So I really like playing dominoes and I don’t mean standing them all up on end and knocking them all down. Playing dominoes is like playing card games: you’ve got a bunch of “bones” instead of “cards” and an infinite number of games that can be played with the cards bones. Dominoes come in different sizes: double sixes (this would make the highest domino have a 6 at both ends), double nines, double twelves and double fifteens, think of them as playing a game with multiple decks of cards. Using double nines is my favorite for about 2-4 people and double twelves for 4 or more; double fifteens just have too many dots on them to look at. Oh, and I like the dominoes with the dots with different colors; it helps in avoiding mistakes after too many hours of play.

And of course with all games everyone has their variations; in Euchre you’ve got ‘Ace, no face’ and you get a re-deal (if they play that way) and if no one picks trump do you ‘screw the dealer’ (make them pick a suit) or re-deal? And many people play Monopoly with their own rules, such as: put utility payments on Free Parking and whomever lands on it, wins the the cash. Dominoes is no different everyone plays every game slightly different.

One of the games I like is “Mexican Train” (which I’m sure has racist origins with it’s name), the nice thing about it is that it’s easy to teach, there is no math (except at the end of a round) and you’re really just (strategically) matching your dominoes from end to end. Here’s a good set of Mexican Train Dominoes instructions with some additional directions. It’s really too complicated to explain here which is why I provided a link to the instructions. Many sets are sold as Mexican Train sets but they just include a “train station” for the starting block and little train pieces as markers, we just use the starting block as the train station and pennies for markers.

About halfway through we realized we that we forgot the mexican train part! That plus the few other parts we goofed up made me think that maybe we made up a new game?!?

So I checked out the rules, trying to remember the parts we forgot and saw some different rules:

• “In this first turn only, the player may play as many dominoes as they wish, so long as they form a valid train”, I’ve never seen anyone play it that way, we’ve always taken turns putting one down at a time per turn.
• “If any player is unable to start their train – having no domino that matches the centre double – they do not draw from the boneyard”, don’t think we’ve ever done it that way either! Always make them draw one.
• We also play that you have to announce when you are down to your last domino, if you don’t by the time the next player picks up and someone calls you on it, you pick up another piece (I don’t know if I learned it that way or accidentally transferred the rule from a different domino game).

There were some other differences too, but some seemed to be tied into the earlier differences. But as long as you all play by the same rules, I guess it really doesn’t matter.

There is another domino game game we play that I like (and don’t know the name) where you don’t score unless you add up all the ends of the pieces of the board and it’s a multiple of five, this one is a lot more confusing.

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So I was going to finish up the followup to the Alex Rider post before I hopped in the sack but then I remembered I didn’t mention my dreams!

So I’ve had odd dreams lately (the last two days) with lots of advertising. This is odd for several reasons, I generally don’t remember my dreams and when I remember them as well as I did this morning they’re usually normal, as in I’m not sure if the stuff really happened or not.

So back to the advertising dream: I think I was in Cingular (which I actually needed to go to today) and there were people there in Dominoes’ uniforms trying to sell me a Dell. They made a phone call to their friends who were at Taco Bell and wanted to meet up with me and we were going to go eat and get eggs or omelets or something like that. Oh and I think the friend’s played on a baseball team, which I would assume is the Tigers since Dominoes’ owned them at one time.

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While not actually a board, my favorite is actually Dominoes, which (if you’ve never played) is like playing cards, they’re a million games you can play with one set. As actual board games go Scrabble is probably my favorite regular old board game.

It’s trivia, has a board and requires a DVD player: Scene It? It’s the best trivia game out there, games are fast and it’s easy to learn.

From Tuesday’s Tales via The Daily Meme.

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So I kinda posted this information already on Dean’s World, he generally asks “What are you up to?” on Fridays. But I’ll elaborate more for my blog.

I slept great last night, I didn’t have to work today and I managed to sleep in. This is the best sleep I’ve had in six months, not counting using a sleeping pill (which doesn’t always work) or being sick (which generally has me sleeping). It was beautiful out today, probably the last day I’ll get to drive around with the top down in the convertible so I was really enjoying that! And I got takeout and ate Chinese at the park (yum!).

It was a slow night. Went to Happy Hour, sort of. I’m not really a bar person, I wish I was, or at least wish I could strike up a conversation more. I had a drink but I was mostly there to pick up some hot wings, my buddy who I’d normally be at happy hour with is in the hospital (see yesterday) so I was taking him some “normal” Friday food.

We hassled Kim, one of the nurses, since I didn’t understand what they meant when they said they were flushing (cleaning) the IV “tap” in his arm. I got a mostly satisfactory answer but it’s still not 100% in my head. We played some Dominoes (I barely won) and hung out there for a while and I came home the long way (I-94 between the Lodge/10 and I-96 is closed for the weekend). I’m thinking he’s going to be there more than a few more days…

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No. I’m more of a Dominoes (or recently Scene It? the DVD game) kind of guy. Oh wait, can I count rollerblading?

From Sunday Brunch

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Here’s my 100 things about me page. (If you’re looking for my 101 in 1001 days list go here.) To follow the theme that I’ve found on many other sites, partially to see what I come up with and to let others see what I come up with. I’ve broken this down a bit: I like, I dislike, I am, I’ve live in, I wish I understood more about, places I’ve been and before I die…

It’s interesting how many of these things I’ve blogged about so far…

UPDATE: December 2004/June 2005. I just came here to update this. I can’t believe how much it has not changed. The only other things are I’ve been liking my iPod (and listening to podcasting), the Scene It? DVD games and maybe some additional music groups (Katy Rose and maybe a few others) and I won’t add them until they’ve been around a bit longer. Probably “Two and a Half Men” (I laugh SO hard) and Liz Phair (added).

I like:
1. Riding on the train

2. Driving with the top down
3. The Internet
4. MSU
5. Ice cream (Cookie Dough from QD)
6. Rollerblading
7. Sunshine
8. My family
9. Kids
10. Babies
11. Picnics
12. Coca-Cola
13. Gadgets and gizmos
14. Taking pictures
15. Tori
16. Sarah
17. Indigo Girls
18. Liz Phair
19. Jewel
20. 80’s music
21. _Joan of Arcadia
22. Sports Night
23. Roswell
24. The American President
25. The Cutting Edge
26. A Christmas Story
27. Flight of the Navigator
28. Narnia
29. Time Travel
30. Reading
31. Movies
32. Dominoes
33. Scrabble
34. Euchre
35. Sitting by the river
36. Learning
37. Volunteering
38. M & M’s
39. Smarties (the chocolate kind)
40. Prizes in Cereal
41. Soda Pop in a bottle
42. Fun Size Candy
43. Macintosh
44. My i500 Palm Phone
45. Tivo
46. WiFi
47. The Ocean
48. Maps
49. Luggage
50. Books
51. Ice Skating
52. Sleeping
53. Building a fire
54. The Moon
55. Stars
56. Laughing
57. Holding hands
58. Crushes
59. Traveling
60. Smiles
61. Showers
62. Clean sheets
63. Surprises
    
    I dislike:

64. Pickles
65. Mayo
66. Mean people
67. Sauces on my sandwiches
68. Country
69. Being stuck at airports
70. Traffic
    
    I am:
    
71. An only child

72. Smart
73. Tall
74. Curly
75. Goofy
76. A night owl
77. Was born on September 11th
    
    I’ve lived in:
    
78. Royal Oak

79. Berkley (21 years)
80. Southfield (a 1/2 year)
81. East Lansing (7 years)
82. Haslett (4 years)
83. Southgate (1 year)
84. Dearborn (4 years)
    
    I wish I understood more about:
    
85. Astronomy

86. Women
87. Art
    
    Places I’ve been:
    
88. United States (all over)

89. Canada (Toronto 5 times; all over several)
90. England (3 times)
91. Prague
92. Costa Rica (2 times)
    
    Before I die I want to:
    
93. Have kids

94. See Paris
95. Take a cruise across the ocean
96. Find out what is out there
97. See the pyramids
98. Write a computer book
99. Live happily ever after
100. Find out “Why?”

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It’s the start of a New Year! My friends have headed out and it’s time for the first entry of the new year! It’s been a great day (no crisises have occured, at least nothing nationwide), great friends, great pizza and I love those new Seagram’s Twisters! We played games: Dominoes and Scene It? (excellent DVD/board game that’s due for an entry soon). I’m off to sleep in the new year…

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Dominoes is great! It’s a simple strategy game that can be learned quickly. Did you know that Dominoes is an actual game and you can play many different games with just one set of pieces? It’s sort of like cards with lots of different games; sometimes different variations of the same game. So can you guess what I was playing this evening?

Dominoes is the best kept secret, I know few who play but many of them like to play often. Dominoes started in the 1100′s. It’s easy, it’s fun and people realy like it. It’s sort of like playing cards.

It’s easy to get started with a set for $10 or less set of Double 9s, which means each side of the dominoes goes from 0-9 (it’s easiest to play with the colored dots). Try it, you’ll like it…

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