Ohhhhhhh Internet! Don’t you dare be sour! Clap for your world-obscure blog post writer and FEEEEEEEL the power! It’s a New Year, yes it is! (Their gimmick may be a getting a little stale to me, but I love New Day’s introduction.)

So yeah, it’s 2018 now and 2017 is just the year that was. I hope y’all had a great year. Mine was mixed, as I think happens to most folk. It’s hard to have a year full of ups or a year full of downs. A year is like a roller coaster and you gotta strap in for the ride. For the record? I hate roller coasters.

I was invited to a closed new year’s eve party yesterday at Les Dés Truqués and I had a really nice time surrounded by good people who share my passion for board games. It was a nice way to spend the day and close 2017.

While on the subject for parties, I also had a little family and friends shindig on Boxing Day that was a pretty nice evening all around as well. Some traditional gift-giving games and plenty of laughs, all time spent with some of the closest people in my life. Pretty sweet.

I have one more day left in my Holiday Break tomorrow, then it’s back to the grind. Not gonna lie. I could get used to this staying at home business. Best I go back to work soon before I get TOO used to it.

It seemed to me as I went out today to buy cat food (which I stupidly forgot to pick up yesterday when I was out picking up some victuals for the party), that the cold snap has lifted a bit. Maybe it was just the sun on my face that made it seem warmer, but it’s been pretty frigid lately so even an imagined degree of warmer temperatures was welcome.

Nothing else new to talk about so no more talking this week. Have a good seven and we’ll do this all again next Monday. Carja V.

Greetings and salutations Men and Women of the Top Status. Join me as I do the activity of blogging.

Christmas is one week away. Somehow, I’m just not feeling the Christmas spirit this year. The thing I’m most looking forward to is a week off from work. The rest is as the kids say, “Meh.” I’ve got a week left to get a Christmas high. Time for some Christmas cookies and A Charlie Brown Christmas, STAT!

Surprisingly (to those who haven’t read the blog in a few weeks), I have some Star Wars news to share.

First, I won my Imperial Assault campaign! WOOWOO! I can’t believe how well it went for me. The Rebel players had eight rounds to complete their objective. The game was over before the end of round 4. Despite being on the losing end for most of the campaign, the Rebel players still had fun. Apart from two key blowouts, every mission was a close affair and could have gone either way. I look forward to revisiting the game with a new campaign in the future.

The roleplaying game session that was scheduled for last Wednesday didn’t happen due to weather concerns. Or at least, I’m saying it’s the weather. There weren’t a lot of confirmations before the event and the one person who did confirm didn’t show up. I had said a minimum of three players were required for the event to happen. Only one came. Disappointing, but I’ll schedule another attempt after the holidays and see how it goes.

Hmmm…what else? Oh right! The movie…*NO SPOILERS* I posted on my personal Facebook page that it wasn’t what I expected. A number of people took that as meaning I didn’t like the movie, but really I needed time to process what I’d seen. My current feeling is that I liked it. I’m currently looking to see it in English on Thursday which should help solidify some of my thoughts. It took a lot of chances and was able to surprise me at several points. The movie has divided the Star Wars faithful. Some are calling it absolute trash while others are praising it as one of the best Star Wars movies to date. I’m closer to the latter camp. I think viewers have to let go of any preconceived notions of what a Star Wars movie has to be. If you enter the theater with expectations of such-and-such HAVING to happen, you’re not going to enjoy the movie. There were definitely parts of the movie that didn’t feel “Star Warsy” to me and there’s one scene that made me outright cringe, but I think it did enough right that I can overlook the stuff I wasn’t crazy about. I’m not being a Star Wars apologist here. I’m the guy who lambasted Rogue One (one of the few) in this very blog, so I don’t think that everything Lucasfilm puts out is gold. But I like what The Last Jedi did and I look forward to seeing the direction the series takes in Episode IX.

Okay, one spoiler: Supreme Leader Snoke is NOT Jar Jar. Sorry you Binks conspiracy fans out there.

That’s all the news that’s fit to print this week. Have a good seven and we’ll do this all again…next Monday? Well maybe. It being Christmas and all I may not get to the computer to write anything. We’ll see what happens. Until the next time, this me saying “Until next time!” Carja V.

Hello there Top Men and Top Women. It’s story time in blog corner.

So my city’s bus company decided to switch from simple cardboard bus passes to magnetic strip passes. When you get on the bus, you swipe your card and the bus records your ride. You have to pay a deposit for your first pass and trade in your old pass every month for the new one. They then reprogram the cards from the previous month to be used the following month. Yay technology, right? (Oh, not all buses have a reader so when you get on one of those, you just show the card which has no distinguishing features to be able to tell if it’s for the correct month or not.

I bought my December pass on Thursday and all was good in the world…until I tried to use it. The reader kept saying it was expired even while clearly recognizing it as a card for the month of December. I used it several times over the weekend and each time, the reader said it was expired. It took until Sunday for one of the bus drivers to tell me I could go to city hall to get a replacement card. So that’s where I went today after work. The transaction was smooth and within five minutes I was out of there. Next destination: Wal-Mart for new winter shoes. Problem: the next bus in that direction wasn’t due for forty minutes. Neither was the bus home.

So I walked to Wal-Mart and got there with very little time to spare before the bus home was set to pass. Was I going to have to spend an hour at Wal-Mart? I could feel the minutes ticking away as I tried to find a suitable pair of shoes in my size (no easy feat…or should I say feet? Ahhhh homophones!) I found a pair, tried them on and checked my watch. If the bus was a couple of minutes late (not unusual) I might have enough time to pay and get out to the bus stop in the parking lot in time.

I paid and made a beeline to the door. Once outside, I could see the bus in the distance waiting at a red light before being able to roll into the parking lot. I ran and made it to the bus stop with just enough time to start catching my breath before the bus pulled up. Mission accomplished!

So that’s my mundane story for the week. No gaming experiences to share other than we played the penultimate mission of our Imperial Assault campaign.  David can’t make it next Sunday so barring any other scheduling conflicts, the thrilling conclusion will take place on December 17th. Will the Empire (me) win out? Find out on the 18th!

That’s all for this week. Have a good seven and we’ll do this all again next Monday! Carja V.