07 Apr 2008
It could happen. All we have to do is annex Washington state from the US, and boom, Seattle is ours. Just a few short weeks after Seattle being acquired by Canada; Holly and I would move on down and live the life of Seattleites.
I’m not sure exactly how it would happen. Maybe we could trade the US part or all of Quebec for Washington state. I mean, Quebec keeps saying that it doesn’t want to be a part of Canada so it could just work. Not to mention that with the acquisition of Seattle, Canada would be where both Starbucks and Tim Horton’s were founded. How cool would that be?
This just in: Canada - Coffee Capital of the World!
Speaking of coffee, the next time that Holly and I are down in Seattle I’m going to take a picture of her at the original[1] Starbucks shop. She’s a bonafide coffee addict[2], so it only seems fitting.
Of course living in Seattle would present certain life challenges. You see, it would be impossible not to gain weight when the likes of Dahlia Lounge, Dahlia Bakery, Lola and Serious Pie[3] are around.
This doesn’t even start to bring places like Racha Thai or Top Pot Doughnuts into the equation. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m willing to accept the challenge of eating all of that wonderul food on a regular basis. It would be a lot like how Holly and I eat now when we are at home, but with a lot less work for Holly and a lot fewer dishes for me.
Having a romantic dinner with Holly at Dahlia Lounge is one of the best experiences in the world.
[1] : Okay, okay, it isn’t quite the original Starbucks location. It has moved about a block from the original spot in Pike’s Place Market. Just in case there is a coffee history nazi out there reading this.
[2] : 6+ cups a day!
[3] : Seriously, the best pizza pie you can find.
03 Apr 2008
I’ve gone very retro with my gaming lately. I downloaded Sid Meier’s:
Pirates! from Xbox Live on Saturday and ever since then I’ve been
terrorizing the Caribbean with my pirate fleet.
It is one of those games that completely sucks you in to the point that you start losing track of time while you play it. While at the same time when you think about what it is that makes it fun, you can’t quite put your finger on it. All you can think is “Damn it feels good to be a Pirate!”
I lucked out at the beginning of my first time through the game and captured Black Beard’s ship during my second ship-to-ship battle. All of a sudden I was cruising around the Caribbean in probably one of the top five ships in the game. Of course, I didn’t know this at the time. I really only realized it when I lost it during another battle.
The game allows you to increase or decrease the difficulty each time that you divide your plunder with the crew. At which point you also lose all of the ships in your fleet except for your flag ship. My flag ship is the fiercely monickered “Holly May”.
There are several modes of gameplay although it mostly consists of sailing around and ship battles. There is a bit of a trade component to the game, but it really doesn’t work very well. You can tell that it was tacked on to the game and never given any real love.
Other modes include sacking cities, sneaking into cities and dueling. The dueling is very easy in the early levels and gets exponentially more difficult as you the difficulty levels increase. It also, interestingly enough, gets harder as your pirate ages. This adds a very subtle and yet amazingly accurate touch to the gameplay. It essentially forces you to retire as you get older, because you slow down to the point that you can’t duel the other captains effectively.
The core of the storyline, which you may or may not follow, is to save your family. You need to accomplish certain tasks such as capture a Sloop of War or finding buried treasure to unlock the tasks of finding the relatives. I’m not sure what happens if you find them all. I understand that there is a big show down with the pirate who captured them all, but I haven’t made it there yet. I’m also not sure that I can beat him in a duel.
I have named myself the “Dread Pirate Quinn”. There is no actual rank of Dread Pirate, but it seemed fitting. I sink ships of all nationalities, including my own if need be.
The most unfortunate part of the game is that you need to keep up a certain rate of fortune building to keep your crew happy, or they start jumping ship when you port, or eventually even mutiny against you. When they mutiny they will steal one of the additional ships in your fleet. I guess I can’t really blame them for being greedy, I mean, they are pirates after all!
As I said though, this is unfortunate because it pulls you out of the immersion of the game. Part of it has to do with the passage of time. Time flies by at a pretty hectic pace. You seem to age about five years for every hour played (I may be off on that, as I really don’t know how much time has passed since I started playing).
I do wish they could hack some gamerpoints in for finishing the downloaded original Xbox games. Even just one achievement; say 200-500 points for finishing the old game. Alas, I guess I’ll just have to keep playing for the fun of it :)
19 Mar 2008
We went to see a concert a few weeks ago. Alanis Morrisette opened up for Matchbox 20. We happen to be fans of both. At least we were. I realized that I only liked Alanis’ Jagged Little Pill album.
Matchbox 20 put on a pretty good show. They played most of their faster paced songs and made an effort to get the fans up and dancing a few times. The video and light show was interesting as well. They were a little weak between songs though. There was a lot of dead air as they setup for the next song each time.
The true gem of the show was the opening opening act, Mute Math. The most adequate way I can describe Mute Math is by saying that they are more enjoyable to watch than to listen too. They really put on a wild show.
The drummer for Mute Math was unlike any other drummer I had ever seen. His style was clearly influenced by Animal from the muppets. Where most drummers use a lot of wrist and forearm power and movement to drum, this guy drummed with wide, energetic swings. He seemed to have almost limitless energy.
Initially when the started playing you would never expect to see the show turn into what it eventually does. They move a little and play enthusiastically, as any band starting out does; but then it just goes crazy.
The lead singer was running all over the stage, spring boarding over the piano, slamming himself into the keys making a perfect sound for the song. Over and over he just three himself into the keys on the piano, and it all sounded right.
After that things calmed down a bit until the end of the final song they played. At that point, the show went berserk. The drummer ran around drumming on everything in sight until his sticks broke, then he’d pull out another set and go drum on something else. At one point he stacked the drum on top of the piano, then climbed onto the drum and started clapping his hands. The place went nuts!
Then he hopped down and ran back to the drumset, dumped some water on the drums, and drummed away as the lights strobed. It was a fantastic effect. I’m not sure if their part of the show ended because they ran out of time, or because they had broken all of their instruments, either way; it was great!
As soon as their set ended, Holly ran out and bought the album :)
05 Mar 2008
I just got back from a great vacation. Okay, maybe it has actually been a few days, but I’ve been getting used to working again and having to sleep on an inflexible schedule.
The vacation was wonderful. 2200 km of driving. Cool elk sightings. Great gastronomic sampling at a good smattering of Tom Douglas restaurants. Any one who comes to visit us out here, we will treat you to a wonderful dinner at Dahlia Lounge.
We kicked it all of with a night in Seattle, which is exactly how we ended it. We love that city. The last morning we were there we were discussing, over doughnuts and octopus ,how we would buy the place across the street if we won the lottery.
On the first full day down in Oregon we headed to the Newport Seafood and Wine Festival. I ate something called a Crab Melt there. I thought it was going to be horrible, but it tasted so great that I convinced Holly to try them and ate a second one myself. Holly tried out several different wines. I stayed away from the wine, as to me, it all tastes something like I imagine filthy, smelly, rotting socks.
The rest of the days are a blur. We drove far north and south of where we were staying. We visited two cheese factories in Tillamook. One of them had a petting zoo filled with interesting animals. Holly and I talked each other into feeding the animals. While at one of the cheese places we discovered some very tasty sugar free jams!
We also swung by a smoker outlet facility and bought beef jerky in bulk. It was just as weird as it sounds; and just as good.
There was a day spent at the outlet mall shopping, shopping, shopping. I truly understand the meaning of the phrase “Shop until you drop” now. Somehow I think I ended up with more clothes than Holly. I’m still not sure how it happened.
Of course we also saw the aforementioned Elk. It was pretty cool to see a herd of elk lazing in the sun. On the drive back we drove up a very twisty 1 1/2 lane road into the mountains to find a closed campground at a lake. We decided to wander in to the lake and a have a look at the whole situation. It was a fun little adventure. Unfortunately, we were sharing that 1 1/2 lane road with several logging trucks…
One of the afternoons was spent on the beach. We had quite a time finding actual beach access though. It was nice to walk along the beach arm in arm.
We took a lot of pictures and some of them will make their way here. Others might find their way to Facebook.
I also finally got to go to a Fry’s. I know that might not sound like much to most, but it was a lot of fun for me being such a technophile. We even toyed with the idea of buying a new TV, but it wouldn’t fit in the car…
As wonderful as the trip was, it feels good to be home. I could stand not being back at work yet, but it is great to be back in my own bed.
05 Feb 2008
I have been known to have some crazy dreams. Dreams that are vivid, abstract, chaotic, senseless and all together captivating.
Snow flakes could be seen descending from the dark gray sky on the other side of the fogged window. Aven spread her fingers out and pushed her palm against the silky window’s surface. She lifted her hand and looked through the hand print left behind into the world outside.
“It’s been eleven years…” Aven turned to the source of the voice behind her. “Why now? What’s changed?”
Aven looked at the face before her. She studied its features closely. The last time she had seen this face it was only seventeen years old. She could see that the years since then had been hard. Deep inside of his eyes she could still see the same strength, determination and… hope. It had been so long since she had seen hope that Aven had nearly forgotten what it looked like.
“Everything” she whispered.
“Everything what?” Vilente shot back. He wasn’t in the mood for games. He couldn’t even believe he was here. Eleven years away from her and he came right back after hearing a single word. It was a word that he had never heard her say. Help.
“Everything” she said again, her voice stronger.
Vilente looked her over. Aven’s eyes were dark and cold. He could tell there was something just beneath the surface that she was holding back. “How can everything change?” he asked her.
She pulled up her left sleeve revealing a symbol. “I know you’re a part of the Revins” a hint of anger seeped into his voice as he remembered their parting. She had joined one of The Houses and it had ended their life together. He was destined to be an Observer, and Observers could never be part of a House.
Aven just nodded at him. She heard the anger in his voice and a nearly hidden undertone of sadness. She turned around and wrapped her fingers around the neck of her shirt. She pulled it down stretching it deliberately to reveal a second symbol.
She heard a quick intake of breath and turned around to see a look of shock on Vilente’s face. She looked him in the eyes again and said “I’m one of the 13th. That changes everything.”
Vilente reached out and wrapped Aven’s hand with is own. Without a look or even a single word passing between them; they started to run.
Houses:
1. Revin
2. Trion
3. Elem
4. Histri
5. Yonis
6. Meme
7. Brahm
8. Garvel
9. Cyrol
10. Lefra
11. Olus (Awl-us)
12. Daymn
13. Salva
We are The Observers. We watch. We document. We get the word out.
They are The Houses. There are twelve known houses, though legend tells of a 13th that once existed.