Last new games for a little while

Posted by Chris on January 19, 2011 0

Now that my WordPress installation isn’t semi-broken, I can post this.

My newest shipment of games are here, though I haven’t played any of them yet. I’ll start on them this weekend :)

Besides Race for the Galaxy, those were among the top games I wanted to buy. That one was a cheaper card game that caught my interest somewhere along the way.

That’s plenty of games to occupy spare time for a while, now to get back into savings mode. Planning on moving this summer, so extra cash will be handy there.

I also should have a Keurig coffee machine this week, the Breville Gourmet Single Serve Brewer BKC700XL. I can’t wait :)

More games!

Posted by Chris on December 30, 2010 0

My board game playing has been successful, people I’ve been playing with have also enjoyed the games (mostly just my girlfriend so far, most of our friends probably aren’t too interested in such things). We both love Carcassonne and I just received the original River expansion, Inns and Cathedrals, and a mini-expansion that came packaged with Games Quarterly #11. Can’t wait to play a game with those new tiles.

I’ve been looking up info on lots of other games and adding a bunch of them to my wishlist. Mostly I’m wanting them to play well with just two players, so that ends up having some good looking games being left out for now. Oh well. I’m going to limit myself to buying just one or two games a month, coming to a total of ~$100 CAD including tax and shipping. That’ll give us time to give new games proper play time, and keep expenses lower ;)

So my new January games ordered are Citadels and Ticket to Ride. Not sure for February yet, but it might be Twilight Struggle along with something cheaper or an expansion. Or Alhambra Big Box edition. I have a month to decide :)

More board games

Posted by Chris on December 8, 2010 2

I still haven’t gotten around to playing all of the games I picked up recently, just Carcassonne and Battle Line. Both have been pretty fun, though. I’ve been reading up on some other games, and I think I’m going to buy Alhambra: Big Box and Ticket to Ride: Europe next. Both sound like they work well with 2 players (and more, of course) and seem to be good games.

My copy of the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm expansion is on the way from Amazon, I’m still in no real rush for it. I’ll have to renew my account whenever it gets here, I guess. And after I sort out some authenticator problems I have.

WoW vs EQ2

Posted by Chris on November 15, 2010 0

All this news and chat about the World of Warcraft expansion coming in a few weeks, and I can’t get excited about it at all.

On the other hand, I’ve been playing EverQuest 2 again and having lots of fun with it! They’ve improved on the game quite a lot in the last six years.

Board games ordered

Posted by Chris on November 11, 2010 0

I ordered some games today, after looking up some info on a few of them. Dominion really being the one that I didn’t recall hearing about, but now is the one I’m looking forward to the most. It’s a little more than I had planned to get right away, but I decided to spend a little bit more to take advantage of free shipping after a certain amount. Basically getting a game free, saving roughly $30.

I was also reading up on Battlelore, that one looks quite nice as well. I’m sure that will be the next one I get (and/or some Dominion expansions, depending on how much it gets played). Memoir ’44 uses the same ruleset but a completely different world. Could also be a nice change.

On an unrelated note, I should add a mobile view of my web site at some point. I really appreciate the sites I visit that do so, even with Dolphin HD being a pretty good browser with its zooming and text flowing on the page (well that was easy, just installed a plugin and some minor setting changes, and there it is).

Board games

Posted by Chris on November 8, 2010 0

Does anybody have any board game suggestions, especially for just two people? Looking for something fun and new to do.

Already on my list to get are Carcassonne, Settlers of Catan, Stratego, and Battle Line.

Card game suggestions are also good, either with a normal deck of cards or custom ones.

HTPC

Posted by Chris on October 8, 2010 0

The Acer Revo AR1600-U914HE is currently on sale on NCIX, and I think I might get one. I’ve been reading some reviews and they seem to be pretty good, and basically what I’m looking for to use as a HTPC. I’ve also been playing with the newest beta of XBMC and that’s working quite well with my fileserver full of movies and tv shows. Sure, it’s not the newest and fastest version, but it’ll be fine. Having HDMI is a definite plus.

Other options I had in mind were Boxee or the Logitech Revue (GoogleTV device). The Boxee is a similar price, though more limited considering how well XBMC works. Plus it’s a weird shape and couldn’t do everything a normal computer can. The Logitech Revue… well, that’s just too damn expensive.

Now, if only Netflix had proper integration with XBMC… I’ve seen some hacks for it though, I’ll have to check into that.

Monitors

Posted by Chris on September 15, 2010 0

I have two new Dell ST2310 monitors on the way (23″, 1920×1080), got them on sale for $159 each. And I’m not entirely sure how I’m going to set things up. My main gaming system has a Dell Ultrasharp 2408WFP right now (24″, 1920×1200) but I’d consider a dual monitor setup on some system again. My Mac Mini just has a BenQ FP222WH (22″, 1680×1050) attached. All of them have HDMI input, which is useful. I think I’ll be using one of the new ones to attach to my Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 though. And do something else with my 19″ LCD TV, which I don’t actually watch TV on these days.

Also, I’m attempting to use Google Chrome again to see if it is something I can use yet or if it’ll annoy me like it always has in the past. So far so good, though.

Future upgrades

Posted by Chris on September 8, 2010 0

I think in the somewhat near future, I’m going to upgrade a couple of parts in my gaming computer. The power supply and video card. Possibly the RAM, though that’s not quite as needed. It’ll probably be these parts, or something like them:

  • EVGA GeForce GTX 470 Fermi 607MHZ 1280MB GDDR5 2XDVI Mini-HDMI PCI-E Video Card
  • Antec Truepower New 750W Modular Power Supply ATX12V V2.3 Active PFC 80 Plus SLI Ready 120MM PWM Fan

Beats the GTX 260 I have and whatever power supply was in my Antec case (NSK 4480B II). Depends on how much they are and what better options are available when I have enough saved up. And maybe after a couple of years I’ll get a new monitor, maybe 27-30″ instead of this 24″ monitor.

Also, if I get a new power supply, I need to remember to make sure it’ll fit in the case.

Paderno

Posted by Chris on August 31, 2010 0

Over the years I’ve slowly been putting together a set of good quality stainless steel pots and pans from Paderno as they go on sale. At the moment I have:

  • 0.8L saucepan
  • 2L saucepan
  • 3L saucepan
  • 1L saute pan
  • 2L saute pan
  • 4L casserole
  • 20cm frying pan
  • 30cm nonstick frying pan

What are some other useful sizes/types I should get?