4204: Kitty
Things:
work copier [been there for a while, only got around to taking a photo on Thursday or Friday]
New board game:
The above game [translated] is one that tscherri gave metalfox as a housewarming gift, which we tried when Metalfox came over on Friday. It's... I'm not sure how to describe it, which I think is one of the faults of board games that make them difficult to sell off-the-shelf; i.e. most people will not buy a game like Dominion or Tigris and Euphrates without knowing in advance how to play and/or getting outside advice. This isn't to say they won't--I've impulse bought a few games [not without some regrets, mostly related to others' disinterest]--but if it's difficult to describe the game mechanics, it's difficult to sell. I've even seen games that decline to describe the mechanics entirely [the box apparently assumes you already know what it's like or somehow get that "there are cards you play with and rules that only one person knows" is enough]. For this reason, I think the Marbles store in Montgomery Mall is great, because they have displays set up for folks to try out the games directly--it's just, you know, mall pricing and that.
Anyway, Felinia has two phases, one being the way to get to the other. The first phase is trading, which entails either going to market to get goods, going to the trading post to exchange goods, or getting money. Goods buy passage to the exploration phase, which is how to get more goods, spices, and/or gold on the way to getting Victory Points. [I don't remember if they were actually called that, but by now common terminology is "Victory Points" for whatever counts specifically toward permanent score.] We ended up making two mistakes that could've drastically altered the course of the game had we played correctly: using the "final" ships as the starter ships [should not have been that easy to get passage at the beginning] and sending the light brown boat to the dark brown exploration area [would have changed which type of chips each explorer found]. Out of fairness to us, the light brown of the boat matched the dark brown of the island, so it was annoyingly easy to get confused--the light brown boat and its matching goods should've been the same beige as the island. [We ended up sending the dark boat to the beige island as a workaround.] I guess, retrospectively, this makes the game a little bit bad for colourblind people, since the icons that designate which goods buy passage on which ships are distinguishable only by colour--the island at least had different hut icons to show which chips belonged where.
Otherwise, I wouldn't be opposed to playing again, perhaps with advanced rules to further muddle things up [we obviously played basic first], though it always feels like if I win a game on the first try, I won't like it on subsequent plays because I'll end up ruining my perfect streak =B [even if I only won on account of breaking the game]
Dominion: Tried some more Prosperity and Hinterlands cards [C and I never play unless it's in person with others], lost both times 'cause I never get what I'm doing until too late =/ Ended up having lost a Laboratory card and not realizing it until putting everything away [luckily it wasn't an issue in-game], only found it after going through ALL THE CARDS and finding the missing card in the pack of Library cards. Eh, same thing ¬_¬
---
I figured out that Sketch Bet is more important to me than I would've originally given it because I've signed on to no fewer than five major projects in the last year--only one of which went anywhere due to being specifically asked to proofread it vs. effectively having to enter a contest--and SB is the only one that allows even partial [official] credit despite failing to make the cut. On that note, I get the impression that one of the SB moderators reblogged one of my pics, but from the wrong account [no "official" nightly reblog on the main for that night, but one on the mod's personal account]. That's fine--I actually got [two] more notes from the misblog, if it was indeed a misblog, than from the majority of my "official" reblogs.
It feels pathetic measuring reblogs in single digits, but that's really all I get, despite my efforts. I mean, I know all it REALLY takes is one or two Tracy Butler-level and/or pornographic pics on FA/dA, but I'd rather do my own schtick. [This includes my own IP vs. someone else's--for pay, at least--since I get entirely too self-conscious about not doing justice to the IP.]
Anyway, here's a thing [speaking of not doing justice to the IP--I had the opportunity to work on Skullgirls and completely flaked out of a lack of self-confidence, and even now with my improved Photoshop inking I'm not convinced I would've been a benefit on their team]:
I feel like it's all I can do to get daily sketches done--and I wouldn't give that up for anything since I've been able to keep doing them since I started--but I'm falling behind to such a degree that I almost can't get anything ELSE done in the meantime. I'm pretty sure I mentioned that before, but it's persisting, and it's aggravating, especially since I'm also now getting LESS exercise at work than I ever have before. Even at NIH, I would walk up the stairs for bathroom breaks, but while I'm totally getting a lot of reading done now, the Bookshelf of Mediocrity in the break room actively discourages me from taking walks at lunch, since I'm never eager to take an hour lunch when a half-hour is plenty but I can't overlook the allure of free reading material + prime reading time.
It's kinda... I know what I need to do, but I just have to write it out, ya know? It's not the failure to achieve an arbitrary measure of success that gets to me so much as the not understanding what I feel. I will MOST LIKELY try to spend Sunday drawing following a brisk two-hour walk [weather permitting, since I flaked and didn't get walking in when it was properly sunny earlier today], but I realize I will MOST LIKELY end up in bed until 3p and be so Internet-addicted that I won't even start the next daily sketch until after dinner, at which point OH WELL =C
It's a rough cycle! -_- Byeh.
work copier [been there for a while, only got around to taking a photo on Thursday or Friday]
New board game:
The above game [translated] is one that tscherri gave metalfox as a housewarming gift, which we tried when Metalfox came over on Friday. It's... I'm not sure how to describe it, which I think is one of the faults of board games that make them difficult to sell off-the-shelf; i.e. most people will not buy a game like Dominion or Tigris and Euphrates without knowing in advance how to play and/or getting outside advice. This isn't to say they won't--I've impulse bought a few games [not without some regrets, mostly related to others' disinterest]--but if it's difficult to describe the game mechanics, it's difficult to sell. I've even seen games that decline to describe the mechanics entirely [the box apparently assumes you already know what it's like or somehow get that "there are cards you play with and rules that only one person knows" is enough]. For this reason, I think the Marbles store in Montgomery Mall is great, because they have displays set up for folks to try out the games directly--it's just, you know, mall pricing and that.
Anyway, Felinia has two phases, one being the way to get to the other. The first phase is trading, which entails either going to market to get goods, going to the trading post to exchange goods, or getting money. Goods buy passage to the exploration phase, which is how to get more goods, spices, and/or gold on the way to getting Victory Points. [I don't remember if they were actually called that, but by now common terminology is "Victory Points" for whatever counts specifically toward permanent score.] We ended up making two mistakes that could've drastically altered the course of the game had we played correctly: using the "final" ships as the starter ships [should not have been that easy to get passage at the beginning] and sending the light brown boat to the dark brown exploration area [would have changed which type of chips each explorer found]. Out of fairness to us, the light brown of the boat matched the dark brown of the island, so it was annoyingly easy to get confused--the light brown boat and its matching goods should've been the same beige as the island. [We ended up sending the dark boat to the beige island as a workaround.] I guess, retrospectively, this makes the game a little bit bad for colourblind people, since the icons that designate which goods buy passage on which ships are distinguishable only by colour--the island at least had different hut icons to show which chips belonged where.
Otherwise, I wouldn't be opposed to playing again, perhaps with advanced rules to further muddle things up [we obviously played basic first], though it always feels like if I win a game on the first try, I won't like it on subsequent plays because I'll end up ruining my perfect streak =B [even if I only won on account of breaking the game]
Dominion: Tried some more Prosperity and Hinterlands cards [C and I never play unless it's in person with others], lost both times 'cause I never get what I'm doing until too late =/ Ended up having lost a Laboratory card and not realizing it until putting everything away [luckily it wasn't an issue in-game], only found it after going through ALL THE CARDS and finding the missing card in the pack of Library cards. Eh, same thing ¬_¬
---
I figured out that Sketch Bet is more important to me than I would've originally given it because I've signed on to no fewer than five major projects in the last year--only one of which went anywhere due to being specifically asked to proofread it vs. effectively having to enter a contest--and SB is the only one that allows even partial [official] credit despite failing to make the cut. On that note, I get the impression that one of the SB moderators reblogged one of my pics, but from the wrong account [no "official" nightly reblog on the main for that night, but one on the mod's personal account]. That's fine--I actually got [two] more notes from the misblog, if it was indeed a misblog, than from the majority of my "official" reblogs.
It feels pathetic measuring reblogs in single digits, but that's really all I get, despite my efforts. I mean, I know all it REALLY takes is one or two Tracy Butler-level and/or pornographic pics on FA/dA, but I'd rather do my own schtick. [This includes my own IP vs. someone else's--for pay, at least--since I get entirely too self-conscious about not doing justice to the IP.]
Anyway, here's a thing [speaking of not doing justice to the IP--I had the opportunity to work on Skullgirls and completely flaked out of a lack of self-confidence, and even now with my improved Photoshop inking I'm not convinced I would've been a benefit on their team]:
I feel like it's all I can do to get daily sketches done--and I wouldn't give that up for anything since I've been able to keep doing them since I started--but I'm falling behind to such a degree that I almost can't get anything ELSE done in the meantime. I'm pretty sure I mentioned that before, but it's persisting, and it's aggravating, especially since I'm also now getting LESS exercise at work than I ever have before. Even at NIH, I would walk up the stairs for bathroom breaks, but while I'm totally getting a lot of reading done now, the Bookshelf of Mediocrity in the break room actively discourages me from taking walks at lunch, since I'm never eager to take an hour lunch when a half-hour is plenty but I can't overlook the allure of free reading material + prime reading time.
It's kinda... I know what I need to do, but I just have to write it out, ya know? It's not the failure to achieve an arbitrary measure of success that gets to me so much as the not understanding what I feel. I will MOST LIKELY try to spend Sunday drawing following a brisk two-hour walk [weather permitting, since I flaked and didn't get walking in when it was properly sunny earlier today], but I realize I will MOST LIKELY end up in bed until 3p and be so Internet-addicted that I won't even start the next daily sketch until after dinner, at which point OH WELL =C
It's a rough cycle! -_- Byeh.