Book Review: Destroy All Humans Vol. 2 by K. Ise and T. Yokota

Destroy All Humans, They Can't Be Regenerated Volume 2 written by Katsura Ise and illustrated by Takuma Yokota

See my review of Volume 1 here!

To improve their standing in the Magic: The Gathering world, teens Kano and Sawatari go with their local MTG store owners to Tokyo during summer break to play at the DCI Tournament Center. The center has MTG tournaments all the time. The only downside is that the center is full of adults, a bit off-putting for the teens. Kano finds another youngster, Yakumo Suwabara, at a table by himself. He strikes up a conversation and they play a casual game where Kano easily defeats Suwabara. Once the contest is started, Sawatari and Suwabara are paired off. Suwabara is a bit nervous to play a pretty girl but he plays well because he was just using a "fun deck" earlier. The tournament ends with an unacknowledged love triangle between Kano, Suwabara, and Sawatari. The drama plays out from there.

The plot moves in an expected direction. The characters are charming enough to keep it engaging. The Japanese world of MTG is interesting to see, though I really know nothing about the American world of MTG, so it is all new to me. The game play is depicted well, imagining the monsters from the cards attacking opponents. Kano and Sawatari's slow blossoming romance is fun to see. I look forward to the next volume.

Recommended.

Movie Review: The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

The Hitch-Hiker (1953) co-written and directed by Ida Lupino

This harrowing film noir based on actual events follows two friends (Edmond O'Brien and Frank Lovejoy) who are driving to Mexico for a fishing weekend. They pick up a hitch-hiker, Emmett Meyers (William Talman), who has been on a nation-wide crime spree. He kidnaps those he picks up, eventually killing them for their money. Meyers wants them to drive him to a certain town, though he plays some games with them on the way. The friends are caught in the moral quandary of trying to protect each other while also coming up with a way out that isn't what Meyers is planning.

This tightly-paced film (clocking in at only 71 minutes) keeps the tension high. Talman does a great job as the menacing and intelligent Meyers. He clearly has a lot of practice manipulating whoever he has kidnapped. The larger manhunt is shown through the police investigation and radio news, just enough to know how close the law is to getting them. Meyers also knows how close, which puts pressure on him, subsequently putting pressure on the friends as well. The Mexican countryside is expansive and bleak, leaving little hope to the friends and the viewers. It's an exciting story that goes quickly but stays with you.

Highly recommended.

Brookside Gardens March 2025

We visited Brookside Gardens to enjoy the spring weather (80 degrees Fahrenheit in March!). The flowers weren't quite blooming yet but the gardens are still a peaceful place to visit. A lot of people were there enjoying the first taste of summer-like weather.

We saw a couple of spheres, one of which is part of a geocache.

Metal sphere in the Maple Terrace

How much patience to put this together?

The Wedding Gazebo does host special events but it is in the middle of the gardens. The white and purple flowers around it are lovely.

Wedding Gazebo

Flowers close up

Other early bloomers

By the Children's Garden is a bug hotel, a happy home from which pollinators do their job.

Plenty of vacancies

The garden has a small labyrinth nestled between two ponds. 

Pond with island and labyrinth

Walking the labyrinth

Can you spot the turtle in the pond?

Easier in real life

Also, it blends in with the water

Beautiful trees by the garden

Out by the road is the 40th Anniversary Grove, another quiet spot for relaxing. It is a bit out of the way from the rest of the gardens and was empty!

The stream that separates the Anniversary Grove from the rest

Sitting area

The gardens also have a virtual geocache, so I took a picture by the Formal Garden and Greenhouses.

Getting geo-credit

Typically, we visit Brookside in the winter for their Christmas lights. It's nice to come in the daytime and in warmer weather to enjoy the garden part of the gardens.

TV Review: Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft Season 1 (2024)

Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft Season 1 (2024) produced by Tasha Huo based on the Tomb Raider video games by Crystal Dynamics

Lara Croft (voiced by Hayley Atwell) has a short and checkered past in archeology. She found an ancient box in Peru but in the process an ally died. Three years later, she's ready to give up her father's archeological legacy, selling everything at Croft Manor. During the auction, a mysterious assailant steals the Peruvian box, not so much to have the box as to have what's in it. Inside is one of the four stones crafted by ancient Chinese divinities to curb the chaos humans experience. Lara finds new purpose in hunting down the stones before the assailant, Charles Deveraux (voiced by Richard Armitage), can get them all for his own evil purposes.

The story is a familiar action set-up--find the set of items before the bad guy does, because he will use them either to conquer or to destroy the world (maybe both?). Lara initially wants to be a loner though she needs help from her various friends, including traveling/action companion Jonah (voiced by Earl Baylon) and tech support Zip (Allen Maldonado). The show is fun to watch with over-the-top action sequences only possible in an animated format. Lara's growth in trusting her friends is a nice theme to give some pathos and freshness to the overused set-up. The ending suggests more to come and a second season has been greenlit by Netflix (as of April 2025).

I have not played the videos games but have watched Angelina Jolie's first film and the Alicia Vikander reboot. This is closer in tone to the Vikander film, with a younger Lara slowly becoming the action star of the original game.

Mildly recommended--I feel like this is more for fans of the character--I am only mildly a fan, so my enjoyment was less than it could have been.

As of this writing (April 2025), the show is only available on Netflix.

Geocaching March 2025

The month start with some spotty caching here and there. I am not back into the full swing of things yet after the death of my son.

My first set of caches was during my daughter's robotics competition. I dropped her off early and took an hour to find some caches at nearby John Downs Memorial Park. The Wishing Bench is in a formal garden from back in the day when the land was a summer home. The bench is still there and is supposed to grant wishes if you sit quietly and wish hard.

The wishing bench

The pic with me wishing

Also in the park are Lying Downs on the Job, Downs and Outs, and Ups and Downs. They are scattered around the park, making for some nice walks.

Beach part of the caching

Busted with a bowtie

Outside the park was LSLS #1 Blair Loves Books, a geocache part of the Lake Shore Love Series. I only found this first one.

Later, I returned to the Warriors and Brothers In Arms trail with Tunnel Rat and Dorie Miller. Nearby Glendale's Finest is an easy find behind a fire station.

The "tunnel" in Tunnel Rat

Pointe du Hoc is another WBIA find the next day. The day after was Pi Day (3/14) and I found a round-containered Use Your Head. 

On the second weekend of my daughter's robotic competition, I was close enough to DC to sneak in and find Masonic - Scottish Rite Temple, a wherigo cache that told stories about the Masonic Temple in the nation's capital. 

Locus of the cache

An earthcache took me to Meridian Hill Park to find a statue called "Serenity." Serene But Weathered Carrara Marble describes the deterioration of the statue from vandalism and the elements.

Seen better days

Just outside the park I found a fun container for Slow Going, a traditional cache.

I few days later I picked up two cemetery caches: Chapel Hill - Waterloo and Old Salem Church and Cemetery. 

Chapel Hill Cemetery, on a hill as described

Old Salem Church

Sneak Attack was a tricky find near the church--I needed a photo from a previous finder. 

Notables in Forest Glen Cemetery is part of a series of multicaches focusing on famous people buried in the DC area. It was easy to solve. On the way to the final cache I found Carolina Wren and after the find Can You Hear Me Now #2. 

Reston Rocks is an earthcache next to a lake in Reston, Virginia. The rocky outcropping is unlikely and provides a little info on the ancient history of the area.

A nice lake

Rocks!

I avenged a DNF (Did Not Find) at Check Me Out... by a roadside. Also nearby, I discovered Among the Rocks and Mints-Mints-Mints.... 

Carol 103 west was an easy find during my youngest's orchestra rehearsal. The next day I had CCT - 50 Events - Challenge Cache Trail done.

We went for a kayaking adventure in Annapolis and I was able to get a picture for the Ego Alley virtual cache.

Me not in the water

On a trip to Brookside Gardens, I took a picture for the Welcome to Brookside Gardens virtual cache and the Brookside Gardens Labyrinth multi-cache. I also completed all the stages for the local Adventure Lab but couldn't make it to the bonus cache that day.

For the virtual

At the labyrinth

I finished the month filling another calendar day with a mystery/unknown cache, CCT - 3 Continents, which requires the cacher to have found geocaches on three different continents. We honeymooned in Middle Earth, I mean, New Zealand, so I had credit for Oceana in addition to North America and Europe.

I end the month with 34 finds and a grand total of 1757.

Book Review: Spy x Family Vol. 13 by Tatsuya Endo

Spy x Family Volume 13 story and art by Tatsuya Endo

Twilight, aka Loid Forger, is in the middle of a tough fight in enemy territory to protect secrets for his side of the cold war between Ostania and Westalis. Fellow spy Nightfall (who has the hots for Twilight but it is not reciprocated) is there to help out and she goes overboard in the fight, severely injuring herself to save Twilight. They manage to get away with an enemy spy in tow, though Twilight has left Yuri Briar a pummeled mess. The complication--Yuri is the brother of Yor, the woman pretending to be Loid's wife. A further complication from the last issue, her office mates told her every marriage has quarreling in it so she been trying to come up with reasons to fight with Loid. That issue gets resolved while Loid and Yuri have a cat-and-mouse game of Yuri discovering Loid's secret identity. Meanwhile, daughter Anya is trying to get in good with the target at her prestigious school, and trying to study hard to pass exams coming soon. Good thing an ex-college professor has moved in next door!

This is another entertaining run through the lives of the Forger family and the wild antics that surround them. I really enjoy this series and so do my kids.

Recommended.

Movie Review: The Electric State (2025)

The Electric State (2025) directed by Anthony and Joe Russo

Back in an alternate 1990s, the world's population was served by a variety of service robots. These robots became frustrated with being used as slave labor and rose up against the humans. A war broke out that humans were losing until Sentre (run by Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci)) made a VR technology to enable humans to interface in real time with drone versions of themselves. This discovery created mechanically equal warriors who were able to outfight the robots, resulting in a peace treaty in 1994. The robots (lead by Mr. Peanut (voiced by Woody Harrelson)) were exiled to a walled-off wasteland in the middle of the United States. Humans continue to use the VR tech as a way to detach from reality and get things done with stronger drone bodies than they could ever have or visit places without actually going there. Lots of people stay in Sentre's VR tech practically full time.

Michelle (Millie Bobby Brown) lost her family (two parents and her genius younger brother) during the war and has been living in foster homes. Her latest home is run-down with a foster-parent who is exploiting her for money, making her go to school and insisting on after-school activities that he will get paid for. She finds a robot has wandered into the house, something completely illegal. She realizes it is housing her brother's consciousness. They escape the home and head west to find his body.

The story moves along in a haphazard fashion as she travels to the wasteland which is off limits for humans. She gets inside with the help of a smuggler (Chris Pratt) and his robot pal (voiced by Anthony Mackie). The plot gets more intriguing from there as they learn more about the robots and about the larger situation. The resolution deals with the robot threat and the VR threat.

The movie has a lot of interesting issues but never delves into any of them in interesting ways. There's the "robots are humans/have rights" bit that should feel more compelling. VR addiction is depicted as bad but doesn't get explored too much and by the end it seems like plenty of people (employees of Sentre) are perfectly able to manage their VR use. The actors are good but they don't have a lot to work with plotwise. The characters change motivations with little cause and sometimes their behavior just doesn't fit. The visual effects are amazing and fun to watch. The fight scenes are perfunctory with little stakes as robots fight drones. It reminded me, not in a good way, of the Gungans versus the Battle Droids in Star Wars Episode I.  With all the talent involved (the Russos directed a lot of top-notch Marvel films), I expected more.

Barely recommended. I'm not sorry I watched it but I have no desire to rewatch it.

Cute Kid Pix March 2025

More photos that didn't make their own post...

We went on another hike in Wincopin Park, not far from the house (see other trips here and here). The Patuxent River flows through here, though the hike down is a bit steep.

Patuxent Pose

Mom lagging behind

Earlier on that day, our youngest had his final Pinewood Derby with his Scout Pack. He came in first in his den and seventh in the finals.

Scout faster than a car

Watching the finals

The den

My daughter's high school robotics team had their competition in March. We went to two different schools on two different weekends where the Ursa Majors showed their prowess.

The "Pit" area to fix problems between matches

Getting ready to drive

The arena

Refs in place

She drives

Leaders wear tutus!

Negotiating with other teams

Spring has sprung at our house, even before the equinox!

The flowers that bloom in the spring, tra-la!

We did some exploring in Baltimore and found a fun playground.

Pretending not to have fun

Avoiding the crab!

Fun slides

Hang on!