New Place

I've finally moved into my new permanent place.  It's in a manufactured housing community in Litchfield Park.  Some work still needs to be done, but it's where I am right now.

Moving Again

I probably should have mentioned this at the time, but I was under so much stress that I couldn't bother with it.  However, I feel I have to mention it now despite the stress I'm under right now.

A little over two years ago (around July 2023), circumstances forced me to move to another part of Sun City.  However, recently, a different set of circumstances have forced me to temporarily relocate to an apartment in Goodyear before finding a more permanent place for me to live.

Also, I guess I should start posting here more often, but I haven't been able to find the motivation to do so.

Happy 2025

Oh, boy.  Once again, here's hoping the new year is better than last year.  Merry New Year, everyone!

Happy 2024

 2023 was a bit rough for me, but I'm hoping that 2024 goes a little better.   Merry New Year, everyone!

Happy 2023

 Merry New Year, everyone!

Happy 2022

 Well, here it is, my one post of the year.  Happy 2022, everyone!

Happy 2021

 With all the craziness going on, I almost forgot to post something for the new year, so here it is.  Here's hoping this year is better for the planet than last year.

New Decade

Well, the new decade's here already.  Again, I don't know if I'm going to post more than one entry a year like I have been over the past few years, but we'll see...

2019

Well, it's a new year already.  I'm sorry I haven't been posting as often as I should, but I promise to have more than one new blog posting for 2019.

Happy New Year 2018

Sorry I haven't been motivated to make new blog posts, but I do want to wish everyone out there a Happy 2018!

Happy New Year 2017

Finally, 2016 is over.

Hopefully, 2017 is much better, but I have a slight feeling it's going to be even worse...

Moving to Sun City

I am moving to a new house in Sun City, so I won't be fully online for a few days.  To be quite honest, the whole thing is driving me crazy!  Hopefully, I'll be able to get through this without suffering a complete meltdown.

February 29

Happy Leap Day, everyone!

Milestone Birthday

Well, I've reached the milestone of my 30th Birthday.  Man, I'm getting old.

On Vacation

I'm going to be on vacation from June 20th to July 9th, so I probably won't be able to comment on blogs much until I get back.  Just FYI.

Who is Hallwings? Game Shows

(note:  This one's a long one as well.)

And now we talk about one of the most enduring genres in the history of television...the game show.

Oh, yeah, I f***ing LOVE game shows!  Now that reality crap like "Survivor" or "Big Brother," but such enduring classics as "The Price is Right", "Jeopardy!", "Wheel of Fortune", etcetera.

Now, what are my favorite game shows, you ask?  Well, I'll tell you.  Here are my top 50 52 in alphabetical order.

• Beat the Clock
• The Big ShowDown
• Blockbusters
• Body Language
• Break the Bank (1976 version)
• Caesars Challenge
• Card Sharks
• Chain Reaction (1980 version)
• Concentration
• Cross-Wits (1975 version)
• The Dating Game (Jim Lange versions)
• Debt
• Double Dare (1976 version, hosted by Alex Trebek)
• Double Dare (Nickelodeon version, all versions hosted by Marc Summers)
• Face the Music
• Family Feud (except the Louie Anderson version)
• Gambit
• The Gong Show (1976 version)
• High Rollers
• Hit Man
• Hollywood Squares
• I've Got a Secret (1950-60s and 1972 versions)
• Jackpot!
• Jeopardy!
• The Joker's Wild
• Let's Make a Deal (Monty Hall versions; sorry, but nobody does LMaD like Monty)
• Lingo
• The Magnificent Marble Machine
• Match Game (all except the 1998 version)
• Name That Tune (Tom Kennedy and Jim Lange versions)
• The Newlywed Game (Bob Eubanks versions)
• Now You See It
• Pass the Buck
• Password
• Press Your Luck
• The Price is Right
• Sale of the Century
• Scrabble
• Shop Til You Drop (not the J.D. Roberto version)
• Split Second
• Supermarket Sweep (1990 version)
• Tattletales
• The $xxx,000 Pyramid
• Three on a Match
• Tic Tac Dough (mainly the 1978 version)
• To Tell the Truth
• Treasure Hunt (1970s and 1980s versions)
• What's My Line?
• Wheel of Fortune
• Whew!
• Win, Lose, or Draw
• Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

And my favorite game show hosts.  Here are my Top 30 31 in alphabetical order.

• Bob Barker
• Jack Barry
• Tom Bergeron
• Dick Clark
• Bud Collyer
• Ray Combs
• Bert Convy
• Bill Cullen
• John Charles Daly
• John Davidson
• Richard Dawson
• Geoff Edwards
• Bob Eubanks
• Monty Hall (no relation)
• Art James
• Dennis James
• Tom Kennedy
• Allen Ludden
• Peter Marshall
• Wink Martindale
• Garry Moore
• Jack Narz
• Jim Peck
• Jim Perry
• Regis Philbin
• Gene Rayburn
• Pat Sajak
• Peter Tomarken
• Alex Trebek
• Mark L. Walberg
• Chuck Woolery

I'll go into details about these shows and hosts at a later date.

Who is Hallwings? TV and Movies

Now I'm going to talk about some of my favorite TV shows and movies.

I don't think I can list all of my favorites when it comes to television and motion pictures, but here are some of my favorites, in no particular order.

Movies

• The James Bond Series (the EON films, from Dr. No to Die Another Day)
• Star Wars (the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy)
• The Indiana Jones films (including Crystal Skull)
• Many of the Disney Animated Features (my official list forthcoming)
• The Star Trek films (not counting the recent Abrams re-imagining)
• Airplane!
• Ghostbusters I & II
• The Austin Powers films
• The Naked Gun films
• Home Alone 1, 2, and 3 (yes, I admit I like 3 to an extent)
• ET

Television

• The Simpsons (1989-present, FOX; my favorite episodes are the ones from the first ten or so seasons)
• The Cosby Show
• Family Ties
• Cheers
• Night Court
• Diff'rent Strokes
• The Facts of Life
• Growing Pains
• Who's the Boss?
• The Golden Girls
• Star Trek (all six TV series, including the Animated series, but I'm not really a fan of Enterprise)
• Full House
• Murphy Brown
• Step by Step
• Family Matters
• The Nanny
• Home Improvement
• Malcolm in the Middle
• The Bernie Mac Show

I have more favorites, but again, this is just a basic list.   More to come later.

Who is Hallwings? Pro Wrestling

This time, I'll be discussing professional wrestling.

Sit back down!!

I will say this.  I've known for a long time.  But while the outcomes of the matches are predetermined, and some of the moves are choreographed, what happens in the square circle is real to an extent.  They really get hurt in there.  And they get hurt practically every day of the year doing this stuff.

But I'm not here to talk about the behind-the-scenes stuff.  I'm here to talk about some of my favorite moments.

Now, I only got seriously into pro wrestling a few years ago, and it was after I saw the reality show "Hogan Knows Best."  Since then, I've started watching WWE programming, both on television and On Demand, and I even have some DVDs of WWE matches, superstars, etc.  I will say this, it's hard to determine when exactly WWE, and pro wrestling in general, started to go downhill after peaking during the Attitude Era of 1998 to 2001, but it probably happened at one of these moments...

• When Vince McMahon bought WCW (March 23, 2001).
• The InVasion angle (July-November 2001).
• The Brand Extension, when RAW and SmackDown became separate shows, each with its own roster (April 1, 2002).
• When the World Wildlife Fund won its lawsuit against the World Wrestling Federation, forcing the latter company to change its name to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). (May 5, 2002)
• When Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, the two biggest stars of the WWE during the Attitude Era, left the company permanently in 2004 (although Stone Cold has made numerous appearances over the years).
• When John Cena became WWE Champion at WrestleMania 21 (April 3, 2005; I will admit, I like Cena, but he's really gotten stale in recent years).
• When Eddie Guerrero passed away tragically (November 13, 2005).
• The Chris Benoit Incident (June 24, 2007).
• When Ric Flair retired (March 30, 2008).
• When WWE changed its primary rating from TV-14 to TV-PG (2008).
• When Shawn Michaels retired (March 28, 2010).

Either way, WWE hasn't been as fun as it once was back in the day.  Even though I'm mainly a WWE fan, because it was the first major wrestling promotion I heard of back when I was really young, I have seen some other promotion's matches, such as WCW, the AWA, ECW.  I will say this, though.  Oh, by the way, I don't watch TNA, and I don't play on watching TNA anytime soon.

I could list some of my favorite wrestling moments, but that would take way too long.

More forthcoming.

Who is Hallwings? Video Games

Now, let's talk about some of my favorite video games.

I first got into video games when I was about 4 or 5 years old, somewhere around there.  My very first video game system was an original Game Boy.  At one time or another, I also owned a Nintendo Entertainment System (original version, the one with the bleeding blinking red light), a Sega Genesis (model one), a Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, and a Game Boy Color.  I currently own a Sony PlayStation 2,Nintendo Gamecube (w/Game Boy Player), Nintendo Game Boy Advance SP, Nintendo DS (original), a Nintendo Wii, and a RetroDuo System (NES and Super Nintendo, although at the moment, I don't own any NES cartridges).  I've also played Sega Master System games, TurboGrafx-16 games (albeit on the Virtual Console), Game Gear games, Sony Playstation 1 games, Xbox Games, and Xbox 360 games.

Among my favorite actual games are...

• Mario Bros.
• Super Mario Bros.
• Super Mario Bros. 2 (both the Japanese and American versions)
• Super Mario Bros. 3
• Super Mario World
• Super Mario 64
• New Super Mario Bros. (DS version)
• Super Mario Land
• Super Mario Land 2
• Wario Land:  Super Mario Land 3
• Donkey Kong
• Donkey Kong, Jr.
• Donkey Kong '94 (Game Boy)
• Donkey Kong Country
• Donkey Kong Country 2
• Donkey Kong Country 3
• Donkey Kong 64
• The Legend of Zelda
• Zelda II:  The Adventure of Link
• Zelda:  A Link to the Past
• Zelda:  Link's Awakening
• Zelda:  Ocarina of Time
• Zelda:  Majora's Mask
• Zelda:  Oracle of Seasons
• Zelda:  Oracle of Ages
• Zelda:  The Wind Waker
• Zelda:  Twilight Princess
• Metroid
• Super Metroid
• Kirby's Dream Land
• Kirby's Adventure
• Kirby's Dream Land 2
• Kirby Super Star
• Kirby 64
• Star Fox
• Star Fox 64
• F-Zero
• Ice Climber
• Game & Watch Gallery games
• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Sonic 2
• Sonic 3
• Sonic & Knuckles
• and some other games which I can't come up with on the top of my head right now

As you can probably tell, I'm more into games from the 80s and 90s, though I do have some favorites from the 70s, as well as the 2000s.  And I'm also more of a Nintendo nut, though I do like Sonic (at least, the earlier games).

Expect to see more later.

Who is Hallwings?

You're probably wondering who I am.  Well, I'll tell you all that you really need to know.

What kind of name is "Hallwings" you ask?  Well, it comes from my family name, Hall, and "Wings," because I happen to be a Detroit Red Wings fan.  Hell, I'm a fan of all the Detroit sports teams (with the exception of the Lions...until they start winning again), which explains some of the designs of the blog (the red background for the Red Wings, the blue hyperlinks for the Tigers, Pistons, and Lions, the orange highlighted hyperlinks also for the Tigers, and silver visited hyperlinks for the Lions [grudgingly]).

I like most sports, even though I'm not exactly athletic myself.  Athletics, Association Football (soccer), Basketball, American Football, Canadian Football, Baseball, Softball, Ice Hockey (definitely near the top of my list of absolute favorite sports), Lacrosse, Volleyball, Tennis, Boxing, Fencing, Judo, Sumo, Wrestling (both amateur and professional), Karate, MMA, Swimming, Diving, Skiing, Snowboarding, Biathlon, Golf...I could go on and on.

I was originally from Detroit, Michigan, and I lived with my mom in Madison Heights (my parents divorced when I was young) until we moved to Surprise, Arizona (about 20 miles northwest of Phoenix) in 2008.  It's somewhat ironic that the year I moved to Arizona was the year (technically, the football season) that the Cardinals made it to the Super Bowl after all those losing seasons.  I'm starting to enjoy the Phoenix sports teams, but when the Detroit teams are playing, I'll always root for Tigers, Pistons, Lions, and Red Wings.

Speaking of hockey, I also like the Canadian sports teams (Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Ottawa Senators, Montreal Canadiens), mainly because on Saturdays, I'd watch Hockey Night in Canada on CBC (one of the pluses of living in Detroit, we're just across the river from Windsor, Ontario).

I'll talk more about my interests in a later post.  Until then, see ya next time.