December 18th, 2006:
Seattle had a terrible wind storm that knocked out power to around 1.5 million customers Thursday night. Shira and I were without power for around 17 hours, but we consider ourselves fortunate: I have co-workers that still don't have power as I write this Monday morning.
Yilun Yang, professional 7-dan Go player, came to Seattle to teach a workshop at the Seattle Go Center. The workshop took up the entire weekend, and Mr. Yang stayed in our guest bedroom. We took Mr. Yang to Chiang's Gourmet Saturday night, and we had a very impressive dinner.
December 11th, 2006:
Kyle and I played BattleLore all day Sunday. It's a great game, a lot of fun. It has a higher luck component than most games that I like, but it's fun enough that I don't mind. I'm trying to set up a once per month group to play at Metro Seattle Gamers, since a number of people there have already bought the game and expressed interest.
Troy Smith won the Heisman Trophy on Friday night. I'll be wearing my #10 jersey when I watch the National Championship game on January 8th.
December 4th, 2006:
Shira and I attended the company Christmas party at Benaroya Hall. The symphony performed, there was swing dancing, dueling pianos, lots of food, fake casino games, and so on.
Ohio State will be playing Florida in the national championship game on January 8th. I leave for a two week business trip to India the very next day. One of my co-workers is a Florida alumnus, so I imagine I'll have something riding on the game.
BattleLore finally shipped, and should be here by the weekend. My friend Kyle is coming over to try it out on Sunday.
November 27th, 2006:
No update last week because Shira and I were in Boulder, Colorado, for Thanksgiving. We had a great time.
Currently reading Against The Day, the new Thomas Pynchon novel.
We had a snow day here in Seattle, the whole city basically shut down because of icy roads. I put the time to good use and completely cleaned and organized my home office.
When I got back from vacation, the new expansion to Command & Colors: Ancients was waiting for me. It took about four hours to assemble (putting a ton of tiny stickers on tiny wooden blocks), but it looks great. The battle of Thermopylae is not included as a scenario, but I expect it will be made available on the web soon.
November 13th, 2006:
Shira and I saw Stranger Than Fiction. I liked it, but not as much as Shira did. I would rate it a rental.
I played a ton of Go on the internet this past week.
November 6th, 2006:
Still reading House of Leaves, should finish this week.
I've been playing a lot of online Go the last few weeks. My ranking is up to 3 kyu, and I think I could get it to 2 kyu if I only played when I was in a mood to concentrate well. For the last couple of years I've doubted if I would ever be able to achieve shodan, but now I'm confident that I'll get there someday.
Taught Shira to play Aton last night; it's a great 2 player game with some luck but a lot of strategy, that plays in about 20 minutes.
Ohio State escaped with a narrow victory over lightly-regarded Illinois on Saturday, leading to wailing and nashing of teeth among Buckeye fans. Hopefully they can get the ship back on course this week against Northwestern.
Shira and I are going to read Straight Man together. I'll post comments as we go.
October 30th, 2006:
Shira got back from the JASNA annual meeting in Tucson. She went with her mom, and they both had a great time. The next two annual meetings are in Vancouver and Chicago, so I might well join her for one or both of those.
I had some friends over yesterday to play some games. We tried Prophecy, which looked like fun but turns out to take way too long for a game with so much randomness. I won a game of Reef Encounter, which I continue to think very highly of; and I came in 2nd in a game of Traders of Genoa, which I still don't really feel as if I've ever gotten a good handle on.
Spent another Saturday deep in zombie mode in front of the television watching college football. With Ohio State still undefeated and ranked number one, I'm useless for anything else until after the season ends in three weeks.
Nuxhall continues to age at an alarming rate. He doesn't seem to be in any physical distress, but he's almost completely deaf, and just sleeps all of the time. He seems to be fading pretty quickly; I'm not sure if he'll last another year.
October 23rd, 2006:
Currently reading: House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski. It's a lot of fun, I'll probably write up a review when I finish.
My friend Jarrett hosted a small get together, and between he, Edgar and myself, we managed to produce a '96 Cornas, a '95 Barolo, a '93 Quilceda Creek, and a '93 Leonetti. As my friend Andy Shepherd is fond of saying, "Life is Good."
I watched the Ohio State game with the OSU alumni club at Sports Restaurant, near the Space Needle. John See and I are both huge Buckeye fans that grew up in Ohio but didn't attend Ohio State, so we sit with each other when we watch the games.
I got all my immunizations for my upcoming trip to India. It's a little bit sobering getting immunized for things like Polio and Measles and Malaria.
October 16th, 2006:
I got Dominions 3 in the mail and started playing. I don't think there's any question that the Dominions series are the greatest turn based computer strategy games of all time, but they're extremely time consuming.
Shira and I went to see Sufjan Stevens at the Paramount last night. It was a really amazing show. I also quite like the opening act, My Brightest Diamond.
I spent all day Saturday watching college football. It appears that Ohio State is on an inevitable collision course with Michigan on November 18th for the right to play in the National Championship game, with all the games in the next month being a mere formality.
October 9th, 2006:
Shira's deviated septum surgery was a success, but she's still not fully recovered. The surgeon seemed convinced that she would enjoy some real health benefits once she recovers.
I spent the weekend in San Francisco playing games with a group of friends. We had 8 of the top 16 AREA rated Titan players in the world, so we wound up playing a lot of Titan.
I'm about halfway through Gates of Fire, a very entertaining historical fiction novel about the battle of Thermopylae.
October 2nd, 2006:
Shira got back from her trip to Canyonlands. She had a great time. It was not clear if Nuxhall or I was the more happy to see her. :-)
Shira goes in for deviated septum surgery tomorrow (Tuesday), so I'll be working from home for a few days while she's recovering.
I started playtesting the upcoming army for Battleground:Fantasy Warfare, but I'm not allowed to give any specifics.
My weekend highlight was (again) an Ohio State Buckeye football game; this week's victim was Iowa.
September 25th, 2006:
I am in bachelor mode this week, as Shira is in Canyonlands National Park with her father, Alan. Alan grew up in the park, and as a boy explored and named many of its features with his father.
Basically just watched football all weekend, including Ohio State's smackdown of PSU.
Started reading Dan Simmons' Illium.
September 18th, 2006:
Got my group at work to buy me a copy of IDA Pro, a really cool disassembler. I just started playing with it, but I can already highly recommend it.
Spent some time working on possible designs for the High Elf army for Battleground; the designers solicited my input a couple of weeks ago, which is kind of cool.
I'm also getting very excited about the upcoming entry in Richard Borg's Command & Colors series: Battlelore.
September 11th, 2006:
My best friend Bill Thacker came to visit. We did a bunch of fun stuff, including taking the Seattle Underground Tour.
Bill and I also watched Ohio State crush Texas on Saturday, getting some measure of revenge for last year's heartbreaking loss.
September 4th, 2006:
Shira and I attended the Telluride Film Festival with some friends. A great time! I'm too busy to give detailed reviews of the movies I saw, but here are some quick grades:
Fur C+ Beautiful cinematography, great acting, bad script.
Day Night Day Night C- Interesting concept, amateurish execution, too long, boring.
Venus B+ Great performance by Peter O'Toole, decent story.
Jindabyne B Gabriel Byrne and Laura Linney both stellar as usual, just not a particularly compelling plot; gorgeous cinematography.
The Namesake B Fun movie based on hit novel of the same name; same director as Monsoon Wedding.
Deep Water B+ Interesting documentary about Donald Crowhurst.
Directed by John Ford C+ Fun, but not very well made; more of an homage than a documentary.
The Italian A- Very well made and entertaining Russian movie, inspired by a true story of an orphan who runs away and finds his mother.
Babel B+ Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt in an ensemble piece of three loosely connected stories; very well made, great musical score.
The Lives of Others A A must-see movie. Uplifting, interesting, informative, beautifully acted-- a triumph
In addition to the movies that I was able to see, there were two others that I missed that got very good buzz. Keep an eye out for The Last King of Scotland, which many attendees felt was the best movie of the festival; and Infamous, which tells the exact same story as last year's Capote, but by all accounts is a better movie.
August 28th, 2006:
I ran the Titan tournament at Dragonflight this weekend. It went okay, but I caught a nasty cold and have been out of action since Saturday night.
Shira and I are off to the Telluride Film Festival this weekend. I really, really hope I won't be coughing through the movies. :-(
Added a picture of me after winning the Battleground tournament at Gencon.
August 21st, 2006:
Shira and I went to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival for the fourth consecutive year. This year we saw King John, The Winter's Tale, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Cyrano de Bergerac, and The Importance of Being Earnest. I can't imagine a better way to spend an extended weekend, it's so fun every year.
Currently reading: Glamorama, which I can't believe I haven't read before since it's a brilliant novel by one of my all time favorite authors.
Also re-reading selected chapters from Arms, Armies, and Fortifications in the Hundred Years War, The Hundred Years War: The English in France 1337-1453, and The Hundred Years War: Trial by Fire, trying to get a handle on the tactics the English used for deploying their Longbowmen, since there's a raging debate about this on the Battleground discussion group.
Getting ready to run the Titan tournament at Dragonflight this coming weekend.
August 14th, 2006:
Attended Gencon, and had a really great time. I hung out a lot with the guys from Boston that run Your Move Games, they're a lot of fun. I also spent some time with a bunch of friends from Columbus that drove to Indianapolis for the convention.
While at Gencon, I won the Battleground:Fantasy Warfare Sword tournament. I actually won the same sword I won at Origins, since I donated it back to the company that time (I did this time, too). I'll put a picture up in the photos section as soon as they send it to me.
In the meantime, you can see a picture of me at Gencon on the BoardgameNews site, here. From left to right, Joe, Chad, me and James. Chad is the owner of Your Move Games.
Shira is suffering from a nasty virus. We're both hoping she gets better in time for our trip to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival this weekend, which (not coincidentally) is our 6th wedding anniversary.
August 7th, 2006:
Attended Black Hat in Las Vegas. Vegas is about what I expected: too much noise and light, it made me tired just to walk through the casinos on the way between my hotel room and the conference. The conference itself was surreal. There were NSA operatives seated next to hackers who had caused millions of dollars in damage by their actions, listening to people outline serious security vulnerabilities effecting most computer systems, complete with demos of how to exploit them. We live in strange times.
Finally passed my kidney stone. That's a relief. :-)
Cooked pork tenderloin on the new grill, and it came out perfect-- so far just about everything I've done on the grill has been really good, with the exception of the one night we had company, and there was so much food on the grill that the volume of dripping fat just fanned the flames too much.
Getting ready to attend Gencon, I leave on Wednesday.
July 31st, 2006:
The heat wave broke, so life is much more comfortable than last week.
Saw Miami Vice. Extremely well made, but just not all that entertaining; I'd call it a video rental.
Played Command & Colors: Ancients and Romulan Border yesterday at Metro Seattle Gamers.
Getting ready to attend Black Hat in Las Vegas; I leave tomorrow.
July 24th, 2006:
We're suffering through a heat wave. We bought a one-room floor-standing air conditioner which we put in the bedroom, which means Shira, Nuxhall and I basically spent all weekend in the bedroom. Watched some Simpsons DVDs, read a little, and moaned about how hot it was.
We hosted a dinner party on Saturday night, got a chance to use the new grill. Lots of fun.
Played poker with some guys I met at the Texas Hold'em Tournament a couple of months ago. Their home game has all sorts of random games, lots of wild cards, etc.; it would be difficult to win or lose consistently, since the games are so random.
July 17th, 2006:
Shira was out of town most of the week. Nuxhall and I coped as best we could.
Gene and I assembled the new grill. My testosterone level jumped measurably.
Played two new games: The Scepter of Zavandor and Reef Encounter. I have rated them both on my BoardGameGeek entry.
July 10th, 2006:
Shira and I spent a long weekend in Portland with her parents. We had another great meal at Wildwood (which never disappoints), spent some time at Powell's, and visited the Rose Garden.
Decided on a new gas grill: the Weber Genesis Silver "B". I'm picking it up tonight.
July 3rd, 2006:
Got hit by a kidney stone on my way to Origins, spent most of the weekend on pain killers.
Nonetheless managed to win every game I played there: one game of Federation Commander, and all three games in the Battleground Sword Tournament. You can see a geeky picture of me with the sword I won here.
The 4th of July brought mixed feelings. Nuxhall was almost completely oblivious to all the fireworks, which used to produce such severe anxiety that we would have to give him tranquilizers just to make it through the night: he's almost completely deaf now, just another sign of his advancing years.
Shira made enough guacamole for 8 people, then the outing got cancelled, so I know what I'm having for dinner this week.
June 26th, 2006:
Finalized my army for the Battleground tournament at Origins.
Shira and I bought a portable air conditioner for our bedroom. It's only hot enough to need it six weeks out of the year, but it's pretty miserable for those six weeks.
June 19th, 2006:
Shira and I went to Walla Walla for a long weekend of fine dining and wine tasting. Among the highlights:
Woodward Canyon: I have always considered this to be one of the triumvirate of world class Washington State wineries (along with Leonetti and Quilceda Creek), so finally getting a chance to visit was a treat.
L'Ecole 41 also makes some great wine, and their property was gorgeous.
26 Brix restaurant was amazing. Perfect service, delicious food, simple and unpretentious ambiance, and extensive wine list. Highly recommended.
Re-read the charming comedy of manners / romance / fantasy A College of Magics, by Caroline Stevermer, because I recently stumbled across a previously-unknown-to-me sequel, A Scholar of Magics, which I started in on last night when my allergies were acting up preventing me from sleeping.
Played a couple of tune-up games of Federation Commander with Scott, to get ready for the tournament at Origins. Got my clock cleaned both times.
June 12th, 2006:
Started playtesting various armies for the Battleground tournament coming up at Origins.
Went to my sister Diana's award ceremony at Whatcom Community College, a couple of pictures are in my gallery. She won outstanding student of the year in History, and 2 academic scholarships for the coming year.
June 5th, 2006:
Played Whirley Ball with my group at work-- lot's of fun, I'd do it again.
Finished Throne of Jade, started Black Powder War.
Bought Heroes of Might & Magic V, spent much of the weekend playing; if you liked any of the previous games in the series, you'll be pleased with this one.
I've been having troubles with my sinuses. My doctor put me on antibiotics, ordered a CT Sinus Scan, and is sending me to an allergist; the most likely outcome seems to be that I'll need to get allergy shots.
May 29th, 2006:
Inspired by last week's Poker victory, I bought and read a couple of poker related books. Both of them were quite entertaining:
Went to my friend David's house in San Francisco for Memorial Day weekend to play games. Played a bunch of Titan, had a great time.
While in S.F., stopped by Kublacon on Saturday to help Your Move Games run Battleground demonstrations.
Registered for this year's U.S. Go Congress
May 22nd, 2006:
Friday night I won the 6th annual Dennis Moore Texas Hold'em Tournament, out of a field of 32.
Saturday I woke up with a cold, and have been basically out of action ever since
May 15th, 2006:
Spent the last week in Florida. Visited my Mom, Grandma, and one of my best friends from high school. Unfortunately we forgot to bring our digital camera, so no pictures.
Finished reading Midnight Tides, started reading The Bonehunters.
May 8th, 2006:
Watched the excellent BBC mini-series The Barchester Chronicles.
Saw Mission Impossible III, which I would rate as a "rent the DVD when you're bored" movie.
Started reading Midnight Tides, which like all the other Steven Erikson books is brilliant so far.
Got the newly released "Elves of Ravenwood" expansion for Battleground; another fine addition to the game.
May 1st, 2006:
Read Pamela Aidan's retelling of Pride and Prejudice from Darcy's point of view. Purple prose, overly melodramatic at points, but great fun.
Lost another game of Battleground to Eric. I think I'm like 2-6 against him now.
Started painting the Goblin Wolfriders I primed a couple of months ago.
Watched the second season of Jeeves and Wooster.
April 24th, 2006:
Took Shira to see The Devil and Daniel Johnston, she liked it as much as I did.
Played in the Cherry Blossom Festival Go Tournament; went 2-0 and then withdrew.
Re-read a couple Roger Zelazny classics, Dilvish the Damned and The Changing Land.
Played the best game of Go I have played yet against my teacher, Yilun Yang; I made only one serious mistake in the entire game.
April 17th, 2006:
Watched the BBC adaptions of some Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey novels:
Worked all weekend on a problem that turned out to be a random hardware bit flip during the compilation-- not easy to catch!
Saw an excellent documentary that's in current release: The Devil and Daniel Johnston.
April 10th, 2006:
Read Hard Rain, a so-so thriller.
Watched North and South, a very well done BBC production of the Elizabeth Gaskell novel.
Finally found a place to get a good bowl of Ramen: Fu Lin, in the International District.
Saw the Rozome exhibit at the Bellevue Arts Museum.
Played a couple games of Conquest of the Fallen Lands; the designer gave me a free prototype. Pretty good.
April 3rd, 2006:
Played in the monthly ratings tournament at Seattle Go Center.
Started playing Oblivion, but having a hard time getting interested.
Caught up on some movies I had been meaning to see. Wouldn't really recommend any of them:
Introduced Ben to Donnie Darko, one of my favorite movies.
Read His Majesty's Dragon: light, quick, entertaining fluff.
March 26th, 2006:
Taught Go to beginners at Sakura-Con.
Installed a computer for my sister in Bellingham.
Saw a fantastic production of Cyrano de Bergerac.
Finished re-watching Hikaru No Go.
Still reading the same books as last week.
March 19th, 2006:
Watching entire Hikaru No Go anime series again.
Cleaned and spruced up the front porch.
Saw V for Vendetta, probably seeing it again soon.
Still re-reading Lyonesse.
Still working through Dictionary of Basic Tesuji, Volume 1.
March 12th, 2006: