Brought to you by the letter 'd'

Not nearly horrific enough

2012-02-16T14:28:00.000-07:00

So lovely wife and I watched Apollo 18 last night. It had potential. It certainly started off decently and even offered some glimpses that it might be a fun little found footage horror flick set in space. And then it got boring. And didn't really do enough spooky stuff. There were certainly some great moments at the end, but too little too late. Plus I'm still not certain about Moon Spiders being the culprits. So, if you're a die hard found footage fan, this might scratch the itch for a while, but really, there's better stuff out there.

Season 2 of the Muppet Show has been a lot of fun to watch. The kids are well and truly hooked now. It's great. And rumor has it that a plush Kermit is making its way to me. Yaaaaaa-a-a-a-aay. He said in his best Kermit voice. I love Kermit.

I have encouraged little sis to snag Ticket to Ride Pocket for her iPhone. Now I must get her to play. I will crush her feeble dreams of being a rail baron in America. Hive was free over this past week. It might still be, I'm unsure. Upon downloading the electronic version, I realized that I have been playing that game completely wrong. I thought you had to completely surround your opponent's bee with your own tiles. It just needs to be surrounded. Yours, theirs, the color of the tiles is irrelevant. This completely changed the game and made something that was sort of interesting, but prone to locking up a lot, quite a bit more interesting and fun.

Nintendo needs to be better about getting their quirkier games to retailers. I want to play Rhythm Heaven but so far we're getting a lot of blank stares...

I thoroughly enjoyed The Chemistry of Death by Simon Beckett. It's a pretty fascinating little mystery that follows a forensic pathologist (think Kathy Reichs' Temperance "Bones" Brennan or Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta) that left the job after his wife and kid were killed. Of course he can't leave it for long. (Or really, why would there be a book in your hands) It's well written and I liked the characters. Some nice little twists and turns. Give it a look.

Grave Incoherency

2012-02-09T14:29:00.002-07:00

Let's see, finished off season one of The Muppet Show (it was awesome and season two is waiting in the wings), most of season one of Mindfreak (mostly enjoyable, but the boring bits were really boring), Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle (I really don't know what to make of that book...), and I'm most likely giving up on Murakami's 1Q84 (it's ... not really that great).

That pretty much catches you up. I have a few more words about Burke and Hare a rather amusing little movie starring Simon Pegg (if I need to introduce him go away and never darken my blog again) and Andy Serkis (he was the guy that made Gollum, Gollum). The best part of the movie is that most of it is true. It recounts the lives of Williams Burke and Hare as they stumble into the grave robbing business and then go on a bit of a killing spree as demand for bodies is pretty high at the time due to the medical colleges trying to understand what makes the human body tick. So it's a slightly black comedy but it's certainly worth watching. K, you need to see this one. Little sis would probably get a kick out of it as well.

I suppose there are probably other things I should regale you with. Stories of G demanding that lovely wife play a boardgame for each hug she took (I'm so proud). Or possibly horrifying tales of a daughter signing up for Freshman classes (I'm so old!)? Or cautionary tales of another daughter trying to find a Valentine (really need to get that shotgun from the father-in-law...)?

Nah, think I'll just call it a day. Too tired.

Mostly Muppets with some Magic thrown in

2012-02-02T14:21:00.002-07:00

We're almost through season one of the Muppet Show. It's been a lot of fun to watch. The kids have really enjoyed it as well, which is nice. I'm glad to see them having such a good time with it. I'm not sure if I have a favorite episode, but I did get a pretty good chuckle out of vampire Kermit in the Vincent Price episode. I'm also amused by how many muppet/people getting eaten jokes there have been in season one. And how lovely wife seems to find that amusing just about every time...

Over the weekend we watched Make Believe a documentary that follows six teenagers as they try to win the Best Teen Magician contest in Vegas. It was really good. The DVD also features a tutorial section where they teach you some tricks. The kids ran around for part of the weekend doing magic tricks. I recommend checking it out if you stumble across it.

I've also been watching season one of Criss Angel's Mindfreak. Once you get past the reality tv/street magician trappings, there's a pretty good show there. I like a lot of his tricks. G and lovely wife have enjoyed it as well. Between the documentary and this I have a moderate desire to try and snag this and learn some card magic. Card and coin are certainly my favorite sorts of tricks.

So lots of imagination and wonder going on at Casa del 'd' lately. That and some head colds. Stupid weather... Kids are starting to shake theirs just as lovely wife and I come down with our own. Good thing I have some down time over the next couple days.

Still need to play some board games. And find a Kermit stuffed animal...

Briefly spooky

2012-01-26T14:47:00.002-07:00

I finished reading The Woman in Black by Susan Hill. It's a decent period haunting tale. I'll be a little interested how they do the movie as honestly, filming the book would probably provide about a 45 minute long movie. Maybe. The story itself is told as a recounting of earlier events that offer some decent questions to wonder over as you read and the conclusion is suitably shocking. Certainly worth checking out if you're interested. It's also a pretty quick read. (See previous comment on possible film length)

Lovely wife and I watched the remake of Fright Night last night. After taking a bit to adjust to weird remake changes, I settled in and enjoyed the film. It's a decent re-telling that doesn't really supplant the original while still managing to be worth seeing on its own. And the Chris Sarandon cameo was pretty amusing. David Tennant plays a suitably amusing modern stage magician with issues of his own (I was amused by the scene where he divests himself of all the trappings of modern stage magic) and Colin Farrell is a good menacing vampire. Some nice little twists on the old one as well as some decent homages.

I've been on something of a magic kick lately. Wanting to learn magic tricks, see magicians, etc. I downloaded a magic app on the iPad that teaches you a couple tricks. It's interesting. And I think the Library has some decent books on card tricks. I keep meaning to put some on hold. I've decided to give Criss Angel's Mindfreak Season 1 a go and see if I can tolerate modern street magician/reality tv enough to see some tricks. I also checked out a documentary on some teenage magicians vying for a chance to be the best in a Vegas competition. I'm hoping that has some fun tricks in it.

Little (and possibly littlest) sis should check out Triple Town. Totally addicting match three game. I wish I were playing it right now. It's free in the app store. (Not sure if there's an android version, but there might be) Also if you always wanted to try pitchcar but didn't want to drop the $80 or whatever it's running for right now, there's Disc Drivin' HD on the iPad. It's certainly cheaper. It won Best Local Multiplayer over at Boardgame Geek this year.

I finished off Uncharted 3 the other night. The ending was ... interesting is probably the best word for it. I liked the bit at the very end and I enjoyed some of the stuff just prior to that, but it suffers from some of the things most of the Uncharted games suffer from (so I'm not sure that it's really worth complaining about that, I should probably just be used to it by now). Overall, great game. Will play again.

I need to play some board games!

The snowpocalypse is a lie

2012-01-19T14:37:00.000-07:00

So here we were expecting all manner of snow yesterday afternoon and instead we get rain. I'm of mixed emotions on that one. It's nice that my commutes have not been disasterfied, but a little snow this time of year is nice. Especially as we really haven't had any to speak of. Seriously weird winter...

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil is awesome. K needs to see this right now if she hasn't. Little sis might get a kick out of it as well. You have your good ol' boys on vacation to fix up their new vacation home and the college kids convinced that they're out to get them. This is not helped by the fact that they "kidnapped" one of the girls when she fell in the water and hit her head on a rock. They were simply trying to save her life, not start a slasher movie. It gets funnier from there. I won't say too much more lest I spoil things. Best line? Probably, "It's true, you're half hillbilly." Although there are some close contenders.

I am currently reading The Woman in Black in case I want to try to get to the movie. It's pretty good so far.

Lovely wife and I had a nice evening out at the beginning of the week. Some Indian food and some games with friends. I reminded myself why I don't play Alhambra much any more (everyone else is much better at it) and once again discovered that you should never play card games against Kim. First she killed us at Gang of Four a few weeks ago, and then she was managing a pretty tidy victory at Dwarf King. Serious voodoo.

I am intrigued by this.

It sounds like you can start making your own books for iBooks. I guess the app is for desktops, so I can't play around with it any until we get a new computer but I am intrigued. Maybe I'll make a version of I was a... that short story I wrote for lovely wife. It would be fun to include some photos or other little effects.

New Year, Old Material

2012-01-12T14:25:00.000-07:00

Being as it's once again the first of the year, there's been a lot of talk about goals and resolutions and what not. I don't know that I have any hard goals in mind. I'm going to do my best to exercise regularly this year. I'd really like to get my weight down 10-15 lbs or so. (As an aside, the iPad is seriously the best thing for this. I love that Crackle app. Having something to watch while I exercise is great.) I'm going to continue to read and play some games. I'd like to learn a few more songs on the ukulele (I can play No New Tale to Tell by Love and Rockets and Nothing Matters When We're Dancing by the Magnetic Fields pretty reliably, although I can't sing to either). And I'd really like to involve the wife and kids in most of that. So there you go. Some sort of meandering direction for the rest of the year. It will be interesting to see what (if anything) comes of turning 40 later this year...

We watched the original Thai version of Shutter the other night. It was pretty good. Especially considering the fact that I was dead tired and had a hard time keeping up with the subtitles. I really liked the twist at the end and there were some really good jump scares in this one. Little sis should watch it late at night with the lights off and report back.

We managed to get in a game of 7 Wonders with the Leaders expansion. I'd forgotten how much I liked that game. The leaders cards certainly add some tension to the mix. I spent most of the time wishing I had a little more money and neighbors that offered a few more resources. Needless to say I got creamed. Certainly willing to try again though.

If you have access to an iOS device, I recommend Wooords (or however many o's are in there). I snagged it for free the other day, not sure if it's still free or not. It's an addictive little make words from the letters, while being forced to include this one letter in particular sort of game. The letters look and sound like fridge magnets and that adds a certain appeal as well. Zen pinball makes me wish I had a pinball machine. I really miss pinball...

Oh! I almost forgot! You all need to read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (I believe). Probably the book I enjoyed reading most last/this year. (I'm really calling it last year as I should have finished it over the break, but decided to read Castle instead) It's almost like reading pure joy. It's a little Something Wicked This Way Comes without the creepiness and The Prestige without the hatred and jealousy. In fact turn it into a bit of a love story and add a most wonderful circus and it's close. It really is great. Go find a copy and devour it. Go I say!

Back in the saddle

2012-01-05T14:27:00.000-07:00

So, new year. Seems much like the old one. Guess we'll see how it turns out.

Over the break I read the first two "Richard Castle" books, Heat Wave and Naked Heat. I'm on the hold list for the third. They're fun. If you like watching the show, you'll get a kick out of the books. Similar jokes/conversations, etc. I find it terribly amusing that they've got Fillion on the jacket and appropriate dedications, etc.

G has been lost in the world of Skylanders, it's apparently pretty good. I enjoyed the little bit that I got to play with him. It's fun to swap the characters around and explore the little bits of the world. Not a fan of the tether they use if you play multi player and one person wants to go one way and the other another. (Disney Universe suffers from this as well.

Uncharted 3 continues to be pretty amazing. Some of the level design is just astounding. The pirate level...

Lovely wife and I watched Limitless and it was pretty good. I stumbled across it as part of an under-appreciated sci fi list (Source Code and The Adjustment Bureau rounded it out) and as it was the one I hadn't seen we gave it a go. It's good, you should check it out.

We held a mini game night on New Year's Eve and played Dwarf King, Skip Bo and Zombie Dice. Oh and King of Tokyo. Strangely, Zombie Dice was the one that everyone got the biggest kick out of. Well, ok, Zombie Dice is pretty awesome. After all it's got zombies and dice (and I really need to snag the expansion dice...) King of Tokyo ended appropriately in the death of all monsters save one, so that was good.

Oh, and the iPad continues to be awesome. So far I highly recommend Flipbook if you have one. Absolutely brilliant way to manage your internet feeds like Google Reader, twitter, etc. I just need to see if there's a way to add google+ to it... I use Crackle while exercising (I can manage to get through an episode of Samurai X each morning) and that's pretty great. And then of course there's all the random games and so forth. I recommend trying out Vid Rhythm by Harmonix. It lets you make your own music video and if you get a kick out of messing with photo booth, this is right up your alley. I'm not sure lovely wife has been so amused. Except possibly by photo booth. Skitch lets you draw all over your photos and that's pretty fun too.

So 2011 ended well and we look forward to 2012 in some fashion or other. Well, ok, I could do without the upcoming election, but that's neither here nor there.

Just a quick howdy

2011-12-29T18:30:00.000-07:00

Lovely wife seemed to think that I needed to post something as it was Thursday. I remain unconvinced. At any rate Christmas was lovely in spite of the lack of snow. I am typing this up on the big Christmas gift - an iPad. It is truly brilliant. Kids made out like bandits and the rest of us did fine as well.

We had a good visit with lovely wife's dad and are now enjoying some quiet time until New Year's. I picked up a new card game Dwarf King and we've played it a couple times. It's a nice little trick taking game with a random scoring element for each hand.

Hope you all had a fine holiday, more as I can be bothered to talk to you lot.

Initiate internet silence protocol Delta Echo

2011-12-22T14:28:00.000-07:00

Chances are I will have little to say over the next couple weeks. Mostly as I'll be spending time with family and enjoying Christmas and playing with whatever new toys/games/gadgets make their way to casa del 'd'. So let me wish you all a Happy Christmas here and now and hope that you have the chance to spend at least a little of it around family and also around kids. There's very little better than watching kids around presents on Christmas morning. Especially if it's like 5 AM. Oh yeah, Christmas starts early.

Lovely wife and I both read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs and liked it. I have heard ~~rumors~~ confirmed facts that there will indeed be a followup title so the open ending is less of a concern. There are some truly great photos spaced throughout the book that help tell the tale. We both knew very little about this book going in (it was recommended to me by a friend at the Library) and I think that was actually a plus. Although lovely wife gave me some idea of what was going on as she read it first. So, if you're in the mood for something a little off kilter that's funny and spooky and interesting, give this one a shot.

Because everything is better with Muppets, I present this without comment.

And, really, that's about all I've got. Again, have a great holiday filled with love, joy and laughter. Because that's the third greatest gift you know.

Christmas time slip

2011-12-15T14:34:00.000-07:00

I got nothin'.

Had a lovely conversation with K the other day. Although I forgot to direct her to the Doubleclicks in case she missed that post. It was good catching up. I still think you should stake out the vanquished squirrels as a deterrent.

Castle season 3 continues to trundle along. I've mostly given up following the plots and just enjoy the banter.

Uncharted 3 also continues. The spider/scarab/evil bug things continue to freak us all out. Speaking of creepy spiders, I recommend you all read I'm a Shark. Because it is awesome. Almost as awesome as the shark.

And really that's about all I can think of. I should really contemplate some sort of seasonal wrap up. We'll see. If nothing else I hope you're all having a wonderful December.

Something about a goose getting fat?

2011-12-08T14:14:00.001-07:00

The Christmas bug has arrived at Casa del 'd'. The kids seem to think there will be presents or something. I have no idea why they have that impression. They've been little hellions all year. I think we'll go the coal route next year. Certainly cheaper. Theoretically. Maybe we'll give them "get your own coal" IOUs attached to a pick or something. We're pretty close to the end of the foraging for bits and bobs. Honestly I think we're just down to lovely wife and I to shop for. Which has been more of a challenge than it should be.

We're currently wandering through season 3 of Castle. It's been fine so far. I hear it gets a little silly towards the end. Too many fake deaths. We shall see. I still enjoy the banter between Castle and Beckett though so that's good. And how adorable is his daughter? Seriously adorable.

Letter 'r' gave me the Leaders expansion for 7 Wonders so we'll see how that plays soon. Looking through it leads me to believe it will offer some pretty intriguing choices while playing. That's good. Have had the desire to play more boardgames lately, but not been able to accomplish it. Castle and Uncharted are the main obstacles...

Hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season. Now if I can just get the kids to stop putting together all the lego advent figures. It is seriously my turn...

December? Already? Who let this happen?

2011-12-01T14:14:00.001-07:00

And so the week that was the letter d's vacation came to a close. Drucon was a rousing success with Fortune and Glory, Gang of Four, King of Tokyo, and a couple plays of Elder Sign making up the day. We learned to never play Gang of Four against Kim. Ever. Under any circumstances. We managed to prevent one Elder God from arising only to be devoured by Cthulhu itself the next time. Some might say we barely eked out a victory that game, but I prefer to think that we were horribly destroyed. Fortune and Glory was indeed quite a bit of fun, if a touch long. It should speed up some next time provided we play again some time soon, so we can remember how things work. I like the push your luck aspect of the challenges even if I invariably failed somewhere along the way and lost all my glory. I did manage a stellar go at the zeppelin where I snuck aboard, fought the guard and made off with all six fortune markers. It was pretty brilliant.

I decided to take a wander through some of my childhood favorites and re-read The Phantom Tollbooth and The House with a Clock in its Walls over the break. They were still great. Glad to see that. M is currently making her way through Tollbooth and lovely wife braved the house with the ticking clock. If you've never read them, you really should.

This is mostly for the letter K, but the rest of you can feel free to check it out as well. The Doubleclicks are awesome. Two girls, one ukulele, one cello and some seriously catchy geeky music. Their Thing a Week album that you can try out for free is suitably spectacular. It made the trip to Arizona a lot more tolerable. (Seriously, what is up with that drive? People complain about Kansas being boring, but it's got nothing on that stretch from Kingman to Phoenix... Admittedly it probably smells better than western Kansas. Hmm.)

Speaking of the trip, we did indeed brave the "road" down to Arizona and spent Thanksgiving with family. There was a lot of good food, a family picture and the Muppets. Two out of three... I will now gush for a bit about The Muppets. It was great. I loved this movie. I worry that it's too squarely aimed at my age group and thus will not appeal to kids enough to ensure a resurgence of the show. Because when you leave, that's what you want - the Muppets back on the air doing what they've always done. The soundtrack is catchy and heartbreaking and hilarious. The jokes are fun and the cameos were well done. This movie has probably the second best cameo after Zombieland. The first part of the movie is a touch slow compared to the last section (where they're putting on the telethon) but it does contain some wonderful moments, so it's ok. (Seriously, that Pictures in my Head song... It still gets to me)

I managed to get a little Black Friday shopping done online. Snagged Harry Potter 7.2 for $7 thanks to Best Buy and my sister's iPad. I really enjoy not having to go to the stores.

G is engrossed in Skyward Sword and I've fallen down the Uncharted well. Both great games. Man this time of year. I want to try Skyrim too and Disney Universe and... Heh.

So a big thanks to family for helping celebrate my birthday. Littlest sis gets points for making the yummy Boston Cream Pie/cake. In spite of false starts and horrible directions it sure tasted good. And the turkey and everything else was great as well. Little sis will have to send K'''''' up here to do hair. That was seriously the funniest thing.

Now to prepare for Christmas...

If you listen close, you can hear it

2011-11-17T14:11:00.001-07:00

That would be the sound of Thanksgiving. Yeah, that holiday that stores pretend doesn't exist between Halloween decorations and Christmas decorations. It's my favorite. And that's only partially due to it's orbit around my birthday. At any rate it draws nigh.

Theoretically this weekend is Drucon. The weather and outside circumstances are doing their best to thwart that notion. Oh well, I've got the games and the t-shirts. That's right, t-shirts. And they are awesome.

You know what else is awesome? Watching the first eight Friday the 13th movies over the course of a week. Well, except for that last one. Manhattan? Really? Flooding the sewers with toxic waste every night at midnight? Whatever. And the psychic chick in the seventh one. What was that all about? But the rest were varying degrees of successful. Except maybe the third one. In spite of the 3D. And we wore the glasses. It was occasionally spectacular and mostly eye strain inducing. It was actually pretty interesting to watch them all like that. The first two are certainly the best, the third was a gimmick, the fourth-sixth were definite products of their time (80s slasher films), the seventh was the weird one until the eighth one came along, and the eighth was both weird and horrible. We've not seen the 9th one yet and Jason X is a silly guilty pleasure. There you go. The body counts reflected a nice bell curve peaking around 5 I think it was. There was also a strange continuity from 4-6 that started with Corey Feldman. Weird. And that possibly explains a lot.

Isle of Blood, the third Monstrumologist book by Rick Yancey, was decent. I think I liked it a touch more than the second one and am still interested in following the series. I'm still amazed at how gory these books can be (considering they're YA) but they are pretty fascinating. I like the characters quite a bit and there is a decent amount of humor and wit woven through.

G is very excited about the upcoming Zelda game. The demo for Disney Universe is also pretty cool. It's pretty similar to the Ratchet & Clank game (competitive co-op if that makes sense) just with a Disney skin. I suspect you only need one, just pick the one that appeals to you more. The Disney game has an added Little Big Planet vibe in that it looks like you're sort of a sackboy character wearing different Disney character outfits. Cute.

I've started reading 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. It's interesting so far. Been a while since I've read him. Looking forward to seeing where it goes.

At any rate, family get together soon. Shindigs. Possible Black Friday shopping. We managed to convince the kids to start throwing together wish lists so we'll probably toss some Christmas shopping in there too. Yup, it's the end of the year...

Pop Pop

2011-11-10T14:15:00.001-07:00

Lovely wife and I finished season 2 of Community. This show is worth watching for the paintball episodes alone. Although the first half was better than the second half. (Paintball eps, not season). I am slightly sad that I can't actually watch this when it's on, alas. At any rate, I appreciate the geek factor of the show and the humor.

G has re-visited King of Tokyo and declares it much better with fewer people. We've since played a couple more games and he had a pretty good time with it. It's more fun when you're not constantly waiting for your turn to roll around. If you're seven. I suspect we'll be introducing this one to family over the holidays and smacking each other around Tokyo.

Rick Riordan's second book in the Heroes of Olympus series, Son of Neptune was fine. By the end I was ready for the book to be over, but I mostly enjoyed it. I still find this series more engaging than his Egyptian books. I kind of wish they'd make more movies...

I recommend checking out the Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One demo for the PS3. It's a co-op R&C game and is pretty fun. G and I played part of the demo yesterday. Might have to snag this one. Uncharted 3 is currently on my dresser, mocking me as I wait for my birthday. Lovely wife's Dad was generous enough to get it for me. I really really want to start playing it... Need to check out Skyrim as well. Might hit the redbox for that one.

Other than that things are quiet for a bit. Drucon looms closer, lovely wife's Dad is with her sister for another day or so, we'll be around family for the holiday. So things are in the works, but for now we can take it easy. That's nice.

And a good time was had by all

2011-11-03T14:52:00.000-06:00

Goodness, it's been quite a week. Horror movies, Community season 2, Halloween, family in town, birthdays, games. I barely know where to start. The kids enjoyed themselves on Halloween. We had a tiger, a water fairy and a mummy. I leave it to you to sort out who was what. They got far too much candy and had far too much fun, but then, that's what Halloween is for, so I reckon we'll call it even. There was a trunk or treat with chili, haunted hallways and a trip around the block. I held down the fort and answered the door for the few brave souls we had. It was good we didn't have that many as we just about ran out of candy at the trunk or treat.

G is now 7 and had quite the birthday. A trip to Arbys (his choice) and some pretty good presents. A couple wooden Duncan yo-yos, a Hot Wheels Nitro Racer rc car (that insists on going in circles at high speeds, I suspect we'll try exchanging it since the steering alignment buttons don't seem to actually accomplish anything) and the board game King of Tokyo. We gave that one a try last night. His initial impression (with 6 players) is that it wasn't fun as it took too long between turns and he didn't have enough to do. He does want to try it again with just lovely wife and I. My take is that for a first game it went fine and he does have a bit of a point about that many players. If you don't keep the turns moving, it can drag a little. But the game itself is pretty fun. You play a giant monster (think Godzilla) intent on destroying Tokyo. It's pretty much a battle royale utilizing dice and some cards. Plus it only takes like 20 minutes if that. Nice little filler game.

Have had a good visit with lovely wife's Dad thus far. I believe he and lovely wife managed to get some gutter guards installed and have run around a touch.

I had heard of Kate Beaton's Hark! A Vagrant a while back but never got into the webcomic version. The Library recently got the book that collection and I gave it a go. It's hilarious. Beaton studied history and uses that knowledge to create strips based on real people/events with pretty amusing results (there are some not so historical people included as well - Spider Man, Nancy Drew etc.). And in case you are not a history major, Beaton includes helpful explanations which are often just as hilarious. I did not stop laughing. Just ask lovely wife or McK.

So yeah, Community season 2 is pretty hilarious.

I'm probably forgetting a bunch of stuff. But it's been a busy week, so there you go. Bring on November!

The Horror!

2011-10-27T14:38:00.000-06:00

Have consumed a fair amount of horror films lately. And still have quite a few to go. Let's see, watched Carpenter's version of The Thing, The Child's Eye (by the Pang Brothers), the bulk of the Resident Evil movies (2-4 as I'd seen the first one not too long ago), Thor. Wait. That one might not count. Or does it? Hmm.

Still have Trick 'r Treat, The Boogeyman and The Sentinel on tap plus some other stuff. I also finished off that second book in the Monstrumologist series, Curse of the Wendigo. So there's been a fair amount of horror filled goodies to fill out this October. I am pleased. Lovely wife might be a touch burned out (she opted to fore go The Child's Eye last night) but that's not gonna stop me. Horror will go on. Much like Jason or Freddy. Down, but never out for the count.

Most of it has been pretty decent. The Thing is still a classic and holds up. The Child's Eye (I guess it's theoretically the third film in the Eye series) was kinda odd (dog-headed kid). But the Resident Evil movies... Look, the first one is great. It's both a decent zombie flick and a nice tribute to the games. After that the series just gets weird. Psychic powers, clones, monsters... I don't believe most of those show up in the games (I've only played bits and pieces of a few of them and all the way through 4) so I have a hard time reconciling those differences (other than some character/creature names). And honestly after that first one, maybe the second, the zombies are just kind of there. It's more about the Umbrella Corp. Which I suppose is fine. I almost think they'd have been better served if they weren't RE movies...

Hard to believe October is just about done. We'll have some more family in town soon, plus some birthdays. And Drucon looms near. Time to start sorting out the Fortune and Glory rules. That one looks pretty exciting.

G and I have been making our way through the Scott Pilgrim video game lately. It's been pretty fun. We're up to exes 5 and 6 the Katayanagi twins. That should prove to be rather difficult. And I'm drooling over Uncharted 3. Can not wait to play it. Alas, I'm trying to hold off on purchasing it to see if it crops up in any Black Friday ads. Here's to hoping I can avoid spoilers. I hear there are some real twists and turns in this one.

M is recovering nicely from her tonsillectomy. She's even managed to start talking again. There was a lot of finger spelling at the beginning of the week. Which was pretty useless where I was concerned. No matter how many times she tried to do it, I still don't read sign language.

I have no idea what the kids are going as for Halloween. I have no idea what I'm going as. Maybe I'll throw the lab coat on, grab a potato battery and claim to be a scientist for Aperture Science. Speaking of, I really liked this. I think I'm going to have to grab that song off iTunes when I get home. Apparently it makes an appearance in the game in one of the Ratman's hideaways. It was absent from the soundtrack Valve was giving out. But it will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine.

Hope you all have a perfectly horror filled Halloween.

Wandering through October

2011-10-20T14:38:00.001-06:00

Had a nice visit with family while they were in town. Attempted to fight off one of the Great Old Ones in a game of Elder Sign, but didn't quite manage a whole game due to starting a little later than was wise. And lots of kids running around. That game can play in around an hour, but not easily when you have a larger group and when the rules are still new. Fun was had though, so that's the important thing. It's probably just as well we didn't finish - the dice really weren't with us that night. I suspect we'd have all been devoured. As it was my poor character was driven insane, but was replaced by someone probably more prone to handling the situation we found ourselves in.

Lovely wife and I finished watching season one of Supernatural. I really liked that first season. Lots of varying monsters and not too much focus on yellow eyed demons or Sam's burgeoning psychic abilities. I'm pretty sure that's what killed later seasons for me.

We also had a good time celebrating lovely wife's birthday. She managed to convince me to take a small hike up one of the local canyons in an effort to see some of the changing leaves. There really weren't that many that had changed (surprisingly for this late in the year) but enough to have made it worthwhile I guess.

M is currently suffering the loss of her tonsils, but in spite of that seems to be doing well. Not exactly how I'd want to spend my Fall break, but that's ok.

Well, we've officially started the slide through the holiday/birthday season. Hopefully we manage to make it through with our sanity. I have my doubts.

Ready Player One

2011-10-13T14:59:00.000-06:00

I finished Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, handed it to lovely wife and then watched her devour it over a couple days. Yeah, it's that good. It is indeed the book I've enjoyed reading the most so far this year. It concerns itself with a treasure hunt. World has gone to pot, everybody spends their time in OASIS - think WoW mixed with Facebook and a couple other things. Guy that created it kicks the bucket and leaves behind an easter egg somewhere in the virtual world. You need three keys to find the egg. Commence searching. Oh and the guy that hid it? Totally loved the 80s. So the search becomes a road trip through everything 80s nostalgia. So good. Now, if you didn't live through the 80s and more to the point aren't a geek to some extent, you will probably only like this book. He does a fine job of explaining most of the references (leaving a couple for the reader to suss out) so you're never completely lost, but if you fit those criteria you are in for a real treat.

Redbox now carries videogames. So as I was curious about Demon's Souls back when it came out and the spiritual (heh) successor Dark Souls is now out, I thought I'd give it a go. $2 is certainly a better try it out price than $60. It's an interesting game. They're both known for their difficulty - you can expect to die a lot. No really, a lot. No, more than that. Keep going. A little more, there you go, that's about right. You choose a fantasy based character type, start the game off dead and then proceed to become more dead. Except for those times when you manage to come back to life. But you'll die again, don't worry. Enemies are tricky and out to kill you. They succeed. So, why do people play this? It's an interesting question. I think some of it stems from the absolute rush you get when you manage to make it past them. Every so often you will find camp fires, they serve as checkpoints of a sort. If you rest at them, you regain your health and refill your flask that lets you heal while out and about, but it also resets all the enemies you killed. So it becomes a kind of tug of war - do you press on, knowing you might die, but hoping to get just that little bit further, or do you heal up, knowing you've got to fight your way through?

Honestly the most intriguing thing about the game is listening to people talk about it. For example, I was stuck in the middle of Undeadburg trying to fight my way to the next camp fire. I'd managed to learn how to make it to a tower. Climbed said tower, got super lucky when the guardian must have fallen off or something - I sure didn't kill him, and then was confronted by a dragon guarding a bridge with a stair case going down about halfway across the bridge. I was certainly in no shape to fight the beast. I got barbecued a bunch of times trying to make it to that stupid stair case. Not to mention the numerous times I still died just getting to the dragon. Curse those guys and their spears! But I'd done it. Made it to the stair case. Started poking around a bit and there it was. A camp fire. But wait, it looked sort of familiar. That's right, it was the same camp fire I'd been starting at, I'd just kicked a ladder down to it so I could access the bridge under the dragon. I'd gone in a huge circle. I didn't know whether to laugh, cry or punch a hole through the tv. I seriously thought about returning that disc to the redbox snapped in half. But those moments when it goes right... I might have to pick it up when it gets cheap. For those times I feel like wondering why I ever play games.

Little and littlest sis are in town along with the rest of the crew. We sort of attempted the corn maze the other night. Between the rain making the ground a little too spongy and a late start causing it to be too dark to really see, we made it about halfway through before deciding bed time was the better part of valor and re traced our steps. The pig races were as enjoyable as always. G managed to win himself a pig nose thanks to Faith Squeal I think it was. We will get together some tomorrow and possibly again over the weekend for lovely wife's birthday shenanigans.

We've also been making our way through that first season of Supernatural. It really was pretty great. I liked it back when they focused on the monster a week formula. We shall see if it continues.

Fall arrives in force

2011-10-06T14:39:00.000-06:00

It's been a pretty rainy couple of days, finally driving the temperatures down where they belong. If you were unsure where Fall was, you don't have to wonder any more. There are even rumors of snow. Winter is coming indeed.

Caught the remakes of Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th. We'd seen the latter before. I'd actually forgotten how gruesome it is. I wonder if they're going to bother continuing it or not. As for the former, it was fine. Lovely wife didn't care for the new Freddy's voice, but after the initial shock I adjusted to it. I like Jackie Earle Haley and thought he did well. The story was a touch darker than the original, but mostly because they insisted on spelling a few things out. Freddy's ultimate plan for Nancy was certainly creepy.

I am this close to finishing Ready Player One. It is awesome. Probably the book I've enjoyed reading most all year. And that might well be including Wise Man's Fear. Admittedly part of it is due to the fact that the book is pretty much tailor made for me. Ok, a lot of it is. But it's still great. In honor of awesome 80s nostalgia, I present to you Zork. We called it a text adventure. You wacky kids today refer to it as interactive fiction. Either way, still awesome. And frustrating. Beware the grue.

Psst. There's free Portal 2 dlc available. More co-op levels and challenge mode for both single player and co-op. Oh and the entire soundtrack is available here.

I remember thinking when Steve Jobs left Apple that it would be interesting to see how they would fare without him. I thought he'd still be around for a few months. I was shocked yesterday to learn he had passed away. He will be missed.

Are you ready

2011-09-29T14:33:00.000-06:00

I could follow that up with "For Freddy?" but we'll get there.

September is rapidly drawing to a close. Letter 'r' gets to test out the waters of that last year in the 30s for a couple months before I take the plunge. I suspect it feels remarkably similar to things now.

Lovely wife and I watched Hanna last night. That was one intense little movie. I actually didn't know too much about it going in and I think that really made a difference in my enjoyment level. I knew she was raised as an assassin and that the Chemical Brothers did the soundtrack. Honestly part of the reason I watched it was to hear the soundtrack as there were people claiming it was as good or better than the Daft Punk Tron Legacy soundtrack. I'm not sure where I weigh in on that one. I did like it. I think Daft Punk gets the nod though. It would be interesting to hear the Hanna soundtrack divorced from the film. I think it might be odd... Anyway, if you haven't seen it, it's worth checking out.

If you have any love for the 80s, you need to read Ready Player One. I'm about halfway through it and loving it. It's awesome. Radical even. (Totally) It'll appeal a touch more to those with 80s geek cred, but I think anybody who lived through the 80s will find something to latch on to.

So, October approaches. I have several horror movies waiting for me on the hold shelf downstairs. At the moment I'm going with a remake theme. Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Let Me In all fall into that category. (The editions I snagged) I also have Monster Camp which is about LARPing and supposed to be good. We shall see. Will probably watch The Grudge when little sis is around. Still plan on Constantine and I may just snag the Paranormal Activity movies again. I've heard good things about the third one. Yay October.

McK and I managed a quick trial run of Elder Sign. It looks to be pretty good. Will go into more detail once I get a couple more games under my belt. I still need to mock up some bleach designs for t shirts. I want to make a couple horror themed shirts and maybe some game related ones as well.

So Amazon has announced their new tablet, the Kindle Fire. I am somewhat intrigued. I think I'm a little too tied to iTunes to really enjoy something that isn't an iPad but at $200 it might be worth looking into once I hear more about it. Especially as the Library is now loaning Kindle books. Speaking of, I played around with that and read Found the third Magic Thief book. It was good. I really enjoy that series. It also marks the first book I've actually been able to complete on a Kindle. I still don't find the reading experience that enjoyable on those things, but I see where they could be useful for traveling and so on. I will admit the whole checking a book out from the Library on the Kindle is pretty darn cool. I'm curious to see what happens once the checkout period is reached.

Title, title, who's got the title?

2011-09-22T14:57:00.000-06:00

Finished reading Jaws the other day. I read that book a long time ago and remember thinking it was different from the movie, but not much more than that. Reading it this time I mostly found it depressing. First, for a book about a shark, there's very little shark. Until the final Moby Dick-esque final act. It focuses mostly on the town and the people in it and they ways they cope with this threat to their town and livelihood. It's not really that pleasant reading about their lives and marriages falling apart. Although it does serve as a decent reminder that life is pretty fragile and all it takes to disrupt things is a giant man-eating fish.

Now I want fish tacos...

I've also made it through The Monstrumologist. I haven't decided what I think of it yet. It was much more gruesome than I was expecting. But good. Certainly a nice prelude to October and horror movie season.

Introduced the letter 'r' to Rivals for Catan over the weekend. He concurs that it is indeed a fine game. I'm really looking forward to some serious boardgaming in the next couple months. We got the shirts for Drucon all made up. They look pretty darn good I must say. I think I may have to start making some bleach shirts with patterns and what not on them. I really liked the way these turned out.

Mom's birthday was this past week. She is missed. And thoughts and prayers go out to little sis.
Also, lovely wife and I might test an old maxim about friendships in the next couple months.
We finished off the anime version of Supernatural. I suspect we're going to try watching the regular version now. Also we watched Season of the Witch an odd little movie starring Nic Cage and Ron Perlman. It was kind of silly, kind of fun. Oh yeah, The Mentalist starts back up tonight. That's grand.

Zombies and stuff

2011-09-15T14:25:00.000-06:00

Deadline Mira Grant's sequel to Feed was another fun romp through the zombie apocalypse. No campaign trail this time. But still plenty of conspiracy and banter. I think I liked Feed a touch more, but this one is good too. Wasn't real crazy about the twist at the end, but we'll see what happens in the final book in the series. Whenever it's out...

So I heard rumblings about an anime version of Supernatural a while back. The Library got it in and so lovely wife and I have been watching it. It's decent. I suspect we might end up watching the actual show again. It's a mix of revamped episodes from the first couple seasons and some original content. They actually got the guy that plays Sam to do his own character's voice. Dean is different for the bulk of the episodes, but the actor shows up for the last couple I believe. The actors do an intro for each episode that is part interesting, part goofy.

I've been listening to The Dice Tower podcast to get my boardgaming news fix lately. They have made some rumblings about a Top 100 list. It sounds like they're going to take user content to build a list as well. List your top 10 favorite board games kind of a thing. I thought I'd contemplate what games from my collection would constitute a top 10. Let's see: 7 Wonders, Blue Moon City, Coloretto, Dominion, Forbidden Island, Galaxy Trucker, Mansions of Madness, Pitchcar, Rivals for Catan, Ticket to Ride are the titles that would most likely make up the list. Not entirely certain how I'd rate them as far as a numerical order. I suppose it would also depend on whether I was going for how I felt about them or how often they get played.

I managed to snag a copy of Elder Sign before they all vanished. Depending on how it goes that might alter the face of the previous top 10. I technically snagged it for the upcoming Drucon, but maybe I can coerce lovely wife to let me get it out when family shows up in a month. Got to work those kinks out you know?

Speaking of family a birthday shout out to littlest sis and Grandpa. Got to talk to both of them on their respective days of birth. Sounds like a decent time was had by all. So yay them.

G informed us the other day that he wanted a little brother. I forget the exact reasoning behind this declaration but remember thinking it was amusing. Lovely wife can remind me in the comments or something. We informed him he was out of luck.

Here's to hoping I can avoid whatever plague lovely wife and McK are trying to start in our house. Gotta love going back to school...

Waiting for Fall

2011-09-08T14:30:00.000-06:00

And we're a week into September. It needs to cool down now and commence Fall appropriate weather. I'd really like the grass to stop growing and so on. Maybe if we start eating Fall sorts of foods we can encourage nature to take the hint. I recommend some good soups and stews and so on. Mmm. Chili!

I also recommend planning out horror movies for October. It will be here before you know it and you don't want to get caught unprepared. I'm trying to decide what to watch this year. So feel free to send in suggestions. I think I'll watch Constantine again simply because I find it a fun sort of film. Not scary, but fun. I think The Woman in Black starring that Radcliffe kid of Harry Potter fame looks pretty good. Oh, and Apollo 18 looks fun as well.

We had a decent Labor Day. After a false start or two we managed to grill some burgers. McK decided she wanted to play Mansions of Madness so we took a few hours and did that as well. I once again managed to kill off the poor party of investigators (this was actually a pretty gruesome encounter as I think I managed to kill three of them before it was over) with a horde of zombies and a Mi-go. Had they been a little more united in their searching I probably wouldn't have managed a victory. As it was they almost held out long enough to force an everybody loses scenario.

We also played a few older games - Tsuro and some Catan Dice and so on. It was a good weekend for relaxing and taking it easy.

Bleak outlooks

2011-09-01T14:26:00.000-06:00

Feed (the Mira Grant book this time) was quite excellent. In fact I've got the sequel waiting for me at the moment. I wasn't sure a story about some bloggers following a potential presidential candidate on the campaign trail in a post zombie apocalypse world would be that interesting, but it really was. It's actually a pretty good page turner. I really enjoyed the banter between the main characters. It'll be interesting to see how the sequel compares. Take that as an ominous warning if you will. I was a touch annoyed with the driving force behind the main villain (not the zombies, we know what drives zombies) but I can't honestly say I'm surprised by it.

Lev Grossman's The Magician King is something of a quandary for me. I really enjoyed the book up until the ending. And that ending... This might well be one of the bleakest books I think I've read in a long time. When he originally wrote The Magicians it was with the idea of doing Harry Potter/Narnia for grown ups (yes this is a generalization). This time I think he's just out to make sure that nothing good ever happens to anybody. I'm not convinced he's trying to place realistic outcomes on fantasy tropes so much as seeing what would happen if everything that could go wrong does. Again, I really did enjoy reading the book, this one's a page turner as well, but if you don't like depressing endings, stay far far away.

I like John le Carre's espionage style stories. We've started watching the BBC version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I'm hoping it picks up a little as the first episode was a little slow. I realize that's sort of par for the course when it comes to espionage (as opposed to spy thriller) but still, a little more plot a little less set up.

Oh and one more for the bleak files. This is both beautiful and heartbreaking. Haunting, really.

The baked good count is now at 1. (And there have been threats of more!) Just saying.

No new tales to tell

2011-08-25T14:30:00.000-06:00

Apparently, out here at any rate, the coverage of Earthquake '11 was handled by the MadTV crew. Lovely wife said it consisted of one sad chandelier swaying gently as if stirred by some otherworldly breeze. Her Dad managed to survive the ordeal, simply mourning the fact that he had to pick up a book that had fallen off the microwave. I suspect that was more fraught with danger than the earthquake. The letter 'r' did pass along a lovely commemorative photo.

13 Assassins is the best samurai period piece featuring a village of death and bulls on fire. And if that doesn't convince you to watch it then nothing I can say will.

So, school has started back up and the kids are now safely ensconced all day. I have not noticed an increase in either cats or baked goods, so lovely wife must still be awestruck by it all.

A local toy store was having a "store relocating at some point in the future" sale, so I took advantage of a nice 30% discount and picked up Rivals of Catan - a 2 player card game version of Settlers of Catan. It's actually really nice. I like the mechanics of the game and the way that the various resources are handled. There's a base version to introduce you to the way things work, three theme decks to add different types of play and a final no holds barred use everything you've got variant. So that's nice. It would be nice if more people could play it, but it is a really nice 2 player game. It captures the Catan feel quite nicely.

Not really much else to say. My sisters apparently think running is a bright idea and are training for a couple 5ks. On the one hand I wish them luck. On the other, they're nuts. But that's ok, someone in the family needs to be and I'm glad to be able to let them handle that. I have actually managed to exercise some lately, but not really in significant enough quantities to achieve anything other than a lack of sleep. Which is also partly why I've not been able to get a lot of exercise in. 5:00 AM arrives early enough as it is.

The short version

2011-08-18T14:54:00.000-06:00

Ok, I have now had Blogger eat a post. There was a rather lengthy (for me) discussion of the far too many books I'm currently reading, a couple movies we've seen and M's birthday party. I am not up to typing it in again and I can't seem to find it in my history. Bad Blogger! Here are the highlights. Sorry.

Wireless - short story collection by Charles Stross. Features one story in the Laundry universe (Hi Bob) and other sci fi confections. I liked it.

Rule 34 - Stross's new novel. May not get finished. Like the big picture plot, not crazy about the details.

The Magician King - sequel to Lev Grossman's The Magicians. It's brilliant so far.

Feed (Mira Grant version this time!), Monstrumologist, White Devil, Ready Player One all waiting in the wings and chomping at the bit to be read. Too many books all at once. And this from the guy at the Library. Yes. Stereotype or Irony or whatever you prefer.

Insidious - from the guys that brought you Paranormal Activity. I liked it, lovely wife refused to watch it based on the trailer. She missed out. In spite of being three horror movies shoved into one, it worked.

True Grit - quite good. Nice acting/storytelling, breathtaking landscapes and cinematography.

M's birthday party - Letter 'd' does not pretend to understand the minds of several tween girls, but in spite of the karaoke on the PS3 they seemed to have a good time. Why would they do that to the poor PS3? Also, who let M turn 10? I do not approve of this.

And I think that catches me up to where I was. Sorry for the lack of detail.

Portal's Lament

2011-08-11T14:52:00.000-06:00

So the lovely wife and I have Saved Science. Yes, the capitals are important. Which on the one hand is good - we completed the co-op campaign in Portal 2 and it was suitably brilliant. But on the other that means there are no more puzzles to do. And that is bad. I may have to play through it again to try and snag some of the trophies I missed and actually the commentary track was interesting, so I might do that too. I have heard that there should be some more content soon, so here's to hoping. Also, I need one of these. And I wouldn't mind a few Portal related bits of fun.

At the Library we send out notices to let people know they have overdue books. Quite a few of them come back undelivered as people have moved and so on. I got one in yesterday that had a large amount of handwriting on it informing us that the person was no longer there. And that we should try looking in Hell. They did express sorrow that we were cheated out of a book (most likely How to Live on the Streets and Steal from Other People). And then offered a couple suggestions on where else to look. It was quite amusing.

Also Dad has informed me that he tried his best to set himself on fire at work the other day. He is now distinctly lacking in body hair. I told him I did not recommend that course of action. Actually I think I said things more along the lines of "OHMIGOSH ARE YOU OK?" I suspect they get to reset their days without an accident counter... Fortunately he got away with a only couple first degree burns.

We had a lovely game day on Saturday. There was lots of yummy food and several games were played. I managed a rather stunning victory in Dominion as I tried out a chapel deck. It's an interesting strategy alright. Lovely wife proved to be quite the racer at Pitchcar and we managed to eke out a photo finish victory on Forbidden Island. (Honestly the movie version of that game would have been amazing - the heroes lifting off from the Island as the last bits of land sank into the ocean - truly epic.) I really enjoy game days. I think we're going to make some bleach shirts for DruCon this year.

What passes for normal

2011-08-04T14:26:00.000-06:00

I read MT Anderson's Feed by mistake. Sort of. I meant to read it some time ago, but this time I thought I was really picking up Mira Grant's Feed. It was not terrible as mistakes go. Anderson's book is a dystopic look at kids that are constantly hooked up to the internet via implant. It constantly talks to them, pushes products at them, plays entertainment in the background - that sort of thing. A group of friends starts off on a trip to the Moon (it sucks) and while there they get hacked and are unable to connect for a bit. It's fixed and their lives go mostly back to normal. The main character met a girl while there and the story follows the two of them as they get to know each other and things start to happen to her feed. It's a terribly depressing book for lots of reasons. While I was reading it I was under the mistaken impression that a sequel was due soon (that'd be Grant's book) and so I thought there was some hope for the ending. There isn't. (To my knowledge) So, it's certainly worth reading, but bear in mind that the ending is the end. Everything must go indeed.

I've also been going through Robert Asprin's Myth books again. Still hilarious. I'm actually at the point in the series where I'm reading new material. Yay.

If you listen closely you can hear the approaching school year. It's just under two weeks away. Lovely wife is trying to decide just what her days will be like. All the kids will now be in school all day. Such a milestone. Here's to hoping she doesn't go crazy and start filling the house with pies. Or cats. Well, cats might be ok...

Lovely wife and I have been making our way through the co-op Portal 2 missions. So much fun. So devious. We are actually pretty close to saving science. With portals. There needs to be more Portal. I have heard rumors that Glados' voice actress was recording more dialog. Let's hope new content arrives soon.

Zzzzz

2011-07-28T14:15:00.000-06:00

I am too tired to string coherent thoughts together. Instead you should go here, for there are some truly awesome and amusing things happening there at the moment. In fact I may just set this blog up to redirect there as it would be far more enjoyable for all of you. Allegedly.

We watched Sucker Punch the other night. For a movie with no plot it was alright. Certainly pretty, but it's Snyder so that's pretty much the default setting. I can't really recommend it, but it wasn't the worst thing I've ever seen either.

I can recommend you go watch this though. Can not wait for that to come out. Day one.

I think that's about all I'm good for at the moment.

More noise than signal

2011-07-21T14:27:00.000-06:00

Kiss Me Deadly is a great example of film noir. Detective Mike Hammer gets roped into a case by a dame and then stumbles his way through a plot that ends with quite a bang. If you like old detective movies, this one fits the bill. Some truly wonderful moments in this one. Track it down.

Hatchet was a decent old school slasher. I'm beginning to like Adam Green. And it had some really funny lines. It would have fit right in with anything we watched in High School.

Jo Nesbo's The Snowman was an interesting Scandinavian thriller. It follows detective Harry Hole as he confronts Norway's first serial killer. Or at least first acknowledged one. I still haven't read Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but I can see why there's some appeal to foreign crime fiction. This one had a nicely escalating plot and some pretty dramatic moments. Worth reading.

I've been hearing the siren song of the Dungeon Crawl of late and so I've gotten back to Dungeon Hunter: Alliance - still lots of fun it is. Although I do not approve of giving the enemies bows. It's my job to stand back and pick them off, not the other way around. And those magic users!

My sisters have started the campaign to try and convince me to drive down to Arizona for my birthday this year early. I remain pretty steadfastly unconvinced of the merits of this campaign. Mass chaos and uncertain sleeping conditions are more bugs than features. Although, yes, it would be nice to see everyone. We should just meet in Moab and take over the Aarchway Inn again.

Fortunately it's a three day weekend. I'm feeling a strong need to sleep through it...

From amusing to not so

2011-07-14T14:32:00.000-06:00

I recently had the chance to read The Adventures of the Princess and Mr Whiffle: The Thing Under the Bed by Patrick Rothfuss. Yes, I've mentioned him before. I am very torn on what to say about the book. It's a picture book, that's obvious from the outside. It's also subversively brilliant. I think I'll leave it as that as you should all track down a copy and read it for yourselves. If you choose to read it to young, impressionable children types stop at ending the first. You have been warned. Otherwise enjoy it. And once you've read it go back through it again and really look at the pictures (no really looking at the pictures the first time!). It's truly a brilliant book and there's a lot packed in. I'm a little in awe actually.

So. The Fit decided it was done going about a week ago. Lovely wife managed to get it into the shop bright and early this morning. Where they promptly ignored it for several hours. Not impressed. They finally did get a look at it, realized some parts were bad and then informed us that they didn't actually have said parts, but they'd show up by tomorrow at 4... Impression now below sea level. Fortunately I've been able to drive our other car to work, but that's left lovely wife a little stranded the last couple days. And we actually had things that needed to be done today. Honda won't get all that amazing a review from us this time should we actually get a survey. On top of all that lovely wife has plans tomorrow that this is once again going to get in the way of. Oh well. The silver lining is that at least the parts themselves are still under warranty so that saves us about $700. We still have to pay the $200 for installation and adjustments though. There goes the lovely little bonus we got from work the other day...

The kids have decided to re-enact that Calvin and Hobbes story line where he finds the injured critter and tries to take care of it prior to dying like most injured critters tend to do. They are going the baby bird route. I believe we have sacrificed a wash cloth and some sugar water.

The recent animated film The Illusionist (not to be confused with the Ed Norton live action flick from a few years back) by the guy that did Triplets of Belleville is amazingly beautiful to look at (and features Scotland - there are some great scenes of Edinburgh as well as landmarks that I actually recognized) but something of a downer. The rabbit is pretty awesome though. It's worth watching, but do take note that it's not exactly a happy tale.

I managed to once again squash those puny investigators as we played Mansions of Madness over the weekend. It was a pretty good game. I liked the scenario we were playing and even have a few ideas about things I'd try differently if we were to do it again. Lovely wife then proved quite the rail baron and eked out a victory in Ticket to Ride: Marklin. Gotta watch her like a hawk. That game really plays better with four or more players.

In which I succumb to Eliot

2011-07-07T14:52:00.000-06:00

Well, this morning certainly started not with a bang but a whimper. From my car that is. I went to leave for work only to have my car express different intentions. It contemplated starting up before deciding to die once placed in reverse. It then started up again only to display the check engine light a couple blocks down the road. So I came back home and stole lovely wife's van. I attempted to explain this to her, but she was less than conscious at 6 AM. Oh well. She figured it out. And ran around a bit in an effort to fix my car. So hopefully it's running a little better now. I suspect a bad batch of gas was the culprit. Engine was running lean. Whatever that means...

I have finished the Portal 2 single player campaign. And it was awesome. The ending is great. Such a great game - I highly recommend it to everyone (and some of those last puzzles are fiendish!). Now to attempt the co-op puzzles. Mwa ha ha ha.

McK did indeed place 2nd in the Girls' Softball league. So congrats to her. The were doing ok in what might have been the penultimate game until that third inning and the other team managed to rack up more points than they could overcome. Alas.

I am ready for summer to be over. In spite of the fact that it hasn't been around that long. It's seriously messing with my sleep schedule. Stupid heat. I'm in the wrapped in cotton insomnia phase. Not quite the waterbeds for cats phase.

We had a decent 4th if I ignore the stomach bug that attacked Saturday evening. Got dragged over to the letter 'r's so we could enjoy the show from their balcony. It was a nice fireworks show. Still kept me up too late. Apparently we scored them a few points with their neighbors when we shot off our fireworks. We bought one of the fancy no longer illegal types. I like fireworks. I think it would be fascinating to learn to make them.

In slightly amusing G news, he decided to play Uncharted at the park the other day and run away from the yetis while traversing the various playground equipment. So funny that kid. We're not waiting for Uncharted 3, nope, not at all.

Back in the saddle

2011-06-30T14:43:00.001-06:00

Books. Games. A week off. So many things. Where to start?

We had a great visit with Dad while he was out. They're always too short and too few. We only had a couple small projects for him this time. We installed a digital thermostat and replaced the light fixture that decided to throw itself to the floor when we replaced the roof. The rest of the time was spent visiting the park or hitting Liberty Land or the pool or the driving range. It was a pretty eventful trip. There was some relaxing in there as well. I also learned that Dad is pretty incapable of walking and looking while trying to play Portal 2. Oh well, nobody's perfect... G enjoyed the laser tag (and the pirate game - don't ask) as did the girls. Although our poor team didn't fare very well. I managed the top spot on our team and 11th overall ranking. Somehow.

While at Liberty Land we also had a lot of fun with a video game version of that scene from Entrapment - you go into this little room and hit the start button to make a bunch of lasers show up, you then have to make your way to the other side of the room, hit a button and then make your way back to hit the stop button. All while trying to do it as quickly as possible and without hitting the lasers. Good fun.

Mostly as I can't be bothered with in depth thoughts on the following here are some quick responses on the many things I've read recently:

Reality is Broken - save the world through gaming. Some interesting ideas, not convinced of her conclusions. worth reading and talking about though.

Demonglass - the second Hex Hall book. Silly good fun. And such a cliffhanger!

Robopocalypse - World War Z with robots. Some of the world building is a little lacking, but pretty fun. Read it.

Fullmetal Alchemist volumes something or other to 24 - good. Series is winding up. What's going to happen? Also a lot gorier than earlier installments.

That should cover the books. I've also been playing a fair amount of Portal 2. It was a Father's Day gift and it's brilliant. So funny. If you like puzzles at all and have a sense of humor you need to be playing this game. There is nothing better than making your way through a tricky room and then getting some hilarious dialog as a reward. The co-op is pretty good as well. Best new game I've played.

I've also been toying around with the Uncharted 3 multi player beta. Now that they've released an update it seems more stable. I can't wait for the actual game. The multi player is decent. I'm horrible at it, but it's fun.

McK has her final softball game of the season tonight (barring possible thunderstorms). Somehow her team managed to make it to the last game. So her team will most likely place second, but still anything is possible. Good luck McK!

Camping, random places on the net

2011-06-16T14:38:00.000-06:00

First, I'll just leave these here, shall I? Thing 1 and Thing 2. I should also point out that there's a lot of funny stuff if you hit the main page for Thing 2.

So. I ventured out into the wild and survived the Fathers and Sons camp out over the weekend. G was pleased. The camp site was actually pretty nice - we were in a group spot that had well manicured grass and some tables and a fire pit and so on. There was a nice little pavilion with restrooms and a man made reservoir sort of thing that you could theoretically swim or fish in. I got roped into telling a bear story for the evening get together. It was very last minute. The tent we were in was nice, it even had a little "porch" area that was screened in. Very cool. The air mattress we brought along could have used a little more air in it and I would have liked to have gotten some (any) sleep that night, but overall it was not the worst experience ever.

We picked up Hive for our anniversary. Well, lovely wife ended up giving it to me, but whatever. After a rather argumentative first game we've managed to get things sorted out a bit. It's actually pretty fun and is one of those games you can take anywhere. In fact we played it at JCWs the other night. It's a two player game in which you each have a set of pieces that represent various bugs. The bee piece is your important piece and the object is to surround your opponent's bee with pieces of your color. There are 4 different bugs (not counting the bee or the expansion pieces) that you can use in various ways to accomplish this (you have several of each type). The pieces are hexagonal, so you'll eventually need 6 of them to win the game. You take turns placing pieces or moving the existing ones around, so the "board" is built over the course of the game. It's a decent little strategy game. McK is actually pretty good at it and has managed some wins over lovely wife.

I finished off Evangelion. I suspect most people (and possibly myself in the future) can simply watch the first 24 episodes and call it good. 25 and 26 offer a navel-gaze-y alternate take to the ending. Or expansion of the ending. Death and Rebirth is mostly pointless if you have access to the TV series and End of Evangelion. End of Evangelion does offer some relatively interesting plotting that happens where the TV series left off, but then also goes all navel gaze-y. I understand why those parts do have some meaning, especially in context of the show as a whole, but I prefer the straight story telling. So yeah, fun subversion of the giant robot genre, but not really for everyone. Especially the end bits. I like it. And the revamp the new movies are doing.

Vacation looms in my future. Dad should be out soon and that will be fun. I think I may try taking him to the driving range and hitting a bucket of balls. It will be nice to have a bit of a break. I could use one.

Maybe something about fish tacos?

2011-06-09T14:27:00.000-06:00

I really don't have anything worth passing along. I did make it to one of McK's softball games over the weekend. It was ... interesting. Granted they had maybe 3 practices at the beginning of the season and a few games/practices since then, but it was only occasionally softball being played. The other team was one member short and so if our team managed a decent hit, points tended to be scored. I've heard they've pulled together a little more since, but I suspect the winner is still determined by who plays less badly... ^_^

Lovely wife and I managed to find a restaurant to celebrate our anniversary in. A new place called the Blue Lemon. It's either a decent priced trendy place or a slightly high priced sit down place. Guess it depends on how you see your glass of cucumber water (which was strangely delicious). I had fish tacos (served fajita style) and lovely wife had some grilled chicken with sun dried tomatoes and artichoke. It was actually a pretty nice place and I'd eat there again. Food was good and the atmosphere was nice if a bit loud.

G and I have been playing some Little Big Planet courtesy of the Welcome Back package Sony offered after PSN came back. It's a cute little game. Better than I expected it to be. Would like to mess around with creating levels, but I'm sure it's a little more difficult than I expect it to be.

Speaking of G I am getting dragged to the Fathers and Sons camp out this weekend. He is excited, I am not. I'm mostly hoping to just make it through the event. Especially as I've done something horrific to my neck/shoulder and haven't been able to sit/sleep/do much of anything for the last few days. Alas.

More thoughts on giant robots and grave robbing and evil plans

2011-06-02T14:26:00.001-06:00

I have indeed started watching the TV series version of Evangelion again. I'm not certain I can pinpoint why this series is fascinating me at the moment, but it is. I suppose it might be the way it subverts the traditional giant robot genre (ok, not really) or it might be the philosophical treatise it weaves on why we need each other (definitely not) it's probably just the dance dance giant robot sequence in one of the upcoming episodes...

I have finished Rotters by Daniel Kraus. Yes, it's a book about grave robbing. And yes it can be pretty disgusting at times, but boy is it awesome. Little sis needs to hit the local library and check this one out. Joey Crouch loses his Mom at the beginning of the book and, per her wishes, is sent to live with the Dad he barely knows exists. Once in the tiny town he calls home he discovers that the townsfolk are none too impressed with his Father and that overshadows a lot of his life at school. The beginning of the book sets up the pieces - Joey, his Dad, his Dad's profession, the kids at school, the teachers, etc. and then the rest of the book is a serious roller coaster of events that you just can't quite believe. Just when you think the story has topped out at the craziest thing that can happen something else comes along and demolishes it. Rotters builds to a crescendo of ... well that would be telling, but believe me, it's a crescendo. And it's one heck of a ride. So, if you can stomach the subject matter, definitely give this one a go.

The roof is finished. We managed to make use of the two sunny days we had and got it done. So yay for that. Also a happy birthday to lovely wife's Mom. Wish you were here, we'd have a party. Dad's birthday is coming up quick (and he'll be out soon so we can have something similar to a party) and in between is some sort of anniversary or something. I forget.

16 years.

Actually, there was an interesting bit in Reality is Broken (the current book I'm reading - save the world through gaming says Jane McGonigal) about how one of the emotions that gaming encourages and we need is "happy embarrassment". That teasing we do to those we trust. So apparently there is a purpose to all that trash talking. See dear? I'm doing it for your own good. Who knew?

Which leads to another funny story. Here, allow me to cut and paste from a nightmare McK had early this morning (while changing pronouns):

Apparently I told lovely wife that I had a big gift for her for our anniversary and when she asked what it was, I said a divorce and gave her the weekend to pack up and move out of the house, taking M and G with her and leaving Mck with me. Dream then jumps to thanksgiving where we get together as a family one last time and I announce I am getting remarried and McK hates my girlfriend.

Which, ok, bizarre nightmare spawned by one too many jokes at the dinner table or a friend going through it, or something she read, or one too many viewings of the Parent Trap or whatever. The funny bit was my reply to lovely wife where I told her that if I was really mean I'd use me secret dream knowledge for EVIL and get home tonight and at dinner announce I had a big gift for her for our anniversary. I can't decide if I'm that evil or not. But it still makes me chuckle a little bit to think about. So I'm at least a little evil. But we all knew that.

Giant robots, virtual worlds, it all ends in the grave

2011-05-26T14:27:00.001-06:00

Last night lovely wife and I watched Summer Wars, an anime movie by the guy that did The Girl Who Leapt through Time. I liked this one quite a bit. It's got some great messages about family and life. Natsuki hires Kenji for a four day summer job (as her fiance he finds out a little too late). While meeting and dealing with her family (led by a most awesome 90 year old Great Grandmother) the virtual world OZ that runs pretty much the entire planet comes under attack. And Kenji seems to be at fault for that as well. There's a fair amount of humor and tension and Hanafuda cards. It really is worth seeing. Even if that description doesn't fill you with excitement (Hanafuda cards! Are you emotionally dead?!) Lovely wife recommends it as well, so there you go.

A while back (years) we watched Neon Genesis Evangelion, an anime series that turned the Giant Robot genre on its head. I found it pretty fascinating even though it got really strange towards the end. It didn't help that Gainax (the studio creating the show) ran out of money and lots of corners were cut and so on. There were a couple movies that attempted to summarize and retell the ending of the TV show, but those didn't really clear things up either. So they've once again decided to try their hand at telling this story. They're rebuilding Evangelion over the course of 4 movies. The first two are currently out on DVD. 1.11 - You Are (Not) Alone and 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance. The first movie follows the plot of the TV series pretty closely. The second starts to deviate in significant ways and ends on one heck of a cliffhanger. I've found them to be a lot of fun to watch. The second one was better in my opinion - it features a lot of humor and a lot of truly shocking/heart wrenching moments. The problem is, I think you almost have to have seen the TV show to really appreciate it. I'm really not sure what a complete new comer would make of it. Heck, I don't remember all the details and as I did a little digging on Wikipedia there are things that suddenly make a lot more sense as I look back at them. I may have to watch the original series again.

I'll save most of my thoughts for when I finish, but Rotters is awesome. It's a book about grave robbing. (Did I mention it's awesome?)

We need to replace our roof. Unfortunately this means tearing off the old roof and putting new shingles on. Normally this wouldn't be a problem. Except we're having the weirdest Spring we've had in years. A lot of rain and so on. So at the moment it's half done. We managed to get the lower roof torn down and re-shingled. Now we just need a good enough break in the weather we can do the last half... I am glad I'm not a roofer. I was extremely sore that next day. Honestly I'm impressed I made it up on the roof. Really don't like heights. I've narrowed it down a touch more to really not liking ladders.

Thoughts and prayers go out to little sis and family and letter 'r' and family. You could all use a break.

Apparently McK is enjoying softball. And has managed to score a couple points.

Scratch that, here comes the rain

2011-05-19T14:18:00.000-06:00

So. We were supposed to start tearing off our old roof in preparation for the new roof today. It's raining. A lot. And has been for a few days now. This is making things difficult. Also, due to unfamiliarity with new basement layout due to new couch I decided to seriously stub my toes resulting in one partially ripped off toenail and a possible second toenail that may fall off. And last night G crawled into bed claiming fear of rain or something, took over most of my side of the bed causing me to sleep in some odd contortion that has left me with debilitating neck/back pain since this morning. Which 3 Motrin and 2 Aleve have done absolutely nothing to fix.

I am not a happy camper right now.

I could relay the True Tale of Postal Stupidity that occurred yesterday, but that would just push things over the edge. Rest assured that there is indeed a reason the USPS is going under right now. And I am privy to it.

We managed to give our talks last Sunday. It went fine. I had to chop mine roughly in half as there just wasn't a lot of time left. I was ok with that.

We are currently caught up on our DVD viewing from the Library. Weird. I have no idea what to do in the evenings now. Although tonight will involve the Mentalist season finale. Lovely wife seemed to think we could actually talk to each other. I may start referring to her as Silly wife if that keeps up. (Actually we talk all the time, I blame that for our upcoming anniversary. Hmm. Maybe I'll get her a lack of talking for an anniversary gift...)

Anyway, I absolutely can not focus any more due to the spike that is currently being driven into the back of my neck. So, go forth and internet.

Here comes the sun

2011-05-14T06:46:00.001-06:00

I've actually been able to sit outside at lunch time and read. It's been quite nice. Although it means that once again the grass (and the dandelions, oh the dandelions) will start growing uncontrollably.

Christopher Farnsworth's The President's Vampire is the sequel to Blood Oath. About, well, the President's vampire. (Attack vampire! Attack!) It's a decent summer popcorn book. There are a lot more overt Lovecraftian nods in this one (my favorite was Connecticut Hulu or something along those lines) mostly to the Innsmouth bits. I will have you know that my Rock Band band name is Innsmouth Look. This did not color my judgement of this particular story however. Cade is back with Zach who is once again playing go between for him and the real world. Things are bad, world is in danger, etc. etc. Like I said typical summer popcorn book. Or beach read if you prefer. It succeeds at what it is. I enjoy the series well enough and will read more. If you like action-y books with slight horror overtones, pick this one up. Also Bin Laden is killed off at the beginning. I believe the book came out something like 4 days prior to the real world execution. I don't think Farnsworth minded the timing...

I finished Heavy Rain. I did not get the best ending although I didn't do too badly. It was quite a game. Very tense. Probably one of the most immersive games I've ever played. I suspect I'll play through it again to see what I can change in the story line. I've been pretty impressed with the PS3's library so far. Of the handful of games I own a lot of them are games that I would play through multiple times (or have). That doesn't happen a lot. I tend to play through and be done.

McK is now officially a teenager. And she has officially acquired her Kindle. After playing with the device some I have determined that they're not really for me. I keep wanting it to do other things. I suspect I'd be far more at home with an iPad. It can do the ebook thing and also surf the web and play games and handle video content and yadda yadda. I don't really feel the need to have a device that's just for books like an iPod is for music. It's cool that you can shove a bunch of them on there and I can see how it would be handy when traveling, but that's about it. Otherwise I'm fine with an actual book. (In fact I think I like them better) Although it is pretty cool to have all of Lovecraft's stuff on the device. Well most of it. Hey look, Innsmouth...

Lovely wife had a suitably lovely Mother's Day. I missed Mom some once again, but it was fun watching the kids try to spoil lovely wife. She even managed to get the girls to make a passable Chicken Divan.

Neverending amusement

2011-05-05T14:42:00.000-06:00

Let's talk about Haruhi Suzumiya for a second. Lovely wife and I just finished watching the second season of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. It's sort of an odd creature, much like Haruhi herself. It's an anime series that follows some high school students as they are drawn to and influenced by the titular Haruhi for varying reasons. She forms an afterschool club (the SOS Brigade) in order to solve mysteries and hunt down aliens, time travelers, espers, etc. Never cottoning on to the fact that 3/5 of said brigade is made up of just that. Haruhi has the ability to alter reality to suit her whims. Kyon, the male protagonist, is your relatively normal high school guy who just happens to be the one guy Haruhi secretly relies on. The rest of them are trying to keep an eye on her/keep her from destroying the universe. It's good wacky fun.

Season two of the show is infamous for one (well 8) specific reason(s). The Endless 8 arc is eight episodes where the characters are caught in a time loop reliving the same 2 weeks of summer over and over. And the eight episodes are virtually the same. To be fair, the first, second and final episodes do have some differences - the introduction of the arc, the cottoning on to being stuck in the loop and the resolution, but the other 5 are all variations on the theme. The outfits they wear to the various activities change, the lines are spoken slightly differently but that's about it. It really is the same episode eight times. And it's brilliant. Personally I found it to be a great rendition of the "stuck in a time loop" story. And it makes for a great joke. Mostly because they actually carried it on for eight episodes. If they'd gone fewer, it would have lessened the impact and more would have killed it. There are those that think that eight killed it. They're wrong. I hadn't actually intended to watch all eight episodes, but found myself intrigued by what little changes would occur and so went ahead and watched them all. The rest of the season involves a trip to the past to see the event that started everyone's interest in Haruhi and the making of the movie they show in season one. Also fun episodes.

So yeah, Haruhi is pretty great...

Uzumaki is a silly Japanese horror movie. The spirals are going to get you. There are a couple moments that are decent, but over all this one is a pass.

McK officially joins the ranks of teenager-dom in a few days. She's not as ready as she thinks she is. Although certainly more ready than I think she is too. Lovely wife's Dad decided she needed a Kindle to celebrate the occasion. I'm not as convinced, but it's already in the house, so I guess we'll see how that goes. Considering I don't really spend money on books now that I work in a Library, it may end up being the emptiest Kindle in existence. Feel free to contribute to the Kindle fund if you feel so inclined. Although the first thing I'm putting on there is a collection of Lovecraft. After that she can start to tailor it to her interests. Mwa ha ha ha ha. (While it's nominally hers, the rest of the family gets a chance to play with it too)

G once again decided to add character to his face by throwing himself off his bike. Managed some pretty good scrapes in addition to a black eye and some swelling. Little dude looked pretty pathetic that first night. Especially after lovely wife insisted on mummifying him in gauze and tape. He's doing better now, although there's definitely still some bruising.

I guess I should mention M, lest she suffer even more from middle child syndrome. She had a concert last night that ran far too late and neither of us made it to. (Although apparently we should have gone as we might have missed getting asked to speak in Church in a week...) So we are indeed doing our part to make sure she has Severe Parental Issues. Other than that she's fine. Girl is part weed - she lives outdoors and insists on growing no matter what you do.

Never play 7 Wonders with the letter 'r'. Unless you like losing. Badly. Good thing the game is fun to play, pretty much regardless of how it ends. I just like seeing my little civilization take shape.

Yeah, I got nothin'

2011-04-28T14:25:00.000-06:00

I hate Spring. It plays absolute havoc with my sinuses and forces me to get out the lawn mower. Stupid Spring... Summer isn't much better.

We watched Harry Potter 7.1. It was horrible. This is mostly due to the fact that the first half of the seventh book is just about the most wretched thing in existence. I actually have some small hopes for the second half this summer. They are based on the fact that the end of the first half did start getting a touch better. It will be interesting to see if nothing else. I really don't know why they let Rowling get away with that travesty that was the first half. Oh yeah, she made a ton of money...

Lovely wife and I went to Rubio's the other day. Fish tacos are yummy. I had the blackened mahi mahi and it was great. I may have to learn to make fish tacos now. I wonder if I can pull that off on the grill... Hmm. How exactly do you grill fish? Don't you need a smaller grill surface? Do you put something down? I shall have to investigate.

20th Century Boys continues to be fun to read. I'm somewhere in the middle of the series, so I won't bore you with details.

I suppose I should have an opinion on the absolutely massive data theft Sony went through this past week. Especially since I'm one of the people affected by it. It doesn't look like credit card data was stolen, but just about everything else was. I'm certainly a touch annoyed, but mostly we're trying to keep an eye out to make sure our accounts are ok. Time to change some passwords as well I suspect. I can tell you that I'll pretty much stick to prepaid cards from this point on. I almost tried to figure out how to yank my credit card data out of there a while back as well... That'll teach me.

Bigger on the inside

2011-04-21T15:02:00.003-06:00

I don't remember quite how old I was when I started watching Dr Who. Very few of my memories are tied to specific dates. Honestly very few of them are tied to specifics. I remember snatches of things and emotions attached to those bits of ephemera. But I remember watching it. Tom Baker was the current incarnation (he of the scarf and curly hair) and of the companions that orbited around him Sarah Jane was the one that stood out. I have fond memories of those times and, to me, Elisabeth Sladen was the epitome of the Doctor's companion. I loved her - she was funny and smart and cute and tough and you get the idea. Which is why I was terribly saddened earlier this week to learn that she had passed away. I'm not sure why it's hit me the way it has. Part of it is probably the little memories that people are sharing around the internet that match my own. Part of it is nostalgia I suspect. But regardless of why, she will be missed. It was great to see her again on the new series and from the sounds of things I need to give her spinoff a try. Rest in peace Elisabeth, you will be missed. Here's a lovely little song that Neil Gaiman tweeted right after the news broke.

In an obvious segue, the new season of Dr Who starts up this weekend. I'm sure we shall be gathered around the tv to watch. If for no other reason than to see what happens until Neil Gaiman's episode shows up to make little kids hide behind the couch and cry.

We wrapped up the second season of School Rumble. It was a different sort of experience from the first season. There was a very loose plot that wandered through the episodes (Tenma still pines for Karasuma and Harima still pines for Tenma and so on) but for the most part they focused on parodying various sources - Power Rangers, sports shows, I think there was even a Drifting Classroom reference. So if you knew what they were going for it could be pretty amusing. Other times it was just weird. And, of course, in typical romantic comedy fashion, they didn't really resolve any of the relationships. In fact I suspect things were actually a touch murkier than they started out. The manga is probably still ongoing and the anime may well be also. I liked it, lovely wife a bit less so, but I'd certainly be open to more. And if there was some progress, so would lovely wife.

Polished off Making Money by Terry Pratchett. It was typical Discworld fun. I don't know that I have that much more to say about it.

A Happy Easter in advance to all of you.

I dunno . . . stuff

2011-04-14T14:17:00.000-06:00

Honestly I don't know that there's really anything worth rambling on about. I'm getting some enjoyment out of the Tomb Raider Trilogy currently out. I'm playing through Anniversary at the moment as I wanted to see how they handled the remake of the original game. It's fun. And far easier to play in parts than the original was. Which isn't to say it's without fault. The camera in this game is downright swimmy. I actually can't play too much at a time or it just leaves me with a headache. It's too loose or something. Not entirely certain how to describe it. And there are still some needless deaths due to not being able to quite line up. That's one thing I like about Uncharted. For the most part it knows where you're jumping and just lets you do it. Occasionally you'll be a little off, but not nearly as badly as here. Look forward to the other games.

I picked up Dungeon Hunter: Alliance as I wanted a fun little hack and slash game. It's just now out on PSN. If there are any other dungeon crawling dudes out there that want to co-op through the game, let me know. (And the Might and Magic demo is pretty cool too...)

A Happy Birthday goes out to little sis. She claims to be getting old. I roll my eyes at her. And her comments about getting close to 40. Close. Ha. I'll show her what close is in November. And then start the slow march to the top of the hill.

The lawn seems to think it needs to grow. I'm unimpressed with this notion.

Rumor has it that a family picture is being taken this week. In order to make sure it is as interesting as possible, G decided to throw his chin at the concrete steps in front of our house. He is patched up now. And insists on being called Indiana Jones as he now has a scar on his chin. Well, at least, that's what lovely wife claims. I have yet to find any ancient artifacts or dead Nazis, so I'm a little skeptical.

Similarities noted, ends reached, paper folded

2011-04-07T14:36:00.000-06:00

I have finished Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. I'm not entirely certain what to say about it. There are things I was surprised by (the amount of time spent at the University) and things that were grand and things that were foreboding and things that were funny and... well, you get the idea. It's a great book. I'm not sure if it's better or worse than Name of the Wind, so I'll settle for equal. I certainly look forward to the last book and have some slight fears that things will Not End Well. I shall have to read it again.

We're currently watching season 2 of School Rumble. I've missed this show. It's still absolutely hilarious. The 2nd and 3rd episodes reminded me of the paintball episode of Community, except that instead of riffing on 28 Days Later, they were going for Battle Royale. Without the silly weapons. Although there was a silly outfit. It's great.

It is now the stupid weather phase here. I rather dislike April and May because the temperatures are all over the place. We're supposed to have some snow over the next couple days and it looks like it's thinking about it at the moment. Bring back late Fall... Of course now I have to start worrying about the lawn and getting the mower into some state of readiness. Bleh.

I have learned to make jumping frog and wing flapping crane origami. They are quite fun. I was hoping to make a time delayed frog as seen in the first episode of The Mentalist, but apparently there is no such thing. Clever TV trickery!

In which I express frustration with technology

2011-03-31T14:29:00.000-06:00

We finished watching season one of the British Being Human. I'm not entirely certain why people like this show. Or thought it needed a remake. The first 4 episodes (maybe 3 1/2) of 6 were not particularly enjoyable. George (the werewolf) is probably the standout character. Annie (the ghost) wasn't that great (barring her brief tenure as poltergeist) and mostly suffered from being far too predictable in her plotting. The killer was X? Gee, I didn't see that coming two seconds after she was introduced... Mitchell (the vampire) suffers from some predictable plotting as well. They do have good chemistry, but I'm in no hurry to see season 2.

So. For some time our receiver has been slowly dying. There's a short that causes the center channel to just stop working. Which makes hearing dialog difficult. Ran into a nice sale at Amazon and picked up a new one that has apparently just arrived. Which means I now get to pull the tv out, yank out the old receiver try to sort out what's plugged into where and then get everything plugged into the new receiver. And hope it all works. I am not expecting to enjoy this process.

However it will be a cakewalk compared to replacing our computer. It's also slowly dying and in need of an upgrade. I suspect we'll stick with Apple, but I'm really not looking forward to getting everything working again. Mostly as I need to transfer all the music and so on over to the new computer. I'm sure it will go well.

There needs to be a way that this just happens. That doesn't involve paying teenagers to come do it for you. I am looking forward to the fact that apparently the new receiver auto adjusts the speakers for you. That will be nice. Assuming I can figure out how to make it all work.

Finished up Emily Strange: Dark Times. It wasn't quite as good as the first one, but it wasn't horrible either. Some nice quirky humor.

M is currently performing in Mulan as a background singer. It's a little ridiculous the lengths they're going to for a grade school musical, but they do a good job. The costumes and set are all really nice and there are only a few things that remind you it's a grade school. Not convinced it's worth the money they've required for it (we had to pay so she could be in it and pay to go see it and make her costume and...) but she has had fun. I think it's starting to wear on her a little, but that's not surprising. So good job M!

Spoooooky

2011-03-24T14:25:00.000-06:00

Finally got a chance to take in Paranormal Activity 2. I really liked it. I enjoy these movies quite a bit actually. I find movies that are more on the psychological side to be spookier than their slasher counterparts (although they can certainly be fun). Lovely wife continued to be freaked out by this series. So that's a plus as well. I found the way that the sequel intertwined with the first movie intriguing. And of course the next morning I left all the cabinet doors and drawers in the kitchen open as a nice wake me up for lovely wife. Alas, McK was the first one downstairs and ruined the joke. At least she called everyone down to see my handiwork. M seemed to think someone had broken in and rifled through the kitchen. I'm unsure why her brain is wired that way...

I'm getting very close to the end of Uncharted 2. It's definitely worth playing. This series could do with a touch less shooting and a touch more exploration, but other than that it's just about perfect. So fun.

Courtesy of a kind father in law, I now have my signed copies of Name of the Wind and Wise Man's Fear. I'm currently about half way through the latter and enjoying it immensely. I'm a little worried it's going to be sad, but it's an absolutely brilliant book.

Got in another game of Mansions of Madness. This time I managed to crush those poor investigators and left poor McK without a brain as my Mi-Go took it and left for outer space. Mwa ha ha ha ha. We played another scenario and it was interesting to see the differences in them. The first one was more like a chase sequence in which the monsters showed up early and harassed the investigators while they searched for clues. This time it was more of a slow burn as the investigators tried to unearth what was happening at a school before everything erupted in a sudden burst of monsters and gray matter. Good times. Also I highly recommend Plano tackle boxes as a storage solution for games with lots of bits. They're brilliant.

We've just started watching the BBC version of Being Human. It started off a little oddly, but we'll see where it goes.

I should probably talk a little more about Heavy Rain, but I think I'll save it for another time. Other than that things are just far too hectic at casa del 'd'. We've gotten a bit of a glimpse of the next few years as the girls get old enough to have after school activities and so on. It's not terribly pleasant. Far too much running around for lovely wife. That coupled with the various reasons that we're out of the house and I suspect we'll start to wonder who these people in the house with us are. If I start referring to lovely wife as lovely stranger send help.

Grim Pursuits

2011-03-17T14:35:00.000-06:00

The Social Network was a pretty fascinating story. And continues to cement my desire to stay far far away from Facebook. Zuckerberg (as portrayed) seems pretty willing to sacrifice all in pursuit of his idea. (And given his standing on privacy rights - at least as far as Facebook is concerned - he will sacrifice plenty) Fincher is still one of my favorite directors and this movie didn't really alter that at all. May have to track down the book...

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski is a collection of short stories loosely woven together. It's where the video game The Witcher got it's titular character from. I've heard about the game some and decided to track down the book. I liked it. It's a shade darker twist on classic fairy tales. The witcher is a troubled soul tasked with fighting monsters for people that either actively dislike him or, at best, tend to ignore him. There's a bit of an overarching frame story where's he's recovering from his last fight and some of the time is spent telling or remembering previous such tasks. It's fun to figure out which story is getting told this time (you'll spot Snow White and Beauty and the Beast among others). I think I'll track down the next book as well. I like the characters and the world.

Mansions of Madness did indeed get played over the weekend (and will get played again in a couple days). It's a pretty interesting game. It takes forever to set up and that's saying something. This is a Fantasy Flight game, so some set up time was inevitable, but this is borderline ridiculous. Because it's a story based game with various scenarios you get to set up the board in addition to all the bits that make up the meat of the scenarios. So, if you're the keeper, plan to spend time setting up the tiles and then wading through the myriad cards collecting the ones you need and then placing them in the right order and then placing those stacks in the right places and then mixing the proper decks and so on. Once all that's done, the game itself is pretty interesting. The investigators get a bit of a story to set the stage and then explore the mansion trying to find clues and prevent Ominous Things from happening. The keeper does his best to drive them insane or kill them while striving to achieve his own nefarious goals. I like the way attributes are checked and puzzles are solved and so on. Plus the critters are cool.

Lovely wife found it to be a better first impression than Arkham Horror and M was occasionally unsettled by the mood music (the soundtrack from 28 Weeks Later) and the story. So that's a win in my book. If you're looking for a game with theme and some unique interaction, this is it. Just know that the theme is dark and Lovecraftian...

Heavy Rain finally went Greatest Hits the other week pushing it into affordable game territory. So I snapped it up. I find the way it's played to be probably the most immersive I've encountered in a video game. And it's pretty gorgeous to look at as well. I really want to see where the story is going to go. Plus it wins the best distraction while the game is installing award (previously held by Metal Gear Solid 4). It teaches you to make the origami critter featured heavily throughout the game. Too cool. Don't be fooled by the opening moments of the game (as lovely wife was) - there are certainly grim things ahead. It's not all birthday parties and toy sword fights. I really like the way the opening moments teach you how the game is played by introducing innocuous versions of things you'll be doing later.

So, that's what has passed for entertainment in the land of 'd' lately. I suspect I'm going to have to give the dentist a holler tomorrow. I do not care for the jangle I get whenever I drink/eat something cold. Lovely wife is trying to convince herself that Spring Break will not be an exercise in annoyingchildrenicide and hopes to catch up on some lost sleep. I wish her luck. We'll all need it. I could use some sleep myself. Ah well...

In which normalcy returns

2011-03-10T14:21:00.000-07:00

We had nice visits with lovely wife's Mom and Dad over this past week. Her Mom, unfortunately, got to spend most of the time working on a costume for M for Mulan. But the costume was completed, so yay I guess? M certainly seems to think so. We also had a fun dinner at Teppanyaki during her stay. We got to see some new hibachi chef routines as well as a magic trick. Mostly due to the family we were seated with, but a show is a show.

G dragged Grandpa over to Cabelas and convinced him to let him play the shooting gallery game. I took advantage of the leftover tokens and had a go myself. It was fun. G needs to work on his aim. ^_^ Kids were glad to see family as were lovely wife and I and now we get to try and calm them down from all the excitement.

Also, congratulations go to nephew L on his Baptism.

We finished off season one of Community. It was great. The paintball episode was indeed amazing (a 28 Days Later reference in addition to some John Woo and a couple others). This may become the 2nd show that I actually bother to watch while it's broadcasting.

I have had my first tooth filled. It theoretically wasn't a cavity - just a small hole on the biting surface of my tooth. But once they drilled in they discovered it went all the way down my tooth. Still a very small hole, just very deep. It wasn't the most pleasant of experiences. I'm trying to decide if it's not completely better. I get a bit of an ache when I eat crunchy things like chips or cereal. Is that normal a week later?

Mansions of Madness is out. And I have my copy. I am very much looking forward to playing it. Puzzles, monsters, loss of sanity, stories full of dread and intrigue... what's not to love? I'm going to try and convince lovely wife and possibly McK to give it a go some time this weekend so we can get some of the rules down.

I'm ready for a bit of quiet. And a nap...

In which random things are discussed very briefly

2011-03-03T14:20:00.001-07:00

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson was a fun read. It's part epic fantasy and part con job. Think Ocean's 11 meets Lord of the Rings. An odd little mish mash to be sure, but one that worked pretty well. Sanderson sets up a world in which certain people have the ability to "burn" metals in order to work various types of magic. A group of thieves which specialize in the various types of magic get together to overthrow the government via a con. Oh and it's set in a world where the original "Hero of the Ages" (think Frodo from LotR) failed. Yeah, that's right Sauron won and the thieves are out to bring him down. It's pretty fascinating. It's also the first book in a trilogy (following standard Fantasy rule #3) that I'll probably get around to finishing. I'm gonna take a bit of a break first. Other things to read.

(In strangely related news, The Name of the Wind is just as good the third time through and I've picked up a couple details I missed the first couple times through. Such a good book.)

Lovely wife and I have been making our way through season one of Community. It's been pretty good so far. I really liked the Halloween episode with Abed as Batman. Joel McHale is pretty amusing and I'm glad to see the writers continuing to work in Seacrest jokes. (For fans of The Soup)

We have family in town this weekend for nephew L's baptism. So things will be a little on the hectic side, but hopefully the fun side as well.

In which nothing of consequence is considered

2011-02-24T14:43:00.000-07:00

The long weekend was great. Got together with some friends of the family (well, the kids and lovely wife were a little more invested, but we all had fun) and managed to introduce them to 7 Wonders. I really do like that game a lot. Enough that we managed to play a couple more times with different friends. Never play 7 Wonders with the letter 'r'. He will stomp all over you.

We watched both Easy A and Salt over the course of the last few days. One was funny but I don't feel the need to ever see it again and one was an ok action flick with an oddly open ending (are they really thinking franchise for this? Really?). I'm not certain which was which at this point.

I've been messing with demos on the PS3 again. Hoard is strangely addictive. You play a dragon burning towns, ransoming princesses, defending your hoard from thieves, bbq-ing knights - that sort of thing. You can play with or against others. It's fun. Give it a look. Yakuza 4 was simply a look at the fighting engine in the upcoming game. Not terribly helpful if you want to know more about the game. Dragon Age II looks pretty interesting. It's an RPG where you put together a team and kill goblins and whatnot. Good times. I might have to track down the original game and give it a go.

Psst, Wise Man's Fear comes out next week. I am very excited. I'm hoping to score an autographed copy courtesy of my Father-in-law as he lives near a bookstore where the good Mr Rothfuss will be appearing.

In other not inconsequential news, thoughts go out to little sis and favorite niece. Get better.

And I think that about does it.

Too many books, too little brain cells

2011-02-17T14:38:00.000-07:00

So, I read a lot of graphic novels over the weekend. Another 5 volumes of Fullmetal Alchemist, 4 volumes of Naruto and School Rumble Volume 1. They were all decent in their own little ways. I will single out that I didn't really care for the Ishbalan war flashback volume of FMA, time passes almost as strangely in the graphic novels of Naruto as it does in the anime (something both lovely wife and letter 'r' expressed an interest in. I've only seen a little of the anime, but I know what they're talking about - serious time dilation in Naruto's world), and School Rumble is a sweet romantic farce. We've actually been watching the anime version of it as well lately and it's also a lot of fun. I get a kick out of the characters in this one.

A small further note on School Rumble. I was expecting it to be something of a fighting storyline given the title. Not so, it's actually a high school romantic farce. Not quite as out there as Ranma 1/2 (and certainly lacking the battle sequences) but still pretty wacky. So far my favorite bit has been the message arrow story line. Although there are others that are close.

Iron Man 2 was better than the first movie. I was pleasantly surprised by this. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit.

And that's really all I can scrape together at the moment. Brain no worky. Glad it's a three day weekend.

Elementary

2011-02-10T14:30:00.001-07:00

The Sherlockian by Graham Moore was pretty darn great. It's amazing how much of that book was real as well. Told via two different time periods - one in the past following Arthur Conan Doyle and one in the present following Harold White - the story features mystery, murder and intrigue. Harold wants to know what happened to Doyle's missing journal and who killed the man that claimed to have found it. Doyle wants to know who sent him a letter bomb and almost killed him. If you enjoy mysteries or Sherlock Holmes then there's plenty here for you. Truly a fascinating read.

I've pounded down 4 more volumes of Fullmetal Alchemist as well. Still great. What's going to happen next?!

Red was a fun little movie. I found the pacing to be a touch strange (I think it probably should have been just a bit shorter) but overall it was a good time. This is what The Expendables should have been. Four aging CIA agents, the up and comer charged with taking one of them out, intrigue, romance, yadda yadda, you've probably watched it by now. And if not, you should.

Baccano was an entrancing, if occasionally gruesome, series. There's something about a train, some mafia turf wars, the spreading of joy, dominoes and too much else would spoil some of the surprise. If you're in the mood for something that takes a little effort to keep up with and aren't bothered with a somewhat dark overtone, this one's also worth looking into.

Blokus continues to make us think way too much.

Casa del 'd' is a little under the weather at the moment as 2 out of 3 munchkins are down with something or other. Alas poor munchkins. 'd' is a harsh task master when it comes to being sick. Not a lot of tv viewing to be had for those poor souls. Plenty of rest and fluids though. And books.

Speaking of TV, we're probably just about done with satellite. Rates are getting a little too out of hand for what we really watch. Kids will miss it, but unless they want to start paying for it and get some jobs they're out of luck. I'll miss a couple things (Eureka mostly) but, eh, that's what DVD is for. So if you have any good tips for getting deals from satellite providers send them to lovely wife.

Strange days indeed

2011-02-03T15:12:00.001-07:00

So let's see. I have plowed through 4 more volumes of Fullmetal Alchemist. I continue to enjoy that series quite a bit. It's fascinating to watch that story unfold. There are some wonderful heartfelt moments. And some shocks. I was not expecting one of the plot twists that happened in volume 4. I think it was. Might have been 5.

Lovely wife and I are currently watching Baccano, the anime series. It's been pretty great, if confusing. There's a pretty large cast of characters and it's a touch hard to follow. If things manage to wrap up by the end though, this one will definitely be a gem. And Isaac and Miria are awesome. Right you are letter 'd'. Right you are.

So I have now befriended someone on the PS3 that has a copy of Need for Speed. This is a blessing and a curse. It really does make the game more fun (the wall serves a purpose now as does Autolog recommends) but also more frustrating. I can't put the game in after 9:30 now or I will be up all night trying to beat just "one more record" or trying to beat the same record "just one more time". Devious. And compelling.

I've started up Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. It's pretty good so far. It's fun to read fantasy again. I think I've said this before. But there you go.

We (and by we I mean lovely wife) recently made some homemade chicken noodle soup and some pulled pork. Both were quite excellent. The pulled pork was Carolina based, so it was a vinegar sauce as opposed to bbq sauce. It was quite good. Always fun to try new recipes. Now I want bbq. Or maybe chicken soup.

Owls and such

2011-01-27T14:22:00.000-07:00

300 + owls - blood = Legend of the Guardians (the Owls of Ga'hoole). Given that it was directed by Zack Snyder this should not be a surprise. It was actually pretty decent to watch. Standard fantasy fare to be sure, but fun nonetheless. And some of the animation was amazing. The rain and fire sequences especially. So very pretty. There are worse ways to spend some time with your kids. Or whoever you watch movies with.

We finished off Castle season 2 and now I want to watch season 3. Why is it not on DVD yet? Because it's tied down to a broadcast schedule is not really a good reason. I've really come to enjoy this show, I look forward to more of it.

We had ourselves a game day this past weekend and much fun was had. We played Dixit, 7 Wonders, Sequence, Zooloretto, and a couple others. We also learned to play Blokus. It's quite good as well. I have a sneaking suspicion it may make its way into our home sooner rather than later. You can pick up a pretty nice version for the PS3 in their online store for around $5. We may have to convince little sis to do this so we can play online against them. Well, after we add each other as friends.

I also have a lovely Nintendo customer service story. I'd always heard about how they treated their customers well and I can now confirm it. G went to play Lego Star Wars the other day and the Wii wouldn't take the disc. It also made a strange noise upon powering up the unit. After some brief online searching it was discovered that this could really only be fixed with a repair at ye olde Nintendo. So I called up Nintendo only to be told that our machine was out of warranty and would need to send some money to get it fixed. I asked if they had any loyal customer discounts and the wonderful service rep gave me a one time waiver on the service fee. So the Wii is on its way to California to be fixed. Hopefully it will come back with all our saved game data. Thanks Nintendo for remembering your customers.

(DirecTV on the other hand does not win any customer service points, but that's probably a story for another time.)

A belated happy birthday shout out to nephew K. Hope you had a great day little dude.

Insert witty Castle joke here

2011-01-20T14:35:00.000-07:00

Season 2 of Castle has been pretty decent thus far. The mystery plots are pretty secondary to the banter and I'm fine with that. It's certainly worth watching on DVD.

Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson was a fun fantasy book. It features a pretty unique magic system and some fun characters. Lots of little twists and turns before wrapping things up. I suspect I'll read more of his work now. I've heard his Mistborn series is worth checking out as well. It's nice to find some more fantasy again.

Death of a Scriptwriter is a Hamish Macbeth story by M.C. Beaton. If you've been here a while, you might recall me mentioning that we enjoyed the TV series. The books are fun too. Nice little mystery story. Makes me want to watch the show again...

In other news G has been practicing his writing by writing down little stories. Thus far we have had The Fish and the Turtle, The Shark, the Fish and the Dolphin and The Dragon's Gold. One of the stories featured a human on fire and one featured a lovely dinner for a hungry aquatic animal. Hmm. He may be ready for shark week now.

In other other news I got to tell a couple at the Library that it wasn't really the appropriate place to be making out.

I managed to finish off the first Uncharted. It was a lot of fun. I've started the second one and it had one of the best beginnings to a video game I've seen in a long time. Really enjoying this series. And Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is a frustratingly good time. My driving skill are not that spectacular. But it's a lot of fun to try. Donkey Kong Country Returns is pretty good as well. The collector in me is going to hate this game as some of the levels are fiendishly difficult. I may never finish the bonus temple levels. In spite of G telling me to try at every other moment.

The girls explored mummification for their science projects. At least there were no coat hangers involved. I'm sleeping with one eye open just to be safe.

Nothing to see ... move along

2011-01-13T11:17:00.000-07:00

It feels like there should be things to talk about, but honestly I've not got a clue what they are. I suppose if I bothered talking about anything other than games, books and movies I'd probably have a couple topics, but I really can't be bothered.

I did finish volume 12 of 20th Century Boys. It looks like we may now know who the mysterious Friend is. Although it's been long enough since I started the series, that I'm still not entirely sure who it is. I still really enjoy reading the series though. I think we're roughly half way now even! ^_^ Heh.

The Expendables was pretty much a lost opportunity. When I heard about the movie (mostly the cast) I had hopes for a slightly campy, self aware non stop action flick. What I got was a straight up action flick. Now, there is plenty of action, but it's played way too straight. So it wasn't really as good I was hoping it would be. Alas. If you have interest in seeing it (and you somehow haven't already) just know that it takes itself very seriously. Slight Spoiler: Oh and my favorite complaint about the flick is how can you have a group called the Expendables and then let them all live through the movie?

We're about to watch the A Team movie and season 2 of Castle. So good times ahead.

M has decided she wants to be in the school play/musical Mulan. They're letting the fourth graders participate in the background choir stuff. And she's about to start selling GS cookies again. Lovely wife is thrilled.

I have discovered that they're about to release glow in the dark hexbug nano stuff. This is very exciting news. Now you can be strangely hypnotized in the dark!

New Year Get

2011-01-06T14:25:00.000-07:00

So. We meet again. You really need to stop hanging around these sorts of places. All manner of trouble they are.

Frozen has pretty much the silliest plot outline of any movie: three people stuck on a ski lift. The movies itself is actually surprisingly tense. Much like Open Water from a few years back we get to watch a small group of people abandoned in an unfriendly environment. Unlike Open Water they don't fight the entire time. So it comes out slightly on top for that reason. Although that shot at the end of Open Water with the lightning and the sharks is still the best moment in either of the movies. Frozen focuses on two guys that have been friends forever and the newish girlfriend that has tagged along while they go skiing. The movie doesn't waste too much time before stranding them up in the air and then doesn't take too much time before the surprisingly logical ending. That's actually probably the best thing about the movie - everything you think you might try in this situation is covered and it's all pretty realistic. Although lovely wife thinks the guy that jumped was an idiot... So, this one is recommended. Especially to little sis and 'k'.

Gran Torino is pretty much a western set in Detroit. I had it recommended to me as a remake of Shane. I haven't seen Shane (although I might have to now) but I like westerns, so we gave this one a try. If you can get past the racism and swearing it's actually a surprisingly sweet movie. And I think Clint Eastwood is about the only person that could get away with playing the main character. Anybody else probably couldn't have pulled it off. You'd think they were the biggest jerk on the planet. I think part of it is due to all the characters Clint has played over the years. Anyway, this is another one that we liked and you might give a go.

The BBC show Sherlock is also a lot of fun. I wasn't sure I'd like a modern day Sherlock Holmes but they pulled this off as well. Nice banter, clever cases, nods to the original it all works pretty well.

I'm still in the midst of Warbreaker so you don't really get an update on it. Except for me to say that I'm enjoying it.

We managed a couple games of 7 Wonders and Dixit over the break. They're both pretty enjoyable. Dixit is an easily picked up party type game that encourages creativity from the players. It's a little like Apples to Apples and occasionally suffers from some of the same problems, but not to the same extent. (You'll occasionally have a hand of cards that doesn't seem to work, but if the storyteller does a good job of not being too specific it's not really an issue.) 7 Wonders has a bit of a learning curve, but ends up being pretty enjoyable. It will take a few games to start to see how strategies emerge and how the wonders are best utilized but that's ok.

So, that's some of what's been happening around Casa del 'd'. We had a great visit with Dad while he was here. He needs to live much closer so we can get together more often. We also had a great visit with lovely wife's Mom. It was good reconnecting with her as well. I am glad the holidays are over and hope you all had a wonderful time.

Condolences go out to little sis on the job loss. Glad you have a few months to get things in order. Here's to hoping the rest of the year is better.

End of Line

2010-12-31T09:51:00.000-07:00

Well, that's a little over dramatic I suppose, but this is the last day of the year and we did just see Tron Legacy, so there you go.

It's been quite the week here at casa del 'd'. We had lovely wife's Mom here through Christmas and my Dad is here to ring in the New Year with us.

Shockingly we actually had to wake the kids up on Christmas morning. I'm not sure what pod people they were replaced with, but it was a little ridiculous. They all had fun opening presents and being around family. G got some Hexbug Nanos that are pretty cool. We can't stop playing with them and rearranging the track. McK has been taking pictures of everything she can with her new camera and M has been reading books and solving mysteries in Guilty Party on the Wii.

We've seen a few shows over the holiday. Tangled was brilliant, Sorcerer's Apprentice was fun, Tron Legacy was pretty good (and the soundtrack by Daftpunk is pretty great too) and we liked Toy Story 3 as well.

So, have a great end of year, and here's to a good new year.

Temporally denoted weather pattern felicitations

2010-12-23T14:30:00.000-07:00

Or seasons greetings if you're so inclined.

Not really much to add to that. I think I'm glad the year is drawing to a close. I'm surprised (each and every time) that we've gotten to this point so quickly, but I suspect it's best if we put a cap on this year and look forward to the next. Although the prognosis for the initial part of next year is a bit rocky. Hopefully things will smooth out some.

Which is really just the long way to say that I hope each of you have a wonderful holiday surrounded by those you love. We'll have various relatives staying here at casa del 'd' over the holidays so that should be fun. If nothing else it might distract the kids long enough that we don't resort to ritual bloodshed. Although that might add that extra kick the season needs. Get those stars right. So grab some eggnog and kick back for a bit. Open a present even if you know what it is and act surprised.

Happy Christmas and Merry New Year! (as my old history teach used to say) Or alternatively Ia! Ia! Cthulhu Fhtagn! (as my Great Old One used to mutter)

Media Consumption

2010-12-16T14:58:00.000-07:00

I will try and cover the various things that have been seen and/or read at casa del 'd' recently. I'm not sure I'm up to the task...

Triangle is a pretty fascinating horror movie. Without giving too much away, it's basically a retelling of the Sisyphus story. There are some pretty neat moments in it. Rather liked this one and recommend it. Especially for little sis and 'k'.

Big Bang Theory season 3 is pretty decent too. Although they use Sheldon's Bazinga! joke a little too much. Except for the ball pit sequence. That was pure comedy gold.

The Fuller Memorandum by Charles Stross was also quite good. I really do like the Laundry Files books. I was a little worried that this one would be completely depressing. Fortunately it's only somewhat depressing. And there are a few images that will stick with you for quite some time. Cultists indeed...

Hikaru no Go. I've read a couple more books and I think I may be done with this series. I've read enough that at this point it's really just more of the same. (Some of you probably marveled that it took 21 volumes for me to reach that point, but whatever.)

Fullmetal Alchemist I've read a couple more of this series and am enjoying it quite a bit. Plan to continue this one.

There's probably more, but I can't be bothered to remember what it was. Alas.

In other news, we're just about ready for the holidays. Family members are coming in to town so that should be nice. The kids have one day of school left before they have their break until next year. (Next year! Who let that happen already?!) I can't think of any particularly amazing stories worth sharing. Oh, if you want painted room pictures, head over to littles sis's blog. She has a couple. I may or may not get some put up.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

2010-12-08T12:36:00.000-07:00

So littlest sis arrived in town the other night and has coerced lovely wife into repainting some of our house. Currently the basement is several new shades and I think they're tackling the living room as well. I shall attempt some pictures at some point. Possibly. Overall things look nice. (Although that bathroom is still seriously blue...) So thanks littlest sis for the help and a new look on things. (Oh and for the record Dixit does seem to be quite fun...)

Not really too much else to report. Pacman CE DX is a serious time suck. Can not stop playing. Second season of Mentalist is way good. But you knew that already didn't you?

I'll just leave this here, shall I?

In Which I Make a Few Recommendations

2010-12-02T15:06:00.000-07:00

Well, December has arrived. For some of you that means shopping. I managed to do most of my Black Friday shopping on Thanksgiving from the comfort of my computer. It sure beat standing in line, that's a fact. Here at Casa del 'd' we've been playing with my new birthday/Christmas present - a PS3. Big thanks go out to family that made that possible. I'm not entirely convinced Blu Rays are that much prettier than DVDs, but some of the extras sure are fun. We're currently using it to watch season 2 of The Mentalist. We finished up Castle season 1 (it was quite good and we want to see season 2 now) and soon we'll be on Big Bang Theory season 3. Yup, lots of TV on DVD (the way it was meant to be watched) round these parts.

So. In an effort to throw a few opinions out there on what are some worthwhile ways to spend money/pass the time I offer the following suggestions for books/movies/games/etc.

Books: Working in a Library offers a few opportunities to look at books. Book recommendations, however, are tricky. I have no idea what your tastes are. But if you're here, then we probably have at least a little in common. Or you are very bored. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss will probably surprise no one as my top pick for something to read. I loved this book and eagerly wait for the sequel (Wise Man's Fear coming next Spring!). It's fantasy (don't let that scare you off) and tells the story of Kvothe. It's funny, spooky, heartwarming, heartbreaking, and lots of other good adjectives. Seriously, get this book. In a not entirely and yet almost completely dissimilar vein, The Laundry Files books by Charles Stross are also highly recommended. They're a touch harder to sell as you really need some geek/Lovecraft background, but if you've got the interest they're a pretty great time.

Graphic Novels: Like books with pictures? Try 20th Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa, or Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley. They're a bit of an acquired taste but certainly worth it. Looking for something for younger kids? Owly by Andy Runton all the way. I could go on...

Boardgames: Well, where to start... If you're just looking for a party game I can certainly recommend Say Anything. We've had a lot of fun with that one. (Think Apples to Apples where you can write your own answer instead of relying on the luck of the cards in your hand.) I'm going to go out on a limb and recommend Dixit as well. You'll get a more informed opinion in the future. If you're looking for something to dig into a bit I'll mention Blue Moon City and Dominion as worth your attention. Want something where you can all work together? Forbidden Island is for you. Dexterity game? Pitchcar. Puzzle game? Ubongo. Family game? Tobago or maybe Dice Town or even Incan Gold. (Depending on the ages of your kids)

Movies: Hmm. Prince of Persia was definitely a lot of fun. Scott Pilgrim is my personal favorite of the year... There really were a lot of good ones. You can probably make up your own mind on this one.

TV (on DVD): The Mentalist probably tops the charts. I'd give Castle a nod as well. Eureka is fun as is Big Bang Theory.

Videogames: Well let's see, for the Wii: Either of the Super Mario Galaxy titles are good. Kirby's Epic Yarn is also pretty fun. If you like playing (fighting) together New Super Mario Bros. Wii is certainly worth trying out. For the PS3 I can't really say yet. Uncharted is a lot of fun so far. Basically Tomb Raider with more shooting. I like the exploration-y bits a lot. The shooting bits are hard (although I'm getting better). There is more combat than I'd like, but I'm having a good time. I really really like Pacman CE DX which you can download from the Playstation Store. A quick word of warning though, the games are typically listed as $9.99 or something similar. You can buy points cards for $20 and so on. I thought I'd get 2 games for one card but no, they charge tax. So I was $1.32 short or something stupid like that. Ok, just this once I'll use the credit card to finish off the difference. You can only add amounts starting at $5. So very frustrating and so very stupid. Nintendo does this right. You buy the points card, the games cost X points and you know what you're spending.

I think that's enough for now. If you have questions I'm sure I have (snarky) answers. Feel free to leave some comments and I'll see what I can do.

Just passing through

2010-11-23T19:23:00.000-07:00

Well, in spite of the airline industry I did manage to make it to my Grandmother's funeral. It was really nice to see family again. It was good to touch base with the aunts and uncles and Grandpa. I'm glad he has family close by.

I managed to finish Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi on the plane. I liked the book. Nailer is part of a ship breaking crew - he crawls through wrecked hulks in search of copper and other things that can be sold. After a storm he and a friend run across a wrecked ship that could be the end of all their troubles. Except for the lone survivor. Bacigalupi builds an interesting world that I enjoyed reading about. It did seem like something was missing, I don't know if the end came too quick or the plot was a little too predictable, but I certainly recommend it. (And honestly, as it's a YA book, those slight criticisms only sort of apply.)

Other than that I'm glad to have some time off. With everything that's been going on it's nice to have a break and recharge the batteries. We've been watching the first season of Castle and I have to say, had I actually watched the show from the beginning I'd have liked it a lot better than the random episode I started with. (Oh and the recent X Files inspired episode was pretty brilliant.)

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Spend some time with family if you can. A good book if you can't.

Elegy in sugar

2010-11-18T14:14:00.000-07:00

Well, technically there's a lot I could cover - I finished The Fall - it got better but wasn't great, Dexter season 4 proved John Lithgow is creepy and so on - however my Grandmother passed away the other day, so I've decided to just post briefly about that.

I'll be traveling out to Missouri tomorrow for the funeral and then back on Sunday. So a very quick trip in which to see family and celebrate my Grandmother's life. I'm firmly in the funerals are for the living camp. I've got some pretty fond memories of my grandparents (Suzy Qs still hold a special place in my heart thanks to them) and I'm glad that once her health started going downhill it went pretty quickly. Not a big fan of some of the suffering people have to go through before finally passing on.

So, here's to Grandma! I will always cherish the house with the absolutely ginormous lawn in which we got rides on the riding lawnmower or the adult sized tricycle with the basket. (And don't forget the time I push started the go kart with my sister behind the wheel. I think it took about three people to chase her down...) I contemplate getting an RV once kids are gone so lovely wife and I can travel about a bit much like my Grandparents did for a while. It was always fine to see them show up in Kansas for the summer. I did not dislike Piper, their Poodle. One of the few dogs to earn my grudging not hate. And I can still hear her voice from the few times we got to talk recently. I wish we'd lived closer to them so we could have gone to visit more. Love you Grandma!

Prelude to flame

2010-11-04T14:41:00.000-06:00

November has arrived. Some might call it the best month of the year. They'd probably be right. We are a mere day away from Guy Fawkes's attempted commentary on government. In light of our current Keystone Cops routine one might tend to wonder if he didn't have something there...

We finished off October with Lady in White and Alien. I remember watching Lady in White while growing up, but apparently retained no actual knowledge of the plot. Other than the kid being trapped in the school. It made for interesting viewing. We watched that one with the kids. I have no idea if they liked it or not. It's a curious little tale. Held up pretty well for the most part.

Alien is of course still the classic it always was. I suspect it's my favorite of the series. Actually I probably like them in the order they were released. Well except for that 4th one... It was good to see it again.

I have given up on The Passage. I was listening to the audiobook version, but it just didn't grab my attention. Mostly it was due to the author trying to do a literary fiction take on genre fiction. Badly. Instead of telling the story (which certainly had the potential to be interesting) he kept talking about the story. It was not good.

And I'm not holding out a lot of hope for The Fall either. I enjoyed The Strain, del Toro and Hogan's take on vampires, but the sequel isn't living up to the initial story for me. I'm about a third of the way through and we'll see if I finish.

I did manage to finish The Jennifer Morgue though. And the second Laundry Files novel was just as enjoyable as the first. I really like that series. This one was an amusing riff on James Bond stories. I probably missed some of the nods as I'm certainly more familiar with the films (I've not managed to read any of the books) but that's ok, it was another fun romp with Bob and the rest of the crew in the Laundry. I look forward to the third book.

I need a nap...

Horror Nostalgia Tour Stops 37 and 12

2010-10-28T14:38:00.000-06:00

Critters is your basic Gremlins knockoff featuring nominally cute alien monstrosities bent on eating everything/one in sight. Throw in a couple shapeshifting bounty hunters, a family from Kansas, mix with some popcorn and there you go. There are some funny bits (the ET doll destruction qualifies) and some silly bits and not much that equates to spooky bits. I actually think I liked the sequel (the 2nd, not 3 or 4) better, but I can't seem to track down a copy to verify that's the case. Alas. This one's best when you're in the mood for something silly featuring wee beasties.

The Fly (Cronenberg's remake), however, is neither cute nor humorous. It's another story focusing on the body horror that Cronenberg is well known for. Instead of a single incident in which the scientist manages to swap parts a la the original, Cronenberg treats the viewer to a slow burn as Jeff Goldblum initially thinks he's managed to purify himself only to realize that the exact opposite has happened. It's pretty effective too. There are plenty of moments where you find yourself glad you're not the one trapped in the story.

And aside from too many movies to watch there are too many books to read and too many games to play and not nearly enough hours in the day to accomplish it all... Letter 'd' needs a break. Fortunately in about a month I think I'll manage one.

Congrats go out to little sis and family on the birth of new baby boy. Hope all are well.

And so Halloween fast approaches (and we even had snow the other morning! Yay! Sort of!). Kids are excited to wander around in their costumes and consume some candy. I'm attempting to avoid the candy and failing miserably. I really need to start exercising again especially as we're getting to the food heavy portion of the year... Stupid exercise.

LOST - Hero, please return if found

2010-10-21T14:30:00.001-06:00

Finished up Rick Riordan's The Lost Hero, the new Heroes of Olympus book. It picks up a few months after the end of the Percy Jackson books and plays around with the world some more. We get to meet some new characters, see a few old ones and follow along on a new quest as the demi-gods are once again called upon to save the world. I enjoyed it quite a bit. If you've not read the Percy stuff, start there and then pick this one up. Definitely worth reading. I liked it better than The Red Pyramid as well.

Apparently Sam Raimi is going to remake The Day of the Triffids. This is very strange and coincidental news. I like Sam Raimi. Not convinced about the Triffids. Guess we'll see where that goes...

The Children's Department here at the Library has put up an art exhibit called The Pigeon Wants an Art Show. They did a program over the summer where kids got to draw a picture detailing a new book in the Pigeon series. The exhibit features those drawings. It's quite brilliant. I think I would have drawn Don't Let the Pigeon Clone a Dinosaur. That or maybe The Pigeon Wants a Singularity. The Pigeon Wants a Great Old One? Hmm... (Oh! Hey look! You can see the show here.)

The the Triffids

2010-10-20T12:59:00.000-06:00

So, remember when I said that Day of the Triffids started off well enough? Yeah, it pretty much went downhill from there. For a show named after a carnivorous plant bent on mankind's destruction, there were very few Triffids in the execution of said idea. So, if you want to see a historical take on the apocalyptic genre that certainly influenced much of later entertainment, there is value there. A few of the ideas found in the show are utilized in things like 28 Days Later and so on but it was a little disappointing that it ended up being more character/societal drama than a show about plants terrorizing/eating blind people. So I guess the point is, know what you're in for. (Oh and the title is a nod to a lovely sign found on Tynsham Manor reminding visitors to close the the gate.)

We picked up Kirby's Epic Yarn as a joint birthday gift for lovely wife and myself courtesy of letter 'r' and family. It's a fun little platformer that just oozes style. And cute. Kirby and friends are all drawn in a yarn/sewing motif that affects how you interact with the world as well. (Yank on a thread to pull a ledge closer so you can jump across, go into a pocket to grab gems on stitched platforms between two layers of cloth and so on.) Highly recommended. (And it allows for 2 player co-op as well so that's a bonus - it's not nearly as hectic as New Super Mario Bros. Wii was.)

Gang of Four has been mentioned here before, but we snuck in a game the other night and I thought I'd mention that it's still a lot of fun to play. Four players compete to get rid of their hand while sticking everybody else with theirs. It's a ladder type game in that you don't really take tricks (you don't acquire cards and points are bad) and you can lead more than one card at a time. The initial player (determined randomly at the beginning of the game and by winning for the rest) can play anywhere from 1-5 cards and the other players must both match the numbers of cards and play a better version of said number. So there's room for lots of strategy and some luck. And trash talk. Yes, lots and lots of trash talk.

Vampires with Teeth

2010-10-14T14:45:00.000-06:00

So as promised, we took in Fright Night this last week. Strangely, lovely wife had never seen it. I still remember the first time I saw it, at a family reunion years and years ago. There was a piranha named Bird as well, but that's neither here nor there. It's basically Rear Window meets a vampire movie. And it was still fun to watch. Although I really don't remember the vampires having so many teeth. Chris Sarandon does a great job as the Evil Vampire Next Door and Roddy McDowell is brilliant as the aged late night horror movie host pressed into fighting real vampires against his will. If you haven't seen it, check it out. And if you have, give it another go.

We've also watched the first part of Day of the Triffids. Apparently I got the BBC miniseries version, and not a film version. So far it's cheesy, but good. Walking carnivorous plants! Blindness by light show! These exclamation points are totally warranted.

Other than that, not too much is going on. Still thoroughly enjoying The Jennifer Morgue, although it's getting a brief time out as The Lost Hero (the new Rick Riordan Camp Half-blood book) is now in my possession. I've read the first bit of it and it looks to be just as good as the Percy books. Although at the moment with 100% less Percy.

Played a little Dice Town and Drakon the other night. Both still fun. I like building the dungeon bit by bit in Drakon as you attempt to turn it into a money making machine (while your opponents attempt to build their own paths or mess with yours).

A quick shout of sympathy to little sis and family. Hope things get better and 'L' is ok.

Also a Happy Birthday wish to lovely wife. Congrats sweetie! You have survived another year. And it's only mostly visible. Wait, that doesn't sound right... Hmm. Hey look! Godzilla! Happy Birthday. Love you!

He said the 'Z' word

2010-10-07T14:20:00.000-06:00

Brian Keene's The Rising gets points for a clever twist on what a zombie is and then loses them all for being a horrible book. The characters are pretty standard for the genre, but not terribly likable, and the plot is woven together bits from better stories (28 Days Later most noticeably). I'm not entirely certain why I finished it. Except that my wife managed to and I think I took that to mean that it was going to get better than it ever did. So, yeah, avoid this one. Thanks Tor for nothing (this one was pretty regularly recommended during Zombie Week over there).

As part of October Horror Movie Stravaganza the sequel: Deader than Last Year we watched the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. And it still holds up. It's a decent little the world is toast, thanks so much creepy pod people from Outer Space movie. And if you haven't seen it yet, why exactly is that? It's the creepy pod people isn't it?

Up next is Fright Night. And Day of the Triffids and ... well, others. I really like October.

The 10th volume of 20th Century Boys is good. It continues to unspool the story at a pace that is slightly faster than glacial, but I don't mind. It is getting a little hard to try and remember who everybody is and what was done to whom by whom, but that's ok. I like it. Waiting only sort of patiently for more.

Apparently I have a Halloween costume this year. I'm not entirely certain what to do with it. As Halloween is on Sunday I can't wear it to work, well ok, if I was working on Sunday I could. I guess maybe I'll wander to the local trunk 'r' treat or something and get some use out of it. Mostly G wants me to go around with him some as his costume complements mine. We shall see. Do not expect pictures.

Other than that, things are pretty peaceful at Casa del 'd'. We're roughly a week away from the big birthday slide that takes us through the rest of the year. I guess I should contemplate doing something about that... I'm just glad the temperature is finally starting to resemble something humane and that we're getting some rain. I even dragged lovely wife out for a brief walk in a nice little rain shower the other day. It was grand.

Oh yeah

2010-10-01T16:49:00.000-06:00

Hey look! Paranormal Activity 2 trailer.

And speaking of horror movies, the Norwegian film Dead Snow is pretty fun. Undead Nazis terrorize a group of friends out in the middle of nowhere. It features more intestines than I think I've seen in any 3 other movies combined. I'll leave that to you to decide if that's a good thing or not. There are several funny bits and lots of horror bits. It's not scary, but I'm not sure this sort of movie is really supposed to be. So there you go. Start October off with subtitles and Nazis out for your, well, intestines I guess.

Atrocities and other good times

2010-09-30T14:40:00.000-06:00

I finished up The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross. And I have another favorite new series. This one (as mentioned a post down) is espionage crossed with Lovecraftian nightmares. With some math and science thrown in. Bob Howard is your basic hacker that stumbled on something he shouldn't have. And now he is forced to work for the Laundry saving the world from those entities that think we are delicious and good with ketchup. Tired of his IT desk job he gets sucked into field work. Now if only he can keep it from literally sucking him in. Curse those nasty inter-dimensional monstrosities. It really was a lot of fun to read and I look forward to the other two books in the series. I suspect this is one I'll need to pick up as well.

The Losers was a fun little action movie right up until the end. Mostly because they felt like leaving it wide open for a sequel. A risky move these days. I'd certainly watch another one - the cast was a lot of fun - but would have liked a little more closure from this one. Maybe I'll check out the comic and see if it ties things up any better. (That's a joke, nothing is ever wrapped up in the comic. And if it looks like it has been, they'll retcon it next time.)

Up in the Air suffered from the same problem - I liked it up until the end. And then it went and got depressing...

So last time I mentioned a few games I had my eye on. They have been shoved aside in favor of Mansions of Madness. It looks like a board game version of Call of Cthulhu (an RPG). Sign me up! Cthulhu based minis, tiles, madness, one player against everyone else. Oh yeah. It was originally slated for November, but has already slipped to December I believe. Considering the fact that it's Fantasy Flight, I'll be a touch surprised if it makes it out before year's end, but I suspect the wait will be worth it.

Laundry and other sundries

2010-09-23T14:34:00.000-06:00

We watched Date Night a couple days ago. (sexy robots) It was pretty amusing. Crude, but amusing. I suspect it falls into the same camp as Bill Cosby's book, Fatherhood in that it's funnier if you've experienced it. So if you've been married for years and have kids, there's a little more depth to this movie than you'd otherwise expect. I won't comment on how many of those conversations we've had, but they really do a good job of portraying marriage at it's familiar best. Tina Fey, Steve Carell and Mark Wahlberg are all excellent in it.

I read Bone: Tall Tales since it was more Bone. There are a couple funny bits and a couple good bits, but mostly it was just alright. If you like Bone there's certainly some joy to be had with it, but you might be better off just reading Bone again. Or Rose. Sounds like they're going to put out a new trilogy in an illustrated story format. I'm not sure how I feel about this...

Currently I'm reading The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross. It is most excellent. Take one part Cthulhu mythos, a couple shakes of LeCarre espionage, a hint of Kafka and mix it all together into one gooey, satisfying mess. I'll comment more when I'm finished, but for now know that this is the first book in the Laundry Files and I suspect I've found a new favorite series. That I might just have to pick up.

Ubongo has gotten some more play at casa del 'd'. It is still most excellent. Lovely wife taught the girls 10 Days in Europe. Sounds like that went mostly well. I think that now that they've played it future trips through Europe will be a little less stormy. I've got my eye on a couple games for DCon or upcoming holidays. Incursion is drawing my attention at the moment (partially due to this sale). As are Castle Ravenloft and Talisman. So many choices.

Some say fire, some say ice, I say zombies

2010-09-16T14:01:00.004-06:00

Finished the audio book version of World War Z by Max Brooks. It was fun to listen too. It's a pretty well thought out book. Max has done some serious zombie research. Being as Fall is once again creeping into our lives, I may need to do some research of my own. Time for some horror movies. If you've not read World War Z it's your basic zombies show up, the world doesn't come to grips very well, but ultimately humans manage to eke out some semblance of survival type story. It's worth reading/listening to. The book has a little more material, but the audio book is very well done. Although parts of it are a touch hard to hear/understand in the car.

I finished up Jim Butcher's Fool Moon (Dresden Files book 2) as well. I'm not sure what to think about this series. Because it's such a noir genre piece the stories themselves are pretty formulaic. So either you like the details of the stories enough to keep reading or you move on. I'm not sure I can keep reading the same story over and over, no matter how fun the package. This one had werewolves. And shapeshifters. And a loup garou. (And hexenwolfen) So obviously Butcher's put in the effort and is playing around some. And it's fine I guess. I'm just not sure I'll stick with the series. Too bad the tv show is over...

Crown of Shadows, the third Locke and Key graphic novel continues to pick at the mysteries surrounding Key House and its occupants. It's grim and heart wrenching and lots of other fun things. That Joe Hill, he's definitely a story teller to keep an eye on.

Was reading a couple things about writing earlier. Writing is one of those things that occasionally fascinates me. I certainly don't have the temperament to be a writer, but I occasionally wish I had the drive to get a few creative things out there. I suppose that's why I tend to keep this silly thing going. While certainly not a bastion of critical or creative thought, it at least gives me a chance to get a few words strung together. And every once in a while I even appreciate them.

For the last couple years, Fall (and especially October/Halloween) has triggered the desire to try and set down my own zombie story. So, you may get pieces of that this next month if I can be bothered to actually attempt it. I've mentioned it before (and actually tried starting it once) and that obviously worked out so you're probably safe, but just in case consider yourselves warned.

Quick shout

2010-09-11T10:39:00.002-06:00

Happy birthday to littlest sis. And congrats to little sis on getting sealed today.

In which there is no new thing under the sun

2010-09-09T14:10:00.002-06:00

Apparently I'm in revisit old territory mode. I'm still making my way through House of Leaves (rather slowly - it's a pretty dense book, to say nothing of the ... twists and turns it takes, heh) and probably will be for some time. I'm also listening to the audiobook version of World War Z. I'd heard it was well done and wanted to give it a shot. It is well done (although the accents can be a little hard to follow on occasion). Too bad it's not the complete book. (Again, from what I've heard, I may or may not notice the missing bits.)

I did start up the second Dresden Files book, Fool Moon. It seems fine so far.

Got in a little gaming and some bbq during the holiday courtesy of letter 'r and family. That was fun. I managed a win at Ubongo while 'v' left us all in the dust in Dice Town. 'r' regained a little honor in a fun round of Say Anything. Although lovely wife had the best and most outrageous answer of the evening.

Other than that we're pretty content to just let Fall woo us with decent temperatures and quiet days. Not too shabby.

First, second, and last

2010-09-02T14:09:00.005-06:00

The kids have triumphantly returned to school. Well, begrudgingly if nothing else. G had his first day in Kindergarten the other day. Lovely wife swears there weren't too many tears. I'm not convinced I believe her. Amusingly the teacher opted to read the same book to the class that lovely wife read to him the night before, The Night Before Kindergarten. He got to make the crown in class though. McK is getting used to Junior High. I'm still getting used to her being in Jr High. I suspect it will take a while.

We finished up the second season of Big Bang Theory. I think my favorite episode was the ~~Christmas~~ Saturnalia episode. The hug at the end was priceless. I am glad that Jim Parsons won the Emmy the other night. He is absolutely the best thing about that show. Sheldon FTW.

Mockingjay. Alright, let's talk Mockingjay. It's entirely possible there will be spoilers, so if you haven't read the book, you might just want to go find something else. (Yes that's more Twilight mocking in case you want to go and come back.) Overall, I liked it. I think it's absolutely a fitting end to the series. Considering the tone and level of realism the series strove for I think it ended about as well as it could have. I found the ending a touch abrupt - I would have liked a little more about the aftermath and what happened, but I suppose it might have distracted from the point of the book - the tolls of war and so on. With regards to the infamous vote at the end, I'm pretty firmly on the side that Katniss was setting up Coin. Her remark about seeing how well Haymitch understood her and her stated reason seem to point a little too neatly that way to just think the vote was at face value. Even from someone as broken as she was at that point. There are lots of nice little moments throughout the book and I recommend the series. I'm glad Collins was able to make something entirely her own rather than just Americanizing Battle Royale. (I'm sorry people who think The Hunger Games really wasn't just a revamp of Battle Royale. You're pretty much wrong. The series certainly isn't, but that particular book... Look the future SAT question will read _______:Battle Royale as A Fistful of Dollars:Yojimbo) And it is a pretty fascinating series. It does a good job of taking a look at what happens to a society that asks too much of its children and the perils of war in a society that is already hanging on by a thread.

RED by Warren Ellis is the comic book the upcoming Bruce Willis film is based on. The compilation I read just covers his character - the other three from the movie aren't in it. And the tone isn't nearly as humorous as the trailer makes the movie out to be. It was good (if a little graphic and squelchy) but this might be a case where the movie is something a little more fun. And annoying to the purists.

I saw Scott Pilgrim vs the World three times in the theaters. And it was great each and every time. The rest of you better have gone to see it. Although judging by the box office totals you didn't. Shame on you. This is why we can't have nice things.

I've been reading House of Leaves again. It's still a pretty fascinating story. With way too many footnotes... (that's only sort of a joke) I'd still like to see the movie described in the book. Mostly as I really enjoy haunted house stories and this is a pretty good one. I'd also play an RPG set there. Something in the Call of Cthulhu vein I think...

Crude, cruel and canny

2010-08-26T14:04:00.005-06:00

Beat the Band by Don Calame is a decent example of teen boy humor. It's mostly crude (and funny) with moments of lucidity occasionally making their way through. This is a sequel to a book called Swim the Fly. I've not read that one, although I might have to go back and give it a go. I liked Beat the Band a fair amount. Well, I was a teenage boy at one point. Some would probably argue that I still am. They are mostly mistaken.

The first book (from a brief synopsis at the beginning of this one) dealt with three friends trying to see their first real naked girl. And something about the swim team. This go round they're trying to up the stakes a bit and score with the opposite sex. Well, that's the plan anyway. The actual story revolves around a forced Health Class project in which Coop (the ringleader of this band of misfits) is paired up with the one girl in his class he sees as kryptonite to his image and thus anathema to his goal. So he decides to enroll in the Battle of the Bands with his buds to save his image. And if you don't know where the rest of the story goes, then you're probably a teenager and reading this sort of story for the first time.

So, sure, the plot isn't striking any new ground, but it is funny and there's a reason this tale gets told over and over. Calame does a good job with it. (Which is why I may go back and give Swim the Fly a go.) If you can stomach putting yourself in the mind of a teenage boy for a couple hundred pages or so I say give it a shot.

Currently I'm reading Mockingjay. I'm about halfway through. So no spoiling the ending. Well, more than I've already spoiled it for myself. Heh. I've heard good things about this one, so I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.

Ubongo continues to be popular around Casa del 'd'. We've also tried a new one called Dice Town. Everybody has a set of 5 dice with cards for sides (representing 9 - Ace) which get rolled and set aside one at a time (unless you're willing to part with some of your limited cash supply) as they try to build a poker hand. Once one person has built a hand, everyone else has one roll to finish theirs off. And then you go around determining which player gets to take advantage of which parts of the town. Nines let you claim nuggets from the gold mine (points at the end), tens let you rob the bank and thus gain some money back, Jacks let you draw a card that may help later, Queens let you steal cards from another player, Kings let you become Sherriff (you can break ties and take bribes) and the best poker hand lets you claim property (also worth points), with Aces snagging you an extra card or two.

So you spend time seeing what your opponents are working towards and what you need to stay in the game. It's a fascinating little experiment in bluffing and group psychology. Oh and if you manage not to win anything with the dice you rolled you can visit Doc Badluck and take advantage of the opportunities he provides. We've played it with the kids and it sort of works, you really need to be able to recognize some basic poker hands - pairs, straights, full house and so on, but it is pretty fun with a group capable of working all the angles. I think the best part is that even if you're losing the overall battle, you still have little victories as you roll the sort of hand you want and steal cards from your friends or manage to sweep the property available and so on. Worth checking out.

Shutter Island was ... ok I guess. It's another one where the ending was pretty obvious. Some of the journey there was interesting and there are some truly nifty visual effects that help tell the story, but overall just kind of meh.

Big Bang Theory season 2 is pretty hilarious so far.

And on a final note the kids are back in school. Well, G starts next week. But that means it's just about the best season of all. Pretty soon no more mowing and the banishing of the heat and all things wonderful about this time of year. Yeah!

In which there are puzzles and rain

2010-08-19T14:05:00.003-06:00

M received Ubongo from us for her birthday. It's like a competitive tetris/tangrams game. You each get 12 tetris type shapes and a puzzle board. A die is rolled that lets you know which three (or four) pieces you will use to assemble the shape depicted on the board. You then have a very brief window of time in which to assemble the puzzle. If you manage it, you can collect two gems from the score track. At the end (9 rounds, different board for each round) the person with the most gems of a single color is the winner. (You can move across the columns of the score track depending on how quickly you finish the puzzle thus helping you to get gems of the color you want). It's fast and also pretty fun. Some of the puzzles are fiendishly difficult. And others not so. It's also pretty easy to adjust the difficulty so that everyone has a chance. Make the grown ups solve the 4 piece puzzles while the kids do the 3 piece offerings. Remove the timer for younger players (an option I think I'll try with G next time) and so on. There are several versions of Ubongo as well in case you need more puzzles.

Other than that M had a lovely birthday and managed to mostly avoid the rain we've had on and off for several days. There was a traditional pool party and some mu shu pork and a whopper pie. An we were glad for an opportunity to spend the day together. Happy birthday M!

Lovely wife has managed to get the kids geared up for school (next week! woo hoo!). Other than that things have been almost quiet at casa del 'd'. I've even manged to not read a ton of books. I'm going to give Last Apprentice a bit of a break so that I don't wear myself out on the series. I suspect I'll get book four in the next couple of weeks though. I have instead opted to collect all 120 stars in Super Mario Galaxy 2 which of course just opens the next 120. I think I will also take a break from that prior to hunting for them. I think I liked the first Mario Galaxy a touch more. Mostly because it forced you to progress through the "story" (such as it was) before going back for all the extra stuff. The second one let you do the extra stuff almost from the get go. And the completist in me wouldn't let me go ahead before I had it all. So aspects of it were more work than fun. It's not entirely the game's fault, but I liked that aspect of the initial game better. The second one certainly has some pretty amazing levels and fun game play, just like the first.

Scott Pilgrim!

2010-08-14T19:19:00.002-06:00

The movie was awesome. I don't really have much more to say about it. I am contemplating going back and seeing it again. Truly great. Possibly more gushing later.

In which I wait for Saturday

2010-08-12T14:10:00.003-06:00

Ok, technically Scott Pilgrim opens tomorrow. The letter 'r' and I will be going on Saturday. And I cannot wait. I did manage to read volume 6 (Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour) however. And it was good. It does a good job of tying up the series and I really enjoyed some of the little bits found in it. (Young Neil's moment and the updating of Wikipedia were two of them.) The art was really polished in this volume and it was a nice way to see the series out. So go read them all and then go see the movie. I'm sure it will be brilliant.

The Night of the Soul Stealer is the third Last Apprentice book. I enjoyed it more than the second one, so that's good. Not that the second one was bad, I just liked this one more. It's winter in the County and a necromancer is up to no good. So Tom and the Spook have their work cut out for them. I like this series, it's nice that there's a spooky series for the kids. (And their parents)

Got to see little sis and their family this week. I think their youngest (for the time being) looks like littlest sis. Which given the similarities between the two of them while growing up isn't really surprising. (Little sis and littlest sis that is) G had a grand time playing with his cousins and I got a chance to check out the iPad. Clever little device that is. It was good to see them.

The House of the Devil is a throwback to horror films from the 70s and 80s. It's a slow burn and I liked it. Lovely wife and little sis were not as impressed. I have a theory that the film is better if you're steeped in that sort of thing. Ti West did an amazing job of recreating the films of that period. It takes it's time building up with just the right amount of tension before descending into the frenzied final act. I think K needs to watch this and report her findings. I will admit that I found the ending to be a little off, but that's just because I wasn't really expecting that twist/nod.

We managed to have another boardgame weekend with friends last Saturday. We enjoyed some Forbidden Island (it sank just before we could claim victory), some 10 Days in Europe (I traveled the continent better than my peers), a little Incan Gold and some Galaxy Trucker (you should have seen the wasteland that was left at the end of the third round - all four of us were wiped out before reaching the end of the journey). It was a great time and we are in preparations for the next 'd'Con in November.

Scott Pilgrim

2010-08-05T15:30:00.001-06:00

Go make yours...

If you don't know by now, you're new here

2010-08-05T14:01:00.004-06:00

The Faceless Ones by Derek Landy is the third Skulduggery Pleasant book. This means that by default it is awesome. And it is. It's also a bit of a cliffhanger. Now, the fourth book is already out and the fifth book is about to come out. In Britain. For some bizarre reason they're not available here yet. Maybe they're stuck on the translation or something. At any rate, just know that if you've read the first two, of course you want to read this one and if you haven't go start with them. There are certainly some interesting questions raised (just what is going on with Valkyrie's reflection anyway?) this go round. They really better get those other two books over here pronto.

Girl Parts by John Cusick was slightly misleading. It looks like your typical boy gets girl robot, other boy bonds with girl robot, hijinks ensue sorta book. And there are certainly shades of that. I just expected more hijinks/hilarity. Instead this one focuses slightly more on having meaning. (Which isn't to say there isn't meaning in the other sort, it's just better camouflaged.) So it loses a couple points for that. And the ending was a little too abrupt. More points for that. I suppose it does say good things that I'd have liked more story, but with what you get it's really only a partial recommend.

20th Century Boys vol 9 continues the streak of awesomeness. Still really enjoying this series. That is all.

We watched the new Sherlock Holmes the other day. It was alright. Mostly it made me want to watch Young Sherlock Holmes again. I'm not entirely certain why. I really liked Jude Law as Watson, in some ways he seemed to outshine Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes. Which is a little impressive as I considered that pretty inspired casting. I'd watch another film with the two of them though, so that's alright then.

I believe I've mentioned Canabalt before. If not it's an addictive little flash game, that yeah, they made an app of. The team behind that has just updated Gravity Hook. Both are "just one more try" compulsive fun. And you can play them for free online. Or go buy the app if you're so inclined. Oh and Canabalt is available as a portable app for your thumb drive. Hopefully Gravity Hook shows up there as well.

We have had some lovely thunderstorms these last couple days. Even some hail. It has kept me from mowing the lawn (a mixed blessing if ever there was one) but otherwise has been quite nice. I miss thunderstorms.

And slowly the summer draws to a close. It's time to start gearing the kids up for school. Ah school season. My favorite season. Well, ok, really it's Fall, but you get the idea.

Just a few stray thoughts

2010-07-29T14:10:00.005-06:00

In about two weeks Scott Pilgrim vs the World will be in theaters. This is grand news indeed. If you've not read the graphic novels you really should. All six are out now, so the story is complete. I've seen book 6, but have to wait my turn to read it. (Accursed hold list!) I'm hoping to get it before the movie comes out, but we shall see. I'm biding my time reading the first five over again. The story follows Scott as he starts dating Ramona Flowers only to find out that he has to defeat her seven evil exes in order to continue dating her. The movie is being directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) so it will, of course, be brilliant. If there's a guy more capable of grasping the source material than Wright, I'd like to meet him.

I've managed to finish off the second books in both the Skulduggery Pleasant and Last Apprentice series. They were also quite enjoyable. Playing with Fire (the second Skulduggery book) was once again hilarious and thrilling while The Curse of the Bane was still somewhat spooky and mysterious. I'm going to have to read more. This may present a problem...

The Courtyard is Alan Moore's take on Cthulhu. It's disturbing and gritty and not really for the faint of heart. Kind of like Cthulhu. (The best Cthulhu news I've heard? Guillermo Del Toro is going to make At the Mountains of Madness with James Cameron producing. This will be an absolutely awesome movie. Much like Wright's suitability for Scott Pilgrim, Del Toro is a match for Cthulhu.)

Lovely wife and I are currently watching the first season of The Mentalist. It's fun. Simon Baker is an absolute joy to watch as Patrick Jane, the ever observant consultant for the CBI. Where Psych goes almost strictly for comedy with serious moments, The Mentalist goes for drama with moments of humor. If you've not seen it, it's worth checking out.

And as a closing piece of advice, never give your spouse and kids a chance to practice at PitchCar. When it comes time to actually play, they will kill you.

Hey Look

2010-07-24T07:43:00.002-06:00

Jellyfish,
originally uploaded by dkun.

More pictures up. Impressive...

Oregon and back...agon

2010-07-22T14:24:00.003-06:00

Yaquina Lighthouse,
originally uploaded by dkun.

As you can see from the lovely picture accompanying the post here family del 'd' recently returned from a vacation. Celebrating lovely wife's Father's 70th birthday we went to Depoe Bay in Oregon with her side of the family. And it was wonderful. I'm pretty sure I could settle down in Oregon on the coast. We stayed at the Worldmark resort in Depoe Bay courtesy of lovely wife's sister and had a lovely 3rd floor room looking out over the ocean. I will attempt to get some more pictures up soon, but for now you can look at the Yaquina Lighthouse that was down in Newport.

We played on the beach, flew a kite, visited the lighthouse and an aquarium and enjoyed lots of other coastal town activities. We saw seals, starfish, crabs, anemones, and other assorted critters. The temperature was a lovely 60-ish degrees. It was great.

We went out on a boat in an attempt to see a whale, but ended up discovering that lovely wife and M are more prone to get seasick. McK, G and myself had a grand old time in spite of the waves and wind and I still think it would be great to learn to sail. I really need a sailboat... Alas the weather (some fog and lots of wind) prevented us from seeing a whale, but the boat ride was fun (if you weren't lovely wife or M).

We enjoyed lots of local cuisine (taffy! Tillamook ice cream! Crab Legs!) and just generally did our best to relax and unwind and enjoy some time together. If you're looking to get away for a bit I can certainly recommend the Oregon coast.

On the way back we stopped off at Crater Lake and marveled at the startlingly blue water. Not so much the return to typical summer temperatures, but the lake itself was quite pretty.

I've also read far too many books recently. I shall try to recap them here.

Revenge of the Witch (The Last Apprentice Book 1) by Joseph Delaney is pretty darn good. And also creepy. I look forward to reading more of this series. It follows Tom, the 7th son of a 7th son as he is apprenticed to the Spook - the guy responsible for dealing with all the supernatural problems the towns in the area face. Witches, boggarts and the like. It's a quick read that you don't want to put down that has some really nice atmosphere. McK claims to not have found it that creepy. I think she's putting on a brave face.

The Splendid Magic of Penny Arcade recounts the 11 1/2 year history behind the popular webcomic. If you're a follower of the strip you'll recognize some of the stories, but there's plenty of material here that's worth revisiting. They cover everything from the strip itself to the creation of Child's Play, the charity and PAX, the premiere convention for the gaming public. Jerry and Mike are a couple of pretty amazing guys and it's fun to read about all the things that have happened. If you're not a fan, but someone you know is, the book will give you some insight into just what they find so fascinating.

The Ark, by Boyd Morrison was a decent summer popcorn book. And then I realized I was reading Clive Cussler. Two male action heroes with witty banter? Check. Beautiful woman tied to current mystery for predominant male hero to fall in love with? Check. Lots of vehicles? Check. Wacky vehicle chase scene? Check. Alternate take on historical artifact? Check. End of the world scenario that our heroes must stop with seconds to spare? Check. So yeah, it's really Clive Cussler in disguise, but it's still fun.

Skulduggery Pleasant, by Derek Landy is another series that I look forward to reading. We listened to the audiobook version of this and I can wholeheartedly recommend that. The story is an absolute riot and full of lots of action and suspense. Stephanie is 12 years old when her uncle passes away. At the funeral she meets Skulduggery, who she later discovers is a fire wielding, magic using skeleton. They then go on adventures to save the world. It's great. Go read it now. The entire family (with the possible exception of G who was probably a little to young for the whole audiobook spanning multiple cds thing) loved it.

So yeah, lots has happened since I last rambled on. But things should settle back to normal now. And I will settle for missing the ocean...

Cloning around

2010-07-08T14:09:00.003-06:00

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro ends about as well as it can. I first heard about the book a few weeks back when a trailer for the movie showed up. I didn't watch the trailer (which was probably wise prior to reading the book) but decided it sounded a little interesting. I'd heard of the author before, but not read anything by him. So I picked it up. The book follows Ruth, Tommy and Kathy as they grow up, first in a boarding school type location and then as they venture into the world after school. Or as much of it as they're allowed to see. I won't go into specifics about the plot as some of the impact comes from following the story, but it is interesting. It's told from a reminiscing/memoir point of view and is mostly slice of life with a sci-fi edge to it. And a rather sharp one at that. It's not terribly surprising there' s a movie in the works and that the book is gaining some attention again considering the topics it tackles. It's definitely interesting and well written. (And a little depressing.)

Other than that, life continues in casa del 'd'. The weather has been wonderfully cool for July. I approve of this oddball summer we're having. It's certainly hot enough during the day, but the evenings have been actually pleasant.

I contemplated rambling a little bit about video games. Mostly as I was thinking about consoles and the sorts of games you tend to buy for them. Everybody needs a good racer and a fighting game and so on. But really, there's not a lot of topic there. At least that hasn't been covered better elsewhere. So no ramblings for you. Just go buy a racing game and a fighter and a platformer or two. Maybe a party game.

Oh hey, remember that last line thing? Here's one without any commentary: Guardian of Lies by Steve Martini, "They were now on Liquidia's short list, and the man known in Tijuana as the Mexecutioner had a very long memory." Ok, the only comment I have is Mexecutioner? Really? I suspect the author had one too many of his last name. You know what the best name for an assassin would be? Mexecutioner. Because he's from Mexico. And he executes people. I love you man! <sigh>

And so it goes

2010-07-01T14:14:00.004-06:00

It seems like that's a line from Kurt Vonnegut. (The title that is) It seems to fit things in casa del 'd' at the moment. Hmm.

I've been reading The Name of the Wind again in the evenings. Such a good book. I was a little worried it wouldn't be as good the second time through (especially as I only read it a few months back), but nope, still excellent.

We picked up a couple little games in preparation for some family time. Qwirkle Cubes takes the gameplay from Qwirkle and mixes it up by turning the tiles into dice. So you're still trying to complete lines of 6 (either same color different shape or same shape different color) but at the beginning of your turn you can opt to roll any of the dice that are in your hand. It makes things a little more interesting. Also you can see what your opponents have at any time so there's a little more strategy to what you might place.

Forbidden Island is a co-operative game that has you trying to collect 4 treasures from a rapidly sinking island. Each player has an ability that lets them break the rules in a specific way as you work together to try and keep the island from sinking before you get the goods and get away. It's by the guy that created Pandemic which is a pretty well known co-op game. This one is a little simpler and meant for families. It's also much cheaper - priced around $15. It plays 2-4 people and lovely wife and I found it pretty fun.

We've still been having some fun throwing the frisbee around and taking some walks around the neighborhood. They built a pretty nice biking/walking path close by that we like. I've not been real good about exercising lately, so we try and get out for a walk in the evening to at least pretend.

And that's about it. The kids still live at the pool (when we let them) or terrorize the neighborhood. I guess we'll try to blow some stuff up this weekend and celebrate the holiday. Too bad we can't get any real fireworks...

Quick thoughts

2010-06-24T14:59:00.003-06:00

I finished reading Fat Vampire by Adam Rex. Doug is 15 and overweight and now undead. Forever 15 and overweight and trying to sort out this whole undead thing. The initial parts of this book are hilarious. The rest moderately so. Lovely wife liked about the first 2/3s. I enjoyed it pretty much up until the end. The end is a little odd, it's true. But there was some decent humor. I suspect the biggest problem is the fact that the book kind of wanders. It is a coming of age tale of sorts, so I suppose that's somewhat understandable, but not really to the extent found in the book. I'd say it's worth reading for humor, but not necessarily the story. Although it's not bad. (Although the Google? Really?)

G and I have started playing Super Mario Galaxy 2 and it's quite good. If you liked the first one, you'll like this one. It's a touch more challenging, but there's a lot of fun to be had. If you haven't played the first one, I think I'd recommend starting with it. There are a couple things the new one does better (especially related to having a 2nd player) but you'll probably find the learning curve a little less steep.

And that's really all I feel like going on about right now. I will mention very briefly in passing that Cypher and Red Rock West were both pretty interesting little movies. One's a sci-fi espionage flick and the other is a noir-ish mistaken identity flick.

Dresden, Dice, Dads, dis and dat

2010-06-17T14:01:00.004-06:00

Storm Front by Jim Butcher is the first Dresden Files book. And it's a fun little read. Fantasy noir is probably the best way to describe it. Think detective story by the way of Raymond Chandler and wizard by the way of ... hmm. Butcher I guess. Some of it is the noir aspects, but the wizards in Buther's book are definitely their own little breed. If you liked the series that ran on SciFi (back before it became Syfy) it's definitely worth looking into. Book and show are similar, yet different. Slight tweaks on characters and relationships and so on. The story itself serves mostly as an introduction to Harry's world, but contains a decent enough mystery at the heart of it as well. Someone is leaving corpses with their hearts burst out of their chests. The Chicago PD is a little at a loss and Harry gets called in. Plus he has an actual client. Of the dame in distress variety (see? Chandler all the way).

Cthulhu Dice was fun because of the die. That and it's a little fun to steal your buddy's sanity. Zombie Dice is fun because it's a little more of a game. It's basically Pass the Pigs as seen through the eyes of a zombie. You pick three dice at random and roll them. Brains are points, footsteps are fleeing victims and shotgun blasts hurt. Assuming you don't roll all three blasts, you can choose to pick up the footsteps, add more dice to total three, and roll again. If you get three blasts before you choose to quit you lose all the brains you rolled. First to 13 brains wins. It's fun.

Father's Day draws near. We just had a chance to see Dad, so that was good. I certainly appreciate all the help Dad gives us. It was also nice to just give him a chance to relax this last time with no projects waiting for him. Next time though...

E3 is just about wrapped up and Nintendo has once again managed to convince me it needs more of my money. There are some pretty cool games coming up (Kirby Epic Yarn, Metroid Other M, Epic Mickey, Zelda, the list goes on) but the really cool bit was the 3DS. Handheld 3D device that doesn't require glasses? I'm pretty sure we won't miss just one of the kids... So yeah, it's officially on the list of things the ol' letter 'd' needs.

In which I try to recap lots of things badly

2010-06-10T14:07:00.004-06:00

So. I suppose a lot has happened since last I posted anything of any note. We have had several family members visit and depart, watched some shows, read some books, played some games, gone on a hike, eaten out at far too many restaurants - the list goes on. I'll try to keep this to the highlights.

We had a grand time with Dad while he was here. We managed to let him have some fun this time and didn't force him to fix anything or work on any projects. Instead we went on the aforementioned hike (very short) to a local waterfall and a few other places of interest. We checked out the new Dinosaur museum down by BYU as well. It was a little trippy heading back to the old stomping grounds. I haven't been there for a while and it was interesting to see how things had changed. The museum was nice for a small free place. They had some pretty neat completed skeletons.

We also tried our hand at frisbee golf. And promptly lost the driver frisbee on the 2nd hole. The course itself was not exactly the most amazing thing, unless you like lots of overgrown weeds and a bmx park in the middle... So very strange. I am still intrigued by this concept of frisbee golf though, we may have to see if we can find another course.

Prince of Persia the film was a pretty good time. I rather liked it. It had the same subtle humor from the video game series and some of the same stunts. Lovely wife would have liked some more acrobatics and I would have liked a castle with some saw blades in the walls and spike traps, but for the most part it was good summer fun.

Avatar was surprisingly not bad. I almost regret not seeing it in 3D. If only so I'd have something to compare all the lousy 3D that's out now to. The story certainly didn't tread any new ground (Pocahontas says hi), but the effects were pretty good and it's certainly a solid enough story regardless of originality.

Dad picked up 10 Days in Asia while he was out here. It's basically Racko with geography. Certainly interesting along with frustrating. We had fun playing that and introducing Dad to Pitchcar and a couple others. Didn't get a chance to show him Galaxy Trucker or Tobago this go round. Next time.

I picked up Cthulhu Dice mostly for the die. The game itself is pretty quick and alright as a filler, but the die is cool. I have insidious plans to create my own little game using the die. And possibly the counters. Mwa ha ha ha ha.

Lovely wife's cousin was in town and we had a fun visit with her as well. And I discovered that fried pickles from Texas Roadhouse are awesome. I don't care how awful they are for you I love them. I will have to find a recipe. (Speaking of recipes Dad made us a real nice spicy Eggplant Parmesan. So good.)

Books. Yikes. I suppose if nothing else I should mention that I finished off Rick Riordan's newest, The Red Pyramid. This time he's tackling Egyptian mythology instead of Greek. It's fun. Not quite up there with the Percy Jackson stuff, but fun. I think part of it is that I'm not sure I'm quite as interested in the overarching storyline in the Red Pyramid like I was in the Percy Jackson stuff. The minute to minute plot details are fun though. And it's really nice to see a lesser known mythology get the spotlight.

Other things have certainly happened. Kids are out of school causing mischief. The girls have had one Day Camp set of adventures already and some more are coming up. I'm pretty sure they plan on trying to live at the pool as well. McK decided that bikes are for crashing and got some pretty good road rash...

At any rate, better wind this up. Congrats go out to little sis on the news that it's a boy. Although her naming choices still leave a lot to be desired...

In which an achievement is unlocked

2010-06-03T08:43:00.001-06:00

15 year Anniversary get!

That is all.

In which there are some words one after the other

2010-05-27T14:11:00.003-06:00

I finished reading The Devil's Trill by Gerald Elias. It was a fun little mystery set in the classical music world.

I'm currently devouring The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan. It's his new series in which he tackles Egyptian mythology. It's pretty good as well. I really like his stuff.

Lovely wife and I have just about finished up season one of The Dresden Files. I remember watching it back when it was on tv. I'm about to start reading some of the books and decided to watch the one season they made of this all those years ago. It's a little better than I remembered. I suspect mostly because we're watching it on DVD. That seems to make tv so much better.

Lovely wife caught the series finale of Lost the other night. I watched some of it with her. We saw the first season on DVD with the letter 'r'. But then the two of them decided to just watch it as it was broadcast instead of continuing the lovely watch it on DVD tradition. So I didn't keep up. So from a completely not really following the series situation I found the ending ok. Parts of it made some sense and the rest was lost (heh) behind who is that and why does this matter. I didn't bother lovely wife with too many of those questions. Mostly I played Picross 3D and Etrian Odyssey II. They seemed far more entertaining. And possibly more rewarding. I do give them props for trying to tell an actual story across a few seasons though. That's a lesson I wish more tv shows would learn.

So. Vacation time awaits. I will have a lovely week off. Papa del 'd' will be arriving tres soon and we will probably get roped into far too much yard work. Personally I'm hoping for an afternoon watching Prince of Persia and some relaxing. I suspect I won't be so lucky. Alas. Try not to blow up the internet while I'm gone 'k? Thx. Bye.

Insert catchy title here

2010-05-20T13:59:00.003-06:00

We finished up the 2 seasons of Survivors that exist. It really was The Walking Dead with no zombies. So very strange. Apparently the show got canned before season 3. I'm not sure if they knew in time or they really planned season 2 to end where it did, but the managed to mostly tie off quite a bit. No looming cliffhangers of any real concern. Well, maybe one, but not really. The characters were only occasionally stupid for the sake of the plot, so that's something. If you run across it, it's worth watching. I think the thing that I liked the best was that they seemed pretty good at showing both sides of a situation. You may not always like the people involved, but you're almost always allowed a chance to see how things are from their perspective.

G has finished preschool. And will probably be pretty bored in kindergarten provided he doesn't forget everything over the summer. They did a really great job teaching letters, sounds, numbers and so on. He was even doing some limited reading by the end of the year. He decided he wanted a copy of Pokemon Monopoly as a reward for finishing. And then promptly kicked lovely wife's butt at it. It was a little amusing.

We picked up a new mower as I was pretty fed up with the old one. It was getting harder and harder to start and I was tired of the lack of self propulsion. So we snagged a self propelled key start mower. It's pretty glorious. While I will never love mowing the lawn, I will now probably not hate it. That key start is an absolutely brilliant feature.

And that's about it. A pretty quiet week. Things will get fun soon though as we have family coming to visit and I will get a week off. Ahhh vacation!

Yes please

2010-05-15T09:19:00.001-06:00

Mostly for 'K' and a couple others ('r' comes to mind as well).

In which I lose several hours

2010-05-13T14:06:00.003-06:00

So the death of the local video store is pretty much upon us. Redbox and Netflix have just about done them in I suspect. The latest victim is Hollywood Video and the attached GameCrazy stores. They are no more. Which meant liquidation sales. You have to be a little careful with liquidation sales, the "deals" aren't always that. You need to know going in what certain things are worth and then what you're willing to spend. We managed to find a few deals (mostly on video games from the GameCrazy) and there was much rejoicing.

We now have a copy of Kororinpa on the Wii. It's a fun little dexterity sort of game similar to the Monkey Ball series where you tilt the world around a marble in an effort to get it through the level. Good fun. There are lots of little twists in level design and plenty of different marbles/balls to play with. They all react a little differently and depending on your skill and what you're trying to accomplish you'll want to mess around with which one you're using.

I also snagged a copy of Shiren the Wanderer for the Wii. That's right, the game that drove me crazy on the DS has a Wii version. I'm sure it will drive me just as crazy. My initial report is that honestly the game is better for portable systems. Mostly because I can then play it as much as I want without monopolizing the TV. The graphics are certainly prettier. And it's more Shiren. Mwa ha ha ha MORE!

Sorry.

I also managed a copy of Etrian Odyssey II for the DS. This is currently scratching the dungeon crawler itch that completing the initial quest in Shiren left open. It's a little bit fiendish. But compelling. Well, if you like dungeon crawlers. Which I do.

Lovely wife got a copy of Picross 3D for the DS for Mother's Day. Don't know what Picross is? Go knock yourself out. It's much better than Sudoku. It might be her gift, but we're waging quite the battle over who's going to finish what puzzle first. I actually like the 3D version a touch better than the old 2D game. Just a touch though. At least while the difficulty level is low. Heh. It's really hard to put down.

We picked up a couple movies as well, but whatever.

Currently we're watching Survivors a BBC drama from, I dunno, a couple years ago or something. They keep advertising it during the new season of Dr Who. I thought it looked interesting so we're giving it a go. It's not bad. Plague wipes out most of the population and you follow the survivors (see what they did there?) as they, well, try to survive. Honestly this show reminds me a lot of the zombie comic series The Walking Dead. Only without the zombies. I suppose it's because apocalyptic fiction follows some basic tenets, but there's definitely some deja vu there. It's interesting to watch. And there are some absolutely gorgeous scenery shots. I'm not quite sure what they're doing to the colors and so on, but it actually makes me want to visit Scotland again. I remember similar vistas to what you get to see in the show.

I suppose I should also point out that McK seems to think she's a year older now. We're one step away from a teenager. In other words we're doomed. She had a grand time skating around with her friends at the roller rink. And there were some presents or something.

It was also Mother's Day. Lovely wife was suitably pampered (although mostly by me, I'm not sure where the kids were, playing Kororinpa most likely). My sisters have very nice bits written up about our own Mom. I don't really have anything to add except she is indeed missed. She's been in my thoughts lately and there are things I would really have loved to have seen her be a part of. (I suspect she'd get a real kick out of Picross) Thanks Mom.

So there you go. A glimpse into the insanity of Casa del 'd' recently. Poor souls.

The post of the beast

2010-05-06T14:03:00.005-06:00

Blogger tells me that this is my 666th post. In keeping with this nefarious theme I will regale you with tales of a dog movie. Dogs. Bleh. Evil creatures. Well, ok not really so much evil as dumb. Which if you believe Spaceballs actually makes them good, because Good is Dumb per Dark Helmet.

Anyway.

We recently watched Hachi: A Dog's Tale and it was quite good, if quite sad. It's a re-locating of a famous Japanese story about Hachiko, the faithful Akita dog. The quick version goes like this: professor has dog. Dog loves professor. Dog waits for professor to come home at train station every day. Professor dies of heart attack one day while at work. Dog proceeds to wait 10 years for professor to come home until it passes away due to old age. Town builds statue to memorialize dog and as symbol of love and loyalty.

The movie hits pretty much all of those points in a nice fashion. This is a quiet, simple movie and in some ways is all the more heart-breaking for it. And I'd really like to know how they trained the dogs to walk so pathetically at the end of the movie. There are a couple shots where you can just feel how old the dog is by that point. So if you need a good cry or like dogs or whatever I can recommend Hachi.

I also finished reading Haze by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. I don't really have much to say about it except that it's a relatively solid sci-fi piece. Not amazing, but not bad either.

And I think that will pretty much wrap things up. We have learned a valuable lesson when it comes to planting our garden. (Wait till after Mother's Day or you'll have to buy more plants and start again) And one of the kids seems to think there's a birthday coming up. Strange.

In which the Wind is Named and other things happen

2010-04-29T14:00:00.005-06:00

I finished Patrick Rothfuss's The Name of the Wind and it's absolutely brilliant. Without a doubt one of the best books I've read in some time. It's a fantasy novel in which you learn the life story of Kvothe, also known as the Kingkiller. (That's the trilogy name - the Kingkiller Chronicles) This first volume relates his early years with his family, the tragedy that befalls them and the beginning of his schooling. I couldn't put it down and yet didn't want to finish at the same time. I wanted more time with Kvothe and his world. There's magic, music, adventure, humor, tragedy... I could go on. Really, really great. As I mentioned previously I plan on acquiring my own copy to keep.

The next book in the series, A Wise Man's Fear, was recently announced for a March 2011 publication. I can't wait. I certainly wish it was closer, but it sounds like it will be worth the wait.

We recently went through the Bourne trilogy of movies in order to enjoy them on the new TV. I really like the new TV. It makes movie viewing so much nicer. And I still really enjoy the Bourne films. They're great. I miss good action films. I can't really think of anything like them that's come out recently. The new Bond stuff hits that same spot, but it sounds like a new one is pretty distant.

New Super Mario Bros. Wii has finally been vanquished. Well, about as much as it's going to get vanquished. Completing the 8 main worlds opens up a 9th world, but to actually play any of the levels you have to have all the star coins from each of the levels in worlds 1-8. There are three of those bad boys in each level. And typically 10 or so levels per world. And while we've certainly gotten a good chunk of them while just playing through the game I'm not convinced it's worth it to get the remaining coins. We did manage to open the first level for world 9, but that's it.

This is actually an aspect of videogames that needs to go the way of the dodo in my opinion. If you're going to go to the trouble of creating the content, let people play it. I certainly understand rewarding someone for something they've accomplished but hiding and entire world's worth of content behind an extremely annoying collection quest is just brutal. Bad Nintendo! No cookie for you. Other than that the game was pretty brilliant. If you like yelling at each other a lot as you play. I will not count the number of times that I made G or lovely wife cry. But really it was their own fault. Do not stand between me and the power up and do NOT jump on my head plunging me to my death. I don't like it.

Here's to hoping that the snow doesn't kill off our garden. Fortunately we haven't planted some of the tender stuff, but it was a close thing. Apparently the old rule of thumb to wait until after Mother's Day is good advice.

Owly and some other stuff

2010-04-22T14:03:00.004-06:00

I heard about Owly a year or so ago. And then forgot about it for a bit as I figured it would initially appeal to G and he wasn't quite ready for picture storybooks at the time. The other day I saw an ALA poster featuring the character and decided it was certainly time to check it out. And I'm glad I did.

Owly is (wait for it) an owl that lives in the forest and pretty much wants to be friends with everyone. Due to his owlish nature and the fact that most of the creatures he wants to befriend are lower on the food chain, this is usually a problem. But as is the case with most stories of this nature, perseverance and kindness pay off. The books are graphic novel in size and shape, but there are (almost) no words. When characters talk, you get the word bubbles, but the words are replaced with pictures. It's an ingenious way to tell a story for just about anyone. The art is great and the stories are often moving in spite of their simplistic nature. G and I both quickly devoured all five of the books I brought home. I haven't quizzed him on the contents yet to see just what he picked up, but he certainly seemed to enjoy reading through them. I recommend giving them a go regardless of how old you are, there's something here for everyone. Owly rocks.

Casa del 'd' is currently making its way through the old Nadia Secret of Blue Water anime series as well. It's not bad. And not really that dated either. It's an earlier series, but the art is still quite nice and the story holds up. Probably at least partially as it's based somewhat on Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Follow Nadia and Jean as they have adventures above and below the waves on their quest to discover the nature of the Blue Water - the gem Nadia wears.

And I must point out that I have managed to make it to the end of the initial quest in Shiren the Wanderer. Oh yes, I battled my way through all 30 levels ultimately freeing the Golden Condor. It was glorious. Of course, that just opens up the 100(?!) level dungeon that is your reward for taking on the initial task. I haven't ventured forth to see it yet. Shiren needs to rest up a bit from all those mindless deaths. It only took a Master Sword +16 and a decent shield and armband to do it too!

Other than that, life continues here at casa del 'd'. The weather is currently in that constant state of flux that marks the winter/spring border so it might be rain, it might be sunny, it might be snow. And we're about to start planting our squarefoot garden. Yay vegetables! Very excited. More beans, more peas, more tomatoes and peppers!

Your regularly scheduled post

2010-04-15T14:32:00.004-06:00

First order of business: Mu Shu Pork and Bang Bang Shrimp were both cooked and consumed last week. And they were both good. The Mu Shu Pork was a little on the time intensive side to prepare, but was rather tasty. The shrimp was certainly easier to prepare but was slightly less tasty. Which is a little odd as I tend to like spicy things. Not that they were that spicy. We did manage to avoid one mishap when lovely wife accidentally picked up cooked shrimp instead of raw. I suspect it's not wise to fry already cooked shrimp. So yes, new recipes and mostly a success. Yay!

And now for a brief tangent. Working at a Library is a bit of a fascinating thing. Mostly as I am an avid reader and now I have a reading list that I will never ever ever finish. But working here has mostly sated my purchase new book urge. Partially due to advance reader copies and partially because pretty much anything I might want to read is readily available. I might have to wait some, but it will be available. So I don't go out of my way to purchase things unless it's an author I especially like or a book I really like.

I am currently reading such a book. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss is quite simply one of the best books I've read in recent memory. And I've read a lot. I won't go into much detail as I've not yet finished it, but if you like fantasy books you really must track this one down. Absolutely brilliant. I don't want to finish reading this one because then it will be over. I suspect I'll have to track down my own copy of this one.

Oh and I must also plug Mouse Guard again. It really is quite good.

We've been catching random episodes of Castle lately. It's nice in a Nathan Fillion fix sort of way, but the show itself is a little silly. Of the handful of episodes I've seen they telegraphed the ending within the first few minutes twice. I don't consider myself that good a mystery sleuth so I'm guessing these plots are pretty see through. But it does have Nathan Fillion. And the lady from the third Librarian movie. So I guess that's something.

Now off with you, I've a book to finish.