This game is very soothing, almost Zen-like, and addictive, at least to me - you can create walls and waterfalls and fires and plants and stuff and control falling sand. Stephi thought it was boring...guess that goes to show once again that I am a strange individual. ;)

Falling Sand Game

Joshua

PICT8667
Originally uploaded by davidgoering.

This is a picture my brother David took of Joshua - it's definitely the best picture we have of him.

C'mon - isn't he the cutest baby of all time? Admit it! :)

Google has just dealt a death blow to a gazillion web hosting companies by offering 100MB free web space to anyone with a GMail account.

It's frickin' easy to use and it's free as in beer and as in no ads.

Check out what I did in 27 seconds, which included picking a style and a layout: Right here.

Now you have NO excuse for not getting a GMail account.

Yikes, it's been a while since I posted. Sorry about that, things have been pretty busy. Here are a few random thoughts for the 40 minutes I have left in my lunch break:

Stephi and I have been playing "War of the Ring" lately, a really awesome strategy board game based on (*gasp*) the Lord of the Rings.
The board is huge - about 2 times the size of a "big" game board like, say, Settlers.
It takes a long time to learn completely. And I do mean long - the first learning of the rules by ourselves with noone to teach us took us roughly 1 1/2 hours, and that was before either one of us made a first move. But now that we're getting better at it after about 5 games (3 hrs. each), it's really fun and challenging.
It really gives you the feeling you're re-writing the books. Last night, Stephi and I played a game that went about like this (Stephi played the Shadow, I played the Free Peoples - see here for a map):

The fellowship of the Ring left Rivendell as quickly as possible, making for the High Pass through the mountains. Gimli left the fellowship with Boromir to go and rally a dwarven army from Erebor in the north if possible.
Meanwhile, the Shadow reinforced their troops in the Southern Lands and made a surprise attack by sea, quickly taking Dol Amroth, southwest of Minas Tirith. This shocked Gondor enough to go to war, and within the next weeks, they began building a formidable army in Minas Tirith.

At this point, the fellowship were toiling their way south through the mountains towards Dimrill Dale and then Lorien. Being discovered by the Eye for a short while did not help their progress. Frodo, however, was fortunate enough to stay as of yet uncorrupted by the Ring.

The Shadow army, now making its way towards Minas Tirith, and the Gondor army, trying to free Dol Amroth again, clashed in Pelargir by the river - fortunately for Gondor, their leadership proved strong, striking the Shadow into a retreat across the river after taking many casualties.

Yet another Shadow arose - Saruman the Colorful was breeding an army near Isengard, threatening Rohan. Moria's creatures of darkness were growing as well, threatening to storm Lorien.

The fellowship did not have much time. After a quick stay in Lorien to refresh themselves, they moved on further south along the river. It was now that Strider and Legolas left the fellowship - speeding ahead to Minas Tirith, where Strider was quickly crowned as King Aragorn.

But Gondor's army, still in Pelargir, had underestimated the speed of Mordor's army. Down from the Dark Lands they sped, led by 4 Nazgul, causing Aragorn, Legolas, and only a few meager troops to barricade themselves in Minas Tirith, hoping that the reinforcements would not come too late.

They came too late. Aragorn and Legolas were killed by the Dark Army, and Minas Tirith burned to the ground. The Gondor army arrived, scattering the Shadow, but the damage was done - and with Isengard now threatening Helm's Deep, and Moria threatening Lorien, the fellowship (now consisting of Frodo, Sam, Gandalf, Merry, and Pippin) desperately needed to make haste before all was too late. They crossed the river and made their way through the "razor-sharp rocks" of Emyn Muil, when Gandalf had to valiantly sacrifice himself in order to save the group.

Grief-stricken, the four hobbits made their way to the foot of Mount Doom. Time was running out - if the Shadow could take two more fortresses, all would be lost. The dwarven army, led by Gimli and Boromir, raced from their fortress of Erebor to save Lorien. As the hobbits made their way up Mount Doom, first Merry, then Pippin were killed by orcs, while protecting the Fellowship. Meanwhile, the Shadow conquered Lorien before the dwarves could get there, razing its forests, killing its inhabitants. Helm's Deep however, was still holding strong, thanks to the help of the Ents and Gandalf the White, who had returned in Fangorn forest.

But then, with the hobbits only a few hundred feet away from the entrance to the lava pits of Mount Doom, the Shadow made its final deadly move - the dwarves had left Erebor unguarded and had overlooked a small army of orcs which quickly entered the fortress of Erebor, taking it for the Shadow.

No longer worried by any military threat, Sauron placed his full gaze on Frodo and Sam, immobilizing them. Sending his Nazgul, he reclaimed the ring, and cast the land into a Second Darkness.

Sad, eh? What was really a bummer was that I had overlooked Erebor - otherwise I would have won.

Anyways, for all those still with me (wake up...), it's a fun game.
And my lunch break is now over. :-P

This article sums up my thoughts very nicely on the Super Bowl referee fiasco - he recounts 7 specific major mis-calls, which all "happened" to be bad for Seattle:

Blogcritics.org: Refs Continue to Disappoint in Steelers' Super Bowl Win

For those of you who didn't see the Super Bowl...uh...too bad. :P

This isn't just awesome, this is hawesome:

cbs2chicago.com: Bull Jumps Into Stands