Christopher Rush

Whew, another school year and another season of Redeeming Pandora draws to a close.  We had a few different ideas for how to close this one up: another “Too Soon” entry was on the docket, but considering the events of the year we thought we’d put that on hold for a little while; George Harrison’s Dark Horse album was going to be another “Forgotten Gem” entry, but as we are running out of space and time, we’ll save that for another issue as well.

Speaking of George Harrison, as this summer looms on the horizon, it’s time to reflect once again on how we shall be spending that summer.  Last summer, as you recall, I spent a significant portion of the time eating pretzels, drinking sweet tea, and playing Final Fantasy XII.  As enjoyable as that entire process was, it wasn’t the most salubrious compilation of life choices one could make.  This summer, I’ll probably have to go outside sometime, more than for just mowing the lawn.  We’ll see how that goes.

The main goal for this summer, familywise, as always is to spend a good deal of quality family time together, reading, Bible studying, playing games, going outside for walks and basketball and trips to the park … ing lot of Chick-fil-A.  My children are expecting me to keep making progress on ChronoTrigger and Final Fantasy XII, so I don’t want to disappoint them on that.  We’ll likely spend a good deal of time together trying to declutter: life’s too short to stock on possibilities and maybes.  Better to trim down to the best and certainties (as far as possessions go, of course —  I’m certainly not drawing the idea out to spiritual matters and the like).

Professionally, I have a few obligations to attend to this summer, none of them terribly exciting (probably redundant considering the use of the word “obligations” instead of “opportunities” or some such).  The  truly exciting thing planned for the summer professionally is, and here we are back at the “speaking of George Harrison” line from earlier, the preparation for our Critical Listening class about the Beach Boys, the Beatles, and their times.  I’m planning on reading a dozen or so books about the fellows, listening to their albums nonstop, then somehow turning all of that into a class.  That will be the exciting, i.e., tricky, part.  I wasn’t alive for the 1960s.  John Lennon was killed when I was about six months old.  Dennis Wilson died before I was three.  The Beach Boys have released about three real albums in my lifetime.  But, on the other hand, most of what we talk about in my other classes happened before everyone in the world today was alive, so this won’t be all that different.  I’m not terribly keen on the idea of putting together giant booklets of lyrics or slideshows of lyrics, but something will likely have to be done to enable better understanding of the words of those songs, especially the less famous ones.  Small problems in this world, I know.

That’s certainly one of the advantages of this school: where else could I say “uh … I wanna teach an elective where we listen to the Beach Boys and Beatles all year”?  Only at the same place where I can say “uh … I wanna teach an elective where we just play boardgames all year.”  Good times, good times.

Speaking of boardgames, we are looking forward to another summer of boardgaming on Wednesdays.  I hope you can make it to some of those sessions.  Now that the air conditioning is working inside the house things should be enjoyable for everyone.  We’ve refined our gaming collection a bit in recent months, trading in games we don’t need, acquiring good ones (on sale, of course, got to be moneywise) we can all enjoy.

Personally, I have been enjoying a lot of Pathfinder Adventure Card Game lately.  It’s a sleek mix of RPGs and CCGs (don’t be bothered if those abbreviations don’t mean anything to you).  Additionally, I have been enjoying a mild resurgence of wargaming.  My father and I have finally played another game by e-mail after taking almost a year off (all my fault, really), this time about the battle of First Saratoga from the American Revolution.  Soon we will begin the battle of Molino Del Rey from the Mexican-American War.  Thanks to the aforementioned collection trimming trade-in, I was able to snatch up quite a few exciting games from Noble Knight Games during their spring sale:

· Halls of Montezuma, a much bigger game about the entire Mexican War

· Days of Ire: Budapest 1956, about the brief Hungarian revolt against the Soviet forces

· Not War but Murder, the battle of Cold Harbor just a few miles away from where I live (also of interest because it’s my first game from the acclaimed wargame magazine company Against the Odds)

· The Battle of Adobe Walls, the first in the Indian Wars of the American West series from Legion Games, another company I haven’t experienced yet

· A Victory Lost: Crisis in Ukraine, 1942-1943, about the failed Soviet counteroffensive against Germany that possibly could have ended the War in Europe had the Soviets won

· The Campaigns of Poland — Eylau, Friedland 1807, another iteration of the Napoleonic battle at Eylau, one that has a sentimental spot in my heart (in a matter of speaking) since it was one of the first battles my father and I played together several years ago; this version is also intriguing because it is the first game I’ve gotten from the French wargaming magazine Vae Victis, another acclaimed publication active today (the only problem for me is the magazine, of course, is in French — the rules have been translated, which is nice, but I can’t read any of the articles … guess I should learn some languages soon as well)

But we don’t have to play those games if you don’t want to.  I’d be glad to play the other games we own if you’d prefer.  Just so long as we have good times, good fellowship, and make the most of the brief time we have together, that’s what counts.  Certainly I’m not saying boardgames are more important than studying the Bible, evangelizing, et cetera, et cetera — surely you know me better than that by now.

And so we come to the end of our sixth season, somehow twice as many issues than I originally thought we would have.  What big plans do we have for issue 25?  Well … same thing we do every issue, Faithful Reader: try to take over the world!

Have a great summer, Friends!

See you next time!