Image Generators

Power Nap,
originally uploaded by dkun.

I think I technically accomplished this the other day when I created that cover for Ninja!, but image generators are fun. So I had to make a motivational poster. This was a pretty quick one, but it turned out alright if I do say so myself. I will say that I could probably waste far too much time at fd's Flickr Toys. They've got quite the collection of things to play around with. This picture almost got turned into a trading card (and probably still will). This would certainly be a fun way to interact with family and friends. I believe there are a lot of websites that get up to image battles. Fark and Something Awful come to mind. Although I believe they tend to rely more on actual photoshop skills. Nothing like a good meme tethered to an image.

I think I need a nap...

Books, books, books

So I read The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. Bleak. I had heard about it a few different times over the last couple months. They're turning it into a movie and I believe the director of Terminator 4 has been passing it around to the cast to serve as food for thought on the mood he's going for with that film as well. I can see why. It's an odd little read. McCarthy seems to be afraid of punctuation for some reason. Either that or he thought channeling ee cummings was a good idea. The story centers around a father and son trying to survive in a post apocalyptic America. They follow the titular road as they head for warmer climes trying to survive the hellish weather. And even more hellish survivors. Some pretty eerie bits and some pretty depressing bits. It's certainly worth reading, but you'll want a teddy bear by then end.

You may have noticed a lot of zombies in the Good Reads sidebar over there. I shambled through Kirkman's The Walking Dead books. Another one I don't really have a lot to say about. Also bleak. And depressing. I need some light reading again. It's an ok series if you're a zombie fan. Although in a lot of ways, it's not really a zombie story. Which actually makes it more of a zombie story. If you watch zombie films or read zombie books that made perfect sense.

I'm smack in the middle of Only Revolutions by Danielewski. I rather enjoyed House of Leaves and was interested in his new(ish) book. It's claim to literary oddness is that you read 8 pages from one side following lead character Sam and then flip the book over and read 8 pages by other lead character Hailey (or vice versa). It's like James Joyce. Doubled. Made up words, stream of consciousness fantasy/history/strangeness. Don't know if I like it. It's certainly a bit tough to follow. I only have a vague idea what's going on in the plot. We'll see if I really make it through it.

And the Firefly essay book was good. I've read a lot lately...

As for other things of interest, Psych, Burn Notice and Eureka are all good this season. Although Psych season 2, still a touch better.

My sister gave us that Twilight series. I'm going to have to throttle my wife if she doesn't finish them soon. Dishes and children are piling up. It's not very pretty. <sigh> chick lit. Tween chick lit at that. Her definition of "just one more page" could give football minutes a serious run for their money. I'm pretty sure small dictatorships have been toppled by the time she finishes "just one more page". Twice.

RSS and this here blog thing

I'm going to tackle a couple topics in one post. Be amazed. RSS is a nifty little thing. Google Reader is my friend. It wasn't always, and I will not cop to how recently (or not) I started using it. But in much the same way Delicious allows access to your bookmarks from anywhere, something like Google Reader allows access to your favorite sites from anywhere. (I'm pretty sure we will one day soon simply buy computers built by whoever and they will run Google OS. They'll have Firefox as the default browser and then off you'll go doing just about everything you do now through Google. Although it will be interesting to see how third party developers will handle this. There are still a few apps that Google hasn't put online for you to mess around with. But some day. SOME DAY!)

Anyway, back at the ranch. Yes. Google Reader will allow you to subscribe to the feeds that all your favorite little websites provide. You can then browse the new content in one handy little location. I myself recommend the Google Reader widget for the personalized iGoogle homepage. It's Grrreat. (All apologies to Tony the Tiger...) I used to handle this through live bookmarks in Firefox. Which I still like, but Google Reader really does make quick browsing of things pretty handy. Plus the ability to star something for later is a must have.

As for locating feeds. Well, this is where you realize the net is vast and infinite. And boy howdy is there a lot of crap out there. Places like Technorati will let you find things that they keep tabs on, but using them today was a little on the frustrating side as they seemed to be having some issues. Google Reader itself allows you to search for things and even recommends things based on what you've subscribed to. How Amazon of them. It was rather nice to use though. And there are a handful of other things. Personally I rather like the little Google Reader bookmarklet that simply allows you to subscribe to something from the site itself while you're there.

And again, of what use might this be to the library? Well. Libraries could certainly create some feeds. You could have the new book feed, possibly a book review feed. If the Library has a blog, it most likely has a feed that can be subscribed to. It's another way for patrons to keep tabs on things and see what's going on. The nice thing about this, is it's a way to push content to your patrons. Once you've made them aware of it, they can choose to participate or not. But if they subscribe to a feed, they can be automatically notified about a variety of things. So. Content. Yes, have some.

Trading card get

'd',
originally uploaded by dkun.

Yeah, had to throw one together. I may sadly make a lot of these...

Ninja! Premiere issue (or More on Flickr)

Ninja! Premiere issue,
originally uploaded by dkun.

So, much like the Transformers, there is more to Flickr than meets the eye. People (who must have far too much time on their hands) have created little applications that let you manipulate your photos. This site has a whole slew of applications that let you toy around with your pictures. I messed around with the magazine cover app a little (working in serials it made sense) and then realized that I didn't really have all day to get my cover of Ninja! perfect. It's close though.

I'm not entirely certain how the library can make use of this in a Public Service sort of way, but I'm sure all sorts of fun can be had for book displays and so on. So behind the scenes ftw! I will have to make a Librarian Trading Card. Although that might mean using a photo of myself. Hmm. At any rate, there are some pretty nifty tools out there - calendars, fake magazine covers, motivational posters the list goes on. Check it out.

Dread Cthulhu and Flickr

Dread Cthulhu,
originally uploaded by dkun.

I've had a Flickr account for a while. Originally it was meant to be a place I could put family photos online for far away family to see. I wasn't very good at that. And my family wasn't very good at realizing they were there. Admittedly I probably needed to tell them. And then tell them again. And send an e-mail with the link. And, well, you get the picture. (Pun fully intended) I find the service to be quite wonderful although I don't make near enough use of it. I'm bad at tagging things (I will possibly get better in my post Delicious life) and worse at actually taking pictures, getting them off the camera, and then uploading them. It looks like there are some nice little freeware programs that might make the uploading a little less painful. And might even encourage more Flickr use.

At any rate, here is lovely amigurumi Cthulhu prepared to devour a helpless ship at, err, sea. Lovely wife finally finished Cthulhu (after going only slightly insane) and he has made his way to my desk. All must submit to Dread Cthulhu. If only to bask in his evil cuteness.

Hugo and messing with the internet

So, The Invention of Hugo Cabret. Truly wonderful book that. Go and read it. Now. I'll wait. See? Pretty amazing stuff, I told you so. It's a beautiful blend of words, drawings and photos. The way they all work together to tell and draw you into the story is pretty amazing. I've heard they want to turn it into a movie. They shouldn't. While some stories work across mediums, I can't imagine film adding anything to this story. It's already cross medium in the book and unless they're going to go the silent movie route for portions and have words on screen and a few other film bending tricks, it just doesn't make sense to me. I suppose it could be interesting to try, but simply as a film, it doesn't work.

Also, monkeying with some back end stuff, so we'll see how this goes. Hopefully you won't actually notice any differences, I'm just trying to make things easier for me.

Drawing Words and Writing Pictures was also interesting. It's more a classroom/instruction book than I was expecting. It's not like Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud. There's certainly some good stuff, but certainly more for those with a serious interest in doing something about drawing than learning about it.

One More (Library)Thing

Need to round out this tagging exercise and talk about Library Thing. As you can see from the sidebar I found Library Thing a while ago. I believe I ran across it on Neil Gaiman's blog. At first I was pretty entranced. Thumbnails of book covers! My collection out there for all to see! Oh... I have to put them in. Um, but I love books. I have no space in my house for all my books. I am so not cataloging all of these. Especially when I can't find my actual version on this site! Why do you make me hurt you internet? I'm sorry, I've found someone new... I actually like GoodReads better. And I can follow authors like the aforementioned Neil Gaiman there and maybe Felicia Day from Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog (just to see what she reads you know, totally not in a creepy internet stalker sort of way. Oh wait. Did I say that out loud? On the internet? Hey look Godzilla!). And e-mail updates comparing friends and categories and Q&A stuff, and well, she's just better in my opinion. Remember the good times Library Thing, the good times. <quietly back away>

And how creepy is it that my author tag cloud has Michael Crichton so prominently featured. Well ok, his older stuff was pretty good, but his newer stuff? Yikes!

Technorati and Cabret

First things first. Why is Paris Hilton included in a list of top anything, anywhere? Have we not managed to rid ourselves of this evil yet? #8 on top searches? Really? Are they searching for her brain? Her morals? Oh wait, those are things that will never be found. Silly me.

At any rate, Technorati seems like a little too much peeking behind the curtain of the web. I'm glad it's there (I suppose) in a bringing things together sense. But it seems like a lot of effort for something... not quite intangible, but something like that. I suppose there are sites that live or die by a Technorati ranking (and I certainly know of/use several that are listed in the popularity rankings), but meh. I just can't get that excited. Searching the site was sort of interesting, things narrowed down a touch with each "filter". But I don't know that it seems terribly practical from a search engine standpoint. I suspect I just need some re-edumacation or something when it comes to this place. (And I must admit, the herd mentality in me really wants me to claim this poor little blog. Must resist herd mentality...)

In other news, The Invention of Hugo Cabret, by Brian Selznick is awesome (thus far). Why was I not informed of this sooner? Demerits for the lot of you. DEMERITS! You cannot escape the demerits. They will find you and you will rue the day you earned them.

SLCPL2.0, Hugo Cabret

Mmm Delicious

I am a late to the party Delicious user. I remember first noticing it when I switched to Firefox, as it was one of the default search engines in the drop down menu. Had no idea what it was and didn't bother finding out. Then a few months ago I picked up Upgrade Your Life by Gina Trapani and there was a section on Delicious (and can I just say that I'm glad they got rid of the periods in the url?) that explained what it was. Suffice to say the idea that I could access my bookmarks from anywhere was simply too good to pass up. I don't really search it that much, but I can see the appeal. Seeing what others have tagged when you're trying to search for slightly oddball things can be helpful. I remember trying to use it once to see if anyone had any good sites for auto loan calculators or something equally out there. Google is still a little easier to use and my first engine of choice, but tagging definitely brings a nice randomness and yet personal touch to things. Besides tagging things is fun. Especially if you use strange phrases or tags. I mean, no, use only the Alliance approved terminology when tagging your bookmarks. Big Brother is watching...

And in non Library 2.0 news I should point out that lovely wife is getting far too good at Blue Moon City. Must find a way to disrupt her dominance at said game. Hmm...

And The Ruins was not too bad although the book was better™. No really, book better. Movie not bad, but book... eh, you get the idea.

Littlest sister has departed our fair state. She can now go watch the Olympics in peace. Alas, wife not so lucky. She will still get to deal with snarky comments and much eye rolling. (Seriously, sports commentators are mouth breathers, who writes this nonsense?) Deep breaths.

Libraries and MySpace

So. Libraries and social networking. As much as I liked the idea of Libraries and wikis, I'm not convinced Libraries and MySpace are two great tastes that taste great together. I suspect the root of this is that I'm old enough to not "get" (and by not get I mean not want to get) MySpace. I probably fall into the crowd that would embrace Facebook a little more as it's the "grownup" version. There are types of social networking that I find amusing and fun (*cough*Twitter*cough*) and could see some Library uses for. (Create a twitter feed that highlights new books coming into the Library.) The slight draw is teens and the Library. But would teens really use a Library MySpace page? I suspect that really the only thing a Library could do is push information to teens through that site. I don't know that it would be terribly interactive - it would probably be limited to functioning simply as another information source - that teens might make use of if they're aware of it.

And I thought I'd take a moment to comment on the rant that was supplied as one look at Libraries and MySpace. I played D&D growing up and had to deal to some extent with the outcry that grew up around it. I certainly knew people who thought it was Evil (please to note the capital 'E'). While I can understand the idea that creating an atmosphere of fear around something is easy and a way to rally the troops, I'd say there are certainly valid concerns about privacy and safety. That can be dealt with by, you know, parenting. As long as there's interest and interaction between the kids and the parents a lot (if not all) of the pitfalls can be avoided.

So to sum up. No that would take too long. Simply put, jury is still out on this one.

Selling out, err a note about Wikis

First things first, those of you who actually follow this blog will notice a few changes in some of the posts. Mainly they will be a little more library-centric. There is a reason for this. The SLC Public Library has a pretty cool Learning Library 2.0 program that covers a lot of the web 2.0 functionality. And a lot of the exercises involve blogging about the topic at hand. So, some of this will be old hat (or possibly things I've talked about before), but some will be new. At any rate, you'll just have to go along for the ride. That or come back in a few weeks or something. Regularly scheduled content will appear at random just like normal.

So. Wikis. The first topic in the program. I've mentioned before that I think wikis are fascinating little things. I believe I've even talked a little about the internal wiki the library has. Personally I find them to be useful little tools. As long as you keep a couple things in mind. One of the biggest strengths of the wiki is also in some ways it's biggest weakness. Wikis live or die by their user base. Since a wiki is a community created thing, if you have no community, you have no, err, thing. Content. Yes, you have no content. Also, since in most cases you can let just anyone add content you have a slight quality control issue. So while they can be a fabulous place to get information out there, you do have to be careful.

As for libraries and wikis, well personally I think it's peanut butter and chocolate. There are a whole slew of ways a library could make use of a wiki. On the back end, it's a great place to store library policies and procedures as well as document how things work. And as the function of the library changes and shifts, amazingly the wiki can keep up. On the public side you could have a wiki for book clubs, a place that your patrons could rate and/or discuss books and an online presence/community can be created. (you can take a look here and here and even over here for a couple examples of possibilities.) So, yeah, wikis = pretty cool.

Again reaching "critical mass" is probably the hardest part. Getting a good framework that people find easy to use and then encouraging them to use it. You probably need a couple teenagers.

Firefly and Murakami

The Summer Fiction issue of the New Yorker magazine has an excerpt from Haruki Murakami's new book. Alas, I forget the title, but it has to do with his life - his running and his writing. Apparently Murakami has participated in a lot of marathons. In addition to being a pretty amazing novelist. I have several books by him and I find them all fascinating for one reason or another. I knew that music was a pretty important influence in his life (there are lots of references to the Beatles as well as other musicians) but I was unaware of the running. If you run (pun only partially intended) across the excerpt it's worth your time and is pretty interesting on its own. Otherwise give one of his books a shot. I don't know that there's a good starting place for him - you'll either like him or not. But for suggestions, try Hard-boiled Wonderland at the End of the World or A Wild Sheep Chase.

So I glanced at some of the essays in that Finding Serenity book. It's really only a matter of time before we start watching that show again. I still die a little inside when I think about the fact that Fox killed it off. It was such a brilliant show. I'm going to have to be content with the box set of DVDs we have as well as the movie. I think there may be another special edition I need to pick up. I also have some of the comics and apparently Joss Whedon has consented to telling Shepherd Book's story in a comic later this year. So yay for that. If you've not given it a chance yet, go find the DVDs and watch them. Watch the TV show before the movie. It's worth it. And then watch it again. Browncoats forever. Shiny.

I finished The Omnivore's Dilemma. It was an interesting read, and yet mostly frustrating. The food industry is so screwed up and yet there doesn't seem to be an easy way to fix it. We'll have to poke around and see what options we have for local food. I know there are some farmer's markets in the bigger cities, but it would be nice to find something a little closer. We should probably spend a little more time actually preparing food. At least we're not among the group that eats out every day. I really do wonder how people can do that. I can understand once in a while, but every day? I suppose I might understand a little better if my wife worked. I have a sneaking suspicion that having both parents work contributes to that lifestyle a lot. Another benefit to not having to do that.

Played a little Gang of Four with little sister this evening. And some Incan Gold with the kids. Games are good. They're off tomorrow to splash around the water park. If I liked water parks a little more I'd be jealous. I will miss the wave pool. And the bigger lazy river. Those are my favorites. But they never run the wave pool long enough. I want it to be a wave pool, not a wait for the waves pool. If I wanted a regular pool, I'd go sit in one...

The Olympics have taken over the TV. Good thing I have cable. Little to no desire to follow that. It's good that it only comes round once every four years. Oh wait... <sigh>

Neil Gaiman's new book is due out soon-ish. Looking forward to that. I believe this one is a riff on The Jungle Book by Kipling. I may have to track down a copy and give it a whirl. Unfortunately I have other things to polish off first. My list of things to read is far too long. Oh well. At any rate, time to bid the weekend Adieu. Alas poor weekend.

No catchy title today

Managed to throw my back out the other day. Back pain sucks (as my sister and her family can attest to).

Caught Balls of Fury last night because everyone needs a silly movie about Ping Pong and hey, Christopher Walken. It wasn't hilarious, but it was occasionally funny. Anything involving the not so lucky cricket was pretty good. And that's really all the space that movie deserves.

M-i-L wins the Are you freaking kidding me™ award. But we'll not go into that.

Apparently this is going to be a post of allusions and half stories. Poor, poor audience. Oh well.

Read the first couple volumes of The Walking Dead which is mostly a character drama that happens to feature zombies. I'm pretty sure the guy that writes it has a copy of Max Brooks's The Zombie Survival Guide on his bookshelf as the two are rather similar. It's interesting in a doomed character sort of way.

Picked up a book of essays on Firefly that my wife is devouring. I have a sneaking suspicion that we'll be watching it again soon. Heh.

Well, theoretically there are pancakes. I guess I should go investigate. And possibly consume.

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.