So, I'm in the local community band, and we've just started practicing for our Christmas concert. I really love Christmas music, there's so many songs that are very stirring and melodic. "The Christmas Song", by Mel Torme, of all people, is one of my favorites. And if you don't feel moved by "I'll be home for Christmas", you have no heart.
Anyways, I've started to think about what I want to get people for Christmas. I always have difficulty buying things for people (shopping, in general, is not one of my more developed skills). If you're in the same boat, I've got something you might like.
It's an expansion on the Recommendations section of FlyingSheep, called Gift Ideas (look for the "new" icon). There are 5 categories (Books, CDs, DVDs, Playstation and Playstation 2 games), and 4 price ranges. So, there are at least 25 gift ideas under $10, and 75 ideas under $20.
Bear in mind that all 100 items were hand-picked by me. You'll see my preferences for Jazz, Terry Prachet, role-playing games, Sci-Fi, and Buffy, to name a few.
I hope you find this useful. Happy Shopping!
You might not have the time to watch a complete episode of Star Trek TNG, but do you have
five minutes?
"Because Trek is long and life is short"
Well, it's 3-3. Go Red Sox!
The Jedi Princess and I watched two more episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation last night, Angel One and 1011010101 (or whatever).
Along the way, we've been reading
The Nitpicker's Guide For Next Generation Trekkers Volume 1. I'm really rather frightened by the fact that the author looks almost exactly like me. Appearances aside, this is a great book, a must for any die-hard fan. Although I ignore some of the continuity errors ("Her hand is here in this shot, and then there in the next shot"), the plot oversights and equipment oddities are great.
For example, in an episode we watched last night, the Bynars plan on leaving Riker on the ship to re-boot their planet, and Picard, "just happens" to be left behind as well. However, re-booting the planet requires
two people, so if Picard didn't just happen to be left behind, they would have been stuck!
If you're a fan of the Next Generation, you'll love this book. You'll never look at the holodeck in the same way (:
Session Report: October 13, 2003
Games Played: Coloretto, Alhambra
Gamers: Lewis, Chip, Mark, Rob, Josh, Chris
Thanks to Rob for hosting.
COLORETTO (0:15 + 0:03 rules)
Lewis: 27
Josh: 26
Mark: 19
Chip: 18
Rob: 18
(0:16)
Mark: 20
Chip: 19
Rob: 19
Josh: 15
Lewis: 14
We started with two quick rounds of Coloretto. I've been interested in trying this game since seeing it played at UG 6, and I'm glad I got a chance to try it.
In the first game, I didn't take any negative points, but that strategy didn't seem to work. In the next round, I took five different colors by the end of the second round, so I decided to try to take as many cards as possible.
At the end of the second round, I thought I miscalculated by selecting a chameleon/joker card (worth 6 points) over a brown and red card (worth a total of 7 points). Upon further reflection, I think I may have made the right decision after all. Mark (who was leading at that point) could probably have made more points with the joker then with the brown/red combination I left for him. It's not as clear-cut as I originally thought.
This is a fun game that I'd like to play again, and possible add to my want-to-acquire list.
When Josh suggested Alhambra for the next game, at least three of us were excited about playing it. I think that's a record for SOG (: Chris arrived too late to voice his objections, and graciously agreed to join us.
ALHAMBRA (0:53 + 0:12)
(scores by round)
Mark: 10, 42, 98
Chip: 9, 31, 81
Chris: 0, 25. 55
Rob: 6, 18, 51
Josh: 6, 21, 49
Lewis: 3, 6, 45
I believe that this game would be better with fewer players, and, after we finished, I recalled having this impression after the last time I played it (with 5 players). I feel that I made a few mistakes this time around; such as purchasing a tile that I could not play (it remained in my reserve for the rest of the game), just because I had exact change (so to speak).
While some dismiss this game as being too random, I think there is some strategy involved, and I like the puzzle aspect a lot. I look forward to playing this again, hopefully with only three or four players.
Session Report: October 11, 2003
Games Played: Star Wars: Jedi Unleashed, Gold Digger, Fish Eat Fish, M, Wise or Otherwise
Gamers: Chip, Mike, Matt, Kimberly, Karl, Tom, Gery, Mark
Thanks for Matt for hosting all weekend. This session report covers early Saturday afternoon, from 12 - 4 or so.
On my way to Matt's, I stopped at KB Toy store to take advantage of their 30% off sale/settlement. I picked up a gift for my wife as well as electronic Scattegories and Star Wars: Jedi Unleashed. This last one was marked down to 2.99, so I knew I was taking a gamble. We tried it, and it was about as random as we expected.
STAR WARS: JEDI UNLEASHED (0:19 + ~0:20 rules and setup)
Matt: 11
Chip: 8
Mike: 5
Not much to say about this game. Can't beat Star Wars as a theme, but other then that the game is pretty random. The "move and attack with one of your Jedi, then move and attack with an NPC enemy" is reminiscent of Zombies.
Matt and I racked up a lot of kills for our Jedi while Mike tried to ride the Reek (if you'll pardon the expression). Matt and Mike ganged up on my leading Jedi to kill him, and then Mike and I ganged up on Matt, but we couldn't finish him off before Yoda reached his goal and ended the game.
GOLD DIGGER (0:16)
Kimberly: 14
Matt: 11
Mike: 11
Chip: 7
Despite doing poorly, I still like this game. Kimberly was surprised to win, as she wasn't putting a lot of effort into the game. Matt and Mike seemed unimpressed with it overall.
At that point, Karl arrived, bringing with him Out of the Box's latest addition, Fish Eat Fish.
FISH EAT FISH (0:19 + 0:03 rules and setup)
Chip: 9
Kimberly: 8
Karl: 4
Mike: 2
Matt: 0
I played a demo of this game at GenCon before it was released. According to my notes, "fish can move any number of spaces orthogonally, and then also move any number of spaces in another direction to attack. Thus, board position is of negligible importance [.]" I'm pleased to note that this is not the case with the final product, and I'm glad that I had a slight impact on this game's design.
Karl was the first player to run out of cards, almost taking two large stacks of fish with him. I attacked him when he only had one card left with a shark, and took over one of his larger stacks. My last two cards were both octopi, so I was able to score all of my fish after I was eliminated.
Reactions to this game were mixed. I believe that Mike didn't care for it, and Matt liked it only for the stackable fish bits. I'd like to try it again at some point; I think it's decent for a 20-minute game.
M (0:40 + 0:07 rules and setup)
Karl: 190
Chip: 190
Mike: 190
Kimberly: 140
Matt: 130
The game ended in a three-way tie (Karl and I even tied for the tie-breaker). This game reminded me of a tile-laying version of Set. As a first-time player, I found the redundant information (# of notches = card value, shape of notches = card symbol) distracting, rather then helpful. I'm sure I'll be able to ignore this next time I play.
I'd like to play this game again. I'm not sure that I always made the best decisions, and I think I could improve.
WISE AND OTHERWISE (1:05)
Tom: 20
Gery: 14
Mike: 13
Chip: 13
Matt: 6
Mark: 4
This game is basically Balderdash with "wise old sayings" from different countries. It's a fun party game that focuses more on wit then winning.
I'd play this again, but I prefer Beyond Balderdash, which has five different categories to choose from.
Happy belated Columbus Day!
I spent the day doing some yardwork, watching Star Trek: TNG with the Jedi Princess (Datalore - I've never seen that episode before), and playing games. I'll have a session report (or two) up later today.
