Guild Wars 2

Yes I’m back 🙂

Sorry I was gone so long. Part of the reason is summer vacation with the kids. The other reason is Guild Wars 2 rocks and I’ve finally came up for air…

This review sums up my feelings very well:

The game feels like Elder Scrolls to me (which also has an online game coming out). I’ve always had two issues with games like that and World of Warcraft:

• I want to play the game with other people
• I don’t want to pay a monthly fee. Just don’t always have the time to get my money out of it.

Guild Wars 2 has set a high bar and solves both issues where these other games only could solve one. It will be interesting to see how Elder Scrolls goes, but I’m not leaving GW2 anytime soon.

I will post regularly again. Honest. 🙂

Drync and Wine Log Pro

I like Wine! So I need a good app to track my wine, let’s chat about what I have been using:

Wine Log Pro

I’ve been using this for years. It was renamed not that long ago for the next app I’m going to blog about shortly. It allows you to search their database (or enter your own wine if you can’t find it) and very nicely write down everything about it: A public and private description, year, style, rating and do you want\own\drink it yet, etc.

It’s search function was slow, but I’ve used this for a while and it has worked well for me.

Now it has been replaced and I don’t like it.

Drync

So the last app was called Drync but it was renamed and the name given to this app.

It’s a nicer interface to be sure, but the focus of the app seems to be selling you wine instead of tracking it. There are some tracking features to be sure, but the nice thing about the last app is that I could track what was currently in my wine cellar so I knew what I might need if I’m out at the store. Heh, maybe that’s why they took it away.

Anyway, it’s free to me since I brought the first app and I downloaded and quickly removed it. Yes it does import my wine reviews, but a lot of the tracking features I cared about are gone.

Here’s a hint to Drync LLC, if you take away features from your app, you are going to tick someone off. It’s just a few little things that would have been easy for you to add. Should have been easy.

So I guess this is more of me b*tching. Sorry about that. Guess I’ll look for another app.

Can’t Vote for Crazy

I’m finishing up a game review, but here’s a link to enjoy.

Solving Sickness 2000 Years Ago

Funny home moment, hopefully you didn’t ‘have to be there’ to like it.

So my kids don’t go to church so they only have a high level understanding of Christian myths. They saw Ben Hur for the first time this weekend. They enjoyed the movie but had questions at the end. They really didn’t know the details about how Jesus died. So at the end of the movie they were asking about the cross, why he was nailed to it, etc.

(Do I need to give a spoiler alert on Ben Hur? Hopefully not, classic movie.)

Anyway, at the end Jesus dies and Ben Hur’s mom and sister are magically cured of leprosy at the time of his death and my kids are having a WTF moment.

Son: Wait, how were they cured?

Me: I guess Jesus cured them at his death.

Son (Mocking): Why don’t people just keep killing Jesus every time he comes back and use that to heal the sick?

I just lost it. Sorry if the moment is lost over the Internet…

Happy Easter!

God or no God, enjoy the holiday with your family!

Blogging re-starts after the weekend…

New Posts Soon

I’ll be starting up again shortly. My older son is starting a blog as a writing project, so I’ve been showing him the ‘ins and outs’. 🙂

Review: Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of Ashardalon

So, I’ve played a few rounds of this game and let me give you some pluses and minuses:

Good

1) Great Atmosphere: With the minis and the tile board it captures the full game very well. It really scratches the D&D itch.
2) Nice Intro to 4e rules: a few rounds of this game and my 12 year old will be ready to go to the full game. Even my 9 year old is getting better with the rules.
3) Game likely plays in under 90 mins

Bad

1) Be ready to interpret the rules a bit: Like Full D&D, the rules can be a little gray on how, for example, how a spell works, how a trap affects the group, etc.
2) Bad Cards: Some of my cards curled as soon as I opened them. They are still playable, but this can point to a problem during the treating process of the cards.

Overall 8.75 out of 10. See the video below for more detailed review.

Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of Ashardalon

Well, something new to try. 🙂

So I tried to intro my kids into D&D with mixed results. My kids were around 8 and 11 when we tried.

• Using Dungeon Mapp with the IPad on the TV worked well.  Using it to keep the hit points was OK at best, because I don’t like to make that public.  Also it could use more graphic options, but for the price it worked great.
• The downside was my kids invited other kids their age to play.  My wife and another adult played as well, but I didn’t feel it really worked out.  Too many kids.
• I tried to scale it back to my wife and my kids.  I think that might work at some point, but I can’t trust my sons (certainly not the younger) to keep track of spells used, etc.  Just too much record keeping at this point.  I think my older son is ready, but I can’t focus on him and my younger to keep things straight.  This is something I can DM around, but I’d like for them to learn.
• I’m going to try and figure something out in the summer, until then I picked up Wrath of Ashardalon.

I think this might solve a number of issues…

• I think this will give me the structure needed to keep things in control.
• The watered down version of D&D 4e will show them the ropes of record keeping a bit more.
• I can play on the kids ‘team’ and have fun that way.

I never thought I’d buy a D&D board game (just play the real thing), but I think this might work out.  I’ll do a review later.

What is it with Old People

Clearly if you read my blog you see that I’m middle aged. What I don’t get is the generation after me when it comes to health. Am I really going to be this way in 20 years? Let me tell you briefly about some folks in my parents generation:

• Male ‘Alpha’: Smoked all his life until he needed part of his lungs removed due to cancer.  He’s diabetic but eats candy all the time.  Doesn’t listen to what his doctor says.  He won’t last the year.
• Male ‘Beta’:  Dibetic and overweight.  He drinks beer and eats ice cream whenever no one is home.  Doesn’t listen to what his doctor says.  He’s living month to month.
• Male ‘Gamma’: Dibetic and overweight.  Eats about 5 meals per day.  Does zero excerise.  Retaining fluids in his legs because his heart is not strong enough to pump it out.  Doesn’t listen to what his doctor says.

???

What is with these folks? Do they have a death wish? I understand smoking (never started) and drinking to a degree. All of these men likely could have lived another 10 years. Two won’t last the year. The 3rd it’s not too late for yet, but is doing little to help his health.

It’s sad, but I wonder if I will be that way in 20 years time or will I listen and try to live as long as possible. I hope so and it is not just we all get that stupid when we get older.

Losing the Faith

I talked briefly about losing my faith at the start of this blog. I can’t say I was ever as deep into being a Christian as other folks. The logical side of my brain just fought against it too much. Still it took me a long time to really make that mental jump to say out loud ‘This REALLY makes no sense. I am an Atheist.’

Knowing that mental block, I really find stories of people who struggled out of their faith really interesting.

Seth Andrews at The Thinking Atheist has a book I’m likely to download someday: Deconverted: a Journey from Religion to Reason

Also, anyone who has not seen it, the series: Why I am no longer a Christian by Evid3nc3 is just a gripping video series that I loved. Below is one of the first videos and is where the series really gets moving:

Maybe someday I’ll talk about my life more, but my story is just not that interesting…