This book made some really good points about checklists, and it didn’t talk about them directly, but the concept of willpower comes in a lot with them. The checklist is there both to make sure you don’t forget and to allow you to not remember. I builds up the habits, and refines them, while at the same time you don’t have to think about it. Something I also noticed while building my checklists was that I could optimize them for order of operations. I could also add things in that I haven’t normally done and it makes it easier to do them. I think it is going to work out really well.
We went to BHH last night and it was strange since none of the occupants of the house were playing games with us. We had a few drinks and I played a fun game with Adam and Brian called Imperial Settlers. It is a dumbed down version of New Era which is good in many ways and not as good in many ways. I liked the theming and removal of many of the restrictions. I also didn’t feel like I was desperate for resources the whole time. I had control of the board for most of the game, but Adam had some really good early scoring cards that got him the game. I was able to destroy two of them but not in time.
We had six people over for spades and majong so we could have two games going at once. Tory, Adam, Lindsay, Kevin, Andrew, and Debby joined us. We started out the night with some open faced chinese poker. Adam destroyed us all in the last hand and won because of that. Then we played some spades, and Steph and I just couldn’t get good hands. I played to aggressively in my bidding a few times, and we got set. I choose to not play majong, as it just isn’t the kind of game I like.
Steph and I joined Jeff and Patty at paint night at the Sanoma Chicken Coop by the San Jose airport. The bike ride over from the San Jose train station was surprisingly nice, since it was along the Guadalupe River Walk. The station and the restaurant are both only a couple hundred feet from the path.
We had a really good time last time we went, and this was no different. The paintings were very similar, with both being silhouettes over a sunset with clouds. This one had pets in the foreground instead of a tree. I liked it, as it gave some nice artistic license with the pets. I had two kitties touching noses.
Jeff and Patty did a really good job on drawing their dog KC. Patty’s reminded me of the snoopy dance.
Steph and I met with Joe in Castle Rock State Park this past Sunday. We had thought about camping there, but I’m pretty glad we didn’t, it is so crowded compared to many other locations. The views from the mountain were amazing, and the sun was bright with a shady trail. The entire hike only took about 3 hours with a long stop at goat rock for lunch.
We made it back in time to cook the food for the game of thrones night. I’m really enjoying this season, with all the differences from the books.
Andrew got a new house, and we went over to see it last night and have Pizza on the Floor. He did end up having a table there, and we ate on that. The pizza was Patxi’s and delicious. His yard is gorgeous with a few pomelo trees, and a lot of other garden areas. There isn’t any lawn, which is nice. The house is pretty big (3/2), and really nice on the inside with a very well thought out plan. There are two fireplaces as well, one in the living room, and one in the master bedroom. We played a few rounds of Mafia, which I really enjoyed, despite only getting a special role when I was the one to die the first night. We hung out and talked with Lindsay, Kevin, Debby, Andrew, Haru, Alana, Jeremy, and Adam.
I had a pretty good time on Thursday playing a coop board game, Xenoshift, with Steph and Brian. The game was a bit longer than expected, and we won, which also wasn’t expected. The game design was a little sloppy as the order of operations wasn’t clear in many cases. There were also a few really confusing points around when certain cards could be played. We got overrun early on, but eventually got a good buffer built up for the later waves, which was completely necessary. The ramp up of difficulty was a little odd since turns 1, 4, and 7 were the hardest, with turns 3, 6, and 9 being the easiest. I still had a good time playing.
We had a great time Tuesday evening when we had people over to our new place for a time around the fire pit. There were a few bumps in the road, but nothing too bad. Dana said we couldn’t use the pit, but we had already checked with Ramone. Some people called to complain about the noise, but we weren’t being bad, it was before quiet hours, and we weren’t playing music or anything like that. We got to meet some of the other residents of the complex and they were pretty cool. We had a good number of people come by including Nima, Caryn, Liana, Ryan, Andrew, Debby, Jeremy, Brian, Adam, Kevin, and Lindsay. We met Tory and Gi. It was a great time, and had some delicious drinks and delicious food. There were some good baked potatoes, salad, and meat. I didn’t have any smores, and we have a lot of them left, so we will have to have another small fire. We still have a bit of wood too.
I really enjoyed the opening of the season on game of thrones. Steph and I took Caltrain to the city and went to Nick’s place. I chose the one big hill instead of the three small hills, but Steph wasn’t pleased. The food at Nick’s was really good as always. We brought some misir wot and shiro wot. People tried the misir wot, but by the time we got there everyone had pretty much finished eating. We tried to stream the show from HBO, but the quality of the stream was terrible. We ended up downloading a version of it and that was much better. We didn’t really check when the last train was, assuming it would be after 10, it was actually at 9:15. We grabbed a nearby zipcar and took that home. We chose one that could fit both bikes in the back, and I just brought it back in the morning.
It's an Exciting World 