Second week in a row, and we took a step back to play the first side of the board again.

Steve started off taking tools like the truckload, and Kevin started his usual hoarding of resources.

I made early mistakes, and tried to make up for them with "instant" action type card plays.

I secured the "revolver" tool so I could defeat any guardian at the cost of 1 measly explore token.

2 rounds in, my strategy came into view to blitz the research track.

Long story short, I made it, pole position at the top, killing 3 guardians, and it was enough to secure the win.

Dan: 59

Kevin: 57

Steve: 46

Boom!

It's so meaningful when you stumble upon something that fills your soul with exactly what it needed.

Sometimes, if you just "go", without too much thought, you land in the place you were meant to.

This temporary landing finds me in a chair, in a class taught by professor Kevin.

It's called Philosophy of World Mythology.

It's hard to describe exactly how this class is making me feel, other than it has filled a space that needed filling.

I knew it needed filling, but I didn't quite know where to find it.

Many of my friends consider themselves Atheists.

If I'm honest with myself, this word bothers me.

To me, the word means exactly zero belief in anything beyond the physical.

It leaves no room for anything mystical, in my mind.

That's just not me.

I've known I've needed to go deep inside of myself for a long time.

I've known I needed to find a path back to the quest I'm meant to take in this life.

Professor Kevin, in just 4 classes, has given me a profound dose of what it means to be a human in search of happiness.

When you look at the common threads of the world religions, each one steeped in it's own mythology, you see there's an "inside" and an "outside" to the human experience.

We must go deep on the inside to dispel any lies we tell ourselves about ourselves, to discover our truths.  Then to connect those to the way we live.  To find balance, spirituality, and happiness within.

There really online is happiness within the self.  Seeking it outside the self gives no true happiness.

Change will always come, and we must always adapt.  There's no permanent happiness, but when we know our inner truths we are able to adapt through life's changes to continually find happiness.

Professor Kevin has taken us on a journey through his own story, which has been a fascinating tale of self discovery.  I believe he will connect it to mythologies from different areas of the world, as an illustration that "mythology" is something that is true on the inside, but not on the outside.

And that these stories connect all of us together in shared circumstance here in this world.  In these lives.

I love this class.  I love how it makes me feel.  And I love "knowing" this is where I belong right now.  It's the class I was meant to take, right now.

Well that was humbling. After a couple wins in a row, I felt out of sync from the get go.

Kenan convinced us to play the back side of the board, the Snake Temple.  This makes everything harder, for everybody.

At the end, I concocted a strategy to blitz up the research track to the top spot, where I knew nobody else could get, but I committed 3 different blunders.

Twice I forgot to use cards/plays that would have given me resources and or more cards.  And both of these blunders caused me to miscalculate and fall short by ONE tablet, in order to make my strategy work.

Sad.

Final score: Kevin 59, Steve 47, Dan 44.

Brutal.

The night was great though, had a fun time.

At first I could NOT stop sweating.  A couple hours before I had done 6 rounds of 3:00 @ 6:45 mile pace, then 2:30 "rest".

In high 80 degree weather.

I took a cold shower for 10 minutes, and then I used fans to cool myself off.

All seemed well.

However, when I got to PBC I started to sweat profusely.

Edith brought me water, but it was ugly there for awhile.

Luckily I brought my own game and got a little sweat on that, instead of their copy.

Met Edith's husband, and the real treat came at the end with Kenan bringing out the board game his grandfather made in the 30's. It's called Mr. Ree.  He sold the rights for $200.  Then, someone used this concept to create the game Clue!

It was an awesome story, and a fun sit down with some regulars, Kenan, and Edith.

As it is during this stage of the game, time really sneaks up on you.

I've been going to the "Dude's Dinners" on and off for over 2 years.

The first was at Joe's house.

Typically, the vibe is a lot of banter, talk of AI (the running joke is how long it takes to land on this existential topic), jokes, laughs, and some deeper talk at times like aging parents, kids, and wives.

This time it was different.

Joe passed away 3 days before.  I heard about it the day before.

He had cancer.  His passing was no surprise, and at the halfway mark of the dinner, the topic shifted to him.  Memories of Joe.

A few people, like me, didn't know him like the others so we sat and listened.  I added to the conversation when I could, with questions about Joe.  I'd seen him a handful of times only.

Turns out he was on the forefront of the local punk scene in Oxnard for many years.  Well loved in this powerful, rebellious sub culture.  He was a well known guitarist, and was a part of several punk bands over the years.

Stories about him abound online.

A colorful character with a difficult past.

Towards the latter part of the evening, we learned that Josh's sister had passed a week previous.

It was a difficult thing and made the evening even heavier than it was.  Heaviness is a good thing.  Life and sanity demands the raw emotion it brings.  It's part of what it is to be a human in this place.

Why not go all the way with it then?

When it got quiet, I talked of my brother Mark, who took his life.  I talked about how it made me felt, and that I knew some of what Josh was going through.  A dark journey.

3 years after that, Jason passed away from cirrhosis, and again I walked through the dark caverns inside.

I kept it short. My goal to let Josh know I am here to talk. I had felt like a part of me was lost, and I was trapped in a world with that loss as permanence. 

He understood.

A few of us hung in the parking lot talking more, I hugged Josh, and Troy.

It was a powerful Dude's Dinner for sure.  And one I won't ever forget.

I went over to see dad after a workout and a short.  Angel helped me get him into his wheelchair so we could push him outside to sit in the shade in the backyard.  This is where we found Gloria with curlers in her hair.

She loves to talk and tell stories about her life, and I love to listen.

Today we talked about her trip to The Big Island, in Hawaii, after I told her about mine.

The conversation started because my dad was wearing his Hawaii shirt I got him.

She talked about her cruise there years ago, and that the Mormon church has a "show" they sponsor (or put on?) there.  Fire dancers, and a man made volcano that explodes at the end with "lava".

She also talked about going to Playa Del Carmen, and how she saw a boy with no arms doing paintings.  He used his feet to paint them.  She paid him $50 per piece.  She bought 3.  He was only charging $10.

She got another cruise passenger to pay $30 instead of $10.

The boy tried to give Gloria a free piece, but she told him to sell it and just remember that it was from Gloria, for his college dream.

A good visit.

I did interact with dad and had him laughing a few times with our old Glute jokes, "weird guy" jokes, and Harold Powell imitations.

He sits with his head down, it looks like he's sleeping.  But he'll always open his eyes and look at you when prompted.

Not sure if he knows who I am all the time, but once in awhile, maybe.

Loved this little game! PBC was packed as always and we set in our corner by the front window.

Unique and feel-good little game where you build a little seaside "town" in the form of little streets.

Each card allows you to gain points based on the cards placed on either side - and you have to keep a sharp eye on the artwork on each card.

Example: some cards give you points based on the number of seagulls, or benches, or chimneys on either side.  You have to look at the cute artwork for that.

Then there are 3 shared goals (i.e. I won the award for the longest street...because I really just built ONE long street.

Another goal was for the most completed streets.  And there was one other.  Steve won both of those.

Then you have private goals you get along the way.  For example, extra points for 6+ benches on a street, etc.

In the end, Steve had 135 points, I ended with 126, Kevin ended up with about 115 or so.

I was close to winning this had Kevin stolen 10 of Steve's points at the end by stealing one of the shared goals.

Oh well!

Fun time.  It's a game that's hard to gauge how well you are doing as the game goes on, you're kinda just focused on your how town and how you can maximize the points.

Had fun conversation with Kenan and Edith at the end of the night. Kenan told us how he was actually brought into court as an expert witness to demonstrate how a drug dealers score sheets for a dice game, were not "ledgers" used for selling drugs.

We talked about if there were any competitive people that show up - and if there are common disagreements that have to be defused or not.

Also looking forward to playing a game with both of them one day soon!