Out of The PIT

Laz and I went to this year's board game jam and my mantra for this year was simplicity, simplicity, simplicity. The only idea I had was to either build or climb a pyramid, and from there, we designed Ziggurat. I was surprised how quickly we hammered out the game mechanics and started play testing with an Uno deck that we had used for Automa Arena. After play testing it a number of times, we were able to polish it a bit and we both really enjoy the game. Let's see how others like it..

I am sure others have thought of this, but consider the four classical elements: Earth, Water, Air, and Fire. I do think that the ancients had an idea of what was going on, and in a way to classify all of matter, they did it in a way that they could grasp and convey the information using the language and technology of the time. I consider the classical elements more of a representation of all states of matter, which they did a good job of. Earth = Solid, Water = Liquid, Air = Gas, Fire = Plasma. (Although some might consider Aether = Plasma.) It would take until the modern era before they could truly explain the behaviour of matter with chemistry.

So yes, I got MJNL a new car for her 30th birthday. I had purchased the car along with MIBAgentQ a month ago, and we had to keep it secret since then. On top of that, we had to organize the date of the reveal, order cake, get bows, pick up the cars, hope that the weather would cooperate (we had a 30cm dump the day before which was much too close for comfort), and keep it on the down low. Apparently both twins were completely surprised and had no idea. Apparently they have no idea how to top these gifts, but considering how empty my wallet is now, I say that saving up for a house might be a good thing for the next little while..

Gosh, I've been busy haven't I? Saw an accident on my way to Growly's birthday party on Saturday. A car sideswiped a taxi. It was minor damage so I did not think I needed to stick around. I did have a good time wrestling and getting a long needed workout, except that I was still sick. It seems as if my body is not ready for physical activity yet as I still have to recover from the events of that day. On Sunday, I went snowboarding with MJNL and one of her co-workers. They got lost on the way to the ski hill, but the weather was not very good so I was glad I was not the one driving the car. I did witness some lady ski straight into the fence while I was on the chair lift. Since my snowboarding skills sucked, I ran from the chair to free her. Seems like there were no injuries and she was just stuck (for a few minutes). Later on the same lady fell down and couldn't get up, so I had to take the board off and help her get the skis off. I told her to walk down the hill....

I first heard about Spaceteam from Penny Arcade . It is kind of like Artemis in the sense that you require communication and more than one person. Otherwise, it is not. But it seems fun.

I first came across this group from a Vsauce leanback , but here are a couple of entertaining links. An Abridged History of Western Music in 16 Genres and a History of Misheard Lyrics .

Happy New Year world! I have been busy of late due to all of the end of year celebrations going on at this time of the year. So although we have been busy going from one gathering to another, or cleaning the apartment during whatever time we are at home, I have been unable to update this blog for the past two weeks! The holiday break went by quickly, and now I am faced with a new year already. How time flies. In any case, with the changes to the TFSA limit, I had to adjust my TFSA spreadsheet calculations. It should be a bit more managable when the limit changes again in a few years.