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Thursday, June 11th, 2009

The Hi-Rez Image Resource Library has been updated

Press Release: Looney Labs Releases Demo Copies of Are You the Traitor? Hard Work = Play reviews Fluxx

9 new FAQ answers: 5 about Fluxx, 3 about Chrononauts, and 1 about Zombie Fluxx

Greetings Humans! Here are the top 5 news stories from my corner of our planet:

• Mo: Firstly, as I mentioned last time, we have a new office temp. Her name is Morrigan, Mo for short, and she has an amazing background. Whereas our previous couple of office temps have been college students, Mo got her degree in 1996 and has an impressive resume of work experience, including many years of work in a law office. Moreover, Mo has an active career in the performing arts, working as a singer, actress, and coach. Since this is a difficult field in which to make a living, Mo pays the bills by doing part-time office work, making her afternoons-only availability a perfect fit with our several-hours-a-day needs. Someday she'll hit the big time and won't need to keep working for us, but hopefully by then we'll be needing a full-timer anyway. (Seriously, she's like a rock star. She's the lead singer of Morrigan and the Strays, and she has CDs and fans and everything.) On top of all that, Mo is an active supporter of animal rescue organizations and has worked as a Veterinary assistant in a couple of area animal hospitals. She's also got a charming personality. In short, Mo is a powerhouse of talent and it's an honor to have her help!

• Eric: My nephew Eric was injured in a car crash! He was in the back seat when another car smashed into their side right where he was sitting, so hooray for side air-bags! He was helicoptered to the Baltimore Shock Trauma Unit (though he remembers nothing of the ride) and is now recovering at home with a fractured pelvis, a walker, and crutches. So obviously, the summer vacation has started out with a major bummer for him, but when you consider how much worse it could have been, it's hard not to be happy just that he's alive. They're hoping he'll need nothing more than a cane in 2-3 weeks. Here's hoping he makes an even faster recovery than the doctors have predicted!

• Smokey: Even though we love all three of the cats we unexpectedly took in late last year, we've concluded that five cats is just too many for us to manage. So, we've found a new home for the one shown here, and on Saturday we bid farewell to Smokey. Here's wishing him a great life with his new family! (Much as we will miss Smokey, we'd actually like to thin our cat-herd further, so, just in case anyone reading this is looking for a cat, we're also seeking a new home for Princess. She's a real sweetie and she purrs like a champ! And she's a total lap-cat. But she doesn't get along too well with other cats... as her name suggests, I think she'd be happiest as the star of a single-cat household.)
  
  UPDATE: Not long after posting this, we found a new home for Princess! So here's wishing her all the best with her new family as well.

• PDF: For the Memorial Day weekend, Kristin and I went to an event called Playa Del Fuego (PDF), which was basically a big camping trip for about a thousand hippies, out in the boonies of Delaware. More specifically, PDF is a local regional version of the Burning Man festival. While I'm sure you've heard of Burning Man, you may not know that a national network of smaller events has developed over the years, with PDF being a semi-annual "burn" that a bunch of our friends have been attending for awhile now. (Our former employee Marlene built a giant seahorse sculpture that was burned at a previous PDF.) Anyway, we had a grand time, and I think it's something we're going to start attending regularly. Whereas I've never considered going to Burning Man, because of the distance and survival conditions involved, PDF is the same sort of thing (albeit on a far less grand scale) with the advantage of being no more challenging than a camping trip with the Boy Scouts. [Actually, this group reminds me of scouting in a number of ways: PDF is like a regional camporee where many local troops gather and camp together, with Burning Man being like scouting's National Jamboree; I've seen campfires at scouting events almost as big as the bonfires going up at PDF; and the burners even have their own set of guiding principles, notably including the LNT (Leave No Trace) philosophy, which jive well with my Eagle Scout ethic.] We had so much fun on this campout, in fact, that we've started hatching schemes for a gaming-themed camp for next time. (Speaking of which, I invented my 19th Icehouse game at PDF, and I'm really excited about it!) Anyway, special thanks to Frank and Leah (and Zyggy) for getting us to finally attend with you, and for doing all that cooking and stuff. It was most excellent!!!

• Origins: Since it's now just a couple of weeks away, our minds are now almost completely dominated by planning for our biggest event of the year, and with it, the accompanying release of our new game Are You The Traitor?. Fortunately, our plans are proceeding nicely, and I think everything's going to be a huge success. Check back here in a few weeks to see how things went... or better yet, join us at our 10th Big Experiment and find out for yourself!