The League

As a fan of all things geek, comics, toys, movies, I'm constantly scouring the vastness of the world wide web for other collectors collections and their thoughts on my favorite pieces of pop culture.  One of my favorite blogs to frequent is called CoolandCollected.  The creator of the blog came up with a fun idea where a bunch of us blog owners are given a topic to write about then share.  I can't wait to see some of the cool ideas and esoteric thoughts of my fellow collectors.

The first topic is what is: What movie is, or was, your “go to” Saturday matinee — the comfort movie you always popped into the VCR on a rainy Saturday afternoon, the movie you watched over and over again, driving your parents crazy while you recited the lines along with the characters on the screen? 

For me this isn't a hard question at all.  Sure there are tons of movies i could post here like Robocop or Indiana Jones, both great movies but not my "Go To" movie. 

 Nooo my "Go To" movie is much more BAD ASS than both those films.  Of course I'm talking about the one and only BLOODSPORT!  Jean-Claude Van Damme's best movie ever.  

JCVD plays Frank Dux, like put up your dukes right.  A martial artist trained by the famed Tanaka to participate in the most deadly fighting competition of all time the Kumite!  The flick is jam packed with martial arts action.  Damn near every participant of the Kumite has their own style ranging from Muay thai to sumo wrestling.  

Along the way Frank Dux meets and befriends another American fighter the bad ass biker Ray Jackson played expertly by Donald Gibb.  Ray Jackson is my favorite character from the movie.  He has all the best lines and is just bad ass personified.

The villain of the film is the immoral Chong Li portrayed by Bruce Lee's personal friend Bolo Yeung.  Chong Li is a ruthless bastard that will do anything to win including killing his opponents.  Bolo Yeung plays the perfect heel.  

So there you have it.  My favorite "Go To" Saturday matinee.  I've seen this film over 150 times and still watch it regularly.  I ruined my original VHS copy due to wear and tear. 

p.s. Did I mention it also stars a very young Forest Wittaker?

High Fantasy at it's best.

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Very good start to the series. The main character Sparrowhawk is generally interesting and was easy to like. Unlike many other mage like characters he has flaws, and these flaws surface often. I really enjoy the magic system in this book as well, and the not knowing anybody's true name is nice touch. I could easily see myself reading the rest of this series.

View all my reviews

52 week book challenge!

I've always been a pretty casual reader, picking up a book here or there.  It wasn't until the past couple of years have I turned into a complete utter bookworm.  It all started with Richard Matheson's I Am Legend which is now my favorite book of all time.  I didn't want to put it down, and I took my sweet time with it so it wouldn't come to it's emanate demise.  After finishing the king of books, I started reading other books I had heard were must reads.  I couldn't believe the enjoyment I was receiving from these things and I was developing an addiction.

After perusing the net for book recommendations I found an awesome site called Goodreads which is much like Facebook for books.  While checking out  the site i discovered a neat little challenge.  52 books in 52 weeks.  I had to try it.  My first year I didn't do so hot, only read around 15 books but, I had a lot going on.  Now this year I dominated!  I didn't reach 52 but I came close and discovered some great books along the way.  Here are the stats.

Book Total: 30
Page total: 8106

Now the Top 5 books of the year

#5

#4

#3

#2

                                                                       

                                          and finally the #1 book of the year was........

Yes I know the final book is a trilogy but like the original star wars it's considered one entity.

If nobody has read any of these books go out and get them and read them, it's well worth your time.

Very Merry Christmas Haul!

We all have great Christmas memories, some better than others,  Most of mine involve getting new awesome toys.  When i say new awesome toys I really mean new awesome G.I. Joes!  One such memory was opening a brand new Salvo, Bullhorn, and Metal Head when I was 5.  The memories don't stop there.  The most recent memory of Joes on Christmas was 2 days ago when I opened up a vintage Wolverine with Covergirl.  I was so excited.  I didn't own many vehicles when i was younger and the Wolverine came out before I was born, so this is my first one ever.  I was so excited, my inner child started taking over.  I stopped opening my gifts politely and started ripping them open instead.  Among the fury I opened even more Joes!  A straight arm Stalker and Scarlett, Doc the teams original medic, Psyche-out the teams psychologist and psionic weapons expert,  Backstop the teams sole Canadian, and Skidmark the man who has the worst code name in the history of code names, all complete with filecards.  I knew my girlfriend was very supportive of my collecting but I never guessed she would go out of her way to get me some of the hardest to find Joes around.  It was a very merry Christmas at the Jackson's this year.

                                                              YO JOE!

Left to Right: Covergirl,Doc,Scarlett,Stalker,Skidmark,Psyche-out, and Backstop

Hardhats & Robots

   These are the two newest additions to my Joeverse.  Everybody welcome Tollbooth.  Tollbooth is the Joe's no nonsense engineer.  He was originally released in 1985 with a pretty cool vehicle called the Bridge Layer.  He was the last Joe offered in the old style swivel heads.  He's a pretty damn good looking figure too.  Look at that hard hat leaning slightly to the side.  His sledge hammer is possibly one of the greatest Joe accessories ever!  Just imagine getting slugged in the gut with that thing.  Tollbooth must get a crazy workout swinging that thing around all the time.

Next we have one of the Joe's explosives experts Lightfoot.  Lightfoot was originally released in 1988 part of the 7th series.  He looks like he's wearing yellow coveralls with a  blue helmet with red eyes and crazy antennas for what, I'm not sure, but damn does it make him look cool.  He comes with a dark green backpack and a really awesome orange ROBOT!  Sure it's for bomb detecting and disposal, but it's still a ROBOT!  This accessory goes right up there with Tollbooths sledge hammer as one of the coolest accessories of all time.

So there you have it, the two newest additions to my Joeverse Tollbooth and Lightfoot.  I'm glad i picked these two guys up.  They are great additions and two of the coolest Joes around, not to mention the terrific accessories.

Santa Came Early

With the Holiday season approaching the guys over at www.hisstank.com decided to do a secret Santa.  The point of the event is to help out your fellow collectors by getting them anything Joe related.  Well i received my perfect gifts earlier this week and I couldn't be any more happy.  A 1987 Outback, 1988 Hit n Run, and a 1983 Duke.  Now the great thing about this gift is I asked for the Outback and Hit n Run on my wishlist but the Duke was a total bonus figure.  All 3 figures are complete and with C9 paint and super tight joints.  Hit n Run is now my all time favorite Joe, a title previously owned by the Joes resident ranger Beachhead.

Sorry for the shitty picture. 

Plans

That's right it's that time again, turkeys, trees, and tinsel.  Yea you know what i mean, it's CHRISTMAS TIME!  And when Christmas time comes around I get a month long winter break from school.  Skyrim here I come, I knew I bought you are the right time.  So yea that's it for me Skyriming the month away but what about my fellow students and colleagues in crime, what are they going to do?  Are they going to play Skyrim as well or do something more constructive.  I took the liberty of asking a few students around campus what their holiday plans were and got a plethora of answers.  As a smoker I frequent the campus smoke pit and get into a lot of a conversations among my fellow smokers.  One afternoon I saw a young lady sitting by herself.  I approached her and her a couple questions about what she was doing over winter break.  Her name was Savanah Jones and she had great plans for the holiday.  "My whole family and I are going on a trip to Phoenix AZ to see my grandparents." Said Savanah.  "My family is pretty big and it's going to be one long ride with all of us crammed into a mini van."  She has some great plans get out of rainy frosty Portland and go down to clear frosty Arizona.

The following day I took my Golden Retriever Bleu to the North Clackamas Dog Park for the day, and boy were the dogs in abundance there.  I let Bleu loose and went to the human area, the picnic tables.  The tables were filled and there was no place to sit, of course.  But luckily for me a nice guy waved me over and squeezed me in.  It turns out he was a Clackamas student and was about to head on winter break himself.  I asked him what his plans were and he didn't hesitate in telling me.  "I'm in a metal band and I'm going to play a few shows over the break." said Ryan Woodrow.  "I play the keyboards and sometimes the brass when the song calls for it."

It seems like everyone has a plan for the month of December.  Some involve traveling and some involved music while others are just sitting at home, but regardless of what your winter plans are I hope you have a great break.