Useless News

Just Doodlin'... Scout Badges

2012-01-17T22:04:00.003-05:00

Just Doodlin'... Scout Badges

2011-12-29T14:22:00.003-05:00

Just an idea I had for a series of badges for our Beavers, Cubs, and (Dragon) Scouts...

Just Doodlin'... NE PEZ Gathering

2011-11-25T21:41:00.000-05:00

Just Doodlin'.... Scout Logo

2011-11-23T15:25:00.002-05:00

Just Doodln'... Scouter Santa

2011-11-20T23:22:00.002-05:00

Santa wearing the new Scouts Canada uniform...

Just Doodlin'... Odawa Finalist

2011-11-12T22:29:00.003-05:00

I am happy to find myself amongst the finalists for the new Odawa Area badge...

Just Doodlin'... Scout Badges

2011-11-09T22:09:00.002-05:00

About a year back, the Carleton Area Scouts had a badge trading day. They also designed a badge for it based on their group badge.
I thought, wouldn't it be fun if Odawa did something similar. This is my concept of if such and event and badge existed...

Just Doodlin'.... Odawa Scouts

2011-10-25T14:44:00.003-04:00

So with the coming of the new Scouts Canada uniforms, all the scout groups badges need to be redone. Odawa, very fairly is holding a contest for the new design - the new design needs to be based on the elements of the old design.

ORIGINAL DESIGN:

MY CONTEST ENTRY:

TREVJ'S CONTEST ENTRY:

Just Doodlin'... Scout Badges

2011-10-10T21:49:00.001-04:00

Just Doodlin'.... Self Portrait in 8-bit

2011-09-16T11:27:00.000-04:00

Just Doodlin'... Moon Goddess

2011-08-30T17:11:00.002-04:00

I couldn't sleep the other night and started doodling. In the end I went very simple - but I think it turned out quite beautiful...

Just Doodlin'... Sunrise

2011-08-23T17:58:00.003-04:00

I saw a beautiful photograph on a friend's facebook page - that, plus the sunrise a Mer Bleue bog where I went hiking this morning, inspired this...

Just Doodlin'... Spiral Dance

2011-08-14T17:14:00.000-04:00

Board Game - Dystopian Wars

2011-08-13T21:38:00.003-04:00

So I've been checking out Dystopian Wars and got myself the Prussian Army base set to start with. I was unhappy with the way the guns just loosely sat on the ships only to fall out each time you bumped the table. Gluing them in is also a bad option as you want to be able to change them from game to game - so I drilled them out and installed earth magnets - now the guns stay in place and can be rotated to where you want. Now to paint them...

Chain Maille (Pt 3)

2011-08-13T20:18:00.003-04:00

So I was talking to some people at work about making chain maille and someone pointed to a bucket of pop tabs and said "what could you do with those?"
I'd thought of the idea before, but this just got my mind thinking.

I originally started doing a loose weave Japanese 6-1 style basically like the stuff I'd done before just with the pop tabs as the main links (sorry forgot to take pics)

I then thought what if I overlapped the rings? It gave me a real cool Dragon Scale type effect. Since I had no real design in mind, I just weaved this banner as a first project...

Chain Maille (pt.2)

2011-08-12T10:17:00.003-04:00

So I've made good progress on this first project. Now I just need straps and, of course modifications for sizing etc...

New Project.... Chain Maille

2011-08-10T09:39:00.004-04:00

So I've started yet another project - I'm learning how to do some Chain Maille Crafts.
(Let see if I actually find the time to finish this one ;) )

Ticket to Ride Contest Entry.....

2011-08-06T21:51:00.002-04:00

So since all the Ticket to Ride contest entries are in and being reviewed, I guess I can now show off my design for "Ticket to Ride France: High Speed Trains"...

Doodle... KG DragonFly

2011-08-05T09:03:00.003-04:00

Another doodle idea I got from Kaleidoscope Gathering 2011 was this dragonfly. The dragonfly being the symbol of the festival. At the festival, I competed in the Stag King competition.

Dice...

2011-08-05T07:41:00.004-04:00

While I was a Kaleidoscope Gathering 2011, I crossed paths with a old metal smith fellow who I haven't seen in 15+ years - Helmut. From him, I acquired a set of his recreation Musket Ball Dice.

The story of these dice is...
During the 18th and 19th centuries, it was illegal for soldiers to possess gambling materials. Being soldiers though, they would take musket balls and hammer them square, then punch the faces with a nail. If caught with the dice, they faced 5 lashes for possession, and another 5 for defacing the property of the Crown - the musket balls.

Just Doodlin'.... Vitruvian Woman

2011-08-02T17:23:00.005-04:00

So I just got back from Kaleidoscope Gathering 2011 where I was able to admire the anatomy of the female form in all it's beautiful sizes and shapes. I felt compelled to draw the female form of Da Vinci's picture Vitruvian Man.
So, here is my doodle of "Vitruvian Woman"...

Toys on my desk... July

2011-07-26T08:02:00.003-04:00

Only a few things this month...

Star Wars Comic-con Exclusives 2010
Star Wars McDonalds toys
Transformers Kre'o
Deadmau5 blind box figures
Bunch of custom dice
Couple PEZ-like candy dispensers

Geocaching... Family Tags

2011-07-19T13:35:00.001-04:00

Some new geocaching tag designs I drew up for Geocoinshop.de:

Custom Dice

2011-07-19T09:59:00.002-04:00

So heres my collection of custom Chessex dice (from Left to Right):
1) My Avatar (and the tattoo of my kids hand prints)
2) From my 2011 Settlers of Catan Tournament
3) From my 2011 Memoir'44 Tournament
4) My new Steampunk inspired personal dice (perhaps I'll use them in Dystopian Wars)
5) My first set of "The Spiel" podcast dice - solid black with white pips
6) My second set of "The Spiel" podcast dice - swirly black with white pips
7) My "Game On! with Cody and John" podcast dice

Music (& Disaster)... Cheap Trick

2011-07-18T09:28:00.002-04:00

So many people who know me know that the one band I've been waiting years to see on stage is Cheap Trick, so when I heard they were coming to Ottawa Bluesfest of course I had to go.
Here's the video I took during the show...

Unfortunately, just after this song it startedd to rain (why I put my camera way), and in seconds, all hell broke loose. Here's someone else's footage of the stage collapse - I was about 15' from the stage at the time...

New Games of the Week...

2011-07-16T03:22:00.002-04:00

The Awful Green Things From Outer Space
Battleship Galaxies
No Thanks - (I needed a new copy)

Music... Dropkick Murphys...

2011-07-11T09:29:00.002-04:00

More music at Bluefesst yesterday. I go to check out Dropkick Murphys amoung others...

Game Room Chair...

2011-07-09T20:36:00.004-04:00

So the old chair in my game room was in desperate need of refinishing and my poor Game Summit shirt got torn, so I figured I'd make the best of both worlds...

Music... Soundgarden...

2011-07-06T09:26:00.002-04:00

I got to check out Soundgraden last night at Ottawa Bluefest. They definitely did not disappoint...

Vintage Star Wars (Part 2)

2011-07-04T13:47:00.002-04:00

As promised, Pics of the Vintage Millenium Falcon...

Board Games I got this week

2011-07-02T22:06:00.002-04:00

Only one new one this week...

Sorry! Sliders: Disney Cars 2 Edition

Just the toys on my desk... June 2011

2011-07-02T22:03:00.003-04:00

Besides that awesome haul of Vintage Star Wars toys, here's all my other recent toy gets...

9 Disney Princesses to become 10!

2011-06-25T10:05:00.003-04:00

So quite a while back, I asked "How many Disney Princesses are there?" Currently the answer is 9. But that's all about to change. On October 2 2011, Rapunzel is to be inducted into Disney Royalty.

Just Doodln'... PEZ in the SUN 11

2011-06-24T09:44:00.001-04:00

Vintage Star Wars!!!

2011-06-20T21:08:00.002-04:00

Holy Crap! I know I don't usually put up toy gets until the end of the month, but a co-worker of mine showed up today and left a bunch of awesome toys for me on my desk (Thanks Snork!!!)...

First up was this awesome case and collection on vintage Star Wars figures. They're in awesome shape - beautiful vinyl capes etc. Vader's saber is even there! (the third pic is that collection along with the ones I already had).
The second thing he brought me was a vintage ESB Millennium Falcon - almost complete - in the box!!!! (I'll have pics of that soon)

More new games!

2011-06-10T10:48:00.003-04:00

Dystopian Wars: Core Rule Book
Code 777
A la Carte: Dessert
Yggdrasil

New Games!

2011-05-27T11:47:00.003-04:00

Got some nes board games this week...

Hey! That's my fish!
Command & Colors: Ancients
Letters From Whitechapel
Snow Tails - Leap of Death
Lifeboats
Power Grid: Italy/France
Shootin' Ladders

National Games in Libraries Day...

2011-05-24T11:07:00.001-04:00

Angry Birds in Real Life

2011-05-17T10:55:00.002-04:00

Zooloretto on the Wii...

2011-05-16T21:34:00.001-04:00

Catan: McDonald's Edition ???

2011-05-16T21:31:00.001-04:00

Catan: McDonald's Edition

Just Doodlin'.... Rhino

2011-05-02T20:22:00.000-04:00

Gaming Commercials: Board vs. Video

2011-05-02T14:46:00.002-04:00

Stratus Games is uploading a series of board game vs video game animations inspired by Apple’s PC vs Mac commercials.

Fun 'Til the End...

2011-04-29T12:33:00.001-04:00

Check out the 10 Most Incredible Abandoned Theme Parks on Earth

The smell of New Games!!!

2011-04-28T15:34:00.004-04:00

Here are all my new games this week:

Settlers of America
Merchants and Marauders
Earth Reborn
Formula D - Singapore Track
Pirate Fluxx
Saboteur 1 & 2
Lords of Scotland
Rory's Story Cubes

A Royal Treat...

2011-04-12T13:45:00.000-04:00

1 of a kind Royal PEZ...

Hey Cavey Contest Entry

2011-04-11T20:05:00.004-04:00

So at the moment, Toybreak and Hey Cavey are having a contest for an Easter Cavey toy. To enter, you just need to design a Cavey of your own. As usual, I like to mess with the shape as well.
Here's the original template and my design...

Clone Armory (Pt.2)

2011-04-08T14:19:00.002-04:00

So yesterday's Clone Armour turned out ok, but I need to be able to make it faster and cheaper (free!!!) so today, at work, I ran around the office and grabbed old boxes and crap and was able to build this new - much simplified - armour in about 20 min...

Clone Armory...

2011-04-07T21:34:00.002-04:00

So with an upcoming Cub Scout camp based on Star Wars, we thought wouldn't it be cool to do clone armour with the kids.
I figured I try it out myself today...
TrevJ and I took 1 1/2 hours and about $5 to put together this prototype design out of card paper, foam core board and a bunch of velco strips. Not to bad for a first try. We just now have to figure out how to do it faster and cheaper - and about 50 times over...

Looking back... GeoJack

2011-04-07T10:35:00.003-04:00

Looking back, here's an interesting piece I worked on with GeoCoinShop.de was a trackable figure named "GeoJack"...

New Games!

2011-04-01T15:08:00.003-04:00

Settlers of Catan - 15th anniversary edition
Qwerkle
Rush n' Crush
Pocket Battles - orcs vs elves
Stratego - 50th anniversary edition

New Toys! (March 2011)

2011-03-30T08:57:00.003-04:00

Here's the new toys I have sitting on my desk for the month of March 2011....

Scout Trucks: TrevJ's Truck - One of its races

2011-03-28T20:04:00.001-04:00

Board Game Painting... Alvin and Dexter

2011-03-20T20:17:00.002-04:00

I decided to try my hand at painting again. This time with Ticket to Ride: Alvin and Dexter...

Scout Trucks: TrevJ's Truck

2011-03-18T19:41:00.004-04:00

Here's the truck built for next weekend's Odawa Scout Truck Rodeo...

Under Construction...

New Game this week...

2011-03-18T17:30:00.002-04:00

Only one new (used) gme for the collection this week...
The Hobbit

Geocaching - Prehistoric Tags

2011-03-18T17:25:00.001-04:00

Some new geocaching tags I drew for Cache Addict...

Scout Badge: Scouts & Star Wars

2011-03-17T13:23:00.004-04:00

So I was asked to design a badge for the end of year camp for the Odawa Scouts. They choose the theme "Star Wars" this year, so of course I'm on board. Here are the first draft designs I've come up with...

Ticket to Ride Contest Entry (first attempt)

2011-03-14T08:32:00.004-04:00

So before I came up with the idea I used for my Ticket to Ride contest entry, I had come up with this board for a Japan map. While I figured it would work great with the Alvin and Dexter expansion I didn't us it for a couple of reasons:
1) I figured others would come up with a Japan map for the same reason
2) It's just so narrow, that even with just a 2 player game, it would be to easy to cut off your opponent.

My heart goes out to all of Japan in the wake of last week's earthquake.

Ticket to Ride Contest Entry.....

2011-03-13T21:20:00.002-04:00

So I spent part of this weekend finishing off and playtesting my entry into the Days of Wonder Ticket to Ride contest...

(I'll post clear picks at a later date - when I'm sure I've lost the contest)

Calvin and Hobbes on "Monopoly"...

2011-03-12T18:46:00.001-05:00

New Games...

2011-03-11T21:06:00.002-05:00

A couple of new gets:
Ratuki
Talisman - Frostmarsh expansion

Game Summit - Official Pics...

2011-03-09T15:15:00.005-05:00

Check out the official pics from this past Game Summit...

Blind Egg Time! Eggtopia NHL Super Egg

2011-03-09T07:07:00.009-05:00

Wow - third blind egg this week. It definitely is that time of year.

This time, I have Eggtopia's NHL Super Egg.
If you remember it the past, I've really dumped on the Eggtopia eggs - crappy chocolate and even crappier toys. This time is slightly better...

SIZE: This egg is approx. 6" high (on scale with the Kinder Maxi eggs) and made of pretty thick milk chocolate.

CHOCOLATE: The chocolate tastes fine when you're eating it, but leaves a chalky taste in the mouth.

TOY: The toy, a good sized Zamboni, has to be assembled (which is pretty easy) and is supposed to have "pull back and go action". However that action is powered by a simple elastic - which I broke in about 5 seconds. It definitely wouldn't stand up to kid abuse.

So - well this is better than past Eggtopia offerings, it's still not that great.
BTW... Eggotopia also released a listing of all they're releases to date (see last pic) - I'm almost worried to find that Bakugan release.

Blind Egg Time! Zaini - Winnie the Pooh Sports

2011-03-08T09:33:00.004-05:00

With Easter around the corner, new eggs are coming out all the time.
This time, Zaini returns with another Disney set - Winnie the Pooh Sports Collection

Packaged in a long tube with 4 eggs specially marked as a Easter release, these eggs are the stand size - half milk chocolate and half white.
This set has statues of the various Winnie the Pooh characters involved in a number of different sporting activities.

Painting... Last Night on Earth

2011-03-07T18:23:00.003-05:00

I decided to try my hand at figure painting over the weekend panting up my Last Night on Earth heroes. Not bad for my first try I guess...

Giant Settlers of Catan (con't)...

2011-03-07T18:20:00.003-05:00

Some more progress on my settlers game in the way of half the tiles being done (Heck, only half would even fit out in my basement).

TrevJ and Elvis are modeling on pic two for a size reference...

New Games

2011-03-07T09:57:00.002-05:00

Thanks to Meeplemart, I got a couple of new games last week...

Rattus
Burrows

Blind Egg Tme! Kinder Midsize (Pt2)

2011-03-07T09:49:00.002-05:00

Since the last midsized kinder egg I got just had the paper game in it, I went out and grabbed a couple more.

The first of the new ones had the same paper game. Number 2 though was better with this wind-up frog toy...

Taking on the slopes...

2011-03-01T09:44:00.001-05:00

TrevJ taking on the slopes this past weekend...

Blind Egg Time! Kinder Mid-Sized

2011-03-01T09:33:00.002-05:00

Easter is just around the corner so of course Kinder Surprise Eggs are everywhere!
In addition to the standard size eggs (approx 2.5" high) and the jumbo (approx. 8"), Kinder has added a mid-sized egg. Coming in at about 5" high, it's the standard Chocolate outside white chocolate inside, of course with a bigger toy...

February's Toys

2011-02-28T17:20:00.000-05:00

New Games

2011-02-22T22:17:00.005-05:00

While we did get rid of a bunch of games at the Game Summit, we also added a few:

New:
Talisman (4th edition)
We Didn't Playtest This Either
We Didn't Playtest: Blue deck
We Didn't Playtest This: Chaos deck

Used:
Bonobo Beach
Magblast

Game Summit 2011 is but a memory

2011-02-22T21:30:00.005-05:00

Game Summit 2011 has come and gone. There was tons of fun to be had.
I spent Friday and Saturday teaching games like Memoir'44, Memoir'44:Overload, Smallworld, Ticket To Ride:Alvin and Dexter, Neuroshima Hex, etc.

Cam taught and played in the Heroscape tournament. Sunday, Cam taught and played Runewars amoung other games.

Trev discovered the art of painting minis and even got into a speed painting competition on the Sunday.

Sunday for me was a free gaming day. I got a chance to try out games like Rattus, Burrows, Sebok, etc.

The best part of the weekend was meeting friends old and new (I actually ran into an old high school buddy I hadn't seen in 20 years)

THANK YOU MARQUIS et all for another awesome year!!!

(I put up some pics later when I've had a chance to sleep. This is one of Marquis')

Stupid doodle...

2011-02-13T21:39:00.002-05:00

One of my designs on PEZ.com

2011-02-13T19:58:00.002-05:00

So back in late 2005, I was asked to help with a charity project to help fund raise for Hurricane Katrina Relief. I gladly helped out coming up with not only a simple design for one of the PEZ ball dispensers, but also putting together a PEZ candy pack.
Fast forward to 2011. PEZ.com has been upgraded to include an archive of all the dispensers they've done - for the first time including these rarer dispensers.
Interestingly enough, only one pictured dispenser includes a candy pack with it. That dispenser and pack are mine designs.

Game Trivia - "How many Disney Princesses Are There?"

2011-02-13T19:21:00.004-05:00

So after my recent trip to Disney, my one son and are were listening to a couple of reviews of the board game "Wits and Wagers Family". Both reviews references a question in the game: "How many Disney Princesses Are There?"

This started a bit of a debate within friends and family. Now I don't know what the game has as the correct answer, but the Official Disney Princesses (as of today) are:

Snow White - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Cinderella - Cinderella (1950)
Aurora - Sleeping Beauty (1959)
Ariel - The Little Mermaid (1989)
Belle - Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Jasmine - Aladdin (1992)
Pocahontas - Pocahontas (1995)
Mulan - Mulan (1998)
Tiana - The Princess and the Frog (2009)

"But what about...?"
I can hear you asking. Well, there are a number of unofficial Disney Princesses as well:
Alice (Alice in Wonderland) - while she has been included in a number of products, etc with the rest of the pricesses, she still remains excluded from the official lineup.
Tinker Bell (Peter Pan) was once included in the princesses line up, but was removed with the creation of the Disney Fairies.
Giselle (Enchanted) was originally going to be added to the Official Princesses, until the company realized it would have to pay the actress, Amy Adams, royalties for using her likeness.
Princess Rapunzel (Tangled) has appeared in some Disney Princess merchandise, but as of February 2011 is not listed as an official princess on the Disney Princess website.
Others not on the list include: Maid Marian (Robin Hood), Nala (The Lion King)

So how do I know so much about the Princesses? That's easy - I'm a PEZ collector...

Gwins have been Outsourced!

2011-02-13T18:57:00.002-05:00

Just watching the latest episode of "outsourced" and noticed three of OctoberToys' Gwins on the manager's desk.
Congrats George and Ayleen - you've made to to prime time!

New Scout badge designs...

2011-02-11T21:13:00.001-05:00

Game Summit 2011 is almost here!

2011-02-11T21:00:00.003-05:00

There's nothing that beats the winter "blahs" like excellent gaming, and Game Summit will be coming to the rescue on the weekend of February 18, 19 and 20th, 2011 at the newly renovated Nepean Sportsplex in Ottawa.

New Game this week...

2011-02-11T20:55:00.001-05:00

Only one "game" this week...

Ticket to Ride: Alvin and Dexter

(Another) Giant Settlers...

2011-02-10T19:27:00.002-05:00

Check out this one created by the Mountford family...

Blind Egg Time! Zaini Eggs - Disney Fairies

2011-02-08T19:45:00.002-05:00

Zaini eggs have another line of Disney eggs out. This time in the milk chocolate is...Disney Fairies. The only assembly required for these toys is to snap on the wings.

Disney - Pins & Vinylmation

2011-02-03T11:14:00.004-05:00

Here are a great site for;

DISNEY PINS: pinpics.com

DISNEY VINYLMATION: Vinylmation Station, Disney Vinylmation

Toys on my desk - Disney Edition

2011-02-03T11:07:00.002-05:00

Thanks to a trip to DisneyWorld, I have a number of new toys on my desk...

Turkeys up a tree...

2011-01-18T10:29:00.002-05:00

Driving in to work this morning, I happened upon turkeys up a crab apple tree...

PEZCific PEZ Costumes...

2011-01-16T19:51:00.001-05:00

The other art project I did was to make up some pez costumes for the charity auction. There are 10 sets of these made...

Games this week...

2011-01-14T22:11:00.002-05:00

Only a few this week...
I got Cam Runewars for his b-day

At thrift I also got Rebound and Shut the Box

Out of retirement again...

2011-01-14T21:57:00.003-05:00

Every once in while - say annually - a job comes along you just have to do. I'm speaking of the PEZ wrapper design for the PEZCific Convention.
This convention, now in its tenth year, has always had their logo designed by a great artist - Ben Scanlon (who btw was one of the first people I met when I entered the PEZ world 11/12 years ago). I alwat love his great designs...

Anyway, the other thing they've always done is come to me for the pez wrapper design. This involves me taking Ben's work, chopping it up into little pieces, and putting it back together in a way that would work on a PEZ candy wrapper.
This year being the 10th, they wanted to be special and do 2 designs.

My first is in keeping with Ben's parade look...

My second takes inspiration from an iconic image to come up with...

BTW... that image happens to be...

odd iPhone image...

2011-01-11T16:17:00.000-05:00

New Games for Xmas

2011-01-03T21:48:00.002-05:00

So the boys received a few new games to expand the collection over the holidays:

Tales of the Arabian Nights
For Sale
Last Night on Earth: Growing Hunger
Invasion from Outer Space
Lego: Monster 4
Lego: Lava Dragon

Giant Settlers of Catan (con't)...

2011-01-03T20:24:00.003-05:00

So here's where it's at...

All the playing pieces are complete:

But - unfortunately, the size of them just doesn't work well with the original tile size of 12" to a side:

So the tile size needs to increase. Here's the new template at 14" to a side:

My dog, Elvis, approves:

However, this causes another issue. I had thought that I might be able to get away with foam floor tiles to make the tiles out of, however, as Elvis is pointing out here, the new template for the tiles is much bigger than the foam tiles (oh well, I wasn't sure I could get the foam in the colours I wanted anyway):

So I guess it's back to wood (or carpet remnants) for the tiles...
to be continued.

Just the toys on my desk... Dec 23 - 2010

2010-12-23T14:52:00.002-05:00

Only a few toys this month so far - Tron, etc...

Games!

2010-12-20T09:59:00.003-05:00

New gets in the gaming world:

New:
Memoir 44:Sword-of-Stalingrad
Fictionaire: Fool Science
Dixit 2

Thrift:
Scotland Yard (Ravensberger version)

Operators are standing by...

2010-12-16T12:53:00.004-05:00

I realize I work at a company that does telephone software, but today when I looked at my desk I thought "This is ridiculous!"...

Optimal Tic Tac Toe

2010-12-15T20:53:00.002-05:00

Doodln'... TWEEX logo (updated)

2010-12-07T11:20:00.002-05:00

Check out this write up about my logo design for TWEEX

A week in games...

2010-12-04T13:54:00.003-05:00

Here's this weeks new games (and expansions)....

Memoir'44: Winter Wars
Memoir'44: Breakthrough
Small World: Be not Afraid
Small World: Necromancer Island
Chrononauts: Lost Identities
Chrononauts: The Gore Years
Sorry U-build

Thrift:
N.Y.Chase

Memories of Catan...

2010-12-02T23:03:00.002-05:00

A mini Settlers of Catan board made out of Memoir'44 terrain tiles...

Giant Settlers...

2010-12-01T21:34:00.002-05:00

Progress continues. Here's a shot to compare the original pieces with the new larger ones...