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Just watched the first episode. HOLY AWESOME. I adore the little touches they add in from the books--I read The Valley of Fear last month, and they included a line from there with just a bit of a twist. All the pieces fit together in such unexpected ways. Loved it. Speaking of The Valley of Fear, I suspect Conan Doyle really wanted to write a certain story, but he knew it would be more widely read if Holmes and Watson were in it. So he stuck a flimsy mystery onto the beginning. I barely got through the initial mystery, out of boredom or possibly narrative confusion because it took me about six weeks to read it, due to falling asleep after just a page or two. Once I got to the middle part, though, I couldn't put it down. Then I went back and reread the first part, and it was vastly more interesting. I don't know why Sherlock Holmes stories are categorized as kids' books. Maybe it's because they're considered classics, and the most likely time to get people to read them is when they have to do it for school? When I was a kid, it was kind of hard, frankly, to read Sherlock Holmes. The syntax wasn't all that straightforward for a child of the 1970s, and there were a lot of cultural references (like Holmes shooting a patriotic VR into the wall of his flat) that I completely didn't get but still had to wade through. But as an adult, especially one who has now read a fair amount of 18th and 19th century novels and historical fiction, the books are so much richer. The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard --it's awesome, even if you aren't a Napoleonic nerd like me. And if you are, well, your life isn't complete without reading it. The stories aren't about the battles, but little incidents in the brigadier's career. I tried to figure out Conan Doyle could evoke a mood or emotion so effortlessly, but kept getting distracted by the plot. He was truly a master. Tags: books, tv
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Went to a show two weekends ago, had an awesome time. Sold lots of fiber, had customers come looking for me, had knitterati buy from me, bought a rare fleece. Flew out the next morning to Las Vegas, where I met la familia (who drove down) to go camping in southern Utah. Froze asses off at night (temps were in the mid-30s), had child enter new "how come you guys don't love me?" stage when denied something that he wanted. Maybe not the most relaxing trip, but it was great to get away from home. Currently in the last third of a wholesale order. I technically have until next Wed to ship, but since I haven't done my business taxes yet, I was really hoping to have all the dyeing wrapped up by tomorrow. I don't think it's going to happen, which sucks. My neck hurts from bending over the dye table, which has caused permanent damage to one of my pupils (wtf?). My doctor wants to check for tumors (oh, awesome), so she special-ordered some cocaine (wtf, again) eye drops and I'm going in tomorrow. Hm, maybe that wasn't quite less than a tweet. Tags: hbknits, health, travel
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We just finished playing Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword tonight. As with Twilight Princess, Michael handled the controls most of the time, while the boy and I made tactical suggestions and sometimes stepped in to play. (The boy is better at flying than either of us adults; we oldsters usually feel sort of pukey after a few minutes, but the boy can do aerial acrobatics all day long.) This was a fantastic game. I could never remember the right sequence of buttons to push to initiate particular sword attacks in Twilight Princess, the other Zelda game made for the Wii, and consequently sucked. For Skyward Sword, Nintendo was able to make swordplay more intuitive--Link's sword corresponded to the Wii remote's motion for the most part, which was way simpler. There were so many clever little uses of the Wii remote in this game--the ability to roll or throw bombs, the flying bug you could use to scout or pick up things, leaping while climbing vines, walking tightropes, spiraling attacks while swimming. I think my favorite aspect of the game was the Timeshift Stones. It was such a clever way to reuse game areas and create a new layer of solving game puzzles. The same with the Silent Realms; very cool how they transformed the cheerful Kiki-like world of Skyloft into a creepy foreboding land. After we defeated the final boss, I was reading reviews of the game. Many of them lament that just as Nintendo has finally demonstrated the Wii console's capabilities with Skyward Sword, there will be no more Wii games--they're focusing on the development of their new console. I find this to be more depressing than the end of the game (which is often a letdown, though more so with an RPG like Baldur's Gate or Knights of the Old Republic (the old one, not the new MMORPG, which I'm not planning to play), where you have NPCs who feel almost like actual friends). I don't have much time for games anymore, but I loved this one, and I enjoy the Wii in general, so the idea that there won't be any more Wii games is sad. The thought of this game being an evolutionary dead end instead of advancing game development, when clearly so much thought and love have been put into it, fills me with an odd sense of regret. Posted via m.livejournal.com.
Tags: games, geekery
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