City of Ember fun

Its another slow day, with my kitty peacefully sitting on my toes. We don't do much with Columbus Day remembrances anyway, having long had doubts about whether he was more famous or infamous. DS is still adjusting to the new braces. The black powder event was pretty empty when we went by yesterday, so we went to the library instead - which seems to be much better run these days btw. I remember ranting about how they were, but hadn't told you what happened when a necessary bathroom break sent my family in to talk to them again. So far, they've been as good as their word- and the collection is MUCH better than I remembered.

Went by the City of Ember site (deciding whether we want to see it). I've been a sucker for (non-horror) cave people stories since:
1) missing numerous field trips to area caves while growing up. I was sick every single time we were supposed to go!
2) high school study projects, where I was in one of those experimental programs that had me roaming the stacks at the local uni more weeks than not- and afterward I spent time exploring left out resources their collection happened to have. As a former homeschooler I was more than happy to educate myself far beyond scholastic requirements. [grin] Some manuscripts were quite rare and included copies of documents stored since the French Revolutionary era - (minutes of the Committee' etc). Among the more fascinating bits was a collection of reports about 'cave people' who had supposedly come up all over Europe (from France to Germany, England, Gibraltar, and even Turkey!) Some were probably recent hideouts from the Terror, but other reports were positively intriguing. None of the adults in these reports survived for long after 'returning'? to the surface - but some of the children did adapt. Oddly, several were reported as having to learn the local language - but seemed to be speaking an unknown tongue of their own. A few told stories of a now lost civilization deep within the Earth that had suffered some kind of recent disaster. Several Native American tribes also told stories of living underground for a time. Were these all fairy tales? Possibly, since none of it has been proved aside from the comparatively shallow cave cities of Turkey, but the stories inspired Jules Verne and many after him - and apparently inspired the makers of Zork & Myst too. (at least secondhand. Once images enter the public imagination they take on a life of their own.)

Millions have been enchanted by the fascinating idea of a hidden city deep underground, safe from outside troubles, but challenged by their limited land and from the darkness within the hearts of mankind. The old stories still intrigue me too, so I took a look into the latest rendition, curious to see which of the classic tales or games this one would resemble most. So far the synopsis suggests neither Zork nor Verne. Ember's storyline (as written in the official synopsis and on Wikipedia) reminds me of several Dr Who storylines, old Star Trek episodes, Wall-E, and (faintly) of Logan's Run - but without 'lastday' and other violent Huxley-ish overtones. I guess I've read and seen too much fantasy & scifi works to find it original. But who knows, it might be reasonable to watch. Still haven't decided.


At the site, I played a couple of puzzle games - one based on ye olde "Pipe Dreams" and the other on the ever popular 'flip all the Switches on' challenge - used in so many adventure, rpg, and platformer games that it'd be difficult to list them all (Spyro 2, Mario 7 Stars, Lufia, etc etc). Maybe you'll enjoy them for a few minutes. Yeah, I'm still a puzzler at heart. :)