Can't talk, pretty busy. But I felt I must post this. If you haven't played this game and are into board games in any way, you must play it. I was kindly invited to Sid's house f'realz and his lovely wife cooked us an eqaully lovely dinner. Afterwards, while drinking coffee laced with Bailey's and topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings (evil, the woman is eeeee-vil) the three of us played this. Afterwards we talked and talked and talked s'more. Thanks guys!

I'm not ordinarilly one to brag but Sid did insist. I played Settlers of Catan with Sid and his darling wife B4B (makes her sound like a droid) again last week and won! While it may not have been entirely flawless (it was a very close game) I won by making a trade with B4B and that felt gooood.

Thanks to Snopes I found FreeRice. You can improve your vocabulary and donate rice to the hungry at the same time.

The rice is paid for by the advertisers whose names you see on the bottom of your vocabulary screen. This is regular advertising for these companies, but it is also something more. Through their advertising at FreeRice, these companies support both learning (free vocabulary for everyone) and reducing hunger (free rice for the hungry). We commend these companies for their participation at FreeRice.

I used to play RPG's and I ran across this one on Blogunder Schlock the blog for the Schlock Mercenary webcomic.

Ken Burnside of Ad Adstra Games emailed me yesterday to show me this creation of his. It is brilliant in its brevity. It is a table-top RPG whose rule set fits entirely on one page — and that includes a sample character sheet that will fit on an index card (pictured to the right - click to enlarge.) Here’s a snippet, the first two paragraphs on creating your character:

Write down five things about the character you want to play. Pass the paper to the person on your left; that person takes your five things and makes 7 skills out of it. Pass the character sheet one more place to the left. Everyone takes a look at the five things defined, the seven skills, and defines two positive special abilities, which are adjectives that end in exclamation points, like Tough!, Smart!, Fast!, Keen Eyed! or Detective!

DL the pdf here. All they ask for if you use it is a two dollar donation.

Read it. The simplicity is very cool.

Thanks to GeekDad I found MyMiniCity. It's sort of SimCity meets Social Networking. Your city grows by clickthroughs. Check it out.

My city's name is SpiritualCity. Click for it to grooooow.

Peter Hirschberg has recreated a vintage early 80's arcade. He did all of the renovating on the cabinets himself, spending about $500 a game and untold time. Apparently it is open by invitation. According to Gizmodo he supplies the quarters to his guests wanting them only to revel in his obsession as he does. I could lose hours in there, days if there were Nachos and Pepsi enough.

I miss the arcades of my youth. Yes there are "better" video games out now, but playing in the mall arcade with real flesh and blood friends and trying to beat one another's scores was where it was at. I agree with Peter that the arcades of the late 80's early 90's were but pale shadows with their fighting games and 50-75 cent machines. There was an arcade in the town I grew up in that would let you in for a paltry sum and you could play all of their machines as much as you wanted. Bliss!!

What was your favorite game?