Hobbies, Family, & Geekery from a Stay-at-Home Dad
It’s the most wonderful time of year! No no no, not Christmas. November 1st is when I start riding that train. No, I’m talking about Halloween. I’ve always been partial to Halloween. Probably from my goth phase when I was growing up. Black nail polish, …Read More….
Continuing right where I left off from the last post. You know, the one where I went on and on about Opening Day of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at Hollywood Studios. We made it home, bribed the kid’s hatred for going without them with some …Read More….
Guys. I unboxed Kingdom Hearts III. Let that sink in. I know, I know, it’s been out for nearly a month. It’s not my fault I’ve been busy and haven’t been able to post this. But that’s not the point! The point is, KH3 is real and it’s here and it’s awesome! (so I hear)
Of course, I had to go Deluxe. I would’ve gone crazy deluxe with the Limited Edition PS4 Pro, but Gamestop made sure I kept my money in my pocket for that one. But this edition is juuuuuuuust fine. I love editions like this. Small, easy to manage. Not $200+ and still having you buy the game separate because it’s not included. No, this is a pretty sweet deal if I do say so myself.
You get the game, duh. And it comes with the retail packaging which is a great thing to have if you’re a fool like me. It’s rare you get the retail version along with the steelbook in the same package. And I’m glad they did it here because I really like the cover art for the game.
Speaking of art, there’s also an art book. Full of sketches of the various characters, keyblades, and whatnot.
It has a nice letter from the series’ director, Tetsuya Nomura, as well as plenty of cool things to admire like the detail in the keyblade designs.
There’s also a pin, which many outside of the Disney scene may not understand.
Pin trading is HUGE here in theme park land. Disney has a number of pin trading events in any given month and they bring all sorts of collectors together to trade pins with each other. This pin is a Disney pin and even has the Mickey ears backing on it. I’ve been wearing it on my hat and have gotten quite a few people randomly talking to me about Kingdom Hearts, it’s great. I like to point out to my wife that I’m not the only nerd out there!
Then there’s the steelbook. The glorious, sexy af steelbook. My goodness, it’s so sleek. The design is subtle and bold and perfect.
The only thing I can’t say that I’m a fan of is the clarity of the game’s symbol. It’s so hard to read. But maybe that’s just me. Either way, the steelbook is definitely worth the extra $20 it cost for the Deluxe Edition. Everything else was just a bonus.
And that’s the KH3 Deluxe Edition! Again, I would love if every game did Deluxe Editions like this. Well, not every game, but you know what I mean. Everyone is getting way out of control with the crazy Collector’s Editions and they need to reel it back in a bit. This is a refreshing change that I’m glad I picked up.
Last month marked one year since we said goodbye to a classic. On August 13, 2017, The Great Movie Ride in Disney’s Hollywood Studios had its final curtain call. It was an OG ride, there on opening day – May 1, 1989 – and was …Read More….
TWO HD UPDATES?! I know, this is madness! I’ve been wanting to get back into doing these. It seems my podcast replaced these updates in my mind, as I tended to talk a lot about what was going on on a weekly basis. …Read More….
A long time ago on a blog never, ever updated… I had plans to write up a post dedicated to Star Wars. I could tell you exactly when it was – about this time, in 2015. How do I remember? Because it was the year The Force Awakens released. My post was going to be published on Star Wars Day, May the 4th – because you know, us bloggers just love us some made up holidays to dedicate posts to – and I was going to focus on how much faith I had in J.J. Abrams and what he was going to do with The Force Awakens. Not only because he’s (still) one of, if not, my favorite directors/screenwriters today, but because I knew it was going to be easy for him to do it.
Haha, OK, not easy in that sense. Breathing such new life into an iconic and beloved franchise is madness. But easy in that he’s accomplished, has the capability, and most of all, he’s a fan.
Not just a fan, a superfan, as described in this 2015 Wired Magazine interview with Scott Dadich. Like that? How I am pulling interviews from 2015 like I’m a time traveler. Well, I remember reading that when it was first published so ha! Anyway, J.J. being a huge fan of Star Wars was not only amazing for him to be able to direct Episode VII – and Episode IX in 2019!!! – but it was great for us because we had essentially one of our own as a director.
Not just someone who casually knows about the franchise and wants in on the name. No, it was someone who grew up loving Star Wars and who lived and breathed it.
Look at me, getting all soap boxey. I’m not here to talk about the post that almost happened. I’m here to give you the post now!
Star Wars is everywhere. It’s always been everywhere. Like the Force, it surrounds us and penetrates us. Sometimes it lays dormant, waiting for a time to awaken. Back before Disney was making it rain and bought Lucasfilm, we had that magical time where the latest movies we had from the beloved franchise were the prequels… Yeah. Well, honestly, I can’t dog them too much. I liked the prequels for what they were and even though they weren’t as memorable as the original trilogy. They served their purpose of reminding this generation that Star Wars exists. Not to mention they gave birth to what is one of my favorite shows/eras from the universe – The Clone Wars! Soooo I may be biased.
Seriously. If you’ve never seen The Clone Wars, you need to get on it ASAP. It’s such a joy to watch. Call me a sap but I have a soft spot for good animated shows. The characters, the stories. You get to see what it was like to live in a universe where the Jedi were abundant and the war between good and evil was clear. Also, you get a lot more in depth with Anakin, watching him evolve as a Jedi Master, and slowly slipping towards the dark side in some episodes with the subtle sound of The Imperial March playing at a slow tempo in the background . UGH, SO SO good.
Ok Ok Ok, I keep getting distracted!
What I was trying to get at was that I remember a time when Star Wars wasn’t on anyone’s mind. There weren’t any TV shows, no movies to look forward to, no merchandise filling up stores like there is today. None of that. But now? It’s hard to go outside and not see or hear something about it. There are a lot of people who say everything is over saturated now. Too much of a good thing is bad. Blah blah blah. Look. Here’s how I see it… You can complain and moan and groan about your precious franchise being overdone and too mainstream or whatever else you hippies like to complain about. But the fact of the matter is, you are not the only ones who take this in. You’re not the ones who dress up like their favorite characters and parade around the house playing with toy lightsabers.
…Ok, maybe you are…
But you know what I mean. This is a great and amazing time to be alive if you’re a fan. But fact of the matter is, nothing beats living in this time as a kid.
More specifically, my kids. Hahaha. Yeah, your kids may love Star Wars too, but see, that’s the point. The next generation of kids are gobbling up all of this “over saturation” as if it was a free ice cream party in the middle of summer. They don’t care that everywhere they turn they see and hear something about Star Wars. They LOVE it!
And you know what, so do I. Not only because I actually do love it, but because I know my kids love it. And I know there was a good chance we could’ve seen things play out very differently. Lucas could’ve sat on his legacy and let it die. Some other studio that lacked the means and will Disney have could’ve bought it up and we would’ve gotten lackluster attempts at rekindling an old fire instead of starting a new one. There are so many different roads we could’ve found ourselves on. So many ways this could’ve played out.
And I’ll tell you what, I am BEYOND happy where we are. Not only for me as a fan, but for my kids. My kids who get to grow up with so many memories of playing Stormtroopers or waiting to watch the new movie or listening to The Imperial March on repeat as they’re getting dropped off at school. It’ll put a smile on my face every time.
Heck, in all honesty, I didn’t have that growing up. I was a Ghostbuster/Ninja Turtle kid and have so many memories based around those two franchises. But Star Wars was never something I was into, or even knew about. I never even watched the original trilogy until I got it on DVD as a gift from my mother in-law back when my wife was just my girlfriend. I used to work in a huge movie theater here in Orlando and when Episode II came out it was such a big deal and I just didn’t get it. I had co-workers who were older than I was telling me they know so and so from the production team and they’re this close to finding the last piece they need to complete their Stormtrooper outfit.
And I’m just there trying to act like I knew what they were talking about. I think I watched Episode I and thought to myself that I get it, this is cool. But THEN I watched the trilogy and THAT’S when it all clicked. That’s when I was all trying to use the Force to get something from across the room. Don’t act like you haven’t tried. Tell me you didn’t and you’re a freaking liar. Shoot, I just did it yesterday, come at me.
So you see, Star Wars isn’t embedded in me like others. It’s not a huge part of my childhood like it was for so many nerds my age. But you know what? My kids are 8 and 4 and it’s ingrained in them already. As you can see from the insane amount of pictures and videos in this post, they have so many experiences and memories with Star Wars already, that I can’t begin to count. And that number will only grow because next year, Star Wars land – Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge – will be opening in Hollywood Studios and it will be absolute insanity. Can. Not. Wait.
Don’t get me started on all the awesomeness from the theme parks. Like what’s already in Hollywood Studios, seeing and interacting with Stormtroopers walking around, The March of the First Order, character meet and greets, Jedi Training Academy, the list goes on and on. And Star Wars Weekends! I miss Star Wars Weekends so much, it’s a shame they stopped doing them.
But when that new land opens up, I guess every day will be Star Wars Weekend, huh?
Speaking of Star Wars Weekends, remember that time we went?? I did a mega post on it, how could you forget? It was an awesome time and there are a ton of pictures from there. I think it was one of Seb’s most memorable vacations, when he got to train as a Jedi and fight Darth Vader. Ugh. I’m not crying, you’re crying.
So here’s to more Wookie-sized memories.
More lightsaber battles.
More Jedi training.
More of this fandom that makes so many people happy. Over saturate us with movies, TV shows, books, comics, everything. Enrich characters with more backstories, bring to life things we’ve only heard mentioned once in the original trilogy (like The Clone Wars!). Things like that are what make the universe so engrossing. It’s what makes this fandom such a joy to be a part of. And it’s what will keep our children making memories for themselves, so they can grow up and remember that time they imagined themselves a protector of the galaxy, or a fighter pilot of a starship, or a Captain who can make the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs. Keep all of it coming and give our kids and most of us grown up nerds something to spark our imaginations.
And as always, may the Force be with you.
Alright, a spiffy new category, let’s see if we could break it in. First off, Theme Park Adventures is going to be a pretty open category. Experiences, stories, picture dumps, reviews, whatever. Basically, when we moved back to Orlando, we knew one of the top …Read More….
We’re finally back from vacation! And by finally, I mean we’ve been here for like a month but I’ve been too lazy to do anything productive. Three cheers for procrastination! Seriously, I feel like a bum, it’s terrible. But at the same time, it’s ok! …Read More….
Haaaaaaaaaaaaapppppyyy Neeeeeeeeeew Yeeeeeeeeeear!
Hey, we’re more than a week into it, but so what?! It’s still exciting!
Wow, I’ve gone a whole year without posting something! (Haha, I love that joke. Never gets old.) Seriously, I keep going these long stints without updating this bad boy and I promise I feel really bad about it. With a new year here and all the resolution hype surrounding the first few weeks, I’d be lying if I told you I didn’t make a resolution to blog more. I know I’m so predictable, but dammit, I have a better chance at keeping that than I do the usual eat better/get fit nonsense. Which I also made a resolution for but that’s not the point!
Point is, I have this blog and I’ve hardly been using it lately. With so many unused categories and sections, I feel like this place is the Beast’s castle and all those neglected topics are in the West Wing. Things have to change!
But that’s for the near future. Right now I figured I’d get you guys up to date with things. But where to start..? I mean, there’s a buttload of stuff that’s been going on lately. Quite a few things I need to document here but that annoying time thing keeps rushing by and giving me the finger. So to get it out there and out of the way, let’s get this post going! We’re doing my favorite – “rapid fire” bullet style updates! Been a while since we’ve done a Humpday Update (was the last one really in July?! I’m such a terrible blogger) so let’s go. Note, I’m going to be starting from around Christmas time. I think there’s enough that happened between then and now to fill up a post and get my writing juices going again. Sooooooooooo here we go, in semi-chronological order:
I got this spiffy and sexy 13 inch HP Pavilion x360! A 2-in-1 hybrid that’s a laptop and a tablet!
The screen rotates all the way back and it is freaking SWEET!
I don’t know what’s so bad about Windows 8.1 that everyone keeps complaining, but I don’t have any issues with it! Maybe it’s me coming from Windows Vista, but still, I’m loving the touch controls and loving the functionality of it all. Can’t wait to put it to use!
We had everything we would ever need as far as utensils and stuff, and there was soooooo much food! Tacos, tortillas, rice, pork, steak, condiments. And chips. Chips eeeeeeeeeverywhere for daaaaaaays!
It was an awesome set up and a great time having everyone there enjoying a meal on an already memorable day.
I feel bad for my wife’s mom though who had to drive back to Florida earlier that day because she started getting the kid flu the previous night and didn’t want to drive with it worse the next day. Which it did get worse, as the kid flu does.
You know how sometimes you get hurt, but you don’t feel it because the adrenalin running through your body doesn’t let you feel pain? Well yeah, none of that shit happened here. My brain said, “pfft! Adrenalin? What was.. oh yeah! I’m supposed to be pumping you full of that stuff, huh? MY BAD!” So my knee hit the wall and I felt it immediately. All I could do was hold on to Lucas as I fell back completely, and in the process, banged my head on the book shelf. As if I wasn’t in enough pain, right?! As I lay there – semi-unconscious, pain coursing through my knee swearing it’s broken in 5 places, Lucas in my arm smacking the back of my head, and a room full of my closest family can do nothing but laugh hysterically along with my wife who was trying her hardest to not pee herself – I block it all out and think that’s it, I’m done. My dreams of becoming a professional swing dancer once the kids move out are over. On the bright side though, I can finally have a reason for walking around with a limp and a cane and acting like Dr. House. After a few minutes of wallowing and cursing like a sailor I sit up and look at the huge bruise and my swollen knee. The wife gets me an ice pack, my older sister takes pictures of me while she’s still laughing as if I’m some road side attraction, my younger sister sits beside me and pats me on the back like twice, and all I can do is lay there. I’m eventually forced to move and walk it off, and after a few days it gets better, but I still can’t kneel without it hurting. So if you’re keeping tally, I almost sliced off my finger and crippled my knee all in one weekend. I almost asked “what’s next?!” but I didn’t want to tempt whoever I obviously pissed off. At least Lucas is ok! That’s really what matters.
Maybe one day we’ll go back for good. But for now, we have to make that drive. Of course, Seb is excited and couldn’t contain himself, and Lucas was happy to jump behind the wheel again.
We wanted to spend the whole day there but they closed at 1am like the psychos they are and we were crazy tired.
So we lasted till night broke and I was able to take some pictures of the castle all lit up. They started taking the lights down off the back so I’m glad we caught it before they were all taken down.
Speaking of pictures, guess who forgot his DSLR in North Carolina. YUP! This guy! And it was funny because I totally forgot to bring the camera to Lucas’ baptism too. And by funny, I mean the complete and total opposite of funny. Oh man, I was so mad.
It hit me when we were close to South Carolina. So from there to about Jacksonville I was kicking myself in the ass. I was lucky my mom just bought herself the same exact camera on Black Friday, so I was able to borrow hers for the day. But still though, so freaking mad. You don’t forget your camera to 2 big family events! It’s like I’m not even trying.
I must have clicked something different when I was setting up my Google account, because thanks to the awesomeness that is Google+’s Photos back-up feature, whatever pictures I put on my hard drive get auto awesomed!
So instead of regular ol’ pictures, I get sweet, motion filled gifs! And seriously, who doesn’t love gifs?!
You guys are in trouble now, let me tell you! Because now that I know how to get these gifs on my posts, you’re going to be seeing a lot more of them in the future!
This is Hector…
Well, Walter. I call him Hector. Why? Because when I first learned his name I had forgotten it shortly after and accidentally called him Hector when talking to my wife. And from there it just stuck. Makes sense too because sometimes he’s being serious and other times he’s being.. Hector. So it’s like Walter is his serious side and Hector is his crazier personality. I’m proud to say I had the whole family calling him Hector by the time Christmas weekend was over. It’s an accomplishment, what can I say? Haha! He’s a cool cat, though. Funny, charming, Hawaiian.. Did I mention he’s Hawaiian? I’ve never known anyone from Hawaii so I asked him some stupid questions like if they use gasoline over there, which led to the next question that was if they even have cars. His response? “No, a lot of people don’t know this, but we actually have dragons. They sleep in the volcanoes.” Hahaha, freaking Hector, I’m telling ya! Dude’s a trip.
Like I did, you’re probably wondering what’s the big deal. Well, like everything else Disney does, this place caters to your childhood memories.
The theme, of course, is Beauty & the Beast. So you’re in the Beast’s castle where you can choose to eat in the 2 story Grand Ballroom (pictured above), the Rose Gallery, or where we chose, the West Wing!
If you’re a fan of the film, I would highly recommend checking it out. As you can probably tell from the menu, lunch is a lot more laid back. You order yourself via touchscreen kiosks when you walk in, and they bring your food to your table that you also have to find yourself. The wife and I split the turkey and roast beef sandwiches, and let me tell you, they were both pretty freaking good.
I thought you go to a place like this in the theme park and pay for the atmosphere. But those sandwiches were good enough to make me forget that thought. I can only imagine how crazy dinner gets with the food and service. My sister told me it’s totally different than lunch in a bunch of ways, so yeah, I would not mind going back to try it out. Especially the grey stuff! They have it there and I heard it’s delicious!
Florida weather and I have never gotten along. And it’s mainly because the state doesn’t believe in this mystical time frame the rest of the country calls winter. If Florida had an actual winter and not just 2-3 weeks out of the year where the temps get all the way down to the 40’s when the sun wasn’t out, then I’d totally be able to stand the sweltering hell-like heat of the summer.
But nope. No such thing as winter in Florida. Just light summer, actual summer, leave-the-house-only-if-you-like-turning-into-dust summer, and kinda-sorta fall.
And that be that! I know, I talk like a teenage girl the week before prom but it’s not my fault! It’s been a long time since I had a proper update like this. Not to mention it’s just after the busiest few weeks I remember having for a long time. I had a lot to say and you know what? I don’t feel bad about saying it all! I think it’s because there’ll probably be like 3 people who actually make it this far in the post. But if you did.. Thanks!!
It’s a new year. Here’s to hoping it’s better than last year for everyone. Thanks for all the support I received in 2014!! There is a good handful of you who are always here checking out what I post and commenting and just being all around cool people. You know who you are and I hope you all know it’s greatly appreciated. I hope I’m able to make 2015 even better around these parts.
But until then… HAPPY NEW YEAR!