A Brilliant Design: The AWANA Game Circle
So, there’s this Christian children’s club, called AWANA. When it was founded in the 50’s, its creators wanted to include athletic games in each evening’s schedule. They wanted to design a system that let the kids have fun, without encouraging cut-throat competition. So, they designed the AWANA Circle, one of the most ingenious designs I’ve […]
O God Of Earth And Altar
As sung in my church last week: “O God Of Earth and Altar”, words by G.K. Chesterton, melody arranged by Ralph Vaughan Williams: O God of earth and altar, bow down and hear our cry, Our earthly rulers falter, our people drift and die; The walls of gold entomb us, the swords of scorn divide; […]
Thoughts on Game Development
So I’m working on this tabletop RPG system, Gunwave. The goal is to make a fun group game that imitates the fast action of an anime action series with giant robots. Lots of Mega Beams, psychic blasts, and charging at your enemy while screaming about the futility of war. A few things I’ve learned: It […]
Keith Ferrazzi’s Online Community, Greenlight
If you’ve never read Keith Ferrazzi’s Never Eat Alone, well, go out and read it now. It’s an inspiring call to action, insisting that we all need to build a big network of friends and associates. Not a stereotypical marketer’s network of barely-remembered business contacts, but a close-knit (while also large) community. He has a […]
Doing a World of Good
One of the neat things about the web is the way it connects people with businesses, products, services, and other people that they wouldn’t otherwise have known about. There are just so many neat things out there. And sometimes, those things are good for everyone involved. Such is the case with WorldOfGood.com, an eBay-sponsored site […]
Vinnie Veritas
I’ve had this song running through my head for the past few days: Jumbo’s “Dia”. It’s a Mexican pop song. Dia – Jumbo The reason? An awesome Flash animation called Rush 2 from Vinnie Veritas. Vinnie is a Mexican artist who draw simple pen-and-ink drawings, mostly set in a place called “CCC City.” It’s a […]
Jonathan Coulton
Last week I blogged about Geoff Smith, a “geek musician.” Today, I’m going to blog about arguably the biggest geek musician, Jonathan Coulton. He’s undoubtedly best known for composing the end credits song for the game Portal, “Still Alive,” though he also wrote the programmer anthem “Code Monkey.” They’re both great little songs. He’s written much more music than that. In fact, he’s written dozens […]
Scam from Golden Living (formerly Beverly Enterprises)?
Please note the comments on this post. I may very well have been wrong on this one. Today, I received a letter from “Golden Living (formerly Beverly Enterprises).” This company runs nursing homes and assisted living facilities. I twas originally sent to a “Mary Newhall” near me (and I’m from a small family with no nearby relatives named “Newhall”), but was redirected to me. It reads: DEAR FRIEND: […]
The Orwell Diaries
The British group ‘The Orwell Prize’ is now posting the diaries of George Orwell online, exactly 70 years later. So, on September 10th 2008, they posted Orwell’s entry for September 10th 1938. Fascinating. His entries up to this point have mostly logged the nature and people around him. Little of surpassing genius; just a little […]
Discover Card’s Hard Sell
I have a friend. Her mother, sadly, has Alzheimer’s and lives in a nursing home, so my friend manages her mother’s finances for her. For convenience, my friend often answers the phone as her mother when her mother’s financial institutions call. Otherwise, she spends several minutes explaining the situation to a confused phone rep. So […]