Last night I played 7 Wonders at Monday night gaming.
It’s very complicated.
I suppose I mostly understood how to play by the end of the game but not really why. It’s 90% me vs. the cards I randomly get. And nothing seemed to “happen” during the game until we tallied the score at the very end.
Scoring is so complicated. I made most of my choices based on “ooh, that’s a pretty card, I’ll choose that one.” and I scored in the middle of the pack at the end of the game. So many of the “strategic” choices come down to whether luck will favor me getting the right cards. There are just so many ways to score victory points that it all evens out in the end.
I’ve also got to admit that I was distracted the entire evening due to some personal issues. So maybe the game is actually better than I experienced.
The night opened with a rousing game of Abducktion. I was too late to get in, but fun was had.
At the end of the night, we played a little round of Liars Dice. Such a simple game, but ultimately rather satisfying!
Last week at Community Games Night, I played Raiders of the North Sea again. Despite learning it just last month, I had mostly forgotten how to play. I ultimately played a bit better than the last time but quickly remembered that I would rather be playing directly with other players (either with or against); I’m playing mostly against my cards and the board. It was fine, the pictures are pretty.
Last night at Monday Night Gaming, I got to play Arcs: Conflict and Collapse in the Reach. It’s a complex, very nice game! By the end of 2 1/2 hours of gameplay, we were officially 3/5 of the way through a game and I was still figuring out rules, but it was fun! And a very good group to play with, teaming up with Kevin against Arthur will always be a thing. And Arthur will still always win ;-)
Kevin getting a shot of me getting shredded by my own attack on Arthur’s blue ships
There’s growing evidence that prenatal exposure to nitric oxide increases the incidence of autism in children, maybe 1.4 times. Nitric oxide is found in engine exhaust, natural gas stoves, tobacco smoke, and smog.
In April, RFK Jr. made it a top priority to identify the causes of autism. I wonder how the discussion will go: RFK Jr to Trump, “Fossil fuel exhaust causes autism! To make America Healthy Again, you should encourage renewable energy, electric cars, electric stoves, and discourage smoking!”
Trump, “Since taking office, I made executive orders doing exactly the opposite on each of those fronts.” (which is true) “So here’s what I’m going to do…”
I got about 2/3 of the way through playing Small World world at Monday night gaming. I had to bail because Abigail said she missed me, so I rushed home. I think it takes a few playings to get the hang of all the characters and their powers. We all played quietly, focusing on the many many pieces on the board.
Pope Francis passed away 2 weeks ago. Would it be strange and deeply offensive if I put on a pope hat, robes, and a cross around my neck and posted a photo here? Well, that is what Donald Trump did. I am loathe to repost it but proof of this offense needed.
What if a week after the pope passed away, I said I thought I should be the next pope? Would that be strange and offensive? That’s what Donald Trump did.
I tried Visible Wireless because they are an MNVO for Verizon and those towers have slightly better service at my daughter’s elementary school than the other networks.
But there is, apparently, congestion on their network most of the day in my area. With my phone sitting in front of me on my desk, calls often go straight to voicemail, with wifi calling on or off. Texts take 2-60 minutes to arrive. Their website is so terribly slow; logging in takes 13 seconds, every page load takes 3 seconds. Ugh.
I called support and they walked me through a 40 minute eSIM card reset that didn’t help. On the next call, they sent me a physical SIM card to try to fix the issue but it did not.
I upgraded to “Visible+” in the hopes that more money would magically fix the problem, but no.
After 2 months of trying, I’ve got to say goodbye to Visible Wireless.
This is a followup to my long running work on getting people to understand the proper medical symbol, the Rod of Asclepius. Read.
I finally reached someone at Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Dr. Alfredo Sansone, Executive Publisher at Elsevier and STM Journals.
Right now, it appears that Dr. Sansone doesn’t appear interested in making sure good and correct articles are published and visible, but to… I don’t know! He responded to my first message having obviously not read it thoughtfully. For example, I made a summative statement and backed it up with a detailed reasoning along with several hundred citations (yes, several hundred). But his response was to attack the summative statement in a sideways manner, ignoring all the rest. His other disagreements with my thesis just don’t make sense. I followed up with a long clarifying letter, hoping to further progress but while he has definitely viewed it, and another message I sent, he hasn’t responded. I’m considering publishing our weird interaction and just giving up on this part of the project.
I had pursued this because when you google “medical symbol” an article on Dr. Sansone’s Mayo Clinic Proceedings (MCP) site came up first. Today I note that the MCP article doesn’t come up first any more! Google still gets the answer wrong in summary, but EVERY article it links to reports that the Rod of Asclepius is the more appropriate symbol.
Donald Trump sent Abrego Garcia from the United States to an El Salvador prison despite a long standing United State’s court order prohibiting his deportation to El Salvador. Trump says that the characters “MS13” tattooed on Mr. Garcia’s fingers are the reason enough to believe he is a gang member. To be clear, Trump doesn’t believe the letters were put onto the image as callouts showing how the image of the marijuana leaf on his finger may represent the letter “M” etc. He believes that the completely obviously “photoshop” applied callouts are tattoos on the man’s hand. What do you think?
Here is Trump saying, and arguing strongly that he believes the text was plainly written on his hand. Trump, “He had ‘M’ ‘S’ as clear as you can be, not interpreted…”
I also note that Trump wrote on that X (Twitter) post, “…two Highly Respected Courts found that he was a member of MS-13”. While every news report I’ve found says that Abrego Garcia has no criminal record.
Update 4-30-25: I found this news report released today where there was talk by police of him being a gang member in 2021 and having domestic dispute issues. It still stands that the Supreme Court told Trump to get him back from El Salvador and Trump completely refuses. See the the previous 10 minutes or so of the interview above
In brief: I get my news from NPR, The Washington Post, and Fox News Online. Where do you get yours?
A bit more: A few months ago, I decided to get a subscription to a newspaper. I wasn’t sure what to get, but I ended up with the Washington Post. I was a little worried that since the Post is owned by Bezos is connected to the Trump oligarchy, possibly making the reporting unfair. That doesn’t seem to be the case! Here are today’s headlines in the Washington post, a pretty typical day.
Last week at Community Games Night, I played Raiders of the North Sea again. Despite learning it just last month, I had mostly forgotten how to play. I ultimately played a bit better than the last time but quickly remembered that I would rather be playing directly with other players (either with or against); I’m playing mostly against my cards and the board. It was fine, the pictures are pretty.
