Musical “Endeavor”

I have a reputation for buying musical instruments, fiddling with them, and then selling them back to music stores to buy more. This reputation isn’t a falsehood, far from it in fact. In the last five years I have purchased (okay, bare with me)…

• six Harmonicas (different keys and quality)
• a harmonica “bullet” mic
• a small harmonica amp
• an Acoustic Guitar
• a Bass Guitar (with amp and effects pod)
• an Electric Guitar (with amp)
• an Electric Mandolin
• a student-grade Violin (bought this twice)
• two Soprano Ukuleles (the small ones)
• a Concert Ukulele (the medium ones)
• two Baritone Ukuleles (the big ones)
• four Irish Flutes (tin whistles - key of D)
• a Bb Irish Flute (tin whistle - key of Bb)
• a full-size Melodica (32 keys)
• a Soprano Melodica
• a Yamaha Recorder (soprano)
• a Yamaha Recorder (tenor)
• a professional-grade Bohdran (Irish drum)
• a 100+ year old Ocarina
• a Mountain Ocarina
• a Marimba (thumb-piano)

I’ll stop there. And yes, there are more. Honestly, seeing this list cements my reputation for myself. You might think, “oh, he must really like music and play a bunch of different instruments.” Yes and no. I do love music, to the point where I really want to play with others and jam out and have a good time. I can feel it coursing through my veins. I love music! But [and this is a big but], I really don’t play any of the above instruments well.

Let me explain. I have little to no formal music teaching. I was in the middle school orchestra. My bow was going up when all the others were going down. I was horrible at it, but I loved it. I can’t read sheet music. I can read tablature (who can’t?). I’m somewhat tone deaf, so I can’t learn to play strictly by ear. I have absolutely no business buying all of the above instruments.

And yet… I’m thinking of buying a new mandolin.

*Gasp! Why?!

Because I love music. I love playing it, even when I sound awful. I’m the same way with several other things. This isn’t new for me. The board game, Galaxy Truckers, kicks my tail every time I play it. I don’t consider the game difficult. I enjoy building the ships and what not, but the dice can really screw you over. I’m that guy who gets half of his ship blown out even with shields during the first or second round. This has happened over and over again, every single time I’ve played the game. I am literally wasting an hour of my life setting up that game and playing the first round EVERY SINGLE TIME I play (because I’m going to get totally screwed and ragequit). I still play the game. Why? Because I like it. To clarify, I really only enjoy the building part and its that part of the game that keeps me coming back. In much the same way I enjoyed legos growing up and Minecraft now.

Moral of the lesson? Do what you enjoy regardless of how awful you are at it. Keep on playing music. Keep on playing games. Keep on painting stick figures. Do it BECAUSE it makes you happy.

Mars Needs Mechanics Update

It’s good to see that air mailed box from the printer. It always has progress in it… a sign of things to come and that things are moving along. I received one such package on Friday and I was super excited to get into it. Inside was the hard proofs for Mars Needs Mechanics, including a mock-up box:

Not too shabby for cheap printer paper over a box! I’m excited about seeing this because it helps me to see the art on the actual box size. It’s going to look beautiful once it all comes together.

And there’s the rub. Our out-of-our-hands delays in January/February have caused Mars Needs Mechanics to be late. Production is expected to end June 1st, which means the game will ship to the states sometime in June and finally be in the hands of backers in June/July. It’s not ideal, but the game is coming. I’m trying to concentrate on that, and on Ben Rosset who designed this game and is very excited about his first game being published. Congratulations to him!