Memes, Avengers, RDJ, Comics, and Star Wars...

/giggle

Yeah, okay...I bet Justin Timberlake hates these memes, my apologies...

But, yes, it is the first day of May...and it's also a very exciting day for Marvel fans! [Maybe not so much, if you aren't a fan of the Avengers movies...]

Avengers: Age of Ultron premiers for us non-celebrity Americans today...needless to say, the kiddo and I are ridiculously excited about the movie! He and I are huge fans of the Avengers franchise...we've seen all of the movies and own more toys and comics than we probably should.

I mean, who doesn't love superhero movies? [The kiddo and I most certainly do!] And the Avengers movies present an opportunity to see half-a-dozen of our favorite heroes at the same time! Iron Man is always going to be a favorite of mine and my kiddo is a big fan of the Hulk [with Captain America and Thor coming in as close favorites, as well]...

RDJ will always be a favorite of
mine...because...reasons...

Along with all of the Avenger-y goodness, tomorrow is Free Comic Book Day! So, look up your local comic book store [or 2nd and Charles] and see what kind of stuff they've got going on to celebrate...who knows, you may end up with some pretty cool stuff...for free!

One more thing!

Some places [my local 2nd and Charles, for one] are observing May 4th early, and hosting their activities and such on Saturday. What's the deal with May 4th?

Well...*ahem* "May the Forth" be with you!

Hehehehe...nerd stuff, for the win. Always. [See what I did there? Of course you did... /grin]

Marvel Universe Live!

Exciting stuff!! So exciting that I couldn't wait and write a post about it tomorrow!!

I'm taking my kiddo to go see Marvel Universe Live! Squeeeee!!! I'm so excited!! *ahem* I mean, he's gonna be so excited!!!

Ican'twait!Ican'twait!!Ican'twait!

I know that gif is annoying, but it accurately reflects how excited I am about this!!

Would it be inappropriate to slip one of them my phone number?

As far as I know, this year is the first that this show has been in production. I heard about it months ago, and have been planning on taking the kiddo for his birthday, but I hadn't bought tickets yet...it was too far in

Perfectly acceptable reaction!

advance to buy them. [I've been dying to go before tickets were even available!] Got online a little bit ago to see about ordering tickets, and they've added video trailers to their website...cue the fangirls! 

[Blogger is being funny about letting me change the layout of this post for some reason...my apologies for the awkward arrangements...I'm trying to fix it, but the post simply won't cooperate /sigh]

The few reviews that I've read have been nothing but praise for the show...the only negative ones were comments on not being able to get tickets and having to wait until next year...

This is one of the preview videos on YouTube...it's not the same one that is posted on the show's website, but it's still pretty good. Is it October yet??

Stop-eth, Cretans! It's hammer time!

Awesome Comics!

Heya! Hope you guys had a good weekend...

My weekend was very enjoyable! Been spending some much needed time working on the education requirements for completing my Real Estate Appraisal Certification. It requires somewhere in the ballpark of 200 hours...that's a bunch. I've already got a good portion of them completed, so just have to finish them up!

The logo wall is made up
entirely of books!

Saturday evening, I went with a good friend of mine to 2nd and Charles. (I LOVE that place! I wanna set up a little fort made of out of books and live there!) They have tons upon tons of books, both new and used. They've got a massive selection of comics, graphic novels, and manga. They've got new and used movies, new and used cds, and new and used video games, too! They even have a decent-sized selection of vintage video games...I managed to find a good copy of Majora's Mask there once...but it was gone when I went back the next day to pick it up...major bummer. To round out their expansive collection of just about all things awesome, they've got a large selection of t-shirts, random novelties (magnets, keychains, collectible figurines, etc), and vinyl albums. If you have a 2nd and Charles near you and you haven't visited it...what are you waiting for?!? Go! Today! 

Hehehe sorry about the rambling, I get really excited talking about stuff that I love! 

But anyway, at 2nd and Charles yesterday, I found something really, really cool! 

/drool

This is a 001 edition of the Original Sin comic (these comics started coming out earlier this year, in April, I think). It's a variant cover edition with a limited release for the 2014 Comic-Con...and I own one! I know it likely won't have the same value as a 001 edition with whatever the standard release cover was, but I couldn't pass it up! Guys, it's a Comic-Con limited release!

/squee!

Here's another goodie that I picked up at 2nd and Charles: 001 edition of Rocket Raccoon. They also began coming out earlier this year. Variant cover art, limited to 5,000 issues, and only available to purchase at the 2014 Comic-Con. Again, I'm not counting on it being as valuable in the future as the original cover art edition...but it was still way too cool to pass up!



Okay, I've got to go take care of some stuff that actually requires peeling myself away a computer...Hasta!

Avengers Carmelldansen!

Had a good laugh with my sister this afternoon over this video...Kind of hard to explain, but it involved some rotten potatoes and onions, maggots, a very well-timed joke, and an even better timed hilarious response. I love the bits with the Hulk in it...skip around just to find those parts if you do not want to sit through almost 3 minutes of Carmelldansen. (This was a viral internet thing 2-3 years ago or so...)

More Arrow Please!

I completely forgot to add what I'd found out about Arrow yesterday...

I found out that the second season of Arrow isn't available on Netflix. There are few episodes available on Hulu, but they're mid-season episodes and there are only half a dozen or so that you can watch in their entirety. Also checked the CW website, and it's pretty much the same as Hulu. 

This makes me seriously sad, guys. How can Netflix enable binge-watching of shows and not provide all of the completely aired seasons?!? 

/Swoon

Stephen Amell is just too stinkin' adorable! I did find out the the second season will be available on BluRay and DVD in September. I will be purchasing it...assuming that I'll have the funds to do so...Adding an unexpected car payment on top of already tight finances will certainly put a hindrance on buying things for entertainment. 

And, just because...

He's ab-solutely right...someone please give him my contact info! ;)

Kindergarten And The Green Arrow...

Hey Guys! Hope you're having a good morning so far...

Just dropped my kiddo off for his first day of "big kid school" not too long ago. Everything went just as smoothly as I hoped it would, no complaints about the actual drop-off at all! The parents were told several times that we are not to accompany our children into the school, and I was a bit worried that my kiddo would freak out about having to walk into the relatively unknown building all by himself, but he did great! I can't wait to pick him up this afternoon and listen to all the stories that he's going to have about his first day!

I did one of the overly-sentimental mom things and made a chalkboard sign for his first day of kindergarten.

Not actual photo of my child! 

It's got today's date on it, says his "first day of kindergarten," and then lists some of the his favorite things right now, what he wants to be when he grows up, and stuff that I'll want to remember such as his height and weight. I plan on making a similar sign on the last day of the school year, I think it will be fun to see how much he changes during the year!

As some of you may have read, yesterday was my birthday. I survived another year! Woohoo! I intended to write a post summarizing the past year with some witty humor and profound wisdom sprinkled in, and then I managed to wreck my car...so, yeah. I will still write the post, but probably not until later on tonight. 

However, I do want to mention that I finally finished watching the first season of Arrow! I started watching the show (based on the DC comics character the Green Arrow) about a month or so ago at the suggestion of one of my buddies, and I'm helplessly hooked on the show.

The show has an amazing cast!

The first season of the show chronicles Oliver Queen's return from being stranded on an uncharted island for 5 years. His family had thought both he and his father to be dead for the years Oliver was missing, and unfortunately Oliver's father does not make the return trip home with his son.

The first couple episodes of the show were a bit hard to get through, but I think that's pretty common with most shows. It takes a while to get truly interested in the story line and the development of the characters. I'll be the first to admit that I had written off Oliver Queen's character as a Bruce Wayne knock-off, but I'll happily admit that I was wrong and that the Oliver Queen/Green Arrow story line should definitely be given a chance.

 Stephen Amell stars as the show's Oliver Queen aka the Green Arrow aka the Hood. In my opinion, he does an excelled job bringing the character to life and portraying the mind-boggling amount of growth that is experienced by Oliver at different points in the story arc.

Plus, you've got to admit he's certainly easy on the eyes...not saying that him being devastatingly handsome is the only reason to watch the show, but it certainly doesn't hurt!

As far as eye candy goes, I'm also a fan of Oliver's best friend, Tommy Merlyn, as well as the actor who plays him, Colin Donnell. Tommy holds his own as Oliver's best friend, most of the time is equally funny, charming, and witty. And he's got the whole dark hair/blue eyes combo going on...gets me every time.

Another character that I have come to love is Felicty Smoak played by Emily Bett Rickards. Felicity has a very minor role at first, she works in the IT department of Queen Enterprises, and both Oliver and his step-father, Walter, approach Felicity for help on various tasks. I absolutely love Felicity's character! She's brilliant (at some point in the show you learn that she's a MIT graduate), she's funny, and painfully awkward. Some of the interactions between Felicity and Oliver are so awkward, you'll literally cringe...for example:

Yikes...

No worries, Felicity...I'm right there with you. 

So, if you haven't checked out Arrow yet, I suggest that you do! The complete first season can be found on Netflix, and I know that some of the second season can be found on Hulu...I'm going to see if I can find the complete second season online somewhere. 

I'll leave you guys with this small montage of ridiculously adorable pictures of Oliver and Tommy (Stephen and Collin) hanging out together. Seriously, I love these two! Add them to the list of celebrities that I need to meet in real life...

Guardians of the Galaxy...

Hope you all had a good weekend, if you didn't use some portion of it to go see Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, shame on you!

I'll be the first to admit, I thought it looked like a ridiculous movie when I first started seeing trailers for it about a year ago. With the massive onslaught of comic book-themed movies, many of which are devastatingly sub par, it was easy to write it off as another movie flop. I mean, seriously, there's a gun-toting, talking raccoon. And what's going on with the walking tree guy?

But, I was wrong about this movie! (And people said that I'd never admit when I was wrong...pssht!)

Guardians of the Galaxy is easily in the running for one of the best Marvel movies made to date, and anyone who knows me also knows that this is a huge deal! (Okay...as big of a deal as loving a movie could be...) I was skeptical when I'd read a few critic's reviews saying that this movie easily rivaled the Avengers movie and that it would very likely be the next big thing, as far as superheroes go. But they were right...

The movie managed to find that tricky balance between action and humor, and even though it takes place in space with aliens abound (Peter Quill, aka StarLord, played by Chris Pratt, is said to be the only human), it didn't come across as the cheesy movie I had anticipated. 

Chris Pratt did an excellent job of bringing his character, Peter Quill, to life. As one of the main characters of a little known comic book series, I think he deserves recognition for making Quill one of the decades most likable movie characters. Now, I'm not saying that the newbie rag-tag team of accidental heroes is going to replace my longtime DC/Marvel favorites...but they are definitely going to be added to the roster!
Also, I now have a fangirl crush on Chris Pratt. He's adorable, he's funny, and gives the impression that he's a genuinely all-around nice guy. Did I mention that he's adorable?

I definitely recommend that you go see this movie, maybe even twice!