I know that everyone in the geek world is already raving about the Avengers movie this week, but let me chime in with the chorus anyway.  Wowee wow wow.  What a great movie.  It was almost perfect.  The dialogue was sharp and the quips between characters weren’t tacky, which they could easily have been.  Each of the character introductions were awesome, and the mini-battles between the team members were deinitely awesome.  Even Hawkeye was cool, which is absurd.  So what was missing?  One small itty bitty detail…. They only showed a picture of Natalie Portman (Thor’s love interest) instead of having her on set.  (gasp!) We did get a few scenes from Gweneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts (Iron Man’s girl), which was great.  But to have Natalie and Gweneth in the same movie? That would have sealed the deal for me. They were so close!  Arrrgh…  Ok I’m half joking here, but overall it was an incredible experience.  We spent the big bucks to see it on the 3D IMAX screen, which was truly worth it in this case.  Really great picture quality on a really big screen.  I’ll probably be seeing it again since Men in Black III doesnt come out for a few weeks.  So let me add a thumbs up to the already huge pile of thumbs ups for this movie.  Go see it!  Maybe three times!

About two years ago, I became a devout follower of Apple and got myself an iPhone 4.  A true technological marvel!  Amazing! About two months later, I dropped the aforementioned iPhone, shattering the glass and making it much less usable.  Perhaps I could have haggled a replacement, but haggling is not my thing, and the accident was really my fault (you know those panels with Evan tripping over his own feet? Yeah that’s based on me.) So I toughed it out to the end of the contract… But now I’m back, baby! I recenlty got another iPhone 4 (a little outdated now, but much cheaper than the new ones) and it’s great to be back in the game. You really can use the “phone” for a lot more things than calling people, but most importantly, let’s talk about games. 

I never had a Game Boy or other portable gaming device, so finally I can fill that childhood wish of gaming on the go. Last week I downloaded a platformer that is worth a look, called “Shantae: Risky’s Revenge.”  It has a fun cartoony art style, and really looks great on the phone’s high-res screen.    It’s really well put together…In fact, I think this game started out on the Nintendo DS.  The game follows a belly-dancing character who uses her hair as a whip.  I guess it was mainly the art that grabbed my attention, but the music isn’t half bad either.  I’m still in the first city which is decked out in Arabian Nights style, and I’m digging it.  The main villain also appears to be a pirate queen, so they get another point for that.  That’s it for now… let me know what games you guys are playing or if you have any recommendations!

I thought I would share with you the latest monstery thing on my radar…  I recently downloaded a new iPhone app called Tiny Monsters.  The premise is simple enough.  You buy eggs of various monster species, and raise them to adulthood by planting and harvesting food, and feeding it to your monsters.  You can also spend time landscaping your moutaintop:  clearing unwanted trees, planting new flowers, building gazebos, etc.  I’m also at the point now where I can start breeding different species together to see what kind of creature comes out as a result.  The art style is cute and fun, and the game seems to be an easy way to occupy two or three minutes of your time now and then.  The only catch is that hatching eggs, growing food, building stuff, and doing pretty much anything else requires time.  So at some point you will run out of things to do and will be forced to wait until the timer is up on your latest development.  There is a way to speed things up, but it requires real-world money to do so.  This seems to be the way the developers can make money off of this otherwise free- to-play game.  A few menus in the game let you spend up to $100 real money (!!) with just a few clicks.  This worries me a little, as I dont want to end up doing it by accident.  But if you really dig the game, I suppose there’s nothing wrong with throwing a few bucks at it to support the creators.  So check it out if you’re looking for a new app.  I just bred a Fire monster with a Rock monster and have been waiting two days to see what happens.  It’s my fault though, because I didn’t manage my resources well.  First I have to hatch the egg in the nursery to make room for the mixed breed one, which is waiting in the Breeding Den.  But to hatch the current egg, I need to raise enough money to build a new habitat for an electric monster.  None of this makes sense to you now, but it will soon enough.