Podcast Talk: The Dice Tower; Knitting Disaster

I'm sorry about yesterday, guys. I totally forgot it was Wednesday and I didn't post my Podcast Talk. Bad blogger, baaaad blogger!

This week I have been listening to The Dice Tower. The show's name has been changed three times: first it was The Tom and Joe Audio Show, then it was Panzers and Pieces, but I think they have settled on The Dice Tower as their name. It is presented by two people who are well-known in the online community of boardgamers, Tom Vasel and Joe Steadman. Mr. Vasel has done over 300 reviews of Eurogames, while Mr. Steadman is a devotee of wargames and miniatures. They both teach at a Christian school in Korea and use games as a way to fellowship with students, American soldiers, and other families. Developing a sort of game ministry is something that I can only dream of doing, so I love to hear them talk about it. Don't think that it is an overly religious podcast, however. These guys are passionate about their games and that is the main focus of the show.

The feed URL was not the easiest thing to find. The show is hosted on the Gamefest website and the episodes can be found under The Gamewire's Special Features to be downloaded individually, but I couldn't find a button or a link to subscribe to the feed. I originally heard about the show from Boardgames to Go, but I found the feed URL by accident while I was browsing some of the smaller podcast directories looking for new shows. Hopefully, they will get themselves listed on Podcast Alley or Podcast Pickle soon so more people can discover them.

This is a long show (about 90 minutes) and they post a new episode weekly, although they will be going biweekly during the summer while Mr. Steadman visits the States. My favorite segment is the Top 10 list. I've picked up several ideas from their Top 10 Card Games list and I can't wait to hear them discuss their Top 10 Gateway Games. Mr. Vasel and Mr. Steadman don't just rattle off a list of games. They also tell you about their experiences with the games and what settings the games seem to work best in. My least favorite segments are when they try to do a little comedy, such as playing a wargame with Darth Vader.

This is a fairly new podcast with only six episodes available, so now is a good time to get caught up.
-------------------------------------------------
Remember when I mentioned that I taught one of my coworkers how to knit? She was working on a diagonal baby blanket and came close to completing it in record time for a first project. Unfortunately, her dog decided to do a bit of work on it as well. He tore it to shreds! This could have been a disaster because in my experience, a newbie doesn't get hooked on the craft if they have trouble finishing their first project. Luckily, she had another project going at the same time so she just switched over. Such knitterly behavior -- I'm so proud!