Daniel J Isom

“Simplicity brings more happiness than complexity.” The theme for 2025 is slowing down. In last year's post I mentioned that as I am nearing 40 years of life, chasing multiple goals just isn't what I'm interested in doing. To combat that, I focused on things I enjoyed and had some success in each of the three goals I set. However, this year I'm only going to have a single resolution and unlike some previous years, this single resolution will not have multiple goals within it. So in 2025, I will . . .  Read Simplify Magazine . Simplify Magazine is from the mind of Joshua Baker, the man behind Becoming Minimalist . I've read a couple of his books and continue to watch many of his YouTube videos, all of which are about...becoming minimalist. From the website, Simplify Magazine "is a quarterly, digital publication that pulls together experts in various fields to address some of the most pressing needs of the modern family."  Essentially each issue is a colle...

  The holidays came and went and while there were some good times, December wasn't exactly the best month of the year. In an effort to not drag down the New Year energy, I'm going to focus on the good stuff in this last wrap up post for 2024. Blah Blog Log I snuck in a couple of year end gaming posts on the last day of the month to actually hit my resolution goal after months of not getting there. November 2024 Wrap-Up - New single month gaming record, my favorite breakfast, and a new snack. Top 10 New to Me Games of 2024 - These were my favorite new to me games in 2024. Deep Dive December: Under Falling Skies - A summary of a solo board game challenge Bored  Board Games Sickness ravaged my household so plays saw an overall dip. I ended up having to cancel all of the in person meetups of our local gaming group. I'm hoping we can pick right up in the new year. For this month's highlight, I'm going to share the game that has my second most logged games of all time:...

I enjoyed sharing my favorite new to me games last year , so I thought I'd make that another yearly post by bringing it back again this year. I had a higher number of total plays (892) and unique games (162) played this year, so I had a lot to pick from for this list. While I did play some new releases, most of the games on this list were not published in 2024. There are about a half a dozen games that could have slotted into this list somewhere depending on my mood, but what's here is what I'd ask to play anytime. #10 -  Let's Go to Japan This snuck into the last spot on the list because I like the theme of visiting various places in Japan. It's a simple drafting game where you normally only have a few choices each round to add to your trip. There's quite a bit of luck of the draw that can really hurt if you focus on certain goals and just can't get cards that meld well with those goals on each of the days. However, the game never feels like you're real...

  Last year I completed my goal to play of  Scythe solo 10 times, after playing the  Lost Ruins of Arnak  solo 12 times the year before for the  Deep Dive December Challenge . This year I chose the solo only game Under Falling Skies . Since there is a multi mission campaign mode included in the base game, it seemed like the perfect time to try that out. Even though the complexity of the game probably warranted more than 12 plays, that's what I stuck with. The campaign said it takes around 10 plays to get through depending on how well you do and what difficulty level you try. Having only played the base part of the game a couple times previously, I played one basic game before jumping into the campaign on an easier difficulty. The game is essentially the classic arcade game Space Invaders in board game form. Instead of just moving artillery back and forth trying to shoot down ships, the player has to use a set of dice in various room spots to no...

November tends to be one of my favorite months, year after year. There's so much to enjoy: cooler weather, hockey is in full swing, and we get to celebrate the best holiday, which means we get to eat well. We didn't travel to Syracuse this year but we did still go up to Pennsylvania for the day. Not wanting to miss out on two turkey dinners like I usually get to enjoy, I cooked a whole one from scratch in the beginning of the month. There's really nothing better, which I talked about on this blog when I first started it. I also did a lot of gaming online, pushing me far beyond my two goals for the year. I'm glad this year's November didn't disappoint.  Blah Blog Log October 2024 Wrap-Up - Solo gaming, PoeFest in Baltimore, and a "grotesque" TV show Eggs in a Frame: A Tribute - I share my love of a simple breakfast dish Bored  Board Games I thought that after a crazy amount of gaming last month, in part because of  Solotober , that November would see...

One of my earliest and certainly the most nostalgic food memories is the breakfast dish eggs in frame. It's know by many names: bullseye eggs, eggs in a frame, egg in a hole, eggs in a nest, hole in one, one-eyed Jack, and many others. I've always called it eggs in a frame since I was a kid. I remember seeing it in the children's cookbook  Kids Cooking: A Very Slightly Messy Manual  and must have asked my mom to make it. It was a favorite back then and it has remained that way as I near my fortieth year. If you know me you know my love for bread, so it should be no surprise that my favorite breakfast dish contains it. Bagels are right up there but eggs in a frame just has more flavors and textures that can't be beat. If you're not familiar with eggs in a frame, it's a very simple dish that only requires three ingredients: eggs, bread, and butter. Any type of bread will work, as long as it's sliced like a standard supermarket loaf of sandwich brea...

A year ago I posted the first of these month wrap-up posts and I'm proud of myself for keeping them going. Some months have been leaner than others with the content, but I like to come back each month and share what's been going on. I think the fact that I do these posts has affected my yearly goal of posting three times a month because I could do individual posts for some of these sections. However, I really like this format and it feels less like work which always makes me want to keep doing something. This October was the busiest between work and home of any month in years, but it was all really good.  Blah Blog Log September 2024 Wrap-Up  - Gaming and a delicious pizza in North Dakota Solotober 2024 - A recap of one of my favorite gaming traditions Bored  Board Games Between this year's Solotober challenge and my new gaming group, I had 142 plays across 48 unique games. *Spoilers* I was able to complete my gaming goals of 600 total plays and 150 unique games. Everyt...