giovanni has gained control of the Ultra
Wormholes and perhaps he’s using that to bring these leaders together to
finally allow him to succeed in his goal of taking over the world. I can see
these leaders not cooperating fully with Giovanni however. All these big egos
in one building? There’s sure to be some scraps happen between the leaders,
which will probably lead to some hilarity.
Seems Ultra Wormholes will play a role in this sudden Team
Rocket revival as seen by this amazing poster which I can say is illustrated by
none other than who I assume to be Ken Sugimori, because who else would draw
something this magnificent? What we can also take away from this poster is the
fact it seems Guzma the boss of Team Skull will be teaming up with us! Spoilers
for Sun and Moon but in those games we saw Guzma slowly take a bit of a turn
from a bad boss villain to someone willing to make a change in his life so if
he takes that turn even further we could have a seriously powerful ally on
outside when we conquer the new Team Rainbow Rocket.
Back to the trailer we get to see one of Giovanni’s Pokemon
he’ll have at his disposal and it’s a nostalgic call back to the first movie…
He has Mewtwo on his team. I kid you not.
In the anime and the manga we see
Giovanni as being kind of obsessed with the mythical Pokemon Mew which results
in him funding scientists to create a more powerful clone of Mew, Mewtwo. In
the Manga and first Anime movie Giovanni temporary has control over Mewtwo
before he goes renegade on him. So yeah these two have a bitter history and it
seems poor Mewtwo has gotten himself into Giovanni’s clutches again. I wonder
if this means the other leaders will have their respective title Legendaries on
their team.
So you know what this means? We have not just Team Skull and
Aether to handle but Team Rocket, the Ultra Recon Squad (Who seem to be kind of
good guys so maybe not them), Team Magma, Team Aqua, Team Galactic, Team Plasma
AND Team Flare to handle in this game… That’s insane.
What’s even more insane is the fact that every Legendary to
date will be catchable in these games, yes EVERY Legendary except for Mythical
Pokemon will be catchable via Ultra Wormholes and it seems these Ultra
Wormholes take you to locations similar to the Legendaries’ original spot from
their game of origin as seen by this small snippet of Mewtwo standing on a
pedestal in a cave, similar to where he was in Red and Blue. Some of these
legendaries will be version exclusive and it seems the mechanics behind
obtaining these legendaries is similar to Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. Ultra
Sun will have Raikou, Ho-Oh, Latios, Groudon, Dialga, Heatran, Tornadus and
Xerneas as its exclusives while Ultra Moon will have Entei, Lugia, Latias,
Kyogre, Palkia, Regigigas, Thundurus, Zekrom and Yveltal as its exclusives.
Some Legendaries like the Legendary Birds and Mewtwo won’t be version exclusive
while some Pokemon such as Rayquaza will require you have both games and catch
both Kyogre and Groudon so prepare to get both versions if you want to catch
them all.
Finally this trailer reveals a new battle facility called the
Battle Agency! For as long as I can remember I’ve always loved using Rental
Pokemon. Pokemon Stadium allowed you to rent all currently available Pokemon and
with Pokemon Emerald came the Battle Frontier in which held the Battle Factory
which used a Pokemon rental system. Well that concept is making a return in
this Battle Agency with a bit of a twist. It seems you become secret agents of
sorts with sweet sunglasses included when you enter this new facility. The
battle format is 3v3 single format and it seems to be integrated into the
Festival Plaza with online functionality added. Legendaries will also be available
for rental as well. I don’t really know any more details on this particular mode
but it looks pretty sweet.
Thought Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon were just copy and pasted
versions of Sun and Moon? Bet you don’t anymore. These games are going to be
absolutely amazing and I have a feeling there’s some more details Game Freak
isn’t spilling just yet. Apparently more information will be dropping November
10th before the game releases November 17th.
You can check out the Japanese overview trailer below or by
clicking here for some more insight on what the American trailer revealed!
Trust me guys the Pokemon filled blogs will end soon enough
I know I’ve been bogging you guys down with it lately but man these games are
really hyping me up and there’s so much news to cover. Anyway there’s more
Pokemon to come later but until then I haven’t really discussed any movies in a
while but a few nights ago I rewatched a movie that’s a timeless classic and a
personal favorite of mine and my Mums.
Re-watching An Old Romantic Comedy Film: The Goodbye Girl.
Anyone remember “The Goodbye Girl”? Well if you don’t this
1977 movie, Written by Neil Simon and Directed by Herbert Ross starred Richard
Dreyfuss and Marsha Mason in probably one of the best Romantic Comedies to ever
be made without it being over dramatic like some can be.
The movie takes place in Manhattan, New York and Marsha
Mason plays Paula McFadden an unemployed dancer who lives with her 10-year-old daughter
Lucy (Played by Quinn Cummings) and her life soon flips on its head when her
boyfriend, famous actor Tony (Played by nobody as he’s never shown in the
movie) dumps her and sublets her apartment to a struggling wannabe Broadway
actor Elliot Garfield played by Richard Dreyfuss. Hilarity is ensured as Paula
fights to keep her apartment and struggles to live with Elliot who has some
strange habits.
(The movie is not actually in Black and White)
I don’t know what it is about this movie but it’s so
memorable you’ll want to watch it over and over again. I don’t really watch
newer romantic comedies (Mostly because I’m not aware of any, it’s not a
popular genre anymore it seems) but this along with a couple of other classics
which I’ve discussed in the past such as The Money Pit is a much watch. Mum’s
love for this movie goes even further and I’m pretty sure she quotes this movie
quite often, it’s just that memorable. The dynamic between Elliot and Paula is
amazingly written and unmatched against other romcom dynamics in other movies. The
characters are all iconic, charming and memorable with such a down to earth
story that actually has some worthwhile metaphors for living life fluttered
inside of this flick.
Problem is this movie while being great has actually been
quite hard to get hold of. We’ve been watching it through VHS since its release
(I wasn’t born when it was released, FYI) and could never find a DVD or digital
version of it, until a few days ago. Yes it’s iTunes to the rescue once again! I’m
pretty sure it was not on iTunes before in any shape or form but now it’s on
iTunes in all its glory. It’s currently $9.99 to buy and while it’s only in SD
format (HD would make it look pretty bad to be honest, it’s an old movie.) it’s
worth the buy. You can get this movie by clicking the link below! Go add it to
your collection.
Mjolnir, to me!
Getting Pumped for New Marvel Movies, Thor Ragnarok and Black Panther!
Thor
Ragnarok as of last Friday has now released in theatres and the reviews are
praising the movie. It seems Thor is taking a more light hearted approach will
still having the hammer slinging action Thor is known for. Thor is now up
against Hela the Goddess of Death as she pretty much makes him her play toy,
destroying Mjolnir presumably. In order to take her down Thor will need Loki’s
help once again as well as Valkryie and an unexpected Green ally in the Hulk.
It’s about time The Hulk gets more screen time to be honest and it seems to me
this movie is more of a Hulk: Ragnarok rather than a Thor: Ragnarok. Really looking
forward to this movie and I’m assuming for non theatre goers this movie will be
releasing February on DVD/BluRay/Digital.
This year seems to be another big year for Superhero movies
with Justice League coming out within two weeks and Wonder Woman, Spiderman
Homecoming and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 already being released to critical
acclaim. We do however have one more movie coming out soon that I’ve not really
talked about much, it also has a brand new trailer released for it as well…
Black Panther which will be releasing February of 2018 in theatres. I’ve
neglected to actually discuss this new trailer so let’s go ahead and dive right
in.
Well that’s actually different from what I expected. I was
expecting a more traditional and ancient setting but this is a really high tech
civilization we’re entering its pretty crazy. Despite this it still seems to be
including bits of African culture and magic in with the high tech action. This
actually looks pretty awesome and man does Black Panther have a sweet suit.
Chadwick Boseman returns as King T’Challa after his first appearance in Captain
America: Civil War.
Oh yeah and Bilbo Baggins… I mean Martin Freeman is reprising
his role of Everett K. Ross in this movie as well so it’ll be interesting how
that pans out but I would of thought Captain America would of played a role in
this movie as well due to the nature of Civil War’s credit scene but it appears
he’s not casted in the movie, interesting.
Well that’s all for today! I hope this blog wasn’t too long
for you but man there’s a lot to discuss lately and it’s mostly news. All the
crazy news and announcements should die down soon though so we can get into a
more jingle kind of mood for the upcoming Holiday season. For now I'm leaving you guys for now so until then...
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! This week is the week of
Thanksgiving here in America, the day for giving thanks to those you’re
grateful for having in your life and also for stuffing your face with stuffing.
It’s also the day of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Purina Dog Show
which are always fun watches. Of course after that day is over it's going to be
the largest shopping day of the year, Black Friday. So yeah be safe over the
next few weeks and while you should have fun don't overdo it!
