March 2004 Archives

I was driving through downtown Redmond a couple of weeks ago and a store called Coyote Games caught my eye. ‘What sort of games?’ I instantly wondered, ‘board games? video games?’ They were closed at the time, so I put an investigatory visit on my mental to do list. Yesterday I finally got around to it, and I was happy to discover that their store sold, among other things, European board games! There are plenty of online stores that I could buy games at, but online you don’t get the satisfaction of instantly receiving the game. Heck, one time I even stopped by the actual Funagain store when we were passing through Ashland!

Anyway, I ended up buying Carcassonne: The Castle. I thought the original Carcassonne game was alright enough (enough to buy the 2 expansions), and this one was designed by the master, Reiner Knizia, himself. It's also designed for only two people, which sounded about right, since most of the gaming I do these days is with just Kara. We played it a couple of times last night (we each won once) and though it’s early, it might end up being my favorite incarnation of Carc (I don’t own Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers, but I’ve played a couple of times at Brettspielwelt ). We’re planning on playing it some more tonight, so I might post additional thoughts about it in the comments…

I love the new reality show The Apprentice!! I haven’t actually WATCHED the show (in general I despise reality shows) but I love it just the same. Why? Because it’s bumped Scrubs to a different night leaving Thursday 9pm wide open for Tivo to record CSI!! I don’t know where I’ve been the last few years, but I only discovered this fantastic show this season. If/when Scrubs is moved back to its regular slot, I’m going to be seriously torn on which show to continue recording. Maybe I’ll have to dust off the ol’ VCR upstairs and task it on the unchosen one (I wonder if I even have any blank tapes laying around the house?).

Alright, I’ve played The Castle three more times since my last post and it’s official, I like this Carc the best. Since there is no end game scoring for incomplete sections, the game takes on that classic ‘so much to do, so little time’ Knizia feeling. The placement restrictions have also been relaxed which opens up more options for each turn (and often puts you in the predicament of deciding between being greedy and growing your sections or playing it safe and closing them off). Finally, bonus tiles that are awarded for hitting specific point values add another nice layer to the things you must consider on each turn. We’ve played it five times in the last three days (Kara 3, me 2) and I’m sure we’ll be playing it more in the next three days.

Kara’s been taking our puppy, Cooper, to obedience classes for the last 4 weeks and I attended for the first time this last Sunday. Cooper is the WORST dog in the class!! When the teacher is talking to us, the dogs are supposed to lie down and stay… All the other dogs do a pretty good job, but Coop just wiggles around like a maniac. And before class they have ‘play time’ where all the dogs get to wrestle with each other, but little Cooper just cowers in the corner (to be fair, the other puppies are way bigger than him)...

Now I know what parent-teacher conferences feel like when you have a ‘slow’ kid.

My friend Peter has, in three separate blog entries, mentioned that he believes Stargate: SG1 is “the best SciFi show on TV” (see here, here and here). I think it’s safe to say that he’s a TV junkie, so I guess I should have taken his recommendations seriously. However, I chose to ignore because I thought the original movie was just SO lame (not to mention that movie to TV transitions are usually super crap).

And then one day (Peter’s birthday to be exact) we were all in Nate’s car, and Nate had just taken a wrong turn. Peter, seeing that he had a captive audience, seized the moment and launched into his SG1 sermon. He covered key players, story arcs, favorite episodes, and more, and I couldn’t help but be intrigued! I left that night with the plan to at least Tivo one episode to see if it was really that good. Weeks passed, and I never got around to setting Tivo (the delay probably started out as laziness and in that time my mind had once again closed against SG1). Then, late one night I was flipping through channels and came across an ep of Stargate that was just starting. I finally had no excuse not to watch it…

I’m sure y’all know what comes next. SG1 now claims one of the top most spots in my Season Pass list and I watch ‘em as quick as they come in. What can I say in my defense? The movie really was a turd…

I’m constantly reading up on videogame news and I usually come across an important item every other day or so that I then forward on to those I know will be interested. To save me from having to deal with direct contact with my friends, I’ve created a new section on my sidebar called ‘News.’ This section will display only the 5 most recent items, though once they are gone from News you can still find them listed on the archive pages.

These news links also have comment pages associated with them, so go ahead and rant as you see fit. Since I’m not writing bodies for these news item links, any commentary I have regarding them will be posted in the comments as well.

I expect to be changing the look of the sidebar in the next few days, but expect the News section to stick around and look pretty much the same.

Ok, how the hell didn’t I know that The Sopranos season premiere was tonight?!? One of my favorite TV shows of all times comes back from a 15 month hiatus and I have no clue? I’d still be clueless too had Tim Russert not mentioned it this morning in an interview with Rudy Giuliani on Meet the Press! As soon as he said “And ‘The Sopranos’ come back tonight” I went into panic mode. The only time I subscribe to HBO is while new episodes of The Sopranos are airing (yes, it’s that good), so I needed to get all subscribed up! I paused Tim mid-sentence and jumped up to call Comcast… only to discover that they’re closed on Sundays! So, no Sopranos for me tonight :( No need to completely freak out though, since HBO runs the new episode practically every night of the week. And this year I get a special bonus… I get to watch it in high def!!!

Thank you Tim, for providing the best hour of news and politics each week… oh and the occasional showbiz news item is much appreciated!!!

Sunday was Kara's and my sixth wedding anniversary and the first in the last three years that we were able to celebrate! Two years ago on our anniversary, we had to be at TJ & Michelle’s wedding rehearsal, and last year we were at Kimsa’s funeral. This year we were able to stay in Seattle and do something special. We went on the Spirit of Washington Dinner Train and it was a very nice time. The train left Renton at 5:30pm and dinner was served shortly after (I had prime rib, Kara had Salmon). We arrived at our destination, the Columbia Winery, an hour and a half later and took a short tour. After the tour we had extra time for wine tasting and browsing the rather large gift shop before getting back on the train. The trip back was a little quicker (1 hour) but it gave us plenty of time to eat our delicious "Chocolate Paradiso served on a Bed of Raspberry Puree and Crème Anglaise." The whole experience was very fun, and I’m looking forward to doing again sometime as a lunch excursion with friends!

I was going through some archived folders on my computer tonight and I came across a paper that I wrote when I first went back to college. It’s an accounting of my experiences when I camped out for Star Wars tickets (hey, I warned you with the title of this entry). I resisted the temptation to touch the doc up even though parts of it made me cringe... here it is in all its geeky glory.

Phil & I were chatting earlier today in MSN Messenger and we covered some pretty good topics... gamerankings.com, Ninja Gaiden, The Sopranos, licensed games, and more. I've posted it so y'all can benefit from our infinite wisdom... enjoy.

Kara and I watched Lost in Translation a couple of nights ago… I thought the movie was good and all, but I didn’t think it was anything to freak out about (unlike the rest of the world). I do see how others might have liked it more than me though. The movie is basically about two people who feel lost or stuck in their lives, they meet up and help each other out of their shared funk. I’m sure the movie had special meaning for people who have felt like this sometime in their lives. It just didn’t resonate with me however (I’m guessing) because I’ve yet to feel this way about my life… I’ll make sure to watch this movie 20 or so years down the road. I have a feeling my midlife crisis will give me a whole new appreciation for the film.

Last night when I got home I watched IGN’s video review of Unreal Tournament 2004. Then I read their 5 page review on it. Then I played the demo for a couple of hours (Deathmatch, Onslaught, Assault). After which I knew that I was going to buy the full game. I went to gamestop.com to see how much it was going to cost, and was pleasantly surprised by what I found. Gamestop is selling the special edition for only 40 bucks! AND, if you preorder it, they give you a Logitech microphone headset for FREE!!! I’m not one to preorder games (especially online, since you usually get them later than if you just went to the store) but there’s no way I was going to pass up a deal like this. I chose the value shipping for $1.99 which means 5-10 days for arrival after processing (and the game doesn’t come out until Monday). I won’t be the first to have it, but the anticipation will only make the game sweeter, and I can still play the demo until then!

Kara & I watched 4 (!) movies over the weekend, here are brief thoughts on each of them.

Spartan: A better than average action/thriller staring Val Kilmer (I haven’t seen him since 2000’s Red Planet) but he’s not the reason to see this film. David Mamet’s superb writing and direction elevate it from others in its genre.

Under the Tuscan Sun: This is chick flick, but thankfully a good one (yes, they do exist). A modern day fantasy that just makes you feel happy, perfect escapism.

Antwone Fisher: This was the best of the four films (in my opinion). Easy to say, since this was the drama heavy film and has some serious heart wrenching moments. I recommend all four of these films, but I consider this a must see.

A Mighty Wind: I was pleasantly surprised by this one… I desperately wanted to like Waiting for Guffman and Best in Show, but neither made me laugh much. I knew that these people were funny and talented but somehow it just didn’t work for me. This time, however, they nailed it. Fred Willard's and Eugene Levy’s outrageously hilarious characters are reason enough to watch this movie (and will be the reason I’ll re-watch it someday).

What can I say? Nothing's going on with me, hence the silence... If you think reading an entry about nothing is boring... try living it!

I was going through our digital pictures last night... Here are a few that I liked.

Less Than Me's biggest fan, Billy, has been distraught with the lack of content posted at this site lately. He emailed me a song that he made about bloggin' Here it is...