Ipod Apps
Boxhead Zombie Wars: The games finally arrived in the app store! Although it is a stripped down version, without key weapons such as rockets, grenades, and airstrikes, it does contain the basics. To set off charges, you double tap on the charges you set off. Bailout Wars: Defending the white house, in Bailout Wars, you flick, tap, shake, and toss bankers around to prevent them from taking the bailout money. Sort of like a Castle Defense game with a comical twist, Bailout Wars succeeds in its depth of achievements, and slight variety of stationed snipers, uncle sam's, and tanks. However, restoring lost bailout money is impossible, making the game perhaps a bit too challenging.
Bloons TD: An online flashgame, it is a towers defense game with a twist. To make it kid appropriate, you shoot balloons with monkeys. However, there are different types of monkeys, including boomerang monkeys and others with 4 upgrades each. The more "bloons" you pop, the more money you receive. In emergency situations, the user interface can be slow and hard to touch precisely.
Music
One Republic's Waking Up: A great album in my opinion, provides a more rocky track instead of the occasionally slow-moving Dreaming Out Loud album. Favorites include All the Right Moves, Good Life, and Marchin On. Songs strike a darker tone, but with uplifting titles and lyrics.
Owl City's Ocean Eyes: Adam Young (Insomnia boy) creates a dreamy, masterful album. A few songs are remade, like Saltwater Room and Hello Seattle, but I think they are even better than before. For teenage boy's self conscious about listening to poppy, dreamy music, they should at least give the soundtrack a try, as some of the songs are goofy, while others are deep, providing a wonderful, uplifting album.
Boys like Girls ft. Taylor Swift-Two is Better than One: At first I thought this meant two boyfriends is better than one boyfriend. Now I get it. I think.
Books
The Weather of the Pacific Northwest: Written by University of Washington professor Cliff Mass, this book answers plenty of questions on the weather of one of the hardest places to forecast on earth.
