Favorite Games

     Today's post was going to be about the Perseid meteor shower, but with overcast skies this morning over central Kansas, the view was less than spectacular. Instead, I decided to write about something else. Games.

     Recently here in the Robertson house, we've been fortunate enough to have games brought back into our lives. I'm not talking about the newest first person shooter; I'm talking about good old fashioned board and card games. There's nothing quite like sitting down with your family and playing a game of Skip-Bo, Phase 10, Monopoly or anything similar. It's a time to laugh, to bond and to just spend time with the people that are most important to you.

     My favorite of all the games we have here is Skip-Bo. I am absolutely terrible at it, but I really get a kick out of seeing the looks of pure joy on my kids' faces when they beat their old man at this game. We trash talk each other the whole time we are playing and we have such a great time that the minutes just fly by.

     Take the time to play games with the people you love. You'll have a great time, I guarantee it.



Until Next Time
-Bill-

Guess Who's Back?

     Yes, I believe it's high time that the creative juices start flowing again. I've been rejuvenated, reinvigorated and renewed. I've been pulled back from the abyss, and given a new outlook, a new chance and a new sense of purpose in my life. Keep your eyes on this blog and prepare to laugh, cry, think and maybe even gain a different perspective.

-Bill-

Plugging For a Friend

Greetings-

It's been a bit since I last blogged as I've been feeling a little ill these past few days.  Sorry about that.

Anyway, on to the reason for today's post.  From time to time, you've seen me post about my favorite social game, FarmVille.  Well here's a blog by a good friend of mine that is dedicated to the game.

The Blog is titled The Intelligent FarmVille blog.  Be sure to check it out and give him a follow as well so that you can stay up to date with his entries.  Thanks everyone.

Until next time,
-Bill-
 

Yup, another Snow Day

Greetings-

We had another round of winter weather come through Tuesday here in my part of Kansas.  This storm has dumped about a foot of snow here.

Kids are getting another snow day on Wednesday.  This gives them a 5 day weekend before Valentine's day as the school is having P/T Conferences on Thursday and Friday of this week.

The picture is one that I took late last night of our front sidewalk.

It's very pretty outside this early morning, but the beauty hides danger.  The roads are just awful out there tonight.  Stay home unless you absolutely have to get out in this mess.

Until next time,
-Bill-

Superbowl Sunday - 2011 Edition

Greetings-

Superbowl XLV was today.  The Green Bay Packers are the new Super bowl Champions.  They beat the Pittsburgh Steelers with a score of 31-25.  I haz a sad.

However, that doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy watching the game.  Thankfully, I missed the butchering of our National Anthem by Christina Aguilera.  I didn't miss the horrible half time show, though.  I don't even think a wardrobe malfunction could have saved that mess.  The Sound Engineer for the halftime show should be fired and never allowed to work as a Sound Engineer again.

Even though my Steelers lost today, I will always have this commercial to put a smile on my face:

Hands down, the best commercial of the year.

Until next time,

-Bill-

The Blizzard of Oz

Greetings-

The snow storm is winding down here in Kansas and things are just a mess.  Here in Central Kansas, things aren't as bad as they are to the south and east, but it's still nasty outside.  Right now, the temperature is 6° F and the wind chill is -17° F.  The wind is blowing the snow around and piling up some pretty impressive drifts.

No school again tomorrow for the kids.  They are happy, but I'm about to throw them outside.  It's been too cold to go outside and play, so they've been stuck inside where their favorite entertainment seems to be a game called "Let's Annoy Dad".

They better have school Thursday or I'm going to make them go up to the school anyway.

Until next time,
-Bill-

I am not the creator of the above image.  If you know who did create it or where it originally came from, let me know so that I can provide proper credit.

More Maintenance on FarmVille Today

Surprise!-

Some of us tried to log into our farms today and got surprised by downtime for maintenance again.  The only thing that wasn't surprising about this week's maintenance window was the fact that things were all sorts of screwy once everything came back online.

I'd really be interested in finding out what the folks at Zynga are doing behind the scenes when they pull the game for these maintenance windows.  Are they busy cleaning up code?  Are they optimizing the coding that's there in order to clear up some performance issues, or are they simply piling more bad code on top of the bad coding that already exists?

If there's anyone out there in the interwebz that knows what the heck these maintenance windows are fixing, please feel free to let me know..

So, what do all of you think was going on behind the curtain today during the downtime?  Let me know down in the comments.

Until next time,
-Bill-

In all seriousness, I complain because I want Zynga to hear me.  I complain because I want this game to continue to get better.  I complain because I love my farm and I love to share with my neighbors.

My Mother-In-Law

Greetings-

Today, we got the news that my mother-in-law slipped and fell on patch of ice last night and broke her leg right above her ankle.  She had to have surgery today to get a pin put in her leg so that it will heal correctly.

She made it through surgery fine, but I must ask all of you to keep her in your thoughts as she begins the healing process.  My wife and I would really appreciate it.  Thanks.

Until next time,
-Bill-

FarmVille Update: 01.26.11

Greetings-

Tonight on FarmVille we saw the release of another round of Valentine themed items.  Here's the screen shots from my market.

What a boring update.  Still no Valentine mailbox and even more importantly, no 28 x 28 expansion for coins.

Way to go FailVille.

Until next time,

-Bill-

Ducklings Released!

Greetings-

In an attempt to appease players that are still angry over the feed reward limit and lack of a coin option for the 28 x 28 land expansion, Zynga released the new ducklings feature onto our farms tonight.

When you harvest your duck pond, you now have the chance to get a duckling.  Once you have a duckling, you will need to get 7 friends to help you raise your duckling into a new feathered friend.  Now, here's the catch.  The quicker you get your friends to help raise your duckling determines what kind of a duck/swan your little dude will grow into.

So, now it's up to you folks out there reading.  Does this in any way, shape or form make up for the lack of a coin expansion and the feed reward limit?  Let me know in the comments.

Until next time,

-Bill-

Thanks to my neighbor Zeke for the screen shot!