Episode 817: Monopoly Deal!

Oh wow. Monopoly Deal is actually a lot more fun than its board-based cousin. It's mainly because the pace is faster without hung to roll dice, and I suppose there's more room for strategic planning because of the gameplay tweaks (i.e. it calls for more scheming). Just played a couple of rounds with my family and I'm hooked! Now if only someone would make a card-based version of something like Risk! Sometimes I wonder if I'd enjoy card games like Magic: The Gathering. Probably more so the collecting aspect than the playing itself, I suspect. Ah well. I think it's a bit too late to be getting into stuff like that. Plus it would just become one more avenue for expenditure! Anyway, I've been trying to get on with my reading, but jet lag has been thwarting me so far. I did drop Craig an e-mail to say I'd do a review if no one else wanted to. Figured I might as well try and get more exposure while I still have the leisure of time. Can't imagine cranking them out quite as regularly once I start teaching. In a way, it's a shame because from the moment I graduate, it's essentially going to be a perpetual struggle to keep writing, whatever the genre. I like reviewing though. It forces me to develop opinions about other people's writing and defend them, and I'm quite proud of the fact that I generally try not to offer empty praise or criticism, but instead justify my claims from the writing itself. So far, it would seem that my various editors think what I'm doing works, which is nice considering that I only started reviewing stuff recently.