Parentheticals

This week I started up a genetic algorithm that is supposed to learn how to play dominion well. As of yet I haven't even got to the part where it could even play a game of dominion, however I hope to do that soon. This last weekend we cleaned up, and then fired up the grill that Alison found for me. We cooked (and burnt horribly) some hot dogs on Saturday, and also cooked up some pizzas with Sheila and Scott Sunday afternoon. Pizzas on the grill ended up being pretty good, though they were thicker than I would have liked. Sheila brought over some orange bell peppers that added a nice flavor, and we used some spicy pepperoni from Cys Market (which was great). One of the pizzas was curry flavored, one was a 4 meats pizza, one was veggie, and the other was a little of everything. Scott and I played some dominion. He defeated me by a large margin with a better deck the first time (He just had more golds than I did - it is not like we played that different a strategy), and I defea

I wrote a program that simulates 100 sets of 10,000 2, 3, and 4 player games of Dominion including only provinces, duchys, estates, gold, silver, copper, and curses. Each player in these games used identical strategies (buy provinces when you can, only buy duchies if the provinces supply is <= 7, buy estates only if the province supply is <= 2 else buy the greater of gold or silver if you can. Never buy copper or curses) In a 2 player game Dominion Game, using identical strategies: ============================================================ player 1 will win ~49.18% of the games (±1.16% with 99% confidence) player 2 will win ~40.77% of the games (±0.99% with 99% confidence) player 1 and 2 will tie ~10.04% of the games (±0.37% with 99% confidence) In a 3 player game Dominion Game, using identical strategies: ============================================================ player 1 will win ~34.77% of the games (±1.27% with 99% confidence) player 2 will win ~27.77% of th

I invited people over to play intrigue on Saturday, but only one person showed up. Dave and I had a pretty good time - two games that took less than 2 hours. The new cards are pretty interesting. I look forward to our next family dinner where I can bring it out and we can play some more. On Saturday we also cleaned out the baby room and got it to the point where we can start to put baby things into it. Perhaps we will build the crib again this week. We also rearranged the food storage. It is amazing how much you can fit into your house if you want to. A little while back Alison got me an old barbecue. We are planning on getting it fixed up and trying it out this weekend. We will have to buy some meat and some watermelon and have a lunch or dinner outside. I have not gotten much done in terms of the card game recently. I have played a game here and there, but I have mostly been doing other things. The new version of Unnethack has proven to be harder than the old one.

When I arrive home last night, there was a package waiting for me. It ended up being from Dave and Amy - they were thanking me for helping get Dave's website up and running. I opened it right away, and it was a copy of Dominion: Intrigue . :) I have wanted this game for a few months since it works as a standalone game as well as an expansion for Dominion (which as I have written multiple times: I really enjoy). I really should get together a game night some time soon. I made Swee go out with me and buy card protectors. I also secretly bought her her final birthday gift (she probably saw me carrying it, but perhaps she did not know what it was for). It was a good day.

Today was the last day of the SLC book sale. Since we are trying to find more room in our house (to prepare for the new baby), we almost did not go. In the end we decided to go, and we got one bag of books. It was rainy, but we got a good parking spot, so it worked out OK. This past week I have spent more time working on Dave's website - it is nearly done. I played some UnNethack. In my current game I am a lawful human monk. I have a bag of holding, a magic whistle, 4 pet dragons, a pet master mind flayer, a magic lamp, and a cloak of magic resistance. One of my dragons died and did not leave a set of scales, so I revived him with a wand of raise dead and he was still tame.  Currently I am hallucinating because I was starving to death in the gnomish mines (and my vegetarian diet prevented me from chowing down on all the tasty gnomes) so I ate a yellow fungus that I found lying on the ground. Andrea has been starting to make more complex sentences recently. Just the other day

This weekend was Easter, and what better thing to do for Easter than make a 4 lb derby cheese? We started early in the morning, and by 3:00 it was in the final stage of pressing (50 lbs, 24 hrs). With the cheese pressing we left for the Poulson's house to see Katie and Josh for the first time in a while. We had a dinner there, and played a game of Willow. The good guys won (that means that the game took a long time) I made a post on a message board about my card game, and while I was at the Poulson's I noticed that some people had commented on it. People have been reading the rules and providing good feedback. Ryan Hendricks has introduced me to a game called High Frontier. It is surprisingly difficult, but also very fun. The first game I got a horribly inefficient rocket (but a fast one) and won because I had taken over a huge number of asteroids. This game I have not been so lucky. I have a very efficient ship, but I have to plod along and have failed on almost all of

Last week was an interesting one. I learned about a special deal that Artscow was offering that would allow me to print my cards up and see what they would look like (however they would all have identical backs, and that is not something that I really want) I considered that for a few days, but I think that I will hold off for a bit longer. I want to make sure that Ryan doesn't give me a lot of feedback that will change the game right after I get a printing made. I got to see Ryan on Saturday in between sessions of general conference (I loved Uchdorf's talks. They were both great). I dropped off a copy of the game with him (hopefully he gives some good feedback, and comes up with ways to simplify the game.) I played some games of Loot with various family members. It was fairly popular. I like the team aspect of it (4 vs 4 is super fun), but the randomness of the deal is a little annoying (there is the possibility of getting all merchant ships, and you can't win whe