Waving around

So I finished Rick Yancey's The 5th Wave. I gave it three stars, but that's a little misleading. It was a decent book, but I'm not really the target audience for it. It was certainly a little more female friendly than I expected it to be. I don't know I'd go so far as to call it chick-lit, but it's close. It did get a little better as the story progressed, but I dunno... It was ok. I don't mind female protagonists, and I don't suppose I really mind love triangle stuff (not that this story had much of a love triangle) but it was just a little too meandering or something. Which is weird given that Yancey is known for the Monstrumologist series.

Anyway, it might be worth checking out if you like alien apocalypse type stories, just know that it's a little wander-y. Or something. I'd be interested to see someone compare it to The Host...

We got to see little sis and her family last night. That was fun. Too bad we couldn't get a game of something in. Oh well, next time. Littlest K makes me laugh. He's a goofball in the best sense of the word.

We've been watching The 50 Greatest Magic Tricks on YouTube over the last couple days. I really like magic... Did I mention we saw Now You See Me? It was really good. I'm not completely convinced the ending holds up, but the show itself is a lot of fun.

And now to enjoy a rather long weekend.

Oh check out #YABooksWithALetterMissing on twitter. It's pretty funny.

Mostly Muppets with some Magic thrown in

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

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!