It’s been a busy week, so we’re following up last week’s prairie plant photos with a more miscellaneous selection of flower pictures.
Pretty Flowers
Author: Cassandra
Prairie Plants
Depending on where you live, some of you are probably already familiar with the concept of pocket prairies — little areas of land specifically dedicated to native prairie plants. Not only does this help preserve the native species, but prairie plants have extensive, deep root systems that hold the soil in place, decreasing erosion. And, y’know, they look nice. So since I was at a pocket prairie the other day, here are some pictures.
Pavlov’s Dogs
Brought to you by the same people who made Schrödinger’s Cats, Pavlov’s Dogs is a cooperative psychology game that will challenge your memory and your capacity for dog puns.
Players start the game by collectively deciding how many tests they’re going to play, and how many of each level, ranging from Easy to Very Hard, with 2 sets for each level and a bonus Silly set. Each set represents a different Dogtor, the likes of Sigmund Fetch and Immanuel Mutt, and, with a maximum of 1 from each set, the tests you draw are placed in the Dogtor folder faced down.
For each round, one player will be selected as Dogtor, and choose one rule to flip face up. This is the rule for the first test (Ex: scratch ear when Sit is played). The other players will be read this rule, and then dealt 5 cards each, face down, and take turns flipping their top card. Following any special instructions from the tests first, they conclude by listing the value of the test. For the first card played, this is the number in the corners; for the cards that follow, it’s that number added to the sum of the cards already played. The Dogtor will use the folder with the tests as reference, and say either “Good dog” or “Bad dog,” depending on if they followed the instructions correctly. If they got it wrong, the value of the test resets to 0, and that player loses one of their bones (everyone starts with 3). Your grade at the end is based on how many bones the group has left, so be careful!
At the interim between rounds, players can choose to shuffle around bones — this is advantageous because if a player loses all their bones, the game is over and you’ve failed your selected difficulty level. Then comes the hard part — a new Dogtor is chosen, a new test selected, and you now have to adhere to both the new test, and every test that came before it. Yup, that’s right — they stack! You thought one rule and simple addition was easy? Try five rules and simple addition, and one of those rules changes the value of some of the cards. Now play the game again with a new set of rules. Can you see why it’s a challenge?
It’s a true legacy to Ivan Pavlov, as well. After all, you really are training yourselves — specifically, training your memory and cognitive flexibility. And a lot like Lumosity, a mental training program I posted about here, I suspect if you recorded your scores you’d notice definitive improvement the more you played.
Obligatory Exploration
You know how, way back in the day, entertainment centers were a thing? Y’know, a case to set the TV on and maybe store some stuff underneath? Well, we got one of those for storage purposes, and of course the kittens had to check it out. Here are some of those pictures!
Avocado Time
Anyone remember my post about Throw Throw Burrito? Well, here comes the sequel: Throw Throw Avocado! I didn’t think it was possible, but the avocados might actually be even cuter than the burritos.
As a quick review, Throw Throw Burrito is a speed matching game where you’re trying to draw and discard (hand limit 5) until you have a set of 3 matching cards, which you play into your score pile. If these are Battle Cards, all other gameplay stops long enough to carry out the specified combat. Whoever loses that battle gets a boo boo, which counts as a negative point when scoring.
For the most part, the mechanics of the two games are the same, though the normal cards come in different varieties depending on which game you’re playing. Battles, however, are a significant difference. Where Throw Throw Burrito has a duel (back-to-back, walk, turn and draw), a brawl (two players) and war (all players, except whoever played it), Throw Throw Avocado’s battles are decidedly wackier. There are legs duels, where you have to throw the avocado through your legs, double brawls, where the two players have to keep grabbing and throwing until someone has been hit twice, and freeze wars, where all players — including whoever played it — go to war, and if you get hit you freeze and become a human shield. Another difference between Burrito’s wars and Avocado’s freeze wars is that in war, whoever gets hit first loses, and in freeze war, the loser is chosen by the last player standing. There’s also a chaotic combination option if you own both decks, but we haven’t tried that yet, so I can’t really comment on it.
The cats were very patient with us and our flying squishies, and it’s a lot of fun to throw (soft) things at the important people in your life! (Or strangers; who cares? Everyone wants to throw things at people.)
Product Endorsement and Cuddles
For those of you who haven’t read it yet, last week I wrote about the Civil War battlefield game Battle Cry. So, this week, I thought I’d open my new onslaught of cat photos with Zuko’s demonstration that the lid is a great size for cats! (Sorry it’s kind of blurry.)
And two photos of Diane cuddling other cats on the couch, because apparently Diane is who you go to for cuddles.
Hear My Battle Cry
Have you ever wondered how battles from the American Civil War might have gone differently, were you in command? No? Well, that is a sort of specific thing to wonder. But if you’re wondering now, try the game Battle Cry!
Battle Cry has a number of battles you can play, setting up the board with appropriate troop starting places and terrain tiles for each. The terrains all have slightly different effects — if you move into the woods, for example, that unit can’t battle or move further that turn, but anyone attacking a unit in the woods gets 1 less battle die to attack with.
What are battle dice? Well, let me back up and explain the units, first. There’s infantry, which can move one space per turn and battle; cavalry, which can move three spaces per turn and battle; and artillery, which can move one space per turn or battle. There’s also generals, who can attach themselves to a unit to give the unit an extra battle die when attacking.
So… what are battle dice? Well, when a unit attacks, you roll battle dice to determine how many enemy pieces they hit. Each die has five symbols — infantry, cavalry, artillery, crossed swords, and a flag, with infantry appearing twice. For each roll that matches the enemy unit, you remove one piece. Crossed swords counts as a wild die, and a flag forces the enemy unit to retreat one space back towards their side of the board (or be eliminated, if they have nowhere to run). The amount of dice you roll on an attack is determined by what kind of unit you’re attacking with, and how far away the target is. Cavalry have three battle dice, but can only attack from an adjacent hex. Infantry and artillery have longer ranges, four and five respectively, but decrease in battle dice the further away the enemy is. So, for example, if I used an infantry unit to attack a cavalry unit adjacent to them, I’d get to roll four dice — if, however, the cavalry I was attacking were three hexes away, I’d only get to roll two. The target also has to be within line of sight, which means that a straight line between the centers of the two hexes must be unobstructed by any other units or terrain that would impede it (hills, for example).
The units you can move/battle with (order) on a given turn are determined by cards. How many cards you have in hand depends on the map you’re playing, but in every case you play first, resolve, and then draw at the end of your turn. Cards can have fairly small effects, like “order 1 unit or general on the left flank” (the board is split into two flanks and the center), or significantly larger movements, like how Mom opened our last two games: All Out Assault, which lets you order every unit you have. Yeah, sweet initial draw, right? For the record, I still won the second of those games.
You win the game by being the first player to capture six flags — each unit has one, as does each general, and it’s the last piece of the unit to fall.
Battle Cry is a fun two-player game, balancing the strategy of battle with the luck of the draw and the dice, and providing an accompanying history lesson for each map you play.
New Computers
We’ve all been there. Your old computer is dying, and however much some of you may drag your feet — whether out of loyalty to the computer or to your wallet — you’re going to need a new one. And you know what that means… having to set up all your preferences all over again.
I bring this up now because I myself have just gotten a new laptop, and I was surprised to find that it’s been a lot easier than anticipated. There were, of course, a number of applications to install in the new computer, and if there’s one thing I learned from sorting through files to transfer, it’s that most of what I had saved should’ve been deleted as soon as I was done with it, but on the whole the process was no worse than mildly tedious. Even logging in to all of my usual websites has been easy — my default browser saved all of my passwords to my account, so all I had to do was type out the URL and hit “Log In.”
Overall, I’ve just been really impressed with how smoothly the transition has gone — besides the new computer running better, and the fact that I sometimes accidentally search two or three letter gibberish because I haven’t visited the site enough yet for URL prediction, it’s really easy to forget that I switched computers at all.
Solo Pics
The cats weren’t really posing together when I had my camera available, but I figured we were overdue for some solo shots (complete with commentary).
One Shot, Two Shot, Old Shot, New Shot
Great news: I got my second Pfizer shot this weekend! As such, I figured now would be a good time to address anyone who hasn’t gotten vaccinated yet and tell them how easy it is. For starters, by this point in the process vax centers are all over the place, and many of them easily findable on sites like Vaccines.gov which search by zip code to find options near you. I was able to find one maybe ten minutes from my house, and once I had my consent form and registration filled out, it took probably less than twenty minutes — fifteen of which were the wait time after to make sure I had no adverse reaction.
While I can’t speak for the J&J or Moderna vaccines, I can say that my experience with Pfizer has been fairly light on side effects. After the first shot, I was unusually tired that afternoon and my arm was a bit sore the day after; so far, the second shot has had a bit more immediate soreness, but less fatigue. In both cases, I’d say it went pretty well.
If you’d like to watch a humorous rendition of how the vaccine actually works and why it’s important, check out Google Translate Explains the COVID-19 Vaccine. Note: while the human side of the video is reliably informative, heed the warning at the beginning and do not refer to Google Translate for scientific or medical advice. Please.