Session Report: December 12, 2003
Games Played: The Bucket King, Electronic Catchphrase, Bohnanza
Gamers: Marianne, Chip, Geno, Jimmy
Legends (http://www.legendscomix.com) is a new gaming shop in Maynard. They host open boardgaming each Thursday night from 8 - 10. This week there were about a dozen gamers in the shop, mostly playing Magic.
BUCKET KING (0:54)
(Cumulative scores)
Chip: 7 - 14 - 14
Marianne: 0 - 5 - 12
Geno: 1 - 1 - 5
I wanted to start with something light and fun, so I brought out the buckets. We played with the "equal score reversal" variant.
During the first round, I managed to remove a bucket from the center of the bottom row of Marianne's pyramid, wiping out about seven buckets in a single blow. They tried to gang up on me during the second round without much success, but they managed to eliminate me in the third round.
I think everyone enjoyed this game, so I'll probably bring it again. It's a lot of fun with a big group of people, but it's not bad with just three, either.
ELECTRONIC CATCHPHRASE (~0:10)
Geno + Chip: 7
Jimmy + Marianne: 3
Jimmy joined us after the bucket game, and I suggested a quick round of Catchphrase. The most memorable clue was "Jaclyn Smith" - Marianne, not surprisingly, was the only one of us to recognize her as a designer for Kmart, but she managed to get the right answer out of Jimmy anyways (via "JFK's wife").
This is a random sort of game where the scores don't really matter, but it is fun, nonetheless.
BOHNANZA (0:53 + 0:12)
Jimmy: 22
Geno: 19
Chip: 18
Marianne: 17
Jimmy and Geno were new to the game. Motor expressed interest in joining us, but was already committed to a multiplayer Magic game (maybe next week).
The new players did very well; this must be another case of being better at explaining the rules than playing the game (: Jimmy was able to grow Red Beans and Black-eyed beans at the same time, and the rest of us were practically falling over ourselves to give him both types of beans. In general, this was a very friendly game without much cut-throat bargaining. Personally, I probably played a little faster and looser than I could have, but we all had a good time.
I enjoyed this game, and I think it was well received. It's a good staple game, and I'll probably bring it along next week (especially for Motor).
.chip
CNN.com - Study: More TV means fewer veggies for teens - Dec. 8, 2003
Wow. Read the article. There's no suggestion, anywhere, that there might be a connection between the parents that don't encourage healthy television habits and parents that don't encourage healthy eating habits. In fact, the first paragraph lays the blame squarely on the advertisements. Are we really so vulnerable to advertising?
Well, I'm over my space limit again for FlyingSheep.com, so it's time to prune. I can get back under the space limit by clearing out the logs, but it's worthwhile to review the amount of space I'm using and ask myself if I really need all those files.
So, there are pilots made for lots of television shows, right? And some don't ever see the light of day. But, it costs money to produce these pilots, and then, just to throw them away seems wasteful.
My idea: Create a new telelvision channel called "Pilot TV" or something. Show pilots, and then allow people to call in to express an opinion on it. This way, producers could get more milage out of their pilot.
Good thing I don't make tissue boxes for a living. I'd put 249 tissues in each 250-count box. I mean, who'd notice? Think of the money I'd save! I'd be the king of the tissue industry.
Until, of course, I got caught. I don't think I'd go to jail for it, though.
Sorry for not adding to the hype about this, I only saw this in passing, and I'd like to comment on it in vague general terms.
I read yesterday that an accused murderer had a tough childhood. Apparently, he tortured one or more of his pets, and his mom beat him. The order of these things is, I think, important - if you saw your kid torturing an animal, wouldn't you smack him or her around a bit? On the other hand, if you are beaten without reason by your parents, then maybe you'll take it out on your pets. But those are two different stories.
Now, here's a good idea.
Invisible Ink, that is, ink that can be removed by heating, to make paper more re-usable.
This is a good thought, but I don't think it's going to have much of an effect. We tend to think of paper as disposable anyways, and it's going to take a change in that mindset, rather then a technological advance, to get us to use paper more wisely. As the article points out, only 60% of used paper is recycled (in Japan) today.
Considering that most people don't even write on
both sides of a piece of paper anyways, this invention is neat, but won't really help the paper waste situation.
