For the past three years, I have hosted a holiday cookie exchange for my building. Our building has 12 units (mostly 2 bedrooms), so I had hoped that we could get at least half of them to participate. However, in the last three years, we have had three, four, and three units participate, including ourselves. […]
Julie and I have very different understandings of the 5 star rating system. Here’s what usually happens at a restaurant: (Kevin nosily scrapes the last bits of food from his plate using his finger as a backstop instead of his knife) Kevin: So how would you rate this restaurant? Julie: I liked it! Maybe four […]
Short Version of the Tip When a player takes an action that requires a roll: Ask the player to describe exactly how they are doing it Complete their description right up to the moment that decides success or failure Ask the player to roll Narrate the resolution (or have the player do it) It may […]
Julie and I just got back from vacation in China. Amongst many other things, we saw baby pandas. On the trip, I wasn’t carrying my MacBook Air, but I did have my iPad and iPhone, and I learned a few things about trying to do work on my mobile devices.
In 1996, Deep Blue played competitive Chess against world champion Garry Kasparov. In 2011, Watson beat Ken Jennings at Jeopardy. In 2016, AlphaGo played and beat Lee Sedol in Go. And in 2018, OpenAI Five played 2 games against professional Data 2 players, and the humans survived 2 very fun games. But in another year, I think […]
After my last stint writing and publishing a tabletop adventure, I was inspired to take a shot at writing a rule system. With a few playtests and a PDF from an online Word template, I now also call myself a game designer by sharing “College Contagion.”
Everyone is into podcasts these days. Here’s a common conversation I have had. A: “So, I was in the car listening to a podcast-” B: “Wait, you listen to podcasts? Me too!” A: “Really, what podcasts do you listen to?” As much as I enjoy them myself, I don’t think it is unique or surprising […]
Recently, I caught a podcast episode of The Splendid Table where “Nigella Lawson Defends the Honor of Home Cooking.” She recently wrote an article on Lenny Letter arguing that people shouldn’t say that they are “just a home cook.” The word “just” implies that home cooks are less than a chef where Lawson seems them as distinct […]
For me, magic doesn’t usually require waking up an hour before my work day morning routine, but when you save an hour waiting in line for Space Mountain, it definitely feels like the right decision. Since moving to the Bay Area just over 10 years ago, I have made many trips down to LA but […]
I spend a lot of time preparing for my Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) games. Not only do I plan the adventures themselves, but I also watch, read, and listen to advice about being a better Dungeon Master (DM). And for fun, I watch streams of other D&D games, which is also preparation because I am […]