Today, over on B’s blog, I’m guest-posting a Tuesday Tales review of Rory’s Story Cubes.  Before you head on over there, though, here’s a quick video review by NHL.  As a bonus, he ad-libs a story after rolling the die.

Disclaimer: We purchased Rory’s Story Cubes on our own and were not compensated in any way for this review.  All opinions expressed above (and in the video) are our own.

I have many good memories of my father growing up.  One of the big ones involved wrestling.  For a time, we were both big WWE (then called the WWF) fans.  We would watch Hulk Hogan, Randy “Macho Man” Savage, George “The Animal” Steel, Andre the Giant and many others tangle and try to be the best there was.  We even went, on more than one occasion, to WWF wrestling matches when they were close enough.  One of my best memories of these was the time that my father (through connections of his) got box suite tickets.  We got to sit in nice, comfortable chairs and watch the match through either a glass window, looking down on the arena, or via a television screen.  To my young mind, it was like sampling the ultimate in luxury.

I’ll admit that I thought that wrestling was real for much longer than I should have.  Perhaps I was holding on to the fantasy to preserve a common interest my father and I held.  Or perhaps I was just very naive.  (Probably a bit of both.)  Either way, my interest in wrestling faded.

Although I’m not a wrestling fan currently, I still have fond memories of wrestling.  When I heard of the WWE Defining Moments figures (ARP: $22.99), I was interested in just how realistic the figures would be.  There are many different figures including “Macho Man” Randy Savage (from WrestleMania® VII), Ultimate Warrior (also from WrestleMania® VII), Shawn Michaels (The 25th Anniversary of WrestleMania®), and The Rock.  I received Macho Man and Ultimate Warrior to review.

The boxes themselves were impressive.  They showed off the figures quite nicely and had detailed description of the match they were from on the back.  I’ll admit that I considered leaving them in the box for display.  In the end, though, I figured that I couldn’t review them properly if I didn’t remove them from the packaging.  Besides, NHL and JSL were chomping at the bit to try them out.  (I did wind up saving the description on the back of the box.)

Removing them from the packaging, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that they were extremely detailed.  Ultimate Warrior’s knee pads and tights, for example, feature images of him and his opponent (Macho Man) from their match in WrestleMania® VII.  The figures are also highly articulate.  Knees bend, ankles turn, midsections move and heads turn.

My boys, although not wrestling fans (JSL refers to Ultimate Warrior as “the cowboy”), immediately claimed the figures as their own and had some mock-fighting sessions with them.

Of course, the details on these figures is impressive enough that they could be displayed prominently in the display case of any wrestling fan.

Disclaimer: I received the two figures mentioned above to review.  All opinions mentioned above are my own.

If you saw my Wordless Wednesday post, you know that I have a lot of ties.  70 just in those photos, in fact.  Growing up, I didn’t like wearing ties.  As I got older, though, they began to grow on me.  Part of this might be that my father has a lot of ties and seeing my ton of ties reminds me of him.

My Aloha Friday question for today is: What items remind you of your father?

Thanks to Kailani at An Island Life for starting this fun for Friday. Please be sure to head over to her blog to say hello and sign the McLinky there if you are participating.

Aloha #92

If I ramble a bit today, it’s because I’ve been burning the midnight oil lately.  I came up with an idea for a Twitter application (more on that later) and, after a few false programming starts, suddenly found myself in a coding zone.  I would come up with new ideas and then implement them quickly.  As midnight approached each night, I would suddenly get a burst of energy.  My mind would race with ideas and bug-solving solutions.  I wouldn’t be able to go to sleep because I needed to “just code this one last thing… or maybe this one then I’ll go to sleep…”

Of course, I’m not 22 anymore.  I can’t code all night, sleep for four hours and then take on the new day full of energy.  Well, I can to a small degree.  Being a parent has shown me just how little sleep I can survive on.  When your baby wakes up every hour or two and stays awake for hours on end completely oblivious to the fact that it is 2:30 am, you find out just what sleep deprivation is like.  Luckily, our boys aren’t like that anymore (usually).  They go to sleep (albeit with various degrees of cooperation) by 8:30pm and sleep until 6am (when NHL, weekday or weekend, wakes me up to ask if it’s ok for him to go to the couch).

Still, I’m turning 36 in a couple of months.  Thirty-Six.  I’ve got to start realizing that I’m not a young man anymore.  After three late nights, I was really tired.  I probably should have gone to sleep early last night.  Still, I stayed up until midnight.  I might have even been fine with that, but other events conspired against me.

First, it was a call from work with an issue.  I helped as much as I could and then went to bed.  At 3 am, I got a second call from work.  At the same time, NHL woke up and asked to come into our bed.  After a half an hour, my call was done and I tried to get back into bed.

I got less than a half hour’s worth of sleep before JSL woke up crying.  He asked to come into our bed, but that just couldn’t happen.  One kid in our bed is a tight fit.  Two kids and there would be no room for us grown-ups.  So I asked him if he’d want to sleep with me in NHL’s bed.

I grabbed my pillow and cuddled with JSL in NHL’s bed but couldn’t fall asleep.  Right outside our window, some birds apparently decided that 4am was the perfect time to tweet and squawk incessantly.  This went on for about another half hour.  I finally fell asleep and slept fitfully for an hour and a half when B woke me up so I could go to work.

I think I’ll go to sleep at 9pm tonight… Unless I get some coding ideas for my new Twitter application.  Then maybe I’ll go to sleep an hour later. Or two hours.  Or… wait, how’d it get to be 1am so quickly?!!!

Ok, I know I said “more on that later” about my Twitter application, so here’s a teaser.  It’s an application designed to make it easier to manage your friends and followers.  I’m quite proud of the work I’ve done and can’t wait to release it.  My biggest obstacle right now is that I need to figure out a good name for it.  I’m hoping to find something catchy with an available dot com and Twitter handle.  I’m open to ideas if anyone thinks of anything catchy.  I’ll even credit you in the application when it launches.

In case you haven’t heard, Father’s Day is coming.  Growing up, this meant buying my father a tie or similar piece of clothing.  (Techy gifts while I was growing up, either were beyond my monetary means or weren’t the kind of gift he was interested in.)  And while I appreciate a nice tie, my gift preferences usually skew towards the geeky side.  Sadly, though, we aren’t super wealthy.  I can’t afford to go out and buy every single piece of geeky

tech that makes me drool.  I need to prioritize and bargain shop and Walmart is always on my bargain shopping list.  Here, in no particular order, are some tech items that I’d love to get for Father’s Day.  All of these items were spotted during a recent stroll through our local Walmart.  They are also all available from Walmart’s Father’s Day electronics page or Walmart.com.

Video Games:

Playing video games is fun.  Playing video games with my boys is extremely fun.  NHL, while not a master, has learned how to operate the controls nicely.  JSL wants to work it right, but just can’t figure it out yet.  I think he just needs more practice.  Which means I need to play more video games with him.  Oh the never-ending chores us dads must undertake!

Roku

Yes, we already have two Roku players.  One in our living room and one in our bedroom.  Why do we need a third, you ask?  Well, our upstairs room (used by the boys as a play room) doesn’t have one.  In fact, since it only has basic cable TV (and a DVD player but the DVDs are kept downstairs), that TV would benefit greatly from a Roku player.  Plus, the boys could rock out with Pandora in the larger play room space.

iPad 2

Don’t ask me how we didn’t get a photo of this.  I drool over the thought of having an iPad to use.  Oh the web browsing I’d do.  The apps I’d download.  The Angry Birds I’d fling at green pigs.  Excuse me while I get my drool mop.

LCD Monitor

I recently inherited a desktop computer that my parents didn’t need anymore.  I want to set this up to be a print/file server, but I need a monitor.  I have two CRT monitors I could use but they are big, hulking affairs.  They work fine, but they take up so much desk space.  How much nicer would it be to have this slim number on the desk instead of the giant dinosaur?

Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Dad Central Consulting on behalf of Walmart and received a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.