What’s been going on.

So things have been busy over here, and I have really started to let things go on the updating the blog front.  I’ve spent a few days staring at the blank “Add New Post” window.  Feeling uninspired, I will just update everyone on what’s been going on for the past month or so.

I graduated from college, which is a relief because trying to run a business, start a second business and be the primary caregiver to a pair of rambunctious twins was already a great big pile of work.

During my last quarter I did some math and realized that as long as I just barely passed the course I would still graduate with a decent GPA.  I promptly began treating the assignments as my own personal playtime.  Strangely, my grades went up.

I have been receiving a terrifying set of lessons about US Import law.  I always thought it was “products ship over, paperwork gets filled out, small amount of money is paid to the government, and you get your stuff.”  Which is technically true.  In the sense that if you get accused of murder it goes “Show up at court, say stuff to the judge, avoid going to jail.”  While technically correct, it is just a smidge more complicated than that.   And if you fail to enlist the aid of a trained professional there is an excellent chance that horrible things will happen to you.

My game is on track to be released late next month, although the shipping process is dragging out a bit longer than it should have.  So far I am committed to GAMA Trade, Origins, Give to Game, and Dallas Comic Con.  We’re planning to try for Gen Con, and pretty much any medium-sized cons in Texas that we can find.  If you know of any, please let me know.

Last year I worked on a board game that got published called Please Don’t Wake Dagon.  The publishers are finally beginning to move again on that, and more news should be available soon.

I went to two conventions recently.  I got invited to ConJour in Houston as a guest.  This was a very very tiny con, and I think that there were barely more guests than staff.  I wound up on several panels with Glen Welch, of the “2000 Things That Mr Welch Can No Longer Do in an RPG”.  I was surprised by the invitation because, well, I wrote a viral joke on the Internet something around eleven years ago, which I’m not exactly sure is a current event any more.  This was one panel that was supposed to be the two of us disusing the origins of our lists.  Nobody showed up.

While in Houston I met the Tully’s, who had the scariest RPG ever.  It wasn’t a horror RPG, it’s just that nearly every thing about it was virtually identical to a homebrew table top game I ran last year.  It was like they were watching me, taking notes and published it.  The game is called Mana Punk and I will be trading a copy of Redshirts for it once my shipment comes in.

Last weekend I went to ConDFW, to schmooze.  I found a store that may be carrying my game soon, and a few podcasts that want to interview me for a chance to plug my game.  The fun moment was when they took my email address down and they go, “skippyslist .com?  You’re not that Skippy are you?”

My children have discovered artistic expression.  Right now they are working primarily in the fecal medium.  Their masterpieces are called “Poop mural on texture painted wall”, “Poop smeared into carpet”, and the popular “Poop used as hair care product for my little brother.”  Do you know how long it takes to get two childrens worth of poop off of a texture painted wall with a combination of spray cleaner and toothbrush?  Because I do.

We have replaced cable television with my old desktop PC.  Nearly every show I want to watch is on the Internet anyways.  The others are on DVD or available to watch at my friends houses.  I’m finding this to not only be cheaper, but frankly I prefer my big living room television to be a giant computer monitor.   Fun bonus: Infinite free porn in the living room, which is handy as it is the only place the wife and I can fit the Twister mat.

I actually recently wrote something that even I thought might be a little too far.  People that regularly read the sort of things I find funny might want to think about that for a bit.