Lepus Lepidus - Latest Comments

Re: Halcyon Dreams: Kat & Dan’s Experience on the Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser

klsabin — Fri, 19 May 2023 13:59:05 -0000

This is all amazing... I see why it took a while to put together. Thank you for giving us a taste of this experience.

Re: Summer 1985

AbsolutePower — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 10:53:38 -0000

Re: Spoiler-free thoughts on comics and the MCU

Awespec — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 10:52:25 -0000

Re: How to Buy a New Guitar Amp

TanktheDragon12 — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 10:52:11 -0000

Re: On Being Willing To Learn…For Fun

RemonJaov — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 10:51:54 -0000

Re: 2015

ImmortalButterfly — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 10:51:51 -0000

Re: The Mystery of the Nearly-Broadband House

Joa T Ardila — Sat, 04 Dec 2021 20:45:14 -0000

Help! I want to install a router in this Center, does it have a power source (does it need power?) and two any tips for installation?

Re: More on the Escapist, PA, and Cameron Lewis

Dan Amrich — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 13:23:05 -0000

13 years later, I gotta say...what?

Re: More on the Escapist, PA, and Cameron Lewis

RKJ87 — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 17:19:46 -0000

In the year 2021, let it be known that Cameron Lewis never played past the tutorial of Enchanted Arms. The truth shall set us all free.

Re: The real problem with Monopoly is you

Guest — Mon, 21 Dec 2020 10:31:41 -0000

That was supposed to read CAN'T decline to buy a property.

Re: The real problem with Monopoly is you

Guest — Mon, 21 Dec 2020 10:25:03 -0000

I think if people don't want to have auctions, then they should adopt a rule where you can take decline to buy a property when you land on it, and if you can't afford it, then tough. That would lead to a shorter game.

But the best way to shorten the game is to ban mortgaging. You know the game is effectively over once people start turning over their property cards to the red side, so they can prolong their demise by making a little extra money while forfeiting an income stream. Just let them go bankrupt and save an hour.

Re: The Tangerine Dream: Refinishing the Retronix R-800

Dan Amrich — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 18:04:49 -0000

My problem with the finish is that it was simply not what was advertised and not what I ordered. It looked black, and I hate black guitars -- they are a cliche. I went for a vibrant color and didn't get one, but the combination of two vibrant colors mixed together to make purple mud. :)

Re: The Tangerine Dream: Refinishing the Retronix R-800

Todd Frye — Mon, 20 Apr 2020 17:44:53 -0000

I like the original color; I would have called it 'plum'.
Being a Tennessean, I get to see quite enough orange around here, thank you.

Re: The Tangerine Dream: Refinishing the Retronix R-800

bruce — Sat, 14 Sep 2019 11:03:28 -0000

Bravo! well done! and a well chosen color Sir! My hats off to you all.
One of the more important aspects of all the J.Backlund Designs, is the light-play across these over the top guitars, the ,flats bevels and contours were all meant to enhance these reflective effects. so much so that in the very beginning, its was much more difficult that anticipated to get even a few decent photos of them without hazing, stars and chrome reflections galore in every photo. We finally had to resort to extreme low level lighting with a great deal of highly diffused lighting at long distances and in a low reflectivity, mono colored room. but now I've let the cat out of bag,
My name is Bruce Bennett and I am the luthier who brought John Backlunds original drawings into the 3rd dimension. specifically the models branded J.Backlund Design were all hand built by myself. the Retronix versions were of course, the Korean made counterpart to the USA made J Backlunds. I did personally setup every Retronix guitar before it left our shop. and of course I too lamented the paint colors and finish quality of the Korean products. but such is the norm with any "less expensive" version a high end hand made product. for its price of 799 I believe the Retronix Korean mades were an outstanding value and at only 168 units ever produced, they are quite rare even by hand made standards. Again Bravo!

Re: The real problem with Monopoly is you

Kimyona Exousia — Sun, 30 Jun 2019 16:28:54 -0000

Then, using your belief, how is it possible that I could win a game of Monopoly while only owning a total of 6 properties and my opponent had literally the rest of them?

Re: The real problem with Monopoly is you

Chris Collins — Fri, 12 Oct 2018 02:48:37 -0000

Yeah the reason for these house rules is to provide a means for non dominant players to win e.g. they may own a monopoly but never have enough cash to develop it because the first player to get a monopoly has all the money. Without the house rules, there is numerous flaws which they try to address.

1 - early dominance most of the time is a win. Unless say 2 players get lucky early on at the same pace with good properties e.g. orange and red sets.
2 - in games with not many players, the starting cash is too low, they will struggle to buy the board and then probably struggle to get houses.
3 - auctions I feel are an overly complicated process, I can understand why the vast majority of people never bothered with them. Far simpler you have the chance to buy a property if you land on it otherwise on, also auctions can make the dominance thing even worse, lets say 3 players have £50 left, the 4th has £1000, if anyone lands on a property it goes for auction (4th player voluntarily chooses to for this tactic), then the 4th player will always be able to win the auction at £51 getting properties for cheap cause noone can afford to bid that high.

The only downside is longer games, but for me if I sit down to play a board game, I rather its a long game than a short game anyway, it has one downside and multiple upsides. These house rules basically are "hope" rules for players in losing positions.

Re: The real problem with Monopoly is you

Ontheverge2013 — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 07:58:29 -0000

No wonder my tactics weren't working, I'd always use the buy everything tactic (which sounds like the best way to go after reading the comments), but that left me with no money and I'd end up rolling an unlucky number leaving them open to just buy an entire set. However, because they'd only bought three properties, they had enough money to build three houses and bankrupt me immediately after another couple of unlucky rolls. They are going to have hell to pay.

Re: The real problem with Monopoly is you

Dan Amrich — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 23:01:13 -0000

I linked to the official rules above, and they state: "Even though you are in Jail, you may buy and sell property, buy and sell houses and hotels and collect rents." You can (and should) sit in Jail as long as possible if you own developed properties. Your brothers not only deadlocked the game by not trading, but they totally scammed you on the "no income in jail" thing.

I hope you find a create way to exact your revenge on your brothers for this lifelong slight during the gift-giving portion of the upcoming holiday season. :)

Re: The real problem with Monopoly is you

Ontheverge2013 — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 11:21:04 -0000

I'm pretty sure it says in the rules that when you are in jail you can no longer receive income... That's how my brothers and I have always played it. It means there is an incentive to get out if others are near your properties but there is also an incentive to stay in if they have just passed your lot the go before and have to go all the way around the board.

I definitely agree with your point about the chance and community chest cards, they are completely random and usually offer no benefit to the game at all as they are picked up at the wrong times, for example, the 'emergency repairs' card that gets picked up as soon as the game starts is just pointless.

And finally, your second point about people not trading, perfect example happened today, I had a dark blue, two greens, a red, a yellow and two oranges (pretty much one or two of every cplour. My brothers had the rest of the properties equally shared out so no one is making any money. Neither of them would give up anything because "but I don't want him to have this" and I'm here like " but the game is all about decisions and risk!"

Re: The origins of #GratefulWed

Austin Angerman — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 14:51:04 -0000

This is a solid article with a lot of really good points. Well put Dan. I've always wondered about the origins of #gratefulwed and now I know. I think I'll share something I'm grateful for every Wednesday too. Thank you for sharing this.

Re: Every one of your stupid complaints about the Ghostbusters reboot, shot down in flames

HappyDappyMike — Fri, 10 Oct 2014 14:57:05 -0000

While the track record of reboots is not great, I do think this reboot is in good hands currently. Let's hope defections don't happen like they have for Ant-man. I think it's long overdue for the Ghostbusters concept to be back in theaters. I only wish they had kept the reboot in the same universe.

Re: Every one of your stupid complaints about the Ghostbusters reboot, shot down in flames

Dan Amrich — Fri, 10 Oct 2014 00:16:26 -0000

It's great when doing it the old way is the same thing as doing it right, but I don't think they're the same thing here. By that criteria, to do it "right" would be to force Bill Murray to phone in a performance he has openly stated he does not want to give. No way, man.

Re: Every one of your stupid complaints about the Ghostbusters reboot, shot down in flames

heckboy — Thu, 09 Oct 2014 20:53:15 -0000

Spot on old boy!
I'm not sure I want a new GB movie with the old cast.
Cringed allot in GB2.
I think this is the best way to go, we get a fresh start in a fresh direction and of course there'll be cameo's and call-backs aplenty.
Best of both worlds.

Re: Every one of your stupid complaints about the Ghostbusters reboot, shot down in flames

beezn — Thu, 09 Oct 2014 20:34:11 -0000

I would rather the film not be made than have a reboot without the original cast. Sorry, but if you can't do it right don't make a knock off that may be lacking. There have been 2 reboots that have been better than the original, Dredd, and Dark Knight Returns (one movie in the middle of a trilogy). All together there were way too many awful ones though.

Re: So You Want to Buy an Electric Guitar…

guitarhelp — Thu, 25 Sep 2014 20:06:24 -0000

Thank you so much for this unvaluable article. Interesting,informative and very fun to read !
This is my current dilemma.... what is the best possible guitar to buy that has good sound and quality and right for the pocket, just in case you end up not using it because so many other important priorities in life.

I would have hoped to read 1 or 2 paragraphs about pickups. Today it seems to be a lot of debate about humbuckers vs P90s and even Seymour Duncans.
Honestly, for a beginner guy like me, who comes from playing piano and synths for an entire life, I do not know what to get.
I have seen deals dropping from 900 to just 350, like the unknown LTD hybrid-ii with seymour duncans.
Just for that price i would get it........ but man, no one wants to make a mistake and be stuck with 350 bucks collecting dust.

Anyways, thank you so much for sharing this. For us wannabees it is an unvaluable resource !!!
Cheers !