A birthday gift for two.

We got this set for Ethan's birthday this week and didn't get to play with them until Saturday afternoon.  After all of the little boys left and we were getting ready for the next party (it seems like the kids have three parties each birthday.  One with their friends, one with my family, and one with Karen's family) we got these out and started our little war.  First of all you have to be a little kid to wear the vest.  Grown men should not attempt to strap the belt around their waist.  The guns each hold 10 darts that are auto loaded with every pump.  The only problem is that the darts go fast in a fire fight so you should have some extra's on hand.  The next problem with this system is that the vest is nearly completely lost behind your targets' arms and gun so the little point values on the vest are almost completely hidden.  You're really lucky to even get a dart stuck on the vest at all.  The glasses that come with it are actually sort of nice in a battle because these darts can sting when they hit your face.  In all these were a ton of fun.  I think it would be better if you could set up

teams so that one member of the team could be collecting darts and reloading while another of the members of the team could be fending off the onslaught.  I've also seen one where you play capture the flag with a little "beacon" of sorts.  I think we'll get another set of these guns so we can have wars as a family instead of just me and Ethan.  If your family gets a set or two give us a call and we'll have a feud.

Flip Ultra HD

We've had this long enough now to finally give it a review.  We bought this camera under the premise that Karen would need it to record her Sign Language assignments to send to her teachers.  At least that's how I tricked her into letting me spend money on a new gadget.  We had an older digital video camera that works fine and really would do the things that she needed to do but it takes DV tapes and is harder to download clips from as it's older and doesn't take advantage of some of the newer formats that compress and make usable the video that we took.  Well I reviewed just about every flash memory based video recorder and looked at user feedback and about a million other criteria.  In the end I took Glenn Beck's advise and got a Flip.  (As a general rule you can't go too far wrong if you take Glenn's advice) So they had a great price running on Amazon.com and it was coming up on Christmas and I didn't want to pay for shipping so we ordered one using the Super Saver Shipping, which if you've shopped Amazon you know can take some time in getting to you.  In the mean time we took advantage of a slightly higher price at Wal-Mart so we could have it for Christmas Day (which I had to work at 5:45am) and record the kids opening their Christmas stuff.  When I came home I viewed the video Karen had taken and was disappointed.  The lighting made everything a little grainy and I really wasn't all that impressed with the image quality.  It records in 720p HD format and I expected this to be at least as good as the broadcast HD we get on our 720p TV.  It wasn't.  Having purchased the camera from Amazon already and needing to take the Wal-Mart one back to Wal-Mart I was a little discouraged.  Granted the image quality was better than the images that our old DV camcorder took it just wasn't all that I expected.  I wasn't happy with the 2X zoom because it's only really effective indoors and I was still a bit bummed about the grainy look of images in artificial light.  I was pretty much stuck though.  We couldn't justify trying a half dozen models and taking them each back to try another one so I was waiting for a camera that was marginally better than the one we already had and no real prospect of getting anything better.  Well a week or two later our Flip Ultra HD showed up with it's accessories (HDMI cables) and I was excited but only a little.  It wasn't until our awesome weekend up at the Gorge that I finally fell in love with our Flip.  In the sunlight this thing shines.  We took video of us climbing up a cliff, rocks and rolling down sand dunes.  We ran out of batteries a little earlier than I would have liked but in general it performed as well as I could have asked given the limitations of size and the fact that it uses 2 AA batteries I couldn't have asked for more.  All of the things I said before about the grainy look when shooting inside are still mostly true (if the light is more white than yellow things come out pretty good) but the video outside is as good looking as what we got on our little day trip then it was money well spent.  I've got a little look at it just below this blog.  If you want to see a version in it's original form let me know and I can send you a clip.  In the meantime try not to fall out of your chair watching this clip.

Ok so I'm about to geek out over candy.  A couple of weeks ago the family went with my brother and his wife to the Gorge (past Vantage) and did some climbing and playing in the sand dunes.  It was one of the best weekends I've had in years.  It was great seeing the kids play with energy that I'll never have again.  More to the point it was great being out doors with my family all happy an not a fight to be had the whole day. Anyway...back to the candy.  So on our way back totally exhausted and immensely happy we needed to stop for some fuel.  The Suburban is always hungry.  Sorta fits my personality.  So Karen goes into the station while I'm filling up at over $3 a gallon.  She was getting snacks for the kids and she found these novelties tucked in a nearly full box and decided to buy one just because.  She goes to checkout and the attendant says she's the first person who wasn't an employee to purchase them.  Which actually makes me reluctant to post this for fear that others will have a need to make the one hour trip to buy these guys out of their supply.  M&M's is the iconic candy that found it's way into our lexicon through MRE's in the War.  Well it's just too bad that they didn't have these back then and we'd have a lot fewer smoking addicts and a whole lot more chocoholics.  M&M's have done peanuts, almonds, peanut butter, crisp, and I hear that they have a strawberried peanut butter.  All of that may be great but in the end there can be only one and that one is Coconut M&M's.  It was like consuming a pina colada and a chocolate bar all at once and if you think that's gross well then you haven't tried it.

Leven Thumps and the Whispered Secret

Ok.  Now I REALLY need to get the 3rd book.  This book picks up effortlessly where the last book ended.  The climactic happy ending from book one was interupted in Book 2 by impossible creatures that create a Grand Canyon and upset Leven's life. From the first chapter to the secret of the Sycophant on the last page the world of Leven is one adventure to the next.  One life ending experience to improbable exscape.  Leven is either the luckiest person in Foo or Fate has big plans for him. 
In this story Leven, Winter, Geth, Clover, and even the antagonists gain increased attention.  Leven becomes the character that the story deserves. Still the narrator is heavy handed and while the story is about Leven and his adventures it is still also about the storyteller.  I really enjoy the literal nature of Foo and how the personification of things like shadows, moon beams, and even secrets take forms as bodily real as any of the main characters.  From the fantastic Gunt that mends holes in Foo to the Ornicks and their testy nature this book brings Foo to life and gives us a chance to experience dreams in a state that can be loosely called awake.  As effusive as I was about the first book I was more impressed with the quality of the writing in this book.  I would like to take one thing in particular from Foo and that is the I-Chew gum.  Let's just say that it gives the person enjoying the gum a heaping helping of confidence...some would say it even gives some people a big head.  Now let the jokes begin.

Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo

This award winning book is an awesome read.  For those of you who deem yourself too adult to read young adult literature or too literary to spend time with a fun read, well, all I have to say is Foo on you.  This book is an adventure from the very first page.  This may be found in the Fantasy section in the bookstore but it belongs in the Dream section instead.  (They have one of those right?)  Obert Skye (If that's a real name) has created a story about a young boy who has the fate of two worlds hanging on his shoulders.  So not only does he have this burden to bear but he must also bear a name that is as outlandish as his genealogy.  Levin is raised by a "step-aunt" and her husband.  You can only guess based on the genre of this novel and the intended audience what type of people raise Levin.  Think Dursley's to the Nth degree.  Lucky for Levin fate has bigger and better things in mind for him than his step-aunt and uncle.  In fact Fate is as much a character in this story as Levin.  The magic of this story is the off the wall descriptions that break any sense of cliche.  Quips like, " He hauled himself out of the water and onto dry ground and shook himself like an uncoordinated dog with no rhythm", can be found through out this book.  Leven has a guardian in the form of a Sycophant (sick-o-funt) and he is the source of some pretty hilarious hi-jinx.  Leven, who was friendless before he met his Sycophant, finds some very unlikely friends as a result of the ever present Fate and the story climaxes in Foo and continues in the next book.  The characters are very fun but not nearly so fun as the narrator.  The narrator has a unique voice and is as entertaining as the storyline itself.  At times I feel more entertained by the narrator than any of the characters in the story.  This intrusive narration is actually welcome because while the characters are fleshed out well they are too involved in the adventure that they are hard to identify with.  Having read the sequel already I know that the characters become more likable and important to the reader but in this novel the narrator carries the story.  So as you meet monsters from Foo and unlock the mysteries of dreams you will find that while the impossible is to be expected it is not to be accepted.

Blogging will now have a purpose.

Alright folks.  I'm going to start blogging on a regular basis and this time I'll have a purpose.  Of course I had a purpose before...it just wasn't something that motivated me like my new purpose.  You may have noticed a few changes on my blog (changes will be coming to my website in the near future as well).  Some of these changes are the purpose that I am talking about.  I will be reviewing books and other items that I purchase/use/want and they will be available for purchase using my new store from Amazon.com.  I encourage you to purchase these products from my store further increasing motivation for me to continue writing my blog.  Nothing motivates like a commission.  Look for my first book review to come.  I've recently read Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo for a second time and I'd like to review the book and its sequel soon.  I will also have a gardening blog sometime later this week.