IHAO on ... Fate/Zero

Normally, I try to make sure I have watched everything I review completely at least once, many times twice, to get a strong critical opinion, as well as personal opinion of the subject.  But television shows become difficult to review because of that.  I can put three or four hours into watching a film twice, or six hours for a wrestling PPV, but even the smallest of television shows take almost twice that long for me to watch and review.  So I thought for this review I would instead give my impressions on the first five episodes, and a lengthy and personal backstory to the franchise it belongs to.  Plus, the next collection of One Piece is coming to my home the day you all can read this because Amazon pre-orders are great, and I'm just in a crazy excited anime mood.

Fate is the ... prefix? category? ... think like "Dragonball" - it is a set of entertainment stories that all take place in a shared universe.  That universe is a modern fantasy world, where mages and arcane pedigrees and ancient relics exist.  Where the Holy Grail is summoned into being every somethingorother years and is fought over by seven Masters, all who have summoned Servants, each connected to a particular class of Servant: Saber, Archer, Lancer, Assassin, Rider, Caster, and Berserker.  It is a crazy imaginative world, and Fate/Zero is a pre-sequel to the main story, Fate/Stay Night.

In college, a friend took a chance and thought I may enjoy Fate/Stay Night, a visual novel video game semi-adult entertainment ... thing.  It is like a voice-acted, slightly animated choose-your-own-adventure novel.  It was amazing.  It was mindboggling, and kept me up many evenings as I went through its massive story.  The story is so massive it requires time travel-y, alternate future shenanigans to hear it all to completion.  It got an anime I cannot wait to own and watch of its own.  The plot of Fate/Stay Night is the events of the Fifth Holy Grail War.

Fate/Zero is the events of the Fourth Holy Grail War.  And it is realized completely in one story, which is the anime I just started.  So let's talk about that anime.

The first thing to know is it is a dense show.  The entire first episode introduces you to so many characters and concepts, you almost have to know what Fate is before you start watching.  I knew bits and pieces of the story that was told to me during the events of Fate/Stay Night, and I still got lost a little first time through.  The second thing to know is that it is a beautiful animated anime.  It reminds me of Attack on Titan and DeathNote, both of which are shows with amazing animation (and a whole lot of ridiculously overblown terrible plot ... man, I need to write my thoughts on DeathNote I guess ... or just point out I have the same opinion of it as I do on Attack on Titan ... yup, I did that.  Mini-review, DeathNote gets a C+-).  It is almost on par with a Studio Ghibli production of sheer artistic skill, though it is achieved in a different way.  I ALSO really need to get more Ghibli films a chance, considering how much I love My Neighbor Totoro ... here we go, another mini-review: My Neighbor Totoro is an amazing film.  Completely amazing.  Grade: A+++

I can go on and on about the technicals of Fate/Zero.  The voice actors all do a GREAT job, with some recognizable voice talents in there like Crispin Freeman, Kari Wahlgren, Jamieson Price ... really, go look at the imdb page and just check out these actor's workloads. The animation is smooth and beautiful in all its magic and all its fantastical details and even beautiful in its mundane elements.  They do an awesome job of using 3D animation represent a lot of the magic and the backgrounds, so that every move and cut and slash and fight and stab and magical attack and effect all have actual effects on the background.  You ever notice how in cartoons, if a character was going to interact with something in the background, it would be a different color?  Yeah, that is completely mitigated here and looks really great.  Oh man, and the music!  The score is absolutely gorgeous, and I've really come to love the opening theme.

The first episode should absolutely hook most anime watchers, though it is dense.  The second episode should do even more.  And if you aren't hooked by the third, I just don't know what is wrong with you, but I suppose there is no point in pushing on, to be quite honest.  There is absolutely a barrier to the enjoyment of this anime, but by episode three Fate/Zero has established everything you need in a good way that has you invested in the story, hopefully.  But, there is a huge problem ... this is absolutely a sequel.  Yes, it takes place chronologically before Fate/Stay Night, but it assumes you understand the premise, it introduces elements that you are supposed to understand how they work quickly so it can move to new stories.  It is not an easy anime.  I like that, personally.  It was the thing that got me interested in Attack on Titan and DeathNote, and while my opinion on both of those shows soured, that comes from them lasting much too long, in my opinion (obviously).

Fate/Zero has two seasons.  Both on Netflix.  Both no more than 13 episodes.  And it finishes its story then and there.  I think it is absolutely worth any one who found anything I said interesting so far a chance to give this show.  That sentence was very poorly worded, but I'm not gonna change it.  Watch Fate/Zero.  I recommend, as a fan, and as a critic.  I cannot wait to dive in even farther to the show.

Grade: A++

Edit: I try to write these reviews ahead of time so that I can have a nice bank and keep myself up to date, just in case I get sick or busy and am unable to find time to watch things like I need to.  Well, I did get sick, with a sore throat, so I spent this entire morning before my review got posted tearing through the first season of the show.  I can say, without a single doubt, that this show is phenomenal.  I would still recommend that if you are at all interested in the Visual Novel of Fate/Stay Night to not watch Fate/Zero yet, but if you aren't interested in the enormous amount of hours to put into Stay Night then I cannot recommend Fate/Zero enough.  The fights are amazing, the animation is immaculate, and the story is intense and thrilling, all in one of the coolest anime worlds I've seen.  This is probably the second best anime I've ever watched.  It is intense, thrilling, and awesome.  I have gone ahead and added a grading because I feel much more confidant in that grade now.

IHAO on ... Horrible Bosses 2

I did not see Horrible Bosses.  I didn't see it for a very simple reason: I don't like Charlie Day, Jason Sudekis, or really Jason Bateman.  If I don't like the three leading men in a comedy, yeah, pretty sure I don't want to see it.  And it isn't really their fault.  They are pretty decent actors.  It is just they almost always play the EXACT SAME CHARACTERS.  Jason Sudekis is smiling doofy idiot sex guy.  Charlie is manic high-pitched tweaked out idiot.  Jason Bateman is stuck up egotist know-it-all guy.  Why do I want to watch that over and over again?  Well, I was taken to the movies by a friend anyway, and he bought my ticket, so I watched it, knowing nothing of the first film.  Nothing, I couldn't tell you an ounce of plot.

Before I get into this movie, first I wanna talk about the trailers.  I haven't done a Trailer Trash in a long while, mostly because my tablet got broken and then replaced and the app I was using doesn't work as well on the new one.  Is that a thing you guys would like to see back?  Lemme know in the comments.  Anyway, I hadn't seen a lot of the trailers in front of this film, and it looks like we are in for a lot of stupid comedies coming up in the next few months.  I am not a stupid comedies kind of guy, not really.  Sometimes I can get behind one, and sometimes the craft of the comedy is perfect, but in the end, I always prefer cool characters doing cool things, and comedies tend to focus on garbage characters doing asinine things.  So be looking forward to those reviews coming this first few months of the year 2015.

This is what my theater going experience is probably going to be like until April.  Help me.

Ok, so Horrible Bosses 2 ... was way more enjoyable than I expected.  In fact, I actually enjoyed it quite a bit, the third act in particular.  The movie opened with a bunch of Austin Powers style jokes and the kind of dialogue you expect from Always Sunny meets SNL meets Arrested Development, which irritated me to no end.  The ... I guess they were too big to be "cameos" but man they sure felt like cameos for Jennifer Aniston, Kevin Spacey, and Jamie Foxx, whatever, their parts were ... meh.  The actual plot tried to fit the idea of this whole "bosses" thing too many times in five minutes, as if being self-employed is some huge deal.  But once we actually met Christoph Waltz and Chris Pine, and the plot actually started going with the kidnapping and stuff, the movies started to get me involved instead of just rolling my eyes and sighing at the stupid sex jokes and gross out humor.

Then Act 3 happened.  And man, did it impress me.  One of my favorite movies of the past few years was Tower Heist.  It had heart, it was really funny, it was pulse-pounding, and it was a good heist film!  That's what this movie turned into, for the most part.  There was a small worthless section with Jennifer Aniston I could have done without, but yeah, it was pretty fantastic.  It played out in a really cool way that I know I have seen before, but not done this well or like this.  Sean Anders, who I had completely written off as a terrible director actually did some really great work!  I am still legitimately impressed with how well the last third of the movie went.

I wish I could say the rest of the movie was worth watching for me.  But I bet you if you like a harmless adult comedy, and like the comedians here, and don't care about stupid plot and characters, that this movie will not only be a comedy you'll really enjoy, but it may also actually impress you.

Grade: B ... ALMOST +

IHAF ... A. Lee Martinez

It is A. LEE MARTINEZ APPRECIATION DAY!  Someone strike up the samba music, let's dance!

What do you mean, I just used this article as an excuse to post all my favorite dancing gifs?  You, sir or madam, are ill informed.  I used A. LEE MARTINEZ APPRECIATION DAY as an excuse to talk about one of my favorite authors writing today.  So what is so great about A. Lee Martinez's writing that I have to do not one, not two, but SEVEN dancing gifs?  Well, let me explain.

Back in college, and I am unsure how I came upon the book or who got me into it, but somewhere along the way I got a copy of Gil's All Fright Diner.  An innocuous little book, with a splendidly silly, semi- Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy looking book.  Read the back, and I find it has vampires and werewolves and ghosts and zombies and cthullu-esque creatures, all mixing it up around a small diner.  It was an odd conceit, so I read it.  And it was really good.

That was a lot of build up, with all the other gifs, for just "really good."

I liked the book.  It read exactly like a film I wanted to see.  EXACTLY, in fact, as I pictured Owen Wilson and Brad Garrett as the main characters Duke and Earl (they don't get the joke), a werewolf and a vampire who are just dudes, not monsters.  And that's the magic of A. Lee Martinez books.  But let me continue telling the story, there, chumbawumba.

I liked the book.  I definitely didn't love it, but it was fun, with great characters, good scenes ... it really is a good book.  So I went back to Books-a-Million and grabbed the other A. Lee Martinez book they had, In the Company of Ogres.  That book ... I liked less.  It had some bits that were good, and I liked the lead character, but as a pretty straight forward fantasy book, even with some tongue-in-cheek-ness to it, I felt it wallowed around in way too many characters and just wasn't that enjoyable.  It felt like fantasy Stripes, like it was missing the meat that elevated Gil's with its really good characters.

So I shelved Mr. Martinez's books for awhile.  A few years in fact.

So I suppose none of this is sounding the most positive it could be.  But ahh, you are missing the wonderful thing here.  A man is not defined by two books.  He is defined by ... well I mean, too many things to calculate, because you cannot distill a man down just based on the writing of two books he wrote.  And I never stopped thinking about those books, like them or not as the case legitimately was.

I eventually went looking for another book by him.  I saw The Automatic Detective, which is a science fiction film noir.  I gave it a shot ...

This editorial is already long.  Come on!

Holy crap you guys, holy crap, the Automatic Detective is a flippin' AMAZING book.  It did everything I loved about Gil's, with its real, fully fleshed characters, but then created this amazing atmosphere of pulpy dread, terror, and adventure.  Mack Megaton, the book's protagonist, is one of my favorite characters I've ever read, period.  And the book itself, a few years removed from In the Company of Ogres, really excelled.  I was hooked.

Next up was Monster, another book with an incredible set of characters, and awesome big ole adventure, and really grounded emotions and thoughts.  This time, we have a cryptid exterminator, who takes care of those goblins under the bed or the yetis that wander into your supermarket.  Why this isn't a movie starring the Rock is BEYOND ME.

After Monster was Divine Misfortune, where worshiping a god was more akin to really bad online dating, and every pantheon of myth's gods existed.  Once again, we got awesome characters in our human protagonists, an African-American couple, and their decided up god, Luka, a happy-go-lucky (literally, he is a luck god) raccoon.  Once again, we got a great pulpy high adventure story.  And even better, just like in the past two books, we get realistic characters.

All of these books might sound like they are Terry Pratchett in nature, comedy mixed with genre.  But that's what you are missing!  In fact, what a lot of people are missing about Mr. Martinez's books.  There is a very subtle bias that readers have towards "genre" and "comedy."  Both are seen as light, without substance.  Just look at the Oscars, which to a fault award films that are dramatic or historic and actors who are dour or "realistic" with their amazing awards, even though other films come around that are better, with better acting, but because they may be Space Opera starring a raccoon and a talking tree, they may not get the same recognition.  A. Lee Martinez's books have may have a colorful cover and a premise that is filled with pulpy wonderful goodness, but his books have a backbone of truly skilled writing and plotting, and characters with real emotions, choices, and relationships.  When you think of these books, or really most forms of entertainment, as "genre" or "comedy," what you are subtly thinking is that they are worth less than other books or films or television shows.  We need to stop that.  And I think buying up all of Mr. Martinez's books is the best way to do it!

Divine Misfortune lead me to Chasing the Moon, an intriguing but not quite as good book centered around cthullu-esque mythos.  But for every book of his I don't care for, three more arise that make me fall in love.  In quick succession we got: Emperor Mollusk Versus the Sinister Brain, which has one of the most complicated protagonists I've ever read, and was fabulous; Helen and Troy's Epic Road Quest, a send-up to the "Hero's Journey" with even more incredible characters, that I in fact wrote a review of a year or so ago; and One of These Doomsdays, which you can find online for some crazy wonderful reason, as he isn't publishing it, which is BONKERS because I am LOVING IT!  It isn't finished yet, and I hope he ends up publishing it anyway, because I want it on my shelf.

To top it all off, I've been going backwards and reading the books I skipped.  I'm enjoying but struggling through Too Many Curses, and I still need to get A Nameless Witch.  I also need to rebuy Chasing the Moon and In the Company of Ogres, as my own copies have been lost.  To top all THAT off, I helped fund a short story book he wrote which featured a short story for each of his ten published books!  That is coming in the mail to my home any day now, and I cannot wait to dive into it.

To top all THAT OFF, I am an avid reader of his website, as he blogs about film, television, writing, and all sorts of stuff.  He and I don't see quite eye to eye on some things, but man oh man, we both tend to have the same opinion when it comes to "darker and grittier is better" that was sweeping through our entertainment not long ago.  Even when I don't agree with him, I love hearing his thoughts.  He shares them all the time on twitter and facebook as well.  And he writes other short stories and flash fiction you can check out all the time.  I was even able to send in a suggestion that he wrote a flash fiction of, which of course is awesome.

I am inspired to write because of A. Lee Martinez's books.  I am inspired to write because of his opinions.  I am inspired to work harder, to maybe see more of my writing published.  And even better, I am inspired to read.  I don't read as much as I used to.  I suspect most people don't.  So let's change that.  It is a new year, so let's fix that!  Go to amazon or Barnes and Noble or Books-a-Million or wherever you can, buy an A. Lee Martinez book, your favorite I talked about, or my favorite, or the ones I liked least to see if you agree.  Let's support an author who is writing exciting, incredibly well made books that don't have to choose between having good characters and good story.

And THAT is how I am going to celebrate my January 12th, A. Lee Martinez Appreciation Day.

I Have a Favorite ... author, A. Lee Martinez

A quick grade guide to each of his published novels I've read completely

Gil's All Fright Diner - Grade: B+

In the Company of Ogres - Grade: C-

A Nameless Witch - n/a

The Automatic Detective - Grade: A+++

Too Many Curses - n/a

Monster - Grade: A++

Divine Misfortune - Grade: B+

Chasing the Moon - Grade: B

Emperor Mollusk Versus the Sinister Brain - Grade: A++

Helen and Troy's Epic Road Quest - Grade: A+++

IHAO on ... WWE's competition 1 - Lucha Underground

That's right Cena, you better run.  Competition is coming, and not just from NXT.

I love wrestling.  I talk about it a whole bunch.  NXT has been blowing my mind, and WWE has been leaving me cold.  But it is a new year, and I want to see what else is out there.  I don't have time for everything, so I am only watching what I have been and what just got a brand new start, and that's Lucha Underground and TNA.

TNA, on the other end of the spectrum, is trying its hardest to be just like the WWE ... 15 years ago.  TNA has always been plagued by ridiculously overbooked nonsense and match stipulations that just don't make any sense.  That said, it also tends to find great wrestlers that WWE didn't quite give a chance and prove the WWE wrong, just like with EC III, MVP, Samoa Joe, Low Ki.  Then it fills out its roster with top Indy guys who aren't looking to jump to WWE, like Austin Aries, and home grown talent.  And Kurt Angle.  TNA almost went bye-bye because of poor ratings and slowly losing all their money.  They lost their TV contract, and scrambled to get a new one on Destination America, which has nowhere near the reach as Spike TV.  But they are restarting their show for a new audience on the 16th of this month, and I'm going to be the audience.  That means that I'll have a review up of their show the following Monday.

Lucha Underground made a pretty surprising splash for me.  It got a lot of honorable mentions in my Best of 2014 Wrestling article, which is great because it has only had 10 episodes.  The schtick is that of film quality backstage segments, strong character focus, and really good matches.  The match quality of Lucha Underground sits in the middle zone of WWE: the average match is higher quality, but no match has really broken into the upper echelon of great matches that WWE always pulls out eventually every year.  With its focus on Aztec traditions and masked characters, it is an incredible show to watch.  They are starting their year, after giving us a lot of great episodes to introduce all twenty major characters on their roster, with an amazing match called Aztec Warfare.  I have no clue what it is, other than it seems to be a seeded gauntlet, so I'm excited to find out.

Lucha Underground is up first.

Lucha Underground opened with a lot of spectacle as a lot of traditional drums and dancing kick off the show, really making this feel special.  Aztec Warfare is a Royal Rumble style elimination gauntlet 20-man "Anything Goes" match.  Two men start, then every small amount of time, another man joins the match.  Last man to not get eliminated wins, and is the new, and FIRST Lucha Underground Champion.

No sugarcoating or beating around the bush, this match is great.  Super great.  It is a great way to opening wrestling for the year of 2015.  What is so great about it?  It has great moves, great moments, great characters, culminates a lot of stories, crowns a champion, and thrilled for a full hour of wrestling, including commercials.  We get closure on a bunch of storylines, learn every character, all the wrestlers are treated as if they had a legitimate chance to win ... for the most part, anyway.  This was really great stuff.  El Mariachi Loco, Mil Muertes, Prince Puma, Chavo Guerrero Jr., Pentagon Jr., Sexy Star, man, everyone impressed all match.  I cannot say it enough, this was a GREAT  match!  Even better, I am excited for the things to come.

I have now watched the episode, a full one-hour episode with a handful of 3 and a half minute breaks, that is just one match.  It is phenomenal.  Every single character, even the jobber kid, looks good, has a story, has a moment to shine, and looks like a credible threat to win.  The way the story builds is perfect.  The mirroring and closing out of a chapter in the story of Lucha Underground, which is just beginning, is flawless.  The match does all the storytelling a Royal Rumble does, but with all the actual skill and credible finishes of a regular match.

My favorite thing in the whole match is that there was only two times someone stopped another luchadore from pinning an opponent.  The first was Big Ryck, who is not a luchadore, just a brawling enormous mammoth of a man.  The second is Chavo Guerrero Jr., who is so egotistical, he wants to pin a guy himself and keeps throwing guys off him to get the pinfall, even though it doesn't matter.  That is exciting!  How many times in a Royal Rumble match do you see guys helping save other guys from getting thrown over because they are wasting time between spots?  Most Rumbles it happens.  But here, every moment was perfectly executed.  On top of that, Lucha Underground pretapes and edits their episodes, so every single move and shot is from the best, most interesting angle, and if something important is happening on the outside of the ring, we always cut to it.  I LOVE Lucha Underground!

Lucha! Lucha! Lucha! Lucha! Lucha!

I implore you all, every wrestling fan or wanna-be fan, or just someone who likes Lucha, or just someone who likes Robert Rodrigeuz, or just ... everyone, really!  WATCH LUCHA UNDERGROUND!  Have a hard time watching Lucha Underground because you can't or don't get the El Rey Network, but want to give this a chance?  You are in luck because Lucha Underground consistently shares videos on their facebook page.  Absolutely go give them a look and a like.

IHAO on ... Tusk

So Kevin Smith got high, did a podcast, and came up with a concept for a film.  Three films, as best as I can tell, actually.  And Tusk is the first.  And Tusk is ... pretty damn unique.  How should I tackle this one? Ok, let's start like this:

Tusk is a bad movie.

It isn't a terrible movie.  It is in fact somewhere between forty-five minutes and an hour of a really solid thriller, an A++  kind of movie with some quirk but some great editing, writing, character, acting, and tension.  The first act, the entire first act, is actually pretty superb.  I would suggest to all of you reading that if you wanted to watch this movie, the weird body horror thriller, watch right up to that spot.  Which spot is that?  For lack of better word, it is the money shot.  What does that mean?  Do I have to stop being vague?  UGH, fine!

Tusk tells the totally-not-Kevin-Smith-stand-in-character Wallace (Justin Long), a failed comedian now very successful podcaster, as he travels to Canada to interview an internet face guy.  When that falls through, he spots an old man saying he has stories, so to not have wasted the trip he meets that old man, played by Michael Parks.  Things go crazy fast, as the old man tries to turn Wallace into a walrus, as the title alludes.

As kind of dumb as that premise sounds, the first hour really succeeds.  There is some great acting, great editing, and awesome tension.  It isn't perfect, as there are some strictly not good jokes in there, but a lot of that is because the lead character himself is failed comedian, so he thinks a podcast called a Not-See Party is  a good joke, and we understand him.  Kevin Smith does a great job, Justin Long does as well, and Micheal Parks does some really nice stuff as well.  And the theme is really great, with this driving rhythm and real tension to it.

So what happens at the "money shot" that kills the movie?  And I mean, kills it, kills it dead, makes it lose all momentum and never regains it.  Part of it might be that all the camerawork and filmmaking turns to a farce to instead focus on really terrible camerawork, bad framing, stupid music, and a script that likes to hear itself make stupid jokes.  Part of it might be the extended extended cameo of Johnny Depp, playing an awful, time-wasting former detective Quebecer.  That is really painful.  Maybe its that all the lighting loses that tense warm glow that is both inviting and still dark and terrifying.  Maybe its that the writing has moved on since the movie finally did what it wanted to do, showed the walrus-man, and now it is just expedient to plot and fills up the rest of the run time with bad jokes.  Maybe it is all those things.  Except no maybe, it is indeed all of those things.

I haven't turned a movie so fast in a long time.  And it sucks, because Tusk was actually a really good short film!  End the movie on that money shot, even with it being awful, jokey camerawork, and you have a really good, really succinct film.  But the second half is so atrociously bad, that I can barely recommend it at all.  Watch if you are curious or thinking you could potentially like it, and once the halfway point happens, know you are in for a bumpy, terrible finish.

Grade: D+-

IHAO on ... Pizza Hut Random Pizza!

PIZZA IS WONDERFUL!  Anyone who thinks otherwise is wrong.  And that is the end.  Cheese, dough, tomatos, and all sorts of amazing toppings, in a bunch of incredible combinations, in a bunch of styles, from super thick to super thin to pretzel crusts to sausage and cheese stuff to regular, all of it is glorious.  I mean, some of the toppings I don't like, but even the worst toppings on a pizza are just a small price to pay for the gloriousness that is pizza.  Just throw those mushrooms or black olives or whatever harmful veggie or meat you dislike away, because there is so much to love!

My love of pizza has been longstanding.  Most kids my age loved pizza because of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but I do believe I liked the TMNT because I loved pizza.  Pizza was as close to a religion in my household growing up as a circular food-based entity could be.  Every Tuesday we would jump into my Dad's Dodge Ram and drive to the now defunct and empty Mazzios' pizza, which was the best pizza I ever had, for their buffet dinner.  I learned about great music like Boston, Journey, and Queen there on their jukebox, and was filled with dreams of Samurai Showdown and every changing but always the same pinball games, as well as Puzzle Bobble, which was my favorite game and the only one my parents would let me waste my money one.  Probably why I got so good at puzzle games, to not waste quarters between slices of wonderful pizza.  My father would irritate the waitresses, which he always knew by name, by singing "When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie."  He did that for years.  Still does in fact, 20+ years later.  Eventually, Mazzios' closed down, because the world is unfair and everything is awful.

I grew up, I became older, but I continued my deep-down-in-my-stomach romance with pizza pie.  I'd eat it at lunch in middle school and high school as much as possible.  My father moved on to getting Little Caeser's for us about once a week (not quite that often, unfortunately) and we'd watch a movie or wrestling or maybe one of Mom's hour-long dramas on CBS.  Church had pizza dinner for kids all through those years every Wednesday, and with a Dominos right across the street from the church, our youth group had it just as often.  There were a lot of pounds gained during this period of life, and there would be many more.

I went to college, and the pizza just ... wasn't the same.  It wasn't as good, my love wasn't as high, everyone ate Papa John's which I always disliked, and I just couldn't find a pizza I loved.  Until Pizza Inn, which is apparently what Mazzios' was a named franchise of!  I found it, I loved it, I went weekly once again, maybe more.  But life happened, things changed, and I was forced to move back to my hometown.  Now, I have a roommate that makes pizza and every now and again, nowhere near the weekly I'd love, we feast on Pizza Hut pizza.  The online prices are incredible, and I never order from his pizza, because that's rude.  And sometimes, a pizza gets messed up, so free-zza!

My life and pizza are intertwined.  I carry 210ish pounds of proof, maybe more, I don't know how much bones weigh.  So why talk about it all now?  Well, that roommate is a lover of randomness.  He decides everything either through randomness or through routine.  He is an odd duck, but he did come up with a brilliant idea for New Year's Eve: random pizzas.

He put all the crust types in a randomizer, all the toppings in a randomizer, and all the finishers that Pizza Hut just added into a randomizer, then gets a crust, three toppings, and two finishers.  And we had two Random Pizzas.  And they were fabulous!  The first was a meatball, ham, and spinach pizza with a honey barbeque sauce, regular crust, with pretzel finishing and asiago cheese.  Glorious.  The second sounds like a real pizza that could be one menu: green peppers, jalapenos, bacon, all on a medium buffalo sauce, thin sliced (a new amazing thing I never heard of between thin and regular), covered in honey sriarcha sauce and Ginger Boom Boom dusting the crust.  That was my favorite, so spicy and glorious.  I was in heaven.  And it'll be a thing we do more often!

Not only that, you should try it!  Have a party about it!  Tell me in the comments if you do it, I would love to hear it!  Facebook it, tumble it, link me along with it so I can see!  Let's all have fun with a random pizza!  How?  By coming to my roommate's Pizza Hut at Thomas Crossroads in Coweta County, GA.  Or make the random lists yourself using random.org, it's easy!  I want #randompizza to be a thing!  Fill up your instagrams, as well as your bellies!

Arbitrary Numbers: Top # Super Sentai Theme Songs

Go go Power Rangers!

You just heard the guitar riff, didn't you?  I am pretty sure everyone, no matter who they are or what their taste is in entertainment, gets a rush of pure unadulterated AWESOME when the original Power Rangers theme plays.  It is one of the greatest theme songs of all time.  Theme songs do a lot for a show.  Ducktales, Rescue Rangers, Talespin, Disney has it figured out.  Lots of shows did, I mean come on, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

But today, I'm going to talk about another show.  A show that has lasted for 39 years, with the newest 39th Super Sentai series starting THIS YEAR!  It is about ninjas, the third Sentai about ninjas in fact, and my excitement over watching ToQger currently and watching Gokaiger with my wife that has gotten me all atizzy about the other Super Sentai themes.  Why?  Because they are flipping awesome, that's why!  But how can I share that with you?  Well, with an arbitrary list that counts down all my favorites I wanna talk about!  I am going to countdown my favorites sentai themes, and even better, link them to you, then create a playlist so you can listen to my favorites ... or just listen to all of them, because they are all on youtube!  I have them running on my computer as I write articles, as I begin my new exercise regime, and even on CDs I made for the car!

There are 39 main themes because I'm not going to include the additional themes, mostly because then ToQ #6 awesome harmonica theme would win downright; and while I could rank all 39 of them, that would take forever, and that's not really a list ... I mean, it IS a list by the strict definition of what a list is, but it isn't an internet list, which is about giving you a smattering of information so that you are titillated enough to check the stuff out yourself.  So here is my criteria for how a song gets on my list:
 - Catchiness, or as I like to call it Get-Stuck-In-Your-Head-itude
 - AWESOMENESS, or pure power and sheer musical might
 - a lack of lameness; or the "no little kids singing"
 - Great on its own, or the "you don't have to like Sentai or this series to like this song"

Ok, here we go, my ...

TOP 9 SUPER SENTAI THEME SONGS

Dairanger

The song starts out with this crazy old school theremin sound until it gets into its groove and the "whoa whoa whoa whoa."  This song isn't one that's going to murder you with awesome, no, and that is why it is on the bottom of my favorites list, but it is absolutely a catchy piece with this fantastic groove, silly drumkit beat.  It is a nice lead-in and gets stuck in my head every now and again.  I'll just be wandering around Wal Mart or Kroger or wherever, doing mundane nothing like grocery shopping and I'll just start going "whoa whoa whoa whoa."  That's how I knew it had to be represented on this list.

Gokaiger

You never forget your first.  This song is bright, happy, and fully orchestrated, which I always love.  It is simple and catchy and fun.  Watching the show I wanted it to be more pirate-y sounding, and that is probably my biggest critique of the song, that it fits as a great Sentai theme, but not as a great Sentai theme for the only pirate Sentai there has been.  This is the kind of thing you can expect from most Sentai, just a bright and happy song.  Until we get into the more awesome and the catchier ones!

Denjiman

I would be remiss to not put a theme song from the early years, and Denjiman is absolutely the one!  With its trumpets and real cool bass beat.  It is also another great one to sing a long with.  It reminds me of "Where There's a Whip, There's a Way" which is a fabulous song in its own rights.  It has this wonderful 70s feel to it, and while that is dated, as I almost always saying, dated =/= bad.  This is a time capsule of a cool groovin' song.  Denji-, denjiman, denji-, denjiman!

GoGoV

I love feeling like a hero!  In fact, stay tuned, because next week there will be a new playlist review just like the Saddest and Happiest songs I did not too long ago, based on Triumphant songs!  And I would be shocked if some of these didn't make the list, because this one and one a few steps higher absolutely take the cake for feeling like a HERO!  The swell of the music, the orchestra moving at a fever pitch, the lead singer belting out his heroic intentions!

One of the things that makes me happiest is a nice epic build.  And GoGoV has an incredible build up to the second chorus: SAVE THE EARTH!  SAVE THE LIVES!  I sing that at the top of my lungs and it makes me feel just absolutely epic.  Not as epic as other songs, but it does the job for me.  I considered starting the list here, but the other songs kept getting stuck in my head, so I had to include them.  And I wasn't going to not mention this one.

SAVE THE EARTH!  SAVE THE LIVES!

Go-Onger

I talked about Power Rangers RPM not too terribly long ago, and how much I hated how ashamed the show felt of its silliness, trying to hide the inherent silly nature of the Sentai they used with its "dark and mature" story, which I ultimately felt failed.  Go-Onger

If you need more proof, a friend walked in as I wrote this article, and she immediately started dancing.  Immediately.  Because of just the song.  She doesn't know anything about the source material or the style of show, but she does know she liked this song.  Boom boom bom bom, Go-Onger!

Timeranger

Remember how I talked about epicness with GoGoV?  Timeranger is on this list because it is supremely epic.  It murders epic, buries its corpse, and yet a bigger more awesome Groot tree rises where the seeds of epicness were buried, alive and well, bring awesomeness and epic brilliance to everyone around him as his epicness saves the entire galaxy!

Timeranger's theme is also the only song with a female lead, and it starts in English, which helps me get into it as an American.  It isn't a requirement, as the next three will show you, but it really does help.  I love the swell of the music, the amazing choir, the squealing electric guitar, the amazing organ music ... it is just a smorgasbord of great music!

Hurricanger

We have now entered the super fricking fun and catchy section!  The top 3 are all the most ridiculous energetic and catchy songs I've heard as themes.  They are right up there with Ducktales and Rescue Rangers.  These are themes that transcend language and show.  They are songs we should be listening to all the time for fun, to work out, to cook, to clean, to sleep, to do everything!

Hurricanger is an inherently more hilarious song, with its silly beat and sound effects, sounding like the scoring was created in Mario Paint, and just an incredibly bubbly song and lyrics that are super singable, it is a great song.  I really cannot get enough of it.  The reason it does reach the top is it doesn't get me as pumped as the next to, and is nowhere near as serious with its ridiculous apprentice DJ soundboard music.

ToQger

RAINBOW TRAINS POWERED BY IMAGINATION, WITH A BASICALLY SKA SONG AS THEIR THEME SONG!  It doesn't fail like Gokaiger did, not sound like its theme, as you can always here the train track-styled rhythm all throughout.  It has some seriously great music going on, too, like a really great second verse that is actually different sounding than the first.  I know they are different words in most of these themes, but musically they all tend to be V-C-V-C-B-C, and that's all.  But the second verse for ToQger has this amazingly cool kinda punky-ska drum breakdown before it gets back into the chorus.  I really truly love this song.  There is only one reason that it isn't number 1, and that's because of a language barrier that I'll eventually conquer.  But what if there was a song just as hype and rocking, but I actually get the schtick of the Japanese without it having to slip into English for me to understand it?  Hmmm .....

Shinkenger

A cool traditional Japanese sound evolves into the most blood pumping, sweat inducing rock song, just ... ever!  With its background chorus of "chan-bara-chan-bara" I can always sing along even when I don't quite know the words, I can sing every word of the chorus because it is simple enough and catchy enough and even better clear enough that I learned it no problem.  This is the song I leave on repeat over and over as I do my new workout regime.  I feel like a rocking hero all the time and just work and work and never grow tired as this song blasts along!  It is a dense song musically, with a lot of melodies, counter melodies, and really tight harmonies all throughout, some of it modern rock, some of it updated traditional sounding Japanese musical.  It keeps its themes of the show, reinforces them, and is fantastically musical in nature.  I love the song.  I loved the song before I started caring about Sentai at all.  And that absolutely means something to me!

There we are!  All nine.  I could talk about so many more, like Go-Busters or Kakuranger, but these are the ones I'm limiting this article to.  And like I promised, here is a fantastic playlist, in order, or my nine favorites!  Give it a listen, and enjoy these songs, which truly are for everyone, Sentai lover or not.

TOP # Super Sentai Theme Songs Playlist

IHAO on ... Slings and Arrows

I love finding obscure, cool, movies and television shows.  It is part of the reason I collect, it is part of the reason I love to host, and it is definitely a reason why I enjoy writing these reviews for this site.  I go scouring the internet for cool things all the time, hoping to find more nuggets than garbage.  And I found one.  One that isn't even that hard to find yourself, and for some of my readers I think just may be the right show for you.

Slings and Arrows is very similar to an Aaron Sorkin show.  It is a hour-long comedy-drama that tells the difficulties of the actors, producers, executive stuaff, directors, and everyone else at a Shakespeare festival in Canada, all based around the major production of that year.  The first season focuses on Hamlet, the second on Macbeth, and the third on King Lear.  Beyond that, the show itself is Shakespearean in nature as well, with Shakespearean plots and character archetypes being filled all through the show.  There's even a ghost!

Much like I praised Birdman because of its incredible way of showing the inner-workings of a production of a show, Slings and Arrows does very similar, but with more overarching themes and plots like a Sorkin show.  It is superbly acted by Paul Gross as our leading man, playing a truly mad director with a passion for theatre.  He is surrounded by incredible actors, including two of the show's creators and writers, Susan Coyne, who you may not know but will really enjoy and Mark McKinney (you probably know him from SNL and Kids in the Hall).

It is hard to talk about how good the show is.  But that's absolutely my job, so let me try.  The show's characters all care about one thing: showing truth and emotion through the words written by William Shakespeare.  And that singular care makes the show alive with emotion.  There is humor and romance and terror and tragedy and villainous schemes and heroic plans and ends just like every Shakespearean comedy, with a wedding.  With only six episodes a season, the entire collection is absolutely worth searching out if you have any love of theatre, especially a theatre's inner workings and plots.  I very much recommend the show to everyone who loves drama and just ... good shows.

((-=-))

Hey ... everybody, guess what?  We're finally on Facebook!  Come on over and LIKE US right here!  Get all your updates guaranteed!  Share it around so we can get more fans!  It'll be Keane!

IHAO on ... Everything-Else of the Year 2014

Get ready, this is a long one!

Welp, you guys did it.  You guys took a thing and made it more than mostly ridiculous.  It is a terrible list that is worth no one’s time, and I’m going to give you exactly what you asked for!  It is going to be ridiculous, but honest as best as I can.  The only things I will not be answering from the enormous list of “of the years” will be anything that is not actually an opinion but a fact I can look up.  I’ll also randomize these, and I couldn’t remember who gave me these at all.  So let’s do this.

“Most Wonderful Time” of the year 2014

Christmas is great, as is Halloween, but I can absolutely state that the most wonderful time of the year is early December afternoons, when the sky is grey and the weather is chill, when the breeze is hard and slow.  That is always the most wonderful.  I love it, and always will.

“Meal” of the year 2014

I’ve eaten a lot of meals this year.  On average probably 1.7 a day.  There have been a lot of things made by me and others that have been pretty outstanding, but for me, the meal of this year was a month or so ago at Moe’s.  The health inspector had just come and was giving notes, so I got my Wrong Doug with the grilled green peppers ABSOLUTELY PERFECT.  I have never had one as good as I did that day when Drew and I randomly decided to go early.

“D&D character (in games I’ve run or been a part of this year)” of the year 2014

I am currently running two Dungeons and Dragons games.  I hope to be running a third World of Darkness game soon as well.  Of the two games, to pick a single character would be hard, but I bet you my players would absolutely agree that the character of the year is Livbl, a snake-oil salesman from a chaotic swamp town we spent awhile in.  He was a scam artist, everyone knew it, but they kept letting his charm and work ethic win them over until eventually one of the players bought out every potion this flim-flam artist was selling in one big swoop.

“Seasoning/spice” of the year 2014

Paprika.  From Wal Mart.

“Episode of television” of the year 2014

There are only two television shows I watch at all currently that aren’t wrestling or sentai.  And they both had an AMAZING midseason finale … so I’m going with both of those.  Flash s01e09 and Arrow s03e09.  Both were incredible, and both shows continue to be my favorite shows in recent memory.  Flash is currently a little better than Arrow as a whole, but I love both of these episodes equally.

“Theft” of the year 2014

I was real worried that I wouldn’t have anything for this category, but luckily my good friend Jason helped me out by getting his car window smashed and some stuff stolen.  Don’t worry or feel bad though, he is in surprisingly good spirits about it.  It was a nail-biter, but this one just made it in time.

“Death” of the year 2014

Absolutely it is the devastating loss of the Ultimate Warrior.  You can read about it here, and I quote his final promo in my Wrestling of the Year article as well.

“Day” of the year 2014

May 23^rd

“Video Performance by Beyonce” of the year 2014

I am not a Beyonce fan.  That is to say, I don’t listen to her music or watch her videos.  But I am a fan of other artists, and do watch their videos, and one of them happens to be a Beyonce one, which is probably the only video I watched that had anything to do with Beyonce this year, so itwins by default.  

“Betrayal” of the year 2014

Oh goodness.  Ok, so I’ve sat here for probably two hours stuck on this one.  I still have … 34 more of these to answer for the year, and I have quite honestly no idea at all.  I mean, I guess I need to go with … no, you know what, I’ll go a little more subtle than what I was planning.  I’m going with Adrian Neville’s betrayal of his friendship to Sami Zayn as he fought to retain his championship.  Adrian got as close to heel as a face could ever get without actually becoming a full-fledged bad guy, called his best friend unworthy and not good enough, and allowed himself to, while never cheating, bend the rules of matches in a way that is absolutely a betrayal of his own virtues and his friendship and competitive spirit with Sami Zayn.  There we go.

“World Event” of the year 2014

Bah.  Ummm … let’s go with the entire North Korea/The Interview debacle.  That was ridiculous here in the states, but also across the world.  I don’t know if affected anyone else around the world, but it is certainly a crazy event.

“Best Hamming/Worst Hamming” of the year 2014

Worst is easy.  Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber To, which as I posted yesterday, was the worst film for me of the year.  He was an awful caricature of himself, constantly chewing the scenary and mugging for the camera.  Best Hamming … The Rock’s social media comedy.  He is ridiculous and fun and hilarious and shout-outs to all sorts of people and is just he smiley-est and dopey-est enormous Hercules of a dude.  Good work, Dwayne.

“Engaged couple (wink wink hint hint nudge nudge please pick Poseph)” of the year 2014

Some of the inside jokes and requests here are a little more subtle.  Like, it isn’t so obvious that Michael Collins asked about “hamming.” But Paige is being pretty daggum obvious.  So I guess I’ll have to pick … Joge!  BOOOM!  That’s right, I’m using a different abbreviation of your names that ends up sounding like a stupid meme that I hate!  Much whatever, stupid joke, don’t do it right.

“Inside joke that no one else will know except the person who was part of it and will confuse everyone cuz im not even gona explain it or give any names” of the year 2014

Potato stockings, bra.  Potato stockings.

“Catchphrase” of the year 2014

S. A. W. F. T.  Saaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwwwwwwft!

“Dog” of the year 2014

P-chan, my wonderful pug, will always win this award until the unfortunate year she is no longer with us, in which I will retire this category to never be used again.

“Figure of Speech” of the year 2014

It is hard to describe, but a really stupid thing we end up doing in my household is to just mangle and ruin words in the worst possible way.  Such as “Daniel” becomes “Dangus.”  “Drew” becomes “Drewbii.”  “Melanie” becomes “Melalaualulalll.”  It is awful.  And we do it all the time.  So yeah, that.

“Piece of Mail I received” of the year 2014

Uh … I mean, I’ve order a bunch of cool stuff for the site and for myself.  And I know for a fact that the thing I am always the most excited to get is the next One Piece Collection for my DVD set!  I have the first 10, all of which I got this year, and it has become a favorite show of mine! I talked about it on the site in fact RIGHT HERE!  And COLLECTION 11 comes out in January!!!  So yeah, those.  Well, I have to pick one, so I’ll say that the one I was most excited for was Collection 4.

“’Of the Year’ list” of the year 2014

This one.

“Thing I hated” of the year 2014

Man, there are probably a lot of things I fumed and cussed and moaned about this year.  Most of the times it is things on this site, like the Batman review or Interstellar.  But the thing I think I hated most this year was the crop of memes that became popular right at the end of the year, especially the abstract frog feeling thing.  Ugh.

“Kabuki” of the year 2014

Uh … I mean, I watch a LOT of stuff, but … the closest I can say is Ressha Sentai ToQger, I suppose, since it is a Japanese art form like Kabuki.  I love it so much, and other sentai so much, that I’m think about starting a new series about it all.  I’ll talk about it more next year.

“Comedian” of the year 2014

This one is hard.  Wait, no it isn’t.  It is totally gonna be my (soon to be) good friend Paul!  He came and did a ten minute set for the best improve show that myself and the rest of the troupe I am in did, and he performed to his largest audience yet, which is amazingly cool!  He is real funny, and is working hard to be great at comedy.  I need to do something with him next year.  Maybe something … wrestling related.  Maybe something … podcast related.  Hmmm …

“Best class played (in Dungeons and Dragons)” of the year 2014

All right, this one is fun.  In my two campaigns, these are the break downs of the classes:

-          The Books of Eight Campaign: Invoker, Thief, Gypsy, Druid/Thief, Shaman, Fighter, Cleric (deceased)

-          Dunesko: Mirager, Fighter, Cleric/Thief, Necromancer, Bard

There isn’t a lot of overlap, especially considering how drastically different the two fighters are.  But really, my favorite class played currently is Shaman, which doesn’t work like most classes as you cannot cast quickly, you have to plan things out and ask favors of spirits, until you become more powerful and can chance doing an immediate calling.

Oh, wait, it says “best.”  Yeah, I love utility classes, but Shaman is definitely not the best, no offense to Alanthelis “Drew” Turner.  The class I think is the best, as in most effective and as a DM is the one I have the hardest time to plan around, is Druid.  Druid OP, what can I say. 

“Awkward Moment” of the year 2014

I have moments that were awkward for a lot of reasons, but none I really want to talk about or think top out the year.  The most awkard moment I can think of was very early in the year when, during an improve show, I made a “blue” joke.  A very funny one, too, but it was exceedingly off-color, and it bothered a few people, though none of the people that it could have bothered.  Yeah, it was a race joke.  And the guys I talked to of the race loved it.  But it still bothered enough people that I was told about it.  And I then had to go and talk to the parents of the kids I teach improve to every year and apologize.  That was rough.  Luckily, not a single parent cared, thought I did anything bad, or thought I was a bad influence on their kid.  Or at least, not THAT bad.  Ok, so maybe a few, but it didn’t actually hurt my standing with any of the parents or the kids, and that was what I was most worried about.  It was not an easy moment, and absolutely taught me that while I personally believe there is no such things as an “off limits joke,” when I teach kids, I need to make sure I am a little more above reproach if I want to continue to work with those kids, and if I want to move up the ranks in the theatre.

“Confession” of the year 2014

Does this mean I need to confess something?  I mean, I could be scandalous I suppose.  Or is this a thing that was confessed already and should be remembered for it?  Uhh … I’m going to go with the later, because I’ll probably lose at least one friend if I make a confession I was thinking about doing.  Of the confessions that have already happened … OH, a friend confessed to me that he hated it when people use his last name as his name or nickname and I hadn’t known it for YEARS and had not only been doing it, but had gotten other people doing it to.  That was … I mean, that’s a big confession that made me realize I need to be a little better with that kind of thing.  We are better friends now.  :D

“Albino” of the year 2014

This albino pug:

“Game” of the year 2014

Hey!  That’s a real category and not a joke one!  I can totally answer that for reals because I play some games and I like to review things!

The game that epitomized the year 2014 to me was Twitch Plays Pokemon.  It showed a fascinating love of the games, all building up to the newest generation and the newest remake of an old generation.  It got people talking about and playing pokemon again, including me.  Even more, it was a MASSIVE shared experience that created some great story through the random elements of the game because of the way the game worked.  Seriously, check out this write up of the entire story of the game series.  It is fascinating!  

“#swagsockwednesday” of the year 2014

Ok, so looking at the hashtag on tumblr, my favorite one is this one:

And that’s because I bought those for him.  Boom, I’m great.  Go me.

“Protest” of the year 2014

Everything in Ferguson.  Just, all of it.  Cops suck.

“Fruit” of the year 2014

I want to make a joke and put a gay guy, but I’m going to actually answer this correctly.  The fruit of the year here at IHAO has to be … apples, I guess.

“Movie Trailer (for a film I have not yet seen)” of the year 2014

Seventh Son!  That looks like a frickin’ awesome fantasy movie with tons of action and magic and monster and it just looks so cool!  I’m so tired of Tolkien and even more so Peter Jackson styled epic fantasy films, and Seventh Son looks great and new and interesting!  WOOOOO!!

“Cornucopia” of the year 2014

I think my mother-in-law had one she put on her dining room table around Thanksgiving, so I guess that one.

“Character Death” of the year 2014

Absolutely, the one that sticks with me the most this year is from John Wick.  I cannot say who it is, what happens, or any of that, but it was crazy emotional and has stuck with me even to this point.

“Ninja Space Cowboy” of the year 2014

Space Dandy

“Least Noteworthy Performance” of the year 2014

See, this one is hard, because this is quite literally me giving a note to the performance here.  I could cop out now and say I can’t answer it because of that, but nah, I’m going to actually try.  I suppose I’m going to give it to … there was a blonde actress in an episode of Flash that worked with Iris who I think got one line about how Barry would make a good boyfriend or something.  Yeah, her.

“Plot Twist” of the year 2014

The midseason finale to Arrow.

“Choice Make Out Sesh” of the year 2014

May 23^rd

“Color” of the year 2014

Interesting … I think I need to go with brown.  Like, shoe-leather brown. 

“Campaign slogan” of the year 2014

“Vote for Me”

“Most unexpected compliment” of the year 2014

My self-opinion is not very pleasant.  And on top of it, I don’t take compliments well.  They make me nervous and anxious and those words are synonyms.  But I got a compliment from a friend that just rekindled our friendship about my skill level and where I could go in the future that really touched me, profoundly.  I may be 30, but I still think of myself as young for whatever reason, mostly because I mean that as a negative, like I don’t have as much worth as other folks.  So it was just incredibly kind, and really shaped my decision on where I wanted to move forward in my life.  So yeah, that one.

“Worst film” of the year 2014

Dumb and Dumber To

“Best non-CGI effect” of the year 2014

This one is a hard one, because I’ve seen a lot of good films this year, but most effects work is now in CGI land.  And the thing that stands out to me is actually from Guardians of the Galaxy … the costuming and makeup for most of the cast.  It was shocking, seeing behind the scenes footage, or how much of the look of this movie was completely legitimate.  Awesome stuff.

And the last and final category of this year …

“Socks” of the year 2014

My wonderful wife got me LootCrate, and I was happy as all heaven to get it!  Even better, it had GROOT SOCkS in there!  The socks are cool, comfortable, and were a hug surprise as well as a present.  Those are the socks that win, absolutely.

All right everyone, thank you for reading my silly inane list of reader suggested categories.  And I want to say to all of you thank you for reading what I’m putting out there.  You guys taking your time to read, share, and comment keep me going and working hard at this, and have really helped me want to push myself further, with better articles, more constant updates, and more features and specials that I can share with everyone.  Thank you all.  I hope you have a great New Year’s Eve, and I will see you all on Monday with the first review of the new year!