i've been at microsoft for three months now. it started out pretty much how you would expect it to, lots of training and machine setup. after that got out of the way, i got started on actual work. i was doing a little coding here and there, but not as much as i would like. then none at all. i really began to question the decision to change companies. i was told by several different co-workers that it gets better and that i joined the company at a bad time. there was a lot of work going into getting a release ready for a conference, so almost all effort was not in coding, but in making sure things worked correctly. not exactly that exciting. a few weeks ago however, we started a new feature. there were a lot of new coding tasks that i was going to be able to work on. these last few weeks have been much more exciting and i have been enjoying the job a lot more.

moving to microsoft from ptc was a significant increase in salary, one of the many reasons that i decided to change jobs. i apparently joined at a period in the company's history where they are seeing a decent number of employees moving to different companies. i have no idea what the actual numbers are, but it is enough that the executive board decided to make adjustments to salaries so people would be more willing to stay. so now only three months after having been at microsoft, i get a big benefit from a company-wide raise. very very awesome.

adam and tamar have made it up to minnesota and are now with amanda and i. so far it's going quite well and i'm very much enjoying the increase in board games being played. adam and i are car-pooling to work together each day. he was placed on the same team as i am and i was selected as his mentor. he seems to be enjoying it at microsoft so far and luckily got to join just as all of the coding work was starting.

adam and i have resumed our weekly work on dictator. for awhile it seemed as though we weren't really getting anywhere, but after having discussed the game a lot and tested a few mechanics, it's beginning to take shape. it certainly isn't playable yet, but the framework is solidifying more and more and i'm really hoping to have an alpha version ready to play within a couple months.

gencon was a lot of fun as usual. i spent most of my demo time running the chaos in the old world expansion, the horned rat. it's super fun. i liked the game a lot already. the expansion just makes it that much better. here's a list of the new games i played at gencon and a brief thought about each. i'm not claiming this is an exhaustive list, because i'm sure i forgot some.

quarriors: pretty good. such a great concept though, it could be so much better than it actually is.
baccus' banquet: i bought this one with a 50% off coupon. it's a pretty fun light party game.
small world - underworld: basically the same game as small world, but with a different theme. rules are the same, powers and races are all new. it adds artifacts and special powers. it was fun, but the artifacts seemed a little too powerful.
megastar: terrible. never want to play it again.
station master: a lot like the game gold digger. i enjoyed it. almost bought this one instead of baccus' banquet, but i decided against it because i own gold digger and they are similar enough.
ghost stories: awesome game. co-op done right. very tense feeling the entire way through. out of the 200 demo games or so that happened, we were one of the 7 groups that won. great fun. i didn't buy it though cause i had already hit my purchase limit and just didn't know if it would get to the table that often.
seven wonders: good. i had been anxious to try this out for awhile now. i know that a second play through would go a lot differently because i would have a better grasp on good tactics. definitely one i wouldn't mind owning, but probably won't spend the money myself.
struggle for catan: good. better than i thought it would be.

i met an awesome guy named len on sunday night of gencon and talked to him for at least four hours. it was a super great conversation about rpgs that really opened my eyes to a more open style role-playing experience that d&d 4e offers. i'm really excited to try it out, but right now i'm still in the middle of a campaign with my monday night group. after that is done, i'll give one of these more free-form systems a try.

thanks for reading. no i will not tell you when windows 8 comes out or what cool new things it has.