Oh Hell! (Card Game)

Growing up my grandmother used to play a lot of card games, some of which are not well known. One called the 'Mafia Game' consisted of runs (1-2-3-4...) and sets (I don't remember if this was of a suit or specific card) but you required certain configuration (1 set and 1 run or 1 set and 2 runs...) between each hand.

Another game has been easier to remember, its a variant of Canasta called 'Oh Hell' and followed closely the rules of Canasta with slight variations. It is a game for 2-4 players. When playing with four, players are split into two teams, alternating turns. You require canasta (sets of a specific card) that come in unnaturals (consisting of a wild card, Jokers and Twos) and naturals (no wild cards).

I will list the rules and then differences between Canasta and Oh Hell.

The game is played with 3 decks if 2 players and 4 decks if 4 players.
Each player is dealt two hands of 13 cards each.

The hands are stacked into piles without looking at them and the top card is compared. The hand with the high card is played. Twos and Jokers are equal (to 2), Ace is high. If both cards are the same, the hand held in the right hand is played first and the second hand is set aside.

The top card of the stock pile is flipped over and placed on the discard pile. If the player wants this card they may take it and replace it with a discard of their own. If they choose not to take this card, they draw two cards from the stock pile and then discard one. Unless going out or to their second hand, a player must discard. During the course of the game the stock pile may become exhausted. When this occurs the discard pile is reshuffled.

Players must 'meld' groups of cards in front of them in which they play their cards.  A meld is a group of cards all of the same rank (from 3 to Ace) In order to meld you must have at least 3 of the same rank.

At the start of the game you must be able to meld 50 points before you can play any cards to the board.
When your game score reaches 2,500 you must meld 90.
At 5,000 you must be able to meld 120.
At 7,500 you must be able to meld 150.

Red 3s are worth -300 points each.
Black 3s through 7 is worth 5 points each.
8-K is worth 10 points each.
Twos and Aces are worth 20 points each.
 Jokers are worth 50 points each.
Twos and Jokers are wild and can be meld with anything. The amount of wilds played on a meld can not outnumber the rank cards.

Once a player has meld sets onto the board, that players partner (if applicable) may play their own cards onto those sets. A partnership cannot have 2 sets of the same card. Any points played on a partners set does not count toward your own meld count.

When a player has exhausted all cards in their first hand, they may continue on to their second hand. If they exhaust their first hand without discarding they may continue to play during the same turn. If they discard they must wait until their next turn.

In order to 'go out' you (your partnership) must first have a' Natural' and 'Unnatural' Canasta. This means when playing with a partner that if you have no canasta but your partner has the required natural and unnatural that you are still eligible to go out. Natural Canasta are worth 500 points each, an Unnatural is worth 300 points.

A 'Natural' Canasta is a meld of seven cards of the same rank without any wild cards. An 'Unnatural' Canasta is a meld of seven cards with the use of wilds. To make it easier to identify what type a canasta is, a Red card is placed on top to signify a Natural and a black card to signal an unnatural. In the case of a Natural Black 3 canasta, inform the table that it is a natural.

Once a player has gone out the other players count the point value in their hands, as well as their second hands if they have not reached it, and subtract it from their teams score. Then the players count the points they have meld using the same values as above. Aside from the Canasta value, each card in a canasta is also counted individually.

Normally a game ends when a player (team) reaches 10,000 points. This can be extended to whatever value players at the table agree upon. In our games we had some marathon nights that we played to 100,000 points.

One big difference between this game and Canasta is that a second hand is dealt to each player. The player can not look at (excluding the top card when determining which hand to play) or play from this hand until he has played all of the cards in his first hand. Another big difference is that a player can pick up any card discarded without having to meld it. Instead of picking up the entire discard pile, the player only takes the top card.

Another BIG difference is in Canasta Black 3s are worth 100 points each and cannot be meld, in Oh Hell Black threes are ordinary and instead Red 3s have a Negative 300 points.

Today I Learned pt.2

Today I learned that the actor who played C.G.B. Spender (More commonly known as 'The Smoking Man') from the X-files, William B. Davis, was an ex-smoker when he took the role as Spender and was given the option of tobacco or herbal cigarettes.

Davis originally took tobacco cigarettes but soon switched to herbal cigarettes because it was "dangerous" to his health as well as his fear of becoming addicted to them again. During the time he was on the show, he campaigned with various anti-tobacco organizations.

Davis was not only an ex-smoker, but he was a vehement skeptic who believed in neither the occult or aliens.

Beyond

I've recently been thinking a lot about Space. It started when I found out that the Gas cloud that is features in the 'Pillars of Creation' image is most likely gone now. It hasn't been destroyed since the photo was taken, but rather its 7000 light years away and scientists believe it was destroyed by a SuperNova 6000 years ago. That means in 1000 years we will be able to observe it.

We have recently located a galaxy 13 Billion light years away. This means that what we are seeing actually occurred 13 Billion years ago. Less than 1 Billion years after the Big Bang.

Really though I have been thinking about life out there. I believe there is life elsewhere in the universe. Even intelligent life, both far more and less advanced than our own. I base the technological difference on how quickly humanities technology changes. In only the past 100 years Humanity has discovered Nuclear Power, what will we think of next?

The law of averages practically guarantees that somewhere out there is another intelligence. I have come to accept this without any difficulty. The only thing that I can question is that whether man has had contact with aliens, and if so to what extent.

Its possible, however unlikely, that the probe we sent out was intercepted and a more advanced race could have traced back its point of origin. I then suppose that the race could have come here. This is all speculating that they are far more technologically advanced than us.

What about UFOs? I believe in the strictest definition of a UFO. I believe there are OBJECTS that are FLYING in the sky and remain UNIDENTIFIED. Are these "aliens"? I don't know for sure but I highly doubt it. I believe that the majority of sightings which are not gases, weather balloons, or other obvious explanations are experimental aircraft. Good examples of these would be the flying wing aircrafts that were developed in the 60s and 70s, these include the B2 Bomber, F117, and more recently the RQ-170.

So while I don't know much of anything for sure, I believe a few things...

1: There is life beyond earth, INCLUDING intelligent life of varying technological levels.
2: Given the age of the universe, there will be races out there capable of contacting us if they knew we were here and wished to.
3:  Given the vast distances between stars and galaxies, its improbable that life from outside our solar system has arrived on earth.
4: I do not believe that Intelligent life would come to Earth for reasons that would be good for humanity.
5: I do not know if life originating within our solar system has come to earth. I do NOT believe that this would be intelligent life, but rather microbes.
6: I believe that UFOs observed in the sky are gases, weather balloons, or experimental craft.

Bonkers

I used to shop through Amazon.com a lot back when I lived in the states. Mostly I would use the marketplace to buy books and games second-hand as they were much cheaper than buying them from shops such as Gamestop. Since moving to New Zealand shipping has become an issue, often negating any savings I would get from getting a good deal.

Since I bought a Nexus 10 I have had to purchase two cases  for it through Amazon. The first one was a Poetic Bluetooth keyboard case which did not work at all. Amazon wouldn't ship this to New Zealand so I had it shipped to my mother who forwarded it to me. When I found it didn't work and requested a return slip they could only provide me one for shipping within the USA, understandable since they were only supposed to be selling them within the USA. Instead they told me to send it back to my mother who could use the slip and to scan invoice for the international shipping and they would reimburse me for that. This worked out great and even though the case was terrible, I at least got my money back for it.

I ordered a case from within New Zealand for $10, something which is quite difficult to find since the Nexus 10 isn't sold here. While it has served its purpose for a couple months, its not something I would use long term. The buttons for sleep and volume control are difficult to access and the screen is partially covered. This is bad considering its on the side of the device that like to be on top to have easier access for the POGO Charging Cable.

To replace this cheapo case I ordered another case from Amazon, a leather MOKO case. Again this case could not be shipped directly to me and had to be forwarded to my mother. I told her to watch out for it and asked her to forward it to me when she received it. In late January the tracking on the package changed to Delivered. My mother told me she didn't receive any case so I waited a while. This isn't the first time that a courier has given me the wrong tracking info, nor would it be the first time that my mother failed to find an item that had been delivered.

I honestly forgot about the case for a bit and it wasn't until today when Amazon e-mailed me about an unrelated purchase (from 7 years ago!) that I remembered I was expecting the case from them. I e-mailed my mother asking if she had got the case yet, she replied that she had not. I decided it must be lost and filed a claim with amazon. They processed this claim in under 2 hours!

Now heres the brilliant thing. After receiving the email from amazon telling me I would be reimbursed, I then receive an email from my mother asking me "...what color is it?" and I send her a picture of what the case looks like, which i must say is VERY case-like. Her reply? "that is the thing I asked you about. Yes I think I have it here." [sic] GAH! I only told you 3 times that it was being shipped to you, and only asked about 5 times after it had been "Delivered" if you had received it. Then on the same day you tell me No, which leads me to file a claim with amazon, and then tell me Yes!

My mother drives me Mad.

Today I Learned...

Well today I learned a few things. The first thing I learned was that vitamin c does not actually prevent colds. It decreases the length of the infection but does little to nothing to prevent you from actually catching the cold in the first place. Instead zinc actually helps to prevent them.

The other thing I learned was that astronomers need to come up with a better definition of what an asteroid is. As of right now there are objects that are dual classed as asteroid/comet, asteroid/moon, and asteroid/dwarf planet. This I learned when trying to find the difference between a comet and asteroid. The definition of asteroid makes no distinction between the two. It is only when you look at comets that you find that a comet has a tail made up of melting ice whereas an asteroid does not. However all comets will eventually become asteroids as the ice melts away and the tail disappears. This calls into question why there are objects that are dual classified as both.

Inevitable

Listen GOP. I myself am a registered member of your party. So you should know now that what I am about to say does not come from some bleeding hearted liberal. You, and by you I mean all the narrow minded church going bigots out there, have lost. You have lost touch with what this country wants, you have lost touch with things that are occurring in this country. Instead of addressing these issues you continue to fight a losing battle opposing gay-marriage. Americans will no longer tolerate flagrant discrimination in our laws. Fighting against equal marriage from state to state is a waste of resources, with each case that is set aside pending appeals you push the supreme court closer and closer to being forced into ruling that all states must allow it. That day is coming, whether it comes in the next year or the year after that. There is no stopping it at this point.

Instead of fighting this losing battle you should be devoting yourselves to reaching young people. More and more are beginning to see the party as a pack of old fools desperately clinging to the past.

Steam (app already running)

I don't know why but I had the sudden urge to play Titan Quest earlier today. I played it in the past when it was released and really enjoyed it, so much infact when it was released on Steam as the Gold Edition I bought another copy so I didn't need to worry about the disc disappearing on me or something.

Steam's installation of the game is rather stupid. First you need to download the base game and run it. Failing to do this can result in errors when trying to run the expansion. Now this wouldn't be so bad, except then you need to download the full game a second time in addition to the expansion. Altogether it tops out at about 6 gigs.

Now originally I didn't know about the errors encountered when you don't run the base game so I downloaded both at the same time. When I try to run the expansion I get the message "Steam not found" and my internet browser opens up the steam download page.

I close that, make sure theres no Titan Quest executables running and then try to run the base game thinking maybe I needed to run the base game first. However I get the message "(app already running)"

Googling reveals that its a known issue with Titan Quest, though there aren't many posts on it, and directs to a page with solutions. So off I go to redownload the game, another 6 gigs. None of the solutions worked. I emailed Steam about it hoping they would have more ideas.

I get back an email suggesting that I run Steam as administrator, doesn't work. I email them back and get some BS apology and one final solution of reinstalling steam.

I go and do this and the uninstallation freezes, or so I think. Apparently the reinstall first uninstalled every game i had installed, all 700 gigs of games, uninstalled. Now Steam gave me no heads up about this happening, neither in the email or in the application.

So now here I am, downloading all the games again at 900 kb/s. The good news in all this is that Titan Quest runs.