Saturday, July 14, 2012

I kept thinking about Summoner Wars to the point I bought the board game and now mmmmaybe the wife will play it with me? We shall see. I see it comes with totally different decks than those with the mobile version, which is kinda cool.

Just pick up an iPad Ja-el! Sheesh, what's the holdup :)

And yeah, I need to remember and ping you when I'm jumping on TF2! It's just the perfect game for me to get on 20 minutes, shoot some stuff/make a difference/get a random item or two and jump out. The different classes are a lot of fun too. I finally started playing Engineer a bit and it's like a totally different, defensive subgame where you fix up your shit and try to find spies.

Finally got the crib issue "resolved". A hacksaw took care of the bolt in the mattress frame. As for the bolt still stuck in the wood, well, what wrenches and vise-grip pliers were unable to take care of, a little concealing duct tape has resolved. I'm totally sure that covering the bolt with the duct tape was temporary and I'll really get around to fixing it any day now.
SW sounds like boatloads of fun!   Anyone have an Ipad to spare?  lol.  I tried playing the game on my iphone but can't read any of the cards because the font size was too small or rather my screen size was too small.  whichever.   On the other hand, Team fortress 2 was boatloads of fun!

Never had any crib problems myself, but IKEA furniture.  Chime.  The swedish/chinese manufacture instructions aren't super infallable as simple as they tend to make it.  Perhaps oversimplified if you ask me.  What person assemblying that stuff doesn't have a 4th grade education!  Just make sure on cabinets you get all the facings correct before screwing it down.  That's all i have to say.  Unless you enjoy off shaded cabinets.


Friday, July 13, 2012

I'm digging Summoner Wars so far! I had a really exciting game against Rude where we were both online so the turns were going super quick. I was super excited and texting him about the game and stuff. Then I realized I was actually in offline mode playing the AI. :\

Loving the real games though! I even made a custom deck for the next new game we start, ohhhh shit!

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Regarding summoner wars I think it is definitely important to place your own units around the walls of your enemy. Also it really seems like champions are the most important units. I guess that's pretty obvious but it took me a while to figure that out. I have to agree that there are some pretty hinky UI functions especially regarding champions and summoner special powers. I'm stoked that all the depth that the different factions have. I was playing a stranger the other day and I was able to summon one of my champions right in front of his summoner. Of course the dice were against me. only got one hit out of three but it was so close! Coulda killed him. I had to build a ton of IKEA furniture this week as we're finally almost done moving in and while not as bad as that crib you know I am almost at the same level of rage.

| Steam summer sales again

D'oh.

Most of what I want, I either already have, or it isn't cheap enough for me to want to buy.
Unrelated: decided to reboot Half Life 2 and give it a run through. Pretty fun! Even more amazing given the age of the title.
I just remembered what it was. When we moved back to Vegas, the movers put Haylee's crib back together and stripped the head on a bolt that was recessed into the leg. I could hold it in place but had no way to turn it.. hence why I had to rotate the entire gate assembly to "screw" it in, lol.

| S.Warz updates

- Phoenix Elves are assholes. (jr0n destroyed my silly clerics lickety-split) Sure, jr0n seemed to have the right cards and the right rolls when he needed them, but luck favors the prepared, so jr0n is actually the asshole here... ;)

 - The Clerics are a weird bunch to work with. The healing that they do is sort of not enough, and not enough times in a game to seem like it would make a difference, and their fightiness is fairly weak. THeir champions sort of suck too. After getting trounced by the asshole Elves, I'm giving it another shot, but they are tough to wrap my head around.

 - Tundra Orcs: against me they are pretty tough, when I play with them, they are easy to beat. Its TOTALLY the faction, NOT the player....

 - Jungle Elves are assholes. I got blown out of the water against Rudy, he as the elves, me as the orcs. Yet, when I play AS the elves against the AI I have a tough time.... TOTALLY the faction, NOT the player, again....

 - Ret-Talus are interesting. THeir best common troops (reapers) gain strength when they kill other units, BUT you dont get to convert those units to magic, they stay with the unit until they are killed... not sure if the opponent then gets a two for one if they kill the reapers? If so, my whole plan with playing them should change because end up denying myself a magic point per kill, and if the unit falls, the opponent gets 1+ x magic points (x being the number of destroyed units under the reaper).

 - PS, my Ret-Talus mega hero run on the first turn did not play out so well...

 - PPS The same Ret_talus vs. Phoenix Elves game is either going to end, or has ended already, with jr0n having the drop on my summoner, but IF by the grace of jeebus he survives this round, I think I have the drop on him next round. Good times.

 - PPPS I think I play too aggressively. I think the way to play SW is to only be opportunistic, pick off weak units as they come to you, build your champions, and wait for the decks to run out. I have almost 0 success pressing the attack - so much can swing per turn in the opponents zone, you can be up 4 units to 0, and then be down 0 to 4 units in one round of attacks. At least against the asshole elves (both of em). Maybe I should start trying to block off summoning point on the walls? Anyone been trying that? That is all.
In other good/bad news... the trash company has changed our pickup schedule for the trash and recycling to two different days of the week.. with recycling every other week.

Heard a truck out yesterday morning, saw our neighbor's trash can "sideways" so I thought I had missed the pickup (damnit!). I begin Machievellian level schemes on how I'm going to make it another week, where I'm going to store extra trash bags, etc.

This morning, I hear a big truck outside again (woken up by the sounds of the garbage truck! SHEEEIT, must be recycling day?) Jump out of bed, peer out the window to confirm it's just recycling day and he's picking ACTUAL TRASH CANS OMG OMG OMG.

I know I have about 4.2 seconds before my window of opportunity is closed.. so I throw on a shirt (inside and backwards), begin sprinting down stairs barefoot. Through the garage (DOOR! OPPPEEENNNNN) ... grab the can and make it to the curb just as he's about to drive past our house.

Apparently our neighbor had put his can out a day early (just to screw with us? lol).

Now I'm awake an hour early, feels like my eyes are glued shut.

Anyway. There's my good news / bad news for today. :D

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Wow! No idea my bolt problem was a total shared fatherhood experience. Thanks bros ;)

Dunno what it's like where you are but it's hotter than a Mississippi titstorm here. Walked to the 7-11 to pick up ice creams and they were pretty much goo when I got back. Sheeee-it.

Enron/Aeryk, either of you chuckleheads want to come out to the land of inferno this Saturday and do a little gaming? You can also watch me grunt and strain as I continue to fight the crib, which should be fun for you.
Lulz, I too have done battle with the baby crib. It's a little difficult to describe what, exactly, went wrong on mine but in essence it also involved a frozen bolt. I had to deal with that fucker twice in subsequent moves. It's now been a couple of years so I don't remember what was fused with what. But I do remember the solution vividly. I had to secure the bolt while physically spinning the entirety of the rest of the crib in circles to "screw" it in. Theater of the absurd.

As for chipotle, I am firmly in the pro-salad/bowl camo. Lettuce, rice, beans, fajita veggies, corn and guacamole. Make sure you get their salad dressing. It is OMGWTFBBQ AWESOME.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

| Yup.

Though the specifics escape me, what I can tell you is that I jacked up Wylie's crib/bed enough trying to drop the mattress down a few notches that it required zip ties, saws, nuts, bolts, and blood to keep it together long enough for him to graduate to a big boy bed.

I _think_ what probably happens is that some combination of cheap pot metal alan bolts and the motion of the crib is enough to bend, expand, and shift the bolts so it would appear that it was put together by Past jr0n/Aeryk, the jr0n/Aeryk that apparently defines himself by angel dust induced feats of forgotten strength.

And one wrong turn with those shallow tipped, pot metal bolts = Useless Stripped-Bolt City, baby.

PS Chipotle burritos are the worst.  Burrito bowls on the other hand, are delicious.  I don't know what it is, but the burritos taste and act less like a burrito than I would expect a Russian cook working a 'Mexican' restaurant in China would make.

PPS My recipe for great burrito bowlz:  If they do well seasoned chicken, go for white rice, pinto, fajita veggies, chicken, a little bit of cheese, and as much lettuce as they will give you.  Then, get a mix of medium and hot on the side for occasional seasoning (I almost never use the salsa for anything other than the chips because the chicken is soooo delicious).
Man, fuck this burrito. My home is roughly at the midpoint of two Chipotles. One of them is honestly the best ever. Their rice is great, their meat is well seasoned, they pack the tortillas efficiently. The other one sucks ass. The rice is bland at best, the chips are occasionally stale, one time my burrito grotesquely burst out of the tortilla onto the stainless steel and they just wrapped another tortilla around the whole mass, and the chicken has a garbagey smell and taste. Unfortunately, Evil Chipotle is the one near daycare so that's where I bought my burrito tonight.

Anyway been meaning to say something about how moronic my Sunday afternoon was in case any of you were upset because you spent it doing something comparatively benign like suffering a stroke or amputating your arm. I spent the entire afternoon trying (and failing) to remove one fucking bolt from the kid's bed.

I'll back up. That morning we woke to find that for the first time she'd managed to pull herself up to a standing position using the crib railing. She was staring down at us with a shit-eating grin, "fuck y'all motherfuckers, I win!" Time to drop the mattress frame down a notch or two. No problem, I thought.

WRONG! It turned out that jr0n of the past had fucked over jr0n of the present by tightening two of the bolts with such apparently Herculean strength that the alan wrench hole was totally stripped. I used pliers to pretty easily remove one, but no force my pathetic body could muster would turn the other bolt the slightest fraction of an inch. I spent an hour in a total blur pliering, hammering and trying to pry that motherfucker. I managed to do substantial aesthetic damage to the bed frame but made no progress removing the bolt. I had however managed to expose about 1/3 inch of the central section of the bolt.

I briefly tried a hand saw somebody had given me from the 99-cent store to cut down the bolt some more but abandoned it after the blade popped out twice (once flying in my direction). I was surprised it didn't work well, it seemed totally legit judging by the safety instructions.


Like any frustrated man, at this point I decided to go to Home Depot, where I bought a bolt cutter. Also a wrench, which I did not need, but I was caught up in the moment. Going home and bellowing in rage a bit I managed to cut through the little fucker. Of course this did not really solve the problem in any meaningful sense because, while the mattress frame was now technically separated from the bed frame, the individual halves of the bolt were still impossible to get out.

I know you're worried this story won't have a happy ending but it's cool, the fucking bolt shards are still happily ensconced in their homes. At least I have something to keep me entertained this week, just the normal everyday of raising a child was getting too easy, I need some extra tedious bullshit. Today I went back to Home Depot and bought a hacksaw. I am sure this will end well.

Monday, July 09, 2012

| Summoner Warz

I don't mind the size of the game on the iPad, it's a pretty big physical game and I think they do a pretty good jorb of balancing visible information with pretty graphics.  But I certainly do see the annoyance...

I do however have a problem with there not being an undo button, even if it is one step back.  There is a champion on the undead team that if you discard units from the field, you can reduce his cost - well it is unclear exactly how you do that, and once you figure it out it is VERY easy to discard units, then hit 'done', thinking the discard unit phase is over and assuming the game will then allow you to place the champion... of course, this is not the case and you need to actually drag the unit on the board before hitting done.  It's cool, because you discard the units, but then don't actually put the champion on the board... it's just a game and all that, but I was ticked when I had victory in my sights, only to have it undone by an unclear UI. :)

My AT Summoner War match updates:

Rude's (The Thief Guild?) vs. My Phoenix Elves: Those teleporting thieves are SOBs and weird to think about containing.  So far, the best containment is to make sure they are secured in a 7 foot pine box, 6 feet beneath the earth!  Huzzah!

jr0n's Elves vs. My Undead Things:  Speaking of the champion that lets you discard units from the board to bring him out, I'm trying that MY FIRST TURN against jr0n!  I discarded all of my units from the board, and summoned this 4 attack power dude and started charging him across the board.... let's see what happens :)


PS Chrome does not recognize 'teleporting' as a legitimate word.  It does now, fucker.

PPS I wish S.Warz had a chat, or message function too, so we could comment on the game before we submit our turns.
I have to give Sons a watch through soon. I watched a few discs of Season 1 and long time ago and kinda liked it, but didn't bother finishing it. Same thing with The Shield which supposedly is REALLY good. The Shield felt like Oz in that, I could see how at the time they were probably pretty shocking and edgy, but now they felt slightly corny. Watching Oz now is hilarious because it has the opposite "familiar actor" thing that SoA has - they're all WAY younger and most of them I know from Law and Order first.

The Summoner Wars app is good but even on the iPad it's kinda hard for me to see. Must be the grid size or something. It's fun to try out all these new factions.

Sunday, July 08, 2012

| Sons of Anarchy

Hot damn, I'm tearing through SoA episodes on Netflix right now.  I've passed it over for years, it seems, because I'm just not that into motorcycles, but it's GOOD.  Show has a lot a lot of actors you recognize from everywhere, they're just older now, kinda like me.

A lot like breaking bad where the characters you care about are flawed to the point of being the bad guys, but you still pull for them.  Kind of some crazy sheet happens, and it is definitely not a show for the kiddies.

Two thumbs-up!
So far I'm enjoying Summoner Wars! Kinda scratches the same itch as Hero Academy. Aeryk, where you at?

Ja-el: let's definitely get some Medic/Heavy "Spaaaaace Mariiiiiines!" action going. I'll let you know if I jump on tonight. Try to hook up to Steam beforehand and patch up, I'd imagine there's a lot to download.
It's free for single-player with only the phoenix elves. Otherwise you gotta pay money, like most games on the planet. $8 bucks gets you all 8 factions PLUS 3 decks of reinforcements/mercenaries to modify the decks. Real-life game  it's about $10 bucks for 1 faction, so this is a good deal.