Friendship

I know that for you, my friends in my inner circle, it can be quite exhausting at times. I'm relentless and aggressive in evangelizing my outlook on life. I can't help it. I so firmly believe that there is joy to be found around that next corner that the enthusiasm for what's to come just bubbles out of me. I am excited about the magic within our reach. Life *is* magical. Life is a miracle. Every day is an amazing gift! I want to live mine to it's fullest potential and I want to see you do the same alongside. I know that God created the universe and from end to end it's filled with wonder. I'm an optimist because the most powerful all-mighty God set things in motion to come together for the best and that's not just a fairytale but a promise we can count on. I count on it. I expect it. When you're in my inner circle my joy is going to knock on your heart over and over again. It's going to whisper to you, 'Believe. Believe in love. Believe in joy. Believe in the very best.' Do you know I see the best in you? I see your hurts and your wounds too. I see the scars of shitty childhood and the pain of fresh cuts from more recent tumbles. These experiences lie to you about your worth, they poison your mind against God and try to deny your entitlement to joy. I want you to see beyond those lies. I want you to see the truth of how amazing you are. I want you to see how you have been destined for great things. And every chance I get, I will push you to be bold and be brave and come along on magical adventures with me and revel in joy.

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Board Game Review: Anno 1800

Whenever Martin Wallace designs a new game, I am all over it. This is because I absolutely love Brass Birmingham (another MW designed game); in fact Brass Birmingham is my #1 board game of all time. Over the years, his other games I've tried have been pretty good, but not necessarily amazing must-buys. Still, I keep trying each new release of his, searching for that next star performer. That's why I'm excited to report that Anno 1800 is, in fact, a star performer, and an amazing must-buy board game. Anno 1800 was adapted by the publisher (Kosmos) from a Ubisoft video game of the same name. In the board game, players take on the role of industrialists, charged with developing their island economies and exploring other islands. Each player begins the game with a personal industry board with trade & exploration ships, a shipyard, and industrial goods tiles printed on the board. A starting collection of workers (wooden cubes) of various types to produce the goods is a...

Board Game Review: Expeditions

Expeditions is my favorite game in the Stonemaier Games portfolio to date. The game is a sequel to Scythe, and continues the narrative years in the future. It has taken everything I loved in Scythe and expanded on it, while chucking out everything I didn’t care for (the combat). Designed by Jamey Stegmaier, Expeditions brings us into an age when a meteorite has crash landed into Siberia and things begin to go sideways for all who encounter it. One team after another sets out to investigate the crash site and they are never heard from again. No one knows what happened to them. Now it’s our turn to find out what’s really going on, each of us leading a competing expedition team into Siberia to bring back desperately needed answers. During a game of Expeditions, all players are seated around the game board, which is made up of individually placed hex tiles laid out as shown above. At the bottom of the game board is an insert affectionately known as the base camp. The base camp holds ...

A Fortunate Trade, an Unexpected Pledge of Support, and a Win for Yin!

What follows is the true and unredacted account of my tour of duty as a command leader for the Yin Brotherhood. Map: 5p POK Kazadoom’s Notch Map generated on https://ti4-map-generator.derekpeterson.ca/ Factions: Yin, Yssaril, Nekro, Vuil’raith, Hacan. Round 1 objectives: Engineer a Marvel (R1-1); Push Boundaries (R1-2) Five experienced leaders gathered this weekend to prove themselves worthy. As the Yin, I found myself wedged between the Hacan (around the corner of a notch in the galaxy) and the Yssaril. Word had come down to the Blessed on Darien through our ambassadors and spies that both nearby factions were set on amassing larger fleets and armies, but to what end we were unsure. The Blessed discussed the matter at great length and decided our best defense was to rebuild our flagship the Van Hauge and to take control of as many planets as we could (more, at least, then our neighbors). That would allow us to stand firm in the face of any aggression. As a command leader, I...