No new tales to tell

Apparently, out here at any rate, the coverage of Earthquake '11 was handled by the MadTV crew. Lovely wife said it consisted of one sad chandelier swaying gently as if stirred by some otherworldly breeze. Her Dad managed to survive the ordeal, simply mourning the fact that he had to pick up a book that had fallen off the microwave. I suspect that was more fraught with danger than the earthquake. The letter 'r' did pass along a lovely commemorative photo.

13 Assassins is the best samurai period piece featuring a village of death and bulls on fire. And if that doesn't convince you to watch it then nothing I can say will.

So, school has started back up and the kids are now safely ensconced all day. I have not noticed an increase in either cats or baked goods, so lovely wife must still be awestruck by it all.

A local toy store was having a "store relocating at some point in the future" sale, so I took advantage of a nice 30% discount and picked up Rivals of Catan - a 2 player card game version of Settlers of Catan. It's actually really nice. I like the mechanics of the game and the way that the various resources are handled. There's a base version to introduce you to the way things work, three theme decks to add different types of play and a final no holds barred use everything you've got variant. So that's nice. It would be nice if more people could play it, but it is a really nice 2 player game. It captures the Catan feel quite nicely.

Not really much else to say. My sisters apparently think running is a bright idea and are training for a couple 5ks. On the one hand I wish them luck. On the other, they're nuts. But that's ok, someone in the family needs to be and I'm glad to be able to let them handle that. I have actually managed to exercise some lately, but not really in significant enough quantities to achieve anything other than a lack of sleep. Which is also partly why I've not been able to get a lot of exercise in. 5:00 AM arrives early enough as it is.

The short version

Ok, I have now had Blogger eat a post. There was a rather lengthy (for me) discussion of the far too many books I'm currently reading, a couple movies we've seen and M's birthday party. I am not up to typing it in again and I can't seem to find it in my history. Bad Blogger! Here are the highlights. Sorry.

Wireless - short story collection by Charles Stross. Features one story in the Laundry universe (Hi Bob) and other sci fi confections. I liked it.

Rule 34 - Stross's new novel. May not get finished. Like the big picture plot, not crazy about the details.

The Magician King - sequel to Lev Grossman's The Magicians. It's brilliant so far.

Feed (Mira Grant version this time!), Monstrumologist, White Devil, Ready Player One all waiting in the wings and chomping at the bit to be read. Too many books all at once. And this from the guy at the Library. Yes. Stereotype or Irony or whatever you prefer.

Insidious - from the guys that brought you Paranormal Activity. I liked it, lovely wife refused to watch it based on the trailer. She missed out. In spite of being three horror movies shoved into one, it worked.

True Grit - quite good. Nice acting/storytelling, breathtaking landscapes and cinematography.

M's birthday party - Letter 'd' does not pretend to understand the minds of several tween girls, but in spite of the karaoke on the PS3 they seemed to have a good time. Why would they do that to the poor PS3? Also, who let M turn 10? I do not approve of this.

And I think that catches me up to where I was. Sorry for the lack of detail.

Portal's Lament

So the lovely wife and I have Saved Science. Yes, the capitals are important. Which on the one hand is good - we completed the co-op campaign in Portal 2 and it was suitably brilliant. But on the other that means there are no more puzzles to do. And that is bad. I may have to play through it again to try and snag some of the trophies I missed and actually the commentary track was interesting, so I might do that too. I have heard that there should be some more content soon, so here's to hoping. Also, I need one of these. And I wouldn't mind a few Portal related bits of fun.

At the Library we send out notices to let people know they have overdue books. Quite a few of them come back undelivered as people have moved and so on. I got one in yesterday that had a large amount of handwriting on it informing us that the person was no longer there. And that we should try looking in Hell. They did express sorrow that we were cheated out of a book (most likely How to Live on the Streets and Steal from Other People). And then offered a couple suggestions on where else to look. It was quite amusing.

Also Dad has informed me that he tried his best to set himself on fire at work the other day. He is now distinctly lacking in body hair. I told him I did not recommend that course of action. Actually I think I said things more along the lines of "OHMIGOSH ARE YOU OK?" I suspect they get to reset their days without an accident counter... Fortunately he got away with a only couple first degree burns.

We had a lovely game day on Saturday. There was lots of yummy food and several games were played. I managed a rather stunning victory in Dominion as I tried out a chapel deck. It's an interesting strategy alright. Lovely wife proved to be quite the racer at Pitchcar and we managed to eke out a photo finish victory on Forbidden Island. (Honestly the movie version of that game would have been amazing - the heroes lifting off from the Island as the last bits of land sank into the ocean - truly epic.) I really enjoy game days. I think we're going to make some bleach shirts for DruCon this year.

What passes for normal

I read MT Anderson's Feed by mistake. Sort of. I meant to read it some time ago, but this time I thought I was really picking up Mira Grant's Feed. It was not terrible as mistakes go. Anderson's book is a dystopic look at kids that are constantly hooked up to the internet via implant. It constantly talks to them, pushes products at them, plays entertainment in the background - that sort of thing. A group of friends starts off on a trip to the Moon (it sucks) and while there they get hacked and are unable to connect for a bit. It's fixed and their lives go mostly back to normal. The main character met a girl while there and the story follows the two of them as they get to know each other and things start to happen to her feed. It's a terribly depressing book for lots of reasons. While I was reading it I was under the mistaken impression that a sequel was due soon (that'd be Grant's book) and so I thought there was some hope for the ending. There isn't. (To my knowledge) So, it's certainly worth reading, but bear in mind that the ending is the end. Everything must go indeed.

I've also been going through Robert Asprin's Myth books again. Still hilarious. I'm actually at the point in the series where I'm reading new material. Yay.

If you listen closely you can hear the approaching school year. It's just under two weeks away. Lovely wife is trying to decide just what her days will be like. All the kids will now be in school all day. Such a milestone. Here's to hoping she doesn't go crazy and start filling the house with pies. Or cats. Well, cats might be ok...

Lovely wife and I have been making our way through the co-op Portal 2 missions. So much fun. So devious. We are actually pretty close to saving science. With portals. There needs to be more Portal. I have heard rumors that Glados' voice actress was recording more dialog. Let's hope new content arrives soon.