Today 14Jan2023: Saturday

I am writing Saturday’s story on Sunday morning. I had some vivid dreams and was wide awake at 6AM, so I started early. The dreams were about work, so I will not detail them here. I will carefully consider the contents of my dreams last night as the dreams are an opening to my true feelings. Often the predictions in the dreams come true, not magic; it is just my subconscious picking up on political currents at work and informing me through my dreams. I prefer the strange dreams to the screaming nightmares of chemotherapy or the crying sadness of dreams of personal loss. Nice to have a peculiar but positive dream.

Sorry, I forgot to take any photos on Saturday.

Going backward, I was back at the Volvo Cave, and the trip back from Portland was on wet roads with deep puddles and some local flooding. The roadways were not full of water, but they had been. The rains are here in the Pacific Northwest, and they will continue until June or July. I read and did laundry and the dishes and finally went to bed a bit early. I had trouble sleeping as I had a good couple of days and did not want the day to end.

I finished The Last Magician, and I liked the book. I thought it ended well and would recommend it. I still think the author has failed to make the characters as sympathetic as I like, and I am not a fan of dystopian stories, but this one works for me. I purchased the next book in the series (there are four) on my kindle. Thanks, Smiths (plus Jason), for the first in the series.

Moving backward, before this, I was at The Lucky Labrador Hawthorn playing board games with Evan at one of their slightly worn tables with heavy wooden chairs. A few other tables were also busy playing games. I also took questions about the games we played: Vindication and The Architects of the West Kingdom.

I had a rice-based beer and then a Scottish Holiday dark beer. Evan and I split a Bacon-Lettuce-Tomato (BLT) sandwich on traditional toasted bread with mayo (BLTs are usually excellent and are often the cheapest thing on the menu–the bartender recommended it). Later, at 7sih, we shared a pizza that was burning with spices that Evan selected (I told him to order what he wanted). The pizza was average, slightly undercooked with too much cheese, and I miss the wood flavor in the crust of wood-fired places. Still not terrible.

As for gaming, Vindication went sideways. Our first game hit the random end-game, with Evan claiming land so fast that he just won. We thought that was a waste and will consider a house rule requiring a longer game. The next game I miss played, a companion I had was unclear and gave me a stupidly good advantage. I re-read the card and asked Evan, and we both saw that I had misplayed; I surrendered that game (I was far ahead from the wrong play). We tried again, and I won that one, but again I tripped the end-of-game without even realizing it. Evan was in the middle of his plans, and I was lucky to win. We need to be more careful playing Vindication; we have so many plays that we get careless–Some of the new stuff coming from the newest Kickstarter for the game should be here next month (I hope) and will provide some game flow devices for the players to avoid some of the issues.

Vindication is a favorite and was designed here in the greater Portland area. I know the designer. It is a positive game about redemption and exploring that is beautifully implemented. It is a resource and worker placement game but with unique processes. Your character is a scumbag that needs to find companions and explore the island. There you find the resources to become vindicated and a better person. You may collect more companions and relics, fight monsters for honor, develop beneficial traits (Evan’s favorite), and become the owner of your favorite places. It is fun and very positive.

We managed one game of The Architects of the West Kingdom. Evan beat me by a whopping ten points. He schooled me on the fact that I was building cheap buildings, and in a two-person game, collecting resources is about the same for more expensive (and more victory points) buildings–I had drawn, at random, cheaper buildings. We built about the same number of buildings, with me building one great work building, and the scores on everything else were +/- nearly even, except victory points for buildings. The game ended with Evan and me down to our last two meeples!

Architects is a resource management and worker placement game. It uses a straightforward turn structure and complex options that make it easy to play, easy to learn, and challenging to master. I like games like this. Vindication is in the same style. Architects has more player interaction with the ability to arrest other players’ workers and sell them into prison for money.

We are playing the final version of Architects after the last updates from Kickstarter with all the moving parts. I also have most, maybe all, of the promo cards. Evan used one of those to clear his debts just before the game ended; the King Dan apprentice card is available at conventions and from the game’s New Zealand website (shipping was high, so I got multiple and gave them away as gifts).

Before this, I was at Susie’s from noonish to 2:30, watching episodes of Willow on Disney+. Susie was in her rocking chair in her room at the hummingbird house with me, watching her TV. Susie has a TV and all the cable we have at the house set up in her room. My account Alexa (renamed Echo) device, is also there. Susie can watch her favorite shows on Prime, Netflix, Disney+, and steamy HBOMax. Disney+ gets the most use. She can play music and get news from Echo.

Susie enjoyed the company and her chair with a Karen Wilson-made quilt (in Mardi Gras colors), keeping her comfy (Karen is the Treasurer of our church and very handy). Susie slept through the story-building sections (boring) and enjoyed the action scenes. This is a Lucas series with all the special effects and vistas of the incredible Star Wars shows; it is sort of like Star Wars goes Swords and Sorcery without the baggage of Tolkien or the Skywalker family; I enjoyed it.

We called Leta, Susie’s mother, between the episodes (they are almost an hour long each!). She and Susie had a friendly long chat about Leta’s day. Susie is always delighted to see her mother on my iPhone using FaceTime.

After a couple episodes, Susie was sleepy and hungry. We had skipped lunch so far; Anassa, the weekend nursing aide, was ready to help and get Susie lunch. I gave Susie a kiss goodbye, and Susie was headed to some soup and rest. Anassa will have Susie prepared for church at 10AM on Sunday.

Before this, I was up a bit late but refused to rush. I wrote the blog with toast and coffee for breakfast. I skipped my exercises as I was stiff, and my back ached a bit. I was in Air Volvo at about 11:30 and headed to Susie’s place.

Switching gears, David Wesley has done a new video and since it is Sunday, let me put the link here: The Goodness of God. While I don’t support David Wesley on Patron, I subscribe to his channel as he does fantastic work.

Thank you for reading!