Prelude to nothing

Vacation looms. This is good. I am in need of some down time. Alas we shall have to wait for another month before Dad can make it out and we really goof off. I expect this time will consist of some grilling, some ice cream and some games. And lots and lots of nothing. Except maybe sleep. Sleep sounds good.

Killer Elite was an interesting little action movie. Apparently it was based on a true story. It certainly ended ridiculously enough to be true.

I am sort of addicted to Ninjatown: Trees of Doom. It's just a non stop climbing game, but it's strangely compelling. And Motoheroz or however they spell that is worse. It's a Trials-like racing game on the iPad. You're trying to get the best time on a short race course that involves lots of jumps and hills and so on. You control the angle of the vehicle as well as its speed. It plugs right into the OCD center of my brain. Must get perfect run and beat stupid computer ghost car...

I introduced McK to Settlers of Catan last weekend. We didn't make it through a whole game. Mostly because lovely wife was about to throttle me. I had managed to cut one of her cities off onto one little corner of the board. It produced ore pretty reliably but we were racing for the 2:1 ore trading spot. If I'd managed to snag that spot she'd have been pretty dead in the water. McK wasn't too much better off. Ok , so we really stopped because it was late and McK needed to go to bed, but I like the other reason better.

Psst, the third Hex Hall book is out. It's pretty good so far. Although I have issues with the love triangle.

Alas poor blog

I finished both Let's Pretend this Never Happened and Red, White and Blood over this past week. One was extremely funny and worth reading, the other had it's moments but wasn't quite as good as the two previous installments. A shame really. Lawson's book (the funny one) was hilarious, horrifying, and surprisingly sweet. Quite often at the same time. If you've read her posts over at The Bloggess, you know what you're getting into. Otherwise be prepared for lots of humor, swearing and randomness. Giant metal chickens will be mentioned.

Farnsworth's book (the vampire one) is enjoyable enough, but doesn't quite match up with the two previous Cade novels. I'm not quite certain what it was either. The plot is decent enough and the characters are fun to hang out with again (except for Holt, really don't care for her) so I'm not sure why I didn't like it as much. The ending certainly leaves you wondering what will happen in the sequel. That book has some potential.

(Psst, the third Hex Hall book is out. I'm going to have to read it.)

Last week there was a giant sale on Pixeljunk games over on PSN. I snagged about 4 of them for $3. They are all rather enjoyable. Racer is a fun little slot car type game with a lot of different game modes. Plus the multiplayer can be pretty good. Monsters is tower defense, Shooter is a sort of Defender like type game with a heat mechanic (your ship will overheat and explode if you don't cool it off), and Eden is a puzzle/dexterity game where you need to help grow a garden by guiding a critter around the level in search of pollen and seed type things.

McK is trying to overcome a serious losing streak in softball. They've had to cancel one game and lost the other three. Four, possibly five to go. M has her first game (I believe) tonight. We shall see... Well, lovely wife will at any rate.

Epic Games over in Lehi does a family game night on Mondays. We finally managed to make it over and learned to play Evo. It's an interesting little game where you play dinosaurs trying to stay alive as long as you can before the meteor crashes into the Earth destroying everyone. It has a nifty little mechanic where you can bid on traits that will help you survive (fur for colder areas, umbrellas for warmer areas, feet to help you move more dinosaurs, etc.) by using your victory points. So you can potentially bid lots to get what you need, but then lose the game because you spent your points. G now wants a copy. I wouldn't mind one either. Unfortunately, we were playing the first edition of the game and the reprint changed things up some. So you no longer get little chits to attach to your dinosaur to show your upgrades and so on. It looks like it's pretty hard to find the first edition. So if any of you run across the old Descartes/Eurogames edition, let us know (not the new Asmodee box with the realistic looking dinosaurs on the cover).

catching up

Finally had a chance to watch Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and it was indeed a fine continuation of that series. I think I still liked the third one a touch more, but this is an enjoyable follow up. More missions. More impossibles. It'll be interesting to see where they go from here. And I was glad to see Simon Pegg get some decent screen time. Too bad about the mask.

Takenoko  is an addictive puzzle-y sort of game where you are trying to grow a bamboo garden while a panda eats some of your efforts. You take turns performing a couple of actions such as placing a new bamboo plot, growing bamboo, eating bamboo, irrigating a new section of the garden etc. in order to complete objectives you have (found on cards that you can draw). Once one player has completed a set number of objectives remaining players get one more turn and then scores are tallied. I find myself thinking about this game a lot and wanting to play it more. Definitely worth playing.

Speaking of playing games, we had our monthly board game weekend and celebrated Cinco de Mayo at the same time. Games! Fish tacos! Ice cream! A pinata! Taco Soup! It was a grand time. Plus we got to play a lot of games. So yay.

And speaking of ice cream, our second batch was not quite as successful as our first. This time we tried for a chocolate peanut butter ice cream, but it was a slightly different base and we managed to scorch it just a little. If you didn't know better you might think we had just used a very dark chocolate. Having been involved in the creation process, I could tell it was a little burnt. Alas. We shall continue to try though! More ice creams!

G managed to score a goal in his last soccer game of the season. He told his big sister he was going to score one for her since it was her birthday. Of course, he also told her they'd win their game. Or at least try to. And it sounds like they were off to a decent start. They were tied 3-3 when I managed to get there, but at that point the other team pulled ahead and the game ended 6-3. Oh well. He had fun and did manage to score a goal, so good for him.

I haven't finished Let's Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson, but I can confirm it is hilarious. Of course if you know who she is, this comes as no surprise. It's pretty darn funny. And then you feel bad for laughing at her misfortunes.

Now if we can just convince the kids that they don't all need to be sixty different places at once...

And in case you missed the reference up there a Happy Birthday to McK. I refuse to believe she's as old as she thinks she is. For some strange reason she wants to have a birthday party where she and her friends play some board games. I can't for the life of me figure out why. There certainly won't be any adults at this party she can force her presence upon... Weird. Oh well, I suspect she'll have some fun anyway.

Screaming

I have been forcing a couple episodes of Masters of Horror upon lovely wife. Mostly because I always meant to watch some of them and I finally decided it was time. John Carpenter's Cigarette Burns was pretty interesting. It reminded me a little of that old Johnny Depp movie The Ninth Gate only substituting a film for a book. Or possibly In the Mouth of Madness,  which if I remember right is another John Carpenter film... Anyway, guy asks other guy to track down long lost film print that was only ever shown in public once. Riots ensued, people went crazy, etc. etc. It was fun. Stuart Gordon's Dreams in the Witch House was a decent adaptation of the Lovecraft story. Those non-Euclidean angles...

For an early Mother's Day gift we picked up lovely wife an ice cream maker. Mostly due to this book. We tried it out by making a gallon of the malted chocolate ice cream with dark chocolate chips. It was as wonderful as it sounds. Soooo goood. We're going to try another flavor this weekend for our gaming/Cinco de Mayo get together. I think there will be peanut butter involved. As for the machine itself, we opted for a nice little electric 4 quart ice/salt contraption. I kind of wish it was hand crank, but I'll be stealing Dad's hand crank machine, so I've got that base covered.

G has officially won one soccer game. It may be the only game his team wins. And strangely, soccer is far more appealing to watch than softball... I'm as surprised as anyone, I don't really like soccer.

Whedon and Waterdeep

First let me say that Cabin in the Woods is brilliant. I really won't say much more than that in case you've not seen it yet. (Shame on you!) Rectify that as soon as possible, because this is a great movie. Also, the people responsible for marketing this movie should be shot. The less you know (or think you know) going in the better. I caught the trailer and honestly that gave away too much. So yes. Go see!

Lords of Waterdeep is our new gaming obsession. It showed up late last week and over the course of the weekend I think we played it 3-4 times. You are one of the titular Lords tasked with hiring various types of people in order to complete quests. The board consists of several spaces that allow you to hire said characters or gain money or new quests, etc. You can also add spaces by building new buildings. The game is played over 8 rounds and each round consists of a number of turns. As long as you have an agent (represented by a wooden counter) you can take a turn and then complete a quest (if you have the right assortment of characters/money). It's a constant challenge to decide where you'll place your agents as you'll always want a little of everything. It plays pretty quickly and even when you're behind, it's possible to eke out a victory towards the end. Highly recommended.

I believe just about all of us have been sick at Casa del 'd' over this past week. Lovely wife is about the only one that's avoided the plague. And for her sake I hope she manages to continue to avoid it. It wasn't pleasant.

G has finally managed a tie game in soccer. 0-0. They obviously need some more work. But he's no longer all losses...

I read the volume one graphic novel for Game of Thrones. It was Game of Thrones in graphic novel style. I suppose I should really get around to reading more of that series. I liked that first book well enough but wasn't quite ready to tackle a second (and more) once I was done. I needed some breathing room. Which has led to the inevitable problem of only sort of remembering what happened in that first book. Not the best place to start the second one from.

And that pretty much makes up all the coherent thoughts I can string together at the moment. Look forward to some thoughts on the book of ice cream recipes I've checked out. Mmm home made ice cream. Must get Dad's hand crank ice cream maker...

Gimme the usual

We had quite the board gaming week this past week at casa del 'd'. Last Friday we had some friends over and played some Zombie Dice with the new expansion dice, Drakon, Incan Gold, and Elder Sign. We even managed to give old Azathoth the heave ho in Elder Sign and save humanity once again. Saturday followed with more friends and Galaxy Trucker, Blue Moon City  and Hanabi. It was good to root through some of our older games and give them a chance again. I've actually really been wanting to get Galaxy Trucker to the table again with four people (it gives a much better chance that someone's ship will go BOOM in creative and hilarious ways).

We also checked out the new game store that's not too far away from us. We may be frequenting them for game nights and rentals soon. They're certainly in the starting phase of store ownership, but there's some potential there.

Lords of Waterdeep is our newest acquisition and I am very excited to give it a go. It looks pretty simple while offering a fair amount of choices and strategy. It's a Dungeons and Dragons themed worker placement game. Should be pretty good.

We are now caught up on The Guild. We have watched all five seasons and were suitably entertained. I'm also really enjoying the shows on Geek and Sundry. The motion comics are a lot of fun as is Felicia Day's The Flog. Tabletop even got me messing around with that Small World iPad app some more. I finally managed a victory over the AI. So that's worth something.

We're all still very addicted to the Skylanders app. I'm not sure what it's secret is, but we can't stop playing...

I gave up on Zone One. I have decided that I'm a genre snob. I don't like it when "literary" authors tackle genre books. This one might have been better than the horribleness that was The Passage, but I really have no idea. I just couldn't get into it. I might try again later, but it's doubtful.

So that pretty much encapsulates what's been going on. The lawn is once again a tyrant and I find myself having to mow it into submission. Stupid lawn. We need to decide if we're planting anything this year. I think we really need to refresh the dirt some. I'd still like some tomatoes and peppers and onions. Who knows what we'll do though.

The kids are caught up in various activities. G is running around a field pretending to play soccer and having far too much fun. The girls will start softball soon. They're all certainly around the house a lot less...

Quack quack quack

Title is mostly referential of the current weather here. I like rain. Moreso when I can hear it, but it's nice to see it  as well.

So let's see, we watched the PSA that was Hugo (I don't remember the book being quite so Film Preservation Society! as the movie was, but it's been a while since I've read it). The movie was alright I guess, just preachy. There were a few genuinely good moments. Too bad it was filmed from a soap box. Bad Scorsese!

The kids decided to watch The Muppet Movie without me, so I've not gotten a chance to play with the blu ray yet. I want to pause it and watch Statler and Waldorf make with the funny.

Easter was fine and the kids seemed to have a good day. We colored some eggs this year. I opted to make a Portal inspired turret egg.

We picked up the expansion dice for Zombie Dice. One for Santa (he brings you brains for Christmas, possibly his depending how you roll), one for the Hunk (he'll shoot you twice) and one for the Hottie (she runs away a lot. In high heels.). It's more silliness for an already silly game. Brilliant.

The kids have been enjoying Spring Break and lovely wife has the sunburn and bruises to prove it. Hiking! Biking! All manner of -ings! Fortunately it soon draws to a close.

I'm tired of this cough. Can someone please come and take it for me? Kthxbye.

Let's hear it for incoherency

I don't know if it's the evil that is Daylight Savings Time or pollen/allergies or what but I have been far too tired of late.

We are just about caught up on all the seasons of The Guild. Lovely wife and I finished season 4 the other night and season 5 is on hold and I believe that makes us current. It's still pretty amusing. Felicia Day recently launched a youtube channel, Geek and Sundry which I highly recommend checking out. Wil Wheaton's Tabletop is a pretty good show centered on boardgames. The first episode covers Small World. There are a lot of other shows to check out as well. I just need a better internet connection so I can watch them without having to restart the show every 5 seconds.

Real Steel was a fun little robot boxing flick. I rather enjoyed it as did G.

The Bourne movies are also still excellent. And still in spite of the camera work. (I think I'm obligated to harp on that whenever they're mentioned)

Other than that things are fine around Casa del 'd'. We're only sort of ready for Easter or Spring Break or any number of other kid related type things. M gave a fun little report on Jim Henson and G has started soccer. Lost their first game 6-0. Admittedly they'd only had one practice up until that point. McK is being swallowed by stage crew again. Silly kids and their activities.

Apparently all lawnmower troubles are carburetor related. Went to try and mow the lawn last week and could not get the mower to start. After replacing far too many bits and bobs we ended at a little small engine repair place staffed by people with some flavor of Russian accent. When the guy looking at our mower implicated the carburetor in the troubles the rest of the staff yelled "Carburetor! Always carburetor!" I suspect they had a drinking game as well...

Oh and I should point out that Friends with Boys by Faith Erin Hicks is an absolutely wonderful little graphic novel. It follows Maggie, an up til this point home schooled girl, as she's about to go to High School for the first time. Where her three older brothers have been for a couple years. It's funny and touching and occasionally puzzling (what is the deal with that ghost? I personally think it's a stand in for the issues relating to her mother.) Check it out.

Hunger. Games. Both at the same time.

McK and I went to see The Hunger Games last Saturday. Personally, I'm of the opinion that they did a pretty brilliant job with the film. I wasn't crazy about the shaky cam that wandered through District 12 at the beginning, but I think it made sense for the battle scenes. A couple of the places I wander around the internet took issue with the movie, but I think they missed some of the point. First, partially due to said camera, the violence was never glorified. You weren't really given a chance to "enjoy" the fights which would have been counter productive to the point of the whole film.

I've also managed to come to some sort of terms over the whole Hunger Games/Battle Royale thing. At least as far as the film is concerned. There's certainly a lot of overlap in the stories, but Hunger Games gets spun through a more American perspective where Battle Royale is certainly more Japanese.

I managed a victory over lovely wife at Summoner Wars the other evening. The game should have been much shorter than it was, but after my initial couple of turns (where I had her Summoner down to a couple life points) I could not roll a three or higher to save my life (or more appropriately end hers). But in the end the Swamp Orcs declared victory over the Benders. So yay for that I guess. I'm looking forward to the eventual release of this game on the iPad.

Speaking of, 100 Rogues was free the other day and is once again filling me with roguelike glee. I still enjoy Shiren a touch more, but this is a pretty decent game for the iPad. And we're still pretty far down the Draw Something rabbit hole. We have lots of colors now...

I took G and M to the Library on Saturday for the Dinosaurs and pizza story time. It was pretty fun, even if it did take the kids a few minutes to get over some of their shyness. It's so amusing watching them in groups of people. Not that I can fault them really, I suspect a decent amount of my own introvertedness has rubbed off on them.

We watched Tintin over the weekend as well. I felt it was ok for the first two thirds. The last third suffered from existing (movie felt a little long) and some silliness. (A crane fight? Really?) I'd watch a sequel though, so that says something.

Managed to earn $10 in iTunes through that Viggle app. So yay for rewards for watching TV. Especially as we don't watch much.

I need a nap...

Your title could be here

I seriously hate making titles. It's like those quotes at the beginnings of the Myth books' chapters.

Finally had my first win at Summoner Wars. It was most certainly not due to having played the game a couple times and playing against the letter 'r' who had never played. Or being at least somewhat familiar with the army I had. Nope not at all.

Watched the original Japanese version of Godzilla. I'm glad that movie is running around on DVD. Good ol' Criterion Collection. I was a little worried it would be horrible after all this time, but it really wasn't. Oh sure, it was a little slow, but it was still pretty fun. The destruction of Tokyo was still thrilling. And it was neat to see the old special effects.

I have given up on reading Liars and Outliers by Bruce Schneier. I had hopes that it would be interesting, but it really wasn't. That and I took issue with most of his premise. So, well, there you go. It deals with trust in societies and why we behave the way we do and the little tricks societies use to build trust in a population that would rather kill each other off and take what they want. Like I said, issues.

Written in Bone, the second Simon Beckett book was also a fun read. I'm currently on the third one. Mostly as the end of the second one was a pretty big cliffhanger (well excepting the existence of a third and fourth book) and I wanted to know what happened.

Got in a game of 7 Wonders over the weekend and somehow McK managed to win that one. I suspect even after trying to account for some cheating that was going on.

And speaking of McK, this weekend we will be off to see The Hunger Games. Saturday morning in fact. Can't be bothered to deal with opening day crowds. At least we have reserved seats...

C'mon Toby

Paranormal Activity 3 was great. Absolutely, thoroughly enjoyed it. Very spooky and the story it told was also really interesting. So many good creepy moments! My hair stands on end just thinking about it. If you've not watched the series yet and are fans of spooky over gory, this is the set of films for you.

I'm just going to leave this here without comment. Other than holy crap the choreography. I can't imagine how much practice went into that.

Puss in Boots was mostly ok. Certainly the most tolerable of the Dreamworks does Disney films. Although the pop culture references are still a little too much. Fight Club? Really?

Crazy, Stupid Love was recommended by a co worker at the Library and it is indeed pretty darn funny. Not quite sure I liked the ending, but there are some truly hilarious bits. I really like Steve Carell. Which is funny as I can't really stand The Office...

Managed another game of Summoner Wars, this time with Lovely Wife. Got stomped on again. I really dislike the Shadow Elves... You certainly need to take the time to understand the various factions and how best to use them, that's for sure.

Well the weather has certainly turned rather Spring-like. I expect snow soon. Hard to believe we're already half way through March.

If any of you lot are playing Draw Something feel free to start up a game with me. My account name is dkun.

Oh, I should probably mention Quaranteen. It's ridiculous. Readable, sure, but ridiculous. There, consider it mentioned... (What you want more info? Think Lord of the Flies where the kids are locked in a High School building. Only ridiculous. And not really the good kind.)

Movies! Games! Film at 11!

Shark Night was horrible. Fortunately it was so horrible that it was still enjoyable. But mostly it was horrible. Why are they referring to the bayou as a lake? Why is Donal Logue in this movie? Why are the swampbillies philosophizing about the varieties of sharks? Why are you not watching this? So many questions, so few answers.

The Thing (the recent prequel) was fine. I'm not sure why there's a ton of backlash against this movie. I suspect it's because they're calling it a prequel (it is) instead of a remake/reboot of Carpenter's flick (which it sort of also is too). Admittedly it hits all the notes from the previous film, but you know what? That's ok. It's still enjoyable. And some of the effects are pretty good. Gruesome little Thing-lets... At least they nailed the ending (with the dog running off and the helicopter giving chase).

Roll Through the Ages is a fun little dice game with a light civ building theme. It offers some pretty interesting choices over the course of the game. Obviously there's a fair amount of luck involved (dice game) but it's offset some by the things you can do - get more dice to roll thus increasing your odds of getting what you want, add improvements that let you alter/supplement the rolls you have, etc. It's also nice to know that I'm not the only person to get rules wrong when learning a game.

Had a fun visit with littlest sis. Games were played, food consumed, etc. The big winner over the weekend was Wits and Wagers family edition. Decent little party game. Everyone seemed to like it. Alas, we have to return that one to lovely wife's sister. I did manage to snag a copy of Summoner Wars though. (The recently released Master Set) M and I managed a game over the weekend and she eked out a victory there at the bitter end. Now that I have a better grasp of how things go I will crush her next time. Next time...

Quick media update

So, somehow I suffered through Breaking Dawn. The parodies pretty much have it, Breaking Yawn indeed. So horrible. Apparently the movies are worse than the books. I cannot fathom such a thing. This might be the first literary/cinematic black hole in existence. Never mind that literally three things happened in this movie. Never mind that the pacing was barely sufficient for one viewing (I can not imagine trying to sit through that again - so slooooooooow). Let's just talk about Bella's sippy cup shall we? Exactly what is the point of this? Why is she imbibing blood? Don't give me that crap about the baby wanted it. Fine. Why exactly is she drinking it?! The baby is not attached to her stomach. She needs blood in her bloodstream so she's drinking it?! As opposed to, oh I don't know, an IV? The stupid. It burns. Words fail...

The remake of The Crazies was pretty decent. It's a horror film whose conceit is relatively timeless. Although the ending is just a touch silly. I get what they were going for, but still.

X Men First Class was better than it had any right to be. I would probably watch sequels with these characters. Maybe. Although the beginning was once again giving me retcon whiplash. Why do they feel the need to monkey around with backstory continuity so much? (This mostly refers to the magic helmet of telepathic invulnerability +1 and Cerebro) Especially after using the footage from the old X Men movie.

Heat Rises was fine. Ends on a cliffhanger reminiscent of season 3 I believe it was. Still fun to read.

Speaking of Nathan Fillion, this is awesome and hilarious. And if you don't understand why he puts a hammer on the table, begone and never darken my blog again.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes was good. It suffered a touch from the fact that it was a prequel, so you knew where things were headed, but it still managed to be pretty interesting. I'd watch more of these.

Anyway, littlest sis is in town this weekend and there will be some board games. This is good.

Brain hazy, ask again later

I am far too incoherent to muster anything resembling rational thought. The head cold that wouldn't leave is rearing its head again and I'm trying in vain to muddle through. So in no particular order:

King of Tokyo is still fun and was a big hit at K & B's over the weekend. As was Dwarf King. We got slaughtered at Elder Sign but I still enjoy it. Also I am very bad at "Mormon Rummy". I believe Dad and littlest sis tried to teach us this game some time ago, but I think it had a different name. Trick taking game where you use progressively fewer cards. You get points for correctly guessing how many tricks you will take.

I have had a strange desire to read some Addams Family comics and so have checked out a book to enable me to do so.

I have a theory about Castle. Mostly because I am reading the third book. (It's good) I have decided that Castle and Beckett will never get together on the TV show because they've gotten together in the books. So, all you fans wanting them to finally do something? Read the books. Actually this is a pretty clever solution if it's what they're doing. Hollywood isn't quite that bright, so I have my doubts, but I suppose anything is possible. Oh and I'm stating for the record right now: Castle's Dad totally killed Beckett's Mom. This is all based on randomly watching the last two episodes for no better reason than they were on. And we happened to be flipping channels. Maybe they were better if you've been watching the whole season...

Mostly because we were slightly introduced to it over the weekend, I threw the Lite version of Minecraft on the iPad. It's surprisingly fun. I may break down and pony up the dough for the full version. If for no other reason than it would be nice to have things save in the world. The creepers are creepy too.

Rhythm Heaven Fever for the Wii is the good kind of frustrating. Except for when it isn't. It would be nice to have some sort of feedback on exactly why you're passing/failing levels. But other than that the games are fun and it's nice to have another rhythm game to obsess over.

And that's really all I can bring myself to comment on at this time. Looking forward to seeing littlest sis next week. The house is about to be overrun by Girl Scout cookies. And I need a nap. Seriously.

Not nearly horrific enough

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

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

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

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

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

Grave Incoherency

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

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

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

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

Mostly Muppets with some Magic thrown in

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

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

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

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

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

Briefly spooky

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

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

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

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

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

I need to play some board games!

The snowpocalypse is a lie

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

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

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

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

I am intrigued by this.

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

New Year, Old Material

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

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

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

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

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