… I lose it every time.
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As socially inept as I can be, one thing I’ve learned to do as an adult is convince people to come to my house and play games. Here’s a hint: food is key. Normally this consists of board games. Folks ready to come over earlier get to play a couple games [usually] under and hour each. But then we like to tentpole the night with long “big box” games like Arkham Horror or Battlestar Galactica.
Ber knit cool dice bags for all the players. Mine has colors inspired by the fourth Doctor’s scarf. But for a while now, some of my friends have also been into playing role playing games. Our first campaign was in Dungeons and Dragons (3.5) but more recently we’ve been playing in the Pathfinder system. Really the only issue we’ve had is that everyone has been more interested in playing than in running the game. Even though you get the venerable title of…
Dungeon Master
This weekend will be my first time as dungeon master. It’s a pretty terrifying thought, because of all the people at the table I’m the least experienced with RPGs. Saturday night might set a world records for the number of times a DM asks their players for a rule clarification.
In true min-max tradition, what I lack in rules knowledge I’m making up for in other preparation. We’re playing out of module and I know that story inside and out. I’ve given serious thought about all the major non-player-characters to know their fears and motivations. I’ve got alternate paths ready to
railroadkeep the story on track no matter the decisions that are made.Will report back here if my players coup and never let me DM again.
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It also rocks. But more accurately, I wanted to share a few rules I’ve set in place for myself for creating a consistent blogging habit. Please steal them for your own blog and help make the web a better place.
Keep the focus on content, not on ‘the site.’
It can be really fun to change up themes, get picky with the CSS, and pick out the absolute perfect 7 tags and 2 categories for each post. I’ve put in no small amount of customization on this very site. But on a personal blog, this absolutely must come second to your ideas. Whether you blog, photoblog, vlog or whatever– your content should be your number one priority. No one cares what color your car is if you can’t keep gasoline in the tank.
I do this kind of silliness way too often. Pick a pace and stick with it.
I picked a daily pace for my blog because it is a small-scale project. My hope is when you choose to follow you’ll become one of my friends, or at least gain and understanding of me that my friends would. Occasionally you’ll get some longer blocks of text, but lots of times it’s just little updates about things I think I are cool.
I really like Ipstenu’s site, which she updates Monday-Wednesday-Friday, but her content is at a higher plane of thought than mine. The extra time is warranted.
My favorite podcast is Welcome to Night Vale, which is released only twice a month. But to push publish they need to write ~25 minutes worth of fiction, record it, and edit it along with all their live shows, promotion, business, and all the other asides that go along with being working artists.
My point is, the actual pace you choose doesn’t matter. What does matter is that it matches your effort and you consistently deliver.
Lose No Ideas, But Set Some Free
When you’re creating something, you must collect your ideas in a nice big pile. I normally just use draft posts in WordPress. I use Simplenote for other stuff, but occasionally a snippet of blog post will get saved there on-the-go too. Whenever something strikes as ‘that’s cool’ take a note down.
If I have something in my drafts for over a week, I send it to trash. It was clearly fleeting to me and I had other things to write about. Letting those ideas go is fine, and I’ve had no regrets about that. But I’ve forgotten and regretted to many other lost thoughts due to the laziness of not taking notes.
There Are No Rules
These are rules I made for myself. They might not make sense for you. They do not guarantee internet fame and certainly not internet fortune. But I’ve found that by following these rules I blog everyday and enjoy doing it. Most importantly, they’ve helped me create a site I’m proud to say is mine.
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Wil Wheaton said Titansgrave was gonna come out on June 2nd. On June 2nd we got an apology and an explanation for why it wasn’t coming out on June 2nd. Here it is:
And I’m totally cool with this explanation. I’m excited to see the show and I’m disappointed that I’m not watching it right this second, but I trust Wil and the staff at Geek and Sundry to put out the very best program they can.
Me: *Waits for June 9*
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My friend Danny and I were on the Big Four pedestrian bridge this weekend. We did the Ingress mission, hung out on the Flat 12 Bierwerks patio in Jeffersonville hacking a few portals in range, then we walked back and threw fields across the river. Lots of fun was had.
Fields over the river. We almost got Danny leveled up to L6. But when I laid down in bed last night, in those moments when I was halfway between awake and falling asleep, I kept having visions of me staring over the edge of the bridge, just a bit too far. Losing balance considering the height and the wind. Trying to take pictures, but almost losing my phone over the rail. And finally, holding onto the rail for my life.
I thought I’d gotten better about my fear of heights, but it would seem my subconscious disagrees.
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The book is far less intriguing than the real-world game that stems from it. It’s clearly created in the same thinking of young adult thrillers like Hunger Games and The Maze Runner. That’s not inherently a bad thing, but the book is so blandly following that formula that I really couldn’t care less about what happens to any of the characters.
The cover is niftier than its lack of substance. When a particular character died it was meant to be a pretty emotional moment in the story’s arc, but I really only felt glee that it might force one of the leads to become the slightest bit interesting. Every sympathetic character is also incredibly static. We have lots of well-trained hard-edged kids put in a tough situation… and they all stay exactly the same. Snooze.
The only reason I picked up this book is because it’s a project of Niantic Labs. These are the same folks who make the Ingress game I’m so in love with. Ingress and Endgame aren’t really connected, they’re just two different projects from Niantic. But I love one, so I figured I’d give the other a try. And the bit that doesn’t disappoint? The augmented reality outside of the book.
You see, there’s some ‘Endgame Gold’ being held at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas. You can see it in person, or check out the live stream at EndgameGold.com. The gold coins are worth $500,000 and there’s a global contest happening right now in the real world to win it. How do you win? You read this book, decipher the clues within it, and find the key to the case.
If nobody figures out the puzzle(s) and claims the gold by October 7th, 2016, the contest will end. Full rules for the game are at EndgameRules.com.
I find that pretty damn intriguing, even if it is just a publicity stunt. But I really wouldn’t know where to begin with the clues (and red herrings) found in the book. There’s got to be hundreds of pieces of information included that may help you figure out the puzzle or lead you down a rabbit hole. I’m not intrigued enough to take up cryptology as a hobby, but it was enough to get me to buy the book for $4 used.
There’s more books coming, and probably a movie and junk too. I don’t really care. You can play some other games in the Endgame universe that will shape the story of the upcoming books… but you can’t make dull characters interesting without change, and this story refuses to make that choice.
Endgame: The Calling by James Frey
Amazon ; Goodreads ; Wikipedia—
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I’ve heard plenty of folks use the term ‘bank of Dad’ or ‘bank of Mom’ to describe the scenario of a child begging for money out of their parent’s wallet. But I’ve never seen a parent take it this seriously.
My favorite personal finance guru, Mr. Money Mustache, created a ‘Bank of Mr. Money Mustache’ spreadsheet to help his son save and spend with mindfulness.
Instead of a physical piggy bank, my boy prefers to keep his money in the Bank of Mr. Money Mustache, a spreadsheet that contains every transaction he makes with money. To make a deposit, he just hands me some cash. To withdraw, he asks me for cash or has me buy something for him online.
But for every dollar that remains in the account, he accrues interest at a 10% annual rate with monthly compounding. I’m excited about the teaching value of this, because it shows him that
- his money is finite (not just an limitless pool that you tap by nagging parents to buy you stuff)
- keeping the money invested is profitable (his $600 account is now bringing in a very tangible $5 per month in interest)
- new windfalls can be added, interest compounds exponentially, and an account like this of sufficient size means lifelong financial freedom
I’ve never seen a more amazing idea, and I intend to steal it one day.
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(Edit: Today is Saturday, not Sunday.)
Making waffles this morning, I decided to catch up on some podcasts. Among them was yesterday’s Planet Money episode, This Ad’s For You.
The episode features Tom Burrell, the first black man in Chicago advertising. It’s a great story and if you should listen to it. The stories and background music of the episode do a great job of setting the listener into 1960’s Chicago.
To accompany that, host Sonari Rhodes Glinton created a Spotify playlist to enjoy the music long after the episode is done:
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The new WordPress theme, Apostrophe, makes me want to start a magazine of some sort. Beautiful and responsive, it has a great layout for sites pushing lots of content. You can download it for your self-hosted site or activate it on WordPress.com here:
Apostrophe, a new WordPress theme from Automattic Also kudos to fellow Automattician Konstantin Kovshenin, who built Apostrophe’s older sibling, Semicolon.
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This tiny dev tools protip saved my life the other day. I was getting so frustrated, then Shawna gave me some education.
Maybe ‘Friday CSS Tricks’ should be a thing?
Alex "Gus" Gustafson 