A whopping eight (8) degrees this morning, with the wind. I am so looking forward to the commute this morning. Of course, this is probably nothing compared to Vermont buddies. Like them, it’s not the cold I mind, but the commuting in the cold. The bus is always too hot, especially after bundling up to go outside. Then it’s another jarring climate change when I go back outside. Then once more when I get to the office.
It’s not really my thing, I really don’t cook. I think I heat things up, mostly. When pressured, I can throw things into a slow cooker or follow a recipe. For the most part, I don’t cook.
I do love food. Which is why I like watching the food network at people’s houses or reading SlashFood.
That said, this recipe for a Hawaiian inspired cranberry relish sounds tasty. I think the lychees would be good in there.
You may or may not have heard of this white box coming from Microsoft. You may have heard of its capabilities to render entire worlds, to create online communities, play all of your (completely legal) media from your PC on your television, and make a damn tasty omelette.
Me being me, I want one. I want one now. First revision hardware be damned, I want one. I have four other consoles connected to the television, games still in shrink wrap, games I can’t even play because they are Japanese imports, and I want one.
But I also wanted a condo and I got one. Now look at me.
I couldn’t bring myself to buy another console. After all, this is the “Year of Restraint.”
On the other hand, what if I earned it?
So two weeks ago, I made a deal with myself. I said, “Self, have I got a deal for you!”
I don’t drink enough water. I find it endearing that this particular behavior is a bad habit because you don’t do it.
I would pay myself one dollar each half-liter bottle I drank at work. Nothing extreme. By all accounts and by what “they” say, I’m supposed to drink about three or four of these a day. By putting the $800 carrot down the line, I figured that I would be able to drink that much water in about six months.
In two weeks, I made $7.
I obviously do not drink enough water.
I’m not entirely sure how I feel about a board game based on an MMO*. On the one hand, it’s social interaction with other human beings. On the other, it’s a board game based on an MMO. I’m all for board and card games. When I used to live in a house, UNO ruled the roost, with Street Puzzle Fighter II Turbo coming in a close second.
I enjoy analog games (I’m referring to board and card games, in this case) quite a bit. There’s nothing wrong with breaking out a box and getting some friends together and playing. Although the “getting some friends together” seems to be the hardest part. That’s why it was so much fun in the house. You already had the two to eight players necessary for a round of whatever you wanted to play.
Then there was the rampant cheating, which I enjoyed quite a bit. The house rule for UNO was, “If you get caught cheating, eight card penalty.” The operative word in that rule being, “caught.” I remember one time we finished playing UNO and we ended up with more cards than when we started. I couldn’t fit the cards back in the box, I think we had three decks instead of two.
The game isn’t important at that point, it’s the socialization. Which is why a version of World of WarCraft bothers me so much. The computer takes care of so many rules behind the scenes that you can socialize through chat without having to do anything other than have fun. When you’re rolling dice and following the rules outlined in a game manual that is forty pages long, I’m not sure you’ll have enough time to socialize when you’re not playing the undocumented super secret elite class, “Rules Lawyer.”
I’ve skimmed through the manual and it looks very tedious. I’m sure that there is a market for people that will buy this game, people who have level 60 characters, have all epic equipment, and are rabid fans of Blizzard. For me, that eighty dollars (Yes, eight-zero.) is better spent on my monthly fees.
Some may argue that pen and paper roleplaying games have rules, books and books of them. I argue that these games have Game or Dungeon Masters. Their role is to streamline games. The good ones bend rules when necessary, make judgment calls, and arbitrate conflicts between players. I’d like to take this time to point out an example from a friend of mine, I hope she doesn’t mind me quoting part of her story here.
Two characters (and naturally, the players) were having an argument over a ring which may or may not have been magical. Their bickering was holding up the game, and making people uncomfortable. It escalated to the point where one character actually swallowed the ring to keep it from the other character. In order to keep the game moving, she made a decision:
“You pass the ring in 1d4** days.”
I don’t see that in the WoW rulebook.
* Massively Multiplayer Online (Game)
** One die four. A pen and paper role playing game term that means, “Roll one four sided die.” 2d10, 4d8, 6d6, 1d20, etc.
Went to bed at nine-thirty last night.
Woke up around sixish. Felt really good.