Recently, I got to try my hand at the Game of Thrones Board Game, and I must say, that it was quite the experience.

There were five players, and we played two full games, and it took from one in the afternoon until eleven in the evening to get through the two games, so this isn’t a fast game by any means, despite limiting the number of rounds to a maximum of ten or ending upon the capture of seven castles.

Even setting up the game took a fair bit of time. There are so many pieces, multiple decks of cards, and tokens. They need to be organized, given out in certain amounts, shuffled, and managed correctly. Then, if you have less than the maximum six players, you have to add some small cards to certain areas of the map to act as NPC spaces.

When Annie and I first arrived, we were asked to sit down and watch a thirty minute tutorial video on the rules and how to play. I laughed thinking it was a joke, but unfortunately not.

The learning curve is steep, and there are far too many layers of complexity. Of course, each layer adds something to the strategy of the game, but it also makes it intimidating to play, and lacks the ability to easily learn. I see this game being more like Chess when compared to something like Risk which would be akin to Checkers. You would master the strategies over time, and become a grand master at the Game of Thrones.

Here are the layers of complexity that can happen in a single turn:

• Three Random Event Cards
• Movement of Units on a Map
• Combat including Unit Strength, Tokens on Board, and Cards in Hand
• Bidding on special abilities and turn order
• Random Event including bidding
• Control of number of units on board based on location of units

This is one of the most complex games I’ve ever played, but it also had its strong points. The game is fun, and feels relatively fair. We had a great deal of fun during many parts of the experience, and despite having more experience, other players didn’t instantly crush Annie and I.

Because I’ve watched the television show, I could see parallels between how they set-up the different houses that almost force you into a play style akin to the characters attributes, which was both enjoyable and frustrating.

I also need to note that the people that I played with made the game. During the first round, Annie and I had never played before, and our strategies were rather weak. We both made strong alliances, but in the end, this only lead to Annie’s nephew, who she was allied with, winning.

In the second round, there were many close calls, and each time anyone got to six out of seven castles acquired, the rest of us would do anything to stop that person from achieving victory, thus causing the game to run longer. Alliances were also more tenuous, and I made it my personal mission to crush the winner of the first game, thus causing him to lose for the first time. While I didn’t win, the game came to a late end, and we were all both glad it was over, and happy to have spent such an interesting and amusing evening playing Game of Thrones.

You might be wondering if I would play it again, and my answer is that I would definitely be willing to do so. I think I’ll limit myself to one round per day though, as ten hours of Game of Thrones was a little too much in a single sitting.

So I’ve had my new camera, the Canon T3i that has yet to be named, for a few weeks now, and I’m loving having it. I’ve been bringing it on some short photo walks, and to family events, and continue to learn new things about what my fiancee has purchased for me.

One of the things she asked me about when we were looking at the camera, and reminded me of again recently was the differences between what I have now, and my dead Canon T2i that I used to take over 50,000 photos with during my three years of ownership. I wanted to take some time to covert the differences, and discuss why I’m so happy with the Canon T3i.

What’s the Same between the T2i and T3i?
They both include:

• an 18MP APS-C Sensor
• a 3″ LCD Display
• 9 Auto Focus Points
• 3.7 FPS Image Capture Rate
• Video Shooting Modes

The cameras are more similar than they are different, but the Canon T3i does have some changes, two of which are super useful to me.

Canon T3i New Features

• Remote Fire Flashes
• Articulating Screen
• Creative Filters

As you can see, the Canon T3i has the ability to remotely fire flashes, a feature that I had when I owned the Canon 7D for a short time, and found super useful. Taking the Canon 430EX II off of the camera, and positioning it can increase the quality of the shots I take, and reduce the potential of it looking like horrible shadow filled flash photography.

The articulating screen has meant two things, composition options and self-training. I have been able to hide the screen so that I can’t instantly review my photos after taking them. This causes me to consider each of my shots because I can’t as easily review and adjust. It is something that I think will improve my photography over time. As for composition, I can still see what will be in my shot from odd angles, allowing me to get lower or higher than I have before.

The creative filters aren’t something I’ll use or need, but they are a nice novelty to have. I always prefer being creative on the RAW files once they hit my computer, and not on the camera itself.

All of this isn’t to say that my old Canon T2i wasn’t without its advantages over its newer, younger brother.

Canon T2i Advantages

• Smaller 129x98x62mm vs 133x99x79mm
• Lighter 530g vs 570g
• Faster Startup 400ms vs 1500ms
• Slightly Less Shutter Lag 252ms vs 283ms

Numbers from Snapsort

Out of these, the faster startup is really what I miss the most. The Canon T3i isn’t super slow, and I’d hazard a guess that the numbers I found are a little off as I don’t think it takes three times longer from being off to taking a picture as Snapsort has listed. I would say that it takes a bit longer, and it is noticeable sometimes, especially since I still find myself turning on and off my camera all of the time to “save” battery life.

I am super happy with the body that I currently have. It should meet my needs for years to come. Hopefully, the T3i will last me a solid 50,000 shutter actuations as well over the next three to five years before I have to consider its replacement.

The advantage over the long term is always in the lenses though, and I hope to slowly invest in some new glass as need and money allows.

Want to help name my new camera? My Canon 7D was named George and I love naming things. Leave a comment on this post with your thoughts on what my T3i should be called.

I really thought I would use my Panasonic GF-2 a great deal when I purchased it (New Camera: Panasonic DMC-GF2). The idea of a small camera with interchangeable lenses appealed to me greatly, but the reality is very different for me. I bought the camera with a 20mm prime lens. This means it can’t zoom in or out, and lenses for this type of camera, while cheaper than most digital SLR lenses, are still pricey, and so I never got around to purchasing any, and this left me with a camera that was usable, but not super fun to use.

Since purchasing the Panasonic GF-2, I’ve only taken maybe a thousand photos with it, and for me, that’s a very low number given that I purchased the camera nearly a year ago. There are some things I like about the camera, and they are:

• the ability to shoot RAW
• the small form factor
• the idea of interchangeable lenses
• the low shutter delay
• the hot-shoe for bigger flashes

There are a number of things I don’t like about the camera though, such as:

• the high noise of the images produced
• the high cost of lenses
• the lack of a built-in optical viewfinder

Overall, it isn’t a bad camera, or even a bad camera system, but I never felt compelled to invest in a lens system for it, and because of that, it suffered. It will continue to be my light weight, quick grab, event camera for when my new Canon T3i (thanks again hun!) is too large or heavy, but beyond that, it sits and collects dust.

One of my goals for 2013 was to help three people with their websites or blogs. Since then, I’ve helped my future wife set-up her own blog where she’s publishing more posts per month than my cousin, best friend, and mother combined. (Just have to rub that in a bit all, sorry…) She is getting some great traction with her posts and is a prolific writer with posts that are thousands of words long, and crafted as quickly as I write my own (which by many people’s standards is fast).

I’ve also had the opportunity to help my future sister-in-law move her blog from Blogger to WordPress.com. The move was relatively painless, other than doing the crummy meta-redirect in the template rather than a true redirect, but that’s not a huge deal.

It feels good to have family up and running on WordPress.com, as the platform is stable, fast, and I’m just a bit more than familiar with it.

Sure, there are limitations to WordPress.com, but they are worth it for the publishing platform they provide, and Annie’s sister was frustrated with the poor quality of the iOS application for Blogger, and amazed at how easy Annie seemed to be able to publish posts with the iOS app for WordPress, so they deserve some credit for that.

I can’t wait until both of them have had more time to sit down with me and work on design and set-up. I look forward to teaching them as much as they are interested in knowing about WordPress.com and hope that they have a great time continuing to publish new posts throughout 2013.

I also now feel like I only need to help one more person with their blog/website this year to have achieved my goal of helping three people with their sites. Twenty-thirteen is turning out to be an amazing year for me.

I can’t say too much about the movie without spoilers, but I can say that while I didn’t feel like it was a Star Trek movie, I really enjoyed myself. I found the actors portrayals of the characters to be top notch.

I’ve never been a fan of the Original Series, but I do remember the wit and bravado that the actors had, and I think the new actors have taken these characters and made them more real, more approachable, all the while keeping those seeds sewn in the sixties.

The special effects were top notch, and the story was much better written than I had expected. J.J. Abrams also threw in some nice fan service moments for those that are experts in Trek-lore.

Small spoiler – My favourite agency gets mentioned.

I went to the theatre with Annie and some of her friends and family, and we all seemed to enjoy ourselves immensely. There was lots of laughter, some nail-biting moments and some big surprises.

Overall, I have to give Star Trek: Into Darkness a four and a half out of five.

It wasn’t the Star Trek movie I wanted, but it was an amazing movie and I definitely recommend seeing it on the big screen.

Also… Benedict Cumberbatch *squee!*

Want to read my fiancée’s post about Star Trek? Check out her blog post entitled, Into Darkness.

I know it is a bit early to be thinking about a new wish list of camera gear but I can’t help it. I’ve been super excited about getting back into photography.

I had a few things still from when I sold my body that helped me out. Here’s my current equipment list:

• Canon T3i Thanks hun!
• Canon 18-55 IS Kit Lens
• Sigma 30mm f1.4 Lens
• Canon 55-250 IS Lens
• Canon 75-300 USM Lens
• Canon 430 EX II Flash
• 32GB Class 10 SD Card
• BlackRapid Camera Strap
• Cheap But Light Tripod
• Extra LP-E8 Battery
• Small Camera Bag

What kind of photography do I want to do? One of the big reasons I got out of photography before was because I was pushing myself to learn new things, and those new things weren’t fun. I knew I didn’t want to turn photography into a paying job, but I since I’ve done that with all of my previous hobbies, I wasn’t too good at not lining myself up for doing that.

I was doing photo sessions that I didn’t enjoy, and only lead to stress and frustration.

This time around, I’m going to focus on street and event photography as that is where my passion lies. Taking pictures of flowers, trees, family, friends, and strangers at events might not interest many people, but it makes me happy, and that’s really the point.

It is with that in mind that I crafted the following gear list that I hope to be able to at least rent at some point, if not own.

What I would like to have:

• Canon 10-22mm USM Lens – $800
• Canon 100mm Macro Lens – $650
• Canon 70-200 F4 L IS – $1300
• Canon 135mm f2.0 L – $1200
• EF Mount Extension Tubes – $100
• Canon Wired Remote for T3i
• USB SD Card Reader
• Better Camera Bag
• Better Tripod

There are so many cool accessories for cameras that would really increase my enjoyment of photography once again, and there are many things I am looking forward to shooting.

After looking at dozens of rings on Pinterest, and nearly a dozen jewelry stores (Wedding Ring Shopping), I decided that the only way I was going to be happy was to have a custom ring created for Annie, but after contacting a few stores, I got quotes that were far more than I could afford.

Thankfully, through a bit of sacrifice and the assistance of Fire & Ice in Georgetown, I was able to get a ring created that Annie has been super happy with.

To get the ring, I went in with my knowledge and a source image as a basis for the design.

I started talking to one of the people behind the counter, and he was really helpful in making me confident that having a custom ring built was the right choice.

When I showed him the ring example, I told him that I didn’t like the cutouts in the band, and he agreed. I also mentioned that Annie wouldn’t like the extra bling on the band, and he agreed with me because he knew cost was a key concern for me, and more stones is always more cost.

We also talked about what I was trying to do and the emotions I was trying to convey with the ring. He wanted to know my budget, and my timeline. We discussed things for a long while as we got things sorted out. I was really excited about getting this done.

Then, as we got further into our discussion, I asked about putting gold towards the ring, and he asked if it was sentimental. I told him that it was Annie’s mom’s wedding band, and very sentimental. He told me that they would be able to work that into the gold coloured sections of the ring without an issue. So, for those that didn’t know, Annie’s ring includes gold that her father gave her mother, a very special inclusion just before her mom got sick and was hospitalized.

After we had made all of the decisions, and I felt comfortable, he asked me to leave a deposit. I handed over a couple hundred dollars in cash, received my receipt, and left the store.

After this point, I just had to wait. I knew it would take at least two weeks before I’d hear anything, and after nearly three weeks, I called to see what’s going on. I was told it was almost done, and I should hear something soon, and sure enough, a few days later, it was ready to pick up.

When I arrived at the store, I opened the ring box, and looked at my engagement ring. I guess at first, I expected it to look bigger, shinier, and whatnot, and so I felt a little nervous.

I paid for the rest of what was owing and went back home. I looked at the ring under different lights a few times before hiding it away. I was so excited about having the ring, but also so nervous that it wasn’t perfect.

My fears were quickly alleviated when I gave it to Annie though, and she continues to beam about her custom ring.

When we went into a jewelry store, even one of the staff was excited about her ring and its design, which only seemed to increase Annie’s excitement about my purchase.

One of the things that someone noticed was that the twists in the vines of the ring look very similar to the design that Annie’s mom made for Annie’s dad’s headstone, with six twists for her six children.

Today, we went to Fire & Ice to discuss custom wedding bands, and Annie found out that she would have to give up her ring for upwards of three weeks to have it cast in wax so that the jeweller could make a band that fit perfectly and seamlessly with her engagement ring. She was less than excited about this prospect and protected her hand.

All in all, I’ve been told by many that I made a good choice. It was fairly nerve-wracking, but it all worked out.

So, just under a year ago, I said that the thing that RIM (now known as Blackberry) need to do is get their BBM service/application on other devices, and apparently, that’s going to happen.

Here is my original post: Idea to Help Save RIM

Blackberry Messenger is a service that I think they need to port to other devices. BBM is like text messaging without the worry about fees or a texting plan, and many people that I know who own RIM’s devices due to work needs aren’t interested in using normal texting or e-mail for quick day to day conversation. I believe that increasing their install base by expanding their platform beyond just their own devices could serve to benefit the company and its brand.

From AllThingsD:

Come summer, BlackBerry will release BBM as a standalone app. Initially, it will be targeted at Apple’s iOS 6 and Android Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) and above, and will provide a basic feature set. But CEO Thorsten Heins says the company intends to flesh it out further in the months that follow.

I love when I get things right sometimes… I look forward to seeing how it ends up working out, and I am excited at the idea of being able to easily message my friends still rocking Blackberry phones.