WORD OF THE DAY! 12/6/13! BLACK & BLUE FRIDAY SPECIAL!

SOUTH PARK: BLACK FRIDAY!

BLACK FRIDAY: A FAMILY TRADITION!

BLACK FRIDAY: "YOU'VE MURDERED US!"

Black Friday [blak-frahy-dehy]
noun
1. The day after Thanksgivings Day and the first day of the Christmas season, a commercial holiday where retail stores across America open at ridiculous hours, advertise ridiculous deals, and set a bloodbath into motion that cause property damage, personal injury, and even murder by trampling or worse.

This holiday is the perfect encapsulation of everything despicable and despicably commercial about the holiday season.

EX. Let me tell you about my Black Friday experience: I worked Thanksgivings Day from the previous night to past 7 AM to prepare my retail store and then returned Black Friday morning for a 5 & 1/2 hours shift... as cashier. I did cashier training back in October, as a means to increase my availability for hours and to gain more work experience, but I didn't work a single shift as a cashier until Black Friday.

Luckily, I didn't have to work until 12:45, over 4 hours after the store opened its doors and things had certainly calmed down. In fact, during the majority of my shift, I was waiting for customers, zoning the lanes, and running random errands. The customers were in good spirits and so was I after the initial nerves wore off. I had to get help with a few customers, but overall the experience was pretty easy.

For those of you who weathered the storm, especially those who took on the first wave of ravenous shoppers, I salute you. To the people who were part of the horde, on one hand, I can understand the appeal of Black Friday but, from my experience, the only people who saved any significant money were those who picked up big ticket items like TVs. Furthermore, most of the stocked items for the sale were still there when I left at 6:15 AM, save the especially tempting TVs and a few clothes items, such as pajama sets. Overall, everything went pretty well. Especially because of a coupon I got that night for picking up some stuff after work...

I finally decided upon which 1st Gen Console I wanted this year. I saved over $100 with a coupon and various discounts to pick up my console on the 1st of Dec. $200 for a console that has only been out for a year? That's a good deal and I didn't have to trample anyone to get it.

I took it home, I unwrapped it, and I had to wait several hours for it to update...0.0 That's pretty unacceptable, but seems to be standard with consoles these days. I finally started her up, made Miis of myself and all of my family/friends and started playing. It was exactly how I thought it would be-- a new Nintendo console with Nintendo brand fun, light-hardheartedness, and boundless colorful creativity that is uniquely Nintendo. My friends were, at first, a little reluctant, but I think that Nintendo's fun factor won them over and, as the first console I bought solely with my own money, I felt pretty content.

P. S. The controller is a bit of a gimmick, but I love it. It's surprisingly comfortable, has two thumb-sticks, a gorgeous hi-def screen, and I can use it independently of the TV. Combined with the fact that my original Wiimotes still work, with the only backwards compatible next gen system, and I'm a happy gamer. Brilliant. The only thing it needs? More games.

I think Zac Gorman nailed the feeling best in one of his comics, linked below.

ZAC GORMAN'S MAGICAL GAME TIME

MIXED BAG! THOR: THE DARK WORLD REVIEW! + WORD OF THE DAY! 12/5/13!

Asgard [az-gard]
noun
1. Norse mythology. The home of the Aesir and location of Valhalla and the palaces of the individual gods: connected with the earth by the rainbow bridge, Bifrost.

EX. During the blog's hiatus, I finally got to watch Thor: The Dark World and I have to say that Marvel Studios has really found a good formula for their super hero films, especially impressive considering they pull off good sequels, and Thor 2 really left me wanting to spend another two hours in Asgard. Like the film, let's keep this review short and bearable (also like the awful joke at the top of the article).

WHO'S BETTER? THOR OR LOKI?

As a big sci-fi blockbuster for the whole family, Thor: The Dark World hits the right spots with an interesting, though often convoluted & underplayed plot, adventures in rich and visually fascinating worlds beyond our own, and all manner of monsters & machinery for our hero to smash and be smashed by in the course of the film. The special effects are right on par with The Avengers (2012) that set the bar with it's massive destruction and monster effects that make it the best, sort of big and dumb in the best sort of way, super hero movie of all time. But it's not the special effects that makes this movie stand out.

Starting with Iron Man (2008), the strongest asset of Marvel Studios has to be their casting department. Not just anyone can prance around in a simultaneously cool, iconic, and ridiculous costume, spouting off one-liners, and giving personality to a character with decades of material to work with-- without pissing off the fans. The casting of the Asgardians, with actors like Idris Elba, Rene Russo & Anthony Hopkins,  who can pull off the grandiose personalities of these god-like fantasy characters, is what makes this film great and, with better writing and more time spent amongst these character in Asgard, is what puts The Dark World above it's predecessor.

Especially, the casting of Chris Hemsworth as Thor and Tom Hiddleston as Loki (pictured in a ridiculous poster for the film in China), the latter of which has managed to practically steal the franchise. The brotherly dysfunction between Thor and Loki really carries the franchise, from moments of surprisingly genuinely stirring emotion created from their conflict to duo comedy with Loki playing off of Thor as the perfect straight man. I'm not sure where, but I think Loki once called Thor the "biggest, sweetest idiot in all the nine realms". Thor needs Loki as a foil to make his films more than just Thor bashing monsters for two hours and Loki needs Thor to have someone he can fool again and again. This is the foundation of the franchise and it really shines in this buddy brother movie.

Now, let's talk about the film's two small hang-ups that keep it from being the same sort of perfect experience as The Avengers; the underused villain and the overused mortals. The former is a more forgivable flaw because getting villains right can be difficult in these sorts of films, Loki being a special case himself, and the Thor films really just needs to give Thor an obstacle to overcome to build a plot. Yet, the Dark Elves were quite well-designed, with their albino creeper doll armor, cursed monster forms, and awesome blade themed ships. It would've been good to get to understand Malekith (Christopher Eccleston), so when Thor inevitably fights him we have some extra motivation to root for Thor. Or something. There was no "puny god" moment in Thor: The Dark World. The bigger flaw is the overuse of Natalie Portman's Doctor Foster and the equally frustrating scientist characters on Earth. They weren't awful, but they take up an obnoxious percentage of the film's run time that could've been better utilized on other elements such as Malekith. The film could've taken place completely in Asgard and stayed far away from Earth, maybe with a little scene where he goes to Earth at the end, and would've probably found it's place as the best Marvel film next to The Avengers.

All in all, Thor the Dark World is a film that any fan of the Marvel Studios franchises will find well worth the ticket of admission. The trip to Asgard is worth it.

Pretty frickin' sweet. 4/5.

WTF WED! DOCTOR WHOM: THE NEXT GENERATION OF GRUMPS WITH A VENGEANCE!

DOCTOR WHO: WHO'S GONNA BUST A CAP IN YO DALEK ASS?

Despite claiming to be something of a pacifist and going extremely far not to kill his enemies, when he can help it, the Doctor winds up in a lot of circumstances where he is pointing a deadly weapon at his foes-- whether as an empty threat that he doesn't intend to carry out or that they're too far-gone/dangerous that execution would be a mercy.

After all, to the people of the Gamma Forests, his name means "Mighty Warrior".

HOME ALONE: WITH A VENGEANCE!

Did you guys ever realize that Home Alone is basically a more kid-friendly version of Die Hard? Both involve the right person being in the right place at the right time when bad guys invade a building/house and dealing with it through a series of traps, slapstick, and one-liners?

 So, what happens when you mix Home Alone with Die Hard? You get an adult Kevin McCallister fending off a pair of elderly criminals, out for revenge, with a mix of weapon's from boyhoods past and the resources of a grown-up.

Or he could've just pulled out a gun and shot them both? Or called the cops? I dunno. Merry Krugmuth.

GAME GRUMPS: THE NEXT DANERATION (FAUX FILM TRAILER)

In the year 20XX, I can only assume by the context and clues given in the trailer above from GregzillaGT, that Mike Aruba has taken over the world with an army of video game villains from the post-Jontron era of the Game Grumps series.

We can also assume that the only one capeable of saving the world is Malkovich.

WORD OF THE DAY! 12/3/13! (LEAGUE OF LEGENDS UPDATE!)

END OF SEASON 3 WRAP-UP!

Instead of a regular word of the day, I've posted a wonderful video of Sky Williams with a short message for each ranked tier in League of Legends from the rookies in Bronze to the pros in Challenger.

Well, Season 3 of League of Legends is over and I finished in Bronze 1. Next, Season I hope to try and get Gold. I know all of my friends in NuFu hope to rank-up next season and, with all of the changes in the pre-season, it's looking to have a bit of a learning curve.

You can read the details, HERE. Or watch it below.

And for a simpler rundown, check out the Diamond rank dunkey's video at the bottom.

OFFICIAL PRE-SEASON RUNDOWN!

BONUS: videogamedunkey's UNOFFICIAL PRE-SEASON RUNDOWN!

MUSIC MON! TEAM STARKID'S TWISTED: THE UNTOLD STORY OF A ROYAL VIZIER! + WORD OF THE DAY!

twist [twist-id]
verb
1. To form by winding pieces of material together.
2. To pull apart in different directions.
3. To distort, such as an object, meaning, or person.
noun
4. A deviation or turn.
5. An object formed by twisting.

 TEAM STARKID'S TWISTED: THE UNTOLD STORY OF A ROYAL VIZIER!

Holy smokes! I was sort of feeling tuckered out when I came back from work on Thanksgiving's Day morning, but then I saw the newest Team Starkid musical sitting in my youtube queue!

This time they're taking a swing at satirizing one of my favorite subjects, the animated Disney musical. But it's more than that. Twisted, clearly, began as their take on the Wicked format of taking a story's villain and retelling the story in a more sympathetic light in their favor. This results in a effortlessly enjoyable and ineffably funny bit of Aladdin satire that makes Jafar a hard-working, humble, and oft-hated anti-hero in a kingdom of, at best, witless and thankless crumbums!

And it's pretty much perfect. The stand-out is Dylan Saunders as Jafar who finally gets his chance to belt it out and gives a stirring & compelling performance in the middle of a very silly comedy. We've seen him ham it up as the flamboyant Dumbledore with an obsession with Zephron, a giant scorpion named Pincer, & the drunken Green Lantern, but his turn as the miserable, but well-meaning civil servant, Jafar.

You can check out the whole show at the link at the top of the page or check out the first part HERE.



And remember to check out the incredible Sci-Fi film parody, filled with bits from Starship Troopers to Bug's Life, from Starkid:

STARSHIP!

Also, make sure to check out the definite must-see for fans of Batman, fans of Starkid, or fans of musicals is "Holy Musical B@man!" their latest and most awesome show. You can watch the whole thing by clicking the link below.

HOLY MUSICAL B@MAN!

Or if you want some Harry Potter, check out A Very Potter Musical and/or its Sequel. They have a number of other productions that are definitely worth seeking out, as well.

A VERY POTTER MUSICAL!

 A VERY POTTER SEQUEL!

 A link to Starkids: TEAM STAR KIDS!