Good morning Pixlpeeps! It is a chilly 51 degrees currently in my little piece of Sunny Southern California, and over the past couple of days I’ve been wearing hoodies and sweatshirts. Yeah the best was when I was wearing a sweatshirt and everyone around me was in shorts and tees. Dang it tourists you’re ruining my fantasy of a Winter Wonderland! Anyways its Friday the 13^th, time to look back at the week of things that didn’t involve video games that I like to call Quick Hits! Let’s get started! (I’m exclamation point happy right now)

Chris Watches…!

Random Area 51 Show: I really don’t know the name of the show but I woke up around 2am a couple of days ago, and couldn’t go back to sleep so I started watching random shows including this one. It was made a couple of years ago because I think the mountain the people were standing on to look into the facility has since been taken over by the government. Those who were interviewed were talking about aliens and how they were working with the government. I think its crazy to believe that we are the only ones in the galaxy, and if the aliens are the ones who brought the concept of cell phones, microwaves, and HDTV, I say thanks aliens, you rock!

Kickboxer: Oh there was a point in the late 80s early 90s that Jean Cluade Van Damme could do no wrong with his one storyline that was tweaked a little bit in every movie: Belgium guy who’s family is in trouble, so he helps by kicking everyone’s ass, and cue late 80s early 90s music montage of him walking around. If you haven’t seen this one it stars real life kick boxer Dennis Alexio as JCVD’s brother who fights Tong Po, a crazy dude who is super strong and ends up breaking his back. JCVD has to train with someone wise to defeat this guy, saves the day, and wears high waist jeans (no this isn’t Bloodsport…the “brother” in that film is killed.) 

This is Kickboxer’s famous scene. It’s up there with Top Gun’s awkward volleyball scene

Green Batman (Arrow): Each week this season I’m getting more and more into the build up of Darkh vs Green Batman. He is by far my favorite villain used on this show. Deathstroke would have been except he was driven by the fact that he was Friendzoned by the girl in love with Oliver Queen. This past episode adds to another piece of the Heroes of Tomorrow Cast (I think Flash is doing the same.) Another fun thing is that there are more jokes in the dialogue, which means less of Oliver doing his “I told you” speeches.

Agents of SHIELD: Am I the only one seeing hints of Star Wars in this season? Coulson likes to wear all black, his fake hand, people being placed in some sort of stasis (they might as well be in carbonite), flying bases, and other goodies. I’m waiting for that guy who likes Daisy to kiss him and then someone point out that they are siblings. The show is still really good otherwise.

MTV’s The Challenge Bio Show: Since the new theme is bringing in relatives of MTV talent, the channel had an online show where they talk to each two man team so the viewer can get to know the familiar faces, along with a couple of folks who are teased in the teaser at the end. The Challenges are so much fun to watch because MTV creates the drama with booze, sticking people to live in a fancy house, and makes them do crazy events where they are dangled above water, jumping off of trucks, and running down the sides of buildings.

The Affair: I think we are at the midpoint of this season, and there really isn’t a character I like. Ok maybe Cole because he’s so flawed anyways yet there is some good still there and he still seems like a decent person to Allison. Allison, Noah, and Helen are all just annoying now but this is because another person is telling their perspective on these characters.

While typing this latest entry I completely forgot to watch Vanderpump Rules. Thank you Bravo for having everything online! I’ll watch this after I get back from the Post Office.

Chris Listens To…!

Afterbuzz Podcasts: These are by far the worst “professional” podcasts that I have listened to. I knew these were bad but I wanted to give them a second try so I gave their podcasts about Breaking Ground, Vanderpump Rules, and Arrow a try. Breaking Ground wasn’t bad, but the other two are just horrible conversations between people I find annoying. I hope Bill Simmons rebuilds Grantland with HBO because the content his people put out are miles better than this stuff.

Speaking of Grantland, one of my favorite podcasts, Cheap Heat will continue. Thank goodness because this trio talking about wrestling is an hour of comedy. The show is run by Peter Rosenberg, and his two friends where they discuss the previous week’s Raw and Smackdown, the various storylines, throw in their opinions, dream bookings, wrestling lingo, and just enjoy the subject. It’s not forced, they are not obnoxious, and they release a solid product. The Afterbuzz folks should listen.

I’m currently listening to The Ultimate Christmas Album Volume I, and I really don’t like modern takes on Christmas Classics. I think they are over produced, and they don’t have the same charm that the older songs have.

There are a couple of good songs on this album but I already have them in earlier compilation albums so they get the generic 3 star rating, which is average.

Chris Reads!

I finished Year Three of Injustice: Gods Among Us, and I am ready to start this season’s Year Four. I’m almost caught up! I like the story and the whole good vs. evil debate. I’ll probably start reading Year Four on Sunday.

I’m also on issue three of Invincible Iron Man. Since the only Iron Man I know about is through the movies and Lego games this is a different Iron Man where Jarvis is a girl.

This is my favorite panel from one of the issues. It fits in well with Agents of SHIELD.

I started Mindy Kaling’s Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me. I am halfway through thanks to audiobooks and some parts I found funny. Mindy reads her own book and I think she is sticking to the script unlike Adam Carolla who would throw in extra stories. I should be finished with it by the end of the week.

Chris Takes Pictures…

Ok so I didn’t take a picture of the blue light that the Navy said was a “missile” (c’mon now we all know it was aliens from Area 51. Who shoots a missile over Southern California when you have thousands of miles of ocean to fire it over.) Thinking back I probably should have but I wanted to eat the Whole Foods Pork Belly so I went inside. Anyways here are some pictures I took (they are just clouds, so if you want to skip, I understand) 

Before the aliens err missile flew over Southern California the sky had a nice pink glow.

Only reason I took a picture of this cloud is because it looked like a hand.

The next shot is of the storm clouds that surrounded the valley but didn’t leave any rain

I like how the light is trying to get through the one cloud.

Randoms!

I decided to try my hand at speed-reading. I took a test before I started and apparently I am a slow reader. Who knew?

I could probably just naturally speed up but I was taking my time…and maybe making my new results be that much better? Anyways after watching the YouTube video, I got the idea of how to read at a crazy speed, but if I slowed it down a bit I could actually understand what I was reading.

Apparently I can read faster than a high scoring college student. Not bad for a guy who spent all his time drawing.

While roaming around Home Goods (Marshall’s for home stuff) I spotted this in the spot usually reserved for the 10,000 dollar giant crystal elephant (seriously who spots this elephant and says “I need this for the living room”)

It’s a cool arcade cabinet with I’m assuming is a fancy emulator. It is lower than a conventional cabinet, so kids could play.

It’s cool but I don’t know if its two grand cool.

I forgot to mention it last week but it was election season here in my little piece of Southern California. My ballot contained one thing to vote for and I believe it was different than the voting booklet the state sent out a month before (seriously a booklet for one item to be voted on.) The gentleman’s explanation of voting process took long than the actual act. I debated on filling it out while he was explaining it to me but it seemed like I was the first person in there for a couple of hours so I let the folks have their fun. Seriously why do people not vote? It’s not hard, you go in, draw lines, tear off the receipt and get a swanky sticker? Five minutes and you’re done

You’re welcome California.

Tonight is the season opener of Aztec Basketball as San Diego State takes on Illinois State, the alma mater of Steve Fisher! This is part of the MWC vs. MVC challenge. I think we would have gotten Wichita State if Fish weren’t connected to ISU. I BELIEVE THAT WE WILL WIN!

Pickups!

Games

Ok so I said that I wouldn’t buy any games until Black Friday but while roaming around Target (it always starts with roaming around Target) I spotted this

I guess it was forgotten in the stockroom. It was still in new condition, the game was still sealed, the guitar wasn’t moved, and the only exception was that the box was beat up, and the stickers connecting the slipcover to the box lost its adhesive. I played a little bit and man I am rusty. I usually play at Medium because at Hard I can’t hit the Orange Button fast enough, but Medium was tough for me and I was only hitting 80% of the notes. I need practice before getting the PS4 Guitar Hero. I also get to try out the older PS3 Rockband games I bought earlier including Lego Rock Band. (Sorry Lego Dimensions)

Music

I had to travel to the Tourist Target because the local Target didn’t have these albums in stock

I like Ellie Goulding from her last album because it was a mix of electronic and pop. I am a fan of Sara Bareilles and she wrote the music for the Broadway Musical. I have these albums on my iPod ready to play when I get tired of Christmas Music.

This album I took a chance on because it is Disney music sung by current artists. I listened to half of it so far because I was curious about the new versions of these Disney songs, and they aren’t bad.

Lego

At the Tourist Target they had a bunch of the Joker Bumper Car polybags

I really should have grabbed a couple more to build a bumper car section to the Jokerland playset I bought awhile back. Someone on Reddit did a piece swap and created a Batman bumper car (replaced the green pieces with black, because Batman only works in black pieces and sometimes very very dark gray) 

Before I call this a blog this was on Reddit and I thought you folks would appreciate it

This kind of represents Tomb Raider on the original Playstation for me.

Have a good weekend Pixlbit!

That’s all for now, more later!

-Chris

For today’s song of the week I decided to go with one that fit recent news about a certain Lufthansa robbery verdict.

How do you not love Goodfellas and Eric Clapton? This scene along with the continuous shot of Henry and Karen walking through the club are such awesome scenes in this great movie.