June Wrap-Up

 

The school year is over and I've been working from home since the end of May. Being so focused on work stuff and just not feeling like writing only allowed for one blog post last month. We have a very busy July between vacations and a week long work trip for me, so that trend may continue. Gaming goals have been chugging along and one of my favorite shows has returned. 

Blah Blog Log

Bored Board Games

It was a very heavy BGA month because I was only able to game with my regular group once. July will likely be similar, but I want to try and at least play more with people I know on BGA over the next few months. I'm still trying to figure out how I want that to work. For June, I logged 60 plays across 16 games, 7 of those being new for the year. That brought me to 61.8% of the way to part one of my goal (600 plays) and 72% of the way to part two of my goal (150 unique games). This month's highlighted game is:

Five Tribes: The Djinns of Naqala - I played this for the first time many years ago but recently acquired my own copy and brought it to my game group. It has some of the best table presence, especially at the beginning of the game. Thirty tiles get seeded with three meeples each which creates a very colorful board. From there players take turns moving the meeples using an mancala-esque mechanic where one meeple gets dropped one at a time until a player drops the last one. That tile's and colored meeple abilities get activated. There are a variety of tiles and meeples that have unique rules to score or assist a player in scoring. The player with the most points at the end of the game wins. 
It is a fairly straightforward to play and pretty easy to learn, but the strategies needed to be successful are what make the game complex. The constantly changing board layout turn after turn can make it difficult if a player is susceptible to analysis paralysis. I mean anyone could sit there forever reviewing the almost endless possibilities of where the meeples can be moved. The key is to recognize what other players are going for and either prevent them from getting too far with it, or go the other route and try to do something nobody else is really focusing on at all. I remember doing okay the first time I played, but things really clicked in this most recent play. I'd happily play this whenever suggested.

I'm Watching 👀

One of my absolute favorite shows in the last few years and of all time, The Bear, dropped season three last week. We've watched half of the season so far and I cannot wait to finish it. I sort of wrote about the show in September when I did a post about the omelette from the show that I replicated. I can't say enough about how much I enjoy The Bear. I'm going to be very sad whenever the show ends and it'll likely be one of the only dramas I choose to watch more than once.

Resolutions Update

Doing really well with these. I'm interested in what the last month of the first half of the year has in store. Summer always tends to be the tipping point for some of these.
  • Goal #1: Cook More Italian Food - Still haven't fully embraced this resolution, but I did make a couple of pasta dishes in June.
  • Goal #2: Log 600 Plays of At Least 150 Games - As of June 30th, I've played 108 unique games 371 times total.
  • Goal #3: Write at Least 3 Blog Posts Each Month - As stated in the opening, I just didn't get to writing anything. I'm now 4/6 on this one for the year.

Whatcha Snackin?

I'm always willing to try the various new flavors of chips as they come out. Lay's and some of the other potato chip brands have been churning them out at a breakneck pace over the last decade. Doritos aren't potato chips but I feel like they haven't really missed on any of their new options in recent memory. However, they really struck gold with with their new Hot Mustard flavor.
If you're a fan of mustard, specifically hot mustard then these are the chips for you. They aren't spicy, but they do have a kick that builds as you eat more of them. It's more of a dry mustard flavor than a the vinegar based flavor you get from a yellow mustard. Christine and I demolished the bag of these and will definitely be buying a few more before they leave shelves. While we really enjoy them, I don't think they're going to have the staying power of their more popular flavors that are now staples. We also picked up Tangy Pickle, but haven't tried those yet.

Wrap It Up

Please comment below with any thoughts or comments on anything I've covered. Thanks for reading!

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