JohnnyBGamer

From Across the Net – “Is There Still a Place for Blogs in 2020?”

Tim and I might not always agree 100%, but I have always appreciated his perspective and his writing ethic (he writes everyday despite having issues with his hands).

First, we don’t want to go back to gatekeepers. The early thrill of blogs, and something we may now largely take for granted, was the way they democratized information. They gave a voice to people who otherwise would not have made it past the traditional “gatekeepers”—the acquisitions editors at publishers or the editors at magazines. Before blogs, if you wanted to reach the Christian public, you had to go through one of these channels and were often rejected. But then through blogs you could reach around these channels and independently develop your own voice. This democratization has allowed new and unexpected voices to enter into our conversations.

You can read more here

Friday Night Movie – Avengers: Age of Ultron

Friday nights have become movie nights in the Hall household.

We’ve made a bit of progress since my initial post. We no longer have to get movies from the library (which is still an excellent/free option) now that we have Disney+. Below, I thought I’d give a quick updated list as to where we are in our Marvel journey:

~~Iron Man (2008)~~
~~The Incredible Hulk (2008) – Skipped.~~
~~Iron Man 2 (2010)~~
~~Thor (2011)~~
~~Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)~~
~~Marvel’s The Avengers (2012)~~
~~Iron Man 3 (2013)~~
~~Thor: The Dark World (2013) – Skipped.~~
~~Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)~~
~~Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) – Skipped.~~
Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015)
Ant-Man (2015)
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Doctor Strange (2016)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
~~Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)~~
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
Black Panther (2018)
~~Avengers: Infinity War (2018)~~
Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
Captain Marvel (2019)
~~Avengers: Endgame (2019)~~
~~Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)~~

Captain American: The Winter Soldier was the first Marvel movie Wyatt looked bored watching.

“Are they going to fight soon?”

Within minutes, Nick Fury was thankfully being pummeled by bad guys.

Quick Thoughts:

I love how Winter Soldier is super hero spy movie. The movie showcases how much fun the Marvel movies can be when they are coupled with another movie genre.
As the Marvel movies progress, especially from The Avengers on, they feel as if they are getting longer in run time and feature more and more talking. I’ve started to miss the brisk nature of the earlier films.

Moving Along:

Avengers: Age of Ultron is one of the first Marvel films I remember disliking when I first viewed it. (Well, maybe that isn’t true, I disliked Thor 2 with a passion.) The story felt like a mess, and I hated Ultron as a character. Watching the Marvel movies the second time around, I’ve enjoyed many of the films I originally liked more and have even come to appreciate/love Iron Man 3 (which I had previously hated due to the way they handled the Mandarin). Can’t wait to see if my opinion changes on Ultron.

A Weekend of Learning to Play the Pokémon Trading Card Game

Wyatt and I took a trip to our local game store, Three Suns Unlimited, this past weekend. I have been meaning to learn how to play the Pokémon Trading Card Game for awhile now. I figured Pokémon would be a great entry level collectible card game for us to learn. After asking the ultimate parent question in this scenario:

“What do I need to play this game?”

The knowledgeable store staff directed us to a Pokémon Sun & Moon Trainer Kit. Priced at $10, the Trainer Kit comes with everything you need to learn how to play the Pokémon Trading Card Game (TCG). The kit includes:

A full 60-card deck that you split into two to play two player
Playmat (with rules on it)
Damage Counters (cardboard tokens)
Condition Markers
A Game Coin to flip to determine who goes first
And 2 Rule Books to teach you how to play your first game step-by-step

Once home, we pulled out the instructions and got to playing. I was impressed at how easy the game is to learn. We ended up battling our Pokémon against each other in more than a few matches over the weekend.

Side Note: I was amused that one of the game’s rules is having to shake hands with your opponent prior to playing. This brought about a great opportunity to teach Wyatt about how men shake hands. Not too soft. Not too hard. Firm and determined.

As a real man, I can admit that I got my butt kicked multiple times this weekend by a growing boy and his Pokémon. I am pleased that $10 provided the entertainment it did while allowing me to connect with Wyatt more. We’ll continue to play, refine our skills, and figure out the luck of the draw nature of the game. Who knows, maybe we’ll be ready to battle Team Rocket in the future… if we ever meet them.

From Across the Net – “Half-Life: Alyx Announcement Trailer”

The Half-Life: Alyx Announcement Trailer looks pretty dang good. I love all the the subtle animations going on, especially how expressive Alyx’s hands are. I haven’t jumped on the VR train yet. I am not sure I ever will. But this trailer makes me interested in Half-Life again… or at least brings back some good memories.

Union Pacific’s No. 4014 – The Big Boy Visit’s Longview, Texas

Last Sunday, after lunch had been hastily scarfed down after church, I packed the family (+inlaws) into the car. We headed down to the local train depot to welcome Union Pacific’s Big Boy No. 4014 into town.

There were so many people at the station. Many in the crowd still dressed in their Sunday finest. All held back by a fence from getting closer to the Big Boy. I have to admit, I was disappointed by the view from the depot. So we hopped back into the car, as Big Boy No. 4014 rolled out of Longview. We took a quick trip down down Highway 80 in order to get ahead of the train. One could say we had the perfect spot the second time around.

I would like to thank Union Pacific for adding a bit of history and steam to an otherwise slow Sunday afternoon. You can read more about the Big Boy here.