A Higher Calling

By Jeff | Published: 14 January 2010

I think that 2010 may be a good year for gaming. It is only half way through January and there are two titles that I am interested in: Darksiders, and Bayonetta. So, in order to keep everything straight I wanted to start keeping track of the good titles so that I can watch for them on sales throughout the year ($60 is an unjustifiable amount of money to spend on a video game). The spawn of this idea is my new “Gaming” page. On this page I have decided to keep track of what titles I am currently playing, what games I have in my backlog, and what games I want to pick up at some point. I also linked them back to their meta critic pages for the hell of it.

Right now this page is just a regular page, but I might use PODs to track it so I can make a block for “currently playing” or, something. I could probably write a plugin for it, but that would probably be overkill.

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Dresden Files, Completed

By Jeff | Published: 4 January 2010

As mentioned in a previous post, I did not manage to complete the Dresden Files in 2009. But, I did manage to finished before the end of 1/1/10, so it was nearly a photo finish. Note that this did not include the short stories, and I do not even own all of those. I guess there is supposed to be a collection of them published this fall, so I might pick that up.

The Dresden Files series is alright. It features a wizard in Chicago that works as a private investigator. It follows a formula very similar to the early Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series. Blake featured what is effectively a female private investor, and contains the same genre cliches. If it were not for my brother Jason being such a huge fan of the series I would not have read it.

The stories are extremely formulaic, and it shows. If I were Butcher I think I would have a love hate relationship with Dresden. Since, the books much be ridiculously easy to write so you can just keep cashing in, but you know you are capable of writing better. I was not at all surprised when I read that Storm Front (the first Dresden book) was written to demonstrate how awful a book would be if he listened to his writing instructor’s advice.

If you are planning on reading the series, I recommending getting it in audio format. James Marsters does a pretty good reading, and the story has kind of a cinematic feel.

Based on the published novels thus far, I am going to give the series a 0.5 (slight recommendation) on the undecim scale.

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Treasure of the Amazon (1985)

By Jeff | Published: 3 January 2010

This movie was my test for the suggested rating system in netflix. For some reason, Netflix thought that I would rate this film 3 stars. This is pretty rare, since I usually do not rate most movies that high. I figured it might as well be worth a shot if only to talk about how bad the system is.

I queue up the film, and it has been sitting on the shelf for a while. Last night I was debating just sending it back unwatched, but I ultimately decided to pop it in. While the film is dated, it was actually pretty good. I was expected it to be a lot more campy than it was.

As the film was winding down I was prepared to log into netflix and rate the film as a two stars. However, the final twist amused me greatly, so I decided to upgrade it to a three. Point netflix.

On my undecim scale, I am rating the film as a 2 (above average), and I recommend it to vanlandw, and bunny.

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Nice Try, Better Luck Next Year

By Jeff | Published: 1 January 2010

I completed almost all of my goals for the year end. Unfortunately, I was not quite able to finish the entire Dresden series this year. I started about midway through July, and I am about halfway through Turn Coat, the last published book. Damn.

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Mind of the Market (2009)

By Jeff | Published: 31 December 2009

The first half of this book took me 50 weeks to read, the second half took 2 days. Hurray for quickly finishing all unfinished books in time to make a clean slate for New Years.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the book, here’s a brief overview from Publishers Weekly:

“Shermer (The Science of Good and Evil), columnist for Scientific American and publisher of Skeptic magazine, provides an in-depth examination of evolutionary economics. Using fascinating examples—from monkeys that balk at unfair distribution of rewards after completing a task to humans who feel cheated when offered $10 of free money if a partner is given $90—Shermer explores the evolutionary roots of our sense of fairness and justice, and shows how this rationale extends to the market. Drawing upon his expertise as a scientist and the works of noted economists, Shermer argues convincingly that human beings are not exclusively self-centered, the market itself is moral, and modern economies are founded on our virtuous nature. He explores how we mind our money, the value of virtue, why money can’t buy happiness and whether we are really free to make choices. Though dense in places, this book offers much insight into human behavior and rationales regarding money and fairness and will be of interest to serious readers of science or business. (Jan.)“ Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The book was actually pretty good. The reason that I originally put it down was that it started to drift away from straight economic theory into evolutionary biology, and social science. And, while those things are related they are not nearly as interesting. I give the book a 2 (above average).

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