Wow, it’s been almost six months since we updated the ole’ blog. I never even officially posted after starting at Riot, only to share the news that I had put in my notice.
Riot has been a breath of fresh air. Wizards had, in retrospect, really beaten me down. The lack of promotions, the carousel of managers, and the shift in the company since I started had really been dragging me down. I only realized it when I joined Riot and even then I still get shocked as I recognize where I had been low.
At the same time, Riot is a lot. Wizards was, honestly, a very easy job. I could casually walk with only occasional sprints, it was just a constant walk. Riot is much more work, longer hours, right now more travel; it’s a constant jog right now and it felt good to realize I can do it.
So, while the work is harder, I am also finding it more fulfilling. We’re doing a LOT of what will define how this game runs in the future. So Rachel and I are trying to take our learnings from Magic and fix what we didn’t like. We both do a lot saying, “I’m not saying this is how we should do it, but here is how we did it at Magic.”
At Riot, I’m one of the top 3 marketing leads for the game Riftbound which is a notable upward shift from where I was at Magic. Sure, I was the most senior member of the team, and I reported to the VP of marketing, but I didn’t hold the same sway I do here. I wasn’t seen the same way, when you are at a corporate job for long enough without meaningful upward progression you start getting judged. At least, I felt that way.
So, being the wizened marketing expert for TCGs, here doesn’t have the same perception and allows me to share a lot of knowledge and experience. Which, I do like being that resource.
My work ranges currently from the strategic down to the very tactical. Our team is too small and too junior to allow me to be solely high level, though it is something everyone wants. Today is a good example, I worked with a woman on the design side to edit and review a 7000 word article with updates to the game’s rules. And we did it in about six hours, creating a much better and clearer article.
The other thing I’ll say about the workload is while my hours are slightly longer, I have yet to feel the need to work a bunch outside of work hours. I’m not pulling an all nighter on anything. I woke up for a 4am publish one day to make sure it happened smoothly, and I have worked past 7pm only two times I can think of.
In any case, all this is to say that Riot is good; it can be a lot, but its good. I’m enjoying the work and looking forward to work (most days.)
Katie is, overall, doing well. The winter was a bit of a rough one for her with the dark hours and such, but she is doing better (aside from both of us having a cold a this week.) I actually was supposed to be in Europe for an event this weekend and this cold caused me to cancel on the trip.
I’m heading to LA next, and wow it would be fun to overlap if you’re still rolling on Jeopardy! I meant what I said, I’m just so proud to be able to brag about my brother on Jeopardy, and knowing the story and the years of you trying – it just is so amazing that you finally got on AND you (allegedly) won your episode! So so cool.
And man I’d love to overlap and try to get in to filming! I’m flying down from the 26th to the 1st. Tue/Wed is all-day meetings for my team. I’m staying with Liz and Jeff Wed-Fri before flying out Friday evening. (And, if you keep going, I’m back in LA in May!)
May’s travel is looking to be busier than I had anticipated. This time I’m going to be in LA for a marketing video shoot. But then I learned this week that I may be adding Korea onto that trip… but we’ll see, it isn’t confirmed. And at the end of the month we have an event in Vancouver, which I was planning to drive up for and stay in the city for it. If I go to Korea I may cancel my plans for Vancouver, we’ll see.
June is, supposedly, a trip to China; but I am also waiting on confirmed dates for that. I’m less convinced it is going to happen. And then July… I think my trip is at the end of the month to head to Gen Con in Indianapolis. Then, thankfully, after that the travel gets a bit slower until November/December which are likely going to be fairly active. I’ll likely still do one or two more trips to LA, including probably being there for my birthday. If that’s the case then we’ll bring Katie down for that one.
Right, I was talking about Katie. We had a really good trip to St. Louis in March for her birthday, the soccer game was great and seeing family was great. We are waiting for the travel for my year to settle and get more locked-in and then we’re going to try and find another time to get to St. Louis this year.
And… I should get back to bed and try to sleep again, love y’all.
Yesterday was the day. A wild one that started with me telling my boss the news, and ended with me playing fantasy make-believe with five close friends.
I always get to the office early. With Wizards’ heavy meeting culture it made it easier to get work done and be productive in my peak morning hours. But for yesterday, I was there anxiously awaiting my boss’ arrival. I stalked him on Microsoft Teams, watching for his icon to turn green. When it did, I put on my big boy pants and walked over to his office.
And, honestly? He responded in possibly the best way a manager could. Like Adam’s comment on my other post, he’s proved himself to be a good boss.
I told him that I had accepted a job which elicited a big physical reaction of surprise before gathering himself. He first congratulated me and said he was happy for me. He had no doubt that it was something I was excited about because it would have to be if was drawing me away from working on Magic. Then he said that he was sorry to see me go, etc. I made sure to tell him that the recent staffing decisions had made it an easier decision, but that I was sorry to be leaving him in the middle of things and he stopped me and said that that was part of why he liked me, that even after it wasn’t my problem anymore, that I still cared. So, I left that convo really impressed by his reaction to the news.
I had really thought that conversation was going to be the emotional peak of the day. But I was wrong. So, having told Eric, I began the day of quick convos. At this point the people in the building who knew was: myself, Aideen, Annie, Chris, and Blake. And now Eric.
Chris – I wouldn’t have previously told him that I was going for this job. But it turns out he also applied for the job. And, because we share Liz as a mutual friend, who was the hiring manager on this we each got told that the other was going for this job. Liz basically told Chris that he wasn’t going to get the job because I was also going for it but that he should still apply to get his name in with folks so that when a role he would be suited for came up he would have an easier time getting it. And I got told because she told Chris. So, we ended up growing closer and being in regular contact about our progress.
Aideen – A very close friend, she is Irish and we’ve always had a forthright relationship, talking money etc. She was actually the first person I told (aside from Katie, obviously.) She has been excited for me but is also very sad to see me go.
Annie – Another dear friend, very much an adopted little sister. She came over for dinner a few weeks ago and that was when we looped her in. Annie is a bit dramatic at times and I had been worried she’d be very emotional. So I wanted to prep her if it happened and her response wasn’t panic or fear, it was more of utter excitement and support at wanting me to get it.
And then Blake has been my closest friend at Wizards since I hired him. And he is likely to shoulder a bit of the burden of things in my departure.
The recurring theme here is that they are all close friends. Next was Adam, who I handed the reins of Gathering Magic to when I first came to Wizards. And then I hired him into Wizards several years later. So, another longtime friend. Stybs is on the east coast and he now works on another team, so I grabbed him for a quick call and gave him the news. He took it in stride.
Then I grabbed the next person and the next person. I had a list of people to make sure I told in person before they would hear it from other people. And in each of these conversations I got basically the exact same flow of response:
1. Shock
2. Fear
3. Excitement for me
4. Fear
5. Excitement for me
6. Shock
It was uncanny how almost every conversation basically followed the same flow. It was really truly heartwarming and emotional for me at the outpouring of love and support. Obviously I knew it would be like this but it was still an emotional day.
Jon, who is one of our marketing leads, asked if I wanted him to organize a going away thing for me on my last day. Which is very kind of him. I normally don’t go to these things, so it’ll be odd to go to mine.
I waited until lunch to tell my team. Eric had asked me to wait to tell them the news until he connected with our HR person. I assume that was because he needed to confirm with her whether I was a “let them finish” or an immediate exit. I was 99% they wouldn’t cut me off, but I figured the conversation had to have taken place.
Once I had clearance to tell them, I pulled straight from the Corporate America playbook. At 12:30, I sent out a meeting invite for 12:45 titled “Quick Sync.” Textbook. It signals the “this is unusual and important news” and maximizes urgency but doesn’t give away the topic.
They can guess it is staffing related as that is the only sort of thing that has this sort of privacy guard around. So it preps them to expect it to be change that is somewhat negative, but they don’t really know to what level. If it was positive news it would just be posted in the chat. So this induces some anxiety, but only for a short time before the meeting, but it also softens the blow whenever it comes.
I have four people under me: Lexie, Jordan, Angelina and Erminia. It turns out Erminia, who is remote in Sacramento, was actually away during lunch so she didn’t see the meeting invite. All for it and nothing against her for it, I just hadn’t expected it today. I did get Erminia a little bit later once she was back online.
Once the other three were in the meeting, I gave them the news. Generally, they took it well. There were emotions and fear, but also they were all keenly aware of me not getting promoted and other staffing changes so ultimately they’re all happy for me. I’m going to do my best to set them up for success after I leave.
During a lull in the day of these conversations, my actual official offer letter arrived. I had to grab one of the smaller rooms to be able to read it and review it, but I did and with everything looking correct I signed on the dotted line. Also, I can only chuckle at myself for how it almost felt wrong for me to sign it on Wizards’ laptop.
I shouldn’t have jumped the gun and told folks the way I did without that letter. But, given that I knew Liz was 100% on board with hiring me and she wouldn’t let the rug get swept out from underneath me, I felt confident enough to do it this time.
There’s only really two people left who I plan to really seek out and tell in person when I go back into the office on Thursday. My first boss, who hired me into Wizards, Mark. And Brian, who was my first close friend at Wizards. Mark is now the Chief of Staff to the President of Wizards, and Brian is a VP. They’re both good people and I want to tell them personally if I get the chance. And then, once I talk to them, I’ll send one of those emails to the next ring out of people to give them the news.
I don’t know when I’m going to post the news on social media. I’m not the “celebrity” I used to be within the Magic sphere, but I am well known by some of Magic’s biggest creators. If I was leaving gaming altogether, I’d probably just sort of make an Irish Goodbye. But since I’m not, and that my new role will probably bring me back to a more forward facing role and I expect a fair number of Magic players to be interested in Riftbound, I think I’ll get a buoy in terms of social media following etc. It’s likely to get a Reddit thread especially when it breaks not only that I am leaving Wizards, but that I’m going to one of its new competitors. Or maybe not. Who knows.
All that to say I probably won’t do it until the 11th itself. Though it may leak before that. I have to tell some of those creators the news because we’re actively working on projects with them. I don’t think it will? I hope?
But yeah, it feels like a weight off my shoulders that this is finally done and happening. It’s crazy. I kept referencing Shawshank Redemption about how the prisoners who are in for too long don’t want to leave, etc. Katie pointed out my last day, the 11th, is exactly 1 month short of me hitting 14 years at Wizards.
Another recurring topic in my conversations today was what this meant for me financially. Everyone assumes that it means more money for me, but also refer to the “401M” as part of our retirement plans. Wizards gives us product for every release, but we aren’t allowed to sell it while we work for Wizards. So it’s like its own mini-retirement fund. Over the years I’ve acquired a bunch of stuff. And as a player of the game I’ll keep a lot of it, but also – money. So I’ll definitely be selling stuff, including some very expensive cards that I expect to get several thousands of dollars for.
Which has added another layer to the financial discussions Katie and I have been having about money given this job change.
So as all of this is happening, we also have D&D on Tuesday nights.
But not just any D&D night, the climactic battle against the big bad villain. Which meant it ended up being an almost fully in-person session which is awesome. Add to that my job news and we had a great time. The group’s energy was very goofy and jovial, that sort of peak tired late Friday energy, but it was only Tuesday.
Annie and Lexie have already been introduced. Then there’s Sean, who is another long time Wizards guy, and we’ve grown closer over the years. Sam, used to work at Wizards, and now works for EA. And then Peter, who is an ex-Wizard and now works for Epic on Fortnite. So Peter and Sam both got the news about my job change today too.
It’s a great bunch and we just had a really fun time last night. Ordered Chinese food, drank some scotch, and played D&D.
Then Katie and I finally got to do a full debrief on the day and she’s just so happy for me. She had grown very frustrated with Wizards over the years. We watched some TV and then crawled into bed.
Wow, over six months since the last update. Very overdue.
Today’s the day I turn in my two weeks at Wizards. I’m just waiting on Riot’s response to my counter. Once I have that, I’ll put everything into motion. I would be lying if I said I didn’t have any anxiety. I do. A fair bit. The “confrontation” of telling my boss kept me up some last night. I spent a lot of yesterday writing drafts of messages, my official email for after I tell my boss, the message I’ll use to tell colleagues, and a list of who gets a call to tell them the news vs. who hears it via email.
Working at Wizards for this long made that list very long.
I feel a bit like they describe in Shawshank Redemption, about a prison who gets out after too long. The idea of changing jobs and going through being the new guy all over is very intimidating. I am glad the new job has some familiar faces to ease the transition.
The new job is going to be exciting. It’s going to be a lot of work too. I warned Katie that I probably won’t have many 40-hour workweeks for a while. Not that I plan to work myself to the bone, but I am definitely going to doing more as Magic’s team has been so large and the team at Riot is going to be much smaller as we are building and launching this game. But that is also part of what makes this exciting.
I talked to a friend who left Wizards and went to Microsoft for a while. He eventually came back to Wizards and I asked why, and he talked about how at Microsoft he had zero ability to see his impact on the business and the product he was working on. Too many hands, too many shared inputs, clouding that ability to perceive it. At Magic, even today, I can still point to things and see things I started or did, impacting the game. But that is getting less and less despite my seniority there.
Riot’s game, Riftbound, is just launching their first set and I’ll be there to help launch set two, and more. And I’m going to have a large impact on it. One I’ll be able to undeniably see and point at.
Barring surprises my last day is going to be Nov. 11th, which is 1 month shy of hitting 14 years here. My plan is to take a 5 day weekend after the 11th and start the new job on the 17th. Work for basically a week and then fly to Atlanta for Thanksgiving. Then I suspect I’ll come back from Atlanta and fly to LA before then traveling to Paris for the final big event of a sister game at Riot, Team Fight Tactics. Going to be a crazy whirlwind to finish out the year, but I cannot wait.
Katie and I had intended to go and drive to the Seattle offices for Riot. They are on Mercer Island, which is one of the richer parts of town (generally.) But Saturday laziness got us, and then Sunday was rainy and dreary and we decided to just stay-in and watch Redzone instead.
The work stuff is obviously the biggest news but a few other updates. Healthwise I continue on. I need to lose weight. As always. I am trying to use our treadmill. I am also excited one of the Riot benefits is money for a gym membership and I know going to a physical gym, if I can bake it into my routine, is a big element of my past successes. So, we’ll see.
Katie’s health is doing okay. I think we may set up an appointment to see her MS doctor for a check-in. I checked that the new company’s insurance should allow us to keep him. But also we need to find a new Primary doc. Ours got let go when the hospital closed the clinic we would go to, and she hasn’t resurfaced at any other office or clinic around us. So we’re finally admitting we need to find a new one. I had started looking but the first one I found that I liked was accepting patients but didn’t have any availability in the coming 3 months. So… not accepting new patients? We’ll see. I’ll find someone for us.
Dog-wise, doing well. Duke just got his annual shots and he is still the big drooly oaf. Everyone loves him. Ozzie is still the saint who plays with Duke and puts up with his antics.
Otherwise not a lot to report up here. Excited for the new chapter and felt it was high time to do a new post on here. Love ya!
Okay, so the thing I was texting about is the very weird situation Katie and I find ourselves in.
We adopted Duke back in November. When we adopted him, the woman was clearly very in love with him and she said how close she was to just holding onto him and how if we hadn’t come along he likely would have been a foster fail. etc. Even during that meeting it was clear she was attached and I asked if she needed more time with him and she said no. So we took him home that day. She asked we keep in touch, share photos, etc. Which we did for a few weeks.
After about a month she reached out again about coming by for a visit, saying she had some more stuff of his, etc. It was a weird visit, and we were kind of confused because she cut it short after just like 10 minutes or so.
And then we don’t hear from her until last week when Katie gets a text message from her out of the blue, asking her if we would consider letting her have Duke back. She’d pay us everything we’ve spent, etc. She made a mistake adopting Duke out. Just very weird and over the top. We didn’t reply, hoping she would drop it.
She sent another message a few days later, clearly not willing to drop it. We still didn’t reply.
Well, today, she called me. And immediately it’s clear that she’s unwell mentally. She is desperate to get Duke back. Long story short, she feels she’s had bad years since 2018. Since 2018 she lost 4 dogs, had a divorce, and then lost another dog which was also named Duke. Part of why she’s so fixated on ours. She feels like our Duke is her Duke coming back. She’s clearly in deep depression and struggling with it.
We talked for a few minutes and I cut it off. She just kept repeating herself about how desperate she was. She’s willing to not just repay us but get us another dog, any dog we want. Just completely over the top stuff. And I hit my limit, and since I was on the clock I used that as an excuse to cut the call short.
Like, she even mentioned she reached out to us because her therapist told her to. (More on that in a second.) It’s just such a crazy situation. I know we’re in the right to keep Duke. We have signed papers, etc. But talking to her, it’s clear she is unwell and struggling. So this is when I sent out the text message to get some outside perspective.
Charlotte and I talked for a bit and she agreed we were in the right. Which was what I expected, but was good to get someone else to say it and agree.
So a little after 5, I call her back to talk. We talk for about 2 minutes and as I’m giving her another “no” the call goes out. I wasn’t sure if she had hung up on me, or if the line went dead. I didn’t want her thinking I had hung up on her, so I call again.
We end up talking for 30 minutes. And, it’s a lot of the same thing repeated. Desperate. Needs Duke back. She’s grieving. Eventually, I lose my cool as she’s talking about how much she’s going through and I shoot back about how it’s unfair she’s doing this to us, putting us in this situation, etc. That of course escalates it and she starts cry-screaming at me about how I don’t understand what she’s going through and that she doesn’t have answers for me, this is just what she needs, etc.
I manage to de-escalate the call while making clear we aren’t going to give Duke up. So she changes tactic to suggesting she could come by and just see Duke, take him out for day trips, etc. Which… also, no. We’re not comfortable with that given what is going on.
One of the things which comes out around this time is me making a comment about her showing up at the house. I don’t remember what I said or how I said it, but she was surprised I’d suggest it — because it was something she had considered doing, and her texting us was the compromise her therapist got her to agree to rather than her showing up on our doorstep.
So I think she took this negotiating by her therapist as her therapist endorsing this whole idea. She even went so far as saying her therapist was willing to talk to us if we wanted. And I told her that’s not the issue. We believe she’s grieving etc. It’s pretty obvious.
I think one of the breakthroughs with her was getting her to realize the comparative time. She’s fixated on Duke, and she even admitted in her imagination she hoped we’d just… agree – we hadn’t bonded with him, etc. She sees that isn’t the case now. I had gotten to realize her time with Duke was not much different than the time we’ve had with him since we adopted him.
We ended the call with my telling her I’d think about if we could set up some sort of visitation, and how we’ll navigate it. But I don’t think we will. This is just weird and I do not believe being with Duke will do anything but make her more upset that she doesn’t have him back.
So I’m going to let it be for a day or two, hopefully let her adjust to the reality so the next call goes easier.
But, yeah, never would have guessed we’d be dealing with this sort of thing. And I’m trying to figure out how to help while remaining firm that Duke is ours and drawing boundaries.
Happy 2025 Sibs, it’s time to start this whole thing over again.
Adam’s text was good timing as I had decided I would make my goal for 2025 to use the treadmill every single day I’m home for the year, and really pushing to do more. I got a kettlebell at the end of last year and I have the following 5 movement routine written down:
- Single arm deadlift x 8 each side
- Reverse + forward lunge x 5 each side
- Kneeling press x 10
- Wide stance row x 8 each side
- Overhead March x 30seconds each arm
I’m going to try doing it every Monday / Wednesday / Friday and see how it goes next week.
Our holiday was pretty nice. I finished working on the 13th, and largely avoided thinking about work aside for a few back burner / skunkworks ideas. I played a lot of a game called Balatro, which is based on Poker, but it adds a bunch of twists and new mechanics. Really fun and a very good way to spend my holiday.
As always, Mary Ann was a pleasure, but I am very glad to send her home and have the house back to ourselves for a while. I do feel like this trip more than others highlighted her getting older. Her memory is getting worse, she repeated herself often. She has always been a worrier, and it took me a few years to realize her “thinking out loud” is actually her asking for action. We had some friends over for New Years (not quite a party), but she was really stressing over seating. Katie and I kept telling her we had extra chairs, literally happened a half dozen times during the day. A half hour before people arrived she said it again and I “snapped” and told her, “Mary Ann, we have the seating covered. I’m moving these 2 chairs as soon as people arrive.” I felt bad, but it didn’t come up again and she didn’t say anything. I’ve also learned that my perception of “snapped” is skewed so she may not have even registered it. Who knows.
Let’s see, what other things from this holiday.
Travelwise, this is looking like a pretty packed year. With a peak in the summer for June/July where I’m likely going to be in LA and Las Vegas for back to back weekends, then home for a weekend, and then possibly heading to Japan the following week. Personally Katie and I have plans for a St. Louis trip in May for her niece’s wedding, and then as mentioned in text, looking to extend a work trip to Atlanta in September for a family gathering there as well.
- January – No travel
- February
- 19-24 – Chicago
- March
- 13-16 – Netherlands?
- May
- 6-12 – Boston
- TBD – St Louis for family wedding
- June
- 11-17 – LA
- 18-23 – Las Vegas
- 25-30 – Japan?
- July – No Travel
- August
- Aug. 18-24 – Germany?
- September
- 24-29 – Atlanta (+Siblingpalooza?)
- October – No travel
- November – No travel
- December
- 3-8 – Philadelphia?
I’d like to tag a trip to London onto one of the Europe trips, if I am able to. I’ve begun working with more Hasbro colleagues in that office and would be nice to meet them face to face and strengthen those connections. But we’ll see.
This is also my and Katie’s 15th anniversary. We’re discussing doing another trip as well (this will depend on how the bonus looks in March.) Right now the idea is some combination of New Orleans, DC, and NYC. Not sure yet. We’ll see. We did Italy for 5 years, then 10 years was coming out of COVID so we didn’t so anything, so I really want to do something this year.
Okay, time to dive into work, that’s enough from me this morning.
Love y’all!
Updates from me, not a lot but a few things.
First, healthwise, Katie’s mom got really worked up and worried about Katie’s and my health. So much so that she bought us a new treadmill. It’s a Nordictrack and it handles my weight, which is great. We set it up, this time, in the living room rather than back in the laundry room. So we can hop on it and watch TV with each other, even if hearing is a bit difficult. But it makes it less disruptive to get on it in the evenings. We’re still working on motivation, I’m generally using it 3-4 times a week. I want to keep upping that, but we’ll get there. I’m also beginning to see the first signs of its effect. I’m not celebrating early, but the weight on the scale is going down again, for the first time in too long.
Katie’s doing okay. No major news.
Money is still tight. We’re making it work, but our finances are stretched. As I said to another friend while I was bemoaning this, I also fully acknowledge that they are stretched but a house payment and car payment are part of it. I’ve repeatedly thought about getting rid of the Pilot to free up that cash, but we just can’t do it.
I’m making another big push at work. Especially going into 2025 planning. We’re cresting a long overdue hill, one which I’ve been pushing for for nearly 8 years (seriously, I found a presentation I did in 2016 which was on the topic) for tackling YouTube Entertainment content which isn’t purely driven from product marketing. We’ll see how it all goes. We had a presentation from a team in the larger Hasbro org. which supported everything I’m pushing for and in light of that presentation I spent all of yesterday afternoon retooling my latest version of the presentation to try and take advantage of the tail winds from that meeting.
We’ll see how successful I am. If this goes how I think it can go, it will likely mean the promotion I’ve been pushing for. I’m not counting my chickens before they hatch, but we’ll see.
Work trips have dwindled, where I thought I’d have another LA and also possibly a trip to Japan, it’s now just heading to Las Vegas in October for this year. Possibly now a trip to Philadelphia in December for a gaming convention, we’ll see.
That’s pretty much all the news from our neck of the woods. Love y’all. Miss y’all.
Hey sibs, time for my own set of updates.
Healthwise, no major changes. Katie has begun her new meds, Ocrevus. It moves her from getting her MS medicine 3x a week with home administered injections, to twice-a-year infusions where she goes into the hospital for a day. She’s done two half-infusions as she gets ramped up on the medicine and it went well. It’s definitely a change, but not having to give injections is a big big benefit.
As for me – I still need to lose weight. Unfortunately for me, Mary Ann is visiting which makes the next two weeks a wash. I’m trying to eat less from her food but it’s not easy.
Mary Ann seems to be doing okay. I can definitely see the passage of time with her. She’s still sharper than a lot of people her age, but I can see the softening edges. Her memory is good but definitely a little more forgetful than it has been in the past.
One thing that is interesting is where a lot of seniors got brainwashed by MAGA, she hasn’t. However, she has been completely obsessed with the royal family and she HATES Megan Marckle. Like, to the point she wishes someone would just kill her. It’s fascinating and scary to hear her go off on her.
Anyways, I gave her the news I’m interviewing again with Riot. We hadn’t planned to tell her, but they scheduled my final round of interviews this week while she’s here. She took it very well, even if it might mean moving to LA. She asked about it and I said how I told them we’re open to it, but it will definitely affect the salary I’m willing to accept for it.
My hope for the job is that I can strike a deal where I work remotely here in Seattle and go to LA for regular visits. There is a Riot office here in Seattle (technically, Mercer Island, and it’s dedicated to another of their games.) I am hoping I can make it work, but we’ll see.
That said, the money could be enough that we’d be willing to move for it.
If they make an offer, I’ll take it to Wizards and see what they’ll do. I can imagine them matching to a certain level but I doubt they would fully match.
A big part of me doesn’t want to leave Wizards. I love Magic & D&D, but I also have to acknowledge that I’ve been there for a long time and I feel a lot of challenges and headwinds for continued growth because of it. We’ll see.
So I have two small interviews for it on Wednesday and then three bigger ones on Thursday. As far as I know those’ll be it. We’ll see. I’ll let y’all know.
Wizards-wise, there are a lot of exciting things underway. We just released a set, Bloomburrow, which everyone loves. It’s very Redwall-esque with lots of cute animals and high fantasy feeling. It’s doing very well and people love it. On top of that, I have a number of exciting projects in the works, including a filming project which would bring me down to LA for filming one day this year, not sure when.
I’m working on a new presentation that answers “how would you set the social and community team if it were brand new?” It’s a daunting question and I’ve started and edited a presentation for it a half dozen times over the past few weeks. I need to get this made and communicated internally as September is when budget conversations for next year really get going. So that’s fun.
And that’s basically all the news for us. Love y’all.
Morning sibs!
Some updates for you all.
Most notable was how this week began. On Monday, my first day of vacation, my phone rings and it is Blake. Blake, my boss and good friend, starts the call with, “I’m sorry to do this, but I need your help.” Uh oh. As it turns out, he had gotten confirmation on the (now public) layoffs which took place with Hasbro and Wizards this week, and we knew some of those affected were people with access to Magic’s social media accounts. As such, we locked down account access while this was happening to ensure no one went rogue on our accounts.
On the one hand, it was nice to know I was safe the day before the layoffs occurred, but also – it was a very shitty day. One member of my team was affected, which – to be honest – was something I was okay with. I hate losing the headcount, but the guy was the lowest performer on the team. In fairness to him, I put a bit of blame on the role and people who hired him – he was hired for too high of a level compared to the work that was needed. He was a super nice guy and I’m sorry to see him go, but also – there was a high likelihood I was going to have to put him on a performance plan next year.
However, along with him, a number of people I worked with regularly were let go. And it just really sucked. I ended up going into the office on Tuesday for some meetings about the layoffs, etc.
I get it. Hasbro is struggling right now and they have to make hard cuts to fix the business. Wizards being the lifeline for the company right now, though, makes this really hard to stomach. I’m glad I’m on vacation and don’t have to work right now.
In related news, yesterday I had a screening call for the role I applied to for Riot. The call went well. Liz let me know the recruiter really liked me and I know I’m going up against an internal candidate, as well as I’m sure some other folks. We’ll see. I was told to expect to hear from them in January for the next interviews.
Other news, healthwise, I went to the doctor to get a blood test. I was worried I was diabetic as I knew the doctor had flagged it as a concern in the past. The good news is I am still “pre-diabetic” but it is elevated enough I need to implement diet changes. With Mary Ann coming next week, that’s going to be tough. However, and I know you’ll both be excited to hear this, in January Katie and I are going to attempt a pescatarian diet (probably still also some chicken) but we’re going to cut beef and pork and be going more vegetarian heavy.
In fact, yesterday, I tried some store-bought seasoned tofu in a noodle bowl at lunch. The texture of tofu is still lacking for me, but it was edible and I can see myself doing more of it going forward. So, we’ll keep you updated on that as we progress.
The other big thing this week was building my new computer, which I have named Michigan J. Frog. Its predecessor was named Marvin the Martian, so I decided to keep the Looney Tunes theme. It’s a beefy machine which should keep me well powered for several years. I was able to trade Magic product (sealed boxes) to an acquaintance and he ordered the computer parts for me. Win-win. Had I paid for the parts for this machine, it would have been nearly $2,500.
Last weekend Katie and I checked out a “Punk Rock Flea Market” which was kind of cool. It was in an empty building downtown, and it was a crowded vendors, for varying levels of punk rock. Some were just selling random nostalgia stuff, some were very punk rock with patches and art and music, etc. It was a nice diversion from the norm. Katie ended up buying a guy’s piece of art, I don’t have a picture, but it is a skeleton in a Santa jacket and hoodie, smoking a joint – lol. The artist was so tickled and thrilled we were buying something, he was super excited and appreciative. He gave us a flyer for a small art show/market with eight artists happening tonight that we are planning to go check out.
I think tomorrow will be more Christmas decorating and getting our tree up. I had wanted to do it earlier this week but the layoffs and the rain really dampened my desire to do it. This weekend is supposed to be fairly dry, so we’ll see. Along with that, I need to rehang our house Christmas lights, so that’s on the list for this weekend.
That’s all the news from up here, love y’all.
Happy holidays sibs! Hope y’all enjoyed Thanksgiving. I grilled ribeyes for Katie and I, as well as making brussel sprouts, mac and cheese, and sweet potato casserole. So we ate well.
No major work updates. I took this week off entirely and have been enjoying it. I’ll go back for two weeks and then be done for the year. I did apply for the Editor-in-Chief role on Tuesday, but I don’t expect to hear anything back until probably the new year. We’ll see. I love Wizards and I want to stay, but I’m very frustrated at the lack of promotion and raise. But also, this role is very exciting and I would love to get it, and possibly being in LA near Sisterbear sounds amazing. At the very least, I’m hoping for an offer I can take to Wizards and force their hand on a promotion and raise.
Health updates – Nothing concrete, but I have a virtual doctor appointment scheduled in December because I believe I have Type 2 diabetes, due to my weight. I could definitely be wrong. But, I know it was something the doc was worried about before and, (warning, perhaps TMI to share) there was a Reddit thread about a common sign of it being a staining pattern in the toilet from highly sugary urine which is something happening in our house. So, I want to get it tested and addressed.
As for exercise and weightloss, I’m back on the bike and am working on it, but it’s hard. Y’all know I’ve been fighting this fight forever, and the 2012 success feels so far away. But we’re going at it. I’m going to have to be very determined with Mary Ann visiting next month.
No major health updates for Katie, she’s doing alright. Good days and bad but mostly good.
Elwood continues to truck along, his back right leg was quite bad for the past few days. So much so that he was prone to falling over when he tried to lay down, but he’s been better last night and today. So, we’re just taking it as it comes.
We had a plumbing issue on Tuesday which necessitated bringing a plumber out. As part of the kitchen makeover we had some truly shoddy plumbing under our sink. It had a small leak after the install, at that time I futzed with it and made it better, and then we forgot about it. Tuesday morning it came back to bite us in the ass.
I woke up and found water on the kitchen floor again. Not as bad as last time, thank god, but bad enough. Cue cursing and we called the plumber out. Several hundred dollars later we have a better plumbing solution under our sink. I just ordered some moisture sensors to put under our sinks and near the water heater as I’m really tired of dealing with these issues until it becomes a big cost to fix. Thank goodness we had the cash for it, but it’s very tiring to keep this Sisyphean capitalist lifestyle.
I haven’t written much lately. The scifi novel got hard as it has gotten a bit crunchy on scifi and I’m trying to make it semi-realistic near future stuff, which has been a real problem and that has ruined the flow state of my writing. I’m trying to get back into it, but I haven’t been successful yet. I’ll keep trying though.
We’re transitioning into full holidays mode. I just brought in our mountain of holiday decorations, and I’m reminded again of the annual goal to consolidate away one of the containers. I’m pretty sure this year it will be done by consolidating holiday lights. We have a billion and they take up a lot of space.
Oh, here’s a fun thing that my friend Lucas shared this idea on Facebook and I really like it. We have some shadowboxes we can use, I just need to figure out where to put it.
I’m preparing to trade some Magic product to upgrade my home PC. Though I mainly use my laptop so I can be in the living room with Katie, the truth is I want a more powerful PC to play games on and try to get that YouTube channel about teaching technology off the ground. The tower I have now is fine, but it isn’t amazing and isn’t powerful enough for a lot of what I want to do. So I’ve got an ex-coworker coming over this week to look at stuff and we’ll make a deal to trade product for computer parts. I’m excited about it, as I’m not skimping on it and it should be a solid build to upgrade as I need for the next decade. We’ll see.
That’s all the updates I can think of. Oh, here’s a print from a local notable artist who goes by the mononym ‘Henry.’ The Sasquatch creature is a common appearance in his art:
Anyways, that’s it from me. Love y’all.
Hey sibs, just a quick update. The “news” here is Katie and I have accepted that I may need to look for work outside of Wizards to get the owed promotion. I’m not going gung-ho on it yet, but I texted my friend Liz (the one who left Wizards to go work for Riot in LA last year) about my frustration and she gave me heads up that Riot was about to be hiring for an ‘Editor in Chief’ role for each of their games.
From the JD she sent me:
Teamfight Tactics is looking for a seasoned communications professional to helm a team of comms, community, social, influencer and content professionals across our broader game ecosystem. In partnership with games and publishing leadership, this role will develop, deliver, and manage all communications of the player experience including both high level strategy and day to day campaign tactics. In true “editor in chief” fashion, you are responsible for not just what we’re saying, but how, when, and why we’re saying it.
Now, she let me know in this case she has someone on her team already in this role, or the natural person for that role. Which is totally fair. But it sounds like they are hiring for it for all of their games.
No guarantees obviously, but having one of the internal Senior Directors in the game supporting me and putting my name to recruiters, etc. Will hopefully help at least. The requirements and stuff are all very much in my wheelhouse.
I honestly don’t know if they’ll make me an offer which makes it worth Katie and I relocating to LA. Having sisterbear there is a big positive, but that is the only upside from our perspective.
Liz told me it would potentially be a 40k bump over what I make now, which is nothing to sneeze at – but we’ll see. And of course, if they make an offer, I’d let Wizards make a counter offer. And if they match, we’d of course accept rather than have to make the change.
But that is all getting way ahead of myself. Obviously there are steps to take before that. We’ll see how it goes once the jobs get officially listed.
Just this quick update. I was going to send it as an email and promise a Spartan update later but decided that was silly and to just record it here.
Love y’all.