Games Games Games!

At the very end of December, we decided that in order to try to wean ourselves off our isolationist leisure activities (computer games for me, voracious reading of internet blogs/news for Harmony), we would get some board games, inspired by my brother-in-law-in-law (or brother-out-law). By board games, we meant German-style board games, which, according to Wikipedia, "emphasise strategy, downplay luck and conflict, lean towards economic rather than military themes, and usually keep all the players in the game until it ends. German-style games are sometimes contrasted with American-style games, which generally involve more luck, conflict, and drama." They sort of fill the gap between party games (like Pictionary and the like, which I do not doubt that they can be fun) and abstract strategy games like Go (also which I don't doubt that it can be fun, but I'm not really smart enough to understand how to play Go well).

So in the span of a little more than a month, we have acquired five such games, the last one whose delivery was thankfully only delayed one day by winter weather. Here I present them in order of acquisition.

Carcassonne
A tile laying game set in medieval times. Each tile has up to four features on it: a farm field, portion of a city, a monastery, or a road. You score points by placing your figures on a feature. Each tile must be laid touching the side of at least one other tile, and the features on each touching side must match (think dominoes). You can focus on helping yourself or hindering your opponents. Preferably you should do both at the same time. An easy game to pick up...sometimes it's referred to as a "gateway" game, one that non-gamers can easily pick up and that can potentially lead them more into the world of geek gaming. Strangely enough, this game is the most direct-conflict-heavy game that we have, as you can play tiles in a way that makes opponents' features very difficult to complete.

Dominion
Medieval themed card game, although when you buy the game, you get all the cards, so there's no collectible element like in Magic: The Gathering (so less money spent overall). Instead of playing with preconstructed decks like in Magic, building your deck is part of the game. Players can buy cards from a common pool of cards, which includes money cards, action cards, or victory cards. Money cards are self-explanatory, use them to buy other cards. Each action card lets you bend the rules in some way or another; some will let you buy more cards than you normally can in one turn, some let you "attack" opponents in round-about, indirect, Euro-game-style ways, some let you draw more cards, etc. Victory cards are how you win the game; whoever has the most victory points at game end wins, but most victory cards have no other function other than points at the end. There is much strategy on what cards to buy when. Buy too many victory cards early on and your deck is clogged with useless cards. Buy too many action cards and when you get around to buying victory cards, you realize that your opponent has mounted a great lead while you were busying buying actions. Buy too much money and your options become very limited compared to opponents.

Race For The Galaxy
Taken from elsewhere:

In Race for the Galaxy, players build galactic civilizations by game cards that represent worlds or technical and social developments.

Each turn each player chooses one action, but the others will share in the actions chosen, each player secretly and simultaneously chooses one of seven different action cards and then reveals it. Only the selected phases occur. For these phases, every player performs the phase’s action, while the selecting player(s) also get a bonus for that phase.

One of my favorites. Sci-fi themed card game, but still German-style so there's not much direct conflict, but it still lots of fun. This game usually takes Harmony and me about 40 minutes to play. Definitely not a gateway game, as the efficient but initially cryptic iconography takes a couple of games to learn. Lots of strategy involved, as you can only pick two actions per turn (only one action if you have more than 2 players), but you don't want to pick actions that will help your opponents. The way you pay for cards to put in play is by discarding other cards equal to the target cards price. There's been LOTS of time spent around here mulling over what cards X, Y, and Z I can afford to toss in order to put down this here card A.

Tobago
Tropical treasure hunting theme. Very pretty game, light and fun. Each game you assemble the board from three double sided pieces, then place the three different kinds of landmarks on the island (statues/monoliths, palm trees, and huts). The way you score points is by digging up treasures, of which there are four. Treasure locations are not predetermined, but rather, players themselves determine where the treasure is by playing clue cards. Clue cards have icons on them to indicate clues such as "In the largest jungle," "Not within two space of a field, or "Directly next to a hut." Any player can contribute clue cards to any treasure map, and when the treasure is unearthed, each contributing player will get a share of the treasure equal to how many clues they contributed towards it. Treasure distribution also has some tactical thinking to it, but I won't go into it here.

Stone Age
Description from elsewhere:

Players struggle to survive the Stone Age by working as hunters, collectors, farmers, and tool makers. As you gather resources, and raise animals, you work to build the tools needed to build your civilization.

Players use up to 10 tribe members each in 3 phases. The first phase players place their men in regions of the board that they think will benefit them, including the hunt, the trading center, or the quarry. In the second phase, the starting player activates each of his staffed areas in whatever sequence he chooses, followed in turn by the other players. In the third phase, players must have enough food available to feed their populations, or face losing resources or points.

We just got this game yesterday evening and played it twice. Initially somewhat intimidating, but we had a pretty good feel for it by the end of the first game. You have a limited number of workers, who you can assign to get food, get resources, make tools, or reproduce. Reproducing obviously gains you a worker, but you must have enough food to support the workers. Resources are used to buy buildings or civilization cards, both of which will add to your victory point score. Nice amount of strategy/tactics in who to assign to do what, and when.

I recently sold some stuff on Craigslist and the money has been earmarked for more games :D (with consultation/blessing from Harmony, of course). Next up, Citadels and/or In the Year of the Dragon. I have been limited to one new game per month though, which is fine with me. Now that we have Stone Age (I'd been eyeing for a while now), I think my hunger might be abated for the time being.

Judging by the demographic who reads this blog, it doesn't seem likely that there will be much interest or questions (aside from maybe SIL), but feel free to leave a comment if you're so inclined.

If Only...

Don't look too closely, you'll see a messy house, bad photography, and bad editing. But if there were really three of me, the house wouldn't be as messy, and I would have more time for photography and editing.

GT 45 - U(sic)GA 42

Coach Paul Johnson - now that's change we can believe in!

So then it's up with the White and Gold
Down with the Red and the Black
Georgia Tech is out for a victory
We'll drop our battle axe on Georgia's head
When we meet her our team is sure to beat her
Down on the farm there will be no sound
Till our bow wows rip through the air
When the battle is over Georgia's team will be found
With the Yellow Jackets swarming 'round.

Classical Music

For those of you who like to listen to classical music, I would like to recommend my favorite online classical radio station: Radio Swiss Classic. There are no commercials, the interface is excellent, and they have good music selection. The only downside is that all the commentary on the music is in French and German (although I think it's kind of cool).

Try it out, and please let me know what you think!

Akage no Anne

Akage no Anne is a Japanese anime adaptation of Anne of Green Gables. It is delightfully true to the book, and the animated Anne is just charming. Watch it for yourself (with English subtitles, of course).

A 1930's Housewife

I suppose I can consider this a good thing? Taken from RRLS.

78 As a 1930s wife, I am Very Superior Take the test!

Six Quirky Things about JunkMale

My wife tagged me to do this quirky thingy.

* Link the person who tagged you (done).
* Mention the rules in your blog (doing).
* Tell about six unspectacular quirks of yours (will do).
* Tag a new set of six following bloggers by linking them (will do).

I notice it says unspectacular. Perhaps I will ignore that rule. Or perhaps I won't, if I don't find any unspectacular quirks about me.

1. Before I met Harmony, the only kind of macaroni and cheese I'd ever had was the Kraft kind. We don't call the Kraft kind "macaroni and cheese" anymore; we call it "Kraft" or "cheesy noodles."


2. When I was younger, I wanted to learn to play the flute, a stereotypically "female" instrument. For whatever reason, it never worked out.


3. I am horrible at playing computer games against other humans. It stresses me out because I always get killed or beaten. I prefer to play against the computer.


4. Breaking the typical man-ish way of dealing with things, I initially tend to want to talk about my problems rather than clam up.


5. Aside from fish, I've never had meat more fresh than what comes from a grocery store. Hopefully that will change, come Labor Day 2008; our preacher is organizing a pit barbeque, at my behest (more on that later).


6. I am (unfortunately) quite a city boy; my grandmother-in-law probably knows more about hard labor, building things, and power tools than I do. I aim to change this at whatever chances I get.

I don't know how long this quirky thing has been passed along, so if you have already been double or triple tagged, consider yourself motivated.

Angela from TheHotRod-5
Anna from Veiled Glory
Birdie from Wings and Prayers
Ewokgirl from Married to the Empire
Headmistress from The Common Room
Iris (you can either post in the comments, or on your Xanga)

I notice that I tagged all female bloggers. Don't we have any man readers except for Harmony's dad? How can I know you exist if you rarely comment and have never linked to our blog? Does this blog not really attract any Y-chromosomal readership? Show yourselves, men!

Quirky Things About Me

Courtesy of Myfriendconnie. (It took me forever to come up with these. Something quirky about me? I'm 100% normal - it's everyone else that's quirky! ;-)

1. I eat my ice cream very slowly, about 1/4 spoonful in each bite. And yet, I don't like soft, partially melted ice cream.

2. I love chemistry, especially organic chemistry. My favorite questions would go something like this: "Find a process that will transform [organic compound 1] into [organic compound 2] in 4 steps." Endless fun!

3. Due to living in 3 different states in 3 different years (all 3 had different math curricula), I missed the first 1/2 of Geometry, and so I never learned the basics of Geometry and have always found it frustrating and difficult. As luck would have it, I find myself now doing Geometry tutoring.

4. I am generally not a picky eater. However, I will not touch bananas, mayonnaise (except in potato salad and pimento cheese spread), or vinegar (except when I can't smell it).

5. I like spreadsheets. I will spend hours organizing a spreadsheet with information I will never touch again. But it was so satisfying making it....

6. In my mind, I am going to write the Next Great American Novel. In reality... well, let's not go there. ;-) Suffice it to say that no one (not even my husband) has read any of my writings, and it will likely stay that way.


Who to tag, who to tag.... (no pressure here; only do this if you want to)

JunkMale
My dad
Ginny
Cappuccino Mom
La (you can answer in the comments)

A Mental Exercise

This mental exercise comes from my dad's old book (which somehow fell into my possession a few years ago), Brain Puzzler's Delight. Before I was married, I would solve one or two problems from this book a night, and then mark each successfully completed problem with the date. The problems get harder as they go along. I would say I've solved about 75% of the problems thus far. I am taking this from the Easy portion of the book. It will give you an idea of just how not easy the rest of the puzzles in this book are! Good luck!

(i) = (ii) = (iii) = (iv)

(i) - - (on the decimal scale)
(ii) - - - - - - (on the scale of ?)
(iii) - - (on the scale of 6)
(iv) - - multiplied by - - - - - (in prime factors, both on the same scale)

Find all the missing digits.

Oh, and for the record, I solved this one a couple of days ago. :-) Trust me, it's not NEARLY as tough as it seems.

Book Quiz

I followed a link to this quiz from the Common Room. I must say, I do like my results. It's nice to be 'one of the greatest people of all time'.

I suppose I liked Watership Down. I found the premise fascinationg. The details were, in my opinion, a bit boring. I hope that's not another metaphor for my life!

You're Watership Down!

by Richard Adams

Though many think of you as a bit young, even childish, you're
actually incredibly deep and complex. You show people the need to rethink their
assumptions, and confront them on everything from how they think to where they
build their houses. You might be one of the greatest people of all time. You'd
be recognized as such if you weren't always talking about talking rabbits.


Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Hangeul Quilt

For many weeks now, I have been toiling day and night (haha) to finish this Hangeul baby quilt:

Hangeul is the Korean alphabet, and - as some of you will surely notice - I didn't put them entirely in alphabetical order. Between 사 ("sa") and 자 ("ja"), I should have put 아 ("ah"). But since I already had it on the first row, I didn't repeat it. Perhaps someone else could have come up with a better method so that I would have gotten everything in and in order. Oh well.

The quilt is 100% hand-sewn, which wasn't too bad considering. It didn't take me nearly as long as I thought it would. Of course, the whole thing will probably fall apart in three months because of my poor sewing skills.

... Let's hope I'm wrong about that. :-(

Luna, modeling the completed quilt.

One of Those Book Memes

Usually it's Harmony that does these things, but I think I'll take the bait on this one too. MyfriendConnie tagged us. The instructions are as follow:

Pick up the nearest book (of at least 123 pages).

Open the book to page 123.

Find the fifth sentence.

Post the next three sentences.

Tag five people.
(I don't think I'll actually do that last one...if you feel like doing it, you can do it on your blog or in the comments...???)

Well, here's mine:

"They cooked it in a pot or made it into cakes. And it tasted like something made with olive oil. When the dew settled on the camp at night, the manna also came down."

Most readers of this blog should have an idea of where that comes from (parts of Numbers 11:8-9). And a number of you might have something very similar, if you choose to do this meme. So for the cause of doing something different, I'm going to also pick the next closest book of at least 123 pages.

"(The scattered power equals the intercepted power less whatever power is absorbed by the target.)


(the actual picture is different, but this is a similar one.)

Directivity is the ratio of the power scattered back in the radar's direction to the power that would have been backscattered had the scattering been uniform in all directions, i.e. isotropically.

Directivity = P_backscatter / P_isotropic
Normally, P_backscatter and P_isotropic are expressed as power per unit of solid angle.

In case you can't tell, I wrote this at work.

November 29th birthday MEME

This is too much fun to pass up. :) I, very sadly, have never liked Louisa May Alcott's books. I get bogged down before they get good (as I am certain they do) and have never finished one. Yes, I know, I'm awful. I intend to read Little Women someday. I will just need some extra determination and fortitude to manage it... ;-)

The November 29 ALL Meme
(Louisa May Alcott, C.S. Lewis, Madeleine L’Engle)
Answer for one, both, or all authors.

1. What was the first [Alcott, Lewis, L’Engle] book you read?

C.S. Lewis -
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. My Uncle bought the book for me when I was very little - 2nd or 3rd grade, and it sat on a shelf for a year or two before I finally picked it up. It was then another few years (until 7th grade) that I finally reread it and then HAD to go out and buy the rest of the series that day. I then proceeded to finish them all within a week. At least, that's how it felt. And I'm not at all ashamed to say that I bawled my eyes out the first time I read The Last Battle. :-)

Madeleine L'Engle -
A Wrinkle in Time. It was an assigned reading in 7th grade English, just a week or two before our family moved states. I really loved that book, which might explain why I finished reading it, even though I was never tested over the material.

2. If you could be a [Alcott, Lewis, L’Engle] character for a day, who would you be?
I always wanted to be Susan Pevensie, only to get things right in the end.

I also felt like I most resembled Meg Murry in real life. I liked how she turned out in the end, too.

3. Do you prefer [Alcott?, Lewis, L’Engle]’s fiction or nonfiction?
Lewis: Ooh, that's hard. I have to say both. I adore the Narnia books, but I love books like Mere Christianity to bits.
L’Engle: Fiction.

4. Which [Alcott, Lewis, L’Engle] book would you recommend to any reader?
Lewis: Everything he wrote. Most especially Mere Christianity (a book I think all Christians should read) and The Chronicles of Narnia.

L'Engle: Many Waters. I don't really hear much about that book anywhere, but I rather liked it.

5. Which [Alcott, Lewis, L’Engle] book did you dislike?
I never finished an Alcott book. I'm bad. :-( I never could get into C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy, although it wasn't bad. And, while I do like the book, A Wind in the Door seemed to be lacking something the rest of her Murry family series had.

6. What is your favorite [Alcott, Lewis, L’Engle] quote?
I have two C.S. Lewis quotes in my email signature:

"Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil."

"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."

7. Which [Alcott, Lewis, L’Engle] book would you like to read next?
I have yet to read Lewis' The Four Loves.

8. What biography of [Alcott, Lewis, L’Engle] would you recommend?
Honestly, I have no idea.

9. Rate the ALL authors by order of preference.
Lewis
L’Engle
Alcott

Confession

I am one of those people who find non-fiction history books to be quite boring, yet when an old boring history teacher practically reads directly from the book, I am enthralled. The same applies for documentaries. In fact, I am a documentary junkie.

In college I used to stay up late into the night watching documentaries on PBS and the History or Science Channels. I remember watching shows on this history of Russia, the musical tradition of Romania and Hungary (extremely fascinating!), Theodore Roosevelt's trek through the Amazon riven basin, a study to determine how much identical twins are alike, spending a week with the nomadic tribes of Mongolia, the life of Abraham Lincoln, and some rare video footage of the British royal family before the outbreak of WWI -- among others.

But after JunkMale and I got married, we did not have TV service anymore. We do get PBS, but the quality is not very good and requires a lot of concentration to catch all that is said. Also, our local library does not loan out dvd's and we have no vhs player. This means that for the last 10 months or so, I have been in a sort of documentary withdrawal.

Much to my delight, I learned this weekend that many documentaries are available online via youtube or google videos. So, having felt the withdrawal for so many months, over this past weekend I watched the following documentaries:

• Mao's Bloody Revolution - about Mao Tse-tung and the communist revolution in China, obviously :)
• Excerpts from Eye On the Prize, a Civil Right's era documentary - I watched the sections on the Freedom rides, the integration and riots at Ole Miss, and the Emmett Till murder trial. I could not find the other sections. :-/
• A lecture on the Byzantine Empire, which was extremely fascinating and enlightening. Most schools do not teach about the Byzantine Empire, even though it was one of the longest-standing western empires in history and profoundly impacted western civilization as it is today.

I started watching a documentary on the life of Ghandi, but about 30 minutes into it I realized that it was 5 hours long -- and I knew I didn't have time to watch the entire thing.

Time Waster

Am I the only one who thinks this is ridiculously hard? Maybe I just have poor mouse skills, but I keep getting tripped up at the rotating circles part.

Test Your Knowledge! Part 1

EDIT: Answers appear at the bottom of the post. Highlight the text to read them. :)

Several years ago, my sister and I accepted a Bible knowledge challenge from two of the young men in our congregation. The challenge was for each team to put together a test of Bible trivia and present it to the other team. The men won, although by only a small margin. Their test was incredibly hard, and I wish I had a copy of it for posterity (and for my own study).

I think our test was also fairly challenging, and so I'm going to put some of the questions forth for our general readership's benefit so that you can hone your Bible skills (and so that I can be sure I haven't forgotten the answers to my own test!). Today I am going to present the questions from the second section of the challenge, which was the only section of the test where I still remembered all the answers. All of the quotes are from the NIV, because that was the version of the Bible we used most frequently at the time. And for the record, this is a closed-book test. No opening of Bibles!

I will post the answers tomorrow, provided I remember. :)

Good luck! :)

Who Said It?
In the following questions, name the speaker or speakers

1) “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls"

2)"Anyone who runs ahead and does not continue in the teaching of Christ does not have God; whoever continues in the teaching has both the Father and the Son."

3) "May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money! You have no part or share in this ministry, because your heart is not right before God. Repent of this wickedness and pray to the Lord. Perhaps he will forgive you for having such a thought in your heart. For I see that you are full of bitterness and captive to sin."

4) "Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you"

5) "Even one of their own prophets has said, 'Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons.' This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the commands of those who reject the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted."

6) "When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell."

7) "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."

8) "The word of the LORD came to me, saying,

'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,

before you were born I set you apart;

I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.'

'Ah, Sovereign Lord,' I said, 'I do not know how to speak; I am only a child.'"

9)"When (person A) heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to (person B), 'There is the sound of war in the camp.'

(person B) replied:

'It is not the sound of victory,

it is not the sound of defeat;

it is the sound of singing that I hear.'"

10) "How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine."

11) "I was very much afraid, but I said to the king, 'May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?'"

12) "My skin grows black and peels;

my body burns with fever."

13) "'The fire and wood are here,' ______ said, 'but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?'"

14) "You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him-- you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it."

15) "Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ."

16) "Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God."

17) "Who am I, O Sovereign Lord, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?"

18) "Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed"

19) "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it."

20) “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness…”

21) “Out of the eater, something to eat;

Out of the strong, something sweet.”

22) “What have I done to make you beat me these three times?”

23) “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish.”

24) “Blessed be Abram by God Most High,

Creator of heaven and earth.

And blessed be God Most High,

Who delivered your enemies into your hand.”

25) “I am in deep distress. Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is very great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men.”

Answers:

1. Peter; 2. John; 3. Peter; 4. Jesus; 5. Paul

6. James; 7. Philip; 8. Jeremiah; 9. A: Joshua, B: Moses; 10. Eli

11. Nehemiah; 12. Job; 13. Isaac; 14. Stephen; 15. Paul (or, as my Dad pointed out, Timothy; they co-wrote Colossians)

16. Gamaliel; 17. David; 18. Elisha, or his servant (technically they both said it, but either answer is acceptable); 19. Caleb; 20. Malachi

21. Samson; 22. Balaam's Donkey; 23. Mordecai; 24. Melchizedek; 25. David