The Race...non-amazing

Hey people. I am at Ithaca College as a first-year TV-Radio major and also work on the TV Station, ICTV. One show I worked crew on is Senior Pete Burg's project "The Race".

This is, obviously, a show in the style of The Amazing Race, but only features teams running around New York. 6 teams set out on a four-day adventure that was fun but exhausting to run. ICTV has a live webcast on ictv.org and they put most episodes of shows on podcast as well. As soon as the editing is over and I know when it will air I will announce it here.

It's gonna be great!

Tabletop Bottleball!

Alright, time for another game of my own creation.

Tabletop Bottleball.

It's similar in tabletop football in its main premise and core values of being simple to set-up and play. All you really need is a table and a bottle with some liquid in it and its bottle cap. The table would preferably have a trim color around the edge of the table that's different and about 3-4 inches in width. This is the end zone for each player. If you don't have the trim, then use the length of your pinkie, make a mark, use tape, something.

The goal is to push the bottle with your fingers as close to overhanging the table as possible. Two players sit at opposite ends of the table. Spin the bottle. Whoever the bottle points to goes first. The bottle is set up in the player's end zone. Then they place their hand with fingers bent against the bottle, fingers pointing toward the bottle. That player will push the bottle as far as they can without going over the edge by flattening their fingers out, pushing into the bottle.

Scoring goes as follows:
1 point for the opponent if the bottle falls over on the table
3 points for the opponent if the bottle falls off the edge of the table (too far. Does not count if the bottle falls over first, then only 1 point is awarded)
5 points for reaching the trim of the table, but not fully past it
7 points for being entirely in the trim and overhanging the table

If no score is made, the other player gains control of the bottle and plays it from where it stands, not back at their edge of the table.

The first player to 50 wins.

About one-third of liquid seemed to work best for us, but it's more fun to vary it per round. Games take about 10 to 20 minutes, depends on how distracted you get and how often you forget the score.

Quarto!

Hey people, last week on survivor some people did things which I no longer feel compelled to report. Also last week, I learned how to play Quarto, and you should too. The picture on the right shows the board and pieces, taken from this lovely site. The object of the game is to form a row of four pieces on the 4x4 board in a row so that they each share at least one of for attributes: height (short or tall), color (light or dark), shape (square or round), and um...density (holed or not). In the picture is seems someone has won with height in the back row with four tall pieces. Now so far this just sounds like connect-four-tac-toe for adults, but there's a twist. On each turn your opponent chooses which piece you will play. This makes for a much wider strategic game. It's also quite fun, especially when you've doomed your opponent. So there's my plug for this game that came out probably twenty years ago, if not earler.

Lack of Inspiration

I just decided that summarizing entire Amazing Race episodes was a bit tedious and unnecessary, so future recaps will be more game-focused.

Like this one.

The no motorbikes rule in Vietnam was a good idea on the behalf of the producers. Both by a safety and drama-creating standpoint. It also goes to show a basic Amazing Race watching tip: if an obscure rule is referenced by Phil, it will come into play. Tom and Terry paid for the motorbike ride, and I actually thought that the penalty was going to be worse than a half-hour. Then again in the most recent races it seems that steps have been taken to ensure teams don't straggle too far behind one another so a penalty longer than an hour could doom a team no matter how good their standing.

I also think that the detour wasn't polar enough to make the decision difficult. In fact no one chose to assemble the birdcage, only one team did it because they couldn't find the other task. The brick making didn't seem to take enough physical labor to make the birdcage a viable option. In reality, it seemed a simple enough task that would take about the same time, if not less, than making thirty coal brick things.

You Say "Sleep Deprivation" Like it's a Bad Thing

Hello gamers, just wanted to update you on a game that I have adored, envied, and have been jealous of for about half a year now. This game is The Game. Though it seemed egotistically titled, form what I've seen it deserves the title.

What is The Game? A series of riddles, clues, stunts, locations, races, and events that send teams of about 4 in minivans around for anywhere between 12 hours to 4 days. Typically without sleep. The codes, puzzles, and clues in this game are hardly obvious, most rookies land in horribly bad standings, and are slanted towards those with a propensity for codes and mathematics. Different variations of The Game and other massive clue hunts exist in multiple cities, but for reference I'll be referring to the The Game of www.gamecontrol.com and it's kin.

Here's an example of just how far The Game goes.

The Kids". At 3am, you arrive at a clue location, only to find the locked box containing your clues smashed open, clues are gone. A gang of pain in the ass high school kids makes fun of you, and Game Control refuses to help over the phone.

When a kid offers to take you to the mini-mart where the thief went with your clues, it doesn't even occur to you that the whole thing is a set up and part of the game... not until much later, when the kid starts reciting obscure poetry and tests you on your philanthropic skills.

Other clues of note include a clue inside a living mouse, clues on top of skyscrapers, the use of the Fremont Experience in Las Vegas, and stranding team members from each other in Las Vegas with their only clue being written on the back of their neck.

For more details of previous Games, check out the site.

Unfortunately I have yet to participate in one of these types of games. I plan on attempting at least one at some point, probably when travel becomes more feasible in my life. In the meantime I'm trying to create a similar, but lower scale, experience with a scavenger hunt around the Ithaca College Campus. My version will take 7 hours tops, but I hope the experience will be enjoyable enough to warrant another.