Couplet

I don't have much to say about having a baby yet. Can't figure out if I'm a father now or when I have one in hand. Anyway, getting started with some writing a smidge early. Enjoy.

Little woman, petite and feminine,
like an angel, bringer of good news.

My board game

As I mentioned in my last post, starting in the middle months of my school program, my creative brainwaves were struggling with the lack of creativity. I have a steady creative streak in me that I need an outlet for.

The interesting timing of this particular creative streak is that I was praying for a way to make more money, because I need to support my family. Within the next few weeks, I was consummed by ideas for this game. This strikes a chord in me from a sermon I heard a couple years ago. The sermon spoke about God filling our brains with money-making ideas when we ask Him for help. We just have to follow through. I haven't made a dime on this yet, but I'm putting this out there now - I think this idea is a God thing. I'll be crushed if it's not. When building/thinking about my game, I feel a sensation that comes most often when the Holy Spirit is actively working in my brain.

Anyway, the game is fun. Really fun. I'm not going into game-specific details here, but it has potential to be a big hit in the market, if there's still a market for board games. I just have to find the right company to work with.

I pulled some rules together, then made some horrible game pieces and a rough board. Let me talk about a few things: the board, the pieces, the game design, the play testing.

The board was a seed of an idea I planted into Microsoft Publisher, which grew into a mighty solid foundation. The idea led to a design that led to further ideas. I had the idea for hexagonal spaces that would lend to more board movement ease. Then I just started copying and pasting these spaces together. They began to form a board. The shape they formed was brilliant, and the spacing allowed me to create further design elements. I'm being purposefully vague here. Hopefully, I'll be able to say more later, or hopefully, you can just buy the game.

The pieces started out on paper, and I had to cut them out. It was rough. We're talking over 300 little pieces of paper. When these failed, I tried to make them better and printed them on better paper. When that failed, I bought colored wood pieces. These worked okay, but I could see big problems with them - like they were just to big for the board spaces. So, now I have circular pieces with numbered stickers on it. It's functional. Not ideal, but workable.

The rules of the game are layered with strategy. The key to good game strategy creation is to know what behaviors you wish to reward and what behaviors you wish to punish (usually simply by making it harder to win because you lack the rewards others are getting). I layered the strategy by making small rules that must be worked in conjunction to maximize effect. Those of us who are testing my game have ever-evolving strategy based upon the little rules I have set in place.

The play testing has evolved as well. The beginning was rough, I'm not going to lie. But now, as small tweaks are made, the game is becoming a robust, fun, strategic game. Friends are signing up to play when I am able to schedule tests. Those who play report to me that they want to play more. This is a good sign.

Everything is proceeding as I have forseen.

Consider my brain stretched

My wild ride of school is exactly two weeks from being over. During these last 18 to 20 months, I have defeated my sleep-mares of failure by throwing giant letter A's at them. My wife and I have become pregnant. I invented a board game (more on this later). I started and have been successful at a new job.

So far, I have 14 A's and 1 A-minus, with one class to go. My brain is stretched. I have been really past my homework limit for about 3 months. It's time to be done.

Can't wait.

Will be blogging more in the near future.

A-B-B-A

My world is precarious
a circle - fate and destiny
in the balance, eternity,
large and small and various

moments of passion and rage
the respite of competing
and the mind-numbing bleating
the oncoming storm of age

birth and burial, bookends,
a middle full of means
conscience light and clean
and choices without amends

violence without action
pain without remorse
justice without recourse
choice without redaction

truth and consequences
faith that fractures might
those lonely in the night
fools who sit on fences

fall upon your pride
bleed to save your life
upon the skin the knife
free the poison inside

for pain defies the reasons
and pleasure refines the peace
hold strong till breaths cease
when purity defines your treasons

breathe in the scent of pander
breathe out the words of tripe
ignore ad hominem and hype
the allegations of slander

truth overcomes the muse
words destroy the illusion
of love, kindess, inclusion
and secret hidden abuse

throw off tyrannical reigns
put on the belt of truth
grasp the undeniable proof
until it courses through the veins.