Holistic Detectives and Chinese Cinema

We watched the first season of the BBC Dirk Gently based on the old Douglas Adams books. It was fine. Sort of a quirky Sherlock that couldn't ever quite get out from under that shadow. And it was a little odd seeing how they chopped up the books for the episodes. But it was relatively fun to watch and that counts for something.

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)

Zoned out

Well, Spring has managed the first blow with a lovely sinus infection. Remember kids, Mother Earth hates you and will do her best to kill you every chance she gets. Fortunately antibiotics seem to be doing their job. Mostly.

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.