“He’s not at all stupid. He’s just one of the usual unhappy successes.”
“Unhappy?”
“Most successes are unhappy. That’s why they are successes- they have to reassure themselves about themselves by achieving something that the world will notice.”
“What extraordinary ideas you have, Anthony.”
“You’ll find they’re quite true if you only examine them. The happy people are failures because they are on such good terms with themselves that they don’t give a damn like me. They are also usually agreeable to get on with- again like me.”
From Sparkling Cyanide, 1945, Agatha Christie


It’s an interesting idea, don’t you think? Though it’s not always true, but there is certainly some truth in there.

Not all failures are happy people. Some are honest to goodness failures, who have tried things and screwed them up. Or fate stuck its ugly hand in and tripped them. But then there are all sorts of people who one...

I broke a winning streak last night that had lasted two weeks.

We’ve been playing on the same map for the whole time. It’s a big map, suited to our style of Scape. Both sides have heights, tapering down to a stream in the middle with three fords.

I really like this map, though everyone else complains about it. Its true crossing the river is very dangerous, and that you’re always attacking an enemy who has height. The objectives is what we call Capture the scouting- which doesn’t sound like it makes sense. There are six areas that have to be flagged on the map, three on each side of the river. You can only flag an area if you are unengaged.

With the map all set up we just have to pick armies, usually 700 points, and play. The game usually lasts about an hour fifteen. I have won seven games with seven different armies so I must be actually doing something right for once.

But last night I fell. I alone,...

As time has passed we have tried really hard to eliminate a lot of the automatic wounds from our version of the game. It can be fun for the person doing the wounds, but not so much for the receiver. It’s not a chess like game to us, I admit. We’re more like crazed football or soccer fans, rallying behind our teams.

We have destructible trees and other large things that can fall onto figures. For a long time if a tree fell on you, you were dead. If a tree fell on a hero, they took a wound. But what if the tree fell on you and you were in the water? Or what if a tree fell on Sigurd the huge frost giant who is as tall as the tree?

The problem with having unlimited figures in the game is that the rules have to be able to deal with all of them. Past experience has taught us to try and keep the rules as simple as possible. Now when a tree falls, a figure beneath it shakes one die for each time its height would fit in the tree- like falling damage. ...

My aunt was one of the most gentle people I’ve ever met. She was not related to me, except by marriage. She married my uncle right out of high school. They’d been high school sweethearts.

It all sounds very nice but there was some darkness there. Isn’t there always? My uncle was wild. He was full of energy and he drank and went on terrible benders. He neglected his family. He was screwing up his life. But then an angel appeared to him and he changed his ways- but that is a different story. He became a minister and they did a lot of missionary work on Indian reservations. Whatever my uncle did- for he still had a lot of wild energy- my aunt was there beside him. She always exuded an aura of calm peace.

When my uncle died that part of the family sagged. He had been a tremendous spirit, almost like a motor that had powered that entire part of the family. I remember at his funeral- the people there really had faith- for the funeral was a happy...

We have a bit of a strange tradition at my house- Samurai Easter.- a celebration of all things samurai. Admittedly that sounds strange, but really it all makes sense. We are semi religious but somehow Easter has gotten away from us. We know the Christian story, and are aware of the pagan Spring festivals, but our celebration is really all samurai.

On Easter Sunday the kids will run around the house looking for Easter treats hidden in small plastic eggs. There may be large chocolate rabbits too, which are quickly put to death in the most painless way possible- having their necks snapped. Then everyone will dress up like samurai and fight each other. We will have an oriental style lunch and tell stories of famous samurai.

the eggs prepared themselves mentally for battle

It all started with the eggs. We went through a period of not making Easter Eggs, and that...