Thursday, April 22, 1999

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• Lots of new entries in the Time Travel Sweepstakes!
• CZ has changed some things on her pages, including adding some new 3D anaglyphs under the Stereoscopic Views heading
• Ginohn has put up a palindrome page, and interred a new tombstoner
• Rash has added 3 new entries to his journal
• New ContagiousDreams bios: Jake, JEH Games, Cheapass Games (plus some follow-up questions for dreamers)

It was a pretty good spot, actually... the "package" (as such video segments are referred to in the biz) was almost 3 minutes long and covered the full range of our activities, including Fluxx and Aquarius, the Mensa award, this website, and our forthcoming e-commerce venture, Contagious Dreams. They clearly announced our URL and even showed screen shots of the Fluxx and Looney Labs front pages.

Unfortunately, there was an annoying buzzing noise during most of the interview clips they used of me and Kristin. This was probably caused by the neon on our ceiling; next time we'll know to turn that off. But in spite of the noise on the line, we sounded pretty good, and while corny at times, the reporter was enthusiastic and accurate in her reporting. If you live outside PG county or otherwise missed the broadcast, then tune in again next week... we'll try to make a Quicktime version of the spot available here by then.

Contagious Dreams update: With our planned launch date now just 2 weeks, the world's getting awfully big in the window. Luckily things are going well... there are now many reviews up on the preliminary site, and many more are in the works. And the games just keep comin' in! We now have more than 40 games in the hopper for review, and we're still getting several new ones each week. There's no way we'll have them all reviewed by the time we open, but that's OK... we'll just add new products at whatever rate we can manage until we catch up. The big thing holding us back right now is the revamped back end... after conducting a review of the different software options available, we've settled on ShopSite, which looks like it's going to work out really well. We're also behind on the Dreamer bios... having seen the way in which small game companies have been filling out our submission form, we've realized that we need to start asking our Dreamers a few more questions. Thus, a set of follow-up questions is now available... if you've submitted a form to us but haven't seen your bio posted yet, please answer these additional questions at your convenience by email or fax. Thanks!

The Time Travel Sweepstakes is developing nicely. We've gotten lots of great entries since announcing it last week, my favorite of which is Ginohn's plan to save John Lennon. Honorable mention goes to Eric Zuckerman, who wanted to go back to ancient Mars for a game of Icehouse; unfortunately, we had to disqualify his entry, since it involves purely fictional history.

Drive is a double edged sword. It brings success, but it also interferes with your ability to relax. People without drive goof off a lot; people with drive feel guilty whenever they aren't being productive.

"I was born to be a cashier." - someone in a recent Home Depot ad

In normal stores, you can only buy that which is currently in fashion. But in thrift stores, you can buy anything from the history of commercial manufacturing (albeit a random sample of that span).