star trek

My Growing Library

Games I Bought This Weekend

Games I Bought This Weekend

On the way to my fantasy football draft I picked up two used board games I won on a recent boardgamegeek.com auction: Takenoko and Imperial Settlers. I was pleasantly surprised when I opened Takenoko: although it was no longer in its shrink wrap, the cards were still in shrink wrap and the tiles were still unpunched. It was a great deal, paying less than half the MSRP ($50) for a brand new game. Imperial Settlers had a slight ding on its corner and two of the meeples were broken, but the meeples were the extras and I’m not worried about the box. Again, I paid less than half the MSRP ($50).

Yesterday I was in Orange County, which was excellent timing since I could pick up two games that I’ve been dying to get into my games library: Roll for the Galaxy and Star Trek Catan.

Roll for the Galaxy is awesome and it was the iSlaytheDragon.com Game of the Year for 2015, but I’m not very good at it. I always seem to be a step behind my opponents and haven’t gotten better than second place. Hence, my desire to own a copy: I need to learn the ins and outs of the game, the dice, the tiles, everything. I was close to pulling the trigger a few times on amazon.com whenever it dipped to $40, but I’m glad I waited. I managed to pay less than half the MSRP ($60) and I can’t wait to start rolling all of those dice.

Finally, Star Trek Catan was one of those on my Must Buy List, but it was never a priority until I found it for exactly half off MSRP ($50) in a boardgamegeek.com virtual flea market. I love the original series characters and their special powers in this version of Catan, which is definitely my favorite.

So for about the price of one brand new copy of Scythe, I was able to add four outstanding games to my growing library. I hope to add Scythe one day, but I’ll wait until someone’s tired of playing their copy so I can land another great deal. My bank account is thankful that I don’t follow the Cult of the New.

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.

Day 293: Full Geek Mode

Full Geek Mode

Full Geek Mode

I’m in full geek mode right now. After the Star Wars The Force Awakens trailer debuted last night, I read a handful of Star Wars articles and watched youtube videos (and, yes, I watched the trailer dozens of times).

One thing that I stumbled upon that I absolutely loved was this quote from Felicia Day: “Geekdom is the joy of connecting about things you love without fear of judgment.”

I’ve been connecting with Star Wars for the last 24 hours, but I’m not forgetting about my other geekdom joys. I’m finishing (finally!) A Clash of Kings, I’m all caught up with The Walking Dead, and I just started James Doohan’s memoir, Beam Me Up Scotty.

The only thing I didn’t geek out on tonight was Fresh Off the Boat, since it was off the air this week. This is probably a good thing or else I might start getting my geekdom worlds mixed up.

Day 280: Star Trek Catan

Star Trek Catan.

Star Trek Catan.

I’ve now played three of the most popular gateway games, thanks to my local gaming group. I’d played Ticket to Ride and Carcassone (also with the group a few weeks ago) and Catan was the last one on my list.

I was somewhat familiar with the game and actually own a copy (a birthday gift), but hadn’t played it yet. Tonight the first game the group put on the table was Star Trek Catan. The basics are the same, but the added “helper cards” featuring the Star Trek characters were fun.

The rest of the group was familiar with the game and each player seemed to prefer Star Trek over the original. I loved the theme and I’ll have to see how it compares to Catan. Somehow trading brick and lumber while avoiding the robber won’t seem as exciting as trading Dilithium and Tritanium while avoiding the Klingons.

Day 58: Live Long and Prosper

R.I.P. Leonard Nimoy

R.I.P. Leonard Nimoy

Leonard Nimoy passed away this morning. I loved Star Trek as a kid, especially Mr. Spock, and watched the reruns on Channel 13 in Los Angeles. My dad introduced me to the series and he owned a few of the wonderful Fotonovels, which were pseudo-graphic-novels featuring stills from an episode with captions and text superimposed over them. Since this was before our home had a Betamax or VHS, it was my only way of enjoying Star Trek On Demand.

I’m sad as I read all of the tributes and remembrances of Mr. Nimoy on social media, but I’m happy that he lived long and prospered: he seemed to be well-loved by all.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Nimoy.