So, we're having the problem with the lights again, so mom called Consumers. We figured they'd send someone out next week. No, the guy was here at 8:30 AM. UGH! Mom was still up, but the barking woke me up (Yes, I sleep in until almost noon most days. God, I need a job.) and I didn't get back to sleep until after 9.

That's when I had a horrible dream. It started normal (JRPG-esque) but ended in a vivid fight between myself and a ghost trying to possess me. Woke me right up, and I took almost a half hour to get back to sleep. It was so vivid and real that I actually freaked out for a moment. But now that it's faded, I'm a little less concerned. I just hope I don't have it again tonight. I wonder if this is some fear of mine trying to express itself? Or if I've just watched one too many of those exorcism specials on the History channel.

Current Mood: tired

http://feeds.reference.com/click.phdo?i=e023617c3a35175e3e054bcdd97a1eb3

http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/2009/11/12.html

asseverate: to affirm or declare positively or earnestly.

http://ads.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=e023617c3a35175e3e054bcdd97a1eb3&p=4

In which I discuss Legend of the Seeker's first season growing pains and its strong second season start.

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/post/116074-legend-of-the-seeker-season-2-premiere/

In my quest to write around 40,000 words of examples of play as a part of NaNoWriMo, I have inadvertently discovered a limit in Google Docs. Apparently docs can't be more than 512k!

So I've split up the current draft into two google docs here and here.

It'll be a little trickier adding up my word count each day, but no big deal otherwise. Just surprised that Google Docs has any kind of size limit in the first place.

Currently, the draft is around 71,300 words. About 20,000 of which are examples of play. With luck, I might actually break 100,000 words, which is pretty much ridonkulous.

Tags: do, writing

...or "Rememberance Day" or "Armistice Day", what have you.

How would our recent history be different, if the country as a whole had adopted the current "Support the Soldier, Decry the War" attitude during the Vietnam era?

How would that seemingly small & simple change make "today" different?

http://feeds.reference.com/click.phdo?i=8ccd8d54c6e3f8266a57bb450a843a5d

http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/2009/11/11.html

forfend: to avert; also, to protect or preserve.

Experimental electronic (and occasionally acoustic) music that tempers its weirdness with a strong sense of melody.

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/114827-black-mold-snow-blindness-is-crystal-antz/

Those who have known me for a few years will recall the Luchacabra experiment I was doing for about a year or so. The goal of that experiment was to make a new game each week, usually two-player abstracts. These games would use as ubiquitous materials as possible so I can just post the rules and you can play at home with stuff around the house.

Now Megan's craftiness has given me some thoughts. See, she makes these vegetable trophies...



Every time we go to a craft or hardware store, I come across little wooden blocks and doo-dads.



Just BEGGING to be stained and arranged into a game-like configuration. Particularly if they can be mounted onto a cool-looking plaque.



So that idea's been in my head since the Girlie Show. Then I stumble upon this post on Purple Pawn describing a new two-player abstract called Push Fight, with rules similar to Oshii but in an oddly shaped board with barriers at the top and bottom.

Each player gets five pieces on an oddly-shaped board with 26 spaces. Each turn, you move up to two pieces as many spaces horizontally or vertically as you like, so long as the piece does not leave the board or jump another piece. You must then push one of your square pieces one space in any direction, pushing all other pieces along the same line. The piece with which you just pushed cannot, itself, be pushed on your opponent’s next turn. The object is to knock one of your opponent’s pieces off of the board.

So what the heck, maybe once Do is in Ryan's hands, I'll go to the opposite extreme of Luchacabra. Maybe I'll handmake boutique, one-of-a-kind two-player abstracts and sell them on Etsy, with stained wood pieces and stuff. Little items that would fit steampunk decor, but also be well-designed games.

Hmm... Embargo would be a good option for this treatment, certainly.



Hmmm.... Yes... Also, perhaps a game that uses those recessed toy wheels and spheres. You can move the wheels around as flat pawns, but they can also carry the spheres around in their recessed cavities. The game might involve shepherding the spheres around the board or something. Yess...

Tags: embargo, ideas, luchacabra

If you recall a few months ago, I was tinkering with a card game called Belle of the Ball that I really envisioned being illustrated with a menagerie of Kate Beaton's frou-frou Victorian characters. When the cards are all put together, they form a crowded ballroom of party-goers.

I put the game aside while working on Do: Pilgrims of the Flying Temple until the end of the year, but it's still been knocking around my skull here and there.

Well, lo and behold, Kate won't let us forget how awesome she is. She just posted this illustration which just convinces me even more how much I need to finish designing that game so I can pitch it to her.

Tags: belle of the ball