Recent Gaming Activities

A few years ago while in Bristol, England I ended up playing a few games of Jenga with two Irish circus performers. This games are particularly memorable because I was introduced to a new strategy, speed Jenga. These two Irish guys advocated removing the blocks as quickly as possible, and just pulling instead of testing to see which blocks are loose and ready for easy removal. Since these games I have almost consistently used this approach, typically to good effect. Below are a few clips of a few of the games we played earlier today. As you will see, the speed method is frequently employed.



[Embedded video]

(The preceding video was made using iMovie, as come standard on most Macs. And though I was a fan of previous incarnations of this program I can't say I am a fan of this version. Not only is it less user friendly, it seems to have fewer features or they are significantly more difficult to access. I can't imagine that I will end up using this version of the program as much as I used the old version unless I can figure out how to do some of the things that I was able to do in the past. This is really an unfortunate development.)

Later in the day Neil and I managed to play a few games of Scopa, which is an Italian card game played with a forty card deck. According to a half-Italian friend of mine this is a particularly popular game among old men, and is frequently played by these individuals while they are hanging out at coffee shops. Though I can't vouch for the veracity of these claims, I tell you that it is a pretty easy and fun two player game. I can certainly imagine sitting around and playing for hours on end.

Though we have only played one game so far, I would guess that we will be playing some Settlers in the near future. As we are quickly approaching Christmas I am not exactly sure when we are going to fit these games in (maybe tonight).