Man, I thought Diskwars was going to be a dexterity game! I was so pumped! I then went and watched videos on it and it's a flip the disk around minis game. It still looks good but man, kind of a let down! I can't wait to try it though. The box says 2-4 players - is that right?

| More From Me

Likely only Enron will appreciate this for all it's glory, but recently the Kings won a game against the now rival Vancouver Canucks 1-0.  All throughout the game the 'nucks were trying to 'send a message' to the Kings by taking runs at them and trying to play physical because the Kings have been KICKING THEIR ASSES over the past few games, including the playoffs.

Anyway, at the beginning of the game there was a 7 minute powerplay for the kings, some of it 5 on 3, and they failed to score, or even control the game during that span for that matter.  Some crafty Kings fan posted this hilarious, inside-joke laden video about it and it had me in rolling.

I think you might find it funny too, even if you hate sports, hockey, and the Kings.  Make it fullscreen so as to not miss the awesome text!  Enjoy!

| Justified Trivia

I'm watching the first episode right now and a little bit of trivia:  the music playing in the shitty white supremacists 'clubhouse' is none other than "USA" by Reagan Youth.  Someone in the production crew has a sense of street-cred humor!  I like the show already!

From Wikipedia:  Reagan Youth is an aggressively anarchist, socialist, and anti-racist band, and often utilized Ku Klux Klan and Nazi Party imagery for satirical effect. In their original 1980s incarnation, they sought to address the perceived parallels between the policies of Ronald Reagan, the Christian Right and American conservatism, and the beliefs of the hate groups.

Song on YouTubes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXHF-GXI6Vg 

| Warhammer Disk Wars

I bought this game with relatively low expectations since I remember the first Diskwars being a solid 'meh' in my book.  I was ready to be totally underwhelmed and figure I just flushed some cash down the drain in a semi-calculated risk.  Boy, was I wrong!

I've only played one game with myself, and all I can say is 'wow!'  It is fast, brutal, innovative, clever, and pretty deep once you get stuck in.  Not knowing anything about strategy or the system I just sort of set up my dudes and went at it.  Each move I made I started to see how I could have done it better, or timed it differently, or rather moved this piece later, or earlier, etc.  Once I got into combat, I again saw that had I been cognizant of this certain ability or that attack/defense score, I would have timed the combat differently.  All of which left me thinking about the game a fair amount after I packed it up.

It moves very fast, surprisingly fast, which is a great thing because it seems like you could get a bunch of games played in a sitting and really try some stuff out.  It also means that if you get slaughtered for whatever reason, you don't have that much invested so you're not crying about it (well, I'LL cry about it, but that's just me...).

One of the neat little meta-game mechanics is that you have a deck of activation cards that you only hand-pick ~4 for each game.  The cards have a combination special ability, number of pieces you get to move, and then a rock/paper/scissors mechanic to determine which player moves their pieces first that turn.  The first round will be a total surprise because no one knows what the other person chose, but then subsequent rounds you will sort of start guessing and planning and trying to maneuver your cards against your opponent to get the upper hand.

All in all, I'm super duper looking forward to playing it with someone at Cayucos and am already REALLY looking forward to some expansions!

Someone else should pick up a copy for Cayucos so we can combine and have some additional army building options!

Doooooo eeeeeeet!

Oh yeah, it doesn't feel like some weird Alpha version or something. Everytime I open Steam there's tiny updates to it, so I assume there ARE lots of bugs potentially, but it's been perfectly stable for me so far. Broken Age? More like BROKEN Ag- oh.

I backed it too. In fact, it was the first thing I backed, starting the KS Avalanche of '12-'13. The only reason I haven't played it is I don't want to feel like I'm QAing something I paid for. Is it pretty bug-free?

| Merkin Age

Did anyone else play Broken Age yet? That was the Double Fine kickstarter game that was a big deal when it launched. Put in a little time this morning and it seems pretty fun. Straight up point and click adventure game with good art and a good sense of humor so far. I think I paid at the $15 level and I bet I get my moneys worth. It will probably be $3 on some Steam sale within the year, but that's the way the Steam sale cookie crumbles.

Oh, yeah! That was an Aeryk/jr0n joint. I remember writing that in your old bedroom. Good times.

Edit: Well, it'd be a lot easier to make nowadays! Hell, we could "shoot" it over Hangouts.

Also, thinking about it more, I THINK we wrote this in the period from late August-late September where other people had disappeared off to college, but UCLA hadn't started yet (it started like a month later than all the other colleges). I could be misremembering but I remember it being this period when people besides Camino and UCLA types weren't really around.

That's amazing! Who all wrote it? Is this post-jp era?

| Found

Appears to be an inkjet printed script for one skit from the show that never aired on cable access that we took the class for.  That was an amazing sentence.  I present, "Skits and Ideas For 'The Show'"  Please note: I have tried to capture the actual script word for word and typo for typo to preserve posterity.  Also note, bolding is mine:

(Enter the Janitor, hairdresser, and the Mortician)

Hairdresser: (to janitor) It sure has been a hard day dressing hair, honey.  A bad case of split-ends can sure make my wrists ache.

Mortician:  You think you have problems, I have to sit around a room of enbalming fluid all day long, knowing I can't drink it.

Janitor: Yes I have the same problem with my cleaning solvents.

Hairdresser: Wow, I guess that even through we lead vastly different lives, we share a common bond of having problems at our various professions.

Mortician:  True.  but none of have problems even close to those of Jerry the Singing Frog.

All three break into song:

Jerry the singin' frog

sits all day on a log,

Contemplating his life,

wishing he had a wife.

Livin' his life in the bog,

yeah he's jerry, Jerry the singin' frog

(Cut to Jerry)

Jerry: Boy what a day dodging the oppressive Jack-boot of capitalism.  All I am trying to do is start a commune here in this bog, and find a wife.  Oh my God!! Whats that!!??  I hop it not the protective guardians of the american way!

(Enter protective guardian of the american way)

Guard:  Jerry the singin' frog, I have been ordered to summarily execute you, for your attempts to usher in a new era of communism in America.  Have you singin frogs no shame?

Jerry: Nope.

Guard: Now you will meet your maker you Godless communist!  (Pulls out a gun, and shoots Jerry)

(Cut to Mortician)

Mortician: Yessir, I just buried Jerry the singin frog in a commune casket this morning.

End (Finally)

Well, the KS one is more a "money-saving, common-sense guideline", esp since I'm STILL waiting on several big items I pledged for in 2012...

The (notable) exception is Dwarven Forge's upcoming KS (cavern tiles!) because that shit was quality, yo.

| BOARDGAMES

You swore off BOARDGAMES in 2014.  You said nothing about RPG tomes.  Unless this is a prior swearing-off incident I'm choosing not to remember.

You following the Earthdawn 4th ed Kickstarter Pump? I had lots of fun playing 3rd ed and would play it again (the writeups you guys did were some of the best ever, "thousand-hex stare" ftw), but what I'd buy a new edition for is a way more streamlined ruleset and I'm not getting that vibe.

Plus I got kinda burned on the Earthdawn Savage Worlds conversion, that was the worst.

Also I swore off Kickstarters but let's stick to the relevant facts.

Season 2 of Justified is particularly good, although it's a moment in the last episode of S3 that stands out for me as the highlight. (You'll know it when you see it.) We're watching season 4 and it's good too - trying to change things up by having it be more of a mystery.

I only caught Season 1 of Girls, but I thought it was totally great. I need to catch up on season 2. The amount of vitriol about that particular show on the 'netz is shocking. It seems to be a particularly noisome stew of jealousy, failure to grasp that the show is a fictional programme, and some outright misogyny.

oh ya, justified is awesome. I've only seen the first season but I will eventually get around to catching up. We follow too many shows as is, and of course, everything's starting up again right around now.

if you got a haxed hbo go, I think you guys may or may not like Girls. We enjoy it. HBO also has a new mini-series that just started called True Detective with Woody Harelson and Mathew Mchonohey   (I spell names real good) that has been pretty awesome so far.

They have the first trailer out for the new season of Game of Thrones. Looks awesome.

We actually worked on that show.  It's not something I would normally gravitate to, but it's pretty good.  The season 2 story arc was my favorite.  And for some reason, I really love how Walton Goggin's character talks.  I wish I could be that smooth.

Do you watch Justified, Rude? (Or anybody else, but I figure you're the most likely candidate. Maybe Ryan? He's sort of mysterious.) We really enjoy it in the jr0n household. It's not a show that tries to reinvent the wheel or anything, but it delivers on a pretty exciting story every season and does a good job building up to some good craziness. The last couple episodes of each season are usually really intense. They've got it on Amazon Prime now (through last year's season).

That game needs to come to Cayukos this year, because I'm dying to play it. And after watching some videos on it, I kinda get how I wouldn't totally love it either. But hey, maybe they game we WOULD love is lurking somewhere in the TPK framework or something entirely new.

Netflix:
Timecrimes - a cool Spanish movie about time travel, THATS ALL I CAN SAY! Much less of a brain burner than something like Primer.

Walking Dead - finally decided to retry the show since only really watching the first season. Finished what Netflix has. It's addictive. Not a perfect show, but really entertaining. I just honestly can't stand a lot of the gore. I think I had a higher tolerance as a kid. Now when they show someone kicking in a zombies face with their boot, I'm like "why does this have to be so graphic?" I guess I'm becoming old 'n shit.

Theater: I REALLY wanna see the movie "Her". I just keep hearing that it's so fantastic, so hopefully we'll be able to finagle some baby sitting and get out to see that one soon.

Lately I've been playing a bunch of Pathfinder Card Game (solo, with a party of three) and I gotta say this game just seems like it could be SO much better. So many of the elements of building your character are really good, but the gameplay is just fundamentally lacking.

Of course the game is FLYING off the shelves, has a huge score on BGG and is on many best-of-2013 lists, so what the hell do I know?

| NDA Jones

He makes you sign a document before he'll tell you his ideas, which are all stupid.

| Free Movie Idea II

Indiana
Some archaeologists and Indians live there, probably.

| Free Movie Idea

Indian Jones
He's 1/16th Native American and 15/16ths archaeologist