Hurlshort

Crazy Stupid Love was pretty awesome, but I thought it was less of a romantic comedy and more of a bromance film between Ryan Gosling and Steve Carrel.

If you played ME1 and ME2, I don't know why you wouldn't want to finish the series, especially for a bargain price. Personally I enjoyed the way they brought closure to most of the relationships and storylines. The good far outweighed the bad.

Iron Sky - Campy and entertaining for the most part. It was a bit heavyhanded at the end with the whole anti-American thing, but I still got a kick out of most of it.

Lord of the Rings Online - This game is massive, and they made some pretty nice changes since I played last. I just got a pretty awesome legendary trait that allows me to call on a ghostly herald for help, instead of my typical squire I've had for the last four years. Kind of sad, actually.

Started the first of these Jack Reacher novels, and so far it's a pretty easy read.

The focus of the Ouya pitch seemed to be that they made a controller. I've just seen a lot of consoles fail, so backing an independent one seemed like a terrible idea.

Speaking of Del Toro, his giant sea monster versus robots movie looks interesting. Pacific Rim, I believe?

I enjoyed FTL a good deal, but I also found the mothership fairly impossible to beat. I made it there twice, and both times my ship that had done very well against everything couldn't get the job done.

Yes, kids do put a bit of a lock on the gameplay hours. I'm lucky if I get an hour before bed during the week. Weekends I actually get up early so I can play for a bit before they wake up.

Huh? Batman Begins was solid at the box office, I don't get the comparison.

Well it does look like you put a lot of effort into it, good job.

I typically play a new game a month, and I don't finish most of them. It's actually rare that a game keeps my attention longer than a month.

I thought very few of the dwarves looked good as well. At least Thorin was well done, and the brothers, but the rest were silly or easy to forget.

I thought the trolls in the Hobbit could have been done better. There were also a few scenes that I thought were designed simply to make a 3D experience worthwhile, and that bothered me. But the positives far outweighed that stuff.

I actually think there are parts that would make less sense if you hadn't read the books. I mean it wasn't hard to follow, but it helped to have that background. The LotRO game actually had quite a few connections as well, right down to collecting Bilbo's buttons in Goblintown

I have a few people close to me running small businesses, and I've really had trouble finding any evidence that Obamacare will negatively affect them. I have been looking, my mother-in-law has enough troubles keeping her doors open without new costs. But most of the facts I can find on small businesses read like this article: http://www.slate.com/articles/business/small_business/2012/07/nfib_is_wrong_on_obamacare_the_aca_should_actually_help_small_business.html

After watching The Hobbit, I got an itch to load up Lord of the Rings Online. Holy Moly, I forgot what a huge and complex game this is. I spent all day getting back into my level 62 (now 63!) character and catching up to speed on some of the events. I've still got a ways ahead before I can head to Rohan, but I'm making my way along the path to Saruman's tower and that should help me gain a few levels. I actually just did a quest where I traveled around the whole map talking to the Rangers and enlisting them to fight for Aragorn. It took me most of the day but I got to reminisce about all the great areas I had adventured in over the years.

Sadly the Republicans are too divided to even get much credit from these tax cuts. When you have a vocal group yelling 'let it burn!' it tends to make everyone look bad.

I can see Hiro's point, but I genuinely thought this would be a fun activity for my dad. We did have wine in the house by the way, just nothing special. My dad built a wine cellar in his house, collects bottles, and generally enjoys visiting vineyards. We had recently moved to this house and it was only a few blocks away from this winery. Also I'm no expert on wines, so giving my dad a chance to choose something nice for the dinner seemed like a good idea. My wife and I are definitely not the most formal hosts, but we do the best we can. We both teach full time and we've got two little kids to raise, so it's fairly amazing when we manage to get a dinner on the table. My wife's parents seem to recognize that, as well as all my good friends, so it is disappointing that my parents do not. I don't know, it just doesn't seem like any of this is worth dividing the family over. edit: The winery in question

Sorry it took awhile to respond to these questions, I was on vacation and it can be hard to think about, let alone discuss. The short answer is yes, he is clearly exaggerating. I have a good example that I have tried to use with him, and I will share it with you guys. About a year ago, we had my parents over for dinner. When they arrived, my wife noticed that we had very little wine in the house, and my dad is a big wine guy. We have a winery just down the street from our house, and so she asked my father if he would like to go with her and pick something out there. I thought this was a great idea, it gave my father a chance to do something he enjoys and I thought it might be a nice moment for him and my wife to share together. Of course she paid for the bottle, so that should not have offended him. I brought this up when he was listing all the character flaws of my wife, and his take on the story was very different. First, he says as a host we should have already had the wine. Then he said it was inconsiderate that he had to leave the gathering and go with my wife. Lastly, he said the winery was not really that good (which is a bit crazy, this is a winery that has existed since 1925 and is quite famous.) I was flabbergasted by this response. It just showed me how different our perspectives are. I really have no idea how to guide someone into seeing the good in somebody, so I'm really at a loss. I believe Azure's advice about letting them come to me is sound, I have tried to reach out and bridge gaps, find common ground, etc. but it doesn't seem to be working. So I'll give it time and hope that either they come to their senses or I think about them less often.

The Hobbit - Really enjoyed returning to Peter Jackson's Middle Earth. It was enjoyable, and I look forward to the next chapter.

I'll hopefully be in bed around 10:30. Staying up until midnight sounds exhausting.

Basterds had some great scenes, but I did find the reckless abandonment of history disconcerting. Still, Tarantino seems to just keep improving as a director.

I got back from LA last night, we spent three days there at the Beverly Garland Holiday Inn. It was a great trip, we mostly stuck to Universal Studios and The Citywalk area. The crowds weren't bad and we tried to go early, head to the room in the afternoon for rest, and then return in the evenings. That helped us avoid the crowds a bit. My favorite ride/experience was the studio tour. It is a 45 minute tram ride on the backlot area, and it has quite a few different experiences like the Jaws area and a King Kong section. It was really cool just rolling through the environments. My 2 and a half year old son was also able to go on this, unlike most rides, so it was fun for him. He got pretty scared in some areas, but he was smiling big as we left. The earthquake simulation really got him! The Transformers ride was pretty good too. They have a neat child switch thing which lets one parent go on the ride while the other parent stays with the kid, then you can switch out without re-waiting in line. My biggest problem was all the 3-D stuff, I started getting pretty nauseous and had to avoid a few of them. My wife and daughter did much better. Waterworld was also a pretty cool show, lots of pyrotechnics. It was my first time at Universal Studios, and I was impressed. It was better than I expected.

I think it was a rhetorical question, but he forgot to post a picture of the rhetorical unicorn next to it.