Bronco! A car game for the whole family!

Over the years, I've tried to leave my mark on society by introducing a new saying or meme that takes the world by storm. Stuff like making the phrase "boss" popular again or making it acceptable for men to wear skirts and carry a purse.

So far - no luck. 

But Rhonda and I came up with a fun car game a couple of summers ago that we've found to be immensely fun and I think just maybe - this one is gonna stick. 

The game is Bronco. 

Genre-wise, Bronco is very similar to the classic 20th-century car game, Punch Buggy. The issue with Punch Buggy in 2024, is that production of the Volkswagon Beetle was discontinued in 2019, and the original style Beetles have been gone since 2003. That means fewer and fewer of these rotund jalopies are left to spot. 

Like Punch Buggy, the goal of Bronco is to spot the target vehicle while out on a drive, in this case, the Ford Bronco, and shout out "Bronco!" when you see it. Being Millenials, and also two people trying to preserve a good marriage, we've taken out the requirement to punch the other player on the arm, but we are still quite verbally abusive while playing the game. If you're the first to call out the Bronco, you get a point. 

But why the Ford Bronco? Why not a Rav 4 or Honda Civic? It all started in August 2022 when Rhonda and I went on a weekend camping trip to Candle Lake. On the drive, Rhonda noticed a LOT of Broncos on the highway, especially around Watrous. And as easy as that - the game began. 

It took a few months of playing to realize just how perfect the Ford Bronco was for such a competition. At its very core, the Bronco is a meme car. Obviously, it all started with the OJ Simpson Bronco chase in 1994. A chase so famous that it kept the dying vehicle line alive for a couple extra years. But the newest lines of the Bronco, released since 2021 lean even harder into its meme status with the Bronco name emblazoned across the grill in 20,000-point lettering. You can read it from a quarter kilometre away. 

That large name badge makes for a very low barrier to entry into the game. At first glance, there's little difficulty in identifying a Bronco because the name is right there. But that simplicity is deceptive and we've found that misidentifying other SUVs is more common than you would expect. The Toyota Land Cruiser's round headlights look much like the Bronco's from a distance, nearly every modern Ford SUV and truck has the same style of rims and newer Jeep ragtops look strikingly similar to a Bronco from behind. And if you get caught calling Bronco on a non-Bronco vehicle - you're deducted a point. This can really swing a game of Bronco. 

We've added the odd rule to the game, mostly for fairness. You can't call Bronco if it's parked. This was mostly to avoid calling the same camped Bronco that you know is coming up - like the one parked on Dewdney Ave E every time we drive by. You also have to point out or describe where the Bronco is so that the other player can confirm. 

We still haven't heard back from the control centre about what the scoring would be if we saw an original, pre-1996 Bronco. They're exceedingly rare these days so I haven't seen one lately. But I'm inclined to think that spotting one should be worth anywhere between 3 and 5 points. I'm leaning towards 5 due to its rarity and difficulty to spot - at least the early editions didn't have that gaudy grill lettering! 

Much like Who's Line is it Anyway, the points don't count and the only time anyone cares is when a Bronco has been spotted. We keep a mental tally on a particular trip but it's forgotten as soon as the ignition is turned off. We do not carry points forward unless it's a long day of driving or doing errands - then we might keep a rough score the entire time we're out. 

Perhaps one of my favourite side effects of this game is how it's wreaking havoc on my social media advertising. Keep Facebook or Instagram open on your phone while you play (but don't use your phone while driving) and soon your feeds will be full of ads for Broncos, tires, upgrade packages and more. Poor Ford Motor Products has spent a small fortune advertising a vehicle to me that I will never buy. 

What is your favourite car game? What do you think the score should be for spotting a pre-1996 Ford Bronco? Will you try and play Bronco with your friends and family on your next road trip? Let me know in the comments! 

Never go back - you can never go back.

It happens every year. I take a couple weeks of summer holiday and by the time it's time to go back, I'm convinced I was never meant for office life. 

Obviously, my view of things has been a bit tainted. While I have been away from office life for 2 weeks and enjoying the pleasures of that absence - I haven't exactly been working either. Sure, I knocked a couple things off my to-do list, but mostly I slept in, smoked a lot and found my creative spark. And it's that creative spark that has me longing for a life that doesn't include a grey cubicle or drinking the corporate culture kool-aid. 

Early in our holiday, Rhonda and I were able to sneak away for one night without the kids or dogs to "trip the light fantastic." Before we started, we checked on each other's intentions and what we wanted to find. For my part, I was looking for insight and connection. And I'll say that in a large part, I really didn't find what I was looking for that night which I did find a bit troublesome. In fact one of my biggest takeaways was that I really spent the night more impaired than inspired - and a bit annoyed. 

One of the landmarks of our rare journeys to the mental unknown is that Rhonda gets a massive case of the giggles and I can't stop making jokes. Or sometimes worse, I'm not even making jokes, Rhonda just finds everything I do funny. It's a delicate balance to walk because after an hour two of laughing until we cry, it gets a bit worrisome. And I'm trying to balance that with a barely functioning brain. 

Fortunately, a few days later, I was able to see that this natural tendency towards humour was something that I need to start leaning into a bit more. I started thinking about humour musicians I've listened to over the years, Tenacious D, Weird Al, Flight of the Conchords and so much more. I've been playing a ton of acoustic guitar this summer and bringing it out at every social event I can but I'm really not bringing anything fresh to the mix. It's just me strumming some old covers with my barely passable cowboy chords. Fun but not fulfilling. 

By last Wednesday, July 17, all the rest and pondering finally clicked in to place and I had what was certainly my most creative day in years - maybe ever. I had put major work into a game design document (for a Minecraft project I'm unlikely to finish), a new humour music project proposal and had written lyrics and music for two songs to use in the humour project. Plus I've got seed ideas for about 6 more songs in my humour project doc and I'm excited to put together a few funny, well practiced songs to start showing people this fall. 

But of course - balance shows up again. I've volunteered to be the team manager for Jonas' pee wee football team and that's very busy right now. Not to mention the to-do list I posted last week, a new promotion at work and my need for regular sleep means that as excited and productive I've been, I'll need to pace myself and not get too far ahead of myself. 

But everytime I see a posting for an open mic, I wonder if I should head out. 

I suppose it's better to be busy than bored and the challenge that the next 3-4 months offers is going to leave me in really good shape to move forward into the new year and beyond this year. And if I'm lucky, I might actually get out to one of those open mic nights sooner than later. 

Intentions, Resolutions and and growth

I took a different approach to the concept of the New Year's resolution this past year, which proved successful. Instead of taking on something that was a change in habit or behaviour, I chose two relatively simple tasks that I've been putting off that are "one and done" tasks that would make me feel overall better about my world and my place in it. Those two tasks were:

• Update my spice rack - my spices were an extension of the setup I started in college. A hodgepodge of bags, bottles and jars with more than a few flavours turned to dust. I updated to two nice wooden boxes with 2-dozen new jars in each.
• Update my closet - just like my spice rack, my closet is an assortment of every dollar store, dry cleaner and inherited hanger I've acquired since college. A few dozen packs of nice wood hangers make my closet look nicer and more consistent.

Certainly, neither job was hard or even that expensive. But they were unnecessary - both systems performed their required tasks the same before and after the change, but they were more mental upgrades for me. "Adulting" as Rhonda and I would call it - actually acting like an adult. 

Part of the commitment was to see the task through completely. I initially didn't buy enough to finish the project - too few bottles for my spice collection and too few hangers for my wardrobe. So it necessitated follow-up visits to the store to fill out the collection and a couple more hours to finish the job. 

I acknowledge that for many people, this is just a Saturday afternoon job but it was a seed for me. Last year was a difficult one as my gout attacks dominated so much of my life and activity. By New Year, I was ready to start taking action to get my shit back together and start feeling better about my world. Changing something unnecessary but still useful seemed like a good start - and I knew it was achievable even if I was limping around on my cane. 

With 2024 over half done and with today being my 43rd birthday, it's a good time to take on a couple new challenges. Why wait until the pit of winter to make something of myself? Plus this is blog post 800 - a nice round number to take stock.

But this time, I'm making a few more intentions and will look a bit more to the future for some of them. 

Short term - in the next 3 weeks

• Get my eaves cleaned and my downspouts fixed - these are overdue jobs and ones that I really need to get my shit together on
• Fix the camper - not just the broken lift cable that threatened to completely ruin my holiday but also do some waterproofing of the shell, lube everything up etc.
• Get a garbage truck to the house - get the pile of crap out of the yard and feel like there's less weight on me.
• Finish building my keyboard - it's mostly there. It works and I enjoy it. But it needs some re-programming and a rebuild to solder a broken lead. 

Mid-term - before the snow flies 

• Fix the deck - replace all those rotted boards, paint and get some lighting up for Rhonda.
• Clear out the garage and basement - this is a bigger job than it first seems. I need to pull back on some of the hobbies I won't pursue far because of my mobility issues. I need to sell off a lot of crap and focus on a few things. 
• Replace everything in my sock drawer.

Long term - 5-year plan

• Buy a cabin/cottage - this is not a new idea or discussion but my commitment to it solidified this week. I realized I have no desire to get a bigger/better camper and that what I really want is a quiet place to have a fire and enjoy some time.

Rhonda and I have already started to discuss what steps we would need to take to realize this dream and for that matter - even see if it's possible. The spreadsheets have already started and we've committed to talking to the bank about starting a savings account to get this done in the next few weeks. The rough idea right now is to look at the market, find out how much a cabin that would fit our needs will cost, figure out what the loan, insurance, taxes and utilities would cost and start socking that money away into savings now. In a few years, we'd have the money for the downpayment and incidentals. It's still a long wait but it would be progress and we foresee having our escape by the time the kids are done high school. 

I do keep to-do lists, both physical and in my head but I think that putting goals down in a forum like this can help make them come true. I hope to report back in a few weeks about my successes and struggles. And I hope that my plan for a cabin takes less than 5 years!

Blogging from the woods.

During the Great Non-Bloggening™, Andrew and I hosted a radio show called The Cockpit. It was a rock-centred show we hosted Thursday nights for about 5 years on CJTR. I enjoyed every minute of doing it but my commitment to helping out, a pandemic, and one of our key players getting traded to Saskatoon for a slice of peach cobbler and a scratched Boyz 2 Men CD spelled the end of the show on Dec 31, 2020. 

One of the fun ideas we had during the show was the Saskatchewan Summer Playlist, a Spotify playlist of songs by Saskatchewan artists. My thought was it would be something great to listen to at the lake or backyard party. Music to listen to under living skies. 

Once the show finished, the paths to new music didn't stop and I wanted somewhere to dump my discoveries. It resulted in my first summer playlist. A pure jam of songs that are already nostalgic only a few years later. 

As I repeated the same tasks for playlists in 2022 and 2023, it's become really quite effortless. Every weekend I check out what is new, add the bangers to the list. Sprinkle in the odd song from a band we see live, heard on the radio or learned on guitar.

Years later, I'm still capturing that lake vibe, I always know it's going to be playing for my family and other people so I often find myself plucking out some of the heavier/screamer bits. But they still get in there.  

While it's not the all-Saskatchewan playlist it originally was, it still does feature its share of local and small artists. I feel unapologetic about my quota.

As I sit in my campsite listening to this year's entry*, I'm proud of what I've put together again. If you take a listen and have a suggestion, let me know! The list isn't usually done until late September. 

* You hear that Pilot from the past all blogging from his BlackBerry like it's a thing? I'm just sitting here in a campsite like it ain't not thang. With like 1998 dialup speeds. And my phone really isn't much bigger, or frankly different or does much new. Some things never change. WAIT UNTIL YOU LEARN WHAT AI IS UP TO IN 2024! Still nothing really. 

A curious event at a football game.

Last Thursday, July 4, I scored some great tickets to the Roughrider vs Argonauts game at nearby Mosaic Stadium. A nail-biter almost to the bitter end, it was great to see Shea Patterson step up and fight through a tough game. 

But what happened right before the game started was more special than a win for a team who weren't expected to win in front of an excited crowd. My dad and your future pope - the infamous Denis Pilon was one of the members of the Living Skies Chorus that sang "The Star Spangled Banner" and "Oh Canada" before the game. Since the game landed on Independence Day, CBS in the US picked up the game for broadcast and in return, both national anthems were sung. 

The video struggles to capture the grandeur of the performance and just how good it sounded in the stadium. What started as a strong, military-sounding performance of the anthems, quickly showed its barbershop roots with unexpected harmonies and a pitch-perfect performance. You could feel the crowd being moved and as an observer who was trying to be quiet to film them - it was a challenge. 

Dad texted before the game to comment on how spectacular the soundcheck was but I don't think he realized how much having 30,000-some-odd people join in would enhance the performance. The sound filled the stadium and surrounded the listener. It was truly a spectacular performance, and one I'm sure they'll be invited to repeat many more times. 

I was grateful that my Aunt and Uncle didn't feel like coming into town for a Thursday night game so I could experience it in person! Plus, it was a perfect night for a football game and the Riders looked good - all the way to the end of the game. 

Have I ever told you about Minecraft?

I was thinking about how long it's been since I last blogged regularly. It occurred to me that it's been so long that my love of the game Minecraft has never come up! I often think about how my journey started, and how 15 years later, I still play it like it's new to me. 

My Minecraft journey is tied to YouTube throughout, so it's little surprise that my journey starts there. I can't remember what website I saw it on but they wanted to share a laugh about this video:

I immediately knew it would come to dominate my life. And looking back 15 years later, it's gone exactly as predicted. 

I bought my first, and to date only, Minecraft licence sometime that October, during the Alpha 1.2.0 Halloween Update on Java. I remember it being $5 but the Wiki says it was closer to $12. I can't find an invoice email so that's lost to time. Andrew was an early adopter with me. In an email search on my computer, I found the earliest remaining email in my inbox from that time was of the HindenBURN in November 2011. Fire seems to be an early Minecraft theme. 

I played solo survival early on, learning the basics of the game from Sea Nanners on YouTube.   All that remains of that first world and that first base for me are a few screenshots from December 2010

Like most early adopters, I followed the game's creator, Notch, on his blog. I found an early crash report I made where I rather gush about the game knowing that he's likely to read it:

To: support@mojang.com

Dec 10, 2010 

Greetings - was just changing the graphic setting from Fancy to whatever the alternative is - it locked up for a bit then sent this message.

LOVE THE GAME, my whole family plays together - wish we could have multiple avatars/names under my one account. 

Exciting times.

By January 2011, we'd ventured into multiplayer. Andrew was sharing snapshots of his online builds with me. (Stolen, again without permission).

I have a trove of snapshots from a server - whose name is now lost to time - with an early castle I built. It contained my first Minecraft organ, an invention I'd return to many years later. 

I started a multiplayer server in December of 2011 - aptly named "Pilot's World" that about a dozen people played on at its peak. The server lasted about 3 or 4 years, there were some stumbles and resets, but the "classic era" lasted until early 2014. One of my great regrets is losing the world file for that original world. I made a mistake when downloading the backups and when I went to re-access them - it was gone. I didn't take as many screenshots as I should have - or they're lost on a dead hard drive in a landfill. In any case, all I can find from Pilot's World the Minecraft server - is this video:

Some say he's still chasing that villager to this day. 

After Pilot's World, I played on a server called Kingdom's Cities, which I'm discovering in writing is back up and running. I may have to do some exploring soon. When Kingom's Cities (I thought) shut down in October 2018, I moved to my current home, Simplex. 

My activities in Minecraft are pretty varied. I run a store in the shopping district called EMPORIUM! I found a picture of my first-ever multiplayer shop and... I haven't evolved much in store style. 

First Shop (July 2011)

EMPORIUM! (Dec 2023)

Like most experienced, end-game players, I have an over-the-top base with a million farms and I enjoy participating in server events like build competitions. I've been pushing myself to make large-scale inventions like a playable organ, an original sorting system and even a Minecraft version of curling. 

YouTube is still part of my Minecraft adventure too. I could go through a million early YouTubers I watched but my current staple is Hermitcraft intermixed with a bit of Wattles and Mogswamp. 

Minecraft is a game that provides a vast creative palette with an enjoyable challenge in survival that drives you to solve problems and do more. Adding a multiplayer element gives you a chance to collaborate and show off in a way that provides - so far literally - endless fun. 

I'll leave you with one more screenshot, my most recent build - the S.S. Goo, my entry for the Summer Boat Building Competition. 

I need to get outside more.