Cliffhanging

Finished off season 2 of Haven. It was quite good and that last episode was quite mean. I want to see season 3 pretty much right now... So many niggling questions.

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...

Waffling

So, first things first. If you find yourself in downtown SLC and you're hungry, go to Bruges and have a Torpedo with some creme fraiche and your choice of fruit. It will be amazing. Have some cocoa to go with it. That will also be amazing. Then tell the owner to buy Parker's Drive-in in AF so it's a lot closer ok? Thanks.

(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.

Unsafe Haven

Yay! We're watching Haven season 2. So far the first few episodes have been pretty good. Looking forward to more.

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'.

Snowpocalypse

That's what they're saying anyway. I'll believe it when I see it. Although it is now rather dark gray outside as opposed to the nice sunny 47 degrees it was earlier.

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...

Same as it ever was

So. 2013. Guess we can finally say good bye to 2012. Not sure I cared much for 2012. I suppose it had its moments. Did get to see a little more of family, so that was something. Need to convince Dad to move closer.

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.