Wednesday 25 January 2017

Happy Birthday to a Scottish poet

Today is Robbie Burns day, Robbie Burns was a Scottish poet that was born January 25 1759, he died July 21 1796. But, in that short time he became the national bard (poet) of Scotland.

He penned several poems and songs, the most used song is one everyone sings on New Years Eve, Auld Lang Syne. He also wrote Address to the Haggis (which is why Haggis is associated with Robbie Burns Day).

This is what Robbie Burns looked like.
 And just because this is my blog......
Here I am in my Black Watch tartan vest at a Scottish festival last year.
 This is Auld Lang Syne done by one of our favorite bands The Red Hot Chilli Pipers.

Oh, and before I finish this blog, I have important Star Wars news. On Monday Disney announced what the name is going to be for Star Wars Episode 8, so, here is what it is called.
Star Wars Episode 8, The Last Jedi.
And the title has been staring us in the face since the opening crawl of Force Awakens. Below is the text from the opening crawl of the movie, I've circled where the new title appears.
The opening crawl from Force Awakens.
There is only 7779 hours to go until opening day (that's 324 days). And just for fun as of the time of this blog there is 466750 minutes away from opening.

Tuesday 24 January 2017

lets get caught up...... again

Okay, more catching up.

The first week of January my Toronto Maple Leafs held a 100th anniversary party (I just thought it was for the Leafs, but it isn't it's 100 years of NHL hockey, it still sort of counts as the Leafs are one of the original six teams in the NHL). They held skating parties/events across the city, 6 days worth from Tuesday to Sunday, we only made it to 3. At all of the events they had autograph sessions with some of the Leafs alumni, 4 players each day. Everyone who has read Sunki's blog knows about "The Hat", the baseball cap that him and daddy started getting autographs on. Well, me and daddy continued the tradition, adding ten more autographs to it.
"The Hat" with all the new autographs on it.
The first day we got four new autographs, before I go into that though, me and daddy had a bit of a happy accident. Daddy was looking for a bathroom when we got off the subway (it was a rather long trip), we ended up at the movie theater in the same building. What made it a happy accident, we found out that they had Star Wars collectors cups. So, daddy got lunch at the theater, poutine and a drink (in one of the collectors cups).
Notice that daddy got the one with Darth Vader on it.
We also saw that they had the 3D collectors glasses, more on those later.

When we finally did find a bathroom (why can't daddy use a peepad like I do when we're out). Once he'd emptied his bladder we headed across the street to the event, after getting bundled up.
Daddy got a new toque (Maple Leafs, of course).
Trying on the new toque, it doesn't seem to fit me
 We then headed inside to get autographs (at least this one was all inside, the other 2 we went to weren't, and it was even colder). When we got into the line it was already very long, but we made some friends with the people in the line, so that passed the time. Our first two autographs were from Gary Leeman (we didn't get his card, but he did autograph the hat) and Peter Ing.
 For the second autograph session we were smart, we stayed right up near the front of where the line would start, that way daddy didn't need to stand for to long. Our next two autographs were from Mike Palmateer and Darryl Sittler.

Darryl Sittler said I was the most awesome thing he'd ever seen.
Daddy also got me a hockey stick.
It isn't a Maple Leaf stick, but it is a hockey stick.
Oh, and we got to meet the Leafs mascot, Carlton the Bear.
Of course me and daddy were in our Leafs gear.
The next event was ALL outside, and it was FREEZING, so we only stayed long enough to get two out of the four autographs.

Daddy also got a new t-shirt.




The third and finally event was WAY out on the other side of the city, it took us nearly 90 minutes to get there. So of course we were going to stay for all four autographs. It was just as cold as the day before.



We didn't get this guys card, but you see he is signing the hat, his name is Johnny Bower.

In front of the Maple Leafs 100 sign.

Got to meet this guy, who is he? That's John Tory mayor of Toronto.
Daddy also got two vouchers to get 4 tickets to a Toronto Marlies game, me and daddy poured over his friends list to see who we could bring to the game. It ended up being a family boys night out, it was me, Sunki, daddy and grandpa. But only three of us were in Leafs gear.
On the big train heading to the game

Sunki joined us in his Leafs gear (it's a rubber wristband sort of thing)
Daddy also brought a pen that him and Sunki got years ago, it, well, I'll just show it to you.
That red part lights up and it makes a horn noise, when you press a little button on the side. It's a signal that our team scored a goal.
Sadly our team (The Marlies) only scored once that night, and lost 2-1 to the Scranton Penguins, so we only activated the pen once. Oh, you can also see the Marlies flag on my stroller, we've had that since Sunki and daddy first went to see them. On the other side is the Leafs flag that we've had for even longer.
The lower pin we've had for a very long time, the top one is the one I got at the game.

Watching daddy watching the game

My ticket, okay not really.
Daddy got all four tickets, thinking that the other two friends we'd invited would show up, they didn't. So daddy said I could have one of the extra tickets.

Okay, me and daddy have now seen the new Star Wars movie Rogue One 3 times. The last time we saw it daddy was finally able to snag a pair of the collectors 3D glasses (we didn't get any when we saw Force Awakens, which sort of upset daddy).
These are the Stormtrooper version, there's also a black version of these

These glasses don't seem to be working for me, what a ripoff.
Speaking of Star Wars and movies, I have some BIG news about the next one. Until yesterday everyone had just been refering to it as Star Wars Episode VIII (8), well, today it has a proper title.

*****DRUM ROLL*****

It is called......
The Last Jedi!!!!!!

Me and daddy spotted a plot hole in Force Awakens that is so big you could fly Starkiller base through it, and have enough room on either side for a Death Star to go through at the same time (in other words, IT'S HUGE). This plot hole concerns a certain Stormtrooper FN2187, we come to find out in the later part of the movie that FN2187s job was Sanitation (he's a janitor). So what the heck was he doing on a combat operation to Jakku? General Hux said that "his troopers are the the best, programmed from birth", programmed, meaning trained to do a certain job, in this case janitor.
Now, going by current military training methods, everyone enlisting in the military goes through the same basic training, even officers have to do basic training. Going off of that, it is reasonable to assume that FN2187 would have had the same training as any other Stormtrooper to start out with, cleaning uniform, marching, basic weapons etc. After that they are sent to complete their training in whatever job they are assigned (like a janitor), so it stands to reason that FN2187 wouldn't have gotten the more advanced combat conditioning that other front line Stormtroopers would have gotten.
It's no wonder FN2187 broke through the conditioning, he wasn't ever meant to be in combat. There is a term for that (actually several), Shell Shock, Combat Fatigue, the newer version of it is called PTSI (Post Traumatic Stress Injury). So the First Order only has themselves to blame for FN2187 defecting to the Resistance (it was probably Captain Phasma that ordered him on that mission).
Okay, that is my rant over.

One last thing before I forget, this Wednesday is Robbie Burns day. That day we celebrate the birthday of the national poet of Scotland, Robert Burns. Who gave us Auld Lang Syne, Address to the Haggis among others. Robbie Burns would have turned 258 years old this year, he was born on January 25 1759, he died July 21 1796.

Friday 6 January 2017

Getting caught up

Wow, so much going on lately, the new Star Wars movie, Christmas and all sorts of other things.

So I'll start with the new Star Wars movie (because it was awesome), on December 16th me and daddy took Uncle Tim to see Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, it's the first in a series of stand alone movies. Me and daddy have already seen it twice, and we are still seeing neat little things in it.

Now, Christmas was awesome, Santa Paws brought me lots of stuff.
I got a new winter jacket, I needed a new one because I out grew the hoodie that I inherited from Sunki.


This is the hoodie I got from Sunki
And here is my brand new jacket from Santa Paws

You'll notice that it's also camouflaged
Daddy had to do some alterations to make it fit me better, and added something to make it even better.
Those four squares are the loop part of velcro, and just above is a hole for my tag

Here you can see what that velcro was for, it's for my Galactic Empire patch.
I also got a new sports team jersey, and a new toy (which I have since destroyed).
My Stocking

All of my stuff from Santa Paws hung from my stocking

My new Toronto Maple Leafs jersey
 Daddy says I get to wear my new jersey today when we go to a special event celebrating the Leafs 100th anniversary, I'm hoping that I can get more autographs on the hat that daddy and Sunki started a few years ago.

Daddy also got a bunch of presents too.
These gloves are very special

The black boxes are what makes them special, they're battery packs

The batteries provide power to heat the gloves, so no more frozen hands for daddy while pushing my stroller
The mouse for daddy's computer started to malfunction, so daddy needed a new one, and I approve of this mouse.
Daddy's new mouse, with Darth Vader on it, although I don't approve of it because it's wireless.
Daddy also got some new fidget toys, these keep his hands and mind busy so he won't focus on something that he is stressing about.

This set is can make shapes


This set glows in the dark.
We also got presents for my human cousins. For the younger one Arthur, we got a box set of four cardboard books based on his favorite cartoon, Paw Patrol.
The Paw Patrol box set

We also found this cute little toy of Marshall, his favorite character.
For my older cousin Robbie, well, he was a little more of a challenge. We couldn't find ANY of the toys he wanted, so we got him a gift card. We are trying to find something in addition to the gift card, so far the options are taking him to something like ComicCon or trying to find a toy now (I mean the stores should have restocked everything after the holidays right?)
This is the front of the card that daddy made for Robbie

This is the inside of the card, we thought it was pretty funny.