When Gravity Fails - the movie?!?!?!?!?!

I was clicking around imdb and found that Stephen Derrickson is helming a film version of one of my top-five favorite sci-fi books of all time.  When Gravity Fails is George Alec Effinger's cyberpunk-noir set in the Middle East and I love it.  It's one of those books that I buy a copy whenever I see one used.  I hope they don't fuck it up. 

The Possession (2012) & Sinister (2012)

Did a supernatural double feature with the lady last night (who is also a hardcore action movie fan).  I wasn't expecting much from either movie but then again I don't expect a lot from most horror movies these days.  Not because I'm overly critical but because, well, they suck.  As for these two movies, the critics are split down the middle (not surprising) with Ebert coming down on the thumbs-up for both (kind of surprising).  Personally the reviewers who I don't like didn't like the movies (*cough* Marc Savlov) so critic reviews aren't changing my opinions of the movie. 

Achtung!  No spoilers!

I was pleasantly surprised by both movies.  Okay, Sinister had some hair-raising moments but first The Possession.  Loosely based upon the urban legend of the Dybbuk Box, it's a story about a divorced guy who buys his daughter a Dybbuk Box at a garage sale and the ensuing terror.  For a PG-13 movie it's got some serious creepiness factors to it.  One scene isn't supernatural terror but there's an intensity to it that has made it stuck with me.  Overall the movie was well done with a protagonist, played by Jeffery Dean Morgan, I actually managed to like and sympathize with (instead of most of the under-the-age of thirty dickbags who populate horror movies).  Well shot and totally lacking in flailing found footage camera work.  Oh and that guy I thought jokingly was Matisyahu, yeah that's Matisyahu.  Worth watching as a double feature with The Unborn (2009).

Sinister was one of those movies I saw the trailer once awhile back and then refused to read anything or watch anything about (I've done the same thing with Mama).  I'm glad I went into this movie fairly cold beause some of it was severely intense.  I was pretty leery of Ethan Hawke being in a horror movie (though thinking about it, I did enjoy Daybreakers - critics were split on that one too) but he worked in the role.  There's a level of failing desperation to his character that worked for me.  His Ellison Oswalt, a true crime writer who was on the NYT Bestsellers' List in his early 30s is now a man in his early 40s who needs another hit book, financially and emotionally.  His actions are brought on by these factors and the rest of the movie sprials out of control.  If it hadn't been a horror movie it could have made the plot for an interesting indie character drama/thriller.

As far as a supernatural horror movie goes, Sinister comes out swinging right from the get go.  There aren't any real lulls in the tension because even if there's not something supernatural going on there's domestic tension as Oswalt and his family splinter under stress.  One particular scene of high tension is one in which nothing happens.  It was kind of a startling scene (and very well shot) because of the other boo! scares that kind of abound.  Yeah, there are quite a few boo! scares in addition to some seriously twisted goings on.  While Sinister is in no way "gory" it is pretty hardcore.  The sound design is really excellent as well, with a soundtrack that just pulses with intensity.  Actually, thinking about it, the sound design was brilliantly done and well balanced (unlike some movies which thunder their scores and Bay-splosions at you while mumbling the dialogue so you feel like some old fart, "What'd he say?  Who has the soup or the natural?").  Sinister is definitely worth watching.  Hell, I want to watch it again.

Skyrim: Dragonborn DLC (2012) Bethesda

Fus ra...oh here we go again.  Yes fine folks I finally picked up the Dragonborn DLC, primarily because there's fuck all else to play right now and even EVE gets tedious after a while.  If you have a good game to recommend or let me borrow that'd be cool.

Dragonborn is, actually pretty good, though for 360 it's still plagued with crap-ass load times, freezes, and glitches.  Last night the game froze on me about a half dozen times due to an auto-save bug.  This is the last time I play a Bethesda game on the console and quite possibly the last console I buy for a long time.

If it weren't for the glitches and bugs and the recurrent voice actors Dragonborn would be awesome.  Unlike Dawnguard, which was literally just more of the same, Dragonborn opens up a new island under the control of Morrowind.  Half of the island is a volcano ash wreck and the other is fairly familiar by this point.  The area design is different and while it's desolate there's some interesting stuff to look at.  There have been a couple of dungeons that actually surprised me by their design and puzzles.  There are new enemies which are pretty awesome and challenging if they take you off guard.  New armor, new weapons, loot, loot, loot...

What I am happiest about is simple - lots to explore and get rewarded for doing so.  I've spent two solid evenings of gameplay just wandering around.  Dragonguard has a lot packed into it and even more to reward exploration and patience.  There's a good number of sidequests (so far) based around treasure hunting and some tantilizing clues about further rewards for exploration.  In particular, it's not even a quest but there's a puzzle in a Dwemer ruin that can only be solved by going to the other Dwemer ruins.  Ancient ruins?  Treasure?  Fortune and glory?  Hell yeah!  However one of the puzzles in a Dwemer ruin took me about an hour to solve without a FAQ.  I said some bad words.

As for the DLC story arc?  I have no idea.  I haven't even started it.  You guys know me, as soon as I get the chance I book it cross country.  Story?  What?  Save what?  Huh?  Fuck you, I gots loots to find!  It drives some people nuts, especially if they are attempting to watch me play.  It's also part of the reason why I feel main story end game are often such a let down, I've done everything.  I'm basically a freaking God and then I just smash the end boss into a paste.  Personally I kind of miss the Dark World element in Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past or the insane time travel involved in Dragon Warrior VII (which I think is a better game than FFVII) - something to keep the game going to add some depth to it.  Oh well.

Is Dragonborn worth $20?  If it weren't so buggy, yeah.  All games have bugs, I know this - you know this, games freeze sometimes okay.  It's an imperfect world, screws fall out.  But at this point and for a company of Bethesda's stature, it's absurd.  In a way they remind me of the old joke about Jaguars, having to buy a mechanic when you buy a Jaguar or one of those super expensive dog breeds that's so in-bred it can't breathe right.  It's slovenly.

Basically, when Dragonborn is good, it is very, very good and when it is bad, it is awful.

V/H/S (2012)

and it was

Roger Ebert's review of V/H/S can be found here.  I'm not gonna bother reviewing this clunker of a movie.  Let me just say that while watching it I found myself wishing that I was watching CSI: Miami.  At least I like the characters on that show.

Rock Lobster? Rock Lobster!

No, not a post about the B-52s (as much as I do like B-52s) but about the new ship I picked up in EVE ("Guh, another EVE post?"). 

A while back I started to enjoy mining thanks to the Venture.  Since then I've slowly been moving away from my usual shoot and loot farming in L4s and moved into mining, supply runs, and trade.  I buy crap for sale at bargain basement prices, stuff that not even n00bs or Goons want, reprocess it and stockpile the results until the market gives me a good return.  Okay, I'm a god damn junk man.  I even mine garbage rocks because no one wants them.  Other players have asked me, "Why do you want that crap?  There's no money it."  I've gotten used to replying, "Who's more likely to be mugged?  You, with, a cargohold full of ice and assorted high-end goodies or me, who is pushing a glorified shopping cart around filled with scrap metal and useless crap?"

Most of the time though I have unnecessarily juiced up my shopping cart with speed and handling boosts.  One of my modus operendi in EVE is, "They can't hit what they can't catch."  And yes, once I whooped and do-leet-do-do'd the General Lee's horn while making a quick getaway from a gate.  I'm slowly, slowly learning the ropes when it comes to avoiding gate camps (pirate roadblocks essentially) and some of the subtleties of lowsec transport. 

On the non-transport end of things, and in reference to the ship previously mentioned, I recently got myself into a Retriever.

"Rock Lobster"

Yessir, got me one of them big ole mining barges.  Actually, it's a pretty cool looking ship and I wish that it could be used for combat (one of my current soapboxes is for CCP to make ORE combat ships).  But yeah, I shoot at de rocks.  In a bizarre way it's kind of soothing and I do have fun just kicking back, drinking some beers, and shooting the shit with my EVE buddies.  I'm not gonna make a massive fortune doing this however, I can't tell what my daily income average will be yet since I'm just stockpiling everything.I figure once I can get a certain price point for something, I will sell it.  Even if I make less than a handful of isk on a single item, if I sell several million of them in one go, that results in a nice chunk of change. 

o7, Fly Safe.

Recipe! Yes, I still cook!

It's been a while since I posted a recipe but last night made something tasty I thought I'd share.  It was easy and relatively healthy.  Pan seared salmon crusted in #42 with sauteed mushrooms, sweet yellow tomatoes, diced applewood bacon served over steamed kale & shredded carrots.  Sounds pretty fancy?  It tastes awesome but was absurdly simple to make and cost less than $15 for multiple servings.

Here's the run down:

• About half a lb of salmon cut into individual portions
• a half dozen regular white mushrooms
• small sweet tomatoes, yellow or red would be fine, whichever, hell, leave 'em out if you want
• a couple of slices of bacon, chopped
• I bought prepackaged kale salad, Harvest Sensations (which I am now addicted to).  It comes by the pound, is pre-washed, has shredded carrots in it, and has a nice sesame vinagrette with it
• Spice mix #42
• a cup of vegetable stock, hell, water will work fine too

That's it.

There's minimal prep work.  Chop up the bacon and slice the mushrooms.  Liberally apply #42 to the portions of salmon.

Heat pan, add diced bacon, cook bacon, remove bacon from pan, set aside. Sear salmon in bacon grease about four minutes a side.  Remove salmon from pan.  Saute sliced mushrooms and tomatoes, takes about two/three minutes.  Remove those from the pan.  Deglaze pan with stock (meaning pour the stock in while the pan is hot and scrape all the burnt-y goodness around).  Put kale in pan, as much as will fit in your pan.  Cover and cook at a medium-low heat for about ten minutes.  Turn off stove.  Assemble food.  Gaze in rapture or instapictweet your creation #Hooliganyouth. 

Joking aside, this is one of those nice simple dishes that doesn't require much skill or attention or time.  Plus it's super adaptable.  Probably be pretty tasty with shrimp.  Mmmm shrimps.

Hope you folks are in good spirits and eating well. 

Dishonored (2012) Arkane Studios

I rented this game the other day because I heard it was short, which, after clocking in under the ten hour mark, it was (and that was after replaying some of the missions in the middle section).  I would have been pissed if I had spent sixty bucks on it but for two days rental I didn't mind my experience.

Dishonored is one hell of an experience.  I'm tempted to compare it to Bioshock but only in the regard with the quality of the writing and the world (and Dishonored didn't have the bullshit ending Bioshock did).  The atmosphere of the game is one that is familiar yet oddly fantastical.  It's not so much steampunk (thank God) than reminiscent of the bizarro realms of Clive Barker's late 80s/early 90s period - particularly Imajica but not as strange as Quiddity.  Actually, the more I think about it the more Dishonored reminds me of Imajica.  There's a vaguely bizarre Anglophile look without British accents, the characters have a very familiar style (they're particularly graphic novel-y) but have an individual look to them.  It's a bizarre world where electricity and indoor plumbing exist but they still use chamber pots.

OOOOOOOOOOh, okay Arkane Studios is in Austin but the HQ is in France.  That explains the style of it.  So, put Imajica and Metal Hurlant in a blender et voila!  Dishonored. 

The story is solid, the writing capable, I felt empathy for the characters I was supposed to feel empathy for and none for my foes (though I did show mercy and tried to stick to non-lethal takedowns).  There were a couple of dark turns I wasn't expecting.  One particular character who shall remain nameless is now one of my favorites from recent games.  The silent protagonist is a little more rounded out than normally expected, as he is forced to become an assassin involved in Machiavellian politics.

It's a rather bleak game and the environments reflect the moods of the game nicely.  There's an interesting play in level design between free roam, exploration for stealthy fun and changing environments.  Some of the areas reward taking the high path, whilst others reward climbing up, over, and through pipes, catwalks, construction areas, battered tenements, etc. 

What really expands the exploration, quite well as a matter of fact, are the skills you slowly level by collecting runes scattered through out levels (or are occasionally rewarded after missions).  One of the skills is an interesting short range teleport maneuver that excels at traversing alleyways, rooftops, or simply zipping behind an enemy for a takedown.  I ended experimenting and using that skill the most.  Another skill summons a pack of plague rats to distract and attack enemies.  Grisly to the point of comedic, watching a foe get eaten by rats.  Still, pretty helpful.  There were a couple of other skills but I didn't really put time into those.  There's a possesion skill that allows you to take control of animals (eventually humans) but I only found it helpful once or twice.

Gameplay is pretty well polished for the most part, I didn't experience any freezes, or serious glitches.  It had a couple of moments where I would get jammed on something but that happens sometimes in FPS.  Combat, what little I got into, was fast and furious and even on "Normal" guards could wreck shop when in numbers.  Tallboys (I love the design of these stilt walker heavily armed & armored guards) and packs of hostile rats will tear you a new one if given the chance.  The array of weapons is standard for this kind of FPS, right trigger for right-handed melee, left trigger for ranged and special skills.  Right bumper blocks while left bumper brings up a quick select wheel.  Not reinventing the wheel but capably done.

I felt justly rewarded for going my usual non-lethal route (a la Hitman I only takedown the target) though I laughed heartily when a stunned or tranquilized foe would fall off a building ledge or collapse in water.  Hey, technically I didn't kill them.

All in all an unexpected surprise and enjoyable gaming experience.  I'm not sure if it's worth sixty bucks but if you see it for rent or a GOTY edition I would recommend picking it up.

Product review: Campbell's Go soups

I was recently puttering around the grocery store and looking at soups.  I've been in a soup mood lately and yes I make soup from scratch but sometimes I just want something easy.  The new Campbell's Go caught my eye and though I'm not a huge fan of Campbell's Condensed Soups, iconic as they are, I saw Moroccan Style Chicken and Chickpeas.  They were on sale so I figured, "A'ight, I'll give it a shot."  A couple of days later I gave it a shot as my work lunch.

Gotta say, I'm impressed.  I like the packaging, it's simple and easy to use (clear marked tear notch that actually tore and didn't explode all over the place like those tuna packet things, put in microwave, shazam).  That might not seem like a big deal but at work I don't want to fight with my lunch.  More importantly, it's pretty darn tasty.  Startlingly so, considering it's just convenient microwave soup.  It had a little bit of kick, enough for me to go, "Huh, that's got a little kick." but it wouldn't send tenderfeet running for the milk.  There was a hint of sweet and cinnamon.  The texture was creamy and not terribly chunky but since I was drinking it out of a mug that wasn't a big deal.  Let's put it this way, I liked it so much I went out and bought the other flavors that appealed to me, including a Spicy Chicken and Chorizo.

Nice work, Campbell's.  Sometimes I can look down my nose at the wide number of "mainstream" gourmet products out there (I'll admit it, I can be a snobby crank), mainly because the product is poor quality that costs more because the words "gourmet" or "organic" or "free range cruelty free vegetables" grace the label (I got them on sale for about $2 a pop, which considering what you would spend on lunch out is a bargain).  I recommend checking these out, especially if you want something different for lunch. 

Almost done with add-ons for Big Blue!

"Big Blue", the cow-catcher, and me.

You read right, folks!  I recently added a massive Wald 157 front basket to Big Blue.  It's been awesome on one hand and kind of a burden (no pun intended) on the other.  Starting from a dead stop can be a pain in the ass and having to slow down to a crawl on campus avoiding people vacuously gawping at their iDoohickey is a major hassle since I start to lose balance and front wheel goes all wobbly.  Riding home from the grocery store with a full load (front and back) on Nacogdoches' crappy sidewalks isn't terrible (except for the tools who pull out too far forward in drive ways with their giant gas guzzlers).  My bike has gotten significantly heavier as well, which I don't mind too terribly truth be told.  I also have to figure out where to put my front light, since the handlebars are no longer a viable option.  If I try to rig it to the basket I can't get the correct angle to illuminate the road, if I have it on the handlebars the light gets dispersed by the basket itself.  I've seen some DIY LED tire lights which seem kind of cool but I'm not sure I want ground effects on Big Blue (Not really my style).

On the plus side, having this much cargo space allows me to haul a lot of groceries or whatever junk I need.  The added weight makes the bike ride like a tank.  I feel like I get a smoother cruise and if I'm zipping down Mound St (at a breakneck 15mph, lookout!) I get no front shimmy or vibrations.  Sure I have to take wider turns but I'm used to that already.  Oddly enough the added weight has made me a little bit more comfortable with biking in traffic, not much but a little.

I only have a few more items to buy for the bike but the big stuff is out of the way.  I found a cool upright bell and some cork grips (the foam grips I have get disgusting with sweat, I can't imagine how foul they will be come August).  I permanently mounted my back light a few weeks ago (I felt pretty proud of myself even though it was fairly simple).  Found a pretty awesome Two-Tone checkered helmet.  Also came across a company that makes bike decals so I might get some made up.  Went to the doctor today (nothing serious, just getting more pills) and I've lost almost ten pounds (I had to laugh and say, "Where?" It's the first time I've been below 200lb in years) and my blood pressure is getting significantly lower than the "How are you not dead?!?" stage.  I am also proud to admit that I've barely been using first gear, except for one or two of the hills around campus.  I mainly keep it in third and use second for some inclines.  Damn it, am I getting in shape?

So give me a wave (or don't hit me with your car or honk at me) if you see me out and about.  I might look angry but that's my concentrating face (unless some troglodyte in a motor vehicle agitates me because they don't know how to commit to a turn or use turn signals or are texting while eating a bowl of cereal and fixing their hair or honk at me when I'm stopped at an intersection, in that case I'm probably angry).  Ride safe and be well.

Amarr delenda est.

The Ghost Town is dead!  Long live Ghost Town II!

Yesterday was kind of an insane day on EVE for me.  I put in an epic eighteen hour game marathon.  Granted most of that time was spent in transit as I traversed all over the core systems doing inventory control, resource consolidation, and hearing elevator music in my head as I schlepped across the void.  Most of my time was uneventful and I think I might have gotten over my fears of some parts of lowsec.  Lowsec is like a bad neighborhood, as long as you move with purpose and don't attract any attention to yourself then you should okay.  I made a decent amount of profit and mapped out some skills to work on over the next few months.

I also made one of my biggest EVE-fails in my career.  I flew into Amarr highsec with a terrible rating, that is I have such a low security rating with the Amarr that the fuckers have a "shoot on sight" order for me.  Should have been something I had thought of considering how much enmity I feel towards those laser slinging shit-heel slavers.  But no, I was bopping along, ready to take care of an easy storyline mission.  Get to the mission site and there are a bunch of Amarr Navy ships, including two battleships.  I was instantly gang-banged.  Unfortunately I was flying my favorite ship, the Ishtar Ghost Town.  Yes, my favorite ships are named after songs by The Specials (and Big Trouble in Little China). As a Gallente drone boat I often have trouble with Amarr high level ships - primarily because they use a large amount of capacitor neutralizers and generally are a pain in the ass.  So Ghost Town went pop, fortunately NPCs don't podkill, and in a rookie ship I was able to snake most of my cargo and and remaining mods from the wreck.  It amuses me that the last time I lost a ship (over a year ago) it was an Ishtar to the Amarr Navy.

On the upside I was smart enough to have insurance (thank god) and since I've been making solid bank I had a pair of similarly fit Ishtars back at home base.  I've been attempting to set up my regularly visited stations with ships I regularly use so I don't have to fly there and back again just to pick up stuff.  It's an arduous, expensive, endeavor but has made life a little easier so far.  One thing I want to do is have a slew of  specialty combat fit ships available to just hop into instead of swapping gear out every time.

Amusing aside:  I was wrapping up stuff for the night and I decided to pick up one last mission.  As I was in transit to the AO I got that feeling:

Frost: Man, I'm telling you, I got a bad feeling about this drop. 
Crowe: You always say that, Frost. You always say, "I got a bad feeling about this drop." 
Frost: Okay, okay. When we get back without you, I'll call your folks. 
Share this quote

Now friends, in EVE when I get that feeling, I'm 95% right.  Something bad is gonna happen.  But, like the horror movie moron who walks into a dark room to investigate a noise I decided to check out the mission and then bop to the closest station.  I fly in, align to station because there's a nest of drones making angry noises at me, and I'm gonna bug out and deal with it later aaaaaannnnndddd Windows decides that's the best time to update and reset.  I sounded my barbaric FUCK across the rooftops of the world.  Oh, and I was flying Ghost Town II.  That's right, my new Ishtar was left alone.  Five minutes later, I'm sweating bullets and talking to my Ishtar, telling her I'm on my way, just hold together, trying to sweet talk Lady Luck, and I'm back in.  She was at half shields but holding strong.  I realigned to station and put the pedal to the metal.  Swear to God I might have actually cried if I lost a ship like that after the day I'd had.  "NEVER GET OFF THE GODDAMN BOAT, MAN!"

In other EVE news:

Capsuleer Stranglelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Mining.  The Venture is one of my favorite ships in EVE and I've been able to make some decent money just by piddling around cleaning up rocks in mission areas or mining while hanging out with people.  I wouldn't make a career out of it but it gives me something easy to do.  It also gives me some time so actually look at some of the environments, which are easy to miss when you're just out kicking ass.

*cue Muzak version of "Girl From Ipanema"*

Hope all of you are well and in good spirits.

In closing here's one of my favorite pictures of Ghost Town and Amarr delenda est.

Bicycle madness! Planning for DIY madness!

Yeah, I've bike madness again.  For the last few days I've been skulking around bike sites, torturing myself with Brooks gear, Republic Bikes, and the WorkCycles Monark Truck.  However I don't have a couple of thousand bucks to spend so I'm also poking around instructables.com and a couple of other DIY places.  I checked out Donkey Boxx but they look kind of cheap.  So I'm on the hunt for something that rings my bell (which reminds me I should buy a bell for my bike...fuck).

Currently jerry-rigged on my 2011 Simple 3 rear rack are a pair of Wald 582 Folding Baskets but frankly they kind of annoy me for some weird reason.  They seem big enough but when I go to the grocery store they don't hold all that much and they look kind of crappy.  Granted the ones I bought were gathering dust in the back of The Bike Shop (awesome staff, super helpful) and they put them on my bike.  Functional but not exactly stylin' and profilin'.  Granted ain't nobody gonna steal them either (plus the guy at the shop used spoke wire to secure the baskets).

So what's the plan, Stan?

Welp, after finding some instructables about DIY'ing Army/Navy surplus bags into panniers I figure that might be an interesting way to expand carrying capability as well as giving my ride some style.  I was digging around on Uncle Sam's Army/Navy Outfitters and found a number of possibilities.  I'm definitely going to pick up one of these:

Only $28 - which compared to other stuff is cheeeeeeeap.

I was given a bike multi-tool (thanks AmazonButterfly!) for Christmas and with my lights and a couple of other odds and ends I normally carry in my messenger bag it'd be nice to have a place to stash that crap.  I also found some massive (15"x15"-5") Musette Bags I could use as new panniers with minimal DIY involved.

Upon returning home today, I rummaged around in a closet and found my old green mechanics bag which I think could be monkeyed with to make a trunk bag.  I was thinking of getting a saddle bag but with my seat where it is I doubt that's an option.  I figure I could put some grommets in the bottom of the bag and secure it  with some bungee cords.

I'm also looking at taking one of my wooden wine boxes and mounting it on the front of Big Blue.

Yay!  Stock model Big Blue!  Man, I put some damage on my paint job...

I found a decent article about rigging a crate to a bike on ridingpretty.  The thing is I'm considering getting another Wald basket for the front (if not a Wald then a Basil) if only to: A) not have to piss about with removing my rear baskets and B) keep a uniform look to my bike.  Plus DIY is much easier if you actually have the right tools.

In any case the Giant Simple 3 is a great bike for just tootling around town a couple of miles a day (4-5).  I've noticed a few problems as a rider though.  It's just a wee bit big for me (I'm 5'6" in my big boy shoes) and the top bar hits my jimmy and my feet barely touch the ground when I'm waiting for a stoplight.  In Nacogdoches there are a lot of hills and while I've gotten used to most of them I wish I had gone for a seven speed to help power up some of the inclines (fuck you West College St).  I suppose it's one of those cases of getting into something as a n00b and a couple of months in you realize that you should have spent the extra money for what you really wanted from the get-go.  C'est la vie.

That being said, if you're thinking about getting back on a bike, want something reliable (not some cheap piece of shit from Walmart), fuckin' sturdy (Big Blue is a freaking tank even after my crash and banging into stuff), and fun to ride (yeah, so I make airplane noises sometimes when I'm cruising down hills) then I whole-heartedly recommend this bike.

Ride safe my friends and keep the fun between your legs.

Recipe and food schtuff: Holiday edition 1

Oh the holidays,  I'm so glad I don't work retail anymore.  People always ask me, "Why are you such a Scrooge?"  I usually reply, "You ever work in a place where Christmas is a corporate shill nightmare and Christmas music is on repeat for eight hours a day and you go home and dream of Christmas merchandise and 'White Christmas' now sounds like a funeral dirge?"  And then the nice man in the white coat with a net comes and gives a ride back to Happydale.

The real upside to the holidays is food (and being with people you don't want to sell into white slavery).  Now we all know that I've been known to make a turkey or ham at random but for the holidays I've been known to do something different.  Last year I spent it with friends; they made goose and I did a pot roast (that cooked at about 275 for over four hours).  This year they're doing another goose and since it's going to be a bigger affair than the three of us gorging ourselves like ticks we decided to kick it up a notch.  Hence an eleven pound goose and an eleven pound standing rib roast.  Ooo, fancy pantsy you say?  Yeah, kind of better than turkey and ham but we shop smart and got hella good deals.

I've never made a goose.  Personally that's all Amazonbutterfly's domain and seems to require a level of elbow grease I'm not normally willing to put forth.  I'm doing the standing rib roast.  Kids, let me tell you a secret.  Ready?  It's one of the easiest things you will ever make.  Seriously, it's easier than turkey.  Sure you can do all kinds of fancy stuff and hibbity jibbity but this is one of those dishes where simplicity reigns.  350 @ 15 minutes per pound.  Whilst preheating the oven liberally apply (a.k.a. coat that sucker) fresh black pepper and kosher salt (why do you even own "table" salt?).  Put roast in sufficiently large pan.  Put pan containing roast in oven.  Set timer (easy math?  one hour = four pounds).  Timer goes off, take stuff out of oven, let rest fifteen minutes.  Tada, you just made a big ass fancy roast.

It's one of the things I grew up eating on Christmas and my father would sometimes add herbs to the rub and I might have except I was out of everything except dill.  I might have used #42 but I'm cooking for a mixed crowd so I didn't want to throw anyone off.  This is one of those dishes where the meat itself is the main attraction and should not require bells or whistles.

The tricky part for me is going to be making gravy because I never make gravy.  I know it's relatively easy, I just never do it.

I am also going to make Yorkshire pudding because, well, that's what one does with a proper roast.  It's pretty simple and cooks while the roast is setting.  It's basically egg, milk, flour, salt, pepper, and roast drippings mixed and baked.  I frigging love the stuff.  Last night I prepped all the dry ingredients (and added a few dashes of herbs de provence for fun) so I wouldn't have to monkey with them today.  Lookit me bein teh smrts.

So yeah, that's the long and short.  Hopefully everything turns out okay.  There will probably be some pictures.

Hope that all of are well and safe and relatively not miserable.

Oh look another EVE post. Mining and space trucking.

After a six month hiatus from the the harsh mistress that is EVE Online I shuffled back meekly.  I've noticed the emerging pattern of playing for a few months and then taking a few months off and coming back.  It's usually after an update to the game.  Retribution launched 12/04/12 with a wide range of tweaks to cruisers, frigates, and destroyers.  They also added the Venture, an ORE mining frigate.

Pretty friggin sweet for an entry level miner like myself.

I love the Venture for a number of reasons.  I never really gave mining a chance because I never wanted to input the effort to getting a strip miner or exhumer.  Plus big ass mining ships are about as manuverable as a turd with a sail.  The Venture is a peppy little bastard that mines about 5000m3 ore with current crappy skills in about ten minutes (levelling mining skills is pretty quick compared to some of the wait times I have for LV drones and ships).  With refining and yadda yadda I can make roughly ten million isk per hour.  Not that I particularly need the money right now but money is nice.  Mining ain't exactly a thrilling gig but it's a nice change of pace from regular carebearing.  

The call of nullsec is something I've ignored since my my third week of play (06/13/2011) but since I've been thinking about getting into interstellar shipping and smuggling for something fun and new to do (without mucking into pvp).  OK, fine I want the Millenium Falcon.  There, I said it.  The forums have some interesting info about how to take down Blockade Runners and I found a good article comparing builds.  Mabrick wrote an interesting article about the need for overhauling haulers. 

I've expanded my usual AO since stumbling across a small population system kind of off the beaten path.  It's a nice change of pace and allows for an expansion of resources without a risky commitment.  With a longer trade route I'm considering setting up permanent way stations and start preparing to get into nullsec or at least setting up a post near a high risk area.
Fly safe and remember to d-scan always.

1000th Post!

One thousand posts since 2007!  A lot has happened in the last five years.  Thanks for reading and putting up with my bullshit.  Here's to a thousand more!

Banzai!

999.9: Settings and set pieces I love in video games

I was just reading some articles about level design theory and settings and some technical stuff and I started thinking about some of my favorite games and settings.  Figured I'd do a list of stuff I like.  Feel free to add anything I forgot:

•  The Hitman series has some of the best - and most memorable - levels I can think of from the Meat King's Slaughterhouse to the Opera to a vast Russian airbase.  The motel sequence in Absolution was the best part of the entire game and really the key reason to playing it all.  
• Libraries.  I love libraries in RL and in  games just as much, even if it isn't during an action sequence.  In any RPG I'll head towards libraries ASAP and check every shelf for books and loots.
• Museums.  Fallout 3, GTA IV, Stranglehold, and Arkham City all had excellent museum levels.  Like libraries I'll scour the place for loot and hidden objects.
• Cities and urban environments.  
• Casinos - because blowing up slot machines and taking cover behind flipped over blackjack tables is fun (Rainbow 6: Vegas has the best Vegas levels...uh...hence...uh...)
• Large scale bridge battles.  
• Vaults in Fallout 3 and Vegas.  Like dungeons but with less stupid nature involved.
• The final techno-dungeon in Final Fantasy VI.
• The "San Francisco" level of War of the Monsters.
• Cyberpunk.  All of it.
• Though I've yet to encounter one: the hive cities of Warhammer 40K.  I've never understood why there wasn't a truly epic Necromunda RPG.  The possibilities of awesome are limitless.
• For bombed out city sniper-y goodness Sniper Elite takes the cake.  Sure the game could hate you, especially if you ramp up the difficultly but man there was intense action involved.
• The Dark World in Legend of Zelda for the SNES.
• Vice City.  All of it.
• The mansion at the end of Manhunt.
• The first Metroid.
• The castle in Ico.
• LV-426.
• London in The Getaway.  I actually dug out a street map of London to help me get around.  The game had some control and play issues and ended up with some shitty missions at the end but damn it was fun to drive around.
• The office buildings in Shadowrun (SNES).  Man that was awesome fun.
• Arkham Asylum was just brilliantly designed.
• The Brooklyn level of Freedom Fighters.
• Trench warfare
• The Black Deep (?) in Skyrim was pretty frigging epic.
• Amnesia: The Dark Descent.  Talk about claustrophobic and nightmarish.
• Silent Hill 2 & 3.
• The Secret World's level design is amazing, too bad the game sucked.  
• Red Dead Redemption's Mexico.
• The funhouse in Max Payne 2.

Now for where I don't need to go anymore:

• Laboratories
• The fucking jungle, except in Far Cry 2.
• Warehouses
• Mining sites
• I'm getting tired of caverns and caverny dungeons.  Yes, I realize that in fantasy RPGs baddies would live in caverns, caves, etc but jeez do they have to be so drab?  And why are there torches and fires lit everywhere - even if the denizens would have no need for any light?  And where are the bioluminescents?  Yes, Skyrim had them but there were also plenty of bland Draugur sites too.
• Brown and grey palettes are staples.  I know, I know destroyed areas are burned out and charred and dirty but do the levels need to look so flat and rote?  Ico and Shadow of Colossus both had limited palettes but there was a richness to them, a depth.
• The sticks.  I'm looking at you GTA: SA.
• Kashyyk
• Raccoon City

Coming soon - "What do you mean I can't turn Auto Equip off?", "I just ran out of space in inventory.  Why the fuck can't I have a pack horse or a wagon?", "How hard is it for me to bring all my followers with me?  Just scale up the difficulty!"*

*This last whine has been a long standing complaint of mine since playing Final Fantasy VI.  In that game you broke your characters into teams and at many points in the game it worked brilliantly.  In the stunningly good Suikoden III you built a town out of followers (108!) found throughout the game and multiple story arcs but you could only sally forth with a few - most of the time (this game remains in my top five favorite RPGs of all time).  I'd love to see a game in which you amass individual followers and build an army and by the end of the game, facing the big bad and his legions of forces you command your own large force (with friendly NPC perma-death - Mass Effect did feature this and I think it's one of the strongest elements to the game).  How frigging epic would that be?  Lately I very rarely care about companions or what their story is, a large number of helper monkeys are just Smitty to me.  "Smitty carry this shit."  "Smitty be a bullet magnet."  "Jesus, Smitty get the fuck out of the way!  I'm sniping ova 'ere!  Dumb shit!"  "Smitty, if you don't get get this jeep and man the .50 I'm gonna run over your fingers and then beat you for not playin' 'Chopsticks'!"  "Damn it Smitty!  I shoulda mailed it to the Marx Brothers!"      

999.8 "The Dark Knight Rises" (2012) dir Christopher Nolan

I like Batman, you like Batman, we all like Batman.  I really dug The Dark Knight despite the fact it spawned a new generation of Joker dorks (which I would have gone apeshit for if I was in high school, hell I might even have bought a purple velvet coat) rabbiting, "Why so serious?"  I didn't really jump on the hype-wagon for The Dark Knight Rises.  I knew I would see it eventually but didn't make an effort to see it in the theater. 

After watching it last night I am slightly non-plussed.  While I am a fan of the direction Nolan took the series (though I didn't particularly like Batman Begins) this latest installment came off as sound and fury, signifying nothing.  Not so say I didn't enjoy elements of it or I failed to get swept up in some of the action and imagery of the film but all in all, I doubt I'll be seeing it again unless it's on at someone's house.

I am under the impression that either I know too little about this chapter of Batman lore or I know just enough to get me into trouble.  I read the "Knightfall" arc and enjoyed it (what can I say?  I like it when superheroes get smashed into paste) but I don't recall Bane being part of the League of Shadows or his story besides being an insane bad-ass all jacked up on combat drugs.  Why was there no real explanation of Bane's mask?  Am I just stupid or did his story arc just seem kind of disjointed?  There were sections of the second half of the movie where I was pulled out of the movie with thoughts of, "Huh?  Meh, fuck it.  Bay-splosions!"  Why was this iconic moment so lacklustre in the movie?

Batman #497 by Doug Moench and Jim Aparo

Hell I think I would watch "Knightfall" and "Batman Learns to Walk Again" as a two-parter.  Could you imagine how people would have reacted if Rises had ended that way?  It would warp their fragile little minds.

Oh well, a lot of people liked it.  Just wasn't my cup of tea.  I'm gonna see if I still have some of the "Broken Bat" comics. 

999.7: Far Cry 3 (Ubisoft Montreal) 2012

I just finished Far Cry 3.  Now I'm really tempted to rip this game a new one but I'm also trying to separate my love of Far Cry 2 from the equation.  It's not bad game and it weren't a Far Cry game I think I'd be more inclined to like it, maybe.  Frankly I'm wishing I had a copy of Just Cause 2 for some jungle mayhem.

I reckon I'll break this down into a list of good and bad like I normally do.

Good:

• Playing an FPS that has color in it.  Not the cartoon-y mayhem of the Borderlands series but lots of lush greens, beautiful island paradise vistas, etc etc instead of the standard Soviet-Bloc greys and browns most FPS have these days.
• Combat is fast and furious.
• A couple of missions were white-knuckle fun.
• Hostile wildlife including: sharks, bears, tigers, cassowaries.  There's a big hunting component to the first half of the game (hunt and skin beasties then craft better gear).
• The first half of the game was a lot of fun.
• Vaas is an amazing villain, one of my favorites in a long time.  He's actually kind of frightening.
• The game has a strong exploration component with solid rewards.
• Liberating outposts is the high point of the game (actually land control is one of my favorite aspects of games).  
• Weapon control is smooth and responsive.  
• Stealth can be a deciding factor in combat.  Combined with proper recon and the right gear (gotta love remotely detonated C4 charges) you can turn a would be dire situation into a cake walk.
• The melee system is really good and I hate melee combat.  
• The fire mechanics are still awesome.  Peg an enemy with a molotov and watch highjinks ensue as runs around screaming whilst setting the scenery ablaze.
• A .50 sniper rifle is a monster.  Absolutely devastating in the second half of the game.  Heavily armored opponent?  One shot.  
• The story took some interesting turns and in the first half of the game is absolutely brilliant.
• I really liked some of the npcs, particularly one you meet in the second half.
• Despite some reviews griping about the graphics, I thought it looked nice for a game that was released at the end of a console's lifetime.
• Skill upgrades represented graphically by an increasingly complex tattoo was an interesting design choice.

Bad:

• QTE (Quick Time Events).  I realize that this is my age showing but I loathe QTE in games, particularly when they are injected willy-nilly into cut-scenes.  I'm here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, not play Beat Beat Wankervision.  Designers, please, no more QTE.
• The second half is a let down story wise.  The "big bad" is a compelling character but ultimately has nothing going for him (there is one scene that I went, "Woah, that's kind of  hardcore").  The climax is disappointing and while I see what the developers were going for it seemed heavy handed and trite.
• Combat in the second half is a joke if you, like me, do all your hunting and crafting in the first half of the game.  Through exploration/collection/liberation of the starting northern island I had all the upgrades and a slew of top-shelf weapons before I set foot in the second part of game.
• The three "unique" skill trees: Heron, Shark, and Spider are ultimately pointless considering I got all of them unlocked before the end of the game.  If you're going to incorporate individual skill trees then why allow me access to all of them?  Why would I use close combat/heavy weapon skills if I prefer stealth and sniper skills?  Personally I kind of love skill trees and the trend (Skyrim/Borderlands) of rewarding my own play style or allowing me to customize my abilities - even if I can't respec at higher level.
• Once I managed to get some decent weapons I liked (silenced sniper rifle and C4 are my favorites), I never really felt in danger.  Sure I died and had some pretty intense firefights (one of the best sections of the game stripped me of all my gear and forced me to be a hella sneaky git) but it lacked tension.  
• The recent trend of being able to buy loot location maps in game turns exploration and the reward of finding stuff into a fairly simple affair.  Yes, I know I don't have to buy the "cheat" maps but it's a temptation I find hard to resist (especially on a rental).  
• Story missions were, for the most part, sadly linear.  Pretty set pieces but with minimal option for execution and play style preference.
• While I love land grabbing and liberating outposts and extending my sphere of influence I quickly found that doing so allowed me free reign over areas.  Example: if the enemy holds an outpost then that region is patrolled heavily.  If you get into a firefight, reinforcements show up quickly and you'd better get your running shoes on.  Not so in this game, once you conquer an area you can skip down the road without fear of a jeep full of foes fucking up your day.
• I basically stuck with the same four weapons the entire game: .50 sniper rifle, RPG, silenced SMG, and flare gun.  All of these I got in the first half of the game, the .50 and SMG were unlocked weapons which were just beasts.
• I would have been more engaged in the protagonist's character evolution if I had more control over the story.  Choices whether or not to save this person or that, even if it was a detriment/bonus to the story (a la saving the Little Sisters in Bioshock).  Naturally I would have saved everyone but there was no risk/reward involved.  Saving NPCs meant nothing, then again if I had left them to die, meant nothing.  Here's a potential example of what could have been an awesome mission: You infiltrate or storm a holding facility where your friend is kept.  The friend is in no condition to travel and barely able to survive.  Do you do everything you can to save them and make mission completion staggeringly difficult or do you cut your losses, leave them there to die, and have an easier time of escaping?  If you save them you get something awesome and you're a hero to your friends.  If you leave them, you're a shit but the villain will later reward you because you're an evil fucker.  FC3 doesn't do that.      

Why Far Cry 2 was better:

• Weapons would degrade based on quality and maintenance.  Some weapons were just shitty to start with and would jam after half a clip.  This led to some insane tension in firefights where a weapon would shit out at the worst possible moment, leaving you up the creek, fending off enemies with a spork and a single flare gun round.  
• Destrucible environment was superior and made for some brilliant engagement planning.  FC3 has this as well but it was more dynamic and responsive in FC2.  A single well placed round in a propane tank could rain holy terror down on foes.  Fire was also much more of a component in FC2 and different environments would burn better than others.  Dense jungle in a rainstorm, fuckin useless.  Dry day on savannah?  Fuego!  FC3 fire burns pretty much about the same everywhere, more or less, in any weather condition.
• There has to be a middle ground between FC2 and FC3 outpost system.  In 2 outposts would respawn often making every journey a risky gamble.  In 3, you're golden once you've wrested control away.  I am a big fan of the system used in Red Dead Redemption zombie DLC where you would be at risk of losing an area.  Personally I would use a system which required a certain amount of micromanagement as the player's influence grew, more befitting a leader weighed down with responsibility than some uber-mensch ass whoopin his way through an island paradise.  If memory serves, Saint's Row 2 used this system.  It's up to the player to defend his holdings and widen his sphere of influence and power.
• I wish FC2 and the first half of FC3 stories had a baby.  Hell if the first half of FC3 had been a DLC I would have purged all bodily fluids at once.  The ending of FC2 might have been abrupt but it was fitting. 

FC3 isn't a "bad" game and if you're just looking for some run and gun it's worth renting at least.  I was pretty excited about it and if I had had the money I would have picked it up.  As it is, I'm glad I rented it because there's no way I am gonna play this again.  Frankly I think I might download FC2 for the PC and find out what kind of awesome mods are out there (even though I've played FC2 through three times).

 

Post 999.6: Sharp Objects (2006) Gillian Flynn

For some reason I never review books on this site, mainly because I don't read all that much any more that isn't about food or history or the history of food or essays.  I thought I had lost my taste for fiction (besides short stories and George R.R. Martin).  This semester I took a Horror Fiction class and it's been kind of a kick in the pants for me, I had read almost all of the assigned texts except for the final book, Gillian Flynn's first novel Sharp Objects.  I initially read a good chunk of it while sucking down beers and was thoroughly blown away.  Today I decided to restart the book from the beginning and not drink while reading it.  I needed a drink after finishing it.  Hell, I might need a shower after reading it.

Sharp Objects is a modern psycho-sexual thriller instead of a standard horror novel.  As a fan of gruesome procedural crime shows (Law & Order: SVU) I figured I had some of the plot pegged pretty early.  There are some familiar side characters and themes but many similarities to the genre are non-existent due to; Flynn's prose (which at times is frighteningly sharp), her protagonist Camille, and the general miasma of unease Flynn imparts.  Stephen King's blurb on the back jacket calls it, "An admirably nasty piece of work, elevated by sharp writing and sharper insights."  I'm hard pressed to think of a better adjective than "nasty".  This book, in a number of ways, reminds me of some of my favorite American thrillers from the 1970s.  Bloody, cruel, almost unrelenting in their nastiness, completely willing to grab you by the scruff of the neck and rub your nose in how shitty human beings can be to one another but then at the end of it you want more.

I'll be honest, I don't read many female authors.  To be sure I love Shirley Jackson, Joyce Carol Oates, Daphne DuMaurier, Anne Tyler, and there are one or two others whose names escape me but if you look at my collection it's mostly men.  I don't have anything against women authors but, frankly sexist of me, my experience with genre fiction leans me towards men, particularly when it comes to mysteries and thrillers.  I'm more of Jim Thompson kind of guy than Elizabeth Peters or those series where busybodies and their cat(s) solve crimes.  When it comes to movies, it's a different story but for books, yeah I go for gruff drunken noir with sultry vixens and broads with moxie.

Flynn knocked me on my ass from page one.  She has the terse, brick to the face style I adore.  And she kept me on the back foot, not plot wise (though the ending is vicious doozy), but because Camille is such a dynamic, foreign character to me.  With most of the male protagonists I can find something to connect to or engage in some hero worship (who doesn't want to be Phillip Marlowe?) but with Camille, there was minimal connection.  I felt deep empathy for her and was engaged by her character and at times felt painfully protective of her but as a male reader at times I felt at turns, uncomfortable (creeped out at one or two points by Camille and often by the book's other female characters), sheepish, and as if I was seeing an aspect of women I either willfully ignored or simply never had any reason to consider (some would call that part and parcel of being a white male privilege).  The sexuality of the book caught me off guard and I'm no prude or stranger to the works of Nin, etc, etc, but there's an edge to it I'm not familiar with.  It is not even a factor of "naked time" but a strong undercurrent of surreal, voyeuristic, jealous longing, constant comparison and appraisal throughout the entire novel.  Abstractly I comprehend, practically I just don't get it.  Limits of my gender consciousness and experience, more than likely.  

From a gender neutral thriller standpoint, Sharp Objects is fucking great.  I wasn't expecting the ending though when I read it again I'm sure it will be apparent (during reading I noticed a couple of clues but was swept up the prose so I just kept moving).  If done right, it would make one hell of a movie.  It moves fast, and at times I had to force myself to slowdown or take a break.  The tension starts early and keeps building, Flynn knows the trick of imparting menace, dread, and sans those a crushing weight of depression into each scene, even the most innocuous scenes.

This is one of those works I want to rant and talk to someone about but I can't because I don't want to give anything away.  Since we are now in the deep and dark December and with the holidays looming, if you're in the mood for something "nasty" about going home again definitely pick this up. I look forward to picking up Flynn's other works.  Well done, Flynn you've gotten me hooked on fiction again.      



  

Post 999.5: Hitman Absolution (XBOX 360) Io Interactive

I'm still not done with the 1000th post draft but I wanted to do a review of Hitman Absolution.  

I've been a fan of the Hitman series since Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (2002).  Contracts (2004) was an amazing experience and Blood Money (2006) made me very happy (though not quite as happy as Contracts) made me.  Six years in development and now Absolution has been released and while I had some trepidation going into the latest installment I still had to play it.  I rented it over the Thanksgiving break and completed the main story.

Absolution is, on one hand, the weakest game in the series and on the other, has some really impressive moments.

• It's a technically splendid experience with minor bugs 
• in about twenty hours of play I had two freezes on one level and noticed some glitches in graphics (which are to be expected).
• The amount of lens flare was absurd at times and unnecessary.  There should have been an option to turn it off.  
• It's not hard not to be impressed with the crowds in Absolution particularly in the Chinatown segments.  Sure you'll see quite a few of the same character models repeated if you look but the overall effect is impressive as 47 navigates his way through the throngs.   
• The story arc was well done but imposed a linear, unwelcome, feel to the game.
• The story works for the Hitman mythos and in continuing the narrative from Contracts to Blood Money to Absolution it makes sense.  However the progression through gameplay feels disjointed, like not pausing a movie while you get up to go to the bathroom.  
• I'm also not thrilled about the whacko element of the story.  Yeah, I know Hitman has a lot of whacko "villians" but this just felt a little over-wrought, veering into GTA territory.    
• Level design was brilliant on some sections and annoying in others.
• Chinatown in Absolution is great to look at and offers some interesting tactical options.
• A hotel penthouse is one of the high points of the game that is reminiscent of previous games.  
• The entire motel section is brilliant, the high point to the whole game, and the greatest example of what Absolution could have been. 
• Difficulty was at times uneven and nonsensical and AI matched that.
• At one time guards would derp before they herped another they would be, well acting the way professional security should act when they see a stranger skulking around.
• While the cover system works well, yet I could roll from cover to cover in front of guards with nary a speck of interest.

If you're a long-standing fan of the series then I feel you're going to have a few problems with the game.  If you're new to Hitman then you should pick it up.  For me, I'm glad I didn't spend $60 on it.  I plan on going back to Blood Money for a couple of kills.

   

Post 999: The Walking Dead Season 2 (2011) Spoilers

ACHTUNG: FULL SPOILERS!

Post 999 folks, still drafting a 1000th.  In the meantime, since I've torn through Borderlands 2 a good couple of times, I've been watching movie after movie and trying to find other things to watch (whilst avoiding Hulu or downloading or paying for anything else besides Netflix).  Yesterday I realized that the second season of The Walking Dead was on streaming so I figured what the hell and tore through it -finishing off the  last three episodes tonight.

As many of you know I am not a fan of zombies and have a less than flattering opinion of "preppers" (I maintain that while having an emergency kit, a copy of the Army Survival Manual, a bicycle, and a decent flashlight on hand are perfectly reasonable there's been a trend in our society that's gone sideways).  I am also of the opinion that I would not do well or survive long in a post-apocalyptic world (or prison).  Truth be told I always figured I'd be a Glen Bateman, the old fart in The Stand (played by Ray Walston in the surprisingly strong TV adaptation from 1994).  It's not a flattering or really self-deprecating view of myself.  I just don't have the illusion that I will be some kind of bad-ass road warrior zombie smasher (or villian).

The ending of season one of The Walking Dead left me flat and not particularly interested in the second.  The CDC explosion made me actually say, "Oh come the fuck on."  Fuck that ending.  That being said, I'm going to start rewatching season one after I finish this post because there was a lot I forgot about that season which influenced the second.

Season two is, despite a few problems, really fucking good.  There are a number of themes I wish were developed more instead of being touched on (age/gender/race roles in their world).  I would have liked to see a stronger development of T-Dog (IronE Singleton) - though I expect he's going to come into his own in season three.  There also could have been one "breather"/mounting tension episode after #11 "Judge, Jury, and Executioner" but I realize the end of the season just snowballs into mayhem.  I just prefer the pacing of the first half and the development of the relationships between Glenn and Maggie and in particular Daryl and Carol.

I have to say, I was really impressed by the writing and acting between Daryl (Norman Reedus) and Carol (Melissa McBride) and it really sold me on the entire season.  Where you'd stereotypically put Daryl in Shane's camp, he turns out to be a character who reminds me of Sandor Clegane in a bizarre way (only less brutal).  Carol has turned into one of my favorite characters over the course of this season.  She's not a bad ass but she reminds me of Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother".  There's a hard edge of endurance to her, not just base drive for survival.

Hawaiian shirts are the new red shirts.  Dale got Whedoned.  I was a little pissed that the breather/tension build episode didn't take place after his death.  But that's just me being a fan of Hawaiian shirts and old farts.

Andrea (Laurie Holden) has turned into a beast of a bad-ass and I look forward to rewatching the first season to watch her development.  She kind of "holy shitted" me near the end of second season when she breaks away from Shane's influence and comes into her own (particularly in the last few episodes).  I wish she had been able to meet up with the group again because she would be the new Rick.  I also love that she gives Lori a well needed verbal ass-kicking.  AND DUDE WHO IS THE KATANA WIELDING, HOOD WEARING MOTHERFUCKER?!?

I'm really impressed by the way female characters are depicted in The Walking Dead.  We've seen the bad-ass assassin/vixen/shake'n'bake if you've watched enough movies you know the tropes and stereotypes.  The Walking Dead has them but there's an unexpected depth to them that few of the male characters have.  Rick/Shane/Glenn/Dale/Daryl/Hershel are all recognizable male archetypes.  That doesn't make them unsympathetic or necessarily paint by numbers but I dunno, I'm kind of into the series because of Carol, Andrea, and to a certain extent (though I don't like her) Lori.