Lifting the game-buying moratorium

Six months ago, I made a deal with myself to not purchase any board game for a while.

I did this because of space reasons (still living in 340 square feet at the time); time reasons (needed to work on house); and uncluttering reasons (I have a lot of games that I've never played). My first self-made deal was "no new games until we unpack." This didn't last minutes as I realized that we will keep unpacking in the house for months, at least. Next deal included the ability to buy games at BGG.Con last November- I have no realistic way to avoid buying games at a con. I further revised the deal that I could still trade games or go treasure-hunting in thrift stores. Now that I finally unpacked the game room, I let myself buy new things. I've had a gift certificate from my Secret Santa that's been burning a hole in my pocketses for five (!) months.

So what did I buy and why?

My man Judson has sung the praises of a rondel game for some time, advocating that I get one. Antike (BGG, BUY ME!) reminds me a bit of Vinci, rather popular with my game group and personal  favorite. Antike is the same way- it's hit the table twice in a week, with requests for it again tonight. A solid buy.

I had to get El Grande (Decennial edition) (BGG, BUY ME! ) because none of my local friends own it and I haven't played it since Austin. Amun-Re got the table recently, so I've had this classic area control on my next-buy short list. Also, it was on sale.

Hamburgum (BGG, BUY ME! ) is another rondel game. I figured if the theme of Antike failed, this one would fly. Haven't played it yet.

Indonesia (BGG, BUY ME! ) is one of those games I see people pining for in Math Trades. A bit of research shows this one to be a nice meaty economic game which ought to play well with my crew. (Also on sale.)

Kontor (BGG, BUY ME! ) is a two-player tile-laying game that's been in the back of my mind for a while. I liek two-player games, and I'm still seeking a good tile game. Played this twice so far- it is interesting and comes with a ton of variants.

I remember enjoying My Dwarves Fly (BGG, BUY ME! ). Curiously, I last played this with the same guy who taught El Grande back in Austin. It was a silly little backstabby game, and cheap. We shall see if I still like it.

I played one game with Simon Hunt at last year's BGG Con: Owner's Choice (BGG, BUY ME! ), a light, quick, manage-your-luck stock control game. I liked it enough to throw it in to get me free shipping.

I don't own Power Grid. But I continually buy expansions for the guy that does. This time, it's the Power Grid: China/North & South Korea (BGG, BUY ME! ) with the crazy markets. Looking forward to seeing the rules.

I have three separate people tell me that Shadow Hunters (BGG, BUY ME! ) is like Coachride to Devil's Castle only moreso. Three recommendations is enough for me to pick this up.

Here's a no-brainer: Small World (BGG, BUY ME! ). I like Vinci, this is the new hotness.

I saw the designer playtesting Supernova (BGG, BUY ME! ) a few cons ago, but never got a chance to play it. I played Owner's Choice with him (qv) and talked a bit about the game. Also, I'm a sucker for slick scifi design thanks to Mike Doyle.

I've had my eye on Suitors (BGG, BUY ME FROM IPR! ) for a while; it's a trick-taking game with a twist. I've got to pick it up to at least try it out with the crew.

I hear Techno Witches (BGG, BUY ME! ) described as a lighter, faster Robo Rally. I had reservations on buying this without playing it first. I don't want it to be a kid's game, but it was finally on sale enough to overcome doubts.

Other things I bought: Pink Icehouse pieces for my Zendo set when I unpack it, and three different sizes of four-way rubber bands.

That's a baker's dozen of new-ish games. Do I need to implement a one-in-one-out rule? There's a Math Trade going on right now...

'Tis the season to be shopping

Tomorrow is Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the American retail year.

I don't want to go shopping tomorrow, if at all possible. I know that several groups out there on the tubes advocate less consumerism: Buy Nothing Day comes to mind.

Right now, I support not buying useless crap. I can't promise that I will not spend a dime tomorrow, but I do not plan on camping out at Best Buy the previous day (no lie, this is happening), but I may still need to go to the grocery or hardware store to get things done.

But: 'Tis also the season to get presents! How do I reconcile these two opposite desires? With compromise, of course. For my circle of friends, I want to do a Secret Santa/Kris Kringle/buy one present event. This gets people giving, which is allegedly the point of the season; prevents un- or intentional snubbery by not including someone in gifting; and is an excuse for a party.

Vision

Sadly, it appears that I did lose my glasses during my vacation. Instead of paying $400 that I can't afford for a new pair in a brick-and-mortar store, I'm going to buy a pair online. My brother told me about the GlassyEyes blog some time ago, and now I need to make use of this information, stat.

I have bad vision. Not just "Oh, I can't read that small print" bad or "I can't drive at night" bad, but "Poor Mischa, pity about him being eaten by a saber-tooth tiger" bad. Seriously, I can not see the E on the large eye chart- and I mean I can't see it.

Quick-and-dirty Photoshop rendering, me on the right:


I do not believe I exaggerate.

Caving in to Twitter

Feh.

http://twitter.com/mischakrilov

On the other hand, I'll have a lower barrier to entry than the old way. I never finished expanding this from last year, so here's what I've got.

Games played at BGG.Con 2007:

• 1001 Karawane
• Army of Frogs
• Axiom
• Ca$h 'n Gun$ : Live
• Chateau Roquefort
• Cheeky Monkey
• Circle, The
• Crokinole
• Die Kutschfahrt zur Teufelsburg
• Fairy Tale
• Felix: The Cat in the Sack
• Fire
• Garden Competition
• Geistertreppe
• Gheos
• Glik
• Jungle Speed
• Kakerlakensalat
• Kapitän Wackelpudding
• Laborigines
• Los Mampfos
• Lumberjack
• Master Thieves
• Metromania
• Passe-trappe
• Piratenbillard
• Piratenhändler
• Quelf
• RattleSnake
• Rukshuk
• Ruse & Bruise
• Santorini
• Saturn
• Säulen von Venedig, Die
• Shocking Roulette
• Spinball
• Time's Up!
• Tumblin-Dice
• Uptown
• Vitrail
• Viva Pamplona
• Was Sticht?
• WeyKick
• Wicked Witches Way

Games acquired at BGG.Con 2007:

• Adam & Eva *
• All-Zeit *
• Atlas & Zeus *
• Buy Word *
• Chains of Fenrir *
• Conquest *
• Corsari *
• Covert Action
• Employee of the Month *
• Feurio *
• Filthy Rich *
• Flickwerk *
• Fraud Squad *
• Halli Galli
• House of Whack *
• Konig Laurin *
• Kreta *
• La Strada
• Laboriginies *
• Martinis & Men
• Neuroshima Hex
• Paris Paris *
• Pick & Pack
• Santiago
• Scream Machine *
• Siena *
• Taktika

* means unplayed


Done is better than perfect, but it's a royal pain to fix and create links for these.

Killer Amazon Feature

Let's say you're not a mouth-breathing unevolved prole and you like to read books for pleasure. Let's also say you're savvy enough to use this series of tubes to exchange money for books across long distances and eventually have a man in a brown uniform give you a professionally-packaged cardboard box full of your purchases.

If you do any amount of reading at all, you like used books; If you do any amount of online shopping at all, you like to save on shipping.

I want to go to an online retailer and say, "Sell me this, this, and this and this. I expect to pay around the average price for X quality book; you, computer, figure out which respected online vendor has all or most of what I want to buy!"

There's no need to use human brain power to sort through the used-book vendors on Amazon and see which of dozens of poorly-remembered vendor names have the titles you want. Yes, I know this is non-trivial. But damn, people- it's not that hard to search for multiple items across multiple sellers.

I want this.

Laptop bag

I need a laptop bag for my MacBook.

I'm looking at a nice Brenthaven bag, partially because I like the protection their cases offer. Tom Bihn's Empire Builder gets rave reviews, but goes over my $200 budget; I don't like having to buy a sleeve and strap as an additional feature. He's got a few other bags that are on my radar, though. Timbuk2 has another few options.

I'm also strongly tempted to go to the new model of Booq- I liked my old one a lot, but it was a touch too small.

Maybe I'll throw a dart. What are you using?

Wishlists

Curses, I missed a day! But I shall persevere and continue trying to keep my output up.

I have a high-class problem. How do I let people know that I want this as a present without accidentally getting more than one? Perhaps I should wait until I have a better address.

Speaking of presents, BGG is doing a Secret Santa. This is awesome with the downside that I might have to ship internationally. Oh well. I suspect that I'll just order from a foreign FLGS and have them ship locally.

Other things I need to do before it gets too close to the holiday/birthday/gift-giving season: Update my wishlists at Amazon, FunAgain, and ThinkGeek.


NaNoWriMo word count: 2877 (way behind)