Snnrrrk

That's pretty much the sound that I make every five minutes due to the lovely sinus infection I'm sporting at the moment. And now that you have that lovely visual my work is done.

Okay, I'll stick around a bit longer. We caught Casino Royale the other day. Excellent movie. Best Bond movie in a long time and Daniel Craig rocked as much as I expected him to. Seriously. I had high expectations for this movie and it actually delivered. Nicely done Mr. Bond. Nicely done indeed.

Pirates 2: Dead Man's Chest was also enjoyable. And not nearly as cliffhanger-ish as everyone said. Have they not seen Empire Strikes Back or any other middle movie of a trilogy?

I think I've read a few things lately, but I've no idea what. I'm sneakily reading the Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks as it's technically a Christmas present. But who am I to let a little thing like that stop me? I'm also getting World War Z and that should be enjoyable as well. Fun stuff.

I'm pretty excited about Christmas this year. The kids are getting some fun things (the wooden train we got Graeme tops the list of things I'm excited to see them enjoy) and we managed to snag a Nintendo Wii. Camped out over night for that baby when it launched, but told my wife I'd save it for Christmas. It's killing me slowly, taunting me with its presence in the house. I really want to play some Wii Sports and some Zelda and... heh heh. Sorry about that.

Got Arkham Horror for my birthday. It's fun even though we have yet to actually finish a game. We came close once, but it grew too late. It is a pretty long game and rather difficult to win. It's been interesting playing a cooperative game though. And the Lovecraft overtones are nice. Good ol' Lovecraft. I need to snag a few books by him as well.

I managed to get John Hodgman's The Areas of My Expertise free from iTunes the other day. Great book. Terribly funny. And it features Jonathan Coulton, so big plus there as well. I've no idea if it's still free, but you should grab it if it is. (I'm looking at you Kit)

Well, I'm sure there's more to cover, it's been over a month after all, but I'm officially on Christmas break and hopped up on sinus meds, so no more random words for you.

*GASP*

Alright so this is technically *GASP* version two as the widget I'd been using seems to enjoy eating my posts as opposed to actually, you know, putting them online for you lot.

Normally I enjoy this time of year quite a bit. I manage to work shorter weeks due to accrued time off and I spend the time relaxing and enjoying the fall/winter. Not so much this year. We have a bear of a project going on at work and some family dramas that are interfering with my fall zen. Oh well, hopefully within a week or so at least some of that stress will no longer be a factor.

I've been reading David Sedaris and listening to essays by Mur Lafferty. Heck for that matter I've been listening to the This American Life podcast. I've always had a bit of a soft spot for the essay form and this has pretty much cemented my love for it. If November has its cruel way I may even find myself popping a few homebrewed essays up here.

We seem to have been under some form of curse lately as we've attempted to see The Prestige ever since it came out. Hopefully tomorrow will remedy that problem. I've been looking forward to it for some time.

I submitted that Trout Lodge firework photo to a wallpaper site, so we'll see if it shows up over the next couple weeks.

Well, that should be enough of a breather to get me through the next few days/weeks. We'll see.

AAaaarrrgghh!

Post eaten. Widget trashed. Will attempt to re-create later. <sigh>

random noise

The Grudge 2 is an enjoyable flick. There's not much new there (if you've seen the original), but it still does a good job of presenting a creepy story in a disjointed fashion. That's probably the most interesting aspect - trying to figure out what's happening when and to whom. There are a couple pretty good eerie scenes, so all was worthwhile. Plus it had a trailer for The Messengers which looks incredible. Good ol' Pang Brothers.

I finished House of Leaves. Truly interesting book. Some genuine freakout moments and a narrative that is pretty unique. I certainly don't claim to understand all of it. Or probably even most of it. But it was fun to read and that counts for a lot.

Did I mention that I finally finished 1776 as well? Also a good read. It's a wonder we ever won the Revolutionary War...

Anyway, that'll do for some random bits from a life with far too much stress in it at the moment.

Just so you know

Not quite dead, but not posting either. Currently House of Leaves by Danielewski is taking up much of my time. Strange, strange book. But pretty interesting as well. And Clint Eastwood is probably my current favorite actor/director type guy. I've been watching some of his older stuff and it's brilliant. So there.

The Descent

This is just a quick post to say that The Descent is indeed a great, tense horror flick. Even my wife enjoyed this one. It plays out in not quite three acts each focusing on slightly different aspects. You have the initial character setup (with some really nice shock and mood building segments), the initial cave sequence that is quite tense in its own right, and the final everything's gone to hell arc. And for those of us on this side of the pond, YouTube has the original British ending of the film. I'm not certain which I like better, they're both powerful in their own ways.

At any rate, go give it a gander.

Thoughts on podcasts

So, Pseudopod has launched. Relatively decent first story. I've noticed that a lot of the podcasts I listen to tend to be rather focused: a couple short story podcasts, some roundtable type stuff on gaming/tech themes and so on. Which brings me to Geek Fu Action Grip. Geek Fu incorporates some of those things - Mur is currently wrapping up part one of her story Heaven, but it's a much more conversational podcast. It reminds me a bit of some of the tapes my friends and I used to send back and forth while I was in Scotland for a couple years.

It's rather different from the rest of the things I listen to. But in a nice change of pace sort of way. In a lot of ways it reminds me more of an audio blog than a typical podcast. But that's probably splitting hairs...

Picked up Castle Keep the other day. Fun little game. Nice amounts of strategy in a game that can be played fairly quickly. And once you get the basics they include some advanced rules that make sense and there are about 4 or so different game variations (including a solitaire option) that sound pretty good. And it was only $10. Really good value (and the pieces are very nice).

Odds and ends

Ju-on, the original Japanese film The Grudge was based on was fun to watch. Still a creepy story although it was robbed of some of the chills due to knowing the plot. There were a couple twists that didn't make it into the remake that I thought should have.

Insomnia was interesting but rather different from what I expected. It ended about as well as could be expected. Didn't realize that this was also a remake.

Caught the end of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly the other night. I love Clint Eastwood Westerns. High Plains Drifter is probably my favorite, but they're all good...

Snagged Michael Palin's Sahara from the library today on CD. We'll see how that is. I suspect it'll be interesting. I remember thinking Palin has a rather nice narrative voice. He apparently has a whole series of travel related books/shows.

Quick catch up

Seems like there are a few movies that we've seen recently that I should comment on.

Caché was interesting until they decided to run the closing credits without bothering to finish the movie. I suppose I should probably mark this as spoiler-ish, but when you have to watch the interview with the director for the movie to make sense, that's a bad thing. I don't mind movies that make you think. I don't mind movies that are open ended. But Caché simply didn't have an ending. It was a mess. Which is a shame as I really liked aspects of it. This film does an excellent job of ratcheting tension. At almost the exact moment when you start to get frustrated with the way things are going, the movie delivers an absolutely shocking sequence. Truly well done and it gets you right back into the thick of things. Unfortunately it's squandered.

The Greatest Game Ever Played wants to be Searching for Bobby Fischer only for golf. It mostly succeeds. It's a nice movie and you feel good by the end and there are some nice camera shots.

How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days was recommended by a friend and was pretty good. I was lured in by the love fern and that was admittedly my favorite bit. Matthew McConaughey is becoming a favorite actor and Kate Hudson is growing on me quite a bit as well. And boy is she starting to look like her Mom...

Which leaves us with Infernal Affairs. The more I think about this movie the more I like it. Excellent, excellent crime drama. They're remaking it here in the states as The Departed and I'm not sure why. The link takes you to the trailer and it makes me cry a little inside, which is strange. When I first heard Damon and DiCaprio I was pretty skeptical. I like Damon and figured he'd do a good job, but they didn't cast him in the part I thought they would and I still don't see DiCaprio in the undercover cop role. The rest of the cast is pretty amazing (Nicholson is an inspired choice) but it seems Scorsese just couldn't keep from monkeying with a story that worked. Infernal Affairs is a taut, tension building crime drama, also featuring an excellent cast. There are a few mistakes (mostly revolving around the female cast and their underuse or not really needing to be there in the first place) but overall a great show. Scorsese seems to think we need more characters, more plot and more sex... Stupid, stupid, stupid.

I don't suppose I have a problem with remakes in general, but I don't really think they're necessary. The only really positive thing they do is draw attention to something you might otherwise miss. Fortunately it's becoming easier to track down some of the original films. I have a sneaking suspicion that The Departed won't nearly match up to Infernal Affairs.

And finally, I have no idea what to make of this.

I was a . . .

Ok, so here's one of the little quirks of married life. Every so often the dreaming world decides to take a day trip to the waking world and wreak a little havoc. Initially you have odd dreams involving your new spouse and your new relationship and some facet thereof (typically fidelity or lack thereof, or some aspect of personality that was only discovered upon actually living together) and you find yourself waking up mad as all get out at him or her. It happens. At first you might take it out on them for a bit till the whole it was a dream thing kicks in and then you feel silly and have a story for later.

You don't ever completely grow out of this, but sometimes, after you've been together for a while, it gets stranger. Take last night for example. This afternoon my wife informs me that she had the oddest dream about me last night. First a little background: For those not in the know, I've been playing through Resident Evil 4 of late. I do my best to keep it away from the kids, but they occasionally get curious and I occasionally play it before they go to bed. Last night they decided to "play" RE 4 at bedtime. This mostly involved one of them saying something like, "Leon help!" and the other pretending to rescue them. When Miranda tired of the game she came downstairs and informed us that McKenna wouldn't get out of her bed. She then launched into a fairly accurate retelling of the bit of RE 4 that I'd played through that afternoon. In spite of the fact that she and her sister had been warned several times not to come downstairs. I tried to keep from laughing while my wife gave me The Look (admittedly on one of it's weaker settings).

Ok so I suspect that was at least partially responsible for the dream she had. That or watching Clerks but I'm pretty sure it was the first thing. Anyway, in this dream my friend the letter 'r' and I were playing RE 4. And oddly we had a gun controller that we used to do the shooting in the game (which was kept under the bed so as to keep it away from the kids). The letter 'r' made some comment about the fact that I was actually a pretty good shot. I then made a joke about the recent target shooting we'd done at Trout Lodge. Then we both "laughed knowingly". You know, that fake little laughter like we have a secret. At this point my wife decided to head for bed and leave us to our carnage.

Once she arrived upstairs she noticed a gun under the bed. A rifle or "AK-47" or something (she was very specific about this when telling me her dream). But this was confusing, after all weren't we already downstairs playing the game with the controller? Closer inspection revealed that the gun under the bed was a real rifle. This caused a "Confrontation". I believe at this point that the letter 'r' was no longer in the dreamscape. Instead my wife confronted me about the real gun in the house. There was a slap and some tearful exclamations about kids and loaded guns and so on. And then painful understanding. She looked at me and said (with all seriousness), "Why didn't you tell me you were a zombie hitman?!" At this point, my secret out in the open, there was more yelling and tears. "People call you up and you go and kill zombies!", "What do you mean you don't really wear glasses?!", "Your day job is just a cover!" and so on. I tried my best to console her, but she would have none of it.

It was at this moment that something woke my wife, the end of the dream, some random noise, who knows. Fortunately we've been in this territory enough that she managed to calm down before throttling me in bed for living a secret life bringing the undead back to their maker. Although she did almost wake me then to share the joke. I must admit we had a pretty good laugh about it. Of course, I'll now have to kill her in her sleep tonight for knowing too much, but sometimes that's the price you pay...

Random thoughts from a tired mind

There was a really nice rain/thunder storm earlier. Although I'm not entirely convinced that one or two claps of thunder quite qualify it as a thunderstorm. But still rain = good. And a nice break from the heat we've had the past few days. Look at me all talking about the weather. Aren't I all grown up and irrelevant... Don't answer that.

Ran across another couple trailers for movies that seem quite intriguing. I believe the first was called 13 Tzameti while the other was for The Woods (featuring Bruce Campbell in a rare dramatic role!). On a completely unrelated note (except for the Bruce Campbell tie in) Brisco County Jr. and Jack of All Trades both came out on DVD today I believe. Groovy.

I'm about to wrap up the China Mieville short story collection Looking for Jake. It was quite good. Highly recommended. Now if I can just finish 1776...

Weekend Begins

Go. Watch. Become excited. Curse the fact that it's not Fall yet.

Seriously though, The Prestige is looking quite good. I'm also rooting for Danny Boyle's new flick Sunshine. And the new Pang Brothers' movie and... heh heh, well you get the idea.

I'm glad it's Friday. I'm also glad that tonight will involve a BBQ and some bratwurst. Mmmmm bratwurst. I also picked up The Matador for some weekend movie fun. Couple that with some zombie shooting and you have yourselves a Good Time.

The relatively recent Escape Pod (episode 61) was rather amusing. Mostly for incidental reasons that involved a minor plot point of the story (Ranma 1/2). The story is a bit adult in nature, but amusing nonetheless. The episode also referenced a couple other podcasts that I now feel compelled to check out. More on them as necessary.

Well at this point I'm rambling, but I felt the need to get some new text up on the page. Although I still really like that firework shot.

Not With a Bang

Firework
Originally uploaded by dkun.

And we're back. This was the best firework photo I managed to snap while on vacation. There are a few others over at my Flickr site, plus a couple of the lake. It was a good trip. I must admit better than I expected it to be. I got the chance to do some sailing - they had little single person sail boats that you could take out on the lake. I think I managed at least one outing a day while I was there. I've always wanted to learn to sail and this just cemented that desire. There's something great about being out on the water letting the wind push you around. (Well ok, technically you're supposed to be using the wind to go somewhere, but work with me here. Besides, since I had next to no idea what I was doing, the first description is a little more accurate.) I may have to look into getting a boat.

Trout Lodge had quite the range of activities - there was almost always something to do or somewhere to go. We did a little archery, a little .22 target shooting, some lounging around the water, hayrack ride, and so on. And the cabins were pretty nice so that was a plus.

Got to show off the great-grandkids to my grandparents. They got a kick out of that. I'm just glad we got the chance to let them see them. Not sure if we'll get another chance to do that. Plus I got to catch up with my Uncle Paul, it's been far too long since we've gotten together. Here's the Colbert D&D video as a nod to the fact that he introduced me to the game.

At any rate it's now back to the grind... Must find a way to make a living just sailing around.

In and out

Managed to finish Zelda: Wind Waker. Fun game. The girls were suitably impressed. McKenna wanted to know when I was going to play it again. I said not for a while. I now understand why Zelda games are popular. It took me a bit to get into this one, but by the end I was a little sad to see it go. I might have to pick up the new one for the Wii.

Seems like I've seen some movies since I last posted, but I've no idea what they might have been. My wife and I did watch Clash of the Titans the other night. That movie actually holds up pretty well. I remember my Mom walking out of it with the girls, and Dad and I staying when we saw it in the theater.

Have I mentioned that Vivaldi's Four Seasons (especially the Winter section) is a truly amazing piece of music? If not, consider it mentioned. If so, consider it seconded.

I suppose I should put a photo of something cute up to distract you all for a while. But I have no cute photos so do a google image search for "cute" or something. I take absolutely no responsibility for whatever comes up from that.

At any rate, my eyes feel like they've been sanded down with large grit sandpaper so I think I'll be off.

Pulse and other odds and ends

Caught the original Japanese version of Pulse. I suspect this may be one of the few instances where the remake is better. The original was interesting and had a few good horror moments, but the pacing and length killed it. I don't mind slow movies (in fact several of my favorites tend to fall into that category), but the tension that this film tried to build was destroyed by the movie's glacial pace. Which is a shame, because as mentioned, it was actually pretty interesting. The set piece of the film with the plane was definitely worth it though. Amazing shot... Reminded me a bit of The Eye.

Wedding Crashers was also too long. I suspect Hollywood needs to be reminded that there's a time and place for the 1 1/2 hour movie. And the romantic comedy is certainly the place. Vince Vaughn was quite good though, as was Owen Wilson.

So, the bachelor days draw to a close. I suspect I got enough movie watching in...

Heard about The Horror Blog the other day. Haven't really had a chance to check it out, but it looks promising. I suspect I should give up all pretenses and turn this blog into horror movie reviews and game ramblings, but then you'd miss out on the cute kid stories. That and I'd have to convince my wife to start sitting through a lot more horror movies. Hmm...

Actually I've been meaning to post some random thoughts on horror movies again dealing with the current trend towards gore (not a good one in my opinion, in fact I'd classify gore flicks as a separate genre (or at least sub-genre) from horror movies) and the use of classical music in horror movie soundtracks (and why it works so well). But you'll have to wait for that. Maybe you can come up with your own thesis on the above topics and save me the job.

Oh, and I hate my lawn mower. It's out to get me I swear. Stupid gas leak...

<Unintelligible moan>

So the Zombie Weekend O' Fun is over. All I can say is Romero is cool. Dawn of the Dead and Land of the Dead are actually pretty good films. I'm glad we tracked down the Romero version of Dawn - totally worth it. And of course, Shaun of the Dead is still terribly funny and spooky and all of that. And I managed to catch a couple more jokes this go round as I've seen some of the Romero movies now. "We're coming to get you Barbara!" Hee hee...

Geist is an intriguing little game on the Gamecube. Borrowed it from a coworker and have been enjoying it.

I've snagged Pulse and Wedding Crashers, so we'll see what they're like...

Anyway, I suspect that's enough for this quick burst of blogging goodness.

Weekend o' Zombies

Well, my better half is out of town with the kids for a wedding. So what better way to spend the time than zombie movies and video games? None I say.

Tonight will most likely be Dawn of the Dead (The Romero version) and tomorrow will contain Shaun of the Dead and Land of the Dead.

I caught The Tailor of Panama and Brotherhood of the Wolf over the last couple nights. The former is one of those movies that you hope never happens, but you suspect might, while the latter is an interesting flight of fancy. I really enjoyed the story in Brotherhood.

At any rate, I would apologize for not updating with any sort of regularity, but that would imply that I felt bad about it (well maybe a little) and wouldn't really put you through it again (of course I will). So I won't.

I'm not dead yet

Although I felt pretty close. The stomach flu marched through the family last week and my turn was around Wednesday. And then the house building project down the street cut through the internet cable so we had no internet from about Thursday through today. That was fun.

The girls are getting into The Legend of Zelda, the Wind Waker. I find it rather amusing personally. The game certainly picked up there for a little bit. Although I suspect vast stretches of what do I do next coming up...

Well, you'd think I'd have something to ramble on about but such isn't really the case. Picked up Vivaldi's The Four Seasons on cd the other day as well as some Yo-Yo Ma. I like the cello. And The Four Seasons ranks up there with my favorite pieces of classical music. Especially the Winter section.

Giddiness sets in

So the company party was today. They held it at Wheeler Farm, so the kids got to milk a cow and take a tractor ride and so on. We had a bit of rain at the beginning, but then things settled down. I must admit, the rain didn't seem to bother me too much as I managed to win a 30GB iPod video. squee!

ahem

Ok, I'm better now. But yeah, totally awesome. Mom was having flashbacks to one of the old company parties we had growing up when my Dad worked at Manville. Back then it was a mini arcade cabinet style Pac Man video game. I will admit that there were probably similarities in the grins I had at either occasion...

At any rate, it was a good day.

Incoming transmission

Ok, so it's been a while, but then again, I've been pretty busy. Dad had to leave early, so we're down to just one house guest. Then it's a week off and then the wife and kids take off for a week. Such a busy time of year.

Had a pretty good weekend although my house is not equipped to handle 17 visitors at once. If it weren't a family event I would have found some way to take off from that mass of people yearning to breathe free... Especially considering the fact that it's starting to get hot out here.

Did a few more chores around the house. Got rid of an accordion door in preparation for putting in hard floors next year. Swapped out the old flat cable from the TV antenna to the TV in favor of coax. Other odds and ends.

Anyway, nothing of real import to pass along. Had dinner at Tepanyaki last night. Had the filet mignon and shrimp. It was like meat butter. So tasty. You'd think I'd have some kid stories to pass along or something but that's not really the case.

Of course, I could start venting about Gibbs quitting NCIS last night, but then I'd get all riled up again.

E3

Well, E3 is in full swing again. The big three (Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo this go around) have had their press conferences. Sounds like it's a toss up between Nintendo and Microsoft as to who had the best conference. I come down on Nintendo's side as the offerings Microsoft had out really don't interest me much. Don't care about Halo 3 or a new GTA game. I am terribly excited to get my hands on the Wii though. Here's a link to some more video footage of some of the games and people playing them.

In other news, we've managed to get the flower beds cleaned up and blooming. And we now own a rather pretty fuschia plant courtesy of the in-laws. An early Father's Day gift I believe. I may try to pass a picture of it along.

And tomorrow is my Friday. Woo hoo!

The folly humor of youth

You can tell your kids are a little excited to see the grandparents when they get up shortly after 6 AM to accomplish said fact. My wife managed to get them to go back to their room for a bit and told them they couldn't come out until 7. A few minutes later they peeked out of their room and asked, "What time is it in your room?" Apparently while it was still before 7 in theirs, ours must lie on the other side of some time zone that would allow them to escape...

Long days

Well, the arrival of family is imminent. My wife's folks this evening and then mine next week. McKenna had her party today. Took some friends to lunch and then went and saw Hoot. Cute show. Won't win any awards, but it was fun. McKenna liked the owls. One of the girls at the party liked the boy. I'll take her interest in the owls thanks...

It's been a long week. Cinco de Mayo yesterday. I got to spend most of it at work. Some higher-up decided that we needed to do an extra run of the main journals database we produce. And as my compatriot was out of town, that meant I had the joyous task of going in late to QA it. Was a truly wonderful experience let me tell you.

Today was free comic book day. The comic book shop down the road apparently closed down sometime this past year. So no free comic books for us. McKenna was rather sad about that. We picked her up a copy of Pikmin 2 for her birthday. It's a pretty fun game. I remember reading somewhere that the guy that created it was inspired by watching his garden. After playing the game a bit I can see the resemblance. It's a pretty interesting game. Cute on the surface, red in tooth and claw a couple layers down. Good ol' Mother Nature. McKenna has enjoyed ordering the Pikmin around.

Anyway, I'm sure there are other things I should go on about, but I can't think of them. So have a great weekend.

Final Fantasy

So Final Fantasy VII Advent Children came out last week. This was pretty much the movie that everyone wanted Spirits Within to be. Not a lot of plot, but a lot of pretty cool fight scenes. The animation technology has improved since then as well. Definitely a pretty movie and certainly some fun bits.

As I came late to the whole console scene, I will have to admit to Final Fantasy VII as probably my first real console RPG. So there is a bit of a special place in my heart for it. McKenna watched most of the movie with us and insisted that I play the game the next day so she could see where the movie came from. That was rather amusing. My wife just rolled her eyes a lot and made sure that I knew that playing VII wasn't allowed to take over playing Tales. Gee, two different family members interested in two RPGs. I'm not entirely certain that some sort of pod person invasion hasn't taken place. That or I've walked into a Talking Heads song...

Finished off The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Great book. I believe I've become a Le Carré fan. After The Tailor of Panama I'll let you know for sure. It's just refreshing to read spy novels that don't revolve around supermen that never make mistakes.

Family coming into town over the next couple weeks. My wife's family this weekend and my folks the weekend after. It's going to be pretty busy around here.

Anyone want to come and mow my lawn for me this summer? Anyone?

Nintendo news

So the big news of the day is that Nintendo announced the official name of their new console. The code name was Revolution. The official name is Wii (pronounced we). You can hit the site for a brief video and description behind the name. I rather like the logo. The name will take a bit of getting used to. My wife's first thought was that it was stupid. The internet is buzzing with comments in a similar vein. But then the internet isn't really known for its kindness... It'll live.

Seems like there was something else I meant to mention here. I, of course, have no idea what it was. My memory certainly hasn't been all that spectacular lately.

PF Chang's has some sort of spicy wonton on their menu at the moment. It's quite nice. We had dinner there last night with my sister and her husband and some of his family. Good food. Good company.

Awards and intrigue

Community service award
Originally uploaded by dkun.

So, here's some photographic proof of the bit of news I mentioned the other day. Last night at the City Council meeting the mayor presented me with a community service award for the hours I've put in at the library for the last several weeks. Or is it months now? I honestly can't remember.

I got a call from the library director the other day asking my family and I to come to the meeting for the presentation. I was a bit shocked actually. My wife was amused and thought it was pretty neat. The girls of course were terribly impressed. Heh...

At any rate, the moment is gone and I can go back to relative anonymity now.

As for intrigue, we watched The Constant Gardener the other day. I found it quite compelling. My wife and the letter 'r' weren't as impressed, but I suspect that had more to do with a slight bit of misrepresentation. They were expecting James Bond/Jason Bourne spy movie and couldn't make the jump to political intrigue movie. There are a lot of nice little touches throughout the movie that reward careful attention though. As mentioned I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it readily.

I find it interesting that Le Carré was actually in the British Foreign Service for a while. I'm currently reading The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. I may have found a new author to enjoy.

Silent Horror

I posted, probably over a year ago, on the topic of horror. I covered a few movies, a few games, maybe a book or two. I've certainly mentioned it in the intervening time. Horror is a topic that I rarely grow tired of talking or thinking about. So I was pretty excited to go see the Silent Hill movie. I doubt too many of you will be terribly interested in the movie, but if you haven't seen it and you want to, I'll label this post as more than likely full of spoilers. So there you go, consider yourselves warned.

In the video game world there are really only a couple of camps when it comes to the horror genre (or survival horror for you purists). The Resident Evil side and the Silent Hill side. RE is famous for zombies, tense jump moments, lots of back-tracking, odd puzzles and a sense of tension often created by limited inventory just as much as creepy environs. If memory serves, RE pretty much fathered the genre. Most people appreciated the first one, cheesy dialogue and all. The subsequent sequels tended to find less and less favor until the RE 4 which is credited with breathing new life into the franchise much like Batman Begins saved the dark knight.

While Resident Evil was on the wane, a new franchise was born: Silent Hill. It featured a normal guy looking for his daughter in a town covered in fog. A town that was not safe. A town that every so often, after warning given by an air raid siren, turned into something darker. Deadlier. If RE was about visceral chills, Silent Hill went for a cerebral scare. Which isn't to say that it ignored jump moments or gore, it certainly featured both, but it focused on a sense of suspense and creating an air of "what the hell is happening here?"

Creatures born of nightmare (and possibly a Giger painting) roamed these worlds. Seemingly innocent places would turn sinister in the blink of an eye. Just the demo of the first game was enough to give me nightmares. Which cemented its place in my heart. Here was a game that I could enjoy - a game that would scare me. I've since played the first two and would really love to play three and four. Honestly the second is a much better game, but I have a little more nostalgia for the first one.

Which brings us to the movie. I honestly have a hard time deciding if I liked it or not. There was certainly potential to make an amazing horror film - a town that seems to draw cursed souls to it and dispense its own sense of justice. A town that is never quite the same for anyone that visits. A town that is home to pure evil. What's not to like? I think the movie would have fared better had it not tried to mirror the games so closely. It basically retells the first game, while allowing bits of the second to creep in. A good way to allow fans of the games to get some enjoyment as they see bits from the games made "real", but not a good way to draw in casual viewers.

And there were some really odd pacing choices. The first three quarters of the movie really only contain enough story for about the first act (if that) of a normal film. The time is instead spent walking viewers through sequences of the game. All the high points are hit - the school, the church, the hotel (2nd game), the hospital. It isn't until the end that the film actually starts explaning things and giving the viewer a sense of what's actually going on. Now to be fair there is some of that in the game as well, but in a game you're participating. Story telling tends to take a back seat to the experience. Film doesn't work that way.

So what to make of Silent Hill the film? First it looks amazing. The transition sequences as the town changes are inspired. Definitely the high point. The plot (such as it was) is a little on the lacking side. Which is at least partly due to the fact that it's following the first game. The second game had a much stronger plot and the world of Silent Hill really started to make sense. The first game was more an exercise in setting things up and creating something unique. The music was great if you played the games as most of it came from there. I've always liked the music in the games so that was a nice touch. The acting was fine. Nothing outstanding, but I've certainly seen worse. It gets quite gory at the end and actually starts to channel Hellraiser a little more than Silent Hill. There are some disturbing acts and images. Which certainly keeps with some of the themes of the game, but they made a couple odd character and plot choices that are jarring if you're a fan of the game. I suspect regular viewers were just plain shocked as opposed to shocked and confused. The ending was nicely done. The proper amount of head scratching and ambiguity. I'm glad they didn't Hollywood-ize it.

So, some good potential that wasn't completely realized, but wasn't completely wasted either. If you've played the games, you're going to get more out of the film. That much is a given. If you haven't you'll probably spend more time wondering why this was made and who plays this kind of stuff. Which is actually pretty normal, so that's not all that big a surprise. Admittedly, we gamers are a rather strange bunch on occasion. I guess the best thing that can be said is this is definitely not the worst video game adaptation out there. Unfortunately it's also not the video game movie we've all been waiting for either. The sequel (if there is one) could be though. If they are willing to spend the time creating something new for the world of Silent Hill. I'm certainly more than willing to visit again.

Mental exercise

Picked up Brain Age for the DS. Not so much a game as a set of mental exercises, Brain Age calculates your mental age and then helps you train up those flabby mental muscles through a series of timed, graded puzzles. My wife and I find it rather compelling. The cartridge allows you to store up to 4 user profiles and the game will let you know how you're doing against the other people stored there.

Just got a rather strange phone call that will probably result in a rather amusing photo for next week. You'll just have to wonder.

My wife is watching Smallville in the background and the only thing I can say is that someone has watched Saw a few too many times. Eeesh.

Well, here's to hoping I can get to Silent Hill tomorrow, work is doing its best to get in the way.

Catch up

Let's see, King Kong was far too long. I can appreciate that it was well done, and there were some good bits, but that movie needed to be cut in half. Three hours indeed...

Narnia is still excellent and McKenna was just a little excited that it was waiting by the Easter baskets on Sunday. I think the screams of glee were our first indication that the gift was appreciated.

Shut the Box is a fun little game based around numbers and chance. I picked it up to help McKenna some with her math and it turns out that my wife's family had a copy while she was growing up. Serendipitous...

There's an entire saga growing around our attempts to purchase a new stove, but I don't quite have the energy to go into that. Suffice to say, the stove has been purchased, after much frustration it should be showing up tomorrow and there were discounts truly earned. RC Willey lost some customer points from us this time around.

Hmm, I know there were other things I meant to mention here, but I seriously don't know what they were. Silent Hill comes out this weekend, and I don't care how bad it is, it will be great. I can't wait to go see that one. It's been an immensely long week already. This makes me truly sad. Oh well...

Oh, I know what the other things I meant to mention were. Oddly enough I've managed to get some reading in. Y The Last Man is a comic book series that started back in 2002. It comes out monthly I believe and is slated to run about 60 issues. They collect every five or so and release them as graphic novels. Our local library had the first three. It's an interesting take on the last man on Earth scenario. I've enjoyed it so far and would like to see more. Will have to track them down.

And I'm currently reading a collection of essays by Sarah Vowell. Pretty enjoyable. She's a good writer. Also recommended.

Burn baby burn

So. I broke down and threw together a cd of Graeme. I leave it to my wife to send off or not. While it's certainly an amusing little movie, I'm not certain I have any real desire to see Graeme on national TV. It's more fun to leave it a pipe dream.

Anyway, the week is half over. This weekend will involve some serious shopping. I think it's finally time we get ourselves a new stove. I've pretty much had it with the one we've got. One burner only works when it's in the mood and a couple of the other burners are obviously thinking of following suit. It's pretty frustrating.

It's-a Monday

So, first things first, I totally rocked my way through Hard mode in Guitar Hero. Bark at the Moon? Oh yeah. And by rocked, I mean scraped through by the skin of my teeth. Let's just say that power bar you can build up comes in handy. I have managed to make it through the first ten songs on Expert though, so my shattered ego was placated a little.

Rumor has it that Coinstar machines are going to start spitting out e-credits for the iTunes music store. Loose change is no longer safe... Perfect Situations by Weezer and 99 Red Balloons by Goldfinger will be mine. I don't care how many couches I need to raid...

And the lawn mowing is imminent. I broke down and changed the oil this afternoon in that treacherous beast that is my lawn mower. I proceeded to start it up on the first pull. An ominous sign. It's taunting me. I can tell. The back yard at least looks presentable again. Fortunately the front really didn't need to be mowed.

Apparently America's Funniest Videos does take digital files. I still have the movie of Graeme dancing around on the desktop. I may have to burn it to cd and send it in.

And in fluff related news, I scored an Exceeds Expectations on the level 1 W.O.M.B.A.T.s over at Rowling's Harry Potter site. Ha! Err, I mean, not that I care or anything.

Dancin' Fool

Graeme loves music. And loves to dance to it. We managed to get some video footage of him dancing around and it is quite awesome. If I had a way of posting it for you guys to see, I'd contemplate trying. Instead you'll just have to live with the partial knowledge that he's quite the dancer.

Which offers a bit of a segue into how nice iMovie is. I think the whole process of getting a few movie clips with the camera and then getting them onto the computer and turning it into a short movie with a couple titles took all of 10 minutes. Maybe. I love the Mac...

My wife is off torturing the kids by taking them to see the Easter Bunny. I expect shots of Graeme crying and the girls standing there looking bored. But I could be wrong.

Anyway, have a great weekend.

Oh, Guitar Hero update. I only have Bark at the Moon left on Hard. Some day I'll make it through!

Technology

So we're going to join this technological age of ours by using the computer to take care of a few things. Such fun.

The weather can't make up its mind as to whether it should be raining or snowing. So it's (of course) doing both. Such lovely weather. And on top of that it's playing hell with my sinuses. Stupid rapid temperature changes.

The letter 'r' is off to see the cherry blossoms in D.C. That would be fun. Hopefully there will be some nice pictures at the end. I told him to try some Sakura Mochi. We'll see if he's brave enough.

Is it the weekend yet?

Long day

Carpooling can be quite nice, but when your carpool partner has to stick around for a while, it can be pretty maddening as well. Managed to snag the fancy 2 disc Narnia set. It's a little disturbing that stores are starting to charge a bit more for those sets that initial week. Used to be you could pick them up pretty cheap. Maybe a touch more than the plain vanilla release (assuming one came out at the same time) but not as bad as about twice that price. Of course, I'm a sucker for the special edition so there wasn't really a question around whether I'd pick it up or not.

I forget where I left off yesterday. I think I was rambling about Montaigne and essays and blogs and English classes. Honestly I'm probably better off letting that particular train of thought derail. It is a bit interesting to muse on though.

Borrowed a copy of the Mac OS X Missing Manual by David Pogue. It looks to be a pretty good reference book. Will probably have to snag a copy for myself. I know I need to grab one for the iLife suite. I have no idea how you're supposed to puzzle through the workings of Garage Band. I don't remember too much difficulty with iMovie or iDVD, but it would be nice to get a bit more out of them.

At any rate, I'm home for the evening, there's some TV to be watched and some Tales of Symphonia to be played.

Beginning of the week

So the devil arrived in the form of Daylight Savings Time. There are occasions I wish it would go away. Any time during the summer in which we try o put a child to bed and it's still very bright out for instance.

Currently playing beat the clock against software update, so if this post seems oddly disjointed, I blame the update.

It was a pretty quiet weekend actually. Which is nice on occasion. Found out today that one of my favorite teachers from High School is getting ready to retire. That's a little crazy. I'll have to drop her a line and thank her for being a good influence. Or at least inspiring me to go for an English degree. Of course, the flip side to that is the complete impracticality of the English degree that doesn't lead to a teaching position, but we'll ignore that.

I wonder how blogging will impact English classes in the future. A guy I worked with for a while was going to use them (or at least make reference to them) in some of the English classes he was responsible for. They remind me (blogs that is) of the essay form. Montaigne was always a favorite of mine. Not that much of his influence makes itself known here. I should go back through some of his work again...

Coulton

Jonathan Coulton is rapidly becoming my favorite new musical artist. Last week's free mp3, RE: Your Brains was brilliant and this week's sounds like it might be pretty good as well. And I pushed Skullcrusher Mountain a couple weeks ago. At any rate, if you haven't listened to his stuff yet (I'm looking at you Kit) you really should. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Testing part 2

So the Google Blogger widget is freaking out on me. Trying out a new one. We'll see...

Quick Miranda story

Miranda has been under the weather pretty much the whole week. Sore throat, mild fever, pretty worn out. Doctor Amazing at first thought strep (tests came back negative) and then mono (again negative - and where would a 4 year old get mono anyway?) and is now considering other possibilities I suppose. Anyway, the story part follows - my wife was keeping an eye on her today while she was resting on the couch. At one point she looked up and said, "I've rested a lot this week, I need to do some exercises." So she got up and touched her toes 3 times or so. Then she looked up and said, "Ok, that's enough, I'm tired." And she proceeded to lay back down. Sounds about right to me...

Gamecube Easter Egg

Ran across the alternate startup sounds for the Gamecube. Apparently if you hold the Z button on either 1 or 4 controllers, you get an alternate sound sequence. That wacky Nintendo...

My wife and I have started trekking through Tales of Symphonia again. Sadly we started it back in 2004. I suspect we'll get through it by 2010... I only wish I were kidding.

Watched Mirrormask and Flightplan over the weekend. Mirrormask was pretty good. I was worried that Dave McKean's art would be a little too strange, but it was better than I expected. I'm not a huge fan of his, but in the context of the movie it worked surprisingly well. It's certainly different, but different can be good. It's very much an art film, but there's an alright little story at the core of it. It doesn't always make a ton of sense, but then what dreams do?

Flightplan, however, was horrid. Admittedly, I wasn't expecting much from it and it delivered. Gaping plot holes, a story that for the most part crept along and just general mind-numbing-ness. Keep walking past this one.

To give Jodie Foster some credit, her new one - Inside Man looks good...

A couple quick links

Fun with juggling.

And fun with reflexes.

Seems like I meant to put something else in here this afternoon, but alas, it has escaped my poor work week frazzled mind. Not that it was difficult mind you.

At any rate, have a great weekend.

GDC

So, the Game Developer's Conference is going on at the moment and today was Nintendo's keynote. Not much in the way of shiny new information, but some things of interest. Head over to Go Nintendo or Game|Life for details. They do have some bits about the new Brain Age game mental workout coming out in April and how Nintendo plans on applying that sort of theory to the Revolution and the DS. It should broaden their appeal quite a bit. I'm planning on picking up a copy for my wife. (Ok and myself as well...)

Other than that, I'm not sure there's much of interest going on.

Barbarian bits

So we watched Conan the Barbarian the other night. And while I have reasons why, none of them are that spectacular. A rather silly movie. My wife thought it should have been called Conan Gets Lucky... I supposed there is a little truth to that. It's funny what movies get made.

The Girl Scout Cookie hullaballoo is just about over. All the boxes are delivered and McKenna has just one more shift in front of the WalMart. She had more fun selling them than delivering them, but that comes as no surprise.

Resident Evil 4 is making a slight comeback. That game is just hard. Guitar Hero continues to dominate my play time though. We played a bit of Loot with my Mother-in-Law while she was here. That game gets pretty fun when you throw more people into the mix.

The letter 'r' would like to start up a podcast. I'd like to cover various board and card games. We certainly have enough to run through. And we could always throw in a video game or two every once in a while. We'll see if that materializes.

V is for Very Good

Go see V for Vendetta. Right now is fine. Powerful film. I'll not say more at the moment, but I liked it quite a bit. It's a little hard to say I enjoyed it (although there are certainly moments to enjoy) but I certainly appreciated it. The cast does an incredible job, especially Hugo Weaving - whose face is not seen the entire time. He uses his voice to great effect.

And with that have a great weekend.

More cowbell

err, guitar. Guitar Hero is far too addictive. And it gets really frustrating fun on the later levels. Adding in the other frets and a lot more notes to strum really increases the sensation of playing. I'd like to see Perfect Situations by Weezer in a sequel and some '80s hair band rock. And some... heh heh, well you get the idea.

The one thing this widget lacks is some html functionality. I'd like to see a link button and a few other tags. I'm not sure if you can code html into the text box or if it will convert it into text... This post will actually test that just a bit.

So, V for Vendetta comes out tomorrow. Despite Moore's disavowal, I'm going to go see it anyway. Hopefully it will be interesting. I'm hoping the Wachowski's didn't just re-hash bits of the Matrix movies with Moore's work...

So you wanna be a hero

First, I really like this blogger widget...

Anyway, I made the mistake the other day of trying out Guitar Hero while I was picking up DVDs at Best Buy. I had put off doing this because I am a sucker for music games. Especially when they involve special controllers - DDR, Donkey Konga the list goes on. But the demo unit was sitting there all alone and I felt the need to pick it up and see what it was like. Pure music Nirvana is a pretty close description. This game does an amazing job of helping you feel like you're rocking out. Anyone that has ever played an air guitar will fall in love. The guitar controller has a nice feel to it and the game does a good job of making you feel like you're actually contributing to the music.

If you make a mistake you'll hear a missed note, if you get in the groove the song sounds complete and you completely feel like you're on stage rocking. Especially on the higher difficulty levels. This may be one of the first music games where I never see some of the higher levels. The learning curve starts off easy enough but it ramps up and by the time you try out Hard, there are some serious strains on your rhythm skills.

I have to warn you, the game doesn't come cheap - the game/controller bundle runs around $80. But if you like music games at all, it's totally worth it. And as a touch of proof to this statement, I'll point out that my wife, who is normally pretty rhythmically challenged when it comes to video games, actually does pretty well on the Easy setting. It's actually a lot of fun watching her jam with the band. So if you fancy yourself a bit of a rocker, check Guitar Hero out.

We have contact

Ok, that's cool. You might be in luck and see a few more posts. At least short ones. I miss the link button for passing things along, but for quick thoughts this should do.

Expect a mini-review of a game in the next few days.

Blogging attempt 1 from Tiger

So I've finally managed to upgrade the computer to Tiger. Seems pretty slick so far. And I grabbed this blogger widget in a vague attempt to make posting a little more frequent. Or something. I realize this thing has been lagging lately and I apologize (a little) but life has been rather hectic of late.

We had an enjoyable weekend with the in-laws this past week. Some shopping, some game playing, lots of spoiling of the kids, but that's to be expected.

At any rate, let's submit this baby and see how it works...

Game update

Card games this time. Loot and In a Pickle are recent acquisitions. Loot is an interesting Pirate themed game that actually involves a bit of strategy. Your hand consists of Merchant ships with a point value, Pirate ships with an attack value, and possibly a Pirate captain or the Admiral. The pirate ships come in four colors. Once you attack a merchant ship with a specific color, your opponents have to use the remaining colors. You try to one-up your opponents in order to win the Merchant. At the end, the player with the most points wins. Clever and fun. Plus the artwork on the cards is rather fun.

In a Pickle is a game to play when you're in the mood for a good fight. In theory you play a card that is either smaller than the card at the top of the chain or bigger than the card at the bottom. At any time there are four chains to choose from and once one of the stacks reaches four cards each player then has to try and play a bigger thing at the bottom. In reality you spend most of the time arguing whether China is bigger than Spring or whether a skeleton in a jungle could fit in an Encyclopedia. If you can't handle a (hopefully) good natured argument on such things, stay away from this game. I kind of get a kick out of it...

The Cave was rather silly. And the ending was just best forgotten. It really should have ended with the escape, but they had to throw one last little twist in. Oh well.

The Brothers Grimm however was rather enjoyable. I'm sad I didn't go to the theater to watch it. Not just to see it on the big screen (which I'm sure was probably quite impressive) but to actually throw some monetary support its way. I think they did a pretty poor job of marketing this one. It's not really the comedy they made it out to be, although there is humor in it. In a lot of ways it's very reminiscent of the Grimm fairy tales themselves. An interesting story with touches of horror, humor and morality. Plus it's got Gilliam's fingerprints all over it, which is always nice. Reminded me a touch of The Fisher King. (Although that was better...)

March on

The year continues to speed by oblivious to any objections I might have. It is a little hard to believe it's already March. I'm not sure where the time is going, but I suspect I ought to visit there...

So, depending on your interests there's plenty of news out there. Gaming news is full of amusing anecdotes (track down the Penny Arcade/SOE donut war) and controversy (Chris Kohler over at Wired is suffering the fanboy onslaught over the graphical "capabilities" of the new Elder Scrolls game). In the political arena it looks like they're extending the Patriot Act again. In other news I'm sure there's a cute animal involved or possibly a kid.

Things around here are pretty much par for the course. The girls are either in trouble or causing it. But I suspect that's because I have to play parent now. It's amazing how much fun that sucks out of things. Well, at least from their perspective. The dog is probably developing some form of dementia. That or she's being possessed. I think I might have to root for possession. Finally managed to finish the first season of Lost but I'm not sure I can bring myself to care. Which is odd as it was an enjoyable show, but it just took us too long to get through. I'm most certainly ready to move on.

But hey, Bruce Campbell is working on They Call Me Bruce. Think Galaxy Quest meets Army of Darkness/Evil Dead. Pure comedy gold.

PSA

Run and grab episode 42 of Escape Pod. It's a reading of Practical Villainy and also features a musical number that is spectacular. Do yourself a favor and give it a listen.

What's this?

Another post within the same week?! Actually you can blame the fact that I've had the worst work week imaginable combined with managing to get my evenings free. So I have a couple spare moments I can spend on you lot.

Things are ramping up for E3 - May draws nigh. Should be pretty exciting this year as we'll get lots of info about the Revolution. And I hear rumors that more copies of Phoenix Wright might be showing up. That would be nice as I really wanted to track down that game.

Still attempting to muddle my way through a Ludlum novel. Apparently it was released posthumously with the help of a ghost writer. It's sort of like the anti-Bourne. The Ambler Warning is the name if you're looking for that sort of thing. Sounds like Flight 3 will be out come June. The first two volumes have been pretty good. Not sure who's scheduled to be in this one.

I feel the need to rent some movies this weekend. Recommendations? Not sure what I'm in the mood for, just need some good solid entertainment. The letter 'r' is trying to schedule a showing for Land of the Dead. The new projector beckons...

Weekend recovery

First, this is amusing. If you're a Lost fan, a "Weird" Al fan or a Queen fan, give it a moment of your time.

Had a terribly nice long weekend: went up and visited some old friends. The kids had a grand time as they have a couple girls basically the same ages as our girls. Got to play a bit of Crimson Skies, introduced them to Qwitch and Tsuro. Lots of little games here and there and just general relaxing. Yup, nice weekend. Wasn't ready to come back. But then I hardly ever am.

I've managed to avoid most of the Olympics coverage. I don't remember ever being terribly excited by them and that hasn't really changed. Although some of the conversations about them at work are amusing. (Apparently Curling is strangely addictive if somewhat confusing. Sounds like just about anything related to Scotland to me. ^_^)

Coming up for air

It's been a rather odd sort of week. On Sunday the girls decided they needed to call 911. So I got a call back from 911 dispatch trying to confirm whether or not we had an emergency (No, not at the moment, but if you want to wait a minute, I'm sure there will be some children needing medical attention...). And then five minutes later the cops showed up to make sure there wasn't an emergency. It made for a fun morning let me tell you. Of course, my father-in-law (who's a retired policeman) found the entire situtation hilarious. And by Monday it mostly was.

Valentine's Day came and went. We enjoyed dinner at Cafe Rio, where, oddly enough, I had eaten the previous day for our monthly lunch out at work. I'd never eaten there before and that made twice in two days. Fortunately the food is quite good.

Some form of banquet for Pack meeting tonight. I think they're bringing in sub sandwiches. Yum.

Haven't really had a chance to devour any more forms of media lately. It's hard enough to keep up with my TV schedule. House and Supernatural have been fun. Oh, and Bones too. Hoping to catch a movie or two this weekend, but we'll have to see. We're heading out of town for a bit. I don't believe there will be skeet shooting, but it's a possibility. I have picked up a recent Robert Ludlum novel, so we'll see how that is.

The library has been pretty consistently enjoyable. I don't particularly care for shelf reading, but there are certainly worse things. I think I put up with most of them at my current job.

As for things to check out, the TMBG podcast is always enjoyable. The Nintendo DS is getting a web browser courtesy of Opera. And a TV tuner. I'm actually pretty excited about the web browser thing. I wonder if it'll work very well. Revolution news is trickling out in very small bits. Go Nintendo and 4 color rebellion are pretty much my new favorite haunts. They both have enjoyable podcasts as well.

So there's a bit of an update and a few places to go check out. As a parting shot I will point out that Miranda got her stitches out the other day and her face is looking a lot better.

Dog bites girl

So Ein and Miranda had a bit of a run-in today. I don't have all of the details but there were chairs, jumping and an overexcited dog involved. It ended in a trip to the doctor and three stitches for Miranda's nose. Plus or minus a few scratches around her cheek/eye area. Fortunately beyond that she's fine. My wife was a bit freaked out about it though. (And understandably so as the whole thing happened upstairs while she was dealing with Graeme downstairs.)

And I've managed to stub the heck out of my toe...

Which reminds me of a quote by Groucho Marx involving open sewers, death and papercuts.

So, the update schedule is pretty pathetic. It makes me slightly sad, but the few moments of free time I have are quite dear to me now. So I'm not sure what I'll do. I'm not convinced it's worth it to maintain this thing on such a shoddy schedule, but I'm not quite prepared to give it up either. It was nice having a bit of a writing outlet. Guess we'll see. Of course, it hasn't helped that I've had nothing to say lately either.

Got Electroplankton as an early Valentine's Day gift. Mostly because the console table I got for my wife showed up early and we went ahead and set it up. Probably the first non-essential piece of furniture we've bought... It might be slightly scary that it took us eleven years to reach that point, but to be a little fair it's only been a real possibility since we've had the house.

Anyway, Electroplankton is quite relaxing. It's fun to noodle around and create little dabs of music. I may have to play around with trying to record some of it at some point in the future. Definitely game as art. Or art as game depending on which side of the window you're standing on.

Aquatic

Just watched The Life Aquatic. Enjoyed it. Even though Bill Murray has been playing basically the same part for his last few films, he plays it very well. We likes the Bill. This was the first Wes Anderson film I've seen. May have to track down a couple others. I still need to see Rushmore...

Enjoyed the Superbowl yesterday. Was glad the Steelers managed to settle down and actually play in the second half. And I seem to be the only person that enjoyed the commercials. Well, the only person at the office. C'mon! They were good. The Sprint commercials were quite amusing as were several of the Bud Light commercials.

Poetry

This is a link to a site currently featuring some lovely poetry by Neil Gaiman. Both pieces are quite enjoyable. Go and read them, I'll wait. Don't expect anything terribly interesting upon your return.

Watched Resident Evil: Apocalypse. Such a silly movie. Jill Valentine's costume looks much better in the game than in real life. It was amusing to see Nemesis. Stars... About the only thing I can say in its defense is that I started it pretty late, but my wife stayed up and watched it anyway. Which actually says quite a lot. Strange really.

And the Target World Bazaar sale thing is just plain evil. A few really nice pieces, but such high prices. Grr...

In the background

The girls are all playing Mario Strikers so this is being typed to random crowd noise and Mario characters making either noises of pain or triumph depending on who is shoving who into the fence...

Was wandering around Barnes and Noble today in a vain attempt to find my wife a Valentine's Day gift. Happened to meander through the film section and browsed a couple of the "movies you have to see" books. Oldboy made one of them. I don't know that I'd call it a film you have to see, but it's definitely one that leaves an impression. The book was arranged roughly chronologically; I think the first thing I'd seen was Nosferatu. Although I'm not positive - the film listed in the book may have been an different version as it was in the silent film section and I'm not certain that's the one I saw. Those books always make me laugh. Everyone has their own mental "best of" lists, I'm not entirely certain why you'd pay money for one. As a list of influential cinema (or what have you) sure, but things you have to see/do? Eh, not so much.

Note: the background noise has now changed to Mario Power Tennis, I think Strikers was a little too difficult.

Further note: do not watch the girls (including my wife) attempt to do the painting mini-game. It's far too painful to watch...

They're releasing a couple of the Brain Training on the DS in a couple months. That makes me glad. Even better is that they're releasing them at a discounted price. The DS is really becoming the system to own for all kinds of gamers (including people that don't consider themselves such).

Wandering

Over at The Spoilers they've got a podcast up for Serenity featuring the crew from The Signal podcast. Should be at least somewhat interesting. Will check it out and let you know.

Due to recent Resident Evil exposure I decided to watch the movie again. Borrowed both of them off a friend at work. The first one was good zombie fun. Never got around to seeing the second one, so we'll see how it is in a couple days.

At any rate, there's not much else worth passing along. I suspect it's due to slightly too much information crossing my path lately. Hard to focus in on any of it when it's all buzzing by so fast.

Quiet

Amazing how quiet the house becomes when you have a sick kid or two...

I wish I had more to report here, but my free time has dwindled significantly and so I find I have less to ramble on about. Which isn't to say that there aren't things of interest going on/out there, I just have less desire to document them.

Graeme has started the road to regular food which is nice. And often quite amusing. We've started giving him half a banana in the morning and he's decided that the best way to eat it is all at once. If you can ignore the obvious choking hazard, it makes for a rather amusing couple of minutes.

Picked up Tai Chi Morning: Snapshots of China while at the library last night. Some nice poetry and art in there. Still muddling through Good Omens. I think I'm less far in than the last time I tried to read it. It's so terribly odd. I really enjoy both Gaiman and Pratchett, but the combination (while certainly amusing) just isn't terribly compelling to me. Speaking of Neil, the new design of his website is up. Much brighter place to stop by, but I'm not convinced I like the font. Oh well.

And on we go

I will admit to a certain dislike of Mondays. Nothing specific. And only a little of the cliché. But a small amount it's true. Although Monday evenings tend to be rather enjoyable. We get together with the letter 'r' for game/movie night. Tonight we pushed a little closer to the end of Lost season one and played a round of Rummikub. I then spent several frustrating minutes trying to get out of not zombie jail in Resident Evil 4. Alas, I'm still stuck there as there are far too many not zombie villagers and not nearly enough bullets... Hmm. I need a plan.

But the week marches on and the wheel goes round and <insert platitude here>. Good ol' platitudes. Whatever would we do without pithy, if meaningless, statements? I suppose we could choose to find meaning in them, but that can really only carry you so far before you become something resembling an optimist...

Too tired to title

Got the projector and surround sound getup hooked up over at the letter 'r's. Pretty sweet system I must admit. Soul Calibur 2 in near life size is pretty cool. Finding Nemo was pretty amazing looking as well. I tried to talk him into Akira but no joy. Heh...

Library volunteering has been going well. Got to do some interesting things yesterday. No amusing stories, but it was time well spent. Put covers on some of the new hardbacks and did some more shelving and a bit of book cleaning.

Managed to find a deal on a new copy of Resident Evil 4 so expect some thoughts on not zombie horror games in the future. One of the few 2 disc games on the cube. Sounds like it should take a while to play through. That's both good and bad. Good in that it will last a while, bad in that it's hard to find time to play a game that long - especially a survival horror game. But it will be played through! Oh yes, it will be played through.

And I think that's enough for now.

Roundhouse kick!

Humor at its finest.

Shelving books is an interesting process in the children's department. Shelf scanning is a mind-numbing one... And that's really about all I learned at the library last night.

Bones was enjoyable (as was NCIS the night previous). Still have to catch up on a couple other shows.

The Paint by Numbers puzzles are a hit. I must admit they're rather addictive little devils. It's interesting to see where lines can go and try and work out what sort of picture is going to emerge. If you can track down a puzzle or two to work through I recommend it. There are some tricks to working them out, so try and find a bit of an explanation as well. ^_^

Have listened to the last couple Escape Pod podcasts. Sci fi short stories are enjoyable. I subscribed because they had Cory Doctorow's Craphound on there (a delightful story in its own right) and have listened to the last couple as they've come out. And if I haven't mentioned it the Celtic Music News podcast is great. Assuming you like Celtic music. Which I do, so there.

Noise pollution

Well, Graeme has decided that it's about time he's heard around the house. While normally quite pleasant to be around, I suspect at the moment he's teething. Not the most joyful of experiences to be sure.

About to head out to the library, so, not really much of import to pass along. The girls will be making cookies while I'm out so hopefully there will be a couple still warm chocolate chip cookies upon my return. Mmmm, warm chocolate chip cookies.

The letter 'r' has started his grand quest to set up a home theater room. Currently the projector and the big box-o-audio are patiently waiting to be set up. I suspect a region free DVD player will be adding itself to the mix soon and then much watching of large scale entertainment will begin. I'll probably drag the Gamecube over on occasion for some larger than life Soul Calibur and Mario Kart madness. Until I can sort out some specific TV needs and procure the necessary funds my own home theater is more dream than reality. But some day!

Blurb

Working at the library was fun. Could see doing that. The question is will it pay enough. It needs to.

Best question of the evening, "So what did you do?" Apparently real volunteers at the library are few and far between. Most are of the community service flavor... It was an amusing moment to say the least.

At any rate, TV to catch up on so off with you.

Begin again

And Monday strikes like a trip to the dentist. Actually I went to the dentist today and it was fine. Miranda kept trying to locate someone who could look at her teeth. No fear of the dentist whatsoever in our children... Of course, the teenage years may change that.

I start volunteering at the library tomorrow, so expect the previously mentioned gaps in coverage to start up. Will attempt to do what I can to keep it minimal, but absolutely no promises.

Ran across a podcast by Penn Jillette. Somewhat amusing. It's mostly a capture of the radio show he does for XM FreeFM. Neil Gamain's podcast is up over at Author's on Tour. Will check it out over the next couple days. I've actually got quite a few I need to get through.

And the latest candidate for games as art is Electroplankton on the DS. Actually the better question is whether it's a game. If nothing else it lets you play around with music, so that's a bonus.

And I just need to point out that I managed 20k points on the quest mode of Zoo Keeper. Mostly because it will annoy the heck out of my wife. Hi honey. ^_^

Daily bits

My wife got hooked on Sudoku puzzles a few months back. So to encourage the puzzle muscle in her body I picked her up a book of the Games Magazine Paint by Number puzzles. (Also known as picross or griddlers) I expect some swearing and a few grateful looks over the next few months.

Let the scouts play around on the DDR game at pack meeting tonight. It was pretty popular. Not that that's any sort of surprise. It is DDR after all - how could it be anything other than popular? ^_^ Also got to hear the bagpipes again (Ah Scotland...). I like the pipes. Although it has left me singing snippets of Loch Lomond...

Well, I think that about covers things of any interest. And even a few things of none.

Repeating Signal

Well, updates around here may start to get sparse. Starting next week I'll be doing volunteer work at the local library. A couple hours a couple nights a week and a block of time on Saturday. Should prove to be an interesting experience if nothing else. I'm looking forward to it though. I've been thinking about getting an MLS again and this may help make that decision.

So, you'll have to learn to live without me. I think you'll be fine. If nothing else that may make the random bits that end up here more interesting. I'll probably start to have fun librarian type stories and all the other random bits that get spread out will make their appearances in condensed form.

I would also like to point out that my wife only narrowly avoided losing at Harry Potter Scene It to the girls. Heh heh...

Blah blah blah blah

State of the State address this evening. Only caught part of it as I was waiting for NCIS. Sounds like they want to lose sales tax on food. That could be nice.

And my wife is now watching Ed 2.0 Love Monkey. Hmmm. I may have to intervene. Especially as there's a commercial for the Match.com/Dr. Phil team-up. Wow. That's pretty scary stuff.

Pei Wei is a tasty, tasty restaurant.

As you can see, I don't seem to have a lot to ramble on about. Which is a little on the odd side as I've run across a fair amount of new things lately. I mentioned digg.com the other day. The Diggnation podcast is a thing of joy. I enjoy listening to the banter more than the actual content of the show. Reminds me of far too many of the conversations I had back in High School. But in a good way.

The VGDJ podcast for OC Remix is also nice. Mostly for the music bits and some of the banter.

4cr and Go Nintendo provide some nice Nintendo commentary.

Celtic Music News, Authors on Tour, The Signal, the Audio Edition of the Movie Blog... Yeah, lots of podcasts. Keeps me entertained at work if nothing else. It's funny, I've spent more time listening to podcasts than music lately. But I'm not convinced that's a terribly strange thing.

So there you go. A bit of rambling commentary on absolutely nothing. But its your own fault for wandering into this little backwater in the first place. At least I haven't started cat blogging yet. Of course, since I don't have a cat, that might actually be more interesting. Photos of hijacked cats... Hmm....

And again

So, saw Cry_Wolf over the weekend. I found it a fun little diversion while my wife found it predictable. I'm not saying there wasn't some predictability involved, just that it was fun to watch. And I think my wife would agree...

I also watched Oldboy, but I think the less said about that the better.

We're slowly working our way through the first season of Lost on DVD. DVD is really just about the only way to watch TV. Gotta love the lack of commercials and the ability to watch as many episodes as you want. And really, that makes Lost quite watchable. I'm not sure I could watch this as it airs on TV. Although we're not really trying to catch all the little nods and winks the creators of the show threw in. I leave that for people with far too much time on their hands fans.

Books

You may have noticed the new little bit there on the right. If not, Library Thing looks to be an interesting little site where you can catalog your books and post reviews and what not. Books are good. I sort of miss not shooting for 50 again this year, but I still plan on reading lots.

Seems there was something that meant to be here, but I certainly have no idea what it was. I am disturbed by the news that Hostel will most likely get a sequel. If you haven't heard of this movie consider yourself lucky. I like horror movies, but this one crosses the line into pure waste of celluloid territory. You can look at past entries to find my thoughts on violence and the horror genre, but this movie certainly doesn't seem to extol any sort of virtue. Pure excess and gore for shock value. There is absolutely nothing redeeming about it.

Hmm, that's kind of a downer, but at the moment I can't quite come up with anything else to end on. Go check out digg...

Delayed

Yeah, yeah, Tuesday is good TV night, so there.

House and Supernatural were their brilliant selves while NCIS was only ok. Oh well.

Apple makes me cry. I'm going to have to pick up the iLife suite when I grab the OS upgrade come tax refund time. There's simply too much goodness in that package to pass up. Podcast capabilities in Garage Band? Photocasting with iPhoto? The ability to push photos to people is going to make sending pictures of the kids so much simpler...

At some point I should probably ramble on about a couple of the podcasts that have caught my fancy, but today is not that day. Suffice it to say that I have indeed become hooked on the little devils.

On the DS

I can't recall (and am too lazy to look) if I've said much about the DS. So I've decided to rectify that some. I must admit, I've caught a bit of a bug where the system is concerned. Part of that is the fact that it's new, but a lot of the credit goes to the quality of the software.

Meteos has woven quite the spell around me. I find myself playing it quite a bit. It has its roots in the Tetris puzzle genre, but only to the extent that there are falling pieces. And boy do they fall fast. The twist is that you get to launch the pieces back where they came from. But in order to do so you have to overcome the gravity of the world you're playing on. Line up three blocks of the same color and they'll ignite sending anything on top of them skyward, but you'd better hope you have enough oomph to get them into orbit...

Feel the Magic XX/XY was, if not a launch title, darn close. To some extent it's a series of mini-games built to show off the various aspects of the system. But my wife and I both find it charmingly fun. A hopelessly silly story woven around a set of odd mini games. What's not to like?

My wife finds it hard to put Zoo Keeper down. Basically Bejeweled for the DS the stylus makes it much easier to play.

Polarium is another puzzle game that we find time to give each other grief over. Flip the black and white tiles so that the rows are all the same color. Good brain-stretching fun.

And Mario Kart. Very little needs to be said about Mario Kart. Play people all over the world. 32 tracks, half of which are completely new. Lots of play modes and lots of unlockable players/karts. You do the math.

So as you can see, far too much fun is being had with the system. But can you blame me?

Catch up

As I missed yesterday, I'll take a couple moments today...

The Island was ok if you can forgive the fact that it ripped off material from every sci-fi movie for the last 30 years. I will admit to really enjoying the chase sequence with the railroad car wheels. That was pretty spectacular.

Fantastic Four was less than ok. I suspect if you like that series, you might enjoy the movie (although I'm pretty sure they did some tweaking to Doctor Doom...), but if you're not a fan this won't make you one. It was a way to spend some time together with the kids, but that's about all it had going for it. McKenna of course loved it, so I suspect they have a target audience in young kids for any sequels they try to make.

Let's hear it for good bacteria. Sore throat is finally starting to wear off. Silly antibiotics killing off everything. Must remember to reintroduce good bacteria sooner. And Coke helps quite a bit with the sore throat as well.

Enjoy your weekend.

Riptide

Finished off the second of the three books by Preston and Child I snagged. Riptide was a fun little action novel. It was nice in that it didn't feature any characters (I think) from their other books. But it did feature some pirates and hidden treasure. I thought it started a touch slow, but it certainly kept my interest. Again, not exactly enriching literature, but certainly fun...

Now if I could just shake this sore throat.

CES is going on and most of the major tech/geek sites are following it pretty closely. It remains to be seen if there's anything of real interest coming from there. Apple may make a few interesting announcements.

Picked up Serenity yesterday. Still such a great movie. And not quite as shocking the second time through. Here's to hoping there are no double dips on that title.

Made some of those DIY paper bookmarks I linked to several posts back. Pretty fun little activity. Even managed to slap my own little saying on them.

The Grindstone

The year has turned, bringing us back to the routine that makes up our daily grind. Time for me to get back in the habit of jotting a few thoughts down here and passing along random links of varying interest.

Caught Matt briefly on 60 Minutes the other night when they did a piece on Burt Rutan. That was fun.

Enjoyed Where's My Cow?, Pratchett's companion children's book to Thud! Although I find it terribly strange that the cow is never found in the story. I'm pretty sure Thud! contained that particular event...

I'm becoming quite the fan of podcasts. The Audio Edition over at the Movie Blog is a favorite. I'm growing enamored of Diggnation. And there are a few others that are getting a trial run.

I meant to jot down a list of directors to look out for over the coming years. Let's see if I can remember who they are.

The Pang Brothers - The Eye sums them up. Wonderful horror tale I've covered here before. I believe they've got a new one coming out this year...

Doug Liman - Bourne Identity and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Possibly the new king of the action movie genre. Equal parts wit and style.

Stephen Chow - Kung Fu Hustle. If there's a movie that crosses more genre boundaries than this one I don't know what it is. I look forward to Chow's next effort.

Makoto Shinkai - Voices of a Distant Star and The Place Promised in Our Early Days. His first film was a testament to what one man can do with enough drive and determination. His second film showed that the beauty and emotion captured in Voices was no fluke.

Joss Whedon - Firefly. I'm not sure Wonder Woman will draw me to the theater, but there are few directors/writers that can nail dialogue and cast interaction like Whedon.

So there you go, a brief anticipatory list that even managed to look back a little. Welcome to 2006...

A couple quick and tasty links

Joss Whedon on the future of TV.

Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett fill in a few New Year's Resolutions.

Now go, read, laugh.