Month: February 2016

Con of the North & Kickstarter

Miscellaneous

Such an exciting last couple of weeks! First off, I went to my first board gaming convention, Con of the North. I’ve been to Photoshop conferences and other day conferences, but never a convention. And never as a vendor. I was surprised to find out how tiring it was! I appreciate Seppy so much more now for his busy convention schedule, and the fact that he is usually running conventions on his own. So crazy! I’m not sure if I’d be able to do it.

I taught a lot of Squirrel or Die demos (a tile based memory game) and one End of the Line (a worker replacement game) demo. I messed up the rules a bit on End of the Line, but I think the people playing still had fun, so that’s good. For Squirrel or Die, I started out shaky, got much better, then got worse by Sunday, the more tired I got. It was nice to watch different people teach the game, so I could take bits and pieces of what they taught and make it my own. Definitely much better than the test teaching that Nick was so graciuos to set up for me. My Squirrel or Die demos went from a half an hour of teaching, down to around seven minutes, which is good, since the game is really only about seven minutes long.

Chris Lyons, who is working with Seppy to develop our new game, Conquest Princess Pew! Pew! Pew!, was at the convention for a bit with his wares. (You can find him on Etsy here.) The picture you see is a pair of earrings and a necklace that he made. So fun! He also makes signs, cross-stitch, and othe creative things. It’s always so much fun to hang out with him and see what he’s been up to creatively.

The next exciting thing is that the End of the Line Kickstarter has launched! Hooray! As I’m writing this, it’s half-funded, which I think is pretty amazing for only being up for a few days, and for our company being pretty much unknown. It seems plausible that it could fund! I was excited, but nervous for it to go live. I was also surprised to see how addictive it is to watch the Kickstarter numbers rise. The first day, I was checking it often, and was so excited when the numbers jumped up in the amount of time it took me to scroll down the screen and back up again. How amazing would it be if it funded?! (So amazing! in case you were wondering…)

necklace&earrings

Where Did January Go?

Design, Miscellaneous

It’s already over a month into the new year! I can’t believe how quickly that has gone for me. On the good side, I’ve gotten to do a lot of fun things, see a lot of great people, and accomplish a lot of work. On the bad side, the constant busy-ness was starting to take its toll, and I’ve noticed myself wasting a lot of my free time by doing mindless things that really don’t need to be accomplished…such as completing multiple puzzles in my new puzzle app! (A creative endeavor would have been time better spent…but I guess I now have digital puzzles to show off to anyone who cares…except that after you complete the puzzle, it just turns into a regular picture, so it’s not super impressive.)

So what did I do in January? Let’s start with work. My supervisor took a trip to Atlanta to train on our variable data/imposing software for a week. While he was gone, the workload decided to pick up, so I spent multiple nights working late. Great for the overtime, but sad for doing anything other than eating and going straight to bed each night. After he returned, it didn’t let up! Finally this week, things have started to slow down. Which is good, since we just hired a new person, and I have been helping to train him. We also have to rearrange the office, which will require some computer shut-off time. Not great to do when you are psycho-busy!

And now, onto work #2! Fight in a Box is crazily preparing for the Kickstarter launch of our game, End of the Line, for February 15, 2016. The instruction booklet is reviewer-ready, postcards and banners have been made, and the Kickstarter graphics are currently in-process. I have a few more card designs to put together, and then we should be ready for launch. So exciting! And scary!

I am also preparing for Con of the North, which is February 12th – 14th. This will be my first convention, and I have to teach two of our games. My test teaching didn’t go so well, so I’m hoping to get things a little more organized so people actually enjoy the game, and don’t leave more confused than they started! (Ok, my teaching probably wasn’t that bad, but it felt like it was!)

And now the best part: Social Time!!! I had two fun Peace Coffee adventures, courtesy of Nick. He got me a Kalita Wave and all the accessories for it for the holidays. Since pour over coffee makers are more of a science than just throw the beans in and let it go, he also got me a Peace Coffee class on brewing coffee at home. It was very informative and helpful! My pour overs are nothing I would subject my friends to yet, but they have gotten considerably better than my first horrible cup! (Nick will agree, since he has bravely been my guinea pig!) Nick and I also went on a roastery tour at Peace. We both left wishing we could work there! It’s such a great company, with such a great story. If you have a chance, I definitely recommend the tour. It’s $5, and they give you a coupon for a free drink afterwards, which, depending on what you get, pays for itself!

We also decided to host a themed party! Sadly for our guests, it ended up being on one of the coldest days in January, but like true friends, they braved the cold. The theme was taken from the 90s movie, House Party 2, and we had a Pajama Jammy Jam! We tried to replicate a sleepover. Everyone wore pajamas, we had hot chocolate, cheap pizza, a cake bar, makeovers, manicures, movies, video games, board games, MASH, and fortune tellers. It was so much fun, and it helped provide a needed break from the craziness!

Along the same line, it was Girls’ Christmas! One weekend a year, three of my close friends and I get together for some girl time. We ate a lot, knit some scarves, saw a play, and socialized. With all of us not living in close proximity anymore and being busy people, it’s nice to get together and catch up. And laugh so much that your cheeks hurt the next day!

And the final bit of socialization in January was that one of my friends got remarried and asked me to be in the wedding, which I was very honored by. I got to be on his side and dress with the guys. Having been in multiple weddings, it was interesting to be on the other side of things. There was not much getting ready to be had, and there was much more downtime than being on the bride’s side (based on previous weddings I have been in). I don’t get to see my friend as much as I used to. So it was nice to see him interact with his kids and see what a good Dad he is, and what a good match he and his wife are! Congratulations to them!

Amazingly, Nick and I were also able to get some quality time together in all of that mess! Although the month was busy, it was good, and I have a lot of great memories.

This photo is leg warmers that I have started to knit. If I keep knitting at my current pace, I may have them ready for next winter!

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