Games July 2026

July 31, 2026 8:50 pm

The group completed quests 12 and 13 of our Kinfire Chronicles: Night’s Fall story. Both completed victoriously. Quest 13 was clearly set up as a major battle, but with fortune on our side and complementary decks we were able to deal out 80 damage across the enemy team with just 3 attacks and then mop up the remnants from there.

At a board game meetup I jumped into the tail end of the silly game Hot Streak. The players are compulsive gamblers betting on the outcome of a race of sports team mascots as well as various propositional bets along the way. I lost.

After Hot Streak, we played a game of 7 Wonders. I lost that too.

And closing out that night was a game of the rather odd Frenemy Pastry Party. In this game the only way to earn points is to either bake a cake or help someone else bake a cake. Baking a cake alone is suboptimal as it uses up your own ingredients. Contribute ingredients to someone else’s cake earns you points, but they will earn more points for the cake than you will for the ingredients. So the goal is to try to get all the other players to evenly contribute to your own cakes so the points for ingredients are diffused across the other players and cake points are concentrated on yourself. But once every figures this out cooperation is likely to deteriorate. I lost by a point once another player realized what I was doing and rallied the rest of the table to prevent me from winning.

Books July 2026

July 30, 2026 8:42 pm

Accelerando by Charles Stross

An exploration of a future in which an artificial intelligence singularity has occurred (sentient AI systems self-developing beyond human comprehension). It starts off way too over-the-top cyberpunk, but settles down.

Uses the evolving singularity as an explanation for the Fermi Paradox.

Livesuit by James S. A. Corey

A novella set in the Captive’s War universe in between books 1 and 2. Humanity has a new weapon in their interstellar battle, bionic humans who are faster, stronger, and more resilient, but at what cost?

Kind of a parallel exploration of the Spartan units in the Halo universe.

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

Speaking of bionic humans…this novella explores a bionic, human-based security “drone” which evades its governor module and begins exploring its own free will. “Human based” in that it’s mostly robotic, but uses a human brain to provide the intelligence to the system (the details aren’t fully described in the book).

It wants to protect the people it was hired to protect, but it also mostly just wants to be left alone to watch TV shows.

Wings of Fire books 1-5

During our Pacific-northwest roadtrip we listened to audiobooks of the Wings of Fire series. We got through books 1 through 4 and partly through 5 (which I finished in paper form once we returned home).

It actually lined up oddly well with our trip. We listened to book 2, taking place mainly in the sea kingdom, as we drove up the coast. Book 3, taking place mainly in the rain forest, as we visited Hoh Rain Forest. And book 4, taking place mainly within a volcano, as we visited the Cascade Volcanic Arc including Mt. St. Helens and Crater Lake.

Books 1-5 make up a unified story arc of the “Dragonet Prophecy.” Five dragonets destined to end the Sandwing war of succession and bring peace to the continent of Pyrrhia.

PNW Road Trip – Day 12

July 22, 2026 8:48 pm

Day 12 (7/22) – Breakfast at the hotel. The usual things: yogurt, sausage, cereal, muffins, bagels, English muffins, oatmeal, etc.

The first stop of the day was the Mount St. Helens Visitor Center. It’s not very far off the highway; easy to stop on the way by. Further up the road are the Forest Learning Center and the Johnston Ridge Observatory. The observatory, however, has been closed and will remain closed until at least 2027. The road was destroyed in a landslide.

The visitor center has an interesting set of exhibits. Including a walkthrough volcano diorama to show off the interior structure.

Lunch was at the ilani complex. I had it down as a point of interest as a large entertainment complex (though mainly a casino). We needed to eat something, it was on the way, and I figured there’d be food there. Maybe even decent food at subsidized prices–but I guess that’s not a thing at casinos anymore. At the entrance they had a few fast-food places. Corinne had fried rice, I had surprisingly decent street tacos, Jess and Heather had mediocre pizza by-the-slice (though it was huge slices!):

Back across the Columbia River into Oregon. We stopped in Portland at Hopscotch–a set of interactive, immersive, art exhibits. A ball pit of translucent balls over changing multi-colored lights. A room sculpted into a cave using discarded, plastic grocery bags. A room with strings of changing multi-colored lights hanging from the ceiling with 4 wall of mirrors. A bouncy floor with projectors and motion-responsive, algorithmic art designs. And more. It was certainly unique. The girls had a blast.

Destination for the night was another Best Western Plus. This one in Albany, OR. Dinner at Elmer’s.

PNW Road Trip – Day 11

July 21, 2026 8:07 pm

Day 11 (7/21) – Breakfast from the bin as we packed up the hotel room and then loaded up the van. Out of Vancouver headed south across the border. Once we returned to the U.S. we stopped for lunch at Bob’s Burgers and Brews. Then into Seattle to visit the Space Needle, Chihuly Gardens & Glass, and a quick IMAX movie about the James Webb Space Telescope. Had tourist-trap-expensive ice cream at the top of the Space Needle which we ate while hanging out on the rotating, transparent floor.

Dinner was a smorgasbord of nearby options. Nuggets from McDonald’s for Corinne. After grabbing those we walked over to the armory which had a food court. Heather got a Subway sandwich and Jess and I got individual pizzas from Mod Pizza.

Back in the car to Lacey, WA where we spent the night at a Best Western Plus.

PNW Road Trip – Day 10

July 20, 2026 10:54 pm

Day 10 (7/20) – Breakfast at the restaurant in the hotel lobby, Abode. Walk along the harbor up to the Vancouver Aquarium; with a free preview of seals on the way.

Intentionally left the aquarium trip for Monday hoping it would be less busy and it wasn’t too bad. Far less busy than some trips to Monterey Bay Aquarium that we’ve done. Special exhibits on dragons and axolotls, so it was pretty much designed for our girls. Heather got to hold a gecko.

We ate lunch at the aquarium’s cafe, out through the gift shop, and back to the hotel to crash and rest. Corinne did some swimming in the hotel pool and I rested my feet in the hot tub again. Dinner was on the corner across the street at Coco Rico Cafe. Then to the other side of the street to try Japanese cheesecake. It’s fluffy in contrast to the American smooth/dense variety.

The view of our hotel from the plaza across the street: