Tabletop Season 4; Can't Wait!

Tabletop Season 4 began filming while I was catching up on season 3

For those of you who don't yet know, Tabletop is a show produced on the Geek&Sundry Youtube channel. Developed by Wil Wheaton and Felicia Day, hosted by the Wheaton, Tabletop gives you an idea of the game mechanics and some hints to strategies as a kind of "before you by" concept. Tabletop is also the platform from which the Wheaton encourages everyone to "play more games". The games that they chose commonly feature cooperative play in the style of the German games we mentioned before in this post. They are almost all board and card games, a few dice games get thrown into the mix and they play quickly unlike a game of Monopoly which went a record 13 days in our house when we were kids.

The show was launched in an effort to bring families and friends to the table. While not intended as an anti-tech message, I seem to hear "Put your phone down" after he says "Play more games." From a social sciences perspective a game of some kind is an excellent way to find common ground in groups unfamiliar with each other or, in my case, too familiar with each other. Games were the ONLY way to bring my siblings and I together. I am notoriously anti social, given my introverted tendencies. In most of the selected games, players work with each other against the game to triumph. Castle Panic, Forbidden Anything, and Legendary come to mind. These dynamics follow in the same footsteps as Cataan. Cooperative play games tend to be less discouraging to play than say Monopoly when the action is consistent and one person dominates the wins.


Season 4 will air this Summer  Just released....  the list of games being previewed this season. 4 of them are ones that I have been eyeballing at the game stores. I am most excited for Mysterium. It seems like with the right people it could play like and episode of Scooby Doo. Beyond that, the description of game play seems like something that we all would enjoy over here.The art on the box drew me in. I am a sucker, a SUCKER, I tell you, for illustration. And honestly, the art is almost always what draws me in. If you hook me with the box of the box story I am in.

Season 4 he we go!

Font Geeks Be Aware

There's a handy dandy new tool/game/novelty card deck for graphic designers/font geeks/type junkies/frustrated students. Update: This set of flash cards is not available at the link that has been up. I don't know when it died but today (9/23/23) it links to an Asian gambling site so I've taken it down.

Made by graphic designers, for graphic designers and with the graphic designers budget in mind, the thing is a joy to behold. It's only drawback is the one thing that it does not have...  the cool box.

Oh designers of Fontspotting™ why not make it a full fledged game with the cool retro graphic box? I love that I can pay with a tweet or a facebook post. But truly I would love to be able to open that wonderfully weighted retro wood burned box. Oh well..... can't have em all.

But maybe the folks who brought us fontspotting™ will delight us with a printable version of the box design so that perhaps something cold be simulated at home? Please?

I could do this very easily on paper and apply it to a proper paper
Mache box. Or a printable foldable pattern could be done easily
enough. I think. I mean they make a paper TARDIS so it can not
be that hard.... says the mathematically challenged geek to the font
geeks. Sorry..... carry on.
The photo is not used by permission. However, in the interest of
promoting a very cool product, I felt that the use in this post falls
under the fair use common attribution officious poop that the
DMCA regulates. End disclaimer. End discussion. Go download
this wonderful gift.  

 

I did warn you that I would be using the keyboard shortcuts a lot more;
get comfy with them.

When In Doubt Post Twice: Game Conn in Germany

I know you all know how much of a geek I am, that I listen to SWR4 Baden-Wurttemburg from southern Germany. What I haven't told you is that I am improving my cold German reading by logging on to their home page for the news, recipes and what not. Guess what I found yesterday! This story:

As I have said before I am so in the wrong place. Yes there are a bunch of game geeks, which includes board games, at work. Hi Rob, Ryan, Kam, Ashley, Britt and Jenny! However, Germany is a country full of them. The extremely popular Ravensburger games and puzzles that I got hooked on when I was doing daycare come from an actual place called Ravensburg. I love my co-workers but I never get to play with them because of the weird work schedules. And in some cases, I just don't fit in. In trying to remedy that, some of us are thinking that we should get a game night going that is open to guests as well. But we have to see how that flies with ALL the PtB. Meanwhile:

In Baden-Wurttemburg this week there is a gaming convention for board games. And the latest Settlers of Catan has been unveiled. Settlers Baden-Wurttemburg. I read through the whole article to see what all was released this year. And I guess it was just an amazing year for games.

As I have said before, most of the German styled games are cooperative. They typically do not pit player against player in a way that encourages destructive life patterns. I say that as a victim of childhood Monopoly adventures akin to the Lehmann Brothers scandal of recent years. Game theory in applied psychology suggests that once you develop the character of thief, embezzler and raconteur in Monopoly you will have that character in adulthood. My own anecdotal evidence suggests this is so. The sibling who palms 500 bills from the bank in Monopoly should not be the executor of a will in life. Just sayin. I should have know better. But I digress...

Several of this years games employ a cooperative strategy similar to the one where Wil and his friends had to defend a tower from Orcs emerging from the woods. See tabletop on the geekandundry channel on Youtube. It is players v. the game. And it is far more exciting play that sitting there rolling dice waiting to be annihilated.

I need to be in Germany.

I need to make money to get there.

I am itching to get my cafepress store up and running so that I can have money to get there....

Okay... gotta go design something.

Do You Want to Play a Game?

from atlas games

or Keith Baker is a Genius and a Huge Fan of Edward Gorey

 

 

I totally fell in love with this while watching TableTop on the geekandsundry channel on Youtube. Of course I love everything Uncle Wil does. But this game really tickled me. First because the drawing reminded me so much of Ed Gorey whom I fell in love with via Mystery! on PBS. But the real fun of this is the game play and the engineering.

 

No one really thinks about the mechanics of how a game is supposed to work. We crack open a box or peel open a deck of cards and start playing. But do we really ever consider how it is made? When I saw the transparent cards I was enthralled. I have worked for a company who prints with this process to make lables for appliances. And in the scrapbooking/rubber stamp world I was frustrated with layering using transparencies and tranluscent vellums because the brain has to think differently about what it is building. This simple looking thing is truly a feat of engineering.  It's very nature plays into the feel of the game.

 

Take a look at the Old Dam character card to the right. Her colors are bright and the details in her portrait are clear. When you add layers of plastic over her to decrease her self worth (you are trying to kill your own family while cheering up your opponents) those layers make her fade away. As you pile on the modifiers she begins to fade until ultimately turning her under.

 

 

 At the point in the game play where the Death card was played over all her modifiers here to the left, she was only half as vibrant as she was at the start of play. I guess the stress of a pitiful life and pending doom will do that to you. How cool is that?

 

I guess it takes a bit of a morbid sense of humor to find a game like this so entertaining. And that is a bit of the malicious humor that some folks like to indulge in. Of course since it isn't happening to me in person it is much funnier. And to get involved with good story tellers as in this episode of TableTop just makes for one of the best game nights. The rules aren't complicated but the stories are.

Pure Geekdom

Because there just has not been enough of this on the blog lately, I bring you one solid half hour of pure geekdom joy/love/win. Epic. Not nearly strong enough a word for the last half hour that I spent watching people play board games on Youtube.

Yes. I watched people play board games on Youtube. Does it get geekier? No.

GeekandSundry's channel posts videos each week on topics relevence to some geek interest or another. This new series, Tabletop, was created by Wil Wheaton with Felecia Day and hosts Wil Wheaton. Three special guest show up each week to play a game with Wil. Most of the games will be based on the most awesome of German tabletop (hence the name) games like Settlers of Cataan. This week there was a game of Small World.

C'mon doesn't Disney make enough money without living rent free in your head? Change your internal Pandora station to something a little more Lord of the Rings. Good. Small World is a mash-up of Risk! and D&D.  It plays in 9 rounds. There are tons of races with special powers and they all want to be king of the world. Or the 7 Kingdoms for you Thrones fans.

It was the best half hour I have spent in pure childhood bliss since the last podcast for Penny Arcade in which Aelfel lived. I miss Jim Darkmagic and Binwinn Bronzebottom. But with the running commentary running under the instruction to the newbies it was kinda like having the band back together. Even the dice refused to cooperate in pure gaming fashion. But, the best part... the sheer joy of the participants.

I am hoping the hope of all hopes that if Colin Ferguson was able to play that Nathan Fillion will be able to make an appearance. I can NOT wait to see him in real life non-scripted action.

Of course now it hurts a little more that I am bereft of gaming pals in the flesh. I miss that a lot!!!!!!!!

Wanna check it out? Go to Geek and Sundry on Youtube or click this link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9QtdiRJYro&feature=colike

New Profile

My least favorite writing assignments in school were the autobiographies. We did so little living that it seemed stupid to write them. Really they consisted of the most basic information that looked remarkably like your basic obit rush job by an outsider who just had to get something on paper. You know, to meet an editoria deadline. With the recent (4 years ago) slew of dating profiles I wrote, one would think it would be easier to come up with something fresh and original that was more than DOB and DOD. It is not.

I think that is why I left my profile so empty with my online game. I let the blog and my online rooms speak for me. And let's not forget that I can be a scintilating conversationalist... if (and that's a big IF) you do not ask me to use small words and ignore the burning social questions of the day. Today I am exploring another online social site. And I find that I have to have a good profile filled out. AGAIN. So I wrote one. AGAIN.

I wanted it to be different than anything that I have written before. And I wanted it to be different from anything someone has read before. I do not know if I will keep with this site. This is just an exploratory foray, a first contact, if you will. I'm looking for better graphics. And quite honestly, I want a leadership council that stands behind its people, for its people and listens to its people. That might be a bit much to ask. As with all things it starts with a basic profile. I did like what I wrote. So just in case I don't keep it. I am keeping the profile here for posterity's sake.

Yet another blank page; yet another profile to fill out and yet... words fail me. Again. All I can say about myself is that I am not the Most Interesting Person in the World nor am I a tittering church mouse hiding in the shadows waiting to scoop up what others have discarded.

I would love to be the Woman of Mystery. As it is, I tend to leave people scratching their heads. Most are quietly amused. Some will take stock of their lives to figure how to avoid the convoluted & dizzying maze I've presented. Then, there is the Handful of Others who run screaming for the woods as if the Tasmanian Devil is on the loose.

I've often thought that I could pull off Strong Female Lead in a Police Drama. Smart, funny, observant, keen on the details and good at finding the dirt bags under the flowery words, as I grew up on Sherlock Holmes, Police Consulting Detective would have been a good job for me. I would have a hard time shooting the Bad Guys and would most likely have either shot or slept with Castle by now. Show's over. So being Beckett is outta the question.

I've got mad Caroline Ingalls skills. From a long line of Pioneers, Refugees and Economic Adventurers, I have great domestic skills that can travel: Conestoga wagon, vardo, mini van... I would prefer the colorful vardo. The trouble with that is that ya really need the Charles Ingalls to go with that. And I have not got Chuck.

I am a Mild Mannered Reporter. Well, Mild Mannered Blogger for a Minor (read minuscule) Metropolitan (in our city councils' wet dreams) Blog is pretty accurate. I write on the geeky topics that fascinate me, mini journal about the Grand Social Experiment I've conducted in which I chose to be Extroverted rather than Introverted which, in hindsight, required more theory before implementation. Oh well. I write about my art, life observations, family history, social commentary and in some small way I am hoping to topple the music industries stance on maintaining geographic borders in an age where technology and desire have created a true global economy. In other words not only am I trying to make Matthias Reim fans. I want to buy the f***ing music in the States! It's a down load! How can their be an issue with shipping? EMI I'm looking at you.

Adventuress. That is one title that will apply to me. Hopefully within the coming year as I travel to the Fatherland to unearth the rest of my German Ancestors and a few Austro-Hungarian ones. (Not literally. Though with my luck I will find a vampyr some Dark & Stormy Night under a Full Moon with Spooky Fog. Zoinks! & Ruh-roh!) While visiting the cousins I will hunt the elusive Complete Discography of Matthias Reim in every dingy record store I can find between Regensburg and Dresden (because Europeans honor tradition instead of paving over paradise in the name of progress) while sampling the delicacies found only in the German Bakerei. Most likely, I will shoot several rolls (digital equivalent) of architectural details, scenery and do some plenn aire painting. There will not be time for drinking lagers and whatnot. But lots of authentic chocolate I hope.

True to the Gypsy heritage that lies latent in our family blood line, I love being bare foot, wearing bright colours, keep my own style, read Tarot (I just collect the cards for the art), dance when it is least appropriate and have a wild and vivid imagination. I am mostly German so I have all those nifty German traits that make being a Geek Uber Geeky. Such as? Well, for one, the ability to fixate with dogged (hunting & retriever breeds) focus on one thing to collect obsessively. I already have everything that Sting has done... except the new Back to Bass album as I am currently poor as a Gypsy & too honorable a geek to steal. I also have the Uncanny Ability to sit at a research desk without food, water and potty breaks for long periods of time. After all, as Dr. Jones says, 90% of archaeology is done in the library.

That is about it for me: Artist, Writer, Geek and Smart Ass. The whole kit-n-caboodle. So....

What's in your profile?

Architectural Geek

I do not know if it was the set of building blocks or the Fisher Price castle play set that I had when I was a kid that did it. But I have loved buildings since I can remember... ya know, it might have been the Gothic styled church I attended too. Exterior details that look like icing on an elaborate wedding cake are practically non-existent in modern architecture. While I live in the northern part of Michigan where one would think we are about as progressive as Jed Klampett, progress seems to be the main drive of the ruling establishment. It has since I was a little kid. We tend to tear down everything that is too expensive to fix and throw some bland expensive building up with no personality.

Our old Gothic revival styled church was replaced with a sprawling monstrosity of modernity and innovation. Stylistically I have hated the new church since its erection. Granted, on a dark Sunday after watching a horror movie, I was not terribly interested in being inside the church. I expected every daintily crenellated niche shelf to throw it statuary to the ground right on top of the first row. Or worse, bleed on Father Officiating at the Time from on high while he is blessing the sacraments. But on a sunny day with all those colors dancing in the nave and the gold gilt glinting... it really was very much like magic.

Other churches in town, smaller denominations, were able to sell their buildings to be renovated for single family use so there are some great old bones with new paint on them. But we razed our church. Logistically it was not possible to sell. It sat on the corner of a block where the school was. Renovating for the churches continued use was out of the question. So I am sure turning it into apartments was a huge "Hell NO". But it would have been a marvelous place to live.

Of course all the gingerbread that adorned these old buildings is gone. Some people might have decided to replace it all with the modern equivalent. But it is expensive. And it is a great place for roosting pigeons and seagulls who get lost. That is why mom took all the gingerbread off of our Queen Anne. Why she made it into a monster of an eye-sore is another question. And i guess that is also part of what makes me such a sucker for architecture.

They are beautiful to look at. And when you think of the time it takes to learn those skills. And the great skill that develops to be able to carve the ornaments for pediments and mouldings... so many people would have jobs and a place to live if we didn't keep reducing everything to its most bland and basic. There is no market for those skills. So the people who have that hands and eye for creativity have fewer outlets. And we have a growing population of homogeneous buildings that lack character and distinction. And thus, my eye is ever drawn to Europe. The past sits alongside the present and rushes into the future. In some places it is not working so well. But in others it shows a glorious pastiche of a city's heritage. And it is inspirational...

I guess that is the extent of my romanticism: To be surrounded by beauty that sits upon firm foundations. I'm not a unicorns and gummybears romantic that thinks every pumpkin is the coach to my prince's castle. I am a romantic that believes there should be beauty in every life no matter what social status or income level. I hold that a beautiful place to live would inspire someone to rise above their limitations. So that means that I lean toward the altruistic. Because I know that those who thought a beautiful tenement in NYC would inspire the poor to live cleanly if cheaply were horribly disappointed when the wrong element came in. Poverty is not the indicator of that element though it is often misconstrued as such. Anyone, no matter the net worth can be a slob. But that is a rant for another time.

I am an architecture geek. And I think that is one of the reasons that I love my game so much. The security measures that were up are down. And I spent some time in world taking more pictures... just in case. I will go back today and do more. The things that are possible with a few props and some good photos to lay over them for texture really is only limited by imagination & a little knowledge.

Take the photo at right. Those "portholes" would never hold water in the real world. But I clipped them out of a Victorian styled building anyway, applied them to a prop and voila! A window. Behind that prop is another with the "scenery" behind it. In this case my avatar gets to live the undersea adventures of a refined yet deranged sea captain's guest.

This is a place where you can really mix and match eras in true steampunk fashion. I forgot to take a pic of the lighting arrangements that I have going on. They are craftsman styled and very much belong to the craftsman and mission aesthetic. But put them here and they are very "nautical"  & scream function over form.

You can see that the walls are a corrugated metal. I was inspired by the Mackinaw Brewing Company's maritime wall. One would think that this could be rather limiting. But if you treat the walls uniformly then you can do anything that you want to with the decor and still have something that is cohesive without being boring. I try to keep things from being jarringly noticeable. In the Wintergarten the aesthetic has gotten a little loose. I'll have to tighten things up a bit and take down the Christmas decorations. And while the maritime feel can seem limiting, if I keep to a palette I can do above and below surface for decore and it will still make sense.

I am trying to find compass roses that I like. Being the finicky kind, I will most likely have to bite the bullet and paint one myself. I decided if I want a leaded glass dome like many historical european gazaebos in the public parks that I will have to paint that myself to use as a texture. That is gonna be a lot of painting! Sheesh!

But ahhhh...... the joys of design!

There are sorrows aplenty too. And if it were not for the great masters of art & architecture that have come before, then none of this would be possible either: Gaudi, Barma & Postnik, de Chelles, Guimard, Ramsey, Schumacher, Baehr, Grosvenor, Ohlmstead, and countless others who have yet to be discovered.

Fake Profile Hunter

It has been a long time since I have had a good profile to sink my teeth into. Having a boyfriend that takes you off market will do that to you. And honestly, I'd taken down enough profiles that I wasn't getting anything on my hook. As entertaining as it is to debunk these idiots, it is also disheartening. That means that the only people who are interested in my profile, meaning me, are posers who want money or people who want me to "dumb it down" so that they can understand me. And in the end I think that last reason is why I really got rid of all the profiles.

I stubbornly kept two while I was dating my boyfriend. And when we broke up as an act of defiance, I suppose.* I got two more going. While I was dating, it was nice to be able to see him and see those idiots and think to myself "You done good kid." Because the boyfriend was soooo much better than anyone I might have ended up settling with on those sites. They were a lot of promise and no follow through. Or completely unappealing. More on THAT later. It is the whole being single thing that is getting me down on the sites.

I should feel flattered that I am too smart for most of them. But I am not. I am getting down on myself for not fitting in. As much as I love work, I don't fit in there either. I try. I say yes to going out a lot of the time that I am asked. But it feels weird. And we have to keep me separate from a coworker. So if one says yes the other can not be invited. He says yes a lot faster than I do. So I get left out. Out of literally 100 hits on my profile, 1 asked me out. And that went no where. It felt a little like a job interview.

So a week before the Internet police showed up in my complex this guy shows up wanting to be friends in the game. I already have a good friend in the game so I am not really looking for more people who will suck up my limited time in there. Not when there is so much to create! But the message was sweet. Yeah, as sweet as his profile was empty. I thought to myself, "Here we go again."

So I did a google search. The guy does not exist in the age he says he is. So either he is a real person with limited vocabulary and ever more limited stores of pick up lines and has lied about his age, 68 instead of 45. Or he is totally fake and lifted a pic from someones online album. The name he gave me and the slight background information is the name of an Italian actor. And oh what a shock.... his name is Dave.

So this Dave is 45, of Italian descent. His parents moved from Northern Italy to Florida when he was but a lad of two. He has never been married. Is self employed in a business that puts environmental concerns first. Do I know what he does? No. Do I know where in Italy his parents are from? No. Have I asked? Yes. And what does he say? "You are lovely dear."

Now kids, who remembers what the number one clue that the profile is a scammer is? Think really hard back to the guy who used a Spanish C-list actor's name. The one who works with rosewood and was stuck in Africa "oh by the way can you send me 500.00 so I can get back home?" Yes. The FIRST clue that your guy is a scammer is that every sentence begins or ends with dear. And just in case they have caught on to the fact that that is a loser move, I will amend that rule thus: If he says dear ANYWHERE in the body of the letter and not in the greeting, as in "Dear Sherry", more than once, he is a scammer.

I have a full profile in Utherverse. And I have a blog there too. I know, Who'dda thought? So there is a ton of information there. And the reason that there is a ton of information is because I am making good friends in Utherverse. The boyfriend who introduced me to it, my Hungarian friends and a couple of people I correspond with regularly use my blog to keep up with my doings when I am not online very often. I can make friends anywhere. And the people I am going to make friends with are the people who ask intelligent questions of my work and answer intelligent questions of theirs. We know about each other's personal lives because we have real conversations. And that is how you really know the difference between a fake and a real profile. Information.

Scammers won't answer real questions because they have not fully fleshed out their fake profiles. They cannot answer the questions that anyone would ask. They rely on flattery. But folks, and ladies especially listen well, flattery comes AFTER someone gets to know you. When it comes before you have to know that you are being engaged in a game of 3 Card Monte with a guy who palms the card you are supposed to be looking for. And these guys do not change their game. There are too many desperate people who crave the flattery so badly that they won't see that the dude is a scammer.

And these guys are not online either. If you are an open book and the guy that is pursuing you doesn't want to talk about himself then you have to be careful. Really careful. Guys almost always want to talk about themselves. 98% of the time. But if they are not telling you anything that is a trap. They are silent so that you will spill the beans about yourself. You give them all the information that they need to manipulate or control you while they remain aloof and free. If what they do tell you is the same thing, repeated over and over again with nothing new, like a slogan or a mantra, it is the same deal. Ladies clam up!

Female mystique? Right. We've been told that we have to keep somethings to ourselves so that guys will be interested in digging through our past like Indiana Jones on a Crusade because it keeps the mystery alive. Turns out that what they are talking about is not peeing in front of your man or letting him watch you apply your make-up. He is supposed to wonder how you are always so beautiful and young looking without knowing you weren't born with it but have to trust Maybelline. I am talking about keeping some things to yourself to encourage an equal flow of information. Your guy wants to know why you have the habit of doing a, b and c. Tell him about a. But don't give up b or c until he tells you why he does the things he does. He wants to know in detail what your hopes and fears are? he should be able to detail those same things for himself. If the information is not going two ways then you will find yourself smack dab in the middle of your own temple of doom.

The things that make a person interesting enough to start talking to in the real world are also supposed to be the things that make you interesting in cyberspace. I am an artist. Have I been asked about that? No. I am a writer. Have I been asked about that? No. Do I ever get asked where an idea comes from? No. Do I get asked about anything that matters? Rarely. And never by scammers.

Unless this guy really is the Italian actor and did a piss poor job of building a profile so that he could find a woman who was not into him for his status and money, this dude is a scammer. And I am going to enjoy busting his chops for it. It may be the only satisfaction that I get out of being online. It seems like the guys that I would be interested in just don't do web things. Or they do and they are already taken because their whole life is not lived online.

Hmm.... I am going to have to think about the things that I am doing. Hiding in my room online might be what is holding me up.

Not all Sadness

I know I've seemed a little heavy on the down side of life. Lest you think it is all sadness and sorrow let me tell you that the creative juices are indeed flowing and I have been doing some water colors. I told you about www.moo.com and when the order gets here I will show you how awesome the awesomeness is. And I am still playing with mediaplayer and editing photos to put my own spin on things.

And yes I am still gaming. Though I guess the one thing that I have to say about that experience is that it isn't so much a game so much as it is a virtual life. Now the problem I have with people taking that seriously is that we are all cartoons. We have not very realistic avatars that are deceptively lithe and healthy and do not look like some of us in life. Now... were I not a hearty 180 pounds I would probably look like my avatar. If I knew of a store in real life that encouraged you to come back and make many purchases by giving you free clothing I would dress like my avatar in a heartbeat. And if I could fly, dye my hair the special shade of purple that I found and visit with the click of a mouse any place in the world without getting on a plane and still able to be home before dinner... I so would live in that world. And that is what makes that world a GAME.

Though the game aspect is simply a package for what the site is... networking, social group and dating website. Damn how I wish I had know that there was a chance someone was going to want to date me. What I mostly want to do here is design, dress my avatar and have a better experience playing Barbies than I had with the pushy girls in my neighborhood. And yes, sister, you were one of the pushy girls. Sorry. But there is no "wrong" way to play Barbies.

But I have to say that the design aspect TOTALLY ROCKS MY WORLD. I found out that you can take snap shots of the room that you are in. So I will do that when I finish decorating and show you guys. And OMG! wait til you see the counselor Troi-like hair and gypsy clothes that I found. I am so happy with what I put together yesterday that I don't even mind the fact that I totally WAR FICK the Blaue Frau costume I was making. So in a little while there will be more pics.

In the mean time here is a little something to throw some color on the page. Not your tradional 3 Kings, Drei Ritten are Babylonian archers. I'm all about the colors, the craftsmanship and the amazing

fortitude of the art itself. From a Christian perspective I guess you could argue I am supporting an anti Jesus agenda by posting this. You could say that I am promoting the anti Jewish agenda too. But sometimes art is just about the art. And this is just about the art, the skill, and the longevity of materials that hold up better than some of the stuff we use today. This is from a long dead civilization that fell, ultimately, under the weight of its own arrogance. You know, the kind of thing that others exploit. The craftsman who made this incredible mural worked for his dinner just like the rest of us. And that is who I celebrate in posting... the artist who toils without hope of recognition. He is unknown while his ruler's name continues through time. Just like the rest of us. We are not the rulers and trendsetters here. We are those who toil. We are the cogs in the machine of commerce and policy. No matter what we do we are the foundations of all civilizations. For what would Nebuchaddnezzar have been without his archers to secure victory? He probably would have been somebody else's goat boy. What is any ruler without his people?

We need to celebrate each other's accomplishments. This king is dead just like the artist. But the artists legacy is thousands of years older than the dead king's kingdom and policies... and I like it that way.

So..... another teaser

Babylonian chimera

I am so happy with this even though it is simple and I think that I could do a much better job with flesh and blood tools than digital ones. I really like this. And it is going into my apartment in the game I started playing.

I had to manipulate the hell out of this to make it my own work. And I have to say, even with the limited fonts in the paint program I am happy with this. I suspect if I had Photoshop I could have played with this for hours... days even, and not been as content. Sometimes the worst thing you can do is give me options.

At any rate... this is sooooooo coool !!!!!!!!!!I know. toot toot. But c'mon. This is the kinda thing that I am talking about when I describe how essential to art it is for me to be a geek. I am totally into ancient civilizations and the trip to the Ishtar gate put the Middle East back on my radar. And... with the techniques that I have learned over the years, this could be an awesome real life work....

I've Been to the Garden

I am writing a fairly detailed post about some recent gaming exploits that will explain how I got from point A to point G. In the mean time I have to tell you this because it is so freaking cool and geeks are so FREAKING awesome.... I've been to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Obviously not the real ones since they have been in ruins since 2nd century B.C.E. And obviously only an artistic recreation since no one did any watercolors of the thing back then... not like they would have survived anyway. But the coolest part of this virtual garden is that the ishtar gate (which in my uber exuberance I called the Lions gate) was faithfully reproduced...

and for a sample of the art go to the right. I just added a link to Paulo Coehlo's blog. He has a couple of pictures up in the archives. and here is the link to the specific post http://paulocoelhoblog.com/2009/04/01/babylonian-warriors/ I am glad to have found this blog totally by accident. gotta love the internet.

If the squeee could have been heard by my tour guide, he might have thought he unleashed Aeyisha. As it was... I think my boyfriend, who was  sitting next to me, might have had a small heart attack. It was fabulous!!!!!!!!!!!!! And my obvious delight got me a tour of some other pretty incredible places.

So what I can say about the virtual world is this: it is made by geeks, for geeks and we rule.

The Coolest Thing I've Seen on TV in a Long Lonnnnnnnnggggg Time

http://youtu.be/s7L2PVdrb_8

In the realm of gaming and television magic there is nothing quite equal to this opening title for the HBO show Game of Thrones. We've been watching Camelot which is a great story, with a great retelling so far. And it totally taps into the whole Ancient Emerald Isle vibe with the spirit of austerity that fits the times. Don't get me wrong. There is plenty of hope in Camelot evidenced in its design elements. But it is still spartan. When we sat down to watch the first episode of Game of Thrones this is what sold me.

You can't judge a book by its cover. But you can judge a TV show by its title card. The title seems like a no brainer stupid kind of thing and as such... since it isn't as important as the characters, plot and location, it seems to be treated as an after thought. But look at this thing!!!!! It is a work of art itself. The title is its own little movie... an unnarrated travelogue. How Cool Is That?!

I don't know if the boyfriend understands yet how this thrills me every time I see it. It is pure artistry so reflective of the human spirit to explore, build and conquer... to always be growing beyond the mean confines in which one finds oneself in any given moment that the fantasy realm in which this world is set could be real. Its a living expression of a world of people. It is movement and emotion... not just static models of what might have been but what is and yet is not and will yet come.

Wow.

If there is any time for you to carve out of your busy schedule for a TV show this should be the one you are watching.The characters and story telling are just as well done as the title card. And it all stays with you for hours after the final credits roll.

It makes me wish that Wizards and Warriors could be done now instead of the time when I was 11 and looking for my geek tribe under every rock and behind ever door in front of me.


And as a side note. I accidently watched this with "Manner sind Krieger" from Matthias Reim playing loud in my head. Holy Crap!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even more awesome when worlds collide. I can't even begin to describe the awesomeness. Took things from an Auld Englande feel to MiddleAges Germany in about a nanosecond. 
Wheew!

Fantasy is not Excluded from my World

I know it looks like my head is only on the money issues. But it isn't . I've just had a recent burst of super focused energy because my mind has been on things like the boyfriend, out TV dates and Killer Bunnies. Are you playing that yet? You need to get into a game before the starter decks blink out of existence forever. It's just plain old fun.
I've had a good Winter for just being able to clear the cobwebs out of my head. So while it looks a lot like slacking/doing nothing/time-wasting etc.. it has been necessary to the act of refocusing. You know.... forest for the trees kind of things. I am reading Martha Stewart's book The Martha Rules in tandem with an Evil Plans re-read and developing a short essay about contraction. Its is a physics and spiritual concept that lets shit happen in big ways. But that will come later. And just so no one thinks its all dry and dusty in my brain right now I shall extol the virtues of a new HBO show.

Anyone watching "Game of Thrones"? It is AWWWWWWWWESOME!!!!!!!!!! My absolute favorite part though is the title card. It is an animated D&D gaming map done to the nth degree. You know, the kind of thing that you would see in the basement of someone so obsessed and consumed by the act of creating worlds on paper that they had to make models until their fingers fell off and their eyes bled. It's kinda steampunky but really it looks like someone set the guts of a machine into one of those flat (not a globe) 3D contour maps that our teacher had on the wall in 8th grade. But WAY cooler. Yeah... the gaming jones is nibbling at my kidneys again.

Wonder if I could get the boyfriend into some old fashioned dice rolling role play...

Season Openers

Looks like we are going to have a busy Spring in the hotel. Just got word that we have long term stays with significant room usage to make May a spectacular season opener. Thank God! Too many more weeks of below 100.00 was going to seriously cramp more than my style. But still keeping busy.

Killer Bunnies games have been some pretty intense games. The boyfriend added two expansion packs, red and violet two weeks ago. That took the game up several levels as it was. The deaths were more spectacular and the ability to keep bunnies alive is hampered quite nicely by some new weapons and the fickle finger of fate. The more cards the harder fate is to the concept of hte luck of the draw. And then this week he opened the orange and green. We had the new expansion packs open and shuffled in, ready to go when he decided to throw in the chocolate for fun. We didn't even play one game before adding in the chocolate bunnies.

Contrary to the very obvious reference to the traditional easter delight there is nothing sweet or melt in your mouth about these cards. Oh sure.. you can do some pretty nifty things with these cards. But Holy Cow!!!!! The rules! The difficulty! The play! It took 3.5 hours to get through the game. We're going to need to have more people to play with. That is all there is too it. Sure... we could play with my brother. But getting the gang together is kinda difficult with the scheduling.  Still fun. But yikes!!!! And then he's got the Twighlight White and Stainless Steel ready to go. We've unpacked them. Unwrapped each deck. Read over the Bunny Bits. And looked at all the cards to see what we were in for. One word... Overwhelming.

Also working on job rehab. The ground work is laid and the meetings are booked. So hoping to have something positive to report by end of Summer. Once Summer gets here it is going to be difficult to get time online or to play card games. I'm going to try to keep carving out time for art. I have a feeling that will be quite the challenge when I get back to 40 hour work weeks.

I've also been put onto two writing groups so we'll see how those work out with the Summer. It doesn't seem like a Summer thing. But we'll see. Be interesting to see if Summer actually gets here too.

I'm hoping that staying busy will keep my head on straight.