On A Roll

Bus ride today, and he's earned all his letters to go to Montreal this weekend!

Review: X-Men Apocalypse

Our next instalment in the retconned X-Men universe. Having sequels in disaster universes is interesting since the sequel has to at least mention the previous disaster and some of the fall-out from it. But overall I thought this offering a bit thin, despite the global scale of the destruction. I will allow that it was better than the trailers made it look, low bar that that was.

That reminds me, can we have the second trailer for Doctor Strange drop please. I only go to the movies once or twice a month and I'm sick of the one that is currently out.

Review: Independence Day Resurgence (in 3D!)

Big, loud, flashy special effects that totally ignore physics. Flimsy story. A dog in distress. Basically everything you want in a summer blockbuster.

The 3D was, at best, distracting -- and at worst, terrible. We only saw it because this showing was the best fit for our schedules. I remain unconvinced that 3D is anything other than a ticket revenue buffer.

The Graduate

Alex had is grade 6 graduation today. Next year it is on to a brand new school. Everyone is very proud of his hard work over the last few years. This is Alex and Daddy while eating the celebratory cake.

Skytowers

I figured that with the new version of Minecraft P/E, plus my brand-new iPhone SE, I could crank the render distance up on the game I play on my phone. This is two skytowers in the same shot. This is the same world that I carefully built the lava plunge down to the bedrock in. I was thinking the next thing I should do was to make a skybridge, but in digging the hole necessary to extract the raw materials for a skybridge I got lost. I only hope I can find my way out before I run out of wood.

Mildly Interesting

It is hard to see, but the landlord here has given the building an extra parking spot by repainting the lines slightly closer together.

Happy Father's Day

Annual crafts made at school for Father's Day. I'm going to miss getting these when they're all grown up.

Random Lego Playing

Well the figure is a MegaBlocks Halo figure, but it's all compatible. Nice little go-kart truck I came up with in the back there.

Fast Pointer

One of the guys owned one of the legendary Ferrari Acer laptops from ages ago. He was tossing it out, because time waits for no computer, and thought I'd like this part.

One Last Look

My mother has completed the sale of her home, meaning that after 43 years of residence there will no longer be a Mackintosh on Tarquin. This is a picture of the maple tree we brought back from a friend's cottage back in the '70s and planted in the corner of the yard. Before the subdivision was built, this was a farmers field and there was a row of ash trees in a line as a windbreak, many of which were left as backyard trees. It was nice to have a fully mature tree right from the start in the backyard, something I didn't appreciate until I bought our current home in a new subdivision without any mature trees in it. All the ash trees have since been removed thanks to the incursion of the Emerald Ash Borer, so now this tree stands as the senior tree for the immediate area. This tree grew up with us kids, and my mom would get pictures of us with the tree over the years. Feels a bit weird to be leaving this house for the last time, but I guess home really is somewhere else now.

Lava Power

So I tried to build a "broken" skytower, one that was leaking lava, but I'm not happy with the result. I'm also not especially fond of the lava powered one on the right, either. Not sure how to make the effect I want.