Adam Oster's Blog, page 84

Life with a Princess

I’m sure you’re all getting tired of hearing about this big ol’ road trip I went on, but there were some many experiences that occurred over the course of that week and a half that seem ripe for philosophizing over.  As has been previously mentioned, the actual destination of our trip was kept as a surprise for our children.  But that wasn’t the only surprise planned.  In fact, there were surprises planned for at least one of the children for almost every day of our vacation.  Day 1 had two big ones, breakfast with Mickey, Pluto, Lilo, and Stitch, as well as the grander surprise that we were actually at Disney World.

Day 2 found us at Animal Kingdom, where we had lunch with Donald, Daisy, Mickey, and Goofy. That one, as well as the prior day’s breakfast, was intended to be more for my son, who is currently in a deep infatuation with Walt’s initial cast of characters.

Day 3′s big surprise was one that my daughter had been begging for ever since my wife initially told her about it. . .yet, in my book, we did this one more for mom than daughter.  The Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique:

Princess Cinder-Ollie

My wife and I have been visiting the world of the mouse semi-regularly over the past 10 years, and once she heard about the existence of this place where little girls could be given complete makeovers into adorable little princesses, she needed to get a kid in there.  Well before we had even discussed kids (or got married for that matter), she wanted to get a kid in there to experience this, going so far as to talk about bringing down one of our nieces and footing the bill.  Fast forward about a decade and, well, our little girl was finally old enough to experience this bank-account draining experience (I kid. . . but it does cost a pretty penny).

Once she finally became aware of the fact that we were in Disney World, my daughter’s mind quickly went to asking about whether or not she would be able to go to the BBB.  Although we had managed to get our reservation several weeks prior (thanks to some repeated callings to the reservations department), my wife kept telling her that it just wasn’t going to happen.  So, the morning of the third day, as we arrived at Downtown Disney for my daughter’s appointment, she was literally beaming from ear to ear as she recognized what awaited her.  It was pretty darn priceless.

Now, I didn’t get to experience the transformation.  I took my son for some male bonding time in Epcot, riding some of my childhood favorites while the girls had their date, but when the two had reappeared from under a literal cloud of “pixie dust” (the glitter still hasn’t managed to get washed out of my daughters hair. . . or everywhere else for that matter), there was a drastic change in my daughter’s attitude as well.  I mean, this kid’s normally a pretty awesome kid, was already incredibly grateful to be at the happiest place on earth (yes, that’s DisneyLAND’s tagline, so sue me), but throughout the rest of the day she couldn’t stop hugging her mother and saying thank you repeatedly.  She was the most contented little girl ever, realizing that she had most of her souvenir money spent on the experience of a lifetime.

She was a princess.

The way she beamed with excitement as cast members and guests alike gave her all sorts of special attention was worth the money spent alone.  My wife told me a story of how, as they were getting on the bus to make it to our rendezvous, they came across a large group of people awaiting to get on a different bus.  My daughter made a comment about how they would need to walk around the group, to which a lady in the line responded, “Princesses don’t walk around, princesses walk through,” followed by the entire group of people immediately making way for this new princess.  She talked about that moment for the rest of the week. . .

All of this got me thinking about the concept of a princess.  Generally when one envisions the word princess, it comes with images of spoiled brats, kids who are under the impression that everything is owed to them. . . in short, we often think of Cinderella’s step-sisters, as so many kids today feel so incredibly entitled to everything.  My daughter, I’m proud to say, embodied the spirit of Cinderella that day (and most days for that matter).  Although Cinderella is quite simply the most boring of the princesses, my daughter showed grace, compassion, and more than all, gratitude for something she was well aware was an incredibly special situation.

Just one more example of how my kids are awesome. . . and that I feel okay spoiling them as often as I do, since they haven’t quite gotten to the brat status yet. . .

Also, since this is a daughter-heavy article, one side note, this was also the same day my son finally became aware of Figment the dragon of your imagination.  I’m happy to say that his love for that purple guy was right up there with my own love of him from my own childhood.  Something about being a father and being able to infect your children with the things you love is constantly rewarding.  My children are quickly becoming some awesome little minions.

Have a good one.

Review: Godhead by Ken Mooney

Ken Mooney’s ability to coin a phrase is outstanding. Throughout this epic tale of demi-gods fighting against the goddess of procreation, he manages to build emotions, actions, and a fantastic world one feels instantly connected with.

From the opening prologue, the reader is pulled into a tale that could have been written by Homer himself, gods at war with each other, battling for supremacy. He moves on from there to a more modest setting, but doesn’t keep us there for long, as we suddenly find our protagonists squaring off against the exact same foe that Zeus and Hera found themselves struggling to contain. . . Aphrodite.

And Aphrodite is where this tale really hits its stride. In this goddess, Mooney has managed to create a villain that the reader both immediately hates and yearns to learn more about. She uses everything at her disposal to get her way, and even has an evil henchman to assist her dastardly deeds.

By the end of the book we are stuck craving the next piece of this tale. I can only hope that Mooney doesn’t take too long to give us what we desire.

 

Get your copy of Godhead now!

Suspension of Disbelief

My children still live in a wonderful world.  A world where anything is possible.  A world where mice really can talk and Superman really does fly above the skyscrapers of Metropolis.  It’s fantastic.  On our recent trip across the country, many examples cropped up of this beautiful vision of the world that children have.

On our way down, we drove directly through Metropolis, IL, the “home of Superman”.  Unfortunately, it was around 1am when we actually got there, so visiting the Superman Museum or other such sights were out of the question.  I did, however, make the executive decision to wake my children up from their car seat slumber to check out the (pictured) Superman statue that sits in an area known as Superman Square.

Although both were incredibly groggy from being woken up in the middle of their uncomfortable sleep, they quickly became excited by the prospect of being in Superman’s hometown.  My daughter continually asked if we were going to be able to meet the man himself (to which I had to respond that he was more than likely asleep).  My son kept asking where Batman was (I have to work with him on that one. . . ).

There was no question of the reality of this iconic character, just the question of when we would actually get to see him fly across the sky.

I did find myself concerned for my daughter’s suspension of disbelief soon after arriving at Disney World itself as she started discussing the fact that the Mickey we were seeing could not possibly be the real Mickey.  Her reason was simple.  He didn’t talk.

I had no real response for that.  I merely brushed off the comment to allow her to work through it in her own head.  She’s a rather bright kid, but I could tell she still wanted to believe.  Of course, at the same time, she did mention that it wasn’t the REAL Mickey, not that Mickey wasn’t real.

At the end of the Hyperspace Hoopla (a special show performed during Star Wars Weekends at Disney’s Hollywood Studios) the mouse came out dressed in Jedi garb and at the end of his appearance he lined up with the rest of the group on stage.  Complete with moving mouth he stated, “May the force be with you!”.  My daughter was ecstatic.  She immediately erupted into a long string of comments about how this MUST be the real Mickey because he talked, and for the days following kept repeating the line as though it was something only ever uttered by Walt’s most important drawing.  This kid’s seen Star Wars countless times, yet all of that was lost on the fact that she was now certain she had given a hug to the main mouse himself.

It’s incredible.  Throughout the week, questions about whether these characters slept at Disney World or elsewhere constantly cropped up, they needed to know the specifics of how these characters’ lives worked.  Surely they had lives of their own outside of taking pictures with their countless fans, right?  Crush the turtle from Finding Nemo had to escape the aquarium from time to time to right the EAC, didn’t he?

This concept of blurring the line between reality and fiction is an odd one.  I tend to try to stray from straight up lying to my children, but I also like to keep the magic alive.  I wish that my brain worked the way theirs do, where magic truly exists, and at any moment we could find ourselves face to face with a duck that can talk.

Anyways, that’s all I’ve got time for today.  I hope you all have a “magical” day. (cheesy, right?)

How I Disappeared and Had an Adventure with my Family

So, yeah, I disappeared.  Life got somewhat busy, my brain got somewhat muddled, and I found myself being overcome with a severe lack of time.  And then. . . well, I crammed my family into a car and we drove across the country in search of a mouse.

Pictured: My amazing family (+mouse)

In a rather last-minute decision, brought on by some impending changes in the Oster household, my wife and I came to the realization that it may be some time before we would actually be able to do a trip to Disney World (which had initially been pencilled in for sometime in October) unless we were to do so pretty darn quickly.  We were in need of a vacation, had just barely enough funds to pay for the trip, and thought that it had been too long since we had tried something as purely insane as loading up two kids (under the age of 4) into a car for a 20+ hour car trip.  The trip down actually ended up being somewhere around 27 hours with the stops and whatnot.

First, my kids are simply amazing.  At the point of loading them into the car, neither of them had any actual clue as to where we were going (outside of the name of the resort we were going to be sleeping in).  They were just excited to be hanging out as a family.  Our first stop, a mere few hours from home base at the New Glarus Brewery, was their first opportunity to showcase how truly awesome they were in that there was very little for them to do outside of drink their root beer, but they still were having a fantastic time.

By the time they woke up the following morning, we were in the land of Waffle Houses, and my two adorable little minions gobbled down their southern-made waffles like candy before we hopped back in the car and made amazing time to our final destination.

Sure, the parents were exhausted (I had approximately 1.5 hours of sleep for the trip down), but once we got unloaded into our condo, the kids were more than ready for a little time in the pool and some dinner before retiring early.  Both expressed little interest in ever leaving the confines of the condo.  There was a pool, there was the newness of this place we were staying at, and the promise of being able to find lizards out our front door, they were more than excited enough already.

If only they knew. . .

Anyways, approximately 30 minutes into a viewing of Monsters Inc., both kids (as well as parents) were showing signs of a need for bed.  With an early bedtime, the family was becoming quite prepared for what was to come.  Of course, convincing them that we should go out to a restaurant for breakfast, instead of eating Rice Krispies (the only breakfast food we had in our possession) at the condo, proved to be somewhat difficult.

Breakfast was scheduled at the Polynesian Resort, one of the Disney hotels.  We were to be joined at breakfast by Lilo, Stitch, Mickey, and Pluto, some of my kids’ favorite characters.  Since we intended to hang out at the Magic Kingdom for the day, we parked in the theme park’s lot and walked the 10 minute walk to the restaurant.  Along the way, Mickeys, images of the castle, and many other very Disney-esque items were in view and pointed out quite excitedly by my two children (both of which were very aware of what Disney World was, due to their father’s prepping them for the trip).  At one point, I was certain the surprise would be out as my daughter excitedly pointed to the monorail driving past overhead, only to have her focus on the Monsters Inc. characters on the side.

Constant questions to them regarding their ideas of where we were at were responded to with blank stares, or answers of Encantada (the resort our condo was located in).  We arrived at breakfast, no characters in sight.  We were seated at our table and immediately dived into our food (the restaurant has a set menu of all-you-can-eat family style dining, so we were fed immediately upon sitting).  Soon, me and my wife began to see Lilo enter the room, followed shortly by Stitch, Mickey and Pluto.  She and I giggled with anticipation of the moment our children would obviously be aware of our location.

Then it happened, both kids sighted Stitch at the same moment. They began looking around the room and saw the rest of the characters making their rounds to all the tables.  Excitement grew, interest in food waned.  My wife and I again continued asking our children where they thought we might be.  Neither were aware.

After giving hugs and taking pictures with each of these special guests and having an interesting parade through the restaurant, we determined it was time to depart the restaurant and head to the Magic Kingdom, figuring that by getting on the monorail to head into the park, our daughter, at the very least, should be aware of where we were.  As we gathered our belongings, I noticed my daughter’s seat was perfectly situated to get a beautiful glimpse of the castle throughout the meal.  She had been staring out the window the entire time before the distractions of a mouse and his friends came along.  She was well aware of the castle and where it was located. . . Then I lowered myself to see what she would have been seeing from her actual vantage point.  By my guess, if she would have been an inch taller, she would have been able to see over the tree branch that was perfectly situated to block her view.

At this point, I was bubbling over with the need to tell them where we were, but also very intrigued to see how long this could continue.  I consider my daughter to be a very intelligent little girl, but here, despite all of the signs I considered to be incredibly obvious, she still had no clue of what the week had in store for her.

The monorail ride did nothing to help her on her way either.  In fact, the train-in-the-sky had a stop in the middle of the track for a moment, which, if it had stopped a few feet later, would have also given her a perfect view of the castle.

Unfortunately, the moment in which she realized where we were was rather anticlimactic.  We were inside the turnstiles, awaiting the opening ceremonies which would allow us entrance into the park-proper, when she finally looked at her mom and said, quite sweetly, “Mom, are we at Disney World?”  The grin that appeared on her face with the answer, however, was priceless. . . a grin that barely disappeared over the course of the following (incredibly long and sleepless) week.  Her brother, limited vocabulary that he has, immediately perked up once the realization was made as well.  I pulled out the Mickey ears and we were all loaded and entered the park with smiles on our faces.

It was a great day, but, honestly, I think we all would have had just as great of a day no matter where we were just because we were out there having and adventure as a family.

There’s much more to be said, but I’m calling it for today.  The trip was fantastic and filled with more and more surprises for my children.  I’m very happy to have been able to do all that we were able to do for them to make this as memorable of a trip as is possible for kids of their ages.  It will at least be something I remember for many years to come. . .

Have a good one!

The Sun is Out and So am I

I know, I’ve been way too absent lately.  The sun started shining and I found myself incapable of hanging out in front of an LCD screen in a dark room any more than necessary.  I even took my work computer outside on a couple of occasions just to soak up a little bit more of that good ol’ Vitamin D.

I don’t have much to tell you guys.  I’m still working on future projects and really excited about getting them completed and out into the world.  The paperback is coming soon, although slightly delayed in its release.  I actually spent a few minutes today trying to get that moving in a more forward direction.

 

So, yeah, I’m going to go enjoy more of the sun.  Have a good one!

I Hate Batman!

I have to be honest with you.  I really do hate The Batman.  Out of all of the superheroes out there, there is quite possibly only one that I think less of. . . the dreaded Spiderman.  Sure, I watch the movies, own several of the comic books, play the video games, and, of course, I do even, from time to time, find myself wearing a Batman shirt.  However, my interest in these two characters really stops at the villains.  The Joker, The Green Goblin, Bane, Venom (well, truly, Carnage is better), and the whole lot of them, they’re much deeper, much more interesting characters than stinky old Batman and Spiderman.

A few months ago, whilst shopping for clothes for my children (with my children), I came across a rack of superhero shirts, complete with capes!  I pulled the Superman shirt off the rack, showed it to my son, who immediately looked away in disinterest.  A few seconds later, his eyes returned to the rack I had found great joy in observing and they lit up with joy.  I eagerly pulled the Superman shirt off the rack and handed it to him, to which he simply responded with “NO!” and pointed repeatedly at the Batman shirt which sat next to my favorite red S.

I was heartbroken. However, in my attempt to be a good father, I held back from ripping my 1-year old son a new one in the middle of the children’s department of Target and decided that I would allow him to make his own choices for favorite superhero. . . for now.

Some of you may ask why I would dislike a character that many consider the best that DC comics has to offer.  In fact, I’d be willing to bet that many of you would ask that question.  I mean, hell, this guy is everywhere.  He’s got 7 live action films to his name from within my lifetime alone, not to mention long-running cartoon series (also spawning their own feature length adaptations), an arsenal of action figures that would shame the Star Wars merchandising department, and, well, an increasingly rabid fan base.

And I’ll admit. . . it is rather difficult for me to publicly state my distaste for such a publicly revered character in comic-book-dom, considering how little my personal favorite seems to get real attention anymore.

And, honestly, if Tim Burton had never gotten his hands on the Bat, I’d probably still be pretty okay with him.  But Batman has become this cranky old man who seems to hate just about everybody.  I say seems, but he’s generally pretty darn open with his hatred of mankind.  Sure, perhaps he’s had a difficult life (as a playboy millionaire who took most of his younger years off to train with the masters in every single field of combat) and some of that could be attributed to his completely anti-social behavior, but, we all know why he’s so cranky.  He’s still pissed about his parents being killed off when he was a kid.  Yes, I get it, it’s incredibly traumatizing to watch you parents be murdered in front of you, in fact, most children who have that occur would probably find themselves in a situation where they completely block the memory out.  But that’s the problem I have with him.  Batman has an almost complete lack of personality all based on the fact that he had a front row seat to his parent’s death.

Hell, Green Arrow has an almost exactly (although not really anywhere near exactly) similar background story and still manages to have some character there.  Superman was ejected from his home planet as every single other Kryptonian died in a fiery planet death(well, you know, except for all the ones that weren’t).  The Martian Manhunter’s entire race was destroyed in a Holocaust which included the death of his wife and daughter, and he still manages to show some interest in other people!

Batman wasn’t always this way though, and I think that’s where my true issue lies.  No, Batman used to be much more of a person, having many more romantic interests than the pure lusty relationships that sometimes crop up between him and Catwoman.  In fact, in the early stories, Bruce Wayne had a different woman on his arms almost every week.  He was engaged on more than one occasion.  He actually liked people, even before they brought in Robin to allow him to have some sort of weird father/son relationship going on (which did result in one of the Robins’ death, which I could see allowing for the depression of the Bat, as well as the seclusion).

Instead, Batman seems to loathe almost everyone he comes into contact with, mimicking characters like Spawn and The Punisher (both of which actually did have people they loved and fought for) that cropped up in the 90′s as the whole idea of the anti-hero began.  Batman has become, these past few decades, something that he never would have been before.  He’s on the verge of being a killing machine that he has always been against (most notably when DC broke Batman’s back and they brought in Azrael to be the new Batman, who immediately started killing folks, causing Batman to be miraculously healed so he could take the mantle back).

I dislike Batman because I see no real redeeming qualities in him.  Heck, a few years back he built a machine called Brother Eye which was developed to keep track of the actions of every single person with superpowers as well as gathering every piece of data on them he could (quite importantly so they could be taken down if necessary).  If you remember. . . this is what the bad guys did in X-men, in case you’re not realizing how crazed The Bat really is.

Overall, he’s just a jerk, and not even a likeable jerk, just one of those “I hate everyone” jerks. . . you know, like me.  And I don’t want to read about someone like me dressing up like a bat in order to avenge the deaths of my parents (which was done years ago. . . a few times).

That being said. . . The Joker is quite simply the best villain in comic book history, if not all fictional history.  And that’s why I will continue to read/watch/play Batman, unfortunately.

Featured at IndieAuthorLand.com!

As you can now see if you were to take a look at the FatMogul@Large page on this site, today marks me as a featured author on the wonderful website IndieAuthorLand.com.  There I answer some more questions about The Legend of Buddy Hero as well as getting into some details about The Agora Files.  Check it out!

Do the Blog Hop

Welcome to The Next Big Thing

Yeah, so, that title definitely sounds a tad pretentious, doesn’t it. . . it’s how I’m supposed to start this thing out though, so I guess I’ll stick with it.  Whether or not I’m the next big thing is irrelevant.  What is relevant is that this post is part of a chain of posts across hundreds of blogs linking tons of independent authors together in a chorus of “Read my book!”.  It’s a pretty cool thing.

Anyways, I got invited to this party by good friend/author Claire C. Riley.  She’s got one of these same posts sitting on her blog at this very moment as well. . . and if you go there, you can back track to the person who invited her, the lovely Karen Perkins. . . and so on.  I get to invite a couple of folks to the fun as well.  You’ll see their names at the end of the post.  So, without further blathering. . .

 

The Questions!:

*What is the working title of your next book?*

The Agora Files.  Unfortunately that is seeming more and more like a “working title” as I get through the revision process, I’m realizing the title has much more in common with the series than the book itself.  

*Where did the idea come from for the book?*

To be completely honest. . . a dream.  A series of dreams, actually.  The book really has very little in common with the dreams themselves, outside of one basic theme.  Running.  The concept really just comes down to having the protagonist running from some faceless evil.  It quickly became much more defined than that, but it was based on a very simple premise.

*What genre does your book fall under?*

Young Adult Adventure.  There’s some sci-fi aspects to it, some dystopian themes, but it’s really just an adventure piece at its heart.  That, and there’s quite possibly the most awkward love story ever written.

*What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?*

I hate this question.  I really don’t think of actors at all when I develop these stories.  I usually have a pretty strong image of the character in my mind as I write them, which makes determining actors pretty darn difficult.  

However, for the sake of playing along. . . there’s really only 3 main characters in this book.  Cyrus, the protagonist, after looking through current young male actors, I’ve come to the conclusion that I think I’d like to see Tom Felton play the role (Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter movies).  First, I’d like to see him step out of the Draco persona (which really wasn’t much of a persona at all) and second, I think he’s got the right attitude for the character of Cyrus, who really isn’t entirely a good guy, but has something good in his heart.

Next, the Geek. . . I felt a little uncomfortable searching Google for young chubby male actors. . . however, I came up with the pudgy kid in Super 8, Riley Griffiths.  I think he looks the role, and he amused me in that flick.

Finally. . . Eve.  She may be too old to fit the role now, but I’m thinking someone like Tania Raymonde (she was Alex in Lost and a nerdy kid in Malcolm in the Middle).  She’s got that spunky look to her that Eve needs, while also being hot enough to easily give reason for Cyrus to dig her.  Yup. . . that’s it.

*What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?*

Cyrus runs.  (simple enough?)

*Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?*

Self-pubbed.  I think now that I’ve established myself as an independent author, I’m probably stuck there for some time.

* How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

30 days.  I was seriously rocking through this manuscript when I finally got to writing.  It was pretty darn awesome.  

*What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?*

I’m horrible at this, but others have compared it to The Hunger Games (due mainly to the dystopian background).  I’ll just stick with that one.

*Who or what inspired you to write this book?*

I think I answered this one already.  I suppose outside of the dream, I was inspired by my own experiences traveling the country.  There’s a lot of my own memories placed within the experiences there, and also a great deal of fun conspiracy theory-type stuff.

* What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?*

Since I just mentioned it. . . conspiracy theories come alive.  I spent a lot of time researching lesser known things in the areas I was writing about to bring some interesting concepts to the table.  Almost everything in the book has something similar correlating to it in the real world. . . and in the locations given.  Throw in a little bit of the conspiracy theories surrounding those areas (or ones I just made up) and it makes the journey that much more fun. 

In fact, I’ve been thinking about more ideas like these since I finished writing the first book, and have come up with some even more awesome locations to feature in the next book. . . which probably means I should get to writing, huh?

The authors I’ve invited to join in the fun are:

 

1.  

2.

3.

 

Okay. . . so, yeah, none of my author friends would sign on to doing this, claiming that it’s too much work to find people.  I decided that I would rather be the end of the chain that just decide to not do it at all. . . But still, I failed on this aspect

 

Once again, here’s Claire’s blog; www.clairecriley.com

And karen’s: http://www.lionheartgalleries.co.uk/blog.html

Interview with an Undead Game Designer(?)

I’ve got something a little new for you all today.  That’s right, in the vein of spotlighting independent artists, I’ve got a friend who just so happens to design board and card games, and I’d love you to get to know a bit about him.  Also. . . he claims to be undead!

So, without any extra babbling on my part, I’ll let Minos tell you about himself and his work!

1. Who the heck are you?

Minos MacDuff / Minos thee Undead

2. Where are you from?

I am living in the cold but normal City of Eau Claire WI     (4/15/13 whopping 39 degrees hate this weather lol)

3.  Why are you here?  By that, I mean, what are you trying to promote?  Hint: This is probably a good time to sell us on your work

Well great interviewer – I am a designer of games…. Ok not video games but the old time sit at the table with friends and play a game type of games. Board games, Card Games, Dice Game, you name it I have made it or played it. I have been playing games like these for about 30 years, and I have been designing them for about ten. This made me begin Game Station Games, a great Game company that will always make great games for the masses that love them!

4.  What made you decide to do such a thing?

Well its about what my life is conceived of…. starting when I was 6 with the great video game time frame such as atari, it got me into the fantasy of hey you can make any thing and play it, then Dungeon and Dragons, then everything under the sun I could play and get my hands on.

5.  Are you proud of it?  Why?

My games?  Yes!  There good games and they are for most ages 8 and up.

6.  Board games are really now just seeming to come back into style.  There’s tons of new ones cropping up on a regular basis.  What is it about yours that you think really sets you apart from the horde?

Well the nice thing about my games are you can play them by your self.  Of course its more fun to play with more people and so on, but some people just don’t have that option all the time, and solitaire gets a bit old.

7.  How long does it generally take you to develop one of these games?

2 – 4 Months depending how involved the game is.

8.  Any cool stories about what inspired you to do it?

Yes! Every day life, one game that I made called When Night Falls was Based off a local Halloween carnny.

9.  What do you do when you’re not creating artistic masterpieces?

Getting involved with people, meaning….. going to shows, Bars, Events, any place where a lot of people are so I can hear stories and may be pick up on another Idea for a great game or just learn something new.

10.  I’ll be honest, I don’t know too much about the game developing scene.  Do you have any heroes in the business that you aspire to be like?

There is a company named Ninth Level Games (NLG) that started out with a few real basic games and a Printer to a fairly big company, its a great story on a little guy becoming a big guy biz.

11.  What are your plans for the future?  Local/global tournaments?  Video games?  Taking over Parker Bros.?

Just starting off, but for the gamers out there I will be at Gen Con show Casing the Games with “The Game Crafter “ , so come on down to indy for the show in aug.   www.gencon.com

12.  Very important. . . where can we find your stuff?  Now that we know you, it’s pretty obvious we all need to buy at least a couple of your games!

The games are at www.thegamecrafter.com  , then click on shop and in the search bar type “Game station presents”, all of my games will pop up

13.  Any other ways to contact you?  Website, twitter, e-mail address you want filled with spam?

Anyone can contact me through game crafter site

14.  Any last notes you’d like to make that hasn’t been covered here, such as why you haven’t yet developed a Buddy Hero themed game?

Buddy Hero is now in development  – Buddy Hero Super Hero Game, Grab your D6 and Pen and paper, roll up your hero and start the game!!! Fight Villains of all Kinds, STOP the bombs, SAVE the Bank, and for all sake…… Get that little baby her sucker BACK!!!!! (editors note: ooh  . . . new storyline ideas cropping up now. . . )

 

Thanks for stopping by, Minos.  I guess the undead have a bit more spirit than we give them credit for, huh?  

Have a good one!

 

A Nerdy Night Discussing Food

Last night brought the opportunity to get to see the incomparable MacArthur Fellow Will Allen speak about. . . well. . . food.  If you don’t know this guy, you should really check him out, even if you don’t really have much of an interest in the current agriculture revolution.

This guy’s life is one that only a few could really dream of having.  He was a state champion basketball player in high school, which lead to him becoming the first African-American to play for the University of Miami.  He then got picked in the 4th round during the 1971 NBA draft to play for the Baltimore Bullets (unfortunately never actually playing within the NBA), only to finally end up playing professionally out in Belgium.

That alone is a life to be pretty darn proud of.  But, this guy wasn’t done yet.  He went on from there to have a relatively successful life in marketing for Proctor and Gamble, building up a bit of a retirement fund. . . which he used to start the business he’s actually famous for, Growing Power.

20 years ago he started this farm in the middle of downtown Milwaukee and since then has developed this international business that goes around training people how to make their own food and feed themselves healthily.  He’s been featured on multiple food documentaries talking about the current revolution in food and showcasing how he really gets people down in the dirt and learning about his fantastic processes for bringing food to people who need it the most, as well as some interesting methods on cleaning up the streets of crime and drugs.  In 2008 he was awarded the highly sought after MacArthur Fellowship (commonly known as the Genius Grant) for his work in urban farming and sustainable food production.  And right now, in the midst of all of the other things he’s working on, he’s developing an enormous vertical farm (stating price being $12 million) to be placed right in the center of Milwaukee.

These are just the highlights folks. . . this dude is one busy (retired) man.  And the stuff he’s getting into is paradigm shifting.  He’s changing the way people in these communities think about, talk about, and overall consume, food.

I’ve been aware of his work for a couple of years now, only really becoming interested in the specifics a couple of months ago, so when I found out he was coming to town, I knew I needed to get to see this guy in person.  Something about this man reminded me of home.  Pair his southern charm with a topic I find incredibly important and. . . well, it’s an evening I couldn’t really keep myself from.

Now, I didn’t really learn anything new about this man.  I had done the research on him before, I knew about his love of dirt and worms.  I did learn some interesting things about his use of compost for heating, but, overall, it was old news.  What I did get to see, which isn’t apparent when reading about him, is his love of what he is doing.  This man is excited to teach everyone what he has learned, excited to learn new things about agriculture, and constantly striving to find new ways to do things that mankind has stopped doing altogether in the last few decades.

He has become such a central figure in the current food discussion that he is in constant communication with a multitude of universities and medical institutions, conversing about what new things can be done to make our world a better place, and, in many ways, on how we can return to our roots and actually produce food for our local communities, instead of relying of food shipped from the other side of the world.

He is an amazing man, and infectiously inspiring.  I know there wasn’t a single person stepping out of that full auditorium who wasn’t thinking about what they could to their gardens to emulate what this man has done.  I know my wife was eager to start talking about where we could fit one of his hoop houses in our yard. . .

He’s got a book out (which I regrettably have yet to read) which I’m sure doesn’t do the man justice (mostly because I believe you need to hear him talk just to get an idea of how much you want to make him happy).  You can find links to his book as well as news articles, interviews, and everything else you could possibly want on the man and his progressive organization here: http://growingpower.org/in_the_news.htm

Seriously. . . just check him out, only a little bit, and try not to want to get yourself a handful of worms to toss into your backyard.