Managed to get to the CCA (Cuyahoga County Airport) DGC about forty minutes before sunset.  It's a nine hole course and plays extremely long.  I usually screw up two or three of the holes, particularly on windy days, and pick up a few snowmen.  Tonight, the wind was pretty calm and I actually turned in a pretty decent score.  I play the course as a series of par-4's even though pro par on all the course is par-3.  I refuse to treat a 550' hole as a par 3 as I simply cannot get down there in three to make it a worthwhile putt.  Anyhow, by my lax personal standards I parred 1, birdied 2, parred 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and birdied 9.  I had a bounce out on 7 and a pole hit on 5 which is pretty good for me. 

I played pretty conservatively tonight and kept my forehand throws quick and short.  Truth be told, I didn't even really feel like playing tonight and I think just keeping a level head and playing it in an unfun professional manner actually helped my score.  

Hopefully I'll get a couple more plays in this year at Lake Shore, maybe another at Pymatuning and another at Punderson.  It's been a rough last couple weeks and I'm having a bear of a time getting back into the spirit of things this summer.  We'll see how it goes.

I haven't seen a review online yet for this game from the perspective of a disc golfer.  Admittedly, disc golf is like arena football to real football - a few more gimmicks and a poorer clientelle.  Nonetheless, I was looking forward to EA's interpretation of the sport.  I expect that my feelings below are similar to how golfers take to the video interpretation of their sport... so here we go...

The Good:

• You now have a video game that features disc golf.  And I'm not talking about something any old monkey could put together.  The graphics are crisp, almost cartoonish, but clear.
  
• Three discs - driver, mid range and putter.  They look nice.
• Fairly realistic trajectories and throws.  Wind plays a minor factor in the throws, but the disc goes through the air pretty well.  It'll even roll some times.
• Playing frolf on a ball course is funny if not for any other reason that you're out there pitching into chains.  I'd like to see a disc golfer attempt to make his way until the K-Club's course without getting escorted by police.
• The Wii controller mirrors your movements and shows you immediate feedback on the screen.  Just plain awesome.  I always wondered what the inside of my polygonal-shaded wrist looked like.

The Bad:

• The courses were made for ball golf.  This means:
  • As such, the hazards you find at your local disc golf course simply aren't on these courses.  They tried to make things more interesting by giving you a one stroke penalty if you land in the sand trap, but there aren't any trees on the greens to really stop you from knocking it in. 
  • Once you are on the green, there is nothing to stop you from knocking it in.
  • The course pars are geared for ball golf.  One one of the courses I played tonight, a par 5 hole was 156 yards (essentially a two-shot hole).  Westchester had a hole that was 28 yards - something I could recreate in my backyard.  Not pretty.
  • The places where trees would come in handy (tee shots, off-fairway shots) are not used.  Most courses have the tee in the middle of the fairway. 
  • No classic disc golf courses.  Hopefully the next version puts some courses made special for disc golf together.
    
• Putting is automatic and also based on the same throwing motion as you would off the tee.  I tend to throw my putts up, flat and vertical.  Doing this on the Wii confuses the hell out of it.  A simple flick will get you in the middle of the pin every time.  I find putting in disc golf to be just as mental as regular golf, and that tension simply isn't here.
• Ranges for your discs are in yards, namely 150, 75 and 20.  You can't throw the putter more than 60 feet. A mid-range doesn't go more than 220 and you can park the disc by going 450 feet.  I realize this was probably to make the courses more playable, but it messes with your head when you're trying to estimate things out based on your own experience.
• Throws are consistent.  Very consistent.  Almost too consistent.  Always consistent.  My game has a boatload of inconsistency, but that's mostly because I'm awful.  Nonetheless, this seems a lot less real to me to reliably peg my targets dead center every time.
• Each disc golf round is a one-off.  No tournament or anything.  You are a second class citizen (still).  Kind of a let down, but, again, golf is the main attraction here.  I can manage.
  
• A nitpick, but hitting the '+' button to move to the next hole is irritating considering almost every other Wii title I have bought to date uses the 'A' to move on.  The 'B' to scroll windows down in the game is irritating as well - but in the disc golf portion, you don't have to do that.

That said, is it worth getting?  Definitely!  It's a great way to expose others to disc golf and it's a great ambassador to that end.  It's great to have a game to play when itsraining outside that you can pop in and get a quick fix off of it.  Be sure if you do pick it up that you get the enhanced motion sensor to go with it, otherwise you will not be able to play the game.  If you treat it like wiffleball is to baseball, you'll like the game - and that's alright.  Heaven knows there's enough other material on the game to play.

Well, not adventures really.  Managed to get free after work, drive to Youngstown and throw some disc around in 60 degree relatively wind-free weather.  Not a bad round for me.  Shot 51 over the 15 holes that were there.  I was doing really well but choked on the last six holes and couldn't even score a deus on short #11 - managed to hit a tree and choke on the long putt afterward.  That said, I had a nice approach shot on #4 across the stream that curved left and got me a clear shot at the bucket from about 40' from the bucket.  Too bad it is on top of a hogback ridge with the stream curving back around. 

I also wanted to check out the sister course on the Trumbull campus, but there were a lot of people taking classes and it looked pretty dull.  I hit the road and made it back home before the rest of the family did from their excursion.

Been doing much better... health has upticked and I've had some energy lately.  Great thing to have!

Bindle Rails is ready to move once cards come in.  They should be in tomorrow or Saturday and then there will be a big rush to get the preorders wrapped up and out of the garage.  I have to take a picture of it.

Had a chance to play disc golf last week before the weather turned cold.  Windy as all heck and only played at Ashtabula Harbor from holes #3 to #13... I had only two holes where I parred, the rest were bogeys and a three hole streak of double-bogeys.  Awful.  Wind was from the southeast, which is a really odd direction to hit the holes there on top of it.  Not to make excuses of course.  :)

I've been working on a new game design for yet another rail game.  The rules for this one are significantly less involved than Bindle Rails as they tip in at roughly four pages.  The idea is to build rails across a grid of the Northeastern US (although I will probably do some other maps as well as they are pretty easy to do.)  Players pick up tiles into their hand that represent capital to build routes and resources which count for VP.  There are also VP for being the western-most railroad and a big juicy bonus for getting to Chicago.  The gimmick in this game involves the resources themselves - each resource is worth a different amount of VP (usually degrading) for each stage or age of the game.  The game is split into three separate ages of silver, gold and rust.  Players attempt to build quickly westward to not get shut in, but still have to juggle laying resources if at all possible to get the biggest bang for their resources.  Resources may also be shared between railroads and cities may be upgraded to allow for more railroads.  Resources are plentiful in the first stage, wane in the second stage, and the final stage is a quick wrapup of the game.  You may also rip up your own resources to build track and attempt to lay resources in a friendly region without risking any capital.  Resources can only be placed in a matching region.

In terms of mechanics, if I had to compare it to other games, it plays like a very tight low-impact Chicago Express crossed with Carcassone as well as some of GM&O's tension in for good measure.  The tile laying and track laying rules reward those can build track away from others and claim resources, however, being the second or third company into a city can really make building difficult.  There is a fair amount of luck in terms of tile drawing which is mitigated somewhat by holding onto resources as long as possible. Everything counts in large amounts and if you get boxed in, your life can be very difficult.

Anyhow, it's being worked through and the design has come together pretty well.  I anticipate releasing it to the wide world this weekend as a free PnP.  If there is interest, I will self-publish this game as well.  It has been provisionally been called Manifest Railways.

Got to play a little bit in town and I have to say that Stanton Park in town is a great place to play.  The park is very well maintained and there are a fair number of trees and obstacles to pick from.  

I had originally played out the holes so that there 18 there, however, things felt a little forced.  The first part of the course had a number of tight shots and a fair number of anhyzers.  The back had a ton more distance but felt a little worn for the sake of having enough holes to call it a course.  The park is also used by local soccer teams and whole swaths of the place can be taken up with those activities.  A number of people come down there anyways and some of the areas where it would be nice to thread a shot would end up hitting someone in the head and that doesn't usually go over too well either.  There are about six or seven camp buildings, all of them with a lot of glass on the outside of them, and I'd hate to chuck a frisbee through one of them, so there were more restrictions on where I wanted to throw.  And finally, I wanted to come up with a design of holes that were designed around areas of the park - that way, if one of the soccer fields was in heavy use or there was a picnic near one of the playgrounds, you could pick other areas of the park that weren't in use and assemble your course that way.

So, with all that in mind, I plan on putting together a guide of things to shoot for/at if you happen to be a disc golfer in extreme Northeast Ohio at this community park.  It's a great place to walk around and reminds me a lot of some of the community parks out in California in terms of layout and mature evergreens.  

It also crossed my mind to design courses based in existing parks in the area without all the buckets to aim for.  The buckets are a big expense, and while it is great to have something permanent to shoot at, there are opportunities that you may be missing out on just because some chains aren't hanging somewhere.  If I find anything good, I'll post.

BTW - Stanton Park doesn't show up on Google any more, which is a little disheartening.  The park has had some financial difficulties and I'm hoping it doesn't go to developers.  At this point, I'm not sure who is going to buy any new houses, but there are a lot of empty lots as it is... go figure.

Busy last couple of weeks...  

Went to the Cleveland Browns last night after picking up tickets from my mom in Buffalo.  Long day of driving only to lose 10-6.  The leftover winds from Ike were brutal.  The tickets were waaaay up, but we were protected from most of the elements.  Thanks, bro.

On the way back from Buffalo, had a chance to play a quick nine on the long tees at Angola and actually did pretty good for me.  The only hole I blew was the 5th with a double-bogey, but I made it up with a couple of good holes to end up an even 36.  

This is good compared to the week before when I went to CCA.  Lost two discs on the first two holes and ended up getting only one hole in 4.  Everything else was 5's, shots over baskets, under baskets, past baskets, into trees, down hills...  The only time I've kicked my bag.  

Also managed a quick trip to Pymatuning and played white tees on the established nine there after work.  Felt good and threw pretty well... Ended up shooting 37 there and did pretty good at driving and putting.

As for game programming, taking my time.  I was working on an election/card thing, but it needs more work and I need to put it down.  I have switched back to PocketCiv for the meantime with a release tomorrow.

Been playing a fair amount of CivRev and that's getting a little old.  I like the early phases but a lot of the game is in the later phases which is all well and good, but I like the beginning of the game the best.  I've gone back to the Open Source goodie bag and I'm trying to wrap my head around FreeOrion because I never played Masters of Orion much, so it is a whole new ballgame.  I also tinkered with JRisk/Risk a little bit and like the Flash GUI they have for that game, enough to get me mildly interested in learning about Flash.

Well, despite a hurricane coming in, McCain picking up an Alaskan governor for a running mate who looks she could be more like his secretary and Russia trying out new nuclear technology, it's been pretty quiet.

Yesterday was good, kicking back with family and friends, heading up to Geneva-On-The-Lake and doing bumper boats and go-kart racing.  We had a sick kid, so Mom and her ended up going home, but the rest of us managed to make it to Old Mill Winery right in Geneva.  Came back to roast marshmellows and talk about old times.

No disc golf this weekend.... but that's okay.  I managed to get my first ever pro-par round of 54 at Lakeshore!  Granted, it was red tees and I really could have done better, but it finally felt good to at least get to that point.  I remember hitting 72's on the reds when I first got into the sport, so that's a good thing.  We'll see if I can do it on the white holes.  I had three dueces, including another improbable one on 6, and the regular 9 and 14.  I choked on about three putts and considering there was almost no wind to speak of, I'm not sure what wasn't working on those.  It was raining a little bit and pretty muggy.  All in all, though, a good way to spend Thursday night.  Earlier in the week I shot a 63 on the white tees, which is a personal best for me out there, too.  And I damn near forgot Sunday, heading out to Mentor, I got to play two of the new holes at Sims Park and I shot a 60 over there, which is another best.  A good week all around!

Mountain biking in October hopefully at Mohican, and I might try Atchison tomorrow if there is any time.  I'm not sure how dry it's going to be, but it would be nice to saddle up and hit it while I still have some energy.

Tried teaching Euchre to the girls today.  That lasted five minutes.  Mom was right.  :-)  Still maanged two games of Pirate's Cove and I actually did okay on those, too.  I usually get creamed by J-Love, but I managed to stay out of trouble most of the game.  Even Banana played which is a bit unusual and she's been a riot lately.

Anyhow, more later.

Had a decent run at Lakeshore - this time I ended up getting a 63 after getting a 65 on Friday including a deuce on 6 where I had actually managed to get the disc to come about 3' from the basket! I was happy. I had another deuce on 14 and did pretty good. I did the white tees, mainly because I didn't feel like being irritated today. The breeze was pretty good off the lake and anything that I laid up in the wind carried laterally more than forward on some of the holes, particularly trying to upshoot on 17.

Also worth noting labs came back normal. Must be the lack of caffeine.

PocketCiv is still coming along nicely. I know I said Wednesday and it ain't happening, although I'm still thinking I'll be able to sneak in this weekend if all goes well. Sunday is spoken for and Saturday could very easily be busy as well. Not enough hours in the day.

Ended up going to Parade the Circle, a time when Cleveland looks a little like Mardi Gras.  Kids had a blast watching the parade which featured all sorts of floats, tons of stilt walkers, unique costumes and artistry from ordinary things you'd find laying around the house - or a landfill.  It's an interesting crowd to run around in, and the girls thought it was great.

After that, hit George Knox park with the girls to play frisbee golf and had a pretty good round.  I ended up going 2 under public  par which is a personal best.  Tons of Amish buggies on the way there and it was a gorgeous day.

First disc golf run to Pymantuning State Park, PA this year.  I would have gone out there sooner, but $4.05 to fill up is a bit excessive.  Nonetheless, I got out there after work and played the white tees on the established course (1,2, 7-18) and did pretty good compared to last year's tourney.  No snowmen, only one double bogey, a couple bogeys, but parred the rest of the course to get +6 against 58 par which is really good for me.  My drives for the most part were pretty good and the holes I struggled on last year (12, 13, 14) were a lot easier. 

A lot of it wasn't mowed down much, so there was a fair amount of searching when I ordinarily wouldn't have to.  I still ended up going through the brier patch on 13 for 20 minutes on an errant tee shot. 

It'll be nice when they get the rest of the tee pads in on the front nine because it was a blast during the tourney last year.