Vampires

No, I didn't suddenly read the tween series of death Twilight books. We caught 30 Days of Night, the vampire movie from last year based on a comic book. You know, it might be easier to start pointing out the movies that aren't based on comic books. At any rate. Vampires. These were in your face neck, you'll be dead vampires. No emo, pretty goth boy, oh I'm so lonely, hey want to share my undeath types here. In other words, it was great. Bloody (hello, vampires), but great. There were some nice Bram Stoker's Dracula references as well as some original ideas (the whole concept of the film - vampires attacking Alaska during the month when there's no sun - being the biggest). They had the sense of isolation pretty well captured and they had some great creepy looking vampires. 2 fangs, err, up.

Saturday was spent at the "wedding reception" (read party) for Andy and Amanda. They had Famous Dave's BBQ (yum!) and a bouncy slide. A good time was had by all. I have the slide burns to prove it. The kids had a great time and Heather and I got to relax and chat with some friends from the old job.

Finished off Kino's Journey as well. Nice thoughtful little series. Probably left as many questions unanswered as it answered, but I suspect that was part of the point. Rarely are all of life's questions answered, that whole, it's the journey, not the destination thing.

So little sister #2 gets into town soon. That will be fun. M is definitely looking forward to the Seven Peaks trip. If only we could get her to suggest some birthday gifts.

And you will notice a distinct lack of commentary on the Dr Who season finale. Mostly because, while this season was a touch better than last season in my opinion, it was only a touch. I kept waiting for an episode like Blink. I don't think there was one. Although the Library episode was close.

Marching on

Read The Killing Joke the other day. Batman/Joker story written by Alan Moore (he of Watchmen - go catch the trailer - and V is for Vendetta fame (and a lot more)). It was pretty good. I've heard The Dark Knight takes some elements from it with regards to the Joker and his flexible origin.

Seems like I've read something else, but I forget what. Mostly we've been watching Keen Eddie. Truly a funny show. I'm so shocked that Fox killed it off. I mean, anything that requires a working thought process and an attention span is obviously too good for TV... Well Fox's viewership for sure. I would start to list everything they've killed that fits the bill, but it would take forever and be depressing. At least they're currently showing Bones and House.

So. Since the kids don't read this. At least I don't think they do, I can tell the Tooth Fairy story. We are the worst when it comes to letting the Tooth Fairy know she needs to visit. Middle child lost a tooth on Sunday and put it under her pillow and was excited. Monday morning comes and tooth still there, no money no nothing. M was understandably upset and voiced said upsetness to lovely (and forgetful) wife. McK managed to save the day when she explained that it was Sunday and nobody works on the Sabbath, so obviously Tooth Fairy would visit Monday night. And she did. <sigh> It sounds like she's pulled another tooth and we will need to remind the Tooth Fairy to visit again tonight...

Speaking of the Tooth Fairy, saw Hellboy 2 with the letter 'r' the other night. It was good. Not great, but good. Mostly it made me look forward to the Hobbit movie as del Toro is directing that as well. His fantasy creatures/settings are amazing. (See Pan's Labyrinth and, well, Hellboy 2 for examples.) So, while visually entertaining, Hellboy 2 really could have used a slightly better plot. There were a handful of nods to mythology that are Hellboy trademarks, but the overall story was only ok. Good in pieces, not great as a whole. But the Forest God/jumping bean was pretty amazing.

At any rate, lovely wife has tried to grill some brats. Must go see how they turned out. Because they're brats. They're yummy. They better be. They better be...

The post to annoy my sisters

So. The Library has a bazillion copies of Breaking Dawn. And I read the end and Bella ends up with... Oh wait. I don't want to get fired. But I know, oh yes, I know. Mwa ha ha ha. I like the Library.

That is all.

The Weekend

Well, sort of. I have to go take the car in for an oil change this morning and lovely wife has to run her Mom around for a few errands, so it's not the relax and enjoy type weekend. But we'll get there. McK has read enough books to get a free one from Barnes and Noble. I'm not sure why we're encouraging them to add more books to the house other than the fact that I'm certainly all for reading...

We went kitchen table shopping the other day and found a nice 6-8 person table for $800. They were doing a promotion where if you spent over $400 or so you got to spin the big Wheel O' Prizes™. We managed to win No Sales Tax. Which was lovely. Anyway, the real point of this story is that they had the most beautiful bookshelf unit I've ever seen. It was probably a good 6 feet wide or more (it would easily take up a wall) and it was probably 7-8 feet high. (Again we're talking wall sized here.) It had 4 or 5 shelves across about 3 divisions and then a set of cabinets at the base. But the best part was the sliding ladder that you could move across the face when you wanted to reach something from the top. It was amazing. It was also $3000. If I had a spare $3000 it would have been mine. Oh yes, it would have been mine. As it is I think I'll have to talk to Dad or Uncle Paul. I think they need a new project...

So. Cloverfield. Let's talk Cloverfield. For what it was, I feel it worked. In a found footage, slice of life/documentary sense it was good. Which is to say that I appreciated the movie more than I liked it. I appreciate that you were strictly following a small set of people as they encountered this random monster attack. My wife wanted to know more about the monster. What was it? Where did it come from? Did it die? And so on. This movie doesn't give you that. Oh and yeah, spoilers and what not ahoy. Unread this paragraph if you don't want details about the show. As for me, I was ok with not getting some of that, but I would have liked a little more than you did get. I'm not saying they should have switched to following a scientific or military unit, there was certainly more tension in what they did, but I do like seeing a little more of the monster than you get to see. It's also pretty short, but in some ways this works to it's advantage. The initial, get to know the people segment, was timed just about perfectly - in that if they didn't introduce the monster when they did I was going to start strangling people. I've heard one of the bigger complaints is that you don't care for the main characters. And there's a little truth to that. They're mostly ordinary people with the usual faults, so yeah, kind of jerks. I liked them well enough. Part of my problem was that I kept getting the few things I'd heard about the movie and the big ARG they ran for the movie mixed up. I could swear there was a bit about the monster and the ocean at the end. But that must have been online. Also, I knew the monster was young, but that's not explained in the movie (that I remember - as my wife certainly didn't notice this fact either). Again an online fact that would have been helpful in the movie.

Spoilers still, yadda yadda, last paragraph getting too big. Which I guess brings me to my real issues with the movie. I'm not really young enough for this movie. Or part of the right crowd. This movie was made for that group of people that is part of the Youtube generation. The people that live their lives online. That will play through the ARG and dig out the clues and follow the websites and watch clips and get the whole experience. If you just watch Cloverfield, you're not getting the story. You're getting the hour and a bit in the middle. Which, again, does work for what it is, but don't get fooled into thinking it's the whole story - it isn't. So. There you go. That's Cloverfield. Cool monster that you didn't get to see enough of (and the Statue of Liberty's head bit was very cool) and a story that you're, hey, not getting enough of. Trend spotted. Oh and the shaky cam thing, while not as bad as it certainly could have been, is getting really old. I'm really tired of that.

Finished up a little more Scott Pilgrim and Hikaru no Go. Still both enjoyable. The latest Scott Pilgrim was a little better than volume 3. Not as jumpy around and there were definitely some good jokes in there. Checked out In Search of Anne of Green Gables for my wife. We'll see if she likes it. She often rolls her eyes at me when I try to get her to read or watch things, but then she gets sucked in and I get to say, "See? I know things!". That's fun. And then there's more eye rolling and it's a wonder we're not constantly dizzy.

Mom would have liked this season of Psych. I miss calling her up and saying, "Did you see it? And what about this bit? And this one?" It's pretty good. Although we need to watch last night's episode still. We had a progressive dinner with some folks in the neighborhood. It was fun and the food was good.

Well, this has rambled on long enough. The only bits you're missing out on are stories about G at the pool (and his neverending supply of energy) and umm, other stuff. I've no idea.

Reading update

So, my pile of things to read is far outweighing my pile of things read - the one downside of working in a Library with far too many books. Oddly enough (well ok, not really that odd if you know me) most of what I've completed lately has been graphic novel-y in nature. Lots of Hikaru no Go volumes have been consumed. It's as good a series as I suspected it would be. And it's taken our family by storm. Wife and oldest daughter are thoroughly engrossed. And it might just get us to finally learn to play Go. I've wanted to for quite some time, but the problem is finding someone to teach us...

Let's talk about Scott Pilgrim. I've read through 3 of the 4 volumes currently released in the wild. I think the first is still my favorite. Which isn't to say the rest are bad. There's just a shift in storytelling in volumes 2 and 3 that makes them a little harder to absorb. There's a great deal of temporal shifting that takes place. So it can be a little difficult to follow. And this is compounded by the fact that a lot of the characters are similar looking. So not only do you not know when you are, but you might be confused about who you are as well. But the little jokes and asides and so on are so worth it. Punched the highlights right out of her hair indeed. Brilliant. It's certainly worth checking out.

I can't recall (and am too lazy to go check) if I've talked about the end of Y the Last Man. So I will. Maybe again. Volume 10 of the graphic novels just came out and it was Good. And Sad. But mostly Good. (Well ok, maybe mostly Sad) I am pretty sure I've said that if you only read one post apocalyptic last man on Earth story to read this one. So I won't say that again. But if you do read only one post apocalyptic last man on Earth story, well, yeah. What I said. I would really like to read the stories that they allude to, but don't actually tell. Because then I'd get to read more Y, and that would be a Good Thing. I liked visiting this world. Definitely wouldn't want to live, well most likely have died, there, but visiting was quite nice.

Reading some other things, and lots of things on the aforementioned pile to be read. We are currently watching Keen Eddie on DVD because it's hilarious and tonight I'll finally get to see Cloverfield. Because it's a giant monster movie. And giant monster movies are to be treasured. Lots of stuff in the to be watched pile as well. And I won't talk about the to be played pile...

In other random news, there is less than one month of summer left for the kids. I am pleased by this fact. It was a short summer in a lot of ways, but that's a good thing. For the parents.

New season of Psych is on and it is funny. Please to enjoy. Burn Notice also entertains. And Eureka next week. I knew there was a reason we finally caved and got cable...

Well, this has been thoroughly superficial, but covered a lot of ground. So there you go quantity over quality. It's the American Way. (You have to read that last line in a Sam the Eagle sort of voice. Go ahead, go on back and do it again, I'll wait.) Oh we're done here. Never mind. Turn the light off on your way out.

Dr. Horrible

If you're seeing this on Saturday, July 19th then you can still check out Dr. Horrible for free - Joss Whedon's Evil Mad Scientist musical. It's as good as it sounds. And funny too. I was unaware that Neil Patrick Harris and Nathan Fillion could sing. My wife claims to have known about Neil. I'm not quite sure I believe her, but she does pay a little more attention to these types of things than I do.

There have certainly been plenty of links to this running around. I almost didn't check it out because it was the "new big thing". I'm glad I caved, it was fun to watch. And since I waited till last night, we managed to watch all three acts right in a row. There are times that being lazy and indifferent work.

So E3 was this week. Everyone's pretty upset at Nintendo and their lack of anything that looks interesting. They're definitely catering to the new gamer crowd that they've created with the Wii. I will admit that the new Wii Sports title sounds interesting. And maybe Animal Crossing. I don't know that I care about the rest. Wii Music sounds a little too simple. I suspect the kids would love it, but I like there to be game in my music game. The one I really want is Fatal Frame 4. The first one scared the crap out of me. I'd like another scary game. Those are a blast.

Reading The Omnivore's Dilemma on K's recommendation. Boy is the food industry screwed up in this country. But I still love me a cheeseburger. Mmmm cheeseburger.

It's Carnival time here. Kids are pretty excited about that. Apparently our oldest actually rode the little ring "roller coaster" that takes you upside down. I'd have liked to see that. I'm sure she'll ride again today, so we'll see how terrified she is, but since it's old hat now, probably not as scared as she should be. ^_^

And our middle child has just about picked up all the intricacies of riding a bike. It's been a busy summer here. So many little milestones and so on.

Stealthy crochet ninja is stealthy

stealthy crochet ninja,
originally uploaded by dkun.

So, ran across the book Creepy, Cute Crochet while at the Library a few weeks ago. Had to check it out for the crochet Cthulhu. As the crocheted Elder God was a step up in difficulty that my talented wife wasn't quite ready to tackle (and she didn't want to lose her sanity by offending said Elder God with a less than perfect rendition) she opted to start with the adorable little fellow hiding in the foliage here. Just don't let him hear you call him adorable. Ninja dude. He'll mess you up. He's got a throwing star and everything.

So, of course, everyone in the family wanted one. The soon to be Crochet Dojo of Death now has two students, but there will be more. Oh yes, there will be more. Mwa ha ha ha ha. Run for your lives puny mortals, for after the ninja, there will be zombies. And then Cthulhu himself will rise from the abyss and devour your souls with his cute, yet nefarious plots. And photos.

New Look

We'll see how this goes. Site under new management, not responsible for old content, pardon our dust, nothing to see here, move along. Hey Look! Godzilla!

Whither the Weekend

Watched Nightwatch last night. Russian film from a few years ago. Parts horror, fantasy (of the urban sort), sci-fi. There's a lot of promise there, but it's a little on the "you must pay Attention" side of things for late on a Friday night. It also doesn't help when the copy you have is scratched six ways to Sunday and you suddenly have to switch languages halfway through so you can actually finish watching it (the Russian was on one side and the English the other). I can see why the director seems to be taking off (I believe he did the just recently released Wanted). He has some flair and some new things to bring to film. May try to track down Daywatch and see where things went.

Looks like younger sister has started a blog. Some neat photos and Kaijsa stories. This is good. I used to threaten to tell Kaijsa stories, looks like her mother will take care of it for me. Nice little template they're using too. I might have to go peek around at the newer blogger templates... We'll see.

Got the kids Pokémon toys from BK last night. There was much rejoicing from the younger set. It prints money I tell ya.

Sounds like the new Twilight book release is almost on par with Harry Potter. Not quite the same level, but close. I believe that series has sucked in a good portion of my family. Mostly the younger, female portion. I saw her new book Host at the Library a few weeks ago, but it didn't sound quite interesting enough to pick up. I'd probably almost prefer the vampires to the aliens, but the romance heavy plot would probably make me too dizzy from all the eye rolling. I will admit to liking the fact that some of her fans prefer to be called Twihards. Hee hee...

Quest for fire

BBQ grill has been set up which means honeymoon phase for grilling. So far we've done brats and burgers, up tonight are chicken shish-kabobs. I really, really love grilling. My Dad was in town over the 4th, which was great. We had a good visit and actually managed to get the baseboards put up and finally finish the new floors we got, umm, well ok, like a year ago. But he brought out a rather nice Weber grilling book with lots of tips and recipes. He also provided the new grill so, big thanks Dad. It was a tough call between gas and charcoal. We eventually settled on gas simply because it was a little more likely to get used. The learning curve on charcoal was a little daunting.

At any rate, so many things to experiment with: shrimp, steaks, more burgers, more brats, ok must go get grill warmed up... heh heh.

Saw Wall-E with Dad and the family over the weekend. Pixar has to have made some sort of deal with the Devil, their films are far too amazing for any other explanation. Possibly a pact with Cthulhu, that's rather likely as well. Basic point: Wall-E good. Go see.

Spiderwick Chronicles was also good. Although a little unsettling for our younger viewers. Lovely wife had some issues with the deviations from the book. Me not so much. Pretty good time for fantasy film fans. There are far too many movies to see and books to read and games and food and... must go rock in the corner for a moment while I contemplate overwhelming forces, err dinner. Yes. Dinner. Must go cook dinner. Fire. Meat. -insert Tim Allen/Home Improvement grunting-

Mornings

Well, it was a quiet Saturday morning until about 5 minutes ago. First G woke up and then it wasn't long before the others joined him. I'm sure the lovely H is still in bed. I'm pretty sure she'd sleep through a nuclear holocaust. Especially once the mutant cannibalistic humanoids showed up. After all, if she can sleep through the kids, what makes you think a mutant cannibalistic humanoid has a shot?

Watched Dead Alive the other night. One of Peter Jackson's earlier films (if not his first, I can never remember). Gloopy, campy zombie movie. It was pretty fun. Pre-zombie priest was my favorite character.

And in case you actually catch this early enough, it's Free RPG day! Go grab some free RPG stuff. And some polyhedral dice. Everyone needs their own d20. Or maybe a d10, I like those a lot as well. And if you have kids (and a DS) apparently there's another free Pokemon that can be picked up over at Gamestop. I have a sneaking suspicion that we'll be heading over so McK can add another Pokemon to her roster.

Read Scott Pilgrim volume 2 and Y the Last Man volume 5. Both excellent in vastly different ways. 2nd volume of Scott Pilgrim wasn't quite as funny as the first, but spent a little more time filling in some of the characters. The fight with the second evil ex-boyfriend certainly had some moments though. I like all the little video game and music references that get placed in the story. Some obvious, some not so. Y the Last Man continues to ratchet up the tension. I'm really looking forward to seeing where this goes. If you read only one apocalyptic last man on Earth story this year... heh heh.

Dr Who season 4 is still pretty good. Last night's episode was the first of a two parter, so, cliff hanger-y. I'm still waiting for an episode as good as Blink from last season. It's a pity I really didn't like season three as I'd almost pick it up just to get that episode. If I run across it on sale, it'll probably happen. I suppose I could try to grab it off iTunes or something, but that would take a little too much voodoo to play on the TV easily.

Well off to check out Feed the Animals' Girl Talk and Gnarls Barkley's St. Elsewhere.

More random thoughts (now with a third less calories)

Working at the library has certainly made it easier (in some ways) to catch up on my reading. I saw an interesting article on the possibility that Google is making us stupid. Or at least unable to read long articles/novels. It dealt with how the internet is changing our brains and the way we're processing information. It was interesting, but I only skimmed it. And of course can't recall the magazine it was in. I'd hit google, oh wait...

I also suspect Google/Yahoo are poking fun at Microsoft by updating their spam filter to send anything from hotmail into said spam filter.

At any rate. Reading. Yes. Lots of graphic novels of late. Some Hikaru no Go, some Y the Last Man, did I mention Scott Pilgrim? Currently reading A Simple Plan by Scott Smith (of The Ruins most recently). Finished off Little Brother. So many books to enjoy. ^_^ Little Brother was pretty good. Rather scary in a couple places. I've not been a big fan of the way privacy rights have been heading in this country. If you wanted a look at it, this book will definitely spook you a little.

Not had a whole lot of time for gaming of late. Ticket to Ride: the Card Game is pretty interesting. It's got a nice little mechanic and yet still has some definite similarities to the board game. Metal Gear Solid 4 has come out to tie up the Solid Snake story line, but I've not got a PS3, so I'll have to wonder. For that matter I never managed to play through the 3rd one, so I actually have a fair amount of catching up to do.

Father's Day was nice. Kids got me a card and some chocolate (the above mentioned Metal Gear Solid 3 is apparently shockingly difficult to come by at the moment. Who knew?). I'm ready for summer to be over. Oh wait... Hmm.

Learned a bit about wikis today. They are rather nifty. I always wanted to learn about them, but never really had the time/opportunity. It will be cool if we can get the library wiki to take off. Could be a good knowledge base.

Well, I'd best go contemplate downloading Firefox 3...

Round up

Picked up Wii Fit. Considering exercise is a pretty foreign concept to me, it's a decent workout. Hopefully I can keep myself motivated enough to use it. It does have a few "gamer" hooks - unlock new exercises (which is somewhat frustrating as you can't really build an exercise routine until you see what all is offered), competition (with yourself and others) and so on. It's a nice little package. That I'm sure will be improved immensely in version 2.0. (And I can't believe some of the ebay prices for this thing...)

Boom Blox by Spielberg and EA is a pretty fun little game as well. And Graeme is surprisingly good at it. Admittedly when it involves knocking things down or blowing things up, it's hard to beat a 3 year old boy. The girls get a kick out of it as well. Amazing thing this Wii. ^_^

Goose Girl by Shannon Hale is a wonderful little story. I'm not horribly familiar with the original fairy tale so in a lot of ways this was pretty fresh, but it's a good story either way. Give it a go if you like fairy tales or books with good stories.

There's a lot more I should ramble on about: Scott Pilgrim, Hellboy Volume 1 (the amazing library edition), Altered Carbon, the list goes on, but I think I'll leave it at those. Which isn't to say you got the top three or so, just the ones that were topmost in my consciousness.

It's still been an interesting couple of months. The new job is sort of settling in on me. It's still very different and I'm going to have to play with things to make it actually work as something that will support the family, but there are certainly some really nice aspects to it. Still lots of family drama. And still lots of adjusting to all the changes we've been through. But we're getting there.

I've been on a salsa making kick lately. I think I'll probably stop buying store bought salsa and just make my own for a while. It's a little time consuming but the results are so worth it. Next up is home made tortilla chips and home made ramen.

Have I mentioned Upgrade Your Life, the new book by the Lifehacker editor? I picked it up and there are some nice little tricks in there. It's been rather helpful with the new job as well. I need to be a lot more organized there than I'm used to. Heh.

It's-a Friday

Not that I can really tell anymore. Tomorrow night is the Video Games Live concert. Pretty excited about that, it should be lots of fun. Utah Symphony, video game music, set pieces, what's not to love? A big thanks to the letter 'r' for the tickets.

Waiting on word from the library. I hate waiting.

As tired as I am of the stress we've got going on, I am at least thankful that we don't have the added health problems my sister's family is going through. Our stress may be at a nice 8 or 9, but she's managed to dial things all the way to 11.

Brawl has left the house, but not the minds of the kids. All four of us. It's a good game. Can see why it's so popular.

We've borrowed a rather large bean bag for movie night tonight. It is actually quite large, not just rather large.

Seems as if there was a story that needed to be recorded here for whatever purpose, but of course I have completely forgotten it. Oh well. The perils of getting old I guess.

Happy Easter

Easter is once again here. Kids had a relatively grand morning. We managed to keep the sugar consumption fairly low so we had a grand morning as well. We did the annual Easter Egg Hunt yesterday, I suspect for the last time. The event has really outgrown the way it's been done. They get enough kids there now that they either need to resegment the age groups or they need to run it a few times. You wait for it to start for 15 minutes and then it's over in 30 seconds and if you have nice/timid kids they're lucky if they managed to grab an egg... Oh well.

Super Smash Brothers Brawl (or Brother Smashers if you're our kids) has taken over. It's grown on me quite a bit. I was horrible at the Gamecube version. I seem to have figured a few things out with this one. It's just a rental at the moment, but if the kids have any say, it'll find its way here somehow.

Caught Beowulf the other night. It was alright. Nothing to write home about, but certainly ok.

Well, must go entertain the natives. Happy Easter.

Words, words, words

Watched Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead last night. Still quite the enjoyable show. Proof that Hamlet is still quite the piece of work and that Tom Stoppard is pretty spiffy himself. Friends from way back will most likely remember drawing up rules to the game Questions after viewing that sequence a time or two too many.

Speaking of games, picked up Alhambra, it looks to be lots of fun. Will let you know once it's out of the box and been taken for a spin or two. (Did I mention that San Juan is pretty good? Nice set of training wheels for Puerto Rico while still being quite enjoyable on its own.)

Mostly treading water waiting for Wednesday. Family gets into town on Tuesday, so that will provide all of 12 hours or so of distraction. But that will most likely involve a plumbing project so it might be quite the distraction. Heh.

Lovely wife and the girls are out in the snow selling Girl Scout cookies. Am terribly glad it's them and not me. True dedication. Or something else equally cliché.

Graeme has taken to calling the girls "my girls". Are my girls back from school yet? I want to play a game with my girls. I need to get a Graeme's Girls poster made using Charlie's Angels as the template. So wrong it's right I tell ya.

And a one and a two

Yes, two posts (ah ah ah).

I think I need to track down a copy of Alhambra. Went out to dinner the other evening with some friends (steak is yummy) and said game came up in conversation. Just after I was looking at it in the store with puppy dog eyes. A sign it is.

It's rather amazing how many little things can take up your day. I've always had respect for my better half for this sort of thing. It's gone up a fair amount these last few weeks.

I was watching the remake of Dawn of the Dead earlier. Partially because, hey zombie movie, and partially because the Reel Horror podcast covered the recent Day of the Dead remake. Vegan zombie indeed. You should track down that review if for no other reason than to hear the Stephen Hawking zombie. Really.

There are very strange cartoons on the Cartoon Network. That is all.

I believe I have succeeded in convincing Graeme that he is a dinosaur. That is also all. (While that might not be quite the feat that was turning Miranda into a zombie, this is a much more persistent change, so I think it gains a few more points.)

News (not really)

Well, it's been a while again. And a lot has happened in that time.

I think I'll avoid all the messy details. Mostly I wanted to get a few words up on the ol' blog again.

Daylight Savings Time is once again playing havoc with our home life. I'm not sure why this thing is still around. It hates us it does. And we hates it. Oh yes, we hates it with the passion of a thousand burning suns.

Games have been played, movies watched, trips taken, people seen. Some of those things were good. Some not so good. But even the not so good things had their moments. We got to see lots of family over the last little while and that was pretty good.

Due to circumstances (the aforementioned and then avoided messy details) I'm currently taking a long look at things and trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up and so on. The front runner is a librarian. We'll see if that pans out. I'd really like to get out of the tech sector but I have secret fears that it's not going to let me go. We shall see.

Gee, it's hard to do this when you're out of practice. And you have no desire to dissect your personal life in front of you lot. Heh. I suppose a lot of it comes down to the realization that some of the things I used to blether on about really don't compare to the things taking up so much of my time these days. But those things aren't something I feel like putting on display at the moment. So we shall wait for time to pass and then I can get back to musing on trivialities.

We shall see.

So I suppose I should pass you along to some other sector of the internet where you can find something of interest. Try here. It should be good for a few moments worth of diversion. If not, well, this is the internet. Sink or swim.

Take a breath

Well.

Yes.

Lost Cities is brief gaming brilliance. It's a two player card game that plays quickly and yet involves some decent strategy. Can you get those last few cards played before your opponent exhausts the draw pile? Do you feel lucky punk? Well do you? Surprising amount of tension in a deceptively simple mechanic. Snag a copy.

Penny Dreadful was just that. Dreadful. That movie should have ended when the trunk was closed the second time.

Read all the Jesse Stone novels as well as the Dexter novels. All recommended. Dexter in particular.

The kids are gearing up for Halloween and then it's a dinosaur birthday for wee Graeme. Looking forward to that.

Managed a game of Arkham Horror the other day. Lost and the world was devoured. Poor world.

Well hello there

This quarter's update brought to you by the number 3. As in yeah, three months. Huh. Who'da thunk?

So, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Great book. Nice ending to the series and all that. I'm sad to see it end, but what a way to go. There were some niggly bits, sure, but over all quite the ride. I'll not say too much here as it is still pretty new, but the wife and I both enjoyed it.

Ran through The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan as well. Nice little story. Makes you want to go read Greek Mythology. Speaking of which, I've managed to aquire a nice copy of Bulfinch's Mythology courtesy of some friends of ours in Colorado. Yay.

Saw the fifth HP movie. It did a good job of hitting the highlights from the book. Some good moments, some ok moments. Luna was an inspired casting choice. Absolutely perfect.

Have I mentioned that Hey! That's My Fish is a rather fun little game? Well it is. I'm looking at possibly snagging a copy of Runebound at the moment. I have a bit of a fantasy itch that I'm hoping that will scratch. Speaking at least indirectly of boardgames, Pulp Gamer is a pretty good podcast for those interested in games of the table top variety.

The latest episode of Escape Pod, Conversations With and About My Electric Toothbrush was quite amusing. One of the better stories in a while.

Gee, so many random things to cover, so little that actually matters. We had a lovely trip to Texas to see the folks. Got to shoot off lots of exciting fireworks. Saw the Star Wars exhibit at the Science Museum. That was pretty nifty. So many fun models and a hover chair/car thing to ride. Nice.

Now to go track down a copy of Behind the Mask.