Me: I can has .mp3? It's right there. You're playing it now.
iPad: wut u meen "not itunes"? DOES NOT COMPUTE
Me: Well, can I put the .mp3s that I already legally obtained on iCloud and get them from there?
iPad: not apple product? DOES NOT COMPUTE
Me: ...

In other news, Jans just got an iPad! I have to admit, it's a pretty nifty-looking toy. Now to figure out what he can do with it. Any of you Apple people have suggestions for apps or whatever?

I reread some of my older book reviews the other night. Frak. I'd forgotten how many books I want to read. I still haven't read the latest Green Rider book, a few Harry Dresden books or any of the Codex Alera, The Alloy of Law or any other of Brandon Sanderson's original works, and the other Old Man's War books, never mind the books from authors I haven't read but have heard rave reviews about.

I guess the good thing about that is it means I have no excuse for being bored. It also makes me actually a little glad that the last two books I tried to read from my ebook collection were busts. (Though that had the added benefit of inspiring me to work on Damian again, given that I gave up on both books due to an unlikable lead female.)

So, add all those books to the list of things I want to do, along with all the video games I want to play, all the books I want to write, and all the art I want to make. Man, am I glad we don't watch TV.

The Magicians' Daughter, S. C. Butler - I got an ebook of the first novel in the Stoneways Trilogy some years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it, and though I went to the library last week to get an entirely different book, I was excited for the opportunity to finally read this finale. This is one of those trilogies in which the books draw closely from their predecessors, so much that even the dust jacket blurb on this book spoils the ending of both the previous ones, so I can't really summarize it without giving away anything.

What the author did in this trilogy is something interesting; it's a very classic Tolkien-esque adventure fantasy, but it's also unique in the way it was handled. This book made my heart wrench for the characters, but their reactions were very believable. In fact, one thing that really stood out to me was how the characters clashed with each other and I could understand and sympathize with each character's side. It was a very character-driven story and it did it well.

As a conclusion to the trilogy, it wasn't the best I've ever read. The villain, who was played up so well throughout this book and throughout all three, went out with a bit of a fizzle, and one of the most important characters to the other two books - and one of my favourites to boot - had only a cursory role in this. Also, some seemingly important plot points turned out not to be necessary to the story at all. In terms of bringing everything together and wrapping things up, it did a pretty good job. The ending perhaps didn't leave as much an impression on me as the other two books, but it was very satisfactory. For a good old-fashioned fantasy with some complex characters and a refreshing take on dwarves - and a world where there are dwarves but no elves - you can't go wrong.

Muse. Muse! What are you doing? Why are you stuck on this project again? I finally got what I need to finish Halcyon. F-I-N-I-S-H. And I told you once, I'm working on Damian after it's done. This isn't even what I'm planning to write for this year's NaNoWriMo. I appreciate the inspiration but I don't have time to work on this one now.

My throat's feeling better this morning, thankfully. It got me up a couple times last night and not even drinking water settled it down very well, though good thing I brought some up last night when I went to bed. Runny nose is bothersome, but I've had plenty worse.

I've discovered something this week, perhaps a little pathetic. Skyward Sword has helped retain my sanity. I always feel nicely refreshed after getting to play some while the baby's napping, and the one time I didn't yesterday kind of put off the rest of my afternoon. So it's actually a little disappointing that it seems I am nearing the end. I could finally get back to Metroid Prime 2 afterward, though, and at least I still have Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, Shin Megami Tensei, Final Fantasy IV and The 4 Heroes of Light. Maybe I'll give Golden Sun another try, too. It is supposed to be good, it just didn't grab me when I tried to play it before.

I rebuilt my Amazon.com playlist the other day - or rather, rebuilt it on Amazon.ca - and now there's more than twice as many video games on there as everything else combined, haha.

Jans posited the other night that a story is only as good as its villain - while I don't necessarily agree with that, I will agree that a story dependent on its villain isn't as strong with a weak villain. So we got talking about good villains, and to my surprise I couldn't think of many, especially in literature. The Lord Ruler in the Mistborn trilogy is the only one that immediately came to mind and I've not come up with better since. Sephiroth and Kefka, for sure. I'm still on the fence about Darth Vader, even in just the original trilogy. He was an effective villain, sure, but great? I think Emperor Palpatine did a better job of that.

Then I thought of one that should probably have been obvious to me, and I realized I think he is my favourite villain of all time: Ganondorf. Especially in Ocarina of Time. There's a guy who's powerful, evil, ruthless, somewhat sympathetic when you look at his history, and successful. I mean, he ruled Hyrule with an iron fist for seven years. Plus the fact that he's twice as tall as Link makes him pretty dang intimidating.

Well, better get to work on Halcyon while the baby's playing contentedly by herself.

Duh. I know exactly what to do to put myself in a better mood in the mornings. That is precisely why I have spent years building a morning playlist.

On a somewhat related note, have any of you noticed that certain songs go really well with a certain time of day/setting? As an example, I recently discovered that the Winged Migration soundtrack is really great dusk music. Of course, I think at least 90% of music goes perfectly with falling snow.

Though they always caught my eye whenever I saw them, I never actually looked up Arc Rise Fantasia and Xenoblade Chronicles... until now. Also highly rated, also old-school JRPGs. I guess that was an advantage to the Wii being the only current-gen console I owned, there weren't many games I really wanted. With those two out, Last Story coming out soon, and the options for the DS, I want so many games, so many more than I can afford right now... or that I have time for. But still, want!

Thank heavens our friends lent us Skyward Sword so I didn't have to buy it. And the library usually has copies of Metroid: Other M on hand, so I don't need to buy that, either. I think I need to update my Amazon.com wish list otherwise.

I'll stop gushing about video games I want someday. Maybe.

FRAK! I just discovered the soundtrack for The Last Story is by Nobuo Uematsu. I don't think I can not get that game now, no matter what the actual game is like. (Though Hironobu Sakaguchi also involved? I'm thinking it might be awesome.)

I have a very snuggly baby this morning.

So I ended up doing something very typical for my first Mother's Day and we all went to Royal Botanical Gardens and looked at flowers. My first choice of having people over for video games and board games fell through because nobody could come. When the weather wasn't looking great Sunday morning, I was quite tempted to go to a newly opened entertainment complex for arcade games and possibly bowling. Then it cleared up and the forecast was promising, so after much deliberation - probably too much - we/I decided on RBG.

That place is huge. We went to two of the five or six separate gardens and were still out until 3:00ish. It wasn't actually the best time to visit because it was kind of between seasons for a lot of plants. The daffodils are pretty much gone and cherry blossoms and others are on their way out, but it was a little early for other plants like roses and wisteria - there was a lovely arbour walk with wisteria over the top, but there were only a couple flowers out yet. There was certainly enough that was nice, though, a lot of the tulips still looked quite pretty and the lilacs are about in peak, and I got to get pictures of Natasha under a still flowering cherry tree.

All in all, a good time out, though I may have caught something there. Or at the Mother Goose program on Monday, or at swimming lessons yesterday. Suffice to say, I felt my first symptom yesterday afternoon and got a couple more to go with it this morning. Nothing serious nor anything I can really complain about, especially since poor Jans has been fighting something for a couple weeks now. I just hope it doesn't get worse, or that I give it to the baby.

I haven't been doing so well with my block of cleaning time this week. I don't know if the novelty's worn off, it's just the way I've been feeling this week, or I've just been distracted by a good book, which I finished yesterday. At least I'm keeping up with the kitchen, I just haven't been spending extra time trying to get anything else in order.

Still no progress on Halcyon. Jans read some of my more updated chapters this weekend and fortunately said they were much improved, with only slight changes suggested. Plenty of progress in Skyward Sword. It doesn't necessarily feel, plot-wise, like I'm close to the end, but I seem to have just about all the stuff I can get, and I have put in quite a few hours on it now.

We recently picked up some new movies from a rental store that was closing, including X-Men: First Class and The Last Airbender, which we watched last night. As someone who's never seen the series, I thought it was pretty neat. It's made me curious enough that if I can get out to the library to return that book I was reading today, I'll pick up the first season while I'm there. It is so nice being close to a library with a good selection. I actually went there last week to pick up a specific book but a different one grabbed me before I even passed the first shelf. This is the first local library I've been to where I can just browse the fantasy/scifi section without having to order something in to find something good. Now the question is what to read next. I should rotate to a classic, but I don't really feel like one just yet, so maybe I'll just find the next book in my downloaded list.

Decisions, decisions. I should definitely try to squeeze in more reading. Even with the coming of Natasha, I still managed to read 20 books last year. Of course, most of those were before she came, but if I can manage it with a newborn then I can get a few more in now.

Nertz. That hot chocolate I had earlier really felt nice on my throat and I think even warded off the headache briefly, but I don't want to drink hot chocolate all day and our tea selection isn't spectacular. May have to go out and buy some more tea today, if the weather improves.

Jans got me FFIV DS and Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light! The store also had a used copy of Chrono Trigger for DS for $15, but I figured since I was already getting one game I already had that I should get a new one instead. I still want Nostalgia, Sands of Destruction, Arc Rise Fantasia and Xenoblade Chronicles, and heck, for $10 used I'll gladly add FFIII to the list, too. But new video games still make me happy.