Grim Pursuits

The Social Network was a pretty fascinating story. And continues to cement my desire to stay far far away from Facebook. Zuckerberg (as portrayed) seems pretty willing to sacrifice all in pursuit of his idea. (And given his standing on privacy rights - at least as far as Facebook is concerned - he will sacrifice plenty) Fincher is still one of my favorite directors and this movie didn't really alter that at all. May have to track down the book...

The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski is a collection of short stories loosely woven together. It's where the video game The Witcher got it's titular character from. I've heard about the game some and decided to track down the book. I liked it. It's a shade darker twist on classic fairy tales. The witcher is a troubled soul tasked with fighting monsters for people that either actively dislike him or, at best, tend to ignore him. There's a bit of an overarching frame story where's he's recovering from his last fight and some of the time is spent telling or remembering previous such tasks. It's fun to figure out which story is getting told this time (you'll spot Snow White and Beauty and the Beast among others). I think I'll track down the next book as well. I like the characters and the world.

Mansions of Madness did indeed get played over the weekend (and will get played again in a couple days). It's a pretty interesting game. It takes forever to set up and that's saying something. This is a Fantasy Flight game, so some set up time was inevitable, but this is borderline ridiculous. Because it's a story based game with various scenarios you get to set up the board in addition to all the bits that make up the meat of the scenarios. So, if you're the keeper, plan to spend time setting up the tiles and then wading through the myriad cards collecting the ones you need and then placing them in the right order and then placing those stacks in the right places and then mixing the proper decks and so on. Once all that's done, the game itself is pretty interesting. The investigators get a bit of a story to set the stage and then explore the mansion trying to find clues and prevent Ominous Things from happening. The keeper does his best to drive them insane or kill them while striving to achieve his own nefarious goals. I like the way attributes are checked and puzzles are solved and so on. Plus the critters are cool.

Lovely wife found it to be a better first impression than Arkham Horror and M was occasionally unsettled by the mood music (the soundtrack from 28 Weeks Later) and the story. So that's a win in my book. If you're looking for a game with theme and some unique interaction, this is it. Just know that the theme is dark and Lovecraftian...

Heavy Rain finally went Greatest Hits the other week pushing it into affordable game territory. So I snapped it up. I find the way it's played to be probably the most immersive I've encountered in a video game. And it's pretty gorgeous to look at as well. I really want to see where the story is going to go. Plus it wins the best distraction while the game is installing award (previously held by Metal Gear Solid 4). It teaches you to make the origami critter featured heavily throughout the game. Too cool. Don't be fooled by the opening moments of the game (as lovely wife was) - there are certainly grim things ahead. It's not all birthday parties and toy sword fights. I really like the way the opening moments teach you how the game is played by introducing innocuous versions of things you'll be doing later.

So, that's what has passed for entertainment in the land of 'd' lately. I suspect I'm going to have to give the dentist a holler tomorrow. I do not care for the jangle I get whenever I drink/eat something cold. Lovely wife is trying to convince herself that Spring Break will not be an exercise in annoyingchildrenicide and hopes to catch up on some lost sleep. I wish her luck. We'll all need it. I could use some sleep myself. Ah well...

In which normalcy returns

We had nice visits with lovely wife's Mom and Dad over this past week. Her Mom, unfortunately, got to spend most of the time working on a costume for M for Mulan. But the costume was completed, so yay I guess? M certainly seems to think so. We also had a fun dinner at Teppanyaki during her stay. We got to see some new hibachi chef routines as well as a magic trick. Mostly due to the family we were seated with, but a show is a show.

G dragged Grandpa over to Cabelas and convinced him to let him play the shooting gallery game. I took advantage of the leftover tokens and had a go myself. It was fun. G needs to work on his aim. ^_^ Kids were glad to see family as were lovely wife and I and now we get to try and calm them down from all the excitement.

Also, congratulations go to nephew L on his Baptism.

We finished off season one of Community. It was great. The paintball episode was indeed amazing (a 28 Days Later reference in addition to some John Woo and a couple others). This may become the 2nd show that I actually bother to watch while it's broadcasting.

I have had my first tooth filled. It theoretically wasn't a cavity - just a small hole on the biting surface of my tooth. But once they drilled in they discovered it went all the way down my tooth. Still a very small hole, just very deep. It wasn't the most pleasant of experiences. I'm trying to decide if it's not completely better. I get a bit of an ache when I eat crunchy things like chips or cereal. Is that normal a week later?

Mansions of Madness is out. And I have my copy. I am very much looking forward to playing it. Puzzles, monsters, loss of sanity, stories full of dread and intrigue... what's not to love? I'm going to try and convince lovely wife and possibly McK to give it a go some time this weekend so we can get some of the rules down.

I'm ready for a bit of quiet. And a nap...

In which random things are discussed very briefly

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson was a fun read. It's part epic fantasy and part con job. Think Ocean's 11 meets Lord of the Rings. An odd little mish mash to be sure, but one that worked pretty well. Sanderson sets up a world in which certain people have the ability to "burn" metals in order to work various types of magic. A group of thieves which specialize in the various types of magic get together to overthrow the government via a con. Oh and it's set in a world where the original "Hero of the Ages" (think Frodo from LotR) failed. Yeah, that's right Sauron won and the thieves are out to bring him down. It's pretty fascinating. It's also the first book in a trilogy (following standard Fantasy rule #3) that I'll probably get around to finishing. I'm gonna take a bit of a break first. Other things to read.

(In strangely related news, The Name of the Wind is just as good the third time through and I've picked up a couple details I missed the first couple times through. Such a good book.)

Lovely wife and I have been making our way through season one of Community. It's been pretty good so far. I really liked the Halloween episode with Abed as Batman. Joel McHale is pretty amusing and I'm glad to see the writers continuing to work in Seacrest jokes. (For fans of The Soup)

We have family in town this weekend for nephew L's baptism. So things will be a little on the hectic side, but hopefully the fun side as well.

In which nothing of consequence is considered

The long weekend was great. Got together with some friends of the family (well, the kids and lovely wife were a little more invested, but we all had fun) and managed to introduce them to 7 Wonders. I really do like that game a lot. Enough that we managed to play a couple more times with different friends. Never play 7 Wonders with the letter 'r'. He will stomp all over you.

We watched both Easy A and Salt over the course of the last few days. One was funny but I don't feel the need to ever see it again and one was an ok action flick with an oddly open ending (are they really thinking franchise for this? Really?). I'm not certain which was which at this point.

I've been messing with demos on the PS3 again. Hoard is strangely addictive. You play a dragon burning towns, ransoming princesses, defending your hoard from thieves, bbq-ing knights - that sort of thing. You can play with or against others. It's fun. Give it a look. Yakuza 4 was simply a look at the fighting engine in the upcoming game. Not terribly helpful if you want to know more about the game. Dragon Age II looks pretty interesting. It's an RPG where you put together a team and kill goblins and whatnot. Good times. I might have to track down the original game and give it a go.

Psst, Wise Man's Fear comes out next week. I am very excited. I'm hoping to score an autographed copy courtesy of my Father-in-law as he lives near a bookstore where the good Mr Rothfuss will be appearing.

In other not inconsequential news, thoughts go out to little sis and favorite niece. Get better.

And I think that about does it.

Too many books, too little brain cells

So, I read a lot of graphic novels over the weekend. Another 5 volumes of Fullmetal Alchemist, 4 volumes of Naruto and School Rumble Volume 1. They were all decent in their own little ways. I will single out that I didn't really care for the Ishbalan war flashback volume of FMA, time passes almost as strangely in the graphic novels of Naruto as it does in the anime (something both lovely wife and letter 'r' expressed an interest in. I've only seen a little of the anime, but I know what they're talking about - serious time dilation in Naruto's world), and School Rumble is a sweet romantic farce. We've actually been watching the anime version of it as well lately and it's also a lot of fun. I get a kick out of the characters in this one.

A small further note on School Rumble. I was expecting it to be something of a fighting storyline given the title. Not so, it's actually a high school romantic farce. Not quite as out there as Ranma 1/2 (and certainly lacking the battle sequences) but still pretty wacky. So far my favorite bit has been the message arrow story line. Although there are others that are close.

Iron Man 2 was better than the first movie. I was pleasantly surprised by this. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit.

And that's really all I can scrape together at the moment. Brain no worky. Glad it's a three day weekend.

Elementary

The Sherlockian by Graham Moore was pretty darn great. It's amazing how much of that book was real as well. Told via two different time periods - one in the past following Arthur Conan Doyle and one in the present following Harold White - the story features mystery, murder and intrigue. Harold wants to know what happened to Doyle's missing journal and who killed the man that claimed to have found it. Doyle wants to know who sent him a letter bomb and almost killed him. If you enjoy mysteries or Sherlock Holmes then there's plenty here for you. Truly a fascinating read.

I've pounded down 4 more volumes of Fullmetal Alchemist as well. Still great. What's going to happen next?!

Red was a fun little movie. I found the pacing to be a touch strange (I think it probably should have been just a bit shorter) but overall it was a good time. This is what The Expendables should have been. Four aging CIA agents, the up and comer charged with taking one of them out, intrigue, romance, yadda yadda, you've probably watched it by now. And if not, you should.

Baccano was an entrancing, if occasionally gruesome, series. There's something about a train, some mafia turf wars, the spreading of joy, dominoes and too much else would spoil some of the surprise. If you're in the mood for something that takes a little effort to keep up with and aren't bothered with a somewhat dark overtone, this one's also worth looking into.

Blokus continues to make us think way too much.

Casa del 'd' is a little under the weather at the moment as 2 out of 3 munchkins are down with something or other. Alas poor munchkins. 'd' is a harsh task master when it comes to being sick. Not a lot of tv viewing to be had for those poor souls. Plenty of rest and fluids though. And books.

Speaking of TV, we're probably just about done with satellite. Rates are getting a little too out of hand for what we really watch. Kids will miss it, but unless they want to start paying for it and get some jobs they're out of luck. I'll miss a couple things (Eureka mostly) but, eh, that's what DVD is for. So if you have any good tips for getting deals from satellite providers send them to lovely wife.

Strange days indeed

So let's see. I have plowed through 4 more volumes of Fullmetal Alchemist. I continue to enjoy that series quite a bit. It's fascinating to watch that story unfold. There are some wonderful heartfelt moments. And some shocks. I was not expecting one of the plot twists that happened in volume 4. I think it was. Might have been 5.

Lovely wife and I are currently watching Baccano, the anime series. It's been pretty great, if confusing. There's a pretty large cast of characters and it's a touch hard to follow. If things manage to wrap up by the end though, this one will definitely be a gem. And Isaac and Miria are awesome. Right you are letter 'd'. Right you are.

So I have now befriended someone on the PS3 that has a copy of Need for Speed. This is a blessing and a curse. It really does make the game more fun (the wall serves a purpose now as does Autolog recommends) but also more frustrating. I can't put the game in after 9:30 now or I will be up all night trying to beat just "one more record" or trying to beat the same record "just one more time". Devious. And compelling.

I've started up Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. It's pretty good so far. It's fun to read fantasy again. I think I've said this before. But there you go.

We (and by we I mean lovely wife) recently made some homemade chicken noodle soup and some pulled pork. Both were quite excellent. The pulled pork was Carolina based, so it was a vinegar sauce as opposed to bbq sauce. It was quite good. Always fun to try new recipes. Now I want bbq. Or maybe chicken soup.

Owls and such

300 + owls - blood = Legend of the Guardians (the Owls of Ga'hoole). Given that it was directed by Zack Snyder this should not be a surprise. It was actually pretty decent to watch. Standard fantasy fare to be sure, but fun nonetheless. And some of the animation was amazing. The rain and fire sequences especially. So very pretty. There are worse ways to spend some time with your kids. Or whoever you watch movies with.

We finished off Castle season 2 and now I want to watch season 3. Why is it not on DVD yet? Because it's tied down to a broadcast schedule is not really a good reason. I've really come to enjoy this show, I look forward to more of it.

We had ourselves a game day this past weekend and much fun was had. We played Dixit, 7 Wonders, Sequence, Zooloretto, and a couple others. We also learned to play Blokus. It's quite good as well. I have a sneaking suspicion it may make its way into our home sooner rather than later. You can pick up a pretty nice version for the PS3 in their online store for around $5. We may have to convince little sis to do this so we can play online against them. Well, after we add each other as friends.

I also have a lovely Nintendo customer service story. I'd always heard about how they treated their customers well and I can now confirm it. G went to play Lego Star Wars the other day and the Wii wouldn't take the disc. It also made a strange noise upon powering up the unit. After some brief online searching it was discovered that this could really only be fixed with a repair at ye olde Nintendo. So I called up Nintendo only to be told that our machine was out of warranty and would need to send some money to get it fixed. I asked if they had any loyal customer discounts and the wonderful service rep gave me a one time waiver on the service fee. So the Wii is on its way to California to be fixed. Hopefully it will come back with all our saved game data. Thanks Nintendo for remembering your customers.

(DirecTV on the other hand does not win any customer service points, but that's probably a story for another time.)

A belated happy birthday shout out to nephew K. Hope you had a great day little dude.

Insert witty Castle joke here

Season 2 of Castle has been pretty decent thus far. The mystery plots are pretty secondary to the banter and I'm fine with that. It's certainly worth watching on DVD.

Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson was a fun fantasy book. It features a pretty unique magic system and some fun characters. Lots of little twists and turns before wrapping things up. I suspect I'll read more of his work now. I've heard his Mistborn series is worth checking out as well. It's nice to find some more fantasy again.

Death of a Scriptwriter is a Hamish Macbeth story by M.C. Beaton. If you've been here a while, you might recall me mentioning that we enjoyed the TV series. The books are fun too. Nice little mystery story. Makes me want to watch the show again...

In other news G has been practicing his writing by writing down little stories. Thus far we have had The Fish and the Turtle, The Shark, the Fish and the Dolphin and The Dragon's Gold. One of the stories featured a human on fire and one featured a lovely dinner for a hungry aquatic animal. Hmm. He may be ready for shark week now.

In other other news I got to tell a couple at the Library that it wasn't really the appropriate place to be making out.

I managed to finish off the first Uncharted. It was a lot of fun. I've started the second one and it had one of the best beginnings to a video game I've seen in a long time. Really enjoying this series. And Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is a frustratingly good time. My driving skill are not that spectacular. But it's a lot of fun to try. Donkey Kong Country Returns is pretty good as well. The collector in me is going to hate this game as some of the levels are fiendishly difficult. I may never finish the bonus temple levels. In spite of G telling me to try at every other moment.

The girls explored mummification for their science projects. At least there were no coat hangers involved. I'm sleeping with one eye open just to be safe.

Nothing to see ... move along

It feels like there should be things to talk about, but honestly I've not got a clue what they are. I suppose if I bothered talking about anything other than games, books and movies I'd probably have a couple topics, but I really can't be bothered.

I did finish volume 12 of 20th Century Boys. It looks like we may now know who the mysterious Friend is. Although it's been long enough since I started the series, that I'm still not entirely sure who it is. I still really enjoy reading the series though. I think we're roughly half way now even! ^_^ Heh.

The Expendables was pretty much a lost opportunity. When I heard about the movie (mostly the cast) I had hopes for a slightly campy, self aware non stop action flick. What I got was a straight up action flick. Now, there is plenty of action, but it's played way too straight. So it wasn't really as good I was hoping it would be. Alas. If you have interest in seeing it (and you somehow haven't already) just know that it takes itself very seriously. Slight Spoiler: Oh and my favorite complaint about the flick is how can you have a group called the Expendables and then let them all live through the movie?

We're about to watch the A Team movie and season 2 of Castle. So good times ahead.

M has decided she wants to be in the school play/musical Mulan. They're letting the fourth graders participate in the background choir stuff. And she's about to start selling GS cookies again. Lovely wife is thrilled.

I have discovered that they're about to release glow in the dark hexbug nano stuff. This is very exciting news. Now you can be strangely hypnotized in the dark!

New Year Get

So. We meet again. You really need to stop hanging around these sorts of places. All manner of trouble they are.

Frozen has pretty much the silliest plot outline of any movie: three people stuck on a ski lift. The movies itself is actually surprisingly tense. Much like Open Water from a few years back we get to watch a small group of people abandoned in an unfriendly environment. Unlike Open Water they don't fight the entire time. So it comes out slightly on top for that reason. Although that shot at the end of Open Water with the lightning and the sharks is still the best moment in either of the movies. Frozen focuses on two guys that have been friends forever and the newish girlfriend that has tagged along while they go skiing. The movie doesn't waste too much time before stranding them up in the air and then doesn't take too much time before the surprisingly logical ending. That's actually probably the best thing about the movie - everything you think you might try in this situation is covered and it's all pretty realistic. Although lovely wife thinks the guy that jumped was an idiot... So, this one is recommended. Especially to little sis and 'k'.

Gran Torino is pretty much a western set in Detroit. I had it recommended to me as a remake of Shane. I haven't seen Shane (although I might have to now) but I like westerns, so we gave this one a try. If you can get past the racism and swearing it's actually a surprisingly sweet movie. And I think Clint Eastwood is about the only person that could get away with playing the main character. Anybody else probably couldn't have pulled it off. You'd think they were the biggest jerk on the planet. I think part of it is due to all the characters Clint has played over the years. Anyway, this is another one that we liked and you might give a go.

The BBC show Sherlock is also a lot of fun. I wasn't sure I'd like a modern day Sherlock Holmes but they pulled this off as well. Nice banter, clever cases, nods to the original it all works pretty well.

I'm still in the midst of Warbreaker so you don't really get an update on it. Except for me to say that I'm enjoying it.

We managed a couple games of 7 Wonders and Dixit over the break. They're both pretty enjoyable. Dixit is an easily picked up party type game that encourages creativity from the players. It's a little like Apples to Apples and occasionally suffers from some of the same problems, but not to the same extent. (You'll occasionally have a hand of cards that doesn't seem to work, but if the storyteller does a good job of not being too specific it's not really an issue.) 7 Wonders has a bit of a learning curve, but ends up being pretty enjoyable. It will take a few games to start to see how strategies emerge and how the wonders are best utilized but that's ok.

So, that's some of what's been happening around Casa del 'd'. We had a great visit with Dad while he was here. He needs to live much closer so we can get together more often. We also had a great visit with lovely wife's Mom. It was good reconnecting with her as well. I am glad the holidays are over and hope you all had a wonderful time.

Condolences go out to little sis on the job loss. Glad you have a few months to get things in order. Here's to hoping the rest of the year is better.

End of Line

Well, that's a little over dramatic I suppose, but this is the last day of the year and we did just see Tron Legacy, so there you go.

It's been quite the week here at casa del 'd'. We had lovely wife's Mom here through Christmas and my Dad is here to ring in the New Year with us.

Shockingly we actually had to wake the kids up on Christmas morning. I'm not sure what pod people they were replaced with, but it was a little ridiculous. They all had fun opening presents and being around family. G got some Hexbug Nanos that are pretty cool. We can't stop playing with them and rearranging the track. McK has been taking pictures of everything she can with her new camera and M has been reading books and solving mysteries in Guilty Party on the Wii.

We've seen a few shows over the holiday. Tangled was brilliant, Sorcerer's Apprentice was fun, Tron Legacy was pretty good (and the soundtrack by Daftpunk is pretty great too) and we liked Toy Story 3 as well.

So, have a great end of year, and here's to a good new year.

Temporally denoted weather pattern felicitations

Or seasons greetings if you're so inclined.

Not really much to add to that. I think I'm glad the year is drawing to a close. I'm surprised (each and every time) that we've gotten to this point so quickly, but I suspect it's best if we put a cap on this year and look forward to the next. Although the prognosis for the initial part of next year is a bit rocky. Hopefully things will smooth out some.

Which is really just the long way to say that I hope each of you have a wonderful holiday surrounded by those you love. We'll have various relatives staying here at casa del 'd' over the holidays so that should be fun. If nothing else it might distract the kids long enough that we don't resort to ritual bloodshed. Although that might add that extra kick the season needs. Get those stars right. So grab some eggnog and kick back for a bit. Open a present even if you know what it is and act surprised.

Happy Christmas and Merry New Year! (as my old history teach used to say) Or alternatively Ia! Ia! Cthulhu Fhtagn! (as my Great Old One used to mutter)

Media Consumption

I will try and cover the various things that have been seen and/or read at casa del 'd' recently. I'm not sure I'm up to the task...

Triangle is a pretty fascinating horror movie. Without giving too much away, it's basically a retelling of the Sisyphus story. There are some pretty neat moments in it. Rather liked this one and recommend it. Especially for little sis and 'k'.

Big Bang Theory season 3 is pretty decent too. Although they use Sheldon's Bazinga! joke a little too much. Except for the ball pit sequence. That was pure comedy gold.

The Fuller Memorandum by Charles Stross was also quite good. I really do like the Laundry Files books. I was a little worried that this one would be completely depressing. Fortunately it's only somewhat depressing. And there are a few images that will stick with you for quite some time. Cultists indeed...

Hikaru no Go. I've read a couple more books and I think I may be done with this series. I've read enough that at this point it's really just more of the same. (Some of you probably marveled that it took 21 volumes for me to reach that point, but whatever.)

Fullmetal Alchemist I've read a couple more of this series and am enjoying it quite a bit. Plan to continue this one.

There's probably more, but I can't be bothered to remember what it was. Alas.

In other news, we're just about ready for the holidays. Family members are coming in to town so that should be nice. The kids have one day of school left before they have their break until next year. (Next year! Who let that happen already?!) I can't think of any particularly amazing stories worth sharing. Oh, if you want painted room pictures, head over to littles sis's blog. She has a couple. I may or may not get some put up.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

So littlest sis arrived in town the other night and has coerced lovely wife into repainting some of our house. Currently the basement is several new shades and I think they're tackling the living room as well. I shall attempt some pictures at some point. Possibly. Overall things look nice. (Although that bathroom is still seriously blue...) So thanks littlest sis for the help and a new look on things. (Oh and for the record Dixit does seem to be quite fun...)

Not really too much else to report. Pacman CE DX is a serious time suck. Can not stop playing. Second season of Mentalist is way good. But you knew that already didn't you?

I'll just leave this here, shall I?

In Which I Make a Few Recommendations

Well, December has arrived. For some of you that means shopping. I managed to do most of my Black Friday shopping on Thanksgiving from the comfort of my computer. It sure beat standing in line, that's a fact. Here at Casa del 'd' we've been playing with my new birthday/Christmas present - a PS3. Big thanks go out to family that made that possible. I'm not entirely convinced Blu Rays are that much prettier than DVDs, but some of the extras sure are fun. We're currently using it to watch season 2 of The Mentalist. We finished up Castle season 1 (it was quite good and we want to see season 2 now) and soon we'll be on Big Bang Theory season 3. Yup, lots of TV on DVD (the way it was meant to be watched) round these parts.

So. In an effort to throw a few opinions out there on what are some worthwhile ways to spend money/pass the time I offer the following suggestions for books/movies/games/etc.

Books: Working in a Library offers a few opportunities to look at books. Book recommendations, however, are tricky. I have no idea what your tastes are. But if you're here, then we probably have at least a little in common. Or you are very bored. The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss will probably surprise no one as my top pick for something to read. I loved this book and eagerly wait for the sequel (Wise Man's Fear coming next Spring!). It's fantasy (don't let that scare you off) and tells the story of Kvothe. It's funny, spooky, heartwarming, heartbreaking, and lots of other good adjectives. Seriously, get this book. In a not entirely and yet almost completely dissimilar vein, The Laundry Files books by Charles Stross are also highly recommended. They're a touch harder to sell as you really need some geek/Lovecraft background, but if you've got the interest they're a pretty great time.

Graphic Novels: Like books with pictures? Try 20th Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa, or Scott Pilgrim by Bryan Lee O'Malley. They're a bit of an acquired taste but certainly worth it. Looking for something for younger kids? Owly by Andy Runton all the way. I could go on...

Boardgames: Well, where to start... If you're just looking for a party game I can certainly recommend Say Anything. We've had a lot of fun with that one. (Think Apples to Apples where you can write your own answer instead of relying on the luck of the cards in your hand.) I'm going to go out on a limb and recommend Dixit as well. You'll get a more informed opinion in the future. If you're looking for something to dig into a bit I'll mention Blue Moon City and Dominion as worth your attention. Want something where you can all work together? Forbidden Island is for you. Dexterity game? Pitchcar. Puzzle game? Ubongo. Family game? Tobago or maybe Dice Town or even Incan Gold. (Depending on the ages of your kids)

Movies: Hmm. Prince of Persia was definitely a lot of fun. Scott Pilgrim is my personal favorite of the year... There really were a lot of good ones. You can probably make up your own mind on this one.

TV (on DVD): The Mentalist probably tops the charts. I'd give Castle a nod as well. Eureka is fun as is Big Bang Theory.


Videogames: Well let's see, for the Wii: Either of the Super Mario Galaxy titles are good. Kirby's Epic Yarn is also pretty fun. If you like playing (fighting) together New Super Mario Bros. Wii is certainly worth trying out. For the PS3 I can't really say yet. Uncharted is a lot of fun so far. Basically Tomb Raider with more shooting. I like the exploration-y bits a lot. The shooting bits are hard (although I'm getting better). There is more combat than I'd like, but I'm having a good time. I really really like Pacman CE DX which you can download from the Playstation Store. A quick word of warning though, the games are typically listed as $9.99 or something similar. You can buy points cards for $20 and so on. I thought I'd get 2 games for one card but no, they charge tax. So I was $1.32 short or something stupid like that. Ok, just this once I'll use the credit card to finish off the difference. You can only add amounts starting at $5. So very frustrating and so very stupid. Nintendo does this right. You buy the points card, the games cost X points and you know what you're spending.

I think that's enough for now. If you have questions I'm sure I have (snarky) answers. Feel free to leave some comments and I'll see what I can do.

Just passing through

Well, in spite of the airline industry I did manage to make it to my Grandmother's funeral. It was really nice to see family again. It was good to touch base with the aunts and uncles and Grandpa. I'm glad he has family close by.

I managed to finish Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi on the plane. I liked the book. Nailer is part of a ship breaking crew - he crawls through wrecked hulks in search of copper and other things that can be sold. After a storm he and a friend run across a wrecked ship that could be the end of all their troubles. Except for the lone survivor. Bacigalupi builds an interesting world that I enjoyed reading about. It did seem like something was missing, I don't know if the end came too quick or the plot was a little too predictable, but I certainly recommend it. (And honestly, as it's a YA book, those slight criticisms only sort of apply.)

Other than that I'm glad to have some time off. With everything that's been going on it's nice to have a break and recharge the batteries. We've been watching the first season of Castle and I have to say, had I actually watched the show from the beginning I'd have liked it a lot better than the random episode I started with. (Oh and the recent X Files inspired episode was pretty brilliant.)

Hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. Spend some time with family if you can. A good book if you can't.

Elegy in sugar

Well, technically there's a lot I could cover - I finished The Fall - it got better but wasn't great, Dexter season 4 proved John Lithgow is creepy and so on - however my Grandmother passed away the other day, so I've decided to just post briefly about that.

I'll be traveling out to Missouri tomorrow for the funeral and then back on Sunday. So a very quick trip in which to see family and celebrate my Grandmother's life. I'm firmly in the funerals are for the living camp. I've got some pretty fond memories of my grandparents (Suzy Qs still hold a special place in my heart thanks to them) and I'm glad that once her health started going downhill it went pretty quickly. Not a big fan of some of the suffering people have to go through before finally passing on.

So, here's to Grandma! I will always cherish the house with the absolutely ginormous lawn in which we got rides on the riding lawnmower or  the adult sized tricycle with the basket. (And don't forget the time I push started the go kart with my sister behind the wheel. I think it took about three people to chase her down...) I contemplate getting an RV once kids are gone so lovely wife and I can travel about a bit much like my Grandparents did for a while. It was always fine to see them show up in Kansas for the summer. I did not dislike Piper, their Poodle. One of the few dogs to earn my grudging not hate. And I can still hear her voice from the few times we got to talk recently. I wish we'd lived closer to them so we could have gone to visit more. Love you Grandma!

Prelude to flame

November has arrived. Some might call it the best month of the year. They'd probably be right. We are a mere day away from Guy Fawkes's attempted commentary on government. In light of our current Keystone Cops routine one might tend to wonder if he didn't have something there...

We finished off October with Lady in White and Alien. I remember watching Lady in White while growing up, but apparently retained no actual knowledge of the plot. Other than the kid being trapped in the school. It made for interesting viewing. We watched that one with the kids. I have no idea if they liked it or not. It's a curious little tale. Held up pretty well for the most part.

Alien is of course still the classic it always was. I suspect it's my favorite of the series. Actually I probably like them in the order they were released. Well except for that 4th one... It was good to see it again.

I have given up on The Passage. I was listening to the audiobook version, but it just didn't grab my attention. Mostly it was due to the author trying to do a literary fiction take on genre fiction. Badly. Instead of telling the story (which certainly had the potential to be interesting) he kept talking about the story. It was not good.

And I'm not holding out a lot of hope for The Fall either. I enjoyed The Strain, del Toro and Hogan's take on vampires, but the sequel isn't living up to the initial story for me. I'm about a third of the way through and we'll see if I finish.

I did manage to finish The Jennifer Morgue though. And the second Laundry Files novel was just as enjoyable as the first. I really like that series. This one was an amusing riff on James Bond stories. I probably missed some of the nods as I'm certainly more familiar with the films (I've not managed to read any of the books) but that's ok, it was another fun romp with Bob and the rest of the crew in the Laundry. I look forward to the third book.

I need a nap...

Horror Nostalgia Tour Stops 37 and 12

Critters is your basic Gremlins knockoff featuring nominally cute alien monstrosities bent on eating everything/one in sight. Throw in a couple shapeshifting bounty hunters, a family from Kansas, mix with some popcorn and there you go. There are some funny bits (the ET doll destruction qualifies) and some silly bits and not much that equates to spooky bits. I actually think I liked the sequel (the 2nd, not 3 or 4) better, but I can't seem to track down a copy to verify that's the case. Alas. This one's best when you're in the mood for something silly featuring wee beasties.

The Fly (Cronenberg's remake), however, is neither cute nor humorous. It's another story focusing on the body horror that Cronenberg is well known for. Instead of a single incident in which the scientist manages to swap parts a la the original, Cronenberg treats the viewer to a slow burn as Jeff Goldblum initially thinks he's managed to purify himself only to realize that the exact opposite has happened. It's pretty effective too. There are plenty of moments where you find yourself glad you're not the one trapped in the story.

And aside from too many movies to watch there are too many books to read and too many games to play and not nearly enough hours in the day to accomplish it all... Letter 'd' needs a break. Fortunately in about a month I think I'll manage one.

Congrats go out to little sis and family on the birth of new baby boy. Hope all are well.

And so Halloween fast approaches (and we even had snow the other morning! Yay! Sort of!). Kids are excited to wander around in their costumes and consume some candy. I'm attempting to avoid the candy and failing miserably. I really need to start exercising again especially as we're getting to the food heavy portion of the year... Stupid exercise.

LOST - Hero, please return if found

Finished up Rick Riordan's The Lost Hero, the new Heroes of Olympus book. It picks up a few months after the end of the Percy Jackson books and plays around with the world some more. We get to meet some new characters, see a few old ones and follow along on a new quest as the demi-gods are once again called upon to save the world. I enjoyed it quite a bit. If you've not read the Percy stuff, start there and then pick this one up. Definitely worth reading. I liked it better than The Red Pyramid as well.

Apparently Sam Raimi is going to remake The Day of the Triffids. This is very strange and coincidental news. I like Sam Raimi. Not convinced about the Triffids. Guess we'll see where that goes...

The Children's Department here at the Library has put up an art exhibit called The Pigeon Wants an Art Show. They did a program over the summer where kids got to draw a picture detailing a new book in the Pigeon series. The exhibit features those drawings. It's quite brilliant. I think I would have drawn Don't Let the Pigeon Clone a Dinosaur. That or maybe The Pigeon Wants a Singularity. The Pigeon Wants a Great Old One? Hmm... (Oh! Hey look! You can see the show here.)

The the Triffids

So, remember when I said that Day of the Triffids started off well enough? Yeah, it pretty much went downhill from there. For a show named after a carnivorous plant bent on mankind's destruction, there were very few Triffids in the execution of said idea. So, if you want to see a historical take on the apocalyptic genre that certainly influenced much of later entertainment, there is value there. A few of the ideas found in the show are utilized in things like 28 Days Later and so on but it was a little disappointing that it ended up being more character/societal drama than a show about plants terrorizing/eating blind people. So I guess the point is, know what you're in for. (Oh and the title is a nod to a lovely sign found on Tynsham Manor reminding visitors to close the the gate.)

We picked up Kirby's Epic Yarn as a joint birthday gift for lovely wife and myself courtesy of letter 'r' and family. It's a fun little platformer that just oozes style. And cute. Kirby and friends are all drawn in a yarn/sewing motif that affects how you interact with the world as well. (Yank on a thread to pull a ledge closer so you can jump across, go into a pocket to grab gems on stitched platforms between two layers of cloth and so on.)  Highly recommended. (And it allows for 2 player co-op as well so that's a bonus - it's not nearly as hectic as New Super Mario Bros. Wii was.)

Gang of Four has been mentioned here before, but we snuck in a game the other night and I thought I'd mention that it's still a lot of fun to play. Four players compete to get rid of their hand while sticking everybody else with theirs. It's a ladder type game in that you don't really take tricks (you don't acquire cards and points are bad) and you can lead more than one card at a time. The initial player (determined randomly at the beginning of the game and by winning for the rest) can play anywhere from 1-5 cards and the other players must both match the numbers of cards and play a better version of said number. So there's room for lots of strategy and some luck. And trash talk. Yes, lots and lots of trash talk.

Vampires with Teeth

So as promised, we took in Fright Night this last week. Strangely, lovely wife had never seen it. I still remember the first time I saw it, at a family reunion years and years ago. There was a piranha named Bird as well, but that's neither here nor there. It's basically Rear Window meets a vampire movie. And it was still fun to watch. Although I really don't remember the vampires having so many teeth. Chris Sarandon does a great job as the Evil Vampire Next Door and Roddy McDowell is brilliant as the aged late night horror movie host pressed into fighting real vampires against his will. If you haven't seen it, check it out. And if you have, give it another go.

We've also watched the first part of Day of the Triffids. Apparently I got the BBC miniseries version, and not a film version. So far it's cheesy, but good. Walking carnivorous plants! Blindness by light show! These exclamation points are totally warranted.

Other than that, not too much is going on. Still thoroughly enjoying The Jennifer Morgue, although it's getting a brief time out as The Lost Hero (the new Rick Riordan Camp Half-blood book) is now in my possession. I've read the first bit of it and it looks to be just as good as the Percy books. Although at the moment with 100% less Percy.

Played a little Dice Town and Drakon the other night. Both still fun. I like building the dungeon bit by bit in Drakon as you attempt to turn it into a money making machine (while your opponents attempt to build their own paths or mess with yours).

A quick shout of sympathy to little sis and family. Hope things get better and 'L' is ok.

Also a Happy Birthday wish to lovely wife. Congrats sweetie! You have survived another year. And it's only mostly visible. Wait, that doesn't sound right... Hmm. Hey look! Godzilla! Happy Birthday. Love you!

He said the 'Z' word

Brian Keene's The Rising gets points for a clever twist on what a zombie is and then loses them all for being a horrible book. The characters are pretty standard for the genre, but not terribly likable, and the plot is woven together bits from better stories (28 Days Later most noticeably). I'm not entirely certain why I finished it. Except that my wife managed to and I think I took that to mean that it was going to get better than it ever did. So, yeah, avoid this one. Thanks Tor for nothing (this one was pretty regularly recommended during Zombie Week over there).

As part of October Horror Movie Stravaganza the sequel: Deader than Last Year we watched the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. And it still holds up. It's a decent little the world is toast, thanks so much creepy pod people from Outer Space movie. And if you haven't seen it yet, why exactly is that? It's the creepy pod people isn't it?

Up next is Fright Night. And Day of the Triffids and ... well, others. I really like October.

The 10th volume of 20th Century Boys is good. It continues to unspool the story at a pace that is slightly faster than glacial, but I don't mind. It is getting a little hard to try and remember who everybody is and what was done to whom by whom, but that's ok. I like it. Waiting only sort of patiently for more.

Apparently I have a Halloween costume this year. I'm not entirely certain what to do with it. As Halloween is on Sunday I can't wear it to work, well ok, if I was working on Sunday I could. I guess maybe I'll wander to the local trunk 'r' treat or something and get some use out of it. Mostly G wants me to go around with him some as his costume complements mine. We shall see. Do not expect pictures.

Other than that, things are pretty peaceful at Casa del 'd'. We're roughly a week away from the big birthday slide that takes us through the rest of the year. I guess I should contemplate doing something about that... I'm just glad the temperature is finally starting to resemble something humane and that we're getting some rain. I even dragged lovely wife out for a brief walk in a nice little rain shower the other day. It was grand.

Oh yeah

Hey look! Paranormal Activity 2 trailer.

And speaking of horror movies, the Norwegian film Dead Snow is pretty fun. Undead Nazis terrorize a group of friends out in the middle of nowhere. It features more intestines than I think I've seen in any 3 other movies combined. I'll leave that to you to decide if that's a good thing or not. There are several funny bits and lots of horror bits. It's not scary, but I'm not sure this sort of movie is really supposed to be. So there you go. Start October off with subtitles and Nazis out for your, well, intestines I guess.

Atrocities and other good times

I finished up The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross. And I have another favorite new series. This one (as mentioned a post down) is espionage crossed with Lovecraftian nightmares. With some math and science thrown in. Bob Howard is your basic hacker that stumbled on something he shouldn't have. And now he is forced to work for the Laundry saving the world from those entities that think we are delicious and good with ketchup. Tired of his IT desk job he gets sucked into field work. Now if only he can keep it from literally sucking him in. Curse those nasty inter-dimensional monstrosities. It really was a lot of fun to read and I look forward to the other two books in the series. I suspect this is one I'll need to pick up as well.

The Losers was a fun little action movie right up until the end. Mostly because they felt like leaving it wide open for a sequel. A risky move these days. I'd certainly watch another one - the cast was a lot of fun - but would have liked a little more closure from this one. Maybe I'll check out the comic and see if it ties things up any better. (That's a joke, nothing is ever wrapped up in the comic. And if it looks like it has been, they'll retcon it next time.)

Up in the Air suffered from the same problem - I liked it up until the end. And then it went and got depressing...

So last time I mentioned a few games I had my eye on. They have been shoved aside in favor of Mansions of Madness. It looks like a board game version of Call of Cthulhu (an RPG). Sign me up! Cthulhu based minis, tiles, madness, one player against everyone else. Oh yeah. It was originally slated for November, but has already slipped to December I believe. Considering the fact that it's Fantasy Flight, I'll be a touch surprised if it makes it out before year's end, but I suspect the wait will be worth it.

Laundry and other sundries

We watched Date Night a couple days ago. (sexy robots) It was pretty amusing. Crude, but amusing. I suspect it falls into the same camp as Bill Cosby's book, Fatherhood in that it's funnier if you've experienced it. So if you've been married for years and have kids, there's a little more depth to this movie than you'd otherwise expect. I won't comment on how many of those conversations we've had, but they really do a good job of portraying marriage at it's familiar best. Tina Fey, Steve Carell and Mark Wahlberg are all excellent in it.

I read Bone: Tall Tales since it was more Bone. There are a couple funny bits and a couple good bits, but mostly it was just alright. If you like Bone there's certainly some joy to be had with it, but you might be better off just reading Bone again. Or Rose. Sounds like they're going to put out a new trilogy in an illustrated story format. I'm not sure how I feel about this...

Currently I'm reading The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross. It is most excellent. Take one part Cthulhu mythos, a couple shakes of LeCarre espionage, a hint of Kafka and mix it all together into one gooey, satisfying mess. I'll comment more when I'm finished, but for now know that this is the first book in the Laundry Files and I suspect I've found a new favorite series. That I might just have to pick up.

Ubongo has gotten some more play at casa del 'd'. It is still most excellent. Lovely wife taught the girls 10 Days in Europe. Sounds like that went mostly well. I think that now that they've played it future trips through Europe will be a little less stormy. I've got my eye on a couple games for DCon or upcoming holidays. Incursion is drawing my attention at the moment (partially due to this sale). As are Castle Ravenloft and Talisman. So many choices.

Some say fire, some say ice, I say zombies

Finished the audio book version of World War Z by Max Brooks. It was fun to listen too. It's a pretty well thought out book. Max has done some serious zombie research. Being as Fall is once again creeping into our lives, I may need to do some research of my own. Time for some horror movies. If you've not read World War Z it's your basic zombies show up, the world doesn't come to grips very well, but ultimately humans manage to eke out some semblance of survival type story. It's worth reading/listening to. The book has a little more material, but the audio book is very well done. Although parts of it are a touch hard to hear/understand in the car.

I finished up Jim Butcher's Fool Moon (Dresden Files book 2) as well. I'm not sure what to think about this series. Because it's such a noir genre piece the stories themselves are pretty formulaic. So either you like the details of the stories enough to keep reading or you move on. I'm not sure I can keep reading the same story over and over, no matter how fun the package. This one had werewolves. And shapeshifters. And a loup garou. (And hexenwolfen) So obviously Butcher's put in the effort and is playing around some. And it's fine I guess. I'm just not sure I'll stick with the series. Too bad the tv show is over...

Crown of Shadows, the third Locke and Key graphic novel continues to pick at the mysteries surrounding Key House and its occupants. It's grim and heart wrenching and lots of other fun things. That Joe Hill, he's definitely a story teller to keep an eye on.

Was reading a couple things about writing earlier. Writing is one of those things that occasionally fascinates me. I certainly don't have the temperament to be a writer, but I occasionally wish I had the drive to get a few creative things out there. I suppose that's why I tend to keep this silly thing going. While certainly not a bastion of critical or creative thought, it at least gives me a chance to get a few words strung together. And every once in a while I even appreciate them.

For the last couple years, Fall (and especially October/Halloween) has triggered the desire to try and set down my own zombie story. So, you may get pieces of that this next month if I can be bothered to actually attempt it. I've mentioned it before (and actually tried starting it once) and that obviously worked out so you're probably safe, but just in case consider yourselves warned.

Quick shout

Happy birthday to littlest sis. And congrats to little sis on getting sealed today.

In which there is no new thing under the sun

Apparently I'm in revisit old territory mode. I'm still making my way through House of Leaves (rather slowly - it's a pretty dense book, to say nothing of the ... twists and turns it takes, heh) and probably will be for some time. I'm also listening to the audiobook version of World War Z. I'd heard it was well done and wanted to give it a shot. It is well done (although the accents can be a little hard to follow on occasion). Too bad it's not the complete book. (Again, from what I've heard, I may or may not notice the missing bits.)

I did start up the second Dresden Files book, Fool Moon. It seems fine so far.

Got in a little gaming and some bbq during the holiday courtesy of letter 'r and family. That was fun. I managed a win at Ubongo while 'v' left us all in the dust in Dice Town. 'r' regained a little honor in a fun round of Say Anything. Although lovely wife had the best and most outrageous answer of the evening.

Other than that we're pretty content to just let Fall woo us with decent temperatures and quiet days. Not too shabby.

First, second, and last

The kids have triumphantly returned to school. Well, begrudgingly if nothing else. G had his first day in Kindergarten the other day. Lovely wife swears there weren't too many tears. I'm not convinced I believe her. Amusingly the teacher opted to read the same book to the class that lovely wife read to him the night before, The Night Before Kindergarten. He got to make the crown in class though. McK is getting used to Junior High. I'm still getting used to her being in Jr High. I suspect it will take a while.

We finished up the second season of Big Bang Theory. I think my favorite episode was the Christmas Saturnalia episode. The hug at the end was priceless. I am glad that Jim Parsons won the Emmy the other night. He is absolutely the best thing about that show. Sheldon FTW.

Mockingjay. Alright, let's talk Mockingjay. It's entirely possible there will be spoilers, so if you haven't read the book, you might just want to go find something else. (Yes that's more Twilight mocking in case you want to go and come back.) Overall, I liked it. I think it's absolutely a fitting end to the series. Considering the tone and level of realism the series strove for I think it ended about as well as it could have. I found the ending a touch abrupt - I would have liked a little more about the aftermath and what happened, but I suppose it might have distracted from the point of the book - the tolls of war and so on. With regards to the infamous vote at the end, I'm pretty firmly on the side that Katniss was setting up Coin. Her remark about seeing how well Haymitch understood her and her stated reason seem to point a little too neatly that way to just think the vote was at face value. Even from someone as broken as she was at that point. There are lots of nice little moments throughout the book and I recommend the series. I'm glad Collins was able to make something entirely her own rather than just Americanizing Battle Royale. (I'm sorry people who think The Hunger Games really wasn't just a revamp of Battle Royale. You're pretty much wrong. The series certainly isn't, but that particular book... Look the future SAT question will read _______:Battle Royale as A Fistful of Dollars:Yojimbo) And it is a pretty fascinating series. It does a good job of taking a look at what happens to a society that asks too much of its children and the perils of war in a society that is already hanging on by a thread.

RED by Warren Ellis is the comic book the upcoming Bruce Willis film is based on. The compilation I read just covers his character - the other three from the movie aren't in it. And the tone isn't nearly as humorous as the trailer makes the movie out to be. It was good (if a little graphic and squelchy) but this might be a case where the movie is something a little more fun. And annoying to the purists.

I saw Scott Pilgrim vs the World three times in the theaters. And it was great each and every time. The rest of you better have gone to see it. Although judging by the box office totals you didn't. Shame on you. This is why we can't have nice things.

I've been reading House of Leaves again. It's still a pretty fascinating story. With way too many footnotes... (that's only sort of a joke) I'd still like to see the movie described in the book. Mostly as I really enjoy haunted house stories and this is a pretty good one. I'd also play an RPG set there. Something in the Call of Cthulhu vein I think...

Crude, cruel and canny

Beat the Band by Don Calame is a decent example of teen boy humor. It's mostly crude (and funny) with moments of lucidity occasionally making their way through. This is a sequel to a book called Swim the Fly. I've not read that one, although I might have to go back and give it a go. I liked Beat the Band a fair amount. Well, I was a teenage boy at one point. Some would probably argue that I still am. They are mostly mistaken.

The first book (from a brief synopsis at the beginning of this one) dealt with three friends trying to see their first real naked girl. And something about the swim team. This go round they're trying to up the stakes a bit and score with the opposite sex. Well, that's the plan anyway. The actual story revolves around a forced Health Class project in which Coop (the ringleader of this band of misfits) is paired up with the one girl in his class he sees as kryptonite to his image and thus anathema to his goal. So he decides to enroll in the Battle of the Bands with his buds to save his image. And if you don't know where the rest of the story goes, then you're probably a teenager and reading this sort of story for the first time.

So, sure, the plot isn't striking any new ground, but it is funny and there's a reason this tale gets told over and over. Calame does a good job with it. (Which is why I may go back and give Swim the Fly a go.) If you can stomach putting yourself in the mind of a teenage boy for a couple hundred pages or so I say give it a shot.

Currently I'm reading Mockingjay. I'm about halfway through. So no spoiling the ending. Well, more than I've already spoiled it for myself. Heh. I've heard good things about this one, so I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.

Ubongo continues to be popular around Casa del 'd'. We've also tried a new one called Dice Town. Everybody has a set of 5 dice with cards for sides (representing 9 - Ace) which get rolled and set aside one at a time (unless you're willing to part with some of your limited cash supply) as they try to build a poker hand. Once one person has built a hand, everyone else has one roll to finish theirs off. And then you go around determining which player gets to take advantage of which parts of the town. Nines let you claim nuggets from the gold mine (points at the end), tens let you rob the bank and thus gain some money back, Jacks let you draw a card that may help later, Queens let you steal cards from another player, Kings let you become Sherriff (you can break ties and take bribes) and the best poker hand lets you claim property (also worth points), with Aces snagging you an extra card or two.

So you spend time seeing what your opponents are working towards and what you need to stay in the game. It's a fascinating little experiment in bluffing and group psychology. Oh and if you manage not to win anything with the dice you rolled you can visit Doc Badluck and take advantage of the opportunities he provides. We've played it with the kids and it sort of works, you really need to be able to recognize some basic poker hands - pairs, straights, full house and so on, but it is pretty fun with a group capable of working all the angles. I think the best part is that even if you're losing the overall battle, you still have little victories as you roll the sort of hand you want and steal cards from your friends or manage to sweep the property available and so on. Worth checking out.

Shutter Island was ... ok I guess. It's another one where the ending was pretty obvious. Some of the journey there was interesting and there are some truly nifty visual effects that help tell the story, but overall just kind of meh.

Big Bang Theory season 2 is pretty hilarious so far.

And on a final note the kids are back in school. Well, G starts next week. But that means it's just about the best season of all. Pretty soon no more mowing and the banishing of the heat and all things wonderful about this time of year. Yeah!

In which there are puzzles and rain

M received Ubongo from us for her birthday. It's like a competitive tetris/tangrams game. You each get 12 tetris type shapes and a puzzle board. A die is rolled that lets you know which three (or four) pieces you will use to assemble the shape depicted on the board. You then have a very brief window of time in which to assemble the puzzle. If you manage it, you can collect two gems from the score track. At the end (9 rounds, different board for each round) the person with the most gems of a single color is the winner. (You can move across the columns of the score track depending on how quickly you finish the puzzle thus helping you to get gems of the color you want). It's fast and also pretty fun. Some of the puzzles are fiendishly difficult. And others not so. It's also pretty easy to adjust the difficulty so that everyone has a chance. Make the grown ups solve the 4 piece puzzles while the kids do the 3 piece offerings. Remove the timer for younger players (an option I think I'll try with G next time) and so on. There are several versions of Ubongo as well in case you need more puzzles.

Other than that M had a lovely birthday and managed to mostly avoid the rain we've had on and off for several days. There was a traditional pool party and some mu shu pork and a whopper pie. An we were glad for an opportunity to spend the day together. Happy birthday M!

Lovely wife has managed to get the kids geared up for school (next week! woo hoo!). Other than that things have been almost quiet at casa del 'd'. I've even manged to not read a ton of books. I'm going to give Last Apprentice a bit of a break so that I don't wear myself out on the series. I suspect I'll get book four in the next couple of weeks though. I have instead opted to collect all 120 stars in Super Mario Galaxy 2 which of course just opens the next 120. I think I will also take a break from that prior to hunting for them. I think I liked the first Mario Galaxy a touch more. Mostly because it forced you to progress through the "story" (such as it was) before going back for all the extra stuff. The second one let you do the extra stuff almost from the get go. And the completist in me wouldn't let me go ahead before I had it all. So aspects of it were more work than fun. It's not entirely the game's fault, but I liked that aspect of the initial game better. The second one certainly has some pretty amazing levels and fun game play, just like the first.

Scott Pilgrim!

The movie was awesome. I don't really have much more to say about it. I am contemplating going back and seeing it again. Truly great. Possibly more gushing later.

In which I wait for Saturday

Ok, technically Scott Pilgrim opens tomorrow. The letter 'r' and I will be going on Saturday. And I cannot wait. I did manage to read volume 6 (Scott Pilgrim's Finest Hour) however. And it was good. It does a good job of tying up the series and I really enjoyed some of the little bits found in it. (Young Neil's moment and the updating of Wikipedia were two of them.) The art was really polished in this volume and it was a nice way to see the series out. So go read them all and then go see the movie. I'm sure it will be brilliant.

The Night of the Soul Stealer is the third Last Apprentice book. I enjoyed it more than the second one, so that's good. Not that the second one was bad, I just liked this one more. It's winter in the County and a necromancer is up to no good. So Tom and the Spook have their work cut out for them. I like this series, it's nice that there's a spooky series for the kids. (And their parents)

Got to see little sis and their family this week. I think their youngest (for the time being) looks like littlest sis. Which given the similarities between the two of them while growing up isn't really surprising. (Little sis and littlest sis that is) G had a grand time playing with his cousins and I got a chance to check out the iPad. Clever little device that is. It was good to see them.

The House of the Devil is a throwback to horror films from the 70s and 80s. It's a slow burn and I liked it. Lovely wife and little sis were not as impressed. I have a theory that the film is better if you're steeped in that sort of thing. Ti West did an amazing job of recreating the films of that period. It takes it's time building up with just the right amount of tension before descending into the frenzied final act. I think K needs to watch this and report her findings. I will admit that I found the ending to be a little off, but that's just because I wasn't really expecting that twist/nod.

We managed to have another boardgame weekend with friends last Saturday. We enjoyed some Forbidden Island (it sank just before we could claim victory), some 10 Days in Europe (I traveled the continent better than my peers), a little Incan Gold and some Galaxy Trucker (you should have seen the wasteland that was left at the end of the third round - all four of us were wiped out before reaching the end of the journey). It was a great time and we are in preparations for the next 'd'Con in November.

Scott Pilgrim

Go make yours...

If you don't know by now, you're new here

The Faceless Ones by Derek Landy is the third Skulduggery Pleasant book. This means that by default it is awesome. And it is. It's also a bit of a cliffhanger. Now, the fourth book is already out and the fifth book is about to come out. In Britain. For some bizarre reason they're not available here yet. Maybe they're stuck on the translation or something. At any rate, just know that if you've read the first two, of course you want to read this one and if you haven't go start with them. There are certainly some interesting questions raised (just what is going on with Valkyrie's reflection anyway?) this go round. They really better get those other two books over here pronto.

Girl Parts by John Cusick was slightly misleading. It looks like your typical boy gets girl robot, other boy bonds with girl robot, hijinks ensue sorta book. And there are certainly shades of that. I just expected more hijinks/hilarity. Instead this one focuses slightly more on having meaning. (Which isn't to say there isn't meaning in the other sort, it's just better camouflaged.) So it loses a couple points for that. And the ending was a little too abrupt. More points for that. I suppose it does say good things that I'd have liked more story, but with what you get it's really only a partial recommend.

20th Century Boys vol 9 continues the streak of awesomeness. Still really enjoying this series. That is all.

We watched the new Sherlock Holmes the other day. It was alright. Mostly it made me want to watch Young Sherlock Holmes again. I'm not entirely certain why. I really liked Jude Law as Watson, in some ways he seemed to outshine Robert Downey Jr. as Holmes. Which is a little impressive as I considered that pretty inspired casting. I'd watch another film with the two of them though, so that's alright then.

I believe I've mentioned Canabalt before. If not it's an addictive little flash game, that yeah, they made an app of. The team behind that has just updated Gravity Hook. Both are "just one more try" compulsive fun. And you can play them for free online. Or go buy the app if you're so inclined. Oh and Canabalt is available as a portable app for your thumb drive. Hopefully Gravity Hook shows up there as well.

We have had some lovely thunderstorms these last couple days. Even some hail. It has kept me from mowing the lawn (a mixed blessing if ever there was one) but otherwise has been quite nice. I miss thunderstorms.

And slowly the summer draws to a close. It's time to start gearing the kids up for school. Ah school season. My favorite season. Well, ok, really it's Fall, but you get the idea.

Just a few stray thoughts

In about two weeks Scott Pilgrim vs the World will be in theaters. This is grand news indeed. If you've not read the graphic novels you really should. All six are out now, so the story is complete. I've seen book 6, but have to wait my turn to read it. (Accursed hold list!) I'm hoping to get it before the movie comes out, but we shall see. I'm biding my time reading the first five over again. The story follows Scott as he starts dating Ramona Flowers only to find out that he has to defeat her seven evil exes in order to continue dating her. The movie is being directed by Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz) so it will, of course, be brilliant. If there's a guy more capable of grasping the source material than Wright, I'd like to meet him.

I've managed to finish off the second books in both the Skulduggery Pleasant and Last Apprentice series. They were also quite enjoyable. Playing with Fire (the second Skulduggery book) was once again hilarious and thrilling while The Curse of the Bane was still somewhat spooky and mysterious. I'm going to have to read more. This may present a problem...

The Courtyard is Alan Moore's take on Cthulhu. It's disturbing and gritty and not really for the faint of heart. Kind of like Cthulhu. (The best Cthulhu news I've heard? Guillermo Del Toro is going to make At the Mountains of Madness with James Cameron producing. This will be an absolutely awesome movie. Much like Wright's suitability for Scott Pilgrim, Del Toro is a match for Cthulhu.)

Lovely wife and I are currently watching the first season of The Mentalist. It's fun. Simon Baker is an absolute joy to watch as Patrick Jane, the ever observant consultant for the CBI. Where Psych goes almost strictly for comedy with serious moments, The Mentalist goes for drama with moments of humor. If you've not seen it, it's worth checking out.

And as a closing piece of advice, never give your spouse and kids a chance to practice at PitchCar. When it comes time to actually play, they will kill you.

Hey Look

Jellyfish,
originally uploaded by dkun.

More pictures up. Impressive...

Oregon and back...agon

Yaquina Lighthouse,
originally uploaded by dkun.

As you can see from the lovely picture accompanying the post here family del 'd' recently returned from a vacation. Celebrating lovely wife's Father's 70th birthday we went to Depoe Bay in Oregon with her side of the family. And it was wonderful. I'm pretty sure I could settle down in Oregon on the coast. We stayed at the Worldmark resort in Depoe Bay courtesy of lovely wife's sister and had a lovely 3rd floor room looking out over the ocean. I will attempt to get some more pictures up soon, but for now you can look at the Yaquina Lighthouse that was down in Newport.

We played on the beach, flew a kite, visited the lighthouse and an aquarium and enjoyed lots of other coastal town activities. We saw seals, starfish, crabs, anemones, and other assorted critters. The temperature was a lovely 60-ish degrees. It was great.

We went out on a boat in an attempt to see a whale, but ended up discovering that lovely wife and M are more prone to get seasick. McK, G and myself had a grand old time in spite of the waves and wind and I still think it would be great to learn to sail. I really need a sailboat... Alas the weather (some fog and lots of wind) prevented us from seeing a whale, but the boat ride was fun (if you weren't lovely wife or M).

We enjoyed lots of local cuisine (taffy! Tillamook ice cream! Crab Legs!) and just generally did our best to relax and unwind and enjoy some time together. If you're looking to get away for a bit I can certainly recommend the Oregon coast.

On the way back we stopped off at Crater Lake and marveled at the startlingly blue water. Not so much the return to typical summer temperatures, but the lake itself was quite pretty.

I've also read far too many books recently. I shall try to recap them here.

Revenge of the Witch (The Last Apprentice Book 1) by Joseph Delaney is pretty darn good. And also creepy. I look forward to reading more of this series. It follows Tom, the 7th son of a 7th son as he is apprenticed to the Spook - the guy responsible for dealing with all the supernatural problems the towns in the area face. Witches, boggarts and the like. It's a quick read that you don't want to put down that has some really nice atmosphere. McK claims to not have found it that creepy. I think she's putting on a brave face.

The Splendid Magic of Penny Arcade recounts the 11 1/2 year history behind the popular webcomic. If you're a follower of the strip you'll recognize some of the stories, but there's plenty of material here that's worth revisiting. They cover everything from the strip itself to the creation of Child's Play, the charity and PAX, the premiere convention for the gaming public. Jerry and Mike are a couple of pretty amazing guys and it's fun to read about all the things that have happened. If you're not a fan, but someone you know is, the book will give you some insight into just what they find so fascinating.

The Ark, by Boyd Morrison was a decent summer popcorn book. And then I realized I was reading Clive Cussler. Two male action heroes with witty banter? Check. Beautiful woman tied to current mystery for predominant male hero to fall in love with? Check. Lots of vehicles? Check. Wacky vehicle chase scene? Check. Alternate take on historical artifact? Check. End of the world scenario that our heroes must stop with seconds to spare? Check. So yeah, it's really Clive Cussler in disguise, but it's still fun.

Skulduggery Pleasant, by Derek Landy is another series that I look forward to reading. We listened to the audiobook version of this and I can wholeheartedly recommend that. The story is an absolute riot and full of lots of action and suspense. Stephanie is 12 years old when her uncle passes away. At the funeral she meets Skulduggery, who she later discovers is a fire wielding, magic using skeleton. They then go on adventures to save the world. It's great. Go read it now. The entire family (with the possible exception of G who was probably a little to young for the whole audiobook spanning multiple cds thing) loved it.

So yeah, lots has happened since I last rambled on. But things should settle back to normal now. And I will settle for missing the ocean...

Cloning around

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro ends about as well as it can. I first heard about the book a few weeks back when a trailer for the movie showed up. I didn't watch the trailer (which was probably wise prior to reading the book) but decided it sounded a little interesting. I'd heard of the author before, but not read anything by him. So I picked it up. The book follows Ruth, Tommy and Kathy as they grow up, first in a boarding school type location and then as they venture into the world after school. Or as much of it as they're allowed to see. I won't go into specifics about the plot as some of the impact comes from following the story, but it is interesting. It's told from a reminiscing/memoir point of view and is mostly slice of life with a sci-fi edge to it. And a rather sharp one at that. It's not terribly surprising there' s a movie in the works and that the book is gaining some attention again considering the topics it tackles. It's definitely interesting and well written. (And a little depressing.)

Other than that, life continues in casa del 'd'. The weather has been wonderfully cool for July. I approve of this oddball summer we're having. It's certainly hot enough during the day, but the evenings have been actually pleasant.

I contemplated rambling a little bit about video games. Mostly as I was thinking about consoles and the sorts of games you tend to buy for them. Everybody needs a good racer and a fighting game and so on. But really, there's not a lot of topic there. At least that hasn't been covered better elsewhere. So no ramblings for you. Just go buy a racing game and a fighter and a platformer or two. Maybe a party game.

Oh hey, remember that last line thing? Here's one without any commentary: Guardian of Lies by Steve Martini, "They were now on Liquidia's short list, and the man known in Tijuana as the Mexecutioner had a very long memory." Ok, the only comment I have is Mexecutioner? Really? I suspect the author had one too many of his last name. You know what the best name for an assassin would be? Mexecutioner. Because he's from Mexico. And he executes people. I love you man! <sigh>

And so it goes

It seems like that's a line from Kurt Vonnegut. (The title that is) It seems to fit things in casa del 'd' at the moment. Hmm.

I've been reading The Name of the Wind again in the evenings. Such a good book. I was a little worried it wouldn't be as good the second time through (especially as I only read it a few months back), but nope, still excellent.

We picked up a couple little games in preparation for some family time. Qwirkle Cubes takes the gameplay from Qwirkle and mixes it up by turning the tiles into dice. So you're still trying to complete lines of 6 (either same color different shape or same shape different color) but at the beginning of your turn you can opt to roll any of the dice that are in your hand. It makes things a little more interesting. Also you can see what your opponents have at any time so there's a little more strategy to what you might place.

Forbidden Island is a co-operative game that has you trying to collect 4 treasures from a rapidly sinking island. Each player has an ability that lets them break the rules in a specific way as you work together to try and keep the island from sinking before you get the goods and get away. It's by the guy that created Pandemic which is a pretty well known co-op game. This one is a little simpler and meant for families. It's also much cheaper - priced around $15. It plays 2-4 people and lovely wife and I found it pretty fun.

We've still been having some fun throwing the frisbee around and taking some walks around the neighborhood. They built a pretty nice biking/walking path close by that we like. I've not been real good about exercising lately, so we try and get out for a walk in the evening to at least pretend.

And that's about it. The kids still live at the pool (when we let them) or terrorize the neighborhood. I guess we'll try to blow some stuff up this weekend and celebrate the holiday. Too bad we can't get any real fireworks...

Quick thoughts

I finished reading Fat Vampire by Adam Rex. Doug is 15 and overweight and now undead. Forever 15 and overweight and trying to sort out this whole undead thing. The initial parts of this book are hilarious. The rest moderately so. Lovely wife liked about the first 2/3s. I enjoyed it pretty much up until the end. The end is a little odd, it's true. But there was some decent humor. I suspect the biggest problem is the fact that the book kind of wanders. It is a coming of age tale of sorts, so I suppose that's somewhat understandable, but not really to the extent found in the book. I'd say it's worth reading for humor, but not necessarily the story. Although it's not bad. (Although the Google? Really?)

G and I have started playing Super Mario Galaxy 2 and it's quite good. If you liked the first one, you'll like this one. It's a touch more challenging, but there's a lot of fun to be had. If you haven't played the first one, I think I'd recommend starting with it. There are a couple things the new one does better (especially related to having a 2nd player) but you'll probably find the learning curve a little less steep.

And that's really all I feel like going on about right now. I will mention very briefly in passing that Cypher and Red Rock West were both pretty interesting little movies. One's a sci-fi espionage flick and the other is a noir-ish mistaken identity flick.

Dresden, Dice, Dads, dis and dat

Storm Front by Jim Butcher is the first Dresden Files book. And it's a fun little read. Fantasy noir is probably the best way to describe it. Think detective story by the way of Raymond Chandler and wizard by the way of ... hmm. Butcher I guess. Some of it is the noir aspects, but the wizards in Buther's book are definitely their own little breed. If you liked the series that ran on SciFi (back before it became Syfy) it's definitely worth looking into. Book and show are similar, yet different. Slight tweaks on characters and relationships and so on. The story itself serves mostly as an introduction to Harry's world, but contains a decent enough mystery at the heart of it as well. Someone is leaving corpses with their hearts burst out of their chests. The Chicago PD is a little at a loss and Harry gets called in. Plus he has an actual client. Of the dame in distress variety (see? Chandler all the way).

Cthulhu Dice was fun because of the die. That and it's a little fun to steal your buddy's sanity. Zombie Dice is fun because it's a little more of a game. It's basically Pass the Pigs as seen through the eyes of a zombie. You pick three dice at random and roll them. Brains are points, footsteps are fleeing victims and shotgun blasts hurt. Assuming you don't roll all three blasts, you can choose to pick up the footsteps, add more dice to total three, and roll again. If you get three blasts before you choose to quit you lose all the brains you rolled. First to 13 brains wins. It's fun.

Father's Day draws near. We just had a chance to see Dad, so that was good. I certainly appreciate all the help Dad gives us. It was also nice to just give him a chance to relax this last time with no projects waiting for him. Next time though...

E3 is just about wrapped up and Nintendo has once again managed to convince me it needs more of my money. There are some pretty cool games coming up (Kirby Epic Yarn, Metroid Other M, Epic Mickey, Zelda, the list goes on) but the really cool bit was the 3DS. Handheld 3D device that doesn't require glasses? I'm pretty sure we won't miss just one of the kids... So yeah, it's officially on the list of things the ol' letter 'd' needs.

In which I try to recap lots of things badly

So. I suppose a lot has happened since last I posted anything of any note. We have had several family members visit and depart, watched some shows, read some books, played some games, gone on a hike, eaten out at far too many restaurants - the list goes on. I'll try to keep this to the highlights.

We had a grand time with Dad while he was here. We managed to let him have some fun this time and didn't force him to fix anything or work on any projects. Instead we went on the aforementioned hike (very short) to a local waterfall and a few other places of interest. We checked out the new Dinosaur museum down by BYU as well. It was a little trippy heading back to the old stomping grounds. I haven't been there for a while and it was interesting to see how things had changed. The museum was nice for a small free place. They had some pretty neat completed skeletons.

We also tried our hand at frisbee golf. And promptly lost the driver frisbee on the 2nd hole. The course itself was not exactly the most amazing thing, unless you like lots of overgrown weeds and a bmx park in the middle... So very strange. I am still intrigued by this concept of frisbee golf though, we may have to see if we can find another course.

Prince of Persia the film was a pretty good time. I rather liked it. It had the same subtle humor from the video game series and some of the same stunts. Lovely wife would have liked some more acrobatics and I would have liked a castle with some saw blades in the walls and spike traps, but for the most part it was good summer fun.

Avatar was surprisingly not bad. I almost regret not seeing it in 3D. If only so I'd have something to compare all the lousy 3D that's out now to. The story certainly didn't tread any new ground (Pocahontas says hi), but the effects were pretty good and it's certainly a solid enough story regardless of originality.

Dad picked up 10 Days in Asia while he was out here. It's basically Racko with geography. Certainly interesting along with frustrating. We had fun playing that and introducing Dad to Pitchcar and a couple others. Didn't get a chance to show him Galaxy Trucker or Tobago this go round. Next time.

I picked up Cthulhu Dice mostly for the die. The game itself is pretty quick and alright as a filler, but the die is cool. I have insidious plans to create my own little game using the die. And possibly the counters. Mwa ha ha ha ha.

Lovely wife's cousin was in town and we had a fun visit with her as well. And I discovered that fried pickles from Texas Roadhouse are awesome. I don't care how awful they are for you I love them. I will have to find a recipe. (Speaking of recipes Dad made us a real nice spicy Eggplant Parmesan. So good.)

Books. Yikes. I suppose if nothing else I should mention that I finished off Rick Riordan's newest, The Red Pyramid. This time he's tackling Egyptian mythology instead of Greek. It's fun. Not quite up there with the Percy Jackson stuff, but fun. I think part of it is that I'm not sure I'm quite as interested in the overarching storyline in the Red Pyramid like I was in the Percy Jackson stuff. The minute to minute plot details are fun though. And it's really nice to see a lesser known mythology get the spotlight.

Other things have certainly happened. Kids are out of school causing mischief. The girls have had one Day Camp set of adventures already and some more are coming up. I'm pretty sure they plan on trying to live at the pool as well. McK decided that bikes are for crashing and got some pretty good road rash...

At any rate, better wind this up. Congrats go out to little sis on the news that it's a boy. Although her naming choices still leave a lot to be desired...

In which an achievement is unlocked

15 year Anniversary get!

That is all.

In which there are some words one after the other

I finished reading The Devil's Trill by Gerald Elias. It was a fun little mystery set in the classical music world.

I'm currently devouring The Red Pyramid by Rick Riordan. It's his new series in which he tackles Egyptian mythology. It's pretty good as well. I really like his stuff.

Lovely wife and I have just about finished up season one of The Dresden Files. I remember watching it back when it was on tv. I'm about to start reading some of the books and decided to watch the one season they made of this all those years ago. It's a little better than I remembered. I suspect mostly because we're watching it on DVD. That seems to make tv so much better.

Lovely wife caught the series finale of Lost the other night. I watched some of it with her. We saw the first season on DVD with the letter 'r'. But then the two of them decided to just watch it as it was broadcast instead of continuing the lovely watch it on DVD tradition. So I didn't keep up. So from a completely not really following the series situation I found the ending ok. Parts of it made some sense and the rest was lost (heh) behind who is that and why does this matter. I didn't bother lovely wife with too many of those questions. Mostly I played Picross 3D and Etrian Odyssey II. They seemed far more entertaining. And possibly more rewarding. I do give them props for trying to tell an actual story across a few seasons though. That's a lesson I wish more tv shows would learn.

So. Vacation time awaits. I will have a lovely week off. Papa del 'd' will be arriving tres soon and we will probably get roped into far too much yard work. Personally I'm hoping for an afternoon watching Prince of Persia and some relaxing. I suspect I won't be so lucky. Alas. Try not to blow up the internet while I'm gone 'k? Thx. Bye.

Insert catchy title here

We finished up the 2 seasons of Survivors that exist. It really was The Walking Dead with no zombies. So very strange. Apparently the show got canned before season 3. I'm not sure if they knew in time or they really planned season 2 to end where it did, but the managed to mostly tie off quite a bit. No looming cliffhangers of any real concern. Well, maybe one, but not really. The characters were only occasionally stupid for the sake of the plot, so that's something. If you run across it, it's worth watching. I think the thing that I liked the best was that they seemed pretty good at showing both sides of a situation. You may not always like the people involved, but you're almost always allowed a chance to see how things are from their perspective.

G has finished preschool. And will probably be pretty bored in kindergarten provided he doesn't forget everything over the summer. They did a really great job teaching letters, sounds, numbers and so on. He was even doing some limited reading by the end of the year. He decided he wanted a copy of Pokemon Monopoly as a reward for finishing. And then promptly kicked lovely wife's butt at it. It was a little amusing.

We picked up a new mower as I was pretty fed up with the old one. It was getting harder and harder to start and I was tired of the lack of self propulsion. So we snagged a self propelled key start mower. It's pretty glorious. While I will never love mowing the lawn, I will now probably not hate it. That key start is an absolutely brilliant feature.

And that's about it. A pretty quiet week. Things will get fun soon though as we have family coming to visit and I will get a week off. Ahhh vacation!

Yes please

Mostly for 'K' and a couple others ('r' comes to mind as well).