JBMoby

"EXTRA salty". Now I happen to have had my first bag of those chili cheese Fritos in maybe 5 years a couple weeks ago.

And they're salty AF.

Authors celebrate “historic” settlement coming soon in Anthropic class action Advocates fear such settlements will “financially ruin” the AI industry.

AI advocates have warned that if every author in the class action filed a claim, it would "financially ruin" the entire industry.

Now the questions are -

1) what do I bring!?

2) The kiddo is probably making an appearance, so I need to account for her.

3) seriously what do I bring?!

Trump Admin Bans Coverage For Trans Govt Employees, Mandates Conversion Therapy Coverage The OPM memo states that all health plans for government workers must cover faith-based approaches to gender dysphoria while banning gender affirming care coverage.

1. In an alarming move, the Trump administration has banned trans coverage for federal employees and their families, including youth and adults.

It mandates faith-based conversion therapy coverage.

It is one of the largest removals of coverage in the US.

Subscribe to support our journalism.

I'm one of those backers for METUS on KS.

I never heard of it until it was suggested to me by KS (either front page or at the bottom of a campaign I was checking in on, not sure which).

KS knows how to push the $20 and under impulse backs.

GF only pushes the $200+ minis filled dreck of the week.

On August 16, 2016, Mary and I started a weird little board game company. We didn’t know if it would last. At best, we expected it to be a sideline, a way to make a little extra cash publishing other designers’ games, which would offset the costs of whatever weird, uncommercial things I came up with. Of course we hoped it might turn out to be more, but I don’t think either of us expected to go full-time within six months, or for weird, “uncommercial” things to quickly become our bread-and-butter. I certainly didn’t expect it to last nine years. Heck, I didn’t expect me to last nine years. Finding and accepting who I really was and what really made me happy absolutely saved my life, and that only happened because of people I met through Hollandspiele. And being my own boss meant I got to chase that happiness without being afraid of losing my job or my ability to stay housed. Things are, let’s face it, pretty dire for trans folks right now. Like many of my queer siblings, I don’t feel safe and I don’t know how to navigate the future that’s ahead of me. But the continued support for my weird games and for our weird little company has been a source of solace and comfort, not to mention some semblance of financial stability. Mary and I are so grateful for that. To express that gratitude, we’re having a little flash sale this weekend, offering some of my games at $9 off now through Sunday. 49 OFF: THE GRASS CROWN - NICAEA - ENDURANCE - DOUBT IS OUR PRODUCT - OBLIQUE

Can you believe Hollandspiele has been around for nine years? We're having a flash sale now through Sunday, offering a $9 discount on five of my games.

Dolly Parton has sent my daughter a new book every month for years as she does for thousands of children. She help fund the development of the Covid vaccine. She’s not a billionaire. I think as non wealthy people it’s hard to even imagine how much billionaires *could* be doing with their money.

Dragon Reactor is officially FUNDED!

Thank you all so, so much for helping us make this project real. Quinn and I are so excited to finish this game, wmand we know you're gonna love it.

We still have 2 weeks left in the campaign, and more pledges means more pay for our team!

I did the thing. 🦾

Dude, that sucks.

Not sure what else to say. Sending you good vibes.

YouTube video by Road Less Marveled May 1, 1969: Fred Rogers testifies before the Senate Subcommittee on Communications

THIS IS ALL I HAVE TO SAY ABOUT FUNDING PBS!!!

BE THE PERSON MISTER ROGERS BELIEVED YOU COULD BE.

BG Stats 4 x 4. Play count: 23: Pandemic; 7: Spots; 2: Q-less; 2: Panda Royale; 2: Bag of Chips; 1: Kutná Hora: The City of Silver; 1: Riftblade; 1: Cities; 1: Can't Stop Express; 1: Re;MATCH: Marble Puzzle Fighter; 1: Quiet House; 1: Bugs in the Kitchen; 1: Popcorn Dice; 1: Connect Four.

Big month with Origins. Not a LOT of games played but a fun variety.

Highlights:

Re;MATCH - 2-player game inspired by puzzle fighter video games, uses a marble grid.

Panda Royale - dice drafting roll and write

Quiet House - partial information, no communication, cooperative puzzle.

#bgstats

I have a couple kids games that are pretty fun.

Loopin' Louie / Loopin' Chewie / Blueys Keepy Uppy game - fun for all ages.

I just picked up Bugs in the Kitchen at the Origins flea market and the hex bug cockroach gives the right amount of unpredictability to make the game feel frenetic.

Flood is such a great album.

Ana Ng is the first one that comes to mind as a non Flood entry.

If you’re zip-tying grandmas protesting losing health care maybe you’re not the good guys in the story?

Update: the kid has the con crud.

It wouldn't be your first convention without a communicable disease I guess.

Doctor appt this afternoon since she can't shake this fever.

Panda Royale - dice drafting, roll and write. It's simple, fast, and plays large groups easily.

Bugs in the Kitchen - this game immediately clicked with my 3 year old hardly and rules reminders. A great flea market pickup.

Riftblade - a pretty fun 2 player duel deck builder.

Kutna Hora - so good

BG Stats 4 x 4. Play count: 2: Pandemic; 2: Panda Royale; 2: Bag of Chips; 1: Kutná Hora: The City of Silver; 1: Riftblade; 1: Cities; 1: Re;MATCH: Marble Puzzle Fighter; 1: Quiet House; 1: Bugs in the Kitchen; 1: Popcorn Dice; 1: Connect Four.

I attended Origins Game Fair and got in a respectable number of games played.

Highlights:

Re;MATCH - the vibe of Bullet and Potion Explosion with an arcade fighter theme.

Quiet House - deductive co-op - rearrange 5 items in a room to meet the 8 random rules, of which each player only knows 4 of.

Me? I got a compliment and a color changing pencil... And a copy of Mork Borg, so that was pretty rad.

We finished the day with lunch at North Market before returning to the convention, but the kid was running on vapors at that point and she road around on my shoulders for the remainder of the con.

The free game my daughter received. Where is Mausi? from Amigo

polyhedral dice set my kid won. clear with purple ink. pink and white mushrooms and faux green moss suspended inside.

The kid moments before whacking her mom in the face with a red lightsaber twice as long as she is tall.

Remember the raffle? Yea, the kid won the lightsaber she put 12 or so tickets on.

She then won a $20 gift card to a FLGS

and a set of polyhedral dice with mushrooms in them

and someone run up and just gave her a free game

Also got a miniature

and a mood ring

and a pirate gave her a gold coin.

Sunday I took the kid to all the booths to grab the free swag. But first, she saw a daycare friend and they ran circle around myself and the other kid's dad for a solid four minutes. Apologies to anyone that almost got blast by them running full tilt in the pathway.

We then rounded up a posse and played Panda Royale before I grabbed lunch and then returned home for the day.

Sunday, I would be returning with the little one and let her call the shots.

Shout out to @thac0bell.bsky.social for the assist during the math trade. In the dealer hall, we were pretty quickly pointed toward Riftblade. We did a demo and it is a dueling deckbuilder with the little used chaining mechanic from Nightfall. Will def check it out on KS later this year.

Solforge Fusion KS starter, five kickstarter booster boxes and two neoprene mats purchased at Origins Game Fair from another attendee

A picture of my Origins 2025 purchases from Thursday as well as my board game geek virtual flea market purchases Skulk Hollow Signal Panda Royale Rebel Princess (Deluxe Edition) and expansion with promos Wordsy New York Slice Let's Go! To Japan Café CATsle Builders Auf Falscher Farhte The Rail on the Hill Star Wars: The Clone Wars Diced Veggies Sonic Roll Nacht der Magier Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade Bugs in the Kitchen Deathmatch Island (RPG) Disney: The Haunted Mansion – Call of the Spirits Game Power Vacuum Typeset

Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Sonic Roll
Nacht der Magier
Super-Skill Pinball: 4-Cade
Bugs in the Kitchen
Deathmatch Island (RPG)
Disney: The Haunted Mansion – Call of the Spirits Game
Power Vacuum
Typeset
Solforge Fusion KS Starter set, 5 KS boosters, and 2 neoprene mats

After that marathon I swung through the dealer hall again before heading home for the night.

Saturday was the Math Trade and Virtual Flea Market meetup and it was as chaotic as every.

I came away with

Skulk Hollow
CATsle Builders
Auf Falscher Farhte
The Rail on the Hill
Diced Veggies

(continued)

a three player game of Cities in progress

a two player game of Quiet House in progress.

Then I set up to play some games with a guy I regularly meetup with at Origins. We played Quiet House and Bag of Chips before we played a three player game of Cities.

Quiet House was amazing. I want to play more of it.

Cities didn't blow me away, but it certainly isn't bad. It is... approachable.

Then I went to lunch and back to the hall to play some games. First up a buddy of mine helped me break in my copy of Panda Royale before I taught him and another friend Bag of Chips.

This isn't really the format to go in depth but if you like the vibe of the Bullet games from Level99 and interesting uses of marble tracks/dispensors like in Potion Explosion and Gizmos, you should check out Re;MATCH.

Friday I came with a bag of games to sell before the dealer hall opened and another bag to play with folks after lunch. In between those times, I tried a few games and got the low down of several more.

Re;MATCH: Marble Puzzle Fighter from @brotherminggames.bsky.social is one to keep your eye on.

With a full belly and no small fry to watch I was free to load up on purchases.

Two puzzles
Panda Royale + Expansion
Rebel Princess + Expansion + 2x Promos
New York Slice (free!)
I Have the High Ground RPG
Wordsy
Signal from DVC games

Suitably burdened, I went to my car and returned home.