Saturday, December 31, 2016

I have this to say about my daughter, Ronda

Like every mother and daughter on the face of the earth, Ronda and I don't always see eye to eye. However, there is one situation where I am pretty certain.

All of those who have criticized Ronda for taking a loss so to heart, for not just 'shrugging it off' don't understand that what made Ronda so successful is that she cares DEEPLY about winning to an extent that I don't believe the average person can wrap his/her head around.

Caring deeply about something and working your hardest to achieve it doesn't mean you make the right decisions 100% of the time. Wouldn't it be a nicer world if it did?

Those of you who want to criticize Ronda, I just want to point out a few things. First of all, I know her better than you and she is a smart, kind, talented, generous, hard-working person.

Second, I'd like to list some of her accomplishments, and note that she isn't yet 30 years old.

  • Junior World Judo Champion
  • Panamerican Games Judo Gold Medalist
  • First American woman in a decade to win a world cup in judo (and then she went on to win several more)
  • U.S. Open Gold Medalist
  • World Judo Championships Silver Medalist
  • Olympic Bronze Medalist
  • U.S. Senior National Champion
  • First UFC World Champion
  • First woman to make a million dollars in martial arts
  • Co-authored sports book of the year - My Fight/ Your Fight
  • Acted in three movies

That's just a partial list, but let me suggest that someone who has been world level athlete in two sports, written a best seller, acted in movies and made millions of dollars, all before the age of 30 has a pretty darn good track record. On top of that, Ronda has been part of the USADA drug testing since she was 16 years old, never failed a drug test,  always paid her taxes, never been arrested, never been to rehab, has zero divorces, zero DUIs and zero children. While you might think that is to be expected, look how many celebrities (heck, look how many of your neighbors) can say that.

I am very proud of my daughter.

As my other wonderful daughter, Maria, told her ,

"We love you just as much 10 minutes after every fight as we did in the 10 minutes before."

Edit: Since so many people asked me "What do you mean zero children? Children aren't a bad thing." I agree.  I have four. I meant that she did not have children before she was able and willing to raise them. 

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

December 30 Tweetup & other life events

It's a crazy busy time of year. Ten days ago, we released our first game on Steam.



That same week gamers extraordinaire Jessamyn Duke and Shayna Baszler streamed Fish Lake on Twitch in a competition to see who could win $500 donated to their charity.



 Jessamyn won and $500 will be donated to the World Food Program on her behalf. It was pretty funny seeing her twitch stream followers helping her with the math.

Right this minute, I'm in Missouri about to head out to meet with teachers who use our games in their classrooms to get their feedback and some advice on ideas we have, like whether we should make the wolves in Spirit Lake more realistic and scarier.


Next, I fly to Las Vegas where on December 30 I will be part of the 'buy Ronda's mom a drink so she doesn't worry' um, I mean 

"Join us December 30th at 12pm for our #UFC207 #ArmbarNation & 7 Generation Games Tweetup for a chance to win Ronda Rousey autographed prizes. "
They told me to say that.


 
I'll be there at 1 pm, because it is a work day - who am I kidding, any day is a work day for me. Anyway, if you are in town, please drop by The Lobby Bar in New York casino. Maria will be there, too, and since it is a work event, for anyone who donates a game or classroom license, we will enter you in a drawing for prizes that include copies of My Fight/ Your Fight (and Maria will be there to sign it), Winning on the Ground (by me!) and other prizes.


If you are a teacher, we'll have a gift pack for you with games, stickers and other stuff for your classroom. All you need to do is show up and give us your email.

Gotta go. It's about 45 minutes to where I'm meeting with the teachers and as everyone who ever went to high school knows, teachers hate it when you are late.

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Jessamyn and Shayna Twitch for Charity


What's a twitch and why are Jessamyn and Shayna doing it?

For the uninitiated among you, twitch.tv is where you can watch your favorite gamers play your favorite games. A friend commented to me that was pretty lame but this is someone who watches fishing shows and golf so, yeah, just quiet down over there. 

You can find Shayna Baszler at https://www.twitch.tv/qospades where she plays games and rants about all things fighting and wrestling.

Jessamyn Duke, another fighter, also has a channel on twitch https://www.twitch.tv/whitemage01/videos/all

When Jessamyn was over at our house on Thanksgiving, I showed her the new Fish Lake we are RELEASING ON STEAM IN THE NEXT WEEK (can you tell I am excited?) and she offered to stream it on her channel when it came out.

I actually watch twitch at least a couple of times a week myself to get ideas for our games, when my own personal favorite gamer, Ronda, is not available.

My score last night was 1,950


THE CHALLENGE

Jessamyn and Shayna will both play Fish Lake on the day it comes out on Steam. (It should be this Friday, I'll let you know as soon as we get the go ahead from Steam.) Fish Lake is sort of like biathlon of video games. In biathlon you have to be good at cross-country skiing and shooting and you can't win the Olympics unless you are good at both of those. In Fish Lake, you have to be good at both playing games - shooting, canoeing - and fractions. Yes, it's an educational game.

Both Jessamyn and Shayna will receive the link for the game as soon as I finish this post. You can get it yourself on our website for $9.99 

They'll play it on twitch and I'll be donating $500 to the winner's charity.

#Gunclub charity : World Food Program - they feed hungry people around the world

#QueensArmy charity : Children of the Night provides a home, school, counseling and transportation to the shelter for children in the sex trade in the U.S.

Working on Fish Lake is why I have been barely visible the past two months. Download it for yourself or someone you like.


Thursday, December 8, 2016

Mostly harmless

I often think we admire the wrong traits in people. On the long (three hour!) drive from Fort Totten to Minot in the snow, my mind had a lot of time to wander, when I wasn't concentrated on staying on the highway I could barely see under the ground flurries.

 Ground flurries, for those of you lucky enough to spend all of your life in non-snowy places like Southern California, Honduras or Australia (does it ever snow in Australia? Quick! Somebody let me know!) Ahem, ground flurries happen when it is not actually snowing from the sky any more but there is a whole lot of snow on the ground and wind that blows the snow around so you have snow flurries anyway. If it blows the snow into a mound, that's called a snow drift, and the highway had those, too.
 

 I digress. I was going to talk about a couple of people I like who crossed my mind in my wanderings. I like both of these guys and since I call everyone who shall remain nameless Bob, let's call them Bob1 and Bob2.

Bob1 is somewhat successful in the entertainment business and every time I talk to him, he is telling me a story about some famous person he has been with or some other famous person he knows. Some of my more judgmental relatives (you know who you are!) might call Bob1 a name dropper and might not like him. He IS a name dropper in the sense that he always wants to make sure you know that he knows Mr. Famous who won three Oscars, a Grammy and a megaphone.

However, Bob1's stories are actually pretty interesting and always true. They're about how he and M. Famous were doing this movie in Thailand and they decided to go to ride elephants and since Bob1 had been a gymnast in college and so was Famous, after a few shots they were doing handstands on the elephant. Okay, I totally made that one up, but you get the idea and Bob1 could definitely do a handstand on the back of an elephant after three shots of Jameson, which is one think I like about him.

The thing I like most about Bob1 is that he is not only amusing but he is completely harmless. Most people think of that as not a particularly complimentary term, but I mean it that way. I've never known him to say a false thing about anyone, to do a single mean thing. He isn't rude to waiters, doesn't kick dogs, wouldn't take advantage of you in a business deal and would feed your cat while you were out of town. Can you honestly say that you've never hurt anyone?If so, you are a better person than me.

 Bob2 is very similar. Also very rich. Every time I talk to him, he is telling me how much money he has and about the new thing he just bought. For some reason, I find this hilarious. I know he does this to impress people and, again, some people might think he's kind of a jerk for that, but again, he's harmless. I AM interested sometimes in the new Lamborghini or Van Gogh or whatever he has bought himself. Not in a "oh, you are so awesome, I wish I was you" but honestly, like, "Oh, so that's what that looks like. " Or, "So, that's where you would go to buy a customized genetically modified Christmas tree shaped in your own self-image." Bob2 made his money the old fashioned way, by working, and if he wants to spend it on the world's largest ball of string, he's not hurting anyone.

Before you jump to conclusions and say, "They're not helping anyone, either" I would disagree with you. First of all, you don't know that and secondly,you're wrong. They do help people in various ways, sometimes a lot. That's not the only reason I like them, though. Plenty of people who give to charity or help out their friends are awful human beings who made their money on things like predatory loans to poor people on whom they then foreclosed and sold their homes for pennies on the dollar, or as lawyers defending those practices.

What I find funny is if you asked Bob1 why I liked him, one of the reasons he tells you might be all the famous people he knows. Not only do I not care but I don't know the difference between a Grammy and and Oscar and I don't think a megaphone is an award but I don't care. I'd be just as interested in his stories if he was hand-standing on elephants with my neighbor, Shannon, next door. If you asked Bob2 why I liked him he would immediately tell you it's because he's rich followed by a summary of how much money is in each of his investment funds and bank accounts. The truth is that one of the things I like about both of them is that they are harmless and I think that is a good thing.

And if you recognize yourself here, please don't stop working into the conversation every time you see me, "You know, I'm really rich" because I find it hysterical.  

WANT MORE HARMLESS FUN?






http://sites.fastspring.com/7generation/product/forgottentrail




https://appstore.com/makingcampfree