In lieu of today's Barnestorming/Cracked LCD

Due to how my wife works (freelance film/TV) we had two vacation reschedules do this was kind of a last ditch effort- wound up in Orlando at Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure.

As soon as we pulled up to the hotel (Cabana Bay, a really neat mid century modern/1960s styled place Universal just opened) Scarlett thought we were at Disney and said "I can't wait to meet Cinderella". So it looks like we're adding a day at Magic Kingdom.

Universal is TERRIBLE for little girls under, like, 10. Guess they don't even bother to compete with the princesses.

But the Harry Potter stuff blows everything else in Orlando away. We bought a Chocolate Frog at Honeyduke's, went to Ollivander's Wand Shop, rode the train from Hogsmeade to London, had butterbeer and pumpkin juice...it's just really well done. I may actually buy a wand, there's all these places where you can cast spells with them and make stuff happen. They interact with the environment.

Also, every other person here is British.

Michael Barnes wrote: Also, every other person here is British.

Sounds like Heaven (not the gay club)...

Oh man I want to go to Harry Potter Land baaaaaaddd. Can't wait until Lincoln is old enough.

Michael Barnes wrote: Also, every other person here is British.

I had that exact same experience earlier this year when I was in London. Freaked me out.

jpat wrote: He did say Enterprise was better than expected, so, yeah.

I truly believe that the key to enjoying Enterprise is having low expectations. With the bar set sufficiently low, the show is not-terrible.

I've been sporadically watching it on Netflix. I missed a lot of episodes in its initial run, and I'm finding it to be ... tolerable. I think the basic premise is solid, and I like the sets and the design of the ship and uniforms. I like decontamination scenes with T'Pol. Archer is kind of an idiot though. He gets kicked in the proverbial sack by so many hostile aliens, and yet he never learns any lessons. The next time they find an alien culture, he sails in with open arms, assuming they'll want to be best buddies. By the second season, his crew should have mutinied.

AC IV was enjoyable as long as you didn't do the main quests. The piratey stuff was great, and those fights against the legendary ships were exhaustingly challenging trying to figure out the right way to approach it.

Civ V wasn't bad and I thought the changeover to hexes was nice. But a lot of it falls flat and is a bit of a backwards step from IV, which I felt was near-perfect.

There's a great Civ 5 retrospective by the lead designer, Jon Shafer. He goes over how certain design choices were made and why some fell short.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/jonshafer/j...e-gates/posts/404789

I enjoyed the article and his critique enough that I kickstarted his new game!

EDIT: Watch out, it's a pretty long read so bring some snacks.

I think board game ruined Civ V for me. I really can't stand accumulating +1, +2%, +2... to get the tangible reward a few hours later.

Joebot wrote:

jpat wrote: He did say Enterprise was better than expected, so, yeah.

I truly believe that the key to enjoying Enterprise is having low expectations. With the bar set sufficiently low, the show is not-terrible.

I've been sporadically watching it on Netflix. I missed a lot of episodes in its initial run, and I'm finding it to be ... tolerable. I think the basic premise is solid, and I like the sets and the design of the ship and uniforms. I like decontamination scenes with T'Pol. Archer is kind of an idiot though. He gets kicked in the proverbial sack by so many hostile aliens, and yet he never learns any lessons. The next time they find an alien culture, he sails in with open arms, assuming they'll want to be best buddies. By the second season, his crew should have mutinied.

And then in season 3 he becomes Darth Archer.

Well, as much as he can, anyway.