Print Story Christmas time is here.
Technology
By gzt (Tue Dec 28, 2010 at 05:40:49 PM EST) gzt, non-controversial, vaccines, skat, piquet, cards, aubrey, maturin, boat books (all tags)
I had a decent Christmas.

(19 comments, 814 words in story) Full Story

Print Story impossible games. and: Merry Festivus!
News
By gzt (Thu Dec 23, 2010 at 04:00:01 PM EST) gzt, festivus, airing of grievances, napoleon, belote, skat, cards (all tags)
Card games descended from Karnoffel seem impossible. Like this one: http://www.pagat.com/karnoeff/kaiserja.html Many board games seem like that to me, as well, and are unpleasant to play.

"No, instead, there's a pole. It requires no decoration. I find tinsel distracting."


(4 comments, 383 words in story) Full Story

Print Story no surprises
Motorbikes
By gzt (Wed Dec 22, 2010 at 04:52:29 PM EST) gzt, ereader, chess, cards, libertarians, elba (all tags)
No alarms and no surprises.

(4 comments, 444 words in story) Full Story

Print Story finals
Wizards and Hobbits
By gzt (Mon Dec 13, 2010 at 03:33:50 PM EST) gzt, alternative medicine, bloodletting, gaming, work, pie, aubrey, maturin, cards, television (all tags)
So, I have finals this week. Two classes. The one today won't be too tough, but the one on Wednesday might be a little rough. Fortunately, I don't need to get above the mid-80s in either.

“It’s not my nature to complain, but so far today we’ve have three movies, two filmstrips, and an hour and a half of magazine time.  I just don’t feel challenged.” – Lisa Simpson
“Of course we could make things more challenging, Lisa.  But then the stupider students would be in here complaining, furrowing their brows in a vain attempt to understand the situation.” – Principal Skinner

(32 comments, 970 words in story) Full Story

Print Story poking around the French
Photos
By gzt (Tue Nov 30, 2010 at 04:25:55 PM EST) gzt, ecarte, piquet, cards, ups, ffs, metropolitan, icon (all tags)
I poked around google in French to try to get more information on piquet, but eventually found my best resource was in English, Cavendish's treatise on the game.

(3 comments, 598 words in story) Full Story

Print Story Piquet, Écarté, Schnapsen
Games
By gzt (Mon Nov 29, 2010 at 02:11:50 PM EST) gzt, piquet, cards, gaming, stuff, things, travel, trains, training (all tags)
So I was looking for 2-player card games for the wifing unit and I to learn, and I think those are the ones I've settled on. One thing that makes it easier is that the first two use the same 32-card deck.

We got a bunch of suggestions from the book of faces when I asked about 2-player card games, but I figure I'll solicit for more here. I didn't like a bunch of the ones on the book of faces for a variety of reasons (for some reason, I don't like rummy-type melding games, I like trick-taking games), though a few are great and quite suitable for our purposes.


(7 comments, 580 words in story) Full Story