Well, my wife and son are off visiting family and so I am temporarily all alone in this cold cruel world. So when I am not at work, I have been playing a new Wii game I picked up, Super Smash Brother’s Brawl. It is a very fast, fun and addictive game, so I haven’t had as much sleep. Today at work both my co-worker (who also has had little sleep) and I were pretty “out of it.” We would both spontaneously start laughing about the stupidest things, but at least we made it through the day. Well, I think I am going to go home and take a nap, after that I may get back to the Brawl. Ah, the joy of sleep deprivation. I feel like a college student again.

1. Twilight Series, by Stephenie Meyer –Ok, I know these books are targeted more toward the female population who are into romantic vampires and EMO teens, but let me explain. When my wife was reading this series I basically didn’t exist until she finished them. I thought, “What is the deal?” so I decided to give them a try, to see what all the “lack of interest in my husband, son, and food” was all about. The books are well written and have some great characters and action sequences. I think Alice is by far the coolest character! I have to admit though what made these books most memorable for me was when I was reading an intense part in Eclipse late and night. All of a sudden someone tried to open the front door. I jumped off the couch and looked out the window and saw a dark figure clad in black stumbling and rolling around on our front lawn. Needless to say, if I hadn’t gone to the bathroom earlier I would have needed a change of pants at that moment. The figure got up and started stumbling around our house, so I quickly threw on some shoes and a coat thinking they would try to break a window or something. However, they came to the front door again. Well, using all my adrenaline power, I slowly peaked out the window to see who the dark awkward stranger was. To my surprise, it wasn’t some psycho vampire, it was our next door neighbor. She was very, very, very, extremely drunk and swaying like a banshee in a typhoon. She mumbled something like, “David there was, narf?” So I basically pointed to her house and very slowly and distinctly said, “Your house is over there.” She then stumbled and rolled back to her house. I couldn’t sleep after that, so I went back to reading the book.

2. Shannon Hale – Really anything by Shannon Hale is a great read. I have read everything she has currently written except for Austin Land (A little too girlie for me, my wife loved it though). Her Bayern series (The Goose Girl, Enna Burning, and River Secrets) is excellent. Also, some of the ideas and themes in this series reminded me of Avatar: The Last Airbender. My favorite book from the series is River Secrets because the main character is a short, funny, and fairly normal guy – just like me!

Although her book Princess Academy (a Newbery Honor book) doesn’t sound very manly, the characters, setting, and story are very compelling.

Her most recent book, Book of a Thousand Days, made me a bit claustrophobic for the first couple of chapters. I hate closed in places, and being sealed in a tower for 7 years is definitely not one of my top ten favorite hangouts. After the tower scene, the plot moves along at a nice pace and has a great climatic ending.

3. The Man Who Loved Clowns, by June Rae Wood – Ok well, this one took me some time before I got up enough guts to read. I am into fantasy and sci-fi books; I do not love clowns (I don’t hate them either), and the cover’s McDonald’s color scheme didn’t really grab my attention. However, I thought I should give it a try, remember what they say, “You shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover.” WOW, this was a very emotional, humbling, and uplifting book. I am NOT an overly emotional person, but my eyes did get a wee bit moist now and then – I think it was because I was eating some chips and super hot salsa at the time. This book opened my eyes to those families who have to live and deal with disabilities. People with any type of disability are truly amazing people and deserve to be treated with love and respect. They should never be taken for granted.

4. Diary of a Wimpy Kid #2: Rodrick Rules, by Jeff Kinney – If you are feeling the least bit blue, or sad after reading The Man Who Loved Clowns, check out the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books! We all need a good laugh, and The Diary of a Wimpy Kid books certainly give one something to laugh about. Ah, Middle School, those were the days to be forgotten.

Well that is it for my amazing book review. If you have anything to add about any of these books, or you just want to tell me how cool I am, please feel free leave comments.

The Moms’ and Kids’ Playground is an online game site on funbrain. I worked on background illustrations, some of the character designs, and I also did some of the audio recording. It really makes my work so much more fulfilling when I hear enthusiastic comments from my nieces and nephews about these games. Kids Rock!!! (Images copyright Pearson Education, Inc. – used with permission)

Well besides work I have been enjoying being a daddy and hanging out with our little boy. It is fun to watch him learn new things…I didn’t realize how exciting it would be to watch someone learn how to crawl.

In my spare, spare time I have been playing some good ole’ games on the Wii’s virtual console – Mario Cart 64, Super Metroid, Ghosts and Goblins (Sega version), and any Zelda game I can get my hands on.

I also been reading some good books/series. The sad thing is that when I get hooked on a series, I end up being stuck waiting for the next book to come out (Harry Potter, The Keys to the Kingdom, etc.). I have recently read the current 3 books in the “Percy Jackson and the Olympians” series by Rick Riordan. So far this has been a great series, and the way the author combines mythology with our current society is a fun mix. Another fun book I have read is “The Diary of a Wimpy Kid,” by Jeff Kinney. The comic art in this book is great and the everyday middle school situations the main character deals with are hilarious (some of them remind me of my middle school days).

Well that’s my wild and crazy life so far, if I get a chance to do any more illustrations outside of my job I will try to post them.