I played a game of ad astra with Max and Steph. I got the card that makes you win with 42 points early on in the game and nearly hit it. Had I been able to move once more I would have hit 42 exactly. As it was I was kingmaker in the end as the score card I played would make either Steph or Max win depending on the choice. I officially chose Steph, but it really didn’t matter at that point.
I had a great time talking to Robert at TGI Friday’s. I could really use his help on the board game to get the iconography right and the mechanics clearly displayed.
I got my fitbit!! it is really cool, and I’m really happy I got the Flex. In all the ways that you could prefer one over the other I prefer the Flex. I understand the people that prefer the One, but that just isn’t my style. I need something that is attached to me, doesn’t provide a big distraction, and is really hard to lose. The only time I need to take it off is when I’m diving or charging.
My first day on it has gone well as I’m above the thresholds on almost everything.
Today for lunch I went to Mela Tandoori Kitchen with Bo and Yumin. This was right before their wedding. I got lots of pictures of them but gave the memory card to Bo so that he would have the pictures, and I’ll update this post when I get the pictures.
This book goes into the Darwinistic past of religion and how it has changed into what it is today. They start out with prehistoric societal religions that held the groups together, and made them sacrifice themselves for each other. They then go into how early religions built on each other by taking narratives and festivals. They go into how the major religions of today started forming. Finally they get into how the current nationalism is a form of religion without calling out a specific deity (think manifest destiny). I really like the book and it makes me think about how the foundations of religion are group cohesiveness and the ability to drive people to the greater good of the group over the good of the self.
This was a very interesting book about how the mortgage backed security and credit default swaps. These methods of banking and investing were very interesting and made these huge webs of reliance. Once one part of the web broke all the others were start breaking. The idea behind these monetary devices was that if you create something and make it seem secure, but then let people know that it may not be as secure as it looks at first in the small print, you can sell it for much more than it will eventually be worth and externalize that risk. If the buyers of these items had just been people there wouldn’t have been a banking crisis, it would have just hit all the wealthy individuals that had bought them and all the people who had taken loans they couldn’t possibly pay back. This would have meant that no bailout would have occurred. Somewhere along the line the banks and investment firms thought that these investments were a great idea and that they were missing out on the money. Once that happened the market became larger and the interdependencies started to accrue. Then the monetary devices started to wilt and all hell broke loose. This makes me think that if you can create a monetary device that seems stable on the surface but is really just a front for a lot of unstable things that you can make an insane amount of money.
Steph and I played this board game last night. I have to admit it is a good board game, but like many scripted coop campaign games, including dungeons and dragons in general, I don’t really care for it. I’m much more for free form games like GURPS in the JOW world. We lost one round and then won the second through a great piece of luck where we drew the final tile from the bottom of the deck.
I went to Suppenkuche with Chris H and Francis. Chris is pretty much done with his coursework for the PhD and is going to be hanging around SF a lot more. I will probably go hang out with him and work on PRAINZ some days. He lives in a nice place in the city and it will be fun to hang out with him. This will help him keep on topic as well as helping me to keep on topic. (Suppenkuche Site)
The restaurant was really nice, albeit a little expensive. I got a fabulous mushroom soup and dumpling stuffed roasted chicken with potato pancakes. I got two different beers and the second was really tasty, but I can’t recall what it is.
After Suppenkuche we got ice cream at a close by shop, Smitten Ice Cream. I got the salted caramel and it was delicious. (Smitten Site)
This book had a lot of good points on how to foster leadership, hard work, and efficiency. They talk about how the company makes it every persons job to be in charge of their station, and then makes it important for them to know all the things about the line. It stresses that building leadership and efficient, happy work are an ongoing process. Having the ongoing process where everyone has the authority point out better ways of doing things can make the company great.
