It's Thursday lunchtime and I have just realised that I haven't written a blog entry since Monday! The reason is very simple ... I have just been very busy.
Firstly we have had to have a visit from an emergency plumber. We discovered that when one of us had a bath in our first floor bathroom, water began to drip off the light fitting in the kitchen a few minutes after the bath plug was pulled out. It was not a torrent of water, but enough to worry us. The plumber took over an hour to find the leak in the outflow pipe, but it was eventually fixed and there has not been a leak since.
In addition to this Sue and I have been continuing to do research into the history of an important Hertfordshire Masonic Lodge. My database of past members is fast approaching 1,500 ... and I have only just reached 1955! Likewise my notes of the meetings that took place between 1920 and 1955 are over 20 pages long ... and still growing.
In parallel with this (and as a break from transcribing names and dates) I have been checking my PORTABLE WARGAME book for further errata. In this I have had considerable help from Arthur Harman, and with luck I should be able to publish a definitive list very soon. Luckily the vast majority of the mistakes are grammatical or typographical ones, and none has any serious impact on the actual rules themselves.
Finally I have been putting together the February issue of THE NUGGET COLOUR SUPPLEMENT so that it can be published on the same day as THE NUGGET.
All-in-all none of the above has individually taken up a huge amount of time, but when put together they seem to have filled the past few days.
Firstly we have had to have a visit from an emergency plumber. We discovered that when one of us had a bath in our first floor bathroom, water began to drip off the light fitting in the kitchen a few minutes after the bath plug was pulled out. It was not a torrent of water, but enough to worry us. The plumber took over an hour to find the leak in the outflow pipe, but it was eventually fixed and there has not been a leak since.
In addition to this Sue and I have been continuing to do research into the history of an important Hertfordshire Masonic Lodge. My database of past members is fast approaching 1,500 ... and I have only just reached 1955! Likewise my notes of the meetings that took place between 1920 and 1955 are over 20 pages long ... and still growing.
In parallel with this (and as a break from transcribing names and dates) I have been checking my PORTABLE WARGAME book for further errata. In this I have had considerable help from Arthur Harman, and with luck I should be able to publish a definitive list very soon. Luckily the vast majority of the mistakes are grammatical or typographical ones, and none has any serious impact on the actual rules themselves.
Finally I have been putting together the February issue of THE NUGGET COLOUR SUPPLEMENT so that it can be published on the same day as THE NUGGET.
All-in-all none of the above has individually taken up a huge amount of time, but when put together they seem to have filled the past few days.
Makes one wonder how a person can find time to hold down a fulltime job!
ReplyDeleteJonathan Freitag,
DeleteI can't believe that I was able to work and cope with these sorts of things! I'm retired, and I just don't seem to have enough hours in the day to do everything that I want to do.
All the best,
Bob
Bob
ReplyDeleteJust read and enjoyed the Portable Wargame and noticed the odd typo. Such things annoy me in my own writing when they survive several proof readings.
Nice sets of rules. If anyone ever wanted to try out wargaming they could do worse than this. However what really warrants comment is that solo variation command and control median value cards thingy (pretty elegant description I feel), which is brilliant. Did you steal it from somewhere or is it all your own work? Either way it is excellent (and not just for solo gaming) and immediately trounces the multiple varieties of dice and action/command points I have fiddled with for years.
Well done.
Cheers
Andrew
Rumblestrip (Andrew),
DeleteTypos will always get through, even after extensive proof-reading by several people. Luckily the ones in my book aren't too drastic and don't affect the way the rules work.
I'm very pleased to read that you have enjoyed reading my rules. I designed the card activation system outlined in my book after quite a large number of experiments, some of which were more successful than others. I hope that you enjoy using it in your own games.
All the best,
Bob
When I published The Courier I was accused of having so many typos that I ended up promising each author I would add at least two typos to his article. The problem, I find, is doing the proof reading yourself - the brains sees what it wants or expects to see in what it has already written. I been helping friends who are authors of wargame books by proofing their work and it has saved many (but to be truthful, not all the typos). Even Spell checker doesn't help unless you have added a lot of the jargon words we use in the hobby to its dictionary.
ReplyDeleteDick Bryant
Dick Bryant,
DeleteI must admit to not noticing very many typos or errors in THE COURIER, so you must have done a good job as editor! (I still miss your magazine, and look at the copies that I own quite frequently.)
Although I read my own manuscript several times, I made sure that someone else - my wife - also read it. She spotted several minor typos that were corrected before the book was published. The problem is that she is not a wargamer, and was thus unable to spot some of the errors that a wargamer would see, and it was not until the book had been published that Arthur Harman - who does proof-reading for the 'History of Wargaming' project - saw things that Sue and I had missed. He has kindly offered to do my proof-reading in future, and it is an offer I was only too willing to accept.
I doubt if there has ever been - or ever will be - an error-free book or magazine published, but we can try to make sure that the numbers are kept to a minimum.
All the best,
Bob
Hi Bob,
ReplyDeleteThat's okay, Bob! Real life does have a tendency to rear it's ugly head from time to time, and intrude upon our plans. I have found that since I've retired, I've never been so busy! But, not so busy that I would consider going back into the workforce for a vacation! On the other hand, it does provide subjects to blog about. Keep busy, if for no other reason, a moving target is harder to hit! As the poet said, "It's far better to shine in use.".
All The Best,
Martin
Martin,
DeleteI must admit that when I retired I expected to just sit back and let things happen ... but the reality is that I have ended up 'working' at being retired ... and love it!
I have so many things that I can do, that boredom is not something that I need to worry about. I keep moving - albeit slightly slower these days - and not just so as to avoid being a stationary target but because I want to be as active as I can whilst I can.
All the best,
Bob