Playing Cards

Back when I was little, the cool thing to do (to pass the time) was play cards. So as a kid, I always had a deck handy. It never really got boring because there were so many different games we all knew how to play - Kemps, Trumps, Speed, Frustration, Rich Man / Poor Man, B.S.   – it was just one of those things we all learned growing up.

So I was really surprised when I went over to play cards with some friends at Brian’s house that no one knew half the games I was talking about! And the one they did know how to play (B.S.) they were playing INCORRECTLY! 

See, THIS is how you play:

- The deck is dealt out so each player has an equal number of cards.

- Whoever has the 2 of Clubs goes first.
- The first player puts down some cards (face down) and claims that they’re 1 or more of the same rank of cards. (ex. “I put down two 7s”)
- Every other player then has to put down cards either of the same rank (7s in this case) or bluff and just say they are.
- this can go on for a while. (Ex. There can be up to 52 claimed “7s” in a pile if no one calls “B.S.”)
- If one player thinks another one is lying on their last claim, they can call “B.S.” on it.
- if they lied, they have to take the whole pile of cards up until that point into their hand
- if they told the truth, the person who called “B.S.” has to take all the cards.
- Object of the game is to get rid of all your cards without anyone calling “B.S.” on you.

But everyone there had this crazy idea that every player had to claim a different rank when they put down cards. - Ex. If I claimed “two 7s,” the next player would have to claim (at least) “one 8,” and then “9s,” etc. etc.

SO CRAZY, AMIRITE??

But I went on Wikipedia to look it up and apparently there are variations on how the game is played. Wikipedia calls the way I play it – “the Hawaiian version.”

If you ask me – my variation on the game is WAAAY more fun.

Then I tried looking up the other games I knew – but they weren’t there. I can’t believe no one else knows how to play Rich Man / Poor Man, Trumps, or Frustration.

Frustration my favorite to play as a kid! 

So to end this post, I’m gonna write out how to play in hopes of ‘keeping it alive’:

HOW TO PLAY "FRUSTRATION" 

DEALING CARDS:

- 2 person “card-shedding” game of speed.

- Each player is dealt half the deck evenly and keeps it in their hand without looking at it.

OBJECT OF THE GAME:
- To end up with the least amount of cards in your hand by the end of the game.

HOW TO PLAY:
- Both players line up facing each other, mirroring each other, and each put down 4 cards in a row face-up. (so there’s two rows of 4 cards)
- Whenever either player sees a pair of cards of the same rank (i.e. “two jacks”) in these rows, they have to place another card on top to “cover them”
- Both players can’t cover the same card. Whoever puts a card there first gets to keep it there.
- This continues until a player has no more cards left in his hand  this player yells “Frustration” and gathers all the cards in their row up to form a new hand.
- Repeat (indefinitely?) until both players decide someone has a significantly smaller hand than the other. This person is the winner.

STRATEGY / HINTS:
- It’s helpful to look for pairs that are both in your opponents row because you will get rid of more cards that way.

ANYONE ELSE HEARD OF THESE GAMES??  WHAT (CARD) GAMES DID YOU PLAY AS A KID?? 

Not-so-shallow Thought 24

So July hasn't been a particularly blog-worthy month so far. 

My Fourth of July was pretty tame....and the rest of the month looks to be that way too.  I've just been doing lots of reading - which leads to not doing much else. 

And after blogging for so long, I'm afraid I might be getting to that point where I'm starting to repeat myself.  In fact, I'm pretty sure I have (on Xanga). 

But here's one of life's ironies that I hope I haven't touched on yet. 

It strikes me as funny that, in an age as socially progressive / culturally aware as ours, the people who often get offended by different opinions are the very ones who try to preach open-mindedness & sensitivity. 

I am aware that this is a huge generatlization and that the reason for this is probably due to how much these people encounter ignorance / stubborness.  (i.e. "burnout") 

But snapping at someone and labeling them as "ignorant" doesn't exactly help expand their mind. 

I-Phone vs. Evo 4G!

So I wanted to write a Fourth of July / America post today (even though it’s now the Sixth of July), but I don’t actually have all my thoughts collected on that yet. So I’m just gonna post a bunch of videos that people have brought to my attention regarding the whole I-Phone 4 vs. Evo 4G battle going on.

If you haven't heard - the new I-Phone came out / is coming out.  There's also a similar device, called the Evo 4G, that is also coming out, but it wasn't advertised as much.  There's apparently some debate over which phone is "better." 

This video was created by a Best Buy Employee who was later fired for creating it. (Don’t worry about him, though – I hear he got offered a job at Gizmodo after this hit the web)

This next one is obviously a “rebuttal” video from an I-phone fan that does it’s best to paint the Evo 4G in a not so flattering light:

And this one is obviously just some kind of satire on the whole fiasco.  Oddly enough, this video makes the least amount of sense.

Ahh, Nostaligia....!

Sometimes I get the feeling that we’re living in the middle of some kind of cultural “Dark Ages” because of how much the entertainment industry seems to rely on “Nostalgia.”

I started noticing they did this about ten years ago when VH1 launched that “I love the 80s” show.

I’m sure this technique has been around for a lot longer than that – the phrase, “return to simpler times” has probably been the slogan of countless politicians for ages – but it seems like we’re all feeding into it so much now that we’re not giving anything else a chance.

There are so many adaptations, remakes & “re-imaginings” of books, movies, stories that were popular over a decade ago that are just being re-hashed as a movie, cartoon, stage-musical, etc. that I’ve lost count. TV series that should’ve ended years ago are still on the air! Every profitable franchise with a storyline is being “re-imagined” to the point where I’m losing interest.

It was fun & novel at first, but it’s been ten years – can we stop reliving our childhoods and move on to something new to love?

The final straw for me is how they’re marketed the “new Karate Kid movie” that just came out. I mean, it’s clearly NOT a re-make of the original; it’s just total rip-off of it.

But since they advertised it as a remake / re-imagining / whatever, they can avoid all the “it’s just like ________” criticism that other movies get (ex. Avatar – “it’s just Dances with Wolves w/CGI, lulz”) while still profiting from the name of the original franchise!

You see, people won’t go see a movie that they think is a rip-off; but they will go see a movie that they think is a ‘remake.’….even if it isn’t.

Because of Nostalgia.

Sorry – somehow this turned into a rant. I didn’t even like the original Karate Kid movie….!

Meta-Fiction!

Read the synopsis of this book and tell me if it isn't the most complicated work of meta-fiction you’ve ever heard of. 

I had trouble just reading the plot summary. 

Sounds intriguing though, right?  Almost like the author's daring you to try and understand it. 

I now want to read (and buy) this book just to say that I did - I think it'll impress people.

......once I explain it to them. 

Wait a minute. 

About my Dad

I really hate bringing up uncomfortable topics in person for the very reason that it makes people uncomfortable. But since Father’s Day was this past Sunday, I thought I should take a post to say a few things about him for once.

You see, he passed away back when I was sixteen and ever since then, it’s been hard to talk about him….even with family. But I just wanted to say a few things about him here since....technically, I'm not talking - I'm typing.   

My dad had a pretty dark sense of humor like me. Not so much in the way that he would crack 'dead baby jokes,' but we would often get together and watch episodes of The Simpsons during it’s heyday (seasons 2 - 10). His favorite episode was “King-Size Homer” (Season 7, episode 7) where Homer tries to get declared “morbidly obese” so he can work from home.

He also had this really cool comic collection that he shared with me and my brother, consisting of a bunch of U.S. Army comics (Sgt. Nick Fury, etc.), a lot of old Justice League comics, and a bunch of “Tales from the Crypt” type comics. (like House of Mystery / House of Secrets  – the original series where The Sandman’s Cain and Abel came from)

Last thing I want to mention is how he’s the one who got me excited about playing video games. I remember when the original Nintendo system first came out, *he* was the one who played all the video games – particularly the Legend of Zelda series  and Mike Tyson’s Punch-out  – and we would watch / help him play; it was our version of “quality time.”

So yeah….a few things I remember about my Dad. 

Chalk Festival 2010!

On Sunday Me and a friend went to the (free!) Pasadena Chalk Festival at the Paseo Colorado.

Since I don’t really have a lot to say about it (other than “there was some really cool chalk artwork there”), I’ll just post a bunch of pictures I took while I was there:

By the way - there was some really cool Chalk Artwork there!

(Personally, I think this one should've won)

And since the new Arclight Theatre was up and running there, I also (grudgingly) decided to buy a ticket to see “Toy Story 3.” 

Now I don’t know if my “hating all movies that came out this year so far” had anything to do with this, but I really enjoyed the latest "Toy Story" movie. It was really good (in my opinion) 

See it for yourself and decide if you agree with me!  (It'll give us something cool to talk about at the water cooler)