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Acclaimed April, Issue 04/15

№239
~6 minutes
InLife

    In this month’s issue of Keeping Up With the Erikssons: I get new glasses, play lots of board games, continue my tattoo and go to the cinema to experience Avengers: Age of Ultron in IMAX 3D.

    Aaah.

    End of the month.

    We meet again.

    New glasses

    Back when we visited Finland, last month, I tried on my brother’s glasses—for no particular reason—and when I did my family and Rebecka all agreed that I looked better in his glasses than I did in my own.

    Cue sad face.

    It dawned on me that I had had my current glasses for over a decade. I hadn’t even had an eye-exam in all those years.

    Maybe it was time to get a fresh pair of glasses?

    Booking an appointment and getting my eye-sight tested was the easy part. Aside for the myopia in my left eye having gotten worse by 0.25 dioptres, which is surprisingly little in 10 years, my eyes are perfectly healthy.

    The hard part was finding frames I liked.

    Trying on pair after pair, I rejected most of them with great haste—much like shopping for clothing—I know what I like and what I don’t like.

    Ever so often though, I would find a pair that I wasn’t sure about—

    Cue my phone and taking selfies for later.

    —Coming home, armed with my selfies, I quickly edited them together so I could easily compare them side-by-side and see what Rebecka thought—let’s face it, it might be my glasses but she would be seeing them more than I would. Makes sense she would get to have a say in which ones I chose.

    Me, trying on glasses at Specsavers.
    Which ones are your favourites?

    I asked her which ones she liked before having told her which ones I liked, and was surprised when her favourites were the same as mine.

    So I asked for her second favourites. Again, same as mine.

    At this points the choice was pretty obvious but because one can never be too sure of important decisions like these—am I taking this too seriously?—I consulted a great friend of ours.

    But again, her favourites were the same ones as ours. Her second favourites, same as ours.

    Naturally, I got the ones I liked and was delighted when those whose opinions I value, had the same preferences as I did.

    Me, wearing my new glasses
    Say, “Goodbye,” to the old Carlos and, “Bonjour,” to the new one.

    Now, I just need to decide what sunglasses to get.

    Oh, right, I didn’t tell you. I went for a 2-for-1 deal and decided to get my second pair as sunglasses.

    International Tabletop Day

    Remember last year, when I participated in a 24 h board game marathon?

    Well, this year was no different and in honour of International Tabletop Day, the same people who organised the 24 h marathon saw fit to organise another event.

    Expect this time it was only going to be 12 h.

    “12 h? That’s it? I can do that in my sleep,” I thought to myself. Expect I would need to be awake. Obviously.

    And turns out that yeah, I can totally do a 12 h marathon with ease. And so could everyone else. The hours flew by and before we knew it, it was all over.

    We used a nearby resuscitation doll to prop up a tablet to take a time-lapse of the event but because I haven’t gotten my hands on it the time-lapse yet, you’re going to have to settle for a picture of said doll.

    Resuscitation doll propped up to hold a tablet between its legs.
    As you can probably imagine, this poor baby was the butt of many jokes. Get it? Butt? My talents are wasted here.

    In preparation for the event I had also purchased a game widely regarded as the best pirate-themed board game money can buy, the award-winning Merchants & Marauders from 2010.

    Unfortunately with only 12 h–only?—to spend on board games we didn’t find the time to play it. In fairness though, the box says it will take about 3 h and for the first game, I imagine that that number is probably closer to 4 h.

    I’m eager to get some people together so that I, and we, can play Merchant & Marauders and once we have I’ll let you know if it’s as good as they say.

    Tattoo session #5

    It should come as no surprise at this points that, I of course, also went for another tattoo session. But since I’ve mentioned it enough before I thought I would skip past it this time.

    Well, that and the fact that I completely forgot to take any pictures this time—it was a quick session—means I have nothing to show anyway. Until next session I guess.

    Avengers: Age of Ultron

    Unless you’ve been living under a large desolate rock for the past few years—or you’re just not into superhero films—I’m sure you’re aware of the franchise behemoth that is Marvel and its string of successful films.

    Starting with Iron Man back in 2008, Marvel has been slowly building the film version of their massive universe and this month was the release of the penultimate Phase Two film, Avengers: Age of Ultron.

    If there’s ever a film worth watching in IMAX 3D this should surely be it, right?

    Avengers: Age of Ultron
    “I’ve got no strings on me,” he said and everything got super-creepy.

    So, was it?

    Well, yes, I suppose. But I also got a little nauseous from the most intense action scenes because—I can only assume—my brain didn’t appreciate having to work out the implications of all those things flying at me and decided that it wasn’t having any of it.

    All in all though, Avengers: Age of Ultron is a decent albeit uninspiring follow-up to Marvel’s The Avengers.

    Don’t get me wrong, I liked it. But at the same time, the presence of Ultron never felt quite as threatening as Loki from the first Avengers film. Despite James Spader’s stellar performance as the titular A.I. gone sentient.

    Verdict: 3 and a half rogue robots out of 5.

    And that’s it for this month.

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