Not nearly horrific enough

So lovely wife and I watched Apollo 18 last night. It had potential. It certainly started off decently and even offered some glimpses that it might be a fun little found footage horror flick set in space. And then it got boring. And didn't really do enough spooky stuff. There were certainly some great moments at the end, but too little too late. Plus I'm still not certain about Moon Spiders being the culprits. So, if you're a die hard found footage fan, this might scratch the itch for a while, but really, there's better stuff out there.

Season 2 of the Muppet Show has been a lot of fun to watch. The kids are well and truly hooked now. It's great. And rumor has it that a plush Kermit is making its way to me. Yaaaaaa-a-a-a-aay. He said in his best Kermit voice. I love Kermit.

I have encouraged little sis to snag Ticket to Ride Pocket for her iPhone. Now I must get her to play. I will crush her feeble dreams of being a rail baron in America. Hive was free over this past week. It might still be, I'm unsure. Upon downloading the electronic version, I realized that I have been playing that game completely wrong. I thought you had to completely surround your opponent's bee with your own tiles. It just needs to be surrounded. Yours, theirs, the color of the tiles is irrelevant. This completely changed the game and made something that was sort of interesting, but prone to locking up a lot, quite a bit more interesting and fun.

Nintendo needs to be better about getting their quirkier games to retailers. I want to play Rhythm Heaven but so far we're getting a lot of blank stares...

I thoroughly enjoyed The Chemistry of Death by Simon Beckett. It's a pretty fascinating little mystery that follows a forensic pathologist (think Kathy Reichs' Temperance "Bones" Brennan or Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta) that left the job after his wife and kid were killed. Of course he can't leave it for long. (Or really, why would there be a book in your hands) It's well written and I liked the characters. Some nice little twists and turns. Give it a look.

Grave Incoherency

Let's see, finished off season one of The Muppet Show (it was awesome and season two is waiting in the wings), most of season one of Mindfreak (mostly enjoyable, but the boring bits were really boring), Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle (I really don't know what to make of that book...), and I'm most likely giving up on Murakami's 1Q84 (it's ... not really that great).

That pretty much catches you up. I have a few more words about Burke and Hare a rather amusing little movie starring Simon Pegg (if I need to introduce him go away and never darken my blog again) and Andy Serkis (he was the guy that made Gollum, Gollum). The best part of the movie is that most of it is true. It recounts the lives of Williams Burke and Hare as they stumble into the grave robbing business and then go on a bit of a killing spree as demand for bodies is pretty high at the time due to the medical colleges trying to understand what makes the human body tick. So it's a slightly black comedy but it's certainly worth watching. K, you need to see this one. Little sis would probably get a kick out of it as well.

I suppose there are probably other things I should regale you with. Stories of G demanding that lovely wife play a boardgame for each hug she took (I'm so proud). Or possibly horrifying tales of a daughter signing up for Freshman classes (I'm so old!)? Or cautionary tales of another daughter trying to find a Valentine (really need to get that shotgun from the father-in-law...)?

Nah, think I'll just call it a day. Too tired.

Mostly Muppets with some Magic thrown in

We're almost through season one of the Muppet Show. It's been a lot of fun to watch. The kids have really enjoyed it as well, which is nice. I'm glad to see them having such a good time with it. I'm not sure if I have a favorite episode, but I did get a pretty good chuckle out of vampire Kermit in the Vincent Price episode. I'm also amused by how many muppet/people getting eaten jokes there have been in season one. And how lovely wife seems to find that amusing just about every time...

Over the weekend we watched Make Believe a documentary that follows six teenagers as they try to win the Best Teen Magician contest in Vegas. It was really good. The DVD also features a tutorial section where they teach you some tricks. The kids ran around for part of the weekend doing magic tricks. I recommend checking it out if you stumble across it.

I've also been watching season one of Criss Angel's Mindfreak. Once you get past the reality tv/street magician trappings, there's a pretty good show there. I like a lot of his tricks. G and lovely wife have enjoyed it as well. Between the documentary and this I have a moderate desire to try and snag this and learn some card magic. Card and coin are certainly my favorite sorts of tricks.

So lots of imagination and wonder going on at Casa del 'd' lately. That and some head colds. Stupid weather... Kids are starting to shake theirs just as lovely wife and I come down with our own. Good thing I have some down time over the next couple days.

Still need to play some board games. And find a Kermit stuffed animal...

Briefly spooky

I finished reading The Woman in Black by Susan Hill. It's a decent period haunting tale. I'll be a little interested how they do the movie as honestly, filming the book would probably provide about a 45 minute long movie. Maybe. The story itself is told as a recounting of earlier events that offer some decent questions to wonder over as you read and the conclusion is suitably shocking. Certainly worth checking out if you're interested. It's also a pretty quick read. (See previous comment on possible film length)

Lovely wife and I watched the remake of Fright Night last night. After taking a bit to adjust to weird remake changes, I settled in and enjoyed the film. It's a decent re-telling that doesn't really supplant the original while still managing to be worth seeing on its own. And the Chris Sarandon cameo was pretty amusing. David Tennant plays a suitably amusing modern stage magician with issues of his own (I was amused by the scene where he divests himself of all the trappings of modern stage magic) and Colin Farrell is a good menacing vampire. Some nice little twists on the old one as well as some decent homages.

I've been on something of a magic kick lately. Wanting to learn magic tricks, see magicians, etc. I downloaded a magic app on the iPad that teaches you a couple tricks. It's interesting. And I think the Library has some decent books on card tricks. I keep meaning to put some on hold. I've decided to give Criss Angel's Mindfreak Season 1 a go and see if I can tolerate modern street magician/reality tv enough to see some tricks. I also checked out a documentary on some teenage magicians vying for a chance to be the best in a Vegas competition. I'm hoping that has some fun tricks in it.

Little (and possibly littlest) sis should check out Triple Town. Totally addicting match three game. I wish I were playing it right now. It's free in the app store. (Not sure if there's an android version, but there might be) Also if you always wanted to try pitchcar but didn't want to drop the $80 or whatever it's running for right now, there's Disc Drivin' HD on the iPad. It's certainly cheaper. It won Best Local Multiplayer over at Boardgame Geek this year.

I finished off Uncharted 3 the other night. The ending was ... interesting is probably the best word for it. I liked the bit at the very end and I enjoyed some of the stuff just prior to that, but it suffers from some of the things most of the Uncharted games suffer from (so I'm not sure that it's really worth complaining about that, I should probably just be used to it by now). Overall, great game. Will play again.

I need to play some board games!

The snowpocalypse is a lie

So here we were expecting all manner of snow yesterday afternoon and instead we get rain. I'm of mixed emotions on that one. It's nice that my commutes have not been disasterfied, but a little snow this time of year is nice. Especially as we really haven't had any to speak of. Seriously weird winter...

Tucker and Dale vs. Evil is awesome. K needs to see this right now if she hasn't. Little sis might get a kick out of it as well. You have your good ol' boys on vacation to fix up their new vacation home and the college kids convinced that they're out to get them. This is not helped by the fact that they "kidnapped" one of the girls when she fell in the water and hit her head on a rock. They were simply trying to save her life, not start a slasher movie. It gets funnier from there. I won't say too much more lest I spoil things. Best line? Probably, "It's true, you're half hillbilly." Although there are some close contenders.

I am currently reading The Woman in Black in case I want to try to get to the movie. It's pretty good so far.

Lovely wife and I had a nice evening out at the beginning of the week. Some Indian food and some games with friends. I reminded myself why I don't play Alhambra much any more (everyone else is much better at it) and once again discovered that you should never play card games against Kim. First she killed us at Gang of Four a few weeks ago, and then she was managing a pretty tidy victory at Dwarf King. Serious voodoo.

I am intrigued by this.

It sounds like you can start making your own books for iBooks. I guess the app is for desktops, so I can't play around with it any until we get a new computer but I am intrigued. Maybe I'll make a version of I was a... that short story I wrote for lovely wife. It would be fun to include some photos or other little effects.

New Year, Old Material

Being as it's once again the first of the year, there's been a lot of talk about goals and resolutions and what not. I don't know that I have any hard goals in mind. I'm going to do my best to exercise regularly this year. I'd really like to get my weight down 10-15 lbs or so. (As an aside, the iPad is seriously the best thing for this. I love that Crackle app. Having something to watch while I exercise is great.) I'm going to continue to read and play some games. I'd like to learn a few more songs on the ukulele (I can play No New Tale to Tell by Love and Rockets and Nothing Matters When We're Dancing by the Magnetic Fields pretty reliably, although I can't sing to either). And I'd really like to involve the wife and kids in most of that. So there you go. Some sort of meandering direction for the rest of the year. It will be interesting to see what (if anything) comes of turning 40 later this year...

We watched the original Thai version of Shutter the other night. It was pretty good. Especially considering the fact that I was dead tired and had a hard time keeping up with the subtitles. I really liked the twist at the end and there were some really good jump scares in this one. Little sis should watch it late at night with the lights off and report back.

We managed to get in a game of 7 Wonders with the Leaders expansion. I'd forgotten how much I liked that game. The leaders cards certainly add some tension to the mix. I spent most of the time wishing I had a little more money and neighbors that offered a few more resources. Needless to say I got creamed. Certainly willing to try again though.

If you have access to an iOS device, I recommend Wooords (or however many o's are in there). I snagged it for free the other day, not sure if it's still free or not. It's an addictive little make words from the letters, while being forced to include this one letter in particular sort of game. The letters look and sound like fridge magnets and that adds a certain appeal as well. Zen pinball makes me wish I had a pinball machine. I really miss pinball...

Oh! I almost forgot! You all need to read The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (I believe). Probably the book I enjoyed reading most last/this year. (I'm really calling it last year as I should have finished it over the break, but decided to read Castle instead) It's almost like reading pure joy. It's a little Something Wicked This Way Comes without the creepiness and The Prestige without the hatred and jealousy. In fact turn it into a bit of a love story and add a most wonderful circus and it's close. It really is great. Go find a copy and devour it. Go I say!

Back in the saddle

So, new year. Seems much like the old one. Guess we'll see how it turns out.

Over the break I read the first two "Richard Castle" books, Heat Wave and Naked Heat. I'm on the hold list for the third. They're fun. If you like watching the show, you'll get a kick out of the books. Similar jokes/conversations, etc. I find it terribly amusing that they've got Fillion on the jacket and appropriate dedications, etc.

G has been lost in the world of Skylanders, it's apparently pretty good. I enjoyed the little bit that I got to play with him. It's fun to swap the characters around and explore the little bits of the world. Not a fan of the tether they use if you play multi player and one person wants to go one way and the other another. (Disney Universe suffers from this as well.

Uncharted 3 continues to be pretty amazing. Some of the level design is just astounding. The pirate level...

Lovely wife and I watched Limitless and it was pretty good. I stumbled across it as part of an under-appreciated sci fi list (Source Code and The Adjustment Bureau rounded it out) and as it was the one I hadn't seen we gave it a go. It's good, you should check it out.

We held a mini game night on New Year's Eve and played Dwarf King, Skip Bo and Zombie Dice. Oh and King of Tokyo. Strangely, Zombie Dice was the one that everyone got the biggest kick out of. Well, ok, Zombie Dice is pretty awesome. After all it's got zombies and dice (and I really need to snag the expansion dice...) King of Tokyo ended appropriately in the death of all monsters save one, so that was good.

Oh, and the iPad continues to be awesome. So far I highly recommend Flipbook if you have one. Absolutely brilliant way to manage your internet feeds like Google Reader, twitter, etc. I just need to see if there's a way to add google+ to it... I use Crackle while exercising (I can manage to get through an episode of Samurai X each morning) and that's pretty great. And then of course there's all the random games and so forth. I recommend trying out Vid Rhythm by Harmonix. It lets you make your own music video and if you get a kick out of messing with photo booth, this is right up your alley. I'm not sure lovely wife has been so amused. Except possibly by photo booth. Skitch lets you draw all over your photos and that's pretty fun too.

So 2011 ended well and we look forward to 2012 in some fashion or other. Well, ok, I could do without the upcoming election, but that's neither here nor there.

Just a quick howdy

Lovely wife seemed to think that I needed to post something as it was Thursday. I remain unconvinced. At any rate Christmas was lovely in spite of the lack of snow. I am typing this up on the big Christmas gift - an iPad. It is truly brilliant. Kids made out like bandits and the rest of us did fine as well.

We had a good visit with lovely wife's dad and are now enjoying some quiet time until New Year's. I picked up a new card game Dwarf King and we've played it a couple times. It's a nice little trick taking game with a random scoring element for each hand.

Hope you all had a fine holiday, more as I can be bothered to talk to you lot.

Initiate internet silence protocol Delta Echo

Chances are I will have little to say over the next couple weeks. Mostly as I'll be spending time with family and enjoying Christmas and playing with whatever new toys/games/gadgets make their way to casa del 'd'. So let me wish you all a Happy Christmas here and now and hope that you have the chance to spend at least a little of it around family and also around kids. There's very little better than watching kids around presents on Christmas morning. Especially if it's like 5 AM. Oh yeah, Christmas starts early.

Lovely wife and I both read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs and liked it. I have heard rumors confirmed facts that there will indeed be a followup title so the open ending is less of a concern. There are some truly great photos spaced throughout the book that help tell the tale. We both knew very little about this book going in (it was recommended to me by a friend at the Library) and I think that was actually a plus. Although lovely wife gave me some idea of what was going on as she read it first. So, if you're in the mood for something a little off kilter that's funny and spooky and interesting, give this one a shot.

Because everything is better with Muppets, I present this without comment.

And, really, that's about all I've got. Again, have a great holiday filled with love, joy and laughter. Because that's the third greatest gift you know.

Christmas time slip

I got nothin'.

Had a lovely conversation with K the other day. Although I forgot to direct her to the Doubleclicks in case she missed that post. It was good catching up. I still think you should stake out the vanquished squirrels as a deterrent.

Castle season 3 continues to trundle along. I've mostly given up following the plots and just enjoy the banter.

Uncharted 3 also continues. The spider/scarab/evil bug things continue to freak us all out. Speaking of creepy spiders, I recommend you all read I'm a Shark. Because it is awesome. Almost as awesome as the shark.

And really that's about all I can think of. I should really contemplate some sort of seasonal wrap up. We'll see. If nothing else I hope you're all having a wonderful December.

Something about a goose getting fat?

The Christmas bug has arrived at Casa del 'd'. The kids seem to think there will be presents or something. I have no idea why they have that impression. They've been little hellions all year. I think we'll go the coal route next year. Certainly cheaper. Theoretically. Maybe we'll give them "get your own coal" IOUs attached to a pick or something. We're pretty close to the end of the foraging for bits and bobs. Honestly I think we're just down to lovely wife and I to shop for. Which has been more of a challenge than it should be.

We're currently wandering through season 3 of Castle. It's been fine so far. I hear it gets a little silly towards the end. Too many fake deaths. We shall see. I still enjoy the banter between Castle and Beckett though so that's good. And how adorable is his daughter? Seriously adorable.

Letter 'r' gave me the Leaders expansion for 7 Wonders so we'll see how that plays soon. Looking through it leads me to believe it will offer some pretty intriguing choices while playing. That's good. Have had the desire to play more boardgames lately, but not been able to accomplish it. Castle and Uncharted are the main obstacles...

Hope you're all having a wonderful holiday season. Now if I can just get the kids to stop putting together all the lego advent figures. It is seriously my turn...

December? Already? Who let this happen?

And so the week that was the letter d's vacation came to a close. Drucon was a rousing success with Fortune and Glory, Gang of Four, King of Tokyo,  and a couple plays of Elder Sign making up the day. We learned to never play Gang of Four against Kim. Ever. Under any circumstances. We managed to prevent one Elder God from arising only to be devoured by Cthulhu itself the next time. Some might say we barely eked out a victory that game, but I prefer to think that we were horribly destroyed. Fortune and Glory was indeed quite a bit of fun, if a touch long. It should speed up some next time provided we play again some time soon, so we can remember how things work. I like the push your luck aspect of the challenges even if I invariably failed somewhere along the way and lost all my glory. I did manage a stellar go at the zeppelin where I snuck aboard, fought the guard and made off with all six fortune markers. It was pretty brilliant.

I decided to take a wander through some of my childhood favorites and re-read The Phantom Tollbooth and The House with a Clock in its Walls over the break. They were still great. Glad to see that. M is currently making her way through Tollbooth and lovely wife braved the house with the ticking clock. If you've never read them, you really should.

This is mostly for the letter K, but the rest of you can feel free to check it out as well. The Doubleclicks are awesome. Two girls, one ukulele, one cello and some seriously catchy geeky music. Their Thing a Week album that you can try out for free is suitably spectacular. It made the trip to Arizona a lot more tolerable. (Seriously, what is up with that drive? People complain about Kansas being boring, but it's got nothing on that stretch from Kingman to Phoenix... Admittedly it probably smells better than western Kansas. Hmm.)

Speaking of the trip, we did indeed brave the "road" down to Arizona and spent Thanksgiving with family. There was a lot of good food, a family picture and the Muppets. Two out of three... I will now gush for a bit about The Muppets. It was great. I loved this movie. I worry that it's too squarely aimed at my age group and thus will not appeal to kids enough to ensure a resurgence of the show. Because when you leave, that's what you want - the Muppets back on the air doing what they've always done. The soundtrack is catchy and heartbreaking and hilarious. The jokes are fun and the cameos were well done. This movie has probably the second best cameo after Zombieland. The first part of the movie is a touch slow compared to the last section (where they're putting on the telethon) but it does contain some wonderful moments, so it's ok. (Seriously, that Pictures in my Head song... It still gets to me)

I managed to get a little Black Friday shopping done online. Snagged Harry Potter 7.2 for $7 thanks to Best Buy and my sister's iPad. I really enjoy not having to go to the stores.

G is engrossed in Skyward Sword and I've fallen down the Uncharted well. Both great games. Man this time of year. I want to try Skyrim too and Disney Universe and... Heh.

So a big thanks to family for helping celebrate my birthday. Littlest sis gets points for making the yummy Boston Cream Pie/cake. In spite of false starts and horrible directions it sure tasted good. And the turkey and everything else was great as well. Little sis will have to send K'''''' up here to do hair. That was seriously the funniest thing.

Now to prepare for Christmas...

If you listen close, you can hear it

That would be the sound of Thanksgiving. Yeah, that holiday that stores pretend doesn't exist between Halloween decorations and Christmas decorations. It's my favorite. And that's only partially due to it's orbit around my birthday. At any rate it draws nigh.

Theoretically this weekend is Drucon. The weather and outside circumstances are doing their best to thwart that notion. Oh well, I've got the games and the t-shirts. That's right, t-shirts. And they are awesome.

You know what else is awesome? Watching the first eight Friday the 13th movies over the course of a week. Well, except for that last one. Manhattan? Really? Flooding the sewers with toxic waste every night at midnight? Whatever. And the psychic chick in the seventh one. What was that all about? But the rest were varying degrees of successful. Except maybe the third one. In spite of the 3D. And we wore the glasses. It was occasionally spectacular and mostly eye strain inducing. It was actually pretty interesting to watch them all like that. The first two are certainly the best, the third was a gimmick, the fourth-sixth were definite products of their time (80s slasher films), the seventh was the weird one until the eighth one came along, and the eighth was both weird and horrible. We've not seen the 9th one yet and Jason X is a silly guilty pleasure. There you go. The body counts reflected a nice bell curve peaking around  5 I think it was. There was also a strange continuity from 4-6 that started with Corey Feldman. Weird. And that possibly explains a lot.

Isle of Blood, the third Monstrumologist book by Rick Yancey, was decent. I think I liked it a touch more than the second one and am still interested in following the series. I'm still amazed at how gory these books can be (considering they're YA) but they are pretty fascinating. I like the characters quite a bit and there is a decent amount of humor and wit woven through.

G is very excited about the upcoming Zelda game. The demo for Disney Universe is also pretty cool. It's pretty similar to the Ratchet & Clank game (competitive co-op if that makes sense) just with a Disney skin. I suspect you only need one, just pick the one that appeals to you more. The Disney game has an added Little Big Planet vibe in that it looks like you're sort of a sackboy character wearing different Disney character outfits. Cute.

I've started reading 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. It's interesting so far. Been a while since I've read him. Looking forward to seeing where it goes.

At any rate, family get together soon. Shindigs. Possible Black Friday shopping. We managed to convince the kids to start throwing together wish lists so we'll probably toss some Christmas shopping in there too. Yup, it's the end of the year...

Pop Pop

Lovely wife and I finished season 2 of Community. This show is worth watching for the paintball episodes alone. Although the first half was better than the second half. (Paintball eps, not season). I am slightly sad that I can't actually watch this when it's on, alas. At any rate, I appreciate the geek factor of the show and the humor.

G has re-visited King of Tokyo and declares it much better with fewer people. We've since played a couple more games and he had a pretty good time with it. It's more fun when you're not constantly waiting for your turn to roll around. If you're seven. I suspect we'll be introducing this one to family over the holidays and smacking each other around Tokyo.

Rick Riordan's second book in the Heroes of Olympus series, Son of Neptune was fine. By the end I was ready for the book to be over, but I mostly enjoyed it. I still find this series more engaging than his Egyptian books. I kind of wish they'd make more movies...

I recommend checking out the Ratchet and Clank: All 4 One demo for the PS3. It's a co-op R&C game and is pretty fun. G and I played part of the demo yesterday. Might have to snag this one. Uncharted 3 is currently on my dresser, mocking me as I wait for my birthday. Lovely wife's Dad was generous enough to get it for me. I really really want to start playing it... Need to check out Skyrim as well. Might hit the redbox for that one.

Other than that things are quiet for a bit. Drucon looms closer, lovely wife's Dad is with her sister for another day or so, we'll be around family for the holiday. So things are in the works, but for now we can take it easy. That's nice.

And a good time was had by all

Goodness, it's been quite a week. Horror movies, Community season 2, Halloween, family in town, birthdays, games. I barely know where to start. The kids enjoyed themselves on Halloween. We had a tiger, a water fairy and a mummy. I leave it to you to sort out who was what. They got far too much candy and had far too much fun, but then, that's what Halloween is for, so I reckon we'll call it even. There was a trunk or treat with chili, haunted hallways and a trip around the block. I held down the fort and answered the door for the few brave souls we had. It was good we didn't have that many as we just about ran out of candy at the trunk or treat.

G is now 7 and had quite the birthday. A trip to Arbys (his choice) and some pretty good presents. A couple wooden Duncan yo-yos, a Hot Wheels Nitro Racer rc car (that insists on going in circles at high speeds, I suspect we'll try exchanging it since the steering alignment buttons don't seem to actually accomplish anything) and the board game King of Tokyo. We gave that one a try last night. His initial impression (with 6 players) is that it wasn't fun as it took too long between turns and he didn't have enough to do. He does want to try it again with just lovely wife and I. My take is that for a first game it went fine and he does have a bit of a point about that many players. If you don't keep the turns moving, it can drag a little. But the game itself is pretty fun. You play a giant monster (think Godzilla) intent on destroying Tokyo. It's pretty much a battle royale utilizing dice and some cards. Plus it only takes like 20 minutes if that. Nice little filler game.

Have had a good visit with lovely wife's Dad thus far. I believe he and lovely wife managed to get some gutter guards installed and have run around a touch.

I had heard of Kate Beaton's Hark! A Vagrant a while back but never got into the webcomic version. The Library recently got the book that collection and I gave it a go. It's hilarious. Beaton studied history and uses that knowledge to create strips based on real people/events with pretty amusing results (there are some not so historical people included as well - Spider Man, Nancy Drew etc.). And in case you are not a history major, Beaton includes helpful explanations which are often just as hilarious. I did not stop laughing. Just ask lovely wife or McK.

So yeah, Community season 2 is pretty hilarious.

I'm probably forgetting a bunch of stuff. But it's been a busy week, so there you go. Bring on November!

The Horror!

Have consumed a fair amount of horror films lately. And still have quite a few to go. Let's see, watched Carpenter's version of The Thing, The Child's Eye (by the Pang Brothers), the bulk of the Resident Evil movies (2-4 as I'd seen the first one not too long ago), Thor. Wait. That one might not count. Or does it? Hmm.

Still have Trick 'r Treat, The Boogeyman and The Sentinel on tap plus some other stuff. I also finished off that second book in the Monstrumologist series, Curse of the Wendigo. So there's been a fair amount of horror filled goodies to fill out this October. I am pleased. Lovely wife might be a touch burned out (she opted to fore go The Child's Eye last night) but that's not gonna stop me. Horror will go on. Much like Jason or Freddy. Down, but never out for the count.

Most of it has been pretty decent. The Thing is still a classic and holds up. The Child's Eye (I guess it's theoretically the third film in the Eye series) was kinda odd (dog-headed kid). But the Resident Evil movies... Look, the first one is great. It's both a decent zombie flick and a nice tribute to the games. After that the series just gets weird. Psychic powers, clones, monsters... I don't believe most of those show up in the games (I've only played bits and pieces of a few of them and all the way through 4) so I have a hard time reconciling those differences (other than some character/creature names). And honestly after that first one, maybe the second, the zombies are just kind of there. It's more about the Umbrella Corp. Which I suppose is fine. I almost think they'd have been better served if they weren't RE movies...

Hard to believe October is just about done. We'll have some more family in town soon, plus some birthdays. And Drucon looms near. Time to start sorting out the Fortune and Glory rules. That one looks pretty exciting.

G and I have been making our way through the Scott Pilgrim video game lately. It's been pretty fun. We're up to exes 5 and 6 the Katayanagi twins. That should prove to be rather difficult. And I'm drooling over Uncharted 3. Can not wait to play it. Alas, I'm trying to hold off on purchasing it to see if it crops up in any Black Friday ads. Here's to hoping I can avoid spoilers. I hear there are some real twists and turns in this one.

M is recovering nicely from her tonsillectomy. She's even managed to start talking again. There was a lot of finger spelling at the beginning of the week. Which was pretty useless where I was concerned. No matter how many times she tried to do it, I still don't read sign language.

I have no idea what the kids are going as for Halloween. I have no idea what I'm going as. Maybe I'll throw the lab coat on, grab a potato battery and claim to be a scientist for Aperture Science. Speaking of, I really liked this. I think I'm going to have to grab that song off iTunes when I get home. Apparently it makes an appearance in the game in one of the Ratman's hideaways. It was absent from the soundtrack Valve was giving out. But it will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine.

Hope you all have a perfectly horror filled Halloween.

Wandering through October

Had a nice visit with family while they were in town. Attempted to fight off one of the Great Old Ones in a game of Elder Sign, but didn't quite manage a whole game due to starting a little later than was wise. And lots of kids running around. That game can play in around an hour, but not easily when you have a larger group and when the rules are still new. Fun was had though, so that's the important thing. It's probably just as well we didn't finish - the dice really weren't with us that night. I suspect we'd have all been devoured. As it was my poor character was driven insane, but was replaced by someone probably more prone to handling the situation we found ourselves in.

Lovely wife and I finished watching season one of Supernatural. I really liked that first season. Lots of varying monsters and not too much focus on yellow eyed demons or Sam's burgeoning psychic abilities. I'm pretty sure that's what killed later seasons for me.

We also had a good time celebrating lovely wife's birthday. She managed to convince me to take a small hike up one of the local canyons in an effort to see some of the changing leaves. There really weren't that many that had changed (surprisingly for this late in the year) but enough to have made it worthwhile I guess.

M is currently suffering the loss of her tonsils, but in spite of that seems to be doing well. Not exactly how I'd want to spend my Fall break, but that's ok.

Well, we've officially started the slide through the holiday/birthday season. Hopefully we manage to make it through with our sanity. I have my doubts.

Ready Player One

I finished Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, handed it to lovely wife and then watched her devour it over a couple days. Yeah, it's that good. It is indeed the book I've enjoyed reading the most so far this year. It concerns itself with a treasure hunt. World has gone to pot, everybody spends their time in OASIS - think WoW mixed with Facebook and a couple other things. Guy that created it kicks the bucket and leaves behind an easter egg somewhere in the virtual world. You need three keys to find the egg. Commence searching. Oh and the guy that hid it? Totally loved the 80s. So the search becomes a road trip through everything 80s nostalgia. So good. Now, if you didn't live through the 80s and more to the point aren't a geek to some extent, you will probably only like this book. He does a fine job of explaining most of the references (leaving a couple for the reader to suss out) so you're never completely lost, but if you fit those criteria you are in for a real treat.

Redbox now carries videogames. So as I was curious about Demon's Souls back when it came out and the spiritual (heh) successor Dark Souls is now out, I thought I'd give it a go. $2 is certainly a better try it out price than $60. It's an interesting game. They're both known for their difficulty - you can expect to die a lot. No really, a lot. No, more than that. Keep going. A little more, there you go, that's about right. You choose a fantasy based character type, start the game off dead and then proceed to become more dead. Except for those times when you manage to come back to life. But you'll die again, don't worry. Enemies are tricky and out to kill you. They succeed. So, why do people play this? It's an interesting question. I think some of it stems from the absolute rush you get when you manage to make it past them. Every so often you will find camp fires, they serve as checkpoints of a sort. If you rest at them, you regain your health and refill your flask that lets you heal while out and about, but it also resets all the enemies you killed. So it becomes a kind of tug of war - do you press on, knowing you might die, but hoping to get just that little bit further, or do you heal up, knowing you've got to fight your way through?

Honestly the most intriguing thing about the game is listening to people talk about it. For example, I was stuck in the middle of Undeadburg trying to fight my way to the next camp fire. I'd managed to learn how to make it to a tower. Climbed said tower, got super lucky when the guardian must have fallen off or something - I sure didn't kill him, and then was confronted by a dragon guarding a bridge with a stair case going down about halfway across the bridge. I was certainly in no shape to fight the beast. I got barbecued a bunch of times trying to make it to that stupid stair case. Not to mention the numerous times I still died just getting to the dragon. Curse those guys and their spears! But I'd done it. Made it to the stair case. Started poking around a bit and there it was. A camp fire. But wait, it looked sort of familiar. That's right, it was the same camp fire I'd been starting at, I'd just kicked a ladder down to it so I could access the bridge under the dragon. I'd gone in a huge circle. I didn't know whether to laugh, cry or punch a hole through the tv. I seriously thought about returning that disc to the redbox snapped in half. But those moments when it goes right... I might have to pick it up when it gets cheap. For those times I feel like wondering why I ever play games.

Little and littlest sis are in town along with the rest of the crew. We sort of attempted the corn maze the other night. Between the rain making the ground a little too spongy and a late start causing it to be too dark to really see, we made it about halfway through before deciding bed time was the better part of valor and re traced our steps. The pig races were as enjoyable as always. G managed to win himself a pig nose thanks to Faith Squeal I think it was. We will get together some tomorrow and possibly again over the weekend for lovely wife's birthday shenanigans.

We've also been making our way through that first season of Supernatural. It really was pretty great. I liked it back when they focused on the monster a week formula. We shall see if it continues.

Fall arrives in force

It's been a pretty rainy couple of days, finally driving the temperatures down where they belong. If you were unsure where Fall was, you don't have to wonder any more. There are even rumors of snow. Winter is coming indeed.

Caught the remakes of Nightmare on Elm Street  and Friday the 13th. We'd seen the latter before. I'd actually forgotten how gruesome it is. I wonder if they're going to bother continuing it or not. As for the former, it was fine. Lovely wife didn't care for the new Freddy's voice, but after the initial shock I adjusted to it. I like Jackie Earle Haley and thought he did well. The story was a touch darker than the original, but mostly because they insisted on spelling a few things out. Freddy's ultimate plan for Nancy was certainly creepy.

I am this close to finishing Ready Player One. It is awesome. Probably the book I've enjoyed reading most all year. And that might well be including Wise Man's Fear. Admittedly part of it is due to the fact that the book is pretty much tailor made for me. Ok, a lot of it is. But it's still great. In honor of awesome 80s nostalgia, I present to you Zork. We called it a text adventure. You wacky kids today refer to it as interactive fiction. Either way, still awesome. And frustrating. Beware the grue.

Psst. There's free Portal 2 dlc available. More co-op levels and challenge mode for both single player and co-op. Oh and the entire soundtrack is available here.

I remember thinking when Steve Jobs left Apple that it would be interesting to see how they would fare without him. I thought he'd still be around for a few months. I was shocked yesterday to learn he had passed away. He will be missed.

Are you ready

I could follow that up with "For Freddy?" but we'll get there.

September is rapidly drawing to a close. Letter 'r' gets to test out the waters of that last year in the 30s for a couple months before I take the plunge. I suspect it feels remarkably similar to things now.

Lovely wife and I watched Hanna last night. That was one intense little movie. I actually didn't know too much about it going in and I think that really made a difference in my enjoyment level. I knew she was raised as an assassin and that the Chemical Brothers did the soundtrack. Honestly part of the reason I watched it was to hear the soundtrack as there were people claiming it was as good or better than the Daft Punk Tron Legacy soundtrack. I'm not sure where I weigh in on that one. I did like it. I think Daft Punk gets the nod though. It would be interesting to hear the Hanna soundtrack divorced from the film. I think it might be odd... Anyway, if you haven't seen it, it's worth checking out.

If you have any love for the 80s, you need to read Ready Player One. I'm about halfway through it and loving it. It's awesome. Radical even. (Totally) It'll appeal a touch more to those with 80s geek cred, but I think anybody who lived through the 80s will find something to latch on to.

So, October approaches. I have several horror movies waiting for me on the hold shelf downstairs. At the moment I'm going with a remake theme. Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, Let Me In all fall into that category. (The editions I snagged) I also have Monster Camp which is about LARPing and supposed to be good. We shall see. Will probably watch The Grudge when little sis is around. Still plan on Constantine and I may just snag the Paranormal Activity movies again. I've heard good things about the third one. Yay October.

McK and I managed a quick trial run of Elder Sign. It looks to be pretty good. Will go into more detail once I get a couple more games under my belt. I still need to mock up some bleach designs for t shirts. I want to make a couple horror themed shirts and maybe some game related ones as well.

So Amazon has announced their new tablet, the Kindle Fire. I am somewhat intrigued. I think I'm a little too tied to iTunes to really enjoy something that isn't an iPad but at $200 it might be worth looking into once I hear more about it. Especially as the Library is now loaning Kindle books. Speaking of, I played around with that and read Found the third Magic Thief book. It was good. I really enjoy that series. It also marks the first book I've actually been able to complete on a Kindle. I still don't find the reading experience that enjoyable on those things, but I see where they could be useful for traveling and so on. I will admit the whole checking a book out from the Library on the Kindle is pretty darn cool. I'm curious to see what happens once the checkout period is reached.