Joey came over to start a new band with us which was so much fun we went an hour past when we were supposed to pack it in. First there was Jenny Mac and the Band Guys, and then Fish Your Wish (the flagship band for David and I), and the band that Joey co-founded with is us Avid D and his BFFs. David also ventured into doing vocals, which wasn't nearly as easy as his mom made it look when she sang with Jenny Mac and the Band Guys (or was it with The Michael Moores?). I have not yet mustered up what I need to step out of my comfort zone enough to try vocals. I'm very self conscious.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Rockin' Out
I'm really digging Rock Band. I tried drums when we got the game last Sunday, but since then I've mostly been sticking to guitar and bass. Yesterday I decided to go back to drums for another try. It's a lot trickier than guitar/bass since there's footwork, too. I also find the chords more difficult; on the guitar, there's usually a moment to get the fingers fretted correctly before hitting the strum bar, but on the drums both pads need to be struck simultaneously with better timing than I've usually got for the note to count.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Enjoyably racist
Last weekend we had some time without the kiddos, so David and I had a Sunday Funday with Kevin, aka The Klondike Kid. We went to see Clint Eastwood's latest, Grand Torino. It's about an old, crotchety, racist Korea War veteran whose once All-American neighbourhood is now full of immigrants. While this was meant to be a serious and powerful film, it also managed to be the most unintentionally funny movie I've seen in a long time. The racism and intolerance was so smooth, blatant, and uncloseted (that is, the character isn't just racist, he also doesn't hesitate to express it to people of those races) it became ridiculously entertaining.
Curiously, the rest of the audience wasn't that comfortable expressing their amusement when it was primarily racism towards Asians. Once there were some epithets thrown out about black people that seemed to break the ice for them to start laughing.
Really good film overall. Highly recommended.
Torture Porn
David happily found and recorded the first three films in the Saw franchise on the PVR. I was dubious that I would like them, but he convinced me to give them a try. I thought it was just going to be full of gratuitous gore; I don't generally mind violence, but certain kinds of gore really bother me. From what I recalled of the trailers, these torture porn films really wouldn't be my thing.
I made it through half of the first Saw film last night. Boy, were my expectations wrong. I would have stayed up to watch the whole thing but I was just too tired. The story is quite good and compelling, and more intelligent than the typical slasher flick. Halfway through it hadn't even been terribly gory -- there was only one scene for which I had to look away. Looking into it a bit, I realize now that I was suffering from some faulty memory; I wasn't thinking of the Saw trailer, I was thinking of Hostel.
Despite having grown up watching a variety of horror films, I lost my backbone for them after several years of not watching any at all because there was no one to watch them with. I think mayhaps I'm ready to get back into them.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Clean cup, clean cup, move down, move down!
I have started a new blog. Why? It seemed the thing to. The previous blog can be seen at http://jmacaig.livejournal.com, but I will be moving posts over so I can have them all in one place.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Friday, January 9, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Vidya Games at the Lieberry
The Edmonton Public Library has started carrying video games for the Wii, XBox 360, and Playstation 3 consoles. As far as I can find out, this wasn't advertised except through the EPL blogs. I found out from the signs posted on the hold shelves stating that video games were being held at the information desk. They have about 150 game titles, fairly evenly split between the three consoles. At this time, they're limiting the collection to games rated Teen and younger.
My immediate knee-jerk reaction is "oh noes! lie-berries are for books!!11!eleventyone!!". But my snobbery is beaten out by what an interesting idea this is. It's been more and more common for public libraries in the UK and other parts of Europe to have video game collections and it's working well for them. I'm sure there will be squawking as there was when they introduced theatrical films (as opposed to only documentary, educational, and culturally important films) and then more recently graphic novels (as opposed to "real" books) into the collection. There's an archaic but still sometimes present line of thinking that libraries ought to be stocking only what people "should" be reading or viewing, things that will make them better, smarter, more moral members of society. Boo-urns to that, I say.
It's mostly common now for public libraries to subscribe to the Freedom of Information side of things. Libraries stock what patrons want and pass no judgement upon them for it. As I understand it, the library is taking the position that video games can be considered forms of art (both visually and musically) and recognizes that games are increasingly heavy on storytelling. Really, why not branch further away from more traditional forms of art, storytelling, and education? The only caveat I would add is that money shouldn't be taken away from the book budget to buy video games.
This knee-jerk reaction was also tempered by how this benefits me. I was never much of a gamer until recently, but I'm still wary of trying new games. Now I can try same games for free to see if I want to take the plunge to buy them. I don't know how much I'll take advantage of the collection, but I like that the potential is there.
The second reaction was wondering how they're going to combat theft. Video stores frequently won't let customers rent video games without a valid credit card on file. If you don't have a valid credit card, they won't rent games to you without enough information to send you to collections should you make off with their stuff. Sure, I can steal two bestseller novels from the library which would cost as much as a new video game brand new, but the resale value on used books versus used video games is quite different.
I don't think there's much need to be concerned about existing cardholders who know if they want to keep borrowing stuff from the library they have to return things and can't rack up their fines beyond $15. No, I think the people who check them out are fairly likely to return them. The problem is the people who steal items without checking them out. I asked at the information desk about the games since David and I couldn't find them in the AV section. The librarian told me that the first day when they put ten games out at this branch, all ten were stolen. They're now switching to holds only, so the games remain behind the counter and a hold must be placed and processed as normal. There's a limit of one game at a time per account, they may be checked out for one week, and the overdue fee is $2 per day.
I'm interested to see how this works out.
My immediate knee-jerk reaction is "oh noes! lie-berries are for books!!11!eleventyone!!". But my snobbery is beaten out by what an interesting idea this is. It's been more and more common for public libraries in the UK and other parts of Europe to have video game collections and it's working well for them. I'm sure there will be squawking as there was when they introduced theatrical films (as opposed to only documentary, educational, and culturally important films) and then more recently graphic novels (as opposed to "real" books) into the collection. There's an archaic but still sometimes present line of thinking that libraries ought to be stocking only what people "should" be reading or viewing, things that will make them better, smarter, more moral members of society. Boo-urns to that, I say.
It's mostly common now for public libraries to subscribe to the Freedom of Information side of things. Libraries stock what patrons want and pass no judgement upon them for it. As I understand it, the library is taking the position that video games can be considered forms of art (both visually and musically) and recognizes that games are increasingly heavy on storytelling. Really, why not branch further away from more traditional forms of art, storytelling, and education? The only caveat I would add is that money shouldn't be taken away from the book budget to buy video games.
This knee-jerk reaction was also tempered by how this benefits me. I was never much of a gamer until recently, but I'm still wary of trying new games. Now I can try same games for free to see if I want to take the plunge to buy them. I don't know how much I'll take advantage of the collection, but I like that the potential is there.
The second reaction was wondering how they're going to combat theft. Video stores frequently won't let customers rent video games without a valid credit card on file. If you don't have a valid credit card, they won't rent games to you without enough information to send you to collections should you make off with their stuff. Sure, I can steal two bestseller novels from the library which would cost as much as a new video game brand new, but the resale value on used books versus used video games is quite different.
I don't think there's much need to be concerned about existing cardholders who know if they want to keep borrowing stuff from the library they have to return things and can't rack up their fines beyond $15. No, I think the people who check them out are fairly likely to return them. The problem is the people who steal items without checking them out. I asked at the information desk about the games since David and I couldn't find them in the AV section. The librarian told me that the first day when they put ten games out at this branch, all ten were stolen. They're now switching to holds only, so the games remain behind the counter and a hold must be placed and processed as normal. There's a limit of one game at a time per account, they may be checked out for one week, and the overdue fee is $2 per day.
I'm interested to see how this works out.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)