Small Group pics

One of the girls was taking pics at the last small group. Check out the Small Group photo album to the right if y'all wanna see our group.

~Ian

The Green Coat

After only thirty years, the zipper on my green coat started acting up, so even though the coat was still like new otherwise, I have replaced it with a Carhart coat that I love because it is longer so I don't get a cold crack like the Norge gardener. To illustrate how durable fashion can be, I am attaching dashing photos of me in the green coat in 1977 and 2007. To illustrate that what goes around, comes around, I am attaching a photo of Ian remodeling in 1983. And to illustrate that Jon can ham, I am attaching a photo of Jon as a disembodied Samurai. Hiiiiiyaaaaah!

Our new condo Frango...

So painting the main living spaces is close to finishing up as Tim and I have been working like gangbusters over the weekend and after work the last night or two. Turns out the green tones that we have been using are quite a bit more vibrant when they are on all the walls as opposed to just a sample! With the chocolate trim and the green paint I'm calling it the Frango condo. I'm digging the style though, it's very Mod and Liz and I going to find it fun to decorate with stuff like this and putting fun art on the walls. I didn't have the camera during the initial work, but I'll see about getting it charged up and taking some picture tonight.

~Ian

Ft. Lauderdale pics

This is Johannah and I looking lovely at 4:30 am at the Ft. Lauderdale airport the day after Laura McClain's wedding. Ugh - it was early, but we wanted to show off our really long hair! Looks like we've both forgotten how to get our hair cut since college.

This photo was taken right when we got to the airport; it was actually pretty amazing that we made it there. Our scheduled shuttle was late and we had to call them at 4:05 am and the dispatcher told us to wait 20 minutes. I said, "Can you at least confirm that he's on his way?" I was on hold awhile, and then she said he'd get to us in 20 minutes, but that we were the last people he had to pick up so we'd go directly to the airport. When he got there 18 1/2 minutes later, the shuttle was empty! So I guess it took him 20 minutes to get out of bed and get to us. So other than driving the wrong way on a divided road for a few minutes - glad it was so early there were no other cars - we did eventually make our flight. And Johannah and I were on the same flight, same row! I made it back to Chicago, and she made it back to Vancouver (via Seattle!).

If I get any other pics from the wedding I'll post them too. The rest are mostly on other cameras.

Bonus Author Recommendation: Lois McMaster Bujold

So after my comic roundup I figured that I’d also tack on an author or two that I’ve picked up in my time here at Microsoft that I was not familiar with before. I guess I’ve had too much computer time with Liz zonked out with the flu :-P.

First off is Lois McMaster Bujold. It seems crazy that I’d never heard of her, given the number of Hugo (4) and Nebula (3) awards that she’s won. Perhaps my missing out on her has something to do with the covers of most of her novels. Uniformly ugly and encompassing all of the worst traits of Sci-Fi novel covers it’s enough to want to put them in a brown bag before you take them on the bus. But don’t let that deter you from the novels contained within those hideous covers she has written both an excellent Sci-Fi series and an even better fantasy series.

First off is Bujold’s “The Vorkosigan Saga.” This is her Sci-Fi series that she is most famous for. This is a great series, but due to some small issues it requires an investment to get started in. The first issue is that this series contains a large number of fairly short books, which can be read in either order of chronology or in order of publishing. Also (since the stories were so short) there have been several omnibus editions that combine earlier entries in the series which basically follow chronological order. I personally read them in chronological order (starting with the omnibus editions), but you do have to be aware that the first book in the series (Shards of Honor) was written quite earlier and is very much subpar for the series and really does not reflect on the tone or characters of the other novels. So my recommendation is to read chronologically but be aware that the books pick up quite quickly after the first and just keep improving from there. This would mean starting with the following omnibus editions (Cordelia’s Honor, Young Miles, Miles Mystery and Mayhem, Miles Errant) then move on to single books after that.

So I’ve now told you how to start reading her Sci-Fi series, but I have not told you why to start reading it. Basically Bujold just takes every aspect of a space opera series and does it perfectly. It’s not breaking new ground like China Meiville or Neal Stephenson; it is just does what everyone else has done, better than anyone else does. At no point did I ever say “wow, this is the best Sci-Fi I’ve ever read” but I ripped though the series in about a month and totally loved it. Her best quality is how she avoids the whole “endless series” vibe that both bad (Robert Jordan) and good (George R.R. Martin) series writers seem to get. She avoids this with a couple of neat tricks. First she always keeps the focus on just one or two characters and doesn’t let the series get muddied up with tons of minor characters (Jordan). Second, she keeps the books short and focused and keeps each book as a self contained story (R.R. Martin), think like the Horatio Hornblower books in that aspect. Also, she keeps things fresh by changing the tone of the series as she moves along. The first books are swashbuckling space operas, then as the main character ages they move more into detective novel in space territory and finally the most recent book was basically a historical romantic comedy mashed up with Star Wars (A Civil Campaign: A Comedy of Biology and Errors).

Now after all that, I have to say that I like her Fantasy series better than her Sci-Fi stuff. It is more recent, shorter and unlike the Sci-Fi series it doesn’t have as slow a start as she is already a much more polished writer from the beginning. The novels in this are The Curse of Chalion, Paladin of Souls and The Hallowed Hunt. All of them are exceptional (Guy Guvarial Kay springs to mind as a comparison) but Paladin of Souls really stands out in particular as a fantastic novel (which picked up both the Hugo and Nebula awards in 2003). But they are fairly different in tone from her Sci-Fi series (much more serious and romantic) so I would say start with whatever series strikes your current fancy.

~Ian

Comic recommendations from Ian

So in my review for 300 I saw in the comments that Mom and Dad were both reading the Frank Miller comics although it sounds like comics are not Mom’s style. Working at a geek place like Microsoft has exposed me to some really quality comics in the last year or so (my co-worker Steve is the maven of all that is good in pop culture). So I thought that I would give a recommendation or two. I really love that the Kirkland library carries comic collections, I don’t think that I would ever buy these on my own (too pricy) but by checking them out, I’m having a lot of fun.

Ex Machina

This series by Brian K. Vaughan is basically the story of the one man in the world who has superpowers and how he fairs after getting elected mayor of New York. Despite that opening sentence, it’s entirely serious in tone as it covers his first one hundred days in office while flashing back to his previous career as a superhero.

Invincible

To use the format of the SATs: Movies::Comics as “The Incredibles”::Invincible. Invincible is aimed more at kids (or at least has no adult content, unlike many other trendy comics) but like “The Incredibles” it contains a lot of humor that adults would appreciate as well. It drops much of the angst that drips over modern comics and focuses on why comics were fun in the first place. That being watching teenagers learn how to control their superpowers while still living normal lives (think the Spiderman movie as well).

Fables

This one is my personally favorite; it has a great story and the best artwork of any of these comics (the “Homelands” collection from Fables is sublime). This book covers a self-regulated community of fairy tale creatures that are forced out of their home country (and into New York) by an invading force. The characters are compelling, the plots are original and the action is well paced. Really, there should be no reason for anyone who likes fairy tales to not read this series.

Bone

A combination of Pogo and The Lord of the Rings. Falls into the same category as Invincible in that you don’t need adult content to tell an adult story. Sometimes the blend of humorous sections with dramatic fantasy storytelling can be a little odd. But if you reach the end of this series and you don’t care for the characters then you are mean and heartless and I don’t like you at all. If anyone ever needs an idea for a gift for Ian just pick up the massive one volume collection of this comic.

Y: The last man

Another Brian K. Vaughan comic series which I enjoy, but might stop reading soon. It’s gotten a little too heavy into the violence and sex for me recently. Wikipedia has a great summary, so I’ll just steal it.

“Y: The Last Man is Vaughan's attempt to subvert the classic male fantasy of being the last man on earth. In the series, something (speculated to be a plague) simultaneously kills every mammal possessing a Y chromosome - including embryos, fertilized eggs, and even sperm - with the exception of Yorick Brown, a young amateur escape artist, and his Capuchin monkey, Ampersand.

Society is plunged into chaos as infrastructures collapse and the surviving women everywhere try to cope with the loss of the men, their survivors' guilt, and the knowledge that humanity is doomed to extinction. Vaughan meticulously crafts the new society that emerges out of this chaos, from the conversion of the phallic Washington Monument to a monument to the dead men, to the genesis of the fanatical ultra-feminist Daughters of the Amazon, who believe that Mother Earth cleansed itself of the "aberration" of the Y chromosome, to male impersonators becoming valued romantically and professionally.

Over the course of their journey, Yorick and his friends discover how society has coped in the aftermath of the plague. However, many of the women they encounter have ulterior motives in regard to Yorick. Though the subject matter of the series is entirely serious, Y: The Last Man is also noted for its humor. Yorick in particular is a source of one-liners, although the other characters have their moments as well.”


~Ian

Goodman's 2007-08 Season

Click here to download the press release for our next season at the Goodman. Or you can view it on the web.

300 Review

So my team went out to see 300 the other night so I figured that I would drop a quick review. Overall, it was a solid movie to see, especially in the theater, but I ended up not quite as impressed as I thought I would be.

On the plus side, the cinematography, staging, costumes and action were all superb. I especially enjoyed the costumes and design on the Persian side. So maybe King Xerxes was not really a nine foot tall, pierced, androgenous Yul Brynner but he sure did look cool as one. The action was also well planned and fun to watch and the gore level didn't seem to bother me like Sin City did. Although have no doubts, it is very gory, it's just that gore in a historical battle context does not bug me as much as other types of violence.

On the down side, I was actually not too impressed by the script of the movie. It seemed to be trying to let the cinematography speak for itself, but the acting and lines still fell flat to my ears at several points. Most of the dialog just seemed like filler between one sassy Spartan one-liner and the next and none if it had the emotional impact of other histo-gory-dramas (Gladiator for example). Perhaps this has to do with the Spartan stoic nature, but it still was a minus to me.

Also the nudity in this movie was constantly bizzare and borderline exploitive. That may have been the point, but both Xerxes' tent and visiting the Oracle were sexually creepy enough for me to lose enjoyment in the movie and to break the narrative.

~Ian

My new webpage

Hey - check out my new webpage sometime. Mostly all I have on there now are pics of my painted minis and a reading history list I just got into the computer, but I've been having fun playing around with it this week!

Jon and I went to our local game store's auction this weekend, and we got a lot of great new figs for a really good deal! And Jon sold some old stuff he didn't want, too, so that made it even better. Now we've just got to keep up with the painting....

Anyone for a little NCAA action?

Hey all. If anyone is intersted, I made a little Huff family NCAA pool group at ESPN.com that we can use. It's an extra username to remember, but it can be pretty fun even if you don't follow basketball. Just watch what you are clicking when you sign up to make sure that you don't add any spam (or use an old e-mail address like I do). The walkthrough for signing up and creating a bracket is pretty easy. After creating a braket you just need to join our group:

Group name: Huff Family
Password: Our first family cat, no spaces and no caps

I'll also use the official invite function to send out an invite to all, y'all.

http://games.espn.go.com/tcmen/frontpage

Starbuck identified

Dad confessed to not know BSG or Starbuck, and mom, I thought you should know who Ian was comparing you to (in the comments section of the Cancun post). Here are some pics:

Things we're unhappy about today

Bears sports news that Jon and I don't like: click here.

Cancun pictures

These are our pix from Cancun. You can also link to them by clicking the iguana photo in the right column or clicking another link on the right column called "Links to Web Album photos."

Icy Morning

It hailed last night. At least, I said it was hail; Jon said it was sleet. We decided to table it as a semantic discussion, but this morning the world looked like it was covered in partially-soaked tapioca. Each little ball was translucent on the outside and white on the inside, and walking through them was like walking along a pebbly beach. But it was getting warm by the time I left for work, and they were melting in great big tapioca lakes that you could barely jump over. I think the puddles were so huge because the balls of ice had piled up high in certain areas.

Weird.