Days in bullet points, or, My Past Couple of Days

BLOT: (15 Sep 2011 - 12:38:15 PM)

Days in bullet points, or, My Past Couple of Days

Stayed up, Tuesday night, until 2am finishing James Herbert's The Fog (LGT: my rough draftish review on Goodreads).
Woke up, the next day, 7am. Felt hungover. Stayed up, did things, until about 8am and then decided to lay down for a minute.
Woke up, again, this time at 1:30pm. Had simply passed out for about five hours and really did not feel like it at all.
After I made a quick lunch of ramen, sat down and finished watching the last few eps of Brisco County, Jr. I'm going to miss that show but do kind of feel that without some bit of shaking up, it probably had run its course. The only storyline I felt needed more was the Dixie Cousins one, and I think the way it ended was appropriately sentimental. If anything, the Socrates Poole as a federal liason episodes (the last seven or so) felt like a tacked on storyline. Maybe they knew cancellation was likely and they were trying to shift ideas from the next season unto the end of the first? Don't know.
Partially inspired by my watching Brisco, I've been working on a Western RPG that allows for a mix of playing styles. At the core of the system is a poker dice mechanic and a playing card mechanic to resolve damage. The big issue with poker dice is that it is hard to match to stats. I can build in a system of rerolls, but then you end up strategizing more than playing the system. I have a few ideas that I'm going to just play and play and play until I start getting the sense that a fun game is in the making.
In other game news, finally played Arkham Horror. That seems to warrant a post so I'll save it for now.
Yesterday, waking up at the 1:30pm, walked into the kitchen and picked up a weird smell. Traced it to a half bag of potatoes on the shelf. Picking it up, got splattered with a brown slime that had quoted the underside.
Later on, while cooking some beef for spaghetti, I got splattered by the beef "juice" when I tried to put the beef into the frying pan. Sarah got splattered by the tomato sauce opening the can. September 14 is apparently the day of exploding foods.
My brother David turned me on to The Python Challenge. If you don't like "riddles" and don't know/like the Python programming language, might not mean much to you. If you both A and B then give it a shot.
Finished Torchwood: Miracle Day. It was ok. I have a fun post brewing about the last couple of eps so I think I'll save my comments for later.
Watched The Fear via Netflix last night. Not only was the movie itself poor (let me just say that the Morty special effects were *thumbs up* and easily the best thing in the flick), but it was the worst DVD I've seen. It's main menu had the publishing company's logo bigger than the movie title, had one arrow that went back to the FBI warning message, and another arrow that played the movie with "continuous play" (scenes in order). There was third option that was random scene access. I didn't try it so I don't know if that means it would play the whole movie in random order or if it would merely pick a scene at random. In a lot of ways, it struck me as someone who had made a music-DVD in the past, concert DVDs or something, and just stuck to their shitty template. By the way, the movie itself was edited. I have no idea how the movie flows when unedited, but as an edited movie it regularly bailed on scenes because nudity or foul language was coming. Gave the whole thing an unbelievably amateurish feel. If I could get the unedited version, without payment, I'd probably give it another chance.
I downloaded a Wilco album: Yankee, Hotel, Foxtrot. I've known of Wilco for years but have never felt a huge urge to seek out their music. After listening to their "I Might" on 170MillionAmericans' Raise Your Voice [Note: excellent free album for signing up for a pro-NPR/Public Broadcasting newsletter], though, I felt there was something worth looking up there. And then it turns out their song "Jesus, etc" has a lyric I have been looking for for a bit: "Every star is a setting sun" [hence why I went for this album, as well as the fact that it was the one regularly mentioned by Wilco-heads or whatever they are called]. However, I don't mind the music but it is inspiring the same sort of "I guess it's ok" response in me as before. Three or four songs are definitely worth a spin, but I would be wary saying that the other seven or eight will get regular play from me. I'm not going to delete it or anything, and might actually like it more on repeat listens, but I don't see myself digging up another unless someone recommends.
I also downloaded MC Frontalot's Solved. Good fun. His talent is more obvious, though his immediate nerdiness is possibly less so, each album that he releases. I dig it. Head to that link and clicky-click the purchase button.
Just FYI, by "download", I mean in the sense of "paid for and then downloaded through legal means". I only make this distinction in honor of one of the songs from Front's new disk, "Captains of Industry":
Try to sell music, they look at you funny.
Not a transaction that necessitates money,
not with the true cunning of the kids in the know.
But you look at them cheering - notice what?
They don't sew.
Don't go to the print shop
and silkscreen their own,
yet they're always needing something to
cover the torso.
That's why MC Lars and I provide a product,
sit atop high fashion. Inventory! You got it.
Costume glasses, mouse pads, robot USBs.
Captains are we. Of what? Industry!
...
My boy Front is in the tee shirt business.
My man Lars is in the tee shirt business.
Look at us, we're in the tee shirt business.
I thought we were musicians - what is this?
I guess that's about it. I'm sure I could dig up more if I tried real hard, but I'll leave it there.