Briefly spooky

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!

Vampires with Teeth

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!