Things have finally calmed down enough since my last real post. First and foremost, my sister had the twins on March 3, so they’re almost 2 months old. I have trouble telling the girls apart, with Rachel being only 1 pound heavier than Olivia, and both the same length. The family is doing fine, and Lauryn is getting used to and loving the babies in the house. Usually every Tuesday I go over, see the twins, pick up Lauryn, go pick up my mom, and take them both to Fashion Island to walk around. Lauryn loves the merry-go-round, the koi pond, the various fountains, and the nesting birds. It’s gotten to the point where if they mention I’m coming over, she gets all excited, looks for her shoes and ready to go. Very cute - she’ll be 3 in a few more months.
Work has calmed down as well. There was a portion of time with the family responsibilities as well as countless time-sensitive projects at work that was so stressful I couldn’t sleep at night or keep food down. When that finally passed, it took a while for my body and mind to recover. Just one of those perfect storm situations, I suppose. I’ve found that stress affects my eating and sleeping schedule a lot more now than it ever did in the past. Not sure why: age, lifestyle, importance of various work projects…a few year ago, no big deal, but now - I need to learn to handle it much better. Other than the easy way of just not giving a shit about anything, of course.
I’ve found and started a Twitter feed on the right sidebar. I like it because the WordPress plugin can take the various tweets I can do daily and combine and make it a post. Very nice when you don’t have the time to think and write up a post, just short “here is whats going on right now” type thoughts. I’ll still post, but often it can be difficult to remember what I did during the day and how I felt about it, so I do like the feature.
To wrap up, here’s a youtube of a Discovery Channel commercial of their hosts singing. The song is written for it, but based on a very traditional Boy/Girl Scouts campfire song. I really enjoy it as it serves to remind me that the world is one hell of an awesome and awe-inspiring place.
So tonight’s my last night here in Austin. After we got back to the hotel from the office, Jason and I went down the street to Threadgills for dinner. After, as we were crossing Riverside and Congress, we heard sirens and saw a bunch of bike cops stop and hold up traffic. Since we knew the debate was in Austin, I figured it may have been one of the candidates. We stood there and watched, and a black SUV turned the corner, and there was Barack Obama in the passenger rear seat with the window down waving and smiling at us. They quickly sped off with their escort of cops. Pretty cool. Don’t think I’ll vote for him, but plenty of time for that later.
So I’m heading out to Austin again tomorrow evening and will be there through Saturday. Should be a good trip to see coworkers and such, and I don’t have to give any presentations at the ceremony, so that’s a bonus. Lots of meetings though, so tomorrow morning will be busying finalizing prep on those. I have today off, and I’m semi-packing and taking care of various chores and errands.
I’ve been playing a game on the DS called “Professor Layton and the Curious Village”. This game has been pretty big in Japan, but you always need to take that with a bag of salt, because those Japanese…well, they’re nucking futs. This game though, is pretty good. It’s a collection of logic puzzles wrapped up with a fairly interesting storyline, nice graphics and sound, which all combine to make a very decent package. Logic puzzles differ from the Brain Age variety…thing the various logic flash puzzles available on the web, like ferrying wolves and sheep across a river. Some deduction, word play ones…seems to be a really good mix and damn challenging for me. This should prove to be a good one to bring along for the Austin trip.
Most of you know how much I love the Guitar Hero series of games, as well as Rock Band. This video captures that essence a bit, and is really just pure fun.
So this started out as just a list of movies that I like compiled for a friend who never really was into watching movies, but now has a Netflix subscription. I revised the original idea to adding some comments as to why I like said movie. I’m leaving out the action guy, the testosterone-fueled movies with gratuitious violence and boobies. Mmmm, boobies.
In no particular order:
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
- The original, not the Depp one. Although the remake told a slighly better story by adding in some familial elements, the original is still the best for me, especially with orange Ooompa-Loompas and their oh-so catchy songs!
Blazing Saddles
- This movie can no longer be made in today’s PC world full of delicate sensibilities. The laughs start early and keep on going.
Little Shop of Horrors
- Steve Martin as a sadistic dentist, Martin Short as Seymour. A great take on a great play. Audrey’s “Somewhere That’s Green” was parodied on Family Guy by Herbert, the creepy old man.
Galaxy Quest
- A fun movie about when fandom, science finction and reality meet. “By Grabthar’s Hammer, I salute you.” “Never give up - never surrender!”
The Nightmare Before Christmas
- I’m a sucker for this movie - so much so that people who enter my office between Halloween and Christmas know I have this running on a loop on my wall. Great music, even better animation, and the story is not bad either. It speaks to my inner Boingo, my semi dark and twisted side.
The Corpse Bride
- Given the entry above, is this one a surprise? Overall, everything was weaker compared to Nightmare, but I have to say I still enjoyed it throughly. Unlike the first one, I don’t think I should play this continuously when I plan to get married.
Dave
- I like this movie more than I should, and I’m not sure why. I can’t put my finger on why I enjoy this so much, but everytime I stumble on it playing on tv, I’ll sit there and watch the whole thing through.
Big Fish
- A story about a man and his relationship with his dad. I see so much of my dad in this movie - the joker, the laugher, the big-talker. The man who’s always a hero to me, and larger than life. The way the relationship plays out is both heart-breaking and heart-warming to me.
Better Off Dead
- John Cusack in one of his very early films. This is one of the early romantic comedies, and I never get tired of watching it. There’s just so many things going on in tandem with the main story, and all of it makes you go huh?
Say Anything
- Another John Cusack one. This is probably one of the most spoofed romantic comedies out there, with the iconic scene, but it really is a pretty good movie.
The Wedding Singer
- Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. Other than all the great 80s kitsch, references and music, there’s a pretty solid movie in there. My favorite scenes are the closing ones on the airplane, and the ones of Drew in her room in the wedding dress practicing her lines.
50 First Dates
- Sandler and Barrymore again! This one had a very interesting premise, and I think it played it out well to the very end. You expect one thing, get another, and find that what you got was better than what you had wanted. Favorite scene - watching her daily life and routine unfold.
A Walk to Remember
- Ok, I’m going to admit that this movie made me cry. It’s sad. Man, is it sad. It probably a good testament to my shallowness or something, as most people didn’t care too much for it.
The 40 Year Old Virgin
- If the above movie had me in sad tears, this one has me in funny ones. There’s just so much going on, and the comedy is just really tight and well-written.
The Office
- Ok, I know this technically isn’t a movie. But the US version of the office is one I watch weekly (damn you, writers strike!), I own the seasons, and I can watch them repeatedly. Every flight I have over 6 hours, I spend a good chunk of time watching this. The show is funny. It’s sweet in someparts. It makes you uncomfortable in others. All in all, fantastic for me.
So I’ve been playing lots of casual games over the last year or so. Casual games mean many things to many people, but for me, I define it as a relatively inexpensive game that I usually download online, and I can play a level or 3 in a short time period, any time I want. It doesn’t require a huge time or brain commitment - these are break and lunch time games, or filler “fluff” games in between WoW-ing or a FPS, RTS game. So here are my absolute favorites - the ones I’ve spent hours upon hours playing, and still do. Heck, coming up with this list has made me want to not post and just go play them!
Disclaimer: Although I do not work for BigFishGames, I use their site almost exclusively to purchase and download my games through their game club system. I love the fact that it’s easy to use, pretty seamless, and offers a great selection of games. Therefore, the games I talk about will have links to trial downloads on their site.
Peggle: What more needs to be said? I play this on all my pcs, I play it on my ipod. When it comes out for XBox Live Arcade, I shall purchase and play it there. American Pachinko at its best. There’s something strangely addicting about hitting as many pegs as you can, trying to rack up the best score you can. As a bonus, Lauryn loves sitting on my lap and watching me play, and she cheers and laughs during the final scoring stage.
Mystery Case Files: This is a series of ‘Find the hidden object’ games. There’s (in order), Huntsville, Prime Suspects, Ravenhearst, and Madame Fate. Much like the page in Highlights, this gives you a series of static images in which you have to find a list of objects. Tying this all together is a storyline in which you need to find these various objects to help you in your case. The story is thin, but it is nice to have it rather than just a giant list of objects to find over various images. The games have improved with each iteration in graphics, sound and various animations. I’ve given this game to my parents, and they’re both pretty into it - they compete and compare high scores with each other daily.
Fast Crawl: This is a random dungeon crawler. You pick how long and hard (that’s what she said!) you’d like the game to be, and the rest is randomly generated - from the dungeon layout, the items, the mobs, even your party members. You then go with what you’re given and off to save the world and kill the Foozle! Sometimes you get a balanced party. Othertimes it’s 3 Rogues and a Mage. I think that is what makes this one fun and challenging.
Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile: This is another hidden object game, set among the backstory of the novel. This one has you interviewing the main characters to slowly piece together the murder mystery and finally find the killer. Very nicely done thematically, and my favorite of these types of games second behind the MCF series.
Secrets of Great Art: Another hidden object game, but with a bit of a twist - it offers some “spot the differences” and some other mechanics as well. I enjoy this one because it uses actual “great art” to put new life into this genre. For me, it’s even more engrossing knowing that I’ve seen said artwork in the Orsay, Louvre, Getty or other museums.
Bookworm Adventures: Continuing the adventures of Lex from Bookworm, this tacks on more of a storyline than the original game. Using a Boggle-like board, you have to spell various words to defeat the various mythological creatures in the way of Lex. The only downside is that sometimes you come up with words that the game does not recognize as valid. And no, I’m not trying to get “lawz” or “leet” or “pwnd” as real words.
Oasis: I’m not really sure how to describe this game, other than it’s a challenging puzzler. I obviously like it though, else it wouldn’t be on this list. Playfirst makes a bunch of other games like Cake Mania and Diner Dash - both good games that I’ve played, but I’m not a huge fan of the time/mouse management games. Mainly because I suck at them.
Tradewind Legends: An older game, but still fun. I prefer this one over Tradewinds and Tradewinds 2, just because of the storylines for each character. You pick a persona, and scrape a living of running errands for local bigwigs as well as buying low and selling high in markets. And there’s ship to ship combat as well!
Fairway Solitaire: It’s golf AND solitaire combined! How can it be bad? Answer: It can’t! One of the best takes on the solitaire genre I’ve played in a long long time. Sure it’s frustrating when you’re given a hand and setup that you just can’t win, but isn’t that solitaire in a nutshell? This takes solitaire, marries it with some golf conventions and tosses in some light RP in tems of outfitting your golfer as well.
So those are some of my favorites, the ones I’ve spent the most time on, and keep coming back to, again and again. Love to hear your favorites!
