Carja

Ah Sugar, Ah Honey Honey

 Carja's Corner  No Responses »
Feb 232017
 

Greetings Top Men and Top Women. Time to blog it up!

Last week I found myself doing something I hadn’t done in years…studying for a test. One of the requirements of my new job was to pass a competency test on accounting. Now understand, I have never taken any formal accounting courses, so this was a daunting task. To prepare us, we were given some material to study and some pointers to help guide our study. As the test was on Thursday, I had to sacrifice game night, which was sad, but it had to be done. I went into the test with less than optimal confidence. When I started reading the questions, I was worried. The pointers we were given, while still helpful, did not steer me in the right direction as to what to concentrate my studying on. I left the test feeling I had done poorly and wondering what would happen should I fail. I expected an email to inform me of my results but Friday came and went with no news. This morning, I found out that the results had been uploaded to my file and happy day, I passed. Considering I start my new job tomorrow, I’m super relieved.

So there’s this new show this season called Riverdale. It’s loosely inspired by Archie comics. I say loosely because it doesn’t at all feel like the comics. Imagine a mix of Dawson’s Creek and Veronica Mars, or as others have put it, Twin Peaks meets Archie comics. Now I love Archie comics. They’re wholesome fun. So while I like this new show’s story, I’d like it better if it didn’t have anything to do with Archie comics. The branding just seems forced. Like oh wow, Veronica just called Archie, Archiekins…but it doesn’t sound right at all. But the Archie connection got me to watch a show I otherwise would have ignored, so I guess mission accomplished.

The new game of the week is Eggs and Empires. It’s a quick card game where each player is given a deck of the same 10 cards with values from 1 to 10, each representing an adventurer that’s going out to hunt dragon eggs. Each turn, players draw back up to three cards and must play one to go hunting. Most of the characters have a special power that will affect who gets an egg. There are positive and negative value eggs up for grabs in each round. The available eggs and knowledge of what other players have played in previous rounds will influence your decision of what to play. “Is it safe to play my Blacksmith (8) knowing that the Shepherd (3) trumps him?” “Those are good egg cards and my highest number is a six. I’m likely not going to win one, so maybe I should play my Merchant (5) who gets points if he doesn’t get an egg.” After nine turns, the round ends and the player with the most victory points receives an egg token. The first to three egg tokens wins. The artwork is really good and I like the theme. The game plays well and is fun.

That’s all for this week. Sorry this didn’t post properly on Monday. I’ve been pretty distracted this week and haven’t been up on posting duties. Have a good rest of seven though and we’ll do this all next Monday (hopefully). Carja V.

 Posted by at 6:38 am

Flashback Friday – Zoë Washburne

 Artwork  No Responses »
Feb 172017
 

Everybody having a good Friday so far? Well it’s about to get sooper better with a flashback!

Zoë is Serenity’s no-nonsense first mate. She’s married to its pilot, Wash (no, his name isn’t Wash Washburne…it’s a nickname). She’s tough as nails and smart to boot. Her and Mal went through the war together and she seems to have come out of it a little less broken than he did.

Here’s Zoë as Zoë again. I love how that turned out. Hair is always tricky with Zoë. It’s the ears obviously. I like the posing here.

Here’s a comparison to the original mash-up. The original was done near the end of the series and I was winding down and combined with the fact that Zoë was far from one of my favorite characters, I feel like I didn’t give it my all. That’s why I decided to tackle her near the beginning of the set this time, I think to much better results (comparative to how each respective set came out, because the whole point is that the new piece be better than the original).

That’s all for this week. More ‘fly next week!

We Were the Kings and Queens of Promise

 Carja's Corner  No Responses »
Feb 132017
 

<blog>

Woo boy! What a week, what a weekend, what a Monday. Details? Sure.

So last week was conversion week, when our IT sector performs their big update to prepare for the upcoming year. It’s a quiet week really since several key systems are down. I took the opportunity to schedule myself an extra long weekend knowing that the first day after conversion is always full of surprises. I had Thursday and Friday off and got some gaming in there as one does.

This weekend was Shawi-Con. What is Shawi-Con? you may ask? Why it’s Shawinigan’s pop culture convention. This was the second iteration of the con and after sitting out the first one last year, I thought I’d brave the con waters once again. I’ve just about lost my passion for cons in general but this one is a) small and b) local so it didn’t require a really big investment. The biggest selling point was getting to spend time with my dearest friends…and Fab (I kid! I kid! He’s the one most likely to read this so I make with the playful jab so as not to get all sentimental and whatnot). There wasn’t a great deal in the way of panels, but I did attend one on the history of wrestling in Quebec that was quite interesting (to me). They did such a great job that I went and bought their book on the subject. Good stuff!

Today was, as expected, a little chaotic. I wasn’t at my desk for even a minute when I started getting reports of things not working properly. I spent the better part of the day getting us on track. Then the latest bombshell was dropped.

As part of the agency’s reorganization, it was decided last November that our office would change designations. That means that my current job is going away and I’ll be learning something brand spanking new to do for the next who-knows-how-many years of my career? Two weeks ago, I was told I was going to one section, most likely in March, but that turned out to be a mistake and I was actually going to another, possibly in April, but at the latest in September. Since it’s happening one way or another, I gave my preference for sooner rather than later and that’s what going to happen…next week. Turns out my new sector has an urgent workload arriving sooner than expected and the April date was pushed forward to Monday. I’m still a little shocked to tell the truth. Interesting days ahead.

Game-wise I got to try a classic last Wednesday. Citadels is a role-selection game where every round players draft one of eight roles and use the powers accorded by this role to best advance themselves in the building of their individual cities. The game ends when (at least) one player builds their eighth building. Each building is worth a set number of points and there are bonus points for getting to eight (which I was not able to do) and also for having at least one of each of the five building types (which I WAS able to do). Even though I had seven buildings, they were worth a good number of points each and with the colour bonus I was able to win by one point. Huzzah! It’s a good game but there’s a good deal of “Take that” to it which means it’s not ideal for play with my family (they’re not big on that sort of thing). I will therefore probably not be adding it to my collection (though there’s a really spiffy new edition that just came out for it).

That’s about all there is to report this week. Have a great seven and we’ll do this all again next Monday. Carja V.

</blog>

 Older Entries  Newer Entries