Take a breath

Well.

Yes.

Lost Cities is brief gaming brilliance. It's a two player card game that plays quickly and yet involves some decent strategy. Can you get those last few cards played before your opponent exhausts the draw pile? Do you feel lucky punk? Well do you? Surprising amount of tension in a deceptively simple mechanic. Snag a copy.

Penny Dreadful was just that. Dreadful. That movie should have ended when the trunk was closed the second time.

Read all the Jesse Stone novels as well as the Dexter novels. All recommended. Dexter in particular.

The kids are gearing up for Halloween and then it's a dinosaur birthday for wee Graeme. Looking forward to that.

Managed a game of Arkham Horror the other day. Lost and the world was devoured. Poor world.

Well hello there

This quarter's update brought to you by the number 3. As in yeah, three months. Huh. Who'da thunk?

So, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Great book. Nice ending to the series and all that. I'm sad to see it end, but what a way to go. There were some niggly bits, sure, but over all quite the ride. I'll not say too much here as it is still pretty new, but the wife and I both enjoyed it.

Ran through The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan as well. Nice little story. Makes you want to go read Greek Mythology. Speaking of which, I've managed to aquire a nice copy of Bulfinch's Mythology courtesy of some friends of ours in Colorado. Yay.

Saw the fifth HP movie. It did a good job of hitting the highlights from the book. Some good moments, some ok moments. Luna was an inspired casting choice. Absolutely perfect.

Have I mentioned that Hey! That's My Fish is a rather fun little game? Well it is. I'm looking at possibly snagging a copy of Runebound at the moment. I have a bit of a fantasy itch that I'm hoping that will scratch. Speaking at least indirectly of boardgames, Pulp Gamer is a pretty good podcast for those interested in games of the table top variety.

The latest episode of Escape Pod, Conversations With and About My Electric Toothbrush was quite amusing. One of the better stories in a while.

Gee, so many random things to cover, so little that actually matters. We had a lovely trip to Texas to see the folks. Got to shoot off lots of exciting fireworks. Saw the Star Wars exhibit at the Science Museum. That was pretty nifty. So many fun models and a hover chair/car thing to ride. Nice.

Now to go track down a copy of Behind the Mask.

Hey

Wow, it's been a while.

Saw Hot Fuzz and it was indeed enjoyable. I've no idea what else I've seen and read in the interim. Rest assured that it was great. Or it wasn't.

It's been so long I'm terribly rusty at this. Serves me right I suppose. I've run across a few new podcasts, most dealing with games of the board/card variety. Pulp Gamer and Have Games Will Travel are the notable ones. I rather enjoy Pulp Gamer.

Picked up Planet Puzzle League for the wife. She won't put it down which is a pretty good sign. And when she does I do my best to sneak off with it myself. I now see blocks that I have to shift around whenever I close my eyes. Yeah, it's a little maddening.

Anyway, must wander off. Shall attempt to update for real at some point in the not too distant future.

Friday

Managed to finish off Fragile Things. An enjoyable collection of short stories indeed. I really liked the American Gods novella, Monarch of the Glen and the poem, Instructions. Which, now that I think about it, I've probably mentioned far too many times.

It'll be on to World War Z next.

Tomorrow I'm planning on catching Hot Fuzz and I'm very excited about that. I loved Shaun of the Dead and figure this will be a fun take on the action genre.

The wife and I have become quite enamored of Ninja Warrior on G4. It's a weakness. But what can you do? Go Nagano!!!

On a slightly ninja related note, Mur Lafferty has the cover story over at The Escapist this week. Well, ok for another couple days at any rate. This might be a permanent link to the story. Go Cthuloids! And I shed a tear for the poor ninjas. They deserve their moment in the sun. Or shadows rather.

Picked up Super Paper Mario the other day. But I'm trying to be good and finish Zelda prior to starting it. Well in earnest at any rate. The initial level was quite good.

I really did have something else to mention here. Oh well. I think I'll go play some Gang of Four online. I'm dkun if you play.

Night Owl

I have no idea why I'm writing this. Other than it gives me something to do. That and I feel like I should be writing more. Got out of the habit there for quite a while.

I started thumbing through I'm Just Here for the Food 2.0. It's a fun and interesting book. It makes me want to spend money on cooking implements and then try (badly) to make interesting dishes. I like food. I even like making food (although I don't do it very often). The Food Network (and Alton Brown in particular) is rapidly becoming an overwhelming force in my life.

I managed to find a copy of Gang of Four. What a fun game. The in-laws were here recently and several nights were spent playing it. Fortunately it plays well with three people also as we rarely have four. The online version is nice as well. If nothing else I may be able to pick up some strategy there.

Well, I believe this is enough words to soothe the writing monkey on my back at the moment. While there's nothing profound here, it at least exists. And at the moment that's all that matters.

Couple reviews

Gil's All Fright Diner is good. The Departed isn't. What you want something a little more in depth? Ingrates.

Gil's All Fright Diner is a nice horror/comedy book. Take a little Lovecraft and mix in, well, not quite Pratchett, but almost someone along those lines and there you go. It's a blast to read and I found myself laughing out loud at several points.

The Departed just left a lot to be desired. Jack Nicholson was great, but that's about it. Well and Mark Wahlberg (have I mentioned that Shooter was good?). I will admit that a good deal of my "less than impressed" comes from having seen Infernal Affairs. So a lot of the tension was missing due to knowledge of the plot, but I don't think Scorsese did all that great a job of ratcheting it up in the first place. I could go on about a few other dislikes, but I don't really feel like giving this movie that much attention.

I do want to see Infernal Affairs 2 and 3 though...

This Film is Not Yet Rated was interesting, but I only sort of agreed with it.

I suspect World War Z is up to bat next, although I really need to finish Fragile Things.

And I'm sad that Gunslinger Girl seems to have wrapped up its run on IFC.

So that should tide you lot over for a bit. I suspect there's plenty to cover coming up. Who knows. There might even be cute kid stories. I'm working on Graeme's zombie and Godzilla impressions.

Crichton

So, I made myself finish Next by Michael Crichton. I'm not sure why I did that to myself. I used to like Crichton, his books could be counted on for some fun reading that blurred the lines between fiction and non-fiction. These days, you can still see some of the compelling writing style, but it's bogged down in far too much politics and agenda pushing. The best thing I can say about Next is that I really liked Gerard, the transgenic parrot. And honestly that's about it. I really didn't like most of the characters (and Crichton must not have either given half their fates) and there really wasn't a plot. The book was almost a series of essays. Which was certainly one of the biggest problems - far too many characters. Oh well. I'm not going to spend any more time talking about this book. It doesn't deserve it.

We picked up some Motorola phones for the house on clearance. They're very cool. That is all. (They have been named Odin and Loki for no good reason at all...)

At any rate, I may go watch Casino Royale as I snagged a copy this afternoon. I really wanted the cool poker chip Circuit City was offering but settled for the Aston Martin car Best Buy was doling out. Mostly because Best Buy was closer and I didn't know if Circuit City still had any left.

And I need to track down a copy of Gang of Four.

Squeak Squeak AAAAaaaa

This is awesome.

500

So, somehow this is post 500. And to celebrate I'm going to do absolutely nothing. But possibly waste some words. I should be out of town right now, possibly shooting some clay pigeons and other assorted acts of random and possibly not so violence.

Alas, the office had other plans. Gotta love deadlines and high priority projects.

Anyway. I would be more bitter, but that would take a little too much effort. So I shall instead look for a silver lining and enjoy the fact that at the moment the house is terribly quiet. Well except for the sounds of me fumbling around on the keyboard. So yes. Quiet. It's a rather nice quiet at the moment. An all too rare quiet. But it will morph later into that depressing, hey where is everybody quiet. Why no, I don't miss the wife and kids at all. Why do you ask? But they left the dog. Meanies.

At any rate, I can catch up on some reading, play through some more Prince of Persia and create some Mii friends. Or something. If luck is with me I may still end up out of town, but at the moment I'm not holding my breath.

So happy 500.

Everybody Votes

I've decided that Nintendo's online strategy has nothing to do with games. And you know what? I think they might be on to something. Every couple times that I turn the Wii on it has nothing to do with playing games. It has to do with checking the weather channel (OK, it's a couple hours old usually and more specific to SLC, but it's a guideline) or checking the headlines. I've kept up with the news more since the News Channel showed up than pretty much ever else in my life. And now we have the Everybody Votes channel. Sure it's quirky, but that's the point. It's fun. And people will vote. And vote on how they think the voting will go. And so on. Nintendo is building a sense of online community. And despite the friend code hurdles, it works.

I can send my sister photos. Especially photos that have been drawn on. I can trade trash talk with my friend over Zelda times. And I do. And that's not even getting into the whole Mii concept...

At any rate, the more time I spend with the Wii, the more impressed I become. Nintendo really does have a plan for this system and it's more than just games. And that's cool.

Alton Brown

So we got DirecTV about a month ago. Since then AMC is my new friend and the Food Network has pretty much taken up permanent residence as the channel du jour. And the main reason for that is Alton Brown. I find his shows (particularly Good Eats) to be fascinating and funny and several other words that feature fs. I suspect I'm going to have to hunt down a few of his books. If they're anything like his shows, then they'll be interesting to read in addition to full of yummy things. He's joined my list of people that I'd love to have dinner with some time.

Daughter number one has become enamored of Iron Chef America. Partially due to the aforementioned Alton, but mostly because of the concept of the show - making foods featuring some ingredient. I remember iteration one of the show (featuring William Shatner). Glad to see it's back in a rather improved manner.

I've been reading through Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman. Always fun to read things by him. This collection (so far) doesn't disappoint. I really need a poster of the piece Instructions (which I thought I had bookmarked somewhere, but I can't seem to locate, so you'll have to track it down on your own (actually it's probably lost in the archives of this blog somewhere - poor thing)).

So many movies that I want to see, so few that I'll probably get around to seeing. I am terribly saddened that Norbit was number one at the box office this weekend. Words really fail to describe. For shame America. Seriously.

And you've probably seen it (it's made its way around the internet and back a few times by now) but I've finally become enamored of xkcd. I won't pretend to understand it all the time - math and I rarely get along - but I have enough nerd cred (geek cred will only get you so far with this comic) that the rest of the time it's hilarious. So check it out. And make sure you pay attention to the image rollover text, otherwise you're missing half the fun.

At any rate, the kids are now in bed and my wife is inexplicably watching a dog show. This situation must not remain unchecked...

Pranking through the internet

Pay no attention, not a real post. Mostly an attempt to help Neil Gaiman prank Penn Jillette.

Wii!

I don't think I've really spoken about Nintendo's new console yet. Other than to mention that the girls wandered over the house to look for it on Christmas. It's quite the little system. I've had fun making Miis of The Doctor from the new Dr. Who as well as assorted family members. Zelda is Zelda, so there's not much to say there. I think the big surprise at the moment is just how fun sports games can be. You've probably heard about Wii Sports, the pack-in game. And it's true that it's a lot of fun. We enjoy us some baseball and some bowling around here. But the big winner for me is Super Swing Golf. I've always enjoyed golf games, but they get a little old (and a little frustrating) at a certain point. Super Swing Golf has managed to hold onto the fun specifically because of the Wii. Using the controller as a golf club is brilliant. I could literally play this game all day.

The kids like Rayman Raving Rabbids which is a collection of mini games that utilize the wii-mote in various ways. Some of them are indeed pretty fun, but there are certainly some frustrating bits thrown in as well.

Just about wrapped up the Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks. It's been fun. Looking forward to World War Z next. Ah the joys of the zombie...

virtual break

Have I rambled on about Ticket to Ride: Marklin yet? If not, I regret the oversight. It was the boardgame we picked up for the family this Christmas. And a rather enjoyable game it is. Apparently Days of Wonder has a design philosophy that entails simple instructions, set up and game play. Note that that does not mean simplistic - there's quite a bit of strategy involved. I will mention that the rules can be a little fuzzy, but the forums over at Days of Wonder help clarify any questions you might have.

Basically, you're claiming train routes in Germany in order to connect destinations that you've drawn. You can also send passengers over the routes you've set up. There's quite a bit of tension as every player cannot connect the same routes and as you try to link cities you may find yourself having to go the long way around. The game itself is rather pretty and the pieces are all high quality. (Although the point tokens that get placed on the cities could stand to be a bit bigger.) My wife and I have enjoyed several games against each other and it's been received pretty well by those we've introduced it to. If you like strategy board games (think Settlers of Catan and so on) then this one is a no brainer.

My wife would like me to point out that total chaos is going on in the background (which is why I chose the title I did - I was attempting to tune it out to no avail). I've no idea what we've been feeding the little monsters lately, but apparently we need to switch to moldy bread and stagnant water...

new year new clutter

So we're trying out a new ISP. Things seem to be working so far. Although I really hate updating e-mail addresses. And we also acquired DirecTV. Channels... <insert Homer drooling sound here>

Anyway, consider this a test post of sorts. It took me long enough to be able to move things around.

And a one, and a two

So, here we are, whole new year and all of that. We had a thoroughly enjoyable Christmas in Casa del D. The kids were sent on a scavenger hunt by Santa that culminated in the Nintendo Wii. They got quite the kick out of that. It's every bit as fun as you've heard, and I was pretty sore for those first couple days as my muscles got quite the workout from baseball and bowling and boxing and so on.

Night at the Museum was a lot of fun. The kids also got a kick out of that. We spent the hours leading up to the New Year last night watching Sci Fi channel's The Lost Room. Also an enjoyable show. Although the ending was a little weak.

Been reading some Anne Perry lately. Quite good. Reminds me a bit of Scotland.

Anyway, here's to a grand new year. Hope this finds you and yours well.