NBW Report -- Wednesday (2/4/09)

Last Wednesday, I left school at around 2:30, heading to the Buffalo Airport to pick up Marty Sample. The drive was pretty uneventful, hitting about a 10 mile stretch of heavy snow (where speeds dropped to about 40/45 MPH due to near white-out conditions), but good driving otherwise. Listened to Lord of the Flies on CD, which I finished up on the way home. Got Marty a little before 4:00 PM, and we headed to the Great White North. The border crossing was a piece of cake, though the Canadian Customs guy was a bit of a prick when Marty told him we didn't have any alcohol to declare, snapping at him, "I didn't ask you that, answer my question." Sheesh... Got to the hotel 5:00ish, checked in, and found Art Lupinacci, Robin Griller, and Lembit Tohver playing Dominion in the ballroom -- the ballroom with no heat, so it felt like about 45F, if that! I crashed for a bit, then Marty came by and we headed out to grab dinner.

After a good feast at Carpaccio's, we went back to the hotel and met up with Art, Robin, and Lembit in their room. Cory Wells called, and then he came by. A few folks headed out to grab a quick bite, while we pulled a table into the (warmer) hallway to get ready for a game of Battlestar Galactica (BSG). Now, I have never watched the show, so I was dubious that I would enjoy the game, but it was the only game in town, so to speak...

As we were waiting for the rest to get back from dinner, we taught Cory how to play Dominion, and got in a quick game (so there was more than one game in town, after all!). Marty ended up winning a close 3-player game, with the scores 24-21-15. Cory took a few turns to understand the mechanics, then he got right into it. I think Dominion will be a very fun "filler" game for a long, long time.

When the Canadian contingent returned from dinner, we got blasted off into space. Picking "Galactica" characters, I got some cowardly politico type (Gaius something or other), and found right away that I was a Cylon. My job was to sabotage the ship's voyage. Early on, I didn't want to do anything obvious, so I'd only play a few cards that hurt the humans every now and then (sometimes it worked), while performing innocuous actions that weren't going to alert the humans as to my true calling. When we got 1/2 way through the game, Art's character turned out to be a Cylon sympathizer, and he was the president! So the presidency passed to me -- little did those humans know what were getting into... As the game wore on, it seemed that Robin (the admiral) was not helping the cause very much, and, lo and behold, he turned out to be a Cylon, as well. When I revealed myself, it became clear that the humans would not make it, and the big ship crashed, only half-way home. A brilliant Cylon victory! Overall, the game was a lot of fun, though I think I would have enjoyed it much more had I known the story line and the characters. But I'm not a sci-fi fan, and my TV watching consists mainly of sports and cartoons, so...

A Cylon

Off to to bed, then, hoping we'd have a warmer ballroom tomorrow, when others started arriving...