Tag: Kyle

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.

Games February 2026

February 28, 2026 9:35 am

Played Everdell Farshore at a board-game meetup. It’s a standalone game in the Everdell world. Same base mechanics but several aspects simplified for faster play and easier learning for new players. Rather than set in a forest it’s set in a south-Pacific archipelago. So if that environment is more your thing than the woods you might prefer it overall. I won.

Played through quests 3 and 4 of Kinfire Chronicles: Night’s Fall with my group. We were victorious on both counts. Now headed into Din’Lux to explore the big city.

Books February 2026

9:29 am

The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch

This is a wide-ranging treatise on the advancement of knowledge. One of the author’s premises is that advancement relies on recognizing that reality is understandable. It wasn’t until the Enlightenment that this concept really took hold resulting in the continual growth of knowledge and technology we live in now.

It also requires the mindset that problems are soluble. Without that mindset no one would bother trying to improve things.

Very dense reading.

Season of Storms by Andrzej Sapkowski

Book 8 in the overall Witcher series taking place before the events that involve Ciri.

A return to form of telling the tales of Geralt as he travels the world and vanquishes monsters.

Racing the Beam: The Atari Video Computer System by Montfort and Bogost

Our latest book-group pick follows on from our last pick about text gaming (eventually known as “interactive fiction”). This chronicles the early history of home video gaming with what is now referred to as the Atari 2600 system.

I found it interesting to learn about the design of the system, how closely it was designed to work with an NTSC TV, and how developers pushed the capabilities far beyond the intended hardware functionality.

3D Prints January 2026

January 31, 2026 10:03 pm

I wrote about more about why I wanted this in the post about the ePhotoFrame. The short version is I wanted to hang something over this old telephone switch plate so I designed this hook which can slip behind the cover and be threaded through by the screw to be held in place. Works great (so far anyway, but I think it’s sturdy enough).

Since the game group I got together chose to play Kinfire Chronicles I decided I needed to redesign the card holder boxes. Especially since, after resetting the game to start fresh, one section of cards didn’t fit at all anymore in my original design. I know a deck of cards will take up more space once it’s been handled for a bit as the cards take on a little warping, but I wouldn’t have thought it would be as pronounced as it was.

Anyway, with my greatly improved skills with SolveSpace I whipped together this version which has movable dividers and should work much more effectively as the game progresses and cards need to move around.

Kinfire Chronicles Card Box STLsDownload