But Honestly

The long weekend was good, but not long enough. I hit the road on Saturday with my bro to Pensacola, FL. Our mission was to see my favorite rock band ever, the Foo Fighters. The other thing that made this trip interesting was that we used to live in Pensacola for 16 years in fact. But we moved 10 years ago. We used to back quite offten but it's been a while.

We arrived Saturday after surviving the rotten weather on the interstate. We checked in our hotel which was conviently located across the street from where the concert was. We then ventured around town for a bit before dinner. We hit a surf shop that we visited when we lived there. It was actually a different location from the one where we frequented. I remember them having more surf boards and less skateboards. What we discovered was that while there was some new buildings here and there it looked exactly the same. We drove by a school we used to go to. It was the same except that they put dugouts on their baseball field.

We ate a catfish resteraunt that we liked growing up. Still good. We tried to go to the mall but it was closed for an event. We tried to see a movie but the theater that was located in the mall parking lot was long gone. We found another one nearby though. For the record, Rave Theaters are very nice and they need to build on in Tallahassee. We saw Cloverfield, good flick.

Sunday we did more driving around. This time we went to the school we went to for 8 or so years. We also drove by our old house and both sets of grandparents' house. It was weird seeing all of it. It was a big part of our lives but now it seems so distant.

I might as well skip the weird trip down memory lane. Let's discuss the concert. I can honestly say this is probably the best concert I've ever seen. I had a notion that the Foo Fighters would put on a good show and they did. They rocked it out but also played their accoustic stuff as well. It was just a complete show. The opening acts, Against Me and Jimmy Eat World were both really good too. It was actually our fourth time seeing Jimmy Eat World.

The Foo Fighters were great. I sang along to every song. They put some different twists on the songs. They threw in some guitar solos and drum solos here and there. There was also this cat walk that went from the main stage and through the crowd on the floor. The lead singer would walk out on it now and then. Then during the middle of their set he picked up an accoustic guitar and walked down the cat walk. In front of him a smaller stage lowered from the ceiling. The rest of the band followed. There were already intruements and microphones there. This is were they played their accoustic set. The finished off the accoustic set with a great version of my favorite Foo song, Everlong. After a few more songs they went off stage but came back on and played a 3 song encore.

All in all it was a good weekend.

Ping it!

I've mentioned that I as well as my brother, got a ping pong table for Christmas. I figured we asked for it at some point. I have never been good at ping pong. Mostly because my hand-eye coordination is awful and I'm slightly clumsy.

My roommate set up the ping pong table on Monday. I've been playing some. We were just hitting it back and forth. Then we tried a game or two. I wasn't too good. Last night I went out drinking so I didn't play.

Tonight while my roommate went for a jog I went out to the garage. I was wearing my ipod. I folded one of the sides of the table up and then let that @#$(%* ball have it. I was slightly frustrated by stuff going on. Some of it is stuff I mentioned in an earlier post. It's all my fault. Well I started to finally get the hang of it. My roommie got back and came in the garage holding a paddle. So we hit back and forth. He could tell I had improved. Then we played a game. Actually two. He still beat me. It wasn't as bad. I still suck, no question about it. But even though ping pong is rather intense I am relaxed by it.

My brother mention to my roommate he was sorry that he had to play with me. It probably wasn't much fun, he said. I think my brother will be in for a surprise when he comes home Friday night.

Work and other stuff

This will just be random stuff tonight. I apologize for not posting more recently. I've had writer's block, sort of.

So I've been back to work for a week now. It's still hard to be motivated after being off for a week and a half at Christmas. We're busy this week so I guess I have no choice. All I can think about is going to the Foo Fighters concert next weekend in Pensacola. That will be awesome.

I'm thinking about asking out this girl at work. I've almost convinced myself to do it. I'm not good at that sort of thing (asking girls out). I think I'll do it. I usually chicken out. We'll see what happens.

My roommates back. He was gone for almost a month but he's back now. He cleaned up the garage and set up the ping pong table so that rules. I tried it out. I suck and need a lot of practice. I thanked him by taking him to dinner at Cabo's. It's a local resteraunt. It was delicous.

Good Night and Good Luck.

Comic Reviews for the last week of December!!

So we're in 2008 now but I still have a few comics from 2007 that still need some reviewing. This is also the end of the weekly comic reviews. Starting this month I'll be getting my comics once a month, maybe every other week. We'll see. So at either the beginning or end of the month I'll do a monthly review. Also as a special treat all of the comics I read were good and none will get less than a 3 star review.

Avengers the Initiative #8: This is one of my favorite titles right now. It's also one of the best new series of 2007. For those of you not in the know this series is about the training camp for all government registered super heroes in the Marvel Universe. For the first 7, actually 8 if you count the annual we've seen lies and more lies from the "heroes" running this training facility. Most of the recruits aren't too good either. However, this issue is when everything is starting to fall apart. How? We don't know yet. All we know is that long time hero, scientist and wife beater Hank Pym aka Yellow Jacket running for his life at microscopic size through all sorts of death and destruction. We see a flash back of sorts of the beginning of the initiative up to a week before the begining of the issue. The issue ends with Yellow Jacket staring up at the reason of the mayhem. Who is it? I don't know. It's some crazy looking guy with KIA engraved on his chest. I could go on and on about this series. THe writer, Dan Slott, does a great job of adding more and more charcters to this series with each issue. Some old some new. He gives each one a distinct voice and you never feel like you're missing anything. The unique art by Stefano Caselli is a nice touch that completes this series. ****

X-men #206: This is chapter nine of the Messiah CompleX. This story will end in January after four more chapters. The X-men are still in a pickle. Some have died, some are wounded, some are lost. This issue ends with a possible betrayal by Bishop who had not been seen in this story as of yet. Of course we won't know if he has betrayed his team untill the next issue. But the last page with Bishop standing over the bodies of Cable and Forge with a gleam in his eye holding a smoking guns signs are pointing to traitor. ****

Giant Size Avengers #1: This is an big comic with little odds and ends stories from the various periods in the Avengers' long history. The stories are being shared by three current Avngers' members; The Wasp, Ms. Marvel, and the Black Widow. All three who are in bikinis most of the time. The various stories are all light and fun. Probably the best of the lot involves Spider-man getting a crash course in what it means to be an Avenger by Captain America and Iron Man. This issue also has reprints of some classic Avengers stories as well. ***1/2

Green Lantern/Sinestro Corps: Secret Files #1: After the few months of the Sinestro Corps story in the pages of Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps we get this comic filling us in on all the characters invovled with Green Lantern. I usually pass these issue that tell you about characters and fill you in on other things associated with a particular character. However there are tons of artists involved with this issue. So each character is drawn by a different person. They also get a quick blurb so you're not reading a whole page about some random alien with a green lantern ring. There is also a comic about Morro, the crypt keeper for the Green Lanterns, in the middle of the issue. It's an enjoyable read for anyone wanting to keep up with Green Lantern after reading the Sinestro Corps story. ****

Green Lantern #26: This week was a Green Lantern double whammy. We follow several Lanterns dealing with the after shock of the Sinestro war. We also see the beginnings of the Guardians of the Galaxy's newest project, the Alpha Lanterns. Geoff Johns does a great job with keeping the title interesting. Artist Mike McKone is a great replacement for previous artist, Ivan Reiss. ***1/2

Countdown #18: After months and months, Ray Palmer has been found! One main story of this series was the search for Ray Palmer, the Atom. Ray has been missing since issue 7 of Idenity Crisis in 2005. He is aparantly the only one who can stop the Great Disaster from happening. What is the Great Disaster? We don't know exactly. But the Atom is the only one who can stop it. This issue we see where Ray has been this whole time. We get a great little character piece on an already intersting character. This is one of the first payoffs of Countdown. Here's to hoping that they continue. ****

Book of the Week

Amazing Spider-man #545: I never thought I would enjoy the last chapter of One More Day. What has been a whiney, angst ridden chapter of Spider-man's history finally is over. So is apparently is the marriage of Peter Parker & Mary Jane. They sold their marriage to Mephisto, a devil, to save the life of Aunt May who was shot by a sniper gunning for Peter. While I don't like this in the least this issue was good. It had some emotional depth. It also sets up for a promising chapter in the life of Peter Parker. He's single again, Aunt May is alive and nobody knows he's Spider-man. Also he and everyone else doesn't know that he was ever married to Mary Jane. I think a lot of people think that this is the new status quo for Spider-man. It is, for now. This month starts Brand New Day. There will only be one Spider-man title, Amazing Spider-man, and it will ship 3 times a month. Each month features a different creative team. If you want my opinion, I think it will be great. I also think that something will happen after about a year and everything will go back to the way it was. This issue also marks the end of writer, J. Michael Strazynsenki's long run on Amazing Spider-man. He's been on the series since 2001. *****

Look out for next month when I do my monthly reviews. I'll throw in some graphic novel reviews and maybe some reviews of older comics.

Well gang that's it, for now.

I'm baaaaaaaaaack

After a weekend with the family, I have returned. Unfortunately I have to go back to work tomorrow. Oh well, such is life.

I had a fairly decent time in Savannah with my family this weekend. Savannah's a neat place. There's a lot of history and the town is kept up pretty nice. The buildings in the historic section are pretty cool. There's also a lot of town squares with statutes. We ate at some good places as well. Including Lady & Sons which is owned by Paula Deen of Food Network fame. It was pretty good southern cooking. The best place had to be Uncle Bubba's which is owned by Paula's brother, Bubba. It's seafood and boy was it good.

The downer was the fact I went with my parents. Not saying this to be mean or anything. Well, a little bit. I haven't been on vacation with them in a few years. I've been on my own for a while now so I got use to doing my own thing on my own time. Plus my mom still thinks my brother and I are twelve. It was just little things like having to wait for them to catch up. It wasn't horrible just annoying.

New Year's eve in Jacksonville with my Aunt's family was eh. My cousin is just annoying. He's 13 but acts like he's 6. His parents really don't do much to correct him so he runs the show. I'm usually a nervous wreck after I leave there. We did eat at a Japenese steak house that was quite good. Those places are always fun.

I might post some comic reviews later tonight. I read some pretty good comics while on vacation. So you have something to look forward to. I also hope everyone had a good New Years.