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.