All Hallows' Eve

Halloween! It's a joyous day when kids dress up and collect candy from their neighbours! Or at least they used to when people still knew and trusted their neighbours. Huh. That's a happy thought. Aaaanyway...

Halloween has come once again, and for the first time in forever, I'm ACTUALLY prepared! I've got a costume ready and everything! It's not a scary costume. Just kinda fun. I'm dressing up as a nerd. Yeaaaah I know, that's not really a costume 'cause I AM such a big nerd. But just believe me, it's gonna be great!

I haven't really done the Halloween thing in so long! Last year for work I "dressed up" as Clark Kent. And by that I mean I wore my dressy work clothes with the shirt unbuttoned, a Superman t-shirt hiding underneath. Lame. I know. I'm hoping this year is a significant enough improvement to inspire me to continue doing better.

Wow, that sounds motivational. If only it was for a better cause than costume making. I'm pretty excited to see what all my friends are dressing up as tonight. Just as an added bonus, a reminder of my costume last year is below. Lemme know what you're doing for Halloween in the comments below!

A Brave New World?

So... This week was the finale of Avengers vs. X-Men. And what an end! If you are planning on reading it, spoiler warning! Read no further.

Picking up from the end of the last issue (where Cyclops took all the power of the Phoenix, killed Professor Xavier, and went all Dark Phoenix), Cyclops/Phoenix is laying waste to the entire planet, battling the Avengers and X-Men on a global scale. No one seems able to do anything to him as he causes cities to crumble, volcanoes to erupt, and even the ocean to burn.

The good guys have a secret weapon though. Hope, of the X-Men, and Scarlet Witch, of the Avengers. Their powers seem to be the key. Acting as yin and yang. The two of them are the only ones able to touch the Phoenix. As they duke it out, Cyclops has a vision of Jean Grey through the fire, telling him to let go.

Hope and Scarlet Witch finally manage to defeat Cyclops, and as the Phoenix leaves him, it moves to its intended host and possesses Hope. She zips around the globe putting out the fires and returns to the site of the battle to announce that she is the White Phoenix, but she is interrupted by the Scarlet Witch, who tells her she was never meant to possess this power, but to get rid of it.

The two join hands and together proclaim, "No more Phoenix." And with that, the power of the Phoenix is dissipated across the globe, undoing the spell the Scarlet Witch cast years ago, ending the "No more mutants" proclamation and causing new mutants to pop up around the globe.

The issue ends with Cyclops in custody, but not entirely ashamed of his actions because he believes bringing about the return of mutants is worth the price, sounding very much like Magneto.

So this event finally brought things full circle from the House of M event years ago. Mutants are back. But what does that mean for the Marvel Universe? Will the long depowered mutants get their powers back? (Will by beloved Sofia Mantega become Wind Dancer once again?!) Or is it just "new" mutants now? And how will the world respond to this upsurge in the mutant population after such a terrible global attack in the name of mutant kind? Only time will tell. I can't wait for Marvel NOW! to begin!

Comic Books Update

Avengers vs. X-Men. It's the big thing in Marvel comics right now. The cosmic Phoenix Force has made it's way to Earth, and the Avengers and X-Men are on opposite sides of the coin as to what this means. The X-Men believe the Phoenix has returned to bring about the rebirth of the mutant race. The Avengers believe that the Phoenix has come to burn away what doesn't work, possibly all life on the planet. And so the saga begins.

Both teams believe the Phoenix has come for Hope, the first new mutant birth since the decimation of mutant kind. Both teams try to protect her from each other, but in the end, the Phoenix ends up split between five of the most powerful X-Men: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Colossus, Magik, and Namor.

At first, it seems like the X-Men were right. The Phoenix Five go about changing the world, ending war, famine, and general suffering on a global scale. But the Avengers are wary of them anyway, and are eventually proven right when the Phoenix begins to corrupt the Five. Namor is first to lose it, and is defeated by the combined effort of the Avengers. Upon his defeat, the Phoenix force leaves him and strengthens the other four. Next, Spider-Man manages to turn Colossus and Magik against each other and they defeat each other, leaving only Cyclops and Emma Frost in possession of the Phoenix Force.

Cyclops and Emma are both showing signs of corruption, Emma demanding to be treated like a god, and Cyclops unwilling to accept that the Avengers oppose him. A huge battle ensues where the Avengers and X-Men team up against Cyclops and Emma. Cyclops ends up killing his old teacher and mentor, Charles Xavier, and he attacks Emma Frost, taking her portion of the Phoenix by force, and the last page ends with Cyclops being completely corrupted by the Dark Phoenix.

The final issue is out next week, and it's sure to change the status quo of Marvel Comics. What will happen to Cyclops? How will the Avengers and X-Men move on from this? What will be the significance of Hope and the Scarlet Witch in this whole thing? I can't wait to find out!

Travel Bug

I love to travel. I always have. Well, I guess when I was a kid I didn't really like the actual "travel" part of traveling, but I've always enjoyed seeing new places.

The last year or so I've been finally acting on it. It's amazing how much more I can afford now that I'm single. The last two years I've gone to San Diego for Comic-Con, and I've made three trips to Vancouver this year as well. All very enjoyable.

But next year I'm expanding my travel plans to a couple new locations! I'm going back to San Diego in July, of course, and I think I'll be in Vancouver/Whistler in August for Tough Mudder. But I'm also planning an exciting new trip!

Next year, the plan is to visit my brother in Montreal in the spring! Not sure on an exact date yet, but I'm very excited. I'm really not sure what there is to do in Montreal, but its pretty much guaranteed to be a good time with my brother showing me around.

My travel buddy this trip will be my wonderful friend Adria, and we are both very excited. And even more exciting, we've decided to take a detour south of the border on the trip and visit New York City! Once again, I have no idea what to do I NYC, but luckily there is a while yet to plan.

The only unfortunate part is that it's so expensive to travel, so I really need to get my ass into saving mode. Sorry coffee addiction, but you're impeding my travel plans. You gots to go.

Thirst for Fame

So, I'm debating starting a vlog. I've been debating this forever though so don't think I've come anywhere near a decision yet.

My only reasoning for starting a vlog is that I think having a vlog might be fun. I don't have any idea what it would be about. I already have plenty of difficulty coming up with topics to talk about here, so I have serious doubts that I'd be able to maintain a YouTube channel or whatever. But the majority of YouTube channels I see are really all nonsense anyway. So subject matter, maybe not so important.

The other major problem: I hate the sound of my voice. It bugs me so much. So if I was trying to edit a video together, I'd probably end up having to reshoot the whole thing repeatedly until I finally just give up anyway. I had a random little video saved on my old laptop from the first time I though about vlogging, and I remember I was just so weirded out that I gave up the idea. I wonder if I still have that video... To be fair, that was a good 5 years ago, so maybe I could do a better job now. I'm a lot more confident in myself nowadays.

But being on camera has never been my favourite thing. And yet, I'm seriously considering doing an application to be on Big Brother Canada. And that would be a LOT of cameras. I guess the motivation behind both is a yearning to be famous. Even just to be a bit of an Internet celebrity would be fun. But alas, it's probably not meant to be.

What do you think? Have any favourite YouTube channels? Do you blog? Vlog? Have a thirst for fame? Have ideas that could help me out? Leave a comment below!

That Is The Question

Today I want to discuss one of the question I often ponder to myself... If I had super powers, would I be a hero? Or a villain? (Fun fact: That's how I came up with the title of this blog.)

It's easy to SAY I'd be all heroic if I got some sort of special abilities bestowed upon me. Use my ice powers to rescue someone from a fire. Use my invulnerability to stop a firefight. Use my influence over the weather to help people dying in a drought. There are so many ways I could help the world if I had some sort of super powers.

But more likely I'd use them for my own benefit. Use my super speed to get to work in a flash and get to sleep in an extra half hour. Use my telepathy to figure out what people really think of me. Use my ability to fly to get away from it all and enjoy unique views and locations. Not necessarily BAD things, just things that might seem a bit selfish.

But that could lead to all kinds of other things. Get annoyed at that car that doesn't stop at the crosswalk and use my telekinesis to make an invisible wall where they should have stopped. Oops. Car totaled. Use my precognition ability to predict the winning lotto numbers. Use my mind control abilities to make people I don't like do stupid things, or confess their misdeeds. Still, this would be bad, but more vigilante level than actual villain.

But it would be so easy to become a super villain with the right abilities and motivation. No one likes the way the government seems to hate to listen to the people. So if I had Magneto's powers over magnetism, or the near omnipotent powers of the Phoenix, I might just take it upon myself to be rid of the world's governments and take over myself. Bend the world to my will. But then I've become an evil overlord despite my best intentions. Maybe I just want to run around with my super strength beating up bad guys. But what if I don't agree on who the bad guys are, and I'm strong enough to take out a tank? Law enforcement decides I'm too big a threat to be allowed to continue, so then it's me against the world. There are so many ways things could go wrong even with the best intentions.

So the question is: How strong is my moral compass? Could I handle the responsibility of that much power? Like I said before, I'd like to think I could handle it and use my abilities for good, but maybe it's a good thing I don't live in a comic book... How would you handle YOUR superpowers?

Winter Is Coming

The last few days here in the north have been pretty depressing. The sun has left us, clouds have swooped in, and I have been forced to layer. LAYER. It's August, and I am wearing two shirts and a hoodie. To say the least, I am displeased.

I'm hoping we still have a bit of good weather on the way, but we have had a pretty good summer so I can't complain too much. I was just hoping I'd have a chance to try to even out my tan. I've definitely got three different skin tones going on.

The one benefit to the cooler weather is that I'm more inclined to enjoy my nerdy hobbies. When it's sunny and beautiful out, I just can't justify sitting inside watching TV or playing video games. But if it's colder out, it's like a free pass to get my nerd on.

I have so much geeky stuff to catch up on too. I have I don't know how many video games to get through, plus I recently added two new ones to the list, Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance and New Super Mario Bros. 2, both for the Nintendo 3DS. I've got a nice big list of books to read, and I just ordered two more online. And I have so many shows on DVD and iTunes to catch up on.

I took the ugly-weather-opportunity over the last couple days to watch a few episodes of Eureka (I'm on the second of five seasons, I've got my work cut out for me), and my fantastic roomie and I started a marathon of Glee season 3 yesterday. I picked it up on bluray the other day, and we managed to get through the first 7 episodes last night.

I'm hoping that this fall/winter I can catch up on a few other shows I've been meaning to watch. Game of Thrones. Breaking Bad. Torchwood. The Walking Dead. Just to name a few. However, there are definitely a few non-nerdy things I want to do this winter as well. I need to pick up my training for Tough Mudder next year, so I need to get to the gym more ofte this fall/winter. And I want to learn to snowboard this winter! I've been wanting to for years, and never gotten around to it. This is my year!

So even if the sun is leaving, it isn't the end of the world! There's plenty to look forward to! ...Are you convinced? I don't think I've convinced myself either. But good effort? What are you looking forward to this fall/winter? Any benefits to summer coming to a close? Leave me a comment below!