Candy's Raves (and Rants)

My first thought on seeing this netbook sleeve was “Wow! Now that looks different!” The knit look for the outside of the sleeve gives it a warm and personal feel. The added texture on the outside gives it a nice grippy yet soft feel. When you open it, the hot pink and very silky interior just shouts feminine.

The interior is very roomy. My netbook (which is purple) fits nicely inside with room to spare for my mouse (also purple). This brings me to my one complaint about netbook sleeves in general: Why don’t you give us a pocket to put stuff in? I’m always afraid that my mouse will scratch the finish of my netbook.

That one complaint aside (which is a general netbook sleeve complaint), this is an awesome netbook sleeve. It is functional and professional while at the same time being trendy and stylish. In a world of ho-hum netbook sleeves this one really stands out.

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I’ve been waiting a long time for the sequel to Starcraft. I wasn’t exactly sure if Blizzard could update the game and still keep the same feel. I am happy to say that they have! The game play you know and love from the original is all there but the graphics have been brought into the 21rst century. Here is a quick run down of my experience so far:

Graphics: I’m not running the most state-of-the-art computer, but the game runs great on the “High” settings. I’m running an Intel E7400 with 4 GB of RAM and Dual NVidia 9600 GT OC’s in SLI. I had just a bit of stutter on “Ultra” settings, so I turned it down a bit.

Sound: The audio is a mix of “blast from the past” and “Wow! That is cool they added that!” Old fans will immediately feel at home on the main menu, I guarantee. There are also nice touches through out the game such as selectable music tracks in some areas. And of course it wouldn’t be Starcraft without the unit responses now would it?

Control: I hope you remember your hotkeys from SC1 because you’ll be needing them. The interface is pretty much cut and paste from SC1 but it has been updated for today’s graphics. Camera control is very nice, but I haven’t yet found a way to rotate the view and you are pretty limited to how far you can zoom out.

Single-player Game play: There are some interesting new aspects to the single-player game. You get to research upgrades and purchase new types of units (warning: some of these units are NOT available in multi-player). You also get delivered the storyline in face-to-face chats with other characters as well as through the standard cutscenes. As for during mission game play, Blizzard has stayed true to form. Basically if you likes SC1 in single-player, you should love SC2’s single-player mode.

Multi-player Game play: Pure “vanilla” SC2 is very similar to online play with SC1. But you have the option to install custom game types as well. Think tower defense and DotA in Warcraft 3. I’m really looking forward to seeing what people come up with. While I love standard RTS action (which SC2 offers plenty of) a little change never hurts and promises to give the game a lot of longevity.

Ok, now for the bad part. You knew there had to be a reason for 4 stars, right?

1.) You have to log in to play, even in single-player. This really doesn’t matter to me, but I know some people call it a “deal breaker”.
2.) No LAN play at all. Yes, you can still connect through their servers to your buddy sitting beside you. But LAN play isn’t dead, Blizzard. Some of us like having the ultra-low latency of getting together face-to-face with our friends.

All that said, I’m looking forward to a long, healthy relationship with StarCraft 2. So far, the wait has been worth it. I can’t wait to see how the community evolves and what new mods are made available over the next few months.

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I am quite a bit overweight (understatement perhaps) and I’ve done the personal training thing before, but I have to tell you, I don’t respond well to drill sergeants – I’m too Type A. I ran across Libra Fitness (Chris Heidel) and thought she seemed like she might go easy on me…. *laugh*

I’ve been working with her for well over a year now and the results have been pretty remarkable. I haven’t lost any real weight, but that’s always been a secondary goal of mine. I wanted to feel better. I wanted to stop having so many backaches. I wanted to be able to walk around the block without huffing and puffing. I wanted to feel stronger and I wanted to feel better about myself. I’ve accomplished that and so much more.

Chris is definitely not “easy” on me by any means, but she also doesn’t push you beyond your own limits. When I tell her that I cannot do it anymore, she tells me “okay, after two more” there’s no heavy sweating and crying and dry heaving here. Her personal touch and the research and care she puts into each of her clients is simply amazing for what she charges (don’t tell her I said that though!!)

She has a home gym located in North Central Austin, and it’s quite impressive. There’s quite a few pieces of equipment, but it’s not so overwhelming. I didn’t walk in there like I would another one and want to run screaming from the room. Chris takes it slow, shows you what you are doing, tells you when you are losing form and prods you along. The gym itself is completely isolated from the rest of the house. A few times her husband or child has been home and I didn’t even know it, you walk straight back and close the door/curtains and you’re off.

I’m impressed by how far out she will go for clients. She has mirrors so you can see what you’re doing but one of her clients didn’t like them. The next time I was there, she had installed curtains so people could choose.

The payoff came earlier this year when, during a trip with my family to San Antonio, I realized I had walked all over the Riverwalk and Zoo and didn’t feel like I wanted to keel over. That’s pretty darn good progress!

Chris’ best attribute is her sense of humor though. Yes, she’s there to help you get healthy and attain your own personal goals – no matter if it’s to lose 30 pounds or to be able to walk around downtown. But she does it with good humor and really big heart.

I simply cannot recommend Libra Fitness enough (and I do it often!)

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I first ran into ShapeShifter, the fictional band, three or 4 years ago at a blog called The Meet & Greet. It was a cute blog by a writer and she was telling us little side stories as well as some times outtakes from her writing that didn’t make the cut. It was fun, allowing us to glimpse into the characters of the book she was writing as well as watch these kids grow up from friends, to garage band to super duper famous and all that trappings that come along with that. The book she was writing was Trevor’s Song – and one day soon I’m told we’ll get to read that book! Yay!

In the meantime the author, Susan, has released a couple of small books. They are compilations from the best of the best of the blog postings. This is the second of such books. It was neat to have them all set down in one place and even neater that she gave a little intro to each one telling us how it came about. It’s great fun to follow a band (and their screaming, sometimes shirtless, fans) through her writing and writing style.

I’m kind of a Trevor groupie and I can’t wait for the finished product, but… even if you just read this book, you’ll be happy with it. It’s like little mini short stories while making of a rock band. Give it a shot!

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Book count for 2010: 53

First, I must admit that I’m a fan of Picoult. I enjoy her writing and her stories. They can be a little formulaic, but I always feel like I learn something and I’m almost always surprised by the ending. It’s her thing. It’s what she does and she does it well.

Until now.

It pains to me to say this, but WHAT THE HECK? I’m not even going to get into the ending, or lack thereof. But she gave away her ace in the hole, the surprise, the “wow” moment through most of the book. The reader already knows what’s happened, it’s painfully obvious and the characters even tell us what happened.

So…. what’s left? We’re reading about a kid with Asperger’s, who seems to have every single symptom under the sun. It’s overdone. I feel like she did her research – most definitely, but it didn’t seem realistic.

Here’s the thing. She kind of broke out of her formula and I’m all for that. I like the idea of her doing something different, but instead of going in a different directly she just gave us the surprise early and we’re left with this “eh”. It felt like she reached her word count and looked at where she was and said “okay, good enough.”

Well, no. it’s not “good enough”. In an interview she was asked about the ending and she replied “Because at heart, this is Jacob’s book. And remember, to Jacob, there was never any real mystery here, was there?” but she’s missing that this book wasn’t JUST told from Jacob’s point of view. She’s missing that I don’t care, as the reader, what Jacob’s mystery was or was not. Heck, I even knew the mystery 1/4 of the way in. I want to know what happened next. It wasn’t even a cliffhanger. It was just a period. I kept going back and forward trying to figure out if I missed a page or if pages fell away or what happened.

Sadly, I’m disappointed in this one. The writing was good, she did a fairly good job of keeping the voices distinct, but the ending and the early reveal just killed this one for me.

If you are a die-hard Picoult fan or have a child with Asperger’s in your life (and I’d love to know if her portrayal is accurate), read this one. Otherwise, sadly, I must say to skip it.

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Book count for 2010: 52

This the 2nd of the Outlander series and I just finished this one. Like the first, it’s long, excessively so. What makes this different from the first, however, is that it’s really really slow. About a quarter of the way in, I was ready to stop reading it. It didn’t appear to be going anywhere and was starting to make me a little angry, to be honest. I felt cheated by the author. I had invested so much time into the first book and she’s killing me slowly with the second.

It did redeem itself in the end. The story is well done, but really, half of the book could have been edited out and the story would have remained the same. I didn’t realize there’s such a following for these books, apparently entire groups formed around them. I would say they are good, but now the end-all be-all. I think they might be slightly overrated.

Having said THAT, the history that goes into the books is actually kind of impressive. It’s not really my thing, but if you like hearing about the 1800s Scotland, France, etc… this is probably right up your alley and you wouldn’t want to stab your eyes out with a spoon.

I’m debating on reading the third, but will definitely be taking a break from this series to read something a little more light and airy.

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Book count for 2010: 51

This wasn’t bad as far as short story erotica goes, but maybe the author could have left out one sex scene and develop the characters just a little bit more. It opens with the main characters being all hot for each other and spends too much time thinking (and later doing) the horizontal hustle and not enough time telling us about who they are.

There was some character development, don’t get me wrong and I think the back story could have been fleshed out. Maybe drop the whole robot thing. Okay, maybe that changes the whole book, I dunno, but this could have been a great story (yes, it’s been done before, I know, thus the robot thing).

The writing isn’t horrible either, it felt a little stilted at times, but for erotica, it didn’t suck – and at the time I “purchased” it, it was free, so hey…

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Book count for 2010: 50

This book opens in a very unconventional way. I read some of this of this genre (chicklit) and it can be kind of overly formulaic, but I was surprised and intrigued from the get go, I didn’t yawn once *laughing*. The book held my attention throughout, but it is a bit predictable. I guess that’s the downfall of this genre, it rarely surprises me. HOWEVER, I did like the way it unfolded. The story moved along quickly and interestingly. The merry-go-round was a nice backdrop/side story that I thought was pretty genius to include.

The writing itself flowed well. I found a few grammatical mistakes (lift instead of life, and a few of/if/is/it type of things) in my copy, but nothing that distracted too much from the writing. Nothing too horrible and the story doesn’t suffer from it.

I also liked that the characters felt true, flaws and all. I loved that the male wasn’t all the bad guy. In this genre, it can sometimes get overwhelming with the “boys are bad” mentality. I loved the unfolding of events and realizations of the characters.

Overall, this is a great book if you like contemporary romance without all the throbbing bosoms etc. A great little weekend read!

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Book count for 2010: 49

I recently was looking for something for my 9 year old to do. With summer upon us he is cut off from the normal social activities that revolve around school. We went to a local games shop in Austin and we saw a group of teenagers engaged in Arcane Legions. My son was instantly interested and the kids were very nice and explained the basics to him. I was a little nervous at first. My husband played Warhammer 40k for years and literally has hundreds of dollars sunk into that hobby. But then I saw the prices. Comparing Warhammer figures to a similar number of Arcane Legions figures I’d say the cost is about 1/10 to 1/4!

Now my husband and son are both playing Arcane Legions. Here is a breakdown of how we see the game:

1.) The cost: As stated above its about 1/10 to 1/4 the total cost. The 2-player kit alone comes with enough figures for 12 units (4 per player).
2.) The figures: The figures are nicely detailed. You do have to paint most of them yourself. Some assembly is required. Additionally, all figures are plastic. There as no metal models that we have seen yet. The pre-painted models are very nice!
3.) The rules: The rules are pretty simple however leave a lot of room for different scenarios and levels of strategy.
4.) The community: While we cannot speak for the community at broad, the local community is very nice and not nearly as cutthroat and competitive as in similar games.
5.) Games go fast: The longest game I’ve played so far was 90 minutes and that was with 4 players. Most 2 player games go about 1/2 that.

What you will need to play:

While you can play some fun and fast games with the starter pack, you’ll want to get some additional packs if you are going to play competitively at your local hobby shop. Here is what I recommend:

1 Infantry set (comes in the starter box as well)
1 Calvary set
1 or more “Boosters” (special figures and units)

For less than [...] you can have 1 full 8000 point or more army ready to go!

Downsides:

1.) Custom Units: The game is touted as “Open Source” because you can use their online unit creator to customize your army. Sounds great, right? Except our local shops don’t allow custom unit cards. I suggest you ask your local coordinator before building an army around custom units.
2.) Bases: You figures must be attached to either a “Formation Base” or “Sortie Base” before they can be put into play. The 2-player starter kit could actually be a 3-player starter kit if they would just have provided a few more Formation Bases. This would have greatly improved the value. I also find that we are almost always short a formation base or two to truly create the army we want.
3.) Painting: While it is perfectly acceptable to play with unpainted figures, be aware that most people will at least put a basic paint job on their models. I suggest buying a can of appropriate colored spray on primer and at least one basic color to get the player started.

Final Words:

I highly recommend this game for the following:

Miniature gamers that want a fun secondary game.
Teenagers that want to get into miniatures but can’t afford games like Warhammer or Lord of the Rings.
Adults that want a fun, low cost diversion that they can share with their kids.

This is a great game and I can’t wait to see the community grow.

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I have 2 children that can be pretty forgetful. I’ve tried a reminder board in the past, but the messages never really got their attention. I decided to try one more time with the EXPO NEON Markers and Black Board combo.

So far, so good! We’ve been using the set as a reminding tool. I leave messages for the kids, and they leave checkmarks as a response when the task is done. Music practice? Check! Pets fed? Check! Rooms clean? (Ok, this one gets “forgotten” still, but we are working on it).

As an added plus, the markers are bright enough that the kids can leave me a reminder back, and I’ll see it when I’m walking by. (Trip to my friend house tonight? Umm…did I approve that? haha)

Ok, that said, here are my issues with the product (hence the 3 stars):

1.) Packaging: The markers dented the board during shipping. I was hoping it would smooth back out, but it never did.
2.) Lack of eraser: It would be nice if the markers had those little felt erasers on the end.
3.) Non-magnetic markers: We are already missing one marker. The board is magnetic, the markers aren’t. The board comes with 2 magnetic strips, but these don’t stay stuck to the rounded body of the marker.
4.) A hanging hook would be nice on the back. I really don’t like the idea of using the included double-sticking tape on my wall.
5.) The markers DO work on a regular white board. They just do not show up very well. The exception being the pink marker. (Which is now missing)
6.) The board size is just a bit too small. If it was 50% bigger in both dimensions it would be a LOT more useful.

That said, the board is working well for us so far. While the above issues may seem to add up to quite a lot of problems, no one of them is really a deal breaker in and of itself. If you need a small messaging center that is kid friendly, give this one a chance.

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