This is a good book about startups. It is good at pointing out a good number of things that I haven’t done yet and really need to do. I’ll get together with Robert tomorrow to talk about it. I also should make sure that we record more stuff about the things we are talking about. I’d say this book is worth reading for those doing their own startup.
We watched the Venture Brothers for much of the Afternoon and Evening. Nick was the person that was there the whole time, but a few others came and went. Riley and Rong came by for about 4 hours and hung out. Nick was nice enough to cook out and provide some dinner of hot dogs wrapped in bacon and burgers. I put orange sauce on everything and it was delicious. There were a few episodes of Venture Brothers that I hadn’t seen that were pretty interesting. I of course liked seeing the new one. The last few have had more plot than I had previously expected from the series. Adam came over and we talked about his time in Vegas, building planes, finding a place to live in the South Bay, and a little bit about companies and programming. I am going to try to learn everything I can from him. Even though he isn’t the person that I’d model my life after, he has a lot of experiences that I’d like to learn from without having to go through them myself.
Nima and I went along the Steven’s Creek trail this morning, and then turned around to head out past Shoreline Lake. It was a nice 16 mile ride and I had a great time doing it. We talked about him biking to work, me getting cats, and many other things. I think I can convince Caryn to come over and possible work some from my place next week or the week after to play with the kitties and keep them company. I also showed Nima where the used bike shop in Mountain View is.
I stopped by the Cal Ave farmer’s market this morning and got a Samosa, then stopped by the Bolani tent to get 8 of the pumpkin Bolani and one each of the basil pesto and sun-dried tomato pesto. I got so much since we aren’t going to be able to stop by and get some more next weekend. The guy didn’t quite recognize me by myself, but that is ok. He recognized me after I got 8 of the pumpkin. On the way out I decided to grab a Mango Lassi, and it was quite tasty.
Yesterday after biking back from Beachhead, I ran into Nick as he was getting up. We decided to hang out that morning, and went to the Chocolate Garage where I got the milk chocolate Momotombo. We also went by the Saturday farmer’s market in downtown Palo Alto, and got Mexican food there. We went over to the east bay to pick up Howard, and after dropping Howard off we stopped by the Palo Alto Animal Services. I played with the kittens there and had a great time. I am looking forward to getting 2 of them later this week. I’ll go back mid-week and pick 2 out based on how well they respond to being held and having their bellies rubbed. I spent the afternoon at Beachhead, and picked up some supplies for Steph to make her Faith carrier bag along the way. I also stopped by Milk Pail and picked up some dinner. I grabbed some spinach gnocci that I’m hoping to have this week. I’m not sure what sauce I’m going to put with it, but should be tasty now matter how it is prepared.
This book didn’t have all that much action directly revealed. There was a lot of plotting and a lot of hinting at action, but not all that much happened. There was plenty of setup for what will be coming in the next few books, but I was disappointing in what actually happened in this one. Much of the long action sequences has been taken out and replaced by small explosions and incessant plotting. I liked the longer travel narratives instead of the short battles mixed with large pieces of politics.
I introduced Nima to the worker placement genre with Stone Age last night. I used Nick’s strategy of getting a large population and never feeding them. This works out if you continually get points, and I was able to get 12 huts. I was able to get a score of 187 and Tina had a score of 178. Jeff didn’t do too well as he didn’t choose a strategy. Tina was using the card and agg strategy. Nima had fun, but didn’t know enough about what he was doing to get a good score. He did copy us decently well, so that his score wasn’t bad.
Many things happened in this book, with the final part being the unknown takedown of a forsaken. Rand almost dying was strange, and the instance that brought it about stranger. Some of the parts of this book seemed forced and contrived. Especially now that almost everyone has the ability to travel instantly there are contrived situations to keep them from doing that to fix everything quickly. The limit of information is probably the biggest limitation that is left at this point. I’m wondering how the other books will keep this limitation and the story in line.
I finally met the 4th Roommate. He is a pretty chill guy from first impressions, and hopefully he will join us at board games night.
I asked him about getting kitties and he said he is ok with it! So now it is time to start ordering and planning for the kittens. I’m so excited about kitties!
It's an Exciting World 