Alex "Gus" Gustafson

  • Magic: The Attempt-to-Gather

    Geek & Sundry produces an awesome series, called Spellslingers, where Sean Plott (aka “Day[9]”) plays the card game Magic: The Gathering with his nerdy friends. They took a lot of cues from the production of Tabletop, but gave it a unique feel. There’s a lot more shared analysis of the gameplay that doesn’t really happen on Tabletop. If Wil Wheaton wants you to play more games, Sean Plott wants you to play better Magic.

    sean plott day[9] on spellslingers
    Day[9], professional gamer
    Confession time: I’ve never actually played a game of Magic. I grew up in the bible belt where people honestly believed that Dungeons and Dragons and Magic would teach you to worship the devil. Or at least ruin your prospects at courting a respectable, God-fearing mate. The closest thing I ever got to play was the Star Wars Customizable Card Game published by Decipher. I loved that game but it never had the mass appeal of Magic.

    Anyway, Spellslingers really has me itching to play a game. Unfortunately, I’m totally not spending money on games right now. There’s a baby on the way! Gotta save up cash. But I thought I found an easy way to do this with Magic Duels – an online tabletop simulator of the game. But more downside – the only platform I can play this is on is Windows PC (I don’t have any iOS devices) and my Windows PC is so old and janky I barely got Steam installed. There’s no way I can actually play a game on it. I also tried adding it to a VM on my Mac, but the VM’s video memory is only half the recommended specifications – so it’s also slow to respond and not worthy of playing the game.

    My gathering of Magic will continue to wait and I’ll just have to whet my appetite with more Spellslingers.

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  • A Quick Thanks

    There are some things in my life that are just so great I know I’m not thankful enough for them. It’s easy to thank the one-time effort, but it’s the day-in day-out efforts that really make a life wonderful. So here’s a quick thanks to people I don’t thank nearly enough.

    My Mom and Dad

    Anything positive from me can assuredly be traced back to good decisions made by my parents. The more I try to better myself the more I realize I’m trying to be the man I think would make them proud. They taught me to seek out the best in the situations I’m given, to work hard, and to realize that some things just aren’t in my control (but more things are than I might think.) Hopefully their grandparenting skills can help level out my sure-to-be-bizarre fatherhood too.

    My Wife

    I actually thank Ber a lot. She pretends to get sick of how often I tell her I love her and appreciate her. But it’s not actually enough. This woman is worth the world. I married up.

    My Friends

    I don’t have very many friendships, but the ones I have I care about deeply. They’ve never let me down when I needed them and I hope they feel the same way about me. I’d gladly help more if I get the chance.

    Thanks to all of you for everything. It’s appreciated.

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  • Finals Week

    This weekend is the Drum Corps International World Championships. Nine years ago I had the pleasure of performing in this event, and ever since I’ve joined with other DCI alumni in changing my Facebook profile picture to a picture of me when I was still in drum corps. Since blogging is my preferred platform, I want to make sure I share it here too.

    The sad part is I never actually stored this image anywhere but Facebook. 2006 Alex was a foolish Alex indeed. Somewhere along the lines it got stored in Facebook as the profile picture size instead of the full size image so I only have this tiny one. Oh well.

    If you’ve ever marched in drum corps please make sure to share those pictures to help grab attention to this growing and amazing activity. And save a copy somewhere other than Facebook.

    Myself, when I marched Euphonium for the Glassmen Drum and Bugle Corps in 2006.
    Myself, when I marched Euphonium for the Glassmen Drum and Bugle Corps in 2006.

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  • Wil Wheaton on Nerdist

    Wil Wheaton and Chris Hardwick
    Wil Wheaton and Chris Hardwick

    Normally I listen to the Nerdist podcasts when Amber isn’t around. She says they’re indistinguishable from “Bob and Tom” because most of the episodes are just the guys laughing. But this one is so different because it has Wil Wheaton in it! And the guys laughing is only like 1/3 the episode!

    I still listened to it when she wasn’t around to be on the safe side. But I really liked this episode, so I’m sharing it. In particular I liked the bit where they all confess the popular movies/tv they haven’t experienced. Mostly because I haven’t experienced anything popular.

    Enjoy your burrito.

    NERDIST PODCAST: WIL WHEATON RETURNS AGAIN

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  • You Go Down Smooth by Lake Street Dive

    This bass line can take me home any day of the week. God, I love pop songs written on solid chord progressions instead of lousy hooks.

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  • What You Consume Drives Your Creative Acts

    Since it’s near the end of the month, I took a look at my blog stats. My most popular posts are about the webseries Critical Role on Geek and Sundry’s Twitch channel. But you may have noticed something; I haven’t been writing about Critical Role at all recently. You know why? I haven’t been watching. I’m so behind! Anything I could offer is already so well discussed in the community, it’s not really worth touching on.

    This got me thinking about a bigger issue. When it comes to your creative output, the way you consume things matters. It’s incredibly hard to dream up a new fantasy world if you’re low on fantasy fuel. Writing a personal blog everyday becomes near impossible when you haven’t left the house for anything but groceries in two weeks. This is the same reason so many prolific authors are also prolific readers.

    Think back to when you started blogging (or drawing, or playing the bass guitar, whatever creative outlet you call your own.) You probably had a fair amount of ‘taste’ before you ever started producing your own work. After consuming enough of someone else’s material it’s easier to step back and say “I can do that.”

    We need to stay in that groove. Consume enough that it keeps giving you energy to create that next lyric or paint the next stroke. Block out time for consuming the right material just like you’d block out time to do the big work. And feel no shame!

    You’ll need to face some reality though. Facebook and Twitter feeds are rarely inspirational unless your goal is “social media digerati.” Consuming the wrong type of media will not push your art, at best it will keep you distracted. Call this sort of consumption what it is: resistance. You are what you eat.

    My goal for this blog is for my readers to understand me as my closest friends would. It’s a constant experiment in sharing because even to my close friends I don’t normally share until asked. Looking at my blog as a whole right now, I think it’s clear I could use some quality consuming. The posts I’m most proud of are the book reviews – and that’s on-the-nose the cycle of consume to create. In coming weeks, I hope to make some memories and blog about them in new way. Letting my consumption habits change might also change my blogging for the better.

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  • A Conversation with Amber about Cats and Bacon

    Perusing the internet, I learned about this gem of a blog post from John Scalzi in 2006. He literally taped bacon to his cat just to prove to the internet that he would do it. I had to share this post with Amber right away. Her response:

    Listen, I know you’re going to replicate this. You can put bacon on the cat but you can’t tape it to the cat. And after you’re done with it you have to give the bacon to the dog.

    I don’t really have the energy to follow through with it right now. But it’s good to know what Ber’s limits are on this issue.

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  • Spellcaster

    In our primary roleplaying campaign I’ve been DMing. But in addition to our standing game, Amber has decided to start DMing some one-off games every once and a while. Instead of the same party of adventurers travelling together through thick and thin, in these one-offs the party will be made up of any folks who can play that week. We’ll work through one short quest or dungeon crawl that can be wrapped up in one session so that there’s no scheduling a day where everyone has to come back.

    For our first one-off we have a lot of new folks joining us. It’s weird because (aside from Ber) I’ll know more about what’s going on than anyone. For that reason, Ber has asked me to play a spellcaster since managing spells is harder on new folks and it’ll help balance the party if I make sure we have at least one. pathfinder core rulebook

    We’re all going to play second-level characters and we’ll be using the Pathfinder game system. Here’s a few character ideas I thought of:

    • Human Inquisitor who worships Gozreh
    • Half-Orc Bard that runs a travelling troupe
    • “Tower” Elf Wizard

    I only learned of the Inquisitor class tonight, but loved the idea. It’s kinda like being a cleric in that you serve your deity, but you’re willing to bend the rules of the church to fight the church’s enemies. But since we’re only starting at 2nd-level, the Inquisitor doesn’t really get many spells per day so maybe it’s not the right fit.

    The half-orc bard is blatantly stolen from Scanlan Shorthalt’s backstory on Critical Role. I wouldn’t name him Dr. Dranzel or mention Scanlan, but that was definitely the inspiration. This is probably what I’ll end up playing because I always sing in real life. Being a bard is in my blood.

    A ‘tower elf’ is one of the racial sub-types for elves. Basically they’re elves that study wizardry in the time honored-tradition of locking themselves up in a tower full of spellbooks along with other elves doing the same. You gain some advantages when it comes to the arcane, but you’re also a weirdo recluse only now going out into the world — so there ya go.

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  • Titansgrave: #tablederp Edition

    Tuesday is Titansgrave day! The cast made some fun faces during their episode “Danger at Reed Manor” last week, so I snapped some #tablederp screenshots.

    Runcible isn’t cute. Just look at Wil turn away.
    Laura Bailey’s character, Lemley, takes damage
    Wil cringes at the Jakaar’s abilties
    Kiliel, played by Alison Haislip, discovers something potentially awesome

    I swear I’m not intentionally leaving out Hank Green on these Titansgrave posts. He’s a fun guy and I love his character, Aankia. But he doesn’t make silly faces very often.

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  • The Last Colony by John Scalzi

    It’s good to hear from John Perry again. I missed his presence in The Ghost Brigades. But even better is to meet Jane Sagan again. After listening to “The Sagan Diary” I started to really appreciate her character and the decisions she made between book 2 and book 3. The Last Colony features Jane as a wonderful heroine instead of the stiff colleague she was in Ghost Brigades.

    The Last Colony by John Scalzi, hardcover, on a chess board
    The Last Colony by John Scalzi, hardcover, on a chess board

    I must admit I was a little worried at first. After the intense military themes I’ve been reading from Scalzi, a book on small-town colony politics seemed to be underwhelming. I should’ve known it wouldn’t stay in that mode for long.

    In the same style I loved from the other books, the twists and turns in the plot come out of grains of truth presented early on. But the effect they have on the circumstances are exponential. Every scene goes way beyond the facts presented. In the end, you’re left with a climax nothing short of “epic.”

    That being said, this seems like a good point to put the Old Man’s War universe on hold in my reading schedule. Scalzi thought so too (for his writing schedule) in the book’s acknowledgements. I have the benefit of knowing that three more books are out there, but I’ve several other books to hit in 2015. If I get in the mood for more Scalzi, I’ll probably take on Redshirts. Or perhaps one of his non-fiction books, You’re Not Fooling Anyone When You Take Your Laptop to a Coffee Shop.

    The Last Colony by John Scalzi

    Amazon ; Goodreads ; Wikipedia

    Read Scalzi’s blog at http://whatever.scalzi.com/

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