Workshop Games Begone

02.10.2015

For some reason it's hard to let old websites die. Once you go through the impossible task of finding a domain name that isn't taken, but still close to a combination of words you want, there's a certain pride in ownership of that name. Plus, if I thought of a name it's only a matter of time before someone else thinks of it, and I hate being the person that thinks of a name after it's been taken.

I registered russellmania.com in August of 1999. Most of the search engine hits are looking for

• Russell Wilson - since winning the Super Bowl in 2014.
• Russell Crowe - I guess it'd make a perfect fan site.
• Jack Russell Terriers - at one time they had russellmania.org.
• A 2001 episode of NYPD Blue.

When I've had a domain for 15+ years, the odds are good I'm going to hold on to it until I will it on to WWE Jason. Honestly, he asked for it.

In Feb 2013 I started another website on a lark. I had been working on my Zombie Mall boardgame and wondering where to host the files. Over on Board Game Geek a flame war (of sorts) had started thanks to Games Workshop trying to enforce their copyright of the term "Space Marine" against an author who was using the term in a way which had nothing to do with the Games Workshop universe. Games Workshop is universally hated among the hardcore board gaming sect that doesn't play Games Workshop games because they're quick to jump on anyone close to threatening, abusing, or using their intellectual property. Intellectual property is how they make money, so you can't really blame them - Steve Jackson does it all the time.

The smart ass in me was poking around and noticed the hyphen in the http://www.games-workshop.com/ domain. I wondered if "workshop-games" was taken. It wasn't! $15 later I had a new domain name with which to host my Zombie Mall files. I made sure that the website in no way resembled the Games Workshop site, not did it even mention them. Now I could wave my finger in the face of he British gaming jugernaut when they claimed I was infringing on their name.

They never showed their face. Poopheads.

In the interim I played around with some more up-to-date design methods than I had been using at work (or even on this site). I added a download tracker so I could see what files were be downloaded, and to what countries!

Over time, the site became more of a chore and infringed on the fun I was having putting together my boardgame rules and pieces. After enough time, I got to the point where I didn't really want to make more game rules. It was becoming a chore I didn't even want to do.

When the domain came up for renewal in 2015 I decided to let it lapse. I moved the files to Dropbox where anyone interested could still download the files, the files I hand't touched in almost a year. I updated links on Board Game Geek to point to the new locations. And now I've no longer got a domain to worry about keeping up to date or hogging up loads of bandwidth.

But it's not easy to just let it go. Even though I've left it alone for a year. Maybe this is what it's like when the kids move out?

Permalink programming/interweb

Salma + Underwear + Guns

02.04.2015

Last month I saw a trailer for a new Salma Hayek movie coming out in February entitled Everly. From the trailer, it looked like "Salma in underwear with guns." I can support that. Salma's 49. I don't care. Sure, this wasn't going to be an action packed blockbuster like Desperado, but any trailer that has:

... is going to grab my attention and I'll give it a chance. From there, I was looking forward to the release date of Feb 23.

But wait! In todays modern age, some movies are released on the line before they are released theatrically. It turns out this was one such movie. Even better, it was available through Amazon's streaming service. Even better than that, thanks to deferring rush shipping on a whole bunch of orders placed with my Amazon Prime account, I had enough screaming video credit built up that buying the movie, regularly $14.99, would cost me nothing through the use of those credits. Free Salma in underwear with guns. Sign me up!

I invited my good close personal friend Charles Jr over for the inaugural viewing. Expectations were set appropriately low (did you watch the trailer?) and away we went. 2 minutes in we were greeted with:

... which gave me high hopes. I'm not a butt man, but Salma has a nice butt.

Unfortunately everything fell apart from there. It seems the plot was not Salma runs around in underwear with guns. The plot had something to do with bad Japanese acting and a director with a horror movie background that had watched Bound too many times and tried to mix it with the action of Shoot 'Em Up.

I watch a lot of movies, and I'll pretty much watch anything. While this isn't the worse movie I've seen (Ghost Rider 2 is the most recent bad movie I rememebr since it took weeks between starting and finishing due to the breaks I had to take) I doubt I'll ever watch it again. For me, that makes it an average movie, but on the low side of average.

Permalink movies/tv/dvd

January Update Time

01.29.2015

The past few weeks have been scarce of any type of update, which may be the norm for a while. I've been staying just busy enough to forget anything interesting enough to post here on a regular basis. Give me time and I can save up, though!

One of my Christmas projects was to stick my house number on the front door so that maybe the @%@#$% FedEx guy can find my house. I wanted something a little classier than the stick-n-peel numbers you usually see on the mailbox, so I got metal stick-n-peel numbers from Amazon. The front door is metal so I couldn't screw anything into the door. I stuck them on when it was in the 20's outside, and so far they've remained stuck!

Speaking of 20's, it was cold one morning when I arrived at work. I tend to just get up and go to work when I wake up in the morning if the alarm hasn't gone off yet (which is set for 6:00). This particular morning I woke way too early and pulled into the parking lot at 6:00. I thought 6° at 6:00 had a nice sound to it. Almost as good as the time I heard a weatherman say it was "2 below in Tupelo".

Speaking of work, I'm loving working at the Dealnews thus far. I managed to finish Phase 1 of my office setup this week. Besides my work-centered Mac, I've got my old Vista powered laptop from home set up as my DVD ripper. All of those TV shows I've got and never get around to watching... well now I can have them sitting around on hard drives not being watched.

My main need for having a work office is game storage. I'm trying to keep games that have a higher probability of being played by the DN crew close at hand in the office. X-Wing is a pretty easy game to bring out. It's pretty and moves fairly fast once you get your forces picked and configured.

Formula D, from the top shelf, made it to the table for play last Friday. We had a 4-player, 1 lap race. It's the first time I've ever seen anyone start in last place yet end up winning. Even better, I was the person that started in last place. After the race, I looked up the rules we played wrong (set up cars with 30 points instead of 20, braking damage wasn't distributed amongst as many components as it should have been), but we were all playing by the same rules so it shouldn't have made too much of a difference. It was a fun game nonetheless. Hopefully we'll get to playing with some season rules so that finishing in something other than first place makes a difference.

My walking has slacked off thanks to working and the weather. It's harder to factor in a good walking time when working 8 hours and the sun going down around 5:00. This past week I've started to get back on a 3-day walking schedule. Now I have to keep it up - at least for another week!!!

For Jerry & Keith's gaming Christmas presents this year, I went the cheap(er) & hobby route. For our Frag game I decided to get some non-Frag figures, in this instance some Infinity figures. I painted them and mounted on some 3rd party bases, giving each a different color around the base edge in case it would make a difference. Jerry got the orange & green alien (possibly a chick) on the upper left, with Keith getting the goateed swordsman in the middle. I got myself the last one, which reminds me of Beachhead from the GI Joe comics.

Those are your 2015 Russellmania highlights thus far.

Permalink boardgames gaming miniatures random

Newer Remote

01.10.2015

In August I dug out an old (2008) universal remote to replace an even older (2007) remote that had finally died, or at least died enough that it was more of a pain to use than I was willing to tolerate. Right before Christmas, both that (2008) remote and the even newer (2009) version of the old (2007) remote stopped cooperating.

I guess 6-9 years is a good life for a universal remote? I liked my remotes, mainly the convenience of being able to program them online versus fumbling with codes on the remote that may or may not work. While I'm sure there are plenty of remotes that can be programmed this way these days, I tend to stick with what I know, so I went to the Logitech site to see what remotes they now offered.

My remotes were long out of production, but they still fetch a premium price on eBay. My Logitech 880 (the 2007 and 2009 remotes) were listed above $200. That makes me feel like I got my money's worth out of my original purchase! But I want a new remote. Having looked at the options, I decided on the Harmony One Ultimate. Having looked at the price, I thought about it some more.

Enter eBay. One of my original Logitech remotes was a refurbished model I bought through eBay. I scouted and saw similar deals for the Harmony One. Even better, one of the sellers was Newegg.com, who I've dealt with before. Refurbs are substantially cheaper and the warranty they offered made it worth the risk, so I placed an order and began to wait patiently for my parcel to arrive.

Arrive it did! I plugged the remote into the PC and set everything up. The interface is simpler than what I'm used to - most of the options/buttons that I'm used to are gone. I set up my main activities on the living room and bedroom tvs and I was off to the races.

The only option(s) I miss so far are customizing the order in which button/features appear. The is countered with how much better the one-touch activities are handled (I always had to switch between devices on the old remote when changing volume and watching a movie, but I think I just never set it up correctly).

Now to see if this one will last until 2022.

Permalink random

68

01.05.2015

Today would have been Mom's 68th birthday. Or is her 68th birthday, depending on whether or not you're supposed to keep counting after someone dies. I decided to keep counting for Mom. Since I keep talking to her it's only fair that she gets to keep her birthdays.

It's not a "crazy person at Wal-Mart listening to voices telling them what to do" talk, it's just talking to her like I used to. 2 weeks ago I had a nice chat with her while I was going for my (what has turned into a weekend-) morning walk. Granted, her side was pretty, but I enjoyed catching her up. Plus it helped to motivate my walk.

I would worry about doing this except for a few things. I enjoy it, as it keeps Mom close in my mind (and my heart) even after all these years. I'm a Momma's boy, so that's important to me in the long run. Jerry told me he's been thinking about his Dad more than normal lately - it's the time of year when we both recollect about our missed parents - so I'm not alone in my weirdness. The most important reason I don't worry about this though, is because I don't care if it's odd or weird. It makes me feel good, with one of those warm, fuzzy feelings that we used to always hear about when I was growing up.

So happy birthday Mom. I still miss you. I'll always love you. I'll talk to you in a little bit.

Permalink mom