Oooooh, Shiny

If you've been reading this blog lately (for something other than dance recital hairstyles or tortilla chips) you know that I've won >$400 worth of stuff so far as part of the White Dwarf magazine 30th anniversary celebration. Well, yesterday was the big event, in which a gold plated version of the White Dwarf miniature was given away... and I didn't win! Granted, I won at least $80 worth of other stuff, including an Ogre Tyrant and an Orc Warboss on Wyvern, but I didn't win the gold thingy. sigh.

One of the things I won (by spending money and getting a pull from a box of sprues, some of which are unreleased or limited edition) was this super shiny space marine trio. The sprue has been coated the same way that model car bumper sprues are coated, which makes them fairly different than any other marine sprue I've seen. What use are they, you ask? Got me. I'm eBaying them, along with a couple other sprues that Mark and I got yesterday.

While we were there, Mark and I played a (not so) quick 1k game of Warhammer, his new goblins vs. my Skaven. In a surprising 5th turn reversal, Mark panicked the unit containing my general such that they fled right through another of his units, killing all of my unit. It was very well executed, but also a little lucky. The only reason he was able to pull off the charge was because of a fortuitous animosity roll that pushed the charging unit forward into position. I also got a chance to feel everyone else's pain yesterday, as a unit of my Rat Ogres charged some weedy little goblins, then lost combat and ran. The sheer size of the goblin unit was enough to scare my huge Rat Ogres off, something I'm much more accustomed to doing to others with my large Skaven units than having done to me.

Mainstream

I started reading Manga (Japanese comics, literally "irresponsible pictures") and watching Anime (Japanese cartoons, the name being taken from the first three syllables of "animation") about twenty years ago. Back then it was definitely a small, subculture group. We watched fifth or sixth generation VHS copies of "Macross: Flashback 2012" at the clubhouse of the apartment complex that one of the members lived in. Good times.

Nowadays the style has become ubiquitous, parodied as much as imitated, but always as a subculture or youth oriented culture, despite the fact that Manga in Japan is targeted at all age groups. (Check out Frederick Shodt's "Manga! Manga! The World of Japanese Comics" for a lot more info.) Well, today the front page of the Fox News web site had a picture that surprised me greatly. I took a screenshot for your benefit. The actual story can be found here.

Way back in the early 90's, Japanese publisher Viz Communications partnered with American publisher Eclipse Comics to publish a few Manga titles. Area 88, Xenon and Mai the Psychic Girl were published biweekly and quite inexpensive. I absolutely loved them. In the end, Viz terminated their relationship with Eclipse to go solo in the American market, proclaiming the coming explosion of anime/manga popularity over here. I don't things have exploded the way Viz wanted them to, but when the Japanese giving out a manga award makes the front page of a major news web site, Manga has officially been absorbed into our culture.

Orc Daddy Birthday

My kids are so cool. Wednesday was my birthday, and they decided to theme the envelopes for the cards they got me as "Orc Daddy Birthday" cards.

Sarah decided to get artistic, then spell out what was going on in case I missed it.


Lily went monochrome, with more lettering.


And Jay's included Orc D's, the girls explained.


My present from the kids and Stef was Guitar Hero 2 for my much neglected Playstation 2, and it is a hoot to play. The girls play it too by laying the guitar on the floor, one taking frets and one taking strumming. I should video it and post. It's quite entertaining.

Unlikey Event

As you may recall from my post last week, the girls and I won an Orcs & Goblins army box at the local games workshop store.

We won another one today, in the same sort of drawing. $430 worth of Warhammer figures in two weeks. It was a little embarrassing. Last week we received a lot of congratulations. This week a few people asked, "Didn't you win last week?" The plan now is to eBay the new box and buy a Tomb Kings army for the girls.

EDIT: eBay link. Since the army box contains a limited edition Orc Shaman, only available through this version of the army box, I'm hoping I can get a pretty good price for it. Wargamers tend to like limited edition figures, especially the ones that aren't available at retail anymore.

EDIT #2: I'm a little slow. I should have just declined the prize and let them give it to someone else. I was a little freaked out by the whole thing and it didn't even occur to me. In fact, I didn't even know that they were awarding another Orcs & Goblins box until they handed it to us. Now I feel really bad. I should have handled this better.

EDIT #3: A kid at the Games Workshop on 5/20 store echoed my own suspicions by telling me that I should not have taken it. One of the workers there immediately chimed in with the fact that this kid himself had won about $100 worth of stuff that day, so complaining seemed a little odd. The second army box, minus the limited edition shaman, have been traded away for a mess of Tomb Kings. The girls were geeked at the idea of having their own skeletal horde.

In Your Ample Free Time

My dad called a week or so to tell me that one of his favorite movies would be airing that evening. The 1946 movie, "The Best Years of Our Lives" tells of WWII veterans returning home and the way their lives have changed. I've wanted to see it for some time, and since this was a ready opportunity I set our DVR to record it.

The problem is that it's three hours long.

My television watching has been reduced to about two hours of scheduled time each week. Sure I watch more impromptu TV here and there (an episode of Wonder Pets with the kids, an episode of Futurama at 2:00 AM as I'm falling asleep, etc.) but the time I set aside for watching TV is pretty much just "Heroes" and "Lost", and even then we watch them from the DVR, so commercial time is cut out. I don't even really watch movies with Stef anymore, so to schedule a contiguous block of three hours is practically unthinkable nowadays.

I am considering going on a five night work schedule for my painting. Three nights of commission work for non-local people, one night of commission work for local people and one night for my own or eBay intended work. That leaves two nights a week that I could potentially watch a movie or something. I've told the DVR not to delete "The Best Years of Our Lives" and I really want to watch it. I think this five night schedule might be the best way.

The Big Box

Hey, remember the figures I said I was expecting? The ones that include 15 Harlequins? Well I only received 12 Harlequins... along with about 160 other models on foot and 18 vehicles in a huge box. Now this is a commission order.

I played Warmachine with Brian tonight. I got stomped twice in a row in a "mangled metal" scenario (only 'casters and 'jacks.) Whether Brian is just really good or I am just really bad remains to be seen. I fear the latter may be the case.

I've agreed to swap some Night Goblins of mine for an Orc Boar chariot for the girls' army. I just like to say it: "The Girls' Army."

EDIT: I actually did receive all 15 Harlequins, just packaged differently than I had expected. After a couple hours of cataloging last night, I count 25 vehicles/walkers (including 7 single rider jetbikes and 3 two-man jetbikes) and 150 infantry (about 125 of which are Eldar.) The last shipment of Eldar, 5 vehicles and about 65 infantry, took five months to complete.

Redefining "Automatic"

A coworker and I were discussing Internet Explorer 7 and he mentioned that it had been installed as a critical update from Microsoft on his machine, a method he was not entirely fond of. I seldom use IE at work so I decided to check my version to see if I had been updated on the sly. I had version 6. I was immediately curious because I have my computer set to automatically install updates every night. I verified that this setting was still set in control panel, and it was. Hmm. Ok. So I go to windowsupdate.microsoft.com to see what updates are available....

SEVENTY HIGH PRIORITY UPDATES

Sorry to yell like that. Seventy. Seven Zero. Despite the fact that Windows was set to install them nightly. Many of them were security updates as well. This is the computer security equivalent of walking into a room to find a person sleeping and a TV on, and when you turn off the TV the person says, "Hey! I was watching that." No you weren't. You were asleep. "Yeah, yeah..." Windows answers groggily, rubbing its eyes, "I was updating nightly."

Putting the "Back" in Backlog

I have a lot of work to do again. My own Space Marines and Menites are on the super-fast paint plan (along with prepping a unit of goblin wolf riders for the girls) before the next commission job gets here. I'm awaiting a few Cygnar figures, a bunch of Eldar (including 15 Harlequins!), some Sisters of Battle, some Dark Eldar and some Chaos.

At the same time, my friend and coworker Brian is pretty much divesting himself of all things Games Workshop. He's accumulated 5,000 points of Dark Elves and has offered to let me paint and sell them. That's hundreds more models to eBay if I want to take the time. Yikes.

Yes, folks, the backlog is back.

What's Gonna Work? Teamwork!

Okay, I admit it. My favorite show on TV right now is The Wonder Pets. I watch the adventures of Linny, Tuck and Ming Ming with my kids nearly every day, and I routinely walk around work singing the songs from the show. Yes, my coworkers are about to kill me. (And yes, "This is sewious.")

The show is created using "photo puppetry", sort of a frame by frame Photoshop-style compositing of photographs with some animation and CG effects. The episodes are all very musical, almost operetta in spoken to song ratio, and vary a great deal in musical styles presented. It has the predictable structure that young kids like so much combined with more complex concepts. I was able to explain foreshadowing to my 5-year old using the normal Wonder Pets episode structure.

More later? Maybe. Probably. Man I love that show.

Search Terms

I would like to welcome all viewers who arrive here searching for "Harry and David Multi Grain Tortilla Chips" or "Dance Recital Hairstyles." There are more of you than I would have suspected. I'm afraid you're going to be terribly disappointed.

I'm just some guy who write random stuff, mostly about his kids and his hobby.

The Big Winners!

Saturday was the big day at the local Games Workshop store. The staff at the new store had been handing out tickets for prize drawings since the day they opened, and Sarah, Lily and I had amassed quite a little stack of them. On Saturday at 2:00 PM local employee Marc reached into the box if tickets and pulled out one of ours! We had won an Orcs & Goblins army box! Contents of the box are pictured here (sorry for the small pic.) The people gathered offered much congratulations, and were a very positive bunch. I like that place more every day.

What we won:

• Orcs and Goblins army book
• 40 night goblins
• 20 orc warriors
• 1 orc boar chariot
• 10 black orcs
• 10 goblin wolf riders
• orc warboss on boar
• orc standard bearer
• orc shaman (limited release figure... only available in army box)
• goblin big boss

Retail price of the box: $215 !

The girls and I had talked it over before going there about both the chances of winning and what we would pick if they gave us the option to choose an army box. We had decided on Tomb Kings if they let us choose, but we are all terribly thrilled with the Orc army. (Plus, I should have remember that the army boxes are a fairly time sensitive things. They are only available for a few months at a time, then the next army's army box is released.) Considering that I already had a few units of goblins from a Battle for Skull Pass box that a coworker and I split, it makes for quite a sizable army.

Dissertations on the Inobvious

My girls have always been fond of explaining how things work. Sarah once gave one of our friends a twenty minute lecture on how tuna gets in the can. It therefore came as no surprise when my dad sent me this email today (Sarah and Lily spent the night there last night.)

At breakfast, Sarah and Lily and I were watching robins out
on the lawn, getting worms to eat.  I told Sarah that a
saying "the early bird catches the worm" actually applies
to humans who are rewarded for being the first to arrive at
a good opportunity.  Her response was that if she was a
mouse, she would rather be late to arrive at the cheese.
We then discussed why a trap causes this to be good sense,
and how bait connected to a trigger works.  Sarah then
described a manually-triggered mouse trap, and then ant
traps and also reasoned with me about using bait as poison
to be carried back to the ant nest.
Lily then drew how spiders can be killed by a poison fly
that when caught in the web is eaten, and the spider dies.
Her next trap design was for a flea.  After I left the
table, she continued on showing Diane how to trap a mantis
and then a scorpion.
Dad

One of our favorite "explanation" moments came when Sarah was about four. My dad noticed the squirrel feeder on our deck, and said "You have pet squirrels. My mom and dad used to eat squirrels." Sarah replied, "If you eat a pet squirrel, you will be filled with squirrel love."

Wow

A Games Workshop corporate store opened in my neighborhood. I decided to paint a figure for the single model category of a painting competition they were hosting, despite the fact that I had no entry prepared and less than a week to create one. I chose a Space Marine Captain in terminator armor that I could use with my Blood Ravens army, and ... drum roll please.... he won first place in his category! I've never won a painting contest before! Hooray for me! The "Best Overall" went to a squad of "Sisters of Battle" which were wonderfully painted in a turquoise scheme. They had amazing consistency and the faces were neat and varied and the prize was quite deserved. I need to get pictures of this fellow to enter into the Golden Toadstools this month... he's in the display case at the store so I don't know when I'll get a chance.

Eldar are, for all intents and purposes done. I have a single model to finish. Everything else is packaged and will be turned over to Angelos next time I see him.

I Love This State

It would have been nice if Christmas had been this white.

Some people complain about South Eastern Michigan's weather. They claim that it's too volatile and that the skies are gray almost all year. They complain about the fact that the temperature bounces around freezing all winter, which causes the roads to fall apart.

Personally, I like gray skies. I feel at my best when I don't have to squint. I like my light to be ambient.

Another mini... and false encouragement

I painted a Khador "manhunter" mini, and was pretty pleased at the end result. He is currently posted on CMON and getting savaged in the voting.

Stef and the kids were over at our friends' house for the night, and it was just me and the dogs. As I was pulling a handful of Harry & David multi grain tortilla chips from the bag, both dogs sat on the floor looking expectantly at me.

"I don't know what you're looking at, 'cause I'm not giving you anything," I said to them. At that exact moment I pulled a chip out of my handful of chips to eat, and two others accidentally came flying out of the handful to land exactly at the feet of each of the dogs. They each gobbled their chip, then followed me around until my chips were gone.

In Case You Were Wondering...

Never put an ice cube in a pan with hot oil in it "just to see what happens."

The mess is truly epic.

Water > Earth ... Varnish > Ink

The Odwalla truck fell through the earth today. It was backing up to the loading dock of the building in which I work, and its left rear tire fell through the pavement, revealing an extensive sink hole that goes under the building. Do you know whose office is right next to the loading dock? Yup. Good guess. Depending on the type of repair necessary, I'm guess I may have a move in my future. The current "story" is that there was a water main break, but honestly I think there would be more actual water evident if that was true.

Now, on to painting. Hey, guess what. Ink has no binder in it. I was reminded of this when I tried to use some brush on varnish over a freehand done in ink. I ended up with tinted varnish and no freehand. Anything worth doing once is worth doing twice, I suppose.

Dead Trucks and Improptu Haircuts

The truck's dead again. Yeah, it's sooner than I thought it would be too. I was headed home from Angelos' place last night when there was a loud pop and then a scraping noise. I knew immediately what had happened... a tie rod end had broken. The tie rod is what controls the direction of your front tires, so having one broken means that the associated tire is free to go where it pleases instead of obeying the tyranny of the steering mechanism. I had stopped for gas, so I was barely moving when it happened. I had it towed (once again) to Maynard's for repair.... $400 plus tax. Ouch.

I haven't had a haircut in a while. Wait, I guess I should say that I hadn't had a haircut in a while. This morning, as I was getting dressed, Stef beckoned me over to her desk. When I got there, she grabbed the hair on the side of my head and hacked it off with scissors. Then she turned me around and did the other side. I was a little stunned. Spring is here, so I suppose it's time to cut the hair and shave off the beard. Sigh.

Dance! Dance, I say!

My girls had a dance recital on Saturday. Technology invites you to see.

Sarah's Hip Hop Recital:


Lily's Ballet Recital:

Final Eldar Push

This weekend is the final push to get all Eldar done. Honestly, I don't think I'm going to get the Saim-Hann Autrarch done, but I will mail that to him separately.

It's been an awfully long job, and I've gone back and forth spending serious time on it. I'm glad it's finally getting shipped. Actually, the owner may have some more models he needs painted before Games Day, so I likely haven't seen the last of Eldar.

There's a huge Khador job coming down the pipe to paint in a record short amount of time. Angelos and I will be splitting it up to get it done. Expect WIP photos here. Oh, yes. Expect them.