SonicChicken blog

Oh. My. God! Hat tip to acetylene for this Elizabethan-flavored “Who’s on first?” I laughed so hard I almost threw up!

Last month I stopped by Viking Hobby and bought myself a new boardgame, Tigris & Euphrates. I would have preferred to give the game a trial play at one of the Sacramento Boardgame Meetups, but I hadn’t seen anybody bring it. Since this is the highest rated game (after Puerto Rico) on BoardGameGeek I figured it was a pretty safe purchase anyway. I’ve played this game twice and been very pleased with it. It’s proven very popular at game nights, but sadly my family hasn’t been interested in playing at home.

Lucky for me, Simon invited me to play an online version of the game hosted by BoardGameGeek. I’m a few turns into my first PBEM game, and the mechanics seem perfectly faithful to the original board game. The only thing I don’t like about this implementation is the lack of socializing–I much prefer playing in person, especially at The Fox and Goose with some friends and a few pints! But in all honesty, there are some advantages to the online game: scheduling is a non-issue, since all the players don’t have to be “present” simultaneously; one can spend more time considering a play, since there’s no rush; and finally the game accurately tracks the score. (I often forget to collect points for monuments when I play. Doh!)

I see in this post that Nicholas enjoys Tigris & Euphrates. I hereby invite him (and any other readers) to join this game. The password is “sonicchicken”. You’ll need to know how to play already, as this isn’t a tutorial. If you’re not a BoardGameGeek member, just register (for free). Leave a comment here when you join so that I know when to start the game, as well as to see who’s playing.

If you look at my archives, you can see that I just recently started blogging (and reading blogs). So I missed this post on Acetylene.net. Zeno’s comment mentions listening to podcasts with an I-pod Shuffle. I’ve tried this before, and it didn’t work very well, for the following reasons:

• With the Shuffle, you can’t “bookmark” a podcast. If you’re only listening to a 5-minute podcast, that’s not a big deal. But I was trying to listen to (for example) The O’Franken Factor, which is several hours long. I usually don’t have a chance to listen to the whole show at one sitting, and hitting “Pause” (and not using my I-pod for several hours) isn’t always an option.
• There’s no way to make notes on a podcast with the Shuffle. I’m listening to podcasts, and hearing cool stuff that I would like to be able to re-visit and/or blog. Unless you hit your stopwatch when you start listening to a podcast, and have pencil and paper handy, there’s no way to make notes on what you’re listening to.
• And finally, Zeno’s complaint: there’s no way to change ratings on the Shuffle.

Don’t misunderstand me–I love my Shuffle! It’s great for listening to tunes on the bike trail, or working in the yard, etc. But for non-fluff podcasts, Zeno had the right idea: do yourself a favor and spring for a higher-end I-pod.