Mark Hayward Is My Hero

A few years ago I hauled my Atari 2600 out of the basement. Of course the games aren’t as involved as modern video games, but some of them are still really fun, and the nostalgia is great.

Like most original paddles, mine had so much jitter to them that they were unusable. Once again, the good ol’ internet saved me. I did a quick search and found this site with fantastic step-by-step instructions on how to clean and fix my paddles. It was surprisingly easy, and I could not have figured it out on my own. Thanks internet!

I’ve been playing an online game for a while now called WeeWar. It is so awesome. It’s kind of like the board game Risk. Aside from the fun strategy, and scheming, and destroying, one of the things that makes the game great is that it is turn-based. I’m currently embroiled in furious battle with my brother and my two cousins. What happens is I take my turn, and then the game sends an email to the next person in line that it is their turn. That means that every player can play when it is convenient to them, and the game doesn’t have to steal your soul and ruin your life! If you want to play more, you just start more games. If you don’t have much time for games, you can just be involved in one game with a bunch of players so that it takes a while to get back around to your turn again. This has been great for us since the four of us have very different lives: one who is frequently on the road (me), one with kids, one a newly-wed, and one who lives in the gutter and sleeps in filth.

The game with my brother and cousins has turned into our major form of communication too since there is a little box on the screen where you can have an ongoing chat with the other players. It’s great.

Ok, now here’s the real deal though: after I have recruited 10 players to the game, I achieve Pro status which means that in any game I start, all the players have access to a bunch of additional units (planes, boats) and cooler game maps. So if you want to play WeeWar, you can help me achieve Pro status by using this link to sign up. That way you will be counted as a player I have recruited! Then once I get Pro staus I would be glad to invite you to a game with all the additional units. Just remind me ;)

I should point out though, that you will need some patience. It turns out that WeeWar is so popular that they have had trouble keeping up with the huge demand, so there are times that the site goes down, and they are still fine-tuning the recent upgrades. I think they will get it all worked out soon.

You’d think that since I have six games going right now it would be my turn in one of them… but no.  I guess I just have to get invited to more games.

I have been playing a lot of WeeWar lately.  It RULES.  You should try it.  But be warned that you might not want to do anything else for a few days… or weeks.  Also, if you click on the above link, I get points or something.  Whatever it is it has to be good because it’s related to WeeWar.

I spent this week on the road doing shows. Monday was the Summer Music Clinic up in Madison WI, Tuesday and Wednesday down in Evansville IN, and then Thursday back up North to Skokie IL. It would’ve been nice if I could have had better routing so I didn’t have to do so much driving, but that’s the way it goes sometimes.

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I got to spend the weekend in Green Bay WI this week. I was up there for a gig at the International Bay Fest, 3 shows on Saturday and 2 on Sunday. It was a good time. Since I was staying at my friends Jeni and Adolfo’s house I got to bring my dog Vader. I love it when I get to travel with my dog.

Jeni was gone, so Adolfo and I got to have a Man Weekend. We did Man things like make “wraps” (black beans, cilantro, green onions, sour cream, hot sauce, cheese, and green pepper on flour tortillas… and no, they weren’t burritos), eat unbelievably good ice cream sandwiches, walk the dogs, go shopping, drink smoothies (Adolfo is a master smoothie maker), and play video games. You know… man stuff. It was awesome.

Bay Fest went well, with decent crowds, especially Sunday afternoon. I had standing room only, and it was an outside show. I got to eat some delicious sweet corn. I’m still regretting that I only ate one ear. What was I thinking?

The drive home was BRUTAL (8 hours with no help from Vader with the driving), but at least I got to stop in Chicago and see my friends Harper, Hiromi (visiting from Japan!), Matiss and Erica.

At the last minute Lenore and packed up the car, put the dog in the back seat, and headed up to Chicago on Thursday. It had been her plan all along to be there, but there were a whole series of problems with the show this year. The main one being that it appeared to be cancelled on the Monday before it was going to start. Shortly after that it was maybe back on, but they didn’t know where it was going to be. Since they didn’t have a location,

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