Cowboys & a crappy shop

03.25.2019

The last time I showed any minis I'd painted was Dec 30th. Close to 3 months and nothing noteworthy to show on the hobby front. Sure, I've spent most of the last 3 weeks sick. But what kind of excuse is that?

Pitifully, it's a good enough excuse for me.

To quell this pitiful trend, a batch of Reaper cowboys were primed. Why cowboys? No real reason, other than I picked up a batch of cowboys however many years ago. Maybe my zombie apocalypse will have a time travel scenario? Maybe I'll turn the whole thing into a Westworld game? Most likely, I was just tired of flipping past them in the box of Reaper minis and thought it would be a good chance to lessen some of those I flip through later.

• Sherm Whitlock, Cowboy - He's got a whip. And an eye patch. I wonder if there's a story behind that?
• Hank Callahan, Gunslinger - Technically he's got 3 guns.
• Deadeye Slim, Cowboy - He's got 2 pistols and no holster. And an eye patch. The ancient west was tough on eyes it appears.
• Buck Fannin, Cowboy - A great big rifle. And both eyes!
• Rio Wilson, Cowboy - The only one sporting chaps.

Overall all this batch came out about average. I could have done better. I could have done worse. Painting faces under cowboy hats is hard. The details on the minis didn't really pop for me - after the fact I feel that I should have gone back and touched up little details here and there, but honestly I'm not sure what they are.

On the overall painting progress chart I'm once again farther behind than when I started this batch. Thanks to a Miniature Market birthday coupon I caught up on the Walking Dead expansions I'd been missing/putting off. For the 5 I add to the Painted list above, there's 21 Unpainted Walking Dead minis added to the list.

In addition to these minis, 4Ground Tobacconists store came together. I had some issues getting this one together. One of the door pegs broke off as I was squeezing it into place. The windows and their cardboard frames fought me. I also wasn't paying attention in the beginning and glued one of the windows in backwards to where the text is facing inside the store. The door that fought me skidded around when I wasn't paying attention, and I ended up mounting the front door in the back. There's a good chance there might be a little fire/riot damage to this building before it gets any play use.

Another random 5 minis are sitting ready to be primed now - no cowboys this time.

Permalink 4ground gaming miniatures reaper chronoscape

Still sick + free fall

03.15.2019

The rest of the week was blown off work thanks to being sick (6 days of triple digit temperature - I'm ready to be done with being sick!). I decided that Day 7 of Sick wasn't going to be another laying around, taking naps kind of day. Time for my brain to trick my body into getting over this shit. My brain still wasn't coherent enough to do any actual work - this was proven by the hour plus video call Tyler and I had where I think I looked at him looking at Bob's code. Instead my goal was just to not go lay down.

I spent the morning doing random piddly computer stuff. Stuff so unimportant I can't even remember what it was, 6 hrs later. But it kept me out of bed! And oddly enough when I went to check my temperature today, it was always in the 98s. Sure, it's the day which traditionally those good drugs kick in and I start to feel better, but I'm giving my brain an assist on this one!

While I had lunch (Dominos Jalepeno/Banana Peppers: the Sinus Special!) I watched a Dock You Men Tarry on Netflix, 14 Minutes from Earth. I'd never heard of the event this covers - Google exec breaks freefall record - but I was in the mood to watch something different while I lunched and this turned interesting and entertaining enough that I watched the whole thing. With that said, it's made like really bad reality TV. Music builds the tension to what you know's going to be ok is the worse culprit. But in the interviews there was a big dose of, I'm not sure what it's normally called....

When gov't contractors band together to big on a contract, they're very complimentary to each other, calling out accolades by name. This is in actual contract proposals. Convert this to a documentary setting and then notice subtleties - who's wearing a logo of which company, for example, and it skews from documentary to attempted long form ad.

Worse, or maybe just most stereotypical, was the woman who was listed as the co-founder of Paragon DSC. When she talked, it was like she didn't know she was responsible for/involved in some of these life threatening decisions, and she was in unbelievable awe that any of this was actually happening. Later, during a record breaking moment, she's texting and completely misses what's happening. I wonder if this is why she's not listed anywhere on the current Paragon website?

Now to take it easy for the rest of the night. But not too easy, my brain is still in charge of my body and my body has to listen!

I'm in an odd mood to watch Moonraker though....

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Birthday Week Recap

03.11.2019

My birthday week didn't exactly go off like I'd planned. I didn't do as much hobby-oriented what- not as I had planned, but I still marked some things off my list.

I wrapped up my Top 10 Movies viewing, which was truly a Top 10 I was In The Mood To Watch That I Hadn't Seen Recently. Wrapping up from the first 2 I listed last time:

• Green Mile (1999) - Favorite Tom Hanks Drama. It was close between this and Forrest Gump.
• Raid: Redemption (2011) - Favorite Jakartan Action Movie.
• Inception (2010) - Favorite Movie (and it hurts a little to admit that, but it's true).
• I Am Legend (2007) - Favorite Vampire (technically) Movie.
• Oblivion (2013) - Favorite Tom Cruise Movie, although Minority Report pairs well with I Robot, which sounds a little out of the blue but when the list is "in the mood to watch that I hadn't seen recently" some odd things do and don't make the cut, which can then influence other options.
• Desperado (1995) - Former Favorite Movie. I don't know what "favorite" category I'd put this in, but I still greatly enjoy this movie. And I quote it way too much, still.
• 2012 (2009) - Favorite Disaster Movie, because it's got all the disasters.
• About Time (2013) - This might be more of a chick flick than Some Kind of Beautiful, except there's no "lost love" act in the middle to overcome.

Kind of interesting that the newest movies on the list are from 2013. Maybe I need a new list - favorite movies from the past half-decade?

I finally made it to Gardendale to have lunch at the closest Shrimp Basket. Beach food not at the beach isn't as good as it is at the beach. A ~90 minute drive to find this out is a lot better than the 6 hrs it takes to reach the beach, though. On the way back, there was a wreck on 65 roughly 5 minutes after I got back on to the interstate. It was bad enough that the interstate became a parking lot for 90 minutes. This was the 2nd time I've been parked on an interstate, the first time being about 12 years ago - both times involved some type of wreck with a tractor trailer, but I've never known any other details for the cause of either. Interesting thing that's happened both times - somebody had a football and started tossing it around.

My old man moment of being stuck - I had to pee about 20 min into being parked, and didn't know how long I was going to be there. So I waved politely to the trucker behind me and aimed to the shoulder, after making sure no emergency vehicles were flying past, and I relaxed my bladder and for the first time ever I peed on an interstate. 50. Peeing on the road. That's me.

I wrapped up the week by getting sick. After catching Strep 3 weeks ago, I was paranoid when the same symptoms hit me Saturday. For someone who doesn't go to the doctor very often, I've now been twice inside a month. Good news though, I don't have Strep. Or the Flu. Just a really bad sinus infection, but without being stopped up like I am with every other sinus infection. A shot in the butt, various drugs, and I should hopefully be feeling fine in a few days. 50 year old me has different symptoms, this is going to take a little getting used to.

Permalink movies/tv/dvd rambling road trip

Birthday Movie Time

03.03.2019

To celebrate my birthday, I'm taking a week off work. I'm not going anywhere, just not going to work. Not even online, checking messages. That's my plan at least.

I've got little things set up to do this week, but nothing I "have" to do barring Painting Class #2 on Tuesday. This will not be an airbrush-focused class, but instead learn some techniques for painting eyeballs and skin tones. Consistently. I should add in that part.

The quirky thing I have planned for this week so to watch some old(er) movies. Since I like themes, I've decided to watch my Top However Many favorite movies, with the caveat that they're not series (Star Trek/Wars, Bond, Marvel movies). Thus far I've watched:

• Some Kind of Beautiful (2014) - Favorite Chick Flick I Haven't Seen Recently (thanks Steel Magnolias). Second favorite movie with Pierce Brosnan and Salma Hayek - for the favorite see After The Sunset
• Hard Candy (2005) - Favorite Indy Drama.

Well see how the rest of the list plays out. There's some movies, like Oldboy and After The Sunset, that didn't make the cut as I've watched them recently. My list isn't planned out for the entirety of my time off. I went through last week and made a stack of favorites I'd like to watch. Now, based on my mood, I can pick something that's hopefully appropriate to that mood. I'm kind of interested to see what ends up on my list.

Permalink movies/tv/dvd

Flat Shoulder Strep Tank

02.11.2019

It's been a rough week. Calendar week, at least.

Flat

Last weekend, on the way back from Florence, I noticed the car felt a little weird. I switched the Miles To Empty monitor to Tire Pressure, and my left rear tire shows 33 psi instead of 37 like all the other tires. I was only a mile or two from a gas station, so I whipped in and aired up and proceeded home. I left the Tire Pressure monitor up so I would remember to look at it. Each morning the left rear would have a little less air in it. Maybe a pound. Maybe 2. Maybe it was the change in weather (wouldn't all the tires be affected though?). The car sat over a long weekend (reason is below!) and on Monday morning there was 29 psi in the left read, while the other tires had 35. A call to Decatur Hyundai after I got to work found me at Decatur Hyundai after lunch. The tires are rated for 50-60k, and 3 of the tires have 53k miles which puts me in the zone to worry about them. I tell the guys working if the tread's in the worry zone, just replace it/them instead of plugging it. Hypothetically they checked, and then we replaced them. Now I have tires that I shouldn't worry about for 50k miles!

Shoulder

In the above trip back from Florence, my left shoulder stopped working. I'm not sure why, but after I left my grandparents it hurt (at the rotator cuff) to lift my left arm. To the point I had no strength to lift my arm. Not that big of a deal driving back from Florence. The next Sunday morning it became more of a big deal, as I honestly couldn't lift it at all. Something was out of whack which I knew could be cured chiropractically, so I shot a message to Trevor to ask how soon Monday morning he could see me. Luckily he said "first thing". I slept fitfully Sunday night as it's amazing how a sore shoulder can keep you from getting comfortable enough to sleep. An hour here and there was what it felt like I got. Monday morning I make it in to Trevor and he tells me the ligaments between my collar bone and shoulder are super abducted - so, "tight". He pushes, pulls, pokes, gets the cold laser and zaps me, then tells me to follow up with ice and sticking a rolled up quilt in my armpit and squeezing - this will help stretch those super abducted ligaments. I did that. I slept pretty good Monday night. Tuesday morning I go in for what was expected to be Round 2, but was more regular shoulder-adjusting along with ultra-sound zapping. On Thursday I could shove a pillow off the bed behind my back. Amazing what I can count as normal!

Strep

Speaking of Thursday, I awoke at 1 am and didn't feel right. Achy. Slight headache. Throat was a little sore. I took my temp, and instead of my normal 97-ish it read 99.7. Based on the last time I felt like this, I have the flu. Not a lot I can do at 1 in the morning. I go to my regular walk-in clinic doctor, Dr Mayer, who I've been going to since 1995. I get to the office and the receptionist is there. Just her. No doctor. No nurse practitioner (which is something they must have started since my last visit in June). This does me no good! The receptionist says I should go to a Doc in a Box, or she can call some other doctor who's down the road and see if they have an opening. They have an opening, but it's in 2.5 hours. I guess it's about time for me to go to my first ever Doc in a Box. I pick the one closest to my house - it's at 72/County Line - and enter, fill out paperwork, and am in the back telling a nurse "I think I have the flu" within 30 minutes. They take a flu test and it comes back negative, but the Dr who looks like he's 15 says they get false negatives in the first 24 hrs 20% of the time. So there's a good chance I have the flu. he then looks at my throat and says it looks like I might have strep. They take a strep test. I have strep. Well great, now my self-diagnosed flu symptoms might also be strep, for future reference. I grab my antibiotic prescription and take it down the road to Publix, where they tell me there's currently a little over an hour wait on filling prescriptions.

I knew at 1 am I was sick. It took until 1230 for me to get drugs, which I took in the parking lot of Publix. I don't go to the doctor often, but when I do and need real drugs, I start taking them right away. I was hoping to get a little work done Friday and over the weekend to make up for my body fighting me. Friday was the day I discovered strep is more than a sore throat. Saturday and Sunday my brain didn't want to work, no matter how much work I made my eyes look at. But by Saturday I was back to feeling normal. This was also the stretch, from Thursday on, where the car didn't move and served as a good test for "is it the tire or is it all in my head".

Tank

There was a sneak peak on the last blog for the plastic model kit of the tank I had started painting. I ended up not adding as much visible detail as I thought. This was mainly due to details made the camo look less.... camoey. I messed around with some weathering and washes. The washes didn't go too well and left way too many streaks. Hopefully the streaks will come across as weird scratches or shadows.

This tank was a learning kit. What's the right way to put a model together after not really making one in 35 years? How much to put together VS when to start painting? I'm still not sure about that part. Now the zombie apocalypse has a tank. I can play the Walking Dead Governor Attacks The Prison scenarios now.

Permalink airbrush models rambling random