archmage45
10 March 2008 @ 10:28 pm
Peer Presure  
Well, I blew it. I said I wouldn't, and I held out for a while, but the siren's call just took me in.

Saturday night I painted a miniature, and worked on another. I know I said I wouldn't, and I hadn't really planned on it, but when [info]silentrequiem arranged a craft and movie night… what was I to do? I don't have any pictures to show you, but I painted Khamul the Easterling (a ring-wraith), and the base colors on Suladan the Serpent Lord. Pictures forthcoming.

Mostly we watched The Simpsons, and I played some Lego Star Wars on Elspeth's Wii with Jay.




Today Lucy did really well at both her dog school classes. Go monster!
 
 
Current Mood: sleepy
 
 
archmage45
26 November 2007 @ 05:42 pm
Happy Black Monday  
Have you started your holiday shopping yet? I haven’t. Really I haven’t even thought much about it yet. This fall has just zoomed by, mostly due to school, and Lucy’s classes. Not a bad thing mind you, just a thing. Of course I really should get to it...

This past weekend for instance, I spent quite a bit of time reading about accounting issues that have cropped up over the last couple of years, trying to find a good topic for the paper that’s due on Wednesday. I did find one, and have a nice 3 page paper to show for it. I also had to write about the movie Disclosure. I had hoped to watch it online, say from Netflix, but the closest I got was from AOL I think, and they wanted $9.99 for it. No thanks! So I turned to wikipedia and it's lengthy plot outline, and now I have the 3 questions answered. I also watched the PowerPoint presentations and reread the 2 chapters in the accounting book in preparation for the test that’s also on Wednesday.

Late on Sunday I slapped some paint on the rangers of Gondor that I’ve sort of been working on. I say sort of because all the work I’ve done on them has been over the course of number of sittings. I’m actually pleased with how their faces have turned out though. Not bad for troop miniatures.

Looking at the calendar for the next couple of weeks I can see I’m not going to have a whole lot of free time between now and finals. In fact I think Sunday the 2nd is the only free day I’ve got. Tomorrow is the last of Lucy’s agility class until January, which does give me an extra evening to study for the accounting final in 2 weeks. Sometimes I hate being this busy.
 
 
Current Mood: Off to school
 
 
archmage45
04 November 2007 @ 10:19 pm
Just add water!  
I wrote that one of the things I wanted to do this weekend was to buy a wooden sphere and turn it into a planet. I didn't think I would get to do that, but I did! After I got all the stuff done I needed to get done of course.

So how does one go about making a planet. Well, there is one tried and true way...

I started off by painting in the oceans, and separating the night from the day. Genesis 1.1-5 )

Then I painted in the land Genesis 1.9-10 )

Then I added the colors to differentiate deserts and forests Genesis 1.11-12 )

And that's how I made a planet. The land masses are based loosely upon this representation of a terraformed Mars.

I also started on a jovian type planet. It's Styrofoam, and takes a bit more effort to get it base coated.
 
 
Current Mood: amused
 
 
archmage45
19 October 2007 @ 05:57 pm
There has been an incident on Praxis. However, everything is under control, we have no need for assi  
Tuesday night was rough. Lucy was very much not in the mood to listen to me, and was very much in the mood to herd me. At home this isn’t such a big deal. Out on a hike, likewise, not a big deal. During agility class, as we are running side by side, and she decides to leap up and grab at my shorts and I’m in significant danger of falling on her or stepping on her, then it becomes a bigger deal. On top of the danger to her, there is also the embarrassment of having your dog not listen to you. At all. In front of the entire class. The worst part of the embarrassment is that I feel like I should know how to correct it, and I don’t. So I get frustrated, and when I get frustrated I also tend to get mad. I don’t like getting that way, because while the emotions are mine, I take it out on Lucy, and on Tigs. I get snippy, and short, and I hate it when I take it out on them.

Aside from that it’s been a decent week. I’ve gotten my grades back on all the assignments and tests for both classes, and so far I’m getting an A in both. I’m not entirely thrilled with the A in accounting though, because it’s a curved A. I’m going to have to work harder between now and the next test (2-3 weeks). I really wish that school ran on 7 week quarters, rather then the 15 week semesters. I felt so much more motivated during the summer sessions to get stuff done because I only had so much time to do it in. With 15 weeks, it feels like forever. That’s plenty of time to get everything done! Until you realize that it’s 3 weeks till the end of the term, and you now have that time to do 12 weeks worth of back homework. Personally I don’t want to spend December freaked out about school. I’d like to be comfortable with my grades and my work by that point.

I started painting up another warlock. I decided on an orange robe, something a little different, and also in the theme of the month. At first I was unsure about the color choice, but I kept at it, and wanted to see if I could make it work. At this point the robe needs maybe one more highlight, just on the very edges, and then on to the his face and hands. I really like the figure too, as there are a lot of neat little details like the frog on his shoulder, and the claw coming out of his backpack. Pictures eventually. I’d say soon, but really I can’t promise that.

Stolen from silentrequiem )

Friday Five! )

Damn. I was going to make pumpkin bread tonight, but the pumpkin went bad. *sigh*
 
 
Current Mood: irritated
 
 
archmage45
30 September 2007 @ 11:57 pm
Some things I did this weekend  

Doing things with the help of a monster! )

Things I should be doing right now:
Sleeping
 
 
Current Mood: restless
 
 
archmage45
27 September 2007 @ 07:09 pm
Crap on toast  
Man I feel like crap right now. Sunday night my nose started running. Monday my throat got sore. By Monday night I was feeling downright awful, but I made it through class. After I got back from class I took some NyQuil and tried to watch the pilot of Heroes. I think I remained conscious through the whole episode. Of course I some funky dreams when I did go to bed.

Tuesday morning, I wasn’t really feeling any better. I took some Sudafed and headed off to work. Managed to make it through the day, but [info]tigergladys ran Lucy in agility class. I was sure I’d end up falling, cracking my head on something and bleeding on the floor mats. Then I’d get yelled at for staining the floor.

Wednesday was still crappy. My boss actually just told me to go home around 1, so I did. Took sort of a nap, relaxed, read some and had some soup. Tigs has been wanting mozzarella sticks for a while now, so when she got home we went down to the TT diner and she got her sticks and I got some more soup. Then I went to class.

Now it’s Thursday. Still feeling crappy. I wish I was sicker. As it is I just feel sick enough to feel sick, and not sick enough to stay on the couch and watch movies and drink tea. At least I don’t have anything I need to do tonight.

Tomorrow night Tigs goes to visit her sister for the weekend. So it’ll just be me and Lucy. We’ve got big plans too! I have to go to school first thing Saturday morning to take a test that I’m going to miss on Monday due to picking Tigs up from the airport and taking Lucy to her Rally class (not in that order though). Then I’ll be taking Lucy up to Oregon Ridge park for a dog charity event. When that’s over we’ll head home, and I’m going to study for the upcoming accounting test. Sunday will be more studying and some hiking with the rodenthoardeLucymonster. Not sure where we’ll go yet.



In other news, my X-Box power cord has decided that it doesn’t want to play anymore. For those who don’t know there is a built in fuse on the plug. Well, mine has apparently burned itself out. It was kind of a bummer as I wanted to shoot some stuff in Halo. Anyway, I called the X-Box help desk, and talked to a nice lady in India , or maybe Pakistan , and spent a little bit of time going over the problem. They are sending me a replacement cord…. FREE! It turns out that all cords made before some point in 2003 are defective and can cause fires! Awesome! Now I just have to wait for it to arrive...

I have also painted up a number of BFG ships. I hope to have Tigs take some decent pictures of them tonight. If we succeed in getting decent pics, then you should see them this weekend. Aside from that I don’t have anything I really want to do except relax and try to feel better.

Also, an icon I've been meaning to upload for a while.
 
 
Current Mood: listless
 
 
archmage45
29 August 2007 @ 10:45 pm
A week of computer issues  
The last week has been fun, computer-wise. On Tuesday (8/21), while I was home studying, the printer died. I spent an hour trying to get it up and running again with nothing to show for it. So when Tigs got home we checked the net for what was on the market, and then hit the stores. We ended up with a very cool wireless photo-printer, with crazy cheap ink. Of course that was another $200 I didn’t expect to be spending this weekend. Anyway, we brought it home, and after a couple of hours and a whole lot of cursing later we managed to get it talking to our router, but failed to secure the wireless network. But it all worked.

Wednesday I registered and paid for the fall semester classes ($600), bought the books for them ($300), and then went on to take the accounting final. I must have done pretty well on it, as I got an A in the class. As soon as it was posted I sent in my reimbursement form. The 4 months of the fall semester, plus the month to wait for the check are going to be less then fun with that, plus the tires, plus the printer all sitting on my credit card. Ug. And then I’ll be taking 2 more in the spring. But by mid-summer I should be making enough to make up for it!

Wednesday night the internet decided it didn’t want to play with us anymore, and it’s been like that since.

Thursday night we called Comcast at around 8, after futzing with the internet and trying to make it work for a few more hours. Shockingly we actually got hold of a real live person, and after he did what was necessary to prove that we aren’t ID10T users he scheduled a tech to come and check things out.

On Tuesday. *sigh* Between 6 & 8, or so they say.

So it was a weekend without the internet. I know for some of you this would be easily as horrifying as a zombie horde coming over the next hill, or learning that Fox is yet again canceling an awesome show that barely got off the ground. In reality it wasn’t all that bad. Besides, it was a busy weekend, so we wouldn’t have spent a whole lot of time online anyway.

On Saturday we started the day by checking out the AKC Obedience trial at the dog club, and hung out there for a while. Then around 11 we headed home, packed up some stuff, and headed out to an all corgi picnic. In spite of the high humidity and very sunny sky it was a lot of fun, and it turns out that a number of ODTC members are also members of the corgi club. (Although none of them were there.) The picnic was in honor of rescue corgis, but it was open to all. Lucy had a somewhat stressful time, but overall enjoyed herself. Plus, there were puppies! (Lucy loves puppies.) The picnic wrapped up around 4, and we went home, all of us feeling tired and worn out by the heat.

Pictures will be posted soon!

At home I decided to treat myself to some painting time. I looked through some of the stuff cluttering the top of my painting table, and picked out the two assassins that were sitting there. The standard GW paint scheme is really boring: black body suits and some details picked out in primary colors. I wanted something a little more interesting to paint, though I did keep the skull masks bone looking. I opted for a dark green body suit with some fairly intense highlights. It’s not perfect, but the effect is close to what I was going for.

Again, pictures will be posted soon!

Sunday morning we went to the farmers market and picked up this week's veggies. When we came home I worked on the minis some more. As it is I still have about an hours worth of work before they’re done. Then they’ll be listed on e-bay. Why will I be selling them? Mostly because I’m not really impressed by the sculpts, they don’t fit into my army, and I don’t have anywhere to keep them.

Around noon we headed back over to the club to watch some more obedience. The main thing we wanted to see was the basic rally. (Since the Monster is signed up for a class in September.) Now, most of the time events are run from basic to open to advanced. Of course, this time it was reversed, so we didn’t get out of there till around 8. A long time, especially since I hadn’t eaten lunch. However it was cool to watch all the different dogs run through the course. Tigs was really good at picking out which of them had the top scores. Then we went home, made dinner, and watched some Reno 911.

Monday night I had my first management class. It’s MGT 105 – Principles of Management. It’s going to be a ridiculously relatively easy course, with about 500 pages of reading over 15 weeks, and some written (easy) assignments. The book though… oh god it is BAD. In the first 10-15 pages there were 3 MAJOR grammatical errors. Major enough that the editor should be shot for incompetence! Seriously they were bad enough that I noticed them! Either way, it’ll be a relatively easy “A.”

Management isn’t anything I need for the accounting certificate, but when I want to take the CPA exam I’ll need to have about 30 credits in accounting courses, and another 30 in related subjects. I already have a significant chunk of that done (more than half), so it’s mostly just filler, since I couldn’t fit another accounting course in with the intermediate accounting and dog agility. With luck they won’t stick all the accounting classes on Tuesday night again in the spring. (Again, dog agility.)

I’ve also managed to squeeze in some Galactic Civilizations time. The first couple of games I played back when I first got it ended quite badly for me. This time I played at the easiest level (rather then normal) and on the next to smallest map. I’m actually doing well in it now, but honestly at this level that’s not all that hard. At this point in the game I’ve hit the middle part where no one is powerful enough to take on anyone else directly, so everyone is trying to build themselves up as quickly and as powerfully as possible. There have been a few little skirmishes, and I’ve lost some ships, but nothing too bad. I also have a couple of battleships currently being built. Once those launch things should move quickly. Plus my culture is dominating most of the map. I’m going to see if I can use it to “encourage” some stars to defect to my Federation.

Tuesday night the cabledude was due to come and fix our line. The window we were given was from 6-8pm. So around 6/6:15 Tigs took Lucy to the park, and I waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

Finally at about 7:50 the Comcast truck pulled into the parking spot in front of the house. The tech grabbed her stuff, came in, and checked the line. The cord was a little lose, but it had a strong signal once she tightened it up. Then we checked the connection, and it worked. She stayed maybe 10 minutes. Where the connection doesn’t work is through the router, either wireless or through an ethernet cable. So last night Tigs ordered a Buffalo router, which should be arriving on Friday. It’ll be nice to have internet on my computer again. And then I’ll be able to upload this massive post, rather then keeping it on a word document.
Or just post it from the laptop, with a 50 ft ethernet cable plugged directly into the modem.
 
 
Current Mood: verbose
 
 
archmage45
23 June 2007 @ 01:06 pm
It's elemental my dear Watson!  
Earth )

Air )

Fire )

Water )
 
 
Current Mood: artistic
 
 
archmage45
09 June 2007 @ 07:56 am
The Short and the Long of it all  
What’s a favorite shortcut of yours? I don't know that I have one...

What’s something you insist on doing the long way? Just about anything crafty. I just seem to have this compulsion to do it the hard way. Even if it isn’t a model I particularly care for. I get a little OCD about it.

What does your favorite pair of shorts look like? My favorite pair of shorts is a linen pair, off white in color.

Excluding classical music, what’s the longest song in your iTunes? While I don’t have it on ITunes, “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” by Iron Butterly is probably the longest at about 17 minutes.

What’s the title of a short story you really like? Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allen Poe.


Written Friday

In a highly hopeful move, last night I spray primed 6 minis: the elementals and the mounted and on-foot version of Khamul the Easterling. I’m going to bring them with me to the Craft & Movie night at Gaers. I want to try speed painting the elementals, and getting all 4 of them done that night. I have no idea how that’ll go, especially as each one is completely different from the others. My goal for the fire elemental is to get this effect. The water and the earth elementals are going to be the easiest. Air? I don’t know. I want to avoid blue. I’m thinking maybe tans & browns, like a tornado? We’ll see how that goes.

And I know Gaer sent out the e-mail, and is hosting, but CRAFT NIGHT ON THE 16TH!!!

Today is going to be hot! It’s already hot actually, but it’s going to get hotter. This morning we set up 2 fans for Lucy, and I froze her 2 water bowls last night. When I get home this afternoon I’m going to see how hot it is, and if the A/C needs to be turned on. We’re hesitant to do that, as BGE just raised Maryland ’s energy rates by 50% last week, and they just raised them significantly last year. But if it’s too hot, we’ll have to. It’s cruel not to. Besides, I’d be miserable too, and I get whiney when I get too hot. No one wants that!! :-)

Tomorrow Tigs has to work. A crappy mandatory sort of thing, but the overtime will be nice. My plan is to take the puppy out for an early hike, maybe to Soldiers Delight, and then to come home and work on homework. I’ve got 3 chapters worth of exercises to do, and at least 2 chapters to read and outline (should probably do 3) for Monday.



[info]tigergladys has left for work, I've got some coffee, and am now going to run the vacuum quickly before Lucy and I head out. When I got home yesterday the house was thankfully cool. I think the 2 fans and blocking all the light from coming in helped a lot.
 
 
Current Mood: warm
 
 
archmage45
21 May 2007 @ 06:13 pm
You'll sleep with the fishes!  
I got the car back on Saturday, and it only cost me $20 for my free oil change. But now I have a new oil plug. Isn’t that great? In other car news gas has topped $3/gallon. As an environmentalist I would like to see $5/gallon gas. As a consumer it hurts.

I finished painting two more of the Last Chancers this weekend, and am so close to finishing the last one. I also spent a fair amount of time cleaning up minis. Mostly this means getting rid of mold lines. The next group of minis I want to paint are some D&D Elementals. They were part of the mini set that was released just before the short lived Chainmail game that preceded the pre-painted plastic minis. I figure that I’ll be able to test out some different techniques. I have an elemental for each of the 4 basic elements (earth, air, fire, water). I’m not sure what color to paint the air elemental. It’s a whirlwind, so it probably has a lot of dust and dirt in it… so maybe like a tornado? The water elemental is going to need some greenstuff to smooth out a fairly significant miscast. It looks like the mold didn’t line up during casting, so there is a 1mm shift in the middle of the wave. It’ll be easy to fix though.

Elementals! )

The one that I’m not really sure about is the earth elemental. I mean, how do you paint something to look like rock and dirt and make it look interesting? I was thinking about maybe putting gems or crystals in it, or maybe having grass growing on it. Any ideas? The fire elemental is going to be fun though! Lots of reds oranges and yellows!

Balticon starts in 4 days and still no schedule. No list of guests. Nothing. *Sigh* Can you say frustrating? I wonder if there will be a panel about solar energy from space. You know, like this!

The fish are doing well. We’ve been holding at 6 neon tetras and a small algae eater named Waldo. He’s the only one with a name, and he got it because every time we look at the tank we do a fish count and end up spending a lot of time finding him. The tetras are all doing well, but the algae eater is getting FAT! We’ve been thinking about getting a second one, because it’s fairly obvious that this one has too much to eat!

Fishes! )

I can’t name it exactly, but I really enjoy having the fish tank in the living room. It’s definitely added something to the room. Rather like in The Sims actually…

Today after work I’m going to the post office. Due to the agility trial we volunteered at on Saturday I didn’t get to mail off our most recent paperbackswap requests or the lamp I sold on e-bay. Actually the guy who won the lamp (even before he bid) has been a bit of an ass hole about the whole transaction. His communications have been very terse and demanding. Spiteful even. He started with:

Quick question what is the basis for charging $30 to ship something that will not even cost $10 with the insurance included. I'm debating not bidding because of your insane price for shipping.

Tigs handled that one by pointing out the fact that the USPS had just increased all their rates, and that it was a large and heavy package. When he won (damn it), and sent payment he included a note that said

I will provide appropriate feedback after receiving [sic] the item to verify condition and shipping cost.

Then on Sunday he e-mailed me again. Now I had said in the listing that I would mail the item on the Saturday following the receipt of the payment. This is what he sent

Since payment was sent 1 minute after the auction ended on FRIDAY can I assume that you mailed this on Saturday as stated in the description? If so were [sic] is the tracking information that was promised also in your description?

I wanted to reply with “Life got in the way, other things are more important to me then you, it’ll be mailed on Monday. PS Bite me.” I actually sent him something far nicer. I have the feeling that at best he is going to give me neutral feedback. We'll see.

Edited to add
Box mailed. I look forward to seeing what feedback he gives.
 
 
Current Mood: cranky
 
 
archmage45
08 May 2007 @ 10:54 pm
Busy? Just a bit.  
It was a full weekend once again. Saturday we took Lucy up to visit her doctor in Frederick . We discussed her change in bathroom habits, and they managed to collect a urine sample. It was kind of fun to watch the tech follow Lucy as she walked around the side of the vet's office with a cat food bowl, which she deftly slid under Lucy just as she squatted. They probably called today with the test results from that, but seeing as I left the cell phone at home this morning, I’ll have to wait a bit to find out. While at the vet's, Lucy also got a booster on one of her vaccines.

When we left the vet's office we went back down to downtown Frederick to hit the usual places and walk around a bunch. Frederick does this thing on the first Saturday of every month, a themed event. This Saturday was a celebration of May/Spring and so all the retailers downtown were giving away flowers. You could get a flower in every shop, and if you hit all the shops you would end the day with a huge bouquet. We didn't hit every store, and some seemed to be out, but we still have a vase full of flowers in the living room because of it! Around the 4th time going around downtown Lucy started to show signs of the vaccine hitting her; she slowed down and was walking as if slightly dizzy. So we bundled her back into the car, and drove up the road to Brainstorm Comics.

You might not have known it, but Saturday was the annual Free Comic Book Day. This has always been a pretty big day for me, ever since they started doing it about 5 years ago. Disappointingly FCBD at Brainstorm was only slightly better than Lancaster Comic Shop's showing 2 years ago. It’s especially disappointing considering the events that That’s Entertainment and Sarge’s put on. But we got our books, headed home, and Lucy crashed for the rest of the night! (One of the free comics featured a corgi artist - Christian Slade.)

Sunday felt a bit more like Monday then it usually does - we got up early, put Lucy in the kitchen, and headed to an AKC Agility Trial down in Millersville, to volunteer for the ODTC again. This time was a little different as Kim, Cory, and Alex (aunt, cousin, cousin) came down from PA to see it with us. I felt a little bad about having to work at the event while they were watching, but they all seemed to really enjoy it. Kim was thrilled at all the poodles that were running, and Tigs says she wants a puppy, as Lucy is now old. For the record, Lucy isn’t even a year old at this point. (There were some very cute puppies though. One was named after the [info]tonksmonster.) The boys are going to be pushing to get a dog more often now I think.

When we got home Sunday evening Lucy was thrilled to see us, and all the toys we brought home for her. (Each part of the event you work you get a coupon good for a toy, or $2 off food at the event, or $2 off the cost to register to run a dog at an event during 2007. We aren't going to be running a dog in 2007 and we brought our own food. Between the 2 of us we collected a total of 18 coupons, and brought home 16 toys, with two left over as proof that we were there.) However, Lucy was still worn out from the vaccine, and so we all relaxed on the couch and watched Voyager.

Next weekend is just as booked. Saturday, I’ll be going to a Hirst Arts party up near Harrisburg PA with some people I met on the INTERNET, while Tigs and Lucy will be going back to Frederick to go to the opening day of a new dog park. Sunday we are planning on tackling the BWI trail. Over 12 miles long! It’s the longest we’ve attempted yet! We’re hoping to be up to doing the Maryland portion of the Appalachian Trail this fall (40+ miles).



White Dwarf is Games Workshop’s monthly publication that is about half advertisement and half content. Of the half of the magazine that contains useful content for GW's various games, only half of it (a quarter of the original) is generally interesting to me, and most of it is more entertaining then useful. However, several years worth of issues were taking up space on one of the bookshelves and in the closet. It’s amazing how it grows to fill all that space… Anyway, I decided that to make my life a little easier I would cut up my magazines, taking out the articles that interested me, and the pictures that inspired me. Last night I finished putting all the ones I wanted to keep into page holders that fit in a 3-ring binder. It’s nice being able to flip open an binder and see all the articles that have interested me since I’ve started this, and none of the fluff. Now the only thing I need to worry about is what to do with the gutted White Dwarf issues. I gave a small stack to my cousins this weekend, and they may want the rest. Otherwise they’ll either end up in the dumpster or I may give them to the pediatric ward.
 
 
Current Mood: busy
 
 
archmage45
02 April 2007 @ 10:39 pm
Books 13-15 & other stuff  
Books 13-15

Only Forward
By Michael Marshall Smith

Sometime in the future, when people live in self divided neighborhoods based on their lifestyles a man named Stark must track down a missing person. The tale makes it's way through various neighborhoods, tells you of the past, and brings you to Jeamland, a repository of dream and memory, and spits you out in the last few pages to a shocking end. I was very surprised by this novel and hated that I was only reading it during my lunch break!

Drowned Hopes
By Donald E Westlake

This is the first Dortmunder novel I've read, though it's the 7th in the series. The writing is a little slow, but witty, the story funny, and the characters are just a whole lot of fun to laugh at. I mean how hard it is to retrieve a casket with $700,000 from an abandoned town? So what if the town was flooded as part of a new reservoir?

Dog Eat Dog: A Very Human Book About Dogs and Dog Shows
By Jane Stern & Michael Stern

This slightly more serious look at dog shows (as compared to say Best in Show) follows Mimi Einstein, owner of the Allstar Kennel in upstate New York, a bullmastiff breeder over a year as she wins and loses in the show ring. Side stories about such topics as the specialized art of dog grooming, and rare breeds are interspersed with funny touching looks at Mimi's love of her dogs, and the world they inhabit.

I'm almost done with another book, but I wanted to get this posted so I could put the books back on the shelf. A bit of a slow month, but still doing well toward my goal. Not sure if April will pick up the pace much, as it looks like it's going to be a busy month.



Friday night was interesting. I got off of work early and went out to the Howard county fair grounds to volunteer at an obedience rally event. Tigs was already there by the time I arrived. The event started a little bit after 4, and we were there for at least 4 hours, at the end of which they fed us!

Saturday we all went to Susquehanna State Park for a hike. Unfortunately the directions weren't the best and we went down the wrong trail for about a mile. The trail we had planned on was supposed to be moderate to easy, and the one we were on was moderate to extreme! 45 degree climbs and all. Checking the book we realized the error, and figured out that we had entered the park from the wrong spot. So we hiked back to the car, and headed around to the trail we had originally planned on. That was a much flatter hike, and more populated too. At the far end of the spur was a dam, and some strategically placed porta-potties. After a few minutes watching the water pour out we headed back. Total we did about 2 miles on the difficult trail, and another 6 on the easy one.

Sunday I got in some painting time, and I am almost done with the Last Chancers. Finally!! They need a little bit of basing done, and then clear coated, and then BAM! They're done! Then I'm going to finish off the Necron Lord, and then' who knows? I'm sure I'll come up with something. In other game related news I got 2 free cases to hold minis in. That's right!! 2!! For free!! I just need to cut the foam for them to actually hold minis, rather then the medical scope that came in them.

Tonight I'll be filling out the final tax forms, and getting them into the mail tomorrow. I can't tell you how cool it is to be to be getting a nice rebate! Of course most of it is going to the credit cards. And speaking of credit cards I applied for a Discover card that came with an introductory 0% interest rate (for 12 months) and transferred the bulk of my high interest debt over to it. Now I can concentrate on paying it off, rather then paying the interest.
 
 
Current Mood: busy
 
 
archmage45
13 January 2007 @ 05:30 pm
Amon Hen- Day 6 & 7  
Sorry no update yesterday. Honestly I didn't do much with it. I was really tired, and mostly wanted to read a little and then go to bed. Today I feel a little silly about it, cause all I reall could have done last night was to prime it, which I did today.

Click and see! )

I've also touched up the putty work on the seat and primed it too. You may have noticed it's not glued to the top of the building. There are a couple of reasons for this. It's easier to work with as a separate piece. It'll be a little easier to ship the beast, and to store it for whoever ends up with it.

Remember, this is the primer, so there are still some small spots of white showing through. As soon as it dries (maybe tonight) I'll deal with those, and then it's on to painting it up!

I need a terrain building icon...
 
 
Current Mood: creative
 
 
archmage45
19 November 2006 @ 04:03 pm
The Return of the King!  
We ain't talking bout Elvis either! )
Yesterday I actually played a game of Lord of the Rings with my cousin Cory. We played the Attack at Weathertop scenario, using the original characters (Aragorn, the 4 hobbits, and the 5 Ringwraiths) and ran through the scenario twice, giving both of us a chance to be both sides. The first time I played the Ringwraiths, and while I managed to drive everyone from the fortress, it was never all at once which would have given me the win. Cory had little luck with Aragorn, and instead went crazy with Merry and Pippin. In fact Pippin single handedly fought off the WitchKing and a Ringwraith in a single round of combat driving them both from the ruins. In the end the Ringwraiths used up all their will power and lost the battle, but it took the sacrifie of Pippen to defeat them.

The second game ran much differently from the fist. Running the good guys I kept Frodo defended with the other 3 hobbits and used Aragorn to take out Ringwraith after Ringwraith. He was much more effective this game then in the last one. In the end all his will power was used up, and Sam was injured, but the 5 travellers moved on toward Rivendale, and this time Frodo wasn't suffering from the Morgul Blade!
 
 
Current Mood: accomplished
 
 
archmage45
06 November 2006 @ 08:31 pm
Election Day Eve  
It's not even 8:30, and everyone is exhausted!! Even the puppy!

The puppy fell asleep on my lap while we were all watching the West Wing. We felt that The West Wing was an appropriate show for election day eve.

You are going to vote tomorrow, right?? I'll be working as an election judge again tomorrow.

I post the picture of the puppy and hamster, cause I know it's the only reason I get comments. ;-)

This is the mini I've been working on. You can see why I hate the sculpt.

More pictures under the cut. )
But the good news is it is painted to a reasonable gaming standard, and I don't have to do anything else to it!!
 
 
Current Mood: groggy
Current Music: the puppy making suspicious-sounding noises
 
 
archmage45
29 October 2006 @ 10:54 pm
Did you remember to fall back?  
We did. And now, at about 5:20 it's already getting dark. Fun!

Today's been a fun and productive day, and the amazing thing is, it's not even evening yet!! So far we've gone to breakfast, gone and picked up [info]tigergladys's new fleece, went grocery shopping for the first time in 3 weeks (well, for more then 4 items anyway), and we went on a really cool hike at Soldiers Delight. This last one required Lucy to take a shower as she was a muddy muddy puppy!



It's now 10:46. NPR is playing the original War of the Worlds. We just finished watching the second disk of Gilmore Girls, I've painted that old dreadnought to a gaming standard, which of course means I need to do more to it, but a gaming standard was my goal. Pictures tomorrow, maybe.

Lucy, due to over eating, dehydration, or something she ate/drank while on the hike (including endangered pant life) has given her stomach issues. Messy stomach issues. She's been an unhappy puppy all evening.

Also I won my auction!! Now I just have to wait for it to arrive...
 
 
Current Mood: tired
 
 
archmage45
05 August 2006 @ 05:56 pm
Books, Minis, and a Hike  
The Lady Chapel
By Candice M. Robb
3.25/4
The second volume in the Owen Archer series. It's a nice look into 14th century England, and an enjoyable murder mystery too.

Sammy's Hill
By Kristin Gore
4/4
Have you ever watched the West Wing? You know Donna? This is a book about a character almost exactly like Donna, who works for a Senator as his health policy advisor. If you like The West Wing, and Donna in particular, or even just enjoy a well written story about a quirky fun woman and her adventures, you'll enjoy this!

Nightfall at Algemron (vol. 3 of the Harbinger Trilogy)
By Diane Duane
3.25/4
Wrapping up a solid sci-fi series this third volume really should have opened up the Star*Drive setting for Wizards of the Coast and role players everywhere. Unfortunately WotC acquired the license to Star Wars almost immediately after releasing this series and a few of the RPG rule books. Once that happened they dropped Star*Drive and the Alternity system like a hot potato. It may be worth it to snag the rest of the books that were published for Star*Drive. I've enjoyed the 4 I've read so far! Don't misunderstand, it's pulp, but good pulp!



The Last Chancers I've recently painted!

Demo Man


Animal

Those that have come before! )



Today we went on our third hike out of the 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles of Baltimore. Today was hike #22, at the Irvine Nature Center, and I don't recommend it. Getting there is easy, getting to the trail is a little harder, and figuring out the maps... not so much. The trail is poorly marked, badly maintained, and the maps... are of very questionable usefulness. I wish I could say otherwise. Because of going through all the side trails trying to figure out where we were going and having to turn around when we went the wrong way, it took us 2 hours to do the hike rather than the 1 that was predicted. Luckily that translates out to about twice the distance too, so it wasn't a total waste of time, exercise-wise.
 
 
Current Mood: mellow
Current Music: Car Talk
 
 
archmage45
25 July 2006 @ 10:09 pm
Are subjects really important now that we have Tags?  
I just had a feeling of déjà vu. I used to have it happen more often, and it was a very strong feeling. Yet at the same time it seemed to lack any emotional impact or jarring effect, which is odd, considering all my prior experiences with déjà vu.



I’ve only got about 15 minutes of work left at this point. Tonight is grocery shopping. Again. I’m out of bread, and it’s hard to spread PB&J on thin air. Doable, but hard, and then getting it to work… not so much.

It’s also time to wash out my water bottle. It’s beginning to taste a little funky.

If I get some painting time in tonight I should finish up Rocket Girl and maybe Hero. I finished Demo Man and Animal, but I need to take some pictures of them that don’t look like crap. What I need to do is to take the pictures in daylight, with a neutral backdrop. I should really consider making a photo display base. Speaking of Rocket Girl, I decided to use “Tanned Flesh” to paint her skin, and yet again GW used a purple as the base color in that mix. Why purple? How many people do you know who are purple?? And does anyone have a good idea on how to paint Asian skin? *sigh*

After I finish with Hero and Rocket Girl I’m gonna hold off on the other 6 Last Chancers and work on something else.



This past weekend while out doing our errands we ended up in Glen Burnie looking for an AC Moore and a Petco. The Petco doesn't open till the end of the month (would have been nice if the web site has said that!) and the AC Moore was nowhere to be found. However it wasn't a total loss as we swung by the Games Workshop Battle Bunker (their Big stores) and Tigs got a chance to check out the new location. It's much nicer then the old one; more open and better lighting! They didn't have a printed schedule, but did have the board with their events listed. We then left and headed to the plaza across the way where there was a Petsmart! Still needing matting for some pictures we headed up to White Marsh to go to the AC Moore that we know is there. We got the matting, and Tigs picked up a new cross stitch pattern.

Speaking of, if anyone has a spare cross stitch frame that they want to send, it would be an awesome care package.

And since we were there we stopped at the GW store at that plaza and got their schedule! It's pretty much the same for the basic events, with only the special events differing. However just having been to the Battle Bunker it felt cramped and uncomfortable.

When we finished there, we then headed to the comic store on the way home to get the stuff from our box. The only thing this week was the new White Dwarf. So even though I had been to 2 different Games Workshop stores, and the comic store, I only got a single magazine. I'm so proud of myself for my restraint!

I plan on further testing this restraint by going and gaming at the Battle Bunker on Thursday evening. Going to actually try playing Lord of the Rings, rather then just collecting and painting the minis!



As I wrote above, tonight was grocery shopping. Between sales and coupons we managed over 20% savings, and got enough food to get us through the next two weeks (give or take)! Yay!!



Stolen from Newness of Life

5 Things in my Refrigerator:
1. Couscous
2. Strawberries
3. Fruit muffins
4. Hot dogs
5. WATER!

5 Things in my Closet:
1. Craft stuff
2. Boxes, lots of boxes!
3. Christmas stuff
4. Swords and other items of potentially sinister purpose
5. Monkey puppet

5 Things in my Purse: I'm substituting my wallet for this question
1. 2 nearly maxed-out credit cards
2. AAA Card
3. Drivers licence
4. A metric ton of store cards
5. "In case of emergency..." card

5 Things in my Car:
1. Window reflector thing
2. A book
3. Various Google maps directions
4. Sunglasses
5. Lots of pennies



I need to update [info]50bookchallenge...

Books 22-24
Why do men have nipples?
By Mark Leyner & Billy Goldberg, M.D.
3/4
A good bedside or bathroom read. Funny, quick, and shockingly informative.

The Tao of Pooh
By Benjamin Hoff
3.5/4
I've been wanting to read this one for years, and I found it and the Te of Piglet at a yard sale for a buck! It would have been worth it at cover price. Another relatively short read, but if you want a true example of an original western Taoist look no further then our favourite bear of little brains!

All Creatures Great and Small
By James Herriot
4/4
The vignettes in this volume are so lovingly told as to bring this rural community to life. I was a fan of the show from my childhood, but picking up the book makes it so much more vibrant. I'm so glad that the other volumes in this series are sitting right on that shelf just over there! A must read!
 
 
Current Mood: thirsty
Current Music: A whole new world
 
 
archmage45
21 July 2006 @ 08:34 pm
In which I ramble on about money, paint, and share some random stuff  
The biggest difficulty about being an adult is money. There is never enough to do all that you want, and usually just enough to cover all that you need, with very little left over at the end of the month. Of course I say this but 2 months after having completed a big move, and feeling the crunch of all that was involved in that. I look forward to the crunch easing off. It doesn't help that my pay check got screwed up this week... Need to call Kelly on Monday morning.

The reason this is on my mind (aside from wanting a house) is because as I hinted by my last post, I spilled one of my inks Wednesday night. I didn’t secure the lid and when Raoul walked by… Let’s just say that my foot has an uneven flesh wash over it. The good news is that it came out of the rug really well. The bad news is that I am now down one more pot, and one I used frequently too. Most of my other paints are either almost used up or nearly dried out (yet again) or both. My dilemma stems from the fact that I don’t want to replace a couple of pots! I want to replace them all with this! Yet I don’t have $300 kicking around. So, do I make do without the colors I’m running out of? Do I pick up the few colors I know I’ll need? My inclination is to wait till I can afford the paint set, and use up the other colors I have. Should make for some interesting color combinations, and some unique looking minis!



I’m so glad it’s the weekend. This week has dragged quite a bit. Tuesday felt like it should have been Thursday, and it’s gone downhill since then. Of course the heat doesn’t help, and while I am drinking lots of water, avoiding the outside as best as I can, and sucking up as much AC as possible, it still takes it out of me. It’s only 2/3 way through July too. Plus this heat has one other serious effect on the house... No Puppy! Until the weather cools off a bit the puppy can't fly.



Constantine (2005)
Not bad. Not good either. Glad I Netflixed this one. While the acting was... standard, and the special effects we're pretty good, I found the story lacking... enough accurate and historical details. It seemed like the ones that were included were there as dressing, rather then as part of the story. Not a bad flick, Reeves doing what he does best (Whoa!), Rachael Weisz doing a good job, as ever, and a cool depiction of Hell (based on the films from nuclear tests!)

Lord of the Hats
A student film from St. Mary's College spoofing The Lord of The Rings. While I didn't get some of the in-jokes, I still found it quite funny. Ninjas, pirates (well, just one really), changing hair lengths (the film was made over 3 years), changing cast members (the film was made over 3 years), and some goofy songs and special effects rounded out the production. Yet it all worked remarkably well for having taken 3 years and having no budget. I would post a link, but I can't find one on the film itself. If you know anyone who has a copy, you should bug them until they show it to you!


Some very cool RPG inspirational posters!

What fruit needs to get married? )

The Big Date

1. Are you single, in a relationship, married, divorced, separated, etc?
Long term committed relationship

2. When was the last time you went on a date?
Last weekend we went on a hike together.

3. Describe your ideal date.
It would start with a pancake breakfast, a morning hike, picnic lunch somewhere scenic, something kinda silly in the afternoon like tossing a Frisbee about and reading funny things to each other. The evening meal would be at some place like La Lanterna Caffe on one of their jazz nights, add in a little dancing, and then maybe a horse carriage ride home.

4. Do you think dating has become archaic?
I think it is more difficult to find quality places to go on a date. Going to the movies just feels like a cop-out as compared to going to a live show.

5. What are your feelings on online dating services?
Never used them, most of them seem to be set up for sex rather then relationships. Though the personal adds are fun to read.

Keep cool everyone!
 
 
Current Mood: thirsty
 
 
archmage45
17 July 2006 @ 07:12 pm
The Last Chancers - Part 1  

More under here! )
First two together! First two together!

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