The Briar Patch

I was going to post a new travel blog on the north but it turns out it is Expo weekend in Edmonton. I went for opening night Friday and here are some random thoughts. For real this one is just quick and dirty no editing so I am sorry if it gets a bit mixed up but trying to post while it is still relevant! As I walked in, or towards the entrance I texted my wife "I dunno if I am in Heaven or Hell" First I need to know if  what I heard was true. If you bought a meet and greet or pic or whatever and the celeb cancelled AFTER the refund deadline you didn't get your money back? I 1000% get it if you cancel or change your mind after the deadline, tough shit. Hell it sucks but even if something bad happened and you cant make it you agreed to something when you bought the tickets. HOWEVER if the celeb cancels after the deadline, that is not on the customer and the expo SHOULD be giving a full refund. I only heard second hand that they weren't. In this case though if they aren...

 Old as balls, thats what I am.... Well not yet only 45 recently but man looking back on the mid 80s until now, wow things have changed. Not the point though, I had a "birthday party" recently at the Canadian Brew House by my house. It became clear I no longer "party". First we were there by 5PM and out by 745. In younger years, usually couldnt actually afford to go out like that so it was a back yard BBQ that started around 6. It would be noisy and last half the night, hell most years the sun would be up by the time I laid down. Now the loudest thing is my friends kids running around. No one gets out of hand. My friends are amazing and assholes at the same time. Most other Bdays we just have a nice meal, same with mine but they still buy me shots for some reason when they dont with others. Maybe not having children makes them think I can still handle it. I actually did a decent job, only cause it ended early! A bunch of shots, plus wine and vodka doesnt sit in the ...

Hockey players can be either douches or great guys. Let me tell you about some douches. We recently played a team all say 17 - 21 and they literally all looked like someone you would cast as the rich bully in a teen drama. They literally all would have been perfectly cast, except not like a muscled bully just a rich kid. They constantly chirped which is part of hockey but then back shit up when you shit talk, don't just scurry away, like rats. What really got me was they singled out a single player to try and pick on. Someone with some issues. If you have to "punch down" your a loser, you should be embarrassed. I am 5 foot fuck all and I take pride in battling guys way bigger than me. Hell I lose a lot but I cause them issues. Everyone on my team even says that, punching down I couldn't imagine. Plus they had 2 "coaches" on the bench. Guys my age, probably a couple dads I assume. Flat out WTF! Your in a rec league of ball hockey in the lowest or almost lowes...

Time to post this, I realize I started it a month or easily two months ago. A lot has happened over that time, so some of this is dated. It is easier to make quick entries like this right now so sadly for the next little bit I doubt I will be working on any travel blogs. The next two entries will be a two parter and MAYBE by the time they are up my life will be calmed down and I can get back to travel..... It is time for the X-Men to save the MCU. Ratings are down, we have super hero hangover even F4 didn't do amazing. Its time for the Phoenix Saga. They have tried with two terrible movies and it ended both X-Men runs. Time to do 20 movies like the Infinity Saga with Phoenix in the background until the final showdown with her as well, the villain. I want to see the original 5 in the first movie and yes Magneto as the villain. A few solo offshoot movies and Giant Sized X-Men is your first crossover. You can cover so many classic stories and please do Mutant Massacre, the whole MCU c...

I started this before I decided I needed to concentrate on one thing. So this is my last focus pop culture / comic blog for a while. Pretty happy I have been doing travel writing, but I want to get this posted, so I have no distractions. Comics, I love them. I have loved them since grade 3-ish?? So, 8 years old, 35-year love affair. I mean, it started before that. What are comics besides still cartoons, and what kid doesn't like cartoons? I guess I am gonna go on about my comic history in this blog. (This was started before I decided to focus more on my writing. So for real, last non-travel blog for a bit) Saturday morning cartoons are the start of it. It is true that back in the 80s and 90s, we had Saturday morning cartoons. There wasn't just a network dedicated to cartoons; you had to slot them in! It was a treat to see them, and we all loved them. It would make sense that a generation raised on cartoons would enjoy comics, a physical copy to hold in your hand and reread anyt...

 So a quick pop culture blog, it has been a bit. I wanted to keep up to date. I mean soon part two of my trip will be up, just cant believe how long editing takes. Anyways here we go Ball hockey has been interesting. After an AWFUL last season they bumped us down a div. I played game 1, we won 7-2 and then I was gone on holidays. While I was gone we won all our games and got bumped back up. Since then we are 1-4. One of those is a forfeit since we had an Oiler game and no one showed. Maybe I am just bad luck... Actually I am having my best games ever. Most points per game I have ever had but we aren't winning. Here is the thing, a couple of our loses have been dramatic. Both times we were down 6-4. Both times we pulled our goalie and scored, then dominated for last 30 seconds. 30 seconds more and we would have tied the games. So I feel we are in the right div, just need to play harder. Would be nice to win a div again. Sadly still to low to get to provincials. I think I need to giv...

I am going to start out with how winning Edmonton is! Them Elks sure are doing good! Still no wins so far this season. Overall they are 7 - 33 since changing their name. I don't believe the universe works like this but it sure does seem go woke go broke.... They had more wins in their final season as the Esk than they have the entire time they have been the Elks. Also watching vids from K-days this year. What the hell Edmonton? While I have been writing a few entries to try and make this city and well the world in general a better place, then I watch videos from K days and think fuck it, its a damn cesspool just let it sink. Look out for number one and let idiots ruin everything for everyone. Like literally we can't even have a carnival without numerous fights and bear fucking spray. God damn we are embarrassing. Then I try and put it all aside and remember I have been to Kdays with friends when we were much younger and a fight broke out. Maybe these people that look like ass c...

 Damn you James Gunn! Damn you to hell! I wanted to sit and bitch about how you were killing the "hard" work DC had put into creating a shared universe. I wanted to say your Guardians series had gone downhill. Then I watched Guardians 3. If you take out the massive Avengers crossovers, it is a top 3 project probably. Top 5 for sure. I don't even know how many movies and shows they have churned out but this is among the best. So MAYBE you will make DC much better.... Anyways Guardians 3 watch it! IMO it is WAY better than the second and hell maybe better than the first that I still think was over rated. It has it all. A great plot, comedy, action and man does it hit the feels FFS. I am not a huge fan of some of the end, the new "team" meh but not sure if they will move forward with that or if it is more just giving characters a way to move on. Warlock should have had a much bigger role & I really thought the High Evolutionary would be a much bigger threat. I ...