The Great Buckeye State

We finally had another softball game last night. After two weeks in a row canceled, we had an opportunity to play last night, though it was a little rainy. And we came out and.... got mercy-ruled 11-1. Ah, but good fun it was, though I went 1-3 at the plate, including two that I hit horribly. Oh well, my one hit did result in the team's only RBI of the night, so that's something at least. I was just happy we didn't get shut out. :)

I have been working a good bit on the Reclamation game, and have most of the card images actually created and saved off (I think I've done about 210 of the 280 cards). Then I can throw them into a Word document, print them out, make decks, and ready myself for a little playtesting. So we'll see what happens from there. I go to Ohio next week, and my brother has volunteered to help play test. Also, I may acquire the services of the local Mac Man for playtesting as well. :)

That being said, I am rather looking forward to my Ohio trip. Of course, I get to see my relatives, which is wonderful. Also, I get to see Scruffles, which is the best cat in the world, and eat at a few places I've not been to in a couple years, notably Damon's, and Graeter's ice cream. I am already drooling in anticipation.

The Ride of Life

Well, I am currently waiting for decisions on two separate things. First off, I would guess that the TEC teams would be announced shortly, and I am looking forward to finding out whether or not I get to work this time. I have several friends applying, so working would be good fun. But who knows.

Also, in theory, I could hear about the job I interviewed for this week. They said it would be a couple weeks until they start making decisions, and my interview was two weeks ago Tuesday. So, it is possible they could make decisions this week, but who knows. Companies can be slow. I am pretty interested in this job, so we'll see what happens.

Then again, there's the part of me that's wondering whether I'm even in the right field. I don' t know what other field I should be in, but I don't feel any type of fulfillment or purpose from sitting in front of a computer all day. Then again, one's purpose is not always their occupation. Ah well, we'll see what happens and where life takes me. It should be a fun ride.

Thus Begins Year Two

Sunday was our one-year wedding anniversary. We went out to lunch to Acapulco, which we had never been to before, and it was rather good. For supper, we went to The Cheesecake Factory, which is our favorite restaurant. We split a plate of Spicy Chicken Chipotle Pasta, and then each got a slice of cheesecake. I got my favorite, which is Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookie Dough. Mmmm......

For our anniversary, Megan bought me the Lord of the Rings Extended Edition trilogy, which I (ashamedly) had not previously owned. It was a wonderful gift, and we have already watched the first two movies. :) I got her two tickets to a ballet, which is something she has wanted to go to for some time, and is proof that I love my wife. :)

Yesterday, the Mac Man and myself opened up 4 boxes each of cards for the Star Trek card game. I haven't read all the rules yet, but I'm sure we'll have good fun with them. And at two bucks a box, who can complain?

Happy Birthday, Darth

Yeah that's right. Today is the 30th anniversary of the release of the original Star Wars. Ah, good times. Before I moved to Minnesota (the first time) in 1996, I think I might have seen the original trilogy once, but had never gotten into them. Then I met some geeky friends, and I went to see the Special Edition of the original movie in the theatre, and then I turned into a big fan, which overall increased my status in the geekhood. Here's a few miscellaneous thoughts concerning myself and Star Wars.

1. This may not be a popular opinion, but I thoroughly enjoy both the original and prequel trilogies of Star Wars. In fact, all six movies end up in my top 20 movies of all time, in this order (including my overall rank):
-Empire Strikes Back (#3)
-Return of the Jedi (#5)
-Revenge of the Sith (#6)
-A New Hope (#7)
-Attack of the Clones (#18)
-The Phantom Menace (#19)

2. From the original trilogy, I only saw A New Hope (the original Star Wars) in the theatre when the Special Edition came out. The prequels were a different story though. I saw The Phantom Menace 8 times in the theatre (yes, eight), and each of the other prequel movies three times in the theatre. I also went to the midnight showing of Attack of the Clones.

3. From about 1996-2002, I heavily played the Star Wars: Customizable Card Game (this was replaced as our main game by Lord of the Rings). I spent way too much money on the game. At one point, I started trying to collect one of every card. Then I moved to Ohio, and ended up selling off my collection (which I now very much wish I hadn't done). Last year, I bought a collection of them off of eBay, but haven't been able to work on it very much, but I still would like to some day. For a little bit, we also played a much simpler game called Young Jedi, and Mac Man and myself also tried out a third game called Jedi Knights.

4. When The Phantom Menace came out, Pepsi put out a series of cans with 24 different Star Wars characters on it. I collected them a lot, and had (and still have, hopefully) a set of all 24 cans, each of them unopened. I had a lot of open cans too, and had them stacked on a shelf at some point while I was still living with my parents. At some point, I had like 160 cans stacked on my wall. It was impressive. However, I got rid of most of them, but kept all the unopened ones. Those cans have leaked over the years, as carbonated cans aren't really meant for long time storage like that. :) But they're still neat.

5. At one point, I had a giant blow-up Darth Maul chair, and a giant blow-up Mountain Dew can, like the ones I refered to previously in this post. I also still have a medium-sized rectangular cardboard advertisement of The Phantom Menace that had been hanging in a Pizza Hut. I also have a set of 12 cups that I think were given out by Taco Ball or Burger King, or something like that (see picture). A coworker of mine gave them to me. :) Here's a few other things I've gathered over the years - from the Phantom Menace, I have: a Star Wars plate, an unopened tube of toothpaste, an unopened toothbrush, and an unopened bottle of shampoo. And from Attack of the Clones, I have a couple (empty) cereal boxes. I believe I also have a couple orginal Star Wars action figures, though they are opened and used. For a while, in my cubicle I had a full-page newspaper advertisement for Attack of the Clones, with Yoda standing, wielding his lightsaber, with "Size Matters Not" in big letters across the top. It was pretty sweet.

Anyway, there ya go. Happy Birthday Star Wars!

The Circle of Life

I went to my job interview yesterday, talked to the recruiter for about 20 minutes, and she then decided that I wasn't what they were looking for, so the interview was cut at that point. Ah well, probably didn't want to work there anyway. :) In theory, sometime next week I could hear about the decision concerning last week's interview at WolfNet, but we'll see.

The main card game we play - Lord of the Rings: TCG - is ending. The company announced this week that, shortly, they will cease production. It is still a good game, though the last couple sets have been a little sloppier. Thus is the way of things I suppose. :)

This Sunday is our first year wedding anniversary, and we will be celebrating with a dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. Mmmm.... I am already hungry for it (as I have been since we decided this several months ago).

I am going through and copying out images for each Reclamation card, and they will soon all be up on the website, in theory, along with the card texts. I should be able to easily copy the cards images into a Word document or something like that for easy printing, and then can cut them out and use them for play testing.

That's the theory anyway.

01100001 01100111 01100101 00101011 00101011

Tomorrow, I have a dentist appointment (I've never had a cavity in my life), and on Wednesday, I have a job interview. For this week, cavities are bad, job offers are good.

I've recently been scavenging around the Internet for pictures to use for Reclamation images. I wanted them all to be paintings of some sort, which somewhat limited those images that I could use. Then I remembered that I can use Adobe Photoshop to make a photographic image appear like it was painted (at least somewhat), so some of the images will be like that. Of course, some of them may not make sense with the card, because it isn't easy to find a picture that exactly matches the card's intent. But alas, thus is life.

Another Door Opens

As mentioned in a previous entry, last Friday I had two phone interviews. One of them was for WolfNet, which I then had an in-person interview for on Tuesday. The other place was G&K Services, which I was not as interested in, because the job required a fair amount of phone work (up to 40%), and I am not a big fan of that. However, I was contacted yesterday again by Lisa (recruiter for G&K) who said there is another position available, one that (I think) is similiar in nature, but would require a good bit less phone work. So suddenly I am more interested in it. :) They want me to come in for a meeting (they didn't refer to it as an "interview") that would last a couple hours, which is kinda funky. So we'll see what happens.

Games and Aging

Our softball game last night was canceled because the electricity at the fields was not working. We had the late game, and thus we would have been playing in the dark. What's with that? Ah well. Instead, I went to a friend's house and played some games and celebrated Mac Man's birthday. It was a joyous occasion filled with grilling out, snacks, cake, games, and ping pong. Ah, good times were had.

And now my quarter-century mark is quickly approaching. Crazy stuff. Soon I'll be able to rent cars with no problem and save a few bucks on car insurance. Yehaw!

Anywho, I am currently going through and choosing the exact Bible verse text to use for each Reclamation card. It's all very exciting. :)

Anyone's Guess

Well, I had my interview yesterday at WolfNet. It seemed to go pretty good, as far as I can tell. They said that it would be another couple weeks before they started making hiring decisions. Evidently, they are hiring 6 people for their database department. However, they won't all be at the same time, but maybe spread out over a few months. So even if they do not offer me a job in a couple weeks, it is possible that they would hire me a month or two later. That all being said, I have no idea what's going to happen. After my interview at FLS (my current job), I was about 95% sure that I got the job. Here, I'm not leaning either way. So'll we'll just see what happens. It's all up to God now.

Tonight is our third softball game. Quick recap: We lost the first week 8-7, and I went 0-4 at the plate. The second week, we won 5-4 (I believe), and I went 3-3 at the plate with 2 RBIs. So, after extensive scientific research and testing, I have developed the theory that our team's success is directly related to my success at the plate. (Not really, I wouldn't want all that pressure). :) Anywho, tonight should be fun.

*Music comes out of nowhere*

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Dear Mac Man, Happy Birthday to You!

*Music fades*

So yeah, he's really old now. Anywho, I am about 95% sure that I saw this car the other day a little outside of St. Paul - a Lotus Esprit. Unfortunately, it's not in the budget. What's with that? My wife probably won't let me drop $100,000+ on a car. Some people are just so mean.

Possibilities of Occupational Alterations

On Friday, I had two phone interviews. Here's a quick summary of them.

At 2:00, I talked to Lisa from G&K Services. This job does sound interesting, and would deal with database reporting using SQL Server and Microsoft Access. However, as much as 40% of the job would be phone work, kind of like help desk for people within the company. It would be a decent hike in salary, but I don't know about all that phone work.

At 4:00, I talked to Chris and David from WoftNet. The interview seemed to go quite well, and I am rather interested in the job. The company deals in real estate listings. There would be similarities between this and my current job. The work environment is casual and laid back. And....... I have an actual interview scheduled! This Tuesday, the 15th. I am rather looking forward to it. They even said I could dress casually for the interview. So I will definitely have to post about how I think it went afterwards. I don't know anything about salary information for this job yet, but that's okay. The job is in Minneapolis, and is about 13 miles from our apartment.

So we'll see how things go. Whooahh!

Short and Sweet

Well, I didn't have either of my phone interviews yesterday, but now have both of them schedule for today. One at 2:00, one at 4:00. So we'll see how those go. I don't really know what to expect. Ah, fun times.

I have imported the Reclamation card list from an Excel file into an Access database, which I can then use for easier online display of the card texts and images. Very exciting stuff. :)

Ah, short and sweet. Just like my sister-in-law.

New Job Title: Dragon Slayer

Well, I have the potential of having two phone interviews today for other jobs. Holy cow. I am working from home, as I don't want to be doing these type of calls from work. One of them is for the position mentioned in a previous blog entry. The other is for a position that I currently have more interest in, as that one is for a database developer position and would have a little less "phone work" than the other job. That being said, I don't know anything about the salary for the second job as of yet. So we'll see how this goes.

For Reclamation, if I kept making new sets (after I get the rules all squared away), eventually I would create a set called Revelation, would be a cool set (I think). I decided to go ahead and make a card from that set, though you'll notice the game text is fake, as I have no idea what it actually will be. But I wanted to make it anyway. :) Cause, yeah, you know. I'm a big dork.

Services for Sale

Just a quick Reclamation note - I like Dave's idea about taking healed wound cards into hand. Genious!

Anyway, a recruiter contacted me a couple days ago about an IT job in Minnetonka, and my name and resume have been "presented for consideration" to the company. It is for a "Support Analyst" position, which would be some kind of database job. I don't have a lot of details, but I do know that it would increase my salary by 20 - 32%, which would be kind of handy. It's possible that we would end up moving closer to that area if I did get that job, as it is a little further away, though still not too terrible at about a 30 minute commute, compared to the 20 minute commute I have now. But we'll see what happens with that one. I just wish we were in the position to go get a house, instead of moving to a different apartment, should that happen. Though a salary increase such as that would certainly be helpful with that.

Too Much Pain

First, I've tried to redesign the backs for both the Heaven and the Neutral cards. I'm not completely sure about them yet, but I'll put them up here anyway and you can tell me if you think they look silly. :)

One thought I've had is that a player could end up getting a lot of characters out. This is itself is not bad, but if their opponent gets hit hard in a battle and gets wiped out, it makes it hard for them to come back if their opponent's army is completely stocked up and they have nothing. While this is somewhat part of the game, I may end up limiting the number of characters each player can play to 12 (limit the character grid to 4 columns by 3 rows). This may also reduce the number of wound cards necessary, should I decide to take that route with the wounds.

I hadn't really even thought about the number of wound cards that may be necessary. Considering all wound cards for both your armies (as many as 24 characters at once) will come from the same deck, that could end up being a lot of cards on the table as wound cards. Here's a couple thoughts I had on this.

1. Add a rule that allows a player to reduce his or her damages in a battle by discarding cards from hand. This will add to the strategy of what cards to play and what cards to keep in your hand. Possibly make this rule that you can discard a card from hand to reduce your damages by 2, thus increasing the value of cards in your hand.

2. Add a rule that allows a player to kill off one of their characters for their full health value, without any wound cards being placed. Also, if a character is going to be killed by a wound, no wound card would need to be placed for that card.

Maybe those things would help. And there would quite possibly be card combinations that allow for cards to be cheaper from hand, and there is healing. :) Healing is done easiest through angels and animal sacrifices.

I'm not completely sure yet on the cards vs. tokens thought, but I really think that both the new uses for cards (as cost and wounds) are pretty neat and interesting ideas. Let me know what you think, if you think anything! :)

Changing the World, or At Least a Game

Thanks for everyone's feedback on the card backgrounds. I will use the back7 background (the third one), and am working on a Heaven background image that uses a similar approach.

In a previous post, I mentioned that I might have a couple Reclamation rules changes that would eliminate the need for tokens, but I haven't made any official changes yet. Here's a quick rundown of the changes that I'm considering. This may not make any sense if you're not familiar with the game, or at least with collectible card games in general. :)

Currently, a player uses a pool of tokens in order to pay for cards that he or she is playing from hand. In order to play a card, that player must first remove the number of tokens from his or her pool of tokens equal to that card's cost. Here is my thought - instead of using the pool of tokens, you use your hand. So, in order to play a card, that player must first discard the number of cards from hand equal to that card's cost. In general, this means cards would have to be a little cheaper and the number of cards in your hand would have to increase. This would both be different than any game I've played before, and (I think) would be an interesting aspect, because in order to play cards from hand, you'd have to discard other cards first, so part of the strategy would be determining which cards to play and which cards you can get rid of for now.

Whew.

Also currently, a player's characters will take wounds as a result of battles or other cards. If a character has too many wounds, that character will be killed. Currently, a wound is represented by placing a token on that character. Here is my thought - instead of using tokens, use cards (maybe from the top of your game deck or your discard pile or something, the details haven't been worked out yet). If a character is wounded, you place a card from somewhere underneath that card (face down and unseen by all players). Those cards would be known as wound cards. This would do two things - eliminate the need for tokens, and open up some more card and strategy possibilities (revealing a character's wound cards and doing things based on the cards revealed there).

These rules changes would require some changes in the cards as they are now, including reducing the cost of cards and changing game text on anything that refers to tokens. I'm still trying to figure out what is best, so any thoughts would be most helpful. :)

Stuff, Things, and Diapers

Well, uhh, hmmm.... let's see here. Someone is my family is pregnant. *Gasp* (And no, it's not my wife.) :) It is my sister-in-law Gina (my brother's wife), and this will be their second child. Yay! The baby's due date is currently January 1st! Crazy stuff. This will be my 9th niece or nephew.

Yesterday I came up with what I think is a good idea for some rules changes for Reclamation. Two separate rules changes that I think are pretty original (hopefully) and will remove all need for tokens from game play, and will add a couple new interesting aspects to the game. At least I think. It's possible the changes are silly and bad, but we will see. :)

Also, I have thought about changing the background design on the cards. Here are 8 different
backgrounds for the Hell cards, including the one I've already used. Some of them are rather similar to each other. If you're really bored, and could vote for which one you think is best (or which 2 or 3 or 4 you think are best), then that would be cool. :) I am no expert graphic designer of course, but that's okay. It'll do.

Starting Off With a Bang

Well, we started off our softball season last night. In the first inning, our leftfielder got knocked in the face with a fly ball, and she left with a rather bloody face. (She's okay.) The sun was nasty in left field, making the ball extremely hard to see. Oh dear.

We ended up losing 8-7 to a pretty decent team, which wasn't too bad considering we played a man (err... person) short for most of the game. I just know that I have lots of room for improvement, going 0-4 at the plate. I had some good hits, but 2 of them were fly balls caught in the outfield, and I "struck out" once on a foul ball up the third base line (in this league, you strike out on a foul). I need to swing a little more level to try and prevent fly balls, and be a little more patient and maybe get walked sometimes. Ah well, softball is always good fun.

Patriotic Moss

When it comes to baseball, the Twins overtook my top spot, jumping over the San Francisco Giants and the Boston Red Sox. However, the same is not true of the Vikings. On my list, they rest at third, just after the San Francisco 49ers and the New England Patriots, respectively. Why this is, I'm not entirely sure. But alas.

That being said, my #2 football team, the Patriots, just traded for former Viking Randy Moss. The Patriots are one of the last teams I would have ever expecting Moss to wind up on. I don't know why. Maybe it's that the personalities of the player and the team just don't seem to match up. But you never know, I hope he does well there, and connects often with Tom Brady.

Anywho, I posted my resume on Monster yesterday. What a crazy thought. In the somewhat near future, I may be contacting a recruiter to help me out as well. We'll see what happens.