A little of this, a little of that

I finished up Nos4a2 by Joe Hill. It was pretty darn good. It's the most Stephen King-like book he's written (in my opinion) but that's not a bad thing. I liked all the little nods to his previous books. I always find it interesting when authors build their own world over the course of their books and put little nods here and there. I also found this one to be pretty spooky and certainly horrifying in lots of places. Definitely some characters you wouldn't want to run into. So if you like horror/fantasy stories, give this one a go.

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...

Playing around

Mostly wanting to try out a blogging tool I ran into. Technically this is attempt 2, but the first was lost due to my own ineptitude. Alas.

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.

The dice, they mock me

Finished the 4th Reacher book. Enjoying that series quite a bit. But I am taking a break while I have lots of other things to read. I'm getting close to the end of NOS4A2 and You by Austin Grossman is pretty interesting too. So many books... (There's a new Hex Hall spinoff that's out as well!)

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...

If you're expecting something other than movie or game commentary, you're in the wrong place

Got to see John Dies at the End finally. It was good fun. I liked it quite a bit in spite of the large plot chunks they left out. Of course the movie was never going to contain everything, so I think they did fine. It managed the humor and the horror pretty well. Plus the weirdness. Can't forget the weirdness.

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.

Hitchcock and Pi

Hitchcock, the film detailing the making of the film Psycho, is pretty brilliant. I found it to be funny and sweet and pretty amazing as it showed what Alfred Hitchcock and his wife went through in order to make that film. Of course, now I want to see Psycho again...

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...

String or nothing

So we watched The Hobbit. Peter Jackson needs to step away from the franchise. I've seen Lord of the Rings and it was fine. Good even. He is ruining The Hobbit. It's my favorite book of the series and I don't need all the extra stuff shoved in and three movies. Guillermo del Toro should have done this film. So yeah, not really a fan. When it actually was The Hobbit, it was good. The rest of it is really unnecessary.

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...