Things that are Good For You (maybe)
We went to DI on Wednesday night and bought an exercise bike. Except the display didn't work when we tried it, so first we put it on hold, ran across the street to a convenience store, bought a 9 volt battery, went back to DI, hunted down someone with a screwdriver, replaced the battery, and tested it again. It worked. So we bought it. Except then we discovered (not surprisingly) that it didn't fit in our trunk, not even with the seats down. So we called our friend who owns a truck. His phone was dead. (Literally. It fell in a lake. Resuscitation efforts are underway.) So we drove to his apartment and hijacked his truck. (Not really. But we did have to tear him away from Borderlands.) THEN we got to take it home. So far I've ridden it a total of 9 miles (3.5 on Wed night, and 4.5 tonight) in two half-hour sessions, and I've pretty much determined that (as much as I hate to admit it) it's easier to do it when watching something on the TV. My current choices are Invader Zim and Dark Wing Duck, but I also promised to try Merlin for my friend. I think I might try music sometimes too, but not til I charge my shuffle and put a better assortment on there.
Other endeavors of late:
I finished the second two Peter and the Starcatchers sequels, which were decent. Not as good as the first in my opinion, but still enjoyable. Sequel to Wake (Fade) was okay but still too much swearing/other questionable stuff for my taste. The rest of the Dresden Files was fantastic (I even liked Turn Coat which apparently most people didn't). Go read it now. Wings was quite a fun read, kind of fluffy but I like that every so often. Melting Stones by Tamora Pierce was all right but not my favorite; her other books in that world are better. City of Ashes was all right but not as good as the first one. The Queen of Attolia was phenomenal; I forgot how much I liked that book (sequel to The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner). I probably read some other stuff too but that's all I remember now.
I got 3 new games for the DS and have played two of them enough to form an opinion. Golden Sun is a GameBoy Advance JRPG; it has too many cut scenes but other than that I like it. The battles can be boring if you let them (press A a lot) but you have some cool magic and djinni (or something) moves that do some serious damage. Your party regains the PP (magic points) by some mysterious mechanism I have yet to understand but sure is nice when you never have to worry about running out in the middle of a dungeon. My main annoyance with it is the frequent cut scenes and the fact that characters walk SO SLOW. But then, that's true of most older RPGs.
The second game is Professor Layton and the Curious Village and is basically a puzzle game with a somewhat weak plot. Really though, the point is not the plot, it's solving brain-teasers. Some of them are super clever. Some of them are incredibly annoying. There's a nice mix of difficulties, although the point values assigned to each one are not necessarily indicative of their difficulty, in my opinion. Then again, everyone has different strengths, so I don't know how you could assign accurate point values to puzzles like that... I like playing it best when I have someone to consult on the tricky ones. I mean, on the ones that I think are tricky and rhb solves in 2 seconds. My coworkers enjoyed helping me today too when it was slow.
The third game is Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, which is apparently the game that came before Bowser's Inside Story that I loved so much. I just played the opening bit to make sure it worked. However, it looks to be exactly the same style as BIS (minus the technology incorporating the stylus, since it's another GBA game) so I'm sure I'll like it.
I taught my first Primary lesson last week. I brought goldfish crackers, which were a big hit, and the 10 year olds listened pretty well and participated. It went just about the right length too, so I count it as a success. Too bad talks aren't as easy to prepare as Primary lessons...
We celebrated our 2 year anniversary last week (almost 2 weeks ago). Two years goes by fast. We went out to Jimmy John's for lunch (I took off work early) and then we watched Inception. Food was fantastic, movie was very good, although I felt like it had a little too much gun fighting, especially at the end. (If I wanted to watch people shoot each other, I can watch rhb play Modern Warfare 2.) But the ideas were fascinating and I thought it was well done.
We also watched Scott Pilgrim vs. the World recently (I know, I know, two movies within a week of each other in theaters, gasp!) and wow, I liked it even better than Inception! Yes, it is that good. However, you will probably only agree with me if you like retro video games. It's the best geeky movie since Stardust. So go watch it. It is hilarious.
The earring making is coming along; I made a few more pairs last week. I had to take a break for a bit to ensure that I didn't go crazy and buy more beads... so if anyone has any that they don't want, I am accepting donations! :P
I also decided that I don't make very good use of my evenings (which results in poorly planned dinners, which means grilled cheese, quesadillas, eggs/hash browns, and pasta quite frequently) so I may try to figure out something to try and fix that. Suggestions welcome... although I don't promise I'll use them. XD
Other endeavors of late:
I finished the second two Peter and the Starcatchers sequels, which were decent. Not as good as the first in my opinion, but still enjoyable. Sequel to Wake (Fade) was okay but still too much swearing/other questionable stuff for my taste. The rest of the Dresden Files was fantastic (I even liked Turn Coat which apparently most people didn't). Go read it now. Wings was quite a fun read, kind of fluffy but I like that every so often. Melting Stones by Tamora Pierce was all right but not my favorite; her other books in that world are better. City of Ashes was all right but not as good as the first one. The Queen of Attolia was phenomenal; I forgot how much I liked that book (sequel to The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner). I probably read some other stuff too but that's all I remember now.
I got 3 new games for the DS and have played two of them enough to form an opinion. Golden Sun is a GameBoy Advance JRPG; it has too many cut scenes but other than that I like it. The battles can be boring if you let them (press A a lot) but you have some cool magic and djinni (or something) moves that do some serious damage. Your party regains the PP (magic points) by some mysterious mechanism I have yet to understand but sure is nice when you never have to worry about running out in the middle of a dungeon. My main annoyance with it is the frequent cut scenes and the fact that characters walk SO SLOW. But then, that's true of most older RPGs.
The second game is Professor Layton and the Curious Village and is basically a puzzle game with a somewhat weak plot. Really though, the point is not the plot, it's solving brain-teasers. Some of them are super clever. Some of them are incredibly annoying. There's a nice mix of difficulties, although the point values assigned to each one are not necessarily indicative of their difficulty, in my opinion. Then again, everyone has different strengths, so I don't know how you could assign accurate point values to puzzles like that... I like playing it best when I have someone to consult on the tricky ones. I mean, on the ones that I think are tricky and rhb solves in 2 seconds. My coworkers enjoyed helping me today too when it was slow.
The third game is Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, which is apparently the game that came before Bowser's Inside Story that I loved so much. I just played the opening bit to make sure it worked. However, it looks to be exactly the same style as BIS (minus the technology incorporating the stylus, since it's another GBA game) so I'm sure I'll like it.
I taught my first Primary lesson last week. I brought goldfish crackers, which were a big hit, and the 10 year olds listened pretty well and participated. It went just about the right length too, so I count it as a success. Too bad talks aren't as easy to prepare as Primary lessons...
We celebrated our 2 year anniversary last week (almost 2 weeks ago). Two years goes by fast. We went out to Jimmy John's for lunch (I took off work early) and then we watched Inception. Food was fantastic, movie was very good, although I felt like it had a little too much gun fighting, especially at the end. (If I wanted to watch people shoot each other, I can watch rhb play Modern Warfare 2.) But the ideas were fascinating and I thought it was well done.
We also watched Scott Pilgrim vs. the World recently (I know, I know, two movies within a week of each other in theaters, gasp!) and wow, I liked it even better than Inception! Yes, it is that good. However, you will probably only agree with me if you like retro video games. It's the best geeky movie since Stardust. So go watch it. It is hilarious.
The earring making is coming along; I made a few more pairs last week. I had to take a break for a bit to ensure that I didn't go crazy and buy more beads... so if anyone has any that they don't want, I am accepting donations! :P
I also decided that I don't make very good use of my evenings (which results in poorly planned dinners, which means grilled cheese, quesadillas, eggs/hash browns, and pasta quite frequently) so I may try to figure out something to try and fix that. Suggestions welcome... although I don't promise I'll use them. XD