Jenn vs. Kevin

J3nny Benny: 3400
Germoid: 3955

Boo-urns.

Name Game

Over the last couple days, I have written a personal greeting at the top of 357 letters. These letters are going to schools all over the province, and it was agreed in the office that it was important to personalize them whenever possible (357 are personalized, 445 remain generic). The one thing that made it interesting is seeing how common certain names are.

Among female elementary school staff, the most common names were:

1. Carol
2. Barbara
3. Marilyn
4. Rita

And among male elementary school staff:

1. Scott
2. Mike
3. Doug(las)
4. Brian/Bryan

Jenn vs Kevin

According to my XBox's blog, I have gamed 11 days in a row. My achievements aren't going to achieve themselves and I can't beat Kevin if I don't keep at it. Thanks to Fallout 3, Halo 3, Lego Indy, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, and most especially Monopoly, I have managed to not fall too far behind Kevin. Current scores:

J3nny B3nny: 3400
Germoid: 3450

I fear my planned coup d'état won't have the impact I want it to. I'm afraid that it's going to take so long to achieve it that Kevin will have built up his score so much that I will merely be pacing him.

Papercut season

I just spent $567 on 1000 postage stamps and $35 on 1000 envelopes. I have five boxes of brochures stacked in the middle of my office. The GM wants all of the generic promo letters signed by hand and personalized when possible.

It's that mailout time of year.

Take a ride on the Reading!

While I like them as a concept, I don't care for many board or card games because I'm traditionally not very good at them. While it's not supposed to be about winning, it's supposed to be about fun, it's not very fun to go into something where I feel like I don't stand a chance. I like simple games likes Sorry, Uno, snakes and ladders. Games with no strategy to them. I really hated Settlers of Catan, though I feel I gave it a very fair chance. Monopoly is another one I hate. Monopoly and I go way back. It was one of the few board games we played in my family, along with Battleship and Scrabble. There's just something about Monopoly that brings out the worst in people.

Recently I've been playing Monopoly with Brody, and I don't mind it. We're not at the stage of making deals and trading properties. That's the element I don't like. There are some matters in which I'm not very smart, and the wheeling and dealing of property trading is one of them. I'm also very poor at doing quick math in my head. In the past I've always just been taken advantage of which is what soured me on the game. But playing with a six year old who really takes the game at face value isn't bad at all. We just roll the dice, buy or pass, pay rent, and keep going around the board until bedtime.

Although I've hated Monopoly with real people, I have conversely always enjoyed it electronically. I used to have a PC version of it that I got out of a box of cereal (prizes sure have changed since I was a kid), along with The Game of Life. I like playing against the computer because I never feel dumb. The computer doesn't judge me when I make an unwise decision. I also expect computers to have the advantage, so I don't feel bad when I lose and I'm a little extra chuffed when I win. I was asking David if they make Monopoly for the DS or PSP that I could maybe play on the bus. He didn't think so, but did find Monopoly for the XBox 360 for $20 at London Drugs.

We were up until 1:30 in the morning playing Monopoly. I was bankrupted early and the computer player was a filthy cheater, but overall I enjoyed it. I also really enjoyed the 150 gamerpoints I got in one sitting.

Ennui de tricotage

After the disappointment of having to frog my sock, I haven't touched any knitting. It was a week ago that I unravelled my cuff to make it back into a ball of yarn. I really thought I would cast on a newer, smaller version of the sock again right away, but it's been a week and there's nothing. I have three projects on the needles I could work on, but nope. I have not knit a stitch in a week. I know it's not over between me and yarn forever, but I may start a crochet project while on the rebound before casting on another sock.

Fallout 3 Update

Fallout 3 is so good. I'm regretting that I don't have more time to play. The lack of progress is starting to get frustrating. It just happened in the course of the game that I'm playing a character with very good karma, which means that some bad people don't like me and have put a bounty on my head. Whenever I fast travel to a subway station, there are three or four mercenaries waiting there to kill me. Only once was I able to prepare myself and get in a sneak attack. All of the other times they got the drop on me and I nearly didn't make it out alive.

I'm getting a healthy amount of experience from killing them, but after each encounter I have to go back to my house to unload the equipment I looted from them and sleep to heal my injuries. In about 30 minutes of playing I didn't manage to make any progress at all to side quests or the main storyline because of the mercenaries. I know they're going to keep coming, but with the increased experience (and one really good new weapon) it will get easier to deal with them.

I wish I could call in sick and play Fallout all day.