THE SIMPSONS NEWS

So the person who is in charge of putting the schedule together and generally telling us whose crew we are going to be on, is no longer working for the show. Why? I don’t know. All I know is that I’m going to miss him and that now we have to go directly to the producer to know whose crew we will be working on until they find a replacement.

I e-mailed the producer earlier this week to find out if my status has changed. If I am still going to be starting work on the first or second week of July. The answer I got back was sort of the same. I might actually start the 14th of July which is the third week of July. Well, no big deal. At least I’ll be working soon and won’t have to worry about money.

BOARD GAMES/VIDEO GAMES

I’ve been writing a lot about board games through out my blog. That’s because I think they are great fun. Most people, when you say board games, they think, Monopoly, Scrabble, or Risk. These games aren’t bad games but they often bring a lot of baggage with them. Usually when you think of these games, you think, “I used to play that when I was little” or “Man, I played that game to death”. You don’t think, “Boy, I really want to go play that”. Well, there are a ton of new board games out there made by smaller companies that once you try playing them with friends or family, you do say, “Boy, I really want to play that again!” Unfortunately, you won’t see commercials for these games but you can often learn about them through word of mouth or even by playing them on your Xbox 360. Which brings me to my topic today, of board games on the Xbox 360.

If I was to say, “The Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, or Carcassonne,” the board game geeks would think, “Modern classic board games”. Some of the more adventurous of you would say, “Hey I’ve played one of those. I loved it!” I think most of you would say, “Huh, are they Beatles songs?” Well, the Xbox 360, will hopefully change all that. It seems that the best selling games on Xbox Arcade (which is the place you buy and download games on the Xbox 360) are board games. Though UNO is the best selling, other board games are doing well in their own right. The Settlers of Catan is one of these games:

Ever wanted to try it? You can, using your Xbox 360.

You can also play Carcassonne:

…and Lost Cities. Lost Cities is the ultimate “couples game”. At least it seems that way, because if you look at any “Geek List” on Boardgamegeek.com on: “Couples games“, it’s almost always somewhere on the list. Last time I played this against Alesha, she really beat me pretty good.

The newest modern board games on the horizon for the Xbox Arcade are Ticket to Ride (pictured below) and Alhambra (no picture for that game yet, sorry).

Many people have gone out and bought the actual versions of these games after having played them on Xbox Arcade. Woo hoo! The more people out there that play these games, the more people I might be able to get to play with.

For more pictures and reviews of these games, go to TeamXbox.com

MORE..BOARD GAMES/VIDEO GAMES

A few months back I wrote a post called: Comparing the pros and cons of Video games and Board games. In the last line of that particular post I wrote this:

Maybe someday board games and video games might become one. We’ll have video tables were we move physical pieces around on a digital board that can read what you are doing and we’ll have the best (and worst) of both worlds.

Well, guess what…

For more info on products like these, click on the following link: Gizmo Watch

I found out about this stuff from reading Purple Pawn.

FAMILY

On Friday, I spent the entire day alone with the kids. They woke up at the same time in the morning. I fed them both. Played with them both for a few hours, then I put them to bed for their naps, just a little bit later than usual (and at the same time, which is very unusual for them). They slept well and, wouldn’t you know it, they both woke up at the same time. I went and got them both, fed them while I got ready for a small day out. After lunch I got the kids ready, put on my iPod ear buds, turned on a gaming podcast and we went outside for a walk.

Munchkin, pushed her little brother on his stroller (as I guided it) and she pushed it to the little playground we have in our housing community. Once there, she began climbing and going down the slide. I picked up the boy, sat down and watched his sister be a little daredevil. The sun was shining and a small breeze often cooled us down. The boy and I followed Munchkin around as she played. At one point she decided to play in one spot, picked the curving latter thingy in the playground and began climbing it in all sorts of ways. She was being quite fearless in some of the things she was doing on it. Her brother and I sat a foot away and watched her. We must have sat there for a good twenty minutes.

It’s moments like these that make life worth living. I was so happy I was there with my kids and for the hour and twenty minutes that I was there with them in that playground, there was nothing wrong with the world. Nothing to worry about, no money problems, nothing to stress about, just the breeze, the kids, and the innocence of trying out new things. It was heaven on earth. I kissed the boy, I encouraged the girl, and I was soooo happy. I’m going to miss this kind of thing when I go back to work.

When we got back to the house, I fed Munchkin her dinner and she surprised me by eating it all up in just a few minutes. I gave her treats as a reward. Meanwhile I managed to keep the boy awake for an extra hour until his official bedtime (if I don’t do this, it makes for a very rough night). Then I gave Munchkin a bath, which she loooooves to take. She had a blast splashing around in the tub. Afterwards, I took her out, brushed her teeth and put her to bed (which of course she didn’t want me to do). She stayed awake for a few hours after and I even came in once and “kissed attacked” her. She laughed and giggled and then fell asleep a few minutes after.

It was a great day. I love my kids. They are amazing gifts. I hope I could be a good father to them. I really want to raise them right. Thinking about the day, make me want to cry for some reason. God, I love them so much.

It was the Feast Day of St. Anthony that day. He must have prayed for us to have a little piece of Heaven that day. Thanks, St. Anthony.

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