In honor of the holidays, all of the proceeds I earn from Cahoots! sales through the end of the year will go towards clean water projects via Compassion International. (Obviously, this only includes proceeds I earn - not the share that Apple takes, nor the share due to the game's designer.) So, please take this opportunity to check out a game that I think is great, and support a great cause!
Showing posts with label site news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label site news. Show all posts
A Changing of Seasons
So, for those of you that have followed me for a long time, you're aware that I've now posted over 300 reviews, and been maintaining this site for over three years. While this site started as something that I wrote just for fun, as it has matured, I have had far too many times where it has felt like a chore or an obligation instead of something that I do because I enjoy it. Specifically, here's a Catch-22 that I've found myself in repeatedly: I love getting free games, so I've accepted many review copies, but then when I go to game night, I feel like I have to play the games that I brought, because I "need" to be able to review them. I don't like that. I want to go to game nights and play whatever we feel like playing. At the same time, this site has gotten me caught up in wanting to cover new games that get me extra pageviews instead of older games that I might actually enjoy playing more. That's unfortunate.
Yet, even with these things, I like this site. I've invested a lot of myself into it, and honestly, I'm very proud of it. I don't really want it to die off - yet I desperately need to step away from it for a while. I've been debating exactly what this means. My initial thought was that I was just going to leave this a desolate wasteland for a while - abandoning it, and then coming back and writing more in the future if I felt like I wanted to jump back in later (or there were review copies that I really wanted). Instead, I think that I've found a bit of a better solution. I've talked with one of my guest reviewers - Jim F., and he's going to take over the site for a bit while I step away from it to pursue other interests.
My goal right now is to do a couple of things - enjoy gaming, and have time to also pursue other interests. When it comes to enjoying gaming, I think that this means spending more time playing games that I've already learned, and that other people are wanting to play, instead of trying to convince people to play whatever I have most recently received in the mail. This may lead me to coming back and posting "pimp my game" style posts with pictures of games that I've pimped out, along with the steps for someone to follow suit if they wanted to. It might not. This also means that I'm going to feel less obligation when it comes to reviews. For example, if someone reaches out to me about reviewing their game, it's fine that they send me a copy of their game. However, if I didn't reach out to them, I will no longer feel an obligation to review their game. If it looks cool, I'll play it and write about it; but if it doesn't, then I won't. (At least, that's my plan. It might be hard to tell myself not to feel obligations. But, if you're a publisher, please be aware of this. If you send me an email that says "I've been following your site for a while and...." I'm going to assume you've read this! (I've already made a note of this in the Contact Josh page, but I'm convinced that nobody actually reads it.)) As for other endeavors, you may see some iPhone games come out from me in the future, and I have also started trying to write fiction (short stories). If you're interested in reading the stories that I write, you can check them out at Blast Area Writing. That's a new site that I just started with a friend of mine that was also interested in writing. Please check it out and leave feedback on what you think of our stories. Just like writing reviews, I'm hoping to get better with practice, and feedback on what works in my stories and what doesn't helps me get better.
So, what now? Well, I'm going to disappear for a month. At that point, I may come back. That's my plan - at least to come back occasionally and write a few posts. When (if) I come back, I will probably be more flexible with what I write about - instead of everything being a review or preview, I might re-explore games that I've already reviewed, to give you an updated opinion. I might post "pimp my game" posts. I really don't know - but I want to resume this site being something I enjoy instead of something that I do out of obligation.
Thanks for all of your support over the last three years! And I'll see you after a while!
Yet, even with these things, I like this site. I've invested a lot of myself into it, and honestly, I'm very proud of it. I don't really want it to die off - yet I desperately need to step away from it for a while. I've been debating exactly what this means. My initial thought was that I was just going to leave this a desolate wasteland for a while - abandoning it, and then coming back and writing more in the future if I felt like I wanted to jump back in later (or there were review copies that I really wanted). Instead, I think that I've found a bit of a better solution. I've talked with one of my guest reviewers - Jim F., and he's going to take over the site for a bit while I step away from it to pursue other interests.
My goal right now is to do a couple of things - enjoy gaming, and have time to also pursue other interests. When it comes to enjoying gaming, I think that this means spending more time playing games that I've already learned, and that other people are wanting to play, instead of trying to convince people to play whatever I have most recently received in the mail. This may lead me to coming back and posting "pimp my game" style posts with pictures of games that I've pimped out, along with the steps for someone to follow suit if they wanted to. It might not. This also means that I'm going to feel less obligation when it comes to reviews. For example, if someone reaches out to me about reviewing their game, it's fine that they send me a copy of their game. However, if I didn't reach out to them, I will no longer feel an obligation to review their game. If it looks cool, I'll play it and write about it; but if it doesn't, then I won't. (At least, that's my plan. It might be hard to tell myself not to feel obligations. But, if you're a publisher, please be aware of this. If you send me an email that says "I've been following your site for a while and...." I'm going to assume you've read this! (I've already made a note of this in the Contact Josh page, but I'm convinced that nobody actually reads it.)) As for other endeavors, you may see some iPhone games come out from me in the future, and I have also started trying to write fiction (short stories). If you're interested in reading the stories that I write, you can check them out at Blast Area Writing. That's a new site that I just started with a friend of mine that was also interested in writing. Please check it out and leave feedback on what you think of our stories. Just like writing reviews, I'm hoping to get better with practice, and feedback on what works in my stories and what doesn't helps me get better.
So, what now? Well, I'm going to disappear for a month. At that point, I may come back. That's my plan - at least to come back occasionally and write a few posts. When (if) I come back, I will probably be more flexible with what I write about - instead of everything being a review or preview, I might re-explore games that I've already reviewed, to give you an updated opinion. I might post "pimp my game" posts. I really don't know - but I want to resume this site being something I enjoy instead of something that I do out of obligation.
Thanks for all of your support over the last three years! And I'll see you after a while!
Looking for Board Game Charities
Hello, all. I had a brainstorm yesterday, and it involves charities. As I was thinking about new things that I can do with this blog, one of the things that I've wondered about has been what charities are making use of "my kind" of board games. I've heard about charities that use Chess to teach young children to think ahead. I also know that some public libraries and YMCA branches use board games as a healthy avenue for kids to interact with each other - especially on the blisteringly hot days of summer. I've also heard of the Jack Vasel Fund for gamers in dire straights. But, I don't know much about any of these charities, and I'm sure there are lots of others that I haven't even heard of! (Like, isn't there one known as "Meeples for Peoples" or something like that?)
Do you work with a charity that uses board games in some neat way? If so, I'd love to hear about it! Please tell me about yourself and your charity! Why would you bother? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, I'd love to help spread the word about your charity. If I get actual interest, I would like to create a "featured charity" post every month or so, in which case I will let you do a write up about how awesome your charity is and then I will post it here on the site. This will help more gamers know about what you're doing. Secondly, I have a lot of games. Sometimes, you could even say that some of these games are "extra". Now, I often try to trade games that I don't like, but occasionally I just like to clear the shelves and do something good for the world - and so, if you are able to use my games to make the world a better place, then that sounds like a great deal. (The closer you are to Philly, the better, so that shipping is cheaper for me. Or, if you authorize me to share your address, then I can notify others if they are looking to donate games.) If this is you, then please let me know what kinds of games you can use - do they have to be new, or can you utilize used games? Do you only want kid friendly games, or are more complex strategy games ok?
If you have any more ideas of how I can help your charity, please run those by me as well! I just had the one quick brainstorm, so I figured I would get the discussion rolling - who knows where this might lead (if anywhere)!
Do you work with a charity that uses board games in some neat way? If so, I'd love to hear about it! Please tell me about yourself and your charity! Why would you bother? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, I'd love to help spread the word about your charity. If I get actual interest, I would like to create a "featured charity" post every month or so, in which case I will let you do a write up about how awesome your charity is and then I will post it here on the site. This will help more gamers know about what you're doing. Secondly, I have a lot of games. Sometimes, you could even say that some of these games are "extra". Now, I often try to trade games that I don't like, but occasionally I just like to clear the shelves and do something good for the world - and so, if you are able to use my games to make the world a better place, then that sounds like a great deal. (The closer you are to Philly, the better, so that shipping is cheaper for me. Or, if you authorize me to share your address, then I can notify others if they are looking to donate games.) If this is you, then please let me know what kinds of games you can use - do they have to be new, or can you utilize used games? Do you only want kid friendly games, or are more complex strategy games ok?
If you have any more ideas of how I can help your charity, please run those by me as well! I just had the one quick brainstorm, so I figured I would get the discussion rolling - who knows where this might lead (if anywhere)!
Hive Review
Ok, we need to start this review off with a confession: I've already reviewed Hive here. In fact, it was one of my first reviews. Unfortunately, in my early reviews I was very eager to write as many reviews as I could (and did so on most of the really popular games), but I wasn't very good at diving into what made a game good or bad (of course, this is good or bad in my opinion). Hopefully in the year or more that I've been writing this blog now, I've developed a better writing style. Because of this, I'm going to start occasionally "archiving" some of these older reviews; starting with Hive. This essentially means that I'm going to rename the old post to have "Archive" in the title instead of Review, and will remove it from the alphabetical review list. I will also make a note on the original post linking it to the newer review. With all that said, let me start telling you about how great of a game Hive is!
In Hive, each player takes on the role of an insect swarm attempting to capture their opponent's queen (who, obviously, must be a usurper to their queen's throne). To do this, you alternate taking turns - which consist of placing new insects (you cannot touch your opponent's pieces with the newly placed insect) or moving an existing piece. And, so that you don't hide your queen forever, she must be placed in one of your first three turns. Now to the insects. Your insect horde consists of grasshoppers, spiders (yes, yes, they're not "officially" insects, but you'll have to ignore that), beetles, ants, and (of course) the queen bee. Grasshoppers jump directly across a line, spiders move exactly three spaces, beetles move one space (but can move on top of other pieces), ants can move to any space along the outside of the game, and the queen can move exactly one space. Play continues back and forth until one queen is surrounded.
The first thing that I like about Hive is the way that you can trap your opponent's pieces. Specifically, one of the movement rules restricts anyone from splitting the hive into two disconnected sections. This allows a shrewd player to move a piece (such as an ant) to where it is only touching one single piece - the piece he doesn't want his opponent to move. Once you have moved your piece into position, your opponent will no longer be able to move that piece because he would split the hive; he at least cannot move it until he brings other pieces along to reshape the hive.
The next thing that I like about Hive is the fact that the queen can move. She is often hindered by one of the other movement rules - you cannot move any pieces except the beetle and the grasshopper into a place that they cannot slide into. Hive is played with hexagonal shaped tiles, and thus you can create "choke points" where a piece is not able to slide in (by surrounding most of the sides of the position you want to block). This rule will often prevent the queen (who is normally at least partially surrounded... after all, that is the point of the game) from moving. However, when she is able to move, you can often completely throw your opponent's strategy into disarray. They will be stuck desperately trying to reposition their units while you capitalize by (hopefully) surrounding their queen!
The next thing I like about Hive is related to the actual components of the game itself. The game is incredibly portable and also a great tactile experience - and all with no setup time. The game (at least the edition I purchased) comes with a travel bag, which allows for the game to be thrown into a backpack and carried with you. If you also factor in the fact that there is no board, the game can be easily setup anywhere ("coffee shop") and play can begin as soon as the pieces are separated. Finally, the high quality tiles themselves make the game feel classy.
The final pro that I will mention about Hive is that I like the differences in the insects. Each piece is useful, but in very different ways. The person who wins the game will be the person who is best able to capitalize on the strengths of each piece. The easiest strategy to grasp is the ants, as it's fairly apparent that their speed allows them to move quickly to trap enemy pieces or to fill some of the spaces around an opposing queen. However, once you master some of the more subtle strategies such as moving a beetle on top of an opponent's piece so that you can start placing next to it, your play of Hive will advance to another level. I cannot say that I am incredibly skilled at Hive, but I do enjoy getting to challenge myself by finding new strategies and watching my opponents counter me at every move.
Now one thing that you need to be aware of with Hive is that there is no random element to the game. There is no dice rolling, nor is there any shuffling and random draw. Similar to chess (and many abstract strategy games like Yinsh and Pentago), every facet of the game is completely visible to both players and so Hive is a challenge to see which player can out-think the other - not which player can out-roll the other. I personally like some element of random chance in games, but I can also appreciate games like Hive which are completely strategy based; as long as they are fast paced, which Hive is.
Overall, I give Hive an 8.5/10. I think that it is a masterful game that you should look to try out (if you haven't already).
If you want another opinion on this game, check out this Hive Review from the Board Game Family. Or if you have already decided that you like Hive, you might also be interested in checking out Atlanteon, Abalone, Gipf, and Rise!
Surprise Giveaway #1
So, a time comes in every gamers life when he looks at the closet and realizes - in order to get more games, I either need to buy a bigger closet or clear out some of the games currently present. And therefore - it was time for a giveaway.
The last few giveaways have been boring - do this, do that, etc. But this time, I really wanted to show appreciation to my followers for being just that - people that follow my site (not the Johnny-Come-Lately's that follow me only to get free stuff... though if you started following me from a previous giveaway, I love you too), whether it would be on Facebook, Twitter, etc. So, without notice, I decided to pick a random Twitter follower to receive a free game. How? I posted a message saying that the first person to respond would get a free game! Who is it? Congratulations to @eltorothedeep. He can pick from any of the following games: (keep in mind that many of these are review copies, or games that I have played and reviewed, so most of them are used)
Back to the Future The Card Game
Carcassone
City Square Off
Fealty
Fluxx
Kamakura
Liar's Dice
Loch Ness
Multiplayer Pentago
Munchkin
Nightfall
Ploy
Quadrago
Quinto
Ranking
Repello
Resident Evil: Deck Building Game - Alliance
Rise!
Twixt
Congratulations! Will there be more giveaways like this? I really don't know yet. Either way, thanks to all of my followers out there for being great and helping my site continue to grow!
The last few giveaways have been boring - do this, do that, etc. But this time, I really wanted to show appreciation to my followers for being just that - people that follow my site (not the Johnny-Come-Lately's that follow me only to get free stuff... though if you started following me from a previous giveaway, I love you too), whether it would be on Facebook, Twitter, etc. So, without notice, I decided to pick a random Twitter follower to receive a free game. How? I posted a message saying that the first person to respond would get a free game! Who is it? Congratulations to @eltorothedeep. He can pick from any of the following games: (keep in mind that many of these are review copies, or games that I have played and reviewed, so most of them are used)
Back to the Future The Card Game
Carcassone
City Square Off
Fealty
Fluxx
Kamakura
Liar's Dice
Loch Ness
Multiplayer Pentago
Munchkin
Nightfall
Ploy
Quadrago
Quinto
Ranking
Repello
Resident Evil: Deck Building Game - Alliance
Rise!
Twixt
Congratulations! Will there be more giveaways like this? I really don't know yet. Either way, thanks to all of my followers out there for being great and helping my site continue to grow!
Stacket Mini-Review
So, this is my very first "mini-review." Some games I really want to write about, but there's simply not that much to say about them. Now, instead of attempting to make up large (somewhat pointless) paragraphs, I'll simply label it a mini-review, and say what needs to be said. This will probably be used on simple games (like Stacket) or on expansions that don't add too many new elements to a game that I had previously reviewed (but are still worth talking about). Anyway, I just figured that I would explain what I meant by that term.
Today's review is of a little game called Stacket (or as I like to call it "Backwards Jenga"). In Stacket, players take turns adding a new piece to the ever increasing (and leaning) pile of miscellaneous wooden shapes. That's a bit too easy, though, so each time that you add a new piece, you have to make it touch the previously placed piece. If you knock off any of the previous pieces when attempting to place the new one, you lose! (And everyone else points and laughs; unless you're playing my (just now made up) "Family Variant" in which they laugh to themselves, but with no pointing.)
 |
| A leaning tower |
There is one giant con with Stacket. It is a huge pain to try to put away. All of the odd shaped pieces are supposed to fit nicely together into the plastic briefcase-shaped box. However, this will probably not work very well on the first try (unless you've lost a lot of the pieces). After each game of Stacket, I normally spend 1-5 minutes moving pieces around hoping to successfully shut the lid in what amounts to a giant 3D puzzle.
Overall, I give Stacket an 8.0/10. I think that it is a fun game that is easily accessible to anyone. It won't appeal to a lot of the strategy gamers that read my blog, but I think that it would appeal to a lot more people than most anything that I normally review. Whereas the game is "officially" aimed at people 13+, I think that this would be a great game to play with kids 7 and above.
If you like dexterity games, you might also like PitchCar, Caveman Curling, and Fastrack.
I would like to thank Evertide Games for providing me with a review copy of Stacket - which, as of this writing, is available on Kickstarter.
Top Ten Abstract Strategy Board Games - January 2012
So recently I have been debating what I want to do with this site. I enjoy writing reviews, and I still intend for that to be the bulk of my posts. However, one thing that I've heard from some of my readers is that they like when I compare games to each other. Also, I got to spend some time with Jason from Play Board Games recently, and he encouraged me to start writing "Top Ten" lists - he said that they're both fun to write and engaging to readers. So, why not? Feel free to add comments to my Top Ten, missed games, and whether you like the addition of Top Tens to the site!
Some of these games I have reviewed, and some I haven't. If I've reviewed it, I'll give you the link to my review (instead of the normal link to Amazon, but feel free to use this Amazon link and search for any of these games in the search bar). If I haven't reviewed some of these yet, I'll try to get around to writing one for you! And, since I just completed my self proclaimed "Abstract Strategy Month" of December, what better place to start than...
Any of these could have easily made the list, as they are all solid titles, but the real question would be - what do I take off of it in their place?
I hope you enjoyed my inaugural Top Ten list. Feel free to leave comments and let me know what you think I got right, and where you think I was way off! (As a note, I've never actually played Go, if you're wondering how it got completely left off of the list.)
Some of these games I have reviewed, and some I haven't. If I've reviewed it, I'll give you the link to my review (instead of the normal link to Amazon, but feel free to use this Amazon link and search for any of these games in the search bar). If I haven't reviewed some of these yet, I'll try to get around to writing one for you! And, since I just completed my self proclaimed "Abstract Strategy Month" of December, what better place to start than...
Top Ten Abstract Strategy Games!!
10. Tsuro
Simple but enjoyable. This may be the only abstract strategy game that I know of that can support up to 8 players!9. Stomple
Gorgeous and engaging. This game is perfect for anyone with children, but the amount of luck involved in your initial setup keeps it from placing higher.8. Abalone
This is basically sumo wrestling as an abstract strategy game. It can be incredible fun, but can also become tedious if you and your opponent are too experienced at it, if you are both able to avoid getting any pieces knocked off the board.7. Jin Li
One of my surprise finds of 2011 was Jin Li. Having never heard of the game before I was given a copy, I quickly fell in love. Surprising depth with very brief rules, I wound up buying the iPhone version so that I could play it when I needed a 3-minute break.6. Hive
One of my very first reviews, Hive is the game on this list closest to having a theme, but it's paper thinness allows it to still land on the list. Simply a brilliant game (another one that I've bought for my iPhone) of attempting to surround your opponent's queen.5. Yinsh
The Gipf project finally cracks the list with what many believe to be the best game in the series. Unfortunately, it's up against some brilliant competition both from other games in the Gipf project, and some outsiders. Still, Yinsh combines some beautiful gameplay elements to make for a great experience!4. Hey, That's My Fish!
A game that can be enjoyed by everyone, I would recommend that everyone buy a copy of Hey, That's My Fish since you can currently buy it for around $12 from Fantasy Flight. The setup time (especially in comparison to the actual gameplay time) is the biggest downside, which is why I have converted most of my time with this game to playing it on the iPad. However, anyone with children take note - this is a great game that you can play with kids, and I've played it with kids as young as 4, who were still able to understand and enjoy the game.3. Pentago
Mindtwister USA's flagship game really is a prototypical example of what I look for in an abstract strategy game - easy to teach, easy to transport, and many levels of strategic depth. "Play one, twist one, try to get five in a row." It's much deeper than it initially appears.2. Gipf
Yes, I should post a review about this one. The original game from the Gipf project, Gipf is an amazing game. It combines elements of pushing and matching pieces into a brilliant, amazing, and exciting game. (I'm running out of adjectives - I love all of the games on this list!)1. Dvonn
A game that I gave a score of 8.5 to tops the list? Yeah - I always say to read the text and not to focus on scores, and this is a perfect example. I love Dvonn. Love it. What's more, the setup and the teardown of the game are the game allowing for essentially no downtime with either of these activities. Some people disagree, but I think that the ever-collapsing board makes for a great play experience!Honorable Mention
Rise, Tzaar, Ingenious, Multiplayer Pentago, Cityscape.Any of these could have easily made the list, as they are all solid titles, but the real question would be - what do I take off of it in their place?
I hope you enjoyed my inaugural Top Ten list. Feel free to leave comments and let me know what you think I got right, and where you think I was way off! (As a note, I've never actually played Go, if you're wondering how it got completely left off of the list.)
Tornadoes: Six Months Later
November 22, 2011 is the six month anniversary of tornadoes devastating the city of Joplin - so I figured it might be a good time to give you guys an update of what all has happened since that date.
The City
A lot of rebuilding has taken place. Commercially, Wal-Mart, Aldi's, Walgreen's (two locations), Wendy's, Chick-Fil-A and several other stores have been rebuilt and are already open. It's really amazing to think of some of these and how quickly they were rebuilt. Chick-Fil-A was one of the fastest. I believe that it reopened it's doors (after being completely leveled and rebuilt from the ground up) on September 1.
Most of the debris haul off has happened. There are still pockets of debris around the city - such as St. John's hospital and Joplin High School, which I believe are both still standing in roughly the same condition as when they were initially hit. The government helped pay for the Army Corps of Engineers to come and oversee this cleanup - specifically for the residential districts. It was impressive to see how quickly the residential debris was removed.
Many people's houses have been repaired. Not everyone by any means, but every day you hear about more people who have finally completed the last repair on their house - whether that is the windows, the carpets, the roof, the ceilings, or something else. Construction crews are still backlogged between the repairs and the new construction, but you can see that progress is being made. Speaking of new construction, there are several new houses that have been completed. It's very odd to drive along a street that used to have a neighborhood on either side and see a brand new house standing every few streets (with nothing in between).
One area that the city of Joplin has done a remarkable job with is their public schools. School was started on time! The High School is temporarily located inside of the mall. The Elementary schools have been shuffled around, but all Elementary students are still attending. Something else that Joplin is doing is that they are busing in students who were relocated in the surrounding areas (I don't know if this is still going on, but I had heard that it was at one point). If you were in Joplin public schools before the tornado, then you are allowed to stay enrolled in Joplin public schools now - regardless of what city you are actually living in at the moment. This means that kids can continue attending school with their friends, which I think is important.
The Games
So, a ton of you sent me games to keep after the storm, or to give to others that were affected. I did my best to find great homes for them (sometimes that meant mine ; ) )! If I were to estimate, I would guess that I received between 100-150 games after the tornado (ballpark guess). I gave them away to everyone I could find that was affected and that I knew played games! The distribution centers were all swamped with donations, and so they would not accept any from me (those of you that mailed games in, don't worry, they didn't turn these down). My friends who run Hurley's Heroes had the same situation that I did, but with comics that were sent to them. This hit the local news, and the Hurleys set up a day that they would open their doors and anyone could come pick through the comics that were donated and take any of them for free! I strong-armed them into letting me give games away at the same time! (It didn't take much convincing - they are very generous people.) I gave away an estimated 25-75 games just on that one day (I don't really have a "record keeping technique"). My favorite quote from all of this was when I heard a lady that had grabbed 3-4 games say "this is going to restore game night at my house." That was wonderful! And, when I kept eavesdropping, I realized that her house was only a block from where mine was. Hers must have been completely demolished as well.
In addition, for more "gamer" games, I asked around the game stores for who all was affected by the tornado, and I tried to give a handful of games to anyone that I heard about. Some that I thought would have a broader (and specifically teenage) appeal I donated to the public library. Finally, some of them were sold with the money going to tornado victims in various ways. The bulk of those sold were in the quarterly auction held at Changing Hands Book Shoppe. The proprietors of the store, John and Susie, were in what I consider to be the worst possible area in Joplin - the area in which your home wasn't completely destroyed (which allows you to either move on or rebuild), but their house was damaged incredibly badly; just short of being deemed "totaled." The worst part? They (like many others) had to live in their house while it was being repaired - or while they were waiting for repairmen. The less publicized crummy part? I'm sure that their business suffered and made very little money for the few months immediately after the tornado, since games are a luxury item. So, after consulting with John, we decided that as a surprise to Susie we would sell in the auction about 5-10 of the games that were donated, and we would give the proceeds to them - to do whatever they wanted. I wanted finances to be at least one thing that they didn't have to worry about. Everyone present at the auction really stepped up their bidding on each of those items, and most of them went for almost full retail price! It was great to get to bless John and Susie (after we tracked her down - she kept disappearing with tears in her eyes. And, in case you're wondering, Susie was able to use some of the money to go down to Houston to visit her grand-baby. I doubt that there is anything more exciting for a new Grandmother.)
My Family
So, my wife and I have had an interesting journey. From May 23 - (approximately) August 1, we stayed with friends. We bounced around a decent amount during this time, and even went down to Houston to stay with my best friend from college for a bit. This was a very trying time for both of us, but I believe it was much harder on Anna than it was on me. She struggled a lot during this time, as nowhere was ever home. On August 1 (Monday the week of GenCon!) we were able to move into our friend's garage apartment. It is quite nice, and more than anything, it was nice to actually have a place where we can stay, pay rent, and feel like we're not imposing. He was gracious enough to leave it furnished so that all we needed to bring was a bed! This really helped us, as it allowed us to wait until we knew what we were doing longer term before buying things like furniture. This is where we are currently staying.
On December 15, we move to Philadelphia! The most common question I hear is, "Why Philly?" Well, first you need to understand that our plan was not to stay in Joplin long-term. Both myself and my wife are from large cities, and we both missed the big city feel when living in Joplin. We were planning on moving in two years, but after the tornado we decided to move those plans ahead instead of re-rooting ourselves in Joplin and making it hard to move later. So, no, we aren't running from tornadoes or anything like that - the plan was to leave all along. Now back to "Why Philly?" Well, I like my job (most of the time). I like the people that I work with (no qualifier). I can do my same job with the same people from one of our offices that is located just outside of Philly. I will take my laptop and resume work just as if nothing had changed - I'll simply be switching what part of my team is local and what part is remote. We are quite excited about it - from each of our visits to Philly, the city seems amazing, and we're also ready to feel like we are staying somewhere more "long-term." I'm also incredibly nervous and scared! It's the farthest north I've ever lived, and it's also about 1,000 miles from what I'm used to. The Northeast has a completely different lifestyle than the Midwest, and I'm both excited and nervous about that change. For one, I'm planning on taking public transportation to work! I've never done that! (Oh, and I am looking for gamers in the Washington Square area of Philly - if you are one or if you know one, please drop me a note.)
Conclusion
Life gets crazy sometimes. I'm very glad that my wife has been by my side through all of this, and hopefully I have provided her some strength, too. We continue to both be incredibly grateful that we were on vacation when the tornado hit - some of our neighbors have told us that they are still having nightmares, and I would imagine that this will continue for quite some time. I want to thank you all for the support that you sent me to help with the tornado, the games that you sent, the prayers that were raised, and just sympathizing with our city's pain. Tons of people that I've never met also came to Joplin to volunteer - I want to thank them. More than anything, thanks for caring about people that you have never met. If nothing else, one of the main things I've learned through all of this is that, just because the news has stopped covering something, doesn't mean that the pain has stopped.
Now let's get back to board games!
The City
A lot of rebuilding has taken place. Commercially, Wal-Mart, Aldi's, Walgreen's (two locations), Wendy's, Chick-Fil-A and several other stores have been rebuilt and are already open. It's really amazing to think of some of these and how quickly they were rebuilt. Chick-Fil-A was one of the fastest. I believe that it reopened it's doors (after being completely leveled and rebuilt from the ground up) on September 1.
Most of the debris haul off has happened. There are still pockets of debris around the city - such as St. John's hospital and Joplin High School, which I believe are both still standing in roughly the same condition as when they were initially hit. The government helped pay for the Army Corps of Engineers to come and oversee this cleanup - specifically for the residential districts. It was impressive to see how quickly the residential debris was removed.
Many people's houses have been repaired. Not everyone by any means, but every day you hear about more people who have finally completed the last repair on their house - whether that is the windows, the carpets, the roof, the ceilings, or something else. Construction crews are still backlogged between the repairs and the new construction, but you can see that progress is being made. Speaking of new construction, there are several new houses that have been completed. It's very odd to drive along a street that used to have a neighborhood on either side and see a brand new house standing every few streets (with nothing in between).
One area that the city of Joplin has done a remarkable job with is their public schools. School was started on time! The High School is temporarily located inside of the mall. The Elementary schools have been shuffled around, but all Elementary students are still attending. Something else that Joplin is doing is that they are busing in students who were relocated in the surrounding areas (I don't know if this is still going on, but I had heard that it was at one point). If you were in Joplin public schools before the tornado, then you are allowed to stay enrolled in Joplin public schools now - regardless of what city you are actually living in at the moment. This means that kids can continue attending school with their friends, which I think is important.
The Games
So, a ton of you sent me games to keep after the storm, or to give to others that were affected. I did my best to find great homes for them (sometimes that meant mine ; ) )! If I were to estimate, I would guess that I received between 100-150 games after the tornado (ballpark guess). I gave them away to everyone I could find that was affected and that I knew played games! The distribution centers were all swamped with donations, and so they would not accept any from me (those of you that mailed games in, don't worry, they didn't turn these down). My friends who run Hurley's Heroes had the same situation that I did, but with comics that were sent to them. This hit the local news, and the Hurleys set up a day that they would open their doors and anyone could come pick through the comics that were donated and take any of them for free! I strong-armed them into letting me give games away at the same time! (It didn't take much convincing - they are very generous people.) I gave away an estimated 25-75 games just on that one day (I don't really have a "record keeping technique"). My favorite quote from all of this was when I heard a lady that had grabbed 3-4 games say "this is going to restore game night at my house." That was wonderful! And, when I kept eavesdropping, I realized that her house was only a block from where mine was. Hers must have been completely demolished as well.
In addition, for more "gamer" games, I asked around the game stores for who all was affected by the tornado, and I tried to give a handful of games to anyone that I heard about. Some that I thought would have a broader (and specifically teenage) appeal I donated to the public library. Finally, some of them were sold with the money going to tornado victims in various ways. The bulk of those sold were in the quarterly auction held at Changing Hands Book Shoppe. The proprietors of the store, John and Susie, were in what I consider to be the worst possible area in Joplin - the area in which your home wasn't completely destroyed (which allows you to either move on or rebuild), but their house was damaged incredibly badly; just short of being deemed "totaled." The worst part? They (like many others) had to live in their house while it was being repaired - or while they were waiting for repairmen. The less publicized crummy part? I'm sure that their business suffered and made very little money for the few months immediately after the tornado, since games are a luxury item. So, after consulting with John, we decided that as a surprise to Susie we would sell in the auction about 5-10 of the games that were donated, and we would give the proceeds to them - to do whatever they wanted. I wanted finances to be at least one thing that they didn't have to worry about. Everyone present at the auction really stepped up their bidding on each of those items, and most of them went for almost full retail price! It was great to get to bless John and Susie (after we tracked her down - she kept disappearing with tears in her eyes. And, in case you're wondering, Susie was able to use some of the money to go down to Houston to visit her grand-baby. I doubt that there is anything more exciting for a new Grandmother.)
My Family
So, my wife and I have had an interesting journey. From May 23 - (approximately) August 1, we stayed with friends. We bounced around a decent amount during this time, and even went down to Houston to stay with my best friend from college for a bit. This was a very trying time for both of us, but I believe it was much harder on Anna than it was on me. She struggled a lot during this time, as nowhere was ever home. On August 1 (Monday the week of GenCon!) we were able to move into our friend's garage apartment. It is quite nice, and more than anything, it was nice to actually have a place where we can stay, pay rent, and feel like we're not imposing. He was gracious enough to leave it furnished so that all we needed to bring was a bed! This really helped us, as it allowed us to wait until we knew what we were doing longer term before buying things like furniture. This is where we are currently staying.
On December 15, we move to Philadelphia! The most common question I hear is, "Why Philly?" Well, first you need to understand that our plan was not to stay in Joplin long-term. Both myself and my wife are from large cities, and we both missed the big city feel when living in Joplin. We were planning on moving in two years, but after the tornado we decided to move those plans ahead instead of re-rooting ourselves in Joplin and making it hard to move later. So, no, we aren't running from tornadoes or anything like that - the plan was to leave all along. Now back to "Why Philly?" Well, I like my job (most of the time). I like the people that I work with (no qualifier). I can do my same job with the same people from one of our offices that is located just outside of Philly. I will take my laptop and resume work just as if nothing had changed - I'll simply be switching what part of my team is local and what part is remote. We are quite excited about it - from each of our visits to Philly, the city seems amazing, and we're also ready to feel like we are staying somewhere more "long-term." I'm also incredibly nervous and scared! It's the farthest north I've ever lived, and it's also about 1,000 miles from what I'm used to. The Northeast has a completely different lifestyle than the Midwest, and I'm both excited and nervous about that change. For one, I'm planning on taking public transportation to work! I've never done that! (Oh, and I am looking for gamers in the Washington Square area of Philly - if you are one or if you know one, please drop me a note.)
Conclusion
Life gets crazy sometimes. I'm very glad that my wife has been by my side through all of this, and hopefully I have provided her some strength, too. We continue to both be incredibly grateful that we were on vacation when the tornado hit - some of our neighbors have told us that they are still having nightmares, and I would imagine that this will continue for quite some time. I want to thank you all for the support that you sent me to help with the tornado, the games that you sent, the prayers that were raised, and just sympathizing with our city's pain. Tons of people that I've never met also came to Joplin to volunteer - I want to thank them. More than anything, thanks for caring about people that you have never met. If nothing else, one of the main things I've learned through all of this is that, just because the news has stopped covering something, doesn't mean that the pain has stopped.
Now let's get back to board games!
RIP Hurley's Heroes Giveaway #2
As many of you who have followed my blog for a while are aware, one of the game stores in Joplin that I frequented has decided to stop selling games. Because of this, and the fact that I enjoyed their store, I made a deal with them to buy their remaining stock. Why? Well, first off because I wanted to support them. Secondly, because I wanted to use them for giveaway prizes - you know, as a vain attempt to increase my stats. Therefore, this giveaway could also be called...
The quest for 1,000!
Here's how it works: I think it would be really cool to have 1,000 Twitter and 1,000 Facebook followers. Because of this, I am going to bribe you to follow me! (I prefer that you continue following me after the giveaway - I'll tell you about cool reviews and such, but if you don't want to, I understand).
The details
At 500, 750, and 1,000 followers for each site, I will give away one game. I will run the contest until I either reach 1,000 for each site, or until November 18, whichever comes first. And, so that nobody feel cheated, I will give away a game on November 18 to a follower on each site if that site hasn't yet received 1,000 followers. That means, regardless of if I lose followers or gain followers, I will give at least one game away to my followers on each site. But, if we get to 1,000 on each site, I will give away six games for free!What games can you choose from? Here's the list:
Dominion: Intrigue
Nightfall
Vegas Showdown
Munchkin
Castle Ravenloft
Resident Evil Deck building Game
Resident Evil: Alliance
Fluxx
Back to the Future: Card Game
Who's eligible? Anyone. You can live in or out of the United States (though I'm cheap and prefer that someone inside the U.S. wins - I won't stack it, though). You can know me personally, work for a game store, game publisher, etc.
How will you be notified? I will post the winner at the very least on the site where that winner is following me. I will probably also post it as a comment on this post. I will try several times to make contact with the winner, but if after what I consider to be a reasonable effort I can't get ahold of them, I will pick a new winner!
Remember - the more people that enter, the more games I give away. This means that (though you don't have to - in fact, you can follow me on Twitter for an entry without even sharing it with your friends), the more friends that you tell, the better your odds are that you or one of your friends gets a game!
Questions? Feel free to post them here, or to email me. Thanks, and good luck!
Sending The Resistance to US Troops in Afghanistan
So, when I returned home from GenCon, I returned with a little game called The Resistance. The Resistance is a game that we quickly fell in love with in our office (and you can read my full review of it here).
We played this game dozens of times each day any time that we could - lunch breaks, after work, etc. One day as we were thinking about when we should play next, my boss (who was previously in the military) mentioned that this was a game that he would have loved to play while he was deployed. Immediately, a plan developed. Using some of his contacts in the military, we have been placed in contact with deployed troops in Afghanistan to whom we can send games. Using my contacts in the board game industry, I managed to negotiate (beg) a special rate for buying The Resistance in bulk from the generous people at Indie Boards & Cards. Our goal is to buy them by the 24 game case!
What's left? Funding! Without help, our office will hopefully be able to send an entire case of The Resistance to US troops deployed in Afghanistan. With your help, we can hopefully make this much higher! So that I am not doing this forever, however, I am also setting an end date. With this month being the 10 year anniversary of 9/11, and thus the fact that the US has had troops in Afghanistan for 10 years, I figure that this is a good month to raise funds. Therefore, donations will be accepted until the end of the month, and I will send as many copies as I can on October 1, 2011.
Do you want to help? If so, you can donate to help the cause on PayPal. All you have to do is go to PayPal and donate money to the email address we have set up: TheResistanceForTroops@gmail.com.
Thanks!!
We played this game dozens of times each day any time that we could - lunch breaks, after work, etc. One day as we were thinking about when we should play next, my boss (who was previously in the military) mentioned that this was a game that he would have loved to play while he was deployed. Immediately, a plan developed. Using some of his contacts in the military, we have been placed in contact with deployed troops in Afghanistan to whom we can send games. Using my contacts in the board game industry, I managed to negotiate (beg) a special rate for buying The Resistance in bulk from the generous people at Indie Boards & Cards. Our goal is to buy them by the 24 game case!
What's left? Funding! Without help, our office will hopefully be able to send an entire case of The Resistance to US troops deployed in Afghanistan. With your help, we can hopefully make this much higher! So that I am not doing this forever, however, I am also setting an end date. With this month being the 10 year anniversary of 9/11, and thus the fact that the US has had troops in Afghanistan for 10 years, I figure that this is a good month to raise funds. Therefore, donations will be accepted until the end of the month, and I will send as many copies as I can on October 1, 2011.
Do you want to help? If so, you can donate to help the cause on PayPal. All you have to do is go to PayPal and donate money to the email address we have set up: TheResistanceForTroops@gmail.com.
Thanks!!
RIP Hurley's Heroes Giveaway #1 Winners
So, first of all, thank you to all of you for entering my giveaway! I hope that even if you don't win, you enjoy my reviews and that you are glad to have discovered my site. Now for the numbers... We had 216 Facebook entries, 58 Blogger Follower entries, and 30 Entries by adding a link - for 304 total entries! So, as promised, two winners!
The first winner is: Blogger Follower "Korey". Korey, please post a comment on this blog (which will not be published, I'll be the only one to see it) with your email address so that I can verify that I'm sending it to the correct person, and so that you can tell me which game you want and where to send it to.
The second winner is: Facebook Fan Bill Fogarty. Bill, please leave your email address as a comment as well (again, this will not be published), and then I will have you confirm your identity on Facebook to ensure that I am contacting the right person. You will have your choice of any of the games that Korey did not select.
Thanks again to all who entered, and please keep reading the site for more Board Game Reviews (by Josh)!
The first winner is: Blogger Follower "Korey". Korey, please post a comment on this blog (which will not be published, I'll be the only one to see it) with your email address so that I can verify that I'm sending it to the correct person, and so that you can tell me which game you want and where to send it to.
The second winner is: Facebook Fan Bill Fogarty. Bill, please leave your email address as a comment as well (again, this will not be published), and then I will have you confirm your identity on Facebook to ensure that I am contacting the right person. You will have your choice of any of the games that Korey did not select.
Thanks again to all who entered, and please keep reading the site for more Board Game Reviews (by Josh)!
Tornadoes: Two Weeks Later
Well, this one probably won't be as exciting of a read as the last two posts (no shocking new pictures, or startling revelations), but for those of you who are concerned with what is going on, I figured it would be good to give you an update.
I have also seen some construction beginning already - but it was in the fringe areas that were damaged, not in the center of the destruction; after all, until the land is cleared, there won't be any construction that can begin. Oh, right, and the city has started to smell bad in the parts that were hit. Lots of frozen turkeys and other kinds of meat that are suddenly in 95 degree weather instead of the freezer - you do the math.
Finally, city news related, the official missing persons list is now down to zero people. Everyone that was on the list has now been accounted for. Unfortunately, I hear rumors of people that they keep finding that weren't on the missing persons list. It's very unfortunate.
At some point I'm going to have to go back to work. "Life goes on," right? Well, I have been hemorrhaging my vacation time since this started, and so I'm hoping to go back to work sometime next week. I can't honestly say that I'm excited or looking forward to going back (though I normally don't mind my job), but either way I need to return. Maybe it will give me a sense of normalcy in all of this. But I don't honestly expect to experience that until July once we've moved into the apartment.
On the insurance front, things seem to be going well. We have received our payment for the house, for external structures, our first check for personal property (we should get more once we send them the itemized list of what we owned - yeah, everything that we owned), and a check to cover a year's worth of rent. Though, honestly, we probably won't spend most of this money for a while (aside from obviously having paid off the mortgage). Our current plan is to wait a few months and then try to decide what we want to do for long-term living arrangements; whether we want to buy a new house in Joplin, or whether we want to move somewhere else.
Since my car got totaled, Anna (my wife) has been asking me what kind of car I want to buy to replace it. I honestly have no idea. I've never been a car guy (which is ironic, as this is one of my Dad's primary hobbies), and so I've always just driven whatever I wound up getting for cheap. This often meant whatever my Dad was able to find a good deal on. Once I go back to work, getting a car will probably become the most pressing need, as I will need it to drive back and forth to work without leaving Anna stranded at the house.
With that said, hopefully this will be my last Tornado-specific update. If life starts returning to normal, I hope to have this site return to normal with it. I have been able to play some new games (like Hey, That's My Fish!, Chaostle, and the Lord of the Rings LCG) which I'm hoping to review at some point, and I am receiving a lot of new titles that I also look forward to trying. With that said, I will make a confession that I've made a few times before - my posts (for game reviews) are often games that I reviewed quite some time ago. I try to write the review when the game is fresh in my mind, but I also try to have my posts occur on a somewhat regular interval. Because of this, I have quite a few "drafts" that are already ready to post (for games such as Aquarius, Lunch Money: Sticks and Stones, Talisman, and many others). So, even if I'm not able to start posting new reviews for the next few weeks, I should be able to post some of these for you to read until I'm able to get some new ones written.
Joplin
In Joplin, some wheels have started turning. I know of a City Meeting tomorrow (Monday) at 6:00 PM at the local University's basketball arena. They have encouraged anyone who experienced damage to attend, and if that actually occurs, it means that the traffic and seating will be atrocious. Nevertheless, they are supposed to have some paperwork there that property owners (me) can sign to give the city permission to start clearing the land. That's good. I have heard that the Army Corps of Engineers is supposed to be coming to help clear it, and that the Federal Government is funding 90% of the cleanup costs (as of last time I heard, it hadn't been determined if the city or the state was covering the other 10%).I have also seen some construction beginning already - but it was in the fringe areas that were damaged, not in the center of the destruction; after all, until the land is cleared, there won't be any construction that can begin. Oh, right, and the city has started to smell bad in the parts that were hit. Lots of frozen turkeys and other kinds of meat that are suddenly in 95 degree weather instead of the freezer - you do the math.
Finally, city news related, the official missing persons list is now down to zero people. Everyone that was on the list has now been accounted for. Unfortunately, I hear rumors of people that they keep finding that weren't on the missing persons list. It's very unfortunate.
Josh
Now for what's going on with me. We spent a couple of days last week looking for a place to call "home." Lots of people have asked us recently what we need, and first and foremost, we need a place where we feel like we belong - and not just as guests. Don't get me wrong, the family that I'm staying with has been beyond accommodating, but after a couple of weeks, you really start to feel like it would be better if you found a more permanent place to stay. Fortunately, I think that things are going to work out so that we have a garage apartment that is mostly furnished that we can rent starting in early July. That will be nice. It's a bit of a drive from Joplin (30 minutes to work instead of the 5 that it used to be), but that's probably for the best right now as it is very depressing to drive through the city at the moment.At some point I'm going to have to go back to work. "Life goes on," right? Well, I have been hemorrhaging my vacation time since this started, and so I'm hoping to go back to work sometime next week. I can't honestly say that I'm excited or looking forward to going back (though I normally don't mind my job), but either way I need to return. Maybe it will give me a sense of normalcy in all of this. But I don't honestly expect to experience that until July once we've moved into the apartment.
On the insurance front, things seem to be going well. We have received our payment for the house, for external structures, our first check for personal property (we should get more once we send them the itemized list of what we owned - yeah, everything that we owned), and a check to cover a year's worth of rent. Though, honestly, we probably won't spend most of this money for a while (aside from obviously having paid off the mortgage). Our current plan is to wait a few months and then try to decide what we want to do for long-term living arrangements; whether we want to buy a new house in Joplin, or whether we want to move somewhere else.
Since my car got totaled, Anna (my wife) has been asking me what kind of car I want to buy to replace it. I honestly have no idea. I've never been a car guy (which is ironic, as this is one of my Dad's primary hobbies), and so I've always just driven whatever I wound up getting for cheap. This often meant whatever my Dad was able to find a good deal on. Once I go back to work, getting a car will probably become the most pressing need, as I will need it to drive back and forth to work without leaving Anna stranded at the house.
Board Games
The most exciting part of my week this week has been going up to Changing Hands Book Shoppe (where I am receiving most of my mail) and seeing what packages had arrived for me in the mail that day. So many of you have been sending board games to help replace my collection (and to be donated to the church), that I normally have at least one thing waiting for me when I get there. It's been a blast to see what people have sent to me - this week I know I've received a couple of games from Numbskull Games and Zombie State Games, I've also received Vegas Showdown that someone ordered for me from Boards & Bits, I've gotten Amun-Re, Dixit, Settlers & Seafarers of Catan, Star Wars:CCG Cards, and about 9-12 other games for me to donate to the church! Thank you all for making this happen, and for bringing me so much joy! The response from the board game community has really made me proud to be a part of it.With that said, hopefully this will be my last Tornado-specific update. If life starts returning to normal, I hope to have this site return to normal with it. I have been able to play some new games (like Hey, That's My Fish!, Chaostle, and the Lord of the Rings LCG) which I'm hoping to review at some point, and I am receiving a lot of new titles that I also look forward to trying. With that said, I will make a confession that I've made a few times before - my posts (for game reviews) are often games that I reviewed quite some time ago. I try to write the review when the game is fresh in my mind, but I also try to have my posts occur on a somewhat regular interval. Because of this, I have quite a few "drafts" that are already ready to post (for games such as Aquarius, Lunch Money: Sticks and Stones, Talisman, and many others). So, even if I'm not able to start posting new reviews for the next few weeks, I should be able to post some of these for you to read until I'm able to get some new ones written.
Thank You
I've said this repeatedly to most everyone that I've encountered recently; but, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. So many people have supported me and my wife during this time and I really cannot express how much it has meant to us. Without friends, family, and the board game community, this natural disaster would have wreaked havoc in our lives. I consider myself blessed to be supported by so many wonderful people. Thank you, thank you, thank you.Tornadoes: A Week Later
So, just for fair warning, this post will ramble much more than normal - and probably not really make sense or flow through a large part of it. Oh well. For those of you that don't know, I just recently experienced a tornado that destroyed my entire home. You can read my thoughts on that here. I know that many of you have never experienced something similar, and so I thought that it might be good to post about various things that I have thought about and dealt with in this post, because it might be interesting to some of you. Yes, I realize that I have usurped my blog about board games, but it will resume being about them once things get a bit more settled. With that said, here we go...
The next thing that has been astounding has been the amount of money that has been donated to me directly using PayPal from the right-hand side of my site (or from the Geek Forum and Geek List on Board Game Geek.) Thank you, everyone. Much of this has come from friends and family, but a large amount has also come from people that I don't know. I have no way of getting in touch with most of you to say thank you - but thank you!!
I almost forgot. I need to give a very special thank you to Russ Grundy. He has both allowed me to stay with him, and has provided a place where I can store my (damp) belongings. Thank you, Russ!
With that said, I cannot thank everyone in the Board Game Community that has donated and/or will donate games. I simply will not know about all of their efforts. Thank you anyway. I would like to call special attention to the following game companies and game stores that I know have contributed (and if I forget, please let me know and I will try to update the list later):
Since I had been doing the board game drive and begging all of you in the magical Internet-land to donate games to the city of Joplin (and because people had been so incredibly generous towards me specifically), I decided that I really needed to put my money (in this case toys) where my mouth is. So, as I was going through the things that were taken out of my house, I filled two large boxes full of action figures and family friendly games and I took them up to the church - only to be told that they weren't accepting donations because they had too much!! (Don't worry if you are mailing something, they will still accept it; locally they are asking people to hold off a few days so that they can work out warehousing facilities... but I didn't know that yet.) This was the most painful experience that I have had since the tornado hit. There was not much that I could do with regards to helping other people affected, but I really thought that toys and games for kids (specifically boys; I like action figures) was an area that I could help. I was absolutely devastated when what little I could do was taken away. There is nothing worse than having someone make you feel like you are worthless. This is still a very fresh wound that causes my eyes to well up as I type. I need some more time to process this and chalk it up to one more time that I've been hurt by a church. (As an aside; if you are reading this and you aren't a Christian, please realize that there is a big difference between Christ and Christians. Please don't allow a jack*** "Christian" who has hurt you to keep you from Christ the healer of the hurting of whom "a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out." Now, I'm done. Again, trying not to get too theological.
"It's just stuff, right?" That's something that my wife has asked me a lot, and which I think I've handled a little bit better than she has (granted, she lost much more sentimental things than I did - family heirlooms, favorite pictures, etc, whereas most everything that I lost can be replaced at the store. More than anything, however, this tornado has helped us to clear out lost of things that we didn't really need - many things we had even debated getting rid of. In our culture, there often seems to be a pressure of having the most things. It is fairly nice to not have stuff for a while. Granted, this is a two-edged sword. It's really nice to not have stuff, because that allows you the freedom to move around, do whatever, and never worry about if you are going to be robbed or anything else. Of course, it's also fun to use stuff. If nobody owned board games, then I couldn't play them. Overall, however, I think that we'll be ok. In fact, once we get through all of this, I think that I'm going to frame the picture on the right. I really like the picture. It is really neat to me; the house completely destroyed to the foundation, but with the office chair sitting in the middle (yes, it was probably posed that way; no, it is not my house).
4311 E. Newman Rd
Joplin, MO 64801
Josh Edwards
c/o Changing Hands Book Shoppe
528 S Virginia Ave
Joplin, MO 64801
Thanks for your support! I hope that it was an interesting read. I had another section about people I've met, but I think I somehow deleted it. I might re-write that later.
Inadequate Gratitude
For the many, many, many people who have helped me, thank you. I have received a large amount of support in a variety of ways. The first thing that happened was that the Board Game community stepped up in an effort to replace my collection (I will probably write a post about that later, but for a quick synopsis, you can read an article that Matt at MTV's Geek News wrote here. In addition to the board games (which I really enjoy, but are really not that critical in the long run), I have also had a great amount of help from my co-workers. I currently work at Accenture, and specifically the Joplin, Camden, and King of Prussia offices have been astounding. On the Tuesday after the tornado, my co-workers actually beat me to my house, and they had successfully unloaded most everything that was salvageable before I even arrived at the scene. Thanks! They also raised a collection to support myself and my wife as we try to figure out where to go from here. Double thanks! Finally, many of them volunteered to donate some Paid Time Off (PTO) to me so that I can try to find a new home, move into it, settle in, and try to restore normalcy. The other things that Accenture has helped me with include giving me a grant from a non-profit organization that is designed to help Accenture employees during similar times; they also gave me a few days off from work before I started even using my PTO.The next thing that has been astounding has been the amount of money that has been donated to me directly using PayPal from the right-hand side of my site (or from the Geek Forum and Geek List on Board Game Geek.) Thank you, everyone. Much of this has come from friends and family, but a large amount has also come from people that I don't know. I have no way of getting in touch with most of you to say thank you - but thank you!!
I almost forgot. I need to give a very special thank you to Russ Grundy. He has both allowed me to stay with him, and has provided a place where I can store my (damp) belongings. Thank you, Russ!
Board Game Drive
After all of this started, I decided to start a board game drive for the city of Joplin. There were a few reasons for this. First, so many children and families lost their homes and have absolutely nothing to distract themselves from the reality of the situation - board games fill this hole nicely. Secondly, so many people on Board Game Geek wanted to help; and I know that this is a very real way in which they are able to contribute. Third, I (through begging for demo copies of games for this site) have established a relationship with many game companies, and the people that I've talked to I truly believed would want to help if they felt like their contribution would matter. Finally (and one of the biggest factors) is that I really needed to do something to help others, as so many people had been so generous to me - and this is something that I felt I could do.With that said, I cannot thank everyone in the Board Game Community that has donated and/or will donate games. I simply will not know about all of their efforts. Thank you anyway. I would like to call special attention to the following game companies and game stores that I know have contributed (and if I forget, please let me know and I will try to update the list later):
- Eagle Games (makers of Through the Ages, Age of Empires III, etc)
- AEG (Nightfall, Thunderstone, Legend of the 5 Rings)
- Pressman Toys (Rummikub, Mancala, Dominoes, and a million other products)
- Family Games Association (Quoridor, Stratum, etc)
- Fun Q Games (Smash or Trash, Befuzzled)
- Stronghold Games (Confusion: Espionage and Deception in the Cold War)
- Myriad Games (FLGS in New Hampshire)
A Frustrating Experience
So, I'm a Christian. I have been going to church all of my life. I just reserved a blog where I can write about that stuff here, so I will try not to get too theological here. Specifically, I have also been hurt by churches in any number of ways due to growing up in one (and actually trying to work in one). The next thing that you need to know for the background of this story is that I run a Flea Market booth full of toys - and I have for about 4 years. The Flea Market that hosts my booth is moving this month, and so I hadn't really restocked it in a while. So, I had a ton of toys in my basement. Now, here's what happened:Since I had been doing the board game drive and begging all of you in the magical Internet-land to donate games to the city of Joplin (and because people had been so incredibly generous towards me specifically), I decided that I really needed to put my money (in this case toys) where my mouth is. So, as I was going through the things that were taken out of my house, I filled two large boxes full of action figures and family friendly games and I took them up to the church - only to be told that they weren't accepting donations because they had too much!! (Don't worry if you are mailing something, they will still accept it; locally they are asking people to hold off a few days so that they can work out warehousing facilities... but I didn't know that yet.) This was the most painful experience that I have had since the tornado hit. There was not much that I could do with regards to helping other people affected, but I really thought that toys and games for kids (specifically boys; I like action figures) was an area that I could help. I was absolutely devastated when what little I could do was taken away. There is nothing worse than having someone make you feel like you are worthless. This is still a very fresh wound that causes my eyes to well up as I type. I need some more time to process this and chalk it up to one more time that I've been hurt by a church. (As an aside; if you are reading this and you aren't a Christian, please realize that there is a big difference between Christ and Christians. Please don't allow a jack*** "Christian" who has hurt you to keep you from Christ the healer of the hurting of whom "a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out." Now, I'm done. Again, trying not to get too theological.
An Amusing (To Me) Story
So, on Thursday, I met with my insurance adjuster. Now, back to the Flea Market thing, one of the things I sell are baseball cards. I buy lots and sell them around 500-1000 cards at a time for $5 per box. Obviously they aren't worth all that much, or I would probably increase that price. My co-workers (since they beat me to the house on Tuesday) had unloaded a large number of these junk cards that were slightly water damaged, and I decided that they were too heavy to move 4 times, so I decided to throw them back. On the news Thursday morning was some story that was filmed in front of my house about this magical binder of baseball cards that survived and blah, blah, blah, but, again, it was filmed in front of my house. So, while we were meeting with the adjuster out front, a gentleman came up claiming that he had lost his cards, and that the cards on the news were his. My adjuster noticed a binder of cards (that I had tossed back), and asked "oh, might it be those?" "Yes, of course," the gentleman lied. So, I just sat there quietly, not at all caring about those worthless cards, and really wanting the guy to go away. So, he takes the binder of slightly damp, worthless to start with cards, and heads on his way. After he was out of earshot, I pointed out to the adjuster and my wife that those were my cards; I just didn't care anything about them. This distracted the adjuster for the rest of the time that we met with him. Eventually, he told the police about it. Looters try to be tricky. I just feel like I got a funny story out of it. (And apparently a little bit down the block he realized they were worthless and discarded them from what the adjuster said; he was watching him the whole time.)DVD's
So, this is a weird one for me. I guess for some reason, DVD's have take up the symbol of "nice to have, but I don't need" in my mind. So many people have given me so much in the way of money, and I'm not really sure what all I'm going to wind up needing. One thing that I did need was a gigantic DVD wallet (we actually bought two that were at least 250 discs each). We had tons of DVD's between movies, TV shows, and wrestling (yes, that's right - I've watched it since I was a kid), and their cases were all pretty messed up (or they were in our 400-disc changer that was also fairly slaughtered... how do small twigs get in that, anyway? I could've sworn there was a clear plastic piece blocking that opening at some point.) Anyway, I think that when I buy DVD's for myself again, that will be a sign that I feel like life is becoming normal again. Most of the ones I had I bought a long time ago, but right now I would feel guilty if I were to buy any new ones. After all, so many people gave me money, and I feel like that is all for the necessities of food, water, and clothing. And so anything outside of those I feel guilty about spending money on.It's Just Stuff
"It's just stuff, right?" That's something that my wife has asked me a lot, and which I think I've handled a little bit better than she has (granted, she lost much more sentimental things than I did - family heirlooms, favorite pictures, etc, whereas most everything that I lost can be replaced at the store. More than anything, however, this tornado has helped us to clear out lost of things that we didn't really need - many things we had even debated getting rid of. In our culture, there often seems to be a pressure of having the most things. It is fairly nice to not have stuff for a while. Granted, this is a two-edged sword. It's really nice to not have stuff, because that allows you the freedom to move around, do whatever, and never worry about if you are going to be robbed or anything else. Of course, it's also fun to use stuff. If nobody owned board games, then I couldn't play them. Overall, however, I think that we'll be ok. In fact, once we get through all of this, I think that I'm going to frame the picture on the right. I really like the picture. It is really neat to me; the house completely destroyed to the foundation, but with the office chair sitting in the middle (yes, it was probably posed that way; no, it is not my house).Uncertainty
One of the main things that we are dealing with now is the uncertainty of where to go from here. It will be very difficult to find a place to rent in Joplin because so many other people's homes were also destroyed (I think that this is one of the things that sets what happened here so much from normal loss of a home from something like fire), and so we're not really sure where we are going to go. At least for now, we intend to try to find a furnished apartment that is somewhat close to Joplin (I will eventually have to go back to work), and then we will decide where to go from there.A Face to a Tragedy
I remember Katrina. I remember Haiti. I remember Japan. I remember many, many other tragedies. However, with all of them, it was a feeling like, "yeah, that's horrible, but what can I do? I don't know anybody there, and I don't know how I could help." I really think that people are very generous. I believe that I have been a real face to the tragedy in Joplin for a lot of people outside of the city. Because I've been able to provide a face for people, they have truly felt like they could give generously. Again, thank you for this. However, I am now realizing the big difference. When all of those other tragedies struck, it was horrible. I saw all the images, and heard all of the numbers. But then it stopped being on the news. And I would hear things later about these areas and I would think "oh yeah, I forgot about that." Now, I'm on the opposite side; the stories of Joplin are not on the national news as much... but it will be a long time before life is normal in Joplin again. I have posted this in many places already, but again, here are ways that you can help:- Donate to the Red Cross and mark it for Joplin
- Donate to College Heights Christian Church here and mark it "The Storm"
- Send toys, games, clothes, etc to:
4311 E. Newman Rd
Joplin, MO 64801
- Send games to (these will go to me, to the FLGS's that are providing lots of support in many, many ways - I'm actually borrowing an Internet connection at one of them now to type this up, and then to the church):
Josh Edwards
c/o Changing Hands Book Shoppe
528 S Virginia Ave
Joplin, MO 64801
Always Tired
I'm an 8-hour per night sleeper. Always have been. I was as a kid, through college, and even as a professional. That doesn't really happen now. Everything that I do seems to take a lot longer than expected, and so I don't wind up getting to bed until 1-2 AM, and then the day starts back up by 8-9 most times. And, whereas I've always loved the weekend, I'm currently viewing them as inconvenient. After all, I can't go to the bank, get my DSL service canceled, and several other things because it's the weekend. So I'm trying to use this time to relax. It's only going somewhat well.Next Steps
Well, I had lots of other thoughts to share with you, but many of them have slipped out of my mind in the time between when I have had a reliable Internet connection. Oh well. From here, we need to get the insurance money and put it in the bank, either decide to rebuild or pay off the mortgage (we're not even sure if we are in some way forced to rebuild). We also need to find a place to live. And buy clothes, and a new car. And, in the great eventual, I will go back to work. And once we decide where we are going to live, I think that my wife will also try to find a job.Thanks for your support! I hope that it was an interesting read. I had another section about people I've met, but I think I somehow deleted it. I might re-write that later.
Tornadoes in Joplin
Intro
Hi. My name is Josh. For a while, I have been using this blog to exclusively write reviews of board games. I've debated back and forth in my mind for a while whether I wanted to include "site news" posts or not, but thus far have refrained. However, something has happened that has caused me to go ahead and start that section. Bluntly, my house was blown down in a tornado.Discovery
Trying to Get Home
So, what do you do when you find out that your house is flattened? Well, if you are like me, then you are worried about looters. Now, specifically, in the high tech age, my main concern is identity theft. Many of my documents including social security cards, etc, were suddenly relatively easy to steal (in my mind - though after seeing the actual house, I think it would have been a very dedicated looter to get to where I had stored them). So, after calling the insurance adjuster, I was on the phone with Delta attempting to get back home. The person I talked to was awesome. Kudos. He got me and my wife on a flight for the next day, and didn't charge any of the customary rebooking fees which would have normally run me around $700 from the pricings I had seen online. So all that was left was to restlessly lay in bed until our flight the next afternoon.We arrived in Atlanta with no real problems, but as many of you grizzled travelers know, that is when you have to run all the way across the airport to your next destination. We did so, and then we were presented with something that we should have probably expected - the weather was still horrible. Our flight was cancelled. I won't go into the whole sob story of how frustrated we were for around 5 or more hours in Atlanta trying to get home, but eventually, we were able to get on a flight to Tulsa that landed at 10 PM CST. (Keep in mind, we flew out of Northwest Arkansas, and so we had no car and no luggage. My little joke to my wife was that the airline lost our luggage on purpose just to make sure that we had absolutely nothing; though in actuality, they just hadn't successfully sent any flights to Northwest Arkansas that night.) We went to my parent's house, talked for a few hours, and then headed to Wal-Mart to buy the basics that we would need for the night - a change of clothes, contact solution, deodorant. Then off to bed for some more restless sleep.
Digging Through Piles
Let me start this section by telling you - I am a very blessed individual. I have never been more popular than since this tragedy occurred. I have received numerous phone calls, texts, and even a BoardGameGeek forum all in an effort to help me. I have already received several donations on Pay Pal, and many people have offered to help me refill my collection of games that I lose through this. However, this section, specifically, is called digging through piles.
During my digging, I really found several great surprises. My wife was very sad that she had lost many things of sentimental value to her - some very meaningful pictures, some antique furniture that had been in her family for generations, etc. She was still trying to get to Joplin after having to pick up our car from Northwest Arkansas, and so I knew that I really needed to keep an eye out for any of these things that could be saved for her. Lo and behold - many were saved! Randomly throughout the morning, someone would come up to me and show me a picture they had found and, viola! another thing that my wife could be excited about. We were able to save her favorite picture of us as a couple (from when we were still dating), her favorite picture of her Mom, and also an old family picture from when she was a baby. Most were probably water damaged, but the original is intact enough that we should be able to restore them. Another item that I found was an envelope full of money (and my Gen Con money) - like many other people, I keep a supply of "petty cash" on hand at my house shoved in a random sock drawer-type location. I figured that location was lost forever since it was in the back of the house, which was hit the hardest (and this would have been unfortunate, since the insurance only covers up to $100). Lo and behold, I found my money - now I can afford to buy something new at Gen Con! Sweet! I and/or my fellow scavengers also found some of my more valuable baseball cards, autographed baseballs, DVD's, coins, and some other "useful" stuff.
Here's an aside about baseball. I really like baseball; always have. I remember watching it as a kid, and collecting billions of worthless baseball cards (worthless because of the timeframe of them, not the tornado - I got rid of most of those useless ones a long time ago). In 2004, I decided that it would be neat to visit each baseball stadium and watch a live baseball game there (though with the rate they're building new stadiums, I feel I only have to watch the team once); my wife liked the idea so much that she decided that we needed to do this. In case you're curious, we've been to the following since then: Kansas City, St. Louis, Texas, Houston, San Francisco, Oakland, Cincinnati, Minnesota (both the Metrodome and Target Field), Boston, Baltimore, Washington, and (on our very shortlived Miami vacation), the Florida Marlins. I tell you all of this to let you know that I have kept the ticket stubs to each of these games. We were also fortunate enough to get to go to the World Series last year to watch the Texas Rangers play (my wife is a die hard Rangers fan). We had the World Series tickets framed, and the other tickets in a box in our closet that we were going to frame later. I tell you all this to let you know - I found most of this stuff! I know that I found the World Series tickets, and I also found many of the other ticket stubs (though they were a bit damp). That was another exciting find!
"A Lesson For Board Gamers"
After digging through every part of the house, the last place to clear out was my board game closet. I expected everything to be trashed - I mean, a pile of cardboard pieces with paper instructions among no roof and enough rain to cause significant flooding? No chance. However, as it turned out, the closet I used to store my board games seems to be the sturdiest room in our entire house! Sure, I had lots of games that didn't make it - card games were triple their normal size, a game or two fell apart on me as I picked it up, and any game that wasn't in the closet at the time of the tornado was utterly obliterated (poor Lords of Vegas - I should have taken a picture of it, because it was impressively destroyed; no two parts were really in the same place). How the shelves were setup in my game closet seemed to prevent most of the water from hitting the games, though. At least, the games that were off the ground. So, here are some lessons for board gamers: 1) pick up your games - poor Lords of Vegas didn't have a chance; 2) not just in the closet, but actually on the shelves; Punct was another one that by the end of the day was just squish; my new copy of At the Gates of Loyang was in the floor too (in the shrink!) and it got pretty soaked 3) choose a very sturdy location in the house to store your games. I recommend a place that is very central, has no windows, etc, etc. Basically, record a weather interruption where they tell you where to hide - that's where you want to put your board games. Especially, because then in a tornado, you have entertainment! (Though I hope none of you ever go through one.)Things I Learned Today
First of all - I have too much stuff. I plan on not replacing a lot of it. Yeah, I'll probably keep buying games at a rate that is drastically unhealthy for anything but keeping the FLGS (friendly local game store) in business and allowing me to have new games to review on the site), but I will probably try to stop buying so much of everything else. At least until I forget this lesson. I'm thinking about framing one of these pictures to help remind me. Seriously.Second, there are a lot of things that happen in natural disasters that you would never think of. Here's one of the things I'm trying to figure out - how do I get my lot cleared? I will probably choose not to rebuild, and so I will be the owner of a very cluttered small plot of land in Joplin. It has a basement. How do I get that filled so that I'm not liable for somone falling into it and getting hurt? I don't honestly know that, but since there are lots of other people in the same predicament, I'm hoping someone else can help with that.
Also, here are some other things that you don't really think of. How recently have you had your tetanus shot? I don't really know, and neither do most people that I talk to, and we're all digging through piles of board with rusty nails in them from almost a century ago. Fortunately, Walgreen's was giving out free tetanus shots. That's pretty cool, and I'm glad they were doing something you wouldn't have thought of. Next, people get hurt and need blood. You should give blood to your local blood bank if you are able to keep it stocked - you don't know when someone will need it. Third (or so), it can be really hard to find places when you don't have any street signs or landmarks. I've lived at my house for almost 4 years, driving up and down the same roads through that entire time, and I still had to pay really close attention so that I would know where I was and not pass my house! There were also lots of insurance people, and concerned volunteers that were trying to find certain houses, which is very hard to do when there are no street signs and no addresses on houses. Finally, if you are digging through piles of rubble, wear sunscreen! As it turns out, I get a nasty sunburn when working in my house when it doesn't have a roof anymore.
Next Steps
The other next thing that I have to do is figure out where to live. In a city of 40,000 to start with, when 30% of the city is destroyed, finding rental property within an hour is going to be challenging if not impossible. Do you remember where I said earlier that I am blessed? I lost track of how many people offered to let me stay at their homes. I took one of them up on it! However, as I do not want to overstay my welcome, I will need to figure out a more long-term solution soon.
If You Would Like To Help
If you would like to donate to me (which is actually not in any way why I wrote this), then feel free to use the PayPal link on the right of the blog in the "Support the Site" section. If you would like to help the greater need, then I have posted some idea on the Board Game Geek forum that I mentioned earlier that you can see here. Here's the short summary copied from over there:If you want to give money to help the city of Joplin, the Red Cross seems to be a very good option - they seem to have stations setup across the city, they are running blood drives, giving out food and water, helping provide clothes, etc. Please try to make sure it is tagged for Joplin.
If you are interested in sending other things: used toys, extra board games (possibly those games that aren't geeky enough for you), clothes, shoes, etc, etc, or have some aversion to the Red Cross, my understanding is that College Heights Christian Church is serving as a dropoff point that is working with the United Way. You can check out http://www.chcchurch.org/the-storm for more info. Their address is:
College Heights Christian Church
4311 E. Newman Road
Joplin, MO 64801
(I would recommend marking the packages as "donations for tornado victims" or something similar so they know what is going on)
And their phone number (may be hard to get ahold of someone, I don't know) is 417.624.6915
Finally, if you are somewhat near Joplin, there may be a dropoff point near you (to where you don't have to pay for shipping). Check out http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=117118671706061
More Reading
If you would like to get a woman's perspective on this ordeal, my wife has decided to (at least temporarily) start a blog about the aftermath of the tornadoes. You can read about it here.Apology For Bad Grammar And Typos
Normally I proof read these. This one, however, is really, really, really long (if you made it this far, you already know this). And I'm tired from dealing with several restless nights in a row. So, I am not going to. Please don't judge all of my writing based on the basic typos that I'm sure were in this post. Who knows, I may come back in a few months and clean them up!
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