Whine and Cheese

While I was getting the latest issue of my comic book done, I spent a lot of time watching horror movies and true crime shows. To be fair, I do that often anyway, but I'm always looking for new shows/movies to watch. During the coloring of pages, I watched a couple of things that had some significantly handsome fellers in them.

The first was the movie "Devil". I avoided this movie when it was in theaters as I'd gotten burned so much by anything M. Night Shyamalan directs. I figured it was crap and dodged it. However, several friends had said it was good, so I watched it on Netflix. A movie about five strangers trapped in an elevator only to find one of them is probably the devil, and I found it was actually pretty good. The guy that caught my attention was Chris Messina (<---), who plays the police detective who shows up to solve a suicide/murder in the building.

While he's a bit on the skinny side, there is something very attractive about him. From what I've seen of him online, he seems to be pretty furry. What caught my attention was his lips. Seriously, his lips are full and made me want to kiss him!

This past weekend I watching the true crime show "Killer Couples." This show generally does re-enactments using actors that are far more attractive than the actual people involved in the crime. In this particular episode, a muscled fitness guy who shares a house with a single woman is murdered by her and her new fiance so he'll get out of the house.

The murder victim in this episode was played by actor/stuntman Derek Russo (-->). He's big into science fiction and horror. Muscled, bearded, and furry, he also seems to have a great sense of humor. While he's not a big name yet, he definitely caught my attention.

Granted I'd have watched these things if such handsome guys were not in them, so it's just icing on a particular cake for me.

Last night, softball was canceled because of rain. I was actually relieved for reasons I've posted before. Instead of sweating it out on the field, I worked out, inked a couple of comic book pages, and went out for a discounted 3D showing of "Ghostbusters".

When bookish physics professor Erin (Kristen Wiig) is up for tenure at a prestigious NY university, her hopes get derailed when a paranormal book she co-wrote in the past gets published by her former friend Abby (Melissa McCarthy). After confronting Abby, she joins with her and tech wizard Holtzmann (SNL's wickedly funny Kate McKinnon) to investigate a increasingly-threatening series of ghost sightings, adding street-savvy Patty (Leslie Jones) to the group along the way. The group gets joined by handsome, goofy, somewhat stupid Kevin (Chris Hemsworth) as the Ghostbusters' receptionist, who is a big source of comic relief.

The movie is not necessarily a remake. It doesn't run the same plot, just the same stereotypical characters as the original. The movie includes cameos from many of the original movie's stars. It stands pretty well on its own.

There are several extra scenes at the end, so wait out the credits if you see it.

I got home at nearly midnight, which made for a rough morning for yours truly. Thank heavens for caffeine.

After a long day of work, errands, and getting a tire fixed, I met my buddy Rob for dinner and a movie. We went to go see "The Conjuring 2".

This sequel tells another supernatural investigation by Ed and Lorraine Warren, this time they travel to London, England to help a family terrorized by the ghost of a elderly man. Weary of the stresses this is having on them, the Warrens reluctantly agree to go to monitor the situation, but become very engrossed in the supernatural goings-on in the home.

The first Conjuring movie gave way too much away in the previews. The sequel learned their lesson and loaded this movie with startling jumps and scares galore. The demon in the film takes on the form of a terrifying nun, guaranteed to spook anyone, especially anyone with a Catholic background. The theater was packed and the young lady sitting next to me was stereotypically jumping and screaming at every hair-raising moment.

With the scares and the wonderful 1977 setting, including the teenage girl room full of posters of Starsky & Hutch, The New Avengers (with Joanna Lumley), and pop stars of the era, I loved it.

Patrick Wilson, who plays Ed Warren, has some nice pecs under that shirt of his, though no bare chest scenes (darn it). My buddy Rob proclaimed this as the best horror flick I ever dragged him to. It's got a 70-something % rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which is high for a horror flick.

Since I've not had much of a chance to update of late, here are some odds and ends:

• Milo the Cat (TM) is doing well. His butt fur still hasn't grown in yet. It is coming in, but it's taking its time. He's not hiding any more for the part. He's learned he hates the vacuum cleaner. He spent his first weekend solo as I had gone to my hometown for the first time since I adopted him. He seems okay, no cat barf, no pooping issues, etc. He seems to have settled in well.



• My sister and her family like my car. I put a bear flag plate on the front of it, which has led to one of my coworkers to refer to it as "The Bearmobile." I thought my car was unique at my office, and it was for two weeks, but lo-and-behold another Kia Soul in "latte brown" showed up last week, virtually identical to mine. I've not quite figured out who it belongs to, but I'll ask him or her where they got it. I suspect that they could have bought it from the Kia dealer where I test drove an identical car before I bought mine. That bear flag plate is going to come in handy in making sure I get into the right car.



• I spent a good chunk of yesterday and today in my hometown. I saw family and celebrated Mother's Day with our mom as much as she wanted. I tried to take her out to dinner, but she wouldn't go. My sister and I bought Mom a new phone, as the caller ID on her old one was hard for her to read. The new one has big, bright screens, and announces the ID of the caller out loud. To be mean, my sister and I programmed the phone to announce our brother Joe as "Joe the Golden" when he calls. Mom has a bit of a blind eye to my twin's rudeness and forgives him anything, so we (jokingly) refer to him as "The Golden Child."



• I pre-ordered "Deadpool" on Blu-Ray and it should show up on Tuesday. Since I'm expecting a rainout for softball this week, I'll be diving into that. I can't wait.



• Things I need to do this week:
  
  1. Send off my passport renewal.
     
  2. Get the new car registered.
     
  3. Work.
     
  4. Workout.
     
  5. Nap.

Have a good week everyone!

In Lexington, KY, about 80 miles south of Cincinnati, there was superhero-themed bear run. You would think that I would have flocked to something like this, but I just am never comfortable enough to go. I'm not sure why, I should brave it, but I let it go.

It being the 3rd Saturday of the month, I scheduled a Cincinnati MovieBears outing. The Cincinnati MovieBears is a social group in the Cincinnati area where a group of bears go to a movie, followed by dinner, in the area. I've been the coordinator of the group now for several years. I pick the theater time, the theater, organize the restaurant for dinner, etc.

With near 70 degree temps and sunny weather, it was a perfect night to try a newer theater. We all went to see "Deadpool," which a lot of us had already seen, but wanted to see again. There is so much going on in the movie, so many new and dated pop culture references, both visually and in dialogue, that there is always something new.

At the 4 PM showing, the theater wasn't packed, but I think people wondered when an entire row of the theater was almost all taken up by a group of bearded men. Thirteen bears showed up for the movie, about twice the normal group attendance. The eye candy outside the group was good too, every girl seemed to come in with a bearded cubby, a bear, or a daddy bear. We had three new people come last night, one of them was a local daddy bear and his out-of-town partner Kelly, who was a stunningly beautiful bearded muscle bear. And he was so sweet too, which magnified his attractiveness. One of the other guys made a comment when he walked past, "Wow, I wish he was with us," I responded, "Oh, he is!"

The group loved the flick. We walked to the nearby restaurant who had a table ready for us (even though they don't take "same day" reservations). We were an easy group to handle, I think. One of the new guys bought my dinner for coordinating the outing, which was nice. Everyone had a good time, I think.

Our outings end usually around 9 PM, as it allows for guys to head to the bars if they want. I usually go to a coffee shop with some to hang out. Last night, I didn't do either. Organizing these events, especially getting restaurant reservations, sometimes puts a bit of stress on me, so I'm relieved when everything works out but I'm also a bit tired when it's done. I slept well last night.

Ye gods, what a night...

Last night, a small group of us went out to the movies to see "The Boy". The theater was full of teenagers, but they were strangely well-behaved. Despite some decent acting and a cool setting, the movie was rather dull. The guys thought so too, as we tore it apart while having dinner.

On my way home from the outing, I stopped and bought some Nyquil as I coughed intermittently all evening. Before bed, I started coughing so hard that I threw up a couple of times. I blamed it mainly on eating too much for dinner and went to bed after things settled down.

Then the night went south fast.

I have had chills before but not like last night. From midnight to 3 AM, I shook so violently, I couldn't sleep. The whole bed was shaking like crazy. At some point, I had to get up to go to the bathroom, and the chills were so bad, I could barely walk to the bathroom and back. At 3 AM they finally stopped. It freaked me out so much, that I worried that I needed to go to the ER. Seriously, they were that bad. The last time I had a night even remotely close to this was an evening where food poisoning was involved, so I worried that had happened again.

It took an hour for me to build up the strength to get out of bed. I tried so desperately to get the chills to stop that my muscles were incredibly sore and I was exhausted. I finally got dressed and drove over the ER, which is only a couple of miles away from my house.

The ER was thankfully not busy. The intake clerk was an @$$hole. I told him that I thought I might have food poisoning. I told him it started with the sneezing and coughing and he cut me off with a tone of disbelief.

"That doesn't sound like food poisoning," he snarked, giving me a look like he didn't believe I was sick.

"Well, hang on a second, and I'll tell you WHY I'm worried it is," I retorted.

After he checked me in, a nurse took me back to a room where I was found to have a 103 degrees F fever (take THAT check-in clerk!) The doctor saw me and she wanted a chest x-ray to make sure I didn't have pneumonia. Luckily, my lungs are clear, so she concluded that I have a flu. She told me the usual -- rest, liquids, etc. She checked my temperature again, it had dropped down to 99 degrees F. They finally discharged me around 6 AM and I drove home.

I crashed for five more hours, this time sleeping better than before. I'm still coughing, but all the other symptoms seems to have passed.

I'm beat. :(

After a quick trip to the grocery store tonight, I decided to stay in and be lazy. Netflix provided some cheesy entertainment in the form of "Two Thousand Maniacs!", which was pretty gory for a 1964 movie. It's not the best written flick, but it provided a good backdrop to do some drawing.


The chain-breaking superhero pose isn't new, but I think this might be the first with a shirtless hero. Or at least I like to think so.

I haven't posted much in the last week because I was out in my hometown for the holidays. While I have internet access on my phone, it's not easy to make LJ entries on it.

My best friend Brian and I went on Monday night to see the new Star Wars movie, which was a wonderful mix of nostalgia and newness. The story was captivating and mirrored a lot of what I recall from the original Star Wars Episode IV film. No spoilers, but I was incredibly entertained and am already looking forward to the next installment.

I had a pretty good time back home, spending time with friends and family. What surprised me the most was the weather, which was ridiculously warm. Christmas Eve was 73 degrees F and sunny all day. It certainly didn't feel like Christmas-time.

As usual, I did need a bit of "me time," so I snuck off a couple of times to the local coffee shop to get myself a bit centered and do a bit of cartooning.


Obviously, I had Santa on the brain. I enjoyed doing these and the coffee shop was a great respite from the holiday craziness.

Last night, my family unwrapped Christmas gifts as we usually do. I bought my 9-year-old nephew the game Simon. He continued to unwrap toy after toy, including a go-cart, and he kept coming back to the Simon game, as did my other nephew... and my brother... and my brother-in-law. It was ironic to see this kid get so much for Christmas and ignore the expensive for a relatively cheap game.

After breakfast with family, I headed home today. It felt good to get home.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Last night, I scheduled an atypical Friday night Cincinnati MovieBears outing to see "Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocolypse". It wasn't well-attended, but historically the local movie bears aren't fans of horror flicks and a lot were out of town for different things.

The movie is about three teenage scouts who go out on an overnight camping excursion only to have a zombie outbreak to happen in town while they're gone. When they forgo the camping to go to a dance party, they spend the evening dodging zombies to try to save family.

The film has a 30-something percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and has an R rating. It has some cursing, some nudity, and some crude situations. Despite what the critics have said, I really enjoyed the movie and laughed out loud at some of the more crass moments in the flick. I won't spoil them for anyone, but I thought it was fun.

And on a side note, there was a good looking bear sitting behind us with a good sense of humor. I really wish he had been with us. Sigh... :)

Happy Halloween!!! :)

Sorry for another "bulleted" entry. I was out of town for a large chunk of the week, so I didn't have a chance to write up anything.

• I spent a lot of Monday and Tuesday nights inking pages for the next issue of "Grizzly & The Bear Patrol." Inking usually doesn't take as long as penciling pages, but I end up doing a lot of correcting and adding details on the way.
  
  
• Wednesday, I flew out to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada to hang out for a few days with brownbearon. He was a great host and tour guide. He took me around to many of the Ottawa sights and a couple of jaunts to Quebec which is across the Ottawa River. Many photos were taken. I'll be fixing them up to post soon. I also chatted a bit with Ken (former LJ-User "Ottawacub") on Friday night, who said he would have come out to meet us but he was a bit tipsy after a glassblowing class he is in.
  
  
• Saturday, I flew home and it took FOREVER! After clearing security and customs, the first flight ran late. So I had to race through the Washington-Dulles airport to meet my connection. I arrived at the gate to find it was delayed by a 1/2 hour. A group of Canadian students heading to New Orleans were not so lucky, as their boarding time started before they even got off the Ottawa flight. I had a few minutes, so I ran to their gate and told the gate agent that the students were getting their bags and were on their way. She said they'd wait for them and I hope she meant that. I finally got home at 8 PM. I was beat.
  
  
• Sunday, I skipped my workout (I counted the run through the airport Saturday as a "workout"). I ate lunch and went to see matinee of "The Green Inferno". A young (and stupid) girl crushes on a guy who runs a group that wants to protect a Peruvian tribe from deforestation. He's a douche, has a bitch girlfriend, and treats the group like they are stupid. And yet, they all fall under his spell, sign up to travel to Peru, and chain themselves to the bulldozers while posting their activities to the web. Patting themselves on the back for their efforts, they try to fly back to the city and crash in the South American rain forest. There, the survivors are captured by the very tribe they went to protect and bad things begin to happen. Yeah, it's very gross. The plot is predictable. And the acting for some of the cast was questionable (I'm being kind). However, there were a couple of very handsome bears and cubs in the group of survivors, so at least the eye candy was good. My favorite is a bearded Chilean actor Nicolas Martinez. And it's set up for a sequel I think.
  
  
  Nicolás Martínez in "Aftershock"
  
  I spent the rest of the day doing laundry, inking comic pages, and watching TV. I was still beat from the day before. I decided to bail on work on Monday. I have a lot of vacation time to burn still, so I figured why not.
  
  
• Today was a relaxing kind of day. I got a chest and back workout in, showered, had lunch, and sat at Barnes & Noble with an iced coffee and inked more comic pages. I finished them up tonight while catching up on my Netflix. It's been a good day.