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.
Yesterday morning, Stephanie and I went by the California Avenue Farmer’s Market. We biked there and had a really nice time. I got a samosa and a mango lasi, and Steph got bolani and tofu. We ran into Nima and Caryn there. Nima had 2 of his friends from Canada visiting and was showing them around. I have to say that the Cal Ave farmer’s market is a good choice for a taste of California.
This was a fantastic book. The whole thing was packed with great action, unexpected plot twists, and moving scenes of valor and love. I got choked up at a few points in the book when main characters died or something really lovely happened. I also really liked the ending, and especially the subtle ways the final sequence with Rand plays out.
The series overall was grand, and I think too expansive in many ways. The levels upon levels of complexity that were there seemed needless. There were so many different alternate universes, ways to move between them, and things that were there that it seemed like he would just invent something because he needed a tool that fit the specific instance, but didn’t go much beyond that. Despite the multiplicity of everything there was a nice stacking to it all. The snakes and foxes was the furthest I think any of it was pushed, with some of the testing universes also pushing the envelope. The characters did develop well over time, but seemed to be a little too at ease with everything that was happening. He had stated that they should show a bit more reluctance than other books of the genre, but I’d say the reluctance didn’t show through as much as it should have. This is especially true towards the end of the series.
This series is the second best I’ve read, only second to A Song of Ice and Fire. I’d highly recommend reading all of these, but you will need to set aside a huge chunk of time to accomplish such a massive task.
