The Big Move

07.16.2013

This weekend my grandparents wrapped up moving to their new apartment after selling the house they've been living in since 1965. That's 48 years in the same house. The apartment, according to Google, is 0.8 miles from the house. That averages out to moving 0.1 miles every 6 years. That part tickles me.

The move went without too much incident. They don't have phone service yet as AT&T is claiming there's a problem with the physical line. It's on AT&T's end, so they're (supposedly) working on it and it will hopefully be up and running sometime Wednesday. I needed a little more excitement, so I broke a jar of pickles on the apartment kitchen floor. There's a story that could go along with what happened, but leaving it to your imagination makes for a better story.

I wonder if next time I go to visit I'll forget and go to the old house?


road trip

Golden Age of Board Games(?)

07.14.2013

The other day I was talking to Brenda and explaining part of how board games have changed over the years. The video below does a good job explaining (and I think I stole at least half of what was said when explaining to Brenda)

Later in Brenda's trip I showed her the test copy I had made for Zombie Mall with the Amazon-printed copy of the rules & walkthru, the DriveThruCards printed map tiles, Hong Kong printed Loot & Objective cards, and the die-cut counters & tokens from Andrew in Oregon (or is it Washington)? Myu grandparents listened in and looked, and Peggy and her 2 youngest sons (fine, in their 30's) listened in and looked on. To be honest, non-gamers ranging from barely 30 to 93 are not more intended audience, but everyone seemed really interested and managed to follow the rules that I was explaining. Brenda even admitted that although she's not a current board gamer and isn't really interested in zombies, my explanation made the game seem exciting and intriguing enough that she wouldn't mind giving it a try.

Maybe that's an accolade I should spread around? "I wouldn't mind giving it a try. - mid-60's retired non-gamer related to the developer".

Mainly I'm hoping everyone didn't feel the need to feign interest for my ego. I know how nerdy these games can be and they're not everyone's cup of tea. But I'll admit that like watching people play the game and enjoy it, it was neat to see people's expression of understanding who don't normally play this type of game.


boardgames

Un-Widgey Nights

07.09.2013

Over the past couple of alternating Friday nights, I've found myself at Dealnews having a game night with Keith as his boys have a LAN party. The details of that aren't all that important past "hey, we've got an excuse to play some boardgames!" The first Friday night I joined Keith along with Phil, Daniel, and Richard for a double header of Ticket to Ride and Roborally. Somehow, even though Keith and I were the experienced ones in both games, we won neither. Both were fun, though. It was the first time I had ever been in a 5-player game for either Ticket to Ride or Roborally, and that many players changes your strategy a lot more than I thought it would have.

2 weeks later we again got together, but Daniel and Richard were replaced by Joe. We brought out 2 different games: Frag (one of my perennial favorites) and King of Tokyo (which I had just gotten the previous week, and as a bonus it was written by the same guy that made Roborally). Phil nor Joe had played Frag before, so it was fun to watch them learn. Joe was pulling great cards and pretty much taking it out on Phil. Joe declared "this game is awesome" while Phil decided "this game sucks". The next round Phil was getting good cards while Joe was getting crap. Phil changed his tune and decided "this game is awesome" while Joe joined the "this game sucks" crowd. After those 2 rounds, Joe had to leave so Keith, Phil, and I played a couple of rounds of King of Tokyo. As is our way we played the first round wrong (we left Tokyo when we shouldn't have). Once we had that figured out, the game became more challenging and felt right.

These little game nights have been fun. Somehow, Phil gets ganged up on (with everything we've played, Phil has yet to win a game or a round of a game). Technically these have not been part of the sanctioned Widgey season because everyone hasn't been vetted in. Maybe Keith needs to bring out the trophy and then everybody will be begging for some sanctioning.

Just for fun I ran the Widgey season stats as if the above 2 nights were sanctioned. With the current stats Jerry and I are tied for 1st place. With the above games added I move into 1st place by 1 point, due mainly to Daniel and Richard and Joe having good win-loss records.

Current Standings

Wins & Losses
Win %
Points Rank + Win % Rank - # of Wins
Wins Losses Points Ranking   Win % Ranking   Combined Points Combined Ranking
Russ 6 6 36 1 50.0% 6 1 1
Jer 5 1 22 2 83.3% 4 1 1
Keith 4 2 20 3 66.7% 5 4 4
Joe 3 0 12 4 100.0% 1 2 3
Steve 1 0 4 6 100.0% 1 6 5
Alex 2 2 12 4 50.0% 6 8 7
Richard 1 0 4 6 100.0% 1 6 5
If the extra games were counted:
Wins & Losses
Win %
Points Rank + Win % Rank - # of Wins
Wins Losses Points Ranking   Win % Ranking   Combined Points Combined Ranking
Russ 8 11 54 1 42.1% 8 1 1
Jer 5 1 22 3 83.3% 4 2 2
Keith 5 8 36 2 38.5% 9 6 4
Joe 3 0 12 5 100.0% 1 3 3
Steve 1 0 4 9 100.0% 1 9 5
Alex 2 2 12 5 50.0% 6 9 5
Richard 2 1 10 7 66.7% 5 10 8
Phil 0 8 16 4 0.0% 10 14 10
Daniel 1 0 4 9 100.0% 1 9 5
Joe H 1 1 6 8 50.0% 6 13 9


boardgames

Busy Week

07.08.2013

This week:

My weeks aren't usually this busy. I'm a little stressed about it. Even though nothing major is happening to cause stress, it's the the sheer, out of the ordinary volume of stuff going on. Next week is more normal - I've only got 2 things written down for next week.

So far, at least.


rambling

Sprained Back

07.03.2013

I managed to sprain my back Monday morning. To make it a better story, I sprained it while making the bed.

It's been a while since I messed up my back, especially enough to put me in bed for a day or more. This past weekend I caught up on some lost sleep and managed to spend most of Sunday in bed. I'm paranoid whenever I do that, because nothing can mess up my back more than laying around all day (or all weekend).

Monday morning I got up and felt fine. I took a shower and still felt fine. I made the bed after taking a shower. When going back to dry my hair, I noticed I couldn't stand up straight. My back was ll out of kilter. So it seems I threw my back out while making the bed.

My back hurt enough that instead of turning left to go to work when I left the house, I turned right and went to the chiropractor. He chirpracted, but I still wasn't fixed. I went back home, laid down, and applied ice. Later in the afternoon I returned to the chiropractor and he did more chiropracticy. Alas, I was still crooked. Tuesday repeated more of the same.

This morning I used the chiropractor as my pain diagram, pointing out on his body where I hurt. He popped some different things this time. By the time he was finished I felt better. I think all the bones are back in the right spot, but the muscles that were trying to force everything back to the right place are screaming.

With that, I'm taking it easy the rest of the day and still applying ice.

This week has gone nothing like I planned when it started.


random

Blog Archive

As always, correct spelling is optional in any blog entry. Keep in mind that any links more than a year old may not be active, especially the ones pointing back to Russellmania (I like to move things around!).

Tags have been added to posts back to 2005. There may be an occasional old blog that gets added to the tag list, but in reality what could be noteworthy from that far back?

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