I was a . . .

Ok, so here's one of the little quirks of married life. Every so often the dreaming world decides to take a day trip to the waking world and wreak a little havoc. Initially you have odd dreams involving your new spouse and your new relationship and some facet thereof (typically fidelity or lack thereof, or some aspect of personality that was only discovered upon actually living together) and you find yourself waking up mad as all get out at him or her. It happens. At first you might take it out on them for a bit till the whole it was a dream thing kicks in and then you feel silly and have a story for later.

You don't ever completely grow out of this, but sometimes, after you've been together for a while, it gets stranger. Take last night for example. This afternoon my wife informs me that she had the oddest dream about me last night. First a little background: For those not in the know, I've been playing through Resident Evil 4 of late. I do my best to keep it away from the kids, but they occasionally get curious and I occasionally play it before they go to bed. Last night they decided to "play" RE 4 at bedtime. This mostly involved one of them saying something like, "Leon help!" and the other pretending to rescue them. When Miranda tired of the game she came downstairs and informed us that McKenna wouldn't get out of her bed. She then launched into a fairly accurate retelling of the bit of RE 4 that I'd played through that afternoon. In spite of the fact that she and her sister had been warned several times not to come downstairs. I tried to keep from laughing while my wife gave me The Look (admittedly on one of it's weaker settings).

Ok so I suspect that was at least partially responsible for the dream she had. That or watching Clerks but I'm pretty sure it was the first thing. Anyway, in this dream my friend the letter 'r' and I were playing RE 4. And oddly we had a gun controller that we used to do the shooting in the game (which was kept under the bed so as to keep it away from the kids). The letter 'r' made some comment about the fact that I was actually a pretty good shot. I then made a joke about the recent target shooting we'd done at Trout Lodge. Then we both "laughed knowingly". You know, that fake little laughter like we have a secret. At this point my wife decided to head for bed and leave us to our carnage.

Once she arrived upstairs she noticed a gun under the bed. A rifle or "AK-47" or something (she was very specific about this when telling me her dream). But this was confusing, after all weren't we already downstairs playing the game with the controller? Closer inspection revealed that the gun under the bed was a real rifle. This caused a "Confrontation". I believe at this point that the letter 'r' was no longer in the dreamscape. Instead my wife confronted me about the real gun in the house. There was a slap and some tearful exclamations about kids and loaded guns and so on. And then painful understanding. She looked at me and said (with all seriousness), "Why didn't you tell me you were a zombie hitman?!" At this point, my secret out in the open, there was more yelling and tears. "People call you up and you go and kill zombies!", "What do you mean you don't really wear glasses?!", "Your day job is just a cover!" and so on. I tried my best to console her, but she would have none of it.

It was at this moment that something woke my wife, the end of the dream, some random noise, who knows. Fortunately we've been in this territory enough that she managed to calm down before throttling me in bed for living a secret life bringing the undead back to their maker. Although she did almost wake me then to share the joke. I must admit we had a pretty good laugh about it. Of course, I'll now have to kill her in her sleep tonight for knowing too much, but sometimes that's the price you pay...

Random thoughts from a tired mind

There was a really nice rain/thunder storm earlier. Although I'm not entirely convinced that one or two claps of thunder quite qualify it as a thunderstorm. But still rain = good. And a nice break from the heat we've had the past few days. Look at me all talking about the weather. Aren't I all grown up and irrelevant... Don't answer that.

Ran across another couple trailers for movies that seem quite intriguing. I believe the first was called 13 Tzameti while the other was for The Woods (featuring Bruce Campbell in a rare dramatic role!). On a completely unrelated note (except for the Bruce Campbell tie in) Brisco County Jr. and Jack of All Trades both came out on DVD today I believe. Groovy.

I'm about to wrap up the China Mieville short story collection Looking for Jake. It was quite good. Highly recommended. Now if I can just finish 1776...

Weekend Begins

Go. Watch. Become excited. Curse the fact that it's not Fall yet.

Seriously though, The Prestige is looking quite good. I'm also rooting for Danny Boyle's new flick Sunshine. And the new Pang Brothers' movie and... heh heh, well you get the idea.

I'm glad it's Friday. I'm also glad that tonight will involve a BBQ and some bratwurst. Mmmmm bratwurst. I also picked up The Matador for some weekend movie fun. Couple that with some zombie shooting and you have yourselves a Good Time.

The relatively recent Escape Pod (episode 61) was rather amusing. Mostly for incidental reasons that involved a minor plot point of the story (Ranma 1/2). The story is a bit adult in nature, but amusing nonetheless. The episode also referenced a couple other podcasts that I now feel compelled to check out. More on them as necessary.

Well at this point I'm rambling, but I felt the need to get some new text up on the page. Although I still really like that firework shot.

Not With a Bang

Firework
Originally uploaded by dkun.

And we're back. This was the best firework photo I managed to snap while on vacation. There are a few others over at my Flickr site, plus a couple of the lake. It was a good trip. I must admit better than I expected it to be. I got the chance to do some sailing - they had little single person sail boats that you could take out on the lake. I think I managed at least one outing a day while I was there. I've always wanted to learn to sail and this just cemented that desire. There's something great about being out on the water letting the wind push you around. (Well ok, technically you're supposed to be using the wind to go somewhere, but work with me here. Besides, since I had next to no idea what I was doing, the first description is a little more accurate.) I may have to look into getting a boat.

Trout Lodge had quite the range of activities - there was almost always something to do or somewhere to go. We did a little archery, a little .22 target shooting, some lounging around the water, hayrack ride, and so on. And the cabins were pretty nice so that was a plus.

Got to show off the great-grandkids to my grandparents. They got a kick out of that. I'm just glad we got the chance to let them see them. Not sure if we'll get another chance to do that. Plus I got to catch up with my Uncle Paul, it's been far too long since we've gotten together. Here's the Colbert D&D video as a nod to the fact that he introduced me to the game.

At any rate it's now back to the grind... Must find a way to make a living just sailing around.

In and out

Managed to finish Zelda: Wind Waker. Fun game. The girls were suitably impressed. McKenna wanted to know when I was going to play it again. I said not for a while. I now understand why Zelda games are popular. It took me a bit to get into this one, but by the end I was a little sad to see it go. I might have to pick up the new one for the Wii.

Seems like I've seen some movies since I last posted, but I've no idea what they might have been. My wife and I did watch Clash of the Titans the other night. That movie actually holds up pretty well. I remember my Mom walking out of it with the girls, and Dad and I staying when we saw it in the theater.

Have I mentioned that Vivaldi's Four Seasons (especially the Winter section) is a truly amazing piece of music? If not, consider it mentioned. If so, consider it seconded.

I suppose I should put a photo of something cute up to distract you all for a while. But I have no cute photos so do a google image search for "cute" or something. I take absolutely no responsibility for whatever comes up from that.

At any rate, my eyes feel like they've been sanded down with large grit sandpaper so I think I'll be off.

Pulse and other odds and ends

Caught the original Japanese version of Pulse. I suspect this may be one of the few instances where the remake is better. The original was interesting and had a few good horror moments, but the pacing and length killed it. I don't mind slow movies (in fact several of my favorites tend to fall into that category), but the tension that this film tried to build was destroyed by the movie's glacial pace. Which is a shame, because as mentioned, it was actually pretty interesting. The set piece of the film with the plane was definitely worth it though. Amazing shot... Reminded me a bit of The Eye.

Wedding Crashers was also too long. I suspect Hollywood needs to be reminded that there's a time and place for the 1 1/2 hour movie. And the romantic comedy is certainly the place. Vince Vaughn was quite good though, as was Owen Wilson.

So, the bachelor days draw to a close. I suspect I got enough movie watching in...

Heard about The Horror Blog the other day. Haven't really had a chance to check it out, but it looks promising. I suspect I should give up all pretenses and turn this blog into horror movie reviews and game ramblings, but then you'd miss out on the cute kid stories. That and I'd have to convince my wife to start sitting through a lot more horror movies. Hmm...

Actually I've been meaning to post some random thoughts on horror movies again dealing with the current trend towards gore (not a good one in my opinion, in fact I'd classify gore flicks as a separate genre (or at least sub-genre) from horror movies) and the use of classical music in horror movie soundtracks (and why it works so well). But you'll have to wait for that. Maybe you can come up with your own thesis on the above topics and save me the job.

Oh, and I hate my lawn mower. It's out to get me I swear. Stupid gas leak...

<Unintelligible moan>

So the Zombie Weekend O' Fun is over. All I can say is Romero is cool. Dawn of the Dead and Land of the Dead are actually pretty good films. I'm glad we tracked down the Romero version of Dawn - totally worth it. And of course, Shaun of the Dead is still terribly funny and spooky and all of that. And I managed to catch a couple more jokes this go round as I've seen some of the Romero movies now. "We're coming to get you Barbara!" Hee hee...

Geist is an intriguing little game on the Gamecube. Borrowed it from a coworker and have been enjoying it.

I've snagged Pulse and Wedding Crashers, so we'll see what they're like...

Anyway, I suspect that's enough for this quick burst of blogging goodness.

Weekend o' Zombies

Well, my better half is out of town with the kids for a wedding. So what better way to spend the time than zombie movies and video games? None I say.

Tonight will most likely be Dawn of the Dead (The Romero version) and tomorrow will contain Shaun of the Dead and Land of the Dead.

I caught The Tailor of Panama and Brotherhood of the Wolf over the last couple nights. The former is one of those movies that you hope never happens, but you suspect might, while the latter is an interesting flight of fancy. I really enjoyed the story in Brotherhood.

At any rate, I would apologize for not updating with any sort of regularity, but that would imply that I felt bad about it (well maybe a little) and wouldn't really put you through it again (of course I will). So I won't.

I'm not dead yet

Although I felt pretty close. The stomach flu marched through the family last week and my turn was around Wednesday. And then the house building project down the street cut through the internet cable so we had no internet from about Thursday through today. That was fun.

The girls are getting into The Legend of Zelda, the Wind Waker. I find it rather amusing personally. The game certainly picked up there for a little bit. Although I suspect vast stretches of what do I do next coming up...

Well, you'd think I'd have something to ramble on about but such isn't really the case. Picked up Vivaldi's The Four Seasons on cd the other day as well as some Yo-Yo Ma. I like the cello. And The Four Seasons ranks up there with my favorite pieces of classical music. Especially the Winter section.

Giddiness sets in

So the company party was today. They held it at Wheeler Farm, so the kids got to milk a cow and take a tractor ride and so on. We had a bit of rain at the beginning, but then things settled down. I must admit, the rain didn't seem to bother me too much as I managed to win a 30GB iPod video. squee!

ahem

Ok, I'm better now. But yeah, totally awesome. Mom was having flashbacks to one of the old company parties we had growing up when my Dad worked at Manville. Back then it was a mini arcade cabinet style Pac Man video game. I will admit that there were probably similarities in the grins I had at either occasion...

At any rate, it was a good day.

Incoming transmission

Ok, so it's been a while, but then again, I've been pretty busy. Dad had to leave early, so we're down to just one house guest. Then it's a week off and then the wife and kids take off for a week. Such a busy time of year.

Had a pretty good weekend although my house is not equipped to handle 17 visitors at once. If it weren't a family event I would have found some way to take off from that mass of people yearning to breathe free... Especially considering the fact that it's starting to get hot out here.

Did a few more chores around the house. Got rid of an accordion door in preparation for putting in hard floors next year. Swapped out the old flat cable from the TV antenna to the TV in favor of coax. Other odds and ends.

Anyway, nothing of real import to pass along. Had dinner at Tepanyaki last night. Had the filet mignon and shrimp. It was like meat butter. So tasty. You'd think I'd have some kid stories to pass along or something but that's not really the case.

Of course, I could start venting about Gibbs quitting NCIS last night, but then I'd get all riled up again.

E3

Well, E3 is in full swing again. The big three (Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo this go around) have had their press conferences. Sounds like it's a toss up between Nintendo and Microsoft as to who had the best conference. I come down on Nintendo's side as the offerings Microsoft had out really don't interest me much. Don't care about Halo 3 or a new GTA game. I am terribly excited to get my hands on the Wii though. Here's a link to some more video footage of some of the games and people playing them.

In other news, we've managed to get the flower beds cleaned up and blooming. And we now own a rather pretty fuschia plant courtesy of the in-laws. An early Father's Day gift I believe. I may try to pass a picture of it along.

And tomorrow is my Friday. Woo hoo!

The folly humor of youth

You can tell your kids are a little excited to see the grandparents when they get up shortly after 6 AM to accomplish said fact. My wife managed to get them to go back to their room for a bit and told them they couldn't come out until 7. A few minutes later they peeked out of their room and asked, "What time is it in your room?" Apparently while it was still before 7 in theirs, ours must lie on the other side of some time zone that would allow them to escape...

Long days

Well, the arrival of family is imminent. My wife's folks this evening and then mine next week. McKenna had her party today. Took some friends to lunch and then went and saw Hoot. Cute show. Won't win any awards, but it was fun. McKenna liked the owls. One of the girls at the party liked the boy. I'll take her interest in the owls thanks...

It's been a long week. Cinco de Mayo yesterday. I got to spend most of it at work. Some higher-up decided that we needed to do an extra run of the main journals database we produce. And as my compatriot was out of town, that meant I had the joyous task of going in late to QA it. Was a truly wonderful experience let me tell you.

Today was free comic book day. The comic book shop down the road apparently closed down sometime this past year. So no free comic books for us. McKenna was rather sad about that. We picked her up a copy of Pikmin 2 for her birthday. It's a pretty fun game. I remember reading somewhere that the guy that created it was inspired by watching his garden. After playing the game a bit I can see the resemblance. It's a pretty interesting game. Cute on the surface, red in tooth and claw a couple layers down. Good ol' Mother Nature. McKenna has enjoyed ordering the Pikmin around.

Anyway, I'm sure there are other things I should go on about, but I can't think of them. So have a great weekend.

Final Fantasy

So Final Fantasy VII Advent Children came out last week. This was pretty much the movie that everyone wanted Spirits Within to be. Not a lot of plot, but a lot of pretty cool fight scenes. The animation technology has improved since then as well. Definitely a pretty movie and certainly some fun bits.

As I came late to the whole console scene, I will have to admit to Final Fantasy VII as probably my first real console RPG. So there is a bit of a special place in my heart for it. McKenna watched most of the movie with us and insisted that I play the game the next day so she could see where the movie came from. That was rather amusing. My wife just rolled her eyes a lot and made sure that I knew that playing VII wasn't allowed to take over playing Tales. Gee, two different family members interested in two RPGs. I'm not entirely certain that some sort of pod person invasion hasn't taken place. That or I've walked into a Talking Heads song...

Finished off The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Great book. I believe I've become a Le Carré fan. After The Tailor of Panama I'll let you know for sure. It's just refreshing to read spy novels that don't revolve around supermen that never make mistakes.

Family coming into town over the next couple weeks. My wife's family this weekend and my folks the weekend after. It's going to be pretty busy around here.

Anyone want to come and mow my lawn for me this summer? Anyone?

Nintendo news

So the big news of the day is that Nintendo announced the official name of their new console. The code name was Revolution. The official name is Wii (pronounced we). You can hit the site for a brief video and description behind the name. I rather like the logo. The name will take a bit of getting used to. My wife's first thought was that it was stupid. The internet is buzzing with comments in a similar vein. But then the internet isn't really known for its kindness... It'll live.

Seems like there was something else I meant to mention here. I, of course, have no idea what it was. My memory certainly hasn't been all that spectacular lately.

PF Chang's has some sort of spicy wonton on their menu at the moment. It's quite nice. We had dinner there last night with my sister and her husband and some of his family. Good food. Good company.

Awards and intrigue

Community service award
Originally uploaded by dkun.

So, here's some photographic proof of the bit of news I mentioned the other day. Last night at the City Council meeting the mayor presented me with a community service award for the hours I've put in at the library for the last several weeks. Or is it months now? I honestly can't remember.

I got a call from the library director the other day asking my family and I to come to the meeting for the presentation. I was a bit shocked actually. My wife was amused and thought it was pretty neat. The girls of course were terribly impressed. Heh...

At any rate, the moment is gone and I can go back to relative anonymity now.

As for intrigue, we watched The Constant Gardener the other day. I found it quite compelling. My wife and the letter 'r' weren't as impressed, but I suspect that had more to do with a slight bit of misrepresentation. They were expecting James Bond/Jason Bourne spy movie and couldn't make the jump to political intrigue movie. There are a lot of nice little touches throughout the movie that reward careful attention though. As mentioned I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it readily.

I find it interesting that Le Carré was actually in the British Foreign Service for a while. I'm currently reading The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. I may have found a new author to enjoy.

Silent Horror

I posted, probably over a year ago, on the topic of horror. I covered a few movies, a few games, maybe a book or two. I've certainly mentioned it in the intervening time. Horror is a topic that I rarely grow tired of talking or thinking about. So I was pretty excited to go see the Silent Hill movie. I doubt too many of you will be terribly interested in the movie, but if you haven't seen it and you want to, I'll label this post as more than likely full of spoilers. So there you go, consider yourselves warned.

In the video game world there are really only a couple of camps when it comes to the horror genre (or survival horror for you purists). The Resident Evil side and the Silent Hill side. RE is famous for zombies, tense jump moments, lots of back-tracking, odd puzzles and a sense of tension often created by limited inventory just as much as creepy environs. If memory serves, RE pretty much fathered the genre. Most people appreciated the first one, cheesy dialogue and all. The subsequent sequels tended to find less and less favor until the RE 4 which is credited with breathing new life into the franchise much like Batman Begins saved the dark knight.

While Resident Evil was on the wane, a new franchise was born: Silent Hill. It featured a normal guy looking for his daughter in a town covered in fog. A town that was not safe. A town that every so often, after warning given by an air raid siren, turned into something darker. Deadlier. If RE was about visceral chills, Silent Hill went for a cerebral scare. Which isn't to say that it ignored jump moments or gore, it certainly featured both, but it focused on a sense of suspense and creating an air of "what the hell is happening here?"

Creatures born of nightmare (and possibly a Giger painting) roamed these worlds. Seemingly innocent places would turn sinister in the blink of an eye. Just the demo of the first game was enough to give me nightmares. Which cemented its place in my heart. Here was a game that I could enjoy - a game that would scare me. I've since played the first two and would really love to play three and four. Honestly the second is a much better game, but I have a little more nostalgia for the first one.

Which brings us to the movie. I honestly have a hard time deciding if I liked it or not. There was certainly potential to make an amazing horror film - a town that seems to draw cursed souls to it and dispense its own sense of justice. A town that is never quite the same for anyone that visits. A town that is home to pure evil. What's not to like? I think the movie would have fared better had it not tried to mirror the games so closely. It basically retells the first game, while allowing bits of the second to creep in. A good way to allow fans of the games to get some enjoyment as they see bits from the games made "real", but not a good way to draw in casual viewers.

And there were some really odd pacing choices. The first three quarters of the movie really only contain enough story for about the first act (if that) of a normal film. The time is instead spent walking viewers through sequences of the game. All the high points are hit - the school, the church, the hotel (2nd game), the hospital. It isn't until the end that the film actually starts explaning things and giving the viewer a sense of what's actually going on. Now to be fair there is some of that in the game as well, but in a game you're participating. Story telling tends to take a back seat to the experience. Film doesn't work that way.

So what to make of Silent Hill the film? First it looks amazing. The transition sequences as the town changes are inspired. Definitely the high point. The plot (such as it was) is a little on the lacking side. Which is at least partly due to the fact that it's following the first game. The second game had a much stronger plot and the world of Silent Hill really started to make sense. The first game was more an exercise in setting things up and creating something unique. The music was great if you played the games as most of it came from there. I've always liked the music in the games so that was a nice touch. The acting was fine. Nothing outstanding, but I've certainly seen worse. It gets quite gory at the end and actually starts to channel Hellraiser a little more than Silent Hill. There are some disturbing acts and images. Which certainly keeps with some of the themes of the game, but they made a couple odd character and plot choices that are jarring if you're a fan of the game. I suspect regular viewers were just plain shocked as opposed to shocked and confused. The ending was nicely done. The proper amount of head scratching and ambiguity. I'm glad they didn't Hollywood-ize it.

So, some good potential that wasn't completely realized, but wasn't completely wasted either. If you've played the games, you're going to get more out of the film. That much is a given. If you haven't you'll probably spend more time wondering why this was made and who plays this kind of stuff. Which is actually pretty normal, so that's not all that big a surprise. Admittedly, we gamers are a rather strange bunch on occasion. I guess the best thing that can be said is this is definitely not the worst video game adaptation out there. Unfortunately it's also not the video game movie we've all been waiting for either. The sequel (if there is one) could be though. If they are willing to spend the time creating something new for the world of Silent Hill. I'm certainly more than willing to visit again.

Mental exercise

Picked up Brain Age for the DS. Not so much a game as a set of mental exercises, Brain Age calculates your mental age and then helps you train up those flabby mental muscles through a series of timed, graded puzzles. My wife and I find it rather compelling. The cartridge allows you to store up to 4 user profiles and the game will let you know how you're doing against the other people stored there.

Just got a rather strange phone call that will probably result in a rather amusing photo for next week. You'll just have to wonder.

My wife is watching Smallville in the background and the only thing I can say is that someone has watched Saw a few too many times. Eeesh.

Well, here's to hoping I can get to Silent Hill tomorrow, work is doing its best to get in the way.

Catch up

Let's see, King Kong was far too long. I can appreciate that it was well done, and there were some good bits, but that movie needed to be cut in half. Three hours indeed...

Narnia is still excellent and McKenna was just a little excited that it was waiting by the Easter baskets on Sunday. I think the screams of glee were our first indication that the gift was appreciated.

Shut the Box is a fun little game based around numbers and chance. I picked it up to help McKenna some with her math and it turns out that my wife's family had a copy while she was growing up. Serendipitous...

There's an entire saga growing around our attempts to purchase a new stove, but I don't quite have the energy to go into that. Suffice to say, the stove has been purchased, after much frustration it should be showing up tomorrow and there were discounts truly earned. RC Willey lost some customer points from us this time around.

Hmm, I know there were other things I meant to mention here, but I seriously don't know what they were. Silent Hill comes out this weekend, and I don't care how bad it is, it will be great. I can't wait to go see that one. It's been an immensely long week already. This makes me truly sad. Oh well...

Oh, I know what the other things I meant to mention were. Oddly enough I've managed to get some reading in. Y The Last Man is a comic book series that started back in 2002. It comes out monthly I believe and is slated to run about 60 issues. They collect every five or so and release them as graphic novels. Our local library had the first three. It's an interesting take on the last man on Earth scenario. I've enjoyed it so far and would like to see more. Will have to track them down.

And I'm currently reading a collection of essays by Sarah Vowell. Pretty enjoyable. She's a good writer. Also recommended.