I spent the weekend in Carmel with my girlfriend. I should have some photos posted later this week. I’ve been really bad about uploading photos, even though I’ve taken hundreds (possibly thousands) since I last posted some photos here. You can always check out my Flickr stream in case I might have posted something new there.
And, tomorrow I start my new job with Vox Network Solutions.
This should have been dated around Sep 10, 2007. I just got lazy and never posted it.
We started our four day weekend in Carmel-by-the-sea by taking a trip along 17 Mile Drive. Here we got to see some interseting things include some local wild life grazing on the grounds just off the golf course greens.
We also saw the Lone Cypress, the iconic symbol of Pebble Beach and the 17 mile drive.
A neighbor to the Ghost Tree, and in my opinion equally sinister and worthy of examination.
The Ghost Tree itself, while often seen as something sinister (especially when looking at it with the ocean and lifeless rocks in the background), makes an interesting frame for the more lively angle (towards the trees and residences that are inland).
Since I’ve chosen Tyranid as my starting army, I’m looking for ways to add effects to my models to make them fit in with the nature of Tyranids (which is slimy biological weapons that I’ve heard called “giant dinosaur insects,” which while fairly wild is somewhat accurate in appearance.)
One of the very appropriate effects for Tyranids is slime and gore, like saliva (think Alien or Aliens, the movies.)
And, since this is primarily a creative endeavor (I’m not sure how serious about the gaming I’ll be, but the modeling and painting is itself a neat hobby and is symbiotic with my photography hobby), now I need to look for ways to make my new hobby inexpensive. Games Workshop’s PVA glue is (from what I’ve been reading) the same thing as Elmer’s Glue (like the stuff you used in kindergarten and crafts… a wood glue.)
Lyrics from a song a friend of mine wrote, copied without permission (and Copyright Eric Odegaard):
Worldly Things
I don’t need to have a soul
It’ll only get abused
I don’t need to play a role
and proselytize to youI don’t need your profiteers
to sell me diamond studded rings
I don’t need your crucifix
nor other worldly thingsI don’t need to be a man
if you think that I’m a boy
but you need to understand
we don’t need to destroyI don’t need your profiteers
to sell me diamond studded rings
I don’t need your war machines
nor other worldly thingsI don’t need to be consoled
I don’t need to be amused
I don’t need to stay whole
to recognize the truthI don’t need your profiteers
to sell me diamond studded rings
I don’t need your politics
nor other worldly thingsI don’t need your credit cards
don’t need your presidents or kings
I don’t your idle gods
nor other worldly things
and now it’s time
to simply fade away
and now it’s time
to fade away
to fade away
Typos my own and not the author of the song. He’s an English major and I embarrass him sometimes with my spelling mistakes.
I went with my girlfriend today to sign for the rental property we’re getting together. While the kitchen could use some improvement (by my girlfriend’s standards it’s acceptable, my only objection is that the cabinetry is “well loved,” which is a euphamism for “old and in need of a re-finishing.” I’m honestly startled that she found it acceptable.)
I’ll post photos of the place once we get moved in (end of April). I’ve been spending a lot of time this week interviewing different moving companies. It looks like it’ll be $600-$700 to move me and my girlfriend in to our new place.
I found a number of comics while cleaning my house, Excalibur (which I mentioned yesterday) being one of them. Well I just found a few Atari comics that either Atari put out, or they worked with DC Comics to put out for some of their cartridge games back in the early 1980s (set your way back machine… I would have been around 10 at that time.) Despite the fact that Atari never completed the cartridge series that I was most interested in, it’s nice to finally have quality scans of these aging comics. I remember vividly (with the help of some house cleaning and comic discovery) reading these comics in my early years and wishing for the completion of the story. That may be where I get my propensity for liking longer stories, since it was terminated abruptly when the Swordquest game series failed to generate enough interest to carry it to it’s fourth game.
Another gaming memory: Yars Revenge. Atari did this comic in house, and it’s brevity speaks to how difficult they found it to do in house, and shows why they turned to DC Comics to help them fully realize their comic-game cross over.
I used to collect only one Comic. Excalibur. The fact is that I like collecting series from the beginning, and I always abhored trying to start X-Men or one of the other longer run comics. I’d never collect them all, even reprints. Because in comics, there are no reprints. I’ve collected over 80% of the full run of the original Excalibur series, and now I’ve found a list of all of the episodes and can work to complete my fabulous collection.
Whee!
I’ve been playing Dawn of War on Steam lately. Many years ago, a friend of mine from highschool (a DJ buddy who I took a bunch of photos of last year and posted on Flickr) used to play with Warhammer 40k, specifically he used to play the Orks. It sort of shaped a lot of his language and slang at the time, at least among friends, and I think has made a lasting impression, in an undefinable way, on the kind of person he is today. I remember always being very impressed with his creativity and craftsmanship as he detailed his minitures. I’m not sure how often he got to play, the part of the memory is lost, and he might have collected the minitures more for the sake of painting and collecting than for the game it self… but I find myself reliving some of those memories and, after playing lots of DoW, I find my curiosity piqued.
Enter the Games Workshop Hobby Centers. I’ve been going in to these stores a few times a year for many years, often just to look at the minatures. I’ve not really had the desire to play, but the desire to do something creative like putting together an army of minatures (there’s a lot of customization options available to how they look) and painting them… that has certainly been a temptation. I finally started talking to someone from one of the hobby centers this last week, and like a pusher “the first one’s free” he’s steadily reeling me in to the hobby.
I decided late this last week that I would definitely buy and paint an army, but I’ve been doing a lot of research on what I want to do, because I want to do a good job the first time around. They have a nifty Academy Program designed to give you the necessary experience to make you feel like you could collect and paint your own minatures, and after completing the course, they give you a carrying case for your minatures of value (or at least price) equal to the training that they offer you. And of course you’re going to think, “now that I know how to paint my minatures, and now that I have a case… why not get a couple?”
So my plan is to start picking up lessons after I move in with the girlfriend. Oh, didn’t I mention? I’m moving in with my girlfriend.
I’ve been toying with the notion of creating a website for wine tasting notes, and while I’ll almost certainly complete this project for my in-house database, I realized after coming across this article, that extending this project to anyone beyond my home (i.e., me and my girlfriend) would be difficult to complete in a commercially marketable sense. Neither I nor my girlfriend drink enough wines, and between us, only I am consistant about taking notes. She certainly finds value in those notes and has praised me on a couple of occasions for keeping them, but it’s too much like work for her, and so unless I prompt her for an opinion, she almost never writes one down.
I found some poetry written by a friend of mine in my library of old notepads, the following poem is by Eric Odegaard (posted without permission.)
To my love
I am a boatman.
I sail. I know there
are many boats
yet there is only
one sea.I am a flower.
I bloom. I know many
people enjoy my smell,
but there are those
who do not.I am a place.
I exist. I know that
people live in me,
but most are
somewhere else.I am a man.
I love. I know that
I love many people,
yet I cannot love
them all.You are the boat I sail.
You are the person who enjoys my smell.
You are the person who lives in me.
You are the person I love.
And another, but I never learned who the author was:
To laugh is to risk appearing a fool
To weep is to risk appearing sentimental
To reach out for another is to risk involvement
To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self
To place your ideas, your dreams before the crowd is to risk their loss
To love is to risk not being loved in return
To live is to risk dying
To hope is to risk despair
To try is to risk failureBut risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing
The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love … live.
Chained by his attitudes, he is a slave; he has forfeited freedom.
Only a person who risks if free.
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