I've been wanting to write about two things this week: legos & designing my own board game. Legos wins out in this post. I hadn't thought about Legos for a very long time until during the holidays Nathan and Landon brought a few Lego trucks and cars over to build and I had a great time building them with the boys. That really got me wanting some Legos!
I know, I know. I'm a 27 year old man with a beard, a kid, a wife, a mortgage, and a Chevy S-10. I shouldn't want to play with Legos. I don't want to play with them, I want to build them and collect them. That is a weakness of mine, I like collecting things, and Legos seems like a good thing to collect. Then I started looking at price tags. $150 for a space ship. Are you kidding me!
I remember one birthday or Christmas my parents bought me a real "designer" set. By designer set, I mean it was a medieval castle with instructions how to build it. Up to that point I'd only had a big bucket of all kinds of colorful blocks to be put together. That castle was awesome! It was black and came with knights and horses and maybe a catapult of some kind (I can't really remember, but I think it should have one), and tree's and everything.
Today I went to Toys 'R' us and looked around at all their Lego sets. They have quite a few lines such as Harry Potter, Atlantis, Toy Story, Star Wars, Pirates, Pharoah's Quest, and a couple others I'm sure I'm forgetting. They were sweet looking! I'll bet it would be really fun to build them, but perhaps I'll have to wait until Kaylee is older to justify buying them so that "we" can build them.
So don't be surprised in a few years when you walk into my house and I have a curio cabinet of pyramids, mummies, and daring archeologists adventuring in the desert. You can look at me like I should grow up, but I won't care, because I think Legos are cool no matter how old you are.
P.S. I wish they had some Lord of the Rings Legos. Maybe they do, I'll have to do some real searching.
P.P.S. My next post will either be on Head Honcho (my game), Wasting Your Life (a book by John Piper), or The Bartimaues Trilogy (a new book series I'm reading).
P.P.P.S. Or the next post could be on a dramatic driving experience.
P.P.P.P.S. That's a lot of Ps.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
IndyCon Sponsorship
I just put in my request for my leave this year at work. I think I requested nine days off. Five of those days are for board game conventions and one of those five days are for IndyCon. IndyCon is the local convention that I help in organizing and carrying out. I'm sure I'll be posting some type of blog after it is over, but I thought I'd describe a bit of the work that goes into it from my perspective, which doesn't even include getting the hotel, rooms, shelves, payments, bags, food, or any of that together. The work I do is pretty much getting sponsors, updating the website, and organizing a couple events during the convention.
Getting sponsors is the most work. I spent several hours this past week alone researching, calling, and emailing different game publishers, retailers, and related businesses. This is my third year in helping in this endeavor and I've got to say that it is becoming easier each year. There is still a lot of work, but once a company sponsors us one year, then next year it is a bit easier since they've already done it once. Now don't get me wrong, we're still a small convention and these companies get all kinds of calls, so they sorta remember me each year, but it's not like I'm on a first name basis with them. I've very appreciative of all our sponsors every year that make the convention a success. Already this year, working two weeks on it, between Dave (the main organizer) and myself we've got 9 companies to sponsor us!
Updating the website is what it has become, but I had to build it first! That took awhile, even without getting into the HTML part of it. I'm pretty satisfied with how it came out, though I hope one day we actually make a bit of money on the convention and we can purchase a domain of our own. Now, I'm just writing some news bits, adding sponsors to the sponsor page, and editing the schedule as things change. You can see the website here: IndyCon 2011.
Running events at the actual convention is probably my absolute favorite part. I've always loved tournament style things from my brother and I racing our whole matchbox car collection down an old chalkboard to playing in all day long basketball tournaments to watching the Big Dance every spring. Tournaments are good. Last year I ran the Thoughthammer Tichu Tourney on Friday night, which seemed to be a big success. I had a great time playing in it and also organizing it. This year, Mayday Games is going to be sponsoring a Crokinole tournament, if the boards that are on order come in time. I'm really hoping they do, because I think that'll be a blast! It's real fun for me to cross teams off the brackets & then move the winner on.
So that is some of the work that goes into just helping organize IndyCon and I don't even do the real grunt work that Dave & Tami do each year. Is it worth it for 3 days a year? Heck yeah! It is very satisfying to see about 100 people come together and just have a great time. From the casual player who shows up just for a couple party games to the hardcore wargamer playing the same game for 12 straight hours, both types of people and all those in-between can't wait for the next IndyCon!
Getting sponsors is the most work. I spent several hours this past week alone researching, calling, and emailing different game publishers, retailers, and related businesses. This is my third year in helping in this endeavor and I've got to say that it is becoming easier each year. There is still a lot of work, but once a company sponsors us one year, then next year it is a bit easier since they've already done it once. Now don't get me wrong, we're still a small convention and these companies get all kinds of calls, so they sorta remember me each year, but it's not like I'm on a first name basis with them. I've very appreciative of all our sponsors every year that make the convention a success. Already this year, working two weeks on it, between Dave (the main organizer) and myself we've got 9 companies to sponsor us!
Updating the website is what it has become, but I had to build it first! That took awhile, even without getting into the HTML part of it. I'm pretty satisfied with how it came out, though I hope one day we actually make a bit of money on the convention and we can purchase a domain of our own. Now, I'm just writing some news bits, adding sponsors to the sponsor page, and editing the schedule as things change. You can see the website here: IndyCon 2011.
Running events at the actual convention is probably my absolute favorite part. I've always loved tournament style things from my brother and I racing our whole matchbox car collection down an old chalkboard to playing in all day long basketball tournaments to watching the Big Dance every spring. Tournaments are good. Last year I ran the Thoughthammer Tichu Tourney on Friday night, which seemed to be a big success. I had a great time playing in it and also organizing it. This year, Mayday Games is going to be sponsoring a Crokinole tournament, if the boards that are on order come in time. I'm really hoping they do, because I think that'll be a blast! It's real fun for me to cross teams off the brackets & then move the winner on.
So that is some of the work that goes into just helping organize IndyCon and I don't even do the real grunt work that Dave & Tami do each year. Is it worth it for 3 days a year? Heck yeah! It is very satisfying to see about 100 people come together and just have a great time. From the casual player who shows up just for a couple party games to the hardcore wargamer playing the same game for 12 straight hours, both types of people and all those in-between can't wait for the next IndyCon!
Monday, January 17, 2011
It's funny how different I am in my work life versus my personal life. To be more specific, my work email versus my personal email. At work, I have hundreds of individual folders that I put emails in. I even have rules set up so that when I specific type of email goes out or comes in it automatically goes to specific folders. I never let my inbox get up to more than 100 emails in it without going through and cleaning it out. If I need to find an email, I can find it withing a couple minutes usually.
Now my personal inbox at home is a different story. I do have about 8 folders now, since I just added a couple. I hardly ever clean it out, though I just did now since I had over 300 emails in it and I'm getting ready to start contacting companies for IndyCon and I need a clean space to work. Some of the emails were Borders advertisements, a ton were e-board (an email group at church), several were Amazon emails, a few personal notes, some forwards from friends. Mostly just a bunch of stuff.
I wonder how different I am in other areas of my life when it comes to work and home?
Now my personal inbox at home is a different story. I do have about 8 folders now, since I just added a couple. I hardly ever clean it out, though I just did now since I had over 300 emails in it and I'm getting ready to start contacting companies for IndyCon and I need a clean space to work. Some of the emails were Borders advertisements, a ton were e-board (an email group at church), several were Amazon emails, a few personal notes, some forwards from friends. Mostly just a bunch of stuff.
I wonder how different I am in other areas of my life when it comes to work and home?
Friday, January 14, 2011
How a Piece of Myself Was Taken: The Story of Adam Daulton's Appendix
What's an appendix anyways? Well, I think it is sorta the end of a book or it is a small organ in your body that you really don't need. I no longer have mine and here are the someone interesting parts of the story.
Tuesday afternoon, while sitting at work, my stomach began to hurt. I thought I must have ate something that was bothering it, but didn't think too much about it since I had quite a few plans that night. It continued to hurt and Wednesday got worse. By Wednesday evening, I wasn't feeling very good at all, and even skipped out on shoveling my sidewalk and driveway (which I normally do promptly after snows). Instead I stayed inside and practiced on the guitar a bit.
Through the night Wednesday night I didn't feel good at all. My stomach was hurting pretty good, had a fever of 99.9, my heart was palpitating at 120 beats a minute, and was sweating a bunch. I didn't get much sleep and neither did my poor wife. I was feeling bad enough by the time work rolled around that I decided to call in (which I've only done 1 time before for being sick). However, by 11am I was wondering if I made the right decision. My fever was gone, my stomach was feeling much better, and I was thinking I should go in for a few hours or get some things done from home.
That's when Krista was insistent I still go to our family doctor. I didn't want to do so, because that is $25 no matter what. I figured they'd tell me I was constipated, say take some over the counter medicine, and send me on my merry way. I did call our Ask a Nurse hotline though and the nurse I spoke with, after ruling out an appendicitis, told me it would probably be good to see the doctor about the heart palpitations in the next 8 hours, so I went to see him.
At 2pm the doctor saw me and asked me all the usual doctor questions and then promptly started pushing on my belly. I felt some pain, though still not too much. He told me that he wanted me to have a catscan, just in case. I was thinking this would be worthless, since if it was an appendicitis, I imagined I would be feeling worse rather than better by this point. Then the nurse came in and said don't go anywhere else, go to the hospital, this is STAT! I didn't know real medical people ever used that word, just thought it was a word TV medical shows like using. The things one learns.
By 3:30, after they did some vampire work, I began drinking this watered down kool-aid stuff. Signed several documents saying that if I die it isn't there fault or something like that and finally by 5:30 I finished drinking that stuff so they could see all my organs. You ask what I did for those 2 hours other than drink? I tried laying on a really short waiting room bench and watched Dr. Phil & Oprah. My opinions of those two people haven't changed. I definitely haven't drank their kool-aid like most of the world seems to have done.
I then went into the catscan. It is a big huge wheel, that reminds me of the logo for Star Gate 1. I've never seen that show mind you, just see the DVD covers all the time on Netflix. That's what the catscan looked like. I then lay down, and they hook an IV up and put liquid metal in my body. This isn't the good stuff that turns you in a bullet proof X-Man like wolverine. This stuff just makes you think you are peeing. I had to look to be sure I actually wasn't.
20 minutes later, after being slid back and forth into the big circle, I was done and waiting on a call from the doc. He said, well your appendix is inflamed and you need surgery. I was nervous, not because they'd be cutting on me, oh no. I was nervous because I'd be completely knocked out and naked in a room with people I'd never met before. Also, the last time I was put under in 2004, I didn't exactly behave appropriately afterwords.
By 8pm, they had me in the operating room, which looks just as intimidating as you'd expect it to look. I remember looking into the lights, then the next think I remember is waking up in the pre-surgery room again. My belly shaved and a small chunk of me missing. They had me stay overnight in a recovery room, Krista came and stayed with me, which I appreciated very much. This morning we played a game of Traders of Carthage while I munched on some fruit-flavored ice. Took a few spins around the halls to be sure I was doing okay, and then she brought me home. Surprisingly, at least right now, the most pain I'm in is from the gas they used to fill my belly up. It has migrated to my shoulder.
In the end, I'm glad I listened to my wife and went to the doctor. Better than having it burst and having to spend a week in the hospital and an even longer recovery time. I'm will miss that small part of me that was taken though. I never knew him that well and he didn't even have a name, but he was still part of me.
P.S. If you are still reading this, I'm amazed, because this is the longest post ever.
Tuesday afternoon, while sitting at work, my stomach began to hurt. I thought I must have ate something that was bothering it, but didn't think too much about it since I had quite a few plans that night. It continued to hurt and Wednesday got worse. By Wednesday evening, I wasn't feeling very good at all, and even skipped out on shoveling my sidewalk and driveway (which I normally do promptly after snows). Instead I stayed inside and practiced on the guitar a bit.
Through the night Wednesday night I didn't feel good at all. My stomach was hurting pretty good, had a fever of 99.9, my heart was palpitating at 120 beats a minute, and was sweating a bunch. I didn't get much sleep and neither did my poor wife. I was feeling bad enough by the time work rolled around that I decided to call in (which I've only done 1 time before for being sick). However, by 11am I was wondering if I made the right decision. My fever was gone, my stomach was feeling much better, and I was thinking I should go in for a few hours or get some things done from home.
That's when Krista was insistent I still go to our family doctor. I didn't want to do so, because that is $25 no matter what. I figured they'd tell me I was constipated, say take some over the counter medicine, and send me on my merry way. I did call our Ask a Nurse hotline though and the nurse I spoke with, after ruling out an appendicitis, told me it would probably be good to see the doctor about the heart palpitations in the next 8 hours, so I went to see him.
At 2pm the doctor saw me and asked me all the usual doctor questions and then promptly started pushing on my belly. I felt some pain, though still not too much. He told me that he wanted me to have a catscan, just in case. I was thinking this would be worthless, since if it was an appendicitis, I imagined I would be feeling worse rather than better by this point. Then the nurse came in and said don't go anywhere else, go to the hospital, this is STAT! I didn't know real medical people ever used that word, just thought it was a word TV medical shows like using. The things one learns.
By 3:30, after they did some vampire work, I began drinking this watered down kool-aid stuff. Signed several documents saying that if I die it isn't there fault or something like that and finally by 5:30 I finished drinking that stuff so they could see all my organs. You ask what I did for those 2 hours other than drink? I tried laying on a really short waiting room bench and watched Dr. Phil & Oprah. My opinions of those two people haven't changed. I definitely haven't drank their kool-aid like most of the world seems to have done.
I then went into the catscan. It is a big huge wheel, that reminds me of the logo for Star Gate 1. I've never seen that show mind you, just see the DVD covers all the time on Netflix. That's what the catscan looked like. I then lay down, and they hook an IV up and put liquid metal in my body. This isn't the good stuff that turns you in a bullet proof X-Man like wolverine. This stuff just makes you think you are peeing. I had to look to be sure I actually wasn't.
20 minutes later, after being slid back and forth into the big circle, I was done and waiting on a call from the doc. He said, well your appendix is inflamed and you need surgery. I was nervous, not because they'd be cutting on me, oh no. I was nervous because I'd be completely knocked out and naked in a room with people I'd never met before. Also, the last time I was put under in 2004, I didn't exactly behave appropriately afterwords.
By 8pm, they had me in the operating room, which looks just as intimidating as you'd expect it to look. I remember looking into the lights, then the next think I remember is waking up in the pre-surgery room again. My belly shaved and a small chunk of me missing. They had me stay overnight in a recovery room, Krista came and stayed with me, which I appreciated very much. This morning we played a game of Traders of Carthage while I munched on some fruit-flavored ice. Took a few spins around the halls to be sure I was doing okay, and then she brought me home. Surprisingly, at least right now, the most pain I'm in is from the gas they used to fill my belly up. It has migrated to my shoulder.
In the end, I'm glad I listened to my wife and went to the doctor. Better than having it burst and having to spend a week in the hospital and an even longer recovery time. I'm will miss that small part of me that was taken though. I never knew him that well and he didn't even have a name, but he was still part of me.
P.S. If you are still reading this, I'm amazed, because this is the longest post ever.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Every 100 Games Series - No Thanks!
I recently just logged my 2200th game played. It actually was the last game I played in 2010 and that game was No Thanks! No Thanks is a filler game that I’ve played now for several years, I think the first time I played it was at GenCon 2006 with some guys that would in the next couple years become my good gaming buddies. It has seen continued played since then, first using friends’ copies and then for the past year or so, using my copy. Here are 5 reasons that No Thanks might be a game for you.
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| Image by Ronster Zero at boardgamegeek.com |
1. It is the simplest game I’ve ever had to teach. Here I’ll teach it to you now. Take a card or put a chip on it. Try to make runs of cards, because when a card is in a run only the lowest card counts. Cards are positive points and chips are negative points. You want the least amount of points. Oh, yeah, and by the way 9 cards will be missing from the deck, so don’t count on everything showing up that you need!
2. It is inexpensive. I’m not going to say cheap, because the cards are of good quality. For less than $7 you can have this game fill those slots in-between bigger games with great fun! That isn’t a bad deal at all, since some other of my filler games are $20+ when it comes to purchasing them (I’m looking at you Eagle Games’ High Society!).
3. Players shouldn’t get any analysis paralysis. I mean there is only one decision each turn. Do I put a chip on the card or do I take the card? That is it. So even the most AP prone people don’t have a problem with this game, which after all, is another reason it is a solid filler.
4. It’s fun to “play” the other players. Sometimes, even though you really don’t need a card, you just take it to screw with another player who does need it. This is fun, in my opinion! But what makes it more fun is trying to decide how long you can let chips stack up on the card before you take it? You got to know the other players. Are they risk takers? Are they willing to hurt their own position to hurt you?
5. It’s a great game to talk over. There isn’t a lot going on in this game. If you are like me and want to do something while you talk, then you can’t go wrong with No Thanks. It makes for a great after dinner game with some non-gaming friends, just sitting around, drinking some coffee, and shooting the breeze while tossing chips on the cards.
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| Image by Martin Rayla on boardgamegeek.com |
No Thanks provides you with a good game that only takes 10-15 minutes to play while waiting on that mammoth game on the next table to finish up. The card quality is good and you can play it a lot. The little twist of removing 9 cards from the deck really makes the whole game – since even though you hope that 28 comes up so you can connect your run of 25, 26, 27 to your run of 29, 30, 31, you just don’t know! Even though it isn’t my favorite filler, the reason being the tougher decisions of Fairy Tale & High Society aren’t in No Thanks, it is a game that I wouldn’t hesitate to purchase.
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