So

Finished the newest Rick Castle book, Frozen Heat. I don't really have anything to say about it. It's a decent Nikki Heat story and at this point you either enjoy the Castle tie-ins or you don't care. So, yeah...

I have started reading Roadside Picnic which is apparently Russian sci-fi at its best. I rather like it so far myself.

Skyfall was indeed good.

As was my week off. In spite of turning another year older. Drucon 4 was rather successful. Ugg-tect may well be my new go to party game. Inflatable spiked clubs and caveman speech plus colored blocks do indeed make for a fun, silly game. We also got in some Shadows Over Camelot (I fail as traitor, although I remained undiscovered) as well as telephone pictionary and Say Anything. Plus there was an awesome companion cube birthday cake. (I really need to get a picture of it up) And lots of good food. Plus d4 keychains as swag. What's not to love?

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Can't believe November is drawing to a close.

tock tock tock

The Other Normals by Ned Vizzini was pretty fun to read. It's a YA book geared towards boys, especially the tabletop gaming variety. (*cough* D&D *cough*) Oh sorry, it's C&C in the book's world, but whatever. There are some brief moments of crude boy humor, but mostly it follows Perry as he tries to do the thing called growing up. With the help of some folks from a parallel world. You'll know pretty quick if you're going to like it or not. It's a pretty quick read too, so it's at least worth looking at if you like YA fantasy-ish sorts of things.

I've started watching Indie Game: The Movie while I exercise. It's interesting and sort of depressing.

In other news I am almost officially old. And in dire need of a vacation. Fortunately I have one of those next week. Happy early Thanksgiving to all of you. I hope you can spend it with those you love and that there's a side dish on the table that you really enjoy.

Apparently M had the opportunity to write about her favorite games the other day. I thought maybe she'd pick Summoner Wars when lovely wife was relating the story, but apparently she went with Betrayal at House on the Hill (which I might have guessed if I'd thought about it a bit more) followed by Mansions of Madness and Elder Sign. I was unaware that she'd actually played Mansions of Madness except for maybe that initial game back when we got it and I was trying to sort out the rules. It's certainly an interesting trio of games to pick. Guess I'll have to get her reading some Lovecraft now...

Still haven't made it to Wreck it Ralph. And now Skyfall is out as well... Silly movies.

Tick tick tick

So we survived the influx of family. It was good seeing everybody again. Had a good visit with Dad and a couple brief visits (that were also good, just brief) with the in-laws. We also saw youngest sister briefly here and there. G had a good birthday and a really nice baptism. We discovered that Walmart makes really excellent party subs for next to nothing (seriously, 6 foot longs, a jar of mayo, a jar of mustard, lettuce, tomato and red onion in various containers all for $28).

G scored a couple Nerf rifles for his birthday. There may or may not have been much shooting of various family members with them. I suspect we'll need to stock up on bullets.

Dad kicked in and helped me upgrade my sad little cell phone to an iPhone 5. It's a pretty nifty phone I must say. I've even mostly got the hang of it. If nothing else, it helps feed my Super Crate Box addiction... I tried to use Facetime on it so younger sis could say hi while we were at the baptism, but it doesn't seem to like to do that too much. We either didn't have great reception or it works better over wifi. Although I think I tried again at home using that.

Littlest sis snagged me a copy of Ugg-tect. It's a party game involving inflatable spiked clubs and caveman speech. I think that's really all I need to say. It will be making an appearance at Drucon 4. I expect much hilarity will ensue.

I keep hoping to get to Wreck it Ralph, but so far have been unsuccessful...

It seems like there should be lots of other things I need to mention. I finished Mark of Athena. It was fine. I think I'm almost done with Rick Riordan though. I like his books, I think I'm just moving on from them. Although if he really does tackle Norse mythology, I'll certainly give that a go.

No more spiders

Finished This Book is Full of Spiders and it was great fun. I liked it better than John Dies at the End. It's a more cohesive story and I think the writing is better as well. Some truly laugh out loud moments as well as some nice eerie stuff. So good.

Mark Z. Danielewski's sort of ghost story, The Fifty Year Sword was pretty interesting too. It's certainly one that probably requires slightly more attention than I gave it, but the story was fun and suitably spooky. Although I will admit to still being a touch confused by the ending.

I plowed through the next two volumes of The Sixth Gun as well. They were great. I really like this series a lot. More western apocalyptic goodness.

Happy birthday to G! Glad to hear he's not falling for trick hugs that are spankings in disguise. And I am amused that he wanted chocolate chip banana bread with candles for breakfast.

As the iOS version was on sale for .99 cents the other day and they were giving away the desktop client for free for Halloween, we've been messing about with Plants vs Zombies. It's actually kind of fun. Mostly because I like the zombies. They amuse me. I also snagged Girls Like Robots which is a fun logic puzzle sort of game. And The Room is another fun puzzle game. I think my brain might explode from all the puzzle-y goodness.

G and I are just about through that first season of Haven. I've really enjoyed it.

Otherwise, it's good to have family in town for a bit. Although it will certainly be a hectic weekend. And sorry little sis couldn't make it up, but that's ok. Moving house and so on are certainly valid reasons not to make the trek.

Spooky

So we forced Paranormal Activity and Cabin in the Woods upon new victims over the weekend. A good time was had by all. Well except for the scaring to death part and the what did we just watch part. Ok, I had a good time. And I suspect at least one or two of the others did as well. I still rather enjoy those movies...

Also worth noting is that the heroes actually won a game of Betrayal at House on the Hill over the weekend as well. We managed to whomp that ghost good. Heh.

G and I are continuing to watch season one of Haven. It's been quite good. I am glad there is more of the show waiting for us when we finish this round.

So, October is just about done. Who let this happen? I don't really remember much of it at all and I am not remotely prepared for November or December...

Oh, I should also mention that it's snowing here. Quite a bit actually. It's still early enough that nothing is sticking, but I am rather impressed at Winter's early start. I suspect I am going to have to shovel far too much snow this Winter. Alas. I like snow though. Except for when I'm commuting...

Happy Halloween! (Almost)

Spider (he is our hero)

Currently hip deep in This Book is Full of Spiders by David Wong. It's the sequel to John Dies at the End and so far it's pretty great. Funny, creepy all those great tastes that taste great together. And strangely I seem to have won a copy of the ARC from Tor. So thanks Tor! Free book full of spiders bent on destroying the Earth. What's not to love about that?

I finished Professor Gargoyle, one of the new Lovecraft Middle School books in an evening. It's good, sort of spooky fun. If nothing else it has a two headed rat. (But no Earth destroying spiders)

We watched The Avengers over the weekend. It's pretty official - I am done with superhero movies (possibly excepting the Nolan Batman stuff, but I'm not positive about it either). It's not that it was bad, it just wasn't that great either. Mostly it was silly. (It may have needed more Earth destroying spiders instead of Aliens all hooked up to one ship. Seriously? All the aliens run off that one ship?)

I do rather enjoy the Superhero Cafe stuff that the folks over at How it Should Have Ended put out though. So if you've not seen that stuff, go give it a watch.

Got a couple board games in over the weekend. Another round of Betrayal at House on the Hill as well as some King of Tokyo and Cthulhu and Zombie Dice. Once again the traitor prevailed. Although it was a pretty close call. Well, maybe not that close. Stupid Frankenstein's monster... This weekend will feature horror movies and maybe a game or two. Looking forward to it.

McK has always had a love/hate relationship with math. Theoretically she was going to be studying Geometry this year so I checked out the new Danica McKellar book Girls get Curves to see if it was of any help to her. I've heard good things about her math books. We'll see if it's any good.

I think G and I are going to give the first season of Haven a go. He watched the first episode with me the other day. It was actually kind of interesting.

Lovely wife has recently taken interest in some simple knitting projects. A scarf and a couple hats using these easy little loom things. We shall see what becomes of this. (Unless we get eaten by the spiders)

Rowling and other sundries

Alright. So I managed to finish The Casual Vacancy. And that's really the only good thing I can say about it. Well, the other is that Rowling still manages to be a decent world builder. Too bad she filled this one with such horrible people that by the end you really don't care what happens to any of them. I've heard that she said that she expected her audience to be in tears at the end of the book and if they weren't, then that was a person she didn't want to meet/know. After wading through 500 pages of terrible people, I don't know that I want to meet her either. Any emotional weight she wanted the ending to have is just completely overshadowed by her attempts to write an "adult" novel. It takes more than a lot of swearing, sex and drugs to manage to be mature. Just ask the video game industry - they've been struggling with that for years now.

Sigh...

On a lighter note, The Sixth Gun is a pretty fascinating comic collection that also features not necessarily nice people but manages to be a whole lot more enjoyable. It's an apocalyptic-ish Western sorta thing. I recommend this one. I like the art style and the story hits all of the right notes. The beats of the story aren't exactly ground breaking, but the setting itself is fun and that grants it a few favors.

I'm about to start This Book is Full of Spiders, the sequel to John Dies at the End. I'm looking forward to it.

Blade is dumb. That is all. (No really, it's horrible. Why are there three of these movies?)

The Tall Man is the weirdest "horror" movie I've seen in quite some time. You go in expecting one thing and then about halfway through it turns into something else and then the end manages a twist on that and then you're left wondering why this is a movie. It's not bad, but it is really weird...

After watching the Pandemic episode of Tabletop I really wanted to snag the game and its expansion. Alas the expansion is out of print at the moment and most likely won't be available until the end of the year/beginning of the next. So we've done the next best thing and played a lot of Forbidden Island. On legendary. With some of the alternate islands. We've lost every time and it has been glorious. I'm keeping my eye out for Pandemic and the expansion though.

I need a bell for our copy of Pit. I'm not sure why I have a copy that doesn't have a bell. This is terrible.

It's time to start planning Drucon. The real trick is finding some games that will play seven people or so. We might try splitting the group up some, but we'll see. Fortunately Shadows Over Camelot plays that many. As does Pitchcar and 7 Wonders and a few others that we have running around/access to. (See the previously mentioned Pit. Why do you think I need a bell?) I think we'll also try a round of the Pictionary/telephone game.

And to finish things off an early Happy Birthday to lovely wife. I would mention her age here (it's legitimate this go round) but I'll be nice. Love you sweetie!

back again

However briefly...

So I started Rowling's new book, Casual Vacancy. So far, I am not that enamored by it. She seems to have decided that writing an adult novel means she needs to use lots of swearing and sex (or at least discussion of it). Also, I almost think the book is a little too specific to England for us folks across the pond. At least the political parts. People are pretty much people everywhere. So those parts remain universal.

Finished off the third season of Community. It was fun. It'll be interesting to see how this last season goes.

Gave the letter 'r' the new X Wing miniatures game by Fantasy Flight. Got in a game of that over the weekend. It's an interesting little tactical minis game. The figures are absolutely gorgeous. The game itself plays pretty well, but it's definitely a minis game where they want you to buy the boosters and build your army so that there's more "Game" there. The base set comes with 2 Tie Fighters and 1 X Wing and three scenarios you can play through to see how things all work together. At that point you'll want to buy more figs (or another base set for your friend/family) so you can make Star Wars noises while you blow each other off the table.

Finally finished Game of Thrones. I am interested in reading the next one, but will give myself a little break before starting it.

Very Brief

Community Season 3 is more Community. That pretty much sums it up (it's still funny).

I have the new J.K. Rowling book from the Library. We shall see if it's good. Apparently I need to read it quickly as it's a 14 day checkout... Well, by that point I'll probably know if I just want to pick it up I guess.

I am revisiting Trigun while I exercise. I had forgotten how much I like that show.

Call the Shots ended up being fine. It is certainly a third book in a crude boy humor series. I think I still like Beat the Band the best.

And that is all. For now.

The End is Nigh

For Summer that is. I forget if it's today or tomorrow, but that last day is within grasp either way. And that's good.

Oh hey, Cabin in the Woods is out on DVD. If you never saw it, for shame, go watch it now.

We have played several more games (well at least 2) of Betrayal at House on the Hill. It has continued to be fun. The heroes lost both times to the traitor. There were ghosts of various types involved in both instances. It is distinctly possible we will be playing again this weekend.

I have an idea banging around in my head for a board game. I will have to see if I can flesh out actual parts and rules and mechanics. I will be borrowing liberally from a couple other games. More on that if it materializes.

I am reading way too many books. One is on game design another is Call the Shots, the final book in the crude boy humor series that started with Swim the Fly, I'm still going through Game of Thrones and it seems like there are others. I have no idea. Honestly I can't keep anything straight at this point. You're lucky (for varying degrees of luck) I can string words together in any sort of coherent fashion...

In fact my brain has shut down enough that I can't be bothered to cont

Almost coherent

After several years, and only a couple actual plays, I traded away Arkham Horror. It was time to let it go. We just don't really get three hour games to the table very often. Especially games with very complex rule sets (or at least rule sets that aren't well explained). I still have a few three hour games, but they either get played more (Mansions of Madness waves a tentacle) or are new enough that I haven't given up on them yet. I got a decent amount of store credit at a local comic book/game store and ponied up a little more cash to pick up Betrayal at House on the Hill. Think of it as The Haunting of Hill House the game. It's a story driven affair in which you spend the first half exploring a haunted house together and then at a somewhat random point the Haunt starts up and one of the players may become a traitor. At that point the traitor tries to accomplish a goal and the remaining players try to thwart said goal. Each team has a story book they read from to get the gist of what's happening.

We tried this out last weekend with a good deal of fun. Lovely wife and the girls joined me as we wandered through the mansion prior to the Haunt. I won't spoil what happened except to say we had one of the few encounters where there isn't a traitor. Instead we ended up turning on each other as we tried to escape. It was actually pretty fun. M and I both safely escaped while lovely wife and McK were left to a horrific fate. I've heard the game can be pretty random and occasionally unbalanced depending on how the house is set up as the haunt starts, but I think we'll be ok with that. The narrative you can create while playing is still pretty fun. So a worthwhile trade methinks.

I also dug out Bohnanaza for grins and chuckles. This is still an odd little card game, but I think we'll give it a  few more tries.

The lawn can stop growing now...

And that's about all I've got. We are slowly descending into the madness that is the last part of the year - filled with various birthdays and events. The kids are pretty much back into the hang of school. The weather is once again nearing comfortable. Now if I could just convince the rest of my life to follow suit...

Finally Fall

Fall has been in the air this last week. We had some pretty great thunderstorms on Saturday (complete with hail and everything). They kind of messed up the Jackie Chan double feature we were watching (both Operation Condor movies were on TV), but they were fun to watch and listen to.

Also managed to get some board games to the table with some friends of ours on the holiday. Lovely wife managed to beat my by three points at Ticket to Ride. It was most annoying. Especially as I suspect I caused her to gain those extra points...

I read the novel tie in for Paranorman. It was fun. I'd like to see that.

Other than that not a lot to report. I will be glad once the sprinklers are off and the mowing of the lawn is behind me for another year.

Looking back

The question of the week on the Dice Tower podcast last week was all about what game got you into gaming. I decided I'd jot some thoughts here about that question. In my youth it was probably Monopoly that held my interest. The old Red Box Dungeons and Dragons wasn't too far behind though and occupied a good chunk of my school years. Axis and Allies was probably the closest thing to a hobby game that really had me hooked back then. In college it was things like Canasta and Boggle. And then I didn't play many board games for a while. As far as my current interest in board games, that's probably down to Settlers of Catan. I'm pretty sure that's the one that really got the ball rolling and made us realize that there were lots of interesting games out there. It's kind of interesting to look back and see what sorts of things held my attention and how I've evolved as a gamer.

Speaking of games, due to a nice little trade at our local game store, I managed a new copy of Agricola: All Creatures Big and Small for the princely sum of 0$. (They wanted Balloon Cup and I really didn't) I'd say we got the better end of the deal as lovely wife and I will actually play Agricola. This is a 2 player version of a much more complex game. It's worker placement (similar to Lords of Waterdeep) with a farming theme - you're trying to raise animals on your farm. You have to divide the land up into various pastures before you can place the animals and then each pasture can only hold so many before you need to add a feeding trough. There are a few resources to handle and you have three workers to place each turn and there are 8 turns. I believe. It's a nice little game with lots of decisions to make and you will mock each other's farm and then yell as you score the game and realize you didn't have enough pigs and have to lose points, but you did have horses, but wait - your significant other actually had enough of every animal - and what do you mean I lost?! And then you'll play again. I really do recommend this one if you're in the market for a nice two player game.

Watched Zen over the course of the last week. It's a BBC detective show similar to Sherlock in that it's only three episodes and they're in the hour and a half range. I rather liked it. The last episode was surprisingly funny. Might have to track down one of the books.

We managed to get out house refinanced so I guess that's one thing the recession has done for us. I can't believe we have an interest rate in the 3% range. Plus we managed to shave a couple years off the loan. So yay for that as well.

G and I have been building forts lately out of the couch. It's been good fun. We've taken to building a fort and then watching Gravity Falls on the ipad (since we no longer have the Disney Channel). If you've not seen that show, you really should as it's awesome.

afternoons and coffee spoons

I've always liked Eliot. So I borrowed some of his best for the title. If you've not read The Lovesong of J Alfred Prufrock you should. It will certainly be more entertaining than the couple little paragraphs you're going to get here.

Finished off Riordan's recent collection of  Percy Jackson inspired short stories. They were fine. One of them was apparently by his son. Slightly different writing style (his Dad tends to be funnier and not quite as ... formal I guess is the best word) but not bad. If you like the Percy Jackson stuff and have followed up with the new series you'll like it well enough.

We watched The Woman in Black the other night. Well, lovely wife watched it. I dozed through the beginning and then watched the last half or so. Which is a shame, as it looked like it was pretty good. It is a little slow (period horror piece after all) but don't blame the movie for my inattention. That's all sleep deprivation. It differs a touch from the book, but it's fine. Mostly the ending. And the beginning, but you need to see the ending for that to make sense.

I want to see the new Bourne movie...

The kids are all back in school. That's nice. They are no longer quite as bored as they once were. Although McK is longing for the days when she could sleep in. Early morning seminary is apparently quite early. She's even up before I leave.

Not today

Too much stress, too little sleep.

Swim the Fly was fun crude boy humor. The Cabin in the Woods Visual Companion was a fun inside look at the movie.

And yeah, that's all I've got.

Other than happy birthday M! Don't shoot the dog with your bow and arrows.

Sounds like that tomato-y stuff on burgers

Was pretty under the weather last week. Kids started off with it and were kind enough to share. I'm mostly past it at this point, but other forces are conspiring to keep me not at my best. So, well, don't expect too much. (Of course if you've read anything here before, your hopes should be sufficiently low already)

Avatar was indeed brilliant. Really enjoyed all three seasons. The kids managed to make it through the live action movie, but mostly on the power of mocking. So yay for mocking I guess.

Lovely wife and I have been making our way through The Dresden Files again because it's still amusing. We're also watching Dollhouse. That's a pretty trippy show.

I watched the Samurai trilogy courtesy of the Criterion folks. I rather enjoyed them. I also enjoyed the brief commentary that was on each disc talking about the real Musashi Miyamoto and how his life differed (or mirrored) the movies.

I finished reading The Apocalypse Codex by Charles Stross. More brilliant Laundry Files fun. At this point you either know what the series is and are reading it as well, or me telling you the fourth book is also fun won't matter.

I'm giving the Song of Ice and Fire series another go. I've read Game of Thrones before, but I've decided to read it again just to remind myself of all the little details before jumping into the next one.

So yeah, lots of reading, lots of watching stuff. We did finally manage our game weekend and fun was had. Shadows Over Camelot is a pretty brilliant little cooperative game. We played it twice and I'd have given it a third go, this time throwing in the traitor mechanic. Lots of hard little decisions to make and not enough time to do all the things you need to do. We eked out a victory in Elder Sign (ok I eked out a victory as I was the last one standing). Managed a game of Lords of Waterdeep and I forget what else. Some Hearts I think.

Kids are ready to go back to school and Summer is indeed drawing to a close. I am glad. I'm ready for some cooler temperatures. Although apparently the US has been the hottest it's ever been this year, so who knows what we have heading our way. I will pretend it's Winter though. With cold and some snow.

Curses, foiled again

I have nothing of great interest to pass along. Lovely wife has been tooling around town some with her early birthday present - one of those cruiser style bikes. I find them to be difficult to turn, but she's getting a kick out of it and can go on bike rides with the kids. So there's that.

I suspect the kids are ready for school to start up again. They're starting to go a little nuts around the house. We try and throw them out every day, but they keep coming back. No idea what that's about. If nothing else, I'm ready for the kids to go back to school again. Although lovely wife would probably disagree when factoring in carpool and increased after school activities again.

Wizards of the Coast is trying to take my money with the recently released Dungeon Command. Turn based card driven combat with cool minis?! What's not to love there?

We're on the final season of Avatar and it's been quite good. Not sure what we'll latch onto next. Lovely wife's been trying to interest the kids in some old TV show called Voyagers. I only vaguely remember it. Not sure I watched that one much. I've heard good things about Gravity Falls over on Disney. May need to find a way to check that one out. Twin Peaks for kids or an animated Eerie, Indiana are the two ways I've heard it described. Again, what's not to love there? Maybe I should start tracking down Twin Peaks...

We've had some rain lately so the lawn is doing its best to demoralize and kill me. It's succeeding.

I've got nothing

No really, there's nothing to see here.

The original Avatar: the Last Airbender animated show is awesome. The live action one is not (I could only take 5-10 minutes before turning it off in disgust).

Alas, games were not played last weekend due to a rampaging fever, courtesy of M. We are attempting to reschedule.

The cheesecake ice cream, poured into a pie crust and served with blueberries, was quite yummy however.

Yeah, that's really all I've got.

Ugh, the heat

While my sisters more than likely have it worse temperature wise, I am very tired of the heat. And we're only about half through July. Joy.

Been watching the Alien movies again. I wanted to do this closer to when we saw Prometheus, but oh well. The first one is (sadly) a little on the boring side. I am aware of this and am even known to enjoy slow Ridley Scott sci fi (Blade Runner says hi) but this film could move just a touch faster. There are moments of real beauty and horror and camaraderie, but, well ... still kinda slow. I think due to that it actually holds up pretty well though. Aliens on the other hand is a goofy 80s James Cameron action flick. It may have been new to the space marine scene when it came out, but that milieu has been mined, parodied and generally beaten like a dead horse by film and video games a lot since then and watching it again it suffers some. It does get better towards the end of the flick, but during that first little while I kept expecting the Terminator to show up or something. Cameron definitely has his grubby little prints all over this film. We'll see how the other two go. I'm one of the few people I know that liked the third film and the fourth... well... umm...

I am still trudging through Dan Simmons's The Terror. It is interesting, but that guy needs to learn to write shorter books. Or I need more time to read.

Psst. Quantum Conundrum is really just more Portal. And that makes it awesome. The demo is a lot of fun. I may need to snag this one.

The new Laundry Files novel is out. It's sitting at my desk taunting me. Must. Read. Now.

There has been a distinct lack of board games in my life lately. Fortunately this weekend should remedy that. I believe we will finally get to try Shadows Over Camelot. I am looking forward to that. And more ice cream. And cheeseburgers. Which unfortunately means I really need to get back to exercising. Alas.

Brief thoughts

Not much remains of Dad's visit, but it has been a good one. I suspect retirement will suit him well. I suspect retirement will suit me well, but alas that won't happen for quite some time, milestone birthdays or no.

Brave was quite good and certainly worth seeing. It was enjoyed by all. There were varying levels of enjoyment for Chronicle and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I liked both of them well enough, but I'm more suited to them, so that's no real surprise.

Summoner Wars and Haggis are both theoretically available in the iOS app store. I've been trying to download the former since yesterday, but there seems to be some sort of issue with its availability. Curses.

Other than that, I don't really have the energy to write up all the happenings. New computer. Trips to Planet Play and the pool. J Dawgs. (I think that's how that's spelled) Homemade ice cream. All the things that make for a successful summer and an enjoyable visit with family. We'll all be sad to see Dad go. Especially as he's leaving at some unholy hour in the morning and needs a ride to the airport...

We also got to watch the fireworks over at letter 'r's last night. The wind played havoc with the display a little and it was strange to see the fireworks juxtaposed with the forest fire on the mountain, but they were certainly pretty.