On the Brink is an expansion for the game Pandemic. I have played Pandemic several times and have always enjoyed it. It’s a great cooperative game with all the players working together to prevent a world-wide pandemic outbreak by researching and developing cures to diseases as they spread across the globe. The best part is that we actually beat the game about half the time.

On the Brink adds new components and optional rules to the game. There are challenges like Virulent Strain, Mutation, and Bio-Terrorist. These additional elements can be mixed and matched to make the game as hard as you want.
Because this is an expansion you have to have a copy of Pandemic to play it.
I am looking forward to reading through the rules and playing a session or two.

I figure my walking time will increase by about 15 minutes.

I will take my camera and get some pictures of the new building and the new center to post here shortly.

Forbidden Island is a new game from the designer of Pandemic. It is a cooperative game where the players are trying to retrieve treasures from a sinking island. It’s a race against the game’s mechanics. I haven’t had a chance to read the rules yet, but just glancing through them it seems fairly easy to figure out. I’m looking forward to playing this one.
The other game is a card game – Family Fluxx. It’s one of the many Fluxx games which use the same rules and mechanics as standard Fluxx so it should be a lot of fun.

On the trip I also took out my old classical guitar to see if it could be repaired. It has a slight warping issue. Unfortunately, the guitar repair shop said it would be best to just retire the old guitar. But it does still play so I am going to restring it anyway. I did look at some of the guitars they had but the prices were quite a bit out of my range.

Later at the mall we walked past a music store that also had guitars. These were a bit less expensive since they were factory instead of hand made. But they did not have a classical guitar similar to what I was seeking. Then we spotted their selection of electric guitars and saw this combination that was too good to pass up. So I bought the follow:

It’s a Fender Squier with amp and all the accessories. I used to have an electric guitar, but traded it to a kid back in 1971 for a set of skis and a ski rack. It will be interesting and fun to play with an electric again after all these years.

Batman: Under the Red Hood

I have read a lot of good things about this one and really enjoyed all the other animated features they have released thus far. I am looking forward to taking the time to watch this one along with all the extra features.
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After seeing this picture online I decided it would be worth building a two story house just to have a staircase like this one:

I received an email from Liz. She informed me that since LaRue and I will be coming to Provo this Friday, she was not going to mail my present to me. I have to go to her house to pick it up:

I’m really excited to get this. It reminds me that I need to take my guitar to the music shop and have it looked at. It’s slightly warped and some of the strings do not clear the frets quite enough when playing resulting in the distorted sound. I took it to the guy several years ago for some work and he raved about the sound quality. I have had this guitar since 1964 and it was about 40 years old then. I like it a lot but would consider buying another one just for practice playing.
Anyway, I’m quite anxious to get this book and start playing some more.

To begin with is the first Tarzan movie ever made – the 1918 silent film Tarzan of the Apes. Edgar Rice Burroughs was involved with this movie and it shows. The story depicted here is the closest to the actual novel than any movie has ever been since. The movies starred Gordon Griffith as the young Tarzan and Elmo Lincoln as the adult Tarzen. Enid Markey was Jane. Because he portrayed the young Tarzan it is technically correct to say that Gordon Griffith was the first actor to be Tarzan.

The second one is the 1935 film The New Adventures of Tarzan. It shows Tarzan as the character he was in the novels – an English Lord. This film is a condensed version of a 12 part serial – Tarzan and the Green Goddess.
I think that when this film was released a lot of people had never seen much footage of Africa because there are very long segments of scenery inserted into the film; almost too long. Having seen this I ordered the 12 part serial. Right now it is less than $6 on Amazon.

Links:
1918 Tarzan of the Apes I downloaded the 426 Meg DivX file.

New Adventures of Tarzan I downloaded the 3.5 Gb Mpeg2 file.

Elmo Lincoln

Enid Markey

Gordon Griffith

This house is located at 1702 Calumet Avenue in Beloit, Wisconsin. In 1954 it’s the address we lived at when I was 2 years old.

Earlier this afternoon I pulled out the old family album that has pictures going back to 1951. There are lots of old black and white pictures of my brother and me as babies. Near the end of the album that address was written above one of the pictures.

So, I went to Google Maps to see if the address still existed. And I found the house pictured above. I have verified it as the house where we lived by comparing the various Google views with pictures in the family album.

This is amazing because it is the only place I have ever found based on an address of anywhere we lived when I was growing up. I wish I knew some of the other addresses so I could search them out as well.

LaRue ordered me a nifty new hat. It’s an Indiana Jones type:

Andy, Laurie and Asher got me a gift certificate for Amazon.com. I’m excited about that because I have a couple of items in my Amazon shopping cart that I can now finish ordering.

The day before my birthday Andy, Laurie, Asher and I went to check out a game shop that we had never been in before. It was a small establishment but they have a really good selection of games and their prices are quite good; lower than anywhere else I have seen. Plus they offer board game rentals so you can play a game without having to buy it. Rental is just 10% of the purchase price. And if you like the game and want to buy it they apply the rental fee to the price.
But while we were there I picked up a little card game I have been interested in trying – Fluxx:

All in all it was a good trip out of town and a great birthday!