No new tales to tell

Apparently, out here at any rate, the coverage of Earthquake '11 was handled by the MadTV crew. Lovely wife said it consisted of one sad chandelier swaying gently as if stirred by some otherworldly breeze. Her Dad managed to survive the ordeal, simply mourning the fact that he had to pick up a book that had fallen off the microwave. I suspect that was more fraught with danger than the earthquake. The letter 'r' did pass along a lovely commemorative photo.

13 Assassins is the best samurai period piece featuring a village of death and bulls on fire. And if that doesn't convince you to watch it then nothing I can say will.

So, school has started back up and the kids are now safely ensconced all day. I have not noticed an increase in either cats or baked goods, so lovely wife must still be awestruck by it all.

A local toy store was having a "store relocating at some point in the future" sale, so I took advantage of a nice 30% discount and picked up Rivals of Catan - a 2 player card game version of Settlers of Catan. It's actually really nice. I like the mechanics of the game and the way that the various resources are handled. There's a base version to introduce you to the way things work, three theme decks to add different types of play and a final no holds barred use everything you've got variant. So that's nice. It would be nice if more people could play it, but it is a really nice 2 player game. It captures the Catan feel quite nicely.

Not really much else to say. My sisters apparently think running is a bright idea and are training for a couple 5ks. On the one hand I wish them luck. On the other, they're nuts. But that's ok, someone in the family needs to be and I'm glad to be able to let them handle that. I have actually managed to exercise some lately, but not really in significant enough quantities to achieve anything other than a lack of sleep. Which is also partly why I've not been able to get a lot of exercise in. 5:00 AM arrives early enough as it is.

The short version

Ok, I have now had Blogger eat a post. There was a rather lengthy (for me) discussion of the far too many books I'm currently reading, a couple movies we've seen and M's birthday party. I am not up to typing it in again and I can't seem to find it in my history. Bad Blogger! Here are the highlights. Sorry.

Wireless - short story collection by Charles Stross. Features one story in the Laundry universe (Hi Bob) and other sci fi confections. I liked it.

Rule 34 - Stross's new novel. May not get finished. Like the big picture plot, not crazy about the details.

The Magician King - sequel to Lev Grossman's The Magicians. It's brilliant so far.

Feed (Mira Grant version this time!), Monstrumologist, White Devil, Ready Player One all waiting in the wings and chomping at the bit to be read. Too many books all at once. And this from the guy at the Library. Yes. Stereotype or Irony or whatever you prefer.

Insidious - from the guys that brought you Paranormal Activity. I liked it, lovely wife refused to watch it based on the trailer. She missed out. In spite of being three horror movies shoved into one, it worked.

True Grit - quite good. Nice acting/storytelling, breathtaking landscapes and cinematography.

M's birthday party - Letter 'd' does not pretend to understand the minds of several tween girls, but in spite of the karaoke on the PS3 they seemed to have a good time. Why would they do that to the poor PS3? Also, who let M turn 10? I do not approve of this.

And I think that catches me up to where I was. Sorry for the lack of detail.

Portal's Lament

So the lovely wife and I have Saved Science. Yes, the capitals are important. Which on the one hand is good - we completed the co-op campaign in Portal 2 and it was suitably brilliant. But on the other that means there are no more puzzles to do. And that is bad. I may have to play through it again to try and snag some of the trophies I missed and actually the commentary track was interesting, so I might do that too. I have heard that there should be some more content soon, so here's to hoping. Also, I need one of these. And I wouldn't mind a few Portal related bits of fun.

At the Library we send out notices to let people know they have overdue books. Quite a few of them come back undelivered as people have moved and so on. I got one in yesterday that had a large amount of handwriting on it informing us that the person was no longer there. And that we should try looking in Hell. They did express sorrow that we were cheated out of a book (most likely How to Live on the Streets and Steal from Other People). And then offered a couple suggestions on where else to look. It was quite amusing.

Also Dad has informed me that he tried his best to set himself on fire at work the other day. He is now distinctly lacking in body hair. I told him I did not recommend that course of action. Actually I think I said things more along the lines of "OHMIGOSH ARE YOU OK?" I suspect they get to reset their days without an accident counter... Fortunately he got away with a only couple first degree burns.

We had a lovely game day on Saturday. There was lots of yummy food and several games were played. I managed a rather stunning victory in Dominion as I tried out a chapel deck. It's an interesting strategy alright. Lovely wife proved to be quite the racer at Pitchcar and we managed to eke out a photo finish victory on Forbidden Island. (Honestly the movie version of that game would have been amazing - the heroes lifting off from the Island as the last bits of land sank into the ocean - truly epic.) I really enjoy game days. I think we're going to make some bleach shirts for DruCon this year.

What passes for normal

I read MT Anderson's Feed by mistake. Sort of. I meant to read it some time ago, but this time I thought I was really picking up Mira Grant's Feed. It was not terrible as mistakes go. Anderson's book is a dystopic look at kids that are constantly hooked up to the internet via implant. It constantly talks to them, pushes products at them, plays entertainment in the background - that sort of thing. A group of friends starts off on a trip to the Moon (it sucks) and while there they get hacked and are unable to connect for a bit. It's fixed and their lives go mostly back to normal. The main character met a girl while there and the story follows the two of them as they get to know each other and things start to happen to her feed. It's a terribly depressing book for lots of reasons. While I was reading it I was under the mistaken impression that a sequel was due soon (that'd be Grant's book) and so I thought there was some hope for the ending. There isn't. (To my knowledge) So, it's certainly worth reading, but bear in mind that the ending is the end. Everything must go indeed.

I've also been going through Robert Asprin's Myth books again. Still hilarious. I'm actually at the point in the series where I'm reading new material. Yay.

If you listen closely you can hear the approaching school year. It's just under two weeks away. Lovely wife is trying to decide just what her days will be like. All the kids will now be in school all day. Such a milestone. Here's to hoping she doesn't go crazy and start filling the house with pies. Or cats. Well, cats might be ok...

Lovely wife and I have been making our way through the co-op Portal 2 missions. So much fun. So devious. We are actually pretty close to saving science. With portals. There needs to be more Portal. I have heard rumors that Glados' voice actress was recording more dialog. Let's hope new content arrives soon.

Zzzzz

I am too tired to string coherent thoughts together. Instead you should go here, for there are some truly awesome and amusing things happening there at the moment. In fact I may just set this blog up to redirect there as it would be far more enjoyable for all of you. Allegedly.

We watched Sucker Punch the other night. For a movie with no plot it was alright. Certainly pretty, but it's Snyder so that's pretty much the default setting. I can't really recommend it, but it wasn't the worst thing I've ever seen either.

I can recommend you go watch this though. Can not wait for that to come out. Day one.

I think that's about all I'm good for at the moment.

More noise than signal

Kiss Me Deadly is a great example of film noir. Detective Mike Hammer gets roped into a case by a dame and then stumbles his way through a plot that ends with quite a bang. If you like old detective movies, this one fits the bill. Some truly wonderful moments in this one. Track it down.

Hatchet was a decent old school slasher. I'm beginning to like Adam Green. And it had some really funny lines. It would have fit right in with anything we watched in High School.

Jo Nesbo's The Snowman was an interesting Scandinavian thriller. It follows detective Harry Hole as he confronts Norway's first serial killer. Or at least first acknowledged one. I still haven't read Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, but I can see why there's some appeal to foreign crime fiction. This one had a nicely escalating plot and some pretty dramatic moments. Worth reading.

I've been hearing the siren song of the Dungeon Crawl of late and so I've gotten back to Dungeon Hunter: Alliance - still lots of fun it is. Although I do not approve of giving the enemies bows. It's my job to stand back and pick them off, not the other way around. And those magic users!

My sisters have started the campaign to try and convince me to drive down to Arizona for my birthday this year early. I remain pretty steadfastly unconvinced of the merits of this campaign. Mass chaos and uncertain sleeping conditions are more bugs than features. Although, yes, it would be nice to see everyone. We should just meet in Moab and take over the Aarchway Inn again.

Fortunately it's a three day weekend. I'm feeling a strong need to sleep through it...

From amusing to not so

I recently had the chance to read The Adventures of the Princess and Mr Whiffle: The Thing Under the Bed by Patrick Rothfuss. Yes, I've mentioned him before. I am very torn on what to say about the book. It's a picture book, that's obvious from the outside. It's also subversively brilliant. I think I'll leave it as that as you should all track down a copy and read it for yourselves. If you choose to read it to young, impressionable children types stop at ending the first. You have been warned. Otherwise enjoy it. And once you've read it go back through it again and really look at the pictures (no really looking at the pictures the first time!). It's truly a brilliant book and there's a lot packed in. I'm a little in awe actually.

So. The Fit decided it was done going about a week ago. Lovely wife managed to get it into the shop bright and early this morning. Where they promptly ignored it for several hours. Not impressed. They finally did get a look at it, realized some parts were bad and then informed us that they didn't actually have said parts, but they'd show up by tomorrow at 4... Impression now below sea level. Fortunately I've been able to drive our other car to work, but that's left lovely wife a little stranded the last couple days. And we actually had things that needed to be done today. Honda won't get all that amazing a review from us this time should we actually get a survey. On top of all that lovely wife has plans tomorrow that this is once again going to get in the way of. Oh well. The silver lining is that at least the parts themselves are still under warranty so that saves us about $700. We still have to pay the $200 for installation and adjustments though. There goes the lovely little bonus we got from work the other day...

The kids have decided to re-enact that Calvin and Hobbes story line where he finds the injured critter and tries to take care of it prior to dying like most injured critters tend to do. They are going the baby bird route. I believe we have sacrificed a wash cloth and some sugar water.

The recent animated film The Illusionist (not to be confused with the Ed Norton live action flick from a few years back) by the guy that did Triplets of Belleville is amazingly beautiful to look at (and features Scotland - there are some great scenes of Edinburgh as well as landmarks that I actually recognized) but something of a downer. The rabbit is pretty awesome though. It's worth watching, but do take note that it's not exactly a happy tale.

I managed to once again squash those puny investigators as we played Mansions of Madness over the weekend. It was a pretty good game. I liked the scenario we were playing and even have a few ideas about things I'd try differently if we were to do it again. Lovely wife then proved quite the rail baron and eked out a victory in Ticket to Ride: Marklin. Gotta watch her like a hawk. That game really plays better with four or more players.

In which I succumb to Eliot

Well, this morning certainly started not with a bang but a whimper. From my car that is. I went to leave for work only to have my car express different intentions. It contemplated starting up before deciding to die once placed in reverse. It then started up again only to display the check engine light a couple blocks down the road. So I came back home and stole lovely wife's van. I attempted to explain this to her, but she was less than conscious at 6 AM. Oh well. She figured it out. And ran around a bit in an effort to fix my car. So hopefully it's running a little better now. I suspect a bad batch of gas was the culprit. Engine was running lean. Whatever that means...

I have finished the Portal 2 single player campaign. And it was awesome. The ending is great. Such a great game - I highly recommend it to everyone (and some of those last puzzles are fiendish!). Now to attempt the co-op puzzles. Mwa ha ha ha.

McK did indeed place 2nd in the Girls' Softball league. So congrats to her. The were doing ok in what might have been the penultimate game until that third inning and the other team managed to rack up more points than they could overcome. Alas.

I am ready for summer to be over. In spite of the fact that it hasn't been around that long. It's seriously messing with my sleep schedule. Stupid heat. I'm in the wrapped in cotton insomnia phase. Not quite the waterbeds for cats phase.

We had a decent 4th if I ignore the stomach bug that attacked Saturday evening. Got dragged over to the letter 'r's so we could enjoy the show from their balcony. It was a nice fireworks show. Still kept me up too late. Apparently we scored them a few points with their neighbors when we shot off our fireworks. We bought one of the fancy no longer illegal types. I like fireworks. I think it would be fascinating to learn to make them.

In slightly amusing G news, he decided to play Uncharted at the park the other day and run away from the yetis while traversing the various playground equipment. So funny that kid. We're not waiting for Uncharted 3, nope, not at all.

Back in the saddle

Books. Games. A week off. So many things. Where to start?

We had a great visit with Dad while he was out. They're always too short and too few. We only had a couple small projects for him this time. We installed a digital thermostat and replaced the light fixture that decided to throw itself to the floor when we replaced the roof. The rest of the time was spent visiting the park or hitting Liberty Land or the pool or the driving range. It was a pretty eventful trip. There was some relaxing in there as well. I also learned that Dad is pretty incapable of walking and looking while trying to play Portal 2. Oh well, nobody's perfect... G enjoyed the laser tag (and the pirate game - don't ask) as did the girls. Although our poor team didn't fare very well. I managed the top spot on our team and 11th overall ranking. Somehow.

While at Liberty Land we also had a lot of fun with a video game version of that scene from Entrapment - you go into this little room and hit the start button to make a bunch of lasers show up, you then have to make your way to the other side of the room, hit a button and then make your way back to hit the stop button. All while trying to do it as quickly as possible and without hitting the lasers. Good fun.

Mostly as I can't be bothered with in depth thoughts on the following here are some quick responses on the many things I've read recently:

Reality is Broken - save the world through gaming. Some interesting ideas, not convinced of her conclusions. worth reading and talking about though.

Demonglass - the second Hex Hall book. Silly good fun. And such a cliffhanger!

Robopocalypse - World War Z with robots. Some of the world building is a little lacking, but pretty fun. Read it.

Fullmetal Alchemist volumes something or other to 24 - good. Series is winding up. What's going to happen? Also a lot gorier than earlier installments.

That should cover the books. I've also been playing a fair amount of Portal 2. It was a Father's Day gift and it's brilliant. So funny. If you like puzzles at all and have a sense of humor you need to be playing this game. There is nothing better than making your way through a tricky room and then getting some hilarious dialog as a reward. The co-op is pretty good as well. Best new game I've played.

I've also been toying around with the Uncharted 3 multi player beta. Now that they've released an update it seems more stable. I can't wait for the actual game. The multi player is decent. I'm horrible at it, but it's fun.

McK has her final softball game of the season tonight (barring possible thunderstorms). Somehow her team managed to make it to the last game. So her team will most likely place second, but still anything is possible. Good luck McK!

Camping, random places on the net

First, I'll just leave these here, shall I? Thing 1 and Thing 2. I should also point out that there's a lot of funny stuff if you hit the main page for Thing 2.

So. I ventured out into the wild and survived the Fathers and Sons camp out over the weekend. G was pleased. The camp site was actually pretty nice - we were in a group spot that had well manicured grass and some tables and a fire pit and so on. There was a nice little pavilion with restrooms and a man made reservoir sort of thing that you could theoretically swim or fish in. I got roped into telling a bear story for the evening get together. It was very last minute. The tent we were in was nice, it even had a little "porch" area that was screened in. Very cool. The air mattress we brought along could have used a little more air in it and I would have liked to have gotten some (any) sleep that night, but overall it was not the worst experience ever.

We picked up Hive for our anniversary. Well, lovely wife ended up giving it to me, but whatever. After a rather argumentative first game we've managed to get things sorted out a bit. It's actually pretty fun and is one of those games you can take anywhere. In fact we played it at JCWs the other night. It's a two player game in which you each have a set of pieces that represent various bugs. The bee piece is your important piece and the object is to surround your opponent's bee with pieces of your color. There are 4 different bugs (not counting the bee or the expansion pieces) that you can use in various ways to accomplish this (you have several of each type). The pieces are hexagonal, so you'll eventually need 6 of them to win the game. You take turns placing pieces or moving the existing ones around, so the "board" is built over the course of the game. It's a decent little strategy game. McK is actually pretty good at it and has managed some wins over lovely wife.

I finished off Evangelion. I suspect most people (and possibly myself in the future) can simply watch the first 24 episodes and call it good. 25 and 26 offer a navel-gaze-y alternate take to the ending. Or expansion of the ending. Death and Rebirth is mostly pointless if you have access to the TV series and End of Evangelion. End of Evangelion does offer some relatively interesting plotting that happens where the TV series left off, but then also goes all navel gaze-y. I understand why those parts do have some meaning, especially in context of the show as a whole, but I prefer the straight story telling. So yeah, fun subversion of the giant robot genre, but not really for everyone. Especially the end bits. I like it. And the revamp the new movies are doing.

Vacation looms in my future. Dad should be out soon and that will be fun. I think I may try taking him to the driving range and hitting a bucket of balls. It will be nice to have a bit of a break. I could use one.

Maybe something about fish tacos?

I really don't have anything worth passing along. I did make it to one of McK's softball games over the weekend. It was ... interesting. Granted they had maybe 3 practices at the beginning of the season and a few games/practices since then, but it was only occasionally softball being played. The other team was one member short and so if our team managed a decent hit, points tended to be scored. I've heard they've pulled together a little more since, but I suspect the winner is still determined by who plays less badly... ^_^

Lovely wife and I managed to find a restaurant to celebrate our anniversary in. A new place called the Blue Lemon. It's either a decent priced trendy place or a slightly high priced sit down place. Guess it depends on how you see your glass of cucumber water (which was strangely delicious). I had fish tacos (served fajita style) and lovely wife had some grilled chicken with sun dried tomatoes and artichoke. It was actually a pretty nice place and I'd eat there again. Food was good and the atmosphere was nice if a bit loud.

G and I have been playing some Little Big Planet courtesy of the Welcome Back package Sony offered after PSN came back. It's a cute little game. Better than I expected it to be. Would like to mess around with creating levels, but I'm sure it's a little more difficult than I expect it to be.

Speaking of G I am getting dragged to the Fathers and Sons camp out this weekend. He is excited, I am not. I'm mostly hoping to just make it through the event. Especially as I've done something horrific to my neck/shoulder and haven't been able to sit/sleep/do much of anything for the last few days. Alas.

More thoughts on giant robots and grave robbing and evil plans

I have indeed started watching the TV series version of Evangelion again. I'm not certain I can pinpoint why this series is fascinating me at the moment, but it is. I suppose it might be the way it subverts the traditional giant robot genre (ok, not really) or it might be the philosophical  treatise it weaves on why we need each other (definitely not) it's probably just the dance dance giant robot sequence in one of the upcoming episodes...

I have finished Rotters by Daniel Kraus. Yes, it's a book about grave robbing. And yes it can be pretty disgusting at times, but boy is it awesome. Little sis needs to hit the local library and check this one out. Joey Crouch loses his Mom at the beginning of the book and, per her wishes, is sent to live with the Dad he barely knows exists. Once in the tiny town he calls home he discovers that the townsfolk are none too impressed with his Father and that overshadows a lot of his life at school. The beginning of the book sets up the pieces - Joey, his Dad, his Dad's profession, the kids at school, the teachers, etc. and then the rest of the book is a serious roller coaster of events that you just can't quite believe. Just when you think the story has topped out at the craziest thing that can happen something else comes along and demolishes it. Rotters builds to a crescendo of ... well that would be telling, but believe me, it's a crescendo. And it's one heck of a ride. So, if you can stomach the subject matter, definitely give this one a go.

The roof is finished. We managed to make use of the two sunny days we had and got it done. So yay for that. Also a happy birthday to lovely wife's Mom. Wish you were here, we'd have a party. Dad's birthday is coming up quick (and he'll be out soon so we can have something similar to a party) and in between is some sort of anniversary or something. I forget.

16 years.

Actually, there was an interesting bit in Reality is Broken (the current book I'm reading - save the world through gaming says Jane McGonigal) about how one of the emotions that gaming encourages and we need is "happy embarrassment". That teasing we do to those we trust. So apparently there is a purpose to all that trash talking. See dear? I'm doing it for your own good. Who knew?

Which leads to another funny story. Here, allow me to cut and paste from a nightmare McK had early this morning (while changing pronouns):

Apparently I told lovely wife that I had a big gift for her for our anniversary and when she asked what it was, I said a divorce and gave her the weekend to pack up and move out of the house, taking M and G with her and leaving Mck with me. Dream then jumps to thanksgiving where we get together as a family one last time and I announce I am getting remarried and McK hates my girlfriend.

Which, ok, bizarre nightmare spawned by one too many jokes at the dinner table or a friend going through it, or something she read, or one too many viewings of the Parent Trap or whatever. The funny bit was my reply to lovely wife where I told her that if I was really mean I'd use me secret dream knowledge for EVIL and get home tonight and at dinner announce I had a big gift for her for our anniversary. I can't decide if I'm that evil or not. But it still makes me chuckle a little bit to think about. So I'm at least a little evil. But we all knew that.

Giant robots, virtual worlds, it all ends in the grave

Last night lovely wife and I watched Summer Wars, an anime movie by the guy that did The Girl Who Leapt through Time. I liked this one quite a bit. It's got some great messages about family and life. Natsuki hires Kenji for a four day summer job (as her fiance he finds out a little too late). While meeting and dealing with her family (led by a most awesome 90 year old Great Grandmother) the virtual world OZ that runs pretty much the entire planet comes under attack. And Kenji seems to be at fault for that as well. There's a fair amount of humor and tension and Hanafuda cards. It really is worth seeing. Even if that description doesn't fill you with excitement (Hanafuda cards! Are you emotionally dead?!) Lovely wife recommends it as well, so there you go.

A while back (years) we watched Neon Genesis Evangelion, an anime series that turned the Giant Robot genre on its head. I found it pretty fascinating even though it got really strange towards the end. It didn't help that Gainax (the studio creating the show) ran out of money and lots of corners were cut and so on. There were a couple movies that attempted to summarize and retell the ending of the TV show, but those didn't really clear things up either. So they've once again decided to try their hand at telling this story. They're rebuilding Evangelion over the course of 4 movies. The first two are currently out on DVD. 1.11 - You Are (Not) Alone and 2.22 You Can (Not) Advance. The first movie follows the plot of the TV series pretty closely. The second starts to deviate in significant ways and ends on one heck of a cliffhanger. I've found them to be a lot of fun to watch. The second one was better in my opinion - it features a lot of humor and a lot of truly shocking/heart wrenching moments. The problem is, I think you almost have to have seen the TV show to really appreciate it. I'm really not sure what a complete new comer would make of it. Heck, I don't remember all the details and as I did a little digging on Wikipedia there are things that suddenly make a lot more sense as I look back at them. I may have to watch the original series again.

I'll save most of my thoughts for when I finish, but Rotters is awesome. It's a book about grave robbing. (Did I mention it's awesome?)

We need to replace our roof. Unfortunately this means tearing off the old roof and putting new shingles on. Normally this wouldn't be a problem. Except we're having the weirdest Spring we've had in years. A lot of rain and so on. So at the moment it's half done. We managed to get the lower roof torn down and re-shingled. Now we just need a good enough break in the weather we can do the last half... I am glad I'm not a roofer. I was extremely sore that next day. Honestly I'm impressed I made it up on the roof. Really don't like heights. I've narrowed it down a touch more to really not liking ladders.

Thoughts and prayers go out to little sis and family and letter 'r' and family. You could all use a break.

Apparently McK is enjoying softball. And has managed to score a couple points.

Scratch that, here comes the rain

So. We were supposed to start tearing off our old roof in preparation for the new roof today. It's raining. A lot. And has been for a few days now. This is making things difficult. Also, due to unfamiliarity with new basement layout due to new couch I decided to seriously stub my toes resulting in one partially ripped off toenail and a possible second toenail that may fall off. And last night G crawled into bed claiming fear of rain or something, took over most of my side of the bed causing me to sleep in some odd contortion that has left me with debilitating neck/back pain since this morning. Which 3 Motrin and 2 Aleve have done absolutely nothing to fix.

I am not a happy camper right now.

I could relay the True Tale of Postal Stupidity that occurred yesterday, but that would just push things over the edge. Rest assured that there is indeed a reason the USPS is going under right now. And I am privy to it.

We managed to give our talks last Sunday. It went fine. I had to chop mine roughly in half as there just wasn't a lot of time left. I was ok with that.

We are currently caught up on our DVD viewing from the Library. Weird. I have no idea what to do in the evenings now. Although tonight will involve the Mentalist season finale. Lovely wife seemed to think we could actually talk to each other. I may start referring to her as Silly wife if that keeps up. (Actually we talk all the time, I blame that for our upcoming anniversary. Hmm. Maybe I'll get her a lack of talking for an anniversary gift...)

Anyway, I absolutely can not focus any more due to the spike that is currently being driven into the back of my neck. So, go forth and internet.

Here comes the sun

I've actually been able to sit outside at lunch time and read. It's been quite nice. Although it means that once again the grass (and the dandelions, oh the dandelions) will start growing uncontrollably.

Christopher Farnsworth's The President's Vampire is the sequel to Blood Oath. About, well, the President's vampire. (Attack vampire! Attack!) It's a decent summer popcorn book. There are a lot more overt Lovecraftian nods in this one (my favorite was Connecticut Hulu or something along those lines) mostly to the Innsmouth bits. I will have you know that my Rock Band band name is Innsmouth Look. This did not color my judgement of this particular story however. Cade is back with Zach who is once again playing go between for him and the real world. Things are bad, world is in danger, etc. etc. Like I said typical summer popcorn book. Or beach read if you prefer. It succeeds at what it is. I enjoy the series well enough and will read more. If you like action-y books with slight horror overtones, pick this one up. Also Bin Laden is killed off at the beginning. I believe the book came out something like 4 days prior to the real world execution. I don't think Farnsworth minded the timing...

I finished Heavy Rain. I did not get the best ending although I didn't do too badly. It was quite a game. Very tense. Probably one of the most immersive games I've ever played. I suspect I'll play through it again to see what I can change in the story line. I've been pretty impressed with the PS3's library so far. Of the handful of games I own a lot of them are games that I would play through multiple times (or have). That doesn't happen a lot. I tend to play through and be done.

McK is now officially a teenager. And she has officially acquired her Kindle. After playing with the device some I have determined that they're not really for me. I keep wanting it to do other things. I suspect I'd be far more at home with an iPad. It can do the ebook thing and also surf the web and play games and handle video content and yadda yadda. I don't really feel the need to have a device that's just for books like an iPod is for music. It's cool that you can shove a bunch of them on there and I can see how it would be handy when traveling, but that's about it. Otherwise I'm fine with an actual book. (In fact I think I like them better) Although it is pretty cool to have all of Lovecraft's stuff on the device. Well most of it. Hey look, Innsmouth...

Lovely wife had a suitably lovely Mother's Day. I missed Mom some once again, but it was fun watching the kids try to spoil lovely wife. She even managed to get the girls to make a passable Chicken Divan.

Neverending amusement

Let's talk about Haruhi Suzumiya for a second. Lovely wife and I just finished watching the second season of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. It's sort of an odd creature, much like Haruhi herself. It's an anime series that follows some high school students as they are drawn to and influenced by the titular Haruhi for varying reasons. She forms an afterschool club (the SOS Brigade) in order to solve mysteries and hunt down aliens, time travelers, espers, etc. Never cottoning on to the fact that 3/5 of said brigade is made up of just that. Haruhi has the ability to alter reality to suit her whims. Kyon, the male protagonist, is your relatively normal high school guy who just happens to be the one guy Haruhi secretly relies on. The rest of them are trying to keep an eye on her/keep her from destroying the universe. It's good wacky fun.

Season two of the show is infamous for one (well 8) specific reason(s). The Endless 8 arc is eight episodes where the characters are caught in a time loop reliving the same 2 weeks of summer over and over. And the eight episodes are virtually the same. To be fair, the first, second and final episodes do have some differences - the introduction of the arc, the cottoning on to being stuck in the loop and the resolution, but the other 5 are all variations on the theme. The outfits they wear to the various activities change, the lines are spoken slightly differently but that's about it. It really is the same episode eight times. And it's brilliant. Personally I found it to be a great rendition of the "stuck in a time loop" story. And it makes for a great joke. Mostly because they actually carried it on for eight episodes. If they'd gone fewer, it would have lessened the impact and more would have killed it. There are those that think that eight killed it. They're wrong. I hadn't actually intended to watch all eight episodes, but found myself intrigued by what little changes would occur and so went ahead and watched them all. The rest of the season involves a trip to the past to see the event that started everyone's interest in Haruhi and the making of the movie they show in season one. Also fun episodes.

So yeah, Haruhi is pretty great...

Uzumaki is a silly Japanese horror movie. The spirals are going to get you. There are a couple moments that are decent, but over all this one is a pass.

McK officially joins the ranks of teenager-dom in a few days. She's not as ready as she thinks she is. Although certainly more ready than I think she is too. Lovely wife's Dad decided she needed a Kindle to celebrate the occasion. I'm not as convinced, but it's already in the house, so I guess we'll see how that goes. Considering I don't really spend money on books now that I work in a Library, it may end up being the emptiest Kindle in existence. Feel free to contribute to the Kindle fund if you feel so inclined. Although the first thing I'm putting on there is a collection of Lovecraft. After that she can start to tailor it to her interests. Mwa ha ha ha ha. (While it's nominally hers, the rest of the family gets a chance to play with it too)

G once again decided to add character to his face by throwing himself off his bike. Managed some pretty good scrapes in addition to a black eye and some swelling. Little dude looked pretty pathetic that first night. Especially after lovely wife insisted on mummifying him in gauze and tape. He's doing better now, although there's definitely still some bruising.

I guess I should mention M, lest she suffer even more from middle child syndrome. She had a concert last night that ran far too late and neither of us made it to. (Although apparently we should have gone as we might have missed getting asked to speak in Church in a week...) So we are indeed doing our part to make sure she has Severe Parental Issues. Other than that she's fine. Girl is part weed - she lives outdoors and insists on growing no matter what you do.

Never play 7 Wonders with the letter 'r'. Unless you like losing. Badly. Good thing the game is fun to play, pretty much regardless of how it ends. I just like seeing my little civilization take shape.

Yeah, I got nothin'

I hate Spring. It plays absolute havoc with my sinuses and forces me to get out the lawn mower. Stupid Spring... Summer isn't much better.

We watched Harry Potter 7.1. It was horrible. This is mostly due to the fact that the first half of the seventh book is just about the most wretched thing in existence. I actually have some small hopes for the second half this summer. They are based on the fact that the end of the first half did start getting a touch better. It will be interesting to see if nothing else. I really don't know why they let Rowling get away with that travesty that was the first half. Oh yeah, she made a ton of money...

Lovely wife and I went to Rubio's the other day. Fish tacos are yummy. I had the blackened mahi mahi and it was great. I may have to learn to make fish tacos now. I wonder if I can pull that off on the grill... Hmm. How exactly do you grill fish? Don't you need a smaller grill surface? Do you put something down? I shall have to investigate.

20th Century Boys continues to be fun to read. I'm somewhere in the middle of the series, so I won't bore you with details.

I suppose I should have an opinion on the absolutely massive data theft Sony went through this past week. Especially since I'm one of the people affected by it. It doesn't look like credit card data was stolen, but just about everything else was. I'm certainly a touch annoyed, but mostly we're trying to keep an eye out to make sure our accounts are ok. Time to change some passwords as well I suspect. I can tell you that I'll pretty much stick to prepaid cards from this point on. I almost tried to figure out how to yank my credit card data out of there a while back as well... That'll teach me.

Bigger on the inside

I don't remember quite how old I was when I started watching Dr Who. Very few of my memories are tied to specific dates. Honestly very few of them are tied to specifics. I remember snatches of things and emotions attached to those bits of ephemera. But I remember watching it. Tom Baker was the current incarnation (he of the scarf and curly hair) and of the companions that orbited around him Sarah Jane was the one that stood out. I have fond memories of those times and, to me, Elisabeth Sladen was the epitome of the Doctor's companion. I loved her - she was funny and smart and cute and tough and you get the idea. Which is why I was terribly saddened earlier this week to learn that she had passed away. I'm not sure why it's hit me the way it has. Part of it is probably the little memories that people are sharing around the internet that match my own. Part of it is nostalgia I suspect. But regardless of why, she will be missed. It was great to see her again on the new series and from the sounds of things I need to give her spinoff a try. Rest in peace Elisabeth, you will be missed. Here's a lovely little song that Neil Gaiman tweeted right after the news broke.

In an obvious segue, the new season of Dr Who starts up this weekend. I'm sure we shall be gathered around the tv to watch. If for no other reason than to see what happens until Neil Gaiman's episode shows up to make little kids hide behind the couch and cry.

We wrapped up the second season of School Rumble. It was a different sort of experience from the first season. There was a very loose plot that wandered through the episodes (Tenma still pines for Karasuma and Harima still pines for Tenma and so on) but for the most part they focused on parodying various sources - Power Rangers, sports shows, I think there was even a Drifting Classroom reference. So if you knew what they were going for it could be pretty amusing. Other times it was just weird. And, of course, in typical romantic comedy fashion, they didn't really resolve any of the relationships. In fact I suspect things were actually a touch murkier than they started out. The manga is probably still ongoing and the anime may well be also. I liked it, lovely wife a bit less so, but I'd certainly be open to more. And if there was some progress, so would lovely wife.

Polished off Making Money by Terry Pratchett. It was typical Discworld fun. I don't know that I have that much more to say about it.

A Happy Easter in advance to all of you.

I dunno . . . stuff

Honestly I don't know that there's really anything worth rambling on about. I'm getting some enjoyment out of the Tomb Raider Trilogy currently out. I'm playing through Anniversary at the moment as I wanted to see how they handled the remake of the original game. It's fun. And far easier to play in parts than the original was. Which isn't to say it's without fault. The camera in this game is downright swimmy. I actually can't play too much at a time or it just leaves me with a headache. It's too loose or something. Not entirely certain how to describe it. And there are still some needless deaths due to not being able to quite line up. That's one thing I like about Uncharted. For the most part it knows where you're jumping and just lets you do it. Occasionally you'll be a little off, but not nearly as badly as here. Look forward to the other games.

I picked up Dungeon Hunter: Alliance as I wanted a fun little hack and slash game. It's just now out on PSN. If there are any other dungeon crawling dudes out there that want to co-op through the game, let me know. (And the Might and Magic demo is pretty cool too...)

A Happy Birthday goes out to little sis. She claims to be getting old. I roll my eyes at her. And her comments about getting close to 40. Close. Ha. I'll show her what close is in November. And then start the slow march to the top of the hill.

The lawn seems to think it needs to grow. I'm unimpressed with this notion.

Rumor has it that a family picture is being taken this week. In order to make sure it is as interesting as possible, G decided to throw his chin at the concrete steps in front of our house. He is patched up now. And insists on being called Indiana Jones as he now has a scar on his chin. Well, at least, that's what lovely wife claims. I have yet to find any ancient artifacts or dead Nazis, so I'm a little skeptical.

Similarities noted, ends reached, paper folded

I have finished Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss. I'm not entirely certain what to say about it. There are things I was surprised by (the amount of time spent at the University) and things that were grand and things that were foreboding and things that were funny and... well, you get the idea. It's a great book. I'm not sure if it's better or worse than Name of the Wind, so I'll settle for equal. I certainly look forward to the last book and have some slight fears that things will Not End Well. I shall have to read it again.

We're currently watching season 2 of School Rumble. I've missed this show. It's still absolutely hilarious. The 2nd and 3rd episodes reminded me of the paintball episode of Community, except that instead of riffing on 28 Days Later, they were going for Battle Royale. Without the silly weapons. Although there was a silly outfit. It's great.

It is now the stupid weather phase here. I rather dislike April and May because the temperatures are all over the place. We're supposed to have some snow over the next couple days and it looks like it's thinking about it at the moment. Bring back late Fall... Of course now I have to start worrying about the lawn and getting the mower into some state of readiness. Bleh.

I have learned to make jumping frog and wing flapping crane origami. They are quite fun. I was hoping to make a time delayed frog as seen in the first episode of The Mentalist, but apparently there is no such thing. Clever TV trickery!