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!

New Year, Old Material

Being as it's once again the first of the year, there's been a lot of talk about goals and resolutions and what not. I don't know that I have any hard goals in mind. I'm going to do my best to exercise regularly this year. I'd really like to get my weight down 10-15 lbs or so. (As an aside, the iPad is seriously the best thing for this. I love that Crackle app. Having something to watch while I exercise is great.) I'm going to continue to read and play some games. I'd like to learn a few more songs on the ukulele (I can play No New Tale to Tell by Love and Rockets and Nothing Matters When We're Dancing by the Magnetic Fields pretty reliably, although I can't sing to either). And I'd really like to involve the wife and kids in most of that. So there you go. Some sort of meandering direction for the rest of the year. It will be interesting to see what (if anything) comes of turning 40 later this year...

We watched the original Thai version of Shutter the other night. It was pretty good. Especially considering the fact that I was dead tired and had a hard time keeping up with the subtitles. I really liked the twist at the end and there were some really good jump scares in this one. Little sis should watch it late at night with the lights off and report back.

We managed to get in a game of 7 Wonders with the Leaders expansion. I'd forgotten how much I liked that game. The leaders cards certainly add some tension to the mix. I spent most of the time wishing I had a little more money and neighbors that offered a few more resources. Needless to say I got creamed. Certainly willing to try again though.

If you have access to an iOS device, I recommend Wooords (or however many o's are in there). I snagged it for free the other day, not sure if it's still free or not. It's an addictive little make words from the letters, while being forced to include this one letter in particular sort of game. The letters look and sound like fridge magnets and that adds a certain appeal as well. Zen pinball makes me wish I had a pinball machine. I really miss pinball...

Oh! I almost forgot! You all need to read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (I believe). Probably the book I enjoyed reading most last/this year. (I'm really calling it last year as I should have finished it over the break, but decided to read Castle instead) It's almost like reading pure joy. It's a little Something Wicked This Way Comes without the creepiness and The Prestige without the hatred and jealousy. In fact turn it into a bit of a love story and add a most wonderful circus and it's close. It really is great. Go find a copy and devour it. Go I say!