Important Life Update: Fun, Exciting, and Scary News

As with most life changing events it began with a game of Scrabble.

It was GRAND

The game started off fairly normally though NEW is a waste with open triple word tiles.

Then it got weird.  It almost as if it was trying to tell us something.

I know what you are thinking.  Excellent placement of "J" in JOY on the triple letter.  An impressive 29 points of happiness.

An even more impressive 72 points for HELP.  Which is good, because come NOVEMBER we will need lots of that. 

Finally 167 points for DAUGHTER.  Way more impressive than the 3 for SON, so glad we went with it.

Reset

One of the things I found most frustrating about going to school at night is that it completely sapped my creativity.  I was too drained to write or work on projects or do anything really that required interacting with other people.  I still had ideas, things I wanted to do, but rarely the energy to work on them.   When I finished school 4 months ago, I felt absolutely drained.

                

Time and vacation has begun to bring back that spark.  Now this leaves me lots of projects that I would like to see done.   I am designing a Mistborn themed Mafia-style game that I would like to run in the near future.  Three years of an evening MBA is an experience worth sharing.  I have writings about politics and religion, of bombs and life, and all sorts of other things that are bound to offend someone or other.  I have board games and puzzles I want to design.  I have a fantasy baseball website that I want to rebuild.   There are many people I haven’t spoken to since before school began, and with whom I would love to reconnect.  Finally, I have an idea for a novel that has been swirling around for years, and I would love to be able get it out of my head and onto a screen.

I have to start somewhere though, so we will begin in the world of board games.  This is an area where I have significant interest and knowledge and believe I have thoughts worth sharing.  The blog can be found here.  It is still start with a look at Ticket to Ride as part of a larger series on gateway games.  I hope to update once a week on Sunday, and have done a large amount of pre-writing to aid me in at least getting off to a good start.

Almost Kosher

I have a shirt around somewhere that reads, “Almost Kosher.”  Like the rest of my favorite shirts, it tells a story about me.*  Like most stories about me, it makes little sense to me, and is gibberish to everyone else.  This one seems worth trying to explain.  If you understand it, I’d appreciate it if you let me know what it means.

I suppose the fact I don’t know where it is says something about me too, but I think what it is says is that Becky and I have different definitions of the term well worn. 

I keep almost kosher.  I don’t eat shellfish.  I love chicken parmesan.  I don’t eat pig products.  I buy non-kosher meat.  I fast for Yom Kipper.  I don’t generally go to services.  I eat matzah for eight days.  Sometimes it has a cheeseburger on it.

Now you might think that because I pick and choose what I do that these have no meaning.   For me, picking what to do is what gives it the meaning.  Everything I do, I do because that thing means something to me.  If I see no purpose in it, like separating out milk and meat, then I don’t do it.     

Rosh Hashanah is about apples and honey, which is enough to carry any holiday.  Yom Kipper is about taking break from the day-to-day world, reflecting and asking forgiveness.  About joining Nanny for the 2^nd shift of services. About willpower, mind over matter, and the joy and appreciation of tuna fish on a bagel that only comes when you haven’t eaten for 26 hours.  Passover is about family, friends, feasting, storytelling, and sneaking the radio on to check baseball scores with my cousin.   Hanukah is about lighting candles and predicting the order in which they burn.  About spinning dreidels and waiting on the couch for presents. 

These things are important to me, and I don’t want to lose them.  When possible, I want to share them with others, particularly those without much experience with Judaism.   I think, in general, Jews don’t do a great job of this, preferring to focus on keeping the tribe together.  While it is nice that Jews are not prophesizing on street corners, I think the insular nature of the Jewish people has contributed to the perceptions others have about the religion.    

So, I like hosting Seders.   Sharing the food, the story, and the songs of Passover to those who have little experience with any of it.  In the words of Jeremy from Sports Night, “Passover's about the telling of a great story to those who've never heard it. Usually it's small children, but, you know, gentiles* will do.”  I learn stuff too.  Like one should never try to hard boil an egg in the microwave and the person who is walking past the door outside is probably not named Elijah.

Another benefit of hosting gentile is that you can substitute us with me.  God chose me has a nice ring to it.

I also get to add in other people’s traditions.  After all, if things are important to people I care about they become meaningful to me too.  Bonus points if the traditions come with presents and gluttony.  We have a Christmas tree non-denominational holiday shrub.  It’s filled with ornaments of glass balls and Mickey Mouse, of menorahs and dreidels, and everything else we enjoy that can be displayed in miniaturized form.

There are, I’m afraid, exceptions to the almost kosher.  I remain complex and contradictory.  For example, if I am traveling I feel a need to experience the norms of other cultures rather than my own.    And here I thought I was beginning to understand myself.  Oh well, maybe next time.

Business School

As I approach the halfway point of my Evening MBA degree, I have learned two things.

Business school is really really easy.   To get an MBA degree, mostly you just have to show up, and even that is often optional.  The concepts are rarely complicated, mostly different ways of framing basic ideas.  There are weekly cases and articles to read, but you can get by with a quick skimming ten minutes before class.  Group projects and papers tend to have small deliverables, because you want to be concise in business.  Besides, there aren’t usually right or wrong answers, so you get a lot leeway in writing about whatever you feel like. There are tests, but don’t worry, you almost always get a cheat sheet, and grading tends to be exceedingly generous.  Plus, it doesn’t matter if you do badly anyway, since no one cares about your grade and nearly everything rounds up to a B. 

Business school is really really hard.  You wake up at some ungodly hour to be at work at some slightly less ungodly hour.  You spend the next eight/nine/ten hours dealing with customers, coworkers, machines, and whatever else drives you crazy.  After that it is off to class for another three hours of keeping your brain open to new things, before, if there is no traffic or transit delays, getting home some fourteen hours after you left.  And then you get to do again the next day, or perhaps you get an ever so relaxing normal workday first.  In the time you aren’t in class, you need to figure out to be a worker, a student, a group member, a friend, a classmate, a family member, a partner and yourself.  You hope classes end a little bit early, even though you know exactly how much each hour costs you, just so you can a little extra time to recover.  There are few breaks, so in time your will to live will become a distant memory.  You look forward to that brief time every Saturday that you can sleep in and not feel exhausted.  You lose contact with those around you, as they aren’t quite as interesting as staring blankly at a wall.

Mile High

                My childhood friend, Rich, is getting married in a couple weeks, and decided to spend one of his last weekends of freedom in Denver, Colorado with his buddies.  I had one of those trips with terrible flying luck, or as I call it, a trip*,  On the way there, I had to wake up 4:30 am, in order to be delayed an hour at the airport due to a flight attendant calling in sick.   I arrived in Colorado at 10:30 local time, raring to take a nap.

*My return trip, Sunday evening, was delayed an hour and twenty minutes before I even got to the airport.  The delay increased to two hours before I learned to stop looking at the departing flights board.  When the plane finally got took off, we had go around a giant storm adding another 45 minutes to the flight plan.   It was after 2 am when we finally pulled into the gate in Logan.

                We started our inebriation with lunch at Fresh Craft, a pub somewhat similar to Sunset Grill here in Boston.  They had an almost endless selection of craft beers on tap including a number of local productions.  I studied the drink menu closely, and then asked Rich what I should drink, a very effective selection tactic that I and others used repeatedly over the weekend.  I ended up with what would be my favorite beer of the trip, a very sweet Colorado based Left Hand Milk Stout as well as a scrumptious salad. 

                After lunch we went to another bar*, the Wynkoop Brewery, where we played heated games of foosball, at which we were various degrees of terrible.  Having burned almost half a dozen calories off, we headed to an arcade called 1up.  Don't worry it still had a full bar. 1up had an extensive collection of classic arcade games taken from the point in our childhoods where things became forever awesome.  As a group we beat the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle game, something I'm not sure I ever did as a child.  Plus, at 25 cents a credit, it was one our cheapest entertainment choices of the weekend!

*This may have been a theme of the trip.  Stay tuned!

                 After a brief respite at the hotel, we went to see the Rockies play at Coors Field*.  We reserved seats at Mountain Ranch Bar and Grille inside the stadium to have dinner and ensure the drinking was not interrupted.  I had a Helton burger, which seemed fitting.  The clubhouse provided for an excellent view of the game, particularly when seated at the closest table seat the field, though the dinner atmosphere made it difficult to pay attention.  Really the only time our full table noticed the game was when the Rockies scored their 7th run, earning us free tacos.** We left the clubhouse in the fifth and went to our seats in the upper deck.  Having successfully seen a half inning of baseball from our actual seats and kicked out the previous occupants, we decided to make a tour of the park.  We stopped by a stand that was selling game used baseballs and bases.  After learning we were Met fans, they brought out a collection from a recent Mets Rockies series, including a Daniel Murphy double that was selling for a mere $35.  We also stopped by a Blue Moon Brewery inside the stadium, because well yeah.  The game itself was a long, sloppy, back and forth affair.   I did get to watch my closer strike out the side to preserve a 10-9 win for Rockies at about the 3:50 mark, which was a nice sendoff for the night.    

*Stadium 14 for me.

**Enthusiasm for this was dampened after learning that they were from Taco Bell.

                Saturday morning, we began our day at a pub called the British Bulldog.  It's main calling card was that it was open at 10:00 am and had the same name as a wrestler, both major pluses for this crowd.  We continued to Cheeky Monk, a Belgian Beer cafe where each drink came in an unique glass, mine being in a beaker.

                Now that we got our morning drinking out of the way, we went on a Brews Cruise around Denver.  We were driven by van to four microbreweries  by our excellent tour guide Brent.   The first stop, Breckenridge Brewery, gave us a tour of the facility, a free glass of beer, six 3.3 ounce samples as well as a bottle fresh off the line.*  Luckily the rest of the stops weren't so generous as I am not sure I would have made it.   My favorite beer was the avalanche ale, though I enjoyed everything other than the IPA.

* Unfortunately that couldn't be transported home.  Hope housecleaning enjoys the tip!            

                The next stop was Renegade Brewing Company, a brewery that was celebrating the opening of a second facility,.  They gave three samples including  a Belguim Ale called Golden Shower.  Goldberg was infatuated with the product and inquired about investing in the company.  If Renegade was looking for a random, not entirely sober,  co-owner, it was their lucky day.   

                The third destination was Wits End Brewery, a hole in the wall facility in a shopping center.  They had only been in business for three years and produced and sold all of their beer on site, producing about three barrels per week.  They did have a collection of graphic novels, including Watchmen, which was a nice touch. Finally we went to Strange Brewing Company, which was much more crowded than the previous destinations.  There we had, among other things, a Cherry Stout which was decisively cherry.  

                Those of us who survived the afternoon's activities went to dinner at the Buckhorn Exchange Restaurant, the home of the first beer license ever obtained in Colorado.  If you are a vegetarian, you might want to go ahead and skip this one.   If you like to be surrounded by death though, have I got the spot for you. We had a wide assortment of meats including Rocky Mountain oysters, bison, buffalo, game hen, ostrich, and elk.  I'm sure it was all kosher.   

                We decided to try find some less inebriated entertainment Saturday night with limited success.   We stopped by  a candy shop which contained all sorts of long discontinued brands.  There  two well tattooed female employees gave us very enthusiastic directions to possible destinations.  Now these places weren't anywhere near where said they were, but that seems besides the point.  We ended up spending much of the night playing pool, a game that makes me look like a world champion foosball player.  Walking back to the hotel we passed two women who had taken of their shirts and were dancing to Michael Jackson music on top of their van.  They seemed very happy in their world. 

                We took it easy Sunday wandering over to a local park.   We happened to pass a marathon in progress.  Rich was holding a bottle of water out in from of him, when an older man stopped and gestured emphatically towards it.  Feeling the runner probably needed more than he did, Rich gave him the bottle, which he promptly gulped most of down.  Goldberg caught up with the marathon at a different point, and finished the last few miles with them getting celebratory cheers along the way.

                Our final Denver meal was at Biker Jim's Gourmet Dogs.  It had most of the weird meats of the Buckhorn Exchange, but without the high prices and animal carcasses.  I had a Duck Cilantro dog, which was delicious other than the over-sized generic bun.  Also recommended are the Fried Green Tomatoes and  Fried Mac and Cheese Balls,

              

                Denver was a neat city, clean, well maintained, affordable, highly walkable, with the snow-capped Rocky Mountains making for an excellent backdrop.  There was a seeming endless amount of breweries, bars, and clubs, though that could have been partially the company I kept. It reminded me why I would like to try living on the west coast at some point.  Then I waited on line for 20 minutes at Starbucks, and remembered that eastern big city life has its pluses too.               

              

                I handled the increase it alcohol consumptions just fine*, but I still managed to twist an ankle, shatter a glass, and smash open my head on a metal bar in the shower over the course of the weekend.  Maybe sobriety is my problem.

*Thankfully older age has slowed down my compatriots a bit.

Morality

I had an argument once, in London, with a temporary roommate of mine.  Is it more challenging to base one's morality fully on what a book said or to make up a moral system on your own?  I thought he got off easy not having to figure out what he actually felt mattered.  He, on the other hand, believed that I shouldn't have any difficulty as I can make up anything I wanted.

In a sense he was right as there is really isn't objective about my moral system.   That doesn't mean I haven't spent a lot of time thinking about it though.  I have come up with three basic tenants in rough order of importance.

1.  Life is good. 

2.  Everyone deserved a minimum level of rights.

3.  Do the most good for the most people.

That's it really.  Everything else derives from those core beliefs.  Of course my interpretations of those three items and how much value I give to each of them is not necessarily simple or universally agreed upon

Some people fundamentally disagree with my beliefs, but many I have encountered just haven't considered things from my perspective .  A lot of this my fault, as I tend to do a better job listening than talking.  So this is my first attempt at putting my beliefs out there for anyone who wishes to understand them.*  I'm not trying to argue, though I don't mind that either as long as you are good at it or entertaining,

*And at being self indulgent.  Okay this is my 3,456,234 attempt at being self indulgent.  

Risk Legacy

This weekend the war continues.  The Risk Legacy board was last signed by a victorious Felix*  eight months ago after game seven.  Sadly, Bo, our Alaskan fisherman, has spent the subsequent months, well, fishing in Alaska and working on his boat, so we have been short of a quorum.  Since we have a limited window where I'm on winter break, and none of our players have an infant to distract them, we are going to try to get as many games in as possible over the next few weeks.   

*Felix has certainly enjoyed his eight month reign as self claimed title of Emperor.  He has gone from reluctant to commit to more than one game at a time of "risk" to perhaps our most excited player.

Risk Legacy is like risk, but with one large twist.   Actions in  a current game will cause permanent changes that alter future games.  For the first 15 games played, the map will be altered during and after each session.  The map will drawn upon, stickers will be added, and if a card is destroyed, it gets ripped up  never to be used again.  In addition, there are a number of hidden compartments in the game box that do not get opened until certain game conditions are met.  Once opened they have radical changes on the game play sometimes even mid-game.  It works best if you have the same group of players each time.  After 15 games you have your own custom earth to battle over.

It is not necessary to like Risk to like Risk Legacy.  Legacy has a number of advantages over its predecessor.

1.  It doesn't take forever.  Instead of having to conquer every territory in the world, you just need to get four victory points.  Games are playable in an hour in the beginning, a bit longer as the complexity increases .  There are also multiple paths to victory that were absent in the original.

2. Each person has a faction with a special power.  Additionally, individuals will have additional advantages based on games they previously won*.  Thus each player will have different abilities and they will change over time.

*If you win a game you get a reward, like naming a continent, which gives you a bonus in future games.   

3.  If the game is broken,  you can fix it.  One of the issues with Risk is that there are certain dominate strategies, like turtling in Australia.  Without getting into too much detail, there are ways to change this.  And if you break the game somewhere else in the process of fixing it, which you will, you can fix it again.  By the end of 15 games you should hopefully have a reasonable balanced board.   There is an interesting balance between taking actions that help you in the current game

4.  It is fun to customize a board.  For example, Bo is from Homer, and has thus renamed Alaska after his small hometown.  Neighboring but across the map lies Evil Homer, Homer's arch-nemesis.  Our map is filled with inside jokes and derivatives of Homer.

5.  From the presentation of the box, to the components  and rules, the game is spectacularly put together,  The designer put a lot of effort into providing a fully engaging experience.

6.  The hidden stuff is cool.  I mean really really cool.  It takes a one dimensional game and add many layers of depth and complexity.  If you wish to be spoiled, I'm happy to talk about it more detail.  I mean really really happy.  We unlocked some neat stuff in the last game before our break, and I can't wait to use it.

Happy World Conquering