Manus Hand

My Home Page and Welcome To It

Yes, I needed a shave

Dead Presidents

If you're into dead presidents, you came to the right place. By simply clicking your mouse button, you can see pictures of me visiting the final resting places of every one of them (save four -- I'm still working on it). It's one of the most useless sites on the Net, and I'm not just saying so myself.

The Diplomatic Pouch

You're invited to rifle through the pages of The Diplomatic Pouch, the official home page for the game of Diplomacy and its many variants, a site (including an online magazine, and my labor of love, the Web/E-mail based DPjudge) that I started way back in 1995, and that I am proud to publish (and too busy to do so -- thankfully, I have grown helpers over the years). In addition to Weblishing The Pouch, my involvement in Diplomacy runs deep, including placing fifth for the world championship, being a member of the world championship team, winning the Don Miller Memorial Award for meritorious service to the Diplomacy hobby, being named an NADF All-Star (the veritable Hall of Fame in North American Diplomacy), and authoring a couple chapters for the user manual of Hasbro's CD-ROM release of the game (which I do not recommend, although a couple chapters of the user manual seem to be real good).

The ARMADA

The ARMADA is the Association of Rocky Mountain Area Diplomacy Adversaries. I started the ARMADA and have roped enough people into getting it going. In addition to crowning regional champions and keeping ratings for member players, the ARMADA has joined the other U.S. regional organizations in the rotation of the national, continental, and even the world championship tournaments. The ARMADA hosted the 34th annual North American Championships in February of 2001, the 2003 World Championships, and the 2004 U.S. Championships. So if you're in the High Country (or if you can see or can nearly see the High Country from your home on the eastern plains), visit the ARMADA's home page, join up, and get involved!

Chessgame Sudoku

During the 2020 COVID-19 quarantine, I got into the Cracking the Cryptic guys, on YouTube and was inspired to create "Chessgame Sudoku" which combines my loves for chess, retrograde analysis, and general puzzle-solving into something that made a bit of a splash in the puzzling world, and that now sports a good collection of puzzles that I am working (with many others who got excited by the stuff) to grow. Solve them online here!

My Family

Firstborn and only son in a family of seven children, I now am king of a castle in Parker, Colorado. Here, you can see some (very old) pictures of my wife Angela and my two children (Kayla and Jameson).

Zorkball

What? You don't know what Zorkball is? Well, don't feel special. But if you want to join the very small minority of people who make up the Zorkball cognizanti, you've come to the right place. (Actually, you've come to the only place.)

Computer Music

With my electronic MIDI keyboard and some software, I while away some of my free time transcribing music that interests me and even trying to compose some for myself. If you're interested by this, you can check out my fledgling collection of MIDI files.

Cookie Recipes

Cookie recipes?? What? You make cookies? Well, no, I don't (at least not very often). But if I did or when I do, here are the cookies I would make (with the recipes here only because when my wife asks for them I know where I put them). If you follow these recipes to make any, mail me some. I will eat them for you.

Neologisms

Since it's absolutely true and documented, and since tooting my own horn doesn't seem to be a problem for me, I'll go ahead and take credit for having invented two words: "emoticon" (now in worldwide use, which is the term describing those little text smileys like :-) and frownies like :( that are used in e-mail), and "Weblish" (to publish on the Web). Yep, those are mine, but you're welcome to use them free of charge!

Manus Hand, your friend and mine, is available via e-mail at "manus@manushand.com"