1. Barry Gordy’s The Last Dragon – Martial Arts/Blaxploitation/Homage to early “Chop Sockey” flicks really takes the cake as a cult classic.  Rumoured to be a remake in the works, hopefully they fit Taimak in with a cameo if not a real part.
2. By The Sword – An amazing story about overcoming  an old adversary.  An intricate plot but it is best described from IMDB:  “A mysterious man, Suba, gets himself a job at a fencing academy, and as he learns the way of the students, the school, and its maestro, they learn that there’s more to him than meets the eye. He gains (or regains?) his fencing skills and his philosophy of teaching clashes with the maestro’s. As they are thrown into conflict, Suba and the maestro’s past appear to be linked. And the resolution of their mysterious relationship may be a duel to the death.”
3. Warriors of Virtue – There’s nothing like 5 Kangaroos on wires!  A very good martial arts movie for kids that doesn’t get too kiddy and has some great lessons to be learned.
4. The Crow – Brandon Lee’s final film.  An interesting twist on the graphic novel by James O’Barr is great on it’s own, just try not to make any comparisons.
5. Mortal Kombat – Where it’s AT!  A great, campy adaptation of the “violent video game” that started the whole crusade.  Originally, the game banded soccer moms across the US to get all uppity that a fighting game that looked like blurry video tapes of old martial arts movies is a bad thing.  The movie had some great tie-in’s to the game and had a few great fights.
6. Rapid Fire – Another Brandon Lee movie.  Great action and story.  The only problem is that the movie drags a little bit at the end and feels like it should have ended even though there wouldn’t be proper closure.  Regardless, it still hits my top 10.
7. Big Trouble In Little China – Kurt Russell plays a brash American in the world of Martial Arts and Mysticism.  Hilarious and cheesy.
8. Best of the Best -  I like to call this Super Karate Kid.  Team USA vs Team Korea.  It’s pretty moving.
9. Ong Bak – Tony Jaa and the first US release showcasing that he is the real deal.  No wires.  No BS.
10. Tom Yum Goong – Another Tony Jaa flick.  Though not a very good movie (especially the US release) the epic fight in the restaurant makes up for it all!

It was just a really nice work out. 

I’m so proud of all my kids that have been working hard to really apply their skills learned.  This goes without saying that I’m especially proud of Gabrielle for going the distance and placed at both tournaments!  The drive was pretty terrible but what a weekend!

(Oh yeah, all 3 of my kids that placed at the MI vs OH are now invited to the Nationals located in California!  How am I going to afford that one??!?!)

I had inherited a 4 story house, but all the hallways were built like school halls.  They had large panes of glass to peer into the classrooms, a large expanse of lockers, tiled floor, wood doors, etc…  The only difference is that once you enter a door, it becomes a regular room to a house.

Now here’s where the hilarity ensues…

The house is completely overrun by cats.  Cats with a special needs.  They all have prolapsed anuses.  All cute and cuddly with floppy-out buttholes.  Let’s take it a step further.  Amy has the need to locate all our new feline friends to push all of their bums back in! After the first few cats that she “adjusted”, I started laughing and woke myself up.

I can’t wait for the comments on this one… 

Almost a year ago, I started P90X.  I started feeling great about myself and exchanged a good portion of my fat for muscle.  I was looking good too, I must say.    I lost much of that feel good part, kept the muscle and continued to eat like a slob and put a happy layer of fat over the top of it.  I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again:  I need to get on the stick.   I’m tired and incredibly sore.  I’ve got better form and way more experience than the white and yellow belts in the class but none of it matters if I can’t make it through the full hour.

This is my wake up call.

Time to shut down, we are almost ready to land!

Hi Fred,

Thank you for providing this valuable feedback. We would like
to extend our apologies for the disappointing experience you had with
the Trader Joe’s Orange Juice With Pulp.  We have notified our Quality
Assurance Manager and the appropriate buyer regarding your experience,
and we will continue to monitor this product for future trends. We
believe that quality is essential to good value, and that’s what we are
all about!

We also wanted to make sure you are aware of our “Product Guarantee.”
If you are dissatisfied with any product purchased in our stores, you
can take it or the empty package back for an exchange or full refund.
Unfortunately we are unable to process refunds here form the office. So
we encourage you on your next visit to one o four locations to take the
packaging or receipt with you and the store can assist you with an
exchange or refund.

At Trader Joe’s, we are always striving to improve, and your comments
give us the opportunity to do just that. Thank you!

Sincerely,
Tiffany
Trader Joes
Customer Relations

THANK YOU TIFFANY AND EVERYONE ELSE AT TRADER JOES!

If you are asking that, then you should go back and read the title of this post because it’s like Clarissa:  It explains it all.  If that doesn’t work, maybe my quick note to them on their website will fill in the blanks:

I purchased a tall carton of your OJ w/ Extra Pulp on my last trip down to your Rochester Hills, MI location.  As always, the flavor is delicious and is one of the sole reasons I make the pilgrimage as often as possible.  I enjoy the quality and quantity of pulp in your product as both components are above and beyond all others I have had in the past.  My issue is this…  The current carton was opened this morning on my way out to work and when I sat at my desk, I found that my tumbler is devoid of anything pulp related. This would be OK if I didn’t drive 90 miles, 1 way, to buy your products. What can we do to fix this?

Right now, all I have in return is their automated emailer giving me their response to sit tight.  I’ll put up any responses as they come in.

At least it’s not this…

So I’m starting a new thing on my site to help keep me active with posting again.  I am categorising them as “A Fair Shake”.   What I’m going to be doing is watching the first episode of an Anime series regardless of how it sucks.  Once I’ve put myself through it, I put up my review up.  Sounds simple and fun/excruciating all at the same time.  This should be a fun experiment.  Without further adieu…

Air Gear

What can I say? Air Gear is not good.  Even if I were into this type of show, it’s still not that good.  The main character, Ikki, is the youngest of a group of siblings who all happen to be girls except him.  He feels very out of place and is seen as a complete wuss.  That is until he breaks into his sister’s room, steals a pair of Air Gear (Rollerblades on steroids, on steroids), goes about town to figure out why his sisters are into this mobile gang warfare and why they never told him.

This show is drawn quite well in the way that YuGiOh or Beyblade’s characters are portrayed but that’s really as far as it goes.  I just couldn’t get myself past the fact that this is an anime about in-line skating.  Yeah, they try to make it exciting by making things “fast” and using that spool up noise that mechs make when they buckle down to dash across the landscape.  Little gimmicks like that don’t seem to do it enough to make it worth the watch.  I like shows about racing.  I like shows with definite plot points with protagonists against antagonists.  All of the stuff with this show just doesn’t come together and make me want to watch past episode 1.  I can only imagine how much worse this show is with the US release.

After the fair shake: Skip it.

(All of the Joystix videos will be on a separate posting.)

http://www.midwestgamingclassic.com/

Outgoing music: Deck The Halls by 8-Bit Weapon.  Buy the whole holiday album (and other great albums by them) at http://www.8bitweapon.com/

Download Episode 19