Newtworld

After nearly 10 years of using LJ I’ve decided to give up on it. Its not the fun that it used to be and has become somewhat of an unnecessary time sink.

Later today I will be deleting this account.

I’ll be blogging elsewhere so:

I’m on Farcebook as Newt Newport and Twitter as Newtus.

If you want to follow my D101 Games shenagins I’m here as  , but this is mirrored from my d101games.co.uk site where you’ll always get the full scoop and more.

Things are getting busy busy here.

Fortunately I stay resolutely happy, despite a few wobbles here and the and the ever increasing stress of the upcoming birth of Newtlet#2

Work is fun and funky, with me becoming more and more of a WordPress/Opensource Guru everyday, while still keeping my ASP.net skills up.

Sorting out the Middle Bedroom to be come Evie’s new big girl bedroom is woefully behind scedule. I have promissed Rach that big progress will be made this weekend while she is away at her Knitting get togehter.

Had an awesome time on bank holiday Monday just gone, when the Sheffield posse met the Manchester mob and much gaming was done at Newtcon 2. I ran Monkey and Unknown Armies (an almost forgotten classic), Elaine M ran a much well recieved game of Dead of the Night set in WW1 and Dr Mitch ran Spirit of the Century.  As well as the gaming it was a nice day of chating, booze and food with glorious weather.

Although I’m missing out on this year’s RPG cons, I’m using it as an excuse to get ahead with the D101 releases I have planned. I’m now pretty much happy with the state of the rules for Monkey, so I’ll be sticking my head down and getting the game finished soon. OpenQuest still drags on but the end is in sight, going to burn the midnight oil over the weekend to get the final layout done. Meanwhile the first adventure book for OQ, The Savage North, is coming together nicely. Yesterday had the nice one of getting another   cover for it sorted. Jon’s just puttting the final polish on it, then I’ll show it off to the world. Its ace stuff.

Oh woe is me, I’ve been so tied  up tightly in myself it hurts!

Its been getting in the way of the massive amounts of AWESOME I’ve been experiencing recently and preventing me from making the BIG WIN!

No more, head out of arse so to speak. Banish the grumps, deny the whinge. With a ZING AND A ZANG , WATCH OUT WORLD HERE I COME!!

Recent Awesome and Win

• Six days off work, including mucho gardening, father/daughter bonding and CHESTER ZOO!!!
• D101 Awesomeness, Finishing off OpenQuest (June release definitely!), Finishing off Monkey and getting an ace cover from   a pro artist, starting off Savage North (OpenQuest Conanesque adventure book with John Ossoway author of Cthulhu Rising), getting HiG in shops (Patriot Games, Leisure Games ) and having issue 3 and 4 in the bag.
• Work continuing to be pleasant with opportunities for future WIN identified.
• Seeing Newtlet #2 via second scan and seeing it wiggle about.
• Transformation of the house in anticipation of Newtlet #2
• The garden coming into blossom

* an ace song by Barry Adamson btw and along with ‘Once in A life time’ by Talking Heads one of my favourite ‘life’ songs

Had an ace Easter.

Good Friday might as well have been Bad Friday, I was so grumpy. I guess it was all the tiredness catching up with me.

Mood massively improved on Saturday. Pottered around the house, did a bit of Gardening and made Choc chip cookies with Evie. Then my brother George came round in the evening and we retired for a pleasant evening of beer at the aptly named Pleasant Inn just up the road from us.

Easter Sunday saw a mild hangover, but enough to convince me my days drinking are numbered. Went to the Turk’s head for an excellent pub lunch to celebrate Elaine’s birthday. Evie was a cute as ever and after her nap pottered about in the Garden.

Had a lazy Easter Monday with more gardening. I think I have a plan (!) to sort out the Jungle now.

Now back at work and enjoying a productive but quiet week. 

Well I’ve kept quiet about this one too long, probably because I’m in a happy state of shock since ‘pre-production’ didn’t last as long as I had expected, but its official since we had the 12 week scan last week that me and my wife Rachel are expecting our second child sometime mid-September

Its going to mean a a bit of chaos at home converting the middle bedroom/den  into a room for Evie (Newtlet #1). I stepped down off the Furnace Committee as soon as I knew, since the due date coincides with the busy bit of getting ready for the con. Thanks for Graham and co for keeping quiet. Elaine has stepped up to the mark is already doing a fine job as Games Tzar. Not even sure if I’ll be going since its a month after Newtlet #2 arrives. I’ve half jokingly told my boss at work that I want a steady quiet year, which to be fair working at a University is pretty much on the cards anyway. I’m quietly desperately trying to get as much done for D101 as possible, and so far wining, before I have to take a break in Sept/Oct.

Rachel goes for her first batch of tests on Monday, since Evie’s birth was less than smooth, but she’s beginning to get over the initial bout of constant morning sickness and tiredness.  I’ve got over my initial shock and to be honest I feel a lot more ready this time after the first time round.

Been a while since I updated but here’s a summary of what I’ve been upto (…..here come the bullet points).

Beating off the Winter Blooz, lets face it kids its still cold out there. Doesn’t mean it has to be in here

Metal!!!! Went to see Metallica at the MEN Arena last night with Nice Andy. Had tea at the Marble Arch, a real ale pub and microbrewery coming out of Manchester. Really nice grub and serveral of their lovely beers left me a bit worse for wear later.  Best of all though discovered that their head brewer, James, is a mate from Leeds who left in the mid 90s to learn the art of brewing in Sheffield. Had a very quick catch up and it was damn nice to see him again   Then onto the souless concreate bowl that is the MEN Arena. Don’t get me wrong Metallica was on form, but the venue really didn’t do it for me. I guess I’m getting too old and grumpy to stand in enormo domes looking down at a group of ants on the stage.

RPG – steadly working away here. Infinte War my Theme for gspearing ’s Wordplay was delivered. 7000 words of Timetravelling Weirdness inspired by Fritz Leiber’s The Big Time and Micheal Moorcock’s Jerry Cornellius stories. March’s big thing is going to be SimpleQuest, which dispite some last minitue quibbles over the rules is on track for completetion this weekend. Then the rest of March editing by gspearing  and layout by me. Hearts in Glorantha 3 steadly comes together, with an underwater feature being on the cards with 18 pages of Ocean Monsters by Nick Davison and a 20 page epic Dwarf adventure set in a brass submarine Also things are afoot so I’ll be able to get HiG available via a couple of UK shops who also do online for the rest of the world, so you can get a print version without paying the riddiclous P&P Lulu.com charge.

Father hood - continues to be one of the most vindicating and enjoyable experiences of my life. Evie is growing up fast and continues to be a bright and sparky little girl. Shes well on the way to being fully potty trained after a week of trying and her talking is coming on strong. Oh and she doesn’t walk anywhere, she runs! Just like her late Great Grandmother Ethel

Further information

• SimpleQuest
• Hearts in Glorantha
• Infinite War