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"I'm not what they believe and if they find out they will leave." -- Voice of the Beehive I Say Nothing |
This is one of those days I need to just stay off the Internet.
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Previous: LET’S USE OIL (a cooperative game)
Next: Dave Finally Watches: Sherlock Holmes, The Informant!, Zombieland
NEED:
map (above)
six sided die
bunch of jellybeans or M&Ms
The candy represents some usage of oil. On land (green) it might be a car, a home using oil-generated electricity, a guy running his lawnmower for the third time this week, or a dude enjoying all his electronic plastic shit. In the sea (blue) it’s oil gushing out of a damaged drilling platform because making it safe might have cost some money.
On your turn, roll the die. Place that many oil markers (candy) on the board, one per hex. IF you roll a six, roll on this table:
1- GUSHER! Place three more oil tokens in the sea!
2- REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT! Double the next three rolls!
3- DEMOCRAT PRESIDENT! Double the next three rolls and blame the previous Republican president.
4- MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND! Place three more oil tokens on land!
5- NEW APPLE PRODUCT! Add one to the next die roll!
6- NEW INDUSTRY REGULATIONS! Only double the next TWO die rolls!
Once you cover every space on the board, you win! Try to do it in as few turns as possible!
After you have filled the board, celebrate the the oil industry by eating all the candy! Hooray!
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Check out what I found recently when looking through an old issue of Patsy, one of those fashion comics where fans could send in designs for the characters’ outfits:
Who knew? I wonder if he ever re-used that design later!
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I have now made a sequel to my Lego Science Platform!
This is the Phaladonian Space Telescope “Karwik”. It is a multi-wavelength telescope for doing deep space research.
The odd shape for this and the previous one are due to a technique in which I try to not go with my first or even second thoughts with regards to design, in order to try to make something that isn’t just yet another Thing I’d Do. Often when I’m building, if something doesn’t grab me right away I change it, but in these cases I left them, in order to go beyond my usual habits.
This required a small Bricklink order to complete, but it is totally independent of the other ship, so I have more white bricks than I thought (unfortunately many of them are still pretty discolored).
The place where the telescope joins to the body is sloppy, I know. I should cover that seam with a sticker or something.
The rest of the gallery is here. Enjoy!
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Welcome to the exciting world of The Future! I’m your host, Dave Lartigue, and each Wednesday I’ll be taking you on an exciting and educational journey into the time to come! Sit back, pull up a cosmo chair, pour a space drink, and enjoy!
Let’s turn back the clock ten years and look at the year 2000! Remember it? Here’s what today’s story says about this year to come (click on the image to blow it up):
“And everyone was deliriously happy, THE END!” Ha, no, of course, not, because someone isn’t happy. And who is that someone? I’m afraid, dear reader, it’s YOU.
This is one of those stories told in second-person, so our protagonist is YOU, who is a grumpy white dude named Vincent Latimer. Here you are, on the far left.
Your deal is, you hate robots. Hates them forever! Robots, unlike humans, can’t be depended on, especially in an emergency. You can’t trust a hunk of metal, but you can trust a person! And you can count on you to not shut the hell up about how much you hate robots, even to your poor cab driver.
You head into work and take your mind off hateful, job-stealing, robots with thoughts of “plastic”. Right off the bat there’s a problem. Seems that Lunar Plant #16 is running out of cellulose and can’t make as much “plastic” as it needs to. You’ll have to go there and check it out! Fortunately, this is the year 2000, so a trip to the moon is no problem! You tell your girl, Miss Hanson, that you’re headed out, and go to the space port.
But oh no! Outside of the safe confines of your white-collar job, you’re back in a world that sometimes contains people who don’t look like you!
You of course go nuts at hearing this because frankly, you’re kind of a jerk. You demand to know which space-line doesn’t use robot pilots and are informed that pretty much everyone does. So you do what any normal person would do, and demand a law to protect you from robot pilots.
Actually first, you still have to get to the moon, so you start trawling all the smaller flight companies. At Paragon Space Lines, you finally find a white male pilot!
You give the guy an extra hundred future dollars to take you to the moon, and soon:
Suddenly and QUITE UNEXPECTEDLY a surprise meteor shower appears out of nowhere! The pilot skillfully veers the rocket out of harm’s way, but since you think you know better than the stewardess, you don’t have your seat belt on. You fall out of your seat, hit your head, and black out.
When you come to:
Man, did you ever luck out! This pilot is incredible! And even better, he’s a human! A beautiful, natural, healthy, white, male, hu–
And suddenly you feel shameful. Your appalling behavior on these four pages makes you feel like even less of a man than the robot pilot you’ve just praised. How can you face yourself now? How can you face the others you’ve so embarrassingly acted out in front of?
You tell yourself that this guy is the exception that proves the rule. SOLVED!
“Robot Hater!”
Tales of Suspense #3 (Atlas (Marvel) Comics, May 1959)
Writer: Unknown (possibly Stan Lee and/or Larry Lieber)
Penciler: Paul Reinman
Inker: Paul Reinman
Editor: Stan Lee
A few months ago Beebo scratched one of his eyes. Like, the eyeball itself. We took him to the vet, who gave us some drops, and about a week later he was all better.
Then, two weeks later, he scratched the OTHER eye.
We gave him more eye drops, and things cleared up some, but it didn’t seem like it was healing all the way. So Becky took him to a specialist in Deerfield. She said that there were blood vessels in the eye, so it was still healing, and just needed a boost. She prescribed a battery of eye drops and a contact lens to help it heal.
You know you are living in the First World when your dog has a contact lens.
The specialist also gave him a bunch of treats for being a good boy, and he promptly threw them up on the way home. The contact lens lasted a couple days beyond them.
Still, we kept up with the five different kinds of eye drops and today, when Becky took him back to the specialist, we got a report that all is clear!
How he got the scratches in the first place is still a problem. I suspect he doesn’t see all that great and when he’s out in the yard he walks into branches and things (it doesn’t help that he is rock-stubborn and when he wants to go from point A to point B, he just plows on through). I think we might have to get him some of these.
--- The collectible Lego minifigures have hit the US…and my home!
This is a collection of 16 special minifigs released in “blind” packaging (you don’t know which one you’re getting). They’ve been out in Europe for a while and are finally showing up here in America.
When I heard the rumors that they were out, I headed for my local Toys R Us. That store has not been too on the ball in the past, but sure enough they had them! I bought ten packs and here’s what I got:
Luchador: This was the first one I opened, and a great start, as it was one of the figures I most wanted.
Cheerleader: The second one I opened was also a greatly anticipated one.
Skater Kid: I really like the hair piece on this guy. Out of my ten packs I got two of him, but I may keep the extra just for the extra hair piece.
Diver: One of the two I’m least interested in, since none of the pieces are particularly new or interesting.
Caveman: This guy has the best hair and face, plus his awesome club.
Robin Hood: One I wasn’t crazy about, but Becky wanted one of him. Fortunately, he was the other extra I got.
Ninja: This is probably the one I was least interested in. Almost nothing on him is new except his head, which is okay. And I already have a bunch of ninjas from regular sets.
Clown: I ain’t no fan of clowns, but this guy’s big red afro is great.
Each comes with a nifty 3×4 black base with studs only in the middle row.
The plastic on these figures is definitely inferior to Lego’s regular products. They’re made in China to save money (so don’t be licking that Caveman), and the difference is notable, both for the lightness of the material and the lack of “clutch” (how well pieces hold onto other pieces).
Now, you can feel around the packaging to try to see what’s inside (I didn’t have much luck with that) or you can cheat. Each fig has a bar code on the back, and they’ve been decoded. If there’s one you absolutely MUST have, the guide is here. But that kind of spoils the fun, I think.
I’ll probably be picking up more of these guys soon. They’re really nifty, and they’re only two bucks.
(Psst…there’s a second wave coming too…)
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