Math trade results + game of Can't Stop with the folks

The Cabin Fever math trade is over! I send out RoboRally, Dragonland, and some GURPS books (notably, I am shipping a copy of one of the books to the author, Steffan O'Sullivan), and am getting back a stack of Navia Drapt figures, Starship Catan, and 1870. Woot! Err, sorta.

Now comes the shipping, always a drag. 1870 is coming from Canada, which I swore I'd never do to someone else, but hey, I wanted it.

Also got in a game of Can't Stop with Mom and Dad while waiting for the trade results to come in. Have been playing Ra on BSW (17% win rate), and finally got in a few games of Lost Cities (lost, lost, lost Lost Cities).

Got the full set of prints from the birth photographer

We just got the pack of prints from the birth photographer who attended Daria's birth. Sample pictures are here. There were a ton of great shots of everyone (in black and white so as not to be , you know, gory.) Tasha was fantastic and we recommend her without reservation even more emphatically now that we've seen the prints.

Math trade want list submitted over here, boss

I got all my trading lists done for the giant math trade that's going on over at BGG right now. It occurs to me that the previous sentence makes no sense for 99.999999% of the population.

The important part is that hopefully, I'm going to be told in a few days what of my stuff will get traded for other stuff that I want more.

Either that, or I'll just haul it down to my local game store and see if they want it as a trade-in. I'm not picky, that stack of role-playing stuff's gotta go to make room for more board games.

Added more items to the math trade

I added two lots of GURPS sourcebooks and a stack of computer game hint books to the Cabin Fever math trade list. The list is up to 1360 items and is still going strong. Additions end Thursday.


Per my previous post, I'm thinking hard about what I actually want to add to my wantlists. There are several copies of Caylus, Scepter of Zavandor, Twilight Imperium 3rd edition, Railroad Dice, Das Amulett, and Race for the Galaxy, three or four giant game lots including a bunch from designer Tom Lehmann, some DVD sets that might be neat to have, and someone's tossed in an Ipod Shuffle.

There are also some fairly rare games like Titan, Hamsterrolle, Ubongo Extreme, and new stuff like Galaxy Trucker. While I don't think Titan will hit the table very often, it's still a $100 game, so well worth listing in the crazy off-chance that I get it. Likewise, the Shuffle's probably worth $70, so I might as well go for it.

Giant Math Trade over on BoardGameGeek

The Cabin Fever Math Trade already has over 1,000 items, two of them mine.

Math trades work by having all participants submit a list of other games on the list they'd prefer in exchange for their own. A computer program crunches the numbers in order to maximize trades between participants. Very slick except that:

1. I already have several games acquired in math trades I've barely played,
2. I have only a few games in my collection I really want to trade right now, and
3. The cost of shipping makes trading a non-starter in many cases.

I've got an extra copy of RoboRally in the list right now. It'll cost me at least twelve bucks to ship the thing. Heck, $12 is half a game already.

Watchin' the stock

My company has a stock appreciation plan that may hit the target in the next few weeks. This would mean a small bonus in stock form, pro-rated over the next few years. Nothing earth-shaking, but still could be a part of the purchase of a (shudder) mini-van, or new vacuum, or something equally mundane.

If I had joined the company 2 years ago, I'd be looking at a substantial pile of stock as a payout.

Most of my gaming energy is turned toward game design, rather than game acquisition, especially since it's more difficult to get a group together right at this exact instant. That should gradually improve as the baby gets a little older.

New Year's Day playtesting at Kevin's

I took Alex to Kevin Nunn's place on New Year's Day for some playtesting. I played Monza, a Haba racing game that's basically all luck, as well as Mike Dew's "Kyoobs" and "Rainbow Trumps" prototypes.

Alex was great and I had a good time on my outing. I also showed off my 18IA proto but didn't get a chance to get it to the table, due to the time.

Around the house

Cori: I want some more bubba-cue sauce, Mommy.

More baby pictures, done by a pro

Tasha Pool of Homeshade Photography took pictures of the birth, and they are at this link. Tasha did a fantastic job and got a ton of great shots. It's tough to get pictures of Daria with her eyes open, and Tasha got a wonderful close-up of her.

Seeing the pictures reinforced how much of a positive experience it was to have the baby at home.

Ask the Web: how do I combine postscript images?

Okay, I have a set of postscript images that I need to tile on a page, suitable for printing. Simply pasting the code into a single file doesn't work.

Is there a simple way to combine multiple postscript files into a single-page file?