Author Archives: bluedepth

Snakes and Foxes

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My Shazam! Christmas gift from Scott was a homemade copy of Snakes and Foxes from Wheel of Time.

This is the playing board and it comes with player pieces and enemy pieces in snake symbols and fox symbols. The dice tell you who can move and how far on the board and the board has arrows showing how everyone can move. Players start in the center and move to the edge, and if they can get back to the center they win. The game is designed to be unwinnable, unless you play as a Ta’veren which adds extra rules and enables a player to win.

We played it at Chocolatea today and got lots of interested folks looking on. Maybe also helped sell some folks on Wheel of Time itself. LOL!

It’s a one of a kind thing and apparently it took quite an effort to assemble. I’m thoroughly impressed and touched. To be able to play a central game featured in the book series is quite something!

Done with Higher Ed

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I haven’t had a University dream in a long while. We were moved to new offices and I went exploring. Trying to find the vending machines I end up on a service elevator that heads to a basement. I don’t have the oddly shaped key that lets you return so I leave and discover that I’m in the middle of service corridors and I start to try to get outside. I end up in another one way hall in the library with an odd platform that seems to have only one function, to crush people. Like a compactor. I get out of there and end up in a sub-basement and eventually find my way out through a construction area with metal and glass doors allowing only exit, not entry. A student looking terrified actually gains entry and runs the other way. I make my way out to a courtyard and run into a younger student fleeing an older man who is chasing him with a machete. Then I wake up.

I can say that the part of my life where actually being inside University buildings is well and truly over. Here’s a dream exploring that awful place. I woke up and laughed, “Yeah, not going there ever again. You don’t have to wrap it in symbolism.”

Higher Ed, hah. Done with that.

The Boy, The Mole, The Fox, and The Horse

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For Christmas this year I received a copy of this book, “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox, and the Horse” by Charlie Mackesy. It is a wonderful little book, it seems physically more impressive because the pages are stout and much of the story is carried by the hand-drawn sketchwork from the author. The story is almost ineffable, it is both very etheric and impressively poignant. I don’t think I’ve come across another book that so playfully delivers incredibly weighty lessons. While reading this book, there were sections that reminded me of some of the key phrases in the Moulin Rouge by Baz Luhrmann, “The greatest thing you’ll ever learn, is to love and be loved in return.”

This book is a delight and a wonder, and the title doesn’t give away anything about what wonders hide amongst the pages. I will treasure this book.

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The post-Christmas reflex is upon us. I slept in, then was bracketed by two cats, Bailey and Keely who thought that wedging themselves up against daddy was simply the best thing ever. So, I woke up with twin purring motors in full effect up against my back as I came to. The house was a little bit of a wreck so I did some vacuuming which made every cat scatter. Behold! Lord Vack-Ooom!

Now we have the onerous task of eating through food that is perhaps too carby or too starchy, poor us. I needed half a cup of Dr. Pepper for the Ham glaze, but the cheapest I could find at the market was a 2 liter bottle, so I have to defeat that enemy, golly, Challenges.

I drove Scott to work at the bookstore to help him not get dinged by angry shoppers, as today the second wave of crazies hit the streets looking for after Christmas sales and bargains.

I’ve got two books that I’ll be reading from Christmas. The first is “The Boy, the mole, the fox and the Horse” by Charlie Mackery. Then the other is TS Eliot’s “Old Possums Book of Practical Cats”. So expect some stories coming up based on those two books. Scott suggests that the first one will make me cry. Ha ha! Being emotionally victimized by a book! Bring it on! 😉

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After Christmas Dinner, which was more than we ever should make, comes the romantic Christmas movies. Love Actually and Serendipity. At some point we’ll forget we just ate a feast and want dessert. Cookies, Christmas Breadies, Egg Nog. So many ways to just keep on trotting along and squealing like little piggies. LOL.

New Hobby

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This Christmas has been such a wonder! This year I got such wonderful gifts! My favorite candle scent, new beard wash in my favorite scent from Rocky Mountain Barber Company, and everything I need to get started with Crochet. A giant iceberg of yarn, a wonderful book, and all the tools to get started! I used to knit when I was a kid, and recently I’ve been kicking around the idea of crochet which promises to be a faster method to make new things from yarn. This gives me new skills, helps me keep my hands from losing dexterity as I get older, and might even be meditative. We’ll see how it goes!

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Attending Evening Services at the First Congregational Church downtown. The program is beautiful and the church is as well. Decked out and exactly what I was looking for, for the Holiday celebrations. One of the few Churches in town that are welcoming to everyone.