Chris Brooks Newsletter 004
Where I've Been Traveling
My big trip in July was to Sunriver, Oregon to hang out with friends and play wargames. I still need to write up some of the gaming I did, but two big highlights:
- Playing Kerrnstown over about two days with Ken.
- Playing Enemy Action: Kharkov with Bruce (twice!)
I was worried when I booked the flights to Oregon and back that our Tesla delivery would finally happen and overlap with this trip. The worries were justified as the scheduled pickup date (in Florida) turned out to be July 30. So I rebooked my return flight to head to Orlando, spent Friday with family in Melbourne, then picked up the Tesla Model Y on Saturday morning and started my two-day drive back to Keuka Lake NY.
We love the car so far, and as expected we are having to learn on the fly how to keep it charged here at the lake. The closest supercharger is about 35 minutes away in Painted Post, and slow charging from our cottages is only an emergency option. Sadly the destination charger at a nearby winery only recovers about 10% of charge in an hour, but it will be worth stopping on our way to and from Penn Yan.
What I've Been Reading
I've been reading thick books so not much completion! But I've had some long drives and found some books to listen to:
- The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman was much more engaging than I expected. I heard about the book while listening to a Tyler Cowen interview of Klosterman earlier in the year. Besides covering a range of topics about the 1990s (the obvious ones: music, movies, books, politics, TV, technology) he did a masterful job of revisiting context. It is so hard to go back to the 2000 presidential election without the lens of our current knowledge. Recommended, especially if you lived through the 90s.
- The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah is a novel off my to-read list that I listened to while driving from Florida to NY last week. Entertaining enough for a road trip, I wouldn't call it a masterpiece. Think of this as an in-your-face feminist The Grapes of Wrath with stronger labor and political tones.
I finished reading Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson, the most recent book in the Stormlight Archive. This is book four of the first half of the planned 10-book series and it was amazing. I usually read fiction before going to sleep at night, but a sure sign that a book is engaging me deeply is that I keep my Kobo reader with me all day to read when I can. The last third of this book was read in this fashion.
I also read bits and pieces of Donnybrook, a great historical book about the battle of Bull Run. This is to support the ongoing game of The Day was Ours that I'm enjoying.
One article (actually a forum post) I'd like to share about a topic I've talked about in prior newsletters is one about some core assumptions of effective altruism, according to me. Being an outsider to this community, but very interested in "what it is all about," I find these sorts of discussions interesting. For example:
People who are unfamiliar with the effective altruism community sometimes perceive it as a “totalising” community (or set of ideas), which asks people to commit most or all of their lives to the movement. This is not the case.
I also learned that most effective altruists are vegans. Makes sense I suppose!
What I've Been Watching
Not a lot! We have guests non-stop right now so there isn't much TV or movie watching. With our aunt we watched The Greatest Game Ever Played a fun feel-good movie that was timely with the recent US golf Open held at The Country Club in Brookline MA.
The same aunt was interesting in the Apple TV series For All Mankind) so we jumped back to season 1 to watch again. This is a highly recommended show for y'all. Great story lines, great acting. Fun alternate history.
I strive to be more rational and thoughtful when consuming media stories, and sometimes this requires that I level up my understanding of statistics. With that in mind, I present this brief overview of Simpson's Paradox.
What I've Been Playing
I shared some game playing above in reference to my trip to Oregon. We also played a 6 player game of Here I Stand, a game I seem to revisit about every 5-10 years but is oh so much fun.
We continue to enjoy the casual word guessing cooperative games So Clover! and Just One. My friend Jim brought SpaceCorp: 2025-2300ADwith him from Indiana and we played. Always fun, but I honestly don't want to play it again without the expansion SpaceCorp: Ventures, which adds necessary flavor via starting companies with unique abilities. The game is a bit dry without this.
Golf remains a constant for me, with steady play but little on-course improvement to speak of. Recent swing improvements though seem to be showing some promise. Hoping to have a strong winter season ahead. Would be nice to start having 25% of my rounds in the 70s. I'm obsessing less about performance though and making sure I enjoy the process and the joy of being outside and playing.
In the "playing" category should be sailing, and we bought a new sailboat. We will be retiring the old grandad Flying Dutchman sailboat, a resident here for over 60 years. We are ready for a new boat that we feel comfortable sailing, and would allow us to race with a local fleet. In my next update I hope to share photos of our Melges 15.
Van Fun
We haven't sold our van yet, despite weekly price drops. The problems that remain with the van are clearly deterring folks from giving a reasonable offer. So, we are regrouping and keeping the van listed while attempting to do some body work and repairing or replacing the generator. Fortunately we don't need to sell it until our new van arrives sometime in Q1 2023, so we can afford to take care of things and be patient. Still, we wish it were gone!
No sermon this month. Enjoy the rest of your summer!
-Chris