In which I sell out a little bit

Well, sell out is a little strong really. A few posts back I received a comment from Jason Thompson, the author of King of RPGs. The graphic novel was about to come out and he wanted to know if I wanted a free copy to poke through. I tried to warn him that all of two people read this blog (one of which would have been my cat if I had one - a situation I constantly try to rectify much to lovely wife's lament - and one of whom is lovely wife). Ok, there might be three if both siblings happen to be poking around this week. At any rate, with true authorial verve he didn't care, he just hoped I'd like the book. And hey, free book. I've certainly not got any sort of free book habit. Stop looking through my bookshelves. I do not raid the ARC shelf here at the Library regularly. It's more like very regularly. I even pointed out that I work for a rather nice Library with a rather nice graphic novel section and I could very easily request a copy (I did). He still wanted to send the book.

So Del Rey graciously sent me a copy of King of RPGs. The postal service did their level best to ensure that I never saw it by attempting to mangle it beyond readability, but I know a few tricks and rescued the poor thing. And then read it. First off, this is a niche title. It's a story about gamers and manga/anime culture that follows those tropes while poking fun at them. So, I'm sure you're wondering why he'd want to send me a copy. I have no interest in any of those things... ahem Moving on. I rather enjoyed this first volume. The characters all have brief little moments where they get to shine while the real fun is watching Shesh, Mike and Theo interact. And explode. Sometimes relatively literally. I have a theory (that I'm currently testing out on lovely wife) that you really need to have some gaming/anime culture to really enjoy the book, but I'm not entirely certain. So far lovely wife was pleased to have caught the Final Fantasy VII ref (which admittedly was a gimme, but still) and she really got a chuckle out of Theo's DM style. Cockroaches indeed... Honestly I suspect my wife has been around me enough that she's not really the best test subject. The book can be a little wordy as it tries to cram in lots of exposition (it's almost as much love letter as it is parody) - which might also help those not as familiar with this scene - and some of the jokes are a little more forced than others (most noticeably the parody game names) but overall it was a good time. And I'd totally read the next one. So thanks Jason for letting me get an early glimpse at this one.

(As a last aside, honestly the best thing I can say about the book is I had a very strong urge to go get out my dice and roll up a character. Any character. And play something. Although I do wonder just what was up with Shesh's jester hat...)

In brief child related news, we managed to build a battery out of quarters, aluminum foil, paper towels, some wire, an LED and some salt water. It was tougher than it looked. But one science fair project is complete and McK heaved a big sigh of relief. I will merely point out that should you attempt this on your own, the step most instructions leave out is letting the thing sit to build up a charge. Kind of important...

It's also worth mentioning that Bomberman '93 is $6 well spent on the Virtual Console. It plays up to 5 people and is an absolute blast and the kids won't stop asking to play it so they can blow each other up. So there is that downside (y'know if you have this idea that kids spend too much time playing the vidjagames. Or blowing each other up.)

And that will do for a random Tuesday post. Yes. That will do. (pig)

I got nothin'

Another week has been vanquished by the ravages of time. That time is one bad dude. Always marching on, turning the past into the present, siphoning away your future.

We had a pretty good weekend at casa del 'd'. Aside from G being under the weather we managed to have quite the game filled Saturday. J brought his girlfriend along and we consumed good food and good games. Some Rummikub, a little Citadels, Ra the Dice Game, Gang of Four, Coloretto. Seems like there was another one or two, but I can't recall what they were now. Point is we had fun and spent most of the day having a grand time. Even the girls joined in during Citadels.

We also picked up the first 9 episodes of the old Dungeons & Dragons cartoon for $5 at Target. It was mostly a silly purchase, but it has been a little fun to watch them. The kids seem to find them pretty interesting. I find that amusing too. Speaking of watching silly things, in a fit of sheer boredom I let lovely wife throw in the first couple episodes of Roswell. It's better than Twilight, I'll give it that. It's silly, but certainly not the worst thing I've ever sat through.

I have come to the conclusion that I have little tolerance for broadcast tv. I much prefer it in DVD or taped format. That way I can watch it at my leisure and at my pace. Can't stand commercials and tying myself to a broadcast schedule... Which is causing problems now that several of the shows we watch are back on. Oh well.

I have a new mascot for the blog, but I failed to get a picture taken to share with you lot. So that will happen soon. As a hint I will only comment that it is plush and madness inducing.

Oh, in a very brief political comment I will simply point out that 5 out of 4 Supreme Court Justices are complete morons. Allowing corporate funds for elections indeed...

See? Nothin'. I shall attempt to actually have some content for you next time.

In which I attempt some photos

So here's the start of Ra: the Dice Game. As you can see there's a score track around the outside of the board, the sun track (the timer for the game) is at the top, the green row is the Pharaoh track, the blue row is the Nile track, the colored column on the left is the Civilization track and the colored columns on the right are the monument track. You roll five colored dice (up to three times keeping the ones you want) in an attempt to place your cubes on the various tracks. The game is played over the course of three rounds scoring all tracks except the monument track for the first two and then all tracks including the monument track at the end of round three. As you roll suns on the dice the counter advances on the Sun track (or you can score points if you roll enough or cause a plague if you get 4-5 suns in one turn - good for you bad for everyone else.

And this is what the board can look like at the end of a two player game. When playing with more than two players the sun starts further left along the track. The game can end pretty quick with any number of players depending on how you roll. In this picture you can see that blue managed to get further along the Pharaoh track scoring some points, both parties flooded and scored the Nile (green got more points), each player managed a Civilization thus not losing points, but not scoring any and blue managed to score quite a few points on the monument track. Yeah, yeah you don't know how many points or why exactly, just take my word for it. Now if this had been that first game you could pretend that the colors were reversed and my lovely wife won. Instead here you see me managing to eke out a victory. I actually tend to do pretty badly at this game. Even McK will walk all over me at this one.

Ra: the Dice Game is actually a toned down version of a game called (wait for it) Ra. I know shocking right? Ra is an auction game that uses a lot of the same scoring methods (I believe). We may try it out some time to see how big brother is, since we like this one. At any rate, this is a pretty decent little dice game that will play 2-4 people pretty well. It lasts a little longer with more players, but is still mostly a light game when you're in the mood to just pass the time. Casa del 'd' gives it the stamp of approval.

In which our writer of very little brain throws lots of words together

Well, probably not lots of words. I would like to tell you that this has been an eventful week, in which secrets were revealed and plots overthrown and lessons learned, but in reality I've spent most of it recovering from my head cold. We did manage to take in all three Matrix movies and that was exciting. It also led to a rather strange, if amusing, dream in which I fought zombies. I don't believe I was a hitman this time around (why does my wife get all the cool dreams?) but anything is possible.

I'd like to point out that I actually like all three Matrix movies. It might have helped that we watched them so close together, thus cutting down on plot related confusion, but I just find them to be good entertainment. I don't know that I'll bother getting into all the philosophy involved, I think I'll just enjoy them from a good chop-socky point of view.

I'd also like to point out that if you have a zombie problem, I may, or may not, be able to assist you with it. Nudge Nudge, Wink Wink. (This paragraph totally for you H)

And so time passed and kids dealt with being back in school and they complained about dinners and played Mario and Wii Sports and had wedgie fights instigated by only possibly lovely wife (wedgie fights? Really dear?) Wait. I think I'm losing focus.

We have since caught up with the release schedule for Hikaru no Go (the books). I probably shouldn't mention that the last few volumes have actually been a little sad. I mean Sai is gone (yeah yeah, spoilers blah blah blah) and Hikaru is struggling with issues of identity and... what?! Why are you rolling your eyes at me?! This is serious!

I'm also still really enjoying 20th Century Boys. I'm just about caught up with it as well and that's frustrating. I want to know what happens next! Or in between. Or back then. Well, if you read it you know what I mean.

I actually have some pictures of Ra: the Dice Game to put up, but they're still on the camera. Lovely wife totally stomped on me in the first game so I deleted those and just kept the pics of the second game where I won. If you want, you can pretend it's the first game and assign my colored blocks to her. We're going to have a bit of a gaming weekend in a couple days as some friends are coming down, so maybe I'll get some new pictures. We'll see.

Oh and jumping lunges are evil. Stupid EA Active...

In which I try (and fail) to gather my thoughts

I finished reading Tokyo Vice by Jake Adelstein. It was a pretty interesting read. A fascinating look at the underworld of Japan from a foreign reporter's perspective. Jake Adelstein was the only foreigner to get a job for the Japanese press covering the police beat. He tells some funny stories and some awful stories. Worth reading if you like crime stories or have an interest in Japan. Note: not all the stories are for everyone and they don't all end well either.

I have also read a few more volumes of 20th Century Boys by Naoki Urasawa. I'm really enjoying it. I think I might like it a little better than Monster, but that remains to be seen. It's a little confusing at first, but soon settles down a bit. That or I got used to it. Follow Kenji as he tries to save the world from someone that's acting out a doomsday scenario he and his friends came up with when they were kids.

Boardgame playing is down a bit (although we've gotten in a little more Pitchcar) as lovely wife and I have started an exercise regimen in the evenings. So EA Active has been taking up a fair amount of our time. I like it. It definitely seems to be a better workout than Wii Fit. We'll see how well we keep up a routine (I've got a bit of a sinus thing at the moment that may make exercising a little more difficult than it should be...). We're also playing a lot of New Super Mario Bros. Wii and I'm deep in the depths of Silent Hill. So, yeah. It may be a bit before you get to see pretty boardgame pictures.

We're settling in to the new year. Kids are back at school and I mostly worked through the holidays so no real adjustment there either. I've not really bothered with resolutions. I hope to keep working out and that's about it. Although I suppose I should try to eat better too. (I think we're going to try a ginger soy salmon recipe this week that' supposed to be like something they make at PF Chang's, I'll let you know how that turns out.) Of course we got a fryer recently so that will undermine those efforts as I really want to try making English chips (potato wedges to you heathens). Mmm salt and vinegar and potatoes and... ^_^ Well that and a bloomin' onion and maybe donuts and... heh.

I'm waiting to see if rumors of the Apple iTablet materialize in an actual product. Might have to sell one of the kids to acquire one. Ok, two of the kids. I'm sure lovely wife won't mind. Well, maybe if I substitute the dog for one of the kids...

As you can see, I've not really got anything this week and aforementioned head cold is keeping me from focusing my thoughts. So off to the wilds of the internet with you. (Note: those links should most likely not be viewed by people with no sense of humor or overly sensitive dispositions. Or kids. Yeah, no kids.)

In which the Year Ends

And really, it's probably about time. In a lot of ways I've managed to avoid most of the problems 2009 presented for everyone else - I kept my job and the economy didn't completely kill us as we live pretty stripped down as it is. But I'm certainly ready for things to return to a more even keel. So, get on that 2010. I suppose a monolith is a little too much to wish for as 2001 presented us with a striking lack of the real thing. Maybe we'll attempt a manned mission to Jupiter just for grins and chuckles. Although I suspect Mars has a little more priority.

Casa del 'd' had a pretty decent Christmas. The kids had a good time (and the adults did too). The girls only got up 3 times before I yelled at them at 4:30 to knock it off. I wouldn't have minded but lovely wife and father-in-law seem to think you're supposed to sleep in on Christmas. Madness I tell you. We managed to get everyone up around 7 and had presents and breakfast and so on.

It's definitely more interesting (for me) having a boy around the house on Christmas. Now we have an excuse to get cool things like race tracks and Nerf guns and Lego and ... well you get the idea. We had a lot of fun putting things together and then playing with them. I can recommend the Shake n Go race track thing (eh ask lovely wife what it's really called) and Nerf guns are pretty fun too. We got to build a fun dragon lego set courtesy of father-in-law.

As a family we got Pitchcar (thanks Dad!) and it remains a lot of fun. We even got lovely wife's Dad to play. And have a good time too. So if you are ever looking for a game that literally just about anybody will play and have a good time with, this is it. It is a little expensive, but so so worth it.

There have probably been some amusing stories in the last couple weeks, but I've got no idea what they are. I learned that the mail room here at the Library is capable of maintaining sub zero temperatures quite nicely and the postage machine will not work in such conditions. Envelopes won't seal, postage stickers will only sort of stick, the ink won't work, you get the idea. And I got to spend most of that day in that room. I wore my coat. It sort of helped. I eventually got feeling back in my hands...

We've seen lots of movies. Alvin and his Merry Chipmunk Friends Make the Goo Goo Eyes at the Conveniently Female Chipmunk Band... err the sequel (I will not write what they're really calling it) was as horrible as you might imagine. Which of course means the kids loved it. Star Trek was still good. Night at the Museum 2 was a lot of fun as was Up. I really liked those last two (which goes to show that kid's entertainment need not alienate the adults).

We've played lots of games. I can recommend New Super Mario Bros. Wii as well as Wii Sports Resort. The archery levels are fun as are the sword fighting levels. Don't much care for the frisbee golf. We'll see if it grows on me any. And I'm having a good time with the new Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. Not for kids, but fun for me.

Hopefully you got to spend Christmas with those you love. If not, hopefully next year provides you with those opportunities. I don't really have any profound thoughts to share as this year draws to a close and the next one starts. It happens often enough that we're all pretty used to it by now. The girls will attempt to stay up and ring in the new year, but I think I may just head to bed. So have a great New Year. And get off my lawn.

Oh and a quick resolution. I'm going to try to include more pictures next year. Not of the kids of course, that's crazy talk, but I really hope to put up some pictures of the games we're playing and so on. The kids might be in some of them, but really, since when was this blog about them...

Eh, make up your own title

A few things have been accomplished in the last week. I finished Replay by Ken Grimwood. It was an interesting time travel story. I guess I'll call it time travel. The main character starts the book by dying and then "waking up" in his past with all his memories intact. He then gets to live that chunk of his life over and over again. The story runs through some of the usual ground (oh hey, I'll bet on some famous sporting events and the stock market to become rich) found in time travel stories, but as his time keeps repeating it starts to delve into new territory and focus on just what might happen in those situations. I'm not quite certain how I feel about the ending - it's a natural progression of the story, but the jury is still out. It can be a bit depressing to read, but overall a really good story.

Speaking of a little sad and yet great, go watch The Brothers Bloom. For it is excellent. I can't quite decide what my favorite thing about this movie is. (Bang Bang!) It might be the voice the story is told with (Bang Bang!) or the story itself (Bang Bang!) or possibly the characters (Bang Bang!). Or it might be Bang Bang. (She's the Japanese sidekick that doesn't speak English and likes to blow things up and is all around awesome) Eh, just go watch it.

We have acquired a couple new games thanks to an early Christmas with the letter 'r'. Bull in a China Shop is a kids game that has a surprising amount of strategy to it. Buy china that will help increase your score until you run out of money and are forced to let the bull damage your collection so you can get more money. Decisions, decisions.

Balloon Cup is a two player game that can be slightly cutthroat. There are 4 tiles that represent 4 different balloon flights. You play cards in an attempt to meet the requirements of each card to collect cubes that you trade for trophies. (It's not as complicated as it sounds) The trick is you can play on either side of the tile, so you can really mess up your opponent's plans if you want. Lovely wife isn't too sure about that aspect of things.

Bang! is a bit of a party game that plays 4-7 people. It's basically a spaghetti Western in a box. One person, known to the entire group, is the sheriff. The rest of the group is made up of outlaws, deputies and a renegade and at first nobody knows who is who. The sheriff and the deputies want to kill the outlaws. The outlaws want to kill the sheriff. The renegade wants everybody dead, but only if he's the last one standing. And that's when the bullets start flying. It's a pretty fun game with some deduction and a lot of humor. Lovely wife managed to eke out a victory as the sheriff the other night due to a lucky character trait that had her a little further away than she'd normally have been (the person sitting next to you is considered a distance of 1 and it goes up as you count people on either side of you - she had a distance of +1 and was just out of range of my poor ol' Colt .45). Definitely a lot of fun.

As there is a lovely holiday coming up, it's entirely possible you won't hear from me until the other side of it. So have a wonderful Christmas. Again I hope you can spend it with those that mean the most to you.

In which I seek my fortune

And so another week has passed. We are in the relative calm that is the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas. I say relative calm as shopping occasionally happens and that can be terribly exciting. Although we're pretty much done I believe, so not so much on the excitement front.

We did watch Azumi, an alright Japanese flick about a female assassin set back in historical Japan after the battle of Sekigahara. They were still trying to unite Japan under a Shogun and so on. Messy time. Somewhat messy movie. Fights were alright. I'm pretty sure it was based on a manga series, so there's some of that sensibility to it.

I'm currently reading a rather fascinating time travel story called Replay. You'll get more on it as I finish it. Suffice to say I'm enjoying it quite a bit, although it's on the depressing side.

See? Not much worth rambling on about. G has learned to whistle. Well one tone anyway. So he's attempting to drive lovely wife insane with his new found skill. Girls are ... well ... actually not up to much. I suspect we're all marking time until Christmas. Which is in two weeks. How did that happen?

Oh, hey, you know what time it is? Last Line time, that's what time it is. This week comes courtesy of Andrew Pepper and The Revenge of Captain Paine. "Pyke had done what he had done, and while those actions may have led to the death of his wife, fortune too, had played its hand, and fortune, as it always did with men who took risks and imposed themselves on the world, would shine on him again." You too can take risks, go up against fortune, kill your wife and expect good things to come of it. I'm glad we have these books. Truly nature may be red in tooth and claw, but nothing is vicious like a good fortune seeking, wife sort of lamenting, reversals of fortune waiting in the wings-ing, ne'er do well. Huzzah! In case lovely wife is reading this, honey, you totally don't mind if I bet your life so that fortune may shine upon us me right?

That was nice. I really needed something to give this post a little purpose. Littlest sis needs to regale us with more massage therapy class stories.

So, off with you lot for another week or so.

In which I don't make fun of Twilight

Mostly because that's a subtle enough jab for now and there are plenty of places to do it for me.

Nope the bulk of this post will be about boardgames. Why (you may ask yourselves)? In large part because ol' letter 'd' had a birthday recently and boardgames were received. And played. (Which we'll also get to.)

But first, from the Sometimes You Can Go Back files: Krull and Something Wicked This Way Comes are both still decent movies. They show their age a little, but not as badly as you might think. So if you need a rollicking adventure or something a little creepy, one of these will fit the bill. Don't blame me if you get them mixed up, they make cover copy for a reason folks. But yeah, totally check them out again.

Also, Dexter in the Dark the 3rd book in the Dexter series byJeff Lindsay was good. A little on the interesting side, a little creepy (in that Dexter-ish way) and so on.

So. Yes. Boardgames. This year I decided that I would host my own mini boardgame convention. And so I did. Friends were invited, food was prepared and games were set out. The big news from the convention is that Arkham Horror is indeed good. I was finally able to convince the letter 'r' of this and even lovely wife thawed in her opinion of it. It's still long (I think we clocked in at around 3 hours) but once you know what's going on it becomes a lot more enjoyable. This is indeed the secret to playing this game. Make sure someone knows the rules. It works best when one player acts as a moderator of sorts and makes the turn taking of everyone else easier. "Oh, you want to do this? Well roll these dice for me and we'll see what happens. Congrats! You've just defeated the maniac. Oh, that's too bad, the Byakhee left you an insane, gibbering wreck, time for a trip to the Sanitarium." And so on. We even managed to save the world from the ravages of Azathoth. Way to go us!

We took a break for lunch and then played some Pitchcar with the kids. This is an awesome dexterity game. You lay out a wooden race track and then take turns flicking little wooden discs (your racecar) around the track. It's great fun. Anyone can play. We had 7 of us from ages 5 to 37 and had a blast. Highly recommended. It is a little pricey (quality wood track and pieces yo) but worth it.

Up next was Puerto Rico. We tried this one a while back as well and didn't quite get it. The secret to this game is playing San Juan first. It's a very nice training game for Puerto Rico. Basically you're trying to settle a little island colony. You each take turns claiming various jobs that allow every one the opportunity to do something. The player that picked the job gets a bonus. Over the course of the game you build up your settlement and earn points. We had a fine time playing this one as well. Also recommended (play San Juan first).

We had some dinner and then played some more Pitchcar. Swag was handed out (a couple print and play games from over at BGG). A good time was had by all.

Now you might think that would be the end of the tale, but you'd be wrong. As this was a convention those games were owned by the participants. Nothing new there. Well at least not ownership wise. No that's where the ol' letter 'd's birthday came in handy. I managed to pick up Skip Bo, Citadels and Galaxy Trucker for said journey around the sun.

Skip Bo is a fun little card game that works best with 4 and played as a partnership game.

Citadels also finds you trying to build a city and claiming various jobs to do it. The trick here is jobs are played in an order and not all of them get picked. And each player only gets the benefit of their own job. One will let you kill someone else (force them to miss their turn), one will let you steal someone else's money, and so on. Also a lot of fun. And pretty easily picked up. We play it with 2 of the 3 kids (recommended 8 and up).

Which brings us to Galaxy Trucker. This is a great game in which you build yourself a spaceship and then watch it get blown to bits. It's awesome (if a little nervewracking). The first portion of the game is a bit puzzle like as you compete to put together the ship best suited to the journey you're about to take. Once that's accomplished you go through a set of adventure cards that tells you what exactly happens to your poor little ship. Asteroids! Pirates! Abandoned ships! Also a great game, although the age recommendation on this one is a little higher. Our 11 year old is starting to make sense of it. It can be a little rough explaining that she's out of the race as she lost all her crew to vicious space pirates in round 1 (build more crew cabins!). An added bonus is the fact that the rulebook is downright hilarious. Truly a good time.

As for those other things, Thanksgiving was nice. We had a decent time with lovely wife's family (I was shockingly bad at Bananagrams that day) and the food was good. I avoided Black Friday, had a good birthday, got the Christmas tree up (December?! who let that happen!) and so on. My week off seemed far too short and towards the end was a little bittersweet as I missed Mom. But all in all it went well enough. Next time I'll have the game convention at the end instead of the beginning. ^_^

So thanks to family for the lovely gifts (especially Dad for the new camera) and I hope you all had a lovely holiday as well. Now to get ready for the next one. (Christmas shopping almost complete!)

Your dose of 'd' laughing at Twilight

Can be found here. Well, ok technically it's someone else mocking Twilight. It's still awesome.

In which I talk about symphonies and serial killers and sundries

The best way I can sum up the difference between Play! and Video Games Live is as follows: VGL is video game music at the symphony. Play is the symphony with video game music. One is spectacle and energy and music, the other is music and culture and decorum. So they each serve a bit of a niche, but one is a little more fun than the other (VGL). Which is a long way to say deepest thanks to the letter 'r' for a wonderful birthday present for lovely wife and myself. We did indeed have a great time and I can recommend either show for those of you that enjoy music and are interested in hearing some of the great pieces of video game history played by a full orchestra. (The Sonic Suite was especially nice as it was a slightly slower paced rendition of the music that created a nice counterpoint to the video clips shown.) The funny thing about those shows is that they make me want to go back through the video games we have and play them all over again. Which is not likely to happen. Alas. Perhaps when I've retired.

We finished off Season 3 of Dexter and it was good. I don't really have much to say about it other than that. Dexter managed to make a friend, lose a friend, say his wedding vows, that sort of thing (I figure the statute of limitations on season 3 spoilers is over as season 4 is in swing).

I've probably finished some books since last time. Hmm. Looking for Calvin and Hobbes by Nevin Martell is one reporter's search for Bill Watterson and a look at the comic that shaped the comics page for a decade. I really like Calvin and Hobbes and there was some really interesting information in the book. Definitely worth reading.

Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett is the latest Discworld novel and I don't really need to say too much more than that. If you like the series, you'll like the book. Football (soccer for you uncouth Americans) comes to Ankh Morpork and pretty much everybody gets involved. The big theme for the book is class/racism. Probably not the place to start if you're new to Pratchett (I recommend any of the night watch books) but certainly a great read if you are.

Stitches by David Small is a little hard to discuss. On the one hand it's one of the most powerful books I've read, helped in no small part by the fact that it's a graphic novel. On the other hand it's one of the most horrifying things I've read as well. I don't know that I'll ever read it again, but I am glad I read it once. It's basically an autobiography of a cartoonist. And if you believe that all great art is born of suffering, David Small is probably the poster child for that tenet. Given throat cancer by his radiologist Father, David wakes up from surgery one day a virtual mute, not knowing why his voice is gone or what's really happened to him, thanks to a very dysfunctional family. As mentioned, it's powerful stuff told remarkably well, but know what you're in for.

Thanksgiving week draws nigh and I have the whole week off. I am looking forward to it. I hope to accomplish some serious vegging. We shall see.

For those of you with a Wii that's connected to the internet, Nintendo has started offering demos of Wiiware games. You can find them in the Wii shop channel. G has become addicted to the Pokemon Rumble demo and I rather like Bit Trip Beat. Nyx's Quest is pretty good too. There are a couple others at the moment. They're free and if you've ever wondered what sorts of things you can buy off their download service this is a good chance to look. (I'm also strangely addicted to Nintendo Week the little show they put out once a week talking about what's coming out. The hosts are fun (if goofy) and it can be in interesting look into the world of Nintendo.)

So, have a great holiday. Hopefully you can spend it with family or those that are important to you.

In which I play with portability and talk about Ra

We had Staff Development Day here at ye Trusty Olde Library yesterday. It was a nice day and things were learned. One of the classes I attended was on portable apps. So I have tricked out my flash drive with a nice little suite of Windows apps. I'll probably do the same with another drive for Mac apps at some point. And never install anything ever again. Well, not much anyway. I really like open source goodies. Between, portable apps and online offerings, there are very few programs I'll probably need. iTunes and a couple others I suppose.

As I managed to meet a weight loss goal, I treated myself to a new board game. Picked up Ra: the Dice Game. It's a lot of fun. Even if I apparently suck at it. Even McK typically does better than me. Although the letter 'r' is the undisputed master. You have 5 dice, you roll them in a Yahtzee-ish manner (keeping the ones you want and re-rolling others) and then use the results to advance your markers along the various score tracks (thematically you're building up the Egyptian civilization along the Nile, practically you're moving some little wooden cubes around. Mmmm wooden cubes). It certainly takes some planning and some luck. Depending on how you roll, rounds may end rather quickly (the sun faces on the dice advance the round timer). It's pretty easy to pick up once you understand how the different tracks work and how they score. You play three rounds. It's fun. Apparently I kind of like some dice games (not a fan of Yahtzee...). Lovely wife and McK both give it a thumbs up.

Ugh, weather changes have caused a rash of head colds in casa del 'd'. I'm about ready to lop my head off. Lovely wife is about a step or two ahead of me. Not fun.

We're currently making our way through Dexter season 3. It's been good so far.

Well, I meant to throw another last line in here (lovely wife asked for one) but I am beat. Stupid head cold. So I'll leave that to look forward to next time. Or when I remember to do it. A shout out to littlest sis embarking upon massage therapy as a new job path. Good luck. And we're currently looking forward to seeing Play next week. It's sorta like Video Games Live. Should be fun.

Some food, some movies, a bit of cake

G recently celebrated his birthday and made out like a bandit. There were dinosaurs (of course), some legos (not unexpected) and a Speed Racer car to wash things down. He was a little confused as to what to play with first. So they all played together it seemed like. Littlest sis managed to make it into town for the festivities and it was good to see her. Although I was unable to see her for part of the visit as M decided it would be a good idea to get sick again. Her timing is either impeccable or a little off depending on your point of view.

I have recently run across a couple food related blogs that are my new best friends. First up is A Hamburger Today. I'm sure you can figure out what it focuses on. It makes me constantly hungry for burgers. I suspect my new goal in life is to develop my own version of the perfect burger. We have a decent patty (although I would like to try a few different varieties) and we're close on the bun. I want to try potato rolls next. They will be toasted (my new favorite thing). Toppings so far include cheese (of course), tomato, pickle, onion and a bit of ketchup and mustard. I'd also like to experiment with some of the flavored mayos. (Garlic mayo!) As you can see my summers will be filled with grilled meat and toasted buns and... sorry need to go wipe up some drool.

On a different food front I present White on Rice Couple. I happened across them when I heard about a lovely sounding srirachi mayo dip/sauce concoction. I stayed for the pictures and the other recipes. We've actually tried their garlic noodle recipe and it was great. I have high hopes for that mayo sauce. And a bunch of the others. If it's not already blatantly obvious, I rather enjoy food. And recipes. Lovely wife is always giving me a hard time for bringing home more recipes. But when you have access to a lot of cooking magazines I dare you to not come home with a lot of recipes. We actually make some of them. (I think summers will focus on burgers and winters will focus on chilis)

So we watched the remake of Friday the 13th. I think remake is not quite right, more reboot. They at least gave a nod to Jason's mom in the first couple minutes, but then spent the rest of time with a slightly more physical, not as slow/menacing Jason. Different. Not bad, but different. It might prove interesting if they really do plan on rebooting the franchise. There was a variant of the sleeping bag death found in Jason X that was certainly more visceral, if not as amusing. I really like Jason movies. Voorhees, Bourne, something about Jason movies...

Finished off Boneshaker by Cherie Priest. Steampunk zombie novel. I don't know that I really need to say more than that. It's set in an America where the Civil War didn't end quite like it was supposed to and decided to go on for a few more years. Story takes place in Seattle, so the War is only mentioned in passing. You have airships and goggles and zombies. It's a fun little ride. Recommended.

An early nod to lovely wife's Dad's upcoming birthday. I'm sure he will spend it eating Alice Springs Chicken at Outback.

Your Halloween Trick, err Treat

So, the letter 'r' and I were talking the other day about Jason X which lovely wife and I had just seen. (It's terribly silly and terribly good all at the same time.) He commented on how Jason movies, and horror movies in general were like the original versions of fairy tales. And I had to agree with him. And so he decided we should write a book of horror movie fairy tales. Here are the first several I came up with. He contributed the bare bones of the Friday the 13th tale, but I fleshed it out for him. At any rate, please to enjoy these fine horror movie fairy tales.

Tale the first:
Once there were two friends, who upon finishing school decided to see the world. They traveled to a far country where they didn't speak the language, but they were together and thus felt safe. One night they encountered some women who offered to show them a good time. Since this was part of what they had set out to do, they happily followed the women and soon found themselves experiencing the good times they had sought. The women then told the young men of a special hostel where they could experience the same and more. Entranced by the young women one of the young men finally convinced the other to travel to the hostel. Upon arriving at the hostel the young men soon realized that the young women had tricked them with their words and ways and they paid a heavy price for the pleasures they had so brashly sought. Alas, the young man that hadn't wanted to visit the hostel in the first place paid for his knowledge with his life. And several bodily bits that were eventually washed off the walls. The other young man managed to escape the torturous dungeon and exacted some small revenge upon the people that had brought him there in the first place, but his escape was not as it seemed and ultimately he too learned the price of seeking the pleasures of the world without proper planning.

Tale the thirteenth second:
Once upon a time, there was a beautiful summer camp called Crystal Lake. This summer camp was guarded by a Mother that loved her son. And didn't love counselors busy discovering that tab b does fit into slot c. Her poor deformed baby had only wanted to swim with the other children, but due to things like gravity and breathing and lack of gills instead discovered that lungs and water do not mixed. So she taught the counselors a lesson in situational awareness. With an axe. And a machete. And several arrows. Oh and mustn't forget the very sharpest knife. Unfortunately other counselors did not find these lessons so helpful and so they banished the Mother to the lake with her son. But that was ok, because the mother's love helped her son obtain great rejuvenative abilities. So he took over teaching his mother's lessons. So if you decide to experiment with your own tabs and slots, make sure your situational awareness is also up to snuff. Although it won't really help because the machete is already swinging your way. But rest assured, Mother and son both live happily ever after, frozen in suspended animation. In space. With the rainbow asteroids and a bomb that could think for itself. But that is another story...

Tale the third:
Once there was a puzzlemaker that was good with his hands and good with machines, but not so good with his health. On account of the brain tumor. This made the puzzlemaker very sad as he enjoyed living and knew he would only be able to do so for a short while. He was also sad on account of all the people that ignored their own health and treated life as something that happened while you busy making other plans. So the puzzlemaker came up with a plan. He would use his puzzle making and machine building skills and teach people that life was something to be treasured. The people he chose were not always thrilled with his lesson, what with the blood and the knives and the exploding body parts, but the few that learned his lesson found themselves strangely drawn to the puzzlemaker's ideals and would often help him in his quest to spread the word that life was to be cherished. With or without all your limbs. Now you may be wondering exactly what this has to do with the cage on your head and the rats and the cheese scented oil, but then I suspect you haven't really been listening to my story. Allow me to start again, oh wait the rats seem to think we're out of time...

Tale the fourth:
Once a young girl had trouble sleeping. She kept getting interrupted by a strange old man with a skin condition, a desperate need for a manicure, and some fashion sense that suggested it might be near Christmas. Needless to say these things did not help her to get her much needed rest. She talked to her friends about the strange man, but they seemed to be having the same trouble sleeping. And the few that did manage it were no longer in any condition to help. So she talked to her parents. But they just mumbled things about the neighborhood watch and darn kids getting in trouble and it was only a little fire, what was his problem anyway? Just because they couldn't sleep at night didn't mean their kids should have the same trouble... So she chanted old nursery rhymes in an attempt to fall asleep, but that didn't help. She tried talking to the strange man, offering advice on skin conditioning and nail files, but he seemed more interested in making her feel his pain. Rather literally. So ultimately she decided to let history repeat itself and retire to a nice mental institution, where the drugs would help her sleep.

Happy Halloween everyone!

In which I tell a fish story, and history mostly repeats itself

First things first, I finished No Door No Windows by Joe Schrieber. I think that's how his name is spelled. I read it based on a review that sold it mostly as a haunted house story featuring a house that had no true corners and no straight lines. This reminded me of House of Leaves and the lovely domicile contained in those pages and so I thought I'd give it a try. It's a decent little horror story if you know what you're getting into. And it's not really a haunted house story. Although it does feature a nicely trippy lodging. It's more a haunted family story. It takes a little to get started, but there are some nice creepy bits and it tells a decent tale although I felt that the ending was a little off. Still, if you're looking for something spooky to read, give it a shot.

I think I'll detail the history repeats itself (mostly) story next. Younger sis will probably remember slamming a door in my face and chipping my tooth. That's the context. So this morning McK and M decide that their room is far too tidy and proceed to free all of their stuffed animals from the tub where we store them. They needed some air or whatever. Lovely wife was none too thrilled and orders an immediate re-incarceration of said animals on the lam. Also the girls were to put some clothes on and basically get ready for school. The things they should have been doing instead of staging fuzzy jailbreaks. A couple minutes later M comes downstairs and informs lovely wife that instead of performing said tasks they were playing Kenichi [anime series about a kid that learns to fight] and McK had hit M with an uppercut and chipped her teeth. Apparently she hit her with the flat of her palm knocking her teeth together (her mouth had been open). And so the two bottom teeth on either side of the middle ones got chipped/jarred pretty good. I guess one of them has a nice chip knocked off, I don't know about the other. Oh and they're permanent teeth as well, natch. Lovely wife then morphs into terrible visage of motherly justice, inflicts some small harm upon McK and basically proceeds to lose it. (Yelling, weeping, gnashing of teeth, Old Testament type stuff)

After she manages to have M try eating (bread of all things, I mean who tests chipped teeth with bread?) she ferries them off to school. After I get the email detailing this I give her a call and try to sort out what's going on. She then calls M to see how eating breakfast went (I had Captain Crunch but chewed on the other side and I had juice but I drink through a straw... Seriously what kind of tests are these?) So we now have a dentist appointment scheduled for tomorrow morning first thing. Fortunately (or not) we just got school pictures back, so I guess this won't be detailed any time soon. Although I may have to take a picture and attempt to update the post later. I feel bad for all those involved, but mostly chalk it up to every family having this exact same story to tell. Well ok, their kids probably weren't aping random cartoons from Japan (although that's certainly more prevalent now - Bakugan and Pokemon and Yugi-oh say hi)
but still...

As for the fish story. Lovely wife made Parmesan Tilapia the other night (McK still calls it Parmesan chicken) and it was all duly consumed with G trying to steal pieces from everyone else. Apparently he likes his Tilapia. The next day he asked for something from the store, but lovely wife informed him it wasn't shopping day.

"Are you going food shopping on Thursday?" G asks.

"Yes."

"You don't need to shop for food. We can have fish for dinner. Fish fish fish fish fish."

"I don't think we want to have fish every night." She opined.

"Hmm...."

Then later for lunch G decided he wanted chicken noodle soup. Lovely wife prepares said soup.

"Hey, this is chicken soup."

"Yes, that's what you asked for."

"I will pretend it's fish soup. Fish meat." *bite* "Fish meat." *bite*

And so on. As mentioned little dude apparently loves his fish (oh and guess what he asked for for his upcoming birthday dinner...)

Oh and Zombieland is awesome. Best. Cameo. Ever. Plus some really decent lines and, well, zombies. Plus a quest for Twinkies. Yeah, it's really that good.

And this cracks me up.

In which I discuss word games, books and a stunning loss

And another week goes by. Hard to believe October is about to call it quits. Lovely wife had a grand birthday. (And apparently we sat just across from Dale Murphy at dinner.) She got a Professor Layton game to help keep those wits sharp and Bananagrams to scratch the word game itch. It's basically competitive crossword puzzle building. You draw a set number of tiles and then at the same time turn yours over and start to build your own crossword. As you run out of tiles you yell "split" and everyone draws one more and on it goes until there are fewer tiles than players and then the first one out of tiles wins. You can dump a tile at the cost of drawing three more, which is occasionally helpful as it gives you more to work with. It's fun. If you like word games it's certainly worth picking up. I like it better than Scrabble as you can work at your own pace and compete that way. McK enjoys playing it as well.

I don't believe any more movies have been watched although we're about to watch The Wrong Guy, so more on that later. I did tape The Dunwich Horror on Syfy last weekend, so Lovecraft goodness coming up as well.

I finished reading The Magicians by Lev Grossman. I really enjoyed it. The pitch is Harry Potter/Chronicles of Narnia for grownups and it mostly delivers. There are a few (not so) subtle nods to those series throughout the book, but mostly it tells its own tale of what it would be like if magic was real. And real people used it. So while it's not a completely depressed Harry Potter, it's close. I think the best description I read was how the main characters were able to consistently snatch failure from the jaws of success. That really does sum it up well. It's a pretty fascinating story though. Great style and fun to read.

And now I'm on to the new Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett and Boneshaker by Cherie Priest (steampunk zombie novel). They are both quite good so far.

Lovely wife and I got stomped on at Settlers of Catan last night by the letter 'r'. It was a pretty disgraceful loss on our part. Although he really did have much better options than either of us. I was arguably close in points, but getting those last couple would have been a real struggle. That's a pretty decent game as well if you've not tried it. (And it sounds like the new Dominion supplement is trés cool.)

In which Horror is watched, but not necessarily understood, and a couple other things

So, we caught A Tale of Two Sisters over the weekend. It was a little on the confusing side. And not just because we had to read the subtitles. I suspect The Uninvited (the American remake) is much different. Partially because wikipedia confirms this and partially because the original definitely took a few turns that left us scratching our heads. It starts off a little slow, but just at the point where you start to get fed up it picks up nicely. There were some nice creepy moments and you definitely want to know what's going on, but the end makes you work for it quite a bit. I'm not sure if something was lost in the translation or if we just weren't quite up to the task. So give it a go if you want, it's not bad, but you may wonder just what happened. (And all without a single plot detail - nicely obscure letter 'd')

And now another installment of Games my Wife Hates. Mostly because she's about to have to play it again. This time we're talking about Arkham Horror. I picked this up because of my oft noted love with all things Lovecraft/Cthulhu. First things first - this is published by Fantasy Flight Games and they're known for a few things: their main line board games are not cheap ($80 is not an uncommon price), they have some amazing artwork/components, the games themselves tend to take a while, and their rulebooks can leave a little to be desired. The biggest strike against this game is that it takes 3-4 hours to play. And it is certainly difficult to carve out that sort of time commitment when you have 3 hellions kids running about. I can't really argue that one. Strike two deals with the difficulty, and this comes in a couple flavors. Arkham Horror is a cooperative game - all the players work together to defeat the Great Old One rising from the depths bent on world domination/destruction of humanity. The victory conditions the game sets really do require that you all work together as it's tough to save the world. A lot of the time you feel like you're spinning your wheels - gateways to other worlds will open again if you don't have the proper bits to make sure the darn things stay closed. And you actually need to play a bit to get the feel for the way the game works - which locations are the most notorious for opening said portals, which locations offer money or items or other things you need, how best to set up your characters stats so you can safely navigate the world you find yourself in. The rules themselves are also a little on the complex side and take some getting used to. It's also recommended that you track down some of the player aids created by others as the rulebook is a bit of a nightmare. And when the game takes a long time to play, it can be difficult to get that experience. Unless of course you happen to just fall in love with the thing.

Which my wife hasn't (see title of this segment in case you forgot). There are things to love - the pieces and board are a thing of beauty. Fantasy Flight is known for their bits for a reason (of course, my wife would argue there are way too many of them). It is nice to play a game where you all work together - it's not something that happens a lot. And the theme is indeed part of the game - it's not hard to feel the urgency that the characters themselves would be feeling as another monster has just shown up, but you're low on health and sanity and maybe you should just try sneaking past the darn thing... I have managed to convince lovely wife and the letter 'r' that we should play the game at least once a year. Mostly because I can't quite bring myself to part with it. I'd really like to give it a go with a few more people (it can play up to 8 I believe) as I suspect that really helps with some of the difficulty. Of course it might make things a touch more confusing too. One thing is certain, if you do decide to give this one a go, make sure you have somewhere to set it up, it takes quite a bit of room.

And this is the point where I send a quick Happy Birthday to lovely wife as she is certainly worthy of said felicitations. You're the best sweetie!

Recently stumbled upon the Yoshida Brothers thanks to the vastness that is the internet and the randomness that is Pandora. They're a couple guys that play the shamisen. And they're good at it. Also the Jonathan Coulton cd Best. Concert. Ever. is quite nice. I'm really looking forward to checking out the DVD of the concert that's part of the package.

Here's a lovely, creepy short story for your October pleasure. It's in the same vein as Paranormal Activity.

And on a final note, ListenUp has come to an end of sorts. The show's host, Garnett Lee, as well as regular guest John Davison have moved on to new jobs. There will continue to be a podcast of sorts, but it won't be the same. I'll miss that show, I listened to it every week for the last several years. The members of the cast definitely fell into that strange internet friend type territory. I listened to them enough that I felt like I knew them. So good luck to Garnett and John and good luck to those still with 1up. Here's to the future.

On properly raising children

Some initial notes: the girls are 11 and 8. Over the summer they attended an overnight Girl Scout's camp. They came back telling ghost stories. At least two of three children were emotionally scarred in the making of this post.

So it's October. October means horror movies, ghost stories etc. Ol' letter 'd' decided to break out one of the ghost stories from his youth and tell it to his kids at bedtime. So off goes the light, on goes the flashlight under the chin and the kids are in a circle sitting next to lovely wife. I then proceed to (badly) tell The Golden Arm. It's been a while since I've told this story, I hit the high points and make up my way through the rest. As the ghost of the wife makes her way through the house, the girls scootch closer to lovely wife. Good, at least I've gotten the atmosphere right. Then comes the big reveal, You've got it! The girls scream and burst into tears. Oh yeah, I've still got it. Lights come up. Girls are in hysterics. "Daaad, that story was scary! We don't like scary stories!" (Note: this is patently untrue, see initial notes) I make some brief attempts at calming them down.

We head out of the room telling them to go to bed. Lovely wife is helping G get ready for bed. (And laughing) The girls start talking in their room. This is the point at which true parenting comes in handy. I lowly whisper outside their door, "Where's my golden arm?" Shrieks ensue. I wait a five count, throw open the door and yell "You've got it!" Shrieks become full blown panic attacks. Tears, screaming, the whole nine yards. Lovely wife? In the bathroom doubled over in laughter. Unable to breathe laughter. We then spend the next 10 minutes calming the girls down (and by we, I mean lovely wife). I get several "How could you" looks from the kids. And then proceed to call little sis to relay the story. More laughter ensues.

Oh and through pretty much this entire situation G just wondered what all the fuss was about.

Parenting is an art. It takes a soft touch to raise kids. And a flashlight to scare the crap out of them.

Couple quick thoughts on Art (and some other things)

The Tap Dogs were in SLC the other day and they put on a free preview of their show here at the Library. It was quite amazing. They were a lot of fun to watch and had it not been so last minute (they were in town that night and the next) and had we not been recovering from several illnesses, I might have gotten lovely wife and myself some tickets to the show. I suspect it was great.

The thing that struck me while I was watching them was how it's important to experience some Art in your life every so often (be that a good book, some nice live music, an art gallery, or a wandering band of tap performers). That's certainly one of the neat things about working at this particular Library - we often have most if not all of those available. So take 5 minutes, head on over to your local Library and see who they have visiting in the not too distant future, you'll be glad you did. (And if the Tap Dogs find their way to your neighborhood, go see them.)

In somewhat related news I have been listening to several of the new remastered Beatles albums. And they are truly amazing as well. I think, so far, my favorite is Help, but that's certainly subject to change as I make my way through them. I would like to have seen them in concert. And don't let anybody tell you that Elvis is better. Because he's not. At all. (Not even close...)

The new kinder, gentler House still has a bit of pixie charm in him and that's good. Can't be all fluffy kittens all the time.

The first horror film of the season will be A Tale of Two Sisters. The original Korean version (yes, more subtitles oh favored niece. You should try them some time). I forget what it was remade as over here, but it's good to be watching something unsettling again. Feel free to suggest horror films to be watched. I think we'll do the Ring remake and possibly The Grudge as well. I actually liked the remakes of those two.

Finished Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins. It was good. Since this one wasn't quite so Battle Royale as the original Hunger Games, it was a little easier to enjoy the story on its own merits. The plot twists were all pretty decent and it certainly ends with a good cliffhanger. I look forward to the next book.

Amulet, Book 2 by Kazu Kibuishi was also enjoyable. The story continues to pick up steam and there are some nice moments. And the art is amazing as always.

Well, so very tired. I suspect I had a mild-ish case of the flu over the weekend. I'm still not quite back up to snuff. I could use about a 2 day nap. Alas, those are in seriously short supply. So I suspect this will have to tide you lot over. Go find some Art, or even better, make some. And read a book. And get off my lawn ya durn kids.

Last line, some rambling, what? Are you new here?

It's been a while since our last Last Line, so I felt like another one. This time the ol' letter 'd' goes where he's not gone before. Romance novels. At least, I think it's a romance novel. I really don't know and more to the point, don't care. Anyway.

From Distant Dreams (Ribbons of Steel No. 1) by Judith Pella and Tracie Peterson. "Perhaps the dreams were not so distant after all." Now, while I am certainly not a professional writer (and based on the contents here, it's arguable I'm even an amateur) I offer this valuable tip: if the last line of your book is going to contradict the title, you might want to change one of them. Unless you are an artiste and darnitall that's the whole point! Why do you not get my Art?! Begone unworthy cretin!! (Artistes live and breath exclamation points!) Since this not Art (no, really, it's not) I have sincere doubts about the location of these dreams. And I wonder if they're really dreams at all. Perhaps flights of fancy. Or night terrors. I have a sneaking suspicion that's what this book would leave me with...

An on to the rambling. It's October. I'm not entirely certain how that happened. School has started and the weather is starting to finally cooperate, so I suppose it makes sense. But I'm not convinced I'm ready for the roll into the holiday season. It is nice to have a few Halloween decorations up. We need some more tombstones. Perhaps a scarecrow. I'll have to break out some horror movies soon.

I did read Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman and it was brilliant. I really enjoy Norse mythology and this was a pretty good tale set in that milieu. It was of course Loki's fault and possibly lessons were learned, but mostly it's a good romp. It's quick and it will leave you wanting a few more stories with the All Father and crew (in fact I checked out a collection of Norse mythology to scratch just that itch). So if you are at all familiar with Thor or want to be, it's a fun little story.

I don't think we've seen any movies lately... Oh wait, I did watch the Ghost in the Shell:SAC movie, Solid State Society and it was good (if a little confusing). It is sort of a retelling of the original Ghost in the Shell film (much like the TV series was a reboot of the film franchise) so that was interesting. It's actually a little hard to call it a retelling as there weren't a lot of plot details that were shared, but if you've read the graphic novel or seen the movies and then the tv stuff you probably understand what I'm trying to say. Which I suspect is very few of you, but this is not Brought to you by the letter 'whoever you are', so skip to the next paragraph already.

At this point I would like to mention that homework is stupid. Especially in the large amounts that the local grade school feels the need to pass along. I have no problems with work being done to teach concepts, but large amounts of it are not helpful. That is all.

Had a rather nice training session on Graphic Novels at the Library yesterday. It focused mostly on the non manga side of things, so lots of things I hadn't heard of. It was fun. And some new titles to look into. I'm sure you'll hear about them in the coming months.