Month: August 2013

The Lost Boy: a richly illustrated fantasy tale by Greg Ruth

cover31012-medium“Some mysteries are too dangerous to leave alone…”

Nate’s not happy about his family moving to a new house in a new town.  After all, nobody asked him if he wanted to move in the first place.  But when he discoveres a tape recorder and note addressed to him under the floorboards of his bedroom, Nate is thrust into a dark mystery about a boy who went missing many, many years ago.  (from the official description)

So this is not the Dave Pelzer book. Continue reading “The Lost Boy: a richly illustrated fantasy tale by Greg Ruth”

ICYMI More Instagram videos: free candy is good candy and an Elysium video review

In Case You Missed It (because I posted these at 1am in the morning and somehow you’re online at 10p on a Friday) Continue reading “ICYMI More Instagram videos: free candy is good candy and an Elysium video review”

Elysium is a nice place to visit, but not the best film this summer

If I go to sleep before writing this review I might not remember to do it.  So I apologize if I’m not coherent now.  I don’t have an excuse for the other times I’m incoherent.  Saw Elysium tonight and while I enjoyed the film, it could have been better.  It’s not because I don’t support tales where poverty-class protagonists raise themselves out of the dirt to become heroes.  No, it’s because I feel like Elysium could have been epic and instead I feel like the story suffered from either uninspired writing or a desire to shape the movie to message.

Matt Damon is Max and he’s a guy raised by nuns who likes a girl who is a nurse and one of his coping strategies in a world of poverty is crime.  So he’s got a history as a car thief.  But he’s trying to do good now.  He’s got a job…but it all goes wrong and he ends up a hippopotamus.  Luckily a cute girl is a meerkat. Continue reading “Elysium is a nice place to visit, but not the best film this summer”

Maybe I’ll just instagram everything.

Hello internet!  I have a YouTube channel that I’m not even going to link to because I don’t know the last time I posted to it and my most popular video is like 94k views on five seconds of Spieling Peter Pan.  Oh my god I only like videos from cute boy vloggers?  Um hold on while I make my feed activity a little less embarrassing.  Why google feels the need to broadcast my activity on YouTube I don’t know.

I think and I could be wrong that I’m just going to start posting a lot of short things on Instagram.  Like tonight I’m going with Alethea to see Elysium.  So you might get fifteen seconds of me saying that I enjoyed the film.  Something boring like that.  Fifteen seconds of me drinking iced coffee, complaining about how hard it was to find parking at Starbucks. Continue reading “Maybe I’ll just instagram everything.”

This is not a review of Noggin by @corey_whaley

This is more of a brag post. I think I did a haul blog last night so why not?  I finished Noggin last night.  This morning.  It was after 5am that I finished and the darkness of night was easing up.  But I finished.  I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve finished a book in one day—a real book—so I want to brag about that too.  But mostly I want to sing the praises of Noggin.  I didn’t actually get any sleep today so if I wander through life in a catatonic zombie state, this is why.  And it was well worth it.

Noggin is the story of Travis.  Sixteen year old Travis had lost his battle with cancer and in a last ditch effort agreed to a medical experiment to cryogenically preserve his head.  Maybe in the future, science would be able to bring him back to a life he could live.  Five years later, his head is grafted on the body of a teenage boy who died of a brain tumor.  Travis returns, a visitor in a familiar world that looks so much like the life he lived but in those five years, a lot has changed. Continue reading “This is not a review of Noggin by @corey_whaley”

New Release Tuesday; Wise Young Fool, The Surprise Attack of Jabba the Puppet, and more

I did not buy a book yesterday.  I finished a book and I was at a bookstore but I didn’t buy anything.  Which is good because I knew that it was the day before New Release Tuesday and I would be buying books.  If you told me that I would be going to four different bookstores I’d tell you that sounded unlikely and foolish.  But I did.  I shall also discuss a galley or two that I assume I can disclose … I have not received instructions I can’t. Continue reading “New Release Tuesday; Wise Young Fool, The Surprise Attack of Jabba the Puppet, and more”

The Nintendo 3DS and the quest for the green light

I don’t recommend reading this post if you do not care about Nintendo, foursquare check ins, and so forth.  Last night I downloaded the system update for the Nintendo 3DS to unlock the StreetPass Relay Points.  And then today I went around to several places to try and use said StreetPass Relay Points.  This is a recap of where I went. Continue reading “The Nintendo 3DS and the quest for the green light”

So good. The Legend of Korra Book One Art Book.

A lot of what you see on television is rubbish and nonsense.  And I’m not just talking about the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.  Sometimes there are brief moments of brilliance and joy.  The Legend of Korra was one of those brief fleetings of joy.  “Book One” (or the first season) was twelve episodes of a deeply imagined world of asian influenced wonder and alternate history fantasy that was animated with a care seldom seen on television.

Before we get to watch Book Two, an actual book, “The Legend of Korra:  The Art of the Animated Series Book One” has been released which provides a rich look into the background of the production of Book One.  I’m afraid it will really only appeal to fans of the show.  I was provided with a copy of the digital galley via Netgalley.  Due to the limitations of this copy, I was unable to read some of the captions.  However, I feel that the primary draw of the book is the art which looks gorgeous.