Recently when I referred to one of the Other Blogs, Kiss the Culprit, as “my personal Winchester Mystery House,” FOB Knox commented:
Your personal Winchester House gives structure and meaning to your life which otherwise might be missing.
Which I knew, of course, but it never hurts to be reminded.
In fact I have two, the other being the music library on my computer. When we moved into our current house about a dozen years ago, my darling wife commissioned custom shelves for my CD collection (which numbers about 3000 and has held pretty steady since then – I’ve mostly sworn off physical media, for music anyway). When they were finally done and the boxes unpacked I decided it was time to put all of my music in one digital library, which I had never actually done before.
At first I just burned stuff as fast as possible, but I soon realized that was stupid. If you’re not actually listening as you go, what’s the point? So I slowed way down and just accepted that it was going to take A Long Time.
As of this writing, the library comprises 33,380 items that time out at a little over 103 days or 2616 hours. In addition to burned CDs, that includes purchased mp3s, digitized records and cassettes, archived radio shows, and various other miscellaneous items.
At first I started with the letter A and went from there, but as time went on I opened a few new fronts in different parts of the alphabet. 12 years in I’m maybe — maybe! — half done. I haven’t done the math and don’t intend to, in fact I’m not sure it’s even possible to do so. But actuarially speaking, I think I have a decent chance of finishing it in this lifetime. You never know though. I half-expect Apple, which has grown increasingly dictatorial and restrictive over the years, to pull the rug out from under me at any moment with one of the Upgrades That Make Things Worse. But for the time being, I carry on.
In a related matter, I was impressed by an article in the NYT this week about a couple guys who have committed to playing out an absurdly complicated WWII board game that may take them 20 years to finish, or may never be finished at all. The whole thing is worth a read, but here’s how it starts:
War is hell. And sometimes war games can be, too.
Hardcore war gamers and designers like their battles and campaigns to be simulated with scrupulous accuracy and in granular detail. Sometimes this comes at the expense of the gaming experience.
And there is one particularly notorious war game from 1979, the Campaign for North Africa, a board game so detailed, complex and cumbersome to play that it is thought that no one has ever actually finished it (including its creator).
Now two guys from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England, are trying. James Purcell and Andrew Taeger have spent nearly two years just mastering the rules and practicing, and they are ready to start playing the game for real. Finishing it could take decades, if it doesn’t drive them mad first.
They are documenting the challenge in a podcast, “War With a Mate,” which has run for 93 episodes so far. Once again, to be clear, they haven’t actually started playing yet.
And this is the best part:
The real game, which they plan to begin playing on Oct. 30, lasts 111 turns. They have been playing four to five hours a week; at that rate, they estimate it could take 20 years to complete, six times longer than the North Africa campaign lasted in real life.
Since a pet knocking over the game 10 years in would be catastrophic, they have affixed magnets to the five game boards and the more than 1,600 pieces to keep everything in place.
After 20 months of learning, playing and podcasting, the six-turn warm-up game ended in a draw. That might happen in the full game as well. Or the game might have a fatal flaw that doesn’t reveal itself until deep into play….
“It might just grind to a halt because it doesn’t hold up,” Mr. Taeger said. “We might get to turn No. 90 and be like, ‘We can’t.’ That’s a very real possibility.”
How can you not love such an insane, quixotic quest? I probably won’t listen to their podcast, due to the Life Shortness, but I wish them Godspeed. Future Self, if you see this, check in and see how they’re doing.