Untitled

The house still smelled of fresh cut vegetables
and the musk of an old woman.

the laps, jewelry boxes, pictures, tea sets
taken from the house.

More people went down the short hall,
to her room.

"She's not in there," I wanted to say.
But they all knew.
My mother knew all too well.

Her sewing box. dishes. pots. candle sticks.
I watch them take apart her house.

My aunts hands me a doll.
Gray patches of faded blue flowers.
tan mittened hands,
sewn into obscure patterns
with worn brown threads.

Its floppy head falls to my shoulder
golden yarn braids tickle my chin.

I cling to her,
my first smile all day,
my last memory of my Mimi
Before the tubes in her wrists.

By Robin Hartman

Andrew, I expect some of your poetry if not posted, geekmailed to me. My poems are personal and somewhat dark (my influences were Plath and Sexton) but my poetry is not overly personal. I took a class that hardened me to criticism about my work. So I take it well. Feel free to ask any questions. Like all descent poetry, the answers are always apparent in the meaning of the poem. Like my of my poetry, the voice I use is a child.

Hello Robin! Congratulations on the honor of Geek of the Week!

A few questions for you:

1. How did you and Hilary meet? If it's not too personal.

2. How did you get interested in comic books (graphic novels)? Are there any series you buy on an issue-by-issue basis, or do you normally buy them in collected form?

3. Do you have a sister named Rebecca?

4. What categories of games do you like most? "Wargames" seems to be one. Categories is rather loose here---anything from "Kosmos 2-player" to "fantasy adventure" is alright, and of course anything you define.

5. Coming back to graphic novels, which is actually a love of mine too, what else have you read? What did you think of them?

6. I am curious about your curriculum!

7. Do you visit some comics sites and which ones do you like? I am partial to http://artbomb.net and http://www.ninthart.com .

Hello Robin,

What a great poem! Might you be so kind as to treat us to some more?

Congratulations on being Geek Of The Week!

David

Hear, hear!

Do you ever think of moving to a large city where gaming (and other social activities) are easier to find groups for? Where would you live if family & school weren't an issue?



I've been a fan of Rosie the Riveter for about 8 years, since seeing the poster on the 'Net while dating a gal that she resembled (cute & strong). I didn't remember seeing the poster before that & then noticed it appearing several places soon after and Googled to find the meaning of it.



Found it:

http://www.rainfall.com/posters/WWI/194.htm



How about any relatives named Mary? (Pardon me, I've a bad habit of making obscure references.)

Ooh, story time! Hilary and I met when we worked at Barnes and Noble. I worked at the Cafe. He worked the sales floor. One day, he was talking to other people about a game they get together and play. Since Hilary is extremely charming and talkative, I asked him what they had played and if he could teach me to play. It was heroclix! Nothing really came out of my request to play. When other people in the break room were around, I asked Hilary again if HE would teach me. I could have asked anyone else in the room but I asked him. He said okay, maybe one of these days. Grrr! He wasn't really getting the hint. The people he was talking to tried to tell him that I was hitting on him but he would not listen. The cafe had cut my hours, so I gave my two weeks notice. The week before I quit, I stole his number from the managers office and called him. He got the hint then!



My interest in comic books started when I was about ten. My uncle is an amazing artist and kept a sketch book. Inside this sketch book was a mini picture of Joseph Lisner's Dawn with Lisner's signature. My uncle had a very large collection of Dawn comics. That began my appreciation for comic book art and my uncle's art. I didn't really read many comic books because I was so unsure how they worked. It always seemed like everytime I opened a comic book, I was completely lost at what was going on. Comic books are series based, so it was not a hobby I could jump into on my own.

My husband helped me get into comic books. On our first date, he took me to his comic book store, which I thought was really cool. Men, if you take a date to a comic book store and she really enjoys herself KEEP HER. Anyway, we walked into the comic book store and I asked Hilary- "Have you ever heard of Dawn?" I think he was in love from that moment on. He had collected Linsner's Dawn comic books for awhile. Inside the store was a picture of Dawn called "The Gloves." It now hangs in our hallway. But I'm getting away from the subject. It's my husband's fault for nurturing my curiousity in comics and made me a complete geek. And I like it.

I normally buy graphic novels because I like a full story all at once. I'm impatient. I have tried different series of comic books to see what I like. I've tried She-Hulk, Ultra, #2 Grimm Tales. I am fairly picky with my comic books. I absolutely love Fables and have continued collecting that series. I collect the Kabuki graphic novels.



I hated Grimm Tales. I was looking for something more like Fables, an adaptation of the Fairy tales in the modern world. The only thing they did was retell the original tales (which I already knew) and have sexualized cover that did not relate to the story at all. I didn't mind the cover but at least have it relivant.



huh, no. Is this a trick question? Am I missing a literary reference; you are the english major too? I have two older sisters though: Amanda and Sunshine.



I love Kosmos two player and plan to get more of them. I plan to get Dracula next.

Fantasy is also a huge favorite for me which is why I love Descent, Dungeon and Dragons minis, Lord of the Rings, Runebound, Wizard Kings, and War of the Ring.

I love literary themes, which was why I had to have Shakespeare and Dante's Inferno. I still haven't played Dante's Inferno because its three player.

I also love anything Mythology themed. My mythology class from last semester is thinking about making a club. I've offered the professor aid in developing the club and game nights with mythology themed games.

I like religious themes without it being too over baring. I do not like trivia Bible type games or fellowship/learn type religious games. I like real games like Ark of the Covenant. I would really like to try Journey's of Paul. I like there to be a real game as instead of fluffy bunny game about sharing and caring, all the generic things about religious games that make it rather boring.



I have three classes scheduled for this semester: Creating the graphic novel, Women Writers, and Seminar in 20th century British literature. My area of study is British Literature.

Last semester, I took mythology, British novels (which was a wonderful class), Renaissance Literature independent study, and health (a gen.ed I kept skipping).



Thanks for the sites. I enjoy seeing what is out there. I visit this site regularly: http://davidmackguide.com/

Thanks! I'm flattered. I'll think about it.

I think about moving every day. I think there really isn't much here. I don't want to live in a huge city but I would like one with nice restuarants, or maybe a cafe shop, a bookstore or something. Dear god anything!!! Anything but Wal-mart!!!

I would like to live over seas. I like experiencing different cultures. I would love to live in England or Germany, if I could speak German. For what I know about the German school system, I would prefer having my children go to a German school. I think the level of education is going down in the states. I would also like to live away from some of my family members.

I would love to live in Seattle. My sister-in-law lives there. I've even considered Alaska. I would move anywhere that would allow me to teach literature in a University.



Could you enlighten me then?

Thanks for the link. I love that picture

Oh I will definitely share. If I don't get anything posted onto your forum this week I will still add it later. I wasn't making excuses. I don't know how my poems would reflect my Australianism though. well maybe a little. I'll have one last look for the stuff but I'm going to the beach very soon.

Mmmm, I think you should move to my neighbourhood then. Our children can play together (they are about the same age), and we could play the best 4 person games! We do have some cafe's and restaurants here, and a very good (if expensive - but they really know what they're talking about) FLGS. What more could you wish for...

Amen. My wife humored me a ton way back when we were dating--we'd go to the comic book store, the CCG shop, e.t.c. And when I wanted to treat her, I used to take her to this really fancy Chinese restaurant.


Years later I discovered that she not only disliked those comic shops, she hated Chinese food too. When I asked her why she didn't tell me or went and did those things, she said, "To be with you." Wow.

So not only keep a girl who enjoys the comic shops, but hang on to those who would go in there with you because they enjoy being with you, period.




I'm not surprised Hilary took so long to catch your hints--we men can be rather dense sometimes.

How often do you play SL and do you plan to make the leap to ASL?

Also how can I get my wife to play SL!!!

Well, hello there! If you haven't visited Linsner.com yet, do so, and you'll see my name all over it, as I'm the webmaster. It was very interesting, to me, to find out how many fans of the Dawn comics are women. If you peruse the message boards, most of the posters are women and most of his fans that I've met are women. (And all but one of the contents from the Lookalike Contest from last years Dragon*Con were women too. Though that statistic is somewhat predictable.)

I've been told this is because Dawn is drawn realistically (and extremely well), without the afflictions that other comic book heriones suffer that would result in chonic back pain and treatment for anorexia. Judging by your avatar, I'm wondering what your opinion of how women are portrayed in comics is.

Congrats GotW!! Good to see a fellow Wizard Kings aficionado getting her 15 minutes . . . errr week of fame! Hey, the Amazons are my favorite army as well. I like their diversity over some of the other armies. Most are too dependent on specific terrain and that doesn't end up being a good thing in many instances, especially on big maps. But there must be more to amazons than that since the Amazon was one of my favorite characters in Magic Realm! Hmmmm. Maybe it's just chicks with swords killing things! Who knows.

Anyway, on to some questions:

1) We'll start with Wizard Kings since . . . well, just because! To what do you attribute your success at this game vs. your husband? I remember a recent thread where you husband was asking for some advise since you were beating him all the time! He sent me a private message recently mentioning that much of what I had told him was helpful and he did much better, but he still lost!! Did you see that thread with the suggestions? I always wondered if you had and turned some of the ideas against him! Here is a link:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/736623#736623

Do you use any of those ideas in your games? What prompted the two of you to get Wizard Kings? Anything besides the fantasy theme? And now you're kicking his butt at Squad Leader! Very cool!

2) You mentioned that you don't have many fellow gamers to play with besides your husband. Have you attempted or had any luck converting fellow students or friends over to the dark side?

3) Looking through your collection I also noticed that you don't have many of the typical euro style 2 player games rated. Is there a reason for this? Do they not appeal or have you just not gotten around to them?

4) You also said that your husband makes a lot of the game buying choices but that you still get what you want as well. So how does the game buying process work in your household? And how do the two of you pick the games you might like? Gut feeling? BGG research? Recommendations? Some combination?

5) When you buy your games, where do you buy them from? Online? ebay? FLGS? Any particular reason for your choice?

6) Where do you keep your collection? You mentioned that you live on campus in family housing and you have two kids. That usually means not a whole lot of room! And with two little kids running around you can't just put your precious games just anywhere, at least if they are anything like my two kids!! So what kind of storage solutions have you come up with? Do you have any particular organizational habits when it comes to your games? By size? By designer? By publisher?

7) What are your plans after grad school?

8) How do you find the time to play with school, kids and life in general?

Unfortunately, I have only played Squad Leader twice. I think we did the first two scenarios, so it has been a little basic. The next scenario includes tanks and stuff, so I'm pretty excited. I am still in the learning process but this game is awesome. It is different than any other game I've played. And if any wargame sees anything wrong with my definition of games that are tactical and games that are strategy please correct me. The concept might still be foggy for me. I'm still a newbie wargamer.

We don't play on getting ASL because we are expansion nuts. Anything new for one of our favorite games we will end up getting. I like more variety in my game collection. I can't always play a game a day especially not one that takes three-seven hours. Somedays we only have time to flip open Mancala before we go to sleep. Other days, the boys go to bed early and we play a two to three hour wargame.

I have no idea how to get your wife into wargames. I have always found the theme interesting. I like history. I like learning. I like blowing up stuff. So, I really can't help.

Greg!!! Oh my god, you're famous!!! You the one with the computer for sale. Kick ass!



I'm a little embarrassed that I didn't mention this website because I've order from the site and look at the update on the digital prints all the time. I don't normally participate in the forums though. I love the look alike contest. I love the pictures from the Con. You have done a great job with the site.



I think Dawn is drawn well and realistically. There is also special attention with how her face is drawn. A beautiful woman must have a beautiful face. Her breasts should not be over shadowing her face to the point that if she was actually standing her breast would hit her in the face. Poor Powergirl. I like many comic book women that are beautiful, intelligent, strong, realistic looking and acting. I search for good female comic book characters. I do think that women are not portrayed well in many comic books but I just stay away from those. I do not mind the risque because the human body is beautiful. If it is done tastefully, like Lisner's Dawn, then I can find beautiful in female sexuality.

Knowing that I read strong female comic book characters, a friend of mine leant me a few couples copies of Ultra. After politely reading a few I returned them saying they were not my thing. To be honest, I was quite offended that these women were viewed as strong. These women were catty and their main conflict in the books were how to complete themselves by finding a man. That was just sick.

I read an interview with David Mack and the reporter asked him how he gets into a mind of women. He said he doesn't research how woman think, he just develops the character. I liked this concept. A female character can be created like any other male character. Both are people with the same conflicts to face. When people try to make a female female, they are possibly doing nothing more than stereotyping or making fake women from personal fantasies.

I promise I answered your question somewhere in my rant.

Robin, whose idea was this?

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/86177

Do you get harrassed by many geeks about that? Other than Hilary, and me :-) ? Personally, I think it's an excellent contribution to the 'geek, and admire you for having the gumption to make this important contribution to the database, but not everyone would want to do it. And if I was to do a similar photo, I'd be banned. Could you explain the philosophy behnd the contribution? Thanks,

John

You mentioned Dante's Inferno, and it reminded me of something....

Have you seen Marcus Sanders and Sandow Birk's retelling of the Inferno? It's a new translation, and one that's very liberally done. There is no small amount of swearing, and everything is updated to modern times. One of the circles is depicted as the LA freeway, and mega-conglomerates and fast-food restaurants feature prominently in the setting (which, I believe, is LA). While I wouldn't recommend it to purists, it's an interesting retelling, and if I'm not mistaken, the author and illustrator are planning on retelling the rest of Dante's trilogy.

Here's a link to the book at Amazon:

http://tinyurl.com/8nn9k

I did see the thread. I thought about commenting but I don't want to make fun of my husband. He really is a great opponent. When we first got the game, he would normally win. I didn't think some of the costs of the elven army made sense. Maybe I just played differently and wasn't using the elven strengths. Now that I have the Amazon and Dwarven armies, I do a lot better. Maybe its the armies. He has the Orc, Barbarians, and the undead. The undead rock! Some of the advice given, I've been doing. So that was good!

I agree when going into battle, always have the 1 point characters at full strength so they are the cannon fodder. That has really helped in protecting my wizards. I did like the idea of bluffing. I used the hex sides to my benefit and had some of my forces look as though they are swarming two different places. This confused my husband because he was trying to decide how to build up his forces. I normally always have castles on every area I leave. My husband does not always do that. My forces have, more than a few times, moved around his units through water or air to get to his undefended areas. I also take many risks which kills his fog of war because I know what units are where. I think my husband likes using high cost characters to blow away my forces but sometimes it just takes one hit and his 8 point dragon is dead. Or his 8 point dragon is now turning against him because of my amazon wizard. I love that spell.

I think my best advice for doing well in the game is really get into it.



Actually, my husband and I were ordering from Columbia block wargames and he added this game to the order. I didn't really research it at all. I think it was before I was a BGG member. When he told me what he read, I said cool I'll play, I like Hammer of the Scots. I didn't know much about the game other than I could play elves which is a good thing. Anytime I role play a character, it is normally an elf. Once I started looking into what armies they offered, I got mad and told him he had to order me the Amazon army. Had I known, it would have been on the order in the first place.



You would think with how eccentric history and english majors are we would be able to find more gamers. I really haven't had much luck other than a possible game night for my mythology club. I do plan on starting a game night at my local comic book/game store. The owner is really great and new into games. I really likes the idea of use demoing our games. I hope to get this started for once a month. I think we are going to switch off, one goes and games while the other watches the boys. I'm a little nervous because I don't think I teach games well.



Most of the games I have that are not rated have not been played. Many of the games we haven't gotten around to we just haven't wanted to play. We've tried to open up our collection to more mainstream type games so we can have more players.

I do find it odd and funny that many popular games on BGG that are eurogames don't interest me. I would have no problem playing them but I've never thought to myself that I must have these games. Here's a geeklist that might explain things better: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist.php3?action=view&listi...

My intention was humor with the list. I really don't understand why I don't want these games. I do plan on giving Ticket to Ride: Europe a try sometime in the future.



Anything that I saw interests me, he will research it and discuss it with me. If he didn't discuss it with me too much, most likely it is ordered. Anything he wants, we both research the pros and cons of the game. We talk about what we like and why we would like games, who recommends it, what reviews said, ect. . . There was a game I wasn't thrilled about and he made a thread to convince me. And hopefully, we will give heroscape another chance. Maybe this will be our more mainstream game. I just didn't like it that much.

I am sometimes a little superficial in researching games. I like pretty games. I look at the pictures, the lay out of the game, then I read the comments page, maybe some reviews (mostly Vassal), I pay attention to geeklists, I pay attention to what people say about one game vs. what they say about a game I have (which can really put things in perspective). Any game Ava likes, we will most likely like.



We mostly do all our shopping at Boards and Bits. I really love their service, selection, price, and their at the door service.

My local store is great too. They are just getting started and I do order games from them more now that I know that I can. His prices, even when special order, is comparible to Boards and Bits which is nice. I can't go in and just pick out a game just yet. The owner is still learning about games, what to order and where. Hopefully demoing there will help him too. Any game that I want ASAP, like Reef Encounter, is ordered through Boards and Bits.

My husband goes on ebay. Ebay scares me. He also understands older games more than I do.



There are a lot of closet space here. At the top of ALL closets are two or so shelves covered in games. Kids can't even dream of reaching them. Sometimes I can't reach them. They are organized by what we play most, or going to play soon and also size. We do have many games in storage at my in-laws. Some of our collection is going to be put on trade once we get the rest of the games here.

I do have storing habits with game pieces. I like everything in little bags. With my new Joan of Arc game, I have it sorted by what pieces the player will need based on what power they are playing.



PhD- I plan to teach college



Well, I don't have much of a life then school and kids. The house isn't too much to take care of. We have a schedule. So supper times baths etc are set. Bailey doesn't take much of a nap, so he goes to bed around 7:30 or so. After that, Jakob is not too difficult to deal with when playing a game. We normally play after bedtime. During school we are lucky to get four games played a month. This is another reason we need smaller games.

I've had no problems with this picture what so ever. Everyone is very nice to me about it. I think the picture is handled with humor, which was how it was intended. I am just waiting for it to be used against me one day. I will be in the outstanding debate over the strategy of a wargame and then a picture of me naked behind a game box will show up on the forum totally destroying my argument.



Why would you be banned? That would be sad! I would not really understand why that would be. The twister picture was banned because it was stolen, I think.

Philosophy is such an interesting word to use. I really thought that there should be more pictures for this great game, a picture that would reflect the games intentions properly.



It was my husband idea. I was surprised because he gets upset about tight sweaters. I think it was a tasteful picture, even if the implications behind the picture aren't I also don't think I would be recognized if you have seen only that picture of me.

I haven't seen or read it but I'll definately look into it. Thanks!

Oh man, I would be so embarassed about that picture. I mean, what IS That hanging in the background?! A tai-dye curtain? Oh, it burns my retinas, that background is the only thing I can focus on in the whole picture.

Well, let's just say that not enough of me can hide behind a game box to make the picture socially acceptable. That's a somewhat ambiguous explanation, but that's how I intended it. The twister picture was also distasteful, I thought.



I agree. That gives me an idea for a geeklist.

I've tipped your reply as a reward for the photo. If I was to tip the photo, Hilary would get the loot and there are laws against exploiting women to get .

Now, back to the scheduled interrogation. What's the best Wizard Kings scenario you've played? We played the game once and the winner turned out to be the guy who profited most from the unrequired and misguided fighting, so I decided the game needs decent scenarios to be much fun.

Also being part of a Husband/Wife gaming team, I have found that you and your husbands comments on BGG extremely useful. Since I have been on BGG I would say you are in the top 10 people that have influenced my purchases. I thank you!

I have just one question:

There are certain games my wife is dominant. Our current game is Railroad Tycoon, and she has won 4 out of 5 times. When you dominate a particular game, do you ever ease off of your husband, or do you prefer to crush him over and over?

Robin,

Congratulations of being Geek of the Week!

This hobby needs more active women in it and you are a great example of how the gender walls can fall amongst even grognards! My wife loves most Euro games, but getting her to play something like Squad Leader would be a MAJOR accomplishment.

I'm a fan of comic books as well, though not to the extent of your typical collector. I have just a couple that enjoy - mostly because of the subject matter or artwork. I kind of got back into them a few years back when the Tomb Raider series first started. Since Im a collector at heart, getting issue #1 was just as important as the reading the story. Tomb Raider (and Witchblade) both have that really stylized, lush look to them and that was what appealed to me (among other things!)

1. So what do you enjoy most about the comics you are reading? What attracted you to Witchblade?

I came across a comic awhile back and was blown away with the story. It's called The Walking Dead and yes, it's about zombies. The really cool thing though is how the author takes the subject matter seriously and tries to "realistically" depict how people (and society) would change if a zombie plague actually occured. if the subject matter interests you at all, check it out - especially since all the past issues are available as 4 graphic novels.

On a complete side note, check out my cousin's (illustrator) first published graphic novel at: http://artbomb.net/preview.jsp?t=drowned

I think it's really great that you took the plunge and are enjoying wargames. They offer a completely different (but equally satisfying gaming experience). I enjoy the occasional game of Wizard Kings myself (Undead!).

2. Tell us about your most memorable game of Wizard Kings (preferably one where ya trounced Hilary!)

3. Any favorite scenario/map of Wizard Kings that you enjoy playing?

I found it interesting that you rated a game that usually gets all kinds of recommendations as being a great game for women, a 3. Of course I'm talking about Lost Cities. My wife actually hasn't been too fond of it either, but I'm hoping that will change once the scoring rules 'click' and become second nature with her.

4. Why does Lost Cities suck? (my term not yours)

I also laughed out loud at your comments about rule changes for The Game of Life - spoken like a true hard-working student!

5. Give us the 5 most wanted games you are looking forward to playing (these can be out of print if necessary).

6. What new game(s) coming out are you most looking forward to buying in the coming months?

7. What is your favorite type of game? (i.e. Auction, negotiation ect...)

Although I didnt list it, I was also a big fan of All in the Family. I was a bit young to really appreciate it when it originally aired, but I caught it a few years later in syndication and loved it. Carol O'Conner was brilliant and the issues and stereotypes they dealt with made for truly groundbreaking Televison. One of the funniest episodes was when Archie tries to act nonchalant while trapped in an elevator with a neurotic secretary, a wealthy black lawyer, and an expectant Hispanic mother and her husband. Classic Archie.

A line I rememeber...

Archie Bunker (talking to Mike/meathead about pre-marital sex):
When your mother-in-law and me was goin' around together, it was two years - we never - I never - I mean absolutely nothin', not 'til the wedding night.
Edith Bunker: Yeah, and even then...
Archie Bunker (exasperated) STIFLE IT DINGBAT!



Have fun with GotW!

Scott

Do consider Edinburgh, then!