My Life

Positivity

2012-01-24T21:29:00.000-07:00

I think I'm going to try a new thing where I concentrate on the good aspect of things rather than the bad all the time.

Recent Movies and TV

2012-01-09T03:34:00.000-07:00

I have not seen much in the way of movies lately, but I've watched a lot of TV, some via DVR, some via HuLu, and some via Netflix. Here's a little rundown:

Movies
Showtime had a free preview weekend, so I DVR'ed a few movies that looked interesting. I just watched a relatively poor movie called Momentum about Telekinetics. It was from 2003, and I didn't like it as much as the more recent Push. I saw Push at about the same time as I saw Jumper, a movie about teleportation, and I think that was about the time I saw Next as well, a movie about precognition. So I guess I can file Momentum under "mediocre movies about supernatural abilities." The plot of Momentum was not terribly dissimilar to that of X-Men, come to think about it...

Another movie I DVR'ed from Showtime last weekend was called The Con Artist. I thought it would be about a con man, but in fact that title is a pun - it's about an ex-convict who becomes an artist. Get it? I didn't care too much for it.

In the theater not too long ago I saw the new Muppet Movie. I never really liked the Muppets before, I guess I didn't view them as a big part of my childhood like others seem to have. Therefore this movie didn't really speak to me at all.

When it was in theaters I also saw the remake of Footloose. That I liked. It was neat comparing it to my memories of the original.

TV on Netflix
I subscribed to Netflix a while ago - 1 DVD at a time and unlimited streaming for $10/month. Last September or so they decided to raise their rates by 60%, and recently I decided I wasn't getting much use out of the DVD portion of the subscription so I canceled that. I kept the streaming for $8/moth, and here's some of the stuff I've been watching on it:
* Sherlock - This is a recent re-envisioning of the Sherlock Holmes stories set in modern times, and it's really, really good. It's by Steven Moffet, one of the guys who wrote some of the recent Doctor Who episodes. There were only 3 episodes of Sherlock, each about 88 minutes long, and I eagerly await more. I heard that there's a new episode out, but doesn't appear to be on Netflix yet.
* Daybreak - A 13 episode, 1 season show from 200... imagine if Groundhog Day were a cop show where a detective was being framed for murder, and while he relived the day over and over, he collected evidence to solve the conspiracy against him. I really enjoyed the show, and highly recommend it if you like cop shows.
* Torchwood - A British sci-fi show by Russel T Davies - another guy responsible for the recent Doctor Who. In fact, Torchwood is a Doctor Who spin-off, and if you notice, "Torchwood" is an anagram of "Doctor Who." I watched the first season and I didn't like it NEARLY as much as Dr Who. The first episode of Season 2 was MUCH better, but I might quit watching it if it doesn't prove more worthwhile pretty soon.

I stumbled across another British show on HuLu a while ago called Misfits. It's kind of like Heroes or Alphas, only without the "hero" aspect. It actually seems rather pointless, but I guess that gives it an excuse to just be ridiculous fun! I don't know, it's just awesome - I just wish they'd use their 'powers' more.

TV on TV
Believe it or not, sometimes I still just turn on the TV and see what's on. I'd heard a lot about Big Bang Theory and how great or funny it is. I saw an episode once, and I'm not sure I like it... Now that it's on TBS they've been showing several episodes in a row almost every day it seems, so I've seen a lot more of it. Sure, it's kinda funny sometimes... but at the same time I find it somewhat insulting.

Keeping up wih the Joneses

2011-12-04T14:30:00.002-07:00

Indiana Jones marathon on TV today. I am not watching the whole thing, but I've got The Last Crusade on in the background right now, and it continues to be one of the best movies ever!

Dallas for BGG.con, stupid nagging injury, and etc.

2011-11-27T02:02:00.000-07:00

I don't know who reads this blog, but in case you're out there and wondering what I've been up to...

I spent a week in Dallas at BGG.con - a game convention put on by the people who run boardgamegeek.com. I've been every year they've put it on, since they began 7 years ago, and it's my favorite convention of the year. I got to see a lot of friends both old and new, I got to play a lot of games, and generally I got to have a lot of fun. My friend Steve (from Hawaii) came to Tucson for a week after, and we got to hang out and play more games for another week!

I love the holiday season, as there's a lot of fun to be had. I usually dislike the relative lack of frisbee compared to summer, but lately I haven't been missing it - maybe because I've got a nagging leg injury that doesn't seem to want to go away :( I think it might be something with my IT band, but I'm not sure. This couple of weeks off seems to have helped a lot, but I can tell it's not 100%. Maybe I'm just getting old :/

In other news, my game Eminent Domain seems to be going over very well. People enjoy it, and Tasty Minstrel Games has started selling into the 2nd batch of games that were printed. I really enjoyed seeing people playing the game at the convention last week.

Evie was happy to see me when I got home from my week long trip - I can tell because she followed me around all week, and even slept in my bed - she hasn't done that since she was a kitten!

Oh, and I found out that I'm going to be an Uncle again! Come April, my nephew - who calls me Uncle Jump-jump - is going to be a big brother. Renee, Matt, and Jonah are coming to visit next month. Jonah is about 2.5 years old now, and I look forward to having actual conversations with him :)

So there you have it. things are going well around here. Happy Thanksgiving!

About god damned time!

2011-09-29T12:26:00.000-07:00

I have good news!

After 10 months of waiting for artwork, manufacturing, and shipping... experiencing delay after delay for one thing or another and disgruntled fans and customers (both reasonable and unreasonable)... I am ECSTATIC to report that people are FINALLY starting to receive their copies of Eminent Domain!

Maybe now that people are receiving their copies, I can start hearing about how much they love the game or how happy they are to have participated in the kickstarter campaign, rather than a seemingly endless deluge of criticism for things that are outside of my control (criticism because people didn't receive a shipping notification via email, on top of Mike's announcement that the warehouse had begun shipping the games? Really?)

In reality though there are a lot of international supporters who still won't get their copies for a while due to shipping logistics, and I'm sure there will be a number of people who end up not loving the game, and posting about how sorry they are to have supported it in the first place, and of course people who are dissatisfied with the extra Kickstarter Exclusive item added at the last minute for one reason or another. It makes me wonder why anybody goes through the effort of creating anything creative, ever.

Thank God I still enjoy playing Eminent Domain, because the amount of pain and suffering is quickly approaching the amount of fun I've had designing and playing the game int he first place.

The long wait is finally over... for some people anyway

2011-09-26T14:29:00.002-07:00

Last week I got news that the boat had landed, and all of Tasty Minstrel's games had arrived in the warehouse (ahead of schedule for once)! I was sworn to secrecy, but today it was announced that the Kickstarter copies started shipping out last Friday! That means people in the eastern US will probably be getting their copies any second now, while people like me on the west coast will be receiving their copies in the next couple of days.

I know the international orders will still take a while to arrive - I wish there were a better system for that. Hopefully there will come a time when TMG has a distribution partner, or a warehouse, in Europe and some of each print run can be sent directly there rather than sending it back and forth across the globe.

I have heard that our exclusive surprise for Kickstarters DID make it into the shipments, so Kickstarter supporters should be receiving those along with their copy of the game.

I look forward to seeing reviews, session reports, and strategy posts at BGG and Boardgaming.com starting to pop up this week!

In other news... My friend David (designer of Ground Floor, coming soon from TMG) helped me put together this official rules sheet for the Bonus planets:

This will be available in the files section of BGG as well as on PlayTMG.com in the near future. I think it looks great, and I love that it matches the rulebook.

Kickstarter Chronicles - Part V: Our influence on other projects

2011-08-30T00:23:00.000-07:00

If I had been on the ball, I would have started a series of blog posts about my Kickstarter experience with Eminent Domain. I would have called it The Kickstarter Chronicles, and it would be in several parts. I did not do that, so instead I'm going to pick up in the middle. I'll include a complete outline, and maybe one day I'll go back and fill in the missing chapters:

Part 0: What is Kickstarter?
Wherein I learn about an interesting new crowd-funding website, and implore Tasty Minstrel Games to use it.

Part I: Designing our first KS campaign.
Wherein I try to optimize pledge levels to offer desirable rewards in a cost effective way.

Part II: Running the campaign.
Wherein I observe several different ways of promoting a Kickstarter campaign, what worked, and what didn't.

Part III: Production post campaign.
Wherein I discuss the learning process of producing a game on a larger scale than expected, and the growing pains involved.

Part IV: Complaint department.
Wherein I enumerate lessons learned in customer service, and observe what Kickstarter means to the people pledging.

Part V: Our influence on other projects.
Wherein I note specifics of recent Kickstarter projects which appear to be a direct result of the events involving ours.

Part VI: The final word.
Wherein I form an opinion on the Kickstarter campaign after it's finally over - will I consider it a success? Would I do it again? What would I do differently?

Part VII: The future of Kickstarter
Wherein I examine earlier thoughts on the evolution of Kickstarter as a tool to fund board game publication, and form an opinion about whether I think it will be worthwhile, or even possible, for us to use it again.

Part V: Our influence on other projects

In the previous chapters I discussed (or would have discussed) a few different things about EmDo's KS campaign. We were not the first to successfully fund a game on Kickstarter, there were several games before us... most notably Alien Frontiers by Clever Mojo Games. Their campaign was a rousing success, bringing in almost $15k - 3 times their target amount. Of course, their target amount was low - probably a lot less than it actually cost to print the first run, which I believe was only 1000 copies of the game. The first run was such a success that the first run sold out immediately, and some people even had trouble obtaining pre-ordered copies.

I definitely wanted to learn from that experience, take what I thought worked well for Clever Mojo and avoid what caused problems. So my project was clearly influenced by others before me. As it turned out, through some confluence of quality, strength of character, coincidence, good marketing, or just dumb luck, Eminent Domain not only me but surpassed our lofty goal of $20k - bringing in an unprecedented $48k for a board game! After that performance, it only makes sense that other projects would look to ours, try to choose what we did right and avoid what we did wrong in order to enjoy their own success.

Well, that was then, and this is now. There has been an explosion of KS game projects, some well run and some not - some successful and some not. Until recently I could only see influences from our campaign itself in other, newer campaigns. Only now, 9 months later, have I started to see more lasting effects of things that have transpired (see Chapter IV), and the influence that has had on other projects. Here are a few things I've noticed about some of the new Kickstarter projects, where I see they may have been influenced by our experience, and in some cases my opinion on them.

Looking at some of the more successful recent projects: Flash Point: Fire Rescue, Glory to Rome Black Box Edition, and Carnival, each of which has surpassed their goal by a lot. One thing I see that may have been influenced by Eminent Domain is this: Tiers for multiple copies of the game. We included:
* A tier for a single copy of the game, for those who simply wanted to pre-order themselves a copy,
* A tier for 2 copies, for people who wanted to go in with a friend (this would save us money on shipping)
* A tier for 3 copies that was a better deal all around (cheaper per copy, Limited Edition) than the 2 copies, to encourage people to go in with *2* friends
* A tier for 6 copies - specifically intended to facilitate overseas orders

While the specifics vary, all of the current heavy hitters seem to have adopted a similar structure. Also, in-game real estate for a high dollar amount, like the planets and tech cards in Eminent Domain, went well for us, and I see it popping up in some of the current campaigns as well (such as Clever Mojo's new Sunrise City project).

Something that's decidedly different however is the number of different trinkets, exclusive items, and bonuses. I think giving everybody a little something more (i.e. adding something additional to the game) at certain thresholds after meeting your goal is a great way to encourage people to get their friends to pledge! However, for logistical reasons I think offering handfuls of different options will prove to be very difficult and potentially problematic. As for exclusive items, well - I've written about this elsewhere - I don't think they're a good idea at all... there's a setup cost involved, and once you've paid that, if it's not game content, then I think it usually makes more sense to add the item to the game altogether rather than making it exclusive. Give the value-add to all of your customers, not just a select few. And if it IS game content? Well, the thought of an ever growing group of people who will be forever unable to access all of the game content is just terrible!

I've noticed the following disclaimer at the bottom of a couple KS projects lately:

From DiceHateMe's Carnival project:

Without our Kickstarter Backers, DHMG would not be able to bring quality games to market. To show our respect and appreciation, DHMG promises that backer copies of Carnival will be shipped out before copies are available for purchase at retailers or conventions. DHMG also pledges that any reward marked as promotional in our Kickstarter campaigns will never be offered for sale in stores by DHMG, either alone or as part of any product.

And from Clever Mojo's new Sunrise City project:

We recognize and appreciate the important role that our Kickstarter Backers and Springboard Retailers are playing in the launch of Sunrise City and the success of Clever Mojo Games. Therefore, we make the following promises to you:

The promo cards and tiles noted as EXCLUSIVE will remain exclusive. We promise not to sell them individually or as a set, and not to include them as a part of any game expansion or re-printing. Once the Kickstarter Backers and Springboard Retailers have received their exclusive items they will NEVER be re-printed.
Sunrise City will be shipped to Kickstarter Backers at least two weeks before the items are available for purchase at ANY convention or store. Actual delivery dates will vary depending on your local postal service.
Stores who participate in Game Salute Preview Nights for Sunrise City will receive a preview copy for their Game Library in advance of the scheduled release date.

Both of these games look like fine products. I have read the rules to Carnival, and it sounds like a solid, lightweight filler. I don't know much about Sunrise City, but based on the video it looks like a fun city building game (I have fond memories of Sim City)... I have nothing against either of these projects. I bring this up merely to point out that, although potentially a coincidence, these "Our Pledge" sections appear to me to be in direct response to what has happened recently surrounding Eminent Domain (again, see Chapter IV).

So it seems that we've had an influence on the current crop of KS projects, but not necessarily in a positive way - more in a sort of "cover your ass" or a "what not to do" way. The two biggest complaints that cropped up about EmDo were that the "exclusive content" ended up in all of the first run boxes, and that the games were available for purchase at Gen Con when the KS supporters had not received theirs yet. I absolutely cannot fault either Dice Hate Me or Clever Mojo for taking that route - for including exclusive items and for promising that the supporters will get their copies first - that's clearly what people expect and/or want for their pledge (see Chapter IV again). They're not pre-ordering a game, and they're not helping a small company get off the ground... they're shopping for trinkets and exclusive items.

On the down side, this propagates a dynamic that I think is bad for the industry - exclusive game content - and it also degrades the efficiency of Kickstarter in the first place - trinkets. Things like pins and ball caps cost money to make and money to ship. Enticing someone to add $10 to their bid in order to also get a hat that costs you $9 a unit to make, well that's not getting you very far. when I was researching rewards for my KS campaign, I also found that a lot of people did not seem interested in a hat, or a t-shirt, or even a poster print of game art - and here I thought those were all great ideas!

So it remains to be seen whether a small company or self publisher will be able to succeed on Kickstarter the way *I* think they should be able to - offering people the opportunity to pre-order a game and help it get off the ground, or if it will be a novelty emporium for gamers to shop around for trinkets and exclusives. Is there room for both of those types of projects on Kickstarter?

Brain Freeze iPad app is live!

2011-06-27T01:57:00.000-07:00

It's been in the works since December, and finally it's done... the Brain Freeze iPad app is in the App Store! It's a free download, so give it a shot and let me know what you think!

So what's new?

2011-06-07T16:57:00.001-07:00

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...

The Plan

2011-06-07T16:57:00.000-07:00

I just posted this as a bullet point in a life update post, and I thought I'd break it out - mostly so I could find it again. I like the sound of this more and more, and I don't see why I couldn't implement it next year.

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.

For those that don't know, "d6" means "six sided die."

2011-05-06T15:03:00.001-07:00

I've never tried embedding a video into a blog post, but I saw something on FaceBook which I think is the best thing since Weird Al Yankovic's White and Nerdy...

Roll a D6 from Connor Anderson on Vimeo.

I'm a fan of song parodies in general. A good parody doesn't mess with the cadence or syllables in the original, and stays true to the rhyme schemes. Furthermore, a good parody doesn't just replace various words or phrases in the original, but maintains a story or structure of its own. I think these guys really did a great job with this one. Check it out and enjoy!

A sweet, romantic story

2011-04-19T17:06:00.000-07:00

Sorry to mislead you with that title, nothing sweet or romantic has happened to me lately. Rather I have contrived a sweet, romantic storyline (like the plot to a book or movie) inspired by something mundane that happened to me the other day at the airport. First I'll describe what happened, and then I'll go on to tell you the entirely fictional story plot. I was hesitant to post this because I am always concerned my friends and family will read too much into it and think I'm talking about myself or something, but suffice it to say that in my story, the main male character is merely based on exaggerations of me, and is in fact completely fictional.

So here's what actually transpired:
On my way back from Albany I had a layover in Chicago, and as I meandered around Midway airport from one gate to the next, my mind started to wander. I was thinking, as I sometimes do, about meeting women (and in general, why I seem to have such problems with it), and I joked to myself "what are the odds I meet my future wife in some foreign airport?" Of course I then started devising some fantastical situation that would have to occur in order to make that happen. turns out it's not that terribly far fetched - I told myself "I dunno, maybe someone completely awesome could be moving to Tucson, and they happen to be going out there on my plane..." Then I pretty much forgot about it and started thinking about game stuff from the weekend.

Then, when I got onto the plane thy were saying that it would be full, and rather than be stuck in a middle seat between 2 random large people, I noticed a seat between an average sized woman and a very skinny young girl, so I chose to sit there. Also, the girl was kind of cute, a bonus but not really relevant.

At some point the young girl and I started to talk, and managed to talk almost all the way to Tucson - she was a high school senior who would be going to the U of A next year to study biological engineering and robotics, and she was going to visit her future roommates and see where she'd be living or something. I kept thinking to myself that this girl was really smart and neat and interesting, and it was too bad she wasn't 10 years older.

It came up that she liked games, her boyfriend really loves Puerto Rico for example, and her to-be roommates were apparently gamers, so I gave her a BGDF business card I had on me and told her that if she and her friends wanted to get involved in the gaming community, I could hook them up, as that's kind of my thing.

Finally, we got to Tucson and went our separate ways. She never actually introduced herself, so I don't suspect I'll be hearing from her ever again, which is fine, but as I drove home I thought about the "too bad she's not 10 years older" comment and came up with this completely fictional story...

The story begins with an older, single man (kind of like me!), thinking about how he'd like a relationship, meeting a very young girl who embodied many of the things he'd hoped to find in a woman, but was far too young for a relationship to even be an issue. They meet on a plane, connect over stories, and the guy says to himself "too bad she's not 10 years older - she'd be perfect" or something like that. He gives her his card because they share some common interest and they part ways.

Next would be a scene where the girl is entering her house or something and the business card falls out of her pocket. The door closes and the camera (if this were a movie) pans down to show it on the ground. The next scene would be the next morning or something, the girl leaving the house, opening the door to notice the card on the ground. Picking it up she would comment - something like "oh, I must have dropped this" or, looking at the card thoughtfully, something like "that guy was interesting - maybe I'll call him after all." and then going on with her day.

Moving on to a scene where that or another night the guy is checking messages and gets one from the girl saying that she and her roommates are interested in doing whatever it was that common interest was (so if it were me, we're talking about taking them to a game night). So they do that, have a good time, etc. and after the girl and her friends leave, a friend of the guy asks where he found her, he answers about the plane, and the friend says something to the affect of "too bad she's too young for you, you guys really hit it off!"

Then the story jumps forward, flipping back and forth between the lives of these 2 people. She comes back for school in some crazy advanced quantum physics (she's super smart, which is one of her endearing qualities to the guy), the two of them become friends (not at all romantically, just friends), and each of them have their personal problems. He can't find what he's looking for in a relationship and becomes more and more depressed about it as he gets older, she has her own troubles, basically in relationships with guys that don't treat her well. At some point (consoling her from a break up perhaps) he tells her ow great he thinks she is, and how he's always thought they'd make a great couple if they were more age appropriate. Both are generally unhappy with the romantic aspect of their lives. The two become very good friends, and as the years go by and the guy gets more depressed about his romantic situation, the girl feels bad for him and finds herself wishing they were from the same generation as well.

I mentioned that the girl's studies were along the lines of crazy advanced quantum physics... as her PHD project she thought she'd found a way to approximate time travel. I think of it like the kinds of things you see in movies like Deja Vu, or Timeline - the ability to end an item through time, but very sketchy reliability, and not nearly safe enough for a human trial. About a decade after the two characters meet, the girl is finishing up a prototype of this device, and by then she's a bit sick of her own relationship problems, and is bothered by the depression of her friend (maybe he was so depressed that he committed suicide? Or something else terrible happened?) so she decides to do something somewhat drastic. So that nobody questions what's happened, she creates a situation to make it look like she's been in an accident, so people will think she's dead (like burning down her house or something), and like in Deja Vu, when Denzel Washington ill advisedly gets into that contraption to try and go back to save that girl - our heroine uses her prototype time machine to send herself back in time to the day the two characters met. This should come across in the story like a pretty big deal, there's no going back for her, and there's no guarantee that things won't go terribly wrong, either with her plan (see below) or in fact with the whole of space time (Great Scott!)

Back at the beginning of the story, the woman sits in a car at the airport parking lot and watches the younger versions of herself and her friend come out. Following her younger self, she sees the prior scenes repeat, up to the point where the camera panned down to the business card on the ground. Once the young girl was safely inside the house, the woman sneaks up and takes the card.

The next morning, the scene repeats from earlier in the movie, except this time when the door opens there's no business card on the ground to remind the girl of the guy she'd just met. without noticing, she goes on with her life, never calling the guy, and while she may remember meeting him, she never gives him a second thought.

However the woman, knowing the guy would like her (and knowing that she in fact likes the guy), takes the card and manufactures a meeting such that they become friends. Sure enough, before long the guy realizes how great he thinks the woman is, counts his lucky stars that he's finally found the type of person he's been looking for, and they live happily ever after :)

Every time travel movie has its paradoxes, so in this one the fact that the 2nd iteration of the girl never goes back in time - well, we'll just gloss over that. Instead that woman just sort of appears out of nowhere, and there are technically 2 of her running around - but since the young girl never met the guy other than on that plane, it never comes up. Maybe it can be explained away with fake science, like the timeline the woman came from never happened, but since she did exist and has moved into this time, she still exists, independent of the events that brought her into existence (and the fact that they no longer exist). it's all very high level physics, and you're not supposed to understand it ;)

The point is that it's one of those impossible fantasy love stories about 2 soul mates who were born out of phase with each other. Like The Lake House perhaps, though I never saw that movie, so maybe I've got it wrong. The thing I think is interesting about my story is that while normally these movies are about a boy 'saving' a girl, this one is the other way around... the girl is the one who does the saving.

So that's the story. Not terribly deep perhaps, but I think it's sweet. Maybe someday I'll work on it some more and see if i can't turn it into a real piece of fiction writing or something.

Spam Blog Comments

2011-04-02T20:31:00.002-07:00

I've got news... if "Anonymous" posts a comment, and it has no discernible content, then I'm not approving it - even if it doesn't advertise shoes, handbags, erection meds, or other sundry links.

Why does spam even work? Who the hell clicks on it? If nobody ever clicked on any spam link or responded to it in any way, it would eventually phase itself out. That it hasn't is evidence that it is working! Do your part, IGNORE SPAM.

And spammers, quit posting comments in my blog, and signing up on my forums to post your crap. You suck!

Kickstarter is pretty cool

2011-04-01T21:45:00.000-07:00

I may have mentioned that I successfully raised $48,000 to publish my new game on a website called Kickstarter. Since being turned onto that website sometimes I've noticed some really cool things popping up on there. As yet I haven't backed any projects that have completed, but I'm currently backing 2 projects:

Rolling Freight
Eminent Domain was not the first board game to get funding through Kickstarter, but it may have been the first big success story (actually, I think Alien Frontiers was). Ever since the success of Alien Frontiers and Eminent Domain, a number of board game publishers have turned to this new found source of funding. Right now I'm backing Rolling Freight, partly because I suspect I'd enjoy the game, and partly because I support the Kickstarter format, so while I won't commit to backing just any old game project, since I thought I might want this game I decided to back it despite the fact that it's fairly pricey.

The project has funded already, and I have a couple of days to change my mind if I want to - which I may do because I don't like their pricing tiers. I don't normally buy games at all, and certainly not at full price. Tasty Minstrel Games has offered really good deals for pre-orders and Kickstarter supporters, so I might ought not to support a game that's going for full retail on Kickstarter.

Cosmonaut iPad stylus
Another (non-game) project I'm currently backing is the Cosmonaut - a stylus for the iPad. You can already get a stylus, but they are all shaped like pens. Pens are for writing on paper, but a tablet is more like writing on a dry erase board - it's low fidelity, you can't rest our hand on the tablet, etc. So the theory is that a more appropriate and comfortable form factor for an iPad stylus is a dry erase marker. These guys are raising money to produce a stylus that feels more like a dry erase marker. The same guys raised over $100,000 to make an accessory for the iPhone, and they've already funded this project as well. Seems like useful accessories for popular iDevices is a really smart thing to do, and Kickstarter will get you over the barrier to entry (large startup capital)!

Two months

2011-02-27T22:45:00.000-07:00

Two months since the last post... I haven't had much to say I guess. I haven't done any thinking about New Year Resolutions at all, which kind of disappoints me. I've also not been concentrating on losing weight or exercise, which also kind of disappoints me.

On the bright side of things, Eminent Domain is about to go to the printers - all the illustrations are done and the rulebook is getting some finishing touches. I will be very happy when that goes to the printer - I guess it'll be time to start working on the 1st expansion soon!

I just got back from Los Angeles for OrcCon, where I had a lot of fun. Sadly then I got sick - flu or maybe food poisoning. Feeling much better now though.

Upcoming travel: I plan to go to GAMA trade show with Mike again in March, and I'm also planning on going to New York for a Spielbany meetup (game design group) in April. Berkleyish for KublaCon in May, and of course Seattle for Potlatch in July. I havven't made any SPECIFIC plans for any of those trips yet, but I am planning on going and therefore I guess I'd better get on the arrangements!

I've got 2 Tasty Minstrel submissions which I like, got to figure out if they'd make good 2012 releases. One is like a cross between Railroad Tycoon and Roborally - I'm enjoying that a lot. The other is an economic game.

Well, that's the update.

Cutthroat Box Office

2010-12-28T15:11:00.001-07:00

I have been thinking a lot about Pirates lately - mostly due to the board game Merchants and Marauders which came out recently . I got a copy the other week and have played it a few times - it's probably the best pirate themed board game I've ever played (not too hard - most of them aren't good), but more amusingly, the game is near-identical to thoughts I had on the subject. I wasn't actively working on such a game, but I have a notebook full of thoughts about it, and Merchants and Marauders does everything I wanted to do.

Anyway, in thinking about that game, the other day I went to YouTube and listened to some piratey music - themes and scores from pirate movies such as Pirates of the Caribbean, and an old favorite - Cutthroat Island. this reminded me of that movie, and how it was the biggest flop in motion picture history. I never understood why that movie bombed so badly - tanking the production company, Geena Davis' career, and Hollywood's willingness to create pirate themed movies altogether for almost a decade. A little poor acting/accents notwithstanding, the movie had everything a great adventure fan could ask for - rousing sword fights, narrow escapes, family feuds, adventure, excitement, and pirate treasure.

There are lots of movies out there with bad acting and bad accents (see the first several Harry Potter movies) which haven't put people out of business, so how did this particular movie flop so spectacularly?

I don't know, but in thinking about it I realized that I don't have the DVD in my collection, and I'd like to. For such a "terrible" movie, it's surprisingly hard to find a copy of the DVD - you'd think it would be on the racks at Bookman's or something.

EDIT: I called Bookman's on Monday and they told me they did not have Cutthroat Island in stock. I stopped in yesterday, and found that they had 2 copies on the shelf. So unless they took in 2 copies of the movie and got them organized and on the shelf in about 20 hours, then someone didn't know what they were talking about.

The good news is that I now have the movie, and will likely watch it tonight.

Stuff I want to do, revisited

2010-11-29T00:51:00.000-07:00

1 month ago today I posted about a few things I would like to do. Time to check in and see how that's going:

* I would like to go back to Acapulco for frisbee again next January.

Well, I WOULD like to return to Acapulco, but next month I have decided to go to Lei-Out. a beach frisbee tournament in L.A. instead. I've gone the last 2 years and had a great time on both occasions.

* I would like to go to Protospiel in Ann Arbor next July. I've never gone because it generally occurs too close to my annual pilgrimage to Seattle for the 4th of July and Potlatch. Maybe I should just go anyway.

This is still a possibility.

* I want to go back to New York again, I think in April. My Uruguayan friend Ariel will be back in he states at that time, and there'll be another Spielbany gathering going on. I'd also like to see my cousin Rachel again now that she's a big star! That is, if she has time...

This too is still a possibility, and I'd really like to pursue it!

* I'm going to BGG.con in a couple of weeks, and while I'm in Dallas for that, Bo Burnham is having a show at the Palladium. I'd like to go see that show.

I had a GREAT time at BGG.con this year. I got to hang out with Brian, I got a lot of recognition on my new game, and we sold 70+ copies of Train of Thought. However, when it came time to go to the comedy show, Brian and I decided to just hang out at the convention and play games. Hopefully I'll b able to see Bo Burnham's comedy on Comedy Central or something.

Criticism, how not to do it?

2010-11-27T13:02:00.001-07:00

A friend of mine reads a blog by a guy named Seth Godin. I haven't read too much of it, occasional posts which my friend links to. I don't know much about Mr. Godin or where he's coming from, but he's got a blog, and people read it, and that's cool. I read a post just now (which my friend had linked, and which I've linked above) in which Godin warns off of criticizing the choices people make. Specifically he seems to be talking about criticizing the past choices a prospective client or prospective employee has made.

I looked around the post for a while and could not find a "comment" button, which I found a little odd (isn't 1/2 of blogging all about getting and responding to comments?), so I decided to post here in my blog to as a question which came up in my mind:

If criticizing someone's choices will make them less likely to trust my judgment because I just questioned theirs (that's Godin's assertion) - How do you approach someone who is contemplating a choice you think is bad? Maybe this is your spouse about to spend too much money on an unnecessary novelty for example, or a business partner about to make a business deal you think is bad. Or just a friend who tells you he's got this great idea which you think would turn out terribly?

Godin suggests that instead of criticizing past choices, the prospective employer (or whoever) would be better off complementing the bad-choice-maker for making what at the time must have been exactly the right choice. I can't really argue with that, people like to be placated and complemented. But outside the narrow circumstance he's discussing, where it's helpful from a marketing perspective for the placatee to think highly of you, I don't find that advice very helpful. I'll certainly keep it in mind for when I'm in that circumstance, because I agree that's a diplomatic and polite way to behave, but more often (especially recently) I find myself in different circumstances than that.

Anyone have thoughts on that?

Stuff I want to do

2010-10-28T17:42:00.000-07:00

Here are somethings I'd like to do, list-style, so I can encourage myself to just do them already:

* I would like to go back to Acapulco for frisbee again next January.

* I would like to go to Protospiel in Ann Arbor next July. I've never gone because it generally occurs too close to my annual pilgrimage to Seattle for the 4th of July and Potlatch. Maybe I should just go anyway.

* I want to go back to New York again, I think in April. My Uruguayan friend Ariel will be back in he states at that time, and there'll be another Spielbany gathering going on. I'd also like to see my cousin Rachel again now that she's a big star! That is, if she has time...

* I'm going to BGG.con in a couple of weeks, and while I'm in Dallas for that, Bo Burnham is having a show at the Palladium. I'd like to go see that show.

It's not all bad

2010-10-28T17:30:00.000-07:00

I FINALLY talked to a Stucco gu and will FINALLY get stucco repairs done at my house... FINALLY! I'm a little sick of everything in my life feeling like it's delay after delay :/

But it's not ALL bad - I'm really enjoying the excitement of the publishing company that Mike started. It's been frustrating lately because of the three games in the works currently, only 1 is on schedule. Another has been held up about a month because apparently it's impossible to send a playing card in the mail to China, and the other is more like 2 months behind and I don't understand why. The artist is still working on it, but he's approaching the end finally, and except for the fact that we won't have the games in time for the holidays (let alone the convention I wanted to release them at), at least they LOOK amazing!

Despite that frustration, some things are going right. We should have Train of Thought in time for the convention in a couple weeks. I know a handful of people personally, and there are dozens other I'm sure, who have been eagerly awaiting the release of Train of Thought since this time last year. Also, we've started a fund raising campaign on Kickstarter.com for my next game, Eminent Domain which I'm really happy with. We're only 3 days into that fund raising drive, and already we've raised almost $6,000 - almost 30% of the way there! I'm really excited by how well that's been going so far, and there are 27 more days to go!

So you see, as much as I like to complain, it's not all bad.

Insurance oddities

2010-10-11T17:33:00.000-07:00

I got a somewhat startling letter from my insurance company recently - they had sent some inspector to my house and noticed some damage to an exterior fence wall and decided that meant I wasn't on top of house maintenance and if I didn't get the damage repaired by December, they would terminate my policy. Surprised, I put things in motion to fix this, and then received another, even more unsettling letter stating that in fact my policy was being terminated come December.

My agent assures me that upon repairing the fence wall, the policy will in fact be reinstated and everything will be fine. There are a number of things that bothers me about this is situation. Here's the whole story:

1. A couple of years ago, a large portion of stucco fell off of the fence wall. In addition, somebody pried the latch off of the shed behind my house (storage and laundry). I suspect that these events were related - that vandals broke the latch and kicked at the wall, knocking down the stucco. The stucco that fell was in a large chunk, not bit by bit, like what would happen over time - compared to other stucco repair I need to do around my house.

2. I didn't do anything about this because nothing was stolen or anything, I highly suspected someone walking down the alley simply had 5 minutes of fun at the expense of my wall and door and left, never to be seen again. Since it was an exterior fence wall with the damage on the side facing the back yard where noone really sees it, I didn't bother taking the effort or expense to get it fixed, outside of blocking off the door to the shed with a bookshelf that was inside the shed (which is probably more substantial than the thin wooden door itself).

3. After receiving this letter from the insurance company, I starting looking into repairs, and also looked into making an insurance claim for vandalism, which is supposed to be covered by my insurance. I know I have more maintenance to do than just fixing the damage from vandalism, but I wasn't asking for anything for that, I was just claiming the vandalism and hoping they would give me some money for the repairs, to which I would add money to do the maintenance.

4. The insurance company assigned an adjuster to come take a look, and in our initial conversation he said that he would be going out right away (that day) to take a look at the situation and then he would give me a call. He made a point to say that the number he was calling from was his cell phone, and that I could reach him on it anytime. Well, I don't know when exactly he came out to my place to take a look, because not only did he not call, but he did not answer any of my calls (once per day), nor reply to any of my messages. When the 2nd unsettling letter arrived, I spoke to my Insurance Agent about it, and mentioned that the Adjuster hadn't been in contact for over a week, and the Agent said he'd try to contact him as well. This was something of a big deal, because I'd lined up someone to do the repair, and they had a timing window where they could jump right on it, but I couldn't have them do that until the insurance guy came out! Maybe the Agent had some luck contacting the adjuster because a day or so later I got a call - they adjuster had not been out yet. Again he said that he would jump right on this and get back to me right away. Again I called him almost every day for a week before I finally got in touch with him again.

5. The Adjuster informed me, basically, that he had been out to see the damage, and had to discuss it with his boss or whatever. A couple days later, I finally got an answer from him, which was basically this: "Because it is so old, we're not going to do anything."

Now here's my beef with that. If I had called them up the day after it happened (about 2 years ago), would they have paid out some amount of money on my claim?

IF YES: What is different now? I'm only asking for that same amount of money they would have given me back then. I don't see what difference it makes that time has passed.

IF NO: Then what the hell am I paying insurance premiums for? If my policy lists vandalism, then I expect to be able to make a claim when being a victim of vandalism and receive money to repair the vandalism. I've had my car broken into - even had a car stolen, damaged, and the cops found it behind a dumpster - and I have not made any claim against my insurance. I have been paying premiums for 10 years on my home insurance without fail, without a late payment, without as much as a phone call. And now the one time I try to make a claim, they simply tell me "meh, we're not interested."

This does not inspire confidence in me at all. It makes me feel like I should simply not bother carrying insurance at all, but that's kind of out of the question because there's always that chance a semi truck will crash through my house while I'm on vacation (this exact thing happened to a house across the street a few years ago - we heard the crash and ran outside to see the truck literally in the bathroom of the house. I believe the driver died.)

It also makes me kind of want to shop around for another insurance company, but frankly that's a lot of work, and there's no guarantee that they'll be any better when it comes time to make a claim. Just like any subscription service, American Family has locked up my business because it's inconvenient for me to change companies, and because of that they seem to really not care about actually providing any service whatsoever. And because it's not feasible to risk severe damage to my house - which is the bulk of my net worth - I feel like there's little I can do about it.

Fucking lame.

Shakespear in the park

2010-09-26T22:49:00.000-07:00

After frisbee today I decided to check out what play they were setting up for in the auditorium at Himmel Park. Turns out it was Much Ado About Nothing, which might be my favorite Shakespear play. I decided to pick up some Eegee's and check out the play.

In addition, I bumped into Mary Wilson and Ethan at the play, which was a nice surprise :)

2010-07-26T12:38:00.002-07:00

I was at Wal-Mart just now, because there's a Subway in there, and as I was eating I saw some large woman sort of lose her balance and fall over. An employee who saw this start to happen was on the ball - he rushed over and sort of caught her, probably saving her a lot of pain and suffering, though she did bump her head on a shopping cart (better than smashing it against the cart and/or ground). After a few minutes some paramedics arrived, and from the sound of things her blood sugar was low.

I was close enough to maybe help too, but I didn't happen to be looking the right direction when she started to fall. By the time I could do anything to help, there were already more than enough people crowded around, so I just kept at my lunch and minded my own business. It got me wondering though, would I have helped this woman, if others weren't already? In what case would I go out of my way to help someone like that?

I will note that, though I did nothing to help in this situation, I did feel a desire to help out. I suppose that's better (morally) than not wanting to help at all. I also wanted to congratulate or thank the employee who was on the ball.

The other day I fell - twisted my ankle as my foot slipped off the side of some pavement. It was embarrassing, and I'm very annoyed that it happened, but I didn't need assistance in any way. I don't know how I feel about this topic, nor how I really want to feel about it.

eDisHarmony

2010-07-25T20:56:00.002-07:00

According tot he advertisements, eHarmony is having some free trial type special, so I logged on to their site to see if the profile I had made a few years ago was still intact. It was, so I went through and updated some of the information, then clicked the "find matches" button, and wouldn't you know it... out of all the thousands of people who purportedly use the service, they could not find a single match.

That's reassuring.

Seattle trip 2010 - the rest of the story

2010-07-14T11:37:00.002-07:00

Last post was Tuesday night after Music in the Park with Renee, Matt and Jonah.

Wednesday I did play pickup frisbee at Microsoft as planned, then picked up Sean and Jeremy and eventually met up with Rif and Mohan at Griptonite Games' office for a game night. I played my latest design Eminent Domain with Rif, Sean and Mohan (Jeremy played some other game), but then people decided to leave, so we all went to Mohan and Rif's apartment in Belleview and hung out. Mohan and I chatted about game design stuff while Sean, Jeremy and Rif played Innovation - a new game by the guy that made Glory to Rome. Mohan has a neat idea for a solitaire game based on things like Spider Solitaire or Klondike, but with a theme that applies to the way those games work. It might be best as a digital game, so it's a good thing he works in the digital game industry!

Thursday after going to the store with Amelia, I spent much of the day with Renee and Jonah. We went to lunch, the post office, and to check out a day care place. It was a nice visit, and when Renee was putting Jonah down for a nap I think I fell asleep on the couch myself! After that I went to Microsoft Building 50 for a game night to meet up with Christopher Rao, a guy I met a couple of years ago on my Seattle trip, and hung out with at BGG.con as well. I like that particular game night locale because it's in a cafeteria at Microsoft, so the table space is great, the lighting is great, and since it's at Microsoft, there's free soda all over the place. I liked it a little better last year because the "game night" was during the day and the cafeteria was open for business, but what can you do. You can order pizza, that's what!

I met a guy named Robb Effinger there, and he was pretty cool. We played Ground Floor, a game that is being published next year by Tasty Minstrel Games. everyone enjoyed it, it went over very well. After that I played a dice game which I remembered liking the time I played it about a year ago... it's called Alea Iacta Est, and for the life of me I can't recall what I thought was good about it. Jeremy and Robb didn't like it either. We also played Fermat - which is a math game like Set (but with math), which is apparently being published under the name Got It! this year. Finally, Robb and I played a game of Wizard's Tower in which I basically just explained the rules as they came up. He ended up winning, even though he didn't know how to play! Overall it was a pretty fun game night.

Friday I went to another pickup frisbee game at Microsoft. There is so much frisbee to be had in Seattle! And the weather was gorgeous all week! Later that night I had arranged to demo Terra Prime and Homesteaders at Uncle's Games in Redmond Town Center, so I met Renee, Matt, Jonah, Sean, and Rif at Red Robin, then proceeded to Uncle's for their Friday game night. I met a fan of Tasty Minstrel who had come by, Peter Loop, who was a neat guy and I showed him all the upcoming Tasty Minstrel games I had with me (Jab, Train of Thought and Ground Floor). Over the course of the evening I also played Forbidden Island, another cooperative game by the guy who made Pandemic. I had heard good things about it, but it turns out it's EXACTLY LIKE Pandemic, only simpler! I don't think Pandemic needed to be simpler, so I really didn't care for the game at all. I also played Innovation a couple times with Sean, Race For The Galaxy (in which I completely crushed Sean!), Tsuro, Train of Thought, and Fermat (I'm still calling it that!)

Saturday morning, Jeremy, Amelia and I headed to Seattle Center for a Magic: the Gathering Prerelease tournament. I hadn't played Magic in a while, so that was fun. After that we went to a game night for Emerald City Gamers, hosted by a guy named Justin in Ballard (not far from Seattle Center). We played a game called Cyclades which I'd heard about and Jeremy wanted to play because it has a Kraken in it (!) Sadly, in our game it didn't come up, so noone was able to Release the Kraken! After that we played Galaxy Trucker, which is a cute, fun game about quickly cobbling together a spaceship an then watching it get blown apart by space pirates and asteroids.

Sunday I went to Marymoor park for the usual pickup frisbee again. Since the weather was so nice I thought it would be fun to organize a barbecue, which we did on Sunday at Mohan's apartment complex. They have a nice courtyard with grass, a grill, and their apartment is on top of a Safeway (to which we made several trips for buns, burgers, drinks, etc). Alex was able to make it, which I didn't think was going to happen, and I got a chance to play his new game called Witch's Coven - a semi-cooperative game about evil witches brewing a potion of power. The idea is that as a group you want to have all the necessary ingredients for the potion, but since you want to be more powerful than other players, you want to make it so that the coven doesn't need at least 1 player in order to make the potion. So you basically don't want to be obsolete, and further, you want to try and make another player obsolete. It doesn't take very long, and it was more interesting than I thought it would be at first.

There were about 13 people total at the BBQ, and after a bit, the 7 of us remaining went inside and chatted about various thing and just hung out. It's seldom that I just hang out with friends, so I found that refreshing.

Monday morning I had to return my rental car, and Sean hooked me up with a ride to the airport. I flew to Phoenix without incident, then drove to Tucson and went almost immediately to frisbee league.

All in all I had an EXCELLENT summer vacation in Seattle! Next year I hope to remember to factor $10/day of parking into the cost of flying from Phoenix - that can really add up on a long trip like this one! It was tough to leave highs in the low 80s for lows in the high 80s, but the good news is that I seem to have missed all the really atrocious weather while I was in the very comfortable Pacific NW. Every time I go to Seattle I come home wishing I didn't have to leave. I know it's only nice like that in Summer, I think it would be cool to find a summer gig there and work/live the rest of the year here in Tucson.

Seattle trip 2010 - the bad start got better!

2010-07-07T01:00:00.003-07:00

Only fair to say that I was able to get on a plane only 6 hours later then planned, and therefore arrived only a little later than I wanted to! Could have been a lot worse!! A teammate did miss her connection, which was a bummer, but she arrived ready to play on Saturday morning and she was great!

The tournament was awesome, as usual. I actually enjoyed the cooler weather - when the sun came out it was gorgeous! There was some rain on Sunday, but other than that it was probably the best tournament weather I've ever had.

And that's fitting because at this tournament we finished better than ever before! 2 years ago we were placed in the "C" pool, but we lost our first single elimination game. This year we were in the "C" pool again, but this time we managed to win - not only our first single elim. game, but the second as well, then Semifinals, then finals! Woohoo, go Solo Bueno!

I stayed at the fields again Monday night, and Jeremy picked me up this morning and dropped me at a rental place where I picked up a rental car. Not as nice as the Corolla I had last year, but about 25% the cost - I only need it for 7 days instead of 11, but even compared to 2x the cost of this car rental, last years was more than 2x as much!

Tonight Jeremy, Amelia and I went to a local Music in the Park thing with Renee, Matt, and Jonah. Tomorrow I plan to play some pickup frisbee on Microsoft campus, then later go to a game night with some friends. So far my vacation is excellent, despite the shaky start!

Seattle trip 2010 - Not the best start

2010-07-02T11:44:00.003-07:00

I've had worse starts to my trip - like waking up 1 hour late and rushing to the airport (in Phoenix) in record time only to arrive at the ticket counter at the exact time my flight was scheduled to leave. This time I did everything right, arrived at Sky Harbor in plenty of time, and had this happen:

Self check-in kiosk indicates that 40 minutes to departure time is the deadline for self check-in, and I need to talk to a clerk. I look at my phone, it's 39 minutes to departure time. Great.

There's 1 clerk, and a line of 3 people. Great. One of them let me in front of her because her thing wasn't pressing (thank you!) and she even tried to get some other clerk to help me (there were many clerks, but evidently only 1 computer). Despite her efforts, it took FOREVER for them to get to me, and by that time they had given my seat away.

Best part (and by "best" I mean "worst")? Before I left home 2 hours earlier I thought about checking in online. I even went back inside after getting in the car to leave in order to do so. I went to the online check-in page, and was maybe 2 clicks away from checking in, but realized that (1) my laptop and my printer never talk to each other, (2) it would take forever to turn on my old computer in order to print my boarding pass, and (3) I'm checking a bag anyway, so I decided I'd just take care of it when I got to the airport.

What a stupid thing to think!

If I had checked in online, then when I hit the kiosk I could have printed my boarding pass and then dropped off my checked bag and been on the plane. In retrospect, had I not bothered going back inside I might have made it to the kiosk in time to check in. One of those "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situations I guess. What are the odds?

So they confirmed me on another flight... tomorrow morning! And in the meantime I'm on standby for a flight at 1:30, and failing that another plight at 4:45. Either of the flights today would be nice, I don't particularly want to start my vacation by sleeping (nor by NOT sleeping) at an airport and missing 20% of the frisbee tournament.

I'm trying to look at the bright side though. Sky Harbor has free WiFi, and I happened to bring 2 of my favorite movies (Boondock Saints and The Last Boyscout) as well as a DVD of Veronica Mars (season 2, disc 5... I like that show!). And while they skipped me (twice), my $12 chicken sandwich and fries tasted really good when I finally got them, and they have free refills on soda (not that I really want to drink a lot of soda).

Seattle trip 2010

2010-07-02T04:24:00.002-07:00

As per usual, I'm heading to Seattle tomorrow for my annual summer vacation. And as per usual, it's 4-something AM and I'm not asleep! Hopefully I'll be able to get up in 2.5 or 3 hours so I don't miss my plane!

At 10:30 or so I'm on a plane from sunny Phoenix to colder-than-usual Seattle! Weather.com says the highs this weekend will be in the 60s, something I haven't felt for a while, not even at night with the AC on!

I have packed up my new camping gear (compliments of Grandma - thanks GB!): tent, thermarest, and Camelback. I broke these items in last weekend in Tulsa and they worked out great! And I know for a fact the rain fly works :)

I'll be at the fields playing frisbee through Monday night, then I'll shift into visit mode, and I'm looking forward to visiting Renee, Matt, and Jonah; Mohan, Runjith, Rif, Jeremy and Amelia, Alex, Sean, Christopher, Julie and Peter... the list goes on and on. I have sketched out a schedule with all kinds of possible events, pickup frisbee games, game nights, and even a concert in the park with Renee and Matt. I'm trying to organize a barbeque for next Sunday afternoon, maybe at a park, to try and get a bunch of my friends together.

I'm looking forward to my trip, and I'm all packed up. I think Evie figured out I'm leaving because she's been acting funny. I'll miss her, but I'm sure my friend will take good care of her while I'm gone.

To my Seattle friends, I'll see you soon! And o my Tucson friends, have a nice Independence day, and enjoy the summer heat!

Critics redux - warm fuzzy feeling

2010-06-25T11:46:00.005-07:00

A while ago I posted about being critical, and I just wanted to make a small comment about that...

Not all critiques are negative, and it warmed my heart just now when I checked the Terra Prime comments on BoardGameGeek and saw these two I hadn't seen before:

My favorite feature of the game is that all paths to victory (economic, colonization, military, etc.) are equally viable. No one strategy is more likely to win than any other. There are also lots of nice little mechanical balancing touches. Very, very enjoyable.

- Jonathan Leistiko (rating = 9 at the time of this post)

Homesteaders was one of my favorite games this year. So, I was interested in trying Terra Prime (published by the same company.) But I must admit, I did not have high hopes because I haven't really heard any positive buzz around BGG.

Anyway, I played a two-player game with my woman and I had a great time! The exploration of space with the asteroids and the space battles is fun. The economic building with the colonies and such is strategic and involved. I can't wait to try this with 3, 4, or 5 players.

I had a great time. I can't understand why this game isn't getting the same buzz as Homesteaders.

- Louis Sylvester (rating = 9 at the time of this post)

While I met Jonathan once in person and know him a little more online, Louis is a complete stranger to me. I think they are both far enough removed (from me) that these comments represent honest opinions about the game. I really appreciate positive comments like these! I think any artist or creative person would appreciate it - that's kind of the point of creating something.

Thanks guys, and I hope you continue to enjoy my game! I've got an expansion for it, which may eventually see print!

Happy Mother's Day story

2010-05-10T11:37:00.003-07:00

About a week ago I saw on FaceBook that you could "friend" Einstein Bros Bagels and they'd link you to a coupon for a free bagel and shmear. So I did that, and amusingly the coupon said "do not duplicate," as if they could tell how many times I printed it out...

So I made 4 copies, just in case I wanted more than 1 bagel. As it turns out, The only Einstein Bros in town are all really far from my house, but there is one near my parents' house, and I though maybe my Mom would want to go to brunch there. Then I realized that Sunday was Mother's day, so I asked Mom if she wanted to go get a bagel. So we did that, then she wanted to show me this house they own up in Marana, and on the way there we passed another Einstein Bros location. I jokingly said "hey - I have 2 more free bagel coupons - we could stop again!" Mom was like "We just ate! Maybe on the way back."

Sure enough, on the way back we stopped for another free bagel. See what a good son I am? Not 1 but TWO free bagels for Mom for Mother's day!

You might think that's kinda cheap, or cheesy, "Here Mom, happy Mother's Day... have a free bagel." But you don't know my mother. She's really into bargain hunting, and there's nothing she likes better than getting something for free. She couldn't have been more proud.

Long time, no post...

2010-04-25T01:15:00.003-07:00

It's been almost a month since my last post, so I thought I'd check in and just give a little update on my life. In no particular order...

* I'm terrible at dieting.

* I got new cleats last Wednesday, and so far I'm really happy with them. That's such a relief compared to the last time I needed cleats!

* I got my first royalty check from Terra Prime!

* Frisbee season is getting closer, so practices are picking up (in quality), and before long we'll have 2 practices a week plus conditioning. Last week, tomorrow, and next week practices will actually be tryouts for Monsoon.

Everyone's a critic.

2010-03-29T11:20:00.005-07:00

You've heard this old adage time and time again - what does it mean exactly? Another version you might have heard is a little more biting:

"Opinions are like assholes... everybody's got one, and they all stink!"
When writing in your own voice, on a Blog or in an essay for example where you are the narrator, it's not only reasonable to have an opinion, but good form to assert your opinion. I learned in school that there's no need to preface every comment with "I think..." or "In my opinion..." because I'm the one talking; of COURSE the words coming out of my mouth are my opinion! Timidly stating "your mileage might vary" or "that's just my opinion" makes for a weak sounding argument - those things are supposed to go without saying.

That said, it's easy for a critic to spew whatever assertions they want, no matter how unfounded, to their audience with little or no consideration to the repercussions. Is this OK? Well, it's a free country - who am I to say what your opinion should be? But it could be argued that a formal critic - the guy who reviews movies for the local paper for example, who has thousands of readers who faithfully take his word for gospel - that guy might have more responsibility or moral obligation to temper his reviews.

I watched a movie the other night called Heckler. From IMDB:
HECKLER is a comedic feature documentary exploring the increasingly critical world we live in. After starring in a film that was critically bashed, Jamie Kennedy takes on hecklers and critics and ask some interesting questions of people such as George Lucas, Bill Maher, Mike Ditka, Rob Zombie, Howie Mandel and many more. This fast moving, hilarious documentary pulls no punches as you see an uncensored look at just how nasty and mean the fight is between those in the spotlight and those in the dark.

To be perfectly fair, the critically bashed film starring Jamie Kennedy - Son of the Mask - was pretty terrible. I say this because I was a fan of The Mask, the original movie to which this one was a knock-off/sequel, and this movie really shared nothing with the original. Also, it's possible the target audience for the movie was not the same as the target audience for the original Jim Carey movie, and that's just begging for failure right there. Here's a review comment pasted directly from IMDB:
"This is without a doubt the worst movie I have ever seen. I say this without hyperbole, and believe me, I've seen a lot of bad movies. It's embarrassing and annoying that millions of dollars went into this film and that hundreds (thousands?) of craftspeople spent so much time working on what the writers and producers MUST have known would be a colossal failure.

When a 90 minute film feels this long, drawn out, boring, and incomprehensible, you know that something went wrong somewhere. Also, Jamie Kennedy (whose work I've enjoyed elsewhere) is simply terrible in this role; he was obviously never given a screen test, because no producer in their right mind would consider him entertaining in any way, especially in the guise of The Mask. Simply awful.

Personally, I can't wait to see the reviews by the major film critics, because I know they're do a better job than me at tearing this train wreck to shreds.

The producers of this film should be embarrassed, and more importantly, NEVER be allowed to make theatrical films again. "

As entertaining as that review is to read (indeed, it's more succinct, better written, and provided a much higher laugh/minute ratio than the movie did), it's really very brutal. And this is nothing compared to some of the stuff Jamie Kennedy read in the documentary! So what's the big deal? Why should I care what other people say about other people, and how they feel about it? As you can see I've peppered this blog post with plenty of my own opinions as well. Here's why I care...

As has been mentioned, everyone's a critic. I'm no exception. I have my opinions about movies I've seen and books I've read just like everybody else does. However, Gene Siskel I aint. When I post in my blog:

"I was initially (and still am a little) disappointed in the process Jones took finding Aketor. While he did do some figuring and a (very little) research, he followed a clue to Peru, and another to the tomb of the conquistador explorer, sort of followed a clue to find the city of gold, and all the while had a back and forth fight with a ceaseless opponent. However, it seemed like this movie rushed that process compared to Raiders and Last Crusade, and the back and forth with the Russians seemed a lot less epic. In Raiders Indy and Marion were captured, escaped, captured again, rescued, etc. In the Last Crusade there was a constant struggle between Jones and the Nazis in which they key to the movie - information about the grail- was being passed back and forth. In KotCS, the entirety of the conflict was a game of keep away."

or

"Yesterday I went and saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with my parents. It was almost 3 hours long, and while it wasn't boring or bad perse, I don't feel like it really had much of a point. The most descriptive thing I can say about the movie was that I liked it better the first time I saw it, when it was called Forrest Gump."

It's not going to have a big effect on the overall viewership of the Indiana Jones or Benjamin Button movies, and will not have any effect whatsoever on Harrison Ford or Brad Pitt. In addition, as I'm not an actor or a director myself, my opinions are clearly from the perspective of the audience - all I can speak to is what I would have liked to see. I can in no way really say "I could have done better."

On the other hand, I do have something of a voice in the board game community. This wasn't always the case, and I'm not certain how big this voice really is or how much weight it carries... but it's certainly more substantial than my voice in Hollywood. So when I read a 3 year old post from BGG in which I said "I proposed some revisions based mostly on some ideas from Kinizia's new Genesis (which isn't amazing by the way) to try and get more player decisions going on," I cringe a little bit. Reiner Knizia is a very prolific, very well respected game designer. Who am I, with no support whatsoever, to wave off one of his games as lousy - especially when saying that I'd basically copied part of it?!?

This has not been an isolated incident. I have posted negative reviews or comments on many games, even SdJ winners such as Zooloretto and Keltis. Even positive reviews of games such as Warrior Knights contain some form of criticism (that particular thread blew up into a perfectly good example). The other day I tried to think of a game I really enjoy for which I haven't got some type of criticism, and it was tough. Most of the games I really love have something about them that could probably be better - and the kicker is that the thing which could be better isn't necessarily the same from one player to the next!

While I was just a gamer who liked to post on BGG it was more OK, I thought, for me to take up positions against games or game mechanics I didn't like, calling them bad, lame, dumb, or flawed. I'm sure the internet is riddled with posts in which I say fairly brashly that such and such a game could really have used more development. Even if true, one could ask what gives me the right to say such things? After all, what do I know about developing board games? Had I gone through the trouble and effort of getting a game published?

Well, now I have, and that brings the entire situation into a whole new light. I have gone through the effort, not just of designing games, but through the process of publication. To an extent, I do know what I'm talking about. However, these credentials also come with a healthy dose of perspective. Now that I have created something that is up for public consumption (and criticism), I can get a glimpse of what Jamie Kennedy was talking about. Here are some things people have said about my board game Terra Prime:

"Unplayed and I have no interest in trying. The theme is a minus in my book, the gameplay does not excite me from what I've read about it, and it'll take a good 30+ minutes to use an exacto knife and punch all the pieces that were adequately perforated."
"Absolutely awful. Long. Seemed like a bunch of trekking back and forth. Nit-picky rules regarding Planet placement. Seemed like work rather than fun. Worst game played in 3 years. "
"A bit harsh and not that fun. And the production values are a little embarassing. "

These are all valid criticisms, and frankly, looking through all the comments on BGG, it could be a lot worse. In my case, many hard feelings came from the crappy production from china (thank you manufacturer! Why couldn't our games have come out as nice as others you produced?) - which isn't really the game's fault, and our customers have been very understanding of that. The point is though, how would I feel if someone like me played Terra Prime and said "economic strategies seem too weak, rewards are not well balanced" (oh wait, they did!)? I would probably get defensive and say

"The "economic strategies" (by which I can only assume you mean making deliveries) aren't supposed to beat out exploring and colonizing, because the game is about exploring and colonizing!"

or "I spent a lot of time and effort making sure the rewards were as balanced as possible, and I'm actually pretty proud of how well balanced the game has proven to be!"

or simply "I've played 83+ games (since I started counting), you've played maybe 2. I simply don't think you are correct."

But it doesn't matter really, as those are just some ratings comments. What would matter more is if these comments came straight from the horses mouth - if Tom Vasel did a video review of Terra Prime enumerating how awful the game balance was or how annoying it was to do 3 quick actions then have to wait for everyone else to go before doing just 3 more little actions (both complaints I've read online), that could be a death knell for me and my first publishing outing because a lot of people listen to him. On the other hand, that video review could just as easily extol the virtues of the game balance and the small downtime as turns are snappy and move around the table quickly (both praises I've read online).

The point is that critics have a lot of power to sway people's opinions. Some critics do a good job informing the public about the subject they are reviewing, giving factual information which consumers would find useful. Other critics, as Jamie Kennedy's documentary points out, aren't concerned with any kind of obligation to report any sort of facts, but rather they assert their opinion "because they said so," and hey - a humorous, negative criticism gets more laughs and more attention than either a supportive review or a constructive negative one!

The moral of the story is this: I do not want to be the type of critic who will make an assertion, waving my hands and assuming my word is gospel because I'm the one who said it. This is more true now that I apparently have some semblance of public voice on BGG. I'll stand by my assertions, but I'll have reasoning behind each one, and I'll freely admit when I make a mistake or am proven wrong. One thing I could improve on perhaps is not looking for something to "fix" in every game I play (or movie I watch, or book I read). Nothing is perfect, and even the best games will have something "wrong" with them... I have a tendency to go seeking that out and bringing it to the fore. Perhaps I could do that more judiciously.

Vegas, baby!

2010-03-27T12:32:00.002-07:00

Tuesday morning I headed up to Las Vegas with Mikey and Tyler for the GAMA trade show. Mike and I went last year, and we've learned a lot since then. This year instead of getting our own booth we were set up in the PSI booth, alongside Steve Jackson Games, Tablestar Games, and the guys who made Castle Panic (a cool guy I met at BGG.con last year).

This year our goal was just to get retailers to sign up for Mike's Retailer Mailing list, so that he can send them information about upcoming releases such as promo art and special pre-order deals. We brought a bunch of our plush dragons to give away to retailers in exchange for their contact information - a good deal for them since they like to get that kind of information anyway! The dragons were a big hit - they're the last business card you'll ever throw away! :)

This trip to Vegas I was determined to do some gambling. The last few trips I didn't get to play much Craps or anything like that. This time I played Craps with Tyler for a while, and for a lot more money than the $2 tables I used to play at Slots-A-Fun! It was exciting drop $30-$50 on the odds behind my $10 pass line bet, fill up most of the numbers on the board, and then have $70 at a time roll in on every roll! Of course, money can get lost really fast that way as well... You win some, you lose some, and I ended up pretty much even for the whole trip.

I also played a little Blackjack Switch, which is a Blackjack variant that I found pretty fun. I usually dislike Blackjack, but this variant felt more fun because you get to do something that would normally be considered cheating - you play 2 hands at a time, and you can swap the 2nd cards between the 2 hands if you want. This of course makes it much easier to get a good hand, so to make up for that a Blackjack only pays 1-1 rather than 3-2 or 6-5 like on most Blackjack tables. Also, if the dealer gets 22, it counts as a push for everyone.

One thing I like about that is that, like Pai Gow Poker, it seems common to win one hand and lose the other, thereby not losing any money. Once in a while you lose both, and once in a while you win both, but you can play a long time without going broke, even if luck isn't with you!

This trip happened to overlap my 35th birthday, which was fun. One thing I wanted to do was to go to Tony Roma's, which used to be my favorite restaurant - and they closed all their locations in Tucson. Michael didn't want to go there, so I was going to go by myself. He reluctantly agreed when he realized it was my birthday, but was pretty complainy about it the whole time which was a buzzkill. On top of that, it turned out the service was pretty terrible, Mike's soup smelled awful, they were out of Ranch dressing and didn't tell us until his salad came, they forgot my corn on the cob, and they were very slow all around. I'm afraid this experience, in addition to just not having been there in a long time, that they discontinued my favorite chocolate cake, and that the last time I went with Tyler and Stirler something very similar happened has turned me off of Tony Roma's for good :/ In any case, I was crazy not to think of going to one of the many Buffets on the strip. Not too long ago I went to the buffet t Mandalay Bay and absolutely loved it. From now on I plan to do that instead when I go to Vegas!

All in all it was a fun trip to Las Vegas - despite a stupid speeding ticket I got in Wickenburg from a sneaky unmarked cop when the speed limit drops suddenly from 65 to 45 and then to 35. :(

One month later... update

2010-03-22T05:16:00.002-07:00

So, it's been a month since I posted about anything at all in this blog...

Weight loss: I have completely dropped the ball on this one, weighing in at about 179 or 180 on the average. That's a weight loss of about 2 pounds. Actually, I had been down to 177 on the average (about 5 lbs down), and hen went back up. Seeing as how my birthday is only 3 days away, I think it's highly unlikely I will be down to 175, let alone 170 by that time :/

Game stuff: My game is in stores, and according to Mike he's made back about 1/2 of his initial investment. I guess that's good considering the games have only been out 3 months. He's been pretty unspecific, so I don't know exactly what the story is. I do know that I should receive my first royalty check soon!

Tuesday morning Mike and I are heading up to Las Vegas for the GAMA Trade Show. Our mission there is to get retailers to carry our games and sign up for Mike's mailing list. Tyler isn't doing much with his days lately, and has decided to come with us. I think it'll be a fun trip, and hopefully we won't flounder as much as we did last year, since we've learned so much since then.

Frisbee: I'm a little out of shape, but I don't feel as bad as I thought - now that practice and Spring League have started up, I think I'll be back in shape (more or less) before too long. I don't know if those Sketchers Shape-Ups have been working as far as making my legs stronger, but they're certainly comfortable and they serve as great arch support! I haven't even been to the Chiropractor since December and my legs have been feeling fine.

Wavering on the weight loss front

2010-02-23T12:21:00.004-07:00

I was doing a good job of counting calories, eating better, and losing weight, but these last few days I feel like I'm slipping off the wagon (back on the wagon?) - I haven't been very meticulous at all about recording what I'm eating, and I've been eating too much food.

So if you see me, and especially if you're eating with me, please remind me that I'm on a mission to lose another 7 or 8 pounds by my birthday next month!

Thanks.

Diet stuff, redux

2010-02-17T17:17:00.003-07:00

So it's been 2 weeks, and I've faithfully consumed a total of 35 pills, of 3 different types, as directed by Jillian Michaels on the back of the box...

In addition to this I've been counting calories as I had mentioned. Sadly, frisbee league has been canceled on account of rain the last 3 weeks in a row - so I haven't been exercising as much as I'd like. That will be picking up now though, I should be playing frisbee 3 days a week now, and that will move to 4 in a couple of months.

So what's the verdict? Well, since I began my diet on Feb 1, I have lost about 5 pounds - I'm hovering around 177 rather than hovering around 182. Would this have been the case without Jillian Michaels' help? Honestly I think it would. I haven't noticed anything in particular the diet pills have done - which doesn't mean they've done nothing I guess, but frankly I don't feel like they've had any effect.

So the verdict? Waste of $30.

The good news is that I'm doing a decent job of not overeating, and once the exercise picks up I fully expect to lose a few more pounds. I hope to meet my goal of 170 by March 25th!

Righting the wrongs?

2010-02-09T16:42:00.002-07:00

A while ago I complained about a cell phone ad which referenced Dungeons and Dragons in a way that made fun of the type of person who would play D&D. I'm not a fan of that kid of thing, but to be fair I thought I would point out another ad I've noticed recently - this ad for Pepsi, which features the song One Tribe by the Black Eyed Peas.

The chorus of One Tribe contains the lyric "Let's cast amnesia, forget about all that evil" - a clear reference to a spell in Dungeons and Dragons (which, of course, causes the target to forget things).

This ad (and this song) in no way insults anybody or shows any disrespect, irrespective of their chosen hobbies - no matter how "dorky" they may be. One might say that a positive or passing reference to D&D in mainstream media is exactly the opposite in fact!

Evolution in Progress

2010-02-09T11:45:00.003-07:00

As we've rolled through the age of computers and into the age of the internet, mankind has had to evolve. We've changed the way we work, the way we play, the way we shop... we've changed the way we live as our technology affords us new opportunities and abilities every day.

This evolution becomes evident when you look at various stages of the tools we use. For example, look at computer interfaces... first there are these neat new tools, but they're kinda hard to use unless you know what you're doing. Some learn, some don't. Over time, the user interface got simpler (thank you Steve Jobs!), and suddenly this new technology was accessible to a much wider range of people, as you didn't have to know a; the details about how a computer worked in order to use one. The way we interacted with computers evolved, and as a result, widespread use of these tools allowed mankind to evolve as a whole.

But even though the computers themselves became simpler to use, many applications remained convoluted. I read an article that described how website creators and software developers seem to view the prototypical user as incapable of reading, barely cognizant of what they desire and are best served by products that offer a least common denominator feature set. As such, many web interfaces have also become "simpler" in the name of allowing people to use them without having to know what they're doing. There are advertisements on TV today (for Bing.com) which not only exemplify this, but use it as a selling point.

Doesn't it seem like a better solution would be for mankind to evolve again? Rather than require dumbed down, simplified versions of everything, wouldn't it be better if people learned to master the tools at their disposal? Even if you agree, how do we encourage or accomplish that? I think perhaps Microsoft has found a way to do just that!

Despite the marketing campaign for Windows 7 ("Simplified!"), I saw something today that makes me think Microsoft may be taking steps to help push mankind forward on an evolutionary scale. As described in that Lost Garden blog post, someone at Microsoft had the following idea:

How do you get people to learn a complicated task? Make a game out of it!

Microsoft is testing something they're calling Ribbon Hero, a plug-in for Microsoft Office that turns using a word processor or spreadsheet into a game. You get points for using various features of the program, and if you want to improve your score, you have to dig deeper into the features, and in the process you'll learn how to use them! I haven't fully explored this yet, and indeed I don't think it's fully developed yet, but the idea behind it is solid. Inspired. Ingenious! Rather than remove more complicated features of these neat new tools, or hide them in the background so users can ignore them, why not reward users for figuring out how to use those features and master them? People like to do that, we're built to do it.

If you look around it is easy to see that gaming is a huge part of today's culture. Maybe this is because today's 25-34 year old masses spent their childhood in front of Nintendo, or got hooked on Everquest (and then World of Warcraft) 10 years ago - I don't know. but while the economy falls apart, Xboxes and Playstations just keep on coming. Hundreds of video games for dozens of systems line the shelves at Best Buy while it's tough to find a regular application like InDesign (I just looked the other day). Is this a coincidence? I think not. I think that the way games work factors in elegantly with the way people learn. Humans are hardwired to do the kinds of things that games encourage or force you to do. So it makes sense that the next evolution in learning is tied into gaming. Check out this comic strip I ghanked from Penny Arcade:

Heh, I bet they thought they were kidding!

The Squeaky Wheel

2010-02-05T14:32:00.005-07:00

There's a cliche I'm sure you're familiar with... It is the squeaky wheel that gets the oil. It refers to the dynamic by which the most noticeable problem is the one which gets attention. There's truth to that, of course... things don't become cliche because they're bullshit. In professional society I've seen this dynamic take effect time and time again. I've had clients call asking me to expedite a particular project because of their timeline, expecting it to happen despite what other clients' work might be in front of them in line. And you know what? If they call often enough, and make their situation sound urgent enough, often times it works. This says nothing of the respectful clients who understand the dynamics of a schedule, and don't call early asking (or demanding) to be bumped to the front of the line. My manager at my last job was especially susceptible to this kind of behavior, so much so that he would frequently give me a project priority list one day, then completely change the priorities the very next day based mostly on a phone call merely stating "when do you think this will be done?" He read that as the client getting antsy, and he constantly feared that if he didn't keep the clients happy they would jump ship and find another engineer.

As you can probably tell, I'm not fond of this behavior at all. At my first job we had a much more structured scheduling system, with things written right into the contract such as "we will begin work on this project within 3 weeks of receiving complete information, and the project will be completed within 2 weeks of that date." Then when someone called to ask when they were likely to get their project, the schedule could be referenced and an answer given. In the event a project was done early, of course it was given to the client early, and in the event of an actual urgency the schedule could be adjusted for a client, but not at the expense of other clients. This did not eliminate the Squeaky Wheel from, well, squeaking, but it gave some recourse and allowed the firm to operate without constantly jumping though hoops for the inevitably ungrateful clients.

Oh, didn't I mention that often times the Squeaky Wheel clients are also the clients who argue fees and are slow to pay?

Now don't get me wrong - not all clients are ungrateful, or difficult when it comes to payment... even some Squeaky Wheels. I know that some companies hire a specific individual to hold the Squeaky Wheel position - their whole job is to make sure things stay on track, and I've seen it done in a reasonable and respectful way. But I've also witnessed the annoying, unfortunate type of Squeaky Wheel, who wants everything done right away, and for free, and those people have spoiled the entire dynamic for everyone else.

So why do I bring this up? Well, recently Tasty Minstrel games sent out review copies of Terra prime and Homesteaders. It's been almost 2 months, and thus far I've seen only 1 written review of Homesteaders, none of Terra Prime, and no video reviews of either. Now I understand that reviewers have a stack of games waiting for reviews to be done, and I also understand that video reviews especially are not something you can just crap out on a moments notice. They are work, and they take time. I had simply hoped more of them would surface to coincide with the first shipment of TMG's games that hit the stores. Now I'm in the awkward position (awkward for me anyway) - do I simply wait for these reviews to surface in their own time? Or do I employ the Squeaky Wheel, emailing the reviewers to ask if they've had a chance to play the games, what they thought of them, and whether their review is forthcoming. I hate the thought of it, but in the end there's truth to the saying, it's the squeaky wheel that gets the oil.

So I decided to squeak, at least a little bit. I sent some emails to some reviewers, trying to sound as little as possible like a dick who wants preferential treatment simply because I have the gall to ask for it, just making sure that they got the games we sent, if they had all the right bits (we've had some manufacturing issues), and if they got a chance to play them. I didn't specifically ask if their reviews were coming, but I'm pretty sure they can figure out that was implied.

Maybe I've got it wrong, and this kind of behavior isn't as abhorrent as I think. I rather hope that's the case, because I feel really bad about "sinking to this level" as it were. It wouldn't surprise me terribly if some of the reviewers I emailed actually read this blog, in which case I say to them "sorry, I wasn't trying to be a dick!"

But I do kinda feel like a jerk.

Diet stuff

2010-02-02T13:53:00.002-07:00

Today I walked to lunch, only about 1/2 mile. While I've been wearing my new Sketchers Shape-Ups around for about a week now, this is the first time I've walked a significant amount at one time in them. It did feel like more work, but man are those shoes cushion-y!

I also did some errands, and while shopping for something I saw a display of Jillian Michael's "14 day cleanse and burn" diet supplement. I have seen infomercials on this over and over, and I've always wondered if these things work at all. I'm always skeptical about items on infomercials to begin with, but I was very happy with ProActive Solution when I used it to get rid of some acne, and I'm currently enjoying my Snuggie (Evie loves it too!), so maybe my skepticism is misplaced. I've always kinda wanted one of those ShamWOWs (though it's not something I really need). At any rate, as I was thinking about making the effort to drop some weight I thought I'd give this diet supplement thing a try. Worst case scenario I wasted $30... I've wasted or lost more than that before!

So for the next 2 weeks I'll be taking some pills which, in addition to a better diet (eating less) and normal exercise (frisbee practices) are supposed to help me burn more fat and lose more weight, or something. I guess we'll see how it works!

Setting goals

2010-02-01T20:05:00.002-07:00

I made a new years resolution to lose weight, but that vague statement isn't as exacting an incentive as a specific goal. So today I decided to choose a target weight, as well as a target date:

I want to weigh 170 or less by the time my 35th birthday rolls around. That gives me about 7.5 weeks to lose about 12 pounds. I'll be playing 7 or 8 hours of frisbee a week for the time being, which isn't all that much so I plan to try and eat less. I found a website called Calorie Count which helps you find out how many calories are in various foods, and keep track of how much you've eaten and how many calories you've burned. I am going to try recording my meals on that and see if it helps me maintain a decent calorie intake per day.

So there it is... in writing. Let's see if I can make it come true!

Minor update

2010-01-25T13:23:00.004-07:00

Frisbee stuff
I mentioned in my last post that I went to the beach to play frisbee last week, which was a lot of fun. This weekend I will be playing some more frisbee - this time in Scottsdale at a tournament called New Year's Fest. It's no Santa Monica beach, but there is a very nice new soccer complex in Scottsdale, and I'm looking forward to playing there again.

On New Year's Day I went to Phoenix for a Hat tournament, and having not run a step or touched a disc for a month I think I pulled a groin muscle or something. Fortunately, it's been getting better pretty quickly and it doesn't bother me very much anymore.

Game stuff
In other, non-frisbee related news, it appears my game Terra Prime has been pretty well received by the public. I've seen posts online about it (which is pretty exciting in and of itself), and even better - most everything people say about the game is positive! On the down side, the production quality was kind of poor, and a lot of people got somewhat crappy copies, which makes me feel pretty terrible, but at the same time there are plenty of people online who have said that even the sub-par production doesn't detract from their enjoyment of the game. I have yet to walk into the game store and see my game on the shelf, but I think the local Game Daze stores have received the game and I plan to stop in and check it out soon.

Since Steve left there has been a significant drop in my gaming hours. I have hardly played any games at all in the last week or so. I did however go to Jeff and Elisa's for an evening of Werewolf on Friday... we used a role I hadn't seen before, the Village Idiot. Well, I'd seen something called that, but I knew it as "guy who always votes to lynch" - this time we used it as a player who wants to be lynched. If they are killed by the Werewolves, they lose. If the Werewolves win, they lose. If the Village wins, they lose. The only way they can win is to somehow get the village to think they're a werewolf and thereby get lynched. This was an interesting role, as it made random lynching a rather dangerous proposition. I think I might introduce this at the convention I attend next month (OrcCon in Los Angeles).

Resolution stuff
I thought a little bit about my resolutions recently, in particular the "losing weight" one - and that prompted me to check in on my Resolution post - so I posted an update just now. In short, I need to do a little better on all of my resolutions.

In addition, though I didn't make it a resolution, I kind of want to do more reading. I bought myself a book the other week - The Pillars of the Earth, by Ken Follet. I have a board game that's based on that book, and I like the game - not that that has any bearing on how good the book might be. But everyone I know who's read it said it was good. I recently also got a board game based on a sequel book called World Without End. I'm less happy with that game, but if I enjoy Pillars of the Earth then I'll probably try and read World Without End as well.

I never did finish reading The Mysterious Benedict Society, a book I started a while ago and got maybe 1/2 way through. Maybe I should hunker down and finish that one first.

Other stuff
My friend Diana has some shoes she's very fond of - those new Skechers Shape-Ups. They're supposed to help tone your legs and butt while you walk, improve your posture, and help your lower back. They advertise like you get a workout just walking around, like you're walking barefoot at the beach. I had seen ads for these shoes, but the only ones I'd seen were directed at women. We were at the mall, and I looked in the Men's department to see if they had them for guys too, which they do. As Diana claimed, they were pretty comfortable to boot! When I got home I ordered some from Shoes.com - $104 and free shipping (compare to $120 at the store). they arrived Friday, and I've only worn them a little bit so far. I'm interested to see how they feel after I wear them around a lot, especially on days where I do a lot of walking.

Fun weekend at LA-out!

2010-01-18T15:14:00.002-07:00

Friday afternoon I hopped in a van with 5 of my best frisbee buddies and we set out Westward for LA-out, an annual beach frisbee tournament in Los Angeles. We didn't get out of town until after 5pm, so we rolled into our hotel at midnight. The next morning we got suited up, took a leisurely stroll to a bus stop, and made our way to the Santa Monica pier which is where the tournament was located. We learned that it's probably worth a few extra bucks to book a hotel right by the fields like we did last year.

The weather was beautiful all weekend, and I very much enjoyed the beach and the frisbee. I'm so glad I didn't bail out at the last minute!

2010 Resolutions - The List

2010-01-02T11:16:00.008-07:00

1. Check progress of my Resolutions
In order to help ensure I'm working toward my goals, I resolve to check in with my New Years Resolutions every 2 months or so. I hope this will will keep me on track, because too often these types of resolutions are made with the best of intentions, and then ignored or forgotten within weeks.

1/25/10 UPDATE: Check in #1, and it's still January!

2/6/10 UPDATE: Check in #2, only 2 weeks later! I don't know how helpful it will be, but I was reading through my blog and thought I'd check in on my resolutions.

12/22/10 UPDATE: Check in #3, I guess I dropped the ball this year - while my 1st and 2nd check-ins were timely, it appears I completely forgot about this whole thing all year :( !

Verdict: Resolution Fail! :(

2. Lose weight
It's that time again. I've escaped the holiday season at about 182 lbs. In order to get myself to a more appropriate weight I resolve to drink no more than 1 soda per week (plus 1 per weekend), avoid overeating, and be more conscious about the food I eat. My initial goal is to weigh in at 175, and then from there I intend to go down to 170.

1/25/10 UPDATE: Well, I had a shaky start with this resolution - after the beach frisbee tournament I went to an all-you-could-eat buffet, and I literally ate about all I could eat. Sure, I hadn't eaten all day, but I still ate about 2x as much food as I'd need in a day, and all at once! The next day I went to the Olive Garden with my family, and while I was going to just have soup, at the last moment I ordered Chicken Parmesan, which is more than enough for a meal on its own, and comes with soup as well. Those 2 days made me feel pretty crappy, but since then I think I've been doing better. I've kept my soda intake down to 1/week + 1/weekend, and I think I'm starting to see an overall decline in my weight in the mornings, though I think it's too early see anything definitive in that respect.

2/6/10 UPDATE: I have taken some specific steps toward meeting this resolution, setting a specific short term goal, and finding an organized way to keep myself honest. It's kind of early to tell, but I think I've lost a pound or 2, and more importantly I've avoided eating when I know I don't need to (even if a little hungry). I also skipped my soda for the week altogether this week.

12/22/10 UPDATE: I did OK with this resolution for the beginning of the year, but I don't think I ever got my weight down under about 177 or 175. I was doing pretty good physically through Potlatch in July, and I continued to go to frisbee practices and tournaments with Monsoon after that - but frankly I felt a real decline in my in-shape-ness after Seattle. I just felt pooped all the time. I don't know what happened - maybe I'm just getting too old, or maybe I just got kinda burnt out on frisbee. After the season I feel like I've really let myself go - barely any exercise, and more cake and junk food. I'm up to about 185 again, and I think I need to make another concerted effort to control my eating habits going into the new year, or things like Lei Out will just be a lot less fun for me.

Verdict: Resolution Fail! :(

3. Finish Game Designs (Prototyping)
It's getting annoying repeating the same resolution which I continually fail at, but I feel like not doing so won't make it happen any faster, and this is something I'd really like to get done, so here we go again...

I have a lot of game designs that I've started, some of them are really almost "finished" - to the point where I could play them and see if they're any good. Some of these have been around for a couple of years now, and its about time I get them finished up. So I resolve to complete prototypes and play the following designs:

Hot and Fresh - A game about pizza delivery and traffic laws. This is at least 2 years old, and is ready to test except I need to make a game board and some cards.
Dynasty - A game about the spread of culture in ancient China. This is almost as old as Hot and Fresh, and will be ready to test as soon as I come up with a list of technologies which players will research (like gunpowder and the compass)
Eminent Domain - A card game about colonizing planets in which you get better at doing things each time you do them.

1/25/10 UPDATE: I'm starting to wonder if I'll EVER get back to Hot & Fresh or Dynasty :/ However I have made a prototype and played Eminent Domain a few times, and it's coming along nicely. It still needs some work, and I'd like to re-theme it from space exploration to a more earthly civilization building game, but at least I'm making progress on it!

2/6/10 UPDATE: I haven't even thought about Hot & Fresh or Dynasty, the pattern there continues. I have however continued to work on Eminent Domain, and I like how it's shaping up. I have not yet attempted a re-theme, but I've been thinking along those lines, starting to get an idea of what I'd like to re-theme it to.
12/22/10 UPDATE: I finally have some news to report on this front! First and foremost - Eminent Domain did not only get a prototype, but it's being published! We raised $48,000 to publish it via Kickstarter.com and right this minute there are illustrators making art for the cards... the game should be out in April!

I even made some progress on Hot & Fresh. Steve came to Tucson for a week after BGG.con and we got to talk about game design stuff a lot. He gave me an idea that revived Hot & Fresh for me, and we even made a prototype and played a game of it! I think it's made a big step forward, but I think it's still got a ways to go. It'll probably be a long time before anything else happens with it. Dynasty still hasn't been touched, but Michael mentioned that he thought it should be the next thing I work on. We'll see about that.

Verdict: Overall I think I have been successful with this resolution!

4. Blog weekly I've got 2 blogs: this one, and another about games and game design. I have not been posting as frequently as I'd like in them, so I resolve to make a minimum of 1 blog post each week in each of my blogs. I believe that this will encourage me to do more than simply blog... I think it will help keep me on track with resolutions, with my game designs, and other stuff like that.

1/25/10 UPDATE: So far I've missed 1 week in this blog, but thanks to Eminent Domain (see previous resolution) I've posted every couple of days in my game design blog. So... so far so good, I guess?

2/6/10 UPDATE: Lately I've been posting in both of my blogs. Diet stuff and Eminent Domain continue to be noteworthy topics for the time being. I haven't planned ahead on what I might blog about, but at least I'm not neglecting my blogs! I like that because blogging helps me to think through ideas I have, and it also serves as a reference that I can look back on to see what I was thinking about which I may have forgotten.

12/22/10 UPDATE: Looking back at my blog dashboard it appears I've been posting pretty regularly in my Game Design Blog (with the exception of May for some reason). This blog has been much less consistent - missing a whole month here and there.

Verdict: Resolution Fail! But it could have been worse. I think the worst part is that I haven't been using the blogging opportunity as I'd hoped - to make myself concentrate on these items.

Edits:
1/25/10 Updates
2/6/10 Updates
12/22/10 Updates

Atlanta bound!

2009-12-04T10:13:00.004-07:00

I've never been to Atlanta, and frankly I never thought I'd have occasion to go. As it turns out though, to fix errors in the shipment of Terra Prime and Homesteaders Mike and I will be flying out to Atlanta in about a week to manage a team of temps to do quality control.

At the convention we found that about 10% of the Homesteaders boxes we opened had the wrong assortment of stuff. That's bad, because it means you cannot play the game! Terra Prime was better, but emails are trickling in about missing or damaged pieces here and there, so we might as well check all of those as well. We also found that it was kind of moist inside the boxes, which makes it hard to punch out the cardboard pieces without tearing them. To try and soak up the moisture and prevent mold and this tearing problem we plan to add silica packets as well.

There are almost 4000 total boxes which we'll need to open, check, then re-shrinkwrap. Hopefully this process won't be too bad or take too long. A lot of people are clamoring for their pre-order copies, and we hope to be able to get them out to those people before Christmas. I think this is feasible if we get a good number of the games checked in the first day or 2 we can send them straightaway to pre-order customers, which gives the post office a week to get them there before X-mas.

While the actual manual labor of checking the boxes will be tedious, I think the experience as a whole will be interesting and informative as we get a chance to see the warehouse and how the games are handled by the Fulfillment company.

A really good weekend

2009-11-28T14:22:00.004-07:00

I went to BGG.con last week, and I had an absolutely great time.

Tasty Minstrel's shipment arrived at the hotel at 6pm Thursday, just a couple hours later than I really would have liked. I had to postpone the launch event, but there were still about 30 people who participated in it. Everyone who played the games seemed to like them a lot! It felt really good to hear people discuss how fun my game was, and people were coming up to me at the con just to tell me how much they liked Terra Prime!

It is SO NICE to feel like I've finally accomplished something. People say it's an accomplishment to finish college, or to buy a house... but as far as I'm concerned, anyone who starts college should be able to finish - it's just a process. You sit through the process, and at the end you graduate. In this case the process is "go to class, lean stuff." Similarly, I don't feel it's much of an accomplishment to buy a house. Anyone can buy a house, it just takes money. And actually, since there exists credit, you don't really need all that much money to do it.

But publishing a game really feels like I've accomplished something. I could easily have spent years working on a creative project only to never finish - indeed I feel I've done that in the past: Never learned to play an instrument, never played on a competitive basketball, volleyball, or ultimate team, never got on the Pro Tour for Magic... etc. Having accomplished this feels good!

Vacation! And... some people.are lame.

2009-11-17T18:07:00.003-07:00

First off, I was at the store today, and some lady was there who was a great example of what's wrong with people sometimes.

There was a bag of dog food which cost $11. It was clearly marked $11.00 on the rack, and 1/2 of the bags had a sticker on them clearly labeling them as $11. The other half the sticker seemed to have been misprinted, too close to the cut-line, such that the left part of the sticker was cut off. Thus, on some of the bags it looked like the price might be $1.00.

This lady was insisting that although she knew it was supposed to be $11, since the bag said "$1.00" she should be able to bu it for $1. I don't understand how people can have that kind of audacity! I can sort of understand it if an item is truly mis-marked (has the actual wrong price affixed), but even then I am not the type of person to demand they sell me the item for the incorrect price. But in this case it's extra ridiculous as far as I'm concerned. What a horrible woman. I felt like picking up some other item, ripping off the price tag, and asking her if I deserved to get it for free.

Now that that's out of the way...

Tomorrow morning I get on a plane to my favorite game convention of the year! I'm going to Dallas for BGG.con, where my board game will be launching. I'm really excited about it!

I had a scare yesterday. Mike called to say that the shipment of games - that he paid a fortune to air ship from China to Dallas to make sure it was there on time - had been delayed, missed a plane out of Tokyo, was rescheduled for a Monday flight, and then got bumped to a Wednesday flight. This was terrible news, because a Wednesday flight would arrive in Dallas Wednesday afternoon, would probably sit in Customs for a day, and in the very best case (assuming no more delays) would arrive sometime Friday. The convention starts Thursday, and we have a booth and launch events scheduled... I've been looking forward to this for months (almost 2 years, actually), and to think that it was about to be ruined by stupid shipping delays had me very flustered and annoyed yesterday.

The ocean freight will arrive in a couple of days, almost ahead of the air freight!

I did a lot of freaking out and complaining on FaceBook and Twitter, and got a lot of supportive responses from people. There was literally absolutely nothing I could do. Michael however had been on the phone a lot with the customs broker and whoever else, trying to get someone to rectify the situation. In the end, the shipment went in the air this morning (Tuesday), and should have arrived this afternoon in Dallas. I am hopeful now that it will clear customs sometime tomorrow, and that Friday is more of a worst case than a best case scenario at this point!

So now I can go back to looking forward to the release of Terra Prime and Homesteaders! And I can enjoy my weekend of fun and games! Brian will be there again, and I always love to spend time with him. Also, my friend Steve from Hawaii will be accompanying me, as will Mike of course, to promote Tasty Minstrel Games. This will be the first time I have gone to BGG.con with other people. I've seen other Tucsonans there before, but I've never attended the con "with" anyone.

In addition, this year my friend Sean from Seattle will be attending. I'm looking forward to hanging out with him, and potentially conscripting him to help in the Tasty Minstrel booth, demoing Homesteaders for example. I'm also looking forward to seeing a bunch of other friends from all over the country, playing lots of games (including late night Werewolf!), and basically just having the best time ever!

I'm sure I'll post all about it when I get home. Actually, now that I got one of those newfangled smart phones (I got a MyTouch! It's pretty sweet! Thanks Grandma!), I might post (or at least tweet) from the con!

Recent and upcoming goings-on

2009-11-06T17:59:00.002-07:00

It's been a long time since my last post... So what have I been doing for the last month?

Not a whole lot, actually. I have spent a lot of time playing and thinking about a game Tasty Minstrel is considering for publication, as well as another we're already committed to publishing next year.

Since Regionals I have not been playing much Frisbee - just league once a week and some pickup once a week (not even that much). It's a lot less exercise, and I fully expect the normal holiday season laziness and weight gain to begin. In fact, it's already begun - I was down to 164 at one point, and now I'm back to 175. I am going to try not to snack too much though, I do NOT want to weigh more than 180 ever again!

It's getting to be time to revisit my New Year's Resolutions - I have been seriously slacking on those! Time to assess how I did this year and make new resolutions for next year. The key is attainable, quantifiable goals!

In a week and a half I'm off to Dallas again for my favorite game convention of the year. Last month there was one in Tucson, and it was much bigger than last year when it first started... but Rincon was nothing compared to BGG.con! There's nothing but gathering with 800 of your closest friends for 4 days of fun and games! Ok, so maybe not ALL 800 of them are my closest friends, but I HAVE met a lot of great people at this convention, and this year several of my closest friends WILL be there. As usual, my oldest friend Brian, who lives in Dallas, will be there - I'm looking forward to spending some time with him. Also, this year Mikey is coming with me, and so is a college friend Steve who is living in my house for the time being. He's got a job waiting for him back in Hawaii, but it doesn't start until mid January, so he'll be around through the holidays.

This year the convention will be a little different for me, as Tasty Minstrel will have a booth and I'm going to have to spend a lot of time manning it. I'll be demoing Terra Prime and homesteaders as well as next year's releases... lucky for me those are great games and I really like them! I hope that doesn't mean I have to miss too much of the rest of the convention... I'm sure it'll be OK.

I do love the holiday season, and I'm looking forward to all the games I'll play and fun I'll have. I'll be bummed when the new year rolls around, Steve heads back to Hawaii, and the world gets over the holiday spirit.

Frisbee regionals follow up post

2009-11-06T17:56:00.002-07:00

I mentioned last month that Barrio won the Region and qualified for Nationals. It turns out they finished 6th at Nationals - which I believe is their 3rd top-8 finish - each time 5th or 6th if I remember correctly.

Congrats to all my Barrio friends!

SW Regionals - not so good :(

2009-10-05T16:10:00.004-07:00

Last weekend was SW frisbee Regionals, and the Tucson Men's team Monsoon didn't fare as well as I'd hoped. We had 4 games on Saturday, 2 of which we were sure to lose (against Johnny Bravo from Colorado and against Street Gang from San Diego). However, the other 2 games (vs Monster from L.A. and Sunburn from the U of A) were certainly winable.

We played Monster first, and in true Tucson Ultimate form, we had a shakey start. I don't think I've ever been on a team that could get their shit together in the first half of the first game. We cleaned it up second half, but unfortunately time ran out on us - they won 11-8.

In the second game against Johnny Bravo we played pretty well - scoring 7 points total. I got a hand block against them which was fun, even if it was probably one of their second or third string players.

Our third game was against Sunburn, who we scrimmaged recently at practice. We beat them by 1 point in the scrimmage, despite truly terrible play. We were hopeful to play better this time and beat them definitively this time. The game started out OK, and we were up 8-5 at one point... but it was all downhill from there. We completely fell apart, and ended up losing 11-9. I pulled a muscle in this game, and didn't play as much as I would have liked - and I had 1 really embarrassing turnover as well... immediately after having a conversation with Anthony about cutting deep, I hucked to his deep cut - and though he had started going deep (as per the play), he inexplicably stopped. The disc sailed deep to nobody.

Dejected, we played our final game against San Diego without much heart. Not only were we outmatched, but I don't feel like we were trying very hard at that point, and they beat us 11-3.

Since we lost all of our games, there were no games scheduled for us on Sunday so I decided to come home that night rather than stay through the weekend. I did find out that Barrio - the Tucson co-ed team - won the Region and will be returning to Nationals again this year. Good job Barrio, and good luck in Florida!

Tasty Minstrel Games - Super Duper Pre-order Special!

2009-09-16T12:25:00.000-07:00

Tasty Minstrel Games has posted demo videos of the launch titles, Terra Prime and Homesteaders, as well as details of a terrific, limited time pre-order special:

1000 packages for US residents: $44.95 for BOTH games, shipping included!
100 packages for non-US orders: $59.95 for BOTH games, shipping included!

In addition, the 1st 100 people to order and also post some special html to their blog referencing Free Game Friday, get a plush Tasty Minstrel dragon!

All the details and all the links needed to order can be found on the same page as the demo videos.

There's also a give-away contest running right now at boardgamegeek.com where you could win a copy of each game! The contest and the super Duper sale end at about the same time, so anyone who pre-orders and then wins the contest can have their pre-order refunded with no hassle.

Good luck to all who enter the contest, and for anyone interested in these two games - I have to advise you jump on this special pre-order before they're all gone... It's an insane deal!

Hispanican?

2009-09-15T16:08:00.004-07:00

This conversation really happened today:

Lady I Know: "Seth, do you know if this last name is Jewish or not?"

Seth: "I've never heard that name before. It kinda sounds Hispanic to me, maybe Spanish."

LIK: "Her name is Deborah. She looks Jewish to me."

S: "Deborah is a Jewish sounding name. The last name would be her husband's though..."

LIK: "Yeah, maybe she married someone Hispanican."

Lazy Chef 1 - "Beef" Broccoli

2009-09-01T23:08:00.003-07:00

I've mentioned a couple times that I've been making more food at home than I used to, and I've even mentioned what I've been making. Now I've decided to start posting more specifically what I make - for example, I just got home and made myself a meal that was really tasty. Here's the "recipe" for it (this is largely for my own records - I guess that's true of all of my blog posts - but if you're lazy like me you might like to try it.

I'm calling these posts "Lazy Chef" because when it comes to cooking, I'm about as lazy as they come. I'm not interested in spending a lot of time cooking - when I get hungry I just want to eat! So the things I make aren't groundbreaking culinary adventures - But I think they're tasty. Then again, I can't smell, so that probably makes a difference.

"Beef" Broccoli
Tonight's dish is actually a variation on the Stir Fry I usually make. I started by boiling some water to make some instant rice. Minute Rice is the best, but Safeway's generic brand was way cheaper and isn't bad. I don't measure anything, so I just started with enough water to saturate the rice I was going to use, then I just eyeballed the rice. I like to use more than enough water, then just let it boil away. I don't have any the stir fry veggies that I usually use, instead I had a bag of frozen broccoli. So I simply defrosted some in the microwave, then dumped it in the pot with the rice. A meal isn't a meal without some meat, so I had to put something in there. Sometimes I use chicken, but what I had this time was Kielbasa. This is why I put the word beef in quotes in the title - because I never actually have beef on hand. I just cut the kielbasa up and tossed it in the pot as well.

To this Rice/Broccoli/Kielbasa mix I added butter, salt, garlic powder, teriyaki and soy sauces, and a little sugar. It only takes a couple of minutes to make, dirties just 1 pot, a slotted spoon, a knife for the meat, and the plate and fork I eat it with. Easy!

2009-08-08T11:47:00.002-07:00

I was relieved to hear that the final season of Monk started last night... not because I was looking forward to watching new episodes so much as I am looking forward to the show being over. Monk is a pretty boring show, and I got pretty sick of it a while ago. Having watched most of the episodes though I let my DVR continue to record them. At this point I only watch Monk out of some misplaced desire for completeness - maybe I have OCD or something.

Right now I'm watching the season premier, and the last line I heard was maybe the best line I've ever heard in an episode of Monk...

Monk and Natalie are standing outside the apartment of a murder victim.
Natalie: "Are you going in?"
Monk: "It would be a crime not to."
Natalie: "It would be a crime if we do!"
Monk: "Then it doesn't matter either way..."

Heh.

Finally (?) - the cleat debacle is over!

2009-07-23T12:35:00.002-07:00

So I ended up with these Adidas cleats, the cheap ones, and in the end if I don't use orthopedic insoles they actually fit. Of course, without the insoles I need 2 pair of socks to keep from getting a blister, and the other day at practice when I yanked out the insoles I didn't have another pair of socks... bottom line is, I have a blister that got ripped open and is very annoying and kinda painful :/

Fortunately, that kind of thing is temporary, and in the end I'll at least be able to run without my feet being in agony.

New stuff - redeaux - redeaux!

2009-07-21T13:35:00.002-07:00

When I got back from Seattle, I needed new cleats something fierce - one was splitting on the side, and both soles were actually starting to break! So I went back to Sports Authority and tried getting the same cleats I got last time, only in size 11. This was a disaster... they didn't have them that size, so I got the next model up (which cost an additional $40) - "Nike Total 90 Strike II". I'm not sure what was so good about these, but I know I don't need features designed for kicking a soccer ball! Anyway, I got them and hoped they'd fit better with the insoles and all that.

Well, they did fit better in the front - the toebox was no longer crushing my toes! However, as expected, size 11 shoes are simply too big! My feet were literally swimming around in them. I tried a 2nd pair of socks, and that helped a little, but the problem persisted. The insoles would literally move and one time one of them started creeping out of the shoe!

So, dejected, I went BACK to the store. Of course they won't take back shoes I've worn already, so I had to bu more new cleats. I tried the size 10.5 Total 90 Shoot II again, with smaller (3/4 length) insoles, but the toebox seems to be narrower than it used to be and it just didn't fit. So I looked at some Adidas cleats. I liked one of them, but it was REALLY narrow in the middle. In the end I bought a much cheaper pair of Adidas cleats. funny that the cheap ones fit better than the fancy, expensive models!

So now I have an extra pair of brand new, size 11, Total 90 Strike cleats (WITH a protection package!) that I don't know what to do with. Maybe I'll try to sell them on Craig's List or something.

:/

Upcoming travel

2009-07-20T16:34:00.002-07:00

I just got back from Seattle about two weeks ago, and Eugene 2 weeks before that, and I'm already thinking of my next trip!

There was some talk about the Tucson Men's Ultimate team going to a tournament in Colorado, but not enough people could make it, so that won't happen. Similarly, there was going to be a scrimmage in Flagstaff among a few local teams (Flagstaff, Phoenix, Tucson), but again due to short notice and scheduling issues, that was a no-go either. There's going to be a tournament in Flagstaff in mid-August, and I plan to go to that.

The first weekend in September there is a game convention in Los Angeles, Gateway, and I just got plane tickets and registered for that. I like this particular convention (and it's sister OrcCon in February) because they have a lot of little tournaments and I can actually win prizes. It gives me an opportunity to do some more competitive gaming than I get to do at some of my other conventions.

In September there's also Club Sectionals for frisbee, which I believe will be right here in Tucson, and assuming Monsoon doesn't do too poorly there I'll be going to Phoenix for Regionals in October. I think it's safe to say that Monsoon is in no danger of qualifying for Nationals.

And of course, I'm already registered and have a room reserved for BGG.con in November in Dallas. Tasty Minstrel Games will have a presence at that convention, and we're having a sort of launch party for the 2 games we're publishing... it's going to be really great!

In the meantime, here I am twiddling my thumbs, waiting for all of this fun stuff to happen!

1...6...5..!

2009-07-17T03:27:00.002-07:00

Yesterday, 3 different people told me I looked like I lost weight. One of them is someone who hates me ant normally avoids talking to me at all, but she went out of her way to say that I looked thinner.

When I got home from frisbee practice I stepped on the scale before getting in the shower, and it read 165! Sure, I hadn't eaten dinner yet so I wouldn't really call that an accurate assessment of my average weight, but still - that's THE LOWEST any scale has registered (when I was on it) since... since... since High School probably. Is that possible?

Sweet.

Burrwitch? Sandito? ... I guess it's just a wrap :/

2009-07-17T01:55:00.003-07:00

The other day I thought I was being creative when I made a burrito, only instead of rice, beans, chicken, sour creme and hot sauce I used ham, turkey, mayo, and catsup. It worked out really well, and I was trying to decide whether to call it a Sandito or a Burrwitch. It turns out that already exists and is called a Wrap (how boring!)

Excitement brewing

2009-07-16T15:36:00.001-07:00

Things are still underway regarding my game getting published, and there's not much left to do but wait.

I'm not going to lie, I'm a little excited and getting a little antsy!

Seattle trip - part 2

2009-07-09T13:15:00.003-07:00

As mentioned, I did play some pickup Ultimate on Sunday at Marymoor park. It was fun, and a good 2 hours of running. Unfortunately this would be the last exercise I got before Potlatch.

I went to the Cheesecake Factory with Renee, Matt, and Jonah for dinner. I've never been to Cheesecake Factory before, maybe because I don't care for cheesecake. I didn't realize that it's not only a restaurant, but that they have an absurdly large menu including many different types of food! It was pretty good too.

After dinner I stopped at a game store and picked up 2 games. I got Lost Cities: the Board Game for Jeremy and Amelia as a thank-you for putting me up (and putting up with me). They like the card game, and Jeremy was asking about the board game version. I also got a game that looked pretty interesting, but that I'd barely heard of called Masters of Venice. In that game you bu and sell stock in companies, and you also buy, sell and trade resources (which the companies deal in). the stock value and prices go up and down as you buy and sell things and as the companies "do business." It's a little confusing at first, but everything really works the way you'd expect based on supply and demand. Jeremy, Aaron and I played Masters of Venice twice. Aaron and Jeremy both did far better in the 2nd game, while I actually might have done worse!

Tuesday morning I drove to Vancouver, and it was just 2.5 hours from Jeremy's apartment to Jay's. The border crossing was interesting. I've been to London and through Mexico City, but both of those were by plane and I just filled out the paperwork on the plane and nobody grilled me about what I was doing in the country. I have crossed the boarder on foot in Nogales before, but that was many, many years ago and at the time they didn't care where you were going or what you were doing. I didn't really know what to expect at the Canadian border, but the experience turned out to be kind of amusing...

First I drove up to a booth at which a lady asked me some typical questions... what are you doing in Canada? Visiting a friend. What is your friend's name? Jay Cormier. Where did you meet Jay? In Las Vegas at a trade show. How long ago was that? Last April. How long will you be staying? Until Thursday. Nothing too exciting. Then she told me to pull under the canopy and go inside this building, so I did. Inside the building there was a waiting area, and counters behind which boarder agents stood. One of them called me over, and began by asking some of the same questions as the lady in the booth. However, he was getting much more detailed with his inquiries... What are you going to do with your friend Jay? Play board games. He gave me a quizzical look so I elaborated, like Monopoly, only different ones. What board games are you going to play?

Really? I thought, is he really interested in which board games we plan to play? I was torn as to how to answer this. Part of me wanted to be accurate and honest, but of course we hadn't planned ahead as to which board games to play. Part of me wanted to list off several Euro-strategy games, like Masters of Venice or Glory to Rome (which I had in my car), but knew he wouldn't have any idea what I was talking about. Part of me figured he just wanted to make sure i had some answer, and that part of me realized I was hesitating to answer while I ran through all these thoughts... so I finally said ... there are a thousand different board games, I don't know which we'll play. He went on with his questioning... Where are you from? Tucson, Arizona. You came all the way up here from Tucson to play board games?!?

Um... yes? He obviously doesn't know me. I didn't say that though, instead I said I'm on vacation in Seattle. Finally he was done with his inquisition and he asked me to wait. I sat down while he did whatever it is they do, and then he came back, called me back up, and sent me on my way. The whole process didn't really take very long, but it was surprising to me how interested they were in what I would be doing while visiting my friend. Also, I'll note that everyone I interacted with at the border was very, very grumpy.

Vancouver was nice. Jay actually lives in New Westminster, which is like a suburb or something. Like Tempe to Phoenix maybe. We hung out, talked about games, played some of his designs as well as a prototype being published by Tasty Minstrel. We went to a game night on Tuesday, and on Wednesday jay had a meeting with this comedy group which I tagged along for. It was pretty fun, I've always wanted to be involved with comedy in one way or another. Wednesday was also Canada Day - there were a million people out at the beach, and there were fireworks that night. Thursday morning Jay had to get back to work, so I headed back to Seattle.

There's a girl who works at Google in downtown Seattle that I knew in college but haven't seen in 10 years. It's too bad, too, because I really liked her 10 years ago! I found out she worked at Google, and tried to find a way to contact her, but to no avail. More recently I was able to contact her through Facebook (go go gadget social networking) and it turned out that while she was leaving for India on Friday, she was able to meet me for lunch on Thursday. We caught up a little bit and I saw some of the Google offices - looks like a cool place to work. While I was in the area, I stopped in at my friend's law office and surprised him. He didn't have much time to talk, but he invited me to play games the following Tuesday starting at 10am (planning to go all day).

It was still too early for anyone to be at Potlatch, and I had agreed to pick up some teammates, but not until 7pm, so I went to Renee's house and hung out with her for a while. Then I went to the airport and picked up some teammates and settled in for a weekend of frisbee! I made another airport run later to get 1 more guy, and I saw a bunch of people I know from various places... that's one of the things I love about a big tournament like Potlatch - running into people like Jeff Hartline, Giles Peng, Jen Shannon, Lauren from Flagstaff (now from Boulder), Lori Starr, Deb Weis, Dave Keifer, people from Phoenix, and of course my teammates from Victoria, Portland, Washington DC, Boulder, and Sacramento. Of course this time there were a handful of Tucsonans there as well, and I spent some time hanging out with them.

This year we didn't do near as well as we did last year, though much of the team was the same (guys anyway), and I think our women were probably stronger than last year's... we weren't gelling very well, there were clashes of attitude, and people just weren't on the same page much of the time. We had a lot of simple drops and throwaways. It was pretty frustrating, and while last year we went 6-2... this year we were only 2-6. Frustrating as it was though, it was still a fun weekend of frisbee in great weather.

Sunday night I went to dinner with Jeremy and company at Red Robin again. They put about 50% more chicken on my salad than normal, so that was good :) Monday I hung out with Renee, we did some errands (buy cat food, go to library) and had lunch at a grocery type place which was pretty good. Jonah was very well behaved the whole time. Later I played some Boom Blox on the Wii while Renee tried to get some sleep, and finally Renee and I met Matt for dinner at a place called Z Tejas.

After dinner i decided I wanted some ice cream, so I went to Cold Stone before returning to Jeremy's, where he Emily and I played Lost Cities again, and then Jeremy, Aaron and I played another round of Dominion. We played several games of Dominion while I was there, and they have a stuffed sheep which they use like a trophy - I managed to win the sheep before leaving, thus taking the title with me... just in time for intrigue (an expansion) to come out next week! Haha!

The next morning, everyone went to work, and I packed my stuff to get ready to leave. My flight wasn't until 3:15, so I decided to go to that game day thing for a while - it was in a Microsoft building which happened to be only a couple blocks from Jeremy's apartment! Good thing too, because when I was almost to the building, I actually ran out of gas! It was pretty embarrassing - and the car gave no physical warning. It had a low fuel light, but didn't act at all funny before simply cutting out in the middle of the road. I drifted into a parking lot and about 30% of the way into a parking spot before the car stopped going. I felt pretty stupid for letting this happen, but luckily I was right next to where I was going, and my lawyer friend was able to give me a ride to a gas station real quick. I ate lunch at the Microsoft building (it's a cafeteria they meet in to play games), and then finally had to get on my way.

I got to the airport just in time to return my car and check in for my 3:15 flight. I got to the counter just after 2:00, but the check-in computer told me it was too late to check in! A man working for the airline said he didn't know why, but he got me checked in. I had to check a bag, which I hate doing (even moreso now that it costs $20), but he took care of that too. When I got to my gate I thought something was fishy... nobody was boarding, or waiting to board, and the sign said the flight to San Francisco (where I had a connecting flight) was at 5-something, not 3:15. It turns out the plane had mechanical problems, so to make sure I didn't miss my connection they put me on another airline through Phoenix to Tucson, arriving 1 hour later than I would have. 2 different people called the baggage people and let them know to put my checked bag on the right plane.

When I arrived in Tucson, my bag did not come out in the baggage claim. I figured it must have gotten on the plane to San Fran after all, and maybe missed the connection and was still up there. After talking to the US Air people about it and arranging for them to deliver the bag when it did arrive, I decided to just check the United baggage office, as United was my original carrier... and sure enough, somehow my bag was right there. I now suspect that the bag was put on the 5-something flight and DID make the connection, and had been sitting in Tucson for an hour. I'm glad I checked!

Finally, I got home, and my little kitty cat was very happy to see me! She curled up within reach and I was able to pet her all evening, and she even slept in my bed with me (which she hasn't done since she was really little)! Evie is so cute! I was sorry to leave Seattle, but it was also good to be home. Except for the weather - when we stopped over in Phoenix the pilot said local temperature was 104 degrees... at 7:30pm!

Where do you buy good, inexpensive furniture?

2009-07-09T10:55:00.003-07:00

I need to buy some bookshelves to hold my board games - ideally I'd like 2 of them, 33" wide x 12" deep or so, the taller the better (i.e. not just 4 shelves).

I seem to remember someone telling me about a great furniture store, I think it was on Broadway, which had good furniture at a discount price. I don't recall if it was used or something, and I don't recall where exactly it was or what it was called.

Anybody know what I'm talking about? Or know where I can find some nice bookshelves at a decent price? Please leave a comment if you do... thanks!

Edit: This is what I'm talking about! Is $183 a good price? I think I might go ahead and order 2 of these... Still looking for comments though, if you have any!

Seattle trip - and how Car Rental is the biggest scam ever!

2009-06-28T03:46:00.006-07:00

Once again I have ventured up to Seattle for my annual summer vacation, and once again I'm staying 11 days to visit friends and family. This time there's more family to visit, as My sister had her little baby, and I finally got to meet Jonah!

I arrived in Seattle on Friday, after Diana was nice enough to drop me off at the airport. She also gave me something she'd made to give to Jonah - a stuffed Octopus and a matching baby blanket. Diana has become very crafty. When I got to the airport, I rented a car and then headed to Redmond to meet friends at Red Robin.

... A word about rental cars...
Car Rental agencies have quickly ascended toward the top of my list of institutions I find unreasonable and ridiculous. I realized that I should have booked a car in advance, and I was already kicking myself for not having done so. However, they're still car rental agencies, and they still rent cars to people, right? Well, that's not as clear cut as you might think:

Avis, Budget, and Alamo all have deals with Southwest, and offer discounts and double credit for Southwest Rewards members, so I first stopped at the Avis counter and said "Hi, I don't have a reservation, but I'd like to rent a car." Despite a sign that said "Cars Available," their response was "Sorry, all I have left is exotic stuff, like Hummers and Cameros, they're upwards of $150/day." OK... I'll try the next counter...

Alamo had a big line, but Budget's counter was bare - I said the same thing there, and the lady behind the counter answered very curtly "I've got no cars whatsoever, I'm completely sold out." Ok - I guess I'll wait in the Alamo line then. Maybe the reason there's a line at Alamo's counter is because they have cars..?

No. They told me all they have is some convertibles for $78+ a day, nothing compact or cheap. I was beginning to worry a little bit at this point, and was starting to make preparations for a somewhat desperate plan. Back at the Avis counter I inquired about making a reservation for Saturday or Sunday, and was planning to perhaps rent a more expensive car until then, and come back and swap them out in a day or two. It would have been a pain in the ass, but at least it would have worked. I was in luck! The guy was able to reserve me a car for the next day! He said I could pick it up anytime, even like 8am. I asked when I should come in order to ensure there would be a car for me - how could I be sure if they don't have anything now, you know? His reply... "oh, we'll always have a car for you. If we're out of this one, we'll give you a bigger size."

I started to think something was a little fishy at this point, and I formulated a better plan. Unfortunately, SeaTac airport doesn't have free WiFi, so I couldn't just get online and make a reservation. Instead, I called a friend and got him to look up some phone numbers for me, and then I called Avis, Alamo, and budget and made reservations for 3pm Friday (which was 10 minutes away). I was able to get a reservation for all three, and I was quoted prices which, of course, were different fromt he ones the guy at the counter had given me (you never seem to get the same quote twice from rental agencies).

Armed with my reservation number, I walked up to the Budget counter as they were the cheapest price (by only a couple dollars over Avis). The person in front of me in line was on the phone with someone, obviously distraught, and said "they don't have any cars-" and was promptly interrupted by the clerk "I didn't say we didn't have any cars, I said that all reservations are waiting..." I'd heard enough. This was the same lady who told me they were completely sold out, and obviously these people had a reservation and were having a problem. I decided to go to Avis.

Again armed with a reservation number, I talked to the Avis clerk )not the same one as before) and not only did they have a car for me, but while I reserved a sub-compact, they gave me a Toyota Corrolla (which I believe is "full size") for the same price!

So after over an hour of consternation, a little panic, and frustration, I finally was driving away in a car which - after $560 rental fee and then over 50% taxes and stuff - is mine through next Tuesday when I go home. My god renting cars is expensive! I'm going to drive the shot out of this thing while I've got it!

...and now back to your regularly scheduled vacation report...
On the way into Redmond I picked up my friend Sean, then Jeremy and his sister Emily met us at Red Robin. I started last year's vacation with dinner at Red Robin and then Game Night at Uncle's Games, and I really liked how that went. I think my typical vacation will start that way from now on.

Renee, Matt, and Jonah were able to join us as well, on their Anniversary no less, and I finally got to see the little guy in the flesh! Jonah is about 1 month old, and man, is he tiny! Babies - they're just like real people, only smaller...

After dinner we went to Uncles and Alex met us there. Renee and Matt went home, and the rest of us played Battlestar Galactica. Alex and Sean had some variant rules they use, and they'd tweaked most of the character powers a little and also added some new made-up characters. I think I may have played out BSG, but it was kinda fun. The character I picked was one of the new ones - Sharon "Athena" Agathon - and she started in the Brig. that was boring, I spent the whole first half of the game in the Brig, doing nearly nothing. I ended up being a Human, and the Humans won fairly handily except for being a little low on fuel.

After BSG, Jeremy and Emily tried Cow Tipping, a prototype card game that Michael has decided Tasty Minstrel Games will publish - while I taught Glory to Rome to Alex and Sean. They liked it, and Alex said he'd want to play it some more, however the store was closing so we headed home. I was hoping Mohan and Runjith would make it to Uncles like last year, and I kinda thought I was going to stay in their apartment, but I haven't heard from Mohan lately and they weren't there. Fortunately, Jeremy and Amelia (and now Emily and her husband Aaron who live with them) always seem happy to have me, so I am staying with them this weekend.

When we got to Jeremy's house, he, Aaron and I played 4 hands of Dominion, each of us winning one, and then Jeremy being the first to win 2 (which is what we decided to play to). One of those games Jeremy beat me by just 1vp!

Today, Jeremy, Amelia and I played Cow Tipping. Then they two, Emily, Aaron and I all went to get Teriyaki at a really good place - I liked it a lot. After that Aaron, Jeremy and I played a couple hands of Race for the Galaxy - one in which Jeremy beat me by 1vp AGAIN, and Aaron was only maybe 2vp behind me. The second game I had started really well, but we had to abort because Aaron and Emily had to go to some Red Hook Brewery tour thing.

Ameila went to study (she's taking the Bar soon), and I talked Jeremy into playing glory to Rome. We played 2 games, and in one he beat me by 1vp yet again! Then we played a couple of songs worth of Rock Band - oh my god am I bad at drums! After that we left to pick up Sean and attend a game night in Seattle with Julie, Peter, Alex, his GF Julie, and some other people. Jeremy and I played a few games of something called Twitch, which is a speed game sort of thing (fun, but not the best game - some rules ambiguity). Then we played Smallworld with Julie and Peter, then a 2 player game of Smallworld, then we went to dinner with Alex and Julie, and finally played another game of Smallworld with those two.. all in all, we played a lot of Smallworld. Alex played several games of Glory to Rome with other people, so he got a chance to play it some more.

And then we came home at 3 in the morning, and I spent an hour writing this blog post! If I were less tired I probably would have simply summarized stuff, for example the entire last paragraph could have just been "We played some games".

Tomorrow I plan to play some pickup ultimate at Marymoor park, which happens to be right by Jeremy's place, then go to dinner with Renee and Matt while Jeremy Raids - he plays World of Warcraft... but everybody's got their faults ;)

Monday afternoon there is pickup frisbee at Microsoft campus, and it turns out that Jeremy's place is super close to that as well! I'm so glad Jeremy (and co.) considered my convenience when choosing an apartment - it really couldn't be more convenient.

New stuff - redeaux

2009-06-28T03:37:00.002-07:00

Last week I picked up some new stuff at Sports Authority, including a pair of cleats. Well, let me tell you about these cleats...

First off, they're the exact same make and size as my current pair, but the new version of the model (Nike "Total 90 Shoot II" rather than just "Total 90 Shoot"). The new version of the same shoe. When I got home and put the brand new insoles in them, my foot would no longer fit in the shoe. This was disappointing in general, but doubly so since I should have realized it would happen. In my current cleats I wear a 3/4 length insole, and maybe that's why it seems to fit better (also possibly because my cleats are broken in and stretched out a bit). So, annoyed, I removed the insoles and tried putting the cleats on without them... and they didn't fit right!

I swear they seemed to fit alright in the store, but putting them on at home it was pretty clear that they were just a little too tight in the front. It was like 10.5 was too small, but I'm sure size 11 would be too big. I even checked with the foot-sizer thingy at the store!

So why is it that the same make, same size, basically same model shoe no longer fits while my old shoes do? Just to annoy me? In the end I returned the cleats, the insoles, and the $10 protection package. I didn't really have time to be shopping for new cleats, I'll have to do that when I get back from Seattle. Fortunately my current cleats are in good enough shape that I don't need new ones yet...

New stuff

2009-06-22T15:18:00.004-07:00

I went to Sports Authority during lunch and picked up some new stuff - mainly I needed new insoles for my cleats because I tore through the ones I had during the tournament last weekend. I got better ones this time which will hopefully hold up better.

While I was there I got a new pair of cleats, some compression shorts, and a hat! Once in a while it's good to get new things. My hat is falling apart, and I only have 2 pair of compression shorts that I like, and I need them 5 days a week. Not sure I really needed new cleats, but I decided to try a pair with a different cleat pattern. I also got a $10 'protection plan' because it sounds like they're really liberal in what they'll replace. Within 13 months if, say, the spikes wear down (likely with the ground here being so hard) or the insides tear up (I tear through heels and toes of cleats pretty fast), they'll send me a check for the full purchase price plus tax... Hopefully I'll remember to keep the receipt and claim the new shoes next year!

Another movie quote

2009-06-14T02:29:00.003-07:00

A really good movie was on tonight, Sleepers. I actually have the DVD, and have seen it 2 or 3 times, but it's such a good movie that I couldn't resist watching again, even if only the 2nd half.

There are some good lines int he movie, but this one struck me as blog worthy. Unfortunately I won't be able to replicate the guy's accent...

"Justice is blind where the judge sits... but not out here. Out here, the bitch got eyes."

"Vacation - all I ever wanted... Vacation - got to get away!"

2009-06-13T16:48:00.005-07:00

It's almost time for my annual summer vacation, and I've been really procrastinating on making plans! I've finally started to map out my trip to the Pacific NW, and here's how it's looking so far:

First off, as I mentioned I'm going to Eugene next weekend for frisbee. I was considering going directly to Seattle from Oregon, and just hanging out there for 2 weeks through Potlatch, but I've decided not to do that. Instead I'll be flying back and forth a little bit, but in the end it'll work out better this way.

Friday the 26th I hope to find good plane tickets (I'd better get on that!) which will put me in Seattle in time to rent a car and get to Red Robin at Redmond Town Center around dinnertime (5ish). Ideally some or all of my friends in Seattle (Sean, Mohan, Runjith, Alex, Jeremy, Amelia, Julie, Peter, Renee, Matt...) will be able to meet me for dinner there, then we could go to Uncle's Games for their Friday night game night. Last year that worked out really well and was a great start to my vacation.

I hope to spend the weekend with my friends, hanging out, playing games, doing whatever. I believe there's a game night on Saturday night that I might go to, and I will play pickup ultimate at Marymoor park on Sunday.

Monday there's a frisbee pickup game on Microsoft campus, I went to a couple of those last year and they were fun. I met a guy who played at Nationals against the Barrio team from Tucson, who just happens to work in the office next to my friend Peter!

After frisbee (and a shower) I would like to drive up to Vancouver. I've never been there but have been meaning to go. I hear it's real nice, and that there's good frisbee to be had, though I'm not sure I'll get to play any frisbee in Vancouver this time. Instead, I will meet up with Jay, who I met at the GAMA trade show. I really enjoyed hanging out with him in Las Vegas, and Tasty Minstrel Games will be publishing a game of his, so I'll be working on it with him - I'm looking forward to that. I liked the game when I played it at GAMA.

I'll stay with Jay for 2 days, then I'll head back down to Seattle on Thursday, when my Potlatch teammates should start to arrive. I'll be all about frisbee through the weekend, camping on the fields, playing 3 days of Ultimate, and hanging out with a ton of cool people. Potlatch is by far my favorite tournament of the year, and the team I have been playing with has been a lot of fun. It's about 40% people from the Sacramento area, 40% people from Canada, and 10% people like me from here or there around the country. I met most of these guys when I went to Acapulco for frisbee, which I did 4 or 5 times - though not in several years now. The Acapulco trip was also a fun one, but Potlatch is a better trip overall for me because I get to spend the week in Seattle vacationing.

After Potlatch on Sunday I hope to visit with my sister, brother in law, and brand new Nephew! Jonah Reuben Titelbaum is gong to be about 2 months old by then, and I would like to meet him already!

I'm not sure how long after Potlatch I'll stay in Seattle. I keep thinking that if I stay through Wednesday or Thursday, I might as well stay through the next weekend - but then I have to find things to do all week. There's Microsoft pickup Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and Sean said there's a group that meets at Google offices to play games on Wednesday nights (I wouldn't mind seeing Google), and last year I remember going to a game night at a Microsoft building as well with Christopher Rao (someone who's into game design). I could probably visit with my sister a lot as well, maybe help her out with whatever I can - I understand it's hard to do stuff with a baby!

The down side is that I'd miss an extra week of frisbee league, and 2 weeks is a really long time to leave my kitty alone, even if Mandy will happily watch my DVR the entire time I'm gone.

So I'm set through Potlatch weekend, I just have to bu some tickets, which means I have to figure out when to come home. It's looking like a great vacation so far though!

Shape it up - and other life updates

2009-06-08T01:33:00.003-07:00

Ever since I went to Ogden to play Frisbee at a tournament called Daweena (which it appears I never blogged about), I decided it is high time I got back into shape! I am much too slow and weak to be playing frisbee tournaments as it is. In an effort to do so I not only have been going to Conditioning, and now *2* frisbee practices a week as well as league and pickup (5 days a week of exercise!), but I also cut sodas down to 1 per week (another 1 or 2 on weekends) and quit eating brownies and candy and stuff like that. I figured if I lost weight it would help the fitness thing... I am between 172 and 175 now, which is pretty good. I've been slipping a little on the food part, but as yet I haven't appreciably gained any weight. Maybe it's time to target 165-170...

In two weeks I'll be going to another tournament, this one in Eugene, and I'd like to perform well there. Two weeks after that is Potlatch, and that's probably going to be even more fun (and the better I play, the more fun it'll be!)

While I'm in Seattle for Potlatch, I'll also meet my brand new baby nephew! Renee had a baby boy about 2 weeks ago, Jonah Reuben Titelbaum. By the time I get out there he'll be about 6 weeks old... not old enough to hold a frisbee yet, but before too long I'll teach him how to throw.

Today I spent all day in a house full of 3 year olds (or younger). My friend Marc's daughter had her 2nd birthday party, and there were about 6 kids (age range 2-3), 3 babies (non-ambulatory), and maybe 20 adults. It showed how nice and big Marc's house is to comfortably host so many people! And it was a zoo of little 2-3 foot tall people running around making messes left and right, and shouting. I still want a kid, but maybe just one. And I don't look forward to birthday parties like that!

And finally, another amusing thing I saw on the internet. Actually, I saw this on Comedy Central, and then looked it up on the internet... There's a gu who wrote some amusing songs (raps, actually) and put them on YouTube in order to show his brother. I guess they got really popular, and this guy has a CD out and a Comedy Central Presents segment on TV. His name is Bo Burnham, and really he's more clever than he is funny - a lot of his jokes are sexual in nature, or crude... but it's the cleverness for which I give him props. Some of his songs are puns on top of puns on top of puns. If you think you might be into that kind of thing then check him out.

Clothes that fit

2009-05-13T11:47:00.004-07:00

For a long time I've been wearing clothes that are too big for me. In particular, I always wear Large T-shirts as opposed to Medium ones. I also have some sweatshirts that are way too big for me, and they just don't look right.

Recently, when thinking about losing weight, I decided to start wearing clothes that fit. I think it's better that way. Maybe it will also help me keep from getting fatter, because the clothes will start to feel tight rather than just be baggy all the time.

Overdue update

2009-05-11T01:09:00.004-07:00

I haven't posted in almost a month... so what have I been up to?

Frisbee
As usual, I've been playing Ultimate. Practice has begun for the Tucson Men's team, Monsoon. My current frisbee schedule is Conditioning on Monday, League on Wednesday, Practice on Thursday, and Pickup on Sunday. Last year with this schedule I actually got into pretty good shape by Potlatch (4th of July), but I feel like right now I'm in terrible shape, and I feel like I've been moving really slow... so I don't know if that schedule will be enough.

I will note that my league team is leading the league after the regular season! Wednesday is Quarterfinals, and if we win that game then we will have semifinals and finals next week :)

Diet
In an effort to get into better shape, I've decided to lose some weight. I've been watching it for a while and hovering around 175-178 pounds. I'd said before that I'd rather weigh 165-170, but I haven't been actively trying to lose weight. Well, now I am. I've cut soda down to 1 during the week and maybe another on the weekend (down from 1 per day), and I've stopped eating the brownies Mandy has been bringing to game nights. I think I've already lost a couple of pounds this week!

Travel
Despite being out of work for the last 6 months, I have gone on a number of trips. Most recently I flew to Utah for a frisbee tournament. My flight would have had a layover in Los Angeles, so I talked to Stephanie and arranged to go to L.A. on Thursday and hang out with her*, then continue on to Utah on Friday. Steph had a game night at her house that Thursday night and I played a couple of games I'd not played before - one was called Big Boss, the other Corsairs. Unfortunately, neither one was terribly good. Big Boss wasn't terrible, but was largely dependent on what cards you draw (and it's not a card game, and some cards are way better than others). Corsairs was, as one guy put it, 8 minutes of fun in a 45 minute package.

* I had asked Steph before buying the ticket if stopping off in L.A. was a good idea or not, and she said she thought it would be fun... but I really got the impression she didn't want me there. I knew she would have work to do, so I brought my computer and planned to be as flexible as possible. When not doing work though, Steph spent almost all her time on the phone with another friend or else grilling me for being cheap. She kept asking if there was anything I wanted to do, and I kept saying that the only thing I wanted to do in particular while I was there was to play 1 game of Fermat with her, and she blew that off. She also swapped me off of her team for Times Up immediately after I mentioned that for once we'd be the same team. I don't know if I've ever felt less welcome.

Other recent trips include:
* Las Vegas for the GAMA trade show - a trade show for the Game industry. Mike, Erin and I learned a lot and made a lot of contacts there, and for me in particular I'm referring to a game designer we met who has a game we (Tasty Minstrel Games) might want to publish. Also, the designer guy was really cool, I liked him a lot.

* Portland for Gamestorm and to visit Jeremy. Jeremy and Amelia will be moving back to Seattle, just in time for me to visit them again on my annual 4th of July trip for Potlatch.

Upcoming trips:
* San Fransisco for KublaCon game convention in about 2 weeks
* Eugene Oregon for Solstice frisbee tournament in June
* Seattle for Potlatch frisbee tournament in July
* L.A. for Strategicon game convention in September
* Dallas for BGG.con game convention in November

Work
I still haven't found an engineering job, but things are looking up for Bobbie's new company Mooradian and Associates, so I'm hopeful for some full time employment there. I may be getting a phone call to do some temporary "consulting" for them in the meantime. So I guess that's good.

Movies
I went to see Star Trek the other day. I've never been a big fan of Star Trek, but I can say that they did a good job with the new movie. The casting was great, and I really liked the movie. If I had to complain, I'd say they drew out some of the early scenes with Kirk as a kid, and then they really rushed to get all the characters aboard the Enterprise.

I don't want to spoil anything for anyone, so I'll be a little cryptic - I was really surprised to see that guy on the icy planet (not Scotty and his little buddy). I'm SO glad that wasn't in the previews! I noticed that the story made it possible for them to really re-start the franchise from the beginning, like James Bond got a reboot with Casino Royale and Batman Begins started that franchise from scratch again. They did it in such a way that the original series can remain intact and not cause contradictions for big fans. The only old Star Trek movie I remember is Star Trek IV - the one where they go back in time to save the whales. I remember Scotty talking to an old Macintosh, and someone says "no, no... you have to use the mouse!" After which he picks up the mouse and tries talking into it.

I also recently saw Monsters Vs Aliens, The Watchmen, and Push (all pretty good), as well as Taken (awful). On my satellite I watched Journey to the Center of the Earth (terrible), Forgetting Sarah Marshall (not bad), and I've recorded but not watched Traitor, Pan's Labrynth, Intacto (seen before - neat movie), and Ghost in the Shell II (I heard something bad about it since I recorded it).

Television
As for TV I've been watching a lot of Crossing Jordan. Some channel plays it every weekday morning at 5am. I watched all of season 6, and then they started over with season 1 so I'm watching that. I like that they play them in order. I have watched maybe the first half of season 7 of 24... it's not terribly good. I still think the only interesting thing they can do with that franchise is to have Jack Bauer turn into a terrorist - maybe in a feature film as opposed to another season of the show. Other shows I've been watching are Chuck, Heroes (thank god it's over - it's finally starting to get a little better), In Plain Sight, Scrubs, Burn Notice (starting again soon!), The Unusuals (pretty dumb), and something called Deadliest Warrior where they pit 2 of history's deadliest warriors against each other by studying their weapons via modern technology and then simulating a fight to see who would win. They reveal the outcome by acting it out, and it's all very cool. They've done Pirate vs Knight, Ninja vs Spartan, Apache vs Gladiator, Viking vs Samurai, and Mafia vs Yakuza so far.

How does one write a TV show?

2009-04-21T01:11:00.003-07:00

I recently had an idea which I thought would make a quality television program, but it occurs to me that I have no idea how to go about writing a TV show.

My best guess is to make a sort of outline for the season-long story, then break it down into salient pieces. In theory, each 'piece' would be 1 episode.

In the case of Jury Duty, the season long story would be the case on trial - which I could model after one of the interesting complicated cases I've seen on Law & Order. Each episode then would have to either reveal a new and interesting part of the case, or would focus on one of the characters... maybe some history which will give some insight into how they see the case. In fact, in parallel with the outline of the case, maybe a character sketch of each juror (as well as the Judge, Prosecutor, and Defense attorney) would be worth making, to ensure they can be overlapped in interesting ways. I wouldn't want the show to peter out halfway through the year like the first two seasons of 24...

Also, I think it would be good to simply take 1 season at a time, keeping one season more or less separate from the next. 24 did that, of course continuing characters from one season to the next (and along with them all their new history from previous seasons). This would be better than the Battlestar Galactica fiasco, where it was clear they had no idea where they were going with the story after about season 2 and started just making things up as they went.

Perhaps I'll put some thought into this, and see if I can't come up with an outline for a seasons worth of Jury Duty, the TV show :)

Funny quotes in bad movies

2009-04-20T23:07:00.003-07:00

Bad movies are great places to find funny quotes, like the classic Dazed and Confused line I've posted before.

Today I heard a terrible line from a terrible movie:

"I think I've become the next evolution of man. I just gave birth to a piece of dark matter."

I don't even know the name of the movie - I only saw the end of it. But I assure you, it was terrible.

The other night I was watching part of Bring it On, which is not a terrible movie, and there was a pretty good quote in that:

"This isn't about cheating... This is about winning. Everyone in favor of winning..?"

I'll watch for more good quotes and I'll try to remember to post them here.

Accomplishment

2009-04-13T03:22:00.003-07:00

On a small scale, I feel like I accomplished something today. I had a to-do list with some items on it such as finishing taxes, make a shirt design for my frisbee tournament next weekend, and prepare several things for the trade show I'm heading to Vegas for tomorrow. I never thought I'd get any of it done, because the more time went by, the more things seemed to pile up.

Well, I did manage to get the design done for the shirts, and since I'm a complete photoshop amateur I also asked my sister to help make it look better. She did an AWESOME job, and with her help I think we'll actually have a really nice shirt this time!

I also finished my taxes and got them sent off electronically. I actually started them a few months ago and got most of the way through, it was just a matter of making sure I'd put everything in, which I think I did correctly. I'm getting another big chunk of money back again, not quite as big as last year, because after being laid off my withholding stopped. Still, since I never got around to changing my W-4 after last year, I'm still getting a big refund this year :)

On a larger scale, the reason I'm heading to Las Vegas tomorrow is to attend the GAMA trade show. It's a trade show for the game industry, not like one of the game conventions I normally go to. One of my oldest friends has decided to start a company to publish board games. It's something he's wanted to do for some time now, and I guess he's decided he's in a good position to do it at this time. This works out for me because for some time now I've wanted to get a board game published! I'm trying to do my best to help Mike with his company, Tasty Minstrel Games, which is starting out by publishing my space game Terra Prime, and another game I helped develop called Homesteaders.

If things go well with Tasty Minstrel Games, I believe the plan is for me to be the in-house developer. I've wanted to do game development for several years now, and I've actually been doing it already, just not getting paid (or published). I like designing games, but my strongest suit is really identifying good ideas and developing them. A year or two ago, if someone asked me to identify my dream job I probably would have said "finding good new games for a publisher and helping develop them to be published," and lo and behold, that's just what I'll be doing!

It's no engineering job, but frankly, right now those appear few and far between anyway. I would never have quit my day job to be a game designer, or a developer, or least of all a publisher, but since the recession took care of my day job for me, I'm excited to be a part of this new endeavor which I've wanted to try for so long.

I really feel like I'm on the verge of accomplishing something here - I've wanted to see my name on a game box on store shelves (and by extension, hear that people are playing and liking my games) for so long, it feels weird to finally be on the verge of having that happen. And if all goes well, I might very well get to try what might be my dream job, at least for a little while! So far it's been fun communicating with the artist on one of the games, getting to decide how I want the finished product to look.

Pretty soon (i.e. I'll be typing up info for it in the car tomorrow) Tasty Minstrel will have a website and I'll be able to direct you to it, so my faithful readers (both of them... I'm talking to you Mom and Dad!) can support us! :)

It's like work only I'm not getting paid...

2009-04-06T16:17:00.003-07:00

I still haven't got a job, so I'm helping my friend start a publishing company to publish board games. This is good news for me, as the first games on the list are my game about space exploration and another game I helped develop as well. In an effort to prepare my game for publication I spent a lot of time this weekend testing, tweaking, updating, and otherwise polishing. And there's still more work to do!

The cool thing is that it doesn't feel like work. Which is good, because I'm not getting paid for it (not yet at least). I've never believed in the idea of people really loving their job - I've always believed that if you had to do something then you would stop loving it. Part of the loving to do things is that you're doing it of your own volition. Take that away and I don't think it's possible to really love what you do.

Hopefully this endeavor will prove me wrong!

YouTube LOLs

2009-03-30T02:29:00.002-07:00

I've been surfing YouTube a little bit and watching some funny videos, including:

An awesome music video about being on a boat,

Natalie Portman gangsta rappin',
(They also have an uncensored version if you prefer)

and Christopher Walken's best performance ever.

"SyFy?" ...Really?

2009-03-19T05:06:00.003-07:00

Chalk up another in the growing list of things we could do without...

I heard a rumor the the Sci Fi channel is changing it's branding. Quoth Tim Brooks, TV historian, who helped launch Sci Fi Channel: “The name Sci Fi has been associated with geeks and dysfunctional, antisocial boys in their basements with video games and stuff like that, as opposed to the general public and the female audience in particular.” So In an effort to "un-geekify" the channels image they're renaming it "SyFy."

I can see what they're trying to do from a marketing standpoint - they're trying not to alienate people who think Science Fiction is "geeky." However, in doing so, they're completely reinforcing the stereotype that it is!

As one of the comments at the end of that article says, "way to take a big dump all over your viewers!"

Oh, one more thing... apparently when they tested the new name, they got feedback that "this is actually how you'd text it." Should I have said "...txt it?" Anyway, that seems to have made the network execs "feel much cooler, much more cutting-edge, much more hip,". I got news... if you're going for cool, cutting-edge and hip, then you shouldn't be txting the words "Sci Fi" (or "SyFy") to anyone. I can't imagine a situation where that would happen at all, let alone one in which it would be cool.

The name "Seth"

2009-03-17T22:32:00.004-07:00

I've noticed the name "Seth" being used a lot more lately - on TV, advertising, movies, etc. It may just be a perception thing, like maybe the name is as common as ever, and I'm only noticing it more often. Or perhaps it's being used more than it used to. I'm not sure.

One thing I've noticed about the name is the type of person Hollywood is assigning it to. Just two off the cuff examples:

Ad for cell phone company: Seth is the fat kid who the pimply kid settles for (for his "circle") when he's told the hot chick is unlisted.

Main character in Superbad: unpopular deviant - the one that didn't even get into a good school like his two loser friends, and gets spit on by other kids. On the up-side, he and his friend Evan DID end up getting together with the girls they liked, but I think the character isn't the kind of guy people aspire to be like.

I don't know where I'm going with this observation... I'd like to think I'm not like the type of person that would be named Seth in a TV show or movie.

No free lunch

2009-03-17T22:20:00.003-07:00

I went to Chipotle today for lunch. Normally when I get a burrito I take it home with me and eat it while watching TV or something. This time though I decided to eat at the restaurant.

Just before finishing my meal, the lady from the register asked if she could see my credit card again. She had inadvertently charged me $0.06 instead of $6.43!

So if I had taken the burrito with me, it turns out I would have had a free lunch :) Of course I have no problem paying for the food, which by the way was (a) plentiful and (b) delicious.

Just one more piece of evidence in support of the old adage: there's no such thing as a free lunch!

Jury Duty - how do I contact Steven Bocchco?

2009-03-04T13:50:00.002-07:00

My Dad had Jury Duty yesterday, and just now in the car I was thinking about that and I came up with an idea for a new courtroom drama. Somebody put me in touch with Steven Bocchco!

I watch a lot of Law and Order, and I've also enjoyed other courtroom dramas such as Philly (which unfortunately only aired for one season) and Raising the Bar. I think my idea is a fresh look at the genre. In Law and Order you know the facts of the case, and you see exciting scenes in which Jack McCoy catches a witness in a lie. You know it's a lie, because the rest of the show informs you. Jack then reflects in his office as to whether the jury bought the witnesses story or not. The defendants are usually guilty, because that show is about catching and prosecuting bad guys. In Rising the Bar and Philly the defendants are usually innocent because those shows are about defense lawyers.

In Jury Duty, the audience would follow the jury, not the lawyers or the cops. Over the course of a season, the details of a big, complicated case would unfold to the audience just as it unfolds to the jury. The main characters would be the 12 jurors, the judge, the defense and prosecution lawyers, and the defendant and maybe plaintiff (depending on the trial).

While the trial unfolds, the audience would also learn about the lives and identities of the jurors. In most court dramas, the jury is a nameless entity whose vocabulary is limited to "guilty" and "not guilty." In this show each juror would have a personality and an identity. Over the course of the season maybe one juror looks more and more suspicious, but in the end he's simply cheating on his wife or maybe carrying marijuana or wanted by the police. Another juror who seems straight edge at first is really being bought out or threatened by the defendant (a mobster perhaps) - he says very little, except when the jury discussion leans toward the plaintiff's side, when he tries to lead them back the other way. Maybe he's caught mid-season and replaced by a new juror. Some shows could concentrate on the history of a particular juror, which relates somehow to the trial.

Unlike Law and Order when the witness testimony is used to support what we already know about the case, in Jury Duty the audience will have the excitement of both is the defendant guilty? and will he be convicted?

I think it's a great idea for a courtroom drama, and it's certainly a new take on the genre. Law and Order is a good show, but with Special Victims Unit and Criminal Intent I'm not sure the world needs another rehash.

Prospects Redeux

2009-02-26T21:44:00.003-07:00

I got a call from my old (most recent) boss the other day. He was calling to let me know he had started his own company here in own, and that as soon as he gets enough business he wants to hire me back. That's a step in the right direction!

I went over and checked out the new office - much smaller than the last one (but then, the last one was way bigger than was necessary). My coworkers (the engineer and the drafter) from my old job were there, getting the place ready and there were already a couple small projects to work on.

I'm not sure how long it will be before he has enough business to hire me, but I don't expect it to be very long.

Bang bang!

2009-02-23T00:21:00.002-07:00

A few weeks ago I was visiting my friends Diana and Andy, and I made the mistake of saying that I ought to shoot a gun some time. Andy's a real gun buff, and since that comment, every time he sees me he asks when we're going to go shooting. This weekend I finally gave in and went shooting with Andy.

Andy has 37 guns total, but he didn't bring them all. I shot the following different guns in all, some more than others:

22 caliber pistol with a long barrel - very little kickback, but I thought I would be able to aim better with it. I was actually aiming worse with that gun later in the day than when I first started!
9 millimeter - a tiny thing with a 2-finger grip (I didn't like that one at all... couldn't hit shit with it)
Another, smaller 22 with a laser site - either i was doing it wrong or the laser wasn't calibrated. I did manage 2 really good shots with it, but missed a bunch.
Gloc 40 - This was the best gun for me. I was able to aim a lot better with it, and I liked the grip a lot. I hit a lot of stuff with this one.
38 Special revolver - I thought I was aiming poorly with this gun, but then Andy mentioned that it's fairly inaccurate, so my shooting wasn't as bad as I thought with it.
22 Magnum rifle - I didn't like the rifles as much because I'm a wuss and couldn't hold them steady very well. this one in particular I didn't like because it didn't have a scope. I managed to hit maybe 1 target at maybe 50 yards, one out of 15 or 20 shots? Bah.
22 caliber CZ - Another bolt action rifle similar to the 22 Magnum, but smaller bullets. Also the bolt was on the left (for left handed shooters) which was a little awkward. This one had a scope on it, so aiming was easier at a distance, but it was still hard to keep it steady. The trigger was REALLY sensitive, the first time I shot it I actually mean to fire yet. That's a little scary, but if you use proper gun safety it shouldn't be a problem. I managed to not shoot my friend or my foot, so that's good.
Assault Rifle - I understand it's not technically an Assault Rifle because I don't think it was fully automatic, but it was called AR something anyway. It looked really cool, like something out of an action movie. It also had a scope, and shot bigger bullets. I only shot 5 rounds with it (1 magazine), 1 while standing (this rifle was heavier and even harder to hold still) and 4 while lying on the ground. The cool part is that I knocked a rock off of a plastic bottle (on purpose) at about 100 yards.

So I can now say that I have shot a gun. Honestly, it's not that different than I thought it would be. I was a little surprised I wasn't more nervous around the loaded weapons. I did not feel any sort of power or rush like some people talk about, it didn't feel much different than throwing a frisbee or something. You point and you shoot.

I was a little disappointed I didn't shoot a little better, but Andy says I actually was a really good shot - especially for my first time out. In order to get a concealed weapon permit you have to take a test which consists of hitting a target from 5 and 10 feet away - and the target is about the size of the box we were shooting at. Only you just have to hit the box (we were shooting at little target stickers about 8 inches across). I can't imagine not hitting the box, but evidently there are people who can't.

A word about recoil... I had absolutely no idea what to really expect, but I did know this: The recoil happens because of the shot, and therefore it does not happen until after the shot - so any kind of adjusting for or anticipating the recoil will just make you miss your target, I think some people don't understand that and mess themselves up.

Now that I've been shooting, I don't know if I'll bother doing it again. I didn't hate it, it was even kind of fun, just not something high on my priority list. We went through about $100 worth of ammo in 3 or 4 hours... I played frisbee that long on Saturday for $8, and that came with 2 slices of pizza. In any case, I'm not sorry I went.

Evie pics

2009-02-19T11:58:00.005-07:00

It's been a while since I've posted about my kitty cat. She's totally cute, and so I thought I'd share that with the world by posting some pics of her. She really likes plastic bags, and sometimes she hangs out inside boxes. Right now she's curled up on a pillow next to me on the couch taking a nap :)

New toys!

2009-02-10T20:58:00.003-07:00

First off, the DVR situation I posted about last week is all better now... they sent a brand new DVR without any hassle. They DID charge $20 for shipping and handling, but that's just the way it goes. I really don't like how these types of services (Satellite, Cell Phone, etc) operate... seems to me the service fees should cover that (i.e. they should set their fees so it covers that), and I think they should give away the hardware if you're paying monthly to rent it and for the service. It just makes sense.

But that's neither here nor there... I can now watch TV at my leisure again, so that's good.

The even better news is that I got a new toy! For years I've been whining that I don't have a laptop. Every time I go to the store to shop for one I think "I'll never use that!" I have also had trouble deciding just what I really wanted - MacBook, MacBook Pro, PC, and what stats and specs to get. Finally I decided to quit whining and just buy a freaking laptop already. I went to Dell's website and started shopping.

I upgraded all of the options I think are important - monitor, memory, battery. I probably paid more than I needed to, but my philosophy with this kind of purchase is that if you want it to last any significant amount of time you really have to get something near the top of the line - even the very best is obsolete moments after you get it home. Besides, I figured that if I retroactively allocate say $50 a month for every month I wished I had a laptop, that would be enough to pay for this one. Also, my computer is getting pretty darn old and slow, and for a while I've been thinking it's time for a new one.

My new toy came last Saturday, and I'm really enjoying it! I'm finally able to use the computer while watching tv, enjoy the speed of a new machine, and make use of the built in camera for video chat, and this weekend I get to enjoy the portability of a laptop and the convenience of WiFi when I take my computer on vacation with me.

StrategiCon

2009-02-10T20:36:00.002-07:00

This weekend I'm going out of town yet again... this time for a game convention instead of a frisbee tournament. I'll be flying to L.A. on Friday with Mikey, playing games all weekend long, and returning Monday.

I'm a little bummed that there will not be a Protospiel West event at this convention, as I gave up the chance to go to one 2 weeks ago in order to play frisbee at Trouble in Vegas. But it should still be a fun convention, and it'll be the first time my friends have come with me to one of these.

DVR? Should be called DVI... Digital Video Irritating

2009-02-03T21:07:00.002-07:00

A little over a year ago I got a DVR, and frankly it was something of a disappointing, costly hassle at the time. Since then I've at least been able to enjoy the DVR service - so it's not a total loss... until this week, when my DVR inexplicably decided to quit working.

During playback it would inexplicably freeze for a while... 30 seconds, 5 minutes... whatever. While frozen, the DVR was completely unresponsive to the remote control, but sometimes when it started again it would 'remember' stuff I'd pressed on the remote and do it all. Tonight it froze for 30 secs, then 5 minutes later it froze again, then just a few minutes later it froze for a long time (over 5 minutes) and then sorta turned off then back on or something weird. It stopped recording the 2 shows it was recording at the time, so I told it to record again. While trying to watch programs that had been recorded before, instead of playing it simply asked if I wanted to delete them! That seemed to be the case for several different recorded programs.

I let the DVR go until it finished recording those programs - when all was said and done I still wanted to watch them. Then I tried the only thing I could think of (and incidentally, the first thing they tell you to try whenever anything goes wrong) - I hit the reset button. A few minutes later, when the machine had fully reset, I hit List to see if my recorded programs would play - and the stuff recorded after the weird phenomenon earlier weren't there!

On the up side, it appears to be willing to play the partial recording from before the DVR acted up. But this is in no way acceptable behavior for a DVR!

My Tenant says nothing seems to be wrong with her DVR, so that's good. At least it's just me that has to deal with this, and not a disgruntled tenant! I will be emailing DTV tonight and calling them tomorrow to see if they can come fix the problem - or even identify what's wrong.

Re-reading my old posts about my last DTV customer service experience, I fully expect they'll charge money to fix whatever's wrong. :/

Teriyaki Stir Fry Burrito!

2009-01-29T16:45:00.002-07:00

Yesterday I had an idea, and it sounded good so for lunch today I made a little stir fry (rice, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, kielbasa, teriyaki and soy sauces, salt, garlic powder, a little sugar) but rather than eat it with a fork like normal, I wrapped it in a tortilla and made a burrito out of it.

It was pretty good.

I haven't been posting...

2009-01-29T14:13:00.002-07:00

... maybe because I haven't been doing anything.

My weekdays have been pretty boring - I haven't had people over for games, I haven't done anything interesting... I haven't even been blogging!

I spent the last 2 weekends out of town for frisbee tournaments. Last weekend I went to Las Vegas, won a couple bucks playing Roulette, bought 4 new tires for my car, and endured the stupid wind all weekend. I played with the Sunburn Alumni team, which is a bunch of people I've never really been very close with anyway, so it felt kinda weird.

The week before that I went to Santa Monica to play on the beach, and the weather was GORGEOUS! It was a lot of fun. I'd never been to Lei-Out (that's the name of this beach tournament) before, but have always wanted to go. I think I'll probably make it an annual thing!

This weekend I've got 1 more tournament, this time in Tempe - a much shorter drive! I'll be heading up there Saturday morning for that, after seeing the Chiropractor this afternoon, and hopefully playing some games tomorrow!

In about 2 weeks I'll be heading out to L.A. again for the Strategicon game convention. this time Mikey's coming with me. Also, I think another Tucson person will be going with her boyfriend. I always have a good time at this convention, and I plan on trying to play some of the classic eurogames (Princes of Florence, Goa, Notre Dame) in order to warm up for some tournaments!

Prospects

2009-01-14T13:24:00.004-07:00

I visited my old workplace and talked to my old boss (the one from 3 years ago, not the most recent one) - they are hoping to be awarded some of the projects they have gone for, and if they do they may need an engineer - like me.

I also talked to my more recent boss, and he has 3 irons in the fire... he might get with a company in town who does other engineering and try to start a Structural branch for them, or he might partner with another California company and open a Tucson office for them... and if none of that pans out he might start his own firm or something.

It'll be a couple of weeks before any of those prospects pan out, but it's better than nothing on the horizon.

In the meantime I just sent a game to New York to be played by a publisher to see if he might want to publish it.

Weekly post

2009-01-11T00:31:00.003-07:00

I said I'd post every week, so I'd better stay true and think of something to say!

A short note on Resolutions in general... I've started keeping a spreadsheet open on my computer to keep track of a number of things, such as what time I wake up each day, how much I weigh in the morning, what book I read from, whether I fed my cat (she gets wet food every other day), How much I spent that day on groceries (I've been meaning to look at that), how many typos I made that day, and how many push-ups I did that night.

My typos are down compared to last year, but that's mostly because I'm not on the computer as much and therefore not typing as much. As of yesterday I'm at 50 push-ups before bed. That's 1 set of 50, soon I'll probably do 2 sets of fewer or something. I'm hovering at just about 180 on the scale, but I'm looking at a whole lot of exercise in the coming weeks between weekly frisbee practice, frisbee league, and a tournament the next 3 weekends. I've been rationing soda and junk, but this weekend I splurged on a whole lot of Fudge which Mandy made for game night on Friday. I need to not do that!

I'm a little over halfway through my first book. To warm up the reading I decided to read something I've read before and liked, and had been thinking of reading again anyway - Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.

It took me far too long to get to, but tonight I finally worked on one of my games.

That's it for now... time to do some push-ups and read some more of my book!

2009 New Years Resolutions - The List!

2009-01-02T10:07:00.007-07:00

1. Check progress of my Resolutions
In order to help ensure I'm working toward my goals, I resolve to check in with my New Years Resolutions every 2 months or so. I hope this will will keep me on track, because too often these types of resolutions are made with the best of intentions, and then ignored or forgotten within weeks.

2/3/09 UPDATE: This is my first official check-in... on track so far with resolution #1.

7/09/09 UPDATE: Looking at the date of this update... EPIC FAIL :(

12/25/09 UPDATE: Looking at the date of this update... EPIC FAIL AGAIN :(

2. Lose weight
The holiday season has had its toll, and as usual I've gained a few pounds. In order to get myself to a more appropriate weight I resolve to drink no more than 1 soda per day, avoid overeating, and be more conscious about the food I eat. As of January 1st I have begun recording my weight each morning like I did last year to track progress. My initial goal is to weigh in at 175, and then from there I intend to go down to 170.

2/3/09 UPDATE: I'm not recording my weight every morning, but I have stuck to the 1-soda-per-day limit (with allowance for a couple extra on weekends), and I have lost a couple of pounds, but I'm not down to 175 yet.

7/09/09 UPDATE: After a while I had cut that 1 soda per day limit down to 1 soda per week, plus a couple on weekends. I routinely weigh in around 172 after my morning shower, so it appears I'm on track with Resolution #2!

12/25/09 UPDATE: At one point this year my scale actually read as low as 165... so good job Seth!

Lately though, especially since the frisbee season ended, I've been putting on the winter weight again, and I'm back at or above 180 :/ Looks like it's time to re-up this resolution and get back on the wagon with soda rations and eating less brownies!

3. Scheduling
I am notoriously bad at time management, and recently I have been especially bad about scheduling. I have forgotten things, and double booked myself. This is unacceptable, so I resolve to keep better scheduling practices through the use of calendars, a scheduler, or simply writing things down.

2/3/09 UPDATE: I missed another chiropractor appointment last week, but other than that I think I'm starting to get organized a little. We'll see how (or if) that maintains.

7/09/09 UPDATE: I did a TERRIBLE job preparing for my summer vacation in Seattle, and I paid for it... literally. Plane tickets are expensive when you buy them 2 days before traveling! Also, car rentals cost a fortune, and I realized too late that you can save on some fees if you don't rent from the airport location. Next time I hope to do better.

12/25/09 UPDATE: With the exceptions noted above, I think I've done an OK job scheduling and not forgetting things this year. I'll try and maintain that through next year.

4. Finish Game Designs (Prototyping)
I have a lot of game designs that I've started, some of them are really almost "finished" - to the point where I could play them and see if they're any good. Some of these have been around for a couple of years now, and its about time I get them finished up. So I resolve to complete prototypes and play the following designs:

Hot and Fresh - A game about pizza delivery and traffic laws. This is at least 2 years old, and is ready to test except I need to make a game board and some cards.
Dynasty - A game about the spread of culture in ancient China. This is almost as old as Hot and Fresh, and will be ready to test as soon as I come up with a list of technologies which players will research (like gunpowder and the compass)

2/3/09 UPDATE: So far I've not even thought about either of these two games :(

7/09/09 UPDATE: Still no movement on either of these projects... EPIC FAIL :(

12/25/09 UPDATE: Still no movement on either of these projects... EPIC FAIL AGAIN :(

I did manage to start another new game idea though, and take on someone else's game as a development project for eventual publication by Tasty Minstrel Games.

5. Game Publication/Submission
I'm trying to get a game published, and I've finally started that process. I'm learning about it as I go, so it's taking a long time because I'm not sure what I'm doing. In order to stay on track, I resolve to submit Wizard's Tower, All For One, and Winds of Fate to publishers in an attempt to get one/some/all of them published. I further resolve to enter a game in at least 2 game design contests: KublaCon in May and Hippodice in November.

Last year I failed to enter a game in Hippodice, but I did get Terra Prime to a company who intends to publish it. As part of this resolution I intend to follow up with that and see what I can do to aid in that process.

2/3/09 UPDATE: So far a lot of nothing has happened on the publishing front. I still intend to enter the Kublacon game design contest and Hippodice.

7/09/09 UPDATE: Well, with regard to publishing, Terra Prime and Homesteaders are being published. Success!! My good friend Michael decided to start a publishing company (called Tasty Minstrel Games) to publish them. I believe Tasty Minstrel will be publishing Wizard's Tower next year as well. So that's good...

However I have made zero progress (with zero effort) on the rest of this resolution. I neglected to enter the KublaContest, and I have not even though about sending any games to any publishers. I have not even tested the new version of Winds of Fate yet! In that respect, this resolution also gets a FAIL!

12/25/09 UPDATE: Still no movement on any of these projects... EPIC FAIL :(

6. Cut down on TYPOs
I never learned to type properly. I type fairly quickly, utilizing a lot more fingers than a lot of people who never learned to type, and I know about where the keys are (they are, after all, in the same place every time). But for the most part I look at the keyboard when I type rather than the screen and as a result, I can easily make a mistake and not notice. I'm usually in a hurry, or just impatient, and I seldom check what I've written before clicking send, publish, post, or just hitting enter. I hate making typos, and it would be painfully easy to avoid if I just slow down a bit and look at what I've written before I post it. I resolve to significantly reduce typos and spelling errors. And while I'm at it I will reduce the number of inappropriate or unnecessary commas, apostrophes and quotation marks I use.

What worked the last time I tried this was counting typos and each night doing 2 push-ups for each typing error. I intend to do that again.

2/3/09 UPDATE: I have been doing better about typos, and I was also doing push-ups every night for a while. I've stopped doing that though (I should start again!)

7/09/09 UPDATE: My typos are down. I often miss a "y" nowadays, but I think that has more to do with my keyboard.

12/25/09 UPDATE: I feel like my typos are down, but I often notice them later when reading something I've posted... still, for the most part I think I've done well with this resolution (though I haven't done a push-up in months)

7. Blog weekly
I've got 2 blogs: this one, and another about games and game design. I have not been posting as frequently as I'd like in them, so I resolve to make a minimum of 1 blog post each week in each of my blogs. I believe that this will encourage me to do more than simply blog... I think it will help keep me on track with resolutions, with my game designs, and other stuff like that.

2/3/09 UPDATE: I have been slacking on posts, especially in the game design blog. I haven't been doing much in the way of game design lately, which is too bad because that's what I told myself I'd concentrate on while I was out of work :/

7/09/09 UPDATE: Looking at the date of this update... EPIC FAIL :(

I haven't been blogging very regularly in either blog. Hopefully I'll rekindle this resolution.

12/25/09 UPDATE: Looking at the date of this update... EPIC FAIL AGAIN :(

I haven't been blogging very regularly in either blog. I will be re-instituting this resolution (or one like it) for next year.

8. Read books
I don't read much. I like to watch TV and movies, even bad ones, because I like the stories and I like to see what happens next. I have some books I've never gotten around to reading, and as long as I'm out of a job I don't see any good reason I shouldn't sit down with a book once in a while. I resolve to spend a minimum of 1 hour each day reading, at least while I'm unemployed.

2/3/09 UPDATE: I bought several books, and ended up reading one I already own and have read. It turns out I didn't even like it as much as I had remembered. I need to start on another book now.

7/09/09 UPDATE: Thus far I have not been reading at all... EPIC FAIL :(

I did just buy a new book - one a friend said she couldn't put down. I read it on the plane and am about 128 pages in (out of 500 pages). It's OK so far, hopefully I'll finish it. The book is called The Mysterious Benedict Society, and is kind of a children's book (the way the Lemony Snicket books are children's books).

7/09/09 UPDATE: Thus far I have not been reading at all... EPIC FAIL AGAIN :(

I didn't even finish The Mysterious Benedict Society.

9. Clean yard
Sometime last year I cut down a tree that was in my yard, and bits and pieces of it are piled up in my yard, drying up and probably causing a fire hazard. I have been meaning to get rid of it, but I'm not sure how to do so - and it's easy to ignore since I don't see it very often. I resolve to clean up my yards - both front and back - to get rid of that junk, other trash that's accumulated, and weeds that are rampant.

2/3/09 UPDATE: Brush and Bulky pickup service happens in about 2 weeks, so now's my chance to get rid of that stuff!

7/09/09 UPDATE: I did get my yard cleaned up and Brush and Bulky took all that crap away... SUCCESS!

12/25/09 UPDATE: At a fundraiser I bought the services of the women's ultimate team... services of (a) house cleaning and (b) yardwork. They did a terrific job on my house, and they did great weeding along the street... I had hoped to get more weeding done, but what was done was done well.

I myself have not done a thing to maintain my yard - I don't know if that is what the resolution was supposed to be about though, so I don't know if I care.

10. Be less selfish
I resolve to be less selfish. I've been feeling selfish lately, so I decided to add this nebulous, abstract item to my resolution list.

2/3/09 UPDATE: I'm not sure if I've made any progress on this or not. I am not feeling as selfish as I sometimes have, but I might just not be thinking about it.

7/09/09 UPDATE: Still not sure about this one. I don't feel any less selfish than ever, but I also haven't been feeling particularly selfish either. Again, maybe I'm just not thinking about it as much.

12/25/09 UPDATE: STILL not sure about this one. I don't feel any less selfish than ever, but I also haven't been feeling particularly selfish either. Again, maybe I'm just not thinking about it as much.

Edits:
2/03/09: Edited to post updates
7/09/09: Edited to post updates
12/25/09: Edited to post updates

Frisbee fun in the desert sun... New Years Day

2009-01-02T09:58:00.004-07:00

Minor kvetch: I typed up this whole freaking post last night, but before I was done my browser closed and google had had errors auto-saving... so I had to type it all again. This is one of my biggest pet peeves - there's nothing I like less than having to do something over again. Grr.

This is why I love living in the desert. Yesterday my friend Mandy and I drove up to Phoenix for their annual New Years Day frisbee hat* tournament. It was a fun day of frisbee, and the weather was gorgeous! Low 70s I believe. I was comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt, on January 1st. I wish I lived somewhere where the climate was exactly like that every day of the year.

* A hat tournament is a tournament where everyone puts their name in a hat and are put on teams randomly. They make an effort to distribute skill levels evenly, so the teams are fair.

2009 New Years Resolutions pre-post

2008-12-28T19:52:00.002-07:00

I'm really happy with how my new years resolutions worked out over the past year - the success rate was higher than I anticipated, and of course much higher than in previous years. I attribute it entirely to posting the resolutions, and especially to the resolution to check in on them every so often.

I'm beginning to think of what I should resolve for the upcoming year. Looking at last year's list, I'll be reprising some of those resolutions for sure: Check progress, Prototyping (there are always more games to work on!), and getting a game published. There will be new resolutions as well, perhaps getting a job for example. I'm also thinking about resolving to spend some time each day reading - I bought myself a book to encourage that, and as yet I haven't started reading it. I've got some thoughts on some social resolutions as well.

I'll post The List when I've decided what I want to resolve to do.

Slumdog Millionaire > The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

2008-12-26T03:16:00.002-07:00

I saw 2 movies recently, and both of them reminded me of a movie I'd seen before.

Yesterday I went and saw The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with my parents. It was almost 3 hours long, and while it wasn't boring or bad perse, I don't feel like it really had much of a point. The most descriptive thing I can say about the movie was that I liked it better the first time I saw it, when it was called Forrest Gump.

Last week my brother-in-law Matt was raving about Slumdog Millionaire, so when he and Renee were in town we went to see it. I could describe it as a rehash of a movie as well - The Pursuit of Happyness. Only I liked Slumdog much better than Pursuit. In the latter everyone knew that in the end, Will Smith's character would succeed - it was based on a real life success story. All through the movie life kicked him in the nuts over and over, and it got to be almost tedious to watch. When would it end? How much more could he take? In Slumdog Millionaire, the main character is on the game show Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and the story reveals how he has learned the answers to get to where he has on the program (on the verge of winning $20,000,000). He has a somewhat similar story to Will Smith's - various hardships bringing him to where he is today, but the outcome is unknown.

So there you have it: two quick movie reviews. Neither one is terrible, neither one my favorite, and both very reminiscent of movies I'd seen before. Though I like Slumdog Millionaire better than the similar predecessor, while The Curious Case of Benjamin Button wasn't as good.

Christmas

2008-12-25T11:35:00.006-07:00

I'm sure there are some who wonder what a Jew does on Christmas. There's not a lot to do, if all your friends are out of town or spending time with their families.

Most years on Christmas morning there's a frisbee game, and often I recall commenting "It's December 25th, and we're out here in shorts and a T-shirt!" But this year that didn't happen. It's pretty nice outside, if a bit cool, but nobody was at the park.

I usually have a big holiday game party, as I've posted about before. This year several of my friends will have left town already, or never came in the first place. So I don't think any formal party will be happening this year. It's too bad, because with Christmas on a Thursday the timing is great for it :/

Last night was quiet. Everyone I know was at home with their family. I watched some movies and TV with Evie.

There's a stereotype about Christmas day for Jews involving movies and Chinese food which is strikingly accurate, They don't call them stereotypes for nothing! That's what I am doing with my parents today. In a couple of hours my Mom and Dad are coming over, we're going to go see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and then we're going to go to a Chinese restaurant near my house for dinner.

Sounds pretty uneventful, but I guess that's not unusual. I am noticing that I feel more lonely this time of year. Maybe the holiday season more than the rest of the year I lament not having a girlfriend. Sigh.

Happy holidays everyone!

Selfish

2008-12-23T00:29:00.003-07:00

I've been feeling very selfish lately. Maybe that's something I can work on, or make a resolution about.

Just a small note to myself... didn't mean to get your hopes up.

Resolutions to come, and unfortunate scheduling

2008-12-22T22:56:00.003-07:00

It's getting close to time for another set of New Years Resolutions. I'm going to put some thought into them again this year - I like how it worked out last year. I'll be reprising some of the resolutions that are ongoing, especially the one to check in on my progress!

One resolution might have to be to keep better scheduling. I was very excited about an upcoming trip to Los Angeles for Protospiel West - a game designer meet-up thing. It's going to happen January 24th and 25th. Without realizing the conflict, I've made plans to play in a frisbee tournament that same weekend in Las Vegas!

I'm going to have to figure out which of those I really want to do, and I'm going to have to do it in a hurry so I can make the appropriate arrangements and tell the appropriate people.

I'm pretty bad with scheduling, and my memory in general doesn't seem as strong as I used to think it was. I'm not thrilled about that - maybe I can craft a New Years Resolution to address it.

Evie is adorable!

2008-12-22T22:53:00.002-07:00

I have a pair of gloves - the cheap little things you can get at CVS for a buck or 2. Evie loves to play with them. She'll grab one and run off with it in her mouth...

In an effort to wash them I put them in my hamper. Evie sniffed them out and ran off with one again. So the next time I buried them in the hamper, under other clothing.

This morning I went to put on my shoes, and what did I find? Bunched up inside the show (not just on top, but in where my foot goes) there was a glove!

Vegas, Frisbee, Wind, Brownies and Cookies!

2008-12-16T16:56:00.002-07:00

I went to Las Vegas last weekend to play in an Ultimate tournament. Saturday was MIS-ER-A-BLE in that there were constant winds of 40-50 miles per hour! I have honestly never felt so impotent as I did facing into that wind and trying to throw a 175g plastic disc...

Sunday was MUCH better though, as the wind was gone and even though the TV said the high was going to be 45 degrees (cold!), the weather was beautiful! I had a great time on Sunday and played some fun Ultimate. This in contrast to Saturday, which you can't really classify as Ultimate at all.

While in Vegas I played a little Craps, but it's just not fun to gamble by yourself. A couple friends were watching, so I felt like I was holding them up so I wasn't having a good time. I ended up losing some money because I wasn't really betting as optimally as I could have been :(

We stayed at the Mandalay Bay hotel, for a mere $109 total! They had some kind of promotion where the second night was free, so the whole trip was pretty cheap. We ate at the buffet there which cost $30, and I tried hard to get my money's worth... a plate of Salad followed by 2 full plates of ribs and Beef Broccoli, some turkey,pork pot stickers, and a sampling of various other things... washed down with 3 sodas and 4 waters. When clearing an empty water glass away the waitress asked if I wanted anything. I asked for more water (she had a carafe right there), but rather than fill my glass she said she had to go get me a new one because she'd touched this one already. "What a strange rule," I thought, and when she returned and handed the glass to me (as she had the first time) I almost asked if she'd bring me another since she'd now touched that one, but I decided to keep the joke to myself.

I've been hanging out with my friend Mandy a lot lately, and she bakes all the time. She's always bringing over cookies when she comes for board games and she brings all kinds of baked goods to frisbee league. I guess I decided to start doing some of that too, so I've been making Brownies. Nothing fancy, just a box from the grocery store... but I've always liked that kind. I brought a batch to Las Vegas with me and they were well liked. Today I made some more, as well as some chocolate chip cookies (also from the store, not from scratch). I figure my family and friends will be in town so it'll be nice to have snacks around.

More Evie Pics!

2008-12-11T21:35:00.004-07:00

I have been procrastinating in getting these pictures of Evie posted... but no more! Here are some cute pics of my cute kitty being... well, cute:

See, Evie likes games too!

And as I said - she likes to lay on my hand while I'm on the internet. Maybe she's helping me type!

A little home improvement

2008-11-30T20:20:00.004-07:00

I've been having throngs of people over, and one of the bad things about my house is that it's not conducive to large groups. There's not much to absorb sound, so it gets really loud.

I was at Bed, Bath and Beyond today, and I picked up some chairs which I liked, and also got some curtains (which match them) for the dining room. I'm hoping that will cut down on the echo effect in there. So far it seems better, but I don't know how much.

The chairs I got are folding chairs with a soft, cushioned seat. The wood chairs that match the table aren't terribly comfortable. I like the look of these chairs, and I got 6 of them for the room. I think they're a lot more comfortable than the old ones. I'll try and get some pictures of this to post. I might also try and get a tapestry or something to hang on the blank wall in that room.

I have been meaning to get a trash can with a lid for the bathroom. When I scoop Evie's litterbox, I dump the stuff into the trash can in there, and then at some point I take out the trash. I've got anosmia, as far as I'm concerned there's no problem with the smell. However, I suspect it would be better for guests if the poop were contained better. So I also picked up a trash can with a lid. Evie was very confused at the strange, reflective box that wasn't there before, especially when I stepped on the pedal and the top opened up (and then more especially when it fell back down!)