This was a very enjoyable and incredibly silly book. The absurdity of Diskworld will be a good reprieve whenever I get too into the long philosophical works. The story was quite nice, with a lot of meta story to go along with it. I will have to read a few more of his books on Diskworld.
This book was very nice, and got a lot more into protectors. I liked the plot of the second one better, but this one was still very nice. There was a huge emphasis on sex again, but I was able to tease out what he was getting at with it. Since all the hominids on the Ringworld practice sex, but in different ways, the species can use it as a bonding exercise without it being a competition for procreation. All other activities will be some kind of competition, but the sex part of it isn’t. This wasn’t clear in the previous two, as there wasn’t as strong a focus on why they shouldn’t mate with their own species. The city builders mention it, but it wasn’t as much a focus.
Steph, Tina, Amit and I played a round of Goblins Inc. last night. The game itself was interesting and I really like the systems involved. There was one big failing of the game that Amit pointed out, and that was the extreme limitation that the games puts on table talk. That limitation doesn’t allow for an enjoyable social experience when playing. If you are playing just for the game it is a good game, but if you are playing to have a fun time with friends it isn’t the best thing to go for. I’m not sure if it would play decently with table talk allowed since so much of it relies on secrecy. There could be an interesting meta game or there could be a complete failure of some of the important mechanics if too much information is shared.
I decided to bike over to meet with Steph, Nick, and Andrew at the AMC 20. It was about a 1.5 hour bike ride, and since half of the trail was unpaved, it took me a bit longer than I thought it would. I had a really great time on the ride since I was listening to audiobooks and the weather was perfect. I should bike without a backpack more often. I got there just in time, and the theater wasn’t that packed so we got pretty good seats.
I thought the movie pacing was both too fast and too slow. There were parts that didn’t seem to give it any good story, but increased the drama that I could have done without. There were also lots of scenes that were there just to be flashy, which was nice on the big screen, but made some of the more important points from the book not make it in. I haven’ t read the books, but I listened to some of the comments about the choice of what went in and what didn’t and I was surprised a good bit. I am going to have to read the books now.
This book I liked more than the first since it gave more information on the history and physics of the Ringworld. It also explored the larger Ringworld universe a bit more, which was nice to hear about. I was surprised at they way they killed off a few of the characters and the huge focus on sex. I was surprised at the way the book started and the way the Puppeteer was handled in the book. It didn’t seem at all consistent with the way a puppeteer would act given the aversion to danger. The ethics of the books was interesting as well but only minimally so.
This was a very interesting book, and I especially like the mystery that they have around the Ringworld. The approach of not having an advanced race still living on the advanced world I found to be what build up the mystery the most. I like how the local lore and religions around the creators was built up, with a secondary race coming in to claim the Ringworld later. The concept of Teela being bread for Luck seemed a little far fetched, but it made for an amusing plot device. It reminded me a lot of Matt from Wheel of Time, such that if he was in a tough spot there would be a random occurrence which would give him exactly what was needed, for him or for the better of everyone. I found the Kzin character to be a little underwhelming, and I was surprised his advantages weren’t used more. The Puppetiers were also an interesting race, and I was surprised at the way they handled things. There were some parts that they did things that wouldn’t be the safest thing to do, like every having the outsiders land on their home world, or go there.
I played a few rounds of New Era with Nick and Steph. Nick left and then Steph did some quick heads up play. I won all the games, and by a large margin. I got some really good cards to start out and it worked especially well with the groups I got. I also think that I was trying to build points early one, so that the others would have arguably better resource engines, but I had the best point engines. This made a big difference since the game is usually only 4 to 5 rounds long. The engines don’t last all that long, so building points early and setting up to make points is much more important than big engines.
Nick, Steph, Ilya, and I played some Innovation last night. We played in teams with Steph and Nick going against Ilya and myself. There were two things that went against us early; The ages progressing quickly, and Ilya being new. With the quick progression Ilya was overwhelmed by the options he had, and since he was reading all the cards for the first time and seeing them work for the first time didn’t realize the combinations. I was trying hard not to tell him exact cwhat to do, especially since I didn’t know what he had in his hand. I was left behind in the quick teching up, which was ok for most of the game, as I was able to strategically use the age 1 cards to block Nick and help Ilya. This didn’t work out in the end, as Nick and Steph were able to help each other out really well on the points, and at the same time take out many of our point machines. Steph and Nick ended up winning in age 9.
Steph and I have started trying to cook Thai food since we got back from Thailand. I started off with a simple dish – curry. Normally this wouldn’t be simple, but since I’m using pre-made curry paste, it is very simple. I added in some tofu, butternut squash, and potato as the primary ingredients. It was ok, but not something I’d really look forward to eating again. The curry paste was red curry paste, and wasn’t the best brand.
We then got together and stopped by Ranch 99 to get the authentic foods. We got the makings for Tom Yom, a hot and sour soup. We also grabbed some of the better curry pastes. The Tom Yom first attempt turned out decently well with just Steph and I doing it. The ingredients were the spices plus some mushroom and tofu. The second attempt had Nick helping us out. We bagged the spices in some cheese cloth, which worked great. Normally one had to avoid eating the spicing materials, but with the cheese cloth bag for the spices, the flavor was great and we didn’t have to avoid the spices. I also added in potato, butternut squash, and carrot. The potato did really well, the butternut squash was moderate, and the carrot wasn’t very tasty with the soup. I think it was too sweet to go with the hot and sour flavor of the rest of the soup.
We got the ingredients for the next attempt of soup, and some curry ingredients as well at the California Avenue Farmers’ Market. I’m looking forward to trying it out.
It's an Exciting World 