Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Bonus Resolution 2 - Get Back Into Baseball - Complete!


Going back to elementary school from Kindergarten all the way through 5th grade I LOVED baseball. I think I loved all sports as a kid, but baseball definitely took the cake. We would talk about baseball to death at the lunch table in school, and many summer days were spent playing baseball in a little open field by the railroad tracks with several of the same neighborhood kids. The summers of 1992, 1993 and 1994 I have great memories of playing summer little league baseball.

Up until that time too I was huge into collecting baseball cards. Whenever I was brought along to the weekly trip to the grocery store, the only solace I would take in after being dragged around the store for a couple hours was a pack or two of cards awaiting me at the end when we got home and instantly scouring through them in hopes of getting a valuable card. I still got a little stack of my most valuable cards, even though they have greatly gone down in worth over the years.

Then a few things happened within a year to turn me off from baseball. The first big thing was the family started spending the first of several summers in a row at a farm. I did not mind the summer farm life, as a matter of fact I think I was the only one of my siblings that enjoyed it when I think back on it, but an unfortunate tradeoff was not being able to take part of summer league baseball and neighborhood pick-up games anymore.

The second of the three deathblows to baseball for me was by 1994, and within the span of a couple years the average price of a pack of baseball cards went up from around 50 to 75 cents to $2 due to Upper Deck taking over the market with their premium produced quality cards and everyone else following suit and upgrading to more expensive material to produce their cards out of. This had a crappy ripple effect to where my parents would no longer pick me up a pack or two of cards to shut me up at the grocery store and before I knew it my baseball card hobby went up in smoke.


The last blow to baseball capping off the hat trick for me was the baseball strike of 1994. As a kid in those elementary school years, I always greatly looked forward to the World Series, even doubly more so than the Super Bowl. At the playground and lunch table, our sports talk went through the roof regardless if the Twins were in the postseason or not. Of course they won the '87 and '91 World Series at the time so it definitely helped they were an awesome team in my impressionable years, but every year we would thoroughly dissect every game of the World Series. In 1994 MLB cancelled the rest of the season with the strike and as a result World Series was cancelled too, and as a then 11 year old kid getting that taken away from me felt atrocious at the time and I just could not go back to baseball. For nearly two decades, I only kept up with baseball from the occasional highlights or big news stories like the Sosa/McGuire home run race and Ripken and Bonds chasing down records. All the big steroid and PED scandals from the past decade helped refrain me from getting back into it too.

So what got me back into baseball? Well, it was a gradual process that started about a year and a half ago. My dad retired in the beginning of 2011, and started going to the local senior center with his newfound free time. They were putting together a bus to go down to the Twins game and back for only $50 a person, which included the ticket. It was my first time ever at a Twins game at the new Target Field, and I loved the experience. Even though there were no announcers and we did not have the greatest seats in the world, I was still easily able to make out what was happening and the atmosphere just got me into all the small little intangibles that took place over the course of a game. The 2012 season came and went and I found myself actually making a little bit of an effort to look into baseball scores on my own and occasionally see what was going on in the league. My mom's boyfriend is a huge Twins fan, and whenever I came over to visit, he was usually in the living room watching the Twins game and I would usually go over and watch a few innings with him. I ended up catching about a dozen or so Twins games this way. I also ended up having an awesome BBQ last year with a couple friends, one of which was a huge Twins fan and the other a huge Cubs fan and when they met in Interleague play we drank quite a bit, and when the Twins won in a nail biter in extra innings I celebrated by drunkenly ordering a throwback Paul Molitor Twins jersey I was debating on for a few months.

Baseball has been back in action for a month now, and I have been keeping up with it on a daily basis now in ways I have not since I was a child. Technology has made it easier, instead of grabbing the morning paper or waiting for ESPN or local news highlights to see if the Twins won, I take advantage of the MLB app on my phone for instant access to the box score and AP write up of the game. I found an awesome Twins podcast, Gleeman and the Geek to help keep me up on all the latest Twins news and analysis and other happenings around the league. I also promised myself to try and catch at least one Twins game a week and I have been making good on that promise so far.

I have caught about six or seven games so far either watching with my mom's boyfriend or at various sports bars/restaurants in town. A new sports bar just opened up a couple weeks ago within a few block of me and I made it there last weekend and loved the place. They had plenty of televisions and they quickly turned it to the Twins game I requested; it was also nice they had 30 beers on tap too.

So yes, a month into the season I have considered myself back on the baseball wagon and enjoying it like I have not in 20 years. Go Twinkies!!!!

Monday, April 22, 2013

Resolution 5 - Go Back to College - We Shall See


In 2009, I graduated Northland Community and Technical college with a Associates Degree in Liberal Arts with Journalism emphasis. Over the next two years I sent out countless resumes, but unfortunately did not hear back from a single one. I was still doing Internet writing for several different blogs and other websites on the side for free as I was doing for several years before that, but towards the end of 2011 in the span of a few months, as many Internet sites come and go, they almost all went buh-bye simultaneously. Combine that with never hearing back from a single resume after nearly two years removed from graduating and I had an epiphany that it was time to walk away from that career path.

Since 2012 I have been trying to readjust my focus on life and trying to make the right changes to become a better person. That is the whole point behind this blog, to overcome several lifelong challenges I have been too reluctant on to make the jump. As I mentioned in the intro blog, I have a list of all 13 resolutions pinned to my wall at home, and I have already crossed off five of them, and it feels great to cross off each one. So no matter how trepid I may be when it comes to facing some of these more daunting resolutions, my whole mantra making me through this is "fuck it, it is on the list!"

That brings us to resolution five: return to college. The only thing I give a modicum of a damn about right now as far as career paths go is radio. I am relieved I finally ended the podcast and can go forward from that, and part of me wants to try out for different parts of radio, namely talk radio and sports broadcasting. A couple years ago I sent a couple resumes out to some local radio stations with some podcast samples. I knew it was a long shot with no legitimate radio background, but part of me wanted to see if there was a shot down that path. Of course, I never heard back from them.

Northland does have a radio program, and one that can be completed within a year to boot. I went over to Northland earlier today for the first time since I sold my last set of books shortly after I graduated in 2009. I inquired about the program and picked up a reenrollment form. It is great to see the program is only two semesters, but the catch is that it is on their Thief River Falls campus which is an hour away. I did not fill out any forms and officially reenroll yet, but there is a bus that goes out there twice a day, and I have been going over all the logistics on how to make it work. After cramming out a bunch of options, I believe I have found a way to somehow go to work and class both full time, and it is absolutely going to kill me, but it is only going to be for a year.

For a couple hours I procrastinated on it and thought there is no way I can make this work, but now I am returning to the "fuck it, it is on the list mantra" as it stares me in the face as I type this. I went to school half time and worked 50 hours a week at two jobs previously for four years, so I guess I can do it all over again, though only for one year instead of four this time. I am going to give this a serious think for a couple more days before moving forwards, but right now I am leaning towards giving this a shot.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Resolution 1 - Run Half Marathon - Progress Update


It feels weird blogging about running in the wake of the horrific bombings at the Boston Marathon last week. Never would I have imagined for something like that to happen at the biggest race of the country. My thoughts and prayers goes out to all those affected by this. It was encouraging to see all the outreach and support by the runners immediately after the bombings. There were also a plethora of positive articles I read throughout the week on various and blogs and websites about how this will not get in the way of runners in future races and will not prevent us from doing what we love. I can only echo those sentiments.

A great example of runners coming together in support/honor of Boston, was the local running club in town organizing a 2.62 mile group run open for everyone the day after the tragedy. My friend Adam and I ran with the front of the pack throughout it, and we all wore special runners' bibs and ribbons in honor of Boston while most of the runners wore the blue and yellow colors of Boston. It was a great experience running in a group in that setting that I will never forget. The picture to the upper left is from the local paper in town covering the run where you can see my friend Adam on the second to the left, and you can see a third of my blurry face tucked behind some runners to the right.

Earlier today also marked the second official race I competed in. UND was hosting a 5K run for Autism that looped around the campus. The weather has been gorgeous today, and it was around 28 degrees on a sunny day at race time. Unfortunately, this past month it has still been snowing fairly consistently and for one quarter mile stretch early on in the race, and towards the end again when it looped back there was a horrible stretch of trail that was caked in ice and frozen snow that was nearly impossible to run around. I tumbled into another runner taking a fall, and luckily was able to collapse onto a snow bank to break my fall to the side, and also had several scary slips throughout the race and saw at least a few other runners wipeout too. It was surprisingly dangerous on this stretch of trail, and I am shocked the race coordinators did not have someone attempt to plow or break up the ice prior to the race.


Extraordinarily icy conditions aside, I felt pretty confident going into this race. I recall on the 10K I ran in February I ran about half of it nonstop at a relatively fast race pace before slowing down, so I went in with a strategy of really going full steam ahead for the entire race thinking I can keep the pace up. After that initial icy stretch, I amped it up and was making great headway to the point I was within the top ten for the first half of the race of approximately 125-150 runners. Then, after about three songs into my playlist I could hear myself breathing very hard and I was grasping for air with increasingly deeper and deeper breaths. I started to slow down, and managed not to have many runners pass me until the final mile when I played it very safe on that returning icy stretch.

The running app on my phone said I finished with a time of 27:11, though I think 26:30 is a little more realistic because I started the timer shortly before the race started, and went about a half minute before remembering to turn off the stop watch after I finished while I was desperately looking for a glass of water. I have no idea if official results will be posted online for this small race, but I would guess I finished around 30th and felt pretty good how I did, especially by how winded I was for the last half of the race. I think that is the hardest I have ever started off a run yet.

Falling down and going through those scary icy conditions aside, I had a great time, and there was a great group at the finishing line giving loud applause for everyone who finished that made it all worthwhile. I definitely got that competitive race day spirit in me; I just got to learn to control it and balance out my pace a little more so I am not gassed by the halfway mark again. It is just under a month away until the big half marathon in Fargo I have been training for since Christmas. Here is to hoping the town will not be flooded with our record breaking snowfall this winter, and that there will please be no icy conditions come race time.

4/22/2013 Update - Race results did get posted online, I ended up finishing 23rd out of 74 competitors with a time of 26 minutes and 22 seconds. Not as many people as I thought, but I also finished a little better than I did as well.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Resolution 9 - Clint Eastwood Quest - 30% Complete


Remember THE television drama of the 2000s, The Shield? In case you are not familiar with the show, it casts Michael Chiklis and Walter Goggins as the two main members of a Strike Team that is filthy corrupt, but you cannot help yourself to root for them because beneath all the shades of gray and money they put off to the side, they are still cops at heart and looking out for the greater good, no matter which side of the fence they may fall on. Kind of also like Dexter.

Bringing this back to Clint Eastwood, the third movie of the ten I am covering in his BluRay collection, Kelly's Heroes from 1970 (trailer) reminded me quite a bit of the central plot that ran across the second season of The Shield. In the second season, the Strike Team are making a routine bust on a gang of Armenians when they stumble into plans of the Armenian's legendary "money train" making a upcoming stop in the area. The whole remainder of the second season is the Strike Team setting up a private operation on the side to rob the money train in the heist of heists, and by the time of the season finale you could not help but be on the edge of your seat to see if they pulled off the heist. If you have not seen The Shield yet, I just saw all the seasons on sale at Best Buy for $10 each, go buy them now!

I can see where the writers of The Shield may have been inspired, because at the beginning of Kelly's Heroes, Eastwood's character, Kelly is interrogating a captured Nazi colonel. Kelly gets him drunk to the point of spilling the beans on a relatively weak division guarding a bank that contains over $14 million in gold. And this is in the 1940s, so who knows what inflation brings that up to today, I am abysmal in math so I will not even attempt to figure it out. Obviously you see where this is going as Kelly assembles a ragtag bunch of soldiers in a private operation of their own to rob the bank!

Kelly leads quite the cast of misfits featuring Don Rickles as Sgt. Crapgame who is always second guessing Kelly's commands and Donald Sutherland as Sgt. Oddball, who is quite the peculiar character to say the least, and Sutherland is a riot to watch in this type of character I have never seen him portray before! The film is quite long at nearly two and a half hours, but the setup and journey they go on for building up to the heist is well paced, and much like the second season finale of The Shield, I was completely glued in by the time they were ready to start the raid on the German bank. It brought back memories as a kid watching old World War II movies and getting all psyched up whenever a battle would break out, hey I guess that is what Kelly's Heroes is, but it is a damn good one to say the least.

This came out only two years later the last Clint movie I covered, Where Eagles Dare, but it holds up much better. I am no film expert, but compared to the previous film, I really like how this is shot and the overall cinematography is better all together, and I rarely seemed to be pulled out of the movie with dated special effects and camera tricks like I was a few times with Where Eagles Dare. It is weird, I always remember Eastwood as having a rep for his older films being classic westerns, but the oldest two movies in this collection are awesome World War II films, with at least one more to come later on with Letters from Iwo Jima. Of course I highly recommend this film, it is on Netflix, but through disc rental only. Amazon has it available in a ton of various collections on DVD and BluRay for pretty cheap as well. If you want to keep along with the same collection I am watching, Amazon has the 10 film BluRay collection going for $40 right now.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Resolution 12 - Have an Amazing 30th Birthday - Complete!

So last Thursday I finally turned the big 3-0! And I sent out my 20s in a blaze of glory, perhaps you can say I burned the house down? The day started off innocent, I grabbed my free birthday lunch at Paradiso with my BFF Matt, and we spent the afternoon doing a bad movie marathon. Absolutely make sure not to watch the latest Kurt Angle indie flick "Death From Above" as well as "A Talking Cat" off Netflix streaming, well maybe the first 20 minutes to get the gist of it, as it is atrocious.

In the evening I met up with the family for dinner and cake and ice cream afterwards....so much cake. All was well and good, but I did not really have any plans set for that night. I did have plans to do a little belated celebrating the next night with a few friends who were all unavailable Thursday night, but I did not have any plans to do much of anything my birthday night except maybe try and play some blackjack and have a couple drinks and see where the night would take me. Thrilling birthday night plans, I know.

I was a little bummed out going into the night because I kept thinking I should be doing something awesome for my birthday night for hitting the big 3-0 milestone. I was probably putting too much thought into it, and I had a pretty good night lined up with friends the day after to look forward to. Things changed at the right time when a few people I did not anticipate reached out to me to join them for what ended up being a legendary night out. I will refrain going into specifics about that night, but for you reading I am proud to say I remember all of it, and regret none of it! It turned out to be an amazing night celebrating my birthday with some great people I definitely need to party with some more! Thanks again to you know who for thinking of me and reaching out to me. It was a hell of a night that meant the world to me, and I will never forget it!

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Resolution 11 - Visit Washington DC - Complete!

So as I detailed in my last blog, Washington DC is the main tourist destination I always wanted to see in the country and I was determined to make it out there this year and by sheer luck my dad was happening to be passing through there to visit his brother and I was able to meet up with them there and catch a ride back with him. Everything went down as planned. I was dreading my dad and Uncle got the airports mixed up and I would have been waiting hours for them, but they were ready and waiting for me right when I got my luggage. It was pretty late when we met up, so we caught dinner at a Korean buffet and passed out to a movie at my uncle's on the first night. The Korean buffet was great, never ate at a Korean restaurant before and did not know half of what I ate, but it was mighty tasty.


Second day, after breakfast my uncle dropped my dad and I off at the DC Metro and we went to the main DC area. It was surprisingly to find our way around, and a couple friendly locals noticed us perusing maps and helped point us in the right direction. That day we scoped out nearly the entire Smithsonian American History Museum. Absolutely loved it and took it all in. As I mentioned before, I am a huge history nut and just soaked in all the information in war wing, the presidential wing and nearly everywhere else in there. We also checked out the Holocaust Museum, which I loved for an entire other set of reasons. Obviously it is a much somber tone in there, but I highly recommend checking out that museum there because that tragedy deserves to be remembered so it never comes close to happening again. I know that goes without saying, but that is literally the theme of the place "Never Again." Without argument, a great message.

That is all we had time to do on the first day by the time the museums closed. I just could not bring myself to brisk through the museums. I had to eat up and get refreshed on as much knowledge as possible. I wanted to go on a moonlight tour of the memorials I saw advertised, but I forgot you had to book that reservation a day ahead of time. So I did not get a chance to tour the memorials which I highly regret, but at least I have more of DC to check out for my eventual return there. That night I was delighted to see my uncle had a treadmill and steam sauna at his place I was able to take advantage of to keep up on my running while finally getting around to watching Men of Honor. Never took a steam shower before, and it was quite the experience.

Third day after some decadent pancakes, we spent most of that day in DC checking out the Newseum and Smithsonian Air and Space museum. The Newseum is a museum dedicated to the history of journalism, which is right up my alley, so I made sure this place was on my to do list. They had an amazing display in front which had the front page from a random newspaper from each state and I was delighted to see the front page of our local newspaper, the Grand Forks Herald get the nod to represent North Dakota. As I anticipated, I loved the Newseum and ate up how they had the history of the printing press, tv and web journalism presented. My dad the crossword fanatic, loved they had the first ever printed crossword on display and got a couple of photos and plans on blowing them up so he can complete it. We saw a 4D movie there which was a 3D movie, but the extra dimension was moving seats and air that blew at you at certain points.


We did not have that much time in the Air and Space museum. Only a couple hours because we checked out nearly all of the Air and Space museum. Loved what I saw, which included a wing dedicated to the Wright brothers, and wings on WWI & II aviation. Last night it in DC my dad, uncle and I ate out a fantastic Mexican restaurant, and we got some early zzzzs before we headed out on our long drive home.

Had an amazing time in DC overall. Three days is not nearly enough. In that time I only managed to see a modicum of what DC had to offer, but I made the most out of what I did saw and do not regret it a bit. Like I stated above, I still have plenty more to see to easily justify a return to DC. It was also great to catch up with my Uncle Jim whom I have not seen in several years.

That was also a great theme on the way back, I was able to catch up with a ton of my dad's side of the family that I have been horrible at keeping up with this past decade. We also saw my Uncle Roger and Aunt Norma in upper Michigan and spent Easter weekend there. Had a great time visiting them and my cousins Josh and Jennifer I have not seen in many years. My aunt is a huge book nut and I had a great time picking her brain about my growing interest in reading in these past years. I swore to them to do my best not to lose touch again. Also returned to the Milwaukee area on our route back and visited my cousins Carrie and Charlie. They have a huge ranch out there in the outskirts, and I took advantage of the nearby running trail and got annihilated on running on my first trail that featured numerous hills.

I got back in town last night, and combining my Milwaukee to DC and back home treks, I was on the road for 10 days straight. Easily my longest and most ambitious vacation yet. I enjoyed every minute of it, and still have a few days left to unwind and get settled back in before returning to work.

Resolution 10 - Return to MGC - Complete!

Last night I just returned back from my mammoth cross country vacation where I made my (mostly) annual trip to Milwaukee for the Midwest Gaming Classic. I say mostly because I missed last year, and thus my desire to return there and catch up with everyone I see there every year made it go on my resolution list. I also visited a ton of family in Washington DC, Escanaba, MI and Delafield, WI. More on that in a second blog to come later today. In my old blog, my annual MGC entries kind of went on forever, so be prepared for a wall of text! I will try to sprinkle in a few pics to mix it up. I have a whole album of pics uploaded to my Facebook account, so make sure to check the rest of them out there.

I flew in on Friday. I was a little worried I might not make it in time. I got out of work a little before 2am on Friday morning and was able to sneak in a three hour nap. I got a lift to the airport well before my 8am departure time and arrived midday Friday. The hotel I was staying at was also where MGC was taking place so it was no problem getting around. I caught up with a few other people that arrived early and decided to sneak in another power nap before the festivities continued for the first night there.


Glenn of the PSnation podcast organized a huge community meet up event that night. It included a yearly trip for dinner at the amazing Delafield Bruhause, followed up with karaoke at a nearby bar. To make sure we did not have to worry about rides or designated drivers, he also arranged for a party bus we all went in on. The bus was set to leave from the hotel at 6:30. I got down to the lobby at 6:25 and......saw no one there. Odd, I thought, maybe everyone was meeting at the Retroids conference room we usually hangout in throughout the convention. A quick traversal there and I instantly found out that I was forgotten. Luckilly, Retroids cofounder Ken and fellow Retroids podcaster Tom were still down there finishing setting up for the convention and were planning on leaving a little later so I was luckily able to hitch a ride with them! I made sure to give Glenn a lot of grief, and I was just thankful to still make it out there.

Friday night ruled. The dinner at the Bruhause was amazing as always. I got the same fish fry special I always get, and it is still the best Cod around! Their in house brews are still as awesome as I remember too. Topping it off was one of my best karaoke nights yet. We had a section reserved for our group and we had a blast cheering everyone on. There were some diehard locals that kept a ton of country flowing throughout the night, including a guy who gave the most enthusiastic rendition of "Strokin'" I have ever heard, and a lady who somehow kept a straight face with her masterful performance of the "Pussycat Song." I was also amazed by another great singer who was later jamming out on top of the bar and showing off some amazing "bar-kour" flips.

I went up and sang two songs. I started off with one of my old stand-bys "Mother" by Danzig. I was then thrilled to sing "All the Things That You've Done" by The Killers because I never saw it in any other karaoke catalog before. I felt I did pretty decent up there. I went to get another drink afterwards, and a bar patron told me I had a perfect voice for The Talking Heads, and asked me to sing "Burning Down the House" which I gladly obliged to. I think I must have nailed that song, because they rang a cowbell after I was done, and they only did that for a couple other people that were pretty on that night...that or I was drunk and godawful, which I would not put it past me either!

Saturday arrived and it was the official start of the convention. The last couple of years I attended when I was still hosting the podcast I spent a majority of the show in the Retroids room manning a table representing the podcast. I usually had a television hooked up with some classic N64 wrestling games and ran a WWF No Mercy tournament each year and loved doing it, but a part of me missed out on not being able to check out the convention all that much. Since the podcast folded a month ago, it meant it was the first time I was able to be able to roam around freely in a few years.

I still checked out the Retroids room to catch up with people at least several times throughout the show, but it was great to be able to spend more time in the museum checking out almost every single videogame system in history up and running. I was eyeing this unique looking dodgeball game on Neo-Geo to play, but was never able to hop on it. I did get my annual time in with the Jaguar though, and dominated my brother's friend Zach in two games of NBA Jam TE. I also spent a bit of time compared to years past in the arcade hall which had countless arcade and pinball machines set up on free play. Usually it is nearly impossible to find a machine to hop on, but my timing must have been spot on this year as I was able to hop on several cabinets with little to no waiting.

Nearly a half year after its release I was finally able to play the WiiU. It was set up in the Retroids room, and I played roughly the first half hour of LEGO City Undercover. For those unfamiliar with it just imagine a LEGO version of Grand Theft Auto. Loved the first half hour of it, and it was refreshing to see a LEGO game with all unique characters in a new genre for a change. If I were to get it a WiiU, this and Super Scribblenauts would be the first two games I would purchase for it. Another fun moment was the developers of one of my favorite PS3/360 games, The Pinball Arcade had a booth set up with their as of yet to be released 3D Pinball tables on display, and it was an unexpected to treat to play my first ever 3D pinball. I also won a high score contest and won a tshirt from them and a code for their brand new Star Trek table.


I only had a chance to catch a couple of speakers this year. I must have jotted down some times wrong and got the speakers mixed up. I did see the unveiling of the RetCon 4, which turned out to be the RetCon 5, which is a system what can play NES, Genesis, SNES, Famicom and GB/GBC/GBA games. It looks mighty promising for an all-in-one system, and has some really enticing HD upscaling capabilities. Speaking of old games, the main attraction of MGC each year is of course its loaded vendor hall. In past years I have spent more than I care to admit here tracking down games for my collection. While keeping my immediate trip to DC in mind, I kept my spending down this year and spent only a record low of under $50. I was tempted a few times gobble up a few other games, but managed to keep my impulse buying to a minimum.

My haul this year included Road Rash for Game Gear for only $4, two random Famicom games for $10 combined. I have a NES clone that plays Famicom games and wanted some games for the sake of making use of that port so I picked up a random baseball game and Japanese version of Tetris. On the second day, a dealer was running buy any two PS2/Xbox/GCN games, get one free. I ended up getting 007 Everything or Nothing, Carve and Mario Superstar Baseball all for $20. Highlight was completing my 32X CD collection and getting the final fifth game I was missing in its library with Farenheight for only $12. I kept eying a GameBoy Micro at the show, but managed to walk away from it.

Another highlight of the show was on Saturday night for the annual Retroids after party. The Gamers Only Older podcast crew are all big fans of board games. They specialize in complex games you can only find online or at hobby shops, and they arranged for a six to seven player game of Eclipse I partook in. The simplest way I can describe Eclipse is that it is a much more complex version of Risk, in space. Gamers Only Older host, Scott did a great job easing us into its in depth rules and explaining its many intricacies. We did a "short" version of the game, which took about five hours to finish as best as I recall. I had no problem with it, and had a fun learning this new game and I was finally starting to grasp a lot of its core principles by the end.

As expected, MGC kicked ass again this year and I am glad I was able to make it out. It is always a blast spending a weekend geeking out with many fellow gamers who are as passionate about this hobby as I am. Hopefully I can return next year.