Brent P. Newhall's Blog: 21st Century Renaissance Man: Page 39

A Brilliant Design: The AWANA Game Circle

By Brent on 6 November 2008

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So, there’s this Christian children’s club, called AWANA. When it was founded in the 50’s, its creators wanted to include athletic games in each evening’s schedule. They wanted to design a system that let the kids have fun, without encouraging cut-throat competition.

So, they designed the AWANA Circle, one of the most ingenious designs I’ve ever seen.

It’s a 40-foot square, within which is a 30-foot circle. Each side of the square is a different color: red, blue, green, and yellow. Diagonal lines (one of each color) cross the square. There’s also a six-foot square in the center.

The kids are divided into four teams, one for each color, and they stand just outside the square, on their color line, facing inwards. Most of the games are running games, which involve running around the circle. So, each kid positions himself just outside the circle, next to the diagonal line, and at the starter’s whistle, runs around the circle a certain number of times. After the last lap, the runner goes into the middle of the circle, where a bowling pin sits atop a bean bag. Whoever grabs the bowling pin wins first place, and whoever gets the bean bag gets second place.

Okay, seems fine. But think about this:

Because of the four-team design, kids aren’t focusing on one opponent. One week, Green wins; another week, Blue wins. Kids can compete without obsessing.

Moreover, choosing colors for team names depersonalizes them a bit. There’s no magic in being defeated by Blue Team, compared to being beaten by the Cougars or the Wolverines.

And because there are four teams, in a larger group with several dozen kids, that narrows down each team to a relatively small group. Kids don’t get lost and forgotten in a huge team of twenty.

The system also encourages creative game design. One of my favorites is bean bag relay: one kid on each team is in the center of the circle, while eight team-mates line up just outside the circle. The center kid tosses a bean bag at each team-mate, who tosses it back, in sequence. This requires attention and precise muscle control; you can’t throw it too hard or too softly. A significant challenge for an eight-year-old.

Another: bean bags are spread around inside the center square, and ten kids on each team line up just outside the circle. Each one is assigned a number. The game leader calls out a number, and that kid (on each team) runs in to grab as many bean bags as possible.

AWANA provides a number of implements, too, like batons, bean bags, and pins. But their simple nature is another important design element: kids aren’t collecting anything of intrinsic value; they’re not trying to grab candy bar, or win better treatment. It’s all just a collection of points. And kids pick up on that. If AWANA kids lose, they’re disappointed, but they shrug it off more quickly than other teams I’ve seen.

Imagine: competitive, physical games that don’t encourage ten-year-olds to get hyper or highly competitive. What a design!

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Save Yourself Time With Google Maps or MapQuest

By Brent on 5 November 2008

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I recently looked into adopting a dog from the SPCA. It fell through, but during the transaction I was surprised by something.

The SPCA requires an in-home visit to verify that the house is safe for the dog. When I gave the SPCA representative my information, including my home address, she asked me for directions to my house. As in, turn-by-turn directions. I was surprised, but provided them.

A few days later, I received a phone call from the SPCA rep who’d actually be visiting. She asked me for turn-by-turn directions to my house.

I was floored. Could neither of these fine people use Google Maps or MapQuest? Just type the destination address in the search box, click Search, then click the Get directions to here link, type your home address, and click Go or Add Location. Boom! You have complete, turn-by-turn directions to wherever you’re going.

It’s easy, it’s free, and it saves everyone time. Why not use it?

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What I Like About Tabletop Role-Playing Games

By Brent on 4 November 2008

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I love role-playing. This is odd, since I only started role-playing a few years ago. And yet I’ve loved it since I was a young boy.

My older brother was a role-player. He played D&D, and Car Wars, and others, I’m sure. After he died, I looked over his few remaining hand-written materials. I was amazed at his creativity, not thinking at the time about how much of his stuff may have been copied from published work. Either way, he definitely loved it. Even if it was all copied from published books, it was lovingly and carefully copied.

I was drawn to the idea of role-playing, of thinking up an adventure and living it in my mind. I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy at the time, so I was naturally attracted to the idea of collectively imagining an exciting adventure.

But I was also shy, so I never had anyone to role-play with. Not until I was in my 20’s, when a few co-workers involved me in a short game of Nobilis, then I found a few younger friends for whom I could run games. And when I did, we had an absolute ball. That’s when I realized what I love about role-playing.

I didn’t own any role-playing source books, so I found and printed the simple Sherpa rules. They’re brilliant; you can easily create a character and write up him or her in five minutes. They focus on simple conflict resolution, so we spent most of our time playing around instead of rolling dice.

We played a rip-roaring game of low-level mafia thugs in a science fiction setting, which culminated in a city-wide mafia war involving giant walking tanks. Then we moved to a short-lived heroic Greek fantasy game, then a D&D-inspired game before the group fizzled out.

Role-playing requires a huge imagination and a little guts (to yell “Och, y’not be wantin’ to double-cross a dwarf, laddie!” to your friends). The result is a collaboratively created story, which can have everything from pathos to action to comedy, and in which you are involved. You’re actually driving the story in whatever direction you want to take it. If it’s not fun, you can make it fun.

As a GM (Game Master), I present the world, situation, and antagonists facing the players. So I get to create a world—or at least simulate one—which I love to do anyway.

A fun, imaginative game where everyone is actively involved and collaboratively push each other to greater and greater heights of story and personal interaction? What’s not to like?

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Why I Host a Halloween Party Every Year

By Brent on 3 November 2008

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I want to explain just why I host a Halloween party.

I mean, I do love Halloween. It’s my favorite holiday. It’s one of the few times in the year when fantasy and a belief in unexplained phenomena are socially accepted. It’s a time when we can all believe that the world contains at least a few things that science can’t completely explain.

But I don’t love parties. Oh, I enjoy myself at them, but I’ve always been a shy person. Social interaction requires an effort for me. It’s much less of an effort than it used to be, but I still groan inwardly when I imagine going to a party.

Nevertheless, the longer I live, the more I realize that we live in a social world. Our relationships matter, not just in a deep spiritual sense, but also in a hard-nosed practical sense (how many people do you know who got their jobs because a friend recommended them?). Our connections with others not only net us valuable friends and business associates; it satisfies a deep inner need to be heard and be important to other people.

So, every year, I host a Halloween party with as many of my friends as I can invite. It grows every year, and I get better at hosting parties each time I do it.

I also grow closer to friends that I rarely get a chance to talk to, and they get to talk to some of my other friends.

It’s a win-win-win. Always well worth it.

Have you thought about hosting a party for a few friends? Something informal, just a chance to get together and chat. Please reply with your experience. Hasn’t it always been worth it?

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Pumpkin Spice Cake with Caramel Cream Cheese Frosting

By Brent on 1 November 2008

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Okay, I’ll admit it: this is pulled straight from an issue of Bon Appetit.

I’m only willing to deal with a certain amount of complexity in a recipe, and this one is right at the far edge of what I’m willing to do. The cake itself is easy, though I usually go with boxed cake.

I balked at the frosting. Which is not even difficult to make; it’s just that it involves a significant amount of effort just to make…frosting. Especially when I have a foolproof frosting recipe (dump a box of powdered sugar in a bowl and add hot water in spurts, stirring, until you get a spreadable frosting).

Anyway. I made it, and it does make a delicious cake, with a surprising mix of flavors. The caramel cream cheese frosting feels pleasantly complex on the tongue, and the cake feels smooth, dense, and very dessert-like.

It’s worth the effort, for me, though this will probably be relegated to the “once per year” category.

At least I conquered the frosting.

Prep time 1.5 hours, total time 2.5 hours, plus 2 hours to chill the frosting

Software

The Cake

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground allspice

¼ teaspoon ground cardamom

1 15-ounce can pureed pumpkin

1 ½ cups sugar

1 ¼ cups vegetable oil

4 large eggs

2 teaspoons finely grated orange peel

Chocolate chips (optional garnish)

The Frosting

1 1-pound box powdered sugar

½ cup plus 1 tablespoon heavy whipping cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon salt

1 8-ounce package cream cheese

¼ cup (½ stick) unsalted butter

Hardware

Large bowl

Mixing/blender bowl

Small frying pan

To make the cake, preheat the oven to 350° F, then prep two cake pans (I spray ’em with cooking spray, and cut out circles of parchment paper and lay them inside, and spritz them with cooking spray). Whisk all the dry ingredients except the sugar in a bowl. In the mixing/blender bowl, beat the pumpkin, sugar and oil until combined, then add the eggs 1 at a time. With the mixer at low speed, slowly add the flour mixture just to blend.

Divide the batter between the two pans, and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 33 minutes (note that one layer may bake faster than the other). Cool in pan for 10 minutes or so, then invert on a wire rack and completely cool. Wash both bowls.

To make the frosting, first put the cream cheese and butter out on the counter. Sprinkle ½ cup powdered sugar into the small pan. Cook over medium heat, without stirring, until the sugar melts, then stir occasionally until the sugar turns a beautiful, deep amber color (should only take a minute or two). Carefully stir in ½ cup cream, vanilla, and salt (watch for spattering). Stir until any caramel bits dissolve. Stir in remaining 1 tablespoon cream. Strain, if possible, then cool the caramel to room temperature.

(I didn’t really have anything with which to strain the caramel, so I didn’t. I’m a rebel. Had no problems.)

Sift remaining powdered sugar into the mixing bowl, then add the cream cheese and butter, and mix. Gradually beat in the powdered sugar, then the cooled caramel. Cover and chill in the fridge until firm enough to spread, about 2 hours.

Now, assemble the cake. Trim excess off the top of each layer, put the first layer down, and spread slightly less than half the frosting on it. Let the frosting ooze down the sides, then firm it up. Put the top half on, and spread the remaining frosting on it. Use a knife dipped in hot water to spread the frosting; much easier.

Optionally, sprinkle chocolate chips on top.

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Classic Horror Movie Week, Day 5: The Old, Dark House

By Brent on 31 October 2008

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I’ve saved the best for last.

I stumbled on this film on an internet search for classic horror movies. It was made in 1932, directed by James Whale (Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Show Boat, The Man in the Iron Mask), and produced by the great Carl Laemmle, Jr. (Frankenstein, Dracula, The Mummy, The Invisible Man, All Quiet on the Western Front), and stars a first-rate group of actors. It doesn’t matter who they are; they all play their roles perfectly.

It starts with the hoariest of scary movie cliches: a couple folks are out driving in a terrible storm, and take refuge in an Old, Dark House. At least they aren’t horny teenagers, I suppose.

The house’s tenants hide dark secrets, of course, which are slowly revealed over the course of the night. It feels like a stage play, at times, and I mean that as a compliment; I felt the stage’s intensity as characters faced off.

One relationship shifts dramatically in the course of the night, and that was part of my big surprise. This being 1932, not that far into the talkie era, the film industry’s code of decency hadn’t quite solidified yet. As such, not only do we see a woman change out of a dress, wearing only a short shift beneath it, we’re treated to this bit of dialogue from a girl describing her boyfriend:

Gladys

He gives me a little money. Oh, not very much, just enough to keep me going. You probably won’t believe me, but…Bill doesn’t…he doesn’t expect anything. D’you know what I mean by “anything?”

Bill	Yes, I know what you mean by “anything.”

Remarkable. We all know exactly what she means, but it’s entirely implied.

In any event, the dark secrets are revealed, one by one. And it’s done masterfully. The dread just builds, and builds, and builds, until a final climactic confrontation. There’s nothing magical or fantastical about it; no ancient spells or science fiction hand-waving (though the family is said to be under a curse). It’s just personalities, people, some deranged and some afraid and some grimly determined to get through it all.

A tremendous film.

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Classic Horror Movie Week, Day 4: The Mummy

By Brent on 30 October 2008

Okay, this review is predicated on a surprise, but it’s a surprise that happens ten minutes into the movie. So I feel justified in explaining it, since it’s the core of what I liked about the movie.

The classic The Mummy begins with a group of standard British archaeologists, enthusing over a new find: a mummy (Boris Karloff) and a sealed box, of which the former was buried alive, and the latter should contain the Scroll of Thoth, which was supposed to bring the dead back to life.

The older archeologists argue over what to do, the younger archaeologist opens the box, and the mummy comes to life and grabs the scroll. Of course.

We then cut to ten years later, to the son of the head archaeologist in that scene, who is now digging in Egypt like his father did, where he is approached by…Boris Karloff. Not wrapped in mummy bandages; just standing there, physically frail but psychically overwhelming.

So the entire movie is about the revived mummy, now walking about Egypt like any man, using his powers in a desperate attempt to revive his long-dead lover. Of course, there are complications, and a surprisingly effective love story in the center of it, as is common in any 1930’s movie.

Which is what makes it so effective. It’s not about a shambling, dusty corpse; it’s about a driven man, blessed with ancient powers, and the normal humans who try to oppose him. It’s a contest of wills, and Karloff plays a man of such intense will that he steals every scene he’s in. He has immense gravitas; he practically glows with it. My eyes were drawn to him in every scene.

Even the ending contains a bit of a surprise; the mummy may have succeeded in something rather horrifying.

Overall, it’s a surprisingly effective movie, mostly because of Karloff’s performance. A great little film.

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Classic Horror Movie Week, Day 3: The Wolf Man

By Brent on 29 October 2008

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Watching The Wolf Man was a strange experience for me.

I first saw The Wolf Man in bits and pieces when I was in my early teens. I really enjoyed the tense mood and varied characters. I was in a phase of my life when I was watching a lot of black-and-white films, so I appreciated that type of movie: simple, direct, and reasonably well-acted.

Upon re-watching it this week…it doesn’t hold up. While it is simple, direct, and reasonably well-acted, the plot itself just drags in places. It’s a great example of pacing problems. The story’s fine; the editing and pacing just aren’t tight enough.

It does play successfully off that perfectly horrible fear of loss of control. The protagonist can feel his sanity slipping away, almost as soon as he contracts lycanthropy. He’s constantly haunted by it. He’s a decent man, and tries to be reasonable, but he knows what he’s doing. And how can a person stop himself?

Unfortunately, the plot mires itself in side stories which distract from his path towards the beast, rather than highlight or enhance it. As sweet and poignant as the love story is at times, it slows the movie down, and does little to bolster it.

But it does feature some solid performances and genuinely creepy moments. Worth watching.

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Classic Horror Movie Week, Day 2: The Masque of the Red Death

By Brent on 28 October 2008

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Vincent Price. This is why Vincent Price is such a great horror movie actor.

You may have read the original Poe story, in which a corrupt prince holds a party at his manor, despite the raging plague outside. Price plays the prince in this 1964 film version, which has been expanded into a study of evil.

And it’s a solid little story, really, as Price’s character brings in an innocent young peasant woman with great Christian faith, and shows her the decadence of his life and that of his peers. He’s completely given himself over to Satan, explicitly, and enjoys needling the girl with a faith completely opposite to her own.

There are a few sub-plots dealing with the girl’s lover, the plague-ridden peasants outside, and another baron at the masque, which serve mostly as interesting highlights to the main story. I was particularly thrilled by the bit with Skip Martin’s character—a jester-like little person—who wreaks vengeance on a noble for his treatment of Martin’s character’s wife. Besides Price, Martin’s the best actor of the bunch.

The film was directed by Roger Corman, which I initially took as an ill omen. Actually, the film looked just fine; perfectly competent directing. That said, for such a gothic concept, I felt like it could’ve been shot much more imaginatively, giving the film a creepier, more intense feel. This is meant to be horror, and much of it was filmed like a stage play. That may be more the fault of the cinematographer Nicolas Roeg, though, who went on to direct some interesting things but I think fell flat here.

Despite the rather staid look of the film, it’s definitely fun to watch, especially to watch Price be delightfully evil all the way through.

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Classic Horror Movie Week, Day 1: The Thing From Another World

By Brent on 27 October 2008

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This week begins Classic Horror Movie Week, where every day I write about a classic “horror” movie, leading up to Halloween on Friday. Um, that’s Halloween the holiday, not Halloween the movie. Anyvay. I watched all these movies for the first time this week, so you’re getting a fresh perspective.

I’m starting with Howard Hawks’ The Thing From Another World, often called just The Thing. The basic plot involves a group of military and scientists at an arctic research station, who discover a crashed UFO, and recover a body. It thaws and comes back to life, and attacks them. Cue frenzied gunshots and general mayhem.

What’s remarkable about this film is how taut it is. It’s populated with half a dozen standout characters, each with distinctive personalities and viewpoints. One driven scientist insists that the creature is too important of a scientific discovery to kill, even if it’s attacking them. One soldier is just plain freaked out by the thing. A reporter is always asking for information or complaining about the news blackout. The hero keeps a level head, of course, though he has his unsteady moments.

And they all interact. Some of the characters become antagonists, but never villains. They just all have different motivations.

Take that scientist. He becomes a real blockade to the hero, but his opinions make complete sense. He’s not crazy; he just believes that the scientific discoveries possible from researching this alien are more important than their lives. Understandable.

Apparently, the creature never looked scary enough for Hawks, so he did the next best thing: it appears briefly, and then usually from a distance. It’s effective, really, turning the movie into more of a noir piece. You fear the bad guy (whether the mob boss or the murderous alien) because the movie builds up to him.

Overall, I was impressed. It’s a solid little film, full of fun, interesting characters and a taut, fast-paced plot. Like the best of the noir films, if nothing else it’s an exhilarating ride.

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