Archive for January 30, 2024

Total Con 38 Here I (Finally) Come

Posted: January 30, 2024 by datechguy in fun, gaming, Uncategorized
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As some of you might know back in 1980’s when I was in my 20’s I owned a store that sold comic books, baseball cards, board games Mostly Avalon Hill and VERY EARLY PC games (Sid Meyer’s Pirates flew from the shelves). The store closed in 1991 but the baseball league that was founded at the store in 1987 has continued on and until I got my current job where I worked on third shift and then second shift I was part of a mostly board gaming good that has met continually on a weekly basis since about 1979. 

For 25 or 30 years I have had people from my game group I should attend The Total Confusion Gaming Convention which takes place annually in Massachusetts. Those requests predate the internet, they started while Avalon Hill was still making games under their own banner. They predate Magic the Gathering and they certainly predate the online version of Dynasty Baseball which I run my leagues on.

Oddly enough there was always a reason why either couldn’t or didn’t go. I frankly can’t remember them at this point but I never managed to get there.

Meanwhile Total Con has done just fine without me and now boasts of being the largest gaming convention in New England. It’s on its 38th year and will take place Feb 25th-Feb 28th at the Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel in Marlborough, MA the same place where Pintastic NE was last year and will be in April

Well I’ve now been at my current job long enough that have extra vacation days to spare, I don’t have a big wedding anniversary to keep days in reserve.

Furthermore I have friends who live under 10 minutes from the Hotel who keep offering me a place to say for Pintastic NE that I regularly turn down because of the 24-7 aspect of the event. But while I’m sure there are some overnight games that take place in people’s hotel rooms the convention’s game rooms are NOT 24-7 so there is no reason why I can’t drive down the road to crash and be back by by 9 or 10 to play. That saves several hundred dollars.

In short the time constraints and the cash constraints that might have held be back in the past don’t seem to be there this year.

So it seems this year I will be attending the Total Confusion Convention and playing some games.

I notice that the old Milton Bradly Game Dogfight from 1962 my youth will be played there and I note that what I consider one of the greatest board games ever made Advanced Civilization (which predates and I suspect inspired the PC game) will be played. There are three spots left but as it takes 8 hours and starts at 8 AM on the first day I’m debating if I can make it.

In addition to the hundreds of game events they have open gaming and a large game library that you can access to play. (I highly recommend Kremlin btw) hey also have a large game library

I’ve decided to take two games of my own but not have them “Official Events”

Source of the Nile

It’s 1820 and you are leading an expedition to the unknown wiles of Africa. Map the blank board as you Combat unknown diseases, wild animals, dangerous terrain and natives and raiders who may or may not be friendly on your expedition. Survive and return to England to publish your finding (earning VP and making your map permanent) and equip anew. Play as an Explorer, Geologist, Zoologist, Missionary, Doctor, Ethnologist, Explorer, Botanist or Reporter. Different professions earn points in different ways.

Solo to up to six players

Source of the Nile

It’s the golden age of piracy. Sail the seas of the Caribbean or the gold coast or around the horn and Madagascar. Raid shipping and towns, take on cargos and sell them at friendly ports (or at a pirate haven). Upgrade to a better ship or take a captured ship as your own and celebrate with drunken debauchery, but watch out for warships on the prowl, rivals who wish to supplant you or as your fame grows beware of the King’s commissioners sent by the crown to hunt you down. Take advantage of pardons and take care of your ship but don’t forget to keep your crew happy or you might be marooned. Retire wealthy or strive to be the most notorious pirate on the Spanish main.

Solo to up to four players

My plan is to play both of them solo while allowing people to join in if they wish. I may also take a copy of Dynasty Baseball to demo it and recruit players for our face to face league in Fitchburg.

But either way I’ll be there. Hope to see you too, there is more to life than politics and arguments..

The Messy House of Mouse

Posted: January 30, 2024 by chrisharper in Uncategorized
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By Christopher Harper

After 15 years at ABC News, I left the company after Disney took control. 

The House of Mouse’s heavy-handed influence over ABC became clear to me when I was prevented from using footage of Disney World when I was doing a story about a crime committed there.

As a result, I’m happy to see that Disney is a mess!

–CEO Bob Iger had to return from retirement in 2022 after his handpicked successor had mismanaged the company. Now, Iger must find a new successor.

–Various questionable investments, such as the acquisition of Fox Entertainment and losses from streaming services, have affected the bottom line.

–Iger faces a major proxy battle because Disney’s shares are trading at their lowest point in a decade.

“Iger is a little over a year into his second stint as CEO, and his return to the House of Mouse isn’t going as planned. The decline of Disney’s long-lucrative TV business is quickening, and the supposed solution, streaming, has left Disney with billions of dollars in losses,” The Wall Street Journal reported recently. “Iger returned for his second stint as CEO to a changed media business and impatient shareholders. He is under pressure to ensure Disney’s streaming business reaches profitability in the final quarter of its current fiscal year, after racking up more than $11 billion in losses in its first four years.”

 Major Disney stockholder Nelson Peltz is waging a massive proxy fight against Disney for mismanagement and non-accountability. Peltz has help from former Marvel Entertainment chairman Isaac Perlmutter, who played a crucial role in Disney’s rise as a superhero movie producer.

Disney also has been taking a decidedly leftist turn in its approach. In 2022, a group of employees circulated an open letter. 

“The Walt Disney Company has come to be an increasingly uncomfortable place to work for those of us whose political and religious views are not explicitly progressive,” the employees wrote. “We watch quietly as our beliefs come under attack from our own employer, and we frequently see those who share our opinions condemned as villains by our own leadership.”

The employees noted Disney’s “Reimagine Tomorrow” campaign to promote “underrepresented voices.” They said that “the tomorrow being reimagined doesn’t seem to have much room for religious or political conservatives within the company. Left-leaning cast members can promote their agenda and organize on company time using company resources. They call their fellow employees’ bigots’ and pressure TWDC to use corporate influence to further their left-wing legislative goals.”

Even though I receive a monthly pension from Disney, I don’t have a dog in the hunt. But it appears someone has to hold Iger and his compatriots accountable for their actions.