Author: Ruel

Day 315: Roll for the Galaxy

Roll for the Galaxy.

Roll for the Galaxy.

My reaction upon seeing the components to Roll for the Galaxy: so many dice!

I’d heard a lot of good things about this game and it lived up to the hype. You get to roll lots of dice while trying to build the best galactic empire. You roll, you assign dice, and you add up your victory points. And so much more.

For my first time playing it tonight I was a bit lost, but my fellow gamers were patient and answered all of my frequent questions. By the time I got the hang of it, though, the game was over.

The experienced players told me that the original Race for the Galaxy had more (and different) icons, was more difficult to learn, and was not as fun to play. Looks like I’ll skip that one and give Roll another shot sometime.

Day 313: FPAC 2015

Tinikling at FPAC 24

Tinikling at FPAC 24

This year’s Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture was a smaller, one-day event at the historic El Pueblo building next to Olvera Street. My wife and I had planned on going when it began at 10am, but ended up sleeping in and didn’t get there until lunch time.

Thankfully, the weather was much milder than a year ago, when the festival spanned two days during an unexpected heat wave in October.

Like last year, I wasn’t too impressed with the food; it was okay, but not representative of the best of Filipino fare. I’m sure there are too many laws and/or permits needed, but it would be great to have roaming food vendors selling taho or barbecue sticks like in the Philippines.

Still, kudos to all of the volunteers who make this event happen. It’s always a terrific celebration of the best of the Filipino arts and cultural community and this year was no different; it was a blast.

We didn’t catch the morning performances, but we saw a few of the afternoon acts after we had checked out all of the booths. Some of the acts we enjoyed: the Prime Note Ensemble, Odessa Kane, the SIPA dance crew, and other outstanding musicians and dancers.

My wife and I always love the traditional songs and performances and we were thrilled to hear our favorite love song “Dahil Sa Iyo” not once, but twice. The first was a traditional rendition and the second was part of a hula performance.

The best part of any Philippine cultural event was saved for last: the tinikling. Check out my short video of this traditional dance on my youtube channel.

Day 312: Expansion

image

My wife and I finally got around to playing the Ticket to Ride 1910 Expansion tonight. What a great way to breathe new life into an old favorite!

We were grateful for the playing-card-sized train cards. They’re easier to handle, but more importantly they’re easier to see. Our eyes aren’t what they used to be.

The new destination tickets were the best change, though. After nearly wearing out the original game, we always had a good idea of what route the other was trying to complete. Now with the new tickets mixed in with the originals we weren’t sure where the other was going.

Of course, my wife wants everyone to know who won our first game of the expansion. Hint: it wasn’t me.

Day 311: Sherry

Rancho De Philo Winery

Rancho De Philo Winery

We went to the Rancho De Philo Winery today for the opening day of their annual sale. Rancho De Philo makes one wine, an award-winning sherry. It’s a delicious dessert wine, something to be sipped and savored on special occasions.

The winery is on a beautiful property in Rancho Cucamonga and the family still lives there, so it’s only open to the public for about one week each year. Although I’m not much of a wine drinker, I always look forward to our yearly visit. It’s also my yearly wish to play Donkey Kong at the winery.

Day 310: Daredevil

Daredevil on Netflix.

Daredevil on Netflix.

I recently posted about how much my wife and I are enjoying Gotham. After a few episodes, I decided to start watching Daredevil on Netflix.

Needless to say, the rest of Gotham has been put on hold.

I’m three-quarters of the way into the first season and so far Daredevil has been superb. He’s one of my favorite superheroes, but I put off starting the series because I was scarred from the Ben Affleck version. It was okay, but nowhere near as gritty as I thought it should be. And Affleck didn’t do it for me as a superhero (which is why I’m sure I’ll put off watching Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice).

I grew up on Frank Miller’s version of The Man Without Fear, which was gritty before gritty was cool. The Born Again storyline, along with The Big Three (Maus, Watchmen, and The Dark Knight Returns) changed the way I looked at comic books.

The Netflix series has been everything I wanted from Daredevil. It’s not about a superhero saving the world, but rather the story of a city, Hell’s Kitchen in New York, and the people trying to control it/save it. It’s more like The Wire, which is only the greatest TV show ever. There are no corny one-liners or sly nods to the audience. The fight scenes aren’t over-the-top, and the fight in episode two where Daredevil goes into the heart of bad guys’ sanctuary was an all-time great.

Yes, a show produced for the small (and mobile) screen has an all-time superhero scene. Television, or what we call TV these days, has come a long way and mostly for the better.

Day 308: Steampunk Rally

image

Steampunk Rally.

While I love science fiction I’m not the biggest steampunk fan. After playing Steampunk Rally tonight, though, I might have to take a closer look at the genre; for gaming purposes steampunk was awesome.

Steampunk Rally looks like a simple race around a track, but it’s much more than that. Each player builds a contraption to get around the track. The card drafting and dice rolling mechanics give everyone lots to do on each turn, with plenty of options to re-roll dice or play special event cards.

With all of the dice and cogs and cards it seemed a bit overwhelming, but after a few turns it was easy to get into the swing of things. I missed a few opportunities to build a better contraption and I had bad luck with my movement, but I did get to play a “ray gun” card that put a ton of damage on my opponents. Even though it had no effect on the winner (who seemed to be way ahead throughout the game), it was hilarious to play the card.

If you can’t beat ’em, might as well ray gun ’em.

Day 307: Cold Night, Hot Pho

image

Tonight was the first cold night we’ve had in a while, so that meant my soup craving kicked into high gear. The local pho spot had a line out the door, so my wife and I tried a new place. It wasn’t quite as good, but it was still delicious and the filet mignon pho satisfied my craving.

Day 306: Crossing Streams

Beam Me Up, Scotty by James Doohan

Beam Me Up, Scotty by James Doohan

With today’s announcement that CBS is launching a new Star Trek series in 2017, I thought it was a good time to start reading James Doohan’s memoir, Beam Me Up Scotty.  I scored a used copy last year and it’s been on my to-read shelf ever since.

As you can see in the photo above, I’m using my Star Wars bookmark. What you can’t hear in the photo is the Game of Thrones soundtrack.

I know my geekdom is crossing streams here, but it’s a risk I’ll take for a good read. As you can tell, I also like to live dangerously.