Wednesday What’s Up

What I’m Contemplating

• No single birthplace of mankind, say scientists – Sounds like we still have a lot to learn and uncover around the origin of our species.
• Remote versus Co-located Work – Martin Fowler gives a good breakdown of the continuum of working modes for organizations.
• Lennon or McCartney? Can statistical analysis solve an authorship puzzle? – Light summary of the work, would be fun to read the original article / research but I can’t find anything yet.
• How To Have A Happy Marriage: 7 Powerful Secrets From Research – Julie and I subscribe to Eric’s newsletter. Several good tips here. Actions for me: “delighting in your partner’s good news” and “try some self-disclosure. Open up.”

What I’m Cooking

• Smoked BBQ Brisket – I’ve become pretty adept at slow cooking and smoking dry-rub ribs, but hadn’t tried brisket before. Did two different 5 lb briskets this summer and both turned out great. Lessons learned: takes longer than you think at 220 - 250 deg F, get internal temperature way up there to about 190, and crank the heat up a bit at the end to get some nice burnt ends.

What I’m Listening To

• First Listen: Graham Nash, ‘Over The Years…’ – Meh, some “lost” demos that didn’t appeal to me.

What I’m Reading

• I’m halfway through Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World–and Why Things Are Better Than You and almost cannot put it down. I see why Bill Gates gave this as a gift to the entire graduating college class of 2018.
• I quickly read through The Language of the Game: How to Understand Soccer while watching the final rounds of the World Cup. Pretty good book but mainly for soccer fins; certainly didn’t convert me.
• I’m working my way through the Ranger’s Apprentice series and still enjoy it as summer escape reading.

What I’m Playing

• I’m in the middle of two play-by-email games of Holland ’44. This is moving up my all-time top wargames list; easily in my top 5 right now. Here’s a good review over at The Player’s Aid.
• Plenty of party and family games played in the last few weeks: Dixit, Werewolf and Guesstures.
• I continue to play Fort Sumter: The Secession Crisis (second play, third play, fourth play). Mark Herman wrote a strategy guide for the final crisis. Here’s another review of Fort Sumter from Player Elimination.
• Want to play a trick taking game with just three players? Our favorite is Ninety-Nine, played it twice in the past two weeks.
• Jacob brought the tiny worker placement game Mint Works, played it twice.
• Greg and I played a 2 player game of 18NEB, ostensibly a speed game given he had an early afternoon flight. His flight was canceled and was able to stay an extra night, so we were able to play out the game. This is a solid entry level 18xx game and I’m glad this is one that I kept.
• The big “big game” hit this summer has been High Frontier. Jacob and I played the basic game while he was here, then Matthew and I did the same with a follow-on game with the expanded rules. We are playing the 2nd edition game and rules.
• On Matthew’s last full day here, we played the magazine game Jena 20. Matthew smoked me – I was too aggressive as Napoleon at the start of the game.
• I’m eagerly awaiting the delivery of [the ASL historical expansion Hatten in Flames which arrived at our home in Oregon. There’s a nice overview site of the subject matter of Hatten in 1945.