October 2007 Archives

Nothing says fall more to me than pumpkins, sweet potatoes, and cranberries. I bought a couple of weird looking pumpkins the other day (a Sweet Dumpling Squash and an Organic Delicata Squash). So when I cut them in half and scraped their seeds out into the sink, I had an idea. Why not roast them in the oven along with the pumpkin flesh that I am cooking? The seeds turned out to rather intensely nutty, roasted, and caramelized. Perhaps a bit too much... but not bad for an experiment!

I haven't been to the Rivery in a while. And it looks like they have done some construction in my absence. They paved the parking lot, they built a restroom near the playground (and hole 1), they installed some emergency call boxes, and they put some street lights in. Some of which are directly in our line of throw on hole 6!

In fact, hole 6 is completely overgrown! And I gave up on it when my sidewinder went into the trees. Which pissed off John as he managed to par it. Hehe... but thems the breaks....

Some one wrote some graffiti on the garbage can next to hole 2. It says "I only play the games that I win at".

Still just the two of us (John and I) and still playing at Wilco. I had three good throws on holes 1, 11 and 15.

Don't you?

Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization

With three players present (and one of them being MWChapel), Through the Ages was nominated. I started off with Homer again. I really wanted to try a military strategy this time. And I started off good with Homer, two Warriors, and a Fighting Band. This allowed me to stay in the lead militarily. Which gave me the bonus when Uncertain Borders and Raiders showed up. When the first era showed up, Mike was able to take Michelangelo with a Theater. This allowed him to build two theaters and generate a lot of victory points. I was happy when I drew some aggression cards. I played Plunder against him to knock out some ore and food. On the next turn, I played Raid on him to destroy both theaters. This knocked him back down for a while. He learned his lesson real well and built up his military on the next turns.

I made one mistake in this game and it cost me the game. For some reason, Elvis Presley slipped under my radar. And when I noticed him, it was too late for me to pick it up. Sadly, there were no other point generator leaders for me to get. Doug noticed that the game was ending soon as well and picked up Elvis. This allowed him to win the game. But it was by a small margin. Less than ten points...

There were two interesting hands. The first was my first doubles as a suit of their own hand. I had the following: 6:6 5:5 3:3 2:2 6:4 3:1 2:0 and bid it as a 35. I lead off with the 6:4 as a 4. Next, I play the 6:6 and the 5:5. Thankfully the 4:4 falls which promote the 3:3 and 2:2 as winners. My partner dumps the 0:5 on one of the tricks and, surprisingly enough, the other team dumps the 4:1 on another trick. So I was able to show that I already claimed 33 points and with the 3:3 and 2:2 I could get at least two more points to make 35! Woo woo!

On the other interesting hand, my partner bids 34 and leads the 6:3 as a three. I have the 3:2 but I am worried that the 6:3 is a looser. However, the next player plays the 6:4 on it thinking the same thing. I hold off playing the 3:2 which was a mistake. My partner is already set if he loses that trick. Throwing more points on it does not hurt. And it actually is beneficial because I might not be able to throw him my 3:2 in a safe manner.

I love questions that start with "What are you doing next week?" Apparently, the maintainer for Red Hat's installer, Anaconda, is moving to Hawaii soon. So Red Hat put on a presentation for the system 390 guys. And I was selected to go as well since my new job will be on the install team. The travel booking was a frustrating process. There were two flights available. The first one was through American Airlines and it had a layover in Dallas. The second was with Jet Blue and it was a direct flight. Of course, I wanted to use the shorter direct flight. But it would sometimes show an exception and sometimes not. And during this whole process, the 2nd closest hotel's rooms booked up (the closest hotel at a 1/4 of a mile away was already sold out). I was forced to move even further away from Red Hat's office. I ended up in Tewksbury -- 13 miles away.

I arrived Sunday night. Surprisingly enough there is a Cracker Barrel right next to the hotel. I was not in the mood to eat at a place that is right next to my house. The whole point of traveling is to experience different things. There were not many restaurant choices around. So I settled on a Longhorn's Steakhouse (ugh, they even had authentic Texas Chili on the menu). The rest of the days turned out to be much better.

Some of the things that I noticed about the Boston area include:

• Dunkin' Donuts is like every where and Starbucks is almost non-existent.
• Instead of concrete curbs, they use granite (usually shaped at an angle like a triangle rather than square). But isn't New Hampshire the Granite State?
• There are vans that have a sign (with lights) up top that say "school bus". I don't remember seeing a real school bus though.

On Monday, I ate at Westford Grille. The seafood was not bad at all. They had a number of beers on tap (unsurprisingly Sam Adams, surprisingly Guinness. But it seems that there are enough Irish folk around here to warrant every pub and restaurant that I went to to have it on tap.). On Tuesday, we went to The Brewery Exchange. We had to eat downstairs because some congresswoman or senator was holding an election rally upstairs. Supposedly there are a number of big screen televisions up there and we could have watched the Red Sox in the playoffs. I had another seafood dish and it was not bad at all. But I should have ordered the lobster bake. On Wednesday, we drove to downtown Boston. We warmed up at the Cheer's Bar on Beacon Hill. And, afterwards, we walked down to Legal Seafoods. This was by far the best restaurant! The clam chowder was excellent. I tried out a new (to me) fish called Arctic Char. It is related to Salmon with a milder flavor. And I finished it off with a Boston Cream pie. Well, not a slice of a pie per se, but it was definitely worth it. In fact, Legal Seafoods was so good that I ate there again on Saturday by myself. (And wouldn't you know but they have locations in Town Center, Boca Raton and CityPlace, West Palm Beach). On Thursday, we drove out to Firefly's B-B-Q. There is not that many BBQ joints in this neck of the woods. So Firefly's tried to make up for it by offering six different styles of sauces. Their Texas Sauce was made with chipotle and black molasses and it was not that great. On Friday, I went out on a limb and tried the Europa Cafe since it claimed that it was a Portuguese restaurant. I was a little worried when I drove to the place using a small advertisement map. But I found it after walking around a neighborhood. The place looked like a small neighborhood bar. There were some tables off in a corner but the lights were turned off. So I sat at the bar instead. I ordered the Chourico a "Bombeiro" for an appetizer and the Bacalhau a Casa for the main dish. The chourico came on top of a cute porcelain pig. The back of the pig was slatted to simulate a grill. The woman poured some Jose Cuervo inside of it and lit it with a match. Another amusing incident occurred when a guy in a purple pimp costume (complete with a large, fake, gold chain that said "pimp") walked downstairs. The people in the bar gave him grief.

The ride into Boston on Wednesday night was easy enough that I did it again on Saturday. From my hotel in Tewksbury, I took 495 (exit 35a) -> 3 (exit 25b) -> 95 (25b) -> 2 -> Alewife station. And then took the subway down to Park Street. One important thing to remember is to not get off on the road that says 2A. But wait for the next exit for 2. Stoopid trap! Another oddity is on the exit out of Alewife. There are two roads that merge into one and both have lights that turn green at the same time! I wonder who was responsible for that screw up?

I was a little worried at the start of the week since the weather forecast was predicting rain on Saturday. But it cleared up nicely and turned out to be a sunny day in the 70s. I walked the Freedom Trail out to the U.S.S. Constitution and back. The trail is helpful in that it has a line of red bricks (or paint) running along the trail. Or at least most of it. There is a problem when you get to the Faneuil Hall Marketplace and the line runs into a large, open market. And the line runs through two areas where it is fenced off. I took some pictures here. I also climbed the Bunker hill monument. Which was interesting. The width of the stairwell is enough for one person. Yet you always have to pass people going up or going down. The condensation was amazing. Every stair was wet. And after I made it up to the top, I realized that the iron banister (only on the right, not the left side) that I held on was rusted because of the dampness and my hands were stained orange.

Well, my battery finally gave out and I put the second battery in the camera. I love the new high capacity batteries that the Mark III uses. I was able to take 4640 pictures (as well as a lot of chimping) on a single charge!

Overall the trip was really fun. The Red Hat guys sure know how to party. I would get back to my hotel at 1 in the morning each day. Which destroyed my sleeping schedule. I also ate and drank a lot. Oh, and by the way, I did learn Anaconda in depth. The only negative was my upstairs neighbor in the hotel. For some reason, that person would walk back and forth constantly at all hours of the day and night. Which just baffled me. The room is rather small with a bed, a bathroom, a couch, and a small kitchen. I don't know what required walking back and forth twenty times at a pop.

Robot chair that fixes itself link via

The Discworld reading order guide link via

Honor system payment for music link via

Craigslist Meets WallStreet link via

The spraypainting of Tica link via

Using evolutionary algorithms to avoid patents link via

Cleaning up photos link via

Benders Big Score - DVD-Trailer link via

Hiking up Mont Blanc with a portable jacuzzi link via

Turning a monitor into a lighting ring for photography link via

High tech kitchen gadgets link via

Nuclear rifle link via

Computation photography link via

Vista commercial link via

Study finds that people are programmed to love chocolate link via

When I first moved into the house, it had spiders. Which I did not mind as long as they left me alone. After all, a live spider means dead insects. But now I am seeing lizards in the house. Or at least dessicated husks of babies that could not eat enough bugs. While it is sad that these lizards are dying, I guess that I am happy that there are not enough insects in my house to keep them alive.

Taking the picture was rather interesting, and frustrating. I used a EF-25 II on the 70-200mm. I also used the live view feature to focus. It was kind of neat to see the razor thin plane of focus move up and down the lizard. Of course the wind kept blowing the body around and the slightest touch on the lens would jitter the picture. And I had to use an umbrella to see the screen in the bright sunlight.

Today, the "group" met at Old Settler's. And, by group, I mean John. It looks like a "bridge" was built over the tiny creek. I guess some construction equipment needed access and the tiny, wooden bridge was not cutting it.

Apparently there is a famous snake that lives at hole four called Bogey. I don't think I have ever seen a snake at Old Settler's before.

It seems Old Settler's park is rather crowded today. We did not throw at hole sixes' tee box for fear of whacking a car. Given the number of people walking dogs out here, John guess that Barktober fest was going on here. We asked a couple with two large dogs (Great Danes?) and they confirmed his guess.

I often see wild mushrooms growing in different spots. But there are many poisonous varieties. Does large equate to edible? Who am I kidding? I don't eat mushrooms at all. Even store bought ones.

Some one lost a retriever it seems. But it looks pretty short to me. Not much use in my experience

Mmmm, beer! John is slowly completing his transformation. He brought some beer to disc golf today. Now all he needs is to carry some Mary Jane...

John and I were playing great today. We kept neck-in-neck in the score. And we had a number of great throws. Which I attribute to the beer...

Tichu

Jon continues to work up until the starting time. What a work-a-holic. So, we started a Tichu game. Initially, John was displeased for being placed on Chapel's team. He then made us draw for partners. It was poetic justice when the cards determined that he remain with Mike.

On the first hand, John calls Tichu and was set by me. The next hand, John again calls Tichu and leads a length nine straight. This time, I over-Tichu and play an Ace-high straight. Given my three Aces and Dragon, I had an easy time of stopping John (surprisingly enough, Chapel knew I had those cards). But I don't blame him for calling Tichu with a long straight.

For the next three hands, Doug had a natural bomb. On one, he helped me go out on my Tichu and on the remaining two, he made his Tichus.

With such a commanding lead at this point, you would think that the game would coast to the finish. But the other team came back a little bit. Mike a couple of Tichus (with Jon helping on one). However, I was able to deal the death-blow when I made my Tichu with points to spare.

McMulti

Next up was Mc Multi. I was happy when someone suggested it. It had been a while since it was last on this table. I started off spending all of my money but $13 on a refinery, a gas station, and a bunch of oil rigs. I hoped to get lucky and strike oil first. Doug saved some money to possibly switch strategies after the first couple of turns played out. Jon was on the sell gas route with no oil rigs.

When play got back to me, no one had struck oil. So i thought I had another chance at a lucky strike. But the opposite happened when I caused both a change in economics and a news event. A $50 tax on refineries came up and I had to sell almost everything to pay it off. Sigh. I probably could have recovered from that, but the dice were against me in this game. I almost never was able to sell gas on the open market while others could. And when I was finally able to sell, the price was so low that it was not worth it. So I just coasted out the game and worked on the computer. I ended the game in last place.

We had six people play at Cat Hollow today. Including a relative of Nick and Stephanie who I teamed with. I had great first shots on some of the toughest holes for me, holes 2 and 7. So I was happy. But, even though I asked if people wanted to have lunch with me at the Tilted Kilt at the start (because I had errands in that area). When the group finished, everyone ditched me. Sigh.

Double or Nothing

It must be an episode of the Twilight Zone. Because I played the same games in the same order. Weird, huh? Double or nothing did give me double the same feeling as yesterday.

Khronos

Another game of Khronos was played because we wanted to see if this game is worth it or not. Plus, the rules were fresh on our minds. For both games, we played with the variant of putting three face up cards to choose from. This is a small step in the direction of being able to choose your strategy effectively. But this game really needs a bigger hand size! In the last game, the three face up cards quickly filled up with one color and stagnated. But in this game, I noticed that different people were going for different colors. So there were cycles in what was available. I was lucky that Tim was going after purple (which I was not). Tim would grab the purple cards and replace them with orange. Which I then grabbed and put back purple. This helps if the person before you is going for a different color if you are. But it hurts if the person upstream from you is going for the same color that you want (which was Mike in this game).

I made a bad initial first move by placing a size 1 orange building on one blue and a size 2 orange building on another blue that was next to the first. I had originally planned to join them for my next move. But Jon took advantage of me by placing a size 2 orange building on the sized 1's domain. Now I cannot join them because the best I can do is tie in strengths. And in this game ties are bad for the initiator. So, I postponed and upgraded the 2 building to a 4.

And a little bit later on, I was also in a battle with Mike. I now have two orange battles to fight (not a good situation to be in). Fortunately, I was able to tie Mike in strength and Mike was unable to attack either of my two groups. But then the pain started!

Now it is Jon's turn and he is seriously considering joining Mike and my domains of equal strength and choosing the winner. Instead of fighting a battle that helps him elsewhere. He is not in either side of this battle. But he thinks that he has nothing better to do than to cause chaos and hope it maybe clears out the board and that eventually helps him out. So I sit there dreading Jon's move. Because if he does that, then I am effectively out of the game. And, as if that was not bad enough, Mary is considering the same thing!! She is fighting Tim elsewhere but she is still tempted to resolve Mike's and my battle.

Ugh! Such a painful part of that game for me. Fortunately, nothing happened and I was able to reduce Mike. Which put him out of the game. But at least the killing stoke was from the opponent and not from Joe Random Person. This variant seems to favor large buildings. And it is hard to get back into the fight when my domain covers most of the board.

At the end of the game, I never moved either of my two travelers. I only scored in the first board ("Age of Might"). But the second scoring netted me an impressive 34 points.

My poor truck hit the big 40 today. Fortunately, it happened at a stop light and not when I'm driving on my favorite slalom course I call IH-35. While I am mildly itching to get a new car, I do not know what to get. Sure, I'd love to get a Corvette Z-06. But I can't justify spending 70K for a new 'vette. I would also like to get a second hand, high miles per gallon car. But I want at least 40+ mpg. And I don't want to pay the new car smell tax. Maybe a Volkswagen TDI diesel? The Honda Insight is cute. And I see a lot of them around. But I doubt that I would comfortably fit my body in one of those things.

John and I played at Wilco today. Its still pretty hot out there. Still feels like summer even though it is most definitely fall. But I can't complain. At least I had one good throw in me.

Double or Nothing

We started out the night with a light and easy Knizia game. It is somewhat reminiscent of Cloud 9. But for some reason, the initial impression was that you really didn't push your luck as much as you did in Cloud 9. But I will not diss the master yet.

Khronos

John brought out his new game (although Chapel said that he played it during the last BGG.CON). Unfortunately, the rules were written in a confusing manor. Both in the overall explanation/rules flow and wordage. For example, "Rule of Dominion", "Rule of Hierarchy", and "Temporal Paradox". But we eventually figured it out.

The first thing that I noticed was the lack of a buffer in this game. You have a hand size of four cards. And you can build at most four cards. You are dependent on what cards you are dealt. But certain cards are better than others. Also, you can only concentrate on two of three boards. So you have to make long term choices.

Building medium and large buildings propagate in time. Which means that they are also placed on the second and third boards. You can take a chance and build in the second board for more victory points. But the trade-off is that the buildings can be destroyed by building in the first board. Which make the orange cards the safest to build.

Also, what is interesting is that Orange buildings score on the first board and purple buildings score on the second board. Since the medium and large buildings mirror across the boards, you see the same layout. One person will be the orange majority in the first board and another person can be the purple majority in the second board.

At first, this game looked like a three-dimensional version of Tigris & Euphrates. But, given the restrictive hand size, given the fact that you have to pay two victory points to re-draw cards, and given the fact that you cannot keep cards for later turns, turns this into a very tactical game rather than a strategic game. And I don't know if it is a good tactical game.

With six doubles in my hand, I just had to bid (6:6 5:5 4:4 3:3 1:1 0:0 6:1). The safe bid is a two-mark bid. If that goes around, I lead the 6:1 as a one with no trump and claim. Unbeatable. But I was in a risky mood and decided to plunge! I should have realized that, unless my partner has the other double, that he would not take a trick and punt. He could call some suit trump and hope that I had the top double. In this hand, he fortunately did not do that because he would have called twos trump and we would have been set. So he just punted to me in a six. Which I wanted, because it drew sixes out. And I needed to walk a low six at the end. My next play was a mistake. I played the 5:5. This lets people play their lowest fives and I need the 6:5 to fall. What I should have done was save the 4:4 and 5:5 for the third and second to last plays. Hopefully, by then, people will only have one of a number and be forced to play the 6:5 and 6:4. Sadly, only the 6:4 fell to my four and the 6:5 stopped me.