Thu, Mar 12th, 2009 @ 7:58pm

Wed, Feb 25th, 2009 @ 12:10pm
… things have been so busy lately… I think I am starting to finally adjust to my new schedule in terms of ministry workload… I have just had to crank my productivity level a little higher than normal. Honestly though, last year was probably set a little too low for own own expectations… hopefully… my weekends won't be this busy all year round…

I took the day off on Monday… to catch up on some sleep… as well as some ministry :) … I get pretty stressed when I fall too far behind… it's like there are to many things “to do” on my mind… but I was able to put in 4 hours of productive work on Monday… so now I feel much better… :) :) … and less guilty when I do things like watch TV :P :) guilty is not the right word here… more like… self-imposed busyness?… like you know when you have lots to do and you know by wasting time it just makes things worse? yeah… that. Procrastination == more stress. Productivity == less stress.

So my birthday is in a week and a bit… it seems like I always get so busy around this time… in makes it really hard to organize something… I always have these grand schemes of having these wickedly cool b-day parties… like super awesome full day board game party type things… I kinda want to organize a boardgame night but the last one seems so recent… even though it was during Christmas break… it's only been two blog entries since then!!!

I've been neglecting this blog pretty badly… once a month is pretty weeksauce… my apologies to my 1 or 2 readers :P :) yes and I know commenting is disabled… I was getting spammed pretty badly… not that anyone was commenting anyways… :)

March 7 lands on a Saturday this year, so if my schedule stays free I will have a party! …. stay tuned for more info… :) cheers!

Tue, Feb 3rd, 2009 @ 12:40pm
Man time is flying by so quickly… this year feels like it's going to one of the busiest years yet… hmmm… so what's new with me? Not too much really… just working… doing ministry… the usual… I want to write something more substantial here but I don't know what I should pick… maybe I'll just pick a few fun things…

so I made my own makeshift double boiler for chocolate fondue. It incorporates my small fondue pot, sitting on top of 3 of my cafe tea spoons, which sits in a small corningware bowl, filled with water underneath. The whole contraption then sits on my tealight candle tea pot warmer…. so the candle heats the water which warms the chocolate slowly and evenly. When testing it out, we were able to melt chocolate without adding evaporated milk… and even after leaving it on for over an hour with very little chocolate in it, there was still no burning or scorching on the bottom! :) Hurray for easy cleaning!

I currently have a backlog of 3 highly rated boardgames that require 3 or more players. Cosmic Encounter, Taj Mahal, and Chicago Express. Stay tuned for some mini-boardgame nights… who wants in? :)

Been feeling pretty tired lately… sleeping a lot more than I usually need… I thought as a person ages they are supposed to need less and less sleep because their bodies don't repair as much etc… i think my stress level is higher than it ought to be as well… I need some physical activity… :P

Mon, Jan 5th, 2009 @ 9:45am

New Years Eve Eve Boardgame night was a good time had by all… I think. :)

Altogether 15 people participated with many drifting in late. A few people missed out because they got dates mixed up :) It's funny because all my coworkers came early because of my don't be late warning. Just like last time, the games started late and we only played 2 rounds instead of 3. Since we started late, the snacks came out early.

In round one, there was:
- 4 player carcassonne with Andy (Winner), Geo Nick and Jonathan
There was a lot of bragging from Andy about how he won Carcassonne by allowing Geo to build a huge city and then sneaking in to share the points. That sneaky Andy brings potato chips for everyone to earn their trust only to stab them in the back to get some prizes!!! Well done my friend.

- 3 player Lost Cities with Peter, Somchay (Winner) and Samia
In Lost Cities, a certain “nice guy”, was actually aiding his opponents in the game. Maybe nice guys prefer cooperative games. :) Or maybe girls like to take advantage of nice guys to get more raffle tickets! :) But don't worry Peter, abusing nice guys is bad karma, and Bad Karma == no prizes!!!

- 3 Player Akaba with Jacklyn, Andrew (Winner) and Jenny
In Akaba, there was alot of running around the table and people calling each other cheaters and claiming they got their turn skipped. I don't know how much validity there was to the shouting. But Andrew has been claiming missed turns a lot lately in games and Jacklyn always cheats. Well and Jenny likes to join in in accusational shouting whenever she gets a chance. :)

I opted to not play and take care of late coming guests who kept coming in late even though I had been itching to play Ra. Peter bailed after round one and 5 more people join us for round 2. While waiting for round 2 to begin, many had a try at Sorry Sliders which was hugely successful but not an official tournament game. Kingston commented on how cutthroat Sorry Sliders was. But maybe he was the only one playing that way! :)

In round two there was:
- 4 player Stone Age with Jenny, Andrew (Winner), Andy, Jacklyn
Stone Age was the longest running game… due to some analysis paralysis by some analysis paralysis prone players. It is a little know fact that the cure for analysis paralysis is to just have fun and not try so hard. I mean, like I know the prizes are super-awesome, but seerussly, the chocolate fondue was dieing to be eaten. :) PS. Sometimes a little heckling helps speed people up too.

- 4 player Galaxy trucker with Kenric, Tony, Geo (Winner) and the Ghost from my haunted basement
Galaxy Trucker had all the players slaughtered because they used the small ship for the rounds where you are meant to use the bigger ships. I should have went back downstairs to make sure they were playing correctly. They only played 2/3 rounds because the ghost scared them back upstairs. It's ok to be afraid of ghosts guys.

- 4 Player Pirate's Cove with King (Winner), Samia, BJ and Nick
Kingston took Pirate's Cove since everyone else was a newbie. Way to take it easy on the newbies King. People really seemed to enjoy the game.

- 3 Player Thebes with Somchay (Winner of raffle ticket), Jackson and Jonathan
In Thebes, we had a close game. I only edged out Somchay by 2 points and Jon was only behind maybe by 10 points. It could have been anyone's game. It was a very close game with lots of digging for dirt. The normal loud chanting of DIRT! DIRT! DIRT! was replaced with the more peaceful, under-the-breath jinx dirt-dirt-dirt of mild mannered software developers.

- 1 player played Sit and Be Quiet with Karen and it was herself. :) She prefers to watch than to play which is cool. Andy apparently tried to convince her to play. Little did he know that this is a hopeless attempt unless you appease the said creature with a large block of cheese first.

Round 3 got cancelled.

While we ate chocolate fondue, I drew and announced the prize winners. Every person got a raffle ticket for each game they played. In addition, game winners received an extra raffle ticket for each game they won. First was Jonathan Neitz who was unlucky in Thebes but lucky in the prize draw. He choose to keep his prize of two movie tickets rather than trade for a mysterious wrapped present! Next Andy won a golf tic tac toe set, he opted to trade for mystery. With his cunning 6th sense for value, he picked the best prize, Battleline game. Last prize went to Kingston who also changed for mystery and got his very own copy of Sorry Sliders!!! He was so happy that he crushed those Pirate's Cove newbies to get that prize. This was the first time the prize trading didn't have a dud. Beware next time. If you get a stinker it's because the green monster got you! :) Until next time…

Mon, Jan 4th, 2009 @ 10:42pm

This is my opinion. Basically whatever movie left me with the best feeling and made me want to buy the DVD. There are a lot of films not included because I did not watch them or they sucked. This would include almost any drama or romantic movie you can think of or even plain action movies.

10. I couldn't pick one for number ten but choose to list a bunch of movies here that could have been awesome if…
Incredible hulk (was just out classed by the other superhero movies), The Mummy 3 (honestly I can't remember this film much which says?), Kung Fu Panda (missing the tension/excitement), Wall E (good visuals but lacking story and originality in terms of sci fi and pixar), Max Payne (good visuals), Wanted (good visuals)

9. Spiderwick - a little too kiddy for me to enjoy completely. But the fantasy elements were there and I am a fan of the books.

8. Indiana Jones - ulg… the ending knocked this one down the list. -oh and the stupid monkeys!! But I love Indiana Jones in general and although the ending was a let down, I knew it was coming and still enjoyed the movie quite a bit. Will I buy it? Probably not.

7. Tropic Thunder - It had it's moments. Not the best movie but I enjoyed it quite a bit. Good laughs, likeable characters.

6. In Brudges - surprise hit for me. Don't usually enjoy this type of movie. The more intellectual darker humour really appeals. But what makes this film really successful is that the story is very well put together and comes together so nicely at the end.

This is where the list starts getting better…

5. Iron Man - It was good, but it just didn't hit the spot for me in terms of superhero movie or adventure. Maybe the villian wasn't villianous enough? Maybe it's because Iron Man has no super powers? Gweneth Paltrow was cool though.

4. Batman - After I saw this, I was floored. It is a really well done movie. The boat dilemna was awesome… Will I buy this? Probably not. I prefer my superhero movies to have a little comedy and to also end with very very very happy endings.

3. Prince Caspian - Classic adventure. Love the fantasy elements. They amped up the action in this one so I liked it more than the first Narnia film. I heard they won't be making anymore. :(

2. Pineapple Express - 2nd surprise hit for me. This one got me laughing really hard. This does not happen often for me in comedies. Stupid story but man was I laughing it up…

1. Get Smart - This takes the one spot because not only were the laughs there, but they managed to incorporate a decent story and some major excitement. I was looking forward to this one and it blew my expectations away. I was expecting a comedy but got adventure as well! This would have been even better if they didn't cast Anne Hathaway

11. Where the wild things are - based on a children's book

10. Astroboy - loved it when I was a kid. This one has lots of potential. We'll see.

9. GI Joe - loved it when I was a kid. GI Joe and Transformers were awesome.

8. Avatar 3D - James Cameron is finally back and it's Sci-Fi!

7. Coraline - Neil Gaiman meets stop motion animation! Think nightmare before Christmas but scary.

6. Up 3D - Don't know too much about this one but I do love pixar. But they haven't had a really awesome hit for me since Ratatouille (2007) and before that Toy Story and A Bug's Life. And yes I have seen all the Pixar films. The movies are always good but the stories/directing seem weaker than they used to be. And the villains are always wimpy. The first sign was Monster's Inc, where they could have made it awesome if they just beefed up the scariness. Screw the kiddies. The Shark was pretty cool in Nemo, until it turned into a good guy! Come on!?!?! The shark could have been like the T-Rex in Land Before Time.

5. X-Men Origins - loved the X-Men films, trailer looks good.

4. Transformers 2 - The first one sucked (the first time I watched it) but got better after subsequent watches. Now I am stoked esp since I heard devastator will be in it! You know, the constructocons! :)

3. Harry Potter - They keep getting darker, more mature and violent. Love it.

2. Watchmen - The trailer looks really good on this one too. Hopefully the legal stuff won't delay the opening

1. Star Trek - The trailer looks sooo good. I think the trekkies are moving in now that Star Wars has left the spotlight. Doesn't hurt that they casted some very likeable actors… Harold of (Harold and Kumar) and Sylar from heroes…

And in the distant future… Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, 3D remastered Star Wars, Ghostbusters 3, The Avengers, X-Men 4