Thursday, November 21, 2013
Yeah, we're done here
So. If you really want to, follow me here.
And I generally have some pictures here.
So long and thanks for all the fish.
Thursday, November 07, 2013
What is this November of which you speak?
G had a pretty good birthday. He now has 2 foam swords. And he is not afraid to use them. Well, ok maybe a little afraid as there is a core that runs through most of the sword except for the tip and he's afraid the tip will tear off if he's too violent with it. So he as 2 foam swords that he's only moderately afraid to use.
We did have a good time at the Community musical, The Magical Adventures of Merlin. There were some magic tricks and some songs and some Arthurian nonsense. Plus it was right around an hour long. Which was just about right.
Watched Iron Man 3. That series actually seems to get better as it goes along. Weird...
I didn't actually make it all the way through The Shining. First it was a full screen edition (which is now incorrect thanks to widescreen tvs) and it was pretty badly scratched and I just wasn't as into it as I could have been. Kind of sad really. Still pretty eerie in places though. For the bit that I watched.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Happy Halloween
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Go figure
I am surprised none of the vendors had a "I came to DC and all I got was this lousy t-shirt, thanks Government shutdown" shirt though. Those things would have made a bundle...
Read through John Dies at the End again. I really liked it this time. Weird. It was just much funnier and a little creepier. Or something. I'm starting Doctor Sleep, the sequel to The Shining, at the moment and that thing just jumps straight in with both feet. It doesn't mess around at all. It's already pretty disturbing. And also includes a NOS4A2 reference.
Anyway, the vacation was nice. Photos and commentary can be found elsewhere.
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Wait for the beep
I recommend hitting the tumblr feed which is actually being updated at the moment. There are pictures. And cookies*.
A happy birthday to lovely wife. I managed to loudly proclaim her age (40!) whilst at dinner the other evening. I shall proclaim it on the internet now as well.
*You brought the cookies right? You didn't? Well, there are no cookies then. Shame on you. I hope you feel bad.
Thursday, October 03, 2013
Something about Castle
I've been playing San Juan and Ghost Stories on the iPad. They are both well done. Ghost Stories is insanely hard. I'm starting to understand how it works a little better, but I am nowhere close to winning. In a related tidbit, the iOS version of Pandemic comes out today. Looks like it's about $7. Will probably pick that one up as the boardgame is pretty fun.
Thursday, September 26, 2013
The city in the desert
Card Hunter and Knights of Pen and Paper have really made me want to get back into some sort of RPG... I just want to create a character of some sort and roll some dice and have an adventure. I might have to look into getting the Baron Munchausen story game and play it at Drucon or something.
Castle season 5 continues to be enjoyable. Although I wasn't too impressed with the series premiere the other night.
Need to play Formula D again. And possibly Dungeon Fighter...
Checked out Neil Gaiman's latest book, Fortunately the Milk and it was a good amount of fun. I read it to G and used all the fun voices. You have to read this one that way. It's a moral imperative. Anyway, if you're looking for a delightful little tale to read to your kids, give this one a go. It has wumpires. And not the cute misunderstood kind.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
For something that's sort of similar on ios, check out Knights of Pen and Paper. It also uses a Dungeons and Dragons setting and mixes in old school console RPG combat. You can set the difficulty yourself as it allows you to determine (for the most part) the number and type of enemies you face off against. Also a lot of fun to play.
Littlest sis managed to get Haven season 3 for her birthday but then it went and showed up on Netflix so we're enjoying it as well. Mwa ha ha ha. Although we're going to have to start watching Castle season 5 as it's on hold at the Library. Hmm. Too many shows. (And I don't even want to go into how many books I'm reading at the moment...)
Went ahead and updated to ios 7. It's very different. There are certainly things I like about it, but it's a little odd too.
How on Earth is September mostly gone?
Thursday, September 05, 2013
Hmm
So yeah, I've seen stuff, and yeah we've played stuff and there have been some books, but I'm not convinced this is the format for that stuff any more. We shall see. So posting here will probably go completely random until I figure out what I want to put where and how I want to put it.
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Inconceivable
Which is a little funny as Hansel and Gretel could have used a little more action. The best bits were certainly the fighting the witch bits...
Other than that, I'm not sure I can come up with anything else to rant about.
I finished The Last Policeman. It was an interesting pre-apocalypse tale following a detective that wants to continue to solve a murder investigation while the world dissolves around him due to an impending asteroid impact. Pretty fascinating and I'm looking forward to the sequel.
Sunday, August 25, 2013
String or Nothing
Here we are playing String Railway. I managed a pretty stunning victory in this one. But fun was had anyway. Except possibly by lovely wife, who thought we were all ganging up on her. She did lose a few points to us, but that's because she gained a lot early on. And I cleverly tried to misdirect how I was doing. I feel I should point out that if you do not let M place the mountain (the gray loop in the middle) she will wall you off with the river in retaliation. (See McK's corner in the lower right to see this in action.) You lose points for crossing the river. She does seem a little vicious...
Lovely wife and I also played Takenoko this afternoon. That's a pretty fun game too. I managed the title of master gardener in that one as well. It was a good boardgaming day for me.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Mental Disarray
Thursday, August 15, 2013
Cadet training
Watched what turned out to be the first season of a webseries called Video Game High School. It was silly and predictable and a lot of fun. I suspect I shall start watching season 2 on Youtube.
Finished reading Blackout by Mira Grant, the third book in the Feed/Newsflesh series or whatever it's called. It was decent. There's something about those books that's just compelling. They're not the greatest books, but they're fun to read. Or something.
I did not finish Cinnamon and Gunpowder. Mostly because I had like 5 books out at once and so I just turned a couple back in and may try to read them later. It still sounds fascinating and I liked what I did read, so there's that. I'm currently reading The Last Policeman because apocalypse story about the last cop that takes his job seriously.
We saw the new Percy Jackson movie. Mostly because M wanted to for her birthday. If you liked the first one, you'll like this one I suspect. I find it hard to say whether it's better or not. In a lot of ways, it's the same. Dunno.
And while the subject is sort of up, happy birthday to M. Not convinced she's allowed to get another year older... But we love her anyway. She seems to think we need to play Summoner Wars tonight. And really, who can argue with that?
Still addicted to FTL. Just sayin.
Friday, August 09, 2013
We call him Mr. Bullets
Here he is, direct from Aperture Science via Thinkgeek. Such a friendly homicidal sentry.
Monday, August 05, 2013
Captain's Log
The maiden voyage of the Kestral class starship the Hunk o' Junk launched under an ill fated star. The journey started well enough with the crew working together to overcome Federation ships as well as some scurvy pirates. But then disaster struck and we took several direct hits that led to fires breaking out. The Captain, moron that he is, tried to vent the affected cabins by opening a path to the airlocks. But the doors wouldn't open. Too late he realized that the chamber most affected by fire and damage was the door control cabin. By the time he deployed crew to try and contain the fire it was too late. It had spread too much and started to affect other nearby systems. The fires consumed the crew and left the Hunk o' Junk drifting dead in space, possibly to be discovered by others.
FTL reminds me a lot of Dark Souls in that it's easy to build up a narrative in your head while you watch your little ship get pummeled to death. I am very addicted, I picked it up for $2.50 during the recent Steam sale and am very glad I did. So worth it. I can't stop playing it. I have heard rumors that they might develop an iOS version. Oh I hope so. Although if they do I will never see my family again...
Playing FTL has made me want a fun space exploration/light combat board game. I will have to investigate to see if such a thing exists.
Watched Kick Ass the other day. I liked it. Some good humor and certainly an interesting twist on the average Joe tries to be a superhero conceit. Seems like I also watched some random goofiness on Netflix, but I forget what now. The Bay was one I think. It was ok for yet another found footage style horror flick. Certainly some creepy culprits for the horror/gore.
Oh, we watched Tai Chi Hero, the sequel to the brilliant Tai Chi Zero. It was ok. Second half was pretty great, but the first half was on the slow side. I liked it, but the first movie was better. Sad.
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Roll and Movies
Red 2 was thoroughly silly. Which, really, was to be expected I guess. It was funny and the action was pretty good, so I guess I can't really hold the silliness against it. If you liked the first one, it's probably safe to say you'll like this one.
Managed another couple games of Formula D. We played the Singapore track and the road track on the flip side of the Monaco track (I forget the name). I really like that game. We're still playing the easy rules, so we should probably start to look into some of the advanced rules, but it's nice to know there's plenty of room to grow with this game.
Joyland, by Stephen King was really enjoyable. It's billed as a crime novel, and while there is a murder mystery at the center of it, it's very much a coming of age novel. I liked the amusement park locale and the characters and pretty much everything about this story. Certainly worth reading if you get the chance.
Absentia was an interesting little indie horror flick. I don't really want to say too much about it as that would ruin some of the surprises, but it's good. Give it a watch.
Had a nice visit with Dad. Ate some yummy steak and watched some movies and played some games. Definitely a good visit. They're always over too soon. He did have some funny stories about bears.
Thursday, July 18, 2013
Random Geekery
I am on the verge of having 5 different books checked out. I just recently finished Drive, by James Sallis. It was a pretty interesting book. You can see the elements that got turned into the film, but they are somewhat different experiences. I'll have to check out the sequel. But not until I've done something about this ridiculous logjam I've found myself in. 5 Books. Eesh.
Watched The Incredible Burt Wonderstone. It was relatively fine. I think they spent a touch too long on how much of a jerk he was before moving on to the redemption bit, but that's about it. Carrey was pretty amusing as the Criss Angel/David Blaine character.
Other than that, things are sort of a blur. Dad is in town, so that's nice. Had to get the van fixed. Kids have had various camps and treks and whatnot. They all had good experiences. I'm pretty amazed that the girls were so excited for Trek. I'd have not been at all excited about that at their age. Glad they went and had a good (if hard) time though, sounds like parts of it were pretty neat.
Wednesday, July 03, 2013
Waving around
Anyway, it might be worth checking out if you like alien apocalypse type stories, just know that it's a little wander-y. Or something. I'd be interested to see someone compare it to The Host...
We got to see little sis and her family last night. That was fun. Too bad we couldn't get a game of something in. Oh well, next time. Littlest K makes me laugh. He's a goofball in the best sense of the word.
We've been watching The 50 Greatest Magic Tricks on YouTube over the last couple days. I really like magic... Did I mention we saw Now You See Me? It was really good. I'm not completely convinced the ending holds up, but the show itself is a lot of fun.
And now to enjoy a rather long weekend.
Oh check out #YABooksWithALetterMissing on twitter. It's pretty funny.
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Let's see...
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. Gaiman's latest novel has a quiet, haunting quality to it. It focuses on events that happened during the childhood of the narrator and features Gaiman's usual blending of mythology and reality into an enchanting dream-like musing on the events that shape us and the choices we make in life. It's relatively short, but I think that just means it's easy to read again. Which I can see myself doing as I think there is indeed more depth to be found. Much like Lettie's titular pond/ocean.
5 Centimeters per Second by Makoto Shinkai. I first ran across Shinkai when he did the film, Voices of a Distant Star, which was both beautiful and heart breaking. This is a graphic novel version of his newest film. It is also beautiful and heart breaking. I really like Shinkai's work, but dude needs a donut. And a happy thought.
The Diaries of Adam and Eve, by Mark Twain was a lot of fun to read. Definitely worth tracking down. It's a wry look at the first couple and how they came to know and love each other.
Vader and Son was the first of this series I believe. It's more cute comics about Darth Vader, this time raising Luke. Worth flipping through.
Not books:
Mama was pretty good. I didn't find it to be very scary, but it's definitely got some creepy moments and was a really nicely told tale. I especially liked the montage during the title sequence where they illustrate the girls' first few years through a series of childish drawings.
The Imagine Dragons CD is downstairs waiting for me. I am looking forward to listening to it. I just might have to play Radioactive very loudly on my way home...
I really need to get Space Cadets back to the table...
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Formula D and Wallflowers
It was a pretty fun game. I managed a pretty steady lead thanks to some smart gear shifting and some decent rolls, but there was a lot of position jockeying for the rest of the spots.
In more depressing news, we watched The Perks of Being a Wallflower last night. Reminded me a lot of high school. Minus the abuse and institutionalization. Most of my friends my freshman year were juniors so I didn't have to deal with the bulk of people leaving, but a lot of those experiences were pretty similar. It was kind of rough to watch even if it was relatively happy at the end.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Enjoying the silence
We've watched a couple B grade action movies these last couple days. The Numbers Station with John Cusack and The Double with Richard Gere. They were serviceable action/thriller movies. Not great, but not horrible.
I finished reading You by Austin Grossman. It was a lot of fun. Similar in some ways to Ready Player One and different in others. It tends to cover the history of video games as opposed to the future, but they both deal with people that let their lives revolve around them or the industry. Pretty fascinating. I've read some negative reviews by people that had issues with the point of view changes and so on. I think they're idiots. It's not that confusing. Admittedly 2nd person does take a little getting used to if you've never read something like that before, but it makes perfect sense in this context as Grossman is discussing a medium that is all about player interaction.
Apparently G is scared by Betrayal at the House on the Hill. This could have had something to do with the fact that he ended up getting selected as the traitor, or it could be that he just finds the game spooky. Not sure. The girls still love it though.
Random things we've noticed recently: chocolate chips make pretty much all breakfast foods better, home made ice cream is still really good, grilling on a serious bbq grill is pretty awesome, serious bbq grills still have problems with odd hot and cold spots.
I should also mention that I rode a zip line.
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Vroom Vroom
Managed to survive another year of Fathers and Sons camping. The hike wasn't too bad (although the short way down in near dark was not the best of ideas). Breakfast was good. There was absolutely no sleep. I need either a cot or one of those self inflating/deflating pad things. Something...
If you're following E3 at all you're aware of the new consoles coming out and how Sony stomped all over Microsoft in their press conference when it came to privacy rights and consumer rights and a few other things. It'll be interesting to see how things play out once Fall comes and people actually buy the things. And if you haven't seen it, this is hilarious.
McK has started volunteering up at Timp Caves. That's a little fascinating to me. M has had Day Camp for Girl Scouts this week. And G has Day Camp for Cub Scouts this weekend. I think lovely wife thought that Summer would be less busy. She was wrong.
Father's Day this weekend. Too bad Dad is far away. Will have to get him to actually use his iPad and video chat. And maybe play some Ticket to Ride.
Thursday, June 06, 2013
Our love is like a golf course
Thursday, May 30, 2013
A little of this, a little of that
Waiting in the Summer was a sweet little anime series. And that's really all I have to say about it. It almost had the most depressing ending ever, but fortunately they fixed that.
We've been watching more Hemlock Grove. I think it's growing on me some. It's not bad, I'm just not convinced it's good either. Of course, I'm pretty sure I had that same impression of the book.
We had a pretty good holiday weekend. Games were played, managed a nap here and there, other games were played. It was nice.
G managed to place third in the Writer's Olympics with a story featuring a squid and unicorn doing battle to see who would win and who would be lunch. I ... actually have very little to say about this as well.
M decided to use her head as a mitt the other day during the teacher/6th grader softball game. She claims to be fine.
Is summer over yet? What do you mean it just started?! Ugh...
Friday, May 24, 2013
Playing around
As an addendum to the previous post, I should point out that teenage girls are very loud. You wouldn't necessarily think that five teenage girls would be that noisy, but you'd be wrong. They are very noisy. And only some of it was game related. This is really just an observation, but if you find yourself in the midst of a rampaging group of teenage girls, hope,that you have some earplugs.
Went and saw the new Star Trek today. It was fine. Lovely wife liked it a touch more than me, but I suspect that's due to the Cumberbatch factor. It's interesting to see how they are creating this new reboot universe. Little twists and so on. I wonder what people that have never seen the originals think.
Urge to play games rising. Very glad of the three day weekend.
Thursday, May 23, 2013
The dice, they mock me
Watched the Persona 4 anime series. Mostly as I knew I'd never get around to playing the game (I'm still lost somewhere in the midst of 3) and wanted to know a little about the story. It was actually a lot of fun to watch. And I felt it said some really nice things about the ties we have with those around us.
McK had her birthday party and unleashed some board games on her friends. Escape: the Curse of the Temple was enjoyed by all, although I believe it did stress several of them out. We later tried out Dungeon Fighter - a dexterity game where you have to throw dice at a target on the table in order to fight the monsters found in the dungeon. The trick is the dice have to bounce at least once before it hits the target and occasionally you have to throw them in strange ways as you encounter certain types of monsters or equip certain types of weapons and so on. So basically it's an excuse to look silly in front of your friends while having a good time and losing badly. I rather enjoyed it. But the dice in both of those games are quite merciless.
Lovely wife will probably tell you that she's very glad school is out next week. Mostly as I think she needs a break. It will be interesting to see what mischief the kids get up to this year. Sadly far too much of it will probably involve a car...
Thursday, May 16, 2013
If you're expecting something other than movie or game commentary, you're in the wrong place
Cold Prey was a perfectly serviceable slasher film that suffers some in a post Cabin in the Woods world. It's Norwegian (I think). I liked it.
Les Mis was Les Mis. Unless you have absolutely no exposure to the musical, you know what you're getting.
For grins and chuckles I watched From Beyond again to relive some of my misspent youth. It's still an enjoyable Lovecraft flick from the Stuart Gordon/Jeffery Combs era.
McK decided she would be perfectly happy with a trip to BGR for her birthday gift. So she got a copy of Escape: the Curse of the Temple. It's a real time co-operative dice game. Each game lasts exactly 10 minutes. In that time you roll dice like mad to try and explore the temple and activate gems. Twice over the course of the game a gong will sound (there's a soundtrack) and you have to make it back to the starting chamber or you will lose one of your dice. And that's bad. At the end you have to find and make it to the exit and then roll more keys than there are gems left in the vault. And if one of the players doesn't make it out, you all lose. So it's a tight little game where you have to weigh sticking together (you can help each other unlock some of your dice if they land on the evil black mask side) and getting around and exploring tiles so that you can find the exit and free up the gems. Lots of fun to be had here. Plus it plays up to 5 and you can play it with kids pretty easily.
Other than that it's been a week. I'm ready for some form of vacation. Sadly that is not in my future.
Thursday, May 09, 2013
Hitchcock and Pi
Life of Pi was very beautiful, but also a little odd. I think I'm still coming to grips with the story and what it entails and how it fulfills its central conceit (a story to make you believe in God). I think I've finally wrapped my head around bits of it. So it is worth seeing, but also know that it's one of those films that requires some investment and will stick around in your head for a bit afterwards.
Had a great visit with Dad. Got to see McK in Pirates of Penzance, which was quite good (especially for a middle school production). Ate far too much good food. Failed to fix the sprinkler line, alas.
Introduced Dad to String Railway. Still thoroughly enjoy that game. Didn't manage a game of Space Cadets though. Did get in some Ticket to Ride Europe however as I managed to get him set up on his iPad. Now we can play long distance.
And finally a happy birthday to McK. She seems to think she needs to learn to drive soon. I have my doubts about this...
Thursday, May 02, 2013
String or nothing
Still reading the Reacher books. Still decent (if silly) fun.
I think I've read some other stuff, but I have no idea what it was now. I've been bad about throwing things in Goodreads lately. Alas. I am, however, currently reading Nos4a2, the new book by Joe Hill. So excited.
We picked up String Railway and the expansion for King of Tokyo. Looking forward to playing both. Dad is in town and I plan on making him play String Railway. I think he'll get a kick out of it.
Life continues to be a muddle of kid centered activities and the occasional random form of entertainment. G managed to score a goal at his soccer game the other night. That was fun. He also managed to kick the ball into the face of one of his team mates. That was slightly more fun (for the adults watching).
Maybe it's time to make some ice cream...
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Holistic Detectives and Chinese Cinema
I've also been watching a lot of Chinese films lately. The Great Magician was a rather fun little movie with some pretty good magic performances scattered throughout. But Let the Bullets Fly has probably been my favorite. Sort of a Chinese Western in the vein of Yojimbo or A Fistful of Dollars. You have your bandit pretending to be the mayor, his potentially traitorous adviser and the crime lord that runs the town. Lots of things ensue including some hilarity, some drama and lots of twists and turns. And bullets. There are those too. It's currently on Netflix so give it a go.
I've been wandering through the Jack Reacher books. The first two were pretty decent, I currently have the third and I'm reading some random one in the middle as I snagged the ARC for it a while back. (2010 I think?) I may have to pick up the movie here in a couple weeks.
Courtesy of the Flip the Table podcast we played a round of Wrong Scattergories the other day. It was rather amusing. It's basically madlibs with Scattergories. We also played Castle Panic which is a fun little cooperative tower defense board game. Lovely wife had a pretty good time with that one.
I broke down and picked up the 1910 and Switzerland expansions for the Ticket to Ride: Pocket iOS games. That Switzerland map in an odd little beastie. It didn't keep me from thrashing lovely wife in a game, but we're pretty new to it, so I suspect there will be lots of ups and downs there.
Oh. We watched Pitch Perfect as well. Really great music. Plot was a little cruder than I expected, but it was still pretty funny. Apparently they're making a sequel.
Have I mentioned that Tabletop is back with Season 2? It is. Today is an episode about the game The Resistance.
Lovely wife and I have also been watching Strip Search over on the Penny Arcade youtube channel. I am amused by how much she likes it. It's reality tv with webcomic artists. I tolerate it because of the art and the Penny Arcade vibe. (It's a pretty good show)
Thursday, April 04, 2013
Zoned out
Tabletop day was last Saturday. Hope you all managed to play a game of some sort. McK and I managed a game of Cargo Noir. Interesting little bidding game.
I also managed a good chunk of the new Tomb Raider when I wasn't trying to claw my throat out. I like it. It's certainly darker than some of the previous entries. Well, maybe grittier is a better descriptor. But I enjoyed traversing around the island and looking for things while fighting off the creepy cult.
I finished Darksiders as well. It was pretty fun and I look forward to the sequel. It might indeed be a shame that there may not be more of them.
The first Jack Reacher book, Killing Floor, was pretty good. I'm reading the second one now and am enjoying it as well.
Lovely wife's Dad is in town so he's been treating the kids to all manner of junk food without me. He also took them to the local petting zoo type place and now everyone is screaming about getting a baby goat. Supposedly they are cute. I have my doubts.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Spring yadda yadda yadda
Jungleland, by Christopher Stewart, was a book in the same vein as The Lost City of Z. Take one reporter following in the footsteps of a famous explorer as he tries to retrace the journey of the explorer and find a lost city in the midst of the jungle. It's a fun book. The explorer being shadowed was a pretty interesting person (he also served as a spy during WWII) and the journey was pretty interesting to follow.
The World's Strongest Librarian was written by a co-worker (Josh Hanagarne) and follows his struggles with Tourette's. I liked this one quite a bit as well. Some nice humor along with all the trials. Plus I have similar reading tastes as Josh. His Mom sounds awesome too.
We've watched a lot of stuff (Sinister is a pretty good horror movie) but I can't remember half of it. Played some stuff too. I backed my first Kickstarter project. (A fun looking push your luck dice game with a dungeon crawl theme)
The new TMBG album, Nanobots, is pretty good. I was also thrilled to discover that Poe's album, Haunted, is available on Freegal. I can attest to the first 10 songs being great. Give me a couple weeks and I can tell you about the rest.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Zoning out
Braved a blizzard to watch McK at her archery tournament. It was fun. Except for the blizzard part.
Finished reading Gun Machine by Warren Ellis. I liked it quite a bit. Nice quirky police procedural. Some of the characters were pretty fun.
Haven't managed a game of All Creatures Big and Small since we got the expansion. Mostly because life has been far too hectic in the evenings. And when we do have time I'd rather sleep. So very tired...
I have far too many movies to watch at the moment. And about half of them are of the horror variety. Heh.
How is it basically March already?
Oh and apparently March 30th is Tabletop Day. At least according to Wil Wheaton.
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Frogblast the vent core
Stuff: I have watched it.
Other stuff: I have read it.
Still more stuff: I have played it.
I will mention one thing specifically. If you have an ipod/phone/pad and some friends with access to those devices as well you really need to be playing Space Team. Because it is brilliant. Instant good time. Far too much of it was played over the weekend.
Also, thoughts go out to all the folks affected by the 1up layoffs. I found the site as I followed Jeremy Parish's musings on video games. The podcast was a staple of my morning commute. (And I still listen to Weekend Confirmed which is hosted by 1up alum Garnett Lee) I hope everyone affected lands on their feet.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
This is the spooky holiday right?
I also finished Revenge, 11 Dark Tales by Yoko Ogawa. It was an interesting series of interlocking short stories that dealt with various and sundry slightly off kilter characters and plots. I liked it even if it made my head hurt.
McK has joined the ranks of the glasses wearing set. Like myself. And pretty much my entire family. Some would say she was doomed. But she doesn't seem to mind. In fact she was a little perturbed that she didn't get more comments on them the first day she wore them. Good on her.
Sounds like littlest sis has managed to complete both seasons of Haven that are currently out on DVD. Now she gets to wait with the rest of us to see what happens next. She too was less than thrilled with that season cliffhanger. Show needs to be on Netflix.
We have acquired Space Cadets as a somewhat belated Christmas gift from sis-in-law. It's a co-operative game where each person is responsible for a station on a starship and has to play a mini-game to achieve goals for that station. It has a timed element that adds to the tension and sounds pretty fun. Will certainly take a bit to play with a new group as you try to explain the roles, but I think once it gets going it should be pretty good.
Thursday, February 07, 2013
I drank what?
Jack Reacher was pretty good. I think I'll have to read some of those books now. I've been meaning to for a while, but this may give me the push I finally needed.
The Total Recall remake was ... interesting. The plot manages to be kind of different while still hitting all the notes of the original. Weird.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Cliffhanging
We also finished season 1 of White Collar. Also quite momentous. Fortunately we could watch the episode 2 season opener the next day.
Over the weekend we watched Brewster's Millions (still holds up) and Zorro the Gay Blade (what on Earth did I just watch?!) We were really hoping to watch Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins but the tape is MIA. We also played Smash Up (some interesting ideas that after a couple plays will probably gel a little better. It seemed to go on a little longer than it needed to, but I think that will tighten up once you know the cards and the factions a little better.) and String Railway (a clever little area control sort of game where you build railroad lines using strings and small tokens. It was pretty brilliant actually.)
G had his first Pinewood Derby. A couple second place finishes and a couple third place finishes. He had fun though so that's great. And he did pretty much the entire car by himself. McK has obtained the role of Pirate in the Jr High's upcoming Pirates of Penzance performance.
I finished off Bioshock. It's a pretty interesting game. Certainly some disturbing themes and moments. Also some pretty unique choices on offer. After I finished the game I watched a couple of the extra videos that were available. I was completely uncreative in my methods of dispatching enemies apparently. I tended to just bludgeon things with my wrench. Less ammo used that way... Figure I'll play Darksiders since it looks completely silly and goofy and then head back for Bioshock 2. (Not so much on the silly and goofy in that one.)
There's a lot of snow around here...
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Waffling
(Seriously though, those are some pretty awesome waffles)
Looper was ... honestly I have no idea. I liked parts of it, found the prosthetics they used on Joseph Gordon-Levitt distracting, and the ending made my head hurt. Because I think I'm overthinking something that wasn't really the case, but an argument could be made that it was implied. So, not the best Rian Johnson film (still Brothers Bloom) but interesting nonetheless.
Did have a good visit with littlest sis while she was in town. Introduced her to Ugg-tect and Kingsburg and got her hooked on a random episode of Haven. Heh. Speaking of Haven, where is the new doctor girl? I haven't seen her at all this season, and don't remember her disappearing at the end of the first season. So confused. It's still pretty good though.
Never play Bioshock for an extended period of time. Gave me a serious headache that I didn't realize I had until I stopped playing. I am very close to the end though.
The Uncharted book was pretty good. Not quite as good as playing the games, but a fun little diversion. I would read more of them.
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Unsafe Haven
The free game for Playstation Plus members this week was Darksiders. The sequel just came out a month or so back and I'd heard good things about both games so I thought I'd give it a go. It is terribly silly in an amusing sort of way and I look forward to playing more of it. It's sort of God of War (combat) meets Zelda. So that's a little weird, but it works. The story is absolutely ridiculous and I won't say anything about it because you wouldn't believe me if I did.
Bioshock continues to be interesting. Although I'm a little tired of the hacking mini game. I guess I should just start wasting my money as it seems there's plenty of it.
Littlest sis is theoretically in town now and we're supposed to get together with some of her friends to play games tonight. Poor G is a little under the weather so hopefully that doesn't throw a wrench in things.
I am very glad it's a long weekend. Very. Glad.
G has gotten his Pinewood Derby car cut out and painted. It probably needs some more weight, but I have no idea if we'll get that accomplished. It also has slightly crooked wheels. So I suspect there are no victories in his future, but stranger things have happened.
M participated in her first (and last? I forget what grade they stop) spelling bee. She made it to the fifth round or so before misspelling "enact". She had focused so much on the harder words that it was an easier one that got her. She did great though. (and apparently she had written it out correctly as well as the incorrect version and just went with the wrong spelling)
Caught the first episode of Wallander. I like it. Will watch more. I also watched the first 30 minutes of Iron Sky. It is truly ridiculous. (Secret Nazi base on the moon)
It's cold! Just sayin'.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Snowpocalypse
I have acquired Kingsburg and it's expansion. I shall let you know how it is once I actually get a game of it played. It's been that kind of week. Littlest sis might get to help test this one out as she is supposed to be in town this next week. I suspect we shall also force her to play Ugg-tect. Because we all need a little more caveman in our lives.
Got together with J&K over the weekend and watched Beastmaster. It was still shockingly bad/good. So silly that movie. I don't normally do MST3K type stuff, but for some reason this one dragged the comments out of me. "I come from the village of NO BUTTONS" Alas Marc Singer. And who knew Tanya Roberts went on to be the redhead's Mom on That 70s Show? Weird.
Sand Sharks was enjoyably horrible. As was Lockout. (Think Escape from New York in space for that last one.) White Collar also continues to be enjoyable.
I can't honestly remember too much of what's happened over the last little while. It seems like there was lots of watching and reading stuff, but who knows?
Have I told you that Tichu is good? I finally caved and picked it up for the iPad after enjoying Haggis so much. This is a similar idea in which 4 players (it's a partnership game) try to get rid of their hands whilst scoring points. If you think you can go out first you call Tichu in the hopes of scoring yourself an extra 100 points. There are some special cards and some special rules and bombs and so on. It's good fun. I have a sneaking suspicion that when we get around to getting the physical version I will not be allowed to play...
Thursday, January 03, 2013
Same as it ever was
The letter 'd' clan had a good Christmas. Dad was there as was lovely wife's Mom. Kids once again made out like bandits. I got a couple nifty things and lovely wife got some nice stuff too. It was mostly a chance to watch the kids have fun though and that was indeed worth it.
Dad got us hooked on White Collar over the holiday. We're rather enjoying that show.
While exercising one morning I was dismayed to note that Netflix had dropped FLCL (and I was just about done watching it too). Stupid Netflix. I did, however, stumble across Sand Shark. It's a wonderfully horrible B movie that is basically a mish mash of Jaws and Piranha. (Moreso the newer version than the old) All I really need to sell this movie is two words: Corin Nemec. That's right, Mr Can't Lose Parker Lewis plays a relatively sleazy guy trying to "save" his home town with a Spring Break Party while the titular sand shark munches on people every 10 minutes or so. So wonderfully bad.
In case any of you have ever wondered, do NOT put a mini disc in an iMac. It will only end in tears. And possibly ruin your new computer. I'm pretty sure we avoided that, but time will tell. And the way to get it out? Stick a regular sized disc in and when it tries to eject, yank it out really quickly. The mini disc should follow. It took us a few tries. No wonder Apple is removing the disc drives on all their computers...
New Years was fine. Mostly as I went to bed at a reasonable time... The kids stayed up this go round.
Wreck it Ralph is indeed good. I liked it quite a bit as did the kids.
If you like ukulele music, give Jake Shimabukuro a try. He plays a mean ukulele. Manages to almost make it sound like a guitar to some extent and he's only using a 4 string uke. His renditions of Bohemian Rhapsody and While My Guitar Gently Weeps are pretty amazing.
I like Bioshock. Yeah, yeah, late to the party, but I got a PS+ membership for Christmas and one of the free games was the sequel, so I finally decided to pick up the original. Farcry 3 is interesting as well, although the save system is just plain odd. And annoying. And Quantum Conundrum does indeed scratch that Portal itch.
Ever wondered what D&D Alignment you were? Wonder no more.
I am mere pages from finishing Breed. It was decent for a reverse Rosemary's Baby sort of book. Certainly horrific in places. I'm not entirely convinced I recommend it, but it's not bad either. Probably not a Christmas book after all... (these are the jokes kids)
I managed to pick up John Dies at the End and a book based on the Uncharted video game series with some birthday money I still had. I'm looking forward to reading the Uncharted book probably a little more than I should admit to. I almost snagged one based on Ico...
Well, here's to hoping for an enjoyable 2013. And managing to keep up with my exercising.