Ahhh an earlier bed.
Last night it was about 4am when I was trying to make words here, already mostly asleep, thinking about Lou on her adventure. We had been playing games. Last night Moonrakers and then Ticket to Ride Europe. Dan is a game designer and one of my oldest friends. He has adapted a few great board games for PC, tablet, VR or all of them. He’s occasionally used me to voice them too, going right back to his Morrowind mod “Scourge of the Lich Father”. We still align on games and we both still have play at the centre of our working lives. Just occasionally we get together with a couple of other lovely geeky men and we play these incredible board games.
It’s hard to find the time for these things, so you have to make it. These things go in the diary ages ahead. Last time I was in Paris. This time it aligned. February geeky game weekend. I brought Will’s copy of Atmosfear, which has been in my car since Jersey.
Today we walked the dog in the morning. Then bacon sandwiches. Being the nerds we are, there was a bottle of Blair’s Ultra Death. A hot sauce. 1.1 million scoville. I mixed a single drop into my ketchup and it almost killed me. I’m still coughing a tiny bit.
Today we played T.I.M.E Stories, which is a work of genius but it took about 5 hours. Cards and board and four of us. One of us made mai-tais before lunchtime and I thoughtlessly put them away despite knowing full well that it rarely goes well with me to have spirits. Early afternoon, once I was comfortable the bacon and hot sauce was digested, I resorted to the all too familiar means I somehow have normalised as a result of my journeys to Aya. Better out than in. After yesterday, I badly need to be non toxic. I refused the ensuing mixing and I’m in bed already, hours before midnight.
Last game of the day was Atmosfear. It’s atrociously wonderful. The era and mechanics of Trivial Pursuit, the technology and video production too. So camp, so ridiculously dumb. A belarussian “Gatekeeper” doing stuff that wouldn’t get him past round one at drama school. Some deliciously bad acting straight to camera. “scary” things. Obviously a game for kids, but we played it because we knew it can only last an hour. There’s charm there. I don’t think I’d ever want to play it again though. But there’s something about it that aligns with the modern games we have been playing, and something that aligns with how I have started to enjoy making or participating in immersive or gamey experiences. This one would need an overhaul but there are things that can be done with the mechanics and modern technology that might be very interesting. No time in the day though. Too busy earning / playing.
A gorgeous way to reconnect as friends. There’s love in the room, and history.
And now to bed at a normal time. More games tomorrow, but sober as I’m gonna home late afternoon. Boo gets her cone off tomorrow.
AlBarclay 