Brainclouds

2011 Games: Nickels & Dimes

2012-02-09T16:15:00.000-06:00

It's a little late, but I still think it's an interesting exercise for us board game geeks. I'm a little depressed by the actual numbers this year. A real reduction in my numbers of fives and dimes, although I'm sure my number of "unique games played" number went up (I still haven't figured out how to get that).

Nickels

Ten games made it into this category this year, compared to 12 last year. Not a huge decline, but definitely some different games.

Black Vienna is a long out of print deduction game. I was able to use files uploaded to ArtsCow (a print-on-demand site) to reproduce my own copy, and I really like the game and the stylized artwork. The game uses cards with different letters on them. Three cards are removed from the deck (much like in Clue), and the rest are dealt to the players. Using other cards that have groups of three letters on them, players try to deduce the cards in other players' hands and ultimately which three cards are missing. It sounds complicated, but the play is simple. However, it definitely melts your brain. What bumped this up to six plays this year is the awesome online implementation that allowed me to take a turn a few times a day instead of sweating out under the pressure of a live game.

A Few Acres of Snow is another game that owes its inclusion on this list to online play. It's a fascinating combination of the deck-building mechanic with a wargame. Unfortunately, some players who approached it more from the deck-building angle were able to "break" it so that an unbeatable strategy developed. Fortunately, those of us who aren't number crunchers were able to enjoy it just fine, but also the designer tweaked the rules to eliminate this problem.

When I was first taught the game, the number of choices and avenues to explore were just overwhelming. I really had trouble wrapping my head around it. Fortunately, my friend Mark in California invited me to a few online games that really put those nerves at ease. I still have a lot to explore with this one, but it's a fun journey.

Another game that I would describe as a "light" wargame is Command & Colors: Ancients, which made it onto the list with six plays. I just love this game, and I can't completely explain why. It's a very tactical wargame that recreates the battles of Caesar, Alexander, Hannibal, and other famous (or infamous) military leaders of the ancient age. But aside from the historical aspects, it's also exciting and fun. Sometimes you just don't have the cards necessary to do what you want to do; sometimes the dice just don't roll in your favor. With each battle lasting from 30 to 60 minutes, it's easy to play several in a row. Alea iacta est.

Carcassonne: Hunters & Gatherers sort of came and went towards the beginning of the year. I introduced it to my wife, Karen, and she loved it. We played it at least once a week for about a month. Then, suddenly, almost as quickly, she was done with it. I have no idea why this happened. The game is a nice variation on the original Carcassonne, with a more straight-forward scoring method. I'm sure we'll play it some more, but maybe there was just a bit of burnout.

Jaipur, on the other hand, came in strongly at the very end of the year. With nine plays, it just missed getting on the dime list; not bad for a game I received in December from my Secret Santa! It's a two-player card game about trading goods in India that plays quite quickly, which encourages match play. I look forward to many more plays of this in the future.

Other nickels:
Backgammon (8), Scrabble (8), Biblios (8), Dominion (6), Telestrations (5).

Dimes

Only one: Werewolf (12) That's kind of sad, for many reasons.

Just last year I acquired a newer edition of the game, Ultimate Werewolf, which has much clearer art design and a great instruction book. The vast majority of these plays (8-10) have me as the moderator. Some people might not count that as an actual play of the game, but I certainly do. I actually love moderating face-to-face, so I have plenty of fun. Of course, at my annual board game convention I don't think I've ever moderated, which is just fine with me.

The other reason it's sad is just the major reduction in gaming volume. Last year I had five different dimes for a total of 61 games; this year, one for 12!? I'm not sure why the reduction occurred. I suppose the most obvious reason would just be less opportunity. However, I have already indoctrinated a couple of new people into this fun little hobby, so I'm hoping 2012 will see a big upswing in numbers.

For comparison, here's last year's list.

Year-End Reflections

2012-02-01T13:46:00.003-06:00

Today is my birthday. I was really looking forward to posting on the blog again. I had planned a whole week of "Year-End Recaps" covering my interests and hobbies. Most people do this around New Year's, but I've always preferred to do it on my birthday since that is a pretty self-reflective time. However, this year is different. My father passed away ten days ago.

This isn't intended be a maudlin post that plays upon your sympathies. I don't know how anyone can summarize a 78-year life in a eulogy, let alone something as trivial as a blog post. But since I've often spent my birthday in reflection, it's appropriate that I spend some time reflecting on my dad. These are just some general thoughts, and I'm not organizing, structuring, or editing (Hah! Like I ever do!).

The last two years had been very difficult for him and my mother. Early on, I posted about a lot of the health problems he went through. I fell out of that habit after the initial catharsis of getting it all out. He had his ups and downs, including a very frightening heart attack during dialysis this past November. All of us thought that was the end right there. He recovered phenomenally well, and in hindsight I believe he did it just to spend one last Christmas with us before letting go.

He was a shell of the man he used to be. I know he was miserable. I don't think he was in pain, but the indignity of having a catheter, the irritation of dialysis, and the exhaustion of being sick and weak for so long had taken their toll. He couldn't do any of the things he used to enjoy, and each day it seemed like he had even less energy.

But despite all of that, he did keep his spirits up. He was a fighter; unfortunately he seemed to fight the doctors and nurses more than the illnesses. His mind was sharp to the end. Sure, he had trouble remembering what day it was, but he certainly knew what channel Fox News was on and he could tell you to the second when it was time for his dialysis to end (and he would!). The Alzheimer's was the diagnosis I feared the most. I dreaded the thought of losing him gradually over the years while his body remained. As terrible as it may sound, in many ways I'm grateful that he went the way he did-- peacefully taking a nap on his couch at home.

The funeral service was very nice. He was buried in the Houston National Cemetery, with the three-man flag ceremony. It's amazing how quickly that lone bugle playing Taps can bring a tear to your eye. We had a lot of friends and family come to the service, which was very nice. My brother spoke, but I did not. I knew that I wouldn't be able to get through any words I wanted to say. Instead, I stood with my brother, ready to finish for him if necessary.

My dad was very fortunate to have a lifelong friend give his eulogy. My dad and Kent Akord had remained friends for 75 years. How astounding is that!? They met in the neighborhood, went to elementary school, high school, and even college together. The stories he told were fantastic. I'd known my dad all my life, but that's just over half as long as they knew each other.

When pulling pictures for the wonderful video my brother made, I loved seeing all the different aspects of my dad. He's always been my dad, and in my adult years he's also been my friend. At occasions like this, you get to see how others experienced him. What he was like as a brother, an uncle, a husband, a friend, a co-worker, a neighbor. What kind of person was he at 10, 17, 25, 35, or 45http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif? My experience of him was only a fraction of who he was.

When talking with the pastor in preparation for the service, he told us to celebrate his life. He asked us questions to remind us (and inform him) about what our dad was like. Memory is a funny thing. I could remember a lot from the last couple of years, and a lot from when I was a kid, but I had trouble remembering things from even five or ten years ago. I'd love to list all of those memories, but if I go down that rabbit hole I'll never return.

I'll end this with just two things, two recommendations for those who have read this far. Last year, I saw the movie Tree of Life. It was transcendent. It was a poem in movie form. It required you to pause, slow down, contemplate. It was about a child and his relationship with his father; it was also about man and his relationship with God. It was about life. Not everybody liked it, and that's okay. The father played by Brad Pitt was really nothing like my father, but in the metaphorical sense he is just like everyone's father. It is very moving. See this film.

The other thing I would say is to just take some time to appreciate the people around you. That's so cliche, I know, but I don't just mean it in the sense of telling them that you love them. Just appreciate that you have friends, that you have family. Acknowledge the good times while they're happening. Cherish the memories. Tell some of the stories that you haven't told in years.

Thank you, Dad, for all the obvious things and the trivial ones. Thanks for the peanut-butter-and-crackers, the water-skiing, the lectures, the Christmas lights, the home-made slime, caring for the cat you hated, and sending me to the college you loved. Thanks for everything, Dad.

Little Things Mean a Lot

2011-06-17T10:48:00.004-05:00

I'm not sure if I'm old enough to be a Curmudgeon yet, but I enjoy practicing. I have full plans to continue on to Geezer, but I haven't decided if from there I want to go on to Cranky Old Man or Crazy Old Coot. I'm hoping I still have a year or two before I have to make that choice.

So my rant today is about the use of turn signals. Or, more accurately, the lack thereof. It's such a simple, small thing, and yet it infuriates me. It bothers me because it is deliberate. You know you are going to change lanes. You know you are going to make a turn. These are decisions you have made. Then you decided not to signal. Why isn't it automatically part of the action?

It's not as though it's a difficult maneuver. It takes less effort than changing the station on the radio. It's so simple. You can keep your hand closed around the steering wheel and just extend your middle finger to flick a little lever. As a friendly reminder, I often show this to people on the road as I pass them by.

I had a co-worker once say to me, "Signalling is a sign of weakness." Just as in war or poker, you never want to tip your hand and give your opponent an edge. I can almost understand how on our crazy Houston highways, an Offensive Driving stance might seem a viable option. Only the strong survive.

But if we're going to adopt that attitude, I want my paint gun. Gallagher had a bit about a gun that shot suction-cup "Stupid" flags at other cars. After half a dozen or so had accumulated, "the cops could pull you over just for being an asshole." Great idea! But those suction cups are so unreliable, especially when I'm trying to text about how great the burger I'm having is while going 80 miles per hour through a school zone. No, I need something simpler. Paint guns. Faster, more accurate, more shots, easier to reload, and the added bonus of potentially painting the driver. "Thanks for cutting me off, jerk!" poff, poff, poff.

If it really caught on, maybe we could adapt outside of the driving environment. "Hey lady, the express lane says '10 Items or Less'!" poff, poff, poff. Oh yeah. I really think I'm onto something now.

Ape-ril Ape-recap, with Ape-ricots!

2011-04-27T15:36:00.005-05:00

Whew! I did it. I survived watching all the Planet of the Apes movies back to hairy back. It was a task I wouldn't recommend to anyone, really, but I did have a fair amount of fun with it. Still, I'm glad it's over. And no, there is no way I am going to watch either the TV series or the animated series.

So what did I gain from this experience? What did I learn? Not a whole lot, really. I learned that even bad sci-fi from the '70's can be better than the bad sci-fantasy we have these days. I learned that George Lucas did not invent the bad, nonsensical, series-ruining prequel.

I gained a lot of respect for Roddy McDowall as an actor. Yes, these are silly roles in cheesy movies, but he put real effort into each film he was in. Underneath all of that make-up, facial expressions were pretty much non-existent. So he improvised. He worked his nose to make the Ape-nose appear to be sniffing; exaggerated his eyebrow movement to get some action in the prosthetic forehead; blew out air to "puff out" the mouthpieces in anger. He clearly experimented with finding new ways to emote from behind that mask, and I really admired the work that took.

I also learned, just after beginning my marathon, that there is yet another Planet of the Apes movie coming out. I discovered this on my own by accident, but it was also brought to my attention by several friends through email and Facebook. It's called Rise of the Planet of the Apes and stars James Franco (!?). I admit, the trailer does look interesting. Clearly, it won't tie in to any of the "official" movies or timeline, but they did name the head Ape "Caesar," which is a nice touch.

Here's the link to the trailer, since when I embed video it doesn't normally follow when this post gets re-posted on Facebook: Apes Will Rise.

Planet of the Apes

Three-letter word review: Yes!
One sentence summary: Astronaut Taylor crashes on an alien world where Apes are dominant and men are barbaric, mute animals.
Strange '60's quote/reference: Taylor: "That's right, Lucius. Never trust anyone over 30."
Watchability: High. I would even rate this one a must-see. But if you're with kids or even adults who haven't seen it, do your best to hide the DVD case and the surprise ending.

Beneath the Planet of the Apes

Three-letter word review: Wow.
One sentence summary: Is it possible? Astronaut Brent searches for Taylor, crashes on an alien world where Apes are dominant, and finds him in an underground New York in the Forbidden Zone where telepathic mutant humans worship an atomic bomb.
Strange '70's quote/reference: Ursus: "The only good human... is a dead human."
Watchability: Strange. It's not really bad so much as it is a mess. There's a lot going on here, so for just plain craziness I would actually recommend it.

Escape from the Planet of the Apes

Three-letter word review: Hmm.
One sentence summary: Ape-ronauts (yes, they actually call them that in the film) Cornelus & Zira flee their planet in Taylor's crashed ship, only to crash themselves on Earth in the 1970's.
Strange '70's quote/reference: Dr. Zira: "A marriage bed is made for two. But every damn morning, it's the woman who has to make it. We have heads as well as hands. I call upon men to let us use them!"
Watchability: Medium. The first half is quite silly and strange, but it becomes rather dramatic by the end.

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes

Three-letter word review: Grr.
One sentence summary: Caesar, Ape-child of Cornelius & Zira, grows up in a world of Ape slavery and eventually leads a revolution.
Strange '70's quote/reference: Woman smoking cigarette: "Funny, now that I know these things won't kill me, I don't enjoy them."
Watchability: Low. The plot is very thin and the outcome pre-determined. Why bother?

Battle for the Planet of the Apes

Three-letter word review: Ugh.
One sentence summary: Ape leader Caesar leads a group of Apes and humans after a global apocalypse, only to be attacked by irradiated human holdouts.
Strange '70's quote/reference: I'm sure there was one, but I can't remember.
Watchability: Very low. Don't waste your time. Seriously.

Planet of the Apes (2001)

Three-letter word review: Boo!
One sentence summary: Astronaut Davidson crashes on an alien world where Apes are dominant and men are their barbaric-ish slaves.
Strange '60's quote/reference: Attar: "Take your stinking hands off me, you damn dirty human!"
Watchability: Unbearable.

Planet of the Apes (2001)

2011-04-26T16:03:00.005-05:00

Boo!

I hated this movie when I was dragged to see it in the theater, and I really didn't want to revisit the experience. However, I am a bit of a completist, so here is Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes.

What kind of movie is this? Tim Burton claimed it was a "re-imagining," not a remake. That's good, I guess, since it gives us a little more distance from the original. Really, it's a testament to what happened to science fiction in the 30+ years between the two. It's more visual than cerebral, and it's more fighty than thinky. Basically, the original lamented the destruction and devolution of mankind, while the remake celebrated it.

We begin on a space station orbiting a planet with rings. Saturn, maybe? Not important. Look, pretty! The year is 2029 (which is pretty optimistic, even in 2001). Our hero, Leo Davidson, trains chimpanzees to fly spacecraft. Why they don't just use computers or remote pilots is never explained. Although they do claim that the monkey is sort of an early warning system, like a canary in a coal mine. So basically, they're spending a lot of money to train apes to fly expensive spacecraft on doomed missions into unknown phenomena. Okay. Hee hee! Look, a monkey in a spacesuit!

Conveniently, an unknown phenomenon appears not far from the station. And it's early enough in the movie that we don't have time to reflect on the nonsense we've heard so far. They send a chimpanzee to investigate the scary space storm, and he goes missing. Leo jumps into another craft and chases after him, and he goes missing as well. A few flashes of light, and suddenly Leo crash lands on some distant alien planet (which has between two and four moons, depending on when you look at it).

Almost immediately, he's swept up in the rush of humans fleeing Apes. These Apes are not hunting for sport, but rather capturing slaves. And the humans are not mute; they speak rather well, actually, especially considering their preference for loincloths. But no time to think about that now; look at the cool Ape make-up!

Leo is captured. Leo befriends Ari, an Ape who supports human rights. Leo escapes, brings some human and Ape friends. He's chased by the bad guys: Thade, the military leader Ape who hates humans and seems to have a secret, and Attar, the military second-in-command who hates humans and doesn't have a secret.

Leo makes it back to his crashed spaceship and retrieves a homing signal and a handgun, two things no space traveler should ever be without. The homing signal tells him that his space station has come to find him, so he's just got to follow the signal to reach it. Of course, it's in the Forbidden Zone, and Attar has an army blocking the way.

They make it past the army and discover the space station: crashed! And old! And isn't it weird how it has decayed to look like the spikes on the crown of the Statue of Liberty? Yep, it turns out that all of these Apes are descended from the monkeys he used to train on the station, which somehow crashed on this same planet thousands of years before. What a drag. But hey, at least the power still works. Science! It's fun!

There's a fight or something. Attar's Ape army attacks, adamantly. Apes and humans fight and die. Suddenly, a space craft appears. It's the chimpanzee Leo chased after at the beginning! This plus the crashed space station is a revelation to all except Thade, who knew it all along. Attar doesn't like that, so they fight and he kills him. Humans and Apes will play nice together now! "Welp," says Leo, "My work here is done. Time to be headin' home." He hops into the newly arrived spaceship and does just that. Science! It's convenient!

Just one quick hop into the scary space storm, and Leo is heading to good ole' Earth. He makes radio contact, but is forced to crash land on the Washington Mall. He exits his little pod on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial as police arrive. He climbs the steps, looks up, and... OMIGOSH! It's not Lincoln! It's Thade! He turns around to see all the police are also Apes, pointing their guns at him. Roll credits. What a twist!

Of course, that twist is completely out of line with everything that happened in the movie. It's as if at the end of Titanic the deep sea divers discovered that the iceberg was actually artificial and piloted by cyborgs. But who cares? Gotcha!

This was just awful on so many levels, I don't even want to talk/write about it. It had boring and predictable allusions to the first film, but more for camp than out of respect. Actually, it had little references to pretty much all of the first five films, but none of them are worth calling attention to here. The Ape make-up was good, I'll give it that. Well, except for Helena Bonham-Carter. She looked like a cross between Michael Jackson and a gelfling. Why don't I just end this with that disturbing image.

Battle for the Planet of the Apes

2011-04-22T11:53:00.004-05:00

Ugh.

When we left our Ape friends in Conquest, they had just revolted against their human masters. Caesar was the leader of this new race of Apes, and the course of the future seemed set. But again, to unnecessarily fill in that gap, Hollywood brought us Battle for the Planet of the Apes.

The movie is book-ended with scenes of John Huston (!?) as the Lawgiver, the prophet of the Apes (now *that* would be a great movie title), teaching children their past. The opening title tells us it is "North America, 2970," which is approximately 1,000 years since Cornelius & Zira came to Earth. This scene is very brief, and just leads us into the tale of Caesar and the Apes after the revolution.

We're not given the exact date, but based on the age of Caesar's son, Cornelius, I would guess it is anywhere from 10 to 15 years since the revolution. The Apes live in a primitive village of treehouses away from the cities, which were apparently destroyed by humans in a nuclear war. They kind of gloss over the details, but the city is now a twisted heap of metal, and human civilization is close to non-existent.

Caesar's goal is for Apes and humans to co-exist peacefully. Unfortunately, a new general, Aldo, doesn't share that dream. They both seem to have no problem enslaving humans, however.

Caesar leads an expedition into the devastated city to access the archives. He wants to view recordings of his parents, so he can finally get to know them. While there, they attract the attention of the few remaining humans still living in the underground of the city. They are irradiated badly, and I assume they are the progenitors of the mutants we see in Beneath.

The city humans decide to attack the country Apes, and while Caesar was gone General Aldo convinced the country Apes to attack all humans. Caesar's son overhears Aldo's plot to take over and is attacked. Eventually he dies, and Caesar takes out his rage first on the attacking humans, and then on the Ape responsible.

The "battle" scene is pretty awful. It lasts for about 30 minutes, but this is no epic war production. Seriously, it looked like a bunch of LARPers out in a park on a Saturday afternoon. I had that exact thought while watching it, and then I later learned in the trivia on IMDb that indeed, that location became Malibu State Park.

Eventually, the Apes win. Ceasar causes the death of Aldo, and all is right with the world. We return to the Lawgiver finishing his lecture. As the camera pans to his audience, we see it is comprised of both Apes and humans, living in harmony. We continue the pan to a statue of Caesar. With a close-up on his stone face, we see a single tear form, then roll credits with funky music. No dramatic fade to black with eerie sound effects fading to silence for this film.

This chapter was a complete waste of time and my least favorite of the series. It had a weak premise going in, just because it was a story that didn't need to be told. In addition, the script was lame, there were almost no interesting ideas, and it just ended up being very bland.

I will give them some credit for the ending and the double-meaning of the title, similar to Escape. The obvious reference is to the physical battle between the Apes and the city under-dwelling humans to see who will rule the ~~state park~~ world. But the other reference is to Caesar's desire to change the future, so that Ape and man can live in peace.

It's a theme that is brought up in several of the sequels: can we change the future? The coda at the end of the movie suggests that Caesar was successful, and that humans and Apes are co-existing with neither in a position of power. This is significant because it means that the Apes saga managed to dodge what would otherwise be a giant, five movie, time paradox causality loop.

-Taylor leaves Earth, goes to future, finds Apearth.
-Taylor discovers atomic bomb, destroys Apearth.
-Cornelius & Zira escape Apearth, go to past.
-In the past, Cornelius & Zira have Milo/Caesar.
-Caesar grows up, leads Ape revolution.
And right here, we could go straight into the original film. It would all fit, yet somehow the future Apes have caused their own existence through Caesar. Instead, Battle steps in and alters that future, so that Caesar actually prevents it from coming to pass.

In both Escape and Battle, different characters talk about the nature of time, using the same metaphor. They describe time as a wide highway with many lanes. Even though the highway is all going the same direction, each lane leads to a different destination. The question posed is: is it possible to change lanes? It's kind of a weird metaphor, but I will give the writers credit for sticking to it for the last three films.

Technically, I should be done with my Ape-ril Madness Marathon, but I decided to go ahead and watch Tim Burton's remake. So, one more review to go before my series recap.

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes

2011-04-20T16:16:00.005-05:00

Grr.

The end of Escape from PotA was the kind of great ending that can never be left alone. It was an open ending, with the child of Cornelius & Zira living in secrecy, but we the audience could use our imaginations to fill in the gaps from that innocent child to the planet of Apes that Taylor arrives on. Of course, there's nothing Hollywood hates more than for an audience to use its imagination, and so we have Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.

The movie starts by jumping right in. There's no opening sequence, unlike the other films (I've since learned it was edited out to receive a lesser rating), we just start with Apes. There's a title card telling us "North America, 1991" and then the credits roll.

In this "future" 1991, Apes are domesticated pets. Well, actually, they're slaves. They started out as pets in 1983 when a terrible virus wiped out all cats and dogs. People needed companions, so they turned to apes. As they became more domesticated (and perhaps as a side-effect of surviving the virus), they grew in size and intelligence until they resemble what the audience recognizes as capital-A Apes. Except they still can't talk.

During these opening credits, we see hundreds of Apes being herded, trained, and domesticated. Some are already serving as assistants, janitors, and waiters. It's pretty intense. Amusingly, they even have human protesters who protest not the enslavement of apes, but the loss of their waitstaff and janitorial jobs.

Fortunately, the masks are much better looking than the ones seen in Beneath, though the really good make-up is saved for the characters with close-ups. They organize the Apes by species into colored uniforms: red for gorilla, yellow for orangutan, and green for chimpanzee. That's a nice little touch that ties it into the future classes and colorings of the original film.

Another thing about the future: everyone wears black and the architecture is smooth, angular concrete without any ornamentation. This is just and FYI, in case you need to blend in, in the year 1991.

After we're shown what the world has become, we're re-introduced to our heroes. Armando (Ricardo Montalban!) the circus owner tours the city with Milo, who is all grown up (and played by Roddy McDowell- Cornelius from the previous films). Only now his name is Caesar, not Milo. I guess it sounded better. There's a scene where he gets to pick his name out of a dictionary, so I thought maybe he chose to change it. But no, Armando clearly calls him Caesar in the early scenes. Oh well. Continuity has never been a high priority for these films.

Caesar is the only Ape who can talk, of course, so he must hide. Armando is captured by the bad guy of the film, Governor Breck. Breck seems to be evil just to be evil. He immediately suspects Armando of having a talking Ape, and tortures him to find it. His motivation isn't as clear as Hasslein's from the previous film. He talks about how he fears an Ape uprising, but it seems to me that would be inevitable. The way he treats Apes, they don't need Caesar to be angry.

Meanwhile, Caesar hides among the incoming Ape shipment, and so we get a thorough education of how badly Apes are treated. Slavery is cruel and evil. Got it.

Eventually, Caesar starts to organize the Apes, although this is never really explained. He goes to various places, hides in the shadows, then gives a fellow Ape "the look." Somehow, they all know what that means. They steal cutlery from the kitchen, steak knives when polishing, butane torches when welding beams. Eventually, they feel the time is right to riot.

The riot scenes are pretty frightening. At night, hundreds of angry Apes in red jumpsuits do not exactly put one at ease. The military is called, but there are just too many of them. They swarm the squads, take the base, and capture the governor. Caesar gives a rousing speech about how the humans will pay for the debasement of the Apes. He claims that Apes can communicate over vast distances, and that tomorrow this riotous scene will be duplicated around the world. Standing tall, leading his fellow Apes against a backdrop of burning buildings against the night sky, Caesar gives the order to destroy Governor Breck, and the gorillas use their guns to beat him to death. The end. Fade to black.

Or not. That ending seemed too pessimistic, and might have also given it a more restrictive rating, so they tacked on a few more minutes. At the very moment I describe above where it should have ended, a female chimpanzee struggles to utter the word, "No." Caesar hears it and changes his mind. He appends his speech with an extra paragraph about how instead, the Apes will be more "humane" than the humans. Rather than shoot new footage, they use close-ups of his eyes, and roll the film backwards to show the gorillas withdrawing their rifle butts. All the Apes still go crazy, the buildings still burn in the night, and the fade to black is accompanied by their screams as the credits roll until they fade to silence.

The one, three-letter word I've been using to start all these reviews is very appropriate here. Not only is this the most angry and aggressive of the Ape movies I've seen so far, but that's exactly how I feel about the edits. I realize that most people don't take the Ape movies seriously, but it would be nice if the filmmakers did. This movie is pretty one-note, talking about the horrors of slavery. Why soften it? The Apes are abused and oppressed, but when they get their just revolution, their violence is restricted. That double-standard bothered me.

I thought the movie was okay, but it didn't try to be very much. As I said at the beginning, it's just filling in the gaps our imaginations had already filled. There were no twists or reversals or reveals. Everything went along pretty much as we knew it would, so therefore it wasn't very surprising. But that doesn't necessarily mean it wasn't entertaining. It could have been much better if it had stuck to its ideals and been horrific not just for the slaves, but also the overturned masters.

Escape from the Planet of the Apes

2011-04-18T16:51:00.007-05:00

Hmm.

After the last movie ended with everyone being wiped out by a nuclear bomb, I wasn't sure how they could make a sequel. After having seen it, I'm not even sure if it is. In many ways, Escape from the Planet of the Apes is actually a prequel.

The movie begins with a spaceship crashed in the ocean. For a minute you think, "Oh great. They sent yet another rescue mission." But as the helicopters circle and the military arrives on the beach, you see that they are all human. They are surprised to see the ship, but not alarmed, as they assume it is one of the two they sent up. After it is pulled to shore and the astronauts removed, they open their helmets to reveal-- Apes! Roll title and opening credits.

I kinda liked this opening for a number of reasons. It got the big reveal/reversal out of the way immediately instead of dragging it out; it gave the apes a chance to see their world from a different view; and most importantly, it drastically reduced the budget since they only had to bother with three ape costumes. I always appreciate creative ways to stay in budget (if done well).

Now, the science that got them there, well, that's some really ~~bogus~~ creative screenwriting. Apparently, coinciding with the events of the second movie, the Apes recovered Taylor's sunken ship, repaired it, and flew it into orbit. While up there, they witnessed the atomic blast which destroyed the Apearth, and somehow sent them back in time. There are just so many things wrong with that story, not least being the fact that the Apes in both previous movies were at a pre-industrial technology level. But, if I learned anything from the last movie, it was that you have to let go of the science to enjoy the movie.

But I do want to put in a note about the chronology, which is also totally messed up. In PotA, Taylor's ship was launched in 1979 (10 years in the future from when the film was made). He crashed on Apearth 2,000 years in the future. However, when the Apes go back, they land in 1973 (approximately current to when the film was made). So technically, they arrived before Taylor left. However, everyone in the film acts as if Taylor left several years before. I admit this is a minor nit to pick, but it bothered me. Most likely it was a budgetary decision-- they couldn't afford to dress up L.A. to look like it was 10 years in the future.

Anyway, back to the story. The three apes are our old friends Cornelius and Zira, plus Milo who dies rather quickly. For a while they hide their ability to speak, which provides some cute reversals of their treatment of Taylor in PotA. Thankfully, this doesn't last too long, and our heroes befriend their scientist captors. Here's where the movie gets weird.

There's a scene where the Apes are put before a tribunal of some sort. I don't really know why. No one seems astounded by the fact that these are Apes from space, or Apes from the future; they're just stuck on them being talking apes. Maybe the writers had aspirations for drama or philosophy here, but they abandoned them. The Apes get in some good one-liners, and suddenly the movie turns into a wacky, fish-out-of-water story.

The Apes become minor celebrities. They're put up in a fancy hotel and taken shopping while groovy music plays. Cornelius gets a tailored suit while Zira has models fashion outfits for her. Zira even goes to some sort of Women's Lib meeting! Ah, the '70's.

Inevitably, things turn sour. Dr. Hasslein, an excessively distrustful scientist, discovers that they are from our future. He comes to the conclusion that by coming back to the past, they are the ones who create the future, and therefore must be sterilized before they can breed. Tragically, Zira is already pregnant. Suddenly, the movie turns rather dark.

The last 30 minutes of the movie are surprisingly good and suspenseful. Our Ape heroes must flee Hasslein and the evil government men. With the aid of the good scientists, they make friends with a circus owner, Armando (Ricardo Montalban!). Zira gives birth to her baby, very near to a circus chimpanzee who has also recently given birth.

The Ape-hunt is relentless, however, and they must flee this temporary sanctuary. They hide out in an abandoned shipyard (cheap location shooting, I guess) until cornered by the bad guys. Hasslein finds Zira and shoots her in the back. She drops her baby, which he then shoots repeatedly. Cornelius shoots and kills him, but not before he is also shot and takes a bad fall. Zira throws her own dead baby into the water before collapsing beside Cornelius. A helicopter shot pulls away, Cornelius and Zira huddling, prone and bleeding, Hasslein and baby floating face-down in the water. The end?

No. We switch to a scene of Armando's circus being broken down in order to move on to the next town. We see the mother chimpanzee holding her baby, only (you guessed it) it is actually Zira's baby, Milo. The camera zooms in on the baby as it looks up to his mother and says, "Mama, Mama" over and over. Fade to black, roll credits.

A pretty intense ending, especially for a movie that seemed light-hearted for most of it. Something I should compliment all of the Apes movie on (so far) is the dramatic ending, and I don't mean the shocking reversal. In PotA, after Taylor finds the Stature of Liberty, the screen fades to black but the sound of the surf goes on. No music, just sound during the credits. In Beneath PotA, after Taylor sets off the bomb, the screen goes white. No sound, just credits. Here, it's the same effect: the haunting repetition of "Mama" over a black screen, then fading to silence as the credits roll. Good stuff.

I also like the title of this movie. Going in, I thought maybe a third crew of astronauts found their way to Apearth and the movie would be about them getting away. Instead, it appears to be about the Apes' escape from their doomed planet, which actually happens before the movie even starts. But really, the title refers to Hasslein, the mean scientist. He does everything in his power to try to prevent Apearth from ever happening. There's even a philosophical discussion he has with the President of the United States about this very thing. Sure, we would want to kill Hitler, but would you be able to kill Hitler as a baby? Would you kill his mother before he was born? (Terminator, anyone?) From that perspective, you can understand why Hasslein sees himself as a hero, not a villain.

One more quick aside, I really was impressed by this movie's portrayal of the president as a calm, rational human being. So often in movies of this period (and beyond), the president is over the top gung-ho about something, usually war or patriotism. Here, he's one of the most reasonable people in the film.

Halfway into this film, I was dreading watching the next two. By the end, I could hardly wait.

Beneath the Planet of the Apes

2011-04-14T15:19:00.004-05:00

Wow.

I complimented the first Apes movie for being full of ideas that could make for interesting conversation afterward. Beneath the Planet of the Apes is also crammed with ideas, but nearly all of them make you say, "What?" Seriously, this whole movie is a steaming pile of WTF.

Even though I maligned the world and studios for making the ending of the first movie known to all, from here on out expect spoilers in my comments about the sequels. Partly, that's because the biggest cat is already out of the bag, but also it's because I'm watching these movies so you don't have to.

The movie begins with a shortened edit of the final minutes of the previous film. Just in case anyone forgot how that one ended, I suppose. After following Taylor and Nova into the wastes very briefly, we're taken to yet another crashed spaceship, and introduced to the real protagonist-- Brent. He's played by James Franciscus, and seems to have been cast mainly because he looks a lot like Charlton Heston.

Of course, right off the bat this doesn't make any sense. He claims that he followed the previous ship's trajectory and was on a rescue mission. But that's just crazy. At the beginning of PotA1, Taylor was recording his last message and saying knew it didn't matter since they were already 700 years in the future. That was kind of the point of the mission. Already we're off to a bad start.

Brent meets Nova, and we get some flashback scenes of Taylor encountering mysterious things in the Forbidden Zone, before disappearing. So, Brent and Nova have to go back to Ape City to get help from Zira and try to find Taylor. I mention this part of the plot not because it's important, but because it's so ridiculous. The script works so hard to incorporate Brent into this world. Why not just skip all of that and have Franciscus take over the role as Taylor? They wasted the first third of the movie reestablishing things we already know.

Anyway, there's a new ape in town; his name is Ursus. He's a militant gorilla leader, and he's decided that they need to invade the Forbidden Zone before this unknown enemy invades them. This could have been interesting if it had been done with any subtlety like the first movie.

This is probably as good a time as any to talk about the budget, or lack thereof. In the crowd scenes of apes, many (if not most) are wearing obviously cheap rubber ape masks. It's pretty distracting. The main ape character still have the full make-up, at least. But then we get a sauna scene between Ursus and Dr. Zaius. Really? Seeing an ape in strange clothing riding a horse or wielding a gun can be pretty disturbing. Seeing two guys in ape suits taking a steam bath is laughable.

I read two interesting facts about the budget for Beneath: first, it was cut in half midway into the production, and second, because of it's tiny budget, this is actually the most profitable of the ape movies. Shocking.

It bothers me to think about how much different the movie could have been if they had taken a different attitude. As much as I liked seeing Heston again, it's really just a glorified cameo. Why not just replace him? That would free up a lot of cash, and also allow you to jump right into the story. Oh yeah, the story. Let me get back to that.

So, Brent and Nova find an underground cave that links up to the old New York subway system. In huge underground caverns they find the remains of many of the famed NY landmarks: the library, the stock exchange, Radio City Music Hall, and the Rockefeller Center, apparently all within about a block of each other. Convenient.

They find a sophisticated group of humans living underground. At first, they don't talk either, but instead communicate telepathically. After a while, they consent to speak, mainly so the audience can better follow the conversations. Their mental powers give them the power to create illusions, which they use to scare the apes out of the Forbidden Zone. However, this time it doesn't work and now they're worried. They hang out in a big church and worship the "Bringer of Peace," which turns out to be a giant nuclear bomb with the Greek letters Alpha and Omega written on the wing. Get it? And as if that isn't shocking enough, they then "show their true faces" by removing their masks. It turns out, all the humans are just irradiated mutants wearing human masks. I'll give them credit for an interesting twist on the whole ape mask thing.

Anyway, they're holding Taylor, so Brent and Nova get put in jail with him. Then they use their mental powers to make them fight. After a Kirk-esque fight between two people who look alike, it backfires and they're able to kill the mentalist. They make it to the church just as the apes invade. Firefights and fistfights ensue. The head priest starts to set off the bomb, but dies. Nova dies. Taylor gets shot. Brent kills a bunch of apes, then dies. Finally, Taylor struggles to the console and with his last breath, sets off the bomb. The end. Roll credits.

Overall, it felt like a bad Star Trek episode. There are some interesting ideas in there, but even they are rhinestones, not diamonds, in a very large pile of rough. I liked the vision the mental mutants used to deter the apes: a huge statue of their god, "the Lawgiver," bleeds from the eyes and mouth while surrounded by fire and apes crucified upside down. I like that it was Dr. Zaius, the ape of faith, who doesn't believe it and charges through. I thought there was great wasted potential in the idea that humans weren't mute, but had become telepathic. I did love the irony of Taylor being the one to "damn them to hell" the same way his own race damned themselves.

I will admit to being surprised by the ending. All three main characters die, then the whole place is obliterated by a nuclear bomb! How in the world did they make a sequel to that!? Unfortunately, I won't find out until next week.

Planet of the Apes

2011-04-13T16:25:00.003-05:00

Yes!

So I'm a bit behind schedule, but I did get to watch Planet of the Apes yesterday, the beginning of my Ape-ril Madness Marathon. I'm not going to do a full review or analysis here, since that's been done by many, and often better than me. I did really like it, though.

There's something great about '60's and '70's science fiction. In the days before Star Wars made science fantasy king, sci-fi was about ideas. There was a fantastic Filmspotting marathon that included such movies as Soylent Green, Silent Running, and Logan's Run. I love The Forbin Project and The Omega Man as well, not to mention the monumental 2001: A Space Odyssey. What made all of these movies so fascinating was the way they were about something. What if? What if we run out of food? What if we eliminated old people? What if a computer ran the world? You finish watching any of these movies and you have a lot more to talk about than, "Man, wasn't that explosion cool?"

So, what is Planet of the Apes about? Sure, everybody knows that it's about apes running the world in a crazy, upside-down future world. (As an aside, it really pisses me off that they print the spoiler ending of the movie on the box cover. Yes, yes, everyone knows it's Earth. But can't you, for once, pretend? Let people discover it fresh!) But there's so much more to it than that. Throughout the movie there are parallels to so many philosophical conflicts. The ethical treatment of animals, zoos, prejudice, class struggle, science vs. religion, evolution, the nature of intelligence, and the typical '60's favorites, anti-establishment and young vs. old. Some of it is overt, some of it is subtle; best of all, there aren't really answers-- it just is. That's just great fodder for conversation.

I also really liked the pacing-- very slow. It's 30 minutes into the film before you see the first ape (the big reveal/reversal). It's 30 minutes after that when Taylor finally gets his voice back and shouts that famous line (another reversal, this time for the apes). I loved the sets and costumes, and especially the little touches. The apes' shoes have little thumb-pockets on the side. This is barely even noticeable on screen, but it's there. Fantastic.

Another thing I liked, and this is touched on in the article I linked to before, is that they speak and write English. I like it because it takes a standard sci-fi trope that we all accept without thinking (that we can communicate with other species), and turns it into a plot point. We, as the audience, just accept that they're communicating because that's how it is in a sci-fi movie. But when we discover it's Earth, it suddenly makes that a huge clue that was staring us in the face the whole time. I'm probably not describing that very well, but oh well.

I don't see how they could make a sequel to this, let alone four. I know nothing about the rest of them, but I'm pretty sure Mr. Heston doesn't return. Does that mean that his character doesn't either? I don't know, but I'm eager to find out! I'm about to pop in the next one right now.

Oh, and one last thing, just because I love it:

Blue Bell Fun Run - 10K

2011-04-09T14:36:00.006-05:00

Hooray! This morning I completed my first 10K race. It was the Blue Bell Fun Run, over in Brenham, TX. A bit of a drive, but I thought it might be a nice change of scenery.

Overall, I'm pleased with my performance, though not thrilled by it. The course was much more hilly than I am accustomed to, plus this is the farthest I've ever run, plus it was my first time in ages to be running without my dog.

I finished in 57:00, which works out to a 9:11 mile. I was hoping for 9:00/mile, so that's not too bad. Here are my stats compared with the rest of the runners:

Total runners: 246/918 (26.8%)
Total men: 168/385 (43.6%)
Total men 40-49: 42/76 (55.3%)

I find it fascinating that I do worse (percentage-wise) the more narrow my field becomes. That means there are a lot of really fast old guys. I guess that most of them have been running a lot longer (or more consistently) than I have.

One thing I did come to realize while running this race was that I've been somewhat holding back in my 5Ks. I run them at a nice pace, but not really exerting myself. That's going to change this year. Any 5Ks I run, I'm going to really push myself just to see what I can do.

Just a few quick notes about the run. I was hoping for better scenery, but mostly it was just running along country roads. There were farms and horses and cows, but no bluebonnets or rolling hills.

As we were lining up to start the race, I look around me and nearly everyone is strapping on their iPods. This didn't bother me as much as it does for a 5K, but still, can't people be non-media stimulated for even an hour? But that's not even why I mention it. After we start, I hear some "Eye of the Tiger"-type music playing, but I didn't think much of it, assuming it was just something for the race. But after a few minutes when the second song starts up ("Mr. Brightside" by The Killers), I thought to myself, "Shouldn't I have passed the speakers by now?" Then I discovered that some guy has portable iPod speakers on a backpack. Come on, dude! I realize that I'm in the minority 20% who don't have earbuds in, but what gives you the right to deny me of my self-imposed silence? Needless to say, my pace for my first mile was a bit quicker than the rest as I tried to put as much distance as I could between us.

Ape-ril Madness

2011-04-08T15:25:00.003-05:00

Sometimes, things just synchronize in weird ways.

When I first joined Netflix, I was overwhelmed and overjoyed. Of course I put a bunch of unseen recent movies in my queue, but I also lined up a large number of classics I had never seen. There are tons of great documentaries on there, and it's also a great way to catch up on a TV series that you might have missed. Needless to say, my queue became huge pretty quickly.

One of the oddball ideas I had when first adding movies was, "Hey, I should do a marathon of every Planet of the Apes movie." So, with a few quick flicks, there it was.

I manage my queue pretty well, bumping up things that interest me and pushing back others that I'm just not in the mood for. I was very excited when I finally got the list under 100 titles, as if that was a major accomplishment, but it didn't last for very long. So, often when I saw that big block of ape movies coming up, I would find some other masterpiece to take precedence.

Sure enough, just the other day I was checking to see what was coming up, and Planet of the Apes is at the top of the queue. But here's the coincidence: that same day, my friend Paul sent me a link to this article, which talks about how great (and under-appreciated) the original movie is.

I'd like to say that I was immediately inspired to start my marathon, but honestly it took me a while to even read the article. It sat in my inbox for quite a while, taunting me. Finally, I did, and yes, it did get me excited. So, starting next week, I'm going to try to do a movie and post each day. Next week is Ape Week!

I loved the original movie when I was a kid, but I don't think I've seen it fully since then. I have only vague semi-memories of the other films as they appeared on Saturday afternoon television. I really have no idea what to expect from them.

New Games, March 2011

2011-04-03T16:19:00.004-05:00

On BoardGameGeek, there's a geeklist created at the end of every month where people can discuss games they played for the first time that month. It's been going on for a couple of years, but this year I finally decided to join in. Today, I also decided to repost my contribution here. I'm not sure if the formatting will follow over or not, so this is a bit of an experiment.

To see the original post in context with pictures, as well as read all the other contributions, follow this link to the original list.

A pretty low game-playing month for me in general, and nothing overly exciting in the new game front. In fact, all of my new plays were thrift store finds, and all but one of them happened on the same night. My game group indulged me for about an hour or so and we plowed through a bunch of word games just for fun. Here are the results.

Phlounder

This is a very unique game in that it combines a word game with a dexterity game and throws in a speed component.

Random letter tiles are placed in a plastic tray (face-down, unlike the photo) that has snake-like tracks. Dice are thrown to determine the length (3-7 letters) and type (noun or verb) of word to be created. Then, all players scramble to get tiles out of the tracks. You can grab from any track, but it has to be from the front. Additionally, if you want to return a letter, you must put it in at the back, which sometimes forces you to waste time sliding tiles in order to make room for it. As soon as someone has created a word that fits the criteria, and] has no extra tiles in front of them, they ring the bell and end the round.

The first player scores a small bonus plus a point for every letter in the word. Remaining players can score a point per letter for
*any* word (even if it doesn't fit the criteria) that they've completed, minus a point for any extra tiles. This scoring system makes it very interesting, since you should try to have at least some word to reduce the damage if you're not the first one done.

It was very chaotic, but that made it fun and it played very quickly. Vocabulary helped, of course, but it wasn't as essential as it is in other games.

I saw the box in the thrift store from the side and thought it was Acquire, a personal favorite. When it was instead a game I'd never heard of, I thought I'd spend the dollar and take the chance. I was really pleasantly surprised. 3 1/2 out of 5

Fluster

Another game I'd never heard of, I picked up this one because it was part of a "trilogy" (more on that in a minute).

This is another one that probably would do well with better exposure, especially since it only requires a special pad of paper to be played (and could probably be approximated with just a blank piece of paper).

Each player gets their own pad, which is hidden from other players. On it are two grids, each with random numbering of the squares within. On a turn, a player calls out a number and then the letter they want to write in that space. The goal is to create words in the grid, both across and down. A player can call a "blank," which must be used to end or separate words.

Since everyone's pad is different, a "T" in space 14 might be great for me, but totally ruin a word for you. That's why you have two grids, so that you have an option. The play felt very similar to Take it Easy!, but with words instead of numbers. We all liked it quite a bit. 3 1/2 out of 5

Boggle

The second in the "trilogy."

I don't have a lot to say here, since I imagine most everyone is familiar with Boggle. For a very quick, very light word game, I think it still holds up pretty well. Having a large vocabulary doesn't seem to be as important as having a flexible mind, since transposing the same three or four letters to make 16 different words can be more valuable. Also, you almost have to write all of those three-letter words. Not only does it stop someone else from scoring them, but you can score on any of the ones that others missed.

One interesting thing about this "1st generation" version was the flawed design of the Boggle case. The lid was so small that it was impossible to shake the dice with it on. That was obviously fixed pretty quickly. 3 out of 5

Grapple

This is the third in the "trilogy," but unfortunately we didn't get around to playing it. I just wanted to include it here so you could see all of the boxes. I need to add a photo of all three of them together. No rating.

Wizard

A seemingly straight-forward trick-taking game that is very similar to Oh Hell!. I grew up playing games like this with my family, so I thought I was pretty adept at most of them. Unfortunately, I did abysmally at this one. I'm more than ready for a rematch.

The game uses a standard four-suit deck (newer versions have custom suits) with an added four Jesters (lowest, non-suited card) and four Wizards (highest, non-suited cards). The first round, each player is dealt a single card. Everyone bids whether or not they'll take the one trick available. Each subsequent round, an additional card is dealt, until you reach the point where all cards are dealt.

The scoring is simple but interesting. You get 20 points for making your bid, plus 10 points for each trick taken. If you fail your bid, you lose 10 points for each trick you missed it by, whether over or under. This means that making a large bid can help your score a lot, but also just barely missing a large bid doesn't hurt you too much. Also, bidding zero rewards the same no matter how many tricks there are in a round, which is unusual.

I think what killed me in this game was failing to recognize the power of the Wizards. They always take a trick, and never have to follow suit, which basically makes them like bombs in Tichu. There were many hands in which I either failed to account for them in other people's hands, or failed to use them properly when they were in mine.

Overall, I thought it was a really good game, and I expect my rating will go up with more plays. 3 out of 5

Saga

Lastly, a thrift find I've had in my collection for years, but never got around to playing until this past month. It's an interesting hand management game, but I think it might play too long for what it is.

Each player has a similar (identical? I don't remember.) set of cards of knights. These knights are played to conquer kingdoms, and the kingdoms grant abilities as well as award points at the end of the game. Players are very limited on what they can do each turn, so you have to plan and watch carefully to make sure you can build up the strength necessary to conquer a kingdom. I liked that aspect of it.

What I didn't like was the game-ending conditions, which were for one player to play all of their cards. This seems benign, but in practice takes longer than I would like. Each time a person takes a kingdom card, they place it with their (now defending) knight army in front of them. If another player later takes that kingdom, the defending knights go *back in the players's hand*. Eventually, players build up armies large enough to either not be taken or end the game, but it just seemed tedious.

I wasn't thrilled by the game, but I would be willing to try it again. We played with the beginner set up, and I would like to see the effect of the more advanced kingdom abilities. 2 1/2 out of 5

Little Thoughts

2011-03-28T15:57:00.003-05:00

Crap, two whole months without a post. That's pathetic. Well, rather than bore you with one really long post, I've decided to bore you with a semi-long post comprised of really short snippets. Enjoy!

Running

Since my last post was about my running achievements from last year and goals for this year, I might as well start with an update about that. I'm pleased to say I'm doing rather well. Karen and I have started running together on the weekends, which works surprisingly well. We go to Memorial Park, which has a 2.92 mile circuit. She runs at a much slower pace, so she and I and the puppy go around once together. Then I take the puppy and go around again while she relaxes and reads. This helps me moderate my pace, plus gives me my long run for the week. I've already logged 60 miles running this month, which is a new high for me. This experience has made me much more confident in my long running ability, and I'm eager to run my first 10K next month.

Wisteria Hysteria

Yesterday was yard work day. Aside from the usual lawn care, I had the special task of taming a wild plant-beast in our backyard. If you're not familiar with it, wisteria is a vine-like plant with pretty purple flowers and a nice fragrance. Normally, this plant is trained to grow vertically on a pergola to provide shade and a pleasing view. Unfortunately, when left alone, it spreads like an evil virus.

It had dozens of tendrils, each extending for at least 15 feet along and under the ground. It was a major task getting it under control. The reason I felt like mentioning it here is because of the weird difficulty in removing it. It was actually rather complicated. The network of roots and vines were very like the wiring in a complex bomb. I had to trace each one to the source, sometimes having to remove a different one before I could remove the first. And after I had removed many smaller root clusters, each one containing plenty of challenges themselves, I was finally able to tackle the big one. I hacked and cut and dug and swore. I attacked side roots to weaken the main root. I dug around it to get different angles of attack. And when I finally defeated it, I felt exactly the same satisfaction I feel after defeating a particularly gnarly big boss in a video game. "Game Over, Wisteria-Man! I've rooted out your evilness."

Apples and Oranges

Speaking of plants, here's something else. I actually posted this somewhere completely different a while ago, but I amused myself enough that I'm repeating it here. I really don't get the whole "It's like comparing apples and oranges" phrase. Those are two very comparable things-- they're both fruit, grow on trees, mostly round, often found in Christmas stockings. One can easily compare them: I like apples more than oranges because you don't have to peel them. I like oranges better than apples because they are sweeter. It just doesn't make sense to me. If you really wanted to negate a comparison, shouldn't the objects be as disparate as possible? "That's like comparing apples and sheet music" or "That's like comparing John Boehner and oranges." Okay, maybe that last one doesn't work, but I think you see my point.

Whedon World

I've been enjoying the series Dollhouse on Netflix lately. I really like how it is a "sex and violence" show that really plays with deeper sci-fi concepts of mind and personality. I'll be sad when I reach the end of its run.

But it got me to thinking how cool it would be if Josh Whedon were able to put together an amusement park like old Walt's place. Of course, a huge portion of the park would have to be dedicated to Sunnydale and Buffy's exploits therein. You could walk the halls of Sunnydale High, hang out at the Hellmouth, or grab a brew at The Bronze. Nearby would be the big city where Angel worked.

Obviously, the most popular section would be The 'Versed, based on the reality created for Firefly. You could have a truly frightening "Reavers of the Caribbean" ride and a full mock-up of Serenity. The best would be a Firefly rollercoaster: lots of ups and downs, but you're forced to get off right when it gets really good.

Lastly, there's the Dollhouse. I'm not exactly sure how this would play out, but it most likely wouldn't be appropriate for children. Do you get to pretend you're a different person, or do you just custom order a person for your own, um, pleasure?

I certainly hope Mr. Whedon keeps creating. I've never had any interest in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but otherwise I think he's produced really excellent stuff. If he keeps it up, maybe someday we really will get a Whedon World.

Running Year

2011-01-25T11:00:00.004-06:00

Well, I finally went for a run this morning after a two-week hiatus. I didn't mean to take such a long break, but the cold as well as being a little under the weather myself kept me away. It felt really good to be back out there (even though it was cold), and I hope to increase my weekly frequency as well as my mileage. Anyway, it got me to thinking I should recap my running like I did some of my other hobbies.

Last year I didn't really set a hard and fast goal for myself. I don't think I'm cut out to run a marathon, but I may look at trying a half-marathon this year. The most intimidating thing to me is not the physical exertion of running (although I know I'm not in shape enough for it yet). What bothers me is the sheer boredom of running for four hours. I guess that's why so many people carry iPods.

I log my runs at the Runner's World website. They have a free log that suits my purposes just fine. I'm sure there are many others, probably some better, but I don't need much. Unfortunately, it's difficult to pull useful stats. I can't even say how many miles I ran last year.

My average pace seems to hover right around 8:45/mile. That's not bad, but I'm disappointed that it doesn't appear to have changed over the course of the year. So, this year I will make it an actual goal to get that time down. Let's say 8:00 a mile, by this time next year.

I ran in five different 5Ks last year, so that's pretty good. They're just for fun, not competition, but it is nice to get an official time on a measured course. I wouldn't mind doing a few more this year, but I think five is fine. However, I will set a goal for myself to run at least one 10K this year.

Looking at my stats, I'm surprised to see that June was the month I ran the most in, with about 55 miles. I would have thought the heat would keep me back. Next most were October, then December. The trick for the coming year will be to get back to a solid schedule and make sure I run at least four times a week. I should also make a bigger effort to get in a longer run each week.

Okay, that's it. Not a very exciting post, but it was more just for my own benefit. It's a good idea to have goals in writing, and even more intimidating to have them in public where people can check you on them. The Houston Marathon is coming up in the next week or so. I'm nowhere near that level today, but I'm curious to see how I'll feel about it in a year.

Nickels and Dimes, 2010

2011-01-06T11:52:00.010-06:00

A common annual tradition amongst us boardgame geeks is to count up the number of games we've played the most in the past year. Every game we've played at least five times is a nickel, and at least ten is a dime. I don't have any quarters this year, but that's okay. Let's get on with the list!

Nickels

This year I had 12 (technically 11) different games I played at least five times. Here are the highlights.

Pandemic: On the Brink
On the Brink is an expansion to the game Pandemic. I played Pandemic eight times, but five of those included On the Brink, which is why I really only played 11 different games this year. Pandemic is a cooperative game in which the players work together to stop the spread of diseases across the globe. I really enjoy the game, and especially admire the design. The expansion that was released is just fantastic for a number of reasons. It truly *expands* the game without making it too cluttered or overbearing. You can also pick and choose which aspects you want to add to the base game, making it more like four or five different games. And lastly, they included both replacement pawns and cool Petri dishes to "upgrade" the base game. I'm really glad I have this, and I expect to play it for years to come.

I have several card games in my list this year. That happens every year, actually. Card games are portable and usually quick, so those factors often lend to them being played more.

Innovation
This clever card game was just released in 2010, and it has been a big hit. Players draft and play cards in a rummy-like fashion to develop your civilization. As you become stronger in certain areas, you can use special abilities on some cards. The rules are simple and straight-forward, but it still allows for some complex interactions. I managed seven plays this year.

Space Hulk: Death Angel
This one is cooperative like Pandemic, but it can also be played solo, and that is how I managed all seven plays this year. You might not think playing a boardgame by yourself would have any appeal, but this one managed to be pretty interesting. It managed to bring the tension and feel of Space Hulk, and would probably work as a good introduction to that game.

Haggis
Another great little card game that came out just this past year. I was especially fortunate in that I was selected to play-test this game. The designer contacted me through BoardGameGeek to see if I would be interested in trying a two- to three-player game similar to Tichu. Of course, I jumped at the chance! I really like it a lot, and I'm sorry that I haven't played it in quite a while. I'm very pleased, however, that I turned on several of my friends to it, which hopefully led to more sales. In fact, if you'd like a copy, you can pick it up straight from the publisher: Indie Boards & Cards. I highly recommend all three of their current titles, and I look forward to more from them in the future.

Other nickels:

Sticheln - 7
Sorry! Sliders - 6
Backgammon - 5 (down quite a bit from last year)
For Sale - 5
Gobblet - 5 (probably all on the same day when I introduced it to Karen)
Kakerlaken-Poker - 5
Villa Paletti - 5

Dimes

The dimes are usually less interesting (to me) because they often consist of short or party games. But there are two in particular which deserve mention here.

The Resistance
This is a great variation on the game Werewolf, in that you have two teams pitted against each other, but one side has its members hidden among all the players. There's plenty of room for deception and subterfuge, but unlike Werewolf, all players stay in for the whole game. To me, that elevates it immensely. I kinda cheated to get 10 plays of this one, since I forced it on a rather inebriated crowd on New Year's Eve. I don't care, though, because I love promoting this game. This one is also produced by Indie Boards and Cards. Did I mention that you could pick up these games at their website? You might as well pick up all three, you know. To save on shipping.

Through the Ages
This is a fantastic game about developing your own civilization through the course of centuries. You must grow you population, keep them happy and fed, develop new buildings and technology, and never forget to defend them with a good military. There are always far too many things you want to do and never enough resources or time to do them. Speaking of not enough time, this game usually takes at least three hours. That is a long time for a boardgame, but you are always so engrossed that it passes reasonably quickly.

However, of my 11 plays of this, I don't think any of them finished in less than three days. How did I have time to play for that long? A friend introduced me to a website (Boardgaming Online) on which you can play by email. This was a godsend to me. As much as I like this game, it is very fiddly in the sense that it requires a lot of manipulation of components, keeping track of various resources, cards, points, etc. Having that taken care of by computer is absolutely ideal. Secondly, playing by email allows you to take as much time as you need on your turn. You can test out different ideas before finalizing your move, an option that just isn't practical (or polite) when playing in person. So, even though the game could take several days to play, it actually feels like it plays much faster. Never fast enough, really, because when all opponents are online at the same time, it can move like lightning. I'm very happy that such a lengthy and meaty game finally made it into my dimes.

Other dimes:

Ingenious - 16 (all the two-player version with my wife)
Exxtra - 14
Werewolf - 10 (still fun at parties)

I still haven't found a quick and easy way to determine my total plays and total unique games for the year. I'll probably end up having to just count it like I did last year. When I do, I'll add it here.

Here's a link to last year's list. Thanks for reading!

12 Books of the Year

2010-12-29T13:54:00.008-06:00

I hate awards, but I love nominations. I love lists, but I hate rankings. So, instead of creating a list of my favorite books read this year, and burdening myself with putting them in some hierarchical order, I'll just pick out a book for every month.

I'm pleased to say I read 46 books this year, which is much higher than normal for me. Granted, about half a dozen of those I marked as "Did not finish" because they were either so bad or not what I was looking for that I didn't want to waste my time on them. Sadly, there were several bad ones I slogged all the way through anyway.

Of the 46, 15 were non-fiction. The topics ranged from silly to serious; some had a tone like a textbook, others like a very interesting conversation. I expect my trend towards non-fiction to continue for the coming years.

In a similar statistic, 14 of the 46 were from the library. As obvious as it sounds, I'm proud of myself for rediscovering this fantastic resource. Especially with the ability to reserve books online, it has become very easy to locate obscure books or pick up the hottest new releases. As much as I love books, I'm a cheapskate and I hate paying full price for them. What could be better than free? The library increased my access to non-fiction and new releases, but also freed me from the feeling of guilt if I chose to stop reading the book.

January

I don't know whether these books represent the year that was, or future months in which they'd be a good read. So, let's start with H.G. Wells' The Time Machine. I was a big sci-fi buff when I was a little kid, but I rarely read it now. I love the George Pal movie, so I thought I'd give this one a refresh. It was certainly worth it. A very short novel, but filled with great imagination. 4 stars.

February

A shorter, colder month, great for curling up with a book that you just can't put down. For me, Steinbeck's East of Eden was a revelation. I read The Grapes of Wrath last year, but mostly just thought it was okay. This one blew me away. Each chapter was like a well-crafted short story in and of itself. It was sweeping, literary, emotional, and beautiful. The kind of book where when you finish it, you just have to sit there for a while and bask. This was absolutely my favorite book of the year, and is very high (if not top) on my favorite books of all time. 5 stars.

March

The third month, how about a trilogy? Honestly, if I were going to make a recommendation, I would suggest only reading the first of the Millennium series. It's not that the other two are bad; they're pretty good. But I think, like many sequels, they offer diminishing returns. The main character of Lisbeth Sanders is a compelling (though difficult) heroine, and I enjoyed having a couple additional adventures with her. 4 stars.

April

On April 20, 1999, two students went on a killing spree that scared the nation, and became known as the Columbine High School Massacre. The book Columbine by Dave Cullen, is a very lucid and fascinating account of the events of that day. Not only does it dispel some of the myths that sprang up from misinformation, but it also paints a chilling picture of the two young men. A really fantastic book. 5 stars.

May

On May 25, 1977, one young filmmaker released a movie that cheered the world, and became known as Star Wars. Though it is impossible to go back to the days before mega-blockbusters laden with fantastic special effects, The Making of Star Wars does a great job of letting you feel what it was like. Nobody knew if it would be successful, many of the techniques had never been done, but everyone was young and idealistic. 4 stars.

June

Speaking of idealistic, and going back even further in time, we come to Thor Heyerdahl. In 1947, he and some equally loony friends recreated a raft out of native material and sailed from South America to the Polynesian islands to prove that earlier native peoples could have done the same. His book, Kon-Tiki, is a first person account of the struggles and adventures they went through along the way. Entertaining, educational, and inspiring. 4 stars.

July

Okay, okay, it's summer. You want to read something goofy and fun, not all of this fact-based stuff. Well, have I got the book for you. The Ruins is quite possibly one of the worst books I've ever read. The writing is fine, but the plot, characters, action, all of it is just enormously stupid. So why list it here? Because, if you were sitting out lounging on a beach somewhere, this would be perfect. It is awfsome. It is terrifible. It isn't "so bad it's good," it's "so bad that I'm having fun marveling at how it could possibly get any worse," and yet it does. 1 star.

August

So bad it's good? What kind of doublespeak is that? Continuing my re-exploration of some old sci-fi classics, I read George Orwell's 1984 again. If you like to think when you read (rather than check your brain at the door like that last one), then this is a great opportunity. It holds up remarkably well, although I am eager to read Brave New World for comparison.

September

The Ruins and 1984 on the same list? That doesn't make any sense. Welcome to my world. Actually, welcome to just about everybody's world. Predictably Irrational was a wonderful read in which the author shows how in many situations we humans don't always do what would logically be best for us. But the more interesting aspect is that this behavior can still be predicted, as he shows in several experiments. A very entertaining book on a subject I had never even thought about before. 5 stars.

October

I'm not a big Stephen King fan, but I have always enjoyed his earlier books. I had never read Salem's Lot, and I thought I was due. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and it didn't have the problem ending like so many others. A good vampire story, and a refreshing change from the benevolent, glowing, dreamy teenagery kind. 4 stars.

November

Richard Stark's Parker #1: The Hunter is a graphic novel. I'm not one of those guys that's embarrassed to say "comic book," but I think this one deserves the bumped-up description. The art is simplistic yet subtle. The story is an old one often retold, but it works very well here. This one is numbered "1" but I haven't yet made the effort to see if others have been released. I will eagerly read them if and when they are. 5 stars.

December

Winter is coming. For those familiar with the Song of Ice and Fire series, that phrase says a lot. Here, it's just a cutesy intro for my December pick, A Game of Thrones. I have read all of the (existing) books already, and now this one twice. It is epic fantasy, which I normally stay pretty far away from, but it is done in a realistic style. The intrigues of the court take center stage far more than swordplay, and the magic is almost non-existent. It also doesn't hurt that it is currently being turned into a mini-series for HBO. Highly recommended to anyone just looking for a good tale well told. 5 stars.

Well, that does it for this year. Of course, there were many more good and great books that I didn't mention, and I hope the same is true for next year.

I am a Jerk

2010-12-04T18:16:00.004-06:00

Yes, it's true. I admit it. As a matter of fact, I'm even going to post a little anecdote that proves it. And I don't care. In fact, I am not remorseful or repentant in the least! So, let my tale begin...

Yesterday, Karen and I went out to get a Christmas tree. We drove over to the local gardening shop, which has the best selection. To get to the actual entrance requires going a long way through an adjacent parking lot, and the strange shape of the location causes it to be more or less just a single, long, narrow lane. As K drove down the lane looking for a spot, a giant SUV zipped up behind and followed about three feet away from her back bumper. A bit unnerving. We pulled into a spot, and the Canyonero sped by to continue to look for a space. Neither of these occurrences are that unusual.

However, we were able to see where the mammoth SUV parked, and it turned out the lady driving it entered the store just a few feet ahead of us. Perfect! I immediately started walking very closely behind her. Every time she stopped, I stopped (and sighed). If she turned, I turned to stay directly behind her. After very little time, she stopped and turned to look directly at me.

Me: "Does it bother you that I'm behind you?"
She: "Well, yes, when you're so close behind me."
Me: "Maybe you should think about that when you're driving."

Exit Greg, stage right.

It's not really the best zinger in the world, but it was a spontaneous act. Am I just on edge because of the holiday season? Karen, of course, thought it was great (although I also suspect she was a little embarrassed). Am I wrong? Should one not confront another person about things like that?

A little bit later, we could see the woman further back in the Christmas tree section. She wasn't looking at us, but she was talking animatedly on her cell phone. I wondered what that conversation was like. I have no doubt that my role in her story was that of "creepy jerk."

BGG.Con Recap

2010-11-30T09:10:00.005-06:00

The weekend before Thanksgiving, there's a big boardgame convention in Dallas called BGG.Con. I've been lucky enough to attend all six years of its existence, including this past year.

For me, it's a great way to try out new games and catch up with friends from across the country that I don't get to see very often, let alone play a game with. This year was no exception.

New Games

Because I try to play so many new games, my friend Mark Johnson invited me to discuss the games I played on his podcast, Boardgames To Go. He also created a geeklist on BGG to read along with during the podcast.

So, with a podcast about all the games I played, what more is there to write about here? I'll just pick out a few random highlights to keep this post short.

This year, I had three main goals:

Play games I've never played before.
Play with people I've never played with (or rarely).
Play games that are too long to be played normally.

Overall, I'm very pleased with my results. Out of 18 different games played, 16 of them were completely new to me. As for #2, I did play many games with at least one person I already knew, but that's okay. I also played at least four (that I recall) with a group of total strangers. My third goal worked out just about right. I was able to get in two long (three or more hours) games, which seems about right.

Buy Low, Sell High

Another highlight for me every year is the flea market. It is such a pain to inventory, price, and pack up a huge assortment of games to sell, but it always feels worth it afterward. Not only do I get rid of a lot of excess games that are just taking up space, I can make a little dough as well.

I had the help of a friend, Sean, which made a huge difference. It was fantastic to have someone help me haul in and set up my wares, plus having an extra pair of eyes to keep track of everything. The benefit for him was not only getting to sell a few just-won games, but also to get into the market before the masses for first pick among the booths. A win-win for both of us!

This year, I sold about 75% of what I brought, adding up to over $500. Even better, I managed to get out of there without buying anything! I did make one trade, game for game, but I think I got a great deal on that one.

Check It Out

This was the first year I volunteered at the convention. I worked in the game library, which is a massive collection of boardgames that attendees can check out to play. This was a very easy job, but it was also a lot of fun. I was able to watch what games were hot going in and out, and talk about geeky game stuff with them as well as my co-volunteers. It was a great respite to be able to just sit down and not worry about finding a game or a person or anything.

This has become a great annual tradition for me, but I worry about how long that will last. Several of my friends have decided to go only every other year. I certainly don't blame them, I just hope I don't have to reduce my frequency as well.

Great Pumpkin Fun Run

2010-11-04T13:41:00.002-05:00

This post is a little overdue, but I've had lots of other things going on in my life the last couple of weeks. This will just be a quick post anyway.

For the first time in many months, I ran another fun run. I like these little 5K runs because it's casual, quick, and makes me feel like I've accomplished something so that I don't feel guilty for laying on the couch drinking beer and watching movies for the rest of the day. Not that I ever do that, of course.

My stats this time were:

Time: 26:26; Pace: 8:30
Overall position: unknown, out of probably 1,200
Men's 40-44 position: 27 out of 74 (36.5%)

That's a good pace, especially compared to my last race. I know for sure that I run faster in colder weather (which I think is true for all runners).

Unfortunately, on the last little hill before the finish line, I did something funky to my right knee. Actually, I did it while running about a week before, but I had not felt it again until this race. For the most part, it doesn't really hurt when I'm walking or running. But from time to time, I'll get a sharp twinge that nearly takes my leg out. I'm hoping that a few days of rest will give it time to work itself out. Could it be I'm actually starting to get old!? Oh no!

Karen ran as well, but we split up right after crossing the starting line (which, frustratingly for me, was about 2:30 minutes after the starting gun because we were so far back). Usually, she has a friend she can run with at her slower pace, but we forgot to coordinate this time. On the way to the race, this really frustrated her. However, by the end of the race she was very happy about it. "I didn't have to chat or anything, I could just focus on running!" she said. Now maybe she'll understand my perspective a little and won't give me a hard time for running on ahead at my pace. Either way, we both had fun.

We're gearing up for the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving. In Houston, you never know whether it's going to be warm or cold for that one, but it should be fun either way.

Lesson Learned

2010-10-12T21:08:00.002-05:00

I came very close to posting about this a few days ago, but in the end I decided there wasn't enough of a story. For good or ill, that story has now expanded.

Flower made squirrel kill number six on Friday. I was in the process of closing the gate after backing out the car when she brought her fresh kill to drop at my feet. I was on my way out, only expecting to be gone an hour or so, so I just congratulated her on the kill and let her be. What harm could there be in letting her bask in her victory while I was gone, before I returned to put it in the trash?

Well, when I returned, the squirrel was nowhere to be found. I searched and searched, but could find no trace. Clearly, Flower had buried it for a rainy day. I didn't really think much of it, especially since there was nothing I could do about it anyway.

Fast-forward to today. I got home and let Flower out, as usual. I decided to open a beer and read my book in the beautiful, late afternoon sunshine. Not long after, I noticed a smell. Quite a smell. Yes, Flower had unearthed her nearly week-old kill and decided it was ripe enough to play with. She was having a ball! The corpse was her newest toy. She would nibble on it, thrash it about her head, throw it on the ground and then flop around with it in the grass. I thought to myself, "Why not? She earned it!" Hoo boy, was that a mistake.

I don't know how many of you are familiar with the stench of a rotting carcass. Hopefully, not many. This may be the eau de toilette of choice for dogs, but for humans, it is quite retched. The only benefit for me was that I'm currently reading a novel about vampires, so it added to the ambiance (Note to self-- patent smell of rotting animal flesh for use in smell-o-rama zombie movies).

Flower enjoyed wallowing in the odor, and then trying to bring it in the house. Out in the backyard it didn't seem so bad, but the second I (foolishly) let her in the house, I knew my mistake. So, she got an impromptu bath, and I learned a valuable lesson: Always throw away dead things. No, let's see, never let a dog get away with murder. No, that's not it either. If you smell it, let it go? Hmm. Never trust a live dog with a dead squirrel? Okay, well, none of those seem very good. Let's just say whatever lesson I was supposed to learn, I learned it well.

Vampire Weekend

2010-10-08T09:45:00.003-05:00

Last night I got to see a great little band, Vampire Weekend. It was a really fun show and we had a good time. I'm not going to do a full review, I just wanted to comment on a few things.

First, the audience. Karen made the comment that more than half the people there were half our age. I was in complete denial of that, of course, but it wasn't too far off the truth. The really sad part was that nearly everyone our age or older were there escorting their kids. For Karen, that makes her feel old and out of place. For me, it makes me feel young (I feel out of place no matter where I am). I'm not trying to be younger than I am, but I do like good music. The age of the musicians or the fans shouldn't make any difference. I hope to still be going to see young bands even when I'm the oldest geezer in the room.

I also had a revelation about opening bands. They are the bridesmaids of concerts, I've decided. They're nice, they're fine, but they can't be too good or they'll detract from the main event. Also, the more different from the main act, the better. We actually had two opening bands for Vampire Weekend. The first was The Very Best. They were quite good, but they were scaled down to just two of the band members. I enjoyed it, but knew it could have been much better. Beach House, on the other hand, was not interesting at all. I imagine they're droning mellow music might be nice to have in the background, or maybe over headphones, but live it was just plain boring. However, that did make VW shine all the more in comparison, so I guess mission accomplished.

Lastly, the douchebag in front of me. I really hate to use that word, but unfortunately it is perfectly suited to describing this guy. You can already picture him in your mind, I'm sure: late 20s, close-cropped hair, pumped-up torso under a tight white t-shirt, jeans with the weird designs on the pockets, and of course, the obligatory flip-flops. During the first three or four songs of the show (Vampire Weekend- he wasn't there for the opening acts), he and his buddy ignored the stage in favor of talking and playing with his phone. Seriously, for 15 solid minutes, they were staring and touching the screen, oblivious to the music around them. It continued sporadically throughout the show, but it was worst at the beginning.

Honestly, this didn't bother me as much as I'm making it sound. What bothered me was the nagging question, Why were they there? If the show was that unimportant to them, why did they come at all? Second-most irksome was, Why did they have to stand right in front of me? But truthfully, the thing that really got under my skin more than anything else-- Why was I letting it bother me at all? This is the point at which I really did feel old. Just let it go. Relax. Enjoy the show. But instead, my mind kept coming back to these dudes in front of me with their stupid phone. Sigh. Deep breath.

Anyway, it was a fun show.

I Hate Zoos

2010-10-05T09:14:00.003-05:00

Barbaric and cruel, zoos are a throwback to our less-enlightened and imperialistic past. I really don't understand why we still have them. What benefit is there to having these animals imprisoned?

A chance to study animals

False. Why does this have to be done on our terms? Aren't the real scientists out there in the jungle like Dian Fossey? It seems to me that any information learned would be either limited to basic physiology or tainted by the unnatural environment.

Preservation

False. Again, why on our terms? Couldn't we preserve the animals on a giant reserve more suited to their natural habitat? Why do we have to put them on display for people to stare at them? It is shocking to me that the phrase "the first XXX born in captivity" is used as a positive achievement, rather than a mark of shame. We should not be proud that we can artificially recreate an environment well enough to fool the animals. (But then again, we seem pretty proud of our own artificial sweeteners and Coke Zero, so I guess that evens out.)

Education

False. Is it really educational, or just a chance to gawk at the strange creatures, and maybe pet an emu? With modern technology, our ability to educate ourselves has improved drastically, and I'm not just talking about the internet. The fantastic BBC series Planet Earth shows us what life in nature is really like. We have pictures, video, sound recordings. None of these were available to the Romans. If they wanted to explain an hippopotamus, they had to bring one to Rome. I would rather promote the art of taxidermy. One stuffed animal in every natural science museum would be less harmful than all the tortured animals in zoos.

I confess that I have fond memories of the zoos I visited as a kid. I loved seeing the animals, especially the giraffes. But even then it seemed somewhat wrong. Back in my childhood, zoos were much more like cages than they are today. But no matter how "natural" it is set up, it is still a cage. I can't think of a good argument to justify zoos, except our own bloated egos. It sickens me.

SeaWorld

On a similar note, SeaWorld is even worse. If you haven't seen the documentary The Cove, I highly recommend it. It is a very disturbing and depressing investigation into the dolphin slaughters that happen annually in Japan. However, I was angered by the misguided direction of the whole film.

Early on, the main protagonist Ric O'Barry (who trained dolphins for the TV show Flipper), says how much he regrets ever training the dolphins. He talks about his shame that there are SeaWorld amusement parks all over the world, basically because of him. The Japanese fishermen corral hundreds of dolphins to sell to the SeaWorld franchises for about $100,000 a piece. Any that don't sell are killed rather than released back into the wild.

The dolphin slaughter is a horrific tragedy, but here's where the movie went wrong. They spend the rest of the time trying to prove this was going on, and condemning Japan for allowing it. Like typical Americans, they attack the symptom and not the disease. These fishermen wouldn't be doing this if there weren't demand from SeaWorld. Why didn't the movie attack them? Why didn't they call for a boycott of dolphin shows? Is it easier to condemn a country than a corporation?

And when Dawn Brancheau was killed by a performing whale, the outcries were to release or kill the whale. SeaWorld did neither. They kept the whale in anticipation of resuming the shows when the furor has died down. How could people condemn the whale for behaving naturally, and not condemn the company for keeping it unnaturally? It all angers me so much.

If I'm lucky enough to have kids, they'll hate me for it. But I refuse to support the cruelty of zoos or SeaWorld.

Tired of Running

2010-09-16T11:12:00.003-05:00

Cinderella's name roughly translates as "she of the cinders." Cinders, as in soot, because she was poor and dirty from cleaning all the time (Speaking of which, what's the difference between "dirt poor" and "filthy rich"?). Something that started negative has come to represent beauty. I wonder if that's the same origin of Ashley and Nicole?

Yes, with a random opening though like that, this must be a post about running. I basically took the month of August off from running because it was just so dang hot. I wish I had just opted to accept a slower pace rather than cut it out completely. The weather is getting tolerable in the mornings again, and my body has been aching to get back out there. Unfortunately, that month off has really taken its toll.

This morning I ran 3 miles in 27:29, right at 9:10 minutes a mile. That's not bad, really. And that does include approximately one minute for puppy duty, and another two minutes that I spent walking/resting. The real problem was how tired I was during and after! Even though my muscles were pining for the activity, they apparently didn't realize they weren't as ready as they used to be.

My goal this year was to average under an 8:00 minute mile. I could probably do that if I only ran a mile, but I currently run three and would like to get up to five at least three times a week. That month off makes me feel like I'm starting all over from scratch.

The other good thing about this part of the year is the increase in 5K races in the fall. Those are usually a good motivator for me, so hopefully I'll sign up for one soon.

Driving Test of Faith

2010-09-02T14:12:00.002-05:00

On my way home yesterday, it occurred to me the enormous amount of trust we put in complete strangers every time we get into our cars. Numerous traffic laws are more like social contracts to behave a certain way. If everyone accepts the same basic method of driving, then the whole system runs smoothly. Just one person who decides to drive the wrong way on a road or ignore a streetlight can cause complete chaos.

There is also the amazing iconography and graphic design that we encounter on a constant basis. A yellow dashed-stripe means one thing, a white one means something else. All road signs which require a particular action or level of attention are the same color. It really is a pretty amazing system.

But, I digress.

What got me thinking about driving in the terms of trust was the action of one particular driver yesterday. He was a man in his late-40s, driving a nice but older red BMW. Let's call him Bert.

I'm on a large street headed East. There are three lanes for me (I'm in the far left), three headed the other way, and a wide left-turn lane between us. We had been waiting for a traffic light that was quite a ways ahead of us. It had just turned green, and as the compression wave of traffic expanded like the Slinky it is, we were just starting to move. Here comes Bert.

Bert is coming the opposite direction, and he needs to turn left. He glides into the left-turn lane and begins his turn. Right into the existing traffic! There wasn't a space there he was trying to beat; the traffic wasn't stopped so he could create a gap; he just turned. The car ahead of me (let's call him Ernie) had to slam on his breaks to keep from hitting Bert head-on. Bert stopped too-- in the middle of our lane!

By this time, the wave is in full motion. The other two lanes are about up to speed, all of them trying to make that light up ahead. Oblivious Bert just waits there, blocking a full lane, until enough cars see the situation and stop long enough to let him through. Of course, neither Ernie nor I (Can I be Grover?) nor anyone behind us make the light that was only about 20 yards away.

Now, you may be thinking, "So what? That sounds just like a typical asshole driver to me." You're right. But what was Bert's mindset when he made that bonehead move? He *knew* that there was nowhere for him to go, but he went anyway. He probably thought that Ernie wouldn't want to wreck his car, prolong his commute, and ruin his day by running into Bert. You could say he forced Ernie to stop, but to me, it was an act of faith. He believed that he knew what would happen.

After realizing his error, Bert also could have backed up the three feet necessary to accommodate our lane. He could have waited in the left-turn lane for the traffic to pass or even stop, and then make his turn. But again, Bert had faith. He knew that if he stayed his course, eventually others would accommodate him. And he was right! That's pretty amazing, actually.

So, back to what I was saying at the beginning. If *everyone* drove this way, it would be anarchy. Have you ever visited a country where they don't have (or obey) lanes on a road? It isn't pretty. But if just one person out of hundreds does it, the ripple is quickly absorbed by the stream.

You could take from this example that there's always going to be an arrogant jerk on the road with no consideration for other drivers. Or, it could be that all of us are actually quite considerate, and from time to time we are asked to prove it.

As someone who is ashamed of my own occasional bouts of road rage, I think I'll choose the latter.

What Kind of Hobby, Part 2

2010-08-27T16:54:00.005-05:00

Wow, has it really been over two weeks since my last post? Worse yet, was my last post really the same one I'm writing on update on today? Yep, looks like it. The weird thing is, in my mind I've already written about seven insightful, amusing, and stunning posts. Now I just have to get them from my imagination into reality (where they will be transformed into stupid, boring, and mundane posts).

So, first of all, I have to share what I think is big news regarding my last post. In that one, I lamented that unlike books and movies, games don't really have an outlet to be shared without being purchased. Well, that has changed. Boardgamegeek, the central website for everyone in the boardgaming hobby, has just launched a new site: Board Game eXchange.

Board Game Exchange is basically a Netflix (or Gamefly) for board games. I think it is an excellent idea. I'm concerned that their pricing model is too high, but the concept is fantastic. Basically, for those not familiar with Netflix, you subscribe to a mail-order service for a monthly fee. Then, you pick a board game you would like to play. They send it to you (including a prepaid method of shipping it back) and you play it for as long as you like. Will this break the board gaming hobby out into the the larger population? I doubt it. But it is a good start.

For me, unfortunately, the service is not as valuable. I have so many games already, and the selection is somewhat limited, that I don't see much benefit in joining. However, if I were just getting started in the hobby, I think this service would be a godsend. Yes, it's expensive, but what a great way to experience multiple new and different games for a (large) fraction of their normal cost. If you don't have a game group or other access to a larger collection, this would be the way to go.

Now, on the the "Part 2" section of this post.

I thought of two more hobbies to compare with playing board games. Perhaps neither is particularly positive, but I think they are both appropriate in different ways.

Is it like playing with trains?

I have a friend who is really into model trains. He goes to conventions across the nation. He has a large set up that he puts on display at a local mall every Father's Day. He's really into trains, and the model train hobby is one way for him to explore that interest.

Now me, I know virtually nothing about trains, real or model. I think they're cool, but I could barely name any of Thomas's friends, let alone discuss their history. But it got me to thinking. How much different are our hobbies? It is definitely a passionate minority that knows all kind of obscure facts about their subject. We both have conventions. We both have preferences (HO scale or Auction mechanism?). We could both talk to outsiders and bore them to sleep within minutes.

We're both collectors. His diorama (or whatever the proper term is) is constantly growing and changing. He's very precise when it comes to time period. He can look for particular items to "complete" what he's working on. How is that different from those of us who have to have a certain edition of a game, or complete a series whether we like the game or not?

Lastly, and this will probably get me in trouble with train enthusiasts, but we both play with our toys. We play games, they play trains. I'm sure that's not the phrase they use, but it's essentially the same. It's not enough to set up an elaborate landscape; you've got to run a train through it! It doesn't mean anything to have the engines if you never see them run. And while they could play with the same train for hours, we could play the same game many times. It's not a perfect analogy, I admit, but I think it's pretty darn close.

But the most damning link to me is the sheer volume of train-themed games. There are train games of every level of complexity. There are train games that are territorial, economic, historical, and trivial. Surely that isn't just a coincidence. There must be some hobbyist-mindset connection I'm not seeing.

Is it like comic books?

I actually have a lot to say about this comparison, but I will try to make it brief since I have such a habit of going long on these posts.

I think the board gaming hobby is very much like the comic book hobby. There is the obvious parallels regarding collecting and reading/playing. There is the devotion to particular artists, writers, designers. There is the preference for particular eras, themes, or genres. All of these make good comparisons.

But what I want to talk about is more the industry. Comics have been around for decades, obviously, and they have taken many forms and branched in many, many directions. For most of their history, they were seen solely as a diversion for kids. But in the last 30 years, that has changed. Kids grew up, but kept buying and reading comic books. When you have 20- and 30-somethings with large disposable incomes as your audience, of course the business world takes notice.

It is no surprise to any comic book fan that Hollywood has discovered a gold mine. The potential was always there, perhaps it just took a while for the technology to catch up. Personally, I think it has more to do with the change in the target age groups of both comics and movies (one getting older, while the other went younger).

But here's the thing. It is easy to see why Hollywood wants to make movies of every comic book. They are both visual, story-telling media. That would seem to be enough. But any comics reader could tell you that there are innumerable things that a comic can do that a movie cannot. Yes, the action translates well, but the literate elements of comics are often lost. Comic characters have histories spanning decades; movie characters compress that into 20 minutes. I'm not saying comic based movies are bad, just that they will never be the same as the actual comic books.

So, how does this relate to board games? I'm starting to see a similar development between board games and video games. Many popular board games (Settlers of Catan, Carcassonne, Ticket to Ride) are available on the Xbox 360, and many more are available for the iPhone/iPod. Video games are much higher profile, like movies. They're a totally different medium, but they share similar traits with board games. Many games have been available on the internet for years, but the transfer to the home box market is pretty big.

The difference, I think, is that comic book movies are often watched by people who have never read the comic source (I've never read Iron Man, but I liked the movie). I don't think the same is happening with video game versions of board games. I get the impression that the only people playing them are the ones who are already familiar with them.

Is this transition a good thing? I'm not sure. I don't think it's bad, but I don't think either video games or board games will benefit from it.

The other big similarity has to do with the creative aspect. During the big comic book boom of the '80's and '90's, it was not only possible but very common for a couple of guys to write and publish their own comic books. The vast majority of these disappeared into obscurity, but there were plenty of success stories as well. From Bone to Strangers in Paradise to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It was a huge explosion of creativity and new artists and writers.

Right now, I think we're at a similar stage for board games. Publishing a board game is by no means a simple endeavor, but the growth of the internet has expanded options for publishing, promoting, and marketing these games to their target audience. Again, the rules of the universe (I forget if the 80/20 rule has a name) dictate that most of these won't be that great. But the important thing is that creative people don't feel shut out of participating in the creative side of this hobby. I think that's a wonderful thing, and makes this a great time to be into this hobby.

What Kind of Hobby is Playing Board Games?

2010-08-05T13:07:00.012-05:00

One of my favorite hobbies is playing board games. Although I know a lot of people who share this hobby, I would not consider it common, nor especially "mainstream." So when people ask me about it, it usually requires some bit of explanation.

Many times, if I say I like board games, the response is, "Oh, like Risk or Monopoly?" Depending on my mood and how much I care for the person, my response can be anywhere on the spectrum between a full description of the merits of German board game designers to simply, "Yeah, pretty much." And sure, I have a standard "elevator pitch" answer, too.

But what I've been thinking about lately is what other hobbies playing games is similar to. Of course, it doesn't have to be similar to anything; each hobby can stand alone on its own merits. But just for comparison and as a nice experiment, I thought about how I would compare it to some of my own other interests. I've picked some things I think are similar and different about them, but they are by no means exclusive; they are just the ones I chose to focus on for this post.

Is it like reading?

Many people read (sadly, not everyone), so this is something most people can understand. Reading can be educational or purely entertaining. It can take you to an infinite different times and places with ease. It's pretty cerebral, but it also encourages creativity.

How they are similar: Aside from what I mentioned above, I think another strong similarity is the idea of personalities. For books, it's authors; for games, it's designers. Just as some readers will buy the next Tom Clancy or Jackie Collins or Dan Brown book to hit the shelves, many gamers are just as dedicated to Reiner Knizia, Martin Wallace, and Klaus Teuber.
How they are different: Books are inherently solitary; games are not. Sure, there are readings and book clubs and discussions, but when it comes down to it, to experience a book requires only you and a book (and some time). Games are the opposite. Though there are "solitaire" games, I think the vast majority of us would define a game as a contest between two or more people. This is good in the sense that it makes gaming a more social hobby.
What games need that reading has: Libraries. Game libraries do exist on a small scale at conventions and game get togethers, but how fantastic would it be if you could check out games at your local library? And what about discount book stores? The value of a good book is not diminished by having been read. Why aren't there more outlets for second-hand games? Of course, thrifters like myself know that there is if you're willing to spend the time looking.

Is it like watching movies?

I've always believed that seeing a movie is a solitary experience that masquerades as a group experience. Sure, you see them in big groups (at theaters), but your interaction with the film itself is entirely internal. With the exception of talking patrons and cell phones, your experience at a movie is only dependent on what's going on within you.
How they are similar: Multiple people have a similar experience, filtered through their own personal biases. Also, people enjoy watching movies multiple times (especially with home video), just as many have favorite games they revisit often.
How they are different: Movies are passive; games are active. People often get excited by films that "challenge" them, either through interesting new ideas or radical perspectives or ethical dilemmas. But in the end, nothing the viewer can do will change the outcome of the movie. Games don't have as much impact, but they *require* participation. You are more or less in control of how the game ends the entire time.
What games need that movies have: I could say movie rental houses (which are dying out) or public theaters to spread to the masses, but I don't really think those apply. What I would like to see for games is more criticism. Film is studied. Whether it's a simple "thumbs up/thumbs down" or a dissection of the mis en scene, there are all levels of film criticism. Do games merit the same level of scrutiny? I don't know, but I would love to see it anyway.

Is it like collecting?

Many hobbies revolve around collecting sets or examples of a particular thing, whether it be penguins or stamps or comic books or autographs. This sort of hobby focuses more on acquiring, but for the collector there is equal enjoyment in each of the objects themselves.
How they are similar: As many in the board gaming hobby can attest, it isn't long before your measuring your collection not by what games you have, but by how many. Like books and movies, new ones come out every year, all year long. Could you get every baseball card? No. Could you get every Chicago Cubs card? Possibly. Could you get every card for this season? Definitely. The difficulty here is in distinguishing between owning something you enjoy and enjoying something you own.
How they are different: Despite the ease of growing a collection, it really isn't about owning games you never intend to play. Sure, some feel the need to have all the Alea numbered big box games, but most of us value quality over quantity.
What games need that collecting has: A price guide? No, definitely not. But I wouldn't mind seeing a few more trade shows now and then. Even if not for trading, then at least for public display. How neat would it be to see some rare games out for display, or better yet, for play?

Is it like sports?

I don't really like adding this one because to me, sports are games. How can you compare two of the same thing? But, there it is.
How they are similar: Competition, pure and simple. Everyone understands the thrill of victory in sports. It is just as fulfilling in a hard fought board game.
How they are different: Cultural ubiquity. Sport exists at some level in every part of the world, at every level of society. Whether you play or just watch or paint your face to watch the local match, everyone understands sports.
What games need that sports have: Acceptance. No one bats an eye if you tell them you spent all day Sunday watching football. Planted on the couch in front of the TV is fine. But if you said you were inside playing D&D all day, wow, what a different reaction. Living vicariously through sports stars is okay, but acting out fantasy in your living room is not. What I find most amusing about this is the huge rise in "Fantasy Football" over the last decade. Watching wasn't enough-- they had to make a game out of it!

I thought I had a few more hobbies to compare to, but they've all escaped me at the moment. Besides, I think my analysis is running thin by now anyway. I'll just wrap it up here. What do you think? What hobby would you compare it to? How do you try to get people to understand it?

Give Me That Penny!

2010-07-28T16:07:00.003-05:00

This isn't the post I meant to make today, but those can wait (and already have). This just happened today.

I was trying to be a good son on the way over to visit my folks. I stopped by Subway to pick up some lunch for us. When everything was assembled and ready to go, the total came to $11.26. Unfortunately, I didn't have a penny.

Hoping to not get a pocketful of change, I handed over a $20 bill and a quarter and said, "Can I borrow a penny?" The guy said sure, rang it up, then handed me my change... $8.99! Then, he said, "Now you have a penny," and took one out of my change! WHAT!? I was so dumbstruck that I couldn't speak. He saw the obvious confusion on my face and tried to explain his transaction, how I was "paying back" the penny I "borrowed." I just shook my head and left, the whole time knowing I'd just been shorted, but not exactly able to reason out why.

(Edit: $11.26 from $20.25 leaves $8.99. He gave me correct change, then took a penny for no reason.)

By the time I got to my car, I was actually mad enough to go back in and demand my penny back. Fortunately for the dude behind the counter, but unfortunately for the entertainment value of this blog, I did not. I just didn't think I'd be able to convince the cashier of his error.

As I drove home, I kept dwelling on it. I wasn't sure what made me more angry: that the kid just didn't "get" why I wanted to borrow a penny, or my inability to correct him after the transaction.

I know a lot of people would just blow it off, reasoning that "it was only a penny." But those people don't know me very well. I still get genuinely excited when I find pennies on the sidewalk. (By the way, I don't go in for any of that heads/tails nonsense. A penny's a penny!) I always look at the date and the mint. I hoard them miserly until I roll and deposit my change. Pennies rule.

I have demanded correct change for a penny before, so that didn't deter me. It was my own innumeracy that kept me from arguing about it. For shame on me!

I Need a New Word

2010-07-22T19:49:00.005-05:00

Is there a word for things that are so bad, they're good? How about "Awfsome" or "Terriffible."

My wife has a ritual called "Bad Movie Sunday." This is where she flips through the local channels and finds some mind-numbingly bad movie and watches it. I think you can imagine the kind of drek that is available. Think Weekend at Bernie's or Little Nicky. Being the sophisticated cinephile that I am, this is a habit I've just never understood. Or so I thought.

I had forgotten about my love for disaster movies! Even their premises are horrible! Anyway, I picked up 2012 the other day knowing full well it would be painful to watch. Boy, was I rewarded! This one is a classic!

I have very fond memories of my youth watching cinematic masterpieces like The Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake, and The Towering Inferno. Something crazy always happens, and you never know who is going to survive to the end of the movie.

Unfortunately, modern disaster movies just don't have the same flair. Although I rank Volcano and The Day After Tomorrow pretty damn high on the So-bad-it's-good Meter, but most of the others are just plain bad. All the computer effects just don't have the same impact as a real set of an upside down cruise ship.

Anyway, back to 2012. It does a pretty good job of recapturing that classic '70's badness. Sure, it's got the crazy computer special effects, but what can you do. It also has completely ridiculous plot points and dialog, crazy cameos, over the top sentiment, and at least some suspense regarding who lives or dies.

The biggest problem with modern disaster movies is that they aim too high. Back in the day, they were satisfied to destroy a skyscraper, an airplane, or even a city. These days, they feel like they have to outdo all of that by destroying cities during the opening credits. Of course they have to destroy famous landmarks (a trait shared with monster movies of the '50's), but the number increases every time. 2012 basically destroyed the whole world! Where can they go from that?

Is 2012 a good movie? Not by a long shot. Was I entertained? Immensely! Would I recommend it? Only if you have the right attitude. With a big bucket of popcorn, some beer, and a lazy, rainy afternoon, it's a perfect combo.

Star Wars Improv

2010-07-20T17:45:00.002-05:00

I haven't posted a video for a while, so let's see if this one works.

My Father's Health, Part 5: Neurology

2010-07-16T10:59:00.002-05:00

Well, I've been putting off posting about my Dad again for over a month. I still haven't completely collected my thoughts or decided exactly what I want to say, but the longer I put it off, the more difficult it will be. A couple of months ago my father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease.

This was the result I most feared, and yet somewhat expected. He's taking medication (Aricept, I believe) which is supposed to slow down the onset of symptoms. They think they found it early enough to make a difference, but there still isn't a cure.

I've been very reluctant to do the necessary research about the disease and treatment and what to expect in the coming years. I don't think of it as denial, but maybe it is. I accept that he has it, but I just don't feel like learning about it yet. When he was in the hospital back in December/January (See Part 4), he suffered from dementia brought on by "sundowning" and accentuated by a drug he was taking for his bladder. He was very cantankerous, often extremely confused and forgetful. On a number of occasions he didn't even recognize me. That was hard to deal with, but at the time I coped with it very well. I was the one telling the rest of my family that we might have to accept the idea that he might never recover from that. I was very glad to be proven wrong.

But now, it looms on the horizon, which is even worse. Being struck with it suddenly, I had no choice but to deal with it. Now that I have an indeterminate amount of time to prepare, I find myself not wanting to prepare at all. But enough about me.

I'm concerned about my Dad. He's been in and out of the hospital numerous times this past year, and he absolutely hates it. It seems like at least once a month something occurs that requires a hospital visit, and inevitably that extends to a stay of at least a couple nights. He puts on a good face around the doctors and nurses, but he absolutely despises being there, and I don't blame him. The problem, however, is that now he is reluctant to say when something is wrong or to see a doctor for fear that it will put him back in the hospital.

Just this week his home nurse made her visit, and was shocked by how difficult his breathing was. She insisted my Mom take him to the ER, and they found early stage pneumonia. It's been treated and he's been released, but I have no doubt he would never have said anything about having trouble breathing.

But even that isn't really what concerns me. My Dad's depressed. He doesn't like to talk about it with the rest of the family, but he confides in me. I think it's a combination of his poor health, the frequent hospital visits, and the Alzheimer's diagnosis. Which makes me wonder if that was really necessary. I wasn't there when my parents went to the neurologist for the verdict. I can only imagine what the scene was like. My mother is practically deaf, and my father hears only what he wants and often forgets or misses details.

My question is, should the doctor have told him he has Alzheimer's? Wouldn't it have been better for just the rest of us to know and deal with it? Why put that burden on him? My Dad used to volunteer at a local home for Alzheimer's patients, ironically. He knows exactly what to expect (I sometimes wonder if he had a secret suspicion about himself that made him choose that kind of volunteerism). Like most men and most fathers, my Dad likes to be in control. He doesn't believe there are things he can't handle by himself. To be hit with the knowledge that your mind is slowly leaving you must be devastating.

I said my Dad was depressed, but it's more complicated than that. I know he wants to live. I know he wants to get better. But I think he finds it hard to motivate himself when he knows what's coming. He doesn't want to be a burden on his family. All the things he was hoping for the future may never come to pass. He still talks about fixing our old motorboat to take the kids water-skiing. He talks about the chores he needs to do around the house. He talks about getting his strength back in order to drive. Yet at the same time, I think he knows none of those things are ever going to happen. Do I discourage him by reminding him of limitations? Do I feed his delusions and encourage those plans? Currently, I sort of humor him and then try to change the subject.

I don't know how to end this post, which is appropriate since I'm sure there will be many more to come on this subject. I just needed to write something to get some of these thoughts out of my head. Don't worry, I have several more up-beat and strange posts coming, I just wanted to get this one out of the way first.

Run Wild 5K

2010-07-04T17:30:00.002-05:00

Whew! This may be my last one for a while. It's just too dang hot. By 7:30 in the morning in Houston, TX it is already 78 degrees with 90% humidity. We've had a lot of rain for the past week, so the humidity is slightly higher than normal. I was really expecting (and hoping, actually) that it would be raining during the race, but alas, no such luck. In fact, the course was designed in such a way that I felt like the sun was shining directly into my eyes no matter which direction I was running!

My stats degraded a bit from last time:

Time: 27:25 Pace: 8:51/mile
Overall position: 304 out of 807 (37.5%)
Men's 40-44 position: 34 out of 63 (54%)

My pace slowed down a bit, but I mostly blame the heat. I also haven't run as much this week as the past several, but I really don't think that had much to do with it. I don't know why they can't organize these things to start around 5:30 in the morning. It might actually be cool then, and I could get back home to take a nap and feel like I haven't wasted the day.

There might be one or two more runs I would be interested in doing this summer, but after today I will really think about whether or not it's worth it. It's just so hot. I should just wait until September when the weather is better, but since I'm running almost every day in this heat, why should a 5K be any different?

A Couple More Thoughts

2010-07-01T09:42:00.004-05:00

Just a quick note, since I forgot something I wanted to mention about The Invasion from my previous post. The most heinous part of the most recent version was the coda. Yes, she gets her miracle boy to the helicopter, and his blood helps them find a cure. The last scene takes place some time in the future (weeks or months, it's not specific) as they all sit around the breakfast table congratulating themselves on still being alive.

I hate this ending for a couple of reasons. First, it could not feel more Hollywood-tacked-on. The first remake to actually have a happy ending. I guess that's the aughties for you. But the other thing is the unanswered questions it leaves. If all the "body-snatched" people were just suffering from a disease (which was cured), doesn't that make a lot of people murderers? Our heroine killed dozens in the frantic car chase alone.

"Miss Bennell, were you aware at the time that slamming your car into a crowd of people would likely kill many of them?"
"Yes, your honor, but it was self-defense."
"Self-defense? Were they threatening you with bodily harm?"
"No, your honor, but..."
"Were they carrying weapons with the intent to kill you?"
"Not exactly, but..."
"And if they had caught you, the worst that would've happened was that you would go to sleep and wake up with a detached and calmer outlook on life? Is that correct?"
"Well, yeah, but they wanted my boy."

Now that would have been an interesting courtroom drama.

On a completely different note, I absolutely have to share this link. My friend Dale sent it to me yesterday, and it's just wonderful. I've long been a fan of the movie Joe vs. the Volcano. In fact, it is the source of the name of my blog. I know it isn't a great movie, but still I love it beyond rationality. Here, the writer posts a beautiful defense of the movie, and even goes to say it is Tom Hanks' best performance. Check it out: The Best Role: Tom Hanks.

Invasion of the Mind Snatchers

2010-06-29T15:13:00.004-05:00

Well, I did it. I finally finished my marathon viewing of all movie iterations of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers."

Actually, I did most of this a couple of years ago. I put them on my Netflix queue when The Invasion first came out. I thought I'd be through them just in time for its DVD release. Then I heard how bad the most recent version was, so I just stopped after the first three. Well, my friend Dale said that didn't count. I had to watch them all. Ugh. So I reluctantly queued it up again and sat myself down for some pain. At first, it wasn't that bad, but then... well, I'll save that for the end of this post. Even though it is definitely the freshest in my mind, I think it's probably important to go through these chronologically.

By the way, if you've never seen any of these movies (or haven't figured out the plots just from their titles), here is my obligatory spoiler warning.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)
The original. The classic? I'm not sure. I definitely liked it, but it's still a cheesy B-movie. The whole story is told in flashback (which is easy to forget during the movie). Our narrator first appears to be a crazed maniac, but we quickly see that he wasn't always that way. Alien plants landed in his small home town and slowly started replacing people with mindless duplicates. Although mindless isn't exactly the right word. They still talk and act, but they've been completely brainwashed and act like they've just taken a big dose of Valium.

The beauty of this film is almost all tied into the setting into which is was released. Fear and paranoia were starting to erode the post-WWII elation. Fear of communism, McCarthyism, and witch hunts; fear of atomic weapons, bomb shelters, and "Duck and Cover." This film plays right into all of that. Could you tell if your neighbor was a pod person? Could you tell if he were a Commie? Fear of the unknown-- is it safe to explore space? Fear of the outsider-- why isn't Bob acting like all the rest of us?

The key, of course, is not to fall asleep. They can only duplicate you when you sleep, so just stay awake. What a fantastic device! Not only is a great metaphor for complacency vs. vigilance, it also leads to the natural mind games brought on by sleep deprivation. Did that really happen, or does he just thinks it happened because he hasn't slept in five days?

I'll give this one five stars. Probably it only deserves three, but I'll bump it up a couple for its period, campiness, and originality.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
This is the first remake with Donald Sutherland. It actually manages to have a fairly nice surprise at the end, which has since been ruined by an internet meme. The plot is still the same: alien plants, mindless duplicates, don't fall asleep. But this time they spend a little more time focusing on the how of it.

I really love how this movie is also a reflection of the times in which is was released. Not only did it have more special effects (which was all the rage in Hollywood after Star Wars), but it also had an interesting view of science. Leonard Nimoy plays a hipster, book-promoting psychologist (I think?), and it's hard to tell if we're supposed to "grok" him or distrust him.

And that leads me to the weird part-- what's the fear? In the original, most see it as an allegory about communism, but couldn't it also be supporting individualism? Here, we're in the '70's, the Me Generation. They already threw down "the man" in the '60's, man, now it's time to boogie. One of the things I like about this one is that the characters all seem so arrogant, even in the face of an alien plague. Maybe the movie was trying to say that we're all just as doomed if we only look out for ourselves. Not a condemnation of individuality, necessarily, but of selfishness.

I give this one three stars. I'd recommend it, and it's definitely entertaining, but the dated-ness of the '70's isn't nearly as charming as the dated-ness of the '50's.

Body Snatchers (1993)
The lesser known remake. I'm having a bit of trouble remembering the details about this one, but I do remember I liked it. They took the original story and made many tweaks to it, making it feel completely new. Sure, there's still alien pods and duplicates, but the trappings are different.

First of all, instead of a middle aged man as a protagonist, we get a teenage girl. And rather than a small town or large city, she's stuck on a military base. This is especially interesting because the whole point of the military is to break down individuals and remake them into cohesive units. But also, being on a military base introduces something that was pretty absent in the previous two: weapons. This film has much more action and 'splosions than the other two.

But what was there to fear in the '90's? The obvious theme is increased militarism from the Reagan era, but I think that's secondary. Despite the more dramatic setting, I think this one is actually more personal. I think it deals best with the conflicting ideas of being an individual versus being an outsider. In the first film, they don't believe the narrator because he's acting like a loon. Here, they don't believe her because she's just a kid, something we can all partly identify with.

I'll give this one four stars. It's a good action movie, a good horror movie, and an overlooked film.

The Invasion (2007)
Ugh. Again, same plot. Like the first sequel, more time spent "explaining" the problem, more pointless special effects. Protagonist is a female looking out for her child. The film starts in medias res, just so we can flashback a few days and watch it lead to those same scenes (which are played again). I really, really hate this trope. I am so sick of movies and/or TV shows that show something, then have a title card with "Three days earlier" or whatever. It is a complete waste, and very poor storytelling. Okay, off soapbox, back to movie.

The interesting thing about this movie, and what made me think I was enjoying it part way through it, was the perceived target of the fear. Communism, then individualism, then militarism; in this one, I think they're attacking indifference. At the beginning of the movie, there are many shots of hundreds of people walking the streets of DC, completely oblivious to everyone around them. After the pods get a hold of them, they are much more quiet. They stand still. They pay attention. As in the other films, the heroes try to "pass" as converted. It's interesting what advice she is given here: "Don't show emotion," "Make direct eye contact." As the pods take over, the ones who can't fake it scream and plead for help, while everyone around them ignores them (whether they're pod-people or not). That's pretty scary, and pretty normal in our modern world.

But instead of being intellectually stimulating or offering more social commentary, this movie devolves into an action movie. You see, it's just a disease. Science can cure it. Her son is immune, so he can be used to save the world! We're finally treated to a high speed chase, in which Nicole Kidman's goal is literally to "GET HIM TO ZEE CHOPPAH!!!" So sad. I think this one really had some possibilities, and it just totally blew it.

One star. It's terrible. Don't be suckered into having your own marathon, this one really isn't worth it.

Well, I suppose if I were a professional blog writer, I would have done a lot more research, thorough analysis, and structured organization of my thoughts. Unfortunately for you, I didn't. I just kind of scrambled together my thoughts and put them out there. Maybe as I get more regular at this, I'll do a better a job at putting up more polished posts.

Dog Tired

2010-06-22T15:19:00.003-05:00

There are 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in a minute, yet we divide seconds into hundredths. Does that seem strange to you?

These are some of the random thoughts I have while running. I don't like to listen to my iPod when I run, so I'm stuck with my own inner soundtrack. Sometimes this can be a good thing; other times, my thoughts get in a rut thinking the same thoughts over and over (just like a bad song). I really should listen to some of the many podcasts I have trouble finding time for, but I just don't like running with artificial sound. I'd rather be alert to my surroundings, not to mention my own labored breathing.

I like my running route, for now. I leave the house, run to (and around) the park, then back. It totals 1.5 miles. Usually, I take Flower with me for the first lap, then drop her off at home so I can have a little peace for my second lap. When I feel like a longer run, I can just add a lap or two.

This morning I ran 3.0 miles in 25:34, which is about an 8:30 mile. I'm very pleased, especially since I wasn't particularly trying to increase my pace. Our dog, Flower, helps a lot in that regard. She's always raring to go, and could easily outrun me if it weren't for the leash. By the way, I haven't been keeping up with her kill stats lately, so I apologize. She's taken out five squirrels now. However, she suffered a serious injury to her armpit while jumping up against the fence a couple of months ago, so I'm going to put the score at 5-1.

That's about all I have to report. I'm trying to do a little better about posting more frequently instead of just throwing out huge posts. I still have two that are churning around in my brain, so hopefully at least one of them will make it out this week.

Why Iron Man 2 Doesn't Work

2010-06-14T12:11:00.007-05:00

I liked the first Iron Man. I thought it was fun with simple good vs. evil and dazzling effects. I thought it was good, but not great. I had low expectations for the second film. I only hoped to be as entertained as I was the first time. Instead, I was actually quite disappointed. It was okay, but not good. Sure, the effects were again pretty amazing, and there were lots of 'splosions, but something about it was just wrong. Recently, I think I discovered why-- the screenplay doesn't match the directing.

I only listen to two podcasts about film: Filmspotting and Creative Screenwriting. I love them both for completely different reasons, but I highly recommend them. In FS episode #301, they talk about Iron Man 2. I won't bother to rehash everything they said (besides, it's far too entertaining to listen to it straight from the source), but in the end they were disappointed as well. They mentioned things like not caring about the characters and the dialog being too flippant.

Just this past week I was catching up with old CS podcasts, and I came across this quote from Jon Favreau (the director) at an Iron Man 2 round table discussion:

We looked at the successful film sequels that we liked ... The two that we liked the most... were Wrath of Khan and Empire Strikes Back. Those are the two that we said, "They did it right. Now let's look at what they did right."

Although he didn't say so, I have no doubt that Spider-Man 2 and The Dark Knight were also on their radar.

What do those films have in common? Aside from generally being the fan favorites of the series, they're also considered the most dark. That admission from Mr. Favreau is what made it all click for me in my head.

When the reviews for Iron Man came out, a lot of the positive buzz mentioned that it was "light" and "fun" (especially when compared to Dark Knight). It was a great way to start off the summer blockbuster season. But the interesting thing to me is that it actually contains several dark elements:

Tony Stark kidnapped and tortured
Multiple deaths and violence due to war
An over-the-top evil father-figure who not only uses a neural paralysis device, but also attempts to kill Tony by ripping his heart out.

All of these are pretty serious. And they're handled seriously in the film. But surrounding those elements, we have Tony learning to fly, neat computer graphics, a cool suit, and generally good times. The audience doesn't dwell on the negatives, because there are more positives to uplift.

Now let's look at some of the dark themes in IM2:

Government trying to confiscate the suit
Dangerous alcoholism by Tony
Tony's best friend Roady betrays him and steals an earlier suit in order to weaponize it.
A mad Russian has not only duplicated the technology, but is also trying to kill Tony...
...because it turns out that Tony's dad (in addition to being John Slattery/Walt Disney) was a crook who cut out the Russian's father's participation in creating the device.

Those are some pretty dark and serious themes, and the list doesn't even include the rival arms manufacturer who commissions super robots that terrorize civilians at the public expo!

So, why doesn't it work? Because the serious elements of the story are brushed away, discussed flippantly, or just plain ignored. It is okay to have both dramatic and comedic elements in the same film. In fact, I would argue that the best films (of both types) almost always have a degree of both. The first Iron Man was able to pull it off. The problem here is that the director seemed to be addressing the dramatic themes with a light-hearted, comedic style. And that just doesn't work.

I'm not a big Favreau fan, but I believe he is a competent director. His decisions here really confuse me. When Whiplash is terrorizing the Monaco Gran Prix, literally slicing cars in half in his attempt to exact revenge on Tony, why did he interject the chauffeur (played by Favreau) speeding on the track with Pepper? Is it comic relief to see them dodging head on traffic? Are we supposed to be laughing when Tony gets smashed at his party and abuses the suit to entertain his guests? He contemplates the betrayal of his friend by hanging out in a giant donut? What is going on here?

I blame the director here because he sets the tone on the set. He tells the actors what sort of mood he is looking for. It is great for a movie to have ups and downs, an emotional roller coaster. But it is not good for it to do both at the same time, in which case you get a merry-go-round-- flat, uneventful, going nowhere with no surprises.

Houston Heights 5K

2010-06-07T20:23:00.004-05:00

Last Saturday, I ran another 5K. Just like last year, the Houston Heights Fun Run fell on the weekend after the Astros Race for the Pennant. I kinda like having two races on consecutive weekends. It's like having a second chance when you don't feel like you did well the first time.

My stats this time were a definite improvement over last week's run:

Time: 26:18 Pace: 8:30/mile
Overall position: 266 out of 858 (top 31%)
Men's 40-44 position: 27 out of 53 (51%)

However, that time is only about 15 seconds better than last year's time. If I can get back to my habit of running five times a week, I think I'll have a better chance of improving my time.

When I hit the first mile marker, my pace was actually a minute faster than usual. But instead of continuing on like that, I decided to slow it down to make sure I didn't burn out too fast. It was really hot and humid (shocking for Houston, I know), but the course is very flat and shaded. It's a nice out-and-back route down the main street of one of the older neighborhoods. It's really a nice little run.
The big deal this year, however, was that for the first time ever my wife Karen joined me. We have a "couple" friends who have been trying to run for a while, and they encouraged her to join us. It made it a lot more fun. I was very proud of her for doing the race, and at a pretty decent pace as well.

Even though they all run at a much slower pace than me, it was great to be there to cheer them on when they made it to the end. It's also nice to have people to hang out with afterward. Usually, I'm by myself so I just grab a banana and head on back home.

Race for the Pennant 5K

2010-06-01T07:49:00.002-05:00

This past weekend I ran my second 5K for this year, and I wasn't too pleased with the results. They're not bad, I know, but they weren't as good as I was expecting.

The Race for the Pennant is the laughable title of this run, since it is co-sponsored by the Houston Astros and finishes inside Minute Maid Park. Since the Astros seem to be already eliminated from the real pennant, I wasn't too worried about winning this one either.

My stats:

Time: 27:36 Pace: 8:55/mile
Overall position: 676 out of 2437
Men's 40-44 position: 55 out of 123

Compared to my last run, my time is only one second different, but my placement is completely different. My overall position is about 100 spots higher than the total runners in that last one.

I'm also disappointed that my time this year is about 16 seconds slower than it was for the same race last year. That isn't a big difference by any means, but during the run I really felt like my time would be better.

I have another run coming up this weekend, so we'll see how I do on that one. It's a flat course in the shade, so that should help. I'm also planning to really push myself more training this week than I usually do.

Game Themes: The Response

2010-05-27T11:05:00.016-05:00

Warning

For those of you who read my blog but don't care about boardgames (or especially game theory), you may want to give this post a pass. It's rather long, and it covers some pretty niche subject matter.

For those of you who came to my blog for this article but are looking for more discussions of boardgames, tough luck. I've linked to several great ones, but this isn't specifically a gaming blog, and I've rarely posted about games here. However, I might have to change that for the future.
Okay, so, only the die-hards are left, right? Great! Let's get this show on the road!

Where to Begin

First and foremost, if you haven't heard Mark Johnson's original podcast from Boardgames To Go, you need to listen to it before continuing. I don't want to rehash everything we said there; I'd rather concentrate on the comments we received online.

But I do want to level the playing field a little by mentioning some basic tenets of the discussion:

All games are abstractions.
Some games have strong themes.
Not everyone agrees on which ones.

These were the three basic ideas which got me started thinking about this whole Theme as Narrative/Theme as Metaphor discussion. To me, that last statement meant there was something wrong. Clearly, not everyone agreed on what constituted "theme." We needed a better definition of what "theme" really meant. My idea was to divide theme into two separate categories or qualities. The important thing to remember here is that it is just my opinion, my outlook. It is not based on any scientific data other than my own observation, which is clearly tainted by my perspective.

Meta-Gaming

Before we go any further, I want to make a little aside to talk about my perspective. There are two things which I am pretty biased about which will come into play frequently in this discussion: cards and dice.

I read a wonderful book many years ago full of pop philosophy about post-modernism and metaphysics. It's called Reality Isn't What It Used to Be, and you can pick it up used for pennies on Amazon. I recommend it for a thought-provoking read, though I wonder if it now reads as dated or prescient.

Anyway, at one point in the book the author talks about how "meta" money is in the modern world. It began as pure barter and trade, my cow for your chickens. Then as gold and silver became valued, coinage could "represent" the actual commodities, thereby becoming "meta." Later, we developed paper currency, which represented the gold and silver, making it meta-meta. Now, we have credit cards and electronic payments in which case money is now meta-meta-meta! We have no trouble understanding all these levels of meaning for money. We just accept it and take it for granted (I have no doubt the author said it much better than I).

My point is, that's how I feel about cards and dice. They are so common as game mechanisms/mechanics that we don't think about how meta they are. (I actually had all of this in my notes for the podcast, but our conversation strayed, as good conversations often do.)

If you want randomness or luck in your game, dice are perfect. Want to change the odds? Go from 6- to 10- to 12- to 20-sided dice and beyond. Want to change the outcome? Use modifiers to add or subtract from the total. You can roll multiple dice or roll multiple times. Dice are incredibly flexible and useful in so many ways.

Cards, to me, represent choice. Yes, there is certainly still randomness and "luck of the draw," but having a hand of cards mitigates that. Most people think of cards only in the standard four-suited, 2-10, J, Q, K, A variety. But for those of us in this hobby, we know how much more they can be. Cards can represent anything! They can be actions you can perform, they can be places you can travel, they can be goods you can trade.

My point is, whenever I see cards or dice in a game, that's already one level of abstraction, of "meta-"phor.

Use Your Words

So, as I said before, in my mind, theme is divided into two types, which I labeled "Metaphor" and "Narrative." I don't remember exactly how I described the difference in the podcast, but apparently I did a pretty poor job. Most people who commented disagreed more with the terminology than with the concept.

Over on Boardgamegeek, Mark Johnson started a poll to get his listeners' take on how games ranked in each category. Although the poll may have been misguided and not particularly helpful, the open forum discussion was great. I tried to address some of the questions, but I don't feel I did a very good job. Anyway, I want to quote how I described the difference there:

"I can think of many other ways to express what I was thinking. Theme as Story Telling and Theme as Learning Tool; Goal-oriented and Task-oriented; What and How.

When I say, 'The goal of this game is to make your palace the most beautiful by hiring the best craftsmen, artisans, and materials available'-- That's narrative.

When I say, 'You need money to buy materials (represented by these cubes), which can be refined by craftsmen (exchanged for different cubes), and then put in your palace by artisans (exchange particular cube sets for cards of value)'-- That's metaphor."

Those may not be perfect explanations either, but I just wanted to call attention to the simplified definitions. Narrative is what you are trying to do. Metaphor is how you go about doing it.

Most people had problems with my use/definition of Metaphor. However, I want to call attention to Eryn Roston's fantastic post on his blog, The Magic Circle. He is one of the few people who really got what I was trying to say, but had a problem with the Narrative aspect of it. He clarified it very well like this:

"If Pettit's theory is to remain useful it needs further clarification. The narrative theme is ultimately the game's story and a story is based on the actions of it's characters. The narrative theme is not only the game's setting, but it's the actions afforded to the players within the course of play. If we accept that that narrative theme is not only "what this game is about" but also "what the players can do", we have a much more concrete way evaluating it, AND it can remain independent of metaphorical theme. It becomes a more powerful tool for evaluation."

I like that a lot, and not just because he used the phrase "Pettit's theory."

However, like I said, most people had difficulty with my concept of metaphor. Chris Norwood tried to help me out with a post on his blog, GamerChris, in which he helps to redefine them:

Theme as Metaphor - a schema involving some out-of-game situation on which play is based. The degree to which knowledge about this schema will translate into understanding of the game determines the strength of the theme.

Theme as Narrative - the ability for play to create a story. The degree to which this story is compelling and memorable determines the strength of this theme.

I like both of these definitions as well. His phrase "out-of-game situation" leads me back to a comment made on the BGG poll by Snoozefest:

"So you're saying that for these games, the mechanisms don't relate well to reality?"

At first, I really didn't like that comment, and I replied in a rather snarky way (my apologies). However, the more I thought about what he was saying, the better I could understand what he meant. By the way, Snoozefest also has a cool podcast in which he "splains" rules to games.

What I finally concluded was that I was using the wrong words. Instead of "High" and "Low" metaphor, I really should be talking about "Appropriate" and "Inappropriate." Metaphors all relate to reality. That's pretty much what they do. But are the mechanisms appropriate to the actions they represent?

This particular discussion came up because of Twilight Struggle. To me, because of my bias towards cards explained above, choosing from a hand of cards to determine events is a very poor metaphor for performing actions at home and abroad to spread your political agenda. In reality, how would you know the outcome of events before you did them? How could you choose between events to make sure they occur in the right order? Don't get me wrong, I love Twilight Struggle. But I just think the metaphor is very weak, or to use the proper term, "inappropriate."

My friend Steve Bonario, who is part of my weekly game group, added this comment to the discussion:

"I like the concept of narrative as you discussed it in the podcast, but I prefer the axis of abstraction vs realism instead of metaphor, since all games are ultimately metaphors. And I don't think theme lies on the same axis as narrative, it's more of a separate 'property' of the game. I would put mechanical as the adjective on the other end of the axis from narrative. (A game like Hearts is almost purely mechanical; a game like Werewolf almost purely narrative; and theme is separate from both.)"

That's a good observation, and it leads me pretty well into the next topic I want to discuss.

Axis of Evil

I ran some of this by Mark Johnson in an email last week. Although he is far too polite to actually say so, I got the impression he thought I was going over the deep end. To him, my talk about two axes and quadrants and all that other nonsense will do more to confuse the issue than clarify it. Nevertheless, I'm going there anyway.

In my mind, the scales of theme as Metaphor and theme as Narrative run perpendicular to each other. I'd put Metaphor vertically, with Highly Appropriate at the top, and Very Inappropriate at the bottom. On the horizontal Narrative axis, I'd have Low (or pure Actions) on the left, and High (pure Storytelling) on the right. In my mind, this is all fairly clear. Unfortunately/Fortunately, the rest of the world doesn't live in my mind.

Again, back to the BGG poll, Frank Feldman put together this graphic:
It's not perfect (I don't like how he labeled the quadrants at all), but it's pretty much what I envisioned. Snoozefest commented that if all games fell basically upon that red line, then there really shouldn't be quadrants. He suggested moving the axes to produce a graph like this:

Now this one I didn't like at all. I was having trouble articulating why, until Snoozefest and Frank started talking about the 0,0 point on the axes, and the concept of "negative theme" on the first graph. Then it all became clear to me.

As I said at the beginning of the podcast, all games have theme, it's just a matter of degree. All games have both types of theme, just to varying degree. So instead of thinking of the grid as numbers (+5 x -3), try thinking of the grid as colors:Left to right is our old friend Roy G. Biv, and up and down is Black and White. No one would deny that any place on the grid isn't a color. The same should count for themes. The whole grid is theme, but they have different amounts of story and mechanisms.

So, a challenge I set for myself was to try to think of games that fell all over the grid. There are sections that are pretty sparse. Does this mean that my theory is wrong? Not necessarily. It could just be that games are better, more popular, stick around longer, if they fall into certain parameters.

If we say that a "Highly Appropriate" metaphor/mechanism relates very closely to reality, and an Inappropriate one does not, and a "Weak Narrative" means just basic, unconnected actions and "Strong" means a full story arc, what games can we describe?

Top Left: High App., Weak Narr.: This is the hardest one. I basically came up with Charades. Your actions are very similar to reality. However, the story of the game is to just guess clues to get points.

Bottom Left: Inapp., Weak Narr.: Almost all "abstract" games would fall here. Your actions don't represent anything, and the story is basically do what is necessary to win. Something like Yahtzee scores a little higher on metaphor simply because you are supposedly making Poker hands (which is funny, considering how "themeless" poker is).

Top Right: High App., Strong Narr.: This is the sweet spot. This is where you want your game to be. Let's say Reef Encounter.

Bottom Right: Inapp., Strong Narr.: This is where there's considerable debate. To me, Twilight Struggle would be here. Another perhaps more acceptable entry would be Tales of the Arabian Nights.

I'm going to end this right here for a couple of reasons. 1) I can't remember everything else I was going to write, and 2) I'm really late for game night!

The whole point of the podcast was to spark discussion, and on that point at least, I think we succeeded. I just love to think and talk about board games, so thank you all for indulging me.

My Father's Health, Part 1: Chronology

2010-05-13T10:07:00.004-05:00

When I started these posts/essays about my father's health, it was absolutely not my intention to just run in reverse order. I thought I would post new things as they occurred (like a Part 5), then jump back to old things when I could. The order could have easily been 4, 5, 3, 6, 1, 2, depending on what I felt like talking about.

Instead, it seemed easier to incorporate current issues with their past precedents, and that's worked out pretty well. Now, however, I have several new things to write about, and I just don't feel like it. Also, this one should be pretty quick, so I can finish up this backwards look and continue going forward.

I mentioned in one of my earlier posts that I believe we teach history wrong. Usually, it's a dry memorization of facts, historical timelines, and biographies. It wasn't until I was long out of school that I discovered I actually really like history. The way the subject had always been presented, though, had been a barrier to my enjoyment of it.

I could easily write a whole post on this subject, and hopefully someday I will. But for now, let me just break my idea down to the basics. History should be taught in reverse.

I don't understand why this isn't obvious. That's the way history is written; that's the philosophy behind how it is studied; why isn't it taught that way too? History is a series of connected events with causal relationships. When looking back at the past, we are always asking, "What was the cause of this effect? Why did this happen?" If we started students with right now, we could show them how things came to be the way they are. And yes, there can be multiple causes, and different opinions, and all of that stuff. But by following these causal threads in reverse, it actually breeds more questions and encourages thought and curiosity. History should be thought of in terms of "Why", not just in terms of "What." Barack Obama was elected President. In the old way, this was the end of the lesson. In my version, it would be the beginning. Why was he elected President? Why was it considered significant? What led to it happening? James Burke did a similar thing with his fantastic show Connections. Looked at this way, history can be fascinating.

So, another question: What does any of this have to do with my father's health?

Because my Dad's diagnosis was a similar, backwards-looking investigation.

Now that we have all the facts, we can put it in the proper order. While it was happening, all the doctors were grasping at small pieces of the whole. It was like that old saying about five blind men describing different parts of an elephant.

Here's how it breaks down:

Many years ago, my Dad had prostate cancer. The prostate was surgically removed, but they followed up with some radiation treatment to make sure.
The radiation treatment damaged his bladder, though we weren't aware of it.
Slowly but surely, his bladder started to fill up with blood clots. As this happened, it lost effectiveness and started building up excess fluid.
As the excess fluid built up, it caused a back up in the kidneys. Slowly but surely, the kidneys fell further behind cleaning out his system, and started to fail. The fluid continued to build up.
My father was getting weaker and weaker, but he just attributed it to getting older.
As the fluid continued to build up, it started to spill over into his lungs. His lungs had to work harder, so the passageways grew to accommodate more air.
With the larger passageways, he started aspirating (which is when you drink something and it goes into your lungs instead of your stomach), which of course made the problem worse.
My Dad starts to experience shortness of breath, and that is what sends him to the doctor. He went to his cardiologist to talk about his difficulty breathing. It was only after many tests and many specialists that this whole timeline was revealed.

Was there a way that this chain of events could have been detected and intercepted before things got to this stage? Surely. I don't know if we should look to blame the doctors at his regular check ups, or my father for not paying enough attention to his own body. Somebody, somewhere, wasn't reading the signs properly.

But that's just the thing about history, too. When you're in the moment, how can you know if an event is significant or not? Will this pain lessen or increase? Should I go now, or wait a couple of days? Obviously, you can't know. The lesson I will try to take from this is just to be more aware.

Game Themes

2010-05-10T09:56:00.003-05:00

Greetings, everybody. This is just a quick note to let you know that my episode is up!

I recorded this show with Mark Johnson for his Boardgames To Go podcast a couple of months ago when I was in L.A. for a small get together. In it, we discuss my distinction between "theme as narrative" and "theme as metaphor," my way of describing how a theme can impact a game.

I haven't finished re-listening to it yet, but so far it sounds better than I remembered. I hope it will generate a lot of discussion and feedback. Give it a listen!

Rise & Shine 5k

2010-04-25T14:29:00.005-05:00

Well, I've completed my first 5k of the season. This is also the first one I've run since I injured my hip at the Thanksgiving Turkey Trot. The cold weather, the injury, and dealing with my father kept me from running in all of December and January, and I've only slowly gotten back into the habit over the last few months.

My pace and running ease aren't where they were before my running break, but I'm glad I'm finally getting the desire to run more frequently. Taking any time off from exercise can be brutal to your ability to get back into it. I realize that running 5k (3.1 miles) isn't much, but I don't think I'm cut out to be a distance runner.

Anyway, the Rise & Shine 5k was sponsored by some companies downtown, and a friend of ours works for one of those companies. In order to boost participation, his company paid the entry fees for employees, friends, and family. That was even better incentive.

So, here are my stats:

Time: 27:37 Pace: 8:55
Overall position: 182 out of 591
Men's position: 135 out of 296
Men 40-44 position: 12 out of 24

Just for comparison, the race leader won with 16:43.

Lately, my runs have been averaging around the 26-27 mark, so I'm not surprised or too disappointed in that time. However, my best 5k from last year was the Turkey Trot at 24:20! I was really hoping that the adrenaline of the race would kick me up to around 25, but I guess not.

I have two goals to achieve in a race this year, and reaching either of them would be great. I'd like to get my time back under 25:00 again, and/or I'd like to finish in the top 100 overall. The former is probably more likely than the latter, unless I can continue to find more small runs like this one. Usually, the total runners are about three times this amount.

Lastly, and I promise to complain about this only once, but get the walkers out of the way! I don't know why this bothers me so much, especially considering it happens at every single race. But seriously. If you know you're going to be walking the 5k, or even just barely jogging, that's absolutely fine. But please, please, please start at the back of the runners! Please keep to the right side of the course. Please don't line up four or five abreast and link arms. I don't feel confident or fast enough to deserve to be up at the very front of the starting line, but I am just sick of having to dodge so many people during the first mile. And yet, this happens at every single race, so you'd think I would have accepted it by now.

My Father's Health, Part 2: Nephrology

2010-04-20T11:47:00.002-05:00

Nephrology is the branch of medicine that deals with the kidneys. It is not the study of dead people, which is what I always think of when I hear it. That's necrology. Anyway, the kidneys are responsible for a lot of things that generally all relate to cleaning out your system. This means urine, blood, electrolytes, etc. Wikipedia has a pretty good page about it if you're interested.

My Dad suffers from kidney failure. The term "failure" had always given me the impression that it was an all-or-nothing proposition, but instead it is more a matter of degree. We have two kidneys, which is generally more than we need. This is what allows kidney donations and transplants. Also, when kidneys stop working, sometimes they just need a break to recover, after which they start right up again. In the mean time, patients with kidney failure get to endure dialysis.

In the simplest terms, dialysis is just hooking up to an artificial kidney three times a week and letting it do the kidneys' work for it. In some cases, this gives the kidneys the break they need to regain functionality. In most cases, this is a procedure that will continue the rest of your life. The process varies in length based on the individual, but for my dad it lasts about three and a half hours.

When he first began the treatment, he was still in the hospital and still suffering from dementia. Most of the time he was able to sleep through it, but on occasion he would become quite ornery and insist on leaving. Later, after he came home, we went to a local dialysis clinic (more on that in a minute). He needed constant supervision for the first month or so, but now he's able to handle it by himself. I spent many sessions with him trying to keep him distracted, and failing. His favorite pastimes seemed to be eavesdropping and staring at the clock, neither one of which is very conducive to passing the time.

He never believed anyone when they told him how long he'd been there, or how much time he had left to go. One time, I thought I would be clever and help him. I started a countdown clock with him at the beginning (while he was still lucid) for 3 hours, 30 minutes. An hour later, he's sure we've been there too long already. I showed him my watch, and without hesitation he said, "Yeah, see? It says we've been here 2 1/2 hours already." Of course he didn't realize the clock was counting backwards.

But all of that is behind him now. He still dreads dialysis more than anything about his current situation, but he's finally learned to accept it. It does help, after all, and cleaning out his systems had certainly helped his mental state.

But let me take a minute to describe the dialysis clinic. You might think that a facility designed to have out-patient medical procedures would be fairly nice. Sadly, that is not the case. First, it is located in strip shopping center where the corner anchor is a sports bar. When you enter the dialysis room, it looks like a blood clinic from the '50s, or, for those of you who fell on hard times in college, like a plasma donation center. There are several rows of green vinyl reclining chairs that would look more at home in a dentist office. TO compliment that look, on the right side of each of these chairs is a large metal crane arm, such as a dentist would use for x-rays. However in this case, the arm contains a small television instead of a camera. On the left side of every chair is the dialysis machine itself. This is an interesting contraption of contradictions. It is about the shape of a small refrigerator. It has two rotating dials on the front that circulate the blood in and out, and look almost like a reel to reel tape deck. Above that is a very high tech touch screen computer monitor. But in sharp contrast to the monitor, the very top of the machine there is a tri-colored lamp that beeps and flashes either red, yellow, or green depending on your status. I cannot describe this light well enough. It looks like something you'd be more likely to see on an end-cap advertising a special at Wal-Mart than on a medical device.

The television comes with headphones, and (if it's working) you can watch any of several broadcast shows. My Dad usually starts dialysis at 11:30. Do you have any idea what kind of quality television is on in the middle of the day? Even he can't stand watching it. My sister brought him a portable DVD player, and that has worked very well. He watches a movie for a couple of hours, and that really takes his mind away from the time.

There are other, closer dialysis places, and we're currently on the waiting list for one. However, I haven't toured it myself, so I have no idea if it is any nicer. At least this other one is next to a grocery store instead of a saloon.

Today I have been on the phone with a cardiovascular surgeon in order to set a date for my Dad to have yet another operation. This one is not as serious or invasive, and hopefully can be done quickly. I have forgotten the term, but they will insert a device in my Dad's vein to facilitate dialysis. Currently, he uses a catheter in his upper chest that was inserted at the hospital. Supposedly, with the intravenous method, it can shave an hour off of the dialysis time. So of course, my Dad was all for that, and I don't blame him.

One thing that has pointed out how different we are during his adjustment to dialysis is his preference for passing time. He loves to do yardwork, he likes to be active and productive. Even though he could (and did) sit on the couch and watch Fox News all afternoon, he can't stand just sitting and watching TV during dialysis. He doesn't care to read, either. I'm nearly the complete opposite. For me, this would be like a dream situation. I could sit in that chair three times a week and do nothing but watch movies and read? For three hours? Sign me up!

Of course, it's easy for me to say that from the outside. I know that the process is tedious and unpleasant, and it wipes him out for the rest of the day. Basically, the four days a week when he doesn't have dialysis are about the only times he feels as though he's really living. He has become stronger every day, walking frequently without even a cane, and yet every other day he has to be chained to this chair for hours to make him "better." It's interesting to me how our modern medical wonders still haven't made obsolete the phrase "the cure is worse than the disease."

Thrifting: Books

2010-03-31T13:54:00.005-05:00

I love going to thrift stores. This is a hobby I've had all of my life, starting with garage sales when I was a kid. I have a lot of thoughts about it; too much to put in one post, so I'll break it up into different topics that suit my fancy.

I also have a passion for reading. It astounds me that there are so many bookstores, since I rarely see a) anyone in them buying books and b) anyone out in the world reading books. I know there are readers out there, and perhaps they just do it in the privacy of their own home, but it still strikes me as odd that Barnes & Noble is able to stay in business.

Especially when you look at the cost of a new book! New paperbacks are $7.00! Here's where thrift stores are a godsend. I can't remember the last time I spent more than $3 on a book (and that was for illustrated hard-bound editions of Grimm's Fairy Tales and Hans Christian Andersen's Tales published in 1945). Of course, it's not just about the money. I could easily (and often do) pick up books from the local library. There's more to it than that.

The Thrill of the Chase

The best places to find cheap books are not necessarily the well-known places like Goodwill or Salvation Army (although they often have good selections). I much prefer the small, local church or community based thrift stores. They usually have many more books coming in, and often price books much less-- paperbacks for fifty cents, hardbacks for a dollar.

And that's where the fun comes in. If I want a particular book, I'll go to the library. But thrift stores are all about serendipity, patience, and the luck of the draw. You never know what you might find. I like to think I read a pretty wide variety of books, so I'm open to just about anything. Kon Tiki for 25 cents? I've heard of that, why not? Just yesterday I picked up The Magic Lantern, Ingmar Bergman's autobiography. Would I ever have thought to look for that in the library? Doubtful. Would I think to ask for it as a gift? Never. But to find it there for a buck was fantastic! I can't wait to read it. With it I also picked up Jude the Obscure, One Hundred Years of Solitude, and some goofy Star Wars book that I never would have paid more than 50 cents for.

The Mystery of Mysteries

The stores with the largest selections are usually very helpful and sort their books by subject: fiction, non-fiction, self-help, romance, and mysteries. Some have more categories, some have less, but all of them contain that last one. Those first few may seem self-explanatory, but let me explain what the thrift stores mean by "Mystery"-- everything else. Does it look serious or have the Oprah sticker on it? Fiction. Was it written by Tolkein or have "Star" in the title? Science Fiction. Other than that, it gets shelved in Mystery. Dan Brown? Mystery. Tom Clancy, Ken Follett? Mystery, mystery. Stephen King? Well, that's a tough one. Usually, it's in the "Stephen King" section, but if there isn't room, put it in Mystery. In order to overcome this Screwy Decimal System, you have to develop additional skills.

Judging a Book by Its Cover

After a while, you start to recognize patterns in books. I bet I could tell you the type of book, genre, and year of publication (within five years) just by looking at the spine. Big block letters? That's pop fiction, some sort of thriller. Soft cursive against a soothing background? That's "women's fiction." It's easy, really.

There are also books that are staples of every thrift store I've been to. And I'm not talking about the easy ones like some huge mass-market paperback that was printed a billion times. For example, I have yet to visit a book section that didn't have Franzen's The Corrections (a good book, by the way). Nine out of ten of them have Gutterson's Snow Falling on Cedars. What's with that?

On a different note, I have frequently seen book buzzards. I don't know what else to call them. These people must be reselling the books online or something. They come to the book section armed with some sort of hand-held scanning device, then proceed to pull every book off the shelf and scan the barcode. After looking at the results, they either toss it back or into their cart. This bothers me for a number of reasons. Obviously, they're taking advantage of the system and profiting from a charitable organization. Clearly, they aren't really readers. But lastly, it's the thought that my knowledge and skill at finding good or valuable books has been reduced to some piece of electronic equipment.

Take and Give

One last benefit of buying books at thrift stores is the ease of disposal. My wife liked to check books out at the library. Every time, she racked up a few dollars-worth of late charges because she didn't return them on time. I kept telling her I could have bought it for her for less. She's finally taken me up on that, and is now a convert. She give me a list of authors/titles to look out for, and it usually isn't long before I find it. She almost bought Deep End of the Ocean one day when I was with her, but I told her I saw it all the time. Two days later and one buck lighter, it was hers.

But my point is, with a used book you bought for a buck, you don't worry about things. If you spill beer or coffee on it (one is far more likely for me than the other), who cares? You won't have to pay the library anything. Did you start reading it and decide you hate it? No problem. Donate it back. You're only out a buck, and you gave to charity twice. I love to give books to my friends if I think they'll like them, and this way I never expect them back. Sometimes if I have a big enough stack of better than average books, I'll sell them at the Half-Price Bookstore and feel like I either made back my investment or earned some extra change.

I buy a lot more books than I'll likely have time to read, but that's a good thing as well. I have a strange private library of books that caught my eye. It's nice to know that when I'm in the mood for something different, I have a lot to choose from at the tip of my fingers.

Games Weekend

2010-03-25T13:01:00.002-05:00

Well, I had hoped to post periodic updates throughout the weekend, but alas, the hotel only gave me free wi-fi for one day. That seems silly to me, since it's probably one of the cheapest amenities they offer. I'd rather have that than cable any day. Oh well.

Anyway, over the past weekend I made a quick jaunt to California to visit with friends and play games all day. It has been an annual tradition for me since a little before I moved back to Texas. Unfortunately, since I no longer get the free vouchers from my sister, flying out for a weekend trip is not as economical as it used to be. Next time, I'll bring my wife and we'll stay a full week.

Most of my friends at this get-together compile a "dance card," which is just a list of the games they want to play. I rarely do this, just because my interests are usually not so specific. This year, I just wanted to play "games I've never played before" and "heavier" games, since those are types I don't always get to play at home. I succeeded pretty well at the former, but the latter was a little lacking. This time, it seemed that most people were more interested in playing much lighter fare. I won't bother listing all the games, but I will point out a few highlights.

Keltis: Der Weg der Steine - This was a quick, sort of random game based on Knizia's Keltis/Lost Cities boardgame. I liked the ease of play and how short the game was. Seemed to play well with any number.

Finito! - I actually didn't care for this one that much, but everyone else did so I played it a lot. It reminded me of Take It Easy!, another game that didn't go over well with my home group. Players each have their own board on which they are competing to place pieces in numerical order. Random draws determine which pieces, while a roll of the draw determines the spaces they can be placed. It was quick and easy, but not as engaging as I had hoped.

Liberté - This one certainly wasn't new, but it was definitely heavy. I was glad to give it another play, since it had been so long. The rules can be a little obtuse, but we managed to get through okay. The game itself isn't too hard, but seeing a winning strategy can be difficult. The game is set during the French revolution, and players make victory points by backing any of the three different factions. Your loyalties can switch at any moment (and can often contradict), allowing for a very dynamic game. I ended up winning by a single point, but I was just as surprised as everyone else.

Pandemic: On the Brink - This is an expansion to Pandemic, a game I really enjoy. I'm always leery of expansions because they so often add time and complication to a game without adding any fun. I tried this one on the recommendation of my friends, and it became an instant "must buy" for me. Although it does add complication, it didn't feel like it added any time. It allows for more players, as well as several different modifications to the original that can be mixed and matched to suit your mood. Best of all, it comes with little plastic petri dishes in which to store the virus cubes. How cool is that!?

Overall, I had a really good time and I'm glad I went. In addition to the games, I was able to record a podcast and visit In N Out Burger, which definitely made it worthwhile.

Games Weekend: Friday

2010-03-20T10:28:00.000-05:00

Great to be back in California, even if for a little while. Detailed recaps will follow when I return, but for now, here's a list:
Uruk
Keltis: Der Weg der Steine
Mow
Haagis
Finito!
Valdora
Power Grid: Portugal
Metropolys
Tumblin' Dice

Not a huge list, but several "new to me."

Today I'll be recording an episode of the BGTG podcast with Mark Johnson, then a bunch more games!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPod Touch

My Father's Health, Part 3: Urology

2010-03-18T16:56:00.003-05:00

So, my Dad's health has improved steadily since he was released from the hospital. He is slowly getting his strength back, and is able to walk (short distances) with the aid of a cane. His mental facilities are gradually improving as well, although he still has trouble remembering what day it is.

Last week I accompanied him and my Mom to the urologist's office for a check up. A great deal of the work he had done over his extended stay in December and January was due to his bladder.

For a quick lay-person's explanation, think of the bladder like a balloon. As it fills with urine, it expands. After a while, the muscled walls of the bladder contract to expel the excess fluid. Unfortunately for my Dad, his wasn't quite working right.

Many years ago, he had his prostate removed due to cancer. It's very common for men of a certain age to get prostate cancer. Some say that all men get it, it's just that something else kills them first. Anyway, after having it removed, they later went back and did some radiation treatment to make sure the cancer was gone. This is something I've recently learned that they no longer do. Good thing, since that procedure seems to be what caused all of my father's problems.

His bladder had stop expelling fluid. After an exploratory surgery (December), they discovered a large amount of blood clots in the bladder. It seams that the radiation had residual effects which caused the scarring and clotting in his bladder. As this built up, his bladder continued to stretch out, but had trouble restricting again. So, a surgeon went in, literally scooped out the blood clots, and sewed his bladder back shut.

Sadly, he didn't do a very good job. A week or so later, my Dad is in a different (better) hospital repeating the surgery. There were other errors as well, but I won't digress into them now. The point is, my Dad's bladder was finally cleaned out, urine was flowing as expected, but the "balloon" had been stretched out so much, it would likely never function properly again.

So, if you don't have a functioning bladder, how do you get rid of the fluid? I'm glad you asked! Boys and girls, let me introduce you to a word: catheter. Doesn't sound so bad-- like kitty cat, but with a soft ending. Basically, a catheter is a very benign object. It's simply a tube inserted through an orifice to drain or insert fluids. My Dad has a catheter in his torso to facilitate dialysis. But there are types of catheters. For example, be on the look out for the "Foley" catheter. That doesn't sound too bad. Dave Foley, the guy from Kids in the Hall, right? Sadly, no. A Foley catheter is inserted up one's urethra directly to the bladder to allow it to drain. Except the urethra is in a man's penis. I apologize if this is too graphic, but I assume we're all adults here.

My Dad has had to endure several Foley catheters. For that alone he deserves respect. This time, however, they were going to do something different: a supra-pubic catheter. This one is a minor surgery that makes an incision in your lower abdomen and sticks a tube straight into the bladder. No muss, no fuss, just a tube going down your pants leg leading to a bag of pee.

And finally, we're caught up to the present day. Since leaving the hospital, my Dad has had this tube and bag contraption attached to his abdomen. He was scheduled for a follow up to see if they could remove it, but it so happens that the night before his appointment, he accidentally pulled it out during the night.

Now, to me, this is inconceivable. How could anyone with a tube sticking directly in an organ through a hole in your flesh, pull it out? And not be bleeding, crying, screaming, killing your way to the hospital? But, I guess I just don't understand.

Anyway, we go to the urology doctor to talk about it. We were expecting it to be removed about now anyway, so maybe this is normal. Doc says, "Sure, no problem. The hole seems to have closed properly, let's just go back to a Foley." I'm sure all men reading this can imagine the look produced on both my and my Dad's face at the sound of that.

So the doctor tries to put in a Foley. Right there. In the office. Dad is very, very uncomfortable, but far too polite to use the sailor language I was formulating. The doctor stops. "Hmm," he says, "that's odd. Let's take a look." This is always fun, because doctors have so many ways to "look" at things.

First, they do a sonogram. Don't try the "Is it a boy or a girl" routine here, guys. They've heard it and don't appreciate it. So, using radar to look at the bladder, they see that it is full, but not too full; meaning-- no emergency.

Next, they decide to do a scope (I don't remember the technical term), where they'll insert a camera and take a look at his urethra. A camera! In his pee pee! I ask the nurse if I should wait outside, and she says, and I quote: "No, it's really cool. It's just like a big balloon. You should stay and watch."

As a quick aside, I have to say that I've been blessed with not being squeamish about blood, guts, the human body, or any of that sort of stuff. This is basically the complete opposite of my older brother, who passes out at the mere thought of blood.

So, of course, I'm in.

The doctor and nurse do the necessary preparatory work. My Mom was kind of hoping to leave, but since I was staying she did too. My Dad was just beside himself, wishing it were all over, and regretting his decision to return to the doctor.

So, there it is. Live on a closed-circuit TV in crisp color, my Dad's urethra. Now, understand, I haven't seen the inside of my Dad's penis in almost 43 years, so my memory of it is pretty hazy. But basically, it's just a tube. As we try to reach the bladder, we hit a road block. Literally. It seems that since my Dad's surgery (and other issues), the scar tissue in his urethra has completely closed it off. That is why the Foley wasn't working.

This means that he has to get another supra-pubic. This means that he has to go to the hospital. Because of delays and wanting to keep him under observation, this means another overnight stay. This leads to more sundowning craziness, during which he pulls the catheters out (again) and requires another surgery, and another night in the hospital. So, what we thought was going to be a routine check up ended up being a three-day weekend stay at the hospital. I suppose it could have been worse, but that was bad enough.

He's home now, and better for it. He still has the tube running down his leg leading to a bag of urine, which isn't exactly "sporty." But we're hoping to get a different type of bag that is like a long tube that hides in the pants leg. Part of the problem is that my Dad's organs just won't commit to either working or quitting. Usually, when you experience kidney failure, you produce little to no urine and that is taken care of by dialysis. My Dad is producing some urine, but not a lot. On the positive side, that means there is still a chance his kidneys may regain functionality. On the bad side, he has to carry around a bag full of his own pee.

It is times like these that make you ponder what medical treatments will be available in 20 years. Will I have to have tubes and a bag of pee? Or will they just take a tissue sample and grow me a new bladder? Let's hope I live long enough to find out.

New vs. Old vs. Then vs. Now

2010-03-09T14:53:00.007-06:00

"The more things change, the more they stay the same." -Anonymous

or

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." -Ecclesiastes 1:9

The observation that movies and television recycle and reuse ideas is so well-known as to be a cliche itself. Some would argue that stories themselves can be broken down to 12 (or is it 9? I forget) basic narratives, but that's a topic for another day perhaps. I'll just accept it as a given that Hollywood is redundant. But what other observations can we make?

LOST vs. Gilligan's Island

I am by far not the first to make this comparison. As a matter of fact, here's an amusing little link to someone who spent too much time thinking about it already. It's made even more entertaining by the fact that it was written somewhere along Season 2. What other comparisons could be made now?

My real point with this comparison is the idea of episodic versus serialized storytelling. As a kid, I loved Gilligan's Island unabashedly. It was a daily afterschool rerun ritual. I loved the first season of Lost as well (I still watch it, but it is a vastly different show now). But in GI, every show was independent. You could watch them in any order. You knew everything you needed to know from the opening credits. You also knew that no matter what, everything would return to status quo by the end of the show. Lost made a deliberate effort against both of those statements.

Of course, it's patently unfair to compare a 60's sitcom with a 00's drama. Sure, the desert island theme is pretty timeless (especially in Lost), but other than that, they really have next to nothing in common.

BSG vs. Battlestar Galactica

The original was loosely serial. You still had the opening narration that let you know who the players were, what was at stake, why it was happening. But between each show, was there really any continuity? Did it really matter in what order they were watched?

The more recent incarnation was quite rigid. It's another show that I loved at the beginning, but gradually came to dislike. The essential problem with serialized narratives seems to come from the conflicting goals of story and commerce. Characters need to grow and change; some may even need to die, if the story dictates it. But fans, producers, actors, and advertisers like to have reliable sameness. "You can't kill off, Starbuck, she's the most popular character!" When characters who are expected to die don't, or worse, come back, I think it cheapens the story and deserves the derogatory comparison to soap operas.

Lost did a great job with this the first season. Most of the actors were relatively unknown (re: expendable), so the writers could get away with killing anyone. As the show grew in popularity, they had to bring in new people so they'd have someone to kill. This last season, they actually killed Locke, but brought him back as the Anti-Jacob just so Terry O'Quinn could keep collecting a paycheck.

Star Trek vs. Star Trek

The older I get, the more I love the original series (TOS). The plots were thought-provoking, yet simple. It dealt with ideas and concepts more than technology. The solutions were always understandable. You could watch them in any order, of course, and the relationships never changed.

Then look at Next Generation (TNG). Let's just ignore the first couple of dreadful seasons. They still tried to keep it the same every time, but it just wouldn't work after a while. Two-part episodes turned into minor themes or even season-long "arcs." Character choices often didn't make sense ("We've pulled out the captain's chair for Riker three times; he just won't sit down!"), except to maintain the status quo.

All the later Trek shows continued and expanded on this serial narrative. Deep Space Nine actually transforms itself through out it's run. Anyone watching the final episode without having an understanding of the whole narrative would be confounded (like I was).

Jon & Kate plus 8 vs. The Brady Bunch

Some would say that serialized storytelling is more like real life. Characters, just like the actors who play them, get older. Life changes things. People develop and grow, relationships come and go. One could even say that reality shows are a natural extension of the trend towards serialization. The spontaneity makes it fresh and (supposedly) unpredictable. Things change. Stuff happens that really matters. But with all the footage taken and edited down into an hour episode, is that really accurate? Besides, I think the reality shows aren't much different from live television variety shows from the early days, except they have less talented performers.

Law & Order = Dragnet

Thankfully for me, episodic television has not died completely yet. There are still plenty of shows that you can appreciate without ever having seen an episode.

Sadly, the whole point of this post when I conceived it was to talk about why that narrative shift may have occurred, and instead I spent all this time babbling about everything else. Oh well. Next time, perhaps.

The Future of Traffic Law Enforcement

2010-03-05T11:38:00.003-06:00

For a couple of years now, Houston has had "red light cameras" that take pictures of cars running red lights. Based on the license plate number, the driver is then mailed a citation and expected to pay the fine. I don't know how prevalent or numerous these devices are in other cities (and I really don't feel like doing any research), but I find the concept fascinating.

Obviously, a lot of people don't favor them. I suppose they believe that if an actual police officer didn't catch them in the act, then they should be allowed to get away with it. That's a very interesting ethical position to take: if I wasn't caught, then it wasn't wrong, basically. I could go on for paragraphs on just this aspect alone, but I won't.

But traffic law, for the most part, is pretty cut and dried, black and white. The light was red; you entered the intersection; you get a ticket. So the use of computers and automated cameras makes a lot of sense here. I'm sure there are plenty who still fight the tickets, but they're fighting against solid evidence and can really only make appeals based on "just cause."

Believe it or not (surprising even to me), I really like this concept and think it should (and will) be expanded. I've often seen digital speed limit signs equipped with radar to show you how fast you're really going. They're always temporary, I guess just to remind drivers that the police do know what you're doing. But why couldn't these signs have cameras as well? It doesn't seem like it would be too difficult to set up a system for stop signs as well. I think this is an inventive use of modern technology. Fifty years ago, it would have been impossible, but now you could have an automated post measure your speed (radar), take your picture (digitally, no film), time and date stamp it (computer), and send it to a central police hub (wireless Internet). That's impressive.

Will this happen? I think so. In the next five years, probably not. Ten? Probably.

But this idea can be taken even further, which is what I really like thinking about. How many cars today are equipped with rear-view video cameras? Some even have little radar sensors to tell you when you are nearing an object. And these aren't super luxury or concept car features; these were on the Ford Focus I drove a few months ago.

So, why not have driver-controlled cameras to report the bad/illegal behavior of other drivers? How many times have you seen someone driving recklessly on the freeway, too fast, weaving in and out of cars, and wished that they got caught. "Why isn't there ever a cop when you need one?"

But if you could report him yourself? Just move a joystick and take a snap, which is instantly transmitted to the police, maybe even including your geo-tracked location. This is all possible now. Sure, there are some kinks to work out. You'd have to make sure it isn't too dangerous/distracting to take the picture. There would have to be officers whose job would be to sift the reports to separate the wheat from the chaff, but that wouldn't be too hard. If you get five reports from five different vehicles in the same area at the same time, I think you should look into it. I think it might even cut down on road rage, in a passive-aggressive way. Don't like the guy tailgating you? Just take a picture and report him. He pays a fine and you feel good about yourself. That's much better than slamming on your breaks and risking gunfire.

In small tribal communities, they don't have police. That doesn't mean they don't have crime or wrong-doers, but just that it isn't the job of one person to correct it. The community as a whole upholds the group ethic. If someone steals, rapes, or murders, everyone knows it. That person is most often shunned and/or kicked out of the community. As a community gets larger and wealthier, it can afford to have people whose job is more specific or abstract. Perhaps, as our society gets larger and communication gets so much easier, it will become more like the smaller communities. If we all police ourselves/each other for traffic violations, it frees the actual police to do the specialized work they are trained to do. If people knew that by cutting ahead in a long line of cars at an off-ramp they would get a dozen pictures sent and have to pay a fine, maybe they'd be more hesitant to do it.

It all sounds very Orwellian, and that fascinates me as well. The oppression in 1984 came from the government, of course, but it was enforced by the people. Big Brother wasn't so much the camera as the person looking through the lens.

Anyway, I think it's coming. Probably not in ten years, but in twenty? Thirty? Who knows.

Seriously

2010-03-01T11:01:00.004-06:00

So, I haven't posted for a while, but unlike usual, it wasn't due to laziness.

Two weeks ago, a very close and dear friend of the family passed away quite unexpectedly. Fred Griesbach was 80 years old, but he was in better shape than most men 20 years younger. He was full of life, extremely kind, and a friend to all who knew him. I've known him almost all of my life, and I will certainly miss him.

I was hesitant to write anything about his passing. I was worried that my tongue-in-cheek (but 100% true) eulogy for my Jeep would cheapen anything else I wrote here. In truth, he probably would have laughed in support over that post. He was one of the first to console me for my loss.

Yesterday I was visiting with my family. I had a big bottle of St. Bernardus Abt. 12 that I had bought specifically to share with Fred (we shared a passion for beer). Instead, I poured it among my family and offered a toast. Not five minutes later, Fred's daughter Sally called. We immediately invited her over to share our lunch, and again we toasted her father. It was a good day. We ate barbecue outside, my father got some exercise and sunshine, and we all laughed and shared stories of Mr. Griesbach. I think that's exactly how he would have wanted it.

Ich möchte einen Toast auf Frederick Griesbach ausbringen!

Dem Leben sind Grenzen gesetzt, die Liebe ist grenzenlos.

Prost!

Cool Juggling!

2010-02-11T22:00:00.001-06:00

Eulogy for Zoe

2010-02-10T12:10:00.008-06:00

What can you say about a 12-year-old car that died?

On December 21st, my dear and trusted companion Zoe, my 1997 White Jeep Wrangler, was taken from me in an auto accident.

Here is the last picture I took with her, as we brave the snow(!) on the Houston freeways in early December.

I had run around with other cars before, but I'm proud to say that I was Zoe's first. We had an instant bond that kept us together through good times and bad. I remember clearly in the early days of our relationship, not to get too personal, how I would give her a sponge bath once a week. Of course, as we grew accustomed to one another over the years, those indulgences of our youth slipped away.

She was always a shameless flirt, though. She just loved to run around topless! And hey, who was I to say no? I enjoyed it as much as she did, flaunting ourselves around town, basking in the sun on every inch of our bodies. It was divine. There were times when I would be feeling down, and just a quick cruise around with her would completely lift my spirits. She really had that affect on me.

Of course, she loved Los Angeles! She fit right in! It was such a joy to be in a city that when you look around, there's actually something to see in the distance. Plus, Zoe didn't feel as self-conscious about having her top off out there. It was almost expected of a car of her beauty. She would go like that for months at a time.

We had our share of bad moments, too. There were a few times when I had left her in a bad spot and vulnerable. She get picked up by some stranger and end up taken somewhere unpleasant. I know it shamed her to be treated that way, but I was always there to spring her out as early as possible the next morning. I always felt responsible, as if I had driven her to be somewhere she shouldn't.

But most of the time, things were great! We had a lot of great trips together, and drove to some wonderful and beautiful places. She wasn't afraid to go off the beaten path and get a little dirty. She was more adventurous than I was, at times.

I remember one time, in the first couple of years that we were together, we had a very unusual experience. She was waiting outside for me while I was hanging out with some friends. Some local hoodlums drove by and assaulted her. That would be terrible, were it not for the silliness of it. When I came out, I saw her covered in flour tortillas!? A couple of eggs had been thrown at her, but she dodged them and even managed to catch one without breaking it. It was a strange, humorous, and memorable evening that we talked about for days.

But, she was getting older. The last few years had not been kind to her, including multiple health issues that seemed to compound every year. She kept her positive attitude and high spirits, but I think even she knew she wouldn't be around forever. She'd had a lot of work done to keep her looking good and running with the younger crowd, but there are some natural aspects of aging that just can't be fixed.

She had a long life, lived well. She was with me and supported me through good times and bad. She was my constant companion and friend. I will miss her greatly. My Jeep, Zoe.

42 Up!

2010-02-03T18:49:00.002-06:00

I'm a little behind on my posting this week, so I may actually try to do more than one post a day to make up for it. We'll see how I feel about it tonight.

Well, my birthday has come and gone. As always for me, birthdays are a time of reflection. You may have noticed that I've been posting to my blog more frequently than usual. That's not exactly a New Year's resolution, but I was motivated by something I read on my friend Mischa's blog (I can't find it right now, else I would link to it). He's participating in some blog-o-thon or something, where you must write on your blog x amount in so many days. It's based on the NaNoWriMo idea for writing a novel in 30 days. Anyway, for some reason, just seeing his post made me determined to up my contributions this year.

I'm not one for resolutions at the New Year. As a matter of fact, I hate New Year's; it's easily my least favorite holiday. However, I do go through almost the same ritual when it comes to my birthday. It seems more personal to do it then. I have a lot of things on my "to do" list this year, most of which probably wouldn't really count as resolutions anyway. But one of them is to blog more, and so far I'm not doing too badly. I should really do these early in the morning when my mind is fresh.

Anyway, this was my 42nd birthday, which seems pretty huge. Part of the problem with having a youthful outlook like I do is that I often forget how old I really am. Not that I mind, really, it's just interesting/sad.

I have heard a theory (I don't know the source), that everyone changes every seven years. The reason behind it is that is how long it takes all the cells of your body to regenerate. So, after seven years, you are literally a different person because all the old cells have died and been replaced with new ones. I don't know how much I buy that idea, but it certainly has proven interesting for me. Of course, it may just be coincidence that every seven years a person reaches a certain plateau or milestone-- school, life, awareness at seven, puberty at 14, drinking at 21, optimism and enthusiasm at 28, full-fledged maturity at 35, and now downhill at 42. That last one is a joke, folks. Had I married earlier, I could easily see my 40s as the age in which I embraced parenthood. I still look forward to that, but time is not exactly on our side.

There is a fantastic series of movies that fits right in with this notion. Documentary filmmaker Michael Apted follows a group of young children in Britain. The Up Series was originally meant as a study of how class affected the attitudes and aptitudes of British children born in the 60's. However, on his own, Apted has continued the project every seven years. He catches up with as many of the children as are willing to talk to him, and continues to document their lives. The most recent one was 49 Up.

I highly recommend this series to everyone. Don't be intimidated or think that you need to come in at the beginning. Each film is readily accessible. Yes, there are rewards from seeing all the films, but the order is not important and in fact, sometimes it can be fascinating watching an older film (35 Up, for example) when you already know what's in store for the characters.

So, here's hoping that the coming seven years (and more) prove as interesting as the last, and that I'm still here to report on life and everthing at 49.

Holy Toledo!

2010-01-29T14:57:00.006-06:00

Well, I had an entirely different post planned for today, but circumstances have changed. That's all right, I still had some photos to locate for that one anyway.

So, you may remember that I was part of a nationwide competition to win/promote the new Ford Fusion. It was called Fusion 41, and there were eight teams of five members. The team leader was invited to the contest because she had purchased one of the first Ford Fusion Hybrids, and if our team won, Ford would pay off the rest of the car. Everyone else on the winning team would get free gas for a year. Plus, every person in the competition would be put in a drawing to win their own Fusion.

Well, we didn't win. We came in third, which isn't too bad. They gave us a car for the competition that we had to do all sorts of crazy tasks in and around as each member drove. It was fun, exhausting, frustrating, and exciting. You can see some of our videos on the Ford site and the Facebook pages.

Anyway, a couple of days ago I received an email from one of the marketing people. She thanked us all for our participation, and said a special present was on its way to each of us. Today, I received mine...

I got an iPod Touch!!!

I can't believe it! That's so cool! Sure, a phone might be nicer, but this is perfect for me right now. I can't wait to try out all the crazy gizmos and gadgets on it. My wife already refers to my iPod as my "girlfriend" because I have it with me pretty much constantly. Wait until she sees me with this thing!

My birthday is Monday; what a fantastic surprise present!

Running Again

2010-01-28T12:18:00.005-06:00

Woohoo, I ran again this morning!

Actually, I ran a little last week, but that hardly counts. This was my first regular three-mile run in over a month.

I had gotten pretty regular, running about four or five times a week. I was even starting to increase my distance to five miles. But then right around Thanksgiving, after I was in the local Turkey Trot 5K, I did something to my hip. It was pretty sore, and I limped for a good two weeks (or more) afterward.

I knew I had to take it easy to let my body heal, but I was afraid that taking so much time off would really break this good habit I was developing. I actually looked forward to running every morning. My pace was gradually getting better, and I loved tracking my stats on the Runner's World website log. I'm happy to say that although this morning's run was not one of my bests, I still managed a pretty good pace.

Although the injury was the primary reason for my lapse, I'll confess that I also hate running in the cold. I would have quit during the coldest mornings anyway.

Another plus, I took Flower with me again. I run a loop around the neighborhood that's about 1.5 miles. I always take her on the first lap, and take her around again if I'm in the mood to deal with her. She loves it, of course.

And speaking of the dog princess, she's racked up another kill. This one was a night kill, which I thought was pretty impressive. So, the squirrel population is down a total of three now. She's got her eyes set on a big opossum that sneaks around the yard at night. I'm not sure how I'll react if she gets that one.

My Father's Health, Part 4: Mentally

2010-01-27T17:46:00.004-06:00

No, you haven't missed the first three parts; don't bother looking for them. I decided to start with part four for a number of reasons:

The newest stuff is freshest in my mind
I'll be able to add new things without waiting until I've caught up with the old
I'm kind of tired of talking about the old stuff
I think we teach history wrong (the subject of another blog post someday)

The short recap is that my 76-year-old Dad (77 in two weeks) went into the hospital on December 5th, and didn't come out until January 20th. After multiple surgeries, most everything is on the mend. His kidneys are not likely to regain functionality, so he will probably be on dialysis for the rest of his life. He's also very weak and is barely able to get around on his own.

But what I want to talk about now is his mental state. It's a fairly weird and difficult subject for any son to describe the decline of his father's mind. I'm not sure if this post is intended as sharing, therapy, ranting, or what.

For a month before he went into the hospital, my Dad was showing some small signs of dementia. It was sporadic, but he would forget the date, people's names, that sort of thing. We took him to see a neurologist, but their scans showed nothing out of the ordinary for a man of his age. They just wanted to keep an eye on things.

Fast-forward a few weeks to when he's in the hospital, and it's a different situation. Everything combines to really mess with his head. The drugs he takes for his bladder, the anesthesia he has for the surgeries, the disorientation of being in a strange bed with a constant parade of strangers checking on you, they all interact and cause his dementia to really manifest. There's a common ailment among the elderly called "Sundowning," in which the patient can be perfectly normal during the day, but as soon as night comes, everything turns upside-down. This was my Dad to a tee. One nurse told me that he had a completely different personality at night, and I believe it. I spent several nights sleeping in his room, and I experienced him at his worst to be sure.

As he was in the hospital longer, it just got worse. Towards the end of his stay, he was almost completely incoherent or "confused" all day long. I say confused because that seems to be the preferred term used in the hospital. I don't know if it's a medical diagnosis or just PC. But the interesting thing was, he wasn't a raving loon. He spoke very rationally. The problem was that the reality he was in had no bearing on the reality the rest of us were in. There was one time he was convinced he was in Kennedy, Texas at a chemical plant he used to go to more than 20 years ago. He kept asking about specific people, could tell you all sorts of things about the plant, but he had no idea how old he was or what year it was.

Fortunately, neurologists took a look at him in the hospital and realized that there was something more going on than usual. They took him off of a bladder medication, and there was improvement almost immediately. The doctors were aware of the possible psychological side effects from the drugs, but they claimed it was a "necessary evil" in order to first cure his bladder. Unfortunately, they can't assure us that the damaged caused to his brain is reversible.

Ok, wow. That took a lot longer to get to the point than I thought. Oh, well.

Yesterday, I sat with my Dad through out his dialysis, which is about four hours. Normally, we can drop him off and pick him up when it's done, but that is no longer an option. The dialysis facility now requires someone to be there with him because he's started acting up towards the end of the session. It's just like the sundowning he was doing before.

My Dad's present condition is greatly improved. He knows what's going on, he remembers people, he can function pretty well. His long-term memory is great. However, he seems to have no short term memory. He has real difficulty remembering what day it is, and what he has done in the past few hours.

So, during dialysis, the first two hours go great. He's friendly and polite. He sits in the recliner, watches some TV, and often dozes off. But the last two hours, look out! Suddenly he believes that he's already been there for six hours. He insists he has to go. I have to talk to him constantly to tell him it isn't time yet. He doesn't believe me. He looks at the clock, but can't read it. I think he just makes up numbers, sometimes. He gets very angry at me, and complains that everyone is conspiring against him.

I thought I would be clever and use the timer on my watch to count down the four hours he was in dialysis. That way, he would have a constant clock showing how much time was left. Well, that backfired. When he looked at it, he forgot that it was counting down and read it as the time of day. "See!? It says 2:00! I've been here too long already!" It is very exhausting.

Later, once he's home, he calms down a bit. He gets very antsy and irritable about leaving, but once he's gone he's fine. He sleeps for a while, and forgets everything. He has no memory of complaining, arguing, or trying to get out of the chair. So the cycle starts all over again for the next time.

We are hopeful, however. The doctors tell us it can take three to six weeks for all the medication and anesthesia to leave his system. They'll do more tests on him in the future once they're sure he's clear, and then they can prescribe medicine to help his memory.

The hard part is facing the fact that he could be like this forever, or continue to decline. I have several friends who have lost their parents. My wife lost her Dad to cancer just seven years ago, and she's still not really over it. I have support when I need it. But the difference is, my father isn't actually dying. In some ways, I think that would be easier to deal with. Death is tragic and heart-wrenching, but it is also natural and inevitable. If my Dad just slowly lost his mind, his personality, his ability to function, but kept living for another 10 years, how would I deal with that? How would my Mom deal with it? These are questions that are easy to ignore when hypothetical, but very challenging when they hit close to home.

Nickels and Dimes, 2009

2010-01-25T15:07:00.008-06:00

Well, the last quarter of 2009 was pretty rough. I have a ton of posts I'm going to put up (yes, really), but I wanted to start with something a little more fun.

A big hobby of mine that I rarely mention here is playing board games. It's a niche hobby that grows every year, and one that I'm very excited about. I won't go into more detail here, because the three people who read this blog already know all about it.

Anyway, one of the things people in our hobby like to do is review the games they've played in the last year. This is similar to a movie review site's Top Ten Films of the year list, except here we list how often we played particular games, hoping this reflects how much we like a game. "Nickels" are the ones I've played at least five times, "Dimes" at least ten.

You may have noticed the widget on the right side that shows "Recently Played" games. That comes from Boardgamegeek.com, a board game site that allows me to log all of my plays. So, let's get on with it, shall we?

With 22 plays (just short of a quarter), Ingenious - or, as we call it, Einfach Genial. Specifically, the Travel Edition. This is an abstract tile laying game that I really like. This was one of the last major games that took a while to come out in an English version, which is why I still prefer to call it by the German title.

The main game plays from two to four players. Each plays hexagonal, domino-type tiles with colors and shapes on them. You get points for how long a line of the same shape you can make.
The travel edition is strictly two-player. The board is a smaller, plastic grid that allows the pieces to snap in. I bought this game when I went to Oktoberfest in Munich in 2006. I introduced it to a friend of mine on the trip, and I was stunned by how much he took to it and how often we played it in biergartens during the day.

So, if it's such an old game, why is it my most played game this year? Simple. My wife loves it. She is generally a good sport about my gaming habit. She enjoys the games I teach her, but for the most part she just doesn't get into it the same way I do. This one, however, is one of the exceptions. It became an almost weekly ritual to play a best-of-three tournament of this over Sunday breakfast. To be honest, I can't remember if I logged the games individually, or just one for each session. Either way, that's a lot of games.

Fortunately, we have both burned out on it a little, so it hasn't been played as much in the second half of the year.

Next up, with 20 plays, is Dominion. This one is a much newer game, released in 2008. Looking at last year's stats, I had only six plays, which I know is due to only having first played it in late November.

This is a great little card game that offers amazing variability and interesting strategy choices every time you play. Also, once everyone is familiar with the game, it can be played quite quickly. Almost every time this is played, we play it at least twice.

This game is on a lot of people's "Most Played" list, and I expect that to be the case for a while yet. It has spawned two expansions so far (both of which can also be played independently), and I'm sure more are to come. Many people play so often that they've put each card in an individual sleeve, much like baseball card collectors. I can see how this would prolong the life of the cards, but for me, give me that good old tactical feel of regular cards.

My last "dime" this year is Backgammon, with 11 plays. I won't bother adding a picture of this well-known classic. Again, I have to attribute this one to my wife. Those 11 plays are actually down from last year (16). However, they also represent sessions, rather than actual games. Karen and I play first to five series, using the doubling cube, and playing for a quarter a point.

Overall, I think I'm ahead in Backgammon because she relies too much on lucky rolls. However, we're pretty even on Genial.

My nickels this year are not very impressive. Last year, I had five different titles just at nine plays. This year, I only have eight total in all my nickels. This makes me sad, especially when you see what they are. However, I would like to believe that this means I've played a lot more different titles this year, and not as many repeats. I certainly hope that's the case.

10 Days in Africa - 8 plays
42 - 7 plays
Harry's Grand Slam Baseball - 6 plays
GiftTrap - 6 plays
Scrabble - 6 plays
Travel Blokus - 6 plays
Hey! That's My Fish - 5 plays
Kakerlaken Poker - 5 plays

As you can see, a lot of two-player games and many "lighter" games. These are not really my preferred games. But as I try to introduce new people to these games, I'm often put in the position of teaching simpler, family-friendly, casual games.

Fortunately, I do have a regular game group which allows me to get in some of the more heavier, "meatier" games I enjoy. Well, sometimes.

Once I figure out how to gather some of my other stats, I'll add them up here. I'm not really sure how many games I've played total, or how many unique titles I played.

UPDATE: Well, I figured out my other stats by the old fashioned method of "counting and arithmetic," as my friend Peter said. I had 354 plays of 173 unique titles. That's not bad. There were 101 games I played just once, and 40 games I played twice, which seems pretty good.

Flower 2, Squirrels 0

2009-11-17T20:30:00.005-06:00

This morning our dog, Flower, paid us the highest tribute she knew how: she left a dead squirrel on our doorstep.

This is actually the second squirrel she's caught, which I have to admit astounds me. I mean, I see her chase after the squirrels and bark up a storm every day. But even as fast as she is, I never expected her to actually catch one. And now she's caught two!

Karen, of course, was mortified. She screamed when she saw it, then ran back inside crying, "That squirrel had a family!" It was up to me to go out and congratulate Flower, give her some love and high-fives, then pick up and dispose of her trophy. I think she was pretty disappointed that I didn't bring it inside to make a stew.

I don't think I've ever mentioned Flower on the blog before, so let me take a minute to describe her.

She's part Catahoula and part Blue Heeler. So, Cataheeler or Bluehoula both work just fine. She's a mutt that Karen saved from the SPCA through her work at the Vet Tech Institute. She just turned two at the beginning of November. I tried to create a Facebook page for her, but it kept getting kicked out (I think because she's "too young").

She is also one of the most affectionate dogs I have ever known. If we're ever burglarized, I can only hope that the intruders are allergic to puppy saliva, as she is more likely to lick them to death than anything else.

She loves to run with me in the morning; she loves to ride in the Jeep; and, of course, she loves chasing squirrels. We're still working on her training, but she's coming along pretty well. She knows a lot of words, but unfortunately chooses to ignore them when she's not in the mood.

I'll post more about her in the future as the mood hits me. I just wanted to make sure I posted a little something about her latest kill. I'm kicking myself for not getting the camera in time. Next time, I'll be ready.

Digital Barbarism

2009-07-10T15:19:00.000-05:00

Digital Barbarism by Mark Helprin

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Mark Helprin is a novelist who wrote this screed in defense of copyright. His style is excessively erudite and pompous, with almost as many commas as nouns. Unfortunately, I agree with him. It would be so much easier to be turned off by his style and simply dismiss him as an ass.

In arguing for copyright, he branches into other more philosophic ideas like individualism versus collectivism. I found the book to be very interesting, but his voice was off-putting.

Apparently, this book originated from an Op-Ed article he wrote not long ago. It drew such a firestorm of criticism from people from all over the internet that he felt compelled to respond. Sadly, he comes across as a bit of a troll, except instead of responding to his detractors on the internet, he wrote a book about it (so that he can be verbose and get the last word in, I suppose). It amused and somewhat saddened me that an author would bother to quote and reply to some anonymous posters from the web.

In the end, I think the battle for copyright is an important one, and Helprin is literate, intelligent, and stubborn enough to keep up the good fight. I'm just glad I don't have to be in the same room with him while he's doing it.

View all my reviews.

Moby-Dick

2009-06-29T11:41:00.000-05:00

Moby-Dick by Herman Melville

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
I had heard good things about this classic from various people, so I thought it was time for me to give it a shot. If nothing else, I could claim to be well-read in classic American literature. Unfortunately, although it begins and ends very strongly, the middle is filled with long, dry passages which brought the book down as a whole for me.

It may be part of the style of writing at the time, but there are many, many chapters of the book that are devoted to describing the facts around whaling. There were many detailed chapters about whales themselves, the process of chasing and killing a whale, the tools used, the value of different parts of the whale, and the process of extracting those parts. Some of these were very interesting, but all of them distracted me from the actual narrative. It was only the infrequent interspersion of chapters about the characters that kept me going. One could probably just read the first and last 100 pages and get all the pertinent information.

However, I will say that the narrative passages were quite good. There were many interestingly drawn characters, vivid imagery, and beautiful, haunting dialog. I would most likely not recommend this book to most people, but I wouldn't dissuade someone from reading it either.

View all my reviews.

The Tipping Point

2009-06-15T14:49:00.001-05:00

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Yet another light non-fiction book basically centered around making new observation from gathered data.

I actually enjoyed the book, but there wasn't much meat to it. The anecdotes and conclusions were very interesting, and I can see how these observations could be helpful in future situations.

Unfortunately, I found several parts of the book were deliberately repetitive. Like the other Gladwell book I've read, Outliers, the whole book read more like a padded out magazine article rather than a serious book.

Still, it was informative and entertaining, and I would recommend it as a casual weekend read.

View all my reviews.

Oh My Stars

2009-05-26T11:54:00.003-05:00

What's in a rating? I use three different sites regularly that give me the opportunity to rate different things: Goodreads for books, Netflix for movies, and Boardgamegeek for games. I like rating things. The problem is that I always feel compelled to use the guidelines for these ratings, and that's where I have a problem.

Let's start with Goodreads. It's a great online community for book readers. It has a good interface, an extensive database, and a lot of active reviewers. I repost all of my reviews here on my blog. But when it comes to rating a book, their star system bothers me.

Here's the mouse-over text for each level of rating:

Didn't like it
It was ok
Liked it
Really liked it
It was amazing

First off, what if I absolutely hated the book? No option available. Secondly, there are three positive, one neutral, and only one negative option. In my mind, zero stars should be available for something you really hated. That wouldn't balance it out completely, but it would help. Also, how does one distinguish between a four- and a five-star book?

Here's Netflix:

Hated it
Didn't like it
Liked it
Really liked it
Loved it

This list is better because it offers two degrees of dislike. But the three star rating right in the middle is still positive rather than neutral. However, I like that the top rating is "loved it" rather than "amazing." Amazing just seems like a really high bar to meet, whereas "loved it" feels perfectly subjective.

Since neither of these offer "half stars," they're both scales of five. To me, ideally they should be two negative, one neutral, and one positive. But I can see how no one would see three stars as a neutral review.

But onto Boardgamegeek. Here, it's a scale of 10, using numbers instead of stars.

Defies description of a game. You won't catch me dead playing it. Clearly broken.
Extremely annoying game, won't play this ever again.
Likely won't play this game again although could be convinced. Bad.
Not so good, it doesn't get me but could be talked into it on occasion.
Average game. Slightly boring. Take it or leave it.
Ok game, some fun or challenge at least, will play sporadically if in the right mood.
Good game, usually willing to play.
Very good game. I like to play. Probably I will suggest it and will never turn down a game.
Excellent game. Always want to play it.
Outstanding. Always want to play and expect this will never change.

The main problem with all of these descriptions is the inclusions of absolute words like "always" and "never." How could anyone know what their tastes would be in a few years, or on a particular day?

In comparison with the other rating systems, this one is interesting because it seems to have three positives, three neutrals, and three negatives. That's pretty balanced, but the problem becomes choosing between similar pairs, like 3/4, 5/6, or 9/10. I have a friend who only uses even numbers to rate, thus reducing this to a scale of five. There are many others (myself included, I'm sad to say), who actually enter numbers like 7.5, turning this into a 20-point scale. I need to go through and fix all of those, though. No more fence sitting; if I like a game, I should say so!

Anyway, what was the point of this whole exercise? I'm not sure. I just find it interesting that something subjective like a rating has been given restrictive objective guidelines. This wouldn't be a problem at all if I could bring myself to just ignore the text and rate things how I want. Unfortunately, that would render my rating less meaningful for those who saw it and didn't know my personal scale. So I guess the lesson is: always read the actual review and not just the number of stars.

The Victorian Internet

2009-05-20T10:44:00.001-05:00

The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-Line Pioneers by Tom Standage

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Another shallow, quick, interesting read. I enjoyed this light history of the telegraph, and there certainly were interesting parallels with the Internet. However, there also seemed to be several gaps in the narrative.

For the most part, I liked how Standage simplified his description of the development and evolution of telegraphy. The early pre-electric history and problem-solving stories were particularly interesting. But with all the detail put into explaining some solutions, it was frustrating when he didn't do the same with others. For example, there were only a couple of sentences briefly mentioning how the problem of sending over great distances was resolved.

Overall, I'd still recommend it for anyone interested in communication in this time period. Like the other Standage book I've read, A History of the World in 6 Glasses, it is a great starting place likely to whet your appetite for a more in-depth book.

View all my reviews.

Outliers

2009-05-18T10:04:00.000-05:00

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
While it was definitely an interesting book with some unique ideas, overall I wasn't that impressed. Yes, there are some patterns that emerge from looking at previously ignored data, but what else can you tell me?

A friend of mine's father had a saying that "luck is nothing but preparation meets opportunity." I feel like that sums up this whole book pretty well. Gladwell takes care to explain why some people seemed to be in the right place at the right time, but other than observing these patterns, he doesn't seem to have much of a point.

The book is light and easy reading, however, and it probably sparks some good conversations. It probably would have been better suited to a long magazine article rather than a book.

View all my reviews.

Innumeracy, Again

2009-05-14T15:24:00.002-05:00

A lot of stupid things have been going through my head lately, and rather than encouraging me to post more often, it has shut me down.

First off, a shout out to my friend Mark Johnson. He posted the discussion we did a couple of months ago for his podcast. You can listen to it here: Boardgames To Go. It's a little over an hour long, and we talk about "classic" boardgames. We had a hard time coming up with a clear definition of a classic. We basically divided it into Ancient (Backgammon, Go, Chess, etc.) and modern (Monopoly, Scrabble, Risk, etc.).

I listened to it again soon after it was published. After I got over the never-ending shock of what my voice sounds like on tape, I was surprised by the amount of things we delved into. I'm pretty proud of it, and if you are into the boardgame hobby like I am, I think it's worth a listen. It was definitely thought-provoking, as evidenced by the numerous comments Mark has received already.

Speaking of numbers, let's talk about that for a bit. The other day I was out for lunch. When my debit card receipt came to me, it had "Gratuity Guidelines 15% = xx" at the bottom. This bothered me. Not because it was blatantly asking for a tip, nor because it was suggesting 15% (although those did nag at me a bit).

No, it bothered me because it removed the "burden" of a simple math equation from the customer. I used to think those credit card-sized charts were bad; this was ridiculous. Really? Is 15% that hard? 10% and half again. Halfway between 10% and 20%. Are we really that afraid of having to do math? This frightens me, actually. I know it is just meant as a convenience, but I can think of a lot better things that could and should be streamlined for convenience.

I'll use this as a segue to another thing that's been bothering me for a long time: the number 1,000,000,000. That's a billion. Do you know how much a billion is? Apparently, most people don't. A billion seconds is 31.7 years. A billion minutes is 1900 years. There's some pictures out there that show a pallet of money, I think it's about a million dollars. I don't feel like finding it. Then they show a CGI image of that pallet multiplied by 1,000 to get a billion. For some reason, the scale of a billion being a thousand times more than a million gets lost on people.

This was most evident when the budget was released (yes, this has been bothering me a long time). The budget was something on the order of $840 billion. Then pundits and opposers and politicians came out and decried parts of the bill that cost a few million dollars. Some even complained about a program costing $80,000. Now, if you had $840.00 to spend however you liked, how would you feel about being criticized for how you spent four cents? I'm not saying that four cents couldn't be wasteful, but seriously, let's put things in perspective here.

But because of the massive innumeracy of our country, people get away with stuff like that. People on both sides. A billion is too large for most people to grasp, so their brain freezes and they don't worry about it. By an odd reversal, a million seems a little more comprehensible, so people get outraged when a million is misspent.

I have no idea what the solution is, but it just irritates me how often I see bad math and bad science popularized in the media. Don't even get me started about statistics.

Reading, Writing, Drinking

2009-04-24T19:20:00.002-05:00

Agh, would you look at that. Three book review blog entries in a row. That's pathetic.

I have half a dozen or so posts that are still in the Drafts folder. I even have an essay I've been kicking around in my head for over a month now called "Why I Can't Write." Needless to say, I haven't written it yet. And I don't really feel like writing it now, although I do want to talk about it in a related way.

Part of my problem with this blog is that I don't really know what to do with it. That's been the case from the beginning. Is this a journal for my innermost thoughts? No. Is it a place for me to share ideas with friends? That would be nice, but most often I just email them directly. Is it a tool for me to hone my writing? Ideally, but clearly I'm not using it that way. So what am I doing (or not doing) this for? I don't know. Until I figure it out, expect continued sporadic posting and random ramblings. Like this:

So, the other day several people from my office went to a new bar down the street for happy hour. It's called Anvil, and it specializes in mixed drinks. That doesn't sound very unusual, and really, it isn't. There are plenty of bars around. But what I enjoyed about this place was the amazing knowledge and care that all the bartenders had for their craft.

The bar opened just five weeks ago and is owned and operated by a group of local bartenders. They are all passionate about spirits, and it shows. Every drink was made with meticulous detail, and the bartenders are all happy to tell you the entire history of the drink they're making. And I don't just mean why it's called a Mint Julep or what have you. They'll tell you why it's made with bourbon, how bourbon made it to the South, and the effects of the Whiskey Rebellion. I even had a conversation about the density and consistency of the ice and how it affected the flavor and temperature of a cocktail. Did you know a "cocktail" is a specific drink?

As you can tell, I found it all fascinating. After the book I just read, the timing of discovering this place was incredible. I'm really not a drinker of liquor. I'm a beer snob for sure, and I do enjoy wine, but spirits have always seemed, I don't know, too fancy for me. At Anvil, I discovered that they may be fancy, but they also have an amazing amount of lore and history, which really captivated me.

The bartenders maintain a blog (hopefully more focused than my own) which includes several interesting entries such as the "Five American Whiskey Cocktails You Must Try in Your Lifetime." (Yes, I'm aware that is an excellent marketing tool, but it was also a great history lesson at the bar.)

I'm always impressed by people who follow their passions. These guys really know about spirits, so I will continue to support them and their new venture. Who knows, maybe I'll become a connoisseur myself someday.

A History of the World in 6 Glasses

2009-04-24T19:14:00.000-05:00

A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
A really fascinating look at how six different drinks have influenced the course of history.

The book is organized roughly chronologically based on when these beverages (beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea, and Coca Cola) had the most influence. So as you read about the history of beer, you learn about early civilization and cultivation; wine teaches about ancient Greece and Rome and emerging trade; spirits, the exploration and expansion of the western world, etc.

Throughout the book there are wonderful little tidbits such as how grog (a mixture of rum, water, sugar, and lime juice) contributed to the strength of the British Navy due to the sailors' daily ration. Not only did the grog satisfy more men while taking up less space, the lime juice helped fight scurvy and made them stronger. This in turn led to the nickname "Limey."

The book is filled with anecdotes and theories and connections. In fact, I was often reminded of the BBC series "Connections" with James Burke, although the threads were not quite as far-reaching. However, I have to say that this was also a slight failing with the book. As much as I loved reading about all these interesting ways drinks were tied to movements in history, it was frustrating when the author didn't go into more depth. But this is hardly a flaw, it has just whet my appetite for more about this subject.

I was also a little disappointed by some of the omissions (vodka and tequila, for example), but it is understandable. The scope of this book is wide and shallow, which makes it light reading. This is the main reason I'm giving it 4 instead of 5 stars. It was really an excellent book, but it left me feeling unsatisfied and wanting more.

View all my reviews.

Making Comics

2009-04-06T12:31:00.000-05:00

Making Comics: Storytelling Secrets of Comics, Manga and Graphic Novels by Scott McCloud

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
An interesting analysis of creating comics. It's a good starting point for discussing the theory behind comics, but in the end it was just sort of okay.

I am a big fan of McCloud's earlier work, Understanding Comics, and I would enthusiastically recommend that one to everyone, not just comic book readers. This new one, Making Comics, is more of a primer on the creative process behind comics. It doesn't delve as deep and is less thought-provoking. It is also riddled with references to that earlier work, so why not just stick with that one?

I do enjoy his informal writing style, which makes the book feel like an active discussion. I also like that it is written as a comic book, so that concepts are immediately and clearly illustrated as they are mentioned. But even the author admits that these are just his musings on comics, and they don't feel as deeply thought out as they did in the first book.

I'm glad I read it, and I don't mean to dismiss it entirely, but this book just didn't have the magic of his first one.

View all my reviews.

Your Money or Your Life

2009-04-01T10:21:00.001-05:00

Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence by Joe Dominguez

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
A pretty good book about changing the way you look at money, with the focus on being more conscious of where your money goes.

The book is a little dated (my edition was revised in the 90s), but the underlying principles still apply. Most of them are just common sense, really: avoid credit, don't buy what you can't afford, keep track of all your income and expenses, etc. However, reading the steps and accompanying anecdotes made it more accessible.

I did have a problem with the repetitive style used throughout the book, though. I realize it is a trope often used by self-help books to help get their points across, but it is still annoying. Consistently using five or six examples in a list when three would suffice just got old.

Overall, I'd still recommend it to anyone trying to take charge of their finances.

View all my reviews.

My Trip, Part II: Games Played

2009-03-30T11:03:00.007-05:00

So, as I mentioned in the last post, I went out of town for the weekend with the main purpose of visiting with friends and playing board games. One of my goals for these meetings is to play as many "new-to-me games" as possible. It's one of the few opportunities I have to try games before playing them. This time I achieved that goal pretty well. I played 19 different titles, 12 of which I'd never played before. Here are a few highlights:

Strozzi - Reiner Knizia is easily my favorite game designer. This new one of his is a more layered version of Medici, but the layers add more complexity without really adding to the enjoyment. The bidding is mostly a simplified version of Ra. It's a solid enough game, but there was nothing there that really grabbed me. If it weren't for the sweet, sweet bacon, this game would have little to offer.

Steel Driver - I knew nothing about this game going in except it was by Martin Wallace. That was enough to bias me into thinking it would be heavier than it was. Players bid for controlling shares in different railroads, then expand them across the U.S. We had a significant rule wrong which greatly affected the scoring, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit.

Brass - This was probably the top game I was hoping to play. I had already bought it based on reviews, but I wanted to be taught by players who were familiar with it. The theme recreates the industrial revolution in Lancashire, England. Players develop the coal, iron, and cotton industries as well as canals and rails to deliver goods. There's a whole lot to learn and a lot of little exceptions, but the play itself is pretty straightforward. I liked it, but didn't love it. However, I'm eager to play again now that (I think) I've got the rules down. Hopefully, I can teach it to my local group and we can attack the learning curve together.

Spekulation - This was my favorite game of the Spiele. It's a simple buy and sell shares game in an unpredictable stock market. You start to think you can actually predict the market, and then all your plans crumble, just like the real thing. A friend in the group had made his own custom copy of the game, since it is out of print, and his graphic design really added to my enjoyment of the game. I may have to make my own copy soon.

Le Havre - I'm glad to have played this one, but I didn't really care for it. The game just took waaaay too long. Setting up an economic system where every turn you can buy a little bit more so next turn you can produce a little bit more so next turn you can buy a little bit more, etc. just didn't do it for me. I see the similarities between this and Agricola, but it didn't seem worth the effort. Perhaps another play (with my hard-earned better understanding) would be more fun, but I'm not sure if I'm willing to make the effort.

Dominion - This game wasn't new to me, but we played with new facets. I loved playing with the random set up (which I hadn't done before) and I *really* loved playing it so quickly (even though I was the slowest player). I can't wait to bring this out again for my group and show them it can be done in half an hour.

Other new games played: 2 de Mayo, Bounce It In, PowerBoats, Jet Set, Ringel Rangel, Aton, Roll Through the Ages.
Older games played: Ingenious, Hey, That's My Fish!, Amun-Re, Metropolys, Schnappschen Jagd, Harry's Grand Slam Baseball.

Also, I was able to record a podcast with my friend Mark Johnson, which I will post a link to when it becomes available. We talked about Classic (with a capital C) games: what are they, what makes one, and what modern games might earn the title? It was a fun discussion, hopefully it will prove fun to listen to as well.

My Trip, Part I: Random Thoughts

2009-03-27T10:40:00.008-05:00

Last weekend I took a trip out to California to visit friends and play games. It was a good trip, overall. I had fun and it was nice to get away from work for a while. I'll talk about the games in a separate post. This one will just cover some random experiences from the trip.

Thrifting - One of my favorite little hobbies is going to thrift stores. It's something I've done all my life without really thinking about it, but lately it's become more of a full-fledged hobby. Since I was flying into LAX and driving out to the hotel where I would meet my friends, I made a Google map that highlighted thrift stores along the way.

I had visited a couple of them the last time I was out, and knew they would provide some sort of bounty. I mainly seek out vintage Hawaiian shirts and board games. Both for personal use, but the latter also for resale on eBay. This is how I fund my new game purchases. I'm happy to say I found some of each this time. I got two groovy shirts and five games: Trumpet, Outdoor Adventure, Beyond Balderdash, Raj, and Napoleon in Europe.

One of the stores I visited is my all-time favorite. They have a literal wall of games. Dozens of them of all shapes, sizes, and types. I'm often tempted to pick up several just to play once with my friends and then either toss or re-donate back to the store. I mean, MTV's Remote Control Home Edition? How cool is that?

Debit or Credit? - This part bothered me a bit. I've been reading several financial books lately and working really hard to live completely debt free. I'm in good shape, actually, but it has been work since most of my life I have been a pretty carefree spender. Anyway, at the rental car place I wanted to pay with my debit card. They told me they would have to put a $400 deposit on it. At the hotel when I paid with my debit card, they told me they would charge the full amount of the room up front. Lastly, when filling up the tank of the rental before returning it, the gas pump display told me I got a $0.45 (What happened to the "cents" key?) charge for using debit.

All these little things felt like I was being conspired against for not using credit. I understand that with credit, the funds are coming from the seemingly limitless funds of the bank, whereas debit comes from the unknown depths of my personal account. I get that. But what if I had wanted to write a check for any of these purchases? Would that not have been allowed? (Probably not, since I was from out of town.) And what about the Visa logo on my debit card? Doesn't that guarantee the transaction just as much? And what exactly is the difference if I were to use my debit card as a credit card?

Line Ethics - I have traveled quite a bit casually thanks to the passes I used to get from my sister. I know the drill when it comes to getting through the security lines. Now they've divided them up between the Casual Traveler line and the Expert Traveler line. I have no problem identifying myself as an Expert, and I zip right through. However, when I was leaving LAX a family of six decided they just wanted to be in the shorter line. Grandma, two parents, and three kids in their teens held up the line for 10 minutes. They had trouble walking through the metal detector. They had trouble putting all their gear on the conveyor. Oh, I have to take off my belt? How many times do we have to walk through? Oh, I have to take off my shoes?

Additionally frustrating was the fact that none of the security guards seemed to mind that these people clearly did not belong in the "Expert Traveler" line. I suppose it was too late to kick them out of the line, but what's the point of having the separate lines if they don't mean anything?

Beer Ethics - Okay, last little bit because I see I'm rambling as usual. At the airport on my way out, I stopped to get a $10 turkey sandwich from a stall and a couple of beers at the bar. When I got the tab, the bartender had only charged me for one. So I called him over and pointed out his error without thinking much about it. But the guy on the stool next to me says, "Man, that's cool." Huh? "That's cool that you told him about the mistake." The bartender, too, seemed overly grateful to me. It bothers me that doing the right thing was seen as a praiseworthy act. Are we really that selfish and bad that most people wouldn't have corrected him?

Slaughterhouse Five

2009-03-26T13:26:00.001-05:00

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Although it had a lot of interesting aspects to it, the book overall left me flat.

Vonnegut tries to relate his experience of surviving the bombing of Dresden during World War II. He uses the character of Billy Pilgrim as a sort of surrogate, while still interjecting his voice as author from time to time throughout the book.

Billy has become "unstuck" in time, and he flashes forward and backwards through time to different experiences in his life, including a period where he was abducted by aliens to live in a zoo on their planet.

I liked the jumping around of the narrative and the simple writing style. The little anecdotes loosely strung together effectively portrayed how difficult it must be to relate something of this magnitude. Little absurdities throughout the book reinforced how absurd the whole situation was.

I've heard that this is Vonnegut's "anti-war" book, and I think it works okay in that regard. However, the recurring mantra "So it goes" implies more that war, death, and cruelty are all just inevitable parts of life.

I enjoyed it, but not as much as I was expecting to.

View all my reviews.

Three Things

2009-03-19T09:07:00.003-05:00

I promised myself that I would respond to any of these "Tags" I received from friends. At the time I wasn't on Facebook, so I've given myself an out and I do not feel obligated to replicate all of those. Anyway, here are my three things.

Now, here's what you're supposed to do...and please do not spoil the fun. Start a new note, delete my answers and put in your own. Tag all your friends and tell them to tag you. The theory is that you will learn a lot of little known things about each other.

Three Names I go by
1. Greg
2. Gregarius
3. Dude

Three Jobs I have had in my life
1. Waiter
2. Janitor
3. Editor

Three Places I have lived
1. Houston, TX
2. Glendale, CA
3. Denton, TX

Three TV Shows that I watch (not counting the myriad I watch on dvd)
1. Lost
2. Battlestar Galactica
3. The Colbert Report

Three places I have been
1. Great Britain
2. Spain
3. Germany

People that e-mail me regularly
1. Dale
2. My Parents
3. Karen

Three of my favorite foods
1. Chips and Salsa
2. Rice Krispy Treats
3. Alaskan King Crab

Three things I would like to do
1. Sell a screenplay
2. Travel to too many places to list
3. Skydive

Things I am looking forward to
1. Traveling the world
2. Spending time with friends
3. Buying a house

The Shining

2009-03-17T14:26:00.000-05:00

The Shining by Stephen King

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
I've never been a fan of horror as a genre, but I found this one while cleaning my house and thought I should give it a try. It really didn't do anything for me. Even though it had some interesting ideas, I didn't find any of the imagery particularly frightening or disturbing.

It has been many years since I've seen the movie adaptation, so my memory of it isn't very strong. However, the differences between the two are significant and apparent. I can see how fans of the book would be disappointed.

The book tells the story of a family of three: Jack Torrence, a struggling writer and recovering alcoholic, his wife Wendy, and their son Danny who has a strong, ESP-like intuition referred to as a "Shine" (hence the title). They'll be spending months as caretakers of the Overlook hotel, which gets snowbound every winter. Unfortunately, the Overlook has a history, or will, or demonic possession of its own, and does whatever it takes to claim the family for itself.

I liked how the narrative shifted perspective among the major characters throughout the story, and I liked how not everything was explained completely. But the story never really engaged me. There seemed to be a missed opportunity to explore whether Jack was going insane, suffering DTs from alcohol withdrawal, or being possessed. The book instead made it clear that the hotel was in fact to blame and all the terrifying things were really happening. This made it less interesting to me.

I still enjoy the early Stephen King books I've read (The Dead Zone is quite good), but I'm in no hurry to look into others.

View all my reviews.

Watchmen!

2009-03-05T18:53:00.000-06:00

Don't Sleep; There are Snakes

2009-02-27T14:38:00.002-06:00

Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes: Life and Language in the Amazonian Jungle by Daniel L. Everett

My review

rating: 2 of 5 stars
There were some interesting ideas in this book regarding linguistics being tied to anthropology, but overall it just wasn't very engaging. It wasn't a bad book by any means, but it didn't compel me.

I did find it fascinating to see another culture that thinks and speaks in a completely foreign way, and the process the author went through to decipher it all.

View all my reviews.

Oscars Review

2009-02-23T10:22:00.004-06:00

Because I am a huge fan of movies, here is my obligatory Oscar post.

When I was a kid, I loved to watch the Oscars. I really enjoyed the pageantry and glamor, and I thought that watching somehow connected me with Hollywood. As I got older, I watched them more to inform me about movies, actors, and directors. The last several years, this fascination with the Academy Awards has turned to interest, to indifference, until recently it has finally moved into complete disdain. These people work four months a year, doing a job they love, getting paid extravagant amounts of money, have adoring fans, and they expect us to watch as they pat each other on the back in fancy dress? Ugh. All that being said, of course I still watched the awards last night.

I have to say, I really enjoyed the format change. They somehow managed to blend a star-studded spectacle with a feeling of intimacy. The opening number was rather lame, but other than that I found Hugh Jackman a great and clearly talented host. I liked the decision to have a showman as a host rather than a comedian. As Mr. Jackman said in the Barbara Walters' special before the awards, "It's time to have more show, less biz."

The gimmick of having five past Oscar winners come out to announce the nominees was interesting. It was very cheesy, but for some reason it worked. And sometimes, the actors actually sounded sincere as they described the nominee. I vastly preferred it to the standard method of clips from the film.

As for predictions, I made them, but I didn't post them here or anywhere else. I generally have a pretty good track record, but I just find it annoying. It bothers me that so often the best predictors have nothing to do with the performance. For example, I correctly called Sean Penn for Best Actor, though I know many people thought it would be Mickey Rourke. The reasons have nothing to do with their skills as actors. Hollywood hates Mickey Rourke. The Academy was afraid of what he might say if he won. And despite all the movies to the contrary, Hollywood itself does not like underdog stories or comebacks. A studio's success depends on the cult of the new. Add to that the political guilt felt by the passing of Proposition 8, and Sean Penn playing a gay activist is a lock. And if anyone didn't pick Heath Ledger, they just weren't paying attention.

Without going through every category, here are some more thoughts:

I was disappointed that Slumdog Millionaire came away with so many awards. It was a good film, but not that good. It didn't deserve a sweep.
I was very pleased that Man on Wire won, as I feared Trouble the Water might slink in for political reasons.
I didn't understand why Hugh Jackman made a big point of saying "the musical is back!" Because of Mamma Mia? Seriously? Where was he when Chicago won in 2003? Hairspray, The Producers, Dreamgirls... any of these ring a bell? I think the musical has been back for a while.
The gowns were very elegant and nostalgic, which was nice. Penelope Cruz even had a vintage dress, which was beautiful.

Overall, it was a good show. It was full of pomp and circumstance as usual, but I found it less irritating this time around.

The Lives of Rocks

2009-02-13T18:35:00.000-06:00

The Lives of Rocks by Rick Bass

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
A very nice collection of short stories, several set in or near Houston, Texas.

It's a little hard to review a collection of short stories, since they can be very different. However, they do all reflect the writer's style, which I found very enjoyable.

Almost all of the tales in this book dealt with nature, and had a romantic, nostalgic feel. The writing was clear and often used imaginative metaphors or descriptions. Of the ten stories in the collection, my favorites were Pagans, Her First Elk, The Canoeists, and Titan. The title story, The Lives of Rocks, was also the longest. It was quite good with beautiful imagery, but it didn't grab me as much as the others.

I think it would be a great book to have along on a camping trip, or any time when you were able to curl up next to a fire in cold weather.

View all my reviews.

Khan, the Italian Opera

2009-02-05T13:22:00.001-06:00

This will probably get a lot of play on the interwebs, but it is just so awesome I had to have it on my blog as well. Plus, who would have thought I'd use the label "Khan" more than once?

Eats, Shoots & Leaves

2009-02-05T09:43:00.001-06:00

Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
A self-confessed "stickler" takes a light-hearted look at the history and future of punctuation.

Overall, I found the book amusing but not great. It read very quickly due to the conversational tone, which is a positive. It was interesting to read the origins of some forms of punctuation, but it was never too scholarly or dry.

Some of the other reviewers have complained about the author being too pedantic about grammar, but I couldn't help but wonder if they read the introduction or first chapter. She admits at the very beginning that she's a "stickler" and realizes that most of her points are rather inconsequential. Yes, some people do get bent out of shape when commas or apostrophes are misplaced; at least she can laugh at herself about it.

View all my reviews.

No Country for Old Men

2009-01-30T11:19:00.000-06:00

No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
An excellent book that was followed very faithfully (although not exactly) by the movie.

I've really come to love McCarthy's writing style. I've only read one other, The Road, which I read last year and loved. The language he uses is very sparse and direct. This makes it very fast and easy to read. Some might be put off by that sparseness, but it made me pay more attention to what was there. In this case, it often forced the reader to connect dots in the narrative that weren't always explicitly stated.

The book tells the story of three different men: Llewellyn, a man who stumbles across a fortune in drug money; Chigurh, a nearly supernatural killer chasing him; and Sheriff Bell, an aging lawman trying to put the pieces together. Throughout the story, the reader gets a good idea of how each of these men view the world. It has many thrilling and frightening moments, but in essence the book is more of a philosophical character study at heart.

I really enjoyed it. If you liked the movie, I would recommend it so you can appreciate how well it was adapted. If you haven't seen the movie, I would recommend it still as a very interesting read.

View all my reviews.

Guess what?

2009-01-27T10:11:00.006-06:00

What do these four words have in common?

Demontron
Rotunda
Ural
Quadron

Is Demontron a Transformer or a Decepticon? Or is it a giant screen at sporting events that allows you to see straight into Hell? Rotunda, that's part of a building, right? I only know Ural is a mountain range because of countless hours playing Risk. Quadron. Is that some sort of subatomic particle?

These were my guesses when Karen showed me this list yesterday. I was stunned/surprised/delighted when she told me these were the names of students who had come to her office to apply to the school.

I love names like these, although I really don't know why. I mean, it's pretty creative to make up a name. And why shouldn't we? Most names have some strange origin anyway that has generally been forgotten in time. Sure, there's the horror stories of girls named Female (pronounced Feh-MAHL-ay), but is that really all that bad?

It sort of reminds me of car names. There seem to be three styles of car names: there's the technical gobbledigook like RX7 or F150; there's the real-life word that is supposed to have some subliminal impact like Accord or Wrangler; and of course, there's the made-up words that I have no idea what they're going for like Altima or Xterra.

I used to hate the made-up car name words, but now I think I prefer them. It's fun to figure out what images they are trying to conjure. I've decided I hate the real-word car names. I mean, "Crossfire," really? You want to name your car after a dangerous military situation?

So, that's my mission for you. Pay more attention to the names around you, both for people and cars. What do they mean? What do you think they mean? All I know is, I begged Karen to keep bringing me these lists.

Welcome to the 21st Century

2009-01-21T10:23:00.003-06:00

Yesterday, Barack Hussein Obama was sworn in as the first black President of the United States of America.

I feel pretty good about it. I'm not a rabid devotee that thinks he'll turn water into wine or balance the budget (he is still just a politician, after all), but I have been a fan since well before he announced his candidacy. I like his attitude and optimism, as well as his charge for Americans to assume responsibility. We'll see how that works out.

They say there were just under two million people in Washington, D.C. to watch the inauguration. Take a look at this satellite image to get an idea of what that means. You can see the full picture here.

I took a long lunch to watch his speech at home, but I was confused about the time. I missed all but the last minute of his address, which was quite a bummer. But I watched the rest of the ceremony on my new, widescreen, LCD, high definition television as it was digitally broadcast. Later, I downloaded the transcript from the Internet and streamed a replay through my Xbox. Now I'm blogging about it and including a satellite picture of the Washington Monument.

I've heard people say that what we think of as the "60s" really didn't start until about 1968. I've decided that for me, the 21st century really didn't begin until yesterday. Obama's election and his address were clear breaks from the past status quo. The technology at my fingrertips is astonishing. We may not have hoverboards or moon colonies or personal jetpacks just yet, but for the first time in a long time, I really believe I'm living in the future.

KHAAAAAAN!!!!!

2009-01-20T09:22:00.006-06:00

Okay, why has this become so iconic? I have no idea. But first off, here's a chart I shamelessly stole from another blog. It charts how many A's people use when searching for "KHAAAAN!!!!"
Next up, we have this fantastic action figure. I mean seriously. How many people are really going to want this? I mean, besides me. And my friend Dan. And possibly Dale.

You can read more about this action figure masterpiece here.

It is at this point that I am required to answer the call and post a picture of my Khan costume from my birthday party. Sadly, I'm at work so I'll have to come back and add it later.

Anathem

2009-01-15T14:13:00.000-06:00

Anathem by Neal Stephenson

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
Fun in parts, but overall disappointing.

I've read several of the other reviews, and they've captured my thoughts much better than I could (or even feel like trying). I loved Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, but everything I've read since then has been a let down.

The book is set on another world where science has sort of taken the role of religion. What we would call scientists live like monks, sealed off from the rest of the world. That concept was pretty interesting. The story is told from the perspective from one of these "avout," as he experiences radical events and changes.

This brings me to one of the first criticisms made about the book: it's extensive made-up vocabulary. I found it very distracting at first, but eventually became used to it. It just seemed very unnecessary. I can believe I'm reading about another culture on another planet without there having to be a different word for everything.

Stephenson also spent a great deal of time discussing scientific and philosophical ideas. At times these were interesting, but they almost always detracted from the narrative.

Lastly, the end of the story just didn't work for me. Without giving anything away, I'll just say it was anti-climactic and somewhat predictable.

View all my reviews.

Dodging Bullets

2009-01-07T15:38:00.003-06:00

This has been a very interesting week so far, and therefore I guess it has started off being an interesting year.

Yesterday, I was in a traffic accident. A car wreck, actually. The roads were slick, I was looking at street signs, and I completely missed that the light was red. I slammed on my brakes, but too late. A car was crossing the intersection, and I slid and banged right into it. She spun around a bit, but stopped without hitting anything. I pulled over, then signaled and turned into a parking lot that was on the corner of the two streets.

Now here's the interesting part: she drove off! I had parked my car and was walking towards her to see if she was okay, and she started driving. At first, I thought she was going around to enter the parking lot from the other side, but nope. Long gone. Why would anyone leave an accident, especially one that wasn't their fault?

I ended up calling the police (two hours before the car arrived) to file a report. I felt kinda weird doing so, but I certainly didn't want someone else filing it and claiming I had left the seen. Oddly, the cop never asked me about the light, and I wasn't about to tell him I had run it.

This was the really fascinating part to me. Immediately after the accident, my thoughts were full of dread: worrying about injuries, damage, tickets, costs, etc. It never occurred to me to pay attention to details about the other driver or her car. When the police officer questioned me about it, I was at a loss. How much detail do you retain from a few seconds of an encounter? How old was she? How many people were in the car? What was she wearing?

Having seen the ship and aircraft recognition silhouettes that they passed out during World War II, I always knew I'd be terrible at that. But little did I realize how relevant that could be to every day life. When I tried to describe the vehicle, I was stumped. It was an SUV. I thought it was a Jeep Cherokee. But have you ever seen four or five of those from the side? The differences between a Nissan, Lexus, Jeep, who-knows-what-else are not that significant. And then he asked me the year!

In the end, I know I should be grateful for numerous reasons. It could have been so much worse in so many ways. But even the act of the other driver leaving the scene was strangely beneficial to me, in that my insurance won't have to cover her damage.

Today, I had a similarly harrowing, close-call experience. My company had lay offs. This is by no means a unique story in today's economy, but I had not experienced it first-hand yet. What made it a particularly close call is the fact that one of my fellow writers was let go. There are (were) only three of us, and I was the most junior. Granted, he had switched to contract work, which I'm sure made the difference, but it was still unsettling.

After writing so much about the accident, I don't really feel up to commenting on the lay off thing anymore. I know it's tough times all over, and I am thankful that I still have a job I like.

Hawaiian Mourning

2009-01-07T11:28:00.001-06:00

As was pointed out to me by several friends, Alfred Sheehan died yesterday at the age of 86. He is credited with inventing the Hawaiian shirt. You can read more details here. Here's a picture of Elvis wearing a Sheehan design for his Blue Hawaii album. Well, for some reason it's not letting me upload a picture. I'll try again later.

I am very well-known for my propensity for wearing Hawaiian shirts. I was musing about this in a chat with a friend. She asked how many I owned, and I honestly don't know. Is it about 40? It's a lot, that's for sure. Not only that, I recently "culled the herd" a bit before I moved. I have about 25 in "regular rotation," about 5 "special occasion," and maybe 10 others that just don't get worn as often any more. You'd be amazed how much of a decision it is for me in the morning!

David Byrne wrote "People will remember you better if you always wear the same outfit." I can't say that was my inspiration for having so many Hawaiian shirts, but it certainly has proven to be true. When the weather got a little chilly, I was actually teased at work for wearing just a plain old sweater.

Another story from work: A couple of months after I started, they had a "Brightest Hawaiian Shirt" contest. Naturally, I won. In my defense, let me say that I pulled out all the stops. I have plenty of bright shirts, but I have one that is a real doozy, so that's the one I wore. Later, my boss told me she had actually lobbied against me winning because "he wears that kinda stuff every day!"

Sometimes I'll make up themes for the week, like all green, all orange, or all vintage shirts. Sadly, no one has ever noticed (or at least, they haven't commented). This week I'm wearing all black Hawaiian shirts in mourning for Mr. Sheehan.

Most (90%) of my shirts were acquired in resale/thrift shops. I love the thrill of the hunt! I'm much more selective nowadays, which is a good thing. However, the selection has consistently dwindled over the years. I wish I had bought so many more when I was younger and there were far fewer collectors/competitors. I don't believe any of mine are worth anything, though i don't know for sure. They're worth something to me, and that's all that matters.

The Count of Monte Cristo

2008-12-22T10:55:00.003-06:00

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

My review

Rating: 3 of 5 stars
The first 100 pages and the last 100 pages were quite good. Unfortunately, there were 300 pages in between those.

I discovered in the introduction that this novel was written as a serial, with chapters appearing in the newspaper over a period of time. This really shows. Like A Tale of Two Cities, the story starts to drag and lose focus. Too many characters are introduced and the plot seems to wander.

The very end also seemed a little too neat, with an almost tacked on "Hollywood ending," complete with the door open for a sequel.

I'm glad I read it, but overall I wouldn't recommend it. The story itself has been distilled to a much more entertaining yarn in the various movie adaptations.

View all my reviews.