Face Front!

I’ve been sucked into the social vortex known as Facebook. It’s been great for linking up with friends and even playing Scrabble with a long-time friend I’ve known since I was 2. Join me if you like. Here’s my badge:

Cell Phones?

I’m looking for a new cell phone service. I have US Cellular, but it drops calls when I walk through the house. Anyone local to Beloit out there have any recommendation? Mostly I’m looking at AT&T or Verizon right now. Thanks!

Gen Con in 5 Minutes

SlateV has a five-minute feature story about gamers from this summer’s Gen Con. It’s a little heavy on the costumed folks, but since video is a visual medium, I can’t blame them for going with the stuff that looks so interesting.

Look for my pal Ken Hite speaking in one part of it. That bit was filmed during the “40 Years of Gen Con: The Attendees” panel that I sat on along with Ken, Robin Laws, Randy Porter, and Dave Arneson. Ken seemingly speaks in sound bites, although always eloquent and incisive ones.

I also spotted two other people I know well in the video: game designer Christopher Lawrence as a zombie, and the Gen Con-shirted guy with muttonchops (anyone know his name, please?) who worked the door at the screaming-new, infamous Spy Bar (more about which I’ll blather soon).

1DS

I just got back from my wife and I dropping the kids off for their first day of school. Our eldest is now in third grade, and the quadruplets just started kindergarten, so this is a huge day for us all. The school has four separate kindergarten classes, so each of the quads is in a class alone, off to face the world on his or her own.

Every day with these kids is a treat that amazes me in a new way. As I often say, I don’t know how it happens: I stay the same, but they keep getting taller.

No matter what the calendar might say about solstices, summer is now officially over. We had a great one, and I miss it already, but I can’t wait to see what the next year brings.

Comic-Con 2007 Report: Wednesday

I’m trying to catch up with everything, so I’m going back to July for my Comic-Con 2007 report. I had a great time at the show, although I only attended for two and a half days and only made the decision to go a few weeks before the show began. This meant I had no scheduled events, but I still packed as much into those few days as I could.

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Complete Idiot Again

This week, I wrapped up work on The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Drawing Manga, Illustrated: Shojo, the second I’ve written in the how-to series for IDW and Alpha Books. (Third if you count The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Creating Dungeons & Dragons Characters, which is a CIG but not about manga.) This is due sometime in 2008.

No, I’m not a Japanese girl–the people at whom shojo is targeted–nor have I ever been. However, my co-author Tomoko Taniguchi once was, and she’s one heck of a manga-ka of top-shelf shojo to boot.

Chicago Toy and Game Fair

I’ll be at the Chicago Toy and Game Fair, November 17 & 18. On November 17, as part of the Inventors Forum, I’ll be one of the experts in the “Ask an Expert” event. Sign up to have a private chat with me for 15 minutes between 1 and 3 PM, and I’ll do the best I can to answer your questions in person.