Posts from 2003
Gaming with the Rip City Gamers
I managed to spend most of Monday in nearby Tigard with some new friends in the Rip City Gamers group. It did a bizarre thing (for Portland) Sunday night: ...
Frenzy Card Game from Fantasy Flight
I don’t play collectible card games (CCGs) much any more.
Christmas in Las Vegas
Yes, I'm very lucky that my beautiful wife Julie is originally from Las Vegas and that her wonderful mother and step-father (Jan and David) still live ther...
Warcraft Session with the Boys
Sunday after our successful game day, Jacob, Matthew, and I decided to play another game of Warcraft.
Iain Cheyne joins the world of blogging
Welcome Iain! Added to my blogroll…
Sherwood Game Day
Julie and I hosted an all-day gaming event/party at our home in Sherwood on Dec 13. I invited all of my usual gaming buddies plus the folks over at Rip Cit...
Another Play of Lord of the Rings Risk: Trilogy Edition
Jacob, Matthew, and I sat down over a week ago to play another round of this Risk variant. This was our first attempt at a three player version and we made...
Jacob’s Grand Scientific Experiment
Jacob has the opportunity at school to do some extra projects
First Play of Serenissima
This game sat on my shelf too long - in fact, it was the only "big box" game remaining in my game closet that I had yet to play. I know, compared to many t...
Eric Arneson’s Top 10 Games of 2003
Eric Arneson just published his Top 10 Games of 2003 list
Operation Hero Miles
If you know me or read this site very often, then you know that I travel quite a bit. So much so that I have a hard time using all of my frequent flier mil...
Another Reason to Like Apple
As I've mentioned before, I recently purchased a new iPod and a used iBook. I also enrolled in the iTunes service to see what all the hype is about. The i...
Gaming at Kevin’s - December 7
Jacob and I cruised over to Kevin’s last weekend for some Sunday gaming.
Back to Our Regularly Scheduled Program - Thanksgiving in Seattle
Time to flush the backlog of photos and other content. As I mentioned before, Julie, Jacob, Matthew and I took the train to Seattle over Thanksgiving weeken...
Clawing My Way Back
Thanks to my pack-rat friend Greg, I'm in the process of restoring most of my content. Things will still be shakey for a while as my ISP stabilizes the env...
RSS Feed Will Be Broken for a While
I'm still sorting through some configuration challenges on the host machine, so if you aggregate the site with an RSS reader, it will be broken for a while...
Good Grief and a Plea for Help
My ISP crashed the box where my weblog was hosted. I may have lost quite a bit of content as well. My own fault for not having a better backup strategy. I’...
Convergence of Game and Software Design Methodology?
I read in the nimrods blog about this article by Jacob Davenport, designer (or co- designer) of some great Icehouse games like Pikemen and Gnostica. Fe...
What Games Are People Playing?
Mark Jackson took some time to summarize what are called "5 and 10" or "five and dime" reports culled from spielfrieks early this year. This was a bit la...
Train Gaming
Took the family to Seattle for Thanksgiving weekend ‘
Gaming with the Family
After another long week of travel, I was determined to spend as many waking hours over the weekend with Julie, Jacob, and Matthew. On Saturday, Julie and J...
Web Service Access to BoardGameGeek
A few of us over at the BoardGameGeek tech Yahoo group are exploring some ways to use web services to provide programmatic access to BoardGameGeek. Even i...
Gaming with the Westbank Gamers
I was in New Orleans this week at a banking conference
Lord of the Rings: Risk, Balloon Cup
I've been traveling too much - only two days at home between trips this time. I'm back on the road again, this time in New Orleans for our big annual confe...
Could this be any good?
Front Porch Classics is (has?) released a "classic Coffee Table Game" for the whole family: Master & Commander, The Far Side of the World. I'm a huge fa...
Cranium Custom Cards
Every once in a while we will play more traditional family party games like Pictionary, Guesstures, and Cranium. Cranium is particularly popular with th...
Gaming at Doug and Mimi’s
Jacob and I were finally able to attend another group gaming session on Saturday, this one held at Doug and Mimi's up in Vancouver. We had a great time, an...
What Are Some Good Games for Kids?
A co-worker of mine asked me over dinner tonight what would be some good boardgames to introduce to younger kids (5-7). I have my own ideas, which I'll sha...
Must Read Essen Report
The biggest event each year for the boardgame hobby is Spiel
Age of Mythology with Jacob and Matthew
Today was supposed to be an afternoon gaming session at Kevin Graham's, but unfortunately Jacob wasn't feeling too well. We were all suffering from some for...
Family Game of Piratenbucht
Julie, Jacob, Matthew, and I sat down for a game of Piratenbucht this afternoon.
Jacob’s Top 5 Games
I gave Jacob and Matthew a project a few weeks ago - write down what your 5 or 10 favorite games are with reasons. I promised to publish them, so here is J...
PDC Presentations are Now Available
You can view the presentations from the PDC sessions here.
Cub Scout Fun
Among all of my activities outside of work, Scouting is probably most dear to me.
Joe Long on Indigo Technology Roadmap
Joe Long from Microsoft gave a nice talk on the technology roadmap for Indigo, with a nice dose of prescriptive guidance for those of us who need to do dis...
Dinner with Old Friends
I was able to have dinner last night with two of my oldest (they're not old, but you know what I mean) friends: Mike and Becky Sattin. Becky's new husband Bo...
Hazy Shade of Fall in LA
I flew into LA late last night from Portland for the Microsoft PDC conference.
Don Box on Indigo
I’‘m sitting in a great talk by Don Box on Indigo
Yet Another Blog About Games
Looks like this is really catching on. Great to see other people joining the fray and sharing session reports, reviews, and other thoughts on gaming. Tolen...
Jacob’s Birthday Party
Well, I am only about 2 weeks late in posting this one. We hosted a mystery party for Jacob and a few friends two Saturdays ago
Picked Up an iBook
I found a good price on a used iBook here in town
Games Magazine’s 2004 Games 100
Funagain has posted a copy of the Games Magazine top 100 games.
Another Chris is Blogging About Games
Check it out!
Too Much Travel
This has been the lowest volume of posting I’ve had in a while - sorry for those of you who check here frequently for gaming-related posts.
Teaching Chess
I mentioned a few days ago that I will be teaching chess classes at Archer Glen elementary school where Jacob and Matthew are in 3rd and 1st grade, respect...
Matthew’s Soccer Game
Wow, it sure has been a while since I posted an entry. I was in Chicago all of last week at our customer conference and got a bit behind. Matthew had a bye ...
Wallenstein Arrives, First Play
My backordered copy of Wallenstein finally arrived from Funagain last week.
Cubs Win!
Man, it has been a long time! 95 years in fact - 1908 was the last time the Cubs managed to win a post-season series.
Session Report: Volldampf, I’m the Boss
Ken and Brandon came over Sunday afternoon for a few hours of gaming.
Age of Mythology First Impressions
After a Saturday full of sports activities (Matthew's soccer game - he scored 5 goals! - and Jacob's football game), I sat down with the boys around 5pm to ...
Piecepack Design Contest - Solitary Confinement
If you’ve never heard of piecepack, you should check it out.
Warcraft the Board Game
This has the potential to be very cool. Fantasy Flight and Eagle Games seem to have have struck a resonant chord with their recent introductions of compute...
Gaming with the Arizona Boardgamers (Night 2)
Saturday night I headed east from my hotel to Rob Smolka's house for some more gaming. I was pretty beat after 27 holes of golf and 3 hours of instruction ...
Day 1 of Golf School
It was a long, hot, but fun day here in the greater Phoenix area. Steve and I spent the morning and afternoon at golf school with our great instructor Ubie ...
Gaming with the Arizona Boardgamers (Night 1)
I was able to stay awake late enough tonight to join the Arizona Boardgamers at Gamer's Edge in Chandler. It was a fun, welcoming crowd and I look forward t...
Off to Arizona
Tonight I’‘ll be speaking at a Software Association of Oregon Web Services Panel, then tomorrow morning I take an early flight to Phoenix, Arizona.
Julie’s Recipes
My wife happens to be an amazing cook.
Congratulations Scott
Its been a long, worthwhile road for Scott. Congrats!
Gaming at Doug and Mimi’s
Jacob and I drove the 45 minutes to Vancouver, WA
A Day at The Coast
I had to work, but Julie, Jacob, and Matthew spent most of Friday in Lincoln City
FreshFish 0.9 Available for Download
I finally have another release of FreshFish available for download.
Outage
For the thousands of you that check my weblog daily (OK, the 3-5 of you), you obviously noticed I was down for a while.
Session Report: Gaming at Kevin’s
I finally found some time for gaming last Saturday
Weekend Update - Camping at PGE Park and Matthews’ Birthday
We had a blast this weekend. Friday night Jacob had his first official football practice Friday evening after a week of football camp in the evenings put o...
New Look and Feel
You’ll notice that I’ve made some small changes to the look and feel of the site.
Day 3 at GenCon 2003
Sorry for the late report on our last day at GenCon (Saturday). This was an abbreviated day - had to make it back to Shelbyville in time for a birthday celeb...
Day 2 at GenCon 2003
It is getting late but I still want to get my report out. This report will be shorter on words but I’‘ll keep the pictures.
Day 1 at GenCon 2003
Jacob and I just wrapped up day 1 of our GenCon adventure in Indianapolis.
Safe Arrival in Indy
Julie, Jacob, Matthew, and I arrived safely in Indianapolis tonight. We had a great dinner at my sister’s place on the no...
FreshFish 0.2 Available for Download
I finally have a working standalone version of Fresh Fish available for download. In the download you will find the executable (just run FreshFishGUI.exe o...
Picture from Brooklyn Session and We’re Heading to Indy
I promised to post a photo or two from my session in Brooklyn last month.
Keuka Lake Wrap-up
We had a great but too-short time at Keuka Lake this year. ‘
The Thorns and The Jayhawks live in Portland
Julie and I had a date last night.
Gaming in Brooklyn, NY - June 30, 2003
I posted a note to spielfrieks several weeks ago about a liquidation sale at my local Wizards of the Coast store, particularly the discount on Tigris & ...
Gaming in Sherwood - Sunday, June 29
I hosted an afternoon of gaming at my house in Sherwood before departing on my New York trip.
Session Report - Gaming at Doug and Mimi’s - Saturday, June 28
We spent most of our time play-testing a new game, but we managed to squeeze in a playing of the new Fantasy Flight game Quicksand.
Two New Games
Stopped by my friendly Rainy Day Games store over lunch today to pick up two new games: Balloon Cup and Quicksand. I walked in planning to get just Ballo...
Fresh Fish Development Update
I’ve made great progress on development over the past week. Quick status update: <![if !supportLists...
Fresh Fish Online Source Available
I am working on an online version of the game Fresh Fish.
TechEd Wrap-Up
TechEd is essentially over for me - I’ll be driving to the airport tomorrow morning
Gaming in Dallas with The Card Benders
My streak of hooking up with extremely cool groups of gamers across the USA continued this week. I'm in Dallas, TX for Microsoft TechEd, and managed to ho...
Summer at Keuka Lake
We will make our annual trek to Keuka Lake in western New York in July. Julie and the boys usually take the train, but since we have a shorter time window...
Tardy on my Session Reports, heading to Dallas
I have at least two session reports to post, one from the gaming at Kevin Graham’s a few weeks ago, and one from my trip...
Where’s Chris?
I am back in San Francisco - it has been a crazy week
Reading Masters of Doom
I picked up the book Masters of Doom: How Two Guys Created an Empire and Transformed Pop Culture by David Kushner this week while in Columbus. This is a gr...
Session Report - An Evening at Plenary Games World Headquarters
I traveled to Colorado Springs this week for a business trip, and had the pleasure of spending an evening at Plenary Games headquarters with Angela Gaalema.
Session Report - Sunday Gaming in Sherwood
I scheduled a fairly impromptu afternoon of gaming at my house this Sunday - Doug and Mimi joined us, fresh from their trip to the Gathering of Friends in ...
Session Report - Sunday in Sherwood, OR
I hosted my first open gaming event on Sunday, April 13, at my home in Sherwood, OR.
Face 2 Face Games and Lawrence Whalen
I was in Providence, RI last week for a business trip, and had a few hours after my meeting before I had to head to the airport. I did a Google search for ...
Strange Bug in ASP.NET Sample SOAP request/response generation
I encountered a strange bug in how ASP.NET generates sample SOAP request/responses in .NET 1.1 (this may be the case on 1.0 as well - haven't tested). Take...
Spring Camping at Devils Lake
We took the short trip to Lincoln City, OR this weekend for some yurt camping at Devils Lake. Tent camping in the spring in Oregon is always a risk (unles...
Gathering of Friends Daily Reports
As some of you know, there’s a (private) group meeting this week in Columbus, OH for Alan Moon’s Gathering of Friends.
Chicago Tribune Boardgame Article
Check out this great article in the Trib about the growth of boardgaming in the US.
First Time with Fresh Fish
I received my copy of Fresh Fish from Plenary Games on Saturday
My Boys
I've mentioned Jacob and Matthew (my two sons) here frequently, but I thought it would be nice to show a picture of them. So here you go! Jacob (8) is on th...
Gaming at Allumbra
Benjamin Corliss has designed two abstract strategy games that he runs online at his web site. I've only played Breacan so far (against Benjamin), but I l...
Session Report - Tuesday Night Games at Benjamin’s
I spent a few hours at Benjamin Corliss' place last Tuesday gaming with a small group of very nice folks. Kevin Graham, who also hosts gaming periodically...
Converting Piratenbucht to English
I recently purchased the German-language Piratenbucht online from Funagain.
Gaming in Redmond, WA at Wizkids
I enjoyed a fun night of gaming last week while visiting Bellevue/Redmond.
Quick Diversion - The Thorns
I just might be one of Matthew Sweet’s greatest fans.
Yahoo Group for Alpha Playing Cards
Tim Schutz has created an online group for discussing new games for the Alpha Playing Cards decks.
Weekend in Newport, OR
We spent a great weekend in Newport, OR.
A morning with Advanced Squad Leader - ouch!
Ken Rude and I spent a morning last Saturday with a local gaming group that regularly plays Advanced Squad Leader and is open to newbies interested in lear...
Session Report - A night with the Portland Gamers
Ken Rude and I traveled to Kevin’’s house for our first gaming session with the Portland Gamers.
Review: Battlecards - World Conflict
Overview Battlecards is an expandable (not collectable) card game of World War II.
Books About Games
Mikko has an interesting post on Books About Games. It reminded me of a fantasy book I read in the early 1980’s called Hobgoblin, which was about a teen...
Funagain Games Interviews Reiner Knizia
Stephen Glenn from Funagain Games has posted a fantastic interview with Reiner Knizia.
Session Report - GameStorm 2003
I had the pleasure of attending the GameStorm convention in Portland
Battlecards
I ordered and received Battlecards earlier this week.
InfoPath and CAB Files
As Scott mentioned yesterday, we have been playing with InfoPath and we were sufficiently impressed.
Review: Alpha Playing Cards
Tim Schutz was kind enough to send me a free deck of his Alpha Playing Cards for review.
Review: Laser Squad Nemesis
Odds are, you haven’t heard of this game.
Let’s Get Started
I’ll be using this space to talk about gaming (boardgames mostly), technology, software development, and just random thoughts.