I'm a gamer. I like playing games. Whether this means running through various real life scenarios in my head or sitting at the computer, cutting a swath through a horde of rabies-modified zombies, I enjoy the feeling that you get from these experiences. Some might argue that you don't get a sense of accomplishment, but really, I think there's something there. Sure, the real world rewards of managing to reunite the shadow princess with her kingdom are pretty minimal, but as with any well told story, you get the emotional attachment, the rush of feeling when something good or bad happens, and the withdrawal or letdown as the credits roll.
I want that sense with board games.
Part of the problem here, is that with a board game, everyone has a different level of investment. I've played 'Risk' where one player is reading Cosmo, only looking up to roll the dice and move her armies. Not much of a story being told there. But I've also played games of 'Life' (arguably one of the worst board games out there) where, because of the people I was playing with, I've had some of my most enjoyable board gaming experiences.
What causes this? It's not necessarily because some people were gamers and some weren't. The girl with her Cosmo was much more a gamer than my family ever will be. Lately, I've kind of decided what it is. It's the love of the story being told. And the players' abilities to make a connection with that story. Let me give an example.
My sister was in town recently, visiting before she moved to Colorado. I had recently purchased 'Zombies!!!' and was pretty eager to try it out. My sister was skeptical, but we sat down and read through the rules sheet together. As play started, and we started placing the slick tiles, plastic zombies and moving our little shotgun guys around the burned out city, we both got drawn more and more into it. The combat was simple, and while we started out being nice to one another, eventually we laughed as we screwed over our opponent, sending hordes of zombies each others way, enjoying it particularly when the other was out of ammo or life.
I'd be willing to bet that the game would have lasted much longer than it did, if my sister hadn't been forced to leave, meeting up with some friends, but really, it was a thoroughly enjoyable board gaming experience, and thats what I'm trying to find lately. I still have 'Arkham Horror' sitting boxed, played through a few times in single player, but ready for a more complete game. I recently picked up 'Omega Virus' at home, and I'd love to hear again the sounds of 'Red...Terminated!' through that deliciously evil mechanical box.
So, who wants to tell a story?
Monday, September 28, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
My dog left drool stains on my pants
True story.
Anyway, the next entry here was supposed to be some art, scanned from my sketchbooks, my intent someday of being able to start a webcomic. But I didn't get around to it yesterday, and now I'm somewhere without a scanner with nothing to do but write, so here we go. Anticipation for everyone!
I'd like to start today off with Spoilers for books I haven't read (and therefore have no way of knowing if the spoilers are accurate). They simply seem accurate to me based on context clues (remember those?):
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown: See film, "National Treasure".
Any Jodi Piccoult book: Bad things happen to children/teens
Arguing with Idiots by Glenn Beck: Cry, whine, communism, incitement of hatred, don't check the facts in this book because every other source is wrong, and I'm right.
Guinness World Records 2010: For some reason this dude grew really long nose hair.
There you go, now you don't have to read those books either. Or you could, because I really have no idea what I'm talking about.
As far as books that I do know about, I'm reading an advance copy of Douglas Preston's new book, 'Impact'. As I'm sure there are non-disclosure rules and what not, I will just say that it is a lot of fun and has to do with Meteors. Pretty neat.
Neater, was my opportunity to read the first half (irritatingly enough, they only released a half galley) of the sixth book in 'The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' trilogy, 'And Another Thing...' by Eoin Colfer. Once more, NDC, but I will say that it reads like Douglas Adams and that is awesome. I'll be posting my review here (of the first half) once it's out, if it isn't published in the Indie Bound newsletter.
There is a lot of stuff coming up at our store. Next week, we've got Ellen Hopkins (Crank, Tricks) and Rick Yancey (Alfred Kropp, The Monstrumologist) coming in for a signing. I'm pretty sure we're expecting a decent sized crowd, particularly for Hopkins. I haven't read any of her books, but they are attractive to me. If you're unfamiliar, they're written in free-form poetry, and deal primarily with kids in trouble on the street. Potentially depressing, but written in an intriguing manner.
So there you go. Books to read. Books to anticipate. And most importantly, my rocking artwork to also anticipate.
Signing off.
Anyway, the next entry here was supposed to be some art, scanned from my sketchbooks, my intent someday of being able to start a webcomic. But I didn't get around to it yesterday, and now I'm somewhere without a scanner with nothing to do but write, so here we go. Anticipation for everyone!
I'd like to start today off with Spoilers for books I haven't read (and therefore have no way of knowing if the spoilers are accurate). They simply seem accurate to me based on context clues (remember those?):
The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown: See film, "National Treasure".
Any Jodi Piccoult book: Bad things happen to children/teens
Arguing with Idiots by Glenn Beck: Cry, whine, communism, incitement of hatred, don't check the facts in this book because every other source is wrong, and I'm right.
Guinness World Records 2010: For some reason this dude grew really long nose hair.
There you go, now you don't have to read those books either. Or you could, because I really have no idea what I'm talking about.
As far as books that I do know about, I'm reading an advance copy of Douglas Preston's new book, 'Impact'. As I'm sure there are non-disclosure rules and what not, I will just say that it is a lot of fun and has to do with Meteors. Pretty neat.
Neater, was my opportunity to read the first half (irritatingly enough, they only released a half galley) of the sixth book in 'The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' trilogy, 'And Another Thing...' by Eoin Colfer. Once more, NDC, but I will say that it reads like Douglas Adams and that is awesome. I'll be posting my review here (of the first half) once it's out, if it isn't published in the Indie Bound newsletter.
There is a lot of stuff coming up at our store. Next week, we've got Ellen Hopkins (Crank, Tricks) and Rick Yancey (Alfred Kropp, The Monstrumologist) coming in for a signing. I'm pretty sure we're expecting a decent sized crowd, particularly for Hopkins. I haven't read any of her books, but they are attractive to me. If you're unfamiliar, they're written in free-form poetry, and deal primarily with kids in trouble on the street. Potentially depressing, but written in an intriguing manner.
So there you go. Books to read. Books to anticipate. And most importantly, my rocking artwork to also anticipate.
Signing off.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Decades, Death Metal, and More
So once more, I don't update in more than a month, and once again use a ridiculous non-sequitur for my title. I just like that particular combination of words.
So to get started, let's all share a little bit of pain and shame.
Come October 20th (tentative date), I will be buying the New Moon soundtrack. I'll let you take a moment to soak that in. I will be buying a CD representative of a movie, which is representative of the worst kind of saccharine, melodramatic literature on the market at the moment. In fact, it's the progenitor of most of that category of literature.
You may be asking yourself, "Why Lincoln? Why would you do this? You are an adorable dude with good taste in music and are generally awesome in most ways." Well, to be simple, I read the tracklist, and it is almost as awesome as I am.
01 Death Cab for Cutie: "Meet Me on the Equinox"
02 Band of Skulls: "Friends"
03 Thom Yorke: "Hearing Damage"
04 Lykke Li: "Possibility"
05 The Killers: "A White Demon Love Song"
06 Anya Marina: "Satellite Heart"
07 Muse: "I Belong to You (New Moon Remix)"
08 Bon Iver and St. Vincent: "Rosyln"
09 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: "Done All Wrong"
10 Hurricane Bells: "Monsters"
11 Sea Wolf: "The Violet Hour"
12 OK Go: "Shooting the Moon"
13 Grizzly Bear: "Slow Life"
14 Editors: "No Sound But the Wind"
15 Alexandre Desplat: "New Moon (The Meadow)"
(via Pitchfork)
There are more than a few (for now) exclusive tracks included there: Thom Yorke, Grizzly Bear, Deathcab, Lykke Li... and the deal maker for me, the collaboration between the artists behind two of my favorite albums of recent memory, Bon Iver and St. Vincent. Should be a kicker.
I just don't know if I'll be able to show my face at work after I purchase this.
With the Oscars coming up in a bit here, I've been keeping an ear open for Oscar bait, and I sadly haven't been able to see many of them. 'District 9' was one of the most interesting, fun movies I've been to in a long time, but I don't think the Academy goes in for alien-blowing-up-humans-and-lots-of-guts type films. 'Up' is almost certainly a guaranteed win as far as best animated goes, but I think that 'Ponyo' will give it a run for it's money. Actually, Ponyo was the first film I've seen in a while with a child protagonist that managed to actually convey a childlike perspective without seeming dumbed down or like an adult in a child's body. Miyazaki is brilliant.
As for other films, both past and current, I think I'll be skipping 'Precious'. Not really my thing. I'd still like to see 'Inglourious Basterds', but might wait for DVD. 'Where the Wild Things Are' is going to be phenomenal, and possibly with a better soundtrack than above. I really wanted to see 'Moon' but it came nowhere close to me; another for DVD. And I'm really hearing great things about both '(500) Days of Summer' (my love for Zooey burns like her eyes, Damn you Ben Gibbard) and 'The Hurt Locker', but time and money and all that.
There isn't too much else to talk about. I'm really irritated at my city government. As you may know, Michigan isn't doing the best in this economy, and I'm pretty sure we have important things to be spending money on. That was why I, and quite a lot of other people, were so irritated when last week the Lansing Chamber of Commerce spent (a rumored) 25,000 dollars to bring Glenn Beck to MSU to speak.
Let me get this out there: I hate Glenn Beck. I think he feeds the worst prejudices and ideas of the right and the ignorant. Let me stress that my use of the word ignorant doesn't imply 'stupid' but simply uninformed. And he certainly doesn't make an effort to keep them any more informed. So why, in a time when Michigan is circling the drain, did we feel the need to bring him to campus?
Irritating, but it doesn't put a dent in this next stunt. Our good buddies, Kirk Cameron and Ray 'Banana' Comfort, think Christianity is under attack. Atheists are scary, and nothing is scarier than the idea that we might have come from Monkeys. So on November 19th or 20th (they're being unclear, probably to prevent protests) at 50 (EDIT: Now possibly 100) universities across the US, 1000 copies of Darwin's 'Origin of the Species' will be passed out, presumably in celebration of 150 years of our good buddy, Charley D. But nope, these editions will have a very special introduction written by Mr. Comfort, containing, among other things, attempts to tie Darwin to the Holocaust and just some generally very bad science. This is irritating, and a simple attempt to indoctrinate people in a morally ambiguous and disingenuous manner.
While I'm irritated, I almost think that it'll be a case of 'Give them enough Rope'. But at the same time, I'm worried that for every 19 students who immediately see through the idiocy, there will be one who comes away with some false ideas. So please, keep this in mind. Here is the list of the universities:
1. Princeton University (NJ) http://www.princeton.edu
2. Harvard University (MA) http://www.college.harvard.edu
3. Yale University (CT) http://www.yale.edu
4. Stanford University (CA) http://www.stanford.edu
5. University of Pennsylvania (PA) http://www.upenn.edu
6. California Institute of Technology (CA) http://www.caltech.edu
7. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MA) http://web.mit.edu
8. Duke University (NC) http://www.duke.edu
9. Columbia University (NY) http://www.columbia.edu
10. University of Chicago (IL) http://www.uchicago.edu
11. Dartmouth College (NH) http://www.dartmouth.edu
12. Washington University in St. Louis (MO) http://www.wustl.edu
13. Cornell University (NY) http://www.cornell.edu
14. Brown University (RI) http://www.brown.edu
15. Northwestern University (IL) http://www.northwestern.edu
16. Johns Hopkins University (MD) http://www.jhu.edu
17. Rice University (TX) http://www.rice.edu
18. Emory University (GA) http://www.emory.edu
19. Vanderbilt University (TN) http://www.vanderbilt.edu
20. Notre Dame (IN) http://www.nd.edu
21. University of California - Berkeley (CA) We have this one.
22. Carnegie Mellon University (PA) http://www.cmu.edu
23. University of Virginia (VA) http://www.virginia.edu
24. Georgetown University (DC) http://www.georgetown.edu
25. University of California—Los Angeles (CA) http://www.ucla.edu
26. University of Michigan—Ann Arbor (MI) http://www.umich.edu
27. University of Southern California (CA) We have this one.
28. University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill (NC) http://www.unc.edu
29. Tufts University (MA) http://www.tufts.edu
30. Wake Forest University (NC) http://www.wfu.edu
31. Lehigh University (PA) http://www.lehigh.edu
32. Brandeis University (MA) http://www.brandeis.edu
33. College of William and Mary (VA) http://www.wm.edu
34. New York University (NY) http://www.nyu.edu
35. University of Rochester (NY) http://www.rochester.edu
36. Georgia Institute of Technology (GA) http://www.gatech.edu
37. Boston College (MA) http://www.uiuc.edu
38. University of Wisconsin—Madison (WI) http://www.wisc.edu
39. University of California—San Diego (CA) http://www.ucsd.edu
40. University of Illinois—Urbana - Champaign (IL) http://www.illinois.edu
41. Case Western Reserve University (OH) http://www.case.edu
42. University of Washington (WA) http://www.washington.edu
43. University of California—Davis (CA) http://www.ucdavis.edu
44. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (NY) http://www.rpi.edu
45. University of Texas—Austin (TX) http://www.utexas.edu
46. University of California—Santa Barbara (CA) http://www.ucsb.edu
47. University of California—Irvine (CA) http://www.uci.edu
48. Penn State University—University Park (PA) http://www.psu.edu
49. University of Florida (FL) http://www.ufl.edu
50. Syracuse University (NY) http://www.syr.edu
And here is the intro itself: Intro
Or if you're inclined, join this facebook group to keep up on all the insanity:
Kirk Cameron has gone too far!
Well, I think thats all for today. I managed quite a long post, which wasn't my original intention, but I guess I had more to say than I thought. Tits.
So to get started, let's all share a little bit of pain and shame.
Come October 20th (tentative date), I will be buying the New Moon soundtrack. I'll let you take a moment to soak that in. I will be buying a CD representative of a movie, which is representative of the worst kind of saccharine, melodramatic literature on the market at the moment. In fact, it's the progenitor of most of that category of literature.
You may be asking yourself, "Why Lincoln? Why would you do this? You are an adorable dude with good taste in music and are generally awesome in most ways." Well, to be simple, I read the tracklist, and it is almost as awesome as I am.
01 Death Cab for Cutie: "Meet Me on the Equinox"
02 Band of Skulls: "Friends"
03 Thom Yorke: "Hearing Damage"
04 Lykke Li: "Possibility"
05 The Killers: "A White Demon Love Song"
06 Anya Marina: "Satellite Heart"
07 Muse: "I Belong to You (New Moon Remix)"
08 Bon Iver and St. Vincent: "Rosyln"
09 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club: "Done All Wrong"
10 Hurricane Bells: "Monsters"
11 Sea Wolf: "The Violet Hour"
12 OK Go: "Shooting the Moon"
13 Grizzly Bear: "Slow Life"
14 Editors: "No Sound But the Wind"
15 Alexandre Desplat: "New Moon (The Meadow)"
(via Pitchfork)
There are more than a few (for now) exclusive tracks included there: Thom Yorke, Grizzly Bear, Deathcab, Lykke Li... and the deal maker for me, the collaboration between the artists behind two of my favorite albums of recent memory, Bon Iver and St. Vincent. Should be a kicker.
I just don't know if I'll be able to show my face at work after I purchase this.
With the Oscars coming up in a bit here, I've been keeping an ear open for Oscar bait, and I sadly haven't been able to see many of them. 'District 9' was one of the most interesting, fun movies I've been to in a long time, but I don't think the Academy goes in for alien-blowing-up-humans-and-lots-of-guts type films. 'Up' is almost certainly a guaranteed win as far as best animated goes, but I think that 'Ponyo' will give it a run for it's money. Actually, Ponyo was the first film I've seen in a while with a child protagonist that managed to actually convey a childlike perspective without seeming dumbed down or like an adult in a child's body. Miyazaki is brilliant.
As for other films, both past and current, I think I'll be skipping 'Precious'. Not really my thing. I'd still like to see 'Inglourious Basterds', but might wait for DVD. 'Where the Wild Things Are' is going to be phenomenal, and possibly with a better soundtrack than above. I really wanted to see 'Moon' but it came nowhere close to me; another for DVD. And I'm really hearing great things about both '(500) Days of Summer' (my love for Zooey burns like her eyes, Damn you Ben Gibbard) and 'The Hurt Locker', but time and money and all that.
There isn't too much else to talk about. I'm really irritated at my city government. As you may know, Michigan isn't doing the best in this economy, and I'm pretty sure we have important things to be spending money on. That was why I, and quite a lot of other people, were so irritated when last week the Lansing Chamber of Commerce spent (a rumored) 25,000 dollars to bring Glenn Beck to MSU to speak.
Let me get this out there: I hate Glenn Beck. I think he feeds the worst prejudices and ideas of the right and the ignorant. Let me stress that my use of the word ignorant doesn't imply 'stupid' but simply uninformed. And he certainly doesn't make an effort to keep them any more informed. So why, in a time when Michigan is circling the drain, did we feel the need to bring him to campus?
Irritating, but it doesn't put a dent in this next stunt. Our good buddies, Kirk Cameron and Ray 'Banana' Comfort, think Christianity is under attack. Atheists are scary, and nothing is scarier than the idea that we might have come from Monkeys. So on November 19th or 20th (they're being unclear, probably to prevent protests) at 50 (EDIT: Now possibly 100) universities across the US, 1000 copies of Darwin's 'Origin of the Species' will be passed out, presumably in celebration of 150 years of our good buddy, Charley D. But nope, these editions will have a very special introduction written by Mr. Comfort, containing, among other things, attempts to tie Darwin to the Holocaust and just some generally very bad science. This is irritating, and a simple attempt to indoctrinate people in a morally ambiguous and disingenuous manner.
While I'm irritated, I almost think that it'll be a case of 'Give them enough Rope'. But at the same time, I'm worried that for every 19 students who immediately see through the idiocy, there will be one who comes away with some false ideas. So please, keep this in mind. Here is the list of the universities:
1. Princeton University (NJ) http://www.princeton.edu
2. Harvard University (MA) http://www.college.harvard.edu
3. Yale University (CT) http://www.yale.edu
4. Stanford University (CA) http://www.stanford.edu
5. University of Pennsylvania (PA) http://www.upenn.edu
6. California Institute of Technology (CA) http://www.caltech.edu
7. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MA) http://web.mit.edu
8. Duke University (NC) http://www.duke.edu
9. Columbia University (NY) http://www.columbia.edu
10. University of Chicago (IL) http://www.uchicago.edu
11. Dartmouth College (NH) http://www.dartmouth.edu
12. Washington University in St. Louis (MO) http://www.wustl.edu
13. Cornell University (NY) http://www.cornell.edu
14. Brown University (RI) http://www.brown.edu
15. Northwestern University (IL) http://www.northwestern.edu
16. Johns Hopkins University (MD) http://www.jhu.edu
17. Rice University (TX) http://www.rice.edu
18. Emory University (GA) http://www.emory.edu
19. Vanderbilt University (TN) http://www.vanderbilt.edu
20. Notre Dame (IN) http://www.nd.edu
21. University of California - Berkeley (CA) We have this one.
22. Carnegie Mellon University (PA) http://www.cmu.edu
23. University of Virginia (VA) http://www.virginia.edu
24. Georgetown University (DC) http://www.georgetown.edu
25. University of California—Los Angeles (CA) http://www.ucla.edu
26. University of Michigan—Ann Arbor (MI) http://www.umich.edu
27. University of Southern California (CA) We have this one.
28. University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill (NC) http://www.unc.edu
29. Tufts University (MA) http://www.tufts.edu
30. Wake Forest University (NC) http://www.wfu.edu
31. Lehigh University (PA) http://www.lehigh.edu
32. Brandeis University (MA) http://www.brandeis.edu
33. College of William and Mary (VA) http://www.wm.edu
34. New York University (NY) http://www.nyu.edu
35. University of Rochester (NY) http://www.rochester.edu
36. Georgia Institute of Technology (GA) http://www.gatech.edu
37. Boston College (MA) http://www.uiuc.edu
38. University of Wisconsin—Madison (WI) http://www.wisc.edu
39. University of California—San Diego (CA) http://www.ucsd.edu
40. University of Illinois—Urbana - Champaign (IL) http://www.illinois.edu
41. Case Western Reserve University (OH) http://www.case.edu
42. University of Washington (WA) http://www.washington.edu
43. University of California—Davis (CA) http://www.ucdavis.edu
44. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (NY) http://www.rpi.edu
45. University of Texas—Austin (TX) http://www.utexas.edu
46. University of California—Santa Barbara (CA) http://www.ucsb.edu
47. University of California—Irvine (CA) http://www.uci.edu
48. Penn State University—University Park (PA) http://www.psu.edu
49. University of Florida (FL) http://www.ufl.edu
50. Syracuse University (NY) http://www.syr.edu
And here is the intro itself: Intro
Or if you're inclined, join this facebook group to keep up on all the insanity:
Kirk Cameron has gone too far!
Well, I think thats all for today. I managed quite a long post, which wasn't my original intention, but I guess I had more to say than I thought. Tits.
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