Game of Thrones: Season One

Game of Thrones will be starting its third season in two months, and this was one of the many reasons why I looked into getting HBO in the first place. I started into it a while back at Stan and Marissa's place, only to return to their house a few weeks ago to watch those same first three episodes to get my girlfriend into the show as well before I moved forward. It's a great show that has clearly inspired several bloggers to watch and read and post through the series, so I'll keep this brief- Game of Thrones is a story that required a huge budget and cast to work, and HBO knocked it out of the park- each episode really draws you into the fantastic world of Westeros (and Easteros?) and has plenty of running storylines, and I can't remember finding any of them boring in the slightest. If you've got any interest in the series, it won't disappoint- give Game of Thrones a shot.

One Nation Uninsured

I don't ususally argue politics much, mostly because I'm awful at it. But one issue that I've wondered about for a while is health insurance, and why it's not simply provided to everyone in a first-world country like America. For this reason, one of the three cheap Kindle books I bought to step outside my comfort zone was Jill Quadagno's One Nation Uninsured: Why the U.S. Has No National Health Insurance. The book was from 2005 so it's all pre-Obamacare, but for the most part it focuses on the multiple attempts to bring national health care to America and how these attempts were all quickly squashed. There's a few sob stories thrown in to give the book some emotional impact, and I can hardly say Quadagno was coming at the topic without bias- she's clearly on the pro-national health care side and is quick to deride its opponents as using baseless scare tactics in claiming that it will turn America into a socialist country. I can't imagine this book would be enough to convince someone to change their position on the topic, but at least I found it a little more interesting than the history of spring training.

Toy Story 3

Why I bought it: Because it's Toy Story 3.

Thoughts: Each time I watch this film, I am always surprised at how a movie about toys can resonate with me so much. The fact that Pixar was able to create such an emotionally charged movie about toys is an incredible feat. Themes of growing up, growing apart, embracing change, the importance of love and the importance of friendship are all explored throughout this movie. And all of it is done so well. I cannot believe the emotional impact this movie can still have on me. On top of all that, it's just a really good time. No wonder this was nominated for best picture of the year. In all honesty, I think this should have won. This is without a doubt the best animated picture of all time.

Should I have bought it: Clearly.

It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Why I bought it: Pure nostalgia.

Thoughts: The disc contains the classic It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. We've all seen it. We all think we love it. We don't. I hope my kids are fooled into thinking they like it one day as well. Also on this disc is "It's Magic, Charlie Brown". That "special" is anything but. Out of the 23 minutes of air time, there is a grand total of 11 minutes of Snoopy doing stupid magic tricks that don't actually work the way he intends. His grand finale, however, actually turns Charlie Brown invisible. While invisible, Charlie Brown is able to finally kick the football. How did I not know about that? Anyway, this was just meh.

Should I have bought it: Depends on whether or not I eventually have kids who are as simple-minded as I once was.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Why I bought it: Danielle became obsessed with seeing this movie right around the time I got a 3D television.

Thoughts: I never read this book as a kid so I had no idea what to expect. I was pleasantly surprised. Steve the talking monkey was a goddamn revelation! Well, that might be an exaggeration, but I was impressed with this movie. The 3D was great and it had boats made of pizza. As you might have guessed, I am losing steam on these posts as we push our way to 100. Anyway, if you are in the mood for some light-hearted fun, give this one a shot.

Should I have bought it: Yes.

Game of Thrones Season 1

I started game of thrones 3 times before I finally managed to stick with it. The first time I tried watching I was not Above The Influence as no kids actually say, stupid television anti drug commercials... Anyway the second time I started watching was because Kyle forced me to and that didn't stick either. This last and final attempt was the result of Stan and his desire to host a viewing of the first couple episodes. We watched the first 3 and I was hooked. I needed to know what happened next. Looking back I can understand stopping after episode one, there are like 35 characters and it's hard to keep track of people and plot and random boobies, but I couldn't imagine stopping after the second or third episode. Even now as I am typing these words I can only think of how I am going to get my hands on the second season.

I won't bother doing a synopsis because it's already been done on this blog and I am sure Sweeney's post is only moments behind mine. I will say that the twists are great and they are willing to kill any character. I can't claim to know what happens in the books and wether or not this is a honest retelling or if the producers took any liberties but I can say that it is one hell of a story. I've been told there are several more key players in this story that I am yet to meet. Also I definitely saw a dragon. I won't say when or why but this show has dragons. Fuck yea!

A Serious Man

This post is dedicated to Keith, who has been a serious man when it comes to getting us up and over 100 posts this month.

I never know what to think of the Coen brothers. I liked O Brother, Where Art Thou?, I enjoyed The Big Lebowski, and then really liked No Country For Old Men. But then I re-watched O Brother and found it far more boring the second time around, caught Fargo for the first time and felt totally underwhelmed, and wasn't all that fond of Burn After Reading. Luckily, this movie was a step back in the favorable direction.

There's really not much to it. Most Coen brothers films I've seen have had some overarching themes to them; this was simply about a Midwestern man in the 1960s whose life is falling apart around him. It isn't falling apart in tragic ways as much as it's going to shit. His kids are total assholes. His wife wants a divorce. His good-for-nothing brother is living with the family and causing everyone nothing but grief. He may soon be fired from his job as a physics professor. He's been threatened with a lawsuit by a failing student. It all starts slowly - it's tough, after all, for an unlikable Jewish suburban family from the '60s to be interesting at first - but A Serious Man picks up speed and calamity as it unfolds - unravels, really - and by the halfway mark I was completely on board.

The writing and the lead performance (by Michael Stuhlbarg, who I had previously only seen in the very different role of the cool and powerful Arnold Rothstein on Boardwalk Empire) deserve all the credit in the world for making this simple premise not only bearable but enjoyable. The main character, Larry, finds that perfect balance between sad sack and underdog that allowed me to simultaneously root for him while also taking delight in all of his misfortunes. I had heard a while back that this movie was sort of loosely meant to be a modern rendition of the story of Job from the Bible, where God tested a righteous man's love for Him by making him suffer; I think that's a bit forced, perhaps drawn out by all of the overt Judaism in this movie. Still, this was indeed a movie where a righteous man suffered, and I give it credit for being darkly funny instead of just being dark.

The Fast And The Furious

Why I bought it: I could be convinced to buy far worse movies than this for $5.

Thoughts: This is a guilty pleasure. My guilty pleasure. Though it's so ridiculous and poorly acted, you can't help but get caught up in the adventure. It doesn't hurt that this is one of the more quotable movies the last 20 years. "You never had me. You never had your car." "Granny shifting not double clutching like you should." "I live my life a quarter mile at a time.""Bullshit, asshole. No one likes the tuna." "Why don't you go to fat burger from now on? You can get a burger and fries for $2.95, faggot!" Fuck, this is a good time.

Should I have bought it: Yes.

Open Water

Why I bought this: I bought this based on the rave reviews for Open Water 2 by fellow contributors.

Thoughts: In some ways, this movie is terrifying. The thought of going scuba diving only to have the dive boat leave without you is everyone's worst nightmare. The best part of this movie, however is the shots they have of the water splashing over the camera to reveal the sharks underneath the water. The worst part of this movie is the ending. They just sorta give up. Also, this movie was made with a TERRIBLE camera. The fact that they even bothered putting this movie on Blu-ray is hilarious. It should just be considered an extra feature on this disk rather than being advertised as a co-main feature.

Should I have bought this: At $5, why the hell not. 2 is a great movie if you want something to make fun of.

The Words

Two things. 1) Bradley Cooper doesn't do it for me. 2) Jeremy London is the god damned man.

So I watched this movie which is easily summed up by the Rotten Tomatoes review "This film is not as clever as it thinks it is."

That being said, the movie was enjoyable. Bradley Cooper, while researching a novel in France, is gifted with a vintage suitcase by his wife and inside he finds the manuscript for a heart breaking novel. He passes the work off as his own, to literary renown. Out comes Jeremy London, the writer, whose heartbreaking post-WWII life is the basis of the book and thus the "words" are his and they were all he had left. Bradley Cooper is conflicted, he learns a lesson.... might lose his wife just like Jeremy London in the book... but wait! This is all in a novel by Dennis Quaid, who is explaining the story to Olivia Wilde, who figures out that story in the story is allegory for The Quaid who chose "words" over his wife....

Nicely filmed. Interesting story. Tried to be too clever.

The Return of the Pink Panther

Let's start this review with a confession: I love Peter Sellers. The Pink Panther franchise never ceases to make me laugh even though physical comedy usually doesn't get me. Going through these movies and looking at the Wiki made me realize that even though my favorite film in the franchise is the next offering (The Pink Panther Strikes Back) which has my favorite bad jokes of all time( "Does your dog bite?" "No." *dog bites Clouseau* "I thought you said you dog did not bite!" "...That is not my dog.") I have no recollection of ever seeing this film. To the DVD!

The plot is standard (Pink Panther diamond theft), the hijinks are outrageous (at one point his hunchback costume over inflating causes him to float out of danger when his house is bombed) and the dated quality (the drag bar scene with the dude wearing a jumpsuit with star shaped nipple cut-outs for example) just adds to the camp. Though I enjoy the Steve Martin reboot of the series, underneath each prat fall and comedic volley you have Steve Martin hamming it up for the camera. Sellers on the other hand, he becomes Clouseau, giving credence to the the old sound byte that Peter Sellers could play any character but Peter Sellers.

The Wire: Season 1

Why I bought it: Well, after illegally downloading it and enjoying it, I was content on never buying it. However, after getting through the entire series and realizing that if I bought it I could log this and get closer to 100, I bought this on iTunes.

Thoughts: It took me six months to watch the first two episodes of this season. It was good enough TV, but it was long and not that engaging. However, after a few more episodes, I was hooked. Some people say this is the worst season, but this season heavily featured my two favorite characters of the entire series. I loved this season. And I know in my review of the final season I said I would never watch this series again because it was so disturbing, but I have since changed my tune. I can't wait to eventually go back and watch every season again. It just might be a few years before I do that. Maybe when Danielle lifts her ban on "stressful shows" before we go to bed.

Hang in there Sweeney. This show is amazing and it needs to be enjoyed by everyone. It's been beaten to death, but the characters in this show are unforgettable. Baltimore is unforgettable. The stories are unforgettable. Even the theme song is unforgettable. Fuck this is a good show.

Should I have bought it: Yes. A thousand times yes.

Days of Thunder

Why I bought it: I got in as part of a Tom Cruise Collection. The Tom Cruise Collection was cheaper than buying 2 of the 5 on their own.

Thoughts: Directed and produced by the same people that made Top Gun, I was expecting more of the same. However, I was pleasantly surprised by this. As only the second movie I have ever seen based on NASCAR, there isn't much to compare this to. Though it also contains John C. Reilly, this is much better than Talladega Nights. Other than the ridiculous scene in which the two rival racers race on wheelchairs, I was pretty engaged the whole time. Cary Ewles is SO dislikable in this movie I almost wanted to punch the screen. Anyway, time to watch another movie. 100 here we come.

Should I have bought it: Yes.

Killers

Why I bought it: It was a misguided Christmas gift.

Thoughts: I dreaded having to watch this movie. I really did. The first 20 minutes did nothing to assuage my fears. The recently single Katherine Heigl is going on a romantic vacation with her parents. She meets Ashton Kutcher, who happens to only speak french. Did I mention he is an assassin working for a government organization? Anyway, after meeting KH, he decides he wants to shed his assassin ways and marry KH. He asks her father to marry her after knowing her for about a day. That would be fine, except the only thing we know about her father is that he is comically overprotective. All of the sudden, he is cool with her getting married to a guy he doesn't even know. Even that would be fine if we didn't learn later on that the father knew Ashton was an assassin the whole time. Anyway, the story itself isn't that bad. They move in to a house and start living the American dream. They go to block parties and even want to start a family. However, it seems someone has put a hit out on Ashton Kutcher and all his neighbors are just other assassins deep under cover. The concept itself is kinda cool, but the casting director is an idiot.

Should I have bought it: No. I wish it wasn't in my collection, but there are worse ways to spend 98 minutes.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Hey guys. This is my first post. Keith pushed me to contribute by saying there is some goal you are trying to reach this month. I am sure someone else has already reviewed this book, but it is the book I just finished.

Why did I pick up this book?

After a nice visit to Keith's grandparents , they sent me home with two of the three Stieg Larsson books. Unfortunately, they did not give me the Dragon Tattoo, which was the first book. In order to start reading the ones they lent me, I had to buy the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Did I like it?

Oh did I. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I like books that move fast. I can do without five page descriptions about how leaves turn. I like books that are to the point, have good character development shown through action, keep you on your toes and have good dialogue.

This book brings together a 40 something reporter and a 20 something computer hacker/punk to solve a murder mystery and have sex. What differentiates it from other murder mysteries, is the subplots that go on in addition to the main mystery. Larsson spends the first 100 pages or so introducing us to the main characters, developing them, showing us where they came from, who they are, what problems are going on in their lives. By the time the two characters even meet, we know them well. Then, he actually takes the last 100 pages or so to tie out those subplots. There is a lot going on in this book beyond the murder mystery. It actually really isn't entirely about solving the mystery. It's more about can these characters get themselves out of the slump they're both in and triumph.

There are some dark moments in this book and I'll admit I had trouble reading them. But Larsson did a good job at not making that the focus of the story. He puts it in there when the scene needs it, but doesn't overdo it.

Overall I thought it was a really great book with enough complexity to keep me interested, but not overdone. I reccommend.

Men In Black

Why I bought it: When I first acquired my Blu-ray player, I was obsessed with amassing as many movies as possible. This was one of the five free Blu-rays I got when I opened up a Sony Credit Card.

Thoughts: Damn this movie ages well. While 2 and 3 were terrible, this movie is still really enjoyable. Will Smith is funny, but Tommy Lee Jones is amazing in this movie. He plays the straight man in a ridiculous movie. Without him, this movie would not work. I'm sure he was great in Lincoln, but this is my favorite role of his. I could watch this movie over and over again.

Should I have bought it: In retrospect, I wish I hadn't opened that credit card. Either way, I'm glad I own this movie.

Clerks II

Why I bought it: Because I'm a Kevin Smith fan and I felt the need to own all his movies on Blu-ray.

Thoughts: I love this movie. However, I am pretty biased. Still, Danielle was watching with me and she was laughing so that has to count for something. With that being said, there are a few things that bother me about it. For one, Kevin Smith insists on casting his wife in a large role in this movie. "Mrs. Hicks" is so obviously an untrained actor that it takes me out of the movie at times. Also, the relationship between Rosario Dawson and Brian O'Halloran is a little annoying. But, Randal is as funny as ever. Jay and Silent Bob are funny in their life after rehab. Elias, a Transformers-loving Christian is a great edition to the cast. Although I find this movie funny, this is the first time I found it relatable considering it is about 30-somethings coming to grips with the fact they are growing up. While I'm not in my 30s, I'm certainly fighting the good fight against growing up. Anyway, complaints aside, it's enjoyable.

Should I have bought it: Yes, however I own it on DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray for no apparent reason other than me not being very patient.

The Wire: Season One

I knew going into The Wire's first season that it was hardly the most acclaimed; the murmurs of 'greatest show of all time' sound like they didn't really appear until season 3 or so. I went back and read Stan and Marissa's posts on the first season (I didn't see one from Keith?) and they were reasonably positive while admitting the show was hyped too much. Marissa was more enthusiastic but also admitted Stan was watching with her, which makes sense- having someone to quickly answer questions about the show as you're watching can help make it more engaging than going in blind. I gave The Wire a few episodes with my undivided attention, but it just didn't do much for me and I spent the rest of the season pulling double-duty on my 3DS as the episodes played. I don't think this is a major fault of mine either- I did the same with Game of Thrones' first season (post coming soon) and was easily able to understand what was going on. The first season of The Wire however was pretty boring- it just felt like a very realistic season-long police procedural. Still though, I'll keep my hopes down for the much-maligned second season- perhaps I'll quickly push through that one soon, then take some time off to cleanse my palate before The Wire starts getting really good by season three.

Final Fantasy IX

Oh man. Just over a dozen years ago, I bought Final Fantasy IX. No, wait. It was a Christmas gift. I had not yet beaten either Final Fantasy VII or Final Fantasy VIII. Hell, I don't even think I'd beaten my very first Final Fantasy game, Final Fantasy IV. I blame the easy distractions of childhood, I guess. In fact, I only made it about thirteen hours into this one, only scratching the surface of the story. As the years went by, I'd end up revisiting (and beating) every single Final Fantasy game I owned, jumping back in where I'd left off however many years before. But when I finally decided earlier this month to revisit Final Fantasy IX, I bucked my own trend and restarted the game from the very beginning. Four weeks and forty gaming hours later, I'm glad I made that decision. For whatever reason, I had never really enjoyed Final Fantasy IX the way I'd come to love many other games in the franchise, but by starting over from scratch I was able to experience the game I'd been putting off for a dozen years in its entirety. And I loved it!

The first five Final Fantasy games all took place in various medieval-like worlds full of dragons and wizards and knights and the like. It was only in the sixth installment - my own personal favorite - that the series took on a more science-fictional feel, keeping many of the same themes and gameplay elements but taking place in a world that was more steampunk than D&D. That trend continued in Final Fantasy VII, which included guns and machinery and amusement parks and urban decay and big corporations, and essentially took place in a world not unlike our own. Final Fantasy VIII even felt a bit futuristic, as did elements of Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XII. And although I've yet to play it, Final Fantasy XIII looks like it's nothing but flashy futuristic shit, environmentally speaking. So in a sense, although Final Fantasy originated as a very medieval series, the fact that Final Fantasy IX took place in such an environment was seen by many as a throwback to the original games. Indeed, this game felt like a coda to those early games, and has often been described as "the end of Final Fantasy as you know it." Maybe some of its charm was thus lost on me half of my lifetime ago. At any rate, I've really enjoyed spending the last month working on my mages, my thief, my knight, and my dragoon. And I think a large part of my enjoyment was based on the characters themselves.

For an ostensibly fantastical game, Final Fantasy IX was loaded with some very human moments. Camaraderie, friendship, and teamwork played bigger roles in this story than in many previous games I've played, and I haven't even touched on the deep characterization yet. There was Steiner, a Javert-like figure torn between his duty to protect the queen and a sneaking suspicion that his sworn enemies were actually his moral superiors; there was Vivi, a lost little orphan from a race feared and hated by most of the world, just trying to figure out where he belonged; there was Freya, who had been abandoned by her lover and who saw most of her friends and family slain by evil forces, but who persevered and wore on nonetheless. And at the center of it all was Zidane, initially a lady's man and a troublemaker who wound up believing that the most important thing in life was to help people who needed it. His budding romance with Garnet - unwilling princess of the realm, burdened by responsibilities she hasn't asked for - was among the most natural and humanlike relationship arcs I've seen in a video game.

Not everything about the game was brilliant; a few characters felt flat and underdeveloped, and the world in which the game took place was somewhat generic as far as Final Fantasy worlds go, but it was an impressive effort all the same. The difficulty curve was spot-on, as I never felt either extremely over-powered or hopelessly under-leveled, and the customization levels were just right, allowing me some flexibility when it came to strategy but often still forcing some very specific boundaries on my party.

This was the oldest game in my backlog by a number of years; I'm not certain, but I think it may have been the oldest game in my backlog ever since I began this blog three and a half years ago. It was also in all likelihood the third-most time-investive game remaining. I'm thrilled to finally be able to file this one under the "beaten" category and move on, but not even in an "I'm so glad that's over" type of way. Instead, it was more of a half-nostalgic enjoyable trip that took forty hours, but those still fell like forty hours well spent. I can only hope the remaining behemoths in my video game backlog - Final Fantasy XIII among them - are nearly as fun to play.

Hitman

Why I bought it: Tim got it for me for Christmas the year before last.

Thoughts: Much like with Jonah Hex, I had very low expectations going into this movie. It definitely exceeded them. Great action. Great nudity. Just great. Timothy Olyphant is nearly unrecognizable as 47, but he's just as badass as ever. The story is somewhat hard to follow, but this movie made me think about playing the game on which this movie is based. But that will have to wait until I get through my backlog.

Should I have bought it: Sure. This was fun.


GOAL: Listen up guys, I need your help to get to 100 posts in January. I plan on logging 10-12 more times before the month is over so that means everyone else needs to pitch in 7-9. 100!

Cabin Fever

Why I bought it: $5 for an awesome horror movie filled with amazing one-liners? Don't mind if I do.

Thoughts: If you haven't seen this movie, do yourself the favor of checking it out. The biggest surprise for me is that this movie was made in 2002. Jesus, this movie is 11 years old. When did time start passing this quickly? Anyway, for the sake of time, that's all I got.

Should I have bought this movie: Absolutely.

Space Jam

Why I bought it: I saw it at Best Buy and couldn't leave the store without it.

Thoughts: This movie is incredible. Michael Jordan. Larry Bird. Bill Murray. Mugsey Bogues. Shawn Bradley. Charles Barkley. Larry Johnson. Patrick Ewing. Danny Ainge. Alonzo Mourning. Cedric Ceballos. Vlade Divac. Dan Castellaneta. Dennis Nedry. Bugs Bunny. Daffy Duck. Marvin the Martian. Sylvester. Tweetie Bird. Porkie Pig. Taz. Wile. E Coyote. Roadrunner. What else do you need? This movie has the best soundtrack of all time. Why isn't this a video game? Fuck this was awesome.

Should I have bought it: I should have bought it twice.

Jonah Hex

Why I bought it: Danielle bought it for me before she knew much about my taste in movies.

Thoughts: This movie had two things going for it: my incredibly low expectations and less Megan Fox than was advertised. Based on a Marvel Comic series (I think), this movie takes place in the wild west. In this alternate reality, however, there are gatling guns, undead cowboys and atomic weapons. John Malkovich burns Josh Brolin's family alive and then takes control of a canon that shoots atomic weapons (designed by Eli Whitney???). Anyway, Josh Brolin is forced by Ulysses S. Grant to stop John Malkovich. There is a ton of violence and this movie isn't too long. Megan Fox is a hooker who wants to grow old with Josh Brolin. Blah blah blah. This movie was way better than it sounds meaning that it was just okay.

Should I have bought it: Sure, why not.

Top Gun

Why I bought it: It came in a Tom Cruise five pack that seemed like a steal at $25 using my Amazon gift certificate.

Thoughts: Really? People like this movie? Why did Tom Cruise not get rid of his unibrow? Why were there only three songs played over and over again this entire movie? Why did Tom Cruise think that girl was attractive? Why were Ice Man and Slider in love with each other? Why did they play beach volley ball in jeans and no shirt? How did they know those bad guy fighter jets were going to be in that location 24 hours before they were actually there? Why did they send two fighter jets against six? Why was there no justification for 90% of what transpired during this movie? Why, after proving to be one of the most valuable fighter pilots in the United States just one day after graduating from Top Gun, was Tom Cruise allowed to become a Top Gun instructor? Why, after almost everything else in the entire movie was "classified", were the newspapers allowed to run a story about Maverick taking down those enemy fighter jets? Shouldn't his identity have been kept secret? At least until after the war ended? Why did the ending credits have videos of each actor overlaid with their names and who they played only to also have each actor's name and who they played in the scrolling credits? Why did I watch this? Why did I buy this?

Should I have bought it: It didn't cost me a dime, but I wan't my 2 hours back. No.

Breaking Bad: Season 4

Holy shit! The Back-Blog has exploded. Been seriously preoccupied for the past two weeks, and although I'm aware of the e-mails I've received on the all the comments being exchanged, I had no idea how many posts have accumulated. Truly awesome!

I'm excited to try and catch up and reach through as many posts as I can. For now, let me revisit a post I was drafting up only eight weeks ago. Breaking Bad: Season 4.

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All caught up... Boo-ya!

Well, technically I'm still watching the first half of season five in iTunes, but for the sake of my back-list, I'm all caught up. 

It just keeps getting better and better. Story taking unsuspecting turns. Every actor's performance being top notch. I can already tell this is just going to mimic my post about season three (nothing but praises), so I'll switch things up a bit. Where the hell is this show going?

Show creator, Vince Gilligan, was on Colbert several weeks ago and mentioned how the show is set to conclude as a tragedy. Is Walt going to die? Going to jail? What's to happen to Jesse and the family? Like I said, haven't seen the mid-season conclusion to season five yet. I'm sure there are seeds planted there as to how things will unfold. Although (SPOILER) you do start off that season with what looks like a very desperate and broken Walt on the run having just acquired some BIG ASS gun. Not sure what to make from it, but I'm very excited. The only thing that seems to be clear is that cancer is no longer an issue. 

With this TV show coming to an end, I'm debating on what to start watching next. Season two of Walking Dead? Finally push my way through the first season of Mad Men? How about hoping on the Downton Abbey bandwagon? To be honest, the show I'm most curious about seeing is Twin Peaks. I'm not a very big David Lynch fan, but my parents own these DVDs. Why not give it a shot... or is this something I'm going to regret based on my previous Lynch experiences. Can anyone weigh in on what I'm in for? 

Also...

Everyone meet my new fostered puppy... Han Solo.

"Who are you calling scruffy-looking?"

Everything and More

I've started a few posts talking about how long some item has been on my backlog, but this is truly the lengthiest mainstay on my backlog- David Foster Wallace's Everything and More: A Compact History of Infinity, a book I received as a gift commemorating my four years on the Westford Academy Math Team. This means I got this book in April or May of 2004, nearly nine years ago, and for some reason I just never touched it. I don't recall ever even making an attempt to read this, and I'm not sure why. Given the fact that I was on my high school math team, I'm not really one to get bored by a book about math. The further along I got with college calculus courses, the more I loved it; so you'd think I would have taken some time to crack open this book that starts with Zeno's Paradox (you can never get anywhere because you always have to get halfway first) and ends with Fourier series and Riemann sums- stuff that I found legitimately interesting when I was learning about them at Syracuse. Yet now, years later Everything and More did nothing for me. Why is this? I don't blame the mathematics. I put the blame of David Foster Wallace. The directionless meandering of Infinite Jest (just realized both of his books have 'Infinite' in their title) just didn't work at all in a book about how mass confusion over the concept of the infinite and infinitessimal led to the creation of calculus yet still plagues us today. It was all over the place and rather than being based in proofs, DFW was more interested in the people who made them, and personally I just don't care. This won't sour me much on David Foster Wallace, though, as it seems to be his most criticized book anyway. I've got one more of his (The Pale King) left currently in my backlog, so we'll see if that one inspires me to read any more from him.

Hydro Thunder Hurricane

Why I bought it: This is the sequel to my favorite racing game of all time. At $10, I consider it a steal.

Thoughts: When I first started playing it, I dismissed it as not worthy of its lineage. However, after playing it for about 5 hours this morning, I can honestly say it's a worthy successor. The basic formula is the same. You race through a bunch of levels everywhere from the Arctic to tropical islands. There are many secret passages and boosts to be found along the way. As the races go on, they get much more difficult. The last 5 races I had to institute a strategy of quitting anytime I messed up. Pretty much the only way to win the harder races was to memorize the location of every turn, shortcut and boost. It doesn't hurt to run your competition into walls, just make sure not to watch them as they explode or you are bound to hit a wall as well.

The big difference between this iteration is that the graphics are much better and the addition of stormy weather to each of the levels. As you get farther into each race, the sunny skies turn grey and rain and win and waves screw you up pretty badly if you aren't careful. This game has some cool effects (splashes hit the screen and when you get going really fast everything becomes a blur) and a pretty awesome announcer calling the race. Also, there's a lot to it. Although I consider this game beaten because I golded each of the 8 races, there are several other modes including a ring challenge and a gauntlet mode. There are tons of things to unlock (including new skins for your boat and a shirt for your avatar).

Did I mention you can race as a rubber ducky?

Should I have bought it: Did I mention you can race as a rubber ducky? Yes.

TMNT

Why I bought it: I wanted the first three movies on blu-ray and this movie came in this four pack. I couldn't resist the four pack as the packaging is amazing. It's a pizza box! And the discs all look like pizza!

Thoughts: Somehow I have managed to see this movie five separate times now (first time on blu-ray). Anyway, each time, I am surprised at how enjoyable it is. Though it is computer animated, it continues where the 3rd movie left off. I don't want to give too much away (I am lazy), but Leonardo is off in South America trying to figure out how to be a better leader. Meanwhile, the other turtles are floundering without him. April O'Neil convinces Leonardo to come back just in time for a foe other than Shredder to show up. There's a lot more fighting in this movie compared to the previous three, but still lots of humor. Without the nostalgia factor, I might not like the movie. But with it, it's great. Also, the fight scene in the rain between Leonardo and Raphael is visually stunning.

Should I have bought it: The discs look like pizza!

Recalculating

Why I bought it: As an auditor, I was often unwilling to work. Sometimes that led to me an a co-worker creating ridiculous ideas for movies. One such movie we created as about a GPS that was trying to kill the driver. We titled our movie "Recalculating". After having a good laugh, we forgot about our ridiculous idea for a movie. About a year later, I googled "Recalculating" for the hell of it and came across this book with essentially the same exact plot. What are the odds? Anyway, I had no choice but to buy the book.

Thoughts: The concept is ridiculous. Maureen is a woman of 54 who just lost her husband to cancer, or so we think! It is revealed that she killed her husband because after 30 years of verbal and physical abuse (he was a pincher), she had had enough. Though prostate cancer would have taken his life in about a year or so, she sped up the process by staging an accidental overdose/shower drowning. A few months later, she finds a present from her dead husband in the attic - a Ouija GPS. She is confused by the fact that her husband got her a gift as it was clear to her that he never loved her. The "most love he ever showed [her] was calling [her] 'dumb bunny cunt'". She quickly grew to love her GPS, however. As an oppressed housewife, she never truly got to drive anywhere and did not know her way around anywhere. One day, however, the GPS changed its voice from Maureen's preferred Austalian lady voice to a man's voice. Not only that, but the GPS started giving her the wrong directions and even calling her "bitch". Thinking she was imagining it, she continued to use this GPS. Well, it became clear that this GPS was possessed by her dead husband. With the help of an anthropology professor at a community college he met at chemo, Maureen's abusive husband was able to put himself in the GPS in hopes of one day possessing Maureen herself. However, with the act of defiance of eating a piece of candy, Maureen was able to prevent her husband from getting her to kill herself... or something. Anyway, it was enjoyable in its ridiculousness. However, it is clear to me that Jennifer Weiner wants men reading this book as much as Dave Chappelle wanted white people laughing at his show.

Also, though I have been referring to this as a book, it is more of a short story. When it comes to length, this book is more R.L. Stine than Stephen King.

Should I have bought it: I don't think I had a choice. It was like I was possessed...

Final Fantasy IV

The final credits of this are still rolling but I am sure that the final hour count will be up near 55. This game was hard. I needed to use walk-throughs a couple times just to progress. That being said it was a lot of fun... well most of the time. I enjoyed this game right up until the end. The last dungeon was impossibly hard. I died like 10 times just trying to get to the only save point. I tried leveling up and even when I was at a level I was assured would be good to progress I got slaughtered. Eventually Sween told me I could get a charm that would disable the random encounters but not the boss battles or booby trapped chests. This made a huge difference and I was finally able to make it to the final boss with the three different cut scenes. I didn't stand a chance. I leveled up some more and went back in. Still I got crushed. I looked up a strategy online and tried that, still no help. I tried three more times and had the same result each time. I levelled up a bunch more (to an average of level 85-90) and still died. Now I am thinking "WTF else can I do? " I decide to check my inventory to see if there were any items I may have overlooked. I stumble upon an "Elixer" I had never used. I had only used hi potions and such when I needed healing and Ether when I needed MP. So I start the battle one more time, having to go through the 3 cut scenes for the umpteenth time, and this time I use the Elixer as well as everything else I had been doing and I just barely defeat the final boss. Three of my characters had less then 5 Hp left. When the final boss did that flashing thing they do before they die I literally  jumped for joy. Looking back there were a bunch of augments I wish I had given to different characters and peeking at the walkthrough there are a bunch of augments I was near to and never got. That may be why it was so hard in the end, or maybe I was stupid. Who knows?

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back

Why I bought it: I got this in a buy one get one free sale on Amazon right after I got my PS3.

Thoughts: After seeing all of Kevin Smith's "View Askiewniverse" movies, it becomes clear that this movie is strictly fan service. Pretty much every important player from Clerks, Mallrats and Chasing Amy make appearances in this movie (Ben Affleck and Jason Lee play multiple characters). It relies heavily on "in jokes" and just general silliness from Jay and Silent Bob. The one thing that stood out about this movie compared to Kevin Smith's other movies is the sheer amount of star power. From Chris Rock to Will Ferrell to Sean William Scott to Shannon Elizabeth to Princess Leia to Luke Skywalker to Ben Affleck to Matt Damon, it is clear that Kevin Smith convinced Miramax to give him a larger budget than usual. Anyway, even if you haven't seen his other movies, this is still pretty funny. In fact, I know a good amount of people who love this movie and didn't even know Silent Bob directed the movie.

Should I have bought it: Yes, but it would have been smarter to wait until it went down in price.

Star Trek Nemesis

Star Trek Nemesis is the fourth and final film in the Next Generation series. I watched this, and the rest of the films, with my dad and at the end he said "I had never seen that one before." I find that hard to believe. This movie ended the series in a pretty nice way. This movie was about nemeses. The bad guy in this film is the new Romulan Praetor and he is a clone of Captain Picard. He is everything that Picard is not, selfish, egotistical and hungry for power/ revenge. It could be argued that several other nemesis type relationships exist in this movie. The one that caught my eye the most was between the android Data and a brother of his they discover named B4. Data strives to be more human and to understand how humans work, B4 can't seem to grasp this. In the end, in a truly human behavior,  Data sacrifices himself to save the rest of his crew something that B4 would never do. The movie ends with Data dead, Riker and Troi are married and Riker has his own command as Captain of the USS titan.

Overall I have truly enjoyed the Star Trek TNG series. The characters are likable and they grow.  The episodes while very procedural have a tendency to surprise you. The casting is always great. The attention to detail is amazing. Most of all the message that the show sends is the best part, in the future technology will take us to a point where money doesn't matter, nobody is want of anything, and everyone strives to work in unison to better humanity.

Kill Alex Cross

Why I bought it: I didn't. My grandpa bought it twice because he is forgetful and I benefited.

Thoughts: This post is monumental in the fact that it is the first book I have ever logged. I started this book a couple months ago, and finished 60% of it tonight after dinner. To say the least, this is an easy read. Combine the fact that it has two-page chapters, large font and only 300 pages and you have a book that you can finish in one day if you really want to. Plus, it's fast-paced and fun. This book is definitely set up to make the reader feel smart. And you know what? I like that. I want to feel that, damn it!

 While I have seen Alex Cross in movies (Along Came a Spider), I have never read an Alex Cross book. In fact, I have never read a James Patterson book. I was pleasantly surprised. Not because he's the most amazing writer in the world, but because the experience was rewarding. I guess sometimes it's good to experience a story in a non-visual form.

As far as the plot goes, it wasn't that strong. There wasn't a lot of detail and the terrorist and kidnapping plots were foiled a little too easily for my taste. But, I'll take an easy read over a book with Dickensian-level detail (The Wire!) any day of the week.

Should I have bought it: Yes, because it reminded me that it's fun to read a book every once in a while.

National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets

Why I bought it: It was on sale and I already had the first one.

Thoughts: This is very similar to the first one. Almost too similar. If you are someone who has seen the first one and liked it, you will probably like this one. However, I watched this one a day after seeing the first one and the experience made one thing very evident. It's almost the exact same story with a slightly different treasure. Scene for scene, it is almost identical. From Ben Gates trying to save his family name from shame to Ben Gates having to find the treasure to avoid jail time, the lack of originality here is somewhat disconcerting. No wonder I couldn't differentiate between the two after I saw them the first time. Still, it was a fun ride and I'm not that upset I watched it. It's an easy recommend for someone who liked the first one but hasn't watched it in a while. Say what you want, but Nic Cage is damn charismatic.

Should I have bought it: For the sake of the completeness of my collection, yes.

Julie & Julia

Sometimes when I go home I forget to bring a book with me. I really like reading books before bed so that makes me a sad panda. So usually I search around my house until I find something halfway decent. Last time I was home, I found this book on my book shelf. I'm pretty sure I didn't buy it. I have no idea how it got there. But I have seen (and blogged about) the movie, so I figured I would give it a shot!

Hey, guess what?! This book is exactly the same as the movie. A sort of overweight foul mouthed government secretary drone is SICK AND TIRED of her life and decides to cook her way through Julia Child's Master the Art of French Cooking (I think that's the book, I didn't want to look it up). Anyways, antics ensue. She makes gelatin aspics. She kills lobsters. She tells zany stories about her friends (omitted from the movie). She becomes sorta food blog famous. Then she finishes and is happy and content with her life. The end.

Star Trek Insurrection

Star Trek The Next Generation Insurrection had a different feel from the first two movies. It seemed more isolated from previous entries in the Star Trek saga. There were no previous enemies in this movie. It was more like an extra long TV episode. 

The plot revolves around a planet with a strange Metaphasic aura that gives the people who live there a strange regenerative property allowing them to live an extended life. One of the federation ambassadors has allied with a questionable group that has developed a technology to harvest the particles. To complete the process they will need to relocate the indigenous people. It has a very trail of tears feel to it. Should they relocate this small group of people for the benefit of many more? 

In the end it turns out that the allies turn out to be former indigenous people that had been exiled. All hell breaks loose, a warp core is successfully ejected from the Enterprise and detonated, but in a Star Trek TNG feature film first the ship is not destroyed. 

Coyote Ugly

Man! This movie came out a long time ago! So long ago that the hip new imac was the best computer one could get for $1600. Also all the girls are wearing midriff baring backless shirts with leather pants. How 2000 of them!

Story! Blonde girl wants to leave her small jersey town to become a songwriter. She makes it to New York, lives in a shitty apartment, gets robbed, and can't find anyone to listen to her tapes. She hears she can make money as a "coyote" and decides "This is the job for me!" before knowing what it was. Turns out a coyote dances on bars promiscuously and serves drinks. Tyra Banks before she was old and crazy is a coyote. Our young songwriter is not good at this job at first. She sprays a fire marshall in the face with water and is utterly unsexy. Luckily, she gets into the groove and almost becomes a full fledged stripper. Then her Dad finds out and is SO ashamed of her. Then her BF comes to the club and gets into a fight. DRAMA! She's all like, I'm quitting, this job makes me have no dignity.

Great news though, she gets a gig (completely independent of the coyotes) singing her song and writes Dancing in the Moonlight for Leann /Rimes. Really, what I took out of this movie is, dancing on bars is slutty and it doesn't help you achieve your dreams of becoming a song writer. Do you think Steve was trying to send me a message with this Christmas gift?

Mario Tennis Open

Why I bought it: I bought it because I hadn't played my 3DS in a while and I wanted a game that Danielle and I could play together.

Thoughts: If I had to pick two words to describe this game the first word would be easy. Very easy. The basic formula for each match is that there are five basic shots you can hit. Depending on what type of shot you hit, the five different shots your opponent can hit will have varying effect. Some will be hard to return while others will set you up for power-up returns. These power-ups show up on the screen as colorful circles on the court. Depending on whether these circles are purple, white, yellow, red or blue determines what button you should hit to get an almost un-returnable shot. The strange thing though is that if you hit x you automatically do the more powerful shot, making this game easier than it already is.

The second word is fun. Yes this game is easy. Yes this game lacks some depth. But damn if the basic game of tennis isn't really fun. Tim and I played this game for four straight hours trying to defeat the doubles tandem of Waluigi and Bowser without letting them win a game. It was damn near impossible despite the fact that we won the first set without letting them score a point almost every time. This was a result of rubberband AI, but still, when we finally blanked those fucks it was quite rewarding.

The one-player aspect of this game is a series of 8 tournaments. 4 regular and 4 "star" tournaments. 7 out of the 8 tournaments were incredibly easy. I literally did not lose a set. However, the 8th tournament was incredibly hard. It took place on the "galaxy" court in which the court itself would change between shots, giving the ball different spins after hitting the ground. Every fourth shot or so, the court would change to a purple-super-nova-looking thing and there was no way to tell where the ball was going, of course, unless you are CPU. This purple-super-nova-looking thing made beating Bowser in the championship exceptionally hard. It took me about 7 tries.

Anyway, like I said before, this game does not offer a lot of depth. The only things you can unlock are just clothes for your Mii (did I mention you can play as your Mii?). You don't unlock new characters or new rackets for the Nintendo mascots. There's really no reason to play through with more than one character. But, if you've liked Mario Tennis in the past and you want to be able to play it on the go, this game is great.

Should I have bought it: Yes. This is one of my most played 3DS games. 

Final Fantasy Tactics

With all due respect to the previous games and single t.v. season I've posted so far in this ridiculous month of January, they were mostly small potatoes. With the beating of Final Fantasy Tactics, I can finally feel like I've had a great month of posting. Of course, finishing almost any Final Fantasy game feels like a major accomplishment because they can be pretty tough and are usually among the longest games in my backlog. Final Fantasy Tactics is one of the toughest games in the series to get into- I started this last August and after a few hours couldn't stand it; then after getting another 10-15 hours in earlier this month I still felt like the game made no sense and had little motivation to keep going. The game required a few different conversations with Stan, who's played through it a few times, as well as multiple readings of guides on gamefaqs to figure out why I had such a shitty party who would routinely get their ass kicked. This is because I was playing Final Fantasy Tactics like any other Final Fantasy game, when truthfully it's the black sheep of the series and can't simply be brute-forced, it needs to be figured out. Seriously, the gambit system of Final Fantasy XII and the junctioning of Final Fantasy VIII are child's play compared to the learning curve in Final Fantasy Tactics. First off, there's no puzzles or quests or exploring environments- the game is made up entirely of battles, shopping/customizing characters, and cutscenes. Not even those fancy CGI cut-scenes that the PS1-era Final Fantasy games did so well, it all takes place on the battlefield. Oh yeah, speaking of which, there's a battlefield! Now your party runs around on a large grid, with attacks and spells having increased effects based on how close your target is. Leveling up solely to level up is basically pointless in Tactics, you need to grind out random battles in a very specific way. You gain job points from successfully hitting a target, or using an item, or really any successful action on the battlefield, but only for whatever job you are currently. You can then spend these points on abilities specific to your current job type in four categories- actions (different spells for a wizard, different ranged attacks for a monk, the ability to use different items as a chemist, etc.), counter abilities (counter attack, auto-potion), passive abilities (magic attack increased, increased speed), and move abilities (increase the range you can move, walk on water). Each character in your party can be set with one of each ability regardless of their current job, and then they also get a second action ability based on their current job. This means (and was something that took me a long time to figure out!) that from the start you should have some idea as to what abilities you want your characters to have, and then simply work towards that goal. Some abilities are far more powerful than others, so going in with no plan meant I was just spending all of my job points on random crap that didn't help me at all. I always thought knights were a pretty useful job in any Final Fantasy, but in Tactics they rarely are until end-game, so when I finally switched my weak-ass knight to a monk with some ranged powerful attacks, suddenly the game got much easier and started making a lot more sense. The latter half of the game turned out to be really fun, which is great because I was starting to dread the fact that the sequel, Final Fantasy Tactics: Advance was on my backlog as well. I probably won't get to that for a while, but at least now I'm looking forward to it.

Dinosaur

Why I bought it: I got it free for buying two Disney Blu-rays in the same month.

Thoughts: The movie begins with us following an egg as it is picked up bye a Pterodactyl and dropped hundreds of miles away from its original nest. From this egg hatches a dinosaur. This dinosaur is then raised by monkeys. Were monkeys and dinosaurs alive in the same era? Anyway, the dinosaur grows up and come monkey mating season realizes that he doesn't have a mate of his own. There was a little bit too much hinting of a possible dinosaur/monkey romantic relationship. This is all fine and dandy until an asteroid hits earth. The rest of the movie is this dinosaur trying to save his monkeys from this new post-asteroid world and get them to "the nesting grounds" in which the rivers are full of water and the trees are full of leaves. Upon thinking about it, this movie is basically Lion King meets Finding Nemo (Dinosaur's parents died) meets Land Before Time. The one thing I really enjoyed about this movie (besides the dinosaurs) is that it used computer animated dinosaurs on top of live action scenery. This is done all the time in documentaries about dinosaurs, but I have never seen the technique used in an animated feature film aimed at children. The effect was actually pretty impressive and I am surprised there haven't been a lot of movies released like this. Maybe I'll show this to my kids one day. I'm sure they would enjoy it.

Should I have bought it: Because I bought an extra blu-ray to qualify to get this for free, I did not buy this. However, this movie wasn't very great so I wish I hadn't bought that extra blu-ray. My backlog would have been two movies shorter.

Portal

Jeremy convinced me that I needed to get a steam account. I did. Once I had a Steam account I realized that it makes no sense to have one without any games to play. I decided that my interest in the concept of Portal and the fact that it happened to be on sale (something for which I am told that Steam is famous) pushed me to purchase Portal and Portal 2. I beat this game in a little over 4 hours and I loved every minute of game play. There are still some bonus maps I can attempt but I wanted to post with the credits fresh in my mind.

First and foremost I had watched Kyle play a little bit of this game and I know that GlaDos' talking points are great. Unfortunately, I did a little bit of multi tasking and played a lot of this game while simultaneously watching Star Trek movies. I did do chapters 18 and 19 with the sound on and I was not let down. At one point she told me that "nobody likes you and you were adopted so that is funny." There is always the classic "cake is a lie" and "I was going to throw a party and invite your friend Companion Cube." I will definitely replay this game with the sound on.

As far as the game play is concerned this is my first real leap into PC gaming and I was not let down. This game has such a creative and original concept to it that I was intrigued from the moment I heard about it. Simply put there is a portal making gun that you acquire and it allows you to shoot blue portals that connect to orange portals. At first you can only control the blue side and the orange side is fixed. Eventually you are able to control both portals and the possible combinations of entry and exit portals are endless. It takes some real creativity to figure out some of the puzzles and to place the portals at exactly the right spot and to sometimes jump out of the portals at exactly the right height or with the right momentum.

The only part I thought was a little weird was the final boss. I mean, the game would have felt incomplete without some final conquest but it felt a tad out of place considering it was the first and only real "boss" in the game. That being said there is nothing in this game that has dissuaded me from tackling the second one (which I already own). I am thirsty for more!

Wave Race 64

Why I bought it: This was given to my brothers and me as a Christmas present to go along with our first home console, Nintendo 64. For those interested, we also received NBA Hangtime and Cruisin' USA. Christmas 1997 was definitely my favorite Christmas ever.

Thoughts: I debated on whether to play this game on the Nintendo 64 or my Wii Virtual Console. Though the Nintendo 64 graphics look like absolute dog shit on my flat-panel television, I wanted to be able to use that Nintendo 64 controller. In retrospect, that probably made this game much harder than it needed to be. For those of you who don't remember, the single joystick on the Nintendo 64 is incredibly loose. Combine that with the really responsive handling of these Jet Skis and what you get is a game that feels broken. Thankfully, I eventually discovered (after about an hour) that you could customize the sensitivity of your controls. After that realization, the game became much less difficult and much better. The concept of this game is simple enough. You race Jet Skis against racers on a circuit of 6-8 races, depending on what difficulty you select. When I got to the character selection screen, I was greeted with only four characters to choose from. Still, I was not disappointed, because apparently my brothers and I decided to change their names. Fittingly enough, considering it was 1997 and none of us had very sophisticated senses of humor, we named them "Biatch", "Horse Shit", "Hugh Gass" and "Unlce F-ck" (I'm blaming Ryan). Apparently, we did not feel that spelling out fuck was appropriate. Anyway, Horse Shit was a blonde female, Biatch was an African American, Hugh Gass was a fat white man and Uncle Fuck reminded me of Mark Wahlberg.

I began the first race and quickly realized that you have certain buoys that you must either pass on the right or left (much like Slalom Skiing). Trying to navigate buoys while taking blind, sharp corners proved to be difficult, but it didn't ruin the game. Also, you could easily execute tricks like barrel rolls and flips. However, these tricks usually just caused me to crash and lose a race. After about two hours, I was able to complete the 6 circuit cup on hard difficulty and retire this game for good. Though it took me two hours, a good racer could complete the entirety of the circuit in about 12 minutes.

I remember as a kid I mostly just did practice in which I could do as many tricks as I wanted without having to worry about racing. Though I remember being able to do tons of tricks, in reality you can only do about four. It entertained me then, but the racing in itself is somewhat uninspired.

Should I have bought it: I am glad my parents bought this for my brothers and me. Granted, I believe they only bought it for us because it was one of three games at Target that offered multiplayer, but still. This game was a big part of my childhood and I am glad that I was finally able to complete it.

Beyonders: A World Without Heroes

My brother got this book for free, read it and backlogged it then proceeded to peer pressure me into reading  it as well. So I did to preserve my sanity. The book wasn't bad, I don't think it lives up to the Rick Riordan series that I've read but it is middle ground for Young Adult fantasy (of which I am an unlikely enthusiast). The characters were interesting, the world he has created was original and the intrigue is just starting. Most of the complaints I had at the start of the novel, like the plot progressing too easily, were addressed to my satisfaction. I am interested to read the second book, there is potential!

Girls Season One

It's funny how there's so many award-winning television shows in HBO's history that are all available to watch on demand when you get the channel, yet the one that pushed Katie and I to finally make that purchase was Girls- the awkward and controversial comedy that's just begun its second season a week ago. We watched through the first five episodes at Stan's house on Friday and got instantly addicted, catching up to the second season the following night. Girls' is pretty funny and derives most of its humor from how terrible most of the main characters are- take every stereotype you have about people who move to New York immedately after college, and you'll find it here. The girls and their friends are also awkward as all hell, which has now been done to death on network tv but is fresh on HBO where they're able to get away with swearing a nudity and thus push it to new heights. When we watched as a group the other night there were plenty of moments where it seemed like everyone watching couldn't believe that just happened on tv. Many times camera will linger just long enough on awkward situation that it's just brutal to watch, but in a good way. The show might not be for everyone- there's no one really to root for on the show, but the characters aren't complete zany caricatures of regular people like the cast of Always Sunny and The Office- still though, if you like the pilot, season one of Girls will bring the laughs pretty consistently.

The West Wing (Season1)

This show was something I was always aware of, all my friends are fans even those in the UK which I find odd. Last month Netflix added all the seasons and I said what the hell, let's do this thing.

That being said, I want to marry this show and have its liberal and very political babies. Very dramatic, but well paced, this look at the inner workers of the Presidents interior cabinet is entertaining and in places very dark and very funny. Wonderful cast and I do appreciate a liberal NH President with the name of his owns states signer of the Declaration of Independence. There is something to be said about the character building that makes Bradley Whitford more attractive than Rob Lowe.

Honestly what I enjoy the most, other than the walk and talk, is the complicated set of relationships between the "main characters" and their assistants. I look forward to finishing season 2!

The Mark of Athena (Book 3 Heroes of Olympus) by Rick Riordan

I was too lazy to log the previous two books in this series, but if you enjoyed the first series of Percy Jackson books this series is fantastic. Funny, interesting, with a mix of old faces and new faces as the heroes of camp Half Blood find them mixed up with the heroes of New Rome to fight Gaea as well as the split personalities of their gods. This book, damn you Riordan and your cliff hangers!

Star Trek First Contact

This movie starts with the new ship, the Enterprise E. In the first scene they learn that one of their arch enemy races, the Borg, has returned and are ready to assimilate humanity to their cyborg status. This time they intend to assimilate them in the past. Using a temporal distortion field the Borg travel back in time, accidentally sucking the Enterprise through the portal with them. They arrive in the past one day before the human race had first contact with  foreign life form. They spend the rest of the movie learning that the man who introduced warp speed technology to the human race was not the hero they had imagined. In fact this "hero" was a drunken degenerate whom they had to force to go through with his mission so that history could sustain itself. They also manage to crash yet another enterprise so we can all look forward to the enterprise F in the next post. I probably should have been paying more attention while watching because I can't recall how they managed to get back to their own time. (I was playing Portal while watching this movie)

The thing I hated most about this movie was that they gave Geordi eye transplants that seems to be mechanical in nature but never explain why or when it happened. This upset me almost as much as when they just randomly killed off the two enemy Klingon sisters lursa and b'etor in Generations.

Justified: Season 1

After two posts earlier today on disappointing items, it's my pleasure to end the day on a positive note. I caught the premiere of Justified back in the spring of 2010 and enjoyed it, but quickly fell behind on the show when school projects and other happenings prevented me from being able to watch it every Tuesday night at 10:00. (These would be the last few months I'd spend without DVR, and I have no idea how I'd ever go back.) I did manage to catch the final few episodes of the season at Sween's place after graduating and moving back home. I liked what I saw once again, and starting with Season 2 I've watched every episode since. But I never saw that middle chunk of Season 1, and as such I was missing a lot of context during the later parts of Season 1 and also plenty of Season 2. So for a few weeks now I've been catching up on the first season on Blu-ray with Marissa, who also jumped into the series in the middle of its run (for her, Season 3).

This show has all of the necessary elements to work, from multidimensional characters to a well-defined environment and the correct balance of episodic plots and season-long arcs. Most of all, Timothy Olyphant is masterfully cast here as Raylan Givens, a U.S. Marshal with a cowboy hat, a quick draw, and bucketfuls of swagger and charisma; he brings a wild west mentality to the hick-ridden bowels of Eastern Kentucky, and it just plain works. So does the complicated relationship web of Raylan, childhood friend Boyd Crowder, their fathers, and their ex-lovers. Anytime Raylan and Boyd share the screen it's just sheer delight to listen to their dialogue, and to call their relationship "complicated" would be the short version of things but also perfectly adequate.

We plan to watch Season 2 soon, and it sounds like there may be interest from others as well; we could certainly make an event out of this if anyone else wanted to. For now, I'll just reiterate what a treat this first season of Justified was. I'm glad I went back to fill in the gaps I'd missed.