Wednesday, 20 July 2016
Tuesday, 5 July 2016
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A friend once asked me:
"How do you write an exciting blog post when you've spent an entire month sitting at home / underachieving / inventing new names for your cat?"
And I was like:
"I would probably start with an imagined conversation, to make my social life seem a little more hip and happening than it really was."
I played a Board Game
Yeah, actually I played a board game. The name of the board game was called 'Twilight Struggle'. It's a game for two players that's all about the cold war. The instruction book is full of exciting quotes, such as:
"Now the trumpet summons us again - not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need, not as a call to battle, though embattled we are - but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle..."
- John F Kennedy, Inaugural Speech, 20th January 1961
Interestingly, until I watched the whole speech (worth doing) just now, I assumed that the titular 'Twilight Struggle' referred to the cold war itself, but Kennedy uses the term to describe an imagined endeavor in which the nations of the world labour together for the common good of a free mankind. It's a noble vision, although a very optimistic one. Perhaps our world would be a better one if Kennedy had not been assassinated. Present day American military policy is perhaps best described by this darkly entertaining quote (also from TS instruction book):
"Restraint? Why are you so concerned with saving their lives? The whole idea is to kill the bastards. At the end of the war, if there are two Americans and one Russian left alive, we win."
- General Thomas Power, U.S. Strategic Air Command, 1960
Anyway that's enough of that. I've read like the first ten pages of Chomsky's 'Hegemony or Survival', and it's turned me into one of those unbearable politics students. Let's talk more about this very interesting board game.
The creators of TS say that their game is designed for people who have real responsibilities and can no longer set aside eight hour portions of their lives in which to play board games. Ruth and I played seven of the game's ten rounds yesterday in a mere five hours, which is only slightly longer than it takes to read the instructions. We got most of the rules wrong, but we didn't blow up the planet. Also the goodies won.
This concludes the board game review.
I Made a Board Game
That's not true really. I'm halfway through porting much loved board game 'Diplomacy' into wall mounted form (with sibling assistance), so that the flexibility of postal / online play can be combined with the thrill and friendship of face to face. I bet you all can't wait to have a go.
I made a time themed spotify playlist
"How do you write an exciting blog post when you've spent an entire month sitting at home / underachieving / inventing new names for your cat?"
And I was like:
"I would probably start with an imagined conversation, to make my social life seem a little more hip and happening than it really was."
I played a Board Game
Yeah, actually I played a board game. The name of the board game was called 'Twilight Struggle'. It's a game for two players that's all about the cold war. The instruction book is full of exciting quotes, such as:
"Now the trumpet summons us again - not as a call to bear arms, though arms we need, not as a call to battle, though embattled we are - but a call to bear the burden of a long twilight struggle..."
- John F Kennedy, Inaugural Speech, 20th January 1961
Interestingly, until I watched the whole speech (worth doing) just now, I assumed that the titular 'Twilight Struggle' referred to the cold war itself, but Kennedy uses the term to describe an imagined endeavor in which the nations of the world labour together for the common good of a free mankind. It's a noble vision, although a very optimistic one. Perhaps our world would be a better one if Kennedy had not been assassinated. Present day American military policy is perhaps best described by this darkly entertaining quote (also from TS instruction book):
"Restraint? Why are you so concerned with saving their lives? The whole idea is to kill the bastards. At the end of the war, if there are two Americans and one Russian left alive, we win."
- General Thomas Power, U.S. Strategic Air Command, 1960
Anyway that's enough of that. I've read like the first ten pages of Chomsky's 'Hegemony or Survival', and it's turned me into one of those unbearable politics students. Let's talk more about this very interesting board game.
The creators of TS say that their game is designed for people who have real responsibilities and can no longer set aside eight hour portions of their lives in which to play board games. Ruth and I played seven of the game's ten rounds yesterday in a mere five hours, which is only slightly longer than it takes to read the instructions. We got most of the rules wrong, but we didn't blow up the planet. Also the goodies won.
This concludes the board game review.
I Made a Board Game
That's not true really. I'm halfway through porting much loved board game 'Diplomacy' into wall mounted form (with sibling assistance), so that the flexibility of postal / online play can be combined with the thrill and friendship of face to face. I bet you all can't wait to have a go.
 |
| wow so cool |
I've run out of ideas for it, so if you want to add some you totally can. The song has to have the word 'time' in the title.
Yeah we're done here. My life will be exciting soon, and the blog may even approach readability.
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