Talk is Cheap

Evening, y'all!

Yeah, I know, I'm supposed to be offline and stuff for my birthday weekend. Well, I promised y'all an update today and you shall have your update! We are currently somewhere out in the boonies in upstate New Hampshire, I think? I drove, but Jess plugged the AirBnB into Waze, so I know we went north and we're in NH and on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere...but where? Hell if I know and honestly, I'm really good with that. So you have my word this will be the last you hear from me til Sunday night at the earliest, ok?

TL;dr

• Birthdays all around!
• Origins trip
• Next few months travel plans
• Podcast update (it's good news)
• Teaching Notes
• Twitch?
• 800 Patron Milestone
• HeavyCon waitlist

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Did y'all know that the show's birthday was June 6, 2014? Yesterday Heavy Cardboard (and by default, Davis) turned 5 years old. That's a pretty significant milestone, I think. I mean, HC is now old enough to be in school and thinking for itself...which means it's likely talking back and sowing its oats a bit, heh. Five year olds, eh? ;)

Thank you to all of y'all and everyone who has helped make the show what it is and kept it moving along these last 5 years. I'm loving doing this and I hope that it's showing. No signs of slowing down, in fact, it's only going to continue on its pace or grow a bit from here. Lots to be excited about and hope y'all are excited about the future as well!

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Next week is the Origins Game Fair and HC is going to attend the convention, albeit a shorter trip than in the past. Normally, we fly out on Tuesday or Wednesday and stay until Monday. However, thanks to last years traveling and learning more about the conventions and such, we're flying in on Thursday and flying back to HCHQ on Sunday early. That will give me enough time to meet with the publishers that we have meetings arranged with (mostly our existing partners) as well as meet Patrons, viewers, and listeners. Best of all worlds...travel to the convention and do convention things, but also not take a ton of time away from the show itself. Nice!

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After Origins, there isn't a lot on the immediate schedule, travel/convention-wise. Gen Con is in August, but is TBD on whether to attend it or not. After that, there's GrandCon, then Essen in October. I'll keep y'all in the loop with the travel schedule as decisions get made on that front. 

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As mentioned in my last update, the podcast is going to continue. And I mentioned in the Weekly Look Ahead that y'all would have some things in your podcast feed from me this week. Well, I totally spaced on the fact that James M., who does all of the graphics and website stuff for HC, was on the road this week and wasn't available. So yeah...that's totally on me and I just plain forgot. So my apologies, but the good news is that it'll be coming while we're on the road. Yay! After that, you'll start having regular reviews and other episodes as you are used to. Double yay!

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The Teaching Notes for all Patrons at the $10+ level have been steadily updated in May and I hope that y'all are enjoying them and making use of them, too. A big thank you to Adam Kramer heading it up and to all the folks helping format and making them presentable to yall:

• Andrew Klock
• Brad Tumey
• Eric Fuller
• Michael Bohne
• Navaneeth Saiprasad 

We all would love your feedback on these. So if you're using them, let us know and let us know if and how they're helping and anything we can do to make them better. Thanks y'all!

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After doing some research this past week, I've found a possible way to start simulcasting the live-streams on both YouTube and Twitch. There are some hurdles to clear before this is something that we're going to start doing for sure, but it's certainly something that we're looking into. Look for some test streams trying it out post-Origins!

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I wanted to remind everyone what the next Milestone is for the show/Patrons...at 800 Patrons, We are currently at 733 Patrons, so only 67 away. When that happens, I'm going to invest a few thousand dollars into a PTZ camera that is going to significantly benefit the live-streams in both view-ability as well as allow for more games to be streamed like High Frontier and other massive table-hog games. If we can reach that milestone by mid-July, I've committed to making sure it's a 4K PTZ camera, but to do this, it's going to require help from all of y'all. Help spread the word about the show and the perks and benefits of being a Patron...help grow the show and at the same time, help make the quality of the show better!

I know it sounds like all the benefits are going to video side of things, but something that wasn't highlighted anywhere was the hiring of a podcast editor a few months ago. I didn't want to make that a milestone and just wanted to hire Joel to just help the podcast side of things. That was a significant change and upgrade to the podcast side of things, so this next one goes to the video side. I mean, we already have the best studio microphones possible for the podcast...;)

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HeavyCon V has come and gone and, from all the feedback we've received thus far, it was about as good as could have been expected and hoped for. The hotel was a good choice and turned out to be a positive as well...so we are close to locking down the same location for next year. What that means is that invitations are going to be going out this summer for next year's HeavyCon. So if you're interested in attending, make sure you get on the waitlist ASAP! Go here to signup and get on the waitlist:  https://www.heavycardboard.com/heavycon 

Being on the waitlist and being a Patron does not guarantee an invitation, but it certainly gives you a leg-up in doing so. Next year's dates are May 21-24, 2020. It's ALWAYS Memorial Day weekend, if that helps. :)

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That's all I have for now...Thank you all for your support and kindness. It's been a lot of fun these last 5 years on the show and an interesting about to be 44 years on this planet. Let's make these next 5 years even more fun together, shall we? :)

Be well, be kind to one another and have a wonderful weekend. See y'all next week!

-Edward