Spring yadda yadda yadda

I still hate Daylight Savings Time with the passion of a thousand burning suns. So that's good to know. The weather is absolutely off its rocker today. Snow, rain, blue skies. It must be Spring I guess...

Jungleland, by Christopher Stewart, was a book in the same vein as The Lost City of Z. Take one reporter following in the footsteps of a famous explorer as he tries to retrace the journey of the explorer and find a lost city in the midst of the jungle. It's a fun book. The explorer being shadowed was a pretty interesting person (he also served as a spy during WWII) and the journey was pretty interesting to follow.

The World's Strongest Librarian was written by a co-worker (Josh Hanagarne) and follows his struggles with Tourette's. I liked this one quite a bit as well. Some nice humor along with all the trials. Plus I have similar reading tastes as Josh. His Mom sounds awesome too.

We've watched a lot of stuff (Sinister is a pretty good horror movie) but I can't remember half of it. Played some stuff too. I backed my first Kickstarter project. (A fun looking push your luck dice game with a dungeon crawl theme)

The new TMBG album, Nanobots, is pretty good. I was also thrilled to discover that Poe's album, Haunted, is available on Freegal. I can attest to the first 10 songs being great. Give me a couple weeks and I can tell you about the rest.

Zoning out

Watched Argo the other night. It was pretty good. I have vague memories of the hostage crisis. We lived in PA at the time and one of the hostages was local so my third grade class wrote them letters. A couple of the kids and I got to deliver them one night. So it was pretty interesting to learn about this other aspect of the situation.

Braved a blizzard to watch McK at her archery tournament. It was fun. Except for the blizzard part.

Finished reading Gun Machine by Warren Ellis. I liked it quite a bit. Nice quirky police procedural. Some of the characters were pretty fun.

Haven't managed a game of All Creatures Big and Small since we got the expansion. Mostly because life has been far too hectic in the evenings. And when we do have time I'd rather sleep. So very tired...

I have far too many movies to watch at the moment. And about half of them are of the horror variety. Heh.

How is it basically March already?

Oh and apparently March 30th is Tabletop Day. At least according to Wil Wheaton.

Frogblast the vent core

This will be very short.

Stuff: I have watched it.

Other stuff: I have read it.

Still more stuff: I have played it.

I will mention one thing specifically. If you have an ipod/phone/pad and some friends with access to those devices as well you really need to be playing Space Team. Because it is brilliant. Instant good time. Far too much of it was played over the weekend.

Also, thoughts go out to all the folks affected by the 1up layoffs. I found the site as I followed Jeremy Parish's musings on video games. The podcast was a staple of my morning commute. (And I still listen to Weekend Confirmed which is hosted by 1up alum Garnett Lee) I hope everyone affected lands on their feet.

This is the spooky holiday right?

It's not? Hmm. Well that's too bad because I'm going to briefly comment on Paranormal Activity 4. At this point you either like the series or you don't. This particular iteration was not as creepy as 3, but not as slow as 2. It offered a decent amount of lore for the series, so that was nice. And there were indeed some nice creepy moments. So it gets a "yeah, it's good" from me. Lovely wife merely commented that it wasn't too scary. Guess I'll have to try harder. In spite of her recent comments that we've seen an awful lot of scary movies lately. I blame release schedules.

I also finished Revenge, 11 Dark Tales by Yoko Ogawa. It was an interesting series of interlocking short stories that dealt with various and sundry slightly off kilter characters and plots. I liked it even if it made my head hurt.

McK has joined the ranks of the glasses wearing set. Like myself. And pretty much my entire family. Some would say she was doomed. But she doesn't seem to mind. In fact she was a little perturbed that she didn't get more comments on them the first day she wore them. Good on her.

Sounds like littlest sis has managed to complete both seasons of Haven that are currently out on DVD. Now she gets to wait with the rest of us to see what happens next. She too was less than thrilled with that season cliffhanger. Show needs to be on Netflix.

We have acquired Space Cadets as a somewhat belated Christmas gift from sis-in-law. It's a co-operative game where each person is responsible for a station on a starship and has to play a mini-game to achieve goals for that station. It has a timed element that adds to the tension and sounds pretty fun. Will certainly take a bit to play with a new group as you try to explain the roles, but I think once it gets going it should be pretty good.

I drank what?

I finished reading Hemlock Grove last night. I picked it up partially because I heard Netflix was turning it into a show and I thought the premise sounded interesting. It's a literary-ish horror novel with some rather unique takes on archetypal horror icons (vampires, werewolves, Frankenstein's monster, etc.). Honestly the story tends to fall on the confusing side of things, but there are some pretty fascinating bits to it. I think I'll check the show out when it becomes available.

Jack Reacher was pretty good. I think I'll have to read some of those books now. I've been meaning to for a while, but this may give me the push I finally needed.

The Total Recall remake was ... interesting. The plot manages to be kind of different while still hitting all the notes of the original. Weird.

Cliffhanging

Finished off season 2 of Haven. It was quite good and that last episode was quite mean. I want to see season 3 pretty much right now... So many niggling questions.

We also finished season 1 of White Collar. Also quite momentous. Fortunately we could watch the episode 2 season opener the next day.

Over the weekend we watched Brewster's Millions (still holds up) and Zorro the Gay Blade (what on Earth did I just watch?!) We were really hoping to watch Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins but the tape is MIA. We also played Smash Up (some interesting ideas that after a couple plays will probably gel a little better. It seemed to go on a little longer than it needed to, but I think that will tighten up once you know the cards and the factions a little better.) and String Railway (a clever little area control sort of game where you build railroad lines using strings and small tokens. It was pretty brilliant actually.)

G had his first Pinewood Derby. A couple second place finishes and a couple third place finishes. He had fun though so that's great. And he did pretty much the entire car by himself. McK has obtained the role of Pirate in the Jr High's upcoming Pirates of Penzance performance.

I finished off Bioshock. It's a pretty interesting game. Certainly some disturbing themes and moments. Also some pretty unique choices on offer. After I finished the game I watched a couple of the extra videos that were available. I was completely uncreative in my methods of dispatching enemies apparently. I tended to just bludgeon things with my wrench. Less ammo used that way... Figure I'll play Darksiders since it looks completely silly and goofy and then head back for Bioshock 2. (Not so much on the silly and goofy in that one.)

There's a lot of snow around here...

Waffling

So, first things first. If you find yourself in downtown SLC and you're hungry, go to Bruges and have a Torpedo with some creme fraiche and your choice of fruit. It will be amazing. Have some cocoa to go with it. That will also be amazing. Then tell the owner to buy Parker's Drive-in in AF so it's a lot closer ok? Thanks.

(Seriously though, those are some pretty awesome waffles)

Looper was ... honestly I have no idea. I liked parts of it, found the prosthetics they used on Joseph Gordon-Levitt distracting, and the ending made my head hurt. Because I think I'm overthinking something that wasn't really the case, but an argument could be made that it was implied. So, not the best Rian Johnson film (still Brothers Bloom) but interesting nonetheless.

Did have a good visit with littlest sis while she was in town. Introduced her to Ugg-tect and Kingsburg and got her hooked on a random episode of Haven. Heh. Speaking of Haven, where is the new doctor girl? I haven't seen her at all this season, and don't remember her disappearing at the end of the first season. So confused. It's still pretty good though.

Never play Bioshock for an extended period of time. Gave me a serious headache that I didn't realize I had until I stopped playing. I am very close to the end though.

The Uncharted book was pretty good. Not quite as good as playing the games, but a fun little diversion. I would read more of them.

Unsafe Haven

Yay! We're watching Haven season 2. So far the first few episodes have been pretty good. Looking forward to more.

The free game for Playstation Plus members this week was Darksiders. The sequel just came out a month or so back and I'd heard good things about both games so I thought I'd give it a go. It is terribly silly in an amusing sort of way and I look forward to playing more of it. It's sort of God of War (combat) meets Zelda.  So that's a little weird, but it works. The story is absolutely ridiculous and I won't say anything about it because you wouldn't believe me if I did.

Bioshock continues to be interesting. Although I'm a little tired of the hacking mini game. I guess I should just start wasting my money as it seems there's plenty of it.

Littlest sis is theoretically in town now and we're supposed to get together with some of her friends to play games tonight. Poor G is a little under the weather so hopefully that doesn't throw a wrench in things.

I am very glad it's a long weekend. Very. Glad.

G has gotten his Pinewood Derby car cut out and painted. It probably needs some more weight, but I have no idea if we'll get that accomplished. It also has slightly crooked wheels. So I suspect there are no victories in his future, but stranger things have happened.

M participated in her first (and last? I forget what grade they stop) spelling bee. She made it to the fifth round or so before misspelling "enact". She had focused so much on the harder words that it was an easier one that got her. She did great though. (and apparently she had written it out correctly as well as the incorrect version and just went with the wrong spelling)

Caught the first episode of Wallander. I like it. Will watch more. I also watched the first 30 minutes of Iron Sky. It is truly ridiculous. (Secret Nazi base on the moon)

It's cold! Just sayin'.

Snowpocalypse

That's what they're saying anyway. I'll believe it when I see it. Although it is now rather dark gray outside as opposed to the nice sunny 47 degrees it was earlier.

I have acquired Kingsburg and it's expansion. I shall let you know how it is once I actually get a game of it played. It's been that kind of week. Littlest sis might get to help test this one out as she is supposed to be in town this next week. I suspect we shall also force her to play Ugg-tect. Because we all need a little more caveman in our lives.

Got together with J&K over the weekend and watched Beastmaster. It was still shockingly bad/good. So silly that movie. I don't normally do MST3K type stuff, but for some reason this one dragged the comments out of me. "I come from the village of NO BUTTONS" Alas Marc Singer. And who knew Tanya Roberts went on to be the redhead's Mom on That 70s Show? Weird.

Sand Sharks was enjoyably horrible. As was Lockout. (Think Escape from New York in space for that last one.) White Collar also continues to be enjoyable.

I can't honestly remember too much of what's happened over the last little while. It seems like there was lots of watching and reading stuff, but who knows?

Have I told you that Tichu is good? I finally caved and picked it up for the iPad after enjoying Haggis so much. This is a similar idea in which 4 players (it's a partnership game) try to get rid of their hands whilst scoring points. If you think you can go out first you call Tichu in the hopes of scoring yourself an extra 100 points. There are some special cards and some special rules and bombs and so on. It's good fun. I have a sneaking suspicion that when we get around to getting the physical version I will not be allowed to play...

Same as it ever was

So. 2013. Guess we can finally say good bye to 2012. Not sure I cared much for 2012. I suppose it had its moments. Did get to see a little more of family, so that was something. Need to convince Dad to move closer.

The letter 'd' clan had a good Christmas. Dad was there as was lovely wife's Mom. Kids once again made out like bandits. I got a couple nifty things and lovely wife got some nice stuff too. It was mostly a chance to watch the kids have fun though and that was indeed worth it.

Dad got us hooked on White Collar over the holiday. We're rather enjoying that show.

While exercising one morning I was dismayed to note that Netflix had dropped FLCL (and I was just about done watching it too). Stupid Netflix. I did, however, stumble across Sand Shark. It's a wonderfully horrible B movie that is basically a mish mash of Jaws and Piranha. (Moreso the newer version than the old) All I really need to sell this movie is two words: Corin Nemec. That's right, Mr Can't Lose Parker Lewis plays a relatively sleazy guy trying to "save" his home town with a Spring Break Party while the titular sand shark munches on people every 10 minutes or so. So wonderfully bad.

In case any of you have ever wondered, do NOT put a mini disc in an iMac. It will only end in tears. And possibly ruin your new computer. I'm pretty sure we avoided that, but time will tell. And the way to get it out? Stick a regular sized disc in and when it tries to eject, yank it out really quickly. The mini disc should follow. It took us a few tries. No wonder Apple is removing the disc drives on all their computers...

New Years was fine. Mostly as I went to bed at a reasonable time... The kids stayed up this go round.

Wreck it Ralph is indeed good. I liked it quite a bit as did the kids.

If you like ukulele music, give Jake Shimabukuro a try. He plays a mean ukulele. Manages to almost make it sound like a guitar to some extent and he's only using a 4 string uke. His renditions of Bohemian Rhapsody and While My Guitar Gently Weeps are pretty amazing.

I like Bioshock. Yeah, yeah, late to the party, but I got a PS+ membership for Christmas and one of the free games was the sequel, so I finally decided to pick up the original. Farcry 3 is interesting as well, although the save system is just plain odd. And annoying. And Quantum Conundrum does indeed scratch that Portal itch.

Ever wondered what D&D Alignment you were? Wonder no more.

I am mere pages from finishing Breed. It was decent for a reverse Rosemary's Baby sort of book. Certainly horrific in places. I'm not entirely convinced I recommend it, but it's not bad either. Probably not a Christmas book after all... (these are the jokes kids)

I managed to pick up John Dies at the End and a book based on the Uncharted video game series with some birthday money I still had. I'm looking forward to reading the Uncharted book probably a little more than I should admit to. I almost snagged one based on Ico...

Well, here's to hoping for an enjoyable 2013. And managing to keep up with my exercising.

It's cold outside

I contemplated calling you all Baby in that title. But I refrained. You're welcome. But it is indeed quite chilly here.

I finished reading The Nerdist Way or whatever that book was called. Geeky self help style book. Had some interesting ideas. I think one of the ones I really want to look into is de-cluttering. It is sadly probably time for me to throw away a bunch of my old magazines. Alas.

Season 4 of Castle is fine. The working with the CIA episode was a little sillier the second time through. I'm not sure how/why we managed to catch that one when it originally aired, but I remember it. Although I didn't remember the twist at the end. Funny.

Introduced Dad to Ugg-tect last night. It was amusing. The boys managed to eke out a victory over the girls. Guess we still manage to prove the old saw that guys are better at spatial relations than girls...

Glad Christmas is around the corner. Only sort of ready for it. Even more glad that it is accompanied by some time off. Really hoping to decompress some again. Hopefully get some games played with family and friends. Wil Wheaton did a google+ hangout that you can find over at the Geek and Sundry channel about Tabletop. It was pretty interesting. He had a couple nice stories about playing games with his kids while they were growing up. Apparently NBC found Tabletop interesting enough that they're trying to rip it off to turn into a prime time show. I doubt it will be quite as interesting. Especially as I can't picture them actually playing interesting games.

Hope you all have a wonderful holiday and can spend it with those you love.

Winter is here

Not so much due to snow as the sudden drop in temperature. I suspect we're now officially in the chillier temperature mode of the season. Which is fine. I don't mind the cold too much. As long as there's a blanket somewhere...

Not really anything else to say about Roadside Picnic. It was good. I'm now going through a geeky, improve your life sort of book as well as Breed which is a sort of reverse Rosemary's Baby kinda thing from the sounds of it. And nothing says Merry Christmas like a reverse Rosemary's Baby sorta thing.

Got to go to J & K's wedding reception last night. That was nice. Got to see a couple of old Ovid co-workers as well. And that was fun too. Lovely wife managed to represent for us at the wedding itself. I was too busy fighting with a printer to get away.

We watched Lake Mungo over the weekend and it was kind of amazing. It starts out as what you think will be a sort of run of the mill ghost story done as documentary sort of film but there are some pretty nifty surprises waiting for you in the film. I recommend this one. Except that while we were watching it, some of the should be spooky ghost scenes were too dark to see what was supposed to be going on. Not sure if this was the fault of the film or our tv settings. I think it was the version of the film we were watching. Little sis should give this one a go on Netflix. K might appreciate it too.

We're finally starting to make our way through Castle season 4 (I believe). The first few episodes were pretty good. I still like the banter.

Glad that Dad will be in town next week. Will be good to see him again and have him around through Christmas. Hard to believe that's as close as it is. Still have a touch of Christmas shopping to do, but we're pretty close to being done.

Oh and I'm no longer sort of addicted to Haggis on the iPad. It's full blown now. Such a fun little game.

Just a jumble

So I ran across this show called Holliston while working one day. It stars Adam Green of Hatchet and Frozen fame. I like his stuff. And this was a sitcom about two slackers trying to make a low budget horror movie (Shin Pads! When they score, you die! It's about a zombie soccer team and, well, you really had to be there I guess...) Anyway, it started off sort of slow and I wasn't entirely sure I'd finish it. But it grew on me. I either lowered my expectations appropriately, or it really did get better. So it gets a tentative thumbs up. But you really probably ought to like low budget horror to really get a kick out of it.

I am virtually finished with Roadside Picnic (I have something like 4-5 pages left I think) and it's pretty darn good. I can't say whether I liked it or Solaris better, but Russian sci fi is indeed good. Well, ok the 2 books I've read have been good.

We got in a game of 7 Wonders with the Leaders expansion the other day. It was pretty fun. It's been a while since we've played that one. I ended up roughly somewhere in the middle of the score pack while M managed a victory due to R's coaching. We also played some Lords of Waterdeep and I actually managed to beat R whilst playing. Truly an amazing moment.

I'm somewhat addicted to Haggis on the iPad. It's a ladder style card game for 2-3 people and it was on sale the other day. I've always wanted to try it and I find it truly compelling. I may break down and buy Tichu next as it's a similar style game.

And in case you thought Cthulhu wasn't good for anything, I present this. (Oh and the Cthulhu advent calendar on the iPad is pretty great too.)

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!