A-hem, Well...

I don't wanna say that I lost my new phone less than a week after I got it, but... 

Well, we don't know for sure that's what happened. I mean, we do have its location to within under 100 feet... you can't really call it lost if you've got that...

I thought it was just somewhere in the apartment, because that's where I remember having it last. So for sure, I've got no memories of this... it would have been Tuesday, though, judging from my memories of what outfits I've worn this week and whether it possibly could have been in my pocket at the time. I mean, I think Tuesday. Not really sure, though, like I said, just thought it was still in the apartment just under a cushion or something. Lucky I thought to check, when I couldn't find it anywhere here...

I scoured the computer lab, though, which is where the 20 meters seems to be centered around and is where it'd be anyway because that's where I would've been; it's not there, as far as I can make of it. Tried ringing it, no sound, there, nothing audible even at full volume; plus wherever it wound up it stayed, so nobody stumbled across it to turn it in to a lost and found, so I think we can safely say: when I accidentally unwittingly lost it, I must have done so very neatly, in a clever, soundproof hiding place. 

That's one of three theories, at least.

Another idea is, it's in the custodial office for some reason, which is right next to the computer lab. Maybe Ryan brought it in in his lunchbag without knowing it, and it's in his locker or something. This theory is appealing for several reasons: it explains why there's nothing audible going on when you try to ring it, because it's ringing behind a thick door during a time when nobody'd be in (i.e., daylight hours); it explains why it hasn't been taken to the lost and found, because nobody's found it because it's not lying around in some public space; it explains why it wound up in the Spori when I don't remember taking it there, because I didn't take it there, my brother the early-morning janitor did. Ryan denies taking it in, but I find this the most logical of the explanations. Plus it takes the blame off of me for having lost my phone for the third time. So, a lot of pretty good reasons all around.

Either that, or it's been taken up by the rapture, and is actually floating somewhere above the Spori. The technological singularity is surely upon us...

Hey Snackers!

I guess I've got a YouTube channel now? Or rather, Pretzels does. Alongside the, Facebook and the Instagram and the, whatever the heck else there was; man I don't know, building and maintaining an e-following is tough. Maybe one of these days I'll actually post anything on my Instagram... maybe one of these days I'll find my phone that I may do so using the Instagram app...

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwofQn9ZA7WLMHNRJzyz4Bg

https://www.facebook.com/PretzelsPrints/

https://www.instagram.com/theprancingprinter/

So far it doesn't look like anyone's watched the one video that I've got up (YouTube tells of these things. YouTube knows...), which is sort of an announcement and show-off of the printing equipment I got. In Business for the Professional Artist class this morning, they really seemed to like it, I mean like, really seemed to like it, predicted it'd go viral and vowed to help it along... it's been a few whole hours already, though, you'd figure if it were going to go viral it would have done so by now...

Dang it lack of lav mike, I blame you...

I'm to report how many hits it's got, Tuesday morning, the next and last time that class meets...

Spoiler-Man

So there's a new Spider-Man trailer out apparently and I'm all, oh crap. I've seen vague glimpses now, of, screenshots or posters or whatever those were, just from wandering into places on the internet I didn't know there'd be spoilers; and now I know things I'd rather not, like, Peter Parker is sometimes dressed as Spider-Man but sometimes not, and, he probably swings around I don't know. (For those of you just joining us, I am meticulously striving to avoid not just spoilers for the upcoming MCU Spider-Man film, but indeed any knowledge of it whatever other than that it exists, because of course I'm going to go see it, so why would I need to know anything about it at all?)

In the grocery store today, though, I saw that they've got Guardians of the Galaxy 2-themed tortilla chips, which is not a place you'd expect to find information about an upcoming movie. Avoiding spoilers for another 4 months is going to be... probably getting in my information design final is going to be easier than that.

Speaking of that project, I worked on it for maybe all of 15 minutes today, if we're being generous. Wednesdays and Mondays, man... Thursday starting some weekend thing the way it does, I should be good to start going more in-depth, but... man I need to pull more all-nighters or something, but I've been going to bed at a reasonable hour and everything, lately, and that cannot be good for you.

Five Facile Finals and One Big Onerous One

I'm still severely undermotivated to do my final project in information design. It's been a swell class and all, but I HATE MESHUGGAH WORKBOOKS SO BAD and that's basically what I need to do. Each module is designed to take 9-12 hours to do, and there are more hours than that in a day... I really don't want to work all day on these, those. I've got five modules to finish. I could conceivably have everything caught up in five days. You know, conceivably. Taking 15 minutes on a task is good, just, get started on it, that's the tough part... this week we're supposed to be finishing up on our designs, and then there's one module after that where people test things or whatever, and then we're done! 

My finals in my other classes are:

• Business for the Professional Artist- make a video advertising yourself. Also there's an open-note, take-home quiz.
• Motion Design- oh yeahhh shoooot there's a final; better complete that (I'm pretty sure it was actually due by Monday, but he extended it for those of us who spaced it, which is a few people.)
• Restoration of the Gospel- A class contributions report. Just, write a few paragraphs on how well you contributed to class.
• Mesoamerican Art- after we finish talking about the Aztecs, which we're starting tomorrow, there's a test on them; then, on the last day of class, there's a paper that we either have to write in class, or have written beforehand that we can just turn in (there are three questions that the final can be on, of which two will be selected for us to choose to write one on; if you write two papers beforehand, you just walk into class and turn in the one that the final question actually turns out to be.)
• Art Seminar- there's a final seminar on Thursday, graphic designer Muffin Grayson. Attend that and take notes, just like for any other seminar.

Dramabug, Dramabug, ooh Drama Dramabug...

Don't really have time for to blog right now; I'm actually doing stuff for my project- well strike that, right now I'm actually getting ready for bed. I'd meant to turn in early, but I'm also working on a side project or two for other classes, by which I mean I'm test printing a bit because there was something due in Business for the Professional Artist which I need to turn in by the end of the semester, which for that class is a week from tomorrow. The totality of my info design stuff is due next Friday, the actual end of the semester, and I've got a lot to do for that meanwhile, so yeah. Too busy to really talk much here.

I said I can't watch videos, but I am allowed to check out what other people are watching over their shoulders for a bit. This is something Ryan shows around, which he was shown on his job and which they apparently reference a lot there. Bravest Warriors is one of the things that I'd been watching until I stopped watching stuff, even. I'm somewhere in the middle of season two. Just two weeks to go till I can pick that back up again if I want... woo...

Grade Stuff and Three-Player Playtesting

You wanna know something terrible? Checking my grades, I'm actually getting mostly A's and B's, in, all of my classes, which means that I'm not totally choking, which means that the stuff I'm behind in I don't really have an excuse to fail on. Isn't that the worst? It's just awful, for me.

And I actually finally figured out what I'm supposed to be doing in my big Information Design project that's been going on for about a third of the semester now! They say that online courses are somehow harder, but I shrug my shoulders firmly at that assertion.

Playing Somerset with three players:

Player	Coins at end	Points from buildings	Points from tiles	Points from spellbook	total points
Eric	5	3	11	4	23
Isaac	9	3	24	4	40
Ryan	9	3	15	4	31

Something along those lines. Ryan/Emmalynn (team) went first, then Isaac, then me. It was Isaac's first time, he went straight-out straightforward, get resources, build tiles, and got points quite handily from it; it was he who ended the game, through the purchase of his eighth tile. 

We all tied in spellbook size (I would have gotten more points than they both if I'd kept my spellbook smallest, yeah that makes sense) and likewise we all had the same number of buildings out (each building one recruitment station; does anyone ever play with all six workers?), so that doesn't really matter; and though I tried raking it points through coins, I came in last there. I tried going for a strategy using the advancement track of King Arthur's, but it's simply not worth it apparently. 

Would have helped to have any other government-track advancing tile other than the one that comes with Camelot out; the others were placed only in the endgame. Maybe that was just my stupidity and poor gameplay skills (I mean I tried to build those tiles but I was always too poor to do anything, and Isaac meanwhile by the end had amassed this trove of resources such that he could have bought any tile he felt to end the game) but having a more powerful King Arthur track would have been nice. Does anyone really play with that? because I just used it to see if there was some secret it hid, and it's better than it looks. But nope.

And this may be just me, but spells could be more powerful, I don't know. It's like there's this crazy power that's possible, but not until you've upgraded one of your workers, which won't happen till you've got the resources for it. But more power isn't the fix, I don't think, thinking about what's needed to activate the powers, the whole magic-power-hand symbol and spending crystals. Maybe crystals should be easier to get or something? Or maybe it's just me, like how I was bad in general at obtaining resources (do crystals count as a resource, by the way? It's never explained.) In general, that game just kicked my b*tt.

The first-time player winning was instructive, though. Just by going the obvious simplest strategy. Like in Dominion: sometimes there may be awesome juicy cards out there you can use to construct a nice engine for yourself and get all the points, but in the end, a lot of the time, big money is the most reliable strategy.

Maybe there should be better rewards for high-falutin-er strategies, maybe there shouldn't. Balancing a game is tough, dude. Apparently. And I read on Andrew's blog (my nephew is the best!) that even more tweaks have been made since the last tweaks that were made, so, that should be interesting; I'm genuinely curious.

Givd 9vtdC and All That

(Jamming randomly on the keyboard hoping it inspires a good post name, but it turns out not to.)

So conference is in a week, which I guess makes tomorrow Fast Sunday? I've more-or-less fasted each Sunday this month, already, except for the first Sunday which is when Fast Sunday would usually be held so it's just all kinds of crazy.

Sunday March 5- Stake Conference
Sunday March 12- Fast Sunday gets moved here
Sunday March 19- still looking for my phone, I fast for that
Sunday March 26- Fast Sunday gets moved here from next week

Looking forward to President Uchtdorf; haven't heard him speak in the longest time, practically since last conference.

Meanwhile, there's finally a new page of Furry Experience up. I continue to interview Ellen Natalie (told you about how I'm doing that, right?) It's a lot slower going than if it were over the phone like I'm used to, of course (if this were over the phone, at this length, we'd be well into record-setting territory on interview length,) but phone's just not a reliable way to get in touch with some people apparently...

...That wasn't meant to be a self-commentary. Honestly!

(So yeah my cardigan's got shallow pockets; it's the only one of my sweaters that have pockets at all. I've got two coats. both of them heavier and winterier and both with their buttons on the ladies' side so I don't wear them anyway; that leaves my sport coat(s), which does have pockets nice and deep enough for carrying around a lot of stuff but I'm tired of people commenting how sharp I look/ asking why I'm dressed so fancy, when I wear it.)

But This Stuff Going On???

I'm going to need a darkroom if I'm going to prep any screens- wherein, you coat the silkscreen mesh in a light-sensitive material, which hardens upon exposure to light (and so your image positive blocks out the parts you don't want hardened (thus, the parts that wash out, thus, the parts that ink can pass through.)) The bathroom is, I mean it's a fairly good place for it, you got your wash right there, and it's pretty dust-free in there (you need to let the screen sit for a bit, and the more dust that gets on it in that time the more pinholes you need to fill back in later.) But the lights there, they're not red. Looked for gels today, went to Porter's zip quick, a few minutes before it closed for the day, to see if they've got any, but they don't. They've got see-through colored spray-paint, but I don't want to turn the lights in there red permanently, you know?

I signed up for an intro to lithography class today- same timeslot as Advanced Typography, the class that, you know, my whole schedule had been built around for a few semesters until it turned out it wasn't even being offered this semester but next, and which I signed up for late and am pretty far down in the waitlist for- I'm clearly not holding my breath, and, besides, maybe this lithography class itself won't pan out either; it's under threat of termination because there's too few people signed up. If they can do that, maybe the Advanced Typography will add another section due to high demand? is one thought.

But, all told, next semester... without advanced typography, I've got, one class, in my actual (graphic design) emphasis? And that one's not even on campus, but online. So... heck, man, I don't know. At least I've got a figure drawing class, required of all art majors, which I'm finally taking? (It's either that or head/hands drawing, actually. And the models here wear clothes for some reason? Go figure.)

My heart rate's at 47 bpm right now. Sweet.

The Great Wimpy Deer Mystery

Doing some market research on what can make good t-shirt design (lots of things!) and what can make crappy t-shirt design (lots of things!) First off, I think I may have discovered the single greatest shirt of all time, take notes:

via Ebay.com

Everything. Just, everything.

Meanwhile, though, I have stumbled across a t-shirt mystery. A mystery that applies not only to t-shirts, but printed garments in general. And that mystery is: what the heck is up with glitter-hoofed 3/4-Bambi and the half-image of the double-exposed naked woman?

http://www.aliexpress.com/ Not the only image or textile the picture's been printed on, but the one I found that shows the image on front most clearly; obviously because this one's totally fake just to show the image clearly, but other photos do exist of this image on long shirts/short dresses, that kind of thing, and, it's most certainly real.

The more I delve into it, the less the answers make sense. I mean, the world is full of many amazing, unique and unjustly obscure artists, who sometimes get lucky/stolen from and have their works printed on things, so that would maybe explain why the shirt is being made by a different company each iteration I can find of it, but: why this image? What the heck is going on here? Who thought this would be a good idea? It's certainly eye-catching, but, whaaat? Is the woman facing one way with her upper half and the woman facing the other way with her legs, is that from the same painting, just taken and swapped for some reason? What's the deal with what appears to be a black orchid on a "multiply" layer? Did Disney approve of any of this? Did the artist who made this image approve of any of this? Yes? Then how about the version where the image is made from sequins? Certainly that doesn't violate any moral rights?:

http://www.aliexpress.com

Alright, even if that's all legally kosher, it gets weirder. I think is the word you'd use. There's also an apparent rip-off version of the same thing (as if one retailer distributing one version of the image idea weren't inexplicable enough!) It's the same basic thing, only Bambi's whole now, the artwork's gotten a whole lot worse, and the naked lady is gone I guess? There's still some vague memory of the original orchid, almost as though the designer sensed that it was important though couldn't articulate why...

http://www.ringsandtings.com/

Geez'l'weez, it's like how plastic Chinasaurs keep on getting more and more and more abstract as the various manufacturers all rip off from one another, until there's virtually no resemblance left to the original (usu. 1959 Marx tyrannosaurus) figure...

UPDATE: Alright, apparently Google has this function -I mean I know about it but I apparently keep on forgetting about it, which is weird because it's treated me so kindly in the past- that allows you to plop in an image into the image search bar and it'll tell you what the picture's of and everything. The shirts above are all (knockoff? retail?) of original Givenchy designs from their Winter 14/15 collection. Spring 17 is seeing a re-release of the same design, which would maybe explain the design's resurgence in the knockoff market? The real deal is... expensive, I'll put forth that much. Still doesn't explain where Givenchy's designer got the original idea, and it certainly still leaves the Korean comic-sans thing a mystery, but now I know where to go if I feel like spending $565 on a cotton t-shirt...

Peter Wocken's Ambaadasssssor Song

Tuesday the 7th I and another member of my Business for the Professional Artist class (though I was the one who arranged the call, he wound up with more interview questions than I) had a teleconference that devolved into just a phone call (bad connection) so phone call mostly, interview with board game graphic designer Peter Wocken.

My graphic design plan at one point was to do board games before switching/settling on the serigraphy thing, so I figured I'd solicit a professional's opinion on the lay of the land. The other class member had actually gotten accepted as an illustrator at a startupish sort of board game company, so I invited him; members of the board game design workshop were also invited but none of them could make it. The phone call portion lasted 45 minutes, from 1:15ish to just before 2:00; the failed Skype attempts before that had been going on for, well the Skype call had initially been scheduled for 12:30 pm, so, about that same length of time.

I recorded the entire phone call portion of the interview; fortunately I always both record my interviews and also take notes, because my phone's kind of 'WOL. I'd been going to transcribe the whole phone portion to post up, but 45 minutes of convo would take a while to transcribe so I was putting it off, and now that I've accepted that I may never see that phone again I'm just posting up the transcript of my notes instead, spelling mistakes and all (some of which are actually fairly amusing ("stationary"!))

He's on Freelance 3.0 by now. FREELANCE 2.0- Temp agencies work w/ a bunch of company. Best Buy→ FFG.
RPG→ everyone (FFG local) be availible when op shows its face.
Connection→ just "contact us!" and tell them your story/portfolio or GAME ART DIRECTOR. Always looking for fresh blood so graphic design over illustration pays better. \ Until they're real publishers (you can work with newbies) don't go accepting. They don't know the industry and might make unrealistic demands. Publishers w/ in-house artists is Plaid Hat- Fernanda Suarez.
FFG art director- ??? Works directly w/ graphic design departments. AEG- Send to Peter. forwarded emails to John Goodenough (super awesome dude.)
Freelance & full-time job don't mesh very well. Discipline- your brain will be mush at end of 8-9 hours, so you need to force yourself.
Board game industry super difficult to compete- people all over the world with lower rent etc. do well. Have savings to fall back on in freelance, have portfolio- job something creative.
Work on what you enjoy- you'll find work in it. Peter chose to go superspecialist, and good thing people are getting into it. France "how do I rebrand myself" so he went specific, be seen as a specialist.
Get a good contract- people will take advantage of you. Read over contracts super specifically or have them sign your contract. Have agreements in writing (email is fine) invoices & contracts must be on-brand
Cons are great use of your time. The more cons you attend, the more optimal. Peter as a graphic designer doesn't booth, he's mobile. Get on dudes' calendars. GenCon & BGGCon.
GenCon- get 'em between schedules. BGGCon smaller, last con of year.
Now Peter Wocken is big enough for people to seek him out. Have business cards/post cards? Or ping everyone on your portfolio? Either way have contact info on every page, as part of stationary. Have template but customize per client. ALWAYS DEADLINES! BE NICER THAN GOOD! Be good ambadassors for creativity. Be pleasurable to work with.

I like that. The word is "ambadassor" from now on.

Dense Mech-abre

Technology is dumb. T-shirts are awesome. I went to bed early today thinking it'd be just a quick nap and then I'd be refreshed for more homework, but instead of being refreshed right now I just want to sleep some more. I could probably wake up early in the morning tomorrow; I think I'm game for that. I should focus on animation class more; information design's not the only thing I'm running behind in...

I was going to go on, but I have no idea what I'd been going to say. Forgive me, for I have sinned (I remember what I was going to say now): we're doing, as a family, another no-sugary-treat challenge, and I stress-ate three cookies and 1.2 poptarts.

Late Late Lateness

Checking device manager, it says that the phone was last "used" 12:48 am, yesterday morning, but last synced 10:07 am yesterday morning. Phones aren't used when they're off. Phones aren't synced when they're off. I think my phone is missing because it was stolen. Maybe I did drop it somewhere, but, someone definitely picked it up and is being very naughty with it. Maybe they used it as a burner, and it is now trashed. I don't know. Is there insurance against theft, like, is that covered by the warranty? And does that insurance also cover time and sanity lost through attempted recovery of the phone? Because I had plans, and it was gonna be great, and I was gonna at least begin catching up. Not that I'm using that as an excuse, but... I really was, genuinely excited to get on doing stuff early for a change.

I played hooky, halfway, for the first time in my life today. Today being the last day to turn in assignments for Mesoamerican art class, I spent the time from the end of that class (which got out a few minutes early, like 9:35 instead of 10:00, so I had a few extra minutes to get a head start on it) basically all the way through when it became due at 4:30 when Professor Raish leaves his office and he accepts no more papers, writing up a field guide to Tikal- site guides are worth up to 50 points, I needed maybe 20, plus I already spent the time before class writing up a review of the ancient Pre-Columbian game of Patolli which could be worth up to 10 points, so, maybe Mesoamerican art class might be the one class this semester I may even pass. Well, that and religion class probably. And maybe I did alright in Concentration. And I've attended all the art seminars this semester, so I should be doing fine in that too. But... my two lab classes this semester, they're in a poor way. And I'm not sure how well I'm doing in Business for the Professional Artist class (plan C.5 worked today, at least, so no auto-fail for not making a call, for me.)

I'm feeling very dizzy right now.

At least Brother Thomas for Restoration class is off in D.C. so there's no class this week there, but for motion design class I haven't even finished the last project we've been working on, which sounds all too familiar by this point. That class starts at 2:00, gets out at 4:45, so I attended the last 15 minutes of it at least- went over some very complicated-looking 3D animation program today, and it's the only time they're going over it, but at least it's so complicated that he's also going over everything again in a video online, so who needs to be there in person?

I don't want to say I can't wait for the semester to be over, because the semester still going on is my only chance of catching up. I really, really want this semester to continue.

I'm not sure when it was- maybe Tuesday I think, but definitely sometime last week- but I finally signed up for classes for next semester! Turns out that that had opened up at the beginning of the month, but I had had this stupid hold thing which I think I've told you about, and it was still there even when I completed the requirements they'd told me would remove the hold... I attempted to sign up for classes anyway, because seriously that should have done it, and lo! even with the hold claiming to be on, I could get into classes. Or, onto the waitlist for classes, because I was a full half-month behind everyone else in signing up (yeah, that was it, it was between classes on Wednesday. The 15th, the same number of students waitlisted in front of me for Advanced Typography class!)

Makes me wonder, if that hold wasn't really there though it said it was, was the hold ever on in the first place, and could I have been signing up for classes this whole time...

So! Meanwhile, today when not actively writing my site guide for Mesoamerica class (taking mental breaks from it so that I wouldn't go crazy, etc,) I helped out a little with Ryan, assembling the screen print press. He did it mostly by himself (he wanted to, and we're not done but he wants to be the one to finish it.) It looked like the equipment had all come in, but we had none of the supplies, no ink or anything- I called in, but I had to call back, leave two messages stating and then confirming that everything was okay, when the final package, somehow separated from its siblings, arrived at, I think around 5:30 if I remember correctly, but the UPS website, having registered all 9 packages arriving at the same time, isn't giving me any specific time for this package that reportedly arrived with the rest.

At least it got in, though it was late. That's, the story of my life right now. Late, late, late, and the only way I could get a big paper turned on time in is through being two and a half hours late to another class.

This Big Weekend, Thursday Morning through Sunday Night

Thursday- morning. There was a phonecall due in Business for the Professional Artist class- contact someone using your phone and your mouth, offer your artistic services, either net yourself a job or get shot down, win-win. The call was due by Tuesday, but for those of us who hadn't gotten it by then, we were offered one extra class period. I... still hadn't made the call by then (this weekend, I said, we're texting, and it's scheduled for this weekend (which is only technically inaccurate, on every level, but not really a lie,)) and was told, perhaps jokingly but who the heck would take the chance, that Tuesday was the last chance or else I FAIL THE CLASS.

After class I'd scheduled getting myself an ice cream cone. Freshens is this place in the MC, next to this bagel place in this corner, both just sitting there for some reason. They do frozen yogurt, even in cones, so I'm all, I'll go there, but I also need to hit the frozen custard place Nielsen's; Freddie's is the new place which has alright frozen custard (but awesome burgers and really thin fries,) but it's Nielsen's I need to hit again. But Freshens is the most pressing on my circuit of ice cream cone hitting, so I check that out. Think I'll get a... yeah, vanilla-chocolate swirl with, maybe strawberries on top. Only... the vanilla machine needs to freeze its vanilla. Should be ready within 10 minutes, and meanwhile checking the Walmart shuttle app there should be enough time for both- until a large line magically forms, and well I guess I should get the Walmart stuff first, otherwise wait 45 minutes for the bus's circuit to repeat.

I rush out to the bus stop- there's a Walmart employee there, waiting for the bus so he can start his shift. I decide to go up next to him and ask him, wasa, b? The buses, he says, have been on time lately. So the bus should be here in three minutes.

We wait much longer than three minutes. Another guy comes up to wait for the bus with us. He has the shuttle app (I just used the website,) and while I scout ahead for the bus the app reports that the bus should be there. When I get back, the employee is using the guy's phone to call in a ride for himself. Alright. Maybe the bus is just... actually late today?

I go back to Freshens to check on the vanilla. The vanilla button is glowing red, unlike the healthy green button of the chocolate side. The employee resets the machine. Guess I'll go back to the bus stop?

There's a girl there. She reports that she called in, and the phone reports that the bus is operating normally. The bus does not come. It may have been here, that I spot a box blowing across the street in the paths of cars (it is very windy and blowing sand to boot, and the weather here is an important fact for later.) I run into the road, nab the box, what the heck am I supposed to do with this? I cross into the Snow building and tuck the box (which is an empty apple box labeled on several sides SPELL BOOKS) into a corner by the fridge in a green room. The world, I reflect, is truly a magical place. Maybe I'll blog that.

The vanilla should have reset by now. I go back across campus to Freshens, and... it's still a pimply red color. Heck it all to heck; I'm going to Nielsen's. I meet Blaine the Roommate as I exit the MC- how's your day, he asks, and my reply is noncommital. I think everyone's day's been like that, he replies. We talk for a few more sentences, not terribly long, but like everyone in his class this morning was super sick as well, like in mine, and, yeah, just not a winning day for anyone.

I head left through campus, beelining for Nielsen's, which I of course know the exact location of, because really their frocust is el primo stuff, and their diner staples are also pretty good as well. I have on my cardigan, with its shallow pockets- just enough room to fit in a cell phone, as long as it's turned sideways. I ponder my cell phone- is the data on? Do I have "data?" I've got wifi and everything, but isn't there this "data" thing as well? Does it use that if I have the wifi switched off? On? Paranoid, I decide to power down the phone until I can look into the situation further, setting it securely into the shallow pocket where it can be buddies with my debit card on the left side there.

I pass by the track, where there's a guy running. I have a song about music, maybe it's who performs "Come On, Eileen," but I can't specify the details anymore. I don't ask him, either way. Wait for the car to pull out of the parking lot as I'm about to cross in front of it.

I can feel the Nielsen's getting closer. Past the track, across the street (next to a construction area,) across from the Willows now. The Willows has this car out front, which has a sign saying, you could win this car. Wow, I say, as I see that. Win that car. As opposed to that car, or that car, or that car. (It's the city. There are many cars. Some parked, some being driven. But those aren't the ones available to win.) All my hopes and dreams lie on the other side of the street, I say aloud at the stoplight waiting for the pedestrian signal. Well, two hopes and dreams, at least. The signal signals, we cross (there's me and there's this girl also there crossing.) Turn left, past the car, some red, mini Fiat I think.

There's the strip mall place across from the construction zone. This hot dog cart at the froyo place. I sing some song to myself. Motown or something- I am beginning to think I've got magical powers over the radio, what I sing will be soon played at some point. Past the mall, the Deseret Book on the corner, as a guy or two make(s) a break for it across the street corner toward the park on the other side of the street, red light but no pedestrian signal. But I turn right, staying on the sidewalk. There's the Nielsen's right there, nearer to the other side of the block but still in view, with its ice cream cone in neon.

I get a Rexburger, make it a meal, and the custard of the day- cheesecake, with cheesecake cubes ordered special on top. I've got my phone, I've got my cards, I've got my camera. The frocust arrives, in a cup instead of a cone. Hadn't I ordered it in a cone? I could just explain the mistake but that would lead to a perfectly good glob of custard to get thrown away. I can always order another cone later.

There's a family, three generational, in the corner booth. Could I get some photos of their custard, which is in cones? Or is taking photos of strangers' children just creepy? I don't risk it. I lie down on the bench, fatigued, for a bit. My burger arrives- I set the frocust out of the sunlight, which is streaming in quite hot from the window behind me. I eat a few fries, bite into the burger. The cheese strings out of my mouth as I pull the burger away from my lips and set it down. It's pretty good. Not mind blowing or anything, but pretty good. I can get in maybe a bite or two; I guess the custard was rich and filling enough. Get myself a clamshell, throw away my two napkins into the trash bin behind the counter- they part as they twist through the air, but they both make it in nothing but net. The dude standing in the kitchen complements me as he observes this.

My meal in a clamshell and my frocust in its cup inside the larger cup of my drink, filled with ice so as to keep the ice cream cool, it's now onto the second of my two hopes/dreams- I also have my thumb drive with me, and across from the Jimmy John's next to the Nielsen's is AlphaGraphics. Finally time to print off and mount that project for Information Design which was due a month or so ago.

It's around 2:00 at this point- I remember because I tried to get my thing printed off when it was first due, but they'd said then that the foamcore guys go home at 2:00 and I was inquiring past 2:00. But this time there seemed no problem, no guys to be going home in the first place or anything, why would the time of day matter. Interesting. I also inquire about the cardstocks they've got- CS5 I think is what they've got that most closely matches what I want, some playing card-ish textile. It's for my mailer for Business for the Professional Artist, another thing that was due a week or so ago. Aside from the two prints-and-mounts I order, I order two sheets of that.

It takes a while. Not sure how long, an hour or so. Other students arrive, with printout jobs to be completed so they can have their stuff in on time. On time. What a quaint notion. The size that I need the project printed out at turns out to bump up the cost, now paying by the square inch or something- but I'd misheard the total cost as being seventy something dollars before I requested a couple C5Ss get thrown in there (18x24s; I'd calculated out, on the clamshell, the size I'd needed to print two eight-inch-squared mailers with margins,) so when the price turned out to be only thirty something for the two prints and the $.50 each papers, I was okay with it.

It's still quite blustery out there, and holding these big broad printouts is no picnic in this weather. The lid of my cup blows off, into the parking lot of the church across from AlphaGraphics, and is soon out of sight. How do I grip these printouts? I don't want to damage my papers... I cross the street and consider asking that girl there if she could- no wait she's gone, I can still call after her no that's okay.

I'd asked at the print place on campus about playing card-style paper (I'd asked after class, still in the Romney building (Business for the Professional Artist is in the campus science building for some reason) and one of the people there said their spouse worked at the print shop and there was some there) but it wasn't what I needed, and heading here by this strip mall there's Zippy Ship and Copy, I could head in there and see what they've got, though I already have some. At least it'd get me out of the wind.

Out of the wind (and there was a woman coming the other way out who graciously held the door open for me, with all the stuff I was holding) I could re-consolidate my stack, ask about the paper (the same stuff that the campus had I think) and dig around in my pockets for loose change to donate to the animal shelter (none, though I think I still had everything in my pockets at this time, maybe?)

Out in the wind again, leaning against the strip mall sign, I braced myself for the walk up ahead, back to the apartments- zip my camera under my cardigan, secure my papers. Only to be undone by two friendly girls offering to help- we re-consolidate the material among ourselves, ready to get going- only to be undone again by a friendly lady offering a ride to us. But it's just me who needs it. I take back my camera, take back my printouts, get into the car.

She's the wife of, someone who works at the school, whether as a teacher or employee or something is ambiguous as I didn't ask. I buckle my seatbelt finally, as we turn the corner by the Snow building. She's got long black hair, olivish skin. The sedan is black I think. She drops me off. I take out the food first, setting the cup of frocust on the ground and nudging it out of the way as I pull the rest of my stuff out too. Say thanks again, and she pulls off. I grab my stuff, head up the stairs into the apartment.

Place down the printouts onto the loveseat, the clamshell into the fridge and the cup into the freezer door. It's while I'm unloading my stuff that I discover that my cellphone is no longer on me.

It could have dropped out at any point along my route- if at campus it would be turned in to lost and found, so immediately I turn my focus on retracing my steps to everywhere else. Nielsen's. AlphaGraphics. Was it not in my pocket as I rifled for change por las mascotas at the Quick Ship? Was it in my pocket as I reached across my belly putting on my seatbelt in the car? I know too much about memory to be able to trust anything, and much of the rest of the day is spent in search for it. Of course I'd turned it off before losing it; it's something of a hobby of mine by this point.

I swing by the Snow green room and meet a couple of familiar-looking faces from plays I've seen, who are hanging out back there. Tom from The Glass Menagerie, and, shoot in retrospect that was Laura wasn't it? Because, you know, maybe I'm misremembering the order of events, and maybe I'd lost my phone at that time. But it's not there.

At first Austin (the actor's name) thinks I might be there to cover Big Fish, seeing my camera, but that's not what that's for. I head to Porter's, and use photographic reference to match colors for stamps, for my mailer for Burrbiz class. I work on that for a bit, back at the apartment.

I'd meant to get on my Concentration class coursework early, too, starting it Thursday instead of last-minute Saturday the day it's due. But the most pressing homework to do is getting on making a guide sheet for the Mesoamerican art test for Friday morning, the next day, not to mention the reviews of the two movies I'd watched on Tuesday...

Whatever. I can do that in the morning. Early bedtime, tonight. I write up my Tzolk'in thing, at least, and hit the sack.

Friday morning. 4:15. Wake up. Fully awake by 4:30. Have the rest of the burger for breakfast. Write everything, print it off by 9:00, when the test starts. Do pretty well on the test, but I've reported the one boner I made.

Plasma donation scheduled for 10:00, which is usually when class is getting out, but it being a test day I knew it'd get out thirty or forty minutes early. Wait for an hour, should have brought something to read, all there is to watch is an Adam Sandler comedy I've already seen too many times, played on the internal TV system. My protein levels are too low, and I'm deferred for the day. Saturday's still good for me, so it isn't that bad, but there goes my entire morning.

11:00 to 1:00 is spent re-retracing my steps. My memories are snowballing new details, but the lost and found office still hasn't received anything, nor any of the establishments I'd spent time in had anything found. Try back at 5:00, when we close, says the lost and found office. Maybe somebody will have found it by then. We don't open again till Monday morning after that.

So 5:00 is when everything's going to go down.
I head home, collapse on Ryan's bunk, the bottom one: nap starting at 1:00. At 1:50, there's a knock on the door. I'm alert, immediately knowing what it is. The UPS man. My package has arrived.

Make that, my nine packages, split over two cart trips. It's the four-color, two-station entry-level-but-top-of-the-line serigraphic press I ordered, three and a half thousand dollars' worth of business expense. I take photos. The UPS man lugs them up the stairs, and I sign and drag them into my room.

Ah, yes, my room. Ryan's cool with having the press in there, if the rest of the room is clear and clean. So I've got some organizing to do.  I take the next available Walmart shuttle (it's running today,) help out a lady with the stuff under her seat as it's time for her and her small son to get off at the stop across from the flower store. The bus continues on. I realize out loud that I'm now a small businessman, converse with the green-garbed girl on the seat in front of me and on the other side of the aisle (I'm heading to Walmart for the same stuff I'd been trying to get yesterday, a laundry basket and some plastic drawers so I can actually have stuff organized instead of just miscellaneously thrown into boxes; she's just heading to get milk, but hers is still a good story because she's lactose intolerant only to when she drinks milk, and so she's getting three kinds, two of them almond, for different purposes.)

Walmart. I space the laundry basket, but find about what I'm looking for plastic-drawers-wise, and a beanie, and discount Walmart exclusive comic books, three in a bag for like just a dollar I think. The new Great Lakes Avengers book is awesome, and as I grow older the world gets happier yet sadder at the same time, because I realize more and more that Zac Gorman and Will Robson and everyone, they're all just mortals trying to move ahead in the world, like everyone else.

Home. Realize about the laundry basket, check the shuttle times- I'd have to wait half an hour, and take a potentially 45-minute detour, just for that. I make my own laundry basket, then, out of a cardboard box, taping the lids up as an extension of the sides.

I spend the next while organizing everything in the room. Missing the 5:00 close of the lost and found, which I am aware of, but what I'm really focused on right now is having the room clean for when Ryan gets home. Pizza also arrives, meanwhile; I've got cash in my pocket after cashback at Walmart, but am too busy wrists deep in hot glue (a secondary project in cleaning the room) to arrive promptly when Jonathan wonders aloud about cash, so the delivery guy goes tipless I guess, me arriving too late.

6:00 is a D&D session planned at the apartment across from ours, though up a completely different flight of stairs- the bedroom is clean by this time, save the monolithic boxes taking up much space in it. Ryan's not in, and we can't start until he gets here, so I've got the Winter '99 Critique magazine that I discovered in my room cleaning up, which I accidentally took from one of the graphic design studios once and need to return- it's just in the Spori, so they give me permission to return it. But I spot Ryan, and follow him up the stairs into the apartment, instead. I want to see his reaction when he goes into our room.

The room is clean, and full of boxes, but still clearer than it'd be otherwise, so he's cool with it as long as I keep everything in good condition. He gets a call inviting him, and me, to dinner at the girls' place- I am basically starving by this point, plus I really really don't think I've got time for D&D because after all I didn't get any of the stuff I'd meant to start yesterday and due tomorrow done at all yet, so I accept. In telling Jonathan (who's DMing,) though, we feel too bad to let him down, so we D&D instead, and there's pizza and chips and pop there I guess (you know, health food.)

My character is a gnome barbarian named Mongar Ymsdweller. My Intelligence is very low, while my Wisdom is very high. Go figure.

Once our characters are generated, we peel out (Blaine, having his rock band he practices with in the lounge (I'm pretty sure he's literally a member of Jimmy Eat World,) can leave to do that when it's not his character being generated.)

I'd mentioned 5:00 being when everything goes down- I'm in correspondence with Ellen Natalie, of Furry Experience, and she'd gotten to me around 5:00 when she'd done so Wednesday. She doesn't get back to me here, but that's okay I guess, unless... unless oh gosh I screwed it up, I said too much she blocked me oh man I'm such a moroooon...

(It's totally chill though, she just doesn't always have access to Facebook, and the interview is 100% going forward now.)(Though it looks like it can't be over phone, not only for, phone reasons but also on her end, so I'll have to switch to plan C.5 as far as phoning someone for Burrbiz class goes.)

That's how Friday ends. I write:

I am way too fatigued right now to really report on anything of the day, or of yesterday- if the situation ever resolves itself, I'll report what it was, but I'll just say for now, I meant to get on doing homework this weekend, meant to get anything done yesterday, but I didn't. Today things resolved themselves more, but there is one outstanding concern from yesterday that I'm absolutely helpless to allay. I mean, at least today I resolved the fact that I'm helpless to allay that outstanding concern, so it wasn't a total bust.
In fact, today was a good day. It's just that one thing, really; other than that everything actually went my way, even when it didn't seem like it at first. Forgot to buy a new laundry basket while I was at the store? It's okay, I'll just tool one myself made out of a cardboard box.

 I was also going to mention how even messing it up in Mesoamerican art class was somehow going my way, but it really wasn't, plus that was way too good an idea with all the writing I'd already done for that class that day, just have that and post that as my blog post.

Saturday. I sleep in a full hour, till 7:30. It's glorious. Saturday morning is a ward social, closing thing. Burritos. Breakfast enough to power me with protein for plasmapheresis, and that goes smoothly- I've got reading material this time, though I'd meant to bring my laptop and finally get started on Concentration class finals. Ryan, disassembling his old computer and having spare RAM chips, had offered to soup me up though, and I didn't have time to argue by this point- sure, why not?

There's no room in 2.0 to put in an extra 2 gigs of memory, but opening her up at least we find out why she's had the blue meanies- the chip there wasn't fully attached for some reason, just a-floppin' in the breeze. Ryan attached that securely this time, and (though I haven't handled her roughly, and it's only been a day since then) she hasn't crashed or anything, so, yeah maybe that was the issue?

I unpack boxes, piles of styrofoam and bubble wrap and newspaper and steel stacking up everywhere, while alternating doing the readings for Concentration class. We get in a couple of hours of campaigning, as well, from 5:00-7:00. Jonathan's got a campaign planned out, but it was all improv this time, as there was an unexpected detour camping out the first night (our halfling ranger sleephunts, apparently, and so wasn't there when it was time for him to take over my watch... and that was when the wolf attacked...)

While it's still light out, I decide to head out maybe search for my phone one more time, I could probably go till 9:00 and do the last of the assignments (due at 11:00) then, but it darkens quickly and Big Fish the musical is going on so I can't double-check the green room at the Snow just in case I AM remembering the order of events incorrectly and maybe I did lose my phone at that time, so I watch the senior projects get put up onto the walls. I know these people, whose projects they are. They're members of the Spori basement computer lab gang.

Doing the last few things for Concentration class, my gloodness, I didn't think I'd be able to make it. Emailed the professor to maybe get an extension; I reported how that went yesterday. There was a PowerPoint I had to make, AND give, including a video in there, and then receive a review from everyone I'd given the presentation to. And there was a test that someone else had to administer, seeing if I could remember the answers to the questions in my Cornell notes. And there was a test on top of that as well, going over the material. But I did it all in time. Just didn't have time to do makeup work for the stuff I didn't get done earlier in the class- a cautionary tale for what might happen in other classes of mine.

Sunday. I'd gotten up fast and testimony meeting a week ago, sat up at the stand, but never gave my testimony then, so they allowed me to do something this week.

I said sorry I don't have a tie on; I was busy looking for my cell phone and when I realized I had no tie it was too late to go back and get one. I said, anyway, I'm not so good at receiving promptings. (Which might be, after having been prompted to go up to the stands last week, but receiving no impression after that, why I was up there. All the stuff I told you a week ago, minus the idea that maybe I need to give something back, because I'd been introduced to a different idea in that time.) And so, after my badness-at-receiving-promptings last week, I was offered another chance to bear testimony this week. I'm bad at receiving promptings; I'm not even good at finding something that's lost, praying for it- it's supposed to work, but I receive no impressions over that.It may work for other people- so please, if my prayer doesn't work, maybe yours will, in finding my cell phone- but not for me.  Only, in religion class this week, there'd been a Richard G Scott talk, Using the Supernal Gift of Prayer, from Conference 10 years ago now, where he said that that's a sign that God trusts you. Which is funny, because I hardly trust myself. So God answers prayer, but sometimes his answer is "...". But with faith you can move mountains... I've got, at least a little faith, and so that's my little testimony.

One of the promptings I mentioned in the testimony was to have Ryan call my phone because maybe magically it got turned on. He called it after sacrament meeting, but checking Google's device manager for my account, it was last synced, not Thursday around noon when I turned it off, but at 10:07 this morning, which was, around the time I received the prompting for Ryan to call the phone? So it looks like someone may have found it (which is good, because I'd hate for it to be lost outside; it's wet out there right now) and had it turned on this morning? 10:47ish when Ryan called, the phone was off, so. I've since activated this notice that locks the phone and tells you that the phone's missing, with the only option being to call Ryan's phone, so we'll see if that does anything/goes anywhere.

I guess that brings us to the present. We cleaned up all the styrofoam and everything, now. The empty boxes are neatly in a corner. Still got a couple of misces I guess:

I did the math, and it'll take 25 points worth of papers, turned in by the end of the day tomorrow, for me to receive a C- in Mesoamerica class. I'm not sure the exact number, maybe I've got a C- already, because of the early bird special at the beginning of the semester awarding extra credit for work turned in early, but adding up the credits I've received so far and expect to receive, that's what it's looking like. Maybe I would have been able to get in a couple of papers tonight, on whatever subject, if I hadn't spent time writing this.

There's no religion class this week. But there's still the scripture readings. Still, two fewer hours of class means two more hours of doing homework that once more I should have been doing this weekend.

We played Somerset today. Breakdown of the final scores, hope this is the kind of thing you're looking for Andrew:

Player	Coins at end	Points from buildings	Points from tiles	Points from spellbook	total points
Eric	0	12	21	8	41
Elijah	8	4	23	2	37
Ryan	9	8	13	4	34
Emmalynn	5	16	7	12	40

All told it came pretty close. I went first; players are listed in clockwise order. Elijah took the first player marker just a turn or two after the start and had it for the rest of the game. Emmalynn (sp?) ended the game by purchasing her fourth building during building phase; I then built my third building and that was game.

The spell that allows you to take the action of a tile a wizard is on or next to is awesome. There was confusion again over the numbers in the upper left corners of Camelot tiles, thinking maybe that meant how many points it was worth for building next to, though this thinking was quickly set straight, and I wouldn't have brought it up if it weren't for the stuff from Board Game Design. I wonder what Somerset would look like with squares instead of hexes?

C oncentreaitton Final

i an just modding off here, i ran .5 miles in under 10 minutes so i could complete my itbiit goals across rhe board. by the end of 6he day. at 11:0=50.

it was the last day of concentration class; this online class in the second half of the semester that i took to flesh out my course load to 14 credits so i'd be eligible for scholarship. i did all this week's assignments today; it meant to start THrusdy but REASK S wnich I'll yr;; upi sbpiy yp,ottpe/ (reaosns which Ip;ff tell you ab out tomorrow._)

...ope, nope, not sleeping now, finishing this. !!! i was all, please can I havw an extension, and e was all, you don't need your phone for this ssignment, qnd so i completed the three things that I needed to do still, in two hours.

it was prety intense.

ANd nwort that I;'ve told you about that I guess I'm fone, and cane get under teh covres now and sleep finaaly

More Papers I Wrote for Mesoamerican Art Class

There was also a test in that class today (Mesoamerican Art;) I bluffed calling something being from El Tajin being from Monte Alban, to hopefully squeeze in more points if I got it right, but I looked it up and of course I totally got it wrong. It even had the typical El Tajin double-edged scroll design; I'm such a dunce sometimes...

So! You know that order I talked about a week ago, saying it'd take from one to two weeks to get here? It took one week. I spent a lot of time cleaning my room today, and now the room is uncluttered, but still with its space very much taken up. I hate being vague about this, but it still doesn't feel the time yet to make the announcement. Maybe tomorrow.

Tarzan and the Valley of Gold isn’t awful, but it’s one of those ones that are really easy to make fun of. I actually liked the groovy 1966-ness of it all; the title sequence with all the colors and everything was pretty awesome. Having the character of Tarzan existing in the 1960s instead of the 1910s/1920s isn’t really that strange; it’s no more strange than having James Bond movies set in the present day, for example. David Yeats’s The Legend of Tarzan released last year had the character in or past his prime, set the year that he was born in the books; we’ve got at least two Sherlock Holmeses going on set in the present day right now, so why not with Tarzan?

The poster depicts Tarzan taking down a helicopter with a bolo with live grenades tied on; that was a pretty good way to kill a helicopter I guess but I don’t know why the poster artist thinks that that’s the iconic kill in the movie when there’s an assassin who’s taken out with an eighteen-foot bottle of Coca-Cola. I think I’ve seen that somewhere before, or maybe it was just that obvious what was about to happen next, because as soon as I saw all the pieces set up I was all, yup, that’s what they’re going to do. I also enjoyed the scene where Tarzan killed all those dudes with the Styrofoam stalactites. Or the scene where the villain dies slowly in quicksand made of gold dust, that was a good death.

Was I supposed to be talking about the Mesoamerican aspects of the film? Because I just can’t get over how weird yet strangely boring this movie is. The treks through the jungle, Tarzan swings, Binky (I think was the chimp’s name) swings, it’s the kind of scene that you put into a movie because you took all that time to shoot it (Tarzan doesn’t swing on vines, in the original books.) Like how the watch explodes, that whole scene how we watch the whole thing with them going outside and setting the watch down and everything, better filmmakers only need to imply that kind of thing; oh we’re outside, we must have gone outside. They did have good filmmaking techniques back then, I’ve seen it, but this film is just a home video with a slightly bigger budget and marginally marginally marginally better acting. Or what’s the deal with the tiny dog? Did they just want to show how heinous the bad guy is, willing to explode a teacup poodle? And Nancy Kovac was probably supposed to be a love interest, but she and Tarzan hardly spend two scenes together… so I’m assuming Jane’s still around somewhere, and she’s just for the audience.

Mesoamerican-wise, anyway, the lost hidden city in the mountains is Teotihuacan, playing the part of the lost city, whatever its name was; the central plaza of the city is depicted by the Plaza of the Moon. There were two chac mools, one out of stone, one out of gold, both based off of the same real-life chac mool, one from Tlaxcala if my research is accurate. There are some Aztec-inspired interior sets we see, lots of nice skulls and things, albeit with the occasional ridiculous Mayan-style glyph (I noticed a numeral, two bars with five(!) dots, so that was pretty entertaining.) But the solid gold door is still, clearly, just spray painted gold. I mean, the gold in this movie is pretty fake: it’s apparently very light there, they can move it so easily to put it into a big pile like that, and it hardly weighs down the transporters at all. I mean, cheesy special effects, we get it, and I really don’t hate this movie, but, light Hollywood gold is a pet peeve of mine.

 

So I watched Kings of the Sun- and I really liked this movie. I have no idea how realistic the situation it depicts is, though I don’t much doubt that it’s made up. Metal swords, it’s a neat idea but I doubt it, even for post-classical Maya (where would they mine? Where would they get the idea to mine? How would they get a hot enough heat to smelt ore? Etc); I think we’d know if there really were a Maya settlement in mainland North America as depicted in the movie. And the fact that the two tribes happen to both speak English, that was weird; they didn’t even try to explain that, the way that they explained how the Teotihuacan-ites spoke English in the Tarzan and the Valley of Gold movie. But other than that, I enjoyed it a lot.

The drama is dramatic, and the cinematography is just gorgeous. The blacks get really rich. There’s this one scene where Black Eagle is in his cell, and his shadow is cast long and dramatic one way, then he moves to another wall and his shadow is silhouetted against the other wall; I’ve got no idea how they did that lighting. I noticed how they did the lighting in one of the early scenes, where they’re making their way through the interior of the pyramid (because Maya pyramids are now all about interior space and hidden back doors, apparently,) where they move from one chamber to another and the light “comes on” in the next room they go to.

Yul Brynner’s basically reprising his King and I role here: he folds his arms the same, he squats down forcing everyone else to squat down with him the same, he even dies at the end the same. George Chakiris was apparently in West Side Story, and now that I know that he does look familiar.

The pyramid isn’t as big in the movie as it is in the poster, and the final battle, though it makes sense, the fact that they fight on the pyramid just seems like something they put in to make the trailers look awesome. The costuming is pretty good, though not as good as we’d have today- it’s more like a homemade fan costume that you see at sci-fi conventions, but the costuming was probably killer for its time.

Mesoamerican culture-wise- they blow on conch shells a lot; that’s something I see enough that I’m going to start assuming that’s something they actually did. There are shields made of wood, and also the rich people (I’m assuming is how it breaks down) get special shields woven from reeds. The materials make sense, since even in this movie the only metal they’ve got is those fancy swords; wood would have mostly rotten by now so I’d imagine that the designs painted on the shields are fanciful, though I did notice one had a rabbit head and I have seen that as a military emblem, so there must be some base in reality. George Chakiris’s character Balam is against human sacrifice, which seems kind of modern-day-sensibility and un-Maya-ish of him, but by now the civilization’s so collapsed that his character motivations for that kind of thing make sense, and there were probably at least a few kooks like him back then.

As far as the representation of Mesoamerican art goes. There’s a stela carved in the film, a big squarish one with the picture on the front and the writings on the sides, which is like the 3D stelae from Copan. I noticed one of the guy’s headdresses was one of the Remojadas sculptures, the dancer face with three eyes and two noses, probably depicting movement. 

Yeah, I Got In a Round or Two of Avalon

I was the assassin, the guy to my right was Mordred. I was King first, the chooser of quest makeups, which position advances clockwise. To my left was a string of four loyal Arthurians, before it circled around to Mordred again.

The next four kings would have all been good guys- so I had to send Mordred, or myself in retrospect, to get in a sabotage the first quest. Which means that everyone would know one of the two on the first mission is bad, but I'm basically forced into that situation. I as the assassin can still hope to take Merlin out, even if we fail in sabotaging the quests. I send Mordred, and the guy to his right, and realize my mistake too late- nobody would have any suspicions of us if I choose good guys, who would then choose us bad guys in their turns as king, is one of many other ways I could have played it. But like I said, it'd be good guys picking the questing teams for the next four rounds, so I have to choose Mordred to go out, and hope he realizes not to actually sabotage the mission, which he won't, because he has no choice.

First quests are seldom rejected, so it goes through, and Mordred does the only thing he can do by putting in a fail. The other guy in the quest knows who the bad guy is- and from the way he says it, makes me suspect that he's Merlin, now discovered the identity of Mordred. The rest of the quests proceed, and they now know to avoid those two, at least, in a six-player game. Which leaves the identity of the final baddie up in the air- the good guy in the middle, of the group of three to my left before it's "Merlin" and Mordred again, singles me out hypothetically as the bad guy- if this quest of three fails, we know that the other one who didn't go on it must be the good guy. Say it's us three, and he's the bad guy, indicating me. From this Mordred suspects that that one in the middle of the three is Merlin, because he knows I'm a bad guy.

The quests succeed, evil fails but I as the assassin can still take Merlin out and have our team win- I announce "Merlin" as Merlin, but Mordred tells me he thinks differently. I bow to his dark will... and turns out I was right, and my suspicions were correct. So, Avalon metagame moral: if you're evil, never send Mordred on the first quest.

Somerset Party Notes

I was sent into the heart of game design workshop, to snatch the fabled Jewel of Playtest. My mission was, partly successful. We never actually made it to the end. Which is where all the data I was supposed to collect is located, who won why, with how many points, and what strategies people used. Now that everyone knows how to play the game, we should get further than halfway through by the end, next week. Still, unless the group over there still going through round after round of playing Avalon wants to play a real real real real real quick game of Somerset, (I'm still at the board game night, though it's officially ended as of an hour 15 minutes ago,) I won't be able to do what I actually intended to do tonight.

I blame myself for the quest's failure; I waited till workshop's start to start making the needed adjustments to the cards and tiles (correcting item costs after the tiles were retooled,) figuring I guess that I'd receive some help in doing so and that it would go quickly- turns out that I'd receive no help, and that board gamers are introverted weenies, WHO THE AITCH KNEW. I also didn't really explain the scoring at the end, so my playtesters didn't know what to work toward- I'd deliberately left the endgame vague so that they'd make their way to it with unmetagamed strategy, but in retrospect this was a bonehead move because the players didn't have much of an idea what they were even doing, or how awesome spells are, or anything.

AND THE AVALON GROUP IS BEGINNING ANOTHER ROUND; DANGIT I THOUGHT THEY WERE WINDING DOWN. Maybe sometime at the beginning I would have had time to teach the rules to them and have them play a complete game, but it's too late for that now I guess. Oh well.

Playing what little game I did get in with board game designers as I did, I at least received notes questioning the mechanical reasoning behind a bunch of stuff. So I guess I have that to cough up, instead of the data that was really wanted. There are still some interesting points here, on the bright side, but if some of these were implemented, there's going to be a lot more playtesting even still, on the, dark side.

• First some questions on the artwork/tile layout:
• The government track- the colors are the same colors as the player markers. That's just misleading. Maybe make the government track black and white or something, they say.
• The image used to indicate casting a spell is a bit unclear; they had to work out that it's a pair of hands magicking. Maybe make the image a swirly magic thing, or a spell circle, or just improve the value contrast on the image, they say.
• The number of players (3+ etc) on the upper left corners of Camelot tiles is misleading. Camelot tiles have no cost. Maybe move the number of players being indicated to the back of the tile, they say.
• Why are we being incentivized to build our own country tiles next to other people's country tiles, anyway? It probably has something to do with wanting to expand out in a non-random direction, so that the board isn't laid out pell-mell in the end, but it's kind of a funny thing, they say.
• Is there any real incentive for building your spellbook early on? Why the heck would you want to buy a spell to put in your spellbook if you can't use it yet, especially if you can buy as many spells as you want in the building round anyway, they say.
• The movement rule is restrictive, they say. A knight "must" move two should be, like, the knight "may" move two "max," they say.
• (Here it should be pointed out that neither of the other two players knew that worker placement was its own genre, and the fact that there is such a thing was news to them.)
• What's the deal with roads? Why have them? Maybe it would make sense if there were more than one road missing from some/all tiles, making roadbuilding more necessary, but as it stands that rule doesn't even need to be in place, they say.

AND THE AVALON GROUP IS STARTING YET ANOTHER DANG GAME DANGIT.

Screw it, I'm going over there and chatting them up.

...

Dang, they are engrossed in that game. None of the games I've ever played of Avalon before are as hardcore as these guys are treating it.

Yeah, I guess I won't be getting in another round today. I... I could still join those Avalon guys for a round, but I really should be getting home and prepping for the morrow. For some reason I remember tomorrow's schedule being packed, but I can't really think of a single reason beyond homework that would make it so... I mean, there is a Mesoamerican quiz on Friday, classical and terminal classical non-Maya peoples (Teotihuacan et al,) but that wouldn't really take up the whole day doing... so I must look into that.

Oh, I guess I still have a point or two about Somerset.

• The first couple of rounds you can't build anything! It's not quite what the guy said, but I interpret the fix for that as being, start out with a resource or two of your choosing? I'm not sure how far off that would throw the balance of the rest of the game; I think the start was just slow because the rules were still being explained. But it is a thought.