Roll and Movies

Pacific Rim was everything I wanted out of a giant robots vs giant monsters movie. The scale was awesome, the fights were epic and the story was serviceable. What more do you really want? Good job del Toro. Good job. I had a decent amount of faith that he'd pull it off, but it really was a thing of beauty. Might have to see this one again in the theater.

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.

Random Geekery

So I ordered a few things from Thinkgeek. They have arrived. I am now the proud owner of a Bag of Holding and a plush Portal 2 turret that talks and senses movement. (I see you!) The bag is fairly nifty. I really like the material and several of the pouches. It could really use a few more pockets and the existing phone pockets need to take into account newer smartphone sizes. But other than that no real complaints. The turret is amusing and fun. The kids like it. I'll have to take a photo and post it up. I also snagged a birthday gift for lovely wife and another for the letter 'r'.

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.

Waving around

So I finished Rick Yancey's The 5th Wave. I gave it three stars, but that's a little misleading. It was a decent book, but I'm not really the target audience for it. It was certainly a little more female friendly than I expected it to be. I don't know I'd go so far as to call it chick-lit, but it's close. It did get a little better as the story progressed, but I dunno... It was ok. I don't mind female protagonists, and I don't suppose I really mind love triangle stuff (not that this story had much of a love triangle) but it was just a little too meandering or something. Which is weird given that Yancey is known for the Monstrumologist series.

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.