January 23, 2025 1:56 PM
Sequence
I first played the game Sequence when I was in...high school maybe? I don't really remember when it was, but I remember that it was my aunt (on my dad's side) that introduced me to the game. We were having a little family board game night, and Sequence was nice because you could play it with a lot of people and it only took a few minutes to explain the rules.
Everyone is dealt a hand of cards, and on your turn you 1) put a card down, 2) place a chip on a spot on the board that corresponds to your card, and 3) pick up another card. You ultimately just have to get five chips in a row. If you have more than three players involved, it becomes a team game, but there's a twist. You don't know what cards your teammates have, and there is no table talk allowed.
.-~-. .' _ `. : )_( ; .-~-. '.___.' .' _ `. : )_( ; .-~-. '.___.' .' _ `. : )_( ; '.___.' The game comes with blue, green, and red chips
After we played it a few times, I was convinced that I wanted to buy myself a copy of the game, and I ended up bringing it with me to college. During my sophomore year, the school received a whole bunch of bomb threats and we were frequently evacuated from buildings. There was one night where I got evacuated from my dorm building, and I decided to bring my copy of Sequence to the other building that we had to go to. It was a good idea, because we were stuck there for at least an hour and my friends and I had a great time playing it.
I also have very fond memories of the night that I played round after round of Sequence with a boy that I had recently met. It was the night before I had a final math paper due, and I literally stayed up all night just playing Sequence with him! I ended up writing that paper the next morning and turning it in shortly before the 5pm deadline. I got a C+ in that class, and I had never felt so relieved just to pass a class.
,^. /\ _ _ _ / \ / \ _( )_ ( `V' ) (_, ._) \ / (_. ._) `. .' /_\ \/ /_\ " It also includes a double deck of playing cards
Along with introducing the game to friends, I also introduced it to my mom's family. And my mom was even more hooked than I was. We taught my grandma how to play, which was easy to do because it doesn't matter what language you speak. All you have to do is be able to identify playing cards on a board. My mom ended up buying several copies of the game, and she brought it with her on a trip to Germany to introduce it to even more relatives, and they all loved it too!
Sequence became my family's go-to game to play. We love to joke around and yell "No cahoot-ing!" at each other. We like it so much that we've bought different versions of the game, and we'll usually play with our set of Jumbo Sequence (which is honestly less jumbo than you'd think, compared to the size of the container it comes in). I think we've bought at least 10 copies of this game between all the different family members.
_______________________________ | ___________SEQUENCE__________ | ||@@|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|@@|| ||__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|| ||__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|| ||__|__|__|__|__|__|()|__|__|__|| ||__|__|__|__|()|__|()|__|__|__|| ||__|__|__|__|__|()|()|__|__|__|| ||__|__|__|__|__|()|__|__|()|__|| ||__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|| ||__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|__|| ||@@|__|__|__|__|__|__|()|()|@@|| |____________SEQUENCE___________| And a board! Each spot on the board has a card on it, but I can't really add all that in the ascii art
There was definitely a time in my life where I would have said that Sequence was my favorite board game. But as the years have gone by, that enjoyment has definitely waned. It's not really a game that has too much strategy involved. It really is mostly luck based. And after playing so much Sequence, I hit a point where I was just all Sequence'd out.
So every time I go home to visit family, there's a pretty good chance that we'll play Sequence at least once. At this point, it's something that the older family members enjoy a lot more. For us "kids", it's less about playing a fun game, and more about spending time with the rest of the family. So I'll still join for a few rounds, but I'm usually the one that has to tap out early.
I still have a copy of Sequence on my shelf. It mostly collects dust nowadays, but I don't think I could ever get rid of it. I don't think I'll ever be the one to suggest playing it, but it's good to have, just in case my mom is visiting and she really wants to play.
December 23, 2024 4:20 AM
to make my cup a little emptier
It's 4 a.m., and I'm wide awake. No, I'm not playing Scrabble. I'm just unable to sleep. I just have a lot of thoughts swimming in my head, and I've had a lot of thoughts swimming in my head all year. This would probably be a good time to write in my diary, but let's be honest, these days I can write maybe three sentences on paper before my hand starts to hurt.
October 26, 2023 8:46 PM
a little bit of dancing!
My days are busier, but my cup of water is feeling a little less full lately.
And I had a really busy day at work today. Someone asked me if I could look into an issue, and I read their request, and it all just sounded like Greek to me. I tried to dig into the code on my own, but I was lost, and it felt like I needed two weeks to get up to speed. I asked for help from a guy that has at least ten times more domain knowledge than I do. He would say one thing, and by the time I understood that one thing, he'd have already said 10 more things and I would be lost again.
And before I knew it, it was already 5:30 and I really needed to get out of work and give my brain a rest. I wanted to go to the arcade. I've been wanting to go to the arcade for the past who-knows-how-many-Thursdays. Last week there was a pinball tournament. The week before that I needed to be home to receive a delivery. The week before that I was in Seattle. The week before that the SMX machine was broken. The week before that was another pinball tournament. And the week before that, well that was the last blog post.
So I called Victory Pointe, and it went to voicemail.
This week, we are open Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday...
That sounds...promising? But what is "this week"? The last time I called and it went to voicemail, the message actually stated which week it was, and the dates it told me were actually from the prior week, so could I really trust them to be open this week?
But I had to take my chances. It was an unusually nice day out. I got changed and left the office, and I still read over chat as my really smart co-worker continued to work on this problem and explain all the details. I soon got to the bus stop, and I walked over to Victory Pointe, and...it was open.
,.-~. / \ ! __/_.-~~~-._ , ,' ,' `. ' |,' '. | ; | ,~,~ '~' ._. ' : ((:;))~._ ! / `--' `~3---. ' ' \ how many dancers can I make?! | _, \ | ' _.' . `-~' \ ' \ / / ,' ,' ,-~~~-, ,--' (___.' (____)
And then I finally stopped looking at my phone, and I stopped thinking about work, and I started dancing.
It was nice. I had a couple of people walk up to me and compliment my doubles play. I got a round of jubeat in too. I ended my session with Born to Run, and I was sooo inaccurate, but it was sooo much fun 🎶
September 24, 2023 10:31 PM
Hopefully more dancing soon
I've been trying to get back to Victory Pointe more regularly. Even though they no longer have console and board games, and there's no more all-you-can-play deal, and they only open four days a week, and they stopped making milkshakes (they were the best milkshakes), it is still a local establishment that I'd like to support. And they have Stepmaniax and Jubeat and I quite enjoy playing those games.
So I've been making it a point to go into the office on Thursdays so I can take the bus to Victory Pointe after work. Back in 2018, I was doing this regularly, except it was on Tuesdays instead (because Tuesdays are the best days), until one sad Tuesday when I walked up to the door of the arcade and I saw a sign saying that they were closed and switching to "Winter Hours".
,.-~.-~. ,~-.-~.- ( ) ( ) except it wasn't just "winter hours", ( ) ( ) it was the new permanent hours D: `--~'`~-~' `~--~'`~-' * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Anyway, I'm trying to get back to that. I'm trying to get back to ending my workday setting my status to my favorite emoji and making my way to the arcade. I haven't quite made it a routine yet, but I've gone more than a few times this year!
_.._ ,_ \ ,-~~~~~-.'. . / \' , I will forever continue to . ._. '~' . use Google's blob emojis ' --E-~(w) ' / _ | `.__) ; ' / `-._ _ , (__) \__)
Two Thursdays ago I had left work at 4:30pm (that's early for me!) and when I got to Victory Pointe, I saw a sign saying that it was closed that day.
I cannot tell you how many times I've walked up to an arcade only to see that it was closed. But it has to have been over a year since this happened to me, so I guess I was due for another one.
September 17, 2023 11:58 AM
dancin'
My birthday was about a month ago, and it wasn't very exciting, but in the midst of all the happy birthday messages, one person reacted with 💃. Man, I hadn't felt like that since my sabbatical.
As much as I wish I could go back to that sabbatical, I know that I've still got at least another year of working full-time. I'll get back to my creative endeavors when the time feels right. For now, I'm just relaxing and trying to find time to get some dance games in.
, , \ \ O/ O/ /V /V `/\ `/\ L \. /L\\.
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