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So, we met some new gamers that just moved to the area this past weekend. Had a great time with them at Dinner, and even got to play a game or so with them on Sunday. I think they’ll make a great addition to OSBG.

Anyway. We played a game of Manila, but before they left. They wanted to try out the Crokinole board sitting on our wall. So we set it up (BTW: It fits great on my table.) and played a few rounds.

Well after they left, Olivia and I were goofing off a bit with the Crokinole game before I put it up. So while doing so, I snapped a few pictures of it. And got this one that I really liked.

Now granted, my camera is horrible in low light situations, still despite the grainyness of this image it’s a fun picture. So I posted it on the geek. It has gotten some pretty nice feedback.

Anyway. Paulmond saw it on BGG and liked it enough that he decided to enhance it in photoshop, (despite its poor quality). Well, it’s quite neat. He took out the picture in the background and the roll of wrapping paper, and blurred the background, so that you concentrate on the foreground when looking at the pic. It’s quite neat. I wouldn’t have even figured out how to do this seeing as how you’d have to recreate the wallpaper image that was under the picture and all. Anyway. I’m going to start playing with photoshop a little bit more before i go posting stuff online. Maybe I’ll pick up some cool techniques.

So cool.

Anyway, I’ll have to add some more pics I took the other night to this album. There are a few pretty good ones.

written by Chris \\ tags: BGG, Boardgames, Crokinole, Manila, Olivia, OSBG, Photoshop, Pictures

I’ve felt so weird lately. I have not been at all enthusiastic about gaming nearly as much lately as I used to be.

Case in point. This past Saturday, Valerie and Olivia went down to Alabama recuriting. This meant that I was alone on Saturday with Sarah. It happened to be the third Saturday of the month. So I figured I would take her up to Mid South Game Center in Memphis Tennessee to go play Pokemon. When I promised to do this, I thought I would be excited about it too.

Well, when Saturday morning came around. I wasn’t excited. I went into my game room and started looking at the shelves, and didn’t see anything at all that I wanted to play. Eventually I ended up taking Reef Encounter, Through the Desert, and Kings Breakfast. These were the only games I thought i might mildly have an interest in playing that day.

Well, when I arrived, I flat out didn’t really want to play any of those either. I kinda wanted to play some war something or another, so we borrowed the demo copy of Small World and set it up. I don’t want to get into a review, or a session report about what I played. But I will say I enjoyed Small World, and would try it again for sure, but I’m not sure if it’s something I really want in my collection. But I digress.

Afterward I still felt all blah. Not knowing what to play. I played several things that day, half enjoying myself for the most part. But the straw that broke the camels back was another game of Stone Age.

It’s official. I don’t like that game at all. There is no fun in it. It’s same old same old. I don’t care about who wins when I play it. It’s meh…

It made me think though. I don’t care who wins most of the time.

So tonight is game night too, and I asked a friend what he wanted to play. And secretly I’m hoping he’ll say Hammer of the Scots, or Hannibal, or Twilight Struggle or something, and I’m thinking to myself, if he doesn’t say one of those things. I’d rather sit at home and play Sid Meier’s Pirates instead.

written by Chris \\ tags: Boardgames, Memphis, Mid-South Game Center, OSBG, Pirates, Pokemon, Sarah, Sid Meier, Wargames

There’s like nothing on the web about it… The only thing I know of is the name of the person in charge of it (who I’ve only met briefly despite the fact that he lives in the city where I went to college and try to get back to every chance I get to visit friends).

I realize he wants to keep out the riff raff, and keep the size to a minimum so that it doesn’t get out of hand and all. But dammit, there’s a game convention in Huntsville, AL this week, and I can’t go to it? It’s so close. I know a few of the people going there. I’m bored. I’m going through a serious gaming lull. My game group isn’t meeting very regularly for the time being. It’s just not fair. I need to get everything with my game group back on track.

I mean it’s late February and I’ve played like a total of maybe 20 games this year so far. What’s wrong with that?!? I realize that I’ve been sick, and I haven’t had a chance to get out to any Games-days or anything, and my one trip to Atlanta Gamefest was cut short by Bad Weather.

Anyway, regarding Gulf Games, twice a year there is a regional convention that moves around to various locations in the deep south, yet I am either missing the cut, or I am the embodiment of the “riff raff” that they are trying to keep out (If you know the answer to that one please don’t tell me ). Someday somebody that knows someone should get my name on that waiting list I keep hearing about.

Okay rant over now…

Seeing as how I’m not invited to Gulf Games. I guess I’ll have to tide myself over in my own way until some of the mainstream regional conventions come around. I suppose it’s actually going to be a fairly busy year. Which is fun, and good. Lets take a look at what might be on my table in the coming months. Gaming Wise, I mean…

March 28-30 is Midsouthcon in Memphis, TN. (One of my favorites for the year. A true convention though, which may or may not turn off some of the people that are really only interested in boardgames).

May 2-4 is Tennessee Game Days in Nashville, TN. This one is a good one that RK in Nashville puts on, this will be the third year of it, and It was an absolute blast the first two years. It’s a bit smaller so has quite a nice family feel to it. And RK goes out of his way to make sure that everyone that comes is having a good time.

Geekway to the West June 6-8th in St. Louis, MO Looks like a fairly promising little fun time. I have not been to any of the other ones, but I’ve heard good things about it. Still 5 hours going to a city where I don’t really know anybody is a little daunting. Not sure I’ll make this one, but it definately looks interesting.

August 14-17 is Gamefest South in Chattanooga, TN. Since Atlanta Gamefest (a regional convention I’ve had the pleasure of hitting for the day a time or two) is only happening once this year, WB decided that he would also offer another regional convention in Late August in Chattanooga. This will be the very first one of this, but I expect it will be a fairly good turnout.

Sometime in September is Memphis Game Day in Memphis, TN. I have some very good friends that put this one on, and I like to help out and make the day better for everyone. Hopefully some of the kinks from last year get worked out to make this one a better con, and more value for the money.

And finally sometime in November is Boardgamegeek.con in Dallas, TX. I love this convention. In my opinion it is the premier Board gaming convention in the United States. It’s 4 days of nonstop gaming. Whatever you want to play. And I get to meet all these people that I hang out with whenever I have a spare moment or two. What more could you ask for?

I also know that someone (SD in Jackson, MS) has talked about starting up a Mississippi Local Regional Con as well. I’d be up for that, and willing to do whatever I can to help out and make that one a reality. I’d love to get more people from Oxford interested, but sometimes time and energy just aren’t on my side.

Oh well, till later.
Chris.

written by Chris \\ tags: BGG.con, Gamefest, Gulf Games, MidsouthCon, OSBG, Tennessee Game Days

Hey everyone. Mom’s been in town for the past week. We’ve had some fun, but she’s been sick for the past couple of days. I’m now sick myself. But I’m busy this week, so I’ve been coming to work anyway. Trying to get something done for the company, and they want it before March.

Val’s going to be mad too, because when I’m at home, I haven’t had any chance to work on the GARC stuff for this year.

There’s two things I was going to do, One should be easy, the other, not so much. But anyway. I hope to finish it up before she needs it, but I’m sure I’ll wait till the last minute.

I still haven’t found a Wii, it seems they are very scarce. Oh well, someday I’ll find one. That motion sensing stuff is just too cool.

I’m running some games again this year at Midsouthcon. I thought Val might be able to make it, but it doesn’t look like she is going to want to go. Although she is off that weekend, so I won’t have to take Sarah this time. She’ll actually probably be disappointed, as she had fun last year despite it being a science fiction and fantasy convention, and we did get to play a lot of childrens games with some other families that go.

I wish I had some pictures or something to put on here, but I don’t. I very rarely think to get out the Camera.

I think today is the last day for soccer signups. I hope Val makes it out there in time.

Game nights are still going well too.

written by Chris \\ tags: GARC, MidsouthCon, Mom, OSBG, Valerie, Wii

Bye Bye, house…

Just to keep everyone informed, we did close on the sale of our previous (and first) home as scheduled on August 2nd, 2006. Because the two house payments since Basically January of this year were killing us, we let it go for a little less than we thought we should be able to get for it, and didn’t make as much money on the sale of it as we had hoped. However, dropping the payment, insurance, and electric bill at the old house made it worth selling, even if we didn’t do as well on it as we would have liked. So now we’re waiting for the check to clear, then we’ll be sending most of it off to take care of some debts incurred when we purchased our current house.

Our first game night at our house went over pretty well, it’s still a small group, but we’re hoping to have 6 or 7 people every other week in the end. Here’s a picture taken by Kevin, a member (the first) of the group, of me and Sarah surveying the Ticket to Ride board.

If anybody in Oxford, Mississippi stumbles in here and reads my posts, and is interested in playing some family style, strategic boardgames, you can join our Yahoogroup and get details for meeting up with us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OSBG/.

written by Chris \\ tags: Boardgames, Family, OSBG, Oxford MS, Sarah