Car dealer, Valiant Hearts and Regina Spektor
We took our second car to the dealer. Their best guess seemed to be AAA gave us a defective battery. So, supposedly the car is fixed. We’ve thought that before, though. I might try to tough it out with my sciatica.
Anyway, let’s do (Cell) Culture Talk. Here are some of the things I’ve been playing, listening to and watching.
Game — Magic: The Gathering Arena. I’m having increased success with my Big Green Robot deck. I don’t know if it’s just later in the month, so the competition is less steep, or if I’ve made genuine improvements. Probably the former. Anyway, I made it back to Mythic in the Standard rankings.
The current iteration of my Big Green Robot deck is solely made up of artifact creatures and land. I got rid of all the enchantments. It includes four copies of Haywire Mite, Iron Apprentice, Patchwork Automaton, Simian Simulacrum, Foreboding Statue, Rootwire Amalgam, Cradle Clearcutter, Cityscape Leveler and Clay Champion.
Game — Valiant Hearts: The Great War. This puzzle adventure is set during World War I. As the cartoonish art suggests, the tone can be silly, but it also can be surprisingly somber. There’s a lot of history you can learn along the way. The playable characters include a French prisoner of war, an American volunteer, a German recruit, a Belgian nurse and a Red Cross dog. I loved it!
Music — Far by Regina Spektor. I discovered this singer-songwriter around the time What We Saw from the Cheap Seats came out, when I was going through a rough patch. I enjoy that album, but I think this is the one that has the most of my favorites of hers. It’s too bad the Strokes, who I’m also a fan of, apparently influenced her decision to give up vegetarianism.
Sports — Knicks beat Pistons, 117-104. Julius Randle had a huge game. The match-up was a little more competitive than it should have been and the final score suggests. Detroit hung around and I was worried they might steal a victory.
Sports — Knicks lose to Raptors, 123-121. That was a wild, hard-fought matinee. Unfortunately, it seemed like New York ran out of gas in overtime, on the second day of a back to back. The officiating didn’t help.