BGG down Sunday for upgrading

Boardgamegeek is going to be down on Super Bowl Sunday for a major upgrade. Oh, the irony.

Book Review: American Nerd - the story of my people

Being a bad consumer. Not wanting to consume. Being full.

My brain is full. I have not one, but two, nigh-infinitely-deep internet-based entertainment pursuits, I have BSW, I have 18IA, I have a game group if I could ever get off my rear. I have a few friends, which I need to work on.

I have a list of tasks, nigh infinitely deep in complexity.

I have a library, and a bookstore online, nigh infinitely deep in complexity.

I checked out American Nerd (subtitle:The story of my people), by Benjamin Nugent, from my friendly local library branch. American Nerd is a well-written mix of short chapters that segue easily into each other, making it an easy, if sometimes squirm-inducing read. There's a fair bit of history of nerds, the Christianized pro-jock movement of the turn of the century, Asperger's, and plenty of in-depth examples of nerdiness in the wild (science-fiction fans, Society for Creative Anachronism, and so on). It's got enough personal anecdotes to make me, a nerd, uncomfortable - not because I hate getting personal, but because Nugent's stories of his childhood nerdiness resonate closely with my own experiences in social discomfort. Being a nerd, in many ways, is about setting your own path, no matter how weird, and the pain that those choices cause. The life of the nerd is not a happy one.

Nugent includes a chapter about a polyamorous commune of sorts, which seemed out of place but the explanation also helps the book feel more gender-balanced and mature. I wonder if Nugent read Weird Like Us, easily my favorite book about self-created identity and community self-organization. I also wonder what material hit the cutting floor to create the breezy transitions between chapters. John Nash's comment in A Beautiful Mind, about the self-apparent nature of the mathematical proofs he intuited, and the paranoid delusions he encountered having the same ring of truth, reoccurred to me as I read the final chapters. There's a chapter where religion and nerdiness conflict; nerdiness can have a gnostic element, and be a salve for the wounded adolescent or adult. Nugent's book is an apology to his younger self, but mostly to the friends he made, then left behind as he grew up.

This book also feels a bit like the computer-nerd memoir Extra Life, which I think captures the nerdy coming-of-age arc more successfully than American Nerd because it has fewer digressions into nerd history, but then again, Extra Life is happier. Nerdiness is bound up in myself so tightly I don't know how I would extricate what a non-nerdy me would act or be.

Takeaway review: nerds and non-nerds should read American Nerd to reflect on how their childhood interests and self matured into their adult forms.

Owlcon 2009 is near

Just a reminder that Owlcon is coming up February 6-8 at Rice University. 3 days of the best-organized gaming available.

Your Money Or Your Life

I'm about halfway through re-reading Joe Robinson and Vicki Dominguez' fine book Your Money Or Your Life. Keeping some notes on it. Definitely a thought-provoking read and well worth revisiting, as my life has changed a lot since the last trip through it a few years back.

The Pirate Game for kids

Alex and Cori and I created and played a children's game. Sooo: the Pirate Game:

Needed: 2 sheets of construction paper, a pencil, scissors, tape.

Make a fold-up pirate ship, 3 small treasures, and a lot of little word cards with one of the sheets of construction paper. Use the other construction paper to make a gameboard with a pirate camp space at one end, 3 water spaces, and an island space.

Setup: shuffle the word cards, place the 3 treasures on the island space, and the pirate ship on the pirate camp space.

Play: Players take turns revealing a word card. By reading the word card, the player helps the pirate ship move. When the pirate ship reaches the island, it loads a treasure in the ship. The pirates then return to camp to drop off the treasure. Once all three treasures are at the pirate camp, the pirates then turn around and re-bury their treasure on the island.

109 in 2009

A la the Rage Diaries, here's my 109 to do in '09:

1. Lose 6 lbs in quarter 1, lose 2 lbs in q2,3,4.
2. visualize the loans being paid off.
3. come up with a playable proto of the hippie game.
4. print Outpost proxy.
5. give blood 6 times.
6. make grandma's kringla recipe in April.
7. set dates for lee for next year's lone star.
8. find more in-town conventions to attend.
9. Get rid of one more box of miscellaneous archived material from college,a.k.a. junk.
10. get Chris, Tim, and RJ together again some night.
11. take at least one picture of the girls every week and post it to the blog.
12. resume keeping a notebook.
13. begin making gratitude lists on Fridays.
14. blog – update wordpress to current on my web server even though I'm not using it.
15. learn at least one technical thing Robert/Steven knows, (every month).
16. learn at least one technical thing Robert/Steven doesn't know (every month).
17. start and finish a work project (copying all backup tapes to current format) by the end of January.
18. get out the guitar again in March.
19. get in 7 playtests of 18IA, either by me or by another group.
20. complete 1.2 full graphics draft of 18IA by May
21. complete 1.3 full graphics draft of 18IA by September
22. attempt to restart 18xx play-by-email games I've punked out on.
23. skate or die on google reader, act or toss each saved entry.
24. install two new operating systems by June.
25. contemplate moving my old Angelfire page to Blogger to consolidate to Blogger and offline the Angelfire site.
26. work on something in Inkscape every month.
27. Game Rules review project – always have a game rules handy for editing.
28. Do a graphics rework of St Petersburg (Robot City).
29. finish putting together boards for Blue Moon City expansions and Agricola postcard.
30. play power grid atolla modulis, also get picture.
31. find 2 classes to take. Can be spring, summer, fall, LLU or college, don't care.
32. eat more fruits and vegetables.
33. save up $100 of spending cash for surprise classy meal out with Lee to celebrate mortgage payoff in 2014.
34. make a budget for my spending cash for the year.
35. make at least one new friend this year.
36. bring in 2 games in each Monday in January and try to get a lunch thing going at work.
37. start carrying a notepad again.
38. play 4 new games on BSW in 2009.
39. spend 4 hours updating my resume in January and July. I love my job, but I also need to figure out where to be focusing my training there.
40. get lee time to update hers as well.
41. give Lee a "vacation day" for herself by June, then by November.
42. plan year's vacation schedule.
43. give Alex an age-appropriate game, even if it's Candyland, for her birthday.
44. QUARTERLY schedule at least 2 hour block for desk cleaning and get lee to unplug computer during this time. do pre&post pictures.
45. don't subscribe to any more magazines this year.
46. renew domain names promptly.
47. print this list and keep one by the bed and one by my desk at home and at work, to keep me on track.
48. conceptualize and design a web app, even if it's something like making a list and checking things off.
49. buy a book every other month on half.com that I haven't read before (buy at least one of Seth Godin's books).
50. buy a book every other month on half.com that I haven't read before ( a PKD collection I don't have, ).
51. buy a book every other month on half.com that I haven't read before ( open).
52. buy a book every other month on half.com that I haven't read before (open).
53. buy a book every other month on half.com that I haven't read before (open).
54. buy a book every other month on half.com that I haven't read before (open).
55. schedule a time with Alan to do his video diary thing.
56. sell the last textbook I own on half.com.
57. take the DBSA facilitator training.
58. actually volunteer for something, somewhere, some way, in 2009.
59. Reconnect with friends.
60. Do a babysitting night for someone we owe, and someone we don't.
61. Make a walk chart and post it.
62. Upgrade tech by…- Getting rid of computer shells not in use. This includes -See if the laptop shell has a firewire port. If it does, transition it into my "desktop". If they are not gone by December 31, 2009 throw them away.
63. keep on track to pay off home equity loan in 2010, no matter what.
64. Make an initiative chart for me. Stickers every time I take the initiative on a task.
65. get someone over to the house or the playground at least once a month in January.
66. get someone over to the house or the playground at least once a month in February.
67. get someone over to the house or the playground at least once a month in March.
68. get someone over to the house or the playground at least once a month in April.
69. get someone over to the house or the playground at least once a month in May.
70. get someone over to the house or the playground at least once a month in June.
71. get someone over to the house or the playground at least once a month in July.
72. get someone over to the house or the playground at least once a month in August.
73. get someone over to the house or the playground at least once a month in September.
74. get someone over to the house or the playground at least once a month in October.
75. get someone over to the house or the playground at least once a month in November.
76. get someone over to the house or the playground at least once a month in December.
77. reread 10 important-to-me books and journal as I go.
    
78. reread 10 important-to-me books and journal as I go.
79. reread 10 important-to-me books and journal as I go.
80. reread 10 important-to-me books and journal as I go.
81. reread 10 important-to-me books and journal as I go.
82. reread 10 important-to-me books and journal as I go.
83. reread 10 important-to-me books and journal as I go.
84. reread 10 important-to-me books and journal as I go.
85. reread 10 important-to-me books and journal as I go.
86. reread 10 important-to-me books and journal as I go.
87. JUST POST THIS LIST and stop editing it.
88. come up with a good birthday present for Lee.
89. re-buy 3 copies of My Bohemian America, and loan them to Kevin Nunn, Alan Wen, Beth, Larry, and Chris B.. It's that important.
90. only goof-around-browse the web for 30 minutes max per day.
91. continue write up all face-to-face games played.
92. burn a 2nd archive of all the digital photos we have and send it to Mom, Amy, and Rachel
93. and it pains me to write this but… buy a new TV.
94. sell old game systems on craigslist. Good night, sweet Final Fantasy Tactics, and may angels sing thee to thy rest.
95. repurpose one game I have but will never play. (a la Kevin's Pokémon challenge).
96. print & play(!!) 1 game each quarter. Micropul first.
97. write end of 2008 gaming retrospective.
98. write at-least-quarterly updates on 18IA blog... i.e. I owe it one.
99. blog every book I read in 2009.
100. continue not to drink.
101. be the best employee I can be (the one they thought they hired)
102. Get to a Monday night proto night.
103. Get back in the library habit BUT only check out 2 books at once.
104. play something unplayed in my collection.
105. play something unpunched in my collection.
106. Make a deal with Lee to start Netflix and decide if we can live with a single Netflix queue or really are going to want 2 queues.
107. See if the book browser still exists, and if so, if I have any credit there.
108. Sign up for Lone Star and OwlCon as soon as I can.
     
109. Be creative. Always.

My Lone Star gaming experience on New Year's Day 2009

Kevin Nunn, designer of Nobody But Us Chickens and Duck! Duck! Go!, has for the last 4 years thrown an invitation-only gaming convention. This was my first year to be able to go, thanks to the kids. I was the second person into the ballroom at the Springhill Suites Mariott down by Hobby Airport.

-Learned and played "Business as Usual," Kevin's presidential re-theming of Pokemon Challenge, with Jenny Curry and RJ Mate.
-Learned and played Snow Tails with Mark Hamzy and RJ Mate.
-Played Glory to Rome with RJ Mate, Mark Hamzy, Marty Hoff, and Tom Bell
-Played Glory to Rome (x3) with Mark Hamzy, Tom Bell, Len Stemberger, and Chris Kolenda.
-Played Glory to Rome (x5) with Kerry Harrison, Tom Bell, Len Stemberger, and Bill Shirley.
-Played Dominion (x2) with Gene Platt.
-Learned and played High Society with Marty Hoff and somebody.
-Played Web of Power with Patrick Walsh, Mike Kent, and Ed Rozmiarek.
-Played Blue Moon City with Patrick and Holly Walsh, and Ed Rozmiarek.
-Learned and played Basari with Marvin Knighton, Aubrey, and someone else.
-Taught High Society with Christopher Weber and 3 other people.
-Played Glory to Rome (x2) with Len, Astro, Charles, and somebody.

About 2:22 a.m., I rolled away, tired but happy. Len and I kept goading each other into playing Glory to Rome... fine for him, as he won half the games he played. I think I won one of all the games, but had a great time with it. I'm running Glory to Rome at OwlCon, so I need practice hearing it explained.

Back from Lone Star

I got back from Kevin's big gaming extravaganza and will work up a full post on it, probably tomorrow if the kids let me. Short description, lots of games played, lots of fun had.