Well, it's been an interesting summer. I'm grateful for my
family and work situation during the Covid-19 pandemic.
I've been slowly chipping away on some personal projects -
mostly programming or Linux-related, but I've done a few other
things.
Woodworking
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I've always had an affinity for amateur woodworking. After we
moved, my tools have been in a complete disarray (and the new
garage is smaller) and I've been seeing that as a bit of a
blessing. It's a chance to start anew.
One thing that I've always taken for granted is that since I'm a
tall person, I should have a tall workbench. That's true for
certain types of work. But after watching some videos on YouTube
by Rex Krueger, I've been completely enamored with the low
"Roman-style" workbenches.
I made a little toy wood "axe" for my kiddo the other day and
used all hand tools (including my grandfather's brace with an
auger bit to drill the hole in the "axe head" for the handle).
Making a low workbench was as easy as putting a 2x4 across a
stepstool and a bucket. Your foot makes a great clamp and
leaning over the work is great for sawing, chiseling, and
carving.
The experience was a total revelation. I'm not jumping to
purchase anything yet. But I think now that it's cooling down,
one of my first projects will be a small roman workbench.
Boardgames and RPGs
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My youngest kiddo is sloooowwly getting old enough to
participate in boardgames. My wife and I love to play them and
our eldest can play just about anything. We've mostly been
limited by the youngest - argh, why does the lowest common
denominator always win?! If you have kids, perhaps you can
relate.
At any rate, now that we're at the cusp of being able to play
again, we're starting to bust out some favorites.
"Castle Panic!" is basically a simplified tower defense game in
which monsters come out of the forest to attack. It's
cooperative and you win if any of the towers of your castle
remain standing as you defeat the last monster. The gameplay is
strategic and very well organized and balanced and easy to
learn. It always feels like we're going to "just barely make
it."
"Potion Explosion" is more recent. You use marbles and a really
clever dispenser system to create potions in a Hogwarts-esque
classroom situation. Creating potions is how you win the game,
but you can also _use_ the potions to perform special actions.
"Ex Libris" is the heaviest game I can get the eldest kiddo to
play. The theme of magical books is very appealing. The premise
is that you're the owner of a magical bookshop and you need to
put together the best collection you can - it needs variety,
certain categories, and to be in alphabetical order. The
gameplay is very clever, but the best part is that there are
hundreds of funny book titles - many of them magic-related puns
on classics.
I also got it in my head that it would be fun to learn Dungeons
and Dragons so that I can someday play it with the family (and
friends, whenever we can start having friends again). I played a
ton of West End Games Star Wars RPG in my teens, but I never
learned D&D proper. Anyway, I have the starter set and I've been
verrrrryyyy slllloooooowwwwly solo-playing the adventure it
comes with. The instructions are very nice, but it's difficult
to understand a whole round of play by piecing them together.
More examples would be nice. I probably need to watch more
videos.
On a related note, to fully immerse myself in the D&D universe,
I've been reading the R.A. Salvatore "Dark Elf Trilogy" - the
writing is...uh...awkward. I really don't mean to be cruel, but
I actually checked to see if English is his first language.
Yeah, Salvatore was born in the USA. Dude, some of those
sentences just...aren't right. But I'm in it for the story. And
he _can_ tell a story. I've just started the second book
"Exile". I would try other authors in the Forgotten Realms, but
apparently Salvatore is as good as it gets???
Sketchbook
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I really fell off the sketchbook wagon during and after we
moved. I just couldn't fit art into my limited time and energy
and...well, it's taken a while to fully recover, truth be told.
I'm slowly working the sketchbook back into my regular routines.
I'd love to go back to daily - looking back, that was just
amazing and definitely produced the best art I'd ever done. But
I'm not going to force it. Just regular practice is all I'm
looking for.
It's been painful to be so out of practice. The first couple
days were the worst because it felt _so damn hard_ to draw
anything and everything I did was crap.
Thankfully, it didn't take too long to get over the worst of it.
Now, the trick is to not get so out of practice, like, ever
again!
Rubik's Cube
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I learned the "beginner's method" of solving the Rubik's cube a
couple years ago. It felt really good to finally be able to
solve the puzzle which had, until then, completely eluded me.
Well, like many things, I got completely out of the habit during
the move. I finally picked it up and re-learned. Not
surprisingly, it did not take nearly as long to re-learn as it
did to learn in the first place. Especially since I had come up
with my own mnemonic system for remembering the algorithms -
that's such a powerful way to make stuff stick.
Also, I feel like I _understand_ what I'm doing better than
before. I dunno, I might even try to learn some more advanced
solving methods. Mostly, I just want to make sure I solve it
about once a week, just to keep from forgetting again.
It felt great to regain a skill I had lost.
It's Nice Outside
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Of course, most of what I do is just try to earn my paycheck, be
a good husband, and be a good father.
We're trying to get outside now that summer's finally broken and
it's really pleasant out! It feels like a crime to be stuck
inside pounding on a keyboard when there are fresh breezes and
sunshine outside my window. (And an even worse crime for the
kids to be doing the same thing.)
We should all just have Fall 2020 off. Who's with me???
Okay, I think this is plenty long now. I hope everyone is doing
okay in the Phlogoverse. I have a lot of Gopher reading to catch
up on.
