Career Tweakification

I am moving closer to looking for a new job, and will possibly be posting my resume on Monster shortly. This is for a few different reasons.

1. Job growth. I don't know if this job is going anywhere. I wouldn't mind getting into other things (web development, for instance). At my current job, I have been told that I would be moving into other areas and doing other things, and they even moved me to a different desk so I would be closer to a guy who I would be working with. That was a couple months ago, and nothing has happened yet. This happened last year after my one year review, when I was told that I would be doing a little more ASP (web programming) soon, but I did my first small bit of web programming about a month ago, a little after my two year review. This company seems to be slow at moving forward. When I was first hired, I was told that part of my job description would be data transformation (changing all of our databases from a program called Visual Fox Pro to one called SQL Server). However, over 2 years later, and that hasn't come close to happening yet. Last fall, my boss said that they were hoping it would happen in July. No progress has been made on that front yet. I'm just worried that my company will tell me that my job is going to change and grow, and yet that will never happen.

2. The Money. Of course, finances play a role here. I'm not one of those people that desires to have a lot of money, but finances are still a part of life. My wife and I are hoping to buy a house at some point in the next few years, and both of our cars are getting up there (130,000 and 152,000 miles) and will need to be replaced in the next few years. Also, I am continuing to pay off my massive heap of a student loan. So, while money is not what life is about, having a higher salary would help with these future and ongoing expenses. And, in theory, with two years of experience now, I should be able to get a better paying job. Hopefully.

That being said, it's a weird thought. I do like my job and my coworkers. I am comfortable here. But I don't want to be in a job that's not going anywhere. Anywho, we'll see what happens. I am continuing to pray about this and ask that God shows me where he wants me to be. Maybe that's here still, who knows.

For Reclamation, I'm going to be tweaking a rule or two (especially when it comes to what makes a legal deck) and possibly quite a few of the cards. Card tweaking may be done to strengthen the themes that run between between cards, so they work together better.

I actually played a test game over the weekend, using the cards as they were then. I discovered that (1) the Heaven armies beat up on the Hell armies, (2) the game takes a lot of space and uses a lot of tokens, (3) some cards were overpowered and need to be toned down, (4) some cards were underpowered and need to be strengthed, and (4) battles need to have more unknowns (more cards that players can play from hand, among other possibilities). These are some issues that I need to address. Hopefully I can fix them. It would be a long process to actually get this game to the point where it could be played by the masses.

Torii Hunter's Face

Well, it seems that Torii Hunter should recover just fine after getting hit in the mouth with a fastball in yesterday's Twins game, where they defeated the Royals in 11 innings. Why couldn't I have gone to that game instead? :) Ah well. I'm glad they won, as did my other two teams - the Boston Red Sox and the the San Francisco Giants. Ah, it was a good day for my baseball world.

A few more thoughts about Reclamation. When I designed the game, here are a couple things I had in mind.

1. Multiplayer. I wanted it to be be easily multiplayer, so a game could work with 2, 3, 4, or maybe even more players. Some games (like the Star Wars game we've played) are 2 player games, and trying to play a 4 player game can be difficult.

2. Deck cycling and distribution. One thing I've not liked about some games is that sometimes, your hand gets overloaded with cards you don't need, and it takes a while to get rid of those cards so you can draw new cards. It really slows down your game and what you're trying to do. I designed this game so you can cycle through your deck faster and easily get rid of cards in your hand that you don't want right now. This will also improve distribution (getting the cards you need faster). This should (in theory) create a faster-paced, more exciting game.

To continue my rise into the upper echelons of Nerdhood, I am going to test this game out within the next week or two, to see if it even functions the way I think it will, and then I can maybe fix any glaring problems I find. Obviously, if this game were ever to actually be made, it would require large amounts of time spent in playtesting the game and its cards.

Reclaiming the Twins

Last night, I took my wife to her first Twins game. That's right - she's been living in this state for 23 years, and she'd never been to one. Of course, she's not much of a sports person, and I was expecting her to think the whole thing was rather boring, but she actually ended up enjoying it. She found some of the slower parts of the game boring, but overall, she liked it. She got a little nervous when foul balls came nearby, but I told her that I would make sure not hit her (as I had my glove in hand). I've never caught a foul ball before (came really really really close once), and no such luck yesterday either. Oh well. I got the tickets for free from work - they were pretty good seats, just barely to the third base side of home plate, in the 25th row. Basically connected in a straight line with first base and home plate. We bought an over priced hot dog because Megan had never had a ball park hot dog and had always heard about them, but was not so impressed that she would drop $4.75 on one again. :)

That being said, the Twins lost 4-3 to the Royals, giving up two 2-run home runs to Kansas City. Torii Hunter hit a home run and came mere feet from a second one, and a running mistake by Alexi Casilla might have cost the Twins a chance at more runs. Ah well, it was still a good game, even though the Twins have now lost 4 straight. Not so good at all!

I have posted the Genesis card list and rulebook here on my website for your viewing and reading pleasure (or something like that), or those people who are so inclined to review it. If you do, please let me know of anything that doesn't make sense or seems a little silly. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. The rulebook, I'm sure, is neither complete nor perfect. The card list will soon be updated with links to the card images I've created. That website can be a little slow from time to time, but bear with it. It'll come around.

Bacon: CCG

I have tentatively renamed the card game to "Reclamation: CCG", which I think goes well with the gameplay. Here are a couple more card images, one of an act and another of an item, which are two more card types, besides character. There is one more card type left - battlefield.

I have been working on a rulebook, which is currently a 16-page Word document. Impressive, huh? :) Or something like that.

In other news, my wife is currently working a temp job as a front desk person in St. Paul. It is open-ended right now, so it could last anywhere from a few weeks to a few months. But it is something, and will help us out financially, no matter how long it lasts. Always good to be bringing home the bacon.

Genesis

More silly ramblings on my CCG. Aren't you lucky? :)

I haven't come up with a name for the game yet. Originally, it was "Bible: CCG", then was "God: CCG", and then it was "Soul: CCG". Currently, I've named it "The Spiritual Realms: CCG", but am trying to come up with something good for it. Hmmm....

I have created a 280 card set named Genesis. All cards are, shockingly, taken from the book of Genesis. :) I will be working on a rulebook shortly, and will post that on my website, for anyone who is interested enough to read it.

In addition to there being Heaven cards and Hell cards, representing the powers of good and evil, there will be Neutral cards - those cards that can be used by either the forces of good or evil. Neutral cards represent those people or things that maybe show no preference for good or evil, and would like "work for the highest bidder." One of those cards is Potiphar, Captain of the Guard.

It's All About God Today

I just submitted my application to work the next TEC weekend, ordering the teams as such - Support, Wheat, Kitchen. I've only ever worked Support, so that is my comfort zone, but I wouldn't mind trying something else. ATL wouldn't be easy for me at this point at all, that's at least a couple years away. Anywho, I'm pretty excited to see what happens.

Now I will continue with some of the more uninteresting stuff. :) I have written up the game text of enough cards to make a set for my Bible-based CCG (collectible card game) that I've referred to in previous posts. I've even created a graphical template for the cards. I know you don't know the gameplay, but here are the two images I've created as templates. (Yes, I still know that I'm a dork). I am by no means a professional graphic artist, but alas. They're still fun for me to make. The images, of course, came from the Internet. I am not hiding any impressive painting skills. :)

Slacking Blogger

I've been a slacker lately on blogging, which I know disappoints all of you to great lengths. Well, maybe not, but I can dream anyway. :) Anywho, today deals with my favorite animals in the world - cats.

I am a cat person. Unfortunately, my wife is allergic to them, and thus we do not own one. However, we own a small dog named Ruffles (this is a picture of a Maltese, but not the one and only Ruffles). While I do like dogs, I find them to be vastly inferior to cats in almost every way. This, I know, may seem like blasphemy to some people, but alas. Here is why I like cats more.

1. I was raised with cats. I am used to the way they are, and I am really not too used to dogs. I'm sure some of the following opinions are very much affected by the fact that my family always had cats, but alas, they are my opinions.

2. Going potty. This drives me nuts. I really don't like the fact that you have to let a dog outside to go to the bathroom. We have had to change our schedules sometimes so we wouldn't be gone away from home for too long of a time, because if we did, Ruffles would start using the floor as her bathroom. (Which she does sometimes anyway.) Cleaning out a cat's litter box doesn't bother me at all. You can clean out a little box on your schedule, but you have to be available to let the dog out whenever it needs to go. I find it rather obnoxious.

3. Bark, bark, bark. Malteses are barkers. If Ruffles sees a person walking along the street outside, she barks at them incessantly. If she hears a noise outside, she barks incessantly. She has a loud, high-pitched bark, and when she gets all excited about something, she can bark non-stop for quite some time. Cats are much quieter.

4. Independence. One of the things I like most about cats is their independence. Ruffles is always there, wanting to be your best friend. I know that dogs are "man's best friend," but I actually like it that cats go off and do their own thing, and aren't always in your face. Maybe this is somewhat linked to me being a very independent person. Who knows.

In the 10 months that I've been married, and thus, lived with Ruffles (as she was my wife's dog), my opinion on dogs has decreased more. I know this is due to things I find annoying about Ruffles and are not necessarily applicable to all dogs, but alas. My opinion on dogs will probably go up in the future when we get a bigger and more manly dog of some sorts. Personally, if I was going to choose a dog myself, I'd go with a St. Bernard.

Warning: Boring Blog Post Ahead

This will probably be the most uninteresting, boring, and mind-numbing blog entry you've ever read. Seriously. Turn back now! No hard feelings if you can't make it all the way through! :)

Yes, I am a dork. I greatly enjoy playing card games, especially CCG's (collectible card games). Currently, my main game is based on Lord of the Rings. See my previous post Ah, Gaming to read more about the CCG's I play. Each player brings their own deck that you can customize from all the cards you have, and your decks do battle against each other. I love designing new decks and altering my current ones, trying to improve each deck whenever possible. The games themselves are also good fun.

If you've been reading this blog long enough, you know one of my dorky hobbies is to make dream cards of these games (making up my own cards). It is dorky, and it's not like these cards are every actually used, but it is interesting and amusing, and was a good way to waste time in class instead of listening to the teacher. :) One of my previous blog posts also talked about how I'd started making rules for my own CCG. I've made up rules for a game based on The Matrix, and one based on the Bible.

When I had designed the rules for the Bible game before, it would cause one player to be the "Hell" player, and one player to be "Heaven." The objective of the game was that the two sides - good and evil - were fighting over the soul of one person (the Bible talks about how there is spiritual warfare going on for peoples' souls, or something to that effect). I like the idea of it, and yet, that means that the player controlling the forces of evil can win, and - in the context of the game anyway - win the battle over that person's soul and send that person to Hell, which of course, isn't so wonderful at all.

I've recently rewritten the rules (well, the details are a work in progress). Here's a little tagline for the game (remember - yes, I am a dork):

"The world is an evil place. The forces of men and Hell have overtaken our once-perfect planet and its inhabitants, spreading lies and deceit and taking us farther and farther away from exactly the things we need for redemption. The battles may take place in streets or in fields or in the spiritual realms, but the forces of good and the armies of Heaven are fighting back to recover what we have lost and to make this world a better place, so that God's goodness and grace can be spread throughout the nations and to every heart."

Now the game revolves around the forces of good gaining control over places that were controlled by evil. Each player's deck contains cards that are both good and evil (your good cards battle against your opponent's evil cards, and vice verse), but the winner of the game is based on whose good cards can take control of the most places formerly controlled by evil.

After the rules are more solidified, I can start creating the actual cards for the game (and right now, by "creating", I mean typing in the card's information into an Excel spreadsheet). If I'm more ambitious, I can create actual graphical card designs. And maybe come up with a good name for the game.

You're still here? But why?

I've had lots of dorky hobbies like this over the years. And as a faithful blog reader (and you must be faithful if you've read this far), you are forced to read about it.

Phase One Billion

Hmmm... the Mac Man posted a comment to my last blog entry, pointing out that it had been a little while since my last entry, and he was wondering if this was because my wife and I were now playing Phase 100. Hmmm... Phase 100... I think we'll have to draw more than 10 cards each hand and combine like 5 decks together. I can just see it now... Phase 36: Set of 12. Phase 72: 2 Runs of 10. Phase 93: 25 cards of one color. Hmmm... Phase 100: I don't even want to think about it. *shudders*

Anywho, I've had a busier-than-normal week. I was given a training session on some new processes that I'll be working with soon, and I was given the project to create some kind of funky program. It was all very exciting. A couple weeks ago, I had spent several days working on a website that used ASP programming for an online "Employee Satisfaction Survey." The "higher-ups" in the company wanted something that employees could fill out and rate their employment satisfaction at the company. After it was completed, and working just fine (and included a seperate page where they could check the results), they decided to use something different for the survey. Oh well I suppose, at least I can put that project on my resume. :)

Dreamland

Yeah that's right, Phase 15. We're a little looney here at the Cooper Household. :)

Dreams are strange things. I've had lots of weird dreams over the years, most of which quickly fall out of my memory. Many of my dreams are long and complicated, but I don't really remember what they were about or what happened. I just remember them being long and complicated. How quaint.

Here's a few dreams I remember that are a little odd.

I've had several dreams where I was inside of a computer game, like Doom or Unreal Tournament. I had the guns and could run around killing people. In one particular dream, I knew I was inside of a team game of Doom, and I was shooting and killing my teammates for fun, then laughing at them when they respawned. It was good fun.

I once dreamt that my dad was trying to kill me. He was chasing me with a silver pistol. That being said, my dad is a minister and would never hurt anyone, let alone his own son. And I have no buried deep-down resentment for my father that you might think would cause a dream like this. Sooo... I dunno.

My wife has a small white dog named Ruffles. Before we were married, I once had a dream that I crushed and killed the dog with a large fork while the dog's body was trapped in a doorway. While Ruffles is more annoying than cute and I prefer cats to dogs, I have no desire to murder the little thing.

I used to be deathly afriad of dating. In high school, I had a crush on a girl, and one night she appeared in a dream of mine. We were sitting somewhere talking, and then we leaned in and were going to kiss. At that very moment, right before the kiss, I was awakened by my mother who was getting me up to go to church. What a rip off, eh? :) (I ended up "dating" her for a few weeks, though we never actually went on a date, and I was so nervous that I barely talked to her - oh what a ladies man.)