Board Games for Boring Days

Board games!

We've all heard of the big 3: Chess, Monopoly and Risk. Many of you will have heard of Apples to Apples, Life, and/or Pit.

These were some of my most played games for a long time. But, two years ago, I was exposed to Settlers of Catan at a New Years eve party. 

Ever since then, it seems that I've played many new games. Lots of games actually. 

So, I figured that I'd share my knowledge about two of these board games, and my thoughts on them.

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Curses

Curses is a party game that I played for the first time a few months ago at a friend's house.

In the game, you can assign other people curses. These are things which they must follow. For instance:

"You are a Vulcan. Whenever you laugh say: 'That's not funny' with a straight face."

If you ever break this curse by not doing it, you can get one of your cards flipped over. If you have three flipped, you're out. It's a game of survival of the fittest.


Pros:
Great ice breaker game, as things get very absurd, fast.
Fun way to get introverts to be more open.
Promotes problem solving skills to accomplish crazy tasks.
Not too expensive.

Cons:
Once you know all of the cards, part of the fun is gone.
No expansions.

Final thoughts:
A great party game that's really fun to play with people who've never played before.

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Settlers of Catan

Settlers is a trading based, empire building game for 3-4 players. The goal is to expand your empire. In order to build, you need certain resources. Sometimes, you might have to trade with others to get the resources. You get points by building Settlements, City's and completing various tasks.

Pros: 

Everyone is in the game until the end.

Promotes negotiating. 

Change of pace, not a game of Conquering.
Once the game is in full swing, it moves quickly.

Cons:
Setup is lengthy if you are playing with new people.
Can get boring if everyone isn't equally invested.
Quite costly

Final thoughts: 
A wonderful game, that I'd recommend to strategic, board game enthusiasts.



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Anyways, that's all guys. Hope that you were able to get something out of it.

Live Long and Prosper

-Josh

Myers Briggs Type Indicator

(And Why I like It)

Some of you that have talked with me know of my love for obsession with the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). But for many, this might be something that you have never heard of. It is for your benefit that I have outlined it in it's most basic form below. 

The MBTI is essentially a tool used for people to better understand others. The MBTI is split into 4 different sections, with 2 choices each. This makes for 16 different types.

Now, because this may be hard to grasp, I have found on the interweb a photo that makes it easier to understand. 

Now, you might be wondering what everything means. And while this is slightly complicated, I'll try to explain everything in the most plain terms below. Pick which one seems more true of yourself.


The four things that the MBTI uses are:

1. Attitude                          (Extrovert/Introvert)
2. Information Gathering   (iNtuition/Sensing)
3. Decision Making                (Feeling/Thinking)
4. Lifestyle                                   (Judging/Perceiving)

Extrovert             /              Introvert

Extrovert	Introvert
Energy is gained from being with others	Energy is drained from being with others
Thinks while talking	Thinks before talking
Have many shallow friends	Have a few close friends

iNtuition             /               Sensing

iNtuition	Sensing
Prefers abstract information	Prefers concrete information
Prefers thinking in the future	Prefers thinking in the present
Drawn more to overtones	Drawn more to fundamentals

Feeling               /             Thinking

Feeling	Thinking
Makes decisions based off of desire	Makes decisions based off of data
Does not like making detached judgments	Makes detached judgments with ease
Judges based off of circumstances	Judges based off of the law

Judging                 /             Perceiving

Judging	Perceiving
Likes to plan events ahead	Like to have events "just penciled in"
Likes to have a plan	Likes to let things happen naturally
Uses Feeling/Thinking more than iNtuition/Sensing	Uses iNtuition/Sensing more than Feeling/Thinking

So, using those, you were able (I hope) to roughly determine what your personality type is. Now, you must understand. These are generalizations. Perfectly categorizing people isn't possible because people are very complex.

Anyways, if you are interested in reading more, check out this link*.

*This is originally from this website, I just converted everything to .doc and edited them to make it more family friendly.

Beauty and the Beast stuff

So, as I've said before, I'm involved in the a local theater group. What used to be CYT Portland has become Journey Theater Arts Group (What a catchy name, right?).

Anyways, I decided to do what I never thought I'd do. I would actually help out with a musical. 

This was something that I said that I would not do, but you know, I guess I had a change of heart. So I decided, that not being someone to sing or dance in front of people, I'd help out backstage. And why just help, when I could be the Crew Chief? Yeah, I don't know either.

"This is all very interesting, but why is this post titled Beauty and the Beast?" you might ask.

Glad that you might have asked/did ask.

Because I have the answer. 

Anyways, being the researching type, I decided to consult the great TVTropes about the movie. And that page linked me to a blog post about the differences between the book and the movie. I read through it, and thought: "This would be great to share with everyone, if it was clean."

So, I just decided to clean it up for everyone. Link

Anyways, hopefully that'll give you an update on my life right now. 

More updates to come, I swear. I have not forgotten you, Mr. Blog.

-Josh