A Well Read Child.

Being an English Major I can safely say that I enjoy reading almost about anything and I am pretty well read in the classics.  For most of my courses I had to read a lot of stories: short, long, prose and many books that I probably would have never known about.  One semester I took a Young Adult Literature course and I had to read about 30 books for the semester, which seems like a lot, but those books were pretty short and quick reads.  Nowadays, I still try to find time to sit down and read something, but I'm mostly reading a lot of children books to my little girl.

Video Game Time 5/25 Edition

So last week I talked about Red Dead Redemption and all I could say is that this game is amazing.  I have only played a few hours of it already and it has sucked me in.  Riding around on the plains and skinning the animals I kill make this game so much fun.  I mean it's Grand Theft Auto in the wild west, so what can you not like about it.  I have yet to play online, due to the glitches that are out there, but I will soon and when I do I will start a posse or join one and have some fun adventures in New Austin.  Let's get to this weeks games.

Has It Been 30 Years? Wow!

So there we were, my parents, sisters and myself, waiting in a line that felt like it was ten miles long to a theater that looked tiny from where we were standing.  This was the first time we went to the Golf Mill Theater, but we came here because they just installed a new Dolby surround sound system and my dad wanted to experience it with the movie we were here to see.  So we drove for what felt like millions of miles and waited in an extremely long line to see a movie that had me anxious with excitement.  That movie was Empire Strikes Back.

LOST

 SPOILERS!!! Do not read if you're planning on watching the LOST finale.

Video Game Time 5/18 Edition

This weeks Video Game Time has a few games that will make me veg out in front of my television for hours or at least until the baby wakes up.  Rockstar games is taking us back to the ole' west with Red Dead Redemption. The game centers on John Marston as he tries to take down his old gang after federal agents threaten his family.  From the videos I've seen online, this game looks amazing and I can't wait to play this.  There are mexican stand-offs, train robberies, gun battles and side missions that will give you hours of gameplay.  One feature that has me excited is creating my own posse and taking them on missions and hunting down other gangs.  So, if you have a PS3, look out for me and let's do this! Red Dead Redemption will also be released on the 360.

Get Your Game On.

I guess the Fan Dads took the weekend off, but rest assured, we are back and better than ever. Or at the very least we're back.

If you're reading this blog I think it's pretty safe to assume that you like the Internet. Odds are, you like games as well, so I thought I'd write up a quick post about some of my favorite online games. All of these are free to play, but some ask for support or have ads. Support the ones you like if you can. Without further adieu, let's play!

A great site to start with is Neave.com. Not only do they have awesome versions of Frogger and Space Invaders, but they also have Snake. Do you remember snake, or games like it? It used to be on older cell phones, it is simple, but it is addictive. Canabalt is another game that has will have you hooked. It's like PK or Parkour meets prison break, 8-bit style. If you feel like slowing things up a bit, try your hand at Uncle's Old Times. It's a strange game, but something different to check out if you've got a bit of patience, and possibly a strange sense of humor.

Looking for something a bit more...existentialist or Kafkaesque? Try Before the Law, it'll only take you a couple of minutes. Small Worlds is another fun game. I played a while ago and recently stumbled across it again, and I'm glad I did. Oh and how could I forget Bloons? My wife and I were hooked on that a long time ago. For those of you on Facebook, there are tons of games, but the one that I spend my time one is a Risk clone called Attack. Check it out if you're a fan of Risk.

One more site I'd like to mention, although it isn't game related per se, is Stumbleupon.com. It is a great site/service that's completely free and gets better the more you use it. I've come across a lot of great sites by using it. Look for me on there if you decide to give Stumbleupon a look.

Well, I think I'm done for now, I see some 'bloons that need to be popped!

Sex! Drugs! Rock n' Roll!

Sorry, but the title has absolutely nothing to do with my post. I've been staring at the screen for a while now, I guess that's what happens when you don't write anything for over a week. It was a cheap tactic to get people to read my post, did it work?

Anyway, I've got a question for you? Are you one of those people who rents a movie and no matter how bad it is, you have to sit through it. I didn't think I was until this year, but I'll come back to that. I used to work at Blockbuster so I'd get my movies for free, if I didn't like it I didn't bother watching it. After I stopped working there, I usually just bought movies, and I only bought the ones I had already seen or knew I'd like. Okay, where am I going with this? Well, I'd hate to say it but Final Fantasy XII is a bad movie, and I can't stop watching it.

Did You Pee? Updated.

The story I wrote about last month "Did You Pee?" has been updated.  Click on the link to go to the updated story.

What is the Answer to the School Crisis?

Even though my little girl is only eight months old I am already thinking about her schooling.  Am I going to put her in a private school, in the public school system or home-school her?  Living in Chicago and seeing the constant news reports about the crumbling public school system it makes me wonder how schools will be when my daughter finally does attend.  Will her teachers be qualified?  What will the classrooms be like? There are a million questions that go through my head and I wonder why isn't anything being done about it now.

Video Game Time 5/11 Edition

Okay, so this weeks Video Game Time is a day late, but I'll make up for the tardiness with another contest, more on that later.  The one game that I'm really excited about this week is 3D Dot Game Heroes  for the PS3.  This game looks amazing and it's pretty much Zelda if you removed the over the top view. 

Fandads Favorite Mothers

With Mother's Day here, we at Fandads.com wanted to give a special salute to the mothers that we love. Now whenever list are made people tend to disagree or feel that their favorites are left out, but remember, this is just a few mothers that stick out to us. If you feel like your favorite mother was left out leave us a comment and we'll make sure she gets her due diligence.

So here is our list and enjoy.

Super 8 is confirmed!

Just last month Aint' It Cool News wrote about a team up between Steven Speilberg and J.J. Abrams in which the duo is working on a secret movie that will pay homage to Speilberg's early work.  No specific details have been released and with the way Abrams kept the Cloverfield trailer secret, we would have to wait until an official word is released.  Well, that wait is no more.  If you see Iron Man 2 this weekend you will see the first official teaser to this top secret movie called "Super 8."

Now the trailer has already been leaked online (search and you may still find it) and it captures your interest the same way the Cloverfield trailer did.  Not much is told, except that it's 1979 and items from Area 51 are being transported to a secure location in Ohio.  There's an accident and something is trying to escape one of the train cars.  Just seeing this made me wish next summer was here already.  That's right, we have to wait a whole year before this comes out.  Being that two of Hollywood's heavyweights are working on this movie together, I can only hope that it will be worth the wait. I think it will.

- Victor

Iron Man 2 - Movie Review

The summer movie season has begun and what better way to kick off the season than with Iron Man 2. As with most sequels there are either two ways that they can go: completely fail or succeed their predecessor. Iron man 2 doesn't surpass Iron Man, but it doesn't fail either. The movie continues with character development, introduces new characters and reminds us why Robert Downey Jr. is perfect for this role.

The movie starts off continuing from the end of Iron Man with Tony Stark revealing that he is Iron Man. As this scene plays off on a television in Russia we see Anton Vanko calling for his son Ivan, Mickey Rourke, and tells him that he should have been the one on the television. We are then shown Ivan with a blueprint for the Arc Reactor with both the names of Anton Vanko and Tony's father, Howard Stark. As he starts planning his revenge and making his own reactor the movie flashes forward to six months later.

Video Game Time 5/4 Edition

Last week I talked to you about how I was still playing God of War III and was having trouble beating Zeus. This week, same story. I've had only a few times to play because I am just caught up with Super Street Fighter IV on the PS3. Now I haven't played online yet, because I'm getting my moves right, but this game really brings me back to playing it at the arcades back in the day. Read on about some new games announced recently and our first ever contest for Modnation Racers beta codes.

Now on to this weeks game news. If you have finished God of War III, unlike me, you will know that you are taken to the website SpartansStandTall.com which showed a mysterious figure standing in the rain with what looked like a countdown in the upper right-hand corner. Many people believed this to be a teaser for the next game and it turns out they were correct. Coming later this year God of War: Ghost of Sparta will be released for the PSP. I think it's time I invested in getting one of those.

Read this before you buy your children's medicine.

This was released last Friday, but I think that more people need to know about this.

Consumer Reports on Safety: Recall: All lots of children's liquid Tylenol, Motrin, Benadryl, Zyrtec

Although it seems like there is no immediate danger, parents need to be careful when buying medication for their children. According to the article "some of the products included in the recall may contain a higher concentration of active ingredient than specified; others contain inactive ingredients that may not meet internal testing requirements; and others may contain tiny particles." Please pass this around and spread the word to any parents who might be looking for these brands to take care of their sick children.

-Victor

Marvel's Always Trying to Keep a Brother Down

The Punisher is and pretty much has always been my favorite comic book character. I've never been a fan of the "leaders" or the really super powered heroes. I mean what's the point? Is it really bravery or heroic if you're bulletproof, can fly, blow stuff up, throw cars into the air, and shoot lasers out of your eyes? I don't know, I've always been more into the more "realistic" heroes. Batman, Punisher, Spider-man, I know, I know he's got powers but he also has a lot of real world problems and shit just never seems to go his way.

I also know the Punisher's more of an anti-hero, and in some stories and according to some heroes, he's a straight up villain. I just think his reasons, his motivation, is second to none. His methods can't be argued against, well the results can't be argued against, I mean why lock up the Rhino for the 100th time, you know he's just going to get out again. But I digress...I'm here to tell you all about the greatest, and by greatest I mean worst, issue of The Punisher ever. Maybe.

I know Marvel and DC, hell comics in general love messing with characters. Retcon-ing storylines, killing characters and bringing them back to life, but has anyone been f'ed with as much as poor Francis Castiglione. First off, they throw him into Vietnam, then after going through that, he comes home only to see his family murdered in front of his eyes. Okay, so we needed that for him to become the Punisher, fine. He kicks ass for a while and then they kill him off. Or he kills himself off if I remember correctly. He comes back as a weirdo angel and that doesn't last long. He's back to being himself for a while again. Now in the last year he gets sliced and diced by Wolverine's son only to be brought back to life as a friggin' Frankenstein...err...Frankencastle monster. (That storyline is actually pretty good)

Anyway, in the middle of all that, this might be the worst thing that they've done to the Punisher.

 No, it's not that they made him black you jerks, it's that they put him in this story. I mean, the whole pigment thing is pretty stupid but whatever. If I remember correctly a few issues later it kind of just wears off or something. Oh before this he was cut up by his buddy Jigsaw and somehow a junkie in a first aid station fixed him up, but let's just move on...

Before this particular issue Frank had been blackmailed by the Kingpin, thrown in jail, and cut up by Jigsaw. He escaped, but went on the run, Microchip hooked him with some ex-junkie/hooker/plastic surgeon who fixes Frank up. However, the Kingpin is still after Frank so he decides to head to...as he puts it...to "Chi-town."

Ugh.

Really Marvel? Okay maybe he would have called it Chi-town even if he was still white or an angel or whatever. Moving on...

So Frank drives about nineteen hours straight to get to Chicago. The hooker/junkie/doctor gave him some speed if he needed it, but do you think that the Punisher is going to use trucker's speed, hell no, he's too hardcore for that. However, he's not hardcore enough to keep from dozing off and getting pulled over by...Alabama's finest?

Now remember, this is supposed to be Chicago. Granted this takes place about twenty years ago, but it's still Chicago. In 1991.

 
Although 1991 was the year Rodney King got beat down, hmm...maybe the writers were trying to make some kind of point?

I think my scanner is also trying to make a point, the most racist parts got edited out, but basically the cop pulls Frank over for swerving and asks him for his ID. Frank doesn't have any so he just keeps quiet, at this point the cops says, and I am not joking:

What's the matter, boy? Cat got your tongue?

Maybe the coon's got his tongue!

Answer me when I'm talkin' at you son!

You know the Punisher isn't going to take that crap from anyone. He gets into a melee that he's not going to win, but as luck would have it Power Man, Luke Cage...er...I mean Cage shows up and saves the day.

They get the hell out and head to the South Side. Frank passes out for a while, I guess major plastic surgery, driving for nineteen hours, and getting beat down by cops can do that to you. He wakes up, tells Cage that he recognizes him, and then makes him an offer he can't refuse.

Cash money? Umm...is it me? Maybe it's me, I don't know, maybe I'm reading these lines with some sort of bias or prejudice, but I don't know. There are a few more in this issue, Frank starts out every other sentence with man. Man, I just want to keep them away from the gangs. Man, this used to be a fine hotel. Or maybe Frank is just trying to act or talk the way he thinks he needs to or perceives...hmm...I don't know. Anyway, moving on...

The deal is, Frank knows about a stash at some hotel. Full of guns and money. Cage gets the "cash money" and Frank gets the hardware. Cage reluctantly agrees, they battle some El Rukens or El Rubens, depending on who you ask or what page you're on, and they make it to Frank's stash. Problem is that the money is long gone, but the guns are still there. Cage got played and he's not too happy about it. However, he needs some backup cleaning up the 'hood and I guess the A-Team is too busy or whatever so he makes another deal with Castle.

Let's rock. I don't know what else to say, oh notice how there's like duct tape all over where his skull usually is. I'm speechless. I know that I bought this comic when it originally came out so I must have the next issue somewhere. The only reason I read it this week is because it was one of the free comics my dealer gave out on Saturday. Well, I think I've wasted enough of your time but I'll leave you with another doozy from this issue.

-Gil

Black Wii Confirmed!

After a purported leak last week and Nintendo not commenting on rumors, it has been confirmed today that a black Wii is set to release in North America on May 9.The new Wii console comes with, Wii Remote, Nunchuk, Wii Sports, Wii Sports Resort, and the Wii MotionPlus accessory. The bundle will be available in black or white for $199.
Being that I own a PS3 and an Xbox Elite, I think the black Wii will look great with my current set up and finally remove the eye sore that is the white Wii. Now the only other question that Nintendo has to answer is: Are they ever going to make a HD Wii? Maybe this is something that they are waiting to announce for E3 or maybe this will never happen.

C2E2 with my Little Girl.

With yesterday being Free Comic Book Day, it got me thinking about my experience this year at C2E2 with my little girl. Every year I usually go to Wizard World all weekend and geek out with my fellow comic book enthusiast. I plan my days, make list of what I want to buy and just enjoy walking around and seeing the many sights that the con has to offer. Most of the times I go alone because plans with my friends fall through, but for the past few years I have taken my nephews and wife on Sunday, which is normally kids day.

With this year being the first year of C2E2, it was also the first year that I had a group of friends going and I also had someone else coming with me, my daughter. Now my daughter is only eight months old, but I though it would be fun to enjoy this day with her. After dropping my wife off at work, I got home made sure everything was packed and waited for my friend Gabriel to pick us up. I was kind of nervous and excited to attend the con, but I guess I was nervous about how my little girl was going to act to all the people in costume.

When we got there, we met up with fellow Fandad Gil and walked around for a bit on the show floor. The great thing about being there was that I saw so many other strollers being pushed around and as we passed each other by we would just smile and nod. Being at the con was now a completely new experience, because I was sharing my love for comics with my daughter and seeing other dads doing the same thing with their children. I saw many parents and their kids dressed up in costumes. I saw fathers explaining to their kids who the costumed characters were. At one point I saw a father and son going through back issues and getting excited about their findings. This was definitely a brand new world for me.

Some of the cool things about having my daughter with me was: her stroller was like Moses sometimes and people would part like the Red Sea when we walked by. The cart gave us extra storage, so it made it easier for us to carry our findings. (I strongly recommend getting the Mommy Hook for your stroller, because it really comes in handy) Lastly, having my daughter in the stroller really saved my back from carrying her around all day. Don't get me wrong, I love holding my daughter, but after a while the weight starts putting a strain on you and you have to put her down.

For most of the time we were there my girl was just chilling in the stroller looking around, smiling at the people, waving at others or just napping. We were having a pretty great time, but then it happened. The one thing I worried about was: How was my daughter going to react coming face to face with a costumed character? Walking around a corner we saw a character standing there that made my little girl lose it. Who was this character? Why it was none other than Brobee from Yo Gabba Gabba her favorite show. As soon as she saw Brobee she started shaking with excitement. She was petting him, smiling and just giggling to see him in person. This whole meeting could have gone one of two ways: her freaking out and crying or the way it did go down, with smiles and laughs. It was the best thing I saw all day and I'm glad I had someone there to take pictures of the entire meeting. Her smile was contagious, even I got excited to see Brobee standing there. After our time with him and the pictures we took, my little girl was still looking in his direction as we walked away. I called my wife and told her about the meeting, the baby's reaction and she wished she could have been there to see it.

This year being the first of C2E2 and taking my daughter with me made it a really memorable experience. I feel that she enjoyed seeing the different people, meeting Brobee in person and I enjoyed sharing this world with her. I did return on Sunday with my wife, unfortunately Brobee was not around that day, so we just enjoyed the day walking around and seeing the showroom floor. With Wizard World a few months away I'm interested in seeing how that goes, but I know for a fact that next year when C2E2 comes around it will definitely be on our calendar of things to do.

-Victor

Holy Mjölnir!! It's Thor!!

Either it's perfect timing, coincidence or brilliant marketing, but the first picture of Marvel's newest movie, Thor, has been released a week before Iron Man 2 comes out in theaters. This is great for Marvel because it already starts planting the seeds to the uninitiated fans that do not know anything about the Asgard warrior. By releasing the picture now, fans can start brushing up on their knowledge and become acquainted with the story of Thor.

The photo release might also have something to do with the rumored secret scene at the end credits of Iron Man 2. Is this picture from that scene? All I have to say is that judging from the picture Chris Hemsworth looks ready to do battle with Loki and all who oppose him.Thor is set to release in theatres on May 6, 2011.