Many people that have visited our house have been able to enjoy a relaxing game of Settlers of Catan, or two, or three, or more… For those of you that do not know about this game, it is a great turn based board game about building and exploration. Basically you collect resources, those resources are used to build roads and other settlements. You gain points by building settlements, cities, and a few other ways. You win by being the first to reach 10 points. There is a great Wikipedia article about the game here.

So why am I writing about it today, because I have heard that there is going to be a new Xbox360 game based on this game. Well I did not just hear, but I heard an update that it should be released in March or April. The game is going to be a Xbox360 Arcade game, this just means that it will be a little cheaper and you download it instead of buying it at the store. There are two great places to find out information about this new game, first is the official games website here, and there is also a Wikipedia article on it here.

We can not wait till it comes out…

How do we play??

So there are a few ways to play the game. First is the one that comes with the box, where all the tiles are placed in specific places and the numbers are placed on specific tiles and all the cities are placed. The goal behind this setup is that everyone has a fairly equal playing field. this is great for the first few times playing while you are learning about the game, but then it gets a little old. So the way that we play the game is that we start with all the tiles faced down. We go around the group each placing one settlement, then back around the opposite way to place the second settlement. After all the settlements are placed, we go around again turning over the tiles under a given settlement, then back around turning over the tiles under the second settlement. If a settlement is on all water, then the owner can move the settlement. At the same time, numbers get drawn randomly for all the lands, and ports rolled for on the water. All the other tiles remain face down, and can only be turned over when either a road is built along an edge or a boat is moved along an edge.

All in all, this is a fun game that changes every time that we play. If you have not heard of it, you should get it and get some friends together to play it. You need a minimum of 3 people to play, and if you want more than 4, you need to make sure to have the expansion pack. Just be prepared for the consequences, it is a very addictive game that is a lot of fun to play for all ages. Everyone in the family has won, even Katie.

-Matt

PS. I just came across a program for playing Catan, there is a local version and also a network version. Very interesting. I have played it a little bit, but there is no AI, so playing without anyone else is not too interesting. Check it out here.

Matt and I attended a party hosted by one of my co-workers titled “The Anti-Valentine’s Day Party”. Now one would imagine this means you can’t stand Valentine’s day and are simply creating a support group for single people during this sappy holiday. But no, as the hostess so wonderfully proclaims, this is not against love or romance, it is simply to make fun of the commercialized “day of love” and pretty much destroy decorations and the things that most of us grew up knowing as Valentines propaganda.

This was the 7th annual party, the first Matt & I attended… Activities included breaking heart cookies with hammers, popping red & pink balloons with sharp objects and fire, crushing the candy hearts with a mortar and pestle, burning kid’s Valentine cards, cutting them and creating “Frankensteins”, melting and mushing heart shaped candles, and of course… can’t forget the mutilation of Cupid, the Pinata!!!

More pictures here

So I have started working on a new version of this site. I have changed the look and navigation, hopefully to make it look better visually and easier to navigate. Also, when I am done creating this new site, I will upload it to the main site and start my photo gallery from scratch. After this summer (when Powweb decided to upgrade my web hosting server) I have had issues, and it has prevented me from updating the images as much as I would have liked to. Also it has caused some other issues that I have not decided the best way to address these issues… Namely the slow loading of the content.

So, without any more ado, feel free to check it out while I work on it. (Warning, everything does not work, there are things that I have to fix and other things that will just need to wait until I am ready to deploy. http://newsite.Learnfamily.com.

-Matt

Why have I not been posting random things here as much? That is because I am currently using Google Notebook to keep track of my thoughts as I visit web sites. I used to post random things not only to let other people know, but also so that I would remember the links myself. With Google Notebook, there is a nice little plug in that allows me to add entries to my notebook while I am on a given page.

The best part about Google Notebook is that I can see my notebook on any machine that I am on that has access to the internet. I can either use the plug-in or go directly to the Google website. I also tend to share my notebooks with Cindy… I am sure that sometime in the near future I will figure out how to share my notebooks and integrate them with the rest of my site… Look for that soon enough… (When I have some time)

-Matt

Lego just announced a new program where you can design your own creation through some of their software, then actually order a kit so that you can build your design. Just imagine creating your own Lego set that could build your own house or something like that. Yeah, sure you could buy several lego kits so that you can get the peices that you need, but this is a lot more fun.

The site is called the Lego Design Factory. You can visit their site here. From there, you can download the software that you need to create your creation. Then after you are done, upload the design to their website and order away. You can also make your design public so other people can see your design and order it themselves… How cool is that?

-Matt