Settling Catan: Games and Glory

We had a Sega Genesis and my brother and I played a lot of Street Fighter and NBA Jam. Nothing else really compared to those games. When we were getting a little older the Nintendo 64 came out and I played that first Mario 64 which was a ton of fun. Arcades were always very important to us as well. We would unload pockets full of quarters on Street Fighter, Time Cop, Area 51, and Virtual Fighter. Fighting and shooting games were always the best. Kevin, my brother, would often get very mad at me if I beat him so eventually just watched me play.

I haven't played much since then although when I do I have a lot of fun. Every now and then I'll go to an arcade and play Ninja Turtles or Time Cop. Pinball is fun. I downloaded a Tetris type game on my cell phone. I play the xbox every Thanksgiving out in Stayton, Oregon, my favorite place on the entire planet. We should talk more about Stayton soon, remind me about that. We usually play Halo 2 but last time we played Rock Band, which was entertaining. I definitely don't care about video games the way I used to though.

I do play a lot of card games and board games though. Stephanie and I play Apples to Apples with friends all the time. We even have a Bible edition just for kicks. We like Dominoes and Cribbage too. Most importantly is a game that I stopped playing because of how frustrated I get. It's called Settlers of Catan, and it's one of those really really nerdy games that people who are into geeky comics and Magic cards and stuff like that would probably enjoy. It's a strategy game where the board changes every game and you try to build roads, houses, and cities. You collect grain, brick, wood, and other resources and can trade with your opponents. It's pretty wild.

This actually reminds me that in junior high I played the Star Trek trading card game every morning before school with my friends Jonathan and Nate. It was ultra nerdy, but you would could wind up collecting Jean Luc Picards card or something and show it off and your friends would be pretty impressed with you.

Speaking of nerdy things, in high school I hung out with a lot of punk kids, although I was like the Christian version. We had our own scene, I put on shows, had my own cd and record distribution, and wrote my own punk zines. My friends were all in metal bands and I tried to get them to start a sludge band with me but they just couldn't figure out how to make the music I wanted them to make. Sludge is like a disgusting slowed down version of grindcore. It's actually a lot like Doom Metal but messier and dirtier. That, if you think about it, can be a little nerdy too...nerdy in the sense that you are a part of scene and other people who are in that scene are into it too, but everyone on the outside is just not as cool, or they don't have it together the way that "we" have it together. Punk rock is kind of like that to me...I eventually couldn't get any deeper into punk rock because I felt like I was just buying into a style and nothing more. Maybe punk rock at one point was a reasonable movement, but when I got to it, it was just a bunch of bands making music and they were confused and if they had a voice they were preaching to the choir. That's what Christianity has been for me often as well...a scene. And often times art feels like a scene and I begin to think "oh man, what have I gotten myself into."