Lemme just quickly say that I have never liked Pandemic, and wrote off Burgle Bros for that very reason. Later when I was forced to try Burgle Bros it was the first game in the genre I liked.
I would instantly recommend it for someone looking for a co-op but never got into Pandemic.
Edit: FWIW, looking at my own repertoire of known games, More going on than TFM, less complicated than Ark Nova, easy to teach, and somewhat comparable vein:
(I’m thinking low interaction, moderate engine / momentum, tableau or player board development)
Castles of Burgundy
Feast for Odin / Caverna (AFFO has a lot of rules but they are all simple and intuitive)
Clans of Caledonia
Everdell? It’s simple too but I’d argue almost anything has more going on than TFM
Village
Nations - though I would never recommend this to someone I couldn’t teach it to myself. Too easy to bounce off.
Cascadia
Red Cathedral
Oceans
But:
a) This is with no mind to stock / print availability
b) I couldn’t come up with a single one without sitting down in front of a list of known games
c) I wouldn’t ask anyone to sit down with this customer and ferret out priorities and preferences to narrow in on one of these
MicroMacro is a really fun and unique experience, we had quite a bit of fun. We’ll get to finish it once my wife’s back heals up. Having a damaged vertebra is not exactly conducive to bending over for long periods…
I have 4 days left at my current work, and whooo… this was not a fun job. My nerves will be immediately better when I don’t have to see my boss or main co-worker ever again. And good luck to the next employee lasting longer than a week.
I know right? It’s not as though I spend the whole week doing nothing - why be there - but I may give them a bit more freedom. I often do Origami in the last session before they go. For some classes that would have been today. I could justify it mathematically as raising interest (and all the angle work we do!) but it is hardly a lesson that can be observed.
Just pisses me off to be honest.
I lost last Christmas to a department “Deep Dive”.
I lost the one before that to COVID.
And this Christmas to bloody OFSTED!
Please can I have a couple of days where we can just through away the curriculum and do something just because it’s interesting? It might not match the curriculum but AGH!
(Yes, I pepper my work with interesting tasks when I can, but we have SO MUCH to get through that I’m usually working at hyper speed just to get through it all)
Rant Over. At this point MinuteWalt would have something very wise and very witty to say. Darnit. Miss that guy!
We’re lucky to have a headteacher who is really great. Doesn’t help his partner is due to give birth today.
The Christmas concert went ahead last night with him openly saying it was more important than running around and preparing for Ofsted and this morning he’s dumped half the schools supply of salt on the playground because he doesn’t want the inspectors to have “a nasty accident”.
24 hours notice on this stuff is the stupidest thing ever.
(Although still better than a deep dive.)
Everyone who cares about a school knows how good it is already. I once worked at a school in special measures who had termly inspections. I also worked at a school that was outstanding and hadn’t been inspected in 10 years. The whole things daft.
If it’s any consolation, the 6 months after an Ofsted when they aren’t coming is great!
This annoys me as it’s nothing more than a political motivation to say ‘every year more schools are being rated as outstanding’ with no evidence to say that they remain outstanding.
Am married to a school teacher turned academic mentor
We haven’t been inspected for 11 years. We are on our third (fourth?) head teacher since then. I am the longest serving member of my department - I’ve been here 16 years now. The nearest after me came 12 years ago I think.
I’m honestly at peace with it, but I’m not gonna go to my parents’ in Quebec City for the Holidays this year. I’d have to take the train/bus, there’s a serious influenza outbreak going on, along with COVID and a different third virus whose name escapes me, though that might be more local to us.
My wife’s immune system is not affected by her treatments, but if she catches anything too serious (gastro, influenza, etc.), they could put her treatments on hold until she’s done fighting it, which we emphatically don’t want.
On top of that, her mom’s about to get through step 5 of a 6-treatment run of preventative chemo. HER immune system’s borked.
So I refuse to jeopardize them. Sucks, but there’ll be other times after the Holidays.
Took today off from work to give my wife a day off, especially with it being the last day of school for the year. Got up with the kids at 4:40, but got to go back to bed around 6 or so for about an hour before getting up and helping get them ready for school.
Then had to get a well overdue oil change for my wife’s car, did a small bit of shopping, got my glasses fixed because my younger kiddo somehow removed a sliver of plastic from one of the nose pads, leaving exposed metal which was not comfortable.
Then came home and worked in our garage to the point a section of it is usable again. Donated some clothing to a school clothes closet program and got lunch for us, after which it was just about time to go pick up my younger kiddo, who has refused to ride the bus home ever since he fell from the ceiling a couple of months ago.
So the day has gone by rather quickly, but it is getting closer to kids’ bedtime (one is already asleep on the couch), so hopefully the evening can be a bit relaxing.
Well that was quite some trip. First, the weather was fantastic in Gran Canaria, apart from a couple days of rain (which were warm as well), somebody had set the thermostat between 18C and 24C for the whole time we were there.
The 5 stops each way was the only thing I would complain about, well, that, and some friends I could not manage to see in 3 weeks (including two days of public holidays). I guess being away for over 4 years show how important one becomes in their lives (not much, I guess), so never mind.
It was great to catch up with family and close friends, but after 4 years away I have a few thoughts:
Everybody has become full of ailments in my two closer friends groups. Gosh, we’re in our mid 40s, how bad will it be in a few years?
I would not swap my quiet life in NZ to live back there in a million years. Las Palmas has become a wild, busy place. Driving was challenging, and parking anywhere even worse. And let’s not talk parking costs.
The amount of mental health issues I heard of from friends and their children (teenagers or same age as mine ish) is really worrying. And the worse thing is still the stigma, or the little consideration many people has about it.
Next time, I will stop a night half way through. The marathon of 5 flights in 30 something hours is not worth the effort if you need to recover for two days afterwards (or more)
Just signed my new contract at work This time I am getting a whole year instead of 6 months. Such a nice Christmas present. I was able to improve upon my previous conditions even and that makes me even happier.
