Weekend Update

- I taught Go to yet another new player, a friend/son of a friend who comes occasionally when he is available. I gave him a two stone advantage on a 9x9 board, which was quickly reduced to one stone (as in, he goes first), which turned out to be almost exactly right. I don't know if that shows how good he is for his first few games, or how poor I still am, or a combination of both.

- In other news, the Israeli army has decided that RPG players, or specifically Dungeons and Dragons players, deserve a lower security clearance than other inductees, as they are "detached from reality and suseptible to influence". Way to go IDF. Click.

- I went to a small party and I didn't bring a game because I don't have enough party games. My game collection consists only of the type of games I play at the game group, such as Puerto Rico and El Grande. What games should I get to bring to parties?

At the party, like any party, someone always asks me what I do.

I run a game group.

"Oh, for a living?"

Well, no, but I think that my gaming life is more important to me than the endless hours I put in doing computer stuff for some company, however practical that may be.

"What do you play?"

Board games and card game, new stuff, stuff in the last fifteen years from Europe mostly.

"What, like Monopoly? Scrabble?"

Almost completely, but not entirely, unlike Monopoly. And, although Scrabble, Chess, Bridge, etc... are all nice games, and we may even play them sometimes, there are other groups that play these games in Jerusalem. These other groups define themselves as one game groups - they only play the one game. We play many different games from different countries, all beautifully produced, little luck, lots of strategy, lots of fun, multiplayer, about an hour and a half, you don't have to be a genius to play but you have to think some, and we play for fun, not to win, so we are very supportive.

"Sounds interesting. Maybe I'll stop by sometime."

To myself: uh huh.

That would be great.

Yehuda