We didn't take a lot of vacations when I was a kid. The money just wasn't there for a family of 5 living on 2 teacher's salaries. Somehow though my parents managed to save, probably over the course of a couple of years, for us to do a road trip across the country. In principle …
Continue reading Our Trans-Canada Vacation: Part 1 – Life in a van and a tent
Unless you're some weirdo who wakes up like a ball of energy, it's hard to get up in the morning. The alarm goes off, you hit snooze, 2 maybe 3 times before you finally drag your butt out of bed. Then groggily get ready for your day and spend most of the morning in a …
Continue reading How to start your day off right
It's 2019. This means we look to the new year to be better than the last and try to better ourselves, be more successful and live a happier life. There's nothing wrong with this, it's a good thing to want to be a better person. No one is the perfect version of themselves, because perfect …
Continue reading Why resolutions rarely work
The other day wrote a post about why kids should play D&D, you can read it here. But something occurred to me. It's all very well and good to say they should play D&D but how do you get them to play D&D? Does it take some kind of magic to pry them away from …
Continue reading How to get kids interested in playing DnD
I've read comics for a long time. There are always periods where I'm out of the loop but the love of the characters was always there. That being said I was never very into Aquaman. He didn't seem to have much going on. This is partly due to my ignorance about the character. My knowledge …
Continue reading Review corner: Episode 1 – Aquaman
Yes it's cold outside. Yes it's almost Christmas. What better time than now to talk about summer at the pool. This will either be a complete tease to anyone who's landscape is covered in snow and ice or give you something to imagine and make you feel warm. Regardless it will most likely make you …
Continue reading Summer at the pool
When I was a kid I was pretty sensitive. That was before real life decided it was time to keep kicking me like it does everybody else. When we're children we see the world through a rosy lens. There's good and bad and we don't think about the grey areas where most of our adult …
Continue reading The saddest Christmas story in my family
There was a time when playing Dungeons & Dragons was frowned upon. Whether it was being accused of promoting devil worship and murder or just the stigma of being too nerdy for anyone cool to play, it was on the edges of popular culture. Those who played it kept it secret or at least didn't …
Continue reading Why you should play Dungeons and Dragons with kids
I played my first game of Dungeons & Dragons in 1999. I knew about it, had a vague idea what it was but I had never played before. Not really. There was a moment in elementary school when one of my friends tried to introduce it to a group of us with no idea how to …
Continue reading How Roll20 got me back into DnD.
When I was a kid we had few traditions in my family. We generally weren't the type of family to be hung up on tradition or doing things because that's how it was always done. However around Christmas we did have things that we did every year. Not because it was tradition, I doubt any …
Continue reading Boxing day traditions
A long time ago, in a suburban home far far away...OK not that far. Like literally 3 kilometers from where I'm typing this but I digress. In the late 70s and early 80s home video became a thing. Before that you had to go to the theater, buy your popcorn, watch the movie and if …
Continue reading Why I love every Star Wars film
Christmas in our house was always an exciting time. Even though my parents didn't have a lot of money, they managed to save throughout the year to make sure Christmas was something special. My brother and sister were out of their Santa believing period by the time I really understood what was going on at …
Continue reading Christmas Morning
My brother was older than me. By 9 years. That's a long time when you're a kid. He was an adult before I entered high school. Now I know what you're saying, "It must have been great having a brother that much older". Yeah, not so much. It wasn't horrible but it wasn't all sunshine …
Continue reading 3 Albums that changed me
My winter explorer outfit. Circa 1988 Yeah it's cold. I'm not a fan of winter. I used to love it when I was a kid but now that I'm old and crotchety I have a distinct dislike for it. The wind cuts through you, chilling you to the bone, your boots and pants get covered …
Continue reading Winter is here
An old man rant. There was a time when it was almost intolerable to sit there and watch your buddy play video games and have to wait your turn. It was like having a bowl of chips in front of you and being told you aren't allowed to touch them. You'd get jittery, and frustrated …
Continue reading What’s the deal with…?
This post contains Amazon Associate links. I love monster movies. If it has big monsters or big robots I'm in. 100%. Even better if it has big monsters fighting big robots. But those are few and far between with the exception of Pacific Rim. I think it's because I've always been drawn to sci-fi and …
Continue reading Midnight Monsters
I always wanted a tree-house. I don't know why, maybe it was the idea of having a sanctuary, somewhere I could call my own. I never got a tree-house, I had friends who had tree-houses, but I never had one. Don't get me wrong, this isn't like one of my life's great regrets. I'm not …
Growing up our house was, well a house. It wasn't the biggest house. It wasn't the nicest house. You couldn't drink the tap water. There were mice. There were bugs. But it was our house. Well not ours. It belonged to the old rich couple that lived in the mansion on the other side of …
We didn't have a lot of money. We weren't poverty stricken. It's not like I was eating out of a can of beans that I shared with my brother and sister over a fire made in a barrel. But we certainly weren't well off. The houses in the town I grew up in were HUGE. …
Continue reading Growing up poor in a rich town
I've decided that my blog needs to have 2 separate sites. I write about my personal life, my childhood and tell personal stories, but I also write about my nerdy interests and movies. Because of this I've decided to separate the two so they each have their own unique home. They will both be posted …
Continue reading New site announcement
Get Old, Stay Young 