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- Steve and Amy

Red, White, Blue... and Wedding!
Posted by Tannerman on July 1st, 2009 09:55 AM

Life has been pretty busy for both Amy and I as of late. I've been spending quite a lot of time working to relaunch Kidology.org, which we finally did on Sunday. Whew! We'll be taking a break from all that, however, as my sister Karen gets married to Brian Byrd on Saturday ... yes, on the 4th of July! By the way, have you visited her official website built by her loving brother? It's KTandBrian.com! I think my sister was trying to top me with rememberable anniversary dates! It's going to be an outdoor event, so here's hoping the weather cooperates! Knowing my sister, it's gonna be uniquely different in a very cool way. Brian is surrounded by Tanner Disney freaks (September 2008) Ever since hanging with Brian at Walt Disney World a few years back, we knew he'd fit right in with the Tanner family insanity... so this should be fun!

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Remembering "Kitchen Confidential"
Posted by Tannerman on June 16th, 2009 08:00 PM

In 2000, I was working for a company called Participate.com, which later renamed themselves Participate Systems, which later laid me off. Ah, the ole Participate.com days! During this dot com era, I managed various online communities for big clients, including producing live chat events with celebrities and "big name" folks... and it was fun. "Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain With this experience, one evening I helped my friend Nicko out with a live chat he was hosting for his cooking enthusiast's site, ChefTalk.com. The guest? Famous chef and author Anthony Bourdain who had just released his best-selling book, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly. Now, to be honest, before the chat, I had never read the book. But when you run these kinds of things, you really only need to know the operations side, not so much the content. Have you visited ChefTalk.com lately? During the chat event we had a moderator, greeter, transcriber, and someone on the phone with Mr. Bourdain who was reading him questions and posting his responses (and you thought all these guests were posting by themselves, didn't you?!) It was a rather high-traffic event and I think pretty successful. I even archived the transcript from the chat on my personal portfolio site. Anthony Bourdain chat transcript Why do I bring this up now? Well, just last summer I got around to actually reading Kitchen Confidential, and frankly, I found it really entertaining. I don't know much about the cooking industry (I deal in beverages), so it was rather an interesting eye opener for me. If you are looking for a good read, I recommend it highly. During 2000's chat event, questions were asked regarding turning the book into a movie. At the time, Anthony Bourdain said that a movie deal was in the works. Well, that never came to pass. However, a FOX comedy by the same name debuted in 2005, very loosely based on the book. It starred Bradley Cooper of Alias fame... and only lasted 4 episodes before it was cancelled. "Kitchen Confidential" TV show Eventually, all 13 episodes of the series were released on DVD. Beyond that, they also ended up on Hulu. I watched through the series not too long ago, and I have to admit, it wasn't too bad. A little crass at times, but it had potential. Then again, it was on FOX, the same network that cancelled Firefly, so what did we expect? As we enter the summer doldrums of boring TV, I'd encourage you to give Kitchen Confidential a try. For your convenience, I've posted every episode in the TannerWorld Junction discussion forums, complete with summaries, airdates, and correct viewing order. Plus, you can comment on each episode if you'd like! Kitchen Confidential - Exile on Main Street Kitchen Confidential - Aftermath Kitchen Confidential - Dinner Date With Death Kitchen Confidential - French Fight Kitchen Confidential - You Lose, I Win Kitchen Confidential - Rabbit Test Kitchen Confidential - The Robbery Kitchen Confidential - Teddy Takes Off Kitchen Confidential - Let's Do Brunch Kitchen Confidential - Praise Be Praise Kitchen Confidential - An Affair to Remember Kitchen Confidential - Power Play Kitchen Confidential - And the Award Goes To...

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Play Therapy finds at garage sales
Posted by Tannerman on June 13th, 2009 06:12 PM

Today Amy & I hit the big neighborhood garage sale in my parents' neighborhood that takes place every year. In the past, we've been able to land some good finds, including a ton of LEGO bricks (see "How I ripped off a kid") as well as other odds and ends. Amy with all her garage sale finds! This year, we had pretty much one mission... to find items that Amy could use in her private counseling practice for use with kids in play therapy. We met at my parents' house, where Amy distributed a list of recommended toys for a play therapy playroom that she had received at an international conference on the topic. So we all spread out and hit the 40+ sales in the neighborhood. And boy, did we clean up! Some of the toys drying out after being washed We found quite a few things off the list, including dolls (including one that talks!), Hot Wheels cars, puppets, plastic soldiers, foam darts, toy telephone, hats, building blocks, a medical kit, marbles, toy animals, and a play kitchen set. It's a plastic kitchen set! The real find, however, was a huge score of Playmobil characters, along with some vehicles and a dollhouse. Having small movable action figure-type characters is important so kids can play through examples of family relationships, nurturing, or even aggression. Unfortunately, figures like G.I. Joe or Star Wars don't really fit the bill. In our research, the Playmobil-style figures were ideal, since they are modeled in many different types of family relationships and occupations. Additionally, they have numerous movable parts. Anyone have medical needs? Unfortunately, given that the toys are imported from Germany, they are quite expensive to buy new. Even secondary market Playmobil goes for high prices on eBay... as we've been looking over the past few months. Well, needless to say, we found a collection of figures today that probably would fetch $200+ on eBay... but we paid only $20. It was a good day for garage sales... of course, now we're spending the rest of the day cleaning and sanitizing this stuff!

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Candy Review: M&M's Strawberried Peanut Butter
Posted by Tannerman on June 4th, 2009 10:23 AM

It's summer blockbuster movie season, which of course, means many of the product tie-ins for films are showing up in stores. The latest is yet another special flavor of M&M's, this one tied to Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and is called M&M's Strawberried Peanut Butter. M&M's Strawberried Peanut Butter We've reviewed quite a few limited edition M&M's flavors in the past, including one of our favorites, M&M's Mint Crisp, which was a tie-in to last summer's horrible, horrible film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It's pretty sad that the candy was better than the movie. Yellow has red dots on it Other flavors we're tested, but haven't really loved... M&M's Razzberry and M&M's Wildly Cherry. Yeah, I'm not sure about this flavor either Now, I'm not going to go into what I think of the recent Transformers films, or how they are pretty much a bastardization of the original concept, or how Michael Bay really is a talentless hack who can only blow things up in his films... and that's about it. And Shia LaBeouf... seriously? I'll let you make your own judgements on that. Just put everyone involved with these films on Adderall and be done with it already. But alas, I digress. Like these characters? Collect all 7! The new M&M's Strawberries Peanut Butter come in a silver bag with the Transformers logo on the front. M&M character depictions of Transformers are also illustrated. My package showcased "The Twins", which according to the fine print, is "Collector's Pack 7 of 7". Oh goodie! Whatever. Now, what the combination of strawberry flavor and peanut butter have to do with Transformers I don't know. Maybe it's a take on the "More than meets the eye" idea, who knows. Either way, it's stupid. You basically get Peanut Butter M&M's in 3 colors: brown, red, and a yellow speckled with red dots. The "M" logo is the same and unlike M&M's Mint Crisp, doesn't even tie into the film at all. As for the flavor, Amy's reaction was "Yuck". Myself, I thought, well, it's pretty much a Peanut Butter M&M with just a hint of strawberry flavor. Frankly, a bit odd of a combination and not one you are likely to want to repeat. Beyond that, given that greater size of the individual M&M candies, you don't get many in your 1.4 oz. package. Frankly, kind of a rip-off. Overall, not a fan of M&M's Strawberried Peanut Butter. It's like Mars didn't even try with this product. Maybe I should stick to reviewing beverages!

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Review: Clue Reinvention
Posted by Tannerman on May 30th, 2009 05:45 PM

Last fall, buzz started leaking about a new version of the boardgame Clue. That's nothing new. There are a ton of Clue versions. I probably own 20-30 of them personally. Clue Reinvention What was different, however, was the way that this new version was being pitched. New characters, weapons, setting... and gameplay. For example, Colonel Mustard was renamed Jack Mustard, an ex-jock. This really wasn't a new themed version of Clue along the likes of Alfred Hitchcock or The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror... this was a complete rethinking of the game. Video: Commercial for the "new" Clue Why such the change? Well, you have to remember that the folks who own Clue -- the conglomerate Hasbro -- aren't really out to make new games or creative ideas. They are all about managing "brands". You don't see a whole lot of new, creative games from the likes of Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley anymore... they are all just part of Hasbro. Instead, the company tends to take the leading classic sellers from its portfolio and rebrand them for different themes or promotional ideas. For example, walk the toy aisle and note the lack of anything new. It's really just themed versions of the classics... Monopoly, Risk, Sorry, Life, Stratego, and yes, Clue. The new gameboard While this lack of innovation may be very profitable as Hasbro just freshens up their brands, it does push game lovers to other sources, such as the trend toward German-style games like The Settlers of Catan. Even though I'm a big fan of Clue, I've not been too happy with the way Hasbro has handled the franchise. During a 3rd Quarter 2008 earnings call, Hasbro's CEO and President Brain Goldner outlined how the economic downturn could hurt them as an company, given that spending may be down considerably on games and toys. Looking at the sales numbers from last Christmas, he was correct. However, during that call, he noted one initiative that Hasbro was undertaking to add new life into their stable of boardgames. He kept mentioning that they needed to "reinvent, reignite, and reimagine" their games. And so they did, using the phrase "Reinvention" to denote the games that had been given this overhaul. Weapons cards The Reinvention initiative has hit many games already, including Stratego, Risk, Boggle, Battleship, and Clue. The Reinvention titles are designed to replace the classic versions you've grown up with, standing in as the new official version of the game, revised gameplay and all. Such is the case with Clue Reinvention. I should note that these games that are part of the Reinvention initiative don't actually use the phrase in the title, i.e. Clue Reinvention. It's just a suffix you'll often see listed on store shelf signs and online listings, reflecting the SKU designation, which helps the retailers note the difference between the classic offerings and their Reinvention brethren. Technically, this game is just labeled as Clue or Clue: Discover the Secrets on the box. For the sake of this review, I'll be referring to Clue Reinvention to help denote the differences between the new version and the classic version. Are you confused yet? One of the new rooms is the Patio Looking back at our Clue history, the last revised version of the game arrived in 2002, presenting a very 1920s look, complete with a cubic style to the characters that was very abstract. Some liked the new look, others quite hated it. This design style was used in other versions, including Clue FX (2003), Clue Mysteries (2005), and Clue DVD (2006). Some offbeat special editions came later, such as The Haunted Mansion Clue (2002), 2nd and 3rd editions of The Simpsons Clue (2002, 2007), The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror Clue (2007), The Collector's Edition Clue (2007), and a nice vintage remake in a wooden bookshelf box (2005). All of these special editions were designed to supplement the original game and were released in limited quantities. The big difference between these special editions and the 2008 release of Clue Reinvention is that this new version IS Clue as far as Hasbro is concerned. The older 2003 edition has been pulled from the shelves. This is all you can get. Suspects are just known by last names So what's the big difference? Well, as previously mentioned, the backstories of the game and characters have changed dramatically. The setting is now something along the lines of a Hollywood/Entertainment/Gossip genre. This strongly Americanizes the game with a pop culture feel. (Remember that Clue was created in the UK under the original name of Cluedo.) Characters tend to only be referred to by their last names (Scarlet, Mustard, etc.), though they do have a backstory with a first name. For example: Kasandra Scarlet - Movie Star Jacob Green - Go-to guy "with all the ins" Jack Mustard - Celebrity Football Player Diane White - Former Child Actor Victor Plum - Video Game Design Billionaire Eleanor Peacock - Wealthy Political Family Each player also is issued a Personality Card that matches the game character they are using. This card lists a "power" that may be used by this specific character just one time during the game. This change greatly differentiates the advantages/disadvantages of selecting certain characters at the start of the game. Each character now has a one-time power In addition to the changed character storylines, the gameboard takes on a slightly revised configuration, with some rooms changing and even an outdoor location added. Say hello to the Spa, Theater, Living Room, Observatory, Patio, and Guest House. Kiss goodbye your old friends the Conservatory, Billiard Room, Library, Study, Lounge, and Ballroom. Only the Kitchen, Dining Room, and Hall are carried over. There's also an indoor pool that's been added, but we'll get to that later. You will recall that when you start a game of Clue, your character is placed on their color-coded Start location. Some of these locations have been moved around, creating slight advantages depending on which player you select. For example, it takes Scarlet 10 spaces from Start to get into a room, while Mustard only requires 9. There are 9 weapons now With everything else changing, the weapons also got rebooted. Taking a page from one of my favorite versions of the game, Clue Master Detective (1988), their are now more weapons (9 vs. 6). You still have the Candlestick, Knife, and Rope, joined by new additions with the Pistol (an upgrade from the old Revolver), Bat, Axe, Dumbbell, Poison, and Trophy. Aside from the gun change, you also lose the Lead Pipe and the Wrench. Some of the new rooms The general gist of the game remains the same... figure out the SUSPECT, with what WEAPON, in which ROOM. However, there are some added gameplay elements that really differentiate Clue Reinvention. The first of which is the change to the way cards are issued to each player. Classic Clue rules have always stated that at the beginning of the game, all cards are dealt to each player until there are no cards remaining. This has long meant that depending on how many are playing the game (3-6 players), some players may get more cards in their hand than others. The seeming advantage tends to balance out, however, given that players with more cards were forced to show them to other players more often upon Suggestions. At the center of the board is the Pool In Clue Reinvention, this rule is changed. This time, each player is given the same number of cards. If there are any extras, then they are placed facedown in a pile at the center of the board. Unlike classic Clue -- where the center of the board was not in play and simply a place to stick the game logo and the Confidential solution envelope, Reinvention makes this space a special room -- the Pool. While murders cannot take place in this area, it has two uses. First, you can enter the Pool area and privately look at all the cards that are in the facedown pile. This adds a nice gameplay element that in effect operates like a virtual player (a mechanic introduced in Clue FX). Thus, even if you've deducted what the other players are holding in their hands and have visited all the locations on the board, you still need to visit the Pool location to get the full evidence. I like this change quite a bit. The other purpose for the Pool area is to make a final Accusation at the end of the game. In classic Clue rules, a final Accusation can be made from any room location on the board. With the Reinvention rules, you have to make an Accusation from the Pool room. What that does is add a bit of tension as players who may all have the solution in mind race to the middle of the gameboard, using other rules to inhibit players from beating them. This is also a nice improvement to gameplay. Land on a Question Mark and draw an Intrigue Card The other drastic change to the rules in Clue Reinvention is the introduction of an extra set of cards known as Intrigue Cards. This mechanic implements some attributes lifted from previous special editions -- Clue Master Detective's "Snoop" spaces and Clue Dungeon & Dragon's optional rules for "Monster" Cards come to mind. Basically, there are spaces on the gameboard marked with question marks. You may choose on your turn to land on one of these spaces. Intrigue Cards can be helpful, such as these Keeper Cards... If you do, you draw a card from the Intrigue deck. This could result in you selecting what is called a "Keeper Card" that gives you extra help if played at some point during the game. You can collect as many of these as you'd like. These good cards could, for example, "Add 6 to your dice roll" or "Move anyone back to their Start space". Very helpful features that add a new level of strategy to the game. ... or they can be bad, such as this Clock Card On the flipside, the Intrigue deck might instead provide you with a "Clock Card". These are bad. If you draw a Clock Card, it is placed on the side of the gameboard and your turn ends. Not a bad thing. However, as other Clock Cards are drawn during the game, they join yours and start adding up. Whoever draws the 8th Clock Card has their time run out, and is in effect, killed by the murderer. They are out of the game! Thus, this good/bad potential adds a nice element of risk in the strategy to draw Intrigue Cards or not. I should also mention that if your player is mentioned in a Suggestion by another player, just like classic Clue rules you are moved to the room mentioned in the Suggestion (Note, in Clue Reinvention, "Suggestions" are renamed "Rumors" to tie into the gossipy theme). However, you have the option, if you so choose, to select an Intrigue Card for your troubles. This could either help you or kill you. The final way to get an Intrigue Card is by rolling a question mark on one of the supplied dice as part of your movement roll -- you must take a card in this case; you don't have the option to decline. In general, I like the addition of the Intrigue Cards to the game. Adds a completely different element beyond the simple guessing/deduction that is typical of Clue. The rest of the game plays the same as classic Clue. Have you visited the Living Room? Overall, I have to say that I really love the rule changes and different mechanics added into Clue Reinvention. Having played it a few times, it really does change up how you typically would go about winning the game, and for that, I appreciate it bringing new strategic life to the franchise. What I'm not so much a fan of is the style of the game itself. The new storyline, character backgrounds, etc. That I could do without, but I can see why Hasbro went that way to attract a new audience. The increase in the number of weapons makes the game a little harder, but at the same time, the built-in "timer" mechanic with the Clock Cards also can speed up gameplay. These are some of the worst Clue pawns I've seen The character pawns are rather crappy, being flat, textured question marks on clear plastic with colored bases. Compared to the full color figurines of each character found in the 2002 version, this was a huge step back on design. Not to mention, they have nothing to do with the theme and are just ugly. The Detective Notebook looks like a napkin The former Detective Notebook pads -- now known as Clue Sheets, are designed to look like a dinner napkin, with your notes doodled on them. Great idea in concept, but really hard to work with given their small size and reduced writing area. Instruction Manual looks like a tabloid magazine The design changes pretty much throw out the classic charm of Clue, creating an experience that probably will date itself quicker than the versions set in specific time periods. Even the instructions were dumbed down to resemble a printed tabloid magazine, which not only are poorly organized, but actually leave out quite a bit of explanation and rules that may leave newer players confused. Clue logos over the years: 1997, 2002, and 2008 One final note regarding the design changes. The Clue logo has been changed for the second time in just a few years. The image above denotes the Clue logo typeface from the 1997, 2002, and 2008 editions. You probably grew up with the 1997 version, which was a classic upper/lowercase look with distinctive edges on the "C" and "E". This logo was pretty much used on all Clue versions since 1972, including the feature film. In 2002, that logo was thrown out in favor of a rather dull and soulless all-uppercase version. This same logo was used on Clue DVD and Clue Mysteries. With the rollout of Clue Reinvention, the logo has been changed again, again all uppercase, but with a little extension on the "U", which incidentally touches the "L"'s lower portion. A small line also runs through the top of the "L". It's still not as distinctive as the 1972 classic Clue logo, but it's far better than the 2002 one. Clue Reinvention gets a thumbs up from me for changes to game mechanics that really do improve the play of a boardgame that's been around since 1949. However, I really have be critical of the questionable design choices that long-time players probably will frown upon. If you are on the fence, I'd consider picking it up, but don't get rid of your old version! Previous Clue-related posts: Coming Soon: Clue: The Office Coming Soon: Clue: Secrets & Spies Coming Soon: 24 Clue Clue Candy Clue at the Music Box Theatre Coming Soon: Clue - Harry Potter Edition Hasbro updates Clue with new characters, weapons Alfred Hitchcock Clue Coming Soon: Tower of Terror Clue Get a Clue at the Tanners 2007 Clue DVD Game Clue for One Get a Clue at the Tanners 2006 Miss Scarlet gets respectable (just for the kiddies) Game Night with Nicko & Colleen Two Shaggys. No Fred. Clue Puzzle: The Color of Murder

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