Same as it ever was

So. 2013. Guess we can finally say good bye to 2012. Not sure I cared much for 2012. I suppose it had its moments. Did get to see a little more of family, so that was something. Need to convince Dad to move closer.

The letter 'd' clan had a good Christmas. Dad was there as was lovely wife's Mom. Kids once again made out like bandits. I got a couple nifty things and lovely wife got some nice stuff too. It was mostly a chance to watch the kids have fun though and that was indeed worth it.

Dad got us hooked on White Collar over the holiday. We're rather enjoying that show.

While exercising one morning I was dismayed to note that Netflix had dropped FLCL (and I was just about done watching it too). Stupid Netflix. I did, however, stumble across Sand Shark. It's a wonderfully horrible B movie that is basically a mish mash of Jaws and Piranha. (Moreso the newer version than the old) All I really need to sell this movie is two words: Corin Nemec. That's right, Mr Can't Lose Parker Lewis plays a relatively sleazy guy trying to "save" his home town with a Spring Break Party while the titular sand shark munches on people every 10 minutes or so. So wonderfully bad.

In case any of you have ever wondered, do NOT put a mini disc in an iMac. It will only end in tears. And possibly ruin your new computer. I'm pretty sure we avoided that, but time will tell. And the way to get it out? Stick a regular sized disc in and when it tries to eject, yank it out really quickly. The mini disc should follow. It took us a few tries. No wonder Apple is removing the disc drives on all their computers...

New Years was fine. Mostly as I went to bed at a reasonable time... The kids stayed up this go round.

Wreck it Ralph is indeed good. I liked it quite a bit as did the kids.

If you like ukulele music, give Jake Shimabukuro a try. He plays a mean ukulele. Manages to almost make it sound like a guitar to some extent and he's only using a 4 string uke. His renditions of Bohemian Rhapsody and While My Guitar Gently Weeps are pretty amazing.

I like Bioshock. Yeah, yeah, late to the party, but I got a PS+ membership for Christmas and one of the free games was the sequel, so I finally decided to pick up the original. Farcry 3 is interesting as well, although the save system is just plain odd. And annoying. And Quantum Conundrum does indeed scratch that Portal itch.

Ever wondered what D&D Alignment you were? Wonder no more.

I am mere pages from finishing Breed. It was decent for a reverse Rosemary's Baby sort of book. Certainly horrific in places. I'm not entirely convinced I recommend it, but it's not bad either. Probably not a Christmas book after all... (these are the jokes kids)

I managed to pick up John Dies at the End and a book based on the Uncharted video game series with some birthday money I still had. I'm looking forward to reading the Uncharted book probably a little more than I should admit to. I almost snagged one based on Ico...

Well, here's to hoping for an enjoyable 2013. And managing to keep up with my exercising.

I'm heeeerre

Honestly I never left...

I was saddened to learn that Ray Bradbury passed away yesterday. Something Wicked This Way Comes is still a favorite of mine. As is a lot of his short fiction. I should really get around to reading The Martian Chronicles and Dandelion Wine... I enjoyed his settings and the way he breathed life into seasons and locales.

Watched The Innkeepers last night, Ti West's latest horror flick. It's another slow burn set a little in the past. I enjoyed this one more than his first film, House of the Devil. It wasn't quite as slow as that one and the ending was much better. Plus it was actually creepy in places, something I don't remember the other film really pulling off that well. So little sis and K should check this one out.

Finished reading Spell Bound, the latest Hex Hall book. It was fun. I was a little annoyed at the love triangle in this book as I don't care much for the person she ended up with and I didn't really like the way the author resolved said triangle, but whatever. The rest was still pure silly fun.

Vacation was nice. I need to arrange a permanent version. Although the kids managed to finish the school year and promptly drove me insane. I have wished lovely wife a decent amount of luck in dealing with them. We managed some games and some ice cream and so on. Just made chocolate this time, but it was quite yummy. I think we've done about 4 gallons of ice cream since just before Mother's Day. Which explains why I need to go back to exercising...

I snagged Assassin's Creed II on the PS3 while it was on sale on PSN. It's an enjoyable game in a wander around Renaissance Italy and kill people sort of way. G and I also managed to make it through Pixel Junk Shooter. It was a lot of fun to play together. We might have to snag the sequel at some point.

Lovely wife has decreed that I am no longer able to make the hamburger patties. Just because I added too much bbq sauce (is it my fault she buys boring bbq sauce and I think it needs more?) and the burgers fell apart while I was grilling them. They may not have been burger shaped by the time they were done, but they were delicious... I need more potato salad.

So Prometheus comes out tomorrow. I think lovely wife and I and some friends will actually make the show this weekend. A late anniversary date. Speaking of, I suppose I should point out that I've managed to somehow put up with her for the last 17 years now. In spite of things like a lack of anniversary gifts and so on. Now, if you listened to her, I'm sure she would claim the lion's share of putting up with over those years, but this is my blog, so I get to color things my way. People continue to point out that this makes us old. Well that and having a kid that's technically going to be a Freshman next year (even if she isn't in the High School yet). Or a certain birthday I have later this year with the numbers 4 and 0 in it. Eh. What do they know? All I have to say is that I've earned every gray hair I've got and I wear them with pride. So happy anniversary sweetie. Even if you are old. And don't get me anything.

A brief list of things that are awesome: blackened mahi mahi fish tacos, my Mom's potato salad, cheeseburgers, kicking my wife's butt at mini golf, ditto for Rivals of Catan, watching her win 250 tickets on the stack 'em game at the arcade (even if she did then spend them on a pirate duck), horror movies.