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The Avengers

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With the Avengers movie finally arriving after several lead-up movies/cameos (Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America), it’s about time that everyone got a chance to watch it, and read the eventual reviews afterward. If you want to short version: See it. Love it. It’s quite good. For the long version, read on.

The movie starts off already moving, and Loki shows up in no time ready to wage war against the helpless humans. Samuel L Jackson quickly makes the call, and the team is assembled with some stragglers (Thor shows up on his own, later, since getting in touch is not exactly a phone call).

As expected with a group of type A personalities (except possibly Captain America), conflicts abound within the team, but eventually they all come together to conquer the challenge.

As expected, Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark, really is the “star”, though the script that director did a very good job at giving all the individuals a good amount of time, story, etc. As usual for a Joss Whedon film, there’s a good amount of sarcasm, jokes, and humor for an otherwise serious film. And, as also typical, a “main” character dies. I won’t say who, but when it happens, it’s hard not to curse Whedon for his “signature“.

While it was obvious the movie was “long” it wasn’t unbearable, and the climax action scene, even though it was probably 15-20 minutes, it wasn’t boring like many action sequences can be. And I HIGHLY recommend you stay for the whole credits, and what comes after. It’s good for a laugh.

Highly recommend the movie, though I think Hollywood needs to re-examine their trailer writers/designers, because coming into this movie I was a bit concerned based on the trailers. Thankfully, those concerns were un-realized. This was easily the most enjoyable of the Marvel movies, with maybe the exception of Iron Man (1), but even that would be tough.

[xrr rating=4.75/5]

Add a valve to your fridge water!

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We bought our house 5 years ago now, and have replaced all the terrible floor surfaces except the kitchen. This was largely due to lack of options, and also the fact that we didn’t like the idea of cold, hard, tile. I personally think hardwood in the kitchen is a bad idea (dings, divits, water damage, etc), and carpet is obviously right out. When, about 3 months ago, my wife found modern “luxury” peel and stick, grout-able, tile (Lowes page) she suddenly got very interested in replacing the flooring. The current floor was an “orange” rock looking sheet vinyl from the late 70’s, and had since become impossible to clean.

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Craftsman Auto Switch

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Since installing hardwood in my house, and dealing with the mass amounts of saw dust that created, and the realization that sawdust “bags” don’t work very well, I’ve had to manually switch on my shopvac then start using the saw, or the orbital sander, etc. This is annoying, so I started looking for solutions. The internet consensus seemed to be either a Smart Strip, or cheaper/easier is the Craftsman Auto Switch. The annoying thing, as with most of the Sears experience, is their site didn’t say if the local store had any in stock. But, a quick trip over there found one on a random shelf for $20. I picked it up, and quickly came home to try it out.

Simply put, you plug the device into the main outlet, and then the vacuum into an “accessory” outlet (and maybe a work light into the other). When you switch on the primary load, a simple hall effect sensor sees that, throws a relay, and the accessory comes on. After the load switches off, the accessory continues to run for 3 seconds to clear the line (which is awesome). Since using it while my wife has been sanding cabinets, the dust creation has been minimal, and there’s been no more forgetting to turn on the vacuum.

Sure, a whole shop vacuum would be better, but I don’t have a shop… I have a garage. So using my shopvac, and an auto switch, is far superior when it comes to multi-taskers, and space usage.

[xrr rating=5/5]