Denver Offsite 2026

Ok, so I tweaked the code I had so that instead of cutting and pasting URLs, it points at a Flickr album (if you have an API KEY) and generates my HTML right to the screen instead of an output file.  No more opening and closing and looking at dozens of windows.  Simply "poof" an HTML list of photos that maintains perspective within the confines of a 600x600 window, which is optimal for Blogger.  Slick.  That's a huge difference in my time and might actually get me to blog.

So I'm starting with my most recent event first, which was my company offsite in Denver, Colorado.  We were in the Denver Tech Center area, which is about an hour south of downtown, by train or by Uber in rush hour.  I took the A train from the airport and switched to light rail. I was surprised my team was so pro-public transportation.  One team member came in early enough to take public transportation and his backpack to a canyon and hiked up a mountain.  I took it in early and hiked around the Denver Tech Center area (not very exciting).  And at least one other team member did the $10/day method.  I like the cash goes to the city.  That's always a plus.

I spent time on the airplane reading my "homework".  The Art of Action.  This is an extract.  Not exactly an easy read.  The overall theme of the book was good.  Autonomy over micromanagement.  Micromanagers thrive in the same places as authoritarians and dictators.  Autonomy is good in war as well as in business.  But I don't think I needed a whole book for that lesson.  Our single hour of book discussion was mostly a rehash of the themes because we hadn't had a lot of time to read it, and a few exhortations to share how to change company culture to encourage a bit of esprit de corps across teams and foster more autonomy in tackling problems and innovation.  Sometimes it's like there's nothing new under the sun.  Those aren't groundbreaking ideas.  The issue is always handling managers who do micromanage and enforce a hierarchy in all things.

During my walk, I headed up to the outdoor sculpture garden.  But it turned out to be a music venue, closed, and not as interesting as I'd hoped.  But I found their coffee shop and enjoyed the giraffe statutes outside the doors.

It was a whole family.

When I went to find my room, the key would only let me go to the fourth floor.  I went up and down several times, finally deciding they had coded my key wrong.  And then I thought...what if this is some off-by-one issue.  This was some off-by-one issue.

I met up with most of my team at the local bar, seeing them all for the first time.  I also saw several people from my PREVIOUS teams for the first time.  I told one he wasn't shorter than I expected, because his photos clearly revealed he was 1.5 big corgis tall.  But another former teammate was tall and she had a huge smile, and the combination that didn't gel with my mental picture really threw me for a moment.  My old team was Panda Express and we dispersed last October.  When I saw a Robot Panda beer at the liquor store at the end of the first night, I knew I needed it.

This door in my room was punking me.

We had an offsite Pinewood Derby event run by the local Scouts.  Everyone built a car that weighed no more than 2.9 (hence the pipes, although I still stopped at 2.7), and winners were based on fastest, fastest team, slowest, and best decoration.

And everyone made a car.  It was a lot of cars and a LOT of heats.  We weren't forced to stick around.  We could go find a beer.

This implies I was angling for slowest, but I didn't even come close.  I think some of the ones decorated with pipe cleaners and lacking a wheel had an advantage.

The last night of the actual offsite (versus the next night when I flew out) about a dozen of us went on a beer tour in the RINO district.  I saw these old pinball machines at the Bierstadt Lagerhaus where we started and went down to play a few for free.   That first one is 62 years old.

Our beer at the Lagerhaus.

One of my coworkers bought a bottle of slime on the way into the brewery.  And then went about putting it back in the bottle.

Harder than it looks.

Much harder.  I told his boss it was a metaphor for release management.

They had a great painting in the entryway from The Big Lebowski.

We went to three more bars and had a pitcher of light/usual, dark, and specialty at each that we shared with small tasting glasses.  Great Divide.  O'Dell.  And Ratio.  However, about two to four folks weren't drinking, or weren't drinking a sample of everything, and a couple were drinking wine.  So those three pitchers weren't split between too many people, and less as the evening went on.  It was a LOT of beer by the time we found some food at Ratio.

I took an opportunity to slip into a photo booth between debates with HR about zone of control changes in the market.

I'm either being held up or grabbing at someone's chest in this one.

Almost Buddy Christ.

Maybe a better Buddy Christ.  

My mom's face when she used to make her exasperated expression.  My sister would be familiar with it - I will need to share.

This is for me because our UX group is Onyx.  I'll find a need for this photo some day.

The lead on my old team used to say Huck It a lot instead of swearing.  So I took this picture for the team.  One of them did a search on Slack and found something like 4-6 dozen instances of him using it in a message.  Now when he says it, they can respond in kind.

The last day I wasn't leaving until late on the cheap flight.  A good call as it gave me a chance to hang out downtown and the evening plane was virtually empty.  So I sat around Union Station people watching over coffee and my book.  And found some Birria fusion ramen at Jinya ramen.

I liked it.  Really liked it.  But I like Tonkatsu and Black better, so I doubt I'll have it again.  I missed my half of an egg :(

One more brewery.  I still had a lot of time, even with the train factored in, so I sat around Wynkoop Brewing and read my book.  They had a few equipment rooms you could peek into on the way to the bathroom.

The front desk staff was kind enough to take my photo with their ape sculpture.

Good trip.  Loved meeting everyone.  I wish they had cycled managers between teams to generate some cross team familiarity.  And the technical talks were much better than the other talks.  I still have to parse all my notes and read everything they pointed me at Confluence and elsewhere.  Would have been nice to come back to a quiet week, but today was definitely proof that's not going to be the case (what's that, PHP hacks and TLS hacks and CVE scans installation changes to meet modern systems, and that took all day despite being a very small part of my job? At least I'm busy.).

Catching up...

Hmm....I owe this blog a few things, so I'm going to list them and get to them in the next few days.  This for me...

• Work trip to Denver this last week including a beer tour.  Maybe some other work stuff.
• Maybe some thoughts on AI.
• Two movies with my spouse, one at Riverview, one at home
• Dungeon book I really enjoyed, work book that I enjoyed but didn't enjoy the book club
• Stupid Zwift wire, excited about new Zwift stuff - staying healthy, sort of hit and miss, but overall the heart rate is staying low.
• Board games in Madison.  That was a lot.
• A sad. sad, dark Halloween
• I bet I have a backlog of some recent photos including concerts and the Twin Cities Bike Ride and DJ Dance Ride.  So many photos, but I think I have a plan to speed it up.  I'll share with Sank if it works well.  Reminds me, my parents handed me two OLD machines tonight and asked me to please find all the photos on them.  Yuck.  My sister voiced my fears as we left Christo's tonight, "You're going to find naked pictures of Dad!" And then she sort of cackled.

Again, I have a lot of photos to upload - that's probably what's keeping me from getting organized.  That, and instead of uploading photos, I went next door to help my neighbor cut down a bunch of branches.  Nod, he said, maybe you should wear some protective eyewear.  Naw, I'm almost done.... OUCH!  It was only sawdust.  Or maybe a small branch from the feel of it.  But I did tell him he was right.  His whole tree needs to come down, but he only wanted to do a few branches today.  That Ryobi step-up battery-powered branch trimmer I have works well.  I realized I'm not sure how to sharpen it if I end up dulling it, but I'm not there yet.

115

I did a 27 mile ride on Zwift tonight.  My pulse generally stayed around 115.  That's not even Zone 2.  I should not be that generally healthy at my age. I know my max is running about 180.  The whole 220-your age isn't a good metric, but vaguely holds.  So my heart is running much better than it should.

Ironically, I do NOT have a six pack and a cut physique.  Those numbers imply I should.  Maybe less fudge bars and Venn beer are in order.

Scream it off Screen

I really should post a little more often.  I'm looking at my list of activities from the last 8 months and it is seriously off the hook.  I get to  LOT of music, theater, and more.  The last couple of years have been all in because I've met a couple of the folks involved in all the artistic activities in the Twin Cities.  That has me doubling down.

Do you want to know my thoughts on current events?  The command in chief saying f-all to LA and other west coast cities?  F-him.  If he's say that about those cities, he's say it about the Twin Cities and Duluth.  FFS, he's already murdered people here.  And for those of you who think "he didn't murder them, it's not his fault his lackies hired bad actors."  F*** off.  You're the boss, that s*** sticks to you.  Like hires g**** like.  Broken management systems are top down.  Nasty bit of work all around.  I think we've got my position clear.

So Friday, my sister in law invited my wife and I to Shout it off the Screen at the Parkway theater.  I was there recently for Dave Hill (damn, that man can play a guitar, and he's funny to boot) and various other events.  This was a bit like secular church.  It was a series of submitted videos and you had the opportunity to vote them off (gong) or let them continue. If you voted them off, there was even a hymn.  And there were communal activities.  Verry church.

My favorite part was a lame incel super hero video that got a "move on" until the audience realized how offensive it was.  At which point the MC got on stage and basically said "F YOU, this is what you get for not being more aggressive, and less Minnesota nice, about voting people off.  Take your medicine."  It was so awful.

 But there were some good ones and a winner in the end who got a cash prize.  I can definitely see people embracing that instead of church.  Packed show, and a large part was watching someone toss an apple in a bowl and said apple being immortalized in liquid plastic.

Busy 2026 so far...

I was going to show some photos from local concerts, and bars, and plays, and other events, but you can see my photos over on Flickr and in the Con of the North post.

However, I was pondering the first part of my year and wondering why it felt so busy...this is... a lot. Particularly when I can't pedal to and from an event which is usually the way I unwind from a busy social calendar.  Well, I can't pedal safely in the winter.  I have a fat tire, but I prefer to pedal where I know I can find shelter if I get a flat or mechanical issue when it's negative temps.

This list is so far from inclusive.  So very very far.  It's more of a highlights reel.  I don't include doctor appointments or house repairs or rental property repairs and roof raking. There's actually a friend's passing that's not in this list. We went to other events.  For example, my kid and I tend to do a weekly Wednesday dinner out while my wife is working late.  For these two months (and going forward), that was almost always in South Minneapolis where we could dump money at local businesses.  At one of our favorite South Minneapolis beer and wings locations, we got our first "Stay Safe" from Cassie who knows us as regulars. Might as well be the state motto by now.

We also did the odd anti-ICE coffee shop for work/school on a Friday in South Minneapolis as well. We moved food and money for food shelves and schools and other needs.  We spent at businesses you probably read about in the news, like Mischief Toys where we bought our window sign. Where it says I visited a bar, my wife was likely to be shopping at Moon Palace at the same time.  Part of the goal was simply to keep moving.  And more importantly as part of being on the move, to be visible in south and north Minneapolis for our neighbors under siege so they knew they weren't alone.  Move supplies.  Move money. Donate money. Show solidarity.  Could have done more.  Will do more.  My list for the next month and a half looks just as busy and there are already supplies by the door staged to deliver and a list of best places to donate on my laptop.

What's missing on this list?  A vacation.  We're spending our vacation money in the Twin Cities for the time being.  We'll worry about elsewhere when it's a bit more settled.

While I'm talking about donations of money and time, here's some important links:

• https://www.standwithminnesota.com/
• https://linktr.ee/mplsmutualaid

On to the actual list!

• January 1 - head home from New Year's

• January 5 - wife's late birthday at Doolittle’s (she was sick on her birthday).

• January 9 - breakfast at Cahill Diner

• January 16 - How to Catch Creation at Theatre in the Round

• January 17 - Sarah Morris at Columbia Heights coffee shop - donation event

• January 23 - MN strike day

• January 24 - Had plans for a play, went to Arbeiter Brewing instead when I heard that Alex Pretti was murdered by ICE (lot of crying and hugging at Arbeiter and later visits with neighbors at the end of our driveway who saw the candles in his honor)

• January 25 - Chimborazo in North Minneapolis with friends

• January 28 - donate a double of blood at Wooden Ship Brewing

• January 31- Whoosh! [dir by Allison Vincent] at the History Theater. Food shelf donation.

• February 1 - Sarah Morris at Hell’s Kitchen

• February 3 - gaming with Sank at North 20. Played Onitama and Battle Line

• February 7 is Arbeiter’s 5th anniversary, Korean drummers (have dropped off food/supplies at Arbeiter)

• February 6 - Violent Delights at the Crane Theater

• February 8 - Double feature at the Trylon, The Time Masters AND Son of the White Mare

• February 9 - yes, my wife and I went to different events at the same time

• February 9 - wife in Cambridge to see Sarah and Leslie
• February 9 - Bardshakesmn is doing Much Ado About Nothing at Minneapolis Cider Co. Donation for locals
• February 11 - "You Got Gold" a John Prine memorial documentary movie at the Parkway
• February 11 - friend's mother passed away

• February 12 (Thurs) - My wife at Galentine’s at Crooner’s with The Champagne Drops

• February 13, 14, 15 - Con of the North board gaming

• February 16 - friend's mother's funeral

• February 19 - rest of family went to see Matt Dinniman live at the Parkway

• February 19 - TR expat reunion in Woodbury

• February 20 - Cake at Theatre in the Round

• February 21 - Dinner with friends at Olive and Lamb on University Ave.

• February 22 - Parkway Songs for our Neighbors Fundraiser

Here...have a bonus graphic if you made it this far. There's a lot of economic damage in Minnesota to make up for.

Con of the North 2026: Post-CotN Gaming Enthusiasm

After all those days of board gaming at Con of the North 2026, I wasn’t quite ready to stop. So I pulled out a game I’d been meaning to learn for a while, Undaunted 2200: Callisto. I own the WW2 original Undaunted series, which I love, even if I never find someone to play it with consistently. And I’m well aware not everyone likes Nazis in their game, even imaginary ones. So 2200 goes with a scifi theme instead and changes it up a bit. Rather than using tiles to set up the game, it has four heavy two-sided boards to avoid the painful initialization. And instead of just troops (that changes in further expansions of Undaunted), it has troops and mechs, which have multiple pilots, gunners, etc. The abilities each unit has reflect the capability of attacking other troops or mechs or both. If you’re not familiar with the game, it’s card driven. So you need to draft your units/cards, return them to the pool when they’re not useful at different stages or you want to optimize drawing other cards, and keep enough of them in your deck that when your opponent gets a kill, there’s a card to remove from the game as “damage”. When there are no more cards to remove from your hand, discard, or deck, that unit is no more.

It took me a while to refamiliarize myself with the basic Undaunted rules. And then some additional time with the slight rule differences. I agree with Shut Up and Sit Down (vlog on youtube) that the manual is NOT an easy bit of documentation to parse, even if the rules are fairly minimal. And there were some bits and pieces that were a little more difficult to sus out without playing through it a few times and then looking up online commentary. For example, how bridges and elevated platforms don’t block line of sight. Think of them as “on stilts”. The only real line of sight that exists is between under a bridge and on a bridge (and it’s not a hop up and down, you need to go at it from the ends of the bridge in that case). That’s a good reminder for myself: scenario 2 has bridges and I should verify I’m using them correctly when it comes to moving non-mech troops into the underside of the facility.

Suppression is another tricky rule. I thought per the rulebook it applied to mechs and troops, but the suppression skill has to have the mech icon in the suppression ability for that to work. Otherwise, mechs can be fairly un-suppressionable which is a significant perk if you’re going up against a bunch of chain guns that roll four dice and just keep pinning you down every turn unless you draw a card combo to get out of suppression and do a follow up action.

That said….because I’m playing with myself, I’m slowly figuring out my blind spots. After about 5 rounds of the first scenario, I’ve moved on to scenario number two which introduces pulses (push a unit) and basically mortar-type weapons (all enemy units in a zone) for the miners, and a new mech for the corporate security forces. Did I mention it’s a bit of capitalism vs. labor theme? I have to tell my brain not to be biased toward labor while playing myself. However, I know strategically I’m still not using the mechs quite right as they tend not to move much, and just lay down suppression fire. Part of me always thinks they’re more fragile than they are because I’m so used to troop suppression grinding an advance to a halt. There is a solo mode, but I find it more interesting to basically have half my brain pretend it doesn’t know what the other half is doing and play as two players. That way if I want to teach it or host it somewhere that allows two person games, I’m more prepped. Something to check on for next year’s Con. Or maybe one of the local brewery gaming nights if I give some advance warning. Fortunately, I’m always happy to teach something to a new group and arbitrate. I learn as much seeing it through fresh eyes.

Con of the North 2026: Sunday - Day 3

 Yeah. This is a lot of board gaming. But I’m down to the last two. My first Sunday game was Salvage: Deep Space, a 2023 Kickstarter. Although there are an awful lot of games you can apply the Kickstarter label to now. I have a suspicion I own more Kickstarter-backed games and extensions than I do non-socially funded ones, taking a cursory glance at my shelf. I really enjoyed this one. You’re part of a group of collaborative mechs, big mechs you pilot, but not kaiju-fighting sized mechs, trying to salvage post-peak Earth gear and equipment and resources while worrying about alien bugs. e.g. you’re in old labs and mining facilities doing a bit of Stalker/Roadside Picnic.

An interesting aspect of the game is that to avoid the collaborative player dictator that so often happens in that time of game, Salvage has you play your two proposed actions with no discussion at the beginning of the turn to mimic a sort of soft telepathy between players as a plot point. To force individuals to make their own decisions but telegraph the likely play as a collaborative mechanic. If you do your proposed actions, or they’re completed as a side effect of someone else doing the same action, like a bug kill, then those successes play into players being able to recharge their systems faster and act together better with some perks. At any time you can just go off script, although it affects the overall perks you work to accumulate. Different mechs have different specialties, focusing on resource accumulation, tank, speed, and balanced play.

I played Al (not A.I., AL) the balanced mech pilot, but channeled a healthy dose of Leroy Jenkins. While everyone was in an area doing cleanup, even before the fighting was complete, I’d just charge ahead to the next area. My plan wasn’t specifically about staying in character, but rather was with the hope it might allow us to finish within our 4 hour block. It did! Barely. I think the team was surprised when I charged ahead, looking like I was setting myself up for disaster, and then my character was able to power sword two of the last bugs at the same time for a double kill and step back and let the last one charge me resulting in a stun. My other goal was to try all my perks and the sword and stun were last on my list. Mission accomplished. It’s not a cheap game. About $159-199 depending on the version: minis or no minis (and you’ll want the minis). But if you had a scifi-centric group of consistent players, it’d be a good one to play through the series and you’d get better value than going to movies or maybe even one of the standard streaming subs.

A big thanks to Ben, a different Ben than the zombies Ben and yet, afterwards I find out, both apparently software managers. He did an excellent job walking us through the basics and giving us some course correction when we were confused. Pretty seamless and included lots of detail about the mechs, the story line, and the interactions.

And my last game. Ahoy Expansions and Demo. It’s just Ahoy, but per that link we played with the Fang and Fortune expansion and Rivals and Renegades expansion. I’m not sure what the “demo” part of the session title was all about. We definitely played a full game. The second day we were at Con of the North, Aeryn and I turned a corner and ran into my friend Chris (and former fellow high school graduate, and fellow Eagle Scout from the same troop, and fellow high school D&D three-person party, and covid era D&D GM, and fellow end of covid era sky pirate raccoon). Chris had come to town to play with his brother who lives in the cities (who we also played D&D with over covid and once in person). They were doing a mix of RPGs and boardgames, so we didn’t see much of them during the Con because Aeryn and I have stayed away from RPGs at Cons since a weird experience playing a one shot at Gameholecon many many years ago. But for our very last game we ended up at the same room and although we were initially at different tables, we jockeyed a bit to play the same board. I own Ahoy, but I had never played it prior to CoTN. Asymmetricals sometimes aren’t my jam even if I understand the appeal. Although they’re definitely more to my liking than push-your-luck mechanics. I played the snails – they had a different name, but I thought of them as just the snails – whose core tactic is to leave snail dudes everywhere on the islands. Chris played the Beast, who’s not a pirate at all, but an expansion sea monster, spawning heads and humps and trying to eat my motie (try that reference on for size) snails. Chris’ brother played the shark pirates who are a bit UK rule the sea sorts. Our table coordinator played the smugglers. It was a tight game overall, although Chris had some trouble getting the mechanics of the beast right and I don’t blame him. That one really seemed like it might need a few plays to nail down the logistics. I can see why people like this and Root, which is by the same company (Leder). You can just switch factions the next time for a new experience if something doesn’t suit you. However, some of the faction interactions can seem a bit unbalanced until you pick up what your particular edge might be, or how to hide your tactics in the noise of the other players. Congrats to Chris’ brother for a solid win playing the points game at the end.

One final observation. I love the new location in Bloomington. It’s within walking distance of a bar, Wood Hill Brewing, that not only serves beer but has a good menu of sandwiches, wings, and even some unique desserts. Walking distance in Minnesota in February usually means a block or two, although at half a mile one way I think this would have been doable even if it hadn’t been unseasonably warm as long as you brought the right clothes. Additionally there was a coffee shop across the lot (two actually), a DQ across the lot, a buffet nearby, what looked like a great breakfast buffet on site, a pretty comprehensive bar on site, and some other restaurants a short drive away. That it cut the distance to home in half was a bargain as well. Overall, an excellent three days.

Con of the North 2026: Saturday - Day 2

 I’ll be a little more to the point today. Enough masticating my words like an old man. But believe it when you read it. Consider my habit of writing more than necessary, but without oodles of adjectives piled on adjectives, as an anti-AI writing habit. Although if LLMs scrape training data from my blog and you ask for a paragraph in NodToNothing’s style, I suspect I have more words on the internet to interrogate than anyone short of an author or a reporter.

Aeryn and I started around 10 a.m. on Saturday. I think that’s become our habit. Versus 8 a.m. I worried in Plymouth about finding a parking spot that late, although the space way down the street against the deep snowbank in the sub-zero weather was generally open. But Bloomington parking in the hotel lot was particularly easy this year, even at 10. Although I did see a lot of cars in the afternoon doing spins around the lot to find an opening.

My a.m. game was Car Wars 6^th Edition. It’s a mini-driven (driven, ha, punny) rulers and custom dice weaponized car game. There’s a board, but primarily as a way to establish barriers to the track/space. You could just as effectively play on any flat surface without a board. Set up was messy as the coordinator forgot some pieces and there were cases to dig through. In the end – e.g. forty minutes later - we all used a variety of the same setup for car bodies/armor, but not for the weapons or auxiliary systems (like my targeting computer) which we randomized via some cards. Overall, the game is a lot like my nephew’s Star Wars game I gave him many birthdays ago, with some curves/rulers for determining where you’re going, how far, and how much damage you take trying to make a turn/move of varying mechanical stress. My car ended up with two one-use missiles, one to a side, and a front-mounted flamethrower. One of the other players questioned my willingness to drive at high speed through my own flamethrower, but there was no wind mechanic and I pictured it much more like a movie than real physics. 

My load out wasn’t optimal as my only long range weapons required I commit to their one use per side. Other players had some much more effective pulse-cannon style attacks. But I did enough general damage with the flamethrower and maneuvering to where others were more likely to engage with higher-danger targets. Until someone realized I’d been the one ablating their armor and they decided to ram me. My patience with my weapons paid off and I buried a missile in the side of their car, burning out their engine. My guidance computer helped, but I was amused that I was using it despite being close enough to probably throw the missile. As they coasted away to a stop, another car came up on an intercept that I set on fire – c’mon, picture me at top speed letting loose with the flamethrower as it blows into the side of another car and back over my hood until I emerge like a phoenix...glorious! And then I proceeded to run away while he tried to do a super tight curve to avoid the wall as a result of his intercept attempt. Why...why run away!? Well, cars had drivers and passengers equipped with weapons and grenades as well, so that effectively put me at a better range to avoid them and it meant with only a few minutes left in the session I could finish the game alive, although not necessarily the winner. My wife and I played a lot of Vigilante 8 on the PS2 back in the pre-2000s so this experience brought back some fond memories.

Game 2 was Street Fighter the Miniatures Game with TCAT. I played this with them once before. I remember being very confused about how the combos worked last time as well as some of the interactions with the cards to determine a block or a miss. e.g. you basically “guess” what kind of attack the other person is throwing and try to rock-paper-scissors (well, rock-rock, paper-paper, scissors-scissors) their choice. Some variations bypass the typical trio to mix it up even more. I was much more on top of it this time, although that countering language at the bottom of the card in Times New Roman 4 point strains my old eyes. My primary goal was to try all my abilities as Balrog the boxer, although he didn’t lend himself to combos in general like some of the other characters. I positioned a bit to take out the character I thought had the most combo interaction first because I had a sneaky suspicion that would be a problem when he really got going. He showed me his cards after he took his fatal hit and yeah….he could have dropped most anyone with one more turn. Here’s my character, twice. One with his card focused in the foreground, and another with the scenery more in focus so you can see the trees we kept throwing each other into as well as the board.

The only bad part about the game was we had a player with decision lock. He had to re-read his cards each time and you could tell he wasn’t sure what to do sometimes after a thorough review even with some help/hints. And then sometimes after a few hints he’d start all over reviewing the cards one-by-one once again. The first couple hours we were really concerned we wouldn’t get to finish the game. I noted above I had issues with the rules previously, but what little proactive deal-with-the-outcome-just-make-a-decision manager threads there are in me are very good about applying that to board games. I enjoy the mechanics and the players and seeing how things interact, so sometimes a bad decision is as good as a good decision if it moves the game along.

We had a teen at the table who was really enjoying the game. About mid-way I decided I could contribute to their overall enjoyment (see above, I enjoy the mechanics and the players, not necessarily winning), so I focused on surreptitiously spreading my damage and maneuvering to bring people near each other in a way to drag health levels down to close to zero. Then at the end I closed on the other remaining player despite knowing it would take me close to dead so the kid could finish us off. They did. Super excited.

Game three was Manatee Sanctuary and just me and Aeryn. I brought it with me in case there was some down time. It is the epitome of a “cozy” board game. We played two games over a beer Aeryn brought me from Wooden Hill Brewing as our lunches were somewhat staggered.

This time we used the “goals” for each round (three rounds) to see if it got rid of some of the randomness when it comes to the push-your-luck yellow manatees attract more manatees mechanic. I know...I hate push your luck games, but this one is a bit more constrained when it comes to how you manage pushing your luck. You still have to feed everyone if you don’t want to feel like a manatee murderer. The goals didn’t completely change the strategy, but they do add an extra layer of thinking to how you coordinate your manatee collection and your mating/feeding spring. We still split our cards 2/3 instead of 1 and 4 almost exclusively and we haven’t used the green manatee expansion yet, so I suspect there’s quite a bit of strategy to explore still. Speaking of...here’s me with a manatee at Blue Springs in Florida in 2011.

Finally, my last and late night game. I played until 10 p.m. Saturday Night at the Mall. You can’t find this one on Board Game Geek. It’s a custom mash up of Last Night on Earth and Mall Madness to create a sort of Dawn of the Dead style board game.

This might have been my favorite game of the Con. We played against a game master – shout out to Ben who was an absolute riot – who ran the mall and affiliated shops full of zombies. The players can exchange die numbers (1-6) which affects their movement and ability to attack and search, so there’s a lot (a LOT) of discussion about who can use what die and what benefits they get for which numbers. Better and more productive interaction than I get in many engineering / product meetings.

If you die during the game, you get a new character. But your old character is likely to become a more powerful zombie which is a real p.i.t.a. because it’s not like you’re every really winnowing down the total load of zombies in the first place. The GM gets bonus zombies and bonus moves based on some dice rolls, as well as cards to bump zombies and play actions. For their part players get loot/gear and various special abilities that have a lot of interaction. We played right up until the last minute trying to get the items we needed into the truck, throw gas at the zombies, throw dynamite at the zombies, and sometimes simply stare at the zombies while we tried to figure out a way down the elevator without ending up in the middle of a hungry mob.

We didn’t make it. The zombies ate us and our truck without enough supplies was left idling in the parking lot. There was a lot of fun asking Ben the GM how many items we needed in the truck to win. Nine (9). How many do we have? Two (2). So how many are we short? And then the next person would ask the exact same set of questions. It was accidental at first because so many conversations were happening around a big table to optimize strategy, but then it became a bit. It really felt like a spirited drinking board game experience just without the beer. A good example of where losing was still a fun journey even if my poor farm girl was so much brain sashimi before the end. 

Con of the North 2026: a Random Interlude of Games I Did Not Play

I thought I'd share two photos of games at Con of the North that I didn't play but were fun to see in action.  This is some dedication to Diplomacy.  I've never played it before, although I know Sean loves - or at least loved - the game.  I think both Kyle and I own copies we haven't played.  That 360 minute estimated time frame is a bit of an impediment.  Presumably this sort of giant setup makes the time pass a little faster.

I've noticed that Gameholecon in Madison tends to have quite a few more "big" games, often with racks of miniatures, than CotN.  The TCAT folks host a lot of larger games in their space, but the overall minis vibe seems more muted.  Although maybe that's my experience.  I wondered about it and looked it up and GHC is 4x the size of CotN.  Roughly 6000 attendees to 1500 attendees.  That surprised me.  My boardgaming at GHC the year before last was pretty restricted as far as choices.  They have a two tier pass system so tier one gets first pick of newer (and more popular) games.  It can be slim picking if you're not careful.  But that 4x scope doesn't mentally align with the number of board game options even then in my estimation.  I suspect the RPG and minis areas must pull in a lot of people.  I know the RPG spaces are packed for days (they can get a little....stale) and take up whole convention floors.  Giving it some thought, there are an amazing number of sort-of-off-site games going on as well at GHC and you'll walk past hotel rooms and areas constantly where there are other games being played.  I think at CotN I only saw one instance of that and the hotel wasn't packed because there was space for a bunch of egging-each-other-on-to-be-annoying 8-11 year old hockey players as well.  If you're comparing Cons, the lack of a table fee at CotN is nice.  Those $4 per play fees can add up quickly. And the space at CotN this year seemed way more relaxed than the rooms at GHC.  But I do miss hanging at a rental for a weekend with friends and family to game and then come back to cook at the shared shelter and game some more into the late night.

I thought this was Circus Maximus at first.  My friends and I played a lot of that as teens.  Wow...$194 on eBay?  Too bad mine has been shown so much love.  That's a fun game, slamming chariots into each other until someone flips and is dragged behind their horse team.  We did the betting and upgrading a few times, but to be honest that didn't really add much beyond making games longer.  You were better off handing out a few points people could spend on horses, chariots, driver as they pleased and play a one-shot race.  I do fondly remember running down a charioteer who'd flipped his chariot and was running for the safety of the wall.

Anyway...this one had fantasy themed animal teams instead of horses.  Mayyybe Chivalry is Dead: Race for the Crown.  Although that seems to have a giant board already with a different configuration.  And it's only been in Kickstarter since last year I think, so I'm not sure if it's even out.  Might be a mini-driven game specifically.  Those are a bit harder to sus out because they can have small groups of diehard fans and you have to know where to find the assets/rules.  Regardless, as a Circus Maximus fan, this looks fun.

Con of the North 2026: Friday - Day 1

We usually start a little later on the first day so we can do some breakfast. I was worried OPH (the Original Pancake House) in Edina might be too crowded now that we’ve moved from Plymouth to Bloomington for the Con. The OPH on the way to the Crowne Plaza was always pretty hit or miss and Aeryn and I ended up at the counter most years and even congratulated Ming on missing breakfast last year because it would have been tight. But once we got there it was obvious we were post morning rush on a workday. Or people don’t have as much money. Regardless, I was glad I filled up on a big breakfast as my next real meal wasn’t until dinner. That happens at the Con more than you’d suspect. Although the longer games I had tended to get out early in a few cases creating a break where I hadn’t planned one for eating.

Our games hadn’t started yet by the time we got there, so we spent some time reading and hanging out. One of the attendees, Randy, stopped to ask me about my book (reading Joe Hill’s King Sorrow. I didn’t realize it’s his first since 2016’s The Fireman. I really enjoyed that book) and turned out to be an expert in Hive. As in he wrote and published a strategy book for Hive. I’ve been playing Hive with Sank at North 20 Brewing in Rosemount lately, so it was amusing to bump into someone trying to sell me on it as a great game. Given he was alone at his table a few times, I’m one of the few people who doesn’t need convincing. I was full up on my dance card, so even though Hive is short I didn’t get a chance to play with him during the Con. Sank will probably appreciate my inability to add some new master-level tricks to my repertoire.

My first game was Puerto Rico, an oldie in the history of board games. And number 54 on the overall Boardgamearena list. You can tell it’s from an earlier era of gaming because it has some questionable nomenclature. e.g. that’s almost always slaves, master, etc, and not in the fantasy sense. Our coordinator chose to call them citizens instead. I play it so infrequently that it’s almost like learning it all over again each time, but I remembered enough this time to have a strategy. It helps that it runs a little long (1.5-2 hours) for what it is, in my opinion, so there’s some built in time to think through what you intend to do without delaying the overall play. I focused on generating money from everyone else’s trade events via a variety of trading products rather than a commodity focus, which meant by the end of the game I was swimming in enough cash to pick up the larger point-scoring buildings and a healthy win. I noticed at home that I haven’t pulled San Juan off the shelf in forever. That used to be a favorite around our house and is Puerto Rico but with cards where the cards can be swapped as resources and money, so there’s a bit of use it for multiple purposes at the expense of another purpose tactic. I opened the San Juan box and saw the scorecards included playing with Kyle and Adam in Wisconsin when we were drinking and failing to bike because of a tornado, with Aeryn at various Cons including our first Gameholecon in Madison, and quite a few other surprising historical plays. I can see why people track their games on Board Game Geek. It’s nice to see that history and remember the context. Although I never look at my old BGG history given my anti-onemoreplacetorecord old man vibe, and I do look at the score cards I keep with the physical games because they’re right there the next time you play one, as long as you don’t trade it away.

Next up was Marrying Mr. Darcy with the Emma and Undead expansions. Erika Svanoe, the designer, used to show up at Gameholecon. She’s a local composer/conductor, so if you go to some woodwind events locally, you might see her doing her “real” job. She’s actually a bit of a polymath if you read her bio, and her husband has done the art for her game and for Distilled which I played with some UK friends on Board Game Arena. Marrying Mr. Darcy is another game I personally own (kickstarted...a Jane Austen theme is likely to catch my attention) and have played before. It’s fairly straight forward. You’re collecting and playing cards that boost your Pride and Prejudice character’s stats so that they eventually attract the best suitor/husband. Each character has a different suitor/husband priority list vaguely in line with the book. The Emma expansion adds some more book-centric thematic cards. And the undead expansion (keyed off the book/movie Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) throws a wrench in it by turning some characters into zombies, some suitors into zombies, and adding some ways to unzombify victims. My understanding is yes, you can marry a zombie or marry as a zombie. I don’t play that expansion much. I won, although it wasn’t because of some suitor/marriage. I became Harriet Smith, a very reputable governess, which let me double certain stats for scoring purposes. I won’t let some man determine my innate worth. If I remember right, last time I played I won as an “old maid”, so I definitely have a theme when I play the game.

Finally...Friday finally, not overall con finally, I played Age of Civilization the card game. This was one of the few sub 3-4 hours games I played at only an hour. It was also my least favorite. Klund had me play something similar at his house once that I much preferred...ah, Innovation. I definitely liked the mechanics of that one better. Age of Civilization has a good mechanic for deciding how to play your three civilizations as conquered or conquerors of your own prior civs to balance your perks as the timeline advances and changes what you can take advantage of. It would be a particularly good bar/coffee shop/travel game given the size and quick play, something I’m often watching for in a game (example, Arboretum, Love Letter, The Crew, San Juan). However, I think it lends itself to a little bit of civ / card memorization potential given the limited card set that would affect replayability, particularly if it’s an experienced player against a n00b.

Whew. Friday was the short day.

Split Fiction and Polybius

Am I not talking about politics? I’m not. Is that insane given I live in Minnesota. It is. Is it even crazier to avoid it if I have relatives in the tear gas zone, patrolling, blowing whistles, and people I know protesting at the community events and fundraisers for those afraid to leave their homes, and my anger about feds murdering a member of my community runs deep? You can go find my socials – you’ll figure out my take there. I’ll try not to make my blog posts an ongoing rant.

Pooteewheet and I started Split Fiction, the video game, the day before yesterday. For anyone not familiar, it made a lot of top 10 games lists for 2025 and topped a lot of coop games because you’re literally playing as a team where sometimes you have to coordinate actions to keep moving forward through the story line. It’s a good test of patience in your marriage. Beautiful game – pretty much a puzzle, but with a bit of minor skirmishing built in. So far. We’re still in the first chapter. I did find us a second Steam-capable controller to play, so we’ve moved from the old Xbox which we used forever to me moving my laptop to the HDMI cable + big television in the living room. It’s nice not to have to upgrade my gaming console and be able to play a lot more fine-grained games and strategy games using my mouse out there. Much better view.

Recently finished the book Polybius, which is an internet urban legend. There’s a whole area dedicated to the game on the internet and there’s a movie with an episode in it that derives from the urban legend, but gives it a demonic twist instead of a strictly government/MKULTRA bent (aside that IS politics; it’s extremely irritating to read a book at the moment about the government trying to incite riots in the general population for the purposes of being able to put them down).

This is my review for Storygraph: I almost DNF-ed even close to the end. I agree with most of the other reviews here that call the characters flat, the story and perspectives disjointed, et al. And I swear he [the author] doesn't understand the teenage mind very well - they weren't particularly believable. IMO, I think you could just as well watch 2010's "The Crazies" and get a better, but same bones, tale. I was also a little struck about his throw-away reference near the end of using images to hack minds - any image, not just a video console - and either not seeming to understand the origins of that idea or not willing to credit the origin in any way. If you look up David Langford's Basilisks on Wikipedia, you can get a pretty detailed history that includes not only Langford's Hugo-winning "Different Kinds of Darkness" but a lineage of other authors/works that built on the idea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Langford#Basilisks

Not in my review, but I’d add… You’d be better off reading any Stephen King novel. One good thing about Polybius is it gives you an idea of exactly how good King is at using his characters to drive a story and how much he shows and surfaces through their actions, rather than talking about them and having them tell why they’re doing something.

Reading 2025 - Not a List (yet)

Nope, not what I read in 2025, although I'll get that out here maybe tomorrow.  I have it all in Storygraph and an easy way to turn it into a useful list.  Instead, I wanted to share this post: https://today.yougov.com/entertainment/articles/53804-most-americans-didnt-read-many-books-in-2025

• How many books does the average person read?  Zero.
• Median: slightly better at two (2) because of heavy readers.
• How many did I read in 2025: 58 (and it was a light year and definitely light compared to some friends, particularly where reorgs and studying AI on Udemy got in the way).
• What % read 50+ books: 4%
• Fun fact: 19% of Americans read 82% of the books.

There's a lot of cool stats there including differences between men and women when it comes to genres and more.  Worth a few minutes of perusing all the cool graphs.

We Are Legion [We Are Bob] by Dennis E. Taylor

We Are Legion [We Are Bob] by Dennis E. Taylor is (I think) a three book series that was recommended to me by a co-worker. I was expecting something a little like Matt Dinniman and the Dungeon Carl Crawler series, but the Bobiverse as it’s known, is much heavier on the scifi and lighter on the writing. I would compare it more to Hail Mary in style and theme although I prefer Hail Mary with its focused story line rather than a series of threads / storylines as the AI Bobs multiply in the universe and spread out to deal with recovering earth/humans, aliens, other AIs from warring nation states, basic exploration...the list and movement between Bobs gets pretty involved.

Still...a fun diversion and Taylor certainly has a strong interest in scifi – and science without the fiction – ideas and this gives him a chance to explore many of them all in one place. So if you think of it as a general exploration of many themes, it feels more cohesive. I’ll definitely read the follow ups. I’m interested in how he handles other civilizations the Bobs seem to be encountering.

Zwift: London Uprising

Did a Zwift race yesterday: stage 4 of the “Fresh ‘Outta 25” series. This one was London Uprising and was a two hill climb through the London virtual area, 13.4 miles and 1172 feet of climb. That’s a lot of climb for a big guy during a race. I’m still in the lowest category (E: 0-210) and I tend to sit right on the border with D. I believe I barely popped into D with a second place on this race.

There are some riders who tend to select a cat lower than recommended so they don’t have to feel like they’re struggling not to be last (which will presumably be the case for me in stage 5). I had one of those riders in this race. I was a 204 going in and he was a 236. He was also 37 years old. That doesn’t always mean they’re going to be faster, but his average heart rate (175 bpm versus my 150 bpm) clearly shows his blood flow is better than mine. He had the power to sprint off the front of the pack early with an 8+ watts/kg and my attempt to reel him in simply became a chase trying to maintain a roughly 240 watt power level come hell or high water (or Surrey) that put almost 5 minutes between us and third place while I was tracking for anyone catching up. Amusingly, when I caught up, he drafted for somewhere between one fourth and one third of the ride until his sprint at the end. At that point, I was sticking to pushing my power level and ignoring the finer points of trying to win the race given the obvious mismatch.

In the end, it was a 238 watt average and 2.52 watts/kg over 45 minutes which was far and away my strongest ride. Third place ended up being 8.5 minutes back. Zwift says I dropped 708 calories in those roughly 45 minutes. I think a good observation is that I recovered quickly once I was off the bike. I remember my first race earlier this year when I had to lay on the floor for a while recovering and was absolutely knackered for a day. This time I don’t think I’d even know I’d raced unless I was racing again today. Maybe that means I didn’t give it as much as I could have (valid, particularly on the finishing sprint), but I’ll take the stronger-despite-a-year-older aspect over that bit of self-critique.

You Weren’t Meant to Be Human by Andrew Joseph White

Another horror novel recommended by a year end list. Short summary: weird alien (or otherwise) colonies of worms and flies that have sentience and have hidden colonies tended by humans they recruit by preying on “outcasts”, although outcast is self-imposed in some cases. Perhaps it’s more accurate to say characters in a confused or in a bad situation. Those who are trapped by others or by themselves. The bugs are trying to evolve into parasites that can control humans in order to walk in the sunlight rather than hide in the back rooms of gas stations and elsewhere, relying on humans to bring them other humans as food.

This is not a book if you’re squeamish because it’s not really about the worms. It’s about characters who feel broken, but find some level of empowerment and the fortitude to empower and protect others despite very horrible situations. And at it’s core, it’s clearly autobiographical despite the science fiction/horror motif. It’s about the pain of finding oneself, particularly in semi-/adolescence, the confusion when you don’t fit, and the betrayal – that doesn’t only border on horror, but is horror - that can come with the attempt to find oneself by those trying to take advantage of that moment. There are even different levels of those trying to take advantage and being taken advantage of no matter the emotional and physical cost, which may have a bit to say about current politics as the main character is autistic and transgender and the setting is vaguely Appalachian (West Virginia, Tennessee).

Despite all the horror there are some exceptional people in orbit around the main character. Fellow victims of the worms who come to understand they’re not as victimized by their previous situation as the worms lead them to believe or who find a relationship within the community that leads them to rebel, a couple who have found each other and started a family and still find time to help and trust, and parents who were accepting all along. The very last word of the novel highlights that acceptance. A great touch.

There are a lot of did not finish entries over on Storygraph for this one. Crane, the main character, is hard to like if you can’t get past how broken they feel, how much they hurt others or participate in hurting others at first, and their self-destructive tendencies. And that narrative, and the actions that go with it, is brutal. But if you’re looking for something that may put you in the shoes of a very different situation than you likely encountered growing into your life, this is wonderfully written and packs a punch. Some of the best books I’ve read in the last few years in the horror genre have been LGBTQIA+ (and usually transgender) at heart and there’s a good reason they are suited to find a voice to capture the ugliness of the world, what that can do to a person, and what can feel out of one’s control and within one’s control.

Footprints (not the Jesus version) - Part II

My sister asked for a photo of the strange footprints. I told her there was no accounting for the veracity of a photo in these days of AI slop. However, I felt I owed her the opportunity to share in the holiday creepiness. I stood in my bedroom window overlooking the deck in the early post-Solstice darkness that evening and decided, believer in the supernatural or not, no, I wasn’t going to take a picture of those footprints still facing my window other than in bright sunlight. I didn’t want to see something in my camera that might make sleep impossible.

Late the next morning when it was indeed bright, I snapped a photo of the snowy, yet rapidly melting, deck with my Android. But when I went to send it to my sister, the photo was only a pure, white, undifferentiated square. I’ve never seen that before. An all black photo because of a stray finger, pointing it at the floor, a pocket picture, or because my case has a flap to the cover the camera that’s pretty loose... Absolutely. But all white? Maybe it had been slow to snap and I’d caught the textured ceiling. I pointed my camera phone out the window again and could clearly see the deck and footprints and the backyard full of squirrel and rabbit tracks leading off to the neighbors’ yards. I took another photo and, when I went to share it, again...all white. I looked carefully at the lens and the case, giving both a soft wipe and took another photo. Again. Solid white.

I stared at the photo and realized it wasn’t as completely white as I’d first thought. I could see my deck, barely see it, in the photo. It was as though it was in the middle of the densest snowstorm I’d ever seen. Or at least comparable to some of the big ones. Only a shadow in the swirl. I stared more intently, trying to make out the edges of the deck and the footprints and, as I did, I felt like I was looking into one of those magic eye photos. That if I stared and stared, the white would become a pattern and would take on movement, like a real snow storm, and the deck would clearly come into focus under the overwhelming white and between the sheets of flakes.

But it wasn’t just the deck. My eye caught more. Something else was in the snowstorm. On the deck. Wrapped in the densest of the swirling white. I couldn’t tell what. But with a dawning uneasiness, I realized that it was absolutely something I didn’t want to suddenly snap into focus. It felt like it was trying to see me as much as I was trying to see it. Like the snow storm was on both sides – me looking into the photo and whatever was in there looking out, and I wouldn’t know what that meant until the moment we could see each other. I flipped the camera off, breathing a little faster. Maybe I was imagining all of it. Seeing things where there was nothing to see.

I owed my neighbor Ted a beer and realized maybe that was an opportunity for a sanity check. Grabbing an Arbeiter from the fridge, phone in my other hand, I walked the 50’ to his door and hoped he was home. His dog barked loudly from the other side of the door, nothing new there, and after a few minutes Ted appeared. He was appreciative of the beer and we took a moment to chitchat, as we always do. I held up my phone, the photo called up on the screen, and asked if he could discern anything unusual.

He stared at it and after a joke about an old guy and his Android said, “Is this some old photo of your deck? I don’t think we’ve ever had a storm that big since I’ve lived here. Definitely not since you got the deck within the last two winters. Was there a wind storm kicking up the snow back there, or are you playing around with some Instagram filter?” He didn’t hand back the phone immediately, but continued to stare at it, moving his head a little with small tilts, as if trying to looking between snowflakes. I assured him it was a new photo and I’d taken it only that morning.

He started to tell me that was impossible. And then he hitched. Mid-word. He looked shocked for a moment. I would have almost thought scared, although if you’re like me, you don’t know your neighbor well enough to make that call. You OK?” I asked him. Ted shook his head. Not with a no. But like he was trying to shake off something or shake something out of his head.

“I’m fine,” he replied. “Thought I saw something, but it’s just the deck and you standing here screwing with me.” I shrugged, having gotten nowhere with the photo. I wished him a happy holidays, particularly now that he had sixteen ounces of extra beer, and took my leave. I deleted the photo as I walked back to the house figuring I’d take a few photos later and see if my camera was misbehaving and due for a replacement.

...

I’m back...it’s 12:30 a.m. Ted texted me. He wants to know if I’m walking around in his backyard and on his deck. I looked out the bedroom window, trying to see his backyard from my angle where our houses align. I can’t get a good view of the area near his house. But I can see one thing. The footprints, which had ended facing my window, now loop back to the edge of my deck on Ted’s side and disappear off the edge. I wonder what Ted saw in that photo. I wonder if something saw him.

Spread Me by Sarah Gailey

Wednesday I finished the book Spread Me by Sarah Gailey. The recommendation came via one of those best horror of the year / 2025 lists that are cropping up at the moment. There are a bunch of reviews on Storygraph that sum it up as succinctly as I would...what would The Thing (you know, the Carpenter movie with the shape changing monster) be like if instead of the arctic (a cold desert) it was set in a traditional (sand) desert, and what if the lead researcher was absolutely horny for the monster and vice versa. That will get you 95% of the way there. It’s a bit all in on the sex (what would The Thing do if it had enough presence of mind to seduce its victims with it’s ability to mimic body parts?) and the sense of nihilism driven by researching full-on climate change/impact while isolated with a bunch of scientists/doctors who have somewhat given up and are thinking about just staying there until someone forces them to leave and coupling their research with….coupling...and copious alcohol.

It’s an enjoyable read. Gailey is a good writer. And if you aren’t someone who gets hung up on sex and weird sex at that, Gailey is saying something interesting about partners who go all in trying to change and be what you want, almost to the point of creepiness and turning you off, when all along what you wanted was what was original about them and drew you to them in the first place.