Monday, February 20, 2006
One Approach & Risk 2210:
We had a Risk day setup. Sidegames was supposed to meet up early, but he never answered his phone. By the time, I was ready to head over to my friend's house, I figured it was too late to start a game before the rest of the crew showed up, so I decided to hit Border's in Oak Park. Since the club's have been lame, and I've been wanting to do day game, I figured this would be a good opportunity.
Travel Section Sarge:
I figured if I was going to hang out at Border's, I might as well read about stuff I find interesting. I decided to check out the guidebooks. I ended up reading the Lonely Planet guide for Myanmar, Iran, and East Africa. I also briefly checked out some guidebooks for Amsterdam and Singapore. While I was sitting and reading the Iran book, this HB7 came a long. I saw her looking for book about Portugal. I knew I needed to open her, but I was feeling major approach anxiety. I stalled, and then decided to get up and make an attempt. I knew I would be really hard on myself if I ended up doing nothing.
I walk over to the shelf. I was on the HB's right. I could feel my heart beating like crazy and I was feeling really nervous. I guess this is what happens when you get out of practice. When I was sarging almost every day, I really did start to lose most of my approach anxiety. I opened her.
Me: Hey. What guidebooks do you recommend?
HB: You mean on Iran?
Me: Well, I mean just in general.
HB: Lonely planet is good, but Frommers (sic?) is good too.
Me: Where are you headed? (pretending I didn't notice she had books on Portugal.)
HB: Portugal.
Me: Do you have the trip all planned?
HB: Yeah, we have it book. I'm just looking mainly for maps.
Me: I'm just killing time. I'm reading about all these strange places I can visit. I was looking at the Myanmar book earlier.
HB: You should try Grenada.
Me: What there to see there?
HB: Beaches and stuff.
Me: So they've recovered from when we invaded them 20 years ago.
HB: Yeah.
Then the conversation stalled, and I just grabbed another book. This was because of my weak frame. This sounds really dumb when I say this now (objectively, and b/c of information I learn later), but I thought she was implying that she was going to Portugal with a boyfriend (fiance or husband even as I couldn't see her ring finger at the time.) Of course, that's really dumb. She would have mentioned that if that were the case (at least with the later two) and if she wanted to blow me off, that would have been a good time to mention something like that. I guess I wasn't feeling comfortable and that's why I let it stall. Of course, I realize now that I easily could have asked her why she want to visit Portugal. I could have asked her where's she's been lately, or what's the most exciting places she's been lately. Most likely, she would have asked me the same, and I could have said that I went to Amsterdam, Florida, and Singapore all in less than a month. I also would have been able to say that I've been to Portugal.
Instead of doing what I knew I should have done, I just let it stall and I grabbed a book about East Africa. I pretended to look at it intently. After a few minutes, she put the books away and walked away. As she walked by, she said something like "Enjoy your trips," and I said, "You too. Take care." I then decided to sit down with my Lonely Planet East Africa book and kill some time.
A few minutes later, she returned with like 2-3 other girls. She showed them some of the books about Portugal, and then said that she's probably just order what she could online. I could tell from the conversation that one of the woman in that group was going to be her companion to Portugal. The other 2 girls left not long after, and these two talked for about 5 minutes. The HB mentioned that she had been to Los Cabos recently and was planning on going again in the fall.
Analysis:
I think I made the most important points above. I should have kept plodding, especially with a girl like this. This girl and I would have had a lot to talk about and this is the type of girl I'd love to hook up with. I took myself out of the game by having bad inner game, and being out of practice. I just need to build from this.
Caribou Coffee:
I stopped by there so I could get a triple espresso to keep me awake for Risk . That place was hopping. I guess it's because Triton College and Concordia University are close. I was feeling down about stalling in the last set, so I didn't really do anything there. Also, I wasn't ready to have an audience. There were no lone wolves, so I would have had to approach a two set at the coffee shop. Also, the place was really quiet, so everyone would have been listening in. Of course, all of these are weak excuses, and I need to get over these things again very soon. I need to get my game in order and then go back there to redeem myself.
Risk 2010 AD:
I know I sound like a dork for mentioning this, but I do enjoy playing Risk. James, DaveWoW, and their Linguistics Roomate played with the Tech Commander and Factions. I ended up getting third choice of factions, so I played a faction that I've played many times. The advantage was that I knew exactly how to play this faction, but I really had been hoping to work with something different. This game ended up lasting five and a half hours. My friend Pat called me at 7Pm. We were in Turn 5, so I told him we'd be done in 30-45 minutes. The last round ended up taking 2 hours!
James will say that I got lucky, but I think I played pretty well. All the effort ended up being worth it b/c I won. That's like the worse possible outcome for James, because he either wants to win, or he wants me to lose. I feel the same way. :) This time, I learned to keep my mouth shut b/c I had made the mistake of explaing my intentions too much. James would always try to rattle me by telling me how bad my moves were at times, and I would try to argue and prove how brilliant they really were. One time, when playing with Sidegames, I convinced James to attack me b/c I proved how smart my move was. Reading "The 48 Rules of Power" convinced me that it's better just to act than to explain. I tried to minimize any explanations and just shrugged when questions. (Kind of what Dimitri says to do with shit tests you get while sarging.) What's even funnier, is that James hurt himself a few times by talking too much. Near the end, I had been convinced I won. I asked if they just wanted to concede, and then he said something that made me realize he had these colony influence cards.
I probably still would have won, but he hurt himself by making me realize that I should use my remaining guys to take out his territories. This way, I would gain a point, and he would lose one. Had he not said anything, I might have tried to take a different approach.
We had a Risk day setup. Sidegames was supposed to meet up early, but he never answered his phone. By the time, I was ready to head over to my friend's house, I figured it was too late to start a game before the rest of the crew showed up, so I decided to hit Border's in Oak Park. Since the club's have been lame, and I've been wanting to do day game, I figured this would be a good opportunity.
Travel Section Sarge:
I figured if I was going to hang out at Border's, I might as well read about stuff I find interesting. I decided to check out the guidebooks. I ended up reading the Lonely Planet guide for Myanmar, Iran, and East Africa. I also briefly checked out some guidebooks for Amsterdam and Singapore. While I was sitting and reading the Iran book, this HB7 came a long. I saw her looking for book about Portugal. I knew I needed to open her, but I was feeling major approach anxiety. I stalled, and then decided to get up and make an attempt. I knew I would be really hard on myself if I ended up doing nothing.
I walk over to the shelf. I was on the HB's right. I could feel my heart beating like crazy and I was feeling really nervous. I guess this is what happens when you get out of practice. When I was sarging almost every day, I really did start to lose most of my approach anxiety. I opened her.
Me: Hey. What guidebooks do you recommend?
HB:
Me: Well, I mean just in general.
HB: Lonely planet is good, but Frommers (sic?) is good too.
Me: Where are you headed? (pretending I didn't notice she had books on Portugal.)
HB: Portugal.
Me: Do you have the trip all planned?
HB: Yeah, we have it book. I'm just looking mainly for maps.
Me: I'm just killing time. I'm reading about all these strange places I can visit. I was looking at the Myanmar book earlier.
HB: You should try Grenada.
Me: What there to see there?
HB: Beaches and stuff.
Me: So they've recovered from when we invaded them 20 years ago.
HB: Yeah.
Then the conversation stalled, and I just grabbed another book. This was because of my weak frame. This sounds really dumb when I say this now (objectively, and b/c of information I learn later), but I thought she was implying that she was going to Portugal with a boyfriend (fiance or husband even as I couldn't see her ring finger at the time.) Of course, that's really dumb. She would have mentioned that if that were the case (at least with the later two) and if she wanted to blow me off, that would have been a good time to mention something like that. I guess I wasn't feeling comfortable and that's why I let it stall. Of course, I realize now that I easily could have asked her why she want to visit Portugal. I could have asked her where's she's been lately, or what's the most exciting places she's been lately. Most likely, she would have asked me the same, and I could have said that I went to Amsterdam, Florida, and Singapore all in less than a month. I also would have been able to say that I've been to Portugal.
Instead of doing what I knew I should have done, I just let it stall and I grabbed a book about East Africa. I pretended to look at it intently. After a few minutes, she put the books away and walked away. As she walked by, she said something like "Enjoy your trips," and I said, "You too. Take care." I then decided to sit down with my Lonely Planet East Africa book and kill some time.
A few minutes later, she returned with like 2-3 other girls. She showed them some of the books about Portugal, and then said that she's probably just order what she could online. I could tell from the conversation that one of the woman in that group was going to be her companion to Portugal. The other 2 girls left not long after, and these two talked for about 5 minutes. The HB mentioned that she had been to Los Cabos recently and was planning on going again in the fall.
Analysis:
I think I made the most important points above. I should have kept plodding, especially with a girl like this. This girl and I would have had a lot to talk about and this is the type of girl I'd love to hook up with. I took myself out of the game by having bad inner game, and being out of practice. I just need to build from this.
Caribou Coffee:
I stopped by there so I could get a triple espresso to keep me awake for Risk . That place was hopping. I guess it's because Triton College and Concordia University are close. I was feeling down about stalling in the last set, so I didn't really do anything there. Also, I wasn't ready to have an audience. There were no lone wolves, so I would have had to approach a two set at the coffee shop. Also, the place was really quiet, so everyone would have been listening in. Of course, all of these are weak excuses, and I need to get over these things again very soon. I need to get my game in order and then go back there to redeem myself.
Risk 2010 AD:
I know I sound like a dork for mentioning this, but I do enjoy playing Risk. James, DaveWoW, and their Linguistics Roomate played with the Tech Commander and Factions. I ended up getting third choice of factions, so I played a faction that I've played many times. The advantage was that I knew exactly how to play this faction, but I really had been hoping to work with something different. This game ended up lasting five and a half hours. My friend Pat called me at 7Pm. We were in Turn 5, so I told him we'd be done in 30-45 minutes. The last round ended up taking 2 hours!
James will say that I got lucky, but I think I played pretty well. All the effort ended up being worth it b/c I won. That's like the worse possible outcome for James, because he either wants to win, or he wants me to lose. I feel the same way. :) This time, I learned to keep my mouth shut b/c I had made the mistake of explaing my intentions too much. James would always try to rattle me by telling me how bad my moves were at times, and I would try to argue and prove how brilliant they really were. One time, when playing with Sidegames, I convinced James to attack me b/c I proved how smart my move was. Reading "The 48 Rules of Power" convinced me that it's better just to act than to explain. I tried to minimize any explanations and just shrugged when questions. (Kind of what Dimitri says to do with shit tests you get while sarging.) What's even funnier, is that James hurt himself a few times by talking too much. Near the end, I had been convinced I won. I asked if they just wanted to concede, and then he said something that made me realize he had these colony influence cards.
I probably still would have won, but he hurt himself by making me realize that I should use my remaining guys to take out his territories. This way, I would gain a point, and he would lose one. Had he not said anything, I might have tried to take a different approach.
