Weekly Recap For January 28 - February 3 2018

No more snow as January came to an end, but Shanghai continues to be cold. Royal Rumble and NXT Takeover proved to be fun events, and I'm still catching up on some bits of WWE programming from that big weekend. We've got Chinese New Year coming up in a week and a half. Looking forward to the Year of the Dog!

Comic Reviews on Comic A Day

All in the Family Part 2: Angel by LB Lee. (9/10).

Crosswind #1 by Gail Simone, Cat Staggs,  and Image Comics. (8/10).

Cerebus #288 by Dave Sim, Gerhard, and Aardvark-Vanaheim. (6/10).

Book Reviews on Goodreads

Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants by Dav Pilkey. (4*).

Junie B. Jones Is Captain Field Day by Barbara Park. (4*).

Supporting

My friend Paul Dyson runs the Boston Marathon to raise money for the Krystle Campbell Scholarship at UMass Boston, which was established in memory of Krystle Campbell, a victim of the Boston Marathon bombing. I am supporting the 2018 Run For Krystle Team's fundraising.

Looking Ahead

Hoping to get to play in a Magic: The Gathering draft tonight, followed by a day of adventure in Shanghai with the Kiddo and his friend tomorrow. Chinese New Year break comes up in a week and a half, and we'll have friends visiting from Vietnam, so more chances to explore the city.

Looks like we will be traveling somewhere within China for Spring Break. We're currently examining our options. And looking way ahead, we'll be back in the USA (mostly in New England) for a few weeks in June and July.

Weekly Recap For January 21-27 2018

This week saw a rare instance of snow in Shanghai, and an actual snow day on Friday. We got an unexpected long weekend, which is nice even if the policy is that we'll make the day up on a Saturday in March.

Book Reviews on Goodreads

Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies From Outer Space and the Subsequent Assault of the Equally Evil Lunchroom Zombie Nerds by Dav Pilkey. (4*).

Comic Reviews on Comic A Day

Nail Polish by Sophie LaBelle and Assigned Male Comics. (8.5/10).

Wonder Woman #8 from DC Comics in 2012. (8/10).

Erstwhile: The Clever Farmer's Daughter by Gina Biggs and Strawberry Comics. (8.5/10).

Supporting

I'm supporting Caty Simon's local efforts to help prevent overdose deaths in Western Massachusetts through distribution of fentanyl test strips.

Looking Ahead

Royal Rumble weekend has arrived! I posted my predictions a while ago in a Facebook post, but I plan to do a revised version here (in light of recent injuries, I've had to change some of my predictions). (Edit: Predictions are done. Find them here!). NXT Takeover will air here Sunday morning, and Royal Rumble Monday morning, so I'll be a bit late getting to see the Rumble (no spoilers, please!). I can't watch Mixed Match Challenge when it airs due to lack of Facebook Watch access, but the first two matches showed up on WWE network about 5 days after airing, and I thought they were both fun. Also props to Velveteen Dream and Johnny Gargano, who put on a great match ahead of Takeover on this week's NXT!

Next movie I'm likely to see will be Black Panther, but I haven't looked up the China release date. I also thought the second Pacific Rim: Uprising trailer was a lot better than the first one, and I'm now looking forward to seeing it. The only reason it was even made was the fact that the first movie did so well in China, so the sequel should be a big deal over here.

We are hosting visitors for our first Lunar New Year here in Shanghai. Still working out travel plans for Spring break, and for the summer.