Molly and I didn’t hire a photographer for our wedding, instead we relied on friends and family to take photos and send us their snapshots. This is a collection of those photos from our November 7, 2008 ceremony and the November 8 reception. Special thanks to all of those who took photos and sent them in to us.
We’ll probably continue to update this album as we get more pictures.
Yesterday was my first day with HeroClix. Joe, Meeks and I went and picked up our first HeroClix characters. Joe went with a Fantastic Four starter kit and some booster packs, Meeks and I split a Marvel Brick and then each bought different booster packs.
The best part of HeroClix might be the opening of the booster packs. Meeks and I alternated which individual boxes we got inside the brick we split. I got pretty lucky with The Incredible Hulk, Daredevil and Colossus. Meeks was not so lucky, he ended up with guys like Kingpin.
The game itself is pretty complicated. We played three different games, each game we added a new layer of complexity. At first we just went with movement and attacks, then we added Range attacks and finally Abilities. Even with all of that, we still need to play again with Team Abilities added. Gameplay itself is kind of like an advanced version of what I used to do as a kid with Army men. Characters move and attack, but there are skills, attributes and scoring.
I won two of the three games, mainly because of The Incredible Hulk and Lightning Lord. Tombstone was probably Joe’s most valuable character and Black Panther was Meeks’ favorite. The average game, with learning the rules and everything, was probably about 45 minutes to an hour. I’m guessing it will be closer to 30 minutes once we understand all of the rules.
There are few things about HeroClix that makes it much better than Magic: The Gathering. All of the characters are from comic books, so a lot of them you are familiar with. They aren’t characters that are a universe that you only know because of the card (such as Magic). Secondly, you play each game with a cap. Each character has a point value assigned to them, so you build the best team you can underneath the cap. If I play a 200 point game and I want to use Hulk, he’ll take up 147 points. This keeps the game from becoming an arms race (such as Magic) where whoever spends the most money wins. Finally, these are small 1 inch figurines, so they are much more impressive than just a card.
Overall, it looks like a fun little hobby I’ll play once or twice a month. It also makes me even more interested in comic books.
As most everyone already knows, Circuit City is shutting down. All the stores will be liquidated and I’m guessing that by March, they will just be empty buildings. This closing isn’t really that surprising considering that Circuit City shut down a bunch of stores a few months ago. The fact that the two in Madison remained opened said a lot. I rarely saw anyone in those stores and they were deemed more profitable than the ones they ended up closing.
A few weeks ago I saw the headline in The Onion about Radioshack being unsure why they are still in business (“Even CEO Can’t Figure Out How RadioShack Still In Business“). I’m not sure what, if any, the effect of Circuit City has on Radio Shack. I’m sure Best Buy is happy and Radioshack is still somehow surviving.
More than anything else, I wonder about The 40 Year Old Virgin. That movie took place in SmartTech, a fictionalized version of Circuit City. I really can’t think of any other store, Big Box or otherwise, that has/had the layout that Circuit City does/did. I wonder if in 5 or 10 years, people will be confused about SmartTech in The 40 Year Old Virgin. Will they wonder why there aren’t any cash registers located in the front? Why is that woman checking out in the middle of the store? I think The 40 Year Old Virgin might be the biggest victim in this closing.
Dear Treyarch,
Why do you hate fun?
Recently, I received Call of Duty: World at War as a gift. While I enjoy the multiplayer, I wanted to give you some feedback on your Solo Campaign. Currently, I am only one level away from beating the game on Veteran. As you already know, Veteran is the hardest difficulty in the game. The reason I’m playing this game on Veteran is because of the Achievements and the fact that I beat Call of Duty 2 and Call of Duty: Modern Combat on this difficulty.
Anyways, I wanted to inform you at how much fun I’m not having playing thru this game. Even though it would only take 6 or so hours to beat this game on Normal, I’m spending over an hour on each level (there are 15 levels) with the difficulty on Veteran.
It’s not like Veteran is tougher because it’s a challenge in skill and strategy. That’s not the case at all. Instead, the enemies endlessly spawn and the friendly AI becomes more inept. Still, that’s not what I’m most irritated about. I’m tired and frustrated with the constant grenade spamming. I cannot stand in one spot for more than three seconds without multiple grenade indicators showing up all around me.
Instead, the only thing Veteran on COD: WaW challenges me on is my patience. Each level I bob and weave around my teammates until I can avoid the grenades long enough (or some random headshot) to get my mongo teammates to move up. See, once they move up, I might get lucky enough to get a checkpoint. The keyword is might. Often, I’ll have an objective such as “Destroy Four Flak88 Guns” and I’ll destroy one of them and not receive a Checkpoint. Apparently, only destroying two of them should result in a checkpoint. If you are going to design a game that is based so much on blind luck in staying alive, please increase the number of checkpoints.
So far, the worst offenders of the above are in the following levels:
If taking out the first Mortar crew wasn’t hard enough, taking out the final one is pretty much impossible. Not only do I have to avoid a Kamikaze attack that the rest of my clownshoe teammates ignore, but I have to somehow clear a cave with multiple enemies inside plus a bunch of people sniping me from outside the cave. All without a checkpoint. If I get past this part, I still need to leave the cave and clear out the last Mortar crew.
The very beginning of this level took me numerous attempts. You start off having to cross a river while the enemies are shooting you from all sides. Since your teammates aren’t of any help, the only way to get thru this is to throw two or three smoke grenades and sprint thru. Hopefully, you’ll get lucky enough to advance far enough to get a checkpoint. Once again, this isn’t skill. This is literally blind luck.
This is the level I just spent over two hours playing. First off, it’s incredibly linear. There aren’t any choices you get to make as a player. Instead, you follow thru a bunch of chokepoints with grenade spamming. Well, atleast you have some Russian Tanks to help you out. Well, with the exception that they won’t move forward unless you do. Oh, and if you try to move in front of them (when they currently aren’t moving), this will trigger them to move forward and run you over.
After you finally take out all four flak88 guns, you still have to encounter a stream of enemies that never stop respawning. The only way to do this is move forward enough to trigger the advance of your teammates. If you are lucky, they’ll eventually advance enough to trigger a cut scene (and sometimes a checkpoint!).
I’m one level away from beating this game. I don’t even think it’s an accomplishment. It will just end up being a 15 hour march of futility. So, I have some advice for Treyarch. Next time, try to remember that Video Games should be fun. I’m all up for some challenge, but make sure it is a challenge that requires skill and still maintains the enjoyment for the player. Call of Duty: World at War, on Veteran, is easily the most frustrating and least fun single player campaign I’ve ever played.
Tonight, Molly made some Swedish Meatballs and Mashed Potatoes. Swedish Meatballs is a dish that my Mother and Aunt used to make that Molly and I both enjoyed. I think the result tonight was the best I’ve ever had. So, I’ve decided to post her recipe on here for those interested.
INGREDIENTS
1 2/3 cups evaporated milk
2/3 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup fine dry bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon salt
Dash pepper
1 pound ground round
2 teaspoons butter
2 beef bouillon cubes
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup cold water
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup evaporated milk
1 tablespoon lemon juiceDIRECTIONS
Combine 2/3 cup evaporated milk, onion, crumbs, salt and pepper. Add meat; mix well, chill. Shape meat mixture into 1-in. balls. In large skillet, brown meatballs in butter. Dissolve bouillon cubes in boiling water; pour over meatballs and bring to boil over medium heat. Cover; simmer for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, blend together cold water and flour. Remove meatballs from skillet, skim fat from pan juices and reserve juices. Stir 1 cup evaporated milk and flour/water mixture into pan juices in skillet; cook, uncovered, over low heat, stirring until sauce thickens. Return meatballs to skillet. Stir in lemon juice.
Source: All Recipes
She combined that with some homemade mashed potatoes.
Ingredients
6 Medium potatoes
2 tablespoon butter/margrine
1/3 Cup Milk
Parsley to tasteDirections
Wash and peel potatoes, cut into inch cubes. In large pot, cover potatoes with cold water. Heat on stove over high heat until boiling, reduce heat to medium-high. Gently boil potatoes until tender and strain excess water. Mash potatoes with an electric mixer on low speed, add butter and milk. Sprinkle with parsley and serve warm.
Mashed Potatoes covered with Swedish Meatballs and gravy = tasty treat.
