Tuesday, December 2, 2014

It took an ancient board game...

When it comes to technology, I'm a late adopter. Like, super late. This is in part because I value being able to disconnect, in part because planned obsolescence infuriates me, and in part because I'm immune to techno-lust. I simply don't understand why I need it until much much later than everyone else seems to think they need it.

Anyway, about 6 weeks after I started playing Go, Significant Other and I were sitting outside a coffee shop on a beautiful sunny autumn day. Preoccupied with the game as I was, I began mentally designing a kit that would allow me to play Go, outside, anywhere, with a minimum of equipment. A board and stones was out, obviously; way too bulky. A pen and paper would work, except I'd need to erase for killing stones, so better make that pencil. Oh, and two different colors of pencil, one for each team. Feeling satisfied, I concluded that a small pad of grid paper, plus one red and one blue erasable animation pencil would be the smallest kit I'd need.

Then I rejoined the 21st century. Obviously any reasonable person in this day in age would just get an app. While I technically owned an iPad (it was a gift), so far my habit had been to leave it next to the computer at home, defeating the purpose of a mobile device. The next day, I downloaded SmartGo and spent a perfectly lovely afternoon in the grass at the park playing with He Who Gives Nothing Away and He Who Tells Stories. Now my iPad comes with me everywhere. Thanks, ancient board game, for helping me get (more) with the times. Now, about that flip phone...

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