Archive for 'games' Category

2006.07.12

Zidane Speaks

At long last Zinédine Zidane speaks about the incident that caused him to be tossed out of the World Cup.

It is very offensive, very personal. It affects my mother, my sister. These are very hard words. So you hear it once and then you try to walk away, and I do walk away. Then he repeats that for a second time. And the third time, well, I’m a human being.

He also apologizes to the millions of children in the world who view him as a hero.

I don’t blame him. Especially after reading this article. In essence it says that every human has a limit, and past that limit we say, “No more.”

In every act of rebellion, the rebel feels heartbreak at the infringement of his rights. Zidane knew what would happen once his head crashed into Materazzi’s sternum. But he also felt the complete and spontaneous loyalty to certain aspects of himself. And this is what has given the ‘disgraced’ 34-year-old from Marseilles the sheen of the anti-hero.

You will always be one of my favorite anti-heroes, Zizou. I admire that when the moment came you chose to defend that core of yourself above love of soccer, love of country, or worry about image and reputation. Marco Materazzi got exactly what he deserved. Maybe he deserved more.

In the meantime I’m learning to appreciate the humor in France where they’ve already released a song called Coup de Boule (Headbutt) just in time for the warm summer months. If anyone translates the song please post them in the comments!

Viva Zizou!

2006.07.11

Zidane Headbutt Game

Too bad there’s not a way to play and not get a red card. A nice detail for this would be if Materazzi fell on the ground and cried. An even better adaption would be if it had all of the Italian players walking by and if Zidane headbutts them all he gets the World Cup!

2006.06.22

Very Disappointed

America will not move on in the World Cup. It was a hard game which saw a completely bad call against USA in the goal box that led to a penalty kick score against America. This, in my opinion, deflated the USA team.

Worse, the other team I really wanted to see advance lost. USA and Czech Republik will have to practice again for next time.

Suck.

2006.06.09

The 2006 World Cup Begins

Today begins the World Cup, a tournament of sports the likes of which might even be more popular than the Olympics in its appeal. Soccer (or football as it’s known everywhere else) is probably the single most popular sport on the planet. Unlike American baseball’s World Series (which is just the USA and Canada) this is a world event.

This year it’s being held in Germany. Last time around South Korea and Japan shared the honor. America made it into the first round and we play our first game on Monday, June 12th. I can’t wait, especially after seeing an exhibition game against Japan this past February. My only problem is we’re playing the Czech Republic, where I used to live and still love.

As the games progress we should get a group of people together and watch. I’m sure Mookee is up for it… Anyone else?

2006.02.21

Egyptian Rattle Screw: ERS

(This post originally appeared on my old website back in 2003. This past weekend we played a couple rounds up in Tahoe and I thought I’d repost the rules.)

Egyptian Rattle Screw is a fairly simple card game similar to War but with an actual element of chance. We often called the game Rat Fuck back in college because it was so easy to get destroyed by opponents with only a handful of cards. The pacing is fast. After the jump are the rules as we played. I had a great time playing ERS with gTodd and Nate, and whoever else was along at the time (often Fraggle, Joy and/or Zapski, and even my sister learned to play).

Read the rest of this entry…

2005.10.30

A Day of Killing Things

“Killing things” is a codeword Mookee and I use to indicate playing one of two games. Starcraft of Warcraft. We haven’t killed things in almost a year and a half, so today I asked and he agreed to kill things. Many things. Sometimes ourselves. Starcraft.

We’re obviously out of practice. We played a few games and the computer, playing the Protoss, whooped our butts. I think we’ll have to do this a bit more often though. Maybe make a day of it a month. It’s rather therapeutic!

2005.06.22

Playing Go at VIZ

So a few people at VIZ are interested in the game Go. I think this is partly because we’re putting out the books Hikaru no Go, which is about (extremely simplified) a boy named Hikaru who learns how to play the game. It’s a good read, and has caused something of a sensation in Japan.

So, with some anxiety and anticipation, I went to lunch with a woman named Courtney and we played a teaching game to refresh her on the rules and, frankly, to get my brain working into the game again. I haven’t played, not even on the computer, since Todd and I played a couple years ago. As more people get interested we might even have enough people for a tournament. Nice!

2005.03.02

Ann Plays Chess

This last weekend Ann and I went to the Albatross, a bar on San Pablo in Berkeley. The Albatross is known for having all kinds of board games that you can borrow and play while you’re hanging out and filling their coffers while filling your gullet with swill. Ann wanted to relearn how to play chess so we played a game to reacquaint her with the basic moves and strategies.

On Sunday we were at it again, this time at a cafe along Divisidero in San Francisco. This time I pulled out one of my boards. We played two games. Ann is quite good for a novice, and is picking up the game fast. I was kind of surprised at her interest; for some reason I seem to imagine only geeky guys like me wanting to play the game.

Then on Monday night we played again, and this time Ann won. Not exactly by skill or strategy, but win she did. It definitely caught me off guard. I guess I’m going to have to play a bit harder from here on…

Of course my ultimate goal is to convince her to play Go. I haven’t played another person at the game since Todd and I played online. I love the game but for whatever reason most people here in America don’t know the game, or at least aren’t very interested. I’m hoping that if Ann gets in to chess she’ll give Go a chance. I’m sure she’ll love it as much as I do.

2003.09.28

playing go

i’ve been playing go using the new version of goban which has a built in player now. i just got my butt kicked! hopefully this will help me improve as a player so todd and i can get into some rumbles when he’s out here next…

2003.08.20

begun 2002.02.01 finished 2002.02.18.

no handicap, todd plays first. played via email and instant message. Read the rest of this entry…