Am I?

You may recall when I wrote about creating new words and how fantastic it is.

I still really think it's a great thing to do, but this recent Get Fuzzy strip is making me wonder...

By the way, when I first started reading Get Fuzzy, I wasn't crazy about it. It is now the only strip I read daily.

Guest Post

As promised, I have guest-posted on One Smart Cookie's blog about an embarrassing moment. Head on over and check it out.

Lazy Post

If you haven't noticed, I've been doing a fair amount of posting this month. In fact, I've only not posted three days this month so far. I'm doing this because it's National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). I didn't say that I was participating at the beginning of the month because I didn't want to commit to it publicly, but now that November is nearly finished, and I've done pretty well, I'm ready to talk about.

I have to say, though, that blogging every single day is hard. What ought I to talk about? Which is why today is kind of a lazy post.

Tomorrow I will have a guest post on One Smart Cookie's blog. She has made her posts for NaBloPoMo themed- each post is about an embarrassing moment. Some time recently she asked for guest posts, and I volunteered. My very embarrassing moment will be posted there tomorrow. I'll try to send you a reminder when that occurs. Also, you should read her blog anyway because she is amusing.

Also, I nearly cried when I read this. Really, Google, how did you know how much I've been longing for this? Oh, how I've missed my multi-person chats with the old roommates. Now we can distract each other at work all in the same chat box. Google, I love you. (Ben, thanks for showing that to me).

And finally, I read about a dumb email going around equating wealth with college GPAs on Greg Cruey's blog. He has a very logical response. Might I just add that I grew up watching my mother and father work multiple jobs. If anybody deserves to be wealthy, it is them. Alas, it was not to be. But whatever you do, don't assume that people are poor because they do not work hard. That is a load of garbage.

Review: Tigris and Euphrates

Tigris and Euphrates is a game that Eric got for some event last year. Perhaps Christmas. I really don't remember.

It is a game that causes much contention. Eric always wants to play it. I usually don't want to play it.

The basic idea is a game of warring states. Each player has four leaders, each leader represents one type of service- religion, markets, farms and government. You play tiles to build onto your kingdoms and strengthen your leaders. For each tile you lay in the kingdom where you have the leader of the corresponding color, you get a cube of that color. If you add a red tile in the kingdom where you have a red leader, you get a red cube. Likewise, if you add a green tile in a kingdom where somebody else has a green leader, then that player gets a green cube. In the end, your total point value is the number of your lowest color. So, if you have 14 black, 12 red, 10 blue, and only 3 green, your score is 3.

The fighting comes when you merge kingdoms and kick off your opponents leaders in order to strengthen yourself and gain points in a specific color. Usually kingdoms are intertwined with leaders, so if you merge two kingdoms, it involves all the players, not just you and one other.

The game is 2-4 players. Usually takes 1-2 hours. Can cause many fights. Scores can be very close, but there can also be huge discrepancies. There is a fair amount of luck in the tiles you get, but there is a lot of strategy involved- knowing where to put your leaders, when to pick fights, etc.
There are also monuments and treasures. I'm not going into those, though.

Rowboat

I mentioned on Friday that we rented a rowboat from the Center for Wooden Boats and rowed it about Lake Union. It was a lot of fun. We got to see seaplanes taking off and landing on the water, a variety of cool boats and lots of houseboats/floating homes. Plus, we had a great view of the skyline. Here are some photos:


Rowing the boat was hard. Very, very hard. I think I rowed all of about 20 feet. Michelle probably won't like that I put up the picture of her, but since she doesn't read my blog, I'm not too concerned. And, to justify myself, I've included the picture of me below. Everyone got a lot of laughs out of that photo. I think Matt especially did since he was behind me and couldn't see my face the whole time.


Michelle got this great picture of the seaplane landing. Eric was especially fascinated by them because they combine two of his favorite things- boats and planes. If only there were tanks and guns involved.


As you can tell, our trip included excellent views of the Seattle skyline. We really enjoyed it and would recommend it to anybody seeking a good time in Seattle.

Bustling Metropolis of Seattle

Today we woke up late, headed down to the Historical Center for Wooden Boats and rented a row boat. We rowed about Lake Union for about an hour and had a rather enjoyable time. The Center is a museum of wooden boats that have been restored and are actually sailable. Very cool. It's now my life's ambition to own a boat- a 25-footer will do, I think.

Then we rode on a ferry across the Puget Sound to Bainbridge Island where we spent time wandering around ridiculous stores where clothes and things cost too much money. The Sound was beautiful, and it was especially cool to ride back toward Seattle with the city lights aglow.