I’m a delegate! Not a super one, but a delegate nonetheless

Posted on March 5, 2008 by Steve

You’re probably sick of all the news covering the primaries (for either party) but I had an awesome, exhausting experience last night participating in the second step of Texas’ rather odd process. It was odd because this state finally mattered, even if it’s still not going for the Dems in the Fall.

Normally, the candidates are already narrowed down by Iowa, New Hampshire and a few others by now. So all the arcane rules for this state are ignored because the delegates are pledged to a de facto front runner. When I voted last week, the county workers reminded everyone about the caucus meeting on primary-election night. If I reported to my precinct after 7:15 PM, I got to cast a second vote to assign the last third of the delegates while the first two-thirds are decided by the popular vote. It seems rather un-democratic as only the diehard political junkies with immense patience would stick around, wait in queue to vote again. I’ll keep this apolitical though.

Many people made their second vote, then left. I stuck around since I was told there were resolutions to review: which legislative proposals or positions the Democratic Party of Texas would promote. Talk about Legalese! It didn’t help that I was one of “those guys,” speaking up to push for amendments on them. I only did it for three out of what seemed like 100, it more along the lines of 30-40. Again apolitical so I won’t say what I tweaked but when the votes came up, I was three for three. Swish! He shoots! He scores! Maybe I do have a future in politics, HA!

When we got through the resolutions, the results were announced and we divided up between our two respective camps to choose delegates for the Travis County Democratic Convention at month’s end. The acting chairman said it would be held at the Expo Center which pushed me toward being a pledged delegate since I know how to get there. I succeeded in landing a seat at the proverbial table. Now I will let my bias through for I am a pledged delegate for Senator Obama. Pledged? I could change my mind. Fat chance. Now I need to trade shifts with a co-worker due to it being an all-Saturday affair. Maybe I’ll get lucky and be chosen for the statewide convention in April. I finally have a chance to do something more than just push a button or color in an oval.

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Gary Gygax passed away today…

Posted on March 4, 2008 by Steve

…and if a stake isn’t driven through his heart, he’ll return as a vampire with HD 8+3, AC 0 and the level-drain power on top of his blowhard attacks.

Initially I was skeptical since the first sources were message boards and Wikipedia, but when it was declared on CNN, then I knew was closer to 100-percent true.

I was hoping to write a more neutral piece on him but there was a heated string of exchanges within my gaming group’s mailing list, getting my blood up unfortunately.

Unlike many gamers who met Gary, aka the EGG Man from his initials, I’m one of the few who actually worked with him (as an editor and proofreader/typesetter]. Sadly, it wasn’t during the rise or salad days of D&D but his poorly written, under-developed and horribly executed comeback Mythus, the game that torpedoed GDW; this huge flop accelerated the company’s demise by a couple years.

When I discovered D&D in 1981, the name Gary Gygax was held in awe. By the time I went to college, he didn’t really matter anymore. I had moved on to play better RPGs, he had been kicked out of TSR and my friend Neal told me about his encounter with Gygax at GenCon which boiled down to two words…big ego. There were other rumors too: Gary was hard to work with (true), he had a cocaine addiction (unknown), someone was suing him (true, Dave Arneson claimed part of the credit, hence the creation of Advanced D&D), etc.

Soon after joining GDW, I was brought in on the Mythus project in 1991 and I expressed my initial concerns of working with EGG, colored by those rumors. The president of the company, Frank, stated this shouldn’t be a problem. Gary had learned humility from his last few years “in the wilderness” and the recent fiascos of Cyborg Commando and Fantasy Master. Nothing could be further from the truth when I was his editor on The Necropolis adventure. He wouldn’t compromise, cooperate or even correct some major contradictions. Meanwhile, Gary was also undermining me through Frank by talking up some clod in California he had taken a liking to; someone who would roll over as his new lapdog editor. I should’ve taken the hint to bail on GDW by the Spring of 1992 after reading his raw, poorly written crap. It demonstrated to me that Mythus was not ready to publish as Gary and his agent Andre claimed. His writing style was also terrible, clunky, pompous and verbose. He made Charles Dickens or Henry James seem concise. Gary also wrote like someone with a 9th-grade education using a thesaurus (I was close, he only had a GED). As I kept telling head editor Lester in our heated debates over what could be corrected, ignorance isn’t style.

To be fair to him in death, I do thank him for being the main guy to start a good idea. However, pre-Second Edition Dungeons & Dragons became the success it was thanks to the hard work of Frank Mentzer, Zeb Cook, Skip Williams, Allen Hammack, Harold Johnson, James Ward, Doug Niles, Mark Acres, Roger Moore, Kim Mohan, Don Turnbull and an army of additional writers, editors and developers. I equate Gary with Gene Roddenberry for his ability to take the credit for what others did.

Sorry, if it this sounds nasty and mean but all my fond memories of Gary’s famous dungeon crawls evaporated instantly when I had to work with him. He was creative, charming and D&D’s first rock star, even his cameo on Futurama brought a chuckle. It’s his opportunistic and vain nature that will always taint his legacy.

Update Mar 5, 2008: I was really tired and in a hurry to post this before bed around midnight. I had a big night participating in the Democratic Caucus for my precinct. After reading the original, it was too vitriolic even for my tastes so I trimmed it down and brought in some nice things about Gary. He will be missed by everyone, including his detractors.

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1993: Unemployment morphs into Underemployment

Posted on March 4, 2008 by Steve

By now, unemployment had become routine. I’d wake up around noon, maybe get invited to lunch with Steve (Bryant) and he would usually pay (part of the process to keep up my morale). Then maybe go hang out somewhere to kill time. Either Adventureland for the weekly RoleMaster game Andy Powdermaker ran or some other places, I can’t recall exactly. Afterwards, it was back to the apartment to veg out on cable, piece together another WMAG tape (that’s another story) or tune in WXRT on the stereo while I worked on my Macintosh LC. “Work” would be a subjective term too. If I wasn’t piecing together a printed version of Maggi Picayune for a friend, I was cleaning up a piece of scanned art in Illustrator after Streamline turned it into a vectored file. Don’t worry if you didn’t understand the previous sentence, it means I could waste hours on something tedious. I frequently found myself staying up until dawn through this vicious circle. If Internet access was more prevalent then, I probably would have accomplished even less: posting to message boards, reading even more trivial junk, learning make my own web page, etc.

Greg took it pretty well. He rarely ever “lived” in the apartment, even when I was employed, and as long as I kept the stereo’s volume low enough for him to sleep, he never complained to my face.

It was all starting to blur together at the end of January so when I received the call from Chief City Graphics, there was a feeling of relief. Not only would I be bringing in  more than $132/week, I could rejoin the rest of the world by getting my sleeping pattern back in line.

Chief City Graphics, or CCG, was a service bureau up north in scenic Pontiac. It only paid six bucks an hour and I had to piss in jar but I was desperate. The part which stunk were the employment conditions. I didn’t exactly have the job in the typesetting department, I was a temp without the benefit of an agency. It definitely explained the other nickname for this place from the regular employees/clients, Cheap City Graphics. What else could these people do? They lived in Pontiac and the only other major employer was the state prison, the more infamous one is in Joliet: home of East St. Louis and Chicago’s finest.

Getting work was still a victory. I finally cooked that steak I was storing in the fridge for the occasion. This wasn’t exactly the gig I hoped for but I had to eat it before freezer burn set in. The better part was leaving a couple flyers around GDW for Lazz and Steve to let them know how my situation had improved. Lazz told me later about one detractor tearing it down, probably the alcoholic Dave or his ally Olle, the boring Dead fan.

The job turned out to be pretty dull. There wasn’t much typesetting. Most of the time I remember trying to stay busy which is always frustrating; why is it the employee’s responsibility when the production manager (a rather clueless and unpopular fellow named Brian) should be delegating this. There were enjoyable moments beyond the paycheck. I became re-acquainted with QuarkXpress (hadn’t used it since version 1.x in college). Discovered the publishing industry’s hatred of PageMaker (it didn’t do color separations well). Spent time reading exciting trade publications such as Chemical Processing Today, Aggregate, something for locksmiths and my personal favorite…Coal. The day I got the opportunity to redo the color separation of a customer’s magazine cover was a huge thrill. I think I still have a copy of the issue somewhere.

I grew tired of their stringing me along by the end of March. Upper management wouldn’t commit because they weren’t sure I would stick around for the possible second-shift position being created. Talk about a self-fulfilling prophecy! When managers waffle on their decisions, they reap what they sow with the employees. I found it irksome. Back then, second shift was perfect. Sleep in, cover some errands during the day if necessary, get to work around 4 PM and have the bulk of the work day to myself, mainly to control which music was played. It was similar to my time at kinko’s in Milwaukee. Meanwhile, they had another woman my age in the position then. She was griping to have a day shift because she was getting married and being alone creeped her out. The co-worker also grew tired of CCG’s hemming and hawing so she landed the job at kinko’s I almost scored but Dave of GDW sabotaged me.

Upset over this whole debacle, I stepped up my campaign to get something else in April. There was an interview in Chicago that was a total bust yet it was a perfect excuse to visit Paul and Helen. I think there were applications elsewhere too. By May, my friend Rad got me in touch with Dynamic Graphics which resulted in an offer before Memorial Day. CCG did give me a greater understanding of publishing, QuarkXpress and the then “state of the art” Mac OS 7.1. It’s a good thing they didn’t give me the second-shift bit. I think I would have realized too quickly how out of sync my life would become with my friends in the 8-to-5 routine.

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Sunshine

Posted on March 3, 2008 by Steve

This is the movie Event Horizon probably aspired to be, if it didn’t give up and go with the lame supernatural angle. Leave it to Danny Boyle of 28 Days Later and Shallow Grave to bring out the horror, fright and terror people bring upon themselves without having to resort to some deus ex machina solution…I’m looking in your direction Tim Burton.

Fifty years from now, our Sun is dying because something is destroying it from the inside; an impossible object called a Q-ball as explained by the movie’s science advisor Dr. Brian Cox. All life on Earth is gambling on the eight crew members of the Icarus II to deliver a nuclear weapon the size of Manhattan which will reignite the Sun and purge the Q-ball. Definitely a suicide mission.

It wouldn’t be much of a movie if the mission went smoothly. Notice the “two” after the ship’s name. Almost 10 years earlier, the first Icarus left for the same purpose and all contact was lost some time after the vessel passed Mercury. Everyone assumed the spacecraft was destroyed but it’s parked very close to the Sun. Commander Kaneda decides to investigate at the advice of Physicist/Payload Specialist Capa; their reasoning is that the nuclear device they’re carrying may not work so it would be wiser to have two. This leads to the Icarus II getting damaged and now they have no choice but to dock with the older vessel, find out what happened to the crew and cannibalize it for spare parts. Anything further would spoil it.

I really liked it because I felt terrified for the crew. They’re caught between being instantly desiccated by the cold vacuum of space or getting vaporized by the Sun if the ship’s giant deflector fails. The tension amongst the astronauts doesn’t help, this was established immediately to illustrate why Computer Specialist Mace dislikes and distrusts Capa. It didn’t seem genuine at first yet it wasn’t detrimental to the big plot’s execution. I also thought Boyle trying to make the crew as international as possible was a nice touch: two Americans, an Australian, a Malaysian, a Maori/New Zealander, an Irishman, an ethnically Chinese Englishman and a Japanese commander.

SPOILER ALERT: I know it’s just a movie but the ship losing the ability to communicate with Earth before it reaches Mercury is poetic license on Boyle’s part. NASA sent probes there in the Seventies and successfully received scores of pictures on the first planet in our solar system. I guess it wouldn’t be as terrifying if Icarus II could get further advice from home.

Definitely worth renting if you want to see a scary, realistic SciFi flick in the same vein as 2001, 2010 and the first Alien. Even though The Black Hole is plain silly and Event Horizon was disappointing, Sunshine shares some elements from them. Now to see if Dr. Phil Plait ever got around to reviewing this.

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Happy 40th Birthday Daniel Craig

Posted on March 2, 2008 by Steve

His debut in Casino Royale was spectacular and I think he’ll be my favorite James Bond as long as the franchise’s handlers keep focusing on the stories over the product placements…I mean gadgets. Craig has the grittiness of Connery and Dalton because being a government investigator-assassin is dirty work. Very fitting for the Generation X stereotype. Don’t take the previous statement as a dig against Moore and Brosnan; they had a few good movies but their take was more casual and flippant so they came off as serious versions of Matt Helm or Derek Flint.

Before he landed the role of a lifetime, I caught him starring in L4YER CAKE which I rented to see who this new Bond was. He has appeared before American audiences in The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones, Elizabeth (the 1998 version), Tomb Raider and Road to Perdition. I didn’t say they were all good films. I suppose his inconspicuous looks in those roles explain why he was chosen to be the sixth 007. I know they’re just movies but an effective operative is somebody who isn’t memorable, noticeable or recognizable.

I do plan on watching The Golden Compass when it’s available as a rental. He was the other factor after Sam Elliott in pushing me toward checking it out.

Meanwhile, I have to agree that Quantum of Solace is a horrible title for the next movie. It’s not as horrendous as say…Attack of the Clones, just arcane. I looked up the definition of quantum and Fleming’s use of the word is technically correct (it’s the title of a short story). Modern connotation has moved it into the realm of physics for most people now.

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I don’t like Green Bagels & Salmon, Sam I Am

Posted on March 2, 2008 by Steve

For a limited time, Einstein’s Bagels is selling a green, potato-based bagel to honor the St. Patrick’s Day holiday. I decided to go for it since I can’t get a shamrock shake at any McDonald’s in Central Texas. It also looked like something they’d eat on Star Trek from the Sixties. No luck on blue shmear or a picture of Mr. Spock enjoying it; Vulcans are vegetarians so he could eat it. The other upside is I didn’t have green-colored waste like Chicago, Boston and NYC are plagued with from the holiday beer.

Coincidentally, this green bagel was an appropriate treat to have on Dr. Seuss’s 104th birthday.

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RIP Netscape Navigator

Posted on March 1, 2008 by Steve

It isn’t exactly dead, it’s just completely unsupported which is as good as dead.

Thus all that remains are those many fond memories of using Netscape Navigator back when getting on the Internet took some effort with dial-up. I was often spared some of the anguish by having jobs with T1 access during the Nineties. Regardless of connection speeds, seeing web pages definitely made the Internet more practical over Navigator’s pre-web browser predecessors.

It’s a bummer that a major element responsible for influencing how people view information through the Internet has died with a whimper; it beats the implosion most dot coms had. Unfortunately, it was inevitable. Microsoft has Explorer very intertwined with Windows and Apple users moved on to Safari years ago. Then there’s Firefox for both platforms, fueled primarily by the anti-Microsoft crowd. Being a Mac person, I use both because my credit union can’t get their banking page to work correctly in Safari.

The primary people behind Netscape’s rise are smart cookies. I’m sure they’ve moved on to other projects or have something new planned since they have little to do with AOL.

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Happy 8th or 2nd Birthday to Nic!

Posted on February 29, 2008 by Steve

Yeah, I know, lame, but I never grow tired of the joke or premise from The Pirates of Penzance. I’m confident he’ll be sick of it by the time he’s a young adult. Yet he won’t turn down the free goodies one gets proving this date is his birthday.

Side note: Most people think Leap Day happens every four years yet it doesn’t since Earth’s revolution around the Sun isn’t exactly 365.25 days. It happens every year divisible by four except on years divisible by 100 unless they’re divisible by 400. Huh? 2008 is a Leap Year, sure. 1976, you bet. Same goes for 2000. But 1900 or 1800? No. A little trivia from my high school Astronomy class.

Nic is probably having a pretty cool time, he has a new baby brother (Marcus) to celebrate with. He’s also a clever guy. Nelson (his dad) told me he already knew the ritual to make a snow day happen.

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Happy 60th Birthday Bernadette Peters

Posted on February 28, 2008 by Steve

It’s her birthday again but this time I stated her age because NPR blurted it out and it is public knowledge on imdb.com. I tried to watch Pennies from Heaven while it was on the DVR yet it didn’t hold my interest despite Steve Martin, Christopher Walken and her being in it. Maybe I’ll try another day.

Bernadette is still looking pretty good from the recent pictures imdb.com has posted of her attending premiere of Hairspray last Summer. I only hope I look as youthful, and healthy.

Not much going on for her lately in the realm of TV and film yet I’m sure she’ll pop up from time to time since she has become a grande dame of Broadway.

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Sheila wrote me back!

Posted on February 27, 2008 by Steve

I rolled the dice for her birthday and even though I didn’t hit a Seven on the first throw, I did make the Point…Sheila wrote an e-mail to me! It’s also a good thing I glance over the Junk folder in Mail, that stupid thing still isn’t “trained” correctly as it keeps delivering stupid horoscopes. How did that happen? Mail assumes messages from Yahoo, Google, Hotmail and other sources such as those are from spammers.

The best news is that I didn’t upset her and drive her away. She’s very busy with her children who I so want to meet, more little ones for Uncle Maggi to spoil and share his love of The Backyardigans. You know I responded right away because I have a million questions for her. Hopefully we’ll be getting together soon. Somara definitely wants to meet her and I want to meet her family.

This is great. First a reconnection with the Maggi clan in FL and WI, then a reconciliation with Cindy and now the longest friend I’ve ever had answers me! All that’s left is Lazz or at least him telling me to officially to drop dead.

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New Podcast recommendations for 2008

Posted on February 27, 2008 by Steve

Two years ago I recommended three podcasts (and trashed another) because iTunes gained the ability to easily subscribe a few months earlier. Then last year The Onion jumped into the video podcast foray with their spot-on parodies of Fox News (if you could call it news), CNN, Bloomberg and the old networks. This got me hooked on to these plus we might purchase an Apple TV to replace the Dish TV we had turned off last Spring. Here is a new round of audio and video podcasts I’ve grown addicted to.

VIDEO:

The New Yorker Animated Cartoons: This publication has an enormous archive so they’ll never run out, I’ve seen the tome at Book People dedicated to just this. You don’t have to be a fan of the magazine or the city neither, the jokes are universal but there have been a couple which weren’t safe for work.

Onion News Network [ONN]: Most of the time, these are straight news-story parodies with a reporter at the desk commenting about the footage or communicating with a field reporter. Then there is the political roundtable show In the Know starring a host whose constant absence is usually a good joke and four panelists defending ridiculous positions. Lastly, Today Now! is the best jab at those annoying vapid morning shows starring the perky yet shallow hosts. These podcasts demonstrate how well The Onion is branching out from print and radio.

The Meth Minute 39: It’s named after Dan Meth, the show’s primary director, not speed. This is one of Channel Frederator’s online ventures to let its talent experiment and branch out since none of this is appropriate for its main client Nickelodeon. These cartoons are a mix of topics and styles: a geek’s revenge against a bully, two music geeks arguing, videogame parodies, etc. I can’t stop laughing at “Mike Tyson’s Brunch Out.”

AUDIO

Of the podcasts I plugged two years ago, On the Media is the only one of the three I’ve kept up with; listening to it is a Saturday-morning ritual at work. The other two (Podquiz and Coverville) I got behind on and they piled up into an ugly backlog. I stopped subscribing to Podquiz and I will be blowing over Coverville show by show if the host does something uninteresting. Of course, it hasn’t stopped me from getting addicted to other podcasts.

Astronomy Cast: After meeting Dr. Plaitt and Dr. Gay with Mr. Cain at the Astronomer get-together, I became a fan of AstronomyCast run by Dr. Gay and Mr. Cain. I have an amateur (at best) understanding of Astronomy being a Sci-Fi fan. Their podcast is great. It’s equal to taking a course on the subject with everything explained in layman’s terms. After I catch my weekly episode of OTM I listen to three episodes of this in my quest to hear every one until I make it to the current show; currently I’ve tackled 19, only 58 to go.

Alternative Classix: Tarsis Lopez of the Chicago area covers what would be called the “Oldies” for the Alternative genre. It’s not completely stuck in the past, he does a past/present segment on occasion (he explains the rules before he does it) which tells me that many artists are still viable, they just don’t receive any real support from the labels or traditional radio sources. The show is laced with soundbites or plugs with references to old movies, commercials or fads. Lopez is also generous, he takes requests, dedications and has guest sections listing upcoming tours or gossip on past artists (I had no idea Adam Ant had an autobiography out recently). Despite the host having a nasally voice, his showed is very polished and best of all, he finds real, rare, out-of-print gems I can’t normally buy at Cheapo on my CD searches.

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Welcome Marcus!

Posted on February 25, 2008 by Steve

Nelson’s fourth child was born Friday night. I didn’t want to announce it until there were pictures. Maybe it’s a validity thing. Don’t want people thinking Nelson and Tammy have virtual children because the first group investigating such a claim will be the IRS.

Everybody’s well, recovering and getting ready for big brother’s eighth birthday at the end of the week too.

Posted in Birthday, News | Leave a comment

Trade Deadline ends later this week and Floppa still wavers

Posted on February 24, 2008 by Steve

The trade deadline looms in what may be the Mats Sundin derby, if he’d only lighten up and help his doomed organization out. My guess is that he doesn’t trust the Maple Leafs to pull a Mark Recchi or Doug Weight move. I wouldn’t blame him. This franchise hasn’t won a Cup since the 1967 expansion thanks to blunder after blunder.

Doubtful he’ll come Philly’s way as the Broad Street Bullies have now brought their losing skid to 10 games in a row. They’ve plummeted from first to last in the Atlantic Division. Sure there are 20 games remaining in the season for them but they’re not going to the playoffs with such lifeless play. Most would blame the injury situation as the primary cause: Gagne is gone until next season, they just lost Richards last night and most of the decent defensemen are out. I won’t criticize Briere unlike the hacks at ESPN. Danny is the number two guy in points and the most accurate shooter despite being -23. Briere’s rating is one of the few exceptions when this odd hockey stat is misleading. I haven’t seen any Flyers games lately so I can’t assess what’s their problem other than the January slump getting postponed to February and it may carry over to March. The silver lining is this, if GM Paul Holmgren completely ignores Peter Forsberg’s desire to return the NHL, I will be thrilled even if the Flyers miss the playoffs for the second year in a row.

It was a shame to be torn between the Sharks and Flyers. I prefer the Flyers yet I was willing to let their skid continue since the Sharks are a real Cup contender in an equally fierce division: I don’t want to see another championship in Anaheim or Dallas, they’re not hockey towns. The Flyers awarding JR a gift for his 500-goal accomplishment was awesome. He may have only played three seasons but you can tell he was a fan favorite.

Not much else other than trying to calculate the magic number for Austin to make the CHL’s playoffs. This league definitely has a serious imbalance of talent because the Icebats are vying for the fifth spot that somehow a team under .500 occupies. Sad. I used to think such a pity spot was exclusive to the NBA with the Western Conference in the Eighties, now the Eastern Conference needs it.

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Who’s the movie star?

Posted on February 24, 2008 by Steve

For the last few Sundays, I have taken up a new ritual to replace the one I used to have working for Kenny’s; meeting my key regulars at Einstein’s Bagels. Their lattes are mediocre yet I did enjoy their bagel and lox. It is nice being allowed to kick back, yap with the Simmons family, Charles (my WWII pilot and Mac apprentice) and the various people who come in and out. The young lady in the picture is Haley, the daughter of Dennis & Heather. A very nice couple who work in the education field of sorts. Their little girl enjoys my monkey imitation (something I learned from watching the original Miracle on 34th Street).

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1993: Picayune 1.0’s production is ramped up

Posted on February 22, 2008 by Steve

Those Six Days of Christmas stories were a mixed bag but I actually received some positive feedback from one friend regarding them. I’m still waffling about doing it again in December; the lack of a response from others doesn’t mean agreement or approval. But I have been feeling nostalgic about my 10 weeks of unemployment to kick off 1993. It wasn’t a great time, it was seriously stressful (little did I know it would be picnic compared to now). If I were a wiser, braver person, I probably could have enjoyed it more and took the risk on moving to Austin, Milwaukee or Chicago sooner.

Something good did come from my downtime, Picayune and KMAG coalesced into their version 1.0 states. The latter would gel into its first official, formalized patterns by the Summer of 1993 so I will write about its ancestor WMAG later this year. Picayune received more attention while I was moping, staying up too late, sleeping at weird times, watching gobs of TV and keeping my Mac skills ready on the Macintosh LC I owned.

Way back in 1990, my friend Lee (aka Doc) moved from Milwaukee to Beaumont and at Christmas he made a newsletter with his Mac. It was pretty cool for the technology of its day. So I stole his idea when I started writing letters to my friends who graduated from Marquette and moved elsewhere. I was also trying to land something in desktop publishing either at the Milwaukee Sentinel where I was underemployed as a sportsagate, or someplace they used Macs like kinko’s. I recall Deb and Neal were my first official victims of Picayune’s earliest incarnation, Maggi Picayune.

Fast-forwarding through 1991, I did score a job with a kinko’s down on Milwaukee’s southwest side and then GDW lured me away to Central Illinois. Despite learning all about laying out publications, typesetting and the real power in PageMaker 4, Maggi Picayune became infrequent. I do recall it having a couple gems, namely my Fisher-Price cartoons made in MacDraw II for Jose.

Then you all probably recall, GDW came to a predictable, sudden painful close in 1992. I had all this time on my hands because the economy was still in the toilet as 1993 began and there’s never any serious hiring until Spring anyway. I had to do something to pass the days while waiting for my pittance of $132/week from the unemployment office. Maggi Picayune got refined and redesigned with practically an entirely separate issue created for every friend I wrote to: Paul & Helen, Jose, Doc, Deb & Neal and probably Cindy. Some elements were recycled between the recipients but not much, each person (or couple) had different tastes or interests.

When I landed an interview with Chief City Graphics, I felt pretty prepared to take on a typesetting gig. Unfortunately they used QuarkXpress 3 which I wasn’t as comfortable with since college and GDW’s art department took care of color separations; something PageMaker handled poorly. A tad dejected, I continued working on Maggi Picayune, cleaning up scanned artwork in Illustrator 3, writing reviews and listening to music on WXRT or my CD collection. CCG came through later (a story for the near future) which then gave me access to Quark Xpress 3; it wasn’t as formidable as the production manager made it sound neither. My past skill as a typesetter overcame the software’s alleged learning curve.

Thus ends part one on Picayune and KMAG’s ancestors. I will probably pick up with KMAG’s predecessor, the WMAG cassettes, because I could really start doing what I wanted with them once the paychecks from CCG rolled in. Somara has never seen most of the original Maggi Picayune’s nor have I read them since they were mailed. It might be time to review them, see what’s improved and laugh. Hopefully I’ll feel better about them than my archived college papers I received A’s on; makes me wonder if the professors actually read them.

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