The Importance of the Sacrament

I've been struggling with some negative feelings towards some individuals in my life lately that I know are really not okay. To try and overcome them, I've said a LOT of prayers lately. I've thought about the atonement and the divine nature of everyone I know. And today when I took the sacrament, I felt like I was using the sacrament more fully than I have before. I've been working really hard on repenting, and I was actually able to feel the greater significance of the sacrament as it helps us to understand and fully utilize the atonement. I loved the Spirit that I felt and how wonderful it was in general. I've never really thought about having a testimony of the sacrament in addition to the atonement, but I can now say that I do indeed have one. The sacrament is a beautiful ordinance that can provide us peace and refuge in times of trial and strife, and I am grateful for the opportunity to partake and participate weekly.

Comic Book TV Show Fall Premiers

For the most part, I've been pretty impressed with the comic book TV showing for this fall.

Arrow is as strong as last season with some fun interesting developments. Except for the fact that Laurel is playing a larger role. I really can't stand that actress in this role. Whiny and poor line delivery and waaay too skinny. Ick. Unfortunately it looks like she really is going to turn out to be Black Canary. Bummer. Plus side. Felicity's character is still a ton of fun to watch. And I do think that the actress playing Thea's character is really growing into herself. She has more speeds besides whiny and self-absorbed that she taps into. It's pretty fun.

Flash of course is lots of fun. Probably my favorite one right now. It's got an excellent blend of Flash humor and fun story lines along with some of the best acting for a first season comic book show that I've seen in a while. And the fact that they're pulling things so faithfully from the comics is a plus. I think one of my favorite characters in the show is actually Barry's father. He really is written well. It's easy to see how Barry can turn out the way he is given the major influences in his life. I look forward to watching all of the characters develop even further.

Gotham has the unfortunate timing of premiering so close to the Flash. The Flash is awesome. Gotham... is not. The acting is just a wooden as the first season of Arrow (if not more so) without the benefit of being the only comic book TV show we were watching at the time. The dialogue is uber campy. Too many villains that aren't really villains. And an ever-present feeling that there will be nothing but ineffective and pointless accomplishments during the entire series. Otherwise, wouldn't Batman be unnecessary. But what really kills the show for me is Alfred. While he may not have a consistent back story, who he is as a character is indeed consistent in the comic world. He is unfailingly loyal to the causes of Batman and Bruce Wayne with a dry wit almost breaching the fourth wall. He is not an almost abusive and inept father figure. Ick. Do NOT like this show.

And tonight we watched the series premier of Constantine. <Shiver> I know it's corny and cliche horror special effects, but there's a reason I don't watch horror movies. I am so going to have nightmares tonight. Plus side, dialogue was good, the pace was good, and it is clearly much more loyal to the source material than Gotham. We'll give it another episode to see if the SFX calm down due to budgetary restraints. Otherwise, this might end up just being a Mark show.

Crio Bru for the Win!

I'm sitting here drinking my Pumpkin Spice Winter Blend Crio Bru tonight. Boiled some water in the kettle and poured it into the French press with 3 T of the seasonal blend and let it sit for 20 minutes. After pouring some into a thermos for tomorrow morning, I filled up my big "Welcome to Eastman" mug and settled down on the couch to surf the net. I've been a little... I've been a LOT down lately because of family drama, a lingering cold, and then a nasty ovarian cyst. It was kind of awesome to almost melt into the warm taste and feel of the "hot chocolate" that leaves my mouth with a great taste afterwards. I think tomorrow I may have to even break out a legitimate book and read while I drink. Maybe wrap up in a blanket downstairs by the fire. Yummy.

Story Times

I'm so glad that the Kingsport Public Library has such a great set of programs for the children. Benjamin may drag his feet like he does for going just about anywhere, but he always gets such a kick out of the story times.

The two most recent story times were about Fall Colors and Pizza respectively. Benjamin got to wear his favorite color (green) to story time when we read about fall colors. For one of those books, the librarian threw out die cuts representing seasonal foliage on the different pages. Benjamin gathered all of the pieces up that fell near him, and we used them to decorate a seasons box and talk about patterns.

For the pizza story time, they read fun stories about pizza and then made themselves into a pizza (using die cuts and such again). Benjamin again gathered up the toppings so we'll be putting together a pizza later using what we brought home. And to top it all off, we had pizza for lunch at Johnny Brusco's with Grandma and Grandpa Shipley who were a town for the afternoon. Tuesday's rock!

Gaming, Gaming, and More Gaming

Benjamin was pretty excited about his new Batman costume for Halloween--he's worn it everyday!

We had a pretty fabulous weekend this last week. Friday, we started out strong playing our newly acquired Sentinels of the Multiverse expansions with Brendan and Carmen. I think I can definitely say that the two new heroes added a lot of enjoyment to the game, and I look forward to playing and exploring the game even more.

Today we put our expansion to Suburbia to the test with Mark, Benjamin, and me playing. I think with this particular one I'll try a full fledged review of the game:

Overview
Suburbia is a tile laying game that excellently balances both theme and mechanisms. It supports up to four players with each person attempting to build the largest (specifically the largest population) borough. There are 5 rotating tiles available for each player with exactly one being purchased and replaced each turn, which puts a hard cap on the length of the game except for one twist. The "last round" tile's location is randomly somewhere in the last stack. So while everyone has a pretty good idea of about how the game is progressing time wise, there's still an element of chance to the whole thing for exactly when it will end.

Components
Each player has a starting board that can be placed in two different orientations depending on player preference as well as three meeple markers. One cylinder marks the income track, one rectangular prism marks the reputation track, and the final meeple marks the population in that player's borough. The first two tracks are on the players' starting boards while the final one is placed on a communal tracker.

There are also reversible and staged (i.e. A, B, C) building tiles that can be used as commercial, industrial, residential, civic, or lake tiles (the final one is one the reverse side). These tiles each have names and thematically appropriate instantaneous or ongoing effects on income, reputation, money, and/or population. These effects can be influenced by both what is just in your borough and the borough's of other people, which is where a lot of the player interaction and interest in what everyone else is building comes into the game.

Other components include goal tiles, money pips, and set up boards.

The expansion adds both some fun new building and goal tiles that go into the mix as well as an entirely new type of tile called "borders". Borders are fun because even though they act much like other tiles, the more directly impact the shape that your city can take and are always available unless they run out. More in line with the other tiles, there are also challenge and bonus tiles that everyone can see coming and plan for and that everyone can get.

While the backs of the expansion tiles are just barely off color, it doesn't really matter since you don't see everything that is coming all laid out but rather just one at a time. All of the components (new and old) have a very nice and solid quality to them with nice vibrant colors. And the artwork, while basic, feels highly appropriate rather than excessively stylized.

Gameplay
At the start of each turn, a new building tile is added to the line-up. Older building tiles become less expensive the longer they stay out. The person taking the turn buys exactly one tile and either adds it to their borough or reverses it to make a lake. Tiles can either be purchased from the line up or from the always (unless they run out) available border or basic tiles. After purchase, a tile is placed and then the player receives the immediate and any ongoing effects. A player may also choose to invest in a previously placed tile by paying the cost of the tile again and treating the tile as if there were two of them. If she did not purchase a tile from the line up, the player then trashes a tile from the line up and replaces it allowing the game to progress at a constant pace. Play proceeds until the "last round" tile appears at which point there is one more full round remaining in the game. At the conclusion of the game, everyone adds any additional points (population) from private and public goals achieved and the winner is declared base on the largest population.

Overall: 10/10 (because actually I can't think of anything wrong with this game)

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In addition to the two board games, we also had some great family time playing Mario Kart and Mario 3D World as a family of 3. Benjamin gets really into the games, which is pretty great. I love that he can actually play the games at all.  We even managed to get in our first game of War Machine. While it's true that the game is pretty complicated, it turns out that the rules are fairly intuitive. Mark won handily, and we both had a great time.

We had some pretty delicious meals this weekend as well. We moved our weekly grilled cheese from Sunday to Saturday and had chicken parmesan grilled cheese. As it turns out, one of the better sandwiches. Probably helped that we used pretzel buns. Sunday we had butternut squash macaroni and cheese. Amazing! Some of the better leftovers we've ever had (which I say the night after while writing this). And on another fun food note, I ate at a Waffle House for the first time on Saturday morning. Actually had a pretty great time and was impressed with the service, food, and atmosphere. Probably will not be my last time eating there.

And of course, it was General Conference weekend. I caught about half of the Saturday morning and all of the Sunday sessions. Even though I was really tired, I did cross-stitch the whole time to keep me awake. Benjamin's stocking may actually be stitched by Christmas this year!

I particularly enjoyed the talks in the Saturday morning sessions that I got to hear concerning real truth and gaining a testimony. I really look forward to studying them more thoroughly as they become available in the next few days. And here's two of my favorite memes from conference:

I really have felt the Spirit witness to me the truthfulness of the gospel, the divinity of Christ, and the authority of the leaders of the Church. And I need to remember and foster these memories and moments.