Monthly Archives: February 2007

The wall keeps tumbling down

Another section tumbles #1
Another section tumbles #2

Well, the vine wall was briefly propped back up. But it fell back down. And now another section has come down. Sadly, it doesn’t look like they are going to fix it. They are just leaving it alone currently. I’m sure the middle part will die off from lack of sunlight soon…

Chili pizza

Chili pizza #1
Chili pizza #2

Mmm… a simpler pizza this time: chili topped with cheddar cheese. I was a little worried about the chili escaping and overflowing the sides onto the pizza stone. So when I stretched out the dough I made an effort to keep a 1/2 inch margin that I left alone. This puffed up enough to make a dam and kept the lake of chili and molten cheese at bay.

links

Creating dishes when you need them link via

Storing a digital image on a photon link via

Attractive face scale link via

Career Objective: An entry level position in a zombie killing firm. link via

Governor Schwarzenegger is quite clear that California is not simply another state. “We are the modern equivalent of the ancient city-states of Athens and Sparta” link via

The largest drain hole in the world link via

“I’d rate you a 10! Except you have serious end game problems as well as a high luck factor” link via

Mathematical projections of photos link via

Bacon soap link via

Wristwatches of war link via

The Kashering of Coca-Cola link via

Hurricane Andrew victim gets power restored after 15 years link via

Finding Autumn link via

East Germany lives on in a Cuban island link via

From Bucket to Binary: Morrison Corvette Scanned into Gran Turismo link via

How to cheat at dice link via

W.W.G.W.B.D.? link via

Steampunk keyboard link via

Girlfriend Discovers a DoS Vulnerability in Gaim link via

Chimpanzees now using spears to hunt link via

Bread professor link via

More photo tourism by Microsoft link via

Disc Golf 02/24/2007

Wow. Our biggest crowd yet, 10 people! We were big enough to split into two groups: a group of four playing singly and the rest of us as three teams of two. We played at Wilco. Which I consider to be a very challenging course. Trees everywhere and tight S-curvy tunnels. I am still not ready to go it alone. I need more control…

For lunch, John convinced us to play games and eat at Mesa Rosa instead of Chuys. He made the restaurant sit us in an isolated area which was nice and quiet and well lit. But we never played any games. How odd. Another amusing incident was the bill. Our waiter handed us one 100+ bill for the entire table. And then he offered to split it up for us which we took advantage of. Unfortunately, he did not know what to do with the appetizer that three of us ordered. So he split it up into 1/10 portions. Hehehe… seven people helped subsidize our appetizers…

Disc Golf 02/23/2007

More construction

John and I played disc golf today at Old Settler’s park. I was a little worried when it was mist-raining earlier today. I was warm enough (high 70s) where I was prepared to play if it continued raining. So I donned my bathing suit and rubber sandals. But it turned out that the rain was done for the day and it only ended up being overcast.

A new person, Chris, joined us. He was more of a pro than us. He plays in 60 some events during the year and was even sponsored by a company. He was cool though. We showed him the winter course and he gave us some advice.

It seems that the construction is continuing near the course. Fortunately two of the tees were still there…

Game Day 02/22/2007

Game #1

Zoff in Buffalo

Last week I convinced Doug to make me one of his versions of a Frappuchino. I called it a Dougachino. It was pretty tasty. Thanks, Doug!

John wanted to start off with this classic game. Sadly, I didn’t print out the rules translation. So I explained the rules from memory with Jon helping out. We got most of them correct. Except for what happens at the end of the game. Oh well. I was even going to look up on the geek what happens. But Jon made a call as to what to do.

Game #2

The Scepter of Zavandor

Next up on the table was the meaty game Scepter of Zavandor. I randomly picked the Druid as my character. It starts along the ruby path. So I was intently focused on getting my income up to switch over to rubies. Unfortunately, I could not do it in time before the game ended. I probably messed up somewhere along the line…

With five people in the game, this game really dragged! Two Grimms a-Grimming make for some downtime, let me tell you. So I wandered back and forth between the game table and where my computer was to keep my attention.

Time

You know, nothing that I know of makes me aware of the inexorable progress of time like public speaking does. I hate public speaking for two reasons. I am not a verbose person by nature and when you give a speech, you need the ability to improvise among other things. However, the main reason why I hate it is Glossophobia. I have heard that more people are afraid of public speaking than dying.

I was told on Tuesday that I had to give a 5 minute speech for our area meeting. I thought I was lucky that I only had to dread this upcoming event for two days. But then it was postponed until the following Tuesday. Argh! A whole week of dreading is not a fun thing at all.

But I got through it! Woo woo!

And the wall came crumbling down

vine covered wall is falling

One of the few things that I like out the IBM campus is that some of their high walls are covered by climbing vines. A wall of plant is much more pleasant to look at than a wall of pinkish concrete. So I was sad when I saw that a corner of it came down… I hope that they can fix it…

Game Day 02/17/2007

Game #1

Through the Ages

Ahhh, I saw this game being played at BGG.con a lot. One of my friends, Jon, played it three or four times. Back-to-back plays even. So for a game that takes anywhere from three to five hours or more to play, thats a high recommendation. I kept an eye out on eBay for copies of this game. Unfortunately, the general buzz was too high and demand was great. Copies went for $150 or more. Also, there was news that the game was going to be reprinted, but in 2008. Sigh. So I was really happy when a version of this game fell off the back of a truck and into my lap.

After disc golf and lunch, four of us played this game. The first game took five hours to play. And the second (three player game) took three hours.

It is definitely worth the buzz. It feels like a meaty version of a civilization building game. This game has a couple of different levels to it. You can play a simple version of it. Or you can play a three era game with the option to attack people. Or you can play a four era game with full blown wars. There are different leaders with special powers during each era. And, as time passes, your technology also improves. For example, you start out with warriors, move to knights, and then to tanks.

The war aspect to this game is more of an incentive to stay in the pack with everyone else in relative strength. The stronger people can cause bad things to happen to the weaker in this game. So, while it may take resources away from your strategy to win the game, it behooves you to spend some of those resources to maintaining your national defense.

This game has definitely moved to my must-buy list. Unfortunately, it is not coming out quick enough. In the meantime, the current copy will have to do…