Still working on the layout for several upcoming releases.  I plan to park myself in front of my laptop tonight and put a few hours in.

The Haloween party was fun.  I spent the day with my brother and his wife in Baltimore.  We conned my wife into coming up to join us for the party.  A quick stop at Wal-Mart and we got my daughter and wife costumes and it was off to the party.  They ended up leaving a bit earlier than I did.  I left after 11 pm and started the two hour drive home.  I was really tired coming home and stopped off at a rest stop about 45 min. down the road for a twenty minuite “power nap” that turned into me waking up at 4 am!  I rolled in at 5:00 am just in time to see my brother off at six.  Then I went to bed and crashed for a few more hours.

Still waiting on the revised GSL.  I would love to support 4E but I am not touching the current GSL with a ten foot pole.  I am hoping the revision will make it attractive to do so, but I have my doubts.  If it isn’t I’ll go the straight copyright route perhaps.

Less than one week until the election.  This one seems to be a real nail-biter.  For me it comes down to taxes, gun control and Supreme Court Justices.

Given that, there is no way I can cast a vote for Obama.  I’m no fan of McCain, but he’s far better on all three of those issues that are most important to me politically.

I found out who my state representatives are recently.  One of them is darn near perfect, and the other one isn’t.  (Can you guess who is who?) Time to start writing some letters.

Now that the weather is getting colder I need to get a new motorcycle jacket.  I found the one I want today at lunch.  I stopped by the place where I got my new bike and looked around at jackets and gloves suited for colder weather.  I fell in love with this one.

Now I gotta come up with the four hundred bucks I need to buy it.  Time for some new releases! (Maybe I’ll sell some stuff on eBay too.)

I worked on the layout for Fantasy Firearms II last night.  It’s coming along nicely.

Free20: Forbiddance is “selling” very well.  It’s been downloaded over 60 times in the few days its been up and getting good feedback so far.

I am hashing over a couple of ideas for this years NaNoWriMo competition.  I will be participating this year and am eager to get a good first draft written out.  I am either doing a story I have had percolating for several years or another more recent story idea that is RPG related.  I’m leaning towards the RPG related project.

I also started getting the home office organized the other night.  I got some figures in my display case, books and magazines on the shelves in some semblance of an order and started setting up my painting area for 40K and Warmachine figs.  Still have more to do, but its coming along pretty well. My wife ends up using the office more than I do since she started back to school.  I usually just fire up my laptop and slap it onto a TV tray in front of the TV.

My brother should have arrived in the area this morning.  They drove out from Indiana last night. We’ll get together Friday night and spend most of Saturday together.  Looking forward to it.  Did I mention he’s my twin brother?

Looking over some sales data.  Here is some food for thought for anyone that might be interested.

Products that have sold over 200 copies: 1

Products that have sold over 100 copies: 4

Products that have sold over 50 copies: 32

(OBS only, not counting YGN and other sources; but that would only be a handful of additional copies.)

Lots going on over here at Skortched Urf’ Studios! I just put up Free20: Forbiddance over at OBS.  Forbiddance is our first free PDF ever released.  (But not our last!) Chris Field put it together for his Otherverse Games imprint.

On the PDF front I am currently working on The North Side Spiders and Fantasy Firearms II in addition to a couple projects for Otherverse.  I hope to get one of them out in a day or two with the other a few days later.

Fantasy Firearms II Cover image.

North Side Spiders Cover.

Still waiting to hear word on the new, improved, kinder, gentler GSL.  What an epic fail this whole 4E thing has been.  I honestly WANT to support it.  I would love to.  But not under the current terms.  I’ll go the Kenzer/Goodman/Adamant rout and release under regular copyright if the new GSL isn’t seriously improved.  I would love to convert some of our lines too.  WOTC has really dropped the ball on this one.  (Unless they are actively trying to discourage thrid party support of 4E; if that’s the case they are succeding, just making a public relations hash of the matter.)

I am pretty stoked about my friend wanting to pick up his pencil and start illustrating again.  I have talked to him before about doing stuf for me, and there have been a couple of ‘false starts’ but he seemed very excited about the stuff I sent him. I am going to hook him up with an old copy of Photoshop to use.  (I have CS around here somewhere, since I upgraded to CS3 I can spare it.)

I noticed Adamant has put some stock art to very good use.  Check out Venture 4th: The Linotaur and you will see the race seems based around an illustration from this offering from Anthony.  Very cool concept!  What got my attention was the cut-and-paste on page three where they used two of my stock art images (also done by Anthony) to make a second illustration.  (Here and here.) Very well done, streatching the artwork.  A little creative Photoshopping can go a long way for savvy publishers. Two thumbs up!

Saturday we played our Star Wars RPG campaign.  Until 2:30 am; so I didn’t get to bed until just after three!  Didn’t make it to church on Sunday.  Ooops.

I had sent some stuff over to my buddy when he expressed an interest in doing some illustrations for me.  I sent him most of the Pandora Project material including some concept art Anthony has done and stuff written by Chris Field and myself.  He liked it and started sketching some stuff, asked me some good questions to clarify the ideas etc.  I also sent him home with a Wacom tablet I have.  He’s really good and I am sure I can keep him busy. Fingers crossed that it pans out.

It was also nice to get some ‘outside’ feedback on the Pandora idea; and it was very positive.  His questions, while related to the artwork, also made me think hard on some aspects of the game.  I am excited to get the project fleshed out.  We even talked a bit about how the game would appear once published.

I have been working on some writing; both PDF and other projects. I’ll put some of that on the back burner this week and get another PDF or two out ASAP.

Sorry for the lag in posting; crazy couple of weeks.

Still no new GSL news.  Big surprise there.

I have a few new releases on deck.  I should get a free otherverse release up soon followed by a couple of regular PDF’s.

Work has been really crazy for the last couple weeks, but we just ended our fiscal year so hopefully things will settle down going forward.

I got a call a couple days ago that my other motorcycle was finished.  It needed two new tires and brake pads along with the safty inspection.  Holy crap they are charging a ton of money!  I didn’t even get dinner out of it.  I already had to pay them for the 600 mile service on my new bike, and this repair bill is killing me.  October is a really tight month over here with several other items all due this month.  We can do it but there isn’t a whole lot of play money left over.  But I knew being a homeowner would mean a tight budget, so i have no room to complain.  (Maybe I can get some of that bail-out money to help me out!)

My brother will be out to visit me at then end of the month.  I haven’t seen him in a while so that will be nice.  We’re supposed to hit the Baltimore Aquarium and a big Haloween party while he’s out so that will be fun.

First off; conrats go out to Louis Porter Jr. and his new bride!  Enjoy you Vegas honeymoon!!

Look for a new release to go up later tonight or tomorrow. It’s been a rpetty good month so far, but I also want the whole 4E/GSL thing to shake out finally so we can get to some semblance of “normal” and not this whole waiting game to see what is going to shake out.

I saw most of the Presidential debate, fell asleep on the couch halfway through.  I think McCain came out with a slight edge, but again the debate is all sizzle and no steak.  Neither candidate made any serious gaffes or scored the ultimate sound byte.  Looking forward to the VP debate; I hear Biden isn’t so good unscripted and Palin needs to hit one out of the park to solidify here position.  Should be fun.  (But again; it’s all sizzle so I am not swayed terribly one way or the other by debates; the “steak” is a candidates past voting record. Not what they say, but how they vote.)

I got an email from a buddy of mine that is great with a pencil and paper.  I have been trying to get him to draw some stuff for me since I started publishing.  He said he wants to dust off his sketchbook, so I sent him some stuff to draw and told him I can use whatever he turns out.  I hope it works out, but in the meantime I’ll keep Anthony as busy as I can. Like Louis says a good artist is worth every penny.

I spent most of Saturday messing around in the garage.  I am putting shelves along one whole wall to give us better storage.  I got most of the stuff up, but still need to put some more screws into the support structure before I actually mount the shelves.  I worked a little too hard and a little too long with no quite enough water.  Ifelt lousy by four in the afternoon, but drank lots of water and downed some asprin before heading out to the in-laws for a family dinner.  I took it easy on Sunday; church and then a nap at home followed by round two of dinner at the in-laws.  This time it was burgers and dogs on the grill; yummy!

I have to pick up my motorcycle from the shop tonight.  I didn’t make it over there on Saturday, and they were closed on Sunday. I had it in for the all-important first service.  They change the oil and make sure all the engine parts seated correctly during the break-in period.  I am kinda glad it was in the shop as it was one less thing to have to move out of my way while working on the garage.

Lots going on here at SUS HQ!  I got the first PDF in the new “Thinking Races” series up last night.  I have two more on deck right behind that one, and several more in process behind that.

I also got my laptop set up on the home wireless network last night, so I will not have to compete with my wife for CPU time while she is in class.

I wathced the first half of Heroes last night, and so far I am digging it.  Not sure I like the elder Petrelli’s sudden intrest in God, but we’ll see where it goes. I love the new DVR that lets me watch stuff when I have the time; now I can catch Attack of the Show whenever I want!  And South Park, and Aqua Teen Hunger Force.  Yeah, I like the new DVR.

Adobe just announced the CS4 suite that will ship in October or November.  I feel like I just bought CS3 (which I did) but now I have to save my nickles to upgrade the CS4.  It will be worth it for many of the things I have planned for the future. Gotta dig into more of the upgraded features; I am especially interested in adding some more Flash elements into my listings.

On the political front the huge bail-out fiasco is taking up all the headlines.  I love how we keep hearing how it is a lack of regulation that is to blam for all this mess; as if MORE government intervention is the solution.  Does anyone really believe that the home mortgage industry isn’t regulated?  That stock traders are not regulated? The fact of the matter is that the financial and real-estate markets are heavily regulated and that has been part of the problem; insane regulations requiring and encouraging banks to loan money to folks who are not qualified to repay them.  (No the “Keep-Up-With-The-Jones” consumer doesn’t get off the hook for not reading the fine print or getting in over their heads, nor do the greedy brokers who made as many loans as possible only to sell them off as quickly as possible.)  But for Congress (going back many years, not just this Congress) to pretend to be blameless in this is an outright, bold-faced lie.

Look, if I throw my life savings into opening a retail game shop and it goes bust in a year or two then I am not magically entitled to get money from Uncle Sam to bail me out of a bad financial decision.  Why is it different for these companies?  The fact of the matter is that companies fail, and should be allowed to.  Capitalism will find the best way to deliver goods and services to consumers; it may be messy and result in some hard times, but it works.  It works better than any beurocratic solution ever tried in all the history of mankind. We didn’t bail out and prop up the viynl record industry when CD’s came along.  We didn’t “save” the riding crop industry when cars came on the scene.  Sometimes you just gotta tighten your belt and pay your bills.  America needs to start doing this now.  Handing a blank check to some guy in the Treasury to try to buy our way out of this mess IS NOT THE ANSWER. Seriously, they want no oversight, no review and no accountability for a single person who was appointed,not elected, to spend almost a Trillion bucks of our money.  Bzzzz; wrong answer. OK, I am easing down and stepping off the Soap Box.

Looking forward to the first presidential debate Friday night.  I never expect any of them to actually say stuff worth hearing; the debates are all sizzle and no steak in my opinion.  But it will be nice to see them square off one-on-moderated-one.

Looks like Priateer Press is saying no the 4E GSL for their Iron Kingdomes RPG.  What an epic fail the GSL has turned out to be.  Maybe that will turn around with the revision, but I doubt it.  With the initial middle finger of theGSL, a watered down”apology” of a slight revision isn’t gonna help.  Mybe WOTC will get smart, prolly not.  I mean I saw anothe $25.00 module for sale the other night; I simply have trouble swallowing the idea of that much scratch for a product that is not intended to be re-used in the same way a rule book or suppliment is.  Sure, maybe the maps can be re-used; but still.

Just saw the press conference on the economy and am now hearing all the talking heads talk about it.  They say we need to do something “bold” and they want Congress to stay in session an extra week to “get this done”.  Mark my words, anything that is rushed through Congress is not a good thing.  Ever. (I’m looking at you Patriot Act.)

Went ot a VCDL meeting last night with my buddy; we rode our motorcycles.  Stopped for dinner at one of my favorite hole-in-the-wall Chinese food places; then went for a ride.  Some punks in a Dodge 300 revved their engine like they wanted to race.  Too much traffic to give them a real run; but there is no freakin’ way a multi-thousand pound car with two guys in it is ever gonna take a 650cc bike that weighs under 500 pounds. From the line, quarter-mile or top speed; forget about traffic weaving or twistys.  I just laughed. Had to leave the meeting a bit early cuz I didn’t want to be out too late.

My wife has a big conference she is helping organize, so she has been working like mad all week.  Tonight she’ll be staying at a hotel and doing the conference thing until tomorrow afternoon.  I plan to get some PDF work along with some more house chores done tonight.  Look for a release or two soon.  Saturday my friend flies into town, so I am gonna meet him at the airport and then we are gonna hang out.  I am going to bring my DVD of Gamers: Dorkness Rising and a couple copies of Boot Hill 3rd Edition and maybe Battletech so we have some choices.

I just finished up the latest Crosstime Traffic novel by Harry Turtledove.  Great series of books; by all means check them out.

The Force Unleashed Campaign guide as well as the Adventurer’s Vault for 4E are out this week.  Looks like I need to drop by the game store on my way home tonight! I also need to pick up the Warmachine: Legends book as well.  Wow, that’s gonna get expencive!

We got the Fios fiber optic service from Verizon installed yesterday.  I am really happy with it so far.  The Comcast customer service rep was also quite rude to me when I stopped in to cancel the service, and the line was really long with only two people working the counter.  I am happy to be done with Comcast.

I got a letter from my homeowners association yesterday that said I owe them $507.00!  (Keep in mind I have only made two house payments so far, and we officially closed in July!)  Turns out they had a balance owed from the previous owners, and the nice lady is working it out so the balance is corrected.

I picked up a wireless adapter for the XBox as well as the Force Unleashed game yesterday.  I managed to get online and play some Halo 3 with my friends; something I haven’t done in several months.

On the politics front I am seeing a lot of rancor and vileness against Sarah Palin that I just can’t get behind.  Here is a small town girl who goes from the PTA to mayor of her town, actually takes on corruption and wins, goes on the become Governor of her state while being happily married and raising a family.  (Did I mention that her state loves her and thinks she is doing a great job?) She gets tapped to become McCain’s VP and now she is the worst woman on the planet!  From “Creatioist psyco bitch” to “less f$%#able than a dead pig”; and that’s just from another RPG publisher! Others accuse her of molesting teenagers.  Those represent the more outlandish and frankly vile things I have seen.  Of course there are the simple half-truths and almost-lies about here beliefs and record that are part and parcel of any campaign. But I have to ask; if all you Obama supporters can come up with is name-calling, innuendo and potty-jokes, then what is your candidate really bringing to the table that makes you resort to such tactics? Just askin.

***UPDATE***

Now it seems that some 133t h@x0rs cracked her Yahoo email password and posted screenshots of her email and her contact list.  People are calling her daughters cell phone number and emailing her husband and what not. Gawker.com is keeping the stuff “up there” because she is “newsworthy” and making noise like there are hidden, private messages that she used her Yahoo email for instead of her official email.  Total BS.  I have like six email addresses; my main work email, Skortched Urf’s gmail account, two other gmail accounts, a Yahoo account and a couple associated with other websites I host. Yet no one is pointing to any top secret communications that were supposed to be hidden.  And who in their right mind would use a Yahoo address to keep secrets? So tell me again why Obama is such hot stuff that we have to resort to this kind of non-sense?