Archive for July, 2006
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31 Jul 2006
Back in June, I came across a question on Ask MetaFilter about getting back into Magic: The Gathering and deck recommendations. I had honestly thought about it from time to time. I remembered the game being an interesting challenge, since you're never sure what the other guy's deck is going to do, and there's no way to be prepared for all of it. I didn't want to fall head-first back into spending hundreds of dollars on the game, but if there was some way I could enjoy it on a limited basis, I was interested. I noticed the poster was in Somerville, so although he wasn't soliciting players, I posted a comment indicating that I thought it was an excellent idea. A couple of weeks later, he emailed me and invited me. Yesterday, I went.
It was a just as much fun as I remember. The pre-made "theme decks" they have nowadays make it really easy to spend $15 and have a great time. I got Code of the Orzhov from the Guildpact expansion, a black and white weenie/whittle deck. Some of the cards — like Agent of Masks — have effects that are really powerful in games that are larger than one-on-one. I also got two boosters for a booster draft and made a few tweaks to the deck after a couple of games, and I was really pleased. I went 3-2 with my deck, a couple of which were very close games. Not bad for it being seven years since I played the game.
Discuss (3) -
28 Jul 2006
Not many people know that there is very little copper in modern pennies. In 1982, they were changed from 95% copper to simply copper-plated zinc. If you cut open a penny made after that date, you'd see the grey-colored metal on the inside. In fact, in 1981, pennies of both recipes were made, and collectors have to listen to the sound they make when they bounce to tell the difference. Do it yourself with a penny from the 70s and one from the 90s; the difference will be obvious.
The price of copper closed last night at $3.48 a pound. That means that a 3.1 gram penny has about 2.26 cents of copper in it. Melt down a big wad of those, and you can make yourself a tidy profit. The price of zinc has been escalating in the last few months, too, so it might not be long until it's worthwhile to melt down new pennies, too.
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24 Jul 2006
How would you design a database of the names of Starfleet employees? At the very least, you'd have to handle standard European Human-style names (given name, family name); Bajoran-style names (family name, given name); and Klingon-style names (given name, son/daughter-of father's name. And you'd probably need to have House name in there, too). I'm certain there are others that I'm leaving out and that we're unaware of. How would you do this?
Corollary: How would you alphabetize a list of Starfleet employees names? Would Ro Laren come before or after Jean-Luc Picard?
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19 Jul 2006
Last night around 9, our water cut out. I spoke to a couple neighbors and they had no water, either. There was nothing about it on TV, and the Boston Water hotline was completely busy. We went to bed, and when we got up this morning, it was working again. We thought it was nothing big. We were wrong.
M says that Mass Ave near BMC was still closed when she got in this morning, and their ER was evacuated and closed overnight. And I think she said it still is. Bad for patients, but good for her: it means she probably won't have to admit any patients today.
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10 Jul 2006
I got a new bike, and it's an adventure story.
Sometime last summer, on two separate occasions, we found two bicycles on the side of the road in Naugatuck with a free signs. Neither was in great condition: they were dirty, rusty, and had flat tires. For some reason, despite M's insistence that we start biking, they were put in our garage and ignored. During her long period without school-work, however, she got them out and started cleaning and rebuilding one. The other was discarded. Before she could complete her work on it — or even put it all back together — we moved to Boston. We brought the bike, in pieces, with us.