PSA

Run and grab episode 42 of Escape Pod. It's a reading of Practical Villainy and also features a musical number that is spectacular. Do yourself a favor and give it a listen.

What's this?

Another post within the same week?! Actually you can blame the fact that I've had the worst work week imaginable combined with managing to get my evenings free. So I have a couple spare moments I can spend on you lot.

Things are ramping up for E3 - May draws nigh. Should be pretty exciting this year as we'll get lots of info about the Revolution. And I hear rumors that more copies of Phoenix Wright might be showing up. That would be nice as I really wanted to track down that game.

Still attempting to muddle my way through a Ludlum novel. Apparently it was released posthumously with the help of a ghost writer. It's sort of like the anti-Bourne. The Ambler Warning is the name if you're looking for that sort of thing. Sounds like Flight 3 will be out come June. The first two volumes have been pretty good. Not sure who's scheduled to be in this one.

I feel the need to rent some movies this weekend. Recommendations? Not sure what I'm in the mood for, just need some good solid entertainment. The letter 'r' is trying to schedule a showing for Land of the Dead. The new projector beckons...

Weekend recovery

First, this is amusing. If you're a Lost fan, a "Weird" Al fan or a Queen fan, give it a moment of your time.

Had a terribly nice long weekend: went up and visited some old friends. The kids had a grand time as they have a couple girls basically the same ages as our girls. Got to play a bit of Crimson Skies, introduced them to Qwitch and Tsuro. Lots of little games here and there and just general relaxing. Yup, nice weekend. Wasn't ready to come back. But then I hardly ever am.

I've managed to avoid most of the Olympics coverage. I don't remember ever being terribly excited by them and that hasn't really changed. Although some of the conversations about them at work are amusing. (Apparently Curling is strangely addictive if somewhat confusing. Sounds like just about anything related to Scotland to me. ^_^)

Coming up for air

It's been a rather odd sort of week. On Sunday the girls decided they needed to call 911. So I got a call back from 911 dispatch trying to confirm whether or not we had an emergency (No, not at the moment, but if you want to wait a minute, I'm sure there will be some children needing medical attention...). And then five minutes later the cops showed up to make sure there wasn't an emergency. It made for a fun morning let me tell you. Of course, my father-in-law (who's a retired policeman) found the entire situtation hilarious. And by Monday it mostly was.

Valentine's Day came and went. We enjoyed dinner at Cafe Rio, where, oddly enough, I had eaten the previous day for our monthly lunch out at work. I'd never eaten there before and that made twice in two days. Fortunately the food is quite good.

Some form of banquet for Pack meeting tonight. I think they're bringing in sub sandwiches. Yum.

Haven't really had a chance to devour any more forms of media lately. It's hard enough to keep up with my TV schedule. House and Supernatural have been fun. Oh, and Bones too. Hoping to catch a movie or two this weekend, but we'll have to see. We're heading out of town for a bit. I don't believe there will be skeet shooting, but it's a possibility. I have picked up a recent Robert Ludlum novel, so we'll see how that is.

The library has been pretty consistently enjoyable. I don't particularly care for shelf reading, but there are certainly worse things. I think I put up with most of them at my current job.

As for things to check out, the TMBG podcast is always enjoyable. The Nintendo DS is getting a web browser courtesy of Opera. And a TV tuner. I'm actually pretty excited about the web browser thing. I wonder if it'll work very well. Revolution news is trickling out in very small bits. Go Nintendo and 4 color rebellion are pretty much my new favorite haunts. They both have enjoyable podcasts as well.

So there's a bit of an update and a few places to go check out. As a parting shot I will point out that Miranda got her stitches out the other day and her face is looking a lot better.

Dog bites girl

So Ein and Miranda had a bit of a run-in today. I don't have all of the details but there were chairs, jumping and an overexcited dog involved. It ended in a trip to the doctor and three stitches for Miranda's nose. Plus or minus a few scratches around her cheek/eye area. Fortunately beyond that she's fine. My wife was a bit freaked out about it though. (And understandably so as the whole thing happened upstairs while she was dealing with Graeme downstairs.)

And I've managed to stub the heck out of my toe...

Which reminds me of a quote by Groucho Marx involving open sewers, death and papercuts.

So, the update schedule is pretty pathetic. It makes me slightly sad, but the few moments of free time I have are quite dear to me now. So I'm not sure what I'll do. I'm not convinced it's worth it to maintain this thing on such a shoddy schedule, but I'm not quite prepared to give it up either. It was nice having a bit of a writing outlet. Guess we'll see. Of course, it hasn't helped that I've had nothing to say lately either.

Got Electroplankton as an early Valentine's Day gift. Mostly because the console table I got for my wife showed up early and we went ahead and set it up. Probably the first non-essential piece of furniture we've bought... It might be slightly scary that it took us eleven years to reach that point, but to be a little fair it's only been a real possibility since we've had the house.

Anyway, Electroplankton is quite relaxing. It's fun to noodle around and create little dabs of music. I may have to play around with trying to record some of it at some point in the future. Definitely game as art. Or art as game depending on which side of the window you're standing on.

Aquatic

Just watched The Life Aquatic. Enjoyed it. Even though Bill Murray has been playing basically the same part for his last few films, he plays it very well. We likes the Bill. This was the first Wes Anderson film I've seen. May have to track down a couple others. I still need to see Rushmore...

Enjoyed the Superbowl yesterday. Was glad the Steelers managed to settle down and actually play in the second half. And I seem to be the only person that enjoyed the commercials. Well, the only person at the office. C'mon! They were good. The Sprint commercials were quite amusing as were several of the Bud Light commercials.

Poetry

This is a link to a site currently featuring some lovely poetry by Neil Gaiman. Both pieces are quite enjoyable. Go and read them, I'll wait. Don't expect anything terribly interesting upon your return.

Watched Resident Evil: Apocalypse. Such a silly movie. Jill Valentine's costume looks much better in the game than in real life. It was amusing to see Nemesis. Stars... About the only thing I can say in its defense is that I started it pretty late, but my wife stayed up and watched it anyway. Which actually says quite a lot. Strange really.

And the Target World Bazaar sale thing is just plain evil. A few really nice pieces, but such high prices. Grr...

In the background

The girls are all playing Mario Strikers so this is being typed to random crowd noise and Mario characters making either noises of pain or triumph depending on who is shoving who into the fence...

Was wandering around Barnes and Noble today in a vain attempt to find my wife a Valentine's Day gift. Happened to meander through the film section and browsed a couple of the "movies you have to see" books. Oldboy made one of them. I don't know that I'd call it a film you have to see, but it's definitely one that leaves an impression. The book was arranged roughly chronologically; I think the first thing I'd seen was Nosferatu. Although I'm not positive - the film listed in the book may have been an different version as it was in the silent film section and I'm not certain that's the one I saw. Those books always make me laugh. Everyone has their own mental "best of" lists, I'm not entirely certain why you'd pay money for one. As a list of influential cinema (or what have you) sure, but things you have to see/do? Eh, not so much.

Note: the background noise has now changed to Mario Power Tennis, I think Strikers was a little too difficult.

Further note: do not watch the girls (including my wife) attempt to do the painting mini-game. It's far too painful to watch...

They're releasing a couple of the Brain Training on the DS in a couple months. That makes me glad. Even better is that they're releasing them at a discounted price. The DS is really becoming the system to own for all kinds of gamers (including people that don't consider themselves such).

Wandering

Over at The Spoilers they've got a podcast up for Serenity featuring the crew from The Signal podcast. Should be at least somewhat interesting. Will check it out and let you know.

Due to recent Resident Evil exposure I decided to watch the movie again. Borrowed both of them off a friend at work. The first one was good zombie fun. Never got around to seeing the second one, so we'll see how it is in a couple days.

At any rate, there's not much else worth passing along. I suspect it's due to slightly too much information crossing my path lately. Hard to focus in on any of it when it's all buzzing by so fast.

Quiet

Amazing how quiet the house becomes when you have a sick kid or two...

I wish I had more to report here, but my free time has dwindled significantly and so I find I have less to ramble on about. Which isn't to say that there aren't things of interest going on/out there, I just have less desire to document them.

Graeme has started the road to regular food which is nice. And often quite amusing. We've started giving him half a banana in the morning and he's decided that the best way to eat it is all at once. If you can ignore the obvious choking hazard, it makes for a rather amusing couple of minutes.

Picked up Tai Chi Morning: Snapshots of China while at the library last night. Some nice poetry and art in there. Still muddling through Good Omens. I think I'm less far in than the last time I tried to read it. It's so terribly odd. I really enjoy both Gaiman and Pratchett, but the combination (while certainly amusing) just isn't terribly compelling to me. Speaking of Neil, the new design of his website is up. Much brighter place to stop by, but I'm not convinced I like the font. Oh well.

And on we go

I will admit to a certain dislike of Mondays. Nothing specific. And only a little of the cliché. But a small amount it's true. Although Monday evenings tend to be rather enjoyable. We get together with the letter 'r' for game/movie night. Tonight we pushed a little closer to the end of Lost season one and played a round of Rummikub. I then spent several frustrating minutes trying to get out of not zombie jail in Resident Evil 4. Alas, I'm still stuck there as there are far too many not zombie villagers and not nearly enough bullets... Hmm. I need a plan.

But the week marches on and the wheel goes round and <insert platitude here>. Good ol' platitudes. Whatever would we do without pithy, if meaningless, statements? I suppose we could choose to find meaning in them, but that can really only carry you so far before you become something resembling an optimist...

Too tired to title

Got the projector and surround sound getup hooked up over at the letter 'r's. Pretty sweet system I must admit. Soul Calibur 2 in near life size is pretty cool. Finding Nemo was pretty amazing looking as well. I tried to talk him into Akira but no joy. Heh...

Library volunteering has been going well. Got to do some interesting things yesterday. No amusing stories, but it was time well spent. Put covers on some of the new hardbacks and did some more shelving and a bit of book cleaning.

Managed to find a deal on a new copy of Resident Evil 4 so expect some thoughts on not zombie horror games in the future. One of the few 2 disc games on the cube. Sounds like it should take a while to play through. That's both good and bad. Good in that it will last a while, bad in that it's hard to find time to play a game that long - especially a survival horror game. But it will be played through! Oh yes, it will be played through.

And I think that's enough for now.

Roundhouse kick!

Humor at its finest.

Shelving books is an interesting process in the children's department. Shelf scanning is a mind-numbing one... And that's really about all I learned at the library last night.

Bones was enjoyable (as was NCIS the night previous). Still have to catch up on a couple other shows.

The Paint by Numbers puzzles are a hit. I must admit they're rather addictive little devils. It's interesting to see where lines can go and try and work out what sort of picture is going to emerge. If you can track down a puzzle or two to work through I recommend it. There are some tricks to working them out, so try and find a bit of an explanation as well. ^_^

Have listened to the last couple Escape Pod podcasts. Sci fi short stories are enjoyable. I subscribed because they had Cory Doctorow's Craphound on there (a delightful story in its own right) and have listened to the last couple as they've come out. And if I haven't mentioned it the Celtic Music News podcast is great. Assuming you like Celtic music. Which I do, so there.

Noise pollution

Well, Graeme has decided that it's about time he's heard around the house. While normally quite pleasant to be around, I suspect at the moment he's teething. Not the most joyful of experiences to be sure.

About to head out to the library, so, not really much of import to pass along. The girls will be making cookies while I'm out so hopefully there will be a couple still warm chocolate chip cookies upon my return. Mmmm, warm chocolate chip cookies.

The letter 'r' has started his grand quest to set up a home theater room. Currently the projector and the big box-o-audio are patiently waiting to be set up. I suspect a region free DVD player will be adding itself to the mix soon and then much watching of large scale entertainment will begin. I'll probably drag the Gamecube over on occasion for some larger than life Soul Calibur and Mario Kart madness. Until I can sort out some specific TV needs and procure the necessary funds my own home theater is more dream than reality. But some day!

Blurb

Working at the library was fun. Could see doing that. The question is will it pay enough. It needs to.

Best question of the evening, "So what did you do?" Apparently real volunteers at the library are few and far between. Most are of the community service flavor... It was an amusing moment to say the least.

At any rate, TV to catch up on so off with you.

Begin again

And Monday strikes like a trip to the dentist. Actually I went to the dentist today and it was fine. Miranda kept trying to locate someone who could look at her teeth. No fear of the dentist whatsoever in our children... Of course, the teenage years may change that.

I start volunteering at the library tomorrow, so expect the previously mentioned gaps in coverage to start up. Will attempt to do what I can to keep it minimal, but absolutely no promises.

Ran across a podcast by Penn Jillette. Somewhat amusing. It's mostly a capture of the radio show he does for XM FreeFM. Neil Gamain's podcast is up over at Author's on Tour. Will check it out over the next couple days. I've actually got quite a few I need to get through.

And the latest candidate for games as art is Electroplankton on the DS. Actually the better question is whether it's a game. If nothing else it lets you play around with music, so that's a bonus.

And I just need to point out that I managed 20k points on the quest mode of Zoo Keeper. Mostly because it will annoy the heck out of my wife. Hi honey. ^_^

Daily bits

My wife got hooked on Sudoku puzzles a few months back. So to encourage the puzzle muscle in her body I picked her up a book of the Games Magazine Paint by Number puzzles. (Also known as picross or griddlers) I expect some swearing and a few grateful looks over the next few months.

Let the scouts play around on the DDR game at pack meeting tonight. It was pretty popular. Not that that's any sort of surprise. It is DDR after all - how could it be anything other than popular? ^_^ Also got to hear the bagpipes again (Ah Scotland...). I like the pipes. Although it has left me singing snippets of Loch Lomond...

Well, I think that about covers things of any interest. And even a few things of none.

Repeating Signal

Well, updates around here may start to get sparse. Starting next week I'll be doing volunteer work at the local library. A couple hours a couple nights a week and a block of time on Saturday. Should prove to be an interesting experience if nothing else. I'm looking forward to it though. I've been thinking about getting an MLS again and this may help make that decision.

So, you'll have to learn to live without me. I think you'll be fine. If nothing else that may make the random bits that end up here more interesting. I'll probably start to have fun librarian type stories and all the other random bits that get spread out will make their appearances in condensed form.

I would also like to point out that my wife only narrowly avoided losing at Harry Potter Scene It to the girls. Heh heh...

Blah blah blah blah

State of the State address this evening. Only caught part of it as I was waiting for NCIS. Sounds like they want to lose sales tax on food. That could be nice.

And my wife is now watching Ed 2.0 Love Monkey. Hmmm. I may have to intervene. Especially as there's a commercial for the Match.com/Dr. Phil team-up. Wow. That's pretty scary stuff.

Pei Wei is a tasty, tasty restaurant.

As you can see, I don't seem to have a lot to ramble on about. Which is a little on the odd side as I've run across a fair amount of new things lately. I mentioned digg.com the other day. The Diggnation podcast is a thing of joy. I enjoy listening to the banter more than the actual content of the show. Reminds me of far too many of the conversations I had back in High School. But in a good way.

The VGDJ podcast for OC Remix is also nice. Mostly for the music bits and some of the banter.

4cr and Go Nintendo provide some nice Nintendo commentary.

Celtic Music News, Authors on Tour, The Signal, the Audio Edition of the Movie Blog... Yeah, lots of podcasts. Keeps me entertained at work if nothing else. It's funny, I've spent more time listening to podcasts than music lately. But I'm not convinced that's a terribly strange thing.

So there you go. A bit of rambling commentary on absolutely nothing. But its your own fault for wandering into this little backwater in the first place. At least I haven't started cat blogging yet. Of course, since I don't have a cat, that might actually be more interesting. Photos of hijacked cats... Hmm....

And again

So, saw Cry_Wolf over the weekend. I found it a fun little diversion while my wife found it predictable. I'm not saying there wasn't some predictability involved, just that it was fun to watch. And I think my wife would agree...

I also watched Oldboy, but I think the less said about that the better.

We're slowly working our way through the first season of Lost on DVD. DVD is really just about the only way to watch TV. Gotta love the lack of commercials and the ability to watch as many episodes as you want. And really, that makes Lost quite watchable. I'm not sure I could watch this as it airs on TV. Although we're not really trying to catch all the little nods and winks the creators of the show threw in. I leave that for people with far too much time on their hands fans.