Posts from 2005

New Year’s Gaming, Day 1

Friday was the kickoff day for our weekend gaming at Salishan with the Rude and Humphrey families.  That makes 13 bodies in all, so there are plenty of oppor...

Rest in Peace Grandma Brooks

My grandmother Brooks passed away earlier this week.  While she was my father’s step-mother (his mother passed away at age 11), she was always my grandma Bro...

My Blogging Year in Review

Scott Hanselman indirectly reminded me of the cool DasBlog feature showing the year of posts in calendar view.  I found it helpful, maybe you will too…

Hiking: Harts Cove

Last week before Christmas a group of us drove up 101 past Cascade Head (we hiked there earlier this year) to try out the Harts Cove Trail. Karen woke up wa...

Podcast Roundup

I continually tweak my podcast subscription list based on interests, quality, word of mouth, and time budget.  I posted previously giving an assessment of th...

New Blog - Best of Boardgames

Alfred’s Best of the Blogosphere is moving to a new location – Best of Boardgames.  Subscribed.

Mesopotamia

Greetings from the Oregon coast, again.  I’m back here for New Years weekend so expect to see some more posts with gaming goodness. Last night I had the oppo...

Antike

Tuesday night I hosted “south Tuesday”, my monthly turn with the RipCity gaming group.  I was eager to try out Antike again, and as I was expecting about 4–5...

Christmas Gaming

The Christmas holiday out at Salishan vastly exceeded my gaming expectations – almost everything I brought was played!  Dave/Lisa, Mike, and Geoff were parti...

Please Don’t Try This At Home

We had a special event this afternoon – a surgery session by our two resident doctors, Dave and Lisa.  They removed a sebaceous cyst from Karen’s head.  I’m ...

Railroad Tycoon and 10 Days in the USA

I took advantage of a free evening without the family here to invite over the crew for an unscheduled game night at my house.  George and Mike responded and ...

Snow Day

Little did we know as we spent the first half of the day up on Mt Hood skiing that we would return to a winter storm that started with high winds and freezin...

Off to Mt Hood Meadows

We are going to head up to Mt Hood Meadows tomorrow early for our first ski of the season.  We missed all of last year, probably for the first time since Jul...

What I Learned from My Lego Robotics Team

Don’t expect anything too earth shattering here, but it is an important lesson about the power of simplicity. I volunteered to coach a Lego Robotics team for...

Havoc Review on Boardgamenews

Tom Vasel’s review of Havoc: the Hundred Years War is up on Boardgamenews.  Very favorable – nice to keep the buzz going.  You can buy it at Funagain.

Off to Eugene

We are heading down to Autzen Stadium down at the University of Oregon in Eugene to watch Sherwood High School play in the state 3A football championship.  T...

Financial Reporting for a Gaming Startup

Ever wonder what an income and expense graph looks like for a startup, mono-game company that releases a product at Essen?  Here you go.  Scale removed to pr...

Age of Mythology

With Brandon spending the night tonight, I wanted to make sure we sat down to play a boardgame and not let the kids be completely consumed in computer games....

Eastfront with Mike

(or, how I could have saved a lot of lives had I been commanding the Germans on the east front). I had planned to do a session report on my game of Eastfront...

More Music: Son Volt, Fall Out Boy, Coldplay

I like posting about music I’m listening to because I usually get good pointers to other artists that I’ll enjoy.  So keep the recommendations coming! An aut...

The Escapist on Wargames

I really enjoy reading The Escapist – very relevant an insightful information on video gaming, often with ties into tabletop gaming.  This month they have a ...

(Re)Decorating the Game Room

Julie just wrapped a redecorating project in the game room (formerly the play room – the boys informed me that they are too old to have one of those).  The p...

No Rain

That’s what we’ve been hoping for… a break from the rain.  Don’t get me wrong, I love winter storms on the coast but we’ve been itching to get outside to do ...

Duel of Ages Expansions

OK, all you Duel of Ages experts out there – what expansion brings the most bang for the buck?  Tom, you said in a review on BGG that people should buy the M...

Thanksgiving at Salishan

I worked a half day on Wednesday and we hit the road by about 2pm, arriving at the coast around 4pm.  Surprisingly, we beat Jan and David here by about 30 mi...

What to Bring to the Coast for Thanksgiving?

Tomorrow afternoon we’ll load up the car and drive out to the coast for Thanksgiving weekend, which we’ll spend with Jan and David.  We’ll be sure to get som...

Havoc Launch Party at Rainy Day Games

KC, Rita, and I held a Havoc launch event at our friendly local game store, Rainy Day Games.  We did this on Sunday to kick off National Games Week.  Turnout...

Another Football Season Completed

Football season for Jacob and Matthew ended this Saturday as Jacob’s team lost in their championship bid against a tough Canby team 6–0.  The only touchdown ...

Railroad Tycoon x2, Caylus, Wits and Wagers

One of my only purchases at BGG.CON was the new Eagle Games release Railroad Tycoon.  I held off on purchasing Age of Steam once I knew this was coming out, ...

BGG.CON 2005 Day 4

This will be my final report on BGG.CON.  We started the morning with a game of Alhambra down in the plaza courtyard (apropos, yes?).  This was a six-player ...

BGG.CON 2005 Day 3

For those of you that have been following the Flickr photo set for BGG.CON, please note that my camera’s date/time was off by about 12 hours (forward), so so...

BGG.CON 2005 Day 2

Hard to keep up on these reports with so little sleep.  I’ll try and catch up and give a brief report on how Friday went. I finally got to play one of the bi...

BGG.CON 2005 Day 1

It’s late but there’s always time for a quick post with some photos and game comments.  Probably more photos than comments today.  Reminder: you can follow m...

A Feast For Crows

I had no idea this was (finally) about to be released.  And to think I considered picking up Knife of Dreams this week… tisk tisk, I should know better. Hope...

Travel to Dallas for BGG.CON

KC, Rita, and I safely arrived in Dallas tonight for BGG.CON.  This will probably be our last convention to exhibit until Essen next year, and our goal is to...

South Tuesday Gaming, Drive and Caylus

It was my turn to host a Rip City game night.  My travel schedule has forced me to bow out of several of the last events and have someone else host in my pla...

Germany Day 6 - Koln and Essen Arrival

The transition from Koblenz into Koln is pretty dramatic – it became clear that we were leaving the hills and forest of southern / central Germany and headin...

Germany Day 5 - Up the Rhine to Koblenz

While we knew that day 5 would end in Koblenz, we weren’t sure until the day before what route we would take to get there.  We thought seriously about headin...

Germany Day 4 - Heidelberg

The old part of Heidelberg is striking – an old ruined castle looms over a beautiful German village.  We were fortunate enough to have a hotel room in the Pa...

Germany Day 2 - Burg Hohenzollern, Hechingen

Our second day in Germany began with a serious over-sleep – we didn’t get out of bed until at least 9:45am.  This meant we missed our free breakfast but the ...

Germany Day 1 - Sinsheim, Tubingen

Our flight from Portland to Frankfurt was uneventful and everyone managed to get at least a few hours of sleep. We picked up our huge luggage stash in Frankf...

We’re Back

Sorry for no posts while we are in Germany.  I took tons of photos but had a terrible time (or, in some cases, I was just too cheap) getting internet access....

Havoc Comes To Life

Last Saturday was a very meaningful day for me and a number of my closest friends.  You see, HAVOC: The Hundred Years War from Sunriver Games made the final ...

Magic: the Gathering Ad Campaign

Has anyone else noticed the massive ad campaign in progress for Magic: the Gathering?  I’ve seen adverts in computer gaming magazines, the dropped a CD for M...

Hiking Cascade Head

I’m a bit late in reporting this, but oh well.  It was a cool hike with some cool photos so better late than never.  We spent Labor Day weekend out at Salish...

Walking in Memphis

I’m heading to Memphis early tomorrow morning, spending two nights there with Thursday night opening.  So far my queries on BGG and Spielfrieks have been met...

VH1 Classic Rocks

I suppose VH1 Classic is supposed to rock, but it sure does.  This is my default live TV channel to have on while I work (must get back to work…) now.  Curre...

Strange Online Alhambra Game

I just won (a rare event) an online game of Alhambra at Boiteajeaux, and I must say it is the strangest game I’ve played there (or anywhere).   I had a great...

Football Season, Episode III

This is our third year as football parents, and now we have the joy (and often inconvenience) of having both Jacob and Matthew playing.  Of course they are o...

Sturgeon Fishing on the Willamette River

No, that’s not the name of a new boardgame; that’s what Jacob and I did today for the better part of a beautiful Sunday day.  My friend Scott Finney took us ...

The ChiZo Rising site is finally online

The ChiZo Rising site is finally up.  There’s some great content there… hopefully the game will hit distributors and retailers soon so I can pick up a few mo...

Will GenCon Stay in Indianapolis?

Apparently the Indianapolis Star reported yesterday (can’t find the story online) that GenCon is leaving Indianapolis.  Peter Adkison, CEO of Gen Con LLC, po...

Images of New Orleans and Katrina

Maybe these pictures have made the circulation already, but my friend Ken pointed me to them and figured maybe some of you haven’t seen them either.

Parthenon - Best Game of 2005? Maybe…

After returning from the coast this afternoon, Ken and Brandon joined Jacob and me for a four-player game of Parthenon: Rise of the Aegean.  Here’s a combine...

What’s Going On?

Nearly two years ago I had the pleasure of joining the Westbank Gamers for a night of gaming while on a business trip to New Orleans.  Greg Schloesser was ki...

Crayon Rails for Windows XP

This went under my radar, but a recent post in the BGG forums brought it to my attention.  Check out this crayon rails implementation for Windows XP courtesy...

International Gamers Awards - 2005 Finalists

As announced on the GameWire, the finalists for 2005 are out. Nobody asked for my opinion, but here goes.  In the General Strategy category, I’ve played 6 of...

Gathering of Engineers

There’s a new group gaming weblog on the block ( feed ).  Yeah, it is a bit “me too” but I still think it will be worthwhile and fun.

SimplyFun Game Night

SimplyFun is a relatively new game company with a novel business model – direct sales of games through SimplyFun independent consultants (similar to Tupperwa...

ChiZo Rising - Second Impressions

I’m not ready to review this game yet, but I can share some first impressions after having read the rules and playing a partial game with Jacob last night.  ...

GenCon 2005, Day 4

This will be my last GenCon report.  Hope you enjoyed them and feel free to ask any questions, either in the comment area or by sending me an email. Sunday s...

GenCon 2005, Day 3

Must… get… sleep… Each night I start these reports later and end up with less text.  The tradition continues this late Saturday night as we just returned fro...

GenCon 2005, Day 2

Ahhh, this takes too much time each night!  But, if I don’t take the time then I rarely remember important details and almost certainly fall too far behind i...

GenCon 2005, Day 1

Day 1 is over – a great start to what looks to be the biggest year ever for GenCon.  They appear to be running out of room at the convention center and are o...

Going to GenCon 2005 - Meetup

We head out for GenCon Indy this Wednesday morning for some quality family time and four days of gaming goodness.  This has turned out to be a successful for...

Attacktix Are the BOMB!

I learned about Attacktix from Mark Johnson and picked up a starter set and booster at Target last week.  I thought the kids might get a kick out of them.  T...

Sign My Guest Map

Hey, sign my guest map! Tell me where you are from!  Just double-click your location and leave a note.

Hosting Images with Flickr

I continue to bump into bandwidth limits with my ISP, Stormhosts.  While they remain very affordable, given the image-rich blog that I provide I’m wondering ...

2005 Mid-Summer Triathlon

Back in May I mentioned that Julie and I committed to doing a sprint triathlon this summer.  This weekend Julie and I finished the Mid-Summer Triathlon, held...

Tips for Podcasters

Here are some tips for Podcasters to make the listening experience a bit more user friendly: Number your episodes sequentially.  This makes it easy to deter...

New Boardgame Weblogs

There are a few new(er) ones on the block worth mentioning: Lumbersmiths - Jeff has been a long-time reader of my weblog and is now recording the adventures...

Reviewing the Boardgame Podcasts

I somewhat reluctantly started listening to Podcasts about a month or two ago.  I say reluctantly because initially I didn’t really see the point of download...

Keuka Lake 2005

Here are some snapshots from this year’s visit to Keuka Lake in western NY (we do this every year - read more here). Julie’s college roomate Deb join...

Wizard Kings, Candamir

After returning from the beach on Sunday afternoon, Jacob suggested we give Wizard Kings a try.  I love the block game format and picked this up on eBay with...

Beach Weekend

After returning from my trip to Israel, and thanks to a rare lack of scheduled baseball games, we worked in a weekend out at the beach.  The weather was spec...

Updates Coming this Weekend

I’ve been on vacation and very busy with work and assorted volunteer stuff.  I expect to make several postings over the weekend, including: Keuka Lake vacat...

Trip to Israel, Part 3: Jerusalem

Saturday was our one day off and a chance to see some interesting sites in Israel.  Jerusalem was on the top of my list, plus I contacted Yehuda Berlinger of...

Trip to Israel, Part 1: Frankfurt

I had hoped to post some of this trip content while on the road, but generally poor internet connectivity in my rooms in Israel combined with an extremely he...

My Travel Profile, Heading to Israel

I’m finishing packing and other prep for a business trip to Israel, departing tomorrow afternoon.  I noticed that Scott just posted his “travel profile” (ahe...

Overheard in the Columbus Airport

I’m sitting here in Columbus, OH (free wireless!) waiting for my delayed flight to Chicago and then home in Portland. So, I’m looking out the window and lo ...

PC Version of Ingenious

My friend David Chappelle (aka Codermonkey) is working on a PC version of Ingenious.  I’ve been testing it a bit over the past week and he’s doing a solid jo...

When Worlds Collide

I guess this shouldn’t be a surprise given the strong positive correlation between those who game and those in IT, but I was certainly a bit surprised when I...

Dungeons & Dragons for Dummies?

<img src=”http://media.wiley.com/product_data/coverImage/96/07645845/0764584596.jpg” img <> You gotta be kidding me…

Age of Steam - Scandanavia, Oltremare

Matthew’s baseball tournament this weekend was cancelled, leaving some time free on Saturday to join the RipCity folks for some gaming on Saturday.  Eric was...

Backpack Review

I’ve been using Backpack since the launch earlier this month.  I was initially attracted to Backpack because of the technology involved (Rails, AJAX), but I ...

Bragging About Jacob

</> Anyone who reads this weblog knows that I’m just a little proud of my sons Jacob and Matthew.  Jacob recently participated in the Reader’s Digest ...

Today is a Good Day

I heard the Replacements on the radio this morning (Can’t Hardly Wait off of Pleased to Meet Me) - that’s something that doesn’t happen very often so it must...

Backpack is Coming Soon

I’m looking forward to this - Backpack is coming soon.  This is written on Rails and comes from the makers of Basecamp and Ta-da List. They just posted their...

Unplayed Games

Reading Eric’s list of unplayed Euros got me thinking: There are some games on his list that I definitely should play with him It is time for me to update m...

Ticket to Ride, Einfach Genial

After baseball practices from 4-8pm on Friday, we drove out to the coast with Julie’s brother Mike to spend the weekend at Salishan with Jan (Julie’s mom) an...

Australia, Carcassonne Princess and Dragon

I was in the Phoenix area this week on business travel and managed to join some old friends in Tempe for an evening of gaming.  I last met these guys back in...

Europe Engulfed

I purchased Europe Engulfed (GMT Games) about a year ago

Evergreen

I forgot about this one - took the snapshot but just tonight downloaded from the camera.  In the judges raffle at the end of Game Storm last month, my name w...

Ruby on Rails in Portland

Lucas Carlson gave a presentation yesterday on Ruby on Rails in downtown Portland.  Looks like there’s a lot of local buzz going on regarding Rails.  There’s...

Google Maps and Images

Google Maps continues to get even more interesting.  They recently added satellite imagery to the maps, adding a much-needed feature that helps bring context...

Medina

Last night we all played a game that had been sitting on my shelf unplayed: Medina.  This is a very nice looking game with a bunch of wooden pieces. ...

Through the Desert

I played Through the Desert today at lunch with my Corillian gaming buddies.  This was my third or fourth play of the game and I like it more each time I pla...

Game Storm 2005, Stuff I Did, Day 3

The main event for me on Sunday of Game Storm 2005 was family gaming from 9-noon.  With Jay’s help I was able to run over 8 different game sessions with a wi...

Game Storm 2005, Stuff I Did, Days 1 and 2

As I mentioned before Jacob and I spent last weekend at Game Storm, the annual gaming convention on the north side of Portland.  The newly renamed Thunderbir...

Fun Beach Weather

A couple of weekends ago (on the front-end of the Jacob and Matthew’s spring break), we spent the weekend at the coast and had some long-time friends as gues...

New look, new software

I’ve changed the theme for my weblog to something a bit cleaner (I think) and guess what - it looks correct in Firefox!  I’m also running dasBlog 1.7CE now, ...

Outage, GameStorm, and More Travel

Sorry about the outage today.  Sometimes with dasBlog (my weblog software) a big clump of entry files will show up with zero content and a weird datestamp, c...

Dave is a new dad

My friend Dave and wife Melanie just returned from China with a new adopted daughter.  Congrats Dave; you’ll be busy and tired for quite a while but it will ...

Lord of the Rings, St. Petersburg

I periodically do bulk game orders for my local group through Boards and Bits, my favorite online retailer.  This works reasonably well, though with my work ...

Pinewood Derby 2005

I’m the Cubmaster for Cub Scout Pack 710 - been doing it for 2 years now and will likely do it for one more until Jacob moves on to Boy Scouts.  My favorite ...

Archer Glen Chess Team

I’m past due for some postings, so expect to see a bunch over the coming week.  Work and travel have been exceptionally heavy recently so there hasn’t been m...

More Vanished Planet

I came upstairs to the playroom around 7pm and found Jacob setting up Vanished Planet for a solitaire playing.  I offered to join him and he kindly accepted ...

Cooperative Fridays

Perhaps a new tradition?  We’ll see… Last night Jacob, Matthew and I played our two favorite cooperative games (ok, our only two): Lord of the Rings and Vani...

Salishan Gaming, Day 2

All right folks, this one’s coming at you photo-blog style.  On Saturday Eric was able to join us for most of the day - proving that you can get in a solid d...

Salishan Gaming, Day 1.5

Let’s see, where was I… Have I mentioned that work has been pretty busy lately?  I’m at the point where I almost feel guilty taking any time to write entries...

Salishan Gaming, Day 1

Last weekend I had a small group of friends out at the beach house for some gaming.  This is my mostly regular gaming group, the RipCityGamers, and was an ex...

Canoeing Near Siletz Bay

We finally got out into the estuary waters around Siletz Bay.  Dave is out here for a group weekend with my regular group that I scheduled a while back as a ...

Doom First Impressions

OK, I caved in and bought Doom: the Boardgame last Friday after work. The kids have played the computer game, it is of course dripping with theme, and the li...

Anno 1503, Hansa, Samurai, and more

I’ve managed to attend a few different gaming sessions over the past 10 days.  Two Saturdays ago Jacob and I traveled to Vancouver to attend a game day at Do...

New Years Gaming

We invited the Humphrey and Rude families out to Salishan for an extended weekend of fun and games. This was our first test of the house for a large group of...

How Much Data Do We Need About Boardgaming?

Mark Johnson poses the question “what’s right for 2005?” in terms of year-end reports (games played, 5/10 reports, etc.).  I don’t know either, but I can say...