Well, with Haloween upon us, and me at work in my Tigger costume, I thought I share a fun little "scary" game with you.

Now those who know me are aware that I am an AFOL (Adult Fan Of Lego) and have quite a little pirate ship collection. And much to the eye rolling of my wife, am now working on a Napoleonic era army. Ahh, but to what end you may ask? Well to play BrikWars someday I would answer.

But the neatest BrikWars write up and theme I have come across so far is !ZOMBIE!. Far from being the usual mish mash of Mechs, cavemen, space troopers, mounted cavalry and all manner of battle hardened heroes, this theme was very simple and straightforward. Zombies vs. Townsfolk.

Be sure to give it a read and check out the rather straightforward rules at the bottom.

A funner night you would be hard pressed to find.

Ahh, to once again be a cog in the corporate machine!

After doing the "Mr. Mom" thing for the past few months, I've decided to jump back into the workforce. Luckily, I landed at Intellisync as their resident webmonkey.

While being a stay at home dad is great, you know what else is great?

Food. Food is great. And shelter and heat. And lego pirate ships. You know ... the necessities.

Full time job, part time student, daddy ... boy, when life heaps it on it REALLY heaps it on. =)

But you can take the wind out of our sails apparently.

If you recognize the title of this entry, then you know I am going to talk about Serenity/Firefly.

Being a huge fan of the all to short lived T.V. series "Firefly", I eagerly anticipated the release of its big screen debut, "Serenity". I was successful in avoiding all mention of it on the web and aside from the trailers I went into the movie with my spoiler virginity intact. Oh, by the way, for you true fans, you can buy a print of the art print seen here direct from Jason Palmer's Site. It is truly a wonderful piece.

Needless to say, it is a great movie. Perhaps not the second coming that many fans preach, but a really REALLY good movie. I can see how some folks might feel like they are arriving at a concert after the main act has left the stage, but after an hour or so of playing "catchup", the movie just sails along. You don't need to have seen the T.V. episodes before seeing this movie ... but it certainly does help. Unfortunately though, the movie is slipping down the box office charts and it looks like it will need to rely on DVD sales if there is any hope of resuscitating the series.

Orson Scott Card had a great writeup on his site. He really seems to nail the reasons behind why Serenity is not only a good movie, but also good Sci-Fi in general. I would only be repeating his sentiments here, so I suggest you read his perspective for yourself.

One thing I will add to all the write-ups on the web that compare Serenity to the Star Wars flicks, and Star Trek, and every other sci-fi film out there. This is my personal view and it translates to all movies. Your heroes are only as good as the villain they face. And in Serenity, they are up against a doozy. I'll say no more about the film but continue my thought process.

In the three recent Star Wars films (as they seem to be the popular comparison touchstone today) you have the set up for GREAT villains in each film. True bad asses. But ultimately they are left out of the films save for an eight-minute fight scene where they are quickly (and sometimes lamely) dispatched. No epic feel. No constant cat and mouse. Just show up and die.

Serenity is more like the first three films, with their sense of adventure, fun, whimsy, and overshadowing source of evil. The original Star Wars trilogy treated us to cocky, yet unsure heroes, witty banter (only to be replaced later with asinine Jar Jar "hijinks"), and a constant struggle with an omnipresent, dangerous, and dogged opponent. I feel it truly captures all the fun elements and immediately likeable characters that made Star Wars movie magic.

So by all means, go see the movie. Not to save the franchise. Not to cement the series in the annals of sci-fi. Not for any lofty ideals. Just go see it because it is a great film full of fun and likeable characters.