Race for the Galaxy

Played last night on Board Game Arena with friends from California and Maryland.   While digital gaming does leave some things to be desired, it was nice to catch up with people before and after the games.  And while Zoom meetings are not the same as in person meetings, my wife and I are learning to adapt.

Race for the Galaxy is fun.  You draft planets and development cards to earn resources and victory points, or bonuses to future actions.  You pick one action every round and gain a bonus for that action, but you can still perform other actions (without the bonus) if someone else picks that action for the round.  It's another one of those games that's easy to play but I suspect there is a lot of underlying strategy that none of us are getting yet.  I like the theme of building an interstellar empire, although, apart from the card art, the theme could have been anything at all.  It's an older game, but still fun in my opinion.

Vegas

Oh yeah, I forgot to report in my previous post that I'm going to Vegas in November.  In the (presumably still) middle of a pandemic.  I'm seeing friends I haven't seen in 29 years.  I've resolved, of late, to endeavor to visit friends and family more often as the years roll on.  No telling how many years are left in which to do so.  Who knows, November may already be too late.  Still, I'm pleased at the thought of getting out and about again.  It has been too long.  I just hope I'm not taking an unnecessary risk at the expense of my loved ones. 

Disingenuous

I started off today writing a post on pop culture.  Then I realized I was just copying the tone of other blogs I read.  Better to be bad originally than to be bad derivatively.  This feels like a waste of time.  I have no thoughts I feel compelled to put to posterity.  It has all already been said by the Beatles:  Love is all you need.

Also better to briefly say nothing than to say the same and be long winded.... 

No title

 Nothing to say today.  Got a new laptop at work, and two monitors and two docking stations.  I have to say, so far the pandemic has been very good to me, comparatively.  My house hasn't burned down, I still have a job, I like the people I live with, and no one I love has gotten sick, yet.

I always feeling like writing without a purpose (other than writing itself) is a waste.  I suppose any form of practice breeds a certain amount of skill.

Tonight I go fishing with my daughter.  Then it's off to an AA meeting (online) and then, if I'm not already falling asleep, an ego-crushing game of Scythe online.  Pretty good day, all things considered, if anything goes according to plan.

Nostalgia

 I am playing with the idea of starting another online campaign.  My first one, started at the onset of COVID 19, fell flat.  Part of the blame lies in the fact that I tried to introduce my players to a totally new system.  I was trying to teach them mechanics the whole time and didn't include any role playing.  Part of the blame lies in my lack of knowledge about online tools for conducting a campaign.  I've done some research and made some inquiries of friends, and while I haven't settled on a platform yet I'm beginning to test drive some of them.

In the meantime, the group I play with has taken to playing MtG online, which is thematic in my life.  When I was in my early 20's in 1993, MtG was just beginning to blossom, and all the people I would have played D&D with were playing a collectible card game instead.  As such, I developed an irrational hatred of the game.  I've since played it a few times, and while I can see the addictive nature of the game, it's not something I'll delve into deeply.  I went way down the rabbit hole with Star Wars X Wing Miniatures, and I'm not dropping 2K on another game involving that scale of investment.  But it's pleasant enough to play online.

I think the group will welcome a return to something more familiar.  I've yet to decide if I want to continue with Pathfinder first edition, 2nd edition, or D&D 5th.  The latter two would involve learning a new system, and investing in, at the very least, 2 or 3 new books.  The first would be comfortable.  Perhaps too comfortable.  I quit Pathfinder because I felt I'd played myself out in that system.  

I'll leave that decision to another day.

Is it the wrong time of year for resolutions?

I never can seem to get the timing right.

Here are two of mine:  Journaling, and finishing the novel I'm 12 chapters into writing.

I'm a pessimist (no shit, says anyone who ever knew me), and I've always felt the world was close to the edge of the abyss.  Comes with any upbringing that includes knowledge of the existence of enough nuclear weapons to reduce the planet to a cinder.  But I've never felt we were closer to Armageddon than I have for the last 4 years.  I read through the Bible... twice... cover to cover.  There's a lot I don't understand there, but the most incomprehensible chapter by far is Revelations.  Seven-headed dragons making war with Mary's children.  Descriptions of angels that are anything but human.  Messages to the seven Christian churches of that age.  To be honest, my recollection of everything I've read is spotty these days.  But time and time again, Scripture comes back to me, like pop culture references.  I can't tell you what the mark of the beast is, and I wouldn't be quick to trust anyone who said they could.  I can't tell you if the donald is the antichrist.  Or if Hitler was.  Or if there are multiple antichrists.  What I can tell you is that these days the man in charge of the BUTTON with a capital B is a lunatic and a narcissist, and he's not alone in that respect.  There's a gangster in charge of Russia.  I don't know much about China, but I've heard that while they're not looking for a fight at present, they wouldn't back down from one, either.  

What does that change?  Nothing, really.  I've always lived by the assumption that today could be the last.  I've been wrong, every single day of my life so far.  You'd think I'd learn something from that.

You'd think....