30 Miles From Hell

Hi everyone. First I want to say thank you to everyone who has reached out, checked in, and expressed concern about Alex and I. Luckily Long Beach is about 30 miles away from all of the major fires, so we are relatively safe. I say relatively because when asking LB natives about whether we are in danger, the most common response I’ve gotten is a shrug and, “Well, anything can happen.”

The street level view from our neighborhood last week.

The smoke has since pretty much cleared up. Last week, this whole map was covered in either moderate or severe levels of smoke, as denoted by the yellow shapes.

That being said, living so close to an apocalypse is still pretty scary. Most of us out here at least know someone who evacuated, or lost their home. It’s not just something on the news for me anymore, the smoke is on our horizon and the ash is on our windowsill. It’s happening right here, in our city.

On the whole I think everyone is trying to not necessarily keep their heads up, but at least keep them from falling down. There’s nothing you can do to a wildfire except to do your best to keep on living. And our show is too precious to let a fire in the theater put it out.

On today’s menu we have:

• Some practical advice for creativity

• The first Liquefold Question Corner

• Bonus Manga

Thanks for tuning in, everyone. I know you have a lot of choices for spending your time, and I appreciate that you spend it on me. Enjoy!

Some practical advice for creativity

I have had some people ask me recently where my creativity comes from, how I can have so much of it, etc. Almost every interview I’ve seen with an artist asked this question gets this response:

I have no goddamn idea.

At the same time, I firmly believe that creativity can be practiced and nurtured. How do we do this? Unfortunately, I think the answer really is as simple as it seems. If there is something you want to do, some endeavor you want to embark on, or some change you want to make, then you must do it. The time has run out for excuses. It is not too late. You must start now.

“But I could never ___.” This is a response I get when telling people about the most important part of my practice, writing three pages of stream-of-conscious longhand each morning. This technique comes from Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, where the “morning pages” are supposed to be completely stream of consciousness, as quickly as possible, whatever you are thinking, without editing, simply what is on your mind, as quickly as possible, yes just keep writing and when you start to think about how the toilet is broken write about that too and don’t you dare skip wondering why you dreamt about bananas or that thing you said that was really stupid yesterday and you wish you could just crawl in a hole and roll around in your own poo and you write what is on your mind, and when you’re done, you shut the notebook, never to look at those pages again.

I often write about things that are bothering me, try to work out solutions to problems, or sometimes just whine. But I almost always feel noticeably better afterward, more energized to face the day. I cannot recommend Cameron’s book enough.

I am now going to say something that might sound a little harsh, but I think is true: when you say that you “can’t” do something, what you really mean is that you are afraid to. And it’s okay to be afraid. But if we’re being honest, you could do it.

Of course, there are people who literally can’t write three pages of longhand, and not everyone needs to want to. But for those of you looking to be more creative, I hope you’ll be honest with yourselves. You can thank me later.

The Liquefold Question Corner

Last month, I called for reader-submitted articles, images, poetry, etc. If you have thoughts about a very specific thing, took some fun travel photos, or anything in between, please send them to halenwmasaki@gmail.com with the subject line ETL SUBMISSION. I am also looking to answer reader-submitted questions sent to the same address. Please send me things!

Scenes of Japan by Sela Masaki

Our first submission comes from Sela, who is studying abroad at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto.

Kukuru is a takoyaki joint in Osaka.

A little-known fact is that Paris is actually in Japan.

Legend has it that if you pick this guy’s nose, he’ll give you free sushi. Mysteriously, all the people who say this have nicknames like “stumpy” and “four fingers.”

There’s always been something very beautiful to me about the juxtaposition of Japanese civilization and wilderness.

Trees in autumn were a common subject for Hasui Kawase, one of my favorite ukiyo-e artists. Above is “Nanzenji Temple in Autumn,” 1951.

Thank you, Sela! I hope you send us more pictures from Japan! Next is a piece from my friend Shan, who I met through the board game group in Long Beach.

“So how was your threesome?” by Shan Cholakian

I was surprised when I got a text from Valentina out of the blue.

A year and a half prior to receiving the text, Valentina and I were leading new hire orientations for our company. She was making it really hard to stick to my “don’t make friends at work” rule. We slowly started getting to know each other because her kindness was infectious and her laugh disarming. I learned that she was born in Russia, the problems at her last workplace, and about her husband Austin.

I really liked Valentina, but by the time lockdown started in 2020 we didn’t realize we weren’t going to be working together any longer. We went fully remote, worked on projects outside of each other’s areas, and shortly after I found a better paying job and left without saying much goodbye.

Here I was, looking down at this text. I wish I remembered the exact text but it essentially was: “Hi I miss you, hope you’re well” and “Would you and your partner be down to play games with Austin and I at our house sometime.”

Which left me with the following thoughts:
1. The partner that they’d met at our company’s 10 year anniversary party is now my ex. Would it be weird for me to go alone? Are there a lot of 3 player games?
2. Why now?

That’s how I ended up at a dining table in Lynnwood, WA. They made me dinner, and I got to briefly hold their couple month old child. I had no clue she was even pregnant when I left the company.

After dinner Valentina took the baby to bed, and I saw this as an opportunity to get to know Austin better.

Me: “Thank you for having me over, it was so nice to hear from Valentina since it’s been so long. I was surprised to receive the text.”

Austin: “Yeah well once we had a kid and Covid started we learned that most of our friends were anti-vaxxers. We were thinking about who would be safe to have around the baby that would also play games. We figured since you’re in the alphabet mafia that you’d be a little more… Covid conscious.”

That’s when I realized that I was only there for two reasons: because I like games, and because I am queer.

Even though it was a very strange social interaction, I was intrigued enough to stay. Valentina joined us shortly after and Austin showed me to the glory of his home. He opened the door and revealed a 15 feet deep closet lined with three Kallax bookshelves (the standard for board gaming) full of games. I stood in awe, looking at all the games I’d never even heard of before.

“You like games, right?”

“Yeah I like games”

“What games do you like?”

“I like the Game of Life and Phase 10”

“…”

I could taste his disapproval. Not exactly laughing at me, but I definitely got the sense that the games I listed were not considered games in his book at all.

“Tonight is a test”

I thought him calling my queerness “alphabet mafia” was the weirdest I was going to get out of him that night, but I was wrong.

“…what do you mean?”

“To see if you’re fun to play with. If we want to play with you again.”

I proceeded to ask follow up questions about what they were looking for and anything I definitely shouldn’t do. I got the sense they wanted a gracious loser and a kind player that wasn’t afraid of the hard stuff. I set out to be exactly that.

He pulls out a warm-up game, a game that takes 20-30 minutes. Then he pulls out a larger box, a game that takes 45 minutes to an hour. Both games I play to the best of my ability, asking questions about the strategy behind moves. In a way I was testing them as well- I appreciated that they were willing to explain their thought processes through game decisions and not just force me to “fuck around and find out.” This allowed me to be on equal footing on every turn, which actually lead me to win the warm up game.

At the end of the night I thanked them, they thanked me, and I drove home. I got the text invitation the next day asking if I wanted to play games every week. I passed the test!

We proceeded to play games weekly for a couple of months. I was so impressed by Austin’s ability to assess his shelves, pick the games that felt right for the night, and then (without reviewing the rules) explain how the game is played in a very succinct and straightforward way. I brought a game to share one night and totally bumbled my way through the explanation. Austin laughed at me, and I appreciated his artful explanations all the more. Valentina was a fierce competitor, easily underestimated and often taking strategies I wouldn’t usually take. It was a delight to show up on their doorstep with cookies and then get pampered with dinner and games.

One night Valentina went to bed early and Austin and I played 2-player games. We played a game called Targi that I bought for myself at the local game store. I listened to him talk about their excursions to board game conventions and the fancy upgrades he purchased for games he loves. I was appreciating the different mechanics of games more and more. I liked so much more than Life and Phase 10 now.

During a time period where I was in quarantine and contact tracing for me and my bubble (2 roommates), regularly playing games with Covid-conscious-new-parents-that-needed-adult-socialization was incredible. Unfortunately we started playing right as I was deciding to move back to California. Five months since our first night was our last, and we finished out with a four hour game of Scythe. We had to move the game night to a weekend for that one.

Last Wednesday I arrived at the Wicked Wolf early. I had three games from my collection- Scout as a warm-up, Cat Lady, and Rolling Realms (a game Austin showed me when I visited them in Seattle earlier this year). I was able to grab a table and wait for players to arrive. People filter in with their short stack of games as well. They put on name tags for the benefit of new folks since most of us know each other pretty well after repeated weeks of the usual suspects.

At my table is Alex and two players that are fairly new to the group. Alex and I have played together enough that I know he and I have a similar stamina for games. We will easily play 2-4 games from the 6-11pm time slot. Some people come in and play the same game for the whole time, and while it’s fun to do once in a while, I now know enough about my enjoyment of games that I like to mix it up.

I show the table Cat Lady, explaining the rules quickly and without looking at the directions. I show them Scout, knowing from my experience teaching this game in the past that it’s best to do one round where everyone can see each other’s hands. I pass the baton to Alex to play one of his short stack, and our new members hadn’t played Ticket to Ride so we play that. When our new players leave to relieve their babysitter I ask Alex what other games he brought.

Out comes Three Sisters, one of my all-time favorite games. Not a common find, one either has to special order the game through a game store or be very lucky to be in a store that has one in stock. Austin showed me this game at one point and I immediately went to find it at local game stores in California with no luck. When I visited Austin and Valentina the year after I moved to CA I stopped in the local Seattle game store and bought all three of their copies- one for me and two as gifts.

I can’t help but beam at seeing it in Alex’s stack. Not only because I like it, but because it was my fault that it’s in the stack. Austin showed it to me, I bought it for myself, I then brought it to board game club where I played it with Alex. Here it was now, Alex’s own copy he bought for himself.

When I decorated my new place, I knew I was going to have a prominent board game shelf. Unlike Austin’s hidden closet collection, my white Kallax is on display in the living room— filled to the brim with games of all kinds. There’s even a little dedication to my favorite classic game, The Game of Life, because despite me loving newer games I still love the games I was raised on. I update Austin and Valentina whenever I play a new intriguing game, and we compare them to other games we’ve played all together. I remind them that it’s all their fault that I have a board game collection in the first place, that I go to a club on Wednesday nights, that I consider what games I’m going to pack in my suitcase alongside my clothes. My partner Joy and I even play games on planes now!

Moral of the story: if a coworker you haven’t spoken to in a year and a half invited you over to eat dinner and play board games, do it. It may just change your life.

Thanks, Shan! That was awesome!

BONUS MANGA

Sakamoto was the world’s best assassin… until he met the girl of his dreams and opened a convenience store with her. But when a dead comrade somehow puts a billion-yen bounty on his head, will Sakamoto be able to keep his sleepy lifestyle? Or will he have to kill again to protect his family? Yuto Suzuki combines Jackie Chan action comedy, lovely slice of life, tear-jerking drama, and an expansive political landscape in my favorite manga since Chainsaw Man.

I have been practically inhaling DOGSRED by Satoru Noda, a manga about a figure skater who turns his Olympic ambitions to hockey after his mother’s death. So far this is a lovely book about the hopes and struggles of a very human cast, all with individually funny eyebrows.

The character roster for our DCC campaign. Notice that there are only two states: dead, and soon-to-be-dead. Thanks to the sacrifice of St. Dan the Martyr, all lawful characters get +10 luck points. All chaotic characters may make a DC10 luck check to see if they receive Dan’s blessing.

I have a couple of half-baked things that I had originally planned to push out this week, but didn’t quite make it. Maybe next week you’ll hear about my first drawings in January and a defense of the downtrodden. Thanks for reading everyone, and I’ll see you next week!