Half Birthdays

January 21, 2020 by Adam in Family

Duncan and I both had half birthdays over the weekend, a tradition invented entirely by Joanna.  She has a birthday coming up in a few days too, so the celebrations continue.

Emma's around this week as Jamie and Meg are in Hawaii for their honeymoon.  Emma and Ben have been hanging out quite a bit, watching weird anime about blood cells.  I took the two of them to Oregon Art Supply to continue spending their Christmas gift certificates.  Otherwise it was a pretty low-key weekend.  Mom came for dinner Sunday and dad last night. 

Slaying the Spire Again

January 18, 2020 by Adam in Adam's Games

Slay the Spire is one of my favorite games - a well-crafted deck building roguelike game where you take one of four characters and build a deck as you slowly climb this spire until you reach the final boss.  They added a new character last week and I've been trying to beat the boss with it.  This morning I succeeded with the Watcher with a slow burn deck that had to hold on long enough to deal massive damage in a couple turns.  It was pretty fun, though I think I need a little Spire break.

The good news is that I have two other excellent games I'm slowly wrapping up.  I think we're approaching the end of Outer Wilds, down to one or two more mysteries to resolve.  Emma and I are also playing Return of the Obra Dinn, which we refer to as the murder scrapbook game.  Basically you revisit various scenes on a ship and try to piece together who died in what way.  With Emma's knowledge of shipboard life, it feels like I have an unfair advantage.  She knows all about where midshipmen would be bunked, the parts of the ship and all the titles of the crewmembers.  It's cool seeing her quirky nautical trivia become relevant.

Mocha Friday

January 17, 2020 by Adam in Family

We just shipped a release at work, so we have a brief lull where we can work more experimental features for a little, assuming Chris doesn't discover more bugs for us to fix.  I'm working on a slightly crazy thing that theoretically works, but I guess we won't find out until we do it.

Everyone is generally doing well.  Emma was over last night and we played a lot of Outer Wilds, flying around our little solar system. With Jamie on vacation, she'll be around for the upcoming week.

I spent some time yesterday getting the new version of this website ready to go.  It should generally work the same, though it's using newer technology under the hood.  Hopefully I can bring it up in parallel for everyone to try out.  I also fixed some old embedded videos that weren't always working, as YouTube used to use Shockwave Flash to embed things.  I'm now using a more modern way of linking videos in.

It looks like another low-key weekend for us all.  I'd love to get some starter seeds going, sort of a promise that spring is coming.

Rainy Wednesday

January 16, 2020 by Adam in Family

Joanna and I went through the cold rainy night to have our date night at the Springfield Cornbread Cafe, which had just opened up.  It was a similar menu to the Eugene location, though with quirky kitch decor.  We read each other questions from the Trivia Pursuit cards left on the table and chatted about life.

Work's been good - I'm in the final stretch of a two month project I've been working on.  The kids all seem to be doing okay.  I had my teeth cleaned and Jenny showed me her new car.  Sadie sent me a link to a bad pun t-shirt.  I chatted with mom in New Mexico.  I read a little more of my Autonomous book.  Life's good.

Another Fine Weekend

January 14, 2020 by Adam in Family

It's Monday already - work was generally satisfying and I think I'm nearly done with a somewhat complicated feature I've been fiddling with for a couple months now.  Now that Christmas break is done, it's gotten pretty quiet.  Mom's still away in New Mexico.  Dad's not working this week and is at the coast.  I spent the weekend hanging out with the kids, playing video games, and doing a bit of yardwork so I didn't consider myself incredibly lazy.

No big news - just the little things of life.  Ben and Emma watched a lot of Star Trek when I was away.  Joanna's been fermenting apples and cauliflower with her Christmas presents.  Sam, Emma, and I played some video games over the Internet over the weekend - he had the flu but is on the mend.  Sadie sent me a bunch of pictures she dug up from her middle school years.  All is well.

Outer Wilds

January 14, 2020 by Adam in Adam's Games

I'm working my way through the award-winning games of 2019 - Disco Elysium was a quirky dialog-heavy detective game.  Now I'm playing through Outer Wilds, which is an exploration game where you explore the mysteries of your solar system and try to piece together another mystery.  They're both excellent and I find I'm becoming jaded and unwilling to play less engaging games.

Emma's been playing with me on occasion, taking the controls and flying our little spaceship through weird and bizarre worlds.

There and Back Again

January 10, 2020 by Adam in Family

After a lovely weekend with the kids, I headed to the airport Monday morning and started my quarterly trip to Salt Lake City.  All went generally okay, with my usual routine being wake up, run four miles, eat oatmeal in the hotel, walk across the parking lot for meetings, have dinner with coworkers, and play Slay the Spire until bedtime.  There were some variations - one day we went to a stained glass place and made little stained glass things.  They did real work there, elaborate stained glass windows for churches, and we admired the cool machinery.

Yesterday Tim and I left around noon to wade through the long security line and make our way home.  I ran into an old PeaceHealth friend, Steve Long, on the flight to Eugene.  It was great being home again and sleeping well last night.

I still struggled with the altitude and dry air.  A nettie pot, nasal spray, and Advil generally helped, and I felt pretty normal the last day.  It always feels good to return home to the valley.

Joanna managed the kids generally okay.  Apparently the routine was to watch Star Trek after dinner every night.  Hopefully I can wrest my computer back again now that I've returned.

I'm working today, back to my routine.  Tonight Joanna and I are going to hang out and play games with other grown ups, which is a treat.

Cocaine Fueled Karaoke

January 04, 2020 by Adam in Family

We're slowly walking up in Portland, looking out over the city from our hotel room.

It's our second stay in the Hotel deLuxe as years ago we also saw a play nearby. Yesterday morning we packed for our journey, waited for Mattie to come and watch Ben, and took Emma to her mom's. Then it was driving through country roads to reach Silver Falls. For some reason I'd never gone there. It was lovely, trails through tall trees and wet cool air. We hiked behind two falls, tons of water crashing over basaltic lava flows. We took our tired bodies back to the cabins, admiring their depression era construction. After some coffee and lentil soup we continued on to Portland.

After settling into our rooms we changed into city clothes, which were only slightly more formal versions of our normal attire. Powell's books was nearby, so we picked up a few treasures and ate veggie pot pie and a cherry peach pie for dinner at a vegan, gluten free place. The play was held in a conference room in the Tiffany building, decked out to look like a Scottish pub. The play happened all around us, a bizarre and hysterical modern day retelling of a Scottish ballad involving a love story with the devil and cocaine fueled karaoke. It was quite memorable, especially the actors in their underwear jumping on tables.

Soon we're off to Fuel for breakfast, then fetching Duncan from the airport. It's been a lovely getaway.

Disco Elysium

January 02, 2020 by Adam in Adam's Games

I've always been a fan of the text-heavy philosophical games like Planescape: Torment.  Disco Elysium is a weird game where you play a detective in a worn-down world similar to ours, solving small mysteries in the most bizarre way possible.  I had fun playing as an occasionally psychic, slightly communist detective.  Many of the main quests were bumbled through, though I did manage to make it to the end and generally solve the case.  The end was sad and whistful in a way, the end of some great writing and storytelling.  While I'm not sure I'll ever manage myself, I'd love to play around with making a similarly thoughtful game.

I did manage to sing a really sad karaoke song before solving the case with my trusty sidekick Kim, so that's a plus.

2020

January 02, 2020 by Adam in Family

I got a little mixed up with my various vacations and it turns out I had New Year's Day through the end of the week off.  In our traditional fashion, Ben, Joanna, and I drank virgin pina coladas and watched the Japanese Jonny's Countdown, followed by a quick switch over to watch the Times Square ball drop.  We watched random Japanese commercials until it was time for bed - a fine way to ring in the new year.

Today was pretty low-key.  I finished Disco Elysium, which was a great detective game.  Ben played assorted video games.  Joanna and I went for a long hike.  I ran and watched The Witcher on Netflix.  It was all quite lovely.

It's been a bit of a whirlwind week.  I worked a couple days, had dinner at Jenny's, and managed to go have tea with Seraph and Robbie before they left.  Mom's in New Mexico for a couple weeks.  Jamie took Emma to the beach.  Joanna and I will be having a night in Portland this weekend, catching a play, and then getting Duncan from the airport.  Next Monday I'm off to Salt Lake City.  Hopefully life quiets down a bit after that.