http://www.viewpoints.com/aboutme/SpokaneMan Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:11:03 GMT Reviews by SpokaneMan http://www.viewpoints.com/Scrabble-Classic-Edition-review-f6684 Scrabble has been around for years, and most people have at least heard of it, if not played it many times. The game is easy in concept and principle, with the main goal being to spell the most words correctly for the most points. Spelling is at the heart of the game, and it is one of the easiest games for new player to pick up on the spot. Basically if you can form words in your head if given letters, then you have a good shot at succeeding in this game. Of course, like any other game there are many strategies that you can develop over time, and there are people out there who could be considered Scrabble "experts." — — The game itself comes with a game board, 100 tiles with letters and numerical values on them, a letter bag, and four racks to place those letters on. One important thing to have on hand, and maybe keep with the game, is a dictionary that the people playing can agree upon. This comes into play if two people disagree on the spelling of any particular word.... Wed, 23 Jul 2008 09:11:03 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Scrabble-Classic-Edition-review-f6684 SpokaneMan 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Honeywell-Honeywell-50250-Air-Purifier-review-88006 Living in an area that has a lot of pollen issues, and adding to it the three cats that we have in the house, having an air purifier in the house is just about a requirement.  In fact, we have two in the house right now, with one being the Honeywell 50250 Air Purifier.  The Honeywell does a great job at cleaning up the air with very little fuss, and it has the ability to really improve the air quality for your house and those that live in it.  In fact, the Honeywell 50250 has a filter that removes 99.7% of all particles in the air that come through it.  You want to talk about cleaning up the air; being able to remove that high a number of particles consisting of bacteria and germs, and you are potentially talking about saving yourself or your family from a number of colds during the year.  It's a pretty good starting point when thinking about getting an air purifier, but the benefits of this Honeywell don't stop there. — — The Honeywell is very... Sun, 20 Jul 2008 07:37:45 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Honeywell-Honeywell-50250-Air-Purifier-review-88006 SpokaneMan 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/The-Dark-Knight--156296-review-26482 The Dark Knight serves as the sequel to 2005's Batman Begins, where Director Christopher Nolan re-invented the Batman franchise.  Christian Bale returns as Batman, and though he is still new on the job, he has made quite an impact on cleaning up Gotham City.  It has however, annoyed the mob as well as many other criminals, and he is about to face a blow-back from just how well he has performed his job.  Now he is going to come face to face with a psychopath who wants to not only take down Batman, but burn everything down around in an effort to really destroy the man behind the mask.  Now Batman is going to be forced to adjust his methodology if he wants to survive, and he will toe the line of ethics if he wants to take down this mad man. — — The mad man is of course The Joker, who goes a route we don't often get to see in comic book films, and that is of a dark and sinister direction.  Rather than a character that would adhere to the rules of... Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:53:55 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/The-Dark-Knight--156296-review-26482 SpokaneMan 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Fantasia-Settlers-of-Catan-review-abe61 I was first introduced to Settlers of Catan back when I was a student in college and though it took me a little while to get the hang of strategy, it was a game a liked right away. Settlers of Catan is a game of strategy where you try to build up your settlements and cities faster than your opponent to where you have a total of 10 points worth of scoring. I will get to the scoring a little later, but the object of the game is to gain enough materials through the rolling of the dice, that you can turn around and exchange them for settlements, cities, roads, and development cards. It is not really a complex game in how it plays out, but it can be really complex and developed in the strategy that people play the game with. This is one of those games where every single move you make could be strategy based, and each move becomes more important than the last one. These are the types of games where friends can have a tough time playing against each other though, because you may have to... Wed, 09 Jul 2008 06:23:37 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Fantasia-Settlers-of-Catan-review-abe61 SpokaneMan 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Educational-Insights-Rumis-review-98bd5 When you combine building blocks with strategic game-play, you get the game of Rumis.  The challenge of Rumis, is to build four different structures that mimic Incan architecture.  This is done using 4 different game-boards, each of which you can choose to use, and up to 4 players can do battle to become the best builder at Rumis.  The trick, in the end, is to have the most visible pieces when looking down upon a completed structure, and the one who does, is declared the winner.  That is where the ultimate strategy lies, in making sure your pieces are closer to the top of the structure than anyone else.  This might take some time to figure out, but after a few tries, you may have a definite strategy laid out in front of you. — The game board takes no real setting up, as the Rumis actually comes with 4 different boards.  Each of the boards is set up so that you are building a different structure on them, with those structures consisting of a pyramid,... Mon, 07 Jul 2008 23:22:30 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Educational-Insights-Rumis-review-98bd5 SpokaneMan 4 http://www.viewpoints.com/Educational-Insights-Blokus-review-ac014 Blokus isn't your typical board game, and though it may resemble others, it stands alone in the way you play the game.  With the pieces on the board, you may be reminded of the old Tetris games where you try to fit the pieces in to the playing grid, but in this instance, you are trying to fit the pieces a little differently.  The person who is able to play all of their pieces on the board first is the winner, and this is done by taking turns going around the table.  You can have 1 to 4 players playing Blokus at any given time, or even more if you want to play with teams, and there are 4 different color pieces to split up with the group. — Setting up the board is as easy as opening up the box and setting it out, and then making sure that each of the different colors is given to a player.  If you have only 2 or 3 players, that is fine, as there are 21 colored pieces of green, blue, yellow, and red.  Simply choose the color that you want to represent you,... Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:55:33 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Educational-Insights-Blokus-review-ac014 SpokaneMan 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Think-Media-Rush-Hour-Game-review-659e2 Rush Hour is a fun game that mixes puzzles with strategy, and forces you to think a few moves ahead in order to finish a level.  The concept of the game is relatively simple, where you try to your ice cream truck off of the game board by moving the other pieces around one at a time.  It might seem simple, but the trick is that all of the pieces can only move in the direction that they are pointing, and you must make a clear path for your ice cream truck to escape "rush hour." — The game comes with (and these terms are from the box) 11 aggravating autos, 4 troublesome trucks, and the ice cream truck.  There is also a plastic playing grid, 40 puzzle challenge cards, and some brief rules that go over the basic game play.  On each of the cards, there is a picture of the vehicles, and to start the round, you place the vehicles on to the grid exactly as in the picture.  To begin the game, you set up the board, and then begin moving the vehicles in order to... Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:32:36 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Think-Media-Rush-Hour-Game-review-659e2 SpokaneMan 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Logitech-Access-Keyboard-review-b0826 Begrudgingly, I finally have up on my old worn-out keyboard, and accepted the The Logitech Access Keyboard from a friend as a birthday present. To be sure, I was glad to be getting this new keyboard, but me and the old one had a lot of memories together. Now I was being thrust into the technological age of the 21st Century whether I liked it or not. Well I do like it, and I am glad that I was given this gift, because not only has it helped out my typing, but the mere appearance of this sleek new keyboard probably raised the value of my desk hundreds of dollars. Or maybe that is just what I wished after seeing how good it looked. Regardless of value though, this keyboard as been very helpful to me, and I find it much more enjoyable to type with a fully-functioning keyboard. The Logitech Access Keyboard came in a nice gray color, with the normal set-up with the letter, number and additional keys surrounding said letters. At the top left of the keyboard, we have a few of the extra... Sun, 29 Jun 2008 00:44:59 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Logitech-Access-Keyboard-review-b0826 SpokaneMan 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/3M-Pet-Hair-Roller-review-5dce3 We have used a lot of different rollers around the house to clean up after not just the pets, but on clothes to take care of stray threads or lint.  3M makes a wide line of them, and in conjunction with Scotch (yes the tape people), have made a big impact on the market by selling these adhesive roles in order to help people out.  They have always worked pretty well, and we will keep on purchasing them, but I have to say that the way they are selling their specific "Pets" Hair roller is a little bit deceptive. — The basis of these rollers, is that they come with a roll of adhesive put on the end of a convenient handle.  When you take off the wrapper, it exposes the adhesive, which can then be rolled over any surface in order to pick up hair, lint, or anything else small and light that has been stuck to your clothing or furniture.  When the outside adhesive has been filled up with the debris, it has a tear slot that you just pull off, and it reveals another... Sun, 22 Jun 2008 02:48:19 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/3M-Pet-Hair-Roller-review-5dce3 SpokaneMan 3 http://www.viewpoints.com/Sheba-Selects-Premium-Cuts-Tuna-Fillet-Dinner-with-Sauce-review-df345 I have become a quick fan of Sheba cat foods after discovering just how good the ingredients are that they provide.  This particular version of their wet cat foods is their Premium Cuts Tuna Fillet Dinner With Sauce.  It comes in a dome shaped container, with 2.8 ounces of their wet cat food inside.  The top has a thin strip of aluminum that peels back to open up the little can.  When you open it up, you see that they aren't kidding when they say that it is premium cuts included. — The food itself is real chunks of tuna, which look like they are almost good enough to eat myself, if it wasn't for the sauce that they have mixed in with it.  The sauce serves as a sort of gravy, and I am sure that it is an additional thing that attracts the cats to this food.  The thing that attracted me to it was the short list of ingredients, which only includes water, tuna fillets, tapioca starch and guar gum.  It looked tempting to the cats too, and they were... Sun, 22 Jun 2008 02:27:04 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Sheba-Selects-Premium-Cuts-Tuna-Fillet-Dinner-with-Sauce-review-df345 SpokaneMan 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Cascade-Complete-vs-Electrasol-Advanced-Dishwashing-Detergent-review-42a92 Cascade Complete Liquid vs. Electrasol Advanced Liquid Dishwashing Detergents — The epic battle between two different liquid dishwashing detergents was set to take place in my house, after receiving both of them as test products.  In the past I have used Cascade's powder detergents quite often, and with the chance to try out both Cascade's and Electrasol's liquid detergents, I was up for the challenge.  We do a lot of dishes in our house, and it isn't uncommon to have the dishwasher running at night when we head off to bed.  The delayed timer is really a nice thing to have, so we will load up the dishwasher and head off to bed.  Typically the dishes are all rinsed out before being put in the dishwasher, but a lot of them will make it to the dishwasher without a thorough cleaning.  This leaves a real task for the dish-washing detergent, and one which I was excited to see if these two... Tue, 17 Jun 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Cascade-Complete-vs-Electrasol-Advanced-Dishwashing-Detergent-review-42a92 SpokaneMan 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Hasbro-Hi-Ho-Cherry-O-Counting-Game-review-7ed14 From the realm of not-so-difficult games comes Hi Ho Cherry-O of which I was a player for a long time when I was younger. The premise is quite simple, collecting cherries from a tree, a placing them in your bucket. The first one to have 10 cherries in their bucket and yell out "Hi Ho Cherry-O" becomes the winner of the game. It doesn't sound all that difficult I am sure, and it really isn't when you get down to it. I had a lot of fun playing with my brother, and I like to think that I got pretty good at the game through a lot of practice (at least that is what I thought when I was younger). — — This was a family game for us, and is still with us after many years. Though some of the pieces are missing (some of the cherries) it still plays as perfect as it would have the first day out of the box. I guess that is the benefit to having a game which comes with a few extra pieces, because then losing some of them isn't so bad. While I am on the topic though, the small cherries... Thu, 12 Jun 2008 06:37:02 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Hasbro-Hi-Ho-Cherry-O-Counting-Game-review-7ed14 SpokaneMan 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Hasbro-Aggravation-review-79182 Aggravation is an older game that came out quite a while back. I actually have one of the first releases of the game, before Hasbro had absorbed the company that produced the game. But nothing about the game has changed over the years except to put some flashier graphics on the outside of the box. On the inside everything else is still the same, and after all, it's what's on the inside that counts right? Well inside the game of Aggravation you could be in for exactly that; some aggravation. — — The game play is relatively simple, where everyone starts with four marbles, and you are trying to get them around the board before one of your opponents does. When one person gets all four of their marbles from their base to their safe home, they are declared the winner, and the game comes to an end. Getting there isn't quite as easy as I have set it to be, and that is why they call this game aggravation. — — Game play starts by players rolling the single die to... Thu, 12 Jun 2008 06:26:09 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Hasbro-Aggravation-review-79182 SpokaneMan 4 http://www.viewpoints.com/Paper-Mate-Flexgrip-Ultra-Ball-review-353b11 Working with billing, I have a way of doing it that involves going through a lot of paperwork. Normally I like to do my checks of it with pencil, but when I have completed a segment, I want to leave notation that I will recognize later on. That is where my red pens come into play, and one of the reasons that I use them so often. In addition to that, I use red pens when I am sending anything through interdepartmental mail, so that it stands out and is easy to read by the mail person. Red pens are a way of life for me; from correcting mistakes on things that I am editing, to using them on yellow pads as notes, to even leaving myself sticky-notes with reminders. More often than I write with other colors, red pens come into play at work. — — My primary choice of red pens is the Papermate Flexgrip Ultra Ball Pen with Red Ink and a Medium Point. I normally use the same type of Flexgrip blue pens as my other office pens, but it is the Red ones that get more use from me. I am... Wed, 11 Jun 2008 03:05:47 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Paper-Mate-Flexgrip-Ultra-Ball-review-353b11 SpokaneMan 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Hasbro-Trivial-Pursuit-1990s-Ediition-review-f9070 Trivial Pursuit has long been a game that I enjoyed playing, dating back to when my parents bought many of the different sets for our family. Well they recently came out with a 90's version of the classic Trivial Pursuit game, which takes many popular things from the 1990's and puts them in the form of trivia questions. Now you can test your knowledge of what took place during the 90's with this fun and interesting trivia game. — — — The Basics of Trivial Pursuit: The 1990's Version — — The game itself comes in this nice collectible tin that serves to replace the old game box. It is a nice tin that looks more impressive on the games shelf in my opinion, and keeps all of the game components in one location. With the game, you get a Trivial Pursuit game-board that is geared towards this specific edition, a box of question/answer cards, 5 red card holders (1-for each player, 1 as a discard If 4 people are playing), 1 six-sided die, 1 ten-sided die, 24... Wed, 11 Jun 2008 02:51:47 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Hasbro-Trivial-Pursuit-1990s-Ediition-review-f9070 SpokaneMan 4 http://www.viewpoints.com/Aussie-Walk-A-Bout-review-6fd75 When we moved into the new house, we decided it was time buy ourselves a grill with which to cook BBQ, and went out in search of one.  The one we settled on was the Aussie Walk-A-Bout, which fell right into our price range at a sale of less than $100.00 total for the grill.  The purchase was cemented when we discovered how easy it would be to move the grill around, and we wheeled it out to the truck to take home.  I should note, that while folded up, the grill could fit in a truck, SUV, or even in the back seat of a car if needed.  The portability of the grill when not in use is a very large positive attribute for this Aussie Walk-A-Bout. — The Set-Up of your Aussie Walk-A-Bout: Setting up the grill for the first time was very easy, as all it takes is a few moments to unfold the grill, snap the top part into place, and unlock the hatch that holds everything together in transport.  It presents a very sturdy grill while in use, and gives you... Wed, 04 Jun 2008 22:02:26 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Aussie-Walk-A-Bout-review-6fd75 SpokaneMan 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Milton-Bradley-Mastermind-review-06ae8 Mastermind is one of those games that can involve a lot of strategy, and can take a lot of strategic thinking to figure out what your opponent is trying to do. It is a game set up for two players, and you go head to head trying to discover the other players code in a quicker amount of time than he discovers yours. It is like a war game, where the last man standing is the person who came up with the best code to start with. The codes aren't all that involved in concept, but could be difficult to decipher if you don't put a lot of thought into your guessing. — — The concept is pretty easy to figure out if you look it over, in that you have one person that serves as a code-maker, and one person that serves as the code-breaker. After both players have played each role, you total up the points that have been earned and you have yourself a winner. You can choose to do each of the roles more than once, and keep track of the points earned each round, with a winner decided by the... Sat, 31 May 2008 10:44:50 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Milton-Bradley-Mastermind-review-06ae8 SpokaneMan 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Hasbro-Jenga-review-f62a3 Jenga is one of those games that can be fun and exciting to play with 2 or more people, but can also be practiced on your own. Technically you could play it on your own to, and just keep track of how long you last. But, I am getting a little ahead of myself in regards to playing this game. Jenga is a game of concentration and coordination, that revolved around blocks that are stacked up to make a tower. To play, you remove one of the pieces from within the tower, and place it on the top of the tower. This continues with someone transferring a piece from the middle, up to the top, until someone makes a mistake that causes the tower to fall over. That is when the game ends and a winner is declared. Very simple to understand, the skill comes in to play when you develop a strategy. — — Jenga advertises itself to be for ages 8 and older. It comes with 54 blocks that are stacked in 18 rows of 3 to create a perfectly aligned tower. To make it easier to stack, there is a plastic... Sat, 31 May 2008 08:14:29 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Hasbro-Jenga-review-f62a3 SpokaneMan 5 http://www.viewpoints.com/Sex-and-The-City-The-Movie-review-00772 After about 4 years after the television show ended, Sex and The City is back in the form of a theatrical release.  Picking up right where the show left off, the movie goes back in to the stories of the four New York City girls, and gives fans new in-sight as to where each of them were heading with their lives.  It took a while to get a script ready and for all the girls to sign on to the picture, but in the end, the product is something that fans are going to be quite proud of watching.  Staying as true to the show as any movie I have seen do, the Sex and The City film really does ramp up the level of comedy in order to make this theatrical release a success. — For those new to the world of Sex and The City, the 7 season run (season 6 was split in to two parts) of the hit HBO television show really set a tone that would be hard to match.  It followed the lives of four single girls in their 30's, trying to make it in the city of New York.  It showed... Fri, 30 May 2008 18:04:00 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Sex-and-The-City-The-Movie-review-00772 SpokaneMan 4 http://www.viewpoints.com/Halls-Fruit-Breezers-Throat-Drops-Cool-Creamy-Strawberry-25-Per-Package-review-6fb25 I was having problems with a cough and soar throat last month, and we had a pouch of the non-mentholated Halls Breezers in the house that I decided to try for the first time.  I was there when we purchased them for about two dollars, not really inclined to try them out because of the fruity flavor, but noting that I could put them to use should the opportunity arise.  Well after dealing with a scratchy and irritated throat for a few days, I decided to cave in and give the Halls Breezers a try.  Popping open the little pouch of 25 drops, I noted that they really resembled a piece of candy, and it seemed a little odd at first. — The taste of the Halls Breezers very much resembled candy as well, coming off as a thick strawberry taste, making me feel like I was having an Italian Soda with a lot of syrup mixed into it.  The taste wasn't bad mind you, but it did come on a little strong, and of course a lot fruity in this context.  Dissolving the drop in my... Sat, 24 May 2008 06:51:23 GMT http://www.viewpoints.com/Halls-Fruit-Breezers-Throat-Drops-Cool-Creamy-Strawberry-25-Per-Package-review-6fb25 SpokaneMan 3