06/19/21: No Pithy title
TLDR
Update: Job interview and Minnesota trip
Playing: Terraforming Mars: Aries Expedition again
Watching: Black Widow
End Notes: You can contact me at jadettman@gmail.com
THE UPDATE
I wanted to start by saying that it’s been a busy two weeks and, by pandemic standards, I think it has been; by Before Times standards, probably less so. We’ve become accustomed to our new, more sedate lifestyle, though and maybe it’s interesting what that says about us (but also maybe not).
I was reminded last week of Madrak, the uncertain priest from Zelazny’s Creatures of Light and Darkness, and his Agnostic’s Prayer (which you can read in its entirety at the book’s Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creatures_of_Light_and_Darkness#The_Agnostic's_Prayer ). I don’t remember what made me think of it but I had to look it up nonetheless.
The weekend before last, we drove to Minnesota to a family reunion of Britt’s folks. It was a day of lovely weather at a park shelter. We played bag toss and several board games (with the amusingly usual conversation by some about never having heard of any of the games that I brought), ate delicious food, with the usual chatting and such. It was a nice trip.
And this week, I had a job interview at the Beloit Public Library. The interview went well but I’m not getting my hopes up. It will happen if it happens.
Also, seriously, no one has any tv show recommendations?
PLAYING
We’ve played some more Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition in the last two weeks and I can confirm that once you’ve gotten used to it that it is a shorter game than regular Terraforming Mars. We even played with a third person and, even with the learning curve, the game was shorter. I think the last one we played was about an hour.
After a bit of time with it, I think it’s definitely an interesting game in its own right. Here are some general observations:
1> it’s very easy to get sidetracked by building out your infrastructure. If your opponents are too then it will probably work out but, if not, they have a greater chance of ending the game before you are ready for it.
2> discarding cards for money is very important, which means getting ways to draw more cards is also very important.
3> finding a rhythm in which you and your opponents are playing different phases really speeds up the game.
This probably hasn’t helped any of you at all but I think working it out has helped me.
WATCHING
I saw Black Widow during the week and almost had the theater to myself. I think our local theater has renovated because they had really nice heated recliner seats which was news.
What can I say about Black Widow? I think I liked it. (It can take me a while to figure these things out sometimes.) I liked Natasha’s new little sister, Yelena. There was some interesting action and some good character building. I mean, it’s a little late for it, coming as it does after Avengers: Endgame but, of course, this movie sets up the future too, like all good Marvel movies.
Overall, I would say it was a middle of the road Marvel movie. Better than the first two Thor movies but definitely not as well realized as their pinnacles: Black Panther and Captain America: Winter Soldier.
END NOTES
If you'd like to send me some feedback or discuss one of the topics I've talked about here (or even a different topic), email me at jadettman@gmail.com
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