Pull up a chair and hang with me a while. This is a long one.

Where I’m Traveling

Right now I’m living and working in Oklahoma City, but over Thanksgiving break Julie and I took a short trip down to the Florida Keys. We enjoyed kayaking through mangroves, walking and biking around Key West, and visiting injured turtles at the Turtle Hospital.

How I’m Changing My Workflow

What I’m Contemplating

How I’m Improving My Teaching

What I’m Listening To (and just general music stuff)

What I’m Watching

What I’m Reading

  • Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies – finally got around to reading this one. I’m not sure how it holds up these days (scientifically) but offered interesting ideas, such as the latitudinal axis of Europe-Asia promoting technology propagation along similar climate zones (as opposed to the longitudinal axis of Africa and the Americas).
  • I had high hopes for The City of Brass) but it fell off for me about halfway through. Too much court intrigue and plot meandering. Plus I had a hard time keeping the factions and tribe names straight.
  • I listened to This Naked Mind and it may literally be life altering for me. Not ready to say more than that yet.
  • I casually worked my way through My Morning Routine: How Successful People Start Every Day Inspired and got plenty of value from it. A good fit with my workflow tuning.

What I’m Playing

  • I played 18CZ with my regular three-player gaming team of Greg and Matt. A good entry in the 18xx pantheon.
  • While in Florida I played Ninety-Nine with my mom and Julie. Still the best 3-player trick taking game out there.
  • Matthew arrived in Florida so we switched over to Spades and had a blast with this team trick playing game.
  • Julie and I got Sushi Go!
    9390) for our nephew and taught and played it. I can see now why it is so highly regarded.
  • We’ve started a regular game night with another couple and played Ticket to Ride: Märklin a couple of weeks ago. Julie smoked us with some awesome passenger runs.
  • My three-player group met again and played the new 18xx card game 18Lilliput. I think this is going to be a big hit and look forward to playing it with family over the winter holiday.
  • I drove down south before leaving Oregon and played Storm Over Dien Bien Phu with Ken. He won.
  • The new party game Just One arrived here in OKC and we did a first play with family and friends. Big hit with gamers and non-gamers.

What I’m Cooking

  • We bought an Instant Pot! I made a vegan mushroom risotto and it was awesome. I look forward to exploring this cooking device further.

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