Ahhhhhgggggggg!

Okay, that is pretty much the way I am feeling right now.
Major Edit: cut out some things for the moment. The post related to something that happened to a boy at the kids' school but has been cut for now.

The other terrible thing, right now DS#3 is playing well on his own and I have time to "work" --This means I just emailed people telling them I know I need to email them but I, um, can't.

I thought typing this down would help a bit. Hate to say it, but it didn't.
ahhhhhhhggggggggggg!

As mentioned above, writing it down didn't really help. Basically, we are waiting to see how the school responds and the parents asked me not to comment. Even though no names were mentioned, I have edited this post for now.

Something Anyway

Well, there is a website update for GU showing some new logos. Couldn't get the idea I have in mind for a new website re-design to work. Might have been the fact that I am still not feeling well. I did get a little bit of writing done so that is good. Actually felt better this evening and was more active coaching DD's soccer practice. The miracle of ibuprofen. I know, I know, why didn't I take some earlier in the day?
Soccer schedules for the weekend are in. DS#1 and DD have schedules for the season, DS#2 only has the first two weekends (and those have already changed several times). Yes, I have entered them in the Palm Pilot with their different colors to see the overlaps and, well, the season should be "interesting."
Time to sleep this gunk out. A new weather front comes through tonight, hopefully that will help, even if it does make things warm, cloudy, and muggy.

Attitude, Shmattitude...

Well, the Positive Attitude did help a little bit, but coaching on anything other than a few demonstrations was out. A complete lack of a voice cannot be easily overcome, strangely, one needs to use one's voice quite often when coaching 5 and 6 year olds.

Today wasn't a complete waste, got a few things done, also met with DS#2's teacher this afternoon which went fairly well. Still feeling like crap, probably going to shut out the light and be in bed by 10 PM, which is early for me. I am gearing up for a major website update, unfortunately, it probably won't be as major as I want it to be. I was hoping for a new ground-up design but being sick has crushed that. I want to focus more time on getting products ready.

Let's see if the Positive Attitude ™ helps throw off this bug so I can get more work done tomorrow.

Sick Today

Bleh, I have the gunk big time today. Worst part is that I don't think my pounding skull can even handle the mere idea of coaching 5 year old soccer tonight.
I did my best to go to bed early last night to get rid of this thing but it just got worse. Not Fun!
I went to my meeting with the school administrator this morning, came home and went to bed until a little after 1:00 PM. Some sleep, some rest, and if it was effective then I would hate to think about how I'd be feeling right now if I hadn't rested.
It is Positive Attitude Time. I WILL feel better by the time I get the kids home from school and I WILL have fun tonight playing soccer with the kids.

This WILL work (or it'll bloody kill me).

Allergies

Well, I have a combination of allergies and probably a cold that is pretty much knocking me down. My in-laws have been here through the entire weekend and leave tomorrow morning so we took everyone out to dinner tonight. My mother-in-law has to be doing something. If she isn't playing with the baby, feeding the baby, or something else like that, she is cooking, doing my laundry, etc. The truth is, she is like this in her own home, she needs to be doing SOMETHING. In fact, she retired and 65 but then went back to working "part-time" just to keep herself busy. My father-in-law can entertain himself watching sports games on TV, reading (the man reads 2 or more newspapers a day, plus news on the internet, plus magazine subscriptions, you get the idea) but my mother-in-law likes to keep busy. Needless to say, my wife and I really benefit when they come to visit.

Today I got a few things done, scanned some public domain art, did a bit of writing, and got in touch with some of the great guys that have been doing some work for me. I hope to have a major website update soon. Ideally I would say tomorrow but I have to meet with a school administrator to discuss my, um, complaints about DS#2's teacher. It's a long story, but I am guessing it'll be difficult to get much done tomorrow. We'll see how it goes. I have logos to put up and I am thinking about being bold enough to list some of the titles of the first products. I also want to put up some links and bios for the folks that have gotten some work to me lately.

Well, my head is about to explode so I am going to try to go to sleep early and toss this thing off so I can make some serious progress tomorrow.

Oscars?

Okay, the Oscars really aren't my thing. My in-laws are watching downstairs though. My Father-in-law is really into movies and the actors, etc. He sees every movie nominated for an Oscar with very, very few exceptions over the years. They are watching downstairs. My wife usually watches to see the dresses, etc., but even she has gotten so bored with the lengthy presentations over the years that she isn't watching either. Now she just waits for the highlights on the internet the next day.
Well, I am sitting here typing this with the local news on and planning to go to sleep in a little bit. DS#3 has had horrible congestion problems due to teething and probably allergies so he wakes up by about 3-4 AM most mornings. Pretty much wearing me down lately.
It was a beautiful day today, high 80's and blue skies. This means that by sometime this week we'll probably have high temperatures in the 50's or 60's and freeze warnings. Sounds like it will be nice tomorrow too though. I guess the kids will run around outside again, after school that is. Speaking of school, I am very unhappy with DS#2's teacher so I am setting up a conference with her sometime this week. I have also already set up an appointment with the school administrator. Long story short, she doesn't seem to be doing a good job, or a fair job, isn't communicating well, and, more importantly, DS#2's previous love for school and interest in learning are fading fast. I get steamed when thinking about this so I best move on.

Got a few outlines for some products done. Mostly because I was watching the kids play outside and was sketching out ideas in one of my notebooks. Not sure how quickly I want to expand product lines but a few of the ideas shouldn't be that difficult to write up so I'll give that more thought once I have some of the initial products lined up. The GU logo and Sparks logo are looking up so we are several ticks closer to getting some things finished up.

Father-Daughter Dance

Well, tonight was my first Father-Daughter Dance with DD. She absolutely loved it, honestly, I had a great time too. At 5 DD is getting more "girly" lately. Until she was about 2 1/2 I used to tell people, "oh, she is just another boy." Well, that isn't true anymore. It is both fun, and frightening, to watch her grow up. She is certainly very different from the boys. We got to the dance (which was held at the gym we belong to) shortly after the dance started and they had the gymnasium decorated very nicely with a DJ playing in one corner, food in another room, and nice tables where the girls could have their nails and/or lips done as well as a table where the girls could make little "princess hats." They also took professional photographs of the fathers and daughters. I guess we see the photo next Friday. Basically, this was well-organized and fun for everyone involved. There were girls there as old as high-school age and as young as 2-3. Everyone had a great time.

DS#2 had a soccer game this morning. This was a "club friendly" against a team from another club here in town. Basically, his team crushed the other team. They played extremely well. DS#2 probably had the best game he ever played. He loves playing defense and boy, did he play well this morning. Playing around with an older brother helps.
Next week Saturday we'll have 2-3 soccer games. We might have games Sunday too. In fact, with Spring Break for the local schools and Easter wedged together, we'll probably have a number of Sunday games this Spring in order to get all of the games in before the end of the Spring season. DD will play in a 3v3 soccer tournament on the Saturday before Easter. Very poor timing really, but we don't leave for vacation until Easter Sunday so we'll be playing.

I would love to say that I got a lot of work done today, but that didn't happen. I did get a few things done so I am fairly satisfied. I would like to have more accomplished by this time tonight but such is life. My in-laws are in town this weekend and don't leave until Tuesday. This means that they'll help with DS#3 on Monday and I'll have a chance to get more work done. Sunday, well, it looks busy tomorrow.

Not Much ...

Okay, add a few phone-call interruptions to the scattered afternoon and not much got "finished" today. At the same time, I feel fairly good about the day. I got some organizational things done and feel like I am really heading to a break-through point on having a sufficient number of things to actually start releasing products fairly soon. Work on new logos is progressing along with work on a variety of City Streets locations, as well as some layout issues.
I am shooting for some releases in April. If that happens I can submit some of them to the Ennies. Honestly, if I am able to get things out in April I will do my best to have releases from several submitters that have work into me now. I'll be honest though, I thought I would be ready at several points in the past and wasn't. With what I have now though, I am a bit less dependent on other's work so I have higher hopes.
I suppose part of it is my personal insistence on having 5 products ready to go, one freebie and 4 others, before starting releases. I don't want to hit with a freebie and then only have 1-2 things ready to go afterwards. I want to hit a regular schedule of releases. I would like to start with one every 2 weeks and move to a release every week or so if I can. I am still trying to work that out.
Well, a few hours left today, maybe I'll get something finished off.

This, that, and the other thing

Okay, I seem to be bouncing back and forth between "things to do" and only slowly seem to accomplish any of them. I believe it would be much better if I simply stay focused on a single task at a time. I am going to go ahead and eat an early lunch so that I can (maybe) be more focused.
Good news is that I have sent a few contracts off and gotten some editing done. Bad news is that, well, I am not where I wanted to be today in terms of things accomplished.
I am hoping that I post again tonight (after all the soccer practices, getting kids in bed, etc.) saying that I turned the afternoon around and got a lot done.
We'll have to wait and see.

Clicking Along

Okay, got some artwork scanned today, mostly public domain pieces from some very old architecture books, and I got quite a bit of writing done as well. All in all, a productive day and I feel good about it. Lots of things are falling into place now and I am very pleased about it. I need to update the website soon. I have two sets of logos to choose from for the final Generic Universe logo for the website and the products and when I make the decision I will need to make some changes to the website. Dave Gilham did these logos and his work is fantastic. If you need a graphic artist, please go by his website (www.davegraphix.com) and look at his material. He is also planning to do some additional design and layout work for me and based on what he has done already I am very excited.

Yesterday was President's Day. Get this, our kids are at a Catholic school and they had off today. The kids going to the local public schools did not, but they have Friday off for a Teacher "In-Service." One of my neighbors complained, "Yeah, the kids go to school on my day off, but then they don't have school on Friday so *I* have to take a day off." He was not pleased.
Anyway, President's Day is generally a major cleaning day of some sort for me. This year I took everything out of the Master Closet (okay, I admit it, I left my wife's things alone--mostly). This is the major storage closet in the entire house so it was a brutal undertaking. We had all sorts of old children's clothes stored there, much of it a complete mess. Well, I organized that, kept some of the nicer boy's clothes for DS#3 as he grows and set aside everything else for donations or trash. I was wiped out last night but I felt a wonderful sense of having accomplished something. Of course, there are still Christmas lights outside that I haven't taken down. Yes, I have unplugged them but every single time I actually plan to take them down the weather turns nasty. This means that yesterday was beautiful and the kids could play outside while I worked away. I am certain that if I decided to take down those lights it would have rained ... really, honest.

Tonight was the usual Tuesday, 3 soccer practices, the boys at one field and DD at another (with me helping coach her team). Obviously, my wife took the boys (all of them, lugging a baby to soccer practice is, well, not always fun), and I got to drive back and forth with DD. She was fragile tonight, fell down once and got a bit whiny so I had to stay away. The evening went well though. I guess we are all getting back into the swing of our complex schedules. On a frightening note, tomorrow night (Wednesday) we don't have anything scheduled. Not sure what we'll do with ourselves.

Three day weekend

Well, the three day weekend was a bit trashed by terrible weather yesterday. Today's weather made up for it a bit though. Unfortunately, the baby is going through some teething and possibly additional allergy congestion. This means that I haven't really gotten a good solid night's sleep for a few days now.

In other news, Dave Gilham of Dave Graphix (www.davegraphix.com) has shown me some great new logos. He does fantastic work and I highly suggest him for anyone that needs some logo or layout work done.

Right now I have several completed locations awaiting some editing, some artwork, and then onto layout. Really, I am feeling very good about things right now. A lot of puzzle pieces are falling into place. Let's hope I am still feeling this positive next week.

Flowers? um, no

No, I didn't get my wife flowers or chocolates today. We did go out to lunch yesterday, it was her "comp" day from being on back-up call over the entire weekend. Basically, we have both considered this a "Hallmark Holiday" and really not participated in it. That doesn't mean we don't enjoy the kids having their parties and getting candy, etc.

I did have to take DS#2 to the doctor this morning, turns out he does have a sinus infection. The doctor okay'd him going back to school even with a slight fever if he could "tough it out." Well, he doesn't want to miss more school, okay, he wanted to be at the party, candy, cookies, etc. This evening the temperature jumped to over 103 and let's just say that ended up in LOTS of driving for me and leave it there. I am hoping he'll be feeling better tomorrow.

I did get a sketch done today, didn't scan it yet though. Yesterday I got some old illustrations (ie. public domain) scanned. I hope to do a bit of scanning tomorrow. I got some writing done and a few other piddly things here and there. I also got an email from Dave Gilham, a fantastic graphic artist, with some preliminary logos. Wow! I am very happy with them. He is working on some other things for me as well and I am really looking forward to the results. I hope that sometime next week I can update the website with some of the new logos. Figuring RPG time, it might be a bit longer.
Well, that is the news, onto a bit more Jay Leno before going to sleep.

Hitting the On-Ramp?

Well, I spent some time on the phone today with a graphic design/layout specialist and I am excited about it. He is going to work on some logo designs for me as well as the cover layout and basic layout plan for the City Streets line. He wants to broaden his experience and that motivation makes him willing to accept my abysmal pay as well as the abysmal rates of the RPG industry (which, right now, are probably higher than mine). Don't you love hardcore gamers that want to try out something in the gaming industry even though they could make much more money doing something else? Yeah, trying to decide if I want to call him and say, "Wait! Don't be suckered into this like I was!" No, I wasn't really suckered into this, but was anyone in this industry really? The first thing you hear when thinking about doing something involving RPGs is, "The pay is crap, you'll make a lot more doing whatever you are doing now."

What else did I do today? Hmm, had a talk with the cable company about the fact that the internet was out. Turns out that the work on the major road outside our neighborhood "disconnected" cable to the entire neighborhood. Once it was fixed I was getting ready to head out to pick the kids up and then the whole get the homework done before soccer thing started. DD pointed out that the only "kid" not playing soccer tonight was DS#3 because he can't even walk yet. This from a girl that can't decide if the running or the sitting on the bench are the most fun parts of soccer (right now it is sitting on the bench--why do I drive these extra miles and coach?). Tonight I didn't coach for her, I went with the older boys to try to talk to their coaches and team managers. Team manager for DS#2 was sick so couldn't go, the team manager for DS#1 was a no-show (not a surprise, but that is a frustration for another time). Pretty much I got to hang out in the cold and wind for nothing. I mean, I could have been running around with 5-year-olds playing soccer. Hmmm, maybe it wasn't a COMPLETE loss...

Whew!

Well, I wanted to post yesterday but never got to it, so here is "Yesterday's post Today!"
My 8 year old was sick all week, he finally started feeling better on Thursday afternoon so that was when he finally designed his pinewood derby car. Last year his car was a very cool serpent coming out of a sea of water, however, it was NOT a fast car. I kept telling him it would not be fast, but he wanted to do the serpent so we did. When his car came in dead last, well, then he decided he probably really did want something fast.
THIS year, he had a basic design for a car. I can't tell you how thankful I was, I make him do all of the sanding, painting, etc., but I do the power tool work, ie. most of the cutting. The serpent was, well, not easy (he didn't enjoy sanding it either). Well, we cut the wood block together, with me talking about basic safety lessons with the power tools, then he sanded the car down to what he wanted, then the fun part. I told him that I read (on the internet) that sanding the little pieces of metal on the head of the nail down would make the car go faster. Remember, this is a boy that has been sick for 4 days running, he sanded down those nails, with sandpaper, until they were nice and smooth--yes, I could have used a disc grinder but probably would have taken the head right off of one of the nails. He painted the car and used some rub-on decals that I bought and added the wheels. Saturday morning before the race we weighed the car and put the weights on (yes, I made him turn the screws-damn I am mean).
Yes, the story is long, he won the pinewood derby. Of all the races and heats his car was in (which were a lot as his car was one used to repeatedly test the timing system, that is another story though) his car came in 1st in all but one single race. That race was for "bragging rights" against the "family" category winner. Basically, his cub scout pack has a "family" category to encourage parents or other kids to do their own cars and let the cub scouts actually do the work on their cars. Well, they had to run 4 races (once in each lane) to determine the winner between his car and the winner of the "family" winner. Here is the funny thing, last year he was last (or close to last) for the cub scouts and the girl that one the family category this year, well, last year her car lost its wheel and couldn't even complete racing. Yes, the kids that came in last in the previous race both won this year's race and I can assure you that both of them were jumping for joy.
Who knows it the filing of the nails was really that important, but he did it, while still recovering from being sick, and he won the race this year. All you can do as a parent is smile and say, "Well, hard work does pay off, doesn't it?"

Okay, enough bragging, on to work. I have some nice submissions now and I am going to be talking to a graphic and layout designer on Tuesday about a number of things. I am excited about it as I have seen some of his work and it is very good. I think the "third time's the charm" on the layout end, and I have some other things to discuss with him too.

I have also, strangely, acquired some books on architecture and building from 1902 and 1906 from the library (okay, the citywide interlibrary loan system) that have some nice drawings of buildings-yeah, big surprise-that are all public domain. Some of these public domain pieces of artwork can probably save me a good amount of money in the future, although actually scanning them all is going to be quite the task. It looks like one of the local universities has some collections of old magazines and newspapers on microfilm. I might be able to get some pictures from those too, not sure how excited I am about the time I would spend doing it. I tend to get distracted by the history and the articles involved. Yes, I am one of those nutcases that can literally spend HOURS in a library "looking at stuff."

San Antonio is a fairly old city with a number of different private, university, and public libraries so there is a lot of material out there I could potentially use, the question is, is it really worth my time to track it all down? Is it work the fee charged to photograph the old archival collection books? The fee is actually nominal, but still.

Okay, enough bragging, back to work ...

Strange Day

Okay, ever have one of those days were you did tons of various little things, but never got to do the bigger things that you really wanted to do? I mean, there is a certain sense of accomplishment, but yet, a lot of disappointment. I mean, I DID a lot, but I didn't get any WORK done. I feel good about what I did get done, but upset at myself for not getting more writing done.
When you have 4 children it is a pretty good bet that once one of them gets sick, the rest will get it too. My 8-year-old was sent home from school Monday morning (they called while I was taking the baby to the doctor, go figure), he finally gets to go to school tomorrow. Until this afternoon he essentially had a fever, nasty congestion, and ugly cough all week long. He still has the congestion, and only part of a voice, but no fever--more importantly no fever and no medication meant to keep it down--and claims to "feel really good Papa, I can go to school tomorrow, right?" With my luck he'll be 102 again tomorrow morning, but he really does seem better. It is strange how a virus can affect different people differently.
It is also interesting at how people look at things. I commented to my 12-year-old how his brother missed almost an entire week of school. He wasn't surprised at all because, "Papa, I missed TWO soccer practices last week!" Um, yeah kid and a day and a half of school, nice to know your priorities. Thankfully, school is easy for these two boys so missing a few days really doesn't matter, even in Middle School for the 12-year-old.
Well, we are gearing up for an "interesting" weekend. Fortunately, I guess my coaching modules and certificates for soccer last longer than I thought so I was able to cancel out on that fun this weekend. That helps a lot as it reduces Saturday to a mere, funeral service, pinewood derby, daisies tea party (thank GOD my wife takes our daughter to that), end of season basketball party for the 8 year old, and my 12-year-old will be going to a party. Strangely, the only reason any of this is a concern is that my wife is on back-up call and could be called into the hospital at any time. This means I have to have several back-up plans in place as, of course, several of these things overlap. All the plans, and back-up plans, are in place now, so, honestly, Saturday should go smoothly.

Ah well, other things. I have a submission I need to finish reviewing, it is very good. I'll be asking for a couple of minor changes, but really, it is good, different, and interesting, just what I am looking for really. The writer is a very good artist and will be able to do some of his own art for this. He is accepting way below what he'd normally get for art so I am going to do my best to help promote him. This also means that I need to get things clicking because I would like to release some things by April 30th in order to submit them to the ENnies. Don't expect much "love" there really, but at least submitting is the least I can do for him and some of the other people that have given me material to work with.

Although I didn't get much done for G.U.P. today, the few things I did get done have me pretty excited. I am getting closer and closer to finally "opening the doors." Probably shouldn't say more or I could end up looking back at this post in a few weeks and mumbling "dreamer" to myself.

Politics

Well, it is "Super Tuesday" which, right now, means Texas is going to be very important to some of the Democratic and Republican candidates in the primaries this year.
For some of us, this is "Fat Tuesday" or "Mardis Gras." As one of those Catholics, I can tell you that I spent my day of pre-Lenten celebration with sick children and/or doing massive amounts of driving (yup, over 100 miles today--yeah, well, um, long story, let's just say a combination of sick kids and soccer practice played a major role). Oh well, such is life. Maybe I have a bit of scotch with a few ice cubes in a little bit.

In other notes, I have a very good, clearly dedicated freelance writer and artist working on something for me right now. I know that he is really doing this to get some credits on his list and to get some references. His dedication already gets a good reference from me.

I have avoided mentioning it, but, well, Saturday night one of my neighbors (an older woman) came by clearly distraught. One of her daughters died earlier that day. I have seen the daughter several times but not really known her, but I see my neighbors outside fairly often. This means that it is only February and I'll be heading to my second Memorial service of the year. A good friend of mine joked with me a few weeks back that he is "not your friend anymore, your friends die young, I am only your drinking buddy!"
I have to say, outliving one of your children has to be terrible, I simply can't imagine it. This poor woman was, and certainly still is, a complete wreck. Her husband (the dad), hasn't been out on his normal walks all week long. I have been distracted enough by our own sick children that I haven't gone over to see how they are doing, but this is a top priority on my list for tomorrow.
Time to finish watching the news and then head to bed, it has been a rather tiring day.

Sick People ...

Okay, whatever is running through the family appears to be some sort of virus. Not feeling great today myself but the baby has been spiking high fevers since Friday morning. Well, nice to know that with child number 4 we are "doing everything right" and yes, it does seem to be a virus." After a few days of high fevers you need to have a baby's ears and throat checked, etc. He does have a sore throat, but everything appears to be viral. Nice to know as after the trip to the doctor we had to drive straight to the kids' school to pick up our 8 year old. He had a fever --big surprise.

Apparently there is a "contract in the mail" dealing with the kids' game I was trying to shop around last summer. It still sounds to me like this company has a different but related game in the works and is thinking about buying me out as lawsuit prevention. I have been around games and gaming enough to know that people come up with similar ideas. I am not going to be one of those egotistical people that tries to claim his ideas were "stolen" (unless I honestly believe that to be true) and then tries to sue someone. I am guessing that in order to find out more, I'll be signing a NDA and, well, not talking about it again. We'll see.

I hope to get some sketching or writing done tonight. Yes, my wife is on-call and I have sick kids here at home with me. Hey, a guy can dream can't he?

Wow!

Lots of chaos the last few days. Let's just say I could have posted "I see sick people" over again, but without the vomit this week.
Several of the kids have spiked some very high fevers, which then go away (and sometimes come back). No other symptoms. Fairly strange really.
I have been planning to get some emails sent to a few friends over the past few days, but every time I get ready to something happens, usually our 9 month old spikes a fever (probably due in large part to teething) or something else happens. Next week is going to get interesting. Tuesday all three of the older kids have soccer practices, the boys at one field, and our daughter at another field (almost 20 miles from theirs). I am thrilled. I am also coaching for her team again, only assistant coaching though (yeah, no paperwork!). Okay, the truth is, I do love coaching kids. It is a joy to see their skills develop and to watch them enjoy themselves. I think we have most of the week planned next week in terms of getting people the places they need to be. The problem comes in next Friday. Looks like I will not only need to drop one child off with a friend so he can go to cub scouts, but I'll also need someone to help babysit the others for a bit until my wife can get home.
Did you know that in some cultures the statement, "May you live in interesting times." could be considered a curse?
Chaotic as it all is, we wouldn't give it up for anything. Well, hmmm, maybe I should think about that a bit.

They have finally openly said that the 4e OGL is going to be called by a different name. Let's face it, it'll be a different license. I remember talking with Bill Webb on the phone a couple of months ago and we both agreed it would have to be a new license of some kind. Looks like we guessed right. While I have some real questions about exactly how they'll do it, I am sure that the companies like Necromancer Games, Paizo Publishing, and Goodman Games will pony up. Fantasy Flight Games is advertising for freelancers to work on 4e material so It sounds pretty certain that they will too. I'd actually be interested in working with them if I felt I could spend the time they want. Alas, I have a vacation planned in March and the kids get out of school in June.
Maybe they'll have something for someone in bits and pieces. I suppose I could go ahead and ask. Basically, everyone is still waiting to see the ()License to know exactly what they'll be allowed to do.

I have gotten another sketch or two done, still not doing very well on that end. I am practicing more on simple things once in a while, textures, etc. The art end is difficult and slow for me but strangely satisfying. Still trying to hire some real artists right now as that would speed up some other things. The list of things to do is fairly long--it seems like I add two things for every one I cross off--but I am definitely making some real progress lately. I suppose this is as good a time as any to sign off and continue making a bit more before going to sleep.