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"That Bug's Just Waitin' To
Be Squished."
They met at the Cockroach Discotheque... their antennae locked
at first sight. They boogied until dawn... shaking their carapaces
in a jitterbug contest sponsored by Bug Lite. In the morning,
he looked at the spot on his tarsal segment where he'd written
her number and... it was smudged! Now he's got nothing to live
for...
Whistling Counting Crows's song "Hangin'
Around" and watching for the screen to come into view as
I sit down, one hand on the mouse circling to turn off the screensaver,
the other hand holding an OCR software package for installation.
salubrious (sal-oo'-bree-us)
adj. favorable to or promoting health or well being
- High Fidelity :)
- wins a spot among
the top 5 most cynical
movies of all time.
The Flim-Flam Man
 George
C. Scott plays an aging con-man who partners up with a young
protégé for a series of swindles and car chases
through rural North Carolina. Back in the seventies, this film
was on TV every year or so, and my family always tuned in, if
for no other reason than to see that amazing chase scene with
the red convertible again; but my favorite part is a few scenes
later, after they've stolen Doodle's truck, when they escape
along the railroad tracks at the end of a dead-end road. Great
stuff! Great music, too.
 
Texas
Dept of Criminal Justice: Final Meal Requests
Gargoyles
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The Alliance Open House |
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 This
week we went to the Alliance Open House, a small and narrowly
focused industry trade show held in Ft. Wayne, Indiana. The event,
sponsored by Alliance Game Distributors, is intended to provide
game store owners with a chance to see and learn more about what's
being released by the game companies whose products are distributed
by Alliance. The one-day trade show therefore consisted entirely
of booths staffed by representatives of game companies, with
the rest of the attendees being game store owners and buyers.
So while it was a very small show, it was the kind of show where
you really want to meet everybody there.
Having just returned from Carta Mundi with freshly printed
Chrononauts
card sheets, we were of course eagerly showing off our new release,
and reactions were great. "Must have Chrononauts!"
chanted one retailer, wishing we could give him one of our sample
decks. However, since the cards are still being cut up and packaged
by Carta Mundi, our supply consisted of exactly two decks, each
hand cut with scissors. But while we wished we could be giving
out samples just as much as they did, at least our square-cornered
samples made it clear that the product is on the absolute verge
of release, while not yet actually available.
It was a good show, but it was also a bit different from what
we're used to, and therefore rather odd. Like Toy Fair and GAMA,
it's more about selling the product line than making individual
sales, but this time, we weren't even attempting to take orders.
The actual buying all happened the next day, during the true
"Open House" portion of the Alliance Open House.
The trade show was held at the Hilton downtown, but one of
Alliance's warehouses is located elsewhere in Ft. Wayne and on
Sunday, the retailers were all invited to invade the warehouse
for cash-and-carry purchasing of whatever they needed to stock
up on - and on whatever new stuff they wanted to try out. At
this point our job was done, but we dropped in at the warehouse
on the way out of town anyway, and it was quite a scene. Imagine
being in a grocery store on a busy Saturday, except instead of
food in the shopping baskets, everyone was loading up on games.
We found our way back to the shelves where our stuff was stocked,
and got to watch as their supply of Icehouse sets sold out before
our eyes... it was pretty cool.
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 In
other news, my old High School
is currently being torn down (here's a photo I just took) and
Alison has acquired a Nintendo 64 (having recently
come down with a serious case of Farming Game fever). Meanwhile,
we got the first copies of the Chrononauts rulebook
back from the printer, and they look fine, so the release is
still on schedule. And it's getting so close, we've decided to
begin accepting
pre-orders. Get yours in now and we'll send a copy out to
you just as soon as we receive them ourselves! |
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 Remember
Peter
McWilliams!
PS: Sign
the petition to get Nader into the debates!
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I got email from Mike Richberg regarding my article
Creating Chrononauts,
recommending a cool time travel board game I'd missed out on,
called Time War,
published in 1979. As I result, I've finally entered my first
eBay
auction, and I won! I can't wait to try it... it features
a system of concentric rings, which looks quite intriguing. |
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As expected, without Nader the first presidential
debate was dull, and ignored the real issues. But maybe there's
still hope for the remaining debates... if you live in the DC
area, join the protest at the Debate Commission at 5pm on Friday
the 13th! |
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"There's as much chance of repealing the
Eighteenth Amendment [which enacted alcohol Prohibition] as there
is for a hummingbird to fly to the planet Mars with the Washington
Monument tied to its tail." -- Prohibitionist
"visionary" Senator Morris Shepard of Texas, 1930 |
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