Nik Gregory » Fun

Men can nag too!

nikgregory — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 18:36:25 +0000

For the past few years I’ve been pressuring my wife to pick up a controller and play games she wouldn’t ordinarily try with me. I doubt I’m going to get her into an abstract game like a real/turn based strategy, simply because there really isn’t many introductory games in the market. I got into Strategy games through The Settlers II, where there was a minimum of combat for the first 6/7 levels until you was squarely into how to plan and coordinate. I then got into C&C Red Alert shortly after. My defining moment, like most RTSers, was the sheer immensity of Total Annihilation.

I also doubt I’ll ever get her to play an RPG. There’s too much journey. Final Fantasy 7, Zelda, Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, Neverwinter Nights and OMG Fallout 1 & 2 that epitomized the awesomeness of the genre for me, and TES: Morrowind.

So I wasn’t fully expecting my wife to ever pick up a controller and play Halo with me, but I was delightfully surprised that she actually did exceedingly well for a first timer (well we won’t count Golden Eye on the N64). We played the original, and it might become a regular occurrence to coop them as we play through the series.

Just got Kinected

nikgregory — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 05:14:01 +0000

After playing it at a friends house last night we finally conceded to buying a Kinect. We wanted one for Christmas, but they were sold out everywhere, and now everywhere seems to have a bunch in stock. Rather coincidentally people probably just had to pay off their Christmas credit card bills in the last couple of weeks, which sucks to be them.

We stretched our chequeing account, but only because we were still putting away savings too. We’ve got a couple of trips lined up for the next few years, so completely frivolous spending is out of the question. However, moderately frivolous spending is still of the question.

Game review may follow soon, but perhaps I’ll be too busy playing with my Black Panther in Kinectimals to actually review it.

Christmas: Post Game 2010

nikgregory — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 16:31:51 +0000

With Christmas over and a stack of video games that should keep me entertained for the foreseeable future, *and* a stack of board games including Catan and Risk that will certainly keep me entertained in those non-digital moments (or power outages), I have to say Christmas was successful yet again.

However, the grass is once again becoming green and it’s calling for a high of 8C this Saturday, making the first day of the new year veritably t-shirt weather.

Finally, I’m finding plenty of time to get writing done whilst still relaxing, which is why I’m venturing here to blog.

Family Christmas

nikgregory — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 23:03:46 +0000

We just had a busy, busy weekend with my wife’s family Christmas. My in-law’s were hosting it, but we had some of the spill over of my wife’s cousins. It was an extremely fun weekend, but bed at 3am was a killer.

Kelly got fed a 1/4 lb piece of butter by one of the little kids, so there was extra fun of vomit clean up all Saturday night – but she was well behaved enough when we went to bed that she managed a night with her crate open without an accident – at least till the morning when she got told to shut up for barking at the hot water heating pipes expanding when she squatted from anxiety.

Henry “The Genius” Hedgehog

nikgregory — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 11:38:13 +0000

I knew my hedgehog was a lot on the weird side for how animals go, but this morning I caught him being unusually smart rather than being usually stupid.

He’s overturned his food bowl and positioned it to make it easier to get to his water bottle. It’s not that he had difficulty, I guess he just got fed up with reaching a little. Although this looks 10x more awkward, so I don’t see the improvement – but then again I’m not a hedgehog.

Sixteen Candles

nikgregory — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 01:28:51 +0000

Just saw sixteen candles for the first time today, surprising I know. I’m personally surprised that it took so long for me to see a movie I had heard was great and actually turned out to be great.

The Dongona need food! (The wife’s making peanut-butter-chocolate-chip cookies)

Easy A

nikgregory — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 10:34:26 +0000

Just did a 10-hour work day yesterday, up at 5:20AM and didn’t get home until 6:20PM and had to rush to get ready. Was it worth it? Hell yes.

Easy A was great, Emma Stone was hilarious, Amanda Bynes yet again played another crazy girl, this time a religious psycho. This was a class act, they didn’t use up all the good material in making the trailer as the movie is easily 10 times funnier than the trailer makes it appear.

Dwarf Fortress: First Experience

nikgregory — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 21:53:53 +0000

My first experience on Dwarf Fortress didn’t end amazingly, especially considering I drowned two of my miners when trying to dig out a new stream. I decided to abandon the game before someone went back and completed their designated mining path, considering it was about to flood my actual underground lair.

Aerobie’s and Trees

nikgregory — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 23:14:27 +0000

Spent an interesting part of this afternoon trying to get an overshot Aerobie out of a pine tree, given that it has a gaping hole in the middle, it makes it very easy to get stuck.

We tried several downed sticks and even full branches to try and get it down, but when it’s 20ft off the ground it’s certainly a challenge. However, one very sturdy half-full jar of salsa and an Englishman (me), eventually knocked it down several branch layers so that we could just poke a stick through it and pull it out.

What can I say, we British make sports out of asinine tasks. Just look at Cricket, Football, Rugby, and the Scotts have managed their own list of asinine task/sports like Curling and Caber Toss (thought to have been used in the process of bridging small chasms, streams or other impassable territory in a hurry – AKA during a battle).

Going the distance – pre-review

nikgregory — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 03:04:16 +0000

Just saw Going The Distance with Justin Long and Drew Barrymore, and absolutely loved it. It was hands down hilarious, you just don’t get those kinds of jokes in a Rom-Com. It was also refreshing that it wasn’t the same old monotonous ”he/she cheated on him/her but they forgive each other and aww they’re back together”.

Considering I went through this with my wife, it was actually damn close to what real life is. If reality is why this movie got a not so great rating, then I like bad movies. Reality, for me, trumps farce every time.

It’s a definite must see movie.