Happy Leap Day!

And a Happy Birthday to all you Leap Day-ers who only get to celebrate every four years. (You should eat four times as much cake; just don't expect extra presents).

There's a lot going on here at Casa...um...Estayathomedaddo. Elaine is now MOBILE! And she's cut TWO TEETH! Isn't that awesome? I'm so tired.

I've got a lot to do, so there probably won't be anything new for a week or so, other than maybe the odd, lazy post that contains just a few pictures or content stolen from other sites.

Like this...

(You have to click on it for it to be funny...)

Chit and Chat

We had a fantastic time on Saturday playing Puerto Rico with Jim, Sonja, and their housemate, Vic. I posted a hopelessly long session report on boardgamegeek.com describing the experience, and I'm just going to post the link here instead of the whole article.

Man, we've been having a nice run of good weather here. I haven't seen any rain in over a week, and it's been sunny and in the 50s for much of the time. I've been warned that Seattle has a number of false springs, which is probably what we're experiencing now. I'm not complaining.

Elaine is cutting her first tooth, so she's been a little cranky, but mostly she's been good-natured about it, like most things. Her little personality is really starting to emerge--she's a lot of fun. She's also getting to be more mobile, so we're trying to baby-proof the house now. More pics and videos to come.

I still haven't found that signature regional beer. Most of what I've found that is remotely tasty appears to come from Oregon. I liked the Hale's Winter beer, but that's seasonal, so it doesn't count. There is one very nice local beer called Mac 'n Jack's Amber Ale, but you can only get it in kegs at this point. Once that becomes more widely available, I think that I'll have located my Washington Oberon. Ah, well, there's homebrew carbonating downstairs that'll be ready in three weeks or so. Mmmmm....

Some images from Saturday:

The view from Edinburgh



The view from Seattle

100th Post! Review: The Settlers of Catan

A few historical tidbits on boardgames:

While the bulk of boardgame sales have historically gone to the party and parlour games produced by Hasbro, Parker Brothers, and Mattel, there has long been a niche for alternative games.

Wargames (historical simulations) have always had a devoted base, which was greatly expanded when the hex and counter system was devised, permitting movement in 6 directions. Not really germane to the discussion--didn't want to leave them out.

The 3M company was an early unlikely player in the alternative market, eventually producing the Bookshelf series of games in the 1960's, including Twixt and Acquire.

In the late 70s and early 80s, there was an explosion of interest in role playing games, which culminated in the codification of the Dungeons and Dragons ruleset, and led to a series of spectacularly bad movies.

The collectible card game burst onto the scene in the late 80s, with Magic: the Gathering. Wallets were emptied, refilled, emptied again.

In 1995, Settlers of Catan was released in Germany. People played it. A lot. Suddenly, America was aware of the German boardgame scene. Catan came to America, printed in English by Mayfair Games. An explosion of sorts occurred. Settlers of Catan is now considered to be one of the most influential boardgames of the late 20th century.

Roughly two bajillion games in the "Euro" style are released over the next ten years. I read roughly 1 bajillion accounts of how Settlers of Catan was the starting point of a great new hobby for them, and how they played it over and over, on Boardgamegeek.com.

I play quite a few "Euro" style games, then try Settlers of Catan. I'm not impressed.

So this is where I was prior to Joe and Chris coming over for dinner and a game last Saturday. I wrote up the game in a session report on the Geek. Since I was still a bit shaky on the rules and strategy, even after playing a few games, I decided to wipe the slate clean, and give Settlers a fresh shake. Or whatever.

In Settlers of Catan, players are racing towards 10 Victory Points (VPs). You get VPs by building settlements or cities, by drawing +1 VP cards from the development deck, or by having either the longest road or the largest army (2 VPs each). Everyone starts with two settlements, so 2 VPs. You must collect resources in order to build things; for example, it takes one each of brick, wood, wool, and wheat to build a settlement. Resources are found on the game board, which represents the island of Catan (see below). Each large hex represents one type of resource (yellow=wheat, lt. green=sheep, dk. green=wood, red=brick, gray=ore). If you build a settlement at the vertices of three hexes, you have access to those resources.



The number found inside the hex is the number that must come up on a roll of two dice in order to claim the resource. Every player who is adjacent to a wheat hex with an '8' on it receives one wheat card if an 8 is rolled by any player. The arrangement of hexes and numbers is randomized with each play.

On your turn, you roll two dice, and everyone collects resources according to the result. Then you may build a road, settlement, city, or you may pay for a development card. Some development cards have VPs on them, some allow you to mess with other players, and most are Soldier cards (more on these later--in short, the more Soldier cards you play, the bigger your army is). You may also attempt to trade with other players, by simply asking something like, "I would give up two bricks if anyone has a wheat to trade". Often, it works, unless you're the clear leader. You may also trade in 4 of any resource to the bank for one of any resource. When you're done screwing around, it's the next person's turn.

If anyone rolls '7', there is no resource collection. Instead, the active player moves a pawn called the Robber to any hex. As long as the Robber is there, no resources may be obtained from that hex. After moving the Robber, the active player chooses a player who has a settlement adjacent to the Robber hex and takes a resource card from their hand. Any player caught with more than 7 cards in their hand loses half of their hand (ouch).

When someone plays a Soldier card, they may move the Robber and take a resource as if they rolled a '7'.

That's almost it. Building, though, is one of the more tricky parts. You can't build a settlement in the absence of a road. You can't build a settlement less than two road spans from another settlement. After the initial placement, you must connect all subsequent settlements to one of your first two by road. All this means that it's hard to expand. The board gets really crowded early, and by midgame, you can really be hard-pressed to find a place to easily build. Since building is one of the routes to VPs, this means that you must be flexible and willing to forgo building to purchase development cards or to pursue the longest road/largest army scenarios.

What do I think? Well, luck plays a huge role in this game, as you can be totally hosed by bad rolls. However, I think that much of the luck is mitigated by other opportunities for tactical victories on the board. There's ample opportunity for interaction, via blocking roads, and devious placement of settlements.

There's also a lot of room of chatter, especially during the hold-your-breath dice rolling phase and the trading phase. I like the replayability factor brought about by the randomizing capability. It's not a particularly heavy game, but it can run a bit long. The expansion, Cities and Knights of Catan, adds slightly to the depth and significantly to the run time, but I've read almost unanimously that it is essential.

So, it doesn't hold a candle to some of my very favorite games. However, I would definitely like to try it again, and Jill is leaning towards adding it to our collection.

Gussying up the place

Hi all. Marc here.

I just wanted to point out the enhanced functionality of the blog environment over here at Enough of this endless hedging(...).

On your left, you'll find a list of tags that will give you Instant Access to any post that is so tagged. In a hurry to find that boardgame review for a school paper? Just click on boardgames. Wondering why there's a tag for Crows? Click on crows! It's just that simple. (I'll save you some time...the crows link is for any post that mentions crows, even in passing.)

Then, there's a list of boardgames that I have never played, but by which I am intrigued. Most of them are quite long, hence the subtitle. If I ever get to play any of them...well, I'm sure you'll hear all about it. They're all linked to the 'Geek, so you can go drool over them, too.

Further down the page, you'll see a list of songs. I'll try to keep this list current. These are my current favorites on the local station. There can be only nine, for obviously arbitrary reasons, so I'll have to kick one out to put a new one in. The newest ones will always occupy the top slots in the list.

Speaking of music, I added an illuminating link in the comments section of my last album review.

Keep your eyes peeled for the special 100th post.

Let down and hangin' around

Settling in has taken a few steps forward. First, I've gotten in a few games--one night of Ticket to Ride: Europe and For Sale with Joe and Chris Brzezinski, and a tight game of San Juan with Jill (in bed!). I wouldn't call the month-long drought over, but the itch has been somewhat satisfied.

But Monday, we got the first brew of the new house put away. It was the Vagabond Dark Gingered Ale that I mentioned earlier. It's tricky, figuring out the logistics of brewing in a new place. Everything, however, went without a hitch. I did most of the work on this one, only calling Jill in to help with the sparging. It tasted pretty incredible just prior to pitching the yeast. I put the fermenter in one of the basement rooms, where it has been bubbling away since then at ~70-72F.

Last night, I found that it had been bubbling a little TOO vigorously, and the pressure had forced the foam up into the vapor lock. After a quick sterilization of the backup vapor lock, I replaced the original and held my breath. I was gratified by a healthy bubble, and then another 5 seconds later. Back on track! We should be bottling by Monday or Tuesday, and enjoying this by mid-March. It's good to be back in the saddle, so to speak.

Gabbling

Here is a bullet list of recent thoughts and observations

-I've only seen Mt. Ranier once since I've been here, despite the fact that it looms over the entire region. My mouth gaped open as we traveled down a local highway, 1 mile from my home. It feels like we live in Pompeii.

-Seattle is just chock full of plump Asian girls. Or women. Chicks? How do I say that without being offensive? Is it "Asian"? Either way, the plumper they are, the more likely they are to wear black clothing with bright splashes of pink or purple.

-Jill and I haven't discussed it much, but we really miss all of our family and friends back East. There's a big you-shaped hole inside of us, I think the expression goes.

-Thanks to Jonathan for pimping that Penny Arcade comic. I've been through some of the archive, and it's quite good.

-I would have no problem voting for Obama if he got Bill Richardson to be on his ticket. I would not vote for him if the Clintons were on his ticket. They would be too disruptive to his presidency. If it's just the Clintons versus McCain, I'd have to look at it more closely. They both voted to go into Iraq. Of course, if it's a McCain/Romney ticket, I'd suck it up and vote Hillary.

-Elaine is totally hilarious much of the time.

-The Right and big business have been working hard to counteract the effects of Gore's documentary. Turns out the thousands of scientists that, amazingly, came to a rough consensus that we humans are having an effect on the global climate are just saying what it takes to keep their funding. (Ignore for the moment that the funding comes from the government, and recall the hostility the Bush administration showed to science in general.) The crux of the arguments seem to be that we can't actually know anything about our effect because of questionable measurement metrics over too short of a time, and that the planet goes through natural cycles of warming and cooling. To me, this is a red herring, because we have two basic problems that require immediate attention: the trees that reduce CO2 and produce oxygen are being wiped out at an exponential rate, and the pollution of our rivers and streams that is finding its way into the water tables and other organisms that we eat.

-Ever daydream about what you'd do with a nice, round figure like $10 million? I do, sometimes...

-Buy a house somewhere nice, with a goodly spread of land for my disc golf course. Oregon, maybe. Montana, too. Also, a flat in a major city (Manhattan, London, Amsterdam, Barcelona...)

-Move my parents and whoever Jill wants on her side of the family to wherever they want.

-Travel (By train if possible, but definitely first class on planes)

-Figure out a way to help a lot of people out here in the US. Become the Anonymous Philanthropist Vigilante!

-Open a brewpub with attached game store (duh).

What's your $10 Mil list?

Public Service Announcement

It appears that, contrary to anything that I have ever heard, an eggplant can explode with a thunderous, house-shaking kaboom when placed in an oven at 400 degrees (Fahrenheit). I have done the "40 minutes at 400 degrees" eggplant-charring technique for my eggplant curry over 6 times in the past with no incident, but this time I think that the eggplant was just a little past its prime. It felt like the flesh had begun to pull away from the skin, so it was a bit dessicated. A good forking, undoubtedly, would have been prudent.

Take care out there.

They're here!

EVERYONE has been clamoring for more pictures of Elaine, and of our basic situation. Well, not anyone here, exactly, but there were many people.

If you click on THIS, you will experience a slideshow treatment of photos and videos from the 3rd and 4th month of our daughter's life.

If you click on THIS, there will be more of the same from November thru January.

If you click HERE, you will be amused.

If you click HERE, you will be disturbed.

I could go on.

The Way it Sounds to Me: Best of 2007

It's kind of a joke for me to write a Best of... entry, since I've barely heard a tenth of the interesting music that was released last year. However, I can comment on what I have encountered and crown a few winners, plus I've had a few beers, so bite me.

Best of 2007
Deerhunter Cryptograms

Timeless. This album spans a wide variety of musical styles, and DAMN, it sounds really good. Half the songs are "rock", while the remainder are some form of electronica. Three or four tracks are straight ambient, but are among the most beautiful and interesting ambient that I've ever heard. Truly tracks for the headphones or a nice system. Some of the early rock tracks are driving noise pop, with insistent bass lines and emotive vocals that are distorted beyond recognition. These include the title track and Lake Somerset, where vocalist Bradford Cox sounds like crackling energy, moaning and ranting about god-knows-what. A hybrid song, Octet, incorporates the more accessible electronic/ambient style with an addictive bassline and noise pop/shoegaze sensibility. But after another ambient track, these styles synthesize with a dose of dream pop for some really nice psych-pop songs like Spring Hall Convert, Strange Lights, and especially Hazel St. I've listened to this about 30 times and it has yet to approach getting old.

Best of the rest (in alphabetical order)

!!! Myth Takes
Experimental dance-rock record that calls to mind the Talking Heads with the addictive polyrhythmic instrumentation and emotive vocalizations, but the whole package comes off as edgier and less apologetically dance music. Great sense of humor, great variety of styles.

Antibalas Security
Everyone needs this album. Antibalas has been around for awhile as a collective that focuses on Afrobeat, somewhat in the style of Fela Kuti. You will move. You will keep moving. It is good for you, plus there's the side benefit of subliminal antiestablishmentarianism. Deep, organic, real.

Arcade Fire Neon Bible
Already discussed at length here.

Arthur & Yu In Camera
Very nice album of well-crafted 60's psych/folk/pop tunes. At first, it sounds like a contrived gimmick, but as you get deeper into the record, and the songs are still so good, you realize that they really know what they're doing. Great comfortable music to put you in a good mood.

Battles Mirrored
Battles is usually described as math rock, which implies mostly instrumental tunes that use complicated time signatures. Battles pulls this off with great rhythm, and often mind-blowing precision. Take the concept behind speed metal, slow it down for us older people, and eliminate anything unnecessary, including the screeching solos; add in some funk and crazy creative knob-twisting, and you have the goodness that is Battles. What a great-sounding album!

The Field From Here We Go Sublime
My prior experiences with techno involved watching a smackhead co-worker glide around the kitchen in ridiculously large pants to very loud bootleg DJ mixtapes instead of doing his job. Needless to say, I was reluctant to explore further. I picked this up because of its high MetaCritic score, and was not disappointed. This got heavy playtime during my thesis preparation, and I still love it. I don't know enough about the process of making this type of music to write intelligently about it, so I'll settle for "minimalist techno that builds beautiful layers amid soothing washes of white sound". I doubt that techno gets any better than this. Close runner up for Best of 2007.

Great Lake Swimmers Ongiara
Beautiful and spare
songs of nature, love and loss
Best band name, ever

Our Brother the Megazord Time the Teenage Twister
Detroit artist Randolph Chabot, Jr. is your typical dude-with-a-laptop, guitar, and synth who makes music in his basement. He performs as Deastro, Our Brother the Megazord, or Jr. Jr. to showcase different flavors of his musical interests. This record, available only through CD Baby, is largely electronic experimental pop. Lots of it is kind of dreamy, and highlights his good instincts, great voice, and a sense of humor.

Panda Bear Person Pitch
The record that would have happened if Brian Wilson had taken a bunch of drugs back in 1965 and had access to a Mac stuffed with samples and mixing software. Great '60s tinged tunes with the freedom to grow on their own. Panda Bear is one part of Animal Collective, who specialize in slightly more freaked-out song styles, so it's really nice to get his perspective in clearer light. "Bros" is one of my songs of the year, and is the ultimate song for walking or biking around on the most gorgeous, relaxed day of summer. You WILL have a huge grin on your face, looking at all the wonderful people who must all be doing wonderful things and thinking wonderful thoughts in this wonderful day. This is a close second place for Best of 2007.

Radiohead In Rainbows
OK, I'm cheating. I haven't actually bought this yet, but the local station, KEXP, has played most of the tracks for me at this point, and it is pretty fantastic. I especially like "Bangers and Mash", off the second disc. I look forward to eventually getting this and playing it to death.

Stars of the Lid And Their Refinement of the Decline
I'm including this because of how much play it got this year. It had the dual effect of providing great background to my thesis writing, and it would help Elaine get to sleep. This is total drone-core, comprised entirely of sparse waves of sounds generated from synths, piano, guitar, horns and strings. It moves so slowly that it really takes several listens to feel the rhythm and melody of any one track. One review that I read called it music to accompany the end of the world, to echo through crumbling cities. Apt.

I only had so much money to spend on music, so I may have missed out on other gems. Notably, I haven't heard the 2007 releases by Iron and Wine, LCD Soundsystem, Burial, Eluvium, Blonde Redhead, Beirut, Band of Horses, Feist, Robert Plant & Allison Krauss, Caribou, Liars, Stars, The Good The Bad and the Queen, Okkervil River, and many others that seem to be right up my alley (That's right, I name-drop. Whaddyagonnadoaboutit?).

I think that 2008 will be the year that I make an effort to explore more female vocalists. I've been impressed with the work of Leslie Feist, Cat Power, and Neko Case-- heck, even Goldfrapp has some new stuff coming out that is a departure from the dancehall. I'm also hearing some really cool alt-country and folk on KEXP that I want to check out. The new Tyler Ramsey sounds amazing, as do the offerings I've heard from Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Drive-by Truckers, and The National.

Finally, HEY! LEMON JELLY! MORE MUSIC PLEASE!

That is all.

The new look

I decided to join the ranks of the erudite and pretentious by having a hopelessly obscure moniker for my web log. Rather than use my imagination to assemble a phrase that had some bearing on my experience, I used a random phrase generator, repeatedly pressing "GENERATE" until something appropriately precious emerged. After that, it was simply a matter of spinning myself violently around until the nihilism took over in order to flesh out the facade.

I'm exhausted from these efforts, so I'm asking for your help in coming up with an appropriate image to murkily reside in the background. Look at the phrase. Listen to it. What is it saying to you? Cradle it in your slowly dying arms and love it. Then (quickly!) give me your mind-picture.

Less creepily, I was sick of the blog title, and I'm transitioning to something else. I'm leaning towards having fun with it in the interim, and I'm soliciting opinions, suggestions, etc.

(Edit: No one gave me their mind-picture. Dammit! So, I went with Lovecraft. Can't go wrong with good ol' H.P.)
(Edit II: Good ol' H.P. got old on me quick, so I punted. ALL THE GOOD BLOG TITLES ARE TAKEN.)
(Edit III: Still soliciting opinions, suggestions, but I'm obviously not expecting much from you bunch of deadbeats. That's right. I called your asses out.)

To A Mouse, On Turning Her Up In Her Nest With The Plough

To our friends in Scotland, those who have been, and all friends of mice...

"Wee, sleekit, cow'rin, tim'rous beastie,
O, what a panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi' bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,
Wi' murd'ring pattle!

I'm truly sorry man's dominion,
Has broken nature's social union,
An' justifies that ill opinion,
Which makes thee startle
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An' fellow-mortal!

I doubt na, whiles, but thou may thieve;
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen icker in a thrave
'S a sma' request;
I'll get a blessin wi' the lave,
An' never miss't!

Thy wee bit housie, too, in ruin!
It's silly wa's the win's are strewin!
An' naething, now, to big a new ane,
O' foggage green!
An' bleak December's winds ensuin,
Baith snell an' keen!

Thou saw the fields laid bare an' waste,
An' weary winter comin fast,
An' cozie here, beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell-
Till crash! the cruel coulter past
Out thro' thy cell.

That wee bit heap o' leaves an' stibble,
Has cost thee mony a weary nibble!
Now thou's turn'd out, for a' thy trouble,
But house or hald,
To thole the winter's sleety dribble,
An' cranreuch cauld!

But, Mousie, thou art no thy lane,
In proving foresight may be vain;
The best-laid schemes o' mice an 'men
Gang aft agley,
An'lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!

Still thou art blest, compar'd wi' me
The present only toucheth thee:
But, Och! I backward cast my e'e.
On prospects drear!
An' forward, tho' I canna see,
I guess an' fear!"

-Robert Burns

Time to get brewing!

More sad economic news: Smaller than average crops of both hops and barley will lead to an increase in the price of craft beer from smaller companies, and could lead to outright collapse of some microbreweries. A combination of poor harvests in Europe and the weak dollar have driven up costs of the ingredients, and also aluminum, steel for the kegs, and cardboard. Another contributing factor to the hops and barley shortages appears to be that farms are switching to the more profitable corn crop.

Large hop farms have driven the cost of hops down over the last 20 years, which has made farming hops on a smaller scale barely profitable. Furthermore, large corporations that make an entire line of spectacularly crappy products, such as Anheuser Busch, have contracts with hop and barley farms that lock in a specific price over a period of time, AND gives them first pick of the harvest. Although a beer like Budweiser has significantly less hops and barley than Bell's Oberon, there is much, much more Budweiser produced annually. Bell's recently announced that they were only able to secure about 60% of the Czech Saaz they need for this year's batch of Oberon, so they are experimenting with different varieties.

Even a larger craft brewer like Sam Adams is feeling the pinch, and they expect to charge more per six-pack this year and next. Most articles that I read forecasted a $1-3 increase per six-pack for most craft beers, although some brewers may elect to absorb the cost.

So what does this mean to us, the beer-drinking lobby? Brew your own! When we were in the beer supply the other day, the proprietor apologized for the higher cost of the hops ($4.50/2 oz.). However, I found a grower who will ship vacuum-sealed packs of freshly grown hops for $2 an ounce, so I figure we'll plan our next few batches and place an order. First up: Vagabond Gingered Ale! I think we'll get a brown going fast on the heels of that.

I got my info here, here, and here.