We have commented in-house that Game Ideas Unlimited Volume 1 has not gotten much attention, at least in terms of sales.  It was admittedly an experiment–those of you who visit this site are undoubtedly aware that this book contains twenty-six of the roughly two hundred articles in that series, all of which are available on this web site for the individual patient enough to seek them, and indeed the ones included in this first volume easier to find than most, as work has already been done to clean up the articles themselves and the access links to reach them.  Thus on one level we’re not all that surprised that the book, available here directly through Cafe Press, has not been selling well.  On the other hand, we’ve also wondered whether we had adequately promoted the tome, indeed, whether gamers were at all aware of the effort.

One way to raise awareness is by getting reviews posted.  It is not always easy for authors to get reviews of their works; however, in the role playing game world there are sites eager to post reviews, and one in particular which is rather popular and which guarantees that any game-related books it receives will be reviewed.  We have dithered about sending a copy, because of course we have to pay for copies and are still uncertain how the book will be received by gamers generally (and reviewers in particular), but at this weekend’s Annual Stockholders Meeting, after being elected one of two new directors, former and now returning director Evan Young directed me to stop dithering and get the book to them.  After all, even a bad review would promote the availability of the book, and we do have confidence that the contents of the book are particularly good.  The doubts which arise come primarily from the question of whether anyone else will think it a good idea to release in print for money what is already available free electronically and has been for most of a decade.  Thus today I finished packing and mailing a copy of the book to the site in question.  It will take this week to arrive, additional time to be assigned to a reviewer, and ultimately will be reviewed.  I am watchful.

As long as I was sending a package anyway, and paying for postage and packing from my own pocket, I included a copy of Faith and Gaming, which is available here, for which I have similar concerns, although this has sold a few copies probably to members of the Christian Gamers Guild who consider the series one of their strongest assets and view the availability of the book as a boon even though the series has long been hosted in the Chaplain’s Corner of their web site.  Thus this has the double whammy, first that it is a collection of materials already available free on the Internet, and second that it is very clearly a Christian book about role play gaming, which can very quickly garner animosity in the gaming community.  But again, a review will put the book in the public eye, and to some degree a reviewer who is not “religious” himself cannot slam a religious book without blackening his own reputation, so hopefully it will get a fair treatment.

On that note, I wait.

–M. J. Young

I’m sure I’ve done a number of things since I last posted; I’ve not posted primarily because none of them really are completions, just landmarks along the way.

I’ve written, recorded, and sent a number of episodes in the Quick Word radio show’s Faith and Gaming series.  I still have not found a way to convert them to mp3 format, but I’ll manage.

I’ve made some progress on the equipment for Collision.  I’ve got two obstacles at the moment, one easily remedied and the other not so.  The easy one is that my solder iron seems to have wandered off–as my tools often do.  I will pick up another at my first opportunity.  I need it for a number of projects, but most specifically because a couple wires are loose on one of the speakers I’ll be using for my instruments amplifier, and I need to reconnect these.

The more difficult and frustrating problem is that I’ve burned out a speaker and need to replace it.  This is difficult and frustrating because I can’t find anyone who sells a speaker that will do the job. It must be 8 inches in diameter, and round, and it must be 4 ohms, and it must be rated at at least 50 watts.  I’ve found a few speakers promoted as being able to handle more power than that, but they’re generally rated 15 to 25 watts and then stated to handle more in peak power.  My best hope at the moment is to find something designed for car stereo use–not ideal, but seriously it’s gotten impossible to find anything in the nature of an electronics hobbyist’s store.  I will probably hit Best Buy sometime for that.

I’m sure there’s more, but that’s all that comes to mind.

–M. J. Young

I am a bit ahead on the Quick Word radio show.  I have resolved some of the delivery issues (although I still need a way to convert the overly large wav files into much more manageable mp3s) and have delivered programs for this week and next, and have four more in the can, recorded and ready to go.  I am working on scripts for the next four beyond that, which will be presenting material from the two Faith and Gaming articles about magic and deities.  Neither subject fit well in a five minute package, but I’m still tweaking to get eight well-timed scripts from it.

I’ve been addressing some other matters as well, but I will post on them when I reach milestones worth mentioning.

–M. J. Young

I made a decision this week concerning the Quick Word radio show I broadcast every week.  It has been in reruns for several months, and I have been undecided what to do with it as it has not had the level of response for which I had hoped.  However, as of last night I have determined to keep the show going.  I will be starting a new subject next weekend (it is too late to have it on this week) based on the Faith and Gaming book, which I will have to start recording.

For those who do not know, A Quick Word comes on in two segments of one hundred fifty seconds each, on Sunday afternoon between five thirty and six o’clock on Lift FM, which you can hear locally in Bridgeton and Hopewell at 98.5 FM, and on a different frequency I do not remember out at the New Jersey shore southern regions such as Cape May and Wildwood, and over the Internet from their web site at www.LiftFM.com.  It is in a half hour block of music by local artists sandwiched between two local preachers.  I strongly suspect that my dearth of response is because I am in that broadcasting ghetto–I know others who advertise on the station who have gotten good response, but their ads fall during the week when it’s almost all music.

That means I have to write and record a few scripts based on the first chapters of that book, but at least I have an outline of what I plan to do for most of the next year.

I have just sat down with dinner after frantically racing about attempting to set up equipment for a Collision rehearsal which is not going to happen.  It seems that Brittany pinched a nerve trying to lift something and can’t stand, and Baxter couldn’t call me because he is out of minutes on his cell phone but managed to let Brittany know that he was sick.  Adam is, I believe, here, but exhausted.  His girlfriend had minor surgury yesterday, and he spent the night at her grandparents’ house caring for her, came home to shower and change and asked if he could go back, then fell asleep.  I will probably wake him in a bit, insist that he eat some dinner, go over a part or two with him that I think are important, and then let him go back to caring for his girlfriend.  She is important to him, and that makes her important to us, too.

Of course, I have more equipment in the living room than I’ve had yet, and the fact that we did not wind up rehearsing makes it less justifiable–but I will finish setting up what I have, and make certain it is all functional, and that will be good for something.  I am distressed that I cannot find the nice pair of self-powered monitors which I have long known were probably the one solid piece of the sound system on which I could depend.  I have searched the attic (where I put some things) and the basement (where the people who helped my wife clean her kitchen and living room put more things) and am rather concerned that I don’t know where they went.  I might have to give Tyler a shout, to see whether I left them at his place at some point, but I’m pretty certain I didn’t.

Anyway, it gives me more time to work on stuff here, so I’d better use it wisely.

–M. J. Young

My youngest is attending a prom tomorrow night.  I am not certain I can call it his prom, as although it is at his school he is technically too young.  His girlfriend, though, is the right age and grade, so I suppose technically he is taking her to her prom.

It has occurred to me that this will mean he will probably take her to two more proms, since he will be eligible to go to the prom himself next year and the year after while she is attending college, probably locally.

It also means that I have chores to do on top of my usual work and chores–including that any minute he is going to arrive home and we will make the trip to collect his tuxedo from the formals shop.  This will require a cash withdrawal from the bank, but we will do that on the way.

I did here from that friend I am hoping to see on my weekend trip north when I take another son to stay with family while attending school up there.  It seems fairly certain that we will be able to meet for coffee or dessert on my way home; he wants to see the new books, and will probably buy one of them, maybe also the other.  I don’t want to seem mercenary in connection with friends and family, but it is certainly good to sell books no matter who is doing the buying.

I keep running things through my head that need my attention, but attention has been diverted to other matters of late.  However, let me not divert time here–I think I hear someone coming in the front door, so it may be time for me to move.

–M. J. Young

I’m not entirely happy at the moment, but here I am.

On the less than completely bright side, where I was less than completely bright, I did almost everything I intended last night–took the girlfriend home, dropped off the son, visited my friend, and finished the forum posts.  I even got the opinion of my experienced drummer friend on a couple pieces of the new drum set, which he said was surprisingly good quality for a beginner’s set.  The one thing I did not do, as I rushed out the door trying to remember everything, was take copies of the books with me, so I found myself describing the Faith and Gaming and Game Ideas Unlimited books to him without examples in hand.  So I feel a bit stupid, particularly since I’m not at all certain when next I will make that trip.

I returned home close enough to time to awaken people for school that I just stayed up and finished the postings.  Thus it was well into daylight by the time I said goodnight.

I’m also a bit perturbed because I was the only one to show for tonight’s Collision rehearsal.  No one called; no one showed.  I really don’t want to be the driving force in a band of people who are not interested or committed, and I’m worried that this is starting to move that direction.  I’m not, however, certain what to do about that.  Everyone can complain that someone else is less committed to this, less ready to play, than he is; that doesn’t get us anywhere, particularly since no one is really ready to play.

I practiced a bit myself, but finally decided my time would be better spent getting this work done.

–M. J. Young

I fell asleep sometime probably around ten last night.  I know that was the time, because I was watching something on television and looked at the clock at 9:47, and then when someone awoke me at 10:30 to ask me to add something to the schedule for today (which they asked me to remove from the schedule for today about five minutes before it would have had to have been done) the program was something I’d have changed had I noticed it.  I am not certain when I next fell asleep, because I think I saw the entirety of a Monk episode that ran from eleven to twelve, and put something on after that, but was asleep when my wife entered, whenever that was.  I had to put away supper and tend to a few other things, but was back to sleeping before four and up just after five, and then managed to get a solid five hours from seven to noon.

All of which is to say that I am well rested today, and not worried about falling asleep on my long errand to drive people tonight–the girlfriend home and the son to work.  I am hoping also to meet with the friend who is interested in buying the books while I’m up that way.

He will also be interested in the fact that amidst the confusion of today I picked up a free drum set.  It may be worth every penny, as my father would say, but it’s the best drum set I’ve ever owned.  My thinking at this point is that it might provide supplemental pieces for one of our drummers, although I’m not terribly impressed with the quality–and this from someone who knows very little about drums but that he has worked with a few drummers over the years.

I uploaded the updated pages last night, although I still don’t have a banner for the special.  Here’s hoping it will help.

I’ve more to do than I can in the time that remains, but I’ll do what I can and try to squeeze a bit of extra time out of this somewhere.

–M. J. Young

I did not really get enough sleep last night; however, when I returned to bed this morning I was antsy.

Part of it is that I’ve been thinking I’ve got to make a change in an arrangement of one of the Collision songs–I’m demanding too much of my bass guitarist, and if I want to get the six core songs down I’m going to have to take some of the riffs from the fifth on myself so that I can push him to learn the sixth.  Thus I was lying in bed trying to make sense of riffs in my head–where are the notes on the fingerboard, on the staff, in that nebulous tonal recognition center in my brain.  After lying in bed for half an hour locked into this, I got up, set up the coffee for later (which I should have done sooner), and picked up a guitar.

Fifty minutes later, I was satisfied with that and had run through a few other guitar parts, and decided that I was no closer to going back to sleep than I was when I got up, so I might as well find my glasses and start my morning.  That’s not to say I’m not tired; only that I’m not sleeping.

It also occurred to me that I did some work I neglected to mention.  Sunday night, after doing the weekly file backup, I created a new specials page, uploaded to the site for the M. J. Young Net site, complete with a descriptive banner.  It announces throughout the site the availability of the new books Faith and Gaming and Game Ideas Unlimited Volume 1, which hopefully will help sell the books.  Meanwhile, I also did a fair amount of updating of the pages on the Multiverser site, but have not uploaded these.  The changes include adding links to our other Cafe Press storefronts, the new Game Ideas Unlimited store and the long-neglected Nagaworld store in addition to our standard Multiverser merchandise.  I also did the work to launch the announcement of Game Ideas Unlimited Volume 1 on the Multiverser site, but am awaiting a banner from our art director before uploading all of this.

So I did a fair amount of web work, but it doesn’t all show yet.

If I’m going to make this early rising thing work, I’m going to have to get something done, so let’s move to it.

–M. J. Young

I was supposed to meet someone Friday night.  I was in the northern end of the state picking up someone’s girlfriend, and expected to rendevous at a place inappropriately referred to as a diner–it only does breakfast, from ten at night to three in the afternoon, and is closed for the seven hours during which most people eat dinner.  My friend was interested in seeing, possibly buying, either or both of the two new books, Faith and Gaming and Game Ideas Unlimited Volume 1.  He did not answer his cell phone, and he did not show.

He called last night to apologize; he got the date wrong, and he doesn’t really use his cell phone much.  He is hoping that we can rendezvous early this week, whenever it is that I have to return said girlfriend to her residence (which is something I do not yet know).

Otherwise, there’s not much to report.  I’m still feeling beat up with this bronchitis, and although I’m much better I still had a coughing fit earlier this afternoon which nearly rendered me unconscious (no, I get those a lot, even when I’m not sick, side effect of my allergic asthma; I manage it pretty well, knowing how to keep control of those faculties that are necessary for whatever I’m doing at the time).  I did not get my laundry done yesterday, but I managed to do everything else on a rather lengthy list, including the grocery shopping, so I’m not disappointed.  I’ve been handed responsibility for a few extras today, but today should be fairly light otherwise, so I’m not too worried about it.

I have a lot of projects requiring my attention, but I don’t think things are going to move forward much for a few days, at least.

–M. J. Young

Yesterday got buried in errands, and I never completed my day’s work.  It was near three in the morning when I posted to the Corinthians list, and I at that time still cherished hopes of making it to church this morning.

For what it’s worth, I did not; I did not awaken until too late, and even then I was not terribly functional, and went back to sleep for a few more hours.

I did drop a copy of Faith and Gaming into the church library last night after Bible Study, which was eagerly snatched by one of the two teen boys who had expressed interest in it at the coffeehouse concert two weeks back.  He promised to pass it to the other after perusing it.

All this means that here it is Saturday afternoon and I’m breaking my rule about not working on Saturday in order to finish what I failed to complete on Friday.  However, it’s going to be rather slow going–I still have errands on my plate which cannot be pushed into tomorrow, so I’d better see to them, too.

–M. J. Young