I received the first 2 seasons of Enterprise for my birthday from Tigs. We also got season 3 of Stargate from DVDswap still in it's shrink-wrap. It even had a Wal-Mart sticker on it. The swapper said they just didn't have time to watch it. I'm wondering if it was acquired illegally? However I can't seem to drum up any indignation that someone may have stolen it from Wal-Mart.

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1. What's one of the nicest things a friend has ever done for you?

Probably the going away party that Eric set up for me was the nicest.

2. What's one of the nicest things a stranger has ever done for you?

There have been so many little things.... :-)

3. What is a trait in another person that you instantly admire, and that draws you to them?

If they're big readers it usually gives me something to talk about with them.

4. What is a trait in another person that instantly repels you, and prevents you from forming a close relationship with them?

Being a smoker tends to repel me pretty quickly.

5. Time to vent: tell us about something rotten someone has done to you.

When our ex-neighbors urinated on my car... twice.

6. Describe where you grew up:

I grew up in Lancaster City PA, right next to F&M College.

7. Do you wear any jewelry?

Not currently, but I've worn rings in the past.

8. What do you have too much of?

Things to do, I have way too much of that.

9. Who is a fool?

Everyone sometimes.

10. What's your nickname?

DM – for either Dungeon Master or DavidMonster

11. How do you feel about spicy food?

I think spicy food is yummy.

12. What kinds of condiments do you add to food in order to spice things up a bit?

Mustards

13. Not counting salt and pepper, what's your favorite flavor enhancer when cooking?

Mustard

14. What's the spiciest food you've ever eaten?

Thai I think…

15. In what way might some other aspect of your daily life be spiced up, and what's keeping that from happening right now?

For the moment I actually like my spice pretty well confined to my food. Right now I've got enough other things going on that spice in my life would just give me heart burn.

16. If you knew that you had only one day left to live, what would you do for the 24 hours?

I’d start the day by making breakfast (everyone’s favorites) then I’d go for a hike with Tigs and Lucy, and have a picnic lunch with them. Then take Virginia out to dinner, something nice and romantic, maybe on a sail boat in the Chesapeake.

17. Do you think that life has meaning?

It has all the meaning that you bring to it.

18. What was your favourite childhood toy/object, or some of your favourites?
(Remember childhood according to the United Nations is anywhere from 0-18 years, so this is a fairly broad span of time).

Joggy Lion

19. When you clasp your hands, do you put your right thumb over your left thumb, or your left thumb over your right thumb?

Left thumb over right

20. If you had to teach the most ignorant person on earth the most difficult thing you have ever learned, how would you go about doing it?

Slowly! I’d start with the basics and take it step by step, breaking it down into its smallest components.

---

So a new dishwasher installed will cost about $500. Well we don't have that right now, so we searched the internet for a cheaper solution.

( The solution )

---

I've found a game board that has just about everything I'm looking for. This looks more like a museum piece then a game board.

( I want it... )
More then that, I want to build it!! And then game on it!

1. What type of food do you most like to eat?
Mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy.

2. What type of food do you most like to cook?
I really enjoy making chili.

3. What ingredient could you not live without?
Salt. Ok, so it's not really an ingredient per se, but it's oh so necessary.

4. What do you never let in your kitchen?
Anchovies

5. What is your favorite drink?
Strawberry lemonaid

6. Other than the official start of spring on the calender, what really signifies the start of spring for you?
Seeing the first blush of that bright green you only see in the spring

7. How severe is your spring cleaning bug this year?
HAHAHAHAHA!

8. What one thing says "spring" to you more than any other?
The smell of everything coming alive after the winter.

9. What are your springtime traditions?
Open up all the windows in the house and get as much fresh air into the house as possible. Also go hiking!

10. When do you break out your spring and summer wardrobe? Do you follow the "no white before Easter" rule?
As soon as the temperature hits around 50 I start putting away the winter stuff.

11. If you became ruler of the world, what three things would you do first?
I would fix education, cut military spending and redirect it to humanitarian and scientific uses, and vastly increase the use and development of green energy

12. If you were a superhero, what would be your name and what powers would you have?
If I were a superhero I'd want to be a Green Lantern.

13. You can ask one question to someone who knows EVERYTHING. What is it?
What's the winning number to the next $10,000,000 (or more) lotto?

14. If you were invisible for a day, what would you do?
If invisible means being undetectable, then I would probably get cash, from a variety of sources.

15. If you saw a mythical/religious deity walking down the street, what would you do?
That really depends on which one it was! There are some gods you just don't want to get in the way of!

---

This past weekend was the tracking trial for the dog club. This meant getting up at 5(ish) to drive up to the Maryland/Delaware boarder, and spend a lot of time cold and wet with a little bit of time spent watching dogs actually tracking. I brought my accounting books with me, but never even pulled them out. Saturday I was too tired, and Sunday it was too cold and wet (and I was still tired).

Saturday, after spending the morning at the trial we packed up, headed home for a change, and then pressed on to Frederic for First Saturday. This time however Gaer joined us! Lucy did pretty well considering how long a day she had.

Sunday we again spent the morning at the tracking trial, a cold, wet, muddy day. We then went home, took some hot showers (Lucy too) and then headed over to the house to do some more work. We managed to put in a couple of hours before heading back to the townhouse drained of all energy.

---

Things are progressing at the house. It's almost ready for us to really start moving things in. At this point we've only brought over stuff we've needed, or stuff that can go straight to the basement. The next couple of weeks or so is going to be a bit of a pain as we transfer everything to the house, and then, invariably we'll need or want something that's at the other place.

I keep thinking about terrain, and building a table. I think when I finally do get to work on it that the trick to it, along with almost any other project, is to just devote myself to it from start to finish, just like I did with my original Amon Hen. 12 days start to finish on that one.

Actually my plan is to build another Amon Hen out of Hirst Arts blocks as one of my first projects. Seeing as I'll be using cast blocks (complete with texture) it should take significantly less time to finish it. Plus it works well on a grassy field.

---

I need a home improvement icon...

As a coping mechanism I've been thinking a whole lot about building a gaming table. This is fuelled in no small part by the fact that I'm going to have a basement to keep it in. Some of the features I've been thinking about include making the surface modular, and maybe even designing it so that the main area is slightly raised in order to allow lower levels. I've seen this done on one gaming table, and I really liked how it worked. The main use for it was to allow a canal to run across the table, which can create some interesting tactical situations.

Some of the different surfaces I want to create are:
Ruined city – Mordheim/Osgiliath
Grassy fields with a spot to put a central terrain piece such as Amon Hen or Weathertop.
Modern/Ultramodern urban/industrial – Star Wars/40K style
Dungeon
Star field

The easiest to make will be the grass and star fields. Once those are done, I'll probably more onto the ruined city because it'll give me a real chance to make use of my hirst arts molds. I'll probably work on a dungeon concurrently with the ruined city. Then, eventually I'll get to the urban/industrial board. I may also do a board that's flat and reversible with one side having a desert color and the other having a snow color. Or maybe a dark grey that could serve double duty as a pre-industrial & pre-dungeon board.

So many ideas!

And the good news is that there is only 1 class I can take over the summer, so I may even have a little free time to do some terrain making!!

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.

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 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).

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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.

Written on Friday

1. What inspires you?

All sorts of things, from the colors I see at dawn and twilight, to random swirls in plaster on the walls, a song I half hear. Most of the time though, other people's work inspires me and helps to mold the direction I go in.

2. What blocks your creativity?

Lack of sleep, lack of direction.

3. Do you do anything special to get your creative juices flowing?

I usually do something rather mindless, like chores, or go for a walk. Generally something unrelated to whatever it is I’m trying to work on.

4. What time of day do you feel most inspired?

It varies a lot!

5. How do you like to express your creative energy?

Mostly through my painting of minis and building terrain. I’m working on sculpting and also playing piano. Neither of those are at the stage where a whole lot of creativity is taking place though.

---

Tonight we are off to the bank to see about a loan. We both wish it were for a mortgage. Tomorrow the car goes to the dealer for a second opinion. Once we have that, then we make our decision.

Also tonight the auction for Amon Hen ends. I must admit, I thought it would be higher by now. Then again, I haven’t been able to check it since last night, so who knows where it’s at right now. I hope it sells for something approximating it’s actual value, which for me is at least $20… considering the effort that I put into it, I feel that I should get at least that much! More would of course be better.

I wish I had more to write about, but at the moment I really don’t. I finished another book last night, and have yet to post about any of the ones I’ve finished this year. Figures too, seeing as I’m ahead of schedule. I’ve actually finsihed… 5 books so far, and I’m about to finish another, and halve already started book 7 for the year. It’s a pretty good start for me! Better then ending January behind my goal.

In some ways I can’t believe it’s already Friday, already the end of January. Time marches inexorably onward. Sometimes I feel like a little piece of flotsam just caught up in it. (Lucy eats flotsam.)

---

Written today

It sold for $15.50. Not bad, but I was hoping it would be closer to double that. Ah well. My other auctions are doing better then I expected, so I guess that helps make up for it. I hope the winner really enjoys it though.

The car is currently at the shop, I'm off to the post office, and then to take Lucymonster to the park. Keep your fingers crossed for us! We'd like some good news from the bank or the dealership.

It's done... and here are the final steps in getting there!

Priming


( The rest of the pictures are under here! )

Now that it's done it's time to part ways with it. I am selling it on E-bay.

Passwords. Letters, numbers, and symbols that protect our stuff. Most of the time the stuff it protects is info, sometimes it’s access to things. In general passwords are a good thing. You think of a name, or a number combination that you can remember to keep your stuff safe from the average passer-by.

There is an old axiom that locks only keep out honest people. Well, honest or lazy anyway. There are only so many combinations of symbols, and if someone was good enough, or bored enough, eventually all of them could be tried out, but even a 6 letter password has 308,915,776 possible combinations, and that’s before you add any numbers or symbols.

The reason this is on my mind is that I recently signed up for a Lord of the Rings on-line miniature check-list. Basically it helps me keep track of what minis I actually have and don’t have. Simple, and relatively not important. Even if I took the time to enter every fig I owned into the check-list, and then someone hacked my account and totally screwed it up… It would be a minor annoyance, but nothing life threatening. Yet the password requirements for this non-essential web site are more stringent then that of my on-line bank account.

I think that web sites really could spend some time considering the necessary security for their web sites:

Bank – High
Lord of the Rings mini list – Low

It just makes sense.

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This weekend we held a Craft & Movie night. It was very productive all around and had a Sci-Fi theme this time around. We watched Star Trek The Next Generation episodes 11001001, Q Who?, Best of Both Worlds parts 1 & 2, and Family. We then watched Galaxy Quest, and it was after 2 by the time we shut everything off. Both Gaer and Elspeth made serious progress on their scarves, Tigs finished the hat she was working on, and I finished painting Amon Hen and made some serious progress on a couple more of the Last Chancers.

Sunday concluded the construction of Amon Hen. I added the flock to the base, and set it aside to dry. I’m going very light with the basing material, sticking to basic ground cover, and not adding any static grass or bushes or anything. The whole point of this project was to create a nice looking, but really functional terrain piece. I think I’ve succeeded. I haven’t taken any pictures of the finished work yet. They should be soon though. In fact it's all set up and ready to be photographed, so maybe tomorrow. Or I may wait till Saturday and take advantage of the natural light.

In setting up the miniatures for the picture I pulled out some of my D&D/Chainmail minis. I hadn't realized how little work I had done on the humans & demihumans. Most of the completed minis are the monsters. Strange hua? I must admit in looking through them I am drawn to paint them, more then the Last Chancers. It's been a while since I've painted something that wasn't a GW miniature. So I guess what I'm saying here is look for some new (non-GW) painted minis in the near future!

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Tomorrow is my early morning. I have to be at work at 7, which means I have to be up at 5:30 at the latest. Ug. Time for a shower.

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...

Progress marches on! Or something like that...

I started off tonight glueing the roof on to Amon Hen. And I used a stack of books to press it down.
( Squashed between worlds )

While that was drying I puttied up the seat itself. Priya helped:
( Hamster shown for scale )

Then I applied the putty over the rest of the structure.
( Looks like icing )

And once again it needs the night to dry.

Some more progress. Added the columns and the base tonight, plus spackled almost the whole thing. One of the columns came off the base as I as texturing it, so I re-glued it, and am now letting it dry till tomorrow before I do more to it.

( And cause I know you only want to see the pictures )

As you can see, there is a lot of cleaning up to be done. However I am right on track schedule wise. Tomorrow I'll finish the spackle and clean up the really bad areas. Friday should be final assembly and maybe even priming it. Saturday I'll paint it. Sunday should be detail work!

A little progress was made tonight with the further assembly of the main structure. However in putting some of these pieces together I found that the plans left a fairly large gap next to the stairs.
( Can you see the hole? )
So I cut some scrap pieces to fit, and then continued on my way.
( More pics )
Then I cut out the pieces for the seat itself. The plans just have the 4 eagles, but I figured that there should actually be a seat of some sort, so I added a little ledge for someone to perch on. It's just big enough for a hobbit to crawl onto and hide.
( The Seat! )
Now the glue needs to dry.

My goal is to have the Seat of Seeing done by the end of the weekend. Lucy attempted to help out tonight, but puppies and small models held together with wet glue don't mix very well.

Here is tonight's progress:
( Would you sit in the Seat of Seeing and look for yourself? )

Tomorrow should see further progress. I need to pick up some texturing putty. This means a trip to the craft store, but probably not tomorrow, as we have puppy class. Plus I won't be ready putty until Wednesday anyway.

"Ok, this has to be straight."
( Lucy the architect! )
We're submitting her application to WETA tomorrow! ;-)