Interview

Seth and I were interviewed for the Mutants & Masterminds Website. Check it out!

Sorry for not posting lately, I was out of town and I've been awfully busy since returning. Look for more posts soon.

Beware the Ides of March

How exactly do you celebrate the anniversary of an assassination?

For the Gamers

Over on Board Game Geek you can find a page of info on the first release from Red Juggernaut, Battue: Storm of the Horse Lords. Go check it out and, I dunno, mark it down as something you want to get.

eBay Away!

I've been getting things organized for a while now and a friend has started listing some of my goodies on eBay. I'm starting with a bunch of books and statues that I've had lying around for a while, but sometime soon all of my HeroClix (and other WizKids products) will do up as well. If anyone is interested in any of my WizKids stuff, keep watching (or contact me).

Here's what I'm currently selling.

Bid!

Genetic Puzzles

This article links genetics and your ability to do (or not do, I suppose) puzzles. Cool.

Hero. Me.

Moneywise, things are pretty tight right now. There's issues with my salary due to money issues with the new company. Very little money coming in means it's time to tighten our belts -- and we didn't have all that much disposable income anyway after buying the house. Because money's tight also means it's time for things to break around the house!

First, the dryer stopped drying. I tried a few things and decided that, yes, the heating element would need to be replaced. I opened up the back of the dryer to see what type of element was needed and discovered that one of the eletrical lines had fallen off its connector. I screwed it back into place and, ta-daa, the dryer was fixed!

Second, I was driving to the grocery store the other day and my check engine light went on. Worried that I might have to (somehow) cover hundreds or thousands of dollars' worth of car repairs...I pulled into Jiffy Lube and asked them to see if there might be something fluid-related that might cause the light to turn on. After about 15 minutes in the waiting room the girl came out and told me that there was too much oil by about a half-quart, so they removed some. Shortly after pulling out of the parking lot the check engine light went off and I'd fixed the problem for free! How cool it that?

I am the hero.

I talked to my sister, Jean, on Monday and she told me that Jake (her oldest son, my oldest nephew) started driver's education that night. As usual, I mention a milestone in Jake's life mostly to make my friends from college feel really old. Did it work? I'm sure.

Monday night I played poker. I really shouldn't have because of the money situation, but half-way through the night I was up about $22, but by the end of the evening that was all gone and I was sad. No poker until I get a paycheck on a regular basis.

The D&D game on Sunday was a very good time. They managed to finish cleaning out the rest of the keep with the help of some militiamen (most of whom died when the dragonbat breathed fire on them). Seth was missing because he didn't feel and I'm really sorry he missed what was probably the most fun session so far. Now I need to decide what's going to happen next in the game.

That's also the case with Warhammer game. There are some interesting threads, but they haven't come together into a solid plot just yet. I need to get that ironed out quickly.

Okay, time to go. More soon.

Struggle Against Disappointment

I haven't posted in a while because I'm fighting off some vague feelings of frustration and disappointment. Normally this wouldn't be worth mentioning, but these feelings have been nagging at me for a while and they're getting pretty damn annoying.

They may be particularly bad today because it's "veggie day" on my diet. I dread this day because it's soooo boring and limited in terms of food choices. See, normally, I have some good things to eat that make this whole diet thing acceptable and not too challenging, but on veggie day all those choices go away and I really don't enjoy it. It's the only time I feel like I'm actually on a diet. Thankfully, the payoff is there, I just weighed myself and I'm down about 30 pounds from where I started a few months ago...which means I'm about 55 pounds from my goal...which also means I'm closer than I've been to my goal in the, damn, seven years since I've been trying to get into shape.

Anyway, it's a rough day for that reason.

The other annoying things going on involve my work and the fact that I'm not getting paid this month unless some things come through on the money front -- quickly. Because the money isn't coming in from work, I'm in the process of finding a new job. I had some warning about the money, so I started looking about a month ago, but no luck so far. That frustrates me a little because I thought I'd be able to find something within a month, but I'm still here without a job and paycheck and not even an interview on the horizon. Bleh. I knew this would be a challenge when I left WizKids. I was pretty high up in the hierarchy there, so I have a lot of management and supervisory experience, but my game design work was so specialized that it's hard to carry it over into the electronic realm -- specifically because I don't have any electonic/computer/console game design experience. I'm sure I can do it, but I need to find a company that's willing to let me get up to speed on the technical side of things.

So, I'm frustrated and annoyed by the situation, but I will continue to look and not let it bother me too much, even if it is veggie day.