Monthy Archive: April 2008
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April 01, 2008

Games : Desert Island Media (Physical Games)

This is the continuation of my response to a suggestion for posts from Melissa. Essentially if I had to go a long period of time with access to only a small set of movies, books, TV, games, which would I choose? Previous posts in this series can be found here:

Movies

Books

TV Shows

Computer games

This is my short list of “board games” (well, actually, physical games whether they actually have a board or not) that I would want with me. The problem I found was that there were a lot of variables to consider. It wasn’t just a matter of wanting different games if I was alone vs. if I had someone else to play with; but it also varied greatly based on who the other people might be. I was able to pick a top three; but after that, things got very fuzzy.

1. As Janbergs already suggested, playing cards would always been a good start. People have invented so many games that can be played with cards (including many variations of solitaire), and if you get bored with those you can always invent some more. Actually I would try to bring several sets of cards (with at least two different backs) to maximize flexibility.

2. In the same vein, my second choice would be a collection of assorted dice. As with cards, there are already a variety of games that are played with dice, and the possibility to invent more if needed. I’d make sure I brought a collection of not just traditional 6 sided dice; but also 4, 8, 10, 12, and 20 sided dice (all in assorted colors).

3. Go – the classic oriental strategy game. I love playing Go and I love teaching Go and I am a very long way from getting tired of it.

Those are the easy ones. What follows are some other games I would consider for position 4 depending on who exactly I was with.

If I was with a large group (at least 6 other people) who were avid gamers, I would bring Diplomacy. There is nothing so varied as human interaction, and as a result, Diplomacy is a game that can be played again and again without getting boring. For those who have never played it, the game itself is very simple; but the trick is that you cannot win without both making and breaking alliances with other players. So the real game is the process of making deals with the other players and knowing when they are lying to you (while making sure they can’t tell when you are lying to them).

In a very different direction, there’s Flux, which is a great game to play with a bunch of people who are not avid gamers. Fluxx is card game that is a practical implementation of Nomic (a theoretical game about the ability to change the rules of a game while you are playing it). Flux starts out with an initial set of rules about how to draw and play cards; but the play of certain cards changes those rules. The idea is to manipulate the rules to the point that you win. It can be taught quickly; but provides a lot of variety as you play it.

Another game I would consider, especially if I was stuck alone, is Advanced Squad Leader. This is actually a bit of a cheat since the whole ASL system has 300+ pages of rules, 50+ board segments, 1000’s of game pieces and fills a large box; but it is technically one “game”. ASL is a set of war games rules designed to simulate any battle in World War II at the platoon/company level, and is one of the best war game ever developed (although certainly not one for a novice). I have spent much time playing it both solo and against other people.

Finally, there is a whole collection of games that were produced in Europe since the late 1990’s that would be contenders for my list: Settlers of Catan, The Princes of Florence, Tikal, Ticket to Ride, although if I had to pick one I would pick Die Neuen Entdecker. It provides that critical balance between easy to learn and hard to master that is so important to a game you’ll end up playing a lot. If you want to find a good list of these games, look up the Spiel des Jahres (German “Game of the Year”) nominees and winners since 1995.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 02, 2008

Faith : Thoughts on John

We are very near the end of our Tuesday study on the Gospel of John (and I have finished my own preparation through the ned of teh book). Given that, I thought I’d write up some of my thoughts on what I have learned.

Classically, people usually talk about how each of the Gospels presents a different facet of Jesus – each contains the whole picture but each tends to focus on one aspect of Jesus’ nature. Matthew presents Jesus as King, Luke as Man, Mark as Servant, and John (any first year seminary student will tell you) presents Jesus as God. Each of the Gospels includes indications of Jesus’ divinity; but John has the clearest and most unambiguous presentation of that fact (just read the first chapter if you have any doubt).

What I found interesting in preparing for this study was that while it is true that John makes it quite clear that Jesus was God, that was not the primary message I got out of the book. If you look at what Jesus actually says most often in the book, you get a very different picture.

John 5:19: I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.

John 5:30 By myself I can do nothing

John 8:26 I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is reliable, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.

John 8:28 I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me.

These are just a few of the places where Jesus makes clear that while He was in fact God (established in Chapter 1, and confirmed many times thereafter by Jesus own words), during the time He was working on earth as man he was completely dependent on and submitted to The Father. He did nothing on his own – only what The Father told Him to do. He said nothing on His own (although as 8:26 indicates there is much he could have said) – only what The Father told Him to say. What’s more, he couldn’t do anything without The Father if He had tried.

So in many respects, John presents Jesus as a servant even more clearly than Mark does.

Where this takes an interesting turn is when we get to Jesus final teaching (what he said on the last day before being arrested) as recorded in John 13-17. There Jesus turns the table and says quite literally – the relationship you have seen between me and The Father, you will now all have with me. The same way you have seen me be dependent on and submit to The Father, you are be dependent on and submit to me. As Jesus says “apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5); but “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these” (John 14:12)

The point is that Jesus life on earth was meant to be an example to us. As Paul writes in Philipians 2:6-7 “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” Jesus lived for 30+ years as a human being without all of the advantages of His divinity so as to show us how we are supposed to live as normal human beings – be being completely dependent on and submitted to God. Then He provided us with His Spirit (another key piece of the final teaching in chapters 13-17), so we could have access to Him in the same way He had access to The Father when He was living as a human.

While there were certainly other things I learned while doing this study, that was the main theme I understood from the book as a whole.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 03, 2008

Games : DDO vs LotRO

Over the past couple of years I have been playing two Massively Multiplayer Online games (MMO's); both of which are developed by the same company (Turbine). This after starting to play perhaps a half-dozen other MMOs over the years, most of which failed to capture my attention for even a month. What I find particularly interesting is how different the two games are despite my common interest in them and the obvious amount of technology they share. Actually Turbine categorizes these games as "Massive Persistent Online Worlds", which makes sense given some of my observations below.

To start with there is Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO), which has kept my attention for over two years (although I haven't actually played it much recently for reasons I will get into). Turbine's goal with this project was to reproduce online the experience of getting together with a bunch of friends to play the old pen-and-paper version of D&D. The whole experience is built around getting together a group of players and going out on one of the many quests available in the game. There is a small amount of content that you can play solo; but not enough to make any real progress.

The game is very well implemented. If you have a good PC, the graphics are wonderful (there have been many occasions when I came to the crest of some hill in an adventure and just had to stop and look because the view was so beautiful). While they have had to hack the D&D rules a bit to make them work in the context of a real-time online game; the flavor of pen-and-paper D&D is still very much there. Most of all, the hand-crafted quests are interesting, varied, and often challenging. They range from basic "bad guys are over there, go and kill anything you see" to complex puzzle adventures which might take a couple tries to get right. There are also many quest-chains where there are a series of adventure you need to go on in sequence to read the big prize at the end. And through it all you get to meet and interact with people and even make friends. The social aspects of the game are one of it strengths.

And one of its weaknesses. If you have a group of friends who play and can arrange to get together at the same time on a regular basis, the game is without peer. The next best thing is to be a part of a decent guild that meets on nights you tend to be free. The problem is that the guilds that are worth being members of tend to expect you to be involved on a regular basis. The final option is to look for "pick up groups" (PUGs) whenever you are able to play – looking around for people who also are looking for a group and putting together one on the fly. This can take a significant amount of time and the quality of players is obviously quite variable.

In all of these cases, once you have a group formed, there is a sense of commitment there. Dropping out in the middle of a quest is a serious breach of protocol. Dropping out in the middle of a quest chain is equally as bas as finding someone who needs to pick up the chain at exactly that spot is hard. Even if you are doing individual quests with a PUG, leaving the group puts the remaining folks in the position of burning another quarter hour (or more) looking for a replacement. The net effect of all this is that if you are going to sit down to play DDO, you really need to be able to set aside several hours with only relatively short interruptions. This is mitigated some if you are playing with a close group of friends and agree in advance how long you will play; but the principle is there.

In the end, these limitations make my playing DDO impractical most of the time. I still log in once in a while and join some PUG for a few quick adventures; but I can't commit to enough time on a regular schedule to really take advantage of everything the game has to offer. That I am unavailable to give time to my wife if she needs help with something while playing DDO is also an issue. (BTW – if any of my old East-Coast gaming friends ever get on to DDO, I'd be quite willing to set aside some time to play with them).

Last year, Turbine released Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO); and with this game they have taken a very different approach. While DDO is group oriented with a little solo content, LotRO is solo oriented with a little group content. Actually that is overstating it a bit. Almost everything in LotRO is designed to be done as a group or solo and there are feature of the game you can only use when part of a group; but the key is that there are only a small number of quests that are designated as "fellowship" quests (group recommended), and even those can be done solo if you are high enough level (you get less benefit from finishing them that way; but they can be done).

The result is that LotRO is a game I can play solo as I have time available. Even with a spare 30 minutes I can make some progress (in DDO you can burn 30 minutes just trying to put together a PUG). Plus, I am never far from a "safe" point, so if Anne needs my help on something I can usually oblige her with only a short delay. The result is that I am having a great time playing LotRO and it has proven to be marriage-friendly. The graphics are just as good as in DDO (climbing up the hill at Bags End and looking out over The Shire is great). I still have some issues with each of the character classes being "on rails" (allowing for very little variation); but they have begun to address that.

My only remaining issue is that the quests, while numerous, are not as varied as those in DDO. There are too many "I need 20 bear skins, go and kill 20 bears for me" type quests and too few puzzle type quests. This is mostly a reflection that LotRO is primarily built around overland adventures so far (mimicking the Fellowship of the Ring's travels). However this winter they are releasing a new expansion – adding the Mines of Moria to the map (currently it only goes as far as Rivendell). Adding adventures in a developed underground area certainly provides opportunities for more varied quests.

Again, if any of my readers play DDO or LotRO, please let me know.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

April 04, 2008

Games : In Praise of Euro/German Games

In 1995 Klaus Teuber developed “Die Siedler von Catan” (“The Settlers of Catan”) and the board game industry was reborn – at least in Europe (particularly Germany, although France and England eventually joined in). Before ‘Catan, board games tended to sell only moderately well, and rarely outside of their home country. Catan however was a smash hit, selling over 10 million copies around the world.

The success of Catan signaled to many designers that it was possible to create a hit game. As a result, more time, money and energy was invested in game development in the following years, and as more games were also successful, it became clearer that there was a new style of game that the public wanted. These are often called “German Style Games” or EuroGames.

What these games tend to have in common is:
- They support a variable number of players, so regardless of how many people you have, you can play.
- They don’t require a lot of education to play (simple math, etc.), people from a variety of backgrounds can play.
- No players are eliminated in the course of play. In the better games, this goes so far as to keep it uncertain who is actually winning until the very end, so it stays interesting for everyone.
- Multiple ways to win, so the game supports different play styles at the same time.
- Carefully balanced. Some of the more successful game designers are actually professional mathematicians who carefully calculate the odds of various forms of wins to ensure that they are all equally likely.
- Unusual game mechanics. Even when there are dice and cards, they tend to be used in unusual ways.

What has developed from this is a small list of very successful game designers in Europe (actually Moon lives in the US these days; but he started out in England):

- Klaus Teuber (The Settlers of Canaan, Entdecker, Die Neuen Entdecker, Löwenherz)
- Reiner Knizia (Tigris and Euphrates, Taj Mahal, Modern Art, Amun-Re)
- Wolfgang Kramer (El Grande, Tikal, Princes of Florence, Torres)
- Alan R. Moon (Down with the King, Elfenland, Ticket to Ride)

Kramer is probably my favorite of the bunch; but I strongly recommend any of these games. The US company Rio Grande games is in the business of importing these titles into America.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

April 07, 2008

Books : Books 2008/04/07

Current count of books pending to be read: 121
Read two, purchased none.

Books finished this week:

Alias Assumed: Sex, Lies and SD-6

Kevin Weisman

There is a spectrum of books about TV shows that range from true academic books (like many that I read on Buffy) to pure fan books (collections of essays that express “see how cool this show is” in various ways). This book is closer to the latter than the former, and so I will not refer to it as a “TV Studies” book, although I admit 2-3 of the essays could have made it into an academic journal.

The TV show “Alias” was one of my favorites when it first came out; but lost my interest after a couple a years. Just as eating the same food at every meal can become borring, regardless of how good that dish is. In the same way Alias provided the same kind of excitement week after week and eventually became monotonous. This book however did serve to remind me of why I originally liked the show.

Do You Speak American?

Robert MacNeil and William Cran

A sequel of sorts to “The Story of English” which takes a closer look at various regional and ethnic dialects in American – where they came from, where they are going, what effect they have. I’m not sure it added much to my understanding over what I already knew.

Computer Games Played: LotRO
DVDs Watched: none

Next Book: Out of This World

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 08, 2008

Faith : The Christian Life as Transformation

When I came to know The Lord long ago, my first understanding of the Christian Life was that you “got saved” and sometime later you died and went to heaven. In between the two you tried to “be good”. The problem was (initially at least) that I was no more successful at “being good” after I was saved than before (not that I was ever that bad; but those things I struggle with before I “got saved” were just as much of a problem afterwards). Yet it was also pretty clear to me from reading the Bible that more was expected of me now that I was a Christian.

Eventually I came to understand the role of the Holy Spirit in the life of a Christian, and by allowing God's Spirit to work in my life I started to see changes and improvements. Thirty years on, I have come to understand that the Christian Life is all about a process of transformation into God’s image. As Paul wrote to the Corinthian church: “And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness”; or as Paul wrote to the Romans: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

This transformation is not something I do under my own strength of will. I fixed those things I was strong enough to fix on my own long ago, and eventually reached the point that every time I worked to improve myself in one way I started to fail in some other way in the process. When everything else seemed to go well, I realized that I succumb to pride.

No, the real transformation came about when I submitted myself to God’s hand and allowed Him to work in my life. I became a trainee and God was my master, teaching me to become like Him. These lessons came in the form of instruction, life circumstances, and examples in other people’s lives.

Michelangelo is quoted as saying that he created his sculptures by taking a block of stone and chipping away everything that was not the statue. As a Christian I feel like that bock of stone sometime, with God slowly chipping away all parts of me that are not Like Him. One day He might be working on my eyes, another day on my hands; but God always seems to be working on something.

This is important – in hindsight I realize the only times God was not working to transform me into His image was when I was in rebellion, refusing to allow him to work on me. Sometimes God’s work is evident in the moment, while other times it isn’t obvious until later; but while I am submitted, God always seems to be working on some part of me.

My role then is just to submit to the process and obey when he tells me what to do. Obedience here is not in the form of “stop doing that” – God knows I can’t transform myself on my own. No, what God asks me to do are things like “go help that person”, knowing that in the process of helping them some attitude in my heart will change. So God keeps putting me in circumstances and asking me to do things that have the side effect of making me more like Him. That’s what it means to live a Christian Life.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 09, 2008

Faith : The Fellowship of Transformation

I talked yesterday about how I have come to realize that the Christian Life is a process of submitting to God to allow Him to transform us into His image. God puts us into circumstances and asks us to do things in those circumstances that He knows will have the side effect of making us more like Him. As long as we are obedient in the things He asks us to do, God will work continuously to transform us into His image. The only times this stops are when we are in rebellion, refusing to allow Him to work on us.

Now in my many years as Christian, I have been a part of many churches. Most of those churches had small home groups (like the Tuesday Bible Study I am leading these days), and many have had “Men’s Ministries” – meetings for the men of the church to get together. I am however sorry to report that most of these home groups and men’s meetings were fairly useless, and I tended to drop out of them fairly quickly. It was not however until a few years ago that I came to understand why I found so many of these gatherings a waste of time while I found a few to be so valuable.

In most of these groups, before the meeting would start the men would gather in one corner and talk about sports and the women would gather in another corner and talk about families or shopping. Then the leader would call the meeting to order and everyone would open their Bibles and do what the leader told them to do. When the meeting broke, everyone would go back to talking about sports, families, shopping, etc. In other word – no one talked any more about God than they had to at the meeting, usually when they were prompted by the leader.

I realized at the meetings I enjoyed, people wanted to talk about God so much that they did it at every opportunity – before the meeting, during the meeting, after the meeting. Now the conversations were never exclusively about God – there was still a lot of talk about sports, families, shopping, whatever; but in any given meeting there was always someone who had something to say about what God was doing in their life; and when I had something to say, there was always someone interesting in listening.

Then I came to realize – the real difference was not the conversation itself; but that the people in the meeting actually HAD things to say about what God was doing in their life. The meetings I enjoyed were those where people were in fact in the process of being transformed. I could look back when I had been a part of one of those meetings for a while and see changes in people’s lives. They were not the same as they had been when I first met them – they were more like God in at least some small way.

I believe then that the converse also tended to be true. When I looked back at the people at the meetings I got nothing out of, I could rarely see any change in the people from year to year. They seemed to be stalled in their transformation. No wonder they never talked about God – they had nothing to say! Theirs was a Christianity of “going through the motions” without being moved.

Oh what a difference to fellowship with Christians who are in the process of being transformed. To hear their stories about what God is doing in their lives. To see how God is transforming them week by week. Even hearing of their failures is encouraging because I know there are times I have pulled back and interfered with what God was trying to do in me. To know that you are not alone in the process is a wonderful gift – one that I pray for all Christians.

And for those Christians who are stalled in their transformation I pray they would find their way back into submission to God’s plan for them. I would caution any person who believes themselves to be a Christian – if you cannot point to ways that God has worked to change you into His image over the last year, seek God and figure out what is going on. I do not believe it is God’s nature or plan to stop His work in our lives unless we have stopped Him.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

April 10, 2008

Faith : Christianity is rehab not parole

Phil was sentenced to prison. Bill was sentenced to 5 years on parole. George was given a suspended sentence pending his completing an approved treatment program. These are all fairly standard outcomes for criminals who have been caught, depending on the nature of their crimes and the individual's acknowledgement and regret for their actions.

The Bible says that we are all guilty of the crime of not being Holy "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God". For that crime we disserve a life sentence "The wages of sin is death." However God is offering an alternative sentence "but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ His son."

Most Christians seem to act as if Christianity is a form of parole. They need to meet weekly with their parole officer (they go to church every Sunday). They have a list of things they are not allowed to do while on parole (don't cuss, don't drink, don't, don't don't, don't …); and they have this fear that if they do too many of those don'ts that their parole will be revoked and God will send them to prison (Hell) anyway. However, other than meeting their weekly meeting and avoiding breaking their parole, they are free to do what they want with the rest of their time.

That's not Christianity as I have come to understand it.

The Christianity that I have come to experience is a more like going into court-ordered rehab in exchange for charges being dropped. In the same way that a human court might realize that someone committed a crime because of their addictions and that they are unable to get free of that addiction without help; God demands holiness of us, but he knows we are incapable of it on our own. So He wants us to join a program to help us become Holy – a program called Christianity.

In that program this issue is not whether we are going to Hell or not - Jesus took care of that question a couple millennia ago. The issue is will we allow God to help set us free from our addiction to selfishness and self-centeredness and self-dependency and begin to trust God instead. And in that process of letting go of self and trusting God, will we allow God to transform us into His image so that we become Holy in the same way that God is Holy.

Looking at Christianity in this way creates a new perspective. You realize that all of the other Christians are just as messed up as you are, and the ones that pretend they have it all together are the ones who are actually fighting God’s work in their lives by not admitting they need to change. Instead of “having to” attend church, you look for opportunities to get together with other Christians who will support you and help you understand what God is doing in your life (staying away from those who are stalled in their transformation – they will have nothing useful for you). The focus of your life is not “will I get to heaven?” but rather “am I more like Jesus today than I was a year ago?”

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 11, 2008

Books : Happy Birthday Locus Magazine

Locus Magazine has been published for 40 years this month. That probably doesn’t mean a lot to most people – Locus is mostly an “insider’s” rag.

Locus is to Science Fiction (and Fantasy) Publishing what Variety magazine is to Movies – the trade magazine of the business. It covers what is going on behind the scenes with respect to SciFi books and magazines (and a bit on TV and movies; but not a lot). Every issue has:

- Interviews with writers
- Notices of awards that have been won
- Lists of books sold, resold, delivered, published, etc.
- News about key life events involving people in the industry, particularly…
- Obituaries
- Statistics on publishing (how many of what kind of books were sold by what publishers in what countries)
- News about authors, agents, publishers, editors, distributors, book sellers, etc.
- Reviews of novels and short stories

Reading Locus is THE way the SciFi publishing industry keeps track of itself. At one of the first WorldCon’s I attended I was given the advice that if I was serious about becoming a Science Fiction or Fantasy writer, I should start reading Locus to learn how the industry works. I have been reading Locus ever since and can see the value of that advice (even though the goal of getting published myself has been set on the side for the moment).

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink

April 14, 2008

Life : This morning's post delayed

Sorry – this morning's book post will be delayed for technical reasons. While it is written, I couldn't get on to schedule the post last night, and forgot to do it this morning before I got into work. Unfortunately, the text of the post is on my computer at home, so I won't be able to do it until lunch today at the soonest. The tally is 2 books read, none purchased with a new count of 119.

Posted by Steven at 04:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Books : Books 2008/04/14

Current count of books pending to be read: 119
Read two, purchased none.

Books finished this week:

Out of This World: Colliding Universes, Branes, Strings, and Other Wild Ideas of Modern Physics

Stephen Webb

An excellent survey of the current state of physics. The first half of the book is a quick summary of the boundaries of what we know, and the second is a survey of the current competing theories to explain what we don’t know. I’m a bit disappointed that Quantum Loop Gravity (the theory which I hope turns out to be true) is only given about a page; but otherwise I found the book’s coverage to be excellent. If you read this together with “Three Roads to Quantum Gravity (by Smolin), you get a solid picture of where we are at just before they turn on the Large Hadron Collider.

Othersyde

J. Michael Straczynski

I have written previously about my respect for JMS’s work on TV (Babylon 5) and graphic novels (Midnight Nation). He has also written a couple of novels and a collection of short stories. I don’t consider these his best work, and from some comments he has made I suspect he agrees (he is too visual of a story teller to do well with only words). This is one of JMS’s novels – a horror story of sorts. While I enjoyed it, I think there was only about 200 pages of story in this 300 page novel.

Computer Games Played: LotRO
DVDs Watched: none

Next Book: The Normal Christian Life

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 16, 2008

Life : Downshifting again

I am definitely running low on ideas for blog posts, and so am going to formally downshift to 3 posts a week – on Monday Wednesday and Friday. Monday will remain my book post, so that means I only need to come up with two original posts a week. I want to stay on a schedule since that has proven to provide an added bit of motivation to write.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

April 21, 2008

Books : Books 2008/04/21

Current count of books pending to be read: 118
Read one, purchased none.

Books finished this week:

The Normal Christian Life

Watchman Nee

I had forgotten how much I like Nee’s writing. I read his magnum opus “The Spiritual Man” when I was 12, and was impressed with both the logic and spiritual/intellectual insight expressed in those three volumes. Nee’s analysis provided the foundations of my own theology for many years (although are parts I would later gain improved understanding on).

“The Normal Christian Life” is an excellent summary of what it means to live as a Christian, and as I have matured as a Christian I find I have come to agree more and more with what Nee says in this book. In fact, were I to compile a list of 5 books every Christian should read (other than the Bible), this book would certainly make the list, and given the number of Christian books I read, that I quite high praise.

Computer Games Played: LotRO
DVDs Watched: none

Next Book:

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 23, 2008

Life : Or it could be…

…depression. As previously noted on this blog, I deal with chronic recurring depression and always need to evaluate any disinterest or lack of motivation as a warning sign that I am becoming depressed again (wonky brain chemistry and all that). So when I realized that I wasn't writing as much (for this blog or otherwise) I evaluated whether this could be a red flag to signal that I should start managing another cycle of depression (thanks to a good counselor, I have gotten pretty good at handling my depressions without the need for medication).

My current evaluation was (and is) that this is not depression. I continue to be quite productive at work (when not interrupted every few minutes with questions from other parts of the company) and in other contexts. There are only two things I seem to be less interesting in right now: reading and writing (which I have previously established as related functions). My experience is that when I get depressed, I loose interest in things in a specific order, and my current state is not even close to that pattern.

So, I'm looking at this as, perhaps, just temporary burnout and not as an indicator of depression. Nonetheless, I will remain vigilant – my depressions tend to be much harder to manage if I do not catch them early.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

April 25, 2008

Life : Party Time

I don't talk about my job much on this blog for both legal and security reasons; but even if you know who I work for this is all public information so it is OK.

Last night we had a big party at the office to celebrate shipping our 100 millionth copy of our product. They even bussed up all of the engineers from our Mountain View office to the main office in San Francisco and invited back key employees who had left the company.

100 Million is pretty good for a software company. I'm not sure how many other companies have sold that many of their product (I'm excluding folks who give away their product). Obviously Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, McAfee, Norton, and the like; but how many others have passed that mark? Not sure; but it feels pretty good.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

April 28, 2008

Books : Books 2008/04/28

Current count of books pending to be read: 120
Read none, purchased two.

Yeah, this was a bad week. While I read some, I didn’t actually finish a book. On top of that I took Anne to a book store and couldn’t resist picking up a couple myself.

An interesting thing in this process is that I have no idea if my slowdown in reading is “normal”. Since this is the first time I have ever tracked my reading I don’t know if I always have followed cycles or not. So, even if I am not making progress, at least I am learning something from the process.

Books finished this week:

Nada

Computer Games Played: LotRO
DVDs Watched: none

Next Book: Swerve

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

April 30, 2008

Books , Life : Books and wish-lists

Thinking more about my progress on my reading list (or last week, the lack of progress). As is often the case with these things, I'm really just changing the problem to a different one. In the 22 weeks I have pushed my purchased-but-not-read list down from 167 to 120, my Amazon wish-list has grown from (as I recall) 102 to 169. At least the books on my wish-list haven't cost me any money (yet). As the saying goes: "So many books, so little time."

Also, I don't always purchase everything on my wish list. In fact, keeping them on that list longer tends to give me time to reconsider purchases. Sometimes I see an interview with someone who wrote a book and I'm all excited to get it; but 6 months later is doesn’t sounds quite as interesting. Then there are the occasions when, by the time I end up purchasing the book, a cheaper trade-paperback is available.

I tend to keep a fairly low bar when it comes to adding something to my Amazon wish list (since the incremental cost is only about 10 seconds). When I actually place an order with Amazon, I tend to scan the list for others to purchase (at least enough so that the order qualifies for free shipping), and remove those that don't sound quite so interesting any more.

Posted by Steven at 05:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)