Here comes the sun

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.

In which I lose several hours

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.