games

Randomness for 1/26

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1) 20 Amazingly Weird Pieces of Classic Video Game Box Art.

2) AZ school officials ban “ethnic studies.” No racism here, folks, just move along.

3) What a comic script is for, by Warren Ellis

4) Cop or Soldier? I could only get 12 out of 21. Can you do better?

5) Meljean Brooks’s Diary of an Author Reader, I LOLed.

6) A comic script, from conception to finished product.

7) A funny video about breast cancer self examinations. No, really. Also features hot dudes with their shirts off. Video. Via +Kat Richardson

Five Things Make a Friday Post

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1) For folks who are still waiting for the Twenty Palace prequel, I have already self-published a number of short stories and novellas. None of them are in the 20P universe, but one is a historical fantasy set near Seattle in 1879, and the rest are second world fantasies. Some have never been published anywhere else: Kindle | Nook

2) Note for folks who visit that B&N page: I’m not the photographer, and I’ve never published scraped text through Hephaestus Books

3) Today is my tenth anniversary. The traditional gift is an ebook, right?

4) Last night we had our anniversary dinner. We ate steaks from Don and Joe’s, roast beets, green beans, and fingerling potatoes, a fancy cheese that I lost the label for and can’t ID right now, a delicious tiny lemon cheesecake from The Confectional, and a bottle of Beringer Cab from 1997 that we bought for our wedding. Thumbs up to all of it.

5) My son read a D&D comic and now wants to play the game. Do I have time to run a fantasy campaign? Shit to the no.

Quick note before I become productive:

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Skyrim releases today, of course, and I was really taken by this article about it: Things I Ate In Skyrim.

See, I buy games used and play them after they’ve been out a while. I never go online, preferring single-player exploration of the world. I always play on easy.

There have been times when I tried online games, usually through my buddy Jim’s account. He’s tried to get me hooked on Dark Age of Camelot (has it really been ten years?) and City of Heroes. The latter almost worked, but luckily my home life is antithetical to online gaming; if it wasn’t I’d never do anything else.

I’m not exactly Mr. Moderation here.

But I sometimes buy used games and put them in. Recently I played LEGENDARY, which was an amazingly stupid game. I bought because “Call of Duty with monsters instead of Nazis” but yikes.

Lately I’ve been playing FABLES: THE LOST CHAPTERS (I think that’s the title, anyway). It’s sort of interesting and sort of dull. When I’m not playing it, I want to be. When I am playing it, I keep thinking about how much time I’m wasting. And I’m annoyed at the traders who keep clustering around me while I fight bandits and hobbes, when they should be clearing the fuck out. I’m getting devil points with my area effect attacks, assholes! Back off!

Anyway, I’m mentally comparing the epic fantasy novels I’m reading with the “story” in the game, and trying to figure out what I can learn from it. Not much, apparently.

My #FridayReads is still The Name Of The Wind

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Jeez, that book is slow.

Yesterday I sent a short story for an anthology over to the editor. It’s a little long, but maybe it will work for them anyway. At the moment I can’t see what else to cut from it, but in about two weeks I’ll probably think it’s twice what it should be.

Anyway, the story is called “Don’t Chew Your Food” and as I mentioned before it’s set in the world of Don’t Rest Your Head an indie horror rpg by the folks at Evil Hat. If you play with character sheets and dice, you should check out their site. My story is about a celebrity chef and… well… eating. Can you tell I’m reducing, as they used to say?

I was also paid for a short story I wrote for a different anthology, although I’m not sure if it’s meant to be talked about in public. It’s a shared world anthology with a growing background, and my story is about a mage who specializes in love magic.

Fun! Short fiction, it was nice to hang with you for a while. Don’t be such a stranger, okay?

Today I’m walking across the bridge to work on the new newest book, an epic (hopefully) fantasy with the working title A Blessing of Monsters (aka “Fantasy with gate magic”).

No, it’s not a Twenty Palaces book, but I can’t sit around doing nothing until I hear the official word, right? Must work work work.

Anyway, I’m turning off the internet for a few hours so I can get a long walk in, plus writering. And today I’ll remember my house keys. Happy October.

Randomness for 10/6

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1) This is the guy who should be redesigning DC’s rebooted heroes.

2) Artwork created in rice fields.

3) The 20 Biggest Idiots on Facebook. via Marisol

4) Spooky Victorian Mansions made of Legos.

5) Who Killed Videogames, A Ghost Story

6) Microphotography contest winners.

7) “We are the 1%.”

Randomness for 8/20

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1) Interview of a One-Year-Old Child. Video. Way funnier than it sounds.

2) Moebius did concept art for the movie WILLOW. Check out the art design that could have been.

3) Astonishing bike stunts in abandoned industrial facility. Video. Music’s nice, too.

4) Better Book Titles.

5) Everything you need to know about the video game industry in one graphic.

6) The 10 Most Brutal Moments in ‘The Savage Sword of Conan’!

7) A steampunk apartment.

We went here yesterday

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Card Kingdom. It’s a new board/card game store in Ballard, and I didn’t even realize they were opening. It’s big, with lots of space, and not only do they have Pokemon tournament events that my son can take part in, they have an attached coffee shop where I can do some writing while he turns his toxicroak loose (or whatever).

Cool place, which a big family game section. I foresee many trips in my future.

Dear Everyone Who Recommended The Game “Dominion”

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Thank you, you beautiful fucking geniuses. Honestly, Dominion is a blast, and my board-game-loving wife was pleased as hell when we played it. She was a little uncertain when she unwrapped it, but it took no time at all for us to be having a blast.

Thanks for helping to make her birthday extra awesome.

Board game reviews

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Have any of you ever played any of these board games? What do you think about them?

Small World
Dominion
Power Grid
Catacombs
Puerto Rico
Sid Meier’s Civilization: The Board Game

Randomness for 2/26

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1) This is crazy and awesome: Man builds functional CPU in Minecraft, using only redstone dust, torches, levers and stone. Of course it’s bigger than two city blocks (and I have no idea what the hell he’s talking about as he describes the parts, but it’s freaking awesome. via @laura_hudson

2) Try to watch this video without reading the comments first. It’s pretty funny and kind of brilliant.

3) The Gettysburg Address as a PowerPoint presentation.

4) Silent security cam footage of a tornado hitting St. Louis airport. Video. Brr.

5) Animated gifs as art.

6) Awesome! Check out the new trailer for THOR… as made my mockbuster crap-slingers Asylum Entertainment. Video.

7) Cousins fight over GAME OF THRONES tv show. lol.