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The Out of Eden Walk

Found via a post on Bluesky, but this is a delightful graphic showing how humanity has spread mostly across the globe.

Of Arthur and Pictures

I ended up taking advantage of a Black Friday deal for a new personal laptop. I've been using one I got from Costco for a few years, but there are a few issues with it (predominately relating to the keyboard) which has run fine (mostly) and so with the new job and a deal on Wirecutter's top recommended laptop - it was time.

Enter: Arthur.

I ended up going for a Lenovo Yoga laptop and after a short outing this morning, I've collected it from Best Buy and am back home where it is currently installing updates. I'm writing this via the older laptop, for likely the last entry on the blog from this computer.

Though it likely isn't the end for this machine. Since most of its issues are laptop based, I think it's possible that this laptop gets repurposed as some technology tool in the house.

After the recent family gathering, we were again struck by a need for a centralized family photo archive. As of last night, while sitting in the airport on our way home, my proposed solution would be to stand up an instance of Immich for the family to use. I could make use of this laptop for that purpose. However, there are issues with this idea as the laptop also has an issue that I hadn't found a good Linux compatibility early on when I bought it, and I'd need it running Ubuntu (preferably.)

The ultimate goal is a tool that the family can and will use, preferably one of low tech know-how requirements for the rest of the family. I don't want them to have to copy photos to the computer and then upload in the browser. In an ideal solution, it's an automatic backup on mobile phones, etc.

Also, this morning, I came up with a new feature idea which I don't think any existing tool can support, even Google Photos, supports - I want the ability to have not just text comments but also video comments so we can record people talking about these pictures. Whether audio or video, but an easy way to record and capture these stories for future generations. I am sad to be thinking of this now, after so many of my family's elders are gone, but that also helps me feel the urgency in this idea more clearly than I did when I was younger.

For now though, I'll focus on getting my new laptop set up and then I'll put more focus on solving the photo archive need.

The Chris

Four years ago, during a visit to Atlanta, my family launched a new tradition: "The Chris."

Card games have always been a big deal with the family, including the game 'Nasty' I wrote about yesterday, and also Texas Hold'em. So, back in 2021, we were talking about some sort of trophy that the family could keep and pass as part of our family gatherings. Later in the same day, we visited a Lego store at an Atlanta mall (I don't recall which one) and near the checkout I saw a display showing a small Lego trophy kit. And it was dubbed as 'The Chris', in honor of my father.

I was the first winner of the trophy, and as befits the honor I set it up in a display case for safe keeping while I held it.

It's changed hands three times since 2021, and last night it was up for grabs again. When the family plays other games, it's for laughs and good times, but this was the game with stakes. So we made sure to outline rules so everyone was on the same page.

Six players battled for it and I made it to the final two, unfortunately though I was the short stack and ultimately was forced to go all-in on a bad hand. I was chasing an inside straight and didn't get there.

But, in the moment of losing, I was only thrilled that the trophy was going to a new member of the family. The family tradition continues.

Creating and capturing family memories and moments does grow more powerful as we get older.

That said, this morning, I wish the trophy was coming home with me again.

Nasty Game Design

For the entirety of my life, my family has played a card game we call 'Nasty.' It is very similar to Uno, but uses normal decks of cards. Jokers are Wild Draw 5s, and Kings reverse, for example. And, for the entirety of my life, the rules of the game have remained the same with zero modifications. This game is a mainstay of our family gatherings. Even in the era of video games, the youngest kids still clamor to play Nasty.

Well, during this Thanksgiving holiday, we introduced a variant rule to the game. It came about after talking about the game with my oldest brother Shawn. I learned that a part of the family played the game slightly different than I had learned. All my life, the Queen in the deck was simply the lowest point total card but had no function. Where every other face card did something special. Learning that the Cobbs family played it where both the Queen and King reversed the order of play, something I don't recall ever hearing about before. Now, I find it remarkable that it never came up before, perhaps I did hear it but I immediately discarded it as being 'wrong.' I don't think so, but my memory is definitely a sieve, so I want to be sure to allow for that possibility.

Well, hearing it this trip got me thinking what else could the Queen be used for in the game? Being someone who works in games, though I am far from a game designer of the caliber of my colleagues at Wizards and at Riot, I was immediately drawn to finding a way to add more interactivity into Nasty.

My initial proposal to Shawn was for Queens to nullify any "offensive" cards played against you. So, if a card would skip you, you could play a Queen still. Or if someone was going to make you draw extra cards, the Queen would protect you. It was Shawn's idea of it being reflective back to the person playing it. Initially I was against this, as it seemed possibly too powerful for there to be 8 of them in game (we normally play using two decks of cards) but we agreed to test it out and see.

And, last night, we played several hands with the new Queen rules and it was universally loved.

Shawn also came up with calling them Dale Queens or Queen Dales, which is fitting as we can all easily imagine mom cackling with glee if she was able to play a Queen in response to a Joker.

So, after 42 years of my life, it looks like we're going to update the rules for family games of Nasty. As I've been the keeper of the rules document (aka a google doc) I spent this morning cleaning it up and adding the rules for the new variant "Next Level Nasty" which adds the Queens new powers and updates their point total from 2 points to 25 points.

Definitely less impactful than the Queens, but that wasn't the only innovation to the game that came about this weekend. I also proposed another small variant when we played just a 4-player game of Nasty. Rather than tracking the point total for hands and playing to a threshold, we played for Jolly Ranchers. So instead of tracking points hand to hand, we played to 20 Jolly Ranchers. For each round, the first place person got 4 Jolly Ranchers and last place got 1.

Not an earth shattering bit of game design, but I thought it would be a good change for two reasons: First, I didn't want to worry about tracking hand totals, and secondly it avoided any one player totally running away with it or conversely someone having bad luck in multiple rounds and ending up well out of first place. Downshifting scoring is a sort of come-back mechanic to keep it more interesting.

With this way, we did decide you could eat your winnings, but then it wouldn't count towards your total for the game. You know, the important thing. Candy.