I’m moving out of the place I’m in right now. Living with Nick has been great, and if it worked out I would have loved to live with him longer. We couldn’t find anything that worked for the both of us in a timely manner, so we will be going our separate ways for now. I wanted a bathroom for me and the kitties, a place that was ok with the kitties, and enough space to have a bit of a home office. I found just that place a few blocks away from Steph’s. It is a basement apartment that isn’t that cute, but I’ll be able to spruce up the place.
Tonight I went to dinner with Royi since he is in town for training with Yahoo. We went to Bon Chon Chicken and it was fantastic. The chicken had a really crunch outside, and the spicy version was tasty as well. We talked about all sorts of stuff, and then went back to my place to see the kitties. They were really playing hard, and didn’t want to show off their tricks.
I had a great lunch with Bill at Pho Garden. It was pretty tasty, and we talked about all sorts of things. He is doing well on his game company, and was impressed with the progress our game has had so far. I would love to work with him given the chance, but Apocalypse Overload comes first. If the kickstarter for it doesn’t go well then I’ll probably join up with his company.
Today the kitties had a few new things that they had to work with. The first is that I took out the first ring of the toilet training kit. They aren’t doing great with it so far, but both have used it in the current state. There was a little bit of poop on the floor and mat, but I cleaned that up. The second thing is that I put them in their harnesses. Archer was toosmall for his still, even with it as tight as it could go, but Lana fit her’s loosely. She even walked around a bit with it on and didn’t hate it. I gave them tons of treats while they were wearing it, and I hope that they get to like being in the harness. Archer was really amazing with the shoulder trick today. He jumped up to my shoulder when called without having to first see a treat. I’m still trying to figure out a way to train Lana to sit down on my lap and stay there. It will be a bit harder since there isn’t as much of a trainable behavior. Archer was a little rowdy while we were playing New Era, and clawed all over my back, and some on Adams legs. He had been getting better about the claws, but still needs a lot of work. Lana is great about not having her claws out.
I had Andrew and Brian over to play New Era tonight. It was a really close, really high scoring game. I didn’t get much in the beginning, as I couldn’t incorporate anything. The first turn I had 0 points. I was able to catch up and got a good engine around cooperating and gas. I still lost, but it was 43 me, 44 Andrew, and 46 Adam. I might have to play it again this Thursday at games night. The only thing that would trump it is if one of Steve’s games hits the table.
I played some really amazing games of squash with Nima today. For the first time he didn’t beat me. We ended up tied for the day, and what a set of games it was. They were mostly pretty close, and all the points were incredible. I was able to run away with the last game with a series of really hard, well-placed shots, winning 10 points in a row. I saw Hardik there, and might see if he wants to play later in the week.
I saw part 1 of Atlas Shrugged a while ago and randomly noticed that part 2 was on Netflix. I decided to watch it since I liked the story in the book. I don’t want to get into the philosophy behind the book or movies, but I enjoyed the story and portrayal in this part.
Also at Brian’s we played New Era. Stephanie left for her horseback riding lesson, but Adam, Andrew, and Brian stayed to play. The game was quite interesting. It took elements of worker placement, resource management, tableau building, engine building, and drafting. The game was a lot of fun, but really hard to grasp fully in the first play through. I got last in this game as well, but was doing well until the final turn. The part of the game that I didn’t quite get was how the point engines you make mid-game don’t survive until the end of the game. Anything making points can only do it 3 times before it stops, meaning that you will constantly have to look for other ways to get the points you needed. The other players will also be attacking your buildings so planning too far in advance will leave you vulnerable. The ability to interact with other players tableaus is what brought the game together, and made it a multiplayer game. The only other interaction is the drafting, but that wouldn’t make it much of a board game. That being said factory fun is a great game and the only player interaction in that game is the drafting. I really enjoyed the game, despite my engine falling apart towards the end.
We played a good game of Fish Cook at Brian’s place for an EGD. The game was going well and I thought I was taking the lead, but other players were making many more recipes, and the fish they were using were much cheaper. That lead to the differential being more for them even though my recipes were worth more. I ended up in last place on that game, but still had fun doing it.
It's an Exciting World 