Game night
- Image via Wikipedia
Tonight was the first ever Connecticut hosted game night since I've moved here. It was much needed. I am convinced that dudes need, well, time with other dudes to survive. Plus, the male species seems to enjoy excuses to drink beer and the chance to mow down bags of chips. We had those consumables and an evening where the only drawbacks were our approaching bedtimes and unseasonable humidity. Here's what went down:
Arkham Horror (x1)
This game is a beast and ran the evening as it usually does. When a game features not one but two half-foot tall card decks and something around 20 total draw piles you know you're in for a mental workout.
It's a cooperative game which means the group wins or fails and the enemy here is the game mechanics themselves. The setting is that of the collective works of H.P. Lovecraft and his demonic visions which, incidentally, mean nothing to me. The Ancient One slumbers beneath Arkham all the same and it is up to the Investigators to keep him there or snuff him out. Tonight we drew Nyarlathotep, whatever that is, and as the game progressed we were sunk under piles of monsters and mayhem. It was not a lack of weaponry, which can sometimes be the case, and we were a touch low in the vital 'clue token' department, but tonight it seemed to just be in the cards that we had to go face to face with the beast. Actually, this is the kind of rules packed games that for every 10 rules you remember to follow you forget about 20 to 80. We forgot to awaken the Ancient One. So we did and then we took it on head on. This was probably the highest point of satisfaction in the evening as we wiped the floor with the baddie and won the game handily.
On to game two.
Pandemic (x2)
This was my first chance to get my dice rolling hands on this new legend in the cooperative gaming field. I found it as satisfying as I hoped. In this game the players are CDC scientists squashing out four strains of virus. It has the complexity I enjoy but an all important factor hard to find in the games I love. Speed. When Arkham ends I always feel like I ate too much at the Thanksgiving table and need to push away and rest awhile before I take another crack at the feast. As soon as game one of Pandemic ended I knew I needed a game two. I had the game learned in one setting and watching the little virus pieces fly around the globe with our researchers in hot pursuit was a thrill. In game one things got out of hand way to quick and North America exploded in a hot mess of disease meaning our demise. Game two was the exact opposite and if you feel disease free today, well, you can thank us.
Red November (x2)
Our nightcap was yet another cooperative masterpiece and the game I know best. The first I heard of this game was also the first time I knew I needed it. This scenario features a doomed submarine,check that, doomed gnome submarine and you and your friends must survive the catastrophe for a full sixty minutes to ensure your rescue. With my dad, my girlfriend, and good friend Chris all familiar with subs in some way this seemed like the kind of thing that we were destined to all enjoy. Tonight the ship went down both times which is starting to tip the scales to more failures than successes in this one. As often happens in cooperative games this is probably a strong indicator that we're finally starting to know the rules well enough that we're actually following them.
Thanks to everyone who bought me games, expansions, and brews that make these nights possible!
Incoherent rambling
I got my letter. I'm accepted to the Masters in Education program for the Winter 2011 Trimester at the University of New Haven.
My studies, should I choose to begin them, are right around the corner. I have an introductory orientation class in December starting the night of the 7th where I'll have to commute to New Haven four nights a week. That puts a timer on how long I have left to learn how to drive Michelle's car. Yeah, I really should know how to drive stick by now anyways.
So the question is: Am I going?
Well, yeah. It's the better option. It's only a year and on the other side is a better life with a better career.
The next question: Am I excited? Looking forward to an education and career in education?
No.
Despite this apathy I can still feel another feeling and one that is far stronger. The sand is really starting to come out of the hourglass now. I turn 30 a year from now. It's probably time to have a career.
Sometimes I'm still pretty confident that the feeling is just me falling for a social convention. Money and insurance are powerful forces, they kind of make it easy to fall.
I think the conclusion is that inside most of us there are two selves. There is one self that wants a dog, and a backyard, and a separate television for watching baseball (ahem), and all the perks that come with growing up and making money. The other self, which is the self that has always gotten to come first before, is the one that wants to make no sacrifices for adult life. I think this other self gets accused a lot of being immature and unintelligent but I tend to think no such thing. Especially in creative types I think it is this self that drives us to be the amazing species that we are. I demand adventure because I'm inquisitive. I'm indecisive because I'm all-inclusive.
This is what happens when you make the Camp Fowler motto I've never done it that way before a manifesto.
Alright, here's what I know. Ever since I was 16 I have met amazing folks who have become my closest friends and fellow visionaries. If we could all be promised we could do anything we want, so long as: we made the world a better place, music and art surrounded us, we shared the work, lived in tight community, made time for reflection, and-most importantly-need not worry about putting the needs of the adult self before the value of the ever changing selves within our community; we would flock to that experience and live out our lives, filled to the frothy brim, not necessarily with happiness, but with a soul deep contentment and purpose.
I don't know how people live any other way.
Jasons
When I was 20 I went over to the house where my best friend Jordan grew up and met a little punk named Jason. He was only on the cusp of entering high school but he already had a well-aged and matured sense of snark. I mean, this kid was an ass.
Luckily for me I survived what I thought was some kid not thinking very highly of me and realized it was just his sense of humor. A sense of humor I realized worked well with mine. I pick on Jordan because I got him married but just so everyone knows, he repaid me, he gave me the little brother I never had. You want to watch out when we set our sights on you, you're going down. Here are some things that have not escaped our analysis:
- The public address staff at Fulton speedway
- Grey's Anatomy
- AJ Allmendinger
- Cooper dining hall
- Jordan
- Jokes
I may be the only one who finds us funny but I have spent a lot of time trying to bring our product to everyone else. I made sure Jason was a part of Better Late Than Never to get some of our back and forth riffing on tape and I invited him to be a blogger on my own blog... to make me seem more productive.
Well, besides getting an opportunity to talk about my other great friend, I'm also letting you know that he's got his own blog now, and I owe him a link.
Strong silent stones and distant lonely stars
In the last week I've had a difficult time sitting down to write. I've been tasked with a lot of performance managing at work and I come home tired and broken from being yelled and sworn at. Then I turned 29 on Saturday. Then on Sunday an Oswego friend that I've let grow distant passed away.
I type up my thoughts but they all seem so selfish.
I just know I am not good in maintaining connections. I abhor Facebook. I can't use a phone. I never travel and I never plan.
I owed my friend better. I owe you all better.
That's actually a part of the reason The Heathernet came back online. To make myself more comfortable with sharing my life and feelings again.
If I can find the words to tell these stories, if I can gain the perspective to honor these memories, I promise I will.
Big boy bricks
I make no secret of my lifelong passion for Lego bricks. It just doesn't make sense to still buy them. I contend that it still makes sense to receive them as gifts... if you wanted to keep that in mind.
Fortunately for me there exists IKEA.
Michelle and I made another trip to the New Haven store yesterday and bought a real TV stand. Amazingly this is already our third attempt at putting something functional under our television and this time was the first time that we actually bought something intended to be a TV stand.
Previously we went makeshift with a bookcase and then we used our coffee table so it really makes a difference when you buy something designed specifically for your planned use. We're really happy with the result.
That's an quick iSight snapped shot of the new hardware. I owe you a real photo tour of our apartment and all of the neat IKEA stuff and artwork we've got... but wait, actually, you just owe us a visit. Nyah!
Anyway, my point. What you see above is basically designed to be a media cabinet and consequently is all solid with two panels of thin veneer. IKEA furniture comes with numbered instructions where the steps are not in written language but are instead illustrated so they can be understood internationally. Hm, like Lego sets. The best part of putting this kit together was realizing that I needed the back to be open for the electronics. Well this was when I felt like a little kid putting together my Lego set. It didn't really take any real intelligence but none the less it was a very satisfactory mental breakthrough when I analyzed the design of the IKEA kit and new it wouldn't suffer build quality if I let out one of the veneer panels. Instant custom furniture and instant creative satisfaction which I really need.
That's not the only thing we got this weekend. We also got sick. It's been a while for both of us and we're now rolling into the work week as mopey stuffy messes. Hence, that's about all the posting effort you get from me this weekend.
Holes in the calendar
The only way I can get in a post for today is to complain about why it's so hard to get a post in for today.
Thursdays are my backroom shift in my new position. It's actually kind of a fun shift because I just turn off my brain and do what my little scanner tells me to. There's this machine called the WAV (pronounced 'Wave') that I get to zip around on to reach high places and there's another machine that's like a pallet jack and a forklift combo for manhandling pallets of product into out of reach bulk shelves. I also have to haul around boxes full of merchandise and lug wooden pallets into position for the morning's truck. It's a little like a paid workout.
The big problem is the shift time. It's a closing shift that runs from 12:30pm to 9pm and it becomes the only thing I do on Thursdays. I'm pretty tired by this time in the week and if I don't set an alarm I sleep almost up until the time I need to get ready for work. Then I work and by the time I'm home I only have enough time to wind down before I really should be getting to bed for tomorrow morning's shift.
Bedtime should have been about the time I left the store but here I am, fighting to make September 30th mean something in the end.
iTunes study: The Story of 100 Aisles
- Image via Wikipedia
The Story of 100 Aisles by Our Lady Peace, off the album Clumsy
We have a more traditional result from my little digital adventure as opposed to the last time where I managed to unearth something in which I was directly involved. The first result is that I have a lot less to say.
This is a very good song off of a very great album. Which is exactly why I have it. My purchase of this album occurred probably a good 10 years after its 1997 release date. That's something I'm prone to doing now, collecting all the music I couldn't afford from the age of grunge and rounding out my collection, probably a sign of aging.
General opinion is that Clumsy is a breakthrough album by a band called Our Lady Peace, their 1999 follow up Happiness... Is Not a Fish You Can Catch, is by that same group, and that anything after that is by some other band. A bad band. Did you know they released an album last year? Did you know that they collaborated with David Cook on this album... David Cook of American Idol? I rest my case.
The Story of 100 Aisles falls into the pharmaceutical love affair category of lyric writing and hence I have little comment. The music, like everything else on this album, rocks. From the slow build into a raucous opening riff to the singer screeching, " Depressed? Come here, try this," out of the ethereal bridge in a way that perfectly welcomes back the rock chorus that follows.
My favorites on the album tend to be in keeping with their big hits of the era, i.e. Superman's Dead and Clumsy with the album's ballad 4am getting plenty of plays as well. 'The Story of 100 Aisles' shows this is an album where you're free to not pick and choose, pop in, turn up, and rock the whole thing out.
In my library it's rated four stars, been played 5 times, and it's never been skipped.
The Story of 100 Aisles is available in the iTunes music store. Excuse me, I need to go pick up 'Happiness... is Not a Fish You Can Catch.'
Simple days and playground games
Weddings are an excellent way to remind me how much I hate Bon Jovi. And Grease. And any music you like. Any moment where the general populous excitedly screams along with the lyrics to some dreadful pop song I barely know. I think it harkens back to ancient primal fear. Or Teen Town.
That's it! Weddings need four square courts for the retreating geeks and losers. Solved it.
The outdoor ceremony took place on beautiful farmland with mountain vistas in every direction. The weather was windy but the sun was out for the ceremony. By the time the reception started the weather was quite cool.
Michelle was a bridesmaid and kept on a tight schedule so it was hard to call it a relaxing weekend off from work. I did find time for a brief drive through the Vermont countryside the morning of the wedding and it did wonders for the soul. There is something about mountains...
The car is in the shop to address a laundry list of schedule maintenance that the little check engine light started complaining about in, oooooh, February. I'm excited to get the rockin' box back tomorrow.
Soft acceptance
I've been informally cleared to join the elementary education certification program at University of New Haven. I'm this close to making a true announcement for the purposes of celebration and planning but I suppose that must wait until the actual acceptance package comes in the mail.
My unofficial knowledge comes from the experience I had today at my interview with the program today at their education building in West Haven, CT. It was a very flattering visit. I was told it was refreshing to read an entrance essay from someone who enjoyed to write. That I was a bright young man. That I shouldn't expect to have any problems in the program. That I would be hearing from them soon.
I am humbled and troubled and excited and proud.
I think that's all I'm prepared to share right now.
How to initiate warp speed in your cat
Materials list:
- Plastic grocery bag
- Blanket
- Scissors
- Cat
Instructions:
- It is best practice to allow the cat to begin the process himself. Otherwise you are doing this to your animal on purpose and you're a malicious, horrible person. Trust me, even when you stumble upon this by accident you will feel absolutely terrible about your discovery.
- Leave grocery bag on the ground. Again, this is to be done by accident.
- The cat will sniff and play on top of the bag. It is during this time, if you're cat is appropriate insane, he will insert his head into one of the handles of the grocery bag.
- Allow the animal to take a couple of steps with his new attachment. At this point you will notice what your cat has done. It is appropriate to sigh at this time and say something such as, "Oh, [Cat's Name], oh no you didn't."
- Be on your guard. You may begin walking away from the animal at this point believing your cat will be able to solve his problem on his own. You may have also begun initiation of warp speed.
- If your cat has been cleared for high speed operations he will then notice that a foreign object has become attached to him. He will attempt to run away from the object. It is helpful to have a runway clear in advance for this and the remaining stages.
- The animal will finish one length of the runway at low preliminary testing speed. At the terminus of the runway he will hunker down, get an odd look in his saucer sized eyes, inflate his tail by approximately three tail inflations, and attempt to move back down the runway in this fashion.
- Your cat will now appear to be everywhere and nowhere at once. You will hear smashing sounds in both the bedroom and the living room at the same time. The bag will flow behind the animal like a cape rattling profusely while your cat mutters and yowls and goes all out. You have achieved warp speed.
Safely bringing your cat to a stop:
- Look for an opportunity to interact with the cat in the present time and in this dimension. You should be able to bring the spacecraft to a temporary stop by applying a blanket over the entire device.
- Now that the cat is stationary you should be able to use your knees to straddle him and hold him still. Some users will take this moment to realize how freaking big their cat is if you can sit on him in this fashion.
- Carefully expose the bridge section, or head, of the cat. Locate and extract a length of the plastic bag. Remove with scissors.
- Your cat is now clear to exit the blanket.
- Liberally apply love and treats.
Author's note: This goes without saying. These are not actually instructions. I do not endorse or condone the conducting of faster than light speed experiments on defenseless animals. Do not do this to your cat.
Heath’s Twitter
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