Tag: review

2011 Goals: A Review

Polar bear is cr? ying because his habitat is being destroyed and I didn’t accomplish many of my goals this year…

Before we get started here why don’t you click these two links first. They’re my original goal post written just about a year ago and my half-year review.  I’ll wait…

Back? Good. So, you already know that I wasn’t doing so well this year meeting my goals. I’m sorry to say that things haven’t really improved much. No use being gentle though, let’s tear this bandaid off.

1. Submit writing every month to a publication – I submitted some poems back in January and February. I never heard back and I never followed through. Worse, I haven’t even been writing. I do write book reviews almost every month and those do get published in either the San Francisco, Sacramento, or Portland Book Review but I don’t think that counts at this point. FAILED

2. Develop, outline, draft and write two short stories – I failed to write a single short story. FAILED

3. Participate in NaNoWriMo – Didn’t even sign up this year. FAILED

4. Review Latin – FAILED

5. Learn algebra – I was doing quite well with Khan Academy but I stalled out linear equations and fractions. FAILED

6. Do the Lake Berryessa two mile swim – Cancelled due to freakish weather. I didn’t sign up though so, this counts against me. FAILED

7. Bike a century – Didn’t do nearly enough training and never picked a day to do this. FAILED

8. Buy as few new things as possible – I was really good this year when it came to purchasing stuff. I got the Ipod and the cell phone and a couple of video games. SUCCESS

9. Do more with my hobbies (besides gaming) – I’ve continued to sell off the models and hobby stuff I no longer use. This goal sort of morphed from do hobbies into get rid of stuff I don’t use anymore. I’ve sold off a number of models that I hadn’t put together or painted, including all my Chaos Space Marine stuff. I’m in the process of selling my Necron and Ultramarine armies and will be putting up my Horde models for sale as well. That leaves just the Battlefleet Gothic, and Mordheim materials to get rid of. My main hobby has become book reading with fifty read this year. SUCCESS

10. Jump out of a plane – This joke goal stayed a joke goal. FAILED

11.  Meditate everyday – I did this for the first four months of the year and the last three months of the year. I’m going to round up and call this a win. SUCCESS

Three out of eleven isn’t that great. I’m thinking about my goals for next year right now and after doing this for two years (writing done my goals and keeping track of things periodically) I have some ideas on how to improve my performance. First, focus on a few important things. Second, break your goals down into action plans with simple do-able steps. Third, don’t put on your list of goals things you’d like to do someday. Only put down things you know you will do. Fourth, work on the actions plans every week if not every day.

I’ll have my goals for next year up next week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beer of the Week #12 Route des Épices

Brasserie Dieu Du Ciel!'s Route des Epices

From the bottle:

Routes des  épices (French for “spice route”) is a rye beer brewed with botch black and green peppercorns. Initially the beer reveals flavours of fresh grain and malt, which give it noes of chocolate, caramel, and fruit. The pepper flavour and aroma is fully revealed in the finish, which leaves a pleasant, spicy, tingling sensation on the tongue

From my notes:

nice thick head, nearly two inches. Beer is a cloudy red color. Smells of pepper. Flavor: hint of caramel and fruit with a spicy, peppery finish. Lightly carbonated. Fascinating test using peppercorns. You can taste and feel the peppercorns in this brew. Complex

depp, cloud, red coloring to this beer

I picked this beer up on a whim. I was intrigued by the idea of using peppercorns in a beer. I love spicy food and if the peppery feel and taste could be imparted to a good beer, well I thought that would taste good. And it does! Every sip of this beer I was surprised at the complex, balance, and richness of the flavor. I kept telling my wife and roommate to take a sip and tell me what they thought. Wanting them to share in the uniqueness of the beer! This isn’t a beer you would want to drink every day but it is one you’d want to share with friends! I imagine it’d go great with a nice pepper steak.

Rating (out of five):


Beer of the Week #11 Snow Day Winter Ale

New Belgium's Snow Day Winter Ale

From the bottle:

With 3 feet of powder closing the roads, a brewery is not a bad place to get snowed in. Given the unanticipated hall pass of a snow day, our brewers decided to experiment. Hmm… what about this dark caramel roasted Midnight Wheat braced with a serious load of Styrian Goldings, Centennial and Cascade hops? Shovel it in. What a deliciously unexpected way to spend a SNOW DAY!

From my notes:

Dark caramel, almost black coloring. delicate tan head with nice lacing. Smells hoppy with citrus notes, the smallest hint of malt. Smells amazing. Feels light, almost thin in the mouth, with a taste that does not match the smell. Tastes of dry hops and sharp grapefruit, (rinds?) There is a little smokiness here too. A bitter chocolate finish.

I enjoy New Belgium’s brews and this one isn’t bad for a seasonal brew but I’d never pick up a six-pack of this when I can bring their 1554 home… This beer was so close to a 2 star review but that’s only because the smell promised so much more and I expect more from New Belgium.

Rating (out of five):

Not a Review: Magic the Gathering 2012

Wizard of the Coast's Magic the Gathering 2012 for XBLA, PSN, and PC

As I said last time MtG was mentioned I stopped playing the game around the Urza’s Saga block. Since then the game has changed. A lot. The entire turn structure was re-done as well as eliminating an entire class of cards (interrupts). Since I wasn’t around when the changes to the game happened and I can’t seem to find anything on-line describing when the changes happened and why I can only guess… So, I will. I think most of the changes they made to the game had to with simplifying the rules in order to bring new players into the hobby. I’m guessing bringing new players into the game is why we’re seeing a new electronic version of MtG across the gaming  (the last time was in 2002 with Magic the Gathering Online, a straight up port of the card game that included the purchasing of electronic booster packs. Before that was 1997’s Microprose MtG game that included a TBS component.)

So how is this version of MtG and who well does it simulate the real world, paper card version? This is a good electronic version of the game. The developers went out of their way to make sure that players understand how to play the game, how turns progress, what the various cards do, and what all the jargon specific to MtG means. Despite having not played in over a decade I quickly was able to grasp how the game was played and how to use the vast and seemingly complex cards in front of me did and how I could use them to defeat my opponent. Speaking of opponent’s while the game has on-line PvP I haven’t been able to play against/with friends yet… I have become well acquinted with the various opponent AIs though! All of which have different playstyles (consistent with the decks they play.) I’m not good competition, I’m sure, but I do find myself while playing the AIs on medium difficulty sweating and often losing. Even on easy I’ve been caught unawares and lost. I don’t want to know how badly I’d be crushed if I tried the hard difficulty setting.

In addition to the normal one-on-one game there is also the new Archenemy style game wherein three people attempt to defeat a single opponent who in addition to extra life has a special Archenemy deck of cards that for each round of the game effect the board. This would be a very fun and interesting way to play the game. It seems impossible to do so though with the AI, who seem to have some problem with working together with their two compatriots in order to defeat the archenemy…

My biggest gripe with MtG 2012 though is that it lacks an entire central component of the game. There is no deck building! Players start out with access to a mono-white or mono-green deck and through battles with the various AIs unlock their decks. Most of these decks are mono colored decks that really on creatures to defeat their opponents. You can use big creatures or you can use small creatures but the only way you’ll be winning a game is by reducing your opponents life to 0. In real world MtG, mono decks are the exception and are almost always mono-red (mono-white makes occasional appearances,) and there are multiple, devious ways to defeat an opponent! I know for some people the most important part of the game is deck construction and not having it in the game really hurt it for me. Each deck has 16 unlockable cards that can be added into the deck for some customization but this small taste of deck building only made its absence more keenly felt!

Don’t let this stop you from picking it up though! And if you’re playing it on XBLA please let me know cause I need some friends to play with!

 

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