It's been a while, just wanted to send out my best wishes to Massassians everywhere, especially those who may have lost someone in the recent disaster in southern Asia (or worse yet, are unaware of their loved one's whereabouts).

This post covers several other things, as well. I haven't been here in a while (my internet connection was down) so I'll just post my various ramblings. First off - Sid Meier's Pirates is totally awesome. I love that game, the replay value aims really high and hits the mark. I love the combination of Strategy, Action/Adventure, and RPG, there really is something in there for everyone. Anyone else play and or love it? Post your achievements and strategies. I have about 90 fame now, but I'm playing on a very easy difficulty setting at the moment, I guess I'll go back later. I'm still learning new things all the time. I've defeated all the pirates and found all the treasure, but only one lost City and three relatives rescued. I'm terrible at dancing unfortunately.

Secondly, I was very disappointed with the movie adaptation of Lemony Snicket. Jim Carrey just seemed to dominate the whole movie. I wanted to see more of the other chracters and less Count Olaf. I just think Carrey overdid it too much, and made the whole movie melodramatic to the point where it detrimented my enjoyment of the film. I haven't read the books, so I don't know how the two compare, but I really hope the books are better than the movie. It just got on my nerves after a while. The sets were excellent mind you, and I loved that scene when they have to escape from the ruined house that is rapidly falling into the sea. I thought the child actor's were pretty good as they go in most current movies.

Thirdly, I'm looking forward to Bewitched, I'm hoping this will be a good remake. I think Nicole Kidman is perfect for the part, but I have serious doubts about Will Ferrel (another comedian that's never had huge appeal for me). Mainly, I just don't think he makes a good Darren in terms of looks or acting. I could be mistaken though. Anyone else on the same boat?

Less talkin' more drinkin'.

Yes, I bought Pirates! Yes, I love every minute of it. I started my first game at very easy and worked up to medium. I finished with 114 fame, 24/24 wealth points, all pirates defeated, all family members found, the villian avenged, 8/9 treasures found, 3/4 lost cities found. Dancing becomes much, much easier if you have dancing shoes. Oh, I also eliminated all Dutch cities that aren't settlements, which you can't attack anyway, so the Dutch were effectively removed from the game. I would have kept going to, but the game forced me to retire in failing health after 31 years of pirating. I settled with my beautiful wife, the daughter of the governor of Puerto Bello, in Vera Cruz. Good times. I'll go back and play it again on hard, this time getting rid of the Spanish instead of the Dutch. Or maybe in addition to...