#BLAUGUST2023 TABULA RASA
My new Samsung Tab S9 tablet arrived today! I traded in my Tab S8 to downsize the screen. Thus far, I like the smaller screen a lot, and am glad for it to fit between using my laptop or my phone. Is it necessary? No, but I like having a tablet for reading PDFs and I need to take better advantage of my Marvel Unlimited comic book subscription still!
Read more#BLAUGUST2023 DIFFUSION FRENZY
We are starting a project at work and, despite a lack of influence, my colleague and I are concerned about the rate in which the end result will be adopted by our audience. We worry that our current target will fail to inspire or serve the needs of its users. I believe the concept is referred to as production diffusion or adoption, and I am rapidly growing my knowledge on the subject in preparation for arguments to be had.
Read more#BLAUGUST2023 ASYNCHRONOUS ENGAGEMENT GAMES
I don’t currently supervise, but I am encouraged to do things to support the team’s morale and build up our shared engagement. Recently, I saw a game called MonsDRAWsity for sale on Amazon and decided to grab it. The game includes a deck of cards, each depicting a unique monster, and some drawing tools. However, I bought it specifically as an “asynchronous engagement game”. In plain English: a game we play together but not simultaneously that is supposed to make work more fun.
Read more#BLAUGUST2023 WRESTLING WITH OUR BETTER SELVES
We all have our passions. I started this Micro.blog to talk about the my intersection between games and project management. However, in the interest of Blaugust, I thought I’d expand subject matter just a bit further to briefly talk about another thing I enjoy: wrestling. In particular, I love AEW (All Elite Wrestling) and have for several years. This includes posters, shirts, action figures, attending shows, and watching every pay-per-view!
Read more#BLAUGUST2023 CONFERENCE CALLING
I have never been to a conference. I used to think that was a good thing - avoiding the people, the travel, the socializing - but lately not so much. I am debating attending a big project manager conference in the Fall. Work may cover it, but I qualify for a good rate regardless and I can afford it. It is difficult for me wanting to intentionally put myself in these sorts of situations.
Read more#BLAUGUST2023 BLU MOONLIGHTING
With Marvel Snap done and a few days of not feeling particular well in the books, I’ve spent the last couple days focusing exclusively on the Blue Mage (BLU) in Final Fantasy XIV. If you aren’t familiar, BLU is a special job that isn’t really intended for current/standard content. Instead, it is more like its own mini-game or series of puzzles. It has really tapped into my innate need to see improvement: I had started a BLU a while ago, but this time I really focused on getting the abilities I need and learning to use them to start mastering the content.
Read more#BLAUGUST2023 I CONCEDE, OR HOW TO LOSE A MARVEL SNAP FAN
I have over 200 hours played in Marvel Snap on Steam, but I primarily play on mobile. Since its release, I have played virtually every day. I reached top rank the last three months in a row. I have purchased every season pass since I started, and spent more money than I wish to count on bundles and variants. But today, I concede: I am uninstalling and moving on. The game isn’t less fun than when I started.
Read more#BLAUGUST2023 THE "YOU ALLOWED WHAT" EDITOR BLUES
I recently reviewed the manual for a training program at work that has been in place for several years. It has me asking one big question, “Do others notice a lack of quality or do they just avoid saying anything?” In my review, I found screenshots of Excel tables (you can tell because the Excel controls were captured in the screenshot or, more egregiously, one had a red line under a word that needed attention).
Read more#BLAUGUST2023 TO TRACK A MOVIE
I track every movie my wife and I watch. We could use a service like Letterboxd, but my spreadsheet is plenty. We rate each movie we watch on a scale of -3 to 3 (the closer to zero, the more forgettable, bland, or unappealing). In 2023, we’ve watched 73 movies, with an average score of 1.73 (me) and 1.66 (her). The average release date currently rests at 1998, largely because we also watch older movies too.
Read moreJust submitted my final paper for my Information Policy class. I did it on video game preservation. More than I was before, I believe it is vital that we push for and lobby for better policies regarding game preservation. Whilst it is important that games remain profitable, that shouldn’t be at the expense of gaming history’s documentation and preservation for future generations.
Read moreI finally got to do my curiosity workshop to other leaders graduating from my management program. There were no dissenting voices! We all agreed that curiosity should be a core leadership value. Maybe I will make a course out of this topic yet …
Read moreNext week, I am leading a small workshop on the topic of curiosity as a core leadership value. I am nervous - people make me a bit anxious - but also excited. To prepare, I have been reading The Power of Curiosity by Kathy Taberner and Kirsten Siggins. So far, I am enjoying it here! Here’s a quote I highlighted: … true curiosity holds no judgment. It is about exploring and learning with the goal of greater understanding, which is free from judging.
Read moreBalancing work, school, and my personal projects can be a chore. I’ve looked for a good note-taking app for years and I may have finally settled on one: UpNote. It hits the right balance between feature-rich but not being too complex. I’ve enjoyed using it for a few weeks now. What do you use?
Read moreI bought a new laptop thoughts on various apps as I am reinstalling them. First up, EarTrumpet. EarTrumpet is a Windows app that let’s you individually control volume on other apps. I mostly use it so that Outlook and my browser aren’t 3x as loud as my music or a video I am playing.
Read moreI graduate from a Certified Public Manager program next month and I am leading a group discussion at our graduation. My topic is on curiosity. From play at home or at work, curiosity is a leadership value that I feel gets ignored. How do you feel about curiosity as a core leadership value?
Read moreSTARS, WISHES, AND PROJECT TEAMS
Stars & Wishes is a popular tool for Tabletop Roleplaying Games (like Dungeons & Dragons). At the conclusion of a game session, the facilitator calls for stars and wishes. Each participant is expected to name at least one star and one wish. A star is someone who did something interesting, performed exceptionally, or stood out in some other way. A wish is something the participant hopes to see in future game sessions.
Read moreHere’s a fun one: for my Leadership in Technology course, my group is assignment is writing a business plan for Activision Blizzard. We’re writing it from the perspective that we are alternative leadership, and how we might plan to run things (including introducing new products). Time to put years of MMORPG blogging to academic use and talk about World of Warcraft 2!
Read moreHas anyone experimented with applying instructional design to #TTRPGs? Rule books are great, but I wish I had other options to learn or teach how to play. I am considering a Quest for a future few-shot, and I am going to experiment with making a PowerPoint to explain the rules …
Read moreLast night in my IT Leadership class, my group presented on Activision-Blizzard. It was fun bringing up the lawsuits, #MeToo, worker’s rights, Hong Kong protests, and Microsoft acquisition! There was one other gamer in my group, but otherwise they seemed impressed that I knew about all of these things off the top of my head. “Well, actually …”
Read moreChatGPT is the buzz right now. I fear the disruption, but after playing with it, it seems best at writing the obvious. More importantly, it works well to generate D&D ideas. I asked for a dungeon in the Plane of Wind featuring a djinn and this is my favorite part: “In the center of the room is a large stone platform, and standing on the platform is the Tempest Djinn.
Read moreIf you are interested in my older blogging content, you can find it here Murf Versus. I am excited to see use this new platform (and try to limit myself to a smaller word count). I also hope to strike a slightly more professional tone here than I have in the past. If you are an old fan, let me know if there is anything I wrote before that you’d like to see come back!
Read morePlaying games takes time. Longer games take more time. Games, by design, want to be played and don’t care how long you spend doing it. How do make sure we put in enough time to make progress but not so much time that it is 4am and you have work in a few hours? Timeboxing Timeboxing is a basic time management technique often used in Agile project management. Essentially, you assign a maximum amount of time for a task, assign when you will do it, and you don’t break from that.
Read moreINITIAL PSVR2 IMPRESSIONS
Here are a few initial impressions about my Playstation VR2 (PSVR2) experience. For my background, I previously owned both the original PSVR and a Valve Index: Hardware The setup was easy (one cord and an easy setup process). The headset and controllers are lightweight. The headset wasn’t comfortable at first, but I needed to adjust to the closeness of the lens. On first impression, it is a better setup than the Valve Index and equally (if not more) effective.
Read moreI updated my About and Goals pages. Let me know what you think!
Read moreWelcome! This week, I am balancing being an adult, playing D&D, going to class (for my master’s), going to work (to be in leadership class), and trying my best to not let it all fall to wayside for the new Playstation VR 2 released today. May I borrow some luck?
Read more