My Etsy Shop

I created an Etsy shop some time ago and did nothing with it for a while then last year we were cleaning out stuff in our house so I listed a bunch of collectible items and some board games that we did not need.  These were all old enough to be considered vintage items.  Eventually they all sold and it seemed to me to be an easier process than going through Ebay.

Now I have started putting up some new hand made items which was the real reason I created the shop in the first place.  The items are all made by me and they are primarily small toys, games and game accessories.  I mainly work in wood but I am also offering some items in acrylic.

The first bunch of items are fidget spinners made from wood or sheet acrylic.  Many of them can be ordered with custom engraved names if desired.  I have also listed my first board game accessory which is a tile board for the game Forbidden Island.

Please take a look.  https://www.etsy.com/shop/RuudAwakening?ref=hdr_shop_menu

Long time without posting

Wow, it has been a long time since I posted anything here, not that I was a prolific poster at best.  Hopefully I can get it in gear and make a habit of posting.

I have a bunch of print and plays that I have completed and I will be sharing those soon.

Print and Play - The madness is growing...

I have been bitten by the "Print and Play" bug!

In December I completed my first PnP, which was a copy of  12 Days.

Since then I have completed playable copies of Pocket Imperium, Squirrel Squabble, Tiny Epic Kingdoms, Witch Hunt and some add on cards for Forbidden Island.

I have begun work on Cooking Party, Smash Monster Rampage, Crush Monster Rampage, Ars Victor and Chunky Fighters.

I am also working on making replacement pieces for my copies of Ogre, GEV, Rivets and Divine Right.

I'll post pictures and more details for each individual game soon.

Print and Play games

I have seen a few "Print and Play" games that I thought looked interesting and I have even gone as far as printing a few of them out.

The other day on Wil Wheaton's Tabletop the featured a game called "12 Days".  It's Christmas themed and based on the song.  It looked like a lot of fun for a fairly simple game and I had a family Christmas party coming up in two days.

After a quick search, it was apparent that I was not going to locate a copy of the game in time for the party.  However, I discovered that the publisher Cheap Ass Games had the game available as a free print and play version.  I printed out the pdf files on a color laser printer and then checked through the house to see what I could use to make some sturdier cards.  I found I had two sheets of poster board from the dollar store that were big enough to do all the cards.

Entered my first Dutch Oven Cook Off

Every month for ten months of the year, the Fox Valley District holds their Round Table meetings for the Cub Scout and Boy Scout leaders.  The last meeting of the year is in June and then we skip July and August.

Our last meeting was last night.  To celebrate the last meeting of the school year, they held a dutch oven cook off outside at the county fairgrounds.  I decided to enter and chose a recipe called "Tortilla Lasagna" than I found at DutchOvenNet.com.  I was up against eight other leaders, most of whom had participated in past years.

There was a shrimp gumbo, chicken cacciatore, venison chili, beef stroganoff, a bratwurst breakfast and three other Mexican dishes.  Two of them were similar to mine.  They were all pretty good and so were the three dessert entries.

There were four judges.  Each scored up to six point in three categories (appearance, smell, and taste).  So the total points possible per judge was 18 and the total possible score was 72.

Any way, I wound up tied for third place with 55 points and second place was only one point ahead of me.  I didn't hear what the point total was for first place, but I was very happy with the result.

Next year I'll have to come up with something different to separate myself from the crowd.

Trackballs

I am a "dyed in the wool" user of Trackballs.  I am sure it started with my first experiences with the Atari Football arcade game and then set in stone by Missile Command.

Back when I got my brand new Amiga 2000, I purchased an Amiga compatible "Mouse-Trak" from ITAC Systems.  It was a great trackball although not extremely ergonomic and definitely not attractive.

ITAC Systems is still around and still selling Mouse-Traks in several flavors.  The Evolution models look much more ergonomic than the older style.  None of these are cheap, but they are built really tough.  I only gave up my Amiga version when my A2000 died and there was no good way to convert the Mouse-Trak to PC use.

A Superior Interpretation of the Rules?

Pinewood Derby, the most well know event in Cub Scouting.  Everyone that was ever in Cub Scouting remembers their Pinewood Derby even if they have forgotten everything else.

Last Saturday was the district pinewood derby.  I spent the whole day helping run the event and I must say that it was a great day and I could see that the boys were having the time of their lives.  So were most of the dads.

Except for a few...

I won't go into the specific details, but there were 4 or 5 cars that did not pass the pre-race inspection because the dads had decided to ignore the rules that had been posted more than a month in advance.  

They are given the chance to correct the violations if possible.  If the violations are not corrected our district still allows the cars to run, but they are excluded from the standings.

I don't understand how any father could do this to their son.  The derby is supposed to be about the fun of building and racing the car.  It is not supposed to be about dad building or buying a car trying to ensure that his son is the one that wins no matter what.

I submit that not winning is probably a more valuable life lesson for a boy than winning.  Especially if he didn't earn it himself.