The Happening

Not even (worth) a real blog entry...
This is why I reserve ONE star ratings for truly special occasions. (one of five plastic plants of the botanical Armageddon)

Tale of Despereaux

At one point this was Em's favorite book. So reading this hits my "Newbery" goal as well as my "Favorites" goal. First off I'd give it 4 out of 5 tails removed from vermin. This is one of those children's books that is a joy to read. It's fun, has heart, teaches a moral without being too heavy handed, and is a breeze to read. I'd definitely suggest this to any child making the transition into "real chapter books".

The Christmas Rat by Avi

Em picked this one up at the library a while ago. In addition to whatever book she is reading to herself at any given time, there is always some book that I am in the process of reading aloud TO her. The book is one of the latter. Anyway, with this book we decided it would be cool to have me record the chapters so she can listen to them on her iPod when she is at her mom's house.

I'll reserve judgment since this is a book Em picked for herself (even though I read it aloud). I will say that it has some interesting religious metaphors. Additionally, it's strange to read a kids book written recently. The references to the kid checking his email and playing video games online seemed a little strange to me, having grown up before internet ubiquity.

Odd Thomas

Brother Brigham recently mentioned that this is his favorite book. I have this rule that if someone I know tells me that something is their favorite something (book, movie, ...) I should probably check it out. (So let's see some comments on your favorites)

I dug the book. I wouldn't call it my favorite. I will say that had the author left the last 2 chapters (4 pages maybe) out of the book I would have enjoyed it much more. It's a little like the ending to AI. Personally I dig that movie a lot more if I turn it off when the creepy robot version of Forest Gump's kid gets frozen in the ice able to see, but not reach, his goal (but maybe that's just me).

So go buy a copy, tear out the last 2 chapters (have a friend do it so you don't accidentally read what I think should be the last page) and dig in.

3.5 out of 5 dead people who just can't let go of this life. (I'd give it 4 for the first ending)

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Despite some initial difficulties Emmalee, Deb, Zack and I made it out to Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull this weekend. I don't want to say too much so I'll stick to this:
-3 out of five potentially awesome crystal skulls
-It's a great, fun summer movie that any fan of the originals should see.
-It's no Iron Man
-The biggest thing (good or bad) about this movie (for me), was that it made me REALLY wish that there had been many, many more Indy movies. Seeing "OLD" Indy made me realize that there really can't be too many more movies with Harrison Ford as the swashbuckling, action hero that I remember from the originals. Indiana Jones should have been the American equivalent to James Bond. There are 22 James Bond movies with 6 different actors playing the worlds most famous undercover agent. 22! Imagine a world with even half that many Indiana Jones movies. That is the world where I want to live!

The Good The Bad The Wierd Trailer

trailer

Rough Science

Zack and I have been watching Rough Science: Gold Rush/Space Race together. It's right up his alley and I'm certainly enjoying it as well. In addition to the very impressive scientific feats this group is able to execute every few days, we get to laugh about some of the peculiarities of the British accents (our favorite so far is the pronunciation of glacier as glASSier... if you can't laugh about that then you have a problem)

Crispin: The Cross of Lead

In an effort to encourage Em to read more (and better) books, I made a long term goal to read all of the Newbery Medal Winners. At first Em was concerned about the impossibility of this goal since they are still giving out that award. We had a funny moment where I explained that since I read more than one book a year I should be able to catch up, and then keeping up should be fairly easy. She and I read Island of the Blue Dolphins and A Wrinkle in Time together. So we're slowly working our way through the list.

Last night I finished up Cross of Lead, The (Crispin). I read this on my own as Emmalee was more interested in a different book by the same author (The Christmas Rat). This wasn't my favorite Newbery winner yet. The story starts off quickly enough but Crispin's character arc takes a while before it builds any momentum. By the end I felt like I was reading a different book. Crispin has become a character worth admiring. I appreciate the inclusion of the history that we get to see through Crispin's eyes. I found myself wishing for a little more history, but had to remind myself that this is a book aimed towards elementary age readers. By the end I found myself looking for something that better covers the history of: the Bubonic Plague, John Ball and the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381 (all mentioned or alluded to in this book).
3.5 out of 5 lead crafted religious ornaments... BUT I'm very curious about the sequel and will certainly pick it up eventually.

Charlie Wilson's War

I watched this with Deb last night. Apparently it would be more entertaining if I didn't say "oh come on, THAT'S FUNNY!" quite so many times during the movie.
I'd give it 4/5 stinger missiles... good, old fashioned, Cold War based entertainment.
update: After reading Joe's comment I decided to change my review to 4/5 US financed/armed/trained Mujahideen soldiers who eventually join the Taliban/al-Queda.

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

Em and I watched Raiders this weekend. Interestingly enough, she preferred it to
The Last Crusade. It's curious watching a movie with Emmalee that I remember seeing when I was younger than she is currently, especially since I'm at least a little worried that some of it might be too scary for her. I'm not certain that I'd consider her ready for Indiana Temple of Doom. But I think we've covered enough of the Indiana Jones mythos to get her excited for the new movie as well as Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures.

Redbelt

4 out of 5 (hastily cropped)Mamet heads

Valve does coop...

game trailer

coop: check
valve: check
zombies: check

Looks like I just found the next game to "hurry up and wait" for

World War Z

I finished reading this last night. It's a joy to read. It (typically) isn't like reading other "horror" books. Feels like it was written by the world's authority on zombies.

The Picard Song and RSS

Recently I've been using Google's RSS reader for tagging, starring, and sharing links. Occasionally I run into something that I want to tag/star/share that didn't come from one of my rss feeds. In those cases I'll probably just drop a quick post with the link here. That way it will be accessible via MY rss feed.

The Captain Picard Song

My "Trek" of choice

Last night I watched the series finale for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I wouldn't call myself a Trekkie, or a Trekker... but I do know the difference. But sometimes I feel like I was raised on Star Trek. I remember:

• watching The Cage on my parent's SelectaVision with G


• seeing each of the movies during their original theatrical run (except the first... which is still kind of impressive when you think my parents decided to take a seven year old to see The Wrath of Kahn)


• Watching TNG as original airings, but even moreso as reruns on FOX 13 after The Arsenio Hall Show


• And Deep Space Nine

DS9 was the Star Trek high point for me. It had all the familiar trappings of Star Trek, but the sense of permanence, the genuine lasting struggles,... all served to set it apart, and above all other Treks. I guess that makes me a Niner.

DS9 Trailer/Montage

fun... but sad

	I received 78 credits on The Sci Fi Sounds Quiz How much of a Sci-Fi geek are you?
Take the Sci-Fi Movie Quiz canon s5 is

No Country for Old Men

Over the weekend I finished reading No Country for Old Men (Vintage International) by Cormac Mccarthy. Four solid stars. Honestly I didn't give it enough respect when I started reading it. It's one of those books that I'll set aside and plan on picking up for a second reading in a year or two.

With any luck I'll make it out to see the moviesometime this week.

Franken-puter

We had a power supply go bad at work a while ago. Dell was more than happy to send us a new one (for a price), but in the meantime I used this arrangement to make some emergency backups. It's hard to see (given the poor quality of the image), but the bottom computer is running off of the top's power supply.

Try again

So I've reclaimed my blogspace with my Google login.

Between losing even more of my family to the east coast, and being motivated by my friend Joe's blogging efforts, I've decided to give it another try.

Luckily I've been able to grab the feeds from a few other online resources that I'm already in the habit of updating occasionally.

it'll either work... or it won't

can I tell a story... and then edit it?

yes... yes I can