A couple quick links

Fun with juggling.

And fun with reflexes.

Seems like I meant to put something else in here this afternoon, but alas, it has escaped my poor work week frazzled mind. Not that it was difficult mind you.

At any rate, have a great weekend.

GDC

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

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

Barbarian bits

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

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

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

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

V is for Very Good

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

And with that have a great weekend.

More cowbell

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

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

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

So you wanna be a hero

First, I really like this blogger widget...

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

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

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

We have contact

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

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

Blogging attempt 1 from Tiger

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

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

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

Game update

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

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

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

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

March on

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

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

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

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

PSA

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

What's this?

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

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

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

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

Weekend recovery

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

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

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

Coming up for air

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dog bites girl

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aquatic

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

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

Poetry

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

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

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

In the background

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

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

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

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

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

Wandering

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

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

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

Quiet

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

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

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

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