iFlea

This is brilliant.

Quiet

And family has once again left and the house returns to the dull roar of normality. Well as normal as you can get with three kids and a dog. Temperatures have been in the hundred degree range but that doesn't seem to affect the kids much. They still run around and get up to mischief.

Hit Burger King in a vain attempt to get one of those Amazon cash cards that might be worth something. It was worth a buck. Pretty typical. Brother-in-law wins a PSP and we win a buck. ^_^ I have absolutely no luck when it comes to drawings and contests like that. My wife won $100 in those gold Sacagawea dollars from Cheerios once. And I managed to snag a gift certificate to a restaraunt at work. But that's about it.

At any rate Harry Potter shows up in a couple days, so maybe somebody famous will deliver it...

Be afraid

So. I saw a brief teaser on TV the other day for Hail to the Chief. (I believe was the title) And Hollywood's quest to elect Hillary Clinton has begun. <sigh> She's the absolute last thing this country needs. And unfortunately this next election is probably her best chance to win. Here's to hoping that doesn't come to pass.

Had a half day at work today so I could get in to the dentist. Good thing I grew up with flouridated water. Too bad they don't do that here. Now if I can just sort out what's behind the strange noise the Saturn is making...

Go wander over here for a diversion.

Family

Sister and her family in town today and tomorrow. Her husband just won a PSP and brought it along. Lucky git. It's actually the first PSP I've seen close up. The screen is indeed very nice. It's a nice looking little device. Still want a DS though. There's not a lot of software out for the PSP at the moment and other than Lumines, none of the games scream "Own me!" Plus the whole multimedia thing just kind of irks me. Why buy one device that does everything sort of well when you can buy several that do each really well? ^_^

At any rate, off to go be sociable or something.

Names

The letter 'r' sent along this interesting little site that lets you know how common/rare your name is. Works for both given and family names. Those who know me will be little surprised that my last name was oddly rare. So surprising that...

At any rate the week is off to a, well, a start I suppose. I can't really claim more than that. The lawn has been mowed, the mower is still acting a mite strange, and the girls continue to drive my wife crazy. Nothing new there.

We've let McKenna try her hand at guitar lessons. It's been an interesting experience to say the least. I'm pretty musical. My wife is not. McKenna falls somewhere in between. I'd say she has my love of music and my wife's talent, but that might be true mean. Actually my wife enjoys music as well. She's just rhythmically challenged. And McKenna inherited that. Which makes it difficult to play the guitar when you have problems locating the beat... So yeah, lessons (and practices) are interesting.

Bruce!

Bruce
Originally uploaded by dkun.

So today was the day - went to the book signing/film showing. We opted not to go to the show. Bruce was fun to meet. He complimented me on my shirt and then asked what I did. In my defense, I hate answering this question. So I said, "Just work."

"Isn't that what I asked? What do you do?"

"Oh..." and then I mumbled some form response thing about medical journals and so on. And he said that was great.

So I can say I've been both complimented and mocked by Bruce Campbell. Groovy. ^_^

And please ignore the bizarre facial hair. I was bored...

Book 28

Just finished The Tesseract by Alex Garland. It was an odd read. It was easy to read, and yet a struggle at the same time. Oddly interesting and not at the same time. About as much of a puzzle as the subject matter of the book itself. I suppose I'd say it's my least favorite of the three books he's written that I've read. I still believe The Coma to be the best of the three, but you can see the seeds of that book lying dormant in this one. So, it exists in some uneasy space that's both good and bad. A tesseract on its own...

At any rate, it's easy to say that Garland is a talented writer and one I've enjoyed reading. If you run across a book of his, I'd say it's worth picking up. You'll probably find something of value inside. And really, not much more than that needs to be said.

And another thing (or two)

This = Cool Art.

And this (from Boing Boing) is just plain cool.

Plans

Have been made. The letter 'r', myself and another compatriot shall venture forth tomorrow and procure autographed copies of Bruce's new book. Mwa ha ha! I doubt we'll stick around for the screening of his movie, but a signed book is compensation enough.

After school cartoons

Jackie Chan Adventures and Xiao Lin Showdown are still pretty good... I've fallen out of the habit of watching things on Saturday mornings. But the girls have picked up the habit, so I occasionally hear about the silliness that passes for marketing entertainment these days. I miss good Saturday morning cartoons...

Apparently Bruce Campbell will be in town this weekend doing a book signing and showing off his new movie. I'd like to get over there, but not sure I'll make it.

And that's about all I've got.

Random

The Descent looks like it should be pretty good. Wonder when it'll wind its way over here...

Oddly, short weeks never really feel all that short. Sometimes they're not so bad, but then you have the kind that just drag on and on. And being tired certainly has an effect on that.

So. I've been roped into the scouting program. Webelos Den Leader. Well, really assistant Den Leader. I'll pause for some laughter. There is a cruel humor to the universe on occasion. At least there's no camping. That would have nixed any possibility of this happening. Maybe there should have been some camping...

At any rate, I picked up F Zero GX and Warrior Within yesterday. Both are a little more difficult than they should be. At least with F Zero it's a difficulty that should lessen with some practice. Warrior Within is just a bizarre anomaly.

Happy 4th

To my friends. A big thanks to the letter 'r' for the barbecue. It was quite nice. Next time we'll duct tape the girls so they don't cause quite as much havoc. Hope everyone had a nice day.

Watched a bit of the original Thomas Crown Affair the other night. Didn't come away terribly impressed. Mostly they tried too hard. The chess game sequence is a perfect example. There were some nice sensuous bits, but there were also a lot of over the top "Come hither" moments. Overall I'd stick with the remake.

And managed to snag a couple cheap games today due to silly 4th of July sales. So here's to the occasional bout of rampant commercialism.

Morning sky

sky
Originally uploaded by dkun.

I took this the other morning around 6:45 or so. I happened to glance out into the back yard and realized the sky was quite lovely with lots of little fluffy clouds. They had moved around a bit before I managed to get the camera, but here you go. My first attempt at nature photography.

Still laughing

BEST. MOVIE CRITICS. EVER.

Yard work... of DOOM

So, apparently this has been a DOOM filled week. Was going to mow the lawn today, but the mower had other ideas. It started up like normal, ran for about two seconds and then died with a cough of black smoke. And refused to start up again. Ended up having to borrow a neighbour's mower as the lawn really needed a trim. Stupid yard work implements. Stupid yard work.

Even regular work was rather frustrating today. But then again when isn't it?

At any rate, it's a three day weekend and tomorrow is Friday. ^_^

Plus there are rumors that Nintendo's new console will be relatively inexpensive. Certainly in relation to the other two. Smart move on the big N's part.

The Fog rolls back in

Have I mentioned that they're remaking The Fog? I love that movie. Classic Carpenter. Wonder how they'll remake it? Hopefully they'll keep all the charming bits - cheesy frame story, evil townspeople, conflicted undead sailors... It just goes on. ^_^

Anyway, not much else to ramble on about. It's been a quiet kind of day. And that's a pretty good thing.

Tuesday... of DOOM

King Kong has a trailer now. Looks pretty good actually. Special effects have come a long way.

And other than that I don't really have a lot to say. I suppose a better title would have been IMPENDING DOOM as I suspect I shall have a few things to discuss come the weekend.

The only bright spot is that I think I may have sorted out my time off for the rest of the year and come August I'll be on short weeks. w00t. Or exclamation of joy of your choice.

Book 27

Finished The Beach by Alex Garland. Odd combination of Lord of the Flies and something like Utopia. Garland's writing style is enjoyable and he creates characters that are interesting to follow, but overall I'm not sure I'd recommend this book. We'll see how The Tesseract goes next. Maybe that will help cement a few things. I suspect that The Coma will end up being my favorite story by him. (Although the 28 Days Later screenplay would be a close second...)

I'm not entirely sure what puts me off The Beach. The drug use got a bit old. There were some good bits though. Almost anything involving Keaty, Jed or Mister Duck was worthwhile. I suppose part of it is that I just don't really identify with that subset of my generation. That and I'm not entirely certain that is my generation. I'm probably just old enough that I fall into that group right before "Gen X". But the idea that you could find a quiet, untouched place is an interesting theme worth exploring. I may have to track down Lost Horizon as I've heard it looks at some of the same things. It's interesting to me that some of the classics are now coming out repackaged for a new group of people...

Trickery

My wife and I do have some overlapping tastes in entertainment. While she doesn't enjoy cheap horror like I do, I can get her to watch some regular horror as well as action and suspense. We both like platform games and we enjoy some of the same types of literature. A lot of this has to do with the fact that we've been together for quite a while. By now we've pretty much merged what we do like and know to enjoy the other stuff on our own time. But there are times she refuses to believe this. While I will admit to some rather bad guesses earlier on in our marriage, by now I'm pretty good at it.

So, I told her she should read The Coma. It was interesting and I figured she'd enjoy it. She didn't believe me. We were going to head to the library today to poke around for a few things for the kids. The Coma was a new book so it was due back a little earlier than a couple of the other books we have out at the moment. I asked if she was going to read it or not. She hemmed and hawed a bit so I said, "Look, just read the first five pages. You'll know then whether or not if you want to read it." So she did and of course she finished it a couple hours later. I tried not to say "I told you so" too many times. And I didn't point out the sheepish expression on her face. Well, I'm pointing it out now, but that's different. ^_^

I'm glad she enjoyed it though. I think she's one step closer to trusting me when I recommend things for her.

And on an unrelated note, it looks liks Land of the Dead is getting good reviews. Good on Romero. Look forward to checking that out at some point...

Links

This is an interview with George Romero. Land of the Dead comes out tomorrow. It was an interesting interview. I especially liked the bit that involved the actors from Shaun of the Dead. That and the fact that Romero is not a fan of speedy zombies...

This is a Japanese IQ test. Hit the big blue circle and then try to get all the people across the river.

And that's enough entertainment for now.