Review: Rockets of Awesome

Greetings, Fanatics!

I was recently going through the products that Facebook's algorithm has selected for me and came across a styling service for kids; Rockets of Awesome. The idea behind Rockets of Awesome is that you won't need to go out shopping for your growing child every season; they send a box 4 times a year at the beginning of each season and tailor it to your child's size, fashion preferences, and the corresponding weather/season. Much like any other style subscription, Rockets of Awesome is a neat little service that asks you to fill out a questionnaire of your fashion preferences and then sends you a personalized box full of things that you can decide to keep or send back. The items that you keep are charged to your credit card (which you provide at sign up) and you mail any of the clothes that you decide aren't for you(r child) in the included envelope. My favorite part of this service is that it's free, excluding the clothes you buy!  Shipping is free both ways and there's no sneaky stylist fee per box.

 Last week, we received Isaac's first box.


  I was ecstatic to see this cute box waiting for me on the patio - it was so much bigger than I anticipated. Isaac was napping, so I decided to peek inside.

Everything was extremely cute. As in, I was giddy going through all of the clothes. Both Aaron and I are not a fan of graphic tees.  As a result, Isaac's wardrobe is a little plain. A little sad. These clothes were bright, almost fashionably grown-up in how minimalist and subtle it was in the design, but still incredibly playful. All of the clothes had clothing tags marked with Rockets of Awesome, so I'm guessing these are all designed in-house by them. Our box came with a pair of sunglasses, 7 shirts, and 4 pairs of shorts and out of these, I picked 6 favorites.

We only ended up getting 2 items this time, a pair of shorts and one of the polos. Although the clothes were incredibly cute and seemed very high quality, the price was a little bit of a con for me - each piece averaging to be about $17 each. Maybe because Aaron and I are not particularly fans of summer fashion or maybe because being native Houstonians we know that summer clothes (especially for kids) need to be chosen carefully with the swamp humidity, sweat, and sun bleaching in mind. Isaac is also at this weird in-between size where some of the pieces were much too big and some of them fit just right, maybe on the slightly snug size - which isn't ideal with how random his growth spurts are.

Returning the clothes we decided not to buy was really easy - I just packed up the refolded clothes into the included shipping bag, stuck on the prepaid label, and dropped it into a postal box. The shipping box that everything came in was really fun on the inside and made a great coloring project for Isaac.

A great cat bed too.

Overall, I'm thrilled that there's finally a children's style box that catches my interest. Besides my love of getting mail, I really appreciate the increase in attention to children's fashion in the past few years and with how excited I was over seeing the summer box, I can't wait to see the fall edition. If you have a child that you love to dress up like a doll (cough) or a fashion forward kid who loves getting mail (COUGH), I really recommend giving Rockets of Awesome a try.

Until next time,
stay Fanatic,
Megh

(while we're not affiliated with Rockets of Awesome, by purchasing something through the link to them on this page, you get a free item and we do too!)

A tale of 3 cafes: Doux Cafe, Tree House Craft Coffee, and Tout Suite

Greetings Fanatics!

As Isaac grows older, I find that working from home gets a little more difficult. There are only so many times that I can listen to Isaac incorrectly sing "Jingle Bells" in his high, beautiful baby voice before my nerves get a little frazzled. It's too hot to really walk anywhere right now in Houston, where humidity is often at least 80% and the lows are at 90 degrees, so we often just stick at home waiting for Aaron to come home. As of late we've been going out to more cafes (to stay awake/get out of the house), whenever we can afford to. There are three that we've especially been frequenting and they're all locally owned, which is fun. With locally owned places you stray away from the corporate, homogeneous experience of, say, a Starbucks, which can be great once in a while. And sometimes, not so great.

Affiliate Post: ThriftBooks Review

This is an affiliate post; while we are not getting products or compensation for writing this article, we do get a commission from any purchases made through the links on our page. All opinions are our own.

Greetings Fanatics!

 Since you're reading our blog instead of watching YouTube videos or working, I'm going to assume that you enjoy reading as a hobby at least a little bit. Well, we Fanatics are fans of the written word as well.

Now that Isaac is older (and louder), we don't find ourselves at the local library to borrow books as much as we used to. Instead, we find ourselves at various second hand books stores around town. We prefer the pre-owned books because they're cheaper, don't cause as much guilt for us when we inevitably wear it out, and it's better(?) for the environment. But you can only go to Half Price Books so many times before it feels picked over, and it's disheartening to me to see so many copies of Catcher in the Rye in one place. So, when I stumbled upon a website called ThriftBooks, I was intrigued. I'd never heard of a designated second hand book web-store before (don't talk to me about early Amazon) and I liked the idea of looking through books from the comfort of my own home; no one breathing down my neck (Aaron), no one judging what I was browsing (Aaron). An ideal shopping experience worth pursuing.

Even when we'd go to the bookstores in person we'd usually have a budget of $20 a trip, which would get one paperback novel each for Aaron and I and maybe a book for Isaac. So far, we've spent around $130 on ThriftBooks purchases since March of last year. For hardcore book fanatics, that already sounds quite cheap, even miserly. But consider this; we've purchased 26 books, all on ThriftBooks. That's about $5 a book, which is really great considering that we've bought things ranging from textbooks to novels to children's books to a hardcover 2nd edition.You can even control what condition your books come in - a copy of JAWS in 'fair' condition, one that you might bring to the beach to read is less expensive than a 'good' condition copy. Another thing I like is that shipping is free within the U.S, if you spend more than $10 on books (which, believe it or not, is sometimes hard to accomplish). Shipping is fast, and while the books come from the ThriftBooks warehouses all over the U.S., tracking is included so you can know the whereabouts of your copy of American Psycho at all times.

While it's definitely worth supporting your locally owned second hand book shop, Thriftbooks is a valuable website to consider when you have a certain books in mind or if you want to buy a bunch of books at once. Or if you're a bit antisocial like us and want the mailman to deliver your books.

(And remember to buy through our links or banner so that we get that sweet affiliate cash!)

Stay Fanatic,
Megh

Shop Review: Pam Wishbow

Greetings Fanatics!

Sorry in advance for bad pictures, my phone is being terrible to me today. I recently made a purchase of a few spooky items from PamWishbow, an artist on Etsy. Besides her beautifully cartoony illustrations and use of color, the dark themes in Pam's shop speak to whatever is residing in my bones that compels me to accumulate interesting things. Whatever you can call Wishbow's style, you can be assured that it's got "It". Besides art prints and zines, she carries items you didn't even know you needed: a random pack of items for whatever adventure you might head off on, a personalized haunting for your home, hand sewn sigil banners to protect your home.

For my first (but certainly not last) purchase from Pam Wishbow, I bought a House Ghost, a Quest Pack for Aaron, Professor Pam's Semi-Famous Hex Breaker, and a mini love zine called The Carpenter to gift to Aaron. When I received my package, I was thrilled to see that it included a little print and a Fortune Telling Fish! My previous fortune fish went through the wash and I was excited to get another. Aaron's fortune read "Passionate" and mine was "False" (important for later!).

If you've been reading my reviews for any length of time, you'll know that I like to review each item separately first and then as a whole.

We're back from Space City Comic Con!

"Back" as in back to our home, as SCCC was held in the same city as us. I'm doing this today, two days after the convention, because while I'm still wiped out from this weekend's event, tomorrow I have to get back to work making plush for Comicpalooza in two weeks.

There's been a lot of controversy and talk about Space City Comic Con. Earlier this year, it was the Houston Convention Bureau's suit against the convention organizer, George Comits, for infringing on the HCB's trademark of "Space City" for trade shows and conventions. This past weekend, it was rumoured that several of the headlining guests from the FX show "Sons of Anarchy" had their appearance fee checks bounce. Since I don't have any firsthand knowledge of either of these two events, I'm not really going to talk about them. All I know is that I had a pretty miserable experience at this show and that TIM+BEN Dolls won't be showing up to it again, as vendors or attendees, next year (although it already looks as if there won't be a next year).

The weeks leading up to the event, Space City Comic Con released an app to help guide attendees. Filled with icons that promised to give you info on what panels were going on, what celebrities would be signing and when, and what vendors would be where, you could tap on any to reveal ... nothing. My biggest concern for the app was the fact that they did not update the vendors past the letter 'A'. Pre-con advertising is pretty important to build hype and excitement for fans of artists attending the con. I'd think that my booth fee kind of entitled me to being at least on a list on a website/app, but it turns out that the money I'd spent would be worth much less than that.

The day of, we arrived to set up. We don't often have the luxury of setting up the day before the convention, as Aaron works during the week and I am still faithfully holding out for the self-driving car, so that our future car-robot overlords will take my loyalty into account when they start treating humans as crash test dummies for androids. I was worried, most of the other convention's we've been to required us to bring proof of purchase for our booth to receive our passes, but I hadn't gotten any info on such a requirement for SCCC. It turns out you could pretty much just walk onto the loading dock and say you were with TIM+BEN's table and have passes handed to you. Well, if you were willing to wait 45 minutes on the noisy, hot, outdoor loading dock. Oh, and they might have run out of actual vendors' passes when you get to the one man checking vendors in, so you'll get handed a pair of weird silver 3 Day Passes instead. Mine was actually broken, so I had Aaron go exchange it. He came back with a Convention Guest's pass, which afforded me many opportunities to sneak into places I wasn't supposed to be.

We walked over to the booth to find that it was a) nothing like the vendor packet said it would be; no dividers, table length was incorrect, trash can not included, colors were incorrect and b) right next to another stuffed toy vendor. I think that handmade stuffed toys are an uncommon enough commodity to space them out, but since I sell basically only original designs and most other plushie artists sell primarily fan art, there's little overlap in our customer base. Unprofessional details overlooked by the con, but not something I can't deal with.

Con was slow on Friday, lots of rain and people still being at work contributed to that. Our friend, author Ian Everett came to hang out with us at our booth! He's in the middle of writing his new novel, so we greatly appreciated him taking the time to hang out with us for the day. We did very well on Saturday; I was jazzed because this is our first booth where we brought only dolls and it's made me confident about the new doll designs I had available. Our friend Jude Vivona of the Caalo Xan audio drama stopped by to say hello, his booth was only a few aisles over. A man with an Ogler from the Caalo Xan booth stopped by for some repairs to his plush. If you're not aware, last year I made a series of large Ogler dolls for them. Sunday was slow-ish. A lot of children and families came for this last day. Not so many sales and we left an hour early because I started feeling ill. My cousin stopped by to see me -I haven't seen her in about 10 years, but she's been a big supporter of TIM+BEN since I started around 6 years ago and I was very pleased to see her and meet her new family. We got recognized from several people who have bought from us before! Fans! What a world.

The con was ok on a vendor's level. Not well-run, but sales were pretty good. I was so annoyed with so many aspects that we won't be coming back. I really like clear communication and feeling like the event I'm vending at actually knows how to run itself, so Space City Comic Con isn't for me.

On a personal note, Aaron got our home an autograph from Doug Jones, a very talented actor and professional sweetheart that we both admire. So, at least one good thing came out of Space City Comic Con for us.

Stay Fanatic,
Megh

Artist spotlight/Shop Review: L0ll3 Shop commission

Some people like to be spooked. Some people like only the sweetest things in life. I belong to that ever growing group of people that admits they like both - the creepy cute crowd. A mixture of kitsch and bubblegum and horror, creepy cute is a little hard to pin down. Is it black bats on pink sweaters? Is it vintage halloween cat cards in an ornate rococo frame? Whatever it is, Lolle of L0ll3 Shop has got it down.

I originally found L0ll3 Shop on Etsy while searching for plushies to collect. 

Shop Review: Burke & Hare Co.

Scented candles! I'm a sucker for them. Especially when they have neat names and smell like the ocean or a haunted apple orchard. That's why this week's Shop Review is of Burke & Hare Co.

Burke & Hare Co's whimsical name comes from a series of murders in 19th century Scotland by William Burke and William Hare. And while these candles are not made from corpses, they do have interesting scent mixtures: heady florals mixing with dark teas, spicy peppers and fresh citrus. 

Since Aaron had to put a stop to my candle spending, I only got a pair of travel tins, a smaller size of their candles that they only offer on occassion. I chose Mint & Ivy, because I love fresh garden smells, and Burned at the Stake which smells like smoke, because I love the smell of burning things. Especially money.

I enjoyed both very much; they delivered on the scents they promised and were more interesting than any candle readily available in common stores. The packaging is beautiful and I imagine that the glass and decorated pillar candles are even more so. They're made of soy, so they're clean burning and don't leave that strange waxy smell that normal candles sometimes leave.

I had an issue or two. I do wish that they'd offer the travel sized tins more often; I'd love to get my hands on a few more scents without having to commit to the large glass contained candles. I also thought that the scent could have been stronger. Maybe the standard sized candles spread their scent more, but I had to sit right next to the lit candle to smell it.

Overall, I'd recommend Burke & Hare Co for people that love spooky, unique candle blends to decorate their living space. 

Aaron Reviews: The VVitch

Last Saturday Megh and I had the opportunity to see The VVitch (stylized with the double V as it would have been in the 17th century typography.) Being a limited release, we were ushered into the smallest theater Memorial City Cinemark had to offer. The theater was about half full, the crowd consisting of mostly teens and young couples. I was worried. I had been very interested in this movie since its first Sundance reviews, and had been hyping the movie up in my mind for several weeks.

The movie started strong. The crowd quieted. It stayed completely silent throughout the film, save one man softly exclaiming "Jesus" at a particularly upsetting part near the end. When the movie was over, everyone silently stood and left. No one discussed the film. To me that is a good sign.

 

The plot was simple: A 17th century family is tormented by a witch. The movie had a slow but steady build-up of dread and every part of the movie, from the excellent cast to the cinematography and score, worked together to make the best horror movie I've seen in a long time. There are no twists. There are no tricks. There is only one mild jump scare, and it was used with care. The blood and gore in the movie was also used with care, and it was not over-the-top or ever unnecessary. The actors did their jobs well, even the children. The source material for the film, the legends and accounts of witchcraft in 17th century New England, are portrayed accurately and even sometimes verbatim with the literature of the time.

Describing the movie further is difficult. In fact, on our way home Megh and I remarked on the fact that there wasn't much to talk about, even though we both thoroughly enjoyed it. There's a certain element that the movie has that can't really be explained. The movie feels bad. In the same way that the old woodcuttings of satanic rites feel bad. The way that being alone in the woods can suddenly feel bad. Or hearing a baby cry in the dark feels bad. Not a feeling that something terrible is about to happen. A feeling that something terrible has already happened, and you're too afraid to look, because after you look you can't go back to not knowing.

The movie isn't for everyone. It's not a slasher. Its not a thriller. The dialogue can be difficult to understand in parts. There's no sex, although sexuality does have its part. It doesn't have a lot in common with most new horror movies. But most new horror movies, I would say, aren't very good. This movie was. It was upsetting, dark, and very, very good. I would give it a 9.5/10, and I plan on seeing it again.

Ferox: a game of cannibals and invaders

So, this Valentine's day I surprised Aaron with two presents: an indie card game and the fact that I finally found a game that I would play with him.

Ferox is published by Craft Fair Games, based in Denton, TX. I love finding Texas based indie brands. It makes that gland that all Texans are born with swell with pride and bile.

Ferox is a two person, turn based card game where you play as either a stranded documentary crew or a group of native tribes banded together by a shared goal of expelling/eating the perceived intruders. The game is not over until you make it to the rescue 'chopper or all the crew members are dead.

It's based on early 80's cannibal "exploitation" films and is not for anyone who finds cannibalism, rude language, really terrific gore art, or drug use objectionable. I think it's a great game. Game play is really simple. It says on the box it takes 60-90 mins to play, but it took us about 3 hours to play the first time; it was my very first time playing any sort of social card/dice game. It's very easy to pick up on, speaking as a first time player.

*The game consists of a linear "board" made of six cards and a deck of action cards for each player. Each board card has several spaces that need to be filled with defeated cannibal pieces. When you fill a board card with dead cannibals, this marks the end of the encounter, and each player gets to draft another two cards into their deck from a card pool. Cards are paid for with "rage", a fairly unique mechanic that involves paying the other player "rage pieces" to use your cards, thus giving your opponent more rage to play their own cards. This makes the turns go past fairly quickly.*

*Aaron wrote this for me.

Aaron's only (slight) criticism is that turns can pass without anything happening - there will be turns where the players take turns drawing cards without any story propulsion and the sense of moving forward can be lost. I don't share the same sentiment - I view it as more of a choose your own adventure visual novel. Overall, I would say that he likes it both as a gift and a game and I do as well. If you're a fan of 80's cannibal movies, gory and explicit illustrations, or horror themed card games I highly recommend Ferox.

(As an added bonus for me, each box is screenprinted by hand and ships fairly quickly.)

The artist for Ferox is Ryan Sheffield and I'll be doing a short artist post on him as soon as my last order from him comes in.

Stay Fanatic,
Megh

We're back from Comicpalooza!

... and we're both sick. This is my first case of  'con crud' (the slang for any myriad of illnesses, usually colds or coughs, that vendors or artists are especially susceptible to because of contact with large number of people), so I'm keeping this entry short. But! You can expect a number of posts in the next couple of weeks including a review of this year's Comicpalooza, our experience at the booth, and a few tip filled posts on setting up booths.

 Today, I'm going to show off what Aaron and I purchased for ourselves. One of my favorite things to do at cons is to look for things to decorate our house with (and the occassional stuffed toy). I especially like getting art from local artists, and avoiding the mass made posters and big box wall art. I'll actually be replacing my "Button Board" on the blog with our  "Art Wall", and I hope you'll enjoy that and maybe decide to get something from the artists for yourself.

I always wait until the very last days of conventions to buy stuff. It isn't great when there are one of a kind or limited edition items that I want that then run out, but it's easier to get around huge convention centers and take my time to look at booths. This year, I got this stuff:

I forgot the name of the booth that I got the faux-leather bat bag, but the tag on it says Far Nine. It's the perfect sized bag for me and surprisingly roomy. It fits TIM, my wallet, notebook, and phone quite easily and is a nice change of pace from toting around a giant neutral colored diaper bag. The angler fish print is from  artist Jessica Grundy and was my second choice after a very cute dragon print I wanted was out of stock. The 5x7" Xenomorph is going on my bedroom wall (instead of the Creature Wall) and is from artist Johnnie Gonzales. Aaron grabbed me this Itty Bitty Hellboy mini comic from a random comic book booth for a dollar when he was walking around.

 This year, Comicpalooza had a Game of Thrones guest: Miltos Yerolemou, who played Syrio Forel. The armory that created the wooden practice swords used in his Game of Thrones scenes is actually based in Texas and they had replicas for sale at his booth. Aaron decided to go see Miltos on the first day and since it was fairly early in the con, got a chance to talk with him for a few minutes.

 Aaron doesn't usually buy things at conventions, but getting a wooden sword signed by Miltos and an autographed picture was an opportunity he didn't pass up. He also found a Savage Worlds rule book (something I know nothing about) and the man at the booth he got it at was so excited that Aaron played Savage Worlds, that he gave him some dice for free.

"What do we say to the God of Death? Not today..."

"Aaron, Fear cuts deeper than swords."

Anyway, I need to trundle off to bed now and see how many cough drops I can eat before my tongue goes numb.

Stay Fanatic,
Megh

Comicpalooza 2013 - A general overview

 Good evening Fanatics!
As you know, we spent this Memorial Day weekend at Comicpalooza, Houston's Comic Con. This brings the number of conventions that we have been vendors at up to TWO. Go us! It was also the first multi-day, large convention we attended, and this came with its own set of challenges.

 You may remember my recap of ZombieCon from last year.

 This will fortunately be nothing like that. Comicpalooza was wonderful and scary and exciting.
Overall, we did very well. We did a little better than breaking even on what we spent, sold out of our zombie kittens (again!) and narwhal plushies, and saw a lot of great art and product. You might expect me to say that we met a lot of wonderful people. We met some very great people, but not as many as I would have liked to. I was sick and exhausted from lack of sleep and it being my turn to have food poisoning, so I spent most of the convention hiding behind our display. I was grateful for having the foresight to bring two other assistants who enjoy being sociable. Judy and Jaegger seemed very excited and happy to help; they also had never had much of a chance to go to conventions.

 I had been preparing plushies for the convention since Christmas. I was too excited. After 5 exhausting months of making patterns, sewing, ordering prints and buttons, and designing; I was finally ready for the 3 day weekend.

Zombie Narwhal!

Me at the booth.

 Friday was slow, but I guess I expected that. People were still at work and school, after all. The display was fun to put up. I kind of like working under pressure and we had gotten there a bit late after picking up Judy and Jaegger. Friday night, I sewed two zombie narwhals spur of the moment. It turned out to be a good idea, we sold them both the next day. Saturday was markedly busier than Friday, and we sold out of our zombie kittens and fuzzy monsters. There were so many people in costume, and the place was packed. The line for admission on the second floor doubled over half the length of the convention center. Sunday was relaxing, most of the attendees there were the weekend pass holders, very friendly and talkative. I feel like we gained a lot of experience in selling at a convention setting and getting good feedback on what we make. We were one of four or so booths selling plushes in Artist's Alley, and it was nice to see other peoples' work.

I realize that this is a very clipped and shallow sounding article, and it is; I just feel that a few things deserve their own article. So please stay tuned for that!

Stay Fanatic.
Megh.

Shop Review: Howdy, Garters by Lori!

Good evening, Fanatics!


In the slow, drunken wake of my 21st birthday, I thought this week's Shop Review would cover a trade I recently did with Garters by Lori.

I stumbled upon GbL in the lineup of artists participating in my trade groups latest event. I fell in love with both the utility and simple, pleasing look of her flasks and garters. Originally,

Shop Review: Howdy, Red Leaf Bath and Body Products!

Good evening, Fanatics!

It's time for another Shop Review! This week, we are saying "howdy" to Chris Poile's shop Red Leaf Bath and Body Products. I found Red Leaf through a feature on Etsy and decided to try them out since they were located in Seattle, where the rest of my family is currently located. What really led me to finally try them out was a few new scents that Chris was promoting on Facebook: Cognac, Pipe Tobacco, and Whiskey. As soon as I saw that he had Pipe Tobacco, I had to get it for Aaron.

I also got a sample bar of Black Tea scented shaving soap for myself.

So, where does Red Leaf fall?

Quality:                                                                                           10

The soap is fantastic. The Pipe Tobacco scent is sweet and smoky, like fresh loose leaf tobacco, and the Black Tea soap is very mild and fragrant. Aaron loves his Pipe Tobacco soap, and from my experience; the shaving soap lathers well and leaves skin feeling very soft and smooth.
Price:                                                                                               9
A little pricey for any bar of soap, but this isn't just any bar of soap. It's a decent price for a handmade, specialty soap. My favorite part is how large that the Men's Soap bar is. It cuts into about two regular sized bars of soap, but we cut it into four easy to use bars.
Shipping:                                                                                        9
Shipping is done quickly and is fairly low priced, although since my order was purchased, it has been increased to reflect rising post office shipping costs. There was also a minor hiccup in my Etsy order notification.
Shopping Experience:                                                                    10
Chris is very friendly and responsive on both the shop's Facebook page and the Etsy shop. He is quick to answer any questions and very welcome to feedback.
 Overall Rating:                                                                               9.5

Look! Look at the presents we got!

 Good evening, Fanatics!

The holiday season is nearly over and everyone is scurrying back to school and work. This Christmas, I had the unpleasant surprise of not getting the most presents of everyone as I am accustomed to. Silly, show stealing babies.

Isaac got plenty of developmental toys from his loving, doting grandparents (on both sides), and a handmade, monster themed Ruggle that Aaron and I got him from Bewhiskered.

I got Aaron a print of The Creature from the Black Lagoon from Hardboiled Horror and some fantastic soaps from Red Leaf Bath and Body that I will be reviewing later on this week.

Hello, handsome.

Aaron gave me a Tentacle Kitty Plush, first edition. The creators of this neat kitty are actually based in Houston, and I got the third order of the first batch of Kittys they've ever made. :)

Doc Ock escaped from his box and scaled our Christmas Tree.

I also got an item that is documented on this blog as something I had to have.

Hello.

A Saint Sasquatch print from Joshua Norton! I was so happy and surprised. It is currently over our mantle place. It's actually blue, but I have a habit of misplacing important chargers so our camera is dead. :(

It's also Isaac Asimov's birthday! On this day in 1920, one of the giants of Science Fiction was born. Happy birthday, Isaac! Er... Asimov.
 
Stay Fanatic,

Megh

The Hobbit 2D: A Review

Er, not the 1970's one, the new one by Peter Jackson.

I had the honor and duty of seeing The Hobbit on its opening day last week. This was a massive ordeal for me, as I list The Hobbit as one of my favorite books, and Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy as three of my favorite movies. I will start off by saying, no, I did not see it in the three-dee. Sir Jackson is always trying to push things forward in his field, sure, but that doesn't mean I always have to agree with him. The 48 frames-per-second that the 3D version of the movie is shot in didn't really sit well with me, and I did not want it distracting me from my Hobbit-viewing experience.

Especially the view of their freakish, man-like hands.

I'll just go ahead and start with the things I disliked. It was very formuliac; it had talky bits followed by action bits followed by talky bits. Start. Stop. Start. Stop. Start. Stop. Plot, fight, plot, fight. The action seemed like a mindless way to segue into the next plot point and I feel like a lot of those action scenes were unnecessary. For example, the mountain giant rumble-tumble get-to-Bilbo's-feelings scene.
I also had a problem with one of the characters, specifically Jar Jar the Brown.

I honestly can't tell which is which.

Radagast the Brown's entire character consists of just a few lines spread out between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring. The books make little mention of his character and absolutely no mention of his rabbit-sled, hyperactive obsessive compulsive disorder, or stoner tendencies. Many compare the character to Radagast's prequel-partner Jar Jar Binks, and I tend to agree.

However, despite my gripes, I enjoyed the movie thoroughly. I liked it a bit more than Fellowship of the Ring, to be honest, mostly because of the overwhelming sense of foreboding was just crushing in FotR. The atmosphere was drawing, the songs were well done, Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis were especially amazing in their roles, and the movie left off with me wanting to see the next one. All in all I give the movie an 8/10.

Keep fanatic
Aaron

Cryptid TV!

Hello everyone! I've been fanatically Netflixing for the last few... months, and I recently found a series that really caught my eye. It has some of my favorite things: Cryptids, pranks, and terror. What could go wrong? Let's find out.

Mothman has been known to herald terrible disasters.
LIKE THIS SHOW MAYBE? READ THE REVIEW TO FIND OUT!

Freak Encounters is a reality show that involves an unsuspecting rube (sold out by their loved ones) is taken out to the middle of nowhere and led through a series of scary occurrences ultimately climaxing in horrific monster assault, with each episode ending with the cast all jumping out and yelling "surprise! It's all a hilarious joke!" If this sounds familiar, it is also exactly how the show Scare Tactics works. Exactly.

There are a few differences, though. For one, each episode follows a single scenario, which makes the setups more involved. The downside of this is that the pacing is rather slow and the big reveal at the end doesn't quite justify it. It also means the show lacks the variety of Scare Tactics, which makes it even more monotonous.

But despite all that, there is one glorious shining feature of this show: The cryptids. All of the show's monsters    are everyone's favorite semi-mythical beings, with classics such as the Mothman, death worms, and sasquatches. The show sprinkles in crypto-facts throughout the show and they have interviews with "experts"   on the subject. The facts are wikipedia-level at best and delivered in a less-interesting fashion, but hey, at least they're talking about it..

The show doesn't seem to be syndicated anymore, but can be found on Netflix. I recommend it if you like the weird stuff that Megh and I do, or if you like Scare Tactics and are cool with a less-interesting version of it. All and all, I give it a 7/10. It had the potention for greatness, and it's failures made me hate it all the more. I am now giving it a 6/10. Yes, I just lowered it. It has disappointed me.

Stay fanatic

Aaron

Shop Review: Howdy, Haunted Hair Candy!

Good evening, Fanatics!

Tonight we will be starting our "Shop Review: Howdy _____!" series. Our featured shop today is Haunted Hair Candy.

Click here to visit the shop!

I found Haunted Hair Candy through a trading team on Etsy; the Needful Things Dark Trading Team. They were hosting a Christmas trading blitz and I traded with quite a few lovely shop owners for lots of neat goodies.

Haunted Hair Candy features handmade bows, clips, and barrettes that are made with a spooky twist. A few days ago, I got my Adorable heart black and pink Sugar Skull Hair clip set in the mail.

The skulls are made with polymer clay and hand painted with intricate designs. They are attached to alligator clips and seems quite sturdy. I am quite happy with my piece.

 To show you the diversity of Haunted Hair Candy, I've included a few favorites of mine from the shop.

This Christmas, I've really focused on getting handmade things as gifts for myself and others. Being a seller on Etsy myself, it feels nice to be able to feel as if someone, an actual person, is behind the products I use and know that someone's hard work went into making this unique, interesting accessory.

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Quality:                                                                                            9

I love the handmade quality of my hairclips, but I feel that the polymer clay could have been sculpted a bit smoother. The paint job was nice, and the clips overall seem very sturdy.

Price:                                                                                                7 The original price for these clips is $6.00, which is a bit high for the size and simplicity of the product. (Each clip is about 1.5" long.) The shipping is free for all U.S. orders though, which is nice.
Shipping:                                                                                          9
The shipping was free and quick, arriving just a week after I ordered them. The packaging was nice and professional.
Shopping Experience:                                                                     9
The shop owner was very nice and friendly, and very quick to respond to my messages on Etsy.
Overall Rating:                                                                                                  8.5

Silent Hill Revelation 3D: A Review

Last Friday, Megh, my friend Ian, and I were hanging out at an All Hallowe's Eve party, (Halloween for the uninformed) when got it into our heads to see the premier of Silent Hill Revelation. The trailer had been playing on loop the entire evening where we were and I guess the subliminal advertising finally got to us.

After playing around in traffic for a while, you know, doing wheelies and stuff since we took two cars and ended up driving next to each other, we made it to the theater. The three of us were still dressed in our party costumes; Ian was a Hobbit and Megh and I were both dressed as escaped asylum patients, which is funny because Ian is a foot taller than either of us, and with our masks off Megh and I looked more like butchers or very sloppy house painters.

I'm not sure who would be worse to meet in a dark alley.

Upon approaching the ticket stand, if you still call them that because this isn't the 50's, Ian immediately asked the ticket-stander for one ticket for The Hobbit in 3D, his face falling when the ticket-ticketer-guy informed him the movie would not be out for several months. We all had a good laugh and told them we would settle for the midnight premiere of Silent Hill, then went in and stalled for time by looking at the popcorn we were all too poor to purchase. With thirty minutes before the movie started, I figured I would kill four or five minutes by emptying out my contents in the nearest bathroom. As a natural-born World of Warcraft-player, my bladder can hold nearly six quarts of urine before I even begin to get that  tingling have-to-go sensation.

The restrooms were deserted, the premier having garnered the attention of exactly three people. Now, here is where I have to stop for a bit. You see, Silent Hill was really terrible. Really, really terrible. But the movie was so bad that I have already forgotten it. So instead

Rave Motion Pictures Yorktown 15 Cinema Bathrooms: A Review

The restrooms belonged to one Rave Motion Pictures, a theater known for being "edgy" and "fresh" and "hip", with bathrooms to match. I was there at off-peak hours, but with closing time so close it was likely that they hadn't been cleaned for a few hours. Most cinemas choose to wait until the moviegoers leave before they have the final wipe-down of the day, a trait I share with them. I feel like I really got the full restroom experience with this one, so let's begin with:

Atmosphere 3/10

 Upon entering, the first thing I noticed were the lime green walls and navy blue stalls. The floor was covered in an offwhite tile with flecks of brown and blue in it. The color scheme was very abrupt and a little disconcerting, I had a bowel movement to make and I wasn't certain if I would be comfortable in a place so visually assaulting.. They were trying to put a bright neon veneer on old-world charm, and failing. The classy blue stalls and the stainless steel sinks went poorly with the bright fluorescent lighting and brighter green walls. It was chaotic, and that was the biggest problem. It's hard to be classy and edgy at the same time. They really need to pick one and go with it; offend one group of people instead of everyone with eyes. I would also like to note that it was dead silent in the stalls. Out in the lobby area the air was full of sounds from the arcade, even when it was empty, but in the restrooms they really needed some sort of ambiance. I was expecting a chain-wielding rapist to pop out of a trash can and go to town. But then I guess I usually am.

Cleanliness 9/10 

After shaking off the initial decorative terror, the next thing I noticed was how clean everything was. The air smelled of bleach, that oh so familiar and comforting smell. Bleach has always smelled like victory to me. Victory over microbes that would stop at nothing to do us harm.
There were no puddles on the floor, no water around the sink, no paper litter, and most importantly no offal to be seen. Hooray!
The stall that I used was well supplied with toilet paper and even seat covers, although they were not needed as the seat was clean.

Ease of Use 8/10 

Being the bathroom critic that I am, I took it as my right to use the handicap stall so that I could live the full restroom experience. It was very spacious and the walls nearest the toilet were festooned with several handrails. The toilet was equipped with a motion sensor that accurately flushed when I was done. The faucets were a trouble though, they were motion-activated too, but only while your hands were directly underneath the faucet head and not moving too much. I had a hard time washing my hands. Oddly enough, they had no air dryers to speak of, Jet Towel or otherwise, and the paper towel dispenser was NOT motion activated, which threw the whole thing out of whack.

Total Score: 6.6/10, Not the Ritz, but would go again.

Stay Fanatic, you folks.