Not sure why I'm hyper the last couple days.... Nice to actually be hyper about stuff for a while - or having energy in general. 

The family has been doing well.  Kid #1 has been having fun with basketball.  Kid #2 has been a joy to have around and spending time with me.  Mrs. Neal has been particularly beautiful and kind lately.  Picked up Angels and Airwaves release from '06 - I can't remember the last time I bought an album - and it's been great to play. Kids and I went sledding on two hills on Saturday and had a blast.

Other than a very uncomfortable/painful surgery in a couple weeks, things are pretty good.  Who wouldn't have energy with all that?

As for gaming, I've had a couple bug reports for PocketCiv that I'm trying to clean up.  Nasty little bugs.  I can't figure them out.  Weirdest thing.  It's like I hit a wall with the design.  Like writer's block, I just don't want to fix them.  Enough people ask, and they will get taken care of.  I need to find a maintainer for PocketCiv at some point.  Not exactly a long line on that one.

Bindle Rails has stabilized.  Only a few minor cosmetic things are left.  I am holding off on art to see what gets produced, if anything, from the community at large.  Since my skills aren't the best (the highest grade I ever got in an art class was a C+.  Handwriting was the same way now that I think about it...), I'm waiting to see what comes around.  The game is still unranked (23 ratings short), but has a fair number of people lurking and trying it out - which is great.  If there were bugs with the game, I'd be hearing more about it, so that's probably a good thing.

I've started to thinking about the next design.  The next theme.  I still want to revisit some of my older ideas, but they weren't as promising as Bindle.   City building, trade, mountain biking - themes that are either well worn or unheard of.  My list of mechanics is a little low as well.  The multiple purpose deck is a great device/invention.  It has its benefits.  Plenty of room for events, different ways to randomize outcomes without relying on charts, dice, controlled randomization where a d4/d6/d8/d10/d12/d20/d100 won't work, a place for artwork - all sorts of good things.  Yet, I feel a little trapped by it.  Maybe I'm trapped by boards/maps/cards/pawns/cubes.  I also tend to make solitaire games simply because I'm always looking for something to play but it is extremely difficult to make a challenging, varied game experience.  But I'm afraid of using the cards as a crutch.  Need to think about it some more.

Regardless, the Bindle System still has a couple ideas to use as well.  New maps, new areas, scenarios... it has a lot of potential.  I'd like to publish it at some point, maybe do a PC game for it at some point.  Maybe I'm expecting too much.

Oh well.  More later.