Oh yeah

The other thing I should mention. Scribblenauts. If you have a DS, this is worth picking up. It's a puzzle game in which you try to get the main character (Max, if you need a name) to the star(ite). The hook is you type in what you want to use to get there. Piranha in the lake between you and the starite? Type in shark or bear and drop it in. One less piranha. Cat up a tree? Try an elevator. Or wings. Or a dog. Or catnip. You get the idea. The dictionary in this thing is huge (as are the pop culture and geek references - keyboard cat, the large hadron collider, Cthulhu and lots of others say hi) so if you can think of it, chances are you can use it. The best part is the title screen acts as a drawing board where you can try out whatever you want. See how things interact: pit zombies against vampires (stronger than zombies, but scared of garlic and the sun will kill them, not make them sparkle), Cthulhu against a Shoggoth and so on. Honestly this may be the first game where the title screen is better than the game. The controls are certainly a bit wonky but the chance to stretch your brain more than makes up for it. So yeah, Scribblenauts. It's awesome. (And make sure you have a kid around when you play some times. It's totally worth seeing how what they come up with works too.)

And a week's gone by

No snappy title for you this week. Too tired to think of one. There has been a distinct lack of sleep in my life lately. Not as bad as some of my insomnia bouts, but things are definitely a little on the fuzzy side.

So I finished The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown. Honestly you don't need me to review it. You already know it's bad. Readable, but bad. Plot holes, bad characters, too much lecturing, out there science that's real darnit, yadda yadda. If you've read any of his stuff you know the drill. If you haven't, don't read this one. Read Deception Point instead. I still seem to remember thinking that one was good. It posits a relatively interesting question and then pretty much fails to deliver anything worthwhile. So yeah. Umptymillion readers are wrong. Or gullible. I fall into the taking one for the team category natch.

Also finished The Book of Fate by Brad Meltzer. It was alright. Relatively decent little political thriller. Unfortunately I was listening to the audiobook version and several of the cds were scratched to no end. So there are some strange gaps in my knowledge of the story. Especially near the end. Annoying. The one down side to audiobooks from the Library. May try his next one The Book of Lies. We'll see. The end was a little off, but I suspect it's because he's hoping for a movie deal.

Up next are Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman (book he wrote for charity in the UK that just came out over here), Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (sequel to The Hunger Games) and I'm still in the midst of The Magicians.

Season opener of House was fun. Will be interesting to see the new nicer House. Season finale of Eureka was good if frustrating. I liked Tess, am annoyed they're potentially writing her off. Not the biggest Carter/Allison fan. Meh. And last week's Bollywood inspired episode of Psych went a long way to redeeming an otherwise forgettable season.

So enough rambling commentary on ways to pass your time. If I were more awake I'd throw in a last line, or a game my wife hates, but I suspect that's better saved for next time. Or whenever I get back to this thing.

Weekly dose of books and such

Finished Leviathan by Scott Westerfeld. Enjoyed it thoroughly. It's a steampunk take on WWI, so you have giant robotic war machines on one side and living zeppelins (and other home brewed beasties) on the other. The story itself follows the young not quite heir of archduke Franz Ferdinand (the guy what got assassinated and started the whole shindig) on one side and a young girl masquerading as a boy so she can join the military on the other. The only down side is that this is the first book in a series, and so while it wraps a few things up there's still plenty to come. And I can't wait. It's typical readable Westerfeld with some fun characters and lots of good bits. Check it out.

Who watches the Watchmen? I watch the Watchmen. That's who. Movie was a decent adaptation of the graphic novel (which is still better). I'm not convinced the altered ending works as well as some have claimed (honestly I have a pretty big problem with it), but it's definitely standard Snyder. If you liked either 300 or his remake of Dawn of the Dead you'll find some decent bits here too. Lots of stylish slow-mo and some effective color palette use. (Strangely I wasn't as drawn to the opening montage as everyone else either. I think I'd have found it horribly confusing if I hadn't read the graphic novel and understood the history it was compressing. I'll have to double check with lovely wife and see if that's true...) I guess I can only really say it was alright. Not great, not horrible. I'm not convinced the message in this one holds up as well as something like V is for Vendetta. Cold War ended a while ago and most folks my age really can't relate.

I've started The Lost Symbol. It's... not good. It is standard Dan Brown. You'll get lectured a lot. The bad guy is a caricature (tattoos instead of albino-ism in this one). The plot is mind blowingly stupid. (I've spent most of my time yelling why would you do that?! No really, except for the fact the author needed you to, why would you do that?!) But it's strangely readable. And you sort of want to know what the big secret is. Guy's got a struck a deal with the devil to get it writing style, I'll give him that. So, turn brain off and read. Or wait for everyone to talk about it and nod along. You're probably not missing that much.

I really need to come up with a way to snag the two player board for Ticket to Ride. The problem is, you need either the original game, or the European sequel to cannibalize for parts. We've got Marklin. I suspect I'd really like the 2 player version of the game it's actually built for that number of players. The other boards really seem built for lots of players. At least that's my impression of Marklin. It's fun, sure, but also pretty cutthroat. If you happen to be lucky and don't end up heading for the same sections of the map the game is alright, but if you do... Well. You've been warned. Actually now that I think about it, I suspect the 2 player version probably ends in tears a lot more...

Oh and a quick plea to Dad - Send more Skinny Cows. That is all.

Hikes and fish

view from Timpanogos cave trail 3,
originally uploaded by dkun.

As you can see pictured here, we did indeed hike up to Timp Caves while family was in town. It was a pleasant enough trek (and apparently exercise is good for something as I was only vaguely sore the next couple days) that did afford some decent photos. You can see a couple more from the trail over at the flickr site.

So family was in town and that was nice. Everybody got along and a good time was had by all. I introduced Dad and youngest sis to Dominion. McK was insistent that she teach Dad how to play. She needs to work on buying point cards. Lovely wife's Dad took G to see Ponyo. I would have liked to have seen it as well. We all went out for ice cream at Maggie Moo's. (Twice! Once for each Grandpa) And the sprinkler system got fixed. That job went shockingly well.

And we got some yummy pulled pork from The Smoking Apple. Yummy enough that it deserves its own paragraph. Yes folks, it's that good.

McK featured in her own version of a favorite niece story. While Dad was here he took us over to Costco to wander around. He offered to make us some Parmesan Tilapia for dinner so we picked up some fillets along with a few other things. It came out nicely and was quite good. McK, known for her extremely narrow diet, refused to have fish for dinner. (Everyone else ate theirs, G eating an entire fillet by himself) We told her she had to try it. Shockingly we actually got her to. At which point she decided we were teasing her and we really had Parmesan chicken, not fish. She refused to acknowledge Tilapia as a type of fish, because fish can't taste good on general principles or something. So there you go, Tilapia - the new chicken of the sea.

Finished The Fall of Cthulhu: Godwar last night. I really, really enjoy this series. I don't have anything terribly illuminating to say about it other than it's a darn good Lovecraftian horror tale. Worth reading if you like Lovecraft.

Race to Witch Mountain was fun. I like Dwayne Johnson - I find him funny. We're a couple episodes into the second series of Hamish Macbeth and it's still good. There are a few things waiting in the wings.

Oh that Misplaced Effigy book showed up at the Library today. It doesn't go out until next week. But it's here. Mwa ha ha ha.

There really should be a few other things to cover, it's been a pretty momentous week, but I think that's really all that's worth mentioning. Poor McK has come down with walking pneumonia, and I've got a head cold I'd love to get rid of. The one downside to being around people that have been on planes and in other parts of the country, accursed foreign germs. Hopefully family didn't come down with things too.

Gardens, Monsters, Last Lines

Green beans and cucumbers,
originally uploaded by dkun.

So, here is the picture of the recent green bean/cucumber harvest. Alas, these are the only 2 cucumbers we were able to grow. Soon they will be pickles. Oh yes, yes they will. Tasty tasty pickles. Hopefully. As mentioned the green beans have been the big winner this summer (oh and the snap peas, can't forget them). This represents only a small amount of what we've grown, but this was the single biggest batch we picked. And they are mighty fine. We've had some decent tomatoes and some decent peppers as well. All in all the garden has been a success. And I just found out that lovely wife planted some spinach for a fall harvest. So yay for that. Next year we'll have a slightly better idea about what we're doing.

I have finally finished all 18 volumes of Naoki Urasawa's Monster. It was quite the ride. I'm uncertain how I feel about the ending (and really given the buildup that occurred across 18 volumes, I'm really not sure what would have worked) but I can wholeheartedly recommend the series. If you have access to it, track it down. It's a pretty fascinating ride. Politics, questions of humanity, intrigue - this series has just about a dash of everything. It really is pretty amazing how much stuff is crammed into the story. The few knocks against it are the constant introduction of new characters (even at the end) which can be pretty difficult to follow (wait, who did what to who and when?) and the fact that the story really does cover a lot of ground. It can be difficult to keep track of (even with the helpful charts at the beginning). (And yes I'm aware I just said that was a positive as well, thanks) So yes, Monster good. Letter 'd' approved.

And lest you think I forgot, here's another last line. This time it comes from The Latent Powers of Dylan Fontaine (Amazon link, yo) by April Lurie. It reads, "From the audience, Headbone calls out, 'Dylan! Studmeister! Give us lessons!'" It's been a while since I made note of this particular line, so I have no scathing commentary. I will simply say that if anyone should be using the term studmeister, it's definitely someone named Headbone. (Based on the blurb I have a sneaking suspicion that he's a band member. A particularly gnarly one at that dude. But that almost counts as research, so ignore that bit.) I am glad to see that Headbone is interested in learning something. Especially as the book is now over and he will never get the chance.

We recently caught the first few episodes of Hamish Macbeth, a Scottish TV series based on the M.C. Beaton books. It's good. It takes an episode or two to make sense of the accents, but after that it's an amusing little police show. Robert Carlyle makes an excellent Hamish (and a good zombie as well - 28 Weeks Later says hi) and the girl who plays Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter films does a good job as one third of the main love triangle. Also worth tracking down.

And I think that about does it. Family is in town at the moment and will continue to arrive through Saturday. It will make for a busy weekend, but it will be nice to see everyone again. So happy early Labor Day to all. (And who let it be September already?!)

Haunted Houses, Dangerous Islands, you know, your typical stuff

Recently finished the audiobook version of Richard Matheson's Hell House. It's a decent haunted house type story that is not in any way for people under the age of, oh, say, 30. Matheson opted to go the creepy lurid route as opposed to the creepy psychological route (although there is some of that too). Which is to say there's some sex folks. I'm a little interested how the book got turned into a PG movie, because it seems like they'd pretty much have to re-write the entire thing to accomplish said task. And maybe they did. Who knows? There are some good twists and some nice spooky moments, but it's actually a little hard to recommend the title. The guy doing the reading did a pretty good job though, so that's something.

I'm actually going to start listening to some audiobooks as part of my commute. Up next is The Book of Fate.

Finished Warren Fahy's Fragment. It's fine for a summer popcorn book (which is pretty much what I read it for). Not quite up to Jurassic Park standards, but not bad for what it is. Follow the scientist based reality TV show as they head to an island left to itself for far too long. Cower in terror as they get devoured by said island's insane ecosystem. Thrill as more scientists show up - will they be saviours? Or savored? Yeah, it's kind of like that. Characters aren't terribly 3 dimensional, and plot is pretty standard. It does get points for some creativity in the monsters that inhabit the island though.

Up next is Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan. I love me some Westerfeld and this one has a steampunk-ish twist, so yay for that. Should be good.

Kids have been reading the Legend of Zelda graphic novels (and by kids I mean pretty much all of us - in fact I think all 5 of us read the first one...) and enjoying them. That's kind of fun.

The big success of the garden has been green beans I think. Snap peas are a close second, followed by the tomatoes and then the peppers. I suspect next year we may turn the trellis over to the pole beans and the snap peas and rearrange everything else a touch. But the beans have been great. Mmmm fresh steamed green beans...

Eureka season one has been fun, but it really makes me want to watch season two as I forget how some of these plot lines wrapped up. Leverage has been alright and Psych is still fun. Although the star of the week vein they're in is a little silly.

I would like to point out at this point that my wife has made some sort of pact with the devil when it comes to Alhambra. No one will ever beat her at this game. Ever. I think the letter 'r' and I will start handicapping ourselves about 50 points to keep things fair...

And that's pretty much how the summer has gone. Some books, some TV, some movies, some games and so on. Looking forward to settling into the fall and winter. Although the commute in winter is an absolute nightmare. Family in town soon, so that should be nice.

Charts and such

Ran across this the other day. I think it will surprise no one that I found it amusing and somewhat fascinating. I am surprised cleavage did not feature on the list.

Summer (as far as the school is concerned) is officially over. There has been some rejoicing in casa del 'd'. Kids aren't quite sure what to make of it. They miss the lazy days some, but also look forward to school some, so it's a bit of a draw for them. This is the last year McK will be in the same school as any of her siblings. That's a bit odd. I managed to realize yesterday that there will be one year where each of them will be in a separate school. I suspect lovely wife will enjoy that year the most. G gets ready to start preschool in a week or so. I suspect we're about to enter the next phase of lovely wife's craziness. Adjusting to empty house for a few days a week. Expect random coverage as a new feature. (Not really, as much as I like needling lovely wife, I like breathing a touch more.)

A game to put in the other column (loves, not hates) for lovely wife is San Juan. In a lot of ways it's a watered down version of Puerto Rico. It's card based and your goal is to develop a settlement by building buildings and plantations. The cards are used for everything - currency, buildings, placeholders, etc. This is actually a nice feature as there aren't too many bits involved. The game is played as a series of rounds. Each round each player will choose a role (builder, trader, producer, etc.) and all players get the option to exercise the benefit of that role. The person that chose the role gets a slight edge (usually a slightly lower cost for something, or an extra thing planted/traded, etc,) and the buildings you set up in your settlement also allow you to play with the rules some. Once someone builds their twelfth building your settlement is scored. Ultimately this is a hand management game. Which cards do you use to build things? How many cards do you keep in your hand? What kind of settlement do you build? And so on. It plays pretty well with 2 or 3, but I seem to recall really enjoying the 4 player games. It's actually a little more strategic then as the various types of cards aren't as plentiful. If you want something in the same vein but with a sci fi them on top instead of old world settlement, go for Race for the Galaxy. We might try picking that one up at some point as the letter 'r' is where we go for our San Juan fix.

I've recently been listening to the audiobook edition of Hell House by Richard Matheson. I really like haunted house stories. May have to track down the film version once I finish the book.

And that's about all I've got. It seems like we've been watching stuff, but nothing is jumping out at me. And I'm still reading stuff (almost done with Fragment), but I think most of that will keep till another post. (Oh and I still have more last lines, but I don't want to do too many of them right away.)

A joke for Dad

An optimist looks at the glass and says it's half full.
A pessimist looks at the glass and says it's half empty.
An engineer looks at the glass and says it's improperly toleranced.

(That's twice as big as it should be for all you folks not my Dad or engineers.)

Last lines and thoughts on board games

Ok, it's time for a new feature here in letter 'd' land. I know, I know, "but letter 'd'" you say, "what about the movie trading cards and your lackadaisical flickr account and all the other "features" you start but then never do anything with?" "Well," I say, "here's another. Now shut up and eat your vegetables. That garden isn't just for looks you know."

Anyway.

Working in a Library (especially the hush hush behind the scenes super cool I could show you but then have to kill you part) comes with certain perks. Namely books. I can look at lots and lots of books. And there are a lot to look at let me tell you. So I decided it would be great fun (for me) to find some of the really out there books and post the last line from said books. There may be some sarcasm involved. I am still me after all. So hopefully since there will always be books coming in, it won't be too hard to make this happen every once in a while. Or more often than that...

Anway, this week's lovely little gem comes from Cast in Silence by Michelle Sagara. It's part of the Chronicles of Elantra which is a fantasy series I believe. Possibly urban fantasy, I've no real idea. Part of the charm of this feature is a distinct lack of research. I don't believe I even read the blurb. I did provide the Amazon link so you could go look at the cover. It will be important. Trust me.

The last line of Cast in Silence reads, "She felt some tiny part of her unclench and relax, and she began to ask him what, and why, and how, as they walked, and she didn't even mind when he got all technical and half his words went straight over her head." I will not comment on what part of her unclenched except to say that by saying that much I've let all of you make that joke for me. Thanks. It's nice to see that airheads are capable of saving the world as well. If you looked at the cover you will notice the lead female is not blond. Assuming that is said female on the cover (and it usually is) this obviously adds an element of sci fi to the book as she must have dyed her hair in order to achieve some form of artificial intelligence. (I offer the old blond joke about hair dye and AI as evidence for this.) I'm also curious as to why she did not ask who, and where, and when, since as a former blond I'm pretty sure her terribly limited AI could have handled the answers to those questions. Point a blond to a party and well... you get the idea.

So thanks Cast in Silence for being our first test subject for last lines. I'm sure it will be back. I've got a Library full of source material and I'm not afraid to use it.

On to other things. I've got a few random observations about board games. And the people who play them. We got into board games a few years back when we were introduced to Settlers of Catan. I played board games before that, but I'm pretty sure it was around then that I realized board games had come quite a way since titles like Monopoly, and Risk, and Clue and so on. Poked around some and starting finding all sorts of fun titles like Ticket to Ride and Blue Moon City etc.. I have several relatives who are convinced I have some sort of back alley board game dealer as there's no way these things are sold in stores. I've been to Walmart man and they do not sell Zooloretto! they say. So yes, hobby games are in a completely different place now.

Which is not to say it's a place for everyone. Much like saying all animated films are for kids will get you a quick punch to the kidney, saying all games are simple time sinks will get you another bruised kidney. I do my best to research the games I pick up in order to make sure I will have people to play against, but apparently I have some optimism in me as occasionally I stumble and pick up a game that lovely wife or even letter 'r' have trouble going near.

Let's take Blue Moon for example (note, do not confuse this with Blue Moon City which we all love). It's a card game similar in some ways to Magic and other collectible type games. They removed much of the random collectible nature by simply offering standard expansion decks. You buy the Flit deck and you get the same 30 cards as everybody else that buys that deck. There were a handful of these decks put out so that the game offered some variety. At it's heart, Blue Moon is a trick taking game. You play cards that allow you to control dragons. Win 4 dragons and you win the game. Run the other player out of cards while you control more dragons (if you can't get to 4) and you win the game.

Part of the problem (if you're my wife) is that the game only comes with 3 dragons. "If you're supposed to attract a 4th dragon, why isn't there a 4th dragon?" She says every single time I bring up the game. I don't know. Because it was cheaper this way. Because Knizia only likes the RGB color wheel. Who knows. Really not a terribly rational thing to get hung up on if you ask me. The other problem is that since there's a bit of Magic in the game's heritage, you really have to learn the way a deck works. Each deck offers different ways to break the relatively simple rules of the game (you play one character card and one booster or support card in an effort to at least match your opponent's strength). Once you learn how the deck works you can start to build a little bit of a strategy against the other decks.

I suspect this game fails for my wife because there's a little too much effort in learning the game for what she perceives as not enough reward (the non existent 4th dragon). Usually if she wins at something I can entice her to play again. Not so much with this one. The appeal of learning the strengths and weaknesses of each race (deck) and then trying to pit those abilities against the other races isn't enough of a motivator for her. The letter 'r' and I can spend a good hour or so trying them out and seeing how they work. As mentioned not everything is for everyone. The letter 'r' may get a slightly used birthday present this year as there's nothing sadder than a game that sits in a closet and doesn't get played. Although I may give McK a chance at learning it first. She's getting old enough that some of the games that have typically been adult games are starting to be interesting to her. As well as playable.

Then there's something like Arkham Horror. I picked this one up as I really like the Cthulhu theme and I thought it would be fun to give a co-operative game a try (all the players work together to try and prevent the end of the world). The problem here is (and I can't even convince the letter 'r' to try this one) it's got a lot of bits and even more rules. Learning curve strikes again. I often wonder how things would have gone if we'd played that first time with someone that knew the game. It doesn't help that you really need more than 3 people to play. And a typical game clocks in at 3-4 hours.

So those are some of the factors that come into play when looking for a new game. Time, number of rules/bits, what drives the fun of the game. Which isn't to say that it can be hard to find a game that everyone will like. As mentioned, Dominion is a big hit. Ticket to Ride goes in phases (have I forgotten how much my blood pressure tends to rise when I play it?). No Thanks and a few others make the rounds too. It helps if you know the people you're playing with. It also helps if you have a back alley game dealer that knows the product so you can ask questions. I mean, Walmart doesn't sell this stuff man. (Pro tip: if you want to go looking for something new and off the beaten path start here)

This may eventually become something of a feature as well. Games my wife hates. Or loves. It might prove more interesting review fodder. We'll see.

In other non Library/geek news there is a birthday coming up in casa del 'd'. So happy birthday bug. Remember, brains are not food.

Of Big Bangs, Little Girls and Cities

Recently started watching Season One of The Big Bang Theory. It's terribly funny, occasionally crude and pretty much all true. Sheldon is certainly the best character in the show (I actually find Leonard only ok) and the one that really shines out as an example of true nerddom. If you've not caught an episode, it's worth hunting down. We've laughed quite a bit and look forward to the rest of the season. The nice thing is that they aren't making fun of nerds in the show. They are the main characters and they're portrayed honestly. The humor just comes from the situations they're placed in and their own interactions.

Finished off China Mieville's The City & The City. An interesting murder mystery where the locale the story takes place in is as much a character as the people involved. I won't go into details about the central conceit as it is a nice little twist (and honestly spoiled everywhere else) but it does make for interesting reading. While it would be fascinating to see something like that attempted in real life, I'm pretty sure it would be nigh unto impossible. It works in the story as both a physical thing and a symbol. Glean from this rather ambiguous paragraph what you will. If you get nothing else, just know it is an interesting story and also worth checking out.

Girls are off at Girl Scout camp. Although it sounds like the place they're at double booked and they're getting kicked out this afternoon. Oh well. I'm sure they had some fun.

I may need to start looking into making some homemade salsa. We're starting to get a decent number of tomatoes from the garden. Can't slice them all up for burgers. Or salads. Wish we had some jalapenos or serranos as well...

Finally got around to seeing Coraline the other day. It's decent. I'm not entirely crazy about some of the changes they made to the story and it seemed a touch long in places, but it is a bit of a marvel of stop animation cinematography. And the core story is pretty much intact. Kids liked it quite a bit and that's what really mattered.

Thoughts on Harry Potter

So we recently managed to watch Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince in the theater (shocking in and of itself I know!). It was decent. I knew about most of the changes made to the film going in so those particular shocking moments weren't particularly shocking. I was sad they left out a couple of the memories/trips that Dumbledore and Harry encounter that related to Voldemort's past, but overall it was a fine film. And at almost 3 hours I never really felt that it was dragging, so that's something. The kids seemed to enjoy it well enough so that's another point in its favor. I think the director is in dire need of another film filter as I'm a little tired of the bluish tinge he paints everything with (this is SERIOUS! the story is SERIOUS! please to pay attention to my SERIOUS film making and story telling skillz!) But yeah, certainly worse pieces of cinema out there.

Which leads into Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I decided to read through book 7 again as I haven't read it since it came out and I wanted to see how it held up. Not terribly well is the answer. Book 5 got a little better the second time through, Book 7 is definitely a little worse. Honestly the entire first half of that book could be ripped out, burned and otherwise deleted from the Universe and it would be fine. Things do get a little better in the second half, but only a little. I'm not crazy about the author wish fulfillment that turns Hermione into uber-witch Granger, the revisionist half hearted attempt at redeeming Snape (that still fails miserably in my book - he wasn't good, he wasn't really working for the good guys, he was basically a creepy stalker who with his dying breath wanted to see the eyeballs of said stalking obssession), the basic underwhelming-ness of Harry... Yeah I could go on. I think the publishers decided to just let Rowling write whatever she wanted. Editing? What's editing? Who needs a canonically consistent plot? Which is a shame as it is after all the end of the series. Oh well, chalk one up for the whimper column.

Which makes me worry about the movies. They're splitting the book into two movies. I've already made my thoughts on the first half of the book clear. This will not end well folks. Admittedly there will be a couple pretty nice moments. There are some flashes of brilliance throughout the book, they're just never capitalized on or used effectively. Oh well. I did actually like the whole Hallows subplot more this time around (and how crazy is it that a book named The Deathly Hallows relegates that bit to pretty much subplot status? Although come to think of it, it's happened before in the series - The Chamber of Secrets says "hi") .

We managed to make an actual side dish of the green beans from the garden over the weekend. Grilled some steaks and served them with said beans. They were yummy. Asparagus next year!

I finished up Confessions of a Part Time Sorceress. It was a fun little read. It's a girl's eye view into the world of D&D. Lovely wife read through it as well. It's a decent starting point for looking into D&D and you want a feminine perspective.

I'm very close to finishing The City & The City. Also an interesting read. But more on it later.

Friday night dose of awesome

If you've not seen the Take on Me literal video, hunt it up after this one. I love these and this one's especially good. And it's Friday and you deserve a treat. A lovely 80's treat.

Weekly dose of randomness

Actually, I don't really have anything all that random to point you towards. The San Diego Comic Con is going on and apparently all the Twilight fans are out in droves for hopes of a glimpse of Paper(cut) Moon New Moon. Le sigh. Don't they know there are real movies worth being interested in? I somehow doubt it.

Finally caught Taken the other night. It was a decent action flick. Typical Dad knows best, torture is ok, completely silly ending sort of movie. I'm just glad it was only 90 minutes. Otherwise actually thinking about what was going on would probably have ruined vast amounts of that film. Other than the ending. Seriously. How was he not in jail by the end? But Liam Neeson does kick some serious butt.

We have since played a few more games of Dominion. I'm finding it to be rather enjoyable if a bit mysterious. I'm not at all surprised it won the SdJ this year, there's a fair amount of depth as you try to figure out the best way to construct your deck. There's not a whole lot of player interaction (at least not with the initial set of recommended cards) but the up side is that any mistakes you make are pretty much your fault. There's not a lot of luck involved (and that's a great thing). Definitely worth picking up if you like relatively light strategy games.

This is a long weekend and I couldn't be happier. Well ok if it were much cooler out and I didn't have as much stuff on my schedule I might be a touch happier, but still pretty happy. We may try a recipe for meatballs that involves grape jelly. I'm a little scared, but supposedly it's tasty...

Oh I should point out that G let us know last night that eating celery had made his mouth hot. I feel science should study this effect. The power of celery to raise one's mouth temperature. Sure beats some of the studies they do. I'm not entirely convinced it was really celery that caused this as we had curry for dinner and that was a much more likely culprit, but he seems convinced.

On podcasts

It's been a while since I've rambled on about the podcasts I'm currently listening to, so you poor souls get to deal with that for a post. The rotation has morphed a little, I haven't listened to Escape Pod or any of the spinoffs for a while. Mostly because the stories started getting too long. I had a hard time finishing them in a commute. That and I found a few others I liked listening to a touch better. Also I stopped listening to them at work. Old job used different parts of my brain or something so I could actually listen to them a little easier than I can now.

At any rate, the top dog is still Listen Up by the 1up folks (formerly 1up Yours). It's generally 2-3 hours of commentary on the video game world. They start off with what they're currently playing and then move to news and industry commentary. I really like several of the guys that are regulars and this is pretty much where I get my news/reviews type fix from. Although they can be a touch down on Nintendo.

In a related podcast (for a couple reasons) I also listen to What They Play. This one is also video game oriented, but the site is a parent's guide to video games type site. They let you know what sort of content can be found in the games your kids are begging you for. I started listening because I really like the host John Davison (formerly of 1up and still on Listen Up) but I've kept listening because I like their take on the industry. It's a little more geared for my life as a gamer at the moment. (i.e. the rug monkeys are playing all the games, when did that happen?! Gimme that controller back you rug monkey!)

For the analog equivalent (boardgames) I listen to Pulp Gamer: Out of Character and Myriad Games. I like Out of Character as that's the roundtable show where they cover a pretty wide variety of board games (as well as some industry news and listener feedback). They've since started building a boardgame podcast empire and Myriad Games is the other offering I really enjoy. This one is run by the staff of a game store and they cover everything from game reviews to rules to random solicitation of hate mail. Be sure to get your free pair of dice by leaving them a review in iTunes. Mine are a nice shiny blue color. Alas they're only d6's, but nobody's perfect.

Let's see, for music based podcasts there's Random Signal (they do geek stuff as well) and the Irish and Celtic Music podcast. TMBG have one (I'm getting tired of hunting links). I follow the Dungeons & Dragons podcast whenever the Penny Arcade guys are in a campaign (Acquisitions Inc! There's no dark magic like Jim Darkmagic.) The Retronauts podcast is usually a pretty humorous look at older video games. Hmm. Yeah, running out of stuff. Reality Break is an infrequent, yet enjoyable look at the sci fi industry. A Life Well Wasted is This American Life does video games. (Yeah, yeah I listen to a lot of gaming podcasts...) I'm sure there are others, but those are certainly the big names that take up my weekly commutes. So give them a look, you might find something of interest.

In other news, we picked up Dominion, this year's SdJ winner. It's a deck building card game. So far we've played a couple games (lovely wife, oldest rug monkey and myself) and I've not managed to win a game yet. Well ok, when it was just my wife and I, I did manage a rather stunning victory. But oldest rug monkey took us both to the cleaners the second game we played. Basically you try to collect cards that allow you to build your deck in such a way that you can buy the really good scoring cards so that you have the most points at the end. There's a decent amount of strategy involved as you can build your deck several different ways and there are (I believe) 20 types of cards that you use - only a game is just played with 10 of them. So lots of room for different types of decks and ways to keep the game from just being the same thing over and over. Nice.

Leverage is back on and that's nice. Eureka has started up as well. I believe Psych isn't too far behind.

Whiteout is a nice little murder mystery set in Antarctica. I believe they're turning it into a movie. And Confessions of a Part Time Sorceress is a fun look at the world of D&D through a woman's eyes. But that's enough of that. I believe this post has run its course.

Books, tables, weekly dose of randomness

Let's see. I finished The Strain by Del Toro and Hogan. It was good. Definitely the first in a trilogy (I believe). This initial story was sort of wrapped up, but there are certainly story lines left hanging and characters in dire situations. Briefly, it's a vampire story with a bit of a medical bent. Not so briefly? Well, we follow Eph Goodweather of the CDC as he's called to investigate a plane full of dead people. He provides the medical background mentioned earlier while Abraham Setrakian provides the vampire background. (He's the hunter, not the vampire) They either use or at least nod at most of the accepted vampire myths while tweaking a couple (it's a virus and teeth are not involved in the blood drinking). It will be interesting to see where the story goes, I look forward to the next one.

I also made it through The Magic Thief: Lost book 2 of that series. I really like the way these stories are told and this one is another fun little romp. Conn, the titular magic thief has lost his focus stone and proceeds to try and speak with the magic by blowing things up. Good lad that Conn. Sarah Prineas relates the story in a nice easy going fashion that will have you done with the book in an afternoon. Again I look forward to seeing what happens next.

I've burned through a couple of the Kindaichi Case Files books. They're always fun. I really need to track down some of the ones I've missed.

The letter 'r' has run across some lovely tables. If Dad wants to make that first one in the video we'd take a couple. Although I can't imagine how careful you'd have to be putting that one together... Yikes. Talk about measure twice cut once. I'm not sure I'd ever get out of the measuring phase on that one.

Weather has finally turned very much summer-y. Too hot. ^_^ I miss the rain. Although parts of the garden don't. I think our cucumbers and watermelons are doomed. Peas and beans seem ok though. As do the tomatoes. We finally have some serranos, although the poor jalapeno seems to have gone on strike... We blame the monster of a tomato plant we've got next to it.

Kids have been enjoying the pool (thanks littlest sis), although lovely wife is about to throw the lot of them in it and leave them there. Apparently they think she's some sort of pool toy.

We managed to survive the 4th without setting anything on fire (sounds like we're one up on Dad in that respect) although that can certainly liven things up. We had good food and decent fireworks. If I ever have to light lightning flashes again it will be too soon. That and snakes. Why did it have to be snakes...

At any rate the summer marches on. Which is good.

Guinew Moon

In case you haven't run across it yet, this is awesome. Although I must admit after talking to lovely wife and learning that the paper cut bit was not parody I have now declared that I will NEVER read the rest of this series. Paper cut? Seriously? If you're going for humor it's brilliant. If you're trying to set up an event that drives a serious plot point, not so much.

In which I talk about Blade Runner AGAIN

So. Blade Runner. You'd think I'd get tired of talking about this film. Actually, more to the point you'd think Ridley Scott would get tired of re-working it every few years. The "Final Cut" (and those quotes are the "made with the fingers" variety) came out a while ago and I finally (pun firmly intended) got around to seeing it. I feel a little bad it's taken this long, but eh, whatcha gonna do? I can't actually tell you the last time I rented a movie...

At any rate. As has been documented here in this blog (not long after it started in fact) I have a bit of history with this film. From birthday parties to college classes the film (as well as the original PKD novel) has a bit of a place in my life. Much to the disbelief of friends and relatives. (Boring is the word most often invoked.) Philistines the lot of them. I'm not completely convinced the Final Cut really offers anything new, but it is certainly a touch prettier. That opening sequence (which I'm pretty sure is a touch longer now) is still breathtaking. And I think there are a couple extra quick shots and the soundtrack is tweaked in a couple places. Oddly I think Bryant's math is fixed in this version once again making it a little less obvious that Scott's Deckard is a replicant, but whatever. Anyone that's followed the film knows his opinion on that score.

I think the thing I enjoyed most about watching it this go round were all the little touches. Gaff's origami, the sound of the neon lights flashing, the photo reading machine, Vangelis's score. It's all highly iconic stuff now and in some ways a little difficult to appreciate. The language of this film has been borrowed so many times (from 5th Element to Cowboy Bebop to well, really any dystopic sci fi film of the last couple decades) it's easy to forget just how new it was at the time. Between this film and 2001 (there's that boring word again) I'm not entirely certain there's another film out there that shaped sci fi cinema as much.

So I'll avoid all the talk of humanity and dystopia and influence and simply say, yeah Blade Runner still has it. There's a reason this thing is a classic and a touchstone. If you've not seen it, track down the Final Cut and give it a look. Your geek cred will thank you.

Speaking of dystopias family, congratulations go out to younger sis on birth of baby girl. Although you don't fix the spelling of that middle name and well... At any rate. Congratulations, glad all are healthy and well. Good luck restoring any sort of order to that house. You are all doomed now as you are well and truly out numbered.

I've been watching Piranha these last few mornings while I exercise. Also a truly great film.

I think I'll stop commenting on Monster until I've finished the series, but if you've thought about reading manga, but not been sure of a decent series to start with, this one's a good bet. Pretty compelling.

I'm this close to finishing The Strain. It is good. More when done.

I'll be starting the sequel to The Magic Thief (called Lost I believe) soon. Looking forward to that. It's a pretty good little series.

Added in the Event and Relic decks for Cutthroat Caverns last night. They do offer a nice little twist on the gameplay. Usually making things even more difficult for the poor players that refuse to trust anybody. Not bad. I really need to convince everyone to take another stab at Arkham Horror. I've been itching to play that one again... I blame that Innsmouth blood.

Befuddlement

Seems like there should be things to talk about here. I'm pretty sure I was aware of them earlier, but it's been that kind of day.

The Arts Festival is going on outside of the Library at the moment and if any of you have a couple grand to loan give us, I will acquire some nice art. As it stands I suspect it will once again pass us by. Although there's a rather nice Army of Darkness spray paint piece... Anyone? (And don't get me started on the beautiful Greek Boat photo... Water! So blue!)

Watched Sunshine again the other day. First 2/3 or so of that movie are great. Ending, not so much.

Apparently DirecTV does not play well with rain. You have rain for a few days in a row and suddenly the signal just wanders away looking for some sun. I wonder what people in, oh, say, Forks do for satellite service. Have the Cullens hold the dishes and sparkle sweat heavily?

Currently reading The Strain by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. It's a pretty good vampire book. Part medical thriller (some pretty gruesome details yo) part horror novel, it's been pretty interesting so far. Although it appears the vampires don't have teeth. It looks like they may have some sort of extra appendage in their throat that they use instead. I'm actually just getting to the part where the vampire outbreak starts in earnest so I'm not certain of all the details yet. Why do people play around with the vampire rules so much? I don't know that any other undead critter gets yanked around quite so much...

I have a jalapeno from the garden. It will go on the chicken tacos we're making tonight. I'm hoping it is very yummy. And not without some kick. We shall see. Tomatoes are in existence, spinach too. Watermelons down for the count. Not sure about the cucumbers. Or the serranos.

The one with the Twilight movie review in

So. The rumors are true. (Although if there are actually rumors about my Twilight viewing habits, the internets just got a whole lot creepier) I have seen Twilight. And just what did the ol' letter 'd' think of said spot of celluloid? It didn't suck (and believe me, that comment works on lots of levels for this film). Given the fact that they had to hire a writer, they fixed the biggest problem with the books (y'know the writing). So except for the lines they lifted wholesale from the novel, the dialogue and so on wasn't too terrible. Plot was pretty much nonexistant, but that can be said of most romantic comedies. Wait, this wasn't a comedy? Hmm. They definitely need to fire the hairdresser. And the FX guy. I'd really like to know whose bright idea it was to change "sparkling" into "sweating heavily". That glitter effect. Man. Although he did have to carry Bella all over the place, so I suppose a little sweat is expected. (And yeah, the carrying... less said the better.)

Strangely the scene I liked the most was the one that sounded pretty silly from the book, the baseball game. I blame the fact that I enjoyed it on the Muse song though. Can't beat a good Muse song. And Muse apparently makes just about anything better. Bella needs to lose the headphones. Surely she can find a better way to learn her lines. Although if I were surrounded by the people in that movie, I'd probably try to drown them out too.

I did like Alice. She can stay.

So there you go. Not the worst thing ever, but certainly far from anything worth watching more than once. (I am looking at you 2nd oldest niece. Take the headphones out, put the remote down and go start reading some Westerfeld or something.)

Still trucking along through Monster. It is still pretty darn good.

Decided to throw Metal Gear Solid 3 back in the ol' PS2. I still really suck at that game. I may one day make it to the end, but that is not going to be any time soon.

An early Happy Father's Day goes out to Dad. I have no idea what we're getting you. You have no idea what we're getting you. This has not helped matters. So yeah, Love you Dad, you'll have to settle for heartfelt appreciation. ^_^

Oh. They're still not vampires. Deal with it people.

Incroyable

What's this? Not one, not two, but three posts?! Some with actual relevant content? Yeah, yeah, don't get used to it. It's been an odd week.

Ghost in the Shell: 2nd Gig was pretty darn decent. It played with my mind quite a bit as they lifted characters and settings from the first graphic novel without using those plot points. And then they ended the season right where the graphic novel started. So I've no idea what that means as far as compatibility with the manga's timeline, but it was certainly interesting from a nudge, nudge, wink, wink sort of standpoint. I think I liked the end of season 1 better, but they're both good. Good on ya' Production I.G.!

Monster continues to be interesting as does Cromartie High School.

I will be tackling The Hunger Games soon, mostly to see how it compares to Battle Royale. I will admit to being somewhat skeptical... It might be decent, but I'm expecting a certain amount of been there, done that, it was better in the original. Heh. ^_^

Well, my brain is fried. I blame the updating. I'll get back to you next week. Or will I?

Oh I really, really want to see Moon. Yeah, that's all.