John Carter

For his birthday, we took the boy to the movies and to dinner. We saw John Carter and then went to Montana’s where he got to wear the horns.

A lot of people seem down on John Carter but we enjoyed it. Even my daughter, who had been concerned it might be a bit scary, liked it. There has been some minor controversy about the title – it was Princess of Mars like the book but was changed to not confuse people (who hadn’t seen the trailer or know about the books) about it being another Disney Princess film.

Since it was based on a series of books that was written almost a century ago (Princess of Mars was published in 1917) you would think that it might be a bit dated, but it held up quite well. Since it had influenced a lot of later works, some parts seem familiar, but not too much that it seems like a copy. They even kept the framing sequence with the author and the matter transference into an avatar on the other planet. The green Martians look fine – maybe a bit long in the tusk but they get the six-limbed look down fine.

I haven’t managed to read the books yet so I don’t know how they describe the landscape but I would have expected the sand to be more red. I also don’t know how they handled the jumping in the books but it seemed on the verge of being a bit excessive in the movie.

All-in-all, it was a fun science-fiction film that fits in well with the modern ones. I hope it does well enough to make the sequels. I’m going to have to make an effort to read the originals.

The passing of an artist who drew dreams

On Mar 3 2012, at the age of 82, another icon slipped away from us. Ralph McQuarrie was a technical illustrator who worked on animating CBS’s coverage of the Apollo space program. He helped to make George Lucas’ vision of a space serial understandable to a lot of people who couldn’t follow what George wanted to do. His images form the backbone of the entire Star Wars saga, as well as many other movies from our youth – ET, Cocoon, Indiana Jones, and Jurassic Park, as well as Battlestar Galactica.

I never had the chance to meet him but always felt an affinity towards him – having taking drafting and art. He set a high mark to strive for.
The world is a little more empty due to his passing. His impact while he was here touched so many of us in so many ways that you would have thought that his passing would have been a major news item.

http://www.ralphmcquarrie.com/

Heroclix - Fast Forces

Since NECA has taken over Heroclix, they have made a lot of new sets. They have also made some Gravity Feeds – which are mini sets consisting of single-figure boxes for a few of their releases. They have also made some ‘Fast Forces’ sets which consist of a clamshell containing about 8 figures and a map. Since I love the maps, I’m trying to make sure I get the Fast Forces sets while I can even if I’m not getting the regular sets (yet).

For Christmas, I got the Warriors of Asgard (from Hammer of Thor) and the Battle for Smallville (from Superman). When I tried to get the two sets in between, the local store to us no longer had any. Since Galaxy had let me down, I tried Pendragon Games and Comic Factory IV but they didn’t have the missing sets either.
Before trying online, I gave Maxx Collectibles a call and they did have one of the sets. Since I would have to travel to the other end of the city, I also called face-Off Sportscards. They had both sets in stock so I popped over to see them on the way home and picked up Crimebusters! (from Watchmen) and Green Lantern Corps (from the Green Lantern gravity feed).

So the only one that I am now missing is the newest one Smash! (from the Incredible Hulk set). I’ll probably pick that one up this weekend.
I’m also looking into picking up a few figures from the Gravity Feeds – depending on whether the random factor outweighs the online cost of buying the figures individually.

Figure painting total - January

The last bits of my Kroot finally showed up. Also, I picked up 2 Western sets in the
Buck or Two store for $1.50 each. They each came with a wagon, 2 horses, and 6 figures.

40K Kroot Carnivores (in bits) - 12
40K Raveners (in bits) – 3
2 sets Western Wagons and figures - 22
Dreadfleet – Windgauge and Ships’ Wheel – 3
Dreadfleet – Navigation Rod Ruler – 1
Dreadfleet – Treasure tokens - 5

Jan figures bought – 46, figures painted – 0
Running total 2012 – figures bought 46, figures painted 0

Compass acquired

I had tried to make the bases for the Grid Games – Disc Battle but all the compasses I could find wouldn’t hold a consistent measurement. It later occurred to me that I could probably use one of the 40K templates for the 4” diameter and the 2” diameter.

But I still ended up popping in to Staples and picked up a nice new compass.

So now I can use that to make templates out of card and then trace those on to the black poster paper that I want to use for the grid and counters.

Wendy's Chili

I was off last week. I didn’t have any major plans but still didn’t manage to get a lot done. I was able to make a batch of chili on Friday.
I’ve tried a few recipes before but I really like the Wendy’s chili recipe from Todd Wilbur of Top Secret Recipes.

I highly recommend his Top Secret line of books. They have a bunch of recipes to make clones of various restaurant and branded snacks and drinks. I use his Outback Blooming Onion recipe whenever I can.

The chili is simple to make but I always have to modify it due the metric can sizes available up here.

2 pounds ground beef (~1kg)
29 oz tomato sauce (~900mL)
29 oz kidney beans in liquid (~900mL)
29 oz pinto beans in liquid (~900 mL)
1 cup diced onion (1 medium onion)
1/2 cup diced green chili (2 chilies)
1/4 cup diced celery (1 stalk)
3 medium tomatoes, chopped
2 teaspoons cumin powder
3 tablespoons chili powder
2 teaspoons black pepper
2 teaspoons salt
2 cups water

- Brown the ground beef in a skillet over medium heat; drain off the fat.

- Using a fork, crumble the cooked beef into pea-sized pieces.

- In a large pot pot, combine the beef plus all the remaining ingredients, and bring to a simmer over low heat. Cook, stirring every 15 minutes, for 2 to 3 hours.

Makes about 12 servings.

For less spicy chili change the pepper to 1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper.
For much spicier chili add a tablespoon of cayenne pepper. For a real stomach stinger, add 5 or 6 sliced jalapeno peppers to the pot. Leftovers can be frozen for several months.

http://www.topsecretrecipes.com/Wendys-Chili-Recipe.html

Gee and Shan don’t eat that much so it’s mainly for me – and D3 eats a bit too.

Furry addition to family

Gee had wanted a dog for about a year now. We had been putting it off until after the renovations but since that doesn’t seem to be happening anytime soon, we told her we would get her one for her birthday. So we had popped into the Humane Society to check out our options.

Gee had been keeping a close eye on their website to see what they had available but they were very cute in person. We found a nice dog, Princess, that was adorable. But when we went to see about her, we found that she was a little too enthusiastic for D3.

When we went back after boxing day, we found an older dog that looked a lot like Princess but was a lot more docile. She was a sweetie and we decided to adopt her. (We also found out that Princess was finally getting adopted that day!)
When we filled out the forms and went to pay for her though, someone came up and told us that someone had come in before Christmas and paid for her. At first we thought that they meant that someone had already bought her – but they meant that someone had come in and prepaid for her adoption to whoever chose her.

We were very touched and want to thank our mysterious benefactor.