Haunted Houses, Dangerous Islands, you know, your typical stuff

Recently finished the audiobook version of Richard Matheson's Hell House. It's a decent haunted house type story that is not in any way for people under the age of, oh, say, 30. Matheson opted to go the creepy lurid route as opposed to the creepy psychological route (although there is some of that too). Which is to say there's some sex folks. I'm a little interested how the book got turned into a PG movie, because it seems like they'd pretty much have to re-write the entire thing to accomplish said task. And maybe they did. Who knows? There are some good twists and some nice spooky moments, but it's actually a little hard to recommend the title. The guy doing the reading did a pretty good job though, so that's something.

I'm actually going to start listening to some audiobooks as part of my commute. Up next is The Book of Fate.

Finished Warren Fahy's Fragment. It's fine for a summer popcorn book (which is pretty much what I read it for). Not quite up to Jurassic Park standards, but not bad for what it is. Follow the scientist based reality TV show as they head to an island left to itself for far too long. Cower in terror as they get devoured by said island's insane ecosystem. Thrill as more scientists show up - will they be saviours? Or savored? Yeah, it's kind of like that. Characters aren't terribly 3 dimensional, and plot is pretty standard. It does get points for some creativity in the monsters that inhabit the island though.

Up next is Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan. I love me some Westerfeld and this one has a steampunk-ish twist, so yay for that. Should be good.

Kids have been reading the Legend of Zelda graphic novels (and by kids I mean pretty much all of us - in fact I think all 5 of us read the first one...) and enjoying them. That's kind of fun.

The big success of the garden has been green beans I think. Snap peas are a close second, followed by the tomatoes and then the peppers. I suspect next year we may turn the trellis over to the pole beans and the snap peas and rearrange everything else a touch. But the beans have been great. Mmmm fresh steamed green beans...

Eureka season one has been fun, but it really makes me want to watch season two as I forget how some of these plot lines wrapped up. Leverage has been alright and Psych is still fun. Although the star of the week vein they're in is a little silly.

I would like to point out at this point that my wife has made some sort of pact with the devil when it comes to Alhambra. No one will ever beat her at this game. Ever. I think the letter 'r' and I will start handicapping ourselves about 50 points to keep things fair...

And that's pretty much how the summer has gone. Some books, some TV, some movies, some games and so on. Looking forward to settling into the fall and winter. Although the commute in winter is an absolute nightmare. Family in town soon, so that should be nice.

Charts and such

Ran across this the other day. I think it will surprise no one that I found it amusing and somewhat fascinating. I am surprised cleavage did not feature on the list.

Summer (as far as the school is concerned) is officially over. There has been some rejoicing in casa del 'd'. Kids aren't quite sure what to make of it. They miss the lazy days some, but also look forward to school some, so it's a bit of a draw for them. This is the last year McK will be in the same school as any of her siblings. That's a bit odd. I managed to realize yesterday that there will be one year where each of them will be in a separate school. I suspect lovely wife will enjoy that year the most. G gets ready to start preschool in a week or so. I suspect we're about to enter the next phase of lovely wife's craziness. Adjusting to empty house for a few days a week. Expect random coverage as a new feature. (Not really, as much as I like needling lovely wife, I like breathing a touch more.)

A game to put in the other column (loves, not hates) for lovely wife is San Juan. In a lot of ways it's a watered down version of Puerto Rico. It's card based and your goal is to develop a settlement by building buildings and plantations. The cards are used for everything - currency, buildings, placeholders, etc. This is actually a nice feature as there aren't too many bits involved. The game is played as a series of rounds. Each round each player will choose a role (builder, trader, producer, etc.) and all players get the option to exercise the benefit of that role. The person that chose the role gets a slight edge (usually a slightly lower cost for something, or an extra thing planted/traded, etc,) and the buildings you set up in your settlement also allow you to play with the rules some. Once someone builds their twelfth building your settlement is scored. Ultimately this is a hand management game. Which cards do you use to build things? How many cards do you keep in your hand? What kind of settlement do you build? And so on. It plays pretty well with 2 or 3, but I seem to recall really enjoying the 4 player games. It's actually a little more strategic then as the various types of cards aren't as plentiful. If you want something in the same vein but with a sci fi them on top instead of old world settlement, go for Race for the Galaxy. We might try picking that one up at some point as the letter 'r' is where we go for our San Juan fix.

I've recently been listening to the audiobook edition of Hell House by Richard Matheson. I really like haunted house stories. May have to track down the film version once I finish the book.

And that's about all I've got. It seems like we've been watching stuff, but nothing is jumping out at me. And I'm still reading stuff (almost done with Fragment), but I think most of that will keep till another post. (Oh and I still have more last lines, but I don't want to do too many of them right away.)