A Day in a Life #12,657: Fifty-two points in Agricola, finished with GTA (and videogames, for a bit), other doodads

BLOT: (23 Jan 2012 - 09:22:10 PM)

A Day in a Life #12,657: Fifty-two points in Agricola, finished with GTA (and videogames, for a bit), other doodads

Sarah and I played Agricola, tonight. It was a good game. My Minor Improvements and Occupations generally didn't mesh well but they overall lead to me getting grain and sheep early on and that took all the stress of getting food from the table. From that point on, I was able to plow and fence and expand just fine. Got 52 points total, which I think is my highest non-solo score (solo I think I once pulled 54, though I have only played solo twice). I usually score in the 40s but rarely break the five-oh. I am curious as to what maximum points might be, assuming that is calculable. I mean, the most you can get any of the categories (forget how many they are, something like 8 or 9 but I might be forgetting some) is 4. You get 3 for each family member. So many per room, per stable. This is all over 14 rooms generally while competing for resources and fighting off starvation. I'm sure someone has calculated or discussed this elsewhere. To GOOGLE!*

For those who have no idea what I am talking about, but feel intrigued, Sarah and I are always looking to get a couple more players in our sessions.

Also in gaming news, I finished GTA3, which I have been playing semi-regularly since, shoot, I don't know. Around the New Year. It has been fun. I have enjoyed it. I have also generally found that I am too old and cranky to take video games quite so relaxingly, and overall I think I prefer the kind of game—Minecraft, to lesser degrees games like Plants vs Zombies—where I can tune out with part of my brain and listen to podcasts, audiobooks, radioplays, or just think about things. Or alternately games in the RPG and Interactive Fiction categories where I can get really into it and enjoy the meatiness of the whole deal. In my big box of videogames that I would like to play, I have maybe a dozen left, including four or five replays. Outside of that, I think I'll just chill. My eyes don't seem to work quite as fast, my ability to pour more than about two hours of life into a game at a time is gone, and I have grown to much prefer board games and RPGs [which has always been effectively the case]. With that, I'm thinking of firing up a short run horror RPG based on FUDGE, followed by at least a little bit of Call of Cthulhu and then maybe a longer session using either GURPS or True20 for a fantasy background. Then well, a Seattle based Shadowrun campaign cannot be far behind.

What else? I think it was just this past Friday that Sarah and I watched Orgasm, Inc, which is about the way companies are pushing the idea that women are severely and medically lacking sexually [quoting a study that said that 43% of women have at least one sexual issue, though the issues were often things like "I am not always in the mood, I do not always enjoy sex as much as I think I should" and so probably happens to 43% of everyone and not just women]. Several drug companies have tried, and generally failed, to capitalize on this beyond sex-toys and sex-help guides. Often with drugs that increase testosterone or increase blood flow to male genitals, but the FDA is pretty cautious about approving one outright. Other treatments—remember, this is for something that might not actually be a pill-treatable problem as opposed to a combination of lack of proper romance, lack of mental fulfillment, issues connected to previous abuses, issues connected to body image, and/or a lack of energy—include expensive therapy sessions [which are booming despite being thousands per session] and even having a wire shoved into your spine so that micro-pulses increase the sensitivity of the nether regions. In most of the studies, the placebo was about equal because the tests look at the drugs in conjunction with things like showing women sexy images**, giving them alone time with themselves, or encouraging them to make space for romantic time and you know what? Those things are often enough to get some response. Ah well, welcome to the United States of Medical, right?

I think I can end there. I'm pretty sure I did something else this weekend through today [I did, but that was watching The Booth at the End, which I will talk about later], but I do not recall it. Tomorrow is open house at the library so if you are a student or in the area might be worth your time to stop by. I'll be at desk from 11-5, give or take, and actually be at the library doing some Javascript tinkering starting about 7:30. I'm not 100% when/where the open house will be but I'll probably tweet and/or blog about it first thing tomorrow once I find out.

Be good and have a better one...

* Oh well, not definite, but here are some players discussing high scores. Looks like 52 is pretty decent, though others are hitting the 60s and even 70s mark [I'll believe it when I achieve it, heh].

** People continue to range from shocked, to amazed, to even "betrayed" by the fact that women often respond just as well as men to porn, especially porn of certain types [and that type regularly depends on the woman in specific, just like with men].

Me in 2012

OTHER BLOTS THIS MONTH: January 2012