“There is good in him. I've felt it.”

 

Although I've never been a serious autograph hunter, over the years my modest science fiction collection has come to include a few personalized items:  my recent William Gibson autograph for Agency, the autographed copy of The Difference Machine that my friend Norah gave me as a birthday gift a few years back, and my mirror reversed Ursula K. Le Guin signature.*  Now, thanks to Karli's sister Lisa, I have an autographed set of the Epic Yarns Star Wars adaptations created by Holman Wang and his brother Jack- well, I should say we rather than I, given that both our names appear.

After meeting Holman Wang at an event in January (and buying us the first book in the Epic Yarns series as a gift), Lisa invited him to be a keynote speaker at one of the learning conferences that she produces for teachers in British Columbia, and asked us if we would like to have him autograph his books for us.

We somewhat cautiously agreed - we're fairly typical Canadians, which makes us reluctant to bother people - and Karli handed over the books the next time she saw her sister.

Mr. Wang was happy to provide his signature on all three copies, and although the return of the autographed books was delayed by the current social distancing environment, they're now back in our possession.  Our sincere thanks to both Lisa and Holman!

- Sid

* I also have a set of autographed comics that were written and drawn by my friend Wendy's partner Steven, but that somehow doesn't seem the same. I certainly value those comics, but given that I see Steve on a somewhat regular basis, it's not the same challenge, I could probably get him to sign something every time - although that might get a bit strange after a while.

Pandemic: The Game.

 

The situation is grim, and it looks like the end.  There's been a spike in the spread of infection which seems to have overwhelmed all of the available resources.  No combination of science, medicine, contingency planning or research seems to be able to hold the epidemic in check, and the clock is running out on finding a cure.

Not to worry - it's not the current global state of affairs, but rather the award-winning board game version of it:  Pandemic, created by board game designer Matt Leacock and released in 2008 by Z-Man Games, and followed by several expansion packs and upgrades since then.  (There's a computer version as well, but as the ongoing popularity of board games has shown, there's a kind of social appeal to sitting around a table with people - albeit not at this exact moment in time.)

It's an interesting game to play - my friend Chris introduced me to it over dinner and drinks at the Storm Crow in October of last year, which in retrospect feels a bit prescient.*

Pandemic is played co-operatively - as with our current global situation, it's you and your friends versus a viral enemy, except in the case of the game, there are four colour-coded infectious challenges threatening the planet.

Each player chooses a character role from seven options, each of which has a different set of abilities to contribute to the fight - Scientists need a lower number of cards to Discover a Cure, Medics can eliminate a full stack of virus cubes when Treating Disease, and so on.  The players combine these abilities with City and Event cards from the Player Deck to share knowledge, travel the world, create research stations, stamp out the centers of infection and to seek a cure for each disease.

However, as Epidemic cards are turned over from the Infection deck and the Infection Rate counter goes up, the spread of disease worsens, and as soon as the entire Player deck is used up, it's literally and figuratively Game Over. Players can also lose by using up all of the Disease cubes for a specific colour, or if more than seven Outbreaks take place.

Pandemic has an obvious applicability to our current situation, but if I were Mr. Leacock, I might well make some minor changes to the game's structure - I don't remember using Lockdowns as a control method, and it would be an unexpected wild card to have the United States withdraw funding at the global level.

Oh, and the good news?  Chris and I cured all four viruses and stopped the pandemic on the very last turn.   Let's hope we don't take it that close to the final round in the real world response - after all, we don’t get to play again if we lose.

- Sid

* I had intended to do a blog posting at the time, but somehow I didn't manage to get to it, which seems even more like it was being saved until now.

What not to read right now.*

And don't watch Outbreak, either.  Or 28 Days Later.

- Sid

* In the spirit of previous reading advice.

P.S.  A couple of quick comments.  First, World War Z may seem like a strange choice because it's about zombies, but think about it: would Donald Trump have taken more immediate action if the first person diagnosed with the coronavirus in the United States had started biting people?  Second, busted - I have not read Journals of the Plague Years, and only parts of The Last Man.