Tales of the Arabian Nights (the game)

Since I spent all day yesterday at one of my periodic gaming gatherings, I thought I should finally put up a “gaming geek” post :) and tell you all about one of my favorite games. This is one of those old, great board games that came out in the ’80s called “Tales of the Arabian Nights,” published by West End Games (long out of print, but occasionally shows up on eBay).

This is one of the most unique games I have ever played, and if you loved the Arabian Nights, you’ll love this. The board is a mostly recognizable map of the world, stretching from the deserts of northern Africa to Stonehenge, and from Portugal to Tibet. With of course, a few surprises - Aladdin’s Cave, the Valley of Diamonds, City of Brass, Jeweled Fortress. You can choose to play Sheherazade, Aladdin, Ali Baba, Sinbad, or other male and female characters, and choose traits and abilities for them such as minor magic, courtly graces, seafaring, seduction, story-telling, quick thinking, disguise, and lots of other useful skills :)

After that, you set out into the world to complete various adventures. You travel among the cities of Persia and other far-off lands, and along with way, meet with various individuals. Each one you meet, whether it be an angry begger, a sultry princess, or a powerful djinn, must be dealt with in some way - you choose a reaction from a chart of possible responses (for example, you can beat the angry beggar, honor him, steal from him, listen to him, or ignore him).

This leads you to an extensive story-type reference book, where depending on your choices and the skills you have chosen, various things may happen to you - imprisonment, great wealth, learning new skills, being taken to a far-off land, marriage to the princess (not as great as it sounds), becoming honored or reviled, or even a sex-change. The more adventures you have, the more destiny and story-telling points you accumulate, which helps you win the game.

If you ever come over to my house to game, I may try to whisk you off to the land of Sheherazade :) Watch out for the rocs!

Top 22: Classic Hits of the Major Arcana

I just had to share this with you - it’s an album of ’80s hits my brother and sister-in-law made for me on my birthday last year - one for each of the tarot majors. The songs and artists are listed below :) Now I’ve discovered there’s an ’80s tarot online as well, whose origins may be loosely related. It’s fun - check it out!

0. Fool - Jump, Van Halen
1. Magician - Magic Man, Heart
2. Priestess - White Rabbit, Jefferson Airplane
3. Empress - Material Girl, Madonna
4. Emperor - Macho Man, The Village People (hee, hee)
5. Hierophant - Brother Love, Neil Diamond
6. Lovers - Life in the Fast Lane, The Eagles
7. Chariot - Little Deuce Coupe, The Beach Boys
8. Strength - I am Woman, Helen Reddy
9. Hermit - People are Strange, The Doors
10. Wheel of Fortune - The Gambler, Kenny Rogers
11. Justice - I Fought the Law, The Clash
12. Hanged Man - No Surrender, Bruce Springsteen
13. Death - Don’t Fear the Reaper, Blue Oyster Cult
14. Temperance - Ebony and Ivory, McCartney & Jackson
15. Devil - Sympathy for the Devil, The Rolling Stones
16. Tower - Burning Down the House, Talking Heads
17. Star - Star, David Bowie
18. Moon - Eclipse, Pink Floyd
19. Sun - Here Comes the Sun, Beatles
20. Judgment - Solsbury Hill, Peter Gabriel
21. The World - Imagine, John Lennon

Jazz and Spices

Last night I went to the Wynton Marsalis concert in Olympia … oooh yeah. It was great. That band is awesome - hot hot jazz in a very intense style. An amazing piano player and bassist. If you have a chance to see them, don’t miss it. The more time I spend in Olympia, the better I like it - who woulda thunk our state capital would be so interesting. Last time I was there (for a Bo Diddley concert - also very cool), my friend Martha and I wandered around and went shopping :)

We found the most amazing store of exotic spices - like an apothecary shop of old only filled with strange spices, truffle oils, hard-to-find ethnic spice concoctions from far-flung lands, mortars and pestles, tiny little tins of multi-colored salts and peppers with tiny little spoons, dried and powdered mushrooms of every variety, you name it, it was there. Stuff that I normally don’t cook with because it’s an incredible pain to make from scratch, like garum masala or mole. I couldn’t resist the white truffle oil or African curry powder with cashews. You end up walking out with little bags of spicy treasures - and to top it all off, if they don’t carry it or combine it just the way you want, you can send them the recipe and they’ll get it or make it for you. If you’d like to try mail-order, you can find it here: Buck’s Culinary Exotica.

Just down the street, we found an entire independent bookstore selling only mysteries. Not too many towns where such a store could thrive in this day and age. And last night I finally got to enjoy my (usually-sold-out) fave Italian restaurant there, Trinacria. Simple, perfect, olive oil and garlic pasta. Hot crusty little breadlings, perfect salad following the pasta. When asked for Parmesan, the waitress recommends Pecorino to go with that specific pasta instead. Not too much of anything, nothing extra needed. Just right :)

Moon lost and wandering - void, of course

As you can tell, I’m a little bit fascinated by the Moon :) I even have a little program that sits in my taskbar and tells me the phase and sign the moon is in, called Lunabar. It also tells me when the moon is void of course - that period of time when the moon is no longer making aspects to other planets before it moves into a new sign. It’s not considered a good time to make decisions, kind of an aimless, useless period.

Lately, every time I sit down at the computer, Lunabar tells me the Moon is void of course. Of course it’s not, really (at least I don’t think so). I just have to wonder what kind of message the Universe is sending me - I’m experiencing emotional aimlessness??

At the moment, the moon is in Cancer, which is not my favorite sign for the moon. It just amplifies all its emotional qualities and mood swings. If there’s anything to cry about, I’ll be crying. In fact, sometimes that’s how I KNOW it’s in Cancer, if I’m crying for no reason or over-reacting. So I suppose it’s just as well that my subconscious at least thinks it’s void of course. I’ll have to fix this before it goes into Leo, though :D

The best candles

Since I moved into my new house, I’ve gotten interested in color and scent. For the first time, I could do anything I wanted with my space! So my walls are now painted dark sage, light sage, cream, burgundy, blues, lavenders, and even a deep purple master bath :) Maybe that triggered other senses, because I also decided I wanted some scents in my house.

Now I am not one that likes perfumes, incenses, or anything strong. I can’t handle patchouli, and I don’t like artifical scents of any kind. I gravitate toward milder herbal and flower scents, like rose, sage, lavender. Soaps and candles have been the main instigators of scent in my house, along with roses from the garden. It’s easy to find all kinds of artisan soaps and candles these days - I have one wonderful deep blue soap with a silver wolf howling at the moon, that has hematite and other clean and metallic smells. Now if only people would use them more and release the scents!!

I wanted to share a candle company that I think is really something special. I’m a mineral collector also. I like rocks and crystals in their natural forms, and have all kinds of bits and pieces around. These candles have not just scents - not even scents exactly. What they have are herbs and bits of rock mixed in - what seems like hundreds of varieties, each combination aimed at a particular goal. As the candle burns down, the pieces of crystal become exposed. I’ve taken to putting bits of rock of my own that match in the dish, to get incorporated into the melting wax.

What I like about these candles is that they are made with intent - and their intents are very specific. You can find them at Sweet Spirit Candles. They will even make custom orders - the mind boggles. I purchased candles for moon phases, meditation, life tranformation. Now those are burned down and I am about ready to enter a new phase. Time to visit and see what they have to offer!