THE SIMPSONS NEWS

I was taken off the crew I was on and put on yet another crew.  I was told at lunch about it Tuesday.  I don’t really mind though. Especially since the scenes I’m working on involve BOARD GAMES. Woo Hoo!

In other news…Paul finally got his sketchbook out:

Most of the people in that crowd are based on real geeks Paul know or took pictures of. I’m in the back cover.

The sketchbook is great.  If you want to buy a copy you can order one from STUART NG BOOKS. He printed it for Comic Con and sold it there. He told me one of the people that bought a copy was none other than Disney Animator Glen Keane. Glen Keane was the head animator on such Disney characters as Ariel, The Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Tarzan, and Long John Silver. He told Paul that it was his first time at Comic Con and that Paul‘s sketchbook and Ronnie Del Carmen‘s sketchbook were the only things he had bought at the Con. Paul was very honored.

He also told me that, since he was a Dealer, he was able to walk around the show floor before it officially opened.  As he walked by a booth and saw a bunch of pictures of Edward James Olmos on a table.

“Oh wow, Edward James Olmos.” He turned to the guy in the booth, “Is he here?”.  The guy in the booth didn’t say a word, he merely pointed next to were Paul was standing.  He turned his head only to come face to face with Mr. Olmos himself.  Paul nearly jumped out of his skin and stood dumbfounded not able to speak.  After a few moments he was able recover and asked Mr. Olmos for an autograph, shook his hand and got a picture taken with him.  Paul is a huge Battlestar Galactica fan.  Later on during the Con he got to meet other cast members, such as James Callis.

Sounds like the had a fun time.

Oh…and I also heard from from him and quite a few of my co-workers that they saw Leonard Nimoy  walking around the show floor, enjoying the chaos.

BOARD GAMES

I invited my parents over Saturday for a game night.  I definitely took out “family games” this time around, or at least I thought they were all family games. Something fun and lite with a little bit of strategy.  To this end, I brought out Ticket to Ride: Europe, Modern Art , Vegas Showdown, and Tichu . I would have brought out Ingenious but I wasn’t in the mood to play that game.

I asked everyone what they wanted to play after I explained the gist of how  each game played.  My mom wanted to play Tichu so that’s what we played.  It was the first time I’d ever played it.  I wasn’t sure what to expect but it didn’t really seem too complicated when I read the rules.  Then we started playing it. Woah, for such a simple game it sure forces you to make difficult decisions from the get go. Everyone was a bit overwhelmed by how deep the game was.

It’s a bit of a partnership trick taking game. You win a trick by trying to put down higher combos of cards than the other players on the table. Thing is, there is some really nice nuances in the game that dictate when you WANT to win the trick,  when it’s a good time to play certain cards and when you want to be the first player to play all your cards. We all had a good time but, man, it was really shocking to discover how deep the game was.  I recommend it.

FAMILY

So Munchkin was on my lap this weekend as I looked some stuff up on my computer.  She notice my Avatar in one of my file folders so I clicked on it so she could take a better look.  My Avatar animates so she likes it.  It isn’t the first time she’s seen it and often asks me if she could see the “funny face”. This time though it suddenly dawned on her that the avatar was suppose to be me and she sat up, pointed at it and exclaimed:

She started laughing, “That’s a very funny daddy”.  Now she calls it, “funny daddy”.  I showed her the other drawings on my blog and she thought they were very funny too. It still hasn’t dawned on her that the little girl in all those blog drawings is her. I tried to tell her but she didn’t get it. She’ll figure it out eventually.

ROLE PLAYING GAMES

I write a lot about the Board Game Geek Website (BGG).  It’s a fantastic resource for discovering every kind of tactile game you can play with friends and family.  Well, the creator of  BGG, Scott Alden (Aldie),  has decided that he was going to branch out to other types of games.  To that end he has created Geek DÓ, the brand under which, BGG will now reside.  His newest Geek game site is Role Playing Game Geek (RPGG).  It’s just like BGG for table top role playing games, only a tad bit more complicated.  Mostly because of the subcategories that many table top role playing games need to be placed under.  For example, Dungeons and Dragons, alone, has four editions and each edition has tons of books under it.

It’s a fantastic site and a much needed site.  It’s a pain to try to find info on many role playing games.  Up until know when I wanted to read a review for an rpg I went to Rpg.net, but I’ve never really liked that site.  It’s very clunky and difficult to find things in, and the colors  on the site are a  bit off putting .  Now with RPGG it’s going to be so much easier and it’s a nicer brighter atmosphere.  I’ve already started helping out the data base by putting up pictures and things for the site.  There are a few thousand role playing games up on the site already and it’s growing by the minute.  It’s fantastic, it was love at first site (pause for the “boos”) .  I’ve already started to make a wish list and uploading all the games I own.

If you’re a gamer but aren’t a board gamer or an rpger, don’t worry. The next Geek database site Aldie is going to work on, will be Video Game Geek. You will soon be assimilated.

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