Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

Top 10 Board or Box Games Christmas Gift Guide
December 15, 2008

We stopped at Target this evening to look for something completely unrelated (a cake pan, if you must know - yes, a new shaped cake is incoming), and while passing through the toy section, I looked over their selection of board games. It was pretty poor.

I know I’ve mentioned that I’m a game junkie. I buy, uh, everything game related. I’ve come across a few pretty darn good games in my time, certainly enough to bother writing about here. And since I’ve noticed that my visitors are looking for such things, I thought I would take a little time to answer some questions and point to some real winners.

Before we get started, I’ll answer the main question posed that leads people to my site: Is it ok to buy your boyfriend a boardgame? The answer is yes. There is a catch, though. Either you must know that he plays them already, or you must play them with him. If not, don’t bother, or he’ll end up with a really cool game he’ll never get to play. Or maybe it would inspire him to find a group to play with. Who knows?!

Now, on with the games!

Where's the Spirit?
December 15, 2008

Berta’s sister, Mary Ann, and her husband, Ryan, visited over the weekend. With them, we went to select our Christmas tree.

What bothers me about this year, and last year, is that we’ve been trying to go out for a “cut your own tree” experience. I mean, what’s the point of going out to get a tree form a tree farm if you aren’t cutting down your own tree? You might as well buy a tree from one of the stands on the side of the road.

Peanut Butter Programming
December 13, 2008

On a mailing list to which I still subscribe (registered users only), a message was recently posted about pre-testing programming aptitude. Being a programmer myself, these topics always amuse me, and will no doubt be the focus of at least 10 minutes of our next work lunch.

In particular, the ensuing discussion focused on whether it’s easy or difficult to teach programming. The focus was perhaps more concerned with whether programming skills are important at all in comparison to problem solving skills, and the difficulty of teaching those. Being that one of the better sessions I attended at BarCamp Philly revolved around the curriculum required for community college computer classes to produce employable programmers, and the difficulty of finding programmers in the marketplace with any skill, I have much interest in this topic.

You're In The Movies
December 13, 2008

I was bumbling around the console game section of Best Buy last week looking for a bigger XBox hard drive when I saw this strange little game on the shelf. The trend these days is toward creating games that have you doing something other than sitting in a chair pushing buttons with minute hand twitches and drying eyeballs. You’re In The Movies is a unique game in that genre.

The game is packaged differently because it comes with a small USB video camera. This is a shame because I has already (for some reason) bought the XBox video camera, and now I have two. I didn’t see a copy of the game without the camera, and this box was shelved in a different location because of the non-standard game box.

School Lunch
December 11, 2008

Abby’s in second grade this year. On the refrigerator we have her school lunch schedule posted, in a December-festive black toner on red paper.

The lunch menu is in the form of a calendar, with each day’s lunch options listed in the date blocks. There is always a choice of different food options that would satisfy any 2nd-grader.