Big changes

I don't blog much anymore (never did blog much, really), but I guess it doesn't hurt to post an update.

TMG

It's official - I now work for Tasty Minstrel Games! This is an exciting change, and I think it's going to be a positive one.

I'm still going to do some engineering on the side. We'll see how that goes. It may turn out to be just a transition sort of thing, but if I can manage to keep that up, then it'll be a nice source of additional income.

Kublacon

In other news, I just got back from KublaCon last weekend. For the first time in many years, I felt like I didn't really have a good time at the con. Don't get me wrong, I managed to enjoy myself for some of the time. But I felt like I spent far too much time just not doing anything - standing around looking for something to do, or sleeping in far too late. I did do some socializing, but even in that respect I feel like I barely talked to any given person, so most of the socializing seemed superficial. I don't know what I used to do differently, but I used to play 30-40 games over a 4 day con weekend, get lots of prototypes played, and I felt like I really got to visit with the people I rarely see.

I don't know what's different, but if that type of con experience becomes the standard, then that doesn't bode too well!

Other stuff going on...

SAGA

In 3 weeks I'm hosting another SAGA fundraiser for Rincon at the Holiday Inn. Last time (March 30) it went VERY well. I'm hoping the next one (June 22) will be equally fun and successful. I also hope I get to spend more time playing games this time.

Summer Vacation

Soon after that I leave for my annual trip to Seattle! I already got a plane ticket TO Seattle... but I have not yet figured out how I'm going to get from Seattle to Ann Arbor for Protospiel and back home. Those tickets seemed extraordinarily expensive, though I have a Delta flight voucher that might cover it. Sadly, Delta flies through Atlanta, so I'd be taking a roundabout path to get home!

I suppose I should make some plans for my trip!

In frisbee news, I have been able to play at league lately. I've even been able to run pretty well (though clearly not as hard or as fast as I used to), and most times it doesn't even leave me limping the next day! It's reassuring that I should be able to play at Potlatch again this year, and I should be in much better shape than last year.

Gaming

In the gaming world, I've played Tzolk'in several times lately, as well as Bora Bora, and I finally tried Terra Mystica. Terra Mystica is getting a lot of good press from my friends. I don't know if I like it as much as they do, but it seems like I ought to give it another try at least. I do like Bora Bora pretty well. And I'm happy to finally be playing my copy of Tzolk'in!

And in entirely other news...

Television

I have continue to watch Doctor Who, but frankly I'm not terribly impressed with the recent episodes, nor with Matt Smith as the Doctor. I don't know if it's Smith, or Moffit, or what - I really liked the early Matt Smith stuff. I also liked the recent companion (Clara), even if I thought they overplayed that "impossible girl" bit. I was not sorry to read today that after the 50th anniversary special and this year's Christmas special, the eleventh Doctor's time will be up. I'm hopeful that I'll like whoever takes up the mantle a bit better - like the early Matt Smith episodes (like the Silence and the Pandorica stuff).

On the other hand, I just watched the season finale of another BBC America show which was fantastic. I mean the whole show was fantastic, not the finale. This show is called Orphan Black - and I'm happy to hear it'll be back for a second season. At first I wasn't sure what they could do for he second season, but they left plenty of viable story open. I look forward to that show coming back, and I highly recommend Orphan Black to anyone who likes things that are awesome.

That's probably enough rambling for now.

Dallas, Denver, Grandma, a new year, the beach, and Orccon!

I haven't posted in about 3 months, ever since I got robbed, again. Since then a few things have happened, so in case anybody's trying to keep up, here's a quick update:

November
2 significant things happened in November 2012, 1 petty good, 1 not so much.
As I do every year, I headed to Dallas for BGG.con, one of the best game cons I go to each year. It was a great time, as always, though this time I got kinda sick a day or two in, and that put a little damper on the week :(

Sadly, while in Dallas, I got a call that my Grandmother was in the hospital. We had a bit of a scare, but she's doing much better now. After a week in the hospital she's been in a rehab type place for a while, and she's now graduated to whatever's after that. I'm glad she's doing better, but I'm afraid she'll never be quite the same again :(

December
On a happier note, a good friend of mine invited me and a couple other friends to join him in Denver for the weekend. he didn't tell me exactly why, but I kinda figured it out. It turns out the pl an was to surprise his girlfriend at her birthday party... not just by showing up, but by proposing! That weekend was one of the best I have had in a long time, just hanging out with 3 of my closest friends

Holiday season was fun as well - spent a lot of time with a lot of friends who were in town for the holidays. Steve came to town for over a week, and it's always nice to have him around.

January
As usual, I headed up to Phoenix for a New Year's Day hat tournament. Despite the lack of cartilage in my hip and my general out-of-shape-ness, I felt like I was able to run pretty good (if not particularly fast), and I had a really good time.

3 weeks later I went to L.A. for Lei-Out. I was going to pass on it because I didn't have a team, but at the last minute I was invited to play with some friends, and so I went after all. The weather here had been cold and crappy for a while, so it was refreshing that the L.A. weather was absolutely gorgeous.

And today I bought plane tickets to go to Orccon - Strategicon's February event! I always enjoy that con, and the plane tickets were just $155 - a decent deal.

That's probably enough for 1 update. I'll post separately about how Rincon 2013 is shaping up :)

Monthly Recap - October 2012

With Rincon behind me I breathed a huge sigh of relief. I am so happy it went over so well! Now to make it more profitable for next time!

The highlight of October for me is definitely my trip to Essen. I spent the entire last week in Germany for the worlds largest game fair! I've always thought it would be fun to go, but until recently I didn't have any real reason to. My current situation would allow it, so I started considering the trip. After mentioning this online I was contacted by Piotr from LocWorks, a Polish distributor that sells Tasty Minstrel products, offering me a free room for the week, and asking if I'd spend a few hours in his booth signing copies of Eminent Domain! How cool is that? Michael wanted to go too, and it turned out there was room for him as well - and a pretty good deal too: only 150 Euros for the week. On the down side, it was a 15 minute walk, a train ride, and a subway ride to get to the convention hall (total travel time: 45-50 minutes) - but it was fairly easy and very inexpensive. If possible, I'd like to try and stay closer next time, perhaps at the Atlantic Congress (RIGHT next to the convention hall), or perhaps at a hotel near the main train station (the same subway ride, but minus the walk and train). Then maybe I can more easily participate in more of the night gaming I hear so much about.

Essen was pretty amazing. It's kinda like Gen Con, but just the exhibit hall, and with 3 times as many people. Michael and I were trying to decide if we thought the space was actually all that much larger than the Gen Con exhibit hall, I think we decided it was probably about 50% bigger - but it was split into 12 spaces. It was kind of a maze to navigate, but I liked the large maps they had above each portal from 1 hall to the next.

There were a bunch of little snack windows as well as a cafeteria, but I wasn't a huge fan of the food options. Waffles (but no syrup - instead they had a lot of Nutella) or hot dogs mostly. I got some pork and potatoes at the cafeteria one day for lunch, and I got a hot dog once - other than that I really didn't eat in the convention hall.

I wandered around the booths to check everything out. Unlike Gen Con, most booths had tables for demoing games. Like full plays of big games. Many booths were stores, and even they had tables to play games. At Gen Con very few booths have that kind of space - Mayfair and Asmodee do for sure, and probably a few others, but most of the demos at Gen Con are just showing the game and maybe the consumer will buy it and go play it elsewhere.

That brings me to the next big difference between Essen and Gen Con... at Essen, there isn't any "elsewhere." The whole con is the exhibit halls. At Gen Con there are many different rooms including a library, open gaming, and scheduled RPGs and seminars and whatnot. None of that here - just booths demoing and selling games.

People attend Essen just to buy games - like a big shopping trip. Seriously, people go all the way to Germany (from the US, for example) with the intention of buying stuff. I've always seen the "Essen haul" geeklists at BGG, people bragging about what they picked up, with photos of games stacked over their head - but I never thought about what that means to the publishers. One publisher told me he easily sells 8-10 times as much product at Essen as he does at Gen Con.

I did not go to shop though. I was mostly scouting it out for a potential future TMG booth. I also met with some publishers and designers. It was interesting being on both sides of a game submission meeting - one time in the exact same meeting!

Since I was going, the guys at Panda Game Manufacturing invited me to play on Team Canada in the Europmasters Challenge - a big team boardgame tournament. We played Village, Airlines Europe, Vanuatu, and Last Will. Two of those games I'd never even played before! I did OK - winning Village, placing 3rd in Airlines and Vanuatu (tied for 2nd even), and last in Last Will (miserable performance there). We finished something like 19th out of 33 teams, which I guess wasn't so bad. It was fun! I've always wanted to play in a tournament like that. And I even got to keep the games! Thanks Panda!

Overall I think the trip was definitely worth it, and I had a great time. I'm really glad Michael decided to go, because I don't think I would have enjoyed traveling like that by myself.

The rest of October will be relatively uneventful compared to that. but next month I'll be heading to Dallas for BGG.con - so that should be good. If we're really lucky, we might even have a super-advance copy of Kings of Air and Steam for people to play!

Monthly Recap - August 2012

I seem to gravitate toward compartmentalization, so I will try giving topic headers for the various aspects of my life, then summarize each:

Games

Mike got an advance copy of Noblemen, and while I've only been able to play it about 4 times myself, I set it up at Strategicon and I know about 4 different groups of people played it there. I'm really excited about this one, because I had a hand in it. A friend from BGDF.com made the game, and sent me a prototype about 4 years ago. I played it a lot and offered many suggestions, most of which made their way into the game in one way or another. Finally the game is being published, and I'm proud to say that TMG is in on that with Pegasus Spiel from Germany!

In addition to that, I've played a couple of other games which TMG has decided to go in on: Rialto by Stefan Feld, and Il Vecchio by Rudigor Dorn. It'll be awesome to get some of those big names in the TMG lineup.

Other than that, I haven't been playing much. Most of the time I play anything lately it's been the Eminent Domain expansion (called Escalation), which should have all the illustration done by this weekend, when everything will go to the graphic designer. Pretty soon that one will be all wrapped up, and I'll have to turn my focus toward the next expansion, or another game altogether.

RinCon

RinCon planning is humming right along. I visited several game stores in Phoenix to hand out posters and Vendor packets, hopefully some of them will come down for the convention. I also hit up every vendor in the dealer room at Strategicon, and one of them has signed up to come to RinCon! We're currently at about 150 people - I wouldn't mind another 100 though. I'm sure there will be some latecomers signing up in this last few weeks. The show is less than 3 weeks away! If you're reading this, tell your friends to spread the word. We have a bunch of special guests now as well.

Kickstarter

Mike had to cancel the Stack It! kickstarter project because of potential copyright issues, so TMG doesn't have anything currently on Kickstarter. Past KS project Ground Floor (and Skyline) are on track for Essen delivery, according to the guys from Panda when we talked to them at GenCon. And Josh is wrapping up Kings of Air and Steam (another past KS project) as well. I look forward to both of those being completed and seeing final copies of them.

I've heard some chatter on podcasts or online about people being "done with Kickstarter" - deciding they've gotten over he novelty of it and aren't interested in supporting any more games on it. That's all well and good, but their reasoning makes me chuckle. People don't seem to differentiate between one type of Kickstarter project and another - they seem to lump it all together in one big pot and assume that any given project on Kickstarter is equivalent to any other given project. To me that sounds pretty silly - akin to "I've played enough published games I didn't like that I'm going to stop shopping at game stores." Each project may or may not have merit, whether it's on a crowdfunding site like Kickstarter or whether it's on the shelf at the store. It continues to amaze me how many people don't recognize that.

Travel

 In August I spent a week in Indiana at GenCon. It was an interesting and fun trip, Mike and I picked up a couple of submissions to consider, and we met some interesting people. It was a relief not having to be leashed to the booth the entire week, but at the same time, leaving the sales of TMG stuff up to someone else meant we couldn't do much when they weren't selling very well. Next year I think TMG is going to have a dedicated booth again.

At the very end of the month I went to L.A. again for Strategicon, where I met famous game designer Antoine Bauza. He was very cool, and even played one of my games!

That's nothing compared to next month's travel update... (that's right, a teaser in a blog post!)

Frisbee

I mentioned before that my hip is old and busted. It had been really getting me down, and I got sick of that, so I have started playing frisbee again. I am playing summer league, and I've started going back out to pickup on Sundays - and better yet, a group of club players have started playing a higher level pickup/practice on Saturdays and Mondays, and I've been going to that as well, at least when I'm in town. So far so good! My hip is holding up, and between that exercise and eating a bit less I think I've lost about 4 or 5 pounds.

Friends

This month a good friend moved to Hawaii with his girlfriend. We had a going away BBQ like old times, and like old times we played some Guitar Hero (which we've not done in several years). This makes 3 friends now that live in Hawaii, I'd better get out there to visit them before they start to leave! In fact, I think Steve might be moving back to the mainland sometime soon.

Speaking of friends from Hawaii - Tyler is in town right now, I am going to go hang out with him. See you next month!

Monthly Recap - June 2012

It's been over a month since my last recap, so I guess it's time to take a look at what June had in store. According to google calendar I didn't have much going on - but then I haven't gotten all that good at utilizing google calendar (I think I'm getting better about it though). Bi-weekly meetings for SAGA (Southern Arizona Gamers Association) continued in an effort to keep RinCon progress on track. But the most notable thing was my annual trip to Seattle for Potlatch.

I haven't been playing Frisbee since February because my hip has been hurting. It started hurting about a year ago, but only sometimes, like if I moved it a certain way. I figured I'd injured it playing Frisbee, but I didn't like that it didn't seem to be getting better. After a little tournament in February I could barely walk, so I decided to give it a rest. Months of not running on it and several trips to the chiropractor made it hurt less, but it just wasn't getting better. A couple weeks ago I got an X-ray, and the radiologist diagnosed Moderate Joint Degeneration. It appears I've got some degeneration and a little bone spurring in there. This has been fairly depressing news, and it's got me thinking about retiring from Frisbee. I was worried it would ruin Potlatch for me as well. The good news is that, for whatever reason, my hip held up all weekend! I don't know if it was the softer ground in Seattle, adrenaline, or shear force of will - but I was able to run all weekend! Sure, I was slow, out of shape, and not 100%, but at least I was able to do it.

In other news, as I mentioned before, my house was robbed, and that inspired me to sell most of my board games. The auction went pretty well. I suppose it could have gone better if I'd promoted it more, but I wasn't in the right mind frame to promote it, and I'm happy to recover some cash anyway. My grandmother was nice enough to replace some toys for me as well :)

But it's not all gloom and doom... speaking of new toys, I did get a new car. Well, new to me. It's a 2010 Honda Accord Crosstour, and so far I like it a lot.

In addition to my hip holding up, I also got to catch up with a bunch of friends on my Seattle trip - including Rif, Mohan, Runjith, Sean, Jeremy, Amelia, Aaron, Emily, and of course Renee, Matt, Jonah, and I even got to meet my brand new niece Eliana!

After Seattle I flew directly to Ann Arbor for something called Protospiel - a meetup of game designers to play prototypes. I have been wanting to go for years, but because of the proximity to the Seattle trip, I haven't been able to make it. Last year I attended for the first time, and this year I returned. I was a little skeptical, thought I might be under-prepared or something, that it might turn out to be a big waste of time... I'm happy to report that it was NOT a waste of time, I had a very productive time at Protospiel :)

Finally, there's some recent TMG news I don't think I've mentioned. Things are going pretty well at TMG, despite some art delays on Kings of Air and Steam...
* Village, a game TMG is importing to the US from Germany, has won the Kennerspiel Des Jahres - which is like the German Game of the Year award. It's a really big deal, and it certainly won't hurt TMG! It looks like we picked a winner to pick up there.
* The Kickstarter project for Ground Floor was very successful, raising over $116,000! The manufacturing of Ground Floor and Skyline (another game by the same designer, which is included for Kickstarter supporters) is underway.
* People are receiving For The Win (TMG's latest game to arrive), and they seem to be liking it.

That's about it! See you next month...

Monthly recap - May 2012

I think I'll try a new thing... I have this dry erase calendar at work, and when I erase it and reset it for the next month I'll try posting a recap of the previous month of my life. Let's see if this idea lasts...

May 2012

I don't have much written on the calendar on the first 1/2 of the month, but I think that's because I was lax in updating it more than because I didn't do anything. It does appear that the month was somewhat uneventful though.

5/11 I drove up to Phoenix to meet with Patrick Nickell of Crash Games (as well as Fred McKenzie of Clever Mojo, Tory Neimann, and Nathan Kohatsu). We played some games and that was fun. The next day I stopped by and had lunch with my old friends Chris and Becky, who I hadn't seen since way before their second daughter was born (she's like 2 or 3 years old now).

5/19 the Ides of Gaming event that I run at Espresso Art on campus was bigger and better than it has been in recent history - more people and more fun all around.

5/25 - 5/28 I went to Burlingame, CA for KublaCon. KublaCon is a lot of fun, and I normally get to play a lot of games. This time however I was under-prepared as far as gaming is concerned, so I barely played anything at all. I did however get to meet Martin Wallace, attend several interesting seminars by Wallace, James Ernest, and Richard Bliss, listen to (and participate in) a live recording of a podcast (part 1 part 2), and visit with some friends.

I demo'ed Ground Floor (14 hours left on the Kickstarter! Will it break $100k?) three times, and got to play one of my prototypes once, and one of Martin Wallace's as well. I played only a couple of commercial games (Castles of Burgundy, Glory to Rome, Yahtzee Free-For-All, and Battle Line) and I played 1 game of Eat Poop You Cat (AKA Paper Telephone or Telestrations). Not a whole lot of gaming for a con at which I used to log 40 plays of various things!

I did take the airline up on its offer to pay me $311 in flight vouchers in exchange for bumping to a different flight. So I flew through LAX (instead of direct), had time to eat at McDonald's, and arrived about an hour or so later than originally scheduled. Seems like a good deal to me!

That's about it for May! See you next month...

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

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!

So what's new?

Might as well post a blog update...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

That's about it for now...

The Plan

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.

Two months

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.

Stuff I want to do, revisited

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.

Stuff I want to do

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.

Seattle trip 2010 - the rest of the story

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!

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

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

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!

Vegas, baby!

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

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.

Minor update

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!

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!