The Dispossessed

Twenty-five years after I had set my eyes on Ursula LeGein's 'The Dispossessed', I am finally reading it.

Goa and Power Grid

The thing that I liked about Goa is the multiple paths to victory. One can embark on various strategies and yet have a chance. Nothing deterministic there.

Power Grid on the other hand is tension-filled though I suspect somewhat deterministic despite an auction device. I will need to play more games.

Tongiaki

A light, fun, little game with an interesting cascading effect. I think there is potential here.

Assyria, Metropolys

The German boardgames session yesterday was great. Nikki had bought ten games from Fat Boy's the day before. He brought along 'Assyria' and 'Metroploys' which we enjoyed.

Maharaja

The optional inclusion of the Yogi had added quite a bit to the basic game of Maharaja which was already a fine, tension-filled game.

Shopping for books

Wow! The guys spent over three thousand dollars on books at Borders and Kinokuniya this evening. Scary.

Imperial

A game with a Diplomacy-like structure, a war bonds market and little else. It was a bore. The components were nice though.

A disguised train game? In a sense.

Idiots from Prudential

Two more idiots from Prudential called. One lady called a few evenings ago when I was purchasing paying for groceries at the supermarket and I told her to remove my name off the list. She hung up on me. Today, another idiot called and I told him that this was an intrusion and asked him to remove my name off the list.

These companies have no ethics. Their means of operating showed little concern for anyone.

313@Somerset, Centrepoint, Orchard Central, Illuma, Central, Square 2, Mandarin Gallery

I was at 313@Somerset yesterday. The layout was not dissimilar to that of Centrepoint, conservative with shops ringing a narrow atrium. However, it worked, unlike the labyrinthine Orchard Central, Central at Eu Tong Sen, Illuma, Square 2 with escalators flying all over, dead ends, dead spaces and more. Mandarin Gallery was small and simple and I thought that would work too.

313@Somerset, like the rest of the malls, had the usual chains. Nothing too unusual. The usual bland mix. However, unlike Orchard Central, Central and Illuma, 313 had big anchors like Zara, Brotzeit, HMV, Uniqlo, Marché. Illuma had a cineplex however.

I think it would not be difficult to see which new malls would be the losers.

The redeemer

Mr X of Store X is going to bring in Product X after all. Hmm... Perhaps, I am mistaken.

Am I too sardonic these days? Too cynical of the nature of my fellows?

2010 World Cup draw

The World Cup draw for 2010 is out!

Group A: South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France

Group B: Argentina, South Korea, Nigeria, Greece

Group C: England, USA, Algeria, Slovenia

Group D: Germany, Australia, Ghana, Serbia

Group E: Netherlands, Japan, Cameroon, Denmark

Group F: Italy, New Zealand, Paraguay, Slovakia

Group G: Brazil, North Korea, Ivory Cost, Portugal

Group H: Spain, Honduras, Chile, Switzerland

WOW! Group G! Scary. Group C and E look to be the easiest.

Observed

Observed last night at Harris bookstore at 313 @ Somerset: 'Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters' placed in the classics section.

Observed some time ago at Prologue at ION Orchard: Cyril Wong's volume placed in Science Fiction and Fantasy.

Hilarious!

Harris and Prologue belong to Popular. I think they do need to give their shelving staff more training.

Next game

I am looking at Dragon Age: Origins next.

Finishing Torchlight

Before I knew it, I have finished 'Torchlight'. Heh. It wasn't difficult at all on 'Normal'. Heh.

Fax photocopiers

Despite explaining my requirements to the sales people from Fuji-Xerox, Canon and Ricoh, they persisted in introducing models that cost between $2600 to $12,000.

Fuji-Xerox introduced two models that were $9,000 and $12,000 exclusive of GST. Canon presented two that were $8,000 and $10,000. And Ricoh, $2,600 and $4,950.

They deliberately did not present their lower product lines despite my constant reminders that my requirements were basic and that I was cost-sensitive. Oh well. They concentrated on their hard-sell, ignoring everything else and had probably their commissions in mind.

Ultimately, I picked up a KX-MB772CX based on B.'s recommendation from Harvey Norman's for $299.00. I set it up this morning and the machine has been satisfactory. $300 versus $12,000.