Things I Love About Summer Part 4

Summer Reading!!  Doesn't that bring back memories of being a kid and going to the public library at the beginning of the summer to sign up for summer reading?  That was always fun to get rewards for reading books in the summer.  I wasn't the best at reading a ton or getting many prizes, but the effort of opening a book on a rainy summer afternoon wasn't the worst thing in the world.  

When I made my way into junior high the motivation for reading waned a bit as I got my first job working at the local swimming pool hocking pop corn, Ding Dongs and soda in the concession stand.  But then, a neighbor introduced me to the X-Men and The Hobbit.  This was summer reading where the prize wasn't something a librarian gave me, the prize was imagination and discovering characters I could get behind.  In high school, summer reading got me through the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Isaac Asimov's Foundation series.  

Today, summer allows me the time to read books that aren't necessarily just for work.  Yes, I have a summer reading group with students that meets three times through the summer to discuss three books we have read.  Those books are a hit and miss on stories that I like, but the discussion with the kids are always fun and insightful.  Many times they convince me that I shouldn't have liked the book that I liked, and that I should have liked the books that I didn't.  I can never win.  

Then I get to the books that I really want to read.  Most of them fall into a few categories that I will never tire reading: Star Wars, fantasy (Forgotten Realms, DragonLance), graphic novels and comics.  I save the non-fiction for the school year when it feels a little more, scholarly.  

This summer I have continued my read-through of the X-Factor comic run of the 1990s.  I keep up-to-date with my current comics both in print and digital.  I finally started reading the classic X-Wing series from the 1990s.  I found Rogue Squadron by Michael Stackpole to be as exciting as watching the trench run through the Death Star.  What a great book!  I blew through it as I found it hard to put down.  

I am now, on July 19, between books and struggling to choose.  I am in the mood for fantasy but the lure of book 2 of X-Wing: Wedge's Gamble is really strong.  So, as I decide, I consume comics and graphic novels.  

This is one of the things I love about summer.  I get to read and read and read, take some time between books to decide what is next, and enjoy the real prize of great stories and good relaxation.  

Gen Con 2025: Trade Day

Trade Day at Gen Con is one of the most productive of the convention for me.  I get to hang out with my people. Yes, they are gamers, but they are educators, librarians, game publishers, and store owners.  It is the fourth year that I have presented with my colleague and podcast co-creator/host, Dan Reem.  It has been a good outlet for us to share our model for a school game club as well as our RPG Summer Camp.  It isn't just presenting that makes this day worthwhile; however, I get to attend the sessions of other educators and librarians to hear how they are using games in their schools and libraries.  Public librarians share how they use games to increase usage of their resources and build community with games.  

Trade Day also allows everyone the opportunity to talk with vendors on a more one-to-one basis.  I have learned about new games and how they are designed to meet the needs of educators and student learning.  I get to talk game mechanics and the business of game design.  It is a unique opportunity for both parties to talk and share ideas and needs. 

Finally, my favorite part of Trade Day is the evening social after I have enjoyed dinner at the food trucks.  The social is a great time to wind down after learning all day.  It is at the social that I get to socialize with the other educators and librarians.  I also take a good chunk of the time to get game demonstrations and talk about the business side of the game design.  There are also opportunities to play some games that are still in development and on Kickstarter.  This year I got to play a prototype of Goats and Goblins, a fun, competitive card game that involves strategy and luck to win.  

There are less important benefits to participating in Trade Day, but nice conveniences all the more.  First, there aren't long lines to pick up badges.  We walked up to the check-in table, got our badge, and moved on in less than one minute.  We also got to visit the Gen Con store.  This year we had to wait about 45 minutes in line, but that is nothing compared to the hour to hour and a half lines during the convention.  Finally, we get to walk around the Indiana Convention Center.  The vendor and play halls are closed, but we get to look around the long corridors where the signage is already up.  At the end of a long Trade Day, this walk got me pumped up for four days of convention fun.  

Trade day is a great opportunity for learning and networking.  Trade Day is also a great way to acclimate to the next four Gen Con days ahead.  If you are a librarian, educator, game developer, or game store owner, I highly recommend attending this day. 

Funny Things We Hear

Thanks to my good friend Colby Mead for the topic of this week's post.  On a recent episode of Colby's podcast, The ColbyCast (episode 52 to be exact), Colby and his son Caleb discuss their favorite movies, but it is the discussion before the movie talk that caught my ear.  The father and son duo were discussing Caleb's Labor day weekend coaching hockey, and Colby mentioned a humorous conversation he heard at a hockey tournament one time.  Coming out of an ice rink, he heard one boy say to another in
passing, "Did you hear Carson fractured something?"  Colby mentions while he hopes Carson is fine (whoever Carson is) that the comment was "on point" to something you might hear at an ice rink. And in my shoes, seems like a humorously "on point" comment, and I agree, I hope Carson is fully healed now and helping his team to many victories.  

That story made me think about some "on point" comments that I hear on a fairly regular basis that are just humorous when either taken out of context or when they are, as Colby mentioned, on point. 

I will never forget, early in my daughters' gymnastic careers, them talking to friends in the back seat while I was driving them home talking about how big so-and-so's rip was.  I remember thinking, rip?  Like a rip in their leotards????  Or did they mean to say, "Did you see the rip in a certain mat, or I didn't know what!?  I discovered that a "rip" is a nasty open blister that appears on the hands of gymnasts from doing the bar event.  They often will callous, but when the callous is stretched or "ripped" it becomes quite painful and nasty to look at for a gymnast dad.  So if you hear a gymnast discussing a "rip," it has nothing to do with an outfit, bad gas, or damaged gym equipment, it is totally worthy of your sympathy
and admiration that they just keep swinging with those hands pain or no pain.  

If you hang out in my crowd of people, you may hear one of us threatening that "you just might die the next time we get together."  Out of context, someone may want to file a police report, but then you might realize that one of us is the Dungeon Master of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign and the other person's character has probably made some bad decisions.  Not to worry, someone may die, but it is "just" someone's D&D character.  

In the library, I heard some kids whispering the other day that someone wanted to get a book, and the other kid mentioned that you just go up to the counter to "rent" the book from me.  While I would be happy to rent books as a fundraiser for the library, I informed the students that they can check them out rent-free.  

I realize that sometimes life just flies by, and we miss a lot of things that are on the periphery of our awareness.  Stop to listen from time to time and like my friend, Colby, you just might catch something that is so "on point" or just a bit out of context, that it will make you smile or even laugh a little bit.