Compliments

A quick one. Over the summer I have been taking a course on big data analytics. The curriculum is 1/3 business process, 1/3 stats, and 1/3 computer tech. Despite this breakdown, there is a lot of writing involved. When we handed in the last assignment, I got a lot of compliments on my writing. I know it is just an assignment, but it was an ego boost to get the praise as well as the high mark.
Might be hope for this writing racket yet.

Giving up television

I feel there are wishes that follow one through life. Not regrets but things you wish you could change; learn an instrument, complain less, speak Japanese etc. They are colours or flavors you wish to include in a recipe but the food is fine without it. That sort of thing.

The one i am thinking about is reducing the television I watch, freeing up time for other things. The reason I am thinking about it is that I just realized that I had been walking around assuming that I had greatly improved and it might not be true.

My adult me had shaken the couch potato ways of my youth. It is true that I have not been watching traditional television. This has not frees up anytime as i have replaced it with Youtube.

Unconventional television is still television and I fond myself at the halfway mark of the year with a lot of resolutions to work on and a lot of time lost. I have discovered it is been whisked away by youtuber playthroughs and reviews.

To misquote the glass menagerie. I have been watching movies instead of moving.

I need to figure something out. The problem is that I like You Tube. Although as my mom would say, this is a problem I like having.

The Price of Admission

I was fortunate enough to enjoy with my brother gaming day this weekend. As others attendees had to cancel at the last minute, it was just the two of us. That worked out as it gave us a chance to try some two player games.

The main event was Warhammer 40K conquest. A Living Card Game (LCG) where each is in command of a huge space army fighting for control of planets in a dark gothic fantasy universe. Theme aside, it is a game simliar to Magic:the Gathering where you build your decks to play. Warhammer is different in that you are restricted to a faction when you play (e.g Space Marines, Orcs, Eldar etc.) so each faction forces you to play a certain way. The game itself involves playing out cards to create your army, give them equipment, locations, or cause event to happen during battle to tip thing in your favor. In short, it is complicated.

We played 7 games, which is rare to play a LCG that many times in a row. What was also good is that neither of us had played it much before so it was a series of learning games. By the end of it I think we both were getting the hang out it, but I was squeaking out more wins. My brother liked it, but he felt that my general card game skill was making the game hard for him (although he did concede that last games were close and could have gone either way)

This led me to wonder how any of these type of games survive. As I have menitioned before I enjoy board games (or rather have embraced it), particulary thinky ones, not neccesarily complex but ones that give you pause for thought before playing. The LCG is a very complex puzzle of building and management, They also have bluffing and luck. You would think you could sell this sort of game to anyone. The problem is the price of admission.

The LCG is a hard sell. It is complicated and very skilled heavy. There is a lot of reading and the game is not clear with a lot of repeated play. Like Chess, you have to be willing to lost a lot before you get good. I would argue that one of the reasons Chess has survived is that you pay once and the whole game is yours (like most board games), whereas LCG keep changing every month as new cards are pumped out. Finally new players are hard to convince to play as they know they are going to get schooled by more experienced players. It is always tough to be a student.

I mention this as I am currently trying to decided which one of the several LCG's I am half-collecting to focus on and although this weekend helped me understand warhammer 40K better, I wonder if my decision will ultimately be decided by what I can get people (or find people) to play with.

Odd how fun can be so complicated.

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Missing Reading

There are some pieces of your life that are old tree stumps; never really gone despite your neglect, contorting the land, their prescense known depsite overgrown weeds, able to fight off any attempt to pry them free. This blog is one such stump. Even when I am not writing it, which is often, it lurks in my mind. It is that extra pound you are always trying to lose or that great novel that sits unwritten in your mind; One of those things I should be doing.

It is in the same category as reading. Which has also been a struggle for me recently. I'm not sure if it is a lack of organization, shifting priorities, sleep, or competing interests that have significantly reduced my reading. If I wanted to guess it is when I moved from commuting by train to commuting by car to get my various family members where they needed to be. I didn't realize how many books that forty minute commute can get in. Radio is a poor substitute in some ways.

This blog post could be a case of sour grapes, but there is hope. I have been able to keep up with my book club readings. Which has kept my books read in a year above zero. My children are getting older and less disruptive of our sleep, giving the mind more energy. I even seem to be finding time to read the paper more.

In the past month I have read two novels and part one of a lenghty history of Japan's Showa era. I am also working through a book on the nature of the brain (how it organizes things). Once I have had a chance to give it some thought I will compose a post for here.

End of "I am still alive" post; more to come.

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