Games April 2026

April 30, 2026 9:20 pm

Completed Quest 8 of Kinfire Chronicles: Night’s Fall with my group. Another victory for the team.

While Mom & Dad were in town we played a few games

We played half of a game of Keep the Heroes Out with Corinne. We were victorious.

Played Harmonies, a game of somewhat-abstracted habitat creation. Given to us by friends for Christmas this was the first time we managed to get it to the table. I’d played once at the board-game meetup in the past. For practice, I read the rules in French and managed to figure it out correctly. I believe Mom won.

A quick game of Cat Fluxx. I won.

Followed by a quick game of L’Oaf, which I also won by virtue of being the only baker not fired.

Books April 2026

8:51 pm

Countdown to Zero Day by Kim Zetter

A deeper dive than I was expecting into the discovery of the Stuxnet attack and its believed impact on the Iranian nuclear-weapon program.

The forensic analysis effort of the code was well told. I found it interesting.

Crisis Engineering by Nitze, Weaver, & Dickerson

Lessons learned from a team brought in by organizations to help resolve technology-related crisis situations. For example the botched roll out of healthcare.gov and California’s Covid-era unemployment system collapse.

If you’re in the tech industry the case studies will be unnervingly relatable, but also a little cathartic to know you’re not alone. The dysfunction all around you is, sadly, common.

I would read an entire book of similar case studies to hear more stories like: the unkillable 3AM status-update phone call, the call center that doesn’t know it’s a call center, and why aren’t you using the operations center built for this?

Full disclosure: I am related to one of the authors

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

After two technical, non-fiction books I wanted something light. So I did another read of Jurassic Park.

While it’s almost a truism that books are better than the movies, I think the movie actually does a really good job of cutting out some distractions and telling the core story really well.

For example, the book has a slow opening presumably intended to build some mystery, but the title rather gives away where it’s going so I’m not sure the slow-burn opening is beneficial. And then it ends with an unnecessary excursion to find the raptor nests. Which might have made sense to set up the sequel, but the sequel has nothing to do with the migrating raptors plot line (as I recall).

Anyway, I still enjoyed it.

Games March 2026

March 31, 2026 6:19 pm

Completed Quests 5, 6, & 7 of Kinfire Chronicles: Night’s Fall. Our team remains undefeated.

At the only meetup I made it to we played a game of Northern Pacific. It’s a railroad-building game in which players bet on which cities the railroad will connect through and then try to steer the construction through the cities you bet on. It has some interesting game-theory aspects to it. It’s played in 3 rounds and each round was very different as players adapted their strategies. I won out in the end.

Book March 2026

3:46 pm

The Evolution of Useful Things by Henry Petroski

A look at how some common items have changed over time to meet needs or whims of the populace.

Petroski argues repeatedly that form doesn’t follow function because look at how many variations of X there are. But, at least the way I think of the concept, that proves the point. There are dozens of types of hammers with slight variations because each function requires a slightly different form. And all the forms have the same basic concept of a handle to conform to a users hand with a head on the other end to do the work.

Ubik by Philip K. Dick

This sci-fi story starts on one track and then goes an entirely different direction–almost to the point that it feels like the initial world building was wasted.

You’re meant to be left guessing which reality within the story is the real one–if any.

Furies of Calderon by Jim Butcher

A fantasy story with significant world building and interesting characters. The beginning of a 6-book series.

Humans are part of a broader world of sentient creatures and have carved out an empire for themselves. But the emperor is aging with no heir. The empire is beginning to fray and the enemies of humanity seek opportunity in cracks.

I enjoyed it.