Category: Uncategorized

Kathy sent us some cool bear ornaments, but we don’t have a Christmas tree this year (other than the foot-tall one on my desk) since we’re not going to be here. So we put the bears with our little nativity scene, and they fit right in.

Even after this guy edged a bit closer to the middle, baby Jesus doesn’t seem concerned.

I actually think these are more fun in a nativity than on a tree! I guess we’ll see what happens next year, when we actually have a tree…

One good thing about our driveway is that it’s an awesome sledding track. Sure, it’s horrific to drive up when it’s hard-packed snow with a nice half-inch-thick layer of ice beneath it, but those very conditions make it a ton of fun to sled down. So today, Pepper and Kyra and I donned our coats and ski pants and headed outside. It’s been a while since we last used our alpine slide, but it seemed like it was time.

After a couple of runs, the wheel ruts had been smoothed out, and we were absolutely cruising.

We all agreed that the best stretch is the long straight run above the orchard, with a gentle curve about halfway down. You can really get moving on it. Of course, that presents a problem if you’re coming into the curve too hot…

Pepper bailed just after that shot above, because she was about to shoot off the side of the driveway into the ditch. Luckily the snow is pretty forgiving when you wipe out. Here’s Kyra, a few seconds later, rocketing past her.

One time I followed Kyra down, and despite her healthy head start, I caught up to her. I’d chalk it up to my superior driving skills, but one could argue it might just be an issue of weight. Regardless, I crashed into her as we both careened into the last switchback.

Hitting bumps at high speed is always an adventure, as Pepper demonstrates by catching some air:

This next picture looks completely staged and boring, but I’m pretty sure I was just about to break the sound barrier because I was going so fast. (This is the start of the cannonball run I mentioned.)

After an hour and a half, we were cold and wet, so the next order of business was a soak in the hot tub while snowflakes fell gently from the sky. What an awesome morning. Here’s a fun shot of my beautiful girl as we wrapped up.

Sometimes I miss doing full-time programming work. A comment I saw today reminded me of what it’s like.

It’s not exactly something to be proud of, but today I drove up and down highway 35 four times. I had different things throughout the day, none of which were spaced closely enough that I could be “efficient” and just stay up north. Sigh.

I don’t even remember where the idea came from, but this year’s Christmas card is one for the books…

I must say, my digital photo editing skills are maturing. I’m no expert, but I’ve come a long way since those early days of slowly tracing around a bunch of awful wigs. Last year’s masterpiece involved a lot of zombie work, although I’m not sure how many people even noticed the background.

Getting Pepper to wear that hideous outfit took a bit of convincing. Sure, the wig was familiar, but she wasn’t sure about the shirt and skirt. Confession: both the shirt and the skirt are actually mine. And another confession: I was actually holding a yardstick, not a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar. Digital magic, baby!

Since Zaque can’t leave the state of Utah until next September, we decided it would be best if we went down there to celebrate Thanksgiving. It helps that all of our kids are together in Provo, and that it’s only one day’s drive. We trucked down south and had a grand time.

There were many board games. Here’s a shot of Survive which we all agree is one of the best games ever. Zaque and I wanted to make it look like an old 80’s board game box, but Alex and Kyra didn’t get that memo.

Kyra and Alex were kind enough to test my new game, Hexteria: New World. Both of them said they liked it, but it’s always hard to tell because of course they’re going to say that. I need honest reviews, guys!

Kyra taught Ollie how to drive…

… And was kind enough to pull gunk out of Zaque’s ear. Hey, what are big sisters for?

We had some good food, as well as some not-good-for-you food.

All of it reminded me of how much I’m grateful for. Thanks, kiddos!

Yesterday I spent 15 hours of my Saturday at a speech and debate meet. It was my third of the season, and I learned a ton. At the end of the (long) day, we took home the “sweepstakes” award, which is for the top-ranked overall team.

We’re a B-class school, and we won that class. Most of the schools at the meet were A- or AA-class, meaning their teams were typically three to six times the size of ours. But hey, considering this is my first run at this coaching gig, I figure we’re doing well.

More to the point, the kids are having fun and gaining confidence as they work on their public speaking skills. The number of trophies we bring home isn’t as important to me as helping them learn and grow.

Although I’m knee-deep working on a new board game, I had a thought about another one and put some rough parts together. As usual, I’m drawing from my game development kit while also spending time reading articles about board game design, mechanics, and balance. There’s a lot of good stuff out there, and I just hope I can find combinations that make for engaging games.

This new venture doesn’t look like much…

… but I’m hoping the theme draws some attention. This is tentatively named Street Cred and in it, you’re a jewel thief who’s working toward certain goals which give you “cred” and hopefully a victory. I’m using wooden cubes from my GDK, but if this makes it to production, I’ll find some little translucent gemstones instead.

My problem, I think, is I keep coming up with ideas for games without finishing my last one. My current status:

Hexteria – finished, and ready for marketing and production
Hexteria: Renaissance – probably 90% finished, needing a few rule tweaks
Chronium – maybe 75% finished, definitely in need of some more playtesting
Hexteria: New World (formerly Terra Hexia) – fresh off the boat, in need of a ton of playtesting and tweaking
Street Cred – so new I don’t even know what to think of it yet

That’s five projects, only one of which is really finished. Leonardo da Vinci was famous for not finishing projects he’d started; he’s attributed as saying “Art is never finished, only abandoned”. While I’m no Leonardo, I do seem to have difficulty finishing hobby projects like this. As soon as one gets to a certain point, I’m already off thinking about another. That makes it tricky to actually get something “to market”, as they say, and I think it’s why Hexteria continues to languish. I just need to build a web site for it, put together some nice graphics and marketing stuff, and offer it for sale… but those aren’t things I’m good at, and I’d rather be designing my next project. Hmm.

Although it’s frustrating at times to recognize that I’m not good at finishing, I should probably consider that I am good at starting. As the ideas continue to come, and as I continue to learn about how to design games, it’s great fun to spend a couple hours building yet another game!

As William Wordsworth said, “To begin, begin”. I have a lot of beginnings, which is great. Now I need some endings.

A few years ago, at Pepper’s family reunion, someone brought out a pair of boxes they’d found stashed in an attic somewhere. The boxes contained the journals of her grandfather, John. For over two decades, he wrote almost daily in personal journals about things happening in his life. Everyone had a good time looking through them to find the dates when they were born, then laughing about Grandpa John’s comments, which were typically things like “Cecil and Donna had another baby. A boy today.”

Although everyone thought the journals were cool, no one knew quite what to do with them. Stashing them back in an attic to gather dust seemed pointless, but there weren’t any volunteers willing to take and house them. After the reunion, I suspect they just went back to the attic.

Fast forward to this year, when we hosted the family reunion at our place. Once again, the topic of the journals came up. I suggested that someone scan them… that way, everyone could access them if they were curious, and they wouldn’t take up space. Everyone agreed. Then someone asked who would do it. Silence. Long, awkward silence. So I volunteered, and inherited the boxes. The journals have been in my office for a few months now, and I finally decided I should get cracking on this project.

Because the scanner will require the pages to be loose, I’ll need to disassemble the journals themselves. It’s kind of a tragedy, but then again, the whole point is to get rid of the physical items! I took a few photos of them before I started ripping up bindings and (gently) tearing out pages.

Several of them had little locks on them, whose keys are long gone. This journal is from 1962, almost fifty years ago:

The oldest one– when Grandpa John first began to journal– was dated 1938!

Here’s an example of what he wrote:

On Tuesday, August 23, 1938, he “went to Idaho Falls to look things over in regard to finding a house to live in this winter”. A couple of days later, on Thursday, he was “fixing pig pasture… one pig was hurt yesterday with the electric fence”. And so on. It’s pretty cool to read about the mundane things happening in the life of an Idaho farmer eight decades ago.

Once I’ve finished this project, and have thousands of pages of journals online somewhere, will anyone read through them? Honestly, I doubt it. But I suspect now and then it’ll be fun to jump in there and look at a few entries and remember Grandpa John.

And so it begins…

As fall advances inexorably onward, the larch trees around our house are starting to fade from their brilliant yellow to a more subdued gold. And today is probably the last sunny blue-sky day in a while, as our forecast calls for rain and snow for the next week. I figured I should hop outside and snap a few pictures of the last bit of yellow.

Several friends have commented– and I agree– that the fall colors this year have been spectacular. Last year was a little more muted, so it’s been great to see the gold on all the mountains around us. What a magical place to live.