Archive for November, 2009

I have a few friends who are difficult to get to hang out. One, I knew, just was overall indifferent about anything new and exciting, but now he has a good excuse – that is, he is out of state. Spending time doing things is difficult when out of state.

Another, I occasionaly try to get to hang out. As it happens, he rarely takes up my offers to come to events, mostly because I suppose he has better more amazing events to go to. He will only show up at my event if the event is of exceptional standard. As I said, I have thought this is because he is a teir above me in social circles, and has a cooler crowd than myself he is in with.

I’ve never thought of myself as all that interesting, so this is perfectly understandable to me.

On Friday, KissMyApocalyps held a party in which I brought dipj0int over (as I needed a ride and he was in town) where for the first time in years him, myself, and jeozero were all in a room together. This, I considered a pretty big deal.

Joe explained that this friend he observed as he lived with him spent more time on the computer than both Jeozero or myself did. He only left the computer to go to a party if the party was guaranteed to be in progress, guaranteed to have attractive women at the party, and guaranteed that the women would be the type who would sleep with him. So, in essence, he was not better than me, he was just a selfish lazy jackass who didn’t like to leave the house.

On the following Saturday, I had plans to take the new Northstar train into Minneapolis with a few friends for either time at the Mall of America, or the St. Paul Winter Carnival. I waited till 3 PM to leave, and asked everyone if they wanted to come with. Everyone had some kind of excuse or another, many of which were “too tired”. FFS, it is 3 PM, most people get up at 7 AM. Act your age (the average age of my friends is 24) and get out of bed. Ok, I am getting angry (I talk as if I am addressing the people I am complaining about directly in blog when I really get angry) but regardless… is it too much to expect people to do more than sit all day?

I talk about a few people who wonder why their life is in shambles. Why they can’t get a job while watching TV all day and smoking pot. These people aren’t bright enough to realize that to pick up opportunities and experiences, the first step is you have to get out of the house. Do something unexpected. Hell, you don’t even have to plan, just sort of follow my lead and I will find you something to do.

When I am old and sitting in the most amazing outdoor waterproof leather chair you can put in a swimming pool (when I am old, no corner will be cut in my quest for the perfect comfy chair) I will not be the person who says “I wish I did something with my life. Now it is over and I don’t have anything to show for it.” You know what I did for the last few weeks?

I went out to the city with no phone and no plan. I went to the 90’s a few times and watched drag shows. Went to Saint Paul on a whim and wandered around skyways and explored Rice Park. I found a birthday party for some 30 year old girls at a random bar and got drunk with them (very cool people, FB friends now). We all wandered to Mickeys diner in St Paul and had 4 am pancakes. I wandered around more, got some sleep at a lifetime fitness, snuck into the highly advertised liquidation sale, I went to a bar on lake street where a Doctor Who meetup meets at, watched some dr who, and went home. Made like 8 new friends that night. Over thanksgiving I went to relatives, went to a girls apartment from a group I met online and watched the three Pirates of the Caribbean movies straight (with breaks to see Mr and Mrs Smith, Dr Who, and cook Spaghetti and make Chicken Fajitas) (made some new friends and a potential GF here), next day went to the st paul winter fest and saw fireworks, had some hot chocolate, participated in some ice skating, wandered to an Italian place with a group of about 15 or 20, free garlic bread and bought a bunch of less fortunate members some chicken wings so they didn’t feel left out, and now on Sunday I went to a open house for a good friend of mine (besides clay and veronica, I was the only one of my friends to show ). And that doesn’t even cover weekdays, with thanksgiving style events and other random happenings.

In short, I am living. Even with 50 hour a work week schedule, I manage to have a vivid life that involves more than sleeping and drinking. I will take every day of freetime I have that I can to do something with my life. Even in the winter. And my lazy friend who slept in till 3 PM, well he can do what he does best: sleep, watch tv, complain about things, feel miserable for himself and watch tv. That’s not me.

I need more friends more like me, who like being out of the house. You know, what we all did when we were 17. I miss those days.

/ Rant off

I played Dominion last night at the works game night. I have not played it before. I was overall unsatisfied with the game, as so much of the game depends on luck.

In the game, there are 10 randomly created actions of which each player can ‘buy’ an action to add to their deck. The actions generally are something along the lines of “two additional actions can be played” or “draw two more cards” or something along those lines. The hope is that your hand at the beginning of the turn which is drawn randomly from your deck gives you enough combined money cards to accomplish purchasing victory cards, as the person with the most victory cards when a significant amount of time has passed wins the game.

Essentially, with small exceptions, your hand and the actions you perform on your hand is completely independent of any other activity a player is playing. All you are doing is guessing and chancing that drawing particular cards will give you an advantage in creating a situation where you can purchase the much valued 6 point victory card (costing 8 gold).

What frustrates me with this sort of game is there is little to no actual competition with any other player where you have to be reactive to what the other player is doing. Munchkin and car racing have the same problem. The only way for you to gauge if you are winning in these sort of games is you are winning more than your friend is winning. If you are behind, well, you just have to up your game. There is no hidden tactics where you create a situation where you outsmart your opponent based on what your opponent is doing, as opposed to games that you do, like Risk, Chess, or Stratego.

The thing is I like racing games. I also like board games like Life. Perhaps the difference in a board game compared to this game is a board game has a clear path of advancement where you can gauge where you are compared to an opponent. In this game, it is difficult to rank where you are in the game, as there is no board, just a undisclosable deck for each player of cards. Or maybe the real problem is each turn is essentially left up to chance, the chance that your hand will be worthwhile and playable.

I need to try some new board games, and this isn’t one I like. Maybe “Munchkin Quest” or “Settlers of Catan” will be better