I GOT A JOB!

[thewayne]

Starting April 2, I will be working for the City of Las Cruces as a SQL Server Database Administrator! I just spoke with the IT department's HR person and she confirmed the offer and scheduled me for my orientation day (such fun that will be!).

Initially I'll be staying with my aunt for probably two months, basically to get some money stayed up, some debt cleared, then get an apartment (and a new laptop). If all goes well and I survive the probationary period, then I'll look into the concept of buying a house. Obviously that's a wait and see.

Unfortunately this will mean living 100 miles from my wife. I'll be going home most weekends, and hopefully she'll be coming down when she's off-shift, as long as it doesn't get too hot. ;-) She's allergic to high temperatures, she's half crayon and half candle. 'Cruces gets over 100f in the summer, but it also cools down at night: something that no longer happens in Phoenix.


I am SOOO looking forward to this! My database skills have definitely become a bit rusty, but apparently they were good enough.

(and I'm going to spend a few days in Phoenix before I start in 'Cruces, so I'm hoping that I can get some of my friends to run something)


This will also let me work towards a Bachelor of Information and Communications Technology with a minor in Security Technology and Intelligence Studies. Sadly, it also means no more darkroom access. :-(

Comments

[qe2.livejournal.com]

Woo-hoo! Congratulations, my friend - go, you!

[deborak]

Hope you like your rebooted career.

[apostate-96.livejournal.com]

Congrats on getting the job; that's great news!! I know it's a pain in the ass having it be that far away, but 'Cruces is a manageable drive from where you are. It's also cool to be able to work and brush up on the mad server skillz again, too. It can get a tad warm there in the summer, which can be pretty rough on people not used to it. Having grown up in E. P., I understand that one!

Again, congratulations to yez!!

*hugz*

[amenquohi.livejournal.com]

Congratulations! That's wonderful!!

[keleos.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on the job. :) That's really awesome. Sucks about having to be so far from your wife. :(

[maegwin-of-hern.livejournal.com]

CONGRATS!!!

[magic-rat.livejournal.com]

For someone who spent his life suriving the desert in Arizona, Las Cruces will be a snap; hell, I'll bet you can get through the summer with just a swamp cooler.

"... half crayon and half candle"? Having heard her complain about temperatures in the high 80's, I'd say half chocolate bar and half mercury. But then, I'm not married to her.

Oh yeah, and congrats on the new job.

And lastly, any chance I'll see you this Saturday?

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Sadly, no, I won't be in town Saturday. I have to cram hours for the next two weeks. My current plan is that I'll be arriving Wednesday night and leaving Monday afternoon. I'm going to do the Ren Fest Saturday for lots of picture taking, I shant be in costume for it.

[fastlearner.livejournal.com]

Hey Wayne, congrats, that's great!

Let me know when you'll be in town, would love to catch up.

[cteare.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

I think I'm also made of crayon and candle. I hate the heat.

[wuglet.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the job!

The rest will work out, I'm sure you'll manage. :)

[personaminor.livejournal.com]

And you've got easy access to White Sands, Sierra Blanca, the City of the Rocks, Mesilla, Three Rivers, Sunspot, Kilbourne's Hole, and Ruidoso (in no particular order). Sweet.

And while the heat can suck, it's better than the kind of heat we get in the D/FW area, or Houston (oh, let's don't talk about that place again). Congrats. That's one of my favorite corners of the world.

[zentraedi-shep.livejournal.com]

Congrats, I got another rejection yesterday... I called them and asked why (the job would have been Audio Book Publishing Manager for a huge German publishing house), and they told me that the former 2nd in command of audio books from another publishing house got fired and also applied for the job... Now how can you compete against someone like that? *sigh*

Btw. you also run your own gaming company, don't you? How did you start and how much does the production of a game cost you (in rough digits)?

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Rejections suck, no doubt about it. Yeah, against that kind of competition you're kind of hosed.

My gaming company isn't much. I develop card games, I have one that I'm trying to sell now, but I'm going to have to re-do my production when I move to Las Cruces. Basically I develop them in Microsoft Access and print master pages as reports, then I have a print shop copy them onto thicker card stock. The ones that I've used in the past have hydraulic guillotine to cut them. I print the envelopes and rules on an inkjet, the envelopes usually have color. Then it's a matter of envelope stuffing and mailing.

I have two report layouts: production and testing. The card layout is a 3x3 (usually). The testing setup has nine different cards on one page, so a game with 54 cards would be six pages. The production set is nine copies of the same card on one page, so when the stack is cut, each column is one copy of the game.

Each printout of masters, regardless of the layout, included a sheet of grids to provide cut lines.

It's an interesting methodology that works quite well for what I produce.


Cost is variable. Ignoring color copies (which are very expensive), double sided copies (cards have backs with the game name or the deck name on them) are variable, depends on the print shop. It's also been a while since I had any sets printed, but IIRC, a two-deck count (104 cards) runs under $4. You have to price according to distributor and retail discounts. Here, the distributor pays typically half of retail price, the retailer pays typically 70% or so of retail. Discounts can be negotiated. So if I have a set that sells for $13 retail that costs about $4 to make, if I sell it personally I get $9. If it goes through a distributor, I only make $3.50. Direct to a retailer, about $5.

Those numbers don't include shipping or anything else, they're extremely raw numbers.

You also need to factor in how much envelopes cost (I don't do boxes at this point) and how much reams of really nice paper (for the rules) run. I don't include the cost of ink cartridges in my per-unit costs as I don't have a printer dedicated solely to production, so I treat it as a general expense.

Also keep in mind that you're going to have spoilage: envelope doesn't feed correctly, ink cartridge runs out in mid-run and you have to re-print several envelopes that faded during printing, etc.


Probably a lot more information than what you wanted! Also, you're probably more interested in book/supplement publishing.

[zentraedi-shep.livejournal.com]

Now that was a very extensive reply... Thanks for that deep insight into the biz. My plan is that, once I finished writing Pocket Adventures (German Version), I will invest into a (cheap) new computer and a b/w laser printer, as well as some supply of 6"x4" paper of regular printer quality, one of these and some cardboard for the covers. I think, I'll be selling the books for about 10 € (ca. 13 $) plus shipping. I don't know the prices for distributors and retailer yet, but I'll have to find out...
The idea behind Pocket Adventures is an open RPG system that you can completely carry in the pockets of a pair of jeans or a jacket. The core rules are 2 books (3 for the GM) of about 200 pages size 6"x4". You need just ONE d20 to play the game and I guess some paper and a pencil can be fit into any pocket as well... As you can see, my idea is to reduce a RPG to its mere basics: a small set of easliy transportable rules, just one die and a pencil. And all that for a small price! I imagine it being a good choice for the beginning gamer... ;)

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Sounds interesting, sort of a return to Wizard/Melee. They used a single d6, came out in the late 70's IIRC. And since they make d20's at around 1cm in diameter, you could conceivably package one with the game.

You'll have to do a lot of layout work before you're satisfied, but you might want to consider using a 6x8 paper if it's more available. Also, I know it doesn't get as hot in Germany as it does in Phoenix (100-115f), consider a problem with laser printers: the toner is actually melted plastic, and if your book is left in the heat with some compression or weight on it, the pages can stick together. You might want to consider a good ink jet instead. Also, if you can get a ink jet printer with an L paper feed path instead of a U path, you can run heavier card stock through it.

I'll tell you about some commercial printer problems that you might encounter, along with a couple of game developer sites that might be useful later.

[zentraedi-shep.livejournal.com]

There are inkjets that leave a clear line instead of slightly blurring the letters? At the mo' I'm using a Canon i320 inkjet. It's quite good, with a clear picture and everything, but even on best quality it tends to slightly blur the letters. Inkjet might be the best idea though, since maintenance is far less expensive than with a laser printer...
Since the i320 has a L feed, I'm fully aware of its advantages. :)

Oh my, 100F? It's gotta be a really hot summer till it gets that hot over here. About 82F is a good average for summer (though the last few were quite hot)...

The problem with the paper size is that US sizes like 6x4 or 6x8 are not regular here in Germany. We have the DIN norm, which would be A4, A5 aso. 6x4 is a tiny bit larger than A6, which fits perfectly into any pocket. I want that size simply because it is quite small. As I said, Pocket Adventures is thought to be carried in let's say a back pocket... It'll be no problem to get A6 paper. If I don't find a factory producing it, I can buy A4 and let it cut two times in almost any copy shop. I'd just have to find the one that does it for small money...

I even think that for the first edition I might not even buy a new computer. Before investing that much money, I should perhaps start with what I have and only buy a new printer and a thermal binder. That way, I can keep the amount of needed money low for a maximum profit. And if noone buys the game, the loss is not as high as if I'd bought everything for a small publishing business...