So what's new?

Might as well post a blog update...

Not terribly much is new I guess - still playing and designing games, working as a Structural Engineer, playing frisbee, etc, etc. A couple notable items that have popped up recently:

* I have been traveling a bit, and will be doing some more this year - I bought 6 plane tickets in 1 day a couple weeks ago. Here's a brief list of all of my 2011 trips, both done and planned:

-- Lei-Out beach frisbee tournament in L.A. in January
-- Strategicon (OrcCon) game convention in L.A. in February
-- GAMA trade show in Las Vegas in March
-- One Love, one Beach beach frisbee tournament in San Diego in April
-- Spielbany game design gathering in Albany in April
-- KublaCon game convention in San Francisco in May
-- Solstice frisbee tournament in Eugene June
-- Potlatch frisbee tournament in Seattle in July
-- Protospiel game design convention in Ann Arbor July
-- GenCon game convention in Indianapolis August
-- Strategicon (Gateway) game convention in L.A. in September
-- BGG.con game convention in November in Dallas
And it's not unlikely I'll be going to frisbee sectionals and regionals in September/October as well. I don't plan on going to Essen, Germany this year, but there's a decent chance I'll try to go to that next October for Tasty Minstrel Games.

That's a lot of travel! And it doesn't include short trips up to Phoenix, or frisbee tournaments or game events here in Tucson.

* I sprained my ankle at frisbee league - about 4 hours after purchasing plane tickets for the Eugene tournament. I think I have decided to go anyway and hang out with my teammates (not play). I am hopeful that my ankle will be in decent working order by July 1st for Potlatch!

* An old friend I hadn't heard from in a while sent me a FaceBook message out of the blue. He wanted to set me up with a tennis buddy of his, thought she and I would get along. I went to dinner and a laser show with her (unfortunately right after spraining my ankle, so I was on crutches), and she was pretty cool, but I don't really think she's what I'm looking for. This makes me feel shallow to say, but she's older than me which is a turn off, and she has a 12 year old kid which is also a turn off. I kind of want a kid, but I'd want my OWN kid - not someone else's... and I'm kind of afraid I'm getting too old to be starting that project now - I think that's one reason I'm not interested in women my age or older than me. Is that wrong? Also, how do I know relate this information to her without sounding like a jerk, and without just ignoring calls or emails?

* My new game Eminent Domain is being printed right now,  and while we initially ordered 5,000 copies, apparently we've already sold 6,000, so we've ordered another 5,000 copies as well. I'm looking forward to finally having it arrive next month! There's a contest on BoardGameGeek right now to win all of the summer Tasty Minstrel titles (note the snazzy new website!) - 15 great grand prizes! Lots of interest in that so far :)

* More good news about my new game - a Japanese company has licensed it and is printing 1000 copies in Japanese! That's pretty cool!

* I had hired someone to paint my house, and I had 2 options at the time: an expensive one and a cheap one. I have been getting sick of making what seems to be the wrong decision in these cases, and I felt like I normally choose the less expensive option. In this case, the more expensive one was WAY more expensive (fully 2x as much), but they seemed like they were very professional and would do a much more thorough job, so I decided to go with them. I figured that at the very worst, I'd be out a little bit of money - not much in the grand scheme of things, and I'd have a nicely painted house. Weeks later, after paying a hefty deposit, I have decided that I in fact made the wrong decision again. Not only was the cost fully double the other guy (the other guy being a client's painter guy), but it was going to go up about 25% because of some BS about having to dispose of lead based paint or something - something I'm pretty sure painters don't really do. Furthermore, the way that company operates, they schedule jobs in the spring to be done in the summer, so I would have to wait until late May at the earliest to get the job done. I'd already procrastinated - I should have had this done about two weeks after getting stucco repairs! Well, it's June 7, and my house is still not painted, so I left a text message and a voice mail with the guy I'd contracted with that I'd like to cancel and would like my deposit back (seeing as how they have not held up their end of the deal). The other painter would have been done two months ago, and for less than 1/2 the price. I figure if I don't get the deposit back, I'm actually still saving money on the project, but I am kicking myself for having chosen poorly.

* I'm formulating a plan which would allow me to spend a good 2-3 months in Seattle each summer. I guess by "formulating a plan" I really just mean "I would like to do this" and I'm now just waiting for an excuse or justification. I'm hoping that Tasty Minstrel / game design will factor in - if I didn't have to be an engineer anymore, or if I could move to a schedule where I could work as an engineer for 8 months out of the year and concentrate on game stuff over the summer, then I could realistically (and even productively) bring my plan to fruition! I already go to Seattle for about 11 days every year over the 4th of July. So how much different would it be, really to extend that to 2-3 months? All I'd need is a place to stay and an internet connection, and I can work on game design there. In fact, the gaming community is so much bigger up there I could probably get a lot more design work done there than I can in Tucson. I could even drive up there so I'd have a car the whole time as well. Maybe I'll look into that for next year - maybe drive up to KublaCon for Memorial Day weekend, continue up to Seattle for June, July, and into August, then maybe drive to Gen Con (assuming we go again next year), then drive back to Tucson.

That's about it for now...