Hey friends,

Spooky-season is nearly here, but Betelgeuse and the Nightmare Before Christmas have already been in rotation in our house! 🎃

Thinking Too Hard

If you're a millenial like me (though this probably spans generations) you might recall whiling away trapped time waiting for the bus or after school lunch with a pack of playing cards. It felt like everyone had a pack of cards in their backpack (at least they did in Radford, Virgina). The game of choice was often Egyptian Ratscrew. There was a lot of bruised hands and even some blood (until we started enforcing a strict 'no jewelry' rule) but a lot of fun was had in an otherwise empty moment.

I've always had a soft spot for card games and that space that they can fill. While there are many fantastic modern options now, there's an appeal to just HOW MANY games you can play with a standard deck of cards. I've taken to collecting rule sets and here are a few of my recent favorite games that use just a standard pack of cards:

• Struggling Upstream. Everyone works to empty their hand by shedding combos of cards. Great at 3 and good at 4 players. It has a great flow without being too complex.
• Crisps. This is a modern distillation of a climbing/shedding game like Struggling Upstream into a two-player experience. The tug of war of trying to go out first makes for some fun choices.
• East-West. The best way I can think to describe this is 'cumulative poker' where you share a card in the middle and strive to win 3 of the 5 columns against your opponent. Another great two-player game.
• The Bogey ...and sometimes you're on your own. The Bogey is a relatively simple solitaire game where there's a 'Bogey' that either helps you or hurts you depending on the draw. The variability makes it feel different each play, and the simplicity means you don't have to keep looking up the rules or remembering what goes where.

So maybe the next time you find yourself with some trapped time instead of pulling out your phone, pull out a pack of cards! Just maybe take off any spiky jewelry first....

Interesting Web Bits

• It's been a busy time for Font Awesome, they've scooped up both 11ty and Lea Verou. Perhaps this is them gearing up for pushing farther into Web Components?
• Do you use sound in your dev environment? ... I don't, but I'm not sure how I feel about the idea. Could be helpful to have some feedback on certain things, but I also think I might get REALLY annoyed at something dinging constantly.
• Some background and a look at what could happen if Google loses it's third antitrust trial...
• Matt is not pleased with WPEngine: "...they are a cancer to WordPress..." 🌶️
• The Braille Institute has developed a font for low-vision readers. I love to see it!