Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Home Sweet Home

Its been a while since I posted anything. Life has been a crazy whirl-wind of events. My father's lung cancer has been identified, targeted, and treatment begins this week or next. Five weeks of radiation M-F, and chemo once a week. My father told me the stuff they are going to give him is so nasty that it will blister the skin on contact. That is some seriously nasty stuff they are dumping into his veins. My Dad is determined to beat this so I take heart in that.

In much happier news the family has been moved into our new home. We are still unpacking and likely will be doing so for some time, but we are moved in and we have cleaned out our old place. We have managed to unpack quite a few rooms of the house, but the living room and man-cave are still disaster areas. My wife insists it is an office, but its my man-cave. I have my little toy soldiers, a TV, and video games in there. Its my man-cave dammit. Speaking of manly things, I now have a plot of dirt to defend and call my own. I haven't figured out exactly how I'm going to landscape it, but its my dirt and I shall defend it. My friend suggested a 20' concrete wall which I thought sounded like a good idea. The wife shot it down, but if she isn't here some weekend to stop me...

Of late I've been tinkering with my Infinity models. I blame my friend Dusty for reminding me of another potential money suck I had been avoiding of late.  Damn Corvus Belli and their damn sexy Infinity models. Serious, its got sexy anime ladies kicking ass, cool looking mecha, aliens, and ninja. I don't think you can legitimately get much better than that. I mean Ninjas. Enough said.





I already have plenty of Infinity models, but that didn't stop me from starting another small sectorial force, the Shasvastii Expeditionary Force. Its time for Humanity to experience the horror of the alien menace!

Monday, March 21, 2011

Introspection

These last couple of weeks have been a true roller coaster of ups and downs. On the positive side of the spectrum my wife and I are moving forward to purchase our very first house. We are positively giddy with anticipation, although that first mortgage payment will likely give me fits. However, for all the positive personal news there has been some truly negative personal news as well.

This last weekend has been extremely hard for me. My father who is 58 discovered on Friday that he has a mass in his right and left lungs. Given his smoking history and symptoms it seems likely we as a family are looking down the barrel of Lung Cancer. To be suddenly hit with the issue of your parent's mortality and cancer is hard, especially when you never thought it would be an issue for decades. My grandparents are still alive, surely they would go first I always thought. While we as a family have not given up hope, the waiting for answers is gnawing at all of us. Quietly I think we are all hoping it proves to be something that can be dealt with and my father will have many good years ahead of him. I hope our wishes are fulfilled.

I've known many people who didn't have positive relationships with their fathers, but for me, my Dad is the best man I know and he is an even better Grandfather to my children. To think he may not get to see my kids grow up and become adults themselves is killing me on the inside. He has always been there for me, but now... he may not be any longer. I have led a blessed life up to this point, I have known precious little grief in my life, but God this is hard.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

The Guitar

This is slightly off the usual beaten path of music I traveled, but I stumbled on to this music due to the band's reported attachment to the Pirates of the Caribbean 4 sound track; courtesy of Ain't It Cool News. So I want to present Rodrigo y Gabriela:

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Singularity

This is an interesting read and introduction to the idea of Singularity can be found here. Being of a scientific mind the idea of Singularity interests me a great deal. It will be very interesting to see where mankind takes itself. Do we have a Singularity event coming in our lifetime? Or will our own hubris as a species keep such a thing from happening? Periodically I do wonder when we will manage to blow ourselves to kingdom come.


If RPGs and Signularity interest you I encourage you to check out Eclipse Phase. Its a really cool table top RPG that takes the idea that the Singularity event occurred and lets you play in a universe that really asks a lot of interesting and thought provoking questions about humanity, transhumanity, the soul, death, religion, and destiny as a species. I haven't the faintest idea how to run a decent Eclipse Phase campaign, but I do enjoy reading the books and pondering the questions it raises.

Friday, February 4, 2011

The Cap is Back

I am a dedicated movie follower. No, I don't watch what the Sundance says is the best film of the year and while I enjoy an occasionally thought provoking or moving movie, that isn't why I watch them. I watch movies to be entertained and to see the fantastic made real before my eyes. Now I could quickly jump into a rant of CGI effects very Practical effects, but I'll save that for an occasion when I feel fired up over the topic (summary, I miss practical effects and think they should be used as much as possible unless impossible which is where CGI comes in). So with an eye towards entertainment I am really looking forward to this:
 Yes, Captain America. I have always had a soft spot for the Captain. I don't read comics a whole lot, but I do occasionally dip my toe in the vast ocean that is comic mythology. Few characters resonate or truly grab my interest, but the Cap is one of them. Perhaps the values he stood was built on seem antiquated today, but that he is still a reminder of them makes me smile. So after being blown away by Iron Man a few years ago I have waited with baited breath for this picture and it is finally almost here. I enjoy most of the Marvel movies, but this one is what I have been waiting for.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Preorder... Away!

So I just sat through the GameTrailer's review of Killzone 3.


I think it is official, I must preorder it. Of course the next question is do I really need to drop the coin for the special edition? I mean, who need the Helghast Bust and Cloaking Helghast figure? I think I might, oh how weak willed I am on cool video game swag. The part I am most excited about is coop play. Its only local, but since I prefer local coop that suits me just fine. Yes Sorine, if you are reading this prepare to get roped into playing Killzone 3 coop with me. Huzzah!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

The Beginning of the Beginning?

Blogging; I'm of course reminded of the ever popular and generally correct demotivators of Despair.com. In this case, Blogging: Never Before Have So Many People With So Little To Say Said So Much To So Few. With that truism firmly established I welcome the greater intertubes to my blog. Here I'll post my mutterings and ramblings of topics I happen to care about and you're welcome to read it to kill those few minutes at work you're trying to pass until quitting time. You're also welcome to comment if you feel so inclined and need to kill yet another few minutes until quitting time.

For those you care to read further my typical ramblings will cover a variety of topics in my life I care to talk about which may include, but not limited too: Parenting, Kids, Marriage, Video Games (both mine and their's), wargaming, roleplaying games, movies, comics, humor, weather, rocks, stupid people and politics (note how I listed those last two together).

Today I find myself a bit bushed. My kids have decided that there is time enough to sleep in the grave. Why they think that having never watched Conan confounds me, but it seems to be the case. My wonderful wife as usually takes it upon herself to get up in the night with the kids since I tend to sleep like the dead. Hrmm, grave, dead... I swear I'm not worrying about mortality at the moment. When my wife is up my sleep cycle is disturbed and I find myself tired the following day (wuss). Tonight however, I have been told I will be up with the children if they don't sleep. So that means its time to plot how best to secure a night of blissful rest. Plan 1: Whiskey. Sadly I doubt I could get my kids to drink it and I think getting my children stone drunk might be grounds for divorce and a visit from CPS (Child Protection Services). So that plan is off the table. Plan 2: Tranquilizer darts. Sadly I can't seem to get my hands on these and a tranq gun without arosing suspicion so that plan is out too. Plan 3: Keep them up late. This plan has been attempted in the past and has always backfired. I think it might be safe to say whoever sold me on the idea that keeping my kids up would get them to sleep longer told me a terrible lie. So where does that leave me? Back at Plan 1, except I think I'll drink the whiskey. Perhaps it'll make the night seem more pleasant when I'm up with my son for the 4th time.

I should probably consider going to bed earlier, but my continuing obsession with Dragon Age on my 360 has me firmly engrossed still. One, could ask what is so special about it and to that I would reply, until you have played through a BioWare RPG you have no right to ask. What I am learning in this playthrough however is that I prefer playing warriors overall. Must be some deep seated desire to be like Conan the Barbarian. That isn't so bad I think, "Conan, what is best in life?" "Crush your enemies. See them driven before you. And listen to the lamentation of their women."

Sitting on my work desk at the moment is my Hellcannon.


It is mocking me as we speak. Look at the picture, it even looks like its laughing at me. The file sits next to it as well, also mocking me. I was warned and I didn't listen, this kit is a horrid thing to assemble. It doesn't help that mine came horribly mis-molded missing some 2mm or so of pewter on the bottom assembly. So while my new cannon is enroute, firmly mired in the Snowpocalypse in the Midwest, I decided to try and put this one together anyways and test out my modeling repair skills. So far... its Hellcannon 1, VB 0.

Despite my Hellcannon continuing to mock me, I'm very excited for my next Warstore order. I purchased some of that Quickshade stuff from Army Painter. I'm sure someone has just started screaming about dipping and the terrible sin I am about to commit, but I already bought an iPhone so how much further to the Dark Side can I go. Fact is, painting and I just don't jive well. I'm told my few painted models look pretty good and I am proud of them despite being far from painting competition level. But, I spend so much time working on them the practicalities of painting an entire army are pretty much zero. So my solution, I'm going to try this QuickShade stuff and see if that can't help me get a painted force on the table.