... do not include a nose. Though I'd rather not.
No. I refer to family.
I think I ended up with a fairly good one. I don't agree with most of the extended family on some things that matter to me (a lot of them being political issues), but we're all at least a little kind, funny, and sarcastic. Plus, we have history!
The good points of today (Thanksgiving) was seeing Katie and Diana (and the two J's too); I hadn't seen them in a long time, and it was good to play games with them. Then there was Mom, Dad, Grandma, and S, who I'd seen more recently, but were good to see again nonetheless. And all the rest. Playing games, eating together... I like that. Best point - beating each other with soft swords and axes, though it got a little old when Joe and Vann went into super competitive mode. We also got to play good games like kickball, which don't happen often due to a lack of people.
The bad point was when Taylor and Brad started purposely picking each other's cards in Apples to Apples. Then Fran would always pick the card that Angelica indicated was hers. It broke the game, which bummed me out enough except that Taylor and Brad kept denying they were doing it, because they found it funny.
I don't know why I was bothered by it so much. Games aren't that serious, and I typically don't mind too much if I lose. But there's a sense of fairness in playing them right, a sort of social code or contract everyone enters into, a frame to have fun around. The game is fun when anyone can enjoy some success, and any of the banter that goes around otherwise is incidental fun (a lesson Scott could learn). But once the possibility of success in play goes away, what's the point? Especially in a game like Apples to Apples, when picking the best noun/adjective match matters, what's the point when the choice is determined so crudely?
So I didn't pick them. For better and for worse. If the worst thing we have going around is lying in a game, it could be worse.
Nov 27, 2008
Nov 22, 2008
Meter
I tried to teach Scott meter yesterday,
And he caught on pretty quickly, sometimes
Breaking the pattern for the sake of play
With the refinement of a little child's
Innocent pantomime. Play is the word,
The riled-up sort that comes after days
And days, effortless unstrained sprinting.
Can you say what line is above?
Could you answer what measure be this?
(Trochees aren't my skill, sadly,
By the reach of my silver tongue.)
And he caught on pretty quickly, sometimes
Breaking the pattern for the sake of play
With the refinement of a little child's
Innocent pantomime. Play is the word,
The riled-up sort that comes after days
And days, effortless unstrained sprinting.
Can you say what line is above?
Could you answer what measure be this?
(Trochees aren't my skill, sadly,
By the reach of my silver tongue.)
Nov 9, 2008
From a Friend
James's Dewey Decimal Section:
093 Incunabula
James's birthday: 10/8/1985 = 108+1985 = 2093
Class:
000 Computer Science, Information & General Works
Contains:
Encyclopedias, magazines, journals and books with quotations.
What it says about you:
You are very informative and up to date. You're working on living in the here and now, not the past. You go through a lot of changes. When you make a decision you can be very sure of yourself, maybe even stubborn, but your friends appreciate your honesty and resolve.
Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com
James's Dewey Decimal Section:
072 Newspapers in British Isles; in England
James = 01359 = 013+59 = 72
Class:
000 Computer Science, Information & General Works
Contains:
Encyclopedias, magazines, journals and books with quotations.
What it says about you:
You are very informative and up to date. You're working on living in the here and now, not the past. You go through a lot of changes. When you make a decision you can be very sure of yourself, maybe even stubborn, but your friends appreciate your honesty and resolve.
Find your Dewey Decimal Section at Spacefem.com
I can't wait until someone makes a Library of Congress value assignation.
Well, back to the Incunabula! Just like Merlin!
Nov 7, 2008
Retro Gaming: Mission Impossible
Oh my. Ooooooh my.
First, some context. There was this game, Mission Impossible, for the Commodore 64. The C64 was an old computing system from the 1980s that got used for tons of games. It was the first computer I used, and my first game system.
The game's premise was that you were going through a series of rooms and elevator shafts in a mad scientist's layer, trying to search through desks, bookshelves, and so on for puzzle pieces. Completing the puzzle pieces would give the missile codes to prevent the mad scientist from launching a missile. In each room were robots to be evaded with different programmed behaviors, like electrifying a particular spot, or patroling back and forth. The layout of the hideout, and the behavior of the robots in the rooms, were randomized. And the trick is that you only have 6 hours... and you lose ten minutes whenever you die. Like any game from that time, it wasn't easy, and I never beat it.
It's a very pleasing game, even now. The haunting voice, "Another visitor. Stay a while. Stay forever!" is still cool. The character's steps sound like ice skating or something like that. The sprite's running and jumping actions are fluid. So on and so forth.
Anyway, I had forgotten all about it until today, when I went browsing for games. I found a Nintendo DS port of Mission Impossible for $10. It has a version with updated graphics and an original version. Needless to say, I bought it and played both. It's an improvement. There's a save feature. The bottom screen is used for the layout map, and they've enabled some simple touch-screen commands, though it's nothing revolutionary. It's worth the $10, though not much more than that. A 24 year old game has seldom looked better.
Here's a video if anyone's interested on seeing at least a little gameplay: http://www.archive.org/details/C64Gamev ... bleMission
First, some context. There was this game, Mission Impossible, for the Commodore 64. The C64 was an old computing system from the 1980s that got used for tons of games. It was the first computer I used, and my first game system.
The game's premise was that you were going through a series of rooms and elevator shafts in a mad scientist's layer, trying to search through desks, bookshelves, and so on for puzzle pieces. Completing the puzzle pieces would give the missile codes to prevent the mad scientist from launching a missile. In each room were robots to be evaded with different programmed behaviors, like electrifying a particular spot, or patroling back and forth. The layout of the hideout, and the behavior of the robots in the rooms, were randomized. And the trick is that you only have 6 hours... and you lose ten minutes whenever you die. Like any game from that time, it wasn't easy, and I never beat it.
It's a very pleasing game, even now. The haunting voice, "Another visitor. Stay a while. Stay forever!" is still cool. The character's steps sound like ice skating or something like that. The sprite's running and jumping actions are fluid. So on and so forth.
Anyway, I had forgotten all about it until today, when I went browsing for games. I found a Nintendo DS port of Mission Impossible for $10. It has a version with updated graphics and an original version. Needless to say, I bought it and played both. It's an improvement. There's a save feature. The bottom screen is used for the layout map, and they've enabled some simple touch-screen commands, though it's nothing revolutionary. It's worth the $10, though not much more than that. A 24 year old game has seldom looked better.
Here's a video if anyone's interested on seeing at least a little gameplay: http://www.archive.org/details/C64Gamev ... bleMission
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