2/4/13: It's strange to feel nostalgic about font piracy, but I got all kinds of warm-fuzzy-happy feelings this weekend when I spotted this set of Judy Blume books, still in their shrink-wrap, on the shelves of a local teacher's-store where my wife and I love browsing. These editions came out maybe five years ago, or thereabouts, and the title of each book (cover and interiors, plus a few other miscellaneous interior uses) are in my hand-drawn font, Apple Butter, which I created for fantasy mapping (most often in heaven's grave ... if you've seen the Uresia maps, it's on a few of them, and will always be on more).

When I contacted the publisher, they confessed their error and were pretty nice about the whole thing, and promised to pay up for the license. They ... never actually did, but I think they meant to. Just a workaday bureaucratic bungle, I assume, so it left no hard feelings. Instead, I got to just stare at them happily, because the Peter/Fudge/Sheila books were pretty much the best thing in the world to me when I was a kid (and I can still quote chunks of them to this day), and I must have owned a half-dozen copies of Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing over the course of my childhood (because [A] I'm hard on books and [B] I loan them out a lot). So seeing my own alphabetical doodles decorating an edition? Yeah, okay :)

Back to Heaven's Grave

9/24/12: It's been a long time coming, but Uresia: Grave of Heaven is available in its all-new All-Systems Library edition, and it's already gotten a few kind words across the net in the form of G+ and Facebook posts, tweets, forum discussions and so on. Uresia, in its original edition, was my farewell to the gaming industry (the last book contract I ever took, something I knew when I took it) and it's kind of strange and lovely to have it "home" at Cumberland, now. This book is very much a compact, crystallized example of everything I set out to do when I make gamestuff. I love it bunches.

Toy Stories

9/14/12: I spend my days making two things: toys, and the alphabet. It's difficult to imagine a clearer example of arrested development.

This weekend at the movies, though, I look forward to seeing the kind of alphabets I do make hobnob with the kind of toys I don't. Partysaurus Rex, the new short featured in front of Finding Nemo 3D, includes both some standard Cumberland fonts and a commissioned custom font made just for Pixar. This pleases me greatly, in large part because I dig Wallace Shawn, but just in general.

I see my fonts at the movies pretty regularly, but exclusive Pixar custom-work is a special occasion, so if you do end up seeing the movie (because: Dory), be sure and cheer the titlecards on the short, because it'll make other people look at you funny.

Less Kicking Now

4/6/12: And the Kickstarter went really really well (see link, last update) and now I know what I'll be doing for a while!

Starting, And Also Kicking

3/7/12: For those of you who like Risus (and for those of you who just like RPG modules, Risus or not) there's a Kickstarter Project you might be interested in. I for one am pretty stoked :)

Another Good Year

11/22/11: Sandra and I celebrate our fourteenth anniversay today, in our usual, quiet, don't-make-a-fuss way ... but if we were the fuss-making sort, this would be the very best day to make one for. But there'll be lots of nose-rubbing and nibbling, I'm sure, and that's really the important thing.

Into the Columns and Layers

11/7/11: It's been a year since playtest and revisions, more or less, and it was a long time coming to get to that, even, but it's all paying off at last. I finalized the text last night for the All-Systems Library edition of Uresia: Grave of Heaven, and today I begin layout and production. It's a good time.

Soup de Jour

11/2/11: I had the pleasure of chatting on Facebook, briefly, with Brooke Magnanti back when she was still the secret identity of Belle de Jour. We talked about American politics, sadly, but still. Anyway, I'm a fan of her writing, a fan of the show based on it, and now a fan of the fact that she now has a food blog. Because while I don't "get" blogs, I certainly likes me some food.

In addition to her usual pleasant writing style, she shows some promise when it comes to photographing food. Anyone who fancies themselves a shutterbug, and who has attempted food photography, knows what a very specialized skill it really is ...

Preacher, Folding Pesher

11/2/11: Here's one for the Discordians. Some time ago, I did a "pamphlet version" of The Gospel of St. Pesher, the Gardener, which I've been distributing in hardcopy since. And I really thought I uploaded it (adding it to the archive with the Novus Ordo PDFs), but I had not. But now I have. Click on the most likely link, then click on the next most likely.

What do we learn? Five tons of flax, friends. Love to the Occasionally Bitchy Goddess, and may the flowers rain. Hail Eris.

Alimentary, My Dear Watson

10/30/11: Sandra and I haven’t owned a car in many years, and don’t miss it. Denver has nice public transport, and we use that. We're also members of a carshare program, so whenever we really want a car (for a jaunt into the Rockies, for example) it’s five bucks an hour, gas included (there’s a gas card provided in the glove box), which is pretty sweet.

Today we used the carshare to do some errands and ended up (as we often do) at our favorite Asian supermarket. This means bizarre food labeling by companies who don’t really speak English. My two favorites today were Pudding Jelly (yes, it’s a snack called Pudding Jelly, and even having eaten it I’m not sure which one it more closely resembles), and some noodles.

But the noodles aren’t just noodles. The label tells us that they’re “Alimentary Paste.” Alimentary Paste. It’s like … someone held a contest to come up with the least appetizing literal description of what these noodles are made of (see the hyperlink for the real story). This beats my previous favorite product at the market, Sliming Tea (or literally Sliming Herb ... I'm sure they meant "slimming," but this tea guarantees that it will help you with your sliming).

My favorite part about the Pudding Jelly isn’t even the name, it’s the extensive warnings on the labels which tell of dire consequences if the Pudding Jelly is not thoroughly chewed before swallowing. It warns that children and the elderly should never be allowed to eat Pudding Jelly unsupervised, and that it should be cut into smaller pieces for their benefit.

It tastes kind of like a gelatinous custard swimming in thin pancake syrup.

I haven’t yet tried the Alimentary Paste. But oh my, I will.

Thirty-Something

7/14/11: It's my last night on earth as a thirty-something, so I'm feeling a bit reflective, looking back, looking forward, stuff like that.

Overall, my 30's have been much better than my 20's, and my 20's were much better than my teens, and my teens were pretty fucking awesome, frankly. Heck, on the micro scale, the last five years of my life have been the best five years, and (despite a few little blips, like the mugging, or some stress that came down on a close friend of ours a couple of months back) the past year has been the best year. I think my simplest metric for describing how good things have been comes in two parts, and goes like this:

The good stuff in my life ... the stuff that makes me feel valued, productive and fulfilled ... is roughly 100% to the credit of those people who honor me with their time, affection, sympathies and encouragement. This is most especially Sandra, of course, who loves me like I'm going out of style (possibly because I am), but also folks like Sara, Unity, Oneness, Maja, Other Sandra, Shy, Veronica, Legion, Reese, Liz, Tony, Judy, Shawn, Chris [both King and Reid], Josh, Nitor, Rayne, Tim, Jhada, Heidi, Dan, Justine, Lisa, Mike [both Cain and Sherwood], Kevin, Lauren and dozens I'm too lazy to list or keep in proper touch with (I still love you though) … to some new friends I'm just now starting to know (hi, you!), some old friends I've reconnected with (ditto!), some colleagues who treat me like a brother (mostly in the good way), and some fans and supporters who treat me like a Real Game Writer. That's where the good stuff comes from. Approximately all of it. And I guess that means, if people are giving me so much, I must be doing something right. That, or they're all in cahoots and plotting against me, but honestly I doubt my kidneys would sell for much.

The bad stuff in my life … the stuff that makes me feel worthless, aimless, or lacking (kidneys?) … is roughly 100% my own damn fault. I cannot think of a single stress in my life right now where I'm not the one and only person to blame for it, and maybe that sounds bad on the surface, but it means that I have no one in my life who rates even the tiniest drop of resentment or hate or jealousy or rancor … and that is not something I could have said in my 20's or teens. So that means, while I'm doing some things wrong (because I do have some stresses, my bad) it means I'm still doing something right. So, life = good.

Tonight and tomorrow are likely to be a little rough on me as I face down the milestone … but by Saturday, well, I have stuff to look forward to. If I can't make my 40's even better than my 30's, it'll be my own damn fault.

Blue Shift

6/11/11: For the third time in its life, the Blue Room has moved, this time due to the sudden impending demise (sale to "unknown parties") of the old io.com domain (a storied domain if there ever was one, especially for gamers). Since you're reading this, you've already found the new digs, so hi there, and thanks for following me here. If you make any noise on the Web about such things, let them know I'm still out here gaming, writing, mapping and fonting!

Following up on my previous entry, I've fleshed out the Gelio Greek family quite a bit (and given it some new non-Greekoid friends) with the latest addition to the Free Stuff of the Moment page. For those paying really close attention, I've added a new stock vehicle to the HASTUR list, and for the rest of the week's efforts, I've been doing lots and lots of search-and-replace to start updating the contact information in the many hundreds of files (fonts, PDFs, etc) I've posted for download over the years ... yikes! Wish me luck, and hope your summer is getting into high gear about now (but still make time for gaming ... somewhere on a sunlit deck with lots of paperweights in case of a breeze)!