| 30 minutes or less (working title) |
[Jul. 21st, 2008|11:02 am] |
30 minutes or less (working title)
i finished creating a board game where up to four people can actually play it from start to finish! gina and i have played twice already and have made a handful of changes to the rules, but i'm anxious to get more people to play it and let me know what they think.
the premise of the game is to deliver pizzas to earn money. you can use the money to buy more ingredients or items (cards) that give you special abilities (i.e. you gotta spend money to make money). one part resource management and one part cleverly moving around and changing the board to block the other players from getting where they need to go. i'll try to post some pictures later.
not having cable television... or any television whatsoever has made me realize how often i depended on it in the past to relieve summer boredom. i long for it badly. i've been enjoying a lot of great books this summer, but reading is difficult when 1) your child is running around the house with kitchen utensils and 2) your wife wants to do something even though she and you have no idea what to do except that you'd like to read your book but then you feel guilty about it because it's not like you're reading it out loud so and you can't leave the house because the baby is asleep and it's 100 degrees outside anyway and your about flat broke too AND there's no way you're going to play mancalla again because it's not like you ever win even though you think you always will because it's such a simple game but she won't play starship catan because it takes too long.
oh well, our tax refund should FINALLLLLLY be here in a week or so, and i start a "real job" on august first i.e. the job i went to school for six years for. i can feel the sun's warm rays from out over the horizon. i can even see them too. one of them looks like cable!
there are lots of things on gina's and my "wish list", but it's all stuff we want. not things we need, so we're waiting as patiently as we can.
the top three items on my wish list are:
1) beefeater dry gin
2) cable television
3) a weed eater
what the heck did i read this summer anyway?
pascali's island by barry unsworth
the siren of titan by kurt vonnegut
life of pi by yann martel
peace by richard bausch
halfway through stranger in a strange land - robert heinlein
next is foundation and empire by isaac asimov
to close the entry i'd like to say that final fight for the SNES is the cheapest game ever, and i'm glad i have streets of rage II which is a complete ripoff except for the ridiculously frustrating and cheap gameplay. |
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[May. 28th, 2008|03:03 pm] |
live from alaska
cool things we've done while in alaska:
climbed flat top mountain - this is the most climbed mountain in alaska at only 3,200 feet and it's pretty much IN anchorage. we just went in tennis shoes and were thinking we might not go all the way to the top since it still had quite a bit of snow on it... but we did anyway! i'll post some pictures we took at the top and getting to the top, but it was pretty easy to get there. getting down was not easy and was kind of scary. ice + rocks + absolutely no clothes/shoes designed to be walking/climbing on ice and rocks + being on a small mountain = lame brain idea. i felt really sick watching gina come down after me. my brother helped her get over the tough spots.
went fishing out of seward, alaska - this was a guys only trip. got up at 3:00 a.m., arrived in seward around 6:00, left the dock at 6:45, got some fuel for the boat, took a 2 1/2 hour trip that had a non-stop absolutely gorgeous view of the mountains where we saw mountain goats, puffins, lots of gulls, humpback whales (from a distance; mostly the tips of their backs and the plumes of mist they blew out), porpoise, eagles, and sea lions, fished for (not kidding) about 7 hours non-stop, caught 90+ halibut between four people, i hooked and brought in a skate and a lingcod which we just took pictures of and threw back. we kept the 8 biggest halibut and gave 2 to the captain, john, who at one point in the day radioed his friend, fishing a few hundred yards from us, to grab his binocular and check out this giant "butt" (short for halibut) we caught. of course, the deck hand, ben, mooned him. the average weight was a little under 20 pounds a fish. each person is only allowed to keep 2 so we just kept catching them and throwing them back in hopes of catching a giant one. a boat came in behind us with one that weighed 109 pounds. supposedly, the 15 - 20 pound range makes for the best eating, but i read that the record weigh is around 700 pounds. my arms are sore.
we have also had a wonderful time hanging out together. my brother and sisters are all here together with our boys (between the ages of 6 months and almost 3 years). the house has been kind of crazy at times, but it's great to be together.
while we were fishing the girls took the kids to the anchorage zoo where they took a lot of cool pictures of black, brown, and polar bears and a porcupine!
there has also been a lot of sunlight. sun rise is about 4:30 a.m. and there's still sun light till after midnight.
and one of the greatest things i've seen on the trip is the shooting range in lon's house. lon is my mom's new husband. there is an old WWII bunker that's under his neighbor's house, but the tunnel to it starts under his. so, whoever lived there before him rigged up a pulley system so that you can clip your target on and reel it back and forth. it's very cool, but they're selling the house.
our children (elliot, jacob and sam) have been having a wonderful time throwing everything within reach over the baby gate and down the stairs. |
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[Apr. 14th, 2008|04:27 pm] |
1st entry of 2008
if you stopped and wondered to yourself, "i wonder what andrew pierce is up to." i'm sure you'd go with the obvious, probably finishing up the school thing, being married and hanging out with his kid, and playing some video games every now and then, well my friends, you'd be right on the mark.
internship is almost up, and i'll be graduating with my masters of speech and language pathology. i'll probably be working right here in natchez or across the river in concordia parish schools. i've already been offered some jobs! the move to alaska is on hold for now. gina and i still want to move up there, but it cost a hella lot of money to move there and last time i checked, gina and i have nearly the exact opposite of "hella lot" when it comes to money in banks and/or wallets.
one time i remember asking paul triche why he always kept weapons and items he got from easy battles in tales of phantasia (which ever one was on playstation) and he told me, "cause it's money in da bank." i wish i could kill mutant flowers and sell the buster swords i got to the local weapon shop.
gina is about to finish up nursing school this semester too. my/our first *big* purchase is going to be a new mattress. the one we have now gives me back aches every single day. i also want to get a nintendo ds lite. this isn't a very big purchase, but maybe i'll get a few games with it. has anyone played mystery dungeon: shiren the wanderer? i'd like to try that out.
found out that sam, who is a year old now, is allergic to penicillin. he has a not-cool rash all over his body right now, but it doesn't seem like it's bothering him at all. sam is a pretty cool dude even though he tries to put everything in MY mouth. gina and i also taught him that throwing things can be lot of fun.
i have off the whole week because concordia parish (where i'm doing the second half of my internship) is on spring break. i'm working on another board game, started playing phantasy star IV, and will probably visit a few of the local parks to look for birds that have arrived with the spring. i never got the chance to play my first board game with another person (a sort of abstract strategy version of rock, paper, scissors with build-able terrain) so it's probably still really unbalanced. i hope to have a lot of the basic design elements and a workable board and pieces together before i go home (WESTWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEGO) on friday. if you feel like coming over friday or saturday night to possibly drink beer and help design a game, consider yourself more than welcome. seriously.
the game so far, in case you're thinking that you like beer, but aren't too sure about this whole game thing is:
you've got your own corner of the board with a neutral "river" dividing the four quadrants. you've got a hero dude, a monster, and a number of small monsters. you place in your quadrant an inn and a magic, weapon and item shop. uhh so... you basically want to be the first guy to kill the other three monsters which become stronger by having the little monsters steal from the opponents shops'. prices at inns and shops are determined the by the relative distance of that player's monster to his/her shops. far away = high prices. near by = low prices. get money by having your hero kill other players' small monsters as they're carrying items back to their big monster. this may not make a lot of sense, but there's still a lot to work out. the idea is to have rpg elements (hp, leveling up, etc.) but to keep all of that very basic while having a variety of ways to play the game via the different ways you control prices, level up your monster and hero, move around the small monsters, etc. maybe i'll make another post about it before then once i work out a few more details... or at least better organize the ones i already have.
time to pick up the s.s. pierce from day care.
i'm serious about the beer/beverage of your choice including but not limited to carbonated beverages, coffee, tea (hot and cold), liquor, water, milk, a variety of juices and helping on the board game or playing some other one that already works pretty good. |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 7th, 2007|12:57 pm] |
tomorrow i'm leaving [the campus of] ULM. so many memories. cry cry cry except not really since i'll be moving in with my wife and son and not 3 other dudes who never wash dishes or take out the trash. i won't have cable or internet access at the house though. that's ok with me because maybe i'll finally play all of these unfinished videogames and read all these books i've been collecting over the last few years.
games to play include:
ocarina of time on the gamecube (thank you jon carlos for giving me this game because you DESTROYED WITH HATE my copy of alundra which is an awesome awesome game that i wouldn't be able to play anyway since i haven't owned a playstation in years!)
the thing for xbox (direct sequel to the awesome movie)
half life 2 for xbox (i got this because it was only 9.99 new and supposed to be very awesome, but FPS games still make me a little motion sick after about 30 min!)
jeanne d'arc for psp (FF tactics meets a fantasy version of joan of arc complete with lizard dudes!)
mass effect on xbox 360 (this is the one i'm currently playing!)
psychonauts on pc (i'm right at the end anyway!)
viewtiful joe 2 on gamecube (my dad got me this game a few years ago for christmas!)
one day maybe i will have enough skills to beat comic zone for sega genesis. IT'S SO HARD!
also, i hope to convice some of gina's guy friends to come over and play risk 2210 which i feel confident in saying is my favorite board game ever. for christmas, i'm asking my mum to order me a copy of through the desert (like go except with up to 4 people and very hip pastel colored camels). about two or three weeks ago, there was a day where you could download carcassone for free on xbox live arcade. i've been meaning to play it as i hear it's a good game, but i haven't gotten around to it yet.
so if you just skipped to the bottom of this post here's what you need to take away: if you can, you should play alundra for playstation and risk 2210 for uhh... your kitchen table. |
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| (no subject) |
[Nov. 20th, 2007|11:57 am] |
so i just got in to natchez for the holidays and i'm waiting at the coffee place while gina finishes up classes for the day.
driving up the street to the coffee place, i accidentally ran a red light cause i was looking up the street and not really paying attention. oops. pulled up the coffee place and there's this dude walking up to my truck and it looks like he has something to say, and he's just some dude in his 50's or 60's and it's not like he can write me a ticket, but i assume he saw me run the light and he's going to say something to me about it. so i open the door to my truck and here's roughly the conversation we have:
dude - "having a hard time finding a dentist in this town."
me - "uh... excuse me? a dentist?"
dude - "yeah. having a really tough time finding a dentist office around here."
me - "oh a dentist. umm..."
dude - "know any good dentists?"
me - "no. sorry, i'm not really from this town." |
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[Nov. 19th, 2007|09:08 am] |
ever since i got my binoculars and put my eyeballs up to it, one of the birds i had really wanted to see was a SNIPE! this is because i always thought it was made up since young boys will tell other young boys that they're going "snipe hunting" and of course it's all in good fun because there aren't actually supposed to be any snipes since they're made up... or i dunno, but that was always my take on it. WELL there really is a snipe in a grassy wetland near you! more specifically, a wilson's snipe.
anyway, gina and i saw one at jeanne laffitte national park last weekened. we were actually only a few feet away and didn't need the binocular.
not too long ago i saw a belted kingfisher!
a nerdy, but new and fun hobby. |
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[Nov. 17th, 2007|04:45 pm] |
ULM 21 - Alabama 14
ULM 21 - Alabama 14
ULM 21 - Alabama 14
ULM 21 - Alabama 14
ULM 21 - Alabama 14
ULM 21 - Alabama 14
ULM 21 - Alabama 14
ULM 21 - Alabama 14
ULM 21 - Alabama 14
ULM 21 - Alabama 14
ULM 21 - Alabama 14
ULM 21 - Alabama 14
ULM 21 - Alabama 14 |
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[Oct. 31st, 2007|10:27 pm] |
man, freaking KING DEDEDE is in smash bros. brawl!
i bought a gamecube because i really wanted to play/own super smash bros. melee and the same is coming true for super smash bros. brawl and the wii. there aren't really any other wii games that i want or am really all that interested in, but this title alone really makes me want to own the system.
here are the official characters - http://www.smashbros.com/en_us/characters/index.html
ok i'll try not to talk about this game anymore. |
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| (no subject) |
[Oct. 16th, 2007|10:28 pm] |
the other day i saw five different kinds of woodpeckers on campus (not where all the buildings are but in this wooded area called the grove)
1 - yellow-bellied sap sucker
2 - red-headed
3 - red-bellied
4 - downy
5 - yellow-shafted flicker
and about two weeks ago i saw an endangered red-cockaded woodpecker at this wildlife refuge north of monroe.
hooray! |
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[Oct. 16th, 2007|12:42 pm] |
hey capcom is working on a new bionic commando.
we used to have this game for NES, but i never got very far cause it was a lot harder than most of the games we had.
i wonder how my parents used to decide which games they would buy us for NES (and later sega genesis). we had some really cool games like bionic commando, zelda, adventure island... and i could play and play and play those games, but i've never actually beaten any of them.
one day my mom randomly bought sonic 3 for us, and i thought she was so cool (and still do).
so anyway, i should (AND WILL!) beat bionic commando for NES.
oh there was also this one time where i went to europe and borrowed leigh's gameboy color to play the gameboy version of bionic commando. i remember getting a little car sick from looking at the tiny screen while riding the tour bus. i wish i had known leigh better on that trip because i would have invited him to ride the BRITISH AIRWAYS LONDON EYE which, by the way, wasn't going to sell any more tickets the day we were there, but my cool sonic 3 buying mom, begged the dude to sell us two tickets and he eventually did.
i was briefly in love with the tour guide from st. malo who would always say "can you imagine" before letting us in on a little st. malo history like when the british shot cannons at the city walls, but the only thing that happened was a cat fell off a roof and died, and so that battle was given some french name about how the sissy british shot all those cannon balls and only killed one cat. |
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[Oct. 12th, 2007|08:44 pm] |
so i don't know if anyone cares anymore, but man if i was back in time and in high school and this game was coming out, i'm sure we'd talk about it a lot at lunch.
sonic is definitely in the new smash bros game. also, i'm happy to see the return of THE ICE CLIMBERS IN YOUR FACE, and i'm equally happy to know that diddy kong is going to be in the game, too.
squirtle, bulbasaur, and charizard will be playable through the pokemon trainer character. pikachu is still is own pokemon and answers to no master.
there's a new crazy kid from earth bound, lucas, but ness is gone. marth and roy are gone, but ike (who looks just like marth) is in.
i don't know if samurai goro and a hammer bro are offical characters, but i've seen lots of screen shots of them mixing it up with other characters.
but man, sonic is going to be in a fighting game against MARIO. crazy times. i think there is supposed to be one more non-nintendo character to join sonic and solid snake. maybe it will be someone from final fantasy since it seems like nintendo and square-enix are buddy buddy again.
i don't even own or plan to own a nintendo wii, but i'm really excited about this game. one day we should all get visitor passes to HHS and go eat lunch and talk about smash bros and adult swim. |
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[Sep. 11th, 2007|09:48 pm] |
not long into the song you just expect the guitar to catch fire
hooray october 15th |
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[Sep. 10th, 2007|08:22 pm] |
if i were an final fantasy tactics character, i would receive productivity +20 for being equipped with a personal office.
i don't think i have more or harder work this semester... just less time to do it in with more pressure.
no worries though, once i level up a little more, i'll be able to equip an M.A. and cast REAL JOB |
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[Sep. 7th, 2007|10:34 am] |
the guy who played here last night, paddy keenan, was a member of the bothy band. they were very influential in irish music in the 1970's.
here's a much better video of him playing with the bothy band. uhh... it's around 30 years old though. still good!
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[Sep. 6th, 2007|10:33 pm] |
paddy keenan, irish uilleann pipe player, played on campus tonight as part of the guest artist series.
the guest artist series is probably my favorite thing about going to ulm. amazing musicians from around the world and it's free for students!
and do you know who is coming [back] in october!? TOMMY EMMANUEL! i'm reserving tickets tomorrow. |
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[Sep. 4th, 2007|06:11 pm] |
september 4th 2007 is a day where two random things happened to me.
one was awesome.
one was about as unawesome as it gets without being a major life crisis.
awesome - today i went to get some peanut butter crackers out of the snack machine. they were fifty cents, so i dug in my school bag and pulled out two quarters. put the first one in and it fell right through into the change return. put the second one in and it too fell right through to the change return... followed by 40 more quarters AND i put two more back in and got my peanut butter crackers. i dunno what happened, but quarters just kept falling into the change return. peanut butter crackers + ten bucks = very awesome.
unawesome - a little earlier this evening i went to the cafeteria to get some dinner before doing homework (and writing this post). my salad, meatloaf, and macaroni were all alright, but the squash was pretty lousy. anyway, i decided to get a slice of yellow cake with chocolate icing and sprinkles. it was pretty good, and i only had one or two bites left when i feel something in my mouth that was not:
a - yellow cake
b - chocolate frosting
c - sprinkles although at first i thought it was a sprinkle
no. it was a fake finger nail. i kinda panicked and gagged a little. i didn't tell anyone at the cafeteria about it because i'm sure there wouldn't be anything they would have done about it, and at that point, i was ready to go.
true stories.
now it's time to do some work so i don't feel guilty about staying up late playing jeanne d'arc for psp. if you own a psp and you liked final fantasy tactics, i highly recommend this game. |
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