Christmas Eve is over

Sue and I spend the Christmas Eve day together. It is our holiday. Christmas Day is the family day. It gives us one private holiday and one public holiday.

We started the morning with the purchase of a new Nero Wolfe book to listen to and a wonderful french toast breakfast. The french toast had butter and confectioners sugar. It is amazing how good the food is when Sue cooks it and we eat it together. I know she and I have been together a long time, but I find myself fascinated by her. The book we got was Death of a Doxy and it is really a good one. The Nero Wolfe audio books are better than either the radio shows or the TV shows that show up. The TV shows are very pale imitations at best. Michael Prichard does the audio and he is true to the original Rex Stout stories.

As the day went on we spent a lot of the day simply relaxing together with our eyes closed listening to the audiobook. There is something special about spending quiet time with one you love. I think that because we spend so much time talking about projects, politics and plans that being able to share silence is romantic, but I think its best to leave that part out of the days pleasures.

We got an organic chicken to share and filled it with stuffing. The flavor of old fashioned chicken baked slowly is astounding. We will be eating chicken happily for the next couple of days. Mocha and Mac, our pack members/pets got a good portion of the leavings. Boy were they excited. Afterwards they both laid down on either side of us and slept. Fun stuff. A pack relaxes.

For desert we had home cooked brownies with vanilla ice cream and chocolate. The whole thing just melted in the mouth. It is the first time we tried this as a desert, and it will go on our regular menu as a food.

We spent most of the evening in quiet meditation together and I feel rested this morning, which is probably a good thing because soon we will be dashing madly from family house to family house today. We will be stopping at home to eat between trips. I'm afraid that we will be skipping the family meals and eating our food instead. I hope no ones feelings get too hurt, but the modern foods just don't measure up.

Well, off to the days activities.

A lot happening here

There are a huge number of small things going on here.

I am having to learn to bake bread in a toaster oven. Our oven gave up the ghost and we are using a toaster oven and two burner hot plate set up. With just the two of us it is working surprisingly well. The problem is bread bakes differently in the toaster oven. The heat reflecting off the low top burns the top of the bread. Aluminum foil conquers that. The heat is more intense and I am down to baking at 340 degrees. And developing a single loaf recipe is interesting. Getting a good rise from the bread is a problem so far. With our energy use reduction the house is cold. We have a ceramic wall heater in the bedroom so I am putting the bread there to rise. All in all, I think I just about have things working again.

Oh, and I have some work to do. I have started the process of changing our DNS host for artbysvc and dragonstorm sites. Hopefully it will go smoothly. It will be a cost reduction of $300.00 a year.

It was the Sunday before Christmas...

As it happens we are now on the Winter Solstice. During the previous week and next week I will be honoring this venerable holiday. It works out nicely that the modern Christmas celebration happens to match up with the old Winter Solstice. I am guessing this is not an accident.

I have always had the desire to tie the Stormlands Holy days to the four Solstices and Equinoxes of our own calendar. Since DS is a social game it would be fun to be able, both as players and GM to know know the general world happenings going on behind the characters adventures. I am doing some thinking out loud here, so don't quote me.

Winter Solstice Dec. 21st, celebrations Dec. 14th to 28th.

Jan 30th to Feb 8th Mid Winter celebrations.

Spring Equinox Mar 20th, celebrations Mar. 16th to 27th.

May 1st to May 9th, Mid Spring celebrations.

Summer Solstice June 20th, celebrations June 14th to 27th.

August 2nd to August 10th, Mid Summer celebrations.

Fall Equinox Sept. 22nd, celebrations Sept. 15th to 29th.

Nov. 2nd to Nov. 10th, Mid Fall celebrations.

There, I have eight Stormlands celebration periods with earthly dates. Now I am going to have to go back and search Sue's notes for the historical celebrations that I can put into these. My first thought is that each of these times would have several special days within them. Some still ongoing and some historical.

These would represent the eight times of the year that the clans would collect tribute and offerings.

I know that each of the Dragon Clans had a "dawning" celebration that celebrated the first dawning, or creation, of their clan.

Jikadell, Elethay and the local cults each have an "emergence" holiday commemorating the emergence of their diety. Elethay's emergence would be during the Spring Equinox. (Elethay, charity focus) Jikadell's emergence would be during the Fall Equinox. (Jikadell, Sin offerings focus)

The Valarian Deathday Massacre Mourning and the Jikadell Freedom day would be during the Summer Solstice.

Sue has just shown me a negotiation she is in for Character cards and Sponsored cards. Looks like it is time for me to get to work on those sections on the web. So I will post this and get to work.

You should comment on the "celebration/calendar" ideas.

Back To work

I actually took most of the weekend off, what a strange concept. I enjoyed the time with Sue, but she worked more than I did. It is tough to slow her down, but I think I need to to keep her from burning out.


I am forcing myself to do some writing every day now. It is in short fragments scattered through the DS pages. I need to get back the skills that got me published some years ago. At the same time I can transfer more of the "feel" of Sue's world to the DS players. It may help all of us.


I sometimes loose track of entertaining web pages and I stumbled back across one of interest. It has some funny and biting animated cartoons. You can check it out here.


I am back to baking bread, but so far the result has been less than stellar. I sometimes wonder how I loose skills. I wish I knew if they returned faster the second and third times, but I've never tracked it well, so I will have to guess.


That is it for today. I'll keep putting up short updates on the twitter feed to the right as I work. Now I need to get back to the Winged Cat story fragment....

Another Week Ends

I've had a pretty productive week now that I have been able to clear out the Conwebs from my mind.

For me doing creative work requires a calm atomosphere away from the hubbub of loading the car, driving, unloading the car, running around at a Con, loading the car, driving again, unloading the car. Followed by manufactureing replacement items, new items and repacking everything. Then do it all again. The whole sequence takes about two weeks per convention, no matter how big, or small, the Con may be. That does not even cover the effects of eating food that does not sit well with me, and causes no end of health issues for me.

I am hoping that I can use my blogging to let me access some creative time during the Con season of March through November plus January. With just December and February as creative months I find myself with dozens of unfinished ideas throughout the year. I have no idea of how many of those ideas are better than the ones we are now persuing, I have little or no way to test them. The end result is a good deal of frustration knowing that a whole lot of fun is being missed by me.

Ah well, I have to quite complaining and get back to work.

Learning to Live

I've gotten a lot written today, so I took a short nap before moving on to the next job. After I rise from a short satisfying rest I find myself craving cheap potato chips like I used to eat all the time.

I realize that I have been conditioned by years of advertising and my actual needs are being interpreted by my subconscious in terms of my training. It is my job now to reverse engineer the craving. What I may be looking for is the extra oil in chips. So I am sitting here eating a popper of organic popcorn made with twice as much olive oil as I normally use.

Another observation that is crossing my mind is that the longer I am away from traditional TV advertising the more irritating and obvious it is becoming to me. I caught a couple of episodes of Life, an NBC show. I watched two episodes. I found them interesting, but I was agitated instead of interested. I proceeded over to itunes and bought the shows. Sure enough, it was better without the ads. Shows that depend on moods and layout to be entertaining do not survive well on commercial TV. I saw a show called Raines a couple of years ago. I had watched one episode and decided that it had potential. I picked it up at Itunes and discovered that it was, for me, one of the best shows I had ever watched. It was a lot better without the ads. The show did not last long and I'm sure the reason was the ads breaking up the shows flow.

Hey, the popcorn worked, my craving is gone.

That was a Mistake

Saturday when I picked up Sue our dinner was behind schedule. We decided to stop and pick up coney island hot dogs and fries to eat. We both really enjoy those dogs, or at least we did.

The coneyies set off an acidic stomach reaction in me that lasted through Sunday night. I found myself having to nibble on bread, cerial etc. to keep the pain under control. Unfortunatley I discovered that peanut butter increased the problem. Normally it does not cause problems. Since I have a mild allergy to nuts I must suspect that I should be very careful about eating Peanut butter, *sigh*, I really need to make an actual "foods I can eat" list and a foods I must avoid list. Conies and Peanut butter should be on the outs.

The saturday Flint Handmade Etsy show was satisfactory. The snow slowed things, but it still was worth the time.

I am getting some work done even now, so I'll be getting back to it now.

And a Picture

Sue got me a picture of her set-up at the Flint Handmade Etsy show, which is going on right now!

Another Day in Flint

I just got Sue set up in the Flint Etsy Handmade show downtown Flint. I need to get Sue to take a couple of Pics of the event and her set-up. Hold on while I switch and e-mail her. Still there? Ah, good. Lets see if she picks up the message.

I know that our town has a reputation, but its not so bad, well, not for an aftermath city anyway. I was surprised at how many people had come out of their rubble piles to check out the show. They seemed to be a nice young, well armed group. It should be interesting.

Actually the crime rate has been dropping radically here in Flint for the past few years. Personally I think its because people stopped coming to our town and we are just short of targets. Which reminds me, whose coming to visit? This has nothing to do with anything, but I need to renew my hunting license.

OK, while Sue is at work I have a chance to really go wild. I think I'll start by catching up the dishes and then move on to a rousing round laundry. Now thats some crazy stuff. Maybe I'll get a chance to squeeze in a couple more pages of the Gatekeeper comic as well.

Need a break to Think

Why does everything seem to take forever to get done? I'm back to working on getting the old Gatekeeper Comic up on-line.

I've worked out a better navigation set up. The cover page will have the pages all listed to the left. The other pages will just navigate through to the end. It will allow you to go back to the start and page through. It works best on the cover page because that page is longer.

I'm also trying to get a better Ad set-up on the pages. Sue wants to do comics again and that presents me with "issues". Doing comics as a cottage business is tricky. There just isn't a distribution system for us, and besides, we like doing it ourselves. Not the brightest way to work, but we like it that way. We may well be able to assemble it all into a LuLu book at some point, but that comes later. What I have to do is get Ads integrated into the pages to try to create a revenue stream for this type of work. At the same time I want to try to get people to our own Cafepress store. That means getting new "comicish" items done to entice people into buying.

I am hopeful that you guys out there will help get people to our comic pages as Ad revenue needs a lot of people looking and a few using the Ads. The more viewers we get the larger the "few" becomes.

While I do this html work I am taking a break from our growing Rex Stout audible books to review to my old Mark's Mysteries podcasts. I want to get back to doing them and I have a growing plotline building in my brain.

OK, Back to work.

Too much thinking

I'm having my normal too many ideas, too many jobs problems. Ideas for stories, cards, games and more keep floating up from my subconscious into the brain. The trouble is they are flashing by far too fast for me to actually get them to a useable format.

I'll be working on a short story fragment for something like the Bloodkin Evolution and suddenly a line for a podcast comes in to the fray. When I look at that one my mind gets diverted and the next think I know it is an hour latter and I'm looking at a new card idea. I usually don't know how I arrived there and nothing has really gotten done.

In some ways I like being a dreamer, but that does not get much done. I am going to either except my chaotic creative thinking pattern and get little done or I need to learn to ride roughshod over the imagination and focus on just one line at a time.

My concern is that if I get the mind under control would I simply stop the imaginings? That would be bad for me as I may not have enough ideas to work on afterwards.

I know this all sounds a little silly, but it is an issue for me.

Interesting Holiday

On wednesday we received news that Sue's Grandmother had died. She was 94. The death was not unexpected so it was not overly emotional, however, the extra duties on top of satisfying two families was tiring. That will have to do as an explanation for my infrequent postings.


We had hoped to get down to LeftoverCon for a visit, but with everything happening we just could not do it. I wish we had been able to work that out.


The family visits on Thanksgiving were a little strained. My not being able to eat the unknown foods at both families places caused some raised eyebrows, but, well, I have not felt this good at the end of this holiday weekend in years. It was the right thing to do, and darned difficult to do. I just do not know what commercial foods I can eat and feel ok, so I have to duck them all.

I have been doing a lot of thinking about what to do with my blogging/podcasting. I am finally forming some distinct thoughts on the subjects. I will be trying to use different blogs for different purposes. This one will highlight my twitter comments on the side and personal comments in the body. I'll use twitter to do vague updates of projects/duties that I finish that you folks may want to take a look at.


For Dragon Storm I want to try to get some good "content" on the DS Beta and LJ blogs. A longer explanation of how and why cards exist should be a good place to start. It will be an illustration of the Chaotic world of Dragon Storm by sticking information about the world in the original comments plus in responses to questions that come up in the Beta blogs and LJ blog.


I have been putting up links to articles I have found of interest on that blog. Since I spend some time everyday searching for material to use in gaming and life I may as well pass it on. One of the things I have learned as I search the web is that I have an awful lot to learn about this communication thing. Sometimes knowing how much there is to learn is daunting, but what the heck, I'll just keep plowing onward.


At any rate I think I'm starting to sort out what is going on in my mind and a way to split it out into a series of blogs.


At any rate, if you what to dig through my different blogs to see what interests you, you can find them all at our handy dandy links page. dig through and see what interests you. Let me know if there is something more you want to see.

Wow

For 300 Billion you could pay 7,500,000 people $20.00 per hour, 40 hours a week for 50 weeks. Thats the bailout we know about and it's less than half the proposed amount. Bet we could get the roads fixed....

Now, for the three trillion the fed has spent so far. That would be 75 million people employed? OK, too many. How about $5.00 per hour, 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year for 300 million adults. That should cover most everyone in the country. $10,000 for each of us. That would stimulate the economy some. Of course, as taxpayers we are on the hook for this... so, how are you going to pay your share?

Sue is at Midwest Furfest

Sue called me as she was setting up for Midwest Furfest. Here at the secret clanhold Mac has taken over Sue's seat and is hard at work. Well, she calls it work, and who am I to argue.

OK, more later...

Sue is on her Way!

I just saw Sue off to Midwest Furfest. She is headed out to pick up Sandy for the ride to Chicago. We got her going right at 6 AM our time. She has a six hour trip, if everything goes correct. Probably seven with stops. So, she should arrive at the show at 1 PM Friday. The dealer room opens at 3 PM. That means she has a small amount of wiggle room on the way.

Everybody keep an eye on her over there for me, OK?

Getting Sue Ready

I'm getting Sue ready for Midwest Furfest, she leaves early tomorrow morning. By getting the DS card books trimmed down to something more manageable means she will have the entire DS line with her and available.

More thinking:
I have the Mark's Mysteries blog for the podcast, but since I have not found the time to keep the stories going (I will, somehow) I have started putting up stories, books and podcasts I have found worth noting. I know that few of you out there have given up the commercial airwaves the way we have, but you may find something here to interest you. I find that as I work I can listen to any number of shows and either get a smile or get some information, and maybe some news.

You have probably also noticed a lot of ad links showing up on our pages. These are all tied to us and we are hopeful that people will use them so we can get a kick-back from these people. We have Google Ads, Itunes, Pet Smart, Stevivia, RiffTrax and Amazon accounts at this point. The income is slow so far, but it is building slowly. Essentially it gives us a way to make alternate money from the content we put on line. Hopefully it will provide enough extra to keep our wild and crazy enterprise going forward.

Your thoughts are?

still wondering

Another blog that I have is Articles of Interest I Find. Everyday I spend time trying to understand the world I live in from both a historical and current point of view. Using Mars Edit it is easy, and quick, for me to post links to the blog. None of what is here is mine, just "stuff" I find interesting on the web. You can find the link here. I thought it would be worth letting people know what I was looking at, it may interest you as well.


OK, that is the end of my morning thought, comments welcome.

I find myself wondering how

I find myself wondering how to divide my blogging entries. The purposes of blogging is many fold, at least, it is for me. If you have any thoughts to add, please do.

First, I want to keep in touch with the people I know. I have friends from across the country and I enjoy reading their blogs as to what is happening. It gives me the feeling that I am staying in touch without interfering with their lives by taking up unwanted time. I have a number of personal blogs that I follow. If you want to let me know about your blog drop me a note at markharmon@mac.com. Intrinsic with this I want to keep interested people up on my life, which is here at my Daily Blog.

Second, I want to pass on our game data. That is DS, Prismatics, Tark, unnamed and Furzz at this point. There is just too much in our brains and not enough out there for you guys. The way I enjoy the most is to do podcasts. I feel better doing the "bardic" tradition than I do writing, and I like it. If I'm not enjoying these things then why do them? I have started using the LJ Journal for the primary release point for DS, but what do I do with the rest? I am nibbling away at a Core rules system for new games and I want to find a place to discuss those that makes sense. I can use help making sure they are clear. I am thinking I'll do that over at the Mark's Madness blog.

If you are confused, as I am, about where our "stuff" is you can find a page of our links right about here. I think of it as the central Empire of links.


Right now my mind has started to wander, so I will work on this again for the next post. In the mean time, if you have any suggestions, I would be glad to hear them, comment, comment, comment.

What the heck do you people want to see/read/hear?

Unbelievable Food

Sue made two small entirely organic lasagna's today. It is extremely good that she froze one before cooking. It was unbelievably good. I've had a number of these in good resturants and none of them are even close to what Sue made. I'm not sure if I want Sue to have more time to cook or not....

She also made organic chocolate chip cookies. I ate every one I could get my hands on. Again, Sue put some of the batter away. OK, so I had Mild too. Right now I am typing this, drinking coffee and enjoying a relaxing day.

Getting Slowly back to work

I have to thank our Patrons for a very successful Pentacon. Now that I am back at home I am continueing to improve in the health area. I just have to be careful not to try to do too much and cause a set back.


I am still putting up Audiobook and Podcast recommendations on the Mark's Mysteries Blog. I am doing that while I try to find the time to get back to the story. I find these a great replacement for TV and other commercial broadcasting stuff.


Right now I have to get the orders out.

Still rather puny here.

I still have this congestion hanging on. Work is really going slow. We went out and bought groceries and I'm ready to sit and stare, maybe even back to sleep. Good thing I was a little ahead on Pentacon prep. Susan is pretty much back in gear. I'm glad I married a tough one.

Defrocked Valarians regroup

Yes, that is right. A series of adventures with 100-200 point characters revealed that some Valarians had been compromised. Realizing that they could do nothing they went to a well known Valarian Troublemaker with the information.

Researching the problem revealed that the infection ran deep. They were not able to pin down those "higher" tainted allies of the Pylos. Black Star assembled a crack team to strike directly at the den of the Pylos agent leading the taint. They were warned that this action could cost them there Valarian Status. They followed Black Star into the stronghold.

They fought there way in until they were confronted by a Hag Councilor, A Valarian Warmaster Dragon and several Jikadell Fiends. The Heroes nearly died, but they prevailed and Killed the Madspawn Valarian Warmaster and the Hag Councilor, but they had nothing left to confront the Pylos Agent with. They were forced to abandon the quest and regroup.

The Valarian Warmaster spirit escaped and reported his death at the hands of the Black Star led rouges. As the heroes limped away they found their Valarian Boons and abilities drain away. Not only did they gain a few old wounds to point at, but they had failed to reach their goal. They felt betrayed and bewildered.

Assembling the friends together Black Star spoke: "This is just the beginning of our battle against the Pylos and the infection they spread. We will clean up this problem. I know another way, an older way, a path of revenge. If you will stay with me I will take you to the elders and we will learn the ways of the Clans of old. The Clans know their world is lost, but it shall not be the Pylos who prevail. We are going to start by meeting with Heliot."

It seems that our campaign has taken a new course.

Now I need to decide where I put these cards for people to try. I think I will just do them as jpg files so people can download them and play. I'll let you know where that is as soon as I figure it out....

Just too Curious, I guess

Whenever I find myself forced to just sit my mind begins to travel to alternate worlds, new ideas and way too much fun is had inside my skull.

I am using this feed as my general outlet and I have started something new on the Live Journal, I am treating it like a news feed with info, updates etc. I'll see how people feel about that.

For quick notes I'll use the twitter feed you see to the right. They may become stories or pages in the future or they may pass into oblivion. It does give people a chance to see how badly my mind wanders.

A while ago I started a Facebook page, but I have not done much with it. It is really an experiment to see how, and why, social networks exist. This is the link to me on Facebook. Anyone who is on there should let me know. I'm going to start checking and using it more.

Now today I found an article that actually explained something to me that I was having trouble getting my brain around. It dawned on me that I may not be the only one who needs good explanations of the worlds antics. So I decided I needed somewhere to put these, and here is the Blog link. It allows me to find the freaking thing again to review and lets me share what I find.

What it all amounts to is that my world has changed a lot since I heard President Eisenhower on the radio, and I am fascinated by it all. I know that some my age are scared, but I am excited by the potential of this world and I want to see what happens next!

Hopefully I can help some others see our ever changing world as fun and get them to join me in exploring this wonderful world. That does not mean I want to forget where I have been, in fact that history is what I want to add to. I can enjoy the entertainment of the past and move forward at the same time. We all can, if we want to.

Fall Illness Keeps me quiet

Last Monday morning Sue awoke with a bad cough, lung congestion and general poor health. I spent Monday and Tuesday working and caring for my Sue. By Tuesday night Sue had turned the corner and was able to get work done. It looked like everything would be fine.

On wednesday morning I woke with the problem. I continued to work and care for Sue. My thinking was that I had not gotten this early and that I could toss it aside. Thursday I found myself down for the count. The weakness in my respiratory system came to visit me and doing things like breathing and moving became extremely difficult. (I have had severe bronchial problems which started with puberty. Puberty brought me some things I really, really like plus asthma, allergies and thrice yearly bronchitis. Kind of one of those with the good one must accept some bad experiences.)

Anyway, Friday morning Sue was starting to get worried. She asked me if I needed to go to the doctor. I considered for a moment. I know I could get better on my own, but there is this Pentacon thing coming and I'll still be sick if I don't go for help. So, I went to the doctor.

My regular doc is on vacation, so I headed for a clinic. My Lord, these people want a freaking fortune to get in, oh well, in I went. I left with some samples and a couple of scripts for medicine.

After picking up the meds I read all of the "side effects" carefully. I was a little worried when I saw the warning "avoid use of machinery, especially chainsaws, as some users have a craving to use chainsaws on neighborhood houses, trees, cars and neighbors." OK, maybe that would be fun. I mean that gave me a grin and I had not even taken the stuff.

Well, the meds are working on the congestion and I am rapidly improving. As long as I ignore the entertaining shakes, dizziness, mood swings, stomach gases, umm, where the f**k am I? Oh yea, right. It looks like I'll be on my feet for Pentacon.

Fortunately I was actually ahead on Pentacon prep and the new cards were printed and laminated wednesday. All I need to do is find a day to cut them and I am home free. The e-mail con pick up orders are letting me know how many cards we will need. We will see how that works.

It does mean that the progress I was making on the market and the Gatekeeper Comic have come to a halt, but I'll get back there. The absolutely wild careening of my thoughts has given me several absolutely nutty ideas, and I think I'll do them all.

I have also found a couple of interesting podcasts. I'll get them up on the Mark's Mysteries blog as recommendations in the near future.

OK, I'm going to lay back down. Energy levels have run down and I seem to need an infusion.

Travels of Kit

I got going and when I finished putting up two more pages on the Gatekeeper Comic I saw that Sue had sent me descriptions for the first four pages of The Travels of Kit. Well, I couldn't resist. So, if you go to myonlinecomics, check for the picture and link to the Travels of Kit

ooops

HeHe. I just posted on the DS blog a post that should have been here.

Tuesday, Paperwork Daze

It is tuesday and my primary duty is to do the business paperwork for the week. Since the Post Office was closed yesterday I also need to make a shipping run.

I am, once again working on the DS Market. It is tricky to change the old one as it is an integrated unit and does not lend itself to piecemeal updating. That means I can't just "flip" a switch and replace a piece at a time. On the positive side I finally have a format for the pages that I like. The main page highlights the cards for a category (Cast is done and here.) and allows linking to the individual pages with larger pictures. I am setting up each of the card pages to be able to browse through them directly without returning to the main page. That also means adding the appropriate buying code to each card page as well.

The new format is also being done as individual pieces so they can be updated one at a time. That will be better....

I got a couple more web pages done on the Gatekeeper Comic within Our Comic Site.

I am also slowly adding more images to Susan's art site. I redid the central links piece and added the "archive" section for older works. I have found the disk with Sue's original DS works and I'm integrating them in. After those I'll add the LR5 and Jyhad art I found. For the Magic followers I put many of Susan's Magic the Gathering Proofs up on E-Bay for sale.

I am hoping to work on a site index for the comics so you can go to specific pages in the site and I had problems sleeping last night so I got a nice chunk of the Features pages done.

OK, so I did some work.

It is Sunday and I did do some work yesterday. I couldn't help myself. I looked up, resized, uploaded and assembled a 2009 Cat calendar for Sue. We are making it available here at LULU. This is an experiment to see what kind of market there is for something like this. That means we will not be ordering them to carry to conventions. If we find there is a market we will do these every year.

Time Off

Sue got home last evening. I'm very glad to see her. Mocha seems to be very happy Sue is back. Mocha has been good this week, but with Trouble and Sue gone she was a little off. Things are getting back to normal for her now. Mac is hanging around a lot, but she is staying near me. I think she is irritated at Sue for not having been here.

Anyway, I pretty much took the day off, doing just my e-mails and a couple of blog posts.

Sue and I have been talking about everything that has been going on politically and economically. Quite the mess going on out there. I am surprised at how scummy one of the campaigns has gotten. The first election I have memories from was the Nixon/Kennedy campaign way back in 1960. I have never seen anything so disgusting as McCain's campaign. I am afraid the McCain I supported in the late 90's has left the building and been replaced by this disreputable/disgusting anti-American faker. Maybe he fooled me the first time.

In economics. Long ago there was an economic holiday that happened about once a century. It would be declared a "Jubilee" and all debts were cancelled and everything would start over at zero, the Pope declared it. Our current situation could be so bound up that a radical concept may be the only solution that would actually work. All this piecemeal squandering of my tax money just doesn't seem to be helping me, or anyone I know. On the other hand, I do not know any millionaire bankers, so I won't see the goodies.

Just Working

I am distracting myself from Troubles death by getting some work done that needs doing.

I have gotten our e-bay store rebuilt, now I need to get the Magic Art Proofs up there. The Link to the e-bay store is here.

I am also planning to get the next few pages of the Gatekeeper comic up today. Hopefully the Template will allow this to be fairly easy. I will stick the comic link in right about here. I need to get a site map built for the site so you can go to particular pages.

Sue is still up north and we are using her iphone and e-mailing to stay in touch. I am surprised at how comforting it is to me to have contact with her. I am also keeping my AIM open (markharmon@mac.com) when I am up and while she is up there, so I am available by that one too.

My Online contacts:
Skype: markeharmon
AIM: markharmon@mac.com
Google Talk: marksmysteries@gmail.com
Jabber: meharmon@livejournal.com
twitter: markellisharmon

Memories of a Good Friend

It seems like everywhere I turn I see a memory of Trouble. I have 17 years of them, so I guess it is not surprising.

I was feeding Mocha some of the braunswieger that we had gotten for him just a couple of days before we died and I realized that Trouble had always left her a little of his food for her. Now he has left her his braunswieger. I'm getting that lump in my throat again, yet it is tempered by a smile at the great dog he was.

Mocha is laying here by my feet as I type this. She knows something is not right and she is doing her best to comfort me, the big guy trained her well.

Sue has headed off with her mother to the upper penisula to visit her sister and get some reference photos. I'll be here holding down the fort here until Friday.

At the Ann Arbor Art Market

We are set up and Sue is selling even as I type.

I have just spent my first work session getting the Gatekeeper Online Comic rolling. So, the link is live to the Gatekeeper Comic. And you could follow this link to see it, or finish reading first, it is up to you.

I am going to take a break, visit the restroom, I need a rest. Then I'll get back to working on more comic to get up!

Very long days

The last couple of days have been bad. Trouble, our 17 1/2 year old puppy, passed on Saturday morning. His kidneys finally gave up and he quite eating or drinking. At 21 lbs he was just a shadow of his 40 lb. self.

I am not feeling too good at the moment. He has been a great loyal friend and I will miss him a lot. I know that it works out to about 110 human years and it was a good run, but I want him here.

I still remember when I first saw him 17 years ago. He was just a puppy and he was trotting along behind Sue. She had walked up to where I was working to have lunch. When I saw him following Sue and looking up at her my first thought was "we have a dog." He knew what he wanted, and he got it.

I have 17 years of excellent memories of Trouble that I will always carry with me. Right now, however, every time I think of him I get choked up. I know that I'll be seeing him as a spirit soon. I miss him and I'm not getting much work done. Despite that, Sue and I will be at the Ann Arbor art market tomorrow.

Comics on the way

I have been tied down, but, besides losing 1/2 pound a day, I have been getting some comics prepared for the web.

What is on its way are the early Gatekeeper comics from 1987. I have the first one scanned and parsed to put up on web pages. We even have a domain to put up the comics. My Online Comics is here.

I have a link on the page back to the Accommodations comic and the cover of Gatekeeper is up there.

The comic itself is something I have not looked at in years. The comic is old enough that it started coming apart as I scanned it.

The story itself is actually quite good and it does show where the work on Grandilar was at back in 1986-87.

The new site is where we will be putting the upcoming Prismatics comic that Sue is working on. This also gives us an opportunity to expand our web advertising. It will give us some auxillary income that will be handy as we go forward.

I am hoping to start putting up the comic this weekend, although the convention/outdoor art market in Ann Arbor Sunday may stop that idea. First I have to get on my feet and get Sue to the show.

Thanks!

I appreciate the thoughts. I know that a lot of people have worse problems in the gut, but after 37 years of struggling with different stomach weaknesses I get frustrated.

Sue is tending to me and trying to make me stay still and eat carefully. I find that Yogurt (My favorite is Stonyfield Whole Milk, but there are several Varieties that taste good.) calms the system nicely. To four heaping Tablespoons of Yogurt I add one tablespoon of ground flax (To keep the system going, so to speak) and a teaspoon of jam (usually Bilberry as it helps vision). I do that 3-4 times a day.

Once I had a doctor tell me that the "flora and Fauna" of my gut was not adapting to "modern crafted" foods I started moving to organics. Now that I am on them the stomach problems are not constant. That means that when they strike it is unusual and I am not used to the pain the way I used to be. So now I find myself doubling over when the pain spasms hit when before I would have just gritted my teeth and went on. I am just not used to it.

It also means that whenever I let the commercial foods slip into the diet because it is convenient, or I'm at Cons, holidays or just plain lazy, the gut pains strike.

Since most people have not had a problem adapting to the new additives and chemicals in the food, it is difficult for them to understand when I say I can't eat at a family get-together. Sometimes they even get insulted. It makes for a good excuse to eat some of that yummy commercial food, but I have to stop that.

The best side effect of the organic plan is that I have lost 56 pounds since I headed this way. Admittedly that is only 20 pounds a year, but with the looming government health regulations, we all need to slim down to stay out of trouble. (Yea, I can smell those well meaning weight fascists coming towards us. Why is it that the government always wants to regulate the wrong things?)

I better quit NOW. My paranoia says to keep my mouth shut.

It has Returned, not good.

My gut infection has reared its ugly head again. The blood and pus is running through, but it should not be in me anyway.

As some of you know all too well, stomach problems are no fun. I'm afraid that it is ultimatley my own fault that it is back. I have let a number of noxious comerrcial foods to return to my diet.

The result is that I am temporarily out of action as movement is causing me dizziness, and other less attractive reactions.

I will be able to fix this as long as I eat very carefully and just clear the system and the mind.

More Core Game Stats Talk

Defense is the targets basic ability to deflect damage from physical, mental and magic damage. The character's card Defense is subtracted from all damage that targets Health Points. Additional Defense for specific types of damage, such as physical, spells, warp or od, comes from equipment worn, active spells and the powers and skills of the character. The attacking items, spells etc. may have special rules relating to Defense on them and they would supersede the General Defense rule here.

The maximum Defense that may be applied to any single damage dealing attack is 10. Even if equipment, spells and Powers give a greater number, Defense is capped at 10.

NOTE: This is different than the DS system. First, it is designed to be simpler in that it seperates DEF from outside items and the cards basic DEF. Second, it applies across the board to all damage, simplifying the use. Third, because it is used universally it will be smaller. Natural DEF will rarely go beyond 3. Fourth, DEF is capped at 10. This is essentially a way to keep danger in every encounter, no matter the characters experience and the characters value. It also gives everyone a chance to help, no matter how inexperienced they are.

New Comic

I have posted the Accommodations comic on Sue's website. There is a link on the Master Links page and, of course, It is right here.

This is a new format/layout for a comic we have had up before. Sue is working on comics again and we are working out the format to publish it on line with.

We had a good game sunday night. The characters have discovered an area with "dirty" Valarians. The dirty Valarians are being lead by a Pylos Agent. They now know that the problem goes up the ladder, so no help there. The local Mentor and War Master are with the Pylos/Black Bane team. Their only allies so far are a couple of Valarians who have been waiting for help, marauding orc raiders and the agents of the Necromancer Dyson Brickwall. The local elethay temple is headed by a secret Jikadell Priestess working for Black Bane. One of the acolytes is a Jikadell agent for Dyson Brickwall and is an aide to the characters. All very confusing. If it were not for a heroic blocking move by Iesha, a character would have died. She took the hit that would have finished Tank.

From the outside the characters look like rogue valarians teamed with Dyson Brickwall against the Elethay temple and local Valarians. If they fail to get evidence they will be branded as rogues and booted.

Next Stat: Ranged

The Ranged stat is intended to reflect the effectiveness of the character with missle type weapons ranging from slings, bows, javelins, beer mugs, blasters and slug throwers. The Ranged stat would be added to all ranged attacks.

NOTES:
The card stats will be primarily for combat and what you add to the character will be the role-playing skills.

Most role-playing bonuses will be in the cards/skills that the character adds.

Special situation contest rolls will have there own section in the rules. We can collect the questions from you guys and then do a list of "if this, then roll this"

More Stat Talking: Melee

Melee as a Stat. Melee is intended to represent the characters skill bonus in melee combat. It may be strength or natural skill that is used to do damage in melee combat.

Card Value

Ongoing Game notes, look below if this does not make sense by itself.

The Card Value may be in terms of Card Points (CP), Experience (EX), or monetary (GP).

Card points means it can be used by/added to a character or Cast member. When used by a Cast member it is also the EX Value.

Experience value is the points awarded for encountering the card during play. This is usually found on a Cast Member, Location or Trap. We use encountering to express that surviving can teach as much as winning.

GP. Gold is the basic monetary unit in the system, although it could be Credits etc. These are things you buy.

Wildly Meandering Mind

I am slowly expanding the "stuff" I am covering here. The idea that I post my thoughts means that I post what I'm thinking about. If you get confused by the range of topics, well, thats where my mind seems to have travelled.

Since I am having trouble getting back to the Mark's Mysteries podcast I have started putting up links to interesting podcasts on that blog. At least it is one less thing for here.

I have been very slowly working on the Susan Van Camp core rules system for RPG's. We actually have three games we would really like to do, but we need a simple format to pour them into. (Prismatics, Three Worlds, Questing are Alpha titles.)

The starting point is to create a set of characteristics that can be easily explained to new people and will cover fantasy, science fiction and other genres. What we have so far is on the card sample you are about to look at. I'll go into more details as I go along. I may need to create a blog just for covering the progress on the core rules.

Well then, Have a good one all!

Everything is fine in Flint

Well, saturday off started fine, then it headed downhill.

We had a chinese lunch at a place called Hong Kong Buffet in Flint. The service was good, the people were nice. OK, thats the high point. The buffet had a good selection, reasonable price, fresh food and rather bland taste. The Buffet was just OK. What you do not want to do is order off the menu. Sue ordered Almond Boneless Chicken. What she got was bland and did not even resemble Almond Boneless Chicken. Sue did not eat it and complained. They said they would just charge for the buffet. When we got the bill, it was not that way.
My feeling: Find somewhere else to try. Buffet average, service good, menu poor. I did find three glowing reviews of this place on-line. I do not know where those people ate, maybe the restaurant has gone downhill since those reviews.

We had rain all day saturday, 5 inches in all. I headed down the basement to be sure our dehumidifier was running. I found water, and not water I wanted. We bailed out a 100 gallons of water and called for sewer help. We moved out all of our equipment out of the basement and now the house is a mess. It is going to take a couple of days to get things in shape around here. The worst part is that it is still frakkin raining. Tonight it is supposed to rain. What a surprise. At least our sewer is working now.

Sue is down at the Flint Farmers Market selling today, so I'm on clean-up duty and I'm scheduled to get the new art pages for Sue's website done. With all of the copyright silliness going on I am having to tag every piece of artwork with a creative common license. For most we are using Non-commercial, attribution, no change copyright. That means people can use the images for personal use, but they have to attribute the work to Sue. I have about 130 pieces ready to go, now I need to make the pages.

Well, off to work.

Thoughts meandering about

Each day in my life is slightly different. If I approach it with care I can, over time, change the course of my life. Wish me luck on that one.

Something Different RSS Feeds, What they do.

I am in a position of needing/wanting to keep track of what is being written by our community on our sites and the comments that you make. I am going to go through and show how I made "shortcuts" for keeping track of blogs. I know this is simple for some people, but I really haven't seen a "starter" description of RSS anywhere. If I had, I might have been using it a lot sooner.

In the address window of the browser you will see an "RSS" button at the far right of the screen. When you click on that (RSS) button it takes you to a text page. You want to bookmark that page. Your browser will now put a number behind the bookmark telling you how many new posts are on the page when you start the browser.

I have put a folder on my bookmarks bar to put these in. When I start up the folder carries the number of new posts in it telling me there is new stuff to read.

Many of the pages also allow you to use an RSS feed on the comments as well. Really useful on the dsbeta board. I could not find an easy way to bookmark the RSS comments, so the following works on blogger but not live journal.

Start by looking at the info in the address window when you are looking at the RSS feed page for Mark's Daily Thoughts. It looks like:
feed://marksdailylife.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss

To get the comments feed you need to delete the (posts/default?alt=rss) part of the address. Type in (comments/default) instead. You end up with the following in the address bar:
feed://marksdailylife.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default

Once it is typed in the address bar, you "click" on return and you will be on the RSS feed for the comments of the page. Bookmark that page and name it something like "Mark's Daily Comments". You can now quickly see what new comments have been posted by me and what new comments have been added.

The comments tracking works on Blogger. I have not found a way to do that on Live Journal, but if anyone knows that one, I, and others, would like to know it.

Enjoy!

A little Slow

I'm going a little slow. For some reason I have a headache that keeps coming back.

Sunday nights game went well. The party split up and are scouring the village of Wellsville in search of a spy and her network. In the process they are finding problems in the villages society that don't seem to match their views of what an Elethay/Valarian village should be like. Something is wrong in Wellsville that may be deeper than just a spy.

As you can see from the link above, I know have an Amazon store. I'll be adding "stuff" to it as I go along. If you have suggestions as too which way I should take it, let me know.

Another Morning

It has been raining here for three nights in a row. It has an effect on my allergies and joints which I do Not appreciate. Slows me down. I tried a Feverview pill this morning for the headache. It seems to be helping. I find trying different things works better. I think the body gets used to a single pain killer and starts ignoring it.

I really want to break out more time to work on a new simpler game using the same system. Dragon Storm has become an advanced game system. Nothing wrong with that, it just shows it is flexible. We need a simpler game to get people started. They can move upward to DS if they want.

My biggest problem is that there is a lot of projects that Sue and I want to do and I'm having trouble prioritizing them. I seem to skip from one to another as soon as I get a little tired of one, I move to another. Not the best way to complete anything.

Well, Trouble is giving me bathroom eyes. When a 17 1/2 year old dog wants something, he gets it. He still has those puppy eyes. He may not move well anymore, but he has not forgotten a single trick.

Working with Sue today.

Today was supposed to be a relaxing day off, but Sue and I started talking and pretty soon we were both back to work.

I added a new blog for covering cons. The idea is that our players can help us, and themselves by digging up con information and passing it on to the community. I took the time to add a long link list on the page to get people to all of our resources. I have to put in a tip of the hat here to pixiejorge for her Pentacon info. Thanks!

The new market is moving along now. I need to make commentary for every frakkin' card as we go along. The work will go faster now because Tonya is helping out. I set up the a page that I could use as a template to make pages. She is doing the detailed work of making the pages work. She has already sent back the first two Universal pages and I uploaded them. My thanks to her as well.

The talks we had here covered a lot of territory. We have decided to move forward with several projects. We will be doing them as a series of interlinked projects. What that means is the we are working on a new game/comic/podcast/set of blogs/demo arrangements etc. all at once. The Prismatic Circle Wizards hint in the Wizard background card on the DS beta page is a hint as to one of the games we are working on.

So, That is it for todays general information.

Many Projects on the Plate

I have a series of projects I need to be working on and I am rather poor at rating them by importance.

Print special order art, update etsy, update e-bay, DS market work, SVC website, DS website, DS podcast, MM podcast, creature book, check my RSS feeds for updates (gotta keep an eye on you...), twitter, ghoul article, vampire article, new game 1, new game 2, set mission 01 for print, get new DS cards to Sue for art, e-mails, blog, get new cards on dsbeta, edit ds beta cards, learn something new, convention updates.

Well, I need to get started. I think I'll start by checking up on DS Flunkie...

od game, it was

I finally finished a scenario I had begun in June, but with the conventions and Sue running it took a long time to wind this one up.

They finally hunted down the Skorn Witch and killed her.

The tricky part for me is one Power Player among role-players. The average CP of the group was 143. The Power Player has 128 HP, the next was 54, 50, 48 and 46. Everyone is playing within the rules, but it makes it difficult to be sure he is at least in danger without killing the other characters.

Oh well. Everyone seemed to have fun.

Now, did it work?

If you are seeing this then this blog has moved to marksmysteries@gmail.com.

four Chat accounts?

All right then. I seem to have four "Chat/talk" accounts I have information on.

AIM Account: markharmon@mac.com
Google Talk: marksmysteries@gmail.com (Jabber Client)
Live Journal: meharmon@livejournal.com (Jabber Client)
Skype: markeharmon

AIM, Google and Live Journal (LJ Talk) all can be logged into through ichat, even all at once. Skype is a stand-alone program and must run seperate. My LJ account shows me the "friends" from Live Journal, so I have several of you on there.

Next I need to switch my user name on my Blogger accounts to my gmail and see what Google thinks are "upgrades" that I would get. Of course that will entail several other changes in programs like Mars Edit that I use to post with, but what the heck.

Time to make a mess, again....

Thursday

I took Wednesday "off" and did work in the yard. The old place is starting to look like someone lives here. The next project is to teach Trouble and Mocha to scrub and paint the house. If that does not work I'll have to do it myself.

Web sales of art has been snappy so I have been slow in getting the new cards up for DS. Since I said it would go up, it is up, such as it is.

I have come up with a "plan" for cutting down on card production work. The idea is to make most of the older/slower cards available as "Special Orders". The deal would be order any 8 cards for $20.00. That would involve setting up a form to fill in and send. I would then invoice the person and print/send the order. I'm looking for thoughts on this. I will do a longer explanation after some more thought.

Monday

Monday is here far too soon. I have too many projects on my mind.

Since I seem to have acquired a follower on my Twitter account I suppose I should say that I am markellisharmon on Twitter. I am sure that what I need is just one more on-line account. Technology, and its potential, fascinates me.

I just sent Sue a series of cards to do art for. I think Pentacon will have cards that expand DS, but there may not be much really exciting.

OK, some work now

We tried something different, we set up at the local open air market for sunday. For a first try, it is promising, and different. Cats and Dragons are popular everywhere it seems.

I'm still doing a good deal of manual labor. It is surprisingly soothing.

Later this week I'll ask myself how I am doing. He's a little ornery and I have to be careful when I talk to me.

Mocha is giving me THAT look. I have got to find that sucker sign I seem to wear.

Recovery Mode

I am recovering by doing a lot of work on the yard and the house. I really need to catch up the web orders....

Well, maybe tomorrow.

This is different....

We are staying outside of Indy with some of Sue's relatives. Believe it or not I am out in the Gazebo overlooking a nice little lake as the darkness slowly settles in, and I have no idea who's wireless I'm using to do this.

It is only wednesday night and Sue is already working on commissions for the Con. People have been e-mailing her with requests before the Con even starts. Plus we are getting web art print orders to ship out on tuesday when we get back home.

This summer is turning out to be strange, interesting and Fun!

I suppose I should pull up the web page for the new cards and get to work, but a lazy voice is muttering something about "aaa, ya can do that later, can't ya?" I really am good at lazy......

Holiday Inn Westlake, Cleveland area

I am here at the StormCon DS convention staying at the Holiday Inn.

This stikes me as an older Inn. It is well kept and you do get a "free hot breakfast ticket" with the room. I haven't tried the food, I brought something soothing for the ole tummy. (By the way, why do they call it a free breakfast when I'm paying for a room? If they gave the breakfast free with no room fees paid, that would be special.)

When I opened the room door I took a deep breath and was pleasantly surprised, no obnoxious cleaning fluid smells. That was a good sign. The room was already cool and clean. Nice digs. All the standard features, you know, bed, TV, coffee pot all in working order. Even the bath tube works the way it is supposed to. The wireless is friendly to connect to, but the speed is so-so and seems to hang a bit from time to time. The room also came with davenport and table. I'm sitting on the davenport right now. Comfortable.

The employees are courteous and helpful, but I couldn't help noticing that they smile only when called on to do so. That means to me that the management is good enough to get work done, but not good enough to make the people happy.

Overall I have to give the place 4 Dragons out of five. Considering the cost it is a reasonable place to stay. At this level the wireless could be better and the elevator makes noise that make me nervous.

Thanks for tuning in!

Man Looses Brain

Man looses brain, cat chases brain, man looks befuddled.

OK, that about sums it up. I hit a wall this afternoon and I have come to a halt.

I do feel the regeneration kicking in so I'll be up and at them in the morning. Now, if I could just pin down who "them" is.

StormCon should be fun. We are not taking a display. We will be putting the "stuff" on a couple of tables and wandering off to play. I should be able to handle the 2pm and 7 pm game slots.

I am taking a Valet and a couple of brand spanking new Phoenixes to play.

Oh, I put up a new podcast. I actually did not make time to do it, I did it while cutting cards.

More Changes and the Laminate Arrives.

Well, we have been testing the new macbook with Sue's new tablet. It turns out that some of her software draws heavily on the graphics card. That means that the older macpro runs them better. Sooo, finally, I get to change computers once again.

In fact, this is my first post from the once again installed Mars Edit for blogging.

This morning the laminate arrived for me to work on the DS cards. This is going to push me into a lot of last minute work. I will probably wind up with a bandage on my wrist for StormCon. Oh, well.. Such is the way of life.

Back to work now.

Sue is Back

Sue has returned from a successful trip to San Diego, and I am glad she is here.

The dogs are glad she is back, they think that I have let her come back, that she has finished her punishment. I think I was the one punished.

We ordered her a new drawing tablet, the Wacom Cinitiq, where she can draw directly on the tablet. This should allow her to create even more art. So far it is working great.

I discovered, when Sue took over our portable computer, just how much my productivity dropped working just on the desktop computer, so I ordered one of the new/rebuilt MacBooks with 4 gig's of memory. It turns out that that extra memory makes her new tablet work better on the new portable than on the old Pro. The result is that Sue now has the new computer and I'm settling back into the old Pro...

And I've gotten an empty case for an ipod.... Why do I think that I'm coming out behind in this deal? I'm thinking that I'm in line for some rewards here.

OK, back to work.

I already miss her, but the iphone works.

Sue sent me these pics from her new iphone. I really do miss her, I even miss the night of sleep I lost yesterday...

Sue got an Iphone and I got a case.

Yes, you read that correctly. Sue finally got her iphone, and while she was there she bought a neat belt case for the phone. Unfortunatley the case is too difficult to use with a phone. It would be a very good case for an ipod touch or classic, but not so good for a phone. The end result is that we wound up getting her a better phone case and I got the empty case, just to be ready, you know, like I may someday get something to put in it.....

I signed up for Evernote on the web because it has an app that works with the iphone. Basically it lets you write notes on the iphone that are available on the home computer through either a desktop application you download or through a web browser. I wrote the following on her iphone:

the new keyboard takes a bit of getting used to, big it will get a lot easier with practice as we learn. For now I need to watch the letters as I hit them.

In the meantime I have transfered most of my programs and work to the tower computer and Sue is working with what was my portable. Her output in the past week has jumped big time. Being able to work where you are really improves efficiency.

The opposite of that is that me productivity has dropped significantly. The power of a tower is thrilling, but it is real obvious that in our lines of work you need both machines. Ah well, I guess I'm just going to have to get a new machine. Fortunatley I do not need the graphics power Sue does, so I can go with a Macbook. I did some looking at HP and Dell portables, but when I got them constructed close to the Macbook stats the prices were pretty much the same. (HP $60 less, Dell $60 more, all about $1200) When did "N" wireless become an upgrade? When did they take out the firewire and ethernet ports on there portables? Reworking them to get the ports I need would be a pain, but you can get adapters to cover that, however, they would be slowed to usb 2 speed. Apples memory is lower, but I included that upgrade in the apple price. I don't buy my memory upgrades from apple, they charge way too much for memory, I use Macsales to buy memory, and they have done very well with it in the past. 4 gb of memory is down to 98 bucks.

Well, I better get to work printing Sue's artwork to sell at San Diego. She flys out early tuesday for the con. I'll get back home and get on card printing right away. Gotta get ready for StormCon next.

New Software

Well, Sue is about to get an iphone and to properly use it we need to upgrade to Leopard OS from the Tiger we have been on for years. So far everything seems to be working just fine. Surprisingly it runs faster than Tiger rather than slower. I don't know, I guess I just expected it to be bigger and more bloated, but they have surprised me.

I have a lot of software to check yet, but it all seems to work. Quark 6.5 appears to be fine with it, so I can put off that upgrade a while longer and keep doing the DS stuff.

Enough for now, the computer says my new Garage Band for pod recording is installed, and I have to check it out!

Wow, I sure am sleepy

I don't know what is going on but since wednesday I have been sleepy.

My weight has finally stabalized at 174. Thats a 16 pound lose in about five weeks. Maybe the adjustment to a new weight is tiring me out. I went out and bought two new pairs of pants and a new belt. The old belt ran out of holes. My old pants I can use to work outside in, but I thought having my pants fall off of me might not do well at a con, or even out shopping. The world gets so unsettled about these things. You would think no one had seen underwear before.......

I am chipping away at getting the card books refilled. They took a massive hit at origins. Now almost every order I prep to ship has one or two cards I have to print to fill the orders. I can't complain too much about that, stuff is selling and that is good.

Sue is making good progress on the Phoenix cards.

Well, enough of this, I need a nap.

dogs and cats living together

Well, it has been interesting. Trouble, whom the doc calls an "ancient" dog, got a bad tooth infection. The result was he wound up loosing most of his teeth. *sigh* So, he is on wet food now and it needs to be low salt. I have done some research and I'm now making dog food for the dogs. The following is the recipe I contrived from the research of recipes etc.

1.5 cups milk
4 oz meat (pre-cooked) ground beef or chicken or turkey
1/2 tbsp liquid aminos for minerals
1/2 tbsp garlic for antioxidents
1/2 tbsp ginger for digestion
1/2 tbsp yucca for joints and arthritis
1/4 cup vegtables (cauliflower, whatever)
10 slices of bread
3 eggs

mix all together completely until the bread is damp. Slap it in the oven to bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
Makes about 4 servings.

Since Mocha can still eat the hard food, trouble gets bigger portions.

Now the cat, Mac, seems to have gotten in a fight and has an infection in a cut just below her left ear. Twice a day we need to give her antibiotics. Her shots were up to date, so we don't have any worries there.

And I'm getting back to work. As usual I'm behind. I'll have a big trip to the post office tomorrow with the orders.

That it for today. Hope they stop the new FISA attack on America in congress.

Another Infection and another ten pounds lost

I'm not sure I like this weight loss by sickness idea. Anyway, I've lost ten pounds and I hope nobody I know finds it.

I was glad to see that the supreme court says we can defend ourselves by having guns. I have always thought that disarming people the way Hitler, Mao and Stalin did was a bad idea. But, of course, those guys all wanted to make sure they could use armed military against an unarmed public. Reading some very old radicals like Franklin indicates they were already thinking that the government needed to fear an armed populace, rather than the people fearing the government, just to keep the government from running over the peoples rights. Pretty sharp, and paranoid, people started this country. Maybe we need to keep that in mind.

Sunday before Origins/Anthrocon

Twas the sunday before the cons
All through the house a wailing was heard
Even the dogs were anxious for what was happening
But the cat didn't seem to care
For something is undone
Something is being forgotten
Will someone stop the wailing?
OUCH! oh my
It is me that wails

test

test

Attack of the Sue!!!

Bwahahahahahah! Sue has temporarily taken over Mark's blog. This was accomplished by use of a special spell, called 'Cage Friend'. I tested this spell at Marcon and you can see the results above....

Uh, all right, time to return to reality. I'm sitting on our front porch, enjoying a lovely summer day and learning to use Mars Edit, the blogging software Mark discovered. This is a nifty program. Using it, I hope to increase the number and frequency of my blog posts. Keep an eye on my blog to see if I can make this plan a reality.

We now return you to your regular blogging programing......

All Right Now

I am going to have to learn not to eat commercial foods. Last weekend I indulged in some pizza etc. By friday morning I was out of it. Sue took a look at me and said "Call the Doctor and go".

Anyway, I'm on drugs for this again and good old Doc says now that I have my body adjusted to normal human food that I don't have the flora and fauna in my gut to cope with the chemicals any more. I have become adjusted to healthy food and he says that I'm just going to have to stick with the good stuff.

At least this time I had the good sense to listen to Sue and go to Doc before it got too far along. I am already feeling better, so its back to work for me. I did loose much of Wednesday and Thursday to stomach pains, oh well.

Nightly rain has a downside

This nightly rain we are experiencing has me sneezing and breathing rather poorly. This is, I'm afraid, slowing me down. *sigh* So prep for Origins is further behind schedule than usual. We shall see what we see.

cards, cards, cards

I am printing cards to prep for Origins. I can comfortably get about a dozen sheets a day (120 cards). The new cards we have released so far this year have been selling very well and I an just trying to get those done to be ready for origins. That still gives me time to work on doing e-bay, etsy and try to keep up with the work around here.

We have had a lot of rain up here and our bushes have been growing like weeds around here. I really need to spend a couple of days out in the yard trimming and cleaning. *sigh* Always more work to do....

Good Time for a day off

I spent yesterday cleaning, and prepping computers. Today I rest.

First Coffee

I got up this morning and staggered to the coffee pot and got it started. When I got my first sip it sent a chill though me, starting the waking process. Once awake I got to work on the GGP 10 podcast that I have been mulling over in the back of my mind for the past month.
I know I should have gone through the podcast a second time, but I did it straight off the top of my head and straight to publishing. If I had done it any other way it would be another month before I finished it. So I'll have to live with the warts, oh well. Hopefully people will enjoy it as is.

Such is Life

Sue and I decided to pick up the Ghost in the Shell season 2 as a "reward" for our first two cons of the summer season. The series is much more complex than anything one would find made in the US. I find myself fascinated by their look at how democracy, goverment, secrecy, intelligence agencies and terrorism play into each other and how they perceive the world. It is, in a way, the discussion of rights and freedom that we are not having. Ah well, I guess I just find myself dreaming of the old days when conservatives and liberals battled for our minds. I don't think either side saw the neo-liberal corporatists sneak up and take over. I know we call them neo-conservatives, but they do not behave like conservatives, they behave like whacked out power hungry liberals. They have us fooled.

Ah yes, I seem to be slipping up. For a moment the cloud eased and I could see. The blissful ignorance will return soon.

Slowly getting going.

Just as we returned home my printer let me know that it is out of Black ink. Sooo, printing shipping labels is out, as is a number of duties I should be doing. That means I had time to create a Flickr Photo account. That allows me to easily add pictures to the blogs.

This is the Flickr Photo Feed link

This is the loaded Van Friday morning before we headed out for MarCon. Have Fun!

Ah yes

I spent a long day working yesterday. I got the new DS cards completed and ready to go at Marcon. I also got the new ACEO print book refilled and ready for the show. Sue's other print books followed. I finished up by getting some new art works into our e-bay auctions, at least one of which has already sold. This morning I got the packages packed for shipping and I'll be off the the post office to ship in a little while.

Well, I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at MarCon!

Trying A Picture here...

Tim and Sue at Pentacon 2007

Looking for an easier way to post

Recently I have forced myself to work only a "reasonable" number of hours per week. In the past few years I have doubled my workload going into the summer. This year I am trying to keep to 50 hours a week. That means that a number of jobs simply are not getting done. Maybe I need to reconsider.....

I have gotten both our e-bay store and etsy stores up and running this spring. So far we are pleased with the early results. Hopefully the sales on these will allow us to do fewer conventions and enjoy the ones we do better.

This update is being done in a program called Mars Edit. If it works out I should be able to do our blog postings on the desktop rather than on the web and that would save a lot of time and hassles, we shall see.

Comic Con was very good to us and I'm looking forward to MarCon.

Working

I got Sue's new Etsy art store up and running. The site specializes in art and looks to be a good bet for Sue. I just wish one of these outfits would use the same size art samples for there pages. I have to redo them for every outlet. *sigh*.

I have also started redoing Sue's website. With the ease of Etsy I can offload all of the buying stuff to them. I am also going to set up an e-bay store to sell Sue's magic proofs, art prints and see if I can't empty the house and get me some room to move.

The new cards are up and selling. I'm prepping more new cards.

For now, I need coffee and a nap.

A bit slow right now

I am moving a bit slow at the moment. I'm afraid that the wet, warm weather is setting off my Allergies and bringing my some nice headaches, sniffles, sneaezing and watering eyes. Such is life. I think Trouble has caught my allergies as he helps me sneaze when we go out to walk. The solution, of course, is to stop letting all that nasty air from the outside world into the house and just stay inside. I mean, what is out there that I can't see on video from the computer. Maybe a floating webcam..... I have to check that out.

Sue has gotten me the art for the language cards. I've checked the comments and it looks like they are ready to go. The art above is for common languages. Now I need to assemble the cards and get them up. A webpage and podcast should be done on these as well.


We had a good Tark idea session on Sunday. I think that in a couple of months I may be able to move it to a beta version. That assumes that I can continue to devote substantial time to the project. I'm not sure that with the Con season coming on I can do that. We will see.


Right now I need to get some more stuff up on e-bay to get the money my Uncle Sam wants..... I just luv those special holidays.

GGP-009 Podcast up

All right then. I got the new podcast done for a new GM cast card. I think the podcast turned out nicely. It gets a sense of the thing across, I hope. I was also able to add some GM and info exploratory info in as I went along. I'm not as happy with the web page write up on the Boar Men as I am with the podcast. The bad part is that the page write up too a much longer time for me to do and it does not convey the game feel nearly as well. Oh well.

Some day I'm going to have to locate a trasnscriber to get the podcast info into a written form. I suspect that they would also have to do a rewrite as the things I do in the podcast would be difficult to transcribe directly into a written version that would make sense.

Right now it has started to rain here and it has sent my nose into a tizzy. Sue is doing a neat piece of artwork for one-eye from the MM podcast that I'll be able to use on the next podcast for art. I'm liking the progress I am making in doing the podcast.

Sue is doing the art for the 2h spear and for the language cards. I expect to get them, and a podcast for them, done in the near future. I have sent her pics of the thievery cards to work on next. I'm assuming that the limited comments on most of these means that people think the text and rules work for them. It is good to have a lot of editors to share the blame with.

New MM Podcast is up!

MM00-10 podcast is up and available. I also have 11 finished. It is in for touch-up work.
We have been playing the Three Worlds game on a regular basis. It is coming along. Something about crossing Blasters, lightning bolts and demons has an appeal. I'm getting the terminology straightened out through working on the training podcasts. It makes me hear the words and consider what to use as names. The names of the categories and cards give atomosphere for the game. The game is slowly taking a good form.
Trouble is 17 this spring and he can feel the good weather approaching. He is bouncing around like a twelve year old dog. Times are good!

The Gap I See

I have been thinking a lot lately about the different worlds that technology is creating. It has opened up, for me at least, access to the ancient ability to be a storyteller. To use my voice to communicate my ideas. I am just glad that I have lived long enough for the future that suits me to arrive.

At the same time I find that a lot of people that I have grown up with look at me with confusion. They know that the future is here, but they want to stay in the world they grew up in. I can't blame anyone for that, but I don't want to stay "back there".

I don't know how to espress myself on this. I know that people don't know why I do the podcasts. The best explanation I can give is because I have waited all my life to do this, and now I can. I must do it, so I do.

Mark

Yes, day off is be come

Friday is off, but I'll be spending it ferrying my mom to doctors..... Saturday I should be back to work, but I'm not sure I'll be able to.

I spent most of the day working on GM sheets and new cards for the Three Worlds game. The next play test session is on Easter. While this process is a load of work, it is fun to be doing something new. Working on the cards gave me a series of ideas for instruction podcasts for Three Worlds. I will have to squeeze them in over the next week. No way I'll get 'em done for Sunday's testing.

I also updated the Mark's Mysteries Blog and website today.

I'm looking forward to seeing what people have to say about the Clanborn podcast on the DS Live Journal. I saw Tim's comment. It gave me a smile.

It's midnight 30 and I think I need a break.

Tuesday

Monday I got all of the DS orders pulled, packed and on there way. For some reason everything I did took way too much time to get done. One of those mondays, I guess.

I spent today polishing the Mark's Mysteries podcast #11 and got a chance to here #10 with all the sound in it. I think it really sounds good. Gregg is improving.

Tomarrow I'll be doing web catch up, a short Grandilar Game Podcast and integrating the new Tark/Three Worlds rpg ideas into the Alpha version. We had a good game Sunday. Looks like I can stop remaking the basic deck, at last. I'm actually trying to build an encounter section for the GM. Should save some time. Should be fun.

For now, I wave at all of you as I head over to the DS Beta board for some light reading.

working

Saturday I got through three recording sessions for the Mark's Mysteries. One rough of Episode 12 and two of episode 11. That means that I am sending Episode home with Greg after tonights game with Episode 11 to do the music for. He should have episode 10 with him ready for me to put in the art and ready to upload monday.

Tonights game will be a "Third World" alpha test. I have already gotten a few new monster sheets done this morning for the GM. I will be getting new decks done, printed and cut in a while. At this stage there are weekly changes to make. I think it is forming up now so that I'll be able to focus on getting some accessories done this week after the game.

So, back to work with me.

another card set to make

We played three worlds again last night. We had a good time shooting up stuff and enjoyed the demon rain. Afterwards we had a nice long talk and once again there are changes in the alpha version. Means I have to do yet another set of cards with the changes. Once we get this down so the changes aren't weekly I'll start spreading out some test versions. So far it is fun, but different. Sometimes the changes make it hard to cope, we keep slipping into DS think, and it doesn't work in this new world. It is causing us some confusion, but I think we are getting past that one. Well, it is still alpha version, not even ready to go beta. I do like the world we have created, it is a mess.

Enough for now, back to work.

A New Start

After several aborted attempts we have now got a new game idea which we are enjoying playing. We are using the 2d6 system of DS, but we have stripped it down and made some new assumptions. The most difficult task we faced in making something fresh to play was that we had trouble freeing our minds of DS. The new game is going by the name "Three Worlds" at this point. It is a science fiction background and it has some new stats, races, cards and Tech.

If you listened to Mark's Mysteries Episode 7 you got a little look at the new world. The game itself is not compatible with Dragon Storm, even though it shares a common universe. It is a new world. You could do some jury rigging and get the games to mesh, but I think both would loose some of there special flavors, so we won't be doing a crossover from our end.

Considering that it is just Sue and I up here at the Clanhold it means that I will not be able to do as much with DS as I would like. That is part of what is behind my putting up so many DS Beta cards. It will give us a look at which way the Dsr's want Ds to go and gives us a good source of material to publish. We also have several groups working on novel and fun ideas for DS. With five different groups/people working on books and projects for DS I think Sue and I can hang back a bit and let the community guide DS for a time. So we are expecting the submissions to roll in. As for how and who does the publishing, well, we will let the future us deal with those questions.

I'm going to let the current Beta discussions go on for a month to collect opinions and let the community get a chance to play with the cards before moving forward.

So, for today, I'm signing off.

Sheesh

Seems like everytime I go to a Con I wind up sick for a few days. I'm thinking that the world out there is just brimming with alergens and bugs. *sigh*

I put up places in the DS Beta blog for people to add cards. Lets see what we get. In the meantime, I'm going back to bed.

What I meant

Here at BashCon I was asked what I meant by "leave DS". A poor choice of words made too quickly. What I meant was that we need to make some serious changes in the DS rules too make a different world background work, especially when adding tech weapons, demons and more to the game on a different world. We need some different characteristics, a simpler CP build system and a few other details. The fundamental 2d6 rules will stand, but the game will not be easily matched to DS. With some effort it would still be compatible, but not directly. At least that is what I think I meant......

Baby is back.

I got my computer back. New DVD drive and New battery. Gotta love a working warranty.

I spent a good amount of my off time sketching podcast outlines and work on the new three worlds game. We have come to the conclusion that we will leave DS and cover a unique venue. It is the same system, but modified to cover tech too. The first "Alpha" version worked and it will be in second "alpha" in a couple of weeks.

Got the cards done for BashCon. I also got the new cards up to order on the DS page. I won't "officially" announce that till after the con.

Well, off for now.

well then

It looks like I'm going to take a couple of days off. I'm getting my back-up files down from the internet even now. I finally took my main machine (portable) in to be checked. The DVD write function had gone bye-bye and the battery power was starting to cut out. Sooo, I get in and they are talking boards etc. that may be going.  It is all going to be covered by the warranty, but my machine is not at home.

My first complaint is that first Sue and now my computer are taking trips to california, and I'm stuck in Flint. Now that just irks me. Even the computer gets a trip, but no, not me. 

Back in the early days of DS I got a computer to work on the DS original files. I have kept it running and it has usb-2, esata hard drives etc. And it's running the Tiger software. Well, here I am all these years later, firing the old devil up. Other than being a bit slow it can still do the job. So, I'm back at much of my work immediatley. For the Quark DS and web work I'll have to wait until the files download, and I'll be working. It looks like 36 to 40 hours to get a copy of everything back. If I had real high speed it would be just a few hours at most, but I'm in Flint.... In Flint we have fake high speed.

I suppose that tonight I should start working on podcasting on the Beast. Thats what I call the old devil here. Mike actually named it several years ago when he was working on it and the name stuck.

Daily Life continues

It is colder than a *****'s *** up here. Poor Trouble is getting cold feet outside and having a tough time going to the bathroom. He just wants to get back inside or lay down in the snow. He will be 17 in May. Old, short hair dogs, just do not like this weather.

We had gamers over again last night. We played a bit, worked on the podcasts and had a good time. We spent the game time working out some details on character creation in the new game. It is slowly forming up. I'm hoping I can run it at StormCon. We will see.

I am getting some older DS cards printed, laminated and cut for BashCon and getting the layouts done for the new cards. I have two computers running to get it all done. In fact I'm printing as I do this. I'm doing that on the old Beast computer. It is a 10 year old tower that can run the up to date software still.

Sue is at her workstation doing art right this moment. 

I'm still looking for my download birthday gift. I'm thinking about picking up an Asimov Audio book. I got the Renaisance movie from itunes, love it, but it can be hard on the eyes until you get adjusted.

Now I need to head out and laminate etc. cards. So thats it for now.

Strange Week Here.

Well, I had a good birthday and on Monday woke up dizzy. It started as dangerous and has been declining every since. I'm thinking that the birthday sugar set me off. One of the worst activities for me to do was use the computer. The screen refresh (i'm guessing) caused me to get dizzy. Ah well. serves me right for partying too much. I think I'll wait a year and see if it happens again. I am now getting some work done, but I'm still taking friday and saturday off.

I'll be back at it sunday. 

Birthday

Sunday, February third. Another birthday. It always me wonder what I want to do when I grow up. It also brings up the question of why I would want to grow up. I see so many so-called adults that stop questioning their enviroment and believe so many lies. Youngsters are constantly asking irritating questions and "why".  I would like to believe things like our leaders, but I can't. So I'll keep my childish ways and keep questioning unproven statements and keep asking why.

Truth is boring and mundane. Lies are exciting and scary. Lies are easier to believe, using ones brain and studying takes time and energy. Accepting the lie makes them responsible, learning the truth makes it your responsibility.

I had better shut up. "They" may be reading. I am not paranoid, they are out to get us. The question is which "they" are the most frightening and dangerous.

Definition: Deficit Spending is a deferred Tax increase. Someday the bill will come due, and we will have to pony up the money through our taxes.

Sue is back!

Sue has returned and I feel good. She was real happy with the west coast people and the work they did out there.

I got some work done on the websites. Finished the marketplace, started adding some special lists of characters, backgrounds etc. Got the new stories about starting characters went up. And I'm experimenting with some other new ideas on the pages. The new card lists in the market have a new layout. I think it looks better. Added some con links etc. on the page. New pages to the Mark's Mysteries webpages.

I've got the general layout for the next 12 Mark's Mysteries podcasts done. Now I can get serious about completeing the season. I need to get back to the Grandilar Podcasts. I'm wondering if the new stories would make good Grandilar Podcasts. Good info in them for beginners.

Well, I'm going to stop this and talk to Sue. She has Jury duty Thursday and Friday. That should be interesting...

Pizza Crust

My first attempt at a whole wheat pizza crust turned out OK. I made too much dough for the pan size and the breading kinda overwhelmed the toppings. I like a thinner crust pizza.

I think if I cut the size of the crust mix in almost half it should work good. I want to be able to get this down so I can make Sue a good pizza when she gets back.

I ate almost half the pizza. Trouble and Mocha seemed to think it was good. They got to split the other half and they kept coming back for more..... 

In fact, I think I'll go make one now. Bye for now....

Well, Sue is away....

Sue is snugged down in San Jose California. She is prepping and enjoying a bit of time down there. Me, I'm both enjoying my time alone and missing her at the same time.

I have a lot to catch up on, but I think I'll start with working on making a good home-made pizza crust.  I have gotten reasonably good at bread, so it is time to move onward.

The pets, Mocha, Trouble and Mac are looking at me like I'm a criminal for having sent Sue away. They don't seem to completely understand. It looks to them like the Alpha has punished Sue. I'm afraid I have a different idea of ways to do that. ummm, well, thats a different subject.

For now I'd better get to work.

Interesting Times

I'm getting some work done on the DS market web pages. I want to get the new market caught up before the new Dragon Storm cards appear. I'll have to catch up on the card pics latter. The old one thing at a time plan is on my mind.

Wednesday I'll be spending caring for my mother. She's in need of some help with her dialysis doctors, and I'm driving. She's doing pretty good with the home dialysis and she is getting around almost too good. She keeps deciding she doesn't need her walker or cane. Then she falls. Fortunatley she seems to bounce, even though she is 84. I think if she actually got hurt she would stop doing that.... Maybe, she has the family stubborn streak.

Always More than I think

And here we have a pic of the Mac Cat. Sue calls her Techno Kitty. I really should try to get a shot of her "helping" Sue do artwork on the computer.

I have gotten the Valentines Gift items up in the Cafepress shop. It seemed so simple. Just make the images cafepress ready, upload them, make a greeting for inside the card. Then do a new front page for Sue's web page advertising them. But wait, the Morning Wizard needs an internal page made for it, and it needs a category page. 

Of course I now realize I should be doing a Cafepress Newsletter for that market. Sue will need copies of the web sized images, and Oh yea, I should let the DS people know, just in case some have Valentines to buy for. Need to get the pics up in our staorage for access by Live Journal.....

So much for a "simple" bit of work.

A couple of days of work

I have been working on getting the DS web page into better shape the last couple of days. I made a couple of new index pages making finding our blogs, websites and the DS information easier to locate. As for the marketplace I split each card type into seperate pages. The long list with anchors was just too long. On the uncompleted pages I put a link to the old pages. The slow down is getting the pics of the cards made so they can be called up as you shop.

In the back of my mind I am working on a new set of Jason (Mark's Mysteries) OTR fantasy  podcasts. So far I'm liking what I'm getting.

I also got some notes put together for the additional Clanborn cards I want to do. I'll get those up on the board in a bit. I've also taken a look at the comments on the proposed cards and sorted many into the "rejects" pile. Others I have sent to Sue for artwork and on to being cards.

I thought I'd get something different up for a pic. This is Mocha. She is my assistant and does a lot of the DS work. Unfortunatley she seems to miss  a lot of deadlines. But she is a good girl, even if she never gets her work done. I'm waiting for her to scan in the Universal card pics right now.

Mark