Focus on Lea County Spring 2016

SPRING 2016

THE

GAMES PEOPLE PLAY

Disc Golf Fever in Hobbs Southeastern NM Cycling Playing a Game of Spells BINGO is the Game Oh Pi Day Games at NMJC Board Game Trivia & More!

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FOCUS ON DISC GOLF

DISC GOLF SPREADING LIKE WILDFIRE

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TIDBITS & TRIVIA

FOCUS ON CYCLING

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FROM THE EDITOR

LEA COUNTY RESIDENTS TAKING THE CYCLE PATH

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CASTING A SPELL

LOVINGTON MAINSTREET EVENTS FOCUS COMMENTARY

FROM CHAUCER’S ENGLAND TO SETTLERS’ LEA, THE GAMES HAVE BEEN DIVERSE

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FOCUS ON FUNDRAISING

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FOCUS ON MATH

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FOCUS ON MAKING THE GAME

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GAME OF CHANCE GROWING IN POPULARITY PI DAY GAMES AT NEW MEXICO JUNIOR COLLEGE NEW MEXICO RESIDENTS DESIGNING THEIR OWN GAMES

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ABOUT THE COVER Disc golfers enjoy the Hobbs Ice Bowl tournament at Harry McAdams Park on February 27.

Read their story on page 6.

Kyle Marksteiner, Editorial Director - Adrian Martinez, Advertising Photography by Various Photographers - Submitted for Use in Focus on Lea County Special Contributors: Susan C. Waters, Leah LM Wingert, Tabatha Lawson - Lovington Mainstreet & Jim Harris FOCUS ON LEA COUNTY IS PUBLISHED QUARTERLY BY AD VENTURE MARKETING

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SPRING 2016 | A COMMUNITY MAGAZINE

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F O C U S from the editor

KYLE MARKSTEINER Editorial Director

FOCUS ON LEA CO.

that the members of the Green Bay Packers offensive line get together regularly to play Settlers of Cataan? That’s right, some of the strongest men in America gather around a kitchen table at least once a week to strategically trade ore for sheep while trying to build the longest road. It’s kind of hard to dislike the Packers after that. There are a number of jokes that could be made about what certain members of other NFL teams do or don’t do in their free time instead, but you can come up with the punchline yourself.

Welcome to the Spring 2016 edition of Focus on Lea County, where we celebrate the Games People Play.

That’s a broad net to cast, as games could range from outdoor sports and recreation activities like cycling or disc golf to board and video games. It’s a celebration of recreation and the fact that people take their leisure activities pretty darned seriously.

Just for the purpose of this column, however, let’s focus a little bit on board games and family game night. What’s your favorite?

Are you a fan of old school Monopoly or Battleship?

For me (and thanks for asking), it’s probably a tie between the aforementioned Settlers of Cataan and Axis and Allies, a World War II reenactment game that often takes almost as long to complete as World War II itself. Honorable mention to Trivial Pursuit (the “Stuff I Know” edition), and Risk, which is fun but baffling since control of Australia becomes so strategically significant.

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FOCUS ON LEA COUNTY | SPRING 2016

NO SHAME IN For those of us with small children, family game night is an entirely different manifestation. Games of strategy are replaced with games of pure chance, because 4-year-olds are traditionally terrible at defending Russia from a mock tank invasion.

So you basically roll the dice and take turns walking through a candybased neighborhood, or across a farm or whatever. There’s also a point in every board game involving children, however, where the adult realizes that the child playing is not going to win.

I fondly recall a family game where the four adults at the table all tensely realized that my daughter’s dice roll was going to send her plummeting down the final chute in Chutes and Ladders instead of to the victory line as she’d anticipated. The chance of a temper tantrum was very high. Is it a teachable moment, where you

explain that the fun of the game is just playing? What if that’s the last night of the visit, and you don’t want grandma and grandpa’s visit to end in tears? Do you decide that the lesson in sportsmanship can wait and, as C-3PO once mused while watching a game against Chewbacca, “Let the Wookie Win?” As always, thanks to our stringers and columnists for helping us put this edition together—Leah Wingert, Jim Harris and Susan Waters.

Special thanks for this one to Adrian Martinez, for taking many of our excellent pictures. We hope you enjoy the magazine.

Oh yeah, Stratego was also one of my favorites. And Careers. And Taboo.

But not Life. Never Life.

A B O U T T H E E D IT O R

Kyle Marksteiner is the editorial director of Focus on Lea County and Focus on Carlsbad. He can be reached at editor@ad-venturemarketing.com.

Board Game Trivia

MMarvin O NGardens OP OLY SCRABBLE doesn’t exist. Marven Gardens Though it has never is real, but there’s a typo on the board that was never fixed.

Sydney Mobell crafted the most expensive Monopoly game ever. Valued at $2 million, it consists of a 23-carat gold board and diamondstudded dice.

As of 2014, six billion green houses have been created and more than two billion red hotels, too.

been used, the highest-scoring word possible would be “oxyphenbutazone.”

All the Scrabble tiles ever produced would reach around the earth eight times.

LIFE Though he singlehandedly launched the board game industry, Life was actually the only board game Milton Bradley ever invented himself.

CTheHgame U Toriginated E S &in LIndiaA DDER S JENG A in the 19th century.

Jenga is relatively new. Leslie Scott produced The original moral lesson of the game was that a person could attain Moksha (or salvation) through good deeds, whereas evil deeds would cause rebirth as a lower form of life.

CThereL Uhave E been over 25 versions of Clue, including the Clue VCR Mystery Game and Clue Jr.: Case of the Missing Pet.

Because the Clue movie was a flop in theaters, it was one of the first VHS tapes to be heavily discounted from the $100 price tag. Consequently, it developed a cult following.

the game in the 1980s based on a game her family played with children’s building blocks.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT Trivial Pursuit was created when two Canadian news editors found pieces of their Scrabble game missing and decided to develop their own game.

(Trivia compiled from Buzzfeed.com) SPRING 2016 | A COMMUNITY MAGAZINE

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F O C U S on disc golf

DISC GOLF Spreading Like Wildfire

by Kyle Marksteiner

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER AT A LOCAL PARK TURNED OUT TO BE JUST WHAT IT TOOK TO GET THE BALL ROLLING, ER DISC FLYING, IN BRINGING A DISC GOLF COURSE TO HOBBS. Now, a few years later, local enthusiasts just completed a successful winter tournament and the City is looking at expanding its current disc golf facilities.

The story best begins with Lubbock resident Patrick Kitten, who has been playing disc golf for 17 years. His interest in the sport started with a bet.

“A guy bet he could throw further than me. He had discs, and I had a Frisbee,” he recalled. “We threw, and I lost a dollar. And then I lost another dollar.”

He attended a Lubbock disc golf event, and the rest was history. “I quit playing racquetball and jumped right in.”

Pretty soon, he was running the club in Lubbock. However, his work schedule changed, and he found himself having to travel more often. He wanted to continue supporting the sport, so he began designing courses instead. He’s designed or helped design about 25 courses, all of them in New Mexico and West Texas.

Since he still has to travel quite a bit, and there are often three or four hours to kill after work wraps up, he’ll usually find a local park to throw discs around. That’s what brought him to Hobbs.

“I just kind of monitor area parks to see if they would be a good fit for disc golf, maybe a 9 [hole course], maybe an 18, maybe other options,” he shrugged. “Some are and some aren’t. I was out there scoping it out (in Hobbs in 2010) and throwing a few discs, and some guy comes up to me and says, ‘Are you the one putting the course in?’ I chuckled and said, ‘I think I could help you out!’”

In 2010, the City of Hobbs paid for the course (designed by Kitten) at Harry McAdams Park, and renovations were made a couple of years later. The disc golf course drew quite a few residents, among them Marshall Hayes and his young daughter, Dakota.

“I bought her some discs, and then I bought myself some discs, and that was it,” Hayes added. “Pretty soon, I got to know all the locals out there playing.”

Disc golf—don’t ever call it Frisbee golf!—seems to be contagious. In February, Hayes and the Hobbs Disc

PHOTO: Disc golfers enjoy the Hobbs Ice Bowl tournament at Harry McAdams Park on February 27.

Photography by Adrian Martinez

FOCUSNM.COM

Golf Association hosted the Hobbs Ice Bowl, the town’s first disc golf tournament.

“It was a charity food drive event,” explained Hayes, who served as tournament director. “We also donated a percentage of cash we took in.”

The tournament was held in two-man scramble doubles format. It drew 33 registrants who competed in pro, advanced, recreation, intermediate, women and junior categories. The event raised $265 and more than 100 pounds of food, which went to the local Isaiah’s Soup Kitchen. The Junior Division included three players, ages 11, 13 and 15. Hayes’ daughter, Dakota, now 7, helped run the event.

Asked about her own disc golf career, she replied, “Well, I’m not good at it, but I keep trying.”

of Hobbs, who Marshall said will be adding another nine holes in an area yet to be determined. Kitten and Marshall are also working with Lovington officials to help redesign a course and said there was a lot of interest expressed by new area disc golf players at a recent meeting. A safe, logical and challenging course is in design.

The area is a fertile ground for disc golf enthusiasm; Lisa Gallagher, a women’s world champion, lives and works in Clovis. With courses in Hobbs and Lovington, expectations are that larger tournaments will be held that will attract area disc golf players.

“I see in the not too distant future the re-design and expansion of Artesia’s course. Look at possibilities in Jal, and in Texas at Denver City and Plains,

maybe Tatum,” Kitten declared.

There are already courses in Carlsbad, Roswell, Portales, Clovis, Brownfield, Andrews, Lamesa and Midland/ Odessa.

Nationally, disc golf is growing in popularity, Kitten observed. It’s one of the fastest growing sports over the past ten years and was even recently accepted as an exhibition sport with the Olympics.

And why not? “Disc golf is very cheap to play, is played year-round…by all ages, and is classified as a low-impact sport,” Kitten contended.

Disc golf enthusiasts seem to display a friendly sense of competition with a similarly-named sport. “Everybody calls it golf, but in the disc world, we call it ‘ball golf ’,” Kitten explained.

You see, in ball golf, the only variable

“It went really smoothly, and everyone had a good time,” offered her father, Marshall, adding that disc golf Ice Bowls across the country had raised millions of dollars.

More good news came from the City PHOTO RIGHT: An outline of the disc golf course at Harry McAdams Park PHOTO BELOW: Participants in the 2016

Hobbs Ice Bowl

SPRING 2016 | A COMMUNITY MAGAZINE

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“In ball golf, you swing one way, but there are nine different ways you can throw a disc,” Kitten continued.

“When you multiply that out by the different discs, there are 300 different options you have to think of before you release a disc for a successful shot.”

Still, a beginning disc golf player can usually do just fine with three discs: a putter, a driver and an upshot disc. is the type of club, “while in disc golf, there is much more variability. The different weights of discs do different things,” Kitten pointed out.

The discs have different aerodynamic characteristics, such as more or less weight in the center, that make them suited for certain winds, angles and distances.

PHOTOS: Another round of disc golf at Harry McAdams Park.

Photography by Adrian Martinez

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FOCUS ON LEA COUNTY | SPRING 2016

Anyone familiar with “ball golf ” can probably figure out the basic rules of disc golf. There’s a tee off from a concrete or rubber pad, and a disc is thrown in the direction of the course’s next metal basket. The competitor picks up from the point where the disc lands, often switching to a different disc that better suits the situation.

Starting sets of discs are available at local sporting goods stores and online, though Kitten noted that avid players are also often willing to part with older sets. Disc golf players are very

charitable. Most players with some experience have given many discs away to new players in an effort to grow the sport, according to Kitten.

Where to start? Harry McAdams Park is the obvious first location. For enthusiasts who want to learn more about the sport, the best place to start might be the Professional Disc Golf Association at pdga.com. Another great resource is dgcoursereview.com, which includes maps and comments about different holes. (The Hobbs course, for the record, has a “Good” rating.) Local disc golfers may want to catch up on the Hobbs Disc Golf Facebook page, which currently has around 140 members. It’s also a good way to keep up with upcoming weekly and area events. Marshall Hayes is running weekly events every Saturday at 1 p.m. Players of any age or ability are always welcome.

Or, you can always find a current player and talk to him or her, because interest in disc golf seems to be contagious.

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F O C U S on cycling

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FOCUS ON LEA COUNTY | SPRING 2016

Taking the Cycle Path

by Kyle Marksteiner

S

hortly after moving to Hobbs in 2014, Jason Owsley began looking for a way to quit smoking.

That’s when he discovered Southeastern New Mexico Cycling, a highly-organized group of about 80 men and women of various ability levels who all share a mutual love of riding bicycles great distances.

Someone loaned him an old bicycle and he heard about the club. He said he almost died on the first ride from all the pedaling, but that just got him more motivated.

“I haven’t had a cigarette since,” beamed Owsley, noting that cycling was the perfect fit for him. “I’m not very good at team sports. I was a runner prior to all this, but not a great runner. It just fit and made me feel good.”

“We’re sometimes referred to as ‘Team Hobbs,’” laughed Bob Reid, executive director of the J.F. Maddox Foundation. “We’ll sponsor a couple of rides every week locally that range in distance [from]…20 miles [to] 100 miles.”

As with Owsley, Reid also began cycling for health reasons. “My doctor

PHOTO LEFT: Members of the Southeastern New Mexico Cycling team on the move - for more information, visit senmcycling.org.

PHOTO RIGHT: Bob Reid Photography by Adrian Martinez

said it was better for my health than soccer or karate,” he reflected, “so I decided to give cycling a try.

Since then, he’s participated in numerous rides, ranging between 75 and 550 miles. That includes team rides from Houston to New Orleans, with as many as 10 to 15 such events a year. Most of these events, including the upcoming Cactus & Crude Ride, support charities such as the National MS Society, educational efforts and cancer research. More regularly, members of the club gather on Saturday and Sunday for their weekend excursions. It’s all street bicycling, though many of the members also enjoy mountain biking.

The club is nothing if not organized, and upcoming rides and routes are all documented at the organization’s website senmcycling.org.

“We have several routes listed on our website,” continued Reid, noting that the selection around Lea County is often based on the wind and temperature. Sunday’s route is typically a 2-mile route that begins and ends in the same place. Saturday’s route has a higher variance, from a trek west to Carlsbad to a ride east to Seminole and back.

PHOTOS: Members of the Southeastern New Mexico Cycling team Photography by Adrian Martinez

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FOCUS ON LEA COUNTY | SPRING 2016

To help promote safe riding, the board members of Southeastern New Mexico Cycling are all licensed cycling instructors.

“We’ve yet to have a major incident after 12 years cycling,” Reid explained.

“Riding in large numbers helps, since it allows motorists to be able to see us.” Other safety precautions include wearing bright clothing, riding with rear view mirrors and using a series

of hand signals or comments to communicate that a vehicle or other obstacle is approaching.

Although summers in Southeastern New Mexico can get unbelievably hot, Reid said temperature is not a major issue if you have the appropriate gear.

Wind, on the other hand…

“Wind is a huge training tool,” he explained. “It’s the equivalent [of]

training with elevation.”

Many of the special event rides are not races, per se, but the group does have a competitive attitude toward these participation races. “We’re trying not to compete individually; we’re trying to compete as a team.”

The group may rotate lead riders as part of a strategy. “All of the people behind that person can stay at the same speed with around one third less… expenditure of energy. So we rotate in order to be able to ride at a faster pace instead of exhausting ourselves.”

In one instance, a female member of the club wanted to finish ahead of the other women racers. The Hobbs club worked together to grant her that wish.

“It’s really important that if you are going to do any kind of distance riding, [you need] to have a team that will share the burden,” Reid cautioned, recalling one race that featured 35-mile-per-hour winds for most of the race.

“It’s devastating to ride by yourself, but because we have a team, we are able to share time on the front and finish that particular event.”

Another member of the club, Rick Crosby, remembered Reid getting him started about nine years ago. “At the time, we didn’t have an organized group,” he recalled. “We just had a couple of guys who wanted to ride a bicycle.”

he declared. “Then we were getting into 60-70 miles and now I’m looking at 150 mile rides.”

Crosby remarked that Saturday’s ride is usually anywhere from 30 to 100 miles, though the riders will stop and regroup every few miles.

Does age matter in cycling?

“It’s fun to do, for one thing,” he reflected. “It also has so many physical benefits. It uses more oxygen than anything I’ve ever done. I’ve never done anything else where you have to keep going for hours.”

A typical Saturday ride will have around six people, while Sunday’s lighter rides are in the 12-15 people range.

“We’re there to help people,” Crosby acknowledged. “We give away helmets and any advice they might need. We’re happy to work with everyone.”

Owsley, the newcomer, said participating has given him a huge sense of accomplishment. “At first, doing 2030 miles without a car, that was huge,”

“He’s showing a lot of progress,” Reid added about Owsley. “He a young guy and he’s quite ready.”

“Sort of,” admitted Reid, who turns 64 this year. “Youth trumps a lot of things, all being equal, but there are things that influence your success.”

Conditioning, technique and the proper equipment can allow an older rider to compete against a younger rider fairly well, he noted, and sometimes wisdom tips the scales for a racer.

“Some young guys have too much testosterone, and they move forward at the wrong time,” he maintained. “They’ll jump ahead, and then the group will catch them and swallow them.”

But the members of Team Hobbs, men and women of all ages, teach good examples on working together. For much more information, including details on weekend treks and upcoming charity rides, please visit senmcycling.org.

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F O C U S on a card game

by Leah LM Wingert

UN-TAP. UPKEEP. DRAW.

This is the Friday night mantra for a group of Magic: The Gathering players who meet every week at Hastings Books at 1822 N. Turner in Hobbs.

Along with decks of cards and dice bags are friendly smiles and routine comments such as, “How have you been?” and “Good to see you!”

On this particular Friday night there were approximately 15 players gathered to enjoy an evening of friendship and, of course, Magic.

Twenty-one-year-old Patrick Fischer is PHOTO (left to right): Marie Fischer, Theresa Wingert and Silas

Mitchell wait for the gaming to begin.

the facilitator of this particular group of Magic players.

“When the game store in town closed down, we needed somewhere to play,” Patrick declared, overseeing an enthusiastic group of players as cards and decks came out and the trading portion of Magic began before actual game play. “Fortunately, Hastings was willing to step up and allow us to play here, and I’ve been playing Magic ever since my parents bought a deck at a garage sale.”

Therefore, becoming the facilitator for the group was a natural fit for Patrick, as was bringing his family along for the ride. Both of his sisters, 19-year-old Alexandra and 16-year-old Marie, join the evening’s fun.

“We’ve been playing Magic since we were really young,” stated Alexandra as she readied a stack of the beautifully illustrated playing cards.

“I play everything,” Marie chimed in while shuffling her deck. “We play Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokémon as well. It’s a good hobby and gets us out of the house.” Many of the evening’s players echoed her opinion. Friendship, camaraderie and competition are the major reasons most of the evening’s participants come to the different gaming nights offered by Hastings.

In addition to Friday Night Magic, Hastings also offers gaming on Thursdays with Pathfinder, a role playing game, and both the Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokémon trading card games on Saturday. A nominal $5 fee—prize support—is assessed for those playing Magic: The Gathering on this night.

Everyone who participates wins something, with the bigger, more expensive prizes going to the first and second ranked players of the evening.

“Magic is easy to learn,” noted Patrick, “but hard to master, and a deck can cost anywhere from $50 to $4,000 for the more competitive decks.”

Ali Herrera has been playing Magic for more than seven years and explained the differing costs this way: “Cards are valued by the way it helps a deck’s efficiency and by how many times it’s been printed. For example, fetchies (Magic shorthand for a particular type of card) help you search through your deck for a specific land, and these types of cards are more valuable than a basic land card. Some cards can cost up to $1,200 just for one.”

While that price may seem exorbitant to some, for serious Magic players the cost is worth the potential reward.

Magic: The Gathering was the first trading card game developed, and it is still the most played with millions of players worldwide. First developed by Richard Garfield in 1993, Magic: The Gathering was marketed to the wellknown game publisher and distributor

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FOCUS ON LEA COUNTY | SPRING 2016

FOCUSNM.COM

Wizards of the Coast and has become an international blockbuster. Far from being a fly by night phenomenon, Magic is complicated business and can mean big cash payouts for elite players on the world stage.

“There are different types of rankings,” remarked Evan Hutchins, one of the Hobbs Magic regulars. “There are ways to earn points toward the ranking system. There are silver, gold and platinum ranks and even a Hall of Fame.”

In order to achieve these ranks, a Magic player must play at a sanctioned location officially recognized by Wizards of the Coast. Magic: The Gathering also has large conventions called Grand Prix that are open to the public no matter what your skill level or ranking. One of these Grand Prix tournaments will be held in Albuquerque April 15-17 at the Albuquerque Convention Center.

“At the Grand Prix there are cash prizes for up to 64th place,” expounded Fischer. These Grand Prix tournaments travel the globe with some of the world’s finest Magic players.

In 2016 there will be Grand Prix tournaments held in such major cities as Beijing, China; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Kyoto, Japan. According to the official website of Magic: The Gathering, magic.wizards.com, the top prize for the individual winner of the Magic Grand Prix is $10,000, and the top eight winners of any given Grand Prix are then selected for the even higher

ranked Pro Tour. These Pro Tour tournaments are only open to players who have won a Grand Prix, are members of a Pro Tour Players Club or are members of the Pro Tour Hall of Fame. Depending on a player’s skill and dedication to the game, there are dozens of Grand Prix tournaments to enter across the globe.

While Magic: The Gathering has not yet reached the level of popularity of some historical games such as poker or chess, it’s getting there with exposure on every major continent and translations across the globe. In 2014 Hasbro, who owns the media rights to Magic: The Gathering, announced that it was planning a large scale movie production for the franchise in partnership with 20th Century Fox. This move will expose an even larger audience to the trading card game.

While a Grand Prix would be exciting to enter, the Friday night players in Hobbs play more for the love of the game and the friendships it engenders.

Twenty-six-year-old Nathan Gage spent his evening teaching a brand new player, 11-year-old Theresa Wingert, the rules of Magic, coaching her along in her match against Ali. Meanwhile, Eric Lopez, 19, and Silas Mitchell, 13, sat to the side with Lopez teaching Mitchell how to play the YuGi-Oh card game.

“I don’t really play Magic,” admitted Eric as he patiently explained the

differing cards and rules to Silas. “I really just come out to see people and have fun.”

“I like Magic,” insisted Silas. “I really like getting out and seeing everyone. “ “If you want to learn how to play, there’s always someone here to teach you,” added Nathan as he pointed cards out over Theresa’s shoulder while Ali reminded her to un-tap, upkeep and draw during the first phase of game play.

“But don’t expect us to take it easy on you,” smiled Marie. “We play each game as a game.”

“Each card game is a community,” Patrick maintained as the players began to switch to their next assigned games. As Theresa got up to move, Ali noticed she didn’t have her own game mat. Without hesitation, he reached into his own bag and pulled one out.

“Here, you can have this one,” he said sincerely. “It was given to me by the person who taught me, and to him by the person who taught him. It’s been through four players. Of course, just give it to the first person you teach,” he urged as Theresa blushed a thank you and he settled in for his next match.

Within the walls of Hastings in Hobbs, New Mexico, there is a community of gamers waiting for you to drop by for a game of Magic: The Gathering, Yu-Gi-Oh or Pokémon and cast a spell or two of your own.

PHOTOS (LEFT TO RIGHT): Folder full of Magic: The

Gathering cards • Ali Herrera gives Theresa Wingert his game mat. • Alexandra Fischer holds her cards.

SPRING 2016 | A COMMUNITY MAGAZINE

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F O C U S on mainstreet R E V I TA L I Z I N G O U R H I S T O R I C D O W N T O W N D I S T R I C T

LOVINGTON MAINSTREET 2015 WAS A BUSY AND EXCITING YEAR FOR LOVINGTON MAINSTREET.

TABATHA LAWSON

Executive Director LOVINGTON MAINSTREET

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We are most grateful to live and work in a community of such generous, caring people who enable us to carry out our mission of revitalizing historic downtown Lovington. Throughout 2015, we have seen some major improvements begin to happen in the downtown district. Last year brought seven new businesses and 19 new jobs downtown. Three building purchases, 12 building rehabilitations or remodels and three business expansions have taken place in the district, totaling over $400,000 in private reinvestment. With the digital equipment upgrades at the historic Lea Theatre, streetscape improvements, and demolition work in preparation for the new Judicial Complex, downtown Lovington received over $1 million in public reinvestment funds last year.

For the second year in a row, Lovington MainStreet was selected to receive national accreditation for meeting the commercial district revitalization performance standards set by the National Main Street Center. Additionally, in 2015, Lovington MainStreet was recognized for downtown economic positioning efforts and honored with the Award for Outstanding Business Development at the New Mexico MainStreet 30-Year Award Celebration in Artesia last summer.

Lovington MainStreet hosted 11 special events during the course of the year and logged over 1,400 hours from our

FOCUS ON LEA COUNTY | SPRING 2016

remarkable group of volunteers! We also partnered with the Chamber of Commerce to offer a marketing seminar to business owners, and with downtown merchants to host three separate promotional events to encourage shoppers to purchase from businesses within the downtown district and support the local economy.

This past year, we have focused on educating the public about our organization as well as the importance of revitalizing historic downtown Lovington. Our organization has forged many important partnerships and we look forward to continued success with different collaborative projects.

Lovington MainStreet is currently in the process of working with two downtown businesses to award them grant money and architectural design assistance to help upgrade and beautify the façades of their buildings. Obtainium, a past recipient of Lovington MainStreet Façade Improvement Assistance, was awarded the Architectural Achievement Award from the New Mexico Historic Preservation Department in 2015.

Potential continues to abound in downtown Lovington. We are extremely excited to see some amazing projects come to fruition with many more in the pipeline.

Lovington MainStreet is most fortunate to have such a passionate board of directors who are committed to the goals and vision of our organization, as well as the outstanding support and resources

available from New Mexico MainStreet.

We are thankful for strong partnerships with the downtown merchants, City of Lovington, Lea County, Lovington EDC, Lovington Chamber of Commerce and various other community-minded organizations. Lovington MainStreet is comprised of a very hard-working group of people who believe in the positive changes being made in this community!

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F O C U S commentary

From Chaucer’s England to Settlers’ Lea, the Games Have Been Diverse

by Jim Harris

IN

the 14th century when Geoffrey Chaucer was writing his Canterbury Tales, the top three games people played had to do with sports that had been part of the human experience for thousands of years: the serious, elemental pastimes of hunting, fishing and hawking.

Seven hundred years later, some of us are still participating in certain of those three, though hawking, which Chaucer thought of as the most consequential, is now a minor,

PHOTO LEFT: These Marathon Maniacs (from seven different states) were part of the Lea County Museum’s New Mexico-Texas Challenge Marathon in 2011. PHOTO RIGHT: The beginning of the 5K race in 2014.

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under-the-radar sport in terms of the number of people who are involved in it. During Chaucer’s life hawking—or fowling, as it was also called—was the sport of royalty, and the hawk was in high favor as the constant companion of nobles and anyone wealthy enough to own a castle.

Despite the fact those games are still with us, what we think of as gaming today is much different from what it was in the Middle Ages.

To hear the young today speak of gaming, one might make a case for saying that the word “game” is the most generalized word in the English language. One of its first uses to be found in printed documents was in the Old English that was spoken in

the centuries just before Chaucer.

The word then, when English was much closer to its German parent, was “gamen.” It meant joy, fun, amusement, and had to do with sport pleasure, merriment, participation and communion.

With time “gamen” generalized into signifying much more. In the 1670s, it meant ready for action or unafraid, as in the gamecock that fought to the death in chicken fights (but a term which a cocker would never use to describe cockfighting). By 1787 it had the connotation of lameness and referred to tramps and itinerants. A century later in America, the word “game” began to acquire the meanings that it carries today, as in, for example, its verb usage meaning to sport,

joke or jest, and its noun usage meaning to play games.

Today among the young, the word “gaming,” after it has been coined and re-coined many, many times, can mean the activity of one who spends his or her days and nights playing video games on an Xbox, computer or smart phone.

I would say that last meaning is about as far from the hawking done in Chaucer’s time as a sporting event can get.

To illustrate just how far we have come in generalizing the meaning of the word, I need to relate my own initial response to the word “games” and the expression “games people play.”

When I hear those three words in that order, I automatically think of Joe South and the song he wrote and sang back in 1968. That may tell the reader something about my age, but readers should know that the song was wildly popular and won all kinds of awards in its day. It continues to be played regularly on certain oldies stations almost fifty years after it was re-recorded by dozens of other singers and translated into numerous other languages.

However, for the history of Lea County before 1968, residents here never heard of Joe South, nor had they heard of the bestselling book from which South took the expression. Eric Berne had published a nonfiction book in 1964 that explored the topic of transactional analysis, a psychoanalytical therapy used to help individuals alter unhealthy behavior.

In 1960s lingo, the term refers to head games humans play in their ordinary and not-so-ordinary interactions with neighbors, friends and enemies.

When in the 1970s I first moved to Lea County, I began to do research on a game that was very popular in the county at the time, especially down in the southern part of the county at Jal. That was the game of cockfighting, an ancient sport that may have originated in the jungles of far Eastern countries and the South Pacific.

To say the least, I learned that it was a below-the-surface game in which a lot of chicken blood was shed and a great deal of gambling money changed hands. Talking to law enforcement people today, I understand there were a lot of other things happening in the cocker crowd that I did not know about when I was researching the sport for publication in several periodicals and books.

The games we play in Lea today are primarily those of the rest of the nation, from high school team sports to more individual and underground competitions such as cage fighting.

Of course those are the literal games, but we also have the metaphorical games, those suggested in the first two stanzas of Joe South’s “Games People Play”: Oh the games people play now / Every night and every day now / Never meaning what they say now / Never saying what they mean / And they while away the hours / In their ivory towers / Til they’re covered up with flowers / In the back of a black limousine.

ABOU T THE AU THOR

Jim Harris is the executive director of the Lea County Museum.

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F O C U S on fundraising

Game of Chance Growing in Popularity

by Kyle Marksteiner

It was a Friday (or Sunday!) evening in Hobbs, and the parking lot at the Knights of Columbus Hall on Main Street was filling up. Seated behind the cafeteria tables inside, visitors were placing crosses and good luck charms in front of them, lining up small plastic bottles and stocking up on refreshments.

Can you guess what is going on?

Here’s a hint: “There was a farmer, had a dog and ___ was his name oh.”

So yeah, bingo is huge in Lea

County as a biweekly Knights of Columbus (KofC) fundraiser, but also sometimes at the Eagles Lodge or up in Lovington. Participants, often with numerous sheets of numbers

and several bottles of brightly colored daubers, eagerly anticipate each and every calling, all hoping for the opportunity to triumphantly shout out “Bingo!”

One important note: bingo isn’t just for little old ladies, though the demographic is certainly represented pretty well. At a recent trip to the KofC Hall, Lea County residents of all ethnicities, and most ages, were lining up to play.

That said, the very person to share her bingo stories with me was Wanda Brown, age 80. Wanda didn’t even wait until I’d identified myself as someone writing an article. She was just ready to share.

“When you get to be 80 and your knees have been replaced, you can’t go walking and you can’t stand anymore,” she mused. “But you can sit and play bingo, and that gets you out of the house!”

Wanda bingos (Can it be used as a verb?) three times a week. As such, she has become wise in the ways of the game. “It’s streaks,” she shared. “You may win two or three times in a row, but then you may not win anything for a month.”

Down the table sat Joe Morales, who was organizing his bingo cards beneath a carefully-placed crucifix.

Morales stated he is one of only three remaining members of the original bingo squad, which played at a smaller location a few blocks away. He’s been

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FOCUSNM.COM

playing since around 1965, he noted, about the same time he had finished a stint in the military.

“I win a lot,” he beamed. “I just won $400 a couple weeks ago.”

Nearby, Cynthia Luna said she has been playing for 2½ years, not counting a four month hiatus. “It keeps me out of trouble and off the streets,” she shrugged. “I just come to have fun.”

Her sister and brother-in-law recruited her, and she in turn recruited her boyfriend, who was then trying to get his family members to play bingo.

Pretty soon they expected to occupy an entire table.

A few weeks ago, when Luna was out of funds and had an overdue bill to pay, she arrived at the bingo hall with just $9. It was enough to purchase a single $8 master pack, which landed her $125.

“I win when I’m down and out and not expecting it. That’s when I win!” she exclaimed.

“I win when I’m down and out and not expecting it.

That’s when I win!”

Ruben Gonzales, with the KofC, has been helping out at the bingo hall for the past 17 years. His grandmother got him started well before that, though.

“Bingo to me is fun, because I love it,” declared Gonzales, the club’s bingo manager. Even though bingo doesn’t start until 6:45 p.m., many participants arrive more than an hour early to play scratch off games and set up their temporary bingo shrines. There’s a break at 8 p.m., then things resume until 9:30 p.m.

You purchase a master pack (a single sheet with several bingo tables), and then can add additional sheets to increase your luck. Children are allowed to participate at the KofC Hall.

PHOTO TOP LEFT: Bingo enthusiast Tammy Moreno shows off her bingo card. PHOTO BOTTOM LEFT: Angie Alanic, at right, enjoys playing with her friends. PHOTO RIGHT: Joe Morales declared himself to be one of the original crew

of bingo players.

On certain weekends, the pot goes up from $125 to $500. Gonzales acknowledged that he’s been seeing a lot of newcomers lately and is always glad to meet a new face.

One newcomer, Angie Alanic, has been playing for six months now. She attends with her daughter and a friend.

“I like to relax,” she shared. “You forget about everything going on outside.”

Meanwhile, Nelda Losoya said she’d been playing bingo for 40 years, including the occasional trip to Lubbock. It’s all chance, of course, but she has a plan for spending her earnings.

“When I win? I take that to the casino,” she laughed.

Games people play indeed.

F O C U S on math

Pi Day Games at NEW MEXICO

Pi

JUNIOR COLLEGE

by Susan C. Waters

Day has been celebrated in the United States for nearly 30 years, and it does not show any signs of waning. It celebrates an important mathematical concept—π (pi), the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter, which is 3.14—but the date when Pi Day is observed also happens to be Albert Einstein’s birthday, March 14. Since “pi” sounds the same as “pie,” Pi Day has become a bit boisterous in some parts of America, complete with pie throwing. Most, however, seem content to eat pie and to show young people just how interesting and fun math and science can be.

New Mexico Junior College (NMJC) math professor Shyla McGill, who organizes and coordinates NMJC’s annual Pi Day event, pronounced, “It’s about time math was brought down from its ivory tower and put into the toy box where it can be fun! Many children and adults are scared of math, but through different ways of learning, including games, it becomes less intimidating. Math should not be dry, crispy and dusty. No one should find it overwhelming, because everyone is capable of math.”

In 2015, the turnout for NMJC’s Pi Day was fantastic; 400 children and adults participated in the event.

This year, the event was hosted by the Western Heritage Museum & Lea County Cowboy Hall of Fame.

(A tally of the total attendance was still pending as of the Focus on Lea County deadline.) Approximately 120 fifth graders and teachers from Broadmoor and Sanger Elementary Schools were at the event. The types

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of activities included hands-on science and math fun and covered the concepts of probability, geometry, algebra, physics and critical thinking.

Also, during the morning session, McGill and her volunteers collected data for the Maddox Foundation, which sponsored the fifth graders’ program. A pretest and post-test were administered to measure students’ knowledge growth.

Older students and adults are not excluded from the learning fun. An “Open to the Community” event started in the late afternoon, ending at 7 p.m. An impressive number of booths were at both events: 18 for the fifth grade session and 30 for the community event.

An event of this magnitude does not just happen. Sixty-five volunteers were at the 2016 morning event and 80 at the community program. Behind the scenes, volunteers like NMJC’s Amanda Thompson were busily preparing for the event. A seemingly endless amount of time was spent on putting together activities, games and mementos for participants.

As soon as Pi Day was over this year, plans for the next were already being formulated. McGill maintained that she is hoping for an even bigger event next year. “We are tentatively planning on holding it in the Event Center, but we will need more funding. Currently, the Community Drug Coalition has been carrying the brunt of the costs, and we are so ever grateful.”

Toward the goal of making the event larger and more accessible to the public, McGill wanted more feedback about the traditional March 14 date.

“Whether or not people would prefer a weekend or the actual Pi day is what we want to know,” she remarked.

What motivates someone like McGill beyond a deep love of math? “People who have moved here from other parts of the world have said that this is the best family activity in the community, and that it is the best Pi Day anywhere they have been. Volunteers enjoy it so much that they can’t wait to do it again,” she boasted, adding, “When we took our Pi Day activities to a conference in El Paso, math teachers were blown away by what we had done.”

Math and science are vital to the nation. Top ranking and top paying jobs often require a strong background in the sciences. Actuaries, audiologists, mathematicians, statisticians, biomedical engineers, data scientists, dental hygienists, software engineers, occupational therapists, and computer systems analysts were listed as the science-related positions to have in 2015.

Sadly, the United States comes in low in the international educational rankings. In the Program for International Student Assessment, one of the most extensive tests which ranks students internationally, U.S. students ranked a dismal 35th out of 64 countries in math; in science students placed 27th. Other tests show similar results. It seems obvious that none of this bodes well for America’s future. People from other nations may have to fill in the gaps if our level of math and scientific literacy does not change. Programs like NMJC’s will hopefully foster more interest in math and science.

FOCUSNM.COM

What Games Are Played at NMJC’s Pi Day? Students greet participants as they walk in, then give them instructions for filling out bingo cards. Four of the squares lead participants to drug awareness booths where important educational information is provided to kids, and the other booths obviously focus on math and science. Door prizes for completed bingo cards have ranged from TVs to Xboxes. Prizes at booths can be stickers and candy. Here are some of the games which are played: EXPLAIN THE CARD: Math questions or comments need to be explained by participants for a prize, and kids can ask questions until they understand.

SING ALONG MATH: If kids listen and sing a chorus from the many math songs, they receive a sticker.

EINSTEIN PICTURE: Einstein, or at least a painted plywood proxy, is in attendance.

Students can stick their heads in the cut-out face portion and have a picture taken of them as the world famous genius.

BEADED BRACELETS: Participants are given a length of string. If they can string together in the correct order enough digits of Pi to go around their wrist, they receive the bracelet and a sticker on their card.

PIE ROULETTE: With a turn of the spinner, kids receive a piece of apple, cherry, pecan or AWFUL pie. The question here is about the probability of the pointer landing on the AWFUL pie. Then, if they spin again, what is the probability of landing on the AWFUL pie twice?

TROUBLE WITH BUBBLES: Students blow a bubble on a table top. When the bubble pops, participants need to find the diameter, radius, area and circumference of the circle that was made.

CONE CAKES: Given a 2D drawing of a cone cake, primary school children have to identify the two shapes. Older children have to find the combined area of the shapes in the drawing. Adults need to calculate the volume of the actual cone cake.

PI MAZE: People climb through a maze made out of cardboard boxes. Then the maze is correlated to the Cartesian coordinate system, and points are plotted to draw the Pi maze.

STORY OF PI: Storytellers read books about Lady Diameter and Sir Cumference CARTESIAN DIVER BOOTH (a favorite of the participants): Students create their own Cartesian diver with glue guns, pipe cleaners, and plastic acetate. Permanent markers decorate the creations.

GET A MATH TATTOO! • EXPLODING TOOTHPASTE! HULA HOOP: Kids hula hoop as far as they can, and then measure the diameter to find out how far the hula hoop traveled.

BURNING MONEY: This is what kids and adults do with money when they do drugs. Dollar bills are soaked in an alcohol-water solution; the alcohol evaporates but the money stays soaked so when the fire is lit, the alcohol burns but not the money.

DISSOLVING FOAM: This is what happens to people’s brains when they do drugs.

Styrofoam is dropped into a bowl of acetone, and the foam dissolves into a mushy blob.

SCREAM TEST: This test measures how many people it will take talking at a regular voice level to make as much noise as a scream, using a voice meter.

Discussion at this booth is about sound being logarithmic.

FREE PIZZA: Local pizza shops donate the good stuff to participating kids, teenagers, and adults.

FLYING FISH: Remote-controlled flying fish are often part of Pi Day. Scattered throughout the venue, they are operated by visitors.

HISTORY OF PI DAY: Visitors have an opportunity to discover more about the annual celebration of the mathematical constant π (Pi), a day celebrated since 1988.

PAPER AIRPLANES: Paper printed with the digits of Pi in a very small font on both front and back is handed out. Everyone makes an airplane and then competes with the model created by NASA engineers for the best paper airplane. Kids are then given a handout on paper airplanes.

CHINESE SPOUTING BOWL: Students rinse their hands with alcohol, rub the handles, and are then able to make the water in the bowl rise, making a fountain.

CANDY JAR GUESSING GAME: Participants guess how many pieces are in candy jars; the closest guess wins.

F O C U S on making the game

New Mexico Residents Designing Their Own Games

by Leah LM Wingert

Humanity has been fascinated with games for centuries.

From the ancient Chinese game of Mahjong to Viking Era chess, history is littered with the creative desire to create and play games. Following closely their invention of paper, the Chinese are also credited with creating the first card games with hand-painted cards that travelled the Silk Road along with exotic Eastern spices during the 14th century.

Many of those early games are lost to us, their rules and mechanics eroded by time. However, British aristocrat Edmond Hoyle is generally credited with being the first person to create an official list of rules for a card game with the publication of his book A Short Treatise on the Game of Whist in 1742. Hoyle’s Rules, as they’re still known, marked the first official entry of gaming or game rules into the cultural vernacular and began a centuries-long love affair with game development that continues to the current day.

However, the most dramatic shift in game development has happened over the past seven years with the launch in 2009 of the funding juggernaut Kickstarter, an online crowdfunding platform. Kickstarter has given fans the ability to raise money online from multiple donors to fund games, music videos and even movies. This has created a paradigm shift away from old PHOTOS: Pocket Rumble—Clash of the Gems was created by Davy

Wagnarok and marketed through Booyah Games. Many independent game designers are able to produce and release their own products thanks to crowdfunding websites such as Kickstarter.

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FOCUS ON LEA COUNTY | SPRING 2016

money corporate games developers to a new way gaming platforms are brought to market.

Games are now being developed without the corporate rigmarole and from any place in the world, including right here in New Mexico.

Leading the charge in independent crowdfunding is Geek and Sundry, an online Twitch stream founded by

actress and entrepreneur Felicia Day. The effort is focused on the gaming phenomena with such programs as Co-optitude that primarily target indie games to Critical Role, a live stream following dungeon master and renowned voice actor Matthew Mercer as he leads an immersive Dungeons and Dragons campaign.

The popularity of Geek and Sundry and its programming proves that

gaming isn’t just for the basement anymore, and all forms of gaming are experiencing a renaissance, allowing autonomous game developers to have more access to fan driven capital.

One independent developer is transplanted New Mexican Davy Wagnarok of Booyah Games. An Air Force brat, Wagnarok grew up at Holloman A.F.B., then wound up in Alamogordo, where he enrolled at NMSU. From there he “became a concept artist for Invinity Studios, a video game developer based out of New York City.”

Gaming and game development are in Wagnarok’s blood. “I’ve been doodling and creating games since as early as I could hold a pencil.”

Wagnarok remembered. At around the age of eight, Wagnarok created his first board game. “[It] was called Halloween Town, where players would take on the role of trick or treaters. There hasn’t ever been a time I wasn’t working on a project, be it a comic book, video game or movie screenplay.”

Currently Wagnarok, along with his partner, game artist Rudy Ree, created and published their own original title, a table top game called Pocket N3ON City Rumble. Their newest game is Pocket Rumble—Clash of Gems. The game is currently available for purchase on the Booyah Games website, BooyahGames.com.

Wagnarok described the game as “a light, fighting micro card game for two to six players. It simulates a fight between teams of street fighters. Players use a wide array of attacks, combos, counters and super moves to beat the living gems out of opponents.”

Living and working in Eastern New Mexico has created some unique challenges for Wagnarok and Ree as they continue to develop and market their game. “Living in the middle of nowhere makes it difficult for me to attend conventions,” he laughed, “especially when the vast majority of them are run back East. However, I will be strengthening Booyah Games’ presence this year by making appearances at Gen Con and Origins.

One day, I would love to fly out to Germany for some Spiel (game) action!”

Wagnarok and Ree have made the effort to be a part of the gaming convention scene by making the trek to Texas for “PAX South in San Antonio for a three-day weekend of non-stop gaming. It was a blast!” he enthused.

While Wagnarock appreciates the importance of Kickstarter in the success of his game, he said that he “can’t express . . . how important it is for developers to build a tribe before launching their game on Kickstarter.

There are nearly 350 board game projects launching every month on Kickstarter, and the numbers are constantly on the rise thanks to successful projects like Exploding Kittens that brought millions of newcomers to this platform.”

Wagnarok again emphasized the importance of gaining a following of supporters before attempting to launch a Kickstarter campaign. “The market is becoming oversaturated with talent, [and] competition is fierce!” he stressed, but “think about it this way: Without the Crowd, how do you Fund?”

Such recommendation is certainly an important thought for any person interested in developing and funding their own independent game.

No matter what, Wagnarok encourages budding developers to reach for their dreams. “If you have the next big idea, you should go for it. Seriously. No matter how old you are—whether you are 15 or 85—or how much experience you have (or don’t have), you should be on Kickstarter pitching your creation to the world! What do you have to lose? No, what do you have to gain?”

Lea County residents with a board game or video game idea may want to look to Kickstarter as a way of introducing the idea, but only after they’ve done a lot of the legwork.

SPRING 2016 | A COMMUNITY MAGAZINE

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