How do I know when my blog is alive?

All Game Night fans who have been unable to locate our undisclosed location or who would not be caught dead within its sacred precincts will have an alternative under the full moon this Monday, May 19. Game Night will be live blogged! Good God, y'all. Look for the excitement to begin around 6 cdt (that's 0000 zulu for you out of towners) as we unpack the wasabi peas, dig the Beam outta the fridge and blow on the dice. You are there!

Merrie Aprillie

Game One: "Pirate and Traveller": Another classic and this one truly and goodly vetted. A quick check of ebay will show that copies of this game were around in the fine year of 1910. Voe-dee-oh-doh! A noticeable difference in our 1960's copy (aside from the box and board graphics) was the change in spinner numbers. Adding big numbers like 15, 20 and 30 to small ones like 2 and 6 makes the game move at a much sharper pace I'm certain. Playing this made the gang realize where "Wide World" came from. (see older posts) Here we see our winner drunk with victory ...obviously!

Game Two: "Wyatt Earp": "Wyatt Earp, Wyatt Earp, brave courageous and bold ..." So obfuscant in the rule department that the crew nixed this one after reading 2 of the 13 pages of instructions. Whew! Thought we might have to think! Gah! Not our fault though, I mean, how difficult should a card game be?

Game the Third: "Simpsons Jeopardy": Here we have Dr. Kirby the undisputed King of Simpsons trivia, at least from our humble mob. I showed a distant second to his crushing and encyclopedic knowledge of all things "Simps". We sat in awed silence as the Doc snapped question after question in a manner that would have sent Alex Trebec shaving! My paltry $1500 earnings were like a laughable nothing to his near $100,000 sweep. Our only consolation is that we haven't burned nearly so many hours watching cartoons as he. Small comfort!

Frank can run but he can't hide

Actually it don't seem he can run either. Or drive very fast. Or even make out with Rachel Welch. Sad. "Lady in Cement". Then on to "House of Exorcism". They couldn't sell this as "Lisa and the Devil" and when "The Exorcist" hit it big they had the brilliant idea to throw in a priest and some more Elke Sommer and cash in. Explains the total senseless quality of it. And the frog barfing. Finally, "UFO". New to me but, then, my fanboy quotient is, apparently, meager. A pleasant Brit scifi confection circa '70. And speaking of confections we could use a bit of candy on this here blog. Maybe get us on the map (location undisclosed, of course). To that end I present the lovely Ms. Gabrielle Drake as Lt. Gay Ellis:

Tomorrow the World

Five people mark the tipping point between a hobby and a nascent hyperintelligence.

Five people is not a very big ask. Anything that people are passionate about should be able to gather together that many dedicated altruists. Since we are now constrained neither by location nor synchronous activity, the barrier to entry has become nearly non-existent. Just five people can easily enter into a pact to change the world. As their work catches on and catches fire, as they capture their collective intelligence, and as the social network forms, hyperintelligence will emerge. Everyone involved in the social network benefits from it, and every member of the network increases their own selection fitness by pursuing an altruistic end. They will be more effective in pursuit of their ends (insofar as those ends are those of the network), because of their participation within the network.

The Human Network "Hyperpolitics" cited in Global Guerrillas

Get that? "nascent hyperintelligence". Jeebus! I feel the corpuscles of my selection fitness pumping as I type. Good thing that the location of Game Night remains undisclosed to this day. There is a spectre that haunts a major midwestern railroad hub. Will we use our powers for good or be seduced by the dark side?

February Photoplay

What better way to open a Game Night than by testing our own unified field theory? Plus Barbara Bain. In a space suit. Moonbase Alpha me, baby!
I think we're a little over the age range for this one. Never stopped us before. Somebody has to screen these things for the youth. Involves lying and, well, "nuts". NSFW.
Game Night intruders beware! Admission to the GN clubhouse is by invite only. Just try getting by Zeus! Without a treat anyway.
Never saw this guy before. Be careful with those wasabi peas.
He does seem to know his way around the corporate jungle. Bluffing and back stabbing. Skills like these are just what an up and comer needs at Game Night.
Put down those peas, Dr.! The magic of timed photography. Don't forget that large format versions of all Photoplay pics (and, you never know, bonus pics) are available at the Game Night set of Link.n.Logs Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/23129636@N02/sets/72157603820898882/

February's Post Velentine Day Massacre

First Game: Space 1999. Ah the past! Wait ...the future ...no ...OK ...got it ...the past's vision of the future today! Basically this one was Chinese Checkers with the addition of a mad swirling vortex of interstellar galaxies spinning and whirling in the center of the board. Helena! Get my blaster! Not as entertaining as the TV show it's supposedly based on but still ...far from the worst game the gang has been subjected to. Professor Link showed us all how to land the Eagles. A successful choice for play, played successfully. I lost.

Second Game: Oh Nuts! So how appropraite is this for a game club? Four players grasp plastic walnuts from a tree trunk made of the same material and attempt to find colored

marbles hidden within all while fibbing to opponents about what they've got. Dumb? You betcha! Fun? Surprisingly so! Greg 'cracked' this one wide open leaving the rest of us to feel like 'shells' of ourselves! Dr. Kirby picked this '60's era gem up a gargage sale in the free box! Luck of the Squirrely! I lost again.

Third Game: How to succeed in business without really trying. Wow! At last a game of practical advice

for making it in the high powered world of Corporations!

Players work their way up through office levels to become the Chairman of the Bored. No ...wait ...B-O-A-R-D. This one was actually fun too, with many trips back to square one as each player stabbed and throttled the other in an attempt to reach the ultimate goal. The gamesters, not being total dopes, let the new guy win. Great play Dennis, We all hope it's not too lonely at the top! As for the bottom, yours truly managed to lose all three games. Hmm Got to work on my connivance! Positive reviews for this one all around.

Set the WABAC machine for ...

Many young people ask me, "Mr. Board (or Mr. Room, whatever), is Game Night just a recent phenomenon or is it a venerable institution with a rich and colorful history?" Whippersnappers. Where do they get their vocabulary these days? Anyway, the answer is "Yes". Now where did I put my glasses? What? Oh, right. Game Night does indeed have a long association with its undisclosed location.

Records are sketchy (and often scratchy) but a visit to the Game Night photographic archives has uncovered evidence of gaming activity as long ago as Pearl Harbor Day, 2005.

Ah, those were the days, hunting submarines with whatever that device was. But it wasn't always battle on the high seas. No there were islands to be taken as we rolled back the Empire of the Rising Sun.

But the high seas called again. In the words of Herman Melville:

Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off- then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can.

Pirate Night. Yo ho ho and a bottle of whatever we had.

But Game Night wasn't always about drinking and fighting. Well, it is always about drinking but not always about fighting. There were also nights to tax the old gray matter.

To tell the truth I don't remember playing that one. And then there's always the cutthroat competition for the almighty dollar -

And what's a game night among geeks without the Star Trek?

Experience Bij young man!

OK, that's as bizarre as it gets. Finally, a game that's not only pointless but seems to involve wheels of color. Do not adjust your sets -

Well, that's it tadpoles. A revolution is not a dinner party and Game Night, as you can see, is not all printed cardboard and tea cozys.