I know you’re thinking the same thing I am: “About f-ing time!” You won’t even have to fake an illness to take the day off to play because your boss will be spending the day playing Death by Scrolling and won’t notice you’re gone. Coming soon to Switch, Xbox, and PlayStation. We’re working as fast as we can.
📺 Wondla — 10/10 kids show. I was way into it. Post-apoc situation with underground bunkers (apparently Apple loves that theme) where when the protagonist girl busts out of it, the world is quite different. The premise and payoff in Season 1 was better than the commentary vibe of Season 2, but I liked it all. Apparently there is one more season coming . 🎥 Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale — The darkest of the three movies? Weird. I love spending time in this world though so I was happy to be there. But honestly I was coming off a couple of day beers when I saw it in the theater and it put me in a weird mood and I should probably watch it again normally. How to proper movie critics review movies without their random current moods affecting the review?! 📕 Annie Bot — Sierra Greer is like, what if we turned AI into sex bots? Which honestly feels about 7 minutes away at this point. I’m only like half through it and it’s kinda sexy in that 50-shades kinda way where there is obviously some dark shit coming. 📔 Impossible People — Binge-able graphic novel by Julia Wertz about a redemption arc out of addiction. I’m an absolute sucker for addiction stories. This is very vulnerable and endearing. Like I could imagine having a very complicated friendship with Julia. It doesn’t go down to the absolute bottom of the well like in books like A Million Little Pieces or The Book of Drugs , so I’d say it’s a bit safer for you if you find stuff like that too gut wrenching.
Clapping on the on-beat sounds weird and wrong on (most?) songs. In (most?) 4/4 songs, that means clapping on the 1 and 3 sounds bad and 2 and 4 sounds good/normal. But an audience of a bunch of random folks just getting excited can get it wrong! This video of Harry Connick Jr. extending a bar just one extra beat to adjust the audience to clapping on the correct beat is extremely friggin cool. (via Alan Smith )
Made my annual trip to Oktoberfest this year. My two beers I tried this time were a Weihenstephaner Dunkel, and a St Arnold’s Oktoberfest. I’ve had both not on tap, but having it on tap at the event itself is just amazing. Also enjoyed was fried cheese curds and a pretzel with cheese dip. One vendor there had very unique and adorable crochet plushies. The rest of the day includes some goat cheese and crackers 👀
Danger Gently is the name of the band I occasionally get a seat in here in lovely Bend, Oregon. We played at the High Desert Museum the other week for their “Art in the West” event. We play at The Cellar every Wednesday night (I make it to as many as I can). Here’s a couple of tunes from a couple weeks ago that Jason Chinchen shot: Sometimes we busk, typically in downtown Bend. One night I brought my camera to catch the band doing their thing: Here’s a few grabs from when I’ve gotten to join: View this post on Instagram A post shared by Chris Coyier (@chriscoyier) We played a show at The Silver Moon during Bend Roots Revival and the sound guy recorded and sent us his “Board Mix” and it sounds pretty good to me! I was also on mandolin in this show. We also played a show at River’s Place last month and since Dale Atkin’s was playing and brought his nice PA, we recorded from that as well. Here’s our opening tune “Breaking up Christmas” from that show:
It's October. This is significant because it is my favorite time of year. In Central Texas, it's still not all that pleasant during the day, but we have had a few crisp mornings and the evenings are just begging for a walk around the neighborhood. There is an annual pumpkin patch in my area, and I will be taking my engagement photos with my now betrothed on October 24th. Needless to say, I'm so excited for both of us to enjoy our favorite month. D&D is going to be soon, and I'm planning on making a hard apple cider cheese dip with pretzels for our spooky session. We already pre-paid for the Oktoberfest beer dinner at BJ's , which involves a ton of food and Oktoberfest beer. Needless to say, the beer around here is phenomenal. And, of course, attending Oktoberfest itself on the 4th , this Saturday. This is not to mention the actual holiday of Halloween, my favorite holiday, and our annual re-watch of Over The Garden Wall . Happy spooky season 🎃
I couldn’t resist creating a third quiz to complete the trilogy. Did you manage to identify all the card from quiz one and quiz two ? Again, congrats! Here’s the solution for quiz two in case you were wondering: The final Puzzling Photo is waiting for you, yet again upping the ante except for the obvious few: Name those card games quiz three. You know what to do. The rules remained the same: each of the seven cards belong to another card game. Try to identify them all! The first hint from quiz one remains relevant: all cards have the same dimensions as a standard deck of cards. This time, I’ve included two red herrings that come from a game that doesn’t really include card play but merely uses the cards to support the core mechanics. Have fun! As always, the solutions will appear in the next post. I’d love it if others would continue to create these quizzes. That way, I can be the one guessing. This article is part nine—the last part for now—in a series on trick taking and card games . Be sure to dip a toe in the other posts! Related topics: / card games / By Wouter Groeneveld on 30 September 2025. Reply via email .
I'm trying to get back into the flow of making videos more. In an effort to optimize my production pipeline, I'm going to be making a lot more "low effort" videos. This is the first one where I filmed a video of me making coffee on my phone. I think the next one is gonna be me making espresso.
I am very much enjoying my newly-resurrected hobby of Airsoft. Running around in the woods, firing small plastic pellets at other people, in pursuit of a contrived-to-be-fun mission, turns out to be, well, fun. I have also had to accept that, for some other players, part of that fun comes from making videos of their game days, and uploading them to YouTube. They often have quite impressive setups, with multiple cameras - head, rear-facing from barrel of weapon, and scope cam - and clearly put time, money, and effort into doing this. Great! Just like someone taking photos on their holidays, or when out and about, I can see the fun in it. It is the “non-consensually publishing it online for the world to see” aspect which bugs me a bit. In the handful of games that I have played, no-one has ever asked about consent of other participants. There has been no “put on this purple lanyard if you don’t want to be included in the public version of the video” rule, which I’ve seen work pretty well at conferences I have attended (even if it is opt-out rather than consent). I could, I suppose, ask each person that I see with a camera “would you mind not including me in anything you upload, please?”. And, since everyone with whom I’ve spoken at games, so far anyway, has been perfectly pleasant and friendly, I’d be hopeful that they would at least consider my request. I have not done this. The impression I get is that this is just seen as part and parcel of the hobby: by running around in the woods of northern Newbury on a Sunday morning, I need to accept that I may well appear on YouTube, for the world to see. I don’t love it, but it is not a big enough deal for me to make a fuss. I occasionally see people saying “well, if you don’t want to be in photos published online, don’t be in public spaces”. This is nonsense, for a number of reasons. Clearly, one should be able to exist in society, including going outside one’s own home, without needing to accept this kind of thing. In any case, here, the issue is somewhat different, since it is a private site, where people engage in private activity (a hobby). But then I’ve seen the same at (private) conferences, with people saying “Of course I’m free to take photos of identifiable individuals without their consent and publish them online”. Publishing someone’s photo online, without their consent, without another strong justification, just because they happen to be in view of one’s camera lens, feels wrong to me. This isn’t about what is legal (although, in some cases, claims of legality may be poorly conceived), but around my own perceptions of a private life, and a dislike for the fact that, just because one can publish such things, that one should .
Another Paul McCartney tour, which means another DJ Chris Holmes tour! Go see Chris and you get to see Paul!! Congrats to both! This was shot in Scotland in 2018. Am amazing show as always. Was with my good friend Eamon Leonard Thank you for using RSS. I appreciate you. Email me
I had the idea while I was in a train for Paris in late November 2023. I was trying to find new ways to play with my favorite topic of the time: human, cats, skeletons. The initial concept was « a mandala of cats » to which I added a Mary pose for the character. The second sketch was made on A2 paper. On the topic of Night on Bald Mountain, check its amazing concept art by by Bill Tytla . The sketch was then left untouched for a few months, as a lot of details felt wrong and I didn't know how to approach the inking. More than ever, I felt the gigantic hair strands were going too far from the initial idea and were too distracting. I started iterating on the sketch using a tablet. I did several tests: removing hair from the body, removing most strands, and more. The A2 paper sheet was then scanned by a professional, retouched to remove imperfections and add contrast, and a black background with a white outline.
Back when I went to the Alaska Folk Festival , a real highlight was catching The Strongbacks do their version of sea shanties live on the main stage. I remember a real tear-jerker protest shanty that I’d love to hear again. As fate would have it, I also went to Zig Zag campout this year and met a fella named Evan who was an excellent clawhammer player from Astoria, Oregon. I didn’t realize until the last night at the community showcase concert that Evan as *in* The Strongbacks. He plugged that they have a new album coming out at the end of his performance at that show and… now it’s out! It’s on all the stuff (ughgk) but perhaps easiest right here is a YouTube “topic” for the whole album. I really like this one: I haven’t listened to the whole thing yet. Hopefully it’s got that protest one in it, but if not, it’ll live in my brain.
Chef’s kiss stuff here from Colin Cornaby: Today’s microwave can cook a frozen burrito. Tomorrow’s microwave will be able to cook an entire Thanksgiving Dinner. […] We all need to transition to this way of cooking, because clearly this is where the future is going. I expect in a few short years kitchens will be much smaller. Gone will be stoves and ovens and flat tops. Restaurant kitchens will only be a small closet with a microwave. I predict this will happen by 1955 at the latest. […] If you can’t cook everything you make in a microwave thats a skill issue. You need to learn now because when everything is cooked in a microwave you’ll be out of a job. When microwaves are everywhere you’ll be so far behind you’ll never learn how to use a microwave. Chefs who use tools besides microwaves are luddites.
If you’re not in the mood for a traditional trick taking session , don’t worry: card and board games have evolved greatly since seventeenth century Whist. After both Carcassonne and Settlers of Catan —two board game pioneers that helped reinvigorate interest in tabletop gaming—the industry slowly but surely exploded, with over seven thousand yearly new releases in 2024, making it almost impossible to play them all. Trick taking morphed from a set of rules played with a standard deck of cards into a gaming mechanic incorporated by sprawling board games. It might not be as often employed as worker placement or set collection but there’s more than enough stuff waiting to be played for us trick taking enthusiasts. I’ve only begun to dip a toe into these modern variants myself. The wanted list keeps on growing. In this post, I’d like to categorize and highlight a few standouts. Pick a category below and explore the recommendations to get a sense of what modern trick taking games can do: Solo trick taking —as mentioned in the article on patience card games , For Northwood! is a popular trick taker that’s designed to be played only by yourself. Although Park Life: People can be played with more people, according to the community reviews, on Board Game Geek, its solo mode is better. And then there are trick takers such as the Lord of the Rings trick taking games that do include a solo and two-player variant but are still best played with three or more. Two-player only — Sail is another refreshing take on the genre. In the pirate-themed game, you’re navigating the boat together, avoiding obstacles as you try to race to the finish. The diagonal direction of the boat is dictated by the person winning the trick. The upcoming Legacy variant is of course pre-ordered here. Claim is another two-player focused trick taking game that has at least one edition for sale in a store near you. Cooperative trick taking —this category was ruled by The Crew before The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game rushed for the crown (or ring?). In The Fellowship , each participant plays as a character trying to fulfil specific goals: Frodo has to win at least four of the five ring cards with The One Ring card being the only trump in the game, Sam has to win the least amount of tricks, and so forth. It feels like a small campaign game and the artwork is immaculate. Perhaps unsurprisingly, The Two Towers is due to release soon. Asymmetric gameplay – TRICKTAKERs takes the genre for a unique spin. Characters have unique abilities that can turn a typical trick taking session on its head pretty quickly. This is probably the most involved trick taker that I wouldn’t recommend to newcomers of the genre; coming in at a weight of out of 5 on BGG. Trumps that trump the trump suit — Skull King can technically be played with two to eight players but as always it’s best enjoyed with four (or five). The pirate-themed game introduced bidding as well as trick taking: each round, you’re dealt one, two, three, … cards, and you’ll have to predict how many tricks you’ll win. The black flag suit is your usual trump here but then there are pirates that mess up this formula, trumping the trump unless it’s the Skull King himself—who himself can’t be beaten except with a mermaid? It’s a fun and chaotic take on the classic formula without completely altering it. Dice tricks — Nosoku Dice proves dice and cards can be combined to provide a challenging trick-taking experience where just enough drafting and bidding is sprinkled on top to keep things interesting. This is one of those games that’s still on my wish list. Polynomial puzzling —In case you’ve ever wondered what would happen if Uwe Rosenberg would create a trick taker, there’s The Kakapo that combines Patchwork-like polynomial puzzling with classic trick taking action. On top of that, The Kakapo is a cooperative puzzle. If only it wouldn’t be so damn difficult to acquire. Heavier board gaming — Arcs is a tactical space area control board game that manages to incorporate some light trick taking as a cool way to win action spaces. Partially thanks to that aspect, Arcs has managed to stay in BGG’s The Hotness list ever since it was released in 2024. If you’re a heavy board gamer that wants to dip just a tiny toe into trick taking, this is the one for you. Hearts but different — Rebel Princess is a fun alteration on the classic Hearts in which you’re avoiding marriage proposals instead. Special rules in each of the five rounds keep you on your toes. On top of that, each player representing another princess wields unique abilities that can be triggered once per round. For instance, Mulan’s card reads “After the last card has been played in a trick, swap the card you played for another of the same suit, except the Frog”. The rules should guarantee freshness and enough differentiation from its progenitor. Treacherousness and fun — Power Vacuum cannot be won without a minimum of manipulation, deceit, and treacherousness. Everyone is trying to raise to power as the “Supreme Appliance” is dead (yes, the vacuuming machine, really) with any means necessary, including backstabbing. It reminds me a bit of our frantic Bohnanza sessions were cheating allowed as long as nobody sees it was a much-loved house rule. I have yet to get my hands on this one but it looks very promising. This article is part six in a series on trick taking and card games . Stay tuned for the next part! Related topics: / card games / boardgames / trick taking / By Wouter Groeneveld on 23 September 2025. Reply via email .
Listen, I had some flies in the house. I had a party, it was nice having the doors open, some flies got in, and they apparently set up shop. You can’t just wait them out. They live like a month. Too long. Not to mention I gotta imagine they were having fly sex in their sweet new pad and kicking out more flies. I’m not a scientist but I did see a few humping. Fly extermination day had come. I wanted to try some old timey technique at first. I had just had some luck scrubbing bugs off the grill of a truck with baking soda so I was pretty hot on a use-less-chemicals scene. I also think how much plastic we use is out of control. I’m on an all-glass tupperware thing and I’m saving my glass jars for re-use and stuff. Basically a hero over here. The old timey technique is apple cider vinegar, dish soap, and sugar in a bowl and you leave it there and somehow flies land in it and die. That’s bullshit. I might as well have tried singing them a song. Zero flies caught. So I swing the other direction and buy this exotic fly trapping house thing where you put chemicals in the bottom of it and it lures them in or whatever and kills them. Notice I immediately abandoned my less-chemicals morals at the slightest failure. I’ll have to ask my therapist what that says about me, even though I already know: my convictions are weak. So I baby bear this thing. Flyswatter. Flyswatters are fricking amazing. You can’t do it with your hands. If you’re mad enough you can do it with your baseball cap. But hands? It’s not happening. I’m not Daniel LaRusso over here ripping flies out the air with chopsticks. But a flyswatter makes me an instant Mr. Miyagi. A flyswatter makes you a fly mascaraing machine. They are also like 99 cents.
You were born with a limitless supply of encouragements. Use every one of them. Last winter I noticed this small innocuous bit of paper taped to a neighbourhood post-board. On it were the words I have quoted above. It sticks with me to this day and comes to mind frequently. Are the people around you encouraging? Do conversations you have even get to a point where there is space for encouragement to surface? I don’t think encouragement from others comes about unless you are being vulnerable to some degree: you share something you’re shyly interested in, you admit that things aren’t going the way you’d like in some situation, you tell someone about a hope or a dream you have for something you’d like to create. Occasionally, I’m surprised when I put forward a bid of something I’d like encouragement on, and it floats on by unnoticed, my partner in conversation not picking up on the fact that I’d indeed like someone to root for me. In those moments, I feel like a boring houseplant that will go another day unwatered. It’s quite uncomfortable to even write about: this reality where so much of our interactions can seem to come down to an economy of attention: will I be heard, let alone encouraged? When I stop and think about it, it seems silly to hope for encouragement, when just getting someone’s attention can be difficult enough. But on the act of encouraging: I have been doing this for what feels like quite some time. I think I am an encouraging person. I can hear myself when I say encouraging things. There are many things I don’t do well in life, but being encouraging isn’t one of them. I don’t believe it is entirely altruistic. Sometimes I give in hopes of getting back a return on my investment—I too, would like some encouragement. Other times, I give and I give freely. Whether genuine, or conflated with ulterior motives, I hold on to hope for encouragement . I keep giving it, because the pool is right next to me. It is a pool that goes deep, deeper than I can plunge, it descendes farther than I can hold my breath. For a long time I have taken from the pool and shared it with others, and now at this stage in my life, I’m slowly learning to restore myself from it on my own accord. To sit by it, in the sun and lounge, and to be encouraged at my own leisure. We may be born with a limitless supply of encouragement to give, but how many have we deigned to share with ourselves?
Flash back to Spring 2020, when we were all confused and uncertain about what the world was going to look like, and unsure of how we would stay connected to each other. One of my cousins texted our cousin group chat mentioning the app Poop Map as a cheeky (heh) way of keeping up with the fam. We started a family league, and it was honestly pretty great. We’d congratulate each other on our 5-star poops, and mourn the 1-stars. Over time I made other leagues with friends online and offline, and it was really fun. I even talked about it on Scott Hanselman’s podcast when he asked about how to maintain social connections online (if you wanna hear about it, listen at the 11 minute mark in the episode). Eventually, people started to drop off the app, because… it’s dumb? Which is fair. It’s pretty dumb. But alas, I pride myself in being consistent, so I kept at it. For years. The last person I know on the app is my sister-in-law’s high school friend, also known by her very apt username, . She and I have pretty much no other contact except for this app, and yet we’ve bonded. 2000 poops feels like a good place to stop. With 12 countries covered around the world and 45 achievements in the app (including “Are you OK?” courtesy of norovirus, and “Punctuate Pooper” for going on the same day for 12 months in a row), I feel good about saying goodbye. My mom is also really happy I’m stopping. Wonder why? Anyway, goodbye, Poop Map, and goodbye to the fun usernames for the friends along the way: (that’s me), , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , and of course, . Also, before you go, here’s a fun data visualization I made of all my entries ! Smell ya later!
That’s a lot of games in one sentence. Tell me, what is better than a card game or a video game? Why yes, a card game inside a video game! These so-called mini games—a game within a game that acts as a gatekeeper or an amusing way to win a buck or two—are becoming more and more common in sprawling RPGs. From card-based betting in casinos popularized by the Dragon Quest series to full-blown card games playable in taverns and even card-game mechanics baked into the core of the game, the options are virtually endless. Let’s explore a few of them. As part of this trick taking and card game series, I only consider true card games as part of a mini game: this rules out Baten Kaitos , Slay The Spire , or even Blizzard’s Magic the Gathering -esque Hearthstone that have card play baked into their core. Also, in part two of our lovely card gaming adventure, we’ve already discussed Sierra On-Line’s Hoyle games : these are pure card games, not mini games inside another game. New Super Mario Bros. is an edge case: Luigi dealing cards at a casino is certainly fun to watch but that’s accessible in a separate game mode, not inside the main game. And no, Mario Bros 3’s memory “card game” does not count either. Let’s start by briefly mentioning the most popular examples: The Witcher 3’s Gwent and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic’s Pazaak . The former is even getting its own physical card game released later this year. CD Projekt Red admitted they underestimated the popularity of Gwent . Some players spend even more hours chasing down NPCs that can be battled with to upgrade complete their Gwent deck than spending time on the main quest line. Who came up with the genius idea of putting a game inside a game anyway? One of the earliest examples I could find is Dragon Quest III (1988) where the player can engage in very simple “monster betting”. Its successor Dragon Quest IV (1990) introduced various playable mini games in casinos such as Poker as seen in the video still below. Since then, casinos have become a Dragon Quest —or even general JRPG—staple. Earning a quick casino buck sure sounds like a way to buy expensive equipment earlier provided you manage to crack the game’s RNG rules. There are endless examples of JRPG mini games, but not that much good card game implementations. I guess they lost their appeal once developers started putting in more complex and visually appealing alternatives. If you’re interested in an overview of mini games in JRPGs I, highly recommend the above retrospective from Gaming Broductions, although they do not focus exclusively on card games. Some more examples of later card game mini games are Final Fantasy VIII’s Triple Triad and IX’s Tetra Master . Another often overlooked yet noteworthy game is Bug Fables ’s Spy Cards . And then there’s Xenosaga Episode I that even featured a full-fledged collectible card game including boosters and promo cards! But really, this post is just an excuse to gush about New World Computing’s Arcomage , a playable mini game in Might & Magic VII: For Blood and Honor (1999), and my favourite one, Might & Magic VIII: Day of the Destroyer (2000). The card game was even released as a standalone game. Fortunately for us, Tom Chen built a clone playable right in your browser called ArcoMage HD . In Arcomage, you build a tower, destroy your opponent’s tower, or collect enough resources to meet a certain goal. The victory conditions vary from tavern to tavern, and there’s even a side quest requiring you to win at least once in every tavern. The three resources are bricks (red), gems (blue), and recruits (green). Playing a card costs resources, but each round they refill depending on the amount of production you have. To defend against player’s attacks, you can also build a wall in front of your tower to absorb most of the damage. Arcomage is easy to get into: give it a try using the above link. An ongoing game of Arcomage played at the Dagger Wound Island tavern in Might & Magic VIII. When I discovered Migh & Magic VIII in 2000, I couldn’t grasp the intricate details of what made a cRPG tick—but I certainly could hire a vampire and a dragon, wreak havoc in the countryside, and then rest my weary ass by playing a few rounds of Arcomage in the nearest tavern. Provided I was still allowed in after accidentally killing all the villages by casting Armageddon —whoopsie (see my 2023 playthrough report of the game). Even though later RPGs come with more complex mini games where you have to win or buy new cards in order to gradually progress, Arcomage for me defines this post tile: Card Game Mini Game In Video Game . Gwent or Pazaak never really held my interest for longer than fifteen minutes while I could keep endlessly replaying Arcomage . It has to end someday, though: the people of Enroth are apparently waiting for me to destroy some kind of crystal tower and save their world. Oh well, one more round can’t hurt. Tavern-based card play is often added as a fan-based mod in PC RPGs. These are simple enough to find via . My favourite is Morrowind’s Thirteen Telvanni that of course includes betting as a way to built up a nice stash. Other examples include Fallout: New Vegas , Oblivion and Skyrim , and even Neverwinter Nights 2 based on Triple Triad . Mini games are not limited to the RPG genre: even Wario Land on the good old Game Boy had you play a timed memory game to win treasure or whack enemies in a simplified 2D golf game in order to unlock a passage guarding treasure. This was Wario before Wario became synonymous for wacky mini games. Card game mini games, however, are few and far between. The only occurrence I remember—my second favourite card-based mini game besides Arcomage—appears in Humongous Entertainment’s Spy Fox In Dry Cereal (1997), in the form of a one-on-one Go Fish competition in order to win a required trinket from Mr. Big Pig: Spy Fox playing Go Fish against Mr. Big Pig in the casino. Do you have any... sixes? Aha, you do! Hand them over! Screenshot taken from the Nintendo Switch port. In order to start the game, you have to shake the Jar-o-Trinkets and put one on the table. The winner takes them all, of course. You can revisit the mini game any time after you’ve procured the needed item which is a nice diversion from the main storyline. I usually don’t like required mini games, but the jazzy background music and Mr Big Pig’s funny voice acting keeps us coming back for more. He starts to sweat once he realizes we’re winning and the look on his face when handing over a card is golden. It is worth noting that I could not find a single mini game—fan mod or official—that is a trick taking game. Presumably because most trick takers require more than two opponents? Please let me know if you did encounter a digital in-game variant somewhere. This article is part five in a series on trick taking and card games . Stay tuned for the next part! Related topics: / card games / screenshots / By Wouter Groeneveld on 20 September 2025. Reply via email .
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