Today's featured letter: P

Wil Wheaton's blog is always a fine diversion and at the moment he has quite the poker story going on. I realize poker is all the rage at the moment and Texas Hold'em is the hip new thing, so consider this my obligatory nod to current pop culture. Actually poker can be quite fun. Back when I first started college I was home one Christmas and my best friend was working graveyards over at the Texaco. A few of us would show up around 1 or so in the morning and we used to play using the car wash tokens for chips. Good times.

I've been reading Philip Pullman lately. Just finished The Subtle Knife, book two of the His Dark Materials trilogy. It's certainly been interesting reading. I'm not sure if I like it or not at the moment. I'm going to have to wait until I finish The Amber Spyglass to come to any conclusion on the series as a whole. I did enjoy The Golden Compass though. But now that I've finished the second book it's harder to judge them independently - I'm focusing more on the story being told and not the individual pieces.

And I suppose all good things should come in 3s. So for a third 'P' I offer up P.F. Chang's. I enjoy family style dining at Oriental restaurants, and the food there is certainly good. I recommend the Chicken in Black Bean Sauce, the Double Pan Fried Noodles and the Great Wall of Chocolate. Mmmm...

The 100 oz.

disclaimer, originally uploaded by dkun.

So. Here's the disclaimer found on the BigAss mug.

It was quite the hit at the office today. I'm pretty sure I hold the record for largest mug... Now if I can just wear it in enough to get rid of the plastic taste.

Woohoo!

Congratulations to Scaled Composites and SpaceShipOne on a successful initial flight! Good job Matt! That's great. Here's to another successful flight in the coming 2 weeks.

I'm tired

... <sigh>

Happy birthday to the letter 'r'. You can try out the new year for a couple months for me ok? If it looks lousy, feel free to let me know and I'll do my best to avoid it.

I toyed with commenting a little more on Man on Fire but I think I'll let my brief review stand.

Viewtiful Joe has shown up on the PS2 and the sequel is about to come out. I played it on the 'cube. It's a game that I wanted to like. And there are things about it that are great. It's different. It has great style and the level design is clever. But it starts getting old a little too quickly. It was worth the rental I allotted it. And there are certainly worse games out there.

I'm hoping tomorrow brings Daisy Kutter #2. Really. I am.

<submliminal moment of the day>Donkey Konga - it must be purchased. All bow before the greatness that is Donkey Konga</end subliminal moment of the day - nothing to see here, move along>

Just a quickie

Watched Man on Fire. Good, if brutal, action piece. Denzel did a brilliant job as did Dakota Fanning. Some interesting choices from a cinematography perspective. Thoroughly enjoyed the soundtrack (although this may taint future listenings of Clair de Lune, which is a shame as I love that piece). Recommended if you can stomach the violence. Most of it is the best left to your imagination sort, which is always more effecive, but there are a couple visceral moments shown. If you have kids of your own you will want to spend the next 6 hours hugging them and not letting them out of your sight.

Return of the King

Well, the specs are in. Four hours +. That's just crazy. I've enjoyed all the extra footage in the previous editions though. And I suspect there won't be another "ending" added. I'm pretty sure they nailed them all the first time around. ^_^ December 14th can't come soon enough.

Random moment

Was driving home and the mountains were a nice red color due to the sunset and there was a not quite full moon just above them. It's moments like those that make me wish I had a digital camera. It was quite nice. So instead of seeing a partial view of it through a photograph, you'll have to use your imaginations and picture a mountain range not quite ready for winter - trees starting to change colors here and there, but patches of snow near the summit from a recent storm - bathed in reddish light with a soft blue sky and a not quite full moon just above. Good luck.

Internet Wandering Monster Table

Ka-link. This is great. And all too true. (Shamelessly stolen from Making Light)

The Knight

So I finished The Knightby Gene Wolfe. Looking forward to the next book (The Wizard I believe it's called). It was definitely an interesting read. As I mentioned previously, there are several elements of the book that come with the fantasy genre - especially the knightly aspect. There are some interesting choices made with regards to narrative and the way the story is told. It reminds me in some ways of something like Kill Bill, Part 1 where it becomes obvious that the story is being told after the fact and so, in some ways, the tension is lessened allowing you to focus a little more on what's happening and the experiences themselves. Also the character telling the story is typical of all of us and tells us only what he wants to. If you like fantasy I recommend it and if you don't, while this probably won't change your mind, it might. It's very well told, easy to read and best of all interesting.

H2G2

Looks like the BBC has updated the old Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy text game. It's now a flash app that incorporates some graphics with the text. Find it here (Found via Boing Boing. I remember playing the original back in the 80s. Might have to spend some time with this one and reminisce a bit.

SpaceShipOne

Fark recently held a photoshop contest for SpaceShipOne. Pretty amusing. One of my best friends from high school is married to the head engineer on the project. She also works for Scaled Composites and while we were out in California on vacation we got to take a tour and see White Knight and SpaceShipOne. I even got to sit in White Knight. It was pretty cool I must admit. Here's to hoping for a successful launch next week and a successful followup. Go Kit and Matt!

In other news, X96 is the radio station that currently occupies most of my commute time. They're getting ready to throw the last really big outdoor concert of the season, the Bigass Show. Lots of bands, lots to do. But the best part is the Bigass mug. 100 oz. I managed to grab one today while one of the DJs was on location. I was completely unprepared for just how big a 100 oz mug really is. It even comes with a warning that small children may drown in the Bigass mug. I shall do my best to get a photo of the warning and get it up here in the near future.

And finally, today is my Friday. Again, long live the three day weekend! Huzzah!

Here kitty, kitty

This t-shirt over at ThinkGeek has to be one of the coolest things I've seen recently. Schrodinger's Cat is one of my favorite quirky thought experiments.

Random thoughts, random links

Joystiq is a game news blog that I stumbled across a while back. Quite nice.

Games are Fun is another game blog that also incorporates reviews and whatnot. They just started an anime section which affords a nice segue to this next link.

Anime on DVD. My favorite site for news and reviews. If it's anime and on DVD you'll find it here. They have a pretty good forum as well.

The Iconfactory is probably the best Mac icon site around. Pixelpalooza is always fun to watch as well. And even more fun to enter.

So, there you go.

Petals Around the Rose

Now that I've sussed this out I can pass it along. That's quite the nice mental exercise.

I Found Some Of Your Life

I Found Some Of Your Life is either scary or brilliant. Probably both. Pro tip: Never leave your digital media card in a taxi...

Edit: Looks like this might be down. If you got to see it consider yourself lucky. Have a cookie.

Complete Calvin & Hobbes?

According to this Andrews McMeel are planning a Complete Calvin & Hobbes collection much like the Far Side Collection.

Wow. I'd like to pick up the Far Side set, but Calvin & Hobbes would probably win out for my hard earned pennies first...

The Yard

I hate yard work. Easily top 5 of my least favorite things. Managed to get some of it done today. We had a guy mow and edge the yard. It was expensive, but he did do a nice job. I spent my time running back and forth to Home Depot buying bags of bark so that we could put some ground cover where my folks helped us rip out a bunch of overgrowth. It looks bettter. Still need a bag or two, but it's a start. Now if I could just get the lawn to come in. We hydroseeded last year and most of the lawn looks nice, but we have some patchy parts. (This is why I hate yard work - not only is it actual work, but sometimes regardless of what you do, it still looks like crap...)

Anyway, let's just hope I haven't managed to tweak my back again hauling the bags of bark...

Well, enough of that.

Started reading The Knight by Gene Wolfe. Good book so far. I suspect it will end up being one of the better ones I've read this year. Nice style, interesting characters, hits all the genre expectations you expect it to and I suspect there are a couple tricks in the wings.

The Incredibles

New trailer up. Still looks great. I'm glad that the guy responsible for The Iron Giant is finally with somebody that will do some advertising and isn't afraid to do animation solely aimed at children. That was a great show as well...

Santa Monica

Santa Monica by Everclear is a great song. It's got a good beat and the lyrics aren't bad as well. Mostly it's just a nice excuse to rock out for a moment and, really, sometimes that's what music is all about.

Of course, it doesn't hurt that I actually managed to get to Santa Monica this summer during our brief vacation out west. Nice beach. Fun pier. Good times.

Rated F

Rated F

Again proof that there are no coincidences, this book was written by one of the DJs at the radio station that's currently my favorite...

I should comment more on this, but I think the shock needs to wear off first.

Hit the beat now

I enjoy music. One of the more interesting random quotes I've heard (and alas, I don't have a source for it) is that people that are musically inclined are Beatles fans, while people that don't know much about music like Elvis. I've found this to be true in that generality sort of way. I enjoy the Beatles far more than Elvis and I know a fair bit about music. I've played several instruments over the course of my life and I sing some as well.

Admittedly, lately most of my musical ability is more in the theoretical realm versus practical, but I still love listening to music and I also really enjoy rhythm games (DDR, Frequency/Amplitude, the new Donkey Konga looks great and I suspect I would've enjoyed Samba de Amigo quite a bit as well...). I tend to like music that focuses on instruments a little more than vocals, but there are some great lyrical bands as well. Dido has a great voice and Bono's voice is only improving with time much like Elvis's (just because I prefer the Beatles doesn't mean I hate Elvis ^_^). They Might Be Giants and Barenaked Ladies are pretty much the best at music with fun lyrics. The Pillows rock. Classical is wonderful (Debussy, Pachelbel, Vivaldi, Copeland, Gershwin... ok I'll stop now). I enjoy lots of different types of music. About the only things I can't handle are Country, most of what passes for Pop music any more (admittedly I'm well outside the target demographic for it) and Rap.

I'd like to pick up the cello if I get back to playing an instrument and I wish I still played the piano. I took lessons for about eight years, but it's been several times that since I've tickled the ivories. I don't suppose there's really a point to this post. I haven't pointed out anybody worth keeping an eye on (Jet? Franz Ferdinand?) and the few names I've singled out are hardly secrets any more. I can claim to have been a TMBG fan since they were first around and a friend of mine used to call their dial-a-song quite frequently (from Kansas mind you) but that's only worth so much these days...

Better late than never

It's Monkey Week over at Engrish.com.

Everything really is better with monkeys...

You can't take the sky from me...

Firefly is probably my favorite tv show of the last couple years. For the most part I'm terribly disillusioned with the state of tv. Survivor and the whole "reality" tv craze has heralded the end of watchable tv in my opinion. I miss shows with writers and plots and characters. Which explains why every tv show that I've enjoyed over the last several years has ended up cancelled (Firefly, Wonderfalls and Sports Night to name a few). Heaven forbid a show require some actual thought on the part of the audience. And let's make doubly sure that it's not given any time to build an audience. If it's not a ratings powerhouse in the first week it's on, make sure it's cancelled... <sigh>

Anyway. Firefly. Brilliant concept, stellar cast, wonderful writing. The cinematography was really top notch for a tv show. The world was well realized, everyone meshed just right and you could really come to love the characters. I haven't watched either of Joss Whedon's other shows, but as far as I'm concerned Firefly is really his greatest work to date despite the cancellation. Lately we've been watching the episodes with the commentary tracks and that's been a great experience as well.

Serenity (the Firefly movie due out next year) gives us a chance to spend a bit more time in that universe and I can't wait. If you haven't seen the show, pick up the DVDs. They're worth it. (It's a sci-fi show with western trappings in appearance, but in reality it's a show about people trying to get by in a world that is content to ignore them or worse. It's in turns funny, scary, touching and just all around great.)

Speaking of creativity...

This is either brilliant or just strange. Actually it's both. So there. (link via Boing Boing

Creativity

This is interesting. At the moment I don't have a whole lot to say about it. One of the reasons I started this blog was to give myself a creative outlet. It's been quite a few years since I've written much of anything and I'd missed it and I wanted an opportunity to get back into some sort of creative groove. There are lots of places you can look for inspiration. I have a book that I found pretty helpful a few years back called Walking on Alligators. There are myriad sites around the web (like this, or this) that offer insights into writing and creativity. And of course friends and family are often quite useful for the bouncing of ideas.

I suspect the best way to be creative is just to actually do something. People that want to write are told to write. Artists need to paint or take pictures or work in whatever medium they're exploring. The mere act of doing something is often pretty good at sparking some sort of creativity. Of course, you may end up with just the beginnings of an idea that really don't go anywhere for quite some time, but seeds can be more useful than fully grown plants sometimes.

It's an interesting topic. And it can be approached from lots of angles and there really aren't a whole lot of "right" and "wrong" steps. Certainly there are general, broad strokes that work for everyone and are necessary, but you've still got to find your own little niche. Your own vein. And that's the great thing. Everybody has something to contribute.

On three day weekends

The joys of time off
As strings wound tight do loosen
Ah, relaxation...

The Perfect Storm

The Perfect Storm is on tonight. I plan on taping it despite the commercials ruining some of the necessary atmosphere built up in the movie. (Nope, no Tivo here...) I remember reading the book before I saw the movie (on DVD, we didn't make it to the theater for that one, which is a shame as I suspect the big screen really made some of the moments just awesome - in the actual sense of the word, not the 80s lingo) and enjoying it. As much as you can enjoy that story anyway...

One of the things that really got to me in the book was the appearance of one of the fishermen to his son after they were lost at sea. I believe in the afterlife and I suspect that that situation was one in which the father would have been given the opportunity to visit his son however briefly. It was a touching moment and one that really helped drive home the sense of loss those people went through.

I grew up in Kansas and have had my fair share of storms (albeit just plain wind - no water added) and they can be anything from exciting to frightening and are often a mixture of both. When I was in High School, my best friend and I were out in his bright orange Pinto during one of the larger tornados to hit our area. That car rocked pretty good as we drove on one of the overpasses in town.

New England is an area I like quite a bit and every once in a blue moon I think it would be nice to live there. But I'm not sure I could handle the winters. Or the humidity for that matter. It's certainly a wonderful place to visit though.

Ico

Wanda and the Colossus appears to be the sequel to Ico. At least in spirit if not in fact - as there is very little revealed about the nature of the game. All we really know is that it's from the same development team.

Ico is one of my favorite games on the PS2. When I got around to selling off a bunch of my older games in order to get some games for the Gamecube, Ico was one of the few I held on to. It was such a beautiful, well realized world that I knew I'd want to spend time there again and again. In a lot of ways it's much like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. I think one of the best ways to make an enjoyable game is to know the world you're setting the game in. Even if you don't show off all of the aspects of that world, players can tell that the details are there. Ico didn't give away much about the world you were in, but you could tell it was there from the glimpses of back story you got at the beginning to the castle itself that the game took place in.

It was amazing to look back at certain points in the game and see places you had been or look forward to places you knew you were going to see. The gameplay itself was clever and encouraged thinking and moments of quiet contemplation rather than brute force. True, there were moments of combat and they could be harrowing as you were trying to protect this relatively frail girl that you couldn't understand. But the best moments in the game came as you worked with her to overcome some puzzle that allowed you to move through the castle to freedom.

That's one of the things that really made Ico shine - the little touches. You could tell the team behind the game had a specific story they wanted to tell and they knew exactly how they wanted it to look. In gaming circles there is a lot of talk about when games will be considered art and this game is almost always mentioned as one of the candidates to prove that such an idea is more reality than wishful thinking.

So, if you haven't played it, do yourself a favor and track a copy down. And then look forward to Wanda and the Colossus I suspect the same magic will be there.

The Day After

And the soreness sets in. Alas physical activity. You are a cruel, cruel mistress. Especially for such a sedentary soul as myself.

The Final Cut looks promising. I must admit, I enjoy the "serious" Robin Willimas quite a bit. I think he's quite the talented actor, but whoever is calling the shots had better be prepared to control the mighty beast that is Robin Williams.

Managed to catch Medical Investigations last night. That may be one of the few shows worth watching on network tv this fall.

And it's Friday. And I've managed to secure Monday off so happy 3 day weekend to me. ^_^

Company parties

So today was a version of the company party. Got out early for some varying sports and then dinner. Dinner was pretty good and some of the games weren't too bad. I enjoyed the volleyball and the horseshoes. In the past, family members have been included in the festivities, but not recently. I miss the picnics my Dad's old company threw. Lots of food and games for all ages and they had some pretty cool prizes too. I managed to win a raquetball racket and a mini Pacman game over the years. I still have the Pacman game...

At any rate, it took up most of the day, but good times were had. So there you go.

Random Wednesday

Pay no attention
There is nothing to see here
Best just move along

Not much worth mentioning today. Mostly because I am far too tired to find something to say. I'm not even going to point you to some other more interesting corner of the net. I suspect you're all more than capable of finding it on your own. Although if you managed to wander here from there, I might be overestimating your ability on that count...

But it is Wednesday. And that means relatively little in the grand scheme of things.

Harry Potter Moment

101 Ways to Annoy Lord Voldemort.

My own suggestions:

-Stare at his forehead until he asks what you're looking at. Reply, "Nothing" in a meaningful way.
-Name your house elf Lord Voldemort. Constantly mix the two of them up.

End of Monday

The three day weekend comes to a close. It was a good weekend. Got quite a bit done around the house. Spent some time with friends. And watched Hidalgo. Two out of three ain't bad.

You win some, you lose some

My boss brought in some fresh Roma tomatoes the other day, so my wife and I decided to try and make spaghetti sauce this evening. Try would certainly be the operating word there. We'll have to mark this one down as a failure. Not of the soul destroying variety, but certainly the wow, that wasn't right kind. It was a step up from tomato juice on the evolutionary tree, but several jumps down and possibly a branch or two over from spaghetti sauce.

Alas. There's always next time.

Every so often I get the bug to try and mess with recipes in the kitchen. I think, this could use some tomtatoes. This could use a mushroom or three. That could use a bit of sour cream. It's pretty rare that I follow through on such urges, but it's fun to think about and every so often fun to do. Cooking is one of those things that I think would make a fun occupation. I've had little dreams of my own sandwich shop specializing in sandwiches that are horrible for you and a bowl of chili to go with them. Maybe some day...

Well, the crib is back together and most of the furniture is in place. We could probably use a small night stand sort of table, but things are just about perfect. I think we should paint a big light house on one wall, but I'm not sure that will make it out of committee. It's been a pretty successful weekend as far as actually accomplishing things, but horrible on the goofing off side. I suspect tomorrow will make up for that. ^_^

Now, if I could just find some way to move the ocean from California to my back yard, things would be perfect...

Saturday - in which our Hero is very tired

Well, the baby's room is now a very new shade of blue. Oddly, it resembles the girls' room quite a bit. An unintended happenstance. It was supposed to be a lighter shade, but the second coat really darkened it up some.

So we are all very tired and somewhat befuddled from paint fumes. But the hard part is done. Now I just have to remember how to put the crib back together. It's good the baby isn't due for another couple months, because I suspect it will take me that long to get it back the way it belongs...

This will make for another short post, but at this point that's ok.

So random thought for the day: Speedy zombies = much happiness.

Long Weekend

Ahhh... 3 day weekends make the world go round.

Of course, as this is Labor Day weekend, we will be spending a good chunk of tomorrow painting the baby's room. At least we have roped some friends into lending a hand. Mweh heh.

Nothing really to ramble on about today. Mowed the lawn (hopefully for one of the last times this year) and am now kicking back.

So there you go. Have a great weekend. Give your kid/spouse/significant other an extra hug and make something a little different for dinner this weekend.

The Horror!

I mentioned briefly yesterday that I was a fan of the horror genre. So I thought that today I might go over some of my favorites from various mediums.

BOOKS

• The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson is probably the best piece of literature written about a haunted house. There are a couple film versions (which have their pluses and minuses), but the book is definitely the way to go. Eerie and compelling.


• Stephen King's books are typically full of frightening moments. I'm cheating a little here by not naming any specific one, but it's my blog, so deal with it. King's characters get put through the ringer with gleeful efficiency. And there is enough variety of what's doing the spooking (although the supernatural and aliens are pretty recurrent) that there's something for everyone. And you can also find plenty of nasty humans of you don't care for some of the traditional horror villains. If I had to pick a couple to spotlight, well, Pet Sematary and The Stand are always a good choice. And keep an eye on his short fiction as well.

MOVIES

• Stanley Kubrick's The Shining is to this day the only movie that actually scares me. I will occasionally jump in other horror films, but this movie scares me. I can't explain what it is about the movie that does it, but it does it well. The atmosphere is oppressive, the actors are spot on and the story told (while not faithful to King's book) is creepy as all get out.


• The Ring or more appropriately Ringu is a great campfire tale. A Killer Videotape. In this age of digital media here's a tale suited to our generation. I'll leave the arguing about which version is better to others. The American version is told in a fashion that we're more used to (you get more of an explanation as to what is going on for one thing) but the Japanese version is more disturbing. Although the ferry/horse sequence in the remake is absolutely brilliant.

I feel the need to stop at this point and mourn the loss of the Saturday night Creature Feature. This was a staple in my childhood. Crematia Mortem would guide my poor soul through whatever horror was to be shown that weekend. I've heard tell of the creation of a horror cable channel, but as I don't have cable this will do nothing for me. Besides there was something about staying up late (or better yet recording for multiple viewings) and losing yourself in the moment. Good times. Neil Gaiman will be hosting a series of scary movies this October on the Fox Movie Channel and my wonderful in-laws will be taping it for me, so there are occasional glimpses of the way it should be, but not enough. Although what passes for programming on tv is certainly terrifying enough...

GAMES

• The Silent Hill series is probably the current king of the hill when it comes to survival horror. Resident Evil certainly has its moments, but for overall horror Silent Hill wins. A town where nothing is what it seems. A town that draws broken people to it like moths to a flame. A town that most will never escape. That is Silent Hill. The games let you experience the stories of several tormented souls that have found their way to Silent Hill one way or another. Turn the lights off and the sound up and be prepared to sleep lightly that night...


• Fatal Frame is also worth mentioning. While the horror quotient of Silent Hill is higher, the spookiness factor of Fatal Frame isn't to be discounted. A ghost story with a twist is probably the best way to describe this game. The twist being that the only weapon you have in the game is a camera. Taking the old idea that a camera can steal your soul, Fatal Frame allows you to hurt the restless souls found in the game with your Mother's camera. Also best played in the dark with the sound up. If you can...

HONORABLE MENTIONS

• Tales from the Darkside was one of my favorite tv shows growing up. Similar in many ways to The Twilight Zone, but more geared for horror. And often quite funny, in a black comedy sort of way...


• The Blair Witch Project is oddly enough a better campfire tale than a movie. At least for being scary. I found it spookier relating the story (as well as much of the backstory for the show) than sitting in the theater watching it. <shrug> Go figure.

So that covers a good chunk of what I've found scary over the years. And believe me, I've left a lot out. Cheap horror movies are what my friends and I thrived off of in High School. It's a pity my wife doesn't get the same enjoyment out of them that I do. There have been some real corkers released over the years.

In other news, if you haven't heard Coin Operated Boy by the Dresden Dolls, you're listening to the wrong radio station.

Games and more games

GamerDad has a series of articles up at the moment covering Gen Con. Several of the games sound pretty good, from the upcoming DOOM board game to Zombies!! (Ok, I admit, I have a thing for the horror genre. Scary movies, scary games, scary books, it's all good...)

Gaming has always been a staple of life. Be it board games, card games, video games you name it I've dabbled around with it. The girls are starting to get big enough that we can get them involved as well. McKenna has some mad MarioKart Double Dash skills and she's starting to develop some decent strategy skills from a board game called Gobblet. A friend of mine comes over once a week for some form of entertainment ranging from games to movies. Munchkin is a popular choice for gaming as are Catan and Carcassonne.

I'm glad that gaming is starting to go more mainstream. You can learn a lot from games - strategy, lateral thinking, hand/eye coordination - and you can also just have a great time and bring people closer together. I've often been tempted to try my hand at making some sort of game but just haven't jumped in and done it.

So, go read about Gen Con, look for something new and get some family or friends together and make a night of it.