Reading category update: Been down and out with a sinus infection lately, and decided that I just couldn't stand studying the whole time. I started and finished Only in Death, the latest Gaunt's Ghosts novel. It was exactly what I was expecting, comfortably okay military sci-fi. I like Major Rawne because he's a bastard, and he had some good face-time in this one, so I was content.

Next up, I'm finally getting started on some of The Dresden Files books. My wife's been telling me I'll love 'em for years, so I'm caving and about to start on the first one.

Reading:
* Sadly... nothing right now. Haven't have the urge to hit the library lately. Its too cold.

Watching:
* Recently watched D-Wars (Dragon Wars), which was surprisingly fun. I picked it up for a couple bucks when I wa shunting for a B movie and I think it was well worth it. It's still a B movie, but its actually pretty good, especially for a first time director.
* Waiting for Volume 4 of Heroes to start up. No idea if it will suck or not, but I'm going to watch it anyway.

Playing:
* Team Fortress 2, but its getting stale
* Warhammer Online, which I'll be dropping this soon because I just can't get into it.
* LEGO Star Wars 1, LEGO Star Wars 2, and LEGO Indiana Jones. What can I say? My son and I are mildly obsessed with all things LEGO.
* Shadowrun 4, just joined a new group. Hopefully it will run for a while, because I'm really wanting to do some playing, rather than GMing all the time.
* Hopefully, I'll be able to start alternating my own SRM Denver with a friend's 7th Sea game soon.

-paws

Reading: Dragons Wild [Robert Asprin], For Those Who Fell [William C Dietz Legion Series Book 6]

Watching: Movie buff. I own over 2000 dvds plus got netflix (so I get streaming & to my door). Not big on TV though. I watched Black Sheep last night and I have to say that it was a really enjoyable campy mock horror romp. I think I'll stick some geneticly engeenered blood thirsty sheep into my game sometime to keep my players on their toes.

Playing: Fallout 3. Fable 2. Gears of War 2. Oh, P&P I run SR4. I think one of the guys is going to start running a game soon though! YEA! I might get to play for the first time in 5 years!

Reading:
The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein - a treatise on the way corporate/government collusion uses disaster and catastrophe (military coup, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina) as opportunities to force extreme capitalism onto those who would otherwise resist. Obvious connections to Shadowrun. Early in the book, but a good read so far.

Watching:
Flashpoint on TV. Really good stories and acting, and it takes place in my home town, Toronto. Tactics melded with decency. What a concept.

Playing:
Nothing. Currently living in a small town in the frozen woods of Alberta. The one and only game store never heard of Shadowrun. Lots of Warhammer, though. You'd think in a redneck town full of hunters and snowmobilers there would be interest in a game rife with shooting stuff. I should make some effort to get people hooked.

Got Civilization IV finally... my video card doesn't have enough memory. Easy to fix? Not in a laptop.

NYC2123

a graphic novel thingy. haven't read yet, but seeing as it's cyberpunk i figure i'd post it here.

Reading : Finished Legion of the Damned = ok, but typical of 90's gung-ho American military sci-fi. Now moving onto Mindstar Rising for the nth time [cyberpunk set in the UK, after global economic, political and environmental troubles]

Watching : Just watched Heavy Metal, the animated 90's movie = interesting ideas, animation style is very old fashioned, but the soundtrack is great !!

Reading - Excession by Iain M Banks. (Worst Banks I've read.) Thinking about reading Matthiessen's The Snow Leopard next.

Watching - NA

Playing - ugh, WOW (Japanasuit: "The Halloweeners are causing problems down by the docks. We need to thin down their numbers, so'ka? Bring me 15 of their masks." *return with masks: rewarded 15 nuyen, reputation with Shiawase +250* "The Halloweeners are too organized. This new leader is making trouble for our business interests. Kill him and bring me his flamer." /die

That would be Inversions for me. I hated Excession on the first read. Liked it the second time.

Reading : Ravenor - WH40K trilogy featuring Eisenhorn's protege Ravenor in Inquisitional romping through the Imperium of Man [lovely mix of steampunk-eque action/feel and Cthulhu-esque Big Bad Monsters].

Watching : Just bough Appleseed Ex Machina and Ghost In The Shell : Stand Alone Complex box set 1 - Looking forward to both for ideas, background and inspiration.

Just finished Market Forces [by Richard Morgan, of the Takeshi Kovacs trilogy] - Life and times of a Corporate Executive. Set in an England, with clear lines of haves and have notes, promotion is via ritualised car and gum combat.

Interesting to see the "other" view, and lots of things for a group to do in a Corp-based game [and excellent material for SLA Industries or Corporation]

Time for an update -

Reading: Finished both Harry Potter and The Steel Remains. Half-Blood price was best Potter so far, very enjoyable. Steel Remains was good. I found Morgan's sci-fi better than this fantasy though. I don't know if he's planning a trilogy, but the book is set up for sequels, if he wants.

Movies/TV: No update. Sarah Connor Chronicles started back. A bit slow so far. I give them benefit of the doubt. Whedon's Dollhouse is now playing. Not very good so far, but I can see potential. Have to remember Whedon's shows get better over time.

Gaming: FarCry 2 - argh. So boring. Finally finished it. It had some redeeming points, but overall, not a very good game. Did not touch Gears 2 yet. Got Fable II, and finished it. I enjoyed it immensily, and a surprise hit with the wife too. So very good game there. Unfortunatly my 360 HD died today. There go all my save games (IMG:style_emoticons/default/frown.gif)

Ouch, I feel your pain Backgammon.

Update!

Reading - Syrup, Max Barry. The book he wrote before Jennifer Government (which was excellent! This is definite SR material!), this one about a marketer with an awesome idea for Coke in a black can, a corporate assassin named 6, and the coolest Korean this side of The Dude. I haven't been able to put too much of a dent in it yet as I've been so tired from work, but it's classic Barry humor.

Watching - The Soup, Clone Wars, Dog the Bounty Hunter, Burn Notice, Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory, (*cough*) American Idol. I'll admit it; I'm a big pop culture junkie. I blame my girl. But The Soup makes reality tv palatable, I love how manipulated Idol is, and I'm a softie: I love Dog. I think that for all the cowboy shit that he gets accused for (some of it warranted, honestly) he's a good guy doing a hard job trying to make a difference in people's lives. He apologizes to the criminals he catches for being an adrenaline junkie and they make sure to bring a cooler full of water & soda and clean shirts and stuff to give to the people they catch. He just seems like a nice guy.

By the way, when I finally get around to writing that campaign thing in Hawaii, Dog is so going in there. As a troll.

Playing - Wario Ware: Shake It!, The Force Unleashed, No More Heroes. Old school platforming goodness with a meaty center, force chokes, and cutting people in half. I love video games.

My favorite right now is Force Unleashed. Where else can you get a power where you levitate people, leave 'em hanging in the air, and then toss shit at them? And if they don't die from the first wave? Throw your lightsaber through them. I laugh like a mad man when I play this game.

Quick update:

Reading:

• Blue Jean Buddha. I'm not sure why, but I saw this on display at the library and felt compelled to pick it up. I haven't really had a chance to start reading it yet.

EDIT: I love Google Books. It gives me something to do during my downtime at work. Anyway... Wow! This actually ties into Shadowrun, if you can believe that. There's a story starting on page 22 that screams "Runners Way" physical adept. But then it gets better at the bottom of page 25, when the guy starts talking about Tendi Monks from Japan. My god. There are some freakin' adepts! Linky

Just Watched:

• Spiderwick Chronicles. Surprisingly fun. Its a fairy tale (literally) that isn't dumbed down. In fact, several of the fairies are kind of nasty.
• Coraline 3-D. Pretty good fairytale. Very kid friendly, despite what you may have heard. Technically, the 3-D effects are much better than they used to be, though it seems to work best for adding depth to still and slow moving objects; when things start moving too fast, there's a very annoying motion blur.

Playing:

• Team Fortress 2. I'm not sure why, but this just keeps drawing me back. Scout update is supposed to be out this week. I can't wait to see how the new unlock items actually play.
• Starcraft. The Original & Brood War. Another old addiction that has drawn me back. Easy enough that my 5yr old has (mostly) figured out how to play, which has made for some fun, but unproductive weekends lately.

-paws

Reading Harlequin and Harlequins back- for research purposes. Runners companion- cause I just got it. Love RC so far, played around with making an infected and a SURGE'd character this afternoon. Not ad easy build on either but I think if you put some time and background into them it could be fun.

Watching Babylon A.D.- not bad over all. Vin Diesel is...well, Vin Diesel...nothing new there. The movie had some good points but ending was a disapointment. nice visuals of NY that are SR'ish. I'd give it 2.5 stars.
Metalocalypse: season 1: all i can say is"All Hail Dethklok!!!"

Playing Mass Effect- love it. am playing probably my 15th run through. Perfect Dark: Zero.- Pretty but I am having issues with the controls. Probably me though. had a similar issue with Fable 2, B button casts spells in that one, kept scaring the peasants with lightning . (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

Reading: Thud!(Discworld); Sharpe's Triumph(Sharpe); and White Night(The Dresden Files). That, and the Dark Heresy critical hit tables.

Playing: Freelancer, which makes my recently-finished playthrough the fifth, I should think. And a bit of Rise of Nations. My computer is completely incapable of running anything that's been released after '05.

Reading: US Senate Manual; documentation on bluebird, artichoke, MKDELTA, MKULTRA; Conspiracy X: Aegis Handbook; Conspiracy X 2.0; Neo-Anarchist Guide to North America; The Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil

Watching: CSI Miami - S07E16

Take the sunglasses off. Put the sunglasses on. Snarky quip.

YEAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Be glad they did not choose Keanu Reeves as CSI Miami's Horatio Caine.

-Chrysalis

Yeah, instead it would be

WHOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Det. Caine: "Strange things are afoot...
[puts on sunglasses]
[beat]
Det. Caine: "...at the Circle-K."
[fade]
SFX: YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!

Actually, that would freaking rock.

Who watched the Watchmen?
i know i did, and it freaking rocked, even with the german synchro for Rohrschach sucking Manhattens thermonuclear Dong . .
Pretty much Blood and Gory innards Style, but eh . . somehow i think it hasn't even gotten the 18/NC Mark over here yet O.o

Best scenes:
"The World will look up to me and shout 'SAVE US!' and i will whisper 'NO!'"
"I AIN'T TRAPPED IN HERE WITH YOU! YOU ARE TRAPPED IN HERE WITH ME!"

Reading: The Encyclopedia of Things That Never Were.

Watching: Monstervision, a show hosted by Joe Bob Briggs (real name: John Bloom) from 1996-2000 on TNT. I had thought the show was lost forever, but I've discovered an active community that preserves/trades/sells old episodes. Sent some rare ones out for remastering; they should look really sweet when the project is completed. Its a shame that TNT cancelled this program. Being able to watch it again has brought back some good memories.

Man, Monstervision used to be my younger selves reason to stay up late in the summer! There were all sorts of terrible movies on there. That's awesome that there's a community preserving them.

Yeah, it blew my mind when I found out. These guys are a niche market...well, really a niche of a niche...but they are dedicated.

Should anyone out there like to contribute to the cause (by sending those old Monstervision episodes in for preservation), or would like to get hooked up with the community, PM me and I'll give you the info.