The past few weeks

Haven't blogged in a while.  Figured I'd do a brain dump on what's been going on.

Christmas - went up to Massachusetts with the lady and kids for a few days.  It was a good time.  Scored a few interesting books - Star Wars Frames, The Making of Star Wars and The Making of Empire Strikes Back.  Unfortunately, Frames was hella heavy (or wicked heavy as they say up there), so it's being shipped back to to GA.  My lady bought me a foam Han Solo in Carbonite prop.  It's only the Han Solo part, so I'm going to have to build the enclosure and all of that.  Should be a very fun project.  All in all, it was a Star Wars-y Christmas.

On the subject of Star Wars - I picked up the radio dramas from the 80's.  Putting some of the voices asisde, I thought Star Wars was very well done, and they did a good job fleshing out some of the backstory.  I'm only about a third of the way through Empire, but so far, it doesn't seem to have as much extra stuff in it as Star Wars did.

Video Gaming - I haven't done much with the PS4 in a while.  After numerous issues with my save file in Battlefield 4, I just shelved it.  Killzone Shadowfall didn't float my boat.   Speaking of boats, I kind of got bored with them in AC4, so I haven't played that much.  

On the Xbox One side, I've been spending most time in Max: The Curse of Brotherhood and Peggle 2.   Max is a bullshit, cheap as shit game that relies on shitty design.  The game is punishing, and just makes you die by trial and error.  The visuals are top notch though.  Peggle 2 is just Peggle.  It gives that "just one more try" feeling, even at 2:30am.  I haven't been back to Dead Rising 3 in a while.  Had fun with Ryse.  Still suck at Madden even on the Xbox One.  Haven't played Forza in a while.

I picked up a lot of interesting stuff on the Steam sale.  I try to avoid early access games, but Darkout seemed very interesting.  It's kind of like Terraria with a sci-fi angle.  Still looking to try out Nether and 7 Days to Die.  Yes, zombies aren't really my thing, but damn it, they're freakin' everywhere.

Board Gaming - I ran the woman and kids through Dead Panic the other night.  I dumbed down some rules a bit as the kids haven't played Castle Panic yet.  I'm not really about zombies, but the game does the whole Zombie swarm very well.   I kind of screwed us from the start when I picked a very bad event card that essentially doubled the zombies in play.  I feel it is a lot tougher to win than Castle Panic.  Castle Panic, while fun, can be easily dominated by one or two strong personalities playing.  Dead Panic, on the other hand, really puts you behind the 8 ball from the onset, and you're almost playing catch-up from the start.   Also ran the kids through Munchkin.  I keep forgetting what a fun game it can be. 

Painting - I'm not an artist.  I like creative writing, but I can't draw to save my life.  The other night, my lady took me to a painting class.  I have to admit, it was a lot of fun, and my painting actually came out quite well for a first effort.  I'm looking forward to doing some more, and have a couple ideas for some new projects.

I pondered talking about some of the results in college football, but it's been such a buzzkill.

I've been halfheartedly investigating the possibility of getting a vintage pinball machine for the house.  My research seems to indicate that maintenance can be a bear.

That's about that.  I'm ready for spring to spring.