The Long Reboot

As is our habit, my wife and I endeavored to watch all the nominees for best picture. This year was a bit of a challenge due to us having a six month old and the recent trend of Oscar nominated films not being on DVD or digital rental until after the Oscars air. Still we were able to see five of them.
The whole process made me think about reboots. The Oscars did not all impress me, but they did seem to avoid formula. They were a contrast to the superhero/sci fi movies that seemed to work within a box of convention that rarely surprise me now.
I say this with a degree of sadness. Sci fi use to ask all the question, challenge me as a reader. Now they ask the same old questions and have been stripped of their harsher political edges. The mental equivalent of comfort food.
I guess I am getting older and the superhero movies are not growing up with me. I am not sure if this is a bad thing or not.

Now just have to figure out when I can see twelve years a slave.

S

Settlers of Catan (entry 98)

Last weekend, we were visiting friends and I had the opportunity to play two full games of Settlers of Catan (with the Knights of Catan expansion). I have menitioned my love of board games before on the blog, but I had not really had a chance to dig into a eurogame (more mathy than "American" style games). It was nice to play a thinking game; it reminded me why I love them. The strategy, the mental work of figuring out the math, making plans, revising plans. I tend to prefer the European games as they tend to use luck as a disrupting element rather than a main component of the game, so you don't feel that you are working a slot machine but an actual game. They also have many roads to victory allowing for everyone to still be "in the running" through the entire of the game. I really recommend trying these sort of games, as they show a different way of thinking about the world; a contrast to the constant use of sports metaphors when thinking how things are. I can be convinced that life is a like a semi-cooperative game over it being an American football game.

Back to Settlers, it was an interesting experience to play one of the building blocks of Eurogames. It is probably the best known euro-style designer board game. I would argue it is similar to Monopoly in that a lot of people have copied or have worked to build a better version of the game. As a person who plays a lot of games, I have played these "Children of Catan" and I can honestly say they have improved on the original design so it is weird to plan an earlier model so to speak. It threw me off my game. I came in second both times, but the first game I stalled at 9 points (you need13 to win) because my strategy was not taking into account the expansion. The second game was better with two players having 12 points when the winner reached 13. The couple we were playing with plays it all the time which is always a challenge, but there is a lot of luck in the game as well. The winner knew the game and rolled well. I was proud of my performance in the second game as it showed improvement.

(as a complete side bar, the biggest design challenge for these sort of games is removing "dead time" where you are waiting for your turn to happen. The main problem is that you acquire/lose resources at the start of your turn which makes it hard to plan until the start of your turn, with all the other players watching you)

To dove tail this experience, we had a first game night of the year (at the new house). It was a small affair but a number of games were played. Augustus which is essentially Roman Bingo, Tsuro a tile laying game, and Village (another euro game). These are all newer games and have learned lessons from Catan. That said, they are more "light" games (Village to a lesser extent) and so the mental bar was a little lower. But as a wise game reviewer once said, "the important question you need to ask is 'Is Everyone having fun?'" In answer to that question I would say yes.

Now I just need to convince six people to play Twilight Imperium. :)

S

Posted with Blogsy

Losing track of the days (entry 99)

I have started my parterity leave. Six months with the kid. It is early days but the experience is already different in that my second child seems a little more laid back. I don't know if it's my son or the fact this is my second time around, but it doesn't seem as stressful. I would like to say that it's the extra years of fatherhood, but it might be more the fact that my son is a happy buddha, crying only for a specific problem.

I don't want to mislead you, I am weary. A newborn is taxing in their need for large amounts of attention and the physical demands of lugging a heavy baby around (looking forward to the crawling/walking phase) . Actually giving it a bit of thought. My exhaustion might be more from the fact I have to get up every morning to drive my first child to school (I hate driving in this Toronto) and picking her up. When we only had one, I was able to sleep in. Now there are no more days of staying in. This might not be such a bad thing when the weather is better.

Circling back, it hasn't been too bad, despite the disruption. Trying to get myself into a schedule which makes us both happy. I have been walking more (discovering the new neighbourhood), trying to get back into cooking and reading. Still, it is fun work.

Not much more news, watched three of the Oscar movies so far (Gravity, Captain Philips, Philomena). My favorite so far is Philomena. It really surprised me, cutting the fiction close to reality. I also have a soft spot of journalist movies. I am also a Coogan fan and Judi Dench was amazing.

Well, caught up. We try to make blog entries part of my schedule. Till next time.

S

Posted with Blogsy

The start of things (entry 100)

I am sitting in my new house. It still seems surreal to type it. After such a long journey, which was a bit of a emotional roller coaster (to say the least), it's hard to believe that the next chapter of our lives is underway. S and I have been joking with each other that the day the condo sold was our New Year's for 2014. The calendar didn't line up with the major change in our life and the celebration of the New Year seemed a little odd as we were still in the condo and didn't own the house yet. The stasis didn't end until we had the keys and we're starting our move.

So, the meditation I tend to do on New Year's Day was a bit muted. Although I still managed to make a challenging list of tasks to get all twisted about when they are not struck out. There are some things one can't help but do.

Paternal leave is quickly approaching as well, a reminder that another "beginning" is happening. My son turns six months old this week. The turning point where he starts to develop a personality (or rather a more noticeable one) and starts doing the big firsts–crawl, words, walks, rolls overs and all that–which S refers to as "the better six months of parental leave" which I can't argue with. He's more of a person now.

In short 2014 feels like a year of action (reaction?) rather than waiting. I look forward to it.

Posted with Blogsy

Nuggets of Wisdom

A couple of hits:

I have been reading about critical thinking in board games. The starting point for this research has been chessmasters as it seems to be the game with the most extensive discussion about how to improve your game (versus the designer games I play which are cool but rather new when compared against the classic game of kings). The revelation from this delving has been the importance of physical exercise. For a mental game like chess, it was surprising to see the importance chessmasters stressed on daily physical exercise and a good diet. A sort of base for the pyramid of their skill. A healthy body, follow by rigor puzzle/exercise of your game, followed by lots and lots of playing. These words of wisdom could apply to any task really. The end of this is that I have begun exercising again. Eating better to follow.

The previous post eluded to my exhaustion. One of the things I have missed because of this situation has been my reading. I am lacking the mental power to engage with the hard books I like to read. I was struck by this thought by two annoying comments. The first was a comic by Penny Arcade with a comment of doing something just to be reminded how smart one is. The other is the flippant comment of my boss that "Reading is for suckers". The former made me doubt, the latter made me annoyed.

Finally, the writing is happening. Slowly, with some mental pain, but I have broken 21,000 words on the novel. The reassuring thing for me is that I still know the story has legs to make it to novel length. In my previous attempts I get sense around 5,000 words and find I don't have enough to say, or the story's idea has fallen apart. This is not happening this time and I am quite excited about it.

I hope that we can keep this up.

Posted with Blogsy

Tired...of Waiting

I am not sure how Real Estate agents deal with the long waiting game of selling property. It is a very mentally taxing experience, as you really don't have much you can do (apart from some cleaning) but wait for someone to put in an offer. I guess it's less stressful when it is someone else's money, but now being in the process I am not sure how anything is sold or bought. I am very much looking forward to moving in November.

The selling experience has not been helped by having a newborn. My son seems a lot easier than the first time we had a baby.Still, a bit of a sleep debt accumulating here as well as the added complexity of baby's older sibling needing attention. Again, looking forward to being in the house by November.

I should clarify that these are "background noise". There has been a lot of happy things going on this Fall. Another book club meeting happened, attended a baby shower in an amazing hidden treasure of a house, board games, birthdays, etc. These have been welcome distractions from the previous mentioned stresses.

Still, I expect to be more coherent by the end of November. Baby son will be sleep training and will have his own room. My daughter will finally have a basement, backyard, and bedroom to play in and not keep constantly clean (as is the case right now in the condo. It is rough to have to constantly maintain a place that is lived in but doesn't look lived in). Just a couple of weeks to go.

Today I hiked on a trail just North of my work for the second time, going further than the last. It was a wonderful walk, winding through a natural area before ducking under the 401 and flowing into a formal park and suburban neighbourhood. Listening to Enya, I found myself at the top of the hill that commanded a view of the Don Mill area, with its towers floating in an ocean of trees. The hum of highway and a cold sun completed the scene. I need to give myself a couple more of such moments to carry me to November.

Soon...

The End of Summer

My daughter is going back to school on Tuesday, and there is a sense that we are moving back to a schedule after a very busy summer. Our second child, a boy, was born which was (and is) a stressful and sleep depriving experience (it appears every child of mine has to have a birth story). We also bought a house and are in the process of selling our condo. The time has been swept up in baby caring, daughter entertaining, condo staging, storage locker filling, house planning, leaving August a blur of not sleeping and work. My work has been busy as well, but I think it might be more the fact I have a low energy level (or rather more energy demands), but I think I am getting my stride again.

That said, I haven't really been writing, drawing, or even reading. This is starting to change with each day as our son sleeps longer and we have started to build a routine again. I think Z going back to school will help a lot with that, as four year olds seems to crave patterns. Drudgery is a foreign concept to them.

In my lazy mood I have been consuming some videos on the You Tubes. Mostly game instruction videos (Radho Runs Through, Watch it Played, Tabletop, etc.) and some Web shows like Geek & Sundry and Comedians in cars getting coffee. The last one is a surprising initially, until you realize it is essentially a conversation between smart funny people filmed in a New York stylish way. Highly recommend.

I can honestly say that a full life is a good life. If I cut back on the You Tube, get a bit more exercise it would be perfect. That is what Autumn is for, my favourite season. Let September begin.

 

Posted with Blogsy

A stretched out moment

To start with good news I am now a father again. My son has joined the world and so we are in the chaotic period of adjustment where we get use to our newborn and our newborn is getting use to the world. This time around seems that my son is more inclined to fall into a pattern than my daughter. It's a little early to predict, but it seems my son is the moon (calm and following some pattern) and my daughter the sun (ever present, full of energy). Still, it is early days.

The emotional journey has been far more exciting than what I have been upto physically. We have been watching Netflix (Sherlock from the BBC) and the Rick Steve's Europe DVDs I gave Steph as a gift. So far we have worked our way through Spain (which we hope to go to next year), and are almost through Paris. Rick Steve is a rather dorky fellow, but he is an excellent tour guide creator and we find each of his shows an excellent start to learning about a place.

I have putting in some solo board game play. Ticket to Ride and Kingdom Builder on the ipad and physically playing Urbion as well as reviewing my netrunner cards. Ticket to Ride has always been a challenge to me as it is one of the few games Steph will play and I am terrible at it. The ipad version is giving me a chance to get through a bunch of games and hopefully improve.

And although I am tired, I can honestly say I am relieved the birth is over and that we are in the process of settling in with two kids.

S

Posted with Blogsy

Drops of God

I have been obsessed with a manga comic series called Drops of God. It is a story of two young men competing on finding the greatest wines called the Twelve Apostles; a list created by one of the characters estranged father. It is a weird balance between educating you about the world of wine and the personal journeys of the young characters.

What I find bizarre that the series has drawn me in as I don't drink wine, spirits, or alcohol of any kind. Yet, I am entranced by the series' world of vintage, colours, texture, grapes, soil etc. The poetry of writing might be what has won me over, built around the idea that a memory, emotion or image can be captured in a bottle, to be poured into a glass and be recalled with training and passion. The artwork helps as it is in the minimalist line work anime, but with realistic proportion.

I recommend it the series. I would be interested for someone who actually drinks thinks of it.

Posted with Blogsy

Before the Storm

With baby preparations pretty much done, I find we are mentally in a holding pattern. As though we are reluctant to start anything as a newborn will soon disrupt any projects or plans we might have. I should be clear that this is not a bad thing, but rather a simple declaration of how life is. The first couple of months is a state of simple goals, although several people are impressed that we do all the things we do with one child and believe us crazy to plan to do things with two. I would argue that child learn by example, and seeing their parents experiencing life and wanting them to engage with it is a good thing in my book.

I feel this big paragraph is a bit of an excuse, as I have been rather passively consuming culture then actually making stuff. It is a common topic in this blog, I really need more material. (smile). The current sidetrack is indie video games. I have recently discovered steam (an online video game distributer) and a good review site called Giant Bomb, which has made it easy to find a collection of indie games to my liking. There is something about a game made by a small group or an individual. The "art" seems to come out more, the voice of the creator is stronger, the artist's vision, their struggles and aesthetic are more at the forefront than in a Triple A game from a major studio.

 

What am I playing? The current game with the most time is Lone Survivor. A horror survival game with a pixel/stitched aesthetic and dark eerie tale of a single survivor trying to survive in a monster filled city. I am not one for horror movies but seem to quite enjoy playing horror video games. It might be the control issue, that I don't mind the scares if I have some control over the character's action. Still, it is very dark as you basically live in squaller and not die. There is an undercurrent of psychological trauma and back story that I am interested in discovering (when I am not trying to die).

 

The other frightful game I am playing is Amnesia: The Dark Descent, which physically scares me. You control a man who has woken up with no memory in a ruined mansion. You then wander poorly lit rooms trying to figure out how you got there and not meet a shadow that seems to pursue you. It is a very creepy game, I have never had such an emotional response to a game. Good stuff.

 

Finally, the last game is Thomas was Alone. A wonderful puzzle game where you move different colour squares and rectangles through mazes. What makes the game is the wonderful characterization of these squares/rectangles by the narrator. I have found myself more attached to these silly shapes than characters I have experienced in movies/books/tv shows in the past year. I highly recommend this game.

 

This is enough of my work avoidance. Time for sleep and will attempt to motivate myself tomorrow. :)

 

Posted with Blogsy