Zamboni's birthday? National Religious Freedom Day? Teacher's Day in Thailand? Death of Ennis Cosby? Take your pick, a lot happened on this day in history.
At any rate, it's snowing here. Yes, snow. Yes, Texas. Yes, snow in my presence so I can no longer deny the phenomenon as a conspiracy of meteorologists!
Meh. I'm sick and feverish. Watch these videos.
Here's an octopus escaping through a one-inch hole, courtesy Hilary.
More mollusk goodness: An octopus eating a shark.
A live-action stop-motion battle: Tony versus Paul.
My favorite, an Honda Accord commerical: Cog. (More at Wikipedia.)
If you've ever played a console "RPG," watch the forty-minute College Saga (parts 2 3 4), a Final Fantasy parody.
Scott and Jen hosted yesternight's RPG session, and they surprised me with a chocolate birthday cake!
"Hieronymous" ran a one-shot of Hystoire de Fou, an RPG by French author Denis Gerfaud- the same fellow who created Rêve. The premise is something out of Terry Gilliam's idle nightmares, where characters are suddenly in an alternate world of surreal madness.
At one point, we all rolled on a chart to see what sort of strange clothing we were wearing in the mad world. Someone quipped: "An RPG with a fashion accessory table? That's how you know it's French." One of us had on ice skates, another had yellow high-heeled shoes that fit perfectly, and I had some weird kind of sock with traction rubber on the sole. (Yes, evidently there's a word for such a thing in French.)
The session itself was a little off-kilter, since it had been a while since we'd last roleplayed. The game has a few interesting things going for it: Character creation is done on-the-fly, so it feels sort of like the Matrix when Trinity needs to pilot a helicopter. "Of course I can climb! Even though I'm a distinguished surgeon, I have a rock-climbing hobby." "Naturally, I can fight! Even though I'm a dirty hippy slacker, I once took Tai Chi." It was fun to make up in-character justifications for why you suddenly have the skill to do things that you might not normally.
Another interesting aspect of the game is that you can disbelieve nearly anything, and if you roll successfully while your insanity word (mine was "ISOLINEAR"), you can reveal a new shape to whatever it is. So instead of being beaten with baseball bats, we could've been beaten with cotton candy instead. The whole session felt a bit like a fever dream.
At any rate, I had delicious cake in reality.
I usually show up to the Monday night group a little late, but this is starting to change as I start being the guy who brings games.
When I got to Dragon's Lair, five people were playing the old printing of Cloud 9 (BGG, BUY ME!) as a filler while waiting for others to show. Cloud 9 is a cute press-your-luck game with a bit of strategy to it. Do you trust your neighbor to be able to carry the hot-air balloon to the next level? Since it's basic colors, this would be a good one to bring to children, but there's still enough there to keep a more serious player interested. At about a half-hour, I think it's a little too long to be a great filler, but it and Diamant/Incan Gold (BGG, BUY ME!)scratch the same itch for me.
Tall Guy Jeff also showed at the same time I did, bringing a few games. He had just picked up a vintage copy of Booby-Trap (BGG, PUBLIC DOMAIN) at Goodwill, and we played a quick two-player dexterity battle against physics. I'm sure you've seen this game before- there are colored discs of various sizes that must be removed without causing the spring-bar of doom to move too much. There's a bit of interesting choice, since players have the option to pass. I would've liked to play with more than just two, but it was a quick and fun game with a fair amount of tension- both literal and actual. Ultimately, I'm cranky I didn't see it at the Goodwill for a buck. Oh well.
Since the other players were still playing their game, I pulled out Chase (BGG, OOP MAKE YOUR OWN), a two-player abstract strategy that uses dice in non-random ways. Jeff beat me in a very close game, as I recall. I think I made a few stupid moves, since I'm still learning the strategy. I've always enjoyed two-player abstract strategy games, and this one is no different. Play takes place on a hex board with nine six-sided dice per player. Each die can move exactly the number on its upper face. The super clever thing about this game is that as you lose pieces, you must keep the total showing on all of your dice constant. It's a trade-off that's sort of a death spiral, except for rules about exchanging pips and splitting dice. I picked this up as a trade, and I'm very glad I did. You can play online for free, if you like. Feel free to challenge me to a game, since I really enjoy this one. If you even remotely think this sounds interesting, you really should give it a play, or you're really doing yourself a disservice.
By this time, everyone else had finished Cloud 9 and folks were ready to start new games. Since we had eight people total, the group split into four and four. I would up teaching Coloretto (BGG, BUY ME!), another lighter game that fit the players and their mood. Coloretto is fundamentally a game of collecting colored sets, which might normally prove a problem with the colorblind. However, each color has a very distinct background pattern that solves this problem fairly neatly. The clever thing about this is one is that if you collect too many sets, some start to be worth negative points. I bought it after a single play. Lowell, Laura, Edie, and Astro (sp?) got into it pretty quickly, and I do believe that Lowell won, which doesn't surprise me in the least- I think he's a card shark underneath the pleasant exterior.
While I was teaching the one game, Tall Guy Jeff, White JP, and "No-Nickname" Ben were working on misunderstanding the rules to Carrousel (BGG, BUY FROM FRANCE). It didn't help that they didn't see the English translation at first, either. By the time I had the one group settled with the other game, I had to practically pry the French rules away from them to play and teach. Carrousel is a simultaneous puzzle game, sort of like Ricochet Robots (BGG, BUY ME), where players are competing to arrange the first three out of five colored horses according to cards; the trick is you only have a limited number of legal moves, and you may only make one move in order to score. There are no turns, and everyone is competing with the same configuration in order to score their separate chards. Unsurprisingly, there's a decent amount of chaos to this one and I like it lot.
I first played this a few times at BGGcon, thanks to a fellow named Carlos, and almost instantly wanted my own copy. Many thanks go out to Francois, who brought me back a copy from France. Carrousel almost instantly hit the table a second time (small wonder, since it plays in no more than fifteen minutes, even if you're slow), quickly hacked to allow for five players with the addition of Sarah.
After those two games, Lowell and Laura had to leave, putting us at seven players total. Since I had brought Cash n' Guns (BGG, BUY ME!), I wanted to see it hit the table, so I offered to teach it while sitting out so all six people could play. As expected, people enjoyed pointing guns and backstabbing each other for cash. As expected, people also pointed their guns at the moderator (me) and at themselves. Ben and JP both died, and Edie walked away with the bank, having more than $30K more than the person in second place.
Next, JP really wanted to give Sucking Vacuum (BGG, BUY ME!) a go. We split with Sarah and Astro playing Carrousel, and JP, Ben, Jeff, and myself playing Sucking Vacuum. I last played this about eight months ago, and it hasn't seen the table since. I recall enjoying it as a light beer-and-pretzels backstabby game, but I think my tastes have changed. Setup time was too long, the rules were confusing, and play just wasn't engaging. I want to like this game, but it just didn't fly. I can't help but think that a few tweaks and clarity in the rules would really make this one a lot better. I'd mock up cards to replace the chits, but the thin cardboard box doesn't have the room. I have this up for trade now, and I might give it one more play to see if it's more fun, but I really don't think this will get to the table anytime soon.
My last game for the night was Vegas Showdown (BGG, BUY ME!) with four. It was Jeff's first play and he nearly won if not for Sarah and the killer Theatre of mucho fame; he and I tied for second. I made some blunders at the start, bidding on Fancy Slots I couldn't build, and the lack of income hurt me at first; I staggered along and only scored as high as I did because the game ended quickly. I really need to get this to the table more frequently. Yall know how much I like bidding games, even if I don't grok them in fullness. This was another game that I nearly bought after one play- someone already owned a copy, though. I lucked out and bought it on sale. Good fun, bad marketing.
Rounding out the evening, Ben and Astro played a few rounds of Boggle (BGG, BUY ME!). I've played it before. Oddly, not very well- I really need to work on my word pattern-matching skills. Cat kicks my butt at anagrams.
I almost added a disclaimer at the top of this report about football, given the title, but I decided the gag would work better as an outro.
I don't want to jinx anything, but I seriously hope that everyone has been paid off to make sure the Saints get to the Superbowl. They've never made it this far before, and it's something that we all need, not just the fans and the city. More than any other time, the Saints deserve to win.
Yahoo! has a good human interest piece about the game. The angle covers people missing a wedding for the game, giving away $600 tickets.
Plenty more coverage and photos over at the Picayune, of course.
Geaux Saints!
We once again return you to your irregularly scheduled non-football blog.
According to Boardgame News, Sid Sackson's Can't Stop (BGG, BUY ME!) will be back in print from Ravensburger and Face 2 Face games in a month or so, and should be hitting retail soon after that. How can they possibly improve on the old classic? Not with a mountain-climbing re-theme, but with tiny traffic cones as pieces. How super awesome is that? Of course, now I need to decide if I have to own two copies.
Every time I bring this out, folks ask me where they can get a copy. Sadly, it's been out of print for a while, and I have to refer them to eBay or to simply make their own personal copy if they need their Can't Stop fix. I'm very happy to know that people will soon have the opportunity to play this aqain.
Thanks to Dan for passing this along.
So far, I got: gift cards, cool geeky toys, and Cat got me a cool German mechanical metronome! Woohoo! I busted out a didj last night a played for a little bit and it really helped me keep my rhythm. I can't wait to practice in earnest.
Oddly enough, I received two pirate-themed birthday cards in a seemingly uncoordinated fashion. Maybe they're trying to tell me something?
Later tonight is dinner with my bro and our respective ladies at Katz's (a 24-hour deli), with possibly a game or two to round out the evening. I also believe the Renegades are having a roleplaying game this week for me.
Can you guess how old I am? Hint: it's a power of two, which is geekily awesome in and of itself.
It makes me happy to see surreality, particularly in earnest. Why is this man sitting on a dead horse in a top hat?
More info over at CNN and the Sheboygan Press.
Here's the nickel tour:
In a nutshell, Meh. Superman is too much the perfect Boy Scout with no real flaws; his moral dilemmas aren't even really dilemmas to him. Plus, Supes is a freaking alien. I didn't really like him as a kid reading comics, or even as a young man reading comics. Four days from my 32nd bday, I wasn't impressed with the big-budget movie. Almost from the first ten minutes, I was in the curious-but-bored phase, and I didn't get out of the zone for the whole two hours. About the only good thing I can say about the movie is that the guy they cast as Superman looks the part, Lex Luthor once again has a real-estate scheme, and the production has made an effort to tie in to the previous movies.
I give it a "Not worth the time, even if you're a fan."
PS- How stupid of a criminal do you have to be to shoot Superman with a gun? Also, how stupid do you have to be to try your pistol after the big-caliber Gatling bullets just bounce off?
This year, I resolve to:
De-clutter. I'm going to craigslist or eBay one thing a week, minimum. This includes trading/selling any media I have: books, games, CDs, etc. This also means actually throwing crap away and unpacking/sorting boxes of stuff I've been hauling around, getting rid of clothing that doesn't fit me, and trying to simplify. I'm a packrat by nature, so this is a big one.
Publish. By the end of the year, I will have at least one game available for purchase by strangers. If this means revamping 1984 Prime and going through Lulu, or finding a printer and putting out a card game, or photocopying the back of a napkin and handing it out with pencils on the street corner, I'm going to get at least one game out there.
Blog. I will blog more regularly, focusing on at least one movie review a week and more timely game session reports.
A few other bloggers I read have posted their resolutions.
I'm using these tips to come up with a few resolutions I'll actually keep instead of dozens of "to-do" style items that I'll let slip. Like most of us, I have a good number of other hopes/dreams/desires/self-improvement things on my (to borrow a term from GTD) Someday/Maybe list. Some of these things I'm already making significant progress on- particularly in the realm of personal health (yay, insurance and Diet Dr Pepper), but I'm going to try and focus on achieving a few resolutions this year. As my mom says, "Done is better than perfect."
Steve Pavlina and Alexander Kharlamov also have New Year's articles worth reading.
Support the Non-Waterlogged Blog. Buy stuff from Amazon.
Are you still using Microsoft's Internet Explorer? Why, for all that's good in the world, why? Get with the program and get Firefox.
DriveSavers have saved my bacon (and data) at least twice. If you need data recovery, I highly recommend them.
You can always buy me stuff from my ThinkGeek wishlist or my Funagain wishlist.
Like games? Shop at Funagain. I get a kickback in store credit, you get a deal.
