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My buddy Rodger sent this to me. I laughed so hard, I pee'd myself! Rodger likes it when I pee myself.
Man... I picked up INCREDIBLE HULK: ULTIMATE DESTRUCTION for my old, beloved PS2 today. Wow... this game is freakin' awesome. Truly, truly smash-worthy!
Just like Marvel Ultimate Alliance, I picked this one up a bit late. The game came out back in 2005.
It provides exactly the type of experience you're looking for from a game featuring ol' Jade Jaws. Acting as the Hulk, you can pick up and smash just about everything. And people - when you approach them - scream and run away.
Even better, they cry when the Hulk picks 'em up, "Agh! Help me!"
"I can't feel my legs!"
"Aiiiieeee!"
The game allows the player to profoundly damage the environment. I cannot begin to express how gratifying that is.
I giggled the whole time I played it this evening.
The Hulk and I have a lot in common, you see. The madder he gets, the stronger he gets whereas the madder I get, the more sarcastic I get.
Aron is the smart-assiest there is!!! RAAAAARGH!
Aron Head
www.EvilBastard.net
Our Christmas tradition starts on Xmas Eve. We start the evening with a tex-mex dinner. This year, we went to Joe T's for supper.
Now, Joe T's ain't the best Mexican food around, but it's good. If we'd had our 'druthers we'd have gone to La Playa Maya, Fiesta or El Paseo - but these were all closed yesterday.
We actually go to Joe T Garcia's fairly often, but usually it's for a fundraiser for various 501c3's the Wife and I support. They have a beautiful garden and patio area. That's where we usually dine. In fact up until last night in our nearly eight years of marriage, Suzanne and I have never eaten in the dining room together. It was too cold for al fresco last night, though.
We dined inside.
Dating myself here, but the last time I ate in the dining room at Joe T's was during the Cullen Davis Murder Trials. Racehorse Haynes sat at the table next to us. Richard "Racehorse" Haynes was the Johnny Cochrane of his day. I'm sure if we'd had Court TV back in the day, he'd be a household name outside of Texas... as it is, anybody who was old enough to watch the news from '75 on down here in the Lone Star state knows all about him.
But I digress.
Dinner was nice.
As ever the nachos rocked, but the enchiladas were a bit "meh."
Afterwards, the traditions continued as we drove through various neighborhoods looking at Christmas lights and then embarked on our annual, fruitless endeavor to find a Starbucks open on Xmas Eve. No joy. Suzanne had to make-do with 7-11 coffee.
We then went on to church to sing carols just before the Mid-Night Mass. The Wife and I are cradle Episcopalians. The index of The Book of Common Prayer is written in our DNA. Christmas without midnight mass is a little like Diet Coke without the fizz.
Between hymns, Suzanne produced a tin of mints offering me one.
"No thank you," I whispered.
She provided a slight shake to the tin, further encouraging me.
"No thank you," I repeated.
"Take," She urged me with a timbre that compelled compliance, "The mint!"
Later, she would tell me that there was a decidedly ranchero quality to my breath.
After services, we stopped back in at 7-11 for a Slurpee. The Slurpee aspect of our tradition goes back to the first Christmas Suzanne and I spent together, back when we were dating. We both were fighting colds and needed the Slurpees for throat relief. It was the same the year after and the year after that. After three years of Slurpees, it became our tradition - sore throats or otherwise.
Now, just because one goes to a 7-11 doesn't mean that the Slurpees are ready to serve. Often, we have to hit more than one.
Much like the Magi travelling far from the east following a star to the birth site of God made flesh, we travel in search of Slurpees ready-to-serve. It is not unusual that we hit two or three stores.
Last night, we got it right the first time. Truly, a Christmas miracle!
Sipping on our tasty frozen beverages, we drove home.
On Christmas Day, we drink.
Seriously.
We started the morning with mimosas. While breaking our fast on a sumptuos Croissant Breakfast Pudding prepared by The Wife with some fresh fruit, we drank mimosas. We exhchanged gifts and... well that's thirsty work, so more mimosa.
After present opening is accomplished, Suzanne moved onto bloody marys. She is especially partial to ol' Red Eye's horseradish mix. I hads me a few screwdrivers before transitioning to beer at the noon hour.
The libations continued all afternoon and will progress through the night.
Suzanne is making a roast leg of lamb with dark beer, honey, and thyme. We'll have wine with that. And I am looking forward to a glass of port and a cigar on the porch.
It's like Suzanne says, "Anybody who believes you can't drink your problems away simply isn't drinking enough."
It's been a cozy day here at the house.
Thank God I don't have to drive anywhere!
Aron Head
www.EvilBastard.net
MILD SPOILERS AHEAD
The truth of the matter is that comic publishing today at the big two companies is lousy with large event crossovers. These events are over-promoted and over-hyped while more often than not turn out in a wholly unsatisfying manner. Recent examples include Marvel's Civil War and World War Hulk. Both started strong, but finished with a "meh."
DC Comics got it right with their 11-part Sinestro Corps War (SCW) in the Green Lantern books.
It started strong, improved throughout the run, and finished HUGE. There have been few instances in the last few year where I have been so entertained, so jazzed, so impressed by a comic book story arc. Green Lantern #25 is an explosive "super-sized finale" to the war story expertly spun by Geoff Johns.
The Sinestro Corps is the evil opposite to the Green Lantern Corps. Led by Sinestro, a former Green Lantern of note, the Sinestro Corps is comprised of many bad guys including Hank Henshaw (The Cyborg Superman from Reign of the Supermen who destroyed Coast City) and my favorite villain from Infinite Crisis, Superman Prime.
Whereas the Green Lantern Corps utilizes willpower to anchor their power rings, the Sinestro Corps utilizes fear. In fact, the ability to "instill great fear" is the requisite to join the SC. Bunch of terrible bastards those guys wearing the yellow.
Unlike some of the other big events in comics this year, the SCW truly was a must read. I hadn't been picking up the current run of Green Lantern, yet the hype succeeded in grabbing my attention and here I am picking up all three GL books now: Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, and - if it goes to regular series - Ion. If every "event story" could be this good, you'd never hear me complain about them ever again.
GL #25 is chock full of amazing splash pages.
One thing I don't fully understand about Superman Prime (seen above handing Supes his ass) is why he is so much more powerful than Superman. Is it that SP is a nut-job and our Kal-El restrains himself too much? There really is somethin' cool about a Superman who cuts loose, y'know, and tears people's arms off. Man, if our Superman would do that from time-to-time, I bet he'd have less trouble from that bald nuissance Lex Luthor.
One terrific moment in the book is when the citizens of the rebuilt Coast City decline evacuation and stand with their Green Lantern as he faces down Sinestro himself. In a show of solidarity, the entire town flashes green flash lights into the sky. Having been around for the murder of Coast City's seven million residents in the 90's, the city's support of Hal Jordan moved me.
Green Lantern #25 ends the Sinestro Corp War for now, but like the first World War the SCW is really a precursor to the next, much larger conflict. It ain't over yet.
A beat that World War Hulk and Civil War really missed is the aftermath of the conflict. Civil War just came to a crashing end and really, who gave a crap by the time WWH ended?
In the pages of Green Lantern #25, we are provided with a wonderful two pages of postwar life in Coast City with Hal's family.
This book sets up a lot of stuff for the next two years in the DC Universe. Unlike Marvel whose books are important only because they say-so, GL #25 is a must-read because it is truly meaningful to current and future events the DCU.
The aftermath of the war continues in Green Lantern Corps #19 in which our heroes get some time to chillax. This is my favorite kind of comic book, the ones where there's not a lot of fighting. The heroes just get a chance to be. I like those little moments of mundanity.
We also are provided with the origin story of the newest member of the Sinestro Corps. I can't wait to see this guy bustin' up the 'verse with his new powers...
One last thing, we now know via the pages of the Sinestro Corps War that the zombie apocalypse is coming in 2009, and these zombies are wearing jewelry!
Great stories were told this year in the pages of the Green Lantern books. I can't wait for the rest of these tales to be told.
Aron Head
www.EvilBastard.net
Of Gods and Men is possibly the most ambitious of the independent Star Trek productions to date. It has been in the making for 2 years and has a number of Trek veterans both in front of and behind the camera. Designed as a 3 part mini-series, OGaM aspires to tell an epic tale in the Trek universe that both ties up some future history arcs while trying to play social commentary on our times.
For a project with so much talent involved, I was a bit disappointed at how poorly it is directed and edited. There's not much dynamic energy, the transitions from scene-to-scene suck the life out of it.
Still, it is enjoyable and a lot of fun to see all those folks together again.
Aron Head
www.EvilBastard.net
I was going through some old picture files today and found lots of Xmas images. I thought I'd share...
Going through these pics I realized how many of those imaged are no longer with us. Above is Taylor. Part Sheltie, part cocker spaniel, she was my 21st birthday gift. She died two years ago.
Those Wise Men you see under the tree behind Taylor were handmade by my Grandmother.
Aron Head
www.EvilBastard.net
New pics of the dogs have been uploaded to my Flickr account.
Aron Head
www.EvilBastard.net
