Monthly Archives: December 2007

Disc Golf 12/08/2007

Hole 16

John created another meetup group for disc golf. I guess that the RRGDG group fell apart for him. This has some pros and cons. The pros are I know everyone in RRGDG and they are all good disc golfers. The cons are this meetup group has a lot of people who only come one time or they are very new to disc golf.

Today, we had Robin who is new to disc golf and a dam inspector (and coincidently, news8austin is running an expose on the state of our dams) and Tony who has been playing disc golf for a while and prefers to run the course while playing.

Afterwards, we went to Chuy’s for lunch.

Game Day 12/07/2007

Game #1

Mordred

Tonight was another 1st week in a month with The Central Texas Boardgames Meetup Group. We started out with a couple of hands of Escalation!. Next up was a Wallace game that I wanted to try out — a reprint of one of his older games called Mordred. It certainly looked interesting. The rules were simple. They even promised that the game would play quickly. And with one of three possible ending conditions, it looked likely. However. And this is a big however. Our game was the complete opposite of quick. It must have dragged on for hours. Not all of it was the game’s fault. Rules explainers were dragged off. People took breaks to get munchies. And the players were far too conservative. But I will give this game another chance…

Disc Golf 12/07/2007

Hole 2

John and I played at the Old Settler’s Park Winter course. But we didn’t have enough time to finish it. First Friday Fluff was on later tonight and John had to leave early to prepare.

Game Day 12/06/2007

Game #1

Cuba

Jon held game day at his house this time. And all of the games that we played came from John’s “box of fluff.” But these weren’t fluffy. So there’s hope for John after all.

First up was Cuba. This time I went for “the blue strategy.” I was second to start and I was worried that someone else would take my building. So my first action was to build the Dam. Jon apparently was going to go for that one as well (I learned this after the game). Instead, he took the Hotel (2 victory point generator). I wasn’t worried that someone would take the Golf Course (convert water into victory points). So I took the Inn. And, on the next turn, I built the Golf Course. On the third turn, both the Duty Act and the Subsidy Act were the water ones. Clearly, I needed to win that vote. But I made the mistake of not spending all of my money (I decided to keep a couple of bucks). Jon did the team thing and stopped me from winning the vote. This took me out of a first place win. Instead, I ended up second.

I don’t know about the water (or blue) strategy. I did not produce that many goods. And, consequently, I didn’t ship that many (or fulfill the Duty Act) either. The four water resources and one victory point gave me a constant increase of 5 victory points a turn. Which is not bad. But the rum or cigar cafes will allow you to get a maximum of 6 victory points per turn. While the red, white, or blue cube converters only allow a maximum of 4.

Game #2

Gipsy King

Next up was Gipsy King. Which I missed playing at BGG.con. This is a lighter but still meaty game. And its a perfect one for lunch. I view it as a purely abstract game. In fact, I don’t even know what the “theme” is. I suspect that it may involve Gypsies. But I could be wrong.

This is a block placement game where you are trying to get long chains of your blocks. The longer the better. And, secondarily, you also try and get majority control of lakes with fishes. If you control a lake, you get a number of victory points that equal the amount of fishes in it (small numbers). Ties are good. Everyone shares the points equally. The real big amounts of victory points come from the length of your chain. You score triangle points based on the length.

There are two round in the game. You start surrounding lake number one and continue until the highest lake is surrounded. On the next round, you start at the highest number and move down to one. You can either place one of your blocks on a hex surround the lake in question. Or, you can pass and enter the queue for placement at the next lake. This is sometimes a good thing indeed, as you are trying to connect your chains. And you will skip areas to concentrate on others.

Tichu

We ended the night with a game of Tichu…


12/06/2007 The scorecard for a game of Tichu

GT or T bet made or lost

This team scored more points than the other or one twoed

GT/T Team #1 GT/T GT/T Team #2 GT/T
MarkH & Jon JohnG & DougG
  120 T+  
80
 
  145   T+
255
 
T+
325
    275  
 
405
    395 T+
 
495
    405  
  510    
390
T-
  810 T+   390  
  1110 T+   390  

…scored on a cute pad of paper!

Game #3

My first computer

This thread on BGG got me motivated to get my old computer out of the closet and take a picture of it.

My what progress we have made… Have 101 programming tips & tricks books been around that long?

Dyson Malibou light

Dyson Malibou light

There was quite a surprise when I opened my malibou light to replace a burned out light bulb. I found a whole ecology inside! Of course, there was light and air, but also flora, predators and prey. My last surprise inside a Malibou light was an ant farm. It was filled to the brim with dirt… and ants.

No-Knead Bread 2.0

No-Knead Bread 2.0

I received the latest Cook’s Illustrated in the mail. And I just had to try out the new bread recipe. While not a true “no-knead” recipe (you do it about 10 to 15 times), it is pretty close. But that was not what was interesting about this recipe. The first unique thing was cooking it in a preheated dutch oven. This created a nice and steamy sauna for the bread to cook in. The other thing was using lager beer (Moosehead in this instance) and white vinegar to simulate sourdough starters.

Sourdough chip

When I went to turn on the oven to 500, I noticed this sourdough chip laying in the dripping pan. My last batch of sourdough starter was overly expansionistic and I forgot about its escapees. Millions of them gave their lives to become this chip.

links

Firefox memory fragmentation link via

The Temperamental Shower link via

Balancing bowls tell you when 100grams of food are inside link via

Your Creation museum report link via

24: The Unaired 1994 Pilot link via

Nine Inch Noëls link via

Well Done: a food company annual report that has to be cooked first to be read link via

Christmas ornaments grow from folded paper link via

Encoding the restaurant experience into the bill amount link via

X-Ray of hand after homemade explosive detonates early link via

Will you swim faster in a thicker water? link via

The Great Spiral Galaxy in Andromeda looks bigger than the moon link via

Matt Stuart’s photographs link via

Attractiveness and dating link via

Unphotographable link via

Resinpod link via

Food pairing link via

Moonlit panoramic photo of the Hanalei Vally Lookout on the island of Kauai, Hawaii (Canon 5D, 16-35mm f/2.8 at f/2.8, 10.0 second exposures ISO 800 at 16mm) link via

Pop-Up Market in Bangkok link via

Fact checking Dawkins link via

Now with more glitter! link via

The 300 minute egg link via