Nick Knack

Hey everybody! I know I haven't posted for awhile, I've been really busy with school these past few weeks. I recently finished a research paper for my English 100 class here at WKU and I'd really like to share it. Enjoy! Any Given Sunday…….and Thursday: Calling for the abolishment of TNF games             The National Football League (NFL) has been implementing primetime slots for marquee matchups since the creation of Monday Night Football (MNF) in 1970 and Sunday Night Football (SNF) in 1987. These programs drew high ratings for the NFL week in and week out. These games were also practical times for the players. The players had as much time to rest after a hard-fought football game if they were playing on SNF or MNF and got to play under the bright lights, so it was a win-win for everyone. Ten years ago, the NFL changed this formula by implementing Thursday Night Football (TNF) games which were only held some weeks at first. Today, however, TNF...

A recent episode of one of my favorite podcasts,  The Top 10 Show,  hosted weekly by Matt Knost and John Rocha focused on their top ten favorite Marvel movies along with special guest, Marc Andreyko. During the episode, the trio discussed the excellent Marvel film,  Logan , which led to some very interesting insight from Marc discussing why  Logan  along with  The Dark Knight  and  Wonder Woman  are the three most important comic book movies. I'd like to share and elaborate on Marc's sentiments. Marc Andreyko, himself, is a long-time comic book writer and has had success writing for Doctor Strange and DC Comics' Manhunter among others; he loves the comic-book genre as much as anyone and has also received an Eisner award for Best Anthology with his comic,  Love is Love . During this installment of  The Top 10 Show  March conveyed his thoughts on why these three films are among the most important among all comic-book movies ...

I love the X-Men! I have for years as they’re my favorite Marvel property right behind Spider-Man. I love the relevant themes and social commentary brought by the X-Men series along with an awesome cast of unique characters from the savage and highly intellectual Beast to the cruel yet understandable Magneto. I’m still a relatively new comic book reader so I’ve much more experience with the films; hence why I’m presenting my personal list of every X-Men related movie. 10. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) How do you mess up the origin story to such a beloved character? This should’ve been the easiest origin story to make but what we got was an over-convoluted mess filled with continuity errors and absurd action sequences. This movie was sad bad that it killed the “X-Men: Origins” franchise before it even started. That’s right. Fox wanted to make even more needless origin stories but instead the X-Men franchise was put into serious trouble after this film’s release. At least t...

“Batman: Rebirth” by Tom King Batman has been and always will be my favorite superhero and Tom King and company are certainly doing the caped crusader justice. This run of Batman had a decent start but has since elevated to the most engaging story out of all the runs I’m reading. Tom King is showing a unique side of Batman; we’re seeing a character who is devoted to crime fighting beginning to find an alternative to his life, a happier life that doesn’t consist of Jokes and Riddles. If I had to recommend one DC: Rebirth line to pick up, then this is it. “Superman: Rebirth” by Patrick J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason I’ve written a separate blog post all about this run (which you should check out) but I’m gonna reiterate its greatness anyway. Tomasi and Gleason have put together one of the best Superman comic lines in years thanks to a unique approach to the man of steel with the inclusion of a strong family aspect. Clark’s wife and son add a new layer to his character as well a...

Major Spoiler Alert for Seasons 1-3 of “Game of Thrones” so read at your own risk! The fall of Robb Stark of Winterfell also known as the “The King in the North” is one of the most tragic stories in Game of Thrones ; there’s no denying that. The young wolf was betrayed by those who swore allegiance to him, saw his beautiful wife and unborn child gutted and lost everything he ever loved and fought for. The most common reasoning for Robb’s downfall is that he broke his vow to marry a daughter of Walder Frey and while this is certainly a large component of his downfall it was not the only cause of it. Quite frankly I don’t even think it was his worst mistake. Robb Stark was a brilliant strategist and he knew how to motivate his fellow northerners in the War of the Five Kings, yet he still made “stupid mistakes” like his father as his own sister, Sansa, put it last season. Robb won every battle and still lost the war, so it makes sense that he must have made some rather foolish mist...

Superman is one of my favorite superheroes because of his undying determination to do what’s right, his love for his companions and perhaps most of all, his desire to just fit in. Writer, Peter J. Tomasi along with partner and artist, Patrick Gleason, have been creating a comic series for a new yet familiar version of Krypton’s last son in a masterful fashion with their run, “DC Rebirth: Superman”. This current run of Superman is about 30 issues in and mostly follows Clark Kent, his wife, Lois, and their son, Jon, who has powers of his own inherited from the man of steel. When I realized this run would focus heavily on the Kent family I had my concerns; I love the adventures of Superman like when he’s saving the world from Darkseid or thwarting one of Lex Luthor’s evil schemes. Kal-El’s romance with Lois Lane is one of the greatest in comic book history but the idea of them having a child and it being the pivotal point of the story seemed like it could be the incorrect approach for ...

Now you should know my Halo experience really took off with Halo: Reach but I have played many of the great classic Halo maps from the original trilogy in the Master Chief Collection, forge remakes and the actual games themselves. Enjoy! 10. Zanzibar, Halo 2 Many would rank this map higher and rightfully so (there are just 9 more maps i like better). This is one of the most unique maps in Halo's history as it is a landmark map for Halo 2 and 3. This map offers intense action from its open areas, the beach, the platform next to the wheel, to the small corridors in the structure behind the wheel (not the most avid description I know) and of course the wheel itself provides memorable, fun combat and the variety of vehicles just adds to the mayhem. 9. Epitaph, Halo 3 One of the most slick and gorgeous maps in Halo. Epitaph is one of my favorite close quarters, small team maps with players never knowing what’s around each corner or if they'll get hit out of nowh...

Recently I attended a screening of the 1976 film, “All the President’s Men”, for the first time. As I’m sure many of you already know the classic is about the Washington Post journalists, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who reported on and revealed the Watergate scandal to the United States with Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman staring in their respective roles. I am currently a journalism major at Western Kentucky University with a strong interest in Political Science so I was quite interested in viewing this film as you can imagine. Like many others, I learned the basics of the Watergate scandal and why it led to Nixon’s resignation, the attempted cover-up, Ford’s pardon and you probably know the gist of it. However, I’d like to look a bit deeper into Nixon and Watergate. The consensus taught in school that Nixon broke the law and payed the price is true but there’s more to it than that. Beneath the wall of scandal and obstruction lies a sacred value, loyalty, and it cost the N...