July 2007 Archives

I had a quick thunderstorm pass through here tonight. It probably only lasted about twenty minutes or so. There was one lightning strike that must have been extremely close. I hear this *BOOM* boom boom boom boom. And the power goes out briefly. I tried looking outside to see where it might have hit but the rain was rather intense and I didn't see any fires.

So, I am heating a small pan with water and some oil in it. It is at a rolling boil when the oil starts popping. But then it moves to a state that I haven't seen before. The oil would pop up above the water and then explode (probably from the flames around the pan). Like fireworks were going off. It was an strange mix of scary and interesting. Note to self: This is not a safe cooking method....

Japanese POW Draws His Memories Of Internment In The USSR link via

VW Bus sidecar link via

Boy vacuuming cat link via

Man with tiny brain shocks doctors link via

Five ballpark promotions that went wrong link via

Mini Son of PryThing link via

The Englishman who is leading the Tour de France (One day ahead of the actual race, aided by his mum and fuelled by jam butties and Coca-Cola) link via

Fedex - Castaway link via

Don't cut people off if your phone number is on the car link via

With Wilco being the site of The Games Of Texas, I had no choice but to play at Old Settler's again. And boy was it humid out there today. Last night there were rains, and this morning the sun was evaporating all of that water. Making me sweat constantly.

It seems that there were some roller-bladders out today. Which reminds me that I need to attend a Texas Roller Girls event some time soon before the season ends...

During the past two cycling trips I have had this unexpected problem. Its been rather hot out (after all it is Texas and it is Summer). My arms are covered in sweat. And that sweat flows down the arms to my hands where it drips off. And drips and drips and drips. For the whole trip. So at the end of the ride, my hands are rather pruney. I guess I need to try out some wrist sweatbands...

John and I went to Old Settler's Park to play disc golf as the recent rains have closed Wilco. And it seems that the rains have washed up a dead crawfish. Who knew? Maybe I should set up a trap or something...

Man, its been a while since I've played here.

And it is surprising just how easy it is to loose your fine control and throw discs in the hazards. Like streams...

At hole 16, I could see some rain off to the east. And it was not that far off. Within a couple of minutes you could feel the temperature drop five degrees -- a rain cooled air warning. Some drops started falling around hole 18 but we were in the cars quickly after that.

Easy Come, Easy Go

Jon call me up at 6:30 and tells me he is still at work. Sigh... Where are your priorities, Jon?! So we played some light filler games. Three games of the dice fest called Easy Come Easy Go. And the winning condition certainly slipped in and out of your fingers easily enough.

Bunte Runde

After three games of Easy Come, Easy Go, we played a game of Bunte Runde. Without the rules. But we think that we remembered enough of the key points to get the gist of it correct. The only hiccup was during the final scoring and we just played that everyone would score all of their points.

Arkadia

Next up was Arkadia. Which was good. Definitely a recommended game to buy. My mistake was playing off by myself and not figuring out what colors upstream people were going for and to go after them as well.

During game play, Doug had this quote:

Men are tight in this game!

So that, coupled with the strange noises Doug kept making during the game (annoying his brother Jon), got us off on a tangent. We made strange noises as well and said that they were porn noises... Poor John dealt with us with patience.

Tichu

On Doug's third Tichu call, he had two bombs (an eight bomb and a two bomb). And yet I still was able to stop him. I was a little bit too safe during this game. And it cost me the win. In hindsight, there were two Tichu calls that I could have made but didn't. I considered making them before playing, of course. But, in the end, decided against it. Sigh...

I recently saw Stranger Than Fiction and was pleasantly surprised. It was the first Will Ferrell movie where Will Ferrell didn't really suck and make the movie painful for me to watch. The story was interesting. There were big name actors in it where they played toned down roles. Except for Emma Thompson who was a suitably neurotic writer. And don't forget Maggie Gyllenhaal who was a cute anarchist baker.

Another gathering of Tex-Mex eating Tichuers at Mesa Rosa. I started off with a risky Tichu. On the next hand, Traci calls Tichu (you see her hand above) and then passes. Which is not usually done except when signaling your partner to not make a Tichu call or a random wish. John then over-Tichues and eventually goes out first. His play of trips was key since Traci did not want to get rid of her only three Aces.

On the last hand, I have AAAAKJ00765xx and I call Tichu before the pass. My partner passes me a King. Which is good. I like using these as singles since people will not usually play a Dragon or Phoenix on top of them. I split up my Aces during a pair battle and took a lot of points with them.

We left Mesa Rosa for the Mexican Ice cream store and played a couple of more hands...

The group played at the winter course on Old Settler's Park. Jon was having a little bit of a bad day it seems. And he also passed up on climbing a tree to retrieve his disc choosing instead to throw rocks at it.

John and I played on the somewhat damp Wilco course. I had one good throw on 13. But it was just a little too far away for a birdie...

Tichu

While we waited for Doug to show up, we played some Tichu. My 1223345555Ph777 somehow stopped Jon's Tichu call. And, afterwards, John plays a 6 bomb. So there was no way Jon could have made that Tichu call...

Taj Mahal

I always like playing this Knizia game. Although with five people it can be tough to know what battle others will get into. You do not want to fight somewhere where everyone else is. I did make that mistake early in the game. In an elephant battle with two others. If I would have stayed out of it, I could have got second place. Still fun playing it though.

Tichu

And another game of Tichu to finish up the night. This one being a full game. On our second one/two both Dough and Mike had long run bombs. And yet they were unable to stop us from going out one/two. Doug's was a length seven straight and in the lengthy questioning from Doug, the following statement came out:

Doug has the longest one I have ever seen!

Which led to much ribbing. On Mike's second Tichu call, I had the above hand. Which contained the rarely played straight with a bomb inside of it. I think that it is the second-most annoying type of bomb (the intersection of two bombs (a straight and quads) being the first and the Ace bomb being the third) there is.

For our final one/two, I had AKKQJ and a Mahjong through nine with a Phoenix in there somewhere. Yet I didn't call Tichu with it. Too wussy I guess.

We lost by 5 points! Argh! Close game though...

With all of the rain falling in central Texas this summer it is no surprise that some opportunistic fungus will sprout up. Quite a strange looking ball if you ask me.

I walked over to try out the Kona Grill over in the Domain. It looks like they are finishing up the new road that will connect to Burnet.

It looks like they are using rocks dug up during excavation to block off unfinished parts of the road. And, being the pedestrian hating town that it is, there are no sidewalks lining this road.

I don't know what they are doing to these poor trees. Trying to save them I guess. The saran wrapping probably keeps in water.

Oh, and the restaurant? So so food and a bit over-priced.

Hi,

I am interested in advertising on your web site, specifically on your page:
http://www.hamzy.info/blog/archives/2007/06/airport_ordeal.html

The ad would be for a airport parking web site, and would consist of a 2-3 lines of text with links
to the site. I can pay you $35 for the ad, and send it via PayPal, or check.

Would you be interested?

Bruce Armstrong

I received the above unsolicited email today. Somehow they tracked me down to another email. It doesn't even really apply to the URL. And I do not think that my readership would even appreciate having to read advertisements along with my drivel.

Horse or Deer might replace Tuna on sushi link via

For evey 100 girls link via

Flip link via

The Stylistic Artistry of the Declaration of Independence link via

On Serious Literature link via

Ten politically incorrect truths about human nature link via

Human Pixels Perform Huge Real-Time Animation link via

"William the Bloody" by Lydia Chalmers. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Watcher's Diploma (W.D.), Watcher's Academy, London, 1998 link via

Why new music doesn't sound as good as it did link via

What's hidden in the iPhone's 'fine print'? link via

How not to get hit by a bike link via

Why doesn't evolution get rid of ugly people? link via

Cool commercial link via

For parking space, the price is right at $225,000 link via

Big Wendy link via

WWI color photographs of the battle of Passchendaele link via

Gummi Bear Torture link via

Periodic table of the internet link via

Everyone's a winner link via

I finally got a chance to make this recipe from Cook's Illustrated after being sold on it by Adam. These cookies are pretty good and are a step above sugar cookies because of a couple of factors. Both the molasses from the brown sugar and the browning of the butter give this cookie extra depth. And I chose to add another complementary flavor of toffee bits.

Sadly, it was almost a non-start. After browning the butter in a pan, I poured it off into a metal bowl. When I moved the bowl to set it aside, I changed my grip from the top of the bowl to the bottom. Where it was hot enough to make me jerk my hand away. The bowl fell on the floor and sprayed hot, melted, slippery, butter everywhere. I waited a couple of days before I tried the recipe again.

Wow, it has been almost a month since I have last played Tichu. Unfortunately, there were six people present to play a four player game. The only problem that I noticed was a minor one of not trying to feed point cards to the trick that Dragon takes. Here is a scenario: your partner goes out first and you are left with one other person. You know that the Dragon has not been played. So, on single card tricks, you play a King. This will force a remaining ace out of your opponent's hand. Or, if your opponent plays the Dragon, it will go to your partner.

Today was the Three Disc Challenge. Which was an interesting concept for a tournament. Give everyone three brand new discs (a long-range disc, a mid-range disc, and a putter) and let them compete on the same course. But that was my ideal version. Reality was a let down. The biggest one was that you could use any Millennium disc in your bag. Another was that there was some variety in the selection with 5 or so long-range discs and a couple of mid-ranges to choose from. You could even choose multiple of one kind even. I did see some people trying to "break in" their brand new discs by scratching them up on the road or banging them on rocks.

The day started out poorly. It was raining heavily in the morning. A lot of people were standing around with umbrellas. In fact, this is the first time that I have played disc golf with an umbrella. Unfortunately, this course is not built to handle rain. The tee boxes turned into mud pits. You could not take any steps to throw the disc.

One amusing thing was that, out of the four people in my group, they were all project managers (or people who teach project management)! What are the odds of that?

Notre Dame

I finally got a chance to play this game. Although it looked iffy that I would play a game for a while. I arrived a little late to the monthly meetup. Everyone had started a game already. After a while some more people joined and I tried reading the rules to Notre Dame but no one was paying attention. Thankfully, John had just finished his game and came over to explain the rules.

The game was interesting to play. Everyone has nine different action card in a draw deck. They draw three of them, pick one and send the remaining two to their left. Again, one card is picked and the remaining card is passed to the left. Now, out of the three cards in your hand (one you chose and two that were passed to you), you choose two to perform the action on the card. Sometimes the choices are tough and sometimes you have no good choice. You have a number of factors to balance during the game. You need to get cubes out of your supply to place on the board. You need to control the increasing population of rats (when the counter becomes too high, bad things happen). You need to get money during the game since money is tight. Oh, and by the way, you need to score some victory points!

With all of this random card drawing and useless card passing, there are some mitigating factors. You will go through your entire action deck three times during the game. And everyone will see the same majority of characters show up.

I played Wilco one last time before the tournament tomorrow. And have still not improved much. Yes, I can throw close to the basket on a couple of holes... at least occasionally. But there are other holes on this course where I keep going into the brush on the sides. And that is not a good position to be in.

They have mowed the course. Which makes it look rather presentable...

Tempus

Finally we have gone back and played a slightly older game that, at one time, was played frequently. Well, at least for a month or so. And then it was pushed off into a dark and dusty corner when newer games came into the spotlight.

This is a lightweight civilization that has been distilled down to its bare essence. Perhaps a little bit too much, in my opinion. The theme and feel has been eroded away and you only catch a brief glimpse of a civilization game here and there. But that is not too much of a bad thing since the game works just fine as an abstract game.

During the game play we were a little bit rusty. And far too pacifistic. I lost some crucial fights in some key eras. And that hurt me a little bit. At the end of the game, I was the last person to move. I had been planing an action for a while now. This was my last ditch effort to grab second place. And it just barely worked for me. Amusingly, Ed, who was clearly in first place, was complaining that I was playing king-maker. However, I ignored that accusation as it both attacked the leader and gave me a fighting chance for second place.

Blue Moon City

To end out the night, we played Blue Moon City. It is a game built from a two-player Knizia game. The beautiful artwork on the cards depicts many different races. You run around the board and turn in cards to build the corresponding color. Once from one to three of the spots on an area are filled, the majority owner gets a resource and everyone who builds gets another resource. Usually it is crystals which are turned in for victory points. But it can be cards or dragon scales as well.

It is a nice, lightweight game. One that doesn't require much analysis. The only skill required is predicting what areas people will complete and timing aspects where you can get the jump on other people.

Another round at Wilco to prepare for this tournament. It was somewhat unusual to play on a Tuesday. John has been practicing a lot for the tournament. And it affected me enough to get me out here tonight. I made two good first throws.

Today, John and I played at Cat Hollow. And it was not a good day for me at all. All I will say is a picture of my disc in the tree. Which about sums it up...

John and I played at Wilco again. I had one good throw on hole 13. My disc is right below the small rock on the right edge and under the tree branch. John's second shot is under the basket.

Hole 18 was amusing. I threw past the trees on the right and onto the grass along side the park entrance. I wonder if this is out-of-bounds?

My second throw was a great recovery. It was high back over those trees and landed in the middle of the fairway.

Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery

I had my first playing of this new game today. It was billed as a somewhat meaty game with game mechanics from Struggle of Empires, Caylus, & Puerto Rico. But it didn't really combine those mechanics into something more interesting than the sum of the parts. I think that this is what gave me a negative impression during my play. I kept thinking fondly on those other games and wanting to be playing them instead.

Also, it was quite long for what it was and it took us 3 hours to play the game after the rules were explained.

After returning the car (and getting a better rate when the receipt was printed out), I went to the airport. I was a little worried that the problem at the airport in Scotland would cause delays. So I arrived early. But there were no problems with security at all. Too bad I did not have a putter and a golf ball.

I was hoping that somehow today would be different. There would be no problems. However, I was wrong. My flight to Dallas was delayed by 45 minutes. Fortunately I had a little extra time for my connection. Dallas was definitely having problems today. We had to wait a little bit before the plane was able go into the gate.

Walking down the concourse I saw some really tall Chinese basketball players. To bad the lighting was low enough so that I couldn't take any pictures...

I got to my next gate in time. But was then told that flight was at a different gate (which was somewhat close). And at this gate I could see my plane waiting for some baggage handlers to arrive about the time we were supposed to leave. Sigh...

During an afternoon thunderstorm, I spied a Heron standing on top of the bird feeder getting rather drenched.

I thought that the rental car was surprisingly roomy. I had more than enough head and leg room (which is important when you are 6' 3"). The horsepower was anemic though. There was a lot of lag from a dead stop. But then how can you compare it to a 380hp supercharged V8? And it seems to get good gas mileage as I have driven 180 miles and the tank is still over half full. But that may be because the tank might be oddly shaped. I will see when I fill it up before I return it. Also, the car rides a lot lower on the ground than my F-150. I regularly look straight at the middle of doors than over other cars.

Overall verdict is a thumbs up.

Update: It looks like the gas mileage was 20 MPG. So, not that good at all. Hopefully, my next car will be > 30.

Aunt Jill and I went biking around the North part of Palm Beach island. We started off here along the intracoastal waterway. It was a pretty nice path... mostly shaded... nice, expensive houses.

We paused here and looked out on Peanut Island and the inlet out to the ocean. And then headed back along North Ocean Boulevard.

One thing that I thought was amusing during the ride was the For Sale signs around here. Every sign was this tiny, little metal sign on a post (like index card sized... 3" x 5"). It must be because of some sort of zoning restriction or something. And it was quite the opposite of the hugh wooden signs around Round Rock.

I finally got a chance to order a Cubano sandwich... mmm... This sandwich is easy to order in a tiny Cuban restaurant where the staff doesn't speak English: Uno Cubano y Coca Cola por favor. With a credit card or a twenty dollar bill you don't have to worry about asking how much either...