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Another year, another Board Game Jam . This was the fourth appearance for Jenning and me, and I have to say it felt like our weakest attempt. Not that we didn't try, but I was not happy with what we came up with, a derivative of many other popular, more fun worker placement games. I suppose not every year can be a great success in creativity. The event itself was much the same as last year -- same workshop space at George Brown College, same party space at Mill Street Brew Pub, same format of introduction lesson, building and playtesting. The theme was "How do we know what we know?", which I probably put too much emphasis on. Thinking on it now, it makes sense to simply work on our previous unfinished works, which are otherwise sitting collecting dust on shelves, unplayed and forgotten for months and months. It takes two to build a village The weather has turned! And what a quick turn it was, spring kicking down signs left and right of winter. I've taken to ridi...

The fan for my heat pump stopped working. It's been wonky of late, and when I got home last Tuesday, after a day under the sticky glaring sun, my condo offered little relief. Indeed I ended up resorting to drinking myself to sleep, cursing the humid air. I was at the Evergreen Brickworks, enjoying beer and meat and fruit pies, a foodie event to be sure. Yes, Canada Day, a country I love and cherish but is governed by fools I cannot abide, seemingly populated with people I hold less and less in common with. Well, not truly truly, but certainly I find the divide between us has seemingly deepened. Or perhaps it was always thus, and only as my eyes look broader do I see the chasms of empathy, of understanding, of relating. Let it be said that variety is both humanity's strength and weakness. But the weather, the weather since that day has mellowed, a mild summer with much rain and cool winds. I find it comfortable; surely this is better than the raging waves of heat and humidit...

I spent the day at home, having to wait to get my heat-pump serviced (again) -- this time it seems it needed a flushing out, by which I suppose it was clogged in some capacity. A novel thing, working from home: cats at my feet, a large pot of coffee within reach, dressed in my most comfortable of attires. I rather enjoyed it, and got to try out the local Sky Blue Sky sandwich shop; excellent chowder! Earlier this week I did one of my spur-of-the-moment rides across the city, from downtown to the beaches and back home, a circuitous route, some 20 km, navigating by will alone, without a destination or goal other than to feel the city pass by, to push my legs and lungs. Such glorious weather, I could not deny its call to enjoy it. I have been keeping up with karate. Mostly keeping up, there being only the one class a week right now. I would like to say that I've been keeping up with my workouts as well, but that would be a blatant lie; I go through phases of regular and not at all...

That is to say, it was my birthday a couple weeks ago, and now I enter the muck, the deep muck, of middle age. Forty is my number, friends, and I shake my head whenever I am reminded of it. Which is daily, hourly, far too frequently. Who'd have thought 40 year old Hwan would be this? Not me, least of all me. It was nice to see people give their regards, a gesture not lost on me. Especially those kind few who made the effort to go out of their way to pick something out. I like to think I'm not materialistic in nature but these items I covet, a physical link between giver and receiver. How else was my January? I helped MJ move out of my place into a new apartment, which took up a couple weekends of back-breaking work and remains a strain on our relationship. I do find myself getting increasingly tired -- I shall sigh myself into the next world, this one too much of a bore. Thinking about it now kills me all the more. I saw The Pixies at Massey Hall! My first show of th...

I'm beginning to believe that I may, in my old age, actually welcome death, to make room for the next generation; too stuck in my ways, my mind replaying golden memories, unable to accept the changes brought before me. I mean, that's a while from now I hope but I can sense its faint approach. Even now, as in years of late, I am haunted by the ills and trespasses of my younger self; it is an ever-growing mountain, diminished only through the dimness of forgetting. I shall fall to the wind of a thousand inward sighs. But ha, no, I am not nearly so melancholy for most of my day. I'll play a little catch-up, while I wait for my phone to charge. Several nights back MJ and I enjoyed Word Wars , a documentary about Scrabble players. The documentary wasn't particularly compelling, but the characters are fascinating enough, in their fringe-of-society way, to have kept our interest up. We saw a much crappier documentary a couple weeks before, My Brilliant Brain: Make Me A Geniu...

meditated for 15 minutes, involuntarily opening my eyes. Not today, the other evening. if a task I need to do occurs to me, I need to write it down or else it will haunt me (through remembering it) later. wow I am really bad with updates, for which I apologize. I'm just.. too boring and busy to talk about anything. I saw Fantastic Mr Fox, that was primo. I don't have any stories to share, other than I recently realized that I am horribly, disfiguratively broke. Work is totally kicking my ass. So yeah, job and money stress await me in 2010. Been online dating, which I guess means I'm out there and meeting people, sometimes face to face! I bought Agricola and have yet to play it, although Settlers has been getting some action. I am taking today off, so I'm typing in my pajamas, a bit of free time before I have to get ready and get out there. The weather is a cool -6C, but it'll get up to zero later. Christmas and Boxing day are supposed to be 4 and 3 degrees...

Not my furniture Ok, yup, I bought a place . It still hasn't quite sunk in yet. I mean, I believe it to be true and am slowly (slowly) warming up to the idea but until I actually move in it's still a rather unreal thing for me. Certainly, it is nice to not have to flip through ugly, ugly housing listings. Now, paperwork and all the tedium that it brings are my daily plate. Oh, and financial strains, indeed and oh yes. Speaking of strains, my freakin' harddrive died! And it would seem I lost everything -- old photos (more recent ones are on flickr and at work), shows, movies.. and all my saved games! My personal notes on stuff. Gone. Well, not GONE gone.. presumably they're in stasis, comatose on a few drive platters, locked by a $1K key i.e. a data retrieval service. It's a frakking nightmare I tells ya! Although to be truthful I am getting more reading done at home; nearly halfway through The Crossing. Saw a couple movies recently, A Serious Man...

Curse this weather! Until the day I howl for a cooler time I find these -24 windchills quite upsetting. Thankfully today is the last day for this zaniness, at least for the foreseeable, forecastable next few days. The cold troubled me yesterday during a workout, my ankles locking up as I stretched. It could just be the old in the them but I'm going to blame the chilly walk from St. Clair to Eglinton. St. Clair being where I participated in a group interview to volunteer for a camp counsellor position, something I kind of rashly (after much goading) decided to try for. I enjoyed myself enough, though I do wonder if my quiet (i.e. shy and introverted) nature appealed to the interviewers any. That reminds me, I need to look up what it'll take to get my Bronze Cross recertified. Hmm, it's changed since I took it. Which admittedly was back 1993. The new office is fine. Did I mention they moved me to a new office? Well they did, it's on the floor beneath the ma...

First things first, I got my new iPhone. I had lost my old one the night of my birthday , it having likely fallen out of my pocket into a taxi from the same pants I lost my trusty SCP-4000 . Comfortable those pants but negligent in their holding of valuables! And I say "old", but I only had that iPhone for about 3 months, sigh. So, it turns out that to replace a 16 GB iPhone costs $650 CDN I kid you not. Once again I had to turn to Rogers customer service to rant about the price thrust upon me. After an anxious wait they offered me a refurbished one for $250 which I greedily took. It has since arrived and iTunes, surprisingly to me, restored all my files and setting properly and conveniently so that I am back to where I was, minus $250 but without the scratches and the wonky Home button my old iPhone had. Today I applied that Invisible Shield I had ordered on-line, a small project reminiscent of my days working with vinyl graphics. Second things second, my apartment ...

Blast this weather! How is it that it always manages to ruin my complexion, and thus my mood, and hence my mind? Cannot think, cannot feel. Aching, itching. Mornings are still a struggle, unrested, unready. This morning was more tedious than usual as there was some kind of streetcar stoppage at the corner of Queen and Roncesvalles. Eventually a bus came by to pick us up, but it unfortunately struck (or nearly struck) an old woman crossing the street at Dufferin and King. Yes it was nutty, but I think she was more shaken up than physically injured if indeed there was contact as I didn't witness it directly. Not really watching much these days. I did see an old French film on the weekend, The Wages of Fear (1953) a black and white thriller. It takes a while to get going but once it does WHOO it's a wild ride. I saw the Criterion Collection version and wasn't happy with the translation used -- there were times when even I, with my faltering French, could tell tha...

I find Seth Rogen funny. He may not have a lot of range but he's consistently amusing whenever I see him. In Pineapple Express he plays yet again the relatively straight but fun-loving and easy-going slightly chunky dude, this time teaming up with his old Freak and Geeks alumni, James Franco. Franco's a natural for that stoner role he's carved for himself, and in Pineapple Express he's just as endearing as ever. So, we've got this lovable pair who are funny whenever they're on screen (which is the most of the film), and the film itself has all the ingredients of being great -- the right atmosphere, the right plot hooks, and some likable, engaging characters. Unfortunately, the second half just unravels and gets out of hand and is silly and predictable and doesn't tie all the ends and lets you down as you watch it slip away, bemoaning the promises of something better. Like the drug, Pineapple Express is light and airy fun. I went to a black-belt seminar on ...

Holy jim-jiminy is it ever humid outside. Gross, disgustingly so. I walked down the street to get a burger and I scurried back to the office, overheating. I am thankful I have this desk fan here, it is such a comfort, ready to cool me down when I arrive from my morning ride. Oh, I bought tickets to see Batman and did not want to do the ride home and ride back, as pleasing the prospect of a shower may be. I will be leaving shortly to line-up, though I sincerely hope there will be little call for it. I wonder if it's the heat that has made me so very antsy of late. Certainly I am a troll if not fed on time, but that has always been the case. No, there's something more to it than that. A form of middle-aged boredom? What exactly is this unscratchable itch? Why am I not content to merely enjoy life? Upsetting experiences this week? I've had two: one, finding a dead house caterpillar the size of my forefinger in a bowl I left overnight in the sink and two, taking a bite of a...