Blessed are the Cheesemakers

So yesterday, hot on the heels of my aviation triumph, I planned on just crashing. But then I saw a note in the Seattle Times that the American Cheese Society was selling off its leftovers at the Palace Ballroom in Belltown, at five bucks a hunk. Since I was thinking about hitting Pike Place Market that day anyway, I altered my plan, intent on getting some Gruyere.

And it was a zoo - locals and people brought in by the article and a news bit on KOMO. And the wrapped hunks of cheese were on tables and shelves all around the room, with no organization. How would I find Gruyere in this madness?

"Would you like some Gruyere?" said a man in a T-shirt saying "For the Love of Cheese!", who handed me two pounds of Gruyere and recommended I check out the butters as well. I ended up with a Vermont butter with sea salt, a pound of Romano, a pound or Parm (we go through a lot of that), and the aforementioned Gruyere. And with my swag, I retreated from the cheese-inspired madness, and picked up some garlic rosemary bread from the Three Girls bakery, visited a couple game stores, and then and only then crashed and took an afternoon nap.

Eventually my time will be fully shifted back to here.

More later,

Zoos and Zeppelins

The long-term readers around here know that I don't like to spend my birthday in the office, but rather try to get away and do new things, liking climbing relatively short mountains, getting hot stone massages, going on art hunts or sinkingd kayaks. This year I cheated a bit an ran things over into the next day, with a strange and brilliant day to wrap up my 53rd year and start my 54th.

The Lovely Bride and I started out in Tacoma, at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium, which we had never been to before. The grounds spill down a hillside overlooking the sound, and this may be the most kid-friendly zoo I have ever seen. Many of the best vantage points (and some entire displays) were set at the 3-foot-high level. It is small zoo, but does have some unique creatures (walruses swimming upsides down, nurse sharks brooding in the depths of their tanks). It has a great Pacific Northwest Ocean exhibit. And as a bonus, the LB and I spent about a half hour watching a pair of zookeepers socializing a 6 month old clouded leopard cub. It was like playing with the housecat, except the cat in this case was at least 60 lbs.

From the zoo, a quick change into respectable dubs and to my favorite very very expensive restaurant, Canlis, for a long leisurely dinner, watching the sun set and the moon rise over Lake Union, and pretty much closing the joint. As is my wont, I went with the tasting menu with a flight of wines, which was wonderful. In this case, the tasting menu had a lot of molecular gastronomy in it (better cooking through chemistry). I usually post the menu, but in this case it does not do the meal justice, in the prosciutto course included both paper thin cuts and toasted wafers of the ham, served with vaguely identifiable but succulent cantaloupe and figs, or that the chicken course included homemade chicken sausage with a creamy texture like mozzarella, or that the ginger beer had encapsulated (reconstituted and re-formed) cherries in it. I could go into further details, but I went with the wine pairings, which were perfect and brilliant and left me a bit woozy at the end of it all. Of course, we had prepared for this eventuality, and caught a cab back to the suite we were staying in near the Seattle Center (with fireplace).

And then, the next morning, the Zeppelin. Yeah, you guys already know that airships can be blimps (no frame) and dirigibles (internal frame), and that Zeppelin is a model name (like Boeing or Ford). There is an outfit out of San Francisco called Airship Ventures which runs airship tours over the bay area, and they chose to come up here to Seattle to promote themselves. There was an article in the Seattle Times talking about it, and the Lovely Bride, sounding like a characgter from "Phineas and Ferb"said "I Know what we're going to do this Saturday - We're going on a zeppelin ride!".

We took the short (45-minute, merely hideously expensive) ride as opposed to the deluxe (90-minute, heart-stoppingly pricey) version. We took off from Paine Field, flew over the Boeing plant and the USS Lincoln aircraft carrier, made a long circuit over Possession Sound and Tulalip Bay, circled Gedney island, flew over Widby and Camano islands, sailed over the ferries, and back to our starting post. Boeing was test-flying the 787 while we were in the air, and we got to see that as well in flight.

And how was it? Amazing. I've ballooned, but that has always had the feeling of a stable platform at a height. The airship (the world's biggest, by the way - size of a 747 but much more manueverable) felt more like real flight. Oh, and you can put your head out the window, giving your hair a case of "zep-head". The initial takeoff and landing felt incredibly exciting, and in the air you could feel yourself cut through the sky. Plus the fact that the gondola was the size of a small bus, with room for a dozen people to move around relatively comfortable, and that windows were huge (including the entire rear of the gondola, giving an incredible view).

It was, all in all, a wonderful experience. The company will be out here until Labor Day, but the flights are apparently all booked up. They will be back in 2012, planning to take a sojourn east to the Oshkosh fly-in next year.

And it was a wonderful birthday, so wonderful that I actually fell asleep that evening in the middle of a Call of Cthulhu game. Yeah, I was all tuckered out, so much so that eldritch beasts could not rouse me from my slumber.

Thanks to everyone who has wished me a happy birthday (and John and Janice for the cake), and yeah, this was one of the best.

More later,

Political Desk: Redux and Reax

So while I was gone, we had a primary here in Washington State. And remember when the conventional wisdom was that the incumbents were all in trouble because a new wind was breaking across our land? Well, forget about that, because things ended up pretty much as expected, and now there is a NEW conventional wisdom in place. Let's do the numbers:

The big number, a week after the polls close, is 40%. That's the turnout for the election. Not great, but not bad by any means. King county ranked in at 37%, which means that we need to do some work.


United States Senator: The top of the ticket will be Patty Murray (46 %) versus Dino Rossi (33%) with more conservative Clint Didier (12%) dropping out of the final. The conventional wisdom says this is a defeat for the Democrat, because an incumbent must have more than 50% of the primary vote to have any chance in the general.
I will note that Norma Gruber, who did nothing on her voter's profile, did better than most of the minor candidates because she was first in line. Just saying.

United States Representative Congressional District No. 8: The general will be Dave Reichert (47%) against Suzan BelDene (26%), and the conventional wisdom says this is a defeat for the Democrat because the incumbent got a larger percentage vote, even if he didn't get a majority. Didn't the conventional wisdom just say that the incumbent must get at least 50%. Yeah,but  the conventional wisdom hates Democrats - I thought you knew that.
Alas, my favorite candidate, Caleb Love Mardini, scraped by with a mere .61% of the vote.

Legislative District No. 47 State Senator Will be Joe Fain (56%) against incumbent Claudia Kauffman (44%). Ahah! rebellion against the incumbents. Well, actually, Fain has been blanketing the area with a strong ground game of pamphlets and yard signs, hitting early and often. A lot of cash being dropped here.

Legislative District No. 47 Representative Position No. 1: Will be traditional GOP candidate Mark Hargrove (40%) against Geoff Simpson (39%), with Seattle-Times endorsed Nancy Wyatt getting only 21% (It is the yard signs, I tell you).

Legislative District No. 47 Representative Position No. 2: Pat Sullivan (54%) against Rodrigro Yanez (45%)

State Supreme Court, Judicial Position No. 1: Jim Johnson (61%) keeps his job without further consideration. Why yes, we ARE comfortable with an incumbent owned by the BIAW. Thanks for asking.

State Supreme Court, Judicial Position No. 6: Richard Saunders (47%) against Charles Wiggins (40%) with Bryan Chuchcoff taking 12% and dropping out. Again, Conventional wisdom figures the slightly-more conservative incumbent is going to win it, but then, conventional wisdom has been hitting the sauce as of late.

And that's it, with a general election shaping up consisting of all the people we thought would be in the general election. But it will COMPLETELY DIFFERENT this time because we're looking at Initiatives this time!

More later,

Köln and Gamescom

And I'm back.

I have spent the past week in Cologne (Köln) Germany for Gamescom with a large group of ArenaNet employees. We were debuting Guild Wars 2 for public, hands-on consumption, and it was a zoo. The consumer booth was mobbed for most of the time, and worse when we were giving a public demo of the game. We all did Q&A sessions and threw T-shirts out into the crowd. And apparently the top-rated news show in Germany gave us a shout-out, and everyone decided to check out what the deal was. It was madness, I tell you, madness!

Oh, and we won the best MMO of the show as well.

My main task was doing demos and interviews up in the business office (a separate hall for press and business people), and signing copies of the german translation of Ghosts of Ascalon (Die Geister von Ascalon) on the show floor. And so from the former my voice is now shot, and from the latter I have a twinge in my right hand (we signed a LOT of books, and shook a LOT of hands). I also dropped in on my German translator, Panini, who had a booth there, and signed a bunch of books for him (and he sold out - three times - over the course of the show - he gave me a beer, which was nice). Oh. and answering questions from fans and throwing out t-shirts.

The show itself was amazing. People expected great things from us - it has been a year since we were last at the show, talking about lore and showing off our art pieces. I think we exceeded all expectations, and showed people what we were actually talking about with the game. The end result is that everyone (including the folk back here in Seattle, whose work-hours shifted to match Cologne time) is both incredibly pumped up and completely exhausted at this point.

I would have told you about this in real-time, but I was very busy with everything during the day, and in the evening, the Internet service sucked. I mean really, really, serious sucked rocks. The hotel staff (Hotel Barcelo, where their wake-up call software had to have worked off an old atari 800) was apologetic, but it left most of us without communication capacity.

So in the wake of all the news and excitement, I am a little achey and jet-lagged, and going to spend a day or two getting both my voice and mind back. But I have to tell you, it was very, very cool.

More later,

Taking Five

So, after all that work on the primaries (so go vote already, folks), I've been taking a rest from the blog (in part because the Lovely Bride is back from vacation with her mom, in part because of really cool stuff with the day job). And it doesn't look like I'll have anything immediately major coming up on this site, since it is my turn to go out of town for a while.

So in the meantime, I have this really cute drawing from Zav, a French GW player.  Enjoy.

More later,

On The Road Again: Wilburton Redux

So long ago and far away, I talked about the demise of the Wilburton Tunnel in Bellevue, just north of the concrete tangle where I-405 meets I-90. The reason for the removal was more lanes and better traffic flow, but it hasn't worked out that way.

Let me lay out the current situation. If you're coming southbound on I-405, you have for a brief stretch six lanes of traffic. Left to right, they are:
 - Lane 1: An HOV lane continuing south on 405
 - Lanes 2 and 3: Regular occupancy lanes continuing south on 405
 - Lane 4: Regular occupancy lane that becomes an exit to I-90 East (towards Spokane and, legends have it, Chicago).
 - Lane 5: Regular occupancy lane that becomes an exit to I-90 West (towards Seattle), And ...
 - Lane 6: An HOV lane that joins the HOV lane on I-90 West.

Got that in your mind? Good. Now, getting on the highway from 8th, the southernmost of the Bellevue exits, after you merge, you're in Lane 5. If you want to head south to, say, Renton, you have to get to Lane 3. And with all these lanes, you should be able to easily, right?

But, ah, there's the rub. There is apparently something wrong with the entrance on I-90 East, where Lane 4 enters onto the highway. Something so wrong that the traffic backs up onto I-405 South, and forms a Wall of Internal Combustion (which is an old Magic: The Gathering card) between Lanes 3 and 5. Which means that everyone has to negotiate the changeovers between the lanes, slowing down traffic in those adjacent lanes as well. Add to that people from lanes 2 and 3 trying to get over to lanes 4 and 5, and the HOVs in Lane 1 trying to exit, and you have an unholy mess, as nasty as it was when we had only four lanes and a big concrete tunnel in the way.

Yeah, they will have to address this one, but it reminds me that working on highways is like doing the plumbing in an old house. Yeah, you may replace the leaky pipes in one area, but the change in pressure will spring the seams in a dozen more places.

More later,

The Jeff Recommends: Primary

So you've sat (well, scrolled), through my tour of the Voters' Guide (no, I'm not going to do it again for the general election). And the Stranger, Seattle Times, and Publicola have all made their endorsements (though the Times is not summarizing online. Thanks, guys). So here are the recommendations of the blog (positions with one candidate have no endorsement).

United States Senator: Patty Murray
United States Representative Congressional District No. 8: Caleb Love Mardini (OK, I'm a sucker for a good position statement).

Legislative District No. 47 State Senator Claudia Kauffman
Legislative District No. 47 Representative Position No. 1: No endorsement (choose which irritates you more: the incumbent's messy personal life or the GOP's sleazy attempts to capitalize on it).
Legislative District No. 47 Representative Position No. 2: Pat Sullivan

State Supreme Court, Judicial Position No. 1: Stan Rumbaugh
State Supreme Court, Judicial Position No. 6: Charles Wiggins (remember, if a court candidate gets 50%+ of the vote, they win right there. Yeah, it sounds strange and mildly unfair, but that's the nature of our elections right now).

So, the ballots are due in on the 17th, but do yourself a favor, go over to the pile of mail you've been meaning to sort through, dig out the ballot, and Vote, already.

More later,

Roux the Day

So of course, all this posting has been the result of my dedication to local municipal matters, right?

Well, actually it's because the Lovely Bride has been out of town for the past week, touring Yellowstone with her mom. So I've had some time on my hands.

Yep, it is true: I've been batching it for the past week or so, and it has been pretty darn quiet. I've spent one or more nights crashed in front of the tube, vegging out, but for the most part I've been living a quiet, relatively low-maintenance life - light dinners, reading or working in the evening, and retiring early.

Of course, every time the LB is out of town, I want to try something from a culinary side. Usually I run through a dozen eggs in an attempt to make increasingly less-sad omelets. But this time I decided to go with making homemade macaroni and cheese.

I went with a recipe from here. I ended up at this particularly blog because the chef was on Chopped, a Food Network show that is a ramped-up, low-budget Iron Chef ("Two competitors? - Four competitors!" "Celebrity judges? - Food Network judges! "One mystery ingredient? - Three baskets full of mystery ingredients!"). And I wanted mac and cheese, but really didn't want to deal with the whole "Guy left alone cooks Kraft mac and cheese" thing (though when I do, I chop up little hot dogs into it).

So how did it go? Not bad. Didn't screw anything up too bad, though I was winging it making a half-recipe (and still had leftovers). Low-level chefs should be told that you should start the water to boil before you start the cheese sauce if you want things to time out OK. Oh, and if you are going to assume that your reader doesn't know what a roux is, you might want to indicate the kind of herbs you throw in on the end. But those are quibbles.

On the other hand, it was a first experience working with Gruyere, a cheese more expensive than I would otherwise try. And the idea of toasting breadcrumbs as a topping was a new thing for me that I will try more often. So I'd say it was a success, and adds one more thing to my culinary repertoire.

More later, 

Political Desk: Bits and Pieces

Grubb Street will post its recommendations (such as they are) for the Primary late on Sunday. In the meantime, there have been some updates:

Remember when I talked yard signs, about how you don't put red on blue because it vibrates and is hard to read? I'm talking to you, Jim Postma and Nancy Wyatt. Your graphic designer is not being your friend.

The morning of the day I posted about the challenges facing State Rep. Geoff Simpson, the Seattle Times launches its own article on page 1, section 2, beneath the fold. Not on the charges facing the incumbent Representative per se (which is "old news"), but on the attack video launched focusing on the situation. This was an immediate and rapid approach for a newspaper that usually lets such things ... marinate ... for a while before wading in. Almost as if someone at GOPAC had flagged them at the start, so they could be first in line. (Rereading the article, it only promises that the attack ad WILL be running on local channels, not that it HAS run - at the time of the article, the ad was purely an online creation).

In response, the candidate's mom called me. Well, she robo-called, and said her son was a good man and that this was a horrible attack. She sounds like a nice person. We're still in the primary, and we've already reached the "mom" stage on this race.

As for the Times, it created its own buzz a few days later by not endorsing incumbent Dave Reichert for USRep. Instead they split their endorsement between anointed Democrat Suzan DelBene and Tim Dillon. DelBene I knew about, but Dillon has left so light an impression on me I had to go back to see where he came from. It turns out he is also a technocrat similar to DelBene, but also a councilman from Yarrow Point. And I then had to go look up Yarrow Point, to discover it to be an affluent community of about a thousand barnacled onto the side of Bellvue.

Anyway, there was much aflutter in the blogosphere about the whys of all this. Some have suggested that the Times is serious about its reboot 2010, while others point out that only now, after six years, the Times has realized that the 8th needs to upgrade its operating system. Regardless of its conservative bent in all things tax-related, the Times is very strong on its environmental reporting, and the idea that Reichert's devotion to conservation might be only skin-deep may have struck a nerve.

Instead, I think they are inoculating themselves with the dual choice. Reading through their reasoning, they lay out some traps for Ms. DelBene that they can later return to, should they decide to return to a more conservative candidate (her voting record is spotty). And by presenting a viable alternate GOP choice, they can still support their conservative heritage. Indeed, while they strive to put both forth as independent, viable technocrats, DelBene's and Dillon's politics seem poles apart.

Other than that, things have been pretty quiet here, about a week out from the election. A few more fliers from Sullivan and DelBene, and a robo-call about Jim Johnson's firm judicial support of his donors, but that's about it.

So, endorsements. More later,

Sixty-Five Years Ago

More later,

Political Desk: Feedback Loop

My lunch partner says "I've been reading your blog posts."

And I stop chewing, not knowing what is about to come next.

You see, I use the blogosphere as a broadcast medium as opposed to an interactive one. I don't allow comments. I don't track traffic. I don't find out what search terms get you to here. I try not to think about who is reading it, because when I do, I find I suddenly freeze up. I don't feel the need to provide a platform for every bozo (sorry, for every bozo-but-ME) to grind his axeware. I feel that when I realize that people read this stuff, itgets in the way, and that I start tailoring the message to the audience (I do that professionally, by the way, but here is where I get a chance to go out and play).

However, as a result of this, I often have the subject pop up, either in person or in emails. And I consider that par for the course, but it always surprises me.

Back to the lunch. It was a very pleasant conversation, in which we talked about audiences, and my three laws of politics, and the difficulties of the 47th District Position One. But I do get feedback in the form of emails and links and Facebook (back when Facebook could actually rebroadcast the feed - they've changed something (again) and I can't get it to work). Some of it is insightful. Some of it is in all caps. Some of it demands equal time. Some of it is a list of links demanding I review them all before ever posting on the subject again. And some of it has brought me in contact with interesting people - actors, politicians, the parent of actors, other writers, and so on.

And mostly I listen but do not comment on this blog (broadcast media, right?.) On occasion there is something I get that I feel is worth passing on. And that brings me to Caleb Love Mardini.

I made fun of Mr. Mardini's Voters' Guide entry along with the rest of the shambling horde of candidates for U.S.Rep, 8th district. And Caleb he sent me a nice email, along with something he has posted on his site, refining his message.

And I have to say, this is pretty darn impressive. Go read it. All of it,. I'll wait. Back? It is well-defined, well-organized, well-argued, and a good piece of writing in addition to being a crystallization of why he is in the race and what he hopes to achieve. I am very impressed with this, both as a political statement and as an independent work. Even if Caleb Love Mardini gets the "Miss Congeniality" prize out of this particular race, he has served notice that he knows what he is doing, what he is saying, and what he wants.

Which is one of the little gems of doing all this.

In closing, there is one reader of this blog who I am always paying attention to, regardless of if she says "I've been reading you're posts" or not. I'm not sure she reads everything (particularly the deep nerdy posts) or not. But that person keeps me from going too far overboard, from being to too harsh, and reminds me that I was brought up to treat people better than they would normally expect.

And to her, I can only say is, "Hi, Mom!"

More later,

Poltical Desk: Precinct Committee Officers

So, there's one last thing, then I will boil it all down to the recommendations.

There's something I either never noticed or is new on the ballot, something new and confusing (as opposed to the rest of the ballot, which is old and confusing). I am being asked to vote for a Political Precinct Committee Officer.

Actually, the heading says: "Precinct Committee Officer is a position in each major political party. For this office only: If you consider yourself a Democrat or Republican, you may vote for a candidate of that party."

And I blink at it a moment as say, "Excuse me?"

The rest of these ballotary process has been driving towards making things non-partisan, and here we are asked to vote for political officers? And only for major parties? Are the Greens too dispersed to manage a race? Is this another way of putting a GOP name on the ballot? Is the state giving the parties this space and ink for free, or do they have to chip in for the cost of printing?

And for my neck of the woods, why are there only GOP candidates. Have the Democrats already chosen theirs? Does only one person (or no people) want the job? It is a plot to announce to the world that we have a lot of shadow Republicans, since the requirement on the voting is "If you consider yourself" one? And how do they check on this? Even initiatives have more of a check and balance system.

Since I don't consider myself a member of an organized party (which means I'm a Democrat*), I'm ignoring it, but I found this one most passing strange.

More later,

*Thank you Will Rogers, whenever you are.

Political Desk: The Ground Game

The color of this year's primary is blue. You can see it in the yard signs.

And yard sign, by the way, is a bit of misnomer. I have seen some of them on yards, but most of them occupy stretches of public and/or unclaimed land along major thoroughfares. They blossom along routes like Bellevue Way, such that it is a high point of my morning commute, seeing which new flowers have been added to the mix.

Anyway, blue. For a while, it was easy to identify the two parties - Democratic blue and Republican red. Now, it is almost awash in all shades of blue - navies and sapphires and teals and deeps. Blue/White makes a very readable sign (and is cheap, being one color on white), and seems more mellow than red/white (which has been taken over by people in Bellevue against light rail in their neighborhood).

Some of the blues are blue by heritage - Dino Rossi has always been a blue background kinda guy, as has Mark Hargrove (Geoff Simpson goes for a white background, as does Clint Didier, who eschews the blue). Others take advantage of the increasingly murky nonpartisan nature of positions like judges to appear safe and nonthreatening.

I am seeing red/white/blue signs, but the red is often used as an accent or a division between parts of the sign. Red on blue vibrates, which defeats the message of the traffic zipping past at 25 mph. Stan Rumbaugh just launched a r/w/b sign that works out very nicely.

Lastly, there are exceptions - oranges seem to be the radical color this season, which hope to stand out from all the OTHER blue signs. But blue feels like the color of the age, which is OK by me.

More later,

Political Desk: 47th State Legislature

We delve down deeper, and as we do so, what we find affects fewer and fewer people, but those people are closer and closer to home. Everyone in the state has a direct interest in the Senatorial race. Fewer people are in the 8th, though those results will have a direct result on a larger whole. And fewer still are in our district, the 47th, which includes parts of Kent, Auburn, Renton, a hunk of still-unincorporated King County, Black Diamond, and Covington, and is about as local as we're going to get this year.

All three of our legislative slots open at the same time. I don't understand it either, but it does, with the result that we have the regular shot of reviewing and replacing. We open up on the State Senator slot, Joe Fain versus Claudia Kauffman.

Joe Fain started the race early with mailers to introduce himself to the voting community, and in his statement wastes no time in laying directly into his opponent. She is responsible for spending 800 million dollars in new taxes (for very broad values of the word "Taxes"). Bad politician - spending money. She is also responsible to larger class sizes. Bad politician - not spending money on our kids! Take a look at this double-whammy, incumbents. Yeah, you're expected to provide a balanced budget, and then made to pay the price for it.

Claudia Kaufmann is said incumbent in this case, and has her defenses up. She voted against higher taxes (The same taxes her opponent accuses her of spending? It is possible both are saying the same thing with different definitions). She puts in a personal story of her own cost-cutting (no reimbursement in special session). You get a better idea of the person running here, but I'm not sure if that will withstand the hammering.

For State Rep Slot #1, the current situation makes me said, since it is an example of the first law of the manifesto - Don't embarrass us. Geoff Simpson is the incumbent, and has been a strong progressive voice. He also has been engaged in a very messy personal life, which has resulted in a charge of gross misdemeanor assault in connection with a domestic violence incident. Mr. Simpson has been very up front about his situation, and has not sought to hide or sugar-coat. The fact remains, he is up on a charge, and if other candidates' personal lives are basis for decision (George Nethercutt's DUI charge comes to mind), then so too it should be in this case. He is challenged by two Republicans.

Nancy Wyatt packs a good resume, the type you look for in State Legislatures. She gets the Very Good rating from the Municipal League. Her problem? First line of her statement - "It's time to say no to the failed policies of our current elected officials!" The problem is, in Washington State and elsewhere, there has been too much saying no, and not enough viable plans. Pull that together and she's a strong contender.

Geoff Simpson's statement is short and sweet - all the progressive good stuff (transparent but frugal government) leavened with a bit of tough on crime, and the hot-button issue in our neck of the woods - traffic congestion (no, I'm not making this up). The Munis usually give him a Very Good, but have dropped him to a Adequate this time, likely because of his current legal situation.

Mark Hargove also goes short and sweet - much more of an introduction of the man as opposed to his politics. He was a lot more detailed in the 2008 campaign, but that was hard-fought all around, and may be looking a more accessible approach this time. Much of it is the boilerplate you see elsewhere (help small business, make government transparent). I disagree with the idea that you should expect the legislature to legislate while denying it the available tools (but then, I don't think we need new taxes, I think we need across-the-board tax reform), but he is solid and direct. No jokes, here. (He gets a Good from the Munis)

For Position #2, I have to sidetrack into Incumbent Pat Sullivan's mailers. I have warmed to Mr. Sullivan over the years, and his first mailer of the season indicates a string of awards he has been given. Which is a different set than in 2008, which was a different set in 2006. Does this guy have a U-Store-it somewhere in Auburn that is filled with awards?

Pat Sullivan shows what I expect to see across the board from the incumbents this year - a personal story about how they are tightening their belts in the face of the shortfall. That, plus promises of accountability makes him a solid contender with the Muni's rating of Outstanding.

Rodrigo Yanez is not a professional politician, which is cool in my book for the position he's running for. For the state legislature, a part-time body operating under restrictions, not being a professional politician may be a good way to survive the legislature. He introduces us from his business side and says that should carry over into government. He also thinks of the children. The easy joke aside, this year's crop has been light on those thinking of the children.

And that's it for the Voter's Guide. There are a couple other weirdnesses for the ballot I want to delve into, and a bit about the ground game, but we'll do the endorsements and get back to important stuff. Like collectible quarters.

More later,

Political Desk: 8th District U.S.Rep - Bonus Round

So for the senatorial candidates I filtered them all through the "I Write Like" Program. I tried the same for the congressional candidates, but ... well ... let's just say that there is a whole lot of Lovecrafting going on around here.

Instead, I decided to feed all their statements into the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, and the results were actually interesting.

The two highest-rated candidates on the list, which would require the greatest reading comprehension, were the two major party candidates, Mr. Reichert and Ms. DelBene, who are aimed at sophomores in college. I'm not making any judgments here, but I am going to guess that they had their messages gone over a couple times by seasoned professionals.

The bulk of the candidates are writing at the junior and senior in high school. The lowest of these (and low can be a good thing from reading comprehension) is Caleb Love Chachi Mardini, who comes in at the sophomore level.

The easiest to read? Robin Adair, who comes in at a 5th grade level.

Just one more piece of irrelevant information for the ongoing campaign.

More later,

Political Desk: 8th District U.S.Rep

Washington's 8th District is a swing district that has never really swung, at least as far as its congressional representative is concerned. It is a large district that straddles King and Pierce counties, and includes the upscale and populous Bellevue and Mercer Island, the sprawling 'burbs of Kent and Renton, and great rural expanses to the south (where, I understand, EVERYBODY VOTES). While everyone makes note that it goes one way or the other in presidential elections, it has safely put a Republican in its seat for every Congress since its creation.

There is a lot less insanity and a lot more earnestness at this level, which is good. Let's move through the Voters Guide, and I will struggle to pull quotes from them, out of context, for your amusement.

Dave Reichert deserves his own writeup, because, in many ways, he is the embodiment of the three laws I set out at the beginning of this. His pull quote is respectable but trips the Irony Alarm - "Today we see two competing philosophies in this country: Those who believe we should grow the size of government and allow its deep intrusion in people's lives, or those who believe the American people already know what's right for them, their families and communities." Oddly, he's endorsed by the party that has increased the size of government and intruded deeply into people's lives.

Tom Cramer (Note, his robocalls remind us that it is Cramer with a "C") is pretty earnest, upping the ante in being anti Wall Street, pro middle-class tax cuts, and pro medicare. Take THAT conservative politics! Also calls out the H1B visa program, which may be what really chafes his hide.

Boleslaw (John) Orlinski has shown up before. Positions himself as a fiscal conservative and a social liberal. Most of his statement tend to lean towards the fiscal conservative part of that political sandwich cookie.

Keith Arnold has the quotable pull-quote of the guide - "Reichert's party of "no" has used their Audacity of Nope to block and reverse anything that benefits the middle or lower class." He also warns that some candidates that claim to be preferring Democrats are flying under false colors. Yes, if only we had SOME way of identifying party preference other than a self-declared preference.

Susan DelBene (Del-BEN-ay - her robot also called) is a progressive technocrat with solid experience in a tech company. Because that trick always works. Here's the pull quote "The incumbent has been in elective office for 14 years. He and his colleagues in Congress have demonstrated they don't have the expertise or the political courage to solve the fiscal and economic challenges we face". True, but he's only been in THIS elective office for 6 years (and he's doing a better job of making the "needs a new broom" argument by touting his 33 years of service).

Ernest Huber is what we used to call a stem-winder. He unleashes on all sides with eloquent machine-gun precision, sparing no one. There are a lot of good bits, but here's his quote: "If you want more of Obama, then vote for Reichert. If you want a lot more of Obama, then vote for DelBene. If you want no more of Obama, then vote for me, Ernest Huber."

Tim Dillon bemoans the end of the American Dream, goes after deficits and budget cuts, and namechecks God. Light on specifics, other then we're going to get through this if we all come together. Right now. Over me. (shap-pock!)

Caleb Love Mardini also cares about the American Dream, and wants to revive it (this is an 8th level clerical spell). He argues well for public funding of political campaigns without using those buzzwords. We're also going to have to come together. Pull quote taken out of context - "We’re going to have to try things." (What are going to try? THINGS! How are we going to try them? TOGETHER!"

Robin Adair provides the most artistic of the Voters' Guide Statements, it is an avant garde work leavened heavily with Significant Capitals and "air quotes", along with the sly corporate irony of using "Goggle" as opposed to "Google" (thought I think Goggling something would be much more fun). There a lot of things I can pull out of context, but I think the most effective is "I have redefined economic Crashes." Good to know.

More later,

The Political Desk: Senator - Bonus Round!

About a month ago, all the blogs were running this "I Write Like" quiz, where you plug is a bunch of text from your blog, it analyzes it, and then tells you who you write like. This was followed by the shocked screams of hundreds of bloggers realizing they wrote like Dan Brown.

It turns out that the quiz was a promotion for a vanity press, and in addition was not a particularly GOOD analytical device, but as I wen through the Voters' Guide, I realized I had a LOT of statements by the candidates and/or their campaigns.

So.....

Here are the results - Is it any surprise the H P Lovecraft comes up most often?

H P Lovecraft - Mohammad Said, Paul Aker, James Mercer, Bob Burr, Dino Rossi (huh?), and Charles Allen.

Arthur C. Clarke - Goodspaceguy (well, duh).

Corey Doctrow - Mike the Mover

Kurt Vonnegut - Mike Latimer, Will Baker

Steven King - William Edward Chovil

George Orwell - Clint Didier

Margaret Mitchell - Shalk Leonard

David Foster Wallace - Patty Murray

Make of this as you see fit.

More later,

The Political Desk: Senator

Now things get interesting.

We have a veritable horde of candidates for US Senator this time. A Democratic incumbent. A couple solid Republicans. Democrats who are protesting the incumbent. Republican who got into the race before the party-sponsored dude showed up. And the Perennials - candidates who regularly show up on the ballot, running for something.

The Muni league will not help us here. Vote-For-Judges? Sorry, not their bailiwick. We are on our own with this one.

We do have the Voters' Guide, which is the various campaigns' level platform to talk to the voters. Everyone gets their turn at the mike. Some use it as chance to connect with their audience. Some use it to introduce and define themselves. Some use it to identify pressing issues. And some use it as a moment to leap off into the abyss.

So into this heart of darkness we go - Oh, one more thing - [Spoiler Alert!]. I'm going to be supporting Patty Murray, the Mom in Sneakers who has grown into quite an effective political elbow-thrower in office. I know, you're surprised.

Norma Gruber has no entry in the Voters' Guide, and as such cannot be mocked. However, she gets top billing on the ballot, and I bet she still gets more votes than some of these people.

Mohammad H. Said is a perennial, ran against Murray six years ago. His statement reads like free verse. Supports Obama (I think), and feels he could have been his Secretary of Health (This just in: We don't have a Secretary of Health at the national level. We have a Secretary of Health and Human Services).

Goodspaceguy is another perennial ("Ten times, voters rejected Goodspaceguy’s economic program!" - he says under "Elected Experience"). He believes that the answer to our problems is in development in spaaaaaace. Should be commended for running for a position that actually has influence in this area.

Mike the Mover, perennial. Uses his space to attack Wall Street and college football coaches. First use of the phrase 'fake boobs' in a Voters' Pamphlet.

Paul Akers is a Republican that actually presents a plan. I have some doubts about how it would work out, but HEY, it's a PLAN. Supports a balanced budget amendment and term limits. I like this. More, please.

Mike Latimer is running a pro-God platform. "We have kicked God out of our schools, out of our government and out of many of our churches along with His laws." Which, except for the Pledge of Allegiance, our money, and all those sermons and politicians invoking her, is pretty accurate.

James (Skip) Mercer is a UW Professor, who wants to deal with the debt, illegal immigration, and keeping Afghanistan from becoming another Viet Nam. Disagree with some of his points, but sounds sane. I'd like to see him and Paul Akers get together and chat.

Clint Didier went to three Super Bowls, has a game plan, is endorsed by Sarah Palin, and is running as an outsider. And I will be honest, he shows an honesty in his beliefs that I can respect, even though I disagree almost completely with those beliefs. He would be a good candidate, bringing a lot to the table for discussion. He also would be a horrible senator.

Shalk Leonard is not talking political donations and the Seattle Weekly has nice things to say about him. America also talks to him. And I think he's dogwhistling isolationism, but he's darned poetic about it.

Patty Murray loves her some italic fonts. What she says is pretty boilerplate - pro job creation, anti Wall Street, pro-education and pro-Veterans, and her resume backs her up. But she sure uses a lot of italics.

Bob Burr wants you to know that we're living in a plutocracy, and that we're not doing enough for financial reform and energy. He also supports public finance for elections.

William Edward Chovil - I give you his statement in full "What kind of America do Americans want? The one our founders planned for us? The one America's anti-founders are giving us now? I am pro-life, pro-liberty, pro-gun, pro-audacity, pro-Sarah Palin, and John Gault, Pro-charter schools and home schools. I am against cap and trade, against Obama Care, and against the new-world-order." Makes Clint Didier look all moderate, doesn't he? (And it is spelled John GALT - please correct that in your home school syllabus).

Dino Rossi is a perennial (two tries for Governor) and a latecomer to this race, but has the advantage that he's the "official" GOP candidate. Condemns the massive deficit, but fails to note that we've piled up the bulk of it in GOP administrations. Starts the statement that we're in trouble but finishes that our best days are ahead of us. In the past has tried to remain as nebulous, happy talking, and nonthreatening as possible, but the presence of viable conservative alternatives have actually made him take some positions as he tries to win the middle without cheesing off the base.

Charles Allen has a list, and it is quite a list: Rebuild our manufacturing base, expand our industries, restore entrepreneurial spirit, dramatically cut Federal spending, reduce our national debt, fight to protect our environment, reform American energy policy, lay the building blocks of a green economy, ending the war, improve health car, make in-state tuition free, fund our teachers, police, and firemen, and be completely transparent. What's not to love?

Will Baker. FACT: Perennial. FACT: Uses his "Community Service" space in the form to lay into Secretary of State Sam Reed for not printing up these Voters' Guides. FACT: Uses his "Statement" space to argue that the biggest issue of the 2010 campaign is whether Obama used political shenanigans in his congressional race of 1996. FACT: He also the word "FACT" a lot.

There you have it, my friend, the fruits of democracy. The problem with it is that they let anyone in.

More later,

The Political Desk: Judges

So what's the big deal about the primary, you may ask? We winnow out most of the indy candidates, small parties, and protest candidates within a party and end up with a Democrat and a Republican for November, right? We're just going to get another shot at voting later on.

Well, no.

Here's how it works for our Judges in this state, who are elected as opposed to appointed. If any candidate gets more than 50% in the primary, they win. So our judge positions are determined by the smaller number of voters who show up for the primary (the state is calling it at about 35% of the voting population).

So, in a two-person race, it will be decided right now. In a three-person race, it may be decided now or in November, but the incumbent has some serious advantages.

Oh, and for most of the races, only one person is running. That incredible anti-incumbent throw-the-dastards out wave that is coming out of our heartland? Doesn't apply when it comes to judges.

So the only incumbent judges that are running with any opposition are for our two State Supreme Court positions, No. 1 and No. 6. I've been writing this blog for long enough that I have the entries from when these current incumbents ran the last time, and to be frank, I wasn't very impressed at the time. That judgment carries through to the present day.

At Position 1 we have incumbent Jim Johnson challenged by Stan Rumbaugh. Johnson was heavily funded by the BIAW (Building Industry Association of Washington, a regular player in our local elections), and it turns out that (surprise) he tends to rule in BIAW's favor on things (as opposed to, say, recusing himself). And, while speaking out against "Judicial Activism" when he was running, it turns out that (surprise again), he engages in that very activism and (hold on to your hats) is very conservative in that activism (I know, you're simply shocked).

Rumbaugh, for his part, is an attorney from Tacoma with experience before the Supreme court (about the same as Johnson had in 2004). Both men get good marks from the Municipal League and King County Bar Association. Johnson has the edge both in cash and in getting endorsements from the hinterland newspapers, where his conservatism plays well. I'm going to recommend Stan Rumbaugh for the office, since the BIAW doesn't really deserve their own private Supreme Court Judge.

Over in Position No. 6, we have a similar situation, though this one is more Libertarian in nature as opposed to corporate-owned conservative. Sanders pops up in the news every so often for actions off the bench (Like yelling "Tyrant" at a US Attorney General in regards to Bush policies). He faces a strong contender with Charlie Wiggins, who comes off a more mainstream conservative but has an impressive list of credentials and support from the Muni League and various legal groups. A third candidate, Bryan Cushcoff, Presiding Superior Court Judge for Pierce County, entered late and has spent no money, and may be present only to prevent Sanders from getting in on the primary and forcing it to a run-off.

Me? I'm a bit conflicted. I can point to Sanders making principled stands and I can point at decisions that just make me wince. In the end, I prefer sound judgment over stunts. Take a good look at Charlie Wiggins.

More later,

The Political Desk: Sources

So I'm going to make recommendations for the upcoming primary, but I'm not the only one. Other forces, large and small, are making their voices known. Here's a selection of them, and I always recommend checking out a number of sites and opinions when making your own decisions.

The Seattle Times, the sole surviving daily paper in Seattle, has been a bit conflicted since the demise of its more liberal sister, the Post-Intelligencer. Usually the Times can be trusted to weigh both sides of the issues fairly and carefully, and then select the one that fits the conservative corporate nature of its editorial page. It is usually very kind to local conservatives, and is a good launching point for that well-time hit job on an opponent. This year they are pitching a "reset government" platform, which translates into "Get rid of anyone who won't help us get rid of the Estate Tax". Their endorsements are summarized here Fortunately, their political blog gets more into the nuts and bolts of reporting and acts saner than their editorial page.

The Stranger was once a collection of young hipsters and skatepunks with unsupervised access to a printing facility, but the near-demise of its weekly rival, the Seattle Weekly, has actually transformed it into a paper that pays attention to politics. Unabashedly liberal and frequently obscene (the election board recommendation are NSFW, I'm just telling you right now), the Stranger actually puts together good political reporting, particularly on their blog. Their big problem is that they believe that King County runs from Belltown in the north to Georgetown in the south, and the rest of us in the exurbs couldn't be bothered with what they think. Pity, that.

The Seattle Weekly was once the haven of leftie politics and old hippies, but then got sold to a conservative franchise out of Arizona that figured that young people not only don't vote, but they shouldn't be encouraged to do so. Oddly, over the past year or so, their bottom-diving readership numbers have caused them to actually talk about Seattle politics in their pages. Their blog, the Daily Weekly, has increased its posting over the past year and actually has somethings worth saying.

Now let's go to the purely online options - Crosscut is where all the old hippies went when the Weekly cleaned house. You'd think this outtfit would be screaming lib, but this lot pretty much longs for the glory days when Boeing was going out of business and threatening to take Puget Sound with it. Interesting for frequent columns by Knute Berger saying how good things used to be and by Republican former chairman Chris Vance who usually points out that the only way for Democrats to succeed is to act more like Republicans. Don't know if they will endorse but I find their Lesser Seattle myopia intriguing.

Publicola is actually the more liberal operation among the blogs, and even that is a misnomer. It is probably more of a urban operation, strong on bikes and rapid transit issues. Still, they are wired in at a time when a lot of places are not. Their endorsements are grouped here, but would benefit from having a page to themselves. Really, Publicola, would it be that hard to pull off? The greybeards at the Times manage it, and they're still trying to figure out how html code works.

The late Seattle Post-Intelligencer ("It's in the PI") has not one but two successor states online. The official PI site is notable only for the fact that it still runs Dave Horsey cartoons, which means nudity about once every two weeks. Strange Bedfellows is their political blog. The Post-Globe consists of employees that the PI let go when they went online, and is more liberal. Neither has the throw-weight of even the Daily Weekly. Sadly. I don't know if either is going to do endorsements.

Moving over to non-partisan web sights, Vote For Judges is a good clearing house site for judicial elections. Yes, we elect our judges here, with the result that a lot of stealth politics creeps into these supposedly nonpartisan positions. They do not directly endorse, but collate other endorsements and provide information. Since judgeships are some of the most important positions voted on with the least amount of information, it is worth checking out.

And then there is the Municipal League. You'd think a goo-goo like myself would embrace the Muni League, and I will admit they do a good job weighing options. But they and I have had a falling out - they've supported some recent election measures, such making all the King County positions non-partisan, that actually make it HARDER for people to get a handle on voting. So the League is a good source, and I will continue to report them, but I don't take it as gospel nearly so much anymore.

And last but not least is the State itself. For the main elections, Washington State does voters' pamphlets, and there is some confusion right now as to whether they will show up for the primaries (apparently King County will do it out of their own pocket, but the rest of the counties won't - which means King will have an even bigger pool of informed voters (not a win for the rest of the state)). However, all the information is online, so if you can read this, you can read that.

Those are the usual (or unusual) suspects. I may add more as we get nearly to the main election, but that's a good place to start.

Commercial Interruption

So, of course, having set an open course for the seas of local politics, I have to double back mention a few other things going on in the world. This is the problem when you're not running a blog dedicated to a single goal. Let me plug a few of my friends:

First off, I should mention that Alliterate Dave Gross has a novel out as well - Prince of Wolves, set in the world of Pathfinder.

Second off, I should mention that Alliterate Lorelli Shannon has put her self-published and very excellent novel, Possum Kingdom, out on the Kindle. We have moved to the next level of self-publishing (but Amazon doesn't have the link from her dead tree edition to her Kindle version - get with the program, Amazon!).

Thirdly and finally off, I have an article on "My First GenCon" over at Wolf Baur's Kobold Quarterly, which has been allowing all us old grogs to wallow in our memories of the past. As a bonus, the article features the now-legendary "Jeff as Galactus" picture, suitable for photoshopping.

Back to politics later. Really.

More later,

(OK, one more - Pictures from an Exhibition: ArenaNet at SDCC, including a great shot of the back of my head)

The Political Desk: Manifesto

Most of you that have been hanging out here for a while know this already, but a lot of people have dropped in recently, what with all the talk about Marvel Super Heroes and Ghosts of Ascalon and Guild Wars 2, but this is first and foremost a personal blog, which means we get into such things as collectable quarters and restaurants and most of all political races, in particular local stuff in our neck of the woods in the state of Washington.

And yet another election season is upon us, as we prepare for a primary on 17 August. Actually, the ballots have already gone out, the yard signs have blossomed on public lands, and blogs and newspapers have made their recommendations. I'm starting this year behind the curve.

So let me lay my cards out on the table at the get-go.

Long-term readers know me to be a leftie, a progressive, a liberal. I plead guilty to all such accusations. I'll go further: I am also a goo-goo, a Chicago term for a Good Government type who wants competent people in office doing good things, regardless of party or faction. I'm willing to be pragmatic, and will support a capable conservative over a questionable liberal or libertarian. Long ago, Nixon broke my civic heart, and I tend to view the GOP with a suspicion that only gets confirmed at regular intervals.

All that being said, let me lay out three laws of politics that I've picked up in my short blogging career - advice to offer candidates for office and incumbents alike. Here we go, in a nutshell:
1) For God's Sake, Don't Embarrass Us
2) All Politics Are Local
3) Be Well, Stay In Touch

Don't Embarrass Us: The ability to doll out firebombing soundbites may get you space on Fox and Friends, but it doesn't wash much out here in Seattle. We don't care much for personal scandal, but we absolutely HATE being made to seem like chumps for electing the malfeasing bozo in the first place. By the same token, we (as a state) are willing to forgive folk that are upfront about their failings as opposed to those that double-down on their errors.

All Politics Are Local: A pundocracy seems to dominate the media, old and new, where everything is cast in larger terms - sage heads declare that everything is a referendum on someone or something, usually something that is not currently being voted on. People who win suddenly have a mandate, unless you disagree with them, then the most vocal minority must be cozened and comforted. I remain dubious of national trends in local elections, and believe that at the end of the day people vote their own comfort level as opposed to the blaring of the political machines.

Stay in Touch: We are seeing the beginning of the deluge that will continue right into fall with ads, appearances, mailers, and calls. And in general, that's a good thing, as far as explaining what you've done and why. Seriously, the better equipped people are to explain the good things you've done, the better they are to resist the relentless assaults of the opposite side (like, you know, blogs). Communication? Good. Information? Even better.

My politics are that of the yard sign and the mailer (the Lovely Bride knows better than to recycle them before I see them). If I get push-polled I will pass that along. I look at political races as a consumer advocate, with the ultimate goal of getting a workable system. A system more progressive than otherwise, but then, I stated my bias a few paragraphs up. Your local paper should be as up-front about it.

I have been writing about politics on this blog since its first year in 2003, and, going back to the earlier entries, it seems that if anything I have mellowed over the years. I've been at this long enough that I can now do the "see, told ya" kinda entries when I warned against certain guys that got elected anyway.

So strap in for the next couple weeks, or take a vacation (I always get back to the little stuff in my life here after the craziness). I wouldn't say its going to be a bumpy rides - I've seen worse. But it is going to be a ride.

More later,

We Who Are About To Write Salute You!

Breaking away from all this self-promotion:

I have about a half-hour commute these days, thanks to back roads and the ongoing economic bumpiness. I sometimes drive in silence. I sometimes talk to myself (admit it, you do as well). And sometimes I listen to lectures on tape from The Learning Company. I've mentioned this before, as it fills in some of my classical education skimmed over in becoming a civil engineer, and gives me a springboard for fantasy.

In any event ...

I am listening to a lecture on the Roman Empire, subgroup Bread and Circuses, subgroup gladiators. And gladiatorial games are not always, or even usually, the productions of the imperial throne, but rather are put forth by prominent citizens, who show their wealth and open-handed nature by renting gladiators (the original temps) to fight to the death in the arena. But what caught me was the Roman name of these prominent citizens presenting these fights -

Editors.

Most dictionaries I've found only trace the word to the Late Latin period with real publishers, but I found a couple examples where it tracks the word to "Presenter", as in one you presents the work of others to the masses, under his imprint and seal, as being quality bloodshed and entertainment.

Sounds like a good a definition as any.

More later,

Going Live

Today is the official sale date for Ghosts of Ascalon by Matt Forbeck and myself. Early response and reviews have been wonderful, and I'm going to blurb a couple (links to the full article):

"With compelling characters and a great deal of background regarding what's gone down in the past two and a half centuries, Ghosts of Ascalon is a must-read for any player looking to get an early look at ArenaNet's next big MMO." - Kotaku

"It’s an easy read with good pacing. I’m a sucker for mythology, well developed worlds and adventure stories of daring-do if written well, and it was." - Carolyn Koh, MMORPG.com

"There should also be no question that the book is well-written. That shouldn't even be a concern. Through the combined forces of Matt Forbeck and Jeff Grubb, we get a perfect example of why they're at the top of their game." - Shawn Schuster Massively

"I highly recommend Ghosts of Ascalon. It was a great, fun read, and I am really excited with the two more novels coming to the Guild Wars world. " Ravious, Kill Ten Rats

I am delighted by the early response, and hope that everyone enjoys the book as much.

More later,

San Diego - Day 4

Alas, Day Four consists only of packing my knives and going. We have a noon flight out of here, so I won't even get down to the floor.

(Update from later in the day - we arrived at the airport far enough ahead of schedule that I got on an earlier flight, and was home before 1. Unfortunately, my luggage was on the other flight, which was horribly delayed, so I ended up driving out to the airport at 8 PM to get my stuff. Still, I got home and had time to run a lot of errands).

What struck me more about this convention, some 20 years after my last one, is the changing face of fandom. Twenty years back, I would have said that it was predominantly white, male, and middle-aged, and destined to go the way of model trains and other harmless hobbies. Now there is an incredible age, gender, and racial diversity. Part of it in the revolutions inside comics (the rise of manga and web comics, for example), but part of it is the expansion of the borders of Geek Culture, such that it encompasses not only old media, but new premeires. And this is way cool.

It IS a big convention, and the staff handles it amazingly well. I was disappointed to not be able to get into a few panels, but the queues ran very well and effectively. I think this is the biggest reason to keep SDCC in SD. The staff - heck, the entire city - has grown up with this madness and works to make it the best possible experience.

That said, the city fathers have GOT to put a bridge or five from the convention center to the city proper. All of the foot traffic is poured across buslanes, down some stairs, across a major road, across active trolley tracks, and then into the Gaslamp (where every card-snapper and freebie agent is laying in wait). There were some parts of the dealer room that were more crowded, but they were few and far between (and usually near steampunk corset shops, for some reason).

My only other gripe? Strollers. The bulkiest hall costume was an agile pixie in comparison to these land-tanks pushed by people using them as battering rams. Worse were the ones where the kid was carried (or walking) as his ride was transformed into a shopping cart.

But these were really minor things (and the strollers kept everyone on their toes, lest they get said toes run over). In general, the convention was a huge success, struggling with its titanic size, and is already spreading far beyond the bounds of the center itself. The staff and the city should be happy with its success - there are smaller venues that have much more difficulties pulling off a show.

And now, I'm going to soak my feet for a couple hours, and try to recover.

More later,

San Diego - Day 3

"You look a little tired".

Three different people said that to me today, which makes me a little nervous, as if I am losing my edge before even the third day of the convention is through. But it was a good third day, with three interviews (Massively, MMOSite, and PCGamer), a successful book signing (three books left, which were snurtched up by the staff), and a panel discussion that needed to be longer and in a bigger room.

I also had enough downtime to attend a panel on cartoon voiceover laden with heavyweight talent, including Gregg Berger and Fred Tatisciore, who are part of the GW2 team. Also ran into Neil Kaplan, another of our voices, in the hall (I was wearing a GW2 cap and therefore easily identifiable). I am reminded again that we have very, very good voice talent at our disposal.

After the panel, late in the day, the staff adjourned to Tabule, in the Gaslamp district. San Diego's Gaslamp district is what Seattle's Belltown wants to be when it grows up - a lot of venues, sidewalk dining, and very good food. Also a lot of people watching, since San Diego's mild temperatures make it the native habitation of the little black dress, and the women who wear them. Also: a of stylish zombies.

I was also surprised to finally run into old friends Warren and Caroline, who I was seeking out throughout the weekend - I knew only of one of Warren's panels, and it not overlapped my own panel but it was completely sold out. It made for a wonderful closed parenthesis on a collection of days that started with running into Maggie Thompson (The good and glorious).

We have a noonish flight tomorrow, so it is unlikely I will return to the floor. It has been a great convention for me, and for Guild Wars as well. I'll probably have a few more thoughts about it later, but for the moment, it is time to collapse.

More later,

San Diego - Day 2

There are people made out of bubble-foam flying over the convention center. There are women wearing flatscreen TVs on their backs. There is a comic book series about super-hero cows produced by Chik-Fil-A. Welcome to Friday at the Comic-Con.

One thing I have noticed is a tendency towards merchandising overkill, particularly in terms of manpower. Red Faction does not have a single tanned booth-babe in logo'ed tank top and hot pants - they have 20 of them. A horde of hula-skirted young women are promoting Hawaii 5-0. A mass of Dharma agents are all promoting something "Lost" related. They move through the crowds like alien gangs.

My own maneuverability is limited, since my feet are still throbbing hunks of meat. I have started relying on the pedcabs (nice in this weather) and the shuttle (slow but you get to sit down AND get air conditioning), and finding places to sit down. I'm doing a lot more video interviews today, which increases the chance that I will say something Joe-Biden worthy with every passing moment. Talked to Game Revolution and Ten Ton Hammer, and did a standup with The Daily Transcript. Not bad for a man who firmly believes that he has a face made for radio and a voice made for mime.

The signing went very well, will an almost-equal mix of number of books available, number of people interested, and amount of time. We had to turn a few away, but will be doing another signing tomorrow. These things can be a roll of the dice sometimes - you can just enough or too much or nothing at all. I was ably aided and abetted in the signing by Rich Anderson, who did the cover of the book.

Managed to actually take a nap in the afternoon before dinner, which had the added benefit of keeping me off my blistered feet. Then a long and pleasant dinner (with various strangenesses of reservation numbers and size of the table) with Stan! and Cindi and Hyrum and several cool artists and writers, the subject matter of which I shall not bore you with save to say that at one point we were talking about a penis museum in Iceland. A veritable Algonquin Round, that was.

And so to bed, as we have another signing on the morrow, and a panel and a couple more interviews. I am practically getting into the swing of things, here.

More later,

San Diego - Day 1

In which my feet are already rendered down to inoperative slabs of meat and muscle.

One thing I am struck by in my 20 year absence is how much the downtown has transformed itself. The Gaslamp District was a bit sketchy in places back in the day, but now is a line of eateries and pubs stretching halfway up the hill. Horton Center looks like it has seen better days, though, surviving best with its top floor eateries and movie theaters. And there is a lot more of a skyline, and those buildings closest to the Comic Con have full-size billboards painted over them for Red Faction and Skyline, which can literally be viewed by aircraft coming in on approach. Add to that mobile trucks with huge HD screens playing trailers. I almost expect to see blimps floating by, blaring how a new life awaits me in the off-world colonies.

The day itself started with a relaxed breakfast, an interview with MMORPG, and a panel with Stan and Hunter Freberg (for the younger folk, he made comedy albums back when vinyl was cool, was the voice of Cecil the Sea-Sick Sea Serpent, and brought the funny to commercials, including a Geno's pizza roll commercial which probably needs its own blog entry to unpack what it says about America in the 60s). My big disappointment was among the younger friends who say "Who?" when I said I was going to see Stan Freberg. I, on the other hand, was delighted, because like so many young creatives of my era (who are no longer so young), I grew up on Mad magazine and Stan Freberg.

I tried to remain paper-free for the day, since I didn't want to schlep around anything or have to take it back to my mile-away room. Unfortunately, I found the Source (out of Minnesota), which carried a huge amount of Call of Cthulhu material, including some German stuff I had never seen, Ken Hite's Dubious Shards, and a lot of bound monograms from Chaosium. So I ended up schlepping around some stuff.

Sat in on the 38 Studio/Big Huge reveal for Reckoning, in support for Bob Salvadore and Ken Rolston (both of whom I remember from the days back when). Went looking for the supposed protesters, but found only one guy holding up a sign saying "HAVE YOU SEEN MY KEYS?". Have a nice interview with Neoseeker and a surprise video interview with ngame.tv. Had I known I would be on video, I would have worn a louder shirt.

By this time my dogs were starting to go out, so I walked back to the hotel, which in my absence had been moved further uphill. Now they are in a little pain and I'm not sure the ankles work anymore. So I'm going to take it easy for the evening, have an early night, and read some of my swag.

Oh. and if you see the guy with the sign, tell him I found his keys.

More later,

San Diego - Day 0

I don't normally blog on the road, but hey, the wireless is complementary here at the hotel:

Getting down to San Diego went smoothly, even though I was not 100% sure I even had a seat on the plane until I got to the gate (each stage of the ticketing process assured me that the NEXT stage of the process would be the one to give me a seat assignment, but it all went smoothly). San Diego itself is not horribly hot (yet) and has been overcast, and the hotel is only a mile north of the convention center (this is, in Comic-Con terms, incredibly close).

As I mentioned, we're imposing on sharing booth space with the Aion and City of Heroes team, who will have demos running in the booth while we flit in and out like pixie-winged divas. I am used to putting in long booth hours, so I have chosen to embrace this cosmic oddity by actually exploring the hall.

This will, I am now convinced, be a multi-day quest, the hall is so large, urban legend says, that when empty you can see the curve of the earth. And I have revealed myself as being ancient beyond words, remembering aloud how small the hall was there the last time I was there (it was the first year they started selling Teenage Ninja Mutant Turtles stuffed animals), by pointing at Petco Field and saying "When did THAT get built here?". I did have lunch with some of the team at a nice place in Little Italy (San Diego has a lot of good restaurants in close proximity).

After getting badges (again, kudos to the team for sparing me a huge but well-organized and swift-moving line), I went exploring, and managed to take a few pictures without the supposed horde of fans. I also ran into the good and glorious Maggie Thompson for the first time in years, which pretty much made the entire trip down worth it. Then I met up with Stan!(who, by the way, created some cool D&D Christmas wrapping paper for Game Paper) and discovered the attraction of the fried fish taco at Tin Fish (surprisingly good seating, despite the fact it was right across from the teeming convention). We wandered the floor, got Galactus hats from Hasbro (pictures of me in one that may appear on the net are lies. LIES I tell you!), saw Odin's throne, traded my Galactus hat for a notebook, got some things for my brother and the Lovely Bride (don't tell her - its a secret), met my editor from Simon & Schuster, re-engaged with Godland, found some nice gems in the Web comic/small press sections, picked up a few new t-shirts, and probably covered all of a quarter of the hall (but most of it having comics in it, so I was happy). Ran into people I know and people Stan knew and introductions were made all around and finally, about 9, we retired from the field.

And it is before the official first day of the con and my feet already hurt.

More later,

Podcasts and Personal Appearances

So, Facebook being what it is, it failed to rebroadcast my schedule for San Diego Comic-Con. Here it is, again.

Friday July 23, 2010 1:00 p.m.–1:45 p.m. NCsoft Booth #5345 - BookSigning and Giveaway - Stop by for a limited giveaway and booksigning by one of the authors of the first Guild Wars® novel: Ghosts ofAscalon. - Signing Staff: Jeff Grubb (Game Designer/Author), Rich Anderson(Concept Artist, Cover Artist)

Friday July 23, 2010 1:45 p.m.–2:30 p.m. NCsoft Booth #5345 - BookSigning and Giveaway - Stop by for a limited giveaway and booksigning of the Art of Guild Wars 2. - Signing Staff: Kekai Kotaki(Concept Art Lead), Rich Anderson (Concept Artist), Kristen Perry(Character Artist)

Saturday July 24, 2010 1:00 p.m.–1:45 p.m. NCsoft Booth #5345 - BookSigning and Giveaway - Stop by for a limited giveaway and booksigning by one of the authors of the first Guild Wars® novel: Ghosts ofAscalon. - Signing Staff: Jeff Grubb (Game Designer/Author), Rich Anderson(Concept Artist, Cover Artist)

Saturday July 24, 2010 1:45 p.m.–2:30 p.m. NCsoft Booth #5345 - BookSigning and Giveaway Stop by for a limited giveaway and book signing ofthe Art of Guild Wars 2. - Signing Staff: Kekai Kotaki (Concept ArtLead), Rich Anderson (Concept Artist), Kristen Perry (Character Artist)

Saturday July 24, 2010 5:30 p.m.–6:30 p.m. Room 4 - Speaking Session:Guild Wars 2: A New Type of Fantasy MMO - Learn how Guild Wars 2will set a new standard for what is possible in an MMO game! Keycreators examine with you how the lore, design, and gameplay of GuildWars 2 has grown from the original game into something revolutionary,and take questions from the audience. - Speakers: James Phinney (DesignDirector), Jeff Grubb (Game Designer), Kekai Kotaki (Concept Art Lead),Rich Anderson (Concept Artist), Kristen Perry, (Character Artist), ChrisLye (Global Brand Director)

We will be signing out of the NCSoft booth, which is in the far left corner of the exhibit hall, and probably the only location where there will be any space to move around (maybe). Drop by and take a look at us!

If you can't make it to the convention (nobody goes there, apparently - it's too crowded) I have a pair of podcasts that have just been released. One is on Guildcast with Shawn and Rubi from Massively and is all spoilery on Ghosts of Ascalon. And the other delves into the early days of the Marvel Super Heroes game with Andrew Collas on the Zenith Comics podcast. If you can't make it to San Diego, it's the next best thing (well, it's not, but it is a very nice thing anyway).

More later, possibly from SD itself.

A Bite Of Pinafore

So this past Sunday, I headed out to Seattle Center to catch this year's production by the Seattle Gilbert & Sullivan Society - HMS Pinafore, with a performance of Cox and Box, which has music by Sullivan but is sans Gilbert. More on that in a moment, since the Center was also host for Bite of Seattle.

The Bite is a food-dominated fest, though there were a lot of booths ranging from corporate flag-wavers -  Comcast, Geico and Bicycle card decks, to the usual suspects of sunglasses, 1200-count linens, and tie-died wraps. I indulged in the Alley, where 10 dollars got a taste of seven very good restaurants, with part of the proceeds going to Food Lifeline, and the operation hosted by local chef Tom Douglas of the Dahlia Lounge (and was present, turning the whole ducks over the charcoal. Here's the lineup for Sunday noon.
 - Dahlia Lounge - Five-spice duck humbow - tasty grilled duckflesh tucked into a flat dumpling with hoisin and cilantro.
 - Seattle's Little Italy - Cold beet soup - a nice break - would have been more appreciated if it had been hotter.
 - Dragonfish - Green and yellow curry - I am not a curry person, but this was great. Saved it for right before desert since it had a strong kick.
 - Sport - listed as a chili but instead was a very pleasant salad with chicken and wontons - down side was that it ate up tray space so everything else had to fit around it.
 - Daily Grill - Carved steak sandwich - either barbeque sauce or horseradish. Melt in your mouth tender.
 - Volterra - Potato, spinach and goat cheese crostata - nice, a little wrapped package of delight.
 - Ten Mercer - Mini chocolate tower - perfect two-bite desert.

Add to that the fact that the wine tasting was right next door (5 tickets for 10 bucks). A double handful of local vinters, including Hoodsport, which is a favorite from when we go clamming (and does nice Rieslings, rhubarbs, and, I discovered, pear wines), and Stina's Cellars (who has a good Riesling). So I was fairly mellow by the time I waddled back to the Bagley Wright for Gilbert & Sullivan (with a slice of Sullivan, hold the Gilbert).


Cox & Box is, at heart, a trifle, something that in the modern age might equally belong in a sketch comedy show or as the pilot for half-hour comedy. Landlord Bouncer rents out the same room to Mr. Cox and Mr. Box, one who works the day shift and one who works the night, and they only meet on the stairs as one leaves and the other arrives. That in itself sets up the bit when one gets the day off and the two meet in the apartment that both think of as theirs. But then it goes into a surprising connection between the men that takes from confrontation to rivals to friends. It is a bit of fun and parts of it belong to that entire alternate-world-thinking that seems to belong to Light opera.

Pinafore is one of the old venerables of the G&S portfolio (stack it on top of Penzance and Mikado). Most people known the best songs, or at least portions of the best songs (Thank you, Sideshow Bob). The plot is pure Gilbertian logic twisted upon itself, with a couple plot holes you could send a dreadnought through. But before I get into that, let me talk about the performances:

Oliver Donaldson (lead tenor) and Jenny Shotwell (soprano) are amazing as the young lovers separated by class - their voices are strong and passionate and yes, playful. William J. Darkow provides the baritone gravitas as Corocoran, the Captain of the Pinafore, and I warmed to John Brookes as the Admiral. Of all the players, the one with the most difficult task was talk-show host, Dave Ross, whose villainous character had the unenviable task of singing counterpoint to the chorus (and being overwhelmed on occasion).

Ah, and the set itself was a wonder: the detailed foc'sle of the Pinafore turned into a maze of entrances and props. Oh, and the dancers that manifested in the closer of Act I were fantastic as well.

And the plot ... ah, the plot. I think Freud would go slightly mad if he dug too deeply into this (Spoiler warning, should something a hundred years old need a spoiler). Ralph (Donaldson) is in love with Josephine (Shotwell), who is the daughter of Captain Corcoran (Darkow). But the Captain wants her to wed the Admiral (Brookes), who comes aboard with a huge herd of female relatives (the female members of the chorus). Ralph seeks to sneak off with Josephine, but is caught, and Little Buttercup (Erin Wise, also very good) reveals that she was wet nurse to both Corcoran and Ralph, and swapped the babies accidentally, so that Ralph should be the Captain, Corcoran the lowborn seaman. Since Corcoron is now lowborn, daughter Josephine is unsuitable for the Admiral, so she can marry Ralph, and Corcoran can marry Buttercup.

Which of course creates some weirdnesses if you look at it too hard. If Ralph and Corcoran were both wet-nursed by the same woman, they are the same age, so Ralph is no ingenue, but is old enough to be Josephine's father. OK, we can deal with daddy issues there. But Buttercup wet-nursed Corcoran, so she had to be about 20 years (give or take) older than her new husband, who is marrying the woman who weaned him. Looking at that, the idea that the Admiral ends up marrying his First Cousin can pass without comment.

Of course, logic is never a strong point in Light Opera, and the presence of Cox and Box on the playbill underscores the idea that leaps of logic are not merely a Gilbertian indulgence, but rather part and parcel of the nature of comic opera. Pedants are asked to swallow entire camels, so that straining a gnats is considered  hardly appropriate.

One last this - the audience. Usually the Bagley-W is occupied by the sage, graying heads that are normally pointed at when theatre's imminent demise is anticipated. Yes, there were many of my generation and older present, but also a lot of families with children and teenagers. This is a good thing, and may lay more to the supposed imminent demise to the content as opposed to the building or the activity of theater itself.

HMS Pinafore/Cox& Box has but a single weekend of performance left. The entire performance is 3 hours plus, so it is a full afternoon or evening in the works, but a great deal of fun and definately worth it.

More later,

Retro-Who

RPGPundit, down in Uraguay, came up with a link to this:



And I will see him and raise him THIS



Busy now. More later,

ENnie Which Way But Loose

The ENnie voting is open, from now until 25 July, so if you're playing what is currently being shelved as "hobby games", this is a good place to declare what the best of the year is.

The ENnies are given out yearly at GenCon, and run off a two-step process. The first is the "Sage Advisor" stage where a panel of judges winnows down the nominees. Then comes the general on-line voting from all the rest of us. You can vote multiple times on a single ballot, voting "1" for your favorite, "2" for your second fave, etc. Its a nice little system, and no, you don't have to vote for everything.

The vote also allows you, the player, to hear about games that you might not otherwise have been aware of, in the overload that is the Internet. I've always said that the nominations of games are a better tool for bringing attention and rewarding good game design than the awards themselves. A nomination can bring attention to games you might otherwise pass on, and take you to game manufacturers who are otherwise off your radar. I have to check out more on Diaspora and Eclipse Phase, when I get a chance.

And there are some good candidates across the board. Rob Heinsoo is up for his delightful "Three Dragon Ante". Wolfgang Baur is up for a couple awards for Open Design and the Kobold Quarterly blog (but not the magazine - what's the deal with that?). One cool little game that might not get the attention it deserves in this field is Stan Brown's "Warriors" game, which was packaged in the YA novel series of the same name. Yes, it is a game about cats. Like Stan's work on the "Pokemon RPG", this is one of those games that, ten years from now, RPG players will be saying "Yeah, I played that game when I first started out."

Anyway, go check out the ballot and vote. And since they provide links to all the games in nomination, this is a great chance to broaden your horizons and check out games you may never have heard of before.

More later,

30 Days of Science

I'm always coming across stuff on the 'net that I think "Ooh, this would be interesting", but then I don't get around to posting it, or fifty-three other people post about it, and it gets forgotten.

But I want to make sure I mention THIS before I get carried away with other things. It is the chance to live in the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago for a month. IN the museum. This would be a dream opportunity for me. Heck, if I still worked for TSR up in Lake Geneva, I would see if I could arrange a leave of absence to pull this off.

If you ARE in the Chicago area, and are, as we say, "between gigs", I would strongly recommend applying. Go for it, guys!

More later,

Media Blitz

OK, I'll admit I've been a little busy lately, with a number of things. Among those things has been preparing for the release of Ghosts of Ascalon, our first Guild Wars book, by myself and Matt Forbeck, which will be available at your finer bookstores and electronic outlets on July 27.

To that end I have a blog post up on our game site about the book, along with a map of Tyria in the "modern" (as in "250 years after the original Guild Wars") age. And we have the first chapter of the book up as well, both on our site and on Simon & Schuster's page, for your perusal. AND for iBook readers, the first 30-some pages (along with map, timeline, and two and bit chapters) are available as well. I didn't even see that last one coming.

In addition, I've been talking to some top-flight web sites about the book. Massively has an interview, and a preview of the book (we sent out Advance Reader Copies (ARCs) to the sites, so they got the first look). There also is a podcast coming up (fingers crossed). I also talked to the fine folk at Kotaku (which my nephew reads regularly - I am "cool Uncle Jeff" again) and Ten Ton Hammer, and my joy and excitement about the book is, to be honest, a little bit contagious.

PLUS, I'm going to be at San Diego Comics Convention, and cover artist Richard Anderson and I will be signing copies of the novel, plus the wonderful art book we put together back for last PAX. Here's the schedule for the Guild Wars team:

Friday July 23, 2010 1:00 p.m.–1:45 p.m. NCsoft Booth #5345 - BookSigning and Giveaway - Stop by for a limited giveaway and booksigning by one of the authors of the first Guild Wars® novel: Ghosts ofAscalon. - Signing Staff: Jeff Grubb (Game Designer/Author), Rich Anderson(Concept Artist, Cover Artist)

Friday July 23, 2010 1:45 p.m.–2:30 p.m. NCsoft Booth #5345 - BookSigning and Giveaway - Stop by for a limited giveaway and booksigning of the Art of Guild Wars 2. - Signing Staff: Kekai Kotaki(Concept Art Lead), Rich Anderson (Concept Artist), Kristen Perry(Character Artist)

Saturday July 24, 2010 1:00 p.m.–1:45 p.m. NCsoft Booth #5345 - BookSigning and Giveaway - Stop by for a limited giveaway and booksigning by one of the authors of the first Guild Wars® novel: Ghosts ofAscalon. - Signing Staff: Jeff Grubb (Game Designer/Author), Rich Anderson(Concept Artist, Cover Artist)

Saturday July 24, 2010 1:45 p.m.–2:30 p.m. NCsoft Booth #5345 - BookSigning and Giveaway Stop by for a limited giveaway and book signing ofthe Art of Guild Wars 2. - Signing Staff: Kekai Kotaki (Concept ArtLead), Rich Anderson (Concept Artist), Kristen Perry (Character Artist)

Saturday July 24, 2010 5:30 p.m.–6:30 p.m. Room 4 - Speaking Session:Guild Wars 2: A New Type of Fantasy MMO - Learn how Guild Wars 2will set a new standard for what is possible in an MMO game! Keycreators examine with you how the lore, design, and gameplay of GuildWars 2 has grown from the original game into something revolutionary,and take questions from the audience. - Speakers: James Phinney (DesignDirector), Jeff Grubb (Game Designer), Kekai Kotaki (Concept Art Lead),Rich Anderson (Concept Artist), Kristen Perry, (Character Artist), ChrisLye (Global Brand Director)

If you're there, drop by. We will be taking up sharing space with our sister companies, Paragon (City of Heroes) and NCWest (Aion).

So yeah, its been a busy week, and I think its going to get busier.

Convention Circuit

While by nature I am a reclusive homebody, I am going to be all over the joint in the next few months, promoting the Ghosts of Ascalon and Guild Wars 2.  Look for me here!

July 21-25  -  San Diego Comic-Con (we'll be sharing a booth with Paragon Studios(City of Heroes) and signing books).
August 18-22  -  Gamescom in Cologne (We will have the German translation of the novel out as well as debuting the hands-on demo of the game).
 September 3-5  -  PAX (Penny Arcade eXpo) in Seattle (US debut of the GW2 Demo).

See you there!

More later,

Ghosts, Chapter One

Simon & Schuster has put the first chapter of Ghosts of Ascalon, by Matt Forbeck and myself, up on their site. Go take a look!

More later,