Writers on the Train

I still do hardcopy and red pen and then change the electronic version of manuscripts I write, or people ask me to edit. There is something very helpful being able to lay pages out, physically flip through, free form notes all over them, etc.

On the train this week, there was a guy using a pen to write notes in a paper notebook. A very fancy one with hard cover and everything. We got talking a bit, and he does "design" work for a consulting agency. It was a bit vague, but I sorted out he usually does user interface, but also environmental aesthetics and workflow processes as part of million or multi-million dollar projects. Our common ground was that nothing has replaced the sensation of putting pen to paper for writing, thinking, recording and abstracting, even if we never go back and look again more than once, if at all.

I have a bookcase full of paper notebooks of daily tasks and notes, and gaming and fiction notes. Years worth of ideas, some brilliant, some crap, most of them simply mental exercise not worth much.  I got my first Google docs capable phone in 2012 and my use of paper plummeted from about one notebook per month to about one per year.  C'est la vie and all that :)

My rules for Dating My Daughter

Everyone father (and mother) has rules for "dating my daughter."  (Heaven forbid I need these before she graduates college, but she's got a mind of her own, and she'll do what she wants.)

Let's be honest, no one out there will ever be good enough for our Princesses.  That's part of being a father, but she's smart and funny, and the boys will fawn over her some day.

I just need to make sure the boys - especially teenage boys, who are the worst breed ever at thinking they're smarter and more clever, and no one could possibly have dreamed up whatever scheme they have today -  have proper perspective on the fact that they are not, in fact, anywhere near as clever as they want to believe.

New Rules for Dating My Daughter

1. Once upon a time, I was a teenage boy.  I know what you’re thinking;
2. I’m older now – not only do I know what you’re thinking, I’ve had more thoughts than you can possibly imagine, and I know exactly how to tell if you’ve had them, and I already know what will happen to you if those thoughts ever leave your head;
3. If you make her cry, I will make you cry;
4. You should Google “Rules for Dating My Daughter” – it won’t help you escape, but you might realize how deep you’re already in it;
5. When in doubt, if convinced you're the most clever human who ever lived, remember Rule 1.

Now, get off my lawn, you punk!

KABUKI KAISER: IT COMES DURING PLAY

Well, I just wanted to post to G+, but what the Hell, why not?



KABUKI KAISER: IT COMES DURING PLAY



Kaiser  does a great job of explaining why fewer words are sometimes your best friend, especially when creating an adventure that players will experience later.

Little Gym Puyallup

Hanging out at the Little Gym, in Puyallup, watching my kiddo learn to follow instructions and do physical skills, with other kids, is one of my great peaceful pleasures.

Why I'm a Big Tipper

For various reasons, some of which I'll outline below, I always tip about 20%, and more if I really liked the service.  My wife has the same philosophy.

We don't dine out often, and at the end of the month, tips we've paid don't cost us very much (on a $40 tab, the difference between 15% and 20% is two bucks), and - maybe just as a symbolic gesture - a decent tip can help improve someone's bad day (or flip a bad attitude).

The "average" tipped wage in the United States is about $11.82 per hour, or just above the federal poverty level for a household of 3 (say, a widowed mother trying to raise two kids).

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipped_wage_in_the_United_States)

(https://obamacare.net/2017-federal-poverty-level/).

(http://www.convertunits.com/hourly/11.82)

Note, that is the *average*, as many states have a tipped minimum wage as low as $2.13, and the employer is only required to make up the difference to $7.25 (the laughable Federal minimum wage, which is definitely below the FPL for  anyone except a single person).  I had a buddy living in Tacoma for a while. He had full-time minimum wage work, paid $300/month for a one-room apartment, and the mother next door was struggling to raise her two kids - on minimum wage - after the father died in an accident. (Subsistence living is devastating and bad economic policy.)

Few restaurants provide benefits to employees, such as health insurance. Instead, they may take tax credits for helping employees scrounge health insurance from outside sources.  Thus, whatever they manage to earn can still get sucked away by things that many people consider "basic requirements of life."

(https://www.zanebenefits.com/blog/bid/289948/does-my-employer-have-to-provide-health-insurance)

(http://smallbusiness.chron.com/pay-employee-benefits-restaurant-owner-14656.html)

I was unemployed for part of last year, and we had to buy insurance through the ACA - we got a plan that was pretty much gambling we would never be in a car accident - for about $300/month (family of 3).  At $11.82/hour, that's 15% of gross income (and if we had lived in a one-bedroom apartment, at $300/month, that's another 15% off the top).

My family has been very blessed in life.  I tip well, because it doesn't cost us much, I believe in "paying it forward," and the small gesture really can have a big impact.