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Picking Favorites - Thanksgiving Traditions

11/24/2014

This week is Thanksgiving - not necessarily the most geekiest of holidays but just by being who we are, we can 'make it so.' So, I polled the staff today to ask...

What is your favorite Thanksgiving tradition?

Heather:
My favorite is putting out all my Christmas decorations including my tree. I always wait until Thanksgiving Day to put up all the outside lights, and then all Black Friday is devoted to decorating the inside trees and wrapping presents. This is of course done after I get back from early morning Black Friday shopping and a nap!

Lauren:
I love to cook and so does my husband. After we got married we claimed Thanksgiving as 'our holiday.' We stay home and cook together for family, always trying new recipes and making new holiday classic dishes - or hilarious disasters.

This year we are starting a new tradition - Thanksgeeking Dinner - held the Saturday after, where we give thanks for the people we are most thankful for, our friends! It will allow for the creative use of leftovers and a chance for people to get rid of some of theirs. Also gaming, singing and watching terrible TG movie 'classics' such as ThanksKilling!

Jen:
My favorite is watching All The Football on Thanksgiving Day while we cook/eat/whatever. One year we went to a family member's house who didn't let us watch football and Rob and I were depressed. I also love putting up all my decorations on Friday, since I don't do Black Friday - the crowds scare me, Cyber Monday is more my thing...

I was just making my shopping list and remembered something else - Beaujolais Nouveau!

It's the only French wine you're supposed to drink "new" and it comes out the third Thursday in November, so I'll be hitting the liquor stores to find it today or tomorrow. My sister (who lived in France forever) started this tradition years ago and I still do it every year.

illustration by Diane Duda

Annie:
Thanksgiving is typically the time of year I get to see my sister who lives out of state and it is so much fun to get together and have my partner in crime back!

Ariyanna:
My favorite Thanksgiving traditions are the family working together in the kitchen making our traditional dishes together, then we would enjoy the meal we all made. Afterwards, we would usually go outside and enjoy watching the kids play in the leaves while we all raked them into piles for them to jump in.

That night we would watch the Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Special. After the kids went to bed, we would pull out all of the boxes of Christmas decorations and reminiscence of our Christmases past in preparation for putting up the tree and all of the decorations the next day. These are my favorite Thanksgiving traditions.

Miss Sally:
As the child of a split family, I rotate homes for the holiday every year. Thanksgiving is never the same for me, so I have no special traditions. The only consistent thing I do is drink wine and watch someone else freak out about overcooking the turkey.

When needed, I also serve the cook wine to keep things calm. ;)

Meghan:
Thanksgiving is almost always a casual affair with my family-- football, turkey dinner, and some much-needed rest. Maybe the Alice's Restaurant record will get dusted off if we're feeling particularly festive.

I was always scared of the stories of Black Friday shopping, but when I started working on Black Friday I realized that there's a magic hour at 6am-ish where the mall gets transformed into a Walking Dead scenario: NO people, VERY quiet, everything in disarray. It's the only time of the year where I can get my shopping done at the crack of dawn with zero distractions. I tell everyone this every year, but they still think I'm crazy. Oh well, more solitary shopping for me!

Lindsey:
We traditionally do a huge late lunch for Thanksgiving with 20 relatives. There are all the traditional dishes and the matriarchs make a roux for the gravy, etc. All the guys watch the parade and football, although last year we ended up watching Far and Away and the Westminster Dog Show.....that made me super happy.

I love Black Friday deals----it's like an adventure for me. This is as close to competitive sports as I get: elbowing folks to get Christmas gifts.

For several years I brought my laptop along to the lines we camped out in and played Star Wars: The Old Republic. I made plenty of allies in the Best Buy lines!

So, what is your Thanksgiving tradition? Share in the comments!

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Fun Games You Aren't Playing - FTL

11/20/2014

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Ever wanted to be in control of a spaceship, but don’t have enough geeky friends willing to play Artemis: Spaceship Bridge Simulator with you?

FTL: Faster Than Light is a surprisingly deep indie favorite that’ll definitely scratch that itch. Don’t be fooled by its simple graphics-- this game is addictive and engrossing.

FTL is a strategy game where your little ship and space crew are constantly pursued by the rebel forces. You must find enough fuel, repair your ship from inevitable damage, fight enemy ships, engage in diplomatic missions, and all manner of space-related tomfoolery until the final showdown with the rebels. FTL is a rogue-lite, meaning that the levels are randomly generated, so it’s a new adventure every time you play.

It also means that your decisions (and horrible ship explosion killing everyone on board) are final.

This game is HARD-- even strategy veterans will sweat on the higher difficulties. Also, the random nature of the game sometimes gives you the lovely gift of borderline-unwinnable scenarios. Thankfully, a round of FTL is fairly short, so if your ship bursts into flames, no sweat: just try again.

The appeal of the game for me is the fast-paced, unpredictable combat that can be solved in a variety of ways.

Hostiles boarding your ship? Just open your doors and let the void of space choke them!

Also, it’s sometimes necessary to divert power, for example, from the shields to the engine, so feel free to imagine a dramatic Trek-esque scenario when this happens. “It’s too dangerous, Captain!” “Damn it, Scotty, it’s our only hope!”

FTL has tons of replay value, with plenty of ships and new layouts to unlock. Also, it’s super hard, so just winning the game is challenge enough. If I’ve only got a little time to game, I like to start up a game and see how far I get in the vastness of space.

If I’ve got a lot of time to game… just one more turn...

Will bomb anything for scrap!

-The Dungeon Dame

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PICKING FAVORITES - Potent Quotables

11/17/2014

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This week we introduce a new round-table column where our staff picks their favorite things - books, movies, games, TV shows etc.

Choosing "all-time favorites" would be almost impossible, so we are going to narrow the categories to be reasonably specific.

This week:
Potent Quotables

Is there a line from a TV show or movie that pops up all the time in your everyday conversations? Do you get strange looks or high five strangers when they get the reference?

We do too. We looked deep inside our internal lexicons to figure out which are our most "Potent Quotables" (Thanks Lindsey, for the Jeopardy category tribute!)

Lauren:
I have a few movies I quote fairly often, but when push comes to shove it is Ghostbusters that wins the top honors for me. There are a ton of lines from this film but none I use more than...

Runners up would be:

It's a moral imperative!

- Real Genius

You're killin me, Smalls!

-The Sandlot

You keep saying that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.

-The Princess Bride

Heather:
If something is geeky-related, I usually need to quote The Big Bang Theory where Sheldon says...

Quantum physics makes me so happy. It's like looking at the universe naked.

He also spends most of that episode talking to a Spock action figure, so it is comedy gold!

A close second is from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the cartoon), which influenced my childhood in so many ways that I still say "Cowabunga Dude!" every time I have pizza. I have since learned not to say it out loud (much) to keep from getting so many strange looks...

Lindsey:
My family quotes Harry Potter on a weekly basis. I constantly refer to non geeky folks as muggles. It's very normal for us to curse in spells, which I guess is literal cursing.

We also quote tons of Disney... there is no way we can say, "let's get down to business" without defeating the Huns.

Jen:
For me, it's always something Monty Python or Mel Brooks.

Strange women lyin' in ponds distributin' swords is no basis for a system of government.

Mel Brooks quotes are generally too dirty for when my kids are around, but

'Scuse me while I whip this out...

...seems to come up frequently in conversation, anyway. :)

Annie:
There are so many quotes I love from Bridesmaids, especially the line when Melissa McCarthy walks into the dress boutique:

This is some classy shit in here.

I also love the Rebel Wilson quote:

"I didn't know I was reading your diary I just thought it was a sad hand written book."

Mean Girls and Pitch Perfect are full of quotable gems too...

That's my lady jam.

Miss Sally:
Monty Python and the Holy Grail must be one of my most quoted of all time...
"I'll bite your legs off!"
"Fetchez la vache!"
And soooooo many more!

"Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!"

Meghan:
I've been rewatching the Homestar Runner cartoons since the release of the new 'toons, and I'm shocked at how much of the dialogue has wormed its way into my everyday language.

Every time I'm on hold:

Thank you for holding. Your call is very unportant to us

Extremely cheap and kind of janky?

Cheap as Free!

And any time there's an extremely phoned-in, terrible, misspelled acknowledgement:

Also, "Tai Chi and Chai Tea space"

and, of course, Butt Dance...

Miss Sally:
Me, too! Strongbad quotes pepper my speech:

"Leave your belongings under your seat and exit to the leeeeeeft."

Sunday, Sunday, SOMEDAY!

Lindsey:
I do say 'email' using his voice...

Well, that's it for this week.

What is your favorite everyday quote?
Sound off in the comments!

Until then...

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Fun Games You Aren't Playing - Redshirts

11/13/2014

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Welcome to this special edition series of Fun Games You Aren’t Playing: Fun Games IN SPACE!

Ever wanted to experience the adventure-filled life of one of your Star Trek favorites?

Too bad, because in Redshirt, you’re one of the nameless peons with a slim chance of survival on away missions. However, since you’re a nobody, you get to surf Spacebook all day!

Redshirt is a social media simulator rife with many, many Star Trek and other sci-fi jokes and references. As the newbie on the space station, you must use the latest in social technology to make friends, destroy enemies, and get lots of hot green alien dates. The full game is witnessed through the social media site “Spacebook” where you get to engage in all the drama you desire. Not everything is rosy on the space station, so you’d better get to schmoozing.

As someone who has watched their fair share of Star Trek, there was plenty for me to giggle about. There’s also a lot of humor in the riffing of facebook and other social media sites; I got to watch my new space buddies vaguebook, inappropriately hit on me on my wall, and write uncomfortably passive-aggressive status updates. If your new coworker is getting a little too clingy, you can always wait for an away mission-- those always go SO well.

The acutal gameplay is your basic life-simulator game: gain skills, boost relationships, and cultivate interests to get ahead. It can be a little tedious at times, and towards the end you’ll be tired of keeping up with the Cardassians, but the game is thankfully short. There’s not much replayability, since most of the humor will be exhausted on the first playthough, but it’s a wild ride while it lasts.

This game is totally indie, and has a few bumps and hiccups, but anyone with a love of sci-fi cheese would have an awesome time navigating the social lives of space dudes and dudettes. Also, you can date Mesley Crosher, if that’s what blows your miniskirt up.

You. Me. Earl. Grey. Hot.
-The Dungeon Dame

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