Category Archives: Games

Barrel Roll Man

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Today is the one year anniversary of Anne’s bicycle accident. Last year on this day, she crashed her bike just a few houses from home and broke her pinky. Like last year, this morning started out with the MRH high school pancake breakfast. This time though we didn’t bicycle to it, but drove instead, not wanting to tempt the fates. We ended up closing the breakfast this year. Today was such a gorgeous day that we needed to get out on our bikes after all. We threw caution to the wind, threw our legs over the bar and then launched ourselves towards Forest Park.

We were pedaling by the Grand Basin when we first heard a loud-speaker blaring and then noticed a bunch of people on Art Hill. The speaker was entreating people to come up there and join them. When I heard him announce that if you showed up on a bicycle that it would be free, I was sold (Anne donated). As it turned out Barrel Roll Man and Nurses for Newborns had organized this charity event. Their motto was, “Rolling for the babies!” In addition to raising money, its purpose was to break the Guinness World Record for the most people doing either somersaults or barrel rolls at the same time, or something like that. So, we signed up for the event and then participated in it. Check out the video. It is a hoot, if I do say so myself.

We rode on taking pictures of the fall colors and generally enjoying what turned out to be an excellent day. We rode on to Humphrey’s, a bar adjoining SLU, had a beer and a snack and then headed for home. Humphrey’s was a major sponsor of the event, and was offering 50% off selected beverages and appetizers. Going there instead one of our usual haunts allowed us the opportunity to see parts of the CWE that I had not seen.

We set a new world record with 889 people. I guess that makes us World Champions. It’s not quite as great as winning the World Series, but it was certainly more participatory. Afterwards, I bumped into one of our bike buddies at the grocery store. As I was going on and on exclaiming about these events, I could almost detect a mental, if not physical eye roll. Still, it was fun and it came from out of the blue.

Angry Birds over Libya

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For many Americans, modern warfare has taken on the aspects of a video game. So what better video game to act as a metaphor for the conflict in Libya than the highly popular Angry Birds? Angry Birds is the most popular game for the iPhone, a great time waster, enjoyed by millions and me too. My homemade, animated GIF above, uses some of the graphics from this game.

The aerial assault that President Obama has unleashed upon Kaddafi is no video game, at least not from his point of view. Everyday, I walk across the parking lot, as similar warplanes, arc across the sky. Above the lot, their passing rumble sets off car alarms. I can only imagine what their unleashed force must seem like in a warzone. I have no doubt that the application of American airpower will allow the rag-tag rebel forces to take Tripoli. Every time Kaddafi moves a tank or fires a gun, it becomes a target to aerial retribution.

What made me take up this topic were two things. Obama’s address to the nation on Monday evening and my chance encounter with the following YouTube video. [Previously shared to Facebook] I first encountered this video on the website, The Daily Beast. Tuesday, at noon, it only had about 10,000 YouTube hits. At writing, its hits had climbed over 100,000; I can only image what the hit count will be after another day. This could be a problem, because the video uses a Disney soundtrack and Disney is notably protective of its intellectual property. So enjoy it while you can, it may not survive intact long.

Anne biked after work on Monday. I could have accompanied her, but I wanted to catch the President’s speech on Libya. Yeah, I am that way. Anne got 15 miles. I could have gone too, but the address was being televised at 6:30 CDT, instead of the usual seven. I found out later that his address was moved up a half hour to accommodate ABC. They didn’t want their hit TV show, Dancing with the Stars, preempted or even delayed. Apparently, having Kristie Alley shuffle across the dance floor is more important than anything that the leader of our country has to say, especially when he is trying to explain our fourth war.

That’s right people, four. The aerial assault upon Libya is America’s fourth war with the Muslim world. Enumerated, they are Iraq, Afghanistan, the War on Terror and now Libya. These are real wars, not just video games. I’m not saying whether you should be for or against them, but I am saying that you should be paying attention to them. They are being fought in your name, you will have to pay for them, and someone you know, may have to die in one of them.

I’m Too Civilized to Blog

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I spent most in not all of Saturday playing Civilization V.  I could go on about how this game has evolved in this fifth and latest edition, discuss the nuances of play mechanics, but I doubt that you are really interested, so I won’t.  Besides I have to get back to playing Civilization.  Ta-ta!

Civilization Ho!

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On Tuesday evening, after work, I swung by the local Best Buy, plunked down fifty bucks and bought the latest edition of the Civilization video game series, Civilization V.  This game first went on sale Tuesday, but by the time that I reached the store they were down to the last two copies.  When I left the store, feeling rather satisfied with myself, this Best Buy was now down to its last copy.

For the uninitiated, Civilization is a video game where you grow your civilization from prehistoric times, through the course of human history and onward into the future.  It is not strictly a war game, although war is always an option.  A player’s primary goal is to develop their civilization’s cultural growth, think America’s present day cultural imperialism that Hollywood has spawned.  Eventually all of the competing civilizations either capitulate or if time runs out, you win on points.  To say that Civilization is a great time waster is a gross understatement.  Base upon my past experience with editions three and four my return on my fifty dollar investment will yield hundreds of hours of entertainment.  I even fear that this lovely little blog might suffer from neglect.

My love of strategy games predates the Civilization franchise, it even predates the computer gaming era and I date its origin back to when I was eight years old.  It was the summer between my second and third grade and between my family’s move from La Jolla to San Rafael.  My Dad was in the Navy and we spent the summer in on-base housing on Hunter’s Point.  There was a summer camp that Chris and I attended.  At this camp I saw my first strategy game.  Two of the older boys were playing it, Tactics II.  The game board looked like a map; the playing pieces were little half-inch squares of cardboard.  It was incomprehensibly complex, but I was fascinated by it.  

Once we were ensconced in Marin County, my Dad’s folks moved to nearby Burlingame, well not that near.  My Grandfather Earl and I would play Milton-Bradley’s Civil War.  It offered a map like game board, but instead of cardboard squares, it had plastic figures for playing pieces.  In hindsight, I suspect that I was not as good a gamer as my perfect record against my Grandfather might had indicated.

Fast forwarding to the present, begins with Danny Abrahams and I playing Blitzkrieg in junior high, followed by Diplomacy games in early high school and then the move to Ann Arbor.  There I met Ned, Armin and Cooper and our expertise at war gaming developed to a crescendo, before it all fell apart in the end.  Work, women Anne, and eventually children all relegated strategy gaming to the backburner.  What about Bob?  “I’m one task force looking.”  “I’m one task force looking, too.”  “I see you.”  “I don’t see you.”  “I call day.”  “I call night.”  “It is day, then night.”  Eventually, I manage to breed two strategy gamers, Dan and Dave.  This launched the era of Warhammer and Warhammer 40K.  These are table top miniatures games, which meant lots of painting and way more cost.  Now I am an older, empty nester, but I still am able to enjoy some of the benefits of Civilization.