Sunday, April 6, 2014

Slouching towards Spring

Sigh... there are still piles of snow here and there, refusing to leave.  It kind of mimics my own internal sluggishness regarding the blog these days.  The rest of life occupies roughly 25 hours a day, leaving little negative space for this here enclave of ludology.


Nevertheless, I'd like to make time for a miscellaneous update, if only to peek my own head up above the waves, like a periscope, to get my bearings.
  • Last week, my family and I finished watching the single season of Space: Above and Beyond, a phenomenally well-written 1995-1996 sci-fi TV series that should have gone on longer.  We've now just started in with the Eccleston season of Doctor Who.
  • I'm so not a computer game person, but for a couple weeks I've been mildly addicted to 2048, an popular browser-based abstract puzzle game.  I haven't yet beat it (current high score: 20,980), but I'm balmed to know that there's SCIENCE behind why it's so addictive.
  • I've had my final two moves in the "Ode To Joy Game" (see the most recent post) planned for at least a month -- with game-board images already "in the can" -- but I haven't been able to get the text of the posts written yet.  Hopefully soon.
  • Although I had an awesome time doing the April A-Z challenge in 2012 and 2013, I didn't manage to think of a good enough theme this year, so I'm taking a break.
  • Okay, was anyone else as upset as I was about last week's series finale of the sitcom How I Met Your Mother?  I don't think I've mentioned here that this was one of the only weekly sitcoms that I watched pretty regularly.  Its ending was well-written, kind of shocking, and will surely continue to be divisive amongst fans.  I'll link to a (spoiler-filled) article or two that reflect some of my own feelings about it, and just leave it at... poor Tracy McConnell!
  • It's been a while since I've done any work on my Homebrew '82 role-playing game rules variant, or on the associated "Avalon Lost" campaign setting (scroll down to posts 13-18 here).  However, a few days ago I did get, all in a flash, a mindwarping idea for the final adventure in the Avalon Lost universe.  I might write it up for the blog, as long as I remember (if I ever start DMing in the future) not to tell my players that this blog exists.  :-)
  • Later this week comes April 8, 9, and 10, three special holidays in Aleister Crowley's new religious tradition of Thelema.  It's the 110th anniversary of the writing of the Book of the Law.  In recent years I've fallen out with my own tradition of reading the three chapters on their associated days, but I'm planning to make time for it this year.
That's all for now, friends.  More soon.

10 comments:

  1. Will you be posting about your (ceremonial?) reading of the chapters?

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    1. It's definitely not ceremonial... but actually sitting down with a printed book and reading for an extended time is getting to be a rare and treasured experience these days. We'll see if any blog-worthy insights pop up. :-)

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  2. Dear Cygnus,
    at last I can say something to the topic of weather (how very British :-)
    In Berlin we had nice spring temperatures - the only fear is: maybe this was our summer? On Facebook many people complained about 'How I Met..`I only saw the very first series.
    Hope spring finds you very soon!

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    1. Thanks, Britta! I hear you... if we have a warm weekend in New England, the jokes start flying about summer... here it comes, there it goes! ;-)

      About that TV show... at least it's getting people engaged with a compelling story and characters that have the ability to break your heart. Better than cynical indifference.

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  3. I think the Eccleston season of Dr Who was pretty decent.

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    1. We liked the first episode. However, we did have to back up a few times and put on the closed captioning. "Lots of planets have a north," but the accent takes some getting used to. (Even for us long-time fans of Daphne Moon.) :-)

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  4. Lovely bird photo. Yours?

    I am intrigued by 2048 but I shall resist... for now.

    Looking forward to your last two moves.

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    1. Not my picture... I should be more careful about attributing sources. (But the sentiment remains... we still have a manhole-cover sized patch of snow in one shady spot...)

      I'm done with 2048. I beat the darn thing, and it halted with two options: "keep going?" or "try again?" None of the above, please. :-)

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    2. We've still got a few patches here and there. It was a very strange week for weather, even by Vermont in April standards.

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