It's an Exciting World

3 Novellas

I read three novellas, ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ by George R. R. Martin, ‘Perfect State’ by Sanderson, and ‘Shadows for Silence in the Forests of Hell’ by Sanderson.

A Knight of the seven Kingdoms was really nice, with a bit of a lighter side to the seven kingdoms, and a good look at their recent history for the primary series of Song and Ice and Fire. The characters were delightfully odd, and not homicidal maniacs like most of the characters in Song of Ice and Fire.

Perfect State had a wonderful premise, and amazing execution, as is expected from Sanderson. I really enjoyed the interplay of the characters with the world around them. I also liked the philosophical questions of whether the AI should be considered human. There is also the natural born to natural born interaction part of that philosophical bent, with class systems for them. The final philosophical piece that is interesting is the futility and fatalism of the premade worlds each person is put into. I hope he does something else in this universe.

Shadows for Silence in the Forest of Hell was a great universe, but not as likable as many of his other universes. The limitations were great, the characters identifiable, but the world was too bleak. The twist at the end was fantastic.

October 18, 2015 0

Lindsay’s Going Away Party

We went over to George’s place for a going away party for Lindsay. It was pretty good including some fun Karaoke. We’re going to try to go and see her while she is in India, and I think it should work out just fine.

Stephanie put in a lot of songs that she likes the chorus of, and then there is a fast rap component to them that she likes me to do. I need to get better at the rapping parts of those songs.

October 18, 2015 0

The Kitties

Archer and Lana have been doing really well, and getting to go outside for longer and longer periods of time.

This has allowed them to get into more and more trouble. Archer is the primary culprit, getting into other patios, up to the second story, climbing trees, and almost catching a squirrel. He also got an adorable lion’s mane.

October 12, 2015 0

Book Club: Windup Girl

The discussion on this book was great, since we were able to talk about the world in general as well as the story. There were lots of discussions on the characters and the writing style. The disparate beginnings confused everyone, but we all agreed it came together well in the end. The Anderson character was interesting, in that you start out being able to identify with him, and he might be a little mean. In the end he ends up being a monster that gets his just deserves. We also talked about the manipulation of animals and people. I thought it wasn’t feasible for the changes to be such a step function. I would expect some people to have smaller improvements, and not fully reworked genomes. I look forward to the next discussion as well, and I’m a little surprised that people agreed to read the books on religion.

October 7, 2015 0

MTG and the Poke Bowl

Steph and I had brunch at Andrew’s place, then we started drafting. Steph came along, and once Debby got there they started their MTG matches. My games went decently well, but I wasn’t able to cope with the removal that Kevin and Andrew had. Adam also beat me, but those games were much closer. I could have beaten him, but I misplayed right at the end. I still had a really good time.

After MTG Adam and I went to a castle in the hills that was for sale. It was really adorable, but not very finished. I liked the property, but it was also really hard to get to. They also had a broken down trebuchet.

We then went to dinner at a tapas restaurant, and followed that up by the movie “The Lunchbox” which was a very strange movie.

October 6, 2015 0

Morning with Steph and a Party at Lee’s

Steph and I had planned on a lazy Saturday morning, and it was exactly as hoped. We stopped by Milk Pail, Target, and then went to the park to play some tennis. She wasn’t as good as I had expected so we played some in the small square. After that we played some modified wall ball tennis, which was interesting. It worked surprisingly well, and we could get some pretty good volleys going, even thought I was hitting it kinda hard.

We went back and had a long soak in the hot tub. It was a windy day and one of the pool umbrellas had been knocked into the deep end of the pool. I went in and managed to get it out, but it just blew back into the shallow end, where I left it.

That evening went to Lee’s birthday part and played a great game called Drawful. I really enjoyed it, and it was very similar to what I had been trying to do with the Jovios system.

October 5, 2015 0

Steak and Poker

Steph and I went to Andrew’s place for some Steak and Poker. The steak was really tasty, and the company was fantastic.

After that we started playing some poker, and I just couldn’t get any good hands. I hit a decent hand a few times, but had others come over the top with amazing hands. The end of the night saw me down about $22, which wasn’t bad overall for the table that night. Leyan was the big winner, with some monstrous hands, a few of which hit on the river.

October 5, 2015 0

Half Moon Bay with the Lees

Stephanie and I joined her parents on a day trip to Half Moon Bay. We walked along the sea cliffs for a while, and stopped by the Ritz. We had lunch at one of the best restaurants in downtown and then walked around for a bit. There was a great olive oil bar across the street that we stopped into, and I got some garlic olive oil, and an herb vinegar. They both were very tasty.

October 5, 2015 0

Mage Knight

Adam, Tina, Andrew, and I played a game of Mage Knight on Saturday 9/26. It was a great game, and I had a very interesting build. I had taken a lot of learning cards early one, and so my deck was getting massive with extra advanced actions. The issue was that we were doing single large assaults and I couldn’t go through my deck fast enough to make it useful. I ended up just making life harder for myself. Tina did the units strategy, which worked great for the single huge assault. I think I understand more about the game now because of that.

We played the newest expansion and it was pretty bland. The differences between the factions weren’t pronounced enough, and the final bosses were just strange.

October 5, 2015 0