Friday, October 16, 2009

Thou shalt...

I've had a list for a while now, that I've occaisionally talked about, but not written about, which is odd, in retrospect.

So. Here are the four games that I think should be mandatory to play, before anyone is allowed to write, design, organize, or run a game.

- a freeform RPG. No formal rules beyond "I have final say over what happens to my character"
- the social/party game Werewolf. In it's most basic structure; 10ish villagers, 2 werewolves.
- Diplomacy. I'm not responsible for any fallout among the people you play it with.
- a oldskool competative boardgame, like Risk. Caveat: play it hard-nosed, and strictly by the book, without table chatter or distraction.

So, having done all of these things, what's the point? And why these particular things? Because each of those games, or styles of play is fun, in it's own particular way. Those games are also two faced monsters that will deceive you if you haven't played them.
Because from the outside, freeform blends into werewolf blends into Diplomacy blends into Risk. But viewed from within, those styles of play are very different, and further, actively damaging to each other.

Worth saying again. Those styles of play are actively damaging to each other, and I'm absolutely certain that anyone who has played games for any length of time, has seen this, a thousand times over.

But for some incredibly baffling reason, we keep thinking that if we only design "well enough", that we can make all of those people happy.

You can't. Stop trying. Focus on one style of play, design for that style of play, and make it clear up front. Some people will, indeed, try your game, expecting it to be something it isn't, and declare that it sucks.

But the people who like what your game will like it very much indeed.

James

Labels: geekery, I think too much

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

WAYK, the Language Fluency Game

Where Are Your Keys?

Wow. Just . . . Wow.

The sound quality is politely described as "poor" in this video, but you can really see the potential. I was able to pick up some of the basics of ASL just watching, let alone actually participating.

Seriously. Check it out.

Labels: geekery, I need a tag for this sort of thing, WAYK

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Can't talk, leveling.

Champions Online has eaten my soul.

I'd have more to say, about how I'm considering buying the equipment to do POD out of my basement, or about how awesome wundergeek's preview sketches for Reality Cops looked, or about how my long-running battle with Adobe has finally been laid to rest, and I have the InDesign license that I paid for (in January!) finally.

But I can't. Canada is in Crisis, and it's up to Dark Stalker to save it.

James

Labels: geekery, publishing, Reality Cops

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Ye Olde Poste Gencon Report

Gencon was its usual mix of joy and pain.

Many excellent games were played, many games were purchased, in the expectation that they will be either fun to play, or get gutted for their raw design material - or ideally, both. Connected with old friends and new alike, and many kinds of shit were shot. The highlights for me are that I had a lunch meeting with the fantastic wundergeek, and she's agreed to take on some artwork for Reality Cops. This makes two artists whose work I really like on the project, which makes me very happy. Also, she made an off-hand comment which seeded an excellent idea for the cover image. Double win! Finally, about a dozen copies of Reality Cops are now in circulation, and I got it into the hands of most everyone I wanted to.

The pain, of course, balances against that. Indianapolis may be a pretty city, but it's hot and humid and it really stinks. Hoards of people everywhere. Great outpourings of cash. Not enough time to talk and game with everone I wanted to, not to mention those missed entirely. Ah well. To borrow a Jewish aphorism: Next year at Gencon.

James

Labels: geekery, Reality Cops

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

The summer, it is full.

So, umm... Where did June go? I swear it was here just a second ago.

Summer is pretty full this year. To borrow from my favorite 6 year old philosopher, The Days Are Just Packed.

I just got back from Go Play Northwest, which was a fantastic weekend of gaming.

I've been doing a bunch of writing for Reality Cops - mostly compiling from various scribbles, playtest notes, brainstorming notes, and the dark recesses of my brain, and producing the text which will be the ashcan edition for Gencon.

From July 18-26 (roughly), we're camping at Greenwater, the first weekend in August is Quad War, the weekend after that is batizado, and then we're back at the previously mentioned Gencon on the week/weekend after that. Then two weeks of breather, and school's in again.

Somewhere in there, I need to finish the brick patio under our balcony, and do a bunch of work on the Quadwar cabin, and hey, it would be kinda nice if we were able to take a few days with the new tent trailer (we're cabin-ing at Greenwater, because we didn't know/weren't sure we'd have the trailer when we had to book).

At least I don't need to fit time in to make more bowls for Blood and Bronze... I re-injured my frakking wrist, which means it will be probably a month or more before I can swing a hammer. So, no new sets of Without Peer for Gencon this year. :(

James

Labels: Blood and Bronze, capoeira, geekery, Reality Cops

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Getting the urge

I think I want to run some ronin up a mountain again.

Yeah... Friday Night Mountain Witch, coming soon to a basement near me.

James

Labels: Friday gaming, geekery

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

My not-so-secret shame

So, one night last week, while my wife was out, I did it.

I'd been holding off for quite a while; since last year, pretty much, but eventually I couldn't help myself.

I crept furtively under the stairs, and snuck out that brown-wrapped package with the discrete logo in the corner, and took off the wrapping.

The model on the cover was displayed, teasingly, in full colour, brazenly showing here, artfully concealing there...

I spent all that night with it, and when my wife came home, she caught me. There ... was some fallout, and I ended up going to bed late, and alone, but that didn't stop me from going back to it the next night, and the night after.

Yeah baby, I'm lookin' at you. (link totally SFW)

James

Labels: geekery

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Funky.

Check this out:

superuse.org.

Very cool.

Labels: geekery, I need a tag for this sort of thing, Stuff and Things

Thursday, January 08, 2009

I really should know better...

I read Twilight.

yeah.... don't let me do that again.

Labels: geekery

Saturday, December 20, 2008

I am blogging from my new laptop.

That is all. More to follow when I stop squeeing.

James

Labels: geekery, Stuff and Things

Monday, December 08, 2008

Spot the missing info...

So, another writing exercise from knife fight, this time.

Real Characters

Pick ten people you see throughout the day or week and write a one-sentence description for each of them. Spin off a fictional character based on what they suggest to you. Tell us something of who they are, not just what they look like.

(exercise from PoeWar, http://www.poewar.com/fifteen-craft-exercises-for-writers/)

------
The intern leaned forward, playfully flirtatious, still getting the job done.

Clothes, attitude, everything was casual, until you saw the eyes.

Alone, chain-smoking, facing but never watching the endless T.V.

Hurrying out of a meeting, cell phone attached, arguing with the ex.

Calm and collected, skilled and confident - every inch the role model.

A ready smile and a joke to hand, good humour turned bitter when the company downsized.

One look, and you knew all those people who had mastered self-deception were amateurs by comparison.

Violence roiling under the surface, kept in check with daily hard labour.

Regimented, sterile, some people just look like they were born in a lab coat.

Eyes, crinkled and laughing, make an ordinary face beautiful.
---------

So, exercise for the reader: what haven't I told you?

James

Labels: geekery, I think too much

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

If I get rid of two, it's OK to buy one, right?

So, it's been a long time since I've bought a new computer. Like, a long, long time. My last new computer was a laptop with a 300Ghz Pentium II processor, and that was damn sexy at the time. The computer I have right now is a third? fourth? gen hand-me-down that started it's life as someone else's hot-shit gaming box. I'm not honestly sure what the specs on it are, I'd have to look. And, well, I can't.

Because, you see, it's dying. It's been dying for a long time, but doing it slowly enough that I haven't quite been motivated to replace it. But certain things (like video, or java, or the properties dialogue, or the calendar, or starting Outlook) will lock up the box. And every time I need to reboot it, it takes longer, and more tries before it actually boots all the way. Every once in a while, I speculate that I'm the subject of a psychology experiment.

And we have a computer upstairs, that is a one-generation-younger gaming box than mine, which Raven originally got so she could play The Sims. (Yes, that means the newer of my computers is 8-ish years old. Why?) It's only real purpose these days is to run InDesign for publishing and printing BSP stuff.

But neither of those reasons are sufficient to themselves to overcome my laziness, or it would have happened at least a couple years ago.

However, I recently inherited (and, for a change, I mean that literally) a ancient record player and boxes of 78's from the 40's and 50's, and I've been wracking my head trying to figure out where the heck I can put it. And it occured to me, that if I got rid of the computer desk downstairs, it could easily go there.

But I can't just consolidate into the upstairs computer, because it sits on the same desk as Raven's computer, which means I'd be competing for screen time with both her and Kalen, and that's a fight I'm destined to lose.

So, laptop time. If I pick up a nice, high-end beastie with wireless, a big screen and lots of drive space, it can replace both of my aging, power-sucking desktops, and I'm not tied to any one place in the house any more. I can blog by the fire, or publish at the table, or write in the comfy chair. Or hey, I could even read my forums in the hobby room, listening to 78s on my vintage record player.

I like the sound of that. I think I'll buy me a shiny new laptop. After all, it's been 11 years since the last time I did that.

James

Labels: geekery, Stuff and Things

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Snippets of fiction

Emily Care Boss, over on knife fight*, is hosting/organizing a series of writing exercises, about one a week or so. This week's was called "chastity", and we were restricted to write a short (200-250 word) piece of descriptive prose without adverbs, adjectives, with no dialogue. Wow, hard. I'm not sure I succeeded (I can spot some adjectives, and I may have gone overboard on the prepositions), but here is the resulting snippet of fiction from me. Let me know what you think.

---------
He stared out the window, and knew it would be soon. The sun sank behind the buildings, and the street grew dim. The smoke from her cigarette irritated his eyes, so he glared until she stubbed it out and walked away. Nothing was said; it didn’t have to be. But that was her way ever since they killed her man.

The street was empty now, even the horses had been brought in. They’d been left before, but that stopped after… He shook his head. No good thinking like that.

Cleaning the barrel, he checked the sky and sighed. No moon tonight, and the gas was gone. Last night they rolled barrels into the street, filled them with trash and gasoline, and it helped. Things would be harder tonight; you can’t shoot what you can’t see.

Noise from below told him that the others were back. He hoped they’d brought everything. Last week Jory forgot gauze, and it could have cost lives. They got lucky, but still. He sighed again. No sense getting mad at Jory – he was in the graveyard now. She came back, set down her load and snapped a cigarette from the pack living in her rolled up sleeve. Glancing at him, she swore, and put it back.

People settled at windows and behind sandbags. Hammering came from downstairs as they barricaded the door. Tension filled the air, and he wondered if he’d see the sunrise.
He eased his gun between the boards of the window and waited. They came.

---------

James

*It's a closed-member forum, so you probably won't be able to see what I'm talking about. It's just a signpost.

Labels: geekery, publishing

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Me and my Prius

[tap tap] Is this thing on? Yeah, I know, it's been forever in Internet Time.

Cross-posted from Facebook:

So, it's been a year-ish. I'm still deleriously happy with my Prius.

I've put ~42,000 km on it, in about 12 months, which is roughly 22,000 above "average" mileage.

I'm getting, on average around 5l/100km, better in summer, worse in winter, average gas prices for Alberta across the last 12 months have been ~$1.10/litre*

At 42,000 km, I've consumed roughly 2100 litres of gas this year, for about $2210 in cost.

When I was looking at vehicles, the EPA rating for the Prius was 4.1, and the best equivalent car (mid-sized, good storage) was about 7.3. Lets assume both EPA ratings were biased by the about the same, even throwing a bit of kindness to the other vehicle, and call it 8l/100km for my theoretical other car.

at 42,000km, I would have consumed roughly 3360 litres of gas, for about $3696 in cost. - a straight up savings of almost $1500 in fuel costs, to say nothing of the 1200 litres I didn't consume.

In addition to this, I've consumed less oil, as well, because the hybrid engine wants oil changes every 8K, instead of 5K as a regular vehicle would. Honestly, I'm not laser-accurate on this, and have done 4, or about every 10K. Assuming the same amount of lazy, a regular vehicle would get an oil change every 7K, or 7 by now. (probably 6, with a mental note to "gotta get that done ASAP!") So, 2 or 3 less oil changes. I suppose that's a couple hundred bucks a year save, as well. No, I don't change my own oil.

So, straight up dollar-wise, am I coming out ahead? Assuming I continue to drive this thing into the ground over 5 years, that's $7500 even if gas prices don't go up. Price checking against a mid-line Camry (Which is not quite as fancy as my top-model Prius, but the high-end Camry is much too fancy (heated leather seats and all that jazz bring up the price a lot.), the Camry costs about $2000 less - so before the end of winter, I'll be coming out ahead. Oh, and I totally forgot the $2000 gubmint rebate. So in fact, I broke even before putting a single K on the tires.

Hunh. I hadn't expected that. I was figuring that my win here was going to be in the lower gas consumption and corresponding emissions reduction and all that. I was expecting to end up with a net $$ loss for that, but it turns out to be a net gain. Crazy. Of course, if I had anything like a normal driving pattern, it would be taking a lot longer to make up that difference, but it would still happen. Sweet.

And even assuming that at the end of those 200,000 km I'll need to replace the battery for ~$4000, I'm still ahead of the game. And that assumption isn't a given, BTW; there's lots of folks on various forums and the like reporting that they're past 200,000 -->miles<-- with no noticable degredation in battery performance.

And, of course, this is all "what if I'd bought a non-hybrid new car?" and not "what if I'd kept driving the van?"...

Let's be charitable, and assume the (1997 Astro) van was getting 15l/100km. So, 6300 litres, or $6930 out of pocket. Yeouch.

I <3 my Prius.

James

*roughly calculated. Might be higher, might be lower, but probably not by more than a few cents.

Labels: geekery, Stuff and Things

Thursday, May 08, 2008

I'm pretending it's summer!

Even if it isn't, quite. But it'll be warm this weekend, so the Weather Oracles promise us.

So, for the 3 people in the world who aren't on facebook (not that you read my blog, but hey, if there's one thing Douglas Adams taught me, it's that it's not my fault you didn't know - I announced it.), we're casting the net a little wider for Friday Gaming this week.

There's no regular game on right now, and we're going to be gone for the next three weeks, so it seemed like a good time to have a BBQ. Come on over and eat burgers and hot dogs and hang out. Maybe there will be gaming. Maybe there will be videos.

James

Labels: Friday gaming, geekery

Sunday, April 27, 2008

Advance warning

Just so the people in my life are warned well in advance:

I will be useless come September.

Remember: you were warned.

James

Labels: geekery, I need a tag for this sort of thing

Thursday, April 17, 2008

Update-o-rama

So, in case the silence hasn't been eloquent enough, things have been busy at work and home the last little while. The last two posts were produced from my hotel room in Vancouver, WA, where I was for 2 weeks on a company training course.

A company training course that happened to land me in town for Gamestorm, which was the best co-incidence ever. I got in some good gaming while I was down, and did some road trips to catch dinner with Frank and Sarana, as well as hanging out with Jake and Matt and meeting many of the other faces under that communal roof. I spent some time and some excellent gaming with Ben, which was good because we're otherwise missing each other this year.

Then I got back and spent a week scrambling to catch up and be a useful human again, before disappearing on the weekend for Forge Midwest.

Forge Midwest was awesome. The Madison location was great, I had some excellent gaming, including a couple runs of Reality Cops, and just excellent company and fun overall.

Then I got back and have spent the last couple days scrambling to catch up and be a useful human again. I'm almost there. Soon, I will be able to meander vaguely towards a regular blogging schedule again.

Footnote of the day: If your soul is touched by music, August Rush is a powerful, very moving story. If music is a thing you can take or leave, I suspect it's predictable schlock. I loved it to death, and was moved to tears more than once. But, it's been established in the past that I'm a sucker for schlock.

Also, Nine Worlds again this Friday, or at least, that's what I'm planning towards. Steak and asperagus and nothing fancy or time-consuming is the meal plan.

James

Labels: Friday gaming, geekery

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

The passing of a giant

Troll Lord Games forum announcement (slow: they're getting hit with a lot of traffic)

It was announced today that Gary Gygax died in his home, presumably yesterday or on the weekend.

I never met him, but he changed my life. I'm sitting here at work, crying, and I can't even explain why.

God speed, Gary.

Edited to note: It was, in fact, this morning.

"I would like the world to remember me as the guy who really enjoyed playing games and sharing his knowledge and his fun pastimes with everybody else."

Okay.

James

Labels: Friday gaming, geekery

Thursday, November 22, 2007

I <3 my Prius

On my way to work this morning, I ran out of gas.

... so I kept driving, went to the next gas station, and filled up.

James

Labels: geekery

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

In which I make excuses

Yesterday was Tuesday, which means it should have been a Cooking Isn't Complicated spot, but I had something specific in mind. I was going to do a special episode on baking, and talk about how baking can sometimes not be complicated. And I was going to present a favourite and super-easy recipe from childhood to demonstrate: wacky cake.

So I didn't write it during the day, because I needed the recipe from my recipe book.

And I didn't write it when I went home because [cue super-fast, guilty voice while looking away] I-kinda-bought-Mass-Effect-and-brought-it-home-and-unwrapped-it-and-played-it-and-then-it-was-2AM-and-blogging-about-cake-was-not-going-to-happen.

So, uh, to summarize: The cake is a lie.

James
(I'm playing Xbox and I'm still alive)

Labels: geekery

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

The ones they don't make comics about

A gymnasium full of highschool kids that don't want to be there. A principle who knows this, but has to pretend otherwise. A hastily assembled wheelchair ramp up to the stage. Just like every other night this week. And last week. Combination freakshow and motivational speaker, that's me.

I roll up onto the stage. Lots of eyes pointed at me. Morbid curiosity; they all want to see. I turn on the mike.

"Hey. So. Question for the floor. Have you had one of the drunk driving victims come out to your school before?"

A few nods.

"Any of you drink and drive? No? Or at least, not that you'll admit? Good. Shows that you know what stupid is, at least when you're sitting around bored in a gym."

A couple desultory chuckles.

"Any of you folks not want to be here? Show of hands. Who wants to be just about anywhere else than sitting in this fucking gym?"

A couple brave souls risk the wrath of their teachers by raising hands. Time for the freak show.

"Me neither." I raise my right hand, good and high so everyone can get a look at the skin as it drips and runs down my arm like warm wax. Some kid in the back retches up. Bastards always schedule me for after lunch. I drop my arm and bring it back inside my envirochair before I lose any bits. That's never fun.

"Where I want to be is working a desk job somewhere, or going for beers with the gang, or maybe raising a family, or just about fucking anything other than living in a damn envirochair. And you know what? I'm one of the lucky ones."

"Every year in this country, about 3000 folks hit some kind of transformation. They get bit by a radioactive spider, or get exposed to gamma rays, or fall in a vat of weird chemicals in an industrial accident or something like that. I'm here to remind you that not everyone gets to be your friendly neighborhood Spiderman."

I cue the projector, which starts to show statistics, interspersed with some pretty gross pictures. I mean, I live with the fact that I melt at room temperature, and I still can't stomach some of those shots.

"Of those three thousand or so, fully 95% die either immediately, or within months. 75% of those are no longer identifiable as human by the time they are dead."

"The remaining 5% can live. Usually with some pretty damn expensive equipment. Of those, some, like me, are the lucky ones. We can still think, talk, get around after a fashion. Of course, no sex when your dick melts from friction, but still, better me than him." I jerk my head in the direction of the screen, where some poor screaming bastard is on fire, but not getting burned up. "He committed suidide. Hung himself with an asbestos rope that his wife smuggled in. Can't say as I blame him. Or her."

I turn around and roll off the stage. Can't say I envy their teachers this afternoon. Of course it'll all wear off - teenagers always think they're fuckin' immortal. Six months from now, one of these dumb kids is gonna throw himself into a reactor, dead certain that he's gonna be the next Molecule Man.

Some days I don't know why I bother.
------------
This was sparked by seeing the Sandman's genesis in the most recent Spiderman movie and thinking "What are the odds, even accepting super-hero physics, of that actually ending well?" And just a general fascination with the underbelly of shiny-happy comic worlds. Spiderman and Molecule Man are trademarks of Marvel Comics, used without permission or apology, yadda yadda yadda.

James

Labels: geekery, I think too much

Sunday, August 12, 2007

Gencon!

So, now that I've lollyblogged my way into no readers, here's an update.

I'm getting on a plane for Gencon on Tuesday (technically 00:30 Wednesday) for Gencon Indy 07. I'm really looking forward to this year. I'm not running any Brick Battles events, which frees up my luggage and my time, and I'm table custodian at least once at the Games On Demand area. It's unfortunatly way far away from the dealer's hall, but conveniently downstairs from our hotel room, so I may end up spending more of my time there than I might otherwise. Which is good, becuase - hey, games - on demand.

Evenings will again be spent gaming in the lounge/open area at the Embassy Suites, and I hope to get in lots of good gaming this year. The night that is the exception is Wednesday, which I'm spending getting interviewed again for Theory from the Closet, which should be interesting. This time out, it's less about me and my stuff, and more about game design/theory in general. I'm not sure when I became an authority in this stuff; someone must have pinned a note to my back while I wasn't looking.

My days are going to be taken up in the Dealer's Hall, as I'm again with the forge booth - this time as a primary sponser. As best I can tell so far, that means I shell out more money, earlier, and get a bit more weight when I bitch about things. :)

Blood and Bronze IS ready, and there will be a good stock of regular editions, as well as five of the handcrafted Without Peer! editions. From the rumblings I've heard, I kinda wish I had more, but it was not in the cards - handcrafting is time consuming, and as you may have guessed from my last couple posts, I've been a touch busy.

Labels: Blood and Bronze, geekery, pimping my stuff, publishing

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Go Play!

Tomorrow, around 11-ish, I'm hopping on a plane and flying down to Seattle for a weekend of crazy gaming, then hopping on a plane and flying back. The folks organizing Go Play NorthWest have scored off-season space at the University, so we're staying in dorm rooms, have meal cards (and, obviously, the option of real meals elsewhere, if we choose), and are gaming on campus. This has two cool effects. One: CHEAP. Including flights, sleep-space, anticipated extra spending on food and beer, the entire weekend slides in at under $500. Two: Holy nostalgia, Batman! I think the last time I was in a dorm room was Eric's Dreary Little Cell, back in the 69 Hyndman days. Those were good gaming days, too.

James

Labels: Friday gaming, geekery

Monday, May 07, 2007

Interview with a Game Designer

I'm a game designer. Who knew? Any, the excellent Clyde Rhoer ofTheory From the Closet cornered me at Forge Midwest a few weeks ago, and sat me in front of a microphone. I had my revenge, though - nobody warned Clyde that I don't know how to shut up.

Anyway, it's a really excellent interview, although, due to the aformentioned "don't know how to shut up" also quite long. Clyde asked some very insightful questions, and really drew me out about some of the thinking and reasoning behind my games.

Check it out. Also check out his other interviews from Forge Midwest. Aside from little ol' me, he managed to corral Ron Edwards, Luke Crane, and Paul Czege.

James

Labels: Blood and Bronze, geekery, pimping my stuff, publishing

Sunday, March 25, 2007

The Joy of crafting

I just spent a bunch of my afternoon pounding out flat circles of bronze and brass, turning them in to bowls to get packaged with Blood and Bronze.

Metal-working is something I haven't had much chance to do since I was an active heavy fighter in the SCA, and I'd forgotten how much joy I took in the rythmic hammering, turning the metal, seeing it change and warp before my eyes and under my hands. In knowing when to turn something, and how to make a dishing post. In learning how brass and bronze shape differently, and how both are different from steel. In sitting in my garage watching people walking dogs and kids on bikes and all the other activity of a community on a warm spring day, and imagining in my mind's eye that this was one of the reasons a blacksmith's forge was often open to the street, so that they could be a part of the street and still work. In the stiffness and pain of my hands, knowing that it is my hands saying 'enough for now, we're still remembering how to do this'. In thinking ahead, and contemplating bringing these tools out to our SCA cabin, so that I can work metal and watch the community go by, and be like that blacksmith in my mind.

I hope I sell a bunch of these, 'cause, well, I hope I sell a bunch of these. But there's a little corner of my brain that's saying "So that I can make more bowls!"

Do you craft?

James

Labels: Blood and Bronze, geekery

Monday, March 12, 2007

The Bad twins: Change and Same.

Originally posted as a comment over on *'s blog.

Warning, this may or may not be coherent.

I think we all have two little monsters inside. One is called Changebad, the other is called Samebad. Each time you try a change and it doesn't work, it's like you poke Changebad and he gets a little bigger. Vice versa with Samebad. As long as they stay more or less the same size, they keep each other busy and you get to change or stay the same, whatever you like. But if one of them gets too big, it gets to ignore the other one and boss you around.

The catch is that if you aren't paying attention, other people can poke your Changebad and Samebad.

When other people get upset because you tried a change and it worked out, they're listening to their Changebad. Nothing you can do about that; that's between them and their monsters. But when they grump at you, or withdraw, then they're trying to poke your monsters. Just say "Hey! Stop poking my Changebad!" They' look at you like you're on glue, and you can tell them this story, and maybe it'll help. Or maybe they'll smile kinda funny and edge away like you're a crazy person. Either way you get your space. :)

Now I want to make T-shirts that say "Stop poking my Changebad!" on the front and "Stop poking my Samebad!" on the back.

James

Labels: geekery, I think too much

Now Taking Pre-orders

Hi folks,

Now taking pre-orders for TANSTAAFL T-shirts at $20 per. If you want one, post a comment with size preference. Plain black T's, with TANSTAAFL in white block lettering on the front, and small-text "www.blankshieldpress.com" on the left sleeve. T-shirt only, no babydolls this time around, unless I get lots of requests.

I need enough pre-orders to convince me I won't lose money, otherwise the shirts don't get ordered. TANSTAAFL.

James

Labels: geekery, pimping my stuff, publishing

Thursday, February 22, 2007

Best Store Name Ever.

In the catagory of names no one will ever dare to really use:

A vaccuum repair shop called Bob's House of Suck.

James

Labels: geekery