Month: November 2004

Round 1 of Just Shoot Me, the 4th ever game of Odd Man In, has just completed. To my surprise, the new AUTOKILL rule didn’t even need to be used! Everyone took a shot.

Here are the results.

Mr Gray was killed. Mr Black insulted his mother and then shot Mr Gray in the nose.
Mr Orange sped by in a modped, fishtailed and then shot Mr Gray in the shoulder.
Mr Teal was shot at by Mr Yellow and Mr Magenta and Mr Teal, but he survived.
Mr Cyan was shot at by Mr Red, but he survived.
Mr Red was shot at by Mr Pink and Mr Purple and Mr Maroon, but he survived.
Mr Lime was killed. Mr Brown sped by in a modped, fishtailed and then shot Mr Lime in the chin.
Mr Cyan waited for the right time and then shot Mr Lime in the taint.
Mr Maroon was killed. Mr Blue forgot the safety was off and then shot Mr Maroon in the leg.
Mr Lime swung down from a skylight and then shot Mr Maroon in the heart.
Mr Black was killed. Mr Gray said, “Oma Kora su baka na gaijin!” and then shot Mr Black in the toes.
Mr Green wished for peace on Earth, starting tomorrow and then shot Mr Black in the spine.

When is the right time to shoot for the taint exactly? Also, police reports indicate moped related deaths are up 50% this year.

There are 11 players left and the next shots are due by Friday (11/19) at 11:59:59.

Make sure to watch the Daily Show tonight at 7:00PM. They rip on South Jersey in an interview with some guy from South Jersey Magazine.

Update: I just watched it and it was hilarious.

The first round of “Just Shoot Me“, the latest Odd Man In game ends tonight so make sure you have your moves in!

I also added a stats page to highlight the winners and keep track of other valuable information.

We only need one more player to start the latest game of Odd Man In! Join here.

The new rule for this game is that you are autokilled if you forget to make a move. If you don’t want to shoot anyone, you have to select “No one” and click “Fire.”

Update: The game has begun! Moves are due by Wednesday at midnight!

I went to see the Incredibles on Friday and I loved it. Pixar’s track record is unreal with 6 great movies, but the Incredibles is their best work yet. The sappiness of some of their previous films, especially Monster’s Inc. and Finding Nemo, was almost absent. The story was funny, stylish, and not strewn with awful pop-culture reference like the horrible Shrek 2. The animation style fits the superhero story so well and amazes you in every scene. The water is worth the price of admission.

The cartoon in the begining is bad, but it goes by pretty fast.

Before the Incredibles started we got to see a preview of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. I’m probably just a sucker for Star Wars movies, but it looked awesome.

Like most people I have a list of websites I check out every day. Here are my top ten favorite websites.

10. Weather.com – Boring, I know, but checking weather.com is a lot more convenient than waiting for the local news to get to it.

9. Courier Post Online – South Jersey’s newspaper online. It’s not the greatest paper on Earth, or even in the area, but their website is decent enough and you can access the current paper online for free.

8. The Kingdom of Loathing – I was really into this game for a while, but there isn’t much left to do in it. It’s a hilarious web based RPG where you fight drunken booze giants and undead elbow macaroni.

7. The Filthy Critic – The only movie reviewer I trust. Filthy rates movies between 1 and 5 fingers. Guess which finger he uses for the worst movies. Here’s a quote from his review of 2000’s Mission to Mars:

“I have been to Mars, and I know what it’s made of: pure, unadulterated crap”

Filthy died a little while back, but somehow came back to life.

6. Drudge Report – He’s not always right, but he’s almost always first. Matt Drudge posts news as it happens (and sometimes before), but just remember that many times the stuff turns out to be false or half true.

5. Fark.com – Posts the weirdest and most important news of the day with hilarious headlines. Their photoshop contests are amazing.

4. Tribe.net – Part friendster, part craigslist. Tribe.net is a social networking site that has more to offer than just looking at people’s profiles. You can join “tribes” based on your hobbies, cultural interests, alumni affiliations, etc. where you can have discussions and post listings.

3. Jason Zahn’s GameShow – A while back I was looking for a site to run an NFL suicide pool. I came across jasonzahn.com, a vehicle for Jason’s web work and game development. I skipped the suicide pool that year, but stayed on his mailing list. Eventually I decided to try out his GameShow, a daily complete-the-phrase game where you compete against dozens of people each month. 2 months later, me and the rest of my immediate (and now extended) family are addicted.

2. Slashdot – Every computer geek reads it.

1. BoingBoing – A great resource for odd, insightful, and interesting things on the Internet. It’s run by a great group of devoted authors, tech gurus, and net freaks.

Update 2015-11-22: I entered this recipe into the RJMetrics Chili cook off and took first place! We can now refer to it as Ben’s Awesome Award Winning Chipotle Chili Recipe

A few weeks ago I settled on what I believe to be the best chili recipe ever. I based it on a recipe I found in a cookbook, but made some important modifications. Here it is.

Ingredients
3 Tbsp vegetable oil (or just enough to cover the bottom of the pot)
2 medium yellow onions, chopped up fairly small
3 Tbsp chopped garlic
2 chopped jalepeno peppers, seeds removed
7 Tbsp chili powder (this makes the chili fairly mild, so up the chili powder if you want it to be spicier)
2 Tbsp paprika
1/2 Tbsp cumin (be careful not to add too much, it can dominate the flavor)
2 Tbsp dried oregano flakes
About 1.5 lbs ground beef
About 1 lb of Italian sausage links (don’t forget to take the casing off like I did!)
2 tsp salt
About 20 ounces of crushed tomatoes in puree (too much tomato can turn it to soup)
1 15 ounce can of kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 15 ounce can of baked beans, drained

The most important ingredient…
1.5 minced chipotle chili peppers in adobo sauce. *ONE AND A HALF CHILI PEPPERS, NOT ONE AND A HALF CANS!*
They can usually be found in the mexican section of a decent sized grocery. They come in a can, so just fish out two peppers and cut them up. Don’t worry about getting the seeds out. They disappear.

Directions:
1. Heat the oil in a large pot on medium heat until nice and hot
2. Throw in the chopped onions, garlic, and jalepeno peppers for 8-10 minutes. Stir frequently.
3. Add the chili powder, paprika, cumin, and oregano and stir until mixed thoroughly.
4. Add the beef, sausage, and salt. Mix everything as well as possible and raise the heat to medium-high while breaking the meat up with a spatula. Cook until beef is no longer pink (at least 8-10 minutes).
5. Reduce heat back to medium. Stir in the baked beans and kidney beans.
6. Pour in the crushed tomatoes. Stir.
7. Put in the chipotle chili peppers. Stir.
8. Reduce heat to medium-low. Cover pot and let simmer for 1 hour.
9. Adjust flavor with salt or tobasco if necessary.

Optional:
Serve with any or all of the following: sour cream, red pepper, shredded cheese, tobasco for extra heat, chopped green onion, salsa chips, fresh baked flakey rolls.

Suggestions:
1. The chili freezes great. Make it, eat some, and put the rest in the freezer.
2. Put the chili in a bowl, add cheese, and a dollup of sour cream in the middle. Don’t mix it up, but get some sour cream and chili on each spoonful.
3. I made the best chili dog ever with this chili. Try it.

If anyone makes this let me know how it turned out.

Due to the recent rule changes, I changed the name of the game to Odd Man In and it can be reached at http://www.bengarvey.com/oddmanin as well as the old URL.

Join the latest game!

Nelson Pavlosky and the kids over at FreeCulture.org are running a contest called “Bring Dead Art Back to Life!” It challengers video editors to remix, edit, or remake the 60’s movie classic, Night of the Living Dead. The movie has slipped into the public domain.

Ever wanted to bring something back from the dead? Well, you still can’t revive old Fido, but you can bring dead art back to life! Most art doesn’t make it into the history books ? in fact, it’s often seen by only a handful of people before it vanishes into dusty oblivion.

But now, thanks to a growing movement to use Creative Commons licensing and the public domain to keep art available and reusable, it’s possible to breathe new life into art that would otherwise be forgotten. Best of all, it’s legal!

Get more information here.

Everything seemed to go smoothly while I was away. Here are the results of the last round of game 3.

Mr Pink was killed. Mr Blue kicked him in the shins and then shot Mr Pink in the eye.

Mr Blue and Mr Green were both left standing, but Mr Blue won by decision.

Congratulations to big-a aka Mr Blue!

The new game is underway. Now that three games have been played, I’m going to get rid of numerically naming the games. The 4th game is titled “Just Shoot Me.”

Questions:
For those who played in the last few games: Did you like the rule changes?

Would you be in favor of auto-killing people who forget to make a move? You’d still be able to intentionally shoot no one if you wanted to, but if you never made any move at all the game would just kill you.

What did you think of the new round durations? This time, rounds ended on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Did that work for most people?