the Moonlight Patriot

the Seven Sides of Sam

Polish and new ideas

As we move forward with developing the game Manna, other ideas and concepts become issues of topic.

An old inspiration came to the forefront, sparking a survival based game with a “Not in My Back Yard” Theme.  The game centers around the development of a town with many neighborhoods developing into a small city.  Neighborhoods, represented by rooftops, have goals for their part of town, and definite dislikes.  Seems simple enough, until you realize that all of the opponents are trying to torpedo your neighborhoods, leading to a series of “not in my backyard” issues.  A fast-moving game of survival, Randel the Vandal promises to entertain small groups of players.

While Randel is in the early stages, Manna continues to face a few changes that will really improve play times.  Preventing players from digging into fights for the sake of battles while maintaining player interaction is a precarious balance that Manna wants to possess.  More updates to follow.

Games Manna Randel the Vandal

Up and crawling

We are finally moving here at Moonlight Patriot!  Our PayPal accounts are working which means we can actually move product.

Unfortunately, our surveying systems are currently out of commission due to technical glitches.  We expect to be able poll to your heart’s content in the very near future.  Even with this setback, however, we have launched our polling page, revealing the best prices for campaigns on a shoestring budget.

Beyond polling, Moonlight Patriot is happy to announce the service of communications consulting.  Technology is the future of political communication, and we will provide your campaign with all of the tools needed for online communication today.  Be ahead of the curve with our all-encompassing communication consulting, including a custom web space, hosting, e-mails, social networking and more.  Our prices are very competitive, which is perfect for campaign managers looking to maximize small budgets.  For more information, e-mail sam at moonlightpatriot dot com.

Communications Consulting Politiconsulting Polling

Better tomorrow

We are plugging along, slowly but surely.  Moonlight Patriot, LLC, is proud to announce several services in the near future.  We hope to provide a line of basic products, including political polling at a very reasonable rate (4% MoE, 3 Questions, less than $1,000), oversize paintings of various vistas for well under gallery prices (less than $600 for a 48″x18″ panorama), and prototype board games with various themes.

All of these services will be available to the public after we figure out the most consumer-friendly combination of cart software, paypal, and the solution to the technology corollary of Murphy’s Law.  Tomorrow will be a better today.

Moonlight Patriot

Blago is going to get off

Rod Blagojevich is going to get off.

Politics’ version of the O.J. Simpson trial features the state against impeached Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich.  The criminal charges could put Blago into the clink for a very, very  long time.  That said, the prosecution botched the execution, especially in light of a very animated defense by Blagojevich’s legal team.  They didn’t even need to put the most charismatic Illinoisan (behind Oprah) on the stand.

Ironically, in pop culture it is assumed that Blago “did it”, it being attempting to use Barack H. Obama’s vacated Senate seat for political gain.  Change we can believe in, indeed.  That said, there is enough reasonable doubt that Blago was not looking for personal gain.  Psychotic to type, but true, Blago is going to get off.

Political Commentary Second Windy City

Primaries Expectations and Realities

As the final numbers come in from the polls, the spoken word of the voters provide several unique differences between expectation and reality.

First and foremost, the Governor’s race is very intriguing.  Congresswoman Mary Fallin, expected by practically everyone to squash Randy Brogdon, finished with around 55% percent of the vote against State Senator Randy Brogdon.  Perhaps the former Lieutenant Governor should have stayed in town to vote for herself after all.  The fact the Brogdon commanded nearly 40% of the vote speaks wonders about the state of the Oklahoma Republican caucus.  The neo-libertarian movement within the party moved much more strongly against the establishment candidate. Fallin is going to have an extremely difficult time marshaling the near fanatical Brogdon Republican bloc into the fold this November.

Secondly, the Democratic primary is one of the closest statewide races in recent memory.  Lieutenant Governor Jari Askins narrowly defeated Attorney General Drew Edmondson, by about a 4A high school.  The Democratic primary campaign was  cordial enough, especially compared to Brogdon’s explosive anti-Fallin outbursts.  Askins’ coalition building skills from her legislative years may very well enable her to unify the evenly split Democrats — something that Fallin will struggle with among the Reds.

Finally, we are getting a runoff in District Five.  Local Minister James Lankford, sporting a skull more defined than Paul Begala’s, will face former state Representative Kevin Calvey, sporting a hair cut worse than Jim Carrey circa 1994.  Both candidates scored about a third of the electorate.  Grabbing the rest of the vote will be a unique battle.  Calvey reportedly has $326,000 cash on hand, a monsterous amount compared to Lankford’s $92,000.  The road to August 24th will be hard traveled.

2010 OK-Congress District 5 OK-Governor okiepol

Playtesting Manna

With summer finally arriving, I have had the opportunity to work on the Elements Manna game quite a bit.  Adding a couple of rules has really made the game pop, with a ton of replay ability.  Time to send it out for other opinions.

Due to the budget constraints, designing the art for the game is a bit rigorous.  Fun, but rigorous.

While working on the Elements Manna game, other projects include some other quick games.  More to come as concepts develop.

(ed note: the new working title of the game aforementioned as Elements is now Manna)

Games Manna

Chicago Skyline

Chicago skyline, at sunset.

Art

A Working on Games

With summer courses completed, I now get to focus my attention to hobbies.

First, and foremost, I am looking towards a competitive game with the Windy City Weasels Diplomacy outfit this weekend.

Second, and probably more importantly, I am moving full speed ahead on the development of game prototypes.  The most developed, so far, is a light, dice-based god game, presently called “Elements” “Manna“.  The purpose is to control the four essential elements, earth, wind, rain and fire. It takes a little bit of time to play a hand, and there is an optional campaign to play several hands (for lack of a better term.)

From there, early work is on a film-making game.  Joining the cinematic productions game is a trading game during the colonial days.  This game will need a bit of play-testing, but I feel as though it could be a winner in the future.

(ed note: the new working title of the game aforementioned as Elements is now Manna)

Games Manna

Chicago crime knows no bounds

Even the police are not safe in Chicago.

The question is simple… at what point will the city leadership realize that crime is a pandemic?   It is not tough to see that Chicago is on pace to having the worst crime rate in years.

Yet Chicago’s leadership does effectively nothing. Sure, 100 more police on the street will help, but the current tactics used by Chicago’s finest is simply not working.  It is time for Chicago to look towards the example of New York’s Giuliani plan.  Broken windows ordinances, statistical analysis and targeted response by neighborhood, crackdown on relatively minor crimes, and requiring the police to patrol on foot instead of in their squadcars would be a star.

If these simple tactics changes — at marginal cost at best — do not provide significant changes, then inviting in outside interference like the Capone days is a woeful, but potentially necessary step.

Failing to address this problem with a reasonable response is unacceptable at best, criminal negligence at worst.

Crime Second Windy City

Primaries tomorrow-week

The Oklahoma primary season is upon us, including several interesting races in the playoff level.

First, media darling Mary Fallin appears to be set to squash the candidate in support of quiet revolution, only after backing down from arguing for a strengthened, perhaps second Oklahoma militia.  In the waning days of the campaign, team Brogdon has thrown a bit of political mud at Congressman Fallin, including the label as a “liberal”.  Really.  Mary Fallin.  Liberal?  That is like calling Barack H. Obama a Tea Partier.

Meanwhile, the Democratic ticket is much more interesting.  The battle between who takes on Fallin is between two political cruiserweights, Drew Edmondson and Jari Askins.  Both will have a difficult time defeating the Republican in a down year for Democrats.

Finally, the fifth district, an estimated 434,305,249 candidate race draws to a close.  Expect for Wednesday morning to see Kevin Calvey against either Baptist minister James Lankford or oil-funded Mike Thompson.  It appears that central Oklahoma Republicans are going to overtime, with a party of Reagan candidate against an anti-establishment social conservative or an establishment energy guy.

2010 OK-Congress District 5 OK-Governor okiepol
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