Crude, cruel and canny

Beat the Band by Don Calame is a decent example of teen boy humor. It's mostly crude (and funny) with moments of lucidity occasionally making their way through. This is a sequel to a book called Swim the Fly. I've not read that one, although I might have to go back and give it a go. I liked Beat the Band a fair amount. Well, I was a teenage boy at one point. Some would probably argue that I still am. They are mostly mistaken.

The first book (from a brief synopsis at the beginning of this one) dealt with three friends trying to see their first real naked girl. And something about the swim team. This go round they're trying to up the stakes a bit and score with the opposite sex. Well, that's the plan anyway. The actual story revolves around a forced Health Class project in which Coop (the ringleader of this band of misfits) is paired up with the one girl in his class he sees as kryptonite to his image and thus anathema to his goal. So he decides to enroll in the Battle of the Bands with his buds to save his image. And if you don't know where the rest of the story goes, then you're probably a teenager and reading this sort of story for the first time.

So, sure, the plot isn't striking any new ground, but it is funny and there's a reason this tale gets told over and over. Calame does a good job with it. (Which is why I may go back and give Swim the Fly a go.) If you can stomach putting yourself in the mind of a teenage boy for a couple hundred pages or so I say give it a shot.

Currently I'm reading Mockingjay. I'm about halfway through. So no spoiling the ending. Well, more than I've already spoiled it for myself. Heh. I've heard good things about this one, so I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.

Ubongo continues to be popular around Casa del 'd'. We've also tried a new one called Dice Town. Everybody has a set of 5 dice with cards for sides (representing 9 - Ace) which get rolled and set aside one at a time (unless you're willing to part with some of your limited cash supply) as they try to build a poker hand. Once one person has built a hand, everyone else has one roll to finish theirs off. And then you go around determining which player gets to take advantage of which parts of the town. Nines let you claim nuggets from the gold mine (points at the end), tens let you rob the bank and thus gain some money back, Jacks let you draw a card that may help later, Queens let you steal cards from another player, Kings let you become Sherriff (you can break ties and take bribes) and the best poker hand lets you claim property (also worth points), with Aces snagging you an extra card or two.

So you spend time seeing what your opponents are working towards and what you need to stay in the game. It's a fascinating little experiment in bluffing and group psychology. Oh and if you manage not to win anything with the dice you rolled you can visit Doc Badluck and take advantage of the opportunities he provides. We've played it with the kids and it sort of works, you really need to be able to recognize some basic poker hands - pairs, straights, full house and so on, but it is pretty fun with a group capable of working all the angles. I think the best part is that even if you're losing the overall battle, you still have little victories as you roll the sort of hand you want and steal cards from your friends or manage to sweep the property available and so on. Worth checking out.

Shutter Island was ... ok I guess. It's another one where the ending was pretty obvious. Some of the journey there was interesting and there are some truly nifty visual effects that help tell the story, but overall just kind of meh.

Big Bang Theory season 2 is pretty hilarious so far.

And on a final note the kids are back in school. Well, G starts next week. But that means it's just about the best season of all. Pretty soon no more mowing and the banishing of the heat and all things wonderful about this time of year. Yeah!

In which there are puzzles and rain

M received Ubongo from us for her birthday. It's like a competitive tetris/tangrams game. You each get 12 tetris type shapes and a puzzle board. A die is rolled that lets you know which three (or four) pieces you will use to assemble the shape depicted on the board. You then have a very brief window of time in which to assemble the puzzle. If you manage it, you can collect two gems from the score track. At the end (9 rounds, different board for each round) the person with the most gems of a single color is the winner. (You can move across the columns of the score track depending on how quickly you finish the puzzle thus helping you to get gems of the color you want). It's fast and also pretty fun. Some of the puzzles are fiendishly difficult. And others not so. It's also pretty easy to adjust the difficulty so that everyone has a chance. Make the grown ups solve the 4 piece puzzles while the kids do the 3 piece offerings. Remove the timer for younger players (an option I think I'll try with G next time) and so on. There are several versions of Ubongo as well in case you need more puzzles.

Other than that M had a lovely birthday and managed to mostly avoid the rain we've had on and off for several days. There was a traditional pool party and some mu shu pork and a whopper pie. An we were glad for an opportunity to spend the day together. Happy birthday M!

Lovely wife has managed to get the kids geared up for school (next week! woo hoo!). Other than that things have been almost quiet at casa del 'd'. I've even manged to not read a ton of books. I'm going to give Last Apprentice a bit of a break so that I don't wear myself out on the series. I suspect I'll get book four in the next couple of weeks though. I have instead opted to collect all 120 stars in Super Mario Galaxy 2 which of course just opens the next 120. I think I will also take a break from that prior to hunting for them. I think I liked the first Mario Galaxy a touch more. Mostly because it forced you to progress through the "story" (such as it was) before going back for all the extra stuff. The second one let you do the extra stuff almost from the get go. And the completist in me wouldn't let me go ahead before I had it all. So aspects of it were more work than fun. It's not entirely the game's fault, but I liked that aspect of the initial game better. The second one certainly has some pretty amazing levels and fun game play, just like the first.

Scott Pilgrim!

The movie was awesome. I don't really have much more to say about it. I am contemplating going back and seeing it again. Truly great. Possibly more gushing later.

In which I wait for Saturday

Ok, technically Scott Pilgrim opens tomorrow. The letter 'r' and I will be going on Saturday. And I cannot wait. I did manage to read volume 6 (Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour) however. And it was good. It does a good job of tying up the series and I really enjoyed some of the little bits found in it. (Young Neil's moment and the updating of Wikipedia were two of them.) The art was really polished in this volume and it was a nice way to see the series out. So go read them all and then go see the movie. I'm sure it will be brilliant.

The Night of the Soul Stealer is the third Last Apprentice book. I enjoyed it more than the second one, so that's good. Not that the second one was bad, I just liked this one more. It's winter in the County and a necromancer is up to no good. So Tom and the Spook have their work cut out for them. I like this series, it's nice that there's a spooky series for the kids. (And their parents)

Got to see little sis and their family this week. I think their youngest (for the time being) looks like littlest sis. Which given the similarities between the two of them while growing up isn't really surprising. (Little sis and littlest sis that is) G had a grand time playing with his cousins and I got a chance to check out the iPad. Clever little device that is. It was good to see them.

The House of the Devil is a throwback to horror films from the 70s and 80s. It's a slow burn and I liked it. Lovely wife and little sis were not as impressed. I have a theory that the film is better if you're steeped in that sort of thing. Ti West did an amazing job of recreating the films of that period. It takes it's time building up with just the right amount of tension before descending into the frenzied final act. I think K needs to watch this and report her findings. I will admit that I found the ending to be a little off, but that's just because I wasn't really expecting that twist/nod.

We managed to have another boardgame weekend with friends last Saturday. We enjoyed some Forbidden Island (it sank just before we could claim victory), some 10 Days in Europe (I traveled the continent better than my peers), a little Incan Gold and some Galaxy Trucker (you should have seen the wasteland that was left at the end of the third round - all four of us were wiped out before reaching the end of the journey). It was a great time and we are in preparations for the next 'd'Con in November.

Scott Pilgrim

Go make yours...

If you don't know by now, you're new here

The Faceless Ones by Derek Landy is the third Skulduggery Pleasant book. This means that by default it is awesome. And it is. It's also a bit of a cliffhanger. Now, the fourth book is already out and the fifth book is about to come out. In Britain. For some bizarre reason they're not available here yet. Maybe they're stuck on the translation or something. At any rate, just know that if you've read the first two, of course you want to read this one and if you haven't go start with them. There are certainly some interesting questions raised (just what is going on with Valkyrie's reflection anyway?) this go round. They really better get those other two books over here pronto.

Girl Parts by John Cusick was slightly misleading. It looks like your typical boy gets girl robot, other boy bonds with girl robot, hijinks ensue sorta book. And there are certainly shades of that. I just expected more hijinks/hilarity. Instead this one focuses slightly more on having meaning. (Which isn't to say there isn't meaning in the other sort, it's just better camouflaged.) So it loses a couple points for that. And the ending was a little too abrupt. More points for that. I suppose it does say good things that I'd have liked more story, but with what you get it's really only a partial recommend.

20th Century Boys vol 9 continues the streak of awesomeness. Still really enjoying this series. That is all.

We watched the new Sherlock Holmes the other day. It was alright. Mostly it made me want to watch Young Sherlock Holmes again. I'm not entirely certain why. I really liked Jude Law as Watson, in some ways he seemed to outshine Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes. Which is a little impressive as I considered that pretty inspired casting. I'd watch another film with the two of them though, so that's alright then.

I believe I've mentioned Canabalt before. If not it's an addictive little flash game, that yeah, they made an app of. The team behind that has just updated Gravity Hook. Both are "just one more try" compulsive fun. And you can play them for free online. Or go buy the app if you're so inclined. Oh and Canabalt is available as a portable app for your thumb drive. Hopefully Gravity Hook shows up there as well.

We have had some lovely thunderstorms these last couple days. Even some hail. It has kept me from mowing the lawn (a mixed blessing if ever there was one) but otherwise has been quite nice. I miss thunderstorms.

And slowly the summer draws to a close. It's time to start gearing the kids up for school. Ah school season. My favorite season. Well, ok, really it's Fall, but you get the idea.