The Iron Man DVD release

Last week when I went to Best Buy and noted that they were going to release the Iron Man Movie DVD at midnight Monday(09/29/08) night (well early Tuesday morning) with the offer of free stuff. I inform this to a friend and that night we headed on over. We got there about 10 min till. With only a few cars in the lot, we went to the entrance and stood in the small line that has started. At the time we went in to get the DVD. They had some nice freedies to go along with the DVD release. I got 2 Iron Man t-shirt, 2 Iron Man lithograph, 2 poster tube Stark Industries logo on it, a Talk To The Repulsor.com magnet and a gift card from Sideshow Collectibles with a unknown amount (it ended up being $40.00). When I looked around there were some where around 12 to 20 people that showed up for the event.

Click on the picture for a larger picture.

The meeting of old friends.

Found out during the vacation from my brother that the old gang has all oked a get together next year some time in June or July. A time will be nailed down sometime in January. For me, June or early July are good for me. ComicCon begins July 22nd of 2009. From what I know, Chad has his wife's brother's wedding some time in late June (I think). As time goes on, time will tell.

This is close to a group picture as I have.
On the left we have Luke, Heath (thats me) and Chad.
On the right we have Neal, Mark and Will.

It has been a while sense we have all been in the same room together. I thinking of a date of some time in 1991, plus or min a year. We have all spread out all across the US.

The internet is for . . . .

A friend at work asked about my vacation. I stated that I got to go to a Broadway Show of Avenue Q. I also mentioned that a good and funny song was "Internet is for Porn". He had wondered where that came from. He pointed out that a video was done from that song with video clips from the Warcraft game, see below for what I found.

The last day of my vacation in New York.

Gotten some time to sit and blog the last day of vacation (in New York), which was Tuesday (09/16/08).

The morning was not rushed. Kate had go to work for a while. Me and Chad took it easy. He worked on the computer and got some reading done. We got a chance to play We Love Golf on the Wii.
Kate got home and we drove out to the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. After we looked around, we headed back to New York, where food was prepared. At that time they brought out enchiladas with birthday candles on them and sang Happy Birthday to me. One thing that was learned was that you do not put wax birthday candles into hot food, they tend to melt. Presents were given and opened. One that I did get a ticket to Avenue Q on Broadway for that night. We left early to look around Time Square and then we headed to the theater. The show was great. We stoped for a snack and headed back.

The last day of my vacation in New York.

It has been a log day. A good many things have been done. At this time it is late in the night. When I get some time in the next day or so I will get my notes and make a proper report of the day and add some pictures to the posts.

My bags are packed and by the door. The alarm clock is set for 6:15am wake up call for my 6:45am ride to the airport.

Good Night.

Monday, a not at work day.

Today we went into New York's Chinatown and Little Italy. We basicly looked around to get a feel for the area. One of the places that we looked into was Mahayana Buddhist Temple. It is the largest Buddhist temple in Chinatown. It was lucky that we also ran across the The Feast of San Gennaro and had some great pasta. After that we headed back to their place to rest play with the kids. Some food was cooked, some games were played (Eco Fluxx and Yahtzee) and a little was watched.

Sunday, traveling incognito.

Today we traveled to Wild Safari, a Six Flags Animal Park in Jackson, NJ. It was basically a 2 hr drive to get there. In the car some reading was done, the DS was played and a iPod was on. Once there, our car was used to drive thru the park (at slow speed) and stopping to look at and take pictures of the different animals in the different sections of the park. It was a great day to do this. The sun was out, a little over cast and there was no rain in sight. We had some time before we had to head back, we headed over to Jenkinson's Boardwalk for some food, rides and video games. For food I had a cheese hot dog and two fried oreos (not all at once). For the rides, we went on three of them (the names to be added later). And for the games, there was two games of air hockey (I won 1 and lost the other), a Deal or No Deal (for tickets) and some video games. We headed on back to home base where dinner was served with some DVD watching of the Star Wars Robot Chicken and 2 Episodes of Mythbusters. The day ended with some needed rest.

Click the picture to see the set of pictures on flickr.

My Review: Inn-Fighting

I picked up Inn-Fighting: D&D Dice Game at PAX 2008. I spotted a demo going and it looked good, so I picked it up at the booth they had there. One half month later, I am in New York with family playing the game for the first time. Well I am sorry to say the fist time we played, we played it wrong. We over looked tow little rules that did make a difference. We decided to give it another try, this time doing it right.
For the game, the box says for ages 12+ and is good for 3 to 6 players. My nephew is 11 and he had no problems with the game (he is close to the age range on the box). There were 3 of us playing and it worked great. I was balanced, so that there was no ganging up on one player and there is no cooperation going on. Like in a bar fight, you are in it for yourself.
One thing the box does not say is how long the game would take. For the games we played, for 3 players, I would say it would take from 1 to 2 hours for a normal game and a little more for a first game. For more players, I could guess it would take longer for each added player.

For a Dungeons & Dragon feel and a good 3 player game. I would give this 4 stars out of 5.

The Saturday away from home.

I am still in New York. With some jet lag, I did stay up late and got at the same time I would normaly go to work (plus 3 hours). We started the day by watching The Gamers: Dorkness Rising DVD and found it a funny movie for the geeks in us. We then headed out and got some groceries for our meal over the next few days. After the food was put away, we set our mind to play a game. We play Inn-Fighting: D&D Dice Game by Wizards of the Coast (see my review on the next post). For dinner we went to S'MAC, located in the heart of Manhattan's East Village, which has some great Macaroni & Cheese.

My first day of my vacation.

Today was my day of travel. I got to sleep in some today. Finished last minute packing and then headed over to my parents place for a ride to the airport. Got checked in with no problems. With the check point they did put my backpack thru twice, no problems there. Just some waiting for the plan to load. Next was waiting for the plane to take off. Then there was waiting for the plane to land. When it did we had to wait to the walkway to the plane to be fixed. Lastly had to wait for my bags. Kate did show up to wait with me while Chad did a few laps in the car around the airport. Dinner was had and talking was done by all. There was a lot of waiting and sitting to get to New York, but the fun is just beginning.

My birthday list.

My family, for gift giving times, send out a want list to family members so they have a idea what the person wants. Here is my list.

1. Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5 ~$300.00
A 9-megapixel, superzoom camera from Panasonic with a 3-inch LCD, 10x zoom, image stabilizer, and secure grip.
For info see here: http://www.ecost.com/detail.aspx?edp=40677518&source=EWBBASE&cm_mmc=CSE-_-google-_-ewbbase-_-Camera/Camcorder&ci_src=17588969&ci_sku=40677518
Note: Can be found online or Best Buy

2. Spirit of the Century RPG book (soft cover plus PDF combo) ~$30.00
Spirit of the Century is a complete, stand-alone pulp role-playing game based on the award-winning Fate system.
For info see here: http://www.evilhat.com/home/?page_id=103
Note: Found online. (A local game store could order.)

3. Zoe's Tale by Scalzi (Hardcover Book) ~$25.00
For info see here: http://www.amazon.com/Zoes-Tale-John-Scalzi/dp/0765316986
Note: Can be found online or local book store

4. Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Messenger Bag: SAC Smile ~$27.00
http://www.rightstuf.com/cgi-bin/catalogmgr/rvpZtDoaqH6i0oTYk=/browse/item/72724/4/0/0

5. Hobby Games: The 100 Best Editor: James Lowder ~$25.00
In Hobby Games: The 100 Best, the top designers, authors, and publishers in the hobby games field write about the most enjoyable and cleverly designed games of the last fifty years. Their essays cover the gamut of the hobby market, from roleplaying games to collectible card games, and miniatures games to wargames to board games, with titles both familiar and esoteric. These are the games that the designers themselves play, the ones that have inspired their most popular creations.
For info see here: http://www.greenronin.com/store/grr4001
Note: can be found online and maybe at local book store

6. Nintendo Power Subscription ~$20.00
http://nintendopower.com/subscribe

7. Best Buy Gift Certificate

My Sunday at PAX

In case you did not know, PAX breaks dow to Penny Arcade Expo and the web site can be found here.

My plans were to go with a friend. As things go, plans changed. I started the day by getting some breakfast at IHOP and headed on over to Washington State Convention Center. Found a parking spot and headed on up to get my ticket. The line was not large at and got taken care of in a few minutes. First thing I did was pick up the The Guild: Season 1 DVD and got Felicia Day to sign it and talked to her for a min or two. I looked around to see a lot of eletronic game booths. I did some demos at the Wizards of the Coast booth for awhile, the first one was on the Magic:CCG to get some SWAG. I got a Time Spiral Tournament Pack (75 cards), a Planar Chaos Booster Pack (15 cards) and a Magic:CCG Artwork mouse pad. It has been about 5 or so years sence I have played Magic and a creature from the past has shown in with the name of Slivers. I also got a online demo of the D&D character creation that is available thru D&D Insider (so I was told). As time got close, I headed over to the Wil Wheaton panel. I got there some what early, but not early enougth to get a seat. There was only standing room available at that time. Things started and found out that audio system was not the greated. At the back it was hard to hear. It got a little better. Wil read Blue Light Special from his third book, The Happiest Days of Our Lives. I had heard the story before, but is good to hear it live. Next he did a colorfull reading from a review (he did) of a classic Star Trek:TNG episode, called Datalore. After the panel I went around to see what was available to the RPG and game section. I spoted a room with Wizards of the Coast games (ie D&D), some miniture gaming and board game. I went over to the main exhibition hall to look it over once or twice. After some time I went home and called it a day.

I also want to note that I spotted a lot of people with their DS out playing some games. They had a lounge area where they had these beanbag type chairs for people to play their DS, work on their labtop or crash out.

Also for the record, the Rock Band game were in at least 3 or more different booths rocking out with no shortage of victims.

For the record, this does make my 6th convention for the year.

Here are the pictures I took at PAX.