Getting ready for the Christmas season…. early?

Posted on December 15, 2014 by Joel

It’s Christmas season!

I can’t tell if we’re running earlier or later than usual with all of the Christmas season preparations. I feel like we are actually ahead of the game this year. Is it possible? So far, we’ve:

  • Taken our family portraits.
  • Gotten the Christmas cards done. Now we just need to address and mail them out.
  • Gotten the exterior of the house decorated.
  • We picked up our Christmas tree last weekend, and decorated it this week.
  • My wife Namita ordered nearly all of the Christmas presents for everyone.

That’s a lot done!

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Joel’s review of Batman: Assault on Arkham (2014)

Posted on December 11, 2014 by Joel

I was recently perusing the movie aisle at our local library, and was surprised to find Batman: Assault on Arkham sitting on the shelf. It’s only the DVD version, but hey, that works. This animated film takes place within the same world or universe as game developer Rocksteady’s Batman Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, and upcoming Arkham Knight game series. It’s also a sort of sequel to last year’s Batman: Arkham Origins video game. If you are like me, you may be asking yourself where precisely does this film fit within the whole video game timeline? The film takes place after the prequel game, and two years before Batman Arkham Asylum.

The film features Kevin Conroy as Batman, but he’s not truly the star. The main cast are the villains of Amanda Waller’s “Suicide Squad” sent on a mission to infiltrate Arkham Asylum undetected, and retrieve a particular item from within. The film’s voice cast features:

  • Kevin Conroy – Batman
  • Neal McDonough – Deadshot
  • Hynden Walch – Harley Quinn
  • Matthew Gray Gubler – Riddler
  • Troy Baker – The Joker
  • Chris Cox – Commissioner Jim Gordon
  • John DiMaggio – King Shark
  • Greg Ellis – Captain Boomerang
  • Giancarlo Esposito – Black Spider
  • Jennifer Hale – Killer Frost
  • Nolan North – Penguin, KGBeast

First off, it’s not a movie for the kiddos. Language, sexual scenes, etc. I watched a little bit with the kids, but shut it off soon after. It’s not a bad film or story, a quick tale about villains that shows a brief glimmer of human qualities. Brief, because you know King Shark murders and eats people. It’s an okay film, an easy way to pass the time when you want to watch a Batman animated film. Nothing that will change your life.

Batman: Assault on Arkham (2014)

Batman: Assault on Arkham (2014)

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My Troy – Bilt Vortex 2490 snow thrower has arrived

Posted on December 7, 2014 by Joel

I’ve never had a snow blower or thrower before. All those years, we’ve resorted to our snow shovels and aching backs to handle the snow, always dreading the next ‘snowpocalypse’.

I am officially cancelling the snowpocalypse.

Here is our first snow thrower. That’s right — the Ipe ain’t gonna blow the snow away. We are gonna throw it away. 3 stages. 6 speeds. Heated handles. Onboard coffee maker. Everything you need to clear the snow from your driveway, walkway, and two adjacent sidewalks.

Now I just need to find the time to put this bad boy together. And find a suitable name for it — something this big needs – nay deserves — a proper name.

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My Vortex 2490 is all boxed up

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It looks big in there

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I gave up on my broken Samsung Galaxy S4 and bought a new Galaxy S5

Posted on December 7, 2014 by Joel

Galaxy S5I’ve had the Galaxy S4 since April 2013, and it was a pretty good phone. It was my first Android phone after moving away from the iPhone 4. I’ve never been one for protective cases and covers for phones, because they hide the beauty of the phone, and make them very bulky. I tried to be careful for the past year or so, but naturally couldn’t help from dropping it at inopportune times. After many, many months of living without a case or cover, I have done and gone broke my phone. Two major cracks in the screen, chipped edges all around, and something is physically wrong with the SIM card tray. Why is that particularly a problem? The SIM card gets loose a few times a day, and requires the phone to be rebooted. Rebooting your phone a few times a day is very inconvenient. Finally got really fed up, and I figured I’m not going to make it like this until April 2015.

So I gave in, drove to my local AT&T store, signed up for one of their AT&T Next plans, and bought myself a new Samsung Galaxy S5. I temporarily used my wife’s Otterbox case, until my Spigen clear plastic case arrive, and I put on a protective screen cover. I’ve only dropped the phone once so far, but at least it’s protected.

The phone itself is pretty nice — here are the key specs that I like:

  • 5.1″ screen that is slightly larger than the S4, 1920 x 1080 pixels
  • 802.11a/ac/b/g/n
  • a quad-core processor running at 2.5 GHz
  • 16 GB
  • 16 megapixel camera
  • Full HD Super AMOLED

I also mentioned that I purchased a clear case from Spigen, and applied the protective screen cover as well. While the Otterbox wasn’t bad, I’d still like a svelte case. A friend of mine had a similar case for his iPhone, and I figured this would fit the bill. Slim to fit easily in my pants pocket, and clear so you can see the phone itself.Spigen Galaxy S5 clear case

 

Lastly, yes, I went with an AT&T next plan. Yes, I am now paying for a new phone without a subsidy. I don’t think these types of leasing plans offered by any of the U.S. telecom carriers are good deals. If you trade it in in 12 or 18 months, you’re just leasing a phone at a high price. I opted for the 24 month plan, and I plan to keep the phone at the end. If it’s in good shape at that time, I intend to sell it separately on my own, in order to recoup some of the cost.

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Joel’s review of Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)

Posted on December 3, 2014 by Joel

Please pick your jaws up off the floor. Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987) is a classic 1980’s John Hughes movie, but I’ve never seen it before. It’s currently available on Netflix, and I had some time to watch this weekend.

The film stars Steven Martin and John Candy, two salesmen from Chicago who are both working in Manhattan the days before Thanksgiving. Both end up running into each other in NY, in their separate attempts to get home for the holidays. Steve Martin plays Neal Page, a “professional” advertising mid-level executive, while John Candy plays Del Griffith, a less than professional, somewhat slobby shower curtain ring salesman.

Their direct flight home from NY to Chicago is diverted to Wichita, due to a blizzard affecting O’Hare airport. Although Neal can’t stand Del and his slobby irritating mannerisms, and attempts to ditch Del at any opportunity, their paths begin to cross again and again. Del is a good guy at heart, but rather irritating at times. For the entire trip (and entire film), it seems everything that could go wrong, does in fact go horribly wrong. It is almost unimaginable, yet amusing.

The film ends in a way that completely surprised me. I have to say I was really surprised that this farce turns bittersweet at the end. Interestingly enough, the film was written, directed, and produced by the famous John Hughes. While I will admit the film was a bit silly at times, the change in tone towards the end made it a lot more interesting for me.

Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)

Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)

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The end of an era – we sold off the townhouse

Posted on November 30, 2014 by Joel

Since July, all we have spoken about was the new house. Moving in, new routines, unpacking, etc. What we didn’t really talk about was all of our efforts to sell the townhouse. Ever since we moved into the new house in July, we were floating two mortgages and doing everything we could do to sell the townhouse in a Buyer’s market. This month, with much blood, sweat, and tears, I am happy to announce that we have finally sold it.

It is truly the end of an era.

We had a lot of delays and false starts with our one Buyer, but we eventually had a closing date. It became a mad rush to clean out and remove every last possession from the townhouse, including 30 cans of paint and old carpet remnants belonging to the previous owners. To find contractors to fix all the things the Buyer wanted. To pay for it all.

After walking around the house one last time, I thought about all the work during those nine years. Growing my first lawn, planting all those flowers, trimming hedges, watering the flora, and cleaning up leaves. Having the kids help me haul stuff away.

All the work inside to improve the place with new fixtures, painting bedrooms and closets, and all the general fixer – up stuff I learned how to do. The new furniture. My first HDTV. Decorating. The parties and get-togethers.

Thinking about both of my kids learning to walk and growing up in that house. The ends of so many road trips when we were so glad to see our home and walk in the door.

Did we make a bundle of money from selling this house? Far from it. Did we put in a lot of work over the years? Definitely. It was our home. It served its purpose to be a place of joy, tears, laughs, good times and sad times. I feel that God watches over us, and knows what we need, and what we can handle.

Considering if we should put down an offer on the townhouse [July 2005]
Sitting on the stairs one last time before we hand it over [November 2014]

We found this house nine years ago while carrying around a 4 month old infant, and we purchased it with barely two pennies scrapped together. We barely had one penny for the first few years while raising two young kids. However, my wife and I made a pretty nice life together under that roof.

We have a new house and a new mortgage. We two big kids and two slightly smaller cats. We have both a front lawn and a backyard. I don’t know what the future holds for us, but I am sure we can handle whatever life decides to throw our way. I’m looking forward to all new laughs and joy and all those other things.

Here’s to the new era!

Here's to the new era!

Here’s to the new era!

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Friendsgiving 2014

Posted on November 30, 2014 by Joel

Another year, another ‘Friendsgiving’. This year, Plexy and Sheba hosted our annual Thanksgiving-themed potluck dinner. Not everyone came, but it was good to see and talk to everyone again. We certainly don’t get together as often as we used to, but we’re all glad when we do.

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Joel’s review of Big Hero 6 (2014)

Posted on November 29, 2014 by Joel

As Ipe tradition has it, we have been going out to see a family movie on every Black Friday since 2010. We spent a very relaxing and unproductive Friday at home, watching tv, playing games, and recharging. We had a quick dinner of Thanksgiving leftovers, then drove out to see Big Hero 6 (2014). The film came out a few weeks ago, so we were a little concerned about getting good seats. Although we left late, there were plenty of open seats in the theater when we got there 10 minutes before showtime. I don’t know if it’s gotten worse, but there were 30 minutes of trailers and commercials, so the film didn’t actually start until 7:30 PM. That’s a long time to sit and wait, if you ask me.

[Some minor spoilers are about to follow]

The film is based on a not particularly well known Marvel comic book series of the same name. The main star of the film is Hiro Hamada, a young teenager who lives in an alternate universe of ours, in a West Coast city that is a mash-up of San Francisco and some Japanese city, named San Fransokyo. It’s an interesting version of San Francisco with heavy Japanese thematic elements. Hiro is a child genius who graduated high school at age 13, but has been wasting his incredible intelligence on ‘Bot Fighting’. His older brother Tadashi has been trying to encourage him to do something more productive, but to no avail. Finally, Tadashi gets through to him, and Hiro becomes interesting in going to college to further his research into robotics. Sadly, his brother Tadashi is killed in an accident.

In his grief, he unintentionally activates Tadashi’s big robotics prototype, Baymax, a large non-threatening robot designed for healthcare. The two of them bond after Hiro realizes that the ‘accident’ that killed Tadashi was no accident. They go out together, and meet some friends, and become this ‘Big Hero 6’ super-powered team

[End of the minor spoilers]

The film is very well drawn and it starts out a bit slow. There’s a lot of build-up of the two brothers Tadashi and Hiro. The film runs 102 minutes, but the heart of the plot probably doesn’t start until almost 45 minutes in. The film doesn’t have the same heart of a Wreck-It Ralph or Up, but it’s still pretty entertaining. Definitely worth seeing. Baymax as a robot is pretty funny. There’s plenty to enjoy as a child or parent. It’s a Marvel movie, so definitely hang out in the theater until the end for the post-credits scene. There’s no set-up for a 2nd move, per se, but it’s a nice little scene.

Big Hero 6 (2014)

Big Hero 6 (2014)

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Our 1st Thanksgiving in our new home

Posted on November 29, 2014 by Joel

As we moved into the new home, we wanted to host Thanksgiving for our extended family this year. We invited both sets of grandparents, my sister and her family, my brother-in-law Robbie’s parents, Robbie’s sister and her family. We had much to do, and lot of people coming over, but we were up for the challenge. We needed to get the entire house cleaned up, the new TV set and Tivo set up, the new TV stand put together, the turkey cooked, the sides cooked, etc, etc. A lot to do. If we had more time between work and all, but somehow we did it. We finished cleaning up around 2 pm, which was basically when everyone was showing up!

On the menu for this grand Thanksgiving meal?

  • one 20 lb turkey
  • one spiral ham
  • bread stuffing
  • green beans and bacon
  • roasted brussell sprouts and bacon
  • mashed potatoes
  • carrot souffle
  • cranberry relish
  • cornbread
  • homemade rolls
  • flan, apple pie, and pumpkin pie

I think that’s everything. Oh yeah, and lots of libations.

Good Thanksgiving day, good food, and lots of family to spend it with.

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New equipment – new Vizio TV, Tivo Roamio Plus, TV stand, and moving furniture around

Posted on November 26, 2014 by Joel

New stuff for the house!

With Thanksgiving coming up, and the Philadelphia Eagles playing the Dallas Cowgirls, err, Cowboys, on Thanksgiving Day, and people hanging out all day, we thought now would be a good time to get a 2nd TV for the Family Room on the main floor. This way, the kids could play downstairs far away from the parents, and the adults could enjoy some time upstairs with everyone else. Last week, we started ordering everything we need for right now. With the budget constraints, we kept it very simple:

  • new VIZIO E550i-B2 55-Inch LED TV for the Family Room for around $650. Not my first choice in televisions, but it’s good enough, and the price is right.
  • a new Tivo Roamio Plus with six tuners, 150 hours of HD recording capacity, and 802.11n wireless (though I can’t get better info on the exact specs)
  • new TV stand for the downstairs home theater area

The only major wrinkle we experienced was with FiOS. Back in July, as Verizon is apparently phasing out usage of CableCARDs, I ordered a 2nd CableCARD from Verizon for their FiOS service back in July. It was an extra $5 a month to keep around unused, but we were grandfathered in having one in use already, and I knew it was likely that we would eventually get a new Tivo Roamio this year. After some frustrating time trying to get the CableCARD to work on Sunday night, I called Verizon FiOS Technical Support, and it turns out that their CableCARDs need to activated soon after delivery. If not, one of the ID codes associated with it (I’m still not sure which) will get assigned to another card. Verizon had to overnight another CableCARD to us, which arrived Tuesday. Cutting it close, eh? At least everything is working now.

The Vizio TV is pretty decent, I must say. It is Internet-enabled (has built-in “N” WiFi) and many apps, but I can’t get the Plex app downloaded and working properly. Must get back to that later. We don’t have the budget for a new AV Receiver or distinct home theater speakers of any good quality, so we’re sticking to the built-in TV speakers for now. I know I know, I must be dying inside. Shut up.

The Tivo Roamio Plus is very nice. The UI is much faster than the Premiere, and we can now stream or transfer recordings between both Tivos. Now I just need to get them connected via Gigabit Ethernet.

We ordered a new TV stand, but couldn’t find anything in the right brownish wood color. We ended up ordering one in charcoal wood, and I assembled it Tuesday morning between 3 AM and 6 AM, and then got ready to go into the office. Later that night, Nums and I moved the old TV stand from the basement to the upstairs Family Room.

Our new VIZIO E550i-B2 55-Inch LED TV
Our new Tivo Roamio Plus
Moved the previous TV stand back upstairs to the family room
Set up the home theater all over again with the new TV stand

 

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