Episode 222 – Summer fun

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00:00:43.33
Alan Baltis
festival today.

00:00:44.50
Stephen Schneider
Oh, cool.

00:00:45.40
Alan Baltis
Looks like you have merch. You have Relantless Geekeryware. Exactly. There we go.

00:00:49.85
Stephen Schneider
Yeah. Yeah. I keep it since my office was originally a garage. Then it became a bedroom. Now it’s my office.

00:00:57.98
Alan Baltis
Got it.

00:01:00.69
Stephen Schneider
It’s got a closet. So I keep the shirts in there. I need for different, different giving online business that attire, geekery, whatever.

00:01:06.98
Alan Baltis
god

00:01:10.18
Alan Baltis
Exactly. I have, unfortunately, when you accumulate things, it takes a long time for them each to wear out. So now I have so many long-sleeved t-shirts, so many short-sleeved t-shirts. And like, there’s some things when I dig in the back of the closet, like, I like this one and I haven’t worn this for a year. I should be wearing this once a month because it’s witty and it represents me. And yet things get into the mix.

00:01:31.85
Alan Baltis
You know, oh, well, it’s it’s fun.

00:01:33.07
Stephen Schneider
Yes.

00:01:33.63
Alan Baltis
I didn’t, I’m really not a huge t-shirt wearer. And yet there’s been any number of You go to a conference and like, I time i go to Progstock, I get a new cool Progstock t-shirt.

00:01:45.22
Alan Baltis
And if you do that five times, it’s like, wow, i i you just accumulate them.

00:01:49.92
Stephen Schneider
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I can wear t-shirts for over a month without repeating t-shirts and having not having to wash or anything.

00:01:59.21
Alan Baltis
I like that for me too. You know, it’s funny, like there’s there’s different quality of t-shirts. And anytime that I get one that like last twice before it seems start to open up.

00:02:11.74
Alan Baltis
It reflects on the event that I went to. It’s like you guys couldn’t shell out for the $8 t-shirt instead of the $4 t-shirt. and And it’s a rag. It’s just, you know, so I appreciate when I’ve had things that have lasted. I i don’t know.

00:02:27.29
Alan Baltis
I got 20-year-old t-shirts that I got maybe when we were hiking in Moab or something like that, and they’re still okay. So I guess we’re like, we’re going to go out on the trail with this, and we can’t have this disintegrating after two wears.

00:02:33.74
Stephen Schneider
Right.

00:02:40.04
Alan Baltis
If anything, if they’re advertising for themselves, you’d think that they would make sure that the shirt likes it instead of, well, no, I’m not an advertisement for you anymore because I don’t wear that shirt. It’s a holy mess.

00:02:50.66
Stephen Schneider
Right.

00:02:51.21
Alan Baltis
Oh, well.

00:02:51.22
Stephen Schneider
and And they confuse the issue. It’s a big fad to get shirts that look distressed, that look like they’re old and worn out and vintage.

00:02:58.99
Alan Baltis
Yes, that’s true too. You know,

00:03:00.82
Stephen Schneider
So what we need, you know, we need we need a ah t-shirt app tracker. So whenever you buy a shirt, you take a picture of it, you enter it in there, you you get the code to scan or whatever.

00:03:11.39
Stephen Schneider
And every time you wear it, you mark it And then you can see like, you know on the music, when it shows you how many plays you’ve had of a song, show you how many times you’ve worn that shirt and when, and it could link in with your your Google photos.

00:03:11.49
Alan Baltis
exactly.

00:03:23.80
Stephen Schneider
So any selfies and stuff, it’ll link to it.

00:03:24.03
Alan Baltis
It’s the heat.

00:03:26.93
Alan Baltis
You know, honestly, that’s kind of a cool idea for like, if it’s a meme, right? Every time you wear the shirt, then it’s like, well, I got a Howard Jones shirt on. How can I wear this and not listen to some Howard Jones?

00:03:37.99
Alan Baltis
And it really is kind of a ah ah virtuous circle. it It brings more of that stuff into your life, you know, so.

00:03:41.38
Stephen Schneider
yes Right. You could automatically ah show Spotify ads. Yep. No tracking going on here.

00:03:47.44
Alan Baltis
ah

00:03:48.89
Stephen Schneider
i’m sure I’m sure everybody would jump at the chance to mark every time they wear a t-shirt and track it. that That’s exactly what people will do.

00:03:55.26
Alan Baltis
Exactly. I know I’ve been a DEF CON like thing. DEF CON is the, sorry, 2600 Hacker Magazine conference, if remember. And there’s other smaller versions of it around.

00:04:10.08
Alan Baltis
And I know that there was at least one guy that had a shirt that if you scanned it, it like tried to download malware onto you. You know what I mean? So…

00:04:18.70
Stephen Schneider
That’s hilarious.

00:04:19.93
Alan Baltis
it’s It’s very funny. they They make it real. You could just be walking down the street and not realize, hey, cool shirt. And now you’re carrier. Now you’re infected. so

00:04:29.66
Stephen Schneider
That’s that. and I love that. That’s a truly next level hacking nerd.

00:04:34.35
Alan Baltis
Exactly. All right, so let’s see, why but ah like Asian Lantern Festival coming up in August. that’s That and the Christmas one that they have, the winter lights or whatever like that.

00:04:45.23
Alan Baltis
I think we talked about this. Zoos are very cool in terms of how they’re finding ways to expand their time, just like amusement parks have added Halloween. So that instead of closing like at Labor Day, they make it that, hey, if our things withstand I don’t know, cooler temperatures, but it’s not frozen yet.

00:04:59.100
Alan Baltis
And they they really have done things. um Many golf courses are staying open past Labor Day because long there’s not snow on the course or or too many leaves to rake or something like that. So I love that the zoos and other places, whoever did it first, all the other zoos must have been like, did work? Did it work?

00:05:17.94
Alan Baltis
And then, you know, they give them the numbers. It’s like, wow, you got that much walkership for for those four weekends or something like that or those four weeks. That’s pretty cool.

00:05:26.80
Stephen Schneider
And, you know we talk a lot about events. We talk about going this stuff and you don’t have to spend a lot of money. You these people like the only way they can. Oh, it’s going be a great summer. I’m going to Cancun. Well, Cancun costs lot of money. If that’s the only thing you do that you enjoy all summer.

00:05:43.01
Stephen Schneider
You know, we’ve got local beaches and stuff.

00:05:43.03
Alan Baltis
right um That’s wonderful.

00:05:44.49
Stephen Schneider
But beyond that, there’s a website, Ohio Festivals dot net. I believe it is. Or you can Google it. that lists just about every little street fair festival and everything going on in the state of Ohio.

00:05:57.03
Stephen Schneider
And they have Pennsylvania and Michigan and stuff. Literally every, well, no, it’s dangerous.

00:06:01.71
Alan Baltis
I have to put that on speed dial if you will. because um ago okay Well, long ago, i actually, when I first got in Ohio, bought a calendar, a physical calendar that had all that on there.

00:06:14.56
Alan Baltis
And Colleen and I went to, you know, the Strawberry Festival and the Potato Festival and the Mum Festival, all kinds of things that we didn’t know existed. If you’re outside of like a hundred mile radius of your city, you won’t even see it advertised on a billboard or anything like that. But I’m willing to drive down to Wellington for the Sauerkraut Festival. How cool was that?

00:06:32.50
Alan Baltis
So, i I love, there’s a couple sites i only in Pennsylvania, only in Ohio, that I regularly check because they keep on having. Here’s a cool hike to go on. Here’s a cool restaurant you haven’t tried yet.

00:06:43.02
Alan Baltis
And this absolutely, i have we talked about this? I love those small town festivals. They’re often corny, but they’re so sweet and American and like, think.

00:06:54.12
Stephen Schneider
oh Only the ones with corn are a little corny. I mean, there’s maple syrup ones and stuff too, you know, but let’s not be biased.

00:06:57.18
Alan Baltis
yeah

00:07:00.13
Alan Baltis
it’s I’m just, you know, it’s like when the when the big thrill is that they brought a Tilt-A-Whirl to town, you know, it’s a small town type thing. And yet, this long ago, i went to school in Champaign-Urbana, heart of Illinois, and we went to all kinds of these kind of little town festivals. It seemed that everybody had, you know, a corn fest, a plum fest, whatever else it might be.

00:07:21.45
Alan Baltis
I discovered… There’s all kinds of craft things there and I really like it when you’re like, well this is really like a handmade candle. This is a doorknock or whatever. I got Knit Vegetables. a little pumpkin that was knit and bright oranges and peas in a pod where it’s like, you know, three peas with a little thing, keeping them in there.

00:07:39.68
Alan Baltis
So I have like a half a dozen of those because every festival that I went to, there was like a new, here’s a knit cucumber. You know what mean? it’s, I don’t know why, but that just tickles me so much.

00:07:51.43
Alan Baltis
And when you walk up and and you’re like making a point of not just looking at it, but picking out the best one, they start to talk to you about that you know my my daughter I taught my daughter how to do that. And and that’s ah that’s a tough one because look at the cross stitching. So it really looks like cabbage. You what I mean?

00:08:07.49
Alan Baltis
I love crafty people and I love them having a chance to not just be, please buy it for 10 bucks, but like really proud of what they’ve made. I think that’s just very cool. so

00:08:17.77
Stephen Schneider
And so speaking of, we have one kind of local here in Deerfield, the Apple Butter Festival. It’s been around since I was a kid.

00:08:26.01
Alan Baltis
I would go with that one.

00:08:26.27
Stephen Schneider
Happens every year.

00:08:26.89
Alan Baltis
Okay. Yeah.

00:08:27.71
Stephen Schneider
yeah it It has grown from like a couple hours in the afternoon at the VFA. It’s two days this year and they’re bringing in rides for the kids. I’m like, this is Deerfield.

00:08:38.69
Stephen Schneider
I mean, you know, when Edinburgh, Deerfield, Paris, Charleston, they they have been They used to be so small ah that they had their own little ah schools that had to combine in the Southeast because it wasn’t big enough to have one school for…

00:08:55.06
Stephen Schneider
so you know, ah we don’t even have a post…

00:08:55.98
Alan Baltis
Not everybody gets a post office. yeah

00:08:58.18
Stephen Schneider
Yes, we…

00:08:59.44
Alan Baltis
We used to go bike riding around Champaign-Urbana and there were all kinds of little towns that honestly they had, welcome to Tolono and you are now leaving Tolono on like the opposite sides of the same sign.

00:09:10.97
Alan Baltis
it was whistle stop type place. It was a little tiny place. Okay.

00:09:15.55
Stephen Schneider
Yeah, we’ve got Black Horse, which is between Ravenna and Kent. And the only reason you know you’re in Black Horse is there’s one old ice cream store that’s Black Horse Ice Cream.

00:09:25.96
Stephen Schneider
You can’t tell there’s anything else there, you know?

00:09:26.05
Alan Baltis
Okay. i I love that. i the the The downside of that is sometimes that’s also where you find the Trump signs.

00:09:36.60
Alan Baltis
You know what I mean?

00:09:37.21
Stephen Schneider
a lot, yeah, especially around here.

00:09:38.15
Alan Baltis
Small town America where like facts don’t reach and stuff like that. That’s heartbreaking because I want to buy your apple butter, but please tell me that the proceeds aren’t going to banning books in your library or something terrible.

00:09:49.48
Stephen Schneider
Right.

00:09:50.32
Alan Baltis
You know what I mean? So anyway.

00:09:51.45
Stephen Schneider
Right. Well, I’ll tell you, Deerfield’s not like that. And I’m setting up this year. I’ve gotten getting a table to set up.

00:09:58.22
Alan Baltis
That’s cool.

00:09:58.56
Stephen Schneider
That’s the other thing about doing some of these little small town festivals. I’m setting up there for two days. and yeah obviously, Deerfield is a small place, you know, whatever.

00:10:09.10
Stephen Schneider
But it’s 20 bucks for the table. So if I sell a couple books, I’ve made my table money.

00:10:11.12
Alan Baltis
Okay. Your head. Yeah.

00:10:15.15
Stephen Schneider
It’s just my time.

00:10:15.30
Alan Baltis
That’s

00:10:16.07
Stephen Schneider
Yeah, I know there may be better ways. But I’m also in the local community. So getting known and that and people, their kids and, you know, Oh, I heard of you.

00:10:20.62
Alan Baltis
right.

00:10:26.29
Stephen Schneider
I’ve seen you. I saw you here. I saw you there, you know?

00:10:28.82
Alan Baltis
Exactly.

00:10:29.30
Stephen Schneider
So yeah.

00:10:29.81
Alan Baltis
we we often We also go to arts festivals, arts and crafts, if you will. And there’s any number of times that while I’m going through the swirl of it, I’m really not buying things that I want to carry it around or i really want to see everything that they have there.

00:10:40.60
Alan Baltis
But almost everybody now has a little card and a website and that kind of stuff. And I will go and get, don’t know, I got a wallet that is like, I really liked it, but I wasn’t sure what other wallets I would see. And then I ordered because of having had the touch, the connection there.

00:10:53.43
Alan Baltis
So hopefully, I think that’s why they do it, is not only the the sales of that day, but there’s follow on sales. There has to be for someone one that, you know, and they they will almost always mention, Hey, you know, free shipping or securely packed, because if you buy a piece of art, you don’t want it to arrive at your house stove in, you know what i mean?

00:11:01.07
Stephen Schneider
yeah

00:11:11.98
Alan Baltis
So it, I love it. I, I, um Kate Jones, and it’s got we’ve been doing this for so many times, I think we’re like like you know number 220 or something like that.

00:11:22.79
Alan Baltis
I think I talked about K-Don, right? K-Don Game Puzzles is a fantastic puzzle maker. They’re like cut acrylic or cut wood, and they’re wonderfully mathematically complex and rigorous.

00:11:31.01
Stephen Schneider
Oh, right.

00:11:33.92
Alan Baltis
And when she she used to come to our Mensa meeting, she would come to the AG and to Halloween and would have a big booth, and that must be her sweet spot for selling things, But also I think that they stopped, you know, if that and Mensa boutique were like the few things that we would have besides the members, and then they’d have like a special member price, but if you’re not a member, then they would really gouge you. And so it start stopped being, I can make my money this weekend, you know, that kind of thing.

00:12:01.02
Alan Baltis
But then I started to see her at various different arts and crafts festivals, first in Chicago, now here in the Cleveland area. And so every time, that I visit with her once or twice a year because of this and I almost always find a new puzzle k you know especially if if you go summertime festival huh funny June July August with my birthday being August 8th what a prime opportunity for Colleen to see what I’m like playing with and fascinated by and then while I go to the bathroom she sneaks back to the booth and gets me the puzzle you know what I mean and

00:12:14.65
Stephen Schneider
Nice.

00:12:30.56
Stephen Schneider
no

00:12:31.51
Alan Baltis
So it I love fighting those kinds of things where it’s not only K-Don, they’ll have people that make like intricately carved jigsaw puzzles. And they’re beautiful. You know what i mean? They’re not just your stamped out.

00:12:42.42
Alan Baltis
And I like certain puzzle vendors, Springbok or um a White Mountain, I think, or something like that. But there’s ones that are even more. Liberty I think is the one right where like the it within the puzzle it’s not just all notches and holes there’s this one shaped like a horse and this one shaped like the Statue of Liberty and There’s just like more to it that I kind of like that and there I think they’re hand jigsaw cut so it really isn’t just take a new photo and stamp it out they really i think everyone is an if not an NFT, not non-fungible, they’re unique enough.

00:13:17.07
Alan Baltis
So you’re buying one out of a thousand copies of a print as compared to 10,000 to 100,000 manufacturers.

00:13:23.60
Stephen Schneider
Right.

00:13:24.87
Alan Baltis
And not everything has to be a collectible, but there’s something cool about knowing that craft automatically someone like put their hands to it. It isn’t just machine produced, and there’s something beautiful about that. so

00:13:34.95
Stephen Schneider
and one One of the things I feel and I’ve noticed, because we’ve got like a summer concert series in Ravenna now. They they do these rock concerts ah once a month during the summer, which is like, that’s totally cool.

00:13:48.15
Stephen Schneider
ah Down in Worcester, I’ve been to some street fairs, festivals with a theme and they have all sorts of things.

00:13:51.62
Alan Baltis
Yeah. Door.

00:13:54.32
Stephen Schneider
But I think the thing… that they’re doing that’s drawing more people out to these smaller local town festivals and having to go spend at blossom and stuff is they’ve added these Dora areas to some.

00:14:09.28
Stephen Schneider
So take a look at small the small towns like Ravenna here. ah You know, there’s some bars, but it’s all, you know, you don’t have open container. If you’re at the bar drinking and you walk out on the street, the cops go nab you.

00:14:24.28
Alan Baltis
got it

00:14:24.37
Stephen Schneider
Well, if If you go run a festival and people can’t drink and they’re in the bars and i so they they said, you know what, what about this? You can’t go everywhere. You can’t drive and stuff.

00:14:34.95
Stephen Schneider
But here’s an area of the city that you can wander around in with an open container and go from bar to bar, go to all the vendor, the music, whatever.

00:14:43.59
Alan Baltis
but that weekend this was a safe zone that’s very smart okay so

00:14:46.19
Stephen Schneider
Right. So i look for the signs. You can see them in Ravenna. It says, Dora, don’t go past here. And they they have cops there. They patrol it. And hopefully I think they’re like, hey,

00:14:56.65
Alan Baltis
Yeah. More around like district of registered alcohol. I’m trying to think what it would stand for.

00:15:01.43
Stephen Schneider
yeah, something that. I don’t know quite what it means.

00:15:04.58
Alan Baltis
Yeah. That makes sense. you And it’s kind of, you know, I know I’m not at all a drinker. And so, except for my pretentious drinking thing that I’ve all too often mentioned, but I think it’s cool if that’s going to be what people won’t go sometimes. It’s like, it’s dry? There’s no way. How can I have fun?

00:15:19.93
Alan Baltis
Well, if they just have the ability to have one or two or three, not 10, it’s a social loop.

00:15:24.14
Stephen Schneider
Right. it

00:15:26.46
Alan Baltis
A lot of people really have a nicer time because they…

00:15:29.03
Stephen Schneider
And you don’t have to go to the bar and stop everything and sit and drink for a while.

00:15:29.47
Alan Baltis
Yeah.

00:15:32.97
Stephen Schneider
You can get something and go. And all the bars then are open and people go into You know, someone like me, I’m like, I don’t want to go sit at the bar. I want to go do this. Well, you know what?

00:15:43.59
Stephen Schneider
I might go grab a Jack and Coke and wander around. I wouldn’t have got it before. So you kind of get all of that.

00:15:48.80
Alan Baltis
Exactly. I know when I’ve been to our our cold festivals, you know, they’ll have like the ice carving festival in Medina or Vermillion. And I go to every one of the places, but it’s a hot chocolate instead of an i alcoholic drink.

00:16:00.02
Stephen Schneider
Yes.

00:16:01.88
Alan Baltis
And then you’re like, you know, it’s steaming because it’s so cold outside and you’re kind of like, know, sipping and it really is. It’s really… like mcdonald’s in your lap hot so you really have to sip it and not scald your tongue but it’s a kind of a cool thing it it’s been really cold at some of these and yet this is your defense this is your your your hand warmer and your mouth warmer against all that cold so okay

00:16:23.76
Stephen Schneider
right Yeah. So, you know, check out OhioFestivals.net. It’s really stupid because on any given weekend in the summer, there’s 20, 30 things you can go to. And it’s like, well, there’s five I want to go to today.

00:16:39.12
Stephen Schneider
Which one do I really want to do?

00:16:40.69
Alan Baltis
Right. And that’s what I would, you know I’m not going to run around doing it, but year by year, you’re like, well, I’ve already been to the sauerkraut festival. well How did I go to the Wienerwald festival or something?

00:16:50.99
Alan Baltis
You know what I mean? I mean, we’ve been, it’s kind of fun.

00:16:52.04
Stephen Schneider
Right.

00:16:54.37
Alan Baltis
Not only do we like the standard stuff, like strawberries, but like Melon has the Milan festival. We were at the duct tape festival, which is kind you know like to see a guy in a full suit,

00:17:04.100
Alan Baltis
Made out a duct tape, it’ it’s I just am amused by those kinds of things.

00:17:09.53
Stephen Schneider
Yes.

00:17:09.59
Alan Baltis
And the people that also go to those things are like cool about it. They’re not ironic. They really are like, look how cool it is that they were able to cover their car in duct tape or something like that You know, so I love that.

00:17:20.80
Stephen Schneider
Right.

00:17:23.91
Alan Baltis
So you went to Origins and how so for all those who, you know, everybody who would watch this is like geeky enough to know that’s one of the two big gaming festivals.

00:17:26.72
Stephen Schneider
Yes.

00:17:35.14
Alan Baltis
what how What did you discover? How good time was it?

00:17:37.09
Stephen Schneider
So… You know, we’ve talked about Origins before. You know, you’ve been to it. I’ve been to it. If you’re a gamer, you want to get games, make games, play games, run games. It’s all there.

00:17:48.15
Stephen Schneider
It’s like Wednesday through Sunday, I believe, maybe Thursday through Sunday.

00:17:52.16
Alan Baltis
right

00:17:52.29
Stephen Schneider
But there’s always a game going on. The game room is just filled. I mean, it’s a gaming convention hall. People are always playing games. they They have signs ah looking for players. Hey, I want to play.

00:18:02.97
Stephen Schneider
Have a seat, you know.

00:18:03.94
Alan Baltis
Exactly.

00:18:04.72
Stephen Schneider
um And there’s playtesting stuff.

00:18:05.91
Alan Baltis
And it’s huge, right? You know, like Gen Con is over 100,000. Is Origins over 100,000 as well?

00:18:10.81
Stephen Schneider
i From what I hear, um Origins is smaller than Gen Con, but it was packed or or more.

00:18:16.24
Alan Baltis
Okay. But it’s still got to be 50K. You know what I mean? it really Columbus is a big enough place that it draws from the five-state area or something like that. It’s long-running. I think it’s been around for 50 years, decades.

00:18:28.54
Stephen Schneider
it’s the 50th this year.

00:18:29.90
Alan Baltis
Oh, you own my. I should have gone. Darn it. Okay.

00:18:32.38
Stephen Schneider
and they And they had merchandise that was the classic Dungeons and Dragons ah with the eye of the gem, the thief trying to steal it.

00:18:32.66
Alan Baltis
Well.

00:18:40.29
Alan Baltis
Yes. Exactly.

00:18:41.33
Stephen Schneider
But it was like modeled after the ah Origins little character that they have, a mascot. um So I went down there. i wasn’t going to go. I’m like, I don’t have a good reason to go other than to lose money.

00:18:53.94
Stephen Schneider
yeah. oh but

00:18:56.47
Alan Baltis
it’s an investment, as you know. It’s an investment.

00:18:59.33
Stephen Schneider
Yeah.

00:18:59.44
Alan Baltis
Okay.

00:18:59.87
Stephen Schneider
But the reason i went was there was someone down there I wanted to meet.

00:19:04.56
Alan Baltis
okay

00:19:04.64
Stephen Schneider
ah Amy Schneider. I don’t know if you still watch Jeopardy. She’s the second longest running player next to Ken. ah she She went 40 days or 41 days or something like that.

00:19:18.53
Alan Baltis
That’s a fantastic run. I mean, you know Mr.

00:19:20.24
Stephen Schneider
Yeah.

00:19:21.23
Alan Baltis
One and Out, 41 is fantastic.

00:19:23.97
Stephen Schneider
Well, you had two. You were there for two days.

00:19:26.33
Alan Baltis
um never Right, exactly that. I wasn’t one and done.

00:19:27.91
Stephen Schneider
Which…

00:19:28.49
Alan Baltis
i actually did win. I won on Jeopardy.

00:19:30.47
Stephen Schneider
Yeah.

00:19:30.57
Alan Baltis
Schneider.

00:19:31.11
Stephen Schneider
So, but when she was on, we were watching her cause her last name is Schneider, you know?

00:19:31.31
Alan Baltis
That’s right.

00:19:36.90
Alan Baltis
schneider nurse

00:19:37.73
Stephen Schneider
and that’s what I said. I said, I came here to meet you clan Schneider.

00:19:41.66
Alan Baltis
that’s right

00:19:42.40
Stephen Schneider
but she’s also from Dayton. So, uh, and wrote a book is an author. And I know she was at the Ohio Anna ah book festival a couple months ago, which I wanted to go to and didn’t make it.

00:19:54.04
Stephen Schneider
So I was like, Oh, now’s my chance to go say hi. So I went down there and that, I mean, like I found the author area first. I said, amy Schneider, I came here to meet you. oh really? You know?

00:20:06.36
Alan Baltis
and ah to What are like those kind of events are the ones where, you know, you don’t have to be like Cardi B famous to still have.

00:20:07.34
Stephen Schneider
So,

00:20:15.71
Alan Baltis
people awareness, the people that you want to know about you, they’re going to be the gamers. They’re going to be the author, the the readers, I should say.

00:20:20.100
Stephen Schneider
yeah

00:20:22.53
Alan Baltis
You know what I mean? it’s It’s very cool to be locally famous or specifically famous because it’s always nice to be, and especially being recognized for like, not by nature and luck, you happen to be pretty, but like, wow, you won 40 times on Jeopardy?

00:20:37.90
Stephen Schneider
Yes.

00:20:38.02
Alan Baltis
That is impressive as hell.

00:20:40.11
Stephen Schneider
Right.

00:20:40.20
Alan Baltis
So it’s cool to be recognized for achievement. Like I’d go here an ah Olympic athlete before I’d go see

00:20:42.61
Stephen Schneider
Yeah. Yeah.

00:20:46.03
Alan Baltis
A model? You know what I mean?

00:20:47.50
Stephen Schneider
Yes.

00:20:47.51
Alan Baltis
There’s something cooler about that. So,

00:20:50.05
Stephen Schneider
So i I told her, I said, well, you know, since you have family in Ohio, you come back and author and stuff. So trying to come back to go to things and visit family. I’m like, that makes sense.

00:21:01.42
Stephen Schneider
I’m going keep an eye out. Next time you come back, said, I got a t-shirt. I’m going to give her a a t-shirt, almost Ken Jennings, just like I gave you we not quite Ken Jennings. That was it

00:21:11.41
Alan Baltis
Not quite Ken Jennings, exactly.

00:21:12.97
Stephen Schneider
Yeah, so ah i I’m going to do that for next time.

00:21:13.74
Alan Baltis
That’s what he’s doing.

00:21:17.01
Stephen Schneider
um Who else did I meet? I met Justin DeWitt, who was the designer for ah Castle Panic.

00:21:24.21
Alan Baltis
Oh, Castle Panic. Okay. I think I saw the one where you mentioned the boop designer, so I was waiting to hear you about that one.

00:21:25.93
Stephen Schneider
Yeah. i sent you a picture. The boop designer was there. i didn’t actually go meet them because I haven’t played boop.

00:21:34.72
Alan Baltis
Okay.

00:21:35.83
Stephen Schneider
So I’m like, I don’t have much to talk about. Oh, you made a great game. Cool. Everybody here did.

00:21:40.39
Alan Baltis
Right. That was one of the Mind Games winners, right?

00:21:41.37
Stephen Schneider
Yeah.

00:21:42.45
Alan Baltis
Was that a Mind Games winner this year?

00:21:43.54
Stephen Schneider
Yeah, yeah, because you said you liked it after Mind Games.

00:21:45.93
Alan Baltis
Exactly. Yeah. Is that the one where cats are bouncing and pushing each other off the bed, right?

00:21:47.39
Stephen Schneider
ah

00:21:51.98
Stephen Schneider
Something with Cats.

00:21:52.11
Alan Baltis
I think it’s that.

00:21:53.14
Stephen Schneider
i haven’t played it

00:21:54.46
Alan Baltis
Okay. Because it had like one of those things where it was to be like a 10 minute game and then it’s got unexpected cool complexity and every time you play, you will learn something more and so are your fellow players.

00:22:06.98
Alan Baltis
And so you’re like, all of a sudden you’re really enrapped in, this is just a game about cats on a bed. And yet it was really, really good. So…

00:22:16.38
Stephen Schneider
So speaking of unexpected layers and that I met somebody else that was extremely, I met Andrew Looney from Looney labs.

00:22:26.25
Alan Baltis
Oh my, that they’ve got like, so they’re not the ones that make the small games, right? There’s a lot of stats.

00:22:32.40
Stephen Schneider
Flux. He’s the flux designer.

00:22:34.79
Alan Baltis
and And that’s got incredible legs.

00:22:35.27
Stephen Schneider
Yep.

00:22:36.88
Alan Baltis
There’s like 30 versions of that out now, right?

00:22:38.63
Stephen Schneider
Yes. Yes.

00:22:39.36
Alan Baltis
off Oh man, it’s low.

00:22:39.48
Stephen Schneider
I was saying, Oh my God, I’ve got like nine or 11. He’s like, well, you only got 35 more to go. yeah, and

00:22:46.59
Alan Baltis
Okay.

00:22:46.88
Stephen Schneider
So he was wearing a lab coat, which I thought was hilarious.

00:22:50.66
Alan Baltis
Very good.

00:22:50.97
Stephen Schneider
ah very Very eccentric man. ah Nice to talk to, was no problem. I got to play a quick game of Flux with Andrew Looney.

00:22:59.52
Alan Baltis
with a guy.

00:22:59.55
Stephen Schneider
ah Some other people, yes, yeah.

00:23:00.100
Alan Baltis
Oh man, that’s cool.

00:23:02.95
Stephen Schneider
And I got my starter rules cards signed by him. So not all of them, just a couple of the big ones I like to play the most.

00:23:09.63
Alan Baltis
cool.

00:23:12.82
Stephen Schneider
And then because i he was there, I got a special card that ah if you play it and you’ve met Andrew Looney, you get to draw an extra card or something like that. And it’s signed also.

00:23:23.99
Alan Baltis
That’s so cool.

00:23:24.96
Stephen Schneider
Yeah. Yeah.

00:23:25.13
Alan Baltis
yeah Like I said, I love that specifically famous, you know, I think I mean i went, I was going to Gen Con for a long time before it was big. It used to be at like Whitewater campus from the University of Wisconsin. So it was just over the border from Illinois.

00:23:39.30
Alan Baltis
And I got a chance to like meet Gary Gygax and chat with him and stuff like that. And he really is the man of D&D. It’s a guy that came up with Dungeons and Dragons. And and there was already a cult know what i mean people that really that played that game they loved that game and they were just so willing to bear his children and whatever else it might be but he was cool and from understand that kind of went to his head he became a little more arrogant over the course of time but when i met him it was let’s play game you what do you know anything about this so over the course of the years i’m sure i’ve met like bear with me not only board games but also like video games um chris

00:24:08.67
Stephen Schneider
Right.

00:24:19.96
Alan Baltis
Sid Meier, there’s any number of people that you know that they they were big enough in it that they actually got their name on the game and stuff like that.

00:24:22.34
Stephen Schneider
Nice.

00:24:26.40
Alan Baltis
So I’m happy to have met some of them and people that I knew from college that like went on to do wizardry because they had done playdough games. It’s very cool to just have all those little connections.

00:24:37.46
Alan Baltis
and And as we’ve laughed about, if you went multiple years in a row, occasionally, you’d be memorable enough that like, they I walk up and i go, Hey, Al, And like everybody around is like, oh, my God, someone that god says hello to.

00:24:50.30
Alan Baltis
You know what I mean? So I guess I have.

00:24:51.19
Stephen Schneider
Well, you’re very memorable. so you know, there’s not a lot of like linebacker game players.

00:24:54.62
Alan Baltis
i guess like

00:24:58.32
Alan Baltis
I guess that’s true. I loom large. I’m i you know like I’m the human eclipse and stuff like that in today’s black shirt.

00:25:03.74
Stephen Schneider
Right. Yeah.

00:25:05.57
Alan Baltis
But ah that has always been fun. i don’t try to you know, like some people try to be memorable in all the worst ways. you know what I mean?

00:25:12.86
Stephen Schneider
Yeah.

00:25:13.02
Alan Baltis
They to be louder or wear the Hawaiian shirt in a place that’s not appropriate or something like that. And yet, when you when you had enough comic book people that, you know, it doesn’t happen all the time, they meet 10,000 people in a weekend, why in the world would they remember me?

00:25:27.22
Alan Baltis
But once a while, you had such a nice conversation that that you really do. You don’t have to like read the name tag, you remember all kinds of people for whatever reason. And it’s satisfying, it’s satisfying to make a connection that’s deeper than just Please sign this.

00:25:42.51
Alan Baltis
Thank you so much. I admire your work.

00:25:44.02
Stephen Schneider
Right.

00:25:44.51
Alan Baltis
I love that. So I’ve had great conversations over the years with Jim Steranko and Mike Grell and Ray Bradbury.

00:25:46.46
Stephen Schneider
Yeah.

00:25:51.29
Alan Baltis
And like, when you get a chance to talk to Ray Bradbury without jaw dropping to the ground, that’s pretty cool. Stan Lee, you know, that kind of thing.

00:25:57.20
Stephen Schneider
Right.

00:25:58.42
Alan Baltis
So, so, and what was the castle panic, right?

00:25:58.85
Stephen Schneider
Yeah. Yeah. well Me and Castle Panic.

00:26:02.83
Alan Baltis
Okay. Got it. um

00:26:06.26
Stephen Schneider
And.

00:26:06.27
Alan Baltis
and Did you find anything like you said, it’s a dangerous place for your wallet? Did you buy another box?

00:26:10.59
Stephen Schneider
Well, yeah. so

00:26:12.14
Alan Baltis
Did you buy another game?

00:26:12.58
Stephen Schneider
So here’s the thing. i’ve been Me and Colin were working on a game, ah kind of a dice roller, get lots of dice, roll them. And it was Kaiju Battle.

00:26:23.22
Stephen Schneider
So you know we were just kind of using Godzilla and King Kong, ah you know this big Kaiju battle.

00:26:26.43
Alan Baltis
Okay.

00:26:28.28
Stephen Schneider
was a dice roller and stuff. We were working on it. and It got better, but it wasn’t like clicking like, oh my God, that was fun. Let’s do it again. You know? So it was okay, but it still needed something. And then started seeing these advertisements for this monster apocalypse battle monster game.

00:26:48.20
Stephen Schneider
And I’m like, God, bless America.

00:26:49.37
Alan Baltis
That sounds like what I was working on.

00:26:51.83
Stephen Schneider
Yeah. So, I mean, I looked at the the Kickstarter and they’re really a big push and it adds everywhere. Well, they were down there and I’m like, okay, I got to go check it out. It’s different.

00:27:03.14
Stephen Schneider
It’s more of a miniatures game, except think of like the Kaiju miniatures as 10 times bigger than normal miniatures. So yes.

00:27:10.48
Alan Baltis
They really do look like Mothra and Mandan. Like monster, not just a little guy. Okay, yeah.

00:27:16.10
Stephen Schneider
Yeah. And it wasn’t a dice roller and it was more of a strategic game, but I started looking around and I’m like, you know, there’s there’s like a dozen Kaiju monster battle type games.

00:27:27.81
Alan Baltis
Because of the resurgence of Godzilla, a lot of people are thinking there’s a vast mythology to go into there, you know, so.

00:27:27.90
Stephen Schneider
Mine is

00:27:33.71
Stephen Schneider
Yeah. Yeah. So my mine’s not unique enough to stand out and fun enough right now. So put it on the back burner.

00:27:41.01
Alan Baltis
Okay.

00:27:41.87
Stephen Schneider
But I did get to see that the game and I’m like, OK, I can go up in that table and be. No, yeah it looked really cool.

00:27:47.93
Alan Baltis
ah

00:27:49.56
Stephen Schneider
I mean, come on. You a Godzilla that was this big with army tanks that were this big. you know, it it looked scale wise, really cool.

00:27:54.79
Alan Baltis
Pretty cool.

00:27:57.30
Stephen Schneider
And then I met the ah guys that from van Ryder games who did that game, a final girl that I mentioned it’s solo play based on serial killer movies.

00:28:03.74
Alan Baltis
Okay. Yeah. Exactly.

00:28:07.88
Alan Baltis
Right.

00:28:08.05
Stephen Schneider
Um,

00:28:08.54
Alan Baltis
Right.

00:28:09.21
Stephen Schneider
Got to talk to them and ah you know ah about the game. Of course, they were having a really good sale. So I now have almost all of season two on top of season one ah you know i’m like

00:28:20.15
Alan Baltis
That’s cool. Okay.

00:28:22.07
Stephen Schneider
I’ve got you know plenty of hours of gameplay out of all of this.

00:28:26.37
Alan Baltis
Yeah, that’s that’s wonderful. i mean when that When I would come home from Gen Con, it was always like, oh man, I got to get my friends together because I bought all these things with the intent of playing them.

00:28:37.53
Alan Baltis
And as as I got, you know i I started to go, went all through high school and then went away to college for like six years. And if I was home from college, I’d go. But then once you get out, i don’t know, that isn’t the same gaming crowd that used to hang out with. You actually have to like, hey, take a break from the family and the lawn mowing and the job.

00:28:54.26
Alan Baltis
and let’s get together. And so a couple of times we had wonderful gaming sessions that like started at 10 in the morning, noon maybe, and went until people were falling asleep at the table.

00:29:04.84
Alan Baltis
But had to fit some try everything, try all the new games out and stuff like that.

00:29:05.05
Stephen Schneider
Right.

00:29:09.72
Alan Baltis
We also used to have um computer gaming things where everybody would bring their rig, you attach into a switch, not even a router, and then you play a whole bunch of rounds of myth or pathways into darkness or and like over the course of the years you keep embracing latest technology and then

00:29:15.92
Stephen Schneider
Right.

00:29:28.80
Alan Baltis
um of Often we would like give feedback to the game designers based on well hey when we got up to like 16 people it really was we were getting lag problems and you know what i mean like we try to give that because who knows how often they really got something good to go through serious testing with so eight and ten and twelve and sixteen people and stuff like that.

00:29:39.51
Stephen Schneider
Right.

00:29:48.81
Stephen Schneider
Right.

00:29:49.19
Alan Baltis
um anyway

00:29:50.34
Stephen Schneider
Right. So one one of the cool things about the whole thing was the amount of companies out there that are basically devoted, dedicated to small indie game publishers that, ah you know, you don’t have to find a publisher. You don’t have to do this.

00:30:07.26
Stephen Schneider
You know, sitting here with my computer, I can design the game. I can hire developers. a graphic designer. I can hire someone to help with the rules. I can find play testers and stuff, but then there are companies I can go direct to and they’re there. They have the business down.

00:30:23.96
Stephen Schneider
You know, you’re like, look, I want to do Kickstarter. I have this and this and this and then and they’re like, okay, here’s how much it’ll cost to do this game. ah You know, you need at least 5000 people to do it at this level and cost this much.

00:30:37.32
Stephen Schneider
And then we track it and we’ll ship it directly to the the Kickstarter backers. And, you know, yeah.

00:30:42.51
Alan Baltis
Fantastic. Honestly, you know, long ago when I was first an independent consultant, I bought a book called The E-Myth that was about being an entrepreneur and very much what it said was,

00:30:55.18
Alan Baltis
spend your time doing the thing that you can do in the world that nobody else can do and farm everything else out. So in that case, it was have someone clean your house, have someone take care of your books, those buy your clothes if that’s what it’s going to come to.

00:31:08.07
Alan Baltis
But for gaming, it’s got to be like that. Not everybody that designs a cool game wants to then become the guy that’s got to manage the taxes. You know what I mean? And so the people that have done this, that they want to have more games come into the world, and they’ve made it so that they have used to be called an incubator.

00:31:17.40
Stephen Schneider
Right.

00:31:24.66
Alan Baltis
you know Nowadays, everybody knows Kickstarter and GoFundMe and that kind of stuff. But even that is its own You’ve got to learn the world of it. You’ve learn like how to offer stretch goals and and what what the real numbers are for is there any way that this is ever going to get to profitability or just to break even.

00:31:41.94
Alan Baltis
You know what mean? Gaming is a labor of love, but it sure shouldn’t be that every year you’re destitute because you put all your money into the creation of your game pieces or whatever else it might be. So hats off to those places for becoming the enablers, you know becoming that this is, and especially i would have thought that those places, Kickstarter, GoFundMe, I know that that’s been around for like 25 years now.

00:31:55.54
Stephen Schneider
Yeah.

00:32:05.33
Alan Baltis
All kinds of comic books, books, games, that’s become, I think, very much the venue. It’s not, I made a game and I go hand in hand to Milton Bradley or to one of the German Spiele companies and say, would you merchandise me?

00:32:18.49
Alan Baltis
that that you actually can put something out and then let its vast sales have them notice that maybe we should see if we can get a co-op or something like that. And then we’ll take care of your international reach because that’s ah another big step.

00:32:28.75
Stephen Schneider
Right. Yeah.

00:32:33.36
Alan Baltis
You know what I mean?

00:32:33.73
Stephen Schneider
yeah

00:32:34.61
Alan Baltis
i love that. don’t know, it’s a very American thing, right? To like, get success in a way that it’s the Hardy Independent that did this thing, that they had the dream of an idea, but then also really created it. They did all the playtesting and did all the miniature design and things like that. and but yeah when whenever One of the joys of mind games is just someone that’s played a lot of games found a way to make a new one, and that’s not easy.

00:33:03.69
Alan Baltis
You know what mean? Once in a while you’ll play something like, well, it’s kind of like um playing Bridge, but we added a suit. it’s like, well, unless that really changes the gameplay, it’s too derivative. There’s not enough to some of those things. But once a while people are like, wow, that’s a left turn I had never thought about. And I played the other game that it’s kind of like.

00:33:22.30
Alan Baltis
100 times. So whatever that cool mind is that can look at something and kind of dissect it and and think of what’s the variation I can do on this that actually has a whole new kind of gameplay.

00:33:33.21
Stephen Schneider
Right.

00:33:33.96
Alan Baltis
i love that. I just love that people are that ingenious and that curious, you know?

00:33:38.16
Stephen Schneider
and And, you know, like, you know, it doesn’t always have to be some new gameplay, some new twist. It sometimes is the theme and how things make you feel fitting together.

00:33:50.04
Stephen Schneider
You know, I mean, I love deck builders, but it seems like the deck builders that try and like

00:33:51.13
Alan Baltis
Yeah.

00:33:55.73
Stephen Schneider
expand and do something new and different are the least fun ones. I’ve got Firefly Deck Builder and me and Colin sat down to play it and we were working our way through learning and all that.

00:34:07.44
Stephen Schneider
And we we played a couple rounds, read the instructions, you know, we’re playing and we kind of looked each other and said, this is no fun at all. And I love Firefly and we packed it up, put it away.

00:34:14.70
Alan Baltis
Honestly.

00:34:17.61
Stephen Schneider
And I’ve never really heard anybody talking about that game. But DC Deck Builder is a deck builder game. And I’ve played that dozens of times and it’s still fun and I’ve got you know tons of it, but it’s much simpler.

00:34:31.38
Stephen Schneider
There’s not not as much to it.

00:34:32.42
Alan Baltis
Right. Sometimes the overhead of something is what makes us slogs down. Well, it’s kind of funny. I’m sure that mind games wise and others, you you play test things, not just one long weekend, but throughout the year and that you’re working and you’re working it.

00:34:47.47
Alan Baltis
And then you’re like, you both look up at each other across the game table. it’s like, so when does the fun kick in? Remember when you laugh about that? I i had that quote and it really is.

00:34:57.06
Stephen Schneider
Yeah.

00:34:57.91
Alan Baltis
This shouldn’t be work. I’m doing this to relax. I’m doing this to be intrigued. This shouldn’t be like that. My problem with so many resource management games is that until you get how it all comes together, it feels like work.

00:35:11.52
Alan Baltis
I’m having to keep track of 20 different things. And really your mind keeps track of like three short term, no, three long term, seven short term. It’s it’s hard to integrate it into your map, your cognitive map as to What’s the winning condition? What’s really cool and fun and important about this?

00:35:29.75
Alan Baltis
And if you don’t get that after three or four plays, you really might hit that place of, I don’t think this is for me. Even though Dominion or you know we can name some of the ones that there’s a threshold and it might not be three or four plays it might be ten but after you really know what’s going on it’s a great game and you want to explore it you know what I mean so Wonders of the World is one of those that every time I’ve played it seems to just be too much overhead too many people like

00:35:46.55
Stephen Schneider
Yeah. Right.

00:35:48.88
Stephen Schneider
right

00:35:57.29
Alan Baltis
you MindGames is good about having come up with the criteria for what makes a successful game and its originality and its um replay you know um value and that kind of stuff.

00:36:08.09
Alan Baltis
And one of the things I always bump into is like if if i’m waiting for if there’s five people in the game and i’m playing one-fifth at the time and i’ve already kind of planned out my move and i already have taken into account what the other guys might do and then all i’m doing is kind of sitting there i don’t want to be a game where i’m going to be like staring at the wall checking my phone i kind of want it doesn’t have to be that every single hand is everybody’s playing in each trick but there has to be a balance between how participatory it is or how much you’re fast waiting

00:36:34.19
Stephen Schneider
Yeah. Right. ah

00:36:37.88
Alan Baltis
but

00:36:38.22
Stephen Schneider
i played I played a game of access and allies a couple weeks ago.

00:36:41.83
Alan Baltis
Oh, that’s a classic.

00:36:42.06
Stephen Schneider
And i yeah, and honestly, it wasn’t as over overhead and overly difficult as a lot of people make it or as I remembered it.

00:36:43.81
Alan Baltis
Yes.

00:36:53.02
Stephen Schneider
It made a lot of sense. there’s I mean, all you’re doing, it’s it’s risk with a few different type of… um units and you know you’re you’re just moving them and attacking and that’s essentially all you’re doing it’s not a whole lot of stuff but it is a big game it’s a long game and what made it worse was we we had one player that would on their turn contemplate and talk about and discuss and look at and it’s like ah okay you’ve been going for 32 minutes move your ships let’s attack and move on and you know everyone kind of

00:37:01.42
Alan Baltis
yes

00:37:24.15
Alan Baltis
Right. We’re using the time that everybody else was doing their stuff to be contemplating like you kind of go into robot mode and you only turn back on when it’s your turn.

00:37:32.08
Stephen Schneider
Right.

00:37:36.42
Alan Baltis
No, you should have been using everybody else’s five.

00:37:38.57
Stephen Schneider
Yes.

00:37:39.63
Alan Baltis
Oh, well.

00:37:39.92
Stephen Schneider
And it it just lost the momentum and it kind of got to the point where it’s like, okay, you know what? We all surrender. We’re done. you know?

00:37:47.78
Alan Baltis
Right.

00:37:47.84
Stephen Schneider
So it wasn’t that satisfying. That happens a lot. You mentioned dominion. That happens so much with dominion. People, no,

00:37:54.77
Alan Baltis
Depending on who you play with. Absolutely.

00:37:56.58
Stephen Schneider
Yes.

00:37:57.45
Alan Baltis
Yeah.

00:37:57.50
Stephen Schneider
Yeah. You know, they’re not familiar with cards that have lots of words and that change and the combos and there’s only 10 to choose from read them, you know, think about it.

00:38:08.42
Stephen Schneider
But like you said, they wait until it gets to their turn. And now they’re reading all the cards in their hand because it’s different than last hand. And they’re looking at the cards on the board and I’m sitting there waiting and you know, like 10 minutes and I’m like, Oh my God, I could have had 10 turns.

00:38:23.87
Alan Baltis
right

00:38:23.94
Stephen Schneider
And that gets to me and I’m like, okay, there’s this, I buy this, I do this. All right, next. And they’re like, you’re so fast.

00:38:30.30
Alan Baltis
yeah you’re putting pressure on me. No, it’s because I’ve already got this.

00:38:34.50
Stephen Schneider
Yes. Oh my God. I used to get that too. Uh, am I going to name names, but yes. Oh, you guys just make us feel bad and you’re putting pressure on No, we’re not. We’re just prepared, you know?

00:38:46.04
Alan Baltis
Right. i It happens not even at a deeper game. we stopped playing hearts with certain people because they literally, like when it came around to them, they would fan their cards open and then look at what’s been played so far and choose. It’s like, how are you not watching everything and playing the next card?

00:39:05.33
Alan Baltis
And it happens, I play occasionally hearts online. And one of the worst things is when like everybody did it did and then wait a few seconds for this guy to make their choice. And after a while, id I just like to wake up and and then wake up with an exclamation point and wake up in all caps because they how are they going to win the game by making everybody else bail out because they can’t stand that pace of play.

00:39:28.25
Alan Baltis
and occasionally you’ll get wonderful game. It’s pretty random. You don’t always play with the same people, hardly ever. yeah But everybody is watching what’s going on. They know to pass a heart or some way of stopping a run that you can see that they’re watching what’s been played so that they do the occasional little bit of jujitsu where they play high and then go low.

00:39:46.87
Alan Baltis
And like at the end, I’ll say, I really appreciate it that everybody played in their turn and watched what was going on and that the game ended up being like you know somebody went over 100 but everybody else is like at 98 and 87 and 82. it was a competitive game not the guy that tries to run all the time and gets killed all the time and then you know he’s out at 100 and everybody else has 15.

00:40:08.74
Alan Baltis
so ah Occasionally, and and that that is such a good thing that I’m willing to keep waiting for that opportunity to arise. I’m sure that there’s a way of kind of noting which ones are.

00:40:19.71
Alan Baltis
And then it has the ability, if I remember right, to not just do random, but to invite others to a game. And I would love to get to, hey, here’s my list of 10 good players. How but if I consistently put with those 10 and not with the 200 that are do du to do, do, do, you know, that kind of thing.

00:40:32.94
Stephen Schneider
Right.

00:40:33.94
Alan Baltis
So, oh, well.

00:40:34.35
Stephen Schneider
Right. So one of the the gaming genres that I’m not as big on, though I play a lot, is kind of the casual ah family social party type games.

00:40:41.42
Alan Baltis
Yeah.

00:40:46.59
Alan Baltis
OK.

00:40:47.05
Stephen Schneider
Apples and Apples is like know the prime example.

00:40:48.17
Alan Baltis
Right. Cards against humanity. Exactly.

00:40:50.86
Stephen Schneider
Yes.

00:40:51.49
Alan Baltis
OK.

00:40:51.74
Stephen Schneider
um You know, I love those games. Codenames. Codenames is one one of the newer ones that ah ah is kind of like that. You know, not a lot of strategy. It’s more of a fun social game that anyone can pick up and play.

00:41:06.50
Alan Baltis
Right.

00:41:06.69
Stephen Schneider
Those are great. Those are fun. But it seems like… Too many times groups gravitate to those to accommodate everybody. You know, it it gets so like code names.

00:41:17.89
Stephen Schneider
I’ve played enough code names in the past couple months. I’m like, I don’t really want to play code names anymore. I’ve played enough apples apples.

00:41:23.60
Alan Baltis
Okay.

00:41:24.73
Stephen Schneider
I haven’t chosen that for years, um you know, but I found one.

00:41:27.12
Alan Baltis
I hear you. If people propose it, I will say okay, but I do not propose because it’s the same. And Codenames, I think, I haven’t played it so much that I’m kind of overwhelmed by it.

00:41:34.95
Stephen Schneider
yeah

00:41:39.81
Alan Baltis
So that when I get get the people that want to play Codenames, and they’re good because they have a reasonable vocabulary, that can be fun because it doesn’t happen as often.

00:41:45.62
Stephen Schneider
Yeah.

00:41:46.75
Alan Baltis
Anyway, okay.

00:41:47.56
Stephen Schneider
So I found one to add to the list. If you’re looking for a fun, casual, easy game, that’s quick to learn and that anyone could play you. And this one is any number of people. It does. It scales because it doesn’t make a difference.

00:42:03.78
Stephen Schneider
ah How many people you have. It’s called floor plan.

00:42:07.71
Alan Baltis
Okay, floor plan. Very good.

00:42:08.86
Stephen Schneider
Your, your architects building ah house,

00:42:12.78
Alan Baltis
Okay.

00:42:12.84
Stephen Schneider
Um, everybody has a little architect page, sheet, uh, and you roll dice. So you roll two dice and you get like a three and a four. So you can choose to build one room and you look at your chart.

00:42:26.21
Stephen Schneider
What’s room number three or room number four. You choose one and you make it a three by four on your sheet, or you choose two features, uh, stones outside, you know, and the

00:42:32.35
Alan Baltis
Okay.

00:42:37.94
Alan Baltis
Yeah.

00:42:38.57
Stephen Schneider
decorative stones, a tree, a window, a door. And then there’s clients that are looking for stuff. So you’re trying to build things to, to meet what the clients need ah to get points.

00:42:49.69
Alan Baltis
A successful house.

00:42:50.12
Stephen Schneider
Yeah.

00:42:50.92
Alan Baltis
Exactly.

00:42:51.16
Stephen Schneider
Yeah.

00:42:51.87
Alan Baltis
This sounds cool.

00:42:52.94
Stephen Schneider
So we we had 12 people playing and it was as the same as playing with four.

00:42:54.09
Alan Baltis
Exactly.

00:43:01.32
Stephen Schneider
ah It wasn’t like, you know, some games you just can’t play with a lot of people. Plays everything. It’s not something and I’d say, oh my God, let’s get together and play floor plan. But if you’re like, okay, we’re still waiting for five people, but there’s four of us now.

00:43:16.40
Stephen Schneider
Let’s pull out floor plan. It’s 20 minutes long and then we’ll be ready when they get here. So add that to your list.

00:43:21.23
Alan Baltis
That’s cool. I’ve nodded that one out. Very good. I’ve been to many mind games, and it’s kind of funny. I’ve always been where it’s within driving distance I’ll go to it, but I tendt don’t tend to fly. So if it’s in Portland, I kind of don’t want the $600 overhead of Colleen and I are flying out there, whereas if it’s just a drive and staying in hotel. But anyway, one thing I love about that is pretty early into the process. you It’s for those who I think we’ve talked about it enough.

00:43:50.19
Alan Baltis
It’s big. There’s like 300, 350 people there. And we’re playing like 60 to 80 different games. And they’re all arrayed on tables a to Z. And you have lists of 30 random generated lists for what you have to play in order to have it so that the compendium of all of those ratings are what choose the Mensa Select winners.

00:44:10.95
Alan Baltis
While you’re doing it, you’re also, i don’t know, occasionally going to the bathroom, and I’d be like walking around, I’ll be like a game that is so beautiful, colorful, interesting looking that I hope it’s on my list because I can’t wait to play it.

00:44:22.45
Alan Baltis
And there’s always games that are like the laughter breaks out. And so you’re looking over there kind of going, and long ago, there was a game called Curses that everybody that tried it, I don’t know that I ever saw it become a big, big game.

00:44:36.31
Alan Baltis
and you have to play with people that are willing to put aside their embarrassment because what it is is you get cursed you get um every time that you roll the dice you also have to stand up and turn around every time you have to talk like elmer fun for the rest of the game or until that curse is listed and all different kinds of things and and at one point i was oh The curses can like accumulate.

00:45:02.09
Alan Baltis
And so I had to like, every time that I did it, I had to sing a song and I had to speak like Elmer Fudd. And so it’s like, I’m sitting there, the highway’s down with broken heroes on a West Chats power drive.

00:45:15.57
Alan Baltis
And if you’re willing to do it, you can totally crack people up with if i do a crappy elmer flood you know they’ll know what you’re trying to do and so i love finding those things that are the ones that are making everybody laugh and almost always like you said that’s the social game that’s the you know first time you play apples to apples over especially cards against humanity which has perhaps some more adult themed cards it’s very fun if you play with people that are game

00:45:22.81
Stephen Schneider
Nice.

00:45:32.28
Stephen Schneider
Nice.

00:45:38.84
Stephen Schneider
Right.

00:45:43.78
Alan Baltis
and And when we brought that into the family, I remember there being some that were really kind of nasty or naughty. And invariably, the the um sister-in-law in the family that was the most uptight would have to say the card that included the phrase, the biggest, blackest dick, or whatever.

00:46:01.82
Alan Baltis
But she was game. I really thought she might shut down, might like go to church and not play. And instead, she like and And as you know, that’s one of the things where it’s not only the luck or the draw, people pass you things that they think are the ones that might match the criteria for what’s going to match the card that you’ve got.

00:46:19.40
Alan Baltis
And so because she was a little bit the shyer, uptight one, people tried giving her the ones that were going to get her to freak out. And so hats off to Annie because she was game in a way that other people…

00:46:32.99
Alan Baltis
They like kind of cheat by not playing the game. If you sit down to play and you know what it’s about, and play then play. Then be into it.

00:46:39.86
Stephen Schneider
Right.

00:46:40.60
Alan Baltis
You know what I mean? No one’s saying that now you’re a potty mouth.

00:46:41.69
Stephen Schneider
what

00:46:43.87
Alan Baltis
It’s because someone gave you a potty mouth card. You’re quoting. You’re not saying it.

00:46:47.75
Stephen Schneider
Right.

00:46:47.76
Alan Baltis
Oh, well. Oh, well.

00:46:48.68
Stephen Schneider
One of my favorite Cards Against Humanity stories was when me and Gina were first together, ah that we took the whole family down to Dayton and then we visited Dan and Laura. So, you know, here’s a house with like 15 Schneiders, 16 Schneiders, something like that, you know?

00:47:03.17
Alan Baltis
Right, exactly. I’ve been there in the RG situation where, wow, there’s like half the people here are Snyders.

00:47:04.37
Stephen Schneider
So we…

00:47:08.64
Stephen Schneider
Yes, exactly. So we pulled out Cards Against Humanity and started playing it. Well, Jason was the youngest. He was like nine at the time.

00:47:19.73
Stephen Schneider
I think Lincoln was maybe 13, you know, so a little older. ah But Jason was still nine. And Gina’s like, whatever. He’s got older siblings. There’s nothing you’re going to say or do.

00:47:30.80
Stephen Schneider
So we played.

00:47:31.36
Alan Baltis
he’s heard it.

00:47:32.38
Stephen Schneider
yeah Yeah, we didn’t hold back a whole lot until we got to the one question that was something ah lies your parents told you or something like that.

00:47:41.75
Alan Baltis
ah

00:47:42.13
Stephen Schneider
And somebody played ah that Santa Claus really exists. And they read it and then suddenly it clicked in everybody’s head that Jason still believed in Santa Claus at the time.

00:47:52.15
Alan Baltis
oh

00:47:52.18
Stephen Schneider
And everybody went.

00:47:53.46
Alan Baltis
Oh no!

00:47:54.96
Stephen Schneider
And Jason’s like, what? Huh? What?

00:47:57.49
Alan Baltis
We’ve traumatized the lad.

00:47:57.71
Stephen Schneider
Yeah.

00:47:59.46
Alan Baltis
Oh no!

00:48:01.03
Stephen Schneider
So that was one of the better. And, you know, of course, all us adults were drinking a little bit and stuff. So everybody was feeling good. Nobody was drunk, but it was that weren’t thinking. And then suddenly everybody just kind of froze. ah Yeah.

00:48:16.93
Alan Baltis
It’s funny, once in a while, exactly the combination of cards is a great laugh. that it you know it’s It’s the coincidence of it and the fact that someone was witty enough to say, this is going to i love that.

00:48:27.61
Alan Baltis
We also had a thing where at a Mensa event, we were playing a thing like that and We’re playing like 11 o’clock at night. And a mom was there with her daughter. And she was like, you know, hey, could you kind of keep the language down? It’s like, if you’ve got your daughter up at 11 o’clock at night, it’s incumbent on you to manage her, not on us to stunt ourselves.

00:48:49.74
Stephen Schneider
Yes.

00:48:49.85
Alan Baltis
You know what I mean? So and we’ve had to have that discussion once in while that whatever your… bubble of sensitivity is you don’t get to expand it to include the room you have it like right around you you know what I mean and maybe to extend to your children but maybe you should have the child go play butterfly games instead of that kind of thing so okay

00:48:59.51
Stephen Schneider
e Yes. Yes.

00:49:09.98
Stephen Schneider
Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. That reminds me of, so another great social game. I don’t know if you’ve played, it’s like a lot of them, uh, Salem. I don’t know you’ve played that one. It’s a little bit like werewolf or mafia.

00:49:22.67
Stephen Schneider
Uh, but you’re trying to figure out who, who the witches are.

00:49:26.25
Alan Baltis
You do witches, witches, okay.

00:49:26.67
Stephen Schneider
ah which Yeah, or witch. It starts as a witch. um But, you know, it’s a social deduction trying to figure out who’s the witch. um Fun, great game.

00:49:37.59
Stephen Schneider
It’s a good one to hang on to for social situations without lots of big game players, you know, casual.

00:49:43.33
Alan Baltis
Right.

00:49:44.57
Stephen Schneider
ah But again, I’ve played it a whole lot, so it’s never my first choice anymore.

00:49:48.98
Alan Baltis
Okay.

00:49:49.13
Stephen Schneider
um But we were the Dayton RG, I believe, and ah Jerry and Marty and um ah Paul and then ah Megan and a Megan Warren and her daughter that did the bedtime ah books.

00:50:07.96
Stephen Schneider
ah And there were like a couple other people. and we it was one in the morning. We had been drinking since nine So it was real. So the two things that were memorable about it, besides everybody just laughing their asses off constantly because we were a real punch drunk, we’re sitting there talking in between hands and just chatting and, uh,

00:50:24.61
Alan Baltis
Right.

00:50:31.87
Stephen Schneider
meggan Megan’s the mother, right? I always confuse who’s the mother and who’s the daughter.

00:50:34.29
Alan Baltis
Yes. Right.

00:50:35.15
Stephen Schneider
Yeah. me

00:50:35.78
Alan Baltis
Right.

00:50:36.14
Stephen Schneider
Megan’s talking, yeah. um You know, I used to be a party girl and stuff. We’re like, oh, really? She’s like, yeah, yeah. She goes, I don’t even know who her father is. And we all stopped.

00:50:47.09
Stephen Schneider
And the daughter looks up and goes, plot twist. I spit my drink. i So now, i since then, I’ve called her plot twist. because i

00:50:56.80
Alan Baltis
That’s very funny. ah yeah

00:50:58.02
Stephen Schneider
Yeah. and And better yet, the first game we played, it got to be like three or four witches and they won. And Jerry was the first witch and he was so good about it.

00:51:06.23
Alan Baltis
Okay.

00:51:09.100
Stephen Schneider
Nobody ever guessed him the whole freaking game. So we, we played a second game.

00:51:13.92
Alan Baltis
That’s fantastic.

00:51:15.97
Stephen Schneider
We’re playing along and multiple times people said, yeah, I bet it’s Jerry again. It’s like, no, no, no. Couldn’t be the same person. It was Jerry again. And the witches won. and we were like, i so Jerry’s like the eternal witch.

00:51:30.72
Alan Baltis
That’s funny. So by the way, it’s oh Megan is the daughter and Shannon is the mother.

00:51:35.73
Stephen Schneider
Okay. Yes, that’s it.

00:51:37.75
Alan Baltis
I didn’t want to interrupt, it but ah we I’ve played werewolf and just that some people are so good at it that they really have the poker face or they really have the ability to throw blame, you know, just suspicion on other people.

00:51:38.36
Stephen Schneider
Yes, Shannon. Okay.

00:51:51.53
Alan Baltis
Or I love that where, then Then it’s like, well, I hope I never have to like negotiate with them. I hope I never have to like really trust them or not because they were unreadable.

00:52:02.94
Alan Baltis
So anyway. Yeah. Yeah.

00:52:04.84
Stephen Schneider
Yeah. So that, you know, very memorable game. It’s been a while since I’ve been to a good RG. The last really good one was playing with, um, Amber and Paul and Marty.

00:52:17.42
Alan Baltis
yeah

00:52:17.77
Stephen Schneider
and like 12 o’clock, one o’clock. Uh, it was this game called Hughes and colors. It was very, it was a social game. It had a grid of like the Pantone grid.

00:52:29.93
Alan Baltis
Sure.

00:52:30.03
Stephen Schneider
And when it was your turn, you had to pick a color and describe it. Like, uh, the, the, the The color of a peach after a goblin has sat on it.

00:52:43.14
Stephen Schneider
You know, you’re trying to get the exact shade of that.

00:52:43.18
Alan Baltis
Yeah.

00:52:46.100
Stephen Schneider
And then people would guess on the grid which one it is.

00:52:47.57
Alan Baltis
yeah

00:52:50.39
Stephen Schneider
And then you would put a, everybody put their little marker down. Then you put a box around. It’s somewhere in this box. And, you know, it’s,

00:52:58.67
Alan Baltis
Okay. And people could shift it. See, I love, like, what ah what a cool idea because I’ve often laughed about, you know, sweeping statement. Guys went off of like a box of 16 crayons.

00:53:10.81
Alan Baltis
You know, it’s red, blue, green, whatever. Whereas ladies, they have the 64 box with the little Sharpener and they really, well, that’s periwinkle. That’s not quite pink. And you know what I mean? They’ll really have this whole…

00:53:21.94
Alan Baltis
awareness of there’s many hues and colors and i kind of like i love trying to figure that out when it’s like well it’s did you see this one cartoon and the color of the um uh you know robe the guy was wearing it’s mauve and there’s nothing else that looks like mauve and so you hope that they’ll get the reference for that you kind of well it’s kind of like blue green red yellow ochre you know what i mean like

00:53:46.13
Stephen Schneider
Right.

00:53:46.60
Alan Baltis
And sometimes when you say, well, it’s kind of like this color and they give you a blank look, it’s like, okay, no one’s going to get it off of ochre, I guess. you know

00:53:54.45
Stephen Schneider
Right. So,

00:53:55.37
Alan Baltis
I have never played that. That’s a very cool game to try to get.

00:53:57.97
Stephen Schneider
we Yeah, we we were kind we were like, oh my God, Amber, never bring this game again. yeah but My advice is if you’re at an RG and it’s late, get Marty in on a game because he just throws caution to the wind and he doesn’t care anymore.

00:54:15.02
Stephen Schneider
And we were just laughing so hard at the antics going on that that’s what made the game more memorable than the game itself.

00:54:23.50
Alan Baltis
that’s one he is great company here at all it is there really are certain people that i don’t know i often seek to play like oriel maxima because he’s really smart and really explains games well but like it isn’t only like he really has fun with these things and and ending up i’m trying to who else i love playing with steve yates that they’re they’re really good at it but also they are

00:54:24.07
Stephen Schneider
you know That’s what social games are for.

00:54:45.83
Alan Baltis
determined to win only they often win because they’re good at it but they they embrace that a game is a game that it’s not you know I’m gonna have a bad night if I don’t win every single thing I play tonight that’s not what it’s about there are some people that you go to RG’s and it really matters that they’re the all-around gamer or that in particular if they love wizard it really hurts them to not win wizard it’s like well you’re an immense a thing and there’s a bunch of other people that are pretty good we do math we get it so

00:54:57.67
Stephen Schneider
right in the And the problem Yeah, the the downside sometimes of those people is they won’t play anything except that one game.

00:55:20.09
Alan Baltis
ah

00:55:20.20
Stephen Schneider
So then there’s like, oh, look, 10 people are playing wizard. Nobody’s left to play anything else. But then when you do play them, they get so yeah uptight about it. You know, it’s like apples apples. The people that well will argue, well, that’s not a true definition of that word.

00:55:36.37
Stephen Schneider
No, it’s not. But it’s funny as hell. And that person that’s judging thinks it’s great.

00:55:38.65
Alan Baltis
Right, exactly.

00:55:41.89
Stephen Schneider
That’s the point.

00:55:41.95
Alan Baltis
See, that’s what it is. I’m pandering to the judge because I know they got a sense of humor and it doesn’t have to be accurate.

00:55:46.54
Stephen Schneider
it’s not a, you know, Merriam-Webster dictionary game.

00:55:46.75
Alan Baltis
has to be witty. That’s right.

00:55:51.27
Stephen Schneider
That would be boring.

00:55:52.89
Alan Baltis
I’ll tell you, you know, I’ve played a lot of double deck cancellation hearts. It’s one of those things that’s particular to Mensa hardly anybody else plays it. And And it got kind of weird because at first it was almost a response to everyone go to the dance and the people that like were done with the dance, we’d get together and play that.

00:56:09.61
Alan Baltis
We’d be having such a nice time that people would kind of drift over and say, hey, can I get in on this? Well, then it could be a little culty where there were people that played it too much and they started to have, they really wanted to have only these people playing or there had to be a game of eight, not seven, eight, nine, 10, even though that’s one of the points of that game is you can accommodate more people.

00:56:27.25
Alan Baltis
And so, Colleen and I kind of pulled back after maybe one of the Texas AGs, maybe it was Dallas. We end up every single night playing and we’re looking around at a game room with embarrassment of riches, all these other things.

00:56:40.62
Alan Baltis
That year’s MindGames winners. If I didn’t go to MindGames, that’s my chance didn to play them and try them out. And instead, because we are, i if you’ve ever played Double Dick with me, I kind of patter. I kind of keep talking and I’m commenting continually on…

00:56:55.44
Alan Baltis
the scores and people and what card and all that kind of stuff and some part of what people play and in humility is because we get a lot of laughs out of i just, being a little bit of Marty, I kind of take the governor off my mouth and just free associate and have fun and not in an insulting way and not to distract other people, though some people accuse me of that. It’s like, I’m sorry that it’s distracting, but it really is. Everybody else is is cackling. They seem to be having a nice time.

00:57:22.30
Stephen Schneider
A

00:57:22.32
Alan Baltis
So it, but then when you play it too much, it’s like, I so much, i don’t want to be one that has to be there that is associated with this so much that they come and like find me when I’m doing something else to bring me into the game.

00:57:33.31
Alan Baltis
It’s like, I’m, I’m, I want to see this talk at night, et cetera, et cetera.

00:57:37.95
Stephen Schneider
ah ah million other things.

00:57:41.19
Alan Baltis
So it’s just, yeah.

00:57:41.62
Stephen Schneider
Well, I’ll tell you that the gaming groups I normally go to i I got, and I think it’s been up played lot. Colin does it a lot. My friends you know, I’ll go down there to play magic And if I win, it’s like Colin’s like, I don’t believe you.

00:57:58.63
Stephen Schneider
And like, ask Brian, ask Scott.

00:57:59.46
Alan Baltis
I’m sorry.

00:58:00.21
Stephen Schneider
I won three games. He’s like, no, you didn’t. I don’t believe you. And they ask him, we’re like, hell no, he didn’t win. Are you kidding me? So then I get this right, like Steve never wins. and And now we’re playing an RPG and and it’s kind of like, yeah, don’t tell Steve that’s what we’re doing because he’ll he’ll go do this other thing. And I do.

00:58:17.91
Stephen Schneider
But then my other gaming group, they’re like, hey, we got some new players. So make sure Steve’s there so they don’t have to lose. You know, that’s like the, but the thing, here’s the thing.

00:58:27.06
Alan Baltis
The underdog reputation is cool, though, to be the guy that everybody expects to beat up on, and then you’re actually good.

00:58:27.08
Stephen Schneider
And I,

00:58:31.39
Stephen Schneider
right.

00:58:31.91
Alan Baltis
You’re like, well what?

00:58:32.51
Stephen Schneider
Well, I, and that’s the thing. i don’t care. Cause I’m having fun and I enjoy it and nobody’s doing it meanly, but when I really care to win and and really concentrate and double down, i can, you know, I can just, you know, like I said, the one night I was just irritated.

00:58:48.49
Alan Baltis
Right.

00:58:50.94
Stephen Schneider
So i I took three out of five games playing magic against two other people.

00:58:55.22
Alan Baltis
just to flex your muscles a little bit and say, if I care enough, I can put it this.

00:58:55.58
Stephen Schneider
And

00:58:59.18
Stephen Schneider
yes, exactly.

00:59:00.38
Alan Baltis
It’s just that I don’t usually casual.

00:59:00.68
Stephen Schneider
Exactly.

00:59:02.21
Alan Baltis
Exactly.

00:59:02.71
Stephen Schneider
And like we put my other group played star realms once.

00:59:03.26
Alan Baltis
Okay. Okay.

00:59:05.71
Stephen Schneider
And that’s one of my favorite games. And they kind of said, ah yeah, he brought the game.

00:59:07.90
Alan Baltis
yeah

00:59:11.04
Stephen Schneider
he has the ultimate collection that’s foil and sleeved. So yeah, he’s the one to watch. So then everyone ganged up on me. It says like me against six people. Of course I didn’t win, you know?

00:59:21.79
Alan Baltis
course not. i The hearts thing, occasionally I had people that, because I usually do pretty well, they would make a point of giving me extra queens of spades and like, well, it’s really hard to win against 10 other people if you continually get them in bundles of 13 instead of one.

00:59:38.23
Alan Baltis
and And especially one person that really keyed on me after after like the 10th time, it’s like, it really would be okay if you didn’t hate me this much. You know what I mean?

00:59:48.70
Stephen Schneider
Yeah.

00:59:49.42
Alan Baltis
The first time it might be, hey, it’s all a little preventative thing, so he won’t win automatically or whatever like that. But it’s kind of coming across like there’s something here.

00:59:58.49
Stephen Schneider
I’m here to have fun.

00:59:58.73
Alan Baltis
And yeah, you know, don’t be a dick.

00:59:59.89
Stephen Schneider
If I went, I don’t even remember the wins and losses.

01:00:02.15
Alan Baltis
You’re a dick. yeah

01:00:03.49
Stephen Schneider
And I’ve done that. I’ve done that, especially with magic. If, if I get that feeling like out of our group of how are my six or whatever, that somebody’s just targeting me and getting at me.

01:00:07.32
Alan Baltis
Yeah.

01:00:14.70
Alan Baltis
Yeah.

01:00:15.84
Stephen Schneider
It’s like, okay, well, you know, we’ve been playing five minutes. I’m dead. And you guys are going to play for 45 more. You know, I’m going to sit around doing nothing. And then I get back in and I’m like, okay, time for my challenge deck. Oh, Colin, did I just hit you for 47 points?

01:00:30.32
Stephen Schneider
You only had 20, man. Sorry. It’s like, you know, chill out. Don’t, you don’t have focus just to beat on somebody every time.

01:00:37.67
Alan Baltis
Like

01:00:38.35
Stephen Schneider
Yeah.

01:00:39.24
Alan Baltis
Yeah, this we we often, you know, this is confessional in so many ways. You’re a very smart guy. And that choosing to not always be the intense one, the one that has to win, really a gift to the group so that it isn’t, let’s play Stephen Wins.

01:00:51.19
Stephen Schneider
Yeah.

01:00:56.36
Alan Baltis
You know what mean? it It’s just that, what’s the fun of that? my My younger brother has sometimes complained, when we play like hearts as a family, I win a lot because I watch what’s being played, just like counting cards in Vegas. You can kind of keep track.

01:01:11.13
Alan Baltis
Do you ever see movie called Rounders with Matt Damon? He’s like semi-professional poker player.

01:01:15.96
Stephen Schneider
I’ve heard of it.

01:01:17.11
Alan Baltis
And at one point, like they he’s winning a lot. And they kind of say, are you cheating? And he says, well, no, I’m just paying attention. And he kind of goes around the table and goes, you know, you’ve got a high pair, but you’re waiting to see what happens and you you’re just bluffing it out. And he kind of goes around the table and psychologically and by watching what cards and whatever they’ve done based on table position, everything, he kind of nails every single person’s personality and play style and everything.

01:01:42.39
Alan Baltis
And And just that, if you pay attention in hearts, you get a huge edge over knowing what’s been played. You know what i mean?

01:01:48.77
Stephen Schneider
Right.

01:01:48.96
Alan Baltis
You can keep track, at least keep track of hearts and spades. you know Don’t get the queen, don’t get the hearts and and that kind of thing. And so once in a while, i make a point of not doing it.

01:01:59.88
Alan Baltis
Because I don’t want to be that like you know I’m a vulture sitting there just waiting for my game to swoop in.

01:02:02.69
Stephen Schneider
It loses the fun.

01:02:05.22
Alan Baltis
It really is OK to just say, um I’m going to luck it out, I guess. And once in while, you get really great cards. And once well hey get crappy cards. And there’s nothing you can do about it. But every other game, you get whatever, ten every other hand.

01:02:17.61
Alan Baltis
You get 10% advantage by just paying attention to what’s been, and especially, well, that’s enough.

01:02:20.71
Stephen Schneider
Right.

01:02:22.72
Alan Baltis
But you know what I mean? it It’s an act of generosity when you do it. And it’s also once a while when people tease you about, well, you really suck at this. It’s like, let me just take the governors off.

01:02:34.45
Stephen Schneider
Yes.

01:02:34.47
Alan Baltis
And then when I four things in a row, maybe you’ll know that I really could do this, but I’m not a dick. i’m not I’m not trying to be that guy.

01:02:40.57
Stephen Schneider
Right. G?

01:02:42.49
Alan Baltis
So,

01:02:43.10
Stephen Schneider
Gina was always good at clue. We played clue a couple of times as a family, yeah know, with all lots of kids and lots of people to play.

01:02:46.28
Alan Baltis
okay.

01:02:48.71
Alan Baltis
Yeah.

01:02:51.17
Stephen Schneider
It’s always fun that way. Clues, one of the games where it is fun with six to eight people, you know,

01:02:56.31
Alan Baltis
Yes.

01:02:57.08
Stephen Schneider
we would be playing and I’m looking at my card going, okay, I got two more weapons. I’ve got three more people and three more locations. I’m not sure. And Gina goes, Oh, I solved it.

01:03:07.78
Stephen Schneider
And she’d say, here it is.

01:03:08.15
Alan Baltis
Okay.

01:03:08.70
Stephen Schneider
And we check. It’s like, how the hell did you do that? I’m like, how do you know? And like every time she’s so many turns ahead of everybody.

01:03:19.48
Stephen Schneider
And, and so it’s like, everybody stopped talking.

01:03:19.63
Alan Baltis
okay

01:03:22.32
Stephen Schneider
Don’t, don’t give her any extra information.

01:03:23.27
Alan Baltis
ah it

01:03:25.59
Stephen Schneider
Yeah.

01:03:26.15
Alan Baltis
Honestly, that’s another fun thing. When you play with Mensons a lot, when you get someone that’s really extraordinary at something, it’s like, well, how cool is that? I think I’m pretty good at this. And yet there’s a quantum thing going on here that I just don’t get all of what they get.

01:03:39.38
Alan Baltis
you know what I mean? and it’s inductive into deductive games or it’s like paying attention to what’s been played whatever it’s it’s very cool especially when you’re playing with somebody for the first time and by watching other people’s play you get an idea of they’re doing what I’m doing they’re really watching what’s going on and I really have to be aware of they’re not going to be somebody that if I’m trying to make a run they’re not going to hold on to that high card you know what i mean there’s some people that are bamboozle about and others that are just at the level of quality that you are if not better how are you going to get past it so anyway okay

01:03:58.96
Stephen Schneider
right yep yep so all right i gotta get rolling it’s

01:04:10.10
Alan Baltis
Same thing, in fact, our Colleen just told me that our guy here, we’re having the big kitchen demolition. today Today is the prep day, and then next couple days are demolition, and the remodeling starts.

01:04:14.96
Stephen Schneider
who

01:04:18.90
Alan Baltis
And so I’m sure we’ll have many tales to tell about that.

01:04:19.86
Stephen Schneider
time to eat out

01:04:22.33
Alan Baltis
never I never got chance talk. Did I talk about the Murakami exhibit? we have We have a whole list, as usual, that once we get out to gaming, it’s a wonderful multifaceted topic.

01:04:27.08
Stephen Schneider
yeah

01:04:30.39
Alan Baltis
And so that turned out.

01:04:30.64
Stephen Schneider
it Yeah, it is. So we got plenty for next week.

01:04:32.13
Alan Baltis
There we go.

01:04:33.16
Stephen Schneider
So let me know.

01:04:33.65
Alan Baltis
Okay. Take care, Stephen. Okay.

01:04:35.38
Stephen Schneider
Later.

01:04:36.24
Alan Baltis
Bye-bye.