Last lines and thoughts on board games

Ok, it's time for a new feature here in letter 'd' land. I know, I know, "but letter 'd'" you say, "what about the movie trading cards and your lackadaisical flickr account and all the other "features" you start but then never do anything with?" "Well," I say, "here's another. Now shut up and eat your vegetables. That garden isn't just for looks you know."

Anyway.

Working in a Library (especially the hush hush behind the scenes super cool I could show you but then have to kill you part) comes with certain perks. Namely books. I can look at lots and lots of books. And there are a lot to look at let me tell you. So I decided it would be great fun (for me) to find some of the really out there books and post the last line from said books. There may be some sarcasm involved. I am still me after all. So hopefully since there will always be books coming in, it won't be too hard to make this happen every once in a while. Or more often than that...

Anway, this week's lovely little gem comes from Cast in Silence by Michelle Sagara. It's part of the Chronicles of Elantra which is a fantasy series I believe. Possibly urban fantasy, I've no real idea. Part of the charm of this feature is a distinct lack of research. I don't believe I even read the blurb. I did provide the Amazon link so you could go look at the cover. It will be important. Trust me.

The last line of Cast in Silence reads, "She felt some tiny part of her unclench and relax, and she began to ask him what, and why, and how, as they walked, and she didn't even mind when he got all technical and half his words went straight over her head." I will not comment on what part of her unclenched except to say that by saying that much I've let all of you make that joke for me. Thanks. It's nice to see that airheads are capable of saving the world as well. If you looked at the cover you will notice the lead female is not blond. Assuming that is said female on the cover (and it usually is) this obviously adds an element of sci fi to the book as she must have dyed her hair in order to achieve some form of artificial intelligence. (I offer the old blond joke about hair dye and AI as evidence for this.) I'm also curious as to why she did not ask who, and where, and when, since as a former blond I'm pretty sure her terribly limited AI could have handled the answers to those questions. Point a blond to a party and well... you get the idea.

So thanks Cast in Silence for being our first test subject for last lines. I'm sure it will be back. I've got a Library full of source material and I'm not afraid to use it.

On to other things. I've got a few random observations about board games. And the people who play them. We got into board games a few years back when we were introduced to Settlers of Catan. I played board games before that, but I'm pretty sure it was around then that I realized board games had come quite a way since titles like Monopoly, and Risk, and Clue and so on. Poked around some and starting finding all sorts of fun titles like Ticket to Ride and Blue Moon City etc.. I have several relatives who are convinced I have some sort of back alley board game dealer as there's no way these things are sold in stores. I've been to Walmart man and they do not sell Zooloretto! they say. So yes, hobby games are in a completely different place now.

Which is not to say it's a place for everyone. Much like saying all animated films are for kids will get you a quick punch to the kidney, saying all games are simple time sinks will get you another bruised kidney. I do my best to research the games I pick up in order to make sure I will have people to play against, but apparently I have some optimism in me as occasionally I stumble and pick up a game that lovely wife or even letter 'r' have trouble going near.

Let's take Blue Moon for example (note, do not confuse this with Blue Moon City which we all love). It's a card game similar in some ways to Magic and other collectible type games. They removed much of the random collectible nature by simply offering standard expansion decks. You buy the Flit deck and you get the same 30 cards as everybody else that buys that deck. There were a handful of these decks put out so that the game offered some variety. At it's heart, Blue Moon is a trick taking game. You play cards that allow you to control dragons. Win 4 dragons and you win the game. Run the other player out of cards while you control more dragons (if you can't get to 4) and you win the game.

Part of the problem (if you're my wife) is that the game only comes with 3 dragons. "If you're supposed to attract a 4th dragon, why isn't there a 4th dragon?" She says every single time I bring up the game. I don't know. Because it was cheaper this way. Because Knizia only likes the RGB color wheel. Who knows. Really not a terribly rational thing to get hung up on if you ask me. The other problem is that since there's a bit of Magic in the game's heritage, you really have to learn the way a deck works. Each deck offers different ways to break the relatively simple rules of the game (you play one character card and one booster or support card in an effort to at least match your opponent's strength). Once you learn how the deck works you can start to build a little bit of a strategy against the other decks.

I suspect this game fails for my wife because there's a little too much effort in learning the game for what she perceives as not enough reward (the non existent 4th dragon). Usually if she wins at something I can entice her to play again. Not so much with this one. The appeal of learning the strengths and weaknesses of each race (deck) and then trying to pit those abilities against the other races isn't enough of a motivator for her. The letter 'r' and I can spend a good hour or so trying them out and seeing how they work. As mentioned not everything is for everyone. The letter 'r' may get a slightly used birthday present this year as there's nothing sadder than a game that sits in a closet and doesn't get played. Although I may give McK a chance at learning it first. She's getting old enough that some of the games that have typically been adult games are starting to be interesting to her. As well as playable.

Then there's something like Arkham Horror. I picked this one up as I really like the Cthulhu theme and I thought it would be fun to give a co-operative game a try (all the players work together to try and prevent the end of the world). The problem here is (and I can't even convince the letter 'r' to try this one) it's got a lot of bits and even more rules. Learning curve strikes again. I often wonder how things would have gone if we'd played that first time with someone that knew the game. It doesn't help that you really need more than 3 people to play. And a typical game clocks in at 3-4 hours.

So those are some of the factors that come into play when looking for a new game. Time, number of rules/bits, what drives the fun of the game. Which isn't to say that it can be hard to find a game that everyone will like. As mentioned, Dominion is a big hit. Ticket to Ride goes in phases (have I forgotten how much my blood pressure tends to rise when I play it?). No Thanks and a few others make the rounds too. It helps if you know the people you're playing with. It also helps if you have a back alley game dealer that knows the product so you can ask questions. I mean, Walmart doesn't sell this stuff man. (Pro tip: if you want to go looking for something new and off the beaten path start here)

This may eventually become something of a feature as well. Games my wife hates. Or loves. It might prove more interesting review fodder. We'll see.

In other non Library/geek news there is a birthday coming up in casa del 'd'. So happy birthday bug. Remember, brains are not food.

Of Big Bangs, Little Girls and Cities

Recently started watching Season One of The Big Bang Theory. It's terribly funny, occasionally crude and pretty much all true. Sheldon is certainly the best character in the show (I actually find Leonard only ok) and the one that really shines out as an example of true nerddom. If you've not caught an episode, it's worth hunting down. We've laughed quite a bit and look forward to the rest of the season. The nice thing is that they aren't making fun of nerds in the show. They are the main characters and they're portrayed honestly. The humor just comes from the situations they're placed in and their own interactions.

Finished off China Mieville's The City & The City. An interesting murder mystery where the locale the story takes place in is as much a character as the people involved. I won't go into details about the central conceit as it is a nice little twist (and honestly spoiled everywhere else) but it does make for interesting reading. While it would be fascinating to see something like that attempted in real life, I'm pretty sure it would be nigh unto impossible. It works in the story as both a physical thing and a symbol. Glean from this rather ambiguous paragraph what you will. If you get nothing else, just know it is an interesting story and also worth checking out.

Girls are off at Girl Scout camp. Although it sounds like the place they're at double booked and they're getting kicked out this afternoon. Oh well. I'm sure they had some fun.

I may need to start looking into making some homemade salsa. We're starting to get a decent number of tomatoes from the garden. Can't slice them all up for burgers. Or salads. Wish we had some jalapenos or serranos as well...

Finally got around to seeing Coraline the other day. It's decent. I'm not entirely crazy about some of the changes they made to the story and it seemed a touch long in places, but it is a bit of a marvel of stop animation cinematography. And the core story is pretty much intact. Kids liked it quite a bit and that's what really mattered.

Thoughts on Harry Potter

So we recently managed to watch Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in the theater (shocking in and of itself I know!). It was decent. I knew about most of the changes made to the film going in so those particular shocking moments weren't particularly shocking. I was sad they left out a couple of the memories/trips that Dumbledore and Harry encounter that related to Voldemort's past, but overall it was a fine film. And at almost 3 hours I never really felt that it was dragging, so that's something. The kids seemed to enjoy it well enough so that's another point in its favor. I think the director is in dire need of another film filter as I'm a little tired of the bluish tinge he paints everything with (this is SERIOUS! the story is SERIOUS! please to pay attention to my SERIOUS film making and story telling skillz!) But yeah, certainly worse pieces of cinema out there.

Which leads into Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I decided to read through book 7 again as I haven't read it since it came out and I wanted to see how it held up. Not terribly well is the answer. Book 5 got a little better the second time through, Book 7 is definitely a little worse. Honestly the entire first half of that book could be ripped out, burned and otherwise deleted from the Universe and it would be fine. Things do get a little better in the second half, but only a little. I'm not crazy about the author wish fulfillment that turns Hermione into uber-witch Granger, the revisionist half hearted attempt at redeeming Snape (that still fails miserably in my book - he wasn't good, he wasn't really working for the good guys, he was basically a creepy stalker who with his dying breath wanted to see the eyeballs of said stalking obssession), the basic underwhelming-ness of Harry... Yeah I could go on. I think the publishers decided to just let Rowling write whatever she wanted. Editing? What's editing? Who needs a canonically consistent plot? Which is a shame as it is after all the end of the series. Oh well, chalk one up for the whimper column.

Which makes me worry about the movies. They're splitting the book into two movies. I've already made my thoughts on the first half of the book clear. This will not end well folks. Admittedly there will be a couple pretty nice moments. There are some flashes of brilliance throughout the book, they're just never capitalized on or used effectively. Oh well. I did actually like the whole Hallows subplot more this time around (and how crazy is it that a book named The Deathly Hallows relegates that bit to pretty much subplot status? Although come to think of it, it's happened before in the series - The Chamber of Secrets says "hi") .

We managed to make an actual side dish of the green beans from the garden over the weekend. Grilled some steaks and served them with said beans. They were yummy. Asparagus next year!

I finished up Confessions of a Part Time Sorceress. It was a fun little read. It's a girl's eye view into the world of D&D. Lovely wife read through it as well. It's a decent starting point for looking into D&D and you want a feminine perspective.

I'm very close to finishing The City & The City. Also an interesting read. But more on it later.

Friday night dose of awesome

If you've not seen the Take on Me literal video, hunt it up after this one. I love these and this one's especially good. And it's Friday and you deserve a treat. A lovely 80's treat.

Weekly dose of randomness

Actually, I don't really have anything all that random to point you towards. The San Diego Comic Con is going on and apparently all the Twilight fans are out in droves for hopes of a glimpse of Paper(cut) Moon New Moon. Le sigh. Don't they know there are real movies worth being interested in? I somehow doubt it.

Finally caught Taken the other night. It was a decent action flick. Typical Dad knows best, torture is ok, completely silly ending sort of movie. I'm just glad it was only 90 minutes. Otherwise actually thinking about what was going on would probably have ruined vast amounts of that film. Other than the ending. Seriously. How was he not in jail by the end? But Liam Neeson does kick some serious butt.

We have since played a few more games of Dominion. I'm finding it to be rather enjoyable if a bit mysterious. I'm not at all surprised it won the SdJ this year, there's a fair amount of depth as you try to figure out the best way to construct your deck. There's not a whole lot of player interaction (at least not with the initial set of recommended cards) but the up side is that any mistakes you make are pretty much your fault. There's not a lot of luck involved (and that's a great thing). Definitely worth picking up if you like relatively light strategy games.

This is a long weekend and I couldn't be happier. Well ok if it were much cooler out and I didn't have as much stuff on my schedule I might be a touch happier, but still pretty happy. We may try a recipe for meatballs that involves grape jelly. I'm a little scared, but supposedly it's tasty...

Oh I should point out that G let us know last night that eating celery had made his mouth hot. I feel science should study this effect. The power of celery to raise one's mouth temperature. Sure beats some of the studies they do. I'm not entirely convinced it was really celery that caused this as we had curry for dinner and that was a much more likely culprit, but he seems convinced.

On podcasts

It's been a while since I've rambled on about the podcasts I'm currently listening to, so you poor souls get to deal with that for a post. The rotation has morphed a little, I haven't listened to Escape Pod or any of the spinoffs for a while. Mostly because the stories started getting too long. I had a hard time finishing them in a commute. That and I found a few others I liked listening to a touch better. Also I stopped listening to them at work. Old job used different parts of my brain or something so I could actually listen to them a little easier than I can now.

At any rate, the top dog is still Listen Up by the 1up folks (formerly 1up Yours). It's generally 2-3 hours of commentary on the video game world. They start off with what they're currently playing and then move to news and industry commentary. I really like several of the guys that are regulars and this is pretty much where I get my news/reviews type fix from. Although they can be a touch down on Nintendo.

In a related podcast (for a couple reasons) I also listen to What They Play. This one is also video game oriented, but the site is a parent's guide to video games type site. They let you know what sort of content can be found in the games your kids are begging you for. I started listening because I really like the host John Davison (formerly of 1up and still on Listen Up) but I've kept listening because I like their take on the industry. It's a little more geared for my life as a gamer at the moment. (i.e. the rug monkeys are playing all the games, when did that happen?! Gimme that controller back you rug monkey!)

For the analog equivalent (boardgames) I listen to Pulp Gamer: Out of Character and Myriad Games. I like Out of Character as that's the roundtable show where they cover a pretty wide variety of board games (as well as some industry news and listener feedback). They've since started building a boardgame podcast empire and Myriad Games is the other offering I really enjoy. This one is run by the staff of a game store and they cover everything from game reviews to rules to random solicitation of hate mail. Be sure to get your free pair of dice by leaving them a review in iTunes. Mine are a nice shiny blue color. Alas they're only d6's, but nobody's perfect.

Let's see, for music based podcasts there's Random Signal (they do geek stuff as well) and the Irish and Celtic Music podcast. TMBG have one (I'm getting tired of hunting links). I follow the Dungeons & Dragons podcast whenever the Penny Arcade guys are in a campaign (Acquisitions Inc! There's no dark magic like Jim Darkmagic.) The Retronauts podcast is usually a pretty humorous look at older video games. Hmm. Yeah, running out of stuff. Reality Break is an infrequent, yet enjoyable look at the sci fi industry. A Life Well Wasted is This American Life does video games. (Yeah, yeah I listen to a lot of gaming podcasts...) I'm sure there are others, but those are certainly the big names that take up my weekly commutes. So give them a look, you might find something of interest.

In other news, we picked up Dominion, this year's SdJ winner. It's a deck building card game. So far we've played a couple games (lovely wife, oldest rug monkey and myself) and I've not managed to win a game yet. Well ok, when it was just my wife and I, I did manage a rather stunning victory. But oldest rug monkey took us both to the cleaners the second game we played. Basically you try to collect cards that allow you to build your deck in such a way that you can buy the really good scoring cards so that you have the most points at the end. There's a decent amount of strategy involved as you can build your deck several different ways and there are (I believe) 20 types of cards that you use - only a game is just played with 10 of them. So lots of room for different types of decks and ways to keep the game from just being the same thing over and over. Nice.

Leverage is back on and that's nice. Eureka has started up as well. I believe Psych isn't too far behind.

Whiteout is a nice little murder mystery set in Antarctica. I believe they're turning it into a movie. And Confessions of a Part Time Sorceress is a fun look at the world of D&D through a woman's eyes. But that's enough of that. I believe this post has run its course.

Books, tables, weekly dose of randomness

Let's see. I finished The Strain by Del Toro and Hogan. It was good. Definitely the first in a trilogy (I believe). This initial story was sort of wrapped up, but there are certainly story lines left hanging and characters in dire situations. Briefly, it's a vampire story with a bit of a medical bent. Not so briefly? Well, we follow Eph Goodweather of the CDC as he's called to investigate a plane full of dead people. He provides the medical background mentioned earlier while Abraham Setrakian provides the vampire background. (He's the hunter, not the vampire) They either use or at least nod at most of the accepted vampire myths while tweaking a couple (it's a virus and teeth are not involved in the blood drinking). It will be interesting to see where the story goes, I look forward to the next one.

I also made it through The Magic Thief: Lost book 2 of that series. I really like the way these stories are told and this one is another fun little romp. Conn, the titular magic thief has lost his focus stone and proceeds to try and speak with the magic by blowing things up. Good lad that Conn. Sarah Prineas relates the story in a nice easy going fashion that will have you done with the book in an afternoon. Again I look forward to seeing what happens next.

I've burned through a couple of the Kindaichi Case Files books. They're always fun. I really need to track down some of the ones I've missed.

The letter 'r' has run across some lovely tables. If Dad wants to make that first one in the video we'd take a couple. Although I can't imagine how careful you'd have to be putting that one together... Yikes. Talk about measure twice cut once. I'm not sure I'd ever get out of the measuring phase on that one.

Weather has finally turned very much summer-y. Too hot. ^_^ I miss the rain. Although parts of the garden don't. I think our cucumbers and watermelons are doomed. Peas and beans seem ok though. As do the tomatoes. We finally have some serranos, although the poor jalapeno seems to have gone on strike... We blame the monster of a tomato plant we've got next to it.

Kids have been enjoying the pool (thanks littlest sis), although lovely wife is about to throw the lot of them in it and leave them there. Apparently they think she's some sort of pool toy.

We managed to survive the 4th without setting anything on fire (sounds like we're one up on Dad in that respect) although that can certainly liven things up. We had good food and decent fireworks. If I ever have to light lightning flashes again it will be too soon. That and snakes. Why did it have to be snakes...

At any rate the summer marches on. Which is good.

Guinew Moon

In case you haven't run across it yet, this is awesome. Although I must admit after talking to lovely wife and learning that the paper cut bit was not parody I have now declared that I will NEVER read the rest of this series. Paper cut? Seriously? If you're going for humor it's brilliant. If you're trying to set up an event that drives a serious plot point, not so much.

In which I talk about Blade Runner AGAIN

So. Blade Runner. You'd think I'd get tired of talking about this film. Actually, more to the point you'd think Ridley Scott would get tired of re-working it every few years. The "Final Cut" (and those quotes are the "made with the fingers" variety) came out a while ago and I finally (pun firmly intended) got around to seeing it. I feel a little bad it's taken this long, but eh, whatcha gonna do? I can't actually tell you the last time I rented a movie...

At any rate. As has been documented here in this blog (not long after it started in fact) I have a bit of history with this film. From birthday parties to college classes the film (as well as the original PKD novel) has a bit of a place in my life. Much to the disbelief of friends and relatives. (Boring is the word most often invoked.) Philistines the lot of them. I'm not completely convinced the Final Cut really offers anything new, but it is certainly a touch prettier. That opening sequence (which I'm pretty sure is a touch longer now) is still breathtaking. And I think there are a couple extra quick shots and the soundtrack is tweaked in a couple places. Oddly I think Bryant's math is fixed in this version once again making it a little less obvious that Scott's Deckard is a replicant, but whatever. Anyone that's followed the film knows his opinion on that score.

I think the thing I enjoyed most about watching it this go round were all the little touches. Gaff's origami, the sound of the neon lights flashing, the photo reading machine, Vangelis's score. It's all highly iconic stuff now and in some ways a little difficult to appreciate. The language of this film has been borrowed so many times (from 5th Element to Cowboy Bebop to well, really any dystopic sci fi film of the last couple decades) it's easy to forget just how new it was at the time. Between this film and 2001 (there's that boring word again) I'm not entirely certain there's another film out there that shaped sci fi cinema as much.

So I'll avoid all the talk of humanity and dystopia and influence and simply say, yeah Blade Runner still has it. There's a reason this thing is a classic and a touchstone. If you've not seen it, track down the Final Cut and give it a look. Your geek cred will thank you.

Speaking of dystopias family, congratulations go out to younger sis on birth of baby girl. Although you don't fix the spelling of that middle name and well... At any rate. Congratulations, glad all are healthy and well. Good luck restoring any sort of order to that house. You are all doomed now as you are well and truly out numbered.

I've been watching Piranha these last few mornings while I exercise. Also a truly great film.

I think I'll stop commenting on Monster until I've finished the series, but if you've thought about reading manga, but not been sure of a decent series to start with, this one's a good bet. Pretty compelling.

I'm this close to finishing The Strain. It is good. More when done.

I'll be starting the sequel to The Magic Thief (called Lost I believe) soon. Looking forward to that. It's a pretty good little series.

Added in the Event and Relic decks for Cutthroat Caverns last night. They do offer a nice little twist on the gameplay. Usually making things even more difficult for the poor players that refuse to trust anybody. Not bad. I really need to convince everyone to take another stab at Arkham Horror. I've been itching to play that one again... I blame that Innsmouth blood.

Befuddlement

Seems like there should be things to talk about here. I'm pretty sure I was aware of them earlier, but it's been that kind of day.

The Arts Festival is going on outside of the Library at the moment and if any of you have a couple grand to loan give us, I will acquire some nice art. As it stands I suspect it will once again pass us by. Although there's a rather nice Army of Darkness spray paint piece... Anyone? (And don't get me started on the beautiful Greek Boat photo... Water! So blue!)

Watched Sunshine again the other day. First 2/3 or so of that movie are great. Ending, not so much.

Apparently DirecTV does not play well with rain. You have rain for a few days in a row and suddenly the signal just wanders away looking for some sun. I wonder what people in, oh, say, Forks do for satellite service. Have the Cullens hold the dishes and sparkle sweat heavily?

Currently reading The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. It's a pretty good vampire book. Part medical thriller (some pretty gruesome details yo) part horror novel, it's been pretty interesting so far. Although it appears the vampires don't have teeth. It looks like they may have some sort of extra appendage in their throat that they use instead. I'm actually just getting to the part where the vampire outbreak starts in earnest so I'm not certain of all the details yet. Why do people play around with the vampire rules so much? I don't know that any other undead critter gets yanked around quite so much...

I have a jalapeno from the garden. It will go on the chicken tacos we're making tonight. I'm hoping it is very yummy. And not without some kick. We shall see. Tomatoes are in existence, spinach too. Watermelons down for the count. Not sure about the cucumbers. Or the serranos.

The one with the Twilight movie review in

So. The rumors are true. (Although if there are actually rumors about my Twilight viewing habits, the internets just got a whole lot creepier) I have seen Twilight. And just what did the ol' letter 'd' think of said spot of celluloid? It didn't suck (and believe me, that comment works on lots of levels for this film). Given the fact that they had to hire a writer, they fixed the biggest problem with the books (y'know the writing). So except for the lines they lifted wholesale from the novel, the dialogue and so on wasn't too terrible. Plot was pretty much nonexistant, but that can be said of most romantic comedies. Wait, this wasn't a comedy? Hmm. They definitely need to fire the hairdresser. And the FX guy. I'd really like to know whose bright idea it was to change "sparkling" into "sweating heavily". That glitter effect. Man. Although he did have to carry Bella all over the place, so I suppose a little sweat is expected. (And yeah, the carrying... less said the better.)

Strangely the scene I liked the most was the one that sounded pretty silly from the book, the baseball game. I blame the fact that I enjoyed it on the Muse song though. Can't beat a good Muse song. And Muse apparently makes just about anything better. Bella needs to lose the headphones. Surely she can find a better way to learn her lines. Although if I were surrounded by the people in that movie, I'd probably try to drown them out too.

I did like Alice. She can stay.

So there you go. Not the worst thing ever, but certainly far from anything worth watching more than once. (I am looking at you 2nd oldest niece. Take the headphones out, put the remote down and go start reading some Westerfeld or something.)

Still trucking along through Monster. It is still pretty darn good.

Decided to throw Metal Gear Solid 3 back in the ol' PS2. I still really suck at that game. I may one day make it to the end, but that is not going to be any time soon.

An early Happy Father's Day goes out to Dad. I have no idea what we're getting you. You have no idea what we're getting you. This has not helped matters. So yeah, Love you Dad, you'll have to settle for heartfelt appreciation. ^_^

Oh. They're still not vampires. Deal with it people.

Incroyable

What's this? Not one, not two, but three posts?! Some with actual relevant content? Yeah, yeah, don't get used to it. It's been an odd week.

Ghost in the Shell: 2nd Gig was pretty darn decent. It played with my mind quite a bit as they lifted characters and settings from the first graphic novel without using those plot points. And then they ended the season right where the graphic novel started. So I've no idea what that means as far as compatibility with the manga's timeline, but it was certainly interesting from a nudge, nudge, wink, wink sort of standpoint. I think I liked the end of season 1 better, but they're both good. Good on ya' Production I.G.!

Monster continues to be interesting as does Cromartie High School.

I will be tackling The Hunger Games soon, mostly to see how it compares to Battle Royale. I will admit to being somewhat skeptical... It might be decent, but I'm expecting a certain amount of been there, done that, it was better in the original. Heh. ^_^

Well, my brain is fried. I blame the updating. I'll get back to you next week. Or will I?

Oh I really, really want to see Moon. Yeah, that's all.

Jungle's gonna get you man

First, the amusing thing about the quiz below, is that I've not read any Susan Cooper. So I've no idea if that's accurate or not. I shall have to remedy this situation. Always interesting stumbling on something new.

Secondly, I have finished The Lost City of Z, by David Grann. Absolutely brilliant book. There's nothing like a good adventure tale for summer reading. And this one was all true. It's amazing what people went through to discover new things and to follow their obsessions. Percy Fawcett was convinced there was a lost civilization deep in the Amazon jungle. He vanished along with his son and his son's friend while searching for it. David Grann, a journalist, became intrigued by the story and ended up journeying to the Amazon himself to see if he could discover what happened. Truly fascinating stuff. Cannibals, spies, rivals, adventure, romance this book has it all - just like the Princess Bride, well ok, there's not really any romance. Maybe a little. If you ever thought you wanted to go visit the Amazon, this book will either cement that desire, or cure you of it.

Also read Emily the Strange: Lost Days. Another great little young adult book. Emily has amnesia. In fact she doesn't know her name is Emily. It might be Earwig. Or Molly. She also doesn't know why she's in the town of Blackrock. Or why it's so beige. Her life is truly a mysterious thing. Fortunately she has a slingshot, some helpful black cats and some pretty decent sleuthing skills. She's going to need them to make sense of her life and the town she's found herself in. Recommended.

For grins and chuckles I threw Sly Cooper in the PS2 the other day. Game is still good and oddly, surprisingly challenging.

Apropos of nothing

Your result for Which fantasy writer are you?...

Susan Cooper (b. 1935)

23 High-Brow, -3 Violent, -13 Experimental and -15 Cynical!

Congratulations! You are High-Brow, Peaceful, Traditional and Romantic! These concepts are defined below.

Though born in England, Susan Cooper currently lives in the United States. She is most well-known for her The Dark Is Rising sequence, which has received substantial critical acclaim, the second book (also called The Dark Is Rising) in the series winning a Newbury Honor and the fourth book (The Grey King) being awarded the Newbury Medal, one of the world's most prestigious awards for children's literature. The series is one of the finest examples of contemporary fantasy: the kind of fantasy where magic happens in an actually existing place. The Dark Is Rising is set in Britain, where two common themes of fantasy are combined; that of a magic world parallel to ours, which later became so popular with the Harry Potter books and that of ordinary British school-children playing a role in the struggle between Good and Evil, which had earlier been explored by C S Lewis.

Cooper manages to use the idiom of traditional children books to tell a tale of epic proportions, as evil beings from Celtic legends appear on Earth to do battle with the Old Ones, a secret society of people with magic powers. She is also able to combine this rather romantic vision with important messages, the compassion of one of the children being vital to the cause of Good at one point in the story. In Cooper's world, what you think and do matters on a grand scale, a message children and adults alike should take to their hearts.

You are also a lot like Ursula K Le Guin.

If you want some action, try China Miéville.

If you'd like a challenge, try your exact opposite, Lian Hearn.

Your score

This is how to interpret your score: Your attitudes have been measured on four different scales, called 1) High-Brow vs. Low-Brow, 2) Violent vs. Peaceful, 3) Experimental vs. Traditional and 4) Cynical vs. Romantic. Imagine that when you were born, you were in a state of innocence, a tabula rasa who would have scored zero on each scale. Since then, a number of circumstances (including genetical, cultural and environmental factors) have pushed you towards either end of these scales. If you're at 45 or -45 you would be almost entirely cynical, low-brow or whatever. The closer to zero you are, the less extreme your attitude. However, you should always be more of either (eg more romantic than cynical). Please note that even though High-Brow, Violent, Experimental and Cynical have positive numbers (1 through 45) and their opposites negative numbers (-1 through -45), this doesn't mean that either quality is better. All attitudes have their positive and negative sides, as explained below.

High-Brow vs. Low-Brow

You received 23 points, making you more High-Brow than Low-Brow. Being high-browed in this context refers to being more fascinated with the sort of art that critics and scholars tend to favour, rather than the best-selling kind. At their best, high-brows are cultured, able to appreciate the finer nuances of literature and not content with simplifications. At their worst they are, well, snobs.

Violent vs. Peaceful

You received -3 points, making you more Peaceful than Violent. This scale is a measurement of a) if you are tolerant to violence in fiction and b) whether you see violence as a means that can be used to achieve a good end. If you aren't, and you don't, then you are peaceful as defined here. At their best, peaceful people are the ones who encourage dialogue and understanding as a means of solving conflicts. At their worst, they are standing passively by as they or third parties are hurt by less scrupulous individuals.

Experimental vs. Traditional

You received -13 points, making you more Traditional than Experimental. Your position on this scale indicates if you're more likely to seek out the new and unexpected or if you are more comfortable with the familiar, especially in regards to culture. Note that traditional as defined here does not equal conservative, in the political sense. At their best, traditional people don't change winning concepts, favouring storytelling over empty poses. At their worst, they are somewhat narrow-minded.

Cynical vs. Romantic

You received -15 points, making you more Romantic than Cynical. Your position on this scale indicates if you are more likely to be wary, suspicious and skeptical to people around you and the world at large, or if you are more likely to believe in grand schemes, happy endings and the basic goodness of humankind. It is by far the most vaguely defined scale, which is why you'll find the sentence "you are also a lot like x" above. If you feel that your position on this scale is wrong, then you are probably more like author x. At their best, romantic people are optimistic, willing to work for a good cause and an inspiration to their peers. At their worst, they are easily fooled and too easily lead.

Take Which fantasy writer are you? at HelloQuizzy

Summer madness

And so the kids are out of school. Alas poor wife, we hardly knew ye. After the initial, "you are all driving me insane, now GO OUTSIDE!" phase has worn off I'm sure she'll be fine. Once she's applied some sunscreen since they're apparently living at the city pool.

Garden continues to grow, although we seem to have lost some watermelon seedlings along the way. We may have to plant one more just to be safe. Tomato plant seems a little stressed as well. I really need to take another picture so I have proof that we had things growing at one point. ^_^

Monster vol 2 was quite good and the story continues. Looks like Dr. Tenma plans to leave the hospital to hunt after the serial killer he saved. And the police are convinced he had something to do with several new deaths. Ooo tension. heh heh.

I'm currently reading through Cromartie High School volume 1 and let me tell you, it's hilarious. Upstanding student applies to delinquent high school to encourage friend to go to school. Only friend does not make it into said school. Hijinks ensue. Lots and lots of hijinks. There are stories about dominoes and rabbits living with lions and pudding. (And I believe I've made my feelings known on stories with pudding) If you can locate it, read it. Or possibly watch the anime, I have plans to do that as well.

Speaking of anime, Ghost in the Shell: 2nd Gig (or Stand Alone Complex season 2) is excellent. I really like that series. Production IG has done a great job with that world.

In other slightly related news, this week was E3. And there were some excellent Wii related announcements. New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Metroid: Other M, and some others. If you have a Wii hooked up to the net, I recommend checking out the Nintendo channel and watching the videos. Some great looking stuff. Can't wait for Galaxy 2, I loved the first one. Oh and there's more Wii Sports and Wii Fit and... heh heh, like I said list goes on.

Anniversary was this week. 14 years. 14 long great years. ^_^ Love you honey! This last year was certainly better than the previous, but held it's own set of challenges. We're certainly ready for things to settle down a touch more.

And I believe that's enough. Oh I'll throw this out there. Some of those stories look pretty great. And it's possible to waste a bit of time at that site...

Myths and Monsters

The last book in the Percy Jackson series, The Last Olympian is out and it's quite good. It manages to wrap things up while still leaving the author lots of room to play in. The only real question is, will we get more stories with Percy and crew, or will it be the "next generation". As the book is still pretty new, I won't go into great detail, but this one is certainly action packed (almost a little too much so) and manages to tell a pretty unique story. There's not as much cribbing from older mythologies this time around, so that's nice. Give it a read.

Monster volume one, by Naoki Urasawa is mostly setting the stage for the story to come, but it does a pretty good job. Part hospital drama, part crime thriller, we follow Dr. Kenzo Tenma a brilliant young neurosurgeon that seems to have it all. He's engaged to the Director's daughter and has a promising career ahead of him. Until he runs afoul of hospital politics. Deciding that all lives are equal and that he's going to operate on a young boy that's come in ahead of the city's Mayor (in direct violation of the Director's orders) Kenzo loses everything he had. He saves the young boy but the Mayor dies. The Director makes it his mission to put Kenzo in his place and his fiance leaves him realizing his fate is sealed. That might be enough to get things going, but the real twist comes in when years later, now actually running the hospital, Kenzo finds out that the boy he'd saved is now going around killing people. And so the chase begins. Looking forward to seeing where this one goes.

JCVD is a rather brilliant little movie. It follows Jean Claude Van Damme as he gets stuck in a hostage crisis. Much like My Name is Bruce, the film plays with audience expectations concerning the main star and puts the hero in a situation they've dealt with theatrically a million times. Only now it's for real. There's a lot of humor here and some heartbreak. Good on Van Damme for playing the part.

And that's about it for random review time. In other news, we had a nice little game of San Juan last night with the letter 'r'. I rather like that game. And cheeseburgers on demand season is officially open. Gotta love the grill. I think we'll try ribs this week.

Moments in the Sun

Special follows your Average Joe™ who is accepted into a drug trial, becomes convinced he has super powers (he doesn't) and uses them to fight crime (tackle people). Drug company suits are not amused and downward spiral of events follow. Will Average Joe™ prevail over the suits? Well watch the movie. Draw your own conclusions. The trailer is a little misleading on this one. It sounds like a relatively funny movie right? And in some ways it is. The problem is, they play everything a little too straight and so there are times you really start to wonder if you should be laughing at what's happening. Instead of crying or finding someone to help the poor man. The performances are all really well done and I think that's what makes it so hard to decide how you should view this movie.

We officially have the starts of several things growing in the garden. Some Spinach, some Cucumbers, a couple others. This is good. I'm really looking forward to seeing if we can actually keep things alive long enough to get some food out of them. Mmm pickles. And Spinach salad...

I suddenly have a lot of things to read/watch. Some of them may make their way here. I can recommend Melody A.M. by Röyksopp. If you're familiar with the caveman Geico commercial that takes place in the airport (he's on the moving sidewalk), you know one song on the album, Remind Me. It's a good album if you like electronica (actually it's good even if you don't). Bits of it remind me of Pink Floyd for some strange reason.

Goings on gone

square foot garden,
originally uploaded by dkun.

Yeah a little late and you've seen the pictures, blah, blah, blah. Blame my wife who seems not to understand the concept "flickr pool".

Managed to enjoy the week off with Dad in town. Even if we spent most of it working. Here you can see one of the boxes we built for our square foot garden. There are two. And hopefully they will provide us with lots of yummy food. We also rearranged the girls' room. Bunk beds are now single beds. And the corner of shame has been banished.

We did squeeze some fun in. Star Trek is a good show (even in spite of reboot romances... Spock?! Seriously?!). Quantum of Solace is good (pay no attention to my wife or father, they're muddled from the work and the heat). And the Aquarium is quite nice now. A really nice South American exhibit.

Managed to finish Drood by Dan Simmons. I quite liked it. I'd really like to know which parts were fiction. Well ok, a lot of it is, but there's a lot of fact in there too. Sounds like Dickens got a little strange at the end of his life, although not as strange as some of his associates. Drood tells the tale of the end of Dickens's life as seen through the eyes of his friend/collaborator/jealous adversary William "Wilkie" Collins. Pretty fascinating and a touch horrifying. And what more do you want from a summer-y novel?

How about South American adventure and jungles and spies and lost cities and madness and death? That's what The Lost City of Z, the current book I'm reading, promises. Oh and did I mention it's all true? Nice.

20th Century Boys Volume 1 is pretty good. It sounds like it's a long series, but I look forward to the chance to read it.

Well, it's hot. Even in the basement. I must go melt now. As you were.

Storm before the calm

Getting ready for an entire week off. It will be glorious. And the best part is getting to see Dad since he's flying out this weekend. Looking forward to that. Even if we are getting suckered into manual labor. Got to build some squarefoot garden boxes and get some grub planted as well as possibly redoing the girls' room.

Had a great lunch to celebrate Cinco de Mayo yesterday (yes we celebrated a day late). Some truly yummy Mexican food. (I made salsa)

Watched Cronocrimenes (Timecrimes for favorite niece) the other night. Decent time travel mystery type flick. Some of it was predictable, but there were a couple nice little twists.

Will finally get to watch Quantum of Solace soon. Looking forward to that. Making my way through the first season of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. It's pretty enjoyable too, but then I like the GitS universe.

In mocking Twilight news, it gave G nightmares. Lovely wife decided to snag it from the redbox due to massive amounts of whining from McK and M. They all watched it without me (probably wise on their part). But yeah, G not so much ready for emo dudes with bad hair "vampires". Even ones that sparkle. And aren't really vampires. Oh and the director of the third movie totally mocked the first movie (wouldn't watch it at gunpoint) and then backpedaled when fans (and believe me, Twilight fans put the fanatic back in fan...) expressed emo whining outrage.

And long live blogger's autosave. This post was almost gone due to some lovely Firefox issues.

Suspect that's good enough for now.

Cue the mad laughter

Just a quick note to point to this. Not the most amazing 600th post, but it mocks Twilight so it fits the basic criteria.

Subtitled for your reading enjoyment

It's been Foreign Film Week in casa del 'd'. (This means subtitles oh favorite niece. You gots to read those movies. Because they're awesome. And not in English. You could turn the subtitles off, but unless you speak Cantonese or Swedish it's just a whole lot of pictures at 40 frames a second. Or whatever that film speed is.)

We started off with Hard Boiled. Mostly for historical and completist sorts of reasons. It was interesting mostly for those same reasons. Although anything involving babies, cotton balls, or fire extinguishing was awesome. And hilarious. I think this film is best described as a reverse classic. It's easy to see now how other films have built on or ripped off this one. Sometimes to better effect (Infernal Affairs comes to mind), sometimes not. So it is a genre building/influencing sort of film, but mostly it's interesting to see where things went. John Woo wasn't quite the master of choreographed bullet play yet and there were no doves to be seen! Shocking.

Next up was Let the Right One In the good vampire film from last year. That happened to be from Sweden. It was an interesting coming of age sort of tale that left you not really wanting to be a vampire. At least not one stuck in a twelve year old's body. Although she was quite adept at dropping from trees and killing people. Lots of practice I suspect. There were some good creepy moments and some nice nods to vampire lore and there was NO SPARKLING. That's always a sign of a good vampire movie. In fact sunlight managed to do exactly what it was supposed to do in a rather nice scene featuring a rather distraught character.

Cutthroat Caverns needs to be played by probably at least 4 people and several of them need to not be me. I actually really like the game (despite what you may hear from those in attendance at the game last night). Yes, yes, take things too seriously, get stuck on things too easily. These are not new comments in regards to my gaming personality. The point is, it's fun. It's mean on occasion, but still fun. Now if we can just get McK to realize how some of the cards work and that hoarding doesn't do any good.

G has managed to make a gamer out of my wife. He's been wanting to play through Zelda: Twilight Princess which means my wife gets to play through it for him. She's actually quite close to the end. Truly amazing. A feat not even the letter 'r' has managed to accomplish yet. I am quite proud of both of them for rising to this occasion. Brings a tear to my eye it does. Good on ya G.

From Hell is a dark book. And I don't mean in just subject matter (that was a given). The artwork (on purpose I suspect) can be pretty difficult to discern. This made reading it a chore. I've technically still got the annotations to go through. We'll see. Mostly it made me want to poke around other things dealing with ol' Jack.

I'm not prepared to deal with Spring and a lawn that wants constant attention again. I think we need to turn the back yard into one big gardening experiment... Wife disagrees. Must look into means of remedying that. Hmm...

And on a final note I do not recommend falling down the stairs. It's not pleasant. Nor is it fun. And now I have to get back in the habit of exercising in the morning as well. Stupid stairs.

Quiet moments

Another strangely quiet week on the entertainment front. There are a couple graphic novels I'm plugging my way through - Alan Moore's Jack the Ripper piece, From Hell (which is getting all sorts of tangled up in my head with the Patricia Cornwell book from a couple years ago, the movie version [from longer than that] and Drood the novel about Charles Dickens that I'm also currently reading - all I can say is London must have been one horrible place to live for a while there) and The Umbrella Academy by Gerard Way I believe (who is also, apparently, the lead singer for My Chemical Romance). So yeah, some books. Some with pictures, some without.

I can't think of any movies recently seen. I've been a little more interested in board games again. We finally got Drakon which is a nice little tile-laying dungeon themed game. It has some lovely little figures that I want to paint. A dragon and 6 adventurers. They are very small, which does not bode well for a really nice final product, but I really want to try. At any rate, you're trying to steal the dragon's gold while preventing the others in the dungeon from doing the same. My wife is apparently an idiot savant at this game. She has yet to lose. I almost wrested victory from her twice. Undone once by an unbelievably unlucky coin draw and another time by an evil daughter. Oh she knew what she was doing alright. Rotating my poor chamber so I couldn't get the last coin I needed to win, thus sealing yet another victory for evil spouse Ransacks-a-lot. It's a fun little game that seems to allow a pretty wide age range.

Tonight I believe we'll be trying Cutthroat Caverns - a game where you need to keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. You're once again in a Dungeon trying to fight your way out past 9 encounters. The trick is you want to be the one to land the killing blow so that you get the points. You do your best to undermine and/or kill (depending on how late in the game it is) everyone else while not completely alienating them. After all, if you get stuck in this place by yourself, no one makes it out alive. Sounds terribly fun. And quite possibly mean. Will have to see how well we handle that (and by we I mean I). I picked up one of the expansions that goes with it that supposedly makes it almost like a D&D campaign - a little more story tying events together. Again, should be fun. Will let you know.

Read the 2nd half of the new Neil Gaiman Batman comic. I think I liked the first half better - the payoff wasn't quite what I expected, but the story itself was very good. And it incorporated an odd Goodnight Moon reference. So points for that. I guess. If you run across it, it's recommended.

Oh, I meant to link to the news that the third Twilight movie has a new director. They're using the guy that did 30 Days of Night. I... I don't know whether to laugh maniacally, or in shame. This guy certainly gets vampires. Too bad Meyer doesn't. Maybe the sparkling will cause temporary blindness and then there will be lots of carnage as they decimate the small town before taking over the world. One can only hope.

Trip the light fantastic

I've gone through a few more fantasy themed tomes as I've finished off a few more books in the Dungeon series by Joann Sfar. They've been pretty fun little reads. I think the main Zenith arc is my favorite, but Parade and Twilight each have their moments. I like the idea that they've set up distinct time periods for the dungeon that they can write about. Nice little idea. Although the Twilight series certainly takes a turn for the odd.

Speaking of the series that shall not be named, I'm sad that this exists. Having wreaked havoc upon the book and film industries must junk food really be next? At least we can all agree that this is junk food.

These are decent. Some are funnier than others. I think it mostly depends on how much they rely on the work itself to provide the humor.

And that's about all you're gonna get. I'm far too tired to entertain you lot. Oh and there is no photographic proof that the girls were ever in some sort of play this year. You can blame lovely wife. Something about a DVD that may or may not get made. So there.

Spinning my wheels

Well, I'm not sure I could tell you what's gone on in the past week. I have vague memories of watching Mummy 3. Not really worth your time. They mostly forgot what made the first one fun, instead choosing to almost parody that style. Which was in some ways already a parody. Oh well. There were some funny bits at least. And the effects weren't bad.

I'm pretty sure I've read a lot of graphic novels lately. I remember Locke and Key: Welcome to Lovecraft by Joe Hill (of Heart Shaped Box - so good). It was appropriately spooky and certainly reminded me that he's Stephen King's son. I think I saw a lot more of his Dad's influence on this one than in some of his other work.

Dungeon is a French fantasy story that's rather amusing, if cartoon-ily bloody. Follow Herbert the Duck as he tries to become a barbarian. Or at least able to pull his sword from the scabbard. His friend Marvin (the vegetarian dragon) tries his best to keep him alive. It's all good fun.

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser is old fantasy at it's finest. Mike Mignola (Hellboy) illustrates Howard Chaykin's telling of the old Fritz Leiber stories. Fun romp through classic fantasy.

Our front yard is currently in a state of disrepair as we wait for the city to come inspect our sprinkler hookup. It's a good thing we have neighbors that understand this stuff. Although my back is certainly not thrilled that we decided to take the city up on irrigation water...

McK and M have both been in plays the last couple days at school. Lovely wife reports that all went well. I have no idea if photographic proof of this exists or not.

Favorite niece and younger Sis are celebrating birthdays soon. We wish them well. And that's a pretty good note to end on. Happy birthday!

Trudging towards the future

Didn't really participate in any April's Fool pranks yesterday. This was my favorite Thinkgeek April Fool's product. And it's good to see that in the tradition of the 8 bit tie, they are going to try and make them. Needs me one of them yo.

We had a fun little roundtable at the Library yesterday focused on books we didn't like. There were quite a few (and we did discuss Twilight and Stephanie Meyer a touch). My favorite Meyer related bit was that the Library keeps two recommendation lists - people that like vampire stories and people that like Stephanie Meyer stories. There you go, further proof that THEY'RE NOT VAMPIRES. This cannot be stated enough. I wonder if the blink tag still works... NOT VAMPIRES Oh it does. This is good.

The story I sort of got around to voicing as one I didn't care for was Blindness I suspect you can track down my thoughts on it in the archives. That's right, it's all about the laziness on these here intarwebs.

What was interesting about the conversation were some of the reasons behind why people didn't like various stories. Things like bad endings, to not wrapping up the plot to just plain poor writing (*cough*Twilight*cough* ^_^). My own dislike for Blindness stemmed from an odd writing style that was sort of helpful and sort of not and a lot of reader manipulation. The author had a story to tell, realistic characters be damned. It was also interesting to see at what point people would just stop reading and move on. Or if they'd finish. I'd say I've finally moved into the move on camp. I have far too many things I want to read to suffer through something that isn't that interesting/good. Even for mocking purposes.

In an unrelated moment, this is funny. Because it's true. Hee hee.

Apparently I need to brush up on my sci-fi reading. I was a bit hard pressed to name some good starting points yesterday. I used to read quite a bit, but I guess it has been a while. Strange. I fell back on the always reliable William Gibson, but I need a few more guns in the arsenal. I may have to check out my Goodreads list again and see what's in there. Or what should be. I may also have to mess around with the shelving there. Maybe create some custom shelves... Cause I have lots of time to do that. Really.

I am still in search of a good fantasy themed board game. You lot are not helping. Apparently this is a difficult topic. While not as hotly contested as some wargames, it looks like fantasy games are a battle zone. This does not bode well for my indecisive nature.

Favorite new recipe: Tangy Shredded Chicken Sandwich Thing. They're great. Warm or cold. Fresh or as leftovers. Pure Yumminess. On a bun.

Must get thoughts sorted on square foot garden. Will need to get that going soon. Also really need to get this sprinkler hookup thing taken care of. And we're contemplating refinancing the house due to the lovely economic disaster. Too many things to tackle.

We're about to finish off Season 3 of Case Closed. Kids are really enjoying it. I am constantly amused as I watch the girls develop their reading/viewing tastes. McK certainly has a thing for mysteries. M isn't too far behind. Although I suspect she likes fantasy a touch more. G just goes along for the ride. Unless there are dinosaurs. That's just a given. We'll probably suffer through watch Mummy 3 this weekend. Hmm and High School Musical 3 come to think of it. Apparently it's a 3 sort of weekend.

Well, I will close this off with props to lovely wife's cousin for the curry packets. We had a rather nice Chicken Korma for dinner. Mmmm curry....

The one with the movies in

I have seen a lot of movies recently. Some good, some not. Here's a quick rundown:

Quarantine is a decent little horror film that suffers from the current shaky-cam trend. Another found footage tale, this follows a TV reporter as she follows the local firefighters. They get trapped in a building and Bad Things Happen. Some decent tension/scares. The actors gave decent performances and the story wasn't as cut and dried as the trailer led you to believe. So that was nice. Not too much worse than a trailer that gives everything away. This is a remake of a Spanish film called [rec] (I think it's Spanish anyway...). So you can't really laud Hollywood for something a little different, but at least they had good taste.

Sukiyaki Western Django (yes that's really the name favorite niece) is basically Yojimbo/A Fistful of Dollars. If A Fistful of Dollars was a western remake of Yojimbo, then Sukiyaki is a Japanese remake of a Western remake of a Japanese movie. Or something. That analogy made a lot more sense in my head. See the movie, it'll make more sense in yours too. Look. What this really boils down to is a familiar story with Japanese style and Takashi Miike action. So it's a little bloodier than the previous incarnations and a whole lot prettier. And weirder. But, you know, in a good way. Just go see it already.

Ghost in the Shell 2 is still very pretty. And very slow. And very pretty (especially on a big screen).

Eagle Eye is crap. What could have been an excellent, riveting action movie about the Patriot Act and how the government is watching us far too often instead devolves down into standard sci-fi story number 20 - the berserk computer. And they didn't even do that well. And to top it off, the only redeeming aspect of the movie (an action movie where the two wildly disparate leads don't fall in love?! About time!) goes down in flames with the LAST SCENE OF THIS HORRIBLY STUPID MOVIE! AAAAA! Make it stop! (The original ending was actually even more stupid, so some restraint was shown, but not nearly enough.) I've decided this movie should actually be considered dangerous. These are real issues. Candy coating them with a ridiculous story about an AWOL AI trivializes them and doesn't encourage the average American to think about them at all. Hey look! That there compooter sure went crazy. That Michelle Monaghan sure is purty. Zowee! Cars are crashin' and jets are 'splodin! Had me a dadgum good time. Wait? The government actually collects this sort of data about us all the time if it wants? Well shucks. <much eye rolling>

My Name is Bruce is the latest Bruce Campbell comedy/horror flick and it was great. If you like Bruce Campbell movies, this one will take you back a bit to the Army of Darkness days. Bruce plays "himself" (the B movie actor, jerk version - wait, is that acting?) getting sucked into trying to save a small town from a real demon. (Bean curd Bruce! Bean curd!) Mostly this movie made me think that it must be weird to be Bruce Campbell. I met him once when he was touring for Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way, his second book and it was a rather odd experience. But yes, movie good. (Guan you, guan me, Guan Di!)

I will briefly mention that Blue Moon continues to grow on me. Got a couple games in with the letter 'r' and it was fun. Monty Python Fluxx is odd. Mostly because Fluxx is odd. (Although I'm sure there are others that would argue the other side.) Hot Fudge shakes are yummy. Pork Loin is also yummy. We will soon have a report on some curry spices lovely wife's cousin sent out. Mmmm curry. Shooting zombies is fun. Free Starz weekends are mostly fun.

Yeah, I'm reaching now.

Oh, almost forgot, Gene Wolfe's An Evil Guest. I liked it up until the end. Then it fell apart for me as, honestly, I've not got a clue what happened. Or what was supposed to be happening. So, umm, yeah. Mostly ok book I guess?

I'm also looking for a decent fantasy themed board game. Welcoming all suggestions. (And donations! Ha!)

Trains, tomes, half breeds

Yeah, that title really doesn't have anything to do with anything. Mostly.

So littlest sis was in town and fun was had. Got to introduce her to the joys that are Jungle Speed and Coloretto. We rode the Heber Creeper and G got to pretend to be the Conductor - got the hat and watch and everything. A picture might be forthcoming. It was a very nice day for the train ride. And that train is warm, left the window open pretty much the whole time. It's also very squeaky.

The Library has recently acquired a few books in what I assume is a new-ish series for the young adult/juvenile crowd. It's called Vampirates. I can only hope their enemies are Ninjombies (Zombinjas?). It's my current new favorite thing. I doubt I'll read them, but the fact that there are Vampirates out there at all is heartwarming.

I am contemplating netbooks. I doubt I'll go so far as to purchase one, but they currently fascinate me.

This weekend will be spent in the time honored tradition of male bonding. Zombies will be shot, movies will be watched (thus far a horror flick and a kung fu western) and food will be consumed (pork loin mmmmmm). I predict a good weekend.

We will now have a moment of silence for poor wife who will have to endure girl time with the daughters. And yet somehow entertain the male child.






I think that's enough.

I've also been thinking about acquiring a portable hard disk type device. Really need to start backing up some of the files on our computer. There's a deal on now for a terabyte drive for $100 shipped. I will probably let this particular one go, but may look into something similar soon.

Short stories in the Cthulhu universe still continue to entertain. As does Gene Wolfe's newest. I think the next thing on the horizon is Drood.

We caught the most recent episode of Reaper. It was amusing. I actually still like that show. Who knew? It's a free Starz weekend, so I shall have to tape some movies. I'm not convinced anything super great is on, but we shall see.

And I think that's enough poking around my random psyche for now. Away with the lot of you.

Short stories and shorter thoughts

I've no idea what I've read since that last post. And it's not been that long. I do know that I started The Cthulhu Cycle a collection of 13 short stories playing around with the Cthulhu mythos in some form or another. Count Magnus by M R James was quite good (and is in the collection as an inspiration - not a straight Cthulhu tale). Apparently he's well known for his ghost stories. I shall have to track down some more of his stories.

Short stories are still probably my favorite sort of story. The author is forced to pare things down in such a way that it's pure distilled story goodness. I suspect that's also why I like essays so much when it comes to non-fiction. It's a little funny, I find the internet and modern media really has done a number on my reading attention span. I really prefer things in short bursts any more. tl;dr indeed... I still enjoy novels and find time to read them, but if it's something that's presented as an article type format, it better be pretty straight to the point. Not got the patience for too much wandering in that sort of thing any more.

I've also started Gene Wolfe's An Evil Guest. I'm finding it rather readable.

Sister-in-law and family welcomed their new baby into the world the other day. A little girl that looks remarkably like her Dad. Poor soul.

Daylight Savings Time is still an evil scourge that must be stopped at all possible costs. I'm far too tired to battle it properly which is how I suspect it maintains its existence. We're all too tired to do anything about it. Curse you Benjamin Franklin.

Oh and littlest sis is apparently in town now. I'm sure games will be played and siblings/relatives will be mocked lovingly cherished. (This is in no way directed at favorite niece. We never tell stories about her. Ever.)

Too much information

Finished mostly read More Information than You Require by John Hodgman (a minor TV personality don'chaknow). I listened to The Areas of My Expertise after he gave it away for free on iTunes. And enjoyed it immensely. I suspect this one might also be better to listen to. The book is a little all over the place when it comes to layout. Who knew that Only Revolutions would be good training for future endeavors? The humor is pretty consistent and the "facts" are, well, I guess "helpful". Overall it was definitely worth perusing and would make a seriously good coffee table/bathroom book. Best read in small doses.

Rapunzel's Revenge by Shannon Hale (and others) was also amusing. I got a little tired of the spot the fairy tale mechanic, but the story was fun and the art is nice. It's a twist on, wait for it, Rapunzel that gives a few nods here and there to various versions of the traditional story while still telling something new. Best if you're familiar with fairy tales before reading.

The first book in the 39 Clues series by Rick Riordan (man I've read a lot lately...) is also fun. I don't suspect I'll get into the ARG they've got set up for it, but I do plan on reading the following books. Probably. There's a lot I want to read. And not enough time to read it all in. Anyway, this follows your typical brother/sister team as they try to follow clues that lead to treasure/world changing such and such, yadda yadda yadda. It's well told and quick to read and is fun. And that's really what matters in a series like this. And there are puzzles to solve if you want.

The "Commentary: the Musical" track on Dr Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog is funny. I don't really have anything else to say about it. Oh, the Evil League of Evil Applications were also good. So, yeah, there's stuff worth checking out on the DVD. Aside from the show, which is still awesome.

The Geek World is waiting with baited breath to see if the film version of Watchmen will vindicate them in some fashion or be chalked up as yet another notch in the "You guys are so weird" column. I'm voting the latter. I kind of hope the movie is good (the book is great natch) but I'm really not holding my breath.

Oddly, the kids really got into that first season of Psych. The girls really seem to like mysteries. I think they've read a little Nancy Drew, but probably not as much as one would expect.

And Girl Scout cookies have indeed invaded the house. Evil things that they are.

Some random catching up

Scott Pilgrim 5 is good. And frustrating. But mostly good. The penultimate volume sets things for the final stage and certainly leaves you wishing you had book 6 right now. It's nice to see Scott growing up some. Looks like it's Ramona's turn. Or possibly not.

We finally got around to seeing The Dark Knight. Heath Ledger did indeed do an amazing job as the Joker. The movie's good as well. Too long, but that seems to be the trend these days. They had a great cast and the plot was fun. I can certainly see the inspiration they took from The Killing Joke. On a Batman related note, the Neil Gaiman Batman story is out and it's awesome so far. Alfred's story is truly a thing of beauty. I liked Selena's as well, but Alfred's was brilliant.

We're winding up Psych season 1 as season 3 just came to a close. Still a great show. Most of the TV we're watching is winding down. Leverage just wrapped up season 1, Burn Notice should be pretty close, I think House is either over or just about over as well. We'll still give Dollhouse a try (in spite of missing episode 2, stupid Fox affiliate) and I think Eureka is about due back as well.

Other than that, things are pretty quiet. Girl Scout cookies are about to take over the house in anticipation of being delivered. And I managed to snag a couple advance reader copies of random things. Sorry littlest sis, still no sign of Hale.

Greater Somalia

Greater Somalia,
originally uploaded by dkun.

Really, I'm not a meme freak. But the ones that let me be creative or sarcastic. Well, ok, I'm a sucker for them. So, dude, we're getting the band back together.

Go start your own band:

1 - Go to Wikipedia. Hit "random" or click this. The first random Wikipedia article that comes up is the name of your band.

2 - Go to Quotations Page and select "random quotations" or click that. The last four or five words of the very LAST quote on the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to Flickr and click on "explore the last seven days" or click here. The third picture in the top row, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use PhotoShop or whatever to put it all together.

So yeah, photo from some person over at flickr. And so on. This was (I think) the second album I threw together, but whatever. It was fun and I'll do it again. Mwa ha ha ha.

As you were.

Recently consumed

Been a bit and we've managed to go through a few new things. So on with that show.

Peeps was great. It's a fun twist on the vampire mythology that bothers to pay its dues (there is no sparkling here people) while offering something new. Every other chapter gives you a lovely look at the parasites that make our world so interesting. Little sis would probably find the discussion of Crohn's interesting. Although I think we talked about it already. At any rate, if you've liked any of Westerfeld's other books, you'll like this one. So far he's batting 1000 for me. I've liked everything of his I've read. He's got a really easy-going style that tends to drag me in.

The Fall is a rather pretty movie that hides a pretty serious story through some really nice visuals. It's the story of a story told by one of the first stuntmen to a little girl. I won't go into more detail than that. But if you run across it, give it a go. You could certainly do worse.

Coloretto is the card game that Zooloretto was loosely based on. Ran across a reasonably priced copy and picked it up. And am very glad I did. We passed a pretty fun weekend playing this and Jungle Speed (which I'll talk about next). It's basically a collection game in which you want to collect more cards of certain colors. There are 7 colors in the game (normally, depending on number of players) and you will get to add points to your score for collecting 3 of them. But you have to deduct points for cards collected in any of the other colors. On your turn you'll either draw a card and place it in a row, or take one of the rows of cards on the table (it's this draw/place or take mechanic that was used in Zooloretto). You get to mess with the other players by placing colors they won't want in rows that they will. Pretty fun. Given the choice between the two Coloretto might come out a little ahead as it's simpler and certainly easier to set up. They're both good though.

The aforementioned Jungle Speed is much like spoons. You place a little wooden idol in the middle of the table, divvy up the cards and then take turns turning them over one by one. When a match is turned over or a special action card shows up you're most likely going to be grabbing for the idol. The trick is the symbols on the cards are very similar in a lot of instances and if you grab at the wrong time you'll be collecting lots of cards. This is bad. You don't want cards. Cards no good. No cards good. This is a great game for a group of friends that will most likely end in bloodshed and tears. And possibly lumps from the wooden idol that you're either throwing at someone or hitting yourself in the head with as you realize you've once again picked it up at the wrong time. Highly recommended. Supposedly there will be an expansion with all new symbols in case you get too good at recognizing the deck it comes with.

Samba de Amigo for the Wii is a port of the old Dreamcast game. You use the remotes as maracas and shake your way through some 40 latin tinged tunes. Shake shake shake... Also highly recommended. This game is great. And will be forever referred to as the "shake shake" game as it is dubbed by G.

And honestly I'm probably forgetting some things. We had a pretty good holiday weekend. Went and visited our friends up in Garland for our annual trip. Much gaming and visiting was had. And the kids managed to get along. I think there were only a few air hockey inspired arguments/accidents. We played some Rock Band along with the other games. As well as some Mario Kart Wii I may need to pick that game up if I can find it cheap. It's growing on me.

In other news, little sis will be having a girl (as mentioned on her blog linked over yonder). She was sorely disappointed, but now she can name her Krystal Pepsi and seek an endorsement. I'm sure Pepsi will go for it.

And, yeah, I think that's about enough for now.

Chrono Leaping

Watched The Girl Who Leapt through Time last night. Aside from having one of the best DVD menus around, the film itself is also quite good. It's an animated film (from Japan, anime yadda yadda) but don't let that get in the way. It's a pretty fun look at that time in your life when you realize that the friend you hang out with might be dating material. And what do you do about it? Do they like me too?! Wait, maybe I don't like them that way! Aaaaaa! That and some great uses of time travel. Including pudding. That's right! Time travel for pudding - there is no greater cause. Admittedly the end is a little lacking in closure, but don't let that spoil it. PUDDING! I cannot stress this enough people.

I'm very close to finishing Peeps. It is great. That is all. For now.

G has acquired a white toy alligator. Or crocodile. I forget which. But it is apparently his new obsession. I guess as long as it's a reptile, it's worth being interested in.

Eagles, Pandas, Race Car Drivers

Took the kids to see the eagles at Farmington Bay (the birds, not the band). Apparently around this time every year the carp die off and the eagles come to feed. Got to see quite a few of them hanging out. Also saw some kestrels hunting. That was pretty neat. They do this hovering thing right before they dive or move to a slightly different spot. It was pretty impressive. Kids had fun and the weather actually co-operated.

Watched Kung Fu Panda and Speed Racer. Both were excellent. Kung Fu Panda was fairly typical, but pretty funny nonetheless. Good cast, nice animation. Definitely worth watching. Speed Racer had some pretty distinct visuals. The first half was up and down, but the last half was pretty great. A little busy, but certainly fun. Much like Tokyo Drift the quality is directly proportional to the amount of time spent in a car. And the ninja fight was great.

Long weekend coming up. That's nice. Long weekends are good.

Ran through The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya again. Love that show.

Been reading some Lovecraft. Makes me want to play Arkham Horror or maybe Call of Cthulhu. I'd really like to try some of those Lovevraft inspired RPG's.

Helped favorite niece come up with a limerick. Used to write those pretty frequently. They're still fun. She had to write far too many poems though. And this from someone that likes poetry. I should really get back into haiku...

25 Flights of Fancy

So there's another dreaded meme running around, spawned from the lower depths of Facebook. A place I refuse to tread. It's one of those "Hey, tell us 25 random facts about yourself" type memes. Boring. As if the internet cares about 25 random facts about you. It's probably far too easy to find that many just using Google. (All apologies to little sis who bothered to succumb to said meme. ^_^)

Anyway, John Scalzi of Whatever and book type fame altered the meme over at his AMC column so that it covered 25 Sci Fi movie facts. This is a good idea. Although I probably can't come up with 25 just using Sci Fi as a medium, so I will probably include some Fantasy, some Horror, eh whatever strikes my fancy.

1. I can't recall the first Sci Fi movie I ever saw. Brain cells don't track that stuff. Same goes for books. And the other mentioned genres.
2. The first Horror movie I ever saw (well the first one that was rated R and was viewed without any sort of parental consent) was most likely My Bloody Valentine. The original. Gave me nightmares.
3. I was afraid to walk to the bathroom at the end of the hall after seeing that movie. I had to go past the stairs. And it was dark. And there were, you know, homicidal maniacs out there ready to get me. And I was maybe 10.
4. There is no number 4. Which is a real answer. I've said too much.
5. Star Wars A New Hope (epsiode 4 if you must) isn't really that good. Loved it when I was a kid. Grew out of it. It's hard to watch now. Sorry my generation.
6. I am secretly afraid to watch The Empire Strikes Back for fear that it isn't as good as I remember either. It was my favorite. It's got to still be good...
7. I suspect I like Alien 3 more than Aliens. I'm not sure where to rank Alien. They're all such different movies.
8. Alien is probably technically better, Aliens is a little more fun to watch. Alien 3 still better than that.
9. Which is very similar to my feelings about 2001 and 2010. The first is an absolutely brilliant piece of film. That's not great to watch. The second is more fun to watch, but not nearly as brilliant.
10. I like The Hobbit far more than The Lord of the Rings.
11. I'm not really alone in that opinion.
12. Dark Star is secretly awesome.
13. The Fantasy Lit class I took in college taught me to love Legend.
14. And mushrooms.
15. I'm becoming not so slowly convinced that Americans have forgotten how to make a good horror film.
16. Zombies > Werewolves > Vampires
17. I'm not convinced CGI has made Sci Fi movies better. Prettier certainly, but not necessarily better.
18. I'm waiting for American animation to realize that we're not all kids any more. Pixar is a good start. Still miles behind Japan though.
19. I'm ... pretty indifferent on the book vs. movie thing. They both have their place. It will probably boil down to how much time I have and which I encountered first. Probably.
20. Eh, who am I kidding, the book is always better.
21. Except when it's not.
22. I spent a weekend at a D&D convention when I was a teenager. I'm not really sure what my parents were thinking. I'm glad they let me go though, it was fun. Throw the Gnome in.
23. Where is my car that drives itself?!
24. I'm pretty good at ignoring plot holes and gaps in scientific reasoning and just enjoying the ride. My suspension of disbelief goes up to 11 baby.
25. Except for Terminator 2. How the hell did the T1000 travel back in time? Should not have happened.

So, yeah, there you go, a walk through my genre memories. Where is Scott Pilgrim 5?!

Fairy Tales

I just finished reading The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling, her little collection of fairy tales that play a role in Deathly Hollows. It started off a little slow and pedestrian, but by the end there were some fun pieces. I think she tried a little too hard with a couple of the stories to hit the notes that traditional fairy tales hit and point out how fairy tales morph over time and according to audience (through Dumbledore's running commentary), but there were a few that were pretty fun and might have been right at home with the Brothers Grimm.

Fairy tales are interesting little creatures. Mostly because they did morph and change over time. Back when I was in college one of the group papers I had to write dealt with the variations of Cinderella and how it changed. If you've never tracked down the original versions of some of the fairy tales you think you know, you really should. Sex and violence aren't new to prime time TV. It's often interesting to see what Disney did to those old tales (among other storytellers).

I believe there's a new annotated version of The Brothers Grimm running around that's supposed to be pretty good and it tracks some of those changes. Also worth a look.

Mythologies Monsters and possibly other things that start with "M"

I've read the next couple books in the Fall of Cthulhu series recently. Either they're not quite as trippy as the first one was or I've managed to complete the descent into madness required to be comfortable with good ol' Lovecraft's playground. I'll not comment on which scenario is more likely. At any rate, I enjoyed both The Gathering and The Gray Man. It's fun to see people playing in the sandbox Lovecraft started all those years ago. The Cthulhu Mythos is probably one of my favorites second only to some of the Norse myths. I really need to track down a good collection of Lovecraft Cthulhu stories. At any rate, I don't know that I'd recommend this series as a place to start with The Elder Gods and their dealings with us mere mortals, but if you've walked the Dreamlands before, you'll probably get a kick out of another trip.

We've been watching the second season of Psych on DVD over the last couple weeks. I really like that show. And season three is just as fun. I caught one episode of The Mentalist the other week but tend to forget it's on. Fortunately it's not really just a serious version of Psych so it has it's own little charm. And hey, Burn Notice is back as well. All our old friends are back telling new tales.

I've run across a couple websites that deal with world building lately. I suspect that would be a fun, if difficult, pastime. Some of them are D&D based and offer wiki type services and some of them are just guidelines and suggestions. I think it would be interesting to start small with a little town and then look at the world it's a part of. I'm not sure if it's easier to start on the macro or micro level.

G is completely obsessed with Super Smash Brothers Brawl on the Wii. We recently unlocked the Wind Waker version of link and he insists on fighting as little Link. Against me, not against bad guys, because he can't be little Link when we fight bad guys. (He refers to the adventure mode as fighting bad guys) It's amusing if constant.

We have recently gotten a few different items from the local bakery. They are all far too delicious and far too bad for us. But tasty, very tasty. Mousse like icing and cream cheese frosting and, well, you get the idea.

Yeah, I think that about sums it up.

Lost my mind (at Sea)

I forgot to mention I also read Lost at Sea by Bryan Lee O'Malley (of Scott Pilgrim fame). It too is a coming of age story dealing with that transition from High School to the world beyond and the strange creatures we are at the time. It's also an interesting read. Blankets probably comes out ahead, but Lost at Sea isn't really that far behind. This one focuses on a quiet girl whose soul was stolen by a cat and the road trip she suddenly finds herself a part of. So, you know, it's exactly like real life.

So, yeah, reading list lately has dealt with growing up and the horrors joys that that entails. Maybe I should pass some of this along to varying relatives and see if it helps... Unlikely.

And the Merry Go Round Goes Round

I first heard about Blankets by Craig Thompson a few years back. I didn't know too much about it other than it was a graphic novel and dealt with love and issues of faith. Snagged a copy from the Library last night and finally got around to reading it. I can see why it's held in high regard. The art is wonderful and the story is compelling. Your first love is certainly something that leaves its mark on you and Thompson has managed to capture just about everything that goes into that experience. All while dealing with issues about family and growing up and faith and their places in life as you struggle to come to grips with who you are. This is a pretty powerful story that isn't always easy to read. If you wander across a copy give it a go.

Get Smart is a nice little spy comedy that isn't really a Get Smart movie. Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway are perfectly cast and could have made that movie, but the writers didn't quite latch on to what made the old TV show so much fun. Again, there's humor here and it's a fun little story, it's just not Maxwell Smart and Agent 99. Although they got it right once or twice. I'd say missed it by that much, but well, would you believe it was a little more than that? And I really like Dwayne Johnson for some reason (The Rock for those of you so inclined).

Rock Band 2 is fun. That is all.

I did re-read Scott Pilgrim 1-4 in anticipation of 5 and I'm a little giddy about the movie they're making. They certainly have a pretty decent cast lined up and the director seems to get it. So that's nice.

Well, that's a nice little catch up in the world of random books and movies. I've managed to actually get some exercise for the last couple weeks, so that's a plus. Wii Fit is growing on me some, although it's still a pretty mild workout. I've thrown some DDR in for variety. We'll see how long I can keep it up.

Brief Elegy

Mom and M,
originally uploaded by dkun.

Siblings have already posted their thoughts. I'm not sure I have a lot to add other than Mom is missed. I can credit her for my love of reading, my hatred of losing and lots of other little things. Few days go by where I don't think of her in some respect.

So here she is playing in the pool with Miranda. They were spinning around when this was taken and Miranda loved every minute of it. Even if the kids didn't like the water, it seemed like they had a good time when Mom was around to help them splash and play. From the little fish toy that swam around the pool to the noodles and just being piggy backed around.

Love you Mom. Go talk to Ricardo Montalban and learn some history from those that were there.

Quick follow up

I meant to include a pithy joke about Shakespeare and roses and sea kittens in yesterday's post. Feel free to make up your own joke and attribute it to me. Thank you.

Save the sea kittens

People for the Eating of Tasty Animals PETA wants to rename fish. I am constantly amazed by the things people come up with in their spare time. Too bad PETA is bonkers. With that imagination they could probably contribute to society somehow. But no, you get sea kittens.

I'm too tired to link you to Twilight School Musical. And it wasn't really that good anyway. Google is your friend internet. This is mostly inspired by the news that Vanessa Hudgens tried out for Twilight 2: Twi Harder, umm Jacob's Full Moon err, New Moon.

The Music Store officially opened for Rock Band 2 on the Wii. So I downloaded a bunch of the free songs and bought one by Muse. I now know why people curse the space situation on the Wii. Fridge is definitely full. Fortunately RB2 lets you store songs on an SD card and will even play them right off the card. This is a Good Thing™. And you ought to check out World of Goo for it is awesome.

That's pretty much it.

Tiny bit of catching up

Dan in Real Life,
originally uploaded by dkun.

Had to make a card for recent favorite comedy. I'll mention again that this is an excellent film. If your heart does not sing with joy by the end, chances are you are destined to become our cruel robot overlord. Which I for one welcome.

Picture came from here.

Who can it be?

The Strangers,
originally uploaded by dkun.

Recently watched The Strangers. Also recently read a forum thread where brief movie summaries were captured in Trading Card form. I am stealing this concept because it is awesome. Quite possibly most of my movie reviews will now take this form. So, as for my thoughts on the movie, see accompanying card. (Hint: it was great in that horror movie way) Oh and the picture came from here. Just to keep the internet honest.

You may have heard tale of a tome of eldritch knowledge. A tome thought to cause madness in those incapable of deciphering its strange texts and references to dice made of angles normal mortals cannot comprehend. The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons and Growing Up Strange is this tome book. I was never as into D&D as the author was, but I could certainly relate to several of the situations he found himself in. As I believe I mentioned before, if you want a look into 80s nerd culture, this is a pretty good start. Chances are you either knew this person or were this person. Liberal doses of humor and good storytelling make this a memoir worth reading. And if you fail to make your save vs reminiscing you may well find yourself picking up a copy of 4th Edition. It really is pretty good...

I can't really be bothered to recap 2008. I'd rather just purge it from system memory and start over. There were certainly some high points (the current job comes to mind) but overall it was a real downer of a year. So we'll simply look forward to 2009 and hope the current weather isn't a forecast for the rest of the year.

Just a quick one

skating,
originally uploaded by dkun.

Favorite G photo at the moment. Just sayin'.