Sci Fi Jungle

Space Painting - Wow!

This is really cool:

 

Friday Fringe

Fringe seems to be surviving the Friday night curse, and maintaining its ratings.  This season's two episodes have been great, in my opinion.  What is going on with Peter?!?  It's a great plot twist to have us not really understand his motivation and not know which version of the future is going to take place.

I love how they have named the other universe's Olivia Faux-livia.  That's hysterical.  Walternate and Fauxlivia.  Ha ha.  :-)

I actually liked the other Olivia, although she is quite ruthless.  I wonder if she will pack up her luggage sets and come back for a final battle this season?

Moon Called (Mercy Thompson Book 1) by Patricia Briggs

For some reason I thought I read this book but I never have.  I think I was getting it mixed up with another paranormal where the lead character was an auto mechanic - Urban Shaman by C.E. Murphy.

I've enjoyed a lot of Patricia Briggs other books, so I will be a very happy camper if I have a whole series to read through.  I think its funny that I got these stories mixed up!  There are sure a lot of paranormal / urban fantasy series out there.  Hard to keep track of.

I am hoping for a good week - send me some good vibes if you are reading this post.  I am facing a busy week, its supposed to be snowy or rainy and don't have any women's rain boots. I fell yesterday and hit my head and I still feel a lil "off" Eek.

 

The Cape

I watched the pilot episode of the new NBC show "The Cape" as well as the second episide "Tarot."  It was interesting.  I had a hard time warming up to the main character, Vince Faraday/The Cape.  I guess that's natural because he abandons his wife and son to become a superhero, and to me the real super hero would have been the dad that got his family out of that corrupt city.

But there were some good points to the show - it's very campy with bit of a sense of humor built in.  I like the carnival leader, Max Malini, played by Keith David.  Great actor and what a voice.

Summer Glau seemed a bit underused as the secretive blogger Orwell.  She's rich beautiful, and driving some hot cars.  And I bet she's not looking for any of the best treatments for acne but we need to see a little more meat for her role.

I will be watching this show to see if it warms up.  I could see it being a good show if they can smooth out the rough edges.  Wait and see.

Why Pokemon is Good for Kids

When I was young my brother used to play strategy games.  War strategy games, and when Dungeons and Dragons came out they played that.  I remember one time we were visiting New York City and he found a store that was hosting strategy games.  When we went to pick him up they were playing WWII on a table that was a model of Europe complete with countries, terrain and figures representing armies.  Not your average modern furniture.   He was a chess player, and is a general math genius and today is a hot commodity programmer and project manager.  I am pretty sure that strategy games contribute to the development of logical thinking skills, not to mention big picture planning and leadership skills.

When the hubster and I were first dating we played Magic the Gathering.  We were actually in a league for awhile, which was fun.  It turns out I am pretty bad player, though, so I never won any official matches.

So now that my older son is 7, its been really fun to introduce the two of them to Pokemon.  I immediately recognized the format of the game - its kid of "Magic the Gathering, light."  Simple enough for kids to play, it still retains the basics of strategy, logical thinking, and math.

Why is Pokemon good for kids?

* Pokemon encourages reading and reading comprehension.  To play the card game you have to read the cards and understand the abilities and special actions.

*Pokemon requires math.  You have to add up the points and damages and subtract from the total points of each card in play.

* Pokemon encourages logic and planning.  You have to stock up your spare cards, so you go through the deck and have to be able to predict what will be helpful later on.  You also will want to stock your deck with cards that go together.

* Pokemon are very kid friendly - they don't die after their battles, they faint and get rejuvenated.

Even the Pokemon Nintendo DS games have been great learning experiences for my son.  They are very heavy on text explanation.  When he first started playing he used to have to ask me to read the text.  Then, as his reading ability caught up, he eagerly reads the text and understands the story behind the game.  He loves his "Pokedex" books that list each type of Pokemon character and how they evolve into other types.  It's great to see kids excited about reading - that is going to give them a foundation for a lifetime of enjoyment and learning.

 

Sequel to Patrick Rothfuss' Name of the Wind Coming March 1st

The sequel to "The Name of the Wind" is coming in March.  The book is listed for pre-order on Amazon but there's not cover shown in the link yet.  I really enjoyed book 1 of the Kingkiller Chronicles and the just love the lead character, Kvothe.  This is some great fantasy and great world building.

I need to find some good fantasy books to read in the meantime.  It seems like all my favorite authors are going TOO DARN SLOW in their writing.  I blow through books faster than the best fat burners blow through a 5 Guys Cheeseburger.  Help - leave me a comment with a recommendation, please.

 

instantwatcher.com - Movies and TV to watch instantly on Netflix

instantwatcher.com - Movies and TV to watch instantly on Netflix

I just found this excellent website for finding great movies on Netflix streaming!

Fox to "Re-animate" Dead Fridays with Fringe Move

Fox has a hysterical video responding to critics talking about moving Fringe to Friday nights as a death move for the show.

I think that the show is great and I hope it picks up new viewers on Friday.  I know the big fans will follow the show.  Personally I usually DVR all the shows I watch (Tivo to be precise) and so it doesn't matter too much what night they are on as long as there aren't 4 shows all on at the same time that I want to record.  (Scarily, sometimes this happens)

So, if you're not at date night at the local Starbucks, or doing your lower ab workout, try to remember to watch Fringe on its new night starting Friday night January 29th, at 9PM EST.

Right after Kitchen Nightmares, maybe it will pick up some of those Gordon Ramsey horror loving viewers.  We all know Walter can cook up some major kitchen "nightmares" too!  LULZ.

Classic Pins from the Golden Age of Comics

via goldenagecomicbookstories.blogspot.com

These are great. My mom and dad reminisce about the Secret Decoder Rings found in Ovaltine so I know all about these fan club kiddie givaways.

Thanks Golden Agane Comic Book Stories Blog for bringing these together.

Weekend Mellow Waiting for the Snow

We have a forecast of snow and ice, which in Atlanta is very funny.  Everyone runs out for bread and milk, and stocks up on movie rentals.  We've been loving our Netflix streaming account, and here are 5 suggestions that I have added to our Instant Queue to keep us entertained throuh the cold and any bad weather that comes through.  Hey, does anyone in Atlanta really need  toro snow blowers?

In my Netflix Instant Queue:

 

Surrogates

District 9

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

The Fifth Element

The Color of Magic