One piece of paper

Nobody writes letters anymore.

When I was a kid, I had three pen pals. They were all girls, go figure, but it was a great thrill receiving a personal letter in the mail. I'd never met any of them in person, but we exchanged pictures. A couple of them I chatted with online as well, so we didn't rely solely on the letters for conversation, but it was fun.

A few of us in college also sent letters to each other, with various surprises inside occasionally. We saw each other every day, so it's not like it was the only way we talked, but it was still fun to find a handwritten letter in your mailbox.

So why is that? It's not the same with email. Email is pretty much our default method of communication these days. With the ability to reach people instantly, we simply jot down a few lines, click "send," and have a reply right away. Combine that with the fact that online chatting is everywhere, and there's no lack of communication. But it kind of feels like the more connected we are, the more distant we are because it's so easy. There's not much effort involved to keep in touch, so we don't seem to devote as much thought to it.

And then there's the advent of blogging and social walls like Facebook, where we just put our information out there and expect it to be seen. We don't even send it to a target anymore, we just write it down and that's it. For me, anyway, it's so hard to wade through the virtual noise that I constantly miss the important stuff from my friends because I just can't find it.

So here's a homework assignment for you: Send a letter to someone. Not email, not a Facebook message, but an actual letter. Snail mail, as it were. Handwrite it. Put a little goofy picture in it. Let that person know you thought enough about them to sit down and put some effort in your communication.

Just one piece of paper can make a world of difference in someone's day.

I'm back

It has been both a very long and very short six months.

Looking back, I should have kept up with the journaling. I think it would have helped me better deal with all this. I started to write a little, something of a memoir, but stopped because I didn't really know what to write.

Well, I'm going to try journaling instead. I'm much better mentally from where I started, but the aftershocks linger. Being able to drive again and having everything back to "normal" feels a lot better than I anticipated. I'm also exercising, reclaiming my body. That feels good, too.

I don't know what's going into this blog, or how often it'll happen. I'm going to make a concerted effort to do it, but I'm not much of a blogger. I do apologize if anyone's come here looking for updates over the past six months. I believe I was active in Facebook, but that doesn't carry over to this blog.

I went back and edited the previous posts for readability. It's amazing how the mind takes care of itself. I only vaguely remember the hospital now. I think I remember writing some of that, but it all sort of blends together. And there might have been one nightmare, but I'm not sure. Regardless, the mental impact was more subtle and still profound, yet not as bad as I was afraid of.

I'm slower than I used to be, and I lose words more often, but there's been no real degradation of my mental function. I think I'm really the only one who notices. Of course, it could just be hypochondria.

There's also no real effect on me physically - aside from becoming fat and out of shape. I'm exercising daily. Not pushing myself, just moving a bit, building up endurance slowly. The progress is astounding, though. It's amazing how quickly the body can get stronger and adapt.

Anyway, much like I'm adding the exercise to my daily routine to strengthen my body, I think I need to add blogging to strengthen my soul. I'm doing better - Miriam says I'm almost like a totally new person - but I could be doing better still.

Thank you for staying with me.

I'm home.

Rereading my previous blog posts, I only vaguely remember posting them. Even when I was better and more responsive in the hospital I was still drugged up and the days sort of blended together.

Thank you everyone for your support. It helped much more than I could ever express.

Around Saturday night I hit the point where I was just irritable and impatient, which was a very good sign. I was very much ready to go home, and my doctors were remarking that I was looking good. I still had a few tests, but Sunday was more or less a waiting day. We changed rooms on Saturday to get away from my extremely ill-tempered roommate. His ire was never directed at me, of course, but when he wasn't confused, he was belligerent and abusive to the wonderful nurses who remained very professional.

I got the defibrillator on Monday around 11. They moved me early in the morning to Hackensack Memorial and there wasn't actually a lot of waiting. The surgery itself apparently went longer than it should have (about 2 hours) but was a big success. The weird part is they gave me a local anesthetic and didn't quite knock me out, so I vaguely remember the beginning and the end of it. It was very bizarre. They did put me under in order to test the thing since there were electric shocks involved. I still wish there were some sort of designer defib that you could stick in your chest to look like Iron Man. That would be AWESOME.

I stayed overnight for observation. That was a very very rough night. I think it had more to do with the compress they put on the wound to make sure it closed, but it felt like I went jousting and lost. Now that the bandage is off it feels MUCH better. It's just mainly that blunt tiring kind of sore. In the hospital, codeine was only doing so much, but now the Tylenol is perfectly adequate.

They tested the defib on Tuesday morning, and everything looks good. I can shower tomorrow - I can get the wound wet as long as I keep the spray off it. The neat thing is they use this glue now. No stiches, no staples, they just shellacked my shoulder and this glue will remain while the wound heals and it'll come off by itself.

I have limited mobility, but that should get better. I've got exercises to do, and I'll be following up with the doctor in two weeks and get an update on how far I can push it.

I'm home now, safe and sound. The worst part is over and now it's just recovery.

Status Update.

I think the iPad craziness was due more to sweaty fat fingers. It's easier to use now, but typing is still not quite as easy as I'm used to.Anyway, I had my MRI, and I had an echocardiogram on my throat. Last I heard the echo was still being looked at. The good news is all the major stuff is done. All I've got now is some physical therapy and maybe another chest x-ray or two while they monitor my lungs.If the cardiologists had their way, I'd get my defibrillator tomorrow. The pulminary doctor, however, wants to wait until Monday to make sure I'm completely out of the pneumonia woods.So Monday I'll be going to Hackensack Memorial for the defibrillator. They're going to keep me at least overnight for observation. After that, I go home. So now it's just a waiting game to get my strength up. The nurses keep remarking how I look better each day, so that's good.Once I get home, no driving for six months. That's the danger time in which another episode is likely to happen, and behind the wheel of a car is an extremely bad place to get zapped.Thank you everyone for the well wishes. I had a couple surprising and very welcome visitors, and my mood couldn't be better for all the support I have. Apparently I also have a prayer circle that rings the US.Thank you everyone.

Out of the woods, but not out of the park

They moved me out of ICU to Radiology. I'm on solid foods now, but I haven't yet seen what foods they're letting me have.The next step is an MRI, which I've heard rumblings that could be as early as this afternoon. I ultimately need to get a defribillator, which will happen most likely sometime this week. If all goes well, I'll be home and done by the end of the week. I don't really know the plan so much, though.More as we know more, but I'm out of the ICU craziness.

My sickness update, part one.

Hey guys!

First, let me say that Miriam showed me a lot of your responses since I was without a computer, and I'm getting as emotional now as I was then. This is unusually hard to write on ipad, either because there is a lot of electricity around here, so conduction is weak, or it's because my fingers are useless for the Ipad. Yesterday, that was actually true, and I had to wash and dry my fingers to get anything to work, but today I find there is a disconnect from what you touch and what you actually select. It makes it hard to use email and Facebook, and I was also having trouble with HBOGo. I think it's because it's so hot and humid here that every so often it has trouble figuring out what you actually selected.

After that pathetic excuse, let me start by where I remember: The night of the sixth. I can't really remember anything until sometime in the night, with my parents there. To be honest, I'm not really sure what I remember until promtpted. However, that was the beginning of true lucidity. Although I don't really remember the CT scan either. Yesterday Miriam and I watched the season 2 premiere of Game of Thrones and I discovered that I actually remembered it but I didn't actually remember watching it. Of course, the next day is when all this started, so I'm not surprised I don't remember. And there were just two announcements (rapid response 911 and a code blue) that makes it going to be a busy night so I'll stop here and continue the update tomorrow.

I'm trying to publish to my general blog because for some reason an outgoing email didn't make it and I'm not entirely sure when I'll be back on my actual personal internet service. It's almost 6 am. Dan'll be here today. Can't remember who else will be here today, but I'm going to try to get more sleep.

5:20am: Wow. I must have fallen asleep, because I woke up really disoriented. I guess the past few nights I've had a family member be something of a familiarity buffer, because I woke up to a lot of stuff going on. I kind of recognized the black male nurse, but without the female nurse, Mary, it would have taken an awful lot to recognize the room I fell asleep in. Guess this is what happens when you finally get a bit of uninterrupted sleeping time.

Miriam's updates part two

On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 5:30 PM, Sophie Plante wrote:
I spoke with Miriam earlier today, and she asked that I send out a quick update. Today was another good day! They were able to extubate Chris this morning and take him off the sedatives. He has been awake and talking, and really doing a lot better. He still has a bad cough, and is still fighting the pneumonia off, but things are looking much better now that he is off the vent. Miriam will keep us updated, but for now she is spending as much time with Chris and enjoying being able to have a conversation with him again!! :0)Lots of love!! Sophie ~

8:00 AM 4/7/12
UPDATE Sorry to all for no update last night and thank you Sophie for helping me out updating yesterday. As of 8 PM last night Chris was making remarkable progress. At first his short term memory was shaky but as the day went on even that was getting better. He is, from what I can tell, his old self. He is even joking around telling me it was nice of him to wait until I got home to have his heart attack. He was very happy to hear that in the commotion on Monday I dropped his cell phone and it has not worked since so he is getting a new I Phone - something good always comes from something bad. The cough is the worst part of this whole scenario right now and the doctors took him to get a CT scan of his chest to figure out why that is not abating. I do not have the results of that yet. BTW - Chris thought the CT Scan was "really cool". (He was on Codeine at the time of the comment.) Still also waiting on the neurological assessment now that he is off the sedatives.More updates to come! Many, many thanks for the prayers, thoughts and love. Keep it coming! I am a big believer in the power of positive thinking.

9:00 PM 4/7/12
UPDATE Chris continues his steady and amazing progress. He is on a liquid diet today and the coughing is far less than yesterday. He is retaining memory more. He is still working on the pneumonia but perhaps Chris is starting beat it since the coughing has receded. Most importantly, he is now playing with his ipad. If you are on FaceBook, please go ahead and send him a message. He would really like that. Please so not call him as I broke his cell phone on Monday and I have a feeling it is beyond repair.

Miriam's updates part one

Hello All -For the few that do not yet know, Chris suffered a cardiac arrest on Monday evening. He stopped breathing for a few minutes but was revived by EMS and taken straight to Holy Name Hospital very close to our house in Teaneck.

UPDATE - The doctors now think that this event was precipitated by pneumonia that had developed over the course of the past few weeks. (Chris could not shake a nagging cough.) There was fluid in his lungs that put stress on his heart to the point where the heart gave out. He is now resting in a sedated state until his lungs have recovered enough for him to breathe on his own (he is getting antibiotics). Until then, neurology will not be able to assess brain activity. This is all I know presently.Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers during this time. Please keep this information amongst yourselves right now. I do also request that the texting stop. I cannot keep up with them and I am keeping my phone on in case the hospital calls me while I am resting at home. I have had very little rest in the last couple of days and I really want to be rested for when Chris wakes up, which may not be for a few days. I love you all and I very much appreciate the well wishes. I will continue to update you when I know more.Love, Miriam.

7:40 AM 4/4/12
UPDATE Sue Mee (Yes that is her name - not so good for the Medical Malpractice insurance I am sure), Chris' ICU nurse, called me at 7:15 this morning to tell me that Chris woke up at 5 AM and was responding to commands. He is also bringing up fluid from his lungs. These are both excellent signs. Unfortunately, since he is still on a respirator he needed to be put on more sedation so he does not fight the respirator.

10:55 PM EST 4/4/12
UPDATE Around noon after the sedative was reduced Chris woke up again and squeezed our hands when asked. His eyes tracked our conversation and he really, really responded to his mom's voice. He was still lifting his arms to get the respirator out (who can blame him??) so they upped the sedative again. Around 5 PM the sedative was lowered again so when the neurologist got there about 1/2 hour later he could assess Chris' condition. When the neurologist came in he told us that the EEG from yesterday showed "a severe slowing of brain activity" which relates to a Level A coma. I asked to please define for me what a Level A coma is. He told us people in this condition will open their eyes but they are completely unresponsive. At this point Jim, Rose Ann, Irene and I all looked at each other and someone (I don't remember who) said well he has been responding to us. Terri, the day nurse, walked in and confirmed he responded to her as well. At this point the doctor opened Chris' eyes and put bright light on to check Chris' cornea reaction (there was one). Chris woke up again (who can blame him??). The doctor started talking to Chris (Chris really looked pissed off) and Chris looked right at him. Rose Ann told him to do what the doctor asked. Chris looked right at her when she spoke to him. When the doctor asked him to squeeze his hand, Chris squeezed. At this point the doctor stated, "This is very encouraging." The sedative was not increased and Chris has not been trying to get the respirator out. Around 9 PM Chris again woke up and reacted, but not the way he did earlier to prove the neurologist wrong. Personally, I think that display really wiped him out. But he was responding again and looked at Dave when Dave said "hi".Regarding Chris' lungs, He is bringing up fluid but he still has a 101 degree temperature so the pneumonia is still there. They are weening him off the respirator slowly. He is still on it but I am hoping he will be off it tomorrow or Friday. Once off the respirator the sedative can be removed and the real assessment of Chris' brain function can begin.

10:20 PM 4/5/12
UPDATE Today was a very good day! Unfortunately, Chris is still not tolerating the respirator well so the sedative continues. But, when the sedative was lowered, he was the most reactive he has been since before what I will now dub The Event. He responded to every command from the neurologist and after, he was "talking" to us by shaking and nodding his head to answer questions. In fact, Chris kept tapping on his dad's hand like he wanted to tell us something. Jim finally made a comment like ""I wonder if he could use a pencil and pad?" I said, "There's no way he has enough motor coordination." Jim then suggested a crayon. Chris' eyes lit up and he began nodding. At this point, the day nurse, Terri comes into the room very firmly states, "No!" I kidded Terri by calling her a party pooper but she explained that Chris needed to rest and writing would be WAY too taxing. Later, Megan came to visit and that got Chris really happy, which set off much coughing, proving Terri right about taxing him too much.He still has a fever but today he had some very productive coughs and they will likely try to ween him off the respirator tomorrow. If that goes well, the sedative is gone and we will finally be able to really talk to Chris. After he recovers sufficiently, he will need to be transferred to another facility to get a defibrillator. For now, though, one step at a time. If he gets off the respirator, hopefully he can have more visitors very shortly.Thanks again for all of the love and prayers because they are certainly working!

Nothing to see here...

Thought I'd take a look at Blogger again, especially with the onset of Google+.

Nothing really going on, but I'm bored at work and I'm just playing with the new interface here. I'd been thinking of using G+ as a blogging tool, not that I regularly blog, but then thought I should come back here for my blogging activities. If people are interested in reading about my adventures in game design they can do so without me shoving it into everyone's stream.

I may or may not start a new blog for Glitch when I start playing it. It looks very neat.

Probably more blog later. This is just a random rambling post.

Freelancing

I guess I'm starting to take this writing stuff seriously again.

I've started freelancing over at TextBroker. It's technical writing, but the pay is more immediate than the mythical residual ad revenue from HubPages. Yes, pay. Honest to goodness dollars. Clients post articles that they need written, and you as a freelance writer claim these "offers" for a certain price per word. So far I've made about fifty bucks and I've only been doing it for a few days. It translates to something around five or six dollars an hour right npw, but you've got to start somewhere, and it's not bad for a supplemental gig that I can do during the downtime at my real job.

So far I've written about Six Sigma certification, ladder bookshelves, carnival party games, FedEx's Walk This Way child safety initiative, and country style hallways. I've got an article on Trivial Pursuit waiting for me to get to tomorrow morning. As you can see, there's a wide variety of articles available - I even saw one on how to buy a sex toy for your girl. I didn't take that one. It's really interesting, though, and I'm enjoying gradually learning new things. I'm only taking stuff I feel comfortable writing, but I'm pretty good at research, and as I write more, I learn more which in turn allows me to write more to learn new things and so on and so on. I'm having fun with it.

I'm also getting ideas for new HubPages articles. At this point, the HubPages stuff is on the back burner. It's stuff to write when there's nothing biting over at TextBroker. Up front money comes first. I can always build the residual income articles in between.

It would be nice if I could get in a groove with this and build a career in freelancing. It's not the most creative of work, but it's interesting and something I do well. I see it as a continual supply of writing exercises. Technical writing can only help my creative writing.

Time for bed now. More writing tomorrow.

Victorious!

I have just returned from battling The Monster for hopefully the last time. I just need to find its horcruxes now to dispose of the thing for good. But aside from clusters of roots, the blackberry bush in the back yard has been removed. I already have plans for that area. I want to put a bench there and make it into a pretty sitting area.

We never did get around to mucking out the garden areas. I guess we'll do that next week.

I thought I had more for this blog post, but I don't.

Blogging in Bed

I love being able to blog in bed. We have a tempurpedic, which is pretty much the Cadillac of beds. So while my fiancee is off at a bachelorette party (not hers), I'm having a wonderfully relaxing night. And after having "one of those days," I need a bit of relaxing. Beer, pizza, World of Warcraft, and playing with my iPad in bed = a wonderful time.

I'm starting to get into the HubPages thing. I've set up two accounts, one for me and one for everyday life in the house, called the Ordinary Couple. The OC is where I'll post the beer reviews and various self help stuff, like caulking a window and how not to grow a blackberry bush, for example. The Crifmer account will have game stuff and personal essays and creative writing. I'm working on a couple of short pieces to put up. I may also put up my roleplaying game on HubPages for free while I get artwork and format a pdf version. It won't have the custom dice, but I'll include equvalent tables, and maybe do up a pdf of papercraft dice. It's got a long way to go before it's suitable for public viewing, though.

I also rethought the Upgrade cards for Galaxy Corporate. It also makes logistics a bit easier, too. Not that means anything to you, dear reader, but I don't know why it hadn't occured to me before.

And just when I get to the lounging in bed portion of the evening, my fiancee calls asking me to meet them at the VFW. It's a good thing I took my time and enjoyed my beer rather than drinking my usual three beers in an hour. Two beers in two hours is a good pace. And I won't really be able to drink because I'm driving.

Well, off to have a good time, I suppose. Maybe I'll bring the iPad and blog from the VFW. I won't be able to post it until I get home since I don't have the 3G, but that's all right.

Now where did I put my pants?

Blogging at the Bar

Sitting at one of our hangouts, the 101 Pub, watching the Yankees and blogging. I love my iPad.

I'm really just writing this to rub everyone's face in the fact that I've got a pretty good life. Yes, that was mean.

I dug out a lot of my old writing from the archives in the basement, trying to find something decent to put up on HubPages. My estimated earnings from the Google ads so far is 58 cents! I'm making the monies! Yay! I found a couple things that I might revise and put up on HubPages, but most of it sort of embarasses me. It's typical high school writing, and most of my college stuff was sort of tossed off since I didn't have a lot of time to write all the stuff I had to write. A few things have potential, though.

I started a second account for various reviews and various observations of coupled/married life, called An Ordinary Couple. Yesterday's gardening adventure inspired the first article: An Ordinary Couple vs The Blackberry Bush. I've decided to get rid of the Monster. I'm not sure if the first round goes to me, or turned out to be a draw. Next time I'l wear my denim work shirt, though. I need some armor against that beastie.

Now I'm writing this on the patio out in the backyard. It's beautiful out and we dusted off our rocking patio chairs. To digress, Mom bought us a really nice patio set as a housewarming present (along with a couple of matching chairs for herself) back when we bought the house.

Anyway, we decided to wind out the day relaxing in the back yard with some beer. All in all, a nice day.

Testing

Just checking to see if Blogsy is back to playing nice.

I guess it is.

Yay.

I thought I might make this my general/game design blog, but it's not playing well with my Blogsy app anymore. Despite what I said earlier, I might just go back to WordPress. I'd rather not be shackled to a computer in order to blog. Writing them offline (and not having to cut and paste to post) was rather nice, and crossposting was very easy.

So unless I can fix the issue, I'll go back to WordPress and let this one fall by the wayside.

Meanwhile, I just published my second article on HubPages. I've got a couple more ideas for articles, and then I'll see where I go from there. I want to do a couple "game design workshops" building off the racing game examples I used in the Game Design 101 article.

I can never end posts to my satisfaction, so I'm just gonna stop because that's all I have to say for now.

Just a quick post to sort out my "I have too many blogs" issue.

Since I already have a general blog and a Crifmer Creations blog on Blogger or Blogspot or whatever they're calling themselves these days, I'm going to put the WordPress blog on hold. I'm not deleting it yet, but I don't see the need for the duplicate blog.

I love this Blogsy app, bee tee doubleyoo. Makes blogging very easy. Now I just need to make my posts interesting and I'll be all set.

Also, I broke my glasses. Just one of the earwires on the frame, though. Nothing a little glue can't fix.

Untitled

We cleaned the house today. Mostly. Well, my fiancee mostly cleaned the house. I went out and bought snacks and beer. I did some vacuuming, though.

My brother and his fiancee are coming over later to hang out and play games, thus the house cleaning.

I discovered today that using the mobile version of Google Docs sucks. Safari can't really support the full desktop version of Google Docs, so I'm a little out of luck for now if I want to edit those docs on my iPad. Unfortunately, I want to edit those docs on my iPad.

I've given in to the cloud computing era, and I put all my stuff on Google Docs now. I just get the writing done, and then convert it to Word or whatever when I'm ready to edit and do cool formatting. It makes it easier to work from home or the office, and I no longer have to carry or email the document back and forth. That's how I wrote the HubPages article, and how I'm writing the next one, but I just discovered I can't do it sitting on the couch in my living room. I need to go boot up the computer instead. So I'll just blog about it.

Sherlock Holmes is on HBO. Never seen it, but I hear it's not bad.

I had a few ideas after my first article, so I at least have a few game design things to write. Maybe I'll get some more ideas after that, and there'll be enough content for a site or something. We'll see, I guess. I'm not sure I'd review games, but maybe a deconstruction or two if a game has a particularly interesting mechanic to it.

One of the things my fiancee and I were talking about was a beer review blog, mainly so that we can keep track of what we've had and liked and didn't like. I'm going to start another account on HubPages for this. Who knows, maybe people will find it useful. Like everything else, I'm just doing this for me, because it's fun, and if something comes of it, that's awesome.

Which Blog?

So I downloaded this new app called Blogsy.

It's pretty cool.

Right now, I'm blogging in my uber-comfy bed on my iPad, and unlike the WordPress app, I can publish this post on both my WordPress account and on my Blogger account. So this begs the question: which account do I use?

I started the WordPress account because I got the WordPress app, but now I can use the iPad for Blogger, too.

But Crifmer, I hear you ask, couldn't you have used the iPad with Blogger anyway via Safari? Well, yes, I answer, but it's not nearly as user-friendly as using a native app. For instance, with an app I can see what I'm typing a lot better. And with Blogsy, I can drag and drop content like pictures and video right into the blog post and format easily. Not that I've done that yet. This is only my first post with Blogsy.

But I am going to make an effort to blog more. It's funny, talking about blogging seems to be my number one topic in my blogs. How I'm not really a blogger and never know what to talk about. But I think having an app that lets me write and save local drafts to be published later will help a lot. The WordPress app was paranoid about being connected to the internet, and the one time I tried to write offline, it ate half the post in a nervous fit.

My renewed interest in blogging comes from a recent writing spurt I've been having. I broke through some writer's block and started work on my (latest) novel again, and that's been going very well. It feels great to be writing again, even if it's something rambly like this. The other day I stumbled onto the content sites HubPages and Squidoo, and yesterday I wrote my first article for HubPages. According to my brother (a soon to be Master of Writing at Rutgers University), I should be blogging. So I'm warming up and rambling. I don't know that I'd be able to sustain a regular blog, but I enjoyed writing my article, and I'll try my hand at some more. Maybe I will find that I have enough in me for a blog.

But writing this post was fun, anyway.

Diamond Summit

Can't remember if I mentioned this earlier, but I was in Baltimore this weekend for the Diamond/Alliance Retailer Summit.

Man what a blast! My head exploded. Bits of it are still in Baltimore.

I learned a LOT about the comic industry, and it still intimidates me. But with my best friend's help (and the support and advice of my fellow retailers), I should be okay. I just need to learn enough to not make any grievous errors in the beginning, and I think I'll get the hang of it pretty quickly. Unlike games, you have to really be on top of periodical comics, and the lead times are several months in advance. At least you don't have to have a new game in every Wednesday.

Speaking of games, I saw a lot of great ones at the summit. The standard gamer icons were there, but I got to see offerings from the more family-friendly companies as well, which is more of what I want initially. I need a good family/kids section for the store considering how community-friendly and involved I want to be. All the more mature gamer stuff will be there, of course, but the goal is to pull new customers in and slowly convert them to the gaming hobby. You've got to start 'em young, they say, and a kids section helps.

The seminars were very helpful, especially the "50 cheap and easy promotions" one. Lots of fantastic ideas in there. I also met a lot of really nice folks very willing to help me out, including pretty much all the major game retailers in NJ. It was nice to see a bunch of familiar faces, and have them express pleased surprise at my game/comic store intentions. They were very warm and inviting, and I'm thankful for that. After all, retailing in this industry is a community. New Jersey is dreadfully understored, and the more (successful) retailers we get out there, the more exposure the industry gets, and comics and games are on the cusp of become accepted and welcome by mainstream culture. Look at all the pop culture lately - sci-fi, superheroes, fantasy, all of that stemming from comics and games. And then there are tons of popular and critically acclaimed films that were actually graphic novels, but nobody knew that. The industry is about to see a renaissance, especially with Disney buying Marvel. That alone shouts legitimacy.

Okay, so I went on a tangent. But I'm excited. Even not knowing much about comics, I'm still excited. There are big things on the way, and even though I'll miss the holiday season this year, there will be tons of event opportunities for me to take advantage of when I do open the store.

Now that I have the name, incorporation will follow soon, and so will membership to GAMA, the Game Manufacturer's Association. If the locations I like pan out, I can get moving on lease negotiations. Things are starting to really move.

More to come.