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Deck Building

May 19, 2016 by rurugby Leave a Comment

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Lenny likes to help me play Hearthstone.

I enjoy deck building games.

Was looking at Magic cards today and planning to go to do some gaming in Milford at Card Carrier Games by the KMart tomorrow.

Thinking of getting a bunch of commons. I even gave money for someone to do a Spanish class through GoFundMe and she is going to get me some cards and help me build decks. Wicked!

Hearthstone like Magic allows you to build decks. It has a cool design interesting cards, 9 different classes and it’s free which is nice. Although there are temptations to get new adventures and stuff. I was actually up a bit too late tonight because I had 5 of the 7 wins required to get 5 packs. Usually packs are much harder to get. Basically you have quests.

And me and Lanna’s favorite game which we played last night is Dominion. Where you also build decks. Everyone starting with 7 money cards, 3 land cards and then drawing 5 cards playing an action and a buy and discarding. Great quick gameplay.

Magic: The Gathering games can also be fast depending on the deck. I do like Magic but it can get out of control fast there is a reason they call it five color crack. It is both great and terrible by being unlimited. It also has a lot of cards that really often aren’t worth much, both in cost and value. I do enjoy MTG and especially like deckbuilding, but it can get annoying rather fast. People take it all too seriously.

So did some deckbuilding with Hearthstone today which is much easier on the computer than the phone, much, much easier. And I am looking forward to deck building tomorrow. And bringing Splendor to get some games on too.

There is something very fun and making things. Especially in geeky ways.

Geek hard y’all!

Game on!

Filed Under: creativiity, Dominion, games, geek

Magic: The Gathering of Awkwardness

May 16, 2016 by rurugby Leave a Comment

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I went to do a Magic: The Gathering draft tonight in Milford.

I was asking about Friday Night Magic and I may go to that this week or in a couple weeks after Rites of Spring.

Although it’s played with Standard. Basically the last 3 or 4 sets over the last year or so.

I haven’t played in a few years so I don’t have any.

Although I got a lot of the leftovers tonight.

I think Magic is an incredible game and deckbuilding is fascinating.

The game is just ridiculously big.

Although the drafting for rares format that they had at Weekend Anime was better I think. There was a draft of the rares and shiny cards and people stuck around through the whole thing.

In this one if you lost a match or two you wouldn’t win anything so people often left early. Frankly, pretty lame.

And I do I think in some ways like Dominion better since it’s a closed set.

But, I do want to get a big box of commons and do some deckbuilding. There is just so many different things you can do in Magic. So many different kinds of sets.

I think Lenny wants me to stop typing so he can get in front of the monitor time. Clearly the keyboard is in his way.

And I was gone all weekend and even left tonight after work.

So Kitty Time!

Filed Under: games, geek, Magic

Dominion Adventures

February 19, 2016 by rurugby Leave a Comment

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One of the Christmas presents I was really happy to get was the newest Dominion set, Dominion: Adventures.

We first looked at it a few weeks ago, and it made our brain hurt so we played a different set.

But we have played 5 games this week, 2 on Monday and 3 today. And I am 5-0 so far vs. Lanna, but I don’t think that will continue.

It’s a fun game but the new rules take getting used to.

I also think they could have used a editor for clarity.

It is a German game so that could be part of it.

I would definitely recommend getting the original Dominion first. We have been hooked for 8 years or so since I went to the great Boskone Science Fiction in Boston which is this weekend.

And it’s full of writers and geeks and it’s a mellow time at the Westin Waterfront. So give it a try.

And if you like games or like Magic: The Gathering give Dominion a try. It has deck building like Magic: TG but everyone starts with 7 Money card and 3 Victory cards and builds their deck from it.

The original Dominion is around $30 on Amazon or $45-50 at other retailers so give it a try.

Original Dominion *****, Adventures ***1/2, Seaside *****, Intrigue ***1/2, Dark Ages ****, Hinterlands ***, Alchemy **1/2, I can’t even think how I would rate all the sets right now. But it is awesome.

And I bet I have blogged before about it. You can even play online if you want to try it before you buy it. Although I do need to get my Dominion Online account figured out, I can’t seem to log in to all the games I purchased.

Play on!

Filed Under: Dominion, games, The Ecq Review

2014: A Year of Grounding – Deep and Simple

January 6, 2014 by rurugby 3 Comments

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We live in shallow and complex times.

Worried about e-mails, about texts, Twitter, Facebook.

Often interacting more with people even that we know in shallow ways. Always feeling like we need to check into our media and devices. A society full of advertising of buy, buy, buy of you need this, you need that.

You don’t. No really, you don’t.

You really don’t need a smartphone although it is very shiny. You don’t need an iPad, again very shiny. You don’t need those new clothes, you don’t need to see every movie, you probably don’t need more stuff.

You need to connect. To people, to the earth, to yourself.

I am dedicating 2014 to be the Year of Grounding for me. I need it.

The last two years have been very ungrounding. Losing my father in law Walter Maheux in March 2012, losing my beloved father Henry Edmunds Davis on April 1, 2013. I am still grieving. I still do not have all of my psychic and spiritual energy and might not for some time. I am trying to ground again and get back into myself. I need it.

I find writing helpful. I love conversations especially one on one although they can be hard to do. Why did it become weird to call someone? Seriously. I love to connect with people. In 2012 I started having lunches with one person and just talking. It was cool. It’s good to spend an hour with just one person and not be in the cacophony of noise and information of the internet and smartphones. I want to get back to it again and having lunch with someone tomorrow.

I am really happy to be in therapy. I had an unbelivably tough year that included a major manic episode in April, 2013. It was one heck of a month. Although I did write some good poems and posts including a memorial for my dad. I also ended up in jail for 36-48 hours of Patriot’s Day last year while fully manic and became extraordinarily manic. Basically doing a 24 hour performance in a cell to the NSA who I was sure was watching. Then was held down and drugged after getting loud at the Maine Medical Center ER and forgot 24 hours completely. April was unbelievably ungrounding. Losing the rock of my life, as I said in a poem at my dad’s memorial service. Losing my sanity.

Recovering slowly. Spring Harbor helped. Lithium helped a lot, dulling my mind when I needed it, found it dulling after my crisis as well and slowly going off of it. My wife helped, my mom helped, my therapist really helped. I am very thankful for therapy. More of us need to be in it. Seeing her tomorrow and happy to go over goals and talk about the last 3 weeks that includes that big holiday of Christmas and all the energy you put in an use for it.

————————-

I feel the need to ground. To slow myself down. In the words that Fred Rogers used from the documentary “Mister Rogers and Me ***” Make your life deep and simple not shallow and complex.

Take a walk. Look up. See the stars. See the clouds. Feel the wind. Hear the water. Rest your mind. Listen. Breathe. Breathe. Slow down. Touch the Earth if you need do, do some Earthing. Literally ground yourself.

Make it a practice. Meditate. Prayer with your heart. Bring the worries of the brain down to the heart. Practice the mediations I learn from Whispering Deer. Your heart can take a lot in, the brain wants to analyze everything. Breathe. Breathe.

One thing I do to ground that make me feel joy is walking with my headphones at work. There is great landscaping there. Statues, trees, birds, a creek, a marsh. Listening to something like Bob Dylan’s “Blowin in the Wind” yesterday, watching the trees in the twilight in a sea of clouds. Transported. Just looking. Appreciating.

Your technology can wait. Texts can wait. You can turn your cellphone off. Sometimes it’s good to not be available. People do not need you all the time. You can not answer a text. You can leave your phone in your pocket while driving. Pay attention.

Right now, I am looking out my window. Seeing rain on the panes. Seeing a gray sky with some blue just after sunset with plenty of dark gray clouds after a rainy, and warm day that reached the upper 40s and had plenty of snowmelt. Can see some red of the sunset in the distance. Lights over the parking lot for the Dancing Elephant and the Frog and Turtle. Light in the parking lot by me. A wet American flag. Trees in fornt of the sunset. A wide Presumpsoct River that is harder to notice through the raindrops. The Disability RMS sign hiding through the trees. A car driving through. Listening, looking.

Billy Collins said all a poet needs is a window, paper and a pencil. Simple. Beautiful. Calming. Noticing. Not overthinking. Which we all do too mcuh. Looking up seeing the day change, watching the birds. Seeing the scampering of creatures. Hoping the insects don’t bite.

Think when you were happiest. Was it a tweet? A Facebook message?

Was it time with a friend, with a loved one, a lover and partner? With family? Eating, drinking. Maybe on vacation in the woods, in the desert? Listening, content at peace. Breathe.

We all need more peace. Less worry.

A life deep and simple where you appreciate things. My cats Lenny and Squiggy. My wife Lanna. The simple sound of the cat fountain. The silence. Sleep, dreams. My family. My sister Mindy, brother in law, Robert. Brother in law Bill, mother in law Dottie. And the ones who have passed, my dad Henry, father in law Walter. Grandparents Avis Neal, Charles Neal, Mary Davis and Donald Davis. My Aunt Louise. My mother’s best friend Dottie Mithee, Cousin Benny.

And heroes who have passed and enriched my life like Kurt Vonnegut, Mark Twain, Carl Sandburg, Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Miles Davis. And of course teachers past, present and futures. Those who listen. Those who let us listen.

The water. The sky. The birds. The animals. Our pets. Cats, dogs. The mice we can’t see. The bees who pollenate. The pollen that makes us sneeze.

Breathe. Ground. Let life be easy. Let life be quiet. Read. Turn the screen off. Just listen to music. Drift. Dream.

Work to live a deep and simple life in complex and shallow times. Love one another. Hug. Kiss. Be thankful. Breathe. Mediate. Be Present. Appreciate the silence. Learn to love the noise and watch. See the sky change and darken, as the blue almost disappears and the red of sunset is almost gone.

Rest. Breathe. Ground and be Peaceful.

Blessed be.

Filed Under: acceptance, acceptance, books, breathing, cats, Edmund Charles Davis-Quinn, Embracing the Geek: A Writer's Journey, facebook, family, food, games, geek, grieving, Henry, kisses, kitties, Lanna, Lenny, love, meditations, My books, partnership, reading, seasons, sickness, spirit, Spirit of Sunday, Spirit of Sunday, Squiggy, westbrook, Whispering Deer, woods

Pinball Wizard

March 1, 2013 by rurugby Leave a Comment

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I have always liked pinball.

And I am okay at it.

Went out to First Friday night planning to maybe check out the studios in the State Theatre Building, and maybe the Portland Museum of Art.

Instead I went to Coast City Comics and played pinball, then across the street to Local Sprouts and heard a very cool guitar player and someone reading and showing their new graphic novel.

It was a good night.

I have played a fair amount of pinball since I was in the Rutgers pinball club back in college. There were several players in the club who were nationally ranked and played tournaments in New York City. I was just happy playing some of the great machines in the Rutgers College Avenue Student Center in the mid 90s like World Cup 1994, Addams Family and the Twilight Zone. And to every once and a while hear that ultra satisfying loud plonk of a replay.

And when I travel down the Mass Pike back and forth to Pennsylvania in this tough time, I often will play a game or two to calm down after the road. I enjoyed the Monopoly game Westbound near 495, didn’t like the Gofers game so much.

Tonight I played a few games. The first was Family Guy, which was okay. I actually like the Stewey mini-pinball game the most which felt like a toy pinball machine. Very cute.

The Star Wars pinball game which I often like felt beat up. Wasn’t a fan of it at Coast City.

Played an Elvira magic pinball which was okay.

But my two favorites were a game I like from back in the day, and I think was back to my mid 1990s Rutgers days, Attack From Mars. Lots of fun good sounds, fun gameplay reasonably easy center shot for a lot of the points. Fun game. I am not sure many pinball games use sounds better. I like the Revenge from Mars (I think that’s right) follow up too.

The other was an older game which I hadn’t played before Doctor Who. It reminded me a lot of one of my other favorite pinball games Pinbot. Pinbot is where I had possibly my best pinball game ever the first time I played it. Fun old school pinball. And I loved hearing the Doctor who music and Dalek noises.

Other favorites include games like Cyclone and Comet, both based on Coney Island roller coasters.

Was also nice to be back at Local Sprouts. Got used to going there every Tuesday when Port Veritas was there last year (2011-2012). It’s a fun place with great organic food, a nice beer list and very good coffee, bread and dessert. But, someone was reading today a graphic novel he just finished and it was his 30th birthday. Yet, someone still felt like they needed to talk the whole time he was reading. Please respect the artist and try not to talk when they are reading. It makes it hard for everyone else who is enjoying the artists work.

So a very satisfying Friday and I even got to see my friend Alexis Lyon when I came back to Coast City Comics on my way out to play Doctor Who pinball some more. Although I do wish I heard the satisfying clunk of a replay tonight.

Going out is making me feel better. It’s too easy to dwell at home. Too bad I have no money after not working much of the last 2 weeks and spending money in PA and getting there.

Pinball is fun. If you haven’t played or haven’t played in a while take a couple bucks in quarters and play. It’s a good time.

Filed Under: games, geek, poetry, reading, The Blog, The Ecq Review Tagged With: pinball

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