Tubes, Tracks, Trades and Sudoku

For the infovore, a lack of net access does not a happy camper make.

That said, I've got the wireless bridge back up with a smokin' hot bleeding-edge new third-party firmware for my Linksys WRT router (v24 RC-4, for the curious) and once again have the wireless up, this time with the device acting as a repeater for a signal across the street. If you like teh hax and you've got a compatible chipset, check out the DD-WRT firmware and really open up the possibilities with your existing hardware. Do more with less, I say. Even so, I won't stop you if you have a few thousand lying around and buy me something nifty from Fluke. (NB: PLEASE BUY ME SOMETHING ELSE INSTEAD)

Coming back from the store (now local Rouse's and no longer national Sav-A-Center), I saw two streetcars on the St. Charles line. The Picayune says that the RTA plans to have half the line open by November first, and the entire line open by Q1 2008. For those of you following at home, that's two and a half years before an icon of the city is back to its pre-LAMRON state. As a city, as a nation, we will all feel the aftereffects of Katrina for generations. Back in the day, I had a job and an apartment where I could streetcar downtown every day if I wanted. I enjoyed that kind of commute.

USPS by way of BGG tradings brought me three new-to-me games: Ta Yu (BGG, BUY ME!), Oltre Mare (BGG, BUY ME!), and Senator (BGG, BUY ME!). Ta Yu is an aesthetically savory abstract game of laying tiles and connecting rivers, diverting their flow to where you choose. Senator is a political bidding game I recall a a light bit of enjoyment after one play. I've not played Oltre Mare, but it looks to be a interesting Venetian trading game. Hopefully, I'll get these to the table soon. Current reco for these games: Buy Ta Yu, Play Senator first.

Cat does her crosswords, and I've started to get my shirt handed to me by the daily Sudoku puzzle. I'm still developing solving skills for this kind of puzzle- but I do so enjoy seeing people solve puzzles as a kind of insight into their thought patterns. I'm barely an armchair neurologist, it's not even funny. Maybe an ottoman neurologist.