5/28/19 Pokemon Detective Pikachu? (Movie)

    Maybe because it is fairly inexpensive at EVO, maybe it's because Wife was home an extra night, or maybe everything is starting to fill normal like it was four years ago.  Either way, we went to the movies on Friday to watch John Wick and then we went back to watch the Pikachu movie.  I was blown away by the John Wick movie.  Pikachu is a better memory than a movie star.
    I have always liked Pikachu, he is fearless, fights for right and is a tough little guy that refuses to morph into a bigger and "better" version, at least in the cartoons of ten years ago.  This Pikachu had amnesia, couldn't strike up his lightning weapons, and was kind of a whiner.
    The story starts with a kid who is estranged from his dad and his mom has passed away, so he is kind of a loner/weirdo.  Most everyone in this world has a Pokémon as a partner, from kids to adults.  A city has been created where that doesn't have to be the case and Pokémon and man can coexist in the same space without ownership and more importantly, no fighting.  The kid gets a call that his father is presumed dead, he has gone missing after his car was struck off the road by a lightning blast.  After getting to the dad's apartment, he encounters the Pikachu who knows he is his father's Pokémon because the hat he wears says so.  He remembers he is a detective, so he starts doing detective work to figure out what happened.
    Of course, there is a bad guy.  This one is trying to use the Pokémon to live forever.  I have to admit I started feeling sleepy in this one right away.  I hadn't thought it would be a kid's movie, I don't know why, but there were too many kids in the audience for me.  Javalina was seated next to me and every time I closed my eyes, maybe I started snoring and it was pissing him off to the point of elbowing me every five minutes which annoyed the crap out of me.  I then stood by the entrance to fight off the sleepiness and the movie never got much better than that.  In the end, the kid learns to appreciate the Pokémon, they save the world, and the kid gets the girl.
    It was a little cliché, but again, it was for kids.

5/27/19 Busy Start To The Summer?

    This was an especially busy weekend mostly focused on Javalina and his transferring from middle to high school.  It started on Thursday when he had a ceremony at their gymnasium.  My folks came into town to be a part of the festivities, even though we were unsure what would transpire.  Javalina did not want to stay afterward and enjoy cake and soda, so we took a couple of pictures and vamoosed over to Cheddar's.  For some reason, there weren't many people, yet we ended up waiting almost a half hour before we sat.  We got home around 8:00pm, I took an almost hour long nap and went to work.
    Friday was just as hectic.  I took Javalina to school around 8:00am, and then stayed up with my folks until around 10:30am-11:00am.  I figured I didn't need a full 6+ hours sleep since I was off at night, I could go to sleep early, but 4:00pm came fast and before I knew it, we were picking him up and going to Bill Miller's for our last after school meal.  I figured it was the proper meal as we had eaten there most every week for the last three years, sometimes twice a week.  Wife wasn't in town at this point, but my mom joined us.  we discussed about going to the movies at night to see John Wick, which my mom wanted to see too.  Wife showed up, ordered the tickets online and we waited, I think I even took an hour ow two long nap.  The movie didn't start until 10:10pm.  As I said before, it was a great movie, it did not disappoint.
    Saturday morning found Javalina going to band practice at 8:00am.  We had decided to get up that early to take him and then eat with my folks at the Luby's all you can eat breakfast buffet.  My parent's enjoyed the meal, even paid for the breakfast which was very nice of them.  After the big breakfast, we came home and they took off back to Crystal.  I had fired up the pool pumps as he was supposed to have a get together with his buddies, but after picking him up, he looked beat.  His friends also must have been busy with family, as most of them said it would be hard to come sleep over.  It worked out for the best.  We were beat and I pretty much slept the rest of the day.  Javalina did the same thing once he got home from the band camp. He looked drained and Wife told him to go take a nap.
    Sunday was kind of  a lazy day until the afternoon when I decided it was time to go get the squat rack I have been promising Javalina.  We went to Dick's Sporting Goods and got the rack, a weight holder and a new set of weights for the rack.  The night ended with another trip to the movies, this time we saw Pokémon Detective Pikachu back at EVO.  The movie was not great, but I did enjoy watching the different Pokémon come to life.
   I did get up early today to set up the squat rack so it wouldn't sit in a box all week.  All we need now is some free time so Javalina can get on the weights.

5/26/19 John Wick: Chapter 3- Parabellum

    Our greasy, stinky hero continues amassing the body count.  I don't think anyone else has killed as many people with their hands as John Wick has.  This movie was a lot of the same, choreographed dancing down hallways and corridors with kill shots to the head and mists of blood.  I did enjoy the whole new way of killing in the first bloody challenge in a museum full of old guns and knives.  The guns seemed useless as they all kept jamming when he tried to use them, but a good old knife is a good old useful weapon.  By the time he was done, the handful of challengers were laying on the floor with a six pack of blades coming out of them from all over.  Almost comically, as the last one alive sits up and pulls one of the many knives out of his torso, John Wick delivers a sharp axe to the head, splitting his head in two from across the room.  There is so much violence, but it doesn't register as bad because the bad guys are all one dimensional.  We don't know them,  they don't even talk.  The one that does talk, Zero (bald headed Master of Kung Fu) becomes instantly likable.  He is a huge fan of John Wick and almost talks like he would rather be his friend.  We walked out hoping he would come back as an ally in the next movie, as he fell over with a knife in his chest.
    The first kill scene was actually in the library.  Some dark humor has been added to the movies, I noticed.  The guy trying to kill him seems like an old friend and John doesn't necessarily want to kill him, but he has no choice.  His only weapon at this point is a book and he uses it to break this giant of a man.  First he asks the big guy if he is sure if he wants to do this.  The big guy says I kind of have to, it's $14 million (the bounty on Wick's head).  He says ok, and they proceed to fight.  When Wick starts grunting, the big guy "shushes" him because they are in a library.  Eventually, Wick breaks his jaw by shoving the book in his mouth and then breaks his neck, using the book as a lever.
    After awhile, he negotiates for safe passage from a gypsy lady, saying he is one of them and they are brothers while holding a heavy cross to her face.  This leads him across the world to maybe India or one of those dark places.  He meets the Halle Berry character who after shooting him once or twice decides to help get him close enough to an important character.  He wants to talk to the head of the group that wants him dead.  By this point he has probably killed another hundred guys or so.  The Halle Berry character has two dogs who work in unison with her guns.  She seems to shoot high and they attack low to move forward under heavy cover.  The dogs were kind of amazing.  In one scene there is a guy on the roof and she does a whistle, bends over a little and the dog bounces off her back up onto the roof to attack the gun yielder.
    Funny enough, they end up back in New York at the Continental.  The Adjudicator (not likable in any way) has deemed the hotel "Deconsecrated", so I guess it means no one is safe there anymore.  This in turn makes Winston back to Wick's best supporter, to help keep him alive.  In a scene which doesn't seem related, the Adjudicator also does a similar thing to the Laurence Fishburne character as she attempts to strip him of his power.  This only emboldens Fishburne's The Bowery King who in the very end finds Wick at his hands and he gives him safe harbor at the end of the movie as they prepare for war (definition of parabellum) against those who sit at the top.  I personally loved Keanu and Laurence together as a nod to The Matrix.

5/25/19 Pumping Iron? Nope, Come Out And March?

    The school is dead, long live the school.  Something like that.  Javalina hasn't even changed out his underwear he wore on the last day of school from Bedichek Middle School, he still wants to sit and reflect with his buddies tonight, but the high school sounds like it will be a harsh mistress with a volatile temper.  They start band practice in less than two hours (I am writing this at 7:30am), Wife got an email yesterday afternoon.  He has already been on the campus twice for testing, which knowing the ego on the boy, he managed to squeeze this intel "dad, I walked around the campus while testing and I didn't see any boys bigger than me, so I will probably be on the varsity team this year."  The boy's ego appears to be bigger than mine.  Last night we saw the third installment of John Wick, who is a total bad ass character for Keanu Reeves.  The first thing our Dumb-Dumb says coming out of the theater is "I could beat him."
    I love the confidence on him, but I do worry it is going to get his husky ass in trouble with the older peeps in high school.  But, back to band, the email says they will be learning how to march and spending a good part of the day there, from 9:00am to around 4:00pm.  Football is more intense and physical, but nobody puts in more hours than band kids for their output.  He is supposed to take a half gallon of water, and some money to go eat there at the Dairy Queen or Conan's Pizza which are a half block off campus.  I guess if he gets friendly with someone with a car, they could go a tad farther, but it would be a lot to expect on the first day.
    He will also be assigned his instrument today, so he might even be bringing a new (to him) bari sax to the house.  I think it is awesome that he is still playing it, of course he has to bring in new reeds, but luckily for that, I had bought him a box of quality reeds which just sat in the kitchen drawer all year.  I used one to show him I could still play the saxophone better than him, and he did not like that.
    I am actually a little excited for this early start into high school life.  I am hoping it leads to new and cool relationships with all sorts of new people which should lead for an easier transition to a new environment.  By August, he will know a good handful of kids which should have his back in case his mouth gets him in trouble. although he tends to be very smooth and usually he seems to be playing moderator between his buddies.  Once we start adding in the boys from football practice, his plate should be full as far as meeting new people, and making new friends.
    He also has all these kids which are coming over today which are the main reason he chose Crockett over Akins High School.  Wife was also talking about him having a summer book reading list and if he didn't bother reading all of it, he won't be kept on the advanced track he has been placed into.  It is all on him and his attitude.  This could be the most exciting time of his life or he could be miserable over the next four years as it does appear a lot will be expected from our young hero.

5/24/19 A Touching Farewell Ruined By Balloons?

    This afternoon Javalina had a ceremony at his school to commemorate finishing his middle school studies and thereby signaling he has matriculated to the next step of life, high school.  It was almost touching, the assistant Principal sure was trying to pull a tear or two from the crowd with her box of tissues and bag o' quotes about success and perseverance from important people like Gandhi "Be the change that you want to see in the world." (very good), to pop stars Beyoncé "Be healthy and take care of yourself.  But be happy with the beautiful things that make you you." (meh).  It was all good, for the first time in the three years I showed up for events at that gymnasium, they even fired up the air conditioners, so it was even comfortable temperature wise, even with close to 1000 Mexicans up in that big cube.
    My only problem was the amount of hollow headed women holding balloons in the crowd.  How hard is it to realize that while you hold a wad of balloons above your head, possibly, just possibly, you are ruining the line of sight of the people behind you.  But in this modern world where Me is the only person that matters, it must be easy to walk into a crowded stadium full of people with your three dollars of helium and take up the space that 4-5 people would take.  Wife and I promptly told the bimbo who sat in front of us "nope, you need to move those balloons down."  She then held those strings at the neck of the balloons, I hope she was as uncomfortable as she expected us to be.  There was another moron sitting right behind my mom who Wife told her to move her floating shit out of the way, and she did, only to push them against my mom's back.  It took a second before she turned and told her "nope, I don't want your balloons on my back."  Again, who needs fucking balloons at a graduation?
    I was bothered by the fact that Javalina has been busy with being a member in the band, played football, track and field, part of AVID, a member of the very select Einstein Jr. program and all of that didn't equal Joe Blow who volunteered to wash dogs or whatever you do when you do shit for free.  Instead, while some kids were mentioned with the principal on his knees to blow the kids that volunteered, while my son who did a lot barely managed to get his name called and then on to the next random beaner.  I would have liked to have a couple words mentioned of for example all the coaches pulled me aside throughout the year to tell me how much of a leader my son had turned into on and off the field.  I know how great my boy is, I want the world around us to know.  Ehh, asking too much, I know.

5/23/19 Motorcyclists Have All The Fun?

    I think I finally figured out how the old guard running the government works.  Bikers think they are the coolest people on the streets with their leather jackets and tiny license plates, but they are just a nice pool of future organ donors for the rest of us.  The old people in charge know they will need kidneys and livers and hearts and anything else inside a normal abdomen, but where can they harvest them without looking like grave robbers?  Enter all those cool bikers who fought to ride without their helmets.  That is one rule that has to be doubling the death rate of bikers but I think this lane splitting which I heard was coming to Texas is possibly the answer to the hospitals' needs for so many organs.  Why else would they approve something that just does not make sense?  Since when did the government decide they give a shit about anybody else but themselves?  Why would they care about motorcyclists running late to the point of letting them take a shortcut between our cars and trucks?
    The answer has to be that they are doing it to keep us stocked with plenty of biker organs.  These guys live free, die young, hopefully sign organ donor cards so when they do meet their untimely death, we all benefit.  They benefit because they were allowed to ride without a helmet which I have always heard is the best.  Now it seems like they are going to benefit by being able to cut between cars at any slow down point in rush hour or any time of day, here in Austin.  When their young time is up, society benefits from a fresh batch of organs daily, I mean their brains and limbs may be erased onto the asphalt, but the tub of organs is usually protected by the rib cage and everything else.
    I think cars and trucks are becoming too safe with their warning beeps to approaching cars or lane departures or automatic adjusting of cruise control to match traffic patterns, I mean we're not far from self driving cars, yet motorcyclists still want to be their own man.  Bless them for their kindred spirit, it helps everyone, in a morbid way.
    I saw two twenty somethings on a couple of Ruckus motorcycles (they are almost scooters) and neither had a helmet on or much clothing for that matter, the girl was in typical short shorts and a small tee.  I just got the heebee jeebees that if they cut in front of me coming at them in the Excursion, they would have just become a red streak on the road, there just wasn't anything to protect them, other than them not going at the wrong time.  I still hear about the lane splitting law which allows bikers to drive between cars when cars are at a standstill and that just screams stupid because people get bored and stupid fast.  If we are idling, it isn't long before someone opens door to spill a drink or spit or vomit.  We don't need bikers coming at us at 30-40miles per hour when we decide to open a door and take one out.

5/22/19 We Can Feel Summer Upon Us?

    Boy got done last week with his spring classes, which meant it is only a matter of time before Javalina joins him.  It started feeling like summer with him wanting to stay up later and later recently.  He has three more days before he is done.  He is getting done with all the last minute mumbo jumbo, like on Monday he went and tested at Crockett High School and we found out he passed the TSI test.  I am honestly not sure what this test does, but the boy is doing good, considering he is one of the laziest bag of bones I know when it comes to schoolwork.

    I just got his graduation gift, a nice black watch which I pretty much had let him choose.  I like giving a nice watch as a gift because they last a long time, and people that wear them just seem to have that touch of respect to the old school way of being.  I know everyone can and does look at their phones for the time, but I still maintain a nice watch is a great accessory on a man.  I was a little nervous ordering it online through Amazon, but I looked at it last night and it appears to be new in its proper box with the instruction manual and I saved over a hundred bucks if I had bought it at the mall.  I ended up getting it for $311, when I had put it on layaway the day before for $422.  There was a cheaper dealer in the Amazon page, but I didn't like one of the comments that they had received their watch unboxed and the place sounded like a sports store.  The store I chose had a 99% approval with over 10,000 customers.

    Probably this weekend, we need to go get that squat rack I have been talking about all spring.  Javalina is chomping at the bit to get into some training and If there is any way I could help him transform into a linebacker, I think that would be cool.  He keeps losing weight even though we are not dieting, he is down to 205 from around 220 without trying.  I don't think he can be an effective lineman if he gets under 200 pounds.  Either way, we got plans to work on his speed and strength and then we'll see where he lands.

    Boy is down to a government class he needs to take, possibly at ACC because he took the first one there, and about four more classes in his field and then hopefully he is graduating in the fall.  I just want him to finish. apparently he can continue with his current company but a few others have reached out too.  He is exploring to see who will pay him more, including Holt, the big road equipment company and one in New Braunfels.  It is looking pretty good on our end, if we could get big Mama home.