It’s been a while since I have made a “What’s Going On” update, mostly because not much has been going on. Now some things have gone on, so I wanted to update whoever reads this thing. I’ll start with the obligatory list and go on from there.

The SkyLark by Peter Straub
Songs of a Dead Dreamer by Thomas Ligotti

I‘ll start with The Skylark from Peter Straub published by Subterranean Press. This book is a special edition, as are a large portion of the Subterranean Press books. It has an extra chapter not found in the mass market publishing you’ll find at Borders or Barnes and Noble under a different title A Dark Matter. Unfortunately I am not sure I’ll ever get to that chapter. I’m sorry Mr. Straub, but the pace of this book (think snail crawl) is killing me. My quick synopsis would be as follows. In 1966 a small group of friends fall in with a mystical guru type man named Spencer Mallon who enrolls them all in an experiment. The experiment itself is a mystery, but Mallon promises it will “alter the nature of reality itself”. What happens with the experiment and it’s long term repercussions are what the story is all about.

I am doing my best to stick it out, honestly. I can see that something both horrible and awesome at the same time is coming, but there is so much jumping around between times and characters it is tough to keep up. For other readers out there, thing Stephen King’s IT Both the movie and book will give you the general idea. One chapter we are in the 70s dealing with the point of view of someone. I couldn’t tell you who is narrating this portion as it doesn’t seem to be any character in the story. The next chapter will move to the mid or late 90s. Old friends are meeting up, or perhaps one of the group is walking through a memory of his. The characters have both full names and nicknames, which are used interchangeably with only the reader’s own intuition to put a nickname to a full name for the most part. I am not sure what else to say about the book. It falls under horror as a genre I believe, I just wish I could get to the horror part.

Because of the slow pace of The Skylark, I was forced to pick up another book in my backlog of books to read. In steps one of my newer purchases, Songs of a Dead Dreamer by Thomas Ligotti. This is a collection of supernatural horror short stories. I’ve never read Ligotti before, but so far I like what I have read. I am through the first two stories in the book, The Frolic and Les Fleurs. They were both quick reads, around 10-15 pages each. This is great for someone with a short attention span as the content constantly changes. So far I can’t say whether or not I can recommend this book, or The Skylark for that matter, but I will update as soon as I finish one of them.

Alan Wake
Blur
Splinter Cell: Conviction
Lost Planet 2

I‘ll just say a few quick words about each of the games I am playing right now. If you want a full on a review, there are plenty out there on the web, no need for me to go in depth.

Alan Wake is an attempt at a spooky Silent Hill style game. You play the game in episodes, with lots of cinematic scenes (read: BORING). To make it even more boring, you pick of pages of a book the main character wrote and are forced to read them in the game. Not impressed, not fun to play, and not scary. Try again folks.

I can’t say anything good about Blur either unfortunately. It’s a racing game where you get to have power-ups to attack other cars and repair, turbo, etc… None it actually makes the game fun, it just makes it a sad attempt at a hardcore Mario Kart. The graphics are a joke. The developers may have written this game for an XBox not an Xbox 360 maybe. The controls are sloppy, and the game is boring too. Don’t bother with this one at all.

Splinter Cell: Conviction however is a very good game. I only rented it and did not finish it, but I plan to rent it again and finish the game. I’ve always been a fan of the Splinter Cell series, and this one is another hit. The game has excellent controls, killer graphics, and is fun to play. I highly recommend this to anyone who likes shooters.

The verdict is still out on Lost Planet 2. I rented it for this weekend, and was not happy to find that there is nothing beyond multiplayer. I’m not really a fan of multiplayer games. I like to play through the story and be done with it. Plus I suck at multiplayer and don’t care to improve my skills so why bother. The graphics aren’t too bad, the controls are well laid out, and it would be fun as a single player story. One downside is the weird Intro you play through with other players, and the fact that after I died, I had to watch the entire intro cinematic again, big loss in my book. Never take the player out of the game too much, it gives them a reason to drop the controller and do something else.

Nothing

Summer sucks for TV what can I say.

 

I‘ve made some changes, again to how I’m handling the image gallery. In order to get the best quality prints for everyone, myself included, and maybe someone else would be interested in buying prints, or the digital download for their own use. I’ll be uploading everything to the new site, which will use the same link at the top of this site, and will remain gallery.coreytess.net. From there you can still browse everything, but you won’t be able to download them anymore. I did this to protect the photos. The best I can offer for the RC folks who want to grab their own photos and display them is to have you email me through here and let me know which photos you want. I can send you guys smaller copies with my copyright on them. Hopefully this doesn’t annoy anyone.

The upside is, with the new service I can make coupons. So I am planning on making a code for everyone that races at our track a code so the prints are sold at cost only. I’m not trying to profit of of the people I race with every week. So that’s what is new with the gallery, in case anyone was wondering. If anyone has complaints or questions, let me know. There is a contact form on this site, as well as my direct email.

This week I also picked up a new lens for the camera. I got a killer macro lens, the Canon 100mm f2.8L IS USM to be specific. I just picked it up today so I haven’t had a whole lot of time with it. However my first shots were great. Jess made macaroni and cheese for dinner, so I snapped some pics of that. I have decided to call those shots “Macroroni”. It’s a lame ass joke, but I thought it was funny. I should be able to get some nice looking closeups of the RC trucks now in addition to the action shots. I’ll also be able to expand my range of photos as well. Once I get some more shots taken, I’ll post them on the gallery site, and give my review of the lens.

That’s all for now. Have fun and keep it between the ditches!