Oh yeah, I have a blog!

This past weekend was BGG Con. 4 days of nothing but board games and board gamers! This year was my second year to attend, and again, I had a lot of fun! This year, I decided to take a more relaxed approach to the con. My 'to play' list really only consisted of one game... Space Alert! Space Alert was created by the same guy who created my favorite game, Galaxy Trucker. Fortunately for me, the people who were running the con learned from past experiences of people checking out the new hot games and keeping them away from anyone else that wanted to play and created a 'new hot games' room where everyone would have a fair chance at playing. I got to play Space Alert...several times! The verdict? Well, while it was a lot of fun during the game, I think that the end game was kinda unsatisfying. If we saved the ship, it was like 'Um...cool...we survived'. If we died, it wasn't nearly as entertaining as Galaxy Trucker.

Having played Space Alert early, I was free to just play games at a leisurely rate and hang out with friends. I did manage to meet a few as well (In fact, one claimed to have read this blog and I realized that I hadn't updated it in quite some time). Other games I played were:

Dominion - not bad...Ill call it Magic Lite
Tribune - Good, but do we really need another worker placement game?
Loopin Louie - I had the most fun playing this kids game! I jumped at every opportunity to play this. I even was able to secure a copy at the flea market.
Race for the Galaxy - This was fun, but there are some people out there that take this game too seriously. I'm starting to think that this game takes itself too seriously with all the expansions coming out.
Le Havre - Worker placement game by the same guy that made Agricola...another worker placement game. Less complicated than Agricola (this is a good thing).
Ticket to Ride: Dice Tourney - Ticket to Ride with dice! Eh, I could live without adding more randomness to a random game, although rolling dice was less stressful than waiting for the right color to come up.
Rattlesnake - How do people get away with making games like this? Magnets? Really?
Say Anything - From the same guys that made Wits and Wagers. They are at it again, making party games about opinions about peoples opinions.
Stone Age - A worker placement game about building a caveman economy. I'm having problems distinguishing from all of these new rash of worker placement games.
It's Alive! - Um...an auction game about building your own frankenstein monster...but not nearly as interesting.
Bottle Imp - Interesting trick taking game.
Pandemic - Co-operative game about saving the world from disease. Probably the most tolerable of the co-op games (before Space Alert) I have played. Unfortunately, this game breaks down to a few people telling everyone else what to do the entire game.

I'm sure that there were other games I played, but I'm a little wiped out right now. There was one game I do remember that was kinda neat. It had to do with making circus animals align themselves in different positions by giving them remedial commands. The animals only knew few commands and the goal was to yell out the right command to get the animals to get into the right position...the first one to do so, scores points. For some reason, it kinda reminded me of my programming days.

Also, during the con, there was an event called "Game Show". Basically, its a bunch of teams all competing against each other in the mode of the old game shows. This one was called "Hot Streak". The point was to figure out puzzles by looking at sort of random images and forming the answers. Last year, our team, "Shining Wits" (a spoonerism...so I'm told), rocked everyone and captured first place. This year, we finished a disappointing third. I had told someone at the con that we had won last year and they told me that we were going down!!! ...we beat that team. :p

What else?

Lisa and I got down our Christmas decorations from the attic and put up lights on the house. Its starting to feel like Christmas again (good and bad). I guess I need to start thinking about what to buy people this year. I'm hoping that bad economy = good bargains. Which reminds me, I need to come up with my Black Friday attack plan.

I think Aly is sick. She has been sleeping since 2pm and I think she may sleep the whole night. It is nice and quiet around here, but I haven't seen much of her or Lisa the past couple of days and I crave some time with my girls.

Anyway, I'm going to try to keep up with this blog. I am realizing that I may have more people visiting this blog than I thought... I have to keep the fans happy!

I'm convinced I have a doppelganger.

So, three times this past week, someone I have never met before, has come up to me and told me that they have met me before. Thats possible, but all three of these people are new to the area and have just moved from out of the state. I don't know what to make of it, but I hope that my doppelganger is not making lots of money off of my looks...hey! my wife has that 'mental disorder' that makes me look good to her, Im sure there are others out there...maybe my doppelganger has successfully cornered that market. I just hope he hasn't pissed off any foreign nationals with armies of 'no-necks'.

Just an update

Ok, so no Soy Sauce ramblings this time. Just a simple update on what I have been up to lately. This past weekend, Lisa and I put together a wooden play set for Alycea. I am so thankful for Lisa's organizational skills. We bought the building from Toys R Us as a big kit. She actually took the time to label every piece of wood and seperate the hardware (nails, screws, etc...) into little baggies corresponding to each step in the instructions. Needless to say, while time consuming, the assembly was a piece of cake. We just have to attach the swings and anchor it to the ground. Alycea will soon be in swing set heaven.

I have been playing some volleyball lately. I have been blessed with meeting some great guys in Frisco that I actually get along with. We have been playing a league in Frisco that is suprisingly pretty competetive (although there are some teams that are definitely not). Last night we went to this place in Richardson to play with 'the big boys' and I felt we did very well. In fact, we were able to beat the team that usually holds the court (when we play winner stays). It helps that we picked up the best player in the gym, but I was impressed by how fast our team is on defense. Personally, I have been motivated lately because one of the people that plays in Frisco was the Division II All American Libero last year (not to mention Division II record holder for digs in a season) and plays very inspiring defense. I have decided to try to elevate my defense. I think we can be competetive this season in USAV (I didn't say we would win, especially since here in the NT region, they mix all level, but we wont embarrass ourselves). Now I need to get over this latest bout of knee pain I have gotten from overtraining lately.

I am so glad football season is here. Baseball is big here in the office and I think that if football season had come up any later, I would have hung myself. But my Broncos are off to a great start after embarrassing the hated Raiders this past weekend. Bring on the banged up Chargers!

Kinda bummed that I will miss game day this weekend because I have to w@rk.

ok, so Im a Soy Sauce Snob!

Yesterday, we spent the day recovering from a very long weekend. Lisa was out of town helping her mom with a garage sale, and I was left to fend for myself. Although I got to play a lot of volleyball, I usually don't do well when Lisa is not around. Her mere presence keeps me from reverting back to my college, 'stay up all night' days and not having anyone to come home to after work makes me stay at work way too long. Anyway, we took advantage of Labor Day by resting and getting some grocery shopping in. I decided to hit the local asian market for some foodstuffs that were wearing thin in the pantry, most notably soy sauce (ok, I was totally out...bad asian!). So, I just figured that I would hit the local H-mart and grab some soy sauce along with a few other smelly items (yes, I did bring them for lunch...so Im going to be 'that guy'). H-mart is one of those super asian grocery chains specializing mostly in Korean items, but they do stock items from all over asia (and even a small Mexican section...I live in Texas after all). Anyway, the first place I hit was the Soy Sauce aisle. For some reason, I believe that the only ingredients that should be in Soy Sauce is: water, soy beans, and salt. Would you believe that the only bottle of Soy Sauce that had only those ingredients was $16! There must have been over 100 different brands of Soy Sauce. Most of them contained wheat, but some of them contained weird ingredients like High Fructose Corn Syrup and 'spirits'. One of them contained an ingredient called 'Soy Sauce'...go figure. I don't know why this bothered me so much, but I felt like ranting. A call to Lisa and my good friend Jason only netted me goofing and ridicule. Frustrated, I purchased all of my other goods and drove over to a smaller market down the road, Ko-Mart, another Korean grocery store that I had had more success in the past. What do you know...they had several bottles of Soy Sauce with the minimal ingredients I required...for only $3. Victory was mine! I bought a big bottle this time (I couldn't tell you the brand because it was in Korean...I couldn't even type it if I did know). Bottom line, Soy Sauce shopping annoys me. I guess this is the price I pay for being a Soy Sauce Snob.

Hey! I never said that you would get useful information, nor even be entertained, by reading my blog.

Jammin'

Aly and me Jammin'! We had so much fun!

I have my appetite back!

For the past couple of weeks, I have not been able to eat anything. For some reason, no food sounded good to me. This is a big problem for someone that loves food as much as I do. The positive side is that I was able to lose some weight, but not eating kinda sucks. However, for some reason, last night I just couldn't get enough food! It was so nice. Im trying to think of all the things that I did recently that could have helped... I did a leg workout, I ate custard, I watched Pretty Woman with Lisa... Who knows, but I feel great this morning. I also got a good night's rest. I stayed in the guest bedroom last night because that is the only room in the house that has a bed and away from croaking toads. Anyway, got some sleep, got my appetite back, I'm in a great mood, its friday...Im ready to blow it up!

The Dark Side Calling?

so, yesterday, my co-worker and I went to cowtown to a presentation about hacking wireless networks. Every time I go to these talks, I want to come back and try out some stuff. I suppose its the dark side in me calling me to do nefarious things. I suppose I owe it to my profession to actually try out some of the things the bad guys do, but its hard to balance work, family, and hacking. That being said, I secured an atheros card and downloaded some tools. Time to go down the rabbit hole...oh and for the record, the food at the North Dallas ISSA chapter is much better. In fact, the "BBQ" that the cowtown chapter ordered pretty much tasted like fail. I couldn't eat dinner because I was so put off by it.

The toads are keeping me up again tonight. About twice a year, we get toads that come to our pond and call out for mates. The mating call of woodhouse toads is like nails on a chalkboard to me and they sure are persistent! All freakin' night this guy called out! Can someone get this guy a mate for cryin' out loud!

The good thing, I suppose, about being up last night is that I got to watch the finals women's beach volleyball match. I am amazed at how good May/Wash are. It didn't even seem like the Chinese were at the same level. Playing in the rain made for an epic match! Go USA!

I seriously need coffee...

Actually played volleyball a couple nights ago...sucked it up. I may be getting burned out. I might also be getting desperate. I almost purchased some JumpSoles.

I seriously need a vacation...