Worth a Listen

I heard the second half of this program today in the car and it was incredibly interesting.

The show is called Weekday and it's produced by KUOW here in Seattle.

This site will tell you all about what the show was about and I absolutely recommend giving the whole hour a listen. It's all about ethics, creativity, God, Darwinism, and so much more.

Really. I recommend it.

Digging In the Dirt

Julia and I both love our compost heap in the back yard. We're completley impressed by the whole process of the crap we throw in there being broken down and turned into useable soil. Sunday morning we were up early, had some food, then decided to turn the compost heap since we hadn't done it in a long time. We were a little afraid that our neglect of it meant that it wasn't operating at its best, but when we started turning and aerating it we found some really nice, dark dirt just below the surface! Woohoo!

We'd just picked up some pots from storage, so we continued to turn the heap and unload some of the dirt into the pots for later use (and to clear out the compost heap since it was fuller than it ought to have been). Now we have a well-turned heap and a bunch of pots of fresh dirt. Plus we have more room in the heap to throw new yard waste on top.

Anyway, that was Sunday morning. The previous days were filled with other bits of excitement.

Friday we spent some time taking care of a few things at the condo. The most time-consuming of which was replacing the hardware on the front door. I played locksmith and handyman by taking off the old deadbolt and handle, then put the new ones on. It was tricky at points, but it turned out looking great.

Saturday we ran some errands and enjoyed the beautiful weather. And I mean really freaking beautiful 80+ degree weather. So nice. (I know we did more on Saturday, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was right now.)

And the only other bit of excitement for me, was on Sunday when I ran my D&D game. I reveiwed my notes before the game and noticed that I stopped writing recaps of the game sessions last year in April, which was for session 15. So, now, more than a year later I figure we must be over 40 or so sessions into this campaign. That surprised me.

This week in the game we (mostly) wrapped up the current adventure. The players reached their goal, but in order to recover the item they'd been sent to recover they had to kill the Good creature that guarded it. After a lot of talking and arguments from both sides they decided that they just couldn't bring themselves to do it, so they left empty-handed. But no before going back out into the dangerous part of the dungeon and taking out another squad of devils and their servants--including a very powerful Malebranche--with some clever planning. A couple of the characters finally hit 10th level, too. Now they leave to explain why they're coming back empy-handed.

Okay, time to get some work done.

Iron Man

I finally saw Iron Man last night, but the headline on this post really refers to me.

I've been feeling pretty discouraged about the whole job thing lately. Especially last night because it was the night before an interview for the job I'm pretty interested in. I get a little maudlin every now and again, but I know I just have to work through it and keep moving. It's never fun, but by this morning I was feeling much better and I think the interview went very well.

I have another tomorrow, but for a position that's a bit more junior, so I'm not as jazzed about it. But, a job's a job and that's what I need right now.

I got a call from Jordan's assistant Pam the other day and they'd like my help selling a bunch of stuff on Ebay. So I was out there yesterday and today to pick up a couple of loads of stuff. Smith & Tinker appears to be rolling along quite nicely and I have to admit that stopping by there is what caused my depression. They're all great, fun people and I'd love to work with them again, and it made me sad that I don't. Plus, I feel like I'm not really getting anything done. I spend time looking for work, doing a bit of editing, and selling stuff on Ebay. I sort of feel like it's a waste of my time, but it has to get done.

Anyway, I'm feeling better about it now, but yesterday was a different matter.

Hopefully this job comes through. It's a year-long contract and may turn into a full-time gig. Wow, would that take the pressure off.

Oh, and the movie was very good. I was surprised by how much time they spent on him building the first set of armor -- and then the second set of armor -- but overall it was an excellent re-telling of the Iron Man origin. Plus, I thought Robert Downey, Jr. did a very good job as Stark.

Note: I added some pictures of the condo (post-painting and staging) in the Flickr account over to the right. Check'em out. And pass them on to anyone who might want to buy a condo, please.

Condo Listed!

Pass it on! Let's see if we can get this thing sold!

It's a great deal and when we take it off Craigslist, the price is going up!

We Condo It!

The last week has been a bit crazy. Our renter is out of the condo, which meant it was time to go clean the place up and make it look presentable.

I spent last Thursday cleaning the place by myself. When I walked in I could tell we'd need to paint it, but I thought there might be a chnace that wouldn't be the case.

I told Julia about it and she said she felt the same way, so we showed up on Friday with painting supplies and spent all day painting with her dad. He rigged up a contraption that allowed him to reach the top of the 16' ceilings in the stairwell. We were worried we wouldn't be able to paint that, but he solved that problem, which was good.

We spent the whole day and night painting, but didn't quite manage to get finished, so we were back on Saturday and painted all day again. We also moved a bunch of furniture into the garage, then upstairs (after we were done painting) and did some staging until we gave up for the day.

Then we were back early Sunday morning to take over a bunch more furniture and finish staging the place. By the end it turned out great! I mean really stunning. Probably better than when Julia lived there, actually. We're hoping the sprucing up will net us a quick sale. Which in turn will make buying the new house that much easier.

We'll be trying to sell the place on Craigslist before we go to an agent in order to give the buyer a better deal on the condo and to make it easier all around. I repeat: If you know anyone looking to buy a condo in the Renton/Seattle area, please pass them on. Thanks.

If I get some photos of the condo, I'll post them.

Oh, I'll also try to get some new photos of the new house. They've probably finished with the siding by now, so it should look pretty darn good--from the outside. The inside is still a little hollow, although we do have a fireplace, bathtub, showers, and heating ducts now. And probably more than that now.

On the job front, I have a couple of good job leads. I have a phone call later today with one place and I have to get my resume and some samples out to another place. Both sound interesting and promising. I'll let you know how it goes.

I just finished up my latest editing project for Green Ronin and sent my questions to the developer so he can supply the answers I need before I turn the whole thing over to him. Hopefully tomorrow.

Every time I work on one of the projects I really want to play a superhero game. Even though my D&D game has been going great for well over a year now, it makes me want to take a hiatus and play a supers game. Ah, pipe dream.

More soon, I swear.

Holy Coolness

It turns out that the judging board and the retailers thought Battue was good enough to make it as one of the nominees for this year's Origins Award.

As you can see here.

I'll reprint the board game section below:

BOARD GAME OR EXPANSION
Pillars of the Earth
Published by Mayfair Games
Created by Michael Rieneck and Stefan Stadler

Kingsburg
Published by Elfin Werks
Created by Andrea Chiarvesio and Luca Iennaco

StarCraft: The Board Game
Published by Fantasy Flight Games
Created by Corey Konieczka and Christian Petersen

Last Night on Earth, The Zombie Game
Published by Flying Frog Productions
Created by Jason Hill

Battue: Storm of the Horse Lords
Published by Red Juggernaut
Created by Jim Long

I hope I can rely on you for your vote.

How cool.

High Times

Julia and I are feeling the stress of selling one house, putting another on the market, buying another, and my current state of unemployment.

The good news is that one house is now sold. We went this morning and signed the paperwork, so that should close in the next couple of days. Then we'll be renting the house back from the new owners for a few months. That times out well because around that time our new house should be ready for us. I doubt it will work out that perfectly, but it could.

Today I'm spending time looking for jobs and contacting everyone I know who might have a good lead for me. So, if you're one of them, you might see an email headed your direction.

The job situation bums me out, but damn I'm excited to have the house sold.

Aaaand We're Back!

I was out of contact last week because I was in Vegas at the GAMA Trade Show.

I've talked to a few people about the show and I had a really hard time judging the show. Nothing seemed to be exciting to people -- although I'm sure the stores are pumped to get some money flowing from the release of D&D 4th Edition -- and nothing really seemed to be angering people, so it wasn't all that exciting.

Jim, Gil, and I had a good time meeting with people, demoing the games for people, and talking up Red Juggernaut. At the show we learned that our first game, Battue, made the list of semi-finalists for the Origins Awards. That was honestly pretty surprising and cool. Sure, we'd submitted the game, but considering the number of board games released (and I'm sure, nominated) every year, we were happy to see us on the list. The whole category is:

BOARD GAME OR EXPANSION
Pillars of the Earth, Mayfair Games, Michael Rieneck and Stefan Stadler
Kingsburg, Elfin Werks, Andrea Chiarvesio and Luca Iennaco
Qwirkle, Mindware, Susan McKiney Ross
StarCraft: The Board Game, Fantasy Flight Games, Corey Konieczka and Christian Petersen
Last Night on Earth, The Zombie Game, Flying Frog Productions, Jason Hill
Chang Cheng. Teknigames, Walter Obert
AmuseAmaze, HL Games USA Limited, Ethan Goffman
Battue: Storm of the Horse Lords, Red Juggernaut, Jim Long
HeroCard Orc Wars, TableStar Games, Nico Carroll
THUGS!, Tiny Mantis Entertainment, Nik Mikros and T. W. Cooney

We'll find out shortly if we've made the shortlist of actual nominees in the running. There are a number of large companies on there with a lot more fans than we currently have, so we'll see how that goes. I'll keep you updated.

A couple weeks before the show, we released out first expansion to Battue, called The Walls of Tarsos. I hadn't seen the final product before, so that was good to hold in my hands. I brought a copy home with me and have it nearby. It turned out very well and really adds some cool things to the game.

We also had a copy of our next game, Mansuba: Challenge of the Pharaohs, on display for people to check out and demo. It also looks really good. I wasn't able to grab a copy of that, but it should be out in the next (let's say) six weeks.

I'll post again soon. I have some business to take care of.