Let's see if I can string together some coherent thoughts

We've watched a couple more movies. The Men Who Stare at Goats was pretty good. Clooney and McGregor do a nice job and you really wonder just how much of that happened. I think I'll give the book a go.

The Vampire's Assistant was fun. Pay no attention to little sis's comment on that last post. Wasn't horrible, wasn't great, but it was fun. I liked the art style of the credits too. It's another one that suffers a little from being the first in a series, but not horribly so.

I've not yet seen Twilight: the Twilightening, mostly as lovely wife watched it without me. Something about a mock free environment and a lousy day and other assorted nonsense. Her initial report is that it followed the book. That doesn't bode well. I hope to endure watch it later this week. I did find a couple more let's mock Twilight links, but that shtick is getting a little old (except for me) so I won't point you to them.

I've got several books waiting in the wings almost done and almost started, so more on them later.

I suppose the big news from Casa del 'd' is that we finally joined the TV revolution and picked up a nice 42" Insignia HDTV. It's very pretty. In spite of the fact that we have little to no actual HD content running through it. Movies and games look quite amazing on the hardware we do have and TV is, well, TV. Lovely wife is a little annoyed at the reverse letterboxing TV goes through (it's a 4:3 ratio dear) but otherwise things are grand. It took a little too long to extricate the old tv from the entertainment center, move the other bits, put together the new stand, relocate the bits and hook up the TV but nothing is perfect. (And can I just say Silent Hill on the Wii is amazing now? I can read some of the text that was pretty illegible before and the graphics really are pretty good. Yay!)

G got to give his first oral report in preschool today and apparently managed to instruct the class on crocodiles pretty well. 5 facts delivered all by himself.

And now I have a long weekend to look forward to. Although there is a wedding to attend tomorrow...

In which you get several reviews

So, we did a whole lotta movie watching at Casa del 'd' last week. Here are the reports.

Moon was indeed brilliant. It really should have gotten some Oscar attention. I don't think I'll say too much about this one other than it was really good. Sam Rockwell gives an amazing performance and Kevin Spacey was quite good as well. (In fact his role was one of the nice little twists of the film, I was expecting something quite different out of him.) So, if you've not seen Moon and you consider yourself a sci-fi fan, go watch it now or turn in that badge buddy.

GI Joe was a bit of a surprise. Mostly in that I thought it was pretty good. For a dumb action flick. Which it is (both good and a dumb action flick). I didn't have any real expectations for this one going in so that might have helped. Also, I don't think I've ever seen such an action packed movie. Good grief this thing one was set piece after another. It did suffer some from trying to cram every back story it possibly could into the film, but otherwise it's pretty decent.

Law Abiding Citizen was good until the ending. It's a fairly typical we want you to root for the bad guy until the ending when we're going to let the good guy win sort of movie. They really should have just gone with the bad guy. Gerard Butler was a lot more fun in this movie than Jamie Foxx. I suppose part of the problem is they had no idea how to end it and let the bad guy win, but really... So, watch it up until the end and then pretend Butler gets away with it.

We also took in the most recent Celtic Woman concert on DVD. All I really have to say about this is they still have great voices, but they're really not very Celtic any more and that's a shame. That was the bit I liked about them. And really, when it's in the name of your group, maybe you should focus on it some.

And this brings me to Blood Oath by Christopher Farnsworth. I think the first thing I should mention is that this was an advance readers copy. What caught my attention was the tag line for the book: The Ultimate Secret, The Ultimate Agent, The President's Vampire. (And really the book should have gone with The President's Vampire as the title, I get why he chose Blood Oath, but the other is a little more fun.) The next thing I should point out is that this is very much the first book in a series - while the main plot does wind up, there are a slew of loose plot/character threads. And while I suppose it's not really that big a deal, it is a little frustrating. But having said all that the book is a lot of fun. There are several sly references in the book (if you're a horror buff) to things like Night of the Living Dead and the Vampire/Werewolf feud so that's a plus. It's also quite readable, a nice page turner sort of book. And it certainly beats the glitter off Twilight. Even lovely wife enjoyed this one (in fact she read it before I did - saw it when I brought it home and practically ripped the thing out of my hands). It's a little silly, a little gross and a good read. Farnsworth even manages to mostly leave vampires alone. Most of the "changes" he makes get explained in terms of old vampire lore. I'll have to take his word for it. I remember most of the references, so it's probably pretty close.

I also finished off that third volume of Hellboy. And it was great. It's Hellboy, of course it's great.

And I think that's all the stories I have for now. Next up are viewings of The Vampire's Assistant and New Moon. Three guesses which is the better vampire flick...

In which I wax Parental and a few other things

I was listening to Radio Free Burrito the other day (Wil Wheaton's podcast) and he was relating a story about his son and those times when you recognize parts of yourself in your kids. And that got me to thinking a little bit about my own kids and some of the experiences we had this week and so, for a Very Special entry here on letter 'd', I thought I'd take a very brief moment to relate said experiences. And then add in some of my usual ramblings. Feel free to skip to the end.

Anybody who has spent any amount of time on this blog knows that I am a gamer. I have been for a long, long, long time. (Longer than that) And while my current habits trend relatively highly to board games I spent years fascinated with video games. (I enjoyed board games while younger but it was the flashing lights and chiptunes that really held sway in my soul.) I never owned any sort of gaming console while growing up, but I had friends that had them and I also grew up during the glory years of the local arcade. And we had a pretty nice one for a small town. I relay this mostly to say that there is some bit (or byte) of gaming in my genes. It probably distilled from the engineer in my Dad into a techie geeky gamery goodness in me. And I have managed to pass that along quite nicely to G.

It's a little amusing to me to see just how deeply gaming is ingrained into G. We occasionally tried to get the girls into gaming as a family with things like Mariokart and so on but it never really took. They are the epitome of casual gamer, but G is a gamer in his very soul. And I find myself in the odd position of trying to nip some of it in the bud. Mostly because he's still so young. I don't want him to spend all day playing Link or Smasher Brothers or Little Link. So we had to sit him down the other day and try to explain that really, one game a day was going to have to be enough. You could see the wheels turning in his head, "One game? How is it possible to play only one?" And then there was the chin quiver and little tears. Truly it was quite the sight to behold. The gamer in me rallied to his cry, but silently and as parents we held the line. 30 minutes a day kiddo - you can break it up into smaller pieces if you want to play a couple, but that's all you get. If you help around the house or do something extra nice you might earn a few more minutes, but that's it. And that includes playing New Super Mario Bros. with us.

Truly a sad day in his little gamer soul. But hopefully he will use some of his new found free time on things like books and cars and terrorizing the neighborhood. He seems pretty good at that too. And it was pretty nice to see that bit of me reflected in his eyes. One game?! Indeed.

McK is starting to weave her teenager cocoon. It won't be long now and we will be faced with this pod person that we thought we knew that looks like her in some respects, but acts nothing like her. Lovely wife got her first real glimpse the other morning while trying to get laundry ready and the kids out the door for school. McK decided that she really needed to wear the exact same shirt from the day before and lovely wife had to convince her otherwise. Apparently World War III will be started over an argument concerning a shirt from the day before. I don't think science fiction has accounted for this yet. Anyway there was a nuclear meltdown and words exchanged in a less than civil manner and ultimately lovely wife resorted to some shock therapy. And once she left the room McK decided to take matters out on poor M caught in the crossfire. Lovely wife reasserted with McK that this too was unacceptable and nuclear winter settled in. Now at this point in the story you're probably wondering why I'm bothering to tell it. Other people's kids are at most cute at the best of times and typically awful the rest of the time. No the point of the story occurred after school. McK came home and all on her own apologized to lovely wife. Apparently at some point during the school day the haze of chemicals starting to course through her brain cleared some and she realized that she had made a mistake.

And she owned up to it. Truly a moment to be latched on to in what will be years of head banging, eye rolling, mind numbing teenager. It's good to know that in there somewhere is a kid that knows better and will do the right thing. I blame lovely wife. I'm pretty sure I'm not to blame for her good behavior...

Alas, I don't really have a story about M. She's pretty good at blending into the background of our lives. A little chameleon she is. Devious. But at least always willing to try new things. She discovered asparagus this week as we had some for dinner. She and G (and lovely wife for that matter) found a new vegetable they liked. Mmm. Asparagus.

So. Enough of that. On to important things. I'm currently working through Volume 3 of the Library Edition of Hellboy. And it is delightful. I'd like to frame some of this stuff and put it on the wall. I'm almost through Blood Oath. Expect a report soon.

We watched Zombieland again last week and it was still brilliant. This week we'll watch Moon and a couple others. I'm very excited for Moon.

I should also point out that I managed to catch a glimpse of the last level of Shiren. And then I died. So back to the drawing board. I will get this sorted...

And I think that about wraps it up. Go check out The Sound Test. It's great.

A little of this, a little of that

I managed to finish another Dune audiobook over my commute. This time it was Children of Dune, the third book in the series. I believe I read somewhere that Frank Herbert conceived of these three books as one story. And there is certainly evidence of that. And hooks to the stories that are yet to come. I liked this one for the most part. It does contain the beginning of the transformation of young Leto II into a sandworm. And it is a little odd, but it's Dune, so really, I guess not that odd. This time around we focus on Ghanima (I believe is how her name is spelled, audiobook yo) and Leto II, Paul Atreides's children (the titular Kids O' Dune) as they try to stay alive long enough to rule the Universe. Alia, Paul's sister has become possessed by their old arch enemy Baron Harkonnen and their Grandmother has designs of her own. Well, the sisterhood's designs. So intrigue, clones, worms, Fremen. Pretty typical stuff for the series. I have reached the point at which I may or may not continue forward. I'm just not sure I'm ready for a Sandworm ruler and several Duncan Idaho clones and whatever else happens...

We've just about finished off season the first of X-Files. Still good. A couple missteps, but not too bad.

I'm not entirely certain which rule of the Universe it is, but it's the one that goes to the effect of: Your kids will be better at videogames than you are. Oh sure, there are certain games that you'll win, but when it comes to those visceral games that involve combat and so on, prepare to have your ego stomped on. Lovely wife picked up the Monster Hunter Tri demo from Gamestop for me. I didn't know much about the series other than it was sort of an MMO lite for consoles. You can get a party of 4 people together and then go fight giant dinosaurs. It's basically all boss battles combined with the opportunity to make your own gear from the poor creatures you've just eviscerated. Mmm, Dino armor. It sounded interesting and I wanted to give it a try. So far I have yet to beat the easy sample quest. I am... not good at this game. I knew it took some time to get used to the controls and how the weapons work and so on. In fact there's very little in the way of instruction. But I still have yet to have things click. I've gotten close (switching to the classic controller helped) but no dead Dino.

And then I gave the controller to G. He just about killed the critter on his first attempt. Even M seems to have some better luck than I do. I guess I'm over thinking things. Apparently I need to jump up and down and just wail away at the thing. Huh. Who knew...

Woke up in the Inn at the beginning of the trail again. I've lost count of how many times this has happened. But I decided this would be the last. It was time to get the big sword out of storage. And the good shield. I had spent time on their craftsmanship. They wouldn't rust (accursed Slime creatures) and they were very sturdy. And sharp. Mustn't forget sharp. I found my comrades wandering the wilderness like always. Oryu agreed to come along. This time we'd make it to the top of Table Mountain.

And things were going well, I had plenty of food and had acquired a few artifacts of power guaranteed to help me make it to the top. But then I stepped into the Monster House. Traps. Monsters. Treasure. I got greedy. And I knew that if I didn't pull my weight in the fight Oryu would wind up dead and some creature suddenly more powerful would find me. So I waded in, used a scroll to put the room to sleep and then promptly stepped on a sleep trap. There went half my time. Even the Blastwave scroll failed to fell all the monsters. And suddenly one of the chain heads that had fed off one of the other creatures in the room felled poor Oryu. And turned my way, impossibly stronger. Worse it was between me and the door. My Mastersword +9 cut into it's flesh, but to no avail. It was too strong. And I knew that stepping into this room had been a mistake.

I woke up in the Inn again. No money. No weapons. No food. At least I still had Koppa. Although he's starting to get this look.

As you can tell I've yet to reach the top of Table Mountain in Shiren. But I'll get there. Oh I'll get there...

Girls have almost delivered all their GS cookies. Soon the house will return to normal. Boxes no longer overshadowing the living room. And McK had her welcome to the Junior High night. She was only a little excited to go. She only dragged lovely wife out the door in about 3 seconds instead of 2.

In which I read some, watch an old TV series and die some more

I finished Black Rain by Graham Brown. It's one part Congo, one part The Lost City of Z and a few bits of other things thrown in for good measure. It was a fun read and I'd recommend it. There's just something about those lost civilization stories that I enjoy. The letter 'r' goes for the apocalypse (and really they're good too) but I like lost cities. Especially with creepy things thrown in. This one has it's own brand of monstrosity (not super creepy but effective) to deal with. The ending is a little silly (mostly a plug for the sequel) but mostly forgivable since the rest of the story was good.

I also finished volume 7 of 20th Century Boys. Which was frustrating. Mostly because a plot element I'm really interested in was just about to be talked about and then the book ended. And given the time jump nature of the series, I can't be sure the next volume will actually answer those questions. Gaahhh! But so so good. I really like this series.

Lovely wife and I have been watching season one of The X-Files. Oddly I don't know that I ever actually saw the first season. Some of the stories seem familiar and I probably have seen them, but there are just as many that I know are new. It's really good. Too bad the rest of the series didn't live up to the first season. I like the broad paranormal aspect that they pretty much left in favor of all the alien story lines. Oh well.

I've managed to make it a little further in Shiren the Wanderer, but then I died. I think I'm going to have to spend the next few trips out building up a decent sword and possibly a shield. And maybe find some armbands. I forget exactly which critter done me in last go round, but I'm sure it was tough. Now if I can just get rid of the fluffy bunnies... (What?! They're vicious. Mostly because they keep healing the monsters you're trying to kill. And then they teleport away. Evil things I tell you!)

And that's about all the news I've got. The kids keep trying to grow up. G has been registered for Kindergarten and McK has been registered for Junior High. I'm pretty sure that makes me old. Older than I'd care to admit at any rate.