Oh snap. I forgot to mention I may be doing some book commentary too, didn't I? Oh yeah, that's because I thought of it this morning. Ha. Anyway, I read. A lot. As I sit here typing on my laptop, I have a bookshelf stacked two rows deep with books, at least four boxes of books in my closet and an unknown number of boxes full of books in storage lockers both here and in Kansas City.
Having grown up as a fat kid that hated sports (and I still do, but that's neither here nor there), books and video games were how I spent my time. I tend to like book series because finishing a book really bums me out and it's nice to know that there's another book after it.
I've read several, but I'm gonna babble about one I learned about recently and just finished a few weeks ago.
I actually learned this from a web video from LordKat, one of the contributors to ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com. It's The Night Angel Trilogy, composed of The Way of Shadows, Shadow's Edge and Beyond the Shadows. They're fantasy, kinda. I hate to think of the phrase "action-packed" because it's the most over-used phrase that critics tend to fling about, but seriously, it is one of the only descriptors that I can think of to describe these books. I'll try to summarize the plot without spoiling too much.
The books follow Kylar Stern, a "wetboy", this universe's term for an assassin with certain magical abilities. And, you know, that's about all I can say to not utterly spoil parts of the three books. Reading these books takes some getting used to, because the author jumps around a lot between characters, but every time he does, it's because something important that we need to know is happening there.
God, it's so hard to describe them, but they are so wonderful that I seriously considered starting the trilogy over again after finishing Beyond the Shadows. That is probably the highest praise I can give a book or series; that they are so good I want to just start them over again from the beginning.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Game review #1: Thief Gold
Good lord, I own a lot of video games. Not as much as the Angry Video Game Nerd or The Spoony One or any of the other major game reviewers, but I have a fair amount. See, I've been gaming since I got the original NES when I was about 4 or 5. And after 20 years worth of birthdays and Christmases and just random buying, I've accumulated a fair collection of games. NES, Genesis, Playstation, Xbox, Xbox 360, I've gone through the normal consoles and enjoyed them all. But I'm probably gonna stick with more recent games, as I've not touched any older games recently that weren't for PC. And on that note, I'm going to review a PC game I've been playing a lot lately, mainly because they're working on a sequel right now: Thief Gold.
Now, this game came out in 1998, so it looks very dated compared to today's games, but it is still an excellent game. The levels are large and gorgeous, with a fair amount to discover in each. I've not gotten through the whole game, but I get nervous when I play it and need to take a lot of breaks. I try to ghost my way through, maybe blackjacking a couple guards along the way, but because of the darkness and Garrett's complete lack of any decent sword skills, it gets nerve wracking. Add in zombies and other critters that can kill you and it's just plain creepy. The voice acting is really hit and miss, which is normal for the time; Garrett is especially well done by Stephen Russell who has continued to voice him throughout the series.
All in all, Thief is a great game and a great series. It's hard to say "if you like 'insert genre here', you'll like this" because Thief is a genre-bending game. It's what's called a first person sneaker. If you enjoy stealth games and first person games, you should enjoy Thief. Cheers, you taffers. ;-)
Now, this game came out in 1998, so it looks very dated compared to today's games, but it is still an excellent game. The levels are large and gorgeous, with a fair amount to discover in each. I've not gotten through the whole game, but I get nervous when I play it and need to take a lot of breaks. I try to ghost my way through, maybe blackjacking a couple guards along the way, but because of the darkness and Garrett's complete lack of any decent sword skills, it gets nerve wracking. Add in zombies and other critters that can kill you and it's just plain creepy. The voice acting is really hit and miss, which is normal for the time; Garrett is especially well done by Stephen Russell who has continued to voice him throughout the series.
All in all, Thief is a great game and a great series. It's hard to say "if you like 'insert genre here', you'll like this" because Thief is a genre-bending game. It's what's called a first person sneaker. If you enjoy stealth games and first person games, you should enjoy Thief. Cheers, you taffers. ;-)
Restaurant Review #1: Cafe D'New Orleans
At least I think that's the name. It's a local restaurant up in D'Iberville that we went to a couple months back. It was...Ok. I've eaten worse. If you know me, you know how much it hurts to admit that; I like to think that I've got a mildly refined palate and admitting that I've eaten some food that most professional chefs wouldn't feed to their dogs is shameful.
Ok, lemme say what I liked about this place, that should help me gather my thoughts.
First of all, the atmosphere was very home-y. It felt like the restaurant in my home town; we called it The Cabin, because the outside looked like a log cabin. It was just a little place that we went to because we felt comfortable there. That was how this place felt; there are murals of the sea and swamp land on the walls, nets and boat gear and stuff like that on the walls, just a really charming place. I guess that's the word I'm looking for: charming.
The charm ended when I picked up the menu. It's mostly seafood; that's not a problem, I like that. In a place this close to the Gulf of Mexico, I expect to see seafood and would hope that they're buying locally. The menu is not large; I cannot remember everything on it, but it was a relatively small menu. We all ordered different things, like we usually do at a new restaurant, but we all started with salads, again normal for us. My problem with the salad may seem like a minor thing, but the surrounding area needs to be taken into consideration.
This restaurant is a stone's throw from a large farmer's market. I know, because I work with a lady that habitually goes there to buy and sell. The salad at this place was obviously out of a bag. Now don't get my wrong; I'd rather have bagged salad than no salad at all, but it was that really plastic tasting lettuce that only seems to brown under refrigeration like a week later. I expect better out of a restaurant that's maybe 100 yards from a farmer's market. Maybe they have a good reason, but I doubt it.
Next. I only remember what my mother and I ordered. I'll start with hers, because it pisses me off significantly less. Basically what she got was what in a better restaurant is called a chophouse steak or salisbury steak. Simply put it was a hamburger smothered in gravy and, get this: served over rice. Lemme say this now: I love rice, but seriously, this dish should have been served with mashed potatoes. I hate mashed potatoes, but honestly this needed them. The rice may not have irritated me too much, but it was undercooked, which I'll get to in a second.
I ordered...oh god it kind of makes my stomach roll to think of it...Blackened chicken and shrimp creole. I've made shrimp creole. It was damned good stuff too. I've also made blackened chicken, and it was also damned good. But you know what? It never crossed my mind to mix the two. If done properly, this probably wouldn't have sucked so completely and utterly and pissed me off. Words cannot describe how completely ASS this dish was. I'll start with what didn't suck. The sauce was flavorful and actually pleasant. It was almost as good as mine :-D.
Now the downside to this dish that could have been great but just wasn't. The chicken, as well seasoned as it was, was horribly over-cooked to the point of not just being dry but rubbery. Seriously, there are rubber balls that aren't as rubbery as that chicken was. The rice was undercooked to the point of being crunchy. Like I said, I love rice, but nothing irritates me quite like crunchy rice.
I've saved the worst for last: the shrimp. Oh sweet buttery Jesus the shrimp. Have you ever had really overcooked shrimp? Know how it's kind of stringy and rubbery? Yeah. Nasty. On top of that, you know how every cookbook and chef tells you to devein the shrimp? Because the vein down the shrimp's back isn't really a vein but the digestive tract? Yeah, whoever was cooking didn't know that, because the shrimp wasn't de-veined. Pardon my French but TABARNAC! There is no reason for this kind of high class ineptitude.
Ok, there is one reason, and it was broadcast in big letters on their marquee: Now hiring cooks.
Ok, lemme say what I liked about this place, that should help me gather my thoughts.
First of all, the atmosphere was very home-y. It felt like the restaurant in my home town; we called it The Cabin, because the outside looked like a log cabin. It was just a little place that we went to because we felt comfortable there. That was how this place felt; there are murals of the sea and swamp land on the walls, nets and boat gear and stuff like that on the walls, just a really charming place. I guess that's the word I'm looking for: charming.
The charm ended when I picked up the menu. It's mostly seafood; that's not a problem, I like that. In a place this close to the Gulf of Mexico, I expect to see seafood and would hope that they're buying locally. The menu is not large; I cannot remember everything on it, but it was a relatively small menu. We all ordered different things, like we usually do at a new restaurant, but we all started with salads, again normal for us. My problem with the salad may seem like a minor thing, but the surrounding area needs to be taken into consideration.
This restaurant is a stone's throw from a large farmer's market. I know, because I work with a lady that habitually goes there to buy and sell. The salad at this place was obviously out of a bag. Now don't get my wrong; I'd rather have bagged salad than no salad at all, but it was that really plastic tasting lettuce that only seems to brown under refrigeration like a week later. I expect better out of a restaurant that's maybe 100 yards from a farmer's market. Maybe they have a good reason, but I doubt it.
Next. I only remember what my mother and I ordered. I'll start with hers, because it pisses me off significantly less. Basically what she got was what in a better restaurant is called a chophouse steak or salisbury steak. Simply put it was a hamburger smothered in gravy and, get this: served over rice. Lemme say this now: I love rice, but seriously, this dish should have been served with mashed potatoes. I hate mashed potatoes, but honestly this needed them. The rice may not have irritated me too much, but it was undercooked, which I'll get to in a second.
I ordered...oh god it kind of makes my stomach roll to think of it...Blackened chicken and shrimp creole. I've made shrimp creole. It was damned good stuff too. I've also made blackened chicken, and it was also damned good. But you know what? It never crossed my mind to mix the two. If done properly, this probably wouldn't have sucked so completely and utterly and pissed me off. Words cannot describe how completely ASS this dish was. I'll start with what didn't suck. The sauce was flavorful and actually pleasant. It was almost as good as mine :-D.
Now the downside to this dish that could have been great but just wasn't. The chicken, as well seasoned as it was, was horribly over-cooked to the point of not just being dry but rubbery. Seriously, there are rubber balls that aren't as rubbery as that chicken was. The rice was undercooked to the point of being crunchy. Like I said, I love rice, but nothing irritates me quite like crunchy rice.
I've saved the worst for last: the shrimp. Oh sweet buttery Jesus the shrimp. Have you ever had really overcooked shrimp? Know how it's kind of stringy and rubbery? Yeah. Nasty. On top of that, you know how every cookbook and chef tells you to devein the shrimp? Because the vein down the shrimp's back isn't really a vein but the digestive tract? Yeah, whoever was cooking didn't know that, because the shrimp wasn't de-veined. Pardon my French but TABARNAC! There is no reason for this kind of high class ineptitude.
Ok, there is one reason, and it was broadcast in big letters on their marquee: Now hiring cooks.
New blog, same stuff.
Yeahh, this is my new place to put down random thoughts; nobody uses LJ, at least nobody reads my LJ and so I'm going to stop using it. Like I update it anyway, I don't think I've posted on there since February, but anyway.
I'm Brett, like you couldn't tell that by the name of the blog; I'm a gamer and cook in my free time, so I will be posting my thoughts on new or old-ish games that I've played, what I thought of them and what not. I'll also be posting about recipes that I've tried; not the recipes themselves, just how they turned out, what they were etc...
I may throw in some restaurant reviews also; I have one in mind that I've been wanting to get off my chest, so I may have to rant a bit about it. I may come off sounding like Gordon Ramsay on Kitchen Nightmares during these, but oh well.
Umm...Yeah, not much else to say. Updates to come shortly; I generally rant in a word document then post said rant if I feel like it. I write how I think, so things come out very disjointed. I'll try to keep some kind of flow going if I can, but if not, meh.
I'm Brett, like you couldn't tell that by the name of the blog; I'm a gamer and cook in my free time, so I will be posting my thoughts on new or old-ish games that I've played, what I thought of them and what not. I'll also be posting about recipes that I've tried; not the recipes themselves, just how they turned out, what they were etc...
I may throw in some restaurant reviews also; I have one in mind that I've been wanting to get off my chest, so I may have to rant a bit about it. I may come off sounding like Gordon Ramsay on Kitchen Nightmares during these, but oh well.
Umm...Yeah, not much else to say. Updates to come shortly; I generally rant in a word document then post said rant if I feel like it. I write how I think, so things come out very disjointed. I'll try to keep some kind of flow going if I can, but if not, meh.
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