Here’s what I wrote in 2009 about weekend fun.
The way I like to lead my life is basically Epicurean: “Epicurus believed that the greatest good was to seek modest pleasures in order to attain a state of tranquility and freedom from fear as well as absence of bodily pain through knowledge of the workings of the world and the limits of our desires.” I live for fun. But I try to emphasise the social side of my modest pleasures: I like to have fun together with people I love, not at the expense of others. Call it the Golden Rule.Now, my work is largely fun, but still I distinguish between work-fun and non-work-fun, because I am by character pretty dutiful and work-fun is sort of related to my livelihood. And of course I have non-work duties that aren’t always fun, and I have to fight an urge to let duties take over my spare time, because that makes me unhappy.
In an effort to increase my fun (and hopefully yours), I’m going to run a weekly feature here for a while: Weekend Fun. I’ll write about the fun I have during the weekends (so I’ll remember those activities better), and I’ll ask you to tell me about yours (so I can copy you). This is serious business: remember that it’s about the purpose (I won’t call it “meaning”) of my brief life!
My reporting of fun has lapsed lately, but here’s an update about a particularly good weekend I just had.
- Played boardgames: Mykerinos (about early Egyptian archaeology), Verräter (about warring highlander factions) and 6 nimmt / Category 5 (abstract, but ostensibly about cows that you want to avoid acquiring).
- Went skiing on the golf course with my wife, my favourite logic lecturer and Jrette, who has never before joined us on such a long skiing outing and still did not complain.
- Read Arika Okrent’s excellent 2009 book In the Land of Invented Languages.
- Saw a great exhibition of beautiful Medieval bronze and terracotta sculpture from the Yoruba city of Ife in Nigeria.
What did you do for fun this past weekend, Dear Reader?