The Thing Of The Day

Happy Holiday Season

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-27T07:08:16-06:00

The Thing Of The Day will be taking a holiday break starting now.
We don't know at this time when we will be back in full force, or if we will change the format a bit when we come back.
Have a great Holiday Season!

My Andorian Monster

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-26T19:09:36-06:00

You really have to go to this cool make your own monster site yourself, to see the animation too, no way to save the pix. I chose the face because it reminded me of my favorite obscure Trek race.

Holiday

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-22T11:41:24-06:00

We have agreed to take Thursday and Friday off. We hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving weekend!

Super Woman

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-21T11:41:09-06:00

I think it's lame to tell you what I was GOING to do, but in this case I am telling, because I was very annoyed that it didn't work! Ugly Betty teamed up with Scrapblog, but I couldn't get it to upload my photos no matter what browser I tried. Here, try it yourself, let me know if it works for you.
Since that didn't work, I'll just caracterize myself:

Overworked, Creatively Exhausted

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-21T06:13:13-06:00

As you might have noticed, my postings of late have been lame. Lame, lame, lame. I'm at a creative brick wall. Plus I've been working a lot and really only have a few hours at home most weekdays. I have so many uncompleted big projects that working on the small projects or the filler posts seem like a waste of time. Work is very busy lately as well, so I am unable to focus much on Things there either. Does anyone like the month before Christmas?

I have a big project that may be a Christmas present, but can't corral the time or energy to finish it. So, here's what I want to do: work on it an hour a day or a minimum of five hours a week until it's done. That's more time than the stupid filler posts and is actually working toward someThing. And posting about it would be stupid. It's also a bit of a waste of time and your energy to read the post.

So if I lose, I lose. But I'm going to post only when something is done.

I have a backlog of projects I'd like to finish. Big projects that hopefully you'd enjoy as well. Time, lack of energy and a feeling of creative exhaustion are killing me.

Hope to have something big soon.

I love my pirate

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-20T11:38:48-06:00

As long as Bryan is posting caracatures, I figured I'd make one for him, too.

Haiku Monday

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-19T22:38:34-06:00

Extra time this week,
Thanksgiving alone. That's fine,
Projects will get done.

This week's question asked:
What is it you're thankful for?
"Not having to cook."

Fall is beautiful.
I love the passing seasons.
Soon it will be cold.

Cross Post.

Another Caricature

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-19T13:19:11-06:00

HERE.

Felt Die

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-16T10:43:47-06:00

Here's a little felt die I whipped up for Bryan, it does roll, but I can't guarantee it's accuracy. I forgot to put something next to it for reference, but the pips are seed beads, if that helps you with the size, and if not, each side square is 1".

Caricature

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-16T01:24:22-06:00

HERE.

Wedding Pics Part Two

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-15T23:52:02-06:00

Today's Thing is the DVD of the wedding reception pics from yesterday.

Art-O-Mat

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-15T22:23:44-06:00

Wrote a post about the Art-O-Mat coming to our town. Click here.

Wedding Pics Part One

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-14T23:55:12-06:00

A few months ago, Shelly and I took some pictures at a wedding reception for a work friend. Today's Thing is fixing all the photos. Tomorrow, I'll have a DVD for the couple with a menu and photos. Fixing the over 130 photos took a while because the lighting was low and everyone had red eye. It was tricky finding the right exposure, color temp and saturation. There were a few good shots in the set, but because of a weird pause on the digital camera, almost all of the bride shots caught her with a strange expression on her face.

Oh well.

Felt Foto

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-14T23:11:38-06:00

Felt Tissue Box

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-13T23:09:21-06:00

Caffeine Comic

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-13T03:18:22-06:00

This comic is lousy. And for the next week I can blame everything on caffeine withdrawal.

Must sleep. Must wait for head to implode.

The Budget

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-12T23:37:40-06:00

Today's Thing is a budget page to track the bills. I made all the charts. The numbers in the chart now are phony, but, for years, I've just been logging the bills on scraps of pages. This way, with the help of a real Numbers program, I can see where the money goes each month. I hope to be completely out of debt in about four to five years. And I've finally paid off my student loans this month. So, woo-hoo!

Brain Scan

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-12T14:23:24-06:00

Pass

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-09T13:31:54-06:00

pass.

Award-Winning Five Live Radar Chili

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-09T13:02:21-06:00

Three meats, two beans, that's Five Live Radar! Garlic and onions without having to chop them, marinating, and the crock pot make this recipe less time consuming.

Ingredients:

1 lb chicken breast (about 3 breasts)
1 TBSP garlic powder
2 TBSP cumin
2 TBSP mild chili powder
1 TBSP hot chili powder
3 TBSP cooking oil
1 lb hamburger
1 lb Super Saver "original" Polish sausages (about 5)
1 15.5 oz can black beans
1 15.5 oz can dark red kidney beans
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
2 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes with roasted garlic and onions

Instructions:

Two days ahead of serving:

Put garlic, and ONE TBSP of each cumin and mild chili powder, and oil into large zippy bag, make sure spices mix with oil. Poke chicken breasts with fork, add to bag. Smush around until chicken is coated well. Refrigerate overnight, smush the chicken around whenever you pass the fridge.

The night before serving:

Remove chicken from marinate, bake in cake pan for 40 minutes at 350 degrees. (Dispose of bag!) While chicken is baking, fry hamburger, drain. Cut sausage into about 1/2" slices. Fry the sausage for added flavor (optional). When chicken is baked, cut each breast into bite-sized pieces. Put all drained meat into crock pot. Drain and rinse beans. (Rinsing removes some of bean's gassiness--supposedly) Add tomato sauce and diced tomatoes, hot chili powder, and the other TBSPs of cumin and mild chili powder. Cover crock pot and turn on 'warm' or 'low'. Cook overnight.

More recipes HERE.

Netgear Port Mapping

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-08T23:44:53-06:00

I spent many, many hours and tried to remap our two routers to get a program to work.

It worked, sorta. Learned a lot.

Angel Pin

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-08T22:51:38-06:00

Team Pass

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-07T03:44:17-06:00

It happens.

Ice Cream Maker

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-06T19:54:57-06:00

Mmmm, mmmm. You can create your own ice cream at Ben & Jerry's. This is a morning ice cream with chocolate covered expresso beans, hazelnuts, dark chocolate and other goodies.

Yea, morning ice cream.

The Best Fall Photo

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-06T19:52:11-06:00

The story of why it's The Best Fall Photo is on my blog.

Dapper

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-05T15:17:36-06:00

Add to your site

There's new web based programs to make mash-ups on the web. You're taking content and repurposing it. I made this simple test using Dapper. There's also Pipes where I made a TTOTD flicker feed. I was lead down the mash-up rabbit hole with this cool ad generator.

Jiglu

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-05T13:03:46-06:00

My Thing today is a new (turns out brand-spankin'-new, as today is their launch date) promotion and marketing tool for blogs. You know me, I always have to try something new! I'm putting it on my blog, as well. We'll see how well it works.

Action Figure

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-02T23:45:46-05:00

You can build your own action figure here. They all look like they're in a gang.

Wild Me

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-02T21:51:16-05:00

Not like I need a special persona to be wild...but here I am:

Go build your own here.

November Desktop

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-01T23:01:33-05:00

Grab the large version to put on your computer's desktop.

Motivational Posters

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-11-01T13:36:01-05:00

October Pix

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-31T23:08:35-05:00

November calendar featuring October photos.

Is this what you were trying to do G?

(Yes and No, the one I was trying you could download as a PDF.)

Older Brother's Records - New York

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-31T11:22:38-05:00

My very first pre-produced radio show. New York covers the NYC sound circa 1973-1980.

HERE.

Oct Pics

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-30T23:06:56-05:00

Here's a look back at some of the photos of October. I was trying to use this as a calendar picture for a free PDF for a November calendar, but after an hour, none of the researched options worked as I'd liked.

And I'm not quite ready to spend money.

For a cheesy calendar program.

Beading

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-30T22:29:32-05:00

Here's a photo of my latest project. Story on my blog.

Pushout Graphics Final

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-29T23:47:10-05:00

This is the last Pushout post for a while. I'll still be working on it, just not posting. I finally have the final graphics locked. It takes about 15 to 30 minutes to make a six-card page. There's 216 cards, so if I just make a page or two a day, I'll be done in under a month. It prints out nice and I'm also making the electronic versions of the cards.

Peecol Peeple

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-29T18:47:52-05:00

A few Peecols I made. Make your own here.

Pass

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-26T00:54:31-05:00

Another game convention, another team pass.

As the small town paper says, a fun time was had by all.

Pushout Half Graphics

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-25T23:08:16-05:00

I've made 366 'half graphics' for the game. Each half is one half of the cards. I've also made only 36 of the 216 cards. It took over two hours just to make the 36 cards and I plan to scrap that and remake them because I didn't like the look. The half graphics took over five hours.

The game is creeping along.

Mild Corn Salad

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-25T22:56:39-05:00

Food Day at work tomorrow.

Recipe HERE.

Pushout Math

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-24T13:39:21-05:00

Every spare minute of every spare day between now and Saturday while I'm near the computer will be spent making the game. There's much more work to be done than I thought on this complete game overhaul. I probably won't have the rules finished in time or a downloadable PDF, but I should have all the cards made. There are 216 cards, each different. Today's Thing is designing those 216 cards. there was some math and chartwork involved and yet it may still be hopelessly broken. We'll see. The good news is I've also made a card making factory and have split the graphics into each half. I'll have, when I'm finished every possible card half available to cut and paste. There's 12 to a page and one page for each of th 28 mechanics, so that's 336 card halves for the 212 cards. Then I have to assemble the cards, eeek, back to work.

Tuna Mountain Climbers!

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-24T13:06:46-05:00

On the days that I didn't carry my Curiosity Shop lunch box with my cold lunch, or walk home to eat bacon and tomato sandwiches with my parents, Tuna Mountain Climbers were one of my favorite hot lunches in grade school.

Recipe HERE.

Card Ideas

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-23T20:32:59-05:00

So after I bought these giant cards a while back, I kept thinking of what I could possibly make with them. Here's the beginning of my list:

BlackJack mask
Queen of hearts 1/2 mask
Book cover
folded 1/2 small notebook cover
skirt if I could crochet
hat? taped
book mark
alt. book
line up poster
garage sale sign
two: small purse
several: tote
ceiling fan decoration
poster
signs for poker run
stepping stone
vase 3 connected
fly swatter
aquarium wallpaper
CD case
CD wallet
box
card holder box
dice box/rolling box
dice boot?
prize
several: lamp shade
archery target
puppet
birthday card-'you're an ace!'
knitting needle holder
one in circle: pencil cup
fan
name tag
photo frame
scrapbook page
luggage tag
coasters
no-see-um poker hat
match up game
family reunion organizer (if only 4 branches in family)
hop scotch markers
giant beads
tree star
embroider on card
bead embroidery
ruler
wallet?
postcard
bracelet
window shade
wallpaper boarder
earrings (cut just the number/suit)
tea tray
paint pallet
doll furniture
joke card trick
sticker book
tissue box holder
cutlery drawer organizer
cake decoration

Pushout Graphics Overhaul

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-23T13:29:57-05:00

This weekend, there's a few small game cons in Lincoln. I'm hoping to completely overhaul Pushout to make it play faster, with more strategy and with an eye to a four player expansion. I hope to demo the game this weekend. Above is the new designed card with, as you can see, two new abilities. I'm rewriting the rules and changing a lot. I'm also preparing the game for an electronic version and redoing the way I make cards. Thanks to Jesse for helping me play test. I am leaving the game open for expansions. This one card represents a lot of work and thought.

Although, the final version will probably have a different font.

Card Houses

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-22T20:23:56-05:00

My Thing for the day is a triple decker card house:

OK. How about just a tiny card house:

It might work better if our floors were level. ;p
Well, how about just some nice photos of cards:

Che Gahagan

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-22T12:46:15-05:00

For hipster T-shirts.

Blog Down For A Week

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-21T02:45:09-05:00

Due to a seriously corrupted file, the TTOTD blog has been out for a week. I'm so lucky I backed up the file just last weekend. This is the backup file.

It's a do-over.

Banners-N-Button

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-12T23:02:41-05:00

A couple web banner to use on Blog Explosion, made with Banner Maker.

And because I can, a sparkly one:

And a button made with the GR Button Maker to put in the sidebar to link to our map.

Feel free use any of these buttons on your site, click here for all my TTOTD buttons, just link from Photobucket.

Pass

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-12T00:38:16-05:00

yep

Comic

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-11T23:16:13-05:00

P.S. Happy Coming Out Day!!

Generic Beat Show 3

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-11T12:33:57-05:00

PCI Card

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-10T23:28:57-05:00

My warhorse mac is over six years old and still chugging along. I'm expanding the mac with a bigger external hard drive and a better DVD burner, but I have to install a USB 2.0 card to upgrade. I've never installed a PCI card before and it turned out to be pretty easy. No drivers or nuthin'. The hardest part was getting all the dust out from inside the mac, that was three-fourths of the time. For those with older computers, blow the dust out of them every six months or so. I must have aired out a pound of dust, all sucked in by the fan system. Anyway, here's some photos:

Skitch!
The PCI card only costs 20 bucks for five
new ports, 4 external/1 internal.

Skitch! I had to use almost a full can of air.

Skitch! And the fans blades were worse.

Skitch! Mac clean, hard part over.

Skitch! Pretty simple overall, but very dusty.

Zombie Dice Bag

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-10T22:02:51-05:00

New Pushout Cards

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-09T21:42:06-05:00

I'm working on some new Pushout cards. I plan to have a graphical overhaul of the game. (These graphics will be changed) Plus I'm making 60 or more different cards. The guys at Lackey are helping me port the game over so it can be played over the internet using their super awesome program for playing CCG's. You can read about it here. I hope to have a more formalized version of the game by Monday or Tuesday. The old version is here.

Frappr Map

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-09T21:41:27-05:00

Come put your pin in our map! I think that most of the pins will be in the same state, but who knows?

Felted Zombie

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-08T22:14:47-05:00

The first in a series.

Game Collection

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-08T16:57:06-05:00

Over the weekend, I added all the games in the house to Board Game Geek. We have over 150 games, just in the house. We didn't even look downstairs and I know I have some games at Kel's house. The goal is to use this random selection to get us to play games we haven't played in a long time. I can think of 10 games off the top of my head I've never even played that I've bought. I admit it, I'm a game-a-holic. So, take a look around, refresh the page and discover some games you'd like to play.

I also added the random selection of games to the sidebar.

Merry-Go-Round

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-05T22:34:04-05:00

On a trip to a dollar store, I found a cute kid craft kit. With rub-on decals, pieces that pop together, and a propeller that makes it spin when you blow, it was well worth a whole dollar.

Dice and a Badly Painted Mini

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-05T18:26:10-05:00

Here's my poorly painted mini from the con. I also won these nerdy dice.

Pushout the Game

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-04T23:34:28-05:00

HERE'S the game. Pushout is under half a meg.

It's a nine page PDF with all the parts you need to play including 30 cards (printed off twice to make the 60 card deck), the card backs, the fully illustrated rules and a page of variations.

Download it now. It's not big and it's a full free abstract strategy card game for two players. Yea! I wrote a new game. And this one's pretty good.

An addition to the rules after play testing a bit:

A left/right movement may push itself off the board, lemming-like, leaving a hole. All normal side rules apply.

If a face down card is pushed off the side of the board, it comes under control of that player's side. The player has two options, discard the card or place back into the newly created hole in it's starting orientation. The player does not get to chose the card's orientation as all flipped and drawn cards onto the board are treated this way.

Skeleton Miniature

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-04T22:41:12-05:00

Another miniature I painted last weekend was this skeleton warrior.

Skitch and Games

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-03T23:30:24-05:00

So Bryan introduced me to a great program today, Skitch. You can take a photo or a screen grab and draw on it, type on it, goof on it, and then share the 'doctored' photo. Very fun so far in the few minutes I've had to actually play with it.
One of the gamers at Nuke Con put up a website with photos, so here's a couple borrowed and Skitched shots, to prove we were really there.
Click on the photo to go to the page they are from, and respectful thanks for the borrowed pictures.

Me at the 'Artist Jam'

And the youngens getting in their foam swords groove.

And I suppose, just taking a couple photos and messing with them isn't much of a Thing, so for an added bonus, a mini review of one of the games I played. (And also using Skitch!)

The game Vikings comes from the publisher Rio Grande Games, which told me right off the bat that I would probably like it. I've loved Rio Grande and Ravensburger since I got Labyrinth in '91. From watching some other folks play, I see there's little wooden dudes, and board bits, and it appears it doesn't take up the whole table, but yet has lots of cool parts.
When it was finally my turn to play, I learn that it is somewhat random (drawing the doods, and the shuffled stacks), and somewhat strategy (deciding if/when to buy things). The basic premise is to get the most points by making your own set up better, not specifically by messing up the other players, altho there are definitely times when helping yourself messes the others up. It's pretty quick to play, because there are only so many tiles, and it works as a 2 player game, tho our expert teacher said it wasn't quite as exciting with only 2. It looked complicated when watching, but was quick to learn and actually simple while having several things to keep track of. I only played once, but I came in tied for first. Awesome bonus, I tied with a friend that I hadn't seen in about 20 years, and we reconnected at the con.

Again, respectful thanks for the photos, and click on them to go to the web page I Skitched them from.

Pushout Graphics

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-03T04:24:14-05:00

Today's Thing is part one of a new abstract card game I wrote called Pushout. Today, I spent a few hours on creating the templates, formatting, design and layout of the 30 unique cards of the game. The picture you see is the set-up for a bigger variation of the game called Double Pushout. There are seven pages of printable cards, including a page of card backing for double-sided printers. The nut of this Thing for me was developing a system to make the cards easy to assemble in a factory-like way. This will make it easier to add expansions down the road.

When the game is finalized, it'll have graphic examples of game play and some game play variations. Tomorrow, I write the rules and will post the PDF.

So, warm up your printers for a free game tomorrow (probably late) and help me play test Pushout.

Miniature

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-02T23:11:43-05:00

One of the things I did at the gaming convention was take a miniature painting class. This little dude shows the lessons I learned about layering the paint.

Game Theory

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-02T03:26:33-05:00

My biggest enemy is time for these daily Things. I have about 7 or 8 big ideas, but no time to really finish them to my satisfaction. Most of these projects actually have some work completed, but with the draining, but necessary work still ahead.

For instance, today I wrote an abstract card game based on a mutual player use of cards. It's got thirty cards in the game. I know what I'm putting on the cards and the rules aren't too complex. The problem is graphics. That's the time suck, making each card graphic for the PDF and the one or two graphic for the rules to show the table layout for the game. Here's a mock-up of one of the 30 different cards in the game. It took me fifteen minutes and it's not my final idea. Ugh.

So, today's Thing is a quick run down of some of my larger projects, mostly games.

1. The game you see above. It's a smallish card game.

2. The big game. It's a word/tile game with modular, scalable rules. This game, if it works, is the one I want to get published. There's 144 cards in the first expansion and 200 small tokens, 50 of four different colors. There's still a lot of math to do, plus writing the rules and the 20 or so variations we've already dreamed up, making each individual card in four colors.

3. My two-player RPG, still in the very early stages.

4. An evil office game that's mostly written. It uses a deck of cards and could get you fired. It's a social game to help spice up the question, "So, how'd work go today?" You can play by yourself even. It's less a game, than an organized prank.

5. A different fame/RPG based on the Dreamblade miniatures, adding a storytelling aspect to the game.

6. An RPG using CCG cards like Magic or The Spoils as a sort of GM for the game and character creation.

7. A Hybrid game using OctaNe and The Roach.

8. A fake TV Guide to the new season, I have the graphics finished and some of the comedy written. I hope that's done by Monday because comedy grows stale quickly.

9. An OctaNe adventure.

I know this is mostly gibberish, but it's a reminder of what I have yet to do. Most days it's easy enough to slap out a comic or create some goofy TTOTD web page or generate bad abstract art. I try to be finished in an hour or so, but the large projects still nag at me. Even the new podcasts take about 4-5 hours.

One last note, The Cashington Roach setting I made for The Roach of Al-Hib Shari was noticed and linked by the game creator, Jason Morningstar. It's HERE, cool. He posted it weeks ago and I finally noticed it, duh. I also posted The Walking Dead scenario to Board Game Geek.

Dice Earrings

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-01T22:58:27-05:00

Vacation Passes

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-10-01T14:45:55-05:00

Due to Family Vacation, there will be no Thing for Shelly on Friday or Bryan on Monday.

Older Brother's Records - Big Beat and Trip Hop

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-28T06:13:44-05:00

Two more radio shows from the archives today. Both shows are hosted by my computer friend, Electronic Filler and the Big Beat show has lots of fun cutting and shenanigans. Off to Nukecon.

Get the Older Brother's Records Big Beat Show HERE.

Get the Older Brother's Records Trip Hop Show HERE.

Soon, I'll be all out of old shows and have to make new ones.

Purse Hacking

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-27T23:23:26-05:00

Felt embroidery flower patch on thrift store tiny purse.

Gamecon Bizcards

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-27T13:18:22-05:00

Since we're going to Nukecon on Friday, I thought up some all purpose cards to use while playing games. The best one is for a bathroom break. There's only two. There would have been more, but the site I used to make them crashed. They print out like business cards.

Get them HERE.

Meeple Earrings

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-26T23:06:40-05:00

Technical Difficulties

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-26T13:17:03-05:00

Due to technical difficulties, there will be no Thing for Bryan on Wednesday and Shelly on Tuesday.

Last Night on Earth Scenario

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-25T12:53:48-05:00

Shelly and I picked up a new game this weekend to get ready for Nukecon, plus the game is one I've been looking forward to for a while, Last Night On Earth. It's a zombie game where one player plays the heros and the other side are zombies. There's a real cinematic feel to the game and you can play a game in two hours or so. Monday's game even had the full plot of a B grade zombie movie. The four heros arrive to town find the bio canisters that are causing the undead out break. The drifter was lucky early on finding the first canister in the hospital and getting to the truck. As the others spread out, farm girl Jenny held off the zombies in the cornfield and the sheriff came along as back up. Track star Billy was the real early hero finding the other canister, but on the way to the truck he was killed and turned into a super zombie. The zombies swarmed around the remaining canister. The Drifter, trapped, died in the hospital. The only female, Jenny, got to the canister as the Sheriff died protecting her. The heros won, but only the buxom Jenny drove away alive. Shelly won.

Ok, the rest is just for the nerds who have the game and I'll post this scenario to the Board Game Geek page. This is a rough draft.

The Walking Dead (20 Turns)

The Walking Dead uses the zombie rules found in the comic The Walking Dead. Basically, if you die, you come back as a zombie, period. This scenario is best with only two people and is meant to build and escalate. The hero player starts with only one hero. He's gotta find all the other heros, join up and save all the townsfolk, get to the truck and get out of town.

Set up

The board uses the Manor center with the four random L-Shaped pieces around the Manor AND the remaining two pieces forming a square in the middle of one of the edges of the large square. The truck is placed in the middle of the farthest piece from the Manor.

The hero player can if they want put all eight characters in any order in a pile to start the game. It's more fun if it's random. The hero starts with one character at the truck and draws three cards to start. A random building is with each of the 1-6 L-shaped pieces given a die number. The next Hero is placed in that building, but is not activated or able to play yet. How a Hero is activated one of two ways: either a current active player searches the building the dormant Hero is in or at the start of the third Hero turn after the dormant Hero was placed. When a Hero is activated, they may draw two cards and only two cards. When a Hero is activated, another dormant Hero is placed in a random building. You can have up to eight active Heros.

Zombie set-up

The Zombie player gets twenty zombies. At the start the roll only a D6 and place the Zombies. There is always Zombie spawning. It is equal to the number of active Heros.

The Objectives

The Hero wins if they rescue all eight townspeople and all the live Heros leave town in the truck. The Zombie player wins if all Heros are dead after turn five. Heros can replace their last character until turn five. However, once a character dies, it is removed from the game. The Zombie player cannot win on a Hero deck depletion, the cards are just reshuffled on the next zombie discard. To rescue a townsfolk, the Hero must guide the townsfolk into the center four squares of the Manor. Once in these squares, the townsfolk is safe and cannot be attacked for any reason. The townsfolk are items for the Hero. When a townsfolk is drawn, roll for a random building, that's where the townsfolk is. You must search in that building to find the townsfolk. If a hero is killed or chooses to leave a townsfolk, the townsfolk can survive on their own. The get to draw one card and keep any item, but must discard any events. They are a two wound character with no special abilities. If the townsfolk is killed, set aside their card. At the start of the next Zombie turn, the townsfolk is a Super Zombie in a random building. The Super Zombie must be killed before the regular townsfolk is placed again in a random building.

After all of the townsfolk are rescued, all of the Heros must make it to the truck. They are safer once on the truck square. Zombies can only enter the space on a roll of 4+. However, the game is not won until all active Heros are on the truck. The Zombie Player may play the Locked Door card on a remains in play card on the truck only. Then the Hero needs the keys.

Super Zombie

All Heros and townsfolk who die will become a Super Zombie. That's just how it is in The Walking Dead. However, as an extra action, a Hero in the same space with the newly dead may immediately use gasoline and fire to burn the body and prevent the change. The good news is the Super Zombie does not turn right away or even where they died. The new Super Zombie is placed at the beginning of the zombie turn.

I think that covers it for the rough draft. Enjoy.

TV Big Shot

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-24T23:32:35-05:00

It's game week at TTOTD.

But, today's little Thing is a pointer to TV Big Shot---it's like Fantasy Football for TV Nerds. You buy shows, create a mini network and see how they do in the ratings. (BTW, I'm doing really well in the Fantasy Football league I was coerced into joining, who knew?) So, I bought some shows. I balanced cheap shows like Kitchen Confidential and Reaper which may pay off benefits in moderate ratings for a low price (Isn't that the modern TV programmers modis operandi? That explains the glut of reality shows.) with high profile shows like Private Practice and Ugly Betty. We'll see how it goes.

One show I picked is a drama I screened a few months ago, Dirty Sexy Money. I think this show might be big and have at least one big season. It's a big old-time soap with an okay mystery at the center, a great cast, fast pacing, clever writing and more edge-pushing than most soaps. There's really only one likable character, Peter Krause as the family lawyer, Nick George. As you've probably gathered from the promos, Krause is running around getting the evil, rich spoiled family out of trouble. The great thing about Krause, as he was on Six Feet Under, is he can be both a sympathetic and jerk character in the same scene. If he was a genuinely good guy, you'd be mad at him for putting up with the craziness. That's the other good part about the show, almost no one else is a moral, good person. It's a show of highly motivated, good looking Larry Davids without the apologies. Fortunately, one of the benefits of a highly capitalistic society is that seeing rich people suffer is almost a mechanism of the zeitgeist. In that way, Dirty Sexy Money almost fulfills a social mandate. Yeah, evil rich people is a cliche, but clever, spoiled, whiney, well-acted rich people transcends. The twist is that all these spoiled kids have their political, religious (a entitled New Yawk social climbing Minister) and talent-based jobs paid for by Daddy Evilbucks (Donald Sutherland in a great scene-chewing role). And it's by the people who brought us Arrested Development.

It's a good show. I put the show on my team. So, it'll probably get cancelled.

A quick mini-review: Pushing Daisies is a very pretty, cute show about a dark topic that could at any minute devolve into preciousness. Check it out, give it three episodes.

Game Week!!

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-24T20:23:08-05:00

Next weekend we are going to a gaming convention!! All I can think about is games. Check out my cool badge from BoardGameGeek!!

Wallhanging Collage

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-21T23:57:33-05:00

Third of three in a set of collages. The Wallhanging Collage.

Bad Mod Art

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-21T13:23:52-05:00

I made this bad modern art using The Digital Post Modernist Modern Generator and Comic Life.

Personal DNA

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-20T23:36:02-05:00

Another web test. Click here to see all of my results and try it yourself.
P.S. Three months from today is my birthday!!

Moral Orals

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-20T13:32:48-05:00

Today's Thing is a set of morality tests. I took them all. It took about an hour and a half to take all of them, but you can take the main ones in a short period of time. The problem is squaring your self-image, either up or down, with your actions and practical thoughts. I have a hard time with absolutes as well.

Try it yourself.

Happy TLAPPD!

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-19T20:49:05-05:00

That's "Talk Like A Pirate Penguin Day!"

Art created with Tux Paint, an awesome art program for kids. (I think my friend CC would love this!!)

Pass

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-19T13:32:11-05:00

So very, very sleepy.

Big Brother

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-18T20:25:56-05:00

Thingor

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-18T13:23:12-05:00

I'm working on a longer comedy piece this week, so some entries may be light.

The Comic Strip For Babies

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-17T23:19:29-05:00

Another nonsensical comic strip can be found at The TTOTD Strip Generator Site. As always, apologies in advance for the blue material.

Watercolor Pencil Sketch

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-17T17:01:18-05:00

Playing around with some watercolor pencils.

Braided Wire Bracelet

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-14T23:24:59-05:00

Braided Bracelet made from wire. With loop and hook closure.

To Catch a Pedophile

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-14T13:21:53-05:00

Mirror Picture

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-13T23:13:35-05:00

Generic Beat Show 2

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-13T13:01:55-05:00

Show Number 2 of 5 from the archives.

HERE.

Lemon Curry Sauce

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-12T21:29:22-05:00

Mmmmmm.......

Click here for recipe.

Dreams of Evil Clowns

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-12T13:26:17-05:00

I have a bad cold and when I close my eyes I see only evil clowns.

The slow Thing week continues with evil clowns, as if any other kind exists.

"I'm on Break" Collage

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-11T18:14:41-05:00

Would you believe the second in a series?

Readymech

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-11T14:07:31-05:00

There's plenty more cool paper creature designs at Readymech. And I'm sure you can put them together better than me.

TTOTD facebook

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-10T23:23:40-05:00

Kind of a slow week this week, Today's Thing continues the endless stream of TOTTD hollow promotions, I signed up for facebook. I created an entry for myself. Then created a group for this website and put it in the sidebar.

I like facebook way better than myspace---better layout, easier to find people, impossible to remember the URL. However, there is a bit of a stalker-y vibe to the whole site. I know the just-outta-college girls and the creepier just-outta-college boys at work sit around eating up company time cross-referencing all their comments and semi-connections to each other and every other just-outta-college kid on the planet. It's a rabbit hole of endless, pointless info.

The amount of cross-referencing of groups, ID's, locations, work and everything else is tasty tempting catnip to even the laziest of looky-loos. It's almost im-pos-i-ble not to click down the chain.

Anyway, I still think cell phones can be blamed for all this self-absorbed constant blather. Not a new thought, but cell phones + Twitter will end civilization.

Anyway, enjoy the TTOTD facebook page.

I hope inspiration hits, so there's real content from me this week.

Tablet Sketch

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-10T07:03:40-05:00

I found a good sketch program I can use my Wacom tablet with: Tablet Draw. Just for fun, I did a similar sketch as the real pencil sketch I did Friday. I like how this program feels, but it appears to only sketch, no airbrush or chalk brushes, but I still like it.

Sketch

thing@thethingoftheday.com — 2007-09-07T22:01:33-05:00

A page full of doodles. Remembering how much I love colored pencils.