Jan
26, 2007 -
My friends and I have decided to do a long-term, full
seven player game of Diplomacy.
Of the seven of us, only Beth has played before, and that was many years ago,
and only ever with two players. We set up a Google group for the game, and we
will be playing semi-PBEM
and semi-F2F
(everyone lives here except Toast,
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and moves will be submitted
once a week). I also designed a new map for the game (pictured on the right)
using my Photoshop skillz. It should be a fun game and as long as nobody takes
it too seriously everyone should have a good time. This game is known for breaking
up friendships, but I know that personally even if I'm the first one knocked
out I won't be too pissed.
Jan 19, 2007
-
So, at work right now, eating lunch. I don't really have
too much work to do right now, so I'm mostly playing around with Architectural
Desktop and 3DS Max. Also, I'm reading The
Golden Compass, book 1 of the His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip
Pullman. So far, it is really good, and a pretty easy read. It is one of
Beth's favorites and is currently being made into a movie due out in December.
I expect that as press about the movie picks up and people read the books, we
will have to endure another "Should our children be subjected to this?" tirade
by the fanatical right. I'm not saying that having belief is a bad thing, but
come on people. Everyone has their right to their opinion, and if Pullman (one
of Britain's most outspoken atheists) wants to write a children's book that
points an accusatory finger toward religion, then he has the right to. And you
have the right to tell your children they can't read it or see the movie.
Pullman styles himself as the "anti- C.S. Lewis" and his belief is that Lewis
was a misogynistic, filth peddling, racist. Pullman like Del Toro, writer and
director of Pan's Labyrinth (see previous post) gives us a bleak but
still hopeful vision of the coming of age. In Pullman's view, Lewis poisons
the minds of children by telling them it is better if they can never grow up
at all. His Dark Materials and Pan's Labyrinth are stories in
which the characters are forced to grow up. It is an ugly process, but it is
a necessity of life. Pullman's characters achieve this, while in the final scene
of Pan's Labyrinth (no spoilers) we question if Ofelia truly makes that
final step. I think that these three stories are all very similar, and that
each should be experienced. My kids will read Lewis and Pullman, and (eventually
- due to graphic violence) see Pan's Labyrinth. It feels like my duty
to both the authors of these works and to producing the best human beings I
can.
Jan 16, 2007 -
I had a great MLK/My Birthday weekend. Little Megan came down on Saturday and we went out to eat with a bunch of Woodbridge people, and then back to Dumfries for some games (Apples to Apples and Werewolves). On Sunday Megan, Beth and I went to Cracker Barrel and then off to the metro station to bid Megan farewell until next time (hopefully we can visit up there). On Monday (my actual birthday) we slept in and eventually got up to the smell of gingerbread waffles my mom made me as a special birthday breakfast. Later, we went to Tyson's to see Pan's Labyrinth, a movie about a little girl living during the Spanish Civil war in 1944. Her stepfather is a Captain in Franco's fascist regime and represents true evil, violence, and barbarism. The girl Ofelia, uses her fairy tale imagination to escape the reality of the Captain's violence, but ultimately is forced to grow up and choose her love of a real person over the promise of a fairy tale ending. It was an excellent film, and although entirely in Spanish, it is universally accessible. I will warn squeamish viewers that it was very very violent. Also, Thomas entirely missed the point of the movie, calling it a bunch of "Hippie crap" because the good guys in the movie were the socialist partisans fighting against the fascists. Beth, Steve, Pat, and I were stunned that this was what he got out of this deeply complex coming of age story in which the "good guys" and "bad guys" could have been just about anyone. Not to mention the fact that in 1944 the communists were the good guys. Well, I guess you can't expect too much from someone who didn't get V for Vendetta either.
Jan 08, 2007 -
Well, the first week of January is down, and Beth and I are surviving our resolution. We chose this year to steal our friend Pat's idea: no corn syrup. It doesn't seem like much until you realize just how much stuff they load up with corn syrup. Soda and candy are the obvious ones, and who needs that anyways. But bread!? Yes, the Pepperidge Farms bread we normally buy, and in fact just about all shelf-stable breads are loaded with corn syrup. But, so far, we're doing it, and I know together we can stick to it.
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