Mind-blowing

After watching the AT4W retrospective, I would totally read the Jaime Reyes Blue Beetle books if I ever come across any (but not the new 52). Also thanks to Linkara, I'm hooked on the Game Show Reviewer videos. It helped me remember that there was a game show called Scrabble that I used to love too. I can't wait to watch more. The review Linkara promoted was Carmen Sandiego, and I liked that one enough to look at what other game shows he'd reviewed. His first two reviews were Legends of the Hidden Temple and Supermarket Sweep, so I was sold on it after that. I hope he does more Nickelodeon game shows in the future, as he's already done a few and has name dropped a few more. I was surprised to learn of a Rock and Roll version of Jeopardy and even more shocked that the host was Jeff Probst. 1970s Alex Trebec as the host of the original Double Dare is also worth a watch. This guy only has a few thousand views per video and a few hundred subscribers, so I am also promoting him here and on Facebook. That's still doing better than me, but I didn't make a YouTube channel for views or subscribers. I'm almost done with my Turtles video; once I'm done editing part 2 it won't take long. I may actually get an editing gig if my friends decide to try making their own web series since they are fed up with their real jobs. If they're successful maybe I can even guest star if I know enough about the subject material.

Teen Titans Go! had an Easter special that pretty much ripped off Nightmare Before Christmas - not an homage, just the same idea applied a different way. Halloween wasn't even referenced in the holiday pantheon at all (it was replaced by George Washington and President's Day). It also means it copied the video game sequel Oogie's Revenge. I really liked it even if some parts were stupid. The Ninja Turtles crossover was much like the 4Kids one except Nickelodeon could afford the original voice actors. Unfortunately that's pretty much the only thing it had going for it aside from a dig at the Michael Bay Turtles. The 2D animation looked more storyboard-ish than I would have liked. I don't watch the Nickelodeon show, so I was surprised to hear Gilbert Gottfried as their Krang and also impressed that Andrea Romano is the voice director. Finally, the most recent episode of Dino Super Charge had the most WTF ending I've seen in a long time.

Natural

I drew more Critical Role fan art, this time of Laura and Mary Elizabeth cosplaying as their characters. I feel bad that Laura almost died again, but I wasn't worried (although if Will hadn't been there it would've been perma-death). I had been in a similar situation myself in one of the games I'm in, except it was possession and not instant death. I too rolled a nat 1 which caused it to happen, but the guy who antagonized the ghost (*cough*Jason*cough*) also apologized to me the same as Taliesin. To this day, he is still super sorry, so I don't believe Taliesin will forget this either. Not that Laura or I are mad, since we rolled poorly and it was just as much our fault.

I'm still thoroughly enjoying Dino Super Charge, especially this past episode "Home Run Koda." Like when Chase was being a dick to Shelby, Riley was being a dick to his best friend Koda, causing his crystal to lose its power. I'm easily ten years older than these characters, so they seem even more like children to me (they're probably written that way because it's a children's show, so there's that). Being a baseball episode, I was immediately hooked since I used to play softball and TJ (a.k.a. best Ranger as far as I'm concerned) had a baseball episode too. The funniest part was when Ivan blew a horn reminiscent of a vuvuzela. These guys are too much.

I know this is late, but I'm glad Leo finally won. Also, I love Trefoils too (Thin Mints are a close second). I've heard they're a dollar more in California. What would be a good idea (but something they probably wouldn't do since Bavarian cream Munchkins have gone the way of the maple frosted donut) is if they injected cream filling into the chocolate glazed Munchkins to make Boston cream Munchkins.

Tri Again

This group of episodes was centered around Mimi and Joe, revisiting their issues of selfishness and cowardice. While it did seem like character regression, I'm glad it resulted in Palmon and Gomamon finally reaching Mega level, something I've been waiting to see since middle school. What I'm not glad about is Ken becoming the Digimon Emperor again, the ultimate character regression. It tells me that the creators of Tri aren't working with many original ideas. It's one thing to bring back characters we like, but completely retreading old ground that we'd already closed the book on is unacceptable. Just get to the meat of the Alphamon/Omegamon plot and whatever the hell Meiko/Meiccomon is supposed to be. I would not object to a continuation of the Dark Ocean/Dracomon storyline that never went anywhere, though. Unless they get posted elsewhere, I'll have to wait for crunchyroll to make them available to the public next month; so far I've only read the Wikipedia entry.

I saw the new trailers for the new Yu-Gi-Oh! movie. It's funny to see Ryou surrounded by girls since that hasn't happened since Season Zero and Otogi was there too. His eyes look more purple than brown now, and in Zero they were green (and blue in the video game). Can they just not decide what color eyes to give him? Yugi and Anzu walking together is cute, and Tristan almost choked to death on a fried noodle sub. I know it's a fried noodle sub because they had them in Azumanga Daioh. Also, I find it a little weird that the Kul Elna ruins became a dig site. Wouldn't the Ishtars have wanted people to stay away from there? This stinks of early GX. Still, I can't wait to see it.

Such a Cop-out!

There are recaps on the CBS mobile site for Survivor but I couldn't find it on the drop-down menu on the regular site like I used to. I'm still rooting for the bounty hunter, though it'd be better if the tribes worked as a team to find idols like theirs did and that it'd give them a much-needed advantage at challenges. And I knew Tai wasn't the one being evacuated - he was just upset because of who was. Burnie and Ashley were so close to winning, but it just had to be an equalizing leg of the race. Then in the next episode they fell to the back of the pack again. So disappointing.

The person who sins the Pokemon movies gave the Diancie movie no sins because he liked it so much. Because of this, I'm no longer afraid to have free reign of my own video, though I still strive to be fair. Like the CinemaSins Star Wars prequels, I'm going to have to cut mine in half. Part 1 is finished except for the total run time, which I may have to figure out later if I don't default to "too many minutes" or "too long minutes." It is currently set at "X minutes." Part 1 covers episodes 1, 2, and 3 and has a stinger of its own. Part 2 will contain episode 4, episode 5, the bonus round, and the stinger proper. It's a lot of work and it may not be worth it, but I've had fun. In making the short stinger for part 1, I realized that Venus would've fit right in at Hogwarts. She's a legilimens, she knows wingardium leviosa and expelliarmus, and at seventeen (an important age in the wizarding world) she should probably know a lot more. Then again, Hermione wasn't as popular with her classmates in the beginning either, and Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone came out around the same time as or shortly after Next Mutation (or Hero Turtles in Europe, pfft).  Another problem is that rather than being a witch among wizards, she was a shinobi among ninjas.

Flavor of the Month

Since the Grilled Dogs are made of 100% beef, I decided they weren't a threat to my health and got one slathered with ketchup and mustard. It wasn't that special, but it wasn't bad either. There are two new flavors of Pop-Tarts. I opted for the fruit flavor, thinking that watermelon was safe. It's disgusting. The chocolate caramel probably wouldn't be good for me since s'mores always made me sick. I remember sitting in the living room with my family eating bad pizza and cinna-sticks (Domino's) and arguably bad movies (TMNT II Secret of the Ooze, Inspector Gadget 2, Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf).

I drew a picture of Ruby hugging one of those soda machines featured in a Rooster Teeth Animated Adventure. Weiss is in the background rolling her eyes. Blake and Yang are probably getting sandwiches or something. I'm currently enjoying the Japanese dub of volume 1. It's so cool. As with going back to the beginning of anything, I have a greater hatred for Cinder in the first episode. It also made me wonder what she was doing flying the helicopter when it's usually Neo doing the driving (and the fact that Neo seemed to have a relationship with Torchwick). Weiss' relationship with her sister is also inconsistent. On the one hand, she said she'd always wanted to have bunk beds to share with her in volume 1 and greeted her with excitement when she arrived at Beacon in volume 3. On the other hand, she didn't want to talk to her in volume 2.

Amazing!

I'm watching The Amazing Race this season for Burnie and Ashley. There aren't episode recaps for Survivor anymore, so I have to watch it too. I guess I don't mind as much since there is a bounty hunter named Kyle Jason who also happens to be a perfect fusion of my friends Kyle and Jason. Move over, Lirran. Speaking of my friends, we've been playing the new Digimon game together and having a lot of fun. We each chose three Digimon - mine are Lopmon, Gatomon, and Sorcerimon (Jason chose Wizardmon). It feels just like a Persona game, and the graphics are amazing. It's an awesome game for winners.

I found out Ninja Turtles Next Mutation was put out on DVD a couple years ago, so I'm going to get that for my birthday. The only negative feedback I could find was a lack of features (no haters on Amazon, apparently). I don't mind. It's not like Batman and Robin where they actually apologized for making it; they just want to forget it ever happened and move on. Batman and Robin was the Easter Egg I mentioned before - a movie billboard over the NYPD. Just add that level of camp to the special effects of Dinosaurs and you get Next Mutation. I've finished all the Organization horoscope videos (they're really short!) and the stinger to the Everything Wrong With East Meets West video. The rest will take some work, especially if I have to work around copyright to get what I want (getting the DVDs will help).

There was a video opening/closing that I remember from my childhood. I looked it up and it's actually on youtube. The video series was called Children's Circle, and it featured a van with drama masks painted on it (more like circular emoji form before emojis were a thing) driving through a neighborhood. The lyrics I remember are "Come on along, come on along, join the caravan." In hindsight, a van driving through a neighborhood and beckoning little kids to listen to a story probably isn't the most appropriate image to present.