Autumn has arrived.
Jackets are pulled from storage,
Tea begins to steep.
Friday, October 12, 2012
Thursday, October 11, 2012
Unused Ideas
I'm a fairly creative guy. I come up with ideas all the time, but I’m terribly inconsistent when it comes to following through with them. And while I still hold out hope that I’ll eventually get most of my ideas solidified and posted on YouTube, I figured I’d share them in the meantime as someone else will probably find them amusing.
First up, a board game spoof of the following scene from “Walk Hard,” which itself is a spoof of “Walk the Line,” both of which are worth seeing:
And now the spoof:
[Joseph walks into Brian’s dinning room, where Brian, Jeff, Donovan and Jen are playing]
Joseph: What are y'all doin' in here?
Brian: We're playing 7 Wonders and you don't want no part of this shit.
Joseph: You're playing 7 Wonders?
Brian: Yeah, 'course we are; haven’t you played before?
Joseph: No, Brian. I haven’t.
Ben: Come on, Joseph! Play the game!
[pulls out an open chair next to him]
Brian: No, Joseph, you don't want this. Get outta here!
Joseph: You know what, it probably doesn’t play more than four. I don’t want to kick someone else out.
Brian: It plays up to seven people!
Joseph: Well, it’s probably really difficult to learn, huh?
Brian: I can teach you the rules in about five minutes!
Joseph: Oh, okay... well, I don't know... I don’t really want to commit a couple of hours to a game right now.
Brian: You can finish a game in thirty minutes!
Joseph: It's not gonna make me wanna buy expansions, is it?
Brian: The expansions make the game even better!
Joseph: Sounds kind of expensive.
Brian: It's only $35 on Amazon. And I already own a copy!
Joseph: [at a loss and out of excuses] Hmm.
Brian: You don't want to play it!
Joseph: I think I kinda want to play it.
Brian: Okay, but just this once. Choose a wonder.
[holds out remaining wonder boards]
---------[additional ending]------------
[Jen or Susie walks into Brians’s, where Brian, Jeff, Donovan, Jen and now Joe are playing]
Jen/Susie: Hey guys, what’s up?
Joseph: We're playing 7 Wonders and you don't want no part of this shit.
--FIN--
First up, a board game spoof of the following scene from “Walk Hard,” which itself is a spoof of “Walk the Line,” both of which are worth seeing:
And now the spoof:
[Joseph walks into Brian’s dinning room, where Brian, Jeff, Donovan and Jen are playing]
Joseph: What are y'all doin' in here?
Brian: We're playing 7 Wonders and you don't want no part of this shit.
Joseph: You're playing 7 Wonders?
Brian: Yeah, 'course we are; haven’t you played before?
Joseph: No, Brian. I haven’t.
Ben: Come on, Joseph! Play the game!
[pulls out an open chair next to him]
Brian: No, Joseph, you don't want this. Get outta here!
Joseph: You know what, it probably doesn’t play more than four. I don’t want to kick someone else out.
Brian: It plays up to seven people!
Joseph: Well, it’s probably really difficult to learn, huh?
Brian: I can teach you the rules in about five minutes!
Joseph: Oh, okay... well, I don't know... I don’t really want to commit a couple of hours to a game right now.
Brian: You can finish a game in thirty minutes!
Joseph: It's not gonna make me wanna buy expansions, is it?
Brian: The expansions make the game even better!
Joseph: Sounds kind of expensive.
Brian: It's only $35 on Amazon. And I already own a copy!
Joseph: [at a loss and out of excuses] Hmm.
Brian: You don't want to play it!
Joseph: I think I kinda want to play it.
Brian: Okay, but just this once. Choose a wonder.
[holds out remaining wonder boards]
---------[additional ending]------------
[Jen or Susie walks into Brians’s, where Brian, Jeff, Donovan, Jen and now Joe are playing]
Jen/Susie: Hey guys, what’s up?
Joseph: We're playing 7 Wonders and you don't want no part of this shit.
--FIN--
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Renga: 100-player laser pointer game
While waiting around Saturday night for 10:50pm showing of "Looper", which I highly recommend you go see, my girlfriend and I stumbled across the grounds of IndieCade 2012.
IndieCade (i.e., International Festival of Independent Games) is:
Initially players are harvesting resources from asteroids for use in building their space ship, which involves walling in floating elements (e.g., storage, engines and shields) and then connecting them to each other, all under a time constraint. Once time runs out, the ship spends a round being bombarded by outside forces, which can be destroyed by hovering laser pointers at specific points around them. If they survive the whole cycle is repeated, with the players eventually reaching the final boss stage.
It looks like a lot of fun and I'd love to get a chance to try it out with a bunch of friends. Check out some videos below of the game in action.
IndieCade (i.e., International Festival of Independent Games) is:
"the only stand-alone independent-focused game festival in the nation. It is open to the industry and to the public. Events include a festival workshops, keynotes, and family-focused activities, meet-and-greets with game creators, hands-on gameplay with a GameWalk, live games, Night Games and numerous social events."One of the night games they had running when we got there was a fascinating project called "Renga". It is a 100-person cooperative laser pointer game, wherein the players are collectively building a spacecraft and then protecting it from various enemies and natural hazards. While I have no idea how the programming actually works, actions in the game appear to be based on the intensity of the lasers (i.e., the more pointers focused on one point of the screen triggers an action there).
Initially players are harvesting resources from asteroids for use in building their space ship, which involves walling in floating elements (e.g., storage, engines and shields) and then connecting them to each other, all under a time constraint. Once time runs out, the ship spends a round being bombarded by outside forces, which can be destroyed by hovering laser pointers at specific points around them. If they survive the whole cycle is repeated, with the players eventually reaching the final boss stage.
It looks like a lot of fun and I'd love to get a chance to try it out with a bunch of friends. Check out some videos below of the game in action.
Daily Haiku (Double Feature) - October 9, 2012
The sky is not yours.
The clouds you proffer are dark;
Seek the sun behind.
--------------------
The heavens are not yours alone.
The clouds that you sustain above,
Whose dark crests bloat with discontent,
Shall blot both self and neighbor.
Take heart from clear blue skies about,
Seek friends to calm your troubled mind;
Or find some sheltered, private place
And weather all til sun shines down once more.
[I really like the first stanza but the second one feels 'meh'. I couldn't find the right words for it, but it felt weird just having the first one by itself so I went with what I had.]
The clouds you proffer are dark;
Seek the sun behind.
--------------------
The heavens are not yours alone.
The clouds that you sustain above,
Whose dark crests bloat with discontent,
Shall blot both self and neighbor.
Take heart from clear blue skies about,
Seek friends to calm your troubled mind;
Or find some sheltered, private place
And weather all til sun shines down once more.
[I really like the first stanza but the second one feels 'meh'. I couldn't find the right words for it, but it felt weird just having the first one by itself so I went with what I had.]
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
What I'm Cooking
So I finally got around to making this dish, which I've been sitting on for almost a year. It's full title is "Sweet & Savory Wild Rice Dressing w/ Hot Italian Sausage, Orange, Dried Cranberries & Hazelnuts", which doesn't quite manage to cram all the ingredients in there, but it's impressive nonetheless.
I'm afraid I've no pictures to share at the moment, but please take my word that it both pleasing in taste and sight. What's not included in the title is the onion and fennel, the latter of which makes up the base flavor of the dish. It pairs quite nicely with the sausage and the orange juice and cranberries do their part to sweeten things up a bit.
The dish is fairly easy to make but please note it'll be at least an hour and a half before it's ready to eat. The recipe suggests 55-65 minutes in the oven to cook the rice, but after 65 minutes my dish was still full of liquid, so you may need to cook it for another 10-15 minutes depending on your oven. As such it's not great for whipping something together on a weeknight, but it's fine for the weekend and the leftovers make for good lunch material.
I'm afraid I've no pictures to share at the moment, but please take my word that it both pleasing in taste and sight. What's not included in the title is the onion and fennel, the latter of which makes up the base flavor of the dish. It pairs quite nicely with the sausage and the orange juice and cranberries do their part to sweeten things up a bit.
The dish is fairly easy to make but please note it'll be at least an hour and a half before it's ready to eat. The recipe suggests 55-65 minutes in the oven to cook the rice, but after 65 minutes my dish was still full of liquid, so you may need to cook it for another 10-15 minutes depending on your oven. As such it's not great for whipping something together on a weeknight, but it's fine for the weekend and the leftovers make for good lunch material.
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