The Year in Review

As is my custom, I find it helpful to reflect upon the good and the bad of 2022.  I start the year with goals; this post looks back at some of them and considers other factors we experienced this year.

Our year was defined by several factors:

- a return to 'normalcy' (meaning most pandemic-related restrictions or requirements were dropped by late spring)

- our van dying

- our kitchen flooding

The first was wonderful. Though I had COVID twice (during Christmas 2021 and in May 2022), both times were very mild. Loosening restrictions was such a relief; taking off the mask at the gym was a particular joy. Though we are still in the pandemic, technically, I am hopeful that 2023 will be the first fully "normal" year we've had since 2019.

Our van dying was unexpected and unpleasant. We had owned it for 8 years (and were hoping for several more). Buying a vehicle in this market, with pandemic-related supply chain delays, meant we had to wait over two months for a replacement. We managed with one car for about a week . . . I biked in to work most of those days, but was quickly exhausted. We were saved by friends who loaned us their car for more than two months. We are so thankful for their generosity. We picked up the new car in November and have loved it.  

Around the same time as the van problem, our kitchen flooded, which was another 'fun' wrinkle. We noticed warped laminate floor boards in our kitchen . . . we asked several handy people about the cause, but nobody could isolate the problem. We eventually determined that the refrigerator had two intermittent leaks (internal and external). The water from that had soaked through the laminate and hit an older linoleum floor, spreading out throughout the whole room and damaging the family room floor as well. Our insurance company has been great to work with- we're getting a new floor and cabinets- but supply chain difficulties mean this won't get fixed until February.

Though the last quarter of the year was dominated by the aforementioned challenges, the rest of the year was pretty 'standard.' It was nice to see the kids adapt quickly to life back in America and develop new friendships (or rekindle old). We feel settled, which isn't a guarantee when you move. We are blessed. On to goals:

Spiritual
My goals here:

- Be disciplined in prayer/scripture routines (and keep tracking them to encourage it).
- Teach the family.
- Take a more active leadership role in church.
- Redeem the time. By which I mean wasting less of it.
- Overcome two besetting sins.

Scripture was fine. Prayer was more sporadic- easily done when in my routine, but easily dropped when routine was altered (due to vacation or other factors). Need improvement there.

Teaching the family happened sporadically. I tried a variety of methods, but always inconsistently.

I started leading a community group at church (in addition to the men's ministry), and am considering other leadership roles. This one is going okay.

I still waste too much time.

I now have more besetting sins. Okay, not really- just the same ones. Need progress here.

Overall there is a lot of room for improvement here.

Nutritional/Fitness

My goals here:

- Get (and keep) weight under 185 lbs.
- Complete 240 workouts (run, bike, gym, soccer, hikes, etc.).
- Eat less sugar/carbs/food in general.

I keep going the wrong direction; I'm now at 199 lbs. I did a test in July (when I weighed 197) that indicated I should lose 11 lbs, which seems to hold to what I've experienced in the past: ~185 lbs is my 'happy weight' and remains the goal. I did put on some muscle this year, which could account for a few of the pounds I gained, but certainly not all. 

I did complete 274 workouts, which is satisfactory. I consider myself "fit fat," meaning I'm in decent shape and can do cardio and weights without problems. I just need to lose some pounds. Most workouts were runs, gym, bike rides, and yardwork. Included 2021 totals for reference:

2021: 63 runs for 134 miles, 115 gym workouts, 43 bike rides for 539 miles, 8 soccer games

2022: 38 runs for 91 miles, 113 gym workouts, 68 bike rides for 1061 miles, 7 hikes for 30 miles, 43 mow/yardwork, 5 misc.

My diet was poor—it's the same old culprits of too many calories (overall) and too many sweets (in particular). Need to improve there.

Financial
My goals here:

- Get good budgeting system in place.
- Follow it.

It's hard to budget when a vehicle dies and kitchen floods. Little progress here.

Reading
My goals here:

- Read 40 books.
- Focus on fantasy (a number of series) and American history/literature.
- Pick another topic and 'get smart' (i.e. read a few books) on it.

No problem here; I read 52 books, and got my 'owned but unread' pile from 33 down to 11 (until  Christmas put that number up to 15). My post here caps this year's book recommendations. I did not really pick another topic, but did a series of posts on the content we consume that was challenging and fun to investigate.

House

My goals here:

- Finish the basement.

Nope- kitchen flood dominated house, though we did also get some work done in the backyard to improve drainage. We have plans to do this in 2023, with the help of friends.

Language
My goals here:

- Continue studying Spanish.

This went well. It is easy to do DuoLingo every day. My stats (which they sent to me as of 30 November, so they do not account for the last month) indicates that I:

- completed 671 lessons (I do two per day on average)

- was in the top 4% of DuoLingo users

- spend 2333 minutes learning (7 minutes per day)

- learned 882 words and practiced 3199 sentences

Games
My goals here:

- Play the 12 games in my 'owned but unplayed' pile.
- Minimize game collection to what I play regularly.
- Build a cube for Magic.
- Have more game nights.

My 'owned but unplayed' pile now stands at four. I did some minimization and built a cube for Magic. (That was fun and I hope to build a few more this year.) I re-started my church's game nights, and one day hope to move them to my house (if we can get the basement finished). Overall, these goals went pretty well.

Conclusion
Looking across the seven categories above, I failed in about half of my objectives. Here's to a better 2023. "Never stop starting."

Thus Concludes 2022

Another reading year "in the books." This post recaps the year and presents what I consider the best of the bunch.

I read 52 books this year, totaling 18,272 pages- about 50 pages a day. My average rating was 91/100.

Of the 52 books, 0 were audiobooks, 0 were eBooks, and 0 were borrowed from the library or friends. By genre, I read 22 fantasy books (a stated focus for the year), 15 on religion (some with a political bent), 3 graphic novels, 3 literature, 3 history, and a smattering of others.

My fantasy focus was fun but fraught with frustration, finally finishing* The Wheel of Time series after being tempted to quit. I love fantasy, but I found making any genre a reading focus is harder for me than (say) doing country-based reading lists. I need to oscillate between categories or I get burned out. I had intended to finish my 'owned but unread' fantasy books this year, but I burned out on the genre so I'll look to close those out in 2023.

Here are my top ten reads from this year:

**James K.A. Smith: How to Inhabit Time

Brandon Sanderson: the Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians series (especially The Knights of Crystallia)

Robert Jordan: A Memory of Light

**Neil Postman: Amusing Ourselves to Death

Velma Wallis: Two Old Women

**Giboney et al.: Compassion & Conviction

Jay Stringer: Unwanted

**Paul Miller: The J-Curve

Richard Bauckham: Jesus and the Eyewitnesses

**Adler & Van Doren: How to Read a Book

The five with two asterisks I found particularly helpful and recommend them for those interested in spiritual growth and self-awareness/improvement.

On the whole, this was a good reading year. May 2023 bring further works of excellence. Happy reading!

*amusingly alliterative, no?

Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians

Book six of the Alcatraz Smedry series. Picking up from last time . . . Biblioden has what he needs to destroy the Free Kingdoms forever. And Alcatraz is a blubbering mess, fully focused on his failure and cowardice. Even years later, he is too distraught to recount the tale, so Bastille has taken up her pen to finish the story. Can Alcatraz and Bastille find a way to defeat the Ancient Scrivener- or is all lost?

Here we have the satisfying conclusion to the series. Like the rest of the stories, it is whimsical, absurd, funny, and yet poignant and profound in places. I loved it. I highly recommend the entire series to children and adults alike.

Rating: A 

Spurs Nation (Various)

Spurs Nation is a look back at "major moments in San Antonio basketball" in the modern era as recorded in the San Antonio Express-News. Starting with drafting David Robinson and ending in 2016 (when it was released), it collects and publishes (in full color) select articles that chronicle the Spurs' rise to a major basketball power. As you'd expect, the focus is on the five championships ('99, '03, '05, '07, '14), so most of the book is articles written about the finals games.

A lifelong Spurs fan, I was intrigued by this book and picked it up when I was in San Antonio. Basically, I was interested to see how a story would look when written without any knowledge of the future. While some of the articles displayed a hope (yet laced with uncertainty) about what the future held, most of them were too focused on the moment and prone to exaggeration (as, perhaps, news stories trend). Spurs win a finals game? Much rejoicing. Spurs lose? Much anguish. Coach Pop is great, Coach Pop is on the hot seat, and so on. And this was revealing- it is how we tend to live our own lives. Too much in the moment and too little on the big picture (in my opinion)- though I must stress being in the moment (with all the ups and downs) is also important.

Overall, it's pretty good, but could have been better. I enjoyed the journey looking back at some amazing Spurs players, teams, and achievements. I only wish the book would have included sections to fill people in on gaps in the story. They had (say) an article about game one of the Western Conference semifinals but then fast-forwarded to another year or series, without any word on how that given series ended. Brief sections between such gaps could have brought the reader up to speed pretty easily and created a more coherent narrative.

The book ended, fittingly (but unknowingly), the year Tim Duncan retired. Manu Ginobili would follow two years later, and Tony Parker would follow him out of town (though Parker played one more year, for Charlotte). Thus was the Spurs' "Big 3" disbanded. Kawhi Leonard, heir apparent, also left in 2018, leaving the Spurs in an unfamiliar position of no stars and few prospects. They would make the playoffs one final year (2018-19) before failing the qualify the year following, ending their NBA-record consecutive playoff appearance run at 22 years. It's been rough ever since. But their five championships over a 15-year stretch, playing good team ball with solid fundamentals and without off-court drama, is a run we will enjoy for a long time to come.

Rating: B

Trekking the World

Today's review is of the 2020 release, Trekking the World. For 2-5 players, it takes 30-60 minutes.

Overview

In Trekking the World, players (per the publisher) "compete to be the ultimate globe trotter by racing to visit world-renowned locations and collect rare souvenirs along the way." 

game components; image from here

After completing the setup and drawing four 'trek' cards, you do the following on your turn:

1) Move (by discarding one trek card that dictates the exact number of spaces you must move)

- If you end on a space that has a souvenir cube (a colored cube placed randomly at the start of the game), take it and put it on your suitcase in the corresponding color slot. These can earn you points at the end of the game.

- After taking a souvenir cube, if your continent has no more cubes, you get a region bonus token with a hidden number of points on it.

2) Choose one action to perform:

- Draw two trek cards

- Take a tour (earn a destination card by being at that card's location AND discarding trek cards with the corresponding icons shown on the destination card)

- Journey (discard two trek cards with matching icons to do the ability stated in the Journey Log, in the upper-right corner of the map above)

Then the next player clockwise takes a turn. The game ends when either 

a) 5 of the 6 region bonus tokens are taken, or

b) A player takes their fifth destination card

Points are totaled and highest wins!

Review

This is a self-billed 'light' strategy game, designed for both gamers and non in mind, and I think it accomplishes that. I like the game for what it is. There seems to be a lot going on, but my kids were able to pick it up after a round (they are pretty seasoned gamers), and it moves quickly. This is a 'point salad' game, meaning there are a lot of ways to earn points, which is nice. Overall, this is a solid choice.

Rating: B+

Ransom Notes

Today's review is of the 2021 release, Ransom Notes. For 3-6 players, it takes 30-90 minutes.

Overview

In this party game, each person has a metal plate and handful of random word magnets. One player draws an displays a card explaining a situation on it. The other players use their word magnets to assemble a 'suitable' response on their plate. The player who drew the card collects the answers, reads them aloud, and decides which response is best. All used words go back in the box, then the next player (clockwise) draws a card and the next round begins. The person with the most 'correct' responses wins! I think!

box back, showing components and example; image from here

Review

As with most party games, the intent here isn't to win but laugh a lot and have fun. And it accomplishes that. The bizarre responses can be absolutely hilarious. And it is fun to use a limited pool of words, which forces creativity (and enhances the hilarity). That said, I ding this for two reasons: 

- it is rated 17+, so be careful. Some mature themes possible.

- they should have a 'basic' word pool of common articles, prepositions, pronouns, etc. Though the odd sentences are hilarious, some are incoherent when you lack the basic words.

Rating: B

Decrypto

Today's review is of the 2018 release, Decrypto. For 3-8 players, it takes 15-45 minutes.

Overview

In Decrypto, you and your teammates are codebreakers, trying to break your own teammates' cryptic words and intercept (correctly guess) your opponents'. If you get yours wrong twice, you lose, but if you intercept theirs twice, you win!

back of box, showing components; image from here

The concept is straightforward enough: your team can see four randomly-chosen words in slots 1-4 (see back of box illustration above). On a turn, one teammate draws a 'disk' card with some permutation of three numbers (3.4.2, 1.3.4, etc.). That teammate looks at the words correponding to the numbers drawn and chooses one word to describe each, presenting them in that order to their team, who then guess the associated numbers. Using the back of the box as an example, "3.4.2" corresponds to cocktail, sombrero, and dragonfly. So the teammate might say "drink, hat, bug," and his team will (hopefully) guess 3.4.2. If they guess something different, your team gets one wrong, and if that happens twice, you lose. But the other team also gets a guess (without seeing/knowing the words in the slots)- and if they guess 3.4.2, they get 'intercept' the message, and if that happens twice, they win. So the challenge here is to pick words that will enable your team to guess correctly without being too obvious and tipping the other team off to the real words. If the game has not yet ended, the next turn starts, with the next teammate (in clockwise order if you wish) drawing a disk card and having to provide cryptic yet descriptive words. 

Review

Very nice game. This one really makes you think. It is especially difficult if you get two words that have some similarity (like "boat" and "water"). And both sides are writing down which words correspond to which numbers, so as the game progresses, you have to be increasingly careful not to tip off the other team- being cryptic is key, but not so cryptic that your own team is thrown off. Similar in spirit/concept to Codenames, I can't decide which one I like better . . . but I'm leaning towards this one.

Rating: A  

Last Defense!

Today's review is of the 2020 release, Last Defense! For 2-6 players, it takes 20 minutes.

Overview

Invasion! You and your neighbors have to fend off attacks from aliens, robots, and others menacing the town. You do so by rescuing scientists trapped under obstacles. But you have only 20 minutes . . . can you do so in time?

back of box, showing the components; image from here

On your turn in Last Defense!, you roll two dice to determine the number of tools you draw and spaces you can move. Draw that number of tools, move up to that many spaces, and (if you stop on an obstacle) flip over the obstacle to reveal which tools it will take to overcome it. If you have the tools to do so, discard them and the obstacle to save the scientist (put the token on your character card). Play passes clockwise, and everyone does what they can to collect scientists. When you end your turn in the town square, deposit the scientist there. 

An app-assisted game, Last Defense!'s app will tell you when a new monster enters the city (and where to place it). Like obstacles, each monster has a series of scientists you need to have in the town square to defeat it. When you have the combination of scientists required, discard them to defeat a monster. If you can do this for all monsters before time runs out, you win!

Review

A tower defense game, this is okay. It is simplistic and clearly geared towards children. My kids enjoy it, which counts for a lot. For adults, there are better games out there. But it is a good introduction to this type of game.

Rating: B-

Echoes of Eden (Jerram Barrs)

In Echoes of Eden, Jerram Barrs provides some "reflections on Christianity, literature, and the arts." After background material on "God and humans as creative artists," he looks to build an understanding of what it means to practice, approach, and appreciate/judge art as a Christian. He discussed 'echoes of Eden' (see below) and the concludes by looking at 5 artists (and their key works): C.S. Lewis (Narnia), J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings), J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter), Shakespeare (Macbeth), and Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice).

In 1 Timothy 4:1-5, "Paul insists that . . . all the gifts of creation-are good and holy, for God himself has declared them to be so." "Man and woman, God's image bearers, are made to be sub-creators following after their Creator." Thus "We may describe a Christian undersatnding of the arts in the following way: Our work in any field of the arts will be imitative. We will be thinking God's thoughts after him." So "Christian artists need to regard themselves as creatures of God, using gifts given by God, delighting in the world made by God, needing the help of other artists, doing their work to the glory of God, and devoting their labors to the enrichment of the lives of others." 

It's important to note that artists serve not themselves, but "serve the needs of other people and to bring some help, enrichment, consolation, and encouragement to their lives." Through the gifts of an artist, "We may experience more of the wonder of God's world as we read and so enter into someone else's perspective on this world. This is true in all the arts . . . [artists see] something of the world that we do not see, and so as we look or listen or read, we are enriched by each artist's vision." "In the enjoyment of others' creativity, I enter into a vision and richness beyond my own: 'familiar things made new, and new things made familiar,' to paraphrase Samuel Johnson." C.S. Lewis would agree, and argues that art can include delving into fantasy/fictional worlds: "The value of the myth is that it takes all the things we know and restores to them the rich significance which has been hidden by 'the veil of familiarity.'"

We should learn to recognize the value in art from all, as "God has given his creative gifts to believers and unbelievers alike." As John Calvin eloquently put it, "The human mind, however much fallen and perverted from its original integrity, is still adorned and invested with admirable gifts from its Creator. If we reflect that the Spirit of God is the only fountain of truth, we will be careful, as we would avoid offering insult to him, not to reject or doncemn truth wherever it appears."

Ultimately, Barrs argues that "All great art will echo these three elements of Eden: (1) Eden in its original glory, (2) Eden that is lost to us, and (3) the promise that Eden will be restored." He repeats this several times using different words:

• "as a principle that the themes of all great art . . . are the world and human life as they came from the hand of God; the world and human life as they now are subject to sorrow, sin, and death; and the world and human life as we long for and look forward to their restoration."
• "all great art contains elements of the true story: the story of the good creation, the fallen world, and the longing for redemption."
• "What we are calling echoes of Eden is like this, for as soon as we experience a memory of the glory of Eden, there is also a sense of deep sadness intermingled with the glory, for any true echo will have both the beauty that was ours and the sorrow of its loss."
• "the three fundamental themes . . . [are] the beauty of creation, the appalling reality of evil, and the universal human longing for redemption and a better world."

----------

I enjoyed this book. I was pleased to see my approach/thoughts on the matter (the "content consumption" posts I did in October) largely align with Barrs. I gained from his insights and am thankful for them. The most value is found in the first half, where he does a good job explaining core concepts on how we should value and approach art. The second half, where he evaluates five authors, is also of value, but felt less structured and more conversational/meandering. And the book ends abruptly; I wish he had included a final chapter to wrap everything together. Overall, though, it is a good read.

Rating: A-

Ramen Fury

Today's review is of the 2019 release, Ramen Fury. For 2-5 players, it takes 30 minutes.

Overview

Ramen noodles are so delicious, with so many proteins, veggies, and flavors to choose from. Can you maximize points based on your combinations?

the cards; image from here

In Ramen Fury, each player has three bowls to fill. On your turn, you have two actions, and you can use them to draw cards (from the deck or pantry), play cards to your bowl, 'eat' your bowl (turn it face-down), restock the pantry (the four face-up cards you can choose from), or even steal from other players' bowls (twice per game, using the spoon tokens). And you can play chili peppers on your own or others' bowls.

the game at start; image from here

To eat your bowl, you must have at least one flavor and one other ingredient. You can have up to four ingredients and exactly one flavor in a bowl. Your flavor determines how the bowl is scored. Once ready, use an 'eat' action to flip your bowl over. Once a player has flipped their final bowl, each player gets one more turn, then points are scored.

a player's game in progress; image from here

The flavors (fury, soy sauce, chicken, beef, shrimp) determine whether you get points for chili peppers, unique veggies, matching ingredients, unique proteins, or sets of veggie/protein combos, respectively. Only eaten bowls can count towards point totals. The most points wins!

Review

A set collection game with some twists (you determine which set(s) are relevant to you based on the flavors you choose), this game is okay. There are a number of set collection games out there, and while the twists are appreciated, this didn't feel unique enough to merit a higher ranking. It isn't bad, but it doesn't contribute anything special to the genre.

Rating: B-

The Dark Talent (Brandon Sanderson)

Book five of the Alcatraz Smedry series. Fresh off their adventure last time . . . though the Librarians are in retreat, all is not well. Alcatraz's father has charged off on a quest to bring the Smedry Talents to the entire world, and his mother is determined to stop him, convinced it will destroy the world. Alcatraz is stuck in the middle, not sure who to trust . . . and there's another problem. Biblioden, founder of the Librarians and known as the Scrivener, is rumored to have returned, and is intent on keeping the Hushlands in censored darkness. It will all come to a climax in the Highbrary- the main library (a complex of caves under Washington, D.C.). Who will prevail?

The series concludes . . . kind of. I liked this the same as all the others- it is funny/absurd, witty, some good messages, and family appropriate. My only dig is that the book really doesn't conclude the series . . . the sixth book (just released a few months ago), supposedly does. And it's in hardback, in a format different from the others I own. My torment is palpable. Should I buy it now, or wait, hoping they release the paperpack in a matching way? ARRRRRRRRGH.

Rating: A

The Shattered Lens (Brandon Sanderson)

Book four of the Alcatraz Smedry series. Fresh off their adventure last time . . . though our heroes foiled the Librarian's plot, Mokia remains under siege and near the breaking point. And the knights of Crystallia cannot help-or can they? If someone of the Smedry line happens to be in the land, the knights might come to his aid . . . but Alcatraz wouldn't possibly walk into a war zone. Would he?

But something other than war is afoot. Alcatraz's parents are independently trying to unlock the secrets of the Smedry talents- but for very different reasons. Who is right? Whom should Alcatraz help? And was that previous sentence grammatically correct?

More of the same here. It's fun, it's funny, it's even wise. Really enjoying the series and can't wait to see how the series concludes.

Rating: A

The Knights of Crystallia (Brandon Sanderson)

Book three of the Alcatraz Smedry series. Fresh off their adventures last time . . . Alcatraz finally gets to visit the free kingdoms- a wonderful world where glass technology and fantastic creatures enable all sorts of amazing things. And he learns shocking information about his family and history. But all of this fades to the background as a new menace arises . . . the Librarians have called for a truce to end the war. It has promise but seems dangerous- and the cost (giving up the land of Mokia) may be too high. As the council ponders what to do, Alcatraz and friends uncover a plot that may bring ruin to them all. Can they stop it in time?

Written in the same style as the others, book three has the wit, humor, and absurdity that I love about the series. But it also has wisdom- probably more than the others- and some very clever plot devices. Probably my favorite so far.

Rating: A+

The Scrivener's Bones (Brandon Sanderson)

Book two of the Alcatraz Smedry series. Here, our hero must descend into the Library of Alexandria (yes, it secretly survived and was moved to a new location) to find his long-lost father. The main problem: the library is staffed by Curators who demand your soul should you check out a book. And they are determined to keep Alcatraz and his friends there forever. And also, those evil 'normal' librarians are also hot on their heels.

Like the first volume, this was full of wit, absurdity, cleverness, and fun. I didn't like it quite as much as the first, but it was still solid.

Rating: A-