GDC

So, the Game Developer's Conference is going on at the moment and today was Nintendo's keynote. Not much in the way of shiny new information, but some things of interest. Head over to Go Nintendo or Game|Life for details. They do have some bits about the new Brain Age game mental workout coming out in April and how Nintendo plans on applying that sort of theory to the Revolution and the DS. It should broaden their appeal quite a bit. I'm planning on picking up a copy for my wife. (Ok and myself as well...)

Other than that, I'm not sure there's much of interest going on.

Barbarian bits

So we watched Conan the Barbarian the other night. And while I have reasons why, none of them are that spectacular. A rather silly movie. My wife thought it should have been called Conan Gets Lucky... I supposed there is a little truth to that. It's funny what movies get made.

The Girl Scout Cookie hullaballoo is just about over. All the boxes are delivered and McKenna has just one more shift in front of the WalMart. She had more fun selling them than delivering them, but that comes as no surprise.

Resident Evil 4 is making a slight comeback. That game is just hard. Guitar Hero continues to dominate my play time though. We played a bit of Loot with my Mother-in-Law while she was here. That game gets pretty fun when you throw more people into the mix.

The letter 'r' would like to start up a podcast. I'd like to cover various board and card games. We certainly have enough to run through. And we could always throw in a video game or two every once in a while. We'll see if that materializes.

V is for Very Good

Go see V for Vendetta. Right now is fine. Powerful film. I'll not say more at the moment, but I liked it quite a bit. It's a little hard to say I enjoyed it (although there are certainly moments to enjoy) but I certainly appreciated it. The cast does an incredible job, especially Hugo Weaving - whose face is not seen the entire time. He uses his voice to great effect.

And with that have a great weekend.

More cowbell

err, guitar. Guitar Hero is far too addictive. And it gets really frustrating fun on the later levels. Adding in the other frets and a lot more notes to strum really increases the sensation of playing. I'd like to see Perfect Situations by Weezer in a sequel and some '80s hair band rock. And some... heh heh, well you get the idea.

The one thing this widget lacks is some html functionality. I'd like to see a link button and a few other tags. I'm not sure if you can code html into the text box or if it will convert it into text... This post will actually test that just a bit.

So, V for Vendetta comes out tomorrow. Despite Moore's disavowal, I'm going to go see it anyway. Hopefully it will be interesting. I'm hoping the Wachowski's didn't just re-hash bits of the Matrix movies with Moore's work...

So you wanna be a hero

First, I really like this blogger widget...

Anyway, I made the mistake the other day of trying out Guitar Hero while I was picking up DVDs at Best Buy. I had put off doing this because I am a sucker for music games. Especially when they involve special controllers - DDR, Donkey Konga the list goes on. But the demo unit was sitting there all alone and I felt the need to pick it up and see what it was like. Pure music Nirvana is a pretty close description. This game does an amazing job of helping you feel like you're rocking out. Anyone that has ever played an air guitar will fall in love. The guitar controller has a nice feel to it and the game does a good job of making you feel like you're actually contributing to the music.

If you make a mistake you'll hear a missed note, if you get in the groove the song sounds complete and you completely feel like you're on stage rocking. Especially on the higher difficulty levels. This may be one of the first music games where I never see some of the higher levels. The learning curve starts off easy enough but it ramps up and by the time you try out Hard, there are some serious strains on your rhythm skills.

I have to warn you, the game doesn't come cheap - the game/controller bundle runs around $80. But if you like music games at all, it's totally worth it. And as a touch of proof to this statement, I'll point out that my wife, who is normally pretty rhythmically challenged when it comes to video games, actually does pretty well on the Easy setting. It's actually a lot of fun watching her jam with the band. So if you fancy yourself a bit of a rocker, check Guitar Hero out.

We have contact

Ok, that's cool. You might be in luck and see a few more posts. At least short ones. I miss the link button for passing things along, but for quick thoughts this should do.

Expect a mini-review of a game in the next few days.

Blogging attempt 1 from Tiger

So I've finally managed to upgrade the computer to Tiger. Seems pretty slick so far. And I grabbed this blogger widget in a vague attempt to make posting a little more frequent. Or something. I realize this thing has been lagging lately and I apologize (a little) but life has been rather hectic of late.

We had an enjoyable weekend with the in-laws this past week. Some shopping, some game playing, lots of spoiling of the kids, but that's to be expected.

At any rate, let's submit this baby and see how it works...

Game update

Card games this time. Loot and In a Pickle are recent acquisitions. Loot is an interesting Pirate themed game that actually involves a bit of strategy. Your hand consists of Merchant ships with a point value, Pirate ships with an attack value, and possibly a Pirate captain or the Admiral. The pirate ships come in four colors. Once you attack a merchant ship with a specific color, your opponents have to use the remaining colors. You try to one-up your opponents in order to win the Merchant. At the end, the player with the most points wins. Clever and fun. Plus the artwork on the cards is rather fun.

In a Pickle is a game to play when you're in the mood for a good fight. In theory you play a card that is either smaller than the card at the top of the chain or bigger than the card at the bottom. At any time there are four chains to choose from and once one of the stacks reaches four cards each player then has to try and play a bigger thing at the bottom. In reality you spend most of the time arguing whether China is bigger than Spring or whether a skeleton in a jungle could fit in an Encyclopedia. If you can't handle a (hopefully) good natured argument on such things, stay away from this game. I kind of get a kick out of it...

The Cave was rather silly. And the ending was just best forgotten. It really should have ended with the escape, but they had to throw one last little twist in. Oh well.

The Brothers Grimm however was rather enjoyable. I'm sad I didn't go to the theater to watch it. Not just to see it on the big screen (which I'm sure was probably quite impressive) but to actually throw some monetary support its way. I think they did a pretty poor job of marketing this one. It's not really the comedy they made it out to be, although there is humor in it. In a lot of ways it's very reminiscent of the Grimm fairy tales themselves. An interesting story with touches of horror, humor and morality. Plus it's got Gilliam's fingerprints all over it, which is always nice. Reminded me a touch of The Fisher King. (Although that was better...)

March on

The year continues to speed by oblivious to any objections I might have. It is a little hard to believe it's already March. I'm not sure where the time is going, but I suspect I ought to visit there...

So, depending on your interests there's plenty of news out there. Gaming news is full of amusing anecdotes (track down the Penny Arcade/SOE donut war) and controversy (Chris Kohler over at Wired is suffering the fanboy onslaught over the graphical "capabilities" of the new Elder Scrolls game). In the political arena it looks like they're extending the Patriot Act again. In other news I'm sure there's a cute animal involved or possibly a kid.

Things around here are pretty much par for the course. The girls are either in trouble or causing it. But I suspect that's because I have to play parent now. It's amazing how much fun that sucks out of things. Well, at least from their perspective. The dog is probably developing some form of dementia. That or she's being possessed. I think I might have to root for possession. Finally managed to finish the first season of Lost but I'm not sure I can bring myself to care. Which is odd as it was an enjoyable show, but it just took us too long to get through. I'm most certainly ready to move on.

But hey, Bruce Campbell is working on They Call Me Bruce. Think Galaxy Quest meets Army of Darkness/Evil Dead. Pure comedy gold.

PSA

Run and grab episode 42 of Escape Pod. It's a reading of Practical Villainy and also features a musical number that is spectacular. Do yourself a favor and give it a listen.

What's this?

Another post within the same week?! Actually you can blame the fact that I've had the worst work week imaginable combined with managing to get my evenings free. So I have a couple spare moments I can spend on you lot.

Things are ramping up for E3 - May draws nigh. Should be pretty exciting this year as we'll get lots of info about the Revolution. And I hear rumors that more copies of Phoenix Wright might be showing up. That would be nice as I really wanted to track down that game.

Still attempting to muddle my way through a Ludlum novel. Apparently it was released posthumously with the help of a ghost writer. It's sort of like the anti-Bourne. The Ambler Warning is the name if you're looking for that sort of thing. Sounds like Flight 3 will be out come June. The first two volumes have been pretty good. Not sure who's scheduled to be in this one.

I feel the need to rent some movies this weekend. Recommendations? Not sure what I'm in the mood for, just need some good solid entertainment. The letter 'r' is trying to schedule a showing for Land of the Dead. The new projector beckons...

Weekend recovery

First, this is amusing. If you're a Lost fan, a "Weird" Al fan or a Queen fan, give it a moment of your time.

Had a terribly nice long weekend: went up and visited some old friends. The kids had a grand time as they have a couple girls basically the same ages as our girls. Got to play a bit of Crimson Skies, introduced them to Qwitch and Tsuro. Lots of little games here and there and just general relaxing. Yup, nice weekend. Wasn't ready to come back. But then I hardly ever am.

I've managed to avoid most of the Olympics coverage. I don't remember ever being terribly excited by them and that hasn't really changed. Although some of the conversations about them at work are amusing. (Apparently Curling is strangely addictive if somewhat confusing. Sounds like just about anything related to Scotland to me. ^_^)

Coming up for air

It's been a rather odd sort of week. On Sunday the girls decided they needed to call 911. So I got a call back from 911 dispatch trying to confirm whether or not we had an emergency (No, not at the moment, but if you want to wait a minute, I'm sure there will be some children needing medical attention...). And then five minutes later the cops showed up to make sure there wasn't an emergency. It made for a fun morning let me tell you. Of course, my father-in-law (who's a retired policeman) found the entire situtation hilarious. And by Monday it mostly was.

Valentine's Day came and went. We enjoyed dinner at Cafe Rio, where, oddly enough, I had eaten the previous day for our monthly lunch out at work. I'd never eaten there before and that made twice in two days. Fortunately the food is quite good.

Some form of banquet for Pack meeting tonight. I think they're bringing in sub sandwiches. Yum.

Haven't really had a chance to devour any more forms of media lately. It's hard enough to keep up with my TV schedule. House and Supernatural have been fun. Oh, and Bones too. Hoping to catch a movie or two this weekend, but we'll have to see. We're heading out of town for a bit. I don't believe there will be skeet shooting, but it's a possibility. I have picked up a recent Robert Ludlum novel, so we'll see how that is.

The library has been pretty consistently enjoyable. I don't particularly care for shelf reading, but there are certainly worse things. I think I put up with most of them at my current job.

As for things to check out, the TMBG podcast is always enjoyable. The Nintendo DS is getting a web browser courtesy of Opera. And a TV tuner. I'm actually pretty excited about the web browser thing. I wonder if it'll work very well. Revolution news is trickling out in very small bits. Go Nintendo and 4 color rebellion are pretty much my new favorite haunts. They both have enjoyable podcasts as well.

So there's a bit of an update and a few places to go check out. As a parting shot I will point out that Miranda got her stitches out the other day and her face is looking a lot better.

Dog bites girl

So Ein and Miranda had a bit of a run-in today. I don't have all of the details but there were chairs, jumping and an overexcited dog involved. It ended in a trip to the doctor and three stitches for Miranda's nose. Plus or minus a few scratches around her cheek/eye area. Fortunately beyond that she's fine. My wife was a bit freaked out about it though. (And understandably so as the whole thing happened upstairs while she was dealing with Graeme downstairs.)

And I've managed to stub the heck out of my toe...

Which reminds me of a quote by Groucho Marx involving open sewers, death and papercuts.

So, the update schedule is pretty pathetic. It makes me slightly sad, but the few moments of free time I have are quite dear to me now. So I'm not sure what I'll do. I'm not convinced it's worth it to maintain this thing on such a shoddy schedule, but I'm not quite prepared to give it up either. It was nice having a bit of a writing outlet. Guess we'll see. Of course, it hasn't helped that I've had nothing to say lately either.

Got Electroplankton as an early Valentine's Day gift. Mostly because the console table I got for my wife showed up early and we went ahead and set it up. Probably the first non-essential piece of furniture we've bought... It might be slightly scary that it took us eleven years to reach that point, but to be a little fair it's only been a real possibility since we've had the house.

Anyway, Electroplankton is quite relaxing. It's fun to noodle around and create little dabs of music. I may have to play around with trying to record some of it at some point in the future. Definitely game as art. Or art as game depending on which side of the window you're standing on.

Aquatic

Just watched The Life Aquatic. Enjoyed it. Even though Bill Murray has been playing basically the same part for his last few films, he plays it very well. We likes the Bill. This was the first Wes Anderson film I've seen. May have to track down a couple others. I still need to see Rushmore...

Enjoyed the Superbowl yesterday. Was glad the Steelers managed to settle down and actually play in the second half. And I seem to be the only person that enjoyed the commercials. Well, the only person at the office. C'mon! They were good. The Sprint commercials were quite amusing as were several of the Bud Light commercials.

Poetry

This is a link to a site currently featuring some lovely poetry by Neil Gaiman. Both pieces are quite enjoyable. Go and read them, I'll wait. Don't expect anything terribly interesting upon your return.

Watched Resident Evil: Apocalypse. Such a silly movie. Jill Valentine's costume looks much better in the game than in real life. It was amusing to see Nemesis. Stars... About the only thing I can say in its defense is that I started it pretty late, but my wife stayed up and watched it anyway. Which actually says quite a lot. Strange really.

And the Target World Bazaar sale thing is just plain evil. A few really nice pieces, but such high prices. Grr...

In the background

The girls are all playing Mario Strikers so this is being typed to random crowd noise and Mario characters making either noises of pain or triumph depending on who is shoving who into the fence...

Was wandering around Barnes and Noble today in a vain attempt to find my wife a Valentine's Day gift. Happened to meander through the film section and browsed a couple of the "movies you have to see" books. Oldboy made one of them. I don't know that I'd call it a film you have to see, but it's definitely one that leaves an impression. The book was arranged roughly chronologically; I think the first thing I'd seen was Nosferatu. Although I'm not positive - the film listed in the book may have been an different version as it was in the silent film section and I'm not certain that's the one I saw. Those books always make me laugh. Everyone has their own mental "best of" lists, I'm not entirely certain why you'd pay money for one. As a list of influential cinema (or what have you) sure, but things you have to see/do? Eh, not so much.

Note: the background noise has now changed to Mario Power Tennis, I think Strikers was a little too difficult.

Further note: do not watch the girls (including my wife) attempt to do the painting mini-game. It's far too painful to watch...

They're releasing a couple of the Brain Training on the DS in a couple months. That makes me glad. Even better is that they're releasing them at a discounted price. The DS is really becoming the system to own for all kinds of gamers (including people that don't consider themselves such).

Wandering

Over at The Spoilers they've got a podcast up for Serenity featuring the crew from The Signal podcast. Should be at least somewhat interesting. Will check it out and let you know.

Due to recent Resident Evil exposure I decided to watch the movie again. Borrowed both of them off a friend at work. The first one was good zombie fun. Never got around to seeing the second one, so we'll see how it is in a couple days.

At any rate, there's not much else worth passing along. I suspect it's due to slightly too much information crossing my path lately. Hard to focus in on any of it when it's all buzzing by so fast.

Quiet

Amazing how quiet the house becomes when you have a sick kid or two...

I wish I had more to report here, but my free time has dwindled significantly and so I find I have less to ramble on about. Which isn't to say that there aren't things of interest going on/out there, I just have less desire to document them.

Graeme has started the road to regular food which is nice. And often quite amusing. We've started giving him half a banana in the morning and he's decided that the best way to eat it is all at once. If you can ignore the obvious choking hazard, it makes for a rather amusing couple of minutes.

Picked up Tai Chi Morning: Snapshots of China while at the library last night. Some nice poetry and art in there. Still muddling through Good Omens. I think I'm less far in than the last time I tried to read it. It's so terribly odd. I really enjoy both Gaiman and Pratchett, but the combination (while certainly amusing) just isn't terribly compelling to me. Speaking of Neil, the new design of his website is up. Much brighter place to stop by, but I'm not convinced I like the font. Oh well.

And on we go

I will admit to a certain dislike of Mondays. Nothing specific. And only a little of the cliché. But a small amount it's true. Although Monday evenings tend to be rather enjoyable. We get together with the letter 'r' for game/movie night. Tonight we pushed a little closer to the end of Lost season one and played a round of Rummikub. I then spent several frustrating minutes trying to get out of not zombie jail in Resident Evil 4. Alas, I'm still stuck there as there are far too many not zombie villagers and not nearly enough bullets... Hmm. I need a plan.

But the week marches on and the wheel goes round and <insert platitude here>. Good ol' platitudes. Whatever would we do without pithy, if meaningless, statements? I suppose we could choose to find meaning in them, but that can really only carry you so far before you become something resembling an optimist...

Too tired to title

Got the projector and surround sound getup hooked up over at the letter 'r's. Pretty sweet system I must admit. Soul Calibur 2 in near life size is pretty cool. Finding Nemo was pretty amazing looking as well. I tried to talk him into Akira but no joy. Heh...

Library volunteering has been going well. Got to do some interesting things yesterday. No amusing stories, but it was time well spent. Put covers on some of the new hardbacks and did some more shelving and a bit of book cleaning.

Managed to find a deal on a new copy of Resident Evil 4 so expect some thoughts on not zombie horror games in the future. One of the few 2 disc games on the cube. Sounds like it should take a while to play through. That's both good and bad. Good in that it will last a while, bad in that it's hard to find time to play a game that long - especially a survival horror game. But it will be played through! Oh yes, it will be played through.

And I think that's enough for now.

Roundhouse kick!

Humor at its finest.

Shelving books is an interesting process in the children's department. Shelf scanning is a mind-numbing one... And that's really about all I learned at the library last night.

Bones was enjoyable (as was NCIS the night previous). Still have to catch up on a couple other shows.

The Paint by Numbers puzzles are a hit. I must admit they're rather addictive little devils. It's interesting to see where lines can go and try and work out what sort of picture is going to emerge. If you can track down a puzzle or two to work through I recommend it. There are some tricks to working them out, so try and find a bit of an explanation as well. ^_^

Have listened to the last couple Escape Pod podcasts. Sci fi short stories are enjoyable. I subscribed because they had Cory Doctorow's Craphound on there (a delightful story in its own right) and have listened to the last couple as they've come out. And if I haven't mentioned it the Celtic Music News podcast is great. Assuming you like Celtic music. Which I do, so there.

Noise pollution

Well, Graeme has decided that it's about time he's heard around the house. While normally quite pleasant to be around, I suspect at the moment he's teething. Not the most joyful of experiences to be sure.

About to head out to the library, so, not really much of import to pass along. The girls will be making cookies while I'm out so hopefully there will be a couple still warm chocolate chip cookies upon my return. Mmmm, warm chocolate chip cookies.

The letter 'r' has started his grand quest to set up a home theater room. Currently the projector and the big box-o-audio are patiently waiting to be set up. I suspect a region free DVD player will be adding itself to the mix soon and then much watching of large scale entertainment will begin. I'll probably drag the Gamecube over on occasion for some larger than life Soul Calibur and Mario Kart madness. Until I can sort out some specific TV needs and procure the necessary funds my own home theater is more dream than reality. But some day!

Blurb

Working at the library was fun. Could see doing that. The question is will it pay enough. It needs to.

Best question of the evening, "So what did you do?" Apparently real volunteers at the library are few and far between. Most are of the community service flavor... It was an amusing moment to say the least.

At any rate, TV to catch up on so off with you.

Begin again

And Monday strikes like a trip to the dentist. Actually I went to the dentist today and it was fine. Miranda kept trying to locate someone who could look at her teeth. No fear of the dentist whatsoever in our children... Of course, the teenage years may change that.

I start volunteering at the library tomorrow, so expect the previously mentioned gaps in coverage to start up. Will attempt to do what I can to keep it minimal, but absolutely no promises.

Ran across a podcast by Penn Jillette. Somewhat amusing. It's mostly a capture of the radio show he does for XM FreeFM. Neil Gamain's podcast is up over at Author's on Tour. Will check it out over the next couple days. I've actually got quite a few I need to get through.

And the latest candidate for games as art is Electroplankton on the DS. Actually the better question is whether it's a game. If nothing else it lets you play around with music, so that's a bonus.

And I just need to point out that I managed 20k points on the quest mode of Zoo Keeper. Mostly because it will annoy the heck out of my wife. Hi honey. ^_^

Daily bits

My wife got hooked on Sudoku puzzles a few months back. So to encourage the puzzle muscle in her body I picked her up a book of the Games Magazine Paint by Number puzzles. (Also known as picross or griddlers) I expect some swearing and a few grateful looks over the next few months.

Let the scouts play around on the DDR game at pack meeting tonight. It was pretty popular. Not that that's any sort of surprise. It is DDR after all - how could it be anything other than popular? ^_^ Also got to hear the bagpipes again (Ah Scotland...). I like the pipes. Although it has left me singing snippets of Loch Lomond...

Well, I think that about covers things of any interest. And even a few things of none.

Repeating Signal

Well, updates around here may start to get sparse. Starting next week I'll be doing volunteer work at the local library. A couple hours a couple nights a week and a block of time on Saturday. Should prove to be an interesting experience if nothing else. I'm looking forward to it though. I've been thinking about getting an MLS again and this may help make that decision.

So, you'll have to learn to live without me. I think you'll be fine. If nothing else that may make the random bits that end up here more interesting. I'll probably start to have fun librarian type stories and all the other random bits that get spread out will make their appearances in condensed form.

I would also like to point out that my wife only narrowly avoided losing at Harry Potter Scene It to the girls. Heh heh...

Blah blah blah blah

State of the State address this evening. Only caught part of it as I was waiting for NCIS. Sounds like they want to lose sales tax on food. That could be nice.

And my wife is now watching Ed 2.0 Love Monkey. Hmmm. I may have to intervene. Especially as there's a commercial for the Match.com/Dr. Phil team-up. Wow. That's pretty scary stuff.

Pei Wei is a tasty, tasty restaurant.

As you can see, I don't seem to have a lot to ramble on about. Which is a little on the odd side as I've run across a fair amount of new things lately. I mentioned digg.com the other day. The Diggnation podcast is a thing of joy. I enjoy listening to the banter more than the actual content of the show. Reminds me of far too many of the conversations I had back in High School. But in a good way.

The VGDJ podcast for OC Remix is also nice. Mostly for the music bits and some of the banter.

4cr and Go Nintendo provide some nice Nintendo commentary.

Celtic Music News, Authors on Tour, The Signal, the Audio Edition of the Movie Blog... Yeah, lots of podcasts. Keeps me entertained at work if nothing else. It's funny, I've spent more time listening to podcasts than music lately. But I'm not convinced that's a terribly strange thing.

So there you go. A bit of rambling commentary on absolutely nothing. But its your own fault for wandering into this little backwater in the first place. At least I haven't started cat blogging yet. Of course, since I don't have a cat, that might actually be more interesting. Photos of hijacked cats... Hmm....

And again

So, saw Cry_Wolf over the weekend. I found it a fun little diversion while my wife found it predictable. I'm not saying there wasn't some predictability involved, just that it was fun to watch. And I think my wife would agree...

I also watched Oldboy, but I think the less said about that the better.

We're slowly working our way through the first season of Lost on DVD. DVD is really just about the only way to watch TV. Gotta love the lack of commercials and the ability to watch as many episodes as you want. And really, that makes Lost quite watchable. I'm not sure I could watch this as it airs on TV. Although we're not really trying to catch all the little nods and winks the creators of the show threw in. I leave that for people with far too much time on their hands fans.

Books

You may have noticed the new little bit there on the right. If not, Library Thing looks to be an interesting little site where you can catalog your books and post reviews and what not. Books are good. I sort of miss not shooting for 50 again this year, but I still plan on reading lots.

Seems there was something that meant to be here, but I certainly have no idea what it was. I am disturbed by the news that Hostel will most likely get a sequel. If you haven't heard of this movie consider yourself lucky. I like horror movies, but this one crosses the line into pure waste of celluloid territory. You can look at past entries to find my thoughts on violence and the horror genre, but this movie certainly doesn't seem to extol any sort of virtue. Pure excess and gore for shock value. There is absolutely nothing redeeming about it.

Hmm, that's kind of a downer, but at the moment I can't quite come up with anything else to end on. Go check out digg...

Delayed

Yeah, yeah, Tuesday is good TV night, so there.

House and Supernatural were their brilliant selves while NCIS was only ok. Oh well.

Apple makes me cry. I'm going to have to pick up the iLife suite when I grab the OS upgrade come tax refund time. There's simply too much goodness in that package to pass up. Podcast capabilities in Garage Band? Photocasting with iPhoto? The ability to push photos to people is going to make sending pictures of the kids so much simpler...

At some point I should probably ramble on about a couple of the podcasts that have caught my fancy, but today is not that day. Suffice it to say that I have indeed become hooked on the little devils.

On the DS

I can't recall (and am too lazy to look) if I've said much about the DS. So I've decided to rectify that some. I must admit, I've caught a bit of a bug where the system is concerned. Part of that is the fact that it's new, but a lot of the credit goes to the quality of the software.

Meteos has woven quite the spell around me. I find myself playing it quite a bit. It has its roots in the Tetris puzzle genre, but only to the extent that there are falling pieces. And boy do they fall fast. The twist is that you get to launch the pieces back where they came from. But in order to do so you have to overcome the gravity of the world you're playing on. Line up three blocks of the same color and they'll ignite sending anything on top of them skyward, but you'd better hope you have enough oomph to get them into orbit...

Feel the Magic XX/XY was, if not a launch title, darn close. To some extent it's a series of mini-games built to show off the various aspects of the system. But my wife and I both find it charmingly fun. A hopelessly silly story woven around a set of odd mini games. What's not to like?

My wife finds it hard to put Zoo Keeper down. Basically Bejeweled for the DS the stylus makes it much easier to play.

Polarium is another puzzle game that we find time to give each other grief over. Flip the black and white tiles so that the rows are all the same color. Good brain-stretching fun.

And Mario Kart. Very little needs to be said about Mario Kart. Play people all over the world. 32 tracks, half of which are completely new. Lots of play modes and lots of unlockable players/karts. You do the math.

So as you can see, far too much fun is being had with the system. But can you blame me?

Catch up

As I missed yesterday, I'll take a couple moments today...

The Island was ok if you can forgive the fact that it ripped off material from every sci-fi movie for the last 30 years. I will admit to really enjoying the chase sequence with the railroad car wheels. That was pretty spectacular.

Fantastic Four was less than ok. I suspect if you like that series, you might enjoy the movie (although I'm pretty sure they did some tweaking to Doctor Doom...), but if you're not a fan this won't make you one. It was a way to spend some time together with the kids, but that's about all it had going for it. McKenna of course loved it, so I suspect they have a target audience in young kids for any sequels they try to make.

Let's hear it for good bacteria. Sore throat is finally starting to wear off. Silly antibiotics killing off everything. Must remember to reintroduce good bacteria sooner. And Coke helps quite a bit with the sore throat as well.

Enjoy your weekend.

Riptide

Finished off the second of the three books by Preston and Child I snagged. Riptide was a fun little action novel. It was nice in that it didn't feature any characters (I think) from their other books. But it did feature some pirates and hidden treasure. I thought it started a touch slow, but it certainly kept my interest. Again, not exactly enriching literature, but certainly fun...

Now if I could just shake this sore throat.

CES is going on and most of the major tech/geek sites are following it pretty closely. It remains to be seen if there's anything of real interest coming from there. Apple may make a few interesting announcements.

Picked up Serenity yesterday. Still such a great movie. And not quite as shocking the second time through. Here's to hoping there are no double dips on that title.

Made some of those DIY paper bookmarks I linked to several posts back. Pretty fun little activity. Even managed to slap my own little saying on them.

The Grindstone

The year has turned, bringing us back to the routine that makes up our daily grind. Time for me to get back in the habit of jotting a few thoughts down here and passing along random links of varying interest.

Caught Matt briefly on 60 Minutes the other night when they did a piece on Burt Rutan. That was fun.

Enjoyed Where's My Cow?, Pratchett's companion children's book to Thud! Although I find it terribly strange that the cow is never found in the story. I'm pretty sure Thud! contained that particular event...

I'm becoming quite the fan of podcasts. The Audio Edition over at the Movie Blog is a favorite. I'm growing enamored of Diggnation. And there are a few others that are getting a trial run.

I meant to jot down a list of directors to look out for over the coming years. Let's see if I can remember who they are.

The Pang Brothers - The Eye sums them up. Wonderful horror tale I've covered here before. I believe they've got a new one coming out this year...

Doug Liman - Bourne Identity and Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Possibly the new king of the action movie genre. Equal parts wit and style.

Stephen Chow - Kung Fu Hustle. If there's a movie that crosses more genre boundaries than this one I don't know what it is. I look forward to Chow's next effort.

Makoto Shinkai - Voices of a Distant Star and The Place Promised in Our Early Days. His first film was a testament to what one man can do with enough drive and determination. His second film showed that the beauty and emotion captured in Voices was no fluke.

Joss Whedon - Firefly. I'm not sure Wonder Woman will draw me to the theater, but there are few directors/writers that can nail dialogue and cast interaction like Whedon.

So there you go, a brief anticipatory list that even managed to look back a little. Welcome to 2006...

A couple quick and tasty links

Joss Whedon on the future of TV.

Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett fill in a few New Year's Resolutions.

Now go, read, laugh.

Book 50

Years ago I read Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. I remember enjoying the book (the movie was another matter...) at the time. Apparently they've been quite prolific in the intervening years. Our library had Dance of Death on their new release shelf, so I grabbed it and a couple of their other books.

Dance of Death brings back several of the characters from Relic, most notably Agent Pendergast - apparently the Dirk Pitt of Preston and Child's literary world. Preston and Child's work reminds me quite a bit of Cussler's, and for the moment not in a bad way. The story was certainly interesting enough and I plan on reading more of their books, but I can see some of the same tell-tale weaknesses that could spell lots of eye-rolling and a sense of wonder at how I ever found this stuff entertaining. But that's several books down the road for now. Dance of Death was a nice piece of action fluff. Certainly not much more than a popcorn book - it won't change your life, but you should get some enjoyment out of it.

So, I made it to 50 and not a moment too soon. There were several false steps along the way, and I plan to rectify a couple of them over the course of the next year. I don't plan on going for the 50 mark again, mainly because I want to be able to take my time with a few books to ensure that I get through them. Most notably 1776, In Cold Blood and quite possibly John Adams among others.

Protopage is an interesting little corner of the internet. Could make a useful homepage if you're willing to spend a bit of time and spruce it up. I ran across it while listening to the This Week in Tech podcast. Useful things those podcasts...

My wife and I have been waging quite the little war over the DS. I suppose it's my own fault. I tend to try and pick games that I think we'll both find interesting and I succeeded a little too well this time. Curse you puzzle game genre! But it is quite the fun little device.

Well, I suspect this will be it for me this year, so have a Merry New Year. And raise a glass for me as I have to prepare myself for five day work weeks again...

Brief interlude

There will (hopefully) be at least one more post this year - I'm planning on finishing off book 50 if nothing else. But it may be a close thing. I probably didn't pick the perfect book to try and gun through. Oh well.

Hope everyone had a good holiday. Ours was a lot of fun. Took the kids to see Narnia last Friday. Wonderful movie, certainly makes my best of the year short list (along with Goblet of Fire, Serenity and Mr. and Mrs. Smith). Tilda Swinton was brilliant as the White Witch and the kids were also excellent. McKenna enjoyed it, but Miranda hated it. Mostly because it was a little over her head. But if you ask her why she hated it she'll tell you she hates Mr. Tumnus. And trying to get to the root of that results in a circular conversation about who scared who upon that first meeting by the lamppost. Best left unasked unless for humor's sake.

The girls must take after their mother when it comes to sleeping. We put them to bed a little late (for them) on Christmas Eve, but they still slept in until just after 7 on Christmas Day. Shocking I tell you. Presents were opened and fun was had. Spartacus (my new 4 Gig iPod Nano) helps make the work day go faster. Nifty little gizmos those iPods... And whatever you've heard about the propensity for the Nanos to scratch is probably an understatement. I really need to find a case for mine. Oddly enough though it's the silver back that seems to scratch more - I haven't had any real problems with the front.

My wife has been trying to lure me to the dark side of the Sudoku solvers. I gave her a Sudoku game for Christmas and have been coaxed into doing a few puzzles with her. It's a nice way to spend some time together.

Holidays

Have begun. Four day weekend with Chirstmas involved. Had dinner with my wife's sister's family this evening. Hooked a couple more people on Qwitch... Traded presents for the kids. A nice start to the weekend.

Looks like we'll be missing out on a white Christmas unless the temperature drops quite a bit. Rain tonight, but not cold enough. Oh well. The worst thing is that it's clearing away what was left of the snow from the big storm a couple weeks ago.

Well, that probably does it for me until after the holidays. Unless something truly interesting comes along. So happy holidays. Hope you can spend it with family.

Guilty pleasures

Shh, don't tell anyone, but I kind of like Stacked. No idea why, but I find it funny and oddly watchable. It reminds me of Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place. So, yeah...

I'm so ready for this week to be over. Well, ok tomorrow. Then it's Christmas weekend and there are few weekends better than that. The kids are pretty excited and honestly so am I. It's always fun to watch them tear through presents and jump around. Graeme will add a destructive twist to the mix this year so that should liven things up.

So Merry Christmas to all of you reading.

Paper

Fascinating link to some DIY paper bookmarks. I think I'll have to make a couple.

And Paper Forest currently has some really nice looking cards/holiday projects as well.

And I'd like to point out that the story in the previous post may cause keyboard damage. Please refrain from eating and reading at the same time...

Food groups

Those of you that follow the misadventures that make up this blog know that I enjoy zombies. Wacky zombies... Anyway, I have been known to encourage the children to let loose with their inner zombie on occasion. Graeme does a delightful growl in a most zombie-esque manner and I've managed to get Miranda to monotone the phrase, "Mmmm brains..." once in a while. So, now that you have a little background I can relate the following brief anecdote.

I received a call from my wife the other day regarding Miranda. Apparently she came home from pre-school explaining that Mrs. Dorris (the teacher) had told her that brains are not food. We have no idea what caused this revelation. I like to think that she was gnawing on the head of one of her classmates. Most likely she was chanting to herself, "Mmm brains...," either under her breath or a little more vocally. Either way, I can't help but be a little proud. My little girl, all growing up and being undead.

We had an early Christmas with the letter 'r' the other day. We receieved Super Mario Strikers. What a wonderful game that is. You've got to give it to Nintendo - they may put the Mario crew in every game they can, but the characters manage to bring their own brand of fun to whatever situation they find themselves in. Strikers offers an arcade style soccer experience filled with the power-ups you're used to and some attitude you might not be. Certainly the Gamecube game of the season. Pick it up if you have a one, you won't be disappointed.

Still hunting around for a book to read for number 50. It'll be my luck to miss the goal due to laziness in finding something.

And antibiotics are good. I spent most of the weekend trying to claw my throat out due to a staph infection. Swallowing was an exercise in personal torture... Fortunately I managed to get some medicine (after forking over far too much money for after hour fees) and tame the wee beasties. Accursed bacteria...

Book 49

Fatherhood, by Bill Cosby, was given to me by my own father during my parents' recent stay. I'd mentioned that I was doing this 50 book challenge and when at a thrift shop, he picked it up for me. Thanks Dad. It was a fun read. The first half of the book had me in stitches. Mostly because I could directly relate to the material being covered. I suspect in another 10-15 years I'll find the rest of the book just as funny. I enjoy Cosby's humor and he wields a deft knife on the topic of parenting and family. If you've heard any of his routines on these topics, you'll probably recognize a couple passages from the book. Definitely worth a read.

So close. One more book to go and I'll have made it. Will have to track something interesting down...

Apparently the Saturn needs to go in for inspection and emissions testing tomorrow. So much fun. Just the activity for one of the few Fridays left to my vacation.

Now. Go forth and wander the internet. Just make sure you leave it in a better state than you found it...

Taisho

This comes courtesy of the ever enjoyable Yukihime. Such an amazing study of how to eat sushi...

Tuesday TV got in the way of posting once again last night. House ended up being a touch better than expected, while the other shows were their typical entertaining selves.

Currently the house is under the grip of the sinus cold that wouldn't leave. Poor Graeme is probably suffering the most, but my wife and I aren't far behind. At least the girls are safe for the moment... That is the one aspect of Winter that I could really do without. Even the humidifier we're currently running doesn't seem to be helping much. Accursed dry climate...

It's hard to believe the year is drawing to a close. I suppose I should draw up some sort of Best of list, but I'm not sure it's worth the effort. I still refuse to make plans for the upcoming year. I can't recall the last time I made something resembling a New Year's resolution and I intend to keep it that way.

The letter 'r' is slowly improving his Qwitch skills, but there's always room for improvement. I managed to eke out victories in all three games the other night and I started out pretty tired. Of course, it's pretty hard to stay tired and competitive at that game, so I managed to pull things together in short order. I suspect my wife is planning on introducing the game to her sister and her husband so that they can then humiliate us in a gaming frenzy. We played Nertz with them a few years back and it wasn't a pretty sight. I blame the fact that I hadn't played Nertz for many many years up until that point... No. Really.

McKenna has managed to earn some patches in Girls Scouts so last night was the big awards ceremony. Much fun was had by mt wife as I stayed home with the other two kids (one being the under the weather Graeme). I managed to dazzle the Webelos with some Origami skills last week, this week I think we're just preparing for the upcoming service project.

Stubborn

So. I'd read a few comments about the new Prince of Persia game. And it sounded like they'd apologized for the steaming pile of sequel that was Warrior Within. I was somewhere near the end and I decided I had to finish it. With the fancy shmancy sword. I can now say that I've played through both endings of Warrior Within. Part of me wishes I hadn't, but I've managed to locate some ethereal duct tape and I don't hear from that part much any more. My gaming choices might be better served if I did, but that's neither here nor there. Sands of Time is a great game. It deserves to be on lots of top however many gaming lists. Warrior Within is a horrible game that deserves never to be spoken of again. Which is a bit of a shame as there were moments of brilliance in it, but overall? Best left unsaid. So Two Thrones has a lot to make up for. I loved the first one enough that I'll probably give the third one a go at some point. But only when I can pick it up cheaply.

And the holidays draw nigh. We spent a good chunk of the weekend wrapping presents. But then we got lazy and we've left a bunch unwrapped. You can pity our kids if you want. But I really wouldn't, there are far too many things that will have to make their way under the tree. I suspect we'd be responsible for the death of a small wooded plot if we actually tried to wrap everything. We're going to have to teach the grandparents the meaning of restraint.

The weekend was brightened by the making of Chili con Pollo - new recipe we tried out from 101 More Things to do with a Slow Cooker. It was an excellent recipe made better by the inclusion of bread bowls. Any time you have a meal where you can eat the serving dish, a good time is just about guaranteed. I recommend giving this one a try. I have no idea if I can jot out the recipe here, so if you want it, ask for it in the comments section...

I was amused to discover that the online community has dubbed the Impala from Supernatural the Metallicar... (And that's only slightly better than the Leather Coat of Masculinity.)

Book 48 and Pandora

Fullmetal Alchemist: The Land of Sand comes in as the end draws near. It's a fun little story set in the FMA universe, and it's pretty accessible even if you only have a meager knowledge of the series, so that's a bonus. Mostly it made me want to track down the series, in either animated or illustrated form, so I guess it served its purpose.

Pandora is quite possibly the coolest thing on the internet... It's a site that lets you build your own customized radio station. Go give it a whirl.

Hmm

Ok. I like Firefox. And I just upgraded to 1.5, but that may have been a bit premature. Seems there's a bug with the Mac version that causes some pretty serious hanging issues. I may have found a bit of a workaround, but if you have a Mac and use Firefox, I'd hold off on upgrading for a bit... There are some pretty nifty extensions and themes running around though. The Fireftp extension is quite nice.

Well, it's back to scouts tonight. May try to teach them some origami. Paper cranes for Christmas tree ornaments.

Kit stopped by last night in spite of the large amounts of snow we received and a lovely time was had by all. We introduced her to Qwitch and then proceeded to trample all over her self esteem by trouncing her at it... She took it well though. We look forward to a possible return visit come the new year. Should have grabbed a picture while she was here. Alas...

Book 47 and much other stuff

The Dragon Scroll, by I. J. Parker is billed as a Historical Japanese mystery novel. Apparently it's the third in a series (although I believe it takes place before the other two). It was a fun read. Nothing terribly deep and I wouldn't call it terribly historical (if you're looking for something on Japanese history) but the mystery part was fun. It's relatively easy to see whodunnit, but the casual pace of the story was charming. I enjoy stories that take their time and let you get to know the characters. So consider it recommended, but almost in spite of what it's billed as.

The recent Spielberg War of the Worlds remake was quite good. I liked it a lot. The acting was good and the effects were pretty amazing. And they did a good job of telling the story instead of just existing for the sake of being effects. The sequence with Tim Robbins was pretty chilling and rather intense.

It's funny, I've talked to several people that have seen this and there are a lot of mixed opinions. Many of them deal with the ending. For me, the ending is actually is one of the better aspects of the movie. It's a science fiction movie. And the ending reinforces that. So I hve no problems. The only real problem with the ending relates to the son...

The Skeleton Key was fun. Predictable, atmospheric fun. I've been to Louisiana and this movie reminded me of just how foreign places in America can be. It's worth seeing just for the sense of place. I'm glad it exists as a snapshot of pre-Katrina Louisiana. The extras on the DVD were pretty amusing as well. A Gumbo recipe and some stories read or told by the cast. Plus the usual behind the scenes stuff. It was a nice slightly eerie little tale.

Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot is a much better game with more people. It's paced a little better and the gameplay isn't quite as single-mindedly vicious. You can spread the evil. The ending is still pretty arbitrary, but I'm still of the opinion that the game is supposed to be more about playing than winning.

It's officially winter. There is far too much snow outside and I have the backache to prove it. Shoveling is just plain punishment for something... But it is pretty. I'm glad I live somewhere that I can enjoy the snow. Good ol' Winter.

And I finished Shadow of the Colossus (I told you there was a lot of stuff to cover.) It's a more depressing game than Ico, but that's to its credit in a lot of ways. It's always a joy when a game can evoke a strong emotional response and there are a couple pretty strong moments at the end of the game. It's funny, you could probably show someone the entire story line of the game in about an hour or so, but the impact is a lot stronger if you've been involved, fighting your way through the events that unfold. If you have a PS2, this game should be in your collection, it's that simple. Plus there are some pretty intriguing ties with Ico. This game wasn't really billed as a sequel, and it's not, but it is definitely in the same world and there are some great rewards if you're familiar with the other game. In fact, the ending probably isn't quite as powerful if you're not... (But it's still a beautiful experience.)

Upcoming

We've rented War of the Worlds and The Skeleton Key, so you can expect some thoughts on those in the not too distant future.

While at the library I grabbed what I thought was the first graphic novel of Fullmetal Alchemist. Imagine my surprise when I got home and realized it was an actual novel. Strange. And yet intriguing.

So things to look forward to. Took care of most of the Christmas shopping today. Now it's time to relax and enjoy the weekend.

Weeze

The Perfect Situations video is pretty fun. The more I hear that song, the more I like it. Probably ought to track down that CD...

Managed to procure a Mario Kart/DS bundle. Mwa ha ha ha. I may have to wait for Christmas for the Mario Kart goodness, but at least I know that it's in the house now. I find it a little strange that they went for a red/gray combination on the DS. Just make it all red.

And over at Neil Gaimain's blog he has links to sites with quotes by him. Some of them are rather amusing. Especially the one about life as given by Death.

Zzzzz

Sinus medication is evil.

Seems like there were a few things that I meant to put out here for public consumption, but I have no idea what they were. I blame the drugs. Speaking of which, apparently the medication my brother-in-law had with him got nicked at the airport. Curse you street value! My sister managed to get him home, but it was a long trip that involved too many hours awake and not a little pain.

So, five weeks left to the end of the year. Still a few Christmas presents to track down. But mostly done. That's always a good feeling.

And this poor disjointed post needs to come to an end. The aforementioned sinus medication demands it.

Colossus!

Shadow of the Colossus is a beautiful game. I'm not quite at the halfway point, but it's truly something to look at. The Ico team strikes again. It's too bad I have no desire to pick up a PS3 - I'll most likely miss out on their future offerings. But if you've ever wondered if video games could be considered art, then look no further than these two games. I'll do a better look at the game once I finish it, but for now I just had to gush a bit over the look of the thing.

A few movies out at the moment that I may try to pick up. Mr. and Mrs. Smith for one. Sky High was cute. Wouldn't mind snagging Millions... the list goes on.

Now to go listen to the rain before it turns to snow.

Winter sets in

And so there's snow on the ground, the temperature has dropped quite a bit and the house is almost back to normal. My folks have left, leaving a bit of time with my sister and her husband and then it's just us once again through the new year. Well, I tell a lie. It sounds like there's a pretty good chance that we'll have a visitor next week. And that will be a welcome bit of fun.

Caught Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. Enjoyed it thoroughly. I liked it as much as the last film, if not a touch more. The first chunk is quite jumpy as they cut bits from the book left and right, but then it settles down and you get a good story.

Millions was also quite enjoyable. Some really good acting and a delightfully moral story. If you run across it, do yourself a favor and give it a go. Danny Boyle is another director to watch.

We've acquired quite a few games over the last week. The best of the lot so far is probably Qwitch. If you've ever played the card game speed, the concept is similar only letters and numbers are thrown into the mix. It's by Out of the Box Games - the people that did Apples to Apples and Shipwrecked. They're quite the talented bunch.

We've also played a bit of Tsuro (which is beautiful and challenging) and Killer Bunnies (which is mostly silly but also oddly compelling).

Calm before the storm

Well, nieces arriving later this morning. My wife and I are going to try and get to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire this afternoon. Turkey needs to thaw. House really needs tidied up. Etc. Etc. But hey, week off right? Never mind the yard work and the laundry and the kids running rampant...

Actually there are always a few bright moments during all the chaos. Miranda and I once again managed to triumph over my wife on the Baby Park track of Mario Kart: Double Dash. Since that's "her" track, that's always a nice feeling. ^_^ Miranda tried to help with the raking, and while her raking skills certainly need some work, it was fun to see her try.

Graeme is pretty close to walking. We have undoctored video proof of him taking a few steps on his own. Pretty soon any sense of peace and calm we had will be out the window.

But again, most of these things are cause for quiet joy. It's been a pretty amazing year in a lot of respects. Watching Graeme grow up, McKenna's taking off in school, Miranda in preschool. Lots of little milestones that we really have to focus on. Despite all the challenges, there are more than enough rewards to make up for it. I hope you can all spend a few moments with your families during this time of year. Even if it's only over the phone.

Book 46

The Vanishing Hitchhiker by Brunvand covers Urban Legends from a folklorist's point of view. Apparently he teaches at the University of Utah, so some of the variants of the stories are local to Utah and, surprisingly, a large chunk of them come from Kansas. In fact, one of the Hookman variants was actually from McPherson. Apparently there's a Hookman's road just outside town. I didn't remember the road in question but my Dad did. I suppose a lot of those stories wandered through Kansas on their way to other places. I'd certainly heard most of them. It's a fascinating look at the ways stories travel, what they might mean and how they change over time. If you like stories, especially urban folklore, this a great book that delves into some of the history of those stories and lets you see some of the forms they take.

*Yawn*

Family is in town and I have a week off. So chances are I won't be spending it with you lot. Crushed I know.

At any rate, Thanksgiving coming up, Black Friday (guess who's planning on skipping it this year), putting up the Christas tree. All that holiday stuff.

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday (if you celebrate it). Think of a thing or two you're thankful for and send a prayer the way of those that are in need.

Mmmm

My kind of award...

Gaming and charity

Child's Play is up and running again this year. Over at Penny Arcade it says they're at around $100k at the moment, which is great. If I lived at all close to the Seattle area, I think I'd try and go to the formal dinner they're having again this year. The menu certainly looks pretty amazing. It's always good to see positive press for gamers. Too often gaming makes the news for violence and the "what is it doing to our kids" storyline. The real truth is that gamers are people and just like there are all kinds of people, there are all kinds of gamers. And we support charities just like others.

One of my favorite gaming sites used to be The GIA. They're gone now, so no link for you, but you can find some of the staffers running around some of the bigger sites now. They had a letters column that was my daily highlight. I even contributed a letter or two while it was running. One of the topics that I did chime in on was where you saw yourself in 20 years or so. Gaming is starting to be mainstream enough that it can be a worthwhile family activity. Just about any game on the Gamecube makes for a better family activity than what passes for prime time "entertainment". MarioKart and Warioware are certainly more enjoyable activities than some of the values that get paraded around on TV. But it doesn't even have to be videogames. We've been playing Don't Break the Ice and Gobblet as well. Time spent together is worth quite a lot.

Days go by

Well, we're at the time of year when it's pretty hard to tell one day from the next. Winter is approaching and starting to settle in, skies are going gray (although today was surprisingly sunny) and the temperature is dropping. Several of these factors are somewhat welcome (I hate the heat) but others just add to that mild insanity that is Winter. And while I'll take Winter over Summer, that doesn't mean it doesn't mess with my mind.

I've got to get some new tires on the car - the front tires are basically bald and anything with less traction than a sticky summer highway is presenting a problem. So, tomorrow's randomly shifted day off will be spent at a tire dealership. I may try to take Jarhead with me. The library only had it as a book on tape and I haven't really had a chance to listen to it. Not exactly carpool material.

Tuesday night TV was once again enjoyable. Bones is still the weak link, but it's growing on me. Supernatural is still wonderfully spooky and House maintains high levels of sarcasm and wit.

Book 45

When I was younger I loved the Myth series by Robert Asprin. Somewhere around High School the series went on a pretty long hiatus. In college I ran across a new book, Sweet Myth-tery of Life, and then I lost track of it again. Book 45 was Myth-ion Improbable, which apparently came out some time ago and there have been a few books since. It was good to visit with Aahz and Skeeve again. This book was Asprin's attempt to kickstart the series after some writer's block and so takes place earlier in the continuum. I enjoyed it. It's made me want to track a couple of the older ones down as well as some of the new ones. It looks as if Asprin has gained a co-author on some of them and some of the reviews I've read have been less than kind, but we'll see. Hopefully I can track some of them down. If you like fantasy and comedy, this series has that in spades.

Watched Chungking Express. Great show. I liked the second half a bit more than the first half, but they were both good. The second half reminded me of Amelie. Parts of it were truly funny. And some of the camera work at the beginning was pretty interesting. Wong Kar-Wai filmed a slow motion chase scene that had the camera all over, but there were segments where it seems like he did something with the footage that turned it into something pretty artistic. It's hard to describe, you need to see it.

And family is coming to town later this week. So posting schedule will be even more whacked out than it has been.

Friday thoughts

Watched Star Wars Episode III last night. There were some good bits, but mostly I just thought it was long. I will admit to a small wish that we'd caught it on the big screen. I suspect the effects were indeed pretty cool. Which was part of the problem. In some scenes there was almost too much going on in the background. I'm glad George was paying attention to detail, but he probably should have spent that time editing the story. But the prequels are over now and most of the questions are answered I suppose. I can't really bring myself to care. Despite any loss of Geek cred that statement might bring me.

Up next for our viewing pleasure is Chunking Express. I've been hunting for that movie for a while so I'm looking forward to finally seeing it. There's an article here that goes over some of the classic HK action flicks. Will have to go poking around for them. Am also open to suggestions so feel free to leave those in the comments section.

This could be an interesting food blog. I want to try the potato and leek soup recipe.

And it seems like there was something of interest at one of the music blogs I follow but I forget what it was so you can go find it yourself. Mwa ha ha...

And again

Once again we reach the middle of the week. Despite the fact that the year is flying by, the days themselves seem to drag on...

You'd think that with as sketchy as my posting schedule has been that I'd have more to ramble on about. Jack Thompson getting thrown off the GTA case. Mariokart DS coming out soon. Child's Play starting up over at Penny Arcade. Y'know, random stuff. But honestly none of that is really holding my interest. Well, ok, I really want Mariokart for the DS...

Been trying to read through Dracula. Mostly it makes me want to watch that silly movie with Keanu Reeves. I don't remember thinking it was all that spectacular, but there you go. So I have no idea what book will be next. It's getting close to the end of the year and I'm in the home stretch. Hopefully I can make it through that last chunk. Will just have to find something that grabs my interest.

Book 44 and some movies

Read The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book by Bill Watterson. I enjoyed Calvin and Hobbes when it was in the papers and much like Larson's Pre-History of the Far Side this collection gave Watterson a chance to talk about the strip - some of its influences and some of the difficulties he had. Oddly enough I only agree with Watterson on a handful of issues, but I still find the strip terribly enjoyable. Certainly an interesting look at one of comic strip's brightest stars.

The movie weekend was salvaged by the letter 'r'. We managed to take in the pilot of Dead Like Me and Premonition. Dead Like Me was an enjoyable show. Reminded us of Wonderfalls a bit. Wonder if there are any cast/crew in common. Premonition is the J Horror equivalen of that old TV show Early Edition. Evil Edition perhaps? So the J Horror fix was temporarily appeased as was the movie fix. Tonight we're going to watch Final Cut with Robin Williams.

And Thanksgiving draws nigh. This year we're going to try doing the turkey in the slow cooker - Cider Turkey to be exact. Hopefully it will turn out well, we'll have a decent amount of family around.

At any rate, not much else to pass along. I'm just glad Monday is on its way out.

More scenery

Utah Sunrise
Originally uploaded by dkun.

Took this the other morning before I headed out to work. You can occasionally get some pretty sunrises despite the mountains.

The movie weekend is not going well. In fact, up until this point it has been distinctly movie free...

I have attempted to remedy that, but not to much success. Oh well. I think I'll just sit and look at the pretty sunrise. There's another shot of the same sunrise over at my flickr stream.

Book 43

The Dream Hunters by Neil Gaiman and Yoshitaka Amano comes in at number 43. Unlike a lot of Gaiman's fans, the Sandman series was not my introduction to his work. I'd heard of it, but had never read it. It wasn't until I'd read several of his novels and short stories that I finally sought out the famous comic series. The Dream Hunters is probably my favorite standalone volume, but there are certainly bits of the entire series that I enjoy more. But still, Sandman folk tale. Amano art. Can't really ask for too much more than that.

When my wife and I went to hear Gaiman speak a couple years ago, he mentioned that the story he put in the back of The Dream Hunters explaining its origin was a hoax. He'd written the story himself and then made up the back story. Not unlike William Goldman's story about The Princess Bride. Those wacky writers.

My wife is currently making her way through Anansi Boys. I've seen a brief smile on her face most of the time she's been reading it, so I suspect she's enjoying it.

I've started making my way through Golden Sun: The Lost Age. A worthy sequel to a nice RPG on the Gameboy. If you're looking for a fairly traditional console RPG for a handheld, you really can't go wrong with this series.

And I hereby declare this weekend Movie Weekend. I plan on spending far too much money on movies and then watching them. And doing little else. Popcorn. Soda. Couch. Woo hoo!

Wednesday's Child

Far to go? It sure seems like it.

House was back on last night. I missed that show. Last night was another enjoyable episode of sarcasm and witty banter. Good times.

Everyone's favorite anti-videogame lawyer is back in the news. This time he's claiming Sony is causing a second Pearl Harbor. Good ol' Jack. Glad to see that I'm not the only one with a tentative grip on reality.

And now that we're in November the shopping season is ramping up. We've actually done a bit of Christmas shopping. Still need to track down a few things though.

Well, I'm tired. So be off with you...

Kids in costume

kidhalloween
Originally uploaded by dkun.

And here we have our resident trick-or-treaters. Ariel, Belle and Baby Luigi as they prepare to brave the mean streets in search of candy and mischief.

They had fun this year and came home with far too much candy.

Also, just off to the sides you can catch a glimpse of the Anansi pumpkin and the birthday pumpkin. My wife decided to celebrate Graeme's birthday a touch early.

Book 42 and J Horror

Snow White, Blood Red is a collection of fairy tales for adults. It's interesting, for the most part, but not necessarily something to track down. There are, of course, a couple real gems, but eveything else was ok. The introductory articles were almost more interesting than some of the stories. It's nice to see fairy tales geared for an older audience (the way several of them used to be), but I can't claim much more than that.

On the other hand, if you run across J Horror Anthology Legends at your local video store, I can recommend that. Six short pieces of Japanese horror fiction. I've been reading a lot of short fiction lately it seems and watching it can be just as fun. There's something about the short story that I really enjoy. I suspect it's the fact that the story teller has to pay closer attention to what's being given. You get a much more succinct story that's focused on the important bits. There are a few more J Horror collections running around Blockbuster, I may have to call a truce with them and give them a go.

The kids had fun trick-or-treating. And there is far too much candy running around the house. Oh well. You may get to suffer through a few more pictures in the upcoming days...

Weezer

Perfect Situations reminds me of FLCL. I suspect it's the opening guitars and the brief baseball reference. Great song though.

We've finally caught up on all our TV viewing from the trip. I suspect were it not for the fact that a few of the shows we watch were in repeats this week, we'd still be a bit behind. But now we can focus on spooky movies for Halloween. We'll see what my wife comes back with. I sent her for the Donald Sutherland version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers or Dawn of the Dead or something spooky.

Book 41

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman is a true joy to read. In fact, it's probably one of my favorite novels by him. I suspect I still like Neverwhere a touch more, but it's close. Anansi was one of the more enjoyable side characters in American Gods and it's good to see him in his element - a story of his own. After all, all stories are Anansi stories, and this one is a corker. If you enjoy folklore and mythology, you can't really go wrong with Gaiman. Once again he weaves facets of the old world into settings from the new. I don't really know of any other author with such a grasp of mythology. Truly a wonderful book.

In fact, I enjoyed the book so much that our recent trip to the library resulted in the procurement of a couple Anansi stories. If you can track down Anansi and the Talking Melon, I highly recommend it. Anansi the Spider is also a nice story, albeit a little more sedate. I'll have to try and track down a collection. It would also be interesting to compare some of the Trickster stories...

My wife is going to plug through The Penultimate Peril by Lemony Snicket. I occasionally wonder if I've missed something by skipping out on that series. I skimmed the last few pages of this one to see where things are heading for the big finale, looks interesting. I suspect Handler found his bearings a book or so after I quit as that was when an actual plot seemed to emerge. Maybe after they're all out I'll try gunning through them. That or I'll just have my wife fill me in on the details. And then the kids.

Speaking of Handler, I believe there's a new McSweeney's collection out featuring some of his work. Children's stories this go round. Should be interesting.

Side note: Smallville? Really, really silly. And I can't believe they hired some band to redo Bela Lugosi's Dead. Well, ok, I can't believe they took the result they got... Poor Bauhaus.

Anansi pumpkin

Anansi pumpkin
Originally uploaded by dkun.

Tonight's Scout activity was influenced a little by my current reading material. We were carving pumpkins and I decided Anansi needed to be represented...

Unfortunately my nighttime photography skills need a little work. But you can get the general idea. I must admit, I'm rather impressed with the final result. The web shows up pretty well and the spider turned out about as well as can be expected. It is missing a leg on purpose - but for some reason I transposed which side it was on from how it looks on the book cover. And I forgot the fangs... Oh well. There's always another pumpkin.

Slow news day

Well, vacation '05 comes to an end. Did some yard work today and other general tidying. Not the most exciting of days off, but at least things were Accomplished. October is rapidly drawing to a close. Hard to believe another year is rounding out. Time is just one big sinkhole of, "Huh... Yeah, that flew by" anymore.

I'd be tempted to use If not for the Cat as book 41, but that's stretching things a little. We ordered it from McKenna's Scholastic Book order sheet this last time because it looked cute - haiku about various animals. It is a pretty cute little book and some of the haiku are quite nice. If you run across it, give it a glance.

So Supernatural did the Hook Man urban legend tonight. That's a fun little show. I thought the spin they put on it was ok, but a bit of a cheat. Now we just need to bother catching up on all of the TV we missed over the last week...

Book 40, photos and other random thoughts

Photos first. This is my photostream over at Flickr. There are quite a few new shots as we just got back from vacation and I 1) used the digital camera and 2) actually bothered to upload some photos. So there.

Book 40 was Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami. I like Murakami's stuff. This one is broken up into two interwoven stories. Hard Boiled Wonderland follows the main protagonist as he gets caught up in all sorts of intrigue. End of the World follows him a little deeper into his own subconscious world. It's a mind boggling little tale on a few levels. I certainly don't claim to understand all of it. But I did enjoy it. It would be interesting to read each story as a whole (they're interspersed in the novel).

So we got back from our trip. It was far too short and I'm certainly not ready to go back to work. Fortunately I still have tomorrow off - I needed a day to unwind from all of the travel. It was great getting to wander around DC again. The FDR memorial was probably my favorite in spite of non-working waterfalls. The Korean memorial is rather eerie. And it was nice wandering around the Mall and seeing parts of the Smithsonian. I especially enjoyed the Freer Gallery. They had a really nice China/Japan exhibit. My goofy souvenir for the trip was a sumi-e board that lets you draw in what looks like sumi-e ink. It evaporates and you can draw something else.

The Capon portion of the trip was restful. We had some rain so we didn't really try to do a lot. I just enjoyed sitting and kicking but at Rummikub. We took Shipwrecked with us and Saturday night ended in the game that just would not end. The trees were turning so the area was rather pretty and with the rain things were fairly quiet.

The girls had a good time and we managed to survive the plane rides, connections and all. Even Graeme was pretty well behaved. Now I just need to shake this cough that's been hounding me. It started before we left but has recently decided to relocate to my chest. Not fun.

Didn't manage to drag my wife to see The Fog so will have to come up with some alternative method of brain-washing.

And that's about all you're gonna get for now. More as I think of it...

As Promised

SpaceShip One at the Smithsonian
Originally uploaded by dkun.

And here we have SpaceShip One at the Smithsonian. It was pretty neat seeing it hanging there with some of the other aerospace pioneers. They even had a little display that would play various video clips. Kept hoping for a glimpse of Matt in the background, but no luck. Congratulations again guys!

Walk, don't run

Well, the walk all over the city portion of the vacation has come to an end. Unfortunately the waterfalls were off at the FDR Memorial Park, but it was still a pretty nice Memorial. Will have to go back at some point.

And we now reach the sit back and relax portion. This is also the nothing resembling an internet connection portion so you'll just have to imagine witty commentary and pointless musings for the next couple days. Hey, it's not that different from the last couple weeks! Good you've had some practice.

So go wander around and find your own entertainment. I'll be back in a few days. Like you care...

Quick hello

Did a lot of walking today. Will probably regret it tomorrow when we do even more. But fun was had and it was good to get back into D.C. Saw Spaceship One at the Air and Space Museum. Took a picture of it that will end up here at some point in the not too distant future. Saw a couple other monuments/museums. Will visit a couple more tomorrow with the kids. Today was all about the adults running around the town.

It's funny, I remember being a lot more impressed with some of the Smithsonian buidlings the other times I've been to town, but there's a certain sense of satisfaction that you get from wandering around downtown D.C. I think it's just the sense of history that just about oozes out of everything in the area. I remember getting off the plane yesterday and driving back to the in-laws' house and being able to sense the history again. Utah just doesn't qutie manage that. But Virginia sure does. It's reassuring.

Well...

So, how about that last week? Pretty sporadic posting and certainly not much worth reading. And guess what, the future looks pretty similar. Poor unfortunate readers. You'll live.

There really isn't much to pass along. I don't recall sampling any new forms of entertainment over the weekend. Will probably drag my poor wife to see The Fog at some point in the next few days. In spite of the fact that they released it without screening it for the press. Sure sign of a dud, but the special place the original holds in my heart will drag me there anyway.

At any rate, don't expect to hear too much from me. Ran across a really good collection of Philip K. Dick short stories and it should really be the next book on my list, but I didn't quite finish it before I needed to get it back to the library, so it may make a slightly later appearance. And there is the possibility of photos in a not too distant future post. If that doesn't scare you away from here, I'm not sure what will...

Oh, if you can track it down, apparently Pullman (His Dark Materials) is really ranting about the upcoming Narnia flick. I wasn't too impressed with Pullman's work, but I can't say as I've read all of the Narnia stuff either. But I've certainly read Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe and I think the movie looks fantastic. So, it's not a stretch to guess who I'm backing in that argument...

Ugh

Inter...net.... is c...rawl...in....g

Something is not right with our internet service. So, don't expect much in the way of anything over the next couple of weeks. I may try to post from the road a bit. And maybe there will even be pictures.

I'd hoped to relate another Miranda haircut story.

Or talk about Shrek 2. (It was better than the first, but still only ok. Puss in Boots definitely made it worthwhile.)

But that's not going to happen so, go find something else to occupy your time.

Book 39 and a couple bits

Terry Pratchett's Thud! comes in at number 39. I've read several of the Discworld novels and tend to enjoy the Watch novels a little more than the others, so this one was right up my alley. All the Sam Vimes, Captain Carrot goodness you could want. I think Pratchett's earlier work tends to be a little funnier, but the newer stuff is arguably better. Or it could simply be that I'm not remembering the corresponding social woes he's satirizing. I'm just glad there's an appearance by everyone's favorite bloody stupid architect.* If you like Pratchett, this book is a no-brainer. If you've yet to read his work, I don't know that I'd recommend starting here, but it's probably not too awful a leap. Pick up a couple of the earlier Discworld novels and then give it a go. (Remembering to grab a couple that deal with the Ankh-Morpork Watch of course...)

Adam Sandler's remake of The Longest Yard was funny. And a decent way to kill a couple hours. High cinema? Of course not. But certainly passable entertainment.

The Eye 2 by the Pang Brothers is an odd little film. It's a sequel really only in name and partially in spirit. (Pun firmly intended.) It's not quite as horrific as the first movie, but it's an intriguing plot. My wife warns that it's not for those who are currently pregnant. Or about to be, or just recently were. In fact if Graeme weren't about a year old, I'd probably be getting the evil Eye for suggesting that we watch it. There are a couple decent jump moments, but like the first movie it's more of a quiet film that unnerves rather than one that goes for the jugular.

And that's pretty much a summation of a weekend well spent. Some random acts of cleaning were accomplished and we're getting ready to gear up for a vacation. So things may get pretty sporadic here for a while. I'm sure you're all crushed.

Oh and if you haven't gone to see Serenity, shame on you.

*Bloody Stupid Johnson of course. I suspect he had a hand in the creation of several miles of freeway in Texas and Utah...

Strange

Why is Barnes & Noble selling Warhammer 40K figures? The game section is growing by leaps and bounds. It's very odd. I did get to see the new Complete Calvin and Hobbes collection though. So very, very pretty.

And that's another work week done. I needed this week to end. Unfortunately it's set to start up again in a few days. Alas.

Long week

Is it over yet?

Not really a lot to pass on. If Serenity hits the $50 million mark (domestically), we'll most likely get to see a sequel. That would be nice, so go and see it. And then go see it again. I'd like to get back to see it at least once more myself.

Lots of complete randomness running around. WETA doing the effects for the Halo movie. Uwe Boll somehow convinces actors to be in his movies (most notably Ben Kingsley and Michael Madsen in the upcoming Bloodrayne flick). Lots of interesting possibilities in the upcoming holiday game onslaught. Apple may finally be releasing a video iPod.

And this blog makes me hungry...

Colossus!

Received a demo for Shadow of the Colossus in the mail today. This is the next game from the team that put out the absolutely amazing Ico. Unless I'm doing something very wrong, it's a pretty short demo, but it certainly gets the idea across and it looks like another stellar game. I don't know how they do it, but this group manages to capture wonderfully realized worlds in their games. Ico took place in a castle that would have been amazing to explore in real life and this one seems to take place in an enchanting little valley. One of the things that sets Colossus apart is that the game is basically a series of boss battles. Gone are the pointless random encounters and frustrating mini battles. This is all about exploration and taking out the big guys. Should be pretty interesting. One of the few titles for the PS2 to hold my interest.

And due to baseball playoffs, Tuesday TV gets a lot easier to keep up with. Yay.

Hachiko Waits is too emotionally draining for McKenna. She finds it too sad that Hachi waits day after day for a master that won't be coming home. And she didn't want to finish the story to find out that something happened to the dog. So my wife is letting her off the hook. Probably a wise move.

Highlander

With bunnies. I've mentioned this site before, but as I hold a soft spot for the original Highlander, I thought I'd pass it along again.

And if you're clever, you can track down the new Goblet of Fire footage featuring Malfoy the bouncing ferret. This is the other big movie release I'm looking forward to this year. Well, that and Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Other than that, it's a Monday. And it can't end soon enough.

Book 38

So Yesterday by Scott Westerfeld ranks up there in the top five books I've read this year. Flashes of Pattern Recognition by Gibson and the circle of cool fed by the net and all things advertising. It's a pretty quick read and an exceptionally entertaining one. I suspect that if you've heard of Westerfeld, you've heard of this book. He's definitely an author to keep an eye on. I may have to track down his new book Peeps. Highly recommended.