ANSWERING COMMENTS | Luis' Illustrated Blog

Do you think board games are just for kids?

December 7, 2007 in ANSWERING COMMENTS, BLOGS, BOARD GAMES, BOOKS, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

So, some of us are really starting to feel the effects of the strike. I, thankfully, am not. At least not yet. I was talking to a fellow co-worker and he told me that the crew he’s on has been told to take their time on their scenes. Once they are done they won’t have any more work and might have to go on hiatus. Yikes!

Meanwhile, the show I’m on still has a lot of work to be done on it. As far as making quota…uh…we’re suppose to finish ten scenes a week. I managed to finish four. They were heavy acting scenes. Still, it looks bad. The next scenes I have to do are riot scenes so I don’t think I’m gonna make quota again. Maybe they won’t mind because of the strike. Guess I better make the scenes look good anyway, just in case. Hope the strike is over soon. Our animatic is due the week before Christmas and without writers, who will give us notes on what to revise? Without revisions I don’t have a job next month.

BLOGS/BOARD GAMES

Do you think board games are just for kids!? You know, it never occurred to me that someone would actually think that way. All this time I’ve been writing about board games and I bet a lot of people just skipped that part of my post because they probably thought I was talking about kids stuff. I bet if I was to talk about animated movies or shows they would probably think the same thing.

The reason I came to realize that people might think this way was because I read a blog article called 60 second primer on modern board games, at Yehuda Berlinger’s blog which I really liked and highly recommend because it gives you a quick over view on modern board games and how people might view them.

This is a really great professional blog. (Boy, I’d love to live off my blog. Bet it takes a lot of work though. I think it’s sooo cool that he’s sponsored by board game stores). I found out about this blog because he had linked to me. The strange thing is, the day I found out about the blog. I was listening to a board game podcast called Into the Gamescape – Show 22. It’s a British based podcast with three guys who generally just talk about the games they play and review them. Well, in the episode I was listening to, the Gamescape guys were talking about a game they played called, “It’s Alive!” (this was about 50:23 minutes into the show). It’s basically a card game about putting together a monster out of body parts a la Frankenstein. I remember because the Gamescape guys forced the winner to yell out “It’s Alive!” in order to win the game because it was in the rules. If he hadn’t done it, they were not going to count his win as a win and they were just going to keep playing. Anyway, I listened to that podcast on the way home in my car and when I got home and thought nothing else about it. Once home, I got on the computer and discovered Yehuda’s site. I went into the “About me” page and found that he was also a board game designer. I clicked to see what game he designed and wouldn’t you know it, it was “It’s Alive!”. That was just the weirdest thing.

In any case, I recommend the blog. The other article I really liked was 100+ Ways to Rejuvenate the Games You Already Own. It’s very cool. Lots of ideas as to how to make an old game new. I own a book called “New Rules for Classic games” but this blog article may very well be better than that book.

BOOKS

Speaking of books, my friend Aimee has a book coming out this month. It’s called “Japan Ai: A tall girls adventure in Japan“. In this book she recounts the story of her trip to Japan. It’s done in a similar way as my “Illustrated trip to Italy” but it’s mostly in color, longer, in book form and, of course, in her own personal style. In fact she told me she got the idea after looking at what I did with my trip to Italy (the same way I got the idea from someone else). It took me a week to do mine but it took her quite a bit longer to do hers, and it shows. Click here to go to the official site for a preview. From what I’ve seen, it looks darn funny and lots of fun. I’m gonna pick it up, I think you should too. It looks like a lot of fun.

PODCAST

Rosary Army has got their “That Catholic Show” DVDs out. Now you can take the show and watch it in really good quality on your TV. They make good Christmas gifts too. Go pick one up at the official “That Catholic Show” site and help support them. Yay!

BOARD GAMES

As I’ve stated before in “Comparing the pros and cons of Video games and Board games” one of my all time favorite video games is Sid Meier’s Civilizations II (I haven’t played the new version, Civilizations IV because the game is too big and my computers can’t handle it). I like the game so much that, about four or five years ago when I discovered that there was a board game made based on the computer game, I bought it. In fact, trying to discover more information about the game before I bought it was the way I discovered Board Game Geek (BGG). Back then, I wasn’t into board games as much as I am now. Anyway, once I got the game, I was very surprised at how many bits came in the game. Well over a hundred different bits and things. The other thing that was crazy was the size of the board, 36” by 46”. The rule book had two sets of rules the Standard Rules and the Advanced Rules. The Standard Rule was a very simplified way to play the game it almost seemed like a game of Risk, which if I wanted to play, I’d just play Risk. The Advanced Rule on the other had was a little more like the computer game. The game gives you the option to play three different games at different lengths. The shortest game lasts two to three hours, the medium length lasts three to four and the longest lasts four to six. Those are really long! At the time that I had bought the game though, I had no one to play it with, so it just sat there collecting dust, even though I really wanted to try it out.

The first time I played the game was with my wife Alesha (at the time, she was just my girlfriend). We played the Standard Version and I wasn’t very impressed, we ended up thinking that the next time we’d play the game, we would play the Advanced game. This happened almost three years later after I married Alesha, and we played the game with my brother-in-law. We made a few mistakes that night:

We played it late at night when everyone was really tired.
Since I hadn’t read the rules in a long time, I was reading them as we went along (This is the worst way to play a board game).
I got quite a few rules wrong.

In any case, the game was taking a really long time and the game required a lot of up keeping that we weren’t prepared for. Not only that, but my brother-in-law decided to play a very militant game which slowed the game down even more because the battle rules of the game aren’t very good and because production of technologies slows down so much the game doesn’t move ahead. Needless to say, we didn’t finish the game and it left me with a bad impression. I didn’t touch the game again.

An e-mail conversation I recently had with a friend of mine has lead me to take another look at the game. After having played the Pocket Civ game (as mentioned in Playing too much, sleeping too little) I thought that maybe I could use some of the rules of that game and maybe “plug” them into the Sid Meier’s Civ board game . I thought that if I did that it might play more like the video game. Thinking about it some more I started thinking up a lot of other things I might be able to add to the rule of the game to make if feel more like the video game.

Now, you may be wondering, why bother making the board game play more like the video game if I could just get up and play the video game. The answer is a very much like what I wrote in “Comparing the pros and cons of Video games and Board games” . I want to play the game on a table in the company of family and friends but still enjoy the Sid Meier’s Civ experience. I don’t want to sit in front of a computer screen by myself clicking on the spacebar.

In any case, I took out the game again for the first time in years, opened it up and re-read the rules. (Which I later discovered have been revised for the better. I download the new revised rules from the Sid Meier’s Civ board game website.) After I read them I realized that the game wasn’t as bad as I remembered and it really did seem like the video game. I tested out my house rules anyway and I discovered that they actually made the game move faster. I also found different battle rules on BGG that are better than the ones that come with the game so I’m now going to use those.

All this has actually gotten me exited about playing the game again (both the board game and the video game). It’s really too bad that the game takes so long and the board is so huge. Unless the people I play the game with are big Civ fans, it will be very tricky to get anyone to play it with me. Who knows, maybe with the new house rules, I might be able to convince some people. Now, if only I can find a way to automate the up keeping parts of the game like the computer does. Getting a board game to play like a computer game is very tricky.

ANSWERING COMMENTS

Greg: Glad you liked the cartoon. I’m glad you used it on as the podcast picture for the show. I was really flattered.

Mike : Thank you, for the compliment about my cartoons. I’ve heard wonders about your podcasting programs.

Tony Scarfone : I agree with your opinion on the Samus’ translation of Beowulf. That’s the one I read. That’s why I put it on the site. It’s really good. I also noticed you have a podcast. I’m make sure to check it out.

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Comments are appreciated as well.

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Greg Willits runs a marathon, Beowulf the Movie

November 28, 2007 in ANSWERING COMMENTS, MOVIES, PODCASTS, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS
Wow, talk about stress. I woke up on Monday morning stressed out. I had a very fun, relaxing Thanksgiving weekend but the day I went to work, it was instant stress. I woke up with a headache and a neck ache and it hasn’t gone away in four days. I guess I have to get used to the whole quota thing again. Quotas haven’t been really scrutinized for years now so getting back to that mind set might take some more getting used to.

The good news is that the show I’m working on is really funny. It’s really good. It’s a Homer centric episode and he ends up teaming up with an unexpected character. It also has a goofy Marge subplot. It’s a lot of fun to work on. I just need to meet my scene quota.

MOVIES
So my brother, his wife Deborah, my wife, her best friend, and I went to see Beowulf this weekend. Overall I enjoyed the movie. Visually, it was fantastic. It didn’t quite follow the story it was based on very accurately and I’m sure there are a lot of English teachers out there having fits about that. I read Beowulf a while back and it’s funny how much of the language of this story J.R.R. Tolkien lifted from when he wrote The Silmarillion and The Lord of the Rings. I got a kick out of that. According to www.kirjasto.sci.fi/tolkien.htm:

“His scholarly works included studies on Chaucher (1934) and an edition of Beowulf (1937) .”

The movie on the other hand, didn’t have that kind of language although there was some old English spoken by some characters, which I found really interesting. The changes to the story where a little odd but if you don’t take a purist point of view, you can get a little out of it. One of my favorite writers Neil Gaiman, co-wrote the movie. I found it interesting that the movie dealt so much with sin. I liked the idea the movie seemed to present, that personal sin effected not just the individual but the community as well. I also thought it was interesting how the pagan “heroes” of the story seemed to be annoyed by Christianity and would always dismiss it as something bad. They would grumble that after Christianity there were no more “heroes” in the world. Then they would turn around and sin so horribly that it would become a literal monster and effect the lives of many, many people. This would cause them to have to confront and take care of the problems they created at great personal cost but even after they did so, the problems wouldn’t completely go away. I got the feeling that, since they kept rejecting Christianity, they would have to keep fighting the monsters that they created because they would never go away. This is probably why they needed “heroes” and the Christians didn’t. I’m sure the writers didn’t intend that meaning to the story but that’s what I got out of it.

One of the biggest problems I found in the movie was that lack of animation in the character’s faces. They often looked like dolls. It took a lot of work on my part to suspend my disbelief that these characters were “real”. Occasionally they looked good but mostly they didn’t. In the The Lord of the Rings movie, Gollum was a computer generated (C.G.) character, just like all the characters in Beowulf. Theoretically they used the same techniques to make the characters in Beowulf as they used to make Gollum, namely “Motion Capture” (MoCap). Yet Gollum was so much more believably “alive” than the characters in Beowulf. Why?

If you watch “making of” documentaries of Lord of the Rings, you get the impression that the actor, Andy Serkis, who did the MoCap acting and the voice of Gollum did all the work. What you don’t know is that for every moment of real deep acting that Andy Serkis did, there was an animator re-interpreting the acting so that it would work as animation. This is why it looked real. A human being did what a computer could not. Capture the essence of Andy Serkis‘ acting and retranslated it so that it felt real on the Gollum C.G. model. An animator is like a motion caricaturist. A caricaturist looks at a person and exaggerates the physical features that makes a person look like themselves. They capture the essence of the person. An animator does the same thing but through motion. They are actors with computers. I think that the characters in Beowulf didn’t look right because either the animators that they used to interpret the acting weren’t good, the director of animation wasn’t very good about pushing the acting, the director of the movie didn’t understand how to direct the animators, or they didn’t use enough animators and thought the computer would do all the work. In any case, the animation on the humans was the biggest flaw of the movie. I think movies like this will really work great the moment people realize it’s the animators, not the computers that makes believable acting. I still think it’s worth watching. Just be warned, there is a lot of nudity in the movie. Beowulf butt cheeks anyone?

Gollum had really good animation acting in Lord of the Rings

Yoda, in the latest two Star Wars movies, was fully animated. They didn’t MoCap his acting at all. His acting was really good.

“Final Fantasy: Advent Children” had the same stiff MoCap acting problems as Beowulf. Great visual movie though.

Animatrix’s “Final flight of the Osiris” also had stiff MoCap acting.

PODCASTS

I listened to Rosary Army #194 this week. It was really great. Greg Willits ran a marathon this Thanksgiving. The Rosary Army podcast follows the adventure of Greg’s marathon, mostly through Jennifer Willits’ eyes. It’s a very emotional recording. It got me all choked up. I loved it. If you haven’t listened to it then I recommend you do. Afterwards I recommend you watch the video that Fr. Roderick taped of the event. It’s a lot of fun.

CONGRATS GREG!

ANSWERING COMMENTS
Tao responded to my post last week. He said he had an article similar to mine on his blog. I looked it up and I thought it was great. It’s called, “Why Play Board Games?” I recommend it. Check it out. While your at it check out the one called “From the Classics to Modern Board Games” as well.

Thank you for letting me know about you article Tao!

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Comments are appreciated as well.

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Playing too much, sleeping too little

November 8, 2007 in ANSWERING COMMENTS, BOARD GAMES, MY WEEK, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS
So much for not working the rest of the week last week. I got put on storyboard revisions. I really don’t mind because I really want to do storyboards. It’s really fun for me. When I “board” I feel like I’m contributing to the creative process of the show, more so then when I’m doing layout. As a storyboard artist I get to come up with the first pass of what the show will actually look like by fleshing out the script into visual form. I take the first shot at making the gags work and I also get the first pass at coming up with new characters, props, and backgrounds. It’s really creative. Something that is sometimes lacking when I do layout. I’m having a lot of fun this week, Yay! Even though, doing storyboard revisions is just fixing shots that have been slightly changed. It’s still fun.

BOARDGAMES
Got to play board games this week again, woo HOO! My sister-in-law Deborah made us a yummy dinner at her apartment, while the Munchkin ran around and crawled all over me, not letting me eat. We talked for a while and had a good time, then we broke out a board game and started playing it. The game we played was The Settlers of Catan, which my brother had been wanting to play for a long time. It’s a really fun game and if you want an introduction to the new style of “designer” (designer’s name is on the box) board games, this is the game to get. I can’t recommend this game enough. It’s very a interactive game about building settlements and trading resources with the people around the table. Not only that, but it has a modular board which means that the board layout is different every time you play. The game plays in about an hour, maybe more, depending on how long people take to do their turn. Our game lasted about an hour and a half (I think maybe even two) because my brother kept taking so long to decide what to do in his turn. We had a really good time.

I also found out about a “Print and Play” civilizations game. I went to the site and downloaded the rules and the pdf of the cards you need to use to play. I then printed the rules and for the cards I printed them in card stock. Later, I cut the cards out with a paper cutter. I tried it out the next day. I drew a continent, broke it up into eight regions, put mountains in some and forests in others and began to play. It turned out to be a really fun game. It’s amazing. All you need is paper, pencil, rules and the cards, yet, the games is really fun and really deep. I recommend it. Best part of all, IT’S FREE! WOO HOO! If you like “Civ” games and you want to have a portable one, this one is a good one to have.

MY WEEK
Since we played the board game this weekend on a Sunday night, we got home around ten thirty. Usually we go to sleep around then because we wake up really early. It wouldn’t have been that big a deal except that my wife still had some work to do for her job the next day. I felt bad that she still needed to work so I stayed up with her in order to keep her company. I didn’t want to be asleep while she stayed awake. We both would have to wake up at four the next morning and I thought it would be unfair. She managed to finish her work at twelve thirty and we went to sleep then.

Four hours of sleep is just not enough. The next day was a nightmare. We were sooo tired all day. I’ve got to remember to make sure my wife has everything done before we do anything from now on. We felt terrible all of Monday. Driving was horrible and work was almost impossible. I’m very surprised I got as much done as I did. In any case, we got home that night and the only thing we wanted to do was go to sleep. We managed to crawl into be at nine o’clock even though I really meant to get into be at eight that night. Sweet, sweet sleep.

ANSWERING COMMENTS
siobhan left a comment on In the Shadow of greatness. Thank you so much for the feed back. You really made my day.

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Going to Confession

November 1, 2007 in ANSWERING COMMENTS, BOARD GAMES, CATHOLICISM, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Good news and bad news.

The good news is that we’re all done drawing the scenes for show eight. The only thing left to do is it “time” the scenes in exposure sheets and send them off to Korea so that it can get “in-betweened”, “cleaned up”, and colored. So we’re very happy about that. Now I’ve found myself in the fortunate position of having nothing to do. No other shows needs help so I actually get to sit around and read, write, play on my computer, play on my gameboy, or generally goof around for the next couple of days. Next week I’ll be working on Lance’s new show, show sixteen. The “animatic” (first pencil test version of the show) for that show is due the week before Christmas. So we’ve got a bit of time.

The bad news is that the Hollywood writer’s strike begins today. Depending how long it takes to be resolved, we might not have any work. If the strike continues till the end of the year, then our “animatic” deadline is pretty much pointless since we do the “animatic” for them to be able to rewrite anything that isn’t working on the show before we finalize it. There really won’t be anywhere for an artist to go since all the studios will be effected. Many writers in the industry won’t be very effected by the strike since they receive residuals from shows they’ve written. We artists, on the other hand, don’t. I’ve got mortgage payments and bills to pay. We had to buy a new car recently because of the car accident my wife had four weeks ago and we pretty much tapped a lot of our emergency money for that. All the paychecks I get every week pretty much go straight to the bills. We don’t really get to save much of anything, so the strike is really going to be scary for us. Especially since we have a baby on the way. What if the strike lasts until our baby is born?

Lets hope everyone’s greed gets sated quickly.

BOARD GAMES

I can’t believe I got to play board games again this week. This is the third week in a row. I’m sooo happy, yay! My brother and his wife came over and we played three boardgames. I’m in the process of trying to play all the games I have that I haven’t been able to. I have a few games that I’ve had for a year or so that I haven’t been able to play yet. Well, three of those games we managed to play this weekend so that means I have nine left to play.

The first game we played was Loot. Loot is a pirate card game that’s designed by Reiner Knizia. It’s about trying to collect as many valuable merchant ship cards as you can by attacking them with your pirate ship cards. It’s a fun short game. It takes about twenty minutes to play. Everyone liked playing it. It really forces the player to think ahead and make tough decisions. My brother’s wife Deborah won the game.

The second game we played was The Bridges of Shangri-La, which is a game about taking over cities with students that get trained in opposing cities. It’s really fun and really cut throat. My wife doesn’t like cut throat games so she didn’t like it much but my brother, Deborah and I liked it. I think it’s a great game. It really requires you to think a lot. Lots of keeping tabs on what everyone else is doing in order to protect yourself while you plan to do your moves. Deborah won that game also.

The third game we were going to play was Tichu but my wife wasn’t feeling well so she had to sit out. Since we needed four people to play Tichu because it requires you to have two teams of two people, we decided to play China instead. China is a game where you collect points by putting villages and ambassadors in ancient Chinese provinces. It’s a very deep game for a game that seems so simple. It isn’t very cut throat and it’s very family friendly but like I said, it’s very deep. My brother didn’t like that you didn’t get tons of points quickly like in the board game Ticket to Ride. I don’t think he understood much of the depth in the game. Maybe if he plays it again he’ll understand it better. In any case, Deborah won that game also. We were all big losers that day. Deborah apparently is just as wiz at grasping board game strategies really quickly. Who knew.

CATHOLICISM

Happy Feast of all Saints.

So I went to Confession (a.k.a Sacrament of Reconciliation, Sacrament of penance) this week. I really don’t like going to Confession. Not because it’s such a horrible Sacrament or anything but because it forces me to own up to the bad things I’ve done. It bursts my “I’m a good person” bubble and shows me, I could do better. Everyone could do better. Mother Teresa of Calcutta went to Confession daily?…Weekly? I forgot, but she went often. I usually try to go once a month, just to keep my actions in check and to get the Grace for going to Confession. I’ve fallen way short of this. It had been about four months since I did it last and I felt it. For me, not going at least once a month is like not taking a shower for two or three weeks. It just makes me feel a bit grimy. Still, it took a huge effort for me to get off my butt and go. I just don’t like doing it. It hurts my pride. I’ve realized that the more prideful I am, the harder it is for me to go. The humbler I am, the easier (in theory. I haven’t had a easy time yet. I guess I’ve yet to be so humble). Of course, once it’s done and over with, it’s like the weight of the world lifts off me and I’m so full of joy I’m about ready to explode.

I once heard somewhere that Confession is like the direct opposite of sinning. When you sin, you tend to want to do it, you feel good doing it, and you feel bad after. Confession, on the other hand, you don’t want to do it, you feel bad doing it, and you feel awesome after. I’d much rather go to Confession.

PODCASTS
Speaking of Confession. Rosary Army has a great “That Catholic Show” episode on it. For those of you who don’t know what “That Catholic Show” is, it’s a little five minute or so, web video show explaining Catholicism in a very goofy and entertaining way. It’s a great show, check it out.

ANSWERING COMMENTS

So, finally we get someone responding to the “traditional” Catholics in the comments section. I’m going to quote the things he directly wrote to me about but if you want to see the rest of what he wrote, go to the comments section of What in the world is a “traditional Catholic”?. He wrote to me correcting me in some things. str1977 wrote:

Mel Gibson is affiliated with the “Society of Saint Peter”, a group that didn’t join the SSPX when the broke from Rome (or broke with them when broke from Rome).

The issue can never be about more or less dogmatic (unless it is liberally used as an insult). The SSPX complains that Vaticanum II and later developments has compromised earlier teachings. The anti-dogmatist is still dogmatic when he expounded that there shall be no dogma.

The SSPX by the way dispute that the events of 1988 constitute a schism and therefore claim to be loyal and subject to the Holy See. They certainly do not dispute that Benedict XVI is the Pope. Some traditionalists however do, either claiming that the Holy See is vacant or that someone else (usually the leader of their sect) is Pope.

Hi, str1977

Thank you for correcting me, I appreciate any feed back on things I write that may not be correct. Can you do me a favor and write down the source of your information about Mel Gibson belonging to the Fraternity of St. Peter? Obviously if I had done the same with my information I wouldn’t have made my mistake.

Also, forgive me if my “less or more dogmatic” comment seemed like an insult to you. I didn’t mean my statement as an insult. I have a tendency to exaggerate to get my points across quicker (maybe you’ve noticed this from looking at the cartoons on the site). In this case, I was using the cultural bias against the word dogma to make my point quickly. I know that perhaps there are a lot of people reading this blog that might view Catholics who are trying to be faithful to all the doctrines and dogmas of the Church in a negative light. Some of these people might perceive faithful Catholics as brainwashed intolerant hypocrites. And yet, what happens when you show them a group of people who think these same faithful Catholics are brainwashed, over tolerant, hippies? I just thought, perhaps incorrectly, that I might be able to present this information in words they might be able to grasp quickly, even though the statement would be inaccurate.

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Vatican, The board game!

October 25, 2007 in ANSWERING COMMENTS, BOARD GAMES, MY WEB COMIC, MY WEEK, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, Traditional Catholics

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Looks like we’re beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel on show 8. All the scenes have been handed out and everyone that finished the scenes they are working on, help others finish the scenes that they haven’t got to yet. I ended up doing exactly that this week. The scene I got is really fun and very funny (or at least I hope it will be after I’m done with it). It’s one of the last scenes of the show and I’m having a good time being silly with Bart and Homer in the kitchen.

MY WEEK

So I spent the beginning of the week working on my web comic (more on that below) and before I knew it, it was almost time to post my blog and I hadn’t even started writing or drawing anything for it. I’m almost always thinking about what I should write on it and always trying to find something worth writing about. That way whoever reads it will at least, hopefully, be entertained. I know sometimes I fail miserably but I try. Well this time I procrastinated a bit too long because I got so caught up in the story I’m trying to write.

The thing that takes the most time about my blog is the drawing part. The drawings I post every week take, at the very least, an hour to do and that is mostly because of the coloring process. The more characters in the drawing, the longer it takes to color. Once I have a drawing done though, the rest is pretty easy. I just type.

Sometimes I get an idea for the drawing before I start typing and sometimes after. Well this time I knew what I was going to write about. This weekend my cousin, my wife, my wife’s best friend and I played a game of Nexus Ops. Nexus Ops is a light science fiction wargame that plays a little like Axis and Allies, a little like The Settlers of Catan and a little like Starcraft the video game. I lost the game miserably and my wife didn’t like it much. Although my cousin loved it but that’s only because he won.

Well, anyway, I was going to write about that and then draw a picture of my cousin on top of the table, kicking board games pieces everywhere, rubbing it in our faces that he won (which he practically did) while we sit by and look stupidly up at him. Well, the thing is, lately I’ve just been drawing the blog drawings on a piece of paper, I scan them in, and I then color and letter them. It’s faster for me that way. If I use the Wacom tablet to draw directly on the computer I find it takes me longer to do. Usually I scan the drawing in at work. This time I didn’t get a chance to draw anything anywhere. My scanner at home is still packed up somewhere, my desktop isn’t working correctly and I just don’t have the time to take care of all these things right now. I was able to go home at a normal time this week. I thought I’d take advantage of the situation and draw the blog drawing at home but since I wasn’t going to be able to scan it in at home, that presented a problem. I didn’t want to stick around at work because I wanted to go home so badly so I thought I’d try drawing directly into the computer again. This time, though, I was going to try something new. I was going to paint the drawing. I thought that maybe, if I used shapes of color instead of lines I could actually get a more accurate and controlled drawing. Since it usually takes me a long time to color the drawings anyway I’d be losing a step of the process.

So I set out to execute my plan once I got home and low and behold it seemed to be working. I was trying to invent for myself the process as I went so it was taking me a bit longer to do it but I was doing it. I was getting really into it. While I was doing this, my wife called on the phone (she hadn’t come home yet) and I spoke to her for a bit. Afterwards I went back to the computer and began working on the drawing again.

Then, that’s when it happened… Photoshop froze on me a second and then crashed. This usually isn’t a big deal except that I had been so caught up in trying to invent for myself a new method of working on Photoshop that I hadn’t even saved the drawing I was working on at all. Not even once. In other words. I lost all my work. I was crushed. I didn’t want to start over. Emotionally I didn’t have it in me anymore. I went on Facebook and put a sad face “how I’m feeling” icon there and sat there staring at the computer. I didn’t do anything else on my blog for the rest of the day.

Next day, when I got into work, I used pencil and paper and drew this instead:

At least I got a drawing done.

MY WEB COMIC

So the story I was trying to write went bye bye. No matter what I did I couldn’t make it work. It was mostly because the story lost focus. It didn’t have a central theme. It didn’t have a point. Every time I tried to give it a point, it became something else. It just wasn’t the story I set out to write. So instead of fighting with the story and trying to force it to go where I wanted it to go, I thought that maybe I’ll go in the direction that these themes took the story. This actually worked a lot better. I’ve actually got a beginning, middle and end to the thing written out in a rough outline. I told the story to my wife and she really likes it, except for the final act climax which I fully admit is really cheesy and it needs work. That’s okay because what I have of this story is a whole lot more than I had with the other story.

I’m actually very excited about it now, even though it wasn’t what I wanted to write. I was trying to write a story about a fourteen year old boy named Joseph before. Now I’m writing about a man named Guy. The stories have the same “inciting incident”, namely the inheritance of money, both stories take place in the modern world and both stories even have a dragon in them yet they couldn’t be more different. If I can make the other story work I’ll still do it but for now I’ll stick to the one that’s working for me.

As soon as I can figure out a really good non cheesy climax to the story, I’ll be ready to start writing.

BOARD GAMES

So I’m not going to write about the game of Nexus Ops I played this weekend because I’ve already mentioned it above. Instead I’m going to call attention to a comment that was left under my About Me page. Imagine my surprise when I read this:

Dear Luis,
Very interesting and thoughtful blog. If you are interested in Catholicism and boardgames you might appreciate “Vatican” the boardgame I designed. It has been selling worldwide and we have gotten very favorable comments

Sincerely,
Stephen Haliczer Ph.D.
Distinguished Research Professor
Product Designer
The College of DuPage Press

First I’d like to thank Stephen Haliczer Ph.D. for bringing the game to my attention. I appreciate it greatly.

So I checked out the game’s site and read about the game. I also tried reading about it on Board Game Geek (BGG) to see if I could learn a bit more. I found a small forum about the game there where people got a chance to ask Dr. Haliczer questions about the game. When asked how the game is played and how competitive it was Dr. Haliczer answered this:

Dear Doug,

Thank you for your interest. I designed “Vatican” primarily as a simulation/game in order to give players an experience of the process whereby a pope is elected. It is based on a deep study of the careers of the most important cardinals especially those who are considered “papabile” that is those who are considered papal material. Of course this is only a minority of the 115 voting cardinals. That being the case, the simulation/game had to bring the players through the process whereby cardinals gain the requisite influence to become prominent. This is essentially the first part of the game: Life and Career especially the acquisition of key offices. Some offices are more valuable than others hence a competition to aquire the most valuable offices. At the end of phase I all players have acquired the minimum number of offices that makes them “papabile” but they have different scores.

The second part of the game takes place after the pope dies (Papacy Ends cards) and takes players through the critical period between his death and the opening of the conclave where his successor is elected. Here the players must make a series of critical choices. As in real life during this period they must take positions on a variety of issues confronting the church and must guess which positions would prove the most attractive to the other voting cardinals. Players compete to figure out which positions would be most attractive but this is not always easy.

The third part of the game is the conclave itself. This is designed to be brief with just a few votes-as in reality. The last conclave was decided by only 3-4 votes in two days.

A broader and more general answer to the question of competition is as follows: You cannot in real life plan to become pope. There are too many chance factors and variables that you cannot control. Age would be an excellent example. A cardinal of 58 might be very attractive at a certain period of time. The previous pope might have been too old and died very quickly after election so the cardinals would be inclined to vote for someone young. On the other hand, if you were 58 after a pope had reigned for 25 years, your age would count against you since the cardinals would not want such a long serving pope again so soon.

As a designer of a simulation/game, I could not build in elements of competition that would distort reality. I had to build in the chance factors that really impact the election.

I hope that this discussion was helpful and gave you some insight into my thought processes.

The game must be ordered online and will probably not be in stores for some time-but shipping is free.

Thanks again,
Stephen Haliczer

This sounds really interesting. Unfortunately, when asked about the “roll and move” mechanic (roll the dice, move the number of spaces on the dice) of the game Dr. Haliczer was silent. The game sounds great but I’m iffy about the game being a “roll and move game.” Paul Sauberer asked exactly the question I wanted answered at BGG:

Does the game primarily consist of rolling the dice, moving a marker, perhaps drawing an event card, and then seeing what happens from that? Or do the players direct where their pieces go and what actions they take and then see how those choices determine how likely they are to eventually be elected pope?

I wish there were more reviews of this game at the official site (there are only two). BGG has no reviews of the game at all. I’m very cautious of the board games I buy and I like to read as much about the game as I can before I spend any money on them to make sure I would really like them. Sometimes I even find free digital versions of games online and decide from playing them, if I want to buy them.

I’d be more likely to buy this game if I could read the rules for it or at least see a sample of play. Never the less I’ve put it on my BGG Wishlist. If “roll and move” mechanics are not a big deal to you, then maybe you ought to get it. If you do, tell me what you think of it. I’m really interested.

ANSWERING COMMENTS

T Melnick, thank you for sharing your position on the comments section of “What in the world is a ‘traditional Catholic’?“. I just wish to clarify something you said. In the post you wrote:

I am a traditional Catholic, and there are many more groups and views than the Society of St. Pius X. For me, the change in the Ordination Rite of Bishops which no longer gives them the power to ordain priests, the unscriptural change in the words of consecration, and the promotion of false ecumenism (JPII having worshipped with every religion on the face of the earth, which is forbidden by Church Law and Holy Scripture, making him an apostate from the Church founded by Jesus Christ) were the main clinchers.

What you wrote above is basically what the Society of St. Pius X also says on their site. So my question is, what do you think of the Society?

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BattleLore, Harry Dresden, and Catholics

October 19, 2007 in ANSWERING COMMENTS, BOARD GAMES, BOOKS, CATHOLICISM, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, Traditional Catholics

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

We didn’t meet our shipping dates and we still have a long way to go. We were suppose to ship Act III last Friday but it turns out we hadn’t even shipped all of Act II yet. I’ve been working twelve hour days all this week, trying to get as much done as possible. We are soooo behind.

BOARD GAMES

Wow! I actually got to play a board game last week. I asked my wife if she wanted to play a board game and she actually said yes. So I went to the game closet and after thinking about what I should get out, I thought maybe she might like BattleLore. BattleLore is a light fantasy wargame that comes with a bunch of miniatures. It uses a game system called the Command and Colors System. It’s a really simple two player game and it can be played in about an hour. If you want to know more about it, click below:

BattleLore Website

BattleLore review from Board Game Geek

Purchase BattleLore (if you buy it through this site, Amazon gives me a small percentage. That goes for all the other things bought through the site.)

My wife had never played before. I showed her how to play and set up the board to the first scenario (the board is modular so you don’t always play the same game everytime). She played the English and I played the French. In this scenario she was at a disadvantage because she had very few strong people in armor and a bunch of lightly armored archers while I had a bunch of heavily armored knights on horse back. The only advantage she had was that she got to have six command cards in her hand while I only got four. After about forty minutes of play it looked like the game was almost over and I was going to win. The winner of this scenario was the first person to destroy four of their opponents units. I had three points and my wife only had one. A turn later my wife tied the game by taking out two of my units after rolling two lucky rolls. In my next turn I attacked trying to win the game but the dice didn’t roll my way. My wife got to battle the unit I used to attack her and she took them out in another lucky roll and she won the game. I couldn’t believe it. I was sooo close to wining and I lost two turns later. Needless to say my wife had a good time and really liked the game. Looks like we’ll be playing it again sometime, which is good because it’s one of my favorite games.

BOOKS

Oh MAN, there’s nothing like reading a good book. I like to read but I often find myself getting bored with a lot of books I pick up. That’s why it’s great to find a book that I just can’t wait to get back to. I’ve been reading Jim Butcher’s Wizard for Hire and it’s just that type of book. Technically the book is a compilation of three of his Dresden novels, Storm Front, Fool Moon, and Grave Peril. I’m reading Storm Front right now and I’m having a blast with it. The books are a cross between Sam Spade mysteries and Harry Potter. They’re about a private detective who happens to be a real Wizard and his job is to investigate supernatural mysteries. For example, one of the mysteries he has to deal with in Storm Front after the cops call him in for help is figuring out who used black magic to murder a mob boss’ bodyguard, and an expensive hired escort by making their hearts explode out of their chest while in the middle of sexual intercourse. (Yeah, this one isn’t for the kiddies). Problem is that the White council of Wizards thinks it was him. It’s really great. Mostly because of the character of Harry Dresden, the protagonist. He’s such a sarcastic and very humorous character. You just enjoy seeing the world through his eyes and his world is really interesting. I can’t recommend these books enough. I’ll let you know if I feel the same way after I’m done reading them all.

CATHOLICISM (Answering Comments)

Warning: The following is about Catholicism. If you could care less about this stuff, please feel free to skip it.

Before I even begin, a quick word about the Society of Pius X. I must retract my statement from “WHAT IN THE WORLD IS A ‘TRADITIONAL’ CATHOLIC?” where I wrote, “…this person is actually not a Roman Catholic at all but belongs to the schismatic sect of the Society of Pius X.” The truth is, he is. The ideas put forth by the Society of Pius X, in no way condemns them in the eyes of the Church. The Society of Pius X is an excommunicated (no longer in “communion” with the Church and no longer able to partake of the Sacraments) group of priests. This means the excommunication effects the priests and the priests alone and doesn’t effect the laity in their congregation. The reason the Society got excommunicated was not because of the beliefs they hold but because they began ordaining priests without permission of the Vatican (something that they are quick to admit to and defend in their site).

Bill asked me a question again under my post, “WHAT IN THE WORLD IS A ‘TRADITIONAL’ CATHOLIC?” It went like this:

Well I asked my co-worker what a traditional Catholic is and his answer matches with your first speculation. He believes that the Church has (and I’m only paraphrasing) has changed the dogma and that it no longer holds the true beliefs that it once has. Again I was curious…in what way has it changed where the meaning has been altered? It is true that mass is no longer conducted in Latin and the priest is not speaking with his back facing towards the people. And there are certain issues (which I can’t remember because I’m too tired and lazy) where the Church has redefined to reflect the changes of the times( or was it something else?).

Well he did answer my question regarding to that, but I forgot what it was…DUH! I’ll ask him again and bring a notepad…

By “…his answer matches with your first speculation.” I take you to mean that he is from the Society of Pius X.

Okay, so the answer to your question about what meanings in the dogmas have been altered is, “none”. Of course, the Society of Pius X doesn’t see it that way. I’ve decided that the best way to show what they believe is to link you to their FAQs pages. It’ll basically tell you what you wanted to know. The FAQs page is full of accusations mostly against Vatican II. Just as a disclaimer though, after having read through some of the things written there, I noticed that Vatican II teaching is grossly misrepresented and therefore sounds like the worst thing in the universe. I don’t think this is a deliberate misrepresentation. I think they honestly see Vatican II this way. It looks to me that they hate Vatican II so much, their willing to find nothing good in it at all and in so doing, will always go out of their way to find something wrong out of sheer prejudice.

I also noticed that the language they use to represent themselves is political in nature. The term conservative is used in a few places. It’s been my experience that when you read or hear a Catholic use terms like conservative or liberal to represent themselves it usually means that they are coming from a political place first and a religious place second. Usually this means that what they say doesn’t actually represent the faith they hold so much as the system of thought they use to interpret it. Catholicism is neither conservative nor liberal it’s Catholic. I hope I’m misunderstanding the way they’re using the term.

I also find it odd that they are so anti-protestant. This coming from a group of priests who refuse to humble themselves to Church discipline (no matter how unjust). Saint Padre Pio went through something similarly unjust but was humble and obedient enough to endure it in spite of the souls that would suffer for it and now he’s a Canonized Saint. It saddens me to see people who obviously love their Catholicism, willfully refusing Church discipline and by doing so separating themselves from the Church. Then turning around and proclaiming themselves the only holders of the True Faith. Ironically these actions call to mind a famous person who did the same thing five hundred years ago, namely Martin Luther. I can see the good they’re trying to do but, in trying to fight what they perceive is protestantism in the Church, have they become yet another type of neo-protestant?

I hope this makes some sense to you Bill because it sure as heck makes no sense to me. This stuff is just way to confusing. I personally have very mixed feeling about the Society. I see a lot of good in them as well as bad. Let me know what you get out of it.

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Accidents and deadlines

October 11, 2007 in ANSWERING COMMENTS, MY WEB COMIC, MY WEEK, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

I took Monday off this week for reasons I explain below. This put me behind. This is our last week to ship the show. It doesn’t look good at all. I think we’re gonna be late with it. I managed to finish what I had Tuesday morning and I was given more things to do. Since we only have this week to finish, every scene we get this week feels like a great burden. Mostly because you know it has to be done by the end of the week. It’s worse when the revision is a new scene you have to begin from scratch. Turns out, fifty percent of Act III is brand new that way. To make matters worse, one day I needed Lance (the Director) to approve some shots I’d set up and he wasn’t there because he was at Fox doing a DVD commentary. That stuff really gets in the way sometimes.

I worked twelve hours Tuesday, Thursday, and on Friday I will do the same. I hope that will help me get things done.

MY WEEK

My pregnant wife was in a car accident this Sunday. It wasn’t a very happy day. She was at the hospital getting checked out during the whole day. I was taking care of our daughter that day so she wasn’t in the car. My wife was found to be okay at the hospital and the baby in her womb was okay too. She was released around five o’clock PM. She’s been sore since.

On Monday she and I took the day off work in order to take care of the car which was in a tow truck lot in LA. A very insecure one as we found out to our dismay. Some one stole my wife’s iPod from the car. We took the babies things from the car and left it so that the insurance could take care of taking it to a mechanic. We then had to go get a rental car. If they find that the other person is at fault (which she is) we won’t have to pay for the rental.

Wednesday we found out that car was totaled. There is no way to fix it. We really don’t have the money to be buying a new car. Well…I suppose we do. We have some ’emergency’ money saved up in case things like this happen but of course that would mean that the money would no longer be there after we use it and it’s going to be really difficult to replace it. My wife and I aren’t as worried as maybe we should be. God’s Will be done. If he wants to make things easier, so much the better. I’m sure he has a plan, we just need to wait and see what it is. I’ve learned from experience that it’s times like these that we really grow.

But a person needs new experiences. They draw something deep inside, allowing them to grow. Without change, something sleeps inside us and seldom awakens. The sleeper must awaken.

Duke Leto Atreides (Dune the movie)

We are very thankful to God that the accident, though bad, was not worse. We are very inconvenienced by it but I’d rather be inconvenienced than be grieving, for my wife or my unborn son.

ANSWERING COMMENTS

Boy, I received a lot of comments for my last post. I’m glad everyone liked the drawing. It was great seeing you all.

Greg, I was really hoping to get the reaction from you that I got. It’s funny but I really did feel like that when we greeted. That’s were the idea came from.

Rob, I listened to your last two podcasts. Sounds like you had one heck of a good time at the Expo. It’s great to hear your perspective on the Expo. I liked the chats you had with the different podcasters you met. Thanks for mentioning me. Tell your wife that she doesn’t need to like The Simpsons. I’m not offended. (SOB!)

Scott, I remember you. Yes, you were one of the first people who said something to me when I showed up. Thanks for the link to the picture. Sorry I forgot to draw you. I don’t always remember everyone or everything.

Capt. Jeff, Sorry I haven’t gotten back to you about the shirt idea. I will as soon as I can. I’ve actually gotten another one since, so now I have two ideas.

Fr. Jay, I’ve been listening to your podcast. It’s great. I highly recommend people to go listen to it.

Sr. Anne, Thank you for the compliment. Rome was so cool. I’m jealous that you got to live there for a while. I’m glad it brought you memories of the place. Boy was that rush hour train ride crazy though. WOW!

Your blog rocks!

I love the book reviews video from Sr. Julia you put up on your site! It’s great for people looking for Catholic books to read.

Dr. Paul Camarata, I’m glad you like the Italy trip journal. Wow, that’s so cool that you’ll be going back next summer. Wish I had the time and money to go back (sigh). Dude, that guy at the Coliseum was super annoying. He almost ruined it for me.

Bill, I’m going to have to wait a week more before answering your question. I know the answer to the question but I would need to double check all my sources just to be accurate. I want to be fair and just in representing “traditionalist’s” concerns.

MY WEB COMIC

Went to watch a movie Saturday night that made me rethink my webcomic story. I’ve decided to throw out everything I’ve written so far and start over. There’s going to be a major change in the direction I was going with the story. I’m going to be getting rid of some characters and I’m going to be making up new ones. I’m also gonna be changing the main character’s motivation. It’s a big pain. Hopefully it will come together much better with these changes. I showed my wife act I and II of my story as it was written and she said it stunk. It had a lot of problems so that means back to the drawing board.

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Stomach Flus and Podcast Expos

October 4, 2007 in ANSWERING COMMENTS, MY WEEK, PODCASTS, THE SIMPSONS NEWS

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Worked overtime Monday and Tuesday. Right now, it looks like we might have a chance of finishing on time. MAYBE. We need to work harder though.

I’ve also been trying to catch up on Podcasts at work recently.

I’ve been putting Smallville DVDs into my laptop while I work too. I don’t really know why. They sometimes distract me. I like that show though.

Wednesday, Paul, Tommy and I went to buy comics at lunch.

Work is tiring me out. I’m so sleepy all the time.

MY WEEK

Got a 24 hour stomach flu this weekend. It really came out of no where and hit all three of us pretty hard. It first hit the Munchkin a day before but it quickly turned and hit us. Luckily, the Munchkin didn’t get it as bad as we did. My wife and I were out for a whole day. Since I was the only one of the two of us that could stand, I had to take care of the Munchkin who wasn’t even feeling bad anymore by the time we got sick. I also had a few errands to do, so I didn’t get to rest as much as I should have. Lucky for us, my mom came and took care of us all that day. My wife was in really bad shape that morning. If I haven’t mentioned this before, she’s four months pregnant. The fact that she was doing so bad got me pretty worried. By the end of the day she was in a lot better shape though. Yay.

PODCASTS

The Podcast Media expo happened this weekend. I went down to the Expo to see the SQPN crew because I had some things I wanted to give them. Of course, I had the stomach flu so this meant I could only stay for a little while or else I would pass out. This was a real bummer because besides Fr. Roderick, and Greg and Jennifer Willits (hrmmm, Grennifer Willits?), there were a lot of other podcasters and SQPN listeners I wanted to talk to and I barely got a chance to say “hi” to them. Tupelos Catholic, Rob Williams was one, (Sorry dude, I so wanted to talk to you, I wanted to tell you I liked your podcast), and Capt. Jeff too. I just said a few things to him and that was that which sucked because I had a t-shirt idea I wanted to talk to him about. I didn’t get a chance for anything. I felt so cheated. I was looking forward to the expo for a while because I knew it would be the only chance I would get to see everyone. It stinks because the next expo will be in Las Vegas. It’s a four hour drive but I don’t think I’ll be able to make it. Not only that but Greg invited us to a Mass that Fr. Roderick was going to co-celebrate and my wife and I were too sick to go to it. A was so bummed.

ANSWERING COMMENTS

Thank you Albert – for giving me your definition of a traditional Catholic. I’m assuming that you are one. If I could just make a friendly subjection though. It might be a good idea to proofread your comments and check for spelling errors before publishing them. Just a thought.

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What in the world is a “traditional Catholic”?

September 27, 2007 in ANSWERING COMMENTS, THE SIMPSONS NEWS, Traditional Catholics

THE SIMPSONS NEWS

Under the gun again. We are really behind on the show and Act I has to be shipped by next Friday. Act II gets shipped the following Friday and Act III the Friday after that. Right now, it doesn’t look good. I’ve been working overtime this week just to try to get as much done as possible. Fixes that seemed simple at the time, have turned out to be really complicated and time consuming. It’s gonna be a difficult couple of weeks.

ANSWERING COMMENTS

Well, Bill asked me a really interesting question on the last post.

“I was talking with a co-worker who kept correcting me that he was a “traditional Catholic”, not a Catholic. That intrigued me, isn’t the Roman Catholic Church about as traditional as you can get in the world of Christianity? Are there distinct differences between Catholic and traditional Catholic?”

My advice to you Bill, in order to get the best answer, is to ask your co-worker what he means by “traditional Catholic.” Only by doing that will you get the clearest answer because, you are right, Roman Catholicism is about as traditional as you can get.

Having said this, I can’t help but speculate myself.

The first thing that comes to mind ~~is that this person is actually not a Roman Catholic at all but belongs to the schismatic sect of the Society of Pius X.~~ *<= I’ve crossed out the first sentence of this paragraph because it is in error. For the reasons why, please read my blog post: BattleLore, Harry Dresden, and Catholics.* This is the sect that Mel Gibson belongs to (I think). This sect rejects the changes brought about in the 1960s by the Vatican II council. As strange as this may seem, the Society of Pius X isn’t angry at the Church because it’s too Dogmatic, it’s angry because it’s not Dogmatic enough. (Although, as of the time of this writing, if you go to their website, their home page says that they “…profess filial devotion and loyalty to Pope Benedict XVI.” On further investigation I found that this just means that they are in dialog with the Pope and are actually hopeful that they are close to mending the shism).

The second thing that he may mean, might be that he just happens to like pre-Vatican II trappings. That is to say, he likes the aesthetics of how the Church used to do things and, without being schismatic, prefers pre-Vatican II things. I can sympathize with this view since I hold to some of these views myself. I find that I like to go to the occasional Tridentine Mass (pre-Vatican II Latin Mass), I like Latin as well and I study it when I get a chance, I also like reading Aquinas and books on the Trivium and logic, etc. Unfortunately some of the Catholics that think this way tend to be a bit “militant” and have gotten a reputation, even within the Church, of being Catholic Fundamentalists (yikes!).

Another thing he could mean is that he considers himself a Catholic who tries his hardest to live out his faith as a well informed obedient Catholic (like Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta). As opposed to many Catholics who are Catholic in name only but could care less about the Church and it’s precepts. These types of Catholics are such archetypes within the faith, that they’ve been given goofy nicknames like: “Cafeteria Catholics” (who get their name from the way they pick and choose what doctrines they will follow and which they won’t, as if they were picking food from a cafeteria) or “E.C. Catholics” (who get their name from the fact that they only go to church on Easter and Christmas). Of course, not all “uncommitted or semi-committed Catholics” fit within the confines of these two categories. Many, through no fault of their own, just don’t know any better or haven’t really given much thought to their faith and what it means, even though they sincerely think they have (like I once did). It might be that by calling himself “traditional” your co-worker might be trying to distinguish himself from these other types of Catholics.

Another thing he might mean, and the least likely, is that he considers himself a “catholic” (notice the lower case c.) The word catholic (katholikos from katholou in greek) means “throughout the whole, i.e., universal”. Your co-worker might be a “protestant” (non Catholic Christian) who has become aware that the early Church thought of itself as catholic and is not afraid to use the term. I have a protestant/Christian friend who does this very thing.

Or finally, as my friend Ely said after I showed him my blog drawing,

“Maybe he’s such a ‘traditional Catholic,’ he’s Jewish!” (Jerk, upstaged my joke. Wish I’d thought of that.)

Let me know what you find out Bill.

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Luis' Illustrated Blog

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Do you think board games are just for kids?

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Greg Willits runs a marathon, Beowulf the Movie

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Playing too much, sleeping too little

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Going to Confession

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Vatican, The board game!

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BattleLore, Harry Dresden, and Catholics

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Accidents and deadlines

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Stomach Flus and Podcast Expos

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What in the world is a “traditional Catholic”?

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Hi, Welcome!

Both my books are now on Amazon. Pick up your own print copy today!

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Hi, Welcome!

Both my books are now on Amazon. Pick up your own print copy today!

Buy My Art

Most Read Posts

Featured Post

Archives

Blogroll