Friday, August 26, 2011
Daddy Daughter Tubing Date
Posted by The Car Doctor 0 comments
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Flippery Feline Fish
Posted by The Car Doctor 0 comments
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Monopoly Streets Review (Xbox 360)
I have fond memories of playing Monopoly with my siblings. We'd spend hours and hours on Sunday afternoons playing on the living room floor. My kids on the other hand will play a board game for about 10 minutes before they start fighting about who's turn it is, who cheated who, does the dice that roll on the carpet count?, ext.
I really get excited when I see these classic board games come to the consoles or the PC. For $39.99 Monopoly streets is worth every penny. No more messing around with counting play money, bumping the board and not knowing where the houses/hotels go, or keeping track of who's turn it is.
In total, there are about 8 different boards that you can unlock. You start with the classic 2D board and the 3D board you see in the previews. Now when I say 2D, it's just the board is flat like the real game although your characters, the game pieces, the die and Mr Monopoly are all 3D and animated. There is another 3D board that you can unlock where the properties are named after famous places from around the world. Then there are a half dozen or so flat themed boards. I've unlocked the Sweets board, (the properties are named after desserts) and the cheese board (named after cheeses). (I was hungry when I picked them.) There is also an ice board, a jungle board a card board and some kind of park board to unlock. Thank goodness each board has it's own music. I find in these types of games the same music over and over can get annoying. By playing you earn points to unlock these new boards and also some additional playing pieces.
The playing pieces are the same from the classic game. You've got the car, the boat, the hat, the wheel barrow, the dog, ext. You can unlock the money bag and the iron. (Hmm, I don't recall seeing the thimble. I wonder if I just missed it or if its coming in DLC.) Besides the playing piece, there is also a character to run around board with it. Each piece has it's own character or you can use your avatar as the character. The default characters get old after a while, so I imagine most people will use their avatars.
I haven't played around with rules much, but there are lots of options. Besides the classic rules, there are also some preset rules for speeding up the game, which are nice for playing online.
YES, in this version you can play online! And it's a lot of fun. As long as you are not the host, if you want to quit early you can declare bankruptcy and exit the game and the others will be able to continue. If you are the host and you quit, the game is over, which is frustrating after you've been playing for a while. I've mostly just played with my family so far. I love the fact that I can start one game with one of my kids, play for a while, save it for later and start a new game. That would be impossible with the physical board game.
Posted by The Car Doctor 0 comments
Friday, April 17, 2009
The New Mechanic
A gynecologist, tired of his profession and wanting less responsibility, decided a career change was in order. After some serious thought he decided that being an engine mechanic, something he had enjoyed up to the time he entered college, would be a good profession.
However, it had been a long time since he had tinkered with an engine and he knew that to work on any of the newest engines and be able to compete with the younger work force, he would have to go to school. So he enrolled in a technical institute that specialized in teaching auto mechanics and pretty much aced the course.
The final exam however, required each student to completely strip and reassemble a complete engine. So it was with some trepidation he took on the task.
At completion, he turned the engine over to his instructors for evaluation and awaited his final grade. When the grades were handed out he did a double take at the 150% grade he received.
Rather confused, he asked his instructor how it was possible to have a grade like this. The instructor replied that it really quite simple. He gave him 50% for correctly disassembling the engine, 50% for correctly reassembling the engine and an additional 50% for doing it all through the tail pipe.Posted by The Car Doctor 0 comments
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Random 2-year-old Funny
About a week ago was the twins' birthday (my wife has the festivities covered on her blog) and Sophie was helping me wrap gifts. She knew they were for her older sisters, but I guess she wanted one for herself. She left the room for a minute and comes back in with her favorite dolly and puts in on the wrapping paper I had just cut out for one of the twins' gifts. So I take the hint and wrap it up for her. She was just delighted! The dolly didn't stay in the wrapping paper for very long, but this is what I love about 2-year-olds: She layed down of the floor, put the paper around her and said "my turn".
Posted by The Car Doctor 1 comments
Friday, February 13, 2009
The Spoiled Under 30 Crowd
My mom forwarded this to me. I have forgotten how hard I had it as a kid.
If you are 30 or older you will think this is hilarious!!!!
When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with walking Twenty-five miles to school every morning....
Uphill... barefoot...
BOTH ways
Yadda, yadda, yadda
And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in heck I was going to lay a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how hard I had it and how easy they've got it!
But now that... I'm over the ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of today.
You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live in a darn Utopia!
And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got it!
I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have The Internet. If we wanted to know something, We had to go to the dang library and look it up ourselves, in the card catalogue!!
There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter, with a pen!
Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in the mailbox and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10 cents!
Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our butts! No where was safe!
There were no MP3' s or Napsters! You wanted to steal music, you had to hitchhike to the stinkin' record store and shoplift it yourself!
Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio and the DJ'd usually talk over the beginning and screw it all up! There were no CD players! We had tape decks in our car. We'd play our favorite tape and "eject" it when finished and the tape would come undone... cause that's how we rolled dig?
We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and somebody else called they got a busy signal, that's it!
And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either!
When the phone rang, you had no idea who it was! It could be your school,your mom, your boss, your Bookie, your drug dealer, a collections agent, you just didn't know!!! You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister!
We didn't have any fancy Sony Playstation video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and asteroids'. Your guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen....forever!
And you could never win. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE!
You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your butt and walk over to the TV to change the channel! NO REMOTES!!!
There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying!?! We had to wait ALL WEEK for cartoons, you spoiled little rats!
And we didn't have microwaves, if we wanted to heat something up we had to use the stove ... Imagine that!
That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it too easy. You're spoiled. You guys wouldn't have lasted
five minutes back in 1980 or before!
Regards,
The over 30 Crowd
Posted by The Car Doctor 1 comments