Things I've Noticed: Sometimes watching The X-Files takes some explaining

For the last couple of years my wife and I have been re-watching The X-Files with our youngest daughter, who is working her way through the series for her first time.  The show is both a lot of fun due to the surprise cameos made by all sorts of people before they were famous, and for the storylines themselves.

When watching the series with our teen daughter (born in 1997), we've tried our best to explain to our daughter just how big a show this was in its day.

Today we checked out the season seven episode X-Cops, which crossed over with the hugely popular reality show COPS - which took a little bit of describing as well - following beat cops around through the events of a tour, blurred out bystanders and suspects, and the regular interaction with the cameraman filming.

It's kind of tricky, for an episode which only takes 45 minutes to watch, we end up spending about fifteen giving our daughter backstory and context for what she is seeing.  At the same time, she seems to be tolerating all this, and is probably much more knowledgable about late '90s pop culture than a lot of her high school-aged friends.

Things I've Noticed: I'm heading off to Philadelphia

So later this week I'll be heading out to my first midwinter meeting of the American Library Association, located this year in Philadelphia, PA.

Although I'll be spending a lot of the event checking out various sessions and meetings, I'm looking forward to checking out a number of the sights (including JFK Plaza, pictured right), foods, and (hopefully) various used bookstores.

So, if anyone has been there before, and knows of various spots/foods I gotta try, let me know and I'll try to fit it all in!

Things I've Noticed: I may be developing a LEGO problem

For the past few weeks (by which I mean a month) I've been working my way through the PS3 game Marvel Lego Super Heroes, which has been a whole lot of fun.

The problem is, having now finished the game, I keep wanting to play just a little more and collect just a few more playable characters - yesterday I unlocked Ghost Rider and this morning I'm on the way to unlocking Blade (who you get to race in a pizza cart!), and although the game is really simple to play, I keep wondering - should I quit before I realize that somehow, somewhere in this game I can potentially unlock The Punisher?

Aw darn it.

...I think I may have a problem.

Things I've Noticed: So my computer died...

A couple weeks ago my 2008 iMac desktop computer probably died.  The image went all crazy and then when I rebooted the computer I couldn't ever get past the grey loading screen.  We took it in to a local Apple retailer (not The Apple Store - as the local ones are a bit of a trip for me) and although they weren't helpful in pretty much any other way, they did collect my data from my old computer and put it on an external hard drive I had purchased.

So now I've attached my external hard drive to my lap top (which I'm on now) and am in the process of slowly, but surely gathering up all the various info I'd stored on my computer since 2008 (which includes all the info I'd stored and transferred from my 2004 computer) and am putting it together for easier access.

Now I'm just trying to decide whether I'd like a new desktop computer or not - my laptop is doing me fine, but I'm still a little nervous going entirely mobile rather than stationary (I still have a land-line after all).

Things I’ve noticed: I’m falling behind in Fables

Last week I picked up a few new titles from my local comic book store and as I was shelving them at home I realized, I’m falling behind on Fables! Not in collecting it, mind you, but in reading the darn thing! When I first started collecting the title I would read each trade paperback collection as it came out, but for some reason or other (maybe Grad School, maybe a new job), I’ve fallen behind in the last few years and now have almost TEN collections I haven’t touched! To be fair, I’m including all three spin off series: Jack of Fables, Cinderella, and Fairest, in my total, but still, that puts me pretty far behind the current storylines.

The worst part is, I really like this series – I list it all the time as a personal favourite, I’ve read the tie-in novel Peter & Max and I got righteously indignant when Once Upon a Time first came out and stole all of Fables potential to become a television series in its own right. So now I’m about to revisit the first trade collection Fables #1: Legends in Exile for my current course on comic books and graphic novels in libraries, and I’m realizing I’m not as up-to-date a fan as I could be!

Luckily I do have a little bit of time between now and when I take an in depth look at the series for school, so step one is to figure out what order to read each of these titles in – as the various spin-off series also include crossovers, I want to make sure I’m not spoiling plot points for myself as I go along. So I make a quick stop at Trade Reading Order and then check out their list for Fables – even though the list isn’t quite up to date, it does get me 80% of the info I need, and once I register for the site myself I’ll see if I can bring it up to date.

So there you go, a little embarrassing, but at least I have a starting point for getting myself back on track.

Things I've Noticed: I start school again next week

Next week I begin my final year of my Masters of Library and Information Studies Degree.  As I have a full-time job I'm only taking two courses; Reference and Information Services, and Comic Books and Graphic Novels in School and Public libraries.

Guess which one I'll be focusing on here on my blog.

So I've now got a list of a bunch of comic books I need to read to begin my understanding of the format.

First up, Owly v1: The Way Home and The Bittersweet Summer by Andy Runton, and The Arrival by Shaun Tan.

Although the course does have a superhero component, that will come later so first up are two comics which contain almost no words.

I'm totally looking forward to it!

Things I've noticed: cutting down on coffee is tricky

So I'm currently working on cutting myself down to two cups of coffee a day.

I didn't actually start drinking coffee until I was about 19-years-old, because back then it was the only drink you could get free refills at when you went out for dinner (this was before bottomless soda became a thing).

In my twenties I would drink 6-8 cups a day (often more) with cream and sugar and would often have coffee late into the evening while playing tabletop role-playing games.

When I started working at a local business that had free coffee for staff I knew I had to work on cutting down.  So I dropped down to four cups a day and only decaf after lunch.

Since starting my current library job last year I've gone down to three cups and cut sugar out of my coffee entirely.

As of last Thursday I've decided to drop down to two cups.

(this might be a good place to apologize for not getting this post up on Friday like I usually do - sorry all!)

For the first time in my history of cutting down I do have a low-level headache and my wife says I'm nodding off a little in the evenings as we watch our shows.

As of day four, I feel like the headache as levelled off a bit, and I'm loving those two cups of coffee I get each day a little bit more than I did my old three-cup-a-day habit, so that's good.

Things I've noticed: It's cycling season!

Well folks, it's that time of year again - I get to dust off the old bike and get myself back out onto the road (well, onto the bike path anyway).

A few years ago I got into a pretty nasty cycling accident and broke one of the bones in my wrist, actually this was just before I started grad school and it was my right hand so I would have to classify it as a "not great" accident - as compared to a great accident where you fall into JELL-O or something.

I spent most of last year being pretty nervous on my bicycle, but just before autumn ended I managed to get comfortable again which is what brings us up to date.

The roads are nice, and I get ride again!

Wish me luck everyone!

Things I've noticed: June will be tricky in terms of movies

As we are leaving May I've seen the two big theatre movies I was hoping to (Iron Man 3 and Star Trek Into Darkness), but my plan to stick to two movies a month gets tricky in June.  

First up in June is This Is The End, which puts together a bunch of my favourite comedy actors, my love of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic films and the distinct benefit that my wife might be up for checking it out with me.

Chances of me seeing this is theatres - 85% assuming we find a good time and location to check it out.

Next up is Man of Steel - on the plus side, my youngest daughter may be willing to see this with me, and I've enjoyed most of the versions of Superman I've come across (definitely loved the animated series - Superman IV: The Quest for Peace - not so much)
In the end I'm likely to give this one a shot.

Chances of me seeing this in theatres - 75% (but up to 80% if my daughter wants to come along)

Finally we come to World War Z.


On the plus side you have zombies, an apocalyptic setting and Brad Pitt wearing dad pants (at least in the poster - as a dad, I know of what I speak and tan cargo pants are nothing if not dad pants)

On the negative side, I haven't read the book, and I'm a little concerned with a PG-13 rating for a zombie film - not that I need a lot of blood and guts, after all I loved Warm Bodies, but I'm just not sure.

Chances of me seeing this in theatres (85% - actually 95% as the ladies in my house are fond of Mr. Pitt)

So there you go - I have a pretty good chance of seeing all three films, but not if I want to stick to my two films a month policy - after all I've got work, school, family and friends who all want a bit of my time and I can't devote it all to movies.

hmmm....

Nope - I'll have to pick two.

Things I’ve Noticed: Folks on Flickr are pretty nice!

While working on an upcoming assignment for my Children and Youth Services course, I’ve been scouring the Internet for good animal pictures.  The tricky thing is that some of these animals have pretty specific looks to them.  So I was very happy to find pretty much exactly the picture I wanted on Flickr.

 

To make sure everything was on the up-and-up, I contacted the artist and asked permission to use their picture for my assignment.  Within a day I got a very nice response including permission.

 

As one of the easiest ways I can say thank you is to send online traffic to the Flickr account in question, I heartily recommend that you check out Critters by Chris at:

 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/62690732@N06/

 

Have a great weekend everyone!

Things I’ve noticed: All my shows are ending!

Even though it’s May 10 today and I’ve still got a few precious weeks with my regular shows, the end is In sight for each of them and pretty soon I’ll be left to work through all the TV series I’ve purchased on DVD since last summer.

Right now I’ve got a couple shows saved up – both Grimm and The Americans sit with more than 10 episodes on my PVR and although I haven’t seen any episodes of Grimm since it’s mid-season hiatus and haven’t even seen the pilot of The Americans, I’m pretty excited to check both of them out.

Past that I’ve got both a lot of books and a video game going on right now – it’s God of War III, and I’ve spent my last three hours of game play doing the same battle over and over again (just a few more hours and I’m sure I’ll defeat that guy!)

Oh yeah, and I’m taking a class in school right now (Children and Youth Services) which is both very interesting, and a huge expenditure of my time.

Hmmm…. Maybe it’s a good thing my shows are running down.

Things I've noticed: Choosing a book can be hard!

For my book club meeting this Sunday, I've got to select our June title - usually this is pretty easy, I've got a lot of books on the go and simply select whichever one the library has a lot of copies of to be the next title we read.

Problem is, all of the books I'm reading next month either have not yet made it to the library, or only have one copy.

So tonight I'm going to have to go through my bookshelves and figure out if any of the many titles in my "to be read" collections might work.

Also I'll be following up a pretty gritty title for our May title (Battle Royale, by Koushun Takami - which I've read before but am totally excitted to check out again), so I'm looking for something which will represent a nice change of pace.

 

In the end I think I'm going to find something either related to school (maybe not), or something related to one of my favourite authors...

I'll let you know when I do!

Thing's I've Noticed: I'm ahead on my reading!

It's the strangest thing, once I didn't have classes (and the assigned readings for classes) I blew through my list of readings for April incredibly quickly - I'm just finishing up the last one right now which means I get to pick another Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction title to read this month!!!

So next up for me will be a fantasy novel I've been meaning to read for a while now Down the Mystery River, by Bill Willingham, an advanced readers copy of the new Joe Hill novel NOS4A2, and one of the many science fiction novels that have been sitting on my "to be read" shelf.

Finishing stuff is awesome!

Things I've Noticed: Grad School is keeping me really busy!

As my latest term of grad school is coming to an end, I've got a couple major projects due in the next week which are taking up a lot of my time - I'm not complaining, just stating a fact.

Right now I've just finished a 1974 Science Fiction novel called 334 by Thomas M. Disch, which I'm still deciding whether I liked or not, and am less than 20 pages into A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin.  Past that I've just watched a really bizarre/creepy claymation film from the mid-80s (review coming next week) and one of you lovely people has just offered to send me a game I'm pretty excited to try.

So overall things are going well, I'm just finding that a lot of my time is being focused on school - so bear with me, my courses end by next weekend and then I'll get back to my regular length of blog post.

Things I've Noticed: Steven Saylor writes a darn fine Mystery

This week I read the latest of Steven Saylor's mysteries set in Ancient Rome, The Seven Wonders.  In it, his detective character, Gordianus the Finder explores all seven of the wonders of the Ancient World and solves mysteries along the way.

The book, the 13th of his Roma Sub Rosa series, is actually set well before the rest of the series, when the main character was seventeen-years-old.  Although my personal tastes run to Fantasy, Horror and Science Fiction, this series, which I started when I was taking a class on Ancient Rome and Early Christianity for my Undergraduate degree, got me totally hooked.

Beautifully mixing together Mystery stories and Historical Fiction, I simply couldn't put this series down, and honestly, if I could find them in hardcover, I would be pretty tempted to add them to my own library.

The first in the series is Roman Blood, and if you are interested in checking out a new mystery series, I would strongly recommend this one.

Things I’ve Noticed: Beautiful Monsters Was a Pretty Cool Exhibition

One of the great things about where I work is that I’m just a few blocks away from all sorts of cultural centres in my city, libraries (which I use – a lot), Art Galleries, and Performing Arts Centres are literally just sitting there, available for my cultural edification any time I like.

Obviously (with the exception of the library), I’ve never really visited any of these places.

So yesterday I was trying to come up with some sort of monster-themed post for today’s blog and I googled Monsters and Edmonton which lead me to the Alberta Art Gallery ’s current exhibition: Beautiful Monsters: Beasts and Fantastic Creatures in Early European Prints (which closes on Sunday).  Having never gone to an art gallery before (except on school trips, but those visits are pretty structured), I wasn’t exactly sure what to exptect.  I knew I wasn’t supposed to touch anything, but that was about it.

What I found was a pretty cheap way to enjoy some stunning (and often creepy) works of art featuring all sorts of bizarre creatures as well as a lot of depictions of devils, demons and Hell itself.  The artwork was really quite cool and the images will definitely stick with me.

Quick rule of thumb for you other art gallery novices – try to book at least an hour to work your way through an exhibition.  I had 25 minutes and although I had time to read everything, I did feel pretty rushed and wish I could have gone back and checked out my favourites again before I left.

Things I’ve Noticed: Saturday Morning with Bookmonkey

Overall I’d say I’m a pretty organized guy – on a normal day I get up in the morning, do my stuff (which surprisingly has included yoga three times a week for the last half year – who saw that coming?), go to work, come home spend time with my lovely wife and wonderful kids, hit the hay and do it all over again.

But then the weekend comes and my daily schedule gets CRAZY!

Okay, maybe not so crazy it needs capitalization.

Okay, I’ll admit, I tend to schedule out my weekends as well, but I tend to do it with a sort of whimsical abandon.  (if by whimsical abandon you mean - with a precise and clear schedule which lets me do all the things I like to do)

Here’s a small taste of my weekend schedule

Saturday (and yes, every Saturday, even if it’s my Birthday)

5:25am – Wake up, stumble to kitchen, grind beans, make coffee

5:35am – 6:30am play whichever video game is currently incredibly exciting for me, but tedious or too freaky for the ladies in my house (take break to get coffee)

6:30am – 7am – second cup, read, light (and quiet) tidy

7am – 7:45am – hang out with whoever gets up earliest, put together a grocery list

7:45am – 9:15am – get coffee/grocery shop/pick up breakfast – in my house Grocery shopping is Man’s work (or it was until my eldest daughter started coming along), so I hang out with my BFF Mike and grab some coffee at the local Starbucks and then do the weeks shopping, followed by grabbing some baked goods or breakfast sandwiches for the ladies at home.

9:15am – 9:40am – put away the groceries, have breakfast with the family, sincerely wonder why people all over my home town are still sleeping.

9:40am – put together to do list for Saturday and Sunday.

So there you go, a small taste of what a Saturday morning with Bookmonkey is like which only goes to show it’s a special kind of lady who can put up with my kind of crazy – so let me take a moment to say thanks to my lovely wife for putting up with her less than spontaneous husband.

Things I've Noticed: Making time for reading is important

In case I haven’t mentioned it before; I like to read, a lot – actually a whole lot.

On average I read roughly 100 books a year and I’m not counting articles for school, single issues of comic books, magazines or newspaper articles.

Now, a lot of people ask me, “how the heck do you find time to read all those books?” and honestly, it’s pretty simple.

1) I do a little bit of prep work to ensure I have stuff to read when I need it

The first rule is pretty easy to follow – as one of those horrible people who wake up early in the morning, I stick whichever book I’m currently reading next to my coffee maker and get five to ten minutes every morning to read before my morning cup is ready, at which time I stick my book in my jacket pocket… hmm…

1a) Have a jacket with pockets that can fit most books

2) I carry a book with me everywhere.

On the bus, on car trips, to the grocery store, pretty much everywhere, because I’ve always found if I have a book and get stuck in a big line at the store, I’m doing pretty good, but if I forget to bring a book with me, my bus trip/car trip/grocery store trip suddenly has plenty of stops and pauses that would have been perfect for me to spend time reading.

3) I limit how much time I spend watching TV/playing games/etc.

Because otherwise, I’d be very knowledgeable in terms of Honey Boo Boo (which to be fair, I’m fairly knowledgeable about) but would get nowhere near the amount of reading I like to get done each day completed.

So there you go, if you like to read, plan ahead, keep a book on you, and cut down on your other stuff so you have room to read.

Things I've Noticed: Me and Nico Bellic

So after a few months, my time with Eastern European gangster Nico Bellic (pictured above) is coming to an end.  I'm down to the final 15 missions on Grand Theft Auto IV and honestly, I think we've been drifting apart for a while now.

I think the problem comes down to the fact that I loved Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - whether it was the '80s time period, or the great music, I just really loved playing through the crazy Miami Vice-style mayhem of that earlier game, and have just found (with the exception of the Europop music playing throughout) GTA4 to be a weaker game.

The missions are definitely challenging, but honestly sometimes I'm just finding them to be too challenging, and a lot of the time I feel that it's just random chance when I finish a mission one time versus another.

Sorry GTA4 - but I'm not really gonna miss you when we're done - after all, my next game is Dead Space 2.

Things I've Noticed: IT'S SUPERBOWL...

...and I've found just the shirt to describe my feelings about this (see left)

All right, sometimes the commercials are pretty cool.

And to be fair, when team A and team B face off in their something-something-th game in a quest for glory, I'll be hanging out with friends at the local Denny's and chatting about a comic book series that I chose for us to read this month.

Which is awesome!

Although I can't say much about the Superbowl (super bowl?), and I'd much rather watch a puppy bowl (wait - that's actually a real things, and I'm still not that interested)  I can say that book club is pretty darn awesome and I can't wait to get chatting about what I've been reading lately!