May old 2013 ever be forgotten

As I sit here in the closing 36 hours of 2013 the first words that come to mind are, "thank fucking goodness this year is over!".  While this year has had it's highlights, those have been largely overshadowed by a couple of pretty crappy events.

The first being the Boston Marathon bombings. I was one of the unfortunate people to have a nearly front row seat to the awfulness from that day (which I wrote about here). While physically I came away unhurt, it still eats at my brain. It'll be hard to ever see the world the same way again. The other setback was tearing my ACL in my knee and having surgery the day after my birthday.  It's been tough going nearly six months so far without playing hockey. That's always been my primary stress relief and a major source of enjoyment.

But despite all of that, I also did have some pretty awesome stuff happen.  Dani and I went to Disney last January where we both took part in the half marathon through the parks.  I traveled to Chicago for the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo.  I got to do a little bit of sailing. I went to my first ever Stanley Cup finals game. And the Blackhawks beat the Bruins for their second Stanley up in four years (cough... 19 seconds... cough). And I finally got to see a bit of New York City, including my first trip to New York Comic Con.

I also switched jobs this year.  I left the creative agency behind and stepped into a lead development role with a young (start-upish) company.  It's been a crazy hectic year there, and I've put in a lot more time and work than I have in previous places. But I think in the end it will be worth it.  I also dissolved my LLC this year. I've decided to step back from extracurricular development for the most part so I can focus on some of my other interests.

So I sort of had this blog tradition of ever year going back over goals I set out the previous New Years and see how I did. And since I am one for tradition, here we go:

  • "In 2012 I went a little spend crazy on my toy collecting hobby.  2013 will bring fiscal responsibility."  - Eh... no comment
  • "Also in 2012 I kind of let my goal of not being a fat-ass go by the wayside.  I shall right that ship." - Torn ACL equaled sitting on my ass and getting fatter.
  • "Actually finish a personal project.  Time to rein in this project ADHD and actually finish one. Milkcap Museum, I'm looking at you!" - I am currently working on this now, so only half fail...
  • "Finally, I'd like to spend more time outdoors.  New England is beautiful, I must have more! Starting with finally learning to snowboard this month." - I did take a snowboard lesson, and went sailing a handful of times. So I tried right?

So not a lot of great accomplishments this year. But in my defense this has been a pretty rough year.  For 2014 my goals are less specific and more about being happier.

  1. Get my groove back. Spent way to much of 2013 depressed. It's time to be just be fucking awesome and not waste time with anyone who thinks otherwise!
  2. Live healthier... financially, physically, and emotionally.
  3. Draw something everyday. Doodle, sketch, illustration, whatever... Must. Be. More. Creative.

So yeah, that's about it other than a few pictures from the past twelve months below. Hoping everyone has a safe and Happy New Years!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Signing

To this day, my favorite, and arguably the best, comic book / cartoon / movie / toy lines is the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  I still have vivid memories of being a young kid in the toy aisle of this store called Roses, seeing those first toys on the pegs. After that came the cartoons, Archie comic books, coloring books, movies, and years of my elementary school art teacher begging me to draw something other than a ninja turtle.

Last summer, on a trip up to Wells/Ogunquit Maine with the wife, we drove by this shop called Shellback Artworks on Rt 1.  The distinctively TMNT branded signage immediately drew me in. Turns out it's owned by an artist named Steve Lavigne.  He is known for his lettering and coloring work on the older Mirage TMNT comics. He wasn't there that time, but we took a spin around the shop, the art gallery upstairs, and met his wife.

Recently on Facebook, he announced a signing at the shop. Peter Laird, as in the Laird of "Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" was going to be there along with TMNT artist Jim Lawson. I definitely couldn't pass that up. So I gathered up a few belongings to get signed and drove up for the afternoon. It was amazing!

I'm kind of shy, so I didn't really say much to them. But in the off chance that Peter Laird ever reads this, I wanted to say "Thank you for the Turtles. The characters have brought, and continue to bring, me hours of enjoyment in all their various incarnations."

Some pictures from the event and the items I got signed are below.

July 2013 Loot Crate Unboxing

Sorry I'm a bit late on this unboxing. I had knee surgery on the 19th, and hadn't had a chance to get to it quite yet. The theme for July is "Varsity". That fits with the fact that it's largely a "Video Game High School" (VGHS) themed box.

I wasn't familiar with VGHS prior to this months crate. OK, I honestly had never heard of the web series. So I found the entire series as a movie on Netflix and took a look. It was an interesting show. Nicely done and well produced. However I think the target demographic for the show is slightly younger than me. 

Anyways, onto the unboxing...

So right off the top, we see a newer, slightly larger shipping box. And inside we are met right away with a PEZ dispenser and some star wars head phones. Ok, good start.

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Here's the full crate revealed. Here's the full rundown of what's included -

  • Star Wars Earbuds from Jazwares and Lucasfilms Ltd
  • Video Game High School Season 1 DVD Set from VGHS
  • Marvel Pez Dispenser from PEZ and Marvel
  • Video Game High School Button Set from VGHS
  • VGHS Stormtrooper Vinyl Sticker from Danger-Brain and VGHS
  • VGHS 'Emergency Wireless Keyboard' Pencil from Danger-Brain and VGHS
  • Sonic Air Freshener from Epic-Scents and Sega
  • Rocket Jump Vinyl Sticker from Rockery Jump

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Here we've got all the VGHS themed  items in the crate. Nothing crazy exciting here for me. I wound up watching the show on Netflix like I mentioned earlier, so the DVD isn't terribly compelling. The storm trooper sticker is kinda cool. I'll find a place to stick that for sure.

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The rest of the items are pretty sweet though. Star Wars ear buds... classy.

 Sonic air freshener... errr... fresh. That'll go up next to my Megaman Air Freshener from the February crate.

 PEZ Candy Dispenser... sweet.  Not a huge Captain America fan, would have rather had Wolverine, but them's the breaks. However I do like candy and it's been forever since I've had PEZ candy. Forgot how sugary yummy it is.

Like what you've seen here and want to get your own crate each month? It's super easy, just hit this link and sign up. It takes two minutes and starts at only $13.37/month plus shipping. Sign up today! http://mbsy.co/lootcrate/113253 

Baby Joanna's First Birthday

A little over a year ago, our friends Sarah and Brandon brought this beautiful little girl into the world.  Dani and I are fortunate enough to get to spend time and be a part of her life.  Below are some photos from her first birthday party. As you can see, she loved playing with Molly, Laney, and her birthday cupcake!

Recent Life Musings Stanley Cup Edition

The wife was away this weekend to a fitness blogging conference in Portland, OR, so I had myself a fun little weekend.   I saw a couple movies, did a bit of shopping, and played some nerdy games with friends. I missed Dani, but it was nice to have some play time. I picked up an early birthday present for myself - Lego R2D2. In case anyone wonders... Lego's always make a great birthday present. :D

The past couple weeks have been a bit of an emotional roller coaster. There's been a lot of good news and a doozy of some bad news. I'll start with the with the bad news. About two days after the marathon bombings I slipped on some stairs and I thought I had twisted my knee.  Turns out I finished off my already weakened anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL. So lucky me gets to have surgery in a couple of weeks which pretty much finishes off the chance of any fun summer activities this year and likely any hockey until after the first of the year.  I'm pretty bummed!

Back to brighter news, did you hear the Chicago Blackhawks are the 2013 Stanley Cup Champions? That's right 2 cup rings in four years. I remember watching the Hawks for so many years growing up every year either not making the playoffs or coming up short.  It's so easy to take for granted how consistently good the team has gotten over the past six years.

 

NHL 2013 Finals Banner

NHL 2013 Finals Banner

The downside this year was living here in Boston during the finals. Being a fan of the enemy team is not a much fun. It's even less fun when your wife and her whole family are rooting against you. It made for an oddly emotional series for me. I just kept thinking about how awful it would be here if the Bruins won and I'd have to hear about it all year. Thankfully the hawks came out on top, in stunning manner. And bonus I got to attend a finals game for the first time ever. Unfortunately it was pretty much the worst game the Hawks played the entire series.  Still a pretty amazing experience.

NHL 2013 Stanley Cup Finals Game 2

NHL 2013 Stanley Cup Finals Game 2

Oh and my championship hat and hoodie will be here this week! 

The other big awesome news this week was the Supreme Court overturning part of the Defense of Marriage Act. So now my marriage is fully legit. LIke for realsy, no take-backs, all the way legit.  So in a handful of states the misses and are are no longer second class citizens. Score for progress america!

Well, thats all I've got for today. Less than three months until NHL training camp!

June 2013 Loot Crate Unboxing

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I came home from our weekend away in Syracuse to find the June 2013 Loot Crate waiting at my door. Score!  The topic this month was MASHUP and we have seen some pretty rad mashup posts from the Loot Crate crew on their Facebook page leading up to this months delivery.

Last months box wasn't as great as some of the previous ones, but this one really made up for it.  Let's check it out!

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First up from BIC we have a Tech Stylus 2 in 1 pen.  it's a combo retractable ball point pen and stylus.  The stylus end looks like of like a black round eraser.  I tried it out on the iPhone and it actually works pretty well.

Also seen here is the Loot Crate branded wall Tangrams. Now I love tangrams. It's a great logic puzzle. With a quick search online you can find the puzzles to use your wall tangrams with.

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Continuing on, we have some pretty sweet 8-bit sunglasses, always fun Warheads candies, and a couple of pretty awesome stickers. Especially loving the Mario and Ninja Turtles mashup sticker by Hairbrained Design.

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Last but not least, we have a Comickaze golden ticket and a t-shirt! Yes! So the golden ticket is for a con that I was actually unaware of.  Stan Lee's Comikaze is a mulit-media pop culture convention in LA happening in early November.  My "code" only netted me 20% off the tickets - which unfortunately is no where near enough to prompt me to spend the cash to fly out for it. Oh well!

On to the shirt! So you may say to yourself, what does the "Kool-aid Man and Dead Pool have in common?"... Well aside from similar coloring absolutely nothing.   Good thing that being similarly colored is good enough for the awesome mash up shirt. Check it out and be super jealous you don't have one!

Seen enough to say to yourself, "I really want my own Loot Crate every month!"? It's super easy, just hit this link and sign up. It takes two minutes and starts at only $13.37/month plus shipping. Sign up today! http://mbsy.co/lootcrate/113253

Summer sailing 2013 - Back in the skippers seat!

Courageous Sailing

Courageous Sailing

This past Saturday I finished up the second of the two classes that make up the second half of the beginners keelboat course at Courageous Sailing. Even though I already have  the US Sailing basic keelboat certification, I was feeling quite a bit rusty. So I figured a good refresher was in order.

Compared to the sailing I did on the Charles river last year, this was so much better.

The class was split up into two days, and oddly we had a different instructor for each day. Despite the different instructors, we had the same three students on the boat both weeks.

The first day was a scorcher.  It was sunny and it was hot.  Apparently in the advanced beginner keelboat class you pretty much just cover two major things - Man Overboard and Docking.  Of course this assumes you have a good handle on the rest of the concepts like points of sail, right of way, etc.

Happy to say it all came back super quick. I aced the figure-8 man overboard maneuver the first time I tried. Beyond that he also taught us the quick stop and we did a fair amount of buzzing around the inner harbor.  The wind was pretty shifty and we experienced quite a bit of gusty weather. Overall though, it was a nice day on the water.

The second day started out much more drearily, but thankfully cleared up about the time we headed out. We got the pleasure of manually pumping the rain water out of our Rhodes 19.  And headed back out in the harbor or more of the same as the previous week.

I felt like I was pretty much back up to speed and comfortably handling the boat. When it was all said and done I was given a red area rating (the most restrictive) though I felt like I should have gotten the yellow. The instructor didn't really give me much of a chance to do things on my own. It's all good though. I'll go and take the test, and get back out there to get the yellow rating. 

And hopefully before the summer is over, I'll complete the basic cruising class. I'm looking forward to much more time on the water this summer!

 

The courageous sailing dock and fleet.

The courageous sailing dock and fleet.

Photos Below Courtesy of my classmate Tania.

May 2013 Loot Crate UnCrating

Another epic month in the world of Loot Crate. This month's theme was "Equip".

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A bit different look for the crate this month. There wasn't really any high-end item like the previous couple months with the Funko and Kid-Robot toys. Still, it was a pretty nice box, and I finally got my loot crate ID card!

 Let's see what we got:

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Here's the list of loot: 

  • One Year Digital Subscription to Pure Nintendo Magazine
  • 8 Bit Space Invaders Bow Tie from Black Tie Geek
  • Don't Panic Towel
  • Ninja Cord Wrap
  • Super Mario Coin Candies from Boston America
  • "Inanimate Stickers" from Fred & Friends
  • A Papercraft Ironman
  • A little DC Comics statue

I haven't yet checked out the magazine yet, but based on the website it looks pretty cool.  The bow tie is currently being adorned by my 28" MattyCollector Voltron until a time comes in which I have an appropriate event to wear it to. The candies were delicious and I kinda love having a little metal Mario coin block on my desk.

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The rest of the stuff I'm a bit *meh* on.  I got The Flash as my DC statue and he's not really one of my favs. The towel, stickers, and cord wrap are kinda neat, but I don't see myself doing much with them. Though I find myself playing with the little cord wrap guy on my desk from time to time.  And one of these days I'll get around to putting the papercraft together. I do enjoy a good papercraft.  Check out the rest of the pictures of the loot below. 

If you are interested in getting your own Loot Crate, please use the following link to sign up - it'll help me out too!  Get Your Loot Crate Here http://mbsy.co/lootcrate/113253

A While Later...

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This will be my last post about the events of April 15th, 2013.  Though it's only been a little over three weeks, it feels like much longer. And so much has happened in my life and in the world since then. I want to put down some final thoughts and move on with my life. I want to post about my awesome weekend in Chicago, and get back to sharing my monthly Loot Crate goodness. I'm still alive, unharmed and have, hopefully, much more life left to live.

This past Sunday Tom and I went along to watch Dani run the Quincy Half Marathon. It was the first time since the bombings that either of us were at a race as spectators. it was a small race, about 600 people I think.  There was only a handful of spectators, all family and friends of the runners I assume. And Dani did quite well, gaining a new personal record by about 4 minutes if I remember correctly. It was sort of an odd feeling being back in that environment  I did feel a little bit of anxiety which I allowed myself to indulge in, but then quickly shrug off.  There was a fairly heavy police presence which provided a relatively safe feeling that allowed me to move on with my day.

At the start of the race, they took a moment of silence to remember those who we lost and those who were injured at the bombings. I got emotional again. I find I can't help it when the event is brought up in such a solemn way. The race director then gave a short speech about the best thing we can do is keep on doing what we love, running. By "we" I mean of course the runners - not us lowly spectators.

It bothers me that in this speech, and in the articles I've read since the marathon, the focus is always on the runners.  As a person who is often at races to spectate and support my wife, I feel somewhat slighted and unappreciated. The bombs on April 15th tore through the crowds watching the race. They killed three people there to support and watch the runners.  Where are the uplifting messages to thank and support those of us who love to come and watch our friends and family?  We may not be running all the races, but are we not worth a mention given what has happened?

But hey, we are all "Boston Strong" right?  I wasn't sure, and still am not sure, if I should publish my thoughts on that sentiment.  When this slogan first came out as a powerful message of solidarity it felt nice. The mass thoughts and prayers coming from Boston and around the world were almost palpable. But then it turned into something else.  Through internet memes, media, and merchandising it took on a atmosphere of celebration. A "Fuck Yeah Boston!" kinda feel if you will. And this happened so fast.

To me that feels wrong. It feels way too soon. There are people still in the hospital, people still reeling from the events. The bloody images from the street are still way too fresh in my mind for any kind of celebration spawned from those horrible acts. It's sort of like being at a party where everyone else is happy and cheering but I'm just sad and angry. Resilience and strength in a community after a tragedy are a good thing. Lets just not forget that what happened seriously fucked up life for a lot of people for the foreseeable future.

So that's pretty much all I wanted to say. I'm happy they caught/killed the guys responsible for this. I hope justice is done and history will forget their names, while remembering the heros from that day.  I'm still working through my own stress and anxiety.  The human mind is kind of amazing in the way it deals with things like this. The dreams I've had... oye! But it's getting better.  And if there is one positive thing I can take from my experience, it's a better appreciation for life and living it to the fullest.