I don't let my 6 YO nephew win games, but I don't play very seriously either. So if it's slightly strategic (like checkers) I pick a piece at random and move it. And we do discuss some of his choices. "If you move that piece, what am I going to do? And if you move this piece instead, what will happen?"

It's more interesting playing something with both my brother and my nephew. Because my brother & I are trying to beat each other, while still giving the nephew a chance.

Among the adults, we vary how cutthroat we are depending on the game. But there's a lot of forming alliances to take down whoever is winning, and bluffing even in games that don't technically require it. Like, consulting the rulebook and making "ooooh, that's interesting" noises just to make people nervous.

I think our family policy is that cheating is okay as long as you confess (i.e., brag) after the game is over. Oh, and I think that there has to be some risk of getting caught. If you're the scorekeeper you can't just write down the wrong numbers; that's no fun at all. We don't actually cheat that often; it's just that when someone does, it's kind of awesome.

Yeah, there was plenty of blood drawing in the midwestern gameplaying circles I inhabited. We were just polite about it afterwards.

Liese, the nintendo cards were part of a Connie Willis Yuletide fic I just read!

Too funny! I would never have thought it was so ubiquitous! Hee.

Yeah, there was plenty of blood drawing in the midwestern gameplaying circles I inhabited. We were just polite about it afterwards.

No lie. Same with the Southerners I play with.

There is a family legend that I am a big cheater when it comes to games. This is taught to the young ones as Truth. The fact is my family can't stand it that I often beat them and so they came up with a reason that soothed their egos. So, everytime someone calls me a cheater, I just tell them that if that's what they need to believe to sleep at night, so be it.

I wanna play Chronology!! I'd totally rock that game. Jeopardy had a British History Timeline category earlier this week, and I aced it.

I remember playing canasta with my grandparents when I was around 4th grade or so, and also played pinochle with my aunt, uncle, and parents about that same time.

In high school, the big card game was euchre, but I didn't find anyone who played it until I started working here in the early '90s--a group of guys played every Wednesday in the cafeteria, and I'd sit in as their replacement fourth if someone had to bail.

Pete loves board games, and is VERY competitive. I am not at all competitive. This sometimes leads to problems.

Also, Scrabble is frustrating if you are bad at unscrambling letters AND a hit-or-miss speller. Also, I believe nothing can ever top the Scrabble game where the first batch of letters I drew spelled "vampire".

(Edited for spelling, oh the irony.)

The fact is my family can't stand it that I often beat them and so they came up with a reason that soothed their egos.

Cutthroat Roommate liked to use this excuse, too. Not least because he was very, very good. If he didn't win, he was usually very, very close.

One time a new member of our gaming group brought one of his games over -- something none of us had played before. New Guy didn't explain the rules too well, plus he knew the game, so he wiped up the floor with us in a 6-player game. Roommate, who finished a distant second, grumbled about New Guy cheating. What roommate didn't pick up on was that I almost beat him for second.

Performance appraisal time. hate hate hate. Some of what I wanted to get done with my job is not possible for me to do without work from other people. I can't bering myself to write that.

Some of what I wanted to get done with my job is not possible for me to do without work from other people.

Can you say something like, "There were performance issues that were outside of my control"?

We loved Euchre, too. I learned it on the bus to Philadelphia on a school field trip.

Some of what I wanted to get done with my job is not possible for me to do without work from other people.

You need to write that, though! You need to be appraised based on what you have control over. Otherwise, as far as management can tell, the bottleneck is you. Better to have it down on paper.

I can't bring myself to write that.

How about "Unfortunately, other people aren't as awesome as I am and therefore I couldn't be my usual awesome self."?