This is the spooky holiday right?

It's not? Hmm. Well that's too bad because I'm going to briefly comment on Paranormal Activity 4. At this point you either like the series or you don't. This particular iteration was not as creepy as 3, but not as slow as 2. It offered a decent amount of lore for the series, so that was nice. And there were indeed some nice creepy moments. So it gets a "yeah, it's good" from me. Lovely wife merely commented that it wasn't too scary. Guess I'll have to try harder. In spite of her recent comments that we've seen an awful lot of scary movies lately. I blame release schedules.

I also finished Revenge, 11 Dark Tales by Yoko Ogawa. It was an interesting series of interlocking short stories that dealt with various and sundry slightly off kilter characters and plots. I liked it even if it made my head hurt.

McK has joined the ranks of the glasses wearing set. Like myself. And pretty much my entire family. Some would say she was doomed. But she doesn't seem to mind. In fact she was a little perturbed that she didn't get more comments on them the first day she wore them. Good on her.

Sounds like littlest sis has managed to complete both seasons of Haven that are currently out on DVD. Now she gets to wait with the rest of us to see what happens next. She too was less than thrilled with that season cliffhanger. Show needs to be on Netflix.

We have acquired Space Cadets as a somewhat belated Christmas gift from sis-in-law. It's a co-operative game where each person is responsible for a station on a starship and has to play a mini-game to achieve goals for that station. It has a timed element that adds to the tension and sounds pretty fun. Will certainly take a bit to play with a new group as you try to explain the roles, but I think once it gets going it should be pretty good.

Cliffhanging

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

We also finished season 1 of White Collar. Also quite momentous. Fortunately we could watch the episode 2 season opener the next day.

Over the weekend we watched Brewster's Millions (still holds up) and Zorro the Gay Blade (what on Earth did I just watch?!) We were really hoping to watch Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins but the tape is MIA. We also played Smash Up (some interesting ideas that after a couple plays will probably gel a little better. It seemed to go on a little longer than it needed to, but I think that will tighten up once you know the cards and the factions a little better.) and String Railway (a clever little area control sort of game where you build railroad lines using strings and small tokens. It was pretty brilliant actually.)

G had his first Pinewood Derby. A couple second place finishes and a couple third place finishes. He had fun though so that's great. And he did pretty much the entire car by himself. McK has obtained the role of Pirate in the Jr High's upcoming Pirates of Penzance performance.

I finished off Bioshock. It's a pretty interesting game. Certainly some disturbing themes and moments. Also some pretty unique choices on offer. After I finished the game I watched a couple of the extra videos that were available. I was completely uncreative in my methods of dispatching enemies apparently. I tended to just bludgeon things with my wrench. Less ammo used that way... Figure I'll play Darksiders since it looks completely silly and goofy and then head back for Bioshock 2. (Not so much on the silly and goofy in that one.)

There's a lot of snow around here...

Unsafe Haven

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

The free game for Playstation Plus members this week was Darksiders. The sequel just came out a month or so back and I'd heard good things about both games so I thought I'd give it a go. It is terribly silly in an amusing sort of way and I look forward to playing more of it. It's sort of God of War (combat) meets Zelda.  So that's a little weird, but it works. The story is absolutely ridiculous and I won't say anything about it because you wouldn't believe me if I did.

Bioshock continues to be interesting. Although I'm a little tired of the hacking mini game. I guess I should just start wasting my money as it seems there's plenty of it.

Littlest sis is theoretically in town now and we're supposed to get together with some of her friends to play games tonight. Poor G is a little under the weather so hopefully that doesn't throw a wrench in things.

I am very glad it's a long weekend. Very. Glad.

G has gotten his Pinewood Derby car cut out and painted. It probably needs some more weight, but I have no idea if we'll get that accomplished. It also has slightly crooked wheels. So I suspect there are no victories in his future, but stranger things have happened.

M participated in her first (and last? I forget what grade they stop) spelling bee. She made it to the fifth round or so before misspelling "enact". She had focused so much on the harder words that it was an easier one that got her. She did great though. (and apparently she had written it out correctly as well as the incorrect version and just went with the wrong spelling)

Caught the first episode of Wallander. I like it. Will watch more. I also watched the first 30 minutes of Iron Sky. It is truly ridiculous. (Secret Nazi base on the moon)

It's cold! Just sayin'.

No more spiders

Finished This Book is Full of Spiders and it was great fun. I liked it better than John Dies at the End. It's a more cohesive story and I think the writing is better as well. Some truly laugh out loud moments as well as some nice eerie stuff. So good.

Mark Z. Danielewski's sort of ghost story, The Fifty Year Sword was pretty interesting too. It's certainly one that probably requires slightly more attention than I gave it, but the story was fun and suitably spooky. Although I will admit to still being a touch confused by the ending.

I plowed through the next two volumes of The Sixth Gun as well. They were great. I really like this series a lot. More western apocalyptic goodness.

Happy birthday to G! Glad to hear he's not falling for trick hugs that are spankings in disguise. And I am amused that he wanted chocolate chip banana bread with candles for breakfast.

As the iOS version was on sale for .99 cents the other day and they were giving away the desktop client for free for Halloween, we've been messing about with Plants vs Zombies. It's actually kind of fun. Mostly because I like the zombies. They amuse me. I also snagged Girls Like Robots which is a fun logic puzzle sort of game. And The Room is another fun puzzle game. I think my brain might explode from all the puzzle-y goodness.

G and I are just about through that first season of Haven. I've really enjoyed it.

Otherwise, it's good to have family in town for a bit. Although it will certainly be a hectic weekend. And sorry little sis couldn't make it up, but that's ok. Moving house and so on are certainly valid reasons not to make the trek.

Spooky

So we forced Paranormal Activity and Cabin in the Woods upon new victims over the weekend. A good time was had by all. Well except for the scaring to death part and the what did we just watch part. Ok, I had a good time. And I suspect at least one or two of the others did as well. I still rather enjoy those movies...

Also worth noting is that the heroes actually won a game of Betrayal at House on the Hill over the weekend as well. We managed to whomp that ghost good. Heh.

G and I are continuing to watch season one of Haven. It's been quite good. I am glad there is more of the show waiting for us when we finish this round.

So, October is just about done. Who let this happen? I don't really remember much of it at all and I am not remotely prepared for November or December...

Oh, I should also mention that it's snowing here. Quite a bit actually. It's still early enough that nothing is sticking, but I am rather impressed at Winter's early start. I suspect I am going to have to shovel far too much snow this Winter. Alas. I like snow though. Except for when I'm commuting...

Happy Halloween! (Almost)

Spider (he is our hero)

Currently hip deep in This Book is Full of Spiders by David Wong. It's the sequel to John Dies at the End and so far it's pretty great. Funny, creepy all those great tastes that taste great together. And strangely I seem to have won a copy of the ARC from Tor. So thanks Tor! Free book full of spiders bent on destroying the Earth. What's not to love about that?

I finished Professor Gargoyle, one of the new Lovecraft Middle School books in an evening. It's good, sort of spooky fun. If nothing else it has a two headed rat. (But no Earth destroying spiders)

We watched The Avengers over the weekend. It's pretty official - I am done with superhero movies (possibly excepting the Nolan Batman stuff, but I'm not positive about it either). It's not that it was bad, it just wasn't that great either. Mostly it was silly. (It may have needed more Earth destroying spiders instead of Aliens all hooked up to one ship. Seriously? All the aliens run off that one ship?)

I do rather enjoy the Superhero Cafe stuff that the folks over at How it Should Have Ended put out though. So if you've not seen that stuff, go give it a watch.

Got a couple board games in over the weekend. Another round of Betrayal at House on the Hill as well as some King of Tokyo and Cthulhu and Zombie Dice. Once again the traitor prevailed. Although it was a pretty close call. Well, maybe not that close. Stupid Frankenstein's monster... This weekend will feature horror movies and maybe a game or two. Looking forward to it.

McK has always had a love/hate relationship with math. Theoretically she was going to be studying Geometry this year so I checked out the new Danica McKellar book Girls get Curves to see if it was of any help to her. I've heard good things about her math books. We'll see if it's any good.

I think G and I are going to give the first season of Haven a go. He watched the first episode with me the other day. It was actually kind of interesting.

Lovely wife has recently taken interest in some simple knitting projects. A scarf and a couple hats using these easy little loom things. We shall see what becomes of this. (Unless we get eaten by the spiders)