HAPPY BIRTHDAY TETRIS!!!

Holy crap, Tetris came out when I was one year old!  ONE!  God damn!  They are 29 years old!  Wait till they hit thirty.  Maybe then they'll be as fabulous as me ;) It's all about the thirties baby!  Still, this is an epic nostalgic piece of 80's history.  My childhood - the frustration of wanting to throw my clunky Gameboy across the room because the shapes were coming to fast, the warning music that I was about to die - ahh childhood, how I miss thee sometimes.  Then I remember all the awkward phases, and imagine that Tetris is happy to be all grown up and have gone from the ugly green to full color!

A little background on Tetris for those of you tots who are completely lost as to what this is.

Year of Release: June 6, 1984

Originally Designed and Programmed by: Alexey Pajitnov of the Soviet Union.

It was the first programmed software that was make in the UK and exported to the US.

That's right - Tetris was leading the way for all the epic games we have today!

WAIT!  There's more!!  

HAPPY NATIONAL YO-YO DAY!!

Who knew right?  I didn't, but hey Geeks and Nerds are always learning and enjoying a classic throwback.  There is even a Museum of Yo-Yo History!  Holy crap!  The Yo-Yo is much more popular than I thought!

Okay, honestly, there's a crap ton of history on the Yo-Yo!  I would suggest clicking on the museum to start, but there's way too much info for me to put into this post.  However, I will say that while Yo-Yo's are cool in theory - I always completely and utterly failed at them.  I could never get them to come back up!!!  Misadventures of the Yo-Yo!  At least for this Geek.  

AND THAT, DEAR NERDS, IS YOUR RANDOM NERDY FACT OF THE DAY!

Iron Man 3 - Trailer

To be honest, Iron Man isn’t my favorite franchise of Superhero movies.  I’d much prefer to watch Thor with his red cape, hammer, and long flowing hair, or Captain America, (seriously they need to come out with a Hawkeye movie) as opposed to Tony Stark.  The character is great, but I’ve always been able to easily predict where the movie was going, what was going to happen, and my favorite part of the Iron Man franchise has always been the witty dialogue of the characters.  That alone makes it worth watching.  So, if you have not seen Iron Man 3 and do not wish to be spoiled, stop reading now.

THE REVIEW BEGINS HERE!

The thing I particularly loved about this Iron Man movie was the progress of Tony Stark’s character.  Tony has always been a playboy philanthropist with his own desires at the top of his to-do list.   He’s finally devoted to Pepper, and we see that he is – in fact – mortal like the rest of us.  Panic attacks are taking their toll on him, and each time, all Tony wants to do is jump in his suit.  It’s become his crutch.  He doesn’t sleep, barely eats, and spends every waking moment of his free time building new suits with new toys, and fresh concepts.  His hobby has become an obsession – and quite possibly the only thing that’s keeping him sane.

In the meantime The Mandarin – a terrorist that has caused several bombings against the US is stirring up trouble.  A man named Killian has returned from Tony’s past in hopes of getting funding for a new project – which Pepper deems is too dangerous and can be used for biological warfare.  Happy – our favorite goofy body guard – is now head of security and doesn’t quite trust Killian’s shady partner waiting in the living.  He follows him, gets blown up, but manages to get a clue to Tony.

Perhaps – in an act to prove that he’s still got it – Tony calls out The Mandarin and even gives his home address on live TV.  This of course, causes retaliation and we see Stark’s beautiful mountain side, ocean vista destroyed.  (There was a moment of thinking we lost Jarvas – not cool!) All of his suits are blown up, at least the ones we can see, his basement work shop is left in rubble – but what I loved about this scene was that when the first missile hit – Tony threw the suit (one which is not fully functional yet) on Pepper to protect her from getting hurt. 

After an almost watery grave – Tony escapes and finds himself in Tennessee – the clue that Happy left for Stark lead him there – though he wasn’t planning on going right away.  The suit is broken, Jarvis needs to sleep, and Tony finds himself walking through the snow, while dressed for sunny California, dragging the suit along behind him.  After getting a message to Pepper, he steals a poncho from a wooden statue and finds a shed where a new friend – a little boy named Harley – helps Tony in more ways than he realizes.  The interaction between these two is great, and Tony has to learn how to help the people of the nation without using the suit.  He can’t rely on it – the suit can no longer be his crutch.

That is my favorite part of Iron Man 3.  Tony has to realize how to be Iron Man with – or without the suit.  Now, I don’t want to give too much more away.  I don’t like to give away the ending, but the climax of the story arc was predictable and easy to call.  What happened after that though – well even I was surprised, so I won’t give it away.  I will say that Tony truly evolved as a person, and learned that with or without the suit – he is Iron Man.