Happy Birthday to Yongjin

Another fun day

The past Saturday was Yongjin's birthday. Yongjin, Pei-Chen, and us decided to indulge ourselves at this special day. Started with delicious Korean BBQ for lunch. Then, Guitar Hero to help digest. Then, good dinner. Then, a board game. Sounded like a good plan.

Totof and I never been Korean BBQ for lunch. Totof was told the availability for lunch was different than that for dinner. The long beef rolls were not there for lunch. But, the short ribs were still available. Pei-Chen and I ate slowly while Yongjin and Totof ate swiftly. So, around 3 pm, these two boys already surrendered. But we girls were still up for another round. Quite worthy for the price.

We arrived Tototf's place at 3:15. Of course, we showed off Guitar Hero 3. We opened the Guitar Hero afternoon with Rolling Stones "Paint It, Black". Then, we turned guitars to Pei-Chen and Yongjin. They played in Pro Face-off mode which allowed players to play at the same notes if the difficulty for both was the same. They played Foghat "Slow Ride". Both got good note streak and high % note hit.

Totof's roommate Fabien joined us for Guitar Hero afternoon. We five people paired and competed. I liked Scorpions "Rock You Like a Hurricane" very much. I challenged Totof in Expert mode. I rocked him. Totof liked Muse "Knights of Cydonia" a lot. Since we had not passed this song in Co-op Career mode, we decided to leave the Pro Face-off and returned to Career for this song. We played every note carefully. We failed twice the night before. We knew this song was hard. We knew we needed to save some star power for some rapid series of hammer-ons and pull-offs. Strategically played. The rapid series of hammer-ons and pull-offs and up and down strumming impressed our guests. Of course, these parts also amazed ourselves. We passed this song. We were so thrilled.

Yongjin and Pei-Chen were talented. They tried songs across all 8 levels. Beastie Boys "Sabotage", Alice Cooper "School's Out', The Sex Pistol "Anarchy in the U.K.", The Smashing Pumpkins "Cherub Rock", Guns N' Roses "Welcome to the Jungle", Kiss "Rock and Roll All Nite"... nothing could stop them. Their % of hits got higher and higher. We said Medium was too easy, should tried Hard. They did. They tried Muse "Knights of Cydonia". This song was in Level 8. Notes were all over the place. Many rapid series of hammer-ons and pull-offs. The song was too much for people just switched from Medium to Hard. They decided not to pain their fingers much, so they went back to Level 1 for Hard mode. Foghat "Slow Ride" was a good performance. We played all the songs: Sonic Youth "Kool Thing", ZZ Top "La Grange", NAAST "Mauvais Garco, Mountain "Mississippi Queen", Eric Johnson "Cliffs of Dover", Iron Maiden "The Number of the Beast", and bonus tracks. Of course, we did not miss some early metal songs like Metallica "One". We did not skip some recent rock songs like songs in bonus store. Very fun. The designer of the Guitar Hero was genius.

We played Guitar Hero 3 and 2. Fabien got a phone call saying a friend called Marlene would join us for dinner. We decided to have a light dinner since the beef we had for lunch was still not digested completely. We went to Satsuma, a Japanese place, to have some rolls and nigiris. After the dinner, we went back to Totof's place.

Then, a board game night began. Which board game? Did you get the hint?

SAW II

Another astonish enigma

In SAW I post, I said we were thinking to watch another SAW sequence. We did. After SAW I, we decided to take some relaxing time. We had a light dinner. Then, the movie night began.

Two SAW movies in a row. What a day

The show began with another victim. You saw a guy with a helmet. The helmet has spikes on the front. You could tell if the helmet was close, the guy would die. The guy saw the monitor and the clip. He knew the key to open his helmet was under his right eye. If he wanted to survive, he needed to cut himself open. Another bloody scene. He did not make it.

Then, the scene turned to a detective. Apparently this time the Jigsaw wanted this detective involved. He even wrote down the detective's name on the ceiling.

The detective recalled something and so all the cops and SWAT's went to a steel factory. They found the Jigsaw. Like SAW I, the Jigsaw set up a trap. Three SWAT's were down by triggering the trap. The Jigsaw was calm. He said casually to the detective, a female cup, and the SWAT leader "you need to worry about the problem in that room". So they went to the room. Of course they did not trigger something to kill themselves. So they were extremely careful. They uncovered some monitors. In the monitors, the detective found his son was in a room with a group of people.

The room was locked. You saw the images from the monitors. But you could not heard anything. The Jigsaw said the room was locked. Around 10 people were there. The Jigsaw said in 2 hours poisonous gas would be released to fill the room. The lock would be turned on in 3 hours. So, if any in this room could survive in 3 hours, then would be free. Or, if any could solve the riddle and open the safe (the safe linked to a secret passageway to outside), they would be free. The Jigsaw hinted these people that everyone in this room linked to each other. You could not find the link among these people. They were types across the spectrum. Where was the link?

The detective wanted to save his son. You saw some good scenes between the Jigsaw and the detective. Meanwhile, you saw how people in that room reacted. Panic, selfish, desperate, scared... Some bully scenes occurred. People gradually discovered some nasty truth through the Jigsaw's tapes. People turned to distrust each other. The group split. Somehow the most dangerous person in the group found the way to open the safe (the way to get out). The way could be peaceful or violent. Just need to ask everyone to turn and reveal the number behind each other's neck. But this person did not choose the peaceful way. He did not want to work with others. He wanted to do everything in his own way. So, misunderstanding and distrust came. People were killed due to these two causes.

In a corridor, four people discovered the little boy was the son of the detective. In turned out everyone except the little boy in the room had some histories with this detective. Apparently the detective framed these people to some crimes they did not commit. These people suffered due to this dishonor frame. No matter how tense the detective's relationship with his son, he loved his son. He could not witness his son suffer for him.

The movie at that point gave a strong message to the audience. The detective was not a good person. He set people up and framed people in order to get some credits for himself. But, the Jigsaw was cruel. He wanted the innocent son to pay off his father's sin.

Then the detective went crazy. He just wanted to save his son. He compromised with the Jigsaw and pressed the button which allowed the area where the detective and the Jigsaw were to sink down to the garage immediately. They drove to the house. In the meantime, the female cop found the source of the signal. So all SWATs moved to that house too. The SWATS did not see any one in that house. But the house was the same house. What was going on? Then they discovered all the moves they saw from the monitors were not real-time. These moves had had happened some time ago. Then, a safe suddenly opened. You saw the son of the detective was placed inside the safe. He was alive.

Then, you saw the detective was trapped. Amanda set him up. You realized that the detective was who the Jigsaw wanted to capture.

An unpredicted movie.

Puerto Rico

Ranked number 1 at BoardGameGeek

Puerto Rico does not have dice. So, you don't win or lose due to luck. You win because your strategies are good. Not only that, your strategies need to take the player dynamics into account. A very intelligent game.

How to play this game?

My first Puerto Rico was with Totof, Antoine, Alex and Cedric. They spent 10 min to instruct me of the game rules.

Each player will be assigned a game board. There are building and crop spaces on the board. At the beginning, all spaces are available. No dice involved. At each turn, all players need to take a role and action. Some roles and actions help players fill the spaces while others help players gain money. Don't think you just need to fill out all the spaces as quick as possible. You need to fulfill spaces strategically (not just fast). The goal of this game is to accumulate victory points as many as possible. Players gain victory points by actions.

Resources (crops):

There are five resources: Corn, Indigo, Coffee, Sugar and Tobacco. Players must try to run their business more efficiently than their close competitors

Roles:

Each turn, players can choose roles. No roles can be chosen twice. Some roles are played by all players while others are just played once.

1. Settler:

Each player can select a plantation and this new plantations will be revealed. The drawing of plantations is the only random element of the game. Remember, no dice involved.

2. Builder:

Players may buy one building with doubloons (money).

3. Mayor:

Players receive colonists to operate plantations, quarries, and buildings. The first person to play this role gains an extra colonist.

4. Craftsman:

Operated plantations and production buildings started producing goods.

5. Trader:

Players can sell goods to the trading house for doubloons.

6. Captain:

Players can load goods onto the ships for victory points. Loading continues in order until no one can make further shipments. The person who loads the most gains extra victory points.

7. Prospector:

No action. Just receives one free doubloon.

Game mechanism:

The game has three steps: choose a role; take the action appropriate to that role (the player who chooses the role first gets a small additional privilege); gain victory points. Players get victory points for owning buildings, for shipping goods, and for operating "large buildings".

The fun is that no one knows other players' shipping points. So you behave like a spy. You try to peek. To tell you the truth, I disliked this game the first time I played it. I was so doomed at that time since I was the only one who did not know how to play. I recall Totof was the main reason of this mess. He was sitting on my right so he always took the action before me. The game mechanism was subtle and you could not bluff or choose roles arbitrarily. You need to think before taking any action. I started knowing the beauty of this game when I tried it second time. It is a very intelligent game.

Beatles

Hey Jude

Some parts are funny. Look at it carefully :)

Bubble Lounge

It was where I spent my first Christmas in California

Ramona, my first roommate, asked me what my plan was for Christmas. I told her I had no plan. She asked me if I would like to join her and her friend to a San Francisco party. Why not? I would like to discover San Francisco. Also, she was a fun type. Hanging out with her would be a good idea.

We carpooled to her friend's place in San Francisco. The Christmas atmosphere was here and there in San Francisco. Many little light bulbs and animal looking lamps. Holiday songs were all over the place. You heard one song in one block and another in another block. We walked to the Bubble Lounge.

At the entrance, the cashier gave everyone a special gift for the countdown. We saw a desk with champagne and cheese after we crossed an arch. The deco was more for a winery. I remembered to see such deco in Napa Valley. A nice place. A fun party. A very interesting Christmas eve.

Location: 714 Montgomery, San Francisco, CA 94111

How others perceive Bubble Lounge?
" Trendy" "Upbeat" "On a romantic evening sit downstairs and order the oysters" "Lounge constantly hosts events sponsored by famous Champagne producers" "Menu is the size of a novel." Debra D'AgostinoWine Enthusiast