Sometime last week I found this logic game (mac only, sorry) via MetaFilter’s Projects page, and wow, it’s my new favorite timesink. It’s fantastic - the guy’s niece describes it as “a cross between Sudoku and those logic puzzles we do in school”, except it feels less like Sodoku and more like the logic puzzles to me, minus the story lines that went with them.
It’s not a polished release or anything (the designer is pretty upfront about that), but it seems to be relatively bug-free (sometimes when I try to get a hint it’s all “no, you can’t have one until you fix this square that’s already been completed correctly, dummy”). Really, for a free game, it’s completely awesome. If you have time to spare (or just like to pretend you do, like me), you should give it a try. Be careful, though, as I’m pretty sure it’s as addictive as crack.
iQ: A Puzzle of Deduction and Logic
Also, regarding my previous post: Annie lied. Stupid rain - it was back this morning like it was never gone.
Things I Can Do In The US That I Can’t Do In Taiwan:
- Run. Oh, sure, I can run here - I’ve actually gone running twice (woo! Two whole times!) in the six months we’ve been living in Taiwan. The first time it happened was the day before the first of my eleventy-billion colds showed up, and the second, uh, I don’t remember when that was. Between the astounding lack of time to call my own, perilous sidewalks (when there are any at all), and visibly grimy air, I’ve just completely given up on running here.
So, today was a touristy sort of day, but it was mostly good. Some pictures? Okay.
Well, okay, this one and the next one are from yesterday. This is Kato and Tony, looking all adorable and well-rested and not-overworked.
These uber-geeks are some weirdos we ran into while enjoying the two-for-one happy hour at The Outback just next door the the Ikea we went to. Hey, we picked up a new French press (I broke ours yesterday morning while doing dishes), cheese grater boxes (they’re boxes! with grater plates that fit on the top so you can grate directly into the bowl and then use/store it! they’re fantastic!), and some dish towels.
Aaaannndd, the time between starting this post and now has gotten too long (this happens when you blog around others and get distracted talking), so that’ll have to hold you for now.
Oh, and the game last night? Seth and Kato merged their holdings and totally whomped everyone. I held out for almost two hours, but in the end, I couldn’t hold my own against the behometh that was their monoply. Shed a tear for me, mmkay?
We’re playing Monopoly: The Here & Now Edition, and holy moly - it is by far the funnest game of monopoly I’ve ever played. Alcohol, hostile mergers, and massive amounts of wheeling and dealing have been involved so far.
Me? I own both utilities, all the red properties (undeveloped as yet), and both of the dark blues (with 2 apartments on each currently). We’ll see how it goes.
So, my throat hurts (on both sides now - yippee!), and I think maybe I’m getting still sick. Oh, right. This is the status quo. How could I have forgotten?
Stupid insane work schedule. Stupid rain all the ding dang time. Stupid air pollution.
I got to play my favorite game in class today. It’s a dumb one, really, but the students always enjoy it, and it’s easy.
It’s pictionary with language patterns in the questioning - you draw part of something (two time, since we’re learning Are they nouns? Yes (No), they are (not) nouns.) and they ask “Are they blah blah blah?” Nod or shake, and the whole class answers. Then you let then kids take turns drawing. Woo! So not-innovative! So easy to stand to the side and not have to think much! And yet, the class was pretty clearly enjoying themselves. Of course, they were having so much fun they forgot they were in English class, and the Chinese slipped in, but then again, it’s a very small class that I don’t teach regularly (actually, no NST is regularly scheduled for their class), and I think their usual teacher lets them get away with more than she probably should. Little buggers. The four who slipped up got double spelling words - 10x each instead of 5x. That’s usually a pretty harsh gig, but today they only had one stinking word - no. Not such an awful fate today, huh?
Pretty sure I’m not brain damaged from all the poison I inhaled today. We did make it back to work. Now I’m just sleep deprived, and still in the throes of culture shock. I thought the very idea of culture shock sounded crazy when they described it to us in our initial training here, but tonight I found myself getting misty-eyed over a not-particularly-well-written history of the Dreamcast. The Dreamcast! I mean, I have one at home, I’ve had a few actually, and I like it a lot. In fact, lately its nostalgia value has surpassed even the Saturn, which has been my absolute favorite console (don’t look at me like that, you have dirty secrets, too, and if you haven’t played Burning Rangers you have absolutely no room to judge) for a long time. But actually making me sad enough to have to deliberately *choose* not to cry? Yeah, I’m going to have to assume that’s not really my brain speaking to me anymore.
I have some new Sega CDs to try out later. Three games in a torrent of, I think 98, finished while I was sitting at work with nothing happening. Yay, Underground-Gamer! I can hardly wait to get home, fire up Gens, and have my mind blown by the coolest thing the early 90s had to offer. Man, I would have killed for this stuff in Junior High. Maybe not Snatcher, I didn’t even now about it then, but now it’s one of only a handful of Sega CDs that I think of as legitimately good. It was the first game that ever managed to keep me playing until sunrise, and that’s quite an accomplishment considering I was 23 at the time. Up to then I’d never been so captivated that I lost time to that degree. Unfortunately I never did finish it, after I fell asleep the moment was gone. I think I’ll have to do the whole game in one shot. I’ll dedicate a caffeine-heavy weekend to it someday.
Also, I recently acquired a number of TurboGrafx CDs, and oh-my-god-are-they-ever-bad. It Came From the Desert is pretty cool, largely due to the fact that it was camp to begin with, and camp doesn’t generally fade. Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective is like the Sega CD version, but with somehow magically worse video, and everything else was forgettable enough that I actually don’t remember them.* I’ll probably try them again later, either out of fairness, or self-loathing, or if I find a good way to capture the video from them** to put together a show, which is a post for another day.
*That’s not to say that NEC/TTI had a monopoly on bad CD games. I played Marky Mark: Make my Video, so I know from bad games. Heck, I’ve purchased Night Trap, Double Switch (twice, once on Sega CD, once on Saturn,) Ground Zero Texas, and Dragon’s Lair, possibly others as well that I’ve just blocked out. Oh yeah, also Sewer Shark. Maybe Space Ace too, I can’t recall.
**Without video and a capture card. I want to dump the video via emulator like I can with modified Gens, FCEU, SNES9X, etc.
PS, sorry for almost every link being from wikipedia, I’ll change that later if I think of it. I was in a hurry.