DealNews Game Night

02.18.2014

This past Saturday I got together with the crew from DealNews for a night of gaming. It wasn't proper Widgey gaming, but I got to learn how to play some new games. It's not often I get to go off and play games without taking a stack myself so I was excited to take advantage.

The first game for the night was Boss Monster. This is a card game that's similar to an old Nintendo side-scrolling video game. Each player has a boss monster (hence the name) and uses 5 cards to build a dungeon that will entice adventurers to enter and, hopefully, die. The first player to kill 10 adventurers without dying (letting 5 adventurers successfully get through the dungeon) wins. It's a fun, quick little game that looks to have a good depth of strategy. The cards really convey the old Nintendo flavor, too.

The second game was 7 Wonders. I'm not sure how to best categorize 7 Wonders. It's a card game, but each round you keep 1 card out of your hand and then pass the remaining cards to the next player - so there's strategy not only in what you keep but in what you're passing. There's a variety of ways to get Victory Points, and mine was not the best method. Score wise, mine was the worse method. This is a game that I think I would like if I spent more time with it and figuring out the rules and how to score.

The big game for the night was Eclipse. Eclipse is a 4X space game (eXplore, eXpand, eXterminate, eXploit) that is massive. Lots of parts, and although the rulebook is only 32 pages long, those rules are deep. Normally a game of Eclipse will take experienced players around 4 hours. This night there were 6 inexperienced players, and after 4 hours we were halfway through the games 9 turns. There's no easy way to learn this game and there's a steep learning curve. As such, the first game is pretty much just learning how to play and figuring out how the game works. We stopped halfway through the game and I was started to get a good feel of how the game worked. Of course, the way I had played up until that point had steered me into a losing path, but I think that's part of learning.

Part of the learning curve for Eclipse is that there doesn't seem to be a good route to explain how the game works. You can show and explain the components, but you're wondering what those components are used for. You can explain how the components are used, and you wonder how you get more components (to build your empire). This leads to combat, and how exploring works, and how you maintain the areas you've explored and conquered... all at the same time!

Eventually it starts to coalesce. It's not smooth, but it does come together. After we stopped playing, I went and looked up answers to a couple of questions I had for some of the mechanics. Along the way, I found at least 3 things that I had done wrong through the whole game. Now, I'd like to play the game again and see how it plays now that I think I have an idea of how to properly play.

Plus, I know of 3 things to print out for reference during play that would may the game a lot smoother at this stage.

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Movie Watchin

02.12.2014

Over the past week I've been re-watching some older movies thanks in part to working more from home thanks to warnings of Snowpocalypse 2014 along with actually staying home for fear of getting caught out in Snowpocalypse 2014. That's ok, I like being at home. I've got food, I've got power, I've got the internet, and I've got more ways to entertain myself than I can keep up with. It hit me some time last week that most of my friends have hobbies that get them out of the house. Most of them are married, and most of those have kids, so they're looking for excuses to get out of the house. All of my hobbies keep me in the house because I have no one to escape from. Plus, I'm a home-body.

I was digging through the movie collection and pulled out a couple of old ones to watch again. The first one was the 2012 remake of Total Recall. I remember being less than impressed the first time I watched it. A year or so has passed, and this time I didn't have as high an expectation of the movie due in part to forgetting most of what this version was about since the last time I had seen it. In addition, I didn't compare it to the Schwartzenegger original. Thanks to this attitude I found the 2012 remake quite enjoyable, much more so than the first time I watched it.

The 2nd movie I re-watched was last year's World War Z, which had nothing to do with the book by the same name. I enjoyed the book - it's one of the few zombie books I've read. I knew going into the movie that it would have nothing in common with the book as it was pretty much advertised as such. Even then, while watching the movie I couldn't stop myself from thinking how the book was better. Watching the movie this time, I looked at it as just another zombie movie. It was much more enjoyable that way.

All of this brings me to a new DVD release for this week - Ender's Game. This movie is based on a book published in 1985 that is a sci-fi classic. Quite a good sci-fi classic, and one of the few books that my slow reading speed has pored through more than once. Once again, I tried to watch a movie,one where I pretty much knew what was going to happen before everything started, with an open mind. It was a pretty movie, but I had problems.

I'm not sure if I was trying to pay too much attention, but it seemed they were leaving out plot points, or at least some explanations of how and why certain things were happening. I know the story as presented by the book so I always knew what was going on, but I was questioning how the movie was explaining the events as they happened.

The beginning of the movie felt rushed, maybe because they shoved the first ¼ of the book into the first 15 minutes. A lot of the "why" of some of the events seemed to be skipped, and one part that I thought was important was a made up sci-fi word said during a training sequence that's said again at the end of climatic action sequence. If you know what the made up sci-fi word is supposed to be, the next 5 minutes after the climatic action sequence make a lot more sense. The script finally tells you what happens after those 5 minutes, so maybe building up tension was the point?

Now I'll wait a year and think about watching Ender's Game again. My expectations will be lowered. Maybe I won't compare it to the book. I have hope - my favorite sci-fi book is Starship Troopers and I never had any problem with any of the movies. Or TV show. Or video game. Oh, and the board games. Wait, what was I complaining about?

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Walkies

02.10.2014

With the threat of winter weather and snow closing everything down in the upcoming days, I went for my longest walk on Saturday. My walking has been a little lax due to the weather of late, but this past week I tried to get back on a semi-regular schedule. My schedule wasn't as regular as I had hoped, but I at least put the distance in.

Over 3 days, I walked 12 miles in just over 4 hours. I have a slow pace (21 min/mile), but up until now I haven't been worried with my pace so much as getting my butt out there and going. Most of the time, I'm not winded or tired at the end of my walk. That may be because it's not above 40° most of the time.

Now, it's time for me to pick up my pace. Goal #1 is to try and make it down to a 20 min/mile average over the course of a week. Granted, I decided this when there's supposed to be snow covered death on the trails of walking, but I work better with goals. My "short" route around the school is roughly 2.5 miles, so I'm going to concentrate on walking that route faster on my next couple of trips out.

I've never been swift, so secretly I'm dreading picking up my pace, but this is one of those past-surgery weight-loss things I don't have a choice about. Whoosh!

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Post-Op Check In - Month 4

02.09.2014

As it's been about a month sine there was a diet/weight-loss/post-surgery update, it seems about due.

Jan. 6 I weighed in at 330.8 lbs. A month later I have 323.0 lbs. Just under 2 lbs/week average, so my weight loss is falling off. I'm still ok with that, as I feel a whole lot better at 323 than I did a year ago at 441. I went in for my 3-month post op check-in and the surgeon is happy with my progress and how I'm handling everything. He also said I was on track to meet my weight loss goal (which I think keeps getting bigger every time I see him). With that, I'll see him in another 3 months and will get blood work done.

I'm starting to widen my variety of food. I've been sticking with protein shakes, chicken, fish, and the occasional steamed broccoli and asparagus. Now it's safe for me to take in raw vegetable, testing one at a time to see how my system handles it. So far, my system is handling it just fine and I can once again delve into the world of salads!

The post-op salad is maybe 1/3 the size of the salad I used to eat, and has a lot less meat in it. Fat-free cheese, Ranch yogurt dressing, and some melba toast along with chicken, eggs, mushrooms, and whatever bag of salad lettuce is on sale at publix. One of those bags is now good for at least 3 salads as opposed to how it used to only be good for 1.

I haven't really noticed the physical part of my weight loss past all my clothes being loose. A lot of that comes from seeing myself in the mirror every day and all of those changes being gradual. I had to renew my drivers license and saw the picture of 2010 400 lb me vs 2014 330 lb me.

When I see myself, I still see the me on the left. Now, I've almost got a jaw line. And a visible chin (above the other chin).

I also had to get a new CAC card at work. The picture on my old card was 6 months old, so it was pre-surgery and I was in the 400+ lb range. After the lady took my new picture she stopped and said "Wow, you've lost a lot of weight." Yes, yes I have. And I thanked her for noticing.

Now I have a hankering for a salad.

Permalink diet gastric sleeve

A New Mom Dream

02.08.2014

It's been a while, a long while, since I had a Mom dream. The last dream or two I remember she was pretty much just in the background. Last night, I had a proper Mom dream - granted, it doesn't make much sense.

The dream started out with me and Gina watching TV/a movie at her house. The furniture was laid out a little different, but it was her house and it was daytime because the sun was shining through the living room window. Gina would look out of the window occasionally and she would say "Awww, solicitors!" at which point one or both of us (it kept happening) would run back into the bedroom and hide until they knocked or went away.

Finally this repeated and she told me to go hide in the bedroom (evidently I wasn't presentable) and she would find out what they wanted. I scurried back into the bedroom with a nondescript Yorkie on my trail. The dog wasn't any of the dogs that Gina usually keeps, but he was cute. I went back and hopped into the bed, then lifted the covers to let the dog get under them. He did, and as the covers floated back down he scurried up to the head of the bed where we cuddled. I know, this sounds nothing like me, but it had too much detail in my dream.

Laying in bed with the dog I heard murmurs at the front door between Gina and whoever was on the other side. Through the closed bedroom door I heard Gina tell me "Honey, you're going to like this" and the bedroom door opened. In walked 40 year-old Mom. Behind her were 6-10 nondescript people with notepads and various pieces of recording equipment (small cameras, tape recorders, I think a Dr. McCoy scanner might have been in there), and Gina standing in the doorway smiling.

I was sitting up in the bed open-mouthed trying to figure out what was going on, as none of this made sense. Mom walked around the foot up the bed up to where I was, saying "I'm so sorry, I heard this was hard on you. I never thought it would be." She ended up sitting on the bed next to me. I wanted to ask her what was going on, what happened, all that stuff that would make sense to someone you see after they're supposed to be dead. I guessed, looking at all of these people that came with her scuttling about the room with their recording devices, that there was some reason she originally had to go. Mom held my hands and told me "I've arranged it where they'll let me see you once a month."

I still wanted to ask questions, but part of dream-me knew that (1) I shouldn't, and (2) it didn't matter. Still sitting in the bed, I put my arms out and hugged mom, and held her as tight as I could trying not to cry. I'm pretty sure I did (I am now, but not bawling). One of the recorder-people was asking me a question, and I must have been ignoring her until I heard her yelling. I looked away from Mom and asked "What?" and saw a short Asian woman with a notepad loudly asking "THE CAT, WHAT NUMBER IS THE CAT?". I didn't know there was a cat in the room, but I should my head and looked her and said "I don't know. Make up your own number. Two?".

I turned my attention back to Mom. Even though I had questions running through my head about what was going on, I didn't want to ask. 40 year-old Mom was looking good. I asked her if she was ok. "Yes, I'm doing ok." she said. "I've got a girl now, and might be having another one. We've just got to get the parts approved." This made sense in my dream and didn't sound weird at all. Since waking up, this is the part that makes me say "what the hell?".

The milling people with recorders started to make a louder background murmur and some of them started to file out. Mom had the look that told me her time was up and she had to go. She sat on the bed and we held each others hand. I still had questions but I didn't want to ask. She looked sad that she had to go but knew she didn't have a choice. You could tell both of us wanted some more time together but didn't want to take the chance that doing so might prevent us from doing this again (evidently in a month). And with that I woke up.

Waking up from a dream like this is weird. There's a few seconds of "ahh, what a nice sleep I had" followed by a rush of the high points from the dream playing at quadruple speed. Finally, there's a little shock at what was in the dream along with a "what the hell?". After that, usually, comes "where did that come from?".

I'm still working on "where did that come from".

• I've been thinking about Mom a little more since her birthday last month.
• Yesterday I got an email-checkin from her sister Brenda out in Texas (which I still need to reply to).
• I was in a good mood last night after a good night of gaming with Jerry & Keith (I won all 3 games).
• I spent the night over at Gina's a couple of times this week while the heater was on the fritz. One of those times the heater wasn't really on the fritz, it was just nice to stay over.
• The one time I parked on the driveway instead of the garage in the past 6 months, the local volunteer Fire Department shows up asking for donations. Damn those solicitors!

None of that explains why Mom was 25 years younger with an entourage. Secret agent? Witness protection? She had a girl and might have another if the parts were approved...?

Dream-me wouldn't ask any of those questions. It was like I knew asking, or the answers, might make everything fall apart. Kind of like finding the penny in Somewhere In Time.

Now I'm curious to see if anything happens in my dreams in a month.

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