GRIZZLY PEAR

written snapshots

Category: Life

  • 13 things to work on.

    I have been reading various books dealing with business and issues related to finding work. Along the way a couple years ago, I picked up a little book by Frank Bettger called “How I Raised Myself from a Failure to a Success in Selling” at a local thrift store. I finally read it this past week. And the best part was his last chapter. Inspired by Benjamin Franklin’s 13 virtues Frank Bettger made his own list of 13 key skills for selling. Like Benjamin Franklin, he then advises the reader to make his own list, and then spend a week emphasizing each virtue/skill. At the end of the year, that would mean that you’ll have gone through the list 4 times and he swears that it is a great way to grow and get better at selling/etc.

    The super powerful idea behind Frank Bettger’s chapter is that he takes history and makes it useful for his own purposes.  I think there is a tendency to say “if a great guy did it, then that’s how it should be done.”  However, I think that often leads to inaction since the great person was doing something in the context of their life.  Instead one ought to take the example of history and make the most of it in the context of our own lives.

    And in that spirit I decided that it couldn’t hurt to try something similar, though I am kind of switching it a little to include fields of study to emphasize in my spare time.  We’ll see where it goes, I’ll start it up in a couple weeks which will time me perfectly at the halfway mark of this year.

    1. Introspection
    2. Enthusiasm
    3. Architecture (conventional details and construction)
    4. Sketching
    5. Reading People
    6. Business
    7. Assertiveness
    8. Thankfullness
    9. Networking
    10. Silence
    11. Sustainability (details and construction)
    12. Contemporary art/design/architecture
    13. Brain rewiring (catch up on old hobbies, ie banjo, novels, photography)

  • Uncle John’s Curiously Compelling Bathroom Reader, The Bathroom Reader’s Institute

    Now that I have a little free time again, I’ve rediscovered goodreads. I really should just say discovered because even though I signed up a couple years ago, I never really explored the site. It seems like a really nice intuitive focused social site. Fun stuff and it will a place to help me at least collect my thoughts after finishing each book.

    I wonder if this should be a 5 star because it has been in the bathroom for almost 5 years now. It still manages to entertain with quick hits as always before and I still seem to find things I hadn’t read though I must have gone through it several times by now (albeit not systematically). Fun stuff and full of weird entertaining errata about life.

  • Cute!

    Hehehe…since I’ve announced it everywhere its not really news, but just for the record…I passed my last test!

  • home stretch?

    down the back 9?

    who knows…but I scheduled what may be my last archi test….if I pass it (and the one I took last week). I’d get contemplative but I really don’t want to jinx myself.

    In other news, my girlfriend got a Netflix account. For 9 bucks a month, I’m surprised people don’t just get a decent internet account and netflix and just skip the whole cable tv thang.

  • Whew there goes another test….

    Hopefully I passed, but yeah, basically it was tough, but not particularly hard. Hopefully that means a pass, but if not, fair enough and I’ll be back. Fortunately the servers for my lab room (the test center has 2 computer labs) didn’t crash like the other side so I didn’t have to sit around for half an hour while waiting for them to get things running again. That must be quite a nervewracking sort of wait….

    On another note, we went to visit the Friday night game group in our area and wow! Really nice group of folks and we played Tichu which is basically big 2 with partnerships and scoring. It makes for a pretty complex game but I see why that group gets addicted to it!

  • Hehe Just saying hello

    I’ve been getting buried under my current hobby (gaming) and my current project (stoopid tests). But in any case, I thought should say hello to the Blog. I had gotten off of the regular friday thing cause I think I had made it a little more serious than I need to. In the end I guess its just a public journal because if I try the sketchbook thing all the dates and stuff get completely messed up….I end up losing the darn things or mixing up a ocuple of them…it just never works.

    In any case, it was one heck of a Saturday because my friend Amiee couldn’t make it to Houston so I ended up having a free weekend. So I ran off to Owlcon and had a blast. I was fortunate because I ended up playing almost all the games that I have been interested in checking out. And even more so because I ran into some Houston gamers who then told me about other groups who are in the area. I’ve done some cursory searches over the past few months, but it helped to have some specific directions and wow. Yay – now I’ll be able to try some games before buying them!

    Oh and while I’m at it…we’ve been getting into dancing! Whee hobbies!

  • Harry’s Grand Slam Baseball, Harry Obst, 1962

    I first heard about this game in passing and was intrigued. After listening to Mark Johnson’s Boardgames to Go “All About” show focused on this game I went out and bought it.

    A Quick Rules Summary

    Each player has three cards in their hands. They alternate plays.

    Each play has three steps:

    1. Lay down a card which depicts what happens at home plate.
    2. Resolve the action
    3. Draw a card from the deck (replenish the hand to 3).

    There are a couple exceptions to the rules. At the bottom of the 3rd and 6th innings both players discard their hands, reshuffle the deck with the discard pile and draw three new cards. The other exception is the “pinch hitter/relief pitcher” card. When you draw that card, you play it immediately and then take the top card of the deck and put it underneath the pinch/relief card without looking at it. On any turn, instead of playing a card from your hand, you may choose to use your pinch/relief card. If so, discard the pinch hitter/relief pitcher card and play the card underneath it (for better or ill).

    I also recommend doing a 7th inning stretch as mentioned on the Boardgames to Go Podcast. But aside from that, this is a very simple game.

    Listening to a Baseball Game

    Here is the point that I don’t think I’ve seen elsewhere.

    You are sitting there and the events just happen in front of you. Like on the radio, you’re emotionally invested in what’s going on in the game but you have (almost) no control over what happens on the field. Like radio, you get the results of the play and then you have to fill in the details of the play with your mind’s eye. As a spectator of the game, you really get that sinking feeling (or rising hope) as each inning ebbs and flows.

    The pinch hitter/relief pitcher is a great example of that dynamic. The new guy comes on and you have no idea what’s going to happen – especially in their first play. It really captures that hope for something good to happen even though you know the odds are leaning against you (the reason you’re resorting to the relief card is because you have a hand of crummy cards).

    War (the Card Game) Meets Baseball

    If you like baseball then this is worth having in your collection.

    Done.

    If you are still wondering if you would like playing the game, here is another thought that popped into my head.

    Can you ever see yourself playing a game of War or a slightly less passive variant such as Egyptian Ratscrew? If you hate such heavily luck based light games then I’d advise you to pass on Harry’s, even if you are a baseball aficionado.

    However, if you love baseball, and you can imagine a scenario where you are willing to play and exceedingly light game (such as burning the afternoon playing with a kiddo), then I think Harry’s is worth having in your collection.

    This is a game where you must chill and just let the game happen to you. You’re playing Mike Krukow, not Bruce Bochy (Vin Scully not Joe Torre). It works for me, because the announcers are my actual connection to baseball. I listen to the game more than I watch it (and with one game I’ve played more innings of Harry’s Grand Slam Baseball than in real life!)

    This game captures the spirit of listening to the game on the radio after mowing the lawn on a hot summer’s afternoon. If you love that, there’s a good chance you’ll love this game.

  • Chinese Restaurants on Flickr

    I had an idea to take lots of picture ala Ed Ruscha when I was running around the USA during my Thesis travels. Nothing really came of that (or to be honest from the travels in general). However, I did end up with some random pictures of Chinese restaurants here and there.

    I woke up a couple nights ago with the brilliant idea of starting a flickr group and using that as a platform to publish these photos — many of the individual shots really aren’t that good but I thought they might stand nicely together as a group.

    BUT like most things on the internet, this area has been staked out already — and by people who are much more intense and dedicated to the task then I ever would be. In any case, here is the group “index”. Everything is listed alphbetically by geographic location. Its really quite something — there are some amazing chinese restuarants in places and configurations you’d never imagine — even if you just look at the Texas Coastal (houston) section.

    DSCN1228

  • A Map of Houston Hits.

    My friend is thinking about coming to Houston around rodeo time and she asked me about any good websites about Houston and things to do here.  Unfortunately I don’t know of any such sites, but I did find an old google map of my favorite places in the city which I had put together when Dongwoo came to town.

    I spent a couple hours updating it and here it is!

    I gotta say that my most interesting places are really just eateries.  But there is a reasonable helping of odd ideosyncratic places and wacky moments.  If you have anything you think I should add, ding me.  Otherwise, here is a snapshot of my mental map of Houston.

    Blue is places of interest
    Cyan is Eateries
    Magenta is places I still need to go visit

    Houston according to Justus

    If you click on this link that takes you to google maps, you’ll see a sidebar with all the places listed.

  • Some Golf Balls

    My girlfriend’s office has a competition every year for their annual golf tournament. This year, she won! In celebration, I pulled out her old golf ball designs — including her non-winning 2007 design which was highlighted as a good example in this year’s call for entries.

    I do have to admit that I slightly tweaked her 2006 design, and I just totally made up the 2008 design this morning. But in any case, she is the big winner!

    Kolaches all around!

    KHA golf logos