More Sucker Punch

Evidently, I'm not the only one who thinks this movie looks fun. I got pointed over here to grab some of the posters. Personally, Sweet Pea is my favorite. Chic with a sword. How can you go wrong? Though it's hard to decide... can't wait for the movie. Enjoy!

Sucker Punch

So I found a new trailer for a movie coming out next March that has me pretty interested. It's called Sucker Punch, and I have no idea how it all fits together. But in the trailer, I see...

Samurai
Hot Girls
Mental Institutions
1950s Style Gangster Men
Airplanes with Missiles
Crashing buildings
Fully Automatic Guns
Scantly-clad Dancing
Mecha-type robots
and, of course, a Dragon

Evidently, the main character ends up somehow in a dream world where she can control some stuff, and something happens, and somehow that's good or bad. Clearly I'm not too sure what the movie's about. But with everything above rolled into one, how can it be bad??!?!

Return of Malifaux

GenCon is next week, and the craze for all things new in gaming is ramping up. I had been out of the game for a little while, mostly because my house issues were preventing me from getting to much else. But now that the house is nearly finished back up, I've been able to get a couple of games in this week.

First, I played a game against Josh on Monday. We took 30 stones each and he took the Viktoria list he's hoping to play at GenCon (Vikis, two Ronin, Convict, woman with hammer), and I took a new bend on an Old Hag list (Zoraida, three Tots, three Slurids, and the Convict Gunslinger). I usually favor fewer models in games I play, but I thought it would be a fun try.

Well, I paid for my mistake of a list. Not a single one of my Leaps succeeded the entire game with my Slurids (unless I cheated from my hand), none of my Tots were able to rely on their high defense to keep hidden from attacks, and my Obeys were constantly thwarted by the woman with the hammer. In the end, I killed only one model of Josh's before my faction got wiped out. A pretty pathetic showing.

My second game was yesterday against Dan, and went a little better for me. I brought out Lilith (first time I played her since she was painted up by Chris), and she ran around with two Tots, two Younger Nephilim, a Daddy Nephilim, and the Primordial Magic to keep my hand advantage going. Dan had Seamus, a Belle, two Punk Zombies, the Copycat Killer, the Convict Gunslinger, and Mortimer (or whatever he's called). I was able to take the middle of the board pretty quickly with my speed, and Lilith killed the Copycat Killer before he got a chance to shoot. One of my Tots used that blood to turn into a Younger Nephilim while Seamus summoned another Belle. My three Younger Nephilims swarmed into the middle of his group and started hacking into his models, their black blood taking care of the rest of the damage. When my Mature Nephilim popped in and did a lot of damage, he ended up getting taken down by one of the Punks. A Younger matured and replaced the lost Daddy, and my Tot matured into a Younger. From there, it was cleanup. I concentrated on everything that wasn't a Belle, taking out his major melee hitting power. He had a shot on Lilith, flipping a crow and hitting her, to which I had to ditch two cards, two stones, or die. So I ditched the cards. He hit me again with a crow, my defense not stepping in to save me, so I ditched two of my last three stones. He hit me with his third (and last) attack of the turn with a crow and I used my last stone hoping for a good flip to avoid being killed. I managed to flip an 11 and stepped out of the way of the attack. Lilith then killed Seamus, though the Mature would have finished the job if necessary.

So a big loss and a big win. It was fun to get back into the game again, though. It's been a while. Next step: get my painting back up and finish up the few models I've got sitting on my bench. After all, I'll have a pretty big newbie in a couple weeks that will need some loving.


As a random aside, does anyone know what the big thing Privateer Press is doing this year for GenCon? The Hordes MK2 book was just released (I assume so that Hordes players won't be at as much a disadvantage in the tournaments). What's the next big thing? The Skorne book, I guess? If that's the case, then between Retribution last year and Skorne this year, it's a pretty un-inspiring couple of years.

The Lurker

So there's this awesome board game called Arkham Horror (made by Fantasy Flight Games - check them out!). We tend to play it with great frequency, enjoying all the chaotic and crazy happenings that drive us insane (and occasionally outright kill us) in the town of Arkham. It's a game that can seat up to 8 players, which is good since we usually have at least 6 around the table and not many games reach that level. It's a full co-op game, and filled with all manner of fun, frightening, and hysterical happenings. It's the only game where when your character stumbles into a room filled with brains in jars, his first thought is, "I wonder if I'll get smarter eating these things." (No, seriously, that's exactly what happens).


Anywho, I had asked Dan to pick up the new expansion for the game while he was at GenCon in a few weeks. Somehow, he hit a timewarp this weekend and picked it up for me early (it was, evidently, pretty easy since it happened to be out at the store he was at for a tournament). So, several weeks early, we got to try out the new game! I spent a good deal of time setting it up so we'd use only the base game and new expansion (this marks the seventh expansion to the game, so you can imagine it's getting pretty big now). Boy, it was one of the most fun games we've played in a while! I would have to say this is the best small-box expansion to Arkham Horror.

So what's new? Glad you asked.

First, it has the Lurker, a new Herald. Heralds are the guys who are trying to pave the way for the Old One to arise. They generally add a few more challenging rules to the game and make it harder for you to win. This particular one increases the difficulty of closing and sealing gates (the primary win condition), and also introduces a new element: Pacts. There are three kinds. You can bind an ally to you, you can gain a Soul Pact, or a Blood Pact. All three of them are really good as soon as you get them, and allow you to gain Power which is really useful. But there are also Reckoning cards that pop up fairly regularly. They may be good ("Anyone with a Pact gains a spell!") or they may be bad ("The person with the most Power dies!"). Eep! So you're constantly wanting to take Pacts, but then hope that only good stuff happens to you. A true balance of "do I really want to gain more power if it may kill me"? I ended up being killed by a Reckoning because I was getting to greedy with the Pacts.


Next are the Relationship cards. I read the rules for them and was not very impressed. They offer a lot of good things without the typical balance of "could be good, could be bad" that Arkham Horror usually does. So we house-ruled them to act a little differently.

Basically, everyone picked a partner in the game. We did it by couples. Each partnership got a Relationship card that they could share. But in exchange, if your partner ever lost all of his or her sanity, you lost one sanity. If your partner ever lost all of his or her health, you lost one health. And if your partner died, you lost one of each. Kinda like a karmic tie thing. Things were great with both Ellen and me dying over the course of the game and Laura and Dan getting zapped for it.


Finally, the last major change to the game deals with the gates. There are all new gates for the game. Some of them have two different Other Worlds you can travel to. You get to choose the one you want to go to, and can travel back to that gate from either one. Generally, though, those gates are a little harder to close and seal than the ones that have only one choice.

The gates with only one choice on them now have different icons and abilities to them. Some might say that if you try to close the gate and fail, you lose one Sanity, or a monster might appear. Others do bad things if they open on a space that already occupies a player by adding Doom or outright killing the player. Still others move around the board, swallowing up people as they go. it was always crazy to see what these gates did!

The expansion had all of this in addition to a bunch of new Mythos and Other World cards, a few new Encounter cards for the Arkham locations, and a few new items and spells to collect. Overall, the expansion gets two big thumbs up from me.

New Furniture

Over the weekend, Laura and I went to IKEA with her mother to take a look at picking up a couple new pieces for our house after our flood. Our hope was to find a corner-style bookcase, but we came up empty on that front. Instead, we found a new organization system for our DVDs and an awesome new craft table. Add that to the hutch we picked up from Laura's house and our main room is looking pretty cool now. Take a look at the new things.

First is the hutch. We picked this one up on Thursday from her parents' place. It's quite heavy, but looks really nice. It was her grandmother's back in the day, and soon will be filled with all the china and silver we're inheriting from her grandmother too.

The next thing is the new DVD rack we've got. It's three pieces all lined up next to each other. Over the weekend we went through our collection and cut it down by what we want to keep and what we are willing to part with. There's another set of DVDs this large that we're going to start selling off.


The last piece is a lot of fun. When it's all closed up, it works well as an end table next to our loveseat. But the real excitement is when we want to use it as our craft table. There's a table on each side that folds up, so both Laura and I will have space to work. Add in the fact that there are three drawers down each side of the piece to store all our paints and the like, and you've got a pretty solid table. Whenever we're ready to do crafts, we'll just pull the piece out and set it up, and then when we're done, we'll be able to hide away our supplies and the like, hopefully keeping our house a little cleaner.

All in all, I think we made out pretty well. Now if only we could do something about this crazy heat!

Fun With Graphs

Evidently there's a website out there where the guys just puts up tons of funny graphs about truths we hold self-evident. Here are a few for a laugh. Enjoy!

Egads, it's a Monster!

When I played Warmachine, they never put out the cool "extreme" models for my factions (even though my factions were always the best and everyone else who didn't play my factions sucks!).

Malifaux, on the other hand, is releasing their first "Nightmare" (translation: bigger) style model at GenCon. And it's for my faction, the Neverborn! Here you see the new model for the Dreamer and Lord Chompy Bits, the new master for the Neverborn. Poor little boy goes to sleep each night and has nightmares, this one in particular in the form of a massive and pointy beast.

Dan's gonna pick him up for me at GenCon. I am excited.

The Flood: Part Twelve

So yesterday was the huge step - the carpet got installed. I got to run around downstairs with bare feet without worrying about stepping on nails or getting covered in dust. I started moving some of the things back downstairs, just to get the feeling like it's an actual house again. Now instead of the kitchen being the one place that felt like it was a real house, the kitchen is the place that needs the most work.

So while I had the two workers over yesterday afternoon, I asked them if they'd help me move the TV back into place once the carpet was set up. It's a massive thing, so I was glad for the assistance. It would have been days before I could get it done myself.

With the TV in place, I decided to bring down all the various boxes of entertainment I had - the Wii, the DVD player, the speakers, etc. When I took them all apart, I figured I wouldn't need to worry too much about marking which wires go where because hey, I did it once, surely I could figure it out again.

Except that for the life of me, I couldn't figure out which piece went where. The video in goes here, the left speaker out goes there? No, that's not right.

So I sat down on my couch (which is on a new carpet now - did I mention?), and stared at the whole thing a moment, trying to remember why it was so easy for me before. Then I realized - I was probably drinking a beer when I put it all together the first time. So I went to the fridge, popped an IPA, and sat back down on the couch to look over the equipment. Within a half a minute, I remembered how it all went back together.

There you have it, folks. Beer IS good for the mind. At least mine, evidently.

Next steps, I'll have to move Laura's hutch from her parents' place to our place, and then we're looking at heading out to IKEA this weekend to try to find a couple of pieces of furniture that we've wanted. Once that's done, it's just a matter of moving things back downstairs and figuring out what we're keeping, what we're selling, and what we're just trashing.

Inception

On Saturday night, Dan, Ellen, Laura and I went out to see Inception. I remember seeing the first trailer for it, having no idea what the movie was really about but wanting to see it simply because it was a Christopher Nolin movie. After his Batman treatments, and Momento before that, I was certain it would be good. Besides, the trailer reminded me a lot of when I saw the original trailers for Matrix - the movie's plot just didn't make sense, but that's because it was far too big to be put in a movie trailer.

My faith was rewarded. I am not going to give any kind of summary or anything like that for this movie, because if I do, you'll lose out on a lot of what the movie is. Pieces of it can be scraped from the trailer, but the movie is much bigger than that. Instead of telling you anything about the plot, I'll just say this:

Go see it.

If you like movies that make you think (and this one does), go see it. Make sure you pay attention, though. This isn't one of those movies you can start watching and then let your attention wander partway through. You need to watch carefully because everything's important.

The Flood: Part Eleven

Over the weekend, I had a couple guys come by (Eric, Brian and Dan) to help out with ripping out the carpet and getting everything inside all set. We pitched the man couch (a moment of silence.............), ripped out the carpet, and moved all the furnature so that we would be ready for the new carpet to be put in.

I got a call this morning that the carpet people would be by today between noon and four to install the new carpet. Happy days and jubilation! Once that's done, I can go around and touch up the paint, then start moving all the furnature back in place. So close to the end!

The Flood: Part Ten

Last night, Dan and Ellen came by to help finish off the painting. We were able to get the hallway completed now that the washing machine was moved back, and did the whole office. Not too shabby! Tonight I'm going to be touching up a few spots, but for the most part, it's all done.

Almost all of the baseboards have been put in place now too - that was finished around 10:30 on Tuesday night (a 14 hour day for the contractor). He had messed up a part of the office wall and had to re-do the entire room with mud, costing him about 5 hours. I was glad to see that when he made the mistake, he went back and did it right, but I feel bad for how late he was there that night.

The contractor's coming by again tomorrow to finish off the baseboards and put the dryer back where it belongs. Laura and I can wear clean clothes again soon!

Saturday is going to be another working day for me, though not near as much as last Saturday. A few people are coming over to help remove all the carpet and organize the furniture so the install will be quick an easy.

Monday the carpet folks are coming by to install the new carpet. At that point, we should be pretty much finished with this whole fiasco. Just got to get everything back downstairs, figure out which of it we want to keep and which of it we're ready to pitch or sell. That's actually the fun part, so I'm looking forward to it. Everything else... just can't wait to have it all done.

Oh, and I had a bad dream the night before last. That night they re-installed my washing machine, and I had a nightmare that the house flooded again. Glad to see that didn't happen.

Dragon Age 2

I've been looking around online and found a few places where they have some rumors about what's going on with DA:2 coming out next year. Enjoy!

This first part deals primarily with the character that you play in Dragon Age 2, a guy (or girl) named Hawke. This means you don't have the same flexibility in creating your character however you want as you did in DA:O, but I guess that's the trade to make the story more immersive.

5 facts about DA2

1. Hawke will be a voiced character.
Unlike Dragon Age: Origins, the player's character in Dragon Age II will be fully voiced. This opens the door for a more cinematic approach to dialogue and creates an identity for the character outside of the text you see on-screen. It also eliminates those awkward scenarios where you feel like your character should be reacting, but instead just stares blankly without so much as a grunt.

2. Hawke is human.
Yes, that means that you won't be able to select Hawke's race. However, just because that one aspect of Hawke's backstory is set doesn't mean BioWare is eliminating character creation. You can still choose your class and customize your appearance. When we visited BioWare's studio, we only saw (and heard) the male Hawke in action, but the team promises that players can select either gender for the character.

3. Hawke didn't just survive the blight...he escaped it.
As the Grey Warden from Dragon Age: Origins was fighting darkspawn, Hawke was living in Lothering. Fans will remember that the small village was raided and destroyed (an event that occurred off-screen in Origins), and Hawke was one of the survivors. However, rather than stay and fight the darkspawn menace, Hawke flees Ferelden and heads north.

4. Hawke is the Champion of Kirkwall.
Kirkwall is a major population center in the Free Marches, a collection of city-states north of Ferelden. This means that at least some of the action in Dragon Age II will be set in Kirkwall itself, though Hawke will also spend time in other areas of the Free Marches. What exactly Hawke does to earn the honorary title of Champion, however, is up to you.

5. Hawke drives the story.
Dragon Age II is not about killing an ancient evil or about quelling another blight; Hawke is the driving force behind the narrative. Over the course of the game's 10-year timeline, players' actions and choices will determine Hawke's history, relationships, and regrets...all in service to answering the larger question: Who is the Champion of Kirkwall?


Someone else put up a summary of what they read in Gamer Information magazine.

1) We will be able to import our DA:O games into DA2.

2) We will see Flemeth at some point.

3) Pissing off party members won't always be a bad thing. "They won't necessarily leave. They may still join you, but they're going to try to show you up, and that may influence battle in a different way."

4) We're getting the ME2 conversation wheel, but this time instead of having some dialogue be a particular color the center of the wheel will show a symbol to show what kind of reply it is. (The article uses the examples of them being something like aggressive or sarcastic)

5) The way the story unfolds will be very different compared to the past Bioware games. "Dragon Age II has a framed narrative structure, which means that the exploits of Hawke occured in the past, but are being retold in the present." "Narrators with unique insights into the events in question tell the tale of his past adventures."

6) We may get to see some of the DA:O events at the start from a different perspective. "Dragon Age II begins as the events of Origins are still taking place, so you may see some familiar events from a different angle."

7) Because of the game spanning a decade, we get to see the consequences of our actions sooner, rather than in a little text at the end of the game.

8) The PC version's combat system remains mostly the same. "The PC version implements the same strategic approach afforded by a mouse-and-keyboard control scheme." "Rather than try to mimic the PC experience on consoles, Dragon Age II has a battle system more tailored to the strengths of the PS3 and 360."

I don't know how you can have your DA:O games loaded into DA:2 given that you don't follow the same characters or anything. I wonder if your actions in the first game and what happened as a result might influence what options are available to you in this one.

Dragon Age: The Roleplaying Game

I went by the Game Parlor yesterday and saw the new Dragon Age pen-and-paper roleplaying game available. It came in one of those old boxes like from the old school Dungeons and Dragons. The first box covers levels 1-5 and comes with a 64 page Players guide and a 64 page GM's guide (which includes a mini-adventure in the back).

The game is very similar to 3rd Edition D&D, though with a few things thrown in from 4E (like no skill ranks - you're either trained or not).

First, I'll start with how the checks are made. Every check uses a Trait (which is numbered between 0 and 5 or so - basically the bonus number from the 3E stats) and a specialization (which is essentially a skill). So if you're making a Communication [Intimidation] check, you roll 3d6 and add the value of your Communication plus 2 if you have Intimidation. Simple.

First, I like using 3d6 to make checks instead of 1d20. I like the idea that you're far more likely to get the mid-ranges and that there's a distinct bell-curve to your odds. Makes it more likely that your character will succeed when he's supposed to (easy-to-moderate stuff) and fail when he's stretching too far (need an 18 to hit).

One of the three dice that you use is called your Dragon Die (I know, sounds a bit lame). It will be distinct from your other two in some way. In situations where you need to know how well you succeeded, you check your Dragon Die. If you pass but roll a 1 on that die, you barely pulled it off (you made it across the cliff with a jump, but barely and are holding on to the edge now). If you pass and roll a 6, maybe you jumped so well that you cleared a couple yards beyond.

The Dragon Die also helps with actions in casting spells and fights. I haven't read this part as much, but what happens here is that you can get a certain number of "Stunt Points" based on the die roll and each one will allow you to tailor your action a little. Instead of just succeeding, you could cast the spell and it costs no mana. Or you could hit and get the advantage so well you get bumped to the top of the initiative order from now on (allowing you to go again before some of the people in the order). Things like that. I think they'll make the game pretty interesting.

Now let's talk characters a little. Like the computer game, you get a background that gives you some bonuses, and then you add a race and a class to it. There are only three classes: rouge, warrior, and mage. Each class gets a new ability that comes up every level, so you're constantly getting new things to do. Every few levels you get a new Talent (which is kinda like a Feat) and that's pretty much that.

Other minor things I remember:

- Armor reduces the number of wounds you take from a hit.
- You start with a lot of hit points (30+d6+Constitution for warriors, down to 20+d6+Constitution for Mages).
- There are not a ton of spells yet (mages only start with 3).


Of course, the system for the game isn't the reason to buy the books, I don't think. It's a clean and fast system that is close enough to other things we've played that it will be easy to pick up, but the real reason to play is the world.

There is a decent chunk of the book that goes into detail about things like the Chantry, the Circle of Magi, the Elves, the armatages, etc. There's so much to this world that would make for a great story to run. If only I didn't have so many other stories already in mind...

Comic: The Flash Rebirth

Over the weekend, Dan lent me The Flash: Rebirth to read, so yesterday morning when I was too sore to get out of bed, I polished it off.

Most of my thoughts about The Flash: Rebirth are, fairly or not, in comparison to the Green Lantern: Rebirth comic from years ago. I'll start out by saying I loved the GL:R comic. It did a lot to tie together a bunch of the different pieces of Green Lantern lore from around the ages. What was the deal with Paralyx? Why the yellow impurity and why did Kyle's ring not have it? How does the ring work, and could anyone use it effectively? The writing was great, and the art superb. If you like Green Lantern at all, pick up GL:R.

Okay, after that tangent, I'll talk a little about The Flash's rebirth. Barry Allen, the Silver Age version of the Flash, has been out of comics for about 23 years, ever since he joined the Speed Force back in Crisis on Infinate Earths when he stopped the Anti-Monitor's massive weapon of destruction. This comic had to do with Allen's return.

The book started with Barry Allen already back. Clearly this is something that had happened before the comic I was reading, and that set me off a little bit. I was expecting to read about his return, but I guess the comic was more an explaination of why and how he returned. Understanding that little piece, I kept reading.

I was glad I did. It was a very good comic. I confess my knowledge of The Flash's mythos is fairly limited, but that didn't seem to hold me back from understanding what was going on. So there are dozens of speedsters that all get their power from the Speed Force? Okay, I can buy that. There's something called the Black Flash? Fair enough. Whoa, a couple of folks are from the future and used the Speed Force to travel back in time? Sure thing. None of this was new information - all of it had been established well before in the Flash comics, but Flash: Rebirth did a great job of tying it all together and tightening the overall mythos.

I'd still place the Green Lantern: Rebirth comic on the shelf above this one, but this one's not a bad take either. I really enjoyed the "race" between Superman and the Flash and their conversation when it was happening. I thought the opening conversation between Hal Jorden and Barry Allen was great, and I liked how Barry Allen wasn't as happy to be back and pick things up as people thought he should be. I was a little put off about the whole "You need a lightning rod" thing - maybe it felt too similar to the "Constant" concept in LOST - but it felt like a weak point in the storyline.

In the end, though, a good and fairly self-contained story. I don't feel like picking up any more of the Flash after reading it, but I'm glad I took the time to see what it was all about.

The Flood: Part Nine

Over the weekend, I had a number of people to the house to help out with painting it all up. In no particular order, a huge thanks to Eric, Tanya, Dan, Ellen, Chris, Jay and Brian for making the trip out Saturday morning to get things done.

We got started around 9:30, and by 12:00 or so, we had the hallway, the bathroom, and the main room all painted up. We took a break for lunch, then got started again around 1:30 or so on the kitchen when Brian arrived and Jay and Chris had to depart. The kitchen was the hardest of the rooms what with all the cabinets and the like, as well as the fact that we were all (except Brian) exhausted. After polishing that room off by 3:30, everyone by Brian took off, and the two of us went around the rooms replacing all the electrical sockets and face plates.

Yesterday I woke up and headed out to Home Depot to order the carpet and get a few things to finish touching things up around the house. I did a quick white-wash over the laundry room, and called it a day.

The contractor should be back tomorrow to finish up the office and put in the baseboards and kickboards. Next steps for me: paint the office, finish the hallway, and then get a few guys to help out this weekend getting the carpet out of the house so the carpet folks can put the new one in next week. From there, it's just a matter of moving everything back downstairs. End is in sight!

The Karate Kid

In our ongoing attempt to keep cool during this oppressive weather, Laura and I made it out to a late showing of Karate Kid last night. We had a choice between seeing that one, but we were 10 minutes into it already (no previews!) or waiting around 40 minutes to see Iron Man 2, which we also have not seen. We went with the Karate Kid. Boy, was that a great decision.

We walked in and the movie had already started, but it was all just the introduction stuff. We got to see them rolling the stars of the film too, so I'm sure we didn't miss much (though I did notice Jaden Smith got the lead billing over Jackie Chan... interesting).

I'll start out talking about Jaden, since from what I've read, there's been a lot of complaints about how he only got the movie because of his parents, or that he's pretty egotistical or what have you already. He's riding his father's coattails to get where he is or whatever. Let me tell you, the kid did very well in this movie. He played the frightened kid being hounded by bullies, the awkward kid trying to flirt with a cute girl, the angry kid who just had to move away from all his friends, the desperate kid trying to find something to call his own, the mischivous kid, the frustrated kid and the determined kid all convincingly. I have a healthy amount of respect for the range he showed in this movie. It's not often I see a movie staring a child that I don't cringe at the kid's acting, but this one was just fine.

Second, I'll address the whole kung-fu/karate issue. My thought is 'who cares'? The story was essentially the same, and the fighting style was largely irrelevent to the main plot. It could have been kick-boxing or judo (maybe not sumo) and would have been fine. Actually, listening to Jackie Chan talk about Kung-Fu as an aspect of all life tied a lot of the story back to the differing philosophies between Jaden and the roving gang of bullies.

The movie was really top notch, actually surpassing the original in many ways. I'd have to say the only thing that did not top the original was actually Jackie Chan, and that's no fault of his - he did a stellar job. I just don't see how anyone could top Mr. Miagi. Fortunately, Jackie Chan did not try to mimic Mr. Miagi's performance - he took the character and made it his own.

Overall, I'd recommend this movie to just about anyone out there. Unless you didn't like the original story. If that's the case, this one, which follows essentially the same plot, won't do you many favors.

The Flood: Part Eight

I think my estimation of them finishing all the work on the drywall and baseboards in a day was a bit off. The group is here today and tomorrow too. In fact, I'll be heading home this afternoon to keep an eye on things so Laura can head back to the office. Her boss is much less keen on working from home than mine. This pushed back some of our prep work for this weekend's painting party and is making us re-evaluate how much we wanted to get done. Our original plan was to pick up paint last night, get the kitchen painted tonight, and take tomorrow night off before having a bunch of people help out on Saturday. We weren't able to get the paint last night because we had no where to store it yet, but we're hoping to get it tonight. That means we may not be able to take tomorrow night off as we'll be doing a lot of prep work then, and then starting up Saturday morning. Also, we reduced the number of rooms we were going to try to paint on Saturday, only trying to tackle the ones that will have furniture moved back into them (so the kitchen, main room, and office). We've got a handful of people offering to help already, so thank you very much to those who have already responded!

Post Apocalyptic

A couple of months ago, I wrote a review of I Am Legend, the book. Over the weekend, Laura and I were able to see the movie with Will Smith.

The movie wasn't all that bad. I really liked the visuals of New York torn apart by the virus. The flashbacks were well-done, showing a lot of what had happened with the world before everything went to pot.

But in the end, I have to say I was a little disappointed. Had I not read the book, certainly I would have liked the movie more, but like many things, the book was better than the movie.

In the book, the vampire/zombie things were a lot more interesting. They weren't just mindless monsters running after their kill. Some of them talked, and they had a plan. They knew where the main character was (though there were reasons they could not reach him), and they taunted him night after night.

Researching the virus felt more real in the book as well. We were able to follow through from one step to another and see how he was able to piece together what he learned about the virus through understandable break-throughs. In the movie, we're introduced to him with a full laboratory and doing blood tests and the like right off. Nothing showing him working at it and what pains he goes through just to learn more.

I think I did like the dog better in the movie than I did in the book, mostly because it was such a small part of the book - a dog that the main character finds and tries to befriend. In the book the dog is more of a springboard to show the desolation and loneliness the main character feels.

I also really liked the scene in the movie where he goes to the video store with all the manikins and the conversations he has with them. A nice touch to show how he's trying to cope with everything.

But I think my biggest criticism of the movie has to be the ending. I don't want to give away the ending of either, so I'll just say that the end of both comes down to the title, "I Am Legend", and each one takes it in a drastically different direction. The book, I think does it far better.

Ah, what the heck, I'll spoil it. If you don't want to know the ending of the book and movie, skip the rest of this post until you see the next picture.

Okay, now that's out of the way. The movie ended with Will Smith finding the cure, giving it to another human he found, and sacrificing his life to make sure they could escape with the cure. The end is a voice-over by the woman who got the cure from Will Smith as she says that the oncoming society that his cure is going to allow to exist is his legacy, and he will become a legend for bringing it about, essentially.

The book's ending is a bit different than that. He does find another person, but it turns out the person is a vampire who has found a way to control her appetite for blood and the like. She escapes from him and heads back to a society that the "enlightened" vampires are building. They end up capturing him and taking him back with them. He is given poison by the woman he had met earlier because, she tells him, the other vampires will never let him go now. They have become civilized and are the new society that is coming out of the old one. They're taking care of all the feral vampires and starting anew. The "I Am Legend" part comes from the main character's last thoughts as he looks out of his cell windows over the new society that's forming. People are looking at him frightened and he realizes that he is a monster to them. They cannot go out during the day, and during the entire book, he would hunt them when they are most vulnerable and kill them when they could not try to stop him. He killed hundreds of them in his time, and realizes that he became their boogie man. As he dies, he realizes that like vampires and the like for us, he will become the legend of their new society.

A bit more depressing, to be sure, but still, I like the book's ending better.



No spoilers in this one. The second post apocalyptic movie that Laura and I saw this weekend was The Road, also based on a book.

If you want to be depressed, see the Road. Or better yet, read it.

This one's a story about a father and his son as they travel through the end of the world. Like "I Am Legend", there are some things shown in flashback, but they don't really have anything to do with why the world is the way it is. They have to do only with the characters.

The entire story is built on these two characters and them trying to not only survive, but maintain the will to survive as they go. It's a f-ed up world. Food is scarce. Most of the animals and plants are dead. There's a scene where the kid and his father find a house where they can take a bath, and when they take their shirts off, they are disgustingly thin. Ribs poking out and everything.

There is a lot of talk in the movie about good guys and bad guys, and the father keeps talking about how they're the good guys. They don't resort to cannibalism, and they don't hunt people. But as the movie goes on, you realize how much humanity the father has lost just trying to keep his son alive. And the sad thing is I think the son realizes it too. It's a sad story, and never really picks up. There is no beginning, really, and the end's not really an end either. It's a small section of their life and showing the struggles to keep alive in the world the way it became.

Overall, I'd recommend the Road, but only for a time when you're ready for the story to depress you. It's a bit slow, but does a great job of drawing you in to the emotion of the world as it is.

Knight and Day

As usual, I will try to keep this as spoiler-free as possible.

Laura and I, in a bid to escape the scorching heat, headed out to the movies last night to see Knight and Day, the new Cruise/Diaz movie. The trailers had me in stitches when I saw them, and Dan gave the movie a good review, so we figured we should give it a whirl.

The movie started out very strong, from the beginning on the airplane through all the wacky situations that came up from Diaz trying to escape from Cruise and him constantly finding her and getting her involved in yet another crazy situation. The dialogue was top-notch, and Cruise had an insane charm to him that somehow made everyone want to go along with whatever he said. "Please, just stop shooting everyone!" Diaz shouts at him early on, to which Cruise, hiding with her behind a car while people are shooting at them, says (two uzis in hand), "Okay, I'm going to go out there and just talk to them real quick, okay? Now you just stay here, you're doing just fine." Then, after a beat adds, "Actually, I'm just going to go shoot them."

The movie is at its strongest in the first half, but after a while, it starts to slow down. The crazy situations get less crazy once the plot is introduced in full force, and while it still keeps its over-the-top-ness, it tones it back a bit, which is unfortunate.

In the end, I liked the movie, but I think Mr. & Mrs. Smith did the spy/romance/comedy thing better. This is one of those movies that, if I owned, I'd really want to watch the first hour over and over again, and just kinda let the end go by the wayside.

Oh, and there was a new trailer for Inception at the beginning of this movie and it finally told a little of what the movie's about. And it looks AWESOME!

The Flood: Part Seven

So things are looking up now. I mean, the house is still a wreck and is hot as all get out, but the repairs are getting scheduled. Over the weekend, Laura and I went by Home Depot and priced out some carpet. The insurance company had given us almost $600 for the carpet cleaning and restretching and all, and the cost of new carpet came in a just shy of twice that, so we're excited about that. I was expecting around three times that for the new carpet, so I'll take the lower price. They're coming in tomorrow to do the measurements. Of course they can't tell us when in the day they'll be arriving, so it could be as early as 9 or as late as... well... 8, I guess.

Also, we got the estimate from the drywall guy and the damaged parts of the work come in at just about what the insurance company gave us, so we went ahead and scheduled that for tomorrow too. Happy days!

Tomorrow night we're hoping to head out to pick up some paint and get ready for a big painting party over the weekend. More details to come!

The Flood: Part Six

So the drywall contractor came by yesterday. Laura and I really liked him - he used to be a ServPro-type guy, working on drying out homes after a flood. He said he likes fixing homes up more than taking them apart, though. He specializes in working after floods to repair any damage that's going on.

I was able to get him the estimate material from our insurance guy, and so he's working up an estimate with that information too. While we've got him here, we have a few spots we're going to have him work on at the same time, just to make things look a bit nicer. He said he'll put those in the estimate too, though they'll come out of our pocket. Not bad, though, since the insurance company's already paying to get him out here, so these will just be add-ons.

I'm thinking it won't be able to start tomorrow, though, since we still have to clear the estimate through our insurance guy if there's any price difference, and I suspect there will be. So instead, tomorrow Laura and I are off to take a look at carpet places and see what we can find.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July, all!

The Flood: Part Five

Not much to report today. Yesterday was the insurance guy, and I told you all how that went. Laura was able to set up a meeting with a drywall person for tomorrow at noon, and he said he had no problem coming in on Monday to start working on it. That's pretty awesome! I was hoping to have it done by the end of next week, so clearly the beginning of next week is a better plan. My only worry is that the estimate's going to come out higher than what the insurance guy gave me and we're going to be delayed trying to get that resolved.

Comic: A God Somewhere

After the first review I did for Empire, I decided I might try to review a few more comics as I read them.



A God Somewhere was recommended to me by another website as another good, non-standard-superhero tale. This story is, essentially, about a young man, his best friend, his brother and sister-in-law. The young man is in a horrible accident and becomes a super-powered man. He can fly, shrug off bullets, summon feats of massive strength, etc. All good stuff.

The story follows the other three characters primarily, and generally focuses on the hero's best friend and how he takes his friend's changes. The hero starts by saving people and helping people, but slowly the power of who he is corrupts him. He starts to see himself as a god above people, able to do whatever he likes. The friend tries to balance the horror that has happened with the fact that he still feels for his friend as tragedy upon tragedy compile.

Overall, I thought the story was good. Not great, but good. It's one I would read again, but it would not make it onto my stack of best comics I love reading again and again. I felt like the story rushed some key parts. It was at its best when it was delving into the philosophy of what it would be to be the only superhero in the world while everyone else was "just" human, but as the story went on, those parts were farther and farther apart. I was disappointed with some of the predictable nature of the plot. I really didn't feel like the story surprised me at any particular point, but it was fun to read how it all worked out.

In short, it's no Empire, and no Midnight Nation, and won't earn a place on the shelf next to them, but it is worth the read and I'm glad I picked it up.

Brains: A Zombie Memoir

So this morning I woke up, picked up my new book, Brains: A Zombie Memoir, and started reading while waiting for the insurance adjuster to arrive. The adjuster arrived around page 150 and since the book's only about 180 pages long, I finished it off before heading in to work today.

It won't be winning any literature awards, and it's clearly an attempt to cash in on the zombie craze that's going around, but it was still a pretty clever take on zombies. The basic premise is this: the zombie outbreak has hit, and our main character is pretty quickly turned into a zombie.

Only he realizes he still has the capacity for higher thinking. He's managed, somehow, to keep his intelligence and his ability to write (the book is his memoir). This doesn't prevent him from craving brains - he consumes quite a few people throughout the course of the book - but it does let him think about what it means to be a zombie, and whether there are other 'thinking' zombies like him.

He does, of course, find some. From a zombie who was a nurse in life and has taken to patching up zombie corpses so they'll last longer, to a kid zombie whose motor functions don't seem to be degrading and can still run. Speech seems beyond them, but they put together some hand signals and start working on the zombie revolution. The humans are winning the war against the undead, after all.

The group of zombies, some thinking and some not but kept around for other reasons, start heading to Chicago where they hope to meet the doctor who created the zombie virus. Meet their maker, as it were.

The book is told in a black-humor style and keeps action happening at a good pace. There are a few surprises in it, but by and large it's pretty easy to see where the story is going. The characters are all surprising vivid for zombies, each one with its own personality that follows through to their actions, though all of them have the overpowering urge for brains.

Its this last piece that's talked about the most. The craving for brains, wrestling humanity with canabilism, and the journey that the main character goes through as he's trying to figure out just where zombies fit in God's plan, or in scientific evolution, for that matter.

Overall, if you're not a fan of zombies, this book's not going to turn you into one. It's a popcorn book meant to entertain and it does a good job of that. I'd recommend it to people who want a quick, brainless read (get it!), and to people who already enjoy the zombie genre.

The Flood: Part Four

The insurance adjuster came by this morning to take a look at the place. It went pretty much as I expected - he cut me a check, gave me an itemized expense report for how the money was calculated, let me know that if the price came out different on any particular part to get the receipt over to him and we'd work out the details that way. The amount didn't come out as high as I wanted, but when I was hoping for a mere $250,000, I guess maybe I should have been more realistic.

Next steps are to get in touch with the drywall folks and get them out to take care of all the walls. From there we can start painting the house, and then worry about the carpet.

Oh, and best news of all: no asbestos. Lab results came back negative. Happy days!