Summer sun after a month of rain
red, berry blood, stains hands and lips
they taste of the river, and of the mountain,
and when I am too greedy they tumble from my fingers,
bright rubies lost to tall grass.

When the clouds finally broke this week the sun that shone through was not the oppressive bright eye of summer, but the hot, rich sun of early autumn. The clouds lifted to reveal the mountains I had nearly forgotten were there, dusted with the first fragments of termination dust. The leaves started to change color weeks ago, their green losing its luster.

There is a lot of denial going around now. The truth of it is that if the calendar read ‘September’ instead of ‘August’ nobody would notice a thing – we might even be wondering at how good the weather is.

Here, on the Matanuska, the effects of this summer are easily seen – the river is swelled with rain water, and the normally bare ground is practically lush. The dark clouds that refuse to completely break up cloak the mountain with the threat of rain. The river has actually gone down from a few days ago, when all that was visible on the far side of the river bed was a band of trees between the low cloud ceiling and the thick steam fog rising from the river. I will admit the sunny weather is nice, though I would have traded it in a heart beat for the thunderstorm that rumbled just a few miles away.

One day this last week on our way back from Eagle River we stopped in Palmer for dinner. It seems it’s always raining when we go to the Valley Hotel, and this night it was absolutely pouring. The sky was black and the road gleamed. Times like that put me in mind of something that happened when I was about five. It was during a trip to Minnesota – I, my mom, and my grandma, were on a day trip to a Waldorf school in Wisconsin. There were flood and tornado warnings that day, but a little weather stopped my family from having fun.

It was overcast and deep grey, as we passed over the bridge we were very impressed by how high the water was – only three or four feet below the bridge. On the other side we stopped at a little shop, where we bought a painted clay eskimo Christmas ornament. After we left the shop we hurried quickly into the car. I don’t recall what prompted our flight – a radio announcement? good old fashion instinct? But we turned around and headed back the way we came as quickly as possible. I remember black clouds, and looking out the back window to see a twisting spiral descend. When we passed over that bridge again the river had risen, and the water was surging over the road. The bridge seemed twice as long as we went over it at an agonizingly slow pace, and the rain came down so hard we could barely see anything. We were one of the last cars that made it across the bridge that night.

At no point do I remember being afraid. Weather does not scare me – instead I was fascinated. During the entire flight from the storm I pressed myself to the windows, filled with awe at what I was seeing. My paternal grandmother was a meteorologist, so I suppose it’s in my blood. Anyone for a drive in the rain?

Professor Layton and the Curious Village is one of those games that doesn’t seem like much at first, but then turns out to be darn near perfect. The story reminds me of something that I just put my finger on. The warm coloring and charming aesthetic take me back to golden-washed afternoons, curled up with thin mystery books – The Boxcar Children, Encyclopedia Brown, Hawk the Cowdog… With a heavy British flavor added. There was one huge, spoilery plot element I saw coming a mile away, but it knowing it hardly ruins the fun. The puzzles are deceptively difficult – they are challenging, but not impossible. Most usually have some trick to them, which is worked into the description and hints.

Therein I discovered something about myself, one of those revelations that makes me sit up and go ‘wow’. As I played the game I started to notice that I’d have an answer for every puzzle reasonably quickly, but then I’d second guess myself and in some cases spend hours struggling with a puzzle. Basically the dyslexia kicked in, jumbling up the wording of the instructions and causing me to doubt the answer I’d come up with, which was usually the right answer.

It’s damn frustrating. I’m not sure how I finished that game without breaking something – probably because I knew it wasn’t a problem with the game, but a problem with me. It seems the more I turn a critical eye to what I read and play the more I come to grasp not only the elements of writing, but elements of myself as well. I didn’t even know that my dyslexia was effecting my reading as strongly as it was until I picked up Carol Berg’s Flesh and Spirit. It doesn’t come up often, so I forget that I do have this problem and that it does affect just about everything I do. It seems to me that instances like this one are good, as they remind me to pay attention to these things, to read carefully when something just doesn’t make sense, and to trust my instincts as well.

Professor Layton and the Curious Village is a wonderful game, the right mix of challenging and fun. I’m itching to save up to get the next in the series. Oh DS, why must you have so many wonderful games?

The Karate Kid is one darn good movie. It’s only major flaw is that it is so in love with it’s shakey cam during the first hour or so of the movie that I actually had to leave the theater because I got too motion sick. After the half way point, and Dre (Jaden Smith) starts to train, the shakey cam smooths out. I suppose because you really can’t show the smooth motions of kung fu while the camera is bouncing around like there’s a 7.0 earthquake going on. For that first half the plot mores at a leisurely pace, with just enough action that I wouldn’t have noticed how how it was taking to get to the heart of the story if I hadn’t been feeling ill. It didn’t manage to hold any of the younger kids in the audience. It could have been trimmed down and reworked a lot in places to speed things up, but at the same time I can’t think of a scene I’d complete cut.

Though it is called The Karate Kid it is set in China and Dre learns Kung Fu instead of Karate. On one hand it annoys me because it encourages the confusion, but on the other I see why they went that route – they lisenced for a remake, but during writing they wanted to do something new and modern and ended up in China. At least they lampshaded the difference, so all is forgiven. I can’t blame them because China has some beautiful locations – Wudang Mountain was particularly impressive to see on the big screen – and the cultural bits were wonderful.

The one thing that really stands out about this movie for me is Jackie Chan’s performance. It was wonderful to see, for once, him being used as an actor and not as Jackie Chan, proving that he is a truly talented actor – Mr. Han is tired and beaten, and the reveal of his Dark And Troubled Past had a heartbreaking intensity. It was such a change from his usual roles that I didn’t even recognize him, and it is a welcome change – I want to see him in more roles like this.

The Karate Kid is a movie that stands on its own two feet even as it nails its modernization. Well worth going to see, though not one that is a must-see-in-theaters.

Biggest thing at the show for me? Hands down Ocarina of Time being remade for the 3DS. I literally screamed when I saw it pop up on Joystiq. Yes, I am incredibly lame. Second biggest thing? Legend of Zelda : Skyward Sword. It’s no surprise, but makes me incredibly happy to see. It looks beautiful, and the whole City-In-The-Sky/Floating Continent thing is one of those things for me¹. Nintendo had a good showing this year, showing off pretty much every game you could want… except Pikmin 3, which they thought would get lost amid all the other shiny new games. At least they mentioned it?

From Microsoft – Natal, now named Kinect, looks like a lot of fun and I can’t wait to get my hands on it, though I might wait and see if my 360 gives up the ghost, then upgrade to the slick new ‘short’ Xbox bundled with Kinect². Fable 3 looks wonderful³ and is going to be a must-buy for me, even a pre-order if I manage to save up enough for it!

I didn’t really pay attention to Sony at all this year – I don’t have a PS3, and none of the PS3-only games are anywhere near tempting enough to for me to shell out the money for one. The reveal of Portal 2 at the Sony keynote was really something though – it’s nice to occasionally see factions in the gaming world come to terms for something awesome.

Super Scribblenauts surprised me – it’s the natural next step for the series to branch out into adjectives. Finally we can truly wage the epic title-screen battles that we want too! And better controls is a major plus.

I got some things on my wishlist, and there were a few surprises. I could write endlessly on my theories and speculation, but I’m worn out from trying to keep up with everything so I can’t… at least not right now.

Returning to the Palmer Library felt like returning home. For years it was the better of the two closest libraries, so it was the one I ended up at the most. Due to… well, everything I suppose… I haven’t been in there for nearly five years. I find it mind boggling that it has been so long, but it has. It’s strange and unsettling both how much the library has changed¹, and how much it has stayed the same. Many of my old, papery friends are still there – familiar bindings and time-stained pages, crisp and yellowed. Battered by the years and yet still holding on.

I think I managed to freak out the librarians – none of them know me, and yet I know the library so well. They don’t seem to know what to do with me. The last time I went though there was one librarian who knew me from before, and she even recognized me and mentioned that my help had been missed – I used to volunteer for every summer for Summer Reading Program, and I was good at it. I wish I wasn’t too old for the program, though I suppose I could still volunteer to help out.

There is something special about libraries – not just the weight of the words, but the weight of how many times those words have been read. The smell of old paper, the cooled air, the warm square of sunlight, and quiet hush… Just that has repaired so much of the old hurt. I hope I manage to keep going, and that libraries don’t fall by the wayside once again.

Don’t get me wrong, there was plenty of light hearted fun, and action, and color, but outside of that… wow. It’s starts off with loveable too-smart-for-his-own-good Toby¹, and then quickly kills him off. That I was expecting, but it was handled with the grace and delicacy of a sledgehammer, and not nearly enough angst. From that rather good, if deeply creepy, opening on the movie is about as deep as as a dried up puddle. I can’t fault the actors, most of them seemed to be really trying, but the characters come off as parodies of themselves. Everyone seems to be operating on Space Logic², and at least twice the war-hungry politician declares that he’s evil and then promptly does something evil. And one robot is randomly ghetto.

Oh, and is there some sort of law that if there are robots in a movie that are programed with restrictions on harming humans those restrictions have to be Asimov’s Three Laws? I mean really.

Two different designs aesthetics.

I suppose it wasn’t really a bad movie, certainly a kid young enough to not care or know better would have fun with it, but it’s a good movie either. It falls apart as soon as you apply any brain cells – the best entertainment is found in making fun of it.

Oh, and Mt. Sufion or whatever-the-heck they called it – totally Mt. Fuji! That’s just insulting – it’s an international symbol of Japan! It’s like slapping some other name on the Eiffel Tower and hoping no one notices.

I want to see Nintendo not be such an embarrassment this year and to go back to their badass, hardcore selves. It's not hard - start with unveiling the next Zelda game for the Wii, show off Pikmin 3 and Metroid : Other M, announce Kid Icarus, and New Super Mario Bros. 2 for the DS would rock too². The biggest thing though would be to not try and make some little gimmicky thing the star of the show. They don’t have to go all Microsoft on us, just pay a little more attention to their fan base.

For Mircrosoft I’m looking forward to seeing how Natal actually preforms. There’s been rumors about a slimmer, better version of the 360, which would rock – I have had no problems with my 360, but³ if something where to happen to it I would like an upgrade instead of a sidegrade, as it were. Also, where the heck is Joy Ride? That looked like so much fun at the last E3 and there hasn’t been a scrape of news about it since…

From my buddy Square Enix I’m looking forward to seeing Infinite Undiscovery 2⁴, and I want to see an announcement about more games being available on the 360 – Final Fantasy especially!

From Rare I want an actual new Banjo-Kazooie game. Who says people don’t like those kinds of games?! There just aren’t any good ones out currently! Nuts & Bolts was… disappointment would an understatement. It was worst then a minigame collection. I like racing games, and don’t mind building my own ride, but the controls were so bad that I never managed to get very far… Kameo was a fun game too, or a new Star Fox! Really, I just want to see Rare go back to their quick old self, putting out wacky, fun games.

Ubisoft – where’s my sequel to that fabulous Prince of Persia? You really left us hanging on the plot there! Put The Sands of Time to bed, I want to know what happened to Elika! I’m looking forward to seeing where Assassin’s Creed goes next, and where’s Beyond Good and Evil 2? I hope Ubisoft doesn’t leave us hanging another year.

I can’t wait to see what Vanillaware and Platinum Games have up their sleeves – both are fabulous developers that seem to constantly be delivering surprises! I know Platinum has Vanquish this year, which even though it isn’t my usual genre of video game I’m looking forward to learning more about.

Lastly – Fable 3. I can’t wait to hear more about it, and it will be there so I doubt I will be disappointed. Unless they don’t bring back the dog, in which case I reserve the right to be as disappointed as I want to.

Sticking with my newly-decided upon theme of having Gaming Fridays I’ll do a wrap-up/reaction of E3 next Friday. I’ll probably be doing a daily linkspam/reaction post over at my livejournal as news comes out.

My favorite sources for gaming news -
Joystiq
GameTrailers

It isn’t unusual for have snow. In fact as far back as I can remember it has always snowed around Earth Day – something which seems to take a great number long-time Alaskans by surprised, which just confuses me. Every year they cry and moan that it’s never snowed this late, when I can remember that it snowed on the 25th last year, and the 27th the year before. Just goes to show you that no matter how dry and warm it’s been it doesn’t pay to take the snow tires off until May. And hey, if you wait the ground will be nice and dry so you don’t have to muck about in the mud to do it!

Yesterday was Earth Day, which leads me to something – not quite a week ago Roz Savage begin the third leg of her journey to Australia. One oarstroke at a time she is rowing solo across the Pacific, attempting to become the first woman to do so. When I first heard her story two years ago she captured my imagination. I find her to be an amazing, inspirational woman – she an ordinary person who found an extraordinary will within herself to do what she wanted to do. When I was a kid I never understood the concept of having a hero. During the time I grew up it seemed like all the rage – everyone had a hero, and I was frequently asked who mine was. Usually I just spit out the first name that came to mind, but now I have a real, actual hero – Roz Savage.

Currently I have her book, Rowing the Atlantic, waiting for me on my bookshelf and I’m looking forward to it – I’m planning to read it as soon as I’m through with the pile of half-read books that are waiting for me. It amazes me how, with today’s technology, we can receive daily updates from someone rowing alone in the middle of the Pacific. Roz is blogging, and posting to twitter, and even records a podcast. For the last couple of days I’ve just left the Roz Tracker open in my browser, checking in on her progress every once in awhile. It puts things in perspective, and gives me a sense of awe and wonder. I’m rooting for you, Roz!

I was going to pick up a theme and ramble about Final Fantasy X-2, but half way through I realized I didn’t remember enough about it – the last time I played it was several years ago, and all I recall is a general sense of dissatisfaction, and a fondness for the outfits. I can’t really talk about Final Fantasy XIII, because I’m not done with it yet which means all I can do is speculate wildly about spoilers. So here’s just what comes to mind.

.Walking
Now that I’m back from housesitting, and the weather is moving into the fabulous phase between yuckyd muddy and insect season¹, I’m back to my daily walks. My usual route is two miles roundtrip, and about 45 minutes at a brisk walk². I take Chai with me to kept him exercised, and as a form of protection. I lost a lot of weight on this routine once, and I plan too again.

.Red River
So here’s this little manga that caught my eye years ago, not long after I started buying manga. It looked interesting, but I knew I was inexperienced and so was hesitant. Fast forward, and here volume one falls into my hands. Now I sort of regret not picking it up all those years ago because I am addicted – absolutely and utterly hooked! Naturally I’m out of money so I have to content myself with scanlations of debatable and varying quality until I can afford to catch up.

It’s the story of a girl magically yanked from the modern world into a distant, magic land, in this case it is ancient Hittite Empire, where she is drawn into the court intrigue and falls in love with one of the princes. Not a horrible unique plot, but what I really applaud here is the level of tension the story manages to maintain – no straw men there, though though enough convenient coincidences³ to remind me that it’s a shoujo manga. It’s a manga that hits enough of my ‘yay!’ buttons that I have a hard time recommending it to someone else. If I wasn’t arranging my bookshelf alphabetically Red River would end up next to my other guilty-pleasure manga – the soap opera-esque Bride of the Water God and paranormal romance Black Bird.

.Supernatural
I gave in and ordered all four seasons while they were on sale super-cheap at Amazon, and they arrived last Wednesday. Supernatural is a show I’ve been hearing about for years, and like Red River dispite all the indications that I’d love it I never got around to watching it⁴. I finally got around to watching it by watching the first disc with my friends, figuring that if it was bad at last we could make our own fun of it. It turned out to be excellent, and we sped through the rest of season one. I’m looking forward to hours of snarky tweeting and paranormal adventures with season two.

That’s all for now I suppose. If I don’t have another post ready for Friday I’m just going to go ahead and change my regular posting day to Monday.