Board Game List Major Revamp (additions, changes etc.)

Well, my upgraded list (which should go live within the next minute or two (so if you got here before it has, big props to you)) now has 13 more games added onto it. These include random games that I enjoy that have been in our closet, but haven't gotten around to adding them, and some new games that we got recently (well maybe recently isn't the best word to use here, but you know). The new additions are: Istanbul, Chess, Oltre Mare, Telestrations, Oddly Obvious, Ticket to Ride: Europe, Timeline, Citadels, Zooloretto, Steampunk Rally, Love Letter and Dixit.

There are also some shifts in the games that were originally there (both due to new games and actual normal shifts)
Istanbul is a new game that has been lent to us until Christmas. My mom got a copy for it for her birthday. It's a really good game, like really really good.
Chess is chess. It's a great game which has no luck (other than first player).
Oltre Mare has been in our closet for almost as long as I can remember. I've always enjoyed playing it, but I'm just getting to ranking it against the other games now. It's a nice game, I should play it more often.
Telestrations is a really fun party game. I know a few non-gamers who have played this game and also really enjoy it. I have quite a few fond and hilarious memories about this game. Like, seriously, what was it? Hitler rhinoceros with a broken leg? Something like that anyway. Eric will know what I'm referring to.
Oddly Obvious is a new party game that my parents have gotten recently. It's pretty fun, but I happen to be really bad at it. At least compared to my parents, I am. Want to play it with my siblings to see how I do against them.
Ticket to Ride: Europe is, well, Ticket to Ride. In my opinion not the best game of all time by any means, but it's not not fun. In fact, it is pretty fun.

Timeline is a nice, short, fun game. It's not over complex which means it’s good at breaking up bigger, heavier games. Got it last Christmas and is now being added to my list.
Citadels is a game I got a while back. Added it.
Zooloretto is a game I mentioned in a previous post. It's fun, and if someone asks me to play it then I'll almost never turn them down. (although I might suggest a different game, but if they insist I wouldn’t say no)
Steampunk Rally is a game that Andrew gave us a print and play version of (which was really well done, BTW). It's fun (I seem to be saying that a lot), but rarely hits the table. Might be because we just look over it due to its box. (currently resides in a ‘password’ box)
Love Letter has a weird place in my heart. As you can see it's on the bottom of the list. I don't love it anymore. I like it, but I don’t love it. However, I have played sooo many games of it. Most of them in one sitting. Also a different story for a different time. That experience was so fun that it should be on the list (and, you know, because I enjoy playing it).
Dixit is pretty chill.

Game shift:

Ashes has gone down since I haven’t got to play a game in like, forever. (I swear the meta has changed soooo much since the last time I played) (like, new expansions got released, Enchanted Violinist got nerfed, and people finding new deck archetypes all shook up the competitive scene).

Also, games I want to play during Christmas break:

Ashes: Rise of the Phoenixborn, Dominion, 7 Wonders, The Castles of Burgundy, Summoner Wars, 7 Wonders: Duel, Dead Of Winter/Dead of Winter: The Long Night, Agricola, Tzolk'in The Mayan Calendar, Village, Terra Mystica, Five Tribes, Small World,  Magic: The Gathering, Eldritch Horror, Pandemic, Oltre Mare, Seafall, Istanbul, Oddly Obvious, Ticket to Ride: Europe, Timeline, Citadels, Zooloretto, Steampunk Rally, Love Letter, Somerset, Elysium, Avalon, any games I/We/Jamieson’s get for Christmas

I think I got all of them, but I may be missing a couple.

Cat Ninja and other

I’ll talk about some other stuff before the main event: Cat Ninja

Pumped for Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up. With Joseph going on his mission as of the 16th, there will be even less board gaming to go around. That is of the limited quantity of it anyway. We’ve been getting into Super Smash 4, improving our skills and what not. I’ve been doing pretty good for myself, and would go as far as to say that I’m the best out of the four of us (Thomas, Ben, Joseph and I). My main right now being Ness, although I do play with Corrin and Mega Man just as frequently.

Anyway, back to the board gaming thing. I’m excited to get back to playing some. Haven’t really played much of anything as of late. A couple of Dominion games here and there, but that’s basically the extent of it. Want to play any game that deals with resources, not sure why. Top of my list being Terra Mystica and Agricola. Want to play Somerset at Christmas too, since that deals with resources.

Anyway, Cat Ninja continues to be the best game in the world. My friend Comptyn and I kinda started a trend. I swear everywhere I look there’s someone playing Cat Ninja. At one point in my dad’s class (sorry dad) there were up to 7 people playing it at once.

To my left, right now four people are playing it (I’m in A.P. English right now, it’s a work day but I’m writing parts of this instead).

Anyway (I feel as if I use the word anyway a lot, guess I’m not one much for variety), the point of me bringing up Cat Ninja is to bring up the fact that I hold one of the World Records now (specifically the one where glitches aren’t allowed).

You can watch it at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIhLN5vhZOE&t=0

Finished it in 5 minutes and 43 seconds. The previous record being 6 minutes and 20 seconds (it might have been more than that, I don’t remember). (Note: speedrun.com has not approved this record yet, but has approved the one I'm about to talk about)
I also now have the World Record for the game with glitches, getting 5 minutes and 34 seconds with the previous record being 5 minutes and 39 seconds. The previous World Record holder, however, said he would get back into playing the game so he can get it back.
You can watch it at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiTQzqhHY9A&t=0s
Him, myself, and the guy who started speed-running Cat Ninja originally, now have a discord group chat where we talk about the game. We talk about glitches, how we got into the game and other random stuff. It seems like we'll all be fighting for the World Record in coming months.
Exciting times.

Election Picture New Hampshire

Saw this when looking at the votes for the election. Took a snip-shot of it before the vote number changed.

And they say your vote doesn't count :P

Chromebooks

We got Chromebooks for school the other week. I think they’ve been useful/nice to have thus far, but I don’t think the general consensus of the students is positive.

In classes when the teacher asks us to use paper/pencil for the notes or sponge or whatever, people aren’t happy. Why have chromebooks if we’re barely going to use them?

“Well it is only the second day since we got them.” I say in my head, “The teachers aren’t fully adjusted to them and are still testing the waters and seeing how they can cooperate them into each of their classes.”

Well, anyway, I’ve been using mine a lot. It’s really nice to have, basically, a working laptop around. The other laptop that I use, as I have mentioned in previous posts, has distorted colors and buttons that don’t do what they’re supposed to.

But, it isn’t quite like a fully functioning laptop. There are many things blocked by the school, so I still have to use other devices to get the entirety of the internets. Can’t go on Facebook (because “Website contains prohibited Friendship content.” (cause friends aren’t allowed anymore, apparently)) or any social media for that matter. Also can’t get onto brandonsanderson.com or boardgamegeek.com. I also can’t sign into any email that isn’t @fallongreeenwave.com, which means I can’t sign into my regular email or into my mom’s email (which means I can’t make new blog posts). I’m actually typing this on a google docs on my chromebook, and then I’m going to transfer it to my blog from a different computer. However, I can get onto nedroid.com, xkcd.com and iwastesomuchtime.com, which is a plus.

You can also get onto youtube, so I watch videos from my chromebook now. Some anime websites are up too, so I can watch anime also.

You can also play games from unblocked sources. Right now I’ve been playing a lot of cat ninja, getting better and faster at beating the game.

Also, I’m 16 now. Guess dating’s a thing? Got a phone also.

When...

When this comes in the mail so you continue to procrastinate your homework so you can be pumped

Had a few minutes

Had a few minutes before I go off to bed, so I thought that I would write a quick blog post about whatever. Figured putting up something small would be better than nothing.
Random note: I was hungry this morning and I went to brush my teeth and it upset my stomach.
Anyways, Nedroid is still really good. Went back and read a few of them again and, man, they are pretty funny. The most recent one (as of 9/25/16) is really good. I've already shown my sister and parents that one. Hannah really got a kick out of it for some reason. She thought it was because she was so hungry that she was like "Crispy bikes sound good to me!".
And to think that all of the comic strips are canon in some way...
My birthday's coming up. 15 days from now I'll be turning 16 which is pretty crazy. Don't really know what I want yet. Haven't really had my eye on anything particular other that things We have already ordered (Seafall, DOW: A long night, Dominion: Empires).
Watching a lot of anime recently. Got into a new anime that is 148 episodes long, the first 100 episodes being on Netflix. Watched 123 thus far. The most recent story arc is dragging out a bit, but it's been really fantastic. Wish I would have recorded when I watched the first episode so I could see how fast I've gone through them.
Haikyuu!! season three coming soon!
Baby Steps season three confirmed!
Pretty pumped about those two. (although I already know what's going to happen in Baby Steps (I thought the anime would have finished the manga (obviously that is not the case since there is a season three) and I wasn't sure if season three was ever going to exist, so I caught up on the manga reading the new chapters as they come out) but it will still be fun seeing it go into the animation form)

Games and Homework

Okay, what I don't understand is how Hannah somehow pulled us all (both parents included) out of our beds at 9:52 pm to play a game of Zooloretto. Of which we have already played twice the same day.
Anyways, didn't get to a blog post a couple weeks back due to homework, and should probably be working on it now instead of writing this, but I'll procrastinate some more. As I suspected the A.P. English and A.P. Psychology combo does hurt. With one or two modules due per week (each taking 1-3 hours depending on length) and a chapter due each week along side it (each taking .75-2 hours depending on length) it hurts. Especially because I wait until the last day to do things. Procrastinating is not a good habit to get into.
Depending on my workload you will see more or less blog posts in the upcoming school year, I'll still try to put out a post at least once every 2 weeks, but (obviously) that can change.
But, hey, who cares, right? Because Dominion: Empires came in a week ago, so I've been spamming that. Well, as much as I can. Only played 6-7 games thus far.
Fun story of the week about Dominion: Empires:
There's an event called Tax where when you buy it you can put debt tokens on a card. The first person to buy that card must take all the debt tokens on it. (Debt is money that you can spend latter. Ex. I buy a two costing card with two money, but it had two debt on it. The next turn I would have to spend two coin to get rid of the debt before I can buy anything). Thomas didn't really want to play, so he bought as many taxes as he could with extra buys etc. and put debt on all the good cards. The Provinces had 12 debt tokens on it at one point when I bought it. And then Joseph, who takes the turn after me, just picks up a province with none. It was terribly great.
Anyways, let's end on some bad and good news:
Bad News: Haven't played a game of Ashes in over two months :(
Good News: Seafall and Dead of Winter: A Long Night/Roberta Plum should be coming early October. :)

Seafall, School exists

Seafall instructional video is out made by Rodney Smith (I mean, who else would it be?): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJjoxACoVuM
Haven't watched it yet, but I plan to watch it a couple times and read the rulebook while I wait for a time to play it.
But how are we going to play it? My brother Eric mentioned this in his blog post: Bingeing Seafall.
And, yea, they did get gobbled up quick at GenCon. There were only a few copies left by the time the pre-hour was up. (pre-hour isn't the official name, but you can buy a special ticket thing that let's you get in an hour before everyone else, so you can buy games and stuff). They only had very limited quantity, however, due to the fact that they had to fly them in. They made very little money on that first exposure of Seafall.
Anyway, Seafall is not something that should be binged (at least according to Rob Daviau (the designer). But the problem is Rob also suggested (I forget where) that Seafall is a game where you want a core group. In Risk Legacy and Pandemic Legacy it was okay if you had a person or two switch out every game or every other game. However in Seafall it's best if we get the same 3-5 people to play every single game. That is going to be very difficult to get around since we don't want to binge the games. If bingeing the games was good. We would just wait for a Christmas Break where My brothers and I were all at home at once and the play all the games over the course of a week or two. Anyway, we'll see what happens.
Also, school exists. And man is it scary. I'm taking Spanish 2, A.P. English, Video Production 2, Honors Algebra 2, World History, Honors Chemistry and A.P. Psychology.
My easier classes are: World History, Honors Algebra 2 and Video Production 2. That doesn't mean they don't have work and stuff, it's just the easier work out of my classes.
But what I'm really afraid of are the other four: Spanish 2, A.P. English, Honors Chemistry and A.P. Psychology. A.P. English + A.P. Psychology = a lot of notes. Spanish 2 + Honors Chemistry = a lot of studying.
We'll see how it goes.

Scout Camp and Grandma's house

Fun Fact of The Day: in my last post every time I typed the word 'the' I put it there twice. Did you notice? Always wanted to do that.

Another Fun Fact of The Day: apparently twenty one pilots is normally not capitalized, went back and fixed that.
Anyway, right now I'm in a predicament where I just finished an emotional anime and, man, it was good. The ending was so perfect even if it made heart cry a little. And now instead of writing about how awesome it was I'm writing about Scout Camp and my Grandma's house (huh, guess we never do say grandpa's house, always grandma's).
Tis' fine though. They were a great two weeks.

Scout Camp:

This was my first time going to Camp Fleischmann for an actual scout camp. It was interesting week due to the fact that only two other scouts went with me instead of the normal 5 or more. But it was fine since we got the same campsite as two other troops. One from Fernley and the other from Silver Springs. I recognized several of the them and over the week I felt as if the young men all grew close together.

All three troops group photo. We called ourselves the 'Triple Treat'.

There were three major things I accomplished there (other than merit badges (of which I got: Archery, Art, Camping, Reptile and Amphibians, and a partial on Astronomy)).
Archery was one of them. I shot pretty good, I guess. I got the top end of the summer (top score with 6 arrows (I got 51, was latter beat with a 56)) and the top round of the summer (top score of 5 ends consecutively (but if you kept going you can replace a lower score with a newer, better one (I think I went 8 ends. The best 5 totaling with a score of 238 (I kept this high score))). So, yeah, that was pretty sweet.

My dad and I posing with our amazing targets filled with arrows.

Weekly scores pass from week to week meaning I beat all the other weeks' scores too.

Off topic, but: slaughtering Ben in some Capture the Flag.

Next up is when I got my Free Trapper. In order to get Free Trapper award you need to do five things: 1. Compete in the Blanket Shoot (I did so (obviously), however it was my first time shooting black powder, so I did not do so well).
2. Start a fire with flint and steel within a minute. Did this on my first try.
3. Tippee etiquette. Took about 15 minutes, and I learned some cool stuff about tippees while I was at it.
4. Teach a younger scout to throw a tomahawk properly. I taught my cousin Ben who got the hang of it pretty quick.
5. The toughest one of all. Stick 15 tomahawks consecutively. I think my entire chain history (other than the beginning when I was just trying to stick one) was: 5, 7, 5, 5, 8, 16. Your heart is beating rather fast when you're about to throw the 15th. It was a lot of fun.
I got this award:

Got a cool pin.

And now my favorite one. The Seneca Run.
Start of with Tomahawk throwing. 3 Tomahawks. 3 points per stick. +1 point if you get all three. I stick two: 6 points. (except for the fact that they only gave me 3 points (probably because one wasn't stuck fully and was kinda of just hangin' around on top of a log (but earlier when we were practicing they said those counted, so....))).
Run over to Shooting. Do all proper procedures, but miss target. 8 points.
Go to fire starting. Goal: Start a fire in under a minute with Flint and Steel (and Char Cloth). This was the second time I have ever tried. My first was for my Free Trapper that I got on my first try, so it had to be easy, right? Indeed. 10 points.

Fire soon to be.

Run all the way up the hill to Archery. (well, walk part of it, got to get my breath controlled for shooting) The day before I had gotten the top end and top round, so I felt pretty confident.... Wait a second these are re-curve bows, not the compound ones I was used to. Aimed in the same spot I did for compound. Was not a smart Idea. 0 points.
Run all the was down the hill, by all of the campsites, pass a couple of scouters where I make the joke that the Seneca Run was the only time I could run in camp, so I had to take it, right?, passed the medic shaft to the climbing wall. Which I hadn't been to before this week, so I had to ask for directions... hurt my time a little, but it should be fine. Scurry across the wall earning a solid score of 7.
Run down to the waterfront, where I paddle as fast across the river as I can. Followed most of the procedures earning a score of 9.
Then the long run all the way back to the ridge where I clocked in at a time of 20 minutes and 49 seconds. Pretty good. Turns out I made (time-wise) third place giving me 11 extra points (you get one point per person you beat including yourself (there were 13 kids participating)).

During award ceremony, I was announced as 4th place with a total score of 48 (would have 3rd if they counted that one hawk). I was pretty happy with myself. But there are two more cool nuggets. 1. The top 5 (which is what they announced) was all from our campsite. Go Triple Treat! The other cool nugget was that I beat Noah (the guy who came in 5th) by one point, but you see the thing was he had 7 more points than me from the activities. However I got 11 points from time and he only got 3, putting me at one point above, nice!

Grandma's House

After hearing my exciting, riveting adventures at scout camp you get to hear my laid back adventures at Grandma's house. Yay!
Being in Oregon was also pretty different this year due to the fact that I was the only kid there. I kind of just did my thing each day. It was kind of like being at home except grandparents were there and I could watch TV.
I did several things when I was there including:
1. Playing Tennis. Although I did not have any siblings that actually played Tennis to face against, we got my dad a tennis racket. We hit a ball back and forth a little bit and after he got tired I would hit against the wall that was there. I knew that Tennis practice was going on back home and I didn't want to fall behind, so I went and hit against the wall by myself (with a parent reading/watching me) also.

2. Playing some games with parents / grandparents.
2. Finish Bands of Mourning. Man, this book blew my mind about the world of Scadriel, now it's time for Mistborn: Secret History to do the same.
3. Finish the last few episodes of Steins;Gate. This was the time travel anime that I mentioned I should talk about in my post: 'Anime'.
4. Start (and finish the next day at home) Your Lie in April. The anime that I mentioned at the start of this blog post. And, man, my wounds haven't finished closing yet.
5. Watched some new episodes of Cutthroat Kitchen. One guy actually played really well and saved his money until the very end while his opponent did not. He had, like, 22,000 dollars and the other person only had 5,000. In the last round for every single sabotage he bid 5,000 dollars giving the other person all three of them and still having 7,000 dollars left over. He won, obviously, and left with a good chunk of money.
Also there was a round/episode where the dish was French Fries. This guy got sabotaged with having to give away all of potatoes and getting only mashed potatoes instead. He was awesome and ended up making the best French Fries out of all of them.
Oh yea, and another round/episode where one person bought the exclusive right to salt/seasonings and yet ended up with the least seasoned dish out of all of them. Alton gave her a confused look when he was passing.
6. And of course, the ocean.

Reality

         This is just a post, not the the 'real one'. You'll get a lengthy-er post in a week or so. (yea! back to back posts!)
         Okay, has anyone had a minor problem about getting your dreams mixed with reality? For example last night I had a dream and during part of it I talked to my cousin about what place I got in the the Seneca Run and my whole experience during the the Seneca Run (an experience which I will retell to you during my next post).
         But before I told him I asked him if I had already told him. Which confused me when I woke up. In case you don't know I'm kind of half-lucid during all my dreams (I'm able to control many major and several minor actions), so I assumed that the the me when I was dreaming knew what he was talking about. Had I already told my cousin about the the Seneca Run? What? No, of course not. I hadn't even seen him since the the Seneca Run and have had no contact with him.
         Being half-lucid during all my dreams has added this layer to my memories. Did that happen in my dreams, real life, daydreams? Etho (youtuber that I occasionally watch) once talked about one of his friends having this problem. His friend had the the ability to be lucid in all of his dreams, controlling his actions and so forth. He was having trouble distinguishing what was real and what wasn't. At first I was confused. Whenever I had a lucid dream I could easily tell that I was dreaming. But it turns out he wasn't talking about during the the dream or real life (AKA inception version) but after the the dream / real life. Not knowing what you have truly done or not. He has it a lot more than I do it appears.

         Also a note about Music that I've been listening to. I did not include Tyler's album No Phun Intended due to the the fact that it was made by Tyler and not the the band twenty one pilots. Perhaps in a later post I will redo my list of my favorite twenty one pilots songs and include it. I would also make the the categories much more specific including only 5-7 songs max in each one and preferably having only 3-5 in most of them.

Happy Esther Day! Love you all!

Anime

It's kinda crazy how much time I have spent watching anime. I decided to run some quick numbers to see roughly how long it has been. I looked on Myanimelist.net and saw all the recorded episodes I have watch. When I added them together it came to a total of 345 episodes.
That's a lot right there, but that's without Naruto and Naruto Shippuden. You see, Naruto and Naruto: Shippuden have lots of filler episodes (episodes that are there for various reasons however, they do not develop the plot in any way (they are there to try to not catch up with the manga (manga is the comics that anime comes from) to make money or other) I skipped them since they didn't develop the plot or characters and there were so many). So even though I recorded that I've watched all of Naruto and 143 episodes of Naruto: Shippuden, I've only actually watched the cannon episodes. So I had to do some more math and it came out that I have watched 468 episodes of Anime. That's quite a bit. (But really it's nothing compared to a lot of people)
Assuming that on average the anime episodes last around 21 minutes each, I have watched 9,828 minutes of anime. That is 163.8 hours. Hmmm, that is more than I thought it would be. But that is not to say it was not worth it. Anime is often incredible. My favorite two animes thus far are "Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood" and "Haikyuu!!" (and "Haikyuu!! second season" which to me is part of the same anime) (the title of the anime has two exclamation marks btw).
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is about two young boys who use alchemy to preform human transmutation to try and bring their mother back. Human transmutation is strictly banned by alchemists. The transmutation goes wrong and one brother loses an arm and a leg (which latter get replaced by automail) and the other loses his whole body with his soul being attached to a suit of armor. They are traveling to find a philosopher's stone which, allegedly, can break the alchemic law of equivalent exchange (which states something like "for something to be gained something of equal value must be lost"). There goal is to find the philosopher's stone and use it to get there bodies back.
FMA: Brotherhood is a 64 episode anime.
Haikyuu!!'s premise is much less exciting, but that doesn't mean it is worse than FMA: Brotherhood. In Haikyuu!! a boy in middle school picks up volleyball and practices hard (although that doesn't mean is very good). Although he is short he makes up for it with his large jump. He develops a team, but gets crushed in the first round of the tournament by someone who is called the "King of The Court". The main character vows he will become better than him. (that all happens in the first episode or so) But it turns out to not be so. When he goes into high school it turns out that he and the "King of The Court" will be on the same team. Together with the other members they strive to win the tournament(s) by hard work and trying to work together without too many arguments.
Haikyuu!! is two 25 episode long animes with a third season coming out this fall.
This only part of what I want to tell you about Anime that I have watched. I'll have to talk about Ping Pong: The Animation (that is literally its name), Baby Steps, Death Note (an anime that each episode is so emotionally draining and bleak that I have yet to finish it) and the awesomeness of Time Travel in Steins;Gate.
Anyway I have to wake up at roughly 4 am tomorrow for scout camp, so I should probably get to bed soon.

Music that I've been listening to

I haven't started listening to music until just this summer, actually. Sure I heard music that my Mom listened to and the music that was just going on in the background, but I never actually decided to plug in some music in my earbuds and listen.
A couple times my friends at school asked me what music I like to listen to. I just responded that I listen to no music, maybe a little twenty one pilots. I would rather use my ears for other things. Such as youtube videos, reading (well you don't use your ears, but if you are listening to music and reading at the same time it gets a little distracting), watching anime (anime is a whole different blog post, perhaps next time), and just, well, talking to people.
I've been listening to twenty one pilots (not bothering to cross the o's) and a little Cavetown recently. 
To start, I'm going to put all twenty one pilots in one of four categories. 1. My favorites, 2. My 2nd favorites, 3. Pretty good, 4. Good?. They are in no specific order within each category.
Now for the unnecessary notes about my list:

• For category 4 I have a specific reason for each song, I know they're good and enjoyed by many (including me), but there is a reason why they are not in category 3 or higher (which I will explain).
• Several of the songs have two versions. One from their album Regional at Best the other from Vessel. The Regional at Best version is the original and the Vessel version is the "remastered" version. For the songs if I don't specify that it is from Regional at Best assume it is Vessel. Even though they are slightly different (so therefore should probably be separate from one another) I'm going to group them as one song.
• There are a lot of songs in Category 3 which I should probably split into two categories, but I'm not going to for simplicity's sake.
• I'm going to link to each song on the song. (ex. click on Tear in My Heart and it will take you to a youtube video playing Tear in My Heart.)
• Some songs that have there music videos have an opening (ex. Guns For Hands has a lot of silence) this is not part of the song.
• Might have missed one or two of their songs

Category 1:
Tear in My Heart, Polarize, Not Today, Friend, Please (Friend, Please is one song, not two), A Car, a Torch, a Death (also one song, not three), Trapdoor, Semi-Automatic, Fake You Out, Guns For Hands, Trees, Forest, Glowing Eyes
Category 2:
Fairly Local, The Judge, Doubt, We Don't Believe What's on TV, Message Man, Screen, The Run and Go, Kitchen Sink, Lovely (specifically the Vessel Bonus Track, the Regional at Best version is too auto-tuned), Heathens (their most recent song. on Suicide Squad song track)
Category 3:
Car Radio, Ride, Lane Boy, Goner, Migraine, Truce, Holding On To You, Implicit Demand For Proof, Johnny Boy, Oh Ms Believer, March To the Sea, Addict With A Pen, Hometown, Fall Away, The Pantaloon, Taxi Cab, Air Catcher, Slowtown, Isle Of Flightless Bird, Anathema, Ruby, Be Concerned, Clear, House of Gold (fun fact: did my Vid Pro music video on House of Gold).
Category 4:
Stressed Out. Stressed Out is their most popular songs and so I kind of shy away from this song. Obviously it is a really good song (or else it wouldn't be super popular), and I enjoy it, but it is over played.
Heavydirtysoul. Heavydirtysoul is a good song, but for me the really fast rap at the beginning makes me feel a little uncomfortable when I'm in a group of people and it's playing. Lane Boy also has quite a bit of rap, but sense it is slower and I've memorized half of it the problem is less for Lane Boy (same applies to Migraine).
Ode to Sleep. Also has several rapping parts, although one is slower, kind of the same speed as Lane Boy. Also has the word 'whore' (lyrics: "Metaphorically I'm a whore, and that's denial number four.") which is the closest thing to a cuss word in any of their songs. (The only other 'cuss word' is in The Judge where they say 'hell' (but they're using it as the place, so it doesn't quite count (lyrics: "I know my soul's freezing. Hell's hot for good reason")) However, I would argue (argue to myself that is) that I prefer this song over many of the songs in Category 3.

I also mentioned something earlier called 'cavetown' that I've listened to a little. Cavetown is this guy (well, teenager, he's only 17) that makes music and youtube videos. I've only recently discovered him (I think, like, 7 days ago) I've only listened to his songs once or twice each. (Once for most, twice for the ones that caught my eye (ears?))
I really enjoy This is home and Devil Town. Banana Bread is pretty good too. (Well all his songs are 'pretty good', so.....) (Note: Banana Bread has a 1 minute 45 second opening that you might what to skip if you were planning on listening to it (also has a 40 second ending)) (on a different note, Banana Bread has this line that I don't understand: "it’s a little tough, to put acorn shells on ice sheets without breaking through, and flooding the whole town", any thoughts?) He also makes some pretty snazzy twenty one pilots covers. Note: a couple of his songs have cuss words ex. Hug all ur friends.

Every two weeks, one? + board games

I don't enjoy putting myself on a schedule. Especially if I tell people what the schedule is. If I'm like "I'm going to do a post every week" to myself that's fine. I'll strive for that goal and if I fail it's fine. However, if I tell everyone I'm going to do that I might be better at it at the beginning, but when I fail it hurts and I just stop doing anything for a while.
That's why right now I'm going to be like, "I'm going to make a post every one or two or three or four weeks or maybe even longer than that if I really don't feel like writing anything." Basically my plan for writing blog posts is at least once a month, although hopefully a little more frequently. Or not. (you see what I did there? I added that "Or not" at the end that way if I fail I won't feel like I failed you just myself, aren't I tricky :P (well, except for the fact that adding that on counter acted my point, but whatever))
Also board game list has changed a little. Pandemic Legacy and Ashes switched places making Ashes my favorite board game of all time at this moment. I did this change because Joseph keeps claiming that Dominion is my favorite game of all time, but I keep resisting. I don't feel like it is. There are too many times where I just don't feel like playing it to make it my favorite (although right now I'm on a Dominion craze. Playing through the suggested sets of Adventures to finish off The Card (well until Empires) (have I told you about The Card? I'll have to if I haven't (And I know I haven't) because it is awesome!))
Every time I'm just like, "I don't know Pandemic Legacy is a pretty good game." But it didn't feel right. Sure my 18 straight or so games of Pandemic Legacy will definitely be better than any 18 straight games of Dominion. However, I have played Dominion far far more than 18 times. I have played hundreds of games of Dominion with 80 or so on record (due to The Card).
However, I don't feel bad about saying that I prefer Ashes over Dominion. I love the game, I love deck building, I love the art, I love the publisher, I love the designer, I love the release schedule, and I love the community that it has. Especially because I am a part of it. With Dominion it's just me and my family playing Dominion. With Ashes it's just me and a 1,500 people that I get to interact with and talk about the game with. (granted not nearly that many people actually post or respond to anything, but you get the jist (also, is jist a word, and if so how do you spell it? because it says that is not how you spell it and jest doesn't look right)
On a different note, I made some mini expansions for 7 Wonders: Duel and Castles of Burgundy. I showed my mom the mini expansions and noted on how they were expensive for how little you were getting. She said we should make our own. So we did. The tiles and the card are laminated (although the edges of the tiles are exposed due to the lamination not being tight enough (due to the tiles being too thick)) The pictures aren't the best quality.
Castles of Burgundy first since it doesn't look as cool:

 

Obviously I made more tiles, these are just the different ones. As you can tell the art on my tiles is not even close to the art on the actual. I wanted a simple design that way I could be consistent in my drawings. A tent made sense.

The Counterparts

Actually don't know where the bottom left token is, so I might have to remake that. Which is fine because we actually messed up on it at first. I made an additional tent, so I had to take a permanent marker to it. The token itself is a building tile that acts like any other building tile, so I just put a black box over the tent and put question marks.

The Counterparts

 The back of the 7 Wonders: Duel wonder card. My mom did some quick art that actually looks really good. I just wish we had made it a bit darker.

My mom also did the art on this, although I did add a few touches. One of which was darkening the lines.

 

The actual card

The Community of Ashes: RotP and My Part in it

So Ashes is, like, a really fun game. When I faced against my siblings and cousins we only played the Pre-cons and Draft. We never really got big into the constructed. We played some and had a couple games with constructed decks, but we didn't go deep into the building process. The game was only an okay game at this point for me. I had the interest to get more into the competitive constructed games, but no way to do so.

During this phase, I began my journey with a small step into the early Ashes community. On a forum, someone was holding a mock Ashes draft. The person who was in charge gave us the options of what we can draft. Collectively we voted on which card we would pick by posting on the forum. I was one of those people. On the forum, I had conversations about which pick was the best pick. Eric was also there rereading my posts to make sure I didn't say anything stupid. Here was where I got the first taste of what it's like to be in a larger than you community. Talking with people you don't know, but still having fun talking about a game you enjoy.

The second step of my journey into the Community of Ashes was Ashes: Online. This is a closed Facebook group (but if you ask they let you in) which is the center of the Ashes Community. This is where everyone posts their questions, sees if anyone is in their area among other things. I have posted a few posts on there and was even the one to post the link to PlaidHat's solution to the Promogate problem. I joined the group when there were around 700 members (or less, don't remember). We are now over 1,500 strong. Due to it being a closed group no one except the people in the group can see the things I liked. That means I can like what I actually like and not be afraid of my friends judging me about how much I'm into board games. :)

The next step comes with the release of the expansions. The deck building possibilities grew substantially thus making deck-building an even bigger and more exciting part of the game. Seeing other people on Ashes: Online talk about their experiences with the new cards got me pumped to play some games. And I finally found the way to play with people online.

I face people who I find online, specifically people who are in the League that Erik (spelt with a 'k') Rodriguez (someone who, if you are any into Ashes at all, you probably know his name) created. This is my biggest step into the Ashes community. You sign up and get matched up with other people who have also signed up. You get two matches per week. We play our games through a steam game called Tabletop Simulator (tts for short). I use the mic that I bought to talk to the player I am facing. Over the course of many weeks, you end up playing everyone who is in the league. You get points depending on how well you do (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss). Your points rank you against the other players. The person with the most points is the top and the person with the least at the bottom. Here's what Ashes looks like on tts (I played part of a round with myself and then took a snip):





This layout if for playing games. There is another layout with all of the cards where you build your decks.

Random thing that I think is way cooler than it probably is: Another guy and I didn't get to play our match, so Erik marked it a draw and in the notes of the game, he always says "Match expired" or something to that effect. On mine he put this:

 Erik has read The Stormlight Archive!!

Anyway, at one point I was 2nd in the league.

This is especially exciting due to the fact that I am higher than players such as Erik (creator of the league and winner of the tournament at Tulsa (the biggest tournament that has ever been held (later lost to him in a match. (I made quite a few misplays plus he's a really good player, so I'm not surprised at all about the outcome (apparently he posted our game on youtube. Was not aware that I was being recorded, but I guess I'm cool with it. It's actually cool to see the game play out while seeing his cards. Here's the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoqKMqwDgpg))))), Elliot (winner of the first ever online tournament), Nick Conley (known for being a very good player (I later lost to him in a league match)) and Papa Pratt (who I and others consider the 'wise sage' of Ashes, father of Christian Pratt (member of The Main Action Podcast who is also beneath me in the league)). Only second to Kian Jones (member of The Main Action Podcast (beat him in a league match (guys, I beat Kian Michael Jones... that's crazy awesome!! (super exciting game too, where it came down to the last move where I double pinged (ping = deal one damage to) my unit killing it allowing me to play a card that when one of my units die I could deal two damage thus winning me the game!))))

Right now (6/12/16) on the league I am in spot number 12 with only 3 points. Many of the people I won against dropped out of the league making me drop points like crazy. I wish the league was set so it kept my points, but I guess it's not ment to be.

One thing about the league is rule number 8, which states, "This league is just for fun so don't take it too seriously." I think I might be breaking that rule a little...

However, recently Erik has created another league. This league is a ladder league. Where you are put into the league and can challenge whomever you want. Before it was set up that if you win you take their place and they go down a rank. The thing was you could challenge whomever you wanted. This is where I come in (well where Joseph comes in) he mentioned that there was little incentive to challenge any player except the top. I brought this up on ashesrules.slack.com (a place where you can talk anything ashes, similar to Ashes: Online but has more specific topics, I put in my thoughts every once in a while). Erik mentioned how he was thinking about that problem and shortly after changed it so you get ranked depending on your ELO ranking (a ranking system that gives you points/takes them away depending on the win-lose ratio of the opponent (and whether you win or lose, of course)). I helped make that happen!

Above I acted as if being a member of The Main Action Podcast is a high title, but what is The Main Action Podcast? The Main Action Podcast was the first podcast created on Ashes. (Only one other podcast has come out since then entitled: The Ashtray.) Here is the link to The Main Action's latest podcast: http://www.hipcast.com/podcast/HtWXpCYQ. They release a new podcast every two weeks with a new one coming out this Wednesday.

I even have a part in this too. I have been mentioned several times on their podcast (they ask questions and I respond to some they then read off my answer along with other people's answers).  Here are the times and episodes on which I was mentioned in case you randomly wanted to check it out. On Episode 13: Jessa I even won a Dimona Promo!
Episode 7: Summon Spells: 79:14
Episode 13: Jessa: 63:03 (build up) 63:56 (if you just want to hear them say my name)
Episode 15: Tulsa Wrap-Up: 83:29

Anyways, hope you enjoyed that lenghty read about my part in the Ashes community!

Stuff

I have several things to talk about this fine day. Let us start off with school. It is almost over! Have a few weeks left along with only one week left of Seminary. (On a slightly random note , I need to catch up on reading) I've been able to obtain and keep a 4.0 GPA (well 4.1 due to four honors classes) obviously that is subject to change due to the school year almost over; however, I believe that I can keep it that way.
Speaking of school the laptop is kinda killing me. (okay that has nothing to do with school, but it does!) With paper coming up (rough draft due tomorrow, final on Thursday (which I have yet to start (I have quotes, okay! I don't procrastinate thaaaaaat much))) I have to type a lot (well except for the fact that I haven't started typing as I mentioned before, but that is beside the point). Anyway, to get to the point several of the keys are not working correctly. The backspace makes equal signs, the enter doesn't work at all and the delete sometimes works other times it also makes an equal sign. So basically there is often equal signs everywhere. For example, I'm going to write as long as possible, once I misspell something I will try to use the backspace. I'm typing random stuff, what should I=t=p== =. Yep, that's what happens. And it's SUPER annoying. I have to highlight what I want to backspace and retype what I wanted there instead or use ctrl x to get rid of it. This may not seem like a problem, (which it really isn't compared to the problems humanity faces) but to constantly have to go back and forth between the mouse and the keyboard is excruciating. The other way is to use an on screen keyboard but is super slow.
Different subject: TONS of things are on pre-order. I also have no money. But seriously, Plaid Hat Games currently has Summoner Wars second summoners, Dead of Winter: A Long Night and Seafall on Pre-order. They also had the first expansion for Ashes on pre-order a couple weeks back. I'm going to buy Dead of Winter: A Long Night and Seafall (because, holy cow, if you pre-order Seafall it comes with metal tokens! That's amazing!)
Speaking about board gaming, my next post will be entitled: The Community of Ashes: RotP and my part in it. (RotP standing for Rise of the Pheonixborn) Because I'm (kinda) part of it! And it's exciting! 7

Overdue New Year/Christmas Post

This post should have come sooner but at last, it's here. This is where I go over what I got for Christmas etc. As you can see below I got some new board games and expansions so I will also be updating my favorite board game list.

 So let's start with 7 Wonders: Duel. It's definitely a different take on 7 Wonders and is definitely WAY better with 2 people than 7 Wonders is. I enjoy it immensely. I guess you could say it is more 'streamlined' than 7 Wonders. For example, with the chains it's just symbols, meaning you don't have to remember the names. Also, the science is a lot easier. If you have six different symbols you just win the game.

 The Castles of Burgundy I enjoyed a lot more than I thought. I got this game because it had a Black Friday sale so my mom asked if I knew about it/wanted it. It's rated number eight on boardgamegeek so I definitely had heard about it. But I wasn't sure if I wanted it. I looked into it and decided to get it. Glad I did.

 Aw, yes. The expansion to Five Tribes. The expansion that Andrew didn't know about and somehow still said, "What if there was an expansion for Five Tribes that added a sixth tribe and its color was purple?" Well, that's exactly what this is. I've only played with it once but I enjoyed it the time I played with it.

 I have yet to play this yet since I rarely get together with a big enough group of friends. But I know from past experience that this is a good game.

 Village Port is an expansion for Village that replaces the traveling spot. Instead of traveling on the land you travel on the seas. It is more complicated than regular traveling but that's expected from an expansion. I've only played this once but I enjoyed it a lot. I actually feel like going traveling instead of ignoring that corner of the board. And that's not just because it was new it was actually a good way to get victory points.
My brother, Andrew, also got me all but one of the Dominion promos (the other was out of stock). I've played with them a few times and even got a Scavenger-Stash combo going.

Oh, almost forgot. I also got a new Kindle for Christmas. This one is good enough to play Hearthstone on! It also has a camera which is what these photos were taken with.
Oh, and happy New Year I guess.7