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September in Review

Books Acquired:
N/A

Books Read:
Property Values by Charles Demers

I’m a one-book-a-month man now, apparently. Savouring a few pages each night while you gluttons fly through hundreds a day. Just disgraceful, if you ask me.

I’m hoping to get back into reading and writing a bit more now that the rainy season has hit. My head’s been all over the place the last couple of months, so it’s probably time to consciously relax a little. During September I was really focused on learning to ride motorcycles. I took a week-long course (partially taught by Lee-Ann, actually), and basically spent every bit of daylight either at work or on a bike. We just got back this weekend from a week in Los Angeles, and I’ll be trying to squeeze as much riding as I can into my schedule again this month, but I’m going to try and balance things a bit better. I’ll be picking up the bike I’ve been trying to buy for the last month tomorrow afternoon, which I’m very excited about, so that should make things a bit easier to schedule.

It was also a month of consuming meat. We had Rib Fest in town, which I’d never before attended but dropped in quickly to buy a giant platter of meat. We also had our Brewery and the Beast event, which is a great afternoon of food and drinks from restaurants, breweries, wineries, and farms around the region. I usually take at least a few photos of the food there, but this year the only photo I came out with was this billboard shot, which we didn’t really read until reviewing the photo later. Now a proud member of the Chub Club.

Movies watched:
Ghostbusters (2016) – All I knew about this was that all of those idiots lost their minds over the all-female cast when it was first announced. That fragile group of men who spend their time on the Internet searching for literally anything to fuel their outrage while taking the occasional break to call others ‘snowflakes’ with a startling lack of self-awareness. It wasn’t deserving of the vitriol it received, really nothing is, but it’s not that great of a movie either. A mediocre comedy that was a bit better in parts than I thought it would be.

The Hitman’s Bodyguard (2017) – Lee-Ann’s parents were in town, and they wanted to watch this. I hadn’t even heard of it until then. The plot is dumb, the action sequences are over-the-top but entertaining, and the banter between Samuel L. Jackson and Ryan Reynolds works fairly well. It’s silly, but I actually really enjoyed this, mainly due to Samuel L. Jackson I think. He’s particularly good in this.

TV watched:
Amazing Interiors: Season 1 (2018) – I don’t think I’d actually recommend this to anyone, but we found it mildly entertaining. Each episode shows completed interior design projects and also follows along on in-progress projects, always with a touch of time-crunch ‘drama’ because of the arbitrary short timeframe they give themselves. What I find interesting is that they’re very personal designs that often only the owner would find appealing, rather than something designed to appeal to everyone. I wouldn’t live in most of these houses if you paid me, but these people spent fortunes on making it right for them, which is interesting to see. One of the houses happened to be down the street from us too, which is neat.

Games played:
Spider-Man (2018) – I love this game! I’m on my way to completing everything, which I don’t normally aim for, and I’m having an absolute blast with this. They just really nailed the swinging and combat mechanics in this, and I even really enjoy the stealth moments, which usually leave me quite bored.

Come say hello:

What have you been reading/watching/playing this month?

13 Comments

  • Bookstooge

    Mr Gluttonous here! But at least I’m not part of the #ChubClub!!!!

    My goodness, that was worth a good laugh πŸ˜€

    A whole week learning to ride a bike, now that is pretty cool. Do you feel totally ready to hit the streets now and zip and weave between cars? πŸ˜‰ (I sure hope not) Once you get your bike, please put up pix…

  • nikki @bookpunks

    Seems like everyone is raving about Spiderman! I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m guessing it’s probably not my bag. Though with enough hype, maybe even I will try it, ha.

    I’ve been playing point and clicks, as usual. I have been using my lunches to game, and decided I would now go through my Steam library in alphabetical order, cause otherwise I end up sitting there watching trailers and unable to decide between the 200 games I have sitting in there that all look pretty fricking awesome. Ha. Instead I just go to the next one on the list and play that. Aaaanyway, so I played one called 1954 Alcatraz, which was ahight, some good beat poet references and jokes, though the ending’s possibilities annoyed me. Now I am in the middle of 2064 Read Only Memory, which is more pixely (yey) but has an annoying robot that talks a lot (ugh) and the puzzles are all waaaay simple. Feels more interactive novel with optional grindy bits than anything else. On the side of that, I’ve been playing Little NIghtmares, which is sooo gorgeous wow.

    Congrats on the bike learning and buying!

    That chubclub photo is truly ridiculous.

    I guess I haven’t been reading at top speed lately myself. Just finished reading Frankenstein in Baghdad, which was really well done. I kinda need new glasses, and its been stopping me from reading as much as usual. Aaaanyway, happy October, etc.

    • Rob

      “Otherwise I end up sitting there watching trailers and unable to decide between the 200 games I have sitting in there that all look pretty fricking awesome”. Oh man, I do this too. So frustrating when you realise you just spend an hour deciding on a game instead of playing one! Love the idea of just going through the list in order, and gaming at lunch is a brilliant plan.

      I haven’t heard of either of those point and clicks, I’ll have a look, but I loved Little Nightmares. Beautiful game with amazing atmosphere.

      I keep almost picking up the audiobook for Frankenstein in Baghdad. Sounds really interesting.

      Happy October to you too!

  • Geoff W

    I still haven’t seen Ghostbusters, but the mayor’s office scenes were filmed in the building I worked in at my last job. It was chaos because we couldn’t use certain stairwells and the actors weren’t allowed to talk to anyone who wasn’t on crew. Still a neat brush with Hollywood!

  • Lashaan (Bookidote)

    Got to admit that Insomiac Games knew how to get us hooked into wanting to get 100% in Spider-Man! Absolutely loved my playthrough with it! DLC 1 is now out too. πŸ˜€ Oh and those food pics are amazing! Craving for some chicken and ribs right now… Hope you get the chance to read more in October/November, sir!

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