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Board Game Weekend
I spent the weekend in Tösstal playing board games. Over three days I played 24 different games, 22 of which I hadn't played before :).
It would be too much to list them all, but I'll name my favorite new discoveries:
- The Bloody Inn: We play a member of a greedy family owing a small inn in rural France in the 19th century. We don't really care about the well-being of our patrons, but rather only about our full coffers. To achieve this we can recruit the patrons and take them into our hand, from there we can play them in our play area using them as buildings which give us immediate or continued benefits. The most money, however, can be made by killing the patrons and burying them under one of our buildings, because then we can empty their purse. But watch out for police officers among the guests, they may confiscate the body...
The play mechanism is really intriguing (and well known to Race for the Galaxy Fans), all actions have to be payed with cards from our hands, however, if the card has the correct color we get a discount. All our games ended up really close and we had great fun!
- Nippon: We play a member of an influential conglomerate in Japan during the Meji period. We try to grow our influence by building factories, railroads and ships, producing goods and shipping them both to the local and foreign markets.
This was the most complex game we played this weekend and with our initial three hours playing time it might seem overwhelming, but nevertheless time went by very fast with quick turns and many interesting decisions to take. I'm looking forward to another round soon!
- Potion Explosion: We are apprentice wizards taking our final exam in potion brewing. In order to pass we need to brew a number of potions with the available ingredients. The more efficient we achieve this the more points can be earned and at the end of the day there is only Student of the Year Award!
The ingredients are represented by small marbles placed in a dispenser with five rows. As our turn we can take one marble out of the dispenser, if this leads to an explosion (at least two ingredients of the same color smash together) we can take them as well (and so on until all marbles are gone or no more explosions happen). The gained ingredients need to be placed in our cauldrons in which we brew the potions. Once a potion is finished it can be drunk to gain a one-time advantage (which ranges from taking more ingredients from the dispenser, to stealing ingredients from our class mates). Once all bonuses are collected the game ends and everyone counts up the value of their potions.
A very easy to learn and play game, which is delivered with fantastic components and a cool experience. It feels a bit like a cellphone game ported to a board game, but it works wonderfully.
- Lanterns - The Harvest Festival: To celebrate the end of autumn harvest we want to gain honor by dedicating combinations of lanterns. Every player has square tiles in hand showing up to four different colors on each side. Once a tile is placed every player gains a lantern of the color pointing in his direction. The trick is to connect identical colors to gain additional lanterns.
A very easy to learn game with lots of depth and different strategies.
- Celestia: We play an adventurer who takes part in explorations in an aircraft. The farther we can travel the higher the possible rewards. The clue is that everyone is in the same aircraft and the place of captain is taken in turns. The captain rolls a number of dice showing different symbols. Every player has to decide if the captain can weather the crisis by playing matching cards, or abandon ship (taking the current reward). If the captain manages the difficulties travel continues and the next player takes the helm. If the captain fails the airship crashes and no-one on board receives anything.
A wonderful little game with superb components (featuring a three-dimensional aircraft in which the player tokens have a place and beautifully illustrated cards) and great replay value. A definite recommendation!
- Quadropolis: We are a city planner trying to build the best city, but we have to compete with the other planners for the available buildings and institutions. Every building is scored differently at the end, but only if it can be activated with the needed energy or people. Thus a fierce competition breaks out.
For a city-building game Quadropolis works very smoothly and can be quickly explained and played. The included expert mode promises more strategic choices, for those who can build cities in their sleep. The package is rounded up by functional, colorful and pleasing illustrations and components (the people are actually small people). A definite addition to my game collection.
I had a great time and want to thank Cäsi, the organizer, and everyone who was there and played games! I'll be back next year! :) Labels: Fun, games, weekend
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Sinfath II: Pictures
This weekend I attended a Live-Action-Roleplay organized by the Order of the Sinfath.
My pictures can be found on Picasa.Labels: Fun, LARP, pictures
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Riedhburg XVIII - Rights and Servants (Rechte und Knechte)
Last weekend was the follow up to 2 Weddings and a Funeral, the first peasant LARP featuring the four families from Tannenbüren:- Kellermeisters are well known for their wine, liquor and other alcohol production.
- Roggensingers focus on farming
- Waidmanns forte is hunting and tending to the woods
- Webers are the richest family in town and are mostly merchants and cloth dealers.
A lot has happened since that eventful Thanksgiving Feast. A war has started between Riedbhburg and neighbouring Falkenburg and many of Tannenbüren's sons were drafted and lost. Another casualty was Arnold Roggensinger, the previous steward of Tannenbüren. Now, as it is custom, it was time for Tannenbüren to elect someone else. This of course warranted another big meeting at the Roggensinger's house.
But politics wasn't the only thing on the agenda. The Bachelor society of Tannenbüren planned to celebrate their reunion with (illegal) gambling and parties. The women on the other hand were scheming to plan advantageous marriages for their unwed daughters and sons. This of course didn't please the Bachelor's at all ;).
After some long internal debates the final applicants for the position as steward, were announced and were asked to present their Agenda:- Gotfried Kellermeister (myself) wanted to strengthen the village by focusing on traditional values and bridging old grudges. His motto “Yes we can” (or as it was in Swiss-German “Ja mir chönd” was well received, mostly by Kellermeister family members, but in the end his experience in dealing with the last crisis was also a beneficial factor.
- Urs Waidmann wanted to abolish the old traditions and introduce shared wealth and possessions. I don't have to mention twice, that once his true agenda was revealed, he stood little chance ;)
- Gerhard Weber mainly wanted to strengthen his own position in the village.
- Waldemar Waidmann was all for hard work to overcome difficulties, however, he seemed to depend too much on his mother Annerös.
At the end of the day I was elected with a fair margin in front of Waldemar Waidmann.
People were also very active on the marriage front and so we could celebrate four marriages, bonding the families Kellermeister and Waidmann as well as Weber and Waidmann.
Although the Weber's turned out to be the sore looser when Agnes Waidmann eloped with their farm servant!
Early the next morning Baron Hannibal arrived to give his blessing to the election. Unfortunately, he was in the mood for painting and thus the village first had to pose for an idyllic farm picture.
The End - for now ;)
It was a terrific event with lots of laughter, intrigues food and of course alcohol ;). All pictures can be found in my webalbum.Labels: Fun, LARP, pictures, Switzerland
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Lots of Dancing and Literature
Last weekend I kept myself busy ;).
Friday night I attended a Céili, that's a traditional Gaelic/Irish social dance in Bern. There were about 150 people present and it was simply brilliant.
Saturday, I first wen to a Conforama to scout for a new couch and wardrobe and I did indeed find both in abundance. About four wardrobes suited my tastes and that after I have only found one in Fly, Ikea and TopTip. I should have gone to Conforama from the start! ;).
Home again I remembered that it was the Long Night of Short Stories. Browsing through the program, I noticed that most events were already over, but then I spotted something that sounded interesting. And so I ended up at the Razzia im Seefeld. This bar and place for culture was originally opened as a cinema in the 1920s with breathtaking wand murals. Over the years these have unfortunately been covered over but now it has been softly restored and some of it's old glory is shown again.
But back to topic. Joey Goebel read from his new novel Commonwealth and it was hilarious! After the reading I couldn't stop myself and bought two books to get them signed ;).
Following the reading was a party with tunes selected by Joey, who is a former member of a small punk band, and so I ended up dancing late into the night again. ^^
On Sunday I almost overslept. It being the end of daylight saving time, I dutifully changed the time on my cellphone during the night that it would wake me on time. Unfortunately, the cellphone then changed the time on its own, which meant that it was now running one hour behind! Luckily, I woke up on my own, checked the cellphone and heard the church bells at the same time discovering the discrepancy and getting up in time to travel to Lenzburg.
In Lenzburg on the castle I attended another Medieval Dance course led by Andreas Rutschmann. I've visited his courses before and they were fun and instructive as always, even though I had danced most of the pieces before.
All in all it was a fantastic weekend and I'm looking forward to the next Céili, reading by Joey Goebel and Medieval Dance course. However, I wouldn't be mad if they weren't all on the same weekend! ;)Labels: dancing, Fun, Literature, weekend
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Las Vegas
Arriving a day earlier as planned in Las Vegas, I first headed Downtown. After all, I had two nights booked on the strip and thus decided to check out the Fremont Street Experience.
I was lucky to find a moderately priced hotel just around the corner from Fremont Street.
Fremont Street hosts some of the oldest Casinos in Vegas. To compete with the Mega-Resorts on the Strip they covered part of Fremont Street with a huge screen. During the evening hours music videos are shown there every hour. While I was there I saw American Pie, a Tribute to Queen and a Tribute to Kiss. This was very impressive. I also tried my luck at the slot machines. However, it wasn't meant to be and I left after twenty minutes, once my five dollars were spent.
In addition to the video show, Fremont Street also had a stage where an Army Band played popular Rock songs.
Fremont Street ExperienceDay 2 - Exploring the Strip The next day I relocated to the Excalibur, one of the Mega-Resorts on the Strip which chose medieval times as a theme.
After settling in I ventured to explore the Strip. The Excalibur is situated at the South End and thus I started heading north, checking out the Resorts on the way. My ultimate goal was the Stratosphere, the highest building in Vegas; because I heard that on its top one could ride four high-thrill rides. On the way, I made a short detour through Planet Hollywood's Miracle Mile Shops and witnessed the Indoor Thunderstorm, which is very bizarre ;).
The Strip is much longer than I expected, but I finally arrived at my destination. Fortunately, there weren't too many people so I didn't have to queue up to get to the observation deck or to join the rides. The rides were ok, but not really something I would have done multiple times a day.
On the way back I checked out the rollercoaster in the Sahara. It was also rather short, so not much to write home about.
Then it was time for the big highlight of the evening: The Blue Man Group. I had organized tickets that very morning at one of the many half-prize ticket booths. The show was incredible. A mixture of light, sound, comedy, information and art which was thrilling to behold. It was definitely worth the price of admission.
My next stop was Treasure Island and its outdoor Pirate Show with two full ships and some pyrotechnic. A must-see if you are in Vegas.
On my way back to the hotel I stopped to observe the exploding Volcano at the Mirage and the Fountains at the Bellagio.
Excalibur by NightDay 3 - Looking for Sharks Paying five dollars extra a day as a resort fee, I thought I should at least check out the swimming pool, which was huge! Or rather, they had three different pools. One of which with short water slides! Unfortunately, my day was packed again so I didn't linger for long.
First on the program was a trip south to explore the last Resorts on the Strip. So I walked through the Luxor, which is very impressive both inside and outside and onwards to Mandalay Bay. There I took some time to visit their Aquarium. That was very interesting, especially because every visitor received an “Audio Wand", which played short sequences about the different exhibits. The highlight was of course the big shark tank located in a shipwreck.
Heading back North I went to the shopping mile at Cesar's Palace, to acquire the latest iPod Nano in the Apple Store. Nearby I stumbled into a breathtaking gallery and ended up buying the book to the exhibition.
Then it was already time again to go back to the hotel. On the way I rode the rollercoaster in New York New York. The best one I saw in Vegas, but still a very rough ride.
The highlight for this evening was The Tournament of Kings: A medieval dinner show at the Excalibur. I was seated in the Dragon section, so we could cheer for the bad guy. Unfortunately, he lost in the end :(. Nevertheless, they did an excellent job in delivering a good show and I enjoyed it a lot.
Next was a show of The Sin City Comedy Club. It was a fun event, but I was a bit distraught by two things. First, by my neighbours who ended up talking amongst themselves more than paying attention to the show. And second, the fact that every comedian repeatedly pointed out that it was all Comedy and shouldn't be taken seriously. Come on, that's supposed to be self-evident!
Even though it was a long day, I felt like going out to party. So I headed over to the New York New York and paid the Coyote Ugly a visit. That was fun. There were lots of girls dancing on the bar and some of the songs they played were actually good.
Visiting Vegas was definitely worth it, even though I ended up spending a lot of money on entertainment, food and shopping ;).
Luxor
All pictures from Las Vegas can be found in my webalbum.Labels: Fun, pictures, road trip, usa
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The First North American Discworld Convention 2009
I first learned of this convention in the Spring of 2008. When I realized that it would coincide with the end of my Masters' Program it was clear that I just had to make the trip to Arizona to be part of this event.
Day Zero - Thursday, 3rd September The convention officially started on Friday, September 4th, however, I decided to arrive a day early to get settled in a bit first. Before checking in I wondered where to stow my Rincewind hat and then decided to put it in my carry-on luggage together with my robes. Somehow, this was the first flight that I didn't worry about my luggage not arriving and then of course Murphy had to strike. I dutifully waited in Phoenix at the baggage belt, but my backpack just didn't turn up. So off I went to the claims deck, where the nice woman told me that my bag wasn't in their system, i.e. it hadn't been scanned anywhere! After a while I got a piece of paper and a vague promise that most bags would turn up within 24 hours.
So I made my way to the hotel, where I realized that all the accessories to my costume (clasp, belt, bags) as well as my swimming trunks and all my clothes were in the missing bag. What else to do but take a bus and make a trip to the local mall. After a lot of browsing I got the necessities (some clean underwear, swimming trunks, a couple of t-shirts, a belt and something to close my wizard robes).
Thursday evening featured a first event, a pub quiz where attendees and guests could mingle and get acquainted. Even though I was absolute rubbish at the quiz, I maybe contributed one or two answers at our table we had lots of fun and I got to know a fair number of cool people.
Rincewind and Ridcully
Day One - Friday, 4th September The Convention officially started with the opening ceremony at 1pm. Esther Friesner, an author and one of the guests, appearing as Miss Egaltine, a Seamstress and Lady of Etiquette, gave a brilliantly funny speech and introduced us to all the guests. Finally Sir Terry Pratchett was led into the room, escorted by the Seamstresses which carried a giant turtle over his head!
Since my designated signing session with Terry Pratchett was on the same day, I soon retired to the Emporium, the Dealer's Room, to acquire two books by our favorite author; after all I had to leave all my books in Switzerland. To my big delight I was able to find a book club edition with the original Color of Magic cover, a first edition of Truckers and a first edition of the comic to Mort. (One of these books I handed to my roommate, since there was a two book signing limit)
With my book deficiency problem solved I went to an event called "Borne to Pune", in which a panel of guests tried to make puns to Discworld themes. Participants were allowed to donate some money to the selected charities and throw squishy things at those panelists making the best/worst puns. It was all-around a hilarious affair with the audience readily participating with their own puns.
I was at the head of the line and Terry took his time to chat with the people in line. When I turned up in my Rincewind garb, he divined that I was a Wizard, which pleased me extremely ;).
With the signatures in my pocket I hurried to the next event. The Igorlympics, a contest in which potential Igors could prove their proficiency in essential tasks such as Eyeball Rolling, after all they have to be kept fresh, Limping (whilst balancing an Eyeball on a cup), Lisping and Pinning the Knob on the Wizard's staff. It was all great fun. I came in third in the Eyeball Rolling competition and won a back scratcher which we also used to roll the Eyeballs. All Igors also received an original prop-tooth from the Hogfather movie set!
The big event of the evening was the Seamstresses Party with Terry Pratchett as guest of honor. To help us getting to know each other we were asked to participate in a Scavenger Hunt where we had to find people in the room which fitted certain criteria. It took me a while but I finally managed to complete my list after running into, not away from for a change, many interesting people. During the best costume awards, which were presented by Sir Terry it came to a Scandal. First Terry downed a whole glass of the Bursar's Frog Pills, then tangoed with Nanny Ogg, before fleeing back-stage with her. After a while quiet reasserted itself. Terry returned to present the rest of the awards, which went to a stunning Cherry Littlebottom in a ball gown dress, the Luggage and Young Greebo.
Holy Wood Squares, a Tic-Tac-Toe like Quiz where two contestants tried to guess if their Honored Guests / Squares gave the correct answer to a trivia question, marked the end of a fantastic first day.
The Wizards
Day Two - Saturday, 5th September Having recently bought "Witch Way to the Mall", a short story anthology edited by Esther Friesner, I lined up to get it signed by the lady herself.
Another signature in my pocket I made my way to join the Fireside Chat with Bernard Pierson, the Cunning Artificer who created thousands of memorable Discworld articles. Bernard has a captivating personality and manages to tell fascinating anecdotes and so the allocated hour went over way too quickly.
Without a break I returned to the Unseen University (aka Main Room) to witness an enlightening talk about Discworld cover art through time. The analysis and discussion of the various artists of the American covers were especially interesting because everyone keeps complaining about them ;).
Then came one of the highlights of the convention: A one-hour discussion with Terry Pratchett in which he answered the most pressing questions of fans. I could have listened to him for hours upon hours; he had so many interesting stories to tell.
The next session was also highly anticipated, a reading from Terry's upcoming book Unseen Academicals. Since Terry's eyesight is one of the things most affected by his case of Alzheimer's, the reading was actually performed by Rob, Terry's assistant. However, Terry was at his side and added many interesting facts. The passages we could listen to were fantastic and I can't wait to get a hand on the book on October, 6th. One fan couldn't wait and paid 1,250 US$ to get his hands on the Uncorrected Proof of the manuscript from which Rob had read.
One of the highlights of the convention for many participants was the Maskerade, in which people could show of their costumes as well as present short sketches. One of the most memorable ones was a Cricket-like commentary to an on-stage Terry starting to write his newest novel. It was amazing to what level of detail some costumes of the participants went.
The evening ended with a rendition of four songs from the Discworld Rocky Horror Picture Show, which, even tough I didn't know the original, entertained me a lot.
Ptraccia with her Pygmy-Camel and Translator Imp
Day Three - Sunday, 6th September This day started with an interesting discussion about how Terry is published in the UK and the US both as an author of adult fiction and Children's literature. Terry was present at this discussion and actually contributed most of the talking, much to the pleasure of the audience.
I then went over to a panel featuring ordinary people who had the chance to participate as Extras in the making of Color of Magic and/or Going Postal. This was very enlightening and accompanied by a fair amount of pictures taken at the set.
The next panel I selected was very popular indeed. Titled "Yeth, Marther", it featured Rob, Terry's assistant, and his story about how he got to meet first U2 and then Terry Pratchett and how it was to work for those aforementioned parties. This session was one of my personal favorites as it gave me a view of the people supporting Terry in his ever increasing public demand.
Next on the program was the big Charity auction. Since I had set my eyes on a couple of Signed Uncorrected Proofs by Sir Terry I decided to participate. Over the duration of the auction I had to learn that there were people present with very deep pockets. And so another Uncorrected Proof of Unseen Academicals was auctioned off for 1,600$, two signed first editions of Once More with Footnotes went for 1,200$ and several other uncorrected proofs went for 150 to 300$. In between I managed to snag a copy of Dark are the Woods by Richard Laymon for 22$. However, this was not such a rare item and thus my craving for an exclusive book was not yet stilled. Having lost many auctions so far, I spotted an item which instantly won my heart, a first edition of Good Omens signed by both Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Deciding to make this my graduation present, I didn't back down when the price went up and finally was the only remaining bidder. For 650$ I could take home one of the best books by two of my favorite authors. Pat Harkins did an excellent job hosting the auction, interweaving many interesting anecdotes and in general keeping the atmosphere light. The last item to be auctioned off was a leaf on which Terry sat the evening before, which came with a certificate of Authenticity created by The Cunning Artificer, this item also managed to raise a couple of hundred bucks. At the end of the auction 23,000$ had been raised which would be shared by the Orang Utan Foundation and the Alzheimer Trust.
Near the end of the auction I sneaked out to get two more signatures in the aforementioned short story collection; this time by Dan and Sarah Hoyt.
After paying for and receiving my auction items, I had to take a short break and returned to my hotel, safely storing the books in my bags.
The main event of the evening was "A Night at the Roxie", the gala banquet. We received splendid food, an intriguing belly-dance performance also featuring Nobby Nobs alias "Betty" and a chance to meet many new people. Fortunately, our table was one of the first allowed to dine at the buffet, which was rather ill supplied and as I heard ran out of stock before the last table could satisfy their curiosity by trying all delicacies.
The Quirm College for Young Ladies Cotillion introduced us to Regency Dances. The first of which, Hole in the Wall, I was already familiar with from my dancing in Switzerland. All in all this was a nice closing event for the evening, even though most participants were getting a tad too tired to learn a Regency Waltz.
A belly-dancer and "Betty"
Day Four - Monday, 7th September "Time is flying when you have fun", this was also true this time and it was hard to believe that the last day of the First North American Discworld Convention had already arrived.
The first panel I watched on this last day was entitled "Fantastically Funny" and discussed what exactly made Fantasy inherently funny and how humour worked. This was a very intriguing discussion which also touched upon Black Adder and Monthy Python.
Next was a Special Pratchett Movie Showing in the Unseen University. It turned out to be the teaser trailer of Going Postal followed by the two-part BBC documentary "Living with Alzheimer's" about Terry's first year after the disease was diagnosed. This was a welcome surprise to me, since I hadn't seen this documentary before and managed to miss all the other showings of this.
And then it was already time for the Closing Ceremony in which many heartfelt thanks were mentioned and another impromptu auction was held to "get rid off" some of the decoration articles such as the banners. Terry's mention that he would be back at a future North American Discworld Convention was well received by the audience and it lessened the pain many felt that it was already over.
The Tail of the Turtle Party was a relaxing chilling out and saying goodbye to the many people we have met so far.
With two of my three roommates I then made a detour to Fat Tuesday's where we tried their alcoholic slushees, a cultural experience so to speak ;).
Terry leaving the Convention
Post Scriptum One - A Note on Costumes I myself attended all five days of the convention as Rincewind and I was pleased by the many positive feedback I received. Some people didn't believe my hair was real because it just fitted too perfectly with their image of Rincewind ;)
But I wasn't the only one who made the efforts to dress up and I would like to highlight a couple of my favorite costumes.
One fellow made an appearance as Ronnie Soaks, the Milkman better known as the Fifth Rider of the Apocalypse. He portrayed this minor character in the series with so much eye for detail (he even had milk bottles with the correct bottle caps) and authority that he earned my deepest respect.
Also great were the two tourists who made fantastic reproductions of the Iconograph, including a painting imp, and even created a moving luggage!
Another eye-catcher was the young lady dressed up as the young Seamstress Rosie Palm. Her nice dress was completed with a knitting basket.
Ridcully and the Bursar recreated these characters with lots of attention to detail. Ridcully carried a Burleigh and Stronginthearm Crossbow and the Bursar had his own supply of Dried Frog Pills.
Ptraccia with her stunning dress and fantastic creation of a travelling basket including a pygmy camel and translating imp also inspired my awe.
There were many more great costumes, too many to mention them all here.
Rincewind and Ronnie Soaks
Post Scriptum Two - A Note on Harga's House of Ribs', the Hospitality Suite Harga's House of Ribs' was a rock in the storm of the Discworld Convention. A person in need could always find something to eat and drink there. They not only provided snacks for in between but also breakfast and warm dinners! For their effortless efforts the staff of Harga's House of Ribs' deserves a thundering applause and standing ovation. It was also a great place to meet people and strike up interesting discussions.
Post Scriptum Three - Terry Pratchett in Glendale, AZ - Tuesday, 8th September The day after the convention Terry made a public appearance near a library in Glendale Arizona. Having some spare time on my hands and unsure whether Terry would ever show up again in Switzerland, I did my best to be there. Luck was on my side and the rental car, which I reserved for 10am, was ready at 8am and so I go there in time. Of course I was out of books again, but fortunately there was a small consignment of books for sale and so I could increase my collection by two.
Contrary to my expectation Terry did not dwell on his upcoming novel Unseen Academicals, but rather only gave a short introduction and then opened the floor to questions. What followed was an amazing ninety minutes in which Terry talked about his experiences as a public relations officer at a nuclear power plant, his views on God and Humanity, the likelihood of another collaboration with Neil Gaiman, Assisted Suicide, how he came to write the Johnny Maxwell series and much more.
This event was thoroughly enjoyable and it was a perfect (even though unofficial) end to the North American Discworld Convention.
Terry in Glendale
More pictures can be found in my webalbum.Labels: convention, discworld, Fun, nadwcon, pictures, rincewind, Terry Pratchett
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Cedar Point 2009
Before leaving the Pittsburgh area completely, I just had to return to a place which I visited before my Master's program started: Cedar Point, which gives Sandusky the tag line "America's roller coaster capital"
I spent Monday and Tuesday of last week at the park and I couldn't have picked better days. The weather was very nice, sunny but not too hot. There weren't too many people. At most I waited 45 minutes at Maverick, but more often than not queues were under 30 minutes. Knowing very well what I will miss back in Europe, namely the biggest roller-coasters, I decided to focus on them. By the end of Monday I had taken six trips on Maverick, four trips on Millennium Force and four trips on Top Thrill Dragster (three of which in front row).
Tuesday was even better! The weather was slightly warmer and there were even fewer people. This went so far that at times there were almost no people queuing for Top Thrill Dragster, a ride that normally has waiting times of two hours! I of course took full advantage of that and by the end of the day I had scored 10 trips on Maverick (a fully awesome coaster), five times Front Row at Top Thrill Dragster, four times Millennium Force and a small number of other rides. By the end of the day I was hoarse from all the screaming! ;)
This trip was a full success and I was so glad that I made it. If you happen to be in the area: Don't miss Cedar Point!
This picture is a self-portrait just after my tenth trip on Maverick: Labels: amusement park, Fun, pictures, traveling, usa
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Pittsburgh Steelers live!
Yep, that's me at a game fo the Pittsburgh Steelers holding a Terrible Towel! I was lucky enough to convince my parents and friends to attend the third pre-season game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Buffalo Bills, for which I got discounted "second-hand" tickets. It was a really cool experience and as I heard the best of all pre-season games to attend, since the A-Team of the Steelers played for the full first half. And it showed, the second quarter the Steelers pulled all the tricks, steamrolled the Bills and scored seventeen points, six of them after a touch-down following an interecepted pass. In the second half of the game no more points were scored but we still saw some interesting plays and had a wonderful time. I was really glad that I got this opportunity to see the Steelers play at Heinz Field :)Labels: Fun, games, pictures, pittsburgh
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Graduation Dinner, Party and Moving
This week has been extremely busy. First I had to start packing to be ready when I'd move out on Saturday. Then we had a Graduation Dinner Thursday night at Monterey Bay Fish Grotto, allegedly one of the best restaurants on Mount Washington. However, we were not that thrilled by the food. Even though we valued a choice of six main dishes, four of which were fish, the orders were slightly mixed up and the taste didn't reach our high expectations.
On Friday evening we had a small party on the top floor patio, where I finally could try one of the most (in)famous American games, at least in university circles: Beer Pong. The goal is to try to hit a ping pong ball into your opponents cups. That is much harder than it sounds and we managed to epically fail and not hit a single cup...
On Saturday I thought I'd sleep in to have enough energy for moving, but nature conspired against me and I was wide awake by 6:45am. Once awake my conscience started bugging me that I couldn't leave my apartment in its current state. You have to know though that expect for the stove it was already cleaner than when I moved in. So I thoroughly cleaned the whole flat for 3.5 hours. Now I'm willing to bet 100$ that this apartment has never been this clean, when a tenant moved out, in at least the last twenty years!
And now I'm waiting for kind Marcos, who generously offered me a space in his living room for a couple of days, until I can move to a hotel, and also offered to help me move the last of my stuff.
Lots of pictures from all these events can be found in my gallery.Labels: cmu, Fun, Master, pictures, usa
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Six Flags New England
Six Flags New England is a short trip from Boston (105 minutes by car ;)) and so it was only a matter of time till a visit to Boston also brought me to this amusement park ;).
It was a perfect day to visit Six Flags, it was nice and sunny day, there weren't that many people and so queues were mostly nonexistent (the maximum I waited was about 10 minutes because I wanted the front seat for a ride). The only bummer was that the biggest and supposedly best ride (Superman: Man of Steel) was currently being refurbished and thus closed for visitors. The park featured three interesting high speed roller coasters (Batman, Mind Eraser, Flashback), two old wooden roller coasters and a couple of cute smaller rides.
However, after my visit to Cedar Point, the rides in Six Flags were lacking in the high speed adrenaline kick area.
On the whole, however, it was a nice day and I went on 32 rides (6x Batman, 4x Mind Eraser, 4x Flashback), so I do believe I did get my money's worth of entertainment :)
Labels: amusement park, Fun, pictures, usa
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Fun with Google Maps
Enter this into Google Maps: "from: Pittsburgh, PA to: Honolulu, HI" and check out direction nr. 20!
Do you know of other fun directions?Labels: Fun
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Enlightened Christmas Event
Like every good Consulting Company, our team held a pre-Christmas event! However, since we were only students we were a little bit limited regarding the budget ;). So we went to Qdoba for dinner and then for an All You Can Bowl event.
We had great fun and were happy to adopt Woo as our 6th team member ;)
And here's our team:
Labels: cmu, Fun
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Spamalot - The Musical
Today is Thanksgiving the day every American spends with his family eating too much food and watching football on TV. Every American? Not quite, a fair number of people found their way downtown Pittsburgh to watch Spamalot The Musical.
Spamalot is mainly inspired by Monty Python and the Holy Grail but liberally borrows from other Python classics such as Life of Brian. All in all it works fantastically well and is a riot to observe. We were laughing so hard my cheek muscles started to ache ;).
Some merchandise for the show was also sold on location and since I noticed getting cold feet recently I got these...The Rabbit with Pointy Teeth Slippers or better known as "The Killer Rabbit Slippers" :)Labels: Fun, Music, pittsburgh
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Book Meme
As seen in Rico's Blog:
- Grab the nearest book.
- Open it to page 56.
- Find the fifth sentence.
- Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
- Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.
This happens to be The Discworld's Graphic Novels, which I just started today. This puts me in front of a couple of problems:
- The book doesn't have page numbers
- Page 56 (manually counted) only has two sentences
So I'll just take the fifth sentence from the 57th page (I might have miscounted after all):
"Don't Say It!"
Mysterious... next!Labels: Book, Fun, Literature
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It's Saturday...
... which means my afternoon and evening was devoted to the CMU Game Club!
This time I managed to play three new games and an "old" favorite:
- Puerto Rico: A very cool game where the players have to manage plantations and build a city in Puerto Rico.
- Notre Dame: A fast game set in medieval Paris where players have to collect Victory Points and try to stay clear of the Rats.
- Caylus: A complicated resource management strategy game. Explaining the rules took almost an hour and the game play was not that rewarding. But some people just love it.
- Tichu: Since I've written about the game a couple of times before, I'll drop a couple of words about this round. We had a terrible start and were down 400 points. After almost catching up a blunder set us back another 300 points. But in the last rounds, when the others only needed one hand to finish, I managed to pull of a Grand Tichu and my partner finished second, so we literally overtook them on the finishing line! What a great game! :)
And now back to studying...Labels: cmu, Fun, games
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What a sale! You save -8082%
During research I stumbled upon the following:
Source: http://www.budgetpackaging.com/kcc95151.htmlLabels: Fun
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CMU Activities fair
Wednesday afternoon student clubs and organizations had their chance to win new members. About 180 of the 250 recognized student clubs used this forum and so I had the chance to appreciate different sororities and fraternities, religious and sports groups, human rights and well-fare organizations and many more.
Some clubs appealed to me more than others, these were the Camarilla Club (a LARP group organizing bi-weekly Victorian era styled LARPs), the Society for Creative Anachronism (a group dedicated to the medieval ages), the KGB, the Explorer's Club and obviously the CMU Game Club.
Labels: cmu, Fun
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Free Music, Games & Baseball
The Rib Fest took place at Heinz Field this weekend, and in addition to Ribs there were also free concerts. A good reason for Guido and me to check this out ;). The Rib Fest was very special, there were half a dozen booths selling ribs and all of them were decorated with the various awards this group has won so far! But I have to admit, the ribs were indeed very good! (Guido agrees ^^)
Since we were there on Friday, we got to see concerts by Tres Lads and The Clarks, Pittsburgh's famous rock group. Tres Lads played mostly 80s rock cover songs and The Clarks played easy-listening rock. All in all an entertaining evening, but not worth running to the next CD store ;).
Saturday I joined the CMU Gaming Club for another round of new games. This time the turnout was much higher and we got started playing straight away.
I played
- Coloretto: a bluff card game where you have to try to collect cards of the same color, but you'll only get bonus points from those three colors of which you have the most cards. Easy to learn, fast to play, fun!
- Catan Dice Game: A mixture between Settlers of Catan and Yahtzee. A fair mixture of luck and planning ahead are required, but it's fast to play and easy to take along, so that's a plus there :).
- Bohnanza: A card game where the players have to plant beans and trade with other players to maximize their profit. I've played this game many times back home and it's great fun every time :)
- Poison: A card game where you have to try to either take no potion cards or as many as possible of one color, but beware, there are poisons around and they always count against you. Another fast and fun game with lots of tactical deliberations.
- Mü & more: A complex trick tacking card game which I didn't get to play for long, because I had other obligations, but it looked pretty intriguing.
I left the CMU Gaming Club early, because Guido invited me to a Pirates Baseball Game. It was quite a lot of fun especially the Mexican Wave, but I'll let Guido write about this adventure.Labels: Fun, Music, pittsburgh
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An evening with the CMU Gaming Club
Browsing through Carnegie Mellon’s Student Organizations I noticed an interesting entry, the CMU Gaming Club.
After a short e-mail exchange I got the heads-up to join them this Saturday, which I promptly did. The meeting started at 1.00pm and once enough people were here the games started. Throughout the night I played the following games:
- "Hey! That’s my Fish!" a fun and fast game where the player controls two penguins to collect as many fish as possible.
- "Power Grid" a game where the players have to take control of power plants (through bidding for them during an auction) and cities. The game was stalled for several rounds but after the stalemate was cleared it then ended very fast. I missed my opportunity to expand my power plant network and thus didn’t have a chance to win. Nevertheless it was very interesting.
- "Agricola" a very interesting and challenging Strategy game where the players have to maintain and extend a piece of land by buying houses, plowing and sowing fields and raising cattle. There are dozens of different strategies which can be used and the game has so many different cards that no two rounds will ever be the same. Very cool :)
- "Arkham Horror" (including Dunwich Horror Expansion) a game based on the Cthulhu mythos where the players try in co-op mode to prevent the Great Old Ones from awakening. The hardest part of the game was setting it up, because there were so many different cards and tokens, but the playing itself went very smoothly. We had a pretty good game (no major catastrophes occurred) and managed to win within three hours.
- "Race to the Galaxy" another Strategy game, this time centered on the expansion into space. This game was much more complex and after playing it once I still didn’t quite get it what strategy should be employed. But apparently it is the In-Game of the moment because there were four copies around ;)
- "Tichu" a Chinese card game which resembles a bit the Swiss-German card game "Arschlöchle" but offers more possibilities and has more cards. It took a while for me to get into the game, especially because my partner and I had exceptionally bad hands for the most part of the game. Nevertheless we managed to turn luck around and won with a One-Two/Tichu. A challenging and cool game which doesn’t take too long to explain and can be taken everywhere.
The evening ended at 1.15am and I’m sure I’ll join them again, especially because their arsenal of games consists of dozens of games I’ve never heard of!Labels: cmu, Fun, games
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Road Trip roundup
My road trip was a complete success and I’m immensely happy that I undertook this adventure. Here are some facts about my trip.
Days spent travelling: 5
States visited: 6 (Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri)
Hours spent driving: approx. 27 hours 16 minutes
Pictures published online: 132
Kilometers driven: 2'565
Longest Distance covered in one day: 1'125 km (Saturday)
Shortest Distance covered in one day: 9.7 km (Sunday)
Money spent on Trip: 1'174.25 US$
- Car Rental: 344.06 US$
- Accommodation: 274.99 US$
- Gasoline: 244.45 US$
- Fun: 110.97 US$
- Clothes: 106.44 US$
- Toll: 7.50 US$
Audiobooks listened to: 3 (Enders Game, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The Prisoner of Zenda)Labels: Fun, pictures, road trip, statistics, usa
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