Pix to Click

I posted a handful of new pictures to Flickr. Click on the badge in the righthand column to check them out.

Office Stuff

I have a couple of job interview things going on.

I had a second phone interview with one company. I think it went well and the position sounds like something I could excell at since it's mainly creative in bent. I hope things progress on that front. They said they'd get back to me within a week.

I also have a level design test that I'm working on for another place. I came up with a good idea for that right away, so now I'm sketching things out and organizing my thoughts. I hope to be done with that by Monday.

On a side note; my printer -- which is easily 10 years old or more now -- has been malfunctioning for quite a while. It prints and all, but the rubber rollers that guide the paper through the printing path had deteriorated to the point that the heat of printing made them gooey so they stuck to the paper and gave them big black marks along the back. Well, last night I dicided to rip the things off and now the printer is working fine. That's good because I just started a new editing project so now I can actually use it to print out some pages. And it means I can put off buying a new printer until I actually have a job.

Which I hope will be soon.

Fun and Gaming

I had a good weekend. Julia and I came up with a good (and new) solution for the condo and the new house, so we had some conversations with bankers and such. Things are moving forward on that and we're pretty happy with how it's going.

Last week I applied to a few positions and this week I received a number of returned phone calls that lead to interviews. And one of those phone interviews earned me a second phone interview tomorrow. I'm pretty excited about the prospects and I'm really hoping to make my way into the computer gaming business. Soon.

For one of the interviews I have to fill out a design test. So far it's been interesting and I'm having a good time coming up with some ideas for it.

On the gaming front; on Sunday I ran D&D and we wrapped up the current adventure in Hellhold. They didn't quite do what I'd planned on, but it should still work out in terms of the overall storyline.

Monday I went to Pramas' to play Descent with him and Ray. I hadn't really talked with Ray before, but he seems like a really good guy and I was happy to sit down and play with both of them. Since there were only three of us, Chris ran the game and Ray and I both played two characters. It's a good thing we did, too, because we would have been pulped in the first part of the game.

I also picked up the two newest M&M books, Book of Magic and Worlds of Freedom. I've paged through both of them and checked out the character archetypes and everything looks great. I was especially pleased with the Book of Magic. It seems well researched and covers all the areas that one might hope.

In other gaming news, I've been spending my evenings converting old Champions characters to M&M just for fun. I think I've converted about 20 so far and it's been interesting to see how the characters differ as well as how they're similar. I've even sent a couple of the write-ups off to the players who created the characters. I have no clue if they'll ever use them, but I figured they'd enjoy it.

Okay, that's enough for now. I'll be back soon.

Ebay

I'm selling a bunch of stuff on ebay for a former co-worker and it's a real pain in the ass. I changed the way I'm doing things so that I'm purchasing the postage online and shipping from home. And since I'm doing everything by the book, I'm measuring the boxes in order to get accurate shipping costs, so now people who are bidding are writing me to tell me that my shipping costs are completely ridiculous and out of whack -- and may violate ebay's policies. Unfortunately, there's not really anything I can do about it. I could ship things slower, but that runs the risk of damage to the product since it's all pretty fragile.

Ah, well, it sort of a lose/lose. I'm going to try and find some way to resolve this, since I don't want bidders ticked at me. I still have a ton of stuff to sell.

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.