Mark Hamzy's weblog about boardgaming, discgolf, and pictures

The Big Flickr link via

The largest wooden brewing vessel built in America since before Prohibition link

Archaeboozeology link via

Your Looks and Your Inbox link via

Fuel cell battery charger link via

The Rings of the Earth link via

Space armchair link1 link2 via

World Series Time Lapse link via

LOL Firefly link1 link2 via

The Dijkstra-Zonneveld ALGOL 60 compiler for the Electrologica X1 (1964) link via

Scott Holden's Tauntaun Costume link via

How to make your own pumpkin pie spices link via

Hope is fading fast link via

16 Golden Retrievers Teach You About Atoms link via

Star Wars characters on Facebook link via

Customizable 3D branding iron link via

Lego Matrix link via

The making of Fantastic Mr. Fox link via

Industrial Thanksgiving link via

Excercise machine warning link via

Steampunk terrarium link via

Eigenharp link via

Laptop steering wheel desk link via

Picasso Superhero images link via

iPhone + SLR lens link via

Rotating kitchen art piece link via

100 days in Glacier National Park link via

When is the next total solar eclipse at my location? link via

Gamer mentality link via

The actual resolution of HD-DSLRs link1 link2 via

Images of Papua New Guinea link via

Right Place link via

It's a movie. You should do something. link via

It's like Twitter, only we'll charge people for it link via

How to Slice a Bagel into Two Linked Halves link via

Homebrew Kodachrome factory link via

Miles for nothing link via

Cooking with ratios soon to have iPhone app link via

Zombie outbreak simulator link via

Usefullness of finger in traffic link via

Christmas truck link via

Human time link1 link2 via

Leggo my Eggo link via

Iron Maiden's "The Number of the Beast" compressed 666 times link via

Lamborghini Ankonian link via

Photos of the year? link1 link2 link3 link4 via

Aliens cause global warming link via

Sorry I'm late link1 link2 via

Monks, with a vow of silence, sing Hallelujah chorus link via

Earth and Jupiter from Mars link via

Guitar Hero + Christmas Lights link via

Flying Spaghetti Monster treats link via

3D camera breaks world record with 158 lenses link via

Graham's Hierarchy of Disagreement link1 link2 via

Canon Rebel XT survives 3,000 foot fall link via

Desaturated Santa link via

Astrophotography and the sun link via

1665 photos taken with the Canon EOS 5D Mark II, was stitched together to create the world's largest photograph weighing in at 26 gigapixels link via

Tiny gingerbread house that perches on the rim of your mug link via

70-Minute Video Review of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace link via

Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel by The Franz Family link via

I couldn't really escape my reflection on some of the holes today. But it did make for an interesting picture...

We played at Old Settler's Park today. The ground was not wet enough to be muddy but it was was still damp enough for discs to stick in the ground.

With all of the trees being removed, it looks like they moved hole 7 slightly to the right. The new mandos make it much harder...

And the Christmas signs are back up at the park.

As well as the tiny river which Chapel's disc found.

Imperial

Wow, its been a while since I have played Imperial. And, what is surprising, is that three of the people at the game have never played it before! In my opinion, this is the best of the rondel games. You just have to get out of the mindset that your goal is to run a country and win the game.

I was a little worried with how everyone else would play the game. It is hard to bet on countries and then watch as they are mismanaged. But it seems that everyone caught on and did well. I was able to reinvest my money often enough to jump out in the lead. I definitely had the most stocks. But this is not always a good thing. You want a lot of shares in the winning country and the second-most shares in the second-place country. But I was a little too spread out and had shares in every country. I did make one mistake at the end in buying a share in Austria. I should have instead bought another share in England and get a better multiplier (2x versus 1x). Oh well. I still one handily though.

This is a picture, not taken, of three protesters taking a break, their signs warning of global warming laying forgotten on the ground beside them while they stand in a tiny circle, smoking...

Not one, but two different Austin Photographers meetups are scheduled for this weekend. One is on Saturday and one is on Sunday. How odd.

I started off in the Capitol Building. Which I have never been in before. So sad.

A few Christmas ornaments on a scraggly tree turn a little more interesting with a thin depth of field and Christmas lights bokeh.

There are these customized art sculptures of guitars around the streets of Austin. I played around with killing the background with my one 580EXII flash set on full manual power. I dialed the exposure down two more stops in post-production to almost kill boring urban background.

I also played around with a slow shutter speed (1/10 second) and dragging the camera downward. One neon light can turn into many...

It also works when you change the zoom as the picture is being taken...

We also played chicken with traffic while we took a picture of the Capitol building.

An urban mural turned more interesting with a picture of Frost Bank in the background.

The night was rather foggy out. Which was sad. What can you do? I still had a fun time though. And I also learned not to use the flash when taking a picture of something in the distance. The fog really reflected the light!

Hansa Teutonica

Big surprise, another game of Hansa Teutonica. This game was different from the start. On both sides of the "gain extra action" building, we placed different cubes. Which I think was a mistake. It takes two different attacks to finally be able to gain control of one of those roads. This is just too costly. If you only have to attack once, then it is not so bad. So no one was able to increase their actions that way in the beginning of the game (until someone finally moved away).

Wayne also was able to gain control of the top road in the game. This meant he was getting points whenever people were "popping" any of the three buildings to improve your abilities. I was behind and saw no way out of it. I needed to increase my color ability before I could place another person in the point building, but that would end the game since Wayne was too close to the game ending condition. Sigh. Still an interesting game though.

This is a picture, not taken, of signs along the interstate highway, brightly lit, for as bright as the dense foggy night will allow them, seemingly hovering in the air, as the fog obscures the posts, the effect is one of a constellation of advertising moons...

Smoked Ham, stuffing, sweet potatoes, and cranberry sauce are all Fall items to me. And I can't really name Spring, Summer, or Winter items either.

This is a picture, not taken, of a cat staring at me from my backyard porch, the said cat's first ever appearance was notable enough for me to race around for a camera, but, upon returning, the feline was nowhere to be found, and has now moved into the realms of ninja-cathood and will affect many future half-remembered dreams to come...

Before we could play games tonight, we had to displace the cat. But not before we took pictures of it...

Hansa Teutonica

This is the new hot game. It was discovered late during BGG (on the last day of the con). It is definitely my favorite new Essen game. Unfortunately, it is rather expensive because they had to air-ship it from Essen to BGG.con. This tacks on an extra $12 per game. And I didn't know about it then so I would have to pay an extra shipping charge to buy it now. So I will wait until the reprint...

I was able to win this game by creating a large network. Unfortunately, I did not have enough action points to end it immediately. So I set up an obvious game ending move and finished my turn. Jeff, ended the game before it got back around to me (which cost me like 12 points). But it didn't matter since no one was able to catch up to me.

I did notice that Jeff was trying to connect across the board. But I was able to stop him by taking a bottle-neck point. He should have built there first rather than from the other side...

Roll Through The Ages

We ended the night with a light game of Roll Through The Ages...

This is a picture, taken, of a pie's potential, before a taste is taken, all of its attributes tantalizingly dancing around, many scenarios battling for supremacy, the chance that it could fall short in flavor, texture, or taste, opposed to the possibility that it could make someone's day unexpectedly, all these and many more balanced precariously on a knife's edge as it plunges down towards cleaving the first slice...

We went to the Rivery for some disc golf today and noticed some great improvements at the course. Since the course was altered a couple of years ago and they didn't change the baskets around, the baskets have been misnumbered. They repainted the numbers recently.

They also fixed up some tee boxes.

Jon even did his part and carried out a discarded balloon.

Unfortunately, there has been some vandalism. Someone put shit on one of the baskets. Sigh.

This is a picture, not taken, while driving on a downward sloping interstate highway, of 3 vehicles traveling at a high rate of speed with their hazard blinkers on,weaving in and out of traffic,at the same time as others periodically changing lanes,making the highway field look like the red and yellow lights of a Christmas tree and the cars look like Pachinko balls bouncing back and forth as they fall towards Austin...

At BGG.con this year, there were some AWESOME, hand-painted crokinole boards! I normally hate finger-flicking dexterity games, but I would love to own the Dragon's Lair or Magicola board.

This is a picture, not taken, of a woman carrying around a small, black poodle like a football, nestled snugly in her arm, the dog looking around as people unknowingly jostled into it, more intent on shopping than the welfare of an innocent creature...