by title or theme?

In removing the dvds in order to move the wall unit for the flooring, we got a chance to put them back in a new order. Previously I had them organized by theme, in roughly the order in which they were bought. While this worked fine for me to find movies, it was a bit harder for others to find movies if I wasn’t there.

Since we had to take them all out anyways, I took this time to sort them as my wife wanted – alphabetically. While I liked having all the werewolf films together – American Werewolf in London, Cursed, Dog Soldiers, The Howling, Silver Bullet, Wolfen, and so on, they are now spread over multiple shelves.

I did make a few caveats. All the TV series are together on one shelf.  All the kids movies are on two shelves.  All the movies series are together – allowing Pitch Black to remain near the Chronicles of Riddick, as well as keeping the various James Bonds films together.

We’ll try it this way for now. It should be easier to slip in the new movies as I left room on the shelves for new acquisitions. It would probably be less of an issue if we didn’t have to double-layer the dvds. We used to have to triple-layer the dvds but freed up a few shelves by not putting back the VHS movies. We’ll have to move the shelves again when we add the baseboards and paint so I can always move them around again if I find that this isn't working out.

take the floor

Since Shan had already ripped out the carpeting in anticipation of getting the new furniture we thought it might be a good time to put in laminate flooring. We removed the baseboards and pulled out all the staples from the underlay. We picked up ten boxes at Rona and my dad came over to help. We moved the furniture forward a bit and did the first three rows but it went pretty slow. After he left we read the instructions and found out we weren’t quite following directions.

The next day my folks came over – I had left them a message about the instructions and we came home we were very surprised to see that they had completed all but the last three strips. Since they had to move the furniture, including the dog kennel to do this much we were very impressed.

We pulled out the dvds from the wall unit and moved it on to the new flooring so that we could finish. This required another trip to Rona for one more box of flooring and the transitions. That was finished up in good order and we moved the wall unit and bookcases back. We still need to get baseboards but since we need to remove the wallpaper and paint, we can wait for those.

SJG annual stakeholder report / Gygax magazine

Steve has finally released his stakeholder report for 2012.  It was a bit delayed this year as he finally took a bit of a break.  Ogre was a huge product that had a major effect on their line.  It still seems that Munchkin is a huge part of their product line.  We're not Munchkin fans yet but keep meaning to give it a try.  I'm happy that it's making so much money for them that they can afford to supplement other projects - like Ogre Designer's Edition.

He mentions that they are going to try to acquire some other game companies this year.  It should prove to be a very interesting year in the game industry.


Also, it seems that Dragon magazine is coming back - sort of.  Gygax magazine is a new publication started by Ernie and Luke Gygax.  The logo is the same font as the old Dragon logo and looks a lot like it did back in the Eighties when I first started buying it.  The table of contents is familiar as well - including What's New with Phil & Dixie. 

It's a quarterly magazine - mostly slanted towards AD&D but I may have to pick up a few to see how it stands up compared to the old days.

A couch too far?

We recently picked out new furniture for the living room to replace the old couch, loveseat, and chair that we had. The chair had to be removed to make room for the kennel and the couch had bad springs and had been clawed by the cats. The loveseat had been a replacement from Shan’s folks when they had upgraded their set and replaced the old loveseat that went with the set.


It was the first major piece of furniture that we bought since getting married and it turns out that we have vastly different preferences in styles. Shan likes her couches deep and overstuffed – with lots of comfy pillows. I prefer my couches with clean lines, low arms, and attached back cushions. We were at such an impasse that we had to go back with the kids to see if they had a preference but they were no help in deciding.

We ended up picking neither set that we like but instead compromised on a set that we both disliked a bit. When we had it delivered though they could not get the couch in to the living room. It seems Shan’s old set had a smaller than normal couch – and that took a bit of maneuvering to get in originally. We had to go back and reselect.

After much consideration and measuring we decided to get a second loveseat instead of a couch. The new loveseats are only a few inches shorter than the old couch. We also added an ottoman to the order – but the delivery would have to wait another week. Since we had already taken the old sofa to Value Village we were a bit cozy for that week with just the old loveseat.

Kickstarter - the new thing for games

I really need to check in to Kickstarter more often. I had to get into it to get the Ogre Designer’s Edition , but haven’t really kept up with what else is coming through it. But, especially in the Tabletop Gaming category, it’s almost a good idea to keep checking.

There have been three games that have interested me lately – and they are each a different use of the Kickstarter engine.

Some manufacturers are using Kickstarter as a means of judging interest and to be able to take advantage of the economics of scale. They may also be using it as a way of generating pre-order sales. Our friends over at CheapAss Games have used this as a means of judging interest in their full color reprints of their games. They did Unexploded Cow last year and are doing Deadwood Studios right now. By pledging, you get a copy of the game, plus a few non-game bonuses. Due to the high shipping costs on top of the regular game cost, I’ll wait until it’s in the stores.

The Ogre Designer’s Edition started out for these reasons but also had stretch goals that included extra in-game units that were only available through Kickstarter.


Walk the Plank – a thematic prequel to Get Bit! Follows this second model. In addition to the game, which looks like fun, there are bonuses that improve the game the more that is pledged. Since the shipping was very low, I signed up for this one. Then they added the ability to get the exclusives from the Get Bit! promo so I had to up my pledge in order to get the Sharkspansion. This had been a Kickstarter exclusive from the original Get Bit! offer. They had tried to offer it afterwards but got a lot of flack from those who thought it should be a Kickstarter-only exclusive.


The third model is similar to the second – with additional improvements in the game being added as stretch goals are reached. But instead of keeping these goals as kickstarter-exclusives, they reserve the right to make them available after the Kickstarter funding has ended. The people who fund through the Kickstarter do get the occasional exclusive but they mainly get the extras earlier than later buyers.  Dungeon Roll follows this model with most of the bonuses being early versions of later expansions and a different box for the Kickstarter edition.

new Van

We bought a newer van – a Ford Freestar (which is what they called the Windstar models between 2000 and 2007). It seems in pretty clean shape and has minimal rust.


The only thing is that the ‘emission control’ light kept coming on the day after I filled up with gas. I’ve taken it back to the dealership twice to have it looked at.

The first time they reset the sensor and the second they actually changed the sensor. They second time they also fixed the door trim from the driver’s side door. It had fallen off at the end of our street but I had found it on the way home.