Calculation Theme

I hate these sorts of days.

I hate the sort of day where I don't do anything productive, I can't seem to get any plans together, and the plans I do have are things I don't really want to do. I was supposed to go to Scuttlebutts (I think I'm going to start calling it Shittyfucks) since Eric is in town for convocation. Unfortunately, I really don't like Shittfucks and Eric isn't my best of friends, so I decided to bow out (though Laura went out with him). I had hoped to hang out with Adam tonight, but of course he never got back to me, and it sounds like he's busy tomorrow. So much for another game of Runebound.

I seem to be having more of those sorts of days lately. I've been pretty mopey for a good week now. My scheduling course is giving me grief, I haven't had a chance to play any board games, I haven't really gotten out of the house much lately.

I've been getting up at 9AM, exercising, and eating breakfast in the pursuit of getting that "full of energy all day" feeling that I hear about so often. I can't say it's helped at all; I still spend more time sleeping than the average house cat.

Games nights have been random. Last week, I had a total of 10 people over to play games (many stayed until midnight). This week, I had a grand total of 0 people come to play games. Grant and Chanel came over around 8, but they weren't interested in playing games so we watched shitty TV while they talked my ear off about their trip. I don't know what it is, but I'm not the type of person who really cares to hear stories or see pictures of other peoples' vacations. It just doesn't interest me at all.

At least I had a pretty good birthday. I got to spend some time with Laura on Friday night, though we haven't really done anything outside of my house in about as long as I can remember. On Saturday night, I went to Adam's house and we played Runebound and drank. We started playing around 8, and didn't finish until just after midnight. It's a long game, certainly, but perhaps our analytical skills were dulled on account of the alcohol. Regardless, we had fun and we both plan to play it again. I'm already looking into getting some expansions for the game to buff up the decks.

On Sunday, we went out for dinner at Tony and Adam's. It was pretty good. After dinner we had some of Mrs. Stilla's cake, and I opened a few gifts. I got a fair amount of booze and candy, as well as a few shirts. I think Laura spent too much on my gift.

After dinner is what I was looking forward to the most: a five player game of El Grande with Adam, Trevor, Laura, and Mr. Stilla. The rules were easy to explain, and it seemed like everyone really liked the game. At the end of the game, I eked ahead of Laura for the win. It was a very close game, and I'm glad that she did so well. She has told me numerous times how much she likes the game, so I anticipate it being played again in the future (assuming I can get more than zero people to show up on Wednesday nights).

Listening to... Muse - Assassin
Link of the moment... I picked up a really good deal online the other day. I likely won't have it until after next weekend, though.

I...uh...hmm...yeah.

BLEH. I need to get my act together. I spend too much time in front of my computer. I'm starting to get that zombie face feeling, if you know what I mean. And with all that time in front of the screen, I still leave my blog unedited for over a month. M'oh well, not like it's important in any way.

I've been very excited to get my hands on a game called Runebound. It's not like anything I own now; it is best described as an "adventure" game. From what I know of it, I'd describe it as Diablo, if it were a board game. You start off with a fairly weak character, fighting weak enemies, collecting gold, experience, and loot in hopes of becoming more powerful by collecting items, weapons, and allies. I'd likely have purchased it myself if my birthday weren't so close (I can be difficult to shop for as a result of my niche hobbies). It's not the type of game that will hit the table on games nights, as most people wouldn't care for the theme or the game length. Regardless, I'm sure it would make for a few entertaining afternoons with Adam, since he's always willing to do anything.

Laura and I have been seeing quite a bit of each other in the last few weeks, and things are going pretty well, despite my constant portrayals of insecurity. A gentleman mustn't kiss and tell, though, so I don't think I need to say much more on the subject. Trivia: Assuming Laura makes my list of "people I have considered at one time to be my girlfriend", then 50% of the people on said list will have the first name Laura.

I've started work on my course for the summer, an introduction to machine scheduling. So far, I'm left quite unimpressed both by the source material and the course organizer (who coincidentally is my new research supervisor). The material is dry and not very helpful with regard to the exercises. I had an assignment due today, and emailed the prof for help on Friday. She said she hasn't had time to look at the material yet. I went to her posted office hours today for help, but she was nowhere to be found. I'm less than impressed.

Well, Grant, Chanel, Sheena and Dan have headed off for Europe. The couples won't be back until May 27th and June 11th (!) respectively. I'm sure they're having a great time. They left on Friday, and skipped out on the previous games night to pack and visit family. I had a lot of cancellations that night, but had two new people come over. The three of us had a lot of fun; we played three games (as opposed to the usual 1 plus filler that I normally experience), and they really liked all of the games I showed them. They are both going to come back in the future. I had to convince them that I did indeed have other friends and everyone had canceled on me, but perhaps they think that I spend every Wednesday night sitting in my basement hoping that someone will finally show up.

Listening to... Metric - Down
Link of the moment... UHF video by Weird Al

Pressed Rat and Warthog

Blech, I'm not enjoying marking this weekend. The prof for the first year calculus course "accidentally" made an assignment harder than it should have been. He asked we two markers which wanted to do it, with the promise that future assignments would be shorter. I volunteered, because I didn't have any discrete assignments to mark this weekend, and I figured I'd rather get the work over with sooner than later. Well, it took me about 4.5 hours to mark the first page of the four pages of solutions, so things were looking grim. I've burned through the second page quite a bit quicker, though, and it looks like the whole assignment will take around 16 or 17 hours to finish (still a heck of a lot longer than it should be taking).

I'm not taking a third course this term, but Adam is getting me started on my research project this term rather than in the summer. So far, I'm supposed to be reading some articles to find some inspiration, but I've been slacking off a little bit. I have, however, found a few sites with some reading material on combinatorial game theory. Interesting stuff, but I wouldn't say I'm "passionate" about it. I'd better find something I enjoy for my research project.

Adam bought the second power plant deck for Power Grid the other day. We went to the local game store on Wednesday and asked the owner (Drew) if he could order it for us, and he had it in the store by Friday afternoon! That's a pretty quick turnaround; I'm impressed. It wasn't too expensive either. I saw that they had Ra in stock again, but they've knocked the price up by another three dollars.

Power Grid is Adam's favourite game, and he pretty much goads to play it whenever possible. It's a great game, but I'm getting a little sick of playing the same game so many times in a short time (see: Settlers of Catan, Liar's Dice, Saboteur). I'm *still* waiting to get a sizable new audience to my games nights. It seems that just about every week, I have 7 people. If I could get 8 or 9, I could break into two games easily (since I have a fair number of games good for 4 or 5), but people seem less willing to break into a group of 4 and a group of 3. Well, I guess I should be thankful that I'm getting that many to begin with; 7 is better than 6. Now if I could only convince people from my classes to show up (they all say that they will, but never come!).

I had a hankering the other day to start playing Final Fantasy 12. Argh! I hate when that happens! I still don't have nearly enough time to start playing a meaty game like that! And then of course, when I actually have some free time to play games, I probably won't be in the mood for playing anything. Oh well, c'est la vie!

Well, time for some sleep. There's some A&W breakfast waiting for me tomorrow morning!

Listening to... Opeth - Serenity Painted Death
Link of the moment... Some fresh Super Smash Brothers Brawl gameplay videos

But first, an apology

Before I forget, I'd like to issue a formal apology to Andrew for berating his lack of rules knowledge when it came to Cities and Knights of Catan. It turns out I've been playing a number of rules incorrectly in Power Grid. Though there's not much behind the actions the players take in the game, the housekeeping can be a lot to keep track of. There are a lot of details in that game that are easy to overlook.

I was supposed to have my first class today, but the Ryan building was closed today due to a burst water main. The class was only going to be a ten minute "here's the outline, read these chapters for next week" thing, so the prof just sent the two of us an email (yeah, another huge class of two). Thus, my first real class will be the Graduate seminar tomorrow morning. I'll have to make sure to coerce some of my classmates into showing up to this week's game night. I ran into Chris and his girlfriend at a new year's eve shag, and they both mentioned that they were looking forward to playing some games, so I expect them to show up at least a few times.

Adam has made the bold statement that Power Grid is his favourite game, and that can be evidenced by the 10+ plays it's had in the last few weeks. I think I've only racked up two wins so far, and I always seem to make some pretty bad plays every time I play.

I started a new game of Disgaea. I've completely set aside any magic casting characters since they're a pain to level up, and opting for a beat-em-up team. One thing I've noticed about that game is that it's very easy to spend way more time playing it than you originally may have intended. I've racked up about 15 hours of playtime since I started it three days ago (hey, I'm trying to milk as much out of my free time as I can while I still have some!).

The other day, I made the mistake of drawing a comparison between X-Men Legends and Guild Wars. In doing so, I re-lit my spark for Guild Wars, and further fueled my hope that I can get Adam into it (since he seems to enjoy playing XML). The original game is only $30, with no monthly fees. For that price, you get some pretty good bang for your buck.

I had an urge the other day to buy a new computer. There was a computer on the Future Shop website that included a QUAD-core processor, 3GB of RAM, a 400GB hard drive, and a 19" widescreen monitor for a grand sum of $800. By the time I noticed, they were sold out. I'd still be a little wary buying a computer from a box store. I'd rather know that I have higher quality components than having to deal with the hassle of trying to replace crappy components that are jam packed into the case. Case-in-point, Adam's power supply died on his old Dell, and the spare power supply I had sitting around wouldn't fit into his computer since the old supply was sized specifically for a bracket in the case. Sure, you get a great computer for $800, but after a few years, you'll likely have to spend another $500 (as well as a ton of aggravation) to keep it up and running. I think I'll stick with my plan of getting a new computer when I'm done my masters degree (when I'll likely be moving away to get a job in, you know, a *real* city).

Listening to... Metric - Dead Disco
Link of the moment... David Blaine parody (heads up, foul language)

OMG NEW BOARD GAMES

I think I'm already starting to freak out with regards to school. I keep getting more and more work shoved under my nose. The algebra course is the least of my worries since I'm pretty well versed in it already, but even the first assignment is taking way too much of my time up. On top of that, I'm taking a seminar on operations research where I've been told that I have to prepare and deliver five hour-long lectures in October. Again, at least there's a fair bit of material that I already know a little bit about. The real kicker is the Measure Theory graduate seminar I'm taking, where I have a presentation to give in a little over a week on how to do a sample question and I don't even have the pre-requisite knowledge to keep up in class. The prof has been relating everything we do in class to metric spaces that everyone seems to nod their heads at. Well, I suppose the one analysis course that I took neglected metric spaces, so now I have to learn 39 pages worth of it ASAP. On top of that, I absolutely abhor analysis, so trying to understand the material is like trying to eat hot coals.

But, I just have to keep telling myself that the worst that can happen is I'll fail miserably in my courses, have to drop out of grad school, and disappoint a few people. It's really not a big deal at all; I applied under the assumption that I might not be able to hack it anyways. Life is too short to worry!

On the bright side, it looks like I have Mondays and Fridays free! Of course, all I'll wind up doing on the weekends is working and studying anyways, but at least now I don't have to brave the elements five days a week. As a side effect, every time I get a new email, I'm too scared to see who it's from and what it's about, because lately the majority of my emails are from profs who are either shoveling more work my way or asking me to come in to see them on my precious days off so they can shovel more work my way.

Good news though: all the board games I ordered are now sitting in my collection! I went to pick them up yesterday and spent all day cuddling with them and fondling their components. I really can't wait to play them now. I actually had to re-reorganize my storage solution since I couldn't comfortably fit all of my new games on my shelf. Everything is very well organized at the moment, and there's plenty of space for future games.

My games nights are on Wednesdays now, as suggested by Dan (who originally suggested they be moved to Thursdays). I couldn't really care less if Dan and Sheena want to go to the Outpost on the occasional Thursday night (who would go before 10 anyways??), but I really made the change for Chanel, cause she watches Grey's Anatomy which is on Thursday nights and will be starting its new season soon. I know the feeling, cause there's no way I'll ever make ongoing plans for Monday nights (that's my Prison Break and Heroes night!)

At the last games night, I got another 8 people (I'm starting to get decent turnouts again!), so we split up to play Catan and Vegas Showdown. Those finished within about fifteen minutes of each other, someone left, and then we decided to play a game that accommodates 7. No one wanted to play Bang, and the usual split of "I don't like Balderdash" and "I don't like Pictionary" prevented either of those games as well. Bohnanza was excluded for length, and I guess Apples to Apples got looked over as well.

I decided to introduce Saboteur for something new (I don't think it had seen the light of the outside world for a good year and a half). This is one of those games that is really good with the right people, and the people I played it with are very much the right people. It's got the same hidden role element as Bang and Werewolf without the player elimination, and also that some players have more information than others. It went over well enough to play four rounds, and I'm sure it will hit the table quite often in the future.

Listening to... Hoobastank - Say the Same
Link of the moment... My game collection, along with ratings and comments

Let's see a BIG turnout next Thursday!

Games night has been rescheduled from Tuesday nights to Thursday nights starting next week (due to Tuesday being cheap night at the local movie theater). Last Tuesday wasn't much of a games night anyways. Chris brought Mario Party 8 as he had just rented it, so a four player game of MP8 ensued (unfortunately leaving multiple people to sit and watch, something I hate doing). After that was over, Dan broke out Singstar for PS2, much to Grant's zeal. The rest of the night was nothing but loud karaoke in my basement (though I did manage to fit in a game of Hive with Adam (I finally won!) and an unfinished game of Balderdash that was quite hard to converse over).

This was quite a shame, since I really had a hankering to play Vegas Showdown which I picked up (along with Nexus Ops) at the border earlier that day. I tried to get a game tonight with the neighbours, but once again my plans fell through as they had unexpected visitors. I swear, I shouldn't even attempt to plan anything anymore, since the universe likes to spite my plans.

My mom's Mac came in the other day (did I mention she got a Mac? Cause she did). I'm in the process of migrating her files to it and organizing them in some fashion (14GB to sort through!). I already threw boot camp on it and installed XP on a partition (for all those files that I unfortunately cannot transfer over to a comparable Mac program). It's really not fun to try to sort through other peoples' messes, so I might just tell my mom to sort it out on her own time.

Super Mario Sunshine is shit. I don't like it, but dammit I'm going to beat it. I have a bad habit of being unable to control Mario while jumping, which leads to MANY frustrating attempts at the same parts of levels. Sometimes he'll want to do a wall jump when I don't want him to, or he won't when I do. Sometimes if I want to turn around and do a small hop, he'll do a crazy backflip into the endless abyss. I've never wanted to bring pain upon Mario as much as I do now.

Well, Traveler is over. Only 8 episodes long. It's a pretty good show, and it's a shame that it's not going to be renewed for a second season (especially since there are DOZENS of loose ends that I won't get to see resolved now). Chanel and I have decided that we're going to start watching Prison Break season 1 (my mom has the boxset) on Wednesday nights since Traveler is over.

Listening to... Opeth - Deliverance
Link of the moment... Quite humourous. Watch it.

Happy birthday, me!

Well, I'm 23 today. Feels like any other day, naturally. I'm going out for dinner with family tonight, for Chinese food. Besides that, I'm not doing anything for my birthday, which is a bit of a departure from last year in Waterloo. I think I just sort of give up on my friends here; everyone always seems to be too busy to bother.

I went to the mall with Chanel the other day. It's always fun hanging out with her. I wound up buying some pants, but I feel sort of ripped off. I bought a pair of jeans that were 2 for $50, and I bought a pair of jean shorts that were 2 for $50, but the guy said I had to pay full price for both since they were in different sections. What the hell store has that policy??? Well, I paid full price, but I think International Clothiers has lost a customer.

Games night the other night was a bit sparse. Only three people showed up. Mind you, that was still enough for a game of euchre, Ticket to Ride, and High Society. It also gave me a chance to break in the new table. Wouldn't you know it, the first night I use the table, someone goes and spills cream soda on it! You know, that bright pink stuff. Luckily it came out really well and there's no stain at all, but I'm glad the table is built in a way so that I can replace the felt if that happens again. Everyone's been giving my table rave reviews.

I went to a BBQ at Sandy's camp last Friday, and another at Chris' house on Sunday night. Good times, though it was a bit cold on Sunday. I went to Chris' house with the intention of not having much to eat since I had eaten not too long before I went there, but I pounded back something like three hot dogs and a burger. They were delicious.

Chris showed off his R4 flash card for his DS the other day, and I was mighty impressed. Even if I don't pirate any games (ha, yeah right), it would be really convenient just to have all my games on one cartridge. It will only set me back $70 (+s/h), which is not that much in the grand scheme of things, for all the "things" it will let me do.

Listening to... He is Legend - Dixie Wolf
Link of the moment... Dammit, I can't find my Starcraft CD

The one about games nights

Well, I had my second games night last night, so I guess I'll give an update on how they're going.

Last week, I got most of the regulars, plus a few people I haven't seen in a long time. No one was on time; I was hanging out with Stephanie until 8PM when more people finally showed up (I invited them all for 7PM). Once there was a sizable number of people here, I started off with Apples to Apples since it was so easy to explain, and is good for semi-large groups. It went over well as usual, but it's easy to get bored of it if you play it too much, and most of the people there had played it a few days prior.

After that, I tried to live my dream of playing Werewolf. There were 8 of us, so that meants 7 playing with me moderating. The first game was a bit haphazard since the only way to really learn the game is to play it. Grant showed uppartway through the first game, so the next game had 8 players. Chanel graciously took over moderating so I could play. Both games were really short, and as a result I'm going to say that Werewolf is no good until you get at least 10 people. 9 players means that there will be at least three votes before the werewolves can win. With only two votes, the werewolves have it way too easy. Luckily, I was able to convince most of the people there to try again when we have more people rather than giving up on the game after a bad introduction.

When we were down to seven people after that game, we broke out Bohnanza. I didn't read the rules very carefully and we didn't play correctly (you are supposed to change some stuff when 6 or 7 people play), but everyone enjoyed it quite a bit. I like it too, but I always get so impatient in trading games. This game ended at nearly 11, so everyone left after that.

Last night, I had pretty much the same crew, except that Veebs and Jason were able to make it. As I was waiting for people to trickle in, I played a game of Crib with Grant (he won), and then High Society with four and then five people. All of my friends in Waterloo hated this game upon first playing it, but it went over really well. It can be a pretty intense game at times, and I had a really good time playing it. Perhaps it helped that I explained the rules well this time, though it could just be that I was playing with the right people.

Once the second game finished, there were nine of us and I recommended we split up into different tables. I agreed to play Settlers of Catan with Grant, Veebs, and J, while everyone else said they wanted to play Bang and Bohnanza. So I first gave them a crash course in Bang. I think that the game is a bit dry when you play with all the slightly more confusing cards stripped out, but it's hard to play if you have to go to a reference sheet every five minutes. Everyone at that table had already played Bohnanza the week before, so I didn't need to worry about teaching them that. I left them to their devices, and I went to teach Catan to the others.

After a Catan tutorial, we were on our way. Everyone made quite a bit of use out of ports the entire game. It was overall a pretty friendly game. No one was really left behind, since at the end of the game, everyone was near 7 or 8 points. I've heard it's a good rule of thumb to not win any game that you're trying to teach anyone, but the dice really seemed to be coming up my way and I won (it was also getting sort of late, so I didn't want to try to wait around for someone else to win). It also went over well with everyone who played it (how could you not like Catan?), so I'm sure it'll see some playtime in the future.

Next week I'd like to get Ticket to Ride on the table, and I'm sure that at least a few games will get requested. I'm trying to avoid playing the same games week after week so that they don't get stale, so I hope I can get some new games out next week. I'm also hoping to get a bit of a better turnout. I'd still like to get a 10 or 12 player game of werewolf going, and I'd like to play in a seven player game of Bang myself so I can play with all the cards in the deck.

Wednesday is the worst day of the week cause it's as far away from games night as you can get.

Listening to... Hopesfall - April Left With Silence
Link of the moment... Funny dubbed scene from LotR

My computer's veins once again course with electricity

Yeah, I'm back home. Of course, I have oodles of info to burn through, but not much of it is fresh on my mind.

The trip home was pretty excruciating. I couldn't sleep very well the night before, since I was sleeping on the couch. We got up at 7 and were on the road at about 7:30. Things were going fine until just after the border. We took the wrong highway and started heading towards Detroit. It's a simple mistake to make, trust me. That detour set us back what must have been a little over an hour. Driving was pretty quick through Michigan though, aside from some rain that slowed us down.

A late dinner got us leaving Sault Ste. Marie at about 6PM, much later than we should have been. The real problems arose when it started getting dark out. After passing through Wawa, we saw a lot of moose, and if you hit a moose on the highway, it has a better chance of surviving than you do. So, the rest of the night, we had to drive pretty slowly and at full attention to avoid impending death. We had some issues with gas, too, as we had a really hard time finding a gas station open at night. We rolled into my driveway at about 1:45, making it an 18 hour trip.

I hope that we made Hugh's trip a memorable one. It certainly was fun having him around. We hit up Kakabeka, and he even went up Mt. McKay. We went to Scuttlebutt's and the Brown Street Station (where I met up with Sheena and Veebs, among others). And, of course, some general hang outage.

I've had this real nasty cough for about a week. It's hard to describe, but it's the kind of cough where when you cough, you don't feel any better and so you have to keep coughing. It's been keeping me up at nights and waking me up at all hours. I really can't wait to get rid of it so I can do some real relaxing. I bought a big jug of orange juice, so maybe that will expedite the process.

I bought a Wii! It's given me some good times. Wii Sports is still amazing, but I'm still waiting for some decent games to come my way. I think once some copies of Super Paper Mario hit eBay, I'll scoop one up. Of all the Miis that are populating my system at the moment, Hugh's is most true to reality, while my own is probably in second. Beyond those, I can't seem to make anyone else look that good.

Well, I'm getting tired. Time for point form updates!
-I bought a Wavebird from Cash Converters today
-Apples to Apples went over well with my friends, once again
-I'm going to buy Megaman X Collection tomorrow
-I got a blister from rocking out on my drums; I sounded pretty good
-I'm going to host a games night next Tuesday; I'm hoping to get enough people for a good game of Werewolf
-Heroes on Monday was awesome
-I'm going to see Spiderman 3 this Friday
-I've still got lots of cleaning and sorting to do

Listening to... Orgy - Social Enemies
Link of the moment... Oh, Sam Raimi, is there anything you can't do?