The Best Order to Watch Marvel Movies?

After watching the entire Star Wars saga from movies to cartoons to spin-off’s with my eldest child, my second in command child asked me to do the same with the Marvel series. We started with Iron Man, then watched Dr. Strange, and then Iron Man 2.

Not being familiar with the characters and having watched a bunch of them in random order with the kids, or on airplanes while travelling, I asked him if there was a specific order to watch them in…

We concluded there are 3 options. Chronological order, Release order, or by series. We though right away that by series would be a bad way to watch as other characters pop in and out, so that wouldn’t be the best viewing experience, so it came down to release vs chronological.

Here is the list in chronological order.

1. Captain America : The First Avenger.
2. Captain Marvel
3. Iron Man
4. Iron Man 2
5. The Incredible Hulk
6. Thor
7. The Avengers
8. Thor: The Dark World
9. Iron Man 3
10. Captain America: The Winter soldier
11. Guardians of the Galaxy
12. Guardians of the Galaxy 2
13. Avengers: Age of Ultron
14. Ant Man
15. Captain America: Civil War
16. Black Widow
17. Black Panther
18. Spiderman: Homecoming
19. Dr. Strange
20. Thor: Ragnarok
21. Ant Man and the Wasp
22. Avengers: Infinity War
23. Avengers: Endgame
24. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings
25. Spiderman: Far From Home
26. Eternals
27. Spiderman: No Way Home
28. Dr. Strange: Multiverse of Madness
29. Thor: Love and Thunder
30. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Here is the list of Marvel movies and TV shows in release order:

1. Iron Man
2. Incredible Hulk
3. Iron Man 2
4. Thor
5. Captain America: First Avenger
6. Avengers Assemble
7. Iron Man 3
8. Thor: Dark World
9. Captain America: Winter Soldier
10. Guardians of the Galaxy
11. Avengers: Age of Ultron
12. Antman
13. Captain America: Civil War
14. Dr. Strange
15. Guardians of the Galaxy 2
16. Spiderman: Homecoming
17. Thor: Ragnarok
18. Black Panther
19. Avengers: Infinity War
20. Antman and Wasp
21. Captain Marvel
22. Avengers: End Game
23. Spiderman: Far From Home
24. WandaVision
25. Falcon and the Winter Soldier
26. Loki
27. Black Widow
28. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the 10 Rings
29. Eternals
30. Hawkeye
31. Spiderman: No Way Home
32. Moon Knight
33. Dr. Strange: Multiverse of Madness
34. Ms. Marvel
35. Thor: Love and Thunder
36. She Hulk
37. Werewolf By Night
38. Black Panther

After looking through these lists, we decided release order makes the most sense, so that’s the approach I’ll be taking.

Did I miss any? Are there any in there, either movies or TV shows which are unnecessary or out of order? I’m 3 movies in and would love some feedback, suggestions or recommendations!

Happy New Year! 2023

I want to wish everyone a happy new year! Let’s hope that 2023 is better than 2022. Like a LOT better. Here’s to hoping that 2023 being more patience, tolerance, and understanding around the world that people can be who they want, do what they want, and live the life they want so long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else.

This message is intended specifically for countries like China, Russia, Afghanistan, and North Korea, plus any middle eastern country promoting terrorism, or hindering the freedom of women, and anyone deemed a minority, and yes, I’m looking at you, Iran.

I’m hoping, but not holding my breath, that people will take a moment this year to think before judging, commenting or doing stupid shit to other people.

Regardless… Happy new year, and lets make some positive changes for 2023 and beyond.

The Urban Daddy is Back… Sort of.

Well after a fairly long period of inactivity and about 60 more drafts, I felt it was time to bring back some content to The Urban Daddy.

Here are the groundrules;

1. Since the kids are getting older, they don’t necessarily want me discussing any details about their personal lives, (“I’ll sue!” said one of them), so I’m going to go back to basics and discuss a bunch of random stuff which involve things Daddies do when their kids are getting older, like work, play and everything in between
2. I’m not an influencer. I appreciate the pitches, and offers, but only on some occasions would I go down that road. I don’t write posts for that reason, and if all I did was give away stuff, why would people come here??
3. I’m Canadian. Based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I’m not affiliated with Urbandaddy.com in the US, other than the fact that I was here before them, and I sold them my Pinterest account.
4. I’ve been busy. Some good, more not so good, but I’m still here. I’ve gotten a new career working for a company and filling a role that I absolutely love, so that’s good. COVID is still here, but I’m double vaccinated and I wear a mask where possible so I don’t pass along any germs to anyone. I’ve always wondered why sick people don’t wear masks to prevent spreading their colds. I learned this was a very kind thing when we were in Japan a couple of years ago and asked a local guide why there were people wearing masks outside. I thought it might be due to air pollution, but the guide explained that these people are not feeling well and didn’t want to make others sick… Take that, anti-maskers!
5. I took an online cooking class through George Brown College and their culinary area. It was an intro to cooking and it was vegan and the whole experience was amazing. I used to have a hang-up about cooking – had convinced myself that I was unable to just pick a recipe and follow it – but this course had me making tons of great stuff, like stocks, risotto, my own pasta, and my own tofu. I’m going to take another… Soon.
6. I’ve also managed to expand my volunteering and wound up with a board position on a local hockey league as their registrar… Not going to lie, but it’s a huge challenge, because I’ve been busy in my new paid role, and trying to find time for my volunteer role has posed a few challenges.
7. I had hurt myself quite badly at the beginning of the pandemic (not sure if I wrote about this or not), but I was walking on Yonge Street with my sister, and I stepped off the curb to avoid people, but the street was uneven so I rolled my ankle, and in the process did a crap-load of damage to myself, tearing muscles and ligaments off my right hip, right ankle, and I tore my left groin muscle, resulting in me passing out on Yonge Street, then a few days later in the hospital for a ton of tests and medication when I was unable to move because everything seized up. It took me about a year to be able to get everything moving pain-free and since that time, I’ve been walking about 5km/day where possible. I’d love to be able to lose that COVID weight, then the late-night snacking weight, followed by the baby-weight I gained when our now 16yo son was born.
8. I have a love/hate relationship with the Olympics, so I’ll hopefully have some more words to say about them shortly, other than to say that they always make me cry, and I’m so happy for all Canadian athletes who have won medals, or tried their best.
9. So, yeah… I guess we’ll see how long this lasts. 😉

More Kid Kontent: Gross Commercials, Politics and Tik Tok

Today, April 19th, 2021 is the first Canadian Federal budget in over 2-years. It’s been a hot topic of conversation amongst my friends, my colleagues and, yes, my kids.

At work, and among friends, we are concerned that the only way this Liberal government can pay for all the massive spending they’ve done over the past 7-years is through increased taxation. Increased taxation to Liberals tends to mean, calling taxes anything but taxes, so “levies”, “fees” and other cute names get thrown around, while the Liberals continue to push for increased taxes on the “wealthy”. Unfortunately, “wealthy” in Canada now becomes anyone earning over $80,000, or combined income of “$120,000”, which essentially becomes the “middle class”.

But I digress.

Whatever I know about politics in Canada I have earned through a specialized honours degree in Public Policy and Administration at University, plus an additional 10+ years of working for the Canadian government. That, however, still doesn’t make me qualified to educate my children about government-related matters because my kids know more. They have Tik Tok.

From Tik Tok, they learn a ton. A lot of it is really helpful, and useful, and informative. The facts that these kids pepper me with are factually correct, and legitimate. Considering the chaos around schooling during a pandemic, it’s nice to see the kids are learning important facts, however, some of these facts are a bit, shall we say, too far to the left, and blur the lines between what’s going on the in the US, and what political life is like in Canada.

The extra scrutiny of the Trump Republicans in the US has caused kids to not only tie together Conservativism in the US with Conservatism in Canada, but it also brought along the stereotypes and misinformation from the US, up to Canada. I can’t say how many times, I’ve mentioned that the Canadian conservatives won’t allow guns, won’t discuss abortion and that conservatives are not Neanderthals who treat people different by race, age, sex, religion or nationality. It’s not a thing.

With all of that being said, I do welcome the attention that they now pay to politics, and enjoy the dialogues that we can have around what’s best for Canada and what’s best for Canadians. If my kids know anything, it’s how to spend only the money they have, and not the money they hope to have or hope to borrow, thus making themselves fiscally responsible. They also know that this government in particular is fiscally irresponsible and they do not like the concept that their taxes will be higher as they start to earn money.

When prompted what they would do if they strived to be a high income earner, to start a business, employ and support others and earn as much as they could, they were quite frank in their replies. They would take less money to offer their employees a higher wage/salary. I commend them for that. Unfortunately, when prompted about what they would do if the government took 60% of their income or more, they simply replied, that they would move to a country which took less.

This is my biggest fear with the way this government has gone about their business.

When an election comes, they spend, spend, spend, because they know 3 things. First, that ordinary Canadians appreciate the spending and think the government is doing something for them. Second, they know that if either of the governments are critical of the spending, they would in turn be criticized by Canadians, and third, they know that when a new government takes over and has to balance the budget, by spending less or cutting costs, that narrative doesn’t go over well at all, and can be used as a re-election strategy (re-elect us, because we don’t cut everything like they do).

With all that being said, I expect this will be an election budget, not a pandemic budget, meaning, spending a LOT of money on everything and not making any controversial decisions. No taxes. No cuts. Just spend, spend, spend, without any regard for who is going to pay and when.

Can’t wait to discuss this with the kids, at a more appropriate time.

We started to have this conversation but then one of 2 dreadful commercials came on the TV. It’s a commercial with Heinz Ketchup (a brand we love), in which a potato with a face gets cut up and eaten. It’s enough to not want us to eat potatoes anymore, and just barely exceeds that horrible Pepsi commercial with ice cubes with faces are plummeted into a glass where they melt to death.

As the kids pointed out, we don’t eat as much mean because of the efforts associating the food with a living being that has feelings. After watching those commercials, the kids want to establish a charity to save the potatoes and save the ice cubes.

UGH.

Kidversations

There is nothing better than conversations with our children, no matter their ages. Granted, the conversations we had when the kids were really young, were a lot more humourous, as they just tended to say really funny stuff, but as the kids get older, they know what they’re saying, and most times, they mean it.

Take this conversation that happened last month between myself and my youngest, Boo.

Boo: Daddy, can we play tennis today?

Me: Sweetie… It’s winter. The courts are covered in snow. It’s cold, and we’re under a lockdown due to COVID. The tennis courts are not open.

Boo thinks about it for a few seconds…

Boo: Daddy, I just don’t care. Play tennis with me or I’ll take off your head and use it as a ball.

Me, absolutely dying on the inside as she is standing there with a tennis racket in her hand and the funniest look on her face.

Boo: Well?

Me: Let’s hope my head bounces. LOL

So we went to the basement, and I taught her how to use a softer ball and hit the ball against the wall on her forehand and backhand. That activity lasted about 20 minutes until I got bored and we wound up playing a game of dodgeball with a stress ball and tennis rackets.

She won.

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In the weeks prior, we had a discussion about how eating asparagus can cause some people’s urine to smell.

Apparently, I read somewhere that it’s not that there is a change in the urine, but that it’s a sensory issue and that asparagus changes the smell of everyone’s urine, but that only some people are able to smell the difference…

After a fairly lengthy discussion, this was the conclusion… I was asked if people are allowed to call in sick for work if they eat too much asparagus because everyone shares the bathroom and it wouldn’t be nice to “make everyone smell your stinky pee”.

They clearly didn’t pay attention earlier.

But is it worth taking a day off after eating a bunch of asparagus? Probably not.