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

The stockholders meeting went reasonably well; congratulations to Jim Denaxas on being re-elected to serve another three years on the board of directors. Our present secretary, Joshua Martin, was nominated to run against him, and would have been an excellent director, but Jim has a track record with the company since before its beginning, has been very supportive of all we have done throughout that time, and has never failed to do what needed to be done to make things work. It’s not that I doubt Joshua would have done as well, but that I know Jim has done it all already.

It incidentally marks ten years that the company has existed.

That has been the focus of my attention over most of the weekend; even after the meeting ended, I had to clean up the premises some. Thus although it is true that I pushed forward on the pages for the martial arts web site and the Romans notes editing, I do not feel as if I did much else this weekend. It is already late in the day tonight, and I doubt I will do more than the basics, but at least the big step, the annual meeting, is over.

–M. J. Young

I still am not ready for tomorrow’s stockholders meeting, but I am a heck of a lot closer now than I was thirty-six hours ago. I have the meat, for one thing. Also, the notes are done. Someone mowed at least part of the lawn, but I do not know more than that because although they were working on it when I left the house on some imposed errands, it was dark and they were gone when I returned.

Yesterday’s schedule became even more shredded than it appeared when I wrote the Shred-and-Paste Scheduling blog entry about it, to the point that it was easily five in the morning when I got home, and it made perfect sense to stay up until six thirty to talk with our houseguest who is working on the car and make sure the youngest caught the bus. I was going to take the car through inspection, but I fell asleep and was chased to bed for a few hours. I’m coming to the end of tonight’s episode, I think, or at least I’m not going to be able to keep going too long.

Incidentally, the car went through inspection not exactly while I was asleep, but in the care of someone else. It failed, but I knew it would–someone had replaced a sideview mirror with a bit of reflective plastic, which is not legal in New Jersey. The engine light came on, too, and they won’t pass a car with the engine light lit. Then when it was being driven back from the inspection to its temporary home, it died. There is no word yet on why, although there has been some speculation that in fixing the top of the engine our mechanic managed to increase the oil pressure and knock out the pump. Anyway, he says to give him a few days to see what he can discover, which is fine by me since my alternatives are to pay to tow it fifteen miles to a mechanic who will charge me, or junk it. Then again, it’s not really my car so it’s not really my call.

I’ve a reminder note here that says I did some work on the martial arts web site. With the number of other things that are really pressing, I’m almost embarrassed to have done that; but it was something from which I could walk away at the drop of a hat, which is why I chose it. There’s still a lot of work to do for tomorrow–but I said that already, so I’m repeating myself and should stop doing so and turn my attention to what needs doing.

–M. J. Young

When I went to bed last night, having accomplished almost nothing of my usual Wednesday work, I was expecting to be gone by now on a long and complicated day that would begin with taking my mother-in-law to see her doctor. However, one of our houseguests had to be taken to the hospital, and unfortunately not the local hospital but one of those up near my mother-in-law. Since he is like a son to us, and more so to my wife (whom he calls mother), he wanted her to take him. Since once she was there she realized she could not get back for me and get her mother to the doctor on time (which I knew when she announced she was leaving, but did not know how she would resolve that), she determined to do the medical trip herself. Thus I was handed a few hours I did not expect to have, and I am attempting to make the best of them. I could have wished that the new car was ready, but again I have been promised tomorrow, so I might actually have it then. I have not yet so completely believed the promise as to have made the inspection station appointment, but I think I can do it when I get home tonight.

Yes, I have two more appointments on my plate, and one will have me driving two hours north to pick up the son visiting his girlfriend, who is at school with the son who make college a reality in his plans. It is the former’s birthday today, and we are taking him out to dinner and bringing him home in time for the weekend stockholders meeting. Thus I am losing many hours, but to a good cause.

As for yesterday’s work, I am hoping that I can complete some of it, at least, tomorrow. I still have much to do tomorrow, because I will have no time before the meeting Saturday to get any of it completed, but there is some hope that I can do at least some of it tomorrow.

Nor have I been entirely idle. I created the computer files of those stock certificates, but there’s some glitch in the original that keeps getting transferred to the copies that disrupts the printer. I managed to solve it once before, but I’m not certain just how I did that at the moment and I don’t have a heck of a lot of time to work on it, but I think I’m closer, if I don’t have to start over.

I also finished reading, in those spare moments I get when I am forced to deal with biological matters, another fantasy book apparently aimed at the Harry Potter audience, although not, I think, terribly well. I am contemplating writing a review, but obviously not this week.

Oh, and for whatever it’s worth, as of this morning I have been included in the as yet unpublished Emerald’s Whos Who for Executives and Professionals, 2007-2008 edition. I’m sure I cheapen their standards, but since they don’t know that I’ll take the resume plum. I’m listed as a writer and editor, and maybe I’m not too bad at that. They say it’s good for networking, but somehow I doubt it will help me all that much. Am I being skeptical, or cynical?

Let me lose no more time here; there are threads awaiting, and I may have an hour left in which to address them.

–M. J. Young

I can’t even begin to explain what happened today–or the number of things that almost happened long enough to derail me. I have not been to the mailboxes, nor the forums, nor just about anything else. It has been that bad a day.

Unfortunately, I am also aware that if I don’t wrap up quickly, skip all the work that I should be doing, and push it into an undefined future, then tomorrow, which is already slated to be horrible, will be much worse. I am not ready for tomorrow; I am not ready for the annual stockholders meeting on Saturday; I have little hope to catch up on anything or get on top of what needs to be done before sometime next week; and I must do so immediately.

So with my apologies, I am calling it a night that never was, and finding my way out of here. I might not be back for a few days, given all that lies ahead, and for that I apologize–but it has to happen sometimes.

–M. J. Young