Source Jockey

I saw the movie “Duplicity” last night.  It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t great.  Generally speaking, I enjoy movies starting Clive Owen, and Julia Roberts isn’t bad, either.  But “Duplicity” made itself out to be a spy vs. spy movie that went wrong.  I don’t mind endings that result in the protagonist(s) being let down (ie, a non-happy ending), but the movie jumped around a lot in the effort to tell its story.  I don’t like that very much, and its confusing if you blink too fast.  It also went a bit too slowly in other parts, which might just be a result of my fake ADD.

The Hardy Boys books were probably the foundation for my initial love for reading.  Yes, the stories were contrived and simple, but still, I had a lot of fun getting lost in those books.  Through the years, I graduated onto Crichton, Grisham, Koontz, Patterson, and a wide variety of other authors.  But when I got into high school and college, my time for casual and pleasure reading diminished precipitously.  Reading became a luxury I no longer had time for, nor the desire to go to the library or book store to get the books in the first place.

When Amazon released its first Kindle, I was convinced one would be in my future, though I couldn’t justify the price.  The second one, which was just released, was a good upgrade to the first, but I still couldn’t spend the money.  But my mother bought one for my father for his birthday.  Ah, how fortunes turn.  Dad, as much as he loves reading, doesn’t like electronics.  The mere idea of reading from a tablet like device makes his eyes roll.

So I relieved him of it.

And have already read a couple books just this weekend–with more in store. Though I hope I don’t break my wallet doing it.  Even though the books are cheaper, they’re not THAT much cheaper.  But it’s definitely transparent–just like reading a real paper book.  Sweet!

Video games are not my forte.  My brother Alan, the accountant, is a video game whiz.  No matter what the game, he’ll beat it.  Me; well, with the exception of Super Paper Mario on the Wii and Super Mario on the Gameboy DS, I don’t think I’ve ever sat through a long video game.

Enter Risk.  If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a strategy board game that lets  you take over the world–or any map.  I actually haven’t played Risk, but a company called SillySoft makes a Risk game called Lux.  Boy, is this game addictive.  It takes between 5 minutes (if you’re playing a map with bad players) and hours to play.  Because the online game is networkable, you can play with your friends over the internet.  Very nifty.

Anyway, they make an iPhone version of the game, too, and it’s just as much fun (though a little more difficult to play).