7.30.2011

New Passion

Recently I have come to realize that I have an EXTREME passion for gaming! No not video gaming, although it is one of my favorite past times depending on the game (PixelJunk Monsters!!) BUT I am talking about board games!!

Ever since my younger brother Aaron, aka The Rabid Milkman, received Settlers of Cataan 4th edition for Christmas 2005, I've grown to love strategy games! Granted it took me awhile to figure out the games mechanics to actually win, I really enjoy the intense competition thats involved and the concept of earning points through trading with other players, expanding your settlements/cities, and acquiring points through each action.

I'm not here to write a review for Settlers, but just wanting to share where my passion began, and has evolved since then!


Agricola




Another farming-type strategy game, somewhat similar in dynamic to Settlers, but with a lot more components. Didn't hit off so well with my brother and his wife, but I intend to continue to play it otherwise, and enjoy every minute of it!

From there I purchased a strategy card game...


Citadels



You
seek to build a collection of districts worth from one to eight points. Once someone has built eight districts, the game is over after that round ends, and the player with the highest total value wins. However, to facilitate the process (and make the game interesting), players sequentially choose a character from a rapidly dwindling pool of eight each turn. The characters give players special abilities for the turn. Very fun and exciting to play!


With this growing enjoyment for games, I became a member of BoardGameGeek and have been following a few of the games that have peeked my interest. One of those being,

Merchants and Marauders.



Its a pirate-themed game, where you live the life of an influential merchant or a dreaded pirate in the Caribbean. Seek your fortune through trade, rumor hunting, missions, and of course, plundering. The game features a unique trade system and a thematic combat system, allowing for critical decisions and intense excitement. Modify your ship, buy impressive vessels, load deadly special ammunition and hire specialist crew members. Who doesn't love a pirate game? I currently own Pirates Cove, so when I read the review for M&M on BGG, I had to add it to my growing collection! I still have yet to actually play the game-just because my "gaming group" so to speak is quite limited-but I hopefully intend to do so this weekend.
This also gives me an excuse to break out my Jack Sparrow costume lol.

The most recent games I've been reviewing are

Cyclades




Ninjato



(another reason to come dressed up as a stealthy ninja!)

Quarriors




I am just in complete amazement with all the gamers out there who have collected a ton of these types of games and built a gaming empire!! I am no where near compiling a gaming blog, but would like to eventually, just to introduce the recent games I have come to grow and love playing! However, my fan base, I'm afraid, isn't one inclusive of hardcore gamers. I hope to find a group of individuals that can get together at least once a month to try out a few of these games with me!! If youre interested, PLEASE APPLY! Lol.

I am most likely screaming "GEEK" right now with this most recent post, but call it what you may, but youre missing out!


7.25.2011

Un-COMFORT Zone

I'm starting to think I am keeping this blog just for my own sanity, and benefit. Its starting to seem more and more like a journal to me, which I've grown up with, and I've made sure to write whenever I was inspired, or when I didn't want to forget a special memory, a specific instance in my life, that I could always look back on and smile.

I hope you're not reading this to be inspired lol, because I haven't been much of an inspiration to myself lately. I've always been meaning to make a change, but right now I think I'm stuck in a 'comfort zone' of some sort, and cant seem to get out of it. I've compiled a list below of HAPPY and UNHAPPY things going on, in my life right now. Hoping that it'll make me think harder about changing the things I am able to change, and ultimately move on to a better place. I don't like others feeling sorry for me, and so before this starts to become one of those posts, I will just cut to the chase...

HAPPY

1. My neices and nephew

2. My family
We have our moments, but I really love the time we spend together and the laughs and memories we share!!

3. My dogs

4. My friends
(who continue to inspire me to become a better person!)

5. Being LDS


UNHAPPY

1. My relationship with God.

2. My job

3. My struggle to get somewhere in life

4. Dating-or lack thereof

5. Knowing that Im in a comfort zone, and cant seem to GET OUT!


You'd think if you were able to recognize those things that are making you unhappy, you'd be able to FIX THEM! Right?? Well I don't know how well that works for everyone else, because I've known for awhile now about the unhappy things above, and can't seem to figure out how to make any changes. I think my mind just likes to recognize them, and then immediately put them on the back burner and deal with them later...only later never comes around...but when it does, out of the blue-it goes RIGHT back to the back of my mind where it has been for the passed 6 months.

Clearly I'm at a loss with myself.