June 2005 Archives

While looking for my second copy of UT2k4 that Scott is going to buy, I found a journal I was required to keep for one of my college classes at UW. I’ve typed it up and will be posting entries periodically. This was never written for a general audience, but it has ‘precursor to Less Than Me’ written all over it!

I watched a movie today called American Psycho. It was very strange, about a yuppie in the mid 1980’s who killed people for no reason. It was disturbing, but not as much as it should have been, his killings were somewhat artistic or poetic. There is a scene toward the end of the movie where he goes on a rampage and just starts shooting innocent bystanders (everyone he sees). I found this scene exhilarating and enjoyable, it was strange, the killings felt like killings in a video game. Nameless, near faceless bodies used as fodder for the “psycho’s” rampage. Afterward I discussed this movie and another, Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers, with my friend Phil. He, like me, found Psycho to be interesting and surprisingly not very disturbing. On the other hand we both felt NBK was a disgusting movie that as I said “was icky just to be icky.” I felt that the movie was just too self aware, and the killings were done in such a way as to make the audience feel disgusted. Overall I would recommend American Psycho especially because of the ambiguous ending which leaves you thinking about what you’ve just seen. 3&1/2 stars. I kinda wish Phil was dead... note: it appears as though the last sentence was added later.

Today I worked on making a lab for INFO 341, a class that I am TAing for. It was a very interesting experience, my first on the teacher end of an assignment. We worked through the lab to see how it flowed and to see if anything had been overlooked. It was pretty fun, and somewhat creative. Also today I watched TRON. This movie was ok, but very dated. It’s about computers in the future, but with computers of the past (command line interfaces & room sized computers). My favorite thing was the main computer (who talked) when finished speaking would say “END OF LINE”, so awesome, I want to start using this gay line! Also, I noticed while the spaceship was flying over some computer landscape, Mickey Mouse’s head in silhouette was visible. Main reason I watched this movie was for Jeff Bridges, he did show some dude-like facial expressions, but he looked VERY young. TRON an OK movie, not highly recommend, kinda boring. Two stars. Tomorrow I TA, kinda scary, but should be easy (hopefully).

Today I TA for the first time, we’ll see how that goes. Phil is a tard, he tried to be all funny today when we came to class today. He got behind me before I saw him, and he said “I know this jerk named Jake...” haha? Whatever.

So after, I did the TA thing which was very interesting, I had to help people make Ethernet cables. Funny, ‘cause I kept seeing the same problems over and over. It was pretty cool, I really felt like a teacher that people came to for advice. Pretty cool, then later when I got home, Kara & I played a few games: Industrial Waste (my newest game, I like playing it to develop new strategies)... It was funny though, because I could have won quicker, but I didn’t want the game to end!! Anyway, I ended up ending the game (and winning) but I didn’t feel game satisfied, so we played Caesar & Cleopatra. I REALLY like this game, but I don’t think Kara likes it much. I always win, so it’s not very fun for her. Anyway, I won! Then we worked on our puzzle again. It started getting late, but we couldn’t stop doing it. Puzzles bring out the OCD in us!! Finally I left (we’re almost done!) and we went to bed.

Dave came over to play some games tonight. We played Mississippi Queen, Loco!, Lord of the Rings: Friends & Foes, Industrial Waste and Can’t Stop.

Who won? Me, Kara, Sauron, Kara, and me respectively; No wins for Dave... maybe next time, little fella!

Yesterday after work I walked to the bus stop on SW 5th & Washington to catch a ride home. I usually lean up against the building to read my book, but there was a guy smoking right there, so I moved closer to the street and leaned against the tree instead. I started reading my book when I saw something hit the sidewalk past the tree to my left. I thought it might have been bird poop, but I looked over and saw that it was just spit. But I also saw some liquid starting to run down the sidewalk... I leaned forward to see around the tree, and discovered that the source of the liquid was a guy pissing on the garbage can! Not more than five feet from me! I edged away, and kept the tree between us so I didn’t have to see more than I already had, but the piss was running down the sidewalk in the grout gullies between the bricks... and people were walking in it! Fortunately my bus arrived, and I got on. By now, the pisser had finished and had moved so that he was standing in it too! As my bus started pulling away, the guy started walking down the street in the opposite direction leaving piss soaked footsteps on the bricks...

Today I got up a little early and cleaned up a little before I went to school. I read some of my new Xbox magazine, but I don’t recall reading anything that thrilled me. Anyway, I went to school, and read Without Remorse on the bus. The book is quickly approaching the good part, I swear, Tom Clancy loves using up 200 pages just for setup!! When I got to school, I had 30 min. before class started, so I had some pizza (pepperoni with crushed red pepper, garlic powder, oregano, & mozzarella cheese). Now I’m trying to stay awake in CSE321, a boring class about proofs, not too fun. :( On Thursday we are going to play games, Kara & I, Phil, Lars & Brad (a new guy) will be the players (assuming no one backs out). I dunno what games we will play, but I’ve got my eyes on Industrial Waste if Kara ducks out early. I’d vote for Taj Mahal, Chinatown, Modern Art, Ohne Furcht und Adel, and/or Web of Power. Update on 4-12-02 Note: We played Chinatown, Modern Art, Elfenland, & Industrial Waste.

Lotsa two player games this weekend...
With Kara:
10 Days in the USA (Kara)
Battle Line (Kara)
Wyatt Earp (me)
Kahuna (me)
Jambo (Kara)

With Billy:
Rummikub (me)
Battle Line (me)
Scrabble (Billy)

With Dave:
3 games of Heroscape (me, Dave, me)

And finally a couple of 3 player games with Kara & Dave:
Mississippi Queen (Kara)
Can’t Stop (me)

I finished Elmore Leonard’s The Hot Kid this weekend. The book was a birthday gift from my parents, and they chose well! This one takes place in the 20’s & 30’s and follows a U.S. Marshal making a name for himself by taking down bank robbers and other various unsavories. The book is filled with the top-notch dialog that Leonard has become famous for. His characters always have that ‘too cool’ attitude going (ala Get Shorty) and this book is no exception. It was a fast, fun read and now I’m looking forward to reading his other new one!

Dave came over on Sunday afternoon to try out a new miniatures game I recently bought called HeroScape. This beast is actually made by Hasbro and it’s just about the prettiest thing you can get for forty bucks! The game comes with a big set of interlocking terrain pieces, a good number of miniatures with stat cards, and a scenario book. To play, you each draft armies of various characters and then battle it out; last man standing wins.

The terrain is three dimensional which means you have a lot to consider when moving and fighting with your characters. Climbing cliffs use up movement points, but having the high ground in a fight means better attack and defense. Battles are resolved by rolling an ass-load of dice (the size of the ass is determined by the stats of the fighting characters), if the attacker rolls more hits than the defender rolls shields, then the defender takes damage. There are other facets to consider when making your plans for attack, but overall the game system is fairly simple, and a lot of fun!

We probably spent around six hours playing three games of it, and I was AMAZED at how the time flew by! When I realized that it was past 10pm, I honestly couldn’t believe it! I’ve spent a lot of time since then just thinking about possible character combinations and strategies, but I have a feeling I won’t be able to play it as much as I want to. See, the game is directly confrontational; on my turn I attack you, on your turn you attack me. This game dynamic doesn’t bother me, but I think it’s harder to find players that are up for this kind of direct confrontation...

Yesterday I watched Bullets Over Broadway, a film written and directed by Woody Allen. This movie takes place in the ‘20’s or ‘30’s, it’s about a playwright trying to get his new play produced. His last two plays were flops, so the producers pass on it. Then, a gangster decided to fund it so that his girlfriend can be on Broadway, the problem? She sucks at acting, AND his play needs a little work. The movie goes through the rehearsal up through the opening show. This movie was very enjoyable, though I felt it had a forced faked happy ending. John Cusack gets back with his girlfriend, but she’s hardly in the movie, so there really is no emotional investment of the audience into their relationship. John’s realization that he’s not an artist, however, is a bitter-sweet decision that he must make from the events of the movie (Cheech’s help of reworking the play). Overall a very enjoyable movie. Three stars.

Last night I had some people over to play some German boardgames. One guy, was this guy that I “met” online named Brad. He was pretty cool, he reminded me a lot of “The Dude.” Anyway, the first game we played was Chinatown. This is a fairly new game in my collection and it is quite fun. The primary game mechanic is a wide open trading phase where everything you own is up for barter. The first 2 (of 6) rounds of yesterday’s game did not go well for me. No one had much that I wanted, and I didn’t really have much to offer. Around the 3rd round, the game opened up to me and I was able to wheel & deal. I got some watch maker tiles (3) and I laid them down together next to a few more buildings of mine, plenty of room to expand. Unfortunately, Kara drew some watches in the next round and she decided to go for them too. I eventually had to abandon my watch buildings and leave it as a 3 for the rest of the game. I did get one 6 sized building, Detective Agency, but not until the last round. After the 6 rounds we counted our money and it turned out that Phil & I tied for first place, Kara got 2nd, & Brad & Lars tied for 3rd place.

We then played one of Brad’s games, Elfenland. This game consists of a map of Elfenland with many towns and many routes to each place. We all get a hand of 8 cards and we draw & place “travel type” tiles on the board. The types of travel are: warthog, magic cloud, troll wagon, elven tricycle, dragon, raft, and unicorn. Once the tiles are placed on the board, we take turns paying the tolls for the travel from our hands of cards. I won this game, but it wasn’t my kind of game. It seemed very light, with a lot of luck and NO player interaction. Tiles can be played to “screw over” the other player, but these tiles are played without enough info to actually know if it will be effective. This was the kind of game where I wouldn’t refuse to play it, but I would express disinterest if it were ever brought up. A while back it was on sale at Wizards of the Coast, and I almost bought this game, without ever playing it. Thank goodness I didn’t!!!

After this game, Lars had to take off, so we were down to 4 players, so I suggested Industrial Waste. Brad had never played, so I explained the rules, and off we went to the “magical” world of industry. This game did not go well for me. It seemed like I NEVER got orders when I needed them (when the game ended, I had enough resource to fill 3 more orders, OUCH!) This game, somehow, is still fun to me even when I’m losing, which was fortunate last night. Not much to say about it, Phil won, Kara was close behind (I’m pretty sure she could have won if she would have used her advisor to pay off her loan instead of double innovating). I got 3rd and Brad bit it hard with 2 loans (he got hit a bunch with accidents).

We were zipping through the games, and we still had time for one more game, so we pulled out Modern Art. This games Boggles My Mind!!! I have yet to find out a winning strategy, let alone an idea on how to discover it. I did miserably, Phil got 1st, Brad got 2nd (he could have won, if he hadn’t way over paid in a sealed auction of Phil’s painting, that moment threw the game to Phil in retrospect, though we didn’t know it at the time). I think I got 3rd & Kara got 4th (close behind me).

I had so much fun last night (and Phil did too because he won so much) that I asked him if he wanted to play again on Saturday afternoon. He said yes, so I asked Nolan (he said yes) and I emailed Lars & KD. Lars said no, he has too much work to do, and I haven’t heard back from KD yet. I’m thinking a game of La Citta is in order, maybe some more Chinatown, it’s been a while since we’ve played Through the Desert...

Lately we’ve been working our way through the Star Wars movies on Tuesday movie nights. However, half the regular crowd couldn’t come last night, so we watched my all time favorite movie instead, The Big Lebowski. It’s been some time since I’ve seen it, and it was fun to remember how great it is! And then all day today I’ve been quoting lines from the movie, I’m sure I’m driving Billy crazy.

After we watched the movie, we went bowling (how fitting, eh?) This is actually our fourth Tuesday night we’ve gone bowling. After 9pm, Milwaukie Bowl only charges $1.25 for shoes, $1.25 per game, and $1.25 per beer. I get shoes, two games, and two beers for only $6.25! What a deal! You’d think I’d start getting better with this much bowling, but no... I’m bowling about the same (135-155) and I’m not getting better. I’m thinking about taking lessons...

I’ve been slacking hardcore this quarter and now crunch time has come. I haven’t done any of the first 3 homeworks in my math class, but I have a midterm on Wednesday (2 days from now). I must admit, this might be the worst situation I’ve ever been in when it comes to cramming for a test. At least I’ve got something to keep my mind off my predicament thought, a Mariner’s game! It’s a pretty bad section of seating (I think) but we’re in the front row of the section, so that should be pretty cool.

• Stay in bed until 1:30pm -- check
• Eat cereal for lunch -- check
• Ride exercise bike for 5 minutes before getting distracted and walking away -- check
• Buy Safeway sandwiches for dinner -- check
• Rent Six Feet Under DVD and watch all three hour-long episodes -- check
• Remember to breathe -- check

Well my math test is over, and man I screwed the pooch on that whole deal. Instead of starting the studying process early, I went over to Phil’s and played Soul Caliber. Pretty nice fighting game, but at least for the straight up fighting engine I don’t see it as any better than DOA3, though maybe the characters are more balanced?

Anyway, Kara picked me up at 5, and we went to ToysRUs to see if they had a Crokinole board for $20 because they had one on their webpage... NOPE. We ate at Red Robin, and I just have to say that I hate that place. All their stupid quips on the menu stuff is just retarded, not funny at all. And I think their food is just BLAH!!! I think they only reason people go there is ‘cause they don’t want to think of a good place to go. I will avoid RR like the plague from now on, no way they’re getting my money!!

So once we got home, Kara took off to hang out with her boss, and I was left alone... did I start studying math? No!! I ended up staying up ‘til 7am studying off & on and I only slept for 2 hours. I think I did OK on the midterm, got at least 50% :)

Also, I noticed on the last page that I mentioned the M’s game... it was SO great! We won 16-5 the M’s got at least 5 home runs one of which was a Grand Slam!!!! Very cool! I want to go to many more games, they are SO fun!! We went with Jeremy & Christy, and I don’t think they had as much fun as we did... they wanted to leave early, but we didn’t want to. One thing, it was SO cold! But that only made it more fun! I definitely am planning on going again soon, and I want to get good seats sometime soon to see how different it is down lower. I can definitely make due with the seats we had last time, but I just want to see what the $32.00 seats are like!

The bus is getting close to my stop (that’s why this so messy, the bus is bouncy) so I’ll be signing off soon. Overall, I still don’t think I’ve learned my lesson about procrastinating which is bad! I really need to stop this!! OK later foo!

Yesterday I shipped off Clippers in a trade to get a copy of the Avalon Hill version of Cosmic Encounter, so temporarily my collection went down to 99 games. But then last night we went to Goodwill in Milwaukie to see if I could find some thrift store treasure... The store had a HUGE section of games, but they were all American crap... As I glanced over the last few games I thought “Oh well, did you really expect to find any <GASP!> It’s Scotland Yard!” I pulled it off the shelf and sat down to count the pieces... Turns out there were 7 missing tickets but I judged from the rules that non-uniform replacements would work just fine. (I’ve already replaced the pieces. I scanned some tickets and printed them onto sticker sheets. Then I attached them to rectangles that I cut from a LotR sprue that was still sitting in the garage.) A complete game that only cost $1.99 and some TLC!!

With that find fresh under my belt (and my game collection restored to the round 100 games) I decided to go to the next nearest Goodwill. They had an equally large selection, and again it wasn’t until I approached the end that I spotted something of interest. Rummikub! I almost bought this for $15 a few weeks ago, and here it was for $1.99... But this game has 106 secret tiles, so if even one was missing the game would be trash. I sat down on a chair and opened the box expecting to count pieces for a while, but the tile box was still sealed!! An unplayed copy of Rummikub for $1.99, seriously awesome!

So, two thrift store treasures in one night, I can’t think of a better way to break the 100 game barrier.

I finally figured out how to find what searches people are doing to find my site... Here are the best of the best:

• funny thai restaurant movie scene
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• Why are turds tapered
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• Scrabble winning strategies
• linksys wireless router not connecting with eyeball

• julia roberts holy cow
• Samantha Carter is hot
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• how to self suck

Like usual I am way behind in my classes. It effin’ SUCKS! One good thing though is I found out I only have 3 terms of school left after this one. 3 sounds small, but that is still until next April... That’s like a whole year left! I just have this sick feeling in my gut about school. I just don’t like it at all any more, and unfortunately I made a few bad decisions that are keeping me in school longer than is necessary. I could just say eff this math class... if I did my worries would be mostly over... dunno, my GPA has already dropped more than I’d like it to have... If it weren’t for this math minor being so damn close! I hate it, I just wish I never noticed!

I eventually did drop that math class and give up on the math minor. I think I was 2 or 3 classes away from the minor when I graduated...

So, there's something wrong with my brain... You can laugh when I tell you, there's no denying that it's super weird. Whenever I'm brainstorming on any topic, and really trying hard to think of something, a certain word pops into my head. It's always the same word, and it never pertains to what I’m trying to think of...

Like last night while lying in bed, I was trying to list all of the Knizia designed games that I own (ok, I admit, that alone is weird... but I listened to the Knizia GeekSpeak on the drive home from Seattle that afternoon, so it was fresh in my mind). Anyway, my mind was working hard: Ra, Royal Turf, uhh... Oh, Battle Line, Lost Cities, uhhhh... cow?

That's right, my brain's go-to word is 'cow.' Honestly, I have no idea what this is about, but it’s a regular occurrence. Ask me to list all the movies Harrison Ford has been in and sometime before I give up, my brain will suggest 'cow' as a possibility.

At least I KILL when trying to think up farm animals...

Way back on May 10th we started our Star Wars marathon. Our goal, to watch all 6 films from newer start to original ending... Last night we wrapped it up with Return of the Jedi. It was interesting to watch the original films again, especially with the fleshed out back story fresh in my mind. I was actually a little underwhelmed by A New Hope, absolutely thrilled with Empire Strikes Back, and dreadfully disappointed with Return of the Jedi.

I mean, wow, RotJ was pretty crappy. The first 30 minutes of the movie at Jabba’s palace were superfluous and just plain boring (and the redone music scene is terrible). The final confrontation between Luke & Vader was fine before, but now feels kinda weak as a conclusion for all six episodes. I’m actually going to say that Revenge of the Sith was a better movie than Return of the Jedi (did I really just say that?!?) Yes, Sith has terrible dialog, but you know what? So do the original Star Wars movies. Seriously, some of it was cringe inducing!

Empire Strikes Back has been and still is my favorite of the episodes. The introduction of Yoda was very enjoyable after having seen him in action in the newer eps (what a kook!) Vader’s got a more prominent role in this one and it’s made a little more interesting knowing more of his story. This film was also, thankfully, the least marred by the ‘special edition’ crap!

A New Hope was a little disappointing because it was so simplistic. I mean, the good guy wears white, the bad guy wears all black and has a scary mask, etc. My enjoyment of the film has definitely suffered a bit from me growing up!

I’m not going to recap the newer movies too, but after watching the originals I’m able to single out what they were missing... Han Solo. Of course, that character couldn’t be in the newer films, but they needed someone with his attitude! His quips all throughout the series makes the movies MUCH more fun than they’d be without him.

After hosting movie nights for the 3 Lord of the Rings, 3 Harry Potters, and 5 Star Wars movies, I think I’m ready for a break... I’ve watched WAY more movies in the last three months than I usually do! And once I start it back up, I think I’m going to be more interested in watching movies that I’ve never seen before... Rewatching these series have been fun, but there's plenty of new stuff out there that I want to see!

OK, I’ve got a few more movies to review... first the bad one, A Life Less Ordinary. This movie is a boring mess of a movie. 2 angels are sent down from heaven to get the 2 main characters (Ewan McGregor & Cameron Diaz) to fall in love. Ewan’s character has recently been fired from his job by the CEO of the company that he works for, and Cameron is the daughter of this very CEO. So, he kidnaps her to get back at the CEO and eventually they fall in love. The story is so long and twisted though, so by the time they fall in love, you just don’t care (plus you always know they are going to get together). 1 & 1/2 stars.

Another movie is Happiness, a movie chock full of stories about people with dirty secrets. This movie is pretty explicit what with pedophilia, rape, murder, and abuse as just some of the topics! Some of these stories tie together, but not in the way where you’re supposed to think anything about the connection. It feels like we’re following these people BECAUSE they connect, not that the connection is some amazing coincidence (Magnolia). Anyway, most of these people are pretty sad & screwed up, but you really sympathize with them. This is a very good movie that make you laugh and think. Four stars.

I met up with a few of the Rip City Gamers yesterday for a trial game session to see if “we were a good fit for each other.” I was judged “sufficiently dorky and sufficiently non-dorky” and was invited to join the group. (yay!) The hobby does attract more than the fair share of unsavories, so the weeding out process is a must if you hope to keep your game group fun.

Anyway, we played Ticket to Ride: Europe, Acquire, & San Juan and I lost all three. Ticket to Ride: Europe was played on my request; I’m very familiar with the original game, and was interested to see the new version. The game adds some nice new rules that might end up making it the better version (would have to play a few more times to know for sure). So, it’s good but not different enough to buy in addition to the original.

Acquire was a nice change of pace to the games I’ve been playing lately. I originally played this game a couple of years ago after finding it at a garage sale for 50 cents!! (Actually, the next retro post is all about that day... stay tuned). Anyway, I haven’t got to play it for a long time, and after playing it last night I realize how much I’ve missed it! The game is wonderfully tense and you’ve constantly got to deal with difficult decisions. Even though I got last place, I enjoyed every minute of it!

We wrapped up the night with San Juan, the card game version of Puerto Rico. I’m no fan of PR, but I’m always up for a new game regardless of its heritage. The game moves at a nice quick pace and has an interesting mechanic where the single deck of cards is used for buildings, money and goods. I got second place in this one with straight building points (no chapel, no bonus buildings, etc); I’d definitely play it again, but I didn’t get that ‘must buy this now’ glow from it.

Tonight Kara and I went over to TJ & Michelle’s to play some more games... We played Bohnanza with the High Bohn expansion (I won). A very nice expansion to an already excellent game; it almost makes Bohnanza feel like an entirely different game! Then we played two games of 10 Days in the USA (I won the first, Kara the second). I don’t love this game... I really liked Europa Tour when I first played it at the Gathering, but I guess I’ve already gotten bored of the gameplay. I just feel like there isn’t much decision making to be had on your turn and there’s ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do (or plan for) on others’ turns. I’d trade it, but Kara loves it... We wrapped up the night with a game of Mississippi Queen (me, then Kara, TJ, Michelle). I just recently bought this game and I’m really enjoying it. It’s definitely light, but it’s a fun little race game that looks very nice.

Games two nights in a row, enough right? Nope. I’m meeting up with the Gamers tomorrow for another full night of games! Sufficiently dorky is right!